WIP Article Discussion

[The bag of sand]

I need to get that and Gotcha Force soon

[vysethebold]

Kurt, can you sign me up for an article on Heart of Darkness? Also, I have a great interview that I found on IGN that I can use for info on production of the game. Should I include a direct link to the article? I wasn't sure whether you wanted to remain separate from big-name sites.

P.S. I just bought the PC version that I didn't know existed. I'll be able to make a fair comparison of both PSX and PC versions now.

[haircute]

I was going to write an article on Lunar Wing but ePSXe stops working after the first battle. I'll figure something out.

[aganar]

Is there a list or something we can make so we don't have to search through all the places to know what's been taken?

[uncle5555]

aganar said:

Is there a list or something we can make so we don't have to search through all the places to know what's been taken?

Kurt' s got a list on the first page of this thread.

It seems to be pretty accurate on what everyone is working on. So there ya go.

[kyouki]

Hi everyone,

I'd like to do Xardion next, which is a giant robot action game for the SNES with light RPG elements. It's a game dear and near to my heart. I'm playing through the Japanese version looking for differences from the US version.

[Discoalucard]

A quick update - the problem with "reserve lists" like these is that's it's possible people will want to write an article on something, and then leave the forums or just forget about it. That's perfectly okay, but it prevents other people from taking them. So, by each game, I am posting an "expiration" date. Whoever claimed the game needs to respond that they're still interesting in the article, and at least working on it to some extent. I'm making this date three months from today, and going forward, three months from whenever the claim is made.

[vysethebold]

I'm working on mine as we speak. I've already beaten the game so all I need to do is some screen captures. How can I capture the screen on a PC game that doesn't have a capture function? If anyone knows give me a hint please. Thanks.

[wyrdwad]

Typically, with most applications, you can hit the PrintScreen key to copy a screenshot to the print buffer, then quickly tab out of the game, load up MS Paint or something, and choose "paste".

-Tom

[ninjarygar]

I was wondering if I could write an article about Shadow Hearts. Problem is, the greatest thing about the shadow hearts series is the continuity. There are very small details that carry over from one game to the next, and it's really hard to explain HOW tight the continuity is without spoiling entire games. So I don't know if I'm up to the challenge. Plus, I never played Koudelka. But Shadow Hearts deserves a very well written and detailed article explaining what's up with this underrated series. Shadow hearts 1 is an ugly game, and it's pretty boring. The characters are beyond lame except for Yuri and the battles are slow and uninteresting. When the sequel came out though... it was one of those games where you ABSOLUTELY HAD TO PLAY THE FIRST GAME. Otherwise you'd get nothing out of it. I like when a developer does this... becuase it doesn't make sence business-wise, but makes for a really great series.

[Deleted]

Hmm... I anticipate my workload lightening in the future, so I might return to writing... and I'm thinking of having Red Steel as the focus of my next article. I think it would be perfect for HG101, despite having been released recently. An earlier thread talked about how it was revered in Japan, but received mixed reviews over in America. Well... I don't know what I can say on that, but I can give my opinion on the game. I usually gush over a game I really like, but lately, I've put aside the rose-colored sunglasses and am starting to consider the flaws in games more, and I'd like to kinda use RS as a point on that. I liked the game for the most part, but there were two things that kept it from becoming an instant classic in my mind.

1: Although the sword fights are better controlled than I thought they would be, I still think the control and response can be a bit frustrating for them. I couldn't tell whether adjusting the remote movements to short or long was more beneficial. Plus, those Katas can be damn hard to pull off.

And 2: I thought the game was damn good for the first act, and the second act (after learning the Focus system, maybe my favorite bit of the mechanics) was just goddamn tops. You could even choose your next mission a la Mega Man, and I love this. BUT... the game kinda started to fall off at act three. You learn nearly everything in A2, and maybe I was expecting too much, but A3 doesn't offer too much new in the gameplay. I know you're usually used to things by the end of the game, but (not entirely unlike how FFXII fades a bit at the 2/3 mark as I just read), A3 just feels a bit hollow compared to A2. That, and the sword fights seemed like they were coming en masse, and with the skill level of the enemies improving while you haven't really learned much new since the end of A2... well, frustration was abound.

... and point two-and-a-half (which is semi-relevant since I'd like to talk a bit about the ending, which is in act three), the ending left me empty. Not only did I think Tokai was pretty easy (compared to the first time you fought him, and even then, I didn't think he was too bad, the Komori leader was MUCH worse, took me about five tries to beat that fucker), but I thought the ending was very abrupt and left a lot to be desired. I got the bad ending, and unless you're quick and bail out with the Home button before you fail to beat the guy after Tokai, you can't pick up right before the final battle and break his sword and you have to play through the ENTIRE GAME AGAIN to view both endings... that's utter horseshit, as I think the game's pretty long. But on top of that, I hear the good ending really isn't that much better. Not that I'm expecting Shakespeare in an FPS game, but I thought the plot was pretty good; nothing too fancy or original, but I liked it, and the ending just... well, it just left a windy void in me.

... yikes, I ranted fairly long about the few things that irked me most in RS, huh? Don't get me wrong: I actually really like it, and should I write an article, I'll talk about the things I favored in it. And... I didn't hate act three, but it just could have been more.

[kal]

I know it might not seem like it, and I didn't even end up on the list but I am going to finish those 3 articles (Evil Zone, Destrega and 10000 Bullets) eventually.

[Discoalucard]

Kal, I've just added them, sorry I missed them before.

I am really not so sure about Red Steel. It falls into the too recent/too popular (ish?) category, and it'd really need to examine the game with a lot more depth or from a different angle for it to really work. I haven't played much of the game but I'm not really sure there's a whole lot of depth to delve into to begin with. The general conensus seems to be that it's a rushed, terribly mediocre FPS with awful graphics, that just happens to have a fun control scheme. I think it might work as an examination on the state of console FPSs in general, but that would require expanding the focus by quite a bit.

[The bag of sand]

Next year or so some one should write up an article on the Burger King games.

[dartagnan1803]

ninjarygar said:

I was wondering if I could write an article about Shadow Hearts. Problem is, the greatest thing about the shadow hearts series is the continuity. There are very small details that carry over from one game to the next, and it's really hard to explain HOW tight the continuity is without spoiling entire games. So I don't know if I'm up to the challenge. Plus, I never played Koudelka.

If you'd like, I could try to help out with this.
I beat Koudelka during the summer of 06 and loved it.
Was planning on playing through the rest of the series (Both out of curiosity and to be able to contribute an article) but am only just up to the over-sized flying valentine (The vessel or whatever, I was multi-tasking at the time) in Shadow Hearts 1. [BTW, how close am I to the end? I'm really eager to move on to Covenant from all the praise I've heard].


Also, I don't think it would be too hard to go through without spoiling TOO much.
Aside from Covenant assuming the BAD ending of the first as cannon, you should be ok just as long as you model your descriptions with a format that fuses the material in the manual with the format of HG101. The article on Blood Will Tell did something like this and didn't give away the plot-twisty details on Dororo.


Oh yeah,
Kodelka's great, just so long as you go in understanding that the battle system wasn't designed for the casual RPG fan.
If you need help tracking down a copy, I'll be happy to help (but you're not getting mine ).