Den's December Decathalon (El Finis)

[Hrafn]

Re: Den's December Decathalon

Mass Effect. When in doubt, go Bioware.

[lil_das]

Re: Den's December Decathalon

Mass Effect seems like a game to get enraptured in... Not so good if you plan on playing other games as well.

[Denmo]

Re: Den's December Decathalon (El Fini)

Month in review:

I started the month with Portal, as that seemed like the most necessary to finish (and quickest). Got that done in one evening sitting. Man oh man what a perfect game. It's too bad it doesn't have much replay value, or I would've actually bought the Orange Box.

Then I started mucking around with Assassin's Creed, which I rented too. I marveled at the intensely detailed scenery so much so that I never got around to finishing the first major assassination. Jumping across buildings and rescuing helpless patrons made me feel like Batman, and the lookout spots were a rewarding sidetrack.

After that, I popped Bioshock back in (which I forgot to include in the poll), and finished that in about 4-5 days.
*** SPOILERS ***
Favorite part was the moment after I turned myself into Big Daddy when I realized that the turrets and splicers were no longer shooting at me.
*** END SPOILERS ***
Favorite power? Telekinesis. Nothing like killing a guy and using his dead body to instantly kill other people.

Then I turned to the Wii and started Mario Galaxy, which I just couldn't put down until I got all 120 stars. Took me about a week. Each and every star was so worth it, even the Green star challenges. They were all rewarding in their own ways. Nintendo finally made a game that's pure fun without any punishment.

Meanwhile, I had been dabbling in Mass Effect, which I haven't finished yet (go figure). Dialogue is a major plus, but there are points which I feel like I could go back and see what Sheppard says if I pointed the analog stick diagonally down to the right more often. The Galaxy Map is probably the second best feature, even though with one button you can exit it and ruin all the zooming in you did to survey one stinkin' planet.

Complaints? Loading times are horrible. How are elevators supposed to make us feel like there's no loading? Maybe if I could play a game of pong or something while the game loads I'd be happier, but elevator music and pointless dialogue don't make these scenes any more interesting. And the inventory. If you do all the sidequests available, you get tons of good equipment for your level, so you're constantly switching out the old with new. But there's a 150 limit to your inventory, and you have to go scrolling through long lists just to get rid of the junk you don't want. What a pain.

All the other games I've been playing here and there:

Geometry Wars Galaxies is a great in-betweener, but using the Wiimote pointer to aim is awkward, and I read that the only other option is to get a classic controller. Why can't I use my Gamecube controller?

FFXII:RW you already heard about in another topic.

Psychonauts I started playing, but stopped after the first brain dive. The voice acting is great, and the characters are really vibrant, and the story is neat. But I had already gotten my fix of platforming from Mario Galaxy. The graphics make me want to puke, and the laggy FPS doesn't help. Is this really a PS2 game? Because it feels like something from N64.

Disgaea I haven't popped in yet, although I did get the correct disc placed in my case this time.

Gears of War, never got around to playing it on co-op with anyone, which is how I wanted to. Solo is ok but if Co-op is as fun as I hear it is, I'd rather do it that way. Anyone up for it sometime?


So that's that. Hurray for self-made goals.

[Perversion]

Re: Den's December Decathalon (El Finis)

Psychonauts was originally made for the Xbox, and looked quite good for the time. Then it got ported to the PS2, and I can imagine it looks quite a bit worse. But N64-quality??? C'mon, Den....it seriously doesn't look THAT bad. If you decide to play it again, instead of diving right into each of the "psychic missions," do a little exploring around the campground....there are some really funny conversations you can have. I spent probably at least 20 minutes, if not more later in the game just sitting and listening to the conversations the "Levitators" (or was it the "Firestarters?") were having while on stage playing their "set." Also, I hope you listened to the entire story that kid relayed about his dog right before you jumped out of the airplane on your first in-brain experience (the war setting). Once again, I sat for at least 10 minutes and listened to the whole thing before it started to loop.

Also, go to the top of the tower with the announcement speakers in the campground to hear the one kid's broadcast to "alien life forms"....hell, any time someone starts talking, it's worth your time to listen to what they have to say.

[Denmo]

Re: Den's December Decathalon (El Finis)

But that still doesn't excuse the graphics for me. The backgrounds are so muddied up it's hard to tell the difference between them and the foreground. The FPS seems inexcuseable too. Many of the cutscenes run perfectly fine, so why is that a simple wagon with a lot of smoke around it gets horrifyingly slow FPS?

And the decals you pick up? What the hell kind of collectors item is that? They're so numerous that all they do is detract from the scenery for me. Collecting them is like picking up garbage bits so I don't have to look at the mess anymore.

You're right, the conversations had are pretty witty and funny, but it's not enough to keep me playing it right now. I imagine it would look and run better on Xbox, so I might have to get that just to play it.

[lil_das]

Re: Den's December Decathalon (El Finis)

Hey man I will play Gears with you. You have LIVE right?

The online multiplayer is what makes the game shine.
The campaign is worth a playthrough but the multiplayer NEVER gets old.