Critical Acclaim +: Open Mic

[Bob]

It is nice that there is something different available, however their games don't really do it for me. Flower is very pretty and at first it is a very impressive game but I don't like the controls and I didn't really feel anything while playing it, even though I am all 'bout dat nature. Any joy I ever felt was quickly dashed when I would miss a flower and then have to stick my tongue out and twist the pad around. I am not a fan of motion control and I am quite happy to admit that maybe I am just shit at them. But I have never played a game where the motion control is a subconscious element like a controller is. With a game like Flower, that is very important to me. To be able to appreciate the game and not spend the whole time concentrating on manipulating the controller.

I suppose I could have a mini rant about modern art and how that is reflected in the controls. The fact there is no stick control is frustrating and I don't see a reason for it. I don't think using the SIXAXIS adds anything to the experience that simply using the analogue stick wouldn't. So we are being forced to experience the art in a certain way, rather than the way we choose to. Which is fine in some cases. Manipulating the environment or the way that the viewer interacts with the piece can completely change your enjoyment. I don't think that is happening here though. It is just faffy nonsense.

[DANGERMAN]

I love(d) Virtua Fighter. Virtua Fighter 2 is one of the few games I would give a 10 to, it's easily one of the most perfectly crafted games ever made. 3 had its problems but it was ok, and I played it quite a lot even if Soul Calibur was the better game. 4 was right back on form, it tidied up the clutter of 3, made it more refined, a tighter, more precise game. Unfortunately the time investment I was more than happy to make with Virtua Fighter 1, 2, and to an extent 3 was beyond me for 4. It's brilliant and deserves all its praise, but it is the kind of game you have to play at the expense of all others

I loved Flower, it was my goty the other year. It looks incredible, sounds amazing, and despite there not being a lot to it, it somehow triggers a rush and sense of exhilaration when you make an area bloom. I remember talking to Hendo about how, separately, we'd both put the game on to show people who don't game a lot that there was more to games than left trigger right trigger kill kill kill. Both of us though were met with "what the fuck is this shit?", so maybe it's a gamers game. I've already used the word 'exhilaration' so I won't say that maybe that's because it kind of is a deconstruction of gaming, I'd sound like a right twat if I wrote that

[Hendo]

Yeah my mate's ex-girlfriend I showed it to, expecting her to find it pretty and adorable, said, "this shit is gay".

[Sly Reflex]

Flower's one of those games. You see it and think of those people that dismiss games because they are all shooting and violence When you show them something like Flower which is the complete antithesis of what they don't like they dismiss it as well.It really makes me sad that people can be so blinkered, but when I erally think about it all they are doing is losing out on experiences themselves, so fuck 'em.

I loved Flower apart from that stage where your hand was forced and you could make mistakes. For me that totally went against what the general gist of the game was, although it didn't damage my outlook on it so much as I only played it a few times before I never went back to that particular level. I really like the feeling of the majority of the game though, a game that gives you a rush the first few times you play it becomes comforting once you're familiar with it. I'd often put Flower on just before going to sleep as it was a bit of a toy box with little to do but relax, take in the sights and sounds and enjoy myself.

I wish there were more games that went for this sort of thing that played the right notes as Flower did. I mean I've played a few but none of them really hit the same resonance that Flower managed. It's worth mentioning that Flower is a likely candidate for the whole "Are games art?" question that gets thrown about every so often.

Anyway. Next game.

Sonic and Knuckles.

[Sambob]

I loved the dual cartridge system, at the time replaying levels as knuckles blew my mind, was it magic, was it some kind of cosmic force?

I actually think I preferred the earlier game's levels as knuckles more than I prefered playing through the later levels, but its sonic, and it was during the sonic golden age where you even thought about the back story and all that kind of shit. I still remember that bit where you clear the city level near the end and then knuckles is standing on some sort of yellow tipped pillar and the big Robotnik ship is flying away. Thinking about it gives me a lovely tingly feeling. Probably the pinnacle of the sonic games for me, this one and the one before it, I dont really remember liking anything as much after this.

[Sly Reflex]

Forza 3.

[spatular]

Forza is great, there's lots of things to like about it, great handling, great tracks, loads of cool cars, lots of tuning and painting options, online works well, works really well with a force feedback wheel. I really like it. The single player mode is a bit stupid though, there's about 8 billion races, it shouldn't annoy me because it's just providing lots of options and I don't have to do em all, but it does annoy me because I want to complete single player but never will. Also the forza series really impresses me because of how it came about, ms needed an answer to gt and achieved it very well IMO, where as building a team to make a game just to tick a box could have gone pretty wrongly, I think anyway.

[Sly Reflex]

Forza 3 is probably the highest and serious driving game is going to get this generation.

It has the best handling by far. You can feel what the car is going to do, it really feels like you're connected to the road with gravity and downforce rather than skirting over it like a hovercraft in other serious racing sims.

The racing against AI actually feels good. Each AI driver acts in a way that makes you consider your position. Sometimes it's OK to make a risky overtake. Other times it's better to push for a mistake. The AI's don't drive like slot racers. Some drive clean while others won't think twice about nudging you of the way. By having all these AI randomly put in in each race it makes for very different races, especially when you have top tier clean cut racers getting pushed by brash reckless racers. Overtaking becomes a tactical move instead of a brute force one as you try to pry open a mistake that caused drivers in front to falter.

Graphically it's a very even standard across the board. I find it a bit silly that other games game a million polygons on one cars lighting cluster then another car will have that for the whole body and interior. It looks proper shit when you happen to be driving a premium car against one that's been knocked together and thrown in the game. There's none of that shit with Forza 3.

There's a nice selection of cars this time around with no reliance of having 15 GTR-3's like in other games. I hate the idea of having 1000's of cars when approximately 40% of them are the same Nissan with a different decal layout.

The presentation is excellent. It's clean cut and everything is explained well enough.

The storefront allows you to share and get things you want or need more easily.

Like I said earlier, Forza 3 is as close to racing sim perfection as we're going to get this generation. It remained focus in its direction while other series lost theirs and became meaningless slogs. Sure, the single player could be considered a grind (I know I found it one in the latter stages), but then again you don't even need to play it. If there's a series of races using conditions you don't like then you can just sim them. It's a driving game that ultimately puts you in the driving seat of what you enjoy doing most, whether that's going round corners 4 wide in Toyota Yaris', casual racing, hardcore tinkering, painting your ride, or drifting a RWD car in a show of bravado, it has something to entertain every petrolhead.

[DANGERMAN]

nowt to say about Forza but I loved Sonic & Knuckles back in the day. It was a good game in and of itself, but the amount of hours I got out of it by going back to Sonic 3 and 2, even Sonic 1 for the extra bonus stages, it was awesome. It was such a clever cool thing too, being able to back hack games (well Sonic 2 because I think 3 was designed with the possibility of the cart in mind) to add a character, and to do it as simply as plugging a cart in to the top of your megadrive.

I remember Sonic & Knuckles being short back in the day, but when I played it recently it's actually quite a full game, at least by today's standards. I still remember a couple of the levels too, there was a Green Hill esque one that had mushrooms to bounce on, the boss of that was pretty good, and a pyramid level with quicksand and lights you had to turn on, that felt like the sort of thing you'd see in a 2d Mario nowadays

[Sly Reflex]

TimeSplitters 2.

[Sly Reflex]

I don't think TimeSplitters 2 was all that great when it came out. I'd played better FPS on console. I liked all the ideas they put into it and the general madcap vibe of it all, but it wasn't very good in comparison to what was out. Totally overrated. I would like to see the series carry on though, it had plenty of charm that only British games can carry off as well as they do. It's a shame that's sort of lost now.

[DANGERMAN]

conversely I think that while the single player wasn't great, Timesplitters 2 was a better game than the original Halo, especially in multiplayer

[Hendo]

I loved it. Really enjoyed the multiplayer and single player challenges.

Probably the best of the 3 games.

[Sly Reflex]

Lumines.

[Sly Reflex]

Hard crowd.

I don't get this game. It made massive waves when it came out? Why. No idea. Meteos had similar love for reasons I cannot fathom as well.

[Hendo]

It was probably the best game on the PSP when it launched. I love it but I've never been much good at it.

[spatular]

lumines is ace, great action-puzzling and pretty different from other games, great graphics and sound too, you can really get in the zone with this one. only problem for me was how one game can take hours. i want this sort of game to be shorter so it's easier to have a quick go.

[Sly Reflex]

Outrun 2.

[Sly Reflex]

I have no idea what the hell you're talking about.

[spatular]

i had to google this to make sure it was what i thought it was. and it was. and it's pretty awesome arcade racing right there, great graphics and great handling.