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Joined: Dec 06 2007 Location: Connecticut Posts: 11244

I made it about 60% of Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Skyward Sword and then just stopped playing.

These new games get great reviews, but I wonder who is reviewing them.

As I have gotten older, I find that I have less time to do the things that I want to do. So when I do want to play a video game, I don't want to waste it with the following:

1. Thinking about how cute something is. Fuck off Yoshi and Kirby. I don't care if you are round. You don't amuse or entertain me.

2. Reading dialog in a non-rpg. Actually, at this point I want voice acting in all games, and I want to be able to toggle captions with the option of skipping at my pace. Skyrim got this right.

3. I don't enjoy games that require precision and motion control. It just isn't that good yet.

4. I don't want to see polygons anymore. Draw a damn circle/arc and smooth that shit out.

5. I will accept up to 3-4 minutes of non-interactive content followed by 10-15 minutes of non-typical content in a game. Thats it. So if you need to show a movie to get things going, start it up quickly. If it is a game where I should be using a sword, don't make me wait 2 hours to get it.

6. A main character needs to grow with a story. If the character is the same in the beginning as it is at the end, then there was no fucking point. I think that the reason I liked Twilight Princess was because Midna balanced out Link.

7. Level transitions need to be faster. Faster. FASTER! Hell, if there doesn't need to be a transition, please don't make one. This is my greatest complaint about Skyrim. I go into a little log cabin and I have to see a loading screen? Each SMG2 level requires this whole process of shooting off into space and twirling around until you get to the start of a map... seriously?

Thats it for now... Just a little Sunday morning gaming rant.

Posted: Sep 09 2012 10:24 am

Mini games or actions that do nothing to enhance the gameplay experience. Skyward Sword was full of filler that I felt did nothing but waste my time. Like that mini game of slowly carrying that stack of pumpkins. Why is that in there? It's boring and it's adding nothing to the game. Another part is where you have to swim in the flooded forest collecting notes. I think the dragon said something like she wasn't quite sure if you were the hero or not and was reluctant to give you the song. It's bullshit. Finding those notes proves nothing and it's already clearly obvious at that point that you're the hero. Teach Link the fucking song and quit wasting my damn time.

Posted: Sep 09 2012 10:33 am

Basically what I want is something without much in the way of story.

I want something that I can stop playing for a couple days or a couple weeks and then not have to re-learn the story and try and remember what the fuck I'm supposed to be doing. The last four games I have played have been Theatrhythm, NSMB2, The Pinball Arcade, and Persona 4 Arena. They are a rhythm game, a 2D platformer, a pinball simulator, and a fighting game.

Posted: Sep 09 2012 12:05 pm

My video game library is pretty small compared to those of other forumers, but I'm still pretty good on starting up a game and completing it before venturing into too many other games. I tend to remember where I left off in most RPGs, but I've been sticking with Fallout: New Vegas as my main game lately to avoid any self-inflicted alzheimer's moments.

I can be patient with cutscenes, but there is definitely a threshold where they becomes excessive.

Graphics aren't important to me (jagged edges versus smoothness - if I can comprehend what I'm looking at, then hooray), but a game's aesthetics and art design (environment and vibe that lend themselves to immersion) are.

Joined: Dec 06 2007 Location: Connecticut Posts: 11244

Preng wrote:

Graphics aren't important to me (jagged edges versus smoothness - if I can comprehend what I'm looking at, then hooray), but a game's aesthetics and art design (environment and vibe that lend themselves to immersion) are.

In general, jagged edges are caused by a lack of anti-aliasing. My chief complaint isn't edges, it is overall polygon count.

Skryim & Skyward Sword were released within 9 days of each other. The graphical difference is astounding for two top titles.

http://i.imgur.com/weToD.jpg

http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/938126721188065970/2472B8BB01443C1A91F3B9E7729E722356D98A4A/

Joined: May 22 2008 Location: Goshen, VA Posts: 6544

GP, you're basically whining. I'm getting older too, but even I know better than to literally side by side compare Skyrim and Zelda for Christ sake.

Joined: Aug 28 2011 Posts: 537

GPFontaine wrote:

7. Level transitions need to be faster. Faster. FASTER! Hell, if there doesn't need to be a transition, please don't make one. This is my greatest complaint about Skyrim. I go into a little log cabin and I have to see a loading screen? Each SMG2 level requires this whole process of shooting off into space and twirling around until you get to the start of a map... seriously?

Yea, I fucking hate the new Mario games and this especially. It all started after Super Mario Bros. 3 where Nintendo thought watching a road slowly form was a good idea thereon out every 2D Mario game has it. I posted about it in another website:

vert1 wrote:

And maybe I have ADD (I don't), but having to wait on the ill-chosen Mario Party themed next level blue circle to appear so I can begin the next stage takes way too long (like 4-5 seconds)--the other games had cool animations of the road forming or Mario walking into pipe at least. Last annoyance deals with more time wasting Nintendo shenanigans that have players go through another door to enter the item room after entering the Toad house

vert1 wrote:

I will post this and develop it more but Galaxy has way too much "lag time". I may even go so far as to call it "loading times". I may even start a new thread on these time consuming additions in Mario games. Here is what is annoying me in Galaxy:

1. Watching the cinematic of Mario flying to other parts of the stage. This is a cool intro into the stage, but it gets rather tiresome to watch this constantly in moving throughout a level. You have no control of your character and are essentially just watching a mini-movie of Mario flying. I would describe this as Mario being "Sonicified" in that we are now watching not playing anymore. This is the same sentiment Joshua Farrelly said in a review of Sonic 2 that: "the inaction of watching Sonic pretend to be a bank withdrawal in Chemical Plant or getting shot through cannons for ten seconds in Oil Ocean."

2. Going through multiple screens to access a stage.
(A) Long jump through boring hub.
=> (B) Enter door of said galaxy
=> (C) Click on blue star to cause Mario to slowly float in the air to enter galaxy stage selection screen
=> (D). Click on stage.
=> (E) Click 'Yes' to go to stage.
=> (F) Click the star mission to begin the stage.

compared to Sunshine

(A) Waterslide through hub to any stage portal in less than 10 seconds.
=> (B) Enter stage almost immediately by doing some action (usu spraying water on portal)
=> (C) Click the shine mission to begin the stage

Joined: Dec 06 2007 Location: Connecticut Posts: 11244

JoshWoodzy wrote:

GP, you're basically whining. I'm getting older too, but even I know better than to literally side by side compare Skyrim and Zelda for Christ sake.

That direct post compared Zelda and Skyrim. My original post mentioned both of them, but was broader.

Also, I don't see why there is a problem with comparing Zelda to Skyrim.

How about this, I'll compare Zelda Skyward Sword to Darksiders. Zelda is 22 months newer than Darksiders.
1. Darksiders wasn't cute, Zelda was
2. Darksiders had voice acting, Zelda didn't
3. Darksiders had no motion control, Zelda did
4. Darksiders was graphically "good", Zelda was graphically "dated" masked by cuteness
5. Darksiders got into the game quickly giving a preview of extreme power and then letting you reacquire it, the intro was quick, but meaningful. Zelda's intro felt like it just never ended.
6. War learned about himself and changed his view point based on the new information that he learned. Link grunted - huh -wah - uh...
7. Both games had shitty level transitions that left me wondering how games like Far Cry 2, WoW, and GTA can avoid level loading almost all together, and so many other games still load zones.

I'm not whining, I'm simply stating that I as a gamer and an adult have changed. My game preferences have changed. For some reason though, many of my favorite game series are headed in a different direction.

Joined: May 22 2008 Location: Goshen, VA Posts: 6544

No I got what you were saying, and gathered from your past post history that you'll always think of Nintendo games as for kids, and Darksiders, Elder Scrolls, etc, as for adults. I find that preposterous and is 100% you whining.

Posted: Sep 09 2012 09:35 pm

Quote:

I'm not whining, I'm simply stating that I as a gamer and an adult have changed. My game preferences have changed. For some reason though, many of my favorite game series are headed in a different direction.

How old are you, anyway? I sincerely hope I won't get so damn picky a few years from now.
The only thing that matters to me is whether a game is fun to play or not. Everything else, the graphics, story, etc. are all side dishes to me. Regardless of their quality, if I can enjoy the core game i'm set.

And if you're seriously going to bash Nintendo's games for being 'cutesy', I fear for the direction you're headed.

Obviously, this is just my opinion.

Joined: Aug 28 2011 Posts: 537

I really don't like Yoshi's voice in Galaxy2. I thought this sounds awful; it is so high-pitched and gay*. Then I went back to Sunshine and realized his voice was like that too. The difference is that Yoshi makes less noise in Sunshine. They should tone down the voice and use the Smash Bros. vfx.

1) Most of your post seems to be that you don't like the presentation of the game. I haven't bothered with Skyward Sword, but I didn't think it looked cute; it looked ugly.
2) I don't agree with voice acting in Zelda being some downfall, but if they do add it they should keep Link mute. I think Nintendo's Zelda franchise post-Majora's Mask has a lot more issues to settle than hiring voice actors.
3) Motion controlless ftw
4) Yea, it doesn't look good. It's not exactly dated though.
5) Long cutscenes suck. Meaningful intros? Anything can be meaningful...
6) You really give a fuck about character development in a videogame? Come on.
7) Okay.

*overly happy

edit: I have redacted the Yoshi statements for Sunshine on page 3.

Joined: May 22 2008 Location: Goshen, VA Posts: 6544

Vert1 wrote:

I really don't like Yoshi's voice in Galaxy2. I thought this sounds awful; it is so high-pitched and gay*. Then I went back to Sunshine and realized his voice was like that too. The difference is that Yoshi makes less noise in Sunshine. They should tone down the voice and use the Smash Bros. vfx.

1) Most of your post seems to be that you don't like the presentation of the game. I haven't bothered with Skyward Sword, but I didn't think it looked cute; it looked ugly.
2) I don't agree with voice acting in Zelda being some downfall, but if they do add it they should keep Link mute. I think Nintendo's Zelda franchise post-Majora's Mask has a lot more issues to settle than hiring voice actors.
3) Motion controlless ftw
4) Yea, it doesn't look good. It's not exactly dated though.
5) Long cutscenes suck. Meaningful intros? Anything can be meaningful...
6) You really give a fuck about character development in a videogame? Come on.
7) Okay.

*overly happy

You're making my post look bad and mean, when GP knows that's now how I was coming at him. Stop.

Posted: Sep 09 2012 10:12 pm

I just get bored more easily as I get older. I don't know if it is just the generic stories that I've seen half a million times or just that the games are really that boring anymore. I don't know how many times this last week alone that I've played a game for less than 30 minutes and thought I'd been at it for hours because it just felt that long playing a game I couldn't get into.

I'm beginning to think that a lot of the fun I had as a kid was that I always had my brother there playing and we'd mess around and do random shit to make gaming fun. Stuff like running races in reverse trying to fuck the other player's car up and seeing who could get the highest scores in a given game. Now I basically play by myself which is why I've probably gone from stuff like FPS, racing, and other multiplayer friendly games to primarily RPG and strategy games and there is nothing to really make it fun when stuff starts to get repetitive. I think it would be better if he had a PS3 and we could play online, but he only has a 360 and I can't afford to waste money on Xbox Live.

Posted: Sep 09 2012 10:24 pm

I don't see any polygons in either of those screenshots. What I do see is two VERY different art styles.

Joined: May 22 2008 Location: Goshen, VA Posts: 6544

I mean, I'm sorry if I didn't get some broad statement that you were trying to make GP, but you have to see it came off as "Whaaa, why doesn't Zelda look like Skyrim?!" which is pretty fucking stupid.

Posted: Sep 09 2012 10:36 pm

It's funny, I used to hate the wall of text and dream of the day that voice acting became the standard.

Now I skip the voice acting when it runs long so I can speed read the text, SHUT ALREADY AND GET TO THE POINT!!!

It's funny that something that is designed to enhance immersion (voice acting) can take away from it. (How quick did you get sick of Moira's 4 or 5 canned responses when you decided to open up trade negations with her?)

Yeah I know when I go to McDonalds they always say something to the effect of Welcome to Whatever, how can I help you, would you like to try X? But Moira didn't do that, she always told the same few stupid jokes or anecdotes.

That's my nitpickery for the day.

Joined: Aug 28 2011 Posts: 537

Hmm. I don't know if this will affect anyone till they're over 60 or so but I gave my dad one of the Phoenix Wright games to play and he couldn't get through it because of the high pitched sfx when text scolls. I figure kids are more suited to handle this "noise".

I'm tired of achievements popping up, having to connect to the internet to avoid clicking an extra screen (your score won't be saved blah blah), controllers pausing the game when they get disconnected or low battery, auto-saves, holding down a button to run in FPS games, having everything explained in tutorials or big text pop ups of "press B to pound down the stump", and poorly implemented QTE sequences randomly popping up.

Being older also means I have tired of levelling up. I'm not going to do the hours anymore in Pokemon games of getting 6 lvl 100 pokemon. I'm not going to grind characters who are underpowered (by powering up their base stats by reverting back to lvl 10) to defeat the extra Strata enemies in Etrian Odyssey.

Posted: Sep 09 2012 10:55 pm

GPFontaine wrote:

5. I will accept up to 3-4 minutes of non-interactive content followed by 10-15 minutes of non-typical content in a game. Thats it. So if you need to show a movie to get things going, start it up quickly. If it is a game where I should be using a sword, don't make me wait 2 hours to get it.

I assume the MGS series isn't a favorite of yours?

Anyway, this and motion control are the only things I agree with. As long as something is done well I'm okay with it being cute, lacking voice work or whatever else.

Speaking of cuteness, you don't think Kirby is freaking adorable?

Posted: Sep 09 2012 11:14 pm

I'm tired of games evolving. Change frightens me.

Title: Miss Madness 99 Joined: Sep 09 2012 Posts: 225

this post made me think of this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxBiOa-3IiI&feature=plcp

Joined: Apr 09 2008 Location: Pennsylvania Posts: 3112

There needs to be a list of commandments for cutscenes, like:

-Thou shalt not subvert gameplay narrative for cutscene narrative. If Joe Actionface just murdered 300 Arabs and 9 Cyberdemons in a level while taking 30 rockets to his nutsack, don't have him knocked out by a pistol whip in a cutscene. Likewise, don't show my character clutching a deadly bullet wound in a cutscene, then doing flips and shootin' fools ten seconds later. Sinners: Uncharted 2+3, CoD series.

-Thou shalt not kill flow. 30 minutes of gameplay, 5 minutes of cutscene. 5 minutes of gameplay. 10 minutes of cutscene. Sinners: Most MGS games, but primarily MGS2.

-Thou shalt not insult the player. If Hiro Kawaiibishi can do a triple-backflip headshot on five angel-demons in a cutscene, why couldn't you just let me do that in gameplay? Sinners: Various RPGs, Devil May Cry, God of War series.

-Thou shalt keep it simple. Your art directors and character designers tell so much story just through background visuals (Something that games like Zelda and Metroid do well). Throwing huge text crawls, while forcing us to remember crucial events in the Elvish Ay'l'ond'y'an calender are unnecessary bullshit that only serve to fulfill a game writers novelist fantasy or to pad game time. Sinners: Most fantasy games.

-Thou shalt realize what game you are cutscening for. Lots of difficult games will checkpoint before an un-skippable cutscene, followed by a you-will-die section and it just compounds frustration. While gameplay hurdles should be rewarding working hard, you lose the drive to finish it if you're forced to re-watch that same cutscene with horrendous voice acting over and over.

Joined: Aug 28 2011 Posts: 537

GeorgeTaylor wrote:

this post made me think of this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxBiOa-3IiI&feature=plcp

That dude really did just follow up after saying "StarFox Adventures" with "pretty damn good games". I'm scared.

He played OOT 13 hours straight? Wow. I think I nearly did that for F-Zero GX story mode chapter 5 on very hard. This guy needs to take some game viagra if he can't endure long hours anymore.

Joined: Oct 19 2009 Location: Nashville, TN Posts: 1479

How can anyone think that skyward sword looked ugly? I thought it was gorgeous.

Posted: Sep 10 2012 03:53 am

ah crud. is this what i am supposed to expect when i turn thirty? not liking regular video games? weak

Posted: Sep 10 2012 05:32 am

I honestly have to wonder, when did Skyward Sword become regarded as the second coming of Zelda II's black sheepishness?