Video Games!

[Ryan_DuBois]

Glad you like it, JJJ!

And nice holiday spirit, End -- it took me a good five minutes to figure out where I'd seen it before (despite your large hint); I was typing things into Google like "video game grim reaper" and "grim reaper halloween" and such before it finally dawned on me.

[Ryan_DuBois]

Don't know if any of you "StarCraft 2" players have found this video yet, but this has got to be the best match I've seen in my life. Thank God I have friends who enjoy watching replays with commentary as much as I do. Both players are extraordinarily clever -- I literally went back and forth about who I thought was going to win like five or six times before the epic ending.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEV9niTmeOU

If you don't play "StarCraft 2", or even "StarCraft", you probably won't be able to fully appreciate what a rare battle this is, but it's still awesome.

[Locke]

Inasmuch as I game, I trend toward the RTS genre, though I've never taken up Starcraft. I've never seen someone "cast" a game like this, though; I really like it. It pleases my inner nerd to no end to listen to this guy talk it up like a sports commentator. They ought to put this sort of thing on G4; they have, unfortunately, such a wide selection of programming this is better than. Thanks for this; I hope to see more of it and for other games in the future.

[Ryan_DuBois]

Locke, I agree 100%. I love the casting. The two main guys that do it actually have an interesting story, themselves. According to YazZ (who showed me this video in the first place), both of them are in the Diamond League, so they understand the ins and outs of the game as well as anyone. On top of that, they started off as just two young kids who began uploading their own RTS videos with commentary and now they host one of the biggest tournaments on "StarCraft 2".

I'm glad HD did this one, since I think he has more insightful stuff to say about the games, but the other guy (Husky) is interesting to hear, too.

[End Master]

Ryan, if you're interested in some games that are nothing but zombie or monster killing, I recommend Dead Rising 2 and the Splatterhouse Remake

The Splatterhouse remake is what is and revels in over the top violence. You can also unlock all three of the old splatterhouse games in it, so it's sort of like getting 4 games in one. (Hell, I thought it was worth it just for the uncensored arcade version)

I haven't got around to playing a lot of Dead Rising 2, but they did quite a bit of improving from the first one. I wish it had a separate unlimited "free roam" mode instead of just the timed story mode though.

I'd also recommend Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare, but you have to have the original game to play this alternate reality expansion. In my opinion THIS is how a "zombie game" should be done. (Free roam, Grand Theft Auto missions style) It can get pretty difficult because you must hit the zombies in the head to kill them, body shots do nothing or just knock them down for awhile. Blowing them up also works, setting them on fire works but isn't really reliable since they just continue running at you on fire. Also because it's a zombie apocalypse you can't just buy ammo or anything else, you have to scavenge everything, so sparing your ammo and making every shot count is sort of necessary. The towns can also get overrun by zombies if you let them too, which will deprive you safe havens.

Here's a question for Usoki since I figure he's knowledgeable on the FF series.

Is Final Fantasy 7 really the best one of the series? I've never played any of them, but I'm usually always hearing or reading about how it's the greatest thing ever and how there should be a remake of it. Praise even comes from some people that usually hate JRPGs. Just sort of wondering what makes that one stand out.

[Ryan_DuBois]

Thank-you, End -- kind of convenient that you posted this, actually, since people have been asking me what I want for Christmas and I can literally think of nothing. I've heard of the "Dead Red" games of course (one of them is considered to be one of the top PS3 games, I think), so I'll probably check that one out first -- maybe go straight for the original and the expansion at once.

And I can guess what Usoki's going to say about "FF7":

"It's overrated!"

He might be right, too, but I still love it (keep in mind I beat it when I was like 12 - 13, though). I liked it for the complex story/art/music (the gameplay is about as good as it can get, but in general turn-based games just aren't all that fun to just roam around in). My roommate actually started a new game on my copy last week. He seems to think it's still awesome, but he also plays a ton of "Spiderman" platformers, so I'm not so sure how reliable his taste in games is.

Also: Has anyone played "Portal"? That game was pretty interesting, I thought.

[EDIT]

I take part of that back -- a lot of the gameplay on FF7 is really good. I just hate getting pulled into long random battles all the time.

[DOUBLE EDIT]

"Red Dead". Same difference!

[End Master]

More game recommendations:

Alan Wake- If you're into survival horror games this one is okay. You basically play a writer in a small town where weird and mysterious things are going on. Its story driven and pretty linear even though it gives the appearance that it has a sandboxy type play style. Originally they wanted more of a sandbox style, but things changed as development went on.

Still, I got some enjoyment from the story-line and I sort of like how they separated the chapters as if they were TV episodes. I downloaded 2 extra "episodes" which continued the story since the game was enjoyable enough.

Dead Rising 2- Bought this awhile ago, but I finally got around to playing this and beating it recently. Improved over the original one in every way. They got some pretty nasty psycho characters this time around. The ability to create your own stronger weapons is nice too. Lots of replay value. Downloaded "Case West" as well, which is sort of an epilogue to DR2 and has the hero from the first game teaming up with the hero from the 2nd.

Metro 2033- Just beat this one too. It's a first person shooter set in post apocalyptic russia and you're just one of the many people living in the underground railway tunnels since the surface is uninhabitable. Unfortunately there's a shitload of mutants running around in the tunnels now too. Everything is dirty, grimy and falling apart.

Even though its a first person shooter, it isn't quite as linear as you'd think. Sometimes there's a path for a straight up gun fight while there might also be a way to get through the level through stealth. There's some survival horror and some supernatural elements here as well.

You have to keep your flashlight or night vision googles charged so you can see in the darkness better (though the flashlight attracts attention). Conserving your ammo is pretty important especially on the hardcore difficulties. The superior military grade ammo also acts as currency, so you have choice of using it to buy better equipment at the human outposts or saving it to use on the tougher mutants. If you go on the surface you have to have a gas mask on and you only have a limited amount of time on the filter before it stops working and you have to either change it or get the hell off the surface. Your mask can also be damaged in battle and if that happens you'll need to find a new one altogether quick.

[Ryan_DuBois]

I just got around to beating the original "Red Dead Redemption" and loved it. At first I thought it was about equivalent to "Grant Theft Auto 4". Once I got to the end, though... oh man. I liked it even better than GTA4. It was probably less exciting, but I liked the scenery and ultimately just preferred John Marston to Niko as a main character. And I thought a lot of things were done slightly better; like I thought the dead eye system was pretty cool.

From what I've read, a lot of people weren't happy with the ending since the last couple quests were kind of mundane, but I don't know. It made me so happy and sad at the same time. I personally couldn't have picked a better way for things to come out.

And the soundtrack was pretty great, too, in my opinion.

9.2

[End Master]

Yeah, Red Dead was way better than GTA4. It captured the western genre perfectly while still having good game-play, so good in fact I'm not sure if there's going to be a game that can do it that well again for a long time. The closest rival might be GUN, but it far exceeded that game in all areas.

The ending to me seemed pretty appropriate, I liked the last revenge mission you can get after John's showdown with the government.

A lot of the stranger missions were cool too, particularly the "I Know You" one.

[Usoki]

Oh, Final Fantasy 7... where to begin? To answer End's question shortly... no, I would not say that it is the best FF game. It is, however, easily one of - if not the - most popular of the series. That being said, I am not one of those people who calls the game 'overrated'. Overhyped, perhaps, but not overrated. There is a high nostalgia factor going on, on top of all sorts of other things.

The first thing you have to consider is how it was released. Three years after FF3, FF7 hits the PlayStation market with impressive graphics, great gameplay, long hours, and the sudden awareness that we've been jipped- not for 4-6, but for 2, 3, and 5. With 3 whole disks of play, there's a lot of game to love. Not only that, but it was later released to Windows- the first FF game to cross over the system gap. And since it IS Windows, the average layman got to hack the game to shreds, and everyone learned all sorts of things about how the game, and others like it, actually work. There's still a fairly active mod community that releases patches for graphics, and to ensure it will run on each successive Windows system.

It's the first game with an insanely long story plot, plus all sorts of extra sidequests. The game has gorgeous graphics for the time, and they take advantage of this. It's one of the first games with cinematic cutscenes. This makes a huge storytelling difference. It's one thing to say that Kefka is destroying the world, with a few crude earthquakes and explosions sprited in. It's an entirely different thing to smash a giant meteorite with a missle, only to watch it slowly rebuild itself. You can actually see and believe all of the damage Sephiroth enacts.

It was, and arguably still is, the most dark and gritty FF game. You start as a rebel from the slums- you've got multiple villains with differing goals and psychological problems- and the game holds nothing back. There's drug abuse, mental breakdowns, suicidal thoughts, and all sorts of murder and death. There are no fainting pokemon or Disney cliff deaths. People die. One of your characters dies. Without any advanced warning, they die- and you can't get them back (without hacking). If you'd been using them as one of your main party members, too bad. Level up someone else.

It gets labeled as 'overrated' for a few reasons. One, there are a lot of FF6 fanboys who refuse to believe anything could be better than their beloved SNES FF3 cartridge. Two, there are an insane amount of Sephiroth fangirls. I have no idea why. Three, the battle system can be heavily abused. A lot of the materia which give nice perks can be combined in ways that, frankly, should never have been allowed. A strategic use of equipment can allow you to defeat monsters and bosses 30+ levels your senior with ease. And that's with not even talking about the KofRT summon attack. The upshot is that the average, casual gamer will find the difficulty appropriate, if not odd at times. The dedicated gamer will abuse the system, and then complain that the game is way too easy.

And, yes, Altus or NIS VRPGS are much harder. They're also much less approachable to the casual gamer. The FF games are a great introduction/crossover series, and FF7 is one of it's finest.

[Ryan_DuBois]

That being said, I am not one of those people who calls the game 'overrated'.

Lol. Not to take EndMaster's job, but look at your post here:

http://forums.infinite-story.com/sho...ntasy#post9561

Other than that, I pretty much agree with you on everything, though. I suppose I would add that even once you start mixing up materia, there's still some challenge to the game since Emerald and Ruby Weapon are impossible to beat without using the materia combos in the first place. Not to mention that all the good materia (Phoenix, Knights of the Round, The Ws, etc.) is very time-consuming to get.

I don't think I've ever equaled the amount of homework I did as a kid to find all of that game's secrets. It was basically my first experience doing serious internet research.

And yeah, for "Red Dead" the epilogue and the I Know You stranger missions are the only ones I've done so far. Kinda wish I hadn't accidentally seen how the flower-collecting mission turns out, since I would have been totally shocked and amused to find a corpse sitting in the house.

[Usoki]

I can refute that simply and easily. In one post, 'overrated' refers to its popularity, while in the other, 'overrated' refers to whether or not it is the best game. It is certainly not the best game. I can, however, understand its popularity.

Also, I must completely laugh in your face about your thoughts on materia. With a lvl 99 party and a reasonable materia configuration, you can beat Emerald and Ruby. Or, with a 'cheap' min-maxed configuration, you can beat Emerald and Ruby well in your 60s-70s. I didn't say that all combos were cheap- there are, however, a good handful of them that are. And just because the good materia is hard to get doesn't somehow mean that it makes the game challenging. "time consuming" does not equal "difficult".

[End Master]

Kinda wish I hadn't accidentally seen how the flower-collecting mission turns out, since I would have been totally shocked and amused to find a corpse sitting in the house.

I sort of had a feeling his wife was going to be dead even before I completed that mission based on how Rockstar usually likes to add warped characters in their storylines. With a few exceptions, the protagonists in their games are usually portrayed as the "only sane man" even if he happens to be a violent criminal.

[Ryan_DuBois]

Also, I must completely laugh in your face about your thoughts on materia. With a lvl 99 party and a reasonable materia configuration, you can beat Emerald and Ruby. Or, with a 'cheap' min-maxed configuration, you can beat Emerald and Ruby well in your 60s-70s. I didn't say that all combos were cheap- there are, however, a good handful of them that are. And't somehow mean that it makes the game challenging. "time consuming" does not equal "difficult".

Stop laughing in my face, Usoki! Just stop it! And brush those darn teeth, too!

But ya, I knew what you meant; it was just amusing how perfectly your actual statements contradicted each other is all. For materia -- meh, what I said doesn't really go against any of that since I never said it was a difficult game in the first place, but just time-consuming.

[apotheosis]

Played through Borderlands and Gears of War 2. Both enjoyable shooters, though I get the feeling I am missing something not playing multiplayer.

Also, Dead Space 2 should arrive by Monday. I'm excited. Avoiding New Vegas until I have firmly decided I want to invest 100+ hours of my life.