video games (was Re: UFCS for D)

[Adam D. Ruppe]

On Saturday, 31 March 2012 at 06:14:03 UTC, Nick Sabalausky wrote:
> Like the AV cords: For fuck's sake, what's with the proprietary 
> AV connectors?

What really gets me there is the old playstation used
to have regular rca jacks. They removed it from the
design about the same time they brought out the dual shock.

Similarly, the model 1 Genesis used the same rf adapter
as the NES and SNES... but they changed it for the model 2.

Annoying!

> That's kind of another thing: If I need to be doing work, it's 
> going to be
> damn hard if I have a bunch of games two clicks away.

This is why Windows can kill me... I get addicted to
those stupid built in games.

And Windows Vista threw a Chess game on top of it. Gah!
(nice game though, it has a good sliding difficulty
setup to keep it going.)


> Really? Cool!

http://worms2d.info/Worms_Armageddon

There's a familiar name in there :)


> It was a short, minor  thing like that, but it
> was frequent enough that it just felt like I was
> being really slowed down.

heh, that's the way I feel about most animations, in
games or not. "get on with it" is what I say.

But, in many of these games, I really like the
background music, which makes it more awesomer.

In a game with bad music, everything gets more annoying.
With good bgm, it can take its time, to an extent.

> Although, I was always more of a Lunar fan

omg, not every day I see a Lunar fan! Silver
Star Story: Complete is the reason I wanted
a playstation.

That's a beautiful game.

I don't think Working Designs has ever published
anything less than great too. My first game
of theirs was Popful Mail on the sega cd, and
that was awesome back in the day too.


It made me sad when they went out of business, but
it was probably inevitable. A company that insists
on going above and beyond on every release will just
get swamped in the game environment today.


Something awesome though: my brother emailed them
to send his condolences when they went out of business,
and actually got a personal reply from Victor Ireland,
the president. I doubt any other game company out there
has such a connection with their fans.

I love them <3


But, what sucks: one of my Lunar SSSC discs is broken!
My sister stole it one day and was playing it instead
of doing her chores.

So my mother took the game away and threw it out. I
retrieved it, but the disc had chipped.

That was the *hardest* game for me to acquire. I'll
probably never replace the physical disc now, and
am stuck on the emulator.

Gah.


But, great game. Those are cutscenes I couldn't get
enough of.



While I'm talking about great games, another good
one is Phantasy Star IV on the Genesis. II and III
were ok too, but they moved too slowly. Literally,
the character walking speed was abysmal. But, IV
bumped up the speed big time, and it was amazing.

I hate the way "phantasy star" now refers to some
shitty MMORPG though. Fuck that noise, the Genesis
is where it's at.

> Actually, that reminds me, have you seen that
> YouTube video of Sonic 2006's hub-world "gameplay"?

Nay, but a friend bought some sonic game for the PS3
recently. I played it Wednesday, actually.

The loading was annoying, but only at the start of
a stage, so not disruptive to most the play.

What got me though was the bizarre 3d stuff and
seemingly sluggish controls. It was the same levels
from Sonic 2, but it felt slow and unresponsive in
comparison to the original.

idk though, I haven't played the original for a long,
long time.

> So I don't think I've ever managed to get more than a couple 
> hours into those.

People call me a heretic for this, but I say FFs 1, 7, and 8
are the best of that bunch (and FF Tactics on the Playstation
mixed in there too).

The SNES ones were ok, but I didn't love them. Yes, FF6
has the opera scene. Yes, it is amazing.

But the rest of it? eh, certainly not bad, but not all
that great either.

> In the PSX era, I was more into PC gaming and didn't have a 
> PSX, so I got the PC FF7.

I've heard nothing but bad things about the PC versions.
Never played it myself, but I'm told it was slow, buggy,
and annoying...


> I realized I was only playing it to see what happens
> and was genuinely dreading/rushing-through the battles

I put 8 among the top for a few reasons: 1) I liked
the story and the main character. People call me a heretic
for this too, but "then go talk to a wall", I cheered
that line! That was sexual harassment, and Squall didn't
have to take it.

Just generally though, 8 has a fine story.

2) Enc-None. You can turn off most the fights and just
fly through the game if you want too.

3) I liked the stat twiddling too. Spend a few minutes
in preparation on the junction screen and you turn your
characters into gods. That's part of the reason I play
those games... to play god. So win.

4) I liked the card minigame too.



It isn't perfect, but it checks the big boxes in jrpg
for me.


> Never tried 9. Played a demo or two of FF10, and thought "meh", 
> and I guess I've kinda given up on FF since.

I watched my brother play some of 10. Gah, I couldn't
really get into that one.

I barely played the PS2 at all; almost everything I've
seen of it was my brother playing it. It was just
after my time.

> storytelling has always been one of the core points of JRPGs.

eh, in Lunar they are brilliant, but in FF, they
are just accent pieces; the real story is in the
gameplay and, especially, the dialog boxes.

The best FF cutscenes are the relatively brief ones
that introduce something or finish off a sequence.
They are short and relatively infrequent - do their
job and get back to the meat.


I think the problem was as the tech advanced, they
were no longer limited in their use. The designers
before used them sparingly because that was the
most they could.

Later on, they could use it more... did use it more,
and then it just got overused.

I'm told FF9 actually has a good story though. I'll
have to play it again to tell for sure, but I betcha
it will be despite overused cutscenes, not thanks to them.


> Then the same guy behind MGS *cough*reinvented*cough* 
> Castevania to predictably horrid results.

Blah. I'm not a big castlevania fan (I watched my brother
play a lot of SOTN - yea, I watched my brother play a lot
of stuff, happens when you share rooms for 16 years! and
it was ok but seemed to drag on and on for me. Changing
cape colors only goes so far in making up for repetition.)

> And yet somehow it was well-received.

omg it is hideo must be awesome

(ps thanks for the check, konami)

Game critics are bought and paid for by the publishers,
all of them, and the sheeple buy their crap hook, line,
and sinker.

> Yea, but it's fun to actually *agree* with someone on gaming 
> (or anything) for a change.

aye


> That hoverbike section was just EVIL!

Yes! And worse yet with two players, you both
have to do it right together. Impossible!