It's good that Bungie are thinking of carrying on, but I would love to see them make another hit somewhere else first. After Reach I reckon the franchise should have a cooldown or people will get tired of it.
Nintendo are alienating third party developers with the Wii, but I don't think they are thinking of it as a risk. They've branched away from Xbox and Playstation territory with the Wii and have kinda split the medium of videogames. Most studios will stick to what they know now that their Wii stuff hasn't performed compared to Nintendo's in-house stuff, and not always due to a lack of quality in the titles they make. Makes perfect sense to me.
After the rather lacklustre demo that revealed some strange controls (like hold R2 to walk?) and a strong sense of watching-not-playing, and now this Edge review that very closely resembles my thoughts on the game, I have concluded not to buy this. I got my PS3 just after the price cut with Heavy Rain in mind as one of about 4 or 5 games I wanted on it, and now 3 of them have turned out to be duds. I'm just glad LBP and Metal Gear 4 are as good as I thought they would be.
As for the 7 score, I think it's a little high after reading the review. Dragon Age: Origins got a fairly similar slating throughout its review and it got a 5. Both are entirely different games, my point being that the tone of the review and regard for the game was close in both instances.
The Darth Revan moment in KOTOR is probably the most impressive moment in games for me. The movie series that practically created the "twist" as we know it, with the Luke and Darth Vader idea, has done it again in games to perhaps the same level of importance and shock.
And there's no forgetting the strippers in Duke Nukem 3D.
Resident Evil has loads of "Oh My God" moments throughout the series. I remember being gobsmacked by William Birkin's growth and mutation, so terrifying in the final stage of Resident Evil 2. The snake in the attic moment always makes me approach my attic with caution every time. Being trapped in the house in the first village of Resident Evil 4 only to see a chainsaw wielding lunatic approach from across the square and the villagers prop up ladders to the upper windows was the moment when I realised that RE4 would change my perception of games forever.
But the 2 most amazing RE moments are both in RE2. First is when Mr. X smashed through the wall and cornered you despite you truly believing you were safe because surely no enemy can come through the walls! Second is Mr. X again, when you see him on the security camera that's looking at the way you entered that tiny little control room!
Another great one is in Morrowind, approaching the Silt Strider with EXTREME caution, wondering how to tackle an enemy so big so early in the game, then realising that it's the local public transport made me laugh hysterically for feeling so silly!
There are countless others but the one I'll close on is in Shining Force 3 on the Sega Saturn, when Galm appeared from nowhere and "kills" Julian. This was a real shock, reminiscent of CoD4's moment when a main character dies, picked in this feature, but ten years before and probably enducing a moment of realisation of how weak the player really is equal to that strike in Infinity Ward's classic.
Chris Dahlen meets the director of interactive fiction documentary Get Lamp and remembers how rich a world that only costs the time it takes to write it can be.
Laerfan's Comments
It's good that Bungie are thinking of carrying on, but I would love to see them make another hit somewhere else first. After Reach I reckon the franchise should have a cooldown or people will get tired of it.
I really see Natal as the end of gaming as we know it. If games don't require controllers anymore I won't be playing them.
Nintendo are alienating third party developers with the Wii, but I don't think they are thinking of it as a risk. They've branched away from Xbox and Playstation territory with the Wii and have kinda split the medium of videogames. Most studios will stick to what they know now that their Wii stuff hasn't performed compared to Nintendo's in-house stuff, and not always due to a lack of quality in the titles they make. Makes perfect sense to me.
After the rather lacklustre demo that revealed some strange controls (like hold R2 to walk?) and a strong sense of watching-not-playing, and now this Edge review that very closely resembles my thoughts on the game, I have concluded not to buy this. I got my PS3 just after the price cut with Heavy Rain in mind as one of about 4 or 5 games I wanted on it, and now 3 of them have turned out to be duds. I'm just glad LBP and Metal Gear 4 are as good as I thought they would be.
As for the 7 score, I think it's a little high after reading the review. Dragon Age: Origins got a fairly similar slating throughout its review and it got a 5. Both are entirely different games, my point being that the tone of the review and regard for the game was close in both instances.
The Darth Revan moment in KOTOR is probably the most impressive moment in games for me. The movie series that practically created the "twist" as we know it, with the Luke and Darth Vader idea, has done it again in games to perhaps the same level of importance and shock.
And there's no forgetting the strippers in Duke Nukem 3D.
Resident Evil has loads of "Oh My God" moments throughout the series. I remember being gobsmacked by William Birkin's growth and mutation, so terrifying in the final stage of Resident Evil 2. The snake in the attic moment always makes me approach my attic with caution every time. Being trapped in the house in the first village of Resident Evil 4 only to see a chainsaw wielding lunatic approach from across the square and the villagers prop up ladders to the upper windows was the moment when I realised that RE4 would change my perception of games forever.
But the 2 most amazing RE moments are both in RE2. First is when Mr. X smashed through the wall and cornered you despite you truly believing you were safe because surely no enemy can come through the walls! Second is Mr. X again, when you see him on the security camera that's looking at the way you entered that tiny little control room!
Another great one is in Morrowind, approaching the Silt Strider with EXTREME caution, wondering how to tackle an enemy so big so early in the game, then realising that it's the local public transport made me laugh hysterically for feeling so silly!
There are countless others but the one I'll close on is in Shining Force 3 on the Sega Saturn, when Galm appeared from nowhere and "kills" Julian. This was a real shock, reminiscent of CoD4's moment when a main character dies, picked in this feature, but ten years before and probably enducing a moment of realisation of how weak the player really is equal to that strike in Infinity Ward's classic.
All Laerfan's Comments