Critical Acclaim +: Open Mic

[DANGERMAN]

Catherine is brilliant. The gameplay is fine, but the way it deals with our generation not growing up like our parents generation is brilliant. For some reason though it gets ignored when people start praising games for their narrative

[Bob]

I still haven't played it. My wife bought it for me for my birthday but there was a fuck up with Australian post/Royal mail and it never actually arrived. But it looked great and I will probably pick it up soon now that we are actually going to have money to spend again. Also +1 for Illdog's plate analogy.

[HandsomeDead]

Catherine. That is a game I wanted to like a massive amount. It's from the SMT: Persona guys so a game with a great story and good characters was something I was expecting. I was also expecting it to play pretty well, but it's a game that's confused.

The story is simple and the characters aren't that great... they're fairly boring. Since there is no twists and turns in the plot you just have this straight, lurching overarching plot that moves frustratingly slow and since the characters aren't the most screen lighting it does drag things down a bit.

I mean the elements are there to make something really cool but it doesn't come to fruition, I think. And what's more annoying is I think they are capable of pulling it off.

The gameplay is a pretty okay puzzle game that sometimes comes together into something fun, though it has some fairly bad control issues, but I just don't know how it fits wit the story of the game. It's like they couldn't think of what their weird horror romance game should be so they just chucked in some puzzle game that an intern was working on.

It's a bold game and it's an original game; it's got a great art direction and sounds as good as those Persona games, so I like that... but it barely holds together and it isn't as strong as it could have been, or indeed, should have been.

[Sly Reflex]

I'm totally digging the weird comparisons. It's like a very nice plate. The Citizen Kane of plates. Or whatever.

Next up. Spec Ops: The Line.

[HandsomeDead]

I have that lined up to play so I'll tell you the verdict next week or so.

[spatular]

oh, catherine is super cool, loved it. the block puzzling was ace, as was the story, i got the order ending, but watched the opposite one on youtube and it was pretty great.

[Bob]

Big day for me today so I won't get to say as much about spec ops as I would like. However I will say I absolutely loved it. It really touched me and had me thinking for a good week afterwards, which is rare. It played to the unique benefits games have for storytelling, something very few of the games mentioned when talking about great stories actually do in my opinion.

Nolan North was great in it as well. I always enjoy him in games but find him a little bit flat sometimes. Like he phones it in because people don't care as long as he sounds like Drake. He did a great job here though, as did the rest of the cast.

[DANGERMAN]

Spec Ops isn't a great game imo, but that's not why people should play it. The story is good, I'm not sure its message is everything people make it out to be though. This is going to be slightly spoilery, but the way it points to the role of the player misses the mark the same way it does in Bioshock; you did this and you did that, no one made you, only you had to to finish the game and learn the lesson. It also neuters itself by suggesting that

you died in the helicopter crash at the start of the game and the rest of the game is hell/purgatory

I really like Spec Ops though, I like what it tries to do and I like how it goes about it. Things like you always heading downwards, the way the camera shifts during cut scenes, little nods in the script. It show that you could make a really thoughtful mainstream game

[Sly Reflex]

What Bob said. It worked upon it's abilities as a game to deliver what can only be attainable if you are actively participating in pushing the story forward.

I'd like to wax lyrical about it, but some guys have not played it. I'm going to leave it at that to avoid spoilers and stuff.

Seriously though, if you have not played it, get to it. Make it one of those games you mop up at the end of the generation, you won't regret it.

[Sly Reflex]

Outrun (1986). Stick to this game will ya, there might be other Outrun games in the list.

There is. Just throwing that out there in case that's what you want to talk about.

[HandsomeDead]

I'd just drop this game. It wasn't a good game at the time and it certainly isn't now. It just looked and sounded great to attract nickel dropping teenagers. It's barely worth talking about. Outrun 2 on the other hand...

[spatular]

yeah i never really liked it whenever i've tried to play it.

[Sly Reflex]

I liked it. Only in the arcades though.

I liked the pick your own route, which I believe was done first in Outrun. I liked you pick your own soundtrack. Most of all I liked the unit itself, with all the twisty turny hydraulics. You guys are probably right though, it's not that great a game. It's more the novelty and the iconography that makes people remember it rather than how it played.

Still, it did give us this.

Listening back to that, it sounds like they composed it to hit its crescendos during forks in the road.

[HandsomeDead]

It probably was the first to do some tricks but from what I remember there is barely a video game in there, like most racing games from that era (and I'd argue right up until 3D was introduced).

[dante76]

Fuck knows. I had it on Spectrum so it was two colours only with the music on a cassette tape.

[spatular]

It probably was the first to do some tricks but from what I remember there is barely a video game in there, like most racing games from that era (and I'd argue right up until 3D was introduced).

yeah i'd agree with that until proper 3d the best console racing games were probably either top down like micro machines or mode 7 on the snes. think the pc already had stuff like indy car and gp1 which were 3d though i'm not sure on any of the dates on this stuff...

[DANGERMAN]

add me to the list of people that didn't like it. I didn't like Space Harrier either, not that that has anything to do with Outrun, I just lump them together in my head

[Craymen Edge]

The music is iconic and it looked great, but I preferred Super Hang On at the time. I didn't really start to enjoy Outrun until Turbo Outrun came along.

[Sly Reflex]

Soul Reaver.

[Bob]

I have played and loved every Legacy of Kain game. I have also never finished one because I always get lost and then lose interest. Something about the way those games are made just fucks with my mind compass.

More specifically though. I loved the intro to Soul Reaver and it was one of a few PS1 games I would often load up just to look at the intro and then turn it off again. Resi 3 being another. The voice acting and design was great, I think Raziel came around before that brooding miserable fucker type character became tired and boring as well. So he was incredibly cool. Thinking about it, it is quite common that the main character will somehow lose at the start of the game. Kidnapped girlfriends, killed families, bombs going off and so on. But I think Raziel lost about as much as anyone ever could. The way he gets wings, the ultimate in being a bad arse, he hits the peak of evolution in the intro, then it is all taken away from you before you even get to play. That was ace. Then I spent the entire series wanting my wings back.

I bought it on the PS1 and .... got stuck. Really early on, again getting lost. I just used to run around and explore, go to that human city and mess about. Back when playing games however I wanted was a thing. Rather than sticking to the rules like a square. Then it came bundled with my dreamcast and I played it for hours and hours. Getting quite a way into it before getting... lost. What is really annoying about that is that I have an older brother who used to play all these games and finish them, but then never tell me where to go or help me out. Dick. I always beat him now though so that will teach him