Bjomesphat

I've looked up this game so many times, and everytime I come away disappointed after seeing it's has procedurally generated levels.

For me, what.cd going down was the biggest blow to the torrent scene. A lot of people think torrenting music in this era is a thing of the past with subscription streaming services now, but what.cd was far more than just downloading music. It was easily the largest archive of music in existence. There was so much on there outside of commercially available content. Bootleg shows, demo tapes; if a recording existed of something, it was on what.cd. So now I've been trying to get on waffles, since that recently came back and am hoping it has even a fraction of what what.cd offered. I used to be on waffles.fm, but that shutdown a long time ago. I try not to talk too much about sites I want because invite fishing is prohibited from all of these sites, and sometimes admins will do research on a user. So if anyone is interested in talking about that further, send me a PM.

Anyone ever go down this rabbit hole? This is about as far down into the depths of the internet I go, but it's always fascinated me. Yeah piracy is lame, and I'm not really talking about the overtly illegal content that's shared on some of these trackers, but the ones that share impossible to find stuff and content that has never had a commercial release (eg, concerts, old tv recordings, fan edits, etc). I dunno, I guess I'm just trying to gauge if people are into this scene and how far deep you're in it. I used to belong to quite a few back in the day, but many of them have since been shutdown. I'm trying to get back into it and join some of the more exclusive ones, but man it's tough.

By the time I figured out what this game was, it was too late to go back to N64 games. I saw that boxart on the shelves for years, but always passed over it because it made no sense. Might give it a shot now since I'm a big Descent fan.

Hated FFX. Really enjoyed FFXIII. At the time, it was total eye and ear candy with an amazing battle system, one of the best FF protagonists (Lightning), and serviceable anime story. And I still listen to the soundtrack to this day. Easily one of the best of FF. Of course the linearity, the hand holding, the lack of character customization and the lack of exploration brought it down a few pegs.

I felt most of the side content was rinse and repeat. Some of the larger quests were good, but many didn't have to do with the main quest and so I lost interest. Whereas The Witcher 1 almost every quest served to flesh out the main story or Geralt's character.

I think there's a legitimate argument where technology just isn't there to accommodate making a compelling and timeless game. Which is the case for Atari and any home console in the 70s. But we definitely hit the bare minimum with early 80s arcade and beyond. I think your Undertale example goes against some of your point though. There's nothing technologically in that game that couldn't have been done on the NES, that game is just the result of experience and a mature industry and the growing expectations of consumers. Which of course does fit with your argument that there's a trend that games are improving. Obviously I can't argue that there's a lot of things possible now than there ever was in the past, and growing consumer demands have contributed to higher quality writing and presentation. However, I still don't think any of this necessarily equates to a trend of better games. And just to stir the pot, I would play Metal Gear Solid over MGS4 or MGS5 (probably even MGS2). I also think The Witcher is the best game in the trilogy, The Witcher 2 is awful, and The Witcher 3 is bloated and not very compelling on a gameplay level.

Yeah, you're right. I keep forgetting 8 came after the SNES X series. I don't know what they were thinking there. I really don't like the look of 8. But I've never fully played it, so I'm semi-excited for when I get to it on the Legacy Collection 2.

Oh yeah, meant to talk about Mega Man too. Yeah NES Mega Man is iconic with a very well defined artstyle for the limited hardware. They definitely nailed it with X, but 7 and 8 just look gaudy.

Wanted to disagree with this point too. Is it easier to have more personality in 16-bit games? Sure. But when developers really worked hard on the NES, it pays off huge. Just look at Punch Out on the NES vs the arcade game. The arcade game graphically looks amazing, but the NES game has far more charm and personality and they managed to replicate the gameplay without any sacrifices. Or even SMB3 vs SMW. Mario 3's stage play aesthetic is beautiful and unique. Each stage is unique from the next and many levels have a unique concept or idea that is only seen once. Compared to World's favoring of cohesive themes and settings, it still lacks the variety, randomness, and charm from SMB3. However, Yoshi's Island is a different story and few have topped those aesthetics.

But were these games really inferior because of the hardware limitations, or because they weren't playing to the console's strengths and/or rushed ports? Why not take a game like Bionic Commando. The arcade version might have had better graphics (though I think the artstyle in the NES game is superior) but it was only 4 levels long, the levels weren't as engaging or complex, the game was linear, and lacked some of the deeper mechanics like the item selection. So instead of doing a sloppy port, they re-built the game from the ground up on the NES and it became an instant classic that is still beloved to this day. It has 3 or 4 times as many levels as the arcade game where you can tackle them in any order. The platforming is more complex and challenging. The level design is more interesting and exploration based. It had vertical levels, safe zones, a stategic map system, and item discovery with an equip screen you had to choose before starting a mission. Similarly Double Dragon II is far superior to it's arcade counterpart. Personally, I like the NES games more than all of the arcade versions, but DDII is the stand out.

I'm kind of on the opposite end. I feel like games were better when devs had to work within limitations and figuring different ways around them. I guess that's why I prefer SNES and NES games over most other generations.

It's definitely an adjustment going back. I will say, the Wii controls made it feel more modern as it didn't tie aiming to movement. So if you have a decent PC you might want to consider playing that version in Dolphin. Of course movement is still a tank.

I was trying to avoid that because I don't want to write an essay In general terms, level design is masterful. Sure it's a linear game from point A to point B, but it knows when to funnel you down a tight corridor and when to open it up to an explorable environment. But it's also not just the physical design, it's how the levels are structured and paced. The game knows exactly when to crank it up to 11 and also when to tone it down and fade in the atmosphere. There's constantly something new around every turn, but not at the expense of throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks. Everything is deliberately introduced and faded out to not overstay its welcome. All of the bosses are unique and fresh, but still maintaining the core principals of the game. You're constantly encountering unique set pieces that force you to think about the game's mechanics in different ways. Honestly, a lot of it comes down to feeling, and sometimes it's hard to describe what sets it apart from other games. Especially because on paper, games like The Last of Us might seem comparable. The thing I always loved about RE4 was that you're constantly being pushed to the edge of being completely out of resources, only to slowly build your arsenal back up again to the point of being overconfident, and the cycle repeats: anxiety - confidence - anxiety - confidence. And there's so many subtler ways RE4 just feels good from the reloading animations or the way enemies react to getting hit, everything just feels right and satisfying. If I had the time and energy to write an essay about why RE4 is a master class in game design I would, because I'm really just scratching the surface, but I also imagine there's plenty of in-depth analyses on Youtube.

Just basing off of this quote. Personally, I don't believe having knowledge of previous games (basically learning from your mistakes) or a continual evolution in regards to game-making will inherently make games better. There's so many factors that shape the quality of a game (or any entertainment medium) that improvement of a formula or mechanic doesn't necessarily equate to better. We're kind of at a point now where you can expect 95% of AAA budget games to look great on paper; they can check all of the boxes for what a great game should be, but still not end up being a great game. They might look great and play great, but there's more to an experience than what's on the surface. There's a reason a game like RE4 still hasn't been topped, for me, in the action game genre. Later games (not just in the RE franchise) have looked better and definitely played better, had better stories and even larger scope, but there's still something that RE4 has that hasn't really been replicated. It's a lot of things really, and it's how it all fits together in a package. But it's also not something that can be boiled down to graphics, gameplay, or presentation.

But your argument is that as a whole, games get better with each gen?

So games aren't inherently getting better with each gen?

So as a God of War fan, at the time, was GoWIII on PS3 better than GoWII on PS2?

eShop has good sales. Nintendo games not so much. You might see a $20 discount for this game by Christmas. Just a guess though.

Bastion. If that hadn't come out during the first wave of the indie movement, it would have been a pretty forgettable title. Ori and the Blind Forest. Don't get me wrong, it's a good game, but some people claim it's better than Super Metroid and SotN. I found all of the environments to be too similar, the story and lore were uninteresting, and the core action was ok. I really enjoyed the platforming though.

Probably DS lite. 3DS has many fantastic games, but I had buckets of DS games that were all pretty great. And the vast breadth of it's genres is pretty unrivaled.

Probably the SNES. Has most of my favorite games of all time. Chrono Trigger, Super Metroid, DKC2, SMRPG, Mega Man X, ALttP, SMW

Nope. The story mode is 5 hours, and that's 100%. The full price has been worth it for me for local and online multiplayer, but I won't deny it's pretty bare bones. That said, it is a blast as the core gameplay is great. And I've never really played a tennis game before.

I just got the Switch Pro (regular edition) and took it through all the motions to see how the dpad would register. Fortunately, they either fixed the issue or I just got lucky (or it's not a widespread problem). I tried out the input tester in the Switch settings and didn't get any wrong inputs. I tried the 2D games I have like mega man and bloodstained, no issues. I also tried Puyo Puyo Tetris and didn't have any issues. I haven't tried it yet, but apparently there's native Switch Pro support in Steam now, so that would be my choice.

I'm already sold on the gameplay and aesthetics, but I'm not so sure about the story. I loved Bravely Defaults gameplay, but I couldn't finish it because the story and characters were so boring. Either way though, if I get the game, I'm going in fresh.