ShreddieMercury

I would prefer video games where I don't even touch the controller because I don't like how sometimes when I press the wrong button something bad happens to my hero.

JSR remains my favorite video game, but if you didn't love it when it launched, I don't think anyone would be converted now. I still find the gameplay extremely fun, but it is very, very unique and certainly not to everyone's tastes. It's from a time when games had unique controls that were not completely homogeneous, which I miss. The soundtrack/visuals/style are really where the game excels. I'm thankful we got Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, and I enjoyed it well enough, but it's a pale imitation of SEGA's classic.

I might not understand what mid means... it's middling right? I think their games are fine but pretty overrated. I enjoyed the first Spider-Man, but not nearly as much as the Arkham games. And Ratchet is just okay, which I think means mid. But it might also be a lack of rizz on my part.

Yeah it's bad. And then it provided the template for all the other modern Insomniac games, which are also mid AF.

Awesome, a decade of garbage.

580.

I was on the IGN boards probably mid-2000's but do not remember my account name. I've been here since maybe 2011, though it was called Bad Cartridge.

All these lists are fine, but I want to specifically single out Paste putting El Paso, Elsewhere at #2. That is an absolutely abysmal game from top to bottom. Probably the most disgusted I've been at a videogame (and its general reception) in many years. If you want to talk about inflated scores and the sad state of modern games criticism, look no further.

Can't wait to drive for 15 minutes to a quest marker, move a walking pile of molasses around while I shoot guns with auto-aim and then drive back.

Perfect Dark comes closest in terms of ambition, but that's mostly because of the absurd quantity of features. There was no other shooter before Halo that took a sandbox approach to combat encounters in quite the same way. The AI routines are still impressive to this day, and make the game extremely replayable. Grenades being mapped to a trigger, and only being able to carry two weapons were significant design choices that completely upended how you approached the game. Then you have a large focus on vehicular combat that seamlessly switches between the first and third person perspectives. The cooperative AI of the marines in these vehicle sections adds another layer that helps make each encounter feel unique and impactful. On top of this you have the level design of things like "The Silent Cartographer", which blends together several set pieces within what's essentially a small open island, or "Two Betrayals", which pits two opposing enemy types against each other with you in the middle. Maybe there were games in the PC space that were doing this at the same time, but I can't recall any. Halo is often lauded for further popularizing the FPS on console, but like I said, I still don't think people appreciate just how revolutionary the game was and still is.

I own Outtrigger, and no, it's not good on controller haha. The original arcade cabinet had a trackball to control aiming. It's really only fully playable on Dreamcast with a keyboard and mouse. You can play it with a controller but you're severely constrained.

I don't think a lot of people appreciate how earth shattering the first two Halo games were. The first one is still, to this day, ahead of its time in in regard to its overall design. It also popularized the two stick control scheme on consoles that is (arguably detrimentally) still the standard. Halo 2 then provided the blueprint for online multiplayer on console, and popularized the type of cosmetic customization that eventually led to the disastrous micro-transaction bloat that we see now. Without Halo 2, there is certainly no COD4, which then threw open the floodgates and led us in many general ways to where games still are now.

Full article here: Bungie Devs Say Atmosphere Is ‘Soul-Crushing’ Amid Layoffs, Cuts, and Fear of Total Sony Takeover - IGN WWW.IGN.COM One month after a major round of layoffs impacted roughly 100 Bungie employees of 1,200, those remaining at the Destiny developer say the cuts, as well as other cost-cutting measures, came alongside an apparent scramble by studio leadership to avoid a total Sony takeover. I was there day one for Halo, which still remains one of my all-time favorite games. It's wild to see what has happened both to that franchise and its creators in the intervening twenty years as the industry moves further and further into the dystopian nightmare of service games.

This was a bizarre movie that I thought had some impressive scenes, but overall was pretty derivative and lifeless. The best part for me was the first sequence where he is waiting to execute his assassination. I sort of wished for that to be stretched into the entire film, and then I remembered that The American with George Clooney essentially has that premise. I enjoyed that one quite a bit.

For my specific tastes, 2023 wasn't an all-timer. Though it's unquestionably one of the better recent years in terms of gaming releases, 2017 was much stronger for me personally, and before that probably 2007. For me it's a toss up between RE4 and Alan Wake 2. Alan Wake 2 is so novel and ambitious that it deserves recognition, even though it's very flawed and I don't think it will really stand the test of time. The gameplay that it has is solid, but there's very little of it, and it's a little too precious with its own storytelling. Still, it's a huge swing in the landscape of big budget games, and it's certainly rewarding for fans of the first game and Remedy overall. RE4 took a perfect game and made interesting and smart additions. It's superb, but it is still RE4. It's not quite the leap that RE2 remake was, but I enjoyed my time playing it more than almost everything else. Tears of the Kingdom and Mario Wonder are both phenomenal games, but I haven't been able to really get into either. I ended up dropping off of Zelda after a few hours, and while I love the look of Mario Wonder, the 2D games just don't grab me the way that the 3D ones do. I would give an honorable mention to Robocop, just by virtue of how rarely we get games like that. That's the kind of game we were getting 3-4 times per year in the mid 2000's, and so it felt like a breath of fresh air in the modern era. Gaming is my favorite hobby, but I definitely can't keep up with these super long major releases anymore. Anything over about 20 hours starts to wear pretty thin for me, and I find myself with less and less time as I get older.

Bumping this because there are a ton of these games still being announced/released. I've been trying to play Turbo Overkill, but I'm not really feeling it. It seems really well made, but it's also just the Doom Eternal loop of locking you into combat arenas until you clear them. I'm not seeing much variety or craft in the level designs so far, which is what really sets these games apart in my opinion. Maybe it gets better though, as I'm still early on. DUSK is still in my mind the pinnacle of this genre. It's wild that we've had so many of these but none have really stood up to that game. Has anybody played Immortal Redneck? That passed me by because it's a rogue-like, but I've read some great things about it and wondered if it's worth playing.

Rest in piss.

Happy Autumnal Harvest to all!

I finished this a few days ago and have had some time to let it all sink in. Overall, I thought this was an astonishing and unique experience. I'm so thankful that this was finally made, and that Remedy was able to fully follow their whims on a project that they were undoubtedly extremely passionate about. You can feel their passion in every frame. I do think experience is how I would sum this up best. I'm not convinced that it's a great game. Alan Wake II is more of an experimental multimedia presentation that includes some gameplay. I think that what's there is very solid, but it's clear that the story and presentation took priority. That's a completely understandable approach, but it also surprises me that the reception was not more divisive for this reason. This gets into a bigger issue that I have with modern AAA games that are relentlessly chasing photo-realism and cinematic storytelling. The desire to tell grounded stories in a cinematic way is often at odds with developing fun and engaging gameplay. The heavier that developers lean into the former, the more that the latter suffers, and vice versa. Very few games (if any) are able to balance these two elements, and I tend to enjoy games that either have very little story or eschew it altogether in favor of pure gameplay. This type of graphical realism also prioritizes animation, and I feel games have gotten more and more sluggish to play as a result. As much as I really enjoyed the strange directions that Alan Wake II took its story, I think Remedy has twisted themselves into unnecessary knots with their "connected universe". The more that multiverses or layers of reality become exposed, the less stakes or weight any story has. There is no impact because nothing is real, or it can be altered on a whim to connect with whatever gives lore seekers that extra hit of connection-chasing. All in all, this is still perhaps my favorite experience of the year, and it's got some incredible high points. But I still prefer the relative simplicity of the first game.

@Keyser_Soze Oh believe me, I'll wax about this too. It's high on my list. Something else that's high on my list and nobody else's? Air Twister, out next week.

You are too kind! I actually picked it up on Xbox yesterday, budget be damned! You are very generous to offer, so glad that you're enjoying it. I'm going to jump into this right after Alan Wake, which I'm nearing the end of. Can't wait.

Please report back, can't wait to get my hands on this one.

Wow, what an incredible bonus. Is that near the top of the dumbest and worst modern trends with games now? Seems to happen with tons of recent releases. And most games are practically broken on day one anyway; I can't imagine what they're like days or weeks before the official release date.

I'm really taking my time and savoring this game. I really like the episodic structure because it lets you break up the experience very cleanly between sections. It seems to be a pretty lengthy game, which in most cases I don't really like. But the story and atmosphere is so gripping that I don't mind at all.

I guess it does come out Friday, you're right. I thought it was out but maybe only if you per-ordered a special edition or something.