Re:Yerp. Figure it Out, Already.
on
Game Breakers
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· Score: 1
Thanks for the link.
Okay, Fire Embelem: The way it works is you can save the game in-between combat. At any time you can choose to restart a chapter (each fight). This allows you to go back and buy weapons/items if you had problems in a fight or get different charecters (you can have 30+ chars, but only bring 8-14 into any fight, once a charecter dies, it's gone forever unless you restart the chapter or the game). It helps to know that this is a turn based strategy.
On the GBA the game saves EVERY MOVE you make, so you can just shut it off and come back later (I may have missrepresented it when I mentioned this system the first time). You can turn the game back on and it will be waiting at the point you left off every time. So, basically, it's a save state. There is another save that works the same way, but you only get one per level. It's a nice feature except it's infuriating when you make a stupid move and someone croaks. The 'random' tables are generated by your movements, so the result of an attack will be the same no matter how many times you turn the fight back on.
Still love the games. Mostly becuase I love the logic/chance mixture that is involved. And after re-reading that, I don't know how to explain better, but now I'm confused... oh well.
So I guess long story short is: either this guy was too cheap to buy a decently priced warranty, or he had done something to his xbox360 to void the warranty.
Okay, I buy the warrantee when it's feasable (say, 10-20 bucks), but that should not be nessessary. The product is exepcted to be selling for 5 years, right? Then why the hell wouldn't they build every one of them to last at least 5 years? This isn't the motor vehicle industry, this is consoles. And people excpect thier consoles to last damn near forever. I've got an NES and SNES which both work perfectly. The NES was out for a year when my dad bought it for us, and I bought the SNES the day it came out. Same with the N64, and Gamecube.
Now poeple have to wonder if their systems are going to last. It started with the original Playstation not working correctly. Multiple revisions later we have the very reliable PSOne. Well, I don't care about costs and whatnot to the developer, but if your product doesn't last, then you should pay for it. Kudos to MS for taking care of their issues. But I'm still pissed that their machine is having issues and I don't even own one.
Re:Yerp. Figure it Out, Already.
on
Game Breakers
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· Score: 1
Ah.. forgot about System Shock. Know where I can find a copy of either? I totatly know what you mean about battling back to a save point. It pisses me off too. I was thinking more along the lines of battling your way through the research facility in Phendrana Drifts on Prime. Creepy music, everything is dark, and you can't turn back. Heck, even when the lights turn back on, that part scares the crap out of me. Can't wait for Prime 3!!!
Another save system I've been fond of (and extremely frusterated with) is what you get with Fire Emblem. Let's you save your current progress for the mission, but when you load it, it wipes it. If you screw up, you start the level over. Being a perfectionist, I can't have any of my charecters die, so I've started chaperts over many times. Heck, I've restarted chapters because of a bad leveling in the begining.
I think this save system would work very well in a level based survival game. You get your main save and after that, if you save again, it gets wiped when you load it. But, you can still start the stage/level/chapter from the beginning again if you have to.
I completley agree with point #5. If your game has a 'safe mode' odds are, it's far too buggy to release (EA, EA, EA, EA...). It dang well better work out of the box.
Re:Yerp. Figure it Out, Already.
on
Game Breakers
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· Score: 1
Is there anything wrong with letting players play the game at their own level even if it does mean spoiling the gameplay experience?
Inherintly, no. But like I said. I think the feel of a game like Metroid Prime required you to have long periods between saves. It has a lot to do with the energy recharge, but it really adds suspence to a game where you're on your own, no way out, and what you've got is what you've got. Basically, 'You're on your own, please don't die.' Metroid and Turok can be put in the same category as Silent Hill and Resident Evil in this way. In all these games, you have to venture out, survive, and find shelter if you want to save.
Where as if you're playing MGS or DOOM3, you've got people occationally on the com (well, always on the com in Metal Gear), so saving at any point doesn't take away from the survival aspect, you've got buddies (though they dissapear in Doom3). Not so with Eternal Darkness. But that game remains creepy if you're able to save or not.
But I may be missing your point because your comment seems a bit ambiguous.
Re:Yerp. Figure it Out, Already.
on
Game Breakers
·
· Score: 1
I think the lack of save points in a game can make it more challenging and fun. The rush and the feeling of hope failing while you desperatly use every trick you know to stay alive long enough can be nerve racking. Praying that the next kill drops a health up or some ammo. I feel the same way about Metroid Prime and Zelda. If you could save whenever you wanted, it would take away from the game, or the need for a longer life meter.
A game loses significant amounts of challenge and enjoyability if you can just pick up where you left off at any point, or retry from the same point hundreds of times, if neccesary. But that's just me.
That's a good idea. That would also possibly allow for packages or something like that. What if you could buy Castlevania 1-3 for 10 bucks rather than 5 each? Or perhaps all the Mario Bros games for 1200 points. All the Metriod games...
Good point. But I'll offer the only counter-point I can think of. I can't put iTunes on my computer at work so if I need to charge and listen I'm screwed. So I did the next best thing. I copied all the music from my iPod onto my HDD at work. Problem solved. Can't 'sync' them nicely when I put new music on my iPod, but it's easy enough to organize the directories on the iPod by Artist/Album in normal folder view, so I can just grab the tracks I'm missing. Takes another couple minutes, but I've got music at least.
Must have forgot to end the sarcasm (and bad math) tags after my first paragraph. I figured it was implied, but I see that you needed the joke explained. See, I know that there will be more than the initial shipments will be followed by more shipments. And if the PS3 sells like PS2's they will likely have to make even more than 200 million seeing as you don't need an adaptor for more than two controllers. The funny part was when I pretended I didn't know that. Don't worry, you'll understand humor one of these days if you just try to lighten up.
So, they're making 150 million to 200 million controllers for 800 thousand PS3's that may or may not be out on Nov 19? Lessee here. I don't know about anyone else, but I simply won't be needing 1500-2000 controllers for the PS3 that I would theorehtically purchase.
Oh, and Microsoft and Nintendo have rumble and great battery life. I'm not worried. What I might be compelled to worry about is randomly exploding controllers, but maybe that's why they expect everyone to have so many spares. Does make multiplayer seem a lot more interesting, though.
Once you get Civ IV, you won't leave the room. You might want to email everyone you know a fond farewell while it's installing. Only reason I'm not playing is because my friends formed an intervention group.
Count me in too. I always buy the CD if at all possible. I'll download if I can't get a copy or if it's so old that buying a CD. With CD's I get all the expected quality I can handle, and I can make copies regardless of DRMing with any number of older ripping programs, or, if I have to, I can just line out from and back into my computer to re-record if I really need to get creative. I can also make as many MP3's as I may at any quality I want. It's a win-win for me.
Or what if I have a CD and I need it replaced? For instance: Chicane - Far from the Maddening Crowds. It would cost me more than normal price (>$60) to acquire via ebay and the like. The money isn't going to go to the artist or label, and it's out of print. Hell, I have a legal copy of it, but somehow it managed to get a few good scratches and as it's years old I never made a good copy. Don't even have it on mp3. Anyone want to help?
Umm.. except that those were all good reasons to get angry. This time Sony has a BS reason to sue. They stated that Lik-Sang shouldn't be allowed to import because the devices could be dangerous if used in a different country because of the power-supply. Well, seeing as they ship the same P/S with every unit around the world, that's pretty much BS. They site safety concerns, which this case has nothing to do with. In the other cases, it was a lot easier to prove that Lik-Sang was doing shady stuff, reselling PSPs and other consoles, wasn't in the same ballpark.
Good call, I can't make it through Pirates a second time and I've tried a few times, but I sure as Hell can eat sushi any day of the week and be excited about the next time I get to go.
Those lawsuites had to do with the sale of the mod chips, not redistributing the products. Sony is the only one with that huge stick up their corporate behind. MS couldn't have a problem because they can barely give their systems away in Asia. Nintendo is better about releasing their products without a massive time or price difference, so I doubt they were ever concerned enough to make any major gripes.
Am I defending Sony? Hell no, they can suffer the consequences of their actions. I'm on the boycott list. Have been since the root-kit fiasco. I figured they might be able to redeem themselves, but evidence for that happening any time soon is not readily available.
Though both authors, William Shakespeare preceeded Hermen Melville by about 200 years and their literary stiles are quite different. Not sure if the orignal quote is actaully from Shakespeare's works, but I do know that it (or something very like it) does appear in Moby Dick.
But, no, the humor of the OP is not lost at me. I would have likely modded it funny as well.
Well, as far as the DRM issues are concerend, I've never had a big problem with that. The 'uniteligable' four alpha renaming scheme really doesn't do anything to deter you from re-using your songs on another iPod. It's pretty easy to copy them, alter the names and use them again. Even Windows Media Player can ID the MP3 meta data or the tags or whatever it's called. I've copied all the music off my iPod and play it with regularity at work where I don't have access to iTunes. To me it's not a big deal. I suppose loading it on another iPod may not be doable, but I haven't tried either.
Good call on the suspense of the Metroids. Prime had me soiling myself inside of the reasearch centers where the stealth pirates would drop from the ceilings. Using the heat-visor also was creepy if there wasn't any music because it had an unsettling tune of its own, as well as the XRay visor.
My brother and I both shouted out loud when the SNES boss you mention showed up again, after being disturbed by its trying to swim in the magma.
The Dark Aether messed with your mind at first, but since you were always in and out, it was desensatized rather quickly. It didn't help that the game would regen all your energy in the light spheres. That really took away from the suspense of the game.
I directly disagree with your whole comment. Funny the 'new-age' take on unconditional love that book uses. Also funny that the more new age people think, the more things tend to get out of control. Unconditional love involves punishment. But the punishment should fit the crime. I haven't read the book, just the summary on the page and from how you describe it, it sounds like the most morbid piece of literature I've heard mentioned.
I also disagree with your sig from personal experience. But it gives me a great deal of insight into your method of thinking. I have studied the Bible extensively. I'll make you a deal. Though I have no children, I'll read you're book if yout read this one.
Are you referring to Hard Times? Dickens was a magnificent author, and was horrified that the government was allowing the schools to take away the ability of a student to make an error. Stuff like the article is what he was writing about. Let kids be kids. Just make sure they know there are consequences to be paid if they intentionally do something that they shouldn't. None of this, "Timmy, if you don't stop pulling your sister's hair I'll count to three and give you a time out." shit.. If the kid knows what he/she is doing is wrong, then he/she can be punished.
Very good point. Problem is, for him, he has no experience in the area (or maybe he does). I know I don't but I have some guildies that have tried to quit over and over again. They've left the guild three times over the last year (husband and wife accounts). Only to be back on the guild roster for raids in two or three weeks. I'm not kidding, these people are addicts. They play 6-10 hours a night and often complain of a lack of a real life, but can't kick the game. The worst part is the peer pressure. When you're always welcomed back to the fold with the other addicts with open arms.
I suspect it CAN be a real addiction like meth or heroin. I've known many meth and heroin addicts (my father included).
Psychological addictions are no less addictive, yet their consequenses are minute compared with drug addiction. Hell, I know people (myself included) who can be addicted to anger and malice. I find myself looking for reasons to be angry some days. Just like those kids you knew in high school who would do anything for attention (either addicted or have been neglected at home, I've seen both). But like I said, I'd rather be addicted to emotion or WoW than meth any day. I only play an average of 4 hours a week, depending on what else is going on in my life.
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Okay, Fire Embelem: The way it works is you can save the game in-between combat. At any time you can choose to restart a chapter (each fight). This allows you to go back and buy weapons/items if you had problems in a fight or get different charecters (you can have 30+ chars, but only bring 8-14 into any fight, once a charecter dies, it's gone forever unless you restart the chapter or the game). It helps to know that this is a turn based strategy.
On the GBA the game saves EVERY MOVE you make, so you can just shut it off and come back later (I may have missrepresented it when I mentioned this system the first time). You can turn the game back on and it will be waiting at the point you left off every time. So, basically, it's a save state. There is another save that works the same way, but you only get one per level. It's a nice feature except it's infuriating when you make a stupid move and someone croaks. The 'random' tables are generated by your movements, so the result of an attack will be the same no matter how many times you turn the fight back on.
Still love the games. Mostly becuase I love the logic/chance mixture that is involved. And after re-reading that, I don't know how to explain better, but now I'm confused... oh well.
Okay, I buy the warrantee when it's feasable (say, 10-20 bucks), but that should not be nessessary. The product is exepcted to be selling for 5 years, right? Then why the hell wouldn't they build every one of them to last at least 5 years? This isn't the motor vehicle industry, this is consoles. And people excpect thier consoles to last damn near forever. I've got an NES and SNES which both work perfectly. The NES was out for a year when my dad bought it for us, and I bought the SNES the day it came out. Same with the N64, and Gamecube.
Now poeple have to wonder if their systems are going to last. It started with the original Playstation not working correctly. Multiple revisions later we have the very reliable PSOne. Well, I don't care about costs and whatnot to the developer, but if your product doesn't last, then you should pay for it. Kudos to MS for taking care of their issues. But I'm still pissed that their machine is having issues and I don't even own one.
Another save system I've been fond of (and extremely frusterated with) is what you get with Fire Emblem. Let's you save your current progress for the mission, but when you load it, it wipes it. If you screw up, you start the level over. Being a perfectionist, I can't have any of my charecters die, so I've started chaperts over many times. Heck, I've restarted chapters because of a bad leveling in the begining.
I think this save system would work very well in a level based survival game. You get your main save and after that, if you save again, it gets wiped when you load it. But, you can still start the stage/level/chapter from the beginning again if you have to.
I completley agree with point #5. If your game has a 'safe mode' odds are, it's far too buggy to release (EA, EA, EA, EA...). It dang well better work out of the box.
Inherintly, no. But like I said. I think the feel of a game like Metroid Prime required you to have long periods between saves. It has a lot to do with the energy recharge, but it really adds suspence to a game where you're on your own, no way out, and what you've got is what you've got. Basically, 'You're on your own, please don't die.' Metroid and Turok can be put in the same category as Silent Hill and Resident Evil in this way. In all these games, you have to venture out, survive, and find shelter if you want to save.
Where as if you're playing MGS or DOOM3, you've got people occationally on the com (well, always on the com in Metal Gear), so saving at any point doesn't take away from the survival aspect, you've got buddies (though they dissapear in Doom3). Not so with Eternal Darkness. But that game remains creepy if you're able to save or not.
But I may be missing your point because your comment seems a bit ambiguous.
A game loses significant amounts of challenge and enjoyability if you can just pick up where you left off at any point, or retry from the same point hundreds of times, if neccesary. But that's just me.
I remember laughing my ass off the first time I saw that card. I'll take up arms with my fellow munchkins any day!
Good call
Good point. But I'll offer the only counter-point I can think of. I can't put iTunes on my computer at work so if I need to charge and listen I'm screwed. So I did the next best thing. I copied all the music from my iPod onto my HDD at work. Problem solved. Can't 'sync' them nicely when I put new music on my iPod, but it's easy enough to organize the directories on the iPod by Artist/Album in normal folder view, so I can just grab the tracks I'm missing. Takes another couple minutes, but I've got music at least.
Slashdot does seem to have a rash of people like that.
Must have forgot to end the sarcasm (and bad math) tags after my first paragraph. I figured it was implied, but I see that you needed the joke explained. See, I know that there will be more than the initial shipments will be followed by more shipments. And if the PS3 sells like PS2's they will likely have to make even more than 200 million seeing as you don't need an adaptor for more than two controllers. The funny part was when I pretended I didn't know that. Don't worry, you'll understand humor one of these days if you just try to lighten up.
Oh, and Microsoft and Nintendo have rumble and great battery life. I'm not worried. What I might be compelled to worry about is randomly exploding controllers, but maybe that's why they expect everyone to have so many spares. Does make multiplayer seem a lot more interesting, though.
Once you get Civ IV, you won't leave the room. You might want to email everyone you know a fond farewell while it's installing. Only reason I'm not playing is because my friends formed an intervention group.
Story #3: My bad, Balmer's pissed. CHAIR INCOMING!
Or what if I have a CD and I need it replaced? For instance: Chicane - Far from the Maddening Crowds. It would cost me more than normal price (>$60) to acquire via ebay and the like. The money isn't going to go to the artist or label, and it's out of print. Hell, I have a legal copy of it, but somehow it managed to get a few good scratches and as it's years old I never made a good copy. Don't even have it on mp3. Anyone want to help?
Umm.. except that those were all good reasons to get angry. This time Sony has a BS reason to sue. They stated that Lik-Sang shouldn't be allowed to import because the devices could be dangerous if used in a different country because of the power-supply. Well, seeing as they ship the same P/S with every unit around the world, that's pretty much BS. They site safety concerns, which this case has nothing to do with. In the other cases, it was a lot easier to prove that Lik-Sang was doing shady stuff, reselling PSPs and other consoles, wasn't in the same ballpark.
Good call, I can't make it through Pirates a second time and I've tried a few times, but I sure as Hell can eat sushi any day of the week and be excited about the next time I get to go.
Am I defending Sony? Hell no, they can suffer the consequences of their actions. I'm on the boycott list. Have been since the root-kit fiasco. I figured they might be able to redeem themselves, but evidence for that happening any time soon is not readily available.
Make a copy, send Al a check for $5 each copy you make. It's a LOT more than he see's per sale.
But, no, the humor of the OP is not lost at me. I would have likely modded it funny as well.
Well, as far as the DRM issues are concerend, I've never had a big problem with that. The 'uniteligable' four alpha renaming scheme really doesn't do anything to deter you from re-using your songs on another iPod. It's pretty easy to copy them, alter the names and use them again. Even Windows Media Player can ID the MP3 meta data or the tags or whatever it's called. I've copied all the music off my iPod and play it with regularity at work where I don't have access to iTunes. To me it's not a big deal. I suppose loading it on another iPod may not be doable, but I haven't tried either.
My brother and I both shouted out loud when the SNES boss you mention showed up again, after being disturbed by its trying to swim in the magma.
The Dark Aether messed with your mind at first, but since you were always in and out, it was desensatized rather quickly. It didn't help that the game would regen all your energy in the light spheres. That really took away from the suspense of the game.
I also disagree with your sig from personal experience. But it gives me a great deal of insight into your method of thinking. I have studied the Bible extensively. I'll make you a deal. Though I have no children, I'll read you're book if yout read this one.
By and far Dickens is my favorite author.
I suspect it CAN be a real addiction like meth or heroin. I've known many meth and heroin addicts (my father included).
Psychological addictions are no less addictive, yet their consequenses are minute compared with drug addiction. Hell, I know people (myself included) who can be addicted to anger and malice. I find myself looking for reasons to be angry some days. Just like those kids you knew in high school who would do anything for attention (either addicted or have been neglected at home, I've seen both). But like I said, I'd rather be addicted to emotion or WoW than meth any day. I only play an average of 4 hours a week, depending on what else is going on in my life.