The Off-Topic Lounge: Epic Masterpiece Version

I've been playing older games lately and really enjoying them. A few days ago my brother and I played NFL gameday 97 for PS1 and tonight I played NFL Gameday 2000. Anyone remember football games other than madden?

roboccs

Yes, I remember Super High Impact and Gameday 2001 and NFL 2k5. The PS2 games were ok but at that point I was just enthralled by the openess of Tony Hawk to really care. SHI looks very close to how it played, generic and button-mashy.

I also believe I am playing old Square games, with Xenogears in the ps2, Crystal Bearers in the Wii, and Bowser's Inside Story in the DS it's like having one retro and two retro-inducing titles all thanks to Square.

For the record, Destructoid's review still can't pinpoint what that game is, but it doesn't miss what it isn't. The allusions to FFIX are spot on though (it does have chocobo hot and cold). What a lot of people are missing is how it isn't tied to kingdom hearts at all, but this horrible game that never got released in America. I know I know, it has a mini-map, direct attacks, spells, some wierd thing called rpg elements, and Z-targeting people love so much. But it sold badly because nobody wanted to play it.

I was planning on making a topic to explain everything, but I have no idea if presenting screenshots from the places they stole out of FFX and FFXII counts as system wars. They're pretty blatant too, just better looking because the Wii is totally more powerful than the PS2 ever was.

Luca looks amazing btw, I just wish they had went with Blitzball over Soccer (Futbol).

edit: Spirit Tracks is the same zelda as you played before. Many people feel dissappointment over playing similar Zelda games. The forced gameplay might have a lot to add to it though.

edit: Spirit Tracks is the same zelda as you played before. Many people feel dissappointment over playing similar Zelda games. The forced gameplay might have a lot to add to it though.

SirSpudly

It's not that it's similar, at least for me. Twilight Princess was very similar, and I thought it was the best Zelda in the series. There are a number of things that I hate about Spirit Tracks, though:

1. The train sequences are horribly boring. Like claw-your-eyes-out-with-your-fingernails boring. Not only are they horribly boring, but they also require your attention the entire time, given the way in which enemies pop out at you. This aspect of it is incredibly weird, really; the sailing sequences in Wind Waker many people thought sucked, so they made them better in Phantom Hourglass, and then they made it worse again in Spirit Tracks. Not only did they make it worse again, but they made it even worse than Wind Waker - despite the length of time between islands in Wind Waker, at least you were in total control, and were not on a set path along with the other enemies. That they somehow made the overworld navigation far worse than Wind Waker in the third game in this narrative series is really quite impressive.

2. The later dungeons are incredibly cheap in terms of level design, and some of the controls are just bad. Example:

In the Spirit Tower section immediately after the sand temple, there's a part where you have to use that sand wand thing to create a path for Zelda's possessed phantom across a sandy area to a treasure chest. Since the place you want to get to is up a level, you also have to be travelling on Zelda's shield, and simultaneously telling her to move and creating a place for her to move to. Which is awkward and frustrating enough, but then when you get to the place, you can't directly tell Link where to jump off of - he just jumps down in front, even if you tap on the ledge you want him to jump to. And then if he does that, there is no way to get him back on Zelda without going all the way back across the sand. And if Zelda falls down in the sand, she comes back on that platform, not the one from which Link can jump on her shield, meaning that you have to lead her all the way back, just so you can jump back on her shield and have another chance to cross the sand and get the treasure chest. WTF.

3. The story is terrible, at least thus far. I mean, I'm not expecting something hugely deep, considering that this is Zelda, but even with low expectations I've found it bad. Obvious spoilers:

[spoiler] So there's this evil guy named Byrne who apparently wants to be stronger than the spirits or something, so he's like "I'm gonna resurrect the big evil demon thing and tell it to make me strong because obviously that will go well! What could possibly go wrong?" When he's first making off with Zelda's body, he defeats that guy who was like the captain of the guards and who was the best warrior in the land, but then you manage to beat him. Oh yeah, and along the way you restore all of the spirit tracks which served to bind the big evil guy but doing so apparently serves no purpose whatsoever. Also, the ceremony at the top of the tower to put the evil bad guy in Zelda's body would have been kind of hard to do had the top of the tower been floating in the middle of nowhere. Then when all is lost, Anjean is like "oh yeah there's this light bow thing" so you go get it and then she's like "by the way here's a sword I had all this time but didn't give to you until now for no explained reason lol". I'm just like "really?" [/spoiler]

Is anyone else playing Spirit Tracks?

I haven't beaten it yet, so of course the game might still change between now and the end (I just beat the sand temple), but I'm honestly experiencing something rather strange and foreign at the moment, which is, well, disappointment in a Zelda game. I don't know if I'm just not getting it, or if I'm playing it wrong, or whatever, but the game just... isn't really that good, to be honest.

I actually think spirit tracks is way better than phantom hourglass.

I hated the sailing, so atleast the train is something new (and blowing the whistle is awesome).

I hated the temple of the ocean king and the spirit tower is way better. No time limit, and no repeating the same thing.

i have only beaten the first two temples so far (I couldn't play after i got my wisdom teeth out, because it hurt to much to blow), but i am liking it a lot better than PH.

Also pan flute = win

DESKTOP IS RESTORED!

Oh man, it wouldn't turn on yesterday but after some trouble shooting it was the power supply and now we're good to go!

Christmas is saved!

That's hilarious Gabu, it's starting to sound like a final fantasy game, on rails.

No wonder America got the game first. Reggie always did have an eye for quality product!

:P

It's not that it's similar, at least for me. Twilight Princess was very similar, and I thought it was the best Zelda in the series. There are a number of things that I hate about Spirit Tracks, though:

1. The train sequences are horribly boring. Like claw-your-eyes-out-with-your-fingernails boring. Not only are they horribly boring, but they also require your attention the entire time, given the way in which enemies pop out at you. This aspect of it is incredibly weird, really; the sailing sequences in Wind Waker many people thought sucked, so they made them better in Phantom Hourglass, and then they made it worse again in Spirit Tracks. Not only did they make it worse again, but they made it even worse than Wind Waker - despite the length of time between islands in Wind Waker, at least you were in total control, and were not on a set path along with the other enemies. That they somehow made the overworld navigation far worse than Wind Waker in the third game in this narrative series is really quite impressive.

2. The later dungeons are incredibly cheap in terms of level design, and some of the controls are just bad. Example:

In the Spirit Tower section immediately after the sand temple, there's a part where you have to use that sand wand thing to create a path for Zelda's possessed phantom across a sandy area to a treasure chest. Since the place you want to get to is up a level, you also have to be travelling on Zelda's shield, and simultaneously telling her to move and creating a place for her to move to. Which is awkward and frustrating enough, but then when you get to the place, you can't directly tell Link where to jump off of - he just jumps down in front, even if you tap on the ledge you want him to jump to. And then if he does that, there is no way to get him back on Zelda without going all the way back across the sand. And if Zelda falls down in the sand, she comes back on that platform, not the one from which Link can jump on her shield, meaning that you have to lead her all the way back, just so you can jump back on her shield and have another chance to cross the sand and get the treasure chest. WTF.

3. The story is terrible, at least thus far. I mean, I'm not expecting something hugely deep, considering that this is Zelda, but even with low expectations I've found it bad. GabuEx

I agree with pretty much everything. I beat the game 3 days ago. Alfonzo had no real purpose at all. There are some occasional sword and control issues. And that sword that Anjean had was completely random. I don't think the story was terrible, just very predictable. Chancellor Cole only appears twice in the entire game, at the very beginning and at the very end. You don't even fight him either, not directly anyway.

Yes, going on train was boring, and the same few obstacles were in the way so you had to be alert. At least in Windwaker you were eventually granted several warp points eventually. I didn't see any of those in Spirit Tracks. Next up,

I agree with the Sand Wand part, It was completely frustrating constantly switching back and forth and using it and putting it away. On top of all that there's a short time limit til the freekin sand falls. When Link jumps the Phantom has to be precise because if it isn't and Link jumps off and misses, he falls into the lava and you have to start all over. :x:x Next is the Tower of Spirits that just got plain cheap and difficult only because the entire dang area was dark and often wander around mindlessly because you can't see a thing AND you have to run from the Phantoms.

And that's my rant on the negative aspects of Spirit Tracks.

Could it be? Has Nintendo started messing up their own top franchises? Could this be the downfall of Nintendo?snowman6251

Quite the opposite, you'll be hearing about these two games for years.

Decades even.

[QUOTE="snowman6251"]Could it be? Has Nintendo started messing up their own top franchises? Could this be the downfall of Nintendo?SirSpudly

Quite the opposite, you'll be hearing about these two games for years.

Decades even.

its so pretty in here :oops:

its so pretty in here :oops:

starwarsjunky

[QUOTE="starwarsjunky"]

its so pretty in here :oops:

snowman6251

[QUOTE="snowman6251"][QUOTE="starwarsjunky"]

its so pretty in here :oops:

link027

As the two examples of when Nintendo screwed up then got back on track?snowman6251

Jason was spot on with his analysis that this is the new direction for Nintendo titles, as they sell more than the games of old. Considering how well the Iwata Asks have been outing which titles Nintendo looks down upon, it is very clear that Twiight Princess will have nothing to do with the further direction of Nintendo games.

I had enough trouble finishing PH. When I would pick up my DS and see that was the game inside I had to rally behind the "At least you only paid $12 for this" cry just to eek out my money's worth. There's a good reason why Spirit Tracks sells for $25 in stores, Nintedo should never have charged full price.

Good thing nobody is telling kids this, we're already seeing "Twilight Princess is a hidden gem" and "Are there games harder than Zelda" on the boards. I expect this to be the new norm for years to come.

[QUOTE="snowman6251"] As the two examples of when Nintendo screwed up then got back on track?SirSpudly

Jason was spot on with his analysis that this is the new direction for Nintendo titles, as they sell more than the games of old. Considering how well the Iwata Asks have been outing which titles Nintendo looks down upon, it is very clear that Twiight Princess will have nothing to do with the further direction of Nintendo games.

I had enough trouble finishing PH. When I would pick up my DS and see that was the game inside I had to rally behind the "At least you only paid $12 for this" cry just to eek out my money's worth. There's a good reason why Spirit Tracks sells for $25 in stores, Nintedo should never have charged full price.

Good thing nobody is telling kids this, we're already seeing "Twilight Princess is a hidden gem" and "Are there games harder than Zelda" on the boards. I expect this to be the new norm for years to come.

[QUOTE="snowman6251"] As the two examples of when Nintendo screwed up then got back on track?SirSpudly

Jason was spot on with his analysis that this is the new direction for Nintendo titles, as they sell more than the games of old. Considering how well the Iwata Asks have been outing which titles Nintendo looks down upon, it is very clear that Twiight Princess will have nothing to do with the further direction of Nintendo games.

I had enough trouble finishing PH. When I would pick up my DS and see that was the game inside I had to rally behind the "At least you only paid $12 for this" cry just to eek out my money's worth. There's a good reason why Spirit Tracks sells for $25 in stores, Nintedo should never have charged full price.

Good thing nobody is telling kids this, we're already seeing "Twilight Princess is a hidden gem" and "Are there games harder than Zelda" on the boards. I expect this to be the new norm for years to come.

I guess we'll have to wait and see, but that's the weird part about Spirit Tracks: not only do I think it kind of sucks, but it also isn't even what I would personally call casual friendly. The later dungeons make me want to kill myself because of the (mostly enragingly artificial) difficulty. This game is probably the hardest Zelda I've ever played (or at least the most frustrating), except perhaps Zelda II (I never beat that one, ever). If this game was supposed to be part of Nintendo's plans to open Zelda up for casual players, then in my evaluation they somehow failed at that, too.

And another thing: how in the world did they manage to put Link in a train and yet have it still feel like the exact same game? I mean when I first heard that, I was like "oh neat, they're doing something different this time around" LOL NOPE

****.

Wowowowowow my exams which I thought I bombed, I PASSED ALL OF THEM. TIME TO GAME. :DJebranRush

I for one am liking spirit tracks way more than PH for a number of reasons.

1. this is the most challenging zelda in years. Although that's not really saying much really but it's still notable.

2. It actually has a decent amount of sidequests. Something that both PH and TP sorely lacked.

3. You can refight bosses.

4. You don't have to backtrack though the main dungeon.

5. The music is actually awesome.

in all honesty the game feels like a step up in every way possible except for the mode of transportation.

Heh... this quote is kinda humorous:

I have a Nvidia Geforce 5200 FX . Is that good enough? If it isnt please recommend one that i can download free without buying.SuperFlusher

Almost sig worthy, in my opinion :P

1. this is the most challenging zelda in years. Although that's not really saying much really but it's still notable.

Shinobishyguy

I would be totally fine with that if it were what I consider real difficulty, but far too often I find it to just be artificial difficulty - it feels like it's difficult not because I suck at the game, but because the game sucks at understanding what the **** I want it to do.

I just looked through the genre awards in GameSpot's Best of 2009 feature. Thus far, over the course of the entire feature, I've seen like two award recipients that I actually agreed with. Needless to say, I kind of think we're on divergent wavelengths... :P

[QUOTE="Shinobishyguy"]

1. this is the most challenging zelda in years. Although that's not really saying much really but it's still notable.

GabuEx

I would be totally fine with that if it were what I consider real difficulty, but far too often I find it to just be artificial difficulty - it feels like it's difficult not because I suck at the game, but because the game sucks and understanding what the **** I want it to do.

lesser of the two evils imho

I'd rather have slightly "cheap" difficulty than have a game thats a complete pushover.

lesser of the two evils imho

Shinobishyguy

How exactly does the fun level increase by making Link jump into the lava because he didn't know what you were telling him to do?

Seriously, I can't count the number of times I was like "NO! **** YOU! JUMP ON THE GOD DAMN LEDGE! DON'T THROW THE ****ING THING IN THE LAVA AGAIN!"

[QUOTE="Shinobishyguy"]

I'd rather have slightly "cheap" difficulty than have a game thats a complete pushover.

lesser of the two evils imho

GabuEx

How exactly does the fun level increase by making Link jump into the lava because he didn't know what you were telling him to do?

Seriously, I can't count the number of times I was like "NO! **** YOU! JUMP ON THE GOD DAMN LEDGE! DON'T THROW THE ****ING THING IN THE LAVA AGAIN!"

When he's holding something you should keep the stylus on the screen to move with the object :P

It smells alot like Christmas, guys. :)

It smells alot like Christmas, guys. :)

movin_target

[QUOTE="movin_target"]

It smells alot like Christmas, guys. :)

bob_newman

[QUOTE="movin_target"]

It smells alot like Christmas, guys. :)

bob_newman

[QUOTE="movin_target"]

It smells alot like Christmas, guys. :)

bob_newman

You guys actually thought Spirit Tracks was very challenging? .......harder than , Four Swords Windwaker, Four Swords Adventures, Minish Cap, Twilight Princess....(haven't played Phantom Hourglass)

Now that I think about it, I think Spirit Tracks really is the most difficult Zelda since Oracle of Ages / Oracle of Seasons (minus my not playing PH). Those two still top ST in difficulty.

I'd rather have slightly "cheap" difficulty than have a game thats a complete pushover.

Seriously, I can't count the number of times I was like "NO! **** YOU! JUMP ON THE GOD DAMN LEDGE! DON'T THROW THE ****ING THING IN THE LAVA AGAIN!" GabuEx

:lol: I had the SAME problem, with those arrow beacons. Frustraing, but kind of funny after thinking about it afterwards. And I beat Zelda 2 :P but I had to copy a youtube guide exactly after the 3rd dungeon.

You guys actually thought Spirit Tracks was very challenging? .......harder than , Four Swords Windwaker, Four Swords Adventures, Minish Cap, Twilight Princess....(haven't played Phantom Hourglass)

Now that I think about it, I think Spirit Tracks really is the most difficult Zelda since Oracle of Ages / Oracle of Seasons (minus my not playing PH). Those two still top ST in difficulty.

[QUOTE="GabuEx"] I'd rather have slightly "cheap" difficulty than have a game thats a complete pushover.

Seriously, I can't count the number of times I was like "NO! **** YOU! JUMP ON THE GOD DAMN LEDGE! DON'T THROW THE ****ING THING IN THE LAVA AGAIN!"

:lol: I had the SAME problem, with those arrow beacons. Frustraing, but kind of funny after thinking about it afterwards. And I beat Zelda 2 :P but I had to copy a youtube guide exactly after the 3rd dungeon.

[QUOTE="wiifan001"]

You guys actually thought Spirit Tracks was very challenging? .......harder than , Four Swords Windwaker, Four Swords Adventures, Minish Cap, Twilight Princess....(haven't played Phantom Hourglass)

Now that I think about it, I think Spirit Tracks really is the most difficult Zelda since Oracle of Ages / Oracle of Seasons (minus my not playing PH). Those two still top ST in difficulty.

Shinobishyguy

Wow, they actually ported COD4 to Wii? O_O

Haha... guess they got their wish. I didn't expect one of the games they wanted ported, would be :lol:

"Can the biggest shooter of all time hope to succeed on the weakest system of this generation? Well, World at War did..."

:|... Well, to each his own I guess >_>

edit: I meant that mostly towards them saying "COD4 was biggest shooter of all time", though I don't think the second statement was correct either. He probably meant the weakest of the big 3 home consoles

Does anyone know where ag went? He hasn't been online since October... :(

-CoD4 online basically comes to a standstill, leaving room for the wii version's internet garrett_duffman

I think a lot of PC gamers were mad because the didn't allow dedicated servers, or something

Does anyone know where ag went? He hasn't been online since October... :(

JordanElek

Sucks that one of the regulars here is gone, though.

This is my favorite holiday story so far this season. :lol:

This is my favorite holiday story so far this season. :lol:

JordanElek

Well, HarvestMoon gone done it again. I just for Sunshine Islands and decided to give it a quick whirl before bed. I meant to get to bed at a decent hour tonight since I need to get up a bit early tomorrow. I figured, just try a couple of days or so. At the end of each day, of course I said "Why not try one more day, just one more day". It is now 3:30 in the morning.

Damn you Harvest Moon, damn you. I see this being a big problem with my list of other games to beat over the holiday break.

Well, HarvestMoon gone done it again. I just for Sunshine Islands and decided to give it a quick whirl before bed. I meant to get to bed at a decent hour tonight since I need to get up a bit early tomorrow. I figured, just try a couple of days or so. At the end of each day, of course I said "Why not try one more day, just one more day". It is now 3:30 in the morning.

Damn you Harvest Moon, damn you. I see this being a big problem with my list of other games to beat over the holiday break.

_BlueDuck_

Ahh, never-ending games, what would our sleep schedules be without you? :P

You might remember from a while back when I mentioned that I enjoy the Bookworm games from Popcap. Well, to prove how huge a nerd I am, today just for the heck of it I wrote an application in C# that lets me cheat at it by taking in as input the set of letters I have available and spitting back out the full list of words (from longest to shortest) that one can make from those letters.

Here are the words that I had to go look up in a dictionary prior to using them:

anapaests
headwater
flagitious
phylacteries
bifurcate
hobnail
septicaemia
ulceratively
gujarati
zymurgy

Also, my word list was apparently better than theirs, as I additionally stumped it on these (both real words):

rampageous
geodesies

This app currently only works for Bookworm Adventures - I plan to make another one later (now that I've proven that mining the entire list of words in the English language can be done in a reasonable length of time) for the original Bookworm and see how ridiculously astronomical I can make my score there. :P

EDIT: Stumped it again on "boutonnieres".

You might remember from a while back when I mentioned that I enjoy the Bookworm games from Popcap. Well, to prove how huge a nerd I am, today just for the heck of it I wrote an application in C# that lets me cheat at it by taking in as input the set of letters I have available and spitting back out the full list of words (from longest to shortest) that one can make from those letters.

Here are the words that I had to go look up in a dictionary prior to using them:

anapaests
headwater
flagitious
phylacteries
bifurcate
hobnail
septicaemia
ulceratively
gujarati
zymurgy

Also, my word list was apparently better than theirs, as I additionally stumped it on these (both real words):

rampageous
geodesies

This app currently only works for Bookworm Adventures - I plan to make another one later (now that I've proven that mining the entire list of words in the English language can be done in a reasonable length of time) for the original Bookworm and see how ridiculously astronomical I can make my score there. :P

EDIT: Stumped it again on "boutonnieres".

GabuEx

There's this thing called a dictionary. I would imagine it would render word mining software unnecessary.

snowman6251

You can't tell a dictionary, "Here are sixteen letters. Tell me what the longest words are that I can make with them." That's what my program does.