Gaming pleasant surprises/disappointments in 06

[Fe 26]

or joust

EDIT: or anyone else known for taking huge stinking shits on the game board.

[avatar]

grow up

lol

[AaronChance]

I found Yakuza's plot unspectacular but decent, and the fighting was very satisfying (more so than God Hand, as far as I'm concerned). You also ignored the gobs of minigames and other things to do in Yakuza besides the main plot.

I'm willing to accept others felt otherwise, but for Yakuza I used the same attack pattern for pretty much every enemy in the game, aside for the latter bosses, where I just owned them with weapons. When I tried to change it up, there wasn't many options and it ended up worse anyway. The plot was 100% predictable for me, so boring. Plus one thing I absolutely can't stand is people doing retarded, out of character things to service said plot. There wasn't much else to do besides simple 'go there do that' side quests and the hoestess bar, neither were particularly fun for me. I beat the game so I didn't hate it, but the whole experience was forgettable.

[g0zen]

EDIT: forgot one
- and + oblivion. ah if there were ever a game that both impresssed and dissapointed me at once. the game is the best constructed rpg in theory, but a lot of stupid decisions made it dissapointing in my eyes. no polearms, cut mounted content(which makes riding a horse feel awkward, either you a have trail of 5 wolves or you hop on and off your horse 20 times per trip) , awkwardly implemented level scaling, very same looking environments, a reduced feeling of actually affecting the story, reduced feeling of living political and religious factions going on around you, radicaly reduced numbers of guilds, oblivion looks like a meatloaf cd cover, daedra and aedra represented poorly, no polearms, strange looking argonians, no crossbows, no thrown weapons, reduced types of katanas, overreliance on dl content to nickle and dime us to death, and a number of really limited dl's at that(horse armor, vile lair, theivs den argueabley), lack of differentiation between the weapon styles' power atttacks, and harder to mod for due to the lack of a good nif. importer, really cliched plot, did i mention the fucking polearms? everything plays better but feels worse, its a weird feeling.

What is it with you and those fucking polearms? They were next to useless in Morrowind, why would they bring them back for Oblivion? The crossbows is a valid complaint, I wish they had brought those back. I also wish they'd just give you a fucking museum with a bunch of those display cases, that's all I want. I don't want all the stupid bullshit you get when you buy furnishings for your house. I just want a place to keep and possibly show off my shit. Why is that such a problem?

[Compass]

(+) Half Life 2: Episode One was a really nice surprise. I knew I'd enjoy it but it was actually got my emotions going a little, and not too many games have done that. Good stuff.

Agreed, although I only just started it. I liked HL2 A LOT, but I think the years of hype really hurt it for me in the end. I thought it was going to literally be the greatest game I'd ever played... so of course I was let down.

I had zero expectations for Episode 1. I just sorta bought it out of habit... in a daze, like a zombie. But holy hell, it's damn good. Reminds me of a roller-coaster ride. One amazing action-packed scenario after the next.

+Dead Rising- Been a long time since I've wanted to be GOOD at a game. Not like just beat the game and be done with it, but be GOOD at it. Thanks Capcom.

Agreed, except not about DR (which I've yet to buy). I'm talking about IIDX.

I think one reason I became so obsessed with beatmania in 2006 is that it rekindled a desire to improve my own skills that I hadn't felt since the days of arcade SF II. The level of satisfaction from merely getting better at the game is absolutely unmatched, and probably much closer to how one feels as they gradually master a musical instrument.

The biggest surprise for me this year is that I discovered a game that's been around since the late '90s, and that it then went on to become the most rewarding videogame experience I've had to date.

[Bacon McShig]

+ Gears of War- Most enjoyable online multiplayer to date. Can't wait for new maps.

+ Capcom- Dead Rising and their PSP (MHX, MMPU, UG&G, CCC) games were excellent. Phoenix Wright, too. Okami I haven't put enough time into, I'm kinda 'eh' on it so far but most say it gets better. God Hand most seem to like, I need to pick it up sometime. Additional props for putting Lost Planet demos on Live in a beyond-timely manner. Other companies take note pls.

+ The decline of the third party exclusive- Anything that saves me $600 is a good thing, imo.

- Sony- See also "Vanity; thy name is". LOL Sony. Can't wait to see them further falling on their ass throughtout the gen. Good value or not, a $500-600 price tag is going to fly with the mass market about as well as a lead weight.

- Nintendo- I really enjoyed Zelda, but it seems they worked on it to the exclusion of all else. Wii games' dates slipping was extremely disappointing. Virtual Console pricing and the first party offerings are a joke. DS was pretty good this year, but not really because of the first party stuff. Metroid Prime Hunters in particular was godawful.

- Xbox Live content- Microtransaction abuse and shitty arcade releases that cost too much, yay! A hearty LOL @ MS's fulfillment of their promise for new games every Wednesday. UNO skin =/= new game. Total LOLs at nobody putting up game demos around the holidays.

- Ubisoft's Wii "Support"- Yikes. With friends like these, who needs enemies?

[Xenobia_Omega]

Here we go:

The Surprises:
+ FFXII delivers, just like it's been said before. When I found out that 12 was going to be set in Ivalice I was really skeptical about this game. For me, Tactics was better than any of the other numbered series and having the two bleed together got me really nervous. But, I'm happy to say that FF12 is like Vagrant Story, Tactics and Final Fantasy having a massive orgy in my PlayStation 2 resulting in a joygasim of epic proportions. I almost consider it Vagrant Story 2. This might be the last numbered Final Fantasy I play just so the series doesn't become tainted with me again (like after IX)

+ Guitar Hero(I and II); not much else needs to be said. The games are awesome and keep me entertained.

+ Wii: Everything I expected and I didn't expect a great deal. Wanted something that was fun and function for me, and I got it. I understand the problems people have with it and I think they're justified in the way they feel. But for me, this is a pretty good system.

+ LOL @ Sony: I knew they'd chop off their own leg once Square-Enix started making games for other systems. Strange how Square affects such things.

+ LOL @ Blu-Ray: Seriously. LOL.

+ Future FFTactics coming in the future. Might have to get a PSP now, and totally ready for Advance 2.

The Middle Ground:
+ - Xenosaga 3: From a playing stand point, this game was possibly better than Xenogears 1 and leaps and bounds better than Xenosaga 2. But the plot just died in it. The Xeno series never recovered after the main writer left and they're damn lucky the music didn't come crashing down once Mitsuda left. The plot left me feeling bitter and disgusted. Loved characters reduced to emo crap. Gah.


Disappointments:
- Supposed Metroid 3 and Smash Brothers Brawl launch dates pushed back? Jesus. SSBB is most likely going to be the life line of the Wii much as SSMB was the life line of the GameCube. That shit needs to come out like last month.

- DS FriendCodes: At least they fixed this shit with the Wii.

- Final Fantasy III; Mognet specifically: WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING HAVING THE FUCKING SPACE NOT WITH THE LETTERS?! Writing Mognet mail is the most tedious bullshit thing in the entire game.

[Low]

GOOD-

-Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin actually being good.

-The GBA producing good original content in the wake of the DS: Ordital, Dotstream, Drill Dozer, Atlus' efforts and Scurge were well done.

-Under Defeat and Radigy on DC....in 2006. Bliss.

-Elite Beat Agents and DQ Rocket Slime, my two fav DS games in 06, both were definitely unexpected.

-Getting Beatmania in the US...even if it wasn't the greatest version.

-Wii looking to be as fun and quirky as the DS proved to be.

-Turbografx games on the Virtual Console.

BAD-

-Odama. Could have been the great action pinball we've missed all these years, instead it's screwed by tactic mircomanaging crap.

-Nintendo focusing on a stream of DS content instead of finetuning games like Yoshi's Island.

-Lack of homeports from Cave, really sucks.

*-neo

[frostwolf ex]

What is it with you and those fucking polearms? They were next to useless in Morrowind, why would they bring them back for Oblivion? The crossbows is a valid complaint, I wish they had brought those back. I also wish they'd just give you a fucking museum with a bunch of those display cases, that's all I want. I don't want all the stupid bullshit you get when you buy furnishings for your house. I just want a place to keep and possibly show off my shit. Why is that such a problem?

agreed about the furnishings, i thought it was going to be cool, but i was wrong. anyhow, re polearms, there re a few reasons
a. variety, swords and axes shared most of the same animations, good for developers, bad for variety ingame, i prefer a little variety in how my guy looks, it is a small thing, but tes games are about beautiful variety, so dropping it was bad.
b. spears did have a use, most people just looked at the damage numbers and said bah. Fact is, they had a longer reach than any other weapon in the game, even claymores/dai katanas. i learned fast that with reasonable speed, some backpedeling, and an ok spear, i could pull out wins vurses much better equipped foes with relatively few injuries. and also, if something is "broken" shoudl you ditch it, or fix it? spears had their place, and their loss left a void in the game. finally, with the new hitting system, spears would be incredibly useful. unless you were a skilled blocker, spearmen could be a real challenge.
c. spears were the presumptive racial weapon for argonians, they allowed them to have a "niche" in the racial specialties, without that they became blander. Why have strange fantasy races if you arent going to give them a place.
d. historical immersion. soldiers and guards used spears and polearms, it just would look better with them walking around with them, admittedly they were like this in morrowind too, but hey, rectify the mistake, dont sweep it under the rug.
e. since the game was actually getting interesting animations, i was kind of hoping for some darth maul type twirls and strikes. idealistic i know, but why not.
so yeha, thats why i wanted polearms, maybe if that shivering isles expansion proves true, they will put them in, the non attacking anims are already there, with the magic staves, all they need to do is add 2 normal swipes and some power swings, lets round it out here.

[Cowdisease]

+ Gears of War living up to the hype. I had my doubts because Microsoft and Epic were trying so hard to make it a Halo-type franchise, but they really delivered with an awesome co-op experience over LIVE and a kick-ass multiplayer experience.

- The Wii. I was excited about the system and planned to purchase it for launch, but after Nintendo announced the price of the system and its controllers, I felt it was not worth picking it up at launch. I'm going to wait a year before I decide to purchase one (hopefully, we'll finally see some online Wii titles and a more robust VC selection).

- PS3. As soon as Sony announced the $600 price tag, I knew things were going to be bad for Sony. What I didn't expect was Sony losing the GTA exclusivity. Even with the $600 price tag, you could have said, "well, at least they still have Grand Theft Auto 4". The number of available systems being cut twice and the fact that the system was essentially not finished when it was released (see 720p/1080i display issues and jaggy PS2 upscaling) only added to the LOLtastic Sony stumble. I'm curious to see if Sony will be able to recover in 2007.

+ Jump Ultimate Stars turned out great and was worth the import price, even though I had my doubts about a portable Smash Bros-type game.