Video Game Thread #4 - Summer 2005

http://i.walmart.com/i/p/00/72/26/74/70/0072267470000_215X215.jpg

Has anyone played this game? Because it sounds AMAZING.

...Forget about the big-beat techno music that used to permeate SSX, that is so 90s. This year it's all about rock n' roll or as EA put it - "becoming a black diamond rockstar."

EA has yet to nail down the licensed tracks is it will be using but expect an assortment featuring the new stars of rock and roll along with some hip hop tracks...

http://ps2.ign.com/objects/681/681173.html

I just threw up in my mouth.

So. Should I get an xbox/ps2 or should I wait for the next-gens?

then wait for the new consoles to be out at least a year, so enough quality titles are there, and so that even the new consoles are available at used prices.

We were too busy competing for the "Master of Obscure Batman Trivia" title to remember to argue about Star Wars.

mount and blade: http://www.taleworlds.com/

KATAMARI DAMACY!

In other news, I stalled out on the pirate ship stage of Fire Emblem and haven't picked up the DS since Ally moved in. Where do I go to find a decent looking desk for less than $$$$?

It IS a small internet after all.

I'll give you a clue, it's San Andreas.

Errr... Ikea maybe? What do you mean by "decent looking"?

Also, Double Fine is hiring, which is always a good sign.

Am interested in playing Metronome, that game sounds very interesting. Battling people using sound as weapons!

i'm not moving to SF, either. PDX is fine for me.

http://img228.echo.cx/img228/4093/dogen7fj.gif

???

It's pretty interesting (=life destroying) to me right now. How does the PvP improve things? I always figured that it made guilds more of a neccesity, because if you can't go out to Ashenvale without getting youur head stepped on, then you'll need some backup for your party.

also, the boss battle with the theater critic is just hilarious.

That's pretty much it; the contested areas are CRAZY with the ganking and ambushing. Also, thanks to said ganking and ambushing there's much more of an incentive to level (hence me doing my first complete Deadmines run on the PvP server).

I've also discovered the the crafting professions are completely gimped when compared to the supplying professions. My PvP warrior is a lvl 21 skinner/miner and before I drop 10g on a blue two-handed axe last night, I was sitting on 25g that had been generated with very little effort (skin/mine/instance/AH). Also, zipping through the lowbie areas and skinning everything there is good for at least 1g per run.

also, the mental baggage scenes are cute and kinda creepy.

Psychonauts sounds vaguely entertaining.
Is anything else good on the horizon? Ever?
Am I the only person interested in turn-based tactical crap like Front Mission or FFTA or Phantom Brave etc.?

Back to reading thesis papers on Gamasutra.

also, the G4tv video that was shot at E3 is equally hilarious. Especially when they send some little clueless pneumatic blonde to interview the guys at Lucasarts' E3 booth.

DAY-yamn!

FARRRK dont start me on the representation of women in and around the industry argh. If I see one more ATI Radeon card ad, or online RPG game, with a chick with enormous knockers and unfeasibly small garments, I will scream. Bitch, please. Theres plenty of women gamers out there, and we would like to see some cool looking normal women in our games k thx bye.

oh yeah, and have we mentioned the chick who'd best be described as "gamer slut/camwhore" that IGN found? She doesn't know jack shit about anything beyond really superficial gaming matters, but, like, she TOTALLY licks a PSP!

it's even in the fuckin' headline: She does exist... a gorgeous woman who loves videogames, manga, anime and licks the PSP!

IGN is basically Maxim. They need to die.

"GDCTV: Rolling the Dice - The Risks and Rewards of Developing Katamari Damacy by Keita Takahashi [05.10.05] Gamasutra is proud to present GDCTV, a feature showcasing streaming video content of some of the notable sessions of this year's Game Developers Conference. In our second episode, we present Keita Takahashi's GDC talk, which discusses the development of the critically lauded and innovative Katamari Damacy."

http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20050510/takahashi_01.shtml

also, you pretty much get to off damn near everybody in your party at some point.

the problem i always had with the light/dark side bits was that the contrast was always completely either/or: as others have described it, your choices are either "pet the kitten" or "throw the kitten into the trash compactor, laughing heartily all the while"

the influence system in Kotor2 is choice, too, since it's fun to corrupt the NPCs into being as evil. Sith Lord Ann-Margret will dominate!

http://img165.echo.cx/img165/7193/dogan1qr.th.jpg

http://img130.echo.cx/img130/1285/nighthawks1024by7680xs.th.jpg

http://www.villagevoice.com/screens/0526,bearman,65335,28.html

http://ps2.ign.com/articles/631/631611p1.html

Scarface and 50 Cent Sequels Planned
More mayhem and murder is coming your way.
by Wade Steel

July 6, 2005 - Vivendi Universal Games president Phil O'Neil revealed that sequels to the unreleased Scarface: The World is Yours and 50 Cent: Bulletproof are planned, according to an article on GamesIndustry.biz.

According to O'Neil, VU Games sees "a Scarface 2, a Scarface 3, a Scarface 4, and consecutive iterations of that product as being a really important component of what we're trying to do here."

Scarface: The World is Yours features the continuing adventures of Tony Montana, the Cuban drug kingpin who told us to say "'ello to his little friends" (his friends being assault weapons) in the 1983 movie by Brian De Palma. The game will take place in the aftermath of the destruction of Tony's world and will feature Grand Theft Auto style gameplay as you try to rebuild your empire through such dipolmatic means as assassination and property damage in the South Florida of the 1980s.

In a similar vein, 50 Cent: Bulletproof takes us from the glitz and glamor of Tony Montana's South Florida to the gritty underground of New York City. The game will feature the rapper getting caught up in a deadly international conspiracy with the only way for him to get untangled being to blast his way through the crime families of New York.

O'Neil hopes that both the Scarface and 50 Cent brands become "sustainable franchise brands" for VU Games....

GTA CLONES UBER ALLES N' SHIT!

1:Psychonauts PS 2 6/22/2005 Short Wait
2:Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door GameCube Short Wait
3:Killer 7 GameCube Short Wait
4:Resident Evil 4 (2-disc) GameCube Short Wait
5:X-Men: Legends PS 2 Short Wait
6:Destroy All Humans! PS 2 Short Wait
7:Mario Kart Double Dash GameCube Now
8:Romance of the Three Kingdoms X PS 2 Now
9:Medal of Honor: European Assault PS 2 Now
10:Hot Shots Golf Fore! PS 2 Now
11:Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater PS 2 Now
12:Haunting Ground PS 2 Now
13:Metal Slug 4 & 5 (2 discs) PS 2 Now
14:NFL Street 2 PS 2 Now
15:Karaoke Revolution Volume 2 PS 2 Short Wait

Suggestions/Warnings/Anything I'm Missing/Comments/Etc?

I've been looking forward to the new Resident Evil for awhile now.

i like how you can measure the level of "attractiveness" of each governor's daughter by how much titty they show.

e.g. this is the "beautiful daughter:"

http://images.techtree.com/ttimages/story/Sid-Meiers-Pirates-1-t.jpg

(you get a higher score by marrying the hottest daughter of the three)

there's something elegant & magical about driving a tank down the Las Venturas strip, blasting away at criminals and running over Elvises. It's like seeing "Bambi" or "Snow White" for the first time.

also, with the helicopter guys overhead:

"Hey! You! Stop!"
"Aw, just shoot 'im, you big pussy!"

That said, a friend loaned me his Xbox while he's moving, and I've been trying out a few games.

Ninja Gaiden: Why have I heard so much about this when it's just a poor rip off of Onimusha (admittedly based on the first level)?

Jade Empire: Really good RPG in the KOTOR mould, some of the voice acting is a bit meh, but considering the sheer size of it, that's not surprising (and great work on the little girl follower, really touching and disturbing)

Jet Set Radio Future: AW YEAH. All the great bits of the first one, and all of the unintentional fiddly bits removed. And an really enjoyable soundtrack.

JSRF is one of my five favorite games of all time.

It seems like it would be lame to buy a PS2 NOW, since I have the other two and I haven't played a videogame in months. I might as well at least wait until the PS3 comes out and I can get a PS2 for $50, right?

JSRF has convinced me that Bis are one of my top five bands of all time, though this rarely lasts more than five minutes after I stop playing (because I'm asleep by then, arf arf)

In addition to the main toons listed, I've got four other alts scattered across servers who were abandoned in the teens, so I've never actually done any of the high level quests or fought any of the high level mobs. I also haven't done battlegrounds at all; the one time I tried I got stuck in the queue for 4 hours so fuck a battleground.

Gurubashi Arena bites Fallopian tube because of all the lvl 60s. This is redeemed by the sheer amount of fun generated by ganking in Stranglethorn Vale; I teamed up with a couple of mid-30s rogues and we were taking down not only low-40s but a couple of skulls (had to be 60).

http://pc.gamezone.com/gamesell/screens/s20755_0.htm

A sim movie studio/control actors/make films/watch everyone have tantrums and become alkies? BRILLIANT! Lionhead are so damn cool.

http://www.gametrailers.com/gamepage.php?id=783

http://www.hollywood-mogul.com/

i kinda wish i hadn't cuz Mad TV is free and better.

http://www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?gameid=672.

The movies is obv. going to be a lot better and they are very much business management orientated, mad tv is pretty much just scheduling, but they still fill a big tv computer game shaped hole in my heart until the movies comes out.

Yours, supporting the game industry.

http://forums.afterdawn.com/forum_view.cfm/50

turns out you can spot Dart(nee D'artagan), the original protagonist for the game, hiding in the outhouse during the ending movie:

http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/825/psychonautsdart1cs.th.jpg http://img58.imageshack.us/img58/43/dart7ho.th.gif

also, http://www.ytmnd.com/list/?search=psychonauts&user=

if you still need a reason to play the game, check it:

http://img311.imageshack.us/img311/5195/razblackvelvet5zj.th.jpg

Just finished Illusion of Gaia on the SNES in anticipation of a new Enix Square/Enix game (I think I heard that the Dragon Warrior/Quest series is getting a DS port) - what a brilliant game! Also psyched for the new Mario DS, can't wait to play brand new 2D Mario game.

What should I play next? I like platformers / predominantly non-violent games best, and all I gots is an xbox. Which is sort of an odd match. Suggestions?

ok review = http://xbox.ign.com/articles/440/440089p3.html

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=53808

DROD -- getting bored with it

grand theft auto 3 -- just played a modern gta for the first time. it was pretty good. wish it had a better save system. my computer isn't quite powerful enough for it so I'll come back to it after my next upgrade

mega man x4 -- cuz I played all the other ones. it's like all the rest

Oh look, another list to argue about: IGN's latest "Top 100 Video Games EVAH"

but i just bought Jak2 for a tenner so i've been whirling my way around that. nice large city to explore, it's just a pity that all the missions are on the other side of the map and getting there is such a pain due to the maze-like layout and the rubbishy flying vehicles.

http://www.atari.com/indigo/

the Soundtrack to this French psychothriller, known as "Indigo Prophecy" in North America and "Fahrenheit" in Europe.

the demo's kinda neat. it even features SPOOOOOOOKY BUMS!

no, i mean in the "eeeeeerie hobos" sense.

dude, you're gunna need a gamecube or ps2 for that.

Xbox is very, very skint on happy-go-lucky fun, whereas the japanese consoles have much more blatant happy japanese lunacy.

Me too! Oh wait, you mean in VIDEO GAMES, damn ;P

I recommend to you Toejam and Earl.

Hello Kitty Roller Rescue:
http://www.gamestats.com/objects/743/743601/

(i too prefer this kind of thing, Jak2 currently, but HKRR is probably several bridges too far)

I HAVE REACHED LEVEL 42! THERE MUST BE SOMETHING ABOUT ME!

I also have the world's awesomest white ram as a mount. It's amazing how travelling becomes less annoying when you bump up your foot speed.

Someone told me that on RP servers people walk everywhere??????? WTF?????????????????? I don't have three days to spend going from Redridge to Stranglethorn Vale!

Ahar! ;P I geddit.

Also WooHoo! Have you paid for your level 40 skills yet? It took me until 43.

A coworker also pointed me at an awesome macro that lets you instantly switch to a high DPS weapon for instant cast spells/skills and switch back afterwards. My Overpowers, Cleaves and Executes are about to become SICK.

(xpost: GUILTY AS CHARGED, N00B)

http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=4246109

In June, Senator Charles Schumer held a press conference to draw attention to the M-rated game “25 to Life”, in which players take the role of a policeman or a gangster. “Little Johnny should be learning how to read, not how to kill cops,” he declared. True, but little Johnny should not be smoking, drinking alcohol or watching Quentin Tarantino movies either. Just as there are rules to try to keep these things out of little Johnny's hands, there are rules for video games too. Political opportunism is part of the explanation for this double standard: many of gaming's critics in America are Democrats playing to the centre...

Man dies after online game marathon

As far as Minish Cap is concerned, you have to finish it before school starts, and your paper on it is due the last week of October. It is worth 30% of your Fall semester grade.

For your 15-page paper due in the spring, you may choose one from the following:

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
Zelda: A Link To The Past
Metroid: Zero Mission
Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance
Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn Of Souls
Harvest Moon: Friends Of Mineral Town
Metal Slug Advance
Midway's Greatest Arcade Hits
River City Ransom EX
Lego Star Wars

GBA 201 syllabus aside, I'm kind of interested in
Riviera and
Sigma Star Saga, but I'm not playing much lately so I dunno if I'm ready to put any money into either.

Oh, and don't forget Mario Kart, Super Mario 3, Super Mario World, and Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow!

GAYYYYYY

as far as i can tell, the only difference is that you play a chick instead of a dude.

I hit lvl 43 last night, so no more music jokes (aw).

Urban Dead - a massively-multiplayer zombie apocalypse game.

I picked up Metroid Prime for cheap today, it's pretty sweet.

I could go on and on. What it boils down to is that I and apparently a lot of other gamers (Sims fans especially?) seem to enjoy playing "dress-up" as much or more than playing the actual game. This could also be the tipping point difference between graphical MMORPGS and the old MUDs that people are missing - it's not even the gameplay, it's the visual dress-up. Even Gabe at Penny Arcade is bitching about WoW now because apparently all level 60 rogues wear the same clothes and he wants to be special.

Shit, i never did beat that one. I think i got about 2/3rds of the way thru one storyline then got distracted. Probably by Xenogears or something.

And the Katamari sequel(with the FUGLY-ass boxart) hits in like 3 weeks or so.

american box art for "We ¢¾ Katamari":

http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/object/716/716651/welovekatamari_ps2box_usa_org_000boxart_160w.jpg

dammit, i can't find a copy of the japanese boxart, which is clearly superior. It has a photo of a happy funtime japanese crowd waving at the camera, holding up signs. Amidst the crowd are various zoo animals.

Also, giraffes are smiling from the roof of a nearby building.

ah well. "We Heart Katamari" is even more cloying.

http://www.gametrailers.com/gamepage.php?id=1952

it's some gameplay vid from japanese TV

I have yet to play the first one, after selling my PS2 to another ilxor last summer.

since they'll all be GTA/Max Payne clones, and are movie-licenses, smart money is on "not much."

i mean, i think the problem with some of these games is that the majority of the money gets poured into the licensing elements at the cost of gameplay and design; they'll put up the dosh to get Marlon Brando in there, but they will only have minimal focus on the actual "game" part. This is why licensed titles suck the ass. The companies that can afford the license tend to expect the titles to turn a profit on the license alone, and all that other shit ain't necessary.

i mean, Vice City did pretty much anything the Scarface game could ever do; will the added superficial elements("Look! You're actually PLAYING Scarface! Here comes a character that actually looks like Robert Loggia!") cover the hole in enjoyment from not having a top or even competent gamedev work on the thing?

They'll all look VERY pretty, no doubt. And have all the proper music/voice acting/etc. The superficial elements will be represented more than adequately.

I'd favor The Warriors as having the best chance at being worthwhile, but i wouldn't put money on any of 'em. More than likely, all three titles will wind up somewhere in the range of "enh" to "not too bad; i played like half of it before i got bored."

but hey, weirder shit has happened...

and who doesn't want to play Adrien Brody in a video game?

two clueless "thirtysomethings" rag on about Xbox Live for several hundred words.

I liked how, when we finally started, I was killed within eight seconds. Then I came back to life in another part of the game … and was again killed within eight seconds. I don't think I ever survived longer than 20 seconds.

LOL! WE'RE SO OLD! THEY CALLED US "FAGGITS!" etc

Haha way to tackle the problem, guys!

http://members.home.nl/saarloos/images/osmdtankpic.jpg

WOW

Amen. But the game itself is awesome.

-over on ILC, Huk posted the link to the demo for "Out of Boneville", which the game from Jeff Smith's Bone series. Note that the crew who worked on this are all ex-Lucasarts folks who were doing the 3D Sam & Max game until the execs cancelled it last year. They've also worked on Grim Fandango.

-here's some ultra-high-res shots of Metal Gear Solid 4. Note that Otacon now looks like a slightly-less bloated Bono. No word yet if he's still a whiney bitch.

Also, Snake has completely turned into Nick Fury.

would we have enough interest/traffic for an "I Love Games" (or somesuch) board?

Couldnt get the hang of the chat system either, and a friend of mine /w ing me didnt help, I had no idea how to reply just to him.

Then I started on Evil Genius. Now, this one is fun! Its very very much like Dungeon Keeper. The only real flaw is it isnt terribly intuitive, and again, the controls werent ideal, plus my poor laptop was just a bit too slow. Will have a go on my fast games pc and see if that helps.

To reply to someone directly, hit the enter key to bring up the chat window and type "/r " OR hit the R key when the chat window is closed; that will reply to the last person who sent you a private message.

Various chat commands:

"/s " = Say; the general chat command that talks to everyone in your vicinity
"/w [name]" or "/t [name]" = Whisper/Tell [name]; this is a private message to a specific player
"/r " = Reply; sends a private message to the last person who sent you a private message
"/p " = Party; sends a message to the people in your party
"/y " = Yell; sends a message to everyone in your current zone and is highly annoying so never ever ever ever ever use it
"/(number) " = Chat channel number; sends a message to a particular chat channel

The point of WoW is doing quests and grouping with people; if that aspect of the gameplay didn't grab you, it probably won't. Give it another chance, though; most of the character classes aren't that interesting until you hit level 10, which you should be able to do over the weekend. (I'm actually surprised you have up at level 3! Also priests start out VERY slowly; try a rogue or a warlock if you want to blow through the newbie levels really quickly.)

yeah, this game had issues. i heavily enjoyed it, but the system reqs are a bitch.

RFC: "Who up in this bitch wants an I Love Games?"

Priests can be fairly dangerous by themselves, but they're designed for use in a party, where they keep everyone healthy and at the top of their game so that there's less time waiting to eat (or waiting to find their corpse). If you get up to a higher level, you'll be very popular, though you're playing a female in WoW, so you've probably been "popular" enough at one point or another.

How long did you actually play for? If you type /played, it should tell you.

Dan's right though. There's more in the game beyond hitting things and playing with others (and the dozen things that 30 minutes more play might bring one), but there's not a hell of a lot more.

You know how I was going to level my warrior up to 60 no matter what? Um. I got bored and started up a priest. He's at level 19 now and I have to say that playing the healer of is really, really fun... WHEN YOU ARE IN A PARTY WITH PEOPLE WHO CAN PLAY. I was in a group yesterday that was trying to do the Deadmines and our tank was a lvl 23 dwarf warrior whose idea of running the instance was to aggro everything in sight and then run back to the casters begging for healing. Fucking dipshit.

I think the same would be true of Ragefire Chasm, except it's a lot easier to find a higher level character to power through the instance after someone goes AWOL.

http://ilx.wh3rd.net/newquestions.php?board=99

we're open for business

(yay! re: ILG)

My priest is level 22 now! He is slowly becoming awesome but I need to park him in an inn and get his rested bonus up, so perhaps I'll grind out a few more levels with my 44 warrior for a while.

This is the first World of Warcraft thread for ILG