Critical Acclaim +: Open Mic

[Sly Reflex]

I really don't know where to start with this game.

It's the most fun I've had out of home console versions of the series. It had the best and most varied map by far. It was also an accurate depiction of each area, I've visited LA, San Francisco and Las Vegas after I played the games and hot damn, did they fucking nail those places. They got the general vibe right down to a T. The story and the characters are the best out of the series, the missions are varied and range from being off your tits bonkers to deadly serious. There's plenty of secrets and reasons to go looking off the beaten track. The collectables aren't just passive things you walk over, you have to engage with them. They also affect gameplay by giving you drops, influence or even luck.

Each area plays slightly differently. Los Santos is all gangland petty crime gangbanging shit, San Fierro is more structured with organised crime, car chases and street races aping the likes of films like Bullitt with the culmination in Las Venturas where a long con is put into action in the run up to a heist. It never feels old as it seems to be constantly evolving and chucking new stuff at you.

Then we have this. Having gang fights to NWA. Driving around the boondocks of San Fierro on a tractor listening to Willie Nelson, pimping to Foghat or making a night time getaway from from burglary listening to Green Onions. I know when I left the first part of the game to go to San Fierro and I was driving up the across the bridge just as America's Horse with no Name came on and it just felt so right. It happened again as I rolled into Las Venturas with The Who's Eminence Front. I don't know if it was set to play those songs as you got to those destinations of what, but they really couldn't have been more fitting.

I've much love for this game. It might have aged terribly but at the time it did a lot of things right. Some of the stuff was bad, but the good stuff overshadows it completely. Also, it was brilliantly satirical in ways that many will have passed over. The corrupt police. The crack epidemic. The riots in LA. Generally everything about it is sculpted in a way that's taking the piss. It's wonderful, something you'd never see from something outside of the UK. It really is proof that we do everything the best.

While I'm here I can't resist saying this.

"All you had to do was follow the damn train CJ!"

[TromaDogg]

For me, GTA San Andreas is still the best of the PS2/Xbox GTA games, and an even better game than GTA 4 was. At first, having ploughed a lot of time into Vice City (and being a child of the 1980's anyway), I found it a little jarring mainly because I hated the 90's soundtrack in comparison to Vice City's awesome tunes. But the game itself was fantastic, like a huge open playground with tons of side missions and fun stuff to do....I really liked robbing houses, loading the stuff onto the back of trucks and driving off, lol. Even though it was violent and sweary, I loved all the tongue in cheek humour of it all, like the 'dance off' minigame between 2 Lowriders with bouncy suspension, and the blatent pisstake of Driver 3 on one of the missions. All good stuff.

As Sly says, each section of the game really felt different from the other as well......in one part you'll be driving around avoiding police in the city and in the next you'll be driving around a field in a combine harvester mowing people down for instance, which kept things feeling constantly fresh. One thing I can say for sure about GTA: SA is that I never got bored playing it. And the characters were all brilliant. Probably my favourite of them all was The Truth, made me laugh quite a bit he did.

I really hope GTA5 is a lot more like San Andreas than GTA4. GTA4 was way too po-faced and serious for my liking (asides from The Ballad Of Gay Tony) and in recent years I've enjoyed playing the Saints Row games much more. If Rockstar can recapture any of the magic of San Andreas in GTA 5 though, they'll definitely put the series back on the map. Top game.

[Sly Reflex]

Next up is Halo 3. Let the arguments commence!

[spatular]

**contains minor spoilers (non story related) on what you do at the end of the game**

i really like halo, especially the multiplayer, and halo 3 i think is probably the best halo game. the single player is great (although maybe in some ways not as good as the original), especially in coop.

i had some great memories playing the single player - there were skulls to collect hidden about the levels - playing along while the internet discovers the skull locations, most of them were found quite quickly but the last one was a mystery for a few days iirc, then somewhere found you get it by jumping through (musical) rings in a specific room, in a specific order to make a tune - there was about 7 rings and ~30 'notes' to play - we had a team of 4 organised into 3 sections and i'd drawn a diagram to help make sure we were jumping through in the right order, it was a bit like a poorly organised millitary operation - we did it and got the skull only to find out later that you only need to jump through the last 7 rings for the skull.

there was an achievement for doing the last level with the skull on that puts you back to the last checkpoint if anyone dies, in 4 player, and doing it on ghosts - the first bit before the ghosts is stupidly hard, its so easy to die, anyway finally getting past that bit, onto the ghosts we had to keep the ghosts close together as if one got too far ahead the floor would crumble for the others, so we lined up in like a ghost queue and had a countdown to boost, at which point we'd all boost at different points or into each other, it took ages but was really rewarding when finally finished. the ending section is generally awesome too.

not sure if i'm making this sound boring but it wasn't, it was ace.

the multiplayer was like halo 2 but a bit better (before it moved further away from this with the armour abilities and stuff in reach and 4) had some good adjustments from 2 - better starting weapons was a big one. anyway i played the multiplayer for a stupid amount of time. maybe the maps werent as good overall as 2, although it still had some great maps like higher ground, valhalla, guardian and the pit, and there were some really good dlc maps released for 3 too - like standoff and avalanche.

despite being the 3rd game it had a lot of new stuff too, mainly in other areas, like forge and the theatre mode - games have had map editors before but in a console game and as easy to use as this, with the results so well integrated into the game with the ease of sharing and being included in matchmaking. similarly for the video clips, this was going beyond what was possible in most games and it was so well integrated. along with the new gametypes people could make up - which i think spawned griffball - i don't like griffball - but the fact that this new gametype could also be then integrated into the matchmaking - it shows how well thought out and well put together it all was in the first place. similar sort of thing allowed bungie to tweek the maps and gun placements for multiplayer over time too.

the graphics could be considered poor compared to halo 4, or even reach but i think has the best halo graphics - from a multiplayer point of view anyway - its more styalised and bright (less gritty realism) - you know how apparently pro gamers turn graphical settings down so they can see what's going on better - that's a bit like halo 3 - its bright and you can see everything, no squinting to see where shots are coming from etc.

also it has some of the best water since wave race.

so yeah i like it

[RoboticMonk3y]

halo 3?

yeah, loved it.

Campaign is alright, multiplayer was fun.

probably the game I've played the most on the xbox.

Had its flaws, like people starting a new gamertag to get re-set with their skill rank. and the levelling system was a little janky, but I have more memories of the fun hours than the frustrating. Often used to grab 3 other people and paly through a campaign level, and it's been a long while since I've done that,

[Craymen Edge]

Halo 3 has to be praised for the sheer number of options and amount of customisation the multiplayer modes allowed you. It was really impressive. Equally the replay theatre tools, being able to go anywhere in a recorded game and see the map populated and things happening. It's an amazing package.

I had a great time playing the campaign in 4 player co-op. It lead to some epic, one of a kind moments.

Unfortunately, beyond that co-op, I don't really enjoy it. I found the campaign dull in single player, and I don't like the combat in multiplayer: I just didn't find the way it works any fun.

So I see why it's popular, but I'm unlikely to buy another one.

[TromaDogg]

Ah....Halo 3, Halo 3, Halo 3.....

To anyone who has known me for any length of time, it is no secret that I do not like Halo. To explain why I don't get on with Halo 3, I need to go back to the start and explain why I don't like Halo as a whole.

The orignal Halo was the game that first made me take notice of the Xbox with all it's hype about being the best FPS game ever. I expected a beast of a game, and what I got was a horribly generic space shooter with an extremely dull main character, an OK-ish but very overcomplicated plot, ridiculous cartoony enemies at odds with the tone of the rest of the game, and some of the most tedious levels I've ever played through...,yeah, they look lush but all the scenery and layouts are just so....samey that they very much induces a 'motorway hypnosis' type effect on me while I'm playing it.

Halo 2 did not improve this, and things were made even worse for me with the already convoluted plot becoming even stranger to follow, with the introduction of nonsense like the Gravemind and the stages were you play as the Arbiter.

It took me a while to decide to pick up Halo 3 and try it (mainly a couple of price drops) and unfortunately for me it just felt like more of the same but in HD. All the things I disliked from before were present and correct....seemingly out of place enemies, boring environments with hardly any variety for the most part, and a disjointed story. I actually lost the will to carry on with it around halfway through and only finished it off (months later) because Mike Hagger/Xul8tor was a bit bored one night on Xbox Live and offered to co-op the last few stages with me to kill some time. Since then, I've left the series well alone, and don't intend to revisit it in a hurry.

Before anybody says 'online mulitplayer' to me, I've tried it (on both Halo 2 and 3), and really don't enjoy it. Jumping feels like a weird floaty affair to me (plus you seem to jump way too high) and most of the weapons feel weedy, although I admit that some of the online maps seemed well designed. All the customisation in the world doesn't make me like it any more.

So yeah, not a game I've ever understood the love for, and not for want of not trying. I can see why some people enjoy playing it, but not why any of the Halo games receive quite the amount of praise that they do.

[Sly Reflex]

I mainly think Halo 3 is the tits, apart from the campaign which is just OK.

Are you a PC enthusiast? Yes? Then you'll be wanting to talk about todays game, which is Civilization 4. Everyone else? Service will be resume after this game. I promise.

[Sambob]

Loved Civ games when I was younger, it was awesome to go to a hut and discover some cool soldiers or some gold or a technology that you were missing and suddenly you can develop a cure for cancer because of astronomy.

[Craymen Edge]

Unfortunately I didn't really get into Civ until after 4. I dabbled with a relative's copy of it for a while but my PC at the time wasn't really up to the task and I only scratched the surface.

Civ Revolution came out on 360 and totally grabbed me as did Civ V when it came out. I never went back to try IV again. I don't think I could now.

[DANGERMAN]

I can't say much about Civ 4 as I never really played it, I loved Civ 5 though

Halo 3 isn't very good, I can't remember much of it as it's been years since I played it. I think I remember there being an awful vehicle section, but then it's Halo so that's a given. I think Halo 3 was the point where the series got left behind in single player terms. Still though, people stood next to the slurry machine and opened their mouths

Best regards,

Dangerman

[spatular]

Another vote here for I played civ, but not 4, and it was good. I played 2 a long time ago, it came in a massive cardboard box with big glossy manuals and all the expansion packs.

[Sly Reflex]

I've not really played enough Civ 4 to form an opinion on it. I like it though, a lot more than the rather brief session I had on Civ 5.

Next game just broke the rules I abide by for letting games into this list, but I'm going to put it in anyway as it was queued up and ready to go before we had release dates. It's a situations thats a bit of a grey area so I'm going to go ahead with it anyway.

The game is Telltale's The Walking Dead. Please use spoilers if you are going to be talking about parts of the game that others might not have experienced yet.

[spatular]

i've only played the first half of the first episode and didn't really like it, the gameplay was non-existent/terrible, i know that's not the point but the story didn't grab me either. think i will try again though.

[DANGERMAN]

I think all told it's good, it ends well definitely, but it got a massive pass critically for the bits that didn't work.

They learned as they went along to be fair to Telltale, but I thought the 2nd and 3rd acts were poor as was the way they discarded characters. Same with half of the end, a good payoff but it didn't make sense

That said I'm going to get the dlc at some point

[RoboticMonk3y]

walking dead telltale game?

I loved it!

i have soft spot in my heart for point and clickers. There are some frustrations over weird stuff in the game, for example. early on, I told a character to calm down, not in an aggressive way, but somehow this meant he held a vendetta against me for the rest of the game, in that respect, I didn't always find it easy to decipher what the intent was behind some of the character input.

There was also a moment towards the end, where something happened that to my mind didn't really make sense and fit with the story.

when Lee gets bitten, I thought it was obvious that a zombie was lurking behind the box, but the game was a bit clumsy in forcing the situation where you're bitten. I understand that it had to happen to further the story, but I felt that if I had spotted where the thing was going to leap from, the bite should have been handled differently.

I found the story to be genuinely moving, and the music fitted the game well.

[HandsomeDead]

Telltale's The Walking Dead is the best TV show I've seen since Battlestar Galactica. It's either proof that TV show makers don't know what the fuck they are doing or video games are getting awesome.

[Sly Reflex]

I wouldn't really class it as a game myself. It's a hell of an experience though, it might be a bit disjointed in parts but they did a proper job of making a story that you cared about, even if you couldn't shape it as you wanted to. It's also the first game to have a kid in it that isn't a total shithead. Go gaming firsts! etc...

Next up is an older game. Panzer Dragoon Saga. Who played this? Was it worth all the arguments the sega kids used to do in school?

[TromaDogg]

No other takers for this then?

I never played Panzer Dragoon Saga when it was first released,, though I remember the rave reviews. I'd played the original Panzer Dragoon a lot on a Saturn demo pod that they had in HMV in Liverpool, but I'd gone with the N64 and Playstation and could never afford a Saturn at the time. Years later though, I did pick a second hand Saturn up from Gamestatation, and the Panzer Dragoon games were pretty high on my want list.

Unfortunately, by the time I'd decided to start collecting Saturn games, the supply had dried up quite a lot on Ebay, and every other fucker wanted the same games I did so they were commanding high prices, with Panzer Dragoon Saga regularly fetching near £100 (and more than that now). So eventually I bit the bullet and bought the trilogy from a seller who was selling them all for £110. Most expensive retro game purchase I think I'll ever have, but I had the spare cash at the time at least. Wouldn't be able to do it now.

Panzer Dragoon Saga is a really, really good game though. Not £100 pound great, but then no game is really. Having played Skies Of Arcadia first, Panzer Dragoon Saga feels very much like a forerunner to that....plays very similarly in a lot of ways....the on foot sections, the flying sections, even the in-air battle sections are done in pretty much the same way, and even though the Saturn never was the best console for 3D, it's a game that has pretty impressive visuals for the time. The storyline does seem a bit generic to begin with and takes a little while to get going properly, but has a good twist further in to keep things interesting.

It's doesn't feel quite as 'epic' as Skies Of Arcadia though, or Final Fantasy 7, and the world is noticeably smaller than either of those games. It does add a lot of depth to the Panzer Dragoon franchise as a whole though and adds what was at the time a good original battle system (I can see how impressive the aerial combat would've seemed had I not played Skies first). I definitely think it is one of the Saturn's finest games, and one that is well worth playing if you can actually get hold of a copy now....maybe not quite as good as Final Fantasy 7 overall (it's main competitor on a rival format at the time) but a damn close second place.

[Sly Reflex]

Well, I'm glad at least one person played it.

Next up, Sonic the Hedgehog (Megadrive version).