Let's talk about videogames.

[marcus]

Re: Let's talk about videogames.

I wonder how the new Animal Crossing will be. Both of the previous games were good.

Note: This might be a bad time on my part to bring up this game

Playing it at PAX I can say it looks and plays almost exactly like the DS version with more cosmetic customization (i.e. you can customize your sleeves and shoes) and a handful of connectivity features like moving characters between the Wii and DS version.

There's also this really jarring and horrendous camera angle that's like the circular worlds from Ratchet and Clank or Mario Galaxy. Basically, the camera is fixed but the horizon 10 feet away from you constantly dips down making it look like you're on a perpetually round surface. Who at Nintendo thought this looked good should be fired and why Animal Crossing doesn't feature a fully 3D rotatable camera is absolutely beyond me.

The game looks absolutely identical to the original 2001 game and while Animal Crossing isn't about fancy graphics I still find it lazy that there's occasional clipping and objects that randomly vanish for whatever reason.

[Biggie]

Re: Let's talk about videogames.

So ehh, is the Wii getting anything worth mentioning this year?

At least PS3 is getting Littlebigplanet and Socom.

Looks like another 360 season of games.

[Chrono]

Re: Let's talk about videogames.

Yeah, I can't think of one Wii game I'm interested in.

I think Little Big Planet is the only PS3 game that I know of.

As for 360, Fallout 3, Fable 2, Gears 2, Midnight Club LA, Left 4 Dead, Maybe Deadspace, and if the new Banjo game turns out alright. Banjo Kazooie on Arcade too.


Hey Marcus, did you get to play or see Fable 2?

[John Mora]

Re: Let's talk about videogames.

Is Mad World this year? Really and TRULY this year?

[Chrono]

Re: Let's talk about videogames.

No, Q1 of 2009.

[John Mora]

Re: Let's talk about videogames.

Busted, Gloomburg.

[marcus]

Re: Let's talk about videogames.

Hey Marcus, did you get to play or see Fable 2?

Yes.

Pros:
-Co-op
-World isn't confined by barriers like it was in the first game.
-Co-op
-You can have children, pets, and multiple wives that follow you and your alignment. If you have friendly fire turned on a co-op friend can kill your family sending your children to an orphanage and changing their alignment (quite possibly to evil)
-Co-op
-The world is dynamic meaning that subtle influences will affect you throughout the story
-Co-op
-Peter Molyneux kept his mouth shut (mostly) and hasn't promised ridiculous features only to give people's hopes up.
-CO-OP!!

Cons:
-The game is ugly. They mentioned that every plant and tree leaf was individually animated and rendered but it was stiff (none of it moved as you clipped right through it), the animation was clunky, and the lighting effects aren't in place. Maybe it was the early E3 build but the vanilla Xbox Fable looked better.
-Imagine your friend getting ****** off and murdering your entire game world and steeling your stuff...
-I miss the original death system. When you die, you fast forward until your next of kin reaches 18 and he takes over your footsteps. They removed the feature because people complained and said they would they just turn off the system or something. The new death system drops your experience points by a random amount based on your relative strength and it revives you or something.

Seriously, co-op is where it's at but the world is pretty big. I love the dog and the updated combat so the only real big complaint is the ugly as sin graphics which absolutely destroy the game's atmosphere.

[John Mora]

Re: Let's talk about videogames.

That death system sounded sorta neat.

But anyways, does it still have ridiculous inconsistencies such as your character aging to an old man in the span of 10 hours but every other NPC in the game stays the same age?

[Red Dragon]

Re: Let's talk about videogames.

What's so good about co-op?

And why must every-single-game have it all of a sudden?

[Magus]

Re: Let's talk about videogames.

It's fun to play with a friend.

[Tintenfisch]

Re: Let's talk about videogames.

What's so good about co-op?

And why must every-single-game have it all of a sudden?

Well you don't HAVE to play with another person you friendless fiend.

[marcus]

Re: Let's talk about videogames.

That death system sounded sorta neat.

But anyways, does it still have ridiculous inconsistencies such as your character aging to an old man in the span of 10 hours but every other NPC in the game stays the same age?

I don't know, the little demo was just one town and the surrounding area. From what the booth guys were telling us the persistent world ages with you meaning NPCs change as time goes on. I don't know what the story is like but I assume story important guys will change just like you.

What's so good about co-op?

Fable is just one of those games that's better with two people. Now that you can train your own attack dog and both players influence the same world I can picture the fun of having opposite roles (a goody-two-shoes posing for a crowd and leading kids around followed by Snidely Whiplash-esque mustache-twirler blowing stuff up and making a mess).

[The_Real_Crunk]

Re: Let's talk about videogames.

Is it only one person you can play with? Online? Can I get like 5 buddies together over live and play? Cause thatd be pretty kickass.

[marcus]

Re: Let's talk about videogames.

Is it only one person you can play with? Online? Can I get like 5 buddies together over live and play? Cause thatd be pretty kickass.

I don't know. The booth was set up for offline play which is only one character. In offline mode you're considered a "henchman/follower" and you receive a share of the gold the hero gets as well as renown (which can be imported to your own game).

Online mode is completely different. You have an ambient orb or something like that (which is probably video game term for FRIEND CODE) which lets you see the stats of a connected player. At any time you can invite the character into your game and the character can play in your world even if you're not logged in. There are safety features to keep your friends from wrecking everything but you can turn them off.

[marcus]

Re: Let's talk about videogames.

It's not so much the characters as it is the actual game world. Everything is real stiff and static looking. You literally clip right through a tall field of grass instead of at least trying to simulate swaying (even MGS3 had simple bending grass). The draw distance is also really short (Two Worlds, a terrible RPG had a farther draw distance) which is a shame since the world isn't confined like it was in the original.

I have no doubts it'll be a blast to play but for a game that was mostly hand built they sure did overlook the art aspect which was one of the more appealing things of the original. This game is supposed to be inspired by 17th century enlightenment era but I'm just not feeling it.

Still no word on if you could kill kids because you can attack in towns now. They probably just get knocked out.