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When I reached the eleventh hour mark it dawned upon me that if it were a movie the story barely made it past the introductory first half hour. If FF13 were LOTR I had just made it out of the Shire. All of a sudden it felt artificially lengthened gameplay. The levels suddenly appeared as no more than a series of battles against the same enemies with a palette swap and each succeeding fight with one extra creature added to the mix. It had been fine up to that point but when I reached the fight against Odin and had to go online after 2 frustrated nights trying to subdue him.. reading a FAQ explaining how to defeat him which then went on for only 2 more battles and he was mine made me conclude what is broken in this game is not the linearity but its simplicity. Linearity vs. choice is like Mario vs Metroid. Nothing wrong with either but you might prefer one of the other.
The FAQ explained things to me about switching power bracelets and paradigms at the right time during battles that hadn't occurred to me or appeared necessary for 11 hours! The encyclopedia of text they throw at you explaining the world and how the game works is rendered moot with the auto-attack button. Why bother experimenting when you can push a button and win ? This is a game that would be far easier to grasp without the slow training levels and just having a separate training mode where some dude talks you through its mechanics in a half hour. They tried making the game accessible and it worked: I played it beyond the lenght of a FABLE2 but when I realised I had failed some very basic gameplay requirements that I understood straight away from reading a single paragraph in a FAQ online was it me that failed or the game's creators.
Ofcourse, Odin; AWESOME. I played another 2 nights racking up another 6 hours and the story went absolutely nowhere.. I pulled the plug. I really want to play this game but I don't have this kind of time on my hands for this little in return.&nbs"
IF a MassEffect movie were to be made
and it would take place either before the game or during the game
but would focus on storylines/characters over which the Player had no control
(but may have bumped into) so their interpretation/playthrough remains unaffected,
would anybody here object ?"
I love games like double dragon, streets of rage and recently purchased final fight on XBLA. Unless I have a buddy to co-op with I quit after getting my fix of nostalgia (2 levels in at most). I can't believe how much fun I had with punch, kick and jump and one power move for so long and I don't expect them to hold the current generation's interest for much longer in.. "
I think its great that if I can't afford to buy the latest and greatest I can if I just wait a few months and here in the UK, depending on the quality/desirability of the game its sometimes a matter of weeks. What does annoy me is that in-store I'm frequently moved away from new titles by the sales people and offered a used game for only a few pounds less than full-retail price which ofcourse they then pocket. But the very fact that loads of us still turn up at an actual brick and mortar store is an argument for used sales. When I lived in Spain, where last year's games are still sold at full-price, I learned that most people I knew had chipped 360s. Same when I was in South America: the high prices at stores there drives people to copying games more than when they can get it over the counter cheap. Perhaps the real problem is the attitude that every used/torrented game/song/comic is somehow a missed sales opportunity for their respective industries. I don't believe that.
You raise an interesting point with cultural perception of the value of reading and playing games. Perhaps once we have a bigger canon of must-play games then a more prominent space for games in libraries will be earned. Once society sees the ability to play particular classics as essential as playing hide n' seek to growing up. Who knows, by then maybe your gamerscore can land you a scholarship.. "
topic: development costs. What do the big 3 charge for licences and does the XNA-iOS model (a 100 bucks a year + download) actually pose a threat short term or will they co exist peacefully..
freedom of speech on proprietary consoles: I understand that big companies pander to the lower conservative denominator of family values in order to keep a squeeky clean image and they have the right to prevent certain titles from being published. But for (western) society as a whole: it seems a step backwards. Can more mature content tackle political, religious subjects garanteed to inflame large portions of the public make it past Microsoft/Nintendo/Sony/Apple's guidelines for what is allowed to be sold on their machines/stores ? born and raised in the Europe I feel mature games are already being held hostage because of the attitudes towards sex and violence in the larger market that is the U.S.&nbs"