402 replies to this topic

[Inigima]

A new thread since the last one hit the post limit.

I bought some PS3 games yesterday. Batman: Arkham Asylum (just reissued as Greatest Hits, and no, I haven't played it yet, yes, I know), Rayman Origins, and Assassin's Creed II.

I was a little leery of paying full bill for Rayman, which only just came out. It feels weird to drop that kind of cash on a genre as dead as a 2D platformer. But 2D platformers are one of my favorite genres, and precious few companies will risk making one, and I lament the decline of the genre. So in light of that, wanting to reward a company -- even if it's Ubisoft -- for taking that risk, and in light of its stellar reviews, I put my money where my mouth was and bought it.

I find that when I start more than one game at a time, I give none of them the attention they are due. So I've resolved to start only one of these games until I've given it adequate play. I chose Rayman for a few reasons. I love platforming games and I thought it would be nice to finally play a proper 2D one again. Also, if I'm going to be spending that kind of money on a game, it seems reasonable to go straight for it, since otherwise I might as well have waited for a price drop.

I'm enjoying it. Controls are tight and the level designs are good so far. I do think it suffers a bit from the problems Rayman has always had: despite a colorful, easily discernible cast of characters, they have very little visible personality in-game. The art direction for the game is wonderful, bold and bright and over the top.

Compounding the differentiation issue: I've unlocked several extra characters, but they all seem to pretty much play the same, so unless I'm missing something, you're only choosing what you look like when you play.

I would have liked to see the different characters handle differently, and I would have liked some high quality voice work. You can unlock reskins of the regular characters anyway, so you wouldn't have to have only one person playing the "normal" character if you didn't want to. This lack of personality really weighs on the game.

I'm pretty sure this game has done away with the "lives" system so common in platformers. I'm very glad about that -- I've never felt it contributed anything worth having to the experience. Either it gates the player from progression artificially, or else you restart from approximately the same place, rendering it meaningless. It's a less than worthless system and I'm glad it's gone.

It supports up to 4 player co-op, I think, but I'm pretty sure I will never be able to convince most of my PS3-owning friends to drop $60 on a game like this, so it will probably be an entirely solo experience for me.

I'm only a few levels in, I'll post more about it if I discover more worth knowing. Batman and AC2 will have to wait a while.

[Weak With The Dawn]

I haven't played Arkam Asylum yet either, you're not alone. I've had the demo sitting in my xbox, untouched, for what seems like ages.

I've just never been to excited about platformers, for some reason they've always turned me off. I think the last one I played with any kind of dedication was Donkey Kong 64, and that was mostly because I could be an Orangutan with a trombone.

Edited by Weak With The Dawn, 15 December 2011 - 01:56 PM.

[ICE CROW]

Inigima, on 15 December 2011 - 11:58 AM, said:

A new thread since the last one hit the post limit.

I bought some PS3 games yesterday. Batman: Arkham Asylum (just reissued as Greatest Hits, and no, I haven't played it yet, yes, I know), Rayman Origins, and Assassin's Creed II.

I was a little leery of paying full bill for Rayman, which only just came out. It feels weird to drop that kind of cash on a genre as dead as a 2D platformer. But 2D platformers are one of my favorite genres, and precious few companies will risk making one, and I lament the decline of the genre. So in light of that, wanting to reward a company -- even if it's Ubisoft -- for taking that risk, and in light of its stellar reviews, I put my money where my mouth was and bought it.

I find that when I start more than one game at a time, I give none of them the attention they are due. So I've resolved to start only one of these games until I've given it adequate play. I chose Rayman for a few reasons. I love platforming games and I thought it would be nice to finally play a proper 2D one again. Also, if I'm going to be spending that kind of money on a game, it seems reasonable to go straight for it, since otherwise I might as well have waited for a price drop.

I'm enjoying it. Controls are tight and the level designs are good so far. I do think it suffers a bit from the problems Rayman has always had: despite a colorful, easily discernible cast of characters, they have very little visible personality in-game. The art direction for the game is wonderful, bold and bright and over the top.

Compounding the differentiation issue: I've unlocked several extra characters, but they all seem to pretty much play the same, so unless I'm missing something, you're only choosing what you look like when you play.

I would have liked to see the different characters handle differently, and I would have liked some high quality voice work. You can unlock reskins of the regular characters anyway, so you wouldn't have to have only one person playing the "normal" character if you didn't want to. This lack of personality really weighs on the game.

I'm pretty sure this game has done away with the "lives" system so common in platformers. I'm very glad about that -- I've never felt it contributed anything worth having to the experience. Either it gates the player from progression artificially, or else you restart from approximately the same place, rendering it meaningless. It's a less than worthless system and I'm glad it's gone.

It supports up to 4 player co-op, I think, but I'm pretty sure I will never be able to convince most of my PS3-owning friends to drop $60 on a game like this, so it will probably be an entirely solo experience for me.

I'm only a few levels in, I'll post more about it if I discover more worth knowing. Batman and AC2 will have to wait a while.

To say the 2D platformer is a dead genre is bold statement, if anything in the last several years it has made a big comeback. Xbox Live, PSN, Nintendo store and Steam have helped to really bring that genre back to life. To say the genre is dead when some of the most critically acclaimed games over the last few years have been 2D platformers, such as Braid, Megaman 9, Limbo, Splosion Man, A Boy and his Blob, Super Meat Boy, Shadow Complex, Bionic Commando Rearmed and Shank to just name a few. I don't think any genre has benefited more from this age of digital downloads more than the 2D platformer, people who may have never played these games before are starting to play them because of their relative low price and being able to download them from their couch. The 2D platformer several years ago may have been dead, but it's alive and thriving right now.

[Chise]

yeah, I'm with Ice Crow on this - 2D isn't completely dead. Especially with the high nostalgia factor and LIVE and PSN store downloads
Its like the Dreamcast - declared dead yet kicked up a storm for another couple years afterwards

*goes back to shadows with her DS and damn puzzle games*


PS: another great game to mention - Castle Crashers!

Edited by Chise, 15 December 2011 - 05:09 PM.

[ICE CROW]

Chise, on 15 December 2011 - 05:08 PM, said:

yeah, I'm with Ice Crow on this - 2D isn't completely dead. Especially with the high nostalgia factor and LIVE and PSN store downloads
Its like the Dreamcast - declared dead yet kicked up a storm for another couple years afterwards

*goes back to shadows with her DS and damn puzzle games*


PS: another great game to mention - Castle Crashers!

I can't believe i forgot about Castle Crashers, that was the first Xbox Live Arcade game i ever played. Great game definitely should have been on my list .

Edited by ICE CROW, 15 December 2011 - 05:25 PM.

[Chise]

ICE CROW, on 15 December 2011 - 05:23 PM, said:

Ican't believe i forgot about Castle Crashers, that was thefirst Xbox Live arcade game i ever played. Great game definitely should have been on my list .

Me too!! It was the first time actually got my damn box to hold a steady connection too, so could play with people for more than 5 minutes

ha ha, am I gonna steal all your "likes" for the day and leave none for others again?

[Weak With The Dawn]

Ah, Castle Crashers, I forgot about that as well.

After all this time it's still one of the top downloaded games on XBL, something about it just so addicting.

[TerraPrime]

Hmm... How is Castle Crash a platformer? It's 2D, yes, but I wouldn't call it a platformer. I don't now any of the other games so I cannot comment.


At any rate, I am unnaturally and absurdly excited about this gayme: http://www.youtube.c...h?v=CQhShZ_28AY

Just thought I'd share.

[ICE CROW]

Chise, on 15 December 2011 - 05:27 PM, said:

Me too!! It was the first time actually got my damn box to hold a steady connection too, so could play with people for more than 5 minutes

ha ha, am I gonna steal all your "likes" for the day and leave none for others again?

Well you gotta stop outdoing my posts or reminding about things i should have remembered. and there would be likes for everyone else

TerraPrime, on 15 December 2011 - 08:23 PM, said:

Hmm... How is Castle Crash a platformer? It's 2D, yes, but I wouldn't call it a platformer. I don't now any of the other games so I cannot comment.


At any rate, I am unnaturally and absurdly excited about this gayme: http://www.youtube.c...h?v=CQhShZ_28AY

Just thought I'd share.

ABBA just won't stay dead, they just keep coming back. And i bet this will sell very well especially for Kinect.

Edited by ICE CROW, 15 December 2011 - 09:30 PM.

[Chise]

TerraPrime, on 15 December 2011 - 08:23 PM, said:

Hmm... How is Castle Crash a platformer? It's 2D, yes, but I wouldn't call it a platformer

You're right, its not a platformer. Mario games are platformers (and Megaman and Braid and some others mentioned earlier). Castle Crashers is just a crazy-fun side~scroller (somewhere the terms for 2D, platforming and consoles just rolled into same conversation)

Edited by Chise, 15 December 2011 - 09:17 PM.

[Chise]

ICE CROW, on 15 December 2011 - 09:12 PM, said:

Well you gotta stop outdoing my posts or reminding about things i should have remembered. and there would be likes for everyone else

pfffft, then stop being so damn relevant to all my vidya memories. I dun even play all that many games!! (compared to every other gamer I know at least)
Be thankful you haven't sent me into deep stories of Fallout 3 madness and fact the game has functioning parking meters

Edited by Chise, 15 December 2011 - 09:19 PM.

[Inigima]

Fair enough. Very few retail, full-price 2D platformers being made these days, anyway.

[ICE CROW]

Inigima, on 15 December 2011 - 09:41 PM, said:

Fair enough. Very few retail, full-price 2D platformers being made these days, anyway.

That is very true , i wouldn't mind seeing a new Crash Bandicoot game. Only if it is done with some real love by a good developer, since Naughty Dogg stopped making Crash the games have sucked.

Edited by ICE CROW, 15 December 2011 - 10:22 PM.

[Verboten]

Chise, on 15 December 2011 - 09:16 PM, said:

pfffft, then stop being so damn relevant to all my vidya memories. I dun even play all that many games!! (compared to every other gamer I know at least)
Be thankful you haven't sent me into deep stories of Fallout 3 madness and fact the game has functioning parking meters

Oh. My. God. *runs off to play it*

[Inigima]

Fallout 3 is so fucking good. More like that please, Bethesda.

[Kosciuszko]

The craziest chocobo, ever.

ETA: One of the three new chocobo themes for XIII-2. It's metal. And so bad it's good.

Edited by Kosciuszko, 16 December 2011 - 04:56 AM.

[Weak With The Dawn]

Kosciuszko, on 16 December 2011 - 04:54 AM, said:

The craziest chocobo, ever.

ETA: One of the three new chocobo themes for XIII-2. It's metal. And so bad it's good.

"So Cute yet fierce and sent from hell!" haha
As a man and metal head who has no problem fawning over adorable creatures, I just don't feel the word cute has any place in metal. Even suedo Final Fantasy metal.

Don't even get me started on "Everybody's gonna wanna ride your Chocobo"...

[kungtotte]

Almost Steam Christmas Sale time...

[Muttering Bill]

I'm glad to hear Rayman is good. I never played the series, but I also love a good 2D platformer. And since it looks like AC: Revelations is going to be a bargain bin purchase (due to everyone saying how bad it is), then I'm going to need something new to blow my Christmas money on. So I was going to look into this. Downloaded the demo, but haven't tried it yet.

2D platformers are thriving on XBL and PSN. Likely due to game length. $60 on a game with 20 levels that can be finished in 5-10 minutes each? Not likely. But for $10-15, no problem. I'm curious to know just how much they packed into Rayman to made it worth the price.

[Prince Alexander]

Finished ID's latest, "Rage" and felt like crap

So much promise, no delivery. A single memorable moment in the entire game. Short as hell.

I don't understand how original Doom 2 with its 32 levels could provide hundreds if not thousands of hours of entertainment, where these amazingly advanced new games fail so hard. Is it just me?

All the best games I've ever played are still on the shelf:
Doom2, Quake, FO1, FO2, BG1, BG2, and of course every single Blizzard title. I downloaded to try several of the newer ones: DA, Rage, Wolfenstein, FO3 recently, and I couldn't take more than a few hours of some, others I finished and deleted same day, and will never look at again. It seems Blizzard is the only company worth buying games from. In some way I'm glad because if every game was as good and with as much replay value as Blizz game, I'd be torn apart by choices. D3, WC4 and whatever next WoW is going to be, that's probably all I'll ever play for the next 20 years. The only other game I might consider buying is HL3, since HL1 and HL2 even more so do have a special place in my heart (probably the Eastern European setting!)

Anyways, if you are looking at Rage, keep in mind:

Spoiler

It's rated M but it's cartoonish as hell. Don't expect scary moments anywhere. It's borderline comedic in places.
Racing is boring and repetitive.
"Dungeons" are somewhat fun... the first time you pass through. Then you get sent on a mission to exactly same place, just different enemies. That's when it gets boring. There aren't that many "dungeons", I think around 10, each half the size of a decent Doom 2 level.
All the RPGish crap they added is unnecessary given how simplistic the game is.
There are like 10 total different enemies, though some wear different weapons.
There is only 1 boss that I found, and he's extremely easy, in the middle of the game. There is no end game boss.
Some of the characters are cool looking but conversations are very limited.
Yeah, the ending. It sucked.

2/10 game, will not play again.