Posts by Steppenwolf

  • Quantum Of Solace

    Quote from Thrik

    I don't know how anyone can take Casino Royale and say it isn't a great film in its own right; its quality as a film seems indisputable to me, with the critics backing that assertion up. I don't think many people will argue that Bond got totally ridiculous with the Pierce Brosnan films, but that's exactly what Casino Royale was meant to correct. Regardless of why many people went to see it (obviously tradition played a role), it is a good film.And just to clarify because there is some confusion about this, Casino Royale was a reboot of the Bond franchise in the same way that Batman Begins was a reboot of the Batman franchise; it had a completely different tone to the Brosnan era, and had much more in common with the older films' class and overall atmosphere IMO. Try not to include it when saying something like "modern Bond movies", because that's pretty much on par with describing "modern Batman movies" and including Batman Forever.

    No Casino Royale is not much better then the Brosnan Bonds. Personaly i felt that when Bond reanimated his own heart in Casino Royale was one of the lowest points in the whole Bond franchise. Even Brosnan Bond firing a soviet tank while he drives it wasn't as ridiculous.

  • little big planet

    Quote

    ":3pnojeg4]Why the hell do you bought a 360 in the first place man?!Unless you have a crappy PC that can't run the latest games.

    most of the games for 360, are also available for PC, expect for exclusive titles like GoW and Halo.

    But imho, the PS3 exclusive games are much better.

    The PS3 is too expensive imo for what you get and the xbox 360 on the other hand is super cheap now. And to fully enjoy it i would need to invest even more money for a HDTV (for the bluray player). Call me a cheap ass but i have different priorities then investing so much money for a couple of exclusives.

    Also i hate the ps3 gamepads. And yes my PC is crap. But i'm unwilling to upgrade it for gaming when its more convinient to play on a console. I barely play fps games anymore anyway and i hope the only PC exclusive that interests me (Empires: Total War) will still run on my PC. With the 360 i can at least play the newest games with decent framerates. And soon it supports 16:10 resolutions for my LCD widescreen so its even better for me.

  • "casualizing" of games

    Playing a couple of different games recently i noticed something odd.

    As we all know many AAA games these days get dumbed down (or "consolized") in an attempt to make them more "casual-friendly" so the stupid masses are able to play them and finish them. For example yesterday i finished Mass Effect, which is supposed to be an RPG. But to do so i had to solve virtualy not a single puzzle, i maxed out the credits the game can handle (9.999.999) and reached the max level for first play-tru(50). So there was really no intelligence from my part necessary to finish the game. (i would say my gamer skill level is below average to put this in perspective).

    Other examples that pop in my head are the CoD singleplayer with its regenerating health or the unsinspired dungeon design in Oblivion or the world leveling together with the player in the same game.

    Then on the other hand we have the market for casual games. For some reason we find a lot of puzzle games in that sector that actualy need some brain to finish them. Braid (a platform puzzle game) for example was one of the most praised and succesfull casual games this year. I really enjoyed playing it and i found it more challenging then 90% of all AAA titles that i played in the last 2 years. Portal is like the only 3D game that plays in the same league but i believe its counted as casual game too.

    So due this discrepancy between "casualized" games and actual casual games i ask myself and i ask you if the mainstream mass of gamers actualy want dumbed down games? Or did game designers and publishers just tricked themself in a self-fullfilling prophecy over the last couple of years where someone started a casualizing hype and soon everybody believed this to be true? Regenerating health for example. Just because one succesfull game had it started a hype that most game designers nowadays believe its a necessity for a game to get accepted by the mainstream. But honestly i think this is just the wrong way of thinking. CoD 4 would have been just as succesfull with oldschool medpacks imo.

    I don't believe that gamer types should be categorized in casual or hardcore when we talk about difficulty as it's done in most discussions. I rather think there are gamers who like challenging games and gamers who like relaxing games and they can be found in both these categories. The problem is that too many game designers and publishers of big budget games got blind on the eye for the gamers that like challenging games.

    So whats your opinion on the matter?

  • Quantum Of Solace

    Quote from Thrik

    You have seen Casino Royale haven't you, Steppenwolf?

    Yes i have. Decent action movie. Not more not less. But seriously how can anyone fully enjoy modern Bond movies when the old ones are so much superior? I see nothing about the new Bond movies that could make them classics. The Connery and Moore ones i have seen a dozen times and would always watch them again when i see they are on TV. A movie like Casino Royal doesn't has this appeal to me.

    For modern times secret agent movies the Bourne trilogy is ten times better then anything with the name Bond on it from the last 25 years imo.

  • PROTOTYPE

    I remember some unintentionally hilarious videos where gametrailers(?) interviewed some of the devs. They were all acting like they are the shit, especially the concept guy. Two weeks later the game nearly got canned.

    So we will have to wait and see if they can deliver.

  • EA love thread!

    Wow Sentura you just outed yourself as a sociopath by comparing other peoples job loss with spilled milk.

    Minos explained why it is a big deal for the persons and why its only logical to feel empathy for them when they work in the same industry as many of us.

  • Mirror's Edge

    Argh, i'm constantly looking for good hook points between the buildings and everytime i fall from a ledge i want to recover with a grappling hook but Faith doesn't have one! I obviously played too much 3D Bionic Commando in the last year.

    Game looks very nice in a simplistic way. Reminds me a bit of the test missions in Portal except this is outdoors. The music is also very nice.

    Had some trouble with the controls. The button layout confused me and moving tru the game gives me a bit of a Fifa vibe aka press the right button at the right time to activate animation X to perform action Y. It didn't felt as fluid as i was hoping.

  • Mass layoff at EA - cuts 600 jobs

    Guess this means even more crunch time for EA employees. But then we dont know what kind of staff is reduced. If they cut it on the management level and make their hirarchys flatter they even might come out as a better company after this. But if it affects artists and designers i dont see how this will help them in the long run.

  • Lets talk racing games!

    I used to play racing games a lot when i was a teenager. Microprose F1 Grand Prix being the best racing game ever imo. I was so addicted to that game and back in the days it felt so realistic i was thinking i could drive a real F1 car just from the experience with the game

    Then came Grand Prix 2, which was even better. I had one of the first generations steering wheels i think. Pretty expensive thing from Thrustmaster. It felt more like a real steering wheel then all the cheap plastic shit that they sell nowadays. 10 laps in GP 2 with that thing felt like 1 hour in the gym. Was fucking awesome.

    They dont make games like Grand Prix series anymore tho. They either get the steering wrong or the cars feel realistic but the racing modes are completely silly.