travo said:

Do you think it has more to do with the color pallette of the two games?  Zelda being more brighter and colorful.

No not at all. They are not in the same realm of 3D. RE Mercs has like two planes, a front and back, like a bad pop up book. Zelda 3D is real 3D, the whole world sinks into the screen and things briefly jump out at you.

I wont be on much tomorrow so i will do what I have been playing now because I want to talk about Fallout New Vegas. I am going through some withdrawl right now, its such an excellent game. It uses the Bethesda formula used in Fallout 3 but the world is so much more rich and interesting than Fallout 3. Now you can join different factions and your actions in one effect your standing with others. Quests intercect with one another in ways the last game never came close to doing. There are a ton of branching endings, all with their own quest lines to follow. The world makes all your actions feel like they matter, I guess like a true RPG is supposed to feel like. Plus you have partners with you, its very basic stuff. They all have their own quests as well but dont expect Bioware level partners, these are mannequins compared to the cast of a Bioware game.

There are many more quests to do in this game and some have been really complex and interesting. Like this last one that involved a casino run by a strange cult that used to eat humans. Well they kidnapped a rich ranchers son so you have to investigate and find the son. In the mean time you have another quest from a farmer that wants to kill that rancher, and from what I read there is a third quest tied to this part as well. The quest had so many ways to approach it and so many ways to finish it. I ended up solving the conspiracy which had my killing hitmen, stealing their clothes to go into restricted areas where I had to get rid of the cook so i can change the main course dinner and then reveal the plot to everyone while saving the son who i later decided to kill for that other quest. Most quests aren't like this, they are the usual go and kill stuff kind but even those sometimes have multiple solutions. I have many choices and I love that about this game.

Dvader said:

What do you guys want from FPSs cause it sounds like you don't want linear. But then there is stuff like Bioshock whih has an open world and you don't want that either. It seems you don't want a narrative in your FPSs. Do you guys want Doom?

What kind of a question is this? Only terrible people who hate video games would answer no.

Dvader said:

What do you guys want from FPSs cause it sounds like you don't want linear. But then there is stuff like Bioshock whih has an open world and you don't want that either. It seems you don't want a narrative in your FPSs. Do you guys want Doom?

Me? I want action. I don't like being led around like a dog on a lead and be forced to watch pointless stuff. I would rather have a short cutscene and then get on with it. If I'm just walking around and waiting for a little scenario to play out it's like being stuck in a theatre watching a play you just want to end. I would much rather the game took control away from me in those sections so I could sit back and watch instead of searching about the room and waiting for cues from a secondary NPC to play out. I want tight level design which you can approach in a number of different ways, with fun and intelligent AI, varied weapons that actually have distinct advantages vs other weapons. I want to be able to use either stealth or balls to the wall action.

Dvader said:

The flow of the game was linear but the game world was open. It had the same structure as a metroid game, new areas would slowly open and you can go back and travel the world on your own. While it was more limite than what they said it's far more complex Than almost all FPSs, there was a ton of ways to approach any combat situation. And the story is better than almost any FPS.

I'm a big Metroid fan and Bioshock didn't feel remotely like Metroid to me. Metroid level design is about intricate environments, it's sort of like one massive Zelda dungeon that's interconnected. Batman Arkham Asylum was like Metroid lite design. I didn't find a lot of ways to approach combat in Bioshock, maybe that's my own fault, the game didn't seem to offer me or encourage to me to do anything different than shoot the average AI controlled characters or fire the occasional lightning bolt at them. The story seemed a little pretentious, I guess it's all the audio messages, it's like one long monologue after the other. I would have much rather been there when these events took place in the game then hear about them in voice files - that go on forever.

**I put this in the Dragon Quest IX topic originally, but decided to reprint it here for the benefit of those who don't go into that topic that may want a portable RPG.**

Started playing Golden Sun: Dark Dawn a day or two ago. There's A LOT to like about the game and a little not to like, but overall, I find it immensely satisfying.

To start, if you avoid this game because you haven't played the two GBA versions, put your fears to rest. They recap the events of the first two in the beginning screens. They let you collect books from bookcases that summarize both game's stories. They let you play in a Psynergy Training ground where you re-enact events from the previous games in small mini-game battlefields... and finally, in one of the coolest little additions I've seen in a while... During conversations, in character's dialogue screens you might see a major character, location, event-name or phrase bolded, underlined and in Red, almost as if it were a Link. Touching that 'link' with your stylus opens up yet another screen that gives you more details on the subject and then puts an entry into an Encyclopedia! My god, if more RPG's did this, we might actually be able to follow along with a storyline for a change!

The Gameplay system is one of the things that makes the GS games so unique. It's a little tricky to describe, but I'll do my best! The world is comprised of Psynergy (magic). That psynergy is broken down into 4 Elements: Fire, Water, Wind and Earth. The playable characters in the game are Adepts at one of those elements. Matthew, the son of the first (two) games Hero, Issac, for example, is an Earth Adept. On their own, these characters, as they level up, will learn progressively stronger Elemental Magics associated with their types. Where it gets tricky is: There are Djinns in the world of Golden Sun. These Spirits also have elemental attributes and you can 'Assign' them to individual characters. Naturally, adding Fire Djinns to a Fire Adept makes the Adept that much stronger, boosting Stats and allowing for Stronger, more Elaborate Spells of that element --BUT-- you DO NOT have to assign the same Element to the same Element. You can, feasibly, assign a Water Djinn to a Wind Adept, and THAT'S where things start to get interesting! Alone the Wind Adept would have Whirlwinds and Healing Winds, for example, but combine her Wind Djinn with a Water Djinn and suddenly you can cast Lightning Spells and throw around Plasma...

...but wait, there's more!

Having Djinns assigned to the characters ups their stats and gives them more Spell options. You --CAN-- however 'Release' your Djinns onto the Battlefield. They'll FIRST cast some sort of Offensive or Support Spell upon doing this, but then their release also has a few additional outcomes: Your character's stats go DOWN for the duration of the Battle, BUT... the more Djinns you release, their numbers go into a 'Summon' pool. One, two, three or more of an element summons a Final Fantasy-like Diety to wreck havoc on your foes... Of course, mixing Djinns of various Elements allows for other, much more elaborate Summons too. Finding the Tablets to summon these guys is a good part of the draw of this game... They look like this:

It sounds kind of complicated, but, really, it's not. Tinkering with various combinations and finding cool Spells is definitely one of the best parts of these games. Of course, there's even more than that! Your characters can use their Psynergies on the world map and in dungeons to solve puzzles. See a sprout sticking out of the ground? Cast 'Grow' on it and it turns into a climbable vine. Is there a pillar of Ice blocking your path? Hit it with a Fireball and melt it! Magic is not ONLY used in battle! It's an essential part of exploration and puzzle-solving in the game too! AWESOME!

I have to admit, I LOVE these games partially from the Nostalgia they recall for me. Camelot Software, the guys who made this series, also helped make such classic Genesis games as: Shining Force, Shining in the Darkness and Landstalker! Their little trademark touches appear throughout the game. Little graphical 'Heads' shaking or nodding representing your 'Yes' or 'No' answers to questions posed to you in the game; the fact that Shops have their Normal Sale items and 'Specials' and Emoticon Expressions to show the characters Moods during conversations... ALL IN THERE! You may not know what I am talking about by reading this, but, rest assured, if you played any of those classics and then you played GS: DD, you would recognize them immediately!

Not to be too spoiler-ish but one of the things I like THE MOST about this game is the fact that the Heroes from the first two games actually ended up doing MORE HARM to their WORLD THAN GOOD! Thinking they were saving the world in the first two, they were actually bringing about events that would ruin and reshape their world, sometimes NOT for the better! It's 30 years after those events and the children of the heroes take up their own quest! Apparently, this is not just an idea they came up with just as an excuse to make the DS version of the game. The plot for Dark Dawn was discussed as far back as 2003! The developers have revealed that parts 1 and 2 were just a prologue to the 'REAL' story of Golden Sun, and Dark Dawn is just the beginning! I can't WAIT to see where they take all of this!

I love the game for its familiarity. I love it for its creativity and unique battle system. The story line is intriguing to say the least... The one issue I have with it is the GRAPHICS! They are not bad, by any means, but they are NOT the Camelot I am used to. Back in the day, these guys had a VERY distinct, hand-drawn, bold and colorful style to them. In this game, the colors are bold and the world is 3D... but it's just not the same. I'll let pictures speak their thousand words on this one:

_____________________

--See the Battle Screen here? Doesn't this look like it could be from Shining Force?

--See the little Nodding or Head Shaking icons and the distinct Font used in all Camelot games?

--THIS is what Golden Sun looks like now... Doesn't it look like every other DS RPG?

_____________________

What's MOST important is that it PLAYS like Golden Sun and it is the continuation of two of THE MOST celebrated RPG's of the last decade! Most of the elements are there, graphically, but something is... off. Thanks, Nintendo, for turning these guys into your Mario Sports developers and taking them away from what they do BEST...!

A few of you wondered why I got so excited upon hearing of this game at last year's E3. I hope this post sheds a little light on that! A few more of you have either just started getting into portable RPG's or might be in the market for something new and a bit different... Again, I hope this sheds some light and you consider this game! I'm only 5 hours in, but I can tell it's as much of a classic as the two that started it all... With any luck, this game will sell pretty well and ensure that it isn't the end of it all! Camelot clearly has a lot of ideas in their collective heads, I hope to see them in future 3DS or Wii U entries to this series!

I'll post more as I play more, but any questions in the meantime, fire away!

Amazing Lego Creations Of Hayao Miyazaki And Studio Ghibli Characters!

Click for more

edgecrusher said:

So I guess anything under 1.8 million sales is a failure for Nintendo? That means every Metroid Prime game is a failure. I would like to know what Monster Hunter 3 sold.

Not a failure but you have to bear in mind that DS Animal Crossing sold something like 9 million so they thought the franchise would catch on with the home console crowd and along with Wii Music they expected another Wii Fit and Mario Kart surge in wii hardware sales. Monster Hunter tri is 1.88 million.

CVG Mario 3DS Preview

Who is this arthritic imposter, and what's wrong with his jump? It's a rigid animation, short on mid-air after-steer. Puny, too - he hardly gets inches off the ground. And unless our timing is horribly off, he doesn't care for triple jumps either. Or backflips. A 3D Mario who doesn't backflip? It's torches and pitchfork time, people.


Judged on a minute of control acclimatising, Super Mario is a massive misfire. Until it hits us: this isn't a 3D Mario. Well, physically he is. But his soul? His soul is a 2D sprite. This is the Mario of Super Mario Bros: stumpy of jump, plodding of pace. He has a dash button.

Agnates, this will interest you, it's in Sundays updates.

Ravenprose said:

Nintendo expected ACCF to sell over 5 million copies, so it failed to live up to their projections. It also  failed due to it being a broken POS, and was far too similar to ACWW.

You just couldn't lay down a simple path could you?

Greetings from University!

Yeah, it's 2am in the morning, can't fucking sleep...and yet, been quite a fun couple of days doing stuff. Been entertaining kids with videogames, and they get pumped - I've never seen a crowd go nuts for Rockstar's Table Tennis game, of all things.

If you guys want to check out just what we're upto, hit up level3.org.au  - our livestream is on the front page. Should be doing a morning show type thing in about 7 hours or so...

darthhomer said:

Greetings from University!

Yeah, it's 2am in the morning, can't fucking sleep...and yet, been quite a fun couple of days doing stuff. Been entertaining kids with videogames, and they get pumped - I've never seen a crowd go nuts for Rockstar's Table Tennis game, of all things.

If you guys want to check out just what we're upto, hit up level3.org.au  - our livestream is on the front page. Should be doing a morning show type thing in about 7 hours or so...