Remember Rise of Nations? Where you could zoom out really far away. So far that your peasants were only about 5 pixels high. RTS game designers... please let us zoom out further. I know you want to force us to look at your pretty 3d graphics, but strategy gamers don't care about graphics as much as seeing more of the battleground.
Case in point: Rise of Legends. I can barely zoom out enough to see beyond the city I've built up. The zoom seems like it's about the same as RoN3... which is a pathetic amount.
That GTA4 "Tattoo" looks like it's of the lick-and-stick variety. It's almost impossible to get white tattoo pigments to show up at all in skin, let alone make it look THAT white.
I think it's funny that people bash Nintendo for reusing the same characters over and over again, and yet Sega does it year after year.
The difference between their methodology is that Nintendo uses it to bring familiarity to their game titles and provides a unique environment for the characters. The 'mario' line of characters are versitile enough to fit into all of these various game generes and it works fantastically in most situations.
Sega? They bastardize every game with Sonic in it and use their familiar character branding to shovel piles or crap down consumer's throats. Shame on you, Sega... shame.
I would be very interested in the Wii if there were HD support. All of the last generation consoles look like absolute crap on an HDTV because of the 640x480 resolution. Sorry Nintendo, but my Pentium 3 can provide state of the art graphics at 640x480, it doesn't take much processing power to do HD resolutions (despite what Microsoft says.)
It's time for a favorite activity of mine... punching holes in people's arguments!
"a. never played the game" -- I've played through Halo 1 and Halo 2. And have played the multiplayer portions extensively.
"b. dislike the FPS genre" -- First Person Shooters are my genre of choice. I have spent several hundreds of hours playing Counterstrike, Unreal Tournament, Quake, etc.
"c. didn't get a chance to play either on a LAN or Live with friends" -- As stated above, I have played the multiplayer of both Halo 1 and Halo 2 extensively. I have around 50+ hours of multiplayer logged between the two games.
"d. can't adjust to using a analog controller" -- Although it is inferior to the PC's Mouse and Keyboard combo, I have mastered the two analog stick combo system that is present in Halo.
"e. just aren't very good at Halo" -- I'm almost always #1 or #2 when playing on a LAN; in the single-player campaign, I have beaten it on Hard mode. I'll never play it on Legendary because frustration never equals fun.
Halo 1 multiplayer was fantastic at first... but as soon as the 'wow' factor wears off, it boils down to who can find the sniper rifle or rocket launcher. That and the unbalanced pistol made the whole experience rather lackluster. There are really only 3 maps worth playing, but with the customization it added some replayability.
Halo 2 multiplayer was more of the same. I honestly did not feel that the multiplayer was any different than Halo 1 other than the overpowered melee weapon and new craptacular map design.
Halo 1 single player was fun in co-op, but after beating it once, there is no reason to return. The level design is some of the worst in any game I've played and the Flood are annoying as hell.
Halo 2 single player was fun until you get to about the half way point. The plot is non-sensical, the enemies are the same as the previous game, the weapons are the same, they even tacked on the Flood just to annoy me. The one thing it had going for it was very creative level design. But the ending was a joke, just as the game was ramping up to an epic finale, they end the game.
I am a big Xbox fan and I do salute Halo for what it did right, but I simply do not like the game.
As with all previous Phantasy Star Online games, there will be a $5/mo "Hunter's License" fee that you will have to pay in order to play online. This is seperate from the Xbox Live fee and I doubt that the XBL gold would include this.
I'd assume this gives you full access to Phantasy Star Online Episode 1, 2, and 3 as well as Phantasy Star Universe.
Phantasy Star Online for the Xbox was a horrible experience due to the hackers that flooded the market with money and rare items. Luckly the Gamecube version was on a seperate network, so it did not affect everybody.
I'm hoping that the xbox, PC, and PS2 versions are kept seperate in regards to online play. I'm also hoping that they have good anti-hacking measures in place to prevent the online game from becoming an absolute disaster.
I'll pick up the PC version, definately! I put in over 100 hours on the Gamecube version in offline mode.
Metareview - Rise of Legends
May 23rd 2006 10:55AM (Joystiq)Case in point: Rise of Legends. I can barely zoom out enough to see beyond the city I've built up. The zoom seems like it's about the same as RoN3... which is a pathetic amount.
UK PlayStation 3 comes in at £425, Sony loses its marbles
May 18th 2006 12:35PM (Joystiq)Hands on with Huxley
May 10th 2006 4:22PM (Joystiq)Engadget & Joystiq's live coverage of Microsoft's Xbox 360 E3 event
May 9th 2006 3:37PM (Joystiq)Sonic Wildfire for Wii announced
May 9th 2006 11:38AM (Joystiq)The difference between their methodology is that Nintendo uses it to bring familiarity to their game titles and provides a unique environment for the characters. The 'mario' line of characters are versitile enough to fit into all of these various game generes and it works fantastically in most situations.
Sega? They bastardize every game with Sonic in it and use their familiar character branding to shovel piles or crap down consumer's throats. Shame on you, Sega... shame.
Engadget & Joystiq's live coverage of Nintendo's Wii E3 event
May 9th 2006 10:33AM (Joystiq)Halo 3 at E3, Microsoft to preview at news conference [update 1]
Apr 28th 2006 4:04PM (Joystiq)"a. never played the game"
-- I've played through Halo 1 and Halo 2. And have played the multiplayer portions extensively.
"b. dislike the FPS genre"
-- First Person Shooters are my genre of choice. I have spent several hundreds of hours playing Counterstrike, Unreal Tournament, Quake, etc.
"c. didn't get a chance to play either on a LAN or Live with friends"
-- As stated above, I have played the multiplayer of both Halo 1 and Halo 2 extensively. I have around 50+ hours of multiplayer logged between the two games.
"d. can't adjust to using a analog controller"
-- Although it is inferior to the PC's Mouse and Keyboard combo, I have mastered the two analog stick combo system that is present in Halo.
"e. just aren't very good at Halo"
-- I'm almost always #1 or #2 when playing on a LAN; in the single-player campaign, I have beaten it on Hard mode. I'll never play it on Legendary because frustration never equals fun.
Halo 1 multiplayer was fantastic at first... but as soon as the 'wow' factor wears off, it boils down to who can find the sniper rifle or rocket launcher. That and the unbalanced pistol made the whole experience rather lackluster. There are really only 3 maps worth playing, but with the customization it added some replayability.
Halo 2 multiplayer was more of the same. I honestly did not feel that the multiplayer was any different than Halo 1 other than the overpowered melee weapon and new craptacular map design.
Halo 1 single player was fun in co-op, but after beating it once, there is no reason to return. The level design is some of the worst in any game I've played and the Flood are annoying as hell.
Halo 2 single player was fun until you get to about the half way point. The plot is non-sensical, the enemies are the same as the previous game, the weapons are the same, they even tacked on the Flood just to annoy me. The one thing it had going for it was very creative level design. But the ending was a joke, just as the game was ramping up to an epic finale, they end the game.
I am a big Xbox fan and I do salute Halo for what it did right, but I simply do not like the game.
Halo 3 at E3, Microsoft to preview at news conference [update 1]
Apr 28th 2006 1:12PM (Joystiq)Gans to direct Onimusha film
Apr 26th 2006 5:18PM (Joystiq)Please stop making crappy movies based on games.
Sincerely Yours,
Everybody.
Phantasy Star Universe hits Xbox 360 in '06
Apr 19th 2006 2:02PM (Joystiq)I'd assume this gives you full access to Phantasy Star Online Episode 1, 2, and 3 as well as Phantasy Star Universe.
Phantasy Star Online for the Xbox was a horrible experience due to the hackers that flooded the market with money and rare items. Luckly the Gamecube version was on a seperate network, so it did not affect everybody.
I'm hoping that the xbox, PC, and PS2 versions are kept seperate in regards to online play. I'm also hoping that they have good anti-hacking measures in place to prevent the online game from becoming an absolute disaster.
I'll pick up the PC version, definately! I put in over 100 hours on the Gamecube version in offline mode.