Took a shower and thought about the themes of Zelda.
From my rather wet brainstorming session I came up with the three most common plotlines of the series (any other fans please help me out if you think there's a problem with this list): Time travel, transdimensional travel, and repairing/restoring the legendary sword.
Also that ALttP and ALBW both contain a lot of similarities to TP.
I feel like I came up with more than those two things though. I just can't articulate it well.
I'm not sure how well that fits into my vague definition of theme here, which, again, is my fault for not being articulate enough. The Triforce doesn't really factor into the games themselves except in Skyward Sword (barely), Wind Waker, and the original. And as far as plot concerns, it's important in eight of them, nine if you count the Oracle games (which only really used it as sort of a framing device.)
So, I've been playing LittleBigPlanet recently, and it's reminded me of something that bugs me about modern games: The increasing push towards minimalistic HUDs. Now, maybe it's just because I play a lot of RPGs and shmups, where HUDs are generally kinda important, but anyway.
Let's take LittleBigPlanet as an example: The game has a lives system. The first you are likely to know of this is once you take one too many plasma balls to the face, because your remaining lives are not shown, and the game never tells you it has a lives system. Now, if you beat a level without dying, it does say "No Lives Lost!", but that can pretty easily be interpreted as a more child-friendly way of saying "No deaths".
But yeah. Minimalistic HUDs bug me. They can work well (see: Journey), but there's a time and a place for it.
Man is a most complex simple creature: see what he weaves, and how base his reasons for doing so.
Minimalistic HUDs are great! I love them.
HOWEVER there should never be - at any time - an instance where you can't see important information. Put that thing into the game world itself, like how Dead Space put the lifebar directly on the character.
Wait, LBP does show you your lives, though (at least, it did in the first one).
You're kind of required to remember them, but every time you pass one of the checkpoints (shown behind the Sackboy up there) you gain whatever number it has (in this case, 4). When you die, one quarter of the light bar fades, and when you're on your last life the checkpoint flashes red and a klaxon starts blaring.
In the case of multiplayer, each player death = 1 quarter of a bar (so 2 simultaneous player deaths = half of a bar gone).
Depending on the checkpoint, you can have either 4 (one bar of light around the point), 8 (two bars), or infinite respawns (the checkpoint itself has an infinity symbol on it).
I'm not sure if they kept the same system for LBP2, but I wouldn't see why not, I never had any issues with it.
HOWEVER there should never be - at any time - an instance where you can't see important information. Put that thing into the game world itself, like how Dead Space put the lifebar directly on the character.
I agree wholeheartedly. Never played Dead Space, but if nothing else I loved the concept of having the life bar as part of the character's gear.
Hm. Now that I think about it, LBP's got a pretty complicated system for such a simple (in theory) game.
I guess Mm learned their lesson, Tearaway has a much simpler system: every checkpoint gives you infinite respawns, and getting hit by a Scrap twice or falling into a bottomless pit/water sets you back to the checkpoint (or maybe a bit after, for convenience reasons).
Wait, LBP does show you your lives, though (at least, it did in the first one).
You're kind of required to remember them, but every time you pass one of the checkpoints (shown behind the Sackboy up there) you gain whatever number it has (in this case, 4). When you die, one quarter of the light bar fades, and when you're on your last life the checkpoint flashes red and a klaxon starts blaring.
In the case of multiplayer, each player death = 1 quarter of a bar (so 2 simultaneous player deaths = half of a bar gone).
Depending on the checkpoint, you can have either 4 (one bar of light around the point), 8 (two bars), or infinite respawns (the checkpoint itself has an infinity symbol on it).
I'm not sure if they kept the same system for LBP2, but I wouldn't see why not, I never had any issues with it.
The problem is, the game never actually thinks of telling you this, and it's pretty easy to ignore the white ring as just some pretty lights, at least until you're moments from death.
Started playing Ratchet and Clank: A Crack in Time. So far, I'm enjoying it much more than than Tools of Destruction in almost every aspect. Tools of Destruction wasn't bad, but the plot and villain weren't that interesting and something about the gameplay felt slightly flat . I'm glad they brought back Dr Nefarious for A Crack in Time too. Everything is so much more fun with him hamming it up.
More people have said that and been killed than there are thorium decay products.
I played a few of my Mega Man X games again for some nostalgic reason and... wow, these games are kind of... not that good. :v I don't care though because Inti Creates has done an awesome job with Mega Man.
i am also "Video-Games-Everyone-Already-Played-Two-Years-Ago Guy"
so i've been playing the mass effect games recently
Hey! That's my slot!
Weren't you the Street Fighter IV guy?
No, I relegated that to a secondary title because no one cares about Street Fighter. Also, I've temporarily uninstalled that so I won't fail classes this semester. We've been over this.
I'm also secondary RPGMaker guy and secondary Touhou guy.
Okay, so let me tell y'all about Liberal Crime Squad.
Have you ever wanted to wage war against straw conservatives with your army of straw liberals? Using ASCII graphics from the 1980s? Then this game's for you!
You basically start off with a single, charismatic leader, and you have to use xir to create an army of liberals by recruiting, seducing and kidnapping people. Once you have your army, you must use it to finance liberal protests against the conservative government, through any means necessary. Game keeps going until the government becomes liberal or the LCS gets wiped out by the police/mercenaries/Conservative Crime Squad.
One of the more interesting things about the game is that each person that you encounter is randomly produced upon starting the game, with their own stats and skills. Using those skills is key to making your army as effective as possible. Recruit a Lab Worker? Set him to hacking computers and stealing credit cards. Kidnap a Police Officer and drug him until he believes in the left? Set him as a sleeper agent so he'll warn you about raids? Seduce a Prostitute or an Actor? Bring xir along on missions so they can seduce more people and trick guards.
@Yarrun: Now it's Amnesia: The Dark Descent. I think GOG.com did alright on this sale, because the games on the sale (With the exception of Tomb Raider 1-3 and Deus Ex) didn't stall as much as say, Jack Keane 2: The Fire Within on the Insomnia Sale. I'm surprised that System Shock 2 didn't make it on the sale, though.
Soooo, just tried PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royal (god, what a mouthful) out on the Vita
It's not bad. Graphically it looks pretty much exactly the same as the PS3 version. As for the game itself, standard Smash Bros. type fare, but without the reliance on ring outs (kills are done via super moves instead), which I sort of love, a lot.
Me being the person I am I played through it with Sackboy first. A bit tough to learn in comparison to some of the others, I'm sure (his moveset is based a lot around trap attacks) but once I figured him out we kicked ass together, so that was fun :D
Comments
Let's take LittleBigPlanet as an example: The game has a lives system. The first you are likely to know of this is once you take one too many plasma balls to the face, because your remaining lives are not shown, and the game never tells you it has a lives system. Now, if you beat a level without dying, it does say "No Lives Lost!", but that can pretty easily be interpreted as a more child-friendly way of saying "No deaths".
But yeah. Minimalistic HUDs bug me. They can work well (see: Journey), but there's a time and a place for it.
"Tools of Destruction"
...oh
Anybody here play Monster Hunter?
damn straight
It's a great game, despite the learning curve.
It's certainly a good idea to have somebody show you the ropes. It doesn't do a very good job at explaining itself to players.
i don't
does this make us bitter enemies
I am currently playing Halo's Mixtape.
so i've been playing the mass effect games recently
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
On an unrelated note, here's a report of the latest major battle in EVE Online history.
It's not bad. Graphically it looks pretty much exactly the same as the PS3 version. As for the game itself, standard Smash Bros. type fare, but without the reliance on ring outs (kills are done via super moves instead), which I sort of love, a lot.
Me being the person I am I played through it with Sackboy first. A bit tough to learn in comparison to some of the others, I'm sure (his moveset is based a lot around trap attacks) but once I figured him out we kicked ass together, so that was fun :D