to love this game. But couldn't do it. It taught me something about my tastes though which was very helpful to learn.
I've learned that I'm a methodical gamer. As opposed to a frantic gamer, or a run-n-gun, or a sniper. I like to go slow, take my time, and analyze each encounter. I like to divide and conquer at MY pace. Naturally, thats not going to be possible in every game type (which is as it should be). But I've found those games where it IS possible are much more enjoyable to me. I like to be able to choose when an encounter occurs. I found I didn't enjoy the "fight comes to you" factor in L4D. I still own the game, and like many games, I plan to finish it because I recognize it's quite good. But when it comes down to deciding what disc to put in the tray, it never seems to make it after that first time in the machine. But I love that you love this game. :)
I found RE and Dead Rising to be much more up my alley as far as game design is concerned.
note: I've only ever played it solo. I don't generally play games online unless it's with friends and none of my friends were playing this game the same time I was.
I don't think it's for everybody, there's definitely an audience it shoots for (Haha...ugh) and while I think a lot of people that aren't even fans of shooters can appreciate this game, it's not for everyone. My brother-in-law hates this game as well.
But there are a lot of guys like me that loved this game. Hell, it won over 40 industry awards.
The fact that the idea for L4D came from playing variations of Counter-Strike is pretty cool, and that attention to detail and unorthodox thinking are two of the reasons even I can appreciate Valve.
As for Left 4 Dead, my roommate bought it for the 360 and was disappointed to see that it only had two-player splitscreen. I know splitscreen as a whole is dying out, but you'd think a game that's specifically meant to be played with 4 people would make the extra effort to keep us from going back to last-gen 007 games for our four-man splitscreen shooty fun. And though I can appreciate the move away from traditional shooter mechanics to the horde-defense style L4D uses, I just didn't find it all that compelling to replay. One run through each campaign was enough for me, so I had the game in my rear-view mirror within a few days. I probably would have enjoyed it more on PC with four friends willing to play online, the way the game was designed to be played, but oh well.
I agree, the reason way i hate this game is Tartarus is quite possibly the most boring thing i have ever seen in a game with the fact that it is 70+ hours game that doesn't have the kind of plot or gameplay to justify a game of that length. i really can't blame you for hating RPGs now, Stuff like item synthesis/creation/Offensively useless items and treasures/walking simulators are such a terrible game mechanics IMO and all modern RPGs seem to utilize it to pad game length. I miss old RPGs where it is all about adventuring in new world , simple variety and economic sized like FF6, FF7, terranigma, chrono and Suikoden 2.
I thought the same thing at first. But Left 4 Dead 2 just really leaves it in the dust. More special infected (the spitter and the charger are really fun to play is in versus), the introduction of melee weapons (and you can't have a second pistol or even use the first until you fall down if you've got a melee), a "Mutation" mode consisting of odd variations and changing every week), and generally more balanced level design. Perhaps one of the biggest differences is in the crescendo events and finales, which now require action rather than just waiting and surviving until it ends. For example, in two of the L4D2 finales, you must fill a car with gas before you can escape in it.
Also, I noticed you said that you use the 360 version because you can splitscreen. There's a way to set it up on the PC so that it's splitscreen, if you've got at least one USB controller (one player can use mouse and keyboard OR controller, other must use controller). Apart from the availability of mouse/keyboard controls, which are generally considered to be superior for shooters, there's a world of mods, many of which are really cool. Some great new levels, some sweet ports of levels from other games, there's even one based on Super Mario 64.
What if I said I sold this game soon after buying it because I couldn't get into it? I'm not much of a multiplayer guy though, but with the right game (ie. Borderlands), things do seem to click sometimes.
It's good, but not great. I've played so many shooters, and while the first Half-life remade the shooter what it is today with its amazing story telling that hadn't been seen before, I'm afraid this game was sub-par compared to what I had hoped it would be.
I played and beat Half-life 2 once, then I went and played Halo 1 and enjoyed myself more, but I guess I can be picky too. Most of the gamers my age didn't start off with Wolfenstein and Doom before they played Super Nintendo, and competitively playing online shooters and Age of Empires when his classmates were playing Poke'Mon.
I downloaded this game for free, and I just didn't enjoy it. Of course, I didn't really get to kill anyone but myself.
There just wasn't anything to make me say "I want to play that again." I mean, it was as fun to me as putting together a 1000 piece puzzle, and that just isn't my cup o' tea.
My wife and I just recently played Gears of War and Gears of War 2. I was borrowing some games from a friend of ours, and instead of Modern Warfare 2, the case had Gears of War 2. I received some cash for working and looked up Gears of War and it was only $5 at Gamestop, and I thought "This is basically 360s Halo before Halo 3 came out!" so I picked it up. I had briefly played it before.
I really loved both games, as well as my wife. It gives you a sense of suspense because it feels so important to win. The gunplay, I thought, was fantastic and my wife and I had a blast.
I don't really remember the differences between the two games, it must not have had many, but I was still glad to play it. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, right? It would have been nice to change it up a bit, there is a lot more story in this one. I don't know, I think I may have enjoyed this one more than the first, actually.
Anyway, play through it, you should find some things that are pleasantly different than it's predecessor.
lux pain is actually preety good i thought, you kinda have to bear with the spelling errors, and the voicees not matching the dialouge did make my head spin a little, but overall i think the game was great, there are three endings? the thing that bothered me the most was on bbs and some other people kept calling mako a "he", i don't think they proof read it. i thought the story was preety deep although kinda hectec at the end.
Sounds like a neat feature, now that NP is so old. It's hard to believe Waluigi is ten years old, and Mario Kart DS ushered in this brave new era of online paradise five years ago.
This is a really good article and I'm surprised with all the games North American gamers are still not getting. Of course I was aware of Mother 3, but I figured that was just Nintendo being dim. Oddly enough, I've even heard of all of these games and I don't even really follow JRPG news anymore, seems like there would be some decent demand in the US.
I started playing this a few months ago too. I actually "called" the full review in the planner google doc. Unfortunately, life has kind of gotten in the way on that point, so I'm glad you liked it enough to do a full review sooner rather than later had I done it. But, since I'm still planning on playing it and reviewing it.....someday, I'm gonna hold off on reading your review so as not to influence my experience (I'm weird like that). I'll probably escalate this on the "to play" list now.
was I ever even the slightest bit interested in this game. Looks like I got lucky and made the right call.
I think Spore would be a good example of gaming version of "the Oscar movies". They are often critical darlings and also often commercial failures. Some games/movies are made to appease the tastes of critics and some are not.
Never played the full game, but I had a blast with the free creature creator app that they released. I still hop back into it now and again when I just wanna get creative and make some weird monsters. All the reviews basically said this was a letdown, and I even ended up picking up Spore Creatures for the DS because the idea behind Spore is really wonderful, but how it was implemented was not.
...but when it finally came out and I saw what it was, I was sooo disappointed. When it was first announced I was so excited for it, and I guess you're right, there's nothing it could do except disappoint. With all the hype, you'd think it was designed by Peter Molyneux.
Man I tried playing that game I even downloaded it just to see if I could actually pass the few couples of levels. After an hour trying to jump onto the frist platfirm in the apple one I gave up! Couldn't even pass the first level.
Nice and brief but plenty of discussion going on, great stuff.
Cave Story - I played it on PC over winter break and liked it a lot. Enough so that I decided Pixel deserved my money, so I bought it when it came to WiiWare. Haven't put much time into the WiiWare version, nice to see it getting some recognition, though.
NBA Jam - Yes please. It's coming to PS3 and 360 now as well, so I'll have to decide which version to grab. The arcadey nature fits the Wii perfectly though, but it's usually the case that the HD version will end up better.
greg 2 noob
to love this game. But couldn't do it. It taught me something about my tastes though which was very helpful to learn.
I've learned that I'm a methodical gamer. As opposed to a frantic gamer, or a run-n-gun, or a sniper. I like to go slow, take my time, and analyze each encounter. I like to divide and conquer at MY pace. Naturally, thats not going to be possible in every game type (which is as it should be). But I've found those games where it IS possible are much more enjoyable to me. I like to be able to choose when an encounter occurs. I found I didn't enjoy the "fight comes to you" factor in L4D. I still own the game, and like many games, I plan to finish it because I recognize it's quite good. But when it comes down to deciding what disc to put in the tray, it never seems to make it after that first time in the machine. But I love that you love this game. :)
I found RE and Dead Rising to be much more up my alley as far as game design is concerned.
note: I've only ever played it solo. I don't generally play games online unless it's with friends and none of my friends were playing this game the same time I was.
PS. Great review. :)
I don't think it's for everybody, there's definitely an audience it shoots for (Haha...ugh) and while I think a lot of people that aren't even fans of shooters can appreciate this game, it's not for everyone. My brother-in-law hates this game as well.
But there are a lot of guys like me that loved this game. Hell, it won over 40 industry awards.
The fact that the idea for L4D came from playing variations of Counter-Strike is pretty cool, and that attention to detail and unorthodox thinking are two of the reasons even I can appreciate Valve.
As for Left 4 Dead, my roommate bought it for the 360 and was disappointed to see that it only had two-player splitscreen. I know splitscreen as a whole is dying out, but you'd think a game that's specifically meant to be played with 4 people would make the extra effort to keep us from going back to last-gen 007 games for our four-man splitscreen shooty fun. And though I can appreciate the move away from traditional shooter mechanics to the horde-defense style L4D uses, I just didn't find it all that compelling to replay. One run through each campaign was enough for me, so I had the game in my rear-view mirror within a few days. I probably would have enjoyed it more on PC with four friends willing to play online, the way the game was designed to be played, but oh well.
I agree, the reason way i hate this game is Tartarus is quite possibly the most boring thing i have ever seen in a game with the fact that it is 70+ hours game that doesn't have the kind of plot or gameplay to justify a game of that length. i really can't blame you for hating RPGs now, Stuff like item synthesis/creation/Offensively useless items and treasures/walking simulators are such a terrible game mechanics IMO and all modern RPGs seem to utilize it to pad game length. I miss old RPGs where it is all about adventuring in new world , simple variety and economic sized like FF6, FF7, terranigma, chrono and Suikoden 2.
I thought the same thing at first. But Left 4 Dead 2 just really leaves it in the dust. More special infected (the spitter and the charger are really fun to play is in versus), the introduction of melee weapons (and you can't have a second pistol or even use the first until you fall down if you've got a melee), a "Mutation" mode consisting of odd variations and changing every week), and generally more balanced level design. Perhaps one of the biggest differences is in the crescendo events and finales, which now require action rather than just waiting and surviving until it ends. For example, in two of the L4D2 finales, you must fill a car with gas before you can escape in it.
Also, I noticed you said that you use the 360 version because you can splitscreen. There's a way to set it up on the PC so that it's splitscreen, if you've got at least one USB controller (one player can use mouse and keyboard OR controller, other must use controller). Apart from the availability of mouse/keyboard controls, which are generally considered to be superior for shooters, there's a world of mods, many of which are really cool. Some great new levels, some sweet ports of levels from other games, there's even one based on Super Mario 64.
What if I said I sold this game soon after buying it because I couldn't get into it? I'm not much of a multiplayer guy though, but with the right game (ie. Borderlands), things do seem to click sometimes.
It's good, but not great. I've played so many shooters, and while the first Half-life remade the shooter what it is today with its amazing story telling that hadn't been seen before, I'm afraid this game was sub-par compared to what I had hoped it would be.
I played and beat Half-life 2 once, then I went and played Halo 1 and enjoyed myself more, but I guess I can be picky too. Most of the gamers my age didn't start off with Wolfenstein and Doom before they played Super Nintendo, and competitively playing online shooters and Age of Empires when his classmates were playing Poke'Mon.
I've spent more time on this game than any other game imaginable. I still have a semi-active account after 10 years. Dear god...I'm pathetic!
Hopefully, the cure will come soon.
What is it, you ask?
Diablo III.
I downloaded this game for free, and I just didn't enjoy it. Of course, I didn't really get to kill anyone but myself.
There just wasn't anything to make me say "I want to play that again." I mean, it was as fun to me as putting together a 1000 piece puzzle, and that just isn't my cup o' tea.
My wife and I just recently played Gears of War and Gears of War 2. I was borrowing some games from a friend of ours, and instead of Modern Warfare 2, the case had Gears of War 2. I received some cash for working and looked up Gears of War and it was only $5 at Gamestop, and I thought "This is basically 360s Halo before Halo 3 came out!" so I picked it up. I had briefly played it before.
I really loved both games, as well as my wife. It gives you a sense of suspense because it feels so important to win. The gunplay, I thought, was fantastic and my wife and I had a blast.
I don't really remember the differences between the two games, it must not have had many, but I was still glad to play it. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, right? It would have been nice to change it up a bit, there is a lot more story in this one. I don't know, I think I may have enjoyed this one more than the first, actually.
Anyway, play through it, you should find some things that are pleasantly different than it's predecessor.
This is an amazing game, obviously, but your review was great and fun to read.. thanks!
lux pain is actually preety good i thought, you kinda have to bear with the spelling errors, and the voicees not matching the dialouge did make my head spin a little, but overall i think the game was great, there are three endings? the thing that bothered me the most was on bbs and some other people kept calling mako a "he", i don't think they proof read it. i thought the story was preety deep although kinda hectec at the end.
I'm making note here.
HUGE SUCESS!
Sounds like a neat feature, now that NP is so old. It's hard to believe Waluigi is ten years old, and Mario Kart DS ushered in this brave new era of online paradise five years ago.
Having played through the game once, I can say that the Wii sequel is definitely the superior game. Pointer controls alone make it so much more fun.
This is a really good article and I'm surprised with all the games North American gamers are still not getting. Of course I was aware of Mother 3, but I figured that was just Nintendo being dim. Oddly enough, I've even heard of all of these games and I don't even really follow JRPG news anymore, seems like there would be some decent demand in the US.
I started playing this a few months ago too. I actually "called" the full review in the planner google doc. Unfortunately, life has kind of gotten in the way on that point, so I'm glad you liked it enough to do a full review sooner rather than later had I done it. But, since I'm still planning on playing it and reviewing it.....someday, I'm gonna hold off on reading your review so as not to influence my experience (I'm weird like that). I'll probably escalate this on the "to play" list now.
To all, don't be so impatient. If you want instant gratification, then go and play the FPS games. That's what they are there for.
:P
was I ever even the slightest bit interested in this game. Looks like I got lucky and made the right call.
I think Spore would be a good example of gaming version of "the Oscar movies". They are often critical darlings and also often commercial failures. Some games/movies are made to appease the tastes of critics and some are not.
Never played the full game, but I had a blast with the free creature creator app that they released. I still hop back into it now and again when I just wanna get creative and make some weird monsters. All the reviews basically said this was a letdown, and I even ended up picking up Spore Creatures for the DS because the idea behind Spore is really wonderful, but how it was implemented was not.
...but when it finally came out and I saw what it was, I was sooo disappointed. When it was first announced I was so excited for it, and I guess you're right, there's nothing it could do except disappoint. With all the hype, you'd think it was designed by Peter Molyneux.
This is one of a very few games I regret not playing. I'll have to convince someone with a Wii to buy the sequel so I can play it too :P
Man I tried playing that game I even downloaded it just to see if I could actually pass the few couples of levels. After an hour trying to jump onto the frist platfirm in the apple one I gave up! Couldn't even pass the first level.
Nice and brief but plenty of discussion going on, great stuff.
Cave Story - I played it on PC over winter break and liked it a lot. Enough so that I decided Pixel deserved my money, so I bought it when it came to WiiWare. Haven't put much time into the WiiWare version, nice to see it getting some recognition, though.
NBA Jam - Yes please. It's coming to PS3 and 360 now as well, so I'll have to decide which version to grab. The arcadey nature fits the Wii perfectly though, but it's usually the case that the HD version will end up better.