Random Gaming Thoughts II ~News Items Beware~

mas wrote:

new IP in Horizon: Zero Dawn which may turn out be to be shite but I doubt it.

Nah, No man's sky has the shiter category covered.

NMS remains one of my most anticipated games, I'm hoping the reason it's coming in June is because of VR as the thought of playing that in VR is just amazing.

Forgot about NMS when covering the megatons... That had fallen out of megaton status by this year's E3. Nice-looking world, gameplay still so unclear as to be ignorable.

At first I didn't agree with those that said NMS is releasing too late now for many to care but now, not so much. People keep forgetting it's a thing, Sony will have to do something magical to get the interest back again now.

June is E3, release right after the E3 conference which would be huge they'll be like to all the people at home that can't be here today we've got something special for you and out now is No Man's Sky.

"You can download it now! (before all the reviews come out and everyone knows it isn't very fun to play)"

NMS still looks incredible and I am very excited for it

I just don't think it's the kind of game with mass-market appeal. I love Proteus, for example, and I think it will fill that same explorative niche. I think the issue is lots of people got excited for it thinking it will be a game that it's not. The COD crowd won't enjoy it, from everything I've seen. But that's not a bad thing.

Also The Last Guardian will be amazing don't lie

I don't get why TLG is meant to be so amazing. Ico was awful, SOTC was decent. This is a game that has taken so long to come out it has skipped a gen. Whilst this may have been mindblowing back when it should've come out I'm just not sure it's anything that special these days.

Emotional experiences are widely spread and are more interesting than the inevitable boy befriends beast - boy does puzzles with beast - beast saves boys life - beast dies - maybe we're the monsters, not the monsters!

Don't get me wrong, I'll play it and probably enjoy it, I'm just way more excited for most other games.

andyman949 wrote:

Ico was awful, SOTC was decent.

ban request

Ico and SOTC are two of the best games ever made

I concur with OR.

I think Andy like Drunka played SotC first which makes ICO seem not as good as it really is.

But the 2 aren't similar games. Ico does not have good gameplay, I had to give up as I was so bored/fed up.

They do play different but they have that Team ICO feel to them which I reckon that TLG will have.

It's one of the reasons I'm excited for TLG as ICO & SotC maybe are the best PS2 exclusive games and maybe overall best and was one of the reasons I kept the PS2 around.

But there's a more exciting game coming from a better PS2 exclusive series

I am excited for that but my hype for TLG is over 9000.

I hope we see it at PSX but they did say reason wasn't at TGS or PGW because they don't want to spoil the game by showing any more than they have.

Because it'll only be 4 hours long

OrangeRakoon wrote:

NMS still looks incredible and I am very excited for it

I just don't think it's the kind of game with mass-market appeal. I love Proteus, for example, and I think it will fill that same explorative niche. I think the issue is lots of people got excited for it thinking it will be a game that it's not. The COD crowd won't enjoy it, from everything I've seen. But that's not a bad thing.

Also The Last Guardian will be amazing don't lie

I'd really like NMS to be good as I'm right into sci-fi & exploring in games but they've just missed the boat for me now, also continually showing the same gameplay scenario over & over worries me that it lacks substance.

andyman949 wrote:

But there's a more exciting game coming from a better PS2 exclusive series

Is that Charles Martinet doing the voice over for the trailer & that galactic ranger dude?

Length doesn't matter if those 4hrs are perfect.

As far as I know Qwark hasn't changed voice actor so I don't think so.

I didn't say it was an issue, I was saying there's nothing left to show off, we've seen most of it.

andyman949 wrote:

But the 2 aren't similar games. Ico does not have good gameplay, I had to give up as I was so bored/fed up.

Well if you never finished the game, of course you don't rate it as highly as you should. You missed out on that ending!

The puzzles work great if you ask me, I can't really fault the gameplay. Yes the combat is barebones, but it's not a game about combat. The combat is there more to support the narrative and provide the necessary threat.

I also think the two /are/ very similar games. Stylistically they are very close (they are clearly both Team Ico games), they are both puzzle games at their core, and they both have a strong gameplay-driven narrative with artistic and emotional evocations.

If you were to ask me to give examples of videogames as art, Ico and SOTC would both be up there (along with MGS2, Flower, Journey. Braid, Proteus, Portal, Papers Please, etc.)

Ico has not aged well. On the other hand, SotC is bloody good.

By all means, people can justifiably harp on about its overall narrative and level design, but Ico controls worse than a Reliant Robin on an icy bend.

There are several instances where players are required to make quite precise jumps, having to leap from punishingly specific points to reach the next platform, or stand on very specific point so that the pale lass can hop over. Those moments aren't exactly few and far between either, cropping up enough to be a significant nuisance.

I managed to get as far as a sequence where a bridge collapsed, and I was plunged into a watery cavern with a bunch of wooden cogs and platforms to climb up. From memory, I typically managed to get one step further each time I failed until a particularly nefarious jump from one moving platform to another. After failing that the fourth or fifth time, with each failure necessitating a long swim back to the starting position some two or three minutes worth of jumping away, I turned off the console and never looked back.

I can't stand games that demand accuracy and completely fail to provide the tools with which to consistently achieve said accuracy. Unless one is absolutely enamored with the other stuff Ico does, I wouldn't bother with it - even if it comes with its younger brother.

On the other hand, Shadow of Colossus, while still a little janky, at least had the decency to handle responsibly more often than not, while throwing in a roster of cracking Colossi. Without going into it too much, that game combined superb boss design, a thoughtful open world that served to further the game's narrative and not just provide a bunch of pointless busy work, and a simple but well told story into one compelling package.

Ultimately, if one walked into the bar and met both Shadow of the Colossus and Ico there, then Shadow would be able to hold an interesting conversation, whereas Ico, for as many interesting ideas as it may come up with, is already too pissed to tell them in an engaging fashion.

Yacht Games and HAL Labortary better be working on some sort of Shovel Knight/Meta Knight crossover.

They're deliberately doing a Kirby/ Plague Knight crossover that features no mention of those two, just to be awkward.

Right you may of seen PS2 classics are now on PS4, I chat about the ones I'm playing in the retro thread.

What I wanted to to talk about is the people moaning that PS2 discs don't work as it's a emulation and the Xbox One emulates a 360 and you can use your 360 games even though that's rather different, I feel.

Then there's PS2 games on PS3 which you can buy and they don't transfer over, that this is lead people to moan about having to buy PS2 classics.

I do feel there tad expensive, I would of liked to see the platinum trophy ones at £9.99 and the non ones at £7.99 but compared to Nintendo's pricing of VC games it's about right though, what Sony has set the price to and they are up-rendered in 1080p and trophies that it's not just heres the game like how it was.

This is how I'm looking at PS2 classics like the VC, I've must of bought SMB3 god knows how many times yet and so have loads of others yet I've not seen anyone go the Wii U should play NES cartridges or more about that upgrade cost if you do have on Wii and move over which can be a pain or like me couldn't because of my hacked Wii.

What yours thoughts?