I don't think you're doing the driving wrong. Or if you are, so am I.
GTA4 is actually the first GTA game I've played, and early in the game I was completed amazed that a game that was supposed to be about stealing cars would have such poor controls.
As I got further into the game, I realized it was intentional. Certain models of cars only start to appear as you advance further into the game. A lot of the ones early in the game are just terrible. One of the ways they create differences in "performance" between the models is intentionally making the controls bad, especially steering and braking.
You'll eventually get to the house of a guy who lives out near the water. He has a Turismo in his driveway. You can steal it as many times as you want; he always replaces it (even if he's dead) and you never get a criminal flag for stealing it. After that there's not much point in driving anything else unless a mission requires it.
Actually, Desmond was trained as an assasin on some farm somewhere, but he ran away and became a bartender. I don't believe he actually assasinated anyone.
Actually, I do care about those 100 people that might think like you do, I don't get a ton of readers, so your thoughts are important. I'm not sure if you were the original anon I replied to, but I will apologize. It was out of line. I won't remove it, however, as I don't believe in censorship, self-censorship or otherwise.
I appreciate your thoughts on reviewing boring first hours. I knew going in that the opening of Star Ocean isn't that great, and I actually played as Rena for the first time ever and was surprised at how much slower it gets going than when playing even as Claude. Claude's story is definitely more interesting at the beginning so maybe it would be worthwhile to redo the first hour playing as Claude.
Let me know your thoughts if you ever return, and this was one of the reviews that inspired me to rework my review system, though that won't protect me from acting like an idiot when responding to comments.
Thanks for explaining that, I never picked that up from the game. I think I knew about Desmond's real job but just assumed he was a modern day assassin at other times. I will admit this is actually a pretty neat twist that he's slowly absorbing his ancestor's abilities... it's just too bad I wasn't able to pick up on that while playing.
"Sorry I made fun of your precious game." Really? What a juvenile comment. Seriously Greg are you 13? You sound like a kid talking to his little sister about destroying a toy or something. Sure the first hour of this game is boring, but reading your minute-by-minute commentary on a boring game is...well, boring.
You would save yourself and everyone else some time if you just do not review games in this way, or simply avoid reviewing boring games. Because of this childish reply to the last poster, this is the last time I'll be reading any of your reviews, and just think hard about it for a second, for my 1 comment, there's probably 100 people that are thinking the same thing, if not more. And if you're going to reply "Well I don't care about a puny 100 people", go ahead, I'm sure that will just inspire more people to abandon your adolescent blogging.
Just because somebody has the ability to write reviews on games, does not mean they should. Plus, this game is 10 years old, you're not saying anything that isn't already known by anyone that's played the game.
And don't get me wrong, I am a fan of this game, and I agree the beginning is boring. But it is the only real boring part about the game.
Desmond is NOT a former assassin, I know the game doesn't make it clear, but he's actually a bartender that gets new assassin-like abilities from connecting to the Animus too much, and connecting to his past self, a "side effect" if you like.
I do agree that this is a fast moving FPS, and if you're into that Quake style of gaming, you'd probably like it more. I still have to say that the jumping is tough, especially for a novice. It's what makes the first hour tougher than it needs to be, but I'm sure the game would get better along the way.
Weird - I entirely disagree with most all of this review. I love the jumping on this game, and basically think first person shooters became kind of dumb when they gave it up. Sure, it's kind of hard to play at first, and it's old, so it looks a bit rough, but the movement in the game is better than any game since once you get used to it. All other FPS's feel fat and slow after this one. Once you learn to jump without the map (I never use it), it becomes much tastier.
I agree Chrono Trigger is my favorite game of all time as well. My boxed copy for the Snes shall sit on my mantle for the rest of my life. I wouldn't play the ds version, only because my eyes can't handle it, but anyone who has never played it owes themselves the experience of playing through this before they shuffle off this mortal coil.
The first hour is incredibly boring, especially when you replay the game. And Claude's perspective is no better than Rena's. It makes no difference at all in that regard, or if anything his might actually be worse. However, once you do gain control and have freedom it's a fabulous game, worth the horrible first hour of text. Judging games by the first hour is just as terrible, since most rpgs don't really get anywhere until 1- 1 /2 hours into the initial start.
I have never seen "The Last Starfighter", but it sounds like something I would have loved as a kid also. It has a "Flight of the Navigator" feel to it and I loved that movie. I think I will have to look for this movie and see if it's really as good as you make it out to be.
Sorry I made fun of your precious game, it happens.
I personally think Star Ocean 2 as a whole is a better game than FF7. It tears it into pieces if I may use Claude's famous line. But the first hour sucks. I suppose if I had played as Claude to start out with things might have gone better though, I will admit that.
I think maybe you should write reviews about games you actually like. Instead of bashing games when there might be lots of people out there that love them. Like me for instance. If you don't have anything good to say about a game. DON'T REVIEW IT AT ALL. After all. How fun a game is. IS your opinion. Star Ocean 2 was way ahead of it's time. And certainly more fun than FFVII. So don't you ever .. talk bad about my favorite game of all time. Ever again.
Ah. I know what scene you're referring to now. That played into the storyline because you were flying the A-130 gunship that Captain Price called in after you picked up the informant. So you were protecting Price, Gaz, Nicolai, and Soap during that scene. It would be cool to get to play that mission from Soap's perspective though, just to see the shells raining down like that from ground level.
Yes, I was trying to imply that the translation was just as good as any official translation could have or would have been. I'll try to clear that up sometime.
"We come to expect excellence from Nintendo and other publishers when bringing games to North America and Europe from Japan, and more often than not, we get it. Mother 3's translation is no different. Everything has been meticulously worked on, from the item names, to the characters, to the locations, to the PSI spells. Sprites and animations had to be totally redone from scratch sometimes to accommodate this. They honestly went the extra mile for a whole bunch of people who will never really appreciate them."
-- You're talking about 's FAN TRANSLATION of the game, aren't you?
I am really enjoying your website and all of the fabulous information you are introducing me to. Keep up the great work, and keep the stories coming.
Why in god's name would you tag Melee and First Aid
Best. Videogame. Ever. <3
Only a six?! This game kicked ass! Much better than Mario Kart 64.
I don't think you're doing the driving wrong. Or if you are, so am I.
GTA4 is actually the first GTA game I've played, and early in the game I was completed amazed that a game that was supposed to be about stealing cars would have such poor controls.
As I got further into the game, I realized it was intentional. Certain models of cars only start to appear as you advance further into the game. A lot of the ones early in the game are just terrible. One of the ways they create differences in "performance" between the models is intentionally making the controls bad, especially steering and braking.
You'll eventually get to the house of a guy who lives out near the water. He has a Turismo in his driveway. You can steal it as many times as you want; he always replaces it (even if he's dead) and you never get a criminal flag for stealing it. After that there's not much point in driving anything else unless a mission requires it.
Actually, Desmond was trained as an assasin on some farm somewhere, but he ran away and became a bartender. I don't believe he actually assasinated anyone.
Actually, I do care about those 100 people that might think like you do, I don't get a ton of readers, so your thoughts are important. I'm not sure if you were the original anon I replied to, but I will apologize. It was out of line. I won't remove it, however, as I don't believe in censorship, self-censorship or otherwise.
I appreciate your thoughts on reviewing boring first hours. I knew going in that the opening of Star Ocean isn't that great, and I actually played as Rena for the first time ever and was surprised at how much slower it gets going than when playing even as Claude. Claude's story is definitely more interesting at the beginning so maybe it would be worthwhile to redo the first hour playing as Claude.
Let me know your thoughts if you ever return, and this was one of the reviews that inspired me to rework my review system, though that won't protect me from acting like an idiot when responding to comments.
Thanks for your input, I do hope you return.
Thanks for explaining that, I never picked that up from the game. I think I knew about Desmond's real job but just assumed he was a modern day assassin at other times. I will admit this is actually a pretty neat twist that he's slowly absorbing his ancestor's abilities... it's just too bad I wasn't able to pick up on that while playing.
"Sorry I made fun of your precious game." Really? What a juvenile comment. Seriously Greg are you 13? You sound like a kid talking to his little sister about destroying a toy or something. Sure the first hour of this game is boring, but reading your minute-by-minute commentary on a boring game is...well, boring.
You would save yourself and everyone else some time if you just do not review games in this way, or simply avoid reviewing boring games. Because of this childish reply to the last poster, this is the last time I'll be reading any of your reviews, and just think hard about it for a second, for my 1 comment, there's probably 100 people that are thinking the same thing, if not more. And if you're going to reply "Well I don't care about a puny 100 people", go ahead, I'm sure that will just inspire more people to abandon your adolescent blogging.
Just because somebody has the ability to write reviews on games, does not mean they should. Plus, this game is 10 years old, you're not saying anything that isn't already known by anyone that's played the game.
And don't get me wrong, I am a fan of this game, and I agree the beginning is boring. But it is the only real boring part about the game.
Desmond is NOT a former assassin, I know the game doesn't make it clear, but he's actually a bartender that gets new assassin-like abilities from connecting to the Animus too much, and connecting to his past self, a "side effect" if you like.
I do agree that this is a fast moving FPS, and if you're into that Quake style of gaming, you'd probably like it more. I still have to say that the jumping is tough, especially for a novice. It's what makes the first hour tougher than it needs to be, but I'm sure the game would get better along the way.
Weird - I entirely disagree with most all of this review. I love the jumping on this game, and basically think first person shooters became kind of dumb when they gave it up. Sure, it's kind of hard to play at first, and it's old, so it looks a bit rough, but the movement in the game is better than any game since once you get used to it. All other FPS's feel fat and slow after this one. Once you learn to jump without the map (I never use it), it becomes much tastier.
Get over it man~
Plus, what did you do during the battles?
Were you using an N64 controller on expert style option in the options menu?
I agree Chrono Trigger is my favorite game of all time as well. My boxed copy for the Snes shall sit on my mantle for the rest of my life. I wouldn't play the ds version, only because my eyes can't handle it, but anyone who has never played it owes themselves the experience of playing through this before they shuffle off this mortal coil.
The first hour is incredibly boring, especially when you replay the game. And Claude's perspective is no better than Rena's. It makes no difference at all in that regard, or if anything his might actually be worse. However, once you do gain control and have freedom it's a fabulous game, worth the horrible first hour of text. Judging games by the first hour is just as terrible, since most rpgs don't really get anywhere until 1- 1 /2 hours into the initial start.
I have never seen "The Last Starfighter", but it sounds like something I would have loved as a kid also. It has a "Flight of the Navigator" feel to it and I loved that movie. I think I will have to look for this movie and see if it's really as good as you make it out to be.
It's a great game that never felt dull. Give it a try! My game of the year last year!
It seems that the scores you've given for this game are relatively higher than the other reviews...
Sorry I made fun of your precious game, it happens.
I personally think Star Ocean 2 as a whole is a better game than FF7. It tears it into pieces if I may use Claude's famous line. But the first hour sucks. I suppose if I had played as Claude to start out with things might have gone better though, I will admit that.
I think maybe you should write reviews about games you actually like. Instead of bashing games when there might be lots of people out there that love them. Like me for instance. If you don't have anything good to say about a game. DON'T REVIEW IT AT ALL. After all. How fun a game is. IS your opinion. Star Ocean 2 was way ahead of it's time. And certainly more fun than FFVII. So don't you ever .. talk bad about my favorite game of all time. Ever again.
Ah. I know what scene you're referring to now. That played into the storyline because you were flying the A-130 gunship that Captain Price called in after you picked up the informant. So you were protecting Price, Gaz, Nicolai, and Soap during that scene. It would be cool to get to play that mission from Soap's perspective though, just to see the shells raining down like that from ground level.
Yes, I was trying to imply that the translation was just as good as any official translation could have or would have been. I'll try to clear that up sometime.
"We come to expect excellence from Nintendo and other publishers when bringing games to North America and Europe from Japan, and more often than not, we get it. Mother 3's translation is no different. Everything has been meticulously worked on, from the item names, to the characters, to the locations, to the PSI spells. Sprites and animations had to be totally redone from scratch sometimes to accommodate this. They honestly went the extra mile for a whole bunch of people who will never really appreciate them."
-- You're talking about 's FAN TRANSLATION of the game, aren't you?