Tomb Raider would probably be my most anticipated game in a year that didn't have BioShock, GTA, The Last of Us, Remember Me, and Dragon Age 3 in it. With that said, if you forced me to buy only one of the three heavy hitter games it would be BioShock. It's a shame I won't be able to play it when it comes out, because I fully believe it's going to be a transcendent gaming experience.
When the whole Rainfall thing was in full swing, the vibe that I was getting was that these games were getting released in Europe and how dare Nintendo not release them in the States. It was a very entitled "do this because we say so" mentality, at least from where I was looking.
Obviously Xenoblade and Last Story did well, but they would have done well without the Rainfall movement. They're core games that are exclusive to a system that people love, released in a time when not much is being released for the Wii. They probably got a bit of a bump from collectors, sure. I just wonder how much an online petition really had with this.
Is there actual evidence that these games came out due to Operation Rainfall? As much as I'm happy that they all got brought over I don't like the idea of internet whiners getting their way all the time.
12 hours, you say? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekeELle5g-o
Also, where are we playing to by next episode?
My top 5, in order:
Diablo III
Mass Effect 3
Halo 4
FTL
Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy (iOS)
Prediction: New Xbox will launch at 249.99 with a two year contract for Live. 499.99 with no contract.
It bothers me, this hyperbolic talk from gamers. By all accounts, Skyrim has an amazing story and a world that sucks players in for a good hundred hours. It's not a game I'm interested in playing, mainly because I haven't been able to enjoy their other games and I don't find the combat enjoyable, but I can't imagine people (besides PS3) owners saying that the game is terrible. My only sticking point is, again, that if it had so many glaring issues the year it launched it may not have been deserving of perfect scores and a slew of GOTY awards.
That's bizarre. I'm the only person I know that's down on that game. No, I haven't played it, but I've seen enough of it and played enough of their other games to know what to expect. It's great that the game is running well enough now, but I'm really getting to this point where if a game has enough glaring technical problems that every review mentions them then perhaps they shouldn't be included in GOTY talks. I've been over this with JD with the Walking Dead. Now, I happen to think that the game part of WD is garbage, but it has a great story. It also has a ton of critical bugs. That was enough to abolish it from my top ten list this year. I hear XCOM has a ton of problems as well.
Well, I don't want to praise unfinished or broken games by awarding them at the end of the year. Are they enjoyable beyond their bugs? Sure. Should they be given a gold star for releasing their games with game breaking bugs like deleted saves and levels that can't be completed because the scripting didn't trigger an event? I don't think so.
And for the record, I like a lot of bad games. But I also don't let them anywhere near a GOTY list. Again, I'm not saying that Skyrim is a bad game, but when it was released, the conversation was dominated by its technical issues and bugs. That doesn't scream 5 star review, and that doesn't scream game of the year to me, either.
It's funny how you've been into both Skyrim and Dark Souls. I've come to the conclusion that Bethesda RPGs just aren't for me, and it comes down to the combat. There's no weight or impact behind it. It was so frustrating to me last year when everyone was talking about Skyrim as the best game of the year, but it was always couched by "well, the game is full of bugs, and the combat sucks." Okay, but combat is a huge component of that game, so if it sucks, I really don't want to play it.
But if Bethesda took a page from the Dark Souls design document for combat, that's a whole new world. I love the idea of exploring a world as vast as Skyrim, but if you're going to put me in combat so often it had better be satisfying. Maybe that's why I like Far Cry 3 so much. It's a massive, vibrant landscape to explore, but when things get real I have some solid combat mechanics to rely on.
Thanks for listening! We'll be sure to get Patrick's best game and experience next time. Oh, and I'm with you on Dark Souls being the new Zelda. But of course, I think Zelda has been rehashing the same material since 1998.
I was going to go on a rant about how this game looks like it belongs on the N64 or as a 2.99 iOS game and the folly of cashing in on system launches, but instead...
FUNKY BARN!
I want to play this, but I refuse to acknowledge Urien as part of the Street Fighter universe.
