Critical Acclaim +: Open Mic

[radiofloyd]

I've played through the village chapter of the game and just arrived at the castle. That was at the end of last year after playing Dead Space. I don't know Resident Evil 4 is a weird game to describe, For me it would be easy to talk about what I loved about Dead Space. I hadn't really made my mind up about Resi 4. Well it definitely seemed like it was going to be an epic, and I agree about the rollercoaster part. It's also Japanese and weird, which helps. I need to finish it to make up my mind.

[Sly Reflex]

Grim Fandango. I'm guessing few people have played this.

[radiofloyd]

I played a modded unstable version of it (on Vista) which crashed every time I played it and corrupted my saves and in the end was hopeless.

So progress wise I didn't get very far. However what I played was excellent, nice graphics, sharp writing, very funny. I really hope GOG get Full Throttle, Grim Fandango & co. I do have a working Windows ME laptop lying around though, so I might just buy it someday.

[Sly Reflex]

I actually had Grim Fandango. I played it and finished it. It was completely wasted on me though, I guess I didn't get it at the time. As RF pointed out, I really hope GOG's pulls these games from the nether so players can enjoy them now. It's widely considered as a classic and it'd be nice if people could actually get to play the damn thing.

[Sly Reflex]

This game has been on the list since day one. I wasn't sure how many people actually played it because it was a PC game doing the rounds when the PSone was king. However, this game's just seen a re-released and I've noticed a few people have been playing it.

That game is System Shock 2. What do you think about it?

[spatular]

I started playing it a few times, a few years after it first came out, the start is really good, and it does that thing where you can play games on your pocket computer thing screen but the game still goes on in the background. But I never got very far as it was too scary for me.

[Sly Reflex]

System Shock 2 is why I found Bioshock such a disappointment. Everything about System Shock 2 was done better years earlier. As Spatula mentioned, it's a creepy game, not just in a sense that stuff jumps out at you, but the whole atmosphere is quite oppressive.

Thinking about it it sort of reminds me of how I found Dark Soul's atmosphere. It's pretty stressful. Excellent game though. I was going to pick the touched up version on steam but wanted to avoid it in case it spoiled what I thought of the game when I originally played it.

Has nobody else played it?

[radiofloyd]

I've played a few hours, as I waffled about in the retro thread. Can't fault what I played, very atmospheric.

I would have to play the whole game before making a judgement about it being better or worse than Bioshock.

[Sly Reflex]

Shenmue II. Although you can chat about the series in general, because I'm nice like that.

[Bob]

I love Shenmue, it features some of my favourite gaming past times like collecting things and talking to Japanese rastas. I played the original one Christmas when I had a really bad cold and I was lathering myself in Vicks Vapo rub all day. Now whenever I smell it I think of driving round forklifts and feeding kittens. I never managed to finish the first game but caught the ending on the DVD that came with the Xbox version of Shenmue 2.

Now onto Shenmue 2. It has some of the most infuriating game design I have ever encountered. The bit where you have to catch three cherry blossom leaves on the run is evil and there is a section where you need to walk across these planks to get to the top of a skyscraper. By the time you get to the last one I think there is a 10 button sequence you have to put in and it was a right pain. I am going to blame the responsiveness of the Xbox D-Pad.

It also had so much awesome stuff to do though and I would spend all day just wandering round talking to people and buying capsule toys with every last bit of money I received. Or playing around in the arcade. At the time it was everything I had ever wanted from a computer game. Everything was open, there were loads of faces to punch, you had cut yourself shaving and had to wear this totally bad arse plaster on your face. It was awesome.

I have so many fond memories of the game. Getting off the boat and buying lighters. The mind fuck of not having to press any buttons at all in the QTE at the barbers. All the mundane shit like carrying boxes and books and stuff. There was always something to do which was a big improvement over the first game which, for me personally, was unplayable more than once because if you knew where you had to go then most of the game was spent standing round waiting for sailor bars to open.

I think it came around at a really wonderful time as well. Open world games for console gamers were fairly new, so wandering round in the world never felt tedious. Carrying boxes and participating in the daily forklift truck race never felt boring because it was all new. Now with open world games it is just a case of following the line on the mini map. Which is a real shame but kind of unavoidable since there are so many games out there to play.

That is enough gushing anyway. What has become of Shenmue? That was a question I asked myself for a long time and even now every E3 I tell myself the hilarious joke that the third game will be announced this year. Which it isn't. I have discovered that I must love waiting for things though because once I finally realised Shenmue 3 wasn't happening I started waiting for Half Life 3 instead

And I can't mention Shenmue without this which it won't let me embed.... or maybe it will....

http://youtu.be/rccW9Tig6_Y

So yeah, to sum up. I love Shenmue. If that wasn't apparent.

[Bob]

YEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

YOU'LL NEVER MEET ANY WOMAN THE LIKES OF HEEEERRRRRRRR!!!

Glorious. I decided to go back and have a quick go on this today. It is still a lot of fun but man, we have really come on in leaps and bounds since this was released. The voice acting especially is just.... enchanting. It always amused me that Ryo doesn't seem to be sure how to say his own name so he just sort of mumbles it as quickly as possible and hopes no one notices. Just in general though the voice acting has a real charm to it, like a project a load of friends worked on in college. So, shit. But there is also a lot of love in there.

I was also thinking about how some of my favourite games of recent years have taken inspiration from Shenmue. Obvious stuff like Yakuza, but Persona and Deadly Premonition also share the Shenmue attitude of giving you a huge world to explore and packing as much fun stuff and weirdos in as possible. Bully also had the same theme of a youth going out into the world for the first time and really finding out who they are.

Want to play some lucky hit?

[Sly Reflex]

I was actually going to do a long post about how much I hate this game, but I forgot and I'm not about to go and do it at this time. Really it should have been right up my alley, but I found the whole lot of it a load of shite. It's not even so bad it's good. It's just bad. I do wish they'd make the 3rd part though, simple because it'd get a lot of people to shut the fuck up about this series.

Todays game is Super Mario Bros. 3. Do you like that there Super Mario Bros. 3 game?

[retroed]

Todays game is Super Mario Bros. 3. Do you like that there Super Mario Bros. 3 game?

Second best platformer of all time. Wonderful game, full of Nintendo magic.

[Sly Reflex]

Todays game is Super Mario Bros. 3. Do you like that there Super Mario Bros. 3 game?

Second best platformer of all time. Wonderful game, full of Nintendo magic.

I can go with this. It's a very tight game especially for its age. It's pretty crazy that they had this formula pinned down back then but have not been able to really recreated it to the T again. Saying that, nobody else has really come close, except for Super Meat Boy.

[DANGERMAN]

I never liked SMB3. I'm sure it's a good game, probably, I just never got on with it. In fact it's the game that made me realise I just don't like old style Mario games

Shenmue 2 was a weird one for me. I fucking loved, LOVED the first game, I called in work to finish it, it will forever be one of the best gaming experiences of my life. I was hyped for Shenmue 2, made a special effort to go to Chester to get it because it had broken its street date at Game, I had to rush to get there before they closed. I got home started it, played for a few hours, then stopped and didn't play it again for years. Literally years. I didn't go back and finish it until my 2nd year at university.

I don't know what was stopping me from enjoying it, even before the balance beam QTEs I wasn't feeling it. Once I went back though I loved it. I've played through the first one a few times but I've never been back to the 2nd one, I will one day hopefully

[HandsomeDead]

I remember trailing around Carlisle with my friend for ages trying to find a place that sold Shenmue 2. This was back when there were game shops. For some reason an Electronics Boutique had a copy and he was well chuffed. I've never seen a teenager so happy without his hand around his cock. It was beautiful. Later he mostly complained it was in Japanese with English subtitles this time.

That's my Shenmue 2 story.

Now Super Mario Bros. 3? That's a proper video game. It's a no brainer. If someone came on here and argues it doesn't deserve the acclaim then I would judge that person as a fool and someone not worth listening to about gaming, and probably anything else. And I know what you're all saying, you're saying 'it's opinion innit, DC', but some things are just objective, especially when it comes to structure. You might not like the Golden Gate Bridge aesthetically, like you may not like the Mario Game World, but it's still a fucking good bridge and keeps you out of the water for a bloody long distance. I guess some people prefer swimming.

Now, I'm not just being nostalgic. I had a look back and remembered that I last played, and finished, SMB3 back in November 2012. It's pretty fresh in my mind. I know it's still good. It probably has the most perfect platforming physics. I don't know how they got it right so early on as it seems to be a bench mark to this day. Even the modern classic, Super Meat Boy, is just a slight evolution of the physics in this game that is nearly 25 years old. The level design is playful and open at the start, allowing you to experiment with the mechanics, then turns into an intense obstacle in the later worlds, requiring the experiments you were playing with earlier. When it comes to the design of this game you kiss the ends of your fingers like a cartoon chef.

Then you have all the secrets. I swear when I first played, and finished, this game I never even found a Tanooki Suit. When I did find one once it blew my mind. What else does it have in store? A Hammer Bros. suit? I can be a Hammer Bros.? That blew my mind. Sometimes I used to get a group of enemies and try to act exactly like a Hammer Bros. to them; just jumping randomly and chucking hammers. It was magic.

And, the game was insane. Seriously, think about how you get the first Warp Whistle. How you'd hear that on the playground and think 'what the fuck?' (there was no WTF in those days). You hold 'down' on a specific spot, where... fuck it. If you know it, think about who and why someone did that, and even more interesting: who found that secret and what was the mentality of that person? Was it a leak or did someone find that secret? The mind boggles.

It's just something we've never seen since. Even in Fez's most cryptic secrets you know something is to be found... but the first Warp Whistle... that's something else.

I sometimes wonder if it's the best Mario game. It's certainly the best legacy Mario game (sorry, 'legacy' is a word I came across to be used in relation to RPGs: a legacy RPG is like Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger and I apply it to everything now, like a cock (I was at GTM recently, referring to Doom as a 'legacy FPS' (I've also been reading some Tim Rogers stuff again recently, hence the comical use of brackets))) and let me repeat the start of this sentence since it is probably long forgotten: It's certainly the best legacy Mario game but I can't decide if it is my all time favourite. I love Super Mario Galaxy 2 a whole lot, and Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door is certainly a firm favourite of mine, but it's up there; sometimes above, sometimes below.

Super Mario Bros. 3 is the Citizen Kane of Video Games.

[radiofloyd]

All I got from that was that you apply your cock to everything?

[HandsomeDead]

That's the secret code, Floyd. You got me.

[Sly Reflex]

Is the Citizen Kane of videogames should be used on every single post ever.

[Sly Reflex]

Half Life 2 and Episodes.