I've played both Bioshock games, but Dead Space holds no interest for me.
It held plenty for me, since I've just Platinum'd the thing. Woo!
But I can see why people claim Dead Space is similar to System Shock. There are a lot of similar themes, the setting is also rather familiar and the plot bears a striking similarity to both System Shocks in places. Of course, Dead Space can't hold a candle to Shock's atmosphere and pacing, but that's a different matter entirely.
I agree with you guys. Darth, I just realized we're both Lords of the Sith, haha. ^^ But you know...I still think that System Shock holds a special place in people's hearts because it was the original FPS survival horror in space kind of thing.
If Dead Space was first we might have looked at it a bit differently.
Of course System Shock was also an RPG and so it had more strategic elements that forced us to plan ahead with character building in a way that would prolong our survival. So that probably also increased the atmosphere of the game too. We were always in suspense. I think the best part was that most everyone in the game was dead. But you would see the echoes of their past lives and also those journals they left behind. It's used in other games, but when System Shock 2 started displaying those...wow...it just really made me feel for those dead people. I don't think most of those people deserved to die/become a hybrid/etc. And to see that they were TRYING to survive in a lot of cases, and failed...to the point where you would find their last recording on their corpse...well that just sort of made it even more bleak.
I loved it.
And they didn't even need to SPELL out everything with a pretty cutscene or throw it in your face. Many of those recordings were hidden and not in plain sight. Some were...but it seems like every time I play the game I learn something new. Fantastic.
And System Shock 2 was a financial failure.
Speaking of financial failures that were kind of ahead of their time...Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri.
Given I enjoyed the previous two (against all expectations), I tried Madagascar: Europe's Most Wanted. Oh boy. They took a solid third person platformer and turned it into... a generic co-op game. And it's not even a good one, you have to keep switching between two players if you're playing on your own - y'know, how co-op SHOULDN'T be done. Also, they lopped out the first part of the story, so the setting's changed with little to no explanation.
Given I enjoyed the previous two (against all expectations), I tried Madagascar: Europe's Most Wanted. Oh boy. They took a solid third person platformer and turned it into... a generic co-op game. And it's not even a good one, you have to keep switching between two players if you're playing on your own - y'know, how co-op SHOULDN'T be done. Also, they lopped out the first part of the story, so the setting's changed with little to no explanation.
Reminds me of the first Chaos Engine game. In the single player mode you also had to chose a companion. You could not switch between the characters, and unfortunately the companion had an "intelligence" attribute starting at almost zero. So this character was of no use in the first levels in which he died every other minute out of mere stupidity, and reviving him cost a lot of money. So you'd just get him killed as soon as possible, take all loot and money with one character and try to equip him with so much good stuff that he could beat the game alone.
The beginning levels are the most infuriating levels in history because no matter what I do, something really stupid happens and one of my fully healthed guys die, with me not being able to do anything to it! And since the beginning levels, EVERYONE has to live, I can't even go "oops" and go on.
I've been waiting for this since I played the demo, and I've been playing Resonance. It's a pretty awesome, old school point-and-click adventure, with some pretty creative early game puzzles.
I got Lego Batman 2 today... so far its great.. Superman is awesome.. Lego Gotham seems pretty large.. it will take a while hunting down all the unlockables..
People seem to be universally pleased with Lego Batman 2. I was kind of shocked because usually those games get mediocre reviews. I guess they finally realized they needed to mix things up a bit. ^^
That said I am not going to buy it yet, but I can't wait to play the expansion to Civ V, Gods and Kings.
I would try it, but the voices are really not doing anything for me. It seems like such an odd addition. I get adding them to Lego LoTR, since that's based on a movie and is therefore more understandable, but doing it for Batman just seems weird. Everything else seems good, but those voices... that ain't right to me.
Uh, playing through a couple of DS games I got because they're Metroidvania-style. Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions is actually a lot of fun, and Daniel X isn't exactly bad, per either. I'm liking this genre.
Well it's been a while since day 2 I guess. And it took so long for several reasons. One being that Mission 7: The Haunted Cathedral is one of my least favourite in the game. Loot is scattered everywhere in a "dead city" full of zombies, ghosts, spiders and burricks. Finding all of the loot took forever and my rope arrows became my best friends.
The 2 extra objectives for Expert mode are hidden quite well in extra compartments of the level that have no other significance. Most players on normal mode will not even know they are there, that's how well they are hidden.
Another reason I don't like this level is that it is a complete filler level. (I played the game for 17 hours until now, knowing where everything was in the levels before. The game is long enough so I have no idea why anyone would put this level in there. Your goal is to get a mystical eye and all you do is find out that the cathedral it is in is locked and where the keys are. This could have been done in a cutscene.
But why complain. The worst level of the game is behind me now and apart from a new enemy nothing noteable has changed in the level. Next up are the missions to get the keystones I need to enter the cathedral with the eye. Those have been changed, expanded and split up in Thief Gold.
On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness Episode 3... Actually no, not yet. I am compelled to wind myself up by replaying the old ones first, even though I am aware I don't have to even if I had forgotten major plotpoints.
Penny Arcade Aventures - On the Rain-slick Precipice of Darknesss: Episode 3
This is easily one of the best RPGs I've ever played. The class system is simply INSPIRED, the way the game handles MP is brilliant, the writing is simply a joy to read in the best way possible, and we have a game were "Dinosorcerer", the ability to "turn yourself into big honkin' dinosaurs", is a legit class.
This is a game whose gameplay is simply perfect. It's strategic, it's well-balanced, it's insanely well thought-out, and frankly that they charge $5 for something so intricate and, frankly, masterful, is simply a crime. This game is worth far more than its pricetag.
As I did for Lego Pirates, here's a list of things I took note of while playing.
- Voices are weird, especially for an established franchise (so to speak). The first Lego Batman had no voices, so hearing them talk now feels really odd. They've got some good VA's, but still...
- Combat is the same it's always been. Seems like I'll need a lot of studs for the first level - 100K, maybe?
- Robin has a weird set of attacks. They're mostly kick-based, and he has a weird little combo-thing that takes a fraction too long for me to be entirely comfortable using.
- Is that Joker goon beating up my Bat-plane-thing with a giant mallet? This will not stand!
- Wah! Alfred's talking to me through my Wiimote! That's just freaky!
- Yep, shaking the Wiimote while building makes still it build faster. Along with the accurate pointer, I really feel these Wii ports make the most of the Wii hardware. It's nice to see, honestly.
- HARLEY QUINN REFERS TO JOKER AS MR J. Not quite sure why I'm mentioning this, but still... yay!
- Hang on, now that we've beaten Harley up, are we just gonna leave her there while we go after the other bad guys? What if she wakes up? PLOT HOLE!
- Wait... CHECKPOINTS? Wha?
- SAVE STATIONS? WHAT? They basically let you save the game (and quit, if you should so choose) in the middle of the level, something that's not been an option before. I didn't realize it was that big of an issue, to be honest.
- The VA for The Riddler seems really familiar. Is it the same guy who does one of the Warner brothers? Yep! Also nice to see Clancy Brown back in action.
- Oh sweet, I just grabbed a guy and did a Overhead Supplex with him! That's neat!
- New suit! Batman's Sensor Suit lets you slip past Security Cameras undetected. Well that's... different. Wait... when I wear the suit and look at someone, it does an X-Ray thing and shows their skeleton! Sweet!
- ...and we're doing the same thing with the Riddler. Just leave him there? Eh, he'll be fine.
- Next new suit! Robin's Acrobat Suit basically just lets him double-jump and gives him a pole he can attach to certain wall sockets to swing across, as well as letting him use it to attack. It also lets him create a bubble around him that he sort of drives, but that seems utterly useless at the moment. It'll probably crop up later.
- Yep. Remember those barrel switches from Lego Pirates? That's what the bubble's for. Also, attacking in this suit is even more annoying than without it. Oh well.
- Hit 100K, no Superhero thing. 120K? Guess I won't know until I replay the level.
- Wow, Gotham City looks huge. Is this our 'hub'? Geez, no wonder there's a Map option in the main menu (that's not active yet). I don't think I'll enjoy rooting around for hidden things here. I mean, it's nice that they let you run really fast, but the jumping seems fiddly and I do believe this is the first time you've actually had a fully controllable camera in a Lego <FRANCHISE> game. Feels SO weird.
- Oh, that's interesting. In this 'hub', you can make vehicles appear at select terminals. Not sure if you'll be allowed to actually fly them round the city or not. Guessing not though.
- Wow. If you thought the constant messages about how you need a different suit to blow up Silver Crates was annoying, how about hearing Alfred cough and say "Pardon Me Sir" every 15 seconds. Ugh.
- OK, modified suits. Robin's Magnet Suit now lets him pull metallic objects down (if you can target the things) and Batman's Explosive Suit now fires unaimable rockets instead of letting you place Bombs (and is now called the Power Suit) as well as lets you pull orange handles. Hmm.
- When using orange handles, you now have to tap the button a few times to fill up a meter. Not a fan.
- The cutscenes here really do rub home the fact that the story doesn't seem as funny. Previously the lack of dialogue meant the game had to rely on slapstick, but because of the 'jokes' spouted from the characters, that's diluted somewhat between not particularly funny lines. If you cut out the dialogue, it'd probably work much better.
- An on-rails shooting section! Interestingly, the Wiimote is EXCELLENT for this sort of thing. I 'd imagine it's not quite as fun with a control stick. Wii port FTW!
- Liking this interpretation of Superman. A nice jerk, it seems.
Overall, the first few levels seem to give the impression it's business as usual, but with a few tweaks I'm not 100% about. I'll probably keep playing a little more, see how different it gets.
OK, I've played this for a few hours now and can safely say that it's a game of two VERY polarizing halves.
On the one hand, you've got the standard Lego <Insert Franchise Here> style of gameplay that we've all come to know. Run around, break some stuff, collect studs, build stuff, pull lever, etc. If you've played Lego Batman 1, you'll be very familiar with the different suit types and such. The story's pretty interesting - the Joker and Lex Luthor team up and destroy the Batcave, which is a pretty ballsy move. And Superman's a very different character to anything we've played before, being that he can freakin' fly. So if the game were just this, I'd probably like it a lot.
Unfortunately, it's not. The other half of the game is the overworld, Gotham City, and I can best describe this as a GTA-style game gone very, very wrong. The world is pretty damn large (so large is has to be split into three separate maps on the Wii verson, with the Batcave being a fourth, but I understand it's all one big map in the other versions), but it feels so empty. There's tall buildings and pipes and such, but it's all so spaced out there's little to get excited about, especially when it's so dark and drab (see other games like Saints Row that are full of colour - not so here). Hidden Red/Gold bricks and Characters are all well and good, but when there's so many and they're ALL OVER THE PLACE it's hard to feel interested in getting them.
Which leads to another negative. There's no minimap. You can find a full map in the pause menu, and there's a compass, but no minimap. Inexcusable. It's so easy to get lost at first and it's also easy to get completely turned around. The compass is practically useless, and although the full map can show the location of collectables, they only appear briefly when you press a button. You can place a custom marker on the map, but this isn't that helpful when, again, there's no minimap. It does show up on the compass, but good luck seeing behind all the other useless pointers. Ugh.
And then there's the controls. Thankfully you get a fast run in the overworld, but it still feels too slow to get around with. And as for the vehicles... the controls aren't great. Remember how they controlled in Lego Indy 2? Yeah, it's that all over again. Plus, now there's flying vehicles. But you can pretty much forget precision flying, since it's freakin' impossible. Seriously, the flying is horrendously bad. There's no option to just move forward slowly - it's either fling yourself forward and completely overshoot your target or constantly tap the button and inch your way forward gradually. It's terrible.
There's other nitpicks - like how the individual levels are so long they can take upwards of an hour, the voices don't really seem all that necessary, the rest of the JLA don't show up until the penultimate level, etc - but really, the overworld has just killed all enthusiasm I had for this game, interesting plot or not. 5/10.
Which leads to another negative. There's no minimap. You can find a full map in the pause menu, and there's a compass, but no minimap. Inexcusable. It's so easy to get lost at first and it's also easy to get completely turned around. The compass is practically useless, and although the full map can show the location of collectables, they only appear briefly when you press a button. You can place a custom marker on the map, but this isn't that helpful when, again, there's no minimap. It does show up on the compass, but good luck seeing behind all the other useless pointers. Ugh.
Totally spot on with this. Especially when there are so many collectables to get (HOW many gold bricks?!?!?). It just tedious trawling around Gotham looking for people to save or little puzzley bits to solve (which quickly lose their originality as there are only so many combinations of suits available, and then it's just quicker to skip all the interesting parts and just fly to the brick location which makes it more like a grind).
I don't mind the fact that the levels are longer (in some cases) 'cos at least they let you save part way through them if you have to quit the game ahead of schedule. Also, for the most part the levels are a bit varied though it is a shame that it not until late on that more characters get used. But I did like the single large storyline.
I'm gonna do the grind, get all the collectables because I just have to 100% every Lego game I've played (and there isn't many I haven't). But there is another annoyance with that, and that is the auto save part. Now I should say I'm playing this on the Xbox 360 so I can't say if it's true for all versions but the auto save after getting a gold brick say takes about a minute and that just feels like an eternity at times especially when you can't do anything at all while it's saving. And I'm gonna have to sit through that at least another 100 times yet. It's made worse when you're being attacked by a gang of goons which happens far to often to make it amusing (I wish there was a way to turn of goon appearances after you've unlocked them, they're just annoying and it's not as if there are any real threat anyway).
Also just wanted to add that I enjoyed the voice acting, it pushed the story to a proper story level instead of a series of events that happened like in previous Lego games (this was probably a test bed, considering what is out next). And I have to say that I enjoyed probably all of the voice cast (definitely the main cast anyway, loved the interactions between Batman, Robin & Superman). Also it's great that they made a proper Superman without real restrictions on his powers (you have to have level borders!) and it is fun playing him in the levels and is probably the best way to get around Gotham (but even I can get sick of the Superman theme!) though he's tricky to handle when trying to precision fly (though still better than all the flying vehicles).
Woah, only meant to add a short comment agree with what I quoted but it turned into a little review of my own so I might as well give it a score: 6/10 - Better that previous Lego games in some aspects, worse in others but overall a step forward for the franchise/genre. Still a fun time killer (story mode anyway).
But there is another annoyance with that, and that is the auto save part. Now I should say I'm playing this on the Xbox 360 so I can't say if it's true for all versions but the auto save after getting a gold brick say takes about a minute and that just feels like an eternity at times especially when you can't do anything at all while it's saving. And I'm gonna have to sit through that at least another 100 times yet.
Exactly the same in the Wii version. Takes a good 10-15 seconds from picking up a Gold Brick to actually being able to move again. VERY frustrating.
Well, because now I finally can... Witcher 2. It's nice to be able to move around and not have the actions on the screen lag behind the buttons by a few seconds. I still suck, but now I can play horribly in real time!
Ah, the humble video game tie-in. Once upon a time, they were generally considered to be quite good. These days, you’re lucky if you can actually find one that is. The primary problem is that while the old games were in 2D, the newer ones are in 3D, and 3D games tend to take much longer to make. What with these tie-ins being restrained by a strict release date, developers frequently have a similar timescale as they used to with much more work required to finish a game, which is why most 3D video-game tie-ins tend to feel rushed and unfinished.
A Bug’s Life sadly falls into this category. Released on the PC, PS1 and N64, this was one of the many tie-in games by Traveller’s Tales, who would later find their niche in making incredibly repetitive Lego games. But before then, they were known for making games like A Bug’s Life, which is an incredibly basic 3D platformer.
Whether the developers were constrained by the limitations of technology or the lack of development time, A Bug’s Tale feels very unprofessional, right down to the load screens featuring still shots from the movie with incredibly generic text over them. The movie clips used have a rather bad frame rate, making them feel choppy, and the music is incredibly bland, when it’s not simply missing. It all feels like placeholders, meant to be replaced by more professional work that was never actually made.
Once the game starts, it fares little better. The main goal of the game is to simply reach the end of each level, but this is made surprisingly difficult by the questionable level design. The low draw distance means that it’s hard to see what’s ahead, and an now industry-standard poor camera that, in this case, moves incredibly slowly makes it hard to navigate through the obstacles that you can see.
The controls are somewhat sluggish, and the interesting mechanic of having to grow plants into various platforms to manoeuvre around the world is rendered much more difficult as a result. Jumping in particular is incredibly frustrating, being very floaty and imprecise. It turns what should be a relatively fast-paced platformer into a slow plod through the levels, and means that the player is fighting against the game rather then actually playing it.
The only other aspect of the game worth mentioning is the combat, which is limited by your very basic attacks. All of which are rendered moot once you obtain the first weapon powerup that turns your throwing attack into a homing missile, allowing you to throw in random directions and still hit enemies even though you couldn’t see them. It almost feels like you’re breaking the game by doing this, which makes it all the more baffling that it’s an actual design choice.
A Bug’s Life feels more like a chore to play through rather than a pleasure. I’d say it hasn’t aged well, but that implies it was good in the first place. Which it wasn’t. Besides, I always preferred Antz. Suck on that, Pixar.
I don't remember any of the problems you've mentioned. Although, I was seven years old when I played the game, but it's not like I couldn't distinguish a good/ok game from a crappy game at the time.
Now there is something I must rant about now about this game, and that is the god-awful autosave system. Now the game doesn't use checkpoints, it just makes you go back to the previous save(manual or autosave), however, the autosave is so terrible, you don't want to ever use it! I started at some station that I needed to get completely repaired, and remove some pest that keeps attacking the area. I repaired the station, met scientist from a lab past the system, fought for a bit, and then had an attack by the same pest, which had glitched itself(Another problem, I've gotten a LOT of bugs on this game) so it could one-hit kill me at max armor and health(the same enemies that do damage sure, but never one-hit kill), so I died and the game NEVER autosaved, this was an HOUR of gameplay magically lost because of the game's crappy autosave.
TO ALL DEVS! If you are going to put in an autosave feature, that doubles as your checkpoint system, for the love of god please make it during every loading screen/after every cut scene. ESPECIALLY if they are unskippable(BTW why is dialog skippable, but not cutscenes?) Yes I get it, Geth attacked this area, I don't know why its cutscene worthy when they've attacked EVERY area I've been to, but I don't need a near minute cutscene showing the same geth attacking this area, I freaking get it!
Ok rant over. The game is still very good beyond these stupid problems.
What problems?
Sorry but if you don't know how to use the save yourself it's your own fault. Just be glad the game has some sort of auto-save.
I'm not going to be glad the game has some sort of autosave when the autosave isn't good! Especially when it takes forever for me to save the game manually. Not to mention the game sometimes doesn't allow you to save, so its tedious to check if you are allowed to or not.
There is a quicksave button. Use it. That takes no time at all
And yes: like in the old DND games you cannot save in a battle.
False and false.
I'm using the 360 version with no quicksave.
Secondly, its not just combat. There were moments where nothing was happening and it wouldn't let me save, I was just in one of the towns doing nothing! My men weren't in combat, they were acting normally, I couldn't use the run option that is in combat, nothing! I couldn't save then!
Finally, if I die and have to go back, that should be my punishment, but when I die from a glitch(just played and had my vehicle phase through the ground completely and die) and the autosave goes back an hour because it won't let me save(again, no combat, I already took care of the enemy!), then we have a problem!
Metal Gear Solid 2 courtesy of the Metal Gear Solid HD collection. It's interesting to go back to a game like this to see how much nostalgia affected my memory of the game. For one I don't remember the controls being as awkward (and not being able to move the camera with the right stick feels so weird these days) but I sure remember the 5 minutes of game play followed by 20 mins of cut-scenes and codec conversations. One really annoying thing is that there are only two ways to leave the game and go back to the main menu. One is dying (or any other reason for a game over screen) and the other is the nodes spotted through out Big Shell (an option which obviously isn't available during the tanker portion of the game). Annoying.
They could have improved a few things other than the graphics (which just make it look a bit better at a higher resolution), like take the controls for MGS3 but no. There is one more thing about the whole collection that confuses me and that is the lack of the first Metal Gear Solid game. I mean, it has MGS2 & 3, Peace Walker and within 3 are the two Metal Gear games so why miss out what is arguably the best title of them all? I know it's originally made for the PlayStation 1 but there was also a Gamecube version released in 2004 which used MGS 2 as a base for controls & graphics. Why not include this Twin Snakes version? Bah.
Because unlike the second and third games, Twin Snakes only came out on the Gamecube, so I suspect there'd be licensing issues and whatnot. Or maybe they just can't be bothered to port the damn thing. I dunno.
Comments
But I can see why people claim Dead Space is similar to System Shock. There are a lot of similar themes, the setting is also rather familiar and the plot bears a striking similarity to both System Shocks in places. Of course, Dead Space can't hold a candle to Shock's atmosphere and pacing, but that's a different matter entirely.
If Dead Space was first we might have looked at it a bit differently.
Of course System Shock was also an RPG and so it had more strategic elements that forced us to plan ahead with character building in a way that would prolong our survival. So that probably also increased the atmosphere of the game too. We were always in suspense. I think the best part was that most everyone in the game was dead. But you would see the echoes of their past lives and also those journals they left behind. It's used in other games, but when System Shock 2 started displaying those...wow...it just really made me feel for those dead people. I don't think most of those people deserved to die/become a hybrid/etc. And to see that they were TRYING to survive in a lot of cases, and failed...to the point where you would find their last recording on their corpse...well that just sort of made it even more bleak.
I loved it.
And they didn't even need to SPELL out everything with a pretty cutscene or throw it in your face. Many of those recordings were hidden and not in plain sight. Some were...but it seems like every time I play the game I learn something new. Fantastic.
And System Shock 2 was a financial failure.
Speaking of financial failures that were kind of ahead of their time...Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri.
Toys for Bob may have had the most annoying developer logo ever, but at least they made some decent games. These new guys just didn't care.
Reminds me of the first Chaos Engine game. In the single player mode you also had to chose a companion. You could not switch between the characters, and unfortunately the companion had an "intelligence" attribute starting at almost zero. So this character was of no use in the first levels in which he died every other minute out of mere stupidity, and reviving him cost a lot of money. So you'd just get him killed as soon as possible, take all loot and money with one character and try to equip him with so much good stuff that he could beat the game alone.
The beginning levels are the most infuriating levels in history because no matter what I do, something really stupid happens and one of my fully healthed guys die, with me not being able to do anything to it! And since the beginning levels, EVERYONE has to live, I can't even go "oops" and go on.
I'm trying to get through The Game of Thrones for the PC. It kinda feels like an RPG I would have played in the late 90s. But it's not bad story wise.
That said I am not going to buy it yet, but I can't wait to play the expansion to Civ V, Gods and Kings.
Uh, playing through a couple of DS games I got because they're Metroidvania-style. Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions is actually a lot of fun, and Daniel X isn't exactly bad, per either. I'm liking this genre.
The begining confuses the crap out of me.
I'm a warlord right? If so, why the crap do I need a chick with a jigglypuff teaching me the basics of fighitng, if I'm a freaking warlord!
Second question: I'm a warlord right? If so, why the crap is a chick with a jigglypuff my entire army?
Well it's been a while since day 2 I guess. And it took so long for several reasons. One being that Mission 7: The Haunted Cathedral is one of my least favourite in the game. Loot is scattered everywhere in a "dead city" full of zombies, ghosts, spiders and burricks. Finding all of the loot took forever and my rope arrows became my best friends.
The 2 extra objectives for Expert mode are hidden quite well in extra compartments of the level that have no other significance. Most players on normal mode will not even know they are there, that's how well they are hidden.
Another reason I don't like this level is that it is a complete filler level. (I played the game for 17 hours until now, knowing where everything was in the levels before. The game is long enough so I have no idea why anyone would put this level in there. Your goal is to get a mystical eye and all you do is find out that the cathedral it is in is locked and where the keys are. This could have been done in a cutscene.
But why complain. The worst level of the game is behind me now and apart from a new enemy nothing noteable has changed in the level. Next up are the missions to get the keystones I need to enter the cathedral with the eye. Those have been changed, expanded and split up in Thief Gold.
This is easily one of the best RPGs I've ever played. The class system is simply INSPIRED, the way the game handles MP is brilliant, the writing is simply a joy to read in the best way possible, and we have a game were "Dinosorcerer", the ability to "turn yourself into big honkin' dinosaurs", is a legit class.
This is a game whose gameplay is simply perfect. It's strategic, it's well-balanced, it's insanely well thought-out, and frankly that they charge $5 for something so intricate and, frankly, masterful, is simply a crime. This game is worth far more than its pricetag.
As I did for Lego Pirates, here's a list of things I took note of while playing.
- Voices are weird, especially for an established franchise (so to speak). The first Lego Batman had no voices, so hearing them talk now feels really odd. They've got some good VA's, but still...
- Combat is the same it's always been. Seems like I'll need a lot of studs for the first level - 100K, maybe?
- Robin has a weird set of attacks. They're mostly kick-based, and he has a weird little combo-thing that takes a fraction too long for me to be entirely comfortable using.
- Is that Joker goon beating up my Bat-plane-thing with a giant mallet? This will not stand!
- Wah! Alfred's talking to me through my Wiimote! That's just freaky!
- Yep, shaking the Wiimote while building makes still it build faster. Along with the accurate pointer, I really feel these Wii ports make the most of the Wii hardware. It's nice to see, honestly.
- HARLEY QUINN REFERS TO JOKER AS MR J. Not quite sure why I'm mentioning this, but still... yay!
- Hang on, now that we've beaten Harley up, are we just gonna leave her there while we go after the other bad guys? What if she wakes up? PLOT HOLE!
- Wait... CHECKPOINTS? Wha?
- SAVE STATIONS? WHAT? They basically let you save the game (and quit, if you should so choose) in the middle of the level, something that's not been an option before. I didn't realize it was that big of an issue, to be honest.
- The VA for The Riddler seems really familiar. Is it the same guy who does one of the Warner brothers? Yep! Also nice to see Clancy Brown back in action.
- Oh sweet, I just grabbed a guy and did a Overhead Supplex with him! That's neat!
- New suit! Batman's Sensor Suit lets you slip past Security Cameras undetected. Well that's... different. Wait... when I wear the suit and look at someone, it does an X-Ray thing and shows their skeleton! Sweet!
- ...and we're doing the same thing with the Riddler. Just leave him there? Eh, he'll be fine.
- Next new suit! Robin's Acrobat Suit basically just lets him double-jump and gives him a pole he can attach to certain wall sockets to swing across, as well as letting him use it to attack. It also lets him create a bubble around him that he sort of drives, but that seems utterly useless at the moment. It'll probably crop up later.
- Yep. Remember those barrel switches from Lego Pirates? That's what the bubble's for. Also, attacking in this suit is even more annoying than without it. Oh well.
- Hit 100K, no Superhero thing. 120K? Guess I won't know until I replay the level.
- Wow, Gotham City looks huge. Is this our 'hub'? Geez, no wonder there's a Map option in the main menu (that's not active yet). I don't think I'll enjoy rooting around for hidden things here. I mean, it's nice that they let you run really fast, but the jumping seems fiddly and I do believe this is the first time you've actually had a fully controllable camera in a Lego <FRANCHISE> game. Feels SO weird.
- Oh, that's interesting. In this 'hub', you can make vehicles appear at select terminals. Not sure if you'll be allowed to actually fly them round the city or not. Guessing not though.
- Wow. If you thought the constant messages about how you need a different suit to blow up Silver Crates was annoying, how about hearing Alfred cough and say "Pardon Me Sir" every 15 seconds. Ugh.
- OK, modified suits. Robin's Magnet Suit now lets him pull metallic objects down (if you can target the things) and Batman's Explosive Suit now fires unaimable rockets instead of letting you place Bombs (and is now called the Power Suit) as well as lets you pull orange handles. Hmm.
- When using orange handles, you now have to tap the button a few times to fill up a meter. Not a fan.
- The cutscenes here really do rub home the fact that the story doesn't seem as funny. Previously the lack of dialogue meant the game had to rely on slapstick, but because of the 'jokes' spouted from the characters, that's diluted somewhat between not particularly funny lines. If you cut out the dialogue, it'd probably work much better.
- An on-rails shooting section! Interestingly, the Wiimote is EXCELLENT for this sort of thing. I 'd imagine it's not quite as fun with a control stick. Wii port FTW!
- Liking this interpretation of Superman. A nice jerk, it seems.
Overall, the first few levels seem to give the impression it's business as usual, but with a few tweaks I'm not 100% about. I'll probably keep playing a little more, see how different it gets.
On the one hand, you've got the standard Lego <Insert Franchise Here> style of gameplay that we've all come to know. Run around, break some stuff, collect studs, build stuff, pull lever, etc. If you've played Lego Batman 1, you'll be very familiar with the different suit types and such. The story's pretty interesting - the Joker and Lex Luthor team up and destroy the Batcave, which is a pretty ballsy move. And Superman's a very different character to anything we've played before, being that he can freakin' fly. So if the game were just this, I'd probably like it a lot.
Unfortunately, it's not. The other half of the game is the overworld, Gotham City, and I can best describe this as a GTA-style game gone very, very wrong. The world is pretty damn large (so large is has to be split into three separate maps on the Wii verson, with the Batcave being a fourth, but I understand it's all one big map in the other versions), but it feels so empty. There's tall buildings and pipes and such, but it's all so spaced out there's little to get excited about, especially when it's so dark and drab (see other games like Saints Row that are full of colour - not so here). Hidden Red/Gold bricks and Characters are all well and good, but when there's so many and they're ALL OVER THE PLACE it's hard to feel interested in getting them.
Which leads to another negative. There's no minimap. You can find a full map in the pause menu, and there's a compass, but no minimap. Inexcusable. It's so easy to get lost at first and it's also easy to get completely turned around. The compass is practically useless, and although the full map can show the location of collectables, they only appear briefly when you press a button. You can place a custom marker on the map, but this isn't that helpful when, again, there's no minimap. It does show up on the compass, but good luck seeing behind all the other useless pointers. Ugh.
And then there's the controls. Thankfully you get a fast run in the overworld, but it still feels too slow to get around with. And as for the vehicles... the controls aren't great. Remember how they controlled in Lego Indy 2? Yeah, it's that all over again. Plus, now there's flying vehicles. But you can pretty much forget precision flying, since it's freakin' impossible. Seriously, the flying is horrendously bad. There's no option to just move forward slowly - it's either fling yourself forward and completely overshoot your target or constantly tap the button and inch your way forward gradually. It's terrible.
There's other nitpicks - like how the individual levels are so long they can take upwards of an hour, the voices don't really seem all that necessary, the rest of the JLA don't show up until the penultimate level, etc - but really, the overworld has just killed all enthusiasm I had for this game, interesting plot or not. 5/10.
Totally spot on with this. Especially when there are so many collectables to get (HOW many gold bricks?!?!?). It just tedious trawling around Gotham looking for people to save or little puzzley bits to solve (which quickly lose their originality as there are only so many combinations of suits available, and then it's just quicker to skip all the interesting parts and just fly to the brick location which makes it more like a grind).
I don't mind the fact that the levels are longer (in some cases) 'cos at least they let you save part way through them if you have to quit the game ahead of schedule. Also, for the most part the levels are a bit varied though it is a shame that it not until late on that more characters get used. But I did like the single large storyline.
I'm gonna do the grind, get all the collectables because I just have to 100% every Lego game I've played (and there isn't many I haven't). But there is another annoyance with that, and that is the auto save part. Now I should say I'm playing this on the Xbox 360 so I can't say if it's true for all versions but the auto save after getting a gold brick say takes about a minute and that just feels like an eternity at times especially when you can't do anything at all while it's saving. And I'm gonna have to sit through that at least another 100 times yet. It's made worse when you're being attacked by a gang of goons which happens far to often to make it amusing (I wish there was a way to turn of goon appearances after you've unlocked them, they're just annoying and it's not as if there are any real threat anyway).
Also just wanted to add that I enjoyed the voice acting, it pushed the story to a proper story level instead of a series of events that happened like in previous Lego games (this was probably a test bed, considering what is out next). And I have to say that I enjoyed probably all of the voice cast (definitely the main cast anyway, loved the interactions between Batman, Robin & Superman). Also it's great that they made a proper Superman without real restrictions on his powers (you have to have level borders!) and it is fun playing him in the levels and is probably the best way to get around Gotham (but even I can get sick of the Superman theme!) though he's tricky to handle when trying to precision fly (though still better than all the flying vehicles).
Woah, only meant to add a short comment agree with what I quoted but it turned into a little review of my own so I might as well give it a score: 6/10 - Better that previous Lego games in some aspects, worse in others but overall a step forward for the franchise/genre. Still a fun time killer (story mode anyway).
Especially considering how many times you actually have to do it as well.
Killing lots of Yian Kut Kus for ears.
Damn things. >:/
It does not hold up well.
That's sad. I remember I loved that game.
Ah, the humble video game tie-in. Once upon a time, they were generally considered to be quite good. These days, you’re lucky if you can actually find one that is. The primary problem is that while the old games were in 2D, the newer ones are in 3D, and 3D games tend to take much longer to make. What with these tie-ins being restrained by a strict release date, developers frequently have a similar timescale as they used to with much more work required to finish a game, which is why most 3D video-game tie-ins tend to feel rushed and unfinished.
A Bug’s Life sadly falls into this category. Released on the PC, PS1 and N64, this was one of the many tie-in games by Traveller’s Tales, who would later find their niche in making incredibly repetitive Lego games. But before then, they were known for making games like A Bug’s Life, which is an incredibly basic 3D platformer.
Whether the developers were constrained by the limitations of technology or the lack of development time, A Bug’s Tale feels very unprofessional, right down to the load screens featuring still shots from the movie with incredibly generic text over them. The movie clips used have a rather bad frame rate, making them feel choppy, and the music is incredibly bland, when it’s not simply missing. It all feels like placeholders, meant to be replaced by more professional work that was never actually made.
Once the game starts, it fares little better. The main goal of the game is to simply reach the end of each level, but this is made surprisingly difficult by the questionable level design. The low draw distance means that it’s hard to see what’s ahead, and an now industry-standard poor camera that, in this case, moves incredibly slowly makes it hard to navigate through the obstacles that you can see.
The controls are somewhat sluggish, and the interesting mechanic of having to grow plants into various platforms to manoeuvre around the world is rendered much more difficult as a result. Jumping in particular is incredibly frustrating, being very floaty and imprecise. It turns what should be a relatively fast-paced platformer into a slow plod through the levels, and means that the player is fighting against the game rather then actually playing it.
The only other aspect of the game worth mentioning is the combat, which is limited by your very basic attacks. All of which are rendered moot once you obtain the first weapon powerup that turns your throwing attack into a homing missile, allowing you to throw in random directions and still hit enemies even though you couldn’t see them. It almost feels like you’re breaking the game by doing this, which makes it all the more baffling that it’s an actual design choice.
A Bug’s Life feels more like a chore to play through rather than a pleasure. I’d say it hasn’t aged well, but that implies it was good in the first place. Which it wasn’t. Besides, I always preferred Antz. Suck on that, Pixar.
Now there is something I must rant about now about this game, and that is the god-awful autosave system. Now the game doesn't use checkpoints, it just makes you go back to the previous save(manual or autosave), however, the autosave is so terrible, you don't want to ever use it! I started at some station that I needed to get completely repaired, and remove some pest that keeps attacking the area. I repaired the station, met scientist from a lab past the system, fought for a bit, and then had an attack by the same pest, which had glitched itself(Another problem, I've gotten a LOT of bugs on this game) so it could one-hit kill me at max armor and health(the same enemies that do damage sure, but never one-hit kill), so I died and the game NEVER autosaved, this was an HOUR of gameplay magically lost because of the game's crappy autosave.
TO ALL DEVS! If you are going to put in an autosave feature, that doubles as your checkpoint system, for the love of god please make it during every loading screen/after every cut scene. ESPECIALLY if they are unskippable(BTW why is dialog skippable, but not cutscenes?) Yes I get it, Geth attacked this area, I don't know why its cutscene worthy when they've attacked EVERY area I've been to, but I don't need a near minute cutscene showing the same geth attacking this area, I freaking get it!
Ok rant over. The game is still very good beyond these stupid problems.
Sorry but if you don't know how to use the save yourself it's your own fault. Just be glad the game has some sort of auto-save.
I'm not going to be glad the game has some sort of autosave when the autosave isn't good! Especially when it takes forever for me to save the game manually. Not to mention the game sometimes doesn't allow you to save, so its tedious to check if you are allowed to or not.
And yes: like in the old DND games you cannot save in a battle.
False and false.
I'm using the 360 version with no quicksave.
Secondly, its not just combat. There were moments where nothing was happening and it wouldn't let me save, I was just in one of the towns doing nothing! My men weren't in combat, they were acting normally, I couldn't use the run option that is in combat, nothing! I couldn't save then!
Finally, if I die and have to go back, that should be my punishment, but when I die from a glitch(just played and had my vehicle phase through the ground completely and die) and the autosave goes back an hour because it won't let me save(again, no combat, I already took care of the enemy!), then we have a problem!
Well that explains everything then.
lol. Had to, it's a rental.
They could have improved a few things other than the graphics (which just make it look a bit better at a higher resolution), like take the controls for MGS3 but no. There is one more thing about the whole collection that confuses me and that is the lack of the first Metal Gear Solid game. I mean, it has MGS2 & 3, Peace Walker and within 3 are the two Metal Gear games so why miss out what is arguably the best title of them all? I know it's originally made for the PlayStation 1 but there was also a Gamecube version released in 2004 which used MGS 2 as a base for controls & graphics. Why not include this Twin Snakes version? Bah.