Right on with your analysis of Arkham City vs. Asylum. City felt very disconnected and all over the place. The story was nowhere near as strong as Asylum and it was better to avoid combat as opposed to engaing in it. It felt like 90% side quests as well.
Loved this game so much I bought the DLC. I never do that. Gonna check out the podcast now.
Interesting article. It's cool to see all of these old commercials. I draw different conclusions in some areas. For one thing, we have to look how the landscape changed. In the infancy of the PlayStation the industry was still fighting for shares in the emerging home console market featuring a myriad of companies including but not limited to Turbo Grafx, 3DO, and Atari. Sega and Sony both tried to distance themselves from the industry leader, Nintendo by being the most avant garde, which would by default make them more mature than Nintendo as kids do grow up. Sega, even before Sony reflected this attitude with campaigns like "Welcome To The Next Level" and eventually with "Fly Play Thing, Fly" which was Saturn's response to the PlayStation.
The PS2 and PS3 campaigns reflect this edgier ideology. But the times changed. Consoles are commonplace now. They have to perform other functions like watching date movies on Netflix and checking e-mail. Consoles are horribly mundane now. You can't have a toy baby crying the apocalypse in font of a levitating PS3 obelisk. Agreed. It's too upsetting to the average consumer who can't think on that level. They need death neatly wrapped in a bow. Look at the "Greatness Awaits" commercial. It's a dude in a suit getting out of his crashed BMW to play war games. It could easily be that NES-era kid all grown up. Sony knows the demographic now: the majority. The days of PlayStation One were about rebel culture. This is even reflected in Sony's hardware choices. The Cell, the Emotion Engine, are all gone in favor of a plain old PC. They don't have to innovate on that end anymore. It's too expensive and no one cares. We all got second or better paying jobs and I'm going to pay less in real dollars for a PS4 than a PS2. All Sony has to do is make some great exclusives to go along with the cross-platform favorites and they will be solid.
I'm glad they are bringing Strider back. Sounds awesome so far. Definitely picking it up. Anyword on a Vita version or crossplay?
Playing Ultimate Tenkaichi now. It's pretty bad, except for the visuals. Can't stand the QTE style of fighting. I badly want a HD Sparking Neo or Meteor with English subtitles and menus. Those two games weren't just great DBZ games, they were great fighting games.
It will be interesting to see where the industry goes. I agree with Mike Wall, the AAA model is not sustainable and the knee-jerk reaction companies have taken to restrict consumer rights to squeeze pennies that will ultimately not fill the void is the elephant in the room. Which way are we going? Can more and varied games save the day? Will there be a competitive market to purchase them in? That's what I'm looking at this generation.
I played the game on the hardest difficulty so maybe my experience was different, but I didn't find it "easy" or "thoughtless." I didn't have a problem with the targeting system. Floating enemies needed to be manually targeted, but once you lock on it's a wrap. The system itself was challenging without being a given. The real trick to the game was utilizing a strategy to deal with the onslaught of enemies that are thrown at you as the game progresses. You have to use your upgrades correctly to deal with the increasing difficulty and types of enemies that come at you, from hand to hand combat, swords, shooters, and more powerful mutant types that charge at you or use some time of projectile. Then there are types that float and can teleport. Then you have to fight all of these at once.
There were parts that experienced "slow down" but these seemed mostly to occur at the beginning of levels, where Deadpool appears to creep along before returning to full speed. It made the part where you follow Death more difficult but not impossible.
Is it a three star game? Probably. Might also be a reason why it came out new for $50 instead of $60. But to me that's a matter of the game's style. Ultimately it's a nostalgia trip into the world of beat 'em up games and classic gaming with it's platform elements and even a sonic-style tube slide level. Deadpool as a character is a homage to every trope in comic bookdom and the game reflects that by applying that method to a storyline about how Deadpool would make a video game. It's hilarious. Every part with Cable is genius. It's a matter of taste. It's not a long game. It's a beat 'em up. It's not everyone's cup of tea, especially for sensitive people and those who expect AAA quality every time out and maybe you should at $60. But I like seeing a game that's fun and to the point come out at a cheaper price point. It's a good change up.
Not really, unless vaginas come from mars...or mexico. Actually they do come from Mexico. My bad.
Xenophobia? I thought this discussion was about sexism.
Although Johnny Sasaki looks eerily and annoyingly like a young blonde Solid Snake...No. No. No. I think the prequels do offer something new that making a Solid Snake game can't. Solid Snake's character ran it's course even if he wasn't killed, despite the fact many feel the ending to Solid 4 was a huge cop out. Hell, it might have even cost David Hayter his job because even he complained about it. But it's over.
The prequels have moved along steadily in chronological order and have brought us closer to Outer Heaven in the original game. With the foundation laid down in MGS3, Naked Snake's story has been the most nuanced and the more compelling, mostly because that story came about during a more advanced era than it's predecessors that allowed it, but also because of what these divergent paths represent. Solid Snake games took on a quasi fourth wall quality where it was crtiquing the video game industry within the games themselves with character switching and plot lines that revolve around mind control and micro transactions, while the Naked Snake games stripped away the tech and lament of the loss of individuality and just went for the real grit of having to be be a hero that has to do things, which aren't very heroic. It's a compelling approach, rather than an action game that feels the need to apologize for being successful.
So I'm fine with prequels if the series keeps going in the direction towards Outer Heaven, eventually reaching a conclusion. But if they were to make a true sequel to MGS 4 I think you would have to start with a new operative in the starring role. I vote for Meryl. Sorry Johnny.
