New Testingstan

So I play games for fun, not to be all l33t about it and to stomp those n00b scrubs. Which is why I avoid multiplayer but anyway.

So naturally I find it's pretty annoying to get punished for playing on easy and/or using cheat codes in a purely single player experience. Why the fuck even put in the codes if you're going to be all "DAMN YOU DIRTY CHEATER NO GOOD ENDING FOR YOU" about it? And also the "Hey maybe you shouldn't be a fuckin' pussy and play on hardmode" stuff. Bleh.

The only "punishment" I guess I can go with is not getting achievments on Xbox and stuff, because those are mostly there to increase your "gamer score" or whatever and is basically showing off your e-peen. But any othe punishments is just...well see above, why'd you put them in at all?

Am I so wrong in feeling this way?

I can count the number of games I've gotten all the achievements for on one hand because I just don't care to play through most games on hard or grind for 40 hours for one achievement.

I think the idea of having to play higher difficulty and/or not cheat to get true endings is mostly from a mindset from before (or else rejecting) the ubiquitous achievements. It ensures there's a motivation for the player to try the harder stuff outside their own satisfaction. If you're already cheating, though, you can always just watch the endings on youtube or something

A game punishing players who try to enhance their own fun.

Spot the problem.

Oh yeah, I'm not saying it's necessarily a good decision to make, which I probably came off as.

Nah, it was just me ranting against idiot game designers and the idiot fans & "hardcore gamers" they're pandering to.

Well it would help if RogueIce told us what game he's talking about. Because I don't know what game is out there that punishes you for playing on easy, or any game company that panders to hardcore gamers, outside of niche studios who rely on those hardcore gamers for their business revenue.

Stofsk wrote:Well it would help if RogueIce told us what game he's talking about. Because I don't know what game is out there that punishes you for playing on easy, or any game company that panders to hardcore gamers, outside of niche studios who rely on those hardcore gamers for their business revenue.

Dead Rising.

So what does that game do to punish you for playing on easy?

Stofsk wrote:So what does that game do to punish you for playing on easy?

You got "bad" endings.

But that's just Japanese game design. Most won't even let you get the "real" ending until you replay the New Game Plus or whatever. Or like Asura's Wrath just have a DLC with the final chapter.

Stofsk wrote:Well it would help if RogueIce told us what game he's talking about. Because I don't know what game is out there that punishes you for playing on easy, or any game company that panders to hardcore gamers, outside of niche studios who rely on those hardcore gamers for their business revenue.

I was mostly speaking in general. Although on reflection the no cheat codes thing, in single-player, tends to affect stats and titles like labeling you CHEATER which I guess isn't as bad.

But stuff like using Easy mode and getting the Bad Ending is still kinda BS.

The new Hitman Absolution game disables all the achievements on easy, this prevents a fairly large number of unlocks from being exposed.

MGS 4 is the best game I've played for the PS3. It's for a lot of reasons: the gameplay is amazing and fun, the sound is phenomenal, the cut scenes funny, and playing as an Old Fart has its amusements.

Yakuza 3/4 are some of my favorites for the character design and storylines, (as far as PS3 games go), but they're not everyone's cup of tea.

So I just finished the Trooper storyline for Star Wars: The Old Republic. It was a fun ride, but it really dropped the ball right at the end. I don't know why they insist on making the republic be Lawful stupid, but if this kind of shit is going on they totally deserve to lose to the empire.

So the new Devil May Cry reboot. Two years ago, around when they first announced it and dropped a few teasers, I wasn't too excited as it looked like it was heading in the same direction as DMC2. After getting it and playing it through, I'm super-happy to say I was wrong. Within the DMC franchise, it's possibly the best of the bunch. As a hack-and-slash in general, it's fairly entertaining.

Gameplay: The controls are streamlined and balanced to the point that you no longer have to be an action-per-second god to play at the higher difficulties. Each new difficulty both re-shuffles enemy compositions in each encounter, as well as gives all the enemies new ways to attack/parry, in addition to the usual hit-point/damage/speed boost, which gives the game a lot more replayability.

Characters/story: Dante's not quite the over-the-top douchebag he was in the old universe, yet at the same time he's not the brooding, emo prick many feared he'd be. He's an anti-establishment punk, but he's actually more relatably human than the older incarnation. The latter also applies to Vergil, and in general there is actually quite a bit more depth than in the old DMC universe. Granted, it's not going to go down as one of the greatest, most moving stories in even video-game history, but compared to the unintentionally hilarious melodrama of "I wanted to be the one to fill your dark soul with liiiiight!!!", this is quite a lovely surprise.

Environment: To me this is by far the biggest improvement. The game's no longer restricted to 'crumbling gothic church in seedy red-light district' or 'ancient ruins overgrown with vegetation'. There's an actual city with people in it, there are warehouses, office buildings, nightclubs, military bunkers, and mansions... but more importantly there's Limbo, which takes place in all those locations, but also turns them into quite frankly beautiful, twisted reflections of real-world locations.

The Downsides: Some minor, some major, none completely game-breaking, in my opinion. The style-meter seems ridiculously easy to build up... though rewards are stingy enough that you still have to work for things. Lack of a manual lock-on can make crowded fights somewhat infuriating, like when you're trying to focus on taking out a Witch, but you keep attacking one of the five Stygians surrounding you instead. Finally, the camera tries to autofocus on any nearby monsters, which can make things incredibly difficult if there are environmental hazards nearby, as you'll double-jump, have the camera twist ninety degrees between jumps, and accidentally end up leaping merrily into a pit of death.

Final judgment: It's a fun game, it's arguably the best in the series, and watching fantards go ballistic over this is just delicious.

Oh... and when it comes down to it, Vergil was actually right in the end.

I know there's a lot of nerd reaction that this game is terrible the worst ever. Any idea what prompted all that?

It's different and also less bullshit difficult. That's basically it.

Infinity Biscuit wrote:I know there's a lot of nerd reaction that this game is terrible the worst ever. Any idea what prompted all that?

The DMC series developed a decent sized fan-base with a small, but incredibly rabid fringe. After DMC4 Hideki Kamiya, the creator, left to pursue stunning projects like Bayonetta, there was some legal tussles with Capcom, and he lost the rights to the DMC franchise. Two years ago, Capcom contracted Ninja Theory to 'reboot' the series and make it more appealing to western audiences. They did and, in my opinion, did a pretty damn good job at it.

But to the rabid fantwits, they violated the sacred cow. So various boards were flooded with hundreds of iterations of "Ninja Theory raped my childhood" and "I hope Tameel dies of cancer". While some of the responses from Ninja Theory weren't exactly disarming (their response to fantwit outrage was something along the lines of 'Our game now, we'll do what we want' and 'you are irrelevant'), I have a hard time blaming them when people were literally sending them death threats.

Basically it's that ridiculous, tiny subsection of gamers who feel games should cater to their tastes alone, regardless of marketability. Who will scream long and hard if game-makers act as though they aren't the center of the world and dare to seek a broader market for their games. I personally think Ninja Theory went in the right direction, any semi-popular game will inevitably get a rabid subsection in its fan-base, and its in the developers' best interests not to try and cater to them, because doing so will likely turn off the rest of the market, and contrary to the fantwit's beliefs, they are not numerous enough to financially support their sacred cows.

As far as Hideki Kamiya's concerned, he recently gave his approval of the new game and flat out said he looks forward to wherever Ninja Theory takes the franchise next. Of course the fantwits immediately jumped on this, saying he was obviously paid off by Capcom to say this (despite the fact that Hideki Kamiya's pretty well known for both wanting nothing more to do with Capcom, and having no problem giving his honest opinion) or he's just a humble Japanese man who doesn't want to create a fuss (neckbearded weeaboos making racist generalizations? Whoknew?).

damien please tell me about this game's political message of capitalism as an evil tool for enslavement of the masses

The game is unrelentingly obnoxious and really easy.

e: damien contending that there is more depth to Vergil this time around is incredibly bizarre. He aborts a baby with a sniper rifle and lets it sink in before executing the mother. During a hostage exchange involving his trusted subordinate (who had earlier described him as 'caring'). Why? Who knows!

F.J. Prefect, Esq wrote:The game is unrelentingly obnoxious and really easy.

I disagree, but it's just something that comes down to differing tastes.

e: damien contending that there is more depth to Vergil this time around is incredibly bizarre. He aborts a baby with a sniper rifle and lets it sink in before executing the mother. During a hostage exchange involving his trusted subordinate (who had earlier described him as 'caring'). Why? Who knows!

I've seen this complaint pop up before and it makes me laugh every time, because it shows the complainer either only watched that cutscene in isolation with no context... or they didn't, don't care about the context, and are just looking for things to complain about.

1) The 'baby' he aborted wasn't a human baby. It was a fifteen foot tall demonspawn with three arms and five eyes that literally kicked its way out of Lilith's womb in its bloodlust to kill Dante, that only went back in after being beaten down... and in fact was the boss you fought directly before this cutscene.

2) The mother wasn't a human mother. From the beginning of the game, in every scene she appears, Lilith is shown as an inhuman monster wearing a poorly-fitting human skin-bag that she has to constantly adjust.

3) I've watched the scene a few times and, to me, it looks like Vergil is just as surprised as everyone else that he took the shot. I'd say that moment actually represented the point where Vergil finally accepted he was willing to kill anyone or do anything to ensure his own rise to power.

Losonti Tokash wrote:damien please tell me about this game's political message of capitalism as an evil tool for enslavement of the masses

I'm not sure I'm qualified to do a proper analysis on that. The game is rather heavy-handed with the themes that addiction to consumerism (literally, in the case of demon-spiked Virility), debt, fear of designated 'terrorist' scapegoats and the trading of personal liberty for material comfort makes people into effective cattle for whoever wants to harvest them. But then again, it's hard to take that message seriously when the game itself is produced by Capcom, a company that's kind of made itself a poster-boy for some of the ways capitalism can be abused.

My biggest complaint with the new DMC was that the original Dante re-design made him look like an emaciated meth user. Thankfully they fixed that soon enough and I'm actually looking forward to picking it up.