ViewtifulJC
Banned
there ain't no gettin' off this train we're on
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Sonic the Hedgehog Community |OT2 Battle|
- Thread starter Professor Beef
- Start date
- Status
there ain't no gettin' off this train we're on
Dark Schala
Eloquent Princess
Beef, did you buy the flower from qq more?
Who are you planning on dating? JC, qq more, tiggerkiddo, or me?
Who are you planning on dating? JC, qq more, tiggerkiddo, or me?
Oh yeah, definitely. 2012 was just a poor showing for me in general, so much so that I had to scrounge around to make a list.
It kind of blows my mind that some were saying that last year was the best year in years.
qq more is an easy girl, I wouldn't be surprised if he ends dating her.
Last year was the perfect time to clear backlogs or discover old gems, so it wasn't that bad after all...
Professor Beef
Banned
I didn't trust the random beggar girl who tried to get me to buy one of her hippie flowers. She was probably going to use the money on drugs or some shit.
And I've decided to use Team Old-School for the majority of the game, which means Tifa/Schala and Barret/JC, since I've never really used them...ever.
Seven Force
Banned
I hear she's the slum drunk!
Dark Schala
Eloquent Princess
This might possibly the worst opinion I've stated here, but as I'm replaying Chapter 5 in Uncharted 1 for a treasure I missed, I can't help but to think that I liked Assassin's Creed's building platforming a little better. And AC's platforming isn't super-interesting out of the parkour (well, okay, I like AC's platforming quite a bit; sorry).
But that's mostly because I loved the locales that I had to scale and climb. >.>
Speaking of which, I keep saying that I'm going to invest in some weights and I never do it.
But that's mostly because I loved the locales that I had to scale and climb. >.>
Bags of milk are pretty neat, you know. Try chocolate milk in bags. Ohhhhh, yes. And you might as well try poutine there, but I don't like it much. Too fattening, and I try not to ingest too many calories if I've worked out/am about to workout.
Speaking of which, I keep saying that I'm going to invest in some weights and I never do it.
And 2010 was pretty freaking awesome too.
Professor Beef
Banned
I wouldn't say that's the worst thing you've said.
If you're playing Uncharted for the platforming, then you're doing it wrong. Also, you probably should have just skipped to 2 as it's easily the best one of the trilogy.
Nocturnowl
Member
Damning with faint praise right here, though I did get to tackle the likes of Mega Man X/X2, Shinobi 3 and Final Fantasy 6 to name a few last year so I guess I can let it slide
Well buildings in Assasin's Creed can give you choice in how you start scaling them being open world and all, plus the various Assassin's have more abilities to increase variety in the more linear platforming sections.
Uncharted is one of those search for the glowy ledge deals and if I go any further i'm going to start ranting about this style of "platforming".
There's one area in 2 that's at least tries to put some stronger twists on this brand of platforming but in the end it still feels horribly automatic.
I will go as far as to say that 2010 was the best year of the generation for me.
ViewtifulJC
Banned
Every three years games are awesome, I've noticed. '98, '01, '04, '07, '10. It was only natural '13 would be damn fine so far. TLOU alone was better than anything I've played in 2012, but I'm also a big fan of Bioshock Infinite and Metal Gear Rising, along other solid titles like Guacamelee and Call of Juarez: Gunslinger. I might actually be inspired to do some tomes at GotY time.
Dark Schala
Eloquent Princess
I'm playing Uncharted 1 for the story because I want to know why Nate, Sully, etc. are presumably some of the best characters from this generation, but I have to look at it as a game tooooooooo (it's honestly impossible not to even though it has cinematic design). I'd like to see how big the jump from UC1 to UC2 is, and now that I know they've fixed the grenade throwing in UC2, that's nice. If they fixed the pacing in UC2, that'd be great; sometimes I feel like chapters overstay their welcome.
You might be right about the AC version of platforming. I was honestly thinking of the giant climb up the Castel Sant'Angelo in AC:Brotherhood, and some of the platforming you had to do in the Duomo (AC2) and a few other places, where there just seemed to be multiple paths/ways to tackle it until it becomes one particular way to do it successfully. Even AC3 had that huge tree to climb (but even then I didn't feel like the architecture in that game didn't lend itself to platforming very much outside of the tree stuff).
Yeah, 2011 and 2010 were two of the best years of this generation for me. Period. 2010, moreso because I had 20+ games to choose from when I wrote a GotY list (off of GAF). It was so damn hard to choose.
For some reason, I keep forgetting that Guacamelee came out this year even though I've played it a bunch. Great game.
...Wait, what's the worst thing I've said then?
No, actually; go ahead and talk about the style of platforming in terms of that because I'm curious. I might agree with you in the long run. The thing about UC's platforming is that I feel like I don't have to try so far.
You might be right about the AC version of platforming. I was honestly thinking of the giant climb up the Castel Sant'Angelo in AC:Brotherhood, and some of the platforming you had to do in the Duomo (AC2) and a few other places, where there just seemed to be multiple paths/ways to tackle it until it becomes one particular way to do it successfully. Even AC3 had that huge tree to climb (but even then I didn't feel like the architecture in that game didn't lend itself to platforming very much outside of the tree stuff).
Yeah, 2011 and 2010 were two of the best years of this generation for me. Period. 2010, moreso because I had 20+ games to choose from when I wrote a GotY list (off of GAF). It was so damn hard to choose.
For some reason, I keep forgetting that Guacamelee came out this year even though I've played it a bunch. Great game.
Professor Beef
Banned
Your DKC-related SLANDER, of course. >:|
This is truth.
Nocturnowl
Member
Coming to think of it I have no idea why I like Sully as much as I do, for me he far outshines the other characters because he's like an awesome old man who rocks a moustache, yeah that must be it.
You know i'm not entirely sure where what I could call the scenery traversing style of platforming originated from, Ico is one of the earlier examples I can think of, games like the PS2 gen Prince of Persia games seemed to help popularize the style and greatly expanded upon it, i'd say that the Assassin's Creed style is derived from Ubisoft's own PoP games just less demanding.
But yeah it really exploded into being a thing in this generation with certain games using it a supplement to diversify their gameplay, yet for the most part it got greatly toned down in how much it demanded timing and jump placement, be it Uncharted, Enslaved or even crud like Damnation, it's a style that really got around, hell even formerly stricter platforming heavy series like Castelvania and Tomb Raider could not escape.
Now speaking of Uncharted in particular, it made the scenery scaling, fingertip shifting shenanigans a core part of its package to break up the various shoot outs, problem is it's been toned down to the point it's barely platforming at all, instead it's basically a slow and fixed way of moving from point a to point b that doesn't really ask much of the player at all. Now it's been a while since I played Uncharted 1 so I can't remember how frequently it abused the following trope but Uncharted 2 and ESPECIALLY 3 abuse the crumbling platform set piece. You start moving across a ledge but shock horror! the ledge behind where you just were starts crumbling, my word if you stand still gawking for like 10 seconds and don't move it might just cause you to fall to your grisly death, the reality here is that there is no real threat, the platforming only requires you to hold the stick in the direction the convenient ledge outcroppings indicate and if you need to jump then you wait for Drake to glance over at the next ledge once your stick can take you no further alone and tap the win button to snap straight over to the ledge, oh and that ledge you were just on probably crumbled into the ocean to give the illusion that it was a close call.
So what we can take away from this is that the platforming is almost automatic where death is something you almost have to invite yourself, the point of platforming is removed, the act of climbing a wall basically becomes a fancier looking way of a character moving up a ladder in overall execution.
But that's not the only problem with this, see you've got these paths that blend into the scenery, it's not always clear leaving the designers in a tricky state of having to either coat the relevant walls in luminous glow so you can actually tell where you're supposed to be going or they go without and you possibly get stuck wondering just which one of the bits of scenery is actually scalable, the latter can lead to confusion and one of the few ways you might actually die as you jump into a cliff face but it wasn't the one correct cliff face with the fingertip grip, the moss just looked like it might be graspable but oh well. So either your path is obvious or unclear, to combat this most routes are just linear, wrap all this up together and you've got something that doesn't ask much of the player at all, it may break up the monotony of continuous gunfights but the actual platforming is not worth touting from a gameplay standpoint.
When it comes down to it Uncharted really just wants you to just take in its lovely looking sights and not challenge the player, in 3 you scale a shipyard while the camera pans all over the place setting an impressive visual yet the actual gameplay here is anything but. It bugs me here in particular because even that turd Damnation gave the player various options in how to travel across its hap hazard maps. The real kicker for me is that Drakes' jumping ability literally changes depending on the situations like each big leap is context sensitive, you may look at a jump and think that old Nate's legs just don't have enough spring on this occasion but then you jump and the animation is completely different as he soars majestically over and lands in a scripted fashion, probably falling through a floor. Even his ability to take drops from ledges changes, I tried to take a shortcut in a certain platforming heavy area of Uncharted 2, took a drop that in normal combat areas would simply to a bit of damage to Drake's regenerating kneecaps and instead died because I strayed off their cinematic path, how dare I!
I'd be amiss if I didn't mention that the series makes some nice use of the scenery scaling in a select few gunfights, whether its getting a height advantage or using a signpost as cover while hanging from it. Set Pieces really come into play in 2 and 3 and while the whole varying jump distance comes returns in full force in these sections it at least looks impressive and might trick you into thinking that you did something awesome.
But what it all boils down to is that this type of platforming in Uncharted specifically is linear, fixed, has no actual consistency and often tries to pretend it presents a threat to the player with ledge shaking shenanigans to such ridiculous levels that the Chateau in Uncharted 3 is almost outright comedic in its levels of silliness and scripted leaps that you're destined to "fail" so Drake falls into a situations of cinematic Peril. Oh and Drake himself is limited in abilities just to really hit the point home and limit the variety, no cool tricks aside from his super finger tip strength.
Professor Beef
Banned
Of course.
I'll probably get to it tomorrow.
Meccanical
Member
I hope Naughty Dog can turn Uncharted into an actual action/adventure game next gen instead of just a pretty third person shooter with brain dead puzzles thrown in.
Not gonna happen.
Im not going to write a similar post so can you all read this and tell me what you all think will happen? http://m.neogaf.com/showpost.php?p=68441121
That is very similar to what Inafune has said about Mega Man in Brawl...
Iizuka could be just covering up, though. But who knows, Sonic was added later in Brawl, which caused the delay I think? It would be stupid for Sega and Nintendo to not include Sonic in Smash 4.
I hope not.
There's a lot they can do with Sonic in the new game with these cutscenes and the inclusion of Mega Man. They could improve his skill set as well.I hope not.
Same here. Sonic was a fun addition even if he was weak in Brawl. He actually made the dull lifeless SSE kind of fun.
Here, read this post. It made me feel better http://m.neogaf.com/showpost.php?p=68443936
Dark Schala
Eloquent Princess
I'm gonna have to snip your post a bit Nocturnowl, because there are a few things I want to touch upon that I agree with.
(Can't participate in Smash Bros discussion because I've only played the first and no matter what these guys tell me, I'm not going to play one until maybe the 3DS version comes out.)
As I've said in the past, this is the the sort of design philosophy I like. And yeah, I'm saying this in a Sonic thread, a series that fixates itself a little more on style over substance especially in terms of boss fights, but even then, you're still made to platform with accuracy and in tune with your speed. You'd think they'd go more with cinematic design, but that just takes away from the game overall and simply is not demonstrative of player skill.
Than again, like BHZ Mayor said, if I'm playing Uncharted as a test of platforming skill, I shouldn't be. That's not what the design philosophy is about when it comes to that game. I'm a little disappointed, but I guess I should try to turn my brain off while I play some of these? Again, the second one--as many many many people have told me--is supposed to be designed better. Alberto was telling me that I should skip on to 2 if 1 outstays its welcome, but I think I'm okay with trying to get through to the end.
Nate does have neat tricks. Like not taking fall damage when I suspect him to do so or jumping distances I don't expect him to jump. It's kinda disjointed for me.
(Can't participate in Smash Bros discussion because I've only played the first and no matter what these guys tell me, I'm not going to play one until maybe the 3DS version comes out.)
I associate this with the greater emphasis on cinematic design, just so the game could keep up a decent pace and genuine movie-scene-like flow. However, in terms of being designed as a platformer, it generally feels lacking because the game is centred around pacing a narrative well as opposed to pacing gameplay well. Sometimes I feel as though these bullet / shooting sequences just overstay their welcome because they keep firing enemies at you often. It's platforming section--fight dudes--platforming section--fight dudes--maybe solve an easy puzzle or two--platforming section--fight dudes.
As I've said in the past, this is the the sort of design philosophy I like. And yeah, I'm saying this in a Sonic thread, a series that fixates itself a little more on style over substance especially in terms of boss fights, but even then, you're still made to platform with accuracy and in tune with your speed. You'd think they'd go more with cinematic design, but that just takes away from the game overall and simply is not demonstrative of player skill.
Than again, like BHZ Mayor said, if I'm playing Uncharted as a test of platforming skill, I shouldn't be. That's not what the design philosophy is about when it comes to that game. I'm a little disappointed, but I guess I should try to turn my brain off while I play some of these? Again, the second one--as many many many people have told me--is supposed to be designed better. Alberto was telling me that I should skip on to 2 if 1 outstays its welcome, but I think I'm okay with trying to get through to the end.
Uncharted 1 certainly does have those crumbling ledges, though it doesn't seem to be in spades as you seem to think UC2/3 have. I completely agree. Those ledges just don't seem to enforce that anything is at stake platformer-wise, nor does it seem to drive the cinematic nature of the platforming (though that may be because I know otherwise?). But yeah, you have a point when relating it to climbing a ladder.
This happened to me just now too. I was climbing something, figured I'd go to the other side instead of the side they wanted me to go, and poof. I don't know why some of these abilities that Nate has seem to be context-sensitive. It leads to inconsistency, and sometimes it's confusing when I look at a ledge, think I can't jump it because it doesn't look like it fits Nate's jumping animations at all, and then surprise! He succeeds jumping the ledge because it's cinematic platforming. Now if Nate needed to fashion something to jump the ledge or use some sort of equipment to brave the jump, then I would've been, alright! That makes sense. It would hamper the flow in a cinematic sense, but it would lead to less confusion on my part as a player who can't properly evaluate the physics of his jumps because they keep on changing.
That's kinda what I'm feeling in the first game here. I'm not sure about UC3 or 2, but I guess I'm in for the same kinda stuff when I proceed to the next games here? I see ledge-shaking a bit here, but not often. I don't feel as though I'm in a predicament because I know I'll succeed the platforming section as they present little threat to me.
Nate does have neat tricks. Like not taking fall damage when I suspect him to do so or jumping distances I don't expect him to jump. It's kinda disjointed for me.
At least Uncharted lets you leap to your death if you want to leap into a deadly chasm. I'll take that over the awful trend of only allowing jumping in pre-determined spots.
Uhh...
Uhh...
Professor Beef
Banned
Yeeeeeees, the Shinra staircase scene.
EDIT: JC is getting mad at Shinra just because they made a tall building. smh
EDIT: JC is getting mad at Shinra just because they made a tall building. smh
Box of Bunnies
Banned
Dark Schala
Eloquent Princess
Canada's like America, only Frenchier, more multilingual, and greener. :3c
You'd hear people slipping into their native languages and accents everywhere anyway. I'd slip into my Trinidadian accent so fast when I speak to my parents on good terms, and start spinning around Patois and Trinidiadian English in various places for instance, haha.
Someone tell JC to stop complaining about stairs in office buildings.
You'd hear people slipping into their native languages and accents everywhere anyway. I'd slip into my Trinidadian accent so fast when I speak to my parents on good terms, and start spinning around Patois and Trinidiadian English in various places for instance, haha.
Someone tell JC to stop complaining about stairs in office buildings.
Shadow Hog
Member
"Where do these stairs go?"
"They go up."
...
"Where are we?"
"Looks like we're in the teens... somewhere."
"Well, when we get to twenty, tell me... I'm gonna throw up."
Meccanical
Member
Been peepin' that Dream Team soundtrack, does this song remind anyone of Chrono Cross.
Or any 90's JRPG for that matter, makes me all nostalgic.
Or any 90's JRPG for that matter, makes me all nostalgic.
Dark Schala
Eloquent Princess
EDIT: Happy birthday, Blazey-Blaze/Sega1991! I ain't postin' the cake because Nocturnowl's birthday's in like three days and I think we're going to celebrate a ton of July birthdays anyway!
I hope you have a good day, and get a buncha stuff that's practical to you despite your laptop going kaput.
I hope you have a good day, and get a buncha stuff that's practical to you despite your laptop going kaput.
Reminds me of Shimomura's work in Legend of Mana/Radiant Historia, tbh.
PhantomOfTheKnight
Member
Woot Steins;Gate.
How many people here have Steam?
How many people here have Steam?
I mainly use Steam as a method of chatting with friends, but I'm also slowly building a game library for when I get a Gaming PC soon.
Me. I'm very pleased about the news as well.
Dark Schala
Eloquent Princess
Steins;Gate is one of the best visual novels out there and everyone who's interested in visual novels should play it. Its writing is really good, and the characterization in it is fantastic. I've been eyeing this for a long time, though: http://www.play-asia.com/SteinsGate_Double_Pack/paOS-13-71-1ab-49-en-70-5nah.html. I've wanted it forever (okay, since March), but it's so pricey. I keep saying to myself, "Schala, please; you imported Time Travelers for $60 last year. Import this because it's two games and comes with a fancy-shmancy case."
Too many things I've wanted to import lately. If I don't import Tales of Symphonia HD this year (which seems more likely), I'll get somethin' else for Vita. There was a Vita port of a PS2 Otome game I'd wanted, but it's $60+. And there's the Fate/Stay Night Realta Nua thing, too. But I keep holding out that it's going to be localized one day. On that note, I'm incredibly surprised that Tokushu Houdoubu hasn't been localized yet.
Too many Vita games I want, man.
Edit: You know, I should just import Radiant Mythology 3 finally and be done with it since I heard it's the best one. It's $30 now. FFType-0 is something I've been sitting on for a while, too; but Bebpo's impressions of it, and my experience with the demo, make it sound like it has the shallowest combat ever. [insert Corvo shouting "NO" at me here]
Too many things I've wanted to import lately. If I don't import Tales of Symphonia HD this year (which seems more likely), I'll get somethin' else for Vita. There was a Vita port of a PS2 Otome game I'd wanted, but it's $60+. And there's the Fate/Stay Night Realta Nua thing, too. But I keep holding out that it's going to be localized one day. On that note, I'm incredibly surprised that Tokushu Houdoubu hasn't been localized yet.
Too many Vita games I want, man.
Edit: You know, I should just import Radiant Mythology 3 finally and be done with it since I heard it's the best one. It's $30 now. FFType-0 is something I've been sitting on for a while, too; but Bebpo's impressions of it, and my experience with the demo, make it sound like it has the shallowest combat ever. [insert Corvo shouting "NO" at me here]
Professor Beef
Banned
I actually managed to get Beta as soon as I got to the Chocobo Farm. I have a feeling things are gonna be pretty easy from this point onwards.
I was seriously disappointed in Uncharted because a friend told me to get it because it had a lot of platforming. There's no platforming in Uncharted.
I'll buy Steins;Gate as long as it isn't one of those dumb high school love romance harem pick your waifu what does it mean to love late for school--run out of house with toast in mouth stories.
I'll buy Steins;Gate as long as it isn't one of those dumb high school love romance harem pick your waifu what does it mean to love late for school--run out of house with toast in mouth stories.
Nocturnowl
Member
Brace yourself for many a gunned down fellow, there's a reason we have people joking about Drake being a cold callous slaughterer of millions, the balance of gameplay styles in the series never gets handled particularly well but I can say that 2 has some pretty good pacing almost all the way through though towards the end it sort of succumbed to the enemy endurance run. 3 looked to be handling the variety of styles rather well at first, there were even a decent amount of puzzles but it turned out the game was just front loaded with this stuff and about half way through it simply decided that gunfights were all it needed, now with awful enemy placement and arenas designed to make your life a living hell of explosives.
Of course I could open another can of worms talking about the games shootouts but i'll leave that aside for now. As for how to view the platforming, take it in as a lovely scenery view simulator, that's what I did for 3 earlier this year and it kind of works for the first go around at least.
Funny you should mention driving the cinematic nature of the platforming, maybe once again the first game was just light on this angle but thinking of the sequels that's exactly how I would describe the approach to the everything is breaking angle, the very first thing you'll do in 2 is basically one big cinematic kerfuffle.
Not really much else for me to add on this point but since there's going to be more of this jump inconsistency a good way of judging the more questionable jumps is to see if Drake takes note of an object/handhold, if he's looking at something or moving his arm in its direction odds are that's the next mark to hit.
The core is the same but each one still feels pretty distinct in their own way, in fact I can actually make a parallel to the DKC games with this series.
The first is basic and the most repetitive but lays the groundwork that the series works from.
The second is the one that's considered a massive improvement and refines a lot of the formula.
The third is the one that goes overboard with gimmicks trying to match up to the second.
It's uncanny! you can go even further with both series emphasis on presentation/visuals or how their actual mechanics are pretty basic for their genre...wait what did i just say about my beloved DKC? scratch that last one!
An odd point but it's true that they could have put up invisible walls over cliff edges to prevent the player from partaking in the joy that can only come from throwing the character off to a rocky demise, sometimes it's the small things that count.
Hey that's not so classified information, i'm surprised you remembered, or reminded yourself at least, even my best friend thought my birthday was today and not on the 9th so that's certainly something.EDIT: Happy birthday, Blazey-Blaze/Sega1991! I ain't postin' the cake because Nocturnowl's birthday's in like three days and I think we're going to celebrate a ton of July birthdays anyway!
I hope you have a good day, and get a buncha stuff that's practical to you despite your laptop going kaput.
Oh and happy birthday to our name shifting fellow, i'll just lump them together as Blaze1991, we can share the terror cake as long as I get the face.
Looks like you got swerved brother.
One day I want to witness that last trope in real life, preferably through a business man, briefcase in hand, toast in mouth, tie flapping in the wind as they're gunning for the bus stop.
Steins;Gate is like the furthest thing from that.
To elaborate on the odd point, despite how infamous Uncharted is for movie setpieces, Naughty Dog does a good job in making the player feel in control of what happens during them. Where other games would take control away from the player just for dramatic effect, Uncharted has you pressing all the buttons to do all the stunts. If I feel like climbing up a cliff and then leaping down to my death, ND don't put invisible walls to stop me from doing so. If I want to let this truck run me over just to see what happens, the truck won't slow down while Drake keeps running forward at a slower pace. If I get crowded by 30 dudes who I have to take out with stealth and shootin', I do it all on my own. It's as "gamelike" as I can imagine one making a hollywood-esque blockbuster without stopping the player and taking control away to do cool shit every 5 seconds.
(I haven't played UC3 so this opinion isn't including that one.)
(I haven't played UC3 so this opinion isn't including that one.)
Lightning Lord
Banned
Okay, so yesterday I finished up my run of Ace Attorney, so for this weekend I am finally going to do what I've been saying I was going to do for a while now, and replay Chrono Trigger. It's been years since I have played it, but if my memory serves me correctly, it's like FFVI and you can rename the party members, so I figure I do a SonicGAF run of the game.
So who wants to be who? 'Cept Crono, 'cause that's gonna be me, natch.
So who wants to be who? 'Cept Crono, 'cause that's gonna be me, natch.
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