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lazygecko

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Posts posted by lazygecko

    What makes old-school 2D RPGs like FFVI stand out as great?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I can't really get into most of those old RPGs anymore. I finished a bunch of them such as Final Fantasy IV and Breath of Fire 2, but after that the DQ/FF template of JRPGs got old real fast for me, and the small niche differences between the games weren't eough to capture my interest. Story or music cannot really carry a game for me if the gameplay doesn't hold up. By the time I was trying out stuff like Lufia and Final Fantasy VI, I noticed how I pretty much started cheating my way through the actual gameplay sections just to find out what happens next, and by then it just felt like I was watching a movie instead of playing agame.

    Apart from that, the plots too were feeling more and more cookie-cutter and template-based with the teenage orphan heroes, token puppet bad guys and big evil demon masterminds that simply want to destroy the world.

    Classic Ancient PC Dos VGs

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Crusader: No Remorse/Regret - Action game(s) by Origin. The controls are pretty clunky, but the game overall is a lot of fun and has awesome music. It's very much like Robocop, set in a dystopian future with plenty of tongue-in-cheek humor, live-action FMV and extreme violence. It's also set in the same universe as System Shock.

    Constructor - This is basically Sim Suburbs with a lot of black comedy. You build your own suburban community and rent the houses to families. The twist is that there's also a rival player on the same map, and you need to sabotage his efforts in a variety of creative ways. For example, if one of you rival's houses has caught fire, you can send a hippie to start a rave near it. When the firefighters arrive, they'll be distracted and start dancing, completely oblivious to the fact that the house is burning down and the flames are spreading to the neighbours.

    Classic Ancient PC Dos VGs

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Abuse - old Contra-style platformer with FPS style keyboard+mouse controls. This really added a whole new layer to the genre as the much more flexible controls allowed them to really pump up the action in the game, add more complex enemy movement beyond the same old predictable patterns, etc etc.

    Ecstatica - Old survival horror game which used spheres instead of polygons to build 3D models. It was pretty creepy at the time as there was always that demon monkey stalking you and those fucking minotaurs could seemingly chase you all across the game world.

    Little Big Adventure - Really one of the best adventure games ever. The gamplay would change depending on what stance your character uses. In normal stance, you talk to people and read and all that shit, in aggressive stance it's more like a beat em up, athletic is the platforming stance for getting across obstacles and stuff, and in sneak stance it turns into a stealth game. You also get a bouncing ball you can throw around (which changes depending on which stance you use). This can be used for either attacking enemies or solving various puzzles.

    Oh, and you can beat the crap out of your wife too.

    Albion - Old CRPG. It's sort of like Phantasy Star, with a mix of top-down and first person 3D environments, but with the added depth you'd expect from a WRPG when it comes to dialog and stuff. Combat is also more strategic/tactical. This game really puts into perspective just how fucking dumbed down the genre has become as of late.

    Concerns About the Spam Bots

    in Site Issues & Feedback

    Posted

    The flood always comes on saturday afternoon, when it's morning across America and most of the moderators are asleep. The posts usually remain there for hours until someone takes care of them. You really need to expand to a more global mod team so the forums can be kept tidy during the odd hours.

    Prodigy - Omen

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I guess we have different definitions of relevance & popularity. In the late 90s, Prodigy, TCM and the Chems were so big that they were reaching mainstream audiences. They were never as big as pop/rock acts of the time but their names are still known today.

    They are mainstream all over Europe, and probably the rest of the "developed" world with music chart markets. America is pretty much the single one out. The big beat acts of the mid-to-late 90's were as close as it could get to reaching out there because it was more akin to rock than typical dance music.

    To say they're not in it to please though is SO not true though. I mean, they used to have dancers in the group, as in people who didn't do much but play a couple of notes then dance all over the place.

    Pretty sure they've been there almost since day 1. The music is all Liam, but once they hit it big they had to market themselves more as a typical band so the average listener would "get it".

    Out of all the video games out there, which one has the most skilled ninja?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    This made me ponder a bit. The archetypical ninja game focuses almost exclusively on combat, while stealth is just as much of an iconic ninja feat. But the archetypical stealth game is always centered around covert op soldiers and the likes. Therefore, the most genuine ninja-type game to date is probably Assassin's Creed. Failing that, RPGs such as Oblivion where you make a sneaky-sneaky type character is a good contender.

    Aaand there goes the last ounce of respect for Sega

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    It's not unusual for publishers to have production teams that overlap with the developers under their wing.

    I suspect that the game's original soundtrack had arrangements based on themes from Sonic 1 and 2, that music was made by Dreams Come True and I'm pretty sure there have been legal issues in the past with re-using their material (this would also explain why the shit we hear in Chronicles is from the spinoff games). Regardless of wether this rushjob was ripped by Sega or Bioware, the cataclyst was the legal issues and instead of delaying the game to fix it properly, Sega lets this pass which is both ridiculous and highly unprofessional (especially from such a high profile brand in these times).

    Aaand there goes the last ounce of respect for Sega

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Seems like another disgruntled Sega employee has spoken out after the last one.

    http://www.tssznews.com/2009/01/14/another-sega-employee-speaks-out-on-sonic/

    There's some alleged stuff on the next Sonic game, but what I found really interesting was this snippet regarding Sonic Chronicles for the DS:

    They actually had a full, originally composed soundtrack but before release they had to pull the hub BGMs out for a variety of (frankly ridiculous) legal reasons. So they did what anyone else in their position probably would have done; they did a search on the net for whatever Sonic MIDIs they could find and fit them in the game the best they could. Since the compositions belonged to SEGA in the first place there were no legal issues to be had with what was essentially thieving them, and they could also pan it off as a “soundtrack full of classic Sonic music.”

    Which is also why there’s a fairly distinct difference in quality between the electric-guitar intro/battle music and the shit you get while you play the game itself.

    I don't own the game, but I looked up the music on YouTube and it really does sound like they were vgmusic MIDIs hastily run through some converter.

    This is from Sonic CD

    This is from Sonic 3D

    I am in sheer fucking disbelief they have let themselves fall to this level, and that's saying a lot after the trainwreck that was the GBA port of Sonic 1. EPIC FAIL, SEGA

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