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Underground > Games & Gameplay >

What video games 2 - TEH MEGATON!!1111!!!!11 etc.

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21:03 / 12.05.04

I thought DS looked rather good - the DS Warioware, where there was a minigame involving brass rubbing, with the stylus, was a particular highlight for me. PSP is not going to work - it's too pricey, too fiddly. I don't want to play GT4 on the move. I want briefer, snappier entertainment. I don't want long MGS cutscenes, just the gameplay. Sony can't just pack a PS2 into my hand to make me buy it - they have to understand handheld games. Nintendo do.

Also, the PSP is going to be very expensive for something you can drop. And who's going to buy films for it?

Some of the GC stuff looked great - Advance Wars for a start, and new Zelda. Also, EA on Live is a big thing for me because it means Timesplitters and Burnout online, thank god. Oh, and more Prince of Persia.

Currently playing: XIII. Quite fun, if tediously linear after an hour's session - I still get sucked back in the next day. I've nearly clocked MGS2, though the final Ray fight is driving me INSANE. Also, recently played a fair bit of Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga, which is wonderful, and seriously making me want a GBA proper. FFTA, though, never clicked with me; it did seem kind of tedious. Japanese RPGs tread a fine line between tedium and fun, and I'm quite picky.

Suedey! SHOT FOR MEAT!

21:08 / 12.05.04

Ha! I had that Zelda idea, too, Randy!

21:12 / 12.05.04

i got jsrf.
played it a bit, up to the big guy with the boombox who wants me to folow his line.
sigil bombing also in progress.

21:13 / 12.05.04

E3's getting me a bit too excited as well. Better than most holidays.

The new Zelda release was a nice little perk since they had everyone fooled into thinking it was shelved after that SpaceWorld tech demo. I did find WW to be a great game and was never disappointed with it. I'm sure this one will be good too. Just keep hoping that WWII will be its own release in a similar style to the first while this one goes in another direction. Two titles in our future doesn't sound like a bad idea. You all know you'll have them both, sooner or later.

The PSP looks like it'll be a great handheld system. Curious to see what the initial titles will be like, but it seems that the current impressions on the system point to some decent ergonomics for the controls, a crisp screen and some nice access via the wireless standard. I just hope that the shoulder buttons are better than the ones on the advance.

Exciting times...

21:20 / 12.05.04

Paleface> I am a bit worried on the PSP price point too. That's really a make it or break it for the system. It's been rumored at a 40gb iPod price which is steep in my opinion. You're also dead on with the Nintendo comparison regarding handhelds. Games that are fun to play because they make sense to the form factor and use of a handheld. If Sony treats this too much like a console, they'll have a hard time having it go anywhere. It'll be nice to have options in the world of handhelds, but I doubt Sony can compete with Nintendo.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

21:26 / 12.05.04

Further to me earlier comments on it...

it may be a great game, but DON'T PLAY MANHUNT.

I now live for killing imaginary people in the most horrible ways. You'll find yourself going back and replaying levels just so you can kill people NASTIER.

Oh yes, it's great.

GREAT, I tell you.

Bad for your head. Very bad for your head.

But FUCK, man... it's ace...

don't play it.

21:45 / 12.05.04

Paleface: The brass-rubbing Wario Ware pic does make good use of the stylus, but the second screen still seems to be pointless. The press release has it that Wario appears in the top screen and drops minigames into the bottom one. That must have taken all of thirty seconds to come up with. And while the stylus works there, the way Metroid uses it sounds terrible - move it around the main screen to change your aim. The few mobile games I've played that do something similar completely fail to pull you in, because the interface feels so ridiculous.

I really hope they're just holding the DS supergame back until the end of the show. They don't normally produce new hardware unless they've got an innovative release title up their sleeves (I mean, even the Virtual Boy had a couple. Well, one). Nothing yet shown has made interesting use of that second screen.

I'm hugely disappointed with the decision to make the DS Metroid title first person. Loving the look of new GBA Zelda, mind. 2D gaming should not be allowed to die.

I've not bought any Sony hardware on release, and what I've seen of PSP doesn't make it likely that I'll change my mind any time soon. It screams 'lifestyle accessory' instead of 'games machine' - like the portable prong of their PSX attack. That said, the dev kit pictures of the Metal Gear game are so far beyond what I expect a handheld device to be able to produce, it sure looks like a mighty powerful lifestyle accessory.

Suedey! SHOT FOR MEAT!

22:30 / 12.05.04

E3 is quite exciting this year, isn't it?

I had a look at the Paper Mario trailer earlier, Randy, and it looked awesome! Really inventive and quirky. I have no idea how it will play - is it like that GB Mario and Luigi game? Computer games should be more like this looks.

I'm not sure about DS just yet, although it does seem like you get a lot for your money. It seems packed with features and multiplayer possiblities. It's also far more powerful than I imagined it would be. And while a lot of games don't seem to be using the two screen possiblities to any real advantage, it seems as if if will be a fine system on it's own. Most of the games being shown now seem far from complete, and it's hard to get any real sense of what they'll even be like. For now I'm not too worried about that, though. Things like the Metroid controls seem out of place and stupid, though.

As for PSP, it looks quite sleek in an 80s fashionista sort of way. But that screen... it's going to get buggered, isn't it? Too expensive for me to think about, really.

Back to epic for Zelda then, this time. I think it's good that Nintendo will be making a lot of people very very happy. I think the epic scale of the trailer is well suited, if this game is to be more in the vein of Ocarina and A Link to the Past, as it seems it will be... I imagine they've been working on this game for a long while. I just hope the quirkiness is still in there, and doesn't seem misplaced.

Although I do find it amusing to imagine Nintendo making the game, then taping themselves playing it, and talking about how great it is, while having a giant party and saying,

"Do you want it?"
YES!
"Do you want it?"
YES!
"You want it, then?"
YEEESSSSS
"You can't have it. Here, have Pokemon channel 5".

06:03 / 13.05.04

Yeah, I guessed the PSP would be at an iPod price point. I can't see it being under £200, and I wouldn't be surprised at anything up to £299 - probably £249 in this country, I'd say. That's a lot for a handheld. Now factor in games, which WILL be £39, and movies - who's going to rebuy stuff they already own on DVD for this thing? - and it's going to be a stupid big investment. Part of the appeal of handhelds (despite stupid GBA cart pricing in this country) is that they're not expensive. If the DS really can hit the $150 price point, that'd be fantastic. I mean, it has wireless multiplayer and messaging. So you can just see who else has a DS nearby, ping them, and hook up. Simple but brilliant, I'd say.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

08:47 / 13.05.04

Cloned Christ- I had a horrible feeling that there wasn't gonna be a "deceptively simply" way of taking out the chopper (ooh missus!)...
...back to plugging away with the rockets!

12:17 / 14.05.04

I disagree about the PSP, Paleface - mainly what you're saying about handheld games offering a quick buzz. They're certainly better suited to that than consoles, but the longer, more substantial experiences can work just as well.

Some of the new PSP pics - the ones of the GT4 special edition and the cream brown/green ones - make it look lovely. And I've just seen one that suggests it's going to get a conversion of Capcom's Vampire Savior, which has me sold on its own.

Coming around to the DS now.

13:41 / 14.05.04

It's not so much a quick buzz, as quick bursts of entertainment. You can have big games, but they play out in short sequences. Metroid Fusion, for instance, manages this by being very generous with save points. There's little backtracking if you suddenly have to turn the thing off. FFTA is a big, sprawling experience, but individual missions are (in comparison to overall length) relatively brief. Zelda's big, but it breaks down into little quests or dungeon-levels. You see? I'm worried that there will be too many games for the PSP that don't realise that portable gaming is not different in scale, but played at a different rate.

Hence: Metal Gear Acid is going to be a turn-based (possibly card-based as well) form of stealth action. That's cool - it still looks a great game, but Konami obviously know they can't just turn out MGS2 again. GT4 might work, because sports/driving games (bar graphical limitations) always work on a handheld. Quite impressed with some of the GBA drivers - Colin McRae 2 in particular.

And yes, the cream/green PSPs are far nicer than the black. They also make the analogue stick look slightly less assy.

11:22 / 15.05.04

Some videos of PSP and DS stuff running here.

My jaw dropped at Gran Tourismo PSP, but closed again when I remembered that it's not running on the actual hardware. Dropped again when I watched the 'DS Pacpix' one. I have no idea how that works. I feel like I've seen fire for the first time. That's precisely the sort of innovation I want to see from the DS. The Mario and Pikachu demos are impressive in purely technical terms (even if the textures are blocky and ugly up-close), but Pacpix uses the hardware to create a new experience. I hope they can expand the idea into a full game, or at least include it as a hidden extra in one.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

11:25 / 15.05.04

Just downloaded the mobile version of Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow- the best phone game I've ever played. A vast improvement on the original- this time you get laser targetting, and the ability to hide corpses, etc... still a platformer, but a much better one this time round.

00:19 / 22.05.04

I just tried explaining to somebody on another board how I want the new Zelda game to fit into the timeline that Nintendo seem to be trying to set up for the N64/Cube versions, and failed miserably. So I knocked up a shit diagram:

The Link we're going to see in the new title is the question mark one. I think it'd explain the return to the N64 graphical stylings, for a start, but it could also provide an explanation as to the gaping hole that they've left in the new mythos - that Link doesn't appear the second time Ganondorf attacks Hyrule. It's because of whatever happens to him in the new game.

It'd rock. It'd be like Empire Strikes Back - rather than having Link save the day, something goes wrong and the world's doomed, only to be rediscovered in Wind Waker. A depressing ending could work, because we've already had the sequel and already know that everything turns out alright in the end.

Shame it's highly unlikely to happen...

01:28 / 22.05.04

Couldn't tell you where, but I remember reading that the concept of Zelda was to be handled as a concept (evil shows up and good brings Link into the picture to vanquish him) more than a contiguous storyline that integrates neatly. It would offer more possibility for future unrelated games, but I do like the diagram that you have and the thinking behind it. Would feel good to see it wrap up like that (especially without the typical Nintendo ending) and become a series that's a bit more um... mature.

01:30 / 22.05.04

Well, 'tis said that the new Zelda is going to be "darker"....

01:42 / 22.05.04

dxvvvvf

01:47 / 22.05.04

Indeed.

11:12 / 22.05.04

net_banshee: Before Majora's Mask, I would have agreed with you, but that game contains a flashback to OoT when Link gets taught the Song of Somethingorother by Zelda. Similarly, WW's intro makes it clear that the events of OoT took place in the now-drowned Hyrule. This is the problem you have when you try and force continuity on a series that previously didn't bother with it.

Anyway. I thought about this some more and realied that there might not be two Links at once. Or rather, not in the same dimension.

The easy way to solve the paradox is to say that Clock Town is in a different dimension from Hyrule. Link travels through the portal after Skull Kid (he does, too - it's in MM's intro) and ends up in a new world, then stays in that world for the rest of his life. That'd explain why he doesn't come to save Hyrule the second time Ganon attacks - because he's now stuck in MM's world. The events of OoT still happen and he still stops Ganon's first attempt, because that has to take place regardless (as it already has/will have). Solved!

13:45 / 22.05.04

Not solved. Somebody on NTSC-uk just pointed out that the end of Majora's Mask shows Link riding Epona through a forest, with Saria's Song playing in the background. That's a pretty good sign that he's back in Hyrule.

So the diagram might still stand.

Suedey! SHOT FOR MEAT!

14:43 / 22.05.04

Randy: you need to stop thinking about this. So do I. It isn't right!

But... wh-wh-when will they tell us the answers?

stephen_seagull

21:19 / 22.05.04

I'm currently playing Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, SSX 3, and ,Timesplitters 2, with a healthy supply of Mario Party whenever my flatmates feel up to it. Need to work on the button bashing though.

Hattie's Kitchen

16:18 / 25.05.04

I really wish I hadn't bought Manhunt. It's seriously not healthy.

Fuck the guns, give me a machete! More gore, must have more gore! Oh, the swishy sound it makes as it deftly chops off the Nazifuckers' heads, oh yes...

I really, really wish I hadn't bought this game.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

16:29 / 25.05.04

Hattie... fuck the machetes. Have you checked out the "red-level" (is that "gruesome" or "violent"... I forget) plastic bag death? That's seriously fucked. As is the equivalent withe the wire. (Started dreaming about it yet? I have. And it's really not healthy!)

Thinking of "really fucked" games... Anyone remember "American McGee's Alice"? I missed it first time round, but now it's out for a fiver, and it's "trippy" in the most literal sense of the word. (Fuck, even the "load/save/delete" screen gives you the options "L/S/D".) It's fun. Yet somehow disturbing.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

17:01 / 25.05.04

And there's a certain ghoulish satisfaction in throwing severed heads about to lure Hunters into likely spots... (ARGH! Too much Manhunt. Just let me finish the fucker so it'll let me be!)

Hattie... where have you got to? I'm trying to find some guy in an apartment block. This level's a cunning mixture of firearms and executions.

nedrichards is confused

21:01 / 25.05.04

Well I'm really enjoying Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow Java edition at the moment on my phone on the way to work. It's by Gameloft who as part of the Ubisoft excellence are probably one of the most kickass mobile game devs. I can quite honestly say that it's one of the better 2D platformers I've ever played on any system, how they squeezed this sort of performance from J2ME I don't know. The game is beautifuly balanced for mobile play as you can complete it in little chunks and there are unlimited continues (although it really takes a chunk out of your score). Like all good games you can play it the way you want, either blasting through to enjoy the thrills and spills or totally 0wning it with a high score. Well worth the £2.07 it cost.

08:21 / 26.05.04

This week I have mostly been playing Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped, as part of my "play all those old PSX platformers" drive.

Hattie's Kitchen

10:21 / 26.05.04

Stoatie - I'm still on the bit where I have to rescue my redneck family, but the bastards keep spotting me and slicing me up.

It's great fun. I love chucking the severed heads out of the shadows and watching them all freak out.

19:27 / 26.05.04

Ninja. Gaiden. Two words that mean so much. Will expand when I have more time, but man, if you own an Xbox and like your games hard, buy it. It's seriously rewarding, seriously good, and the moment you notice that you're physically getting better at it is wonderful.

Cloned Christ on a HoverDonkey

21:34 / 26.05.04

Hattie & Stoatie:

You are collectively responsible for my imminent psychological collapse.

I find myself looking at kitchen implements and Asda bags in a whole new light. Walking behind people on the street, I find my right arm groping over my shoulder for my baseball bat, sort of disappointed it's not there. I'm throwing bricks and bottles from behind the sofa in an attempt to distract my wife.

Manhunt is truly a depraved beast. But it's a fucking great game. Only just worked out that there are different levels of depravity for each execution, so I'm currently trying to give Dr Lecter a run for his money.

21:57 / 26.05.04

At the opposite end of the content spectrum...

I decided to plug the N64 back in and start both Super Mario 64 and Paper Mario over again. SM64 hasn't aged a day - it still feels as fresh as it ever did. It's amazing just how few of its clones have managed to learn the lessons that it tried to teach. I can't think of another game where I can get as much enjoyment out of just making the character run around in circles as I can playing the game 'properly'. Mario Sunshine came in for masses of unfair complaint on arrival, but the simple fact is that it just didn't manage to recreate the same feeling of total freedom in control that the original pioneered. Nothing has.

Paper Mario's just as charming as it was on release. It's the little things - 2D Mario floating under the 3D bed covers when he rests, Peach sneaking a peek at Bowser's diary and finding an entry that says "Destroyed Star Haven today and stole the Star Rod. I am now invincible! All shall cower before me! Dinner was nice, but a little bland."

Ah, Nintendo. Nobody does it better.

Disgaea arrives tomorrow! Goodbye daylight! Goodbye Barbelith! Goodbye 2004!

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

22:02 / 26.05.04

Yeah, it took me a while to catch onto the different styles of execution. Some of them (well, okay, ALL of them) are just plain nasty!

Cloned Christ on a HoverDonkey

22:38 / 26.05.04

Stoatie:

Some of them (well, okay, ALL of them) are just plain nasty!

Nasty.

That's like saying absinthe gets you tipsy. I think it's more an effect of the prevailing atmosphere of the game, combined with the skewed, camcorder effect of the execution videos, but 'Totally fucking psycho' seems to sum it up more for me.

Think I'll just go and have a game, actually. Call the police if I'm not back in half an hour.

Suedey! SHOT FOR MEAT!

22:48 / 26.05.04

Fuck you, Randy!

I really didn't know what to do tonight, and now I know nothing except I want to play SM64.

Unfortunately, I don't have an N64, so la di blah di blah to you!

Dammit. I don't even have Sunshine to try and relive the glories. With 64 vs. Sunshine, I think the simple fact is 64 was classic Mario, and all the places he inhabits, the hills with eyes and stupid goombas. It just feels right, the excursions are never quite as good. They're undeniably good, but they don't feel quite so undeniably classic.

I miss Mario World. Come on! How many 3D Zeldas do we have, compared to proper 3D Mario titles? Stop being so precious already!

Pah. Bring on 20XX, and a Mario 128 revolution or whatever. We'll see, Nintendo.

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