It's a thread! (Games discussion, etc.)

[Moge]

Any interest in trying Watch Doges, JGOO? Seems like that game might fit your tastes.

As usual it's time for the annual top 5 games of the year (and top disappointment). Doesn't have to be from this year, but it has to be something new you've played.

[JG]

Any interest in trying Watch Doges, JGOO? Seems like that game might fit your tastes.

Not really, no. To be honest, when reading previews for it I got the game would have worked better on Wii U, with the gamepad as your "cell phone/tablet" hacking device.

As usual it's time for the annual top 5 games of the year (and top disappointment). Doesn't have to be from this year, but it has to be something new you've played.

I was actually thinging the same thing over the last day or two and settled on this list:

GAME OF THE YEAR: Hyrule Warriors (Wii U): 9 out of 10
A musou doesn't seem all that fun on the surface and seems like it would get old quick, but this one completely turns the genre upside down, to the point that SquareEnix has contracted KoeiTecmo to use the same concept in the upcoming Dragon Quest Heroes (late 2015, early 2016 release.)  All your favorite Hyrule characters are back, both good and evil, many character's sporting more than one weapon type (like Link dropping the sword and shield for a Fire Rod, Power Gauntlets, or even Epona), plus all the bonus weapons you'd want to see (bombs, boomerang, bow and arrows, hookshot) along with familiar enemies like King Dodongo and Gohma.  It has a nice, solid main campaign that is long enough and requires use of other characters than just Link, but the Adventure Mode is where the game shines. Playing out on an original NES Zelda map of Hyrule, with special item cards such as Bombs or the Raft to unlock secrets (most usually in the exact same place on the screen as in the NES original), each map screen represents one battle or challenge, giving 128 in this mode alone.  With the main campaign, thats over 150 different battles, along with four randomly generated battles per day (network required), so the game has high replay value for a beat-em-up.  Fork over an extra $20 for the Hero of Hyrule DLC pack and you get another 128 battles on the Master Quest map (yes, just like the NES version), 100+ more battles in an all new Twilight map, plus the yet-to-be-released Termina map. I rarely recommend DLC but this one is well worth it if you enjoyed the regular Adventure Mode map.  The only real flaws are the random network battles are too often the same scenario and some of the battles are as much dependant on luck as on skill (particuarly timed challenges where you get a Dodongo or Gohma that won't cooperate and reveal their weak spot.)

#2: Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (any console system and PC): 9 out of 10
I narrowly gave the edge to Hyrule Warriors due to the high replayability, but AC4 has an outstanding campaign. Unfortunately, its not terribly difficult to 100% the game on collectibles, so there isn't as much replay value, but until you do it's great fun to work your way up the ranks from mere thug to Pirate King while running across famous pirates from history like Blackbeard. Taking the game off land and onto the high seas opens up a massive world with a ton of sidequests, such as shark hunting and diving for sunken treasure.  With Unity being a boring, buggy disaster, Black Flag is the one future stealth/assassin type games will be measured against (and with the newly titled chapter 6, Victory, being set in Victorian London, there is grave concern it'll be another boring inter-city affair, repeating the mistakes of Unity and missing out on the fun stuff from Black Flag.)

#3: Bravely Default (3DS): 8 out of 10
Rather surprised that Nintendo Club's own fans didn't vote it in the top ten of 3DS games of the year.  The Brave/Default method of storing or expending stored points to perform multiple moves gives a nice change of pace to the classic turn based RPG game. I wish it featured more of an active turn based system than a strict 'every hero and enemy gets one action per turn' though.  Really, really good for along time, with the first four chapters being exceptional.  The fifth adds new elements to what seems like familiar story, but by the time you get to the sixth and then seventh chapter has gotten old and the repeating battles start to feel like a chore.  Easy to get all the characters to level 99 and skills up to maximum level by end of chapter 6, so the game rather sputters to the finish line instead of ending as strongly as it was during the first half.  Still, it has alot going for it in a year that was devoid of just about anything else worthwhile in the 3DS realm, and hopefully it'll be the start of a new 3DS-specific series for SquareEnix, now that they'd run out of Dragon Quests and Final Fantasies to remake.

#4: Shadow of Mordor (Xbox One, and PS4 and PC in 2015): 7 out of 10
A wonderful combination of Assassin's Creeds freerunning and stealthy maraudering, with Batman: Arkham series' combat and countering, set in a world we're somewhat familiar with: Middle-earth's Mordor in the years between the Hobbit and Fellowship of the Ring. Fight as the ranger Talion, known to the orcs as the Gravewalker. Cursed to never die until your family is avenged, you take out Sauron's army from inside thier stronghold, hunting down and assassinating orc captains and warchiefs during a two-arc campaign that alternates between helping the humans fight back against their orc slavemasters and rediscovering your Elvish Wraith partner's forgotten past, with a cameo by Gollum.  Shy of perfection becuase the game gives you complete access to anywhere you're willing to walk to, whether you're strong enough to venture there yet or not, so you die early and often.  Being a litte more restrictive would have made for a better game. Plus, the random orc assassin sidequests popup too often, drawing you away from the main quests.  It hurts when the sidequests are so numerous that they take away from the main goal (see also, AC: Unity.)  While the game itself is fine at 30fps, it has very noticible framerate problems (10-15 fps) when playing out some of the story mode sections, when character details are ramped up.

#5: Plants vs Zombies 2: It's About Time (Android and iPad tablets): 7 out of 10
A solid followup to the original PvZ game, with different time periods giving different zombies, such as Egyptian pharoah zombies or wild west zombie cowboys. Drops some of the more annoying features of the first game (like nighttime) but sadly drops some of good ones, too, like the pool.  Adds some new features like train tracks in the old west and a much improved zen garden.  Unfortunately, it's gone the pay-to-play route, so some of the best plants like Snowpea and Starfruit are for-purchase only.  But it's been out a year now and Popcap is still making new episodes for the main campaign, which is healthy. But at some point we gotta see Dr. Zomboss go down once and for all.

Honorable Mention: Mario Kart 8 (Wii U): 7 out of 10
Thank you Nintendo for fixing everything that was wrong with Mario Kart Wii. The new tracks are quite good and the reworked tracks feature much better variety than any previous MK game.  Online multiplayer is welcome escape.  I still want to see a Double Dash mode though.  And replacing one of the rehash cups with a randomized rehash cup, using four of the maps from any previous MK game, so you get to play the ones that never make it into a game (since they presently only pull 16 of them but have over 100 in the bank now.) Maybe make this cup rerandomize every day so there's something new for players everytime they pop on.  Until then, Mario Kart games get old once you've pretty much mastered the 32 courses available in the game.


Biggest Disappointment: Assassin's Creed: Unity (Xbox One, PS4 and PC): 2 out of 10
Ugh. Maybe its better to say what went right.  Looks pretty.  Handles alot of people walking around the streets of Paris quite well. The multiplayer campaign missions seem okay.
Otherwise, pretty much a pile of crap compared to the excellence of Black Flag.  There's too many people in Paris, the buildings are too tall and buildings too different in height to faciliate the freerunning the series is known for and if you knock someone over, sure enough some soldier is going to chase you.  Everyone speaks in British accents instead of French (in Black Flag, the Spanierds spoke in Spanish.)  A fortuneteller character the game says is 19 sounds like an old lady.  And quite simply, trying to be a gentleman is not as fun as being a ruthless pirate.  You feel like you're stuck in the city, trying to be something you're not and everyone around you feels out of place.
And the bugs. Lots of clipping errors. Lots of freerunning jumps that don't go in the intended direction. The camera gets locked in weird angles during climbing that you can't fix until you're on the ground or roof.   Ultimately I quit the game after I spent over and hour sneaking through Notre Dame to steal a pair of chalices only to have a counter weight pulley deposit me half way between the second story floor and first floor ceiling, killing me outright when the game determined I had been "falling" for over 30 seconds.
Superhyped for this game after playing Black Flag, and now I'm very skeptical of how Victory will pan out.


So the biggest thing to take way from gaming in 2014?  Do something different, but familiar.  Hyrule and Middle-earth?  We know these places.  Midna, Darunia, Crazy Dave?  We know these people.  Blackbeard? Yeah, we know he's a badass pirate.  (By comparison, Robespierre?  Anyone know or even care if he's a good guy or bad guy?)  Reinvent and improve on what has worked before, as in the gameplay of Bravely Default and Plants vs Zombies 2.  Grounding your game in the history or gameplay we're familiar with pays huge dividends.


And the five games I'm most looking forward to in 2015?
1. The Legend of Zelda (Wii U)
2. Xenoblade Chronicles X (Wii U)
3. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D (3DS)
4. Star Fox (Wii U)
5. Halo 5: Guardians (Xbox One) [would be higher, but dropping Master Chief has me concerned that it's going the Titanfall multiplayer-only route, though I give 343 credit for doing this rather well in Halo 4's DLC compaign.]

* Dragon Quest Heroes may land in late 2015 and would garner a spot here, but as there's no release date and its a rather newly announced game, it's more probable to hit early 2016.  It's supposed to be a PS4 exclusive.
* Speaking of PS4 exclusives, Final Fantasy VII would also be worthy of the above list, if it were a 3DS remake instead.  I like my remakes with something new thrown in, like touch screen capability.  Don't give me the same TV and controller experience it was 20 years ago, with improved graphics being the only draw.  Graphics are nice, but the experience is better, which is why I've always been a Nintendo fan over Xbox and Playstation.

[Moge]

5. Double Dragon Neon -- 

Old school beat 'em up designed really well with a dash of American humor. Fantastic stuff. Wish there were playable characters though outside of Bimmy and Jammy though.

4. Silent Hill 2 -- 

I finally understand why many have heralded this game as the greatest in the survival horror genre. Not only is it legit scary, but it also manages to tell a story with a real human element to it, which is quite frankly what most big budget horror games lack (including the original SH).

3. Marvelous Ms. Take -- 

A fast paced stealth game in the vein of Metal Gear Solid 1's stealth (without the guns). Addictive, snazzy visuals, and cool characters.

2. Mario Kart 8 -- 

This game is INCREDIBLY fun if you're playing with a group of folks who are actually good (the community lobby is pure genius). Some of the best productions values i've witnessed in a Nintendo title.

1.  Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth 2 -- 

YOWZA! This is THE best game in the series (sorry Phoenix Trite). Great writing, gnarly animated sprites courtesy of Arc System Works, and a fantastic (fan) localization kept me at the edge of my seat. Capcom really did a great disservice to its fans by not bringing this game out overseas.

Biggest disappointment: No community lobbies in Smash U

Having to enter what's akin to friend codes again killed my enjoyment to play this game competitively.

Best surprise: A new Clock Tower sequel

Well, a spiritual sequel, straight from the original creator working in conjunction with Silent Hill's infamous creature designer. That's my dream team right there.

Looking forward to in 2015: Everything on Wii U, and Metal Gear Solid 5 (hopefully).

[Moge]

It's going to be a while before the next big Wii U game. Splatoon in May i think? That game on your radar, JGOO?

[JG]

Nah, don't much care for Splatoon.  I'm a solo player so I don't much care for the party games.

Agreed that Wii U calendar is rather bare for first half of 2015, aside from yet another Kirby game [sure are alot of them.]  But seems like PS4 and especially Xbox One have been in similar funks for the last few months; just isn't that many good third party games lately.  Sure would be helpful to get Star Fox out by end of May or June though to give something big for the summer months.  I'm worried it'll arrive too late in the year and be completely ignored in the shadow of the Legend of Zelda behemoth.

But at least Big N has the New 3DS launch and Majora's Mask (finally announced for a Feb 13 release)

[JG]

And of course, now that I look it up I see that Star Fox is slated to be a playable preview at E3 in June.  Which means it won't released to public before fall.  Boo.

[Moge]

Great Matsuno's ghost is Tactics Ogre long. My game time so far is 90 hrs, and i'm loving every second of it.

Has your opinion changed JGOO with this sparkly edition of Majora's Mask?

I recalled you thought the original was kinda "meh" if memory serves me right. That was certainly my opinion back then.

[JG]

Has your opinion changed JGOO with this sparkly edition of Majora's Mask?

I recalled you thought the original was kinda "meh" if memory serves me right. That was certainly my opinion back then.

I don't think I said it was bad, just not quite the epic most of the Zelda games are.  It's constructed too differently to allow for it, with the reset occuring after 3 game days.

It's basically the same game with some minor changes.  There's a couple of pieces that get shuffled around or changed.  Nintendo said they wouldn't make the game any easier, but I think they did by giving you access to the second bottle before you go to Woodfall, which means you can carry another fairy into the temple, thus making it easier since you only have 3 or 4 hearts at that time.  Not a huge deal though.  Other changes do make it harder: One of the heart pieces is damned near impossible to get now at the Swamp Target Range - you have to hit every target with at least 6 seconds remaining on the clock; N64 edition allowed for one miss during the full 60 seconds.  They moved the invisible soldier who carries the Stone Mask from Ikana Canyon Road to the Pirate Fortress, which means you can't get it before infiltrating the fortress and eliminates the "cheat" from N64 by doing the areas in reverse order than expected.  They totally changed the fight against the Ocean template boss, requiring entirely new tactics to beat him.  And the Giant's Mask comes later in the Stone Tower temple so you can't use it to mash up the temple boss as much.  They also added another fishing site at Zora Cape, but since fishing gets you nothing in the game except a challenge of patience against yourself, this is minor fluff.

[Nitorin]

Having only the xbox1, gotta admit I'm jealous of some titles that are on other consoles.But I'm quite having fun tho.Been playing Titanfall(about time I do), Destiny, Assassin Creed Unity etcs. Waiting for Borderlands collection to come out.Gf and I love it.

[Moge]

  Nintendo has official sold its soul to the devil! The end is nigh

[Nitorin]

Why is that?

[JG]

I presume its becuase they announced they're going to start making games (or porting existing ones) to phones and tablets.

This has been rumored ever since developers in the Sony camp (like SquareEnix) found it was more profitable to develop Android and iOS versions than develop for the all-but-dead-now PSP.  I would not at all be surprised if the New 3DS is the last of the Nintendo handhelds. A year ago, I wouldn't have even thought the New 3DS model likely becuase of this trend.


That being said, I disapprove of porting action games.  Sonic CD is very hard to play on my tablet becuase there's no control stick.  Games on a tablet require different modes of interaction, namely touching and dragging and certain genres need more than that.  Porting Dr. Mario would be fine.  Porting Super Mario Bros., not so much.

[Nitorin]

I aggree.Some type of games are simply not made for a tablet or phone.Last handheld I owned was a 2DS.Was fun but not a huge fan of those anymore.Gotta admit, they have very intersting titles sometimes tho.

[Moge]

Nintendo's cash cow is still the 3DS, not the Wii U (despite the small boost in sales last year).

Somehow they'll have to solve the drought in games between both console and handheld now that 3rd-parties have completely abandoned them.

Sony and Microsoft ain't doing so hot either. Even if both of these competitors combined their libraries, there still wouldn't be enough games.

It's been an awful generation all around, although the Wii U has built a nice library despite catering exclusively to its dedicated fans.

[Nitorin]

Sony and Microsoft mostly port last generation games to new generation consoles...As for how good they are doing...I guess it really depends in wich country. Pretty sure Sony and Nintendo aren't much in trouble sales-wise in Japan.

[Moge]

Microsoft's been dipping a bit more into PC gaming recently. Not sure if that's a telltale sign of the Xbox brand's future.

Sony's doing okay by good word of mouth, but they need a lot more games like Bloodborne and not sloppy AAAs like Drive Club and The Order.

[Nitorin]

yeah its true Microsoft been into pc.But well, new gen console are still young

[JG]

It's been an awful generation all around

The problem is that console games cost alot more to make now than they used to.  Thus both the first and third parties create fewer games and take less risks.  This means capitalizing on successful series as opposed to introducing new franchises. The cost for tablet games is less, so risk is less, and thats why all the new neat stuff or small-cute-games popup there.  Tablet games are the replacement for PC shareware.

Games that drop on multiple consoles aside, I'll give the Sony camp credit for, at least in the last year or so, being the one that's pushing new potential franchises (like The Order) the most. But they have to as some of their old franchises have pretty much run out of steam (Drake and God of War, for example.)  With the exception of Halo 5, Microsoft seems to be totally adrift, relying on singletons like Sunset Overdrive.  Nintendo has gone heavy into franchises of late, but they can becuase they have so many to draw upon.

Microsoft's been dipping a bit more into PC gaming recently.

Becuase the Xbox is designed to be far more PC-like than Playstations or Wiis.  Similar hardware powered by .NET and DirectX.  Microsoft will be porting just about all of thier stuff over to Windows 8 and 10 in the future.

[Moge]

The PS4 making the switch to x86 should make that console closer to PC architecture as well. Of course Sony HQ being located in Japan, they'll probably just continue on the console side of things.

You ever played Luigi's Mansion, JGOO? Game is great! Can't believe it took me this long to finally play it after shrugging it off like a lot of other folks did at the GCN's launch.

[JG]

You ever played Luigi's Mansion, JGOO? Game is great! Can't believe it took me this long to finally play it after shrugging it off like a lot of other folks did at the GCN's launch.

Yes, but I played it back when it was relatively stuffs.  I got it in an EBGames bundle (remember those?), where I got a discount on the combo of the Super Mario Sunshine GameCube set, memory card, and two games (the other being Pikmin), sometime around October 2002.

Dark Moon was a better game overall, but too linear and missed some of the neat and innovative tricks that the original featured (like blowing out all of the candles in a room can cause new things to happen in the dark.)  I never toppled King Boo though - he's a mighty step up in difficulty from all the other Boos.

I dont think it was shrugged off at all though.  Per Wikipedia it sold 2.64 million units, which is more than Metroid Prime, probably the best overall game for the system^*.  2.64 million isn't much by today's standards but was pretty good during the early 2000s lull in sales for console games, and especially good for Nintendo during that time.  I"m rather glad to see Luigi back as the lone hero again in the 3DS remake and the NintendoLand minigame (though its one of the ones that demands more than one player.)


^* Start a new thread if you want to start discussing your top 5 or 10 favorite games of previous systems. This thread is long enough already.