Critical Acclaim +: Open Mic

[Sly Reflex]

You slipped that in at the last moment. I want to know what else illdog has to say. I'm still going to put up the next game though. Nothing stops this thread until I'm out of games!

Deadly Premonition is todays game.

Martha has obviously died of famine or some shit out there in Ireland seeing as he's not been here for a while. I would expect he'd have something to say about this game.

[radiofloyd]

Edit: Re: Pokemon Red/Blue

It was a brilliant game though - from choosing your first pokemon to to battling the Elite Four. The music and art style were fantastic. The game was full of great ideas - the basic concepts like the design of the battles, having a maximum of four moves, TMs and HMs, having pokemon that could only evolve by trading or using certain stones, pokemon that were unique to the Red and Blue versions, pokemon that could only be obtained by trading with NPCs.

Really it was a game of exploration and discovery, like Zelda - with the added bonus that the world was brought to life by the tv series. Also worth mentioning the population of characters you could interact with in the game and the overall quality of the dialogue. There was a good bit of variety with areas like the Safari Zone and the S.S. Anne, and the fast roads where you could cycle. And once you had the HM Surf then there was a lot to discover.

[illdog]

I imported the US version of pokemon red when it first came out (released in Sep 98 but mine arrived in October) . The video games magazines out at the time had mentioned this Japanese phenomena and I wanted some.

Reading about it, it seemed everything I’d been looking for in a game for while, the idea of training up monsters in an RPG type setting truned me on. When it finally arrived I was immediately hooked. The first Bulbusuar I raised (named Premier) had all grass moves and the only other one I bothered using was a Farfetch’d I got in an in game trade (that probably most people got). I hated the fact that his name was all in capitals and couldn’t be changed but he gained double exp so I used the fuck out of him. Obviously later in the game I was getting my ass handed to me – I had two Pokemon around level 40 and the rest were about level 10 and weak as a brittle bone Sambob.

Ooh, gotta go, tbc...

So anyway... no-one likes loosing, and having done a little research and learning the way the game actually played I started again. Again I picked Bulbasaur but this time, after the intro shenanigans I spent some time in the forest, caught me a Caterpie, caught me a Pikachu and became anal about leveling up. Having now learnt a great Pokemon doesnt necessarily just mean a high level but also a balanced move selection I made great progress. The first time I beat the Elite Four was amazing, having had to lose to them 10 billion times just to allow my Pokemon to level up to their standard (curse you Lorelei). Professor Oak came as soon as he heard I beat the Elite Four, as did I.

I could honestly go on forever (not literally) about Pokemon Red and the experiences I had with it because to me it was a groundbreaking game and one I still love to this day. The thing is I was about 18 when it first arrived which to me is testament of how good the actual game was. The fact that I became obsessed with the cartoon and the plush toys is testament to what a sad cunt I am but its ok, i still managed to convince a girl to marry me.

The 'item get' noise is still one of my favorite little soundbites and should be peoples 'text message received' alert as standard. Bu bu bub buh! Also, Pokemon Red made me buy Pokemon Blue and then Yellow and led to thousands of hours being spent in these and many latter version.

Wub.

I played the Blue one which actually belonged to my brother who was about 6 or 7 at the time, so obviously an idiot, and he couldn't play it that well; in fact he played it exactly like illdog, minus the FARFETCH'D.

[Bob]

Did Deadly Premonition really meet the criteria for the list? Or is it just there because everyone that didn't like it is wrong and stupid?

I loved it on account of not being wrong or stupid. It is one of two games that weren't even on my radar until my bitch pointed them out and they both turned out to be two of my favourite games in a stacked year. The other was Nier. I remember seeing the trailer and it looked like every terrible horror movie I grew up with as a kid and it kind of is. Only it is awesome at the same time.

It is so incredibly weird but nothing feels forced. The weirdness feels so natural, like it would be quite happy existing on its own without any interference from the player. That is something incredibly difficult to achieve. I find weirdness is often just there to grab your attention. Shouting at you about how weird and random it is like a teenage girl making stupid noises but Deadly Premonition was so effortless. It was weird and you had to get on with it.

Gameplay. It had it. I guess. The map was a pain in the arse. I spent the first part of the game driving back and forth until I realised that the map rotated constantly. However that meant that I actually learned my way around the map. Something I haven't had to do since the PS2 days. I think it says a lot about how much they wanted you to breeze through the game by the fact you can unlock a gun with infinite ammo within the first five hours.

I haven't played the directors cut yet. I see Emily has a cat outfit in it. That is nice. I will probably buy it when I have a PS3 that doesn't sound like a jet plane.

[Sly Reflex]

Cheers for that Sly.... wondered how this list was decided.

The game has to have high scores from when it was released.

or

The game has to have a big cult following.

or

For older games, it must be well recognised and be well thought of as a whole.

and

The game must not have had any updates for the last 6 months, unless it is just title updates or aesthetic DLC.

There's probably some weird middle ground ones that make the list just because I say so. My decision is final and all that shite.

DP made it on the cult criteria.

[radiofloyd]

I think everyone pretty much feels the same way about Deadly Premonition on here.

That being said, as much as I loved the game I don't think it lived up to its potential. Greenvale was an excellent setting but the social element of the game could have been expanded upon more.

And in the end, rather than the story building to any kind of conclusion, it just kept going until it derailed, which is kind of a shame.

[Sly Reflex]

I pretty much echo Bob's sentiments. The actual game parts I found shitty, but the rest of it was amazing. The whole driving around the neighbourhood and spying through people's windows to get to know how they lived was something I'd never really thought about before in a game, but here in weird Greenvale it all felt perfectly natural.

I think the thing that made Deadly Premonition stand out were the characters. It's well over a year ago I played it and I can still remember a vast number of the people that lived there. Polly with her crooked back and deaf lugs. George with his killer tashe. Thomas and his constant mincing around. Emily and her terrible cooking. Forrest Kaysen and his fat arse. Those creepy as fuck twins. Tillotson and Mr Stewart. That gobshite at the scrapyard. The couple at the petrol station, one that is overtly sexy and one thats macho and spits on your car. Quint who's obsessed with his bike but never actually rides it. My pot is cold lady. The geeky freckle face up at the hospital. The gravedigger who looks like a reanimated corpse. The Rockabilly at the Milk Barn. Sure, I might have forgotten a few names, but I still remember them. I've played some games for double or triple the time DP took me and I couldn't tell you the first thing about the characters in them.

The whole thing is just quirky without overdoing it. The car rides where York talks to Zach about old films. The fact that nobody even bats an eyelid that Mr Stewart is wearing a gasmask. The music which jars against what's actually happening on screen. The way York shouts when he shoots an enemy in the head while the shadows use the same "I doooooon't waaaaant toooo diiiiie!" phrase. I don't think we're going to get another game like it for years to come, but when we do it'll be oh so sweet. Won't it Zach?

[Hendo]

Can't add anything to those posts but thanks to Bob I realise I can play that director's cut now.

Very few games I'd happily buy a second copy while still owning the first but this is one.

[Sly Reflex]

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. I feel this may be a one that only a few of us have played.

[HandsomeDead]

I'm surprised it's even here. It's neither OoT or LttP so why is it here? They are the only Zelda games that get talked about in a big way in terms of acclaim. I only remember moaning when it come to Skyward Sword.

I like this game a whole lot for a number of reasons. First off, it has the best fairy tale story put on a video game disc. Zelda is a delight and a character always well ahead of you; you can't keep up with her. SS's Zelda is awesome and it's hard not to have been left with an awesome impression after finishing it.

Of course you have to mention those new fangled Motion+ controls, and they were certainly a deciding factor when it comes to this game. I think they worked well, but then I've played a lot of Wii games and read about Motion+ so understand how to use the controls in the game. It's weird that motion games are considered casual despite them requiring a technological mind to understand the limitations to get the most out of them.

Essentially what I'm saying is that I, personally, clicked with the controls quite well, and had a swell time with the game.

But I'm done explaining why it's awesome. The world thinks Zelda 2 is shit so I ain't wasting my breath anymore.

[radiofloyd]

I have it in the drawer beside me, not played it yet though!

[DANGERMAN]

I took it out of my Wii when I was setting up my WiiU. It takes a fucking age to get going, but then it's a Zelda game so I guess that's a given. I stopped at something resembling gameplay so I can't judge it. I'm going to go back to before the end of the year I think, there's only so much left I want to play in 2013

[Sly Reflex]

I'm surprised it's even here. It's neither OoT or LttP so why is it here? They are the only Zelda games that get talked about in a big way in terms of acclaim. I only remember moaning when it come to Skyward Sword.

You were surprised Red Dead Redemption was as loved as it was too. That's supposedly one of the greatest games of this gen.

I've not actually played this. Waggle put me off.

[Manicm]

The problem with loz:ss is that many gamers gave up on the wii by this stage, those gamers that did buy it ethier played it to death and loved it, and others like me have it sat on a shelf with the games backlog. My excuse? the wii is in a box somewhere, can't quite remember which box i put it in.

[Bob]

I always said I would buy a Wii when Zelda finally came out and sure enough I did. I don't really think I was disappointed because I was apprehensive going into it. Of the motion controlled games I have played I would say it works the most, but I still wouldn't say it works. I still died sometimes because the game would spazz out and I would have to constantly reset the remote with down in the dpad or whatever it was. I don't remember a time when I was playing it where I just enjoyed it and wasn't constantly aware of the fact I was controlling it and the slightest lapse in concentration would result in my cursor shooting off somewhere or Link blocking or rolling. Some nonsense I didn't want to do. So that is the main thing I took away from the game. Which is a real shame.

The content in the game was solid but didn't blow me away. To the games credit, once I had finished it, after I had spent 40 hours cursing the controls and various aspects of the game. I sat there and thought to myself, that was pretty boss. In hindsight. Now lets never play it again. Much like childbirth, horrible while it is happening but then after it all seemed worth it.

Aside from the controls, the main problem I had was how disjointed the world felt. I couldn't see how anything on the ground was connected, it didn't feel like a real world like previous games have.

Being more positive. It does have that Zelda charm. The characters have a unique kids TV show look to them where kids will just go with the flow and adults will wonder what freakish hellbeast they were spawned from. I am thinking in particular about the guy who ran the shop and the fortune teller. They were fucked up. Like DC said, Zelda was a great character this time round, always ahead of you and getting shit done. Seeing Link as an adult somehow speaks to the deepest part of my soul and I really need to know what he is going to get up to. And you know, when the motion controls did work perfectly, they were a lot of fun. However when a game uses them for 40 hours, cracks are bound to appear.

I can see why people love it, like a lot of the games on the list so far I think you have to just accept the good with the bad and if you can, the game will be incredibly rewarding. I would just really like a Zelda game in a connected, fully open world environment with a horse and a pad. Because I am boring like that.

[spatular]

I really liked skyward sword, it's got a nice world with cool dungeons, and like people have said zelda was great in this, nice art style too. I did have some problems with it though, the reoccurring boss was crap IMO, and usually zelda has great bosses. And the motion controls were a bit hit and miss for me, on one hand they make the game different and interesting and they're fun and mostly work, on the other hand they don't work 100% and that bit where they don't work can be annoying. Personally I much preffered the motion controls in twilight princess, as they were much more basic, i think they worked a lot better.

[TromaDogg]

Skyward Sword is an excellent game, although some of it's biggest innovations were also the cause of some of it's most niggling faults which meant that for me it didn't quite reach the heady heights of Ocarina Of Time or (my personal favourite) Majora's Mask. But I do think it deserved most if not all of the praise it received.

Whilst the basic premise of the story wasn't original (Zelda gets into trouble, Link has to go off and save her), the setting and environment was. Skyloft was an extremely interesting place to explore, all made up of floating islands in the sky (something which hasn't been done much in games over the years....Skies Of Arcadia springs to mind, and maybe Bioshock Infinite...not much else though) and rather than ride a horse, you instead ride a giant bird. It's also noticeable that rather than just the same linear 'go to dungeon A, get item B, defeat boss, then go to dungeon C' type gameplay of the other Zelda games, Skyward Sword has quite a few optional side quests in it, and weaponry can be upgraded and strengthened, which all adds a much needed layer of depth....shields will actually break if you use them too much for instance, and need to be repaired wherever possible. Skyward Sword's biggest 'gimmick' is that it uses motionplus control for swordfighting and whilst this works pretty well, it can also lead to frustration. I actually found it quite tiring to play for prolonged periods of time, and also the calibration of on screen target pointer (used to aim arrows, etc) was forever going off kilter whenever I moved the Wii Remote about too much in swordfights....it's easily corrected by hitting 'down' on the Wii Remote's D-Pad, but it's still quite an annoyance when it keeps happening. Exploring the land below Skyloft (which is presumably Hyrule but it's never specifically named as this is the first game in the Zelda chronology) is fun as it's split into 3 large distinct sections which change as things happen in the storyline, but navigating between them can also been a massive pain in the arse as Link can't just freely go from one to the other...you have to go back up to Skyloft and then fly around to the entrance to the other area you want to go to, and travel back down again.....it's unneccessary, and there should've been fast travel points added at least further into the game.

All in all though, it is a great addition to the series that does at least attempt to break the mould with things never before seen in Zelda games, and has unfortunately been overlooked by many because by the time it appeared, most people had moved on from the Wii. Hopefully it'll either be revived in the future or go on to become some sort of cult classic because it is for the most part a big improvement over Twilight Princess, and deserves to be experienced by a wider audience than it's already reached.

[Sly Reflex]

Off topic I Prefered Majoras Mask too. Sadly it didn't make the list.

I tell you what did make the list though. Fucking Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas! That's todays game. Tell me what you think about those Grove Street motherfuckers.

[radiofloyd]

San Andreas was the first Grand Theft Auto game I went out and bought myself. It's hard to believe there's still only been one main entry since. At the time I would have said it was my favourite game of all time. From Los Santos to San Fierro to Las Venturas - and all the country in between - I loved every minute of it. Has there ever been a game where getting from A to B was so much fun?

How many good memories does this bring back?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0383385/quotes

Big Smoke, Sweet, Ryder...

And the radio!

It's high on my replay list so hopefully I'll have a more up to date opinion in the next year or two.

[RoboticMonk3y]

GTA: San Adreas?

yeah! loved it!

BMX was the only way to travel, especially once you have levelled up to the point of where you could bunny-hop buildings. Bunny hopping fences makes everywhere a shortcut (also keeps you in shape!)