quote:Originally posted by Dr. Benway: It also has one of those new gaming engines that makes sure that it is different every time you play it - layouts, puzzles and enemies are unpredictable and very fiendish. The best bit? You get it free with every copy of XP!
And when you've completed that, you can try the older (but much harder) version of the game which comes free with Windows ME.
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I take it my email advice didn't help then?
-------------------- Evil isn't what you've done, it's feeling bad about it afterwards... Yield to temptation. It may not pass your way again. Posts: 3793
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Have you tried not pressing F1 and thus not entering setup? I find Windows much easier to use when not in setup mode, although that's just a personal preference.
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I am playing Timesplitters 2. I find it provides a bonding experience with Modge.
However, I can't be bothered to play the "story" mode rather than the 2-player arcade, and I get the impression that it's only through the "story" that you get to "unlock" the different levels and characters.
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A Google search reveals nothing in the way of cheats although Gamefaqs does detail the unlockable content and exactly what's required to unlock it.
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Thanks Bamba but I don't really want to play the whole mission through just so I can kick Modge's tail (lovingly) in a variety of different environments. I thought there must be one of those "triangle, circle, L1, L1" cheats for getting a new setting.
quote:Originally posted by kovacs: Thanks Bamba but I don't really want to play the whole mission through just so I can kick Modge's tail (lovingly) in a variety of different environments. I thought there must be one of those "triangle, circle, L1, L1" cheats for getting a new setting.
Nah, it tends to be the way of these things: either a game'll have unlockable stuff in which case you really have to unlock it or they'll give you cheats. Rarely both at the same time.
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quote:Originally posted by sabian: I take it my email advice didn't help then?
I can't change the voltage settings . I can't do anything clock-wise because I am using a fisher-price motherboard, complete with large orange bells, swingy things, and stickers featuring grotesque pictures of teddy-bears. I'm waiting for a new evaluation copy of xp from my brother. I've given up on the idea of salvaging anything from the infernal machine. It's a living hell.
quote:Originally posted by Londie: is time spent playing computer games time lost or wasted, or does the experience itself have intrinsic value?
It depends on the game, I guess. I mean something like Deus Ex makes you think pretty hard, as well as being emotionally engaging, whereas something like Soul Calibur, while fun, is a bit more disposable. More akin to vegging out in front of the soaps or something. And then there's things like Max Payne 2 which is like taking part in some kind of pulpy crime novel, although it's also possible to admire it for the manner in which it combines so many story-telling forms (graphic novel, film, voice over, gaming) to become something rather unique, which makes it a valuable experience for anyone who finds that sort of thing interesting.
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I meant I was right because it turns out the bullet time is far too gimmicky to be of any real use, the gameplay is repetetive, some of the "tricks" it pulls on you mind numbingly frustrated (grenades with 2 second fuses thrown from height - no avoidance, a fire starting around you in which presumably you have to guess your way out from, much reloading and a stupid randomness to the guns, one shotgun blast from here, oh he's dead! 4 from point blank range, oh I see you still want to unload two uzis into me.
I haven't seen so much weapon rubbishness since counterstrike! At least you could blame lag for that.
In fairness the story was half lost on me because it was in italian, it didn't look very good. And why did the character pull such strange faces? :/ I just felt frustrated generally playing it, and thank god i only paid 6 quid for it (legit! not secondhand!), It only lasted 6 hours cus there was no way I was replaying it again. Unless suddenly there game gets ten times better.
- Mario Kart -
I've asked for this for Xmas but am slightly wary, Edge gave it five (not that in all reality that means too much) and well, I didn't like the n64 one too much and this looks like its in a more similar vein to the n64 than the gba/snes...the gba one is my favourite ever so far though, hurrah for ranks and 4 player mode and ohhhh.
I think I shall next get metroid prime, but by the time I get round to it it will probably be old and rubbish. oh well. I'm playing skies of arcadia at the moment, I've wasted 26 hours of my life on random batttle encounters with characters I don't like much and it seems to be a generic final fantasy with some slight changes to combat. yet everyone thinks its great. i dont understand Yet ive played it for 26 hours. I have a bad impulse to play games to completetion.
quote:Originally posted by jnhoj: I meant I was right because it turns out the bullet time is far too gimmicky to be of any real use, the gameplay is repetetive, some of the "tricks" it pulls on you mind numbingly frustrated (grenades with 2 second fuses thrown from height - no avoidance, a fire starting around you in which presumably you have to guess your way out from, much reloading and a stupid randomness to the guns, one shotgun blast from here, oh he's dead! 4 from point blank range, oh I see you still want to unload two uzis into me.
This is perhaps the largest collection of lies and half-truths I've seen assembled together in one place for quite some time, good effort. What's happened is that you just sucked at it. Sad, but true.
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Astromariner
Going the right way for a smacked bottom
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quote:Originally posted by jnhoj: - Mario Kart - I didn't like the n64 one too much and this looks like its in a more similar vein to the n64 than the gba/snes...the gba one is my favourite ever so far though, hurrah for ranks and 4 player mode and ohhhh.
If you didn't like the N64 one you'll adore this. It's nothing like - I thought it would be sort of essence of MarioKart 64, maxed tae fuck: it isn't. I think you might well like it if you preferred the GBA version, which I was less keen on than beetroot.
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quote:Originally posted by jnhoj: ill video myself completing it without any use of the bullet time, if you like?
That's a great idea dude: "Here's me completing a game without using the main thing that makes it (a) different from other shooters (b) a lot more fun (c) a damn site easier to get through. Then I can justify my complaints that it's boring and frustratingly difficult."
What next? "Here's me completing a driving game without using the 'brake' or 'steering' facilities which the developers added in. I found all the banging into walls repetitive and I couldn't complete any of the courses due to the corners they'd put in which I found frustratingly difficult."Posts: 3502
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quote:Originally posted by Bamba: What next? "Here's me completing a driving game without using the 'brake' or 'steering' facilities which the developers added in. I found all the banging into walls repetitive and I couldn't complete any of the courses due to the corners they'd put in which I found frustratingly difficult."
quote:Originally posted by jnhoj: - Mario Kart - I didn't like the n64 one too much and this looks like its in a more similar vein to the n64 than the gba/snes...the gba one is my favourite ever so far though, hurrah for ranks and 4 player mode and ohhhh.
If you didn't like the N64 one you'll adore this. It's nothing like - I thought it would be sort of essence of MarioKart 64, maxed tae fuck: it isn't. I think you might well like it if you preferred the GBA version, which I was less keen on than beetroot.
The new Mariokart does hark back to the original SNES version on which the GBA version is based, particularly in terms of the use of powersliding. It is however not as good as any of the previous incarnations of Mariokart. Very disappointing indeed.
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I had become accustomed to thinking that I must just be skill-blunt or lacking in patience when I read all these claims from people who've "won" PS2 type games in 12 hours or whatever. Many reviews, on here and elsewhere, seemed to base the quality of the game to some extent around how many man-hours it took to complete, and so what value for money it offered.
I haven't won one PS2 game, and I wondered if my lackadaisical feeling that it was playing Max Payne that I enjoyed, rather than trying to complete it, was just a sourgrapes getout because I was no good.
But then I remembered -- back when games were a huge part of my life, when I had more Spectrum software than you could shake a joystick at, when I pirated tapes every nite and lived for the next issue of Crash magazine, I still didn't try to win games, and I enjoyed them no less for it.
I haven't completed Knight Lore, Underwurlde or any other Ultimate arcade adventure; I haven't won Dun Durach, Lords of Midnight or any other swords-and-sorcery epic. I might have completed Jet Set Willy but it would have been on so many POKES that the game was unrecognisable; I won Kokotoni Wilf on infinite lives and The Hobbit legitimately. I'm pretty sure I beat Shadowfire without cheating.
But so many of the great eighties games couldn't be beaten anyway -- Jetpac on the Spectrum, and the classics like Asteroids or Pac-Man -- and made a point out of their own relentless pointlessness, the cycle of endless enemies getting tougher and faster and bringing their mates until your last life gives out.
I wonder if my lack of impetus to win contemporary games, and my satisfaction merely with the process of playing levels -- I even go back to earlier rooms in Max Payne just to do the same shootout again -- is because of the stuff I grew up on?
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A lot of games today try to offer a rich cinematic or at least storytelling experience as well as decent gameplay - sometimes actually at the expense of the latter. Most of the best games, at least the games I enjoy, require you to reach the end to find out the full story, so wanting to complete them is no different than wanting to finish a book or movie.
The problem with this is that you can feel seriously cheated if the ending is terrible, and equally if the game is too easy or short.
The very best games will let you play the game once and enjoy the story and still have appeal on repeat plays.
Does anyone think that we are seeing more story-based games is because games designers are more likely to be considered, and consider themselves, 'creatives' rather than engineers?
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Forgot to answer Kovacs question: I don't know. I prefer games with a decent story, but I never really played video games as a teenager, missing out on the whole Pacman etc. craze. I only really got into games about 1997, and by that time narrative was important. I suppose I expect it now.
Also, I rarely repeat levels*, if I'm looking for pure gaming without plot I play multiplayer deathmatches.
Halo was a notable exception. The levels when you fly a Banshee are beautiful.
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Well, either way, I thought the bullet time was far too gimmicky and didn't actually aid the game that much (as you know, a brake pedal might) (although, i think i played a lot of gran turismo without a brake pedal ), it looked cool for the first ... o 3 times. at least the car park level was pretty fun.
I think the best design I've seen so far in terms of "winning" have been goldeneye were the harder levels incorporated further objectives that actually made the levels play differently, and grading based systems which are less good, but still ad longetivity, ala advance wars and mario kart. and some others. If Max Payne has / will taken you longer than 12 hours, kovacs, I will be very suprised. It may just seem like you aren't making progress because of the small amount of time you spend on games, I doubt very much even a bad player would manage to wring more than 10-12 hours out of it.
Kovacs are you trying to say that because I enjoy finishing a game, I don't enjoy them? Are you saying, I didn't own a spectrum or crash?
Sorry. I am in a bad mood today. And I can't write. I think my brain is caving in.
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Max payne and games in general, I feel have to be marked down if you only receive a limited amount of enjoyable playtime from them for your 30 quid, with no real replay incentive except to engage in the odd gun battle, max payne would have been better with some sort of scoring system based on how good your kill looked...this has been done somewhere i think. in racing games definitely...
quote:Originally posted by kovacs: I had become accustomed to thinking that I must just be skill-blunt or lacking in patience when I read all these claims from people who've "won" PS2 type games in 12 hours or whatever.
In my case, it's all down to the lovely PC staple known as the 'Quick Save'. I wouldn't stand a chance in hell of finishing Max Payne without the 'quick-save' function.
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Unless some funny bastard does a 'quick save' of your character leaping off into a huge chasmic space, so that the pc endlessely loops your death once loaded.
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I think there are fundamental differences between the different types of games that are being talked about here, and the manner in which people play them.
Early games, because of the limitations of the technology they were produced with were based around very basic ideas or gameplay. Many of the games like Asteroids were arcade based, if they'd stopped at the end would players not have felt cheated out of their last ten pence. It took a little while but many video games soon had narrative and recognisable means of completing them. I clocked or completed plenty of Spectrum and Commodore Games. Did you play video games socially Ko, with friends or siblings? This is a major part of the reason I got high scores or completed games, through competition with my sister or with friends. Can't have your sister being better at video games than you are, can you?
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quote:Originally posted by jnhoj: maybe now is the time we all started practising ikaruga, we can have a tmo leaderboard11!1!
That's fighting talk. Last time I played computer games against you, I completely walloped your scrawny ass. Perfect Dark, I think it was.
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I have a love hate relationship with quick save. On one hand it makes some games far too easy, but on the other it's bloody useful.
Last night in KotOR I got involved in a combat far beyond the character's strength, but by saving every time I inflicted damage (every couple of seconds) and reloading if damaged myself I completed it. Only now, typing this, do I realise how tragic this was.
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quote:Originally posted by My Name Is Joe: Last night in KotOR I got involved in a combat far beyond the character's strength, but by saving every time I inflicted damage (every couple of seconds) and reloading if damaged myself I completed it. Only now, typing this, do I realise how tragic this was.
This sounds like something I'd do. I only wheeze my way through Splinter Cell by quick loading every time an alarm goes off.
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. I can't do anything clock-wise because I am using a fisher-price motherboard, complete with large orange bells, swingy things, and stickers featuring grotesque pictures of teddy-bears. I'm waiting for a new evaluation copy of xp from my brother. I've given up on the idea of salvaging anything from the infernal machine. It's a living hell.
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), it looked cool for the first ... o 3 times. at least the car park level was pretty fun.
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