AarowSwift

There are some evil people in this world. http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2008/01/heath_ledger_dead_and_why_it_m.php

People are looking at this movie and the source material wrong. It's not anti-religious. It's pro-reason. I'm all for anything the promotes critical thought. I'm also for any good fantasy film that promises a good time. The reactions I've been hearing are very positive and I'm hoping to go see it on Monday.

It's rather funny, these protest groups afraid that exposure to this movie or the books will turn their children away from faith. Is their faith so fragile a fantasy book could destroy it? It's almost like they were fanatics of another fantasy book and hated the idea of competition... If I can sit through Narnia and enjoy it (for what it was worth), I'm sure the "other side" can enjoy The Golden Compass in the same way. It's just a fantasy adventure story. Have some fun.

Samus has a little enemy radar on screen, enemies are orange blips on it. Ridley appears as a great big orange blob so you can track his location at all time.

Hypermode is actually a neat mechanic (that I hope makes no more than a one time appearence in the Metroid series) but it only really comes into play on Hypermode Difficulty. I found Normal and even Veteran a bit too easy, Hypermode is something else again. Omega Ridley is the best Ridley fight I've ever had...but only on Hypermode Difficulty. He was milquetoast on Normal and only marginally improved on Veteran. Hyper Difficulty Ridley was the real Ridley. It's sad you didn't enjoy the enhanced interactivity of the environments like I did. Ground breaking? No. A nice touch? Yes. I agree the normal enhancements were a bit lacking this time around. I love all the new add-ons to the Grapple Beam though, and the tool functions of the beam cannon were great. But over all, Samus' power felt gimped, again, because of the hyper mode mechanic which is fine for this one game. Yes, the cerebral elements and exploratory elements were very weak in this game. I put Prime in the number one slot for the trilogy while Echoes and Corruption share the number two spot. I like Echoes and Corruption roughly the same but for opposite reasons. They are rather like the antitheses of each other. Echoes has fantastic bosses, intricate environments, numerous involved puzzles, and extensive exploration, but suffers from very poor pacing that kills the momentum and drives up the tedium. Corruption tones down almost all of the thinking elements and focuses on action, simplifies the environments (almost too much) but has great momentum and is very fun. Prime balances these extremes which is why it's my best in the series, though both Echoes and Corruption do certain things better than Prime. As for Adam from Fusion... I hated him quite passionately, more so than the nosy Aurora Units. I found him much more controlling and irritating than the AUs and Fusion was as much in my mind as Corruption when I made my post.

One criticism I've seen pop up now and again from the Metroid Purist Faction (of which I'm perhaps a borderline member), is the lack of the Isolation Element in some recent Metroid games. I've made appeals for maintaining this element myself, and its lack in Corruption is one thing about the game that dismays me. However, I think that when "they" say isolation and when I say it, we're meaning different things. I get the impression that many fans feel that in order to be a "true and pure Metroid game", Samus should be the only person in the game (well, aside from, you know, the enemy); said fans taking offense at the inclusion of other characters like GF marines and such. I don't feel this way at all. I say the more the merrier. I like seeing the Metroid universe populated and filled out. In Corruption, I enjoyed interacting with the other hunters during the game's first two acts. I loved the little area where I was rolling Samus through a morph ball tunnel while Rundas ran through the hallway above, or where I watched Ghor duke it out with a Berserker. I really enjoyed saving the marines and talking to them, even though they often had little to say (I really liked being thanked for saving their lives though). As far as I'm concerned, the only time additional characters could detract from Metroid is when they are competing with Samus for center stage. This is one reason I dislike Metroid Prime Hunters on the DS. Since the game was built for a multi-play aspect, all the characters needed to be on par with each other for fairness. This immediately made Samus generic amongst them (oh, so everybody has a morph ball equivalent?) and I hated that. But aside from this specific ill conceived instance, adding characters to Metroid does not negatively impact the "feeling of isolation" in Metroid. But I'll tell you what does... Being yacked at by Admirals, intelligent computers, and my own damn ship while I'm on the job. Having my exploration interrupted by hints disguised as communiques that kick me out of the world and into the map so it can stamp a question mark on some room. Sure, you can ignore the hint messages sometimes but I hated that big "press the A button" text sitting there on the screen. Message to employer: I'm Samus Aran dammit, I don't need you to tell me how to do my job. Have you read my resume? I've explored many alien wolds on my own and I really don't need a guided tour thank you very much! Every Metroid game post Super Metroid has added a hint system. In some games it was relatively unobtrusive, but not in Corruption. Even turning the hint system off didn't shut the damn computer up. What killed the feeling of isolation...no. Isolation is the wrong word. It's a bad word, let's never use it again. What killed the feeling of independence for me was constantly having somebody or something looking over my shoulder. I don't want to be told where to go, what to do, or what my health status is. What the heck? Is this thing monitoring my every breath? Now, I understand the point of a hint system, heck I even need to use it myself sometimes, but what I reject with great ire is an intrusive hint system. I don't want to be told what to do unless I ask for help. Corruption introduced a singular wonderful mechanic. The ship, specifically, the ship visor that allowed Samus to make use of her ship in game. Let's add one more function to the ship visor. We'll call it Communicate. Communicate allows Samus to message her ship or computer or home base or whatever and have them scan the area, they do so and give you the location of your next objective. It's just like the current hint system, but it doesn't occur unless you explicitly ask for it. Yeah, I could really go for that approach. So, in conclusion, adding characters to interact with, maybe even work with to a limited degree in Metroid is just swell. What kills the legendary bounty hunter's independence, however, is constantly interrupting her to tell her how to go about her own business. I really do hate that.

Heh, the last time I played an in store game demo was for LOZ: Ocarina of Time. These days I don't travel for video games. They travel for me.

No support for Metroid? typical.

Okay, I took it. Hope it helps your research.

I imagine, like any other item (if it's like Melee) you can turn up or down the frequency of the item.

Thank you for reading my post. I was starting to feel unappreciated. Such a level of adjustable difficulty probably is harder to implement, but as I am not a programmer, I have no idea to what degree. I do seem to recall being told some games already use this sort of modifier, but I'm not sure.

I would agree with this whole-heartedly if not for the fact that Retro makes great looking aliens and awful looking humans. The idiotically abandoned Samus head model from Prime being the singular exception. On topic, I'd very much be willing to buy Okami again if they made an effort to differentiate it from the original ps2 release. (well implemented) Remote brush drawing is obvious but additional extras would be welcome. I really do hope that this "confirmed rumor" is the real McCoy.

Thus proving that the game looks good due to excellent Art Design. Demonstrating that you don't need graphics crunching processors to make a pretty game. You just need, you know, good artists.

This is actually something I've been giving thought to lately. What's too hard, what's too easy, what's just right? There is a wide variety of preferences from gamer to gamer, or even for a single gamer from game to game. I, for example, like challenge. I also like accomplishment. I don't mind moving through an easy game if I'm having fun, I don't mind playing a hard game if the challenge is satisfying. I love DMC3 and F-Zero GX. Both are Hard games. I love playing Kirby games, most of which are really easy. On the other hand, I didn't have so much fun with the last few Zelda games because most of the enemies, bosses included, felt like trivial encounters. I may be mis remembering this, but I think Shigeru Miyamoto was quoted saying he didn't believe in difficulty levels, that a good game was perfectly balanced (apologies if I've got that wrong). Assuming he did say that, I respectfully disagree. Some gamers have little time to game and want the challenge toned down so they can progress during the little amount of time they can devote to gaming. Other gamers want to be challenged and are let down when a game lets them sleep walk through it. I feel difficulty levels are necessary, to allow all these different types of gamers to have some say in the type of experience they want. However, I also feel that blanket difficulty modes; Easy, Normal, Hard, etc; are inadequate. I'd like to see difficulty broken up along a set of traits. Here's an example. Let's say that a new Metroid game comes out. It allows you to customize difficulty to your tastes but doesn't use the classic 'modes. Instead, it breaks difficulty up into the following categories: Enemy Attack Strength, Enemy Defense, Enemy Health, Enemy Intelligence. Each category has a 5 point slider bar with the defaults at 3 (average). You can now adjust the various attributes of enemy characters to give you the challenge you want. Set the Attack slider down to 1 and Enemies will cause low damage, set the Enemy Intelligence up to 5 and enemies will make smart moves and be at their most aggressive. I'd even separate Normal enemies from Boss enemies, so you could tweak the two groups separately. I usually like my normal encounters moderate while the bosses should really put up a fight. I feel that offering greater customization of difficulty to gamers is the only way to address the widely varied wants of said gamers. Of course, this can only really address the challenge of dealing with adversarial characters. My personal favorite type of challenge is me VS the environment, and in that regard, intelligent level design is irreplaceable The other aspect of challenge is Player Death. If you die, should you start from the same spot you died on, should you start from the last save point, should you be able to die at all? This one is a lot harder to tackle. First off, I feel that any game that places your character in harms way must have character death in it. Threatening situations and enemy characters lose their teeth if they can't seriously harm you. Failure needs to carry some sort of consequence, otherwise, what's the point? Again, maybe customization can help with this issue too, like perhaps the ability to toggle on or off soft restarts. Off, and you restart at the last save point. On, and you resurrect on the spot or close to it. Anyway, those are my thoughts in brief.

I've owned the movie on DVD for years, and yes it is really good if a little bit slow at times. They could have left out the musical bits but every animated feature had to be musical back then. Regardless, it's an excellent version of the story and I'd love to see it get an updated treatment. I bought the book off of Amazon last year and yeah, it's a fantastic read. There's so much interesting stuff they couldn't fit into the film, but that's usually how it is. I recommend both very highly. Note, Watership Down is written for mature audiences and the movie follows the same tone. I never saw the TV series but I heard it was aimed at children so I didn't bother seeking it out. I did read the sequel though. It's a collection of "Rabbit Myth" short stories mostly. Still interesting but not on the same level as the main fiction.

Yes, it is, and I've already put in a request for a remix of it. Hopefully somebody is feeling generous. Support the cause!

I put forth a request for Rundas' theme from Metroid Corruption. Maybe a mix of his normal and boss themes. I have no real genre preference. This is a neat theme that I think could really be played with. If anyone is interested, PM me and I can send you the actual in game music tracks.

Well, it is a favorites thread, but it's a favorites thread with some thought and depth to it and a discussion structure.

Hey, I kinda like this one so I'll bite. Female, 29 1.) What is your favorite game series? Metroid 2.) What is the game series you are best at? Errr...rather then try and pick a series I'll just say I'm "best" at the Action Adventure genre. 3.) What game from your favorite game series is your favorite? Super Metroid 4.) What games in your favorite series do you OWN (Rentals and Past Ownership don't count, though you can include Past Ownership if you note those). Zero Mission, Prime, Echoes, Corruption, Super, Fusion 5.) WHY is your favorite game series your favorite, and why would you suggest others to look into it? I really like the combination of play elements, challenges, and variety found in Metroid games. Each game is a robust combination of exploration, discovery, and action. Also, each game offers a different mix of challenges and focuses, with the game's structure open to new play experiments and experiences. I like action, but I've always felt the most satisfying experiences were more cerebral. I love figuring out how to move around interesting environments. I like having all sorts of nifty tools to use to manipulate and open up the game world. I love imaginative and immersive environments brought alive through cohesive art and music. I also like explosions. Metroid has it all. It's one of the best and least appreciated of the big Nintendo franchises. Metroid has always been a black sheep. Successful, sure, but not as much as it deserves to be. Metroid Original and Metroid 2 may be too primitive to appreciate these days, but the ones I own are fantastic at their worst, and unsurpassed epiphanies of brilliant design at their best. Play Metroid, Love Metroid.

I killed the freaking Fargul Hatcher with it, which is otherwise invulnerable unless you shoot it in the mouth a bajillion times. I'd say the screw attack is fine. You just can't abuse it against enemies meant to give you a tough fight.

I'm pretty sure it was a pirate ship. If I ever unlock that screen shot camera I'll try and take a picture of that moment and ID the ship.

::sigh:: It makes me sad that this game has come, been played to death, and gone. I miss seeing this thread on the front page all the time. Ah well. I'm just posting a courtesy note to all of the people who exchanged Friend Vouchers with me that my internet is down and I'm going on vacation so I'll not be around online for a couple weeks at least. Good Hunting

Arr, if ye really want'ta know about this greatest of days, then read all about it here: http://www.talklikeapirate.com/piratehome.html , savvy?

Aye matey, but it's "bilge rats" not "binge rats", savvy? Unless of course they were hitting the grog in the tavern all night.

I cried over Nanaki (Red 13) when he learned the truth about his father, but Aeris? I was glad to see her go. I never liked the saccharine twit..