Well, people who don't vote along party lines tend to get thrown out of parties here in Canada.
Anyway, there were other reasons to vote against STV. The major reason was that the proposal would have created several super ridings with multiple representatives. Who are you supposed to go to in order to make your opinion heard? What about ridings that cover a large area of rural landscape as well as a few towns? Are the representatives even going to care about rural outliers when most of the voters will be living in towns? Furthermore, there is nothing stopping parties from fielding multiple candidates, and I suspect people would be more likely to just vote along party lines - which would yield even more homogeneous results than the current system, as larger ridings with more people would average the results even more than the first-past-the-post system that we currently have.
I disagree strongly with this. Try playing Rendition. You'll probably find it difficult to not feel disgust at your own actions in the game.
The problem isn't the medium of videogames, it is the presentation of the subject matter within the game. But how are we to know whether the presentation in Six Days In Fallujah approached the subject matter effectively (or not), when outcry from people like you prevent such works from being created?
<sniep> my servers are all named after computer parts so that users sound like retards asking for anything <sniep> "i need full access to ram!" <sniep> "why is megabytes broken?!?" <sniep> "who rebooted hard drive??!??"
They talked about how they used the Australia team initially for technology and later for more tasks, but what about the Shanghai team mentioned at the end in the data section?
I know it's unlikely that anyone here will know, but I'd love to find out how they coordinated with the artists and designers in that studio, and what they worked on.
China has endured as a civilization about as much as Rome has. The people living there may be ethnically related to earlier groups and speak languages derived from earlier ones, but that doesn't make modern China the same civilization as Qin Dynasty China, just like it doesn't make modern Italy the same civilization as Rome.
Sounds like the problem is with your country's implementation of paper ballots, and not the general idea itself. Here in Canada, voting takes maybe half an hour at most. You show up, verify your identity, get your ballot, go behind a screen and put an X in the circle next to the candidate, fold it up, hand it to the person working the box, watch them place the ballot in the box, go home.
To supervise the whole thing, we require people from multiple parties to be present at the polling station. It's hard to fiddle with something when it has to be verified by two (or more) opposing people at the same time.
I don't understand your references to multiple ballots. Is each party on a separate ballot or something? Why in the world would it be done like that?
Heh. I accidentally hit that button last night. For the first and last time, as I pried it (and the sleep and wake buttons) off ant tossed them away. I suggest that everyone else should do the same.
The developers doing Aquaria previously did the excellent Metroid-style game Eternal Daughter. They also did the infamous I'm O.K. game in response to Jack Thompson's even more infamous modest proposal. Check out all the games here: http://www.derekyu.com/games.html
Okami wasn't in the running, because Capcom is not part of the AIAS. Companies must be members in order to have their games included. The same thing happened in 2005, when Resident Evil 4 was not among the nominees.
Personally, I don't take these awards seriously. Ignoring a significant number of the games released in a year makes the concept "best game released this year" quite meaningless.
I rented the game and (mostly - I didn't replay any of the difficulties or find all the coins) finished it over the 5-day rental period. It was a lot of fun. I wouldn't have regretted buying it, though I'm rather glad I decided to just rent it instead.
The gameplay is a lot of fun. The action is really fast and hectic, more so than Gears of War (though Gears is an overall better game). The AI isn't particularly great, but I don't think I'd want to face off against the huge mobs in Lost Planet if they were any brighter. Besides the fast twitch action against grunts, some strategy is required for larger enemies - there's no way you can face down a mech or giant worm while on foot without the proper weapons or planning. The boss battles are absolutely incredible. Nobody, NOBODY does boss battles better than Capcom. Always difficult and always varied, each boss requires very different tactics to take down. The bosses aren't just puzzle bosses, either. While they invariably require shooting specific parts, both that knowledge AND great twitch skills are required.
The controls are also great. I'm not a fan of the default floating aim, but there are tons of different configuration options. There are enough different options that most people will find one that suits them. I personally set it on Fixed 6 with button layout B, with aiming assist turned off. The on-foot movement can take a bit of getting used to, since Wayne actually runs in the direction of the analog stick as opposed to strafing. This can get a bit odd when running backwards and moving the stick a little to the left or right, which causes Wayne to switch weapon sides. Still, it isn't a bad movement scheme, just different than the usual third-person shooter. In some ways, I prefer it - running in any direction is equally fast, no matter which way the camera is aimed. Mechs are slower and control a little clunkier, but they're supposed to be like that - they're large walking tanks. Each mech has very unique handling, as well. There are enough mechs scattered throughout the levels to provide a wide range of choices in control, weapons, and special abilities. A couple sequences do force you to use specific mechs, however.
The graphics are absolutely stunning. The levels and characters lack the detail found in Gears of War, but Lost Planet's levels are much larger and there are absolute hordes of enemies onscreen. There's some slowdown, but it only happens in rare (and very insane) circumstances. The designs for the Akrid and the mechs are very nice. I'm not a fan of the odd mixture of realism and anime found in the character designs, but they aren't horrible either.
The sound is hit-and-miss. The weapon sounds are nothing special, but they get the job done. The voice acting isn't Resident Evil level garbage, but it isn't very good - much of it is overacted and oddly emphasized. Enemy yells are similarly overacted (and repeat far too much). The Akrid sounds are fairly nice, and the glass shattering sound made when you hit a weak point is particularly satisfying.
The music reminds me a lot of Metal Gear Solid 2. There's a strong main theme and some tension-producing tracks in-game, but a great deal of the game is played music-free. It's okay, but nothing really great. I wouldn't buy the soundtrack, but the music certainly didn't get in the way of anything.
Lost Planet does have some major flaws. The plot starts off fairly strong but quickly wanders off into incomprehensible pointlessness. It feels like half the cutscenes are missing. Character personalities are never truly developed, only inferred.But I don't play games for plot, and Lost Planet has fun enough gameplay to more than make up for it. Unfortunately, that gameplay comes to an end fairly quickly. It only took me 8 hours to finish all 11 missions on the normal difficulty. An attempt at replay value has been made with the inclusion of hidden achievement-related coins scattered throughout each level and difficulty, but I didn't bother looking for them. The levels
Anyone complaining about "next-gen" prices needs to recall the incredible amounts that games such as Strider, Final Fantasy III, and Phantasy Star IV sold for.
I don't recall any computer games being slapped with a more expensive MSRP, but I do remember that our dollar was absolute shit back in the mid-90s and prices on just about everything went up. And as our dollar has gotten better, prices have come down a bit (but not enough for me to stop importing stuff from the US - retailers seem awfully delayed when it comes to lowering prices to what they should be)
Next time I should wait a bit and fully wake up before posting on Slashdot.:P
And like I said, Dreamfall has some major flaws but I still find it to be an excellent game. If you don't like it, try some of the other recent adventure games like the similar Indigo Prophecy or the new Sam & Max episodic titles.
Don't get me wrong, I did like TP. I bought a Wii in order to play it. I just don't think it stands out as much as some of the other games this year. I'd rather see something try going in a new direction. Dreamfall is on my list because of that, despite its serious flaws. I find games that reach for the stars but fall short to be more endearing than games that cover the same old ground. I think Twilight Princess (and Wind Waker) falls into the same category as post-3 GTA games: glorified expansion packs that don't do anything new, but do refine and perfect the already excellent gameplay.
I'm also going to take issue with the comment about music. It sounds like Nintendo hasn't updated its midi libraries since the N64 days. The choral parts are particularly grating. While the compositions are excellent, they're brought down by the dated, overly-synthesized sound. No argument about the quality of the storyline or dungeon designs, however.
5. Dreamfall: The Longest Journey (Xbox/PC) - As soon as I heard that this was a sequel to The Longest Journey, I was sold. Besides, modern adventure games are getting increasingly rare. Yhe stealth and fighting sections are absolute garbage, but the actual adventure gaming works well. The plot, art design, and characters are all phenomenol. This is definitely a worthy sequel to one of the best adventure games of all time. It's rare that I say this, but Dreamfall's writing (and not gameplay) is what makes it stand out. If you can put up with a few gameplay issues (that can usually be avoided, thanks to the multiple solutions to most problems), then you'll be engrossed in one of the most enthralling stories ever written for a video game.
4. Yakuza (PS2) - Shenmue meets GTA is the best way to describe this game. Only with better voice acting than Shenmue, and more streamlined gameplay than GTA. It takes the huge living city present in both of its inspirations and pares it down to only the essentials, making for a very riveting game. In addition to the good main plot (augmented by some great voice acting) and fun beat-em-up fights, there are tons of minigames ranging from batting cages to romancing women. If you can put up with the overly frequent load times, this is definitely worth playing. It shows that Sega still has what it takes to make a good game. Too bad their other recent releases have been garbage.
3. Bully (PS2) - GTA in a school. With a better plot than any GTA game. Similar to Yakuza, Bully streamlines the GTA-style gameplay and presents a smaller but much more detailed city to explore. There's a ton to do, ranging from classroom minigames that make you want to show up on time to bicycle races to fighting (based upon a simplified version of the combat system in The Warrios). The story is great and will definitely ring true to anyone who has suffered through school. Ignore the controversies and play one of the finest PS2 games yet. The only flaw is the poor graphics. It's based on the GTA engine, which isn't all that impressive to begin with, and is definitely showing its age in 2006.
2. Gears of War (Xbox 360) - Believe the hype. Apart from only being about 10 hours long, this shooter is excellent. The graphics are some of the best ever, the gameplay is a very satisfying divergence from the typical run-and-gun shooter gameplay, the story is well-done (the characters are all grunts! They're SUPPOSED to sound like meatheads!), and it even includes full co-op for the entire game. Only the length and the rather limited multiplayer options keep this from getting the top spot.
1. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Xbox 360/PC) - The finest game I have played this year. The graphics are outstanding, the gameplay is a refined version of the system seen previously in Morrowind and Daggerfall, the story is well-done, the bajillion subquests all have interesting hooks to them, and the music is fantastic. It isn't without flaws, however. The entire world scales to your level, which means that you must be very careful how you level up, in order to get the best multipliers and prevent the world from scaling up beyond your ability. Also, this has one of the worst rip-offs in gaming history: the $2.50 horse armour. If you buy this, you're an idiot. Fortunately, later official downloads have much more reasonable prices. But they don't really add a whole lot to a game that will already take a few hundred hours to fully explore and experience. I don't think its quite as good as Morrowind, but it is still an amazing achiement and a must-play.
Overrated games that didn't make the list (not to say that these are bad games, just have some significant flaws that prevent them from being GOTY material):
3. Final Fantasy XII (PS2) - Finally, a fine Final Fantasy game that ditches the annoying ATB system. I think somebody at Square has been playing too much KOTOR, because this feels like a crappier (but still good) knock-off of one of the finest RPGs ever
If they're monitoring bandwidth, then maybe the introduction of downloadable TV shows and movies is responsible for the spike in usage. Those files are huge.
I found this absolutely fascinating video that shows exactly how the sensor bar detects the Wiimote's position - and how you can possibly hack up your own "sensor bar": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTGSkYRDpWY
I guess you missed the part at the beginning where I mentioned that the Xbox has many PC ports, and why I decided to include them in the list of "exclusives". You also ignored Metalwolf Chaos, Unreal Championship 2, OutRun 2, and Xyanide. In other words, nearly half of the list.
The Xbox was my favourite console of last generation - and I'm not an FPS fan. I thought it had a great mix of unique exclusives, PC ports, and better-than-ps2-and-cube versions of multiplatform titles.
I think they were a little forgiving in picking out cult classics (XIII? Bleh) but there are still some good ones mentioned.
Here are some of my favourite console (so I'm including PC ports that didn't see release on any other system) exclusives:
Phantom Dust - it looks like a third-person action game but plays like a collectible card game in real time. The singleplayer game has a very unique atmosphere reminiscient of Panzer Dragoon Saga (not surprising, considering it was designed by the same person), but the real draw is the incredible multiplayer action via Xbox Live. I really hope this shows up on the 360 compatibility list in the future, as I'd love to play it online again. Inexplicably, this Microsoft-developed game was released here by Majesco after MS decided not to publish it in North America, so it's a little hard to find. Definitely worth tracking down, though.
Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath - they mentioned this one in the article, but it deserves being mentioned again. Its unique blend of third-person platforming and first-person action will appeal to those who don't necessarily like either (or who love both). Toss in some of the most beautiful graphics on Xbox (and that's saying something!), a storyline with some serious and profound statements on tolerance, culture, and the environment, and incredibly satisfying boss battles, and you have one of the greatest Xbox titles out there. Too bad it isn't 360 compatible.
OutRun 2 - This was one of the major reasons I bought an Xbox in the first place. It's an incredibly fun and beautiful racing game with the best drift mechanics since the glory days of Ridge Racer. Along with the original arcade mode, this home port adds a suprisingly long mission mode with a lot of unlockables and tons of fun and unique objectives. Coast 2 Coast was nowhere near as good as this game. C2C is far uglier (it looks like a PS2 game thanks to all jaggies and shimmering, a far cry from the clean look of the original), too easy (the time limits are much more forgiving and bouncing off of the wall doesn't kill your momentum), and very tedious (the new mission mode involves a lot of repetition and locks many of the same items as included in the original - but also locks some that were available from the start in the original!). Skip C2C, get this version. Sadly, this is another game that isn't on the 360 compatibility list.
Xyanide - this looks like a rail shooter but plays like an arena shooter. If you can get over the twisting and turning camera and the somewhat repetitive backgrounds, the gameplay is excellent. It may look simple at first, but there's a lot of strategy involved in upgrading your two weapons (do you choose to focus on the capital ship killer or the fighter killer?) and choosing your four special powers (from a huge assortment - I still haven't even seen them all). This was a very recent budget release, so you may or may not be able to find it locally. I suggest ebay. Again, no 360 compatibility. Dammit.
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind - I prefer this to Oblivion. While its fairly ugly and somewhat offputting at first, the atmosphere is far better. Vvardenfell is a unique and alien place unlike anything I've ever seen before or since. The attention to detail makes the land of the Dunmer feel like a real place. The gameplay is far less action-based and more stats-oriented than Oblivion, which may or may not be a turn-off. There are also more (and several mutually-exclusive) quest lines than Oblivion. Though the quests are often shorter and simpler than Oblivion, the sheer number of them is overwhelming. Despite a fair number of bugs and glitches, Morrowind remains one of the finest RPGs I have ever played. Yet again, it isn't compatible with 360.
...and I usually buy from Play-Asia. They have great customer service and a great selection.
YesAsia is often a little cheaper, but their selection isn't as good and they are really really terrible about updating their site about stock levels. They're also really bad about doing timely refunds. I've ordered games from them, only to be told a week and a half later that they're out of stock, and then had to wait another week and a half for the refund to be processed. This only applies to somewhat older games, though. If you're pre-ordering a title, YesAsia is definitely the place to go.
NCSX is great if you live in the US. I don't. NCSX ships UPS, and UPS absolutely rapes Canadians with horrendous service fees. I don't enjoy paying anywhere from $20 to $50 in fees for a $60 item.
The aspect that really annoys me about turnitin.com is that it'll complain if you submit a paper identical (or nearly so) to one you previously used. This is very unlike the real world, where re-using your own work is not plagiarism. In fact, programmers do it all the time. I do it for art, too. And I can remember at least three occasions in college where I could dust off a paper, make a few minor edits, and use it again.
I am curious, however - obviously turnitin.com contains encyclopedia entries and such in their database. Do they licence those? If so, papers submitted to it should be licenced in a similar manner. And they should keep track of ownership and exclude them in checking a paper submitted by the same person.
Well, one difference between the two compilations is that the Sega one will be of Genesis games. The Genesis gamepad is awfully similar to current modern pads (including the PSP's), so the control schemes can stay relatively intact.
Midway Arcade Treasures 2, on the other hand, contained arcade games. One of the more interesting aspects of arcade games is that developers can experiment with unconventional controls without significantly increasing the price of a cabinet. Sprint, for instance, had a really cool free-spinning wheel. It was a lot of fun to just whip that thing around to turn. There's no way an analog stick can possibly duplicate that control scheme. Another issue with MAT2 was that the emulation on some of the games just wasn't very good. It was impossible to fight Smoke in Mortal Kombat 2, since pressing start opened up the menu screen!
Hopefully the emulation of these Genesis games is accurate. Knowing Sega, though, I don't expect much. Anyone remember that Genesis compilation on Dreamcast? The one with the absolutely terrible sound? Another issue is the PSP's dpad, which is absolute garbage. Diagonals are next to impossible to perform. Ristar in particular is going to suffer, as a lot of the gameplay was based on grabbing things at angles.
A final issue, echoed by other posters already, is that some of these games were originally arcade games. Virtua Fighter 2's Genesis port was not very good. I'd much rather see a port closer to the arcade version. Hell, I'd buy a Saturn-level (which was great but by no means arcade perfect) standalone port of VF2 on PSP, without any extras or other games! Thunder Blade and especially the Golden Axe games are also much better in their original arcade incarnations. While I'm ranting, where are the second-party games? Tec(h)nosoft's Thunder Force series (well, 3 and 4) would be a great inclusion, as would Treasure's legendary Gunstar Heroes and Alien Soldier. Sega published a PS2 compilation of Treasure's (non-MacDonalds) Genesis games, so why omit them here?
And finally, though this is just barely on-topic, Sega needs to grow a brain and re-release Panzer Dragoon Saga on PSP or something. The game goes for $150 or so on eBay and people still buy it at that price. Square figured this out and published Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth on PSP. The original PS1 version goes for over $100 on eBay. Why can't more companies figure this out? If a game goes for over $100 on eBay, it makes sense to re-release it and take advantage of the obviously high demand for the title.
TFA is a troll, but I'm going to respond anyway. The author thinks that there are no highbrow videogames simply because he isn't looking for them. A Mind Forever Voyaging, Planescape: Torment, Grim Fandango, The Longest Journey, Seven Cities of Gold, and M.U.L.E. all fit his 'highbrow' (ie: pretentious fuckwad) definition. The first four have all of the elements that he said should be present in an ideal highbrow game: literate and intelligent plots, fantastic artwork and music (well, apart from AMFV - but it does have excellent descriptions!), and fun gameplay. Seven Cities of Gold is the original edutainment title, before the label was corrupted by Carmen Sandiego and friends. It correctly portrays the way natives and colonials interacted back then. M.U.L.E. is the videogame equivalent of chess (which is a 'highbrow' boardgame): a complex economic multiplayer strategy game that requires a great deal of intelligence and creativity to win.
We already do have several "Merchant Ivory" developers (though the analogy is flawed because movie studios rarely maintain the same cast, support crew, writers, and composers for multiple films - but videogame developers tend to stay together as a team). Looking Glass Studios (RIP) created several excellent first-person games like Ultima Underworld, System Shock, and Thief. Those games (and hopefully BioShock, by Irrational Games) had one thing that the author forgot about: amazing interactivity. The many and varied actions allowed by the game resulted in no two people playing them the same way. That's the difference between videogames and other media: the ability for players to do things the way they want. A true "Merchant Ivory" developer is one that recognizes this and makes puzzle-solving as freeform as possible. The true mark of skill, though, is allowing such freedom without creating arbitrary barriers or letting the player 'break' the game. Other developers that follow this model include(d) Origin Systems (Ultima 7 is insanely interactive), Rockstar North (People don't seem to realize that GTA gets such high review scores because of the violence. Rather, it's because of the FREEDOM to do such actions), and Maxis (now part of EA. Will Wright's Sim games are the ultimate sandbox titles).
But that's only one half of the coin. Gameplay can take a completely different form. Arcade games with complex scoring systems and carefully planned levels are no less highbrow than the supposedly more intelligent adventure or rpg genres. Take a look at Treasure's games. Radiant Silvergun is an obvious example: the complex chaining system, insane bullet patterns, and long levels combine to create a very difficult game. Radiant Silvergun is a game that requires skill, intelligence, and memorization to even begin to play well. Weapon power (and thus survival) is directly died to scoring, so actually learning the nuances of the game is absolutely required for survival. Raizing's Battle Garegga is similar: the game throws more (and more difficult) enemies at the player based upon survival time. It also hands out extra lives constantly, as long as the player is scoring well. This means that the best way to play Battle Garegga is to deliberately commit suicide on a regular basis in order to keep the difficulty down. And these are just two examples. I haven't mentioned Dodonpachi, G-Darius, or Border Down...
And that's just a single action subgenre. So, contrary to what the author believes, 'simple' action games can be very detailed and complicated. And that's the problem with the article. Instead of viewing videogames on their own strengths, he compares them to movies and uses movie standards. And, of course, they come up short. Do arcade games contain social critiques or statements on life and death? No. But they do contain the thing that makes videogames different from novels, movies, or plays: gameplay.
Hogwash! It's all you young whippersnappers that have ruined gaming with your short attention spans and aversion to thinking. When's the last time we had a decent turn-based strategy game?
It's YOU whippersnappers that have ruined gaming with your 100 hour epics! You'd rather have 40 hours of dull and repetitive gameplay than five minutes of stupendously difficult and engaging action. I don't want long, convoluted storylines. I don't want strategy games that take 20 battles to actually get challenging. I don't want adventure games that boil down to using everything on everything. I want simple engaging games where the ultimate goal is the highest score. If a game doesn't seriously try to kill me within the first five minutes, I usually don't bother. I want games that are fast, fun, and deep. Life is too short to dig through the mountain of boring shit that is a modern story-based game to find the one undigested corn kernel of fun gameplay.
That's why I play shooters. I enjoyed the original Geometry Wars far more than PGR2 itself. I bought an Xbox 360 mainly for the Geometry Wars sequel. I own a modded PS2 so I can play stuff like Espgaluda, Ibara, and Raiden 3 (though Raiden 3 is actually getting a domestic release soon).
Getting back to the main article, I think it uses some really poor examples. Conker was seriously overrated when it was originally released. The original Castlevania has been totally eclipsed by later games in the series like Dracula X: Rondo of Blood. The complaints about Super Metroid are from the difficulties of emulation and not the game itself!
By choosing different examples, I can make the exact opposite argument: that classic games are classic for a reason and still worth playing today. Look at Bubble Bobble. On the surface, it's a simple non-scrolling action-platformer. To progress, all you have to do is encase enemies in bubbles and pop them. But there are also really hard to access secret rooms, scoring techniques that rely on fiddling with the last two digits in your score, tricks to make spelling "EXTEND" a lot easier, and so on. Underneath the simple surface, Bubble Bobble is a really complicated game with a lot of tricks and tactics to learn. There are plenty of other games like Bubble Bobble, where a simplistic surface disguises the true complexity of the game. In fact, just about every true classic is like that. Shallow games simply don't command repeated plays.
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Well, people who don't vote along party lines tend to get thrown out of parties here in Canada.
Anyway, there were other reasons to vote against STV. The major reason was that the proposal would have created several super ridings with multiple representatives. Who are you supposed to go to in order to make your opinion heard? What about ridings that cover a large area of rural landscape as well as a few towns? Are the representatives even going to care about rural outliers when most of the voters will be living in towns? Furthermore, there is nothing stopping parties from fielding multiple candidates, and I suspect people would be more likely to just vote along party lines - which would yield even more homogeneous results than the current system, as larger ridings with more people would average the results even more than the first-past-the-post system that we currently have.
I disagree strongly with this. Try playing Rendition. You'll probably find it difficult to not feel disgust at your own actions in the game.
The problem isn't the medium of videogames, it is the presentation of the subject matter within the game. But how are we to know whether the presentation in Six Days In Fallujah approached the subject matter effectively (or not), when outcry from people like you prevent such works from being created?
http://qdb.us/294682
<sniep> my servers are all named after computer parts so that users sound like retards asking for anything
<sniep> "i need full access to ram!"
<sniep> "why is megabytes broken?!?"
<sniep> "who rebooted hard drive??!??"
They talked about how they used the Australia team initially for technology and later for more tasks, but what about the Shanghai team mentioned at the end in the data section? I know it's unlikely that anyone here will know, but I'd love to find out how they coordinated with the artists and designers in that studio, and what they worked on.
China has endured as a civilization about as much as Rome has. The people living there may be ethnically related to earlier groups and speak languages derived from earlier ones, but that doesn't make modern China the same civilization as Qin Dynasty China, just like it doesn't make modern Italy the same civilization as Rome.
Sounds like the problem is with your country's implementation of paper ballots, and not the general idea itself. Here in Canada, voting takes maybe half an hour at most. You show up, verify your identity, get your ballot, go behind a screen and put an X in the circle next to the candidate, fold it up, hand it to the person working the box, watch them place the ballot in the box, go home.
To supervise the whole thing, we require people from multiple parties to be present at the polling station. It's hard to fiddle with something when it has to be verified by two (or more) opposing people at the same time.
I don't understand your references to multiple ballots. Is each party on a separate ballot or something? Why in the world would it be done like that?
Heh. I accidentally hit that button last night. For the first and last time, as I pried it (and the sleep and wake buttons) off ant tossed them away. I suggest that everyone else should do the same.
Herzog Zwei says hi.
The developers doing Aquaria previously did the excellent Metroid-style game Eternal Daughter. They also did the infamous I'm O.K. game in response to Jack Thompson's even more infamous modest proposal. Check out all the games here: http://www.derekyu.com/games.html
Okami wasn't in the running, because Capcom is not part of the AIAS. Companies must be members in order to have their games included. The same thing happened in 2005, when Resident Evil 4 was not among the nominees.
Personally, I don't take these awards seriously. Ignoring a significant number of the games released in a year makes the concept "best game released this year" quite meaningless.
I rented the game and (mostly - I didn't replay any of the difficulties or find all the coins) finished it over the 5-day rental period. It was a lot of fun. I wouldn't have regretted buying it, though I'm rather glad I decided to just rent it instead.
The gameplay is a lot of fun. The action is really fast and hectic, more so than Gears of War (though Gears is an overall better game). The AI isn't particularly great, but I don't think I'd want to face off against the huge mobs in Lost Planet if they were any brighter. Besides the fast twitch action against grunts, some strategy is required for larger enemies - there's no way you can face down a mech or giant worm while on foot without the proper weapons or planning. The boss battles are absolutely incredible. Nobody, NOBODY does boss battles better than Capcom. Always difficult and always varied, each boss requires very different tactics to take down. The bosses aren't just puzzle bosses, either. While they invariably require shooting specific parts, both that knowledge AND great twitch skills are required.
The controls are also great. I'm not a fan of the default floating aim, but there are tons of different configuration options. There are enough different options that most people will find one that suits them. I personally set it on Fixed 6 with button layout B, with aiming assist turned off. The on-foot movement can take a bit of getting used to, since Wayne actually runs in the direction of the analog stick as opposed to strafing. This can get a bit odd when running backwards and moving the stick a little to the left or right, which causes Wayne to switch weapon sides. Still, it isn't a bad movement scheme, just different than the usual third-person shooter. In some ways, I prefer it - running in any direction is equally fast, no matter which way the camera is aimed. Mechs are slower and control a little clunkier, but they're supposed to be like that - they're large walking tanks. Each mech has very unique handling, as well. There are enough mechs scattered throughout the levels to provide a wide range of choices in control, weapons, and special abilities. A couple sequences do force you to use specific mechs, however.
The graphics are absolutely stunning. The levels and characters lack the detail found in Gears of War, but Lost Planet's levels are much larger and there are absolute hordes of enemies onscreen. There's some slowdown, but it only happens in rare (and very insane) circumstances. The designs for the Akrid and the mechs are very nice. I'm not a fan of the odd mixture of realism and anime found in the character designs, but they aren't horrible either.
The sound is hit-and-miss. The weapon sounds are nothing special, but they get the job done. The voice acting isn't Resident Evil level garbage, but it isn't very good - much of it is overacted and oddly emphasized. Enemy yells are similarly overacted (and repeat far too much). The Akrid sounds are fairly nice, and the glass shattering sound made when you hit a weak point is particularly satisfying.
The music reminds me a lot of Metal Gear Solid 2. There's a strong main theme and some tension-producing tracks in-game, but a great deal of the game is played music-free. It's okay, but nothing really great. I wouldn't buy the soundtrack, but the music certainly didn't get in the way of anything.
Lost Planet does have some major flaws. The plot starts off fairly strong but quickly wanders off into incomprehensible pointlessness. It feels like half the cutscenes are missing. Character personalities are never truly developed, only inferred.But I don't play games for plot, and Lost Planet has fun enough gameplay to more than make up for it. Unfortunately, that gameplay comes to an end fairly quickly. It only took me 8 hours to finish all 11 missions on the normal difficulty. An attempt at replay value has been made with the inclusion of hidden achievement-related coins scattered throughout each level and difficulty, but I didn't bother looking for them. The levels
Anyone complaining about "next-gen" prices needs to recall the incredible amounts that games such as Strider, Final Fantasy III, and Phantasy Star IV sold for.
I don't recall any computer games being slapped with a more expensive MSRP, but I do remember that our dollar was absolute shit back in the mid-90s and prices on just about everything went up. And as our dollar has gotten better, prices have come down a bit (but not enough for me to stop importing stuff from the US - retailers seem awfully delayed when it comes to lowering prices to what they should be)
Next time I should wait a bit and fully wake up before posting on Slashdot. :P
And like I said, Dreamfall has some major flaws but I still find it to be an excellent game. If you don't like it, try some of the other recent adventure games like the similar Indigo Prophecy or the new Sam & Max episodic titles.
Don't get me wrong, I did like TP. I bought a Wii in order to play it. I just don't think it stands out as much as some of the other games this year. I'd rather see something try going in a new direction. Dreamfall is on my list because of that, despite its serious flaws. I find games that reach for the stars but fall short to be more endearing than games that cover the same old ground. I think Twilight Princess (and Wind Waker) falls into the same category as post-3 GTA games: glorified expansion packs that don't do anything new, but do refine and perfect the already excellent gameplay.
I'm also going to take issue with the comment about music. It sounds like Nintendo hasn't updated its midi libraries since the N64 days. The choral parts are particularly grating. While the compositions are excellent, they're brought down by the dated, overly-synthesized sound. No argument about the quality of the storyline or dungeon designs, however.
I hope you get modded into oblivion for spoiling Dreamfall.
My top 5 games this year:
5. Dreamfall: The Longest Journey (Xbox/PC) - As soon as I heard that this was a sequel to The Longest Journey, I was sold. Besides, modern adventure games are getting increasingly rare. Yhe stealth and fighting sections are absolute garbage, but the actual adventure gaming works well. The plot, art design, and characters are all phenomenol. This is definitely a worthy sequel to one of the best adventure games of all time. It's rare that I say this, but Dreamfall's writing (and not gameplay) is what makes it stand out. If you can put up with a few gameplay issues (that can usually be avoided, thanks to the multiple solutions to most problems), then you'll be engrossed in one of the most enthralling stories ever written for a video game.
4. Yakuza (PS2) - Shenmue meets GTA is the best way to describe this game. Only with better voice acting than Shenmue, and more streamlined gameplay than GTA. It takes the huge living city present in both of its inspirations and pares it down to only the essentials, making for a very riveting game. In addition to the good main plot (augmented by some great voice acting) and fun beat-em-up fights, there are tons of minigames ranging from batting cages to romancing women. If you can put up with the overly frequent load times, this is definitely worth playing. It shows that Sega still has what it takes to make a good game. Too bad their other recent releases have been garbage.
3. Bully (PS2) - GTA in a school. With a better plot than any GTA game. Similar to Yakuza, Bully streamlines the GTA-style gameplay and presents a smaller but much more detailed city to explore. There's a ton to do, ranging from classroom minigames that make you want to show up on time to bicycle races to fighting (based upon a simplified version of the combat system in The Warrios). The story is great and will definitely ring true to anyone who has suffered through school. Ignore the controversies and play one of the finest PS2 games yet. The only flaw is the poor graphics. It's based on the GTA engine, which isn't all that impressive to begin with, and is definitely showing its age in 2006.
2. Gears of War (Xbox 360) - Believe the hype. Apart from only being about 10 hours long, this shooter is excellent. The graphics are some of the best ever, the gameplay is a very satisfying divergence from the typical run-and-gun shooter gameplay, the story is well-done (the characters are all grunts! They're SUPPOSED to sound like meatheads!), and it even includes full co-op for the entire game. Only the length and the rather limited multiplayer options keep this from getting the top spot. 1. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Xbox 360/PC) - The finest game I have played this year. The graphics are outstanding, the gameplay is a refined version of the system seen previously in Morrowind and Daggerfall, the story is well-done, the bajillion subquests all have interesting hooks to them, and the music is fantastic. It isn't without flaws, however. The entire world scales to your level, which means that you must be very careful how you level up, in order to get the best multipliers and prevent the world from scaling up beyond your ability. Also, this has one of the worst rip-offs in gaming history: the $2.50 horse armour. If you buy this, you're an idiot. Fortunately, later official downloads have much more reasonable prices. But they don't really add a whole lot to a game that will already take a few hundred hours to fully explore and experience. I don't think its quite as good as Morrowind, but it is still an amazing achiement and a must-play.
Overrated games that didn't make the list (not to say that these are bad games, just have some significant flaws that prevent them from being GOTY material):
3. Final Fantasy XII (PS2) - Finally, a fine Final Fantasy game that ditches the annoying ATB system. I think somebody at Square has been playing too much KOTOR, because this feels like a crappier (but still good) knock-off of one of the finest RPGs ever
If they're monitoring bandwidth, then maybe the introduction of downloadable TV shows and movies is responsible for the spike in usage. Those files are huge.
I found this absolutely fascinating video that shows exactly how the sensor bar detects the Wiimote's position - and how you can possibly hack up your own "sensor bar": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTGSkYRDpWY
I guess you missed the part at the beginning where I mentioned that the Xbox has many PC ports, and why I decided to include them in the list of "exclusives". You also ignored Metalwolf Chaos, Unreal Championship 2, OutRun 2, and Xyanide. In other words, nearly half of the list.
The Xbox was my favourite console of last generation - and I'm not an FPS fan. I thought it had a great mix of unique exclusives, PC ports, and better-than-ps2-and-cube versions of multiplatform titles.
I think they were a little forgiving in picking out cult classics (XIII? Bleh) but there are still some good ones mentioned.
Here are some of my favourite console (so I'm including PC ports that didn't see release on any other system) exclusives:
Phantom Dust - it looks like a third-person action game but plays like a collectible card game in real time. The singleplayer game has a very unique atmosphere reminiscient of Panzer Dragoon Saga (not surprising, considering it was designed by the same person), but the real draw is the incredible multiplayer action via Xbox Live. I really hope this shows up on the 360 compatibility list in the future, as I'd love to play it online again. Inexplicably, this Microsoft-developed game was released here by Majesco after MS decided not to publish it in North America, so it's a little hard to find. Definitely worth tracking down, though.
Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath - they mentioned this one in the article, but it deserves being mentioned again. Its unique blend of third-person platforming and first-person action will appeal to those who don't necessarily like either (or who love both). Toss in some of the most beautiful graphics on Xbox (and that's saying something!), a storyline with some serious and profound statements on tolerance, culture, and the environment, and incredibly satisfying boss battles, and you have one of the greatest Xbox titles out there. Too bad it isn't 360 compatible.
OutRun 2 - This was one of the major reasons I bought an Xbox in the first place. It's an incredibly fun and beautiful racing game with the best drift mechanics since the glory days of Ridge Racer. Along with the original arcade mode, this home port adds a suprisingly long mission mode with a lot of unlockables and tons of fun and unique objectives. Coast 2 Coast was nowhere near as good as this game. C2C is far uglier (it looks like a PS2 game thanks to all jaggies and shimmering, a far cry from the clean look of the original), too easy (the time limits are much more forgiving and bouncing off of the wall doesn't kill your momentum), and very tedious (the new mission mode involves a lot of repetition and locks many of the same items as included in the original - but also locks some that were available from the start in the original!). Skip C2C, get this version. Sadly, this is another game that isn't on the 360 compatibility list.
Xyanide - this looks like a rail shooter but plays like an arena shooter. If you can get over the twisting and turning camera and the somewhat repetitive backgrounds, the gameplay is excellent. It may look simple at first, but there's a lot of strategy involved in upgrading your two weapons (do you choose to focus on the capital ship killer or the fighter killer?) and choosing your four special powers (from a huge assortment - I still haven't even seen them all). This was a very recent budget release, so you may or may not be able to find it locally. I suggest ebay. Again, no 360 compatibility. Dammit.
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind - I prefer this to Oblivion. While its fairly ugly and somewhat offputting at first, the atmosphere is far better. Vvardenfell is a unique and alien place unlike anything I've ever seen before or since. The attention to detail makes the land of the Dunmer feel like a real place. The gameplay is far less action-based and more stats-oriented than Oblivion, which may or may not be a turn-off. There are also more (and several mutually-exclusive) quest lines than Oblivion. Though the quests are often shorter and simpler than Oblivion, the sheer number of them is overwhelming. Despite a fair number of bugs and glitches, Morrowind remains one of the finest RPGs I have ever played. Yet again, it isn't compatible with 360.
Metalwolf Cha
...and I usually buy from Play-Asia. They have great customer service and a great selection.
YesAsia is often a little cheaper, but their selection isn't as good and they are really really terrible about updating their site about stock levels. They're also really bad about doing timely refunds. I've ordered games from them, only to be told a week and a half later that they're out of stock, and then had to wait another week and a half for the refund to be processed. This only applies to somewhat older games, though. If you're pre-ordering a title, YesAsia is definitely the place to go.
NCSX is great if you live in the US. I don't. NCSX ships UPS, and UPS absolutely rapes Canadians with horrendous service fees. I don't enjoy paying anywhere from $20 to $50 in fees for a $60 item.
The aspect that really annoys me about turnitin.com is that it'll complain if you submit a paper identical (or nearly so) to one you previously used. This is very unlike the real world, where re-using your own work is not plagiarism. In fact, programmers do it all the time. I do it for art, too. And I can remember at least three occasions in college where I could dust off a paper, make a few minor edits, and use it again.
I am curious, however - obviously turnitin.com contains encyclopedia entries and such in their database. Do they licence those? If so, papers submitted to it should be licenced in a similar manner. And they should keep track of ownership and exclude them in checking a paper submitted by the same person.
Well, one difference between the two compilations is that the Sega one will be of Genesis games. The Genesis gamepad is awfully similar to current modern pads (including the PSP's), so the control schemes can stay relatively intact.
Midway Arcade Treasures 2, on the other hand, contained arcade games. One of the more interesting aspects of arcade games is that developers can experiment with unconventional controls without significantly increasing the price of a cabinet. Sprint, for instance, had a really cool free-spinning wheel. It was a lot of fun to just whip that thing around to turn. There's no way an analog stick can possibly duplicate that control scheme. Another issue with MAT2 was that the emulation on some of the games just wasn't very good. It was impossible to fight Smoke in Mortal Kombat 2, since pressing start opened up the menu screen!
Hopefully the emulation of these Genesis games is accurate. Knowing Sega, though, I don't expect much. Anyone remember that Genesis compilation on Dreamcast? The one with the absolutely terrible sound? Another issue is the PSP's dpad, which is absolute garbage. Diagonals are next to impossible to perform. Ristar in particular is going to suffer, as a lot of the gameplay was based on grabbing things at angles.
A final issue, echoed by other posters already, is that some of these games were originally arcade games. Virtua Fighter 2's Genesis port was not very good. I'd much rather see a port closer to the arcade version. Hell, I'd buy a Saturn-level (which was great but by no means arcade perfect) standalone port of VF2 on PSP, without any extras or other games! Thunder Blade and especially the Golden Axe games are also much better in their original arcade incarnations. While I'm ranting, where are the second-party games? Tec(h)nosoft's Thunder Force series (well, 3 and 4) would be a great inclusion, as would Treasure's legendary Gunstar Heroes and Alien Soldier. Sega published a PS2 compilation of Treasure's (non-MacDonalds) Genesis games, so why omit them here?
And finally, though this is just barely on-topic, Sega needs to grow a brain and re-release Panzer Dragoon Saga on PSP or something. The game goes for $150 or so on eBay and people still buy it at that price. Square figured this out and published Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth on PSP. The original PS1 version goes for over $100 on eBay. Why can't more companies figure this out? If a game goes for over $100 on eBay, it makes sense to re-release it and take advantage of the obviously high demand for the title.
TFA is a troll, but I'm going to respond anyway. The author thinks that there are no highbrow videogames simply because he isn't looking for them. A Mind Forever Voyaging, Planescape: Torment, Grim Fandango, The Longest Journey, Seven Cities of Gold, and M.U.L.E. all fit his 'highbrow' (ie: pretentious fuckwad) definition. The first four have all of the elements that he said should be present in an ideal highbrow game: literate and intelligent plots, fantastic artwork and music (well, apart from AMFV - but it does have excellent descriptions!), and fun gameplay. Seven Cities of Gold is the original edutainment title, before the label was corrupted by Carmen Sandiego and friends. It correctly portrays the way natives and colonials interacted back then. M.U.L.E. is the videogame equivalent of chess (which is a 'highbrow' boardgame): a complex economic multiplayer strategy game that requires a great deal of intelligence and creativity to win.
We already do have several "Merchant Ivory" developers (though the analogy is flawed because movie studios rarely maintain the same cast, support crew, writers, and composers for multiple films - but videogame developers tend to stay together as a team). Looking Glass Studios (RIP) created several excellent first-person games like Ultima Underworld, System Shock, and Thief. Those games (and hopefully BioShock, by Irrational Games) had one thing that the author forgot about: amazing interactivity. The many and varied actions allowed by the game resulted in no two people playing them the same way. That's the difference between videogames and other media: the ability for players to do things the way they want. A true "Merchant Ivory" developer is one that recognizes this and makes puzzle-solving as freeform as possible. The true mark of skill, though, is allowing such freedom without creating arbitrary barriers or letting the player 'break' the game. Other developers that follow this model include(d) Origin Systems (Ultima 7 is insanely interactive), Rockstar North (People don't seem to realize that GTA gets such high review scores because of the violence. Rather, it's because of the FREEDOM to do such actions), and Maxis (now part of EA. Will Wright's Sim games are the ultimate sandbox titles).
But that's only one half of the coin. Gameplay can take a completely different form. Arcade games with complex scoring systems and carefully planned levels are no less highbrow than the supposedly more intelligent adventure or rpg genres. Take a look at Treasure's games. Radiant Silvergun is an obvious example: the complex chaining system, insane bullet patterns, and long levels combine to create a very difficult game. Radiant Silvergun is a game that requires skill, intelligence, and memorization to even begin to play well. Weapon power (and thus survival) is directly died to scoring, so actually learning the nuances of the game is absolutely required for survival. Raizing's Battle Garegga is similar: the game throws more (and more difficult) enemies at the player based upon survival time. It also hands out extra lives constantly, as long as the player is scoring well. This means that the best way to play Battle Garegga is to deliberately commit suicide on a regular basis in order to keep the difficulty down. And these are just two examples. I haven't mentioned Dodonpachi, G-Darius, or Border Down...
And that's just a single action subgenre. So, contrary to what the author believes, 'simple' action games can be very detailed and complicated. And that's the problem with the article. Instead of viewing videogames on their own strengths, he compares them to movies and uses movie standards. And, of course, they come up short. Do arcade games contain social critiques or statements on life and death? No. But they do contain the thing that makes videogames different from novels, movies, or plays: gameplay.
That's why I play shooters. I enjoyed the original Geometry Wars far more than PGR2 itself. I bought an Xbox 360 mainly for the Geometry Wars sequel. I own a modded PS2 so I can play stuff like Espgaluda, Ibara, and Raiden 3 (though Raiden 3 is actually getting a domestic release soon).
Getting back to the main article, I think it uses some really poor examples. Conker was seriously overrated when it was originally released. The original Castlevania has been totally eclipsed by later games in the series like Dracula X: Rondo of Blood. The complaints about Super Metroid are from the difficulties of emulation and not the game itself!
By choosing different examples, I can make the exact opposite argument: that classic games are classic for a reason and still worth playing today. Look at Bubble Bobble. On the surface, it's a simple non-scrolling action-platformer. To progress, all you have to do is encase enemies in bubbles and pop them. But there are also really hard to access secret rooms, scoring techniques that rely on fiddling with the last two digits in your score, tricks to make spelling "EXTEND" a lot easier, and so on. Underneath the simple surface, Bubble Bobble is a really complicated game with a lot of tricks and tactics to learn. There are plenty of other games like Bubble Bobble, where a simplistic surface disguises the true complexity of the game. In fact, just about every true classic is like that. Shallow games simply don't command repeated plays.