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I finished off Donkey Kong tonight...even though the last few levels were a fucking pain in the ass and had me wanting to break my controller in 4 halves. Not to mention I had to pull myself away from Halo and Skyrim. But Donkey Kong was the only game I was really close to finishing, and I wanted to get at least 1 game done this week.
It was a great game but I kind of grew somewhat bored towards the end, which didn't help with the fact that it gets really tediously hard at the end. Overall, I think I enjoyed Metroid Other M just a bit more, which is kind of ironic. I'd probably score DKCR somewhere around an 8.5 or so.
Now, Back to Skyrim!
You mean...the game doesn't look that good? DOWN WITH THE WII!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hai bitches.
I have Skyward Sword and will be playing it in 3 minutes.
My preorder Skyward Sword Special Edition is in. Will buy later and play tomorrow.
Played 3 hours of it.
They should have just remade Halo 1 and not bothered with 2, 3 and Reach.
IMO the final few DKCR levels weren't that hard. They tested you sure, but they were always doable.
Like Sasha Grey.
Must remain calm. I'm happy for you, I really am...
Impressions has you have them, no spoilers.
Been playing GT5 for the past 3 days. Only ONE EVENT. The same one. And a two minute one at that. Last advanced challenge at Daytona, 2 final laps.
>_<
At this time, it has become more of a personal thing to gold the event. But it has everything I hate in GT games, with the unwelcome addition of being NASCAR, the worst possible type of race of all time in the universe. It has that obnoxious trend of GT games of placing you dead last on the racing line. "11 cars in the race? HAVE THE 11TH PLACE, FUCKER!", AI flies through the race impervious to crashes among themselves or against the barrier, while I get disqualified if I even touch a bumper or the side of a car. Hell I've even been disqualified when another car BUMPED ME while driving in a straight line.
From the start of the race, you need to draft (slipstream) a blue AI car that starts overtaking fools like a cheetah on meth. You fuck up, you get distracted or miss the slipstream for a second, and the blue car checks out and leaves you. If that happens, there's no way of ever catching up on the couple laps you're given. Manage to follow the AI car, and you have the chance of eventually catching up, provided you keep drafting it and start to overtake AI cars while drafting. One small bump and it's disqualification. One wrong turn or speed loss and the main group checks out and prances away at an aggravating speed.
I've managed to reach 2nd place, but that's about it. I've heard NASCAR stuff is easier with a wheel, but as of now I'm stuck with a controller and PD's obnoxious choice of doing things. In the past, NASCAR events were made more manageable by turning ABS (anti-lock braking system) off. Well, tough shit, PD (those evil fucks I hope they get anal herpes) decided to PATCH OUT the chance of turning ABS off, now you can only turn it down to 1. Who does that kind of shit? i'll tell you who, EVIL FUCKING PEOPLE, ANALLY OBSESSED,THAT'S WHO.
I know what to do, but the way of doing it with a controller is to drive perfectly, with no mistakes whatsoever and rely on a bit of luck to overtake the final 4 car group.
First thing is the controls get some getting used to. They are a little weird at times. For some bizaare reason Nintendo has chosen to use Motionplus for everything, even things normally handled by the IR pointer of the wii remote. What you get when using the cursor is somewhat slow, inaccurate and laggy cursor response as they rely on the gyros to move the cursor rather than the faster, more accurate and more responsive handling of IR. I imagine that this is somewhat like the way the PS Move works for aiming in shooting games only less accurate. You often have to recentre the cursor by pressing down on the remote.
The sword controls are fine, it sort of feels like Red Steel 2, only in a proper adventure game but not as good. Nice that it really is 1:1 when just moving the sword about.
The sprint is a useful feature, initially awkward I've come to really like it. It's like being able to sprint in a FPS game, it opens things up a little and Nintendo lays about strategically placed sprint boosters so you can race in some areas without losing steam. There are little doses.
Graphics are great, really glad they used this style, the face animation and shading is particularly great. The bazaar market looks fairly magical. Music is great BUT I really miss the hand of Koji Kondo on the melodies here, he is just classic Zelda.
Otherwise the start of the game is fairly sleepy and fairly reminiscent of the start of Wind Waker and Twilight Princess. For several hours you are just in town mode, getting to pootle about and meet people in your little burg before setting off on a grand adventure. That part is fairly standard Zelda.
One thing to note is that the controls are all motionplus even for things like controlling your bird which is sort of like the bits in SMG2 when you turn the remote to steer. I can see that if Motionplus is overused when a stick or IR could have been better, it could get annoying.
Ah, and you know Zelda has always had the auto jump, ledge grab, climb up things etc just by pressing the stick towards those environment keys? Well, when you use the sprint button in conjunction with these systems which have already been in place for years, it sort of works like Assasins creed where you hold down one button and run towards a climbmable surface.
Also there is a first person mode where you can walk about, feels cool. A first person Zelda could work and it feels more personal in some ways, sort of like Oblivion like character perspective.
It also feels very much like new zelda as oppossed to classic zelda. Whether that's good or bad, it's up to your perspective. For those complaining about zelda stagnation you don't have that here, it has many familiar aspects but much of it is new.
Famitsu scores
Zelda no Densetsu: Skyward Sword (Wii, Nintendo): 10 / 10 / 10 / 10 - (40/40)
Halo Combat Evolved Anniversary (Xbox 360, Microsoft): 9 / 8 / 8 / 8 - (33/40)
7th Dragon 2020 (PSP, Sega): 9 / 9 / 9 / 8 - (35/40)
Metal Gear Solid HD Edition (PS3, Konami): 8 / 9 / 9 / 8 - (34/40)
Metal Gear Solid HD Edition (PS3, Konami): 8 / 9 / 8 / 8 - (33/40)
Machi-ing Maker 4 (PS3/Xbox 360, D3): 7 / 8 / 7 / 7 - (29/40)
Saint Seiya Senki (PS3, Namco Bandai): 8 / 8 / 8 / 8 - (32/40)
Batman Arkham City (PS3/Xbox 360, Warner): 10 / 9 / 9 / 9 - (37/40)
Pop'n Music Portable 2 (PSP, Konami): 8 / 8 / 8 / 8 - (32/40)
Taiko no Tatsujin Wii: Ketteiban (Wii, Bandai Namco): 8 / 8 / 7 / 8 - (31/40)
Suto*Mani: Strobe * Mania (PSP, D3): 7 / 7 / 7 / 6 - (27/40)
Weiss Schwarz Portable: Boost Schwarz (PSP, Bandai Namco): 7 / 7 / 7 / 7 - (28/40)
Danball Senki Boost (PSP, Level 5): 8 / 8 / 8 / 9 - (33/40)
FabStyle (3DS, Koei Tecmo): 8 / 8 / 9 / 8 - (33/40)
FabStyle (3DS, Koei Tecmo): 9 / 9 / 10 / 8 - (36/40)
Tanteibu: The Detective Club - Shissou to Hangegi to Daidanen (PSP, Boost On): 7 / 7 / 7 / 5 - (26/40)
Uta no * Prince-Sama: Music (PSP, Broccoli): 7 / 7 / 6 / 6 - (26/40)
PachiPara 3D: Premium Umi Monogataru - Yumemiru Otome to Pachinko Ou Ketteisen (PSP, Irem): 6 / 7 / 5 / 6 - (24/40)
- The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (10/10/10/10, 40 points): The 16th game in Famitsu's 25-year-long history to get a perfect score is also the third Zelda game (after Ocarina of Time and The Wind Waker) to manage the feat, also a record. The praise flowed out in the text as well. "The game world, offering a variety of tricks and content without being too large, is enough to make you lose your sense of time," one editor said. "The battles, featuring enemies that require you to think of a different approach for each one, are also fun. From the puzzles to the fighting, you can feel your knowledge expanding as you go through the adventure, and you can use it in innovative ways whenever you approach something new, which feels fantastic."
Katsuaki Kato, former Weekly Famitsu editor-in-chief and still an occasional contributor, was probably the most ebullient of all reviewers. "I had thought that, in terms of story and content, this game would serve as the new core of the Zelda series," he said. "As I played it, though, I felt it was more a new core for video games, period. It's an amazing climax, like a crystal formed by people spending a dizzying amount of time and effort to mix all these various great things together. Just try it!"
- Metal Gear Solid HD Edition (8/9/9/8 PS3; 8/9/8/8 Xbox 360): The Japanese version of this package doesn't have Peace Walker included, but (on the PS3 only) includes a PSN download code for the PlayStation Metal Gear Solid. "These are games that become more amazing the more time you put into them," Kato wrote, "so having 2 and 3 in HD is something really important, in my opinion. I think the polygon models are the same as before, but the picture quality is definitely up to PS3 standards. With the MGS product code included, you're able to play everything from the original MSX Metal Gear to MGS3: Subsistence in one package, which is a deal I just have to bow my head to."
The point difference between the two versions seems almost entirely due to the lack of this MGS bonus in the Xbox 360 edition. "There's no MGS product code and it doesn't connect with the PS Vita, but otherwise it's basically the same as the PS3 version," Kato noted. "It's not quite the deal the PS3 version is, but still, getting four games plus lots of bonus stuff for this price is nothing to complain about."
- 7th Dragon 2020 (9/9/9/8, 35 points): The sequel to Sega's 2009 PSP RPG is somewhat overshadowed by the other big names coming out this week, but Famitsu liked it well enough nonetheless. "I'm glad they made more of an effort with this sequel to iron over all the annoying parts of the original," one reviewer said. "The battles are speedy and really pleasing to the eye, and the dragon fights have a very delicate balance to them, requiring a firm grasp of classes and skills before you can score very easy victories."
"The system's simple," another added, "but there's a very exciting give-and-take to the battles that keeps your attention. There is a ton of loading, so consider data installation a must here."
- Batman: Arkham City (10/9/9/9, 37 points): The top Western game of this issue, and one that would've won the week's crown if it weren't for that pesky Zelda game. "The gadget-driven puzzle solving and exploration, along with the stealth action and counter-based fighting, are all wonderful features in their own right," Kato wrote. "Putting them all together gives you a really true, complete Batman experience. There are lots of side missions, and you just never get bored with it. Even non-Batman fans should buy it."
"The moves of Batman and his foes, along with the atmosphere of the world around them, really play up the dark charms of the Batman story," another writer said. "Traveling around the open world with your grappling-gun and gliding abilities really feels great. I like how Catwoman is a controllable character, too."
Oh shoot
I love a good rant to start the day. Sounds terrible.
Thanks for the impressions GG. I played the demo so I know exactly what you are talking about with the controls. Just fill us in when you start to explore the world and dungeons see how the game is.
I played the Zelda demo again, I destroyed Girhahim this time. He has a simple pattern once you understand it, I wish they went a bit more action game like with this battle but I suppose that will happen as the game goes on. Fighting the stalfos is a blast. I have noticed some really awesome animations, like when he loses an arm he stares at the stub with his jaw open in shock. With the sword combat there is an issue with trying to get to a starting position, Many enemies require you to start a swing from a certain angle but to get to that starting position you have to move the wiimote and many times it registers that as a sing. So you have to carefully move the wiimote into place before you can do a quick slash, it slows things down. Also having no blocking with the sword kind of sucks, its one of the most fundamental parts of sword fighting, sad they just ignored it.
What happened whilst I was gone? How did you play the demo? Did you mod your wii? Was it easy? Are you planning to get some of the games not availible in the USA now?
I'm off to play zelda again.
yes I did. Read all about it in the Zelda thread. Iga quoted my post so you will see it in one of his posts.
Hey Leo have the Skyrim PS3 slowdowns affected you at all?
Yes. My save file is over 6 Megs and I'm getting stuttering frame rates and unresponsive commands when I am pressing buttons. Apparently, I shouldn't have been leaving weapons, armor and items laying all over the dungeon floors, as this makes the file size grow bigger and bigger, and makes the game move slower and slower.
I just give up. They SWORE up and down that crap like this (that ALSO happened in the Fallout games) wouldn't occur due to the new game engine... and here it is again. Now I see why they delayed sending the PS3 review copies out for a few days. It takes a few days time for these problems to start to appear. Worst thing of all is: Elder Scrolls games are made for extended playing, but the more you play this one, the larger the save files get and the worse the game performs. Lump on top of that Bethesda historically fixing PC and 360 first and then maybe getting to the PS3 eventually... if at all... fuck 'em! I'm done!