darthhomer said:

FUUUUUUUCCCKKKKK

GODDAMNIT CAMELOT, NOT THIS SHIT AGAIN.

How many instances of this have you counted, if you don't mind me asking?

So far it wasn't so bad, but there is a long intro that tells what happened in the first two games.

The reviews do say that it does do it again, but Camelot added a pretty neat feature where you don't have to sit there and just read a mountain of dialogue with a dictionary/encylopedia feature while you're playing the game. For example, if someone mentions something important like a name, place, or incident, it's highlighted in red in the dialogue box. Then the game let's you click on it and there's a brief explanation on the top screen that gives you more info on it. Which is better than just having a towns person babbling on about explaining every single detail.

They also added a emoticon response feature to break up the dialogue. Instead of just yes/no responses, they give you four emotions to choose from. Each response gets a different dialogue, which breaks things up a bit.

The game does a lot more good things that covers up the series' flaws. Like I said, if you loved the first two games, than you'll absolutely love this one.

ASK_Story said:

Picked up Cave Story for the DSi. Great port! I'm not too familiar with the original game but it looks like the DSiWare version is the more faithful version to the original. It's silky smooth, looks great on the DSi's screen, and the music has no glitches (although I think the WiiWare version is fixed).

This game fits so perfectly as a portable game. Now I feel like playing it more. And to my surprise it's only 46blocks but the game is pretty spot-on!

I also picked up Tetris Party DSiWare with the leftover points. It's a great version of Tetris.

The DSiWare store has it's letdowns for me but with Shantae, Cave Story, and Tetris, I'm more content with it now.

I DL'd the Wii demo today and played it for a bit.  I liked the pixel-perfect controls and music.  It was a bit washed out color wise on the Wii (a bit stretched too).

In other news (link above) :

One of the new Binary Domain screens.

Gamespot's review of Epic Mickey is brutal. Just saw the video review. It seems like the reviewer says nothing good about it.

For me, I can look over its faults because of the amazing artwork and animation. But I haven't played it so I can't really say I'll enjoy it or not. But judging my past experiences with games with questionable gameplay, I always find the good in them through the production values like artistic merit, animation, charcter designs, etc.

I think I'll enjoy Epic Mickey.

Nope, I heard it's pretty horrible and expected as much from the sequel but it seems to have positive buzz.

Agnates said:

Nope, I heard it's pretty horrible and expected as much from the sequel but it seems to have positive buzz.

Yeah, I'm hoping that given the second chance that they nailed down the few things that were wrong with the first.  It was one of only 2 games that I returned to the store this generation.

gamingeek said:

aspro said:

Gamespot: Epic Mickey review - 6.0 Gamespot: "Tedious and monotonous."

"Sloppy controls and a woeful camera continually stand in the way of your progress, but it's the preponderance of dull objectives that smothers any whiff of enjoyment. It just isn't fun to play Epic Mickey"

"it's just not worth the effort. Every gameplay scenario is fraught with problems, and there are very few good moments to look forward to after enduring all the lousy parts."

Looks at watch... Letsee Geek should be here in about 90 minutes. I'll go put on some popcorn...

Why?

Because you tend to react strongly to any criticism of a game that you like.  You don't have to respond to McShea's review for my benefit.

As to why it was allocated as Big News, I did not post the news story nor allocate it as "Big News".

aspro said:

          Because you tend to react strongly to any criticism of a game that you like.  You don't have to respond to McShea's review for my benefit.

I react strongly to invalid criticism. I will check it out and see if there is anything I disagree with. I have seen enough reactions from end users and reviews a like to suggest there may be mixed feelings on the game.

aspro said:

As to why it was allocated as Big News, I did not post the news story nor allocate it as "Big News".

I wasn't suggesting it was you. I just find it weird that the 20th review gets put in black and the other 19 don't? I normally put the first review up as big news.

bugsonglass said:

I was thinking about getting the Saboteur for a while now since it's become a hobo priced game and it looked interesting in terms of the art etc.  Reading that eurogamer piece, I don't know.  Sounds like a lot of those things could piece me off too.  Unless they pull off the satire quite well like Inglorious Basterds etc ...

I'll wait and see what Leo says

Was that deliberate? I ask because a year ago my bro tried to tone down his swearing and ended up saying things like fiddlesticks and fudgecake

Reading the Epic Mickey review now

Already I see a disconnect.

Gamespot Score                                       6.0

Gamespot average user score             7.8

Metacritic average critic score             7.7

So they are already skewing away from the median score, let alone the better reviews.

"Sloppy controls and a woeful camera continually stand in the way of your progress"

It's hard to gauge this statement without them telling you what aspects of the camera or control were bothering them.

In the 11 hours I have played maybe 10 minutes of that was the camera annoying me or causing me to die. If you came through the N64 and PS era of 3D platformers the camera really shouldn't be that much of a problem to overcome. Sure, maybe today there is a greater expectation of a better automatic camera, but unless you only just got into gaming, the camera should not be a problem. You have the first person camera, which you can use the C-stick for, you have the manual camera which you can use the d-pad for, you also have the C-button centering and lock on. If you fail with the camera on this game you fail at gaming IMO. It can be an occasional problem but nothing game ruining which some reviews suggest.

Controls are fine, unless he is talking about IR when Mickey shoots paint at his feet. As I said if you use the c-button lock on or c-button centering or adjust the camera with the control pad, it works. Maybe you have to find the right angle occasionally but again, nothing game ruining. It's not like the game puts you under Call of Duty like pressure to achieve something within 2 seconds or die.

"it's the preponderance of dull objectives that smothers any whiff of enjoyment."

I can sort of see what he is saying here, many of the quests involve you finding something or talking to someone, I personally like most of them, but they never achieve Oblivion Dark Brotherhood levels of quest playing goodness. They certainly don't "smother any whiff of enjoyment" as the review suggests.

"It just isn't fun to play Epic Mickey; even though the thoughtful story and imaginative visuals do their best to urge you along, it's not worth trudging through the uninspired and frustrating set pieces to get there."

This is very subjective, I find it fun and engrossing, I would like to know what set pieces he finds frustrating because I haven't come across any. Again, he doesn't specify so it is hard to argue.

"You run and jump in a sluggish manner, so even though you eventually get where you want to go, there is no joy to the movement."

I couldn't disagree more with this, Mickey's animation is so delightful I will often tiptoe and zoom the camera in just to watch his animation.

"You can only interact with specific objects, and it's not always clear what you can and cannot spray"

Yeah it is pretty clear, cartoon paintable areas are always translucent or jar with the wasteland and if you are uncertain paint is plentiful. You can walk around like a pornstar spraying the world as much as you like to see what can, or can't be done. This guy needs like glowing signs to tell him something?

"More troubling is the lack of permanence. Every time you exit and reenter an area, all of your hard work is erased, so even if you paint every object into existence, it disappears as soon as you leave the screen"

It doesn't disappear when you leave the screen, but leave the level. I like this aspect as it gives you something to do in the occasional areas you have to backtrack. Which is like 2 areas. It's a superficial concern that doesn't dent the enjoyment of the game at all.

"The rest of the game is a retread of countless games that have come before it."

Yeah it's a 3D Banjo like platformer, who makes these games anymore? As a fan of Rare N64 games this is like a gift, a platform game with lots of adventure in it and Disney trappings. Platform games from 8bit to the current day all pilfer the gameplay and use their own aestetics. That's what most platform games are. They have the occasional unique mechanic thrown in - the paintbrush is Epic Mickey's.

"Your objectives are particularly stale. In each location you visit, there are characters you talk to who give you tasks to complete. But these boil down to tired fetch quests that are incredibly dull and time consuming. For instance, to help a pirate find true love, you have to travel from Ventureland and Ozland to the Mean Streets and then back to Ozland before you finally return to Ventureland where you complete your quest."

He actually uses as the example the absolute worst, most convoluted quest in the game to make his point. There are maybe 100 different quests and they don't all put these demands on you. It would be like using the Vampires Curse Oblivion quest as an example of why all the quests in Oblivion suck.

"there aren't any fun jumping sequences or interesting battles, either; you just walk until you find the correct item and then return. "

Factually wrong, there are fun jumping sequences and good battles, including some inventive boss fights.

"Its lifeless experience is further hampered by the bland 2D platforming levels between each section. "

Wow, just don't know what to say here. The game is brimming with life and creativity, the 2D platforming is nothing special, they are merely conduits between levels that are supposed to be short as you have to go through them both ways to get between areas. Also, although in gameplay terms they are nothing specia,l they do use animation to change the environment in delightful, smile enducing ways.

" the collision detection in 2D is so poor that they aren't any fun to play"

Ummm.......... complete BS. This guy has obviously got killed A LOT in these sections and is blaming the game.

" But even if you just use thinner all the time, combat still isn't any fun. You have to spray an enemy for quite a while before you defeat it, which is not only tedious, but its downright annoying when a bunch of enemies are chasing you down and you need to fight them all at once. Battles consist of you running around and spraying anything that moves while you desperately try to get the camera to focus on what you want."

Oooops. What's this? 5th review that doesn't realise there is a lock on? But, enemy encounters are largely avoidable it doesn't lock you in an area and force you to fight. If there are a bunch of bad guys just avoid them? And anyway the bad guys can't climb platforms so you just jump up on a platform and spray them the way you want and they usually can't even reach you. This guy got himself in a fight he couldn't handle and is blaming the game again.

"Problems layer on top of problems, creating a suffocating atmosphere that makes it hard to see the good stuff that lies ahead of you."

All the problems he mentioned are easy to overcome, they are not suffocating.

"The puzzles that crop up are just as maddening as the other elements that come before them. During one such conundrum, you have to align paintings in a proper order. But the directions are so vague that you'll spend minutes wandering around, trying to figure out what you need to do before you can even begin to work out the solution. "

Jesus this guy obviously just suuuuuuuuuuucks at the game. That part of the game, you dissolve a wall to save a Gremlin and he fixes the paintings for you in 2 seconds. There is always a 2nd way in this game.

"And that's one of the biggest problems that crops up all throughout this adventure: lack of direction. You always feel slightly lost in Epic Mickey because the game does such a poor job of explaining where you need to go next."

Seriously? The game has a quest screen which tells you exactly what you need to get on with and when you hold the controller upright a Dead Space like laser line appears and shows you exactly where you should be going. Let's also forget the map screen....

"For instance, in the aforementioned pirate love quest, you need to collect flowers. But they are only a few pixels wide, and you have no idea where they are hidden within the city you're wandering through. Just about every quest vaguely points you a direction and expects you to know what you to do and it's a serious pain figuring out what the game expects from you."

Again this guy is using the absolute most convoluted quest in the game to make his point. And it's also a moot point because like I said before there is always a 2nd way out, like in the painting puzzle. Pay the pirate 50 e-tickets and you don't even have to do the BS quest and if you do want to do it, the flowers are NOT 2 pixels wide. Even playing on an 18 inch screen they are a centimetre and a half big and bright yellow to boot.

"Epic Mickey has so many issues that once you overcome one thing there are a half dozen more problems beating you down. Imprecise controls and boring objectives make progress a chore, and a troublesome camera ensures you won't even be able to see where you need to go a lot of the time. It's a shame the gameplay is so frustrating in Epic Mickey because the story and visuals do give you a solid incentive to play. But it's just not worth the effort. Every gameplay scenario is fraught with problems, and there are very few good moments to look forward to after enduring all the lousy parts. Epic Mickey shows that even a good implementation of a cherished license can't overcome an abundance of fundamental design flaws."

Like I said a couple of days back, the minor, easily overcome problems shouldn't be used as an excuse to completely trash the game saying that it has no merit. There is more than enough great stuff in Epic Mickey that means you shouldn't trust any review that is less than an 8.0

You know when some people just suck at a game and blame the game for it? Well here it is. I played 11 hours of the game and had camera troubles for 10 minutes and maybe died 4 or 5 times. The game has infinite lives and generous checkpoints and saves all the frickin' time so it's not like you die and are forced to replay large swathes of the game anyway.

Ugh, I feel like I am back at Gamespot picking apart their BS reviews again. This is why I left, Lark Anderson!

You see what Gamespot does to me?