Such a great game. Sure it might lead to seizures or a sense of vertigo, but it is worth it.
Beat Madden '94 for the umpteenth time with the 85' Bears. The jerseys the Bears ware on the road on this game are the best. Kind of a Navy Blue and Oatmeal color pattern. '94 is a multitask game for me, as I'm always doing something else while playing the game. I usually try to drain the clock on every down, so I have plenty of time to do other things while not playing the game.
Earthbound – This is one of the most peculiar and unusual games ever to come out. Still, it is safe to say that the game is brilliant, albeit it cryptic. As many of you know, the whole plot of Earthbound revolves around a child, sent on a quest to stop an evil force from destroying the world. Sounds simple enough, but the execution of the game is filled with superfluous events, items and activities that initially may seem useless or absurd, to the point of being frustrating. I started playing the game early in the year, pushing myself to play it, because in all honesty, I was not enjoying the game. I found the combat system redundant and dull, things like the camera-man taking my picture every five seconds to be annoying and interrupting the flow of the game and saw myself rushing to get through things, because there was nothing there to pull me in.
I stopped playing early in the game and moved on to different games. Finally, my baby girl was born and there was ample time to play games on the WiiU while she napped in my arms, all thanks to the gamepad’s off-tv play function. I started to see the annoyances as being more charming then annoying. Having to call your mom to ease your feeling homesick, getting phone calls from your dad to make sure you take a break and the strange interpretations of the daunting real world seen through the eyes of children all started creep into my heart and get to me. It really wasn’t until the very end of the game when things really came together for me. Spoilers forthcoming
I would roll my eyes when, later in the game I would be stopped and asked for my real name. I went along with it and gave them my name, slightly annoyed that the game would ask me again and again if that was right. Only until the very end, when you pray (a move that I again thought was useless and annoying throughout the entirety of the game until the final boss) and the fourth wall was broken that it hit me. I was taking an active part in these characters lives and experiences. I started to warm up to the idea of family being close, even when so far away. Having a child humbled me in a way and enlightened me to some of the core concepts that Earthbound was trying to present. It really was a feeling unlike any other.
After you beat the boss and take your friends home, you see your mom and she makes your favorite food and everything seems so peaceful and serene. The events leading up to the final battle did an amazing job of building tension and giving the feeling of a child’s seemingly impossible task to use their innocence to fight off the bitter corruption of greed, malice and control. Those final moments were an extreme relief and gave a great sense of closure to the game.
When I finally saw the credits roll and saw all the photos, a big smile spread across my face. When those pictures were taken, my mind was like, “Hurry up! This is a waste of time.” Seeing those pictures though brought back genuine memories of the game and nostalgia hit me, even though I had just finished. The real kicker was seeing the black screen and the photographer come out with his camera to take one final picture... a picture of me the player. Not going to lie, I was a little choked up at that moment.
Those final moments are what made me realize that the sum of its parts is what makes Earthbound so special. It really is an experience that you don’t fully understand until you reach the end. You may seem annoyed or confounded by the design choices, but everything seems to click at the end and that moment of realization really is something special. I do encourage people to honestly play this game. You may be like I was and be a person who couldn’t find a groove in the game, but I assure you that when the credits roll, you will understand the game and what it was trying to represent. It is a journey, not only for the characters, but for you and it was something really special.
Mass Effect – How do I follow up Earthbound? Mass Effect is a great science fiction extravaganza. I had played and completed the first game many many years ago on PC, but never got the later games. Now, thanks to a huge sale on the Playstation Network, I was able to get the whole trilogy for under roughly $5 and I am glad I did. Revisiting the game has been a lot of fun. Sure, the Mako still sucks, but the game, its world and its characters are a lot of fun. I am moving on to the second chapter soon and hope to be surprised!
Ack wrote:I don't know, chief, the haunting feeling of lust I feel whenever I look at your avatar makes me think it's real.
-I am the idiot that likes to have fun and be happy.
My original experience was with Earthbound when I was in grade school. So it resonated with me in a different way than it did for you; it was more about me helping out my friends make their way through a strange and funny world. I loved the way the game didn't take itself too seriously. The fight against the Clumsy Robot is one of my favorite moments in the game. The game is just a massive ball of charm.
Blizzard Entertainment Software Developer - All comments and views are my own and not representative of the company.
EarthBound is exceptional. Glad you ended up enjoying it, Bogus. I'm a huge Dragon Quest nut so the battles never bothered me much, though I can certainly see why many prefer the aesthetics to the actual mechanics.
I think the final boss battle is perhaps the best of any video game ever. I can't think of another turn-based fight that's filled with so much tension. Even better then the epic (sorry Luke) "tower" of foes at FFVI's conclusion. I also appreciate
the degradation of music into noise during the fight. Very symbolic.
The whole game rules. I first played it around launch - so age 12/13 or so. As a child of a very dysfunctional family it made quite the impression on me. Both a hopeful and bittersweet experience.
It's certainly a game I'll want my daughter to try out in another 10 years or so.
Cronozilla wrote:I've always enjoyed Techland games ... but not because they're good. They're always way too ambitious (even to this day, when they actually have money).
Are you referring to Dying Light?
If you want to experience extreme me-too-ism at its finest, play the game they made before Call of Juarez, Chrome. It looks real slick (for the time), but gets to be a pain in the ass, fast.
I tried the demo for that game. I can't remember what I thought, but it couldn't have been that bad if I later decided to get the Steam version. I'll be sure to try that next.
I'm rather late on this, but I've been meaning to reply to this for a while:
Markies wrote:I never saw the big fuss and I always was curious on how the genre evolved to the Call of Duty's and Battlefield's of today. I can now see how Halo was the bridge between those games. The game very much reminds me of a modern FPS with regenerating health, checkpoints readily available and a more cinematic feel.
I don't think Halo really influenced Call of Duty or Battlefield much. Early Call of Duty played like the Medal of Honor: Allied Assault. Hell, it was original called the "Medal of Honor Killer." Battlefield was based off the obscure Codename Eagle, and (from what I gather) has mostly just stayed that course from there, incorporating enhancements and refinements. Now Halo might have influenced the more modern CoDs (from four onward) in informing how to make a shooter that can appeal to both console and PC players as well as how to give an FPS that AAA flair that you mentioned.
Twenty years later and I'm starting to get pretty good at this one. Pretty sure my list for awesome games that are also frustrating would go (all NES):
1) Battletoads 2) Ninja Gaiden 3) Castlevania
I love, absolutely love Shaterhand, Shadow of the Ninja, Duck Tales, and a ton of other "tough games", but those three stand out for me as incredible games with incredible difficulty.
Earthworm Jim is another game that is worth it's frustration, as are many other games, but that's my top three for the NES.
This is surprisingly a really awesome game! It's not like I buy games that I think will be only ok, but lately I've been trying a lot of games that I didn't like so it was a nice playing something really good.
It's quite a bit different from any other game I've played as well... It's like an FPS mixed with a rougelike, but the guns are replaced with various magic weapons. So you're running around a procedurally-generated dungeon, shooting various creatures with staffs and wands and if you die, then you have to start all over again. You also gain levels as you are running around, and each level means you get to choose a power up (you get a selection from two random ones) which can either be super useful or not at all depending on what you get when. Plus there are other characters to unlock, which you can get by defeating certain enemies X times, using staffs X times, or a few other different ways.
So it's a game that is pretty simple to play (run around and shoot stuff) it does have a fair amount of depth to it as well, which is why I like it so much.
Danganronpa
I heard this game was good, and I wanted some more games for my Vita TV so I decided to pick it up. Now while I had quite high expectations for this game, it just totally blew that out of the water. This game is AMAZING and it's definitely now one of my favourite games ever.
My boyfriend describes this game as a cross between Phoenix Wright and Persona, and while I'm not sure if that's quite right, I think that's pretty close. It's a visual novel where this kid gets admitted into this very good school, where success in life is guaranteed if you go to it. However, he and 14 other students find out that they're actually trapped there, and the only way for them to escape is kill one of the others and get away with it. One someone kills someone else, it's your job to go around the school, find clues, and take part in a class trial to figure out who did it or else everyone but the murderer will be killed. In the trials themselves, you'll be discussing the case with the classmates, and you shoot any of their incorrect statements with "Truth Bullets". There's also a hangman game, a rhythm game, and a comic that you need to fill in at the end of the trial.
All of this was a ton of fun for me, especially since the dialogue and story is all very well written and I hardly ever felt like there was a leap in logic (like I did while playing Phoenix Wright). If you don't like a lot of reading then this wouldn't be a good game for you (it is a visual novel after all), but this sort of game is definitely my jam and I need more of it! Definitly going to pick up the second game once I clear the extra School Story Mode (or whatever the extra game is called ><)
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
Now I can't really compare this to any of the other PoP games (I don't have the older ones and most of the newer ones don't work properly on Steam ), but this game is... ok? The platforming is very nice, as it's pretty satisfying to jump around and run along the walls, but it has a lot of issues.
For one, for some reason the developers had to add waaaay too many combat sections. They're all very dull since you can just mash the X button nearly every time. Some enemies you do need to dodge before mashing X (not very many of these though) and some enemies need you to press Y before mashing X, but either way you'll mostly be mashing X. Near the end you don't even need to those extra things! Just mash that X button! Also all the bosses are super similar to each other so they don't spice things up at all.
And the other big downside is the glitches. Sometimes poles will disappear or the Prince won't grab onto them, but luckily those don't happen that often. What does happen frequently is if the Prince gets hit by big enemies or traps, a lot of the time he will fall to the ground and won't move for a few seconds. Luckily he doesn't usually take damage when he's like this, but it's really annoying. Also the game crashed about four times for me yaay.
So yeah, I would probably avoid this if I were you. Maybe the console versions are better, but even then the dull combat happens way too often so I doubt it would be much better there :/ Only reason why I beat it was because I needed a new thing to beat :/
I'll be sure to try that next.
Definitly going to pick up the second game once I clear the extra School Story Mode (or whatever the extra game is called ><)
), but this game is... ok? The platforming is very nice, as it's pretty satisfying to jump around and run along the walls, but it has a lot of issues.