What Are You Playing? - August 2008

[NeoZeedeater]

It's a Master System action/platform game from 1988; you play as a samurai.

[kingoffighters]

Kenseiden is awesome. I finished it years after I bought it. Easily one of the better SMS games.

[Tain]

I've had Gunvalkyrie laying around since 2002. Started it up again, really getting into it. Doubtful I can finish it by Sunday, though, and that's when I won't have access to my zboz1.

[cigsthecat]

Still 3rd Strike on 2DF. We need more TNL people!

I'm slowly getting better with Oro, he's now my main. Almost able to do one of the unblockable setups consistently.

[Mikhal]

When do you play cigs? Still on late at night?

[cigsthecat]

Yeah, usually. Although there is a tournament tomorrow at 4pm I am planning on losing!

[Toupee]

I suppose for its time, it was a big milestone, but now, it definitely lacks some pop. Overall though, I still think they are something to play through, and the story, though not amazing, keeps me playing to find out what happens.

I think Half-Life 2 is a wonderful game. I think the level design is fantastic, but aesthetically and pragmatically - if you jump down into an area that you can't get out of, you know you're going the right direction. It doesn't muck about in creating the illusion of a sandbox-type world, because it EXCELS in its linearity. I LOVE the way it can tell a story visually, without the need for any kind of cutscene. Just like HL1, you never, ever, not once, leave the first person viewpoint or lose control, and I think that's awesome. Few games have tried to accomplish that and most don't come close. Sure, you're pushed into scripted events, but this is an action game, not a freedom-fest, and in that sense the game almost feels like a wicked 2D sidescroller that somehow works in 3D.

I mean, really, the level design is just rad. City 17 is cool, Dr. Kleiner's lab is fun, the train station is cool, the swampy zombie infested area's cool, driving the hoverboat is cool, Black Mesa West is cool, then you get the gravity gun, then Ravenholm is cool, and driving the buggy, and fights at rebels' barns where victory is met not with celebration but remorse for the dead (wow!), climbing across high rise power line infrastructure, moving planks across sand dunes to avoid hearing-sensitive enemies, setting up a turret defense in Nova Prospekt, fighting striders alongside other rebels, finally getting into the tower that you can see in the horizon at the beginning of the game........ this is all off the top of my head, and not counting episode 1 or 2! It's chock-full of memorable sequences.

Never minding it was one of the first games to introduce such a deep physics engine, it was one of the first to include a weapon that could manipulate objects in a game like never before. This will be copied countless times.

I could go on and on.

[YellerDog]

Yeah, but fuck that boat.

[ElCapichan]

I think Half-Life 2 is a wonderful game. I think the level design is fantastic, but aesthetically and pragmatically - if you jump down into an area that you can't get out of, you know you're going the right direction. It doesn't muck about in creating the illusion of a sandbox-type world, because it EXCELS in its linearity. I LOVE the way it can tell a story visually, without the need for any kind of cutscene. Just like HL1, you never, ever, not once, leave the first person viewpoint or lose control, and I think that's awesome. Few games have tried to accomplish that and most don't come close. Sure, you're pushed into scripted events, but this is an action game, not a freedom-fest, and in that sense the game almost feels like a wicked 2D sidescroller that somehow works in 3D.

I mean, really, the level design is just rad. City 17 is cool, Dr. Kleiner's lab is fun, the train station is cool, the swampy zombie infested area's cool, driving the hoverboat is cool, Black Mesa West is cool, then you get the gravity gun, then Ravenholm is cool, and driving the buggy, and fights at rebels' barns where victory is met not with celebration but remorse for the dead (wow!), climbing across high rise power line infrastructure, moving planks across sand dunes to avoid hearing-sensitive enemies, setting up a turret defense in Nova Prospekt, fighting striders alongside other rebels, finally getting into the tower that you can see in the horizon at the beginning of the game........ this is all off the top of my head, and not counting episode 1 or 2! It's chock-full of memorable sequences.

Never minding it was one of the first games to introduce such a deep physics engine, it was one of the first to include a weapon that could manipulate objects in a game like never before. This will be copied countless times.

I could go on and on.

It's not that great.

[bbobb]

The gravity gun was pure awesomeness though.