What game are you playing?

[Mikero]

I have been playing A Link To The Past.
Bit easy.

Breath Of Fire after that.

[saldite]

Finally played through Batman: Arkham City after owning it for the better part of a year. I liked it well enough, but I think I preferred the more tight-nit layout of the first game over the sprawling city of this one. My favorite part was the Museum mostly because it reminded me of AA. I wouldn't necessarily get rid of the larger city idea, but I'd like larger "levels", so to speak, where the action takes place, as opposed to having the major areas of progression being small buildings with only three or four rooms before having to go to the next. All in all, though, I thought it was a really good game.

Now I just have to collect all the Riddler's ##### and finish up the two or three sidequests I have left.

After this, I think I'm going to be going through Lunar - Silver Star Story; either the PS1 or PSP version. I've had copies of both since high school, but I usually stop sometime after making little progress because I end up getting unexpectedly busy.

[Mikero]

I like the open concept but the game mechanics didn't adapt. Batman lumbers around like a Mary Shelly character so much in those games that the second you land anywhere in Arkham City you feel nearly as claustrophobic as in Arkham Asylum except you usually have an easy way to run off.

It was really odd in that regard. I liked the free roam a lot, but it pointed out the flaws in the series' motion that I was able to ignore in the first game. Admittedly the first game IS clunkier, but it didn't seem to matter as much.

It's possible that if the actual levels where you ACCOMPLISH stuff were larger it would fix it.

But the scope that Arkham City brought kinda made up for it for me. They could have gone farther with it but it was great that you could stumble upon things, especially villains that were just doing their own thing, unrelated to the main plot line.

Catwoman looked good.

After this, I think I'm going to be going through Lunar - Silver Star Story; either the PS1 or PSP version. I've had copies of both since high school, but I usually stop sometime after making little progress because I end up getting unexpectedly busy.

All-time great.

I dot know much about the PSP version but PS version is fly as hell.

[Johncarllos]

I'm currently working on Borderlands 2.

I'm spending 4 days on the road next week though, staying in a hotel each night. Should get about 70 hours of work in.

I wish I had more time to game but hell, I'm content with making crazy money and getting fit while doing it.

Don't know if I told you guys, I work for a moving company for this summer. 12 hour days of lugging boxes and furniture is great for my health.

[Yubi Shines]

I started Dragon Age: Origins (played a lady/warrior/dwarf commoner) a few months ago, then picked it up again and blitzed through it in the last couple of weeks.

I tell you what, marathoning it like that makes you really tired of the robotic NPC body language, really fast.

Once I finish the Awakening DLC I guess I'll get to Dragon Age 2, though I'm not looking forward to it -- for some bizarre reason DA2's faces aren't as good as DA:O's, particularly in the eyebrows. On the other hand, DA:O had Leliana's awful, awful mouth animations.

[Johncarllos]

Origins was boring as all #####, I beat it in a week or so. I wouldn't ever want to play it again.

[NovaMan XP]

First time I played through it, I hated it.

2nd time I loved it, I must've been doing something wrong.

It does have some pretty bland parts though (The Fade, and some parts of Orzammar).

Dragon Age II is a lot more fun combat wise, but the story is pretty meh at the end.

I'm actually playing through Origins again, started a mage playthrough earlier this year and have been slowly playing through it.

[Speed Racer]

I'm playing X-men: Destiny, which is a very "meh" game. I think it would've been passable on original Xbox...it feels like a budget title on the 360.

[ASR]

animal crossing on 3ds!!! friend code me 5284-1403-9393

[NovaMan XP]

I am also playing this crossing of the animals.

3DS Code: 3480-2635-0827

[Mikero]

Animal Crossing on 3DS looks TOO #####ing good, but they've burned me twice with that property and I shant get caught again, I say!
.. Well maybe.

Anyway yeah, Dragon Age sucked. I recently started listening to an audio version of the first Wheel of Time novel and it looks like BioWare copied some concepts from it for Dragon Age. I haven't gone back to the book in a while.

I've been playing the first InFamous because we got a second hand PS3 with it on. It's pretty #####ing bland so far and in the future I must remember what Flavor Flav told us; "Don't believe the hype."

Also playing A Link To The Past, and I expect to start Breath Of Fire and some replays of Lunar (found out the other day it works on this PS3) and San Andreas soon.

I have a couple 3DS games on the go too, but it's my girlfriends 3DS so I haven't been playing much.

I've not been excited about new games lately.

[Majikn]

When you say they burned you twice, what are you referring to? Just by how much it sucks you in?
Just curious. I haven't even played an Animal Crossing game myself but almost all of the 3DS Nintendo games have been pretty enticing for me. I'm not excited either, but I'm impressed as to the sheer quantity of actual viable releases.

My PS3 has InFamous, because it was a free download from when Sony got hacked.
I STILL haven't touched it and I have never had any intention of doing so, but I got it for free and left it out for other people to play.

I'm thinking of starting up Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon. I've had it for a while now, but I've wanted to eschew gaming in favour of other things.

[NovaMan XP]

I got inFamous 2 because of PS Plus, played it for about an hour or two.. it's really nothing special at all.

The first boss fight is incredibly tedious as well, even after switching it to easy it just drags on and the boss still manages to insta-kill you with no effort.

The new one they're releasing on PS4 doesn't even look any less bland either...

[Mikero]

When you say they burned you twice, what are you referring to? Just by how much it sucks you in?

It is an interpolation of that with the way it becomes a job. Like it's awesome for the first bit, I love it, but you get to a point rather quickly where you play it only because you have to. And when you start designing your own gear you lose any desire to get the premade stuff and half the game's drive flies out the window.

And also there's just a problem I have with most games that have an internalized clock; I don't like that the game is playing without me, and is actively #####ing me over because it's jealous of my actual career and life.

In Animal Crossing games characters will actually get pissed off at you if you don't go see them at specific times, some of which are like 7AM. This can lead your favourite characters to leaving and being replaced by some ugly chicken or something, and you have to start whole new relationships. It's a good system while you can keep up the day to day play, but if you ever take time off then you are penalized so you can never really be casual with it.

That said, I love Animal Crossing.

[Speed Racer]

Guys, the Steam Summer sale is going on now. Three days in (and it runs for another week or so), and I picked up:

The Dig
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Just Cause
Just Cause 2
The Last Remnant
Loom
To The Moon
Tomb Raider
Tomb Raider II
Tomb Raider III: Adventures of Lara Croft
Tomb Raider IV: The Last Revelation
Tomb Raider V: Chronicles
Tomb Raider VI: The Angel of Darkness
Tomb Raider: Anniversary
Tomb Raider: Legend

[Johncarllos]

JUST CAUSE 2 IS AMAZING.

I just realized that I missed the multiplayer beta test this weekend

I've purchased Tomb Raider, so far.

Recently beat Bioshock Infinite.

Currently playing Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon.

[Speed Racer]

Anybody need the Tomb Raider card? I'm looking to trade it for the Football Manager 2013, Bioshock Infinite, or Prison Architect cards.

[Johncarllos]

I have the bioshock infinite card.

I'm Johncarllos on Steam.

I don't even know what the cards are for, I'll just give it to you.

[Winged Warrior]

Sell them for 15 cents or so, That way you can curb some of the costs of the games.

[Johncarllos]

sillyness.

[Majikn]

Hefty steam prices getting me down.

I'm playing MegaMan Unlimited, which is hard. It's a hard game. I can't even tell if it's broken because I can't even get equipped with any reverse-engineered dead robot parts.
Really, so far it's not nearly as awful as Street Fighter x MegaMan.

Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon is fantastic. I don't even need to say any more words.

Also, I was enticed by the 30 dollar eShop credit where you get it from registering Shin Megami Tensei 4 and Fire Emblem Awakening. This made me reconsider my choice not to get those games. I'm still not sold on SMTIV, it's probably alright but ultimately not my thing.
However, I'm willing to give Fire Emblem a chance, so... if someone has SMTIV and doesn't want to get Fire Emblem, I'll send them my code for 10 dollars. You'll get 30 dollars in credit for registering them both by a certain time and that's basically a 20 dollar rebate on your one game. I'll save ten on mine.
But who am I kidding, you all probably already have Fire Emblem anyway.

[Mikero]

Deus Ex Human Revolution is pretty orange but also pretty cool.

[Abominator]

I've been quite reserved on the sale this time, I've got a crazy amount of unplayed PC games already so I'm only getting things that are 75% off or more...

[Johncarllos]

Deux Ex is a good game to play through once. I had an okay time with it, the bosses were tough, and it was about a 20 hour game.

I was evenly split between stealth and murdertime funtime.

Easy stealth, I did. Tough stealth, like the endgame stuff? Easier to murder everyone.

I loved all the upgrades though.

[NovaMan XP]

Just finished Bioshock Infinite... man, that game was great.

Also slowly playing through The Last of Us, almost done with the game (71% completion), and it's pretty good so far. Over-hyped, obviously, but still good.

[ASR]

in retrospect, i like bioshock infinite a whole lot less than i did while playing it. most of it just story stuff that i can't stand now that i have some distance from it, but some of it is just the fact that it's a FPS when it probably didn't have to be, and the way certain gameplay mechanics just don't make sense or even need to be there.

on the other end of the spectrum, i beat The Last Of Us about a week ago and THAT'S how you perfectly meld a wonderful story with great gameplay. i'm only comparing them because nova just made a post about them both, but i feel like The Last Of Us is an entirely different league from Bioshock Infinite, just in terms of story and gameplay.

also holy hell i suck at any game that requires shooting. for a while there i thought i would just never be able to finish The Last Of Us.

[Speed Racer]

I'm disappointed that quite a few games I've downloaded, including some modern ones, don't seem to support controllers.

[Majikn]

I'm not going to try to have an authoritative opinion on The Last of Us, but I have difficulty with the idea that its gameplay is great, especially when the only moderately complex puzzle is right at the end of the game, and everything else is straightforward. The combat is cool though, I guess.
I had a major "UGH" moment when the game actually froze itself in the middle of a very tense moment to tell you that you can go into detective mode and see through walls with your ears.

Also, the "clickers" didn't make any sense. When they explained how clickers use echolocation, I was like "Okay, so don't make noise in general or be visible when they make clicking sounds." But you can go right in front of one, have it bombard you with its sonar, and it will not detect you at all if you're not moving. What the hell?
If a bat couldn't detect a non-moving object in the dark, wouldn't it just eventually die in a collision with a wall?

The game sets its acts in seasons and Winter was probably the first season in which the game became interesting and engaging. Despite that I'd seen that particular trope (and many others in the game) carried out before, it was still a cool "Oh #####!" moment for me.
EDIT: [spoiler]The part I'm referring to was when we realized she was trading with the cannibals that they had been fighting/killing before.[/spoiler]

Overall I just can't be compelled by hype to regard it highly, when all it really was for me was fuel for a story that had nothing new for anyone who's already read/seen some of the best the "zombie" stories had to offer. I mean, if you're gonna put all your effort into character building and story progression, why not make the story actually new and inventive?
At the same time, though, I felt that the voice acting sold it pretty well. So... yeah. I'm pretty mixed about this.

[Speed Racer]

I'm pretty sure that I'm done buying ##### during this Steam Summer Sale. Ugh.

It's like those werewolf movies where the guy wakes up naked in the middle of a field, covered in blood and he like "SWEET RAPTOR JESUS IT HAPPENED AGAIN!"

That's me, except I wake up on my couch.

So here's the list:

AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! for the Awesome
Anomaly Warzone Earth (picked it up for free from a promotion during the sale)
Audiosurf
DarkStar One
The Dig
Fallout 3 - GOTY
Fallout: New Vegas GOTY
Far Cry
Fary Cry 2
FTL: Faster Than Light
The Great Art Race
Half-Life series (complete)
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Just Cause
Just Cause 2
The Last Remnant
Loom
Manhole (Did I own this one before? Who knows? Not I.)
Max Payne
Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne
Organ Trail: Director's Cut
Patrician III
Risen
Section 8
Serious Sam series (complete)
Super Hexagon
System Shock 2
To The Moon
Tomb Raider (everything except for the latest game and that Guardian of Light one)
Universe Sandbox (best thing ever)
The Wonderful End of the World

The only things left that I'm still thinking about are the Grand Theft Auto and Strike Suit series, which I think I may just pick up at Christmas, or maybe next summer. Unless there's some crazy-ass deal, I doubt there's anything else that I want to pick up.

[Abominator]

I got mostly DLC in this sale...

I was hoping Far Cry 3 and Blood Dragon would have been cheaper...

[Speed Racer]

I figured that they wouldn't be, just because of their release date.

[Abominator]

I ended up getting them on uPlay instead of Steam, but it's not the same

[Winged Warrior]

Eh, You would be running them through uPlay anyway, since that's how Ubisoft works these days.

[Mikero]

I hate all that #####.

I'm playing a lot of Street Fighter III: Third Strike.

And Donkey Kong Country.

[TriggerUNIT]

I generally stay a generation behind these days for the massive price drops. I've already indulged in ps3 and Xbox 360 long ago, and was not impressed. Fps anyone? So I decided to get a wii a little bit before the drop of the wii u, and picked up a game I've been dying to play.

I just got done with a play through of Metroid: Other M.  The only thing that baffles me is the name, it's stupid, but other than that, I have a hard time seeing why the popular consensus is that it's bad.

Complaint 1: "Missiles in first person? CAN'T MOVE WTF!?!?"

I generally had no problems with this. The option to switch to a first person view was fantasticly implemented for exploration of the 3D environment and puzzle solving. I understand that this complaint is chiefly in regards to combat scenarios. But even then, I didn't find this at all as excruciating as it was described. I feel it adds a sense of strategy where you can't just rely on blasting everything in sight and have to plan your moves and execute them swiftly. I was also pleased that the curser didn't go ape ##### all over the screen and was actually generally intuitive. What's more, time was slowed almost to a screaching halt for a split second after the visual switch, giving you generous time to line up your shot assuming YOU didn't screw up and end up facing the wrong direction. Really, the boss fights were just generally tough, and you had no one to blame but yourself for getting hit or losing. I can only assume that the gripe is because people cannot stand to blame themselves.

Complaint 2: "Samus is stupid! Dialog sucks! And she needs man to tell her what to do, omg wtf!?"

Well, yes. Samus wasn't at all portrayed like YOU might have though she should have been. Tough luck. It's not your decision to make. We have to take to account some realistic facts that make a character more realistic. People have mentors and others they would follow. Adam happened to be that person, hell, a father figure even. It has nothing to do with the "sexist perception of the female role," because this is synonymous with almost every human being, gender regardless. Yes, Adam was a man, but lets be rational here, most people in the military are. I see many people have griped about her encounter with Ridley. Let us be rational once more. Ridley is a gigantic dragon, not to mention that he looked absolutely brutal in this particular game, and he is also somewhat of a rival for Samus... Who she has repeatedly killed. There is no reason why any person SHOULDN'T have a mental break down before being faced with this. Anyone that is inclined to disagree has no concept of combat, and the obsessive and fearful emotions it involkes. There are times when Samus' deductive skills are shown off, but she isn't a genius, nor is she supposed to be. She's a bounty hunter, not a poet or a feminist activist. What do you honestly expect from someone that has gone through 6 star cruisers and loses every one of her upgrades before every mission?

Complaint 3: "Spending hours in first person mode looking for something to progress! BAWWWW!"

I agree with this. It was unnecessary. A cut scene could have summed it up nicely, but instead I found myself searching around the screen often for a few minutes, not knowing what exactly I was supposed to be looking at. It only happened four times though, if I recall. Not really a cause for alarm.

Complaint 4: "Auto aim? Too easy! Wtf melee!?"

C'mon... I seriously do not remember a Metroid game where I was challenged by every creature that exhumes itself from the ground. In every game, your greatest enemies were the bosses and the environment. And Other M delivers this in spades. Watching run of the mill enemies expload into a fine mist is satisfying, and the boss fights are a welcomed vacation from the otherwise addictive, mindless slaughter. And taking out tougher enemies with an up close and personal wollup is ever so appealing to me. I think the more brutal approach was a nice touch.

I think I've touched on most of it. All and all, loved it. In fact, I really want to see more of it. I think it trumps all of the primes and I'd call it the only true successor to Super Metroid to date. It's also my second favorite out of the whole series.

[Johncarllos]

I've been playing the living hell out of Saints Row IV.

LOVE it.

[Winged Warrior]

Been playing of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, as it's in early access... however like most early accesses and betas, it's riddled with errors, emergency maintenance, and assorted downtimes.

Still, I dig this game, So much better than XI.

[Majikn]

Samus' portrayal as a character is not logical to me at all because it contrasts with her history. A person who survived the destruction of a her family and an entire planet as a child before eventually causing the destruction of planets herself has psychological trauma to deal with for sure, but it's clear that she must deal with this trauma in a decisive and violent fashion because that's the only way she could survive it repeatedly when there's no one else who can save her.
People think Samus' portrayal is realistic because they're trying to project how a blank character would describe a particular Rorschach test, but that's not really an accurate way to measure realism. They're like "Well that's how I'd react to that kind of #####ed up situation, so it must be realistic." The problem is that people are different, and cope with things in different ways. Even if one were to prove that her reaction to Ridley was completely realistic, which would be difficult without scientifically observing multiple case studies of orphaned girls who have been through her exact situation, there's still the issue of probability versus actuality (a 90% likelihood of reacting a certain way is not 100%), and there's still the issue of realism getting in the way of consistency and good writing.
The idea that she would only ever have a mental breakdown in the one situation when someone else can step in and save her is terrible writing.
It implies that she could easily have had similar breakdowns in the past and if she had, she would have died a long time ago. The environments she puts herself in constantly would be too much for her to cope with, and too violent for her to survive without constant access to excellent reflexes and emotional control.

Justifying her reaction is like trying to justify how the force was explained in The Phantom Menace, except for some reason people are okay with changing things that shouldn't be changed when it involves a female character that is disempowered and gets sexually exploited with camera angles at every conceivable opportunity, including those that were deliberately and jarringly crafted in order to do so.

This isn't to say that Samus should have been emotionless. What I AM saying is that the ability for warriors to survive relies on their knowing how to compartmentalize those feelings and release them in situations where it isn't astronomically important for them to pay attention to their surroundings and react appropriately to danger. An example of GOOD writing for this is in the character of Joe Ledger (re: Patient Zero by Jonathan Maberry). He's an action hero and a killer, and his best friend is his psychologist, and he killed a terrorist who shortly came back as a zombie, so there's your parallel right there. He had to fight this zombie with his bare hands in an event that was very traumatic for him, but if he had frozen up like Samus had, then he would have been bitten and he would have died within the first pages of the first book. There would have been no story to write whatsoever. If he had been bailed out by deus ex machina as Samus had, there would also be no story because he wouldn't have demonstrated that he's emotionally strong enough to confront the horrors that he was going to face. He only has his moments of anxiety and/or depression when it's safe for those barriers in his mind to come down, which makes far more sense for a person who has survived deadly violence for as long as he has.

I won't attack Other M for its gameplay, though. I think it's a bit at odds with other Metroid games, but I think it was intuitively designed around its gameplay ideas. I just wish the story justifications for certain restrictions and challenges in the game weren't completely repellent, and while I much prefer that the story be butchered than the gameplay, I still feel that they put too much effort into crafting cutscenes that were SO weird and not interesting or engaging at all.

[TriggerUNIT]

Gee, I had no idea that you were either a warrior or a psychiatrist that has absolute understanding of how a warrior would react to combat and related external stimuli.

The fact is I rather greatly take offense as, in this regard, I absolutely know what I'm talking about. Realism has nothing to do with your concept of how a warriors mind SHOULD opperate. Sometimes it just doesn't happen that way, and it doesn't matter how many people you kill or how many dangerous missions you've underwent in the past. One could be enough, maybe six is more your threshold. Maybe it wasn't even a combat related event that causes the mental break down. In fact, warriors can go for many months after a combat scenario, hell, some even years, and then finally crack, sometimes over very little pressure from unrelated problems. It's volatile, it varies in many different ways, and I've seen it. So I'll say it again. Sorry samus' reaction or attitude was not how YOU would have imagined, but it IS plausible.

[Majikn]

Gee, I had no idea that you were either a warrior or a psychiatrist that has absolute understanding of how a warrior would react to combat and related external stimuli.

Did I say I was?
Well, I guess I implied it maybe. Sort of.
However, put that part of my post in the context of the whole post and I figured you'd get the sense that I was talking about characters in writing, not real people. As I said, "There's still the issue of realism getting in the way of consistency and good writing," and that was a very crucial part of my reasoning that informed what went on to be a majority of my post. Perhaps only having one sentence that would inform or change the entire meaning of most of what I was trying to say was a bad choice, but it was there nonetheless. I suppose I might have a tendency to express myself redundantly in some ways and overly concisely in others, so I can see where a misunderstanding would get across.
I do believe that there should be a difference between complete realism and good writing, and that may be where we don't agree.

The fact is I rather greatly take offense as, in this regard, I absolutely know what I'm talking about. Realism has nothing to do with your concept of how a warriors mind SHOULD opperate.

I'd like to point out that you were the one to take the opposing side and put it into terms of your knowledge vs. their subjectivity when you said "Samus wasn't at all portrayed like YOU might have thought she should have been," and I think it's fair to say that that kind of assumption without the possibility of insight as to how I think and feel is a poor one. I am not imagining Samus in a specific way, I am simply pointing out that her portrayal was still far from the best choice. I was a tad offended by this remark, but I chose not to take it personally and instead decided to subtly point out that people on my side of the argument can be rational by demonstrating it.
Secondly I wasn't challenging your knowledge of realism with regards to real situations, I was challenging all arguments on a basis of realism with regards to a fake character in a fantastic situation that has never happened and thus can't be observed in a scientific fashion.

I think it's bad writing because it's problematic to write a weakness into a character that has not ever shown that weakness and probably conveniently won't ever show that weakness again unless she's got characters nearby who can bail her out. Characters like Samus are survivors already way beyond the boundaries of realism, because that's part of the very point of their existence as video game protagonists. We both know it would have been counter-intuitive to make Samus' sprite freeze up and start shaking in Super Metroid even though it might arguably be just as "plausible" it wouldn't make sense as to how the game functions. People would get annoyed and think the game is broken. THAT, in writing terms, is pretty much how I feel about it happening in any other Metroid game, because I think the writing should complement the player's choices and abilities and it should complement the type of game that it actually is. Even in Other M's story approach I think it should have used design factors from other games to influence her portrayal, rather than simply acting as if she was a blank slate upon which to write whatever they wanted. They may not have had all that much to go by for her character in specific terms but there are conclusions about her character that they could have logically derived from the game design itself. They may or may not have been the same conclusions I'd have made—that's not the point. My argument would be that they didn't even consider those factors.

[TriggerUNIT]

My apologies, I reacted a little too personally. To be more logical, I should say that her portrayal is appealing because it is quite relatable. Which bring me to another point of disagreement, because of the fact that samus, save for fusion, was a silent protagonist. As far as many people outside of Japan know, her personality was akin to that of the person controlling her. Whether she was a cautious or aggressive hunter, whether she was a skilled killer or preferred to open up a barrage of missiles like a crazed pyro were all factors defined by the person playing. For all intensive purposes, she WAS a blank slate. Fusion offered some dialog, but very little in regards to interacting with others to define actual personality traits as oppose to just stating past events or narrating the volume of the situation at hand. If personality traits were made prevalent throughout the series, then I would be inclined to agree with you, but being the silent protagonist she was immersed the player into the field to react as only they would and explore the world in the order and manner in which they saw fit. For however offensive it may sound, there was a lot of room for her to be personified, and the only real reason to be Unsatisfied with this personification is because it didn't match up to how people felt while playing her silent self in subsequent games. Which is understandable, however it just doesn't justify the amount of instant hatred.

I also understand that it takes place in universe built on fantasy, and that it is not necessarily bound by realism, however, I'll argue that her character development was logical based on the grounds that if you wish to develope a character to the extent Nintendo wanted to develope samus, then there should be traits that people can relate to. A silent protagonist is easy to relate to because your thoughts are exactly what you perceive the protagonist to be thinking, and you self personify. Here, they had a chance to enforce the personality they intended. And I understand that the concept of "having someone to bail her out" isn't an ideal trait, but it is a relatable one, and samus needed the characters involved in this game to show how she interacted with other people. There wouldn't be a need for a personality without interaction.

I honestly do not see how people can be angry with the development of a character that has not yet been developed unless it didn't jive with their personal thoughts. And that isn't at all logical. No, it isn't logical to "stop everything and make samus shake to show fear" in a 16 bit game, or in any game where the player defines the emotions felt. But for the situation provided in Other M, it's entirely logical. Besides, Nintendo has stated that if people outside of Japan had read the manga while playing through the game, their perception of samus' character would probably diverse greatly from what is currently expected. Making a mute in a game talk is usually hard to accept. But Nintendo went for what they intended for. I don't see a lapse in logic in that.

[Speed Racer]

I got to play Saint's Row IV over at a friend's house the other day. That was pretty damn fun. If I wasn't broke as #####, I'd be playing it right now.

[Mikero]

I'm waiting on Saints Row IV. It looks just like the last one (because it is) and that had no substance. The story took an ultimately disappointing turn from what the first two games established.

Majikn rules.
I fully admit I don't have time right now to read all that but he's always pretty damn on point or at least incredibly fair.

I like TriggerUNIT too, so let's all be cool guys together.

[Johncarllos]

Mike, this game is a series of constant throwbacks to SR1 and 2. It's more like a super glorified expansion because literally all they did was reskin the last game, but that's all I wanted. It's Saints Row 3, but better.

I would at least rent it and blast through the main story.

I just like that it's Tron, Prototype, Infamous, SR3, SR2, SR1, and side scroller beat-em-up.

I've been grinding the side missions, but they're kind of nice. It takes all of the activities on the map and makes them parts of quests which have specific rewards.

Also, #####ING SUPER POWERS.

[Mikero]

I WISH I could rent games still.

I'll get to it eventually, but I think the spirit was lost after 2. I liked that it was more about cleaning up your city from all the other gangs. I know in 2 you kind of become just another one of those gangs, and it is mentioned WITHIN that game's epilogue, but I thought that meant 3 would have you going back to that kind of role. But 3 just kept going into the ridiculousness (which I still like, in moderation like SR2) and just kind of had no bottom. SR4 seems to only amp that up with super powers and stuff, which is something I'd look for in a different type of game. It's more an issue I have with where they're going with the series than the game itself.

Also at least one friend of mine was completely disappointed with 4, apparently it's very glitchy? Might just be his system.

I'm more excited for GTAV, even after the abysmal time I had with GTAIV. But this new some seems to have it all. Might look too good to be true but it's at least enticing.

[Eyeswide]

I bought Black Rock Shooter: The Game a couple of years ago. I've only now started playing through it because I've been bored and too lazy to make time to go to the mall and get new games. I like it, it's an action rpg and its relatively fun. It gets a bit repetitive, with every action sequence revolving around moronically mashing the x button. But, I guess I find appeal because it simply is BRS, of which I'm a huge fan. A novelty like I suppose.

[Majikn]

[spoiler]My apologies, I reacted a little too personally. To be more logical, I should say that her portrayal is appealing because it is quite relatable. Which bring me to another point of disagreement, because of the fact that samus, save for fusion, was a silent protagonist. As far as many people outside of Japan know, her personality was akin to that of the person controlling her. Whether she was a cautious or aggressive hunter, whether she was a skilled killer or preferred to open up a barrage of missiles like a crazed pyro were all factors defined by the person playing. For all intensive purposes, she WAS a blank slate. Fusion offered some dialog, but very little in regards to interacting with others to define actual personality traits as oppose to just stating past events or narrating the volume of the situation at hand. If personality traits were made prevalent throughout the series, then I would be inclined to agree with you, but being the silent protagonist she was immersed the player into the field to react as only they would and explore the world in the order and manner in which they saw fit. For however offensive it may sound, there was a lot of room for her to be personified, and the only real reason to be Unsatisfied with this personification is because it didn't match up to how people felt while playing her silent self in subsequent games. Which is understandable, however it just doesn't justify the amount of instant hatred.

I also understand that it takes place in universe built on fantasy, and that it is not necessarily bound by realism, however, I'll argue that her character development was logical based on the grounds that if you wish to develope a character to the extent Nintendo wanted to develope samus, then there should be traits that people can relate to. A silent protagonist is easy to relate to because your thoughts are exactly what you perceive the protagonist to be thinking, and you self personify. Here, they had a chance to enforce the personality they intended. And I understand that the concept of "having someone to bail her out" isn't an ideal trait, but it is a relatable one, and samus needed the characters involved in this game to show how she interacted with other people. There wouldn't be a need for a personality without interaction.

I honestly do not see how people can be angry with the development of a character that has not yet been developed unless it didn't jive with their personal thoughts. And that isn't at all logical. No, it isn't logical to "stop everything and make samus shake to show fear" in a 16 bit game, or in any game where the player defines the emotions felt. But for the situation provided in Other M, it's entirely logical. Besides, Nintendo has stated that if people outside of Japan had read the manga while playing through the game, their perception of samus' character would probably diverse greatly from what is currently expected. Making a mute in a game talk is usually hard to accept. But Nintendo went for what they intended for. I don't see a lapse in logic in that.
[/spoiler]

I was offering the idea that game design is a window into a character. Being silent is not the only factor with which we can determine a character's personality. Many enemies are designed to be obstacles, some of which are subtly meant to reveal secret pathways, and Samus is designed (and often rewarded) for getting rid of them by firing weapons, and when dodging or hiding from your enemies is actually more inconvenient than killing them, you get the idea which direction you're being nudged in. You would want to portray the character the way a vast majority of people would play as her in a game. The game was far from limitless, and players often reached those limitations when they wouldn't play the game as it was intended to be played, in the form of an artificially self-imposed difficulty.

And it's not "having someone to bail her out" that I took issue with, it's the underlying weakness that required a bailout in order for her to survive. My problem with it is that in a good story, characters don't suddenly develop weaknesses just to have them be written back out of the equation with a little bit of deus ex machina.

While Samus would naturally have flaws to make her relatable, my argument was that they could have kept to revealing flaws that pertained to what made Other M different from other games while also being consistent with where she previously lacked certain limitations (i.e. her ability to survive vast amounts of combat scenarios).

Of course I'm giving a lot of flak for that, but really that was the only part I remember that struck me as being way off. I mean I do recall being mostly put off by the plot of the game. Maybe it doesn't deserve outright hate but I'm still far from convinced of it being a good story.

If what you're getting from this argument is that it's Japan's full-access perspective vs. everyone else's, I suppose that's a bit different. It doesn't make other viewpoints invalid, however. The manga could be horrible for all I know, and drawing inspiration from it could still be a objectively bad decision. And as a matter of fact, sometimes the details in the "extended universe" just aren't consistent with why most people should actually love a thing. Again, Star Wars is an excellent example of this.

I got Saints Row the Third from a Humble Bundle, as well as Saints Row 2 more recently. I guess I'll give the 2nd a shot eventually, but that means I have no incentive to play the fourth at all. It's full price versus multiple extremely cheaper titles.

[Eyeswide]

I don't think this argument has any resolution. It's too opinionated.  :3 you could both agree to disagree, though.

Oh and by the way. SCP Foundation. Yup.

[Majikn]

Yeah, I'm not really searching for an agreement but merely a point of understanding. I agree that an argument can't really take someone's previous enjoyment of a game and make that not valid.

I'm actually a bit inclined to give Other M another shot for what has been said, really.

[NovaMan XP]

GTA V. Loving it so far.

Posted on: September 19, 2013, 03:38:23 PM

Pokémon X, woo.