I didn't play through Leon's whole campaign, I just remember a really good puzzle in the church. As for the bullet sponges, they were definitely there when I played in 2012. It was my worst example of them until Mass Effect 3's Banshees. And then later Bioshock Infinite's boss (you know which one I'm talking about).
I felt like RE6's shooting was horribly unsatisfying, enemies felt like bullet sponges. And I only got midway through Leon's campaign so that's where my problems are. I was trying to be on the pro-RE6 side since I wanted what it gave coming in, but felt it did a poor job of delivering. At least the puzzles were good.
You can't really blame Capcom though for giving people exactly what they asked for after Resident Evil 6 and trashing that game. They don't have someone like Mikami who would go ahead with Resident Evil 4 and give a game no one was asking for, yet didn't realize they wanted this whole time. They're trying to see what game people want them to make, which is a step in the right direction for the company. And when criticism with 6 was primarily directed at it not being scary when the real issues (or at least my issues) had to do with the bad camera, poor pacing, underwater segments, terrible QTE's and bad enemy placement, it's no wonder this is the direction they go in.
I wanted a decent action horror game with 6 and didn't get that, so my complaints were vented there. The video game press who only whined it's not scary though? They're the reasons 7 is the way it is.
They announced it at the press conference though. Remember seeing it there and reading it later that day.
I think Finding Dory is a much better movie overall, but MU drove that message across better. In Dory, she finds them, but there's little weight to the time it took. MU shows them work their way through bad jobs to the top, but with an attitude that lets them exceed in all of these to get there another way. I think hammering in that the other way probably won't be ideal but with the right attitude you can make things work is more impactful than how Dory's was handled.
That said, I prefer Dory's message of how with the right motivation you can overcome a physical handicap over both of their messages of finding another way. I can only think of it and How to Train Your Dragon 2 as great movies with messages specifically for disabled children, which is especially cool since one deals with characters born with them while the other deals with characters who lost the ability over time.
I get how you got that message out of MU but I always felt the message was more "There's always another way." And I dug that even if the movie isn't anywhere close to my top 5 Pixar movies. Up I know is 1 then it would go Toy Story trilogy (they're all equally good), Ratatouille, Inside Out, Monsters Inc, and The Incredibles. But if you packaged all the shorts together they'd be in the top 3, especially love Gerrys Game, Night and Day, and For the Birds. Bottom 5 would be TGD, Cars 2, Cars, Brave, and A Bugs Life.
They announced that all the way back at E3 before MN9 came out. MS released $40 games before too with Banjo-Kazooie N&B and Viva Piñata. I think it'll be fine.
Chrono Crossing is really close for me between two games. Since one of them is Dark Souls and everyone will be talking about it, I'm going to pick Kirby's Return to Dreamland. It's my favorite 2D platformer of 7th gen, the mechanics felt very similar to Super Smash Bros, but built with a Kirby game which made it feel unbelievably polished and addicting.
Kirby's new super abilities were also a blast to use and gave some fun optional puzzles which led to secret areas. The secret areas were surprisingly tough and gave me a very fun challenge that was completely optional, which many KIrby games hAve tred but none succeeded as well as RtDL. Multiplayer was also a blast, letting the other three pick their own Kirby, King Dedede, Meta Knight, or Waddle Dee, each controlling different from the other. Dark Souls gets a ton of love for its challenge but I respect Kirby more for managing to give a game any kid can beat but hardcore gamers can still come away satisfied with the challenge.
Btw if I put my pick for 2012, it would have been Mass Effect 3. On one hand the ending was disappointing, but on the other, drunk Tali.
I wouldn't call it dreadful, there were plenty of fun secret areas and dragons to uncover which made it fun to roam around in. Could have been better executed but I think the Mako will make Mass Effect a better fit. Like give it ME1's setup with DAI's structure on ezplorable planets and the same upgrade of polish we had going from 2 to 3 and it could be amazing.
Plus the gimmicks weren't as much fun. Giants and swap Skylanders added something new but trapping villains looked blah. Vehicles may have been interesting but not enough to get me back. May buy a vehicle figure now though.
