All the way through?

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nesfan
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Re: All the way through?

Postby nesfan » February 20th, 2021, 11:32 pm

I just played through Metal Slug XX on PS4.

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nesfan
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Re: All the way through?

Postby nesfan » March 1st, 2021, 2:41 am

I just beat Conker's Bad Fur Day for N64. I have mixed feelings about this one. I generally dislike Rare games outside of Donkey Kong Country. I hated Banjo Kazooie and was expecting to hate Conker as well. But I didn't. I actually liked it a lot. As far as 3D platformers go, I really enjoyed Conker's approach of having this wide open environment to explore and find your various objectives. I like that a lot more than having levels with a bunch of random garbage for you to pick up in every nook and cranny of the stages. When Conker was a platformer, it was an excellent one. It's when Conker dares to deviate from the platforming gameplay that the game becomes a godawful mess. Dragging villagers around as a bat was aggravating. Shooting teddy bears on the beach was a nightmare. And the lava race was one of the most frustrating things I've ever experienced. The first half of the game was very good but something unfortunate happened to the second half. There were these extreme difficulty spikes randomly placed throughout the second half. It's like one minute you're playing a fun platformer and the next, the game just punishes you with an awkward new game mechanic that it expects you to be an expert at. And then it goes back to being a fun platformer. I died so many times to the lava race that I couldn't even be mad at it anymore. It got to the point where playing it just made me bored and sad and I just wanted it to be over. It was one of the worst feelings I've ever gotten from a game. I enjoyed Conker for the most part but that second half of the game ensured that I would never play it again. Yet, it's still my favorite Rare 3D platformer, for what it's worth.

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Retro STrife
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Re: All the way through?

Postby Retro STrife » March 1st, 2021, 3:02 pm

nesfan wrote:I just beat Conker's Bad Fur Day for N64. I have mixed feelings about this one.


I beat Conker back in the day on N64 and was really disappointed. I was really looking forward to it, thinking "finally a funny video game" and "finally an adult-themed game". Those didn't exist back then, so it was a big deal. Sadly, even at that younger age, Conker was barely funny and not remotely "adult".. more just childish. Then a couple years ago, I played the Xbox remaster that originally came out in 2005. I played like an hour or two, and was even less impressed. The antiquated 3D platforming just didn't hold up today IMO. So now it was an obnoxious premise slapped onto obnoxious gameplay.

Thinking back to my original N64 playthrough, one memory that sticks with me is the Matrix-style level toward the end. I was really impressed by that back then and loved it. What'd you think of that part? I'm curious if it still held up.

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VideoGameCritic
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Re: All the way through?

Postby VideoGameCritic » March 1st, 2021, 8:58 pm

nesfan - I like your descriptive writing about the gameplay. Several times I thought to myself "I know exactly what he's talking about"

Buttermancan
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Re: All the way through?

Postby Buttermancan » March 2nd, 2021, 5:20 am

VideoGameCritic wrote:nesfan - I like your descriptive writing about the gameplay. Several times I thought to myself "I know exactly what he's talking about"


It reminds me of your style of writing which is high praise in my opinion.

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Re: All the way through?

Postby Buttermancan » March 2nd, 2021, 5:25 am

I finished the first Halo again last night on Heroic difficulty (Master Chief Collection). Still holds up!
I think it's fantastic. It does drag on a bit towards the end and the flood sections are over used but the game is very atmospheric. I think I've played it through more than 5 times since it's release but it's been about ten years on from the previous playthrough.

Robotrek
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Re: All the way through?

Postby Robotrek » March 2nd, 2021, 11:27 am

I adore this topic. It's been around for more than a decade and still very active!

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nesfan
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Re: All the way through?

Postby nesfan » March 3rd, 2021, 2:01 am

Retro Strife - The Matrix part was awkward, in my opinion. It wasn't terrible, it just felt inconsistent. There would be parts where the enemies would unload a bunch of bullets while you're hiding behind a pillar and then they'd stop and usually that means it's safe to jump. But sometimes, I'd get immediately knocked out of my jump by a bullet anyway. And sometimes, they'd still find a way to shoot me even though I was hiding behind a pillar. And aiming with the N64's control stick while jumping did not feel good. Although admittedly, lag could have played a part in that. I might have had a better time with it had I played on a CRT. The final boss came after that part and that was another exercise in frustration. It had two attacks: a tail swipe and a lunge. You countered one by jumping and the other by blocking. You had barely half a second to react to any telegraphing so you had to resort to guessing what the boss would do and I hemorrhaged lives because I just wasn't good at reading the A.I.'s mind. That was especially disappointing because up til that point, I considered the bosses to be one of the better parts of the game. I had a lot of fun with all of the other bosses. The last boss was the outlier and unfortunately, the note the game ended on.

VGC and Buttermancan - I appreciate the kind words about my writing!

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nesfan
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Re: All the way through?

Postby nesfan » March 3rd, 2021, 9:47 pm

I just completed the 400 Days DLC for The Walking Dead on PS3.

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Retro STrife
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Re: All the way through?

Postby Retro STrife » March 4th, 2021, 8:31 am

nesfan wrote:Retro Strife - The Matrix part was awkward, in my opinion. It wasn't terrible, it just felt inconsistent.


Yeah, I had a feeling it wouldn't hold up the same way today. Nowadays those bullet-time style sequences have been everywhere, so it doesn't have the same impact. But Conker actually came out a few months before Max Payne, which I think was the first game to really capitalize on the concept. I loved Max Payne, probably one of my favorite games of that era. But I hadn't played it yet when I played Conker. So that slow motion gunplay was way more impressive to me in 2001 than it would be now.


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