Justin Hopewell

Member since: Dec 14th, 2006

Justin Hopewell's Latest Comments

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Joystiq	3 Comments

CG cutscenes and gaming culture

Jan 3rd 2007 3:35PM (Joystiq)

I have to agree with ChrisBo. Half-life and Half-life 2 had very engaging cutscenes, because it never felt like you were going into a cutscene. You never lost complete control of your character. On the other hand, I do enjoy the cutscenes in the MGS series and the Final Fantasy series because so much care and work went into them. A lot of games have cutscenes just for the sake of having them; its pretty much expected now. And they're not always that great.

Two things that drive me crazy are: A) Watching a load screen for a minute or so only to discover it was loading a cutscene instead of a playable part of the game and B) Cutscenes that cannot be skipped, even if you've already watched it (ex. you die and restart at a checkpoint that happens to be right before a cutscene trigger).

A lot of us older gamers don't have a lot of free-time, so we value every minute we have.

-justin hopewell

vNES has 575 games: Demo and consider future VC titles

Dec 30th 2006 8:51PM (Joystiq)

Piracy is illegal, but five dollars for a 20+ year old NES game on the VC is highway robbery.

Its easy to say that you can try a game out on an emulator and then, enjoying it, decide to purchase it. Its a lot harder to actually plunk down five dollars to play it on another emulator with a cooler controller.

I've bought a few games on the VC, but I definitely have buyer's remorse after paying 8.00 dollars for Ecco the Dolphin, another 8.00 for Toe Jam and Earl (why do people like that game again?), and 6.00 for Bomberman 95. The only game I feel was worth 8.00 was Castlevania IV, but I'd like to actually own a tangible version of it instead of a digital copy for that price.

-justin

Guitar Hero benches big leaguer

Dec 14th 2006 11:48AM (Joystiq)

I notice my left arm gets sore when I play the game more than my right arm, which is doing the strumming, and what would seem, more strenous muscle activity. I think it has to do with the length of the neck. Its so damn short that my hand is in an unnatural position. I've played real guitar for about 3 years and my arm never hurts the way it does after I play GH. Anyone know if those third party guitars have longer necks? And, if so, do they work with GH:2?

-justin