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Critical Acclaim +: Open Mic


Sly Reflex
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I was just re-reading all the plot of the games on wiki last night. Like Bob, I've played them all (but finished them) and they are a great series, with some brilliant narrative threads on destiny, fatalism and choice along with time travel and the consequences of your actions. Soul Reaver is the best of the lot. The phasing between worlds, the non existent loading times, the murky world and like all the series, phenominal voice acting. I was actually contemplating starting them all again this week, but I think I've lost a few, so a weekend of You Tube FMV watching for me!

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Great game, brilliant atmosphere. For a world that's really quite contrived, it manages to be convincing and weirdly immersive. I got quite emotionally invested in the characters, despite the fact that again they're really quite unnatural.

But the ending.

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Soul Reaver is one of those games that I was mis-sold on the demo.

In the demo (or should that be demo's, there were two of them) you were this unstoppable badass that could glide, swim and do all sorts of cool shit within the little area they gave you.

When you get the game none of this is open to you. Everything but the little bitch enemies totally fuck you. I seemed to be in a constant race to progress as you have to be constantly consuming souls to stay in the material world. That constant decaying of health was total bullshit. Eventually through progressing you finally get the key to making the game not shit. The Soul Reaver. In addition to to making you stay at full health as long as you didn't get it, it allowed you to explode motherfuckers, you learnt that taking hits wasn't an option and as long as you had the blade in your hand you could pick your opening and make explosions with it. When you did fuck up though, then you had a race against time to consume souls and get back the blade.

There was one particular area of the game that reverted to being super annoying to me, the water vampires were absolute cunts. You want to explore and you can see these guys standing in your way. You've got to platform over water areas that you're not allowed to get wet on because you're have not got that power yet, but you have these fucking twats pegging kinetic balls of energy at you. I can't remember if they hurt you on contact or whether they just knock you back which often sent you back into the spectral world anyway due to the environmental dangers. As much as I like the game there were bits of it that was annoying as fuck. Trying to explore underwater caverns with aforementioned water vampires was a nightmare too, as you're back to the having to do everything against the clock due to dwindling health.

That ending as well. I know they didn't have time to finish the game but you'd think they'd come up with something better than that.

I'm beating up on the game and I really shouldn't be. For the most it's superb. it's just those few things that really sully what could have been one of the greatest games ever. I'm really hoping some talented studio gets ahold of the Legacy of Kain stuff and reboots it in the same way Tomb Raider was done. If only so we can play as one of the coolest gaming characters ever to grace a game. There's not many games where the main character is as big of a boss than Raziel.

So yeah. I might have been mis-sold a game, but I was mis-sold a great game with a few flaws.

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Another I remember enjoying but no real details to why. It had fun characters and cool flying ship battles... that's it. I still have the GameCube version... I just wish i had something to play it on as it's a game I'd be interested to have a look at again. I can't really remember the mechanics. I think it was a bit position based and had a similar level system to Final Fantasy IX but I could be wrong.

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No. I abide by the list. Just because you don't like it doesn't mean others won't.

Ah to be fair I was just moaning because I was bored...Bubble Bobble is as good a game as any (or at least, whichever clone of it I played).

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Skies of Arcadia has dated very badly I think. Or rather I assume, because I never played it when it first came out, so it might have been shit then as well. The combat is the biggest problem, it is incredibly slow and long winded. The ship battles especially are probably 70% movement animations as your ship and theirs float aimlessly about. Regular battles are better but even then the characters pointlessly trot about like that will achieve something. Story and stuff is pretty typical, seemed charming enough. I didn't play more than five hours or so. My Mum got to the end though and every now and then I would have to do one of the ship battles if it was especially difficult. They were just so so tedious.

Bubble Bobble was something my whole family spent hours and hours on back in the Amiga days. Love the theme and graphics. It is a great puzzle platformer and even after finishing the levels it was always fun to go back and see if you could do them more efficiently. I think it was on the Taito collection, there was an interview with the creator of the game and he said he created it for boyfriends and girlfriends to play together. I think that sums up how lovely the game is. It has aged like a lot of those 2D games, it can feel a bit clunky now but it is still playable and comes with all that lovely nostalgia.

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When you look back to the 80's and remember all the games you played from then and then compare them to something like Bubble Bobble, the difference is insane. Bubble Bobble was one of those games that stood out like a sore thumb due to how colourful and playable it was. The formula has aged very well.

I played several version of this game, the version I played mostly were on the C64 and Amiga. Although some games were cut down to fit the limitations of the hardware, they still played as well as you'd expect them to. I really liked to play the game co-op. In fact I don't think I ever played it all that much alone, seemed a bit fruitless to be doing that. I really liked how competitive it could get as a co-op game too. The way that enemies would fly across the screen when popped led to some intense scrambling to hoover up the best power ups. Many good times were had playing this game.

I'm glad that there's some appreciation for Bubble Bobble, I was sort of expecting this game to go the same was as Outrun and get absolutely slated. It's the last 80's game on the list, I think it's fitting that it went to a game that has the iconic characters Bub and Bob, they are beacons of 80's gaming for me. They were so iconic they even won that thread here in off topic. :lol:

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Yet another game that I don't have a lot to say about. the only iterations I've played are the console versions. Let me hit Google to see what I played...

I played The Sims on the GameCube which I think is just a decent port of the PC version of the original? Those critics seem to think so, anyway. I enjoyed that game. I built a house and filled it with stuff and had people round and had fun moments.

I know there is this rhetoric going around with people locking their Sims in a room and watching them piss themselves to death but I never found that bullshit interesting. I used to like it when you'd focus on a girl that you wanted and you'd spend some time after work learning guitar; then you'd invite people over (including 'the girl') and you'd try to get her to listen to you playing guitar but she loses interest and goes to the other side of the room to eat from the plate of burgers you set out. I prefer that kind of tragedy. That shit made The Sims to me.

I think I also rented (or maybe even owned) The Sims Bustin' Out, but I can't remember details. It's lost in my fucked up memory.

And finally, I did buy and play MySims which was EA cynically looking at Animal Crossing and not getting it and making one hella soulless game aimed at the soulful.

But the core Sims games are pretty cool. I've not played one for 10 years but I'd play another if they put it to my face.

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The Sims was an instant obsession in our house. I must have been around 12 when I borrowed The Sims Deluxe Edition, not knowing what to expect.

It's one of those games that's aesthetically perfect.

the-sims-superstar-image921991.jpg

Who could forget that plant, that bookcase, that toilet, that sink? It's the simple pleasure of the game's daily routines that keeps you playing.

We bought a new computer in 2004 for The Sims 2 and that sparked another few years of obsession.

I suppose gaming had changed pretty dramatically between 2004 and 2009, when the third game came out. I played it for an hour and never touched it again. But I think these things are cyclical, I feel like I'd welcome a game of The Sims now... Good job The Sims 4 is out next year. :)

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The Sims is a really odd one. When I had a Sims game I play it relentlessly. I play them in a way that would make most physiologists shit there pants with a mind blowing climax. I'm a complete bastard. I'm just jimmying the system to try and find new ways to make me Sims feel like shit. I forget which expansion it was but you could make the sims eat, like force feed them. It made them all unfit as fuck and want to use the toilet all the time. Because of this I built a multi story house and put the toilets and the beds in one room right at the top. Between rooms I'd make them so hard to traverse that all the Sims did was moan every time they went in because they needed to piss or shit and had to tackle this obstacle course of everything I crammed in.

Sometimes I'd put the only door out of the house on on the first floor so anyone leaving would fall and hurt themselves. Or I'd get everyone around and then delete all the doors. I spent hours basically bullying my Sims. See when DC mentions that lady that turned down his guitar playing Sim, I would have locked her in a basement with only a fridge. If she wanted light she'd have to open the fridge. Seeing how Sims react to situations was one of the main reasons I played for so long. Although I don't think they planned for every eventuality the outcomes were what you'd usually expect.

Even now I don't really get The Sims. I know it's massively popular but I'm not sure why. I'm not sure why it's held in such high regard either, it's basically a dolls house. I've no idea why I was compelled to play it. If you were to put a Sims game in front of me now I'd probably be the same. It's something I just can't explain.

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I think the Sims are alright games. I loved the first one I played on the PS2 but had all the fun I think I am ever likely to get from the series through that game. What I do really like about the series is that they have their fanbase and they set out to make that fanbase really happy with each game and expansion, and it seems like they achieve that each time. Obviously there are a very vocal group that have been playing since the start and are now boycotting the game because the new one makes more expensive bookcases completely useless but you will always get that group of people in every franchise. For the most part though it seems like they are really dedicated to keeping the fans happy, and that is really nice.

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