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Vidya Game Reviews
Topic Started: Feb 26 2011, 03:27 AM (11,985 Views)
Snowman
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SaiyanShredder
Aug 11 2011, 08:48 PM
I'm gonna give a review of Borderlands when I finally get around to finishing it.

It's not bad. I'd give it a 6/10. //uselesscomment
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failureatlife
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Having finished the campaign, I will probably do a review of the expansion to Star Wars: Empire At War, Forces of Corruption.
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Snowman
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This review will be kinda different, and will probably require some background info, so I'll post that here too. Anyways, I'll be reviewing a game called Space Station 13. It's a free online multiplayer game (but not an MMO, in my opinion) created using BYOND, which is also free. TL;DR version of what BYOND is -- it lets people create games (mostly multiplayer) and provides all the tools to do so, including its own custom coding language (which, from what I've read, combines aspects of a bunch of languages). However, most BYOND games suffer from BYOND's own limitations. Even if you aren't lagging at all, it can still take some time for the game to recognize you're doing something. Basic actions like speaking and moving aren't affected that badly, but in this game, nuking the space station used to make everyone lag (to the point of the game freezing) for ~10-15 seconds (they've fixed that by simply playing an animation). For more info on BYOND, go to the website: http://www.byond.com/

Now, here's my review.

Posted Image

Platform: PC (via BYOND)
Genre(s): Multiplayer, action, stealth, sandbox, roleplaying
Released: February 2003, and still being updated multiple times a month

This review will mainly cover the actual game, but part of it will review the community, which can really change your opinions on the game quite a bit. I'll start off with the gameplay portion. I will often link to parts of the game's Wiki, so that you can read more without this review taking up ten pages.

This game can be pretty complex, so I'll start with the basics -- you're an employee on a space station. Not much of a backstory is given, but it seems to be a mining or research station. There are several jobs that you can choose from -- everything from the captain of the ship to the clown, and then some more. Each job has a specific duty. For example, engineers are in charge of getting power for the station (more on that later!). Security officers are supposed to keep things peaceful. Quartermasters order supplies for the station and deliver them to where they need to go. There's even an AI that can control pretty much every electronic device on the space station.

However, depending on the game mode, someone -- or multiple people -- will be syndicate members (...or wizards, or aliens, or infected with monkey virus). One of these modes is traitor. In traitor mode, one player is designated as the traitor, and (s)he must kill someone, steal something, or somehow sabotage the station. (S)he is told what to do at the start of the round. However, this must be done stealthily, because the traitor is required to escape alive. The traitor is not without help, though. The traitor receives points to use toward syndicate items, that range from cloaking devices and voice changers to revolvers and bombs. These cost different amounts of points. Of course, the traitor must be stealthy and have a plan. You can't just order a revolver, kill your target, and happily leave on the escape shuttle. Security, the AI, and pretty much anyone who manages to get a weapon will try to arrest or kill you if they see you shooting people and planting bombs. There are entirely too many ways to go about your traitor business, so I'm not going to discuss that here.

I'll give a brief overview of the most popular other modes now. In wizard mode, one player is a wizard, and starts on his/her own tiny space station. (S)he picks a few spells to learn, and is then teleported to the space station, to cause chaos and stuff. In nuke mode, there are multiple syndicate members who must steal the space station's Nuclear Authentication Device, which is required to activate the nuke. These syndicate members are heavily armed, but it's no easy task. The Nuke Auth is often hidden by the captain -- the only one with access to it -- at the beginning of every round, and even if it's not hidden, it's hard to break into the place it spawns in by default. In revolution mode -- my personal favorite -- a small group of people start as revolutionary leaders. They must brainwash more people to join their cause (which is done by using a flash device on them) and then kill all of the Heads and the Captain.

Now, the station itself. This isn't just some map that you can whip together in Minecraft. Nearly everything is assembled and disassembled in a certain way, and most of this stuff is made with two basic resources: metal and glass. The power system in the station is probably the most complex part, though. Everything is wired together. The singularity that the engineers draw power from is wired up to batteries that then distribute the power throughout the station. Turn them off, or cut the wiring, and everything goes dark. Doors and power control units can be hacked to turn off the power without an appropriate ID card, or even to prevent the AI (who is a player-controlled computer that has access to everything on the station) from accessing them. Security cameras are used for the AI to see and for security to watch specific places. The atmosphere needs to maintain the right balance of gasses for people to be able to breathe. Normally that's a pretty easy task, but it's also an easy way for traitors to mess with people that aren't wearing gas masks. Geneticists can give people superpowers, create and cure diseases, and even change who people are -- including turning them into monkeys.

There's a ton of stuff not mentioned in this review, and you most likely won't have the time of your life the first time you play simply because of how complicated the game can be. However, now I'll move onto the community part. The best servers -- the serves that say "Goon Server" or "Goon Outpost" somewhere in the name -- also have the worst admins. At least, that's what it may look like. The servers are the best because these Goon people are really the only ones that continuously update this game, and the other servers are just really outdated. The admins, like I said, don't always give great first impressions. However, they're really not any worse than if an army of Romanticides decided to take over and run this forum. The basic rule is "don't be a douche/fag/dick/badperson". That translates to "do what you're supposed to do". Just because you have access to bomb-making materials doesn't mean you should make bombs. However, if you have some clever gimmick -- that does not involve bombs -- the admins might enjoy it or even support your gimmick. This is extremely rare, but I've seen it happen before -- a guy made a pretty cool instant-death trap and the admins were fine with it because it took a bit of work and it was only a one-time thing. Most of the players aren't all that bad, but security officers -- one of the station jobs -- have a bad rep for arresting innocents and giving them prolonged jail time. Occasionally there will be griefers who just try to blow stuff up and mess with you, but admins usually ban those people.

This game is a bunch of fun if you like thinking games, and could probably be described as a mashup of mafia, Darkie's Hotel game, Deus Ex, and Assassin's Creed. But in space. I'd recommend it to anyone who likes a game that's different every time you play it, and anyone who just wants to try something new.

Number rating: 8/10 -- Good quality, but suffers from BYOND's limitations. I would love to see a newer version of this game made on a more modern game engine.
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Romanticide
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You sure that's not a Something Awful server? As most internet citizens SHOULD know, the members of that site call themselves Goons.

Also you act as if an army of me would be bad in the slightest. Fuck you, it'd be as close to Utopia as we can get on the internet.
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failureatlife
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Star Wars: Empire at War
Forces of Corruption Expansion Pack
PC


Posted Image

In the grand scheme of things, nothing has been more hit and miss than Star Wars games. Some turn out amazingly, like Knights of the Old Republic or Battlefront, but many don't turn out too well, like ALL of the prequel movie games. Almost as bad are Star Wars RTS games. Galactic Battlegrounds did pretty well for itself, but Rebellion was given the horrible label of "meh".

Star Wars: Empire at War was released in July of 2006, and was an RTS set between Episodes 3 and 4. It let you take control of both Imperial and Rebel forces. Its story chronicled the rise of the Rebellion to the battle of Yavin 4, where the Death Star was destroyed. It was generally well received and scratched the RTS itch for fans of Star Wars. Three months later, this expansion pack for the game, titled Forces of Corruption, was released. It added new units, planets, and introduced the Zann Consortium as a third playable faction.

Gameplay

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My web of corruption


Gameplay-wise, the core mechanics of the game haven't changed from the base game. You still collect resources and use them to build and upgrade your units and fleets. What's changed is that there's a new side vying for galactic control, the Zann Consortium. Unlike the Empire(who want to crush all who oppose them) and the Rebellion(who want to free the galaxy from the grip of the Empire), the Zann Consortium wants to corrupt the galaxy and make some scratch. There are a variety of ways to do that. Besides defeating your enemies in battle and controlling planets, the Consortium can use special units called Defilers to spread treachery and corruption throughout the galaxy. And even then there are still many ways you can do this. You can steal ships through acts of piracy, gain cheaper and unique units through slavery, cause the local population to revolt with corrupt militas, or even intimidate and kidnap local rulers. Some of the less interesting but still useful ways include racketeering, bribery, and the ever useful Black Market.

Now while this is good and all, you've got understand how you're going to be using these. There are three main modes to play here. There's skirmish, in which you play a single land or space battle against enemies. All your upgrades and stuff are purchased through buildings in your base, so you can forget all the cool stuff I just talked about. It's a rather shallow mode, but fun in small doses and kinda useful to practice your tactics. Then there's the Campaign where you play as the Consortium during its rise to power. It's fun but a little short and only really worth playing once, but it actually has a fairly interesting plot and characters. More on that later.

Where the real meat of FoC lies is Galactic Conquest. In GC, you can play as any of the three factions against the other two for total control of the galaxy or fulfilling the victory conditions. There are a variety of scenarios with varying amounts of planets, starting planets, and victory conditions.

Now each faction has a different play style. As the Empire you can upgrade your forces by building research facilities and purchasing tech levels. As the Rebellion, you upgrade by stealing from the Empire. And as the Consortium, you use your aforementioned corruption to strengthen yourself. Playing as each different side really does require you to play differently. For example, let's say there's an enemy controlled planet. As the Empire you could build up a huge invasion force and beat the shit out of them. As the Consortium, you could spread corruption to the planet, send defilers to sabotage their bases, and then go beat the shit out of them. And as the Rebels, you can quit your game, and restart it as one of the other two sides. Yeah, there's a slight balance issue as the Rebels tend to get their ass handed to them by the others. Not to say you can't win with them, but it's gonna be a little bit harder.

And while you could play as the Empire, playing Consortium is just funner IMO. The Consortium gets the best toys to play with, such as mass driver cannons to bypass shields, diamond boron missiles that utterly annihilate enemy ships, Tyber Zann's massively overpowered blaster, disruptor guns that break down matter at an atomic scale, and the ever dreaded buzz droids. Hell, their capital ships are basically huge guns. Also, Tyber Zann has the ability to bribe enemy units to work for you. This got really awesome during one campaign level where I took command of an entire column of AT-ATs. But I digress. All sides have their advantages and disadvantages.

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The Empire gets to play with THIS


Now, on the galaxy map, you're shown all the planets you're fighting over and the controller of each one, if known. This is where you build and move fleets around, and plot what to do next. However, you better think quickly, because the galaxy moves on with or without you. Battles happen when you or your enemy moves a fleet over someone else's planet with a fleet or space station, or when they invade the ground below. When you (or the enemy) initiates a battle, you are given the option to auto resolve or fight. Auto resolve measures each sides' strength, and decides who wins. It tends to give you unnecessary casualties, though. If you choose to control the battle yourself, you are brought to the battlefield and you control your units directly. All the mechanics for these battles work really well, though tactically it's still very profitable to gather up all your mates and go stomp all over the other guys.

While the game runs very well, there are still a few bugs and problems, both big and small. The difficulty is a little wonky. Easy feels too easy, but medium and hard are a little too challenging. During the campaign, you can't save during a mission, so if you fail, then you have to start from the very beginning of the mission. Pathfinding for some units, particularly big ones like the AT-AT or Juggernaut tank, is iffy at best and fucking awful at worst. The Juggernaut's pathfinding is so bad that, coupled with all its other faults, it's basically a worthless unit. Less problematic and more kinda funny, is the fact that when enemy fleets approach your planet, your adviser is supposed to state "Enemy fleet approaching." However, half the time it will instead say "Ysalimiri cage constructing," which is a unit.

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You suck


Overall, the gameplay is solid and fun to play, if a little simplistic compared to other RTS games.


Plot

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Lucius Malfoy... I mean, Tyber Zann


The Star Wars expanded universe has done the impossible of being very, very consistent between all movies, books, games, etc., and at the same time retconning shit all the time. But I'll get to that eventually.

In campaign, you play as anti-hero du jour Tyber Zann, a tactically genius crimelord who used to be in business with Jabba the Hutt after the Battle of Yavin 4. After stealing an ancient Sith artifact from Jabba, he is sent to Kessel as a prisoner. His second-in-command Urai Fen, comes to bust him out, buying passage on the Millennium Falcon. I'm pretty sure Han was supposed to be somewhere else at this point. Anyway, Tyber goes to his secret base to gain control of his Consortium, which had all but disbanded by the time he got back. The rest of the game is spent as Tyber rebuilds his criminal empire and plots his revenge on Jabba and later, the galaxy.

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Urai Fen. Part bird, part reptile, part human, all awesome


The plot legitimately works really well, with many twists and surprises, though some you could see coming from a mile away. You meet some pretty cool characters along the way, including Bossk, Admiral Thrawn, and IG-88, along with Tyber and Urai. Though I do believe that Tyber's feud with Jabba ends a little too soon, the rest is pretty cool. But then the dreaded retconning rears its ugly head. The first EaW had its share of plot changing, one being the employment of Han Solo by the rebellion long before he met Luke. But this game takes it much further. Just think. How could a petty crime syndicate such as the Consortium rise to SUCH power as even to take the Empire head on and have it never be mentioned anywhere else? The events of this game are honestly too big/important to dismiss them. I mean, it invents stuff up that doesn't even make sense with the given continuity.

However, the fact remains that it's still pretty cool. Although it commits a cardinal sin by leaving you on a cliffhanger with no plans to continue. THAT really pissed me off.

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This never happened



Conclusion

You know, I really enjoy this game. It's really fun and has tons of depth to it. but I think you'll only truly enjoy this have you're a Star Wars fan. So, if I we're to give a recommendation, I'd only give one to a true fan of that universe.

Pros:
-New toys to play with
-Consortium tactics are fun
-Story is on the better side

Cons:
-Retcons, retcons
-Difficulty balancing
-Rebels suck
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Snowman
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MementoVivere
Aug 21 2011, 01:04 AM
You sure that's not a Something Awful server? As most internet citizens SHOULD know, the members of that site call themselves Goons.

Also you act as if an army of me would be bad in the slightest. Fuck you, it'd be as close to Utopia as we can get on the internet.

Yeah, they're from Something Awful, but it doesn't say that anywhere in the server names which is the only thing I was pointing out. The admins usually have "SA" in their names though.

@failure -- Sounds fun. I like some of the features there that aren't in most RTS's.
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SaiyanShredder
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Borderlands
Posted Image
From left to right: Roland, Lilith, Mordecai and Brick

Life on the desert planet of Pandora is tough. Bandits are all over the place, skags and other dangerous wildlife roam the land. Very few people would set foot on such a deadly place. As one of four "Vault Hunters", you are searching this desolate wasteland in search of a mystical Vault that supposedly contains an unfathomable amount of riches.

The game is a shooter at heart, but it also seamlessly incorporates RPG elements into the gameplay. If your health is depleted instead of dying right away you are downed for a short time. While you are downed if you kill an enemy before you die you can get a "second wind" and you'll be revived (albeit with low health). If you do die you will be re-assembled at the nearest "New-U" station. These stations are scattered throughout the game and can be used to travel to different areas about midway through the game. In addition at certain New-U stations you can rename your character, change the coloring of their outfit and reset your current skill tree. As the course of the game progresses you may pick up more weapons and items than your backpack can carry. However, by repairing damaged Claptraps (those little robots you see around Pandora), you can get upgrades to your backpack that will allow you to carry more items.

Each of the four Vault Hunters are unique in personality and ability. Roland for example, is a Soldier who specializes in different types of heavy weaponry, while Lilith (a siren), is skilled in using elemental attacks to damage her foes. All four characters have a special ability given to them at a certain point in the game (Brick for instance can enter into a berserker rage and can decimate enemies with his fists, while Mordecai can use his pet Bloodwing to attack enemies and even make them drop more items). While you don't have to play as all of the characters to beat the game, playing the campaign with different characters is a great way to keep things fresh.

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Mordecai attacking an enemy with his pet Bloodwing

Each character has their own skill tree. Every time you level up you gain a skill point that can be assigned to any available skills. You can add up to 5 skill points to the same ability to increase its overall effect (such as reducing your resistance to bullet damage). Your skill tree consists of 3 types of skill sets that can upgrade your power, health and special abilities. If you aren't satisfied with your current skill assignments, you can pay a small fee to reset your skill points. With a level cap of 50 there are plenty of ways to mix and match different skills that can drastically change how you play.

One of the major components of Borderland's gameplay is the brilliant item generating system. The 8 different types of main weapons (assault rifles, SMGs, pistols, revolvers, sniper rifles, shotguns, and rocket launchers) are randomized with different stats (power, accuracy and fire rate) as well as special attributes and/or elemental damage. Shields, Grenade Mods and Class Mods are also randomized with various effects and stats. This insane amount of variety makes sure that no two items are exactly the same. There are also Eridian artifacts that can add different types of elemental damage to your character's special ability. On top of all that, there are a few super secret weapons that can be found that... can't really be accurately described in detail. All items are part of a color-coded rating system: white (common), green (uncommon), blue (rare), purple (very rare) and orange (super rare).

Co-op is encouraged highly in Borderlands. Borderlands allows up to four people to play simultaneously on or offline. Friends can drop in and out of your game with a minimum of fuss. You can challenge your partner to a one-on-one duel by hitting them with a melee attack. In addition to this there are arenas scattered throughout Pandora that let you duel in one-on-one, two-on-two or three-on-one matches. If a player is downed in co-op his partner can revive him manually. The game's difficulty will ramp up based on the number of people in the game. If it's just you and a buddy then enemies might be a little tougher, while 3 or more people might pump up the AI by quite a bit to compensate for the extra players. If any people leave your game the difficulty will decrease accordingly.

Borderlands has many great and exciting moments, but blemishes tend to detract from those glorious experiences. The game suffers from occasional lag, which can suck in the middle of heated firefights. While the enemies are creative and fleshed out, there isn't enough variety between them. Be prepared to gun down wave after wave of various types of the same classes of enemies. The difficulty through the first playthrough was a little on the easy-side IMO, but that was just a warm up for the punishing second playthrough. Borderland's mission structure is highly repetitive, many missions can be summed up with "collect x", "kill x" or "destroy x". There are various creative and interesting tasks in the game, but they are too few and far in between.

Posted Image

Most of those flaws however don't detract from the main gameplay, which is highly addictive. The mixture of comedic gore and the bazillions of weapons to cause said gore are an excellent combination. The pacing of the game is great and the amount of unexpected twists and turns of the story will keep you enthralled until the very end.

If you're looking for your moneys-worth then look no further than the GOTY Edition, which features all 4 DLC expansion packs as part of the game (you'll have to download them separately before you can play them). Here's the short version of each DLC pack.

The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned
Gearbox's humorous take on zombie shooters, while taking the B-list zombie movie genre and spinning it on its head. Features tons of zombies and a host of new missions to do.

Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot
Arena combat, lots and lots of Arena combat. Includes a new feature that lets you store weapons and items for later use. Cooperative play is recommended for this DLC.

Claptrap's New Robot Revolution
The Hyperion corporation, in their own unintentional way, has started a robot revolution. They now need the Vault Hunters assistance to destroy the Interplanetary Ninja-Assassin Claptrap and put an end to the revolution.

The Secret Armory of General Knoxx
This DLC pack increases the level cap 61. Intensely difficult and I do not recommend playing it until you've ranked up a lot.

You can switch between the main story mode and the DLC easily, and all the DLC (with the exception of The Secret Armory of General Knoxx) will match the AI difficulty according to your current level. All four packs of DLC add an enormous amount of replay value to an already great game.

Borderlands may not be perfect, but the game is well worth every penny. I highly recommend this game to any fans of the FPS genre. Even if you don't like shooters, Gearbox's signature brand of humor and game design may just change your mind.

Pros: Excellent gameplay, diverse cast of characters, tons of DLC, the amazing amount of diverse weapons and items .

Cons: Repetitive missions, occasional lag, too few enemy classes, uneven difficulty.

Final Score: 8/10
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Romanticide
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Not intended to be a full review, but more so an addendum to Lightning's FF13 review. I don't have a dissenting point of view (I enjoyed it as much as he did), but I do have some different/additional thoughts.

This post wouldn't be complete if I didn't mention Vanille at least once. Vanille is easily my favorite character in the game and across the various Final Fantasy titles I've played. Sure, she *seems* like the typical exuberant girl you've seen in video games the world over, but that happy exterior hides some of the game's biggest secrets and most repressed emotions. Of course this all comes out, and it comes out at the right times so as not to feel forced. I've started to notice my favorite characters are generally upbeat girls: Vanille, Mia, Jess, Erica, Rise, Rikku, etc... Anyway, moving on.

The game spends a lot of time trying to make you care as much as the characters do about saving Cocoon, but you're also running from its authorities for a good portion of the game. It's really hard to care about a place that is trying to kill you/the characters you are controlling, no matter how beautiful it may be or how special it is to the characters. Also, I would have loved to learn more about the game world in general. It seems like the sort of place that would have a rich history. Ivalice games (XII, FFT) tend to explain their world's history pretty well, and that's entirely missing from XIII. Perhaps the rest of the planned games expand on this, who knows.

Ummm, yeah, can't really add much on the graphics or the music, except to say I think I like this new composer more than Uematsu. Always found him a tad overrated. The boss theme is great though, probably my favorite piece of music yet from this series.

As far as the battle system goes, I felt more like I was overseeing the action rather than participating in it. You're worrying more about big picture things like "having enough HP" and "when should I switch paradigms" than about small picture things like, "will I run out of MP". I'm not so sure this is for the better, but it's surely different.

You only control one character and the other two are controlled by the computer according to their role and the skills they have for said role. You can choose to have the game pick what abilities your character will use, and the game does such a great job at this that it can create the impression the game fights for you. It's always funny to hear criticism when it stems from a game doing its job TOO well. If you want to avoid this, input the abilities yourself, even though this can be fatally slow in a difficult fight.

Getting rid of MP altogether was one of the things I enjoyed most. Running out of MP and having no way to recharge it other than going back to whatever your "base of operations" might be can put an end to a good grind rather fast. The game will also heal you to full after every fight, much like in The World Ends With You. Dying has no real consequence; you can just hit retry and lose no progress other than what you made in the fight. These mechanics might make the game seem casual, but in reality it allows them to make the game much harder than every newer Final Fantasy out there. I've played IX, X, and XII, and none of them is as hard as XIII. While it's not a proper SMT title in terms of difficulty, it's harder than the average JRPG. Then again this might just be because I can play with a more cavalier style than I otherwise would, it's hard to say. Either way it makes the game more fun.

Also, there are save points literally every-fucking-where. Said saves work as a way to get supplies and a way to upgrade weapons. This is quite logical given that you're only in three cities in the entire game. Without this, how do you get supplies? The problem is that you don't need like five saves within twenty minutes. This is an RPG; we tend to play for more than five minutes. If you're going to have them that often, you might as well allow saves anywhere and make the terminals dedicated shopping/upgrading centers.

As for the supposed linearity, I found the game no more or less linear than a typical JRPG. Just because an area is wide open or you can pick what completely inconsequential town you want to go to first does not make a game any less linear. The thing that makes a game non-linear is choice (meaning only chapters 11/13 are non-linear), and JRPGs on the whole lack a whole lot of this. It doesn't make them bad; it just makes them a different style of game. That aside, the linearity serves to keep your focus right where the writers and developers want it. You're focused on the next objective/development in the story as opposed to running off to god knows where to get supplies/sidequests.

Replayability? It's only there if you liked the game enough to play through it a second time. Thank goodness I did; I was thinking this might be a waste of $24 in store credit. Anyway, you're not getting something like New Game Plus once you beat the final boss. You'll unlock the last stage of the Crystarium and that's about it. It's great for taking on post-game content, though that amounts to some missions, certain enemies, and getting the Treasure Hunter achievement, aka "grinding". Not exactly the most fun stuff ever. Unless you're hardcore about doing everything a game has to offer, you're likely just better off starting a second file. I definitely will at some point.
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nascargo19
Still playing RB3 daily.
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failureatlife
 


I want this thing in Gran Turismo
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MrMarill
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DAT STORY TIEM

...I should play FFXIII. But I can't be bothered.

Also failure's review was really good :o

Aaand BYOND is annoying as hell for me, the game sounds interesting if it were to be made on a reliable system.

EDIT: I think I'll do a full review of the NES side of the Ambassador program on 3DS, all ten games at once. They're all short enough =P
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LightningBolt
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MrMarill
Feb 26 2011, 06:06 AM
Dammit, I wanted to review it when I was done!

I lol'd.
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kmr95
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I'm gonna review Total War: Shogun 2 once I get the gist of the gameplay/features.
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failureatlife
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nascargo19
Sep 1 2011, 03:28 AM
failureatlife
 


I want this thing in Gran Turismo

This vehicle SHOULD be totally awesome. But it just is kinda suck.

It would be amazing in a racing game.
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MrMarill
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DAT STORY TIEM

LightningBolt
Sep 1 2011, 07:56 PM
MrMarill
Feb 26 2011, 06:06 AM
Dammit, I wanted to review it when I was done!

I lol'd.


When I said that, I was on Chapter 9. Chapter 11 is just so... boring...


Castlevania
NES


When people think of the NES, a few series spring to mind. Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda and Metroid are the first party titles everyone knows. The NES also had large third party support, and Castlevania was one of the primary series on the NES.

Castlevania is a Side-scrolling Action Platformer. You control Simon Belmont, who for some reason is tasked with stopping Dracula. As the game loads up and you stand before the gates of hell Dracula's castle, you know this game's going to be epic. The cliche'd lightning strikes, then the epic music kicks in and you walk along whipping everything in sight.

It's hard to explain how the game works. In one sense, it's easy; a generic side-scrolling-kill-everything game. In another, it's very different from anything else in the genre.

Your weapon is a whip. When you whip candles (yes, candles), anything from hearts to whip upgrades appear. You'd expect hearts to heal you? Of course not, hearts are your ammunition. Ammunition for what? The special items you pick up from random candles and enemies. So what heals you? Wall chicken.

The instruction booklet likes to call it a "Pork Chop", but it's chicken in a wall. Yes, you whip walls to get health. So you'll be whipping every wall you see to get chicken, because despite the fact you have a deceivingly long health bar, you'll die quite quickly.

Back on topic of gameplay, you have your whip and whatever item you picked up. You jump with A, and whip with B. So naturally you use your item by holding up and pressing B. This is confusing at first, but is fine after a few minutes playing. But it remains a problem in the fact that, when near stairs, holding up or down (depending on direction) makes you go up or down the stairs. So you can't use your special item on them. You can whip, but it's an annoyance.

One thing that becomes apparent after a few minutes of gameplay is that the jumping mechanics are strange. If you've ever played a platformer before, this will be alien to you. Let's take Super Mario Bros, for example. After you've jumped, you can control Mario while he's still in the air. In Castlevania, when you jump, you can't move Simon until he hits the ground. I don't mean he just jumps up; essentially, if you're holding nothing, he jumps straight up, and either direction he jumps in that direction the same amount every time he jumps. This is quite confusing at first, but honestly, I really like the way this is done. It's a very original way of playing, and feels radically different to any other game because of it.

The gameplay is fast, exciting, and incredibly challenging. The first level starts off incredibly easy, with hardly any enemies and very few pits for you to fall down. Then the very next level, the game takes off the gloves and it becomes quite difficult. Every level you think is really challenging, until the next one comes and it blows it out of the water.

Speaking of levels, the game has a strange way of doing them. Each level has three stages, so the game starts at Stage 1, and after entering a door in Stage 1 you progress to Stage 2, with a checkpoint and a slightly different section. So if you count all these sections as one level, there are only about six levels in the game. But it will take you a long time anyway, as the game gets brutally difficult towards the end.

Nearly all of the time, the challenge is fair. Nothing feels like it's too hard, as the difficulty curve is just right, and it's not like the game is cheaping you out of your lives. The only problem is, when Simon gets hit, he gets knocked back. Meaning if you're near an edge, you can guarantee you will fall down it to your death. The final level does this constantly and it is really quite annoying.

The graphics in the game are hit and miss. Of course, the NES limits what they can do, but even with the limited hardware Konami did a great job with the graphics. The bosses look awesome, Simon Belmont's animations look great and the enemies are all good. And then some of the backgrounds just look downright ugly, with staircases leading to nowhere and scratchy, pixelated messes in some sections.

The game does offers a fair challenge. The bosses are all immensely difficult and fun to fight, and really give you satisfaction. In fact, for an 8-bit game, Castlevania really sucks you into the game. The absolutely awesome music is a big help, as it helps the feeling of the game; creepy, but fast-paced; and you do react to the enemies. Countless times while playing, I breathed a sigh of relief saying "WALL CHICKEN!", and when I defeated some bosses I literally shouted "YES!" It's a real challenge which has you on the edge of your seat.

Of course, the highlight is the final showdown with Dracula. Getting to here takes a good few hours. The game of course has no saves (unless you're playing on the VC), so you'll have to do this all in one go. By this point you're battered, and Dracula appears to kick your ass. I spent a good few hours defeating Dracula, and when you blow his fucking head off (yes, it happens), the sense of achievement you get is like nothing else. In the small hours of the morning, seeing the castle crumble is one of gaming's greatest moments. You've faced impossible challenges and defeated Dracula, and despite the shortcomings of some points, this is a challenge you will return again and again to conquer. In terms of length, the game is short. Is it worth the five euros/dollars for the Virtual Console? It's worth every cent.

Pros
-Fast, intense gameplay
-Absolutely epic music
-Immense bosses
-Very replayable

Cons
-Ugly graphics at sections
-Some annoying deaths

Rating: 9.2

NOTE: I didn't want to give another review such a high score, but Castlevania really is that good =P
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MrMarill
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DAT STORY TIEM

Ninja Gaiden (Shadow Warriors)
NES


Firstly, I want to point out that the name in Europe was "Shadow Warriors". Everywhere on the internet had always called it "Ninja Gaiden", so do you have any idea how hard it was to find the game on Ebay? I'll call it "Ninja Gaiden" for the rest of the review.

Anyway, onto the game. This is the greatest game ever made. You do at least seventy five flips whenever you leave the ground and it has flying ninjas. It's instantly confirmed for awesome.

In seriousness, it's very hard for me to review Ninja Gaiden. I really, really enjoyed it. I could even say it's one of, if not the best game ever in some regards. The controls are perfect. The gameplay is fast and exciting. The enemies are inventive, the music is catchy, the cutscenes are amazing, and the challenge is almost perfect. And yet it gets let down by numerous glitches and bugs.

I'll go over the good side first. You're Ryu, your normal everyman ninja. His father disappears, and he finds a note from his father telling him that his father had gone off to fight some guy, and he may not return. Ryu decides to go to America, dressed as a ninja, to get his revenge.

So, the story's your simply story. But the impressive part is that Tecmo used actual cutscenes on the NES engine. Part of the screen has detailed, almost SNES-quality visuals moving and talking (their mouths actually move), while the other has the text. The cutscenes look and animate great. As the story unfolds, it's clear that it's more than your usual "kill everything" NES story, and it is quite good to watch. The levels all have a purpose, and it does invoke your emotions. It has a few problems in typos or bad grammar, but not often.

Of course, we're all here for the gameplay and Ninja Gaiden's infamous challenge. Ryu jumps at your slightest command and controls perfectly. If you're facing right, then while you're jumping you'll move quicker to the right and slower to the left, as jumping backwards would. If you jump into a wall, you'll cling to the wall, and you can then jump off it to another wall or climb up it if it's a ladder. There's a few great sections of the game which involve you jumping from the wall and instantly hitting someone with your sword, or just wall jumping like a pro.

B is your sword, which can be used at any time except when you're wall clinging. It has a misleadingly long range which is very useful. Holding Up and hitting B does your special move, which isn't actually that bad to do. The special moves, like a shuriken, spinning sword and of course sacred flames take away a part of your... ninja power, I guess, and you can get more with stuff found in random items.

So yes, the game is very similar to Castlevania, the review posted JUST before this. It's a lot faster, though. The main difference it has with other games of its time is that it's hard as nails.

Someone needs to explain to Tecmo what a difficulty curve is. World 1 is a cakewalk, then World 2 comes along and takes the gloves off. It's World 2 guys, calm down! Even still, from there on the difficulty curve is (for the most part) fair, except the insanely difficult 4-1 which seems out of place.

In Ninja Gaiden, if you die, you back to the last checkpoint. If you Game Over, you back to the start of the level. That's not so bad, as generally the levels are short and can be cleared fairly quickly. If you die on a boss, however, you back to the start of the last level. Again, not so bad.

Until the very final boss of the game. This is at World 6. 6-1 is easy-ish, then 6-2 and 6-3 blow your face off with insane speed, enemies and ridiculous jumps. It takes a long time to get through them, and they're a proper challenge. You finally make it to the final boss, and he's practically impossible. As expected, he destroys you, and then... back to 6-1.

This is a completely unfair way of adding difficulty. If we've already proved we can pass World 6, why do we have to do the whole thing again? It's very frustrating, as World 6 is so challenging. After a while you can get through most of World 6 practically without looking, but it's fake difficulty that shouldn't be there in the first place.

What's even worse is that you restart at 6-1 with whatever lives you would have had. So it's possible to start at 6-1 with no lives meaning that you can't simply get back up to that point without dying to refill your health bar. Thoughtfully, Tecmo included a suicide spot right next to the start of 6-1.

Posted Image
How thoughtful.


Another annoyance is the most common glitch in the game. Enemies infinitely respawn. So if you kill something, get knocked off the screen then walk back, it'll be back. This gets tediously annoying, especially when you're getting knocked about the place. On the subject of getting knocked about, if you get hit, you get knocked backwards. So if you're next to a ledge, tough shit. You almost forget you have a life bar as one hit from anything later on is enough to kill you.

Also, the ever helpful "mercy invincibility" is in this game. Essentially, if you get hit, you flash invincible for a while then start off again. Only problem is, it lasts roughly a microsecond longer than your knock back. So if you get knocked into an enemy? Again, tough shit. All you can do is smash jump and slash and hope for the best.

And as for your power ups. That sacred fire I mentioned earlier? Sounds awesome, right? Basically, for five "Ninja Power" as I call it, you throw fire into the air at a 45 degree angle. Anything at that angle is completely dead.

Not much is at that angle, though. It's practically useless for the most part. There's one section in 6-3 that you practically need the shuriken (you get one just before this part). And JUST before the part you need the shuriken, there's one of those sections you get knocked about the place in. And in that, there's a fire "upgrade". Every enemy is determined to knock you into this death trap.

And on the subject of enemies, God, the birds. They are so overpowered it's scary. They fly at the most awkward angle in history, do two damage and then come back for more after. AND THEY NEVER STOP. They're Satanic creations. Horrifically, I've read they do even more damage in the American version. If Ninja Gaiden teaches you anything, it teaches you to run the fuck away from any birds.

On the other hand, apart from these annoyances, Ninja Gaiden shines as one of my favourite games I've played this year, if not my favourite. It's one of the few games that when I finished, the first thing I did was hit the reset button and beat it again. It's such an enjoyable and masterful experience with some overly hard sections and annoying glitches.

I haven't even mentioned the graphics or sound. The graphics are some of the best to be seen on NES, with great looking cutscenes and colourful, vibrant and, most importantly, fitting graphics for the main game. Tecmo even went as far as to recolour some enemies that would clash with the background, something not even Nintendo did in their NES titles. Although on that note, the Game Over screen is crazy. When you die on your last life, the screen flashes all sorts of crazy colours, highlighting squares of character objects and, apart from giving you a seizure, looking downright ugly and lazy.

As for the music, it's your typical fast paced, exciting stuff. Some tracks aren't that memorable, and it is quite samey. Even still, some of the boss themes and tension building tracks in the cut scenes are rather awesome. And, strange as this sounds, the sound effects are really satisfying. They're completely unrealistic, but even jumping feels satisfying, and as for everything exploding when touched with a sword, that shit is awesome.

I think the entire game would benefit from being remade. I would absolutely love to see a remake of this with the proper heavy metal it was going for and updated graphics and cutscenes. Wait, that happened on the SNES and... was buggy and costs �200. DAMMIT!

So, in conclusion... you must play Ninja Gaiden. I absolutely loved it. I love fast paced games in this style and Ninja Gaiden was the game I've been looking for to play all my life. But even still, it has numerous problems and insane difficulty at times. It's definitely a game for some people, and not for others. I recommend trying the game at the very least. And as for the ending... The final boss is immense, and the final cutscene is fantastic. Even the credits are nice. When you see the final "Thank you for playing!" screen, you feel serious achievement like nothing else.

Pros
-Perfect controls
-Awesome, fast gameplay
-Incredible ending
-Fantastic cutscenes and story

Cons
-Glitches and development oversights
-Almost unfair difficulty at times

Rating: 9.0/10

NOTE: Again sorry for the high score, but I keep playing awesome games xD
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