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Sociopastry posted:Which is a shame, because I loving love thief builds. One of the worst games for that was Dragon Age. If you didn't build your rogue or mage exactly right, you were pretty much hosed. Mage was the most bipolar class in Dragon Age. Don't use the special classes and spec into the wrong skills? Unusable. Right classes, good backup? Literally walk through the game.
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# ? Jul 28, 2014 23:14 |
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# ? May 11, 2024 16:13 |
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Thanks for giving me my main as the last unlocked racer MK8. Random unlocking systems are loving stupid.
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# ? Jul 28, 2014 23:29 |
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Twitch posted:All of the stupid-rear end online poo poo, social media integration, and DLC hooks ruined the Sims 3 for me. Especially because so much of it was added in later patches. I'm an adult, my friends on Facebook don't want spam notifications from EA, and I don't care if they make a bunch of expansions, but don't show me poo poo that I need to pay real money for in the in-game menus. Really any game that aggressively markets its DLC in-game is awful. Sleeping Dogs having every pause screen and menu have a big animated ad for their DLC with a button to buy them was tacky as hell.
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# ? Jul 28, 2014 23:39 |
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...of SCIENCE! posted:Really any game that aggressively markets its DLC in-game is awful. Sleeping Dogs having every pause screen and menu have a big animated ad for their DLC with a button to buy them was tacky as hell. I will never forget Bioware's integration in Dragon Age Origins. They put this fully voiced NPC with a quest marker in your camp, and his dialogue leads to an in-game purchase menu. It's been too long since I first played, but I'm pretty sure that until you actually buy the DLC, he will always be there, because he only leaves once you start the quest.
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# ? Jul 28, 2014 23:43 |
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...of SCIENCE! posted:Really any game that aggressively markets its DLC in-game is awful. Sleeping Dogs having every pause screen and menu have a big animated ad for their DLC with a button to buy them was tacky as hell. But that's not in-game? That's the pause menu as opposed to a big message over the mini-map or something that is actually intrusive.
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# ? Jul 29, 2014 00:00 |
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If actions I take after starting the game bring up ads, I call that an in-game ad. I don't mind ads on the start menu, though. The ticker on the Mass Effect games saying such and such pack is available is totally cool.
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# ? Jul 29, 2014 01:10 |
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Lotish posted:I will never forget Bioware's integration in Dragon Age Origins. They put this fully voiced NPC with a quest marker in your camp, and his dialogue leads to an in-game purchase menu. It's been too long since I first played, but I'm pretty sure that until you actually buy the DLC, he will always be there, because he only leaves once you start the quest. NFS: Most Wanted (2012) was terrible for this in a similar way. To be able to drive different cars, you'd need to find them parked around the open world map first. The DLC cars were also parked around the map and you would never know if it was a DLC car or not until you drove up to it and pressed a button. It would then open a screen where upon you could buy the car. There was no indication (as you were driving up) which were the DLC cars and which were the normal cars. Ugh.
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# ? Jul 29, 2014 03:17 |
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Away all Goats posted:I'm guessing its the same reason Civ 5 Vanilla had an unskippable cutscene: They're trying to hide a loading bar behind the cutscene. Which is stupid. Just show me the bar so I can see how long I have to wait, instead of forcing me to mash the spacebar or escape key the entire time. Alteisen posted:Thanks for giving me my main as the last unlocked racer MK8. The WWE games are the worst for this. My brother owned one game which advertised on the packaging that you could play as these five "legendary" wrestlers, but it's only once you actually start playing that you find out they have to be unlocked in story mode first. And when you created customised characters they started out incredibly weak and could only be improved by playing as them in story mode. To get a single custom character up to a usable level would mean playing through about two thirds of the story. If you want more than one or two custom characters that you can use against the built-in ones, forget it.
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# ? Jul 29, 2014 05:02 |
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Tiggum posted:Any game where you have to unlock stuff pisses me off. Obviously not games where the only way to play is through the story and things become available as you progress, but games in genres like racing, wrestling, etc. where you have to do the lovely story mode to access the stuff you actually want in the other modes. Particularly if multiplayer is the main draw but you have to play through single player first to be able to use the stuff you want when playing against friends. You usually get one character per race and it counts if you do it multiplayer, so it's not entirely tedious in Mario Kart. It still sucks that it's a randomized unlock.
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# ? Jul 29, 2014 05:04 |
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Tiggum posted:And when you created customised characters they started out incredibly weak and could only be improved by playing as them in story mode. To get a single custom character up to a usable level would mean playing through about two thirds of the story. If you want more than one or two custom characters that you can use against the built-in ones, forget it. The more recent ones definitely don't have that, you can create wrestlers with absolutely jacked stats with zero balancing whatsoever. But yeah, unlocking the wrestlers is lame, even moreso when you consider that some of the newer ones (maybe all) have an "unlock everything" DLC you can buy.
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# ? Jul 29, 2014 05:13 |
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MrJacobs posted:But that's not in-game? That's the pause menu as opposed to a big message over the mini-map or something that is actually intrusive. It also pops up when you buy clothes or cars. It doesn't check if you actually own the DLC that it's advertising, which is its greatest sin. And since they advertise the last released DLC (which is Year of the Snake) the ad also has slight spoilers for the main game itself.
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# ? Jul 29, 2014 08:26 |
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Tiggum posted:Any game where you have to unlock stuff pisses me off. Games with a bunch of unlockable poo poo like that should have a "party mode." Disable achievements/trophies/online leaderboards/etc., but unlock all the characters, levels, equipment, or whatever. Taking a disc-based Smash Brothers or Mario Kart game to have a blast with your buddies and then spending hours unlocking stuff so Emily can use her favorite character or Steve can race on his favorite track is loving lame.
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# ? Jul 29, 2014 12:58 |
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Most fighting games figured that out last generation with mp modes having all characters unlocked from the start (some still locked custumes but that's not a big deal.) Every open would game should also have something like DR2: Off the Record. A mode where the plot becomes entirely optional or non-existant. Not only would it be a nice way to unwind but it would force developers to think of their side content.
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# ? Jul 29, 2014 13:27 |
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Crackdown has a "key to the city" mode which disables achievements and lets you play the game with cheats enabled. I never played that game properly, I just popped the max skills cheat on and ran around the city at hyperspeed.
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# ? Jul 29, 2014 13:37 |
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I was most disappointed in the latest soul calibur's way of unlocking stuff, by putting everything behind levels. To unlock costume and weapon pieces, you have to grind up to level 53. I much preferred the method in soul calibur 3 where you unlocked pieces by beating characters wearing those pieces in the chronicles of the sword mode (still my favorite sc game mode).
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# ? Jul 29, 2014 15:16 |
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The only thing dragging down Shovel Knight is its very New Game Plus mode. You get to keep all of your upgrades and money, of course, which means all you need to do is speed through the levels; you don't need to spend any time killing enemies or clearing side rooms or optional levels because money is worthless if you have everything you need already. To counterbalance this, they make the levels more "difficult" in a super lazy way. They make enemies do double damage and take out almost all of the healing items, but you can bring potions into the levels with you to fully recover, and I mean it's a Megaman clone -- outside of boss fights you're never going to be killed by taking damage, you're going to be killed by being bounced into a spike or some other bullshit. They also take out most of the checkpoints, but the thing is, in NG+ you don't need to do any of the side rooms with the money and chests since you already have all of the upgrades you need, so you'll completely bypass all of the most difficult rooms. If you're just speeding through the levels they only take a couple of minutes. The only part of NG+ that was actually tough is Tower 2, because that's already the hardest level and they take out all of the checkpoints except the one before the boss rush. And you don't even get a different ending cinematic or anything.
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# ? Jul 29, 2014 19:14 |
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Replaying Saints Row IV, and holy poo poo is the escape from Zinyak's ship mission the most annoying thing. Hit a wall, you die. Restart, listen to the unskippable dialogue again. Listen to the song again. Hit another wall. Also, what reason is there for the WASD controls also flying the ship but not being inverted? Either have the option to not use inverted mouse controls or don't let WASD control the ship! Having both and no option to uninvert the mouse is so frustrating! E: well gently caress. There is an option. I just never found it. Ee: double gently caress. Uninvert mouse inverts WASD. Eee: triple gently caress. Turns out the trouble i was having is a known big with certain graphics settings making your ship go more slowly than it should. gamingCaffeinator has a new favorite as of 23:12 on Jul 29, 2014 |
# ? Jul 29, 2014 22:36 |
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gamingCaffeinator posted:Replaying Saints Row IV, and holy poo poo is the escape from Zinyak's ship mission the most annoying thing. This almost broke me and hearing the song repeat over and over again made it lose its luster. GOTTA STAY FAI posted:Games with a bunch of unlockable poo poo like that should have a "party mode." Disable achievements/trophies/online leaderboards/etc., but unlock all the characters, levels, equipment, or whatever. Taking a disc-based Smash Brothers or Mario Kart game to have a blast with your buddies and then spending hours unlocking stuff so Emily can use her favorite character or Steve can race on his favorite track is loving lame. I wish Dynasty Warriors did this with Free Mode. It would encourage new players to commit to a faction if they could try out all the officers from the start with a buddy.
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# ? Jul 29, 2014 23:11 |
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GOTTA STAY FAI posted:Games with a bunch of unlockable poo poo like that should have a "party mode." Disable achievements/trophies/online leaderboards/etc., but unlock all the characters, levels, equipment, or whatever. Taking a disc-based Smash Brothers or Mario Kart game to have a blast with your buddies and then spending hours unlocking stuff so Emily can use her favorite character or Steve can race on his favorite track is loving lame. Yeah that was the worst when we rented SSBBrawl back in the day and everyone only wanted to play Sonic, only to find out the easiest way to unlock him was to play Brawl for loving 10 hours.
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# ? Jul 29, 2014 23:44 |
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I have some kind of weird love with unlocking stuff, I will play a game to unlock stuff well past the time it stops being fun and still have fun unlocking stuff. I agree that it could be annoying and a party mode thing sounds like a good idea on those kind of games.
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# ? Jul 30, 2014 01:47 |
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RenegadeStyle1 posted:I have some kind of weird love with unlocking stuff, I will play a game to unlock stuff well past the time it stops being fun and still have fun unlocking stuff. I agree that it could be annoying and a party mode thing sounds like a good idea on those kind of games. This is where I stand, with the exception that stuff like classes/characters shouldn't be unlocked for doing big hard endgame stuff. Rogue Legacy, which I thoroughly enjoyed, was really guilty of this - the secret class is a lot of fun for being a generalist that's actually good, but by the time you get to it you're already pretty much done with the game and have no reason to play it. Having a new game mode or something is a lot of work but is a really good way to renew interest in a game when you're tired of the regular way to play, or even just some bonus bragging rights equipment, but I feel like something that makes just enough of a difference as a class feels a bit wasted that late.
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# ? Jul 30, 2014 01:52 |
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I'm terrified that the new Smash won't have any unlockables because people bitched about it in Brawl and they seem to be addressing all the things people bitched about. I got hours out of smashing all the little glass achievement boxes. Don't take that away from me Sakurai. Plus, I avoided all information about Brawl so I was legitimately surprised when I unlocked ROB and Wolf
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# ? Jul 30, 2014 02:51 |
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RyokoTK posted:The only part of NG+ that was actually tough is Tower 2, because that's already the hardest level and they take out all of the checkpoints except the one before the boss rush. And you don't even get a different ending cinematic or anything. That's a relief, I was worried I'd have to do that for something. I pretty much stopped caring once I cleared the game after I got a good look at the achievements. Yeah, some of those sound really fun.
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# ? Jul 30, 2014 02:54 |
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RenegadeStyle1 posted:I have some kind of weird love with unlocking stuff, I will play a game to unlock stuff well past the time it stops being fun and still have fun unlocking stuff. I agree that it could be annoying and a party mode thing sounds like a good idea on those kind of games. Unlocking is a hugely important aspect of game design, not just in terms of motivation and reward but as a fairly organic way of teaching people new mechanics without overwhelming them. Unlocks being objectively terrible is another one of those "rules" made up by people with no qualifications and zero idea what they're talking about.
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# ? Jul 30, 2014 02:56 |
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gamingCaffeinator posted:Replaying Saints Row IV, and holy poo poo is the escape from Zinyak's ship mission the most annoying thing. Using an xbox controller removes all of these problems, since it was designed for a controller in mind.
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# ? Jul 30, 2014 03:01 |
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...of SCIENCE! posted:Unlocking is a hugely important aspect of game design, not just in terms of motivation and reward but as a fairly organic way of teaching people new mechanics without overwhelming them. Unlocks being objectively terrible is another one of those "rules" made up by people with no qualifications and zero idea what they're talking about. This is a good point, which is why stuff that has nothing to do with mechanics should be unlocked outright, like vanity costume pieces. If that stuff has mechanical applications, sure, hold on to it, but I want to look my best now dammit so if it makes no game play difference let me have it.
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# ? Jul 30, 2014 03:02 |
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Lotish posted:I was most disappointed in the latest soul calibur's way of unlocking stuff, by putting everything behind levels. To unlock costume and weapon pieces, you have to grind up to level 53. I much preferred the method in soul calibur 3 where you unlocked pieces by beating characters wearing those pieces in the chronicles of the sword mode (still my favorite sc game mode). Also, they just sort of threw away all the new styles they added in SCIII. While a lot of those were just knockoffs of existing characters' weapons, several of them were really cool and should have been kept (like the bladed boots, a completely unique weapon type that has never appeared again).
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# ? Jul 30, 2014 04:21 |
U.T. Raptor posted:One of the biggest things dragging down Soul Calibur as a series is how they keep sacrificing the single-player modes on the altar of multiplayer. SCIV's was bare-bones compared to SCIII's, and SCV somehow was even worse. Hell, even the knock-offs had some great moments. Like the one attack the Cassandra/Sophitia clone gets that just involves mowing down the opponent, kneeling over them and wailing on their face with your hilt and shield about twenty times.
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# ? Jul 30, 2014 04:31 |
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U.T. Raptor posted:One of the biggest things dragging down Soul Calibur as a series is how they keep sacrificing the single-player modes on the altar of multiplayer. SCIV's was bare-bones compared to SCIII's, and SCV somehow was even worse. SCV was blasted out the door in less than a year, rushed doesn't even begin to cover how that game was done.
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# ? Jul 30, 2014 04:49 |
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U.T. Raptor posted:One of the biggest things dragging down Soul Calibur as a series is how they keep sacrificing the single-player modes on the altar of multiplayer. SCIV's was bare-bones compared to SCIII's, and SCV somehow was even worse. Anybody who thinks that the single-player experience in fighting games should be shuffled back in favor of the multiplayer should just be pointed at the PS2 Soul Caliburs and shut up. I probably had more fun with them solo than playing some actual single-player games at the time. To be honest, Soul Calibur sort of needed that, because while the actual fighting game has some good ideas both mechanically and conceptually (I like the idea of everyone using different fighting styles grounded in real-world disciplines and weapons, and having an array of different weapons with different mechanics was cool) it winds up just sort of mediocre, without enough to distinguish it. To stand out from the crowd, Soul Calibur needs that strong single-player experience. EDIT: Damnit, now I wanna play both the PS2 Soul Caliburs again. Cleretic has a new favorite as of 05:10 on Jul 30, 2014 |
# ? Jul 30, 2014 05:05 |
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gamingCaffeinator posted:Replaying Saints Row IV, and holy poo poo is the escape from Zinyak's ship mission the most annoying thing. THIS IS MY JAM!!!!!
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# ? Jul 30, 2014 05:20 |
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Action Tortoise posted:This almost broke me and hearing the song repeat over and over again made it lose its luster. I just realized that I was thinking of the wrong sequence. Whoops. Lotish posted:This is a good point, which is why stuff that has nothing to do with mechanics should be unlocked outright, like vanity costume pieces. If that stuff has mechanical applications, sure, hold on to it, but I want to look my best now dammit so if it makes no game play difference let me have it. I like unlocking cosmetic items. It depends on how games go about it. I still think Okami had a great idea with unlocks.
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# ? Jul 30, 2014 05:51 |
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Action Tortoise posted:I like unlocking cosmetic items. It depends on how games go about it. I still think Okami had a great idea with unlocks. Pretty much all of Okami's bonus unlocks were handled well. Except the String of Beads. Most of the beads were easy enough, just explore a bit and dig them up or find them in chests. And then there's Blockhead Grande. The first three Blockheads? Maybe a bit challenging, but no problem. Blockhead Grande though. 8 points to remember, in a fairly short time for them being shown. I have played through Okami several times since its initial release, and I still have never unlocked the String of Beads. AngryRobotsInc has a new favorite as of 06:38 on Jul 30, 2014 |
# ? Jul 30, 2014 06:36 |
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gamingCaffeinator posted:Replaying Saints Row IV, and holy poo poo is the escape from Zinyak's ship mission the most annoying thing. ...of SCIENCE! posted:Unlocking is a hugely important aspect of game design, not just in terms of motivation and reward but as a fairly organic way of teaching people new mechanics without overwhelming them. Unlocks being objectively terrible is another one of those "rules" made up by people with no qualifications and zero idea what they're talking about. MrJacobs posted:Using an xbox controller removes all of these problems, since it was designed for a controller in mind. Lotish posted:This is a good point, which is why stuff that has nothing to do with mechanics should be unlocked outright, like vanity costume pieces. If that stuff has mechanical applications, sure, hold on to it, but I want to look my best now dammit so if it makes no game play difference let me have it.
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# ? Jul 30, 2014 06:56 |
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Tiggum posted:I hate costume pieces that have mechanical effects. It forces you to choose between customising the character the way you want to and whatever the benefit of looking dumb is. Like in Dragon Age: Origins, I wanted to wear a cool helmet with wings on, but instead I had to wear a dumb hood thing.
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# ? Jul 30, 2014 07:49 |
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peter gabriel posted:THIS IS MY JAM!!!!! SPIN THIS SHIP, DAMMIT! MrJacobs posted:Using an xbox controller removes all of these problems, since it was designed for a controller in mind. I think the dialogue/music thing can be solved by just muting the game, and everything literally sped up and stopped sucking when I lowered the graphics settings. Also, the rescue missions were a snap on my first run, so hopefully I'll do okay this time. I've breezed through everything else since the part I was complaining about
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# ? Jul 30, 2014 08:00 |
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I don't remember a bright green one, but yeah, that looks like the sort of thing.gamingCaffeinator posted:Also, the rescue missions were a snap on my first run, so hopefully I'll do okay this time. I've breezed through everything else since the part I was complaining about
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# ? Jul 30, 2014 09:00 |
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Mokinokaro posted:Every open would game should also have something like DR2: Off the Record. A mode where the plot becomes entirely optional or non-existant. Not only would it be a nice way to unwind but it would force developers to think of their side content. At the least, it should be mandatory to allow skipping cutscenes. I really like the mechanics in Final Fantasy X, but I never did any challenge playthroughs because of the sheer amount of cutscenes it has. It's fun to retry a hard boss a few times and try to figure out a strategy that removes or minimizes luck factores, but when there's an unskippable 5 minute cutscene before the boss it wears away at my patience!
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# ? Jul 30, 2014 13:59 |
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Tiggum posted:
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# ? Jul 30, 2014 16:31 |
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# ? May 11, 2024 16:13 |
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Tiggum posted:No one's really saying all unlocks ever though. Like, no one wants to play Deus Ex: Human Revolution and be able to use all the augs immediately right from the start. But there are plenty of games that mainly exist to play against other people that have a single-player mode, and if you want to have all the options when playing against your friends then you have to play a lot of single-player. And that's bullshit. Or fighting or racing games where maybe you do want to play single-player, but not have to finish the story mode in order to access all the characters/cars/tracks/whatever. There were characters in the original version of Street Fighter 4 that had to be unlocked by beating singleplayer with every other character. Imagine being the guy who has to unlock everyone on every console for a big tournament like EVO or something. It'd be like those cartoons where Porky Pig smokes a cigarette and suddenly gets dragged down to cigarette hell and forced to smoke 1000 cigarettes
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# ? Jul 30, 2014 17:49 |