User Notice 789 Posts Found by G@mehe@d
07-26-17 09:52 PM
| ID: 1345404 | 37 Words
| ID: 1345404 | 37 Words
I tend to repeat albums over and over but rarely individual songs. Sometimes I'll binge listen to an entire band for months and move on to another and come back to said band and repeat the process. |
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Affected by 'Laziness Syndrome'
Registered: 05-20-12
Location: Texas
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Affected by 'Laziness Syndrome'
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07-26-17 09:50 PM
| ID: 1345403 | 168 Words
| ID: 1345403 | 168 Words
I absolutely love the original Blade Runner. I'm a huge nerd for excellent set design and atmosphere. I'm also a huge fan of movies that have a lot of depth and meaning while making those things subtle. Blade Runner has both of these things. Because of it, cyberpunk is one of my favorite genres for anything ever. I love its gloomy neon aesthetic, the acting just.... everything Although a movie that comes close to my favorite for me is Rocky. It's not quite as deep as Blade Runner, but I love the writing and characters and its just an example that I'd use as a movie that develops its characters well. It also helped me get through a pretty rough break up I had a few weeks ago. It inspired me to actually go out into the world and be someone. Few movies can do that for me, but that one does. Akira is another one of my favorites. Favorite movie is still Blade Runner for me though. I love its gloomy neon aesthetic, the acting just.... everything Although a movie that comes close to my favorite for me is Rocky. It's not quite as deep as Blade Runner, but I love the writing and characters and its just an example that I'd use as a movie that develops its characters well. It also helped me get through a pretty rough break up I had a few weeks ago. It inspired me to actually go out into the world and be someone. Few movies can do that for me, but that one does. Akira is another one of my favorites. Favorite movie is still Blade Runner for me though. |
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Affected by 'Laziness Syndrome'
Registered: 05-20-12
Location: Texas
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Affected by 'Laziness Syndrome'
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07-26-17 09:38 PM
| ID: 1345402 | 37 Words
| ID: 1345402 | 37 Words
I'll just call it Xbox One Ultra Hyper Tournament Edition 4K In all seriousness, I like Scorpio more... maybe xxXX Xbox One XXxx Would work. I don't know. Xbox One in of itself is a stupid name. In all seriousness, I like Scorpio more... maybe xxXX Xbox One XXxx Would work. I don't know. Xbox One in of itself is a stupid name. |
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Affected by 'Laziness Syndrome'
Registered: 05-20-12
Location: Texas
Last Post: 2986 days
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Affected by 'Laziness Syndrome'
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07-18-17 11:17 AM
| ID: 1344689 | 4 Words
| ID: 1344689 | 4 Words
Mario Clash (Virtual Boy) |
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Affected by 'Laziness Syndrome'
Registered: 05-20-12
Location: Texas
Last Post: 2986 days
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Affected by 'Laziness Syndrome'
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07-18-17 11:13 AM
| ID: 1344688 | 58 Words
| ID: 1344688 | 58 Words
I would take the Sega Genesis, so many great games for the system and its library really caters to my tastes. I also have a lot of nostalgia for the system (I had one when I was really young well after its heyday) so playing on it got me through some of the roughest parts of my life. |
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Affected by 'Laziness Syndrome'
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07-18-17 11:09 AM
| ID: 1344687 | 60 Words
| ID: 1344687 | 60 Words
I guess it's a neat thing, I personally haven't played it so perhaps this could be a way for me to get into it. Though to be honest, it feels a tad bit unnecessary considering the fact that a toaster could run Undertale, but I hear that there's going to be a collectors edition so maybe that'll justify the re-release. Though to be honest, it feels a tad bit unnecessary considering the fact that a toaster could run Undertale, but I hear that there's going to be a collectors edition so maybe that'll justify the re-release. |
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Affected by 'Laziness Syndrome'
Registered: 05-20-12
Location: Texas
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Affected by 'Laziness Syndrome'
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07-17-17 01:31 PM
| ID: 1344613 | 80 Words
| ID: 1344613 | 80 Words
I doubt this will compete with Sony and Microsoft, Atari just doesn't have the financial backing to market and manufacture a full scale console effectively. It would just be crushed. However, I do feel that it would be a great emulation platform, and honestly I'm a fan of the consoles design. I'm hoping I'm wrong though, if some magical miracle happened and Atari actually came out with a legitimate competitor to the big 3. That would be very cool indeed. However, I do feel that it would be a great emulation platform, and honestly I'm a fan of the consoles design. I'm hoping I'm wrong though, if some magical miracle happened and Atari actually came out with a legitimate competitor to the big 3. That would be very cool indeed. |
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G@mehe@d
Level: 58
POSTS: 782/789
POST EXP: 93508
LVL EXP: 1548080
CP: 5805.7
VIZ: 21016
POSTS: 782/789
POST EXP: 93508
LVL EXP: 1548080
CP: 5805.7
VIZ: 21016
Likes: 1 Dislikes: 0
For me, it really depends on what the game is trying to do. If its a game about skill mastery or demands mechanical precision. 2D is definitely the better option (though some 3D games do it alright). If its a narrative driven game or a game that features a lot of systems (like physics and AI and the like) and open ended design (like say the original Deus Ex and System Shocks) I think 3D is a superior approach. That being said there's a place for both perspectives, and as long as the game uses it's chosen dimension correctly I don't really care what viewpoint I'm playing the game at as long as it helps compliment and works with the games design. That being said there's a place for both perspectives, and as long as the game uses it's chosen dimension correctly I don't really care what viewpoint I'm playing the game at as long as it helps compliment and works with the games design. |
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Affected by 'Laziness Syndrome'
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Affected by 'Laziness Syndrome'
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08-06-16 07:43 PM
| ID: 1294200 | 1207 Words
| ID: 1294200 | 1207 Words
Unreal is truly something special. A game that, in the grand scheme of things, isn't really well remembered. Yet is still a true masterpiece with design elements that were well ahead of it's time (1998) Of course Unreal started development well before that, in fact it was initially going to be the "Doom killer" but development lasted a heck of a lot longer then that, and after constant delays, Unreal was finally released to the public on April 30th 1998. Despite the long development, Unreal's launch was not exactly great. Numerous bugs and performance issues with non Glide compatible 3D accelerators were of the main problems. While all of this was certainly not good. They didn't keep the game from being bad, in fact Unreal in my opinion is a masterpiece. Of course now most of those "bugs" were patched out, and modern PC hardware is more than powerful enough to muscle through the garbage Direct3D optimization. In Unreal you play as a prisoner who's ship has crashed on an unknown planet. The game starts off with you getting up and seeing that your ship is in a terrible situation, but instead of the game giving you some obnoxious cut-scene or making you rush out of the ship in a spectacular fashion, you are alone, no ones there to help you, no ones there to tell you where you need to be. You figure that out on your own. Escaping the ship is your task. This is Unreal's biggest strength. The Intro on it's own teaches the player what to expect from Unreal from a design point of view. The game expects you to figure out where to go, to observe your surrounds and understand the games plot and narrative through it's level design. Something that has been lost over the years to be sure, but something that's quite brilliant. Once you get out of the ship you walk outside to an unknown landscape, the music kicks in at just the right moment as the players jaw drops at the view. Unreal is filled with subtle set piece moments like that. It's subtle yet jaw dropping at the same time. Everything is done subtly, the level design and game mechanics tell a story without taking you out of control of the game. You have to read little bit's of information via your "universal translator" to get a good grasp of the situation, thankfully it's fairly easy to see the conflict that is facing this planet. Though I won't spoil the games story, I'd like you to get the game and discover that on your own. It's great stuff, and it's done in a way that only a video game can. Through player driven exploration and gameplay. Unreal at its heart is a shooter, but not in the vain of games like Doom, Quake, Duke Nukem 3D, or really any other easy to grasp shooter of the time. Enemies are actually kind of few and far between, but to make up for that they are very intelligent, even by todays standards. Most can dodge your shots and evade your attacks and can then get you while your moving. Every enemy encounter is an event, a combination of twitch reflex's and strategy. Finding the right weapon for each enemy and dodging their attacks is extremely rewarding, and very few games have even bothered to mimic this. Thankfully most weaponry for both you and the enemies is projectile based. So surviving is directly dependent on skill and smart thinking rather than memorization. Doom works pretty much the same way except the player had a lot more hit scan weaponry resulting in a more power trip like experience. In Unreal you feel a bit more vulnerable despite having one of the most awesome and unique arsenals in gaming history. There's a great variety in Unreal, from the level's and how they seamlessly flow from one another, to the pacing of exploration and combat. Unreal has the perfect blend of quiet time and combat, keeping the player engaged and constantly aware. The game encourages this by making you pay attention to your surrounding's to progress. I always love it when one level is an indoor castle and then it goes outside into a little village or the legendary sunspire tower that contains a level (with no loading) inside of it. Honestly you have to play this game to really get what I mean, but I can truly say that you will be sucked into Unreal. My only issue is that the indoor levels can get rather confusing at times, with too little information to actually know if you already went through an area. This is only a minor issue though. It's a game DRIVEN by it's atmosphere, by carefully crafted level design, through the lore in journal entries. Unreal is filled with set pieces but it's not bombastic or loud. It's quiet, it doesn't need to go out of it's way to impress, it just... does it. All of this is driven by the Unreal engine. Unreal in some ways is a really good tech demo for the 1st version of the Unreal engine, and some of it's features still impress. Lighting is still gorgeous to look at, and other features like reflections, volumetric fog, and extremely long draw distances help drive Unreal's atmosphere. You can look from one end of a canyon to another and there's no fog or clipping or pop in or compromise in general. In an era where 3D games were filled with compromises, Unreal only took compromises in polygon counts, which are rather low now, but back then were actually quite high. Texture resolution is pretty high even by modern standards, the use of detail textures (a 2nd layer of texture mapping) really adds a ton of detail to the environments, and it still looks good to this day. The music, is, well... stellar! Since Epic used modular music; a sample based technique that allows high quality music to be stored in small file sizes, music can be quickly and smoothly changed to suit the situation of the player, and it works quiet well. Music composition has a very 90's techno vibe to it, but it's very clearly Epic's style as similar music is in games like Jazz Jackrabbit and Epic Pinball. Both releases from Epic Megagames. Epic went on to spin off Unreal into a separate series known as Unreal Tournament. These games were and are a lot more popular then then Unreal itself. I haven't played these games so I can't comment on their quality. Overall, I strongly recommend Unreal, it's one of my personal favorites, going into it blind is your best bet which is why I spoiled as little of it as possible. Just go and get it, it's cheap whether you want a physical copy or a digital one, and all you need is a fan made patch to get it working smoothly on modern operating systems. It even comes with an editor (though getting the UnrealEd 2 would probably be a better option for Unreal Engine 1 stuff) that allows you to not only make detailed levels, but to make your own games. This game is highly recommended. OVERALL SCORE: A Of course Unreal started development well before that, in fact it was initially going to be the "Doom killer" but development lasted a heck of a lot longer then that, and after constant delays, Unreal was finally released to the public on April 30th 1998. Despite the long development, Unreal's launch was not exactly great. Numerous bugs and performance issues with non Glide compatible 3D accelerators were of the main problems. While all of this was certainly not good. They didn't keep the game from being bad, in fact Unreal in my opinion is a masterpiece. Of course now most of those "bugs" were patched out, and modern PC hardware is more than powerful enough to muscle through the garbage Direct3D optimization. In Unreal you play as a prisoner who's ship has crashed on an unknown planet. The game starts off with you getting up and seeing that your ship is in a terrible situation, but instead of the game giving you some obnoxious cut-scene or making you rush out of the ship in a spectacular fashion, you are alone, no ones there to help you, no ones there to tell you where you need to be. You figure that out on your own. Escaping the ship is your task. This is Unreal's biggest strength. The Intro on it's own teaches the player what to expect from Unreal from a design point of view. The game expects you to figure out where to go, to observe your surrounds and understand the games plot and narrative through it's level design. Something that has been lost over the years to be sure, but something that's quite brilliant. Once you get out of the ship you walk outside to an unknown landscape, the music kicks in at just the right moment as the players jaw drops at the view. Unreal is filled with subtle set piece moments like that. It's subtle yet jaw dropping at the same time. Everything is done subtly, the level design and game mechanics tell a story without taking you out of control of the game. You have to read little bit's of information via your "universal translator" to get a good grasp of the situation, thankfully it's fairly easy to see the conflict that is facing this planet. Though I won't spoil the games story, I'd like you to get the game and discover that on your own. It's great stuff, and it's done in a way that only a video game can. Through player driven exploration and gameplay. Unreal at its heart is a shooter, but not in the vain of games like Doom, Quake, Duke Nukem 3D, or really any other easy to grasp shooter of the time. Enemies are actually kind of few and far between, but to make up for that they are very intelligent, even by todays standards. Most can dodge your shots and evade your attacks and can then get you while your moving. Every enemy encounter is an event, a combination of twitch reflex's and strategy. Finding the right weapon for each enemy and dodging their attacks is extremely rewarding, and very few games have even bothered to mimic this. Thankfully most weaponry for both you and the enemies is projectile based. So surviving is directly dependent on skill and smart thinking rather than memorization. Doom works pretty much the same way except the player had a lot more hit scan weaponry resulting in a more power trip like experience. In Unreal you feel a bit more vulnerable despite having one of the most awesome and unique arsenals in gaming history. There's a great variety in Unreal, from the level's and how they seamlessly flow from one another, to the pacing of exploration and combat. Unreal has the perfect blend of quiet time and combat, keeping the player engaged and constantly aware. The game encourages this by making you pay attention to your surrounding's to progress. I always love it when one level is an indoor castle and then it goes outside into a little village or the legendary sunspire tower that contains a level (with no loading) inside of it. Honestly you have to play this game to really get what I mean, but I can truly say that you will be sucked into Unreal. My only issue is that the indoor levels can get rather confusing at times, with too little information to actually know if you already went through an area. This is only a minor issue though. It's a game DRIVEN by it's atmosphere, by carefully crafted level design, through the lore in journal entries. Unreal is filled with set pieces but it's not bombastic or loud. It's quiet, it doesn't need to go out of it's way to impress, it just... does it. All of this is driven by the Unreal engine. Unreal in some ways is a really good tech demo for the 1st version of the Unreal engine, and some of it's features still impress. Lighting is still gorgeous to look at, and other features like reflections, volumetric fog, and extremely long draw distances help drive Unreal's atmosphere. You can look from one end of a canyon to another and there's no fog or clipping or pop in or compromise in general. In an era where 3D games were filled with compromises, Unreal only took compromises in polygon counts, which are rather low now, but back then were actually quite high. Texture resolution is pretty high even by modern standards, the use of detail textures (a 2nd layer of texture mapping) really adds a ton of detail to the environments, and it still looks good to this day. The music, is, well... stellar! Since Epic used modular music; a sample based technique that allows high quality music to be stored in small file sizes, music can be quickly and smoothly changed to suit the situation of the player, and it works quiet well. Music composition has a very 90's techno vibe to it, but it's very clearly Epic's style as similar music is in games like Jazz Jackrabbit and Epic Pinball. Both releases from Epic Megagames. Epic went on to spin off Unreal into a separate series known as Unreal Tournament. These games were and are a lot more popular then then Unreal itself. I haven't played these games so I can't comment on their quality. Overall, I strongly recommend Unreal, it's one of my personal favorites, going into it blind is your best bet which is why I spoiled as little of it as possible. Just go and get it, it's cheap whether you want a physical copy or a digital one, and all you need is a fan made patch to get it working smoothly on modern operating systems. It even comes with an editor (though getting the UnrealEd 2 would probably be a better option for Unreal Engine 1 stuff) that allows you to not only make detailed levels, but to make your own games. This game is highly recommended. OVERALL SCORE: A |
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Affected by 'Laziness Syndrome'
Registered: 05-20-12
Location: Texas
Last Post: 2986 days
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Affected by 'Laziness Syndrome'
Registered: 05-20-12
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06-23-16 12:22 PM
| ID: 1278490 | 55 Words
| ID: 1278490 | 55 Words
I would keep the PS3 as it has a very diverse library and you'll just regret trading it in later on. As great of a system the 3DS is I wouldn't trade another system for it. I suggest saving up money instead of trading in the PS3. EDIT: Errr nevermind, you made your mind XD EDIT: Errr nevermind, you made your mind XD |
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Affected by 'Laziness Syndrome'
Registered: 05-20-12
Location: Texas
Last Post: 2986 days
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Affected by 'Laziness Syndrome'
Registered: 05-20-12
Location: Texas
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06-06-16 11:48 PM
| ID: 1274364 | 78 Words
| ID: 1274364 | 78 Words
That doesn't even feel like a trailer. It's like the narrator looked at the humor in Borderlands and thought "oh THIS is what the kids like these days" Not only was the trailer cringe worthy and unfunny, but it didn't really give a very good impression of the game. A narrator was necessary. Simple as that. I'm sure the game will be fun, it looks like it would be, but this trailer is doing this game no favors. Not only was the trailer cringe worthy and unfunny, but it didn't really give a very good impression of the game. A narrator was necessary. Simple as that. I'm sure the game will be fun, it looks like it would be, but this trailer is doing this game no favors. |
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Affected by 'Laziness Syndrome'
Registered: 05-20-12
Location: Texas
Last Post: 2986 days
Last Active: 893 days
Affected by 'Laziness Syndrome'
Registered: 05-20-12
Location: Texas
Last Post: 2986 days
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06-06-16 11:42 PM
| ID: 1274360 | 123 Words
| ID: 1274360 | 123 Words
I don't see myself getting one, I like Nintendo, but it seems like Nintendo doesn't seem to know where it's going with its hardware. If it launches and has must have games, I'll buy, but it needs to have 3rd party stuff too. In fact I honestly don't understand why Nintendo doesn't try to keep 3rd party devs. If the NX is powerful, has those great Nintendo games, and has most major 3rd party developers on board treating the system as an equal to the PS4, Xbox One and PC. Then the system will probably do very well. Regardless, I don't think I'm considering getting one right know. I'm going to wait and see what it can do so far as games go. If it launches and has must have games, I'll buy, but it needs to have 3rd party stuff too. In fact I honestly don't understand why Nintendo doesn't try to keep 3rd party devs. If the NX is powerful, has those great Nintendo games, and has most major 3rd party developers on board treating the system as an equal to the PS4, Xbox One and PC. Then the system will probably do very well. Regardless, I don't think I'm considering getting one right know. I'm going to wait and see what it can do so far as games go. |
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Affected by 'Laziness Syndrome'
Registered: 05-20-12
Location: Texas
Last Post: 2986 days
Last Active: 893 days
Affected by 'Laziness Syndrome'
Registered: 05-20-12
Location: Texas
Last Post: 2986 days
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06-06-16 10:46 PM
| ID: 1274346 | 34 Words
| ID: 1274346 | 34 Words
Frodlex : It's been a while since I've been on here, but I never remembered there being rules involving layouts on reviews. I'll change it for sure. I'm starting to agree that it's an eyesore. |
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Affected by 'Laziness Syndrome'
Registered: 05-20-12
Location: Texas
Last Post: 2986 days
Last Active: 893 days
Affected by 'Laziness Syndrome'
Registered: 05-20-12
Location: Texas
Last Post: 2986 days
Last Active: 893 days
06-06-16 05:19 PM
| ID: 1274249 | 1265 Words
| ID: 1274249 | 1265 Words
Ecco the Dolphin is known to be one of the Genesis's finest games, a classic, an artistic work of programming and game design that showed that the Genesis was more than just a system for shallow, short action games. However good those action games were. Rather, a system that can please anyone, and try new things. Ecco received heaps of praise upon it's 1993 release, and it's incredibly easy to see why. It was ahead of its time in so many ways and it had a lot of really interesting ideas. I say IDEAS because I don't particularly agree that this game is good. I actually don't like it very much, and over the past few years more and more people have begun to share this view that Ecco the Dolphin isn't really a good game. Don't get me wrong it isn't terrible, Ecco has a lot of really neat ideas; but it suffers from a lot of design issues that simply kill it's fun factor. Story B+: The story in Ecco the Dolphin isn't particularly deep, but I can't really think of a lot of console action games (yes Ecco classifies as an action based game) that had deep stories or even stories at all at the time. So what makes Ecco the Dolphin so special? The way it presents itself is the answer. Part of the games story is what you as the player experience throughout the game. The beginning is a notable example. You start off by swimming around in the ocean and just doing dolphin things, then out of nowhere when you jump up high enough the game throws a curve-ball at you. The screen flashes red and a loud storm occurs, you and several other sea creatures get sucked up into the air. Soon it stops, but unlike your family; you live. Soon ominous music plays, and both Ecco and the player feel the same thing. Scared and startled, you must figure out what exactly happened and where you go next. All of this was done in 5 or so minutes, no exposition dumps needed. You feel that shock and the fear just as Ecco would. That's brilliant game design and story telling. While there are bits of dialogue here and there, it's kept to a minimum and is only used when necessary. Much of Ecco's story telling is done through the environment and what you as the player are going through, and it might be one of the earliest examples of a game doing this right. Half Life did a very similar thing with it's story 5 years later, but it's intro took 15-20 minutes and felt rather tedious to be honest. Gameplay D: I'm going to get a lot of flack for this... but I need to say it... Ecco the Dolphin has a lot of problems. The main issue with it is that the game designers didn't know if Ecco the Dolphin should be fast paced or slow paced. Ecco controls very fluidly and has a bit of a heavy delay to his control, this is fine, and it actually feels natural. Sadly the rest of the game (primarily the levels) weren't designed with this in mind. Sure, navigating the depths of the ocean is easy enough. The cracks begin to show when the game expects you to do things that demand precision and tight control. Like fighting insanely fast enemies that are far faster than you and can go through walls. To make things worse you can rarely escape them, and even if you are able to kill them with your insanely awkward thrust attack. They will simply re-spawn and harass you again. To make things worse they are placed in the WORST locations for combat. Even more appalling is Ecco's pathetically short recovery time. Now I am aware of Ecco's super sonar ability that you can pick up early in the game, but even this doesn't help much as it's rather awkward to execute and just facing the faster moving enemies is a hassle. Another annoying thing are the sections of certain levels that force you to move blocks to break barriers. Just picking up the blocks is a pain, but moving them is harder since Ecco carries a lot of momentum and you have little control of where the block goes. The final nail in the coffin is the lack of a proper checkpoint system. These levels are massive and the fact that there is no proper checkpoint system is ridiculous. All that negativity aside, the objective in each level is fairly straightforward, and when the game isn't pummeling you with cheap hits and the like the game can be fun. Controlling Ecco actually feels somewhat natural when you don't have to do the things I mentioned, and exploring the levels can be very enjoyable. I see a fun game here, but it's held back by really poor design in many areas. Thankfully the sequel fixed a lot of these issues. Graphics A-: The graphics in this game are really well done. The oceans wildlife looks fantastic with tons of detail and above ocean backgrounds look almost painted. The sprites are very well animated, especially Ecco's. While this does affect his control a bit I will give the developers credit for Ecco's smooth and natural animation. The environments are also rather varied. Outside of ocean reefs you get to explore more icy environments, Atlantis, and you can even go back in time later in the game to prehistoric times. All of these settings look natural and well put together. My only major gripe is the occasional slowdown in some sections which can get in the way of playing the game. Also Ecco's sprite could've seen some more detail. Other then those couple of complaints the visual aspect of the game is really good. Sound B: The music is rather atmospheric and compliments the games tone very well. It does have a bit of ear raping Genesis twang to it at times, but overall. Ecco the Dolphins sound track is good, but not great. I love the main theme though, it really get's you into whats in store for the experience. The sound effects are really bad though, more specifically one. Ecco's "hurt" sound. It's this high pitched sound that plays so often due to cheap hits that your ears my bleed all over the place just from hearing it so much. Difficulty, Very Hard: Ecco the Dolphin is a very hard game, but for all the wrong reasons. Cheap hits, shoddy collision detection, lack of a proper checkpoint system, under-powered abilities and questionable level design all come together to create a game that is frustrating and brutal. In a bad way, not the "git gud" way. OVERALL C-: I know I'm going to get a lot of crap for this one, but I did not enjoy Ecco the Dolphin, like at all. The only reason why I didn't completely rip this game apart was because there are things it does right, and it has a lot of really cool ideas and a cool story to boot, but as a GAME it doesn't work very well. I like Ecco the Dolphin as a concept, which it's sequel built upon and improved, but as a game. It's very, very flawed. I admire it's existence though, and some of it's ideas were used in the game so the future. Ecco the Dolphin is smart, but when it is given the task to play well it stumbles and lacks the grace of far more tried and true designs. Don't get me wrong it isn't terrible, Ecco has a lot of really neat ideas; but it suffers from a lot of design issues that simply kill it's fun factor. Story B+: The story in Ecco the Dolphin isn't particularly deep, but I can't really think of a lot of console action games (yes Ecco classifies as an action based game) that had deep stories or even stories at all at the time. So what makes Ecco the Dolphin so special? The way it presents itself is the answer. Part of the games story is what you as the player experience throughout the game. The beginning is a notable example. You start off by swimming around in the ocean and just doing dolphin things, then out of nowhere when you jump up high enough the game throws a curve-ball at you. The screen flashes red and a loud storm occurs, you and several other sea creatures get sucked up into the air. Soon it stops, but unlike your family; you live. Soon ominous music plays, and both Ecco and the player feel the same thing. Scared and startled, you must figure out what exactly happened and where you go next. All of this was done in 5 or so minutes, no exposition dumps needed. You feel that shock and the fear just as Ecco would. That's brilliant game design and story telling. While there are bits of dialogue here and there, it's kept to a minimum and is only used when necessary. Much of Ecco's story telling is done through the environment and what you as the player are going through, and it might be one of the earliest examples of a game doing this right. Half Life did a very similar thing with it's story 5 years later, but it's intro took 15-20 minutes and felt rather tedious to be honest. Gameplay D: I'm going to get a lot of flack for this... but I need to say it... Ecco the Dolphin has a lot of problems. The main issue with it is that the game designers didn't know if Ecco the Dolphin should be fast paced or slow paced. Ecco controls very fluidly and has a bit of a heavy delay to his control, this is fine, and it actually feels natural. Sadly the rest of the game (primarily the levels) weren't designed with this in mind. Sure, navigating the depths of the ocean is easy enough. The cracks begin to show when the game expects you to do things that demand precision and tight control. Like fighting insanely fast enemies that are far faster than you and can go through walls. To make things worse you can rarely escape them, and even if you are able to kill them with your insanely awkward thrust attack. They will simply re-spawn and harass you again. To make things worse they are placed in the WORST locations for combat. Even more appalling is Ecco's pathetically short recovery time. Now I am aware of Ecco's super sonar ability that you can pick up early in the game, but even this doesn't help much as it's rather awkward to execute and just facing the faster moving enemies is a hassle. Another annoying thing are the sections of certain levels that force you to move blocks to break barriers. Just picking up the blocks is a pain, but moving them is harder since Ecco carries a lot of momentum and you have little control of where the block goes. The final nail in the coffin is the lack of a proper checkpoint system. These levels are massive and the fact that there is no proper checkpoint system is ridiculous. All that negativity aside, the objective in each level is fairly straightforward, and when the game isn't pummeling you with cheap hits and the like the game can be fun. Controlling Ecco actually feels somewhat natural when you don't have to do the things I mentioned, and exploring the levels can be very enjoyable. I see a fun game here, but it's held back by really poor design in many areas. Thankfully the sequel fixed a lot of these issues. Graphics A-: The graphics in this game are really well done. The oceans wildlife looks fantastic with tons of detail and above ocean backgrounds look almost painted. The sprites are very well animated, especially Ecco's. While this does affect his control a bit I will give the developers credit for Ecco's smooth and natural animation. The environments are also rather varied. Outside of ocean reefs you get to explore more icy environments, Atlantis, and you can even go back in time later in the game to prehistoric times. All of these settings look natural and well put together. My only major gripe is the occasional slowdown in some sections which can get in the way of playing the game. Also Ecco's sprite could've seen some more detail. Other then those couple of complaints the visual aspect of the game is really good. Sound B: The music is rather atmospheric and compliments the games tone very well. It does have a bit of ear raping Genesis twang to it at times, but overall. Ecco the Dolphins sound track is good, but not great. I love the main theme though, it really get's you into whats in store for the experience. The sound effects are really bad though, more specifically one. Ecco's "hurt" sound. It's this high pitched sound that plays so often due to cheap hits that your ears my bleed all over the place just from hearing it so much. Difficulty, Very Hard: Ecco the Dolphin is a very hard game, but for all the wrong reasons. Cheap hits, shoddy collision detection, lack of a proper checkpoint system, under-powered abilities and questionable level design all come together to create a game that is frustrating and brutal. In a bad way, not the "git gud" way. OVERALL C-: I know I'm going to get a lot of crap for this one, but I did not enjoy Ecco the Dolphin, like at all. The only reason why I didn't completely rip this game apart was because there are things it does right, and it has a lot of really cool ideas and a cool story to boot, but as a GAME it doesn't work very well. I like Ecco the Dolphin as a concept, which it's sequel built upon and improved, but as a game. It's very, very flawed. I admire it's existence though, and some of it's ideas were used in the game so the future. Ecco the Dolphin is smart, but when it is given the task to play well it stumbles and lacks the grace of far more tried and true designs. |
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Affected by 'Laziness Syndrome'
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Affected by 'Laziness Syndrome'
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06-03-16 08:37 PM
| ID: 1273560 | 45 Words
| ID: 1273560 | 45 Words
Duke Nukem Forever gets a really bad rap and I understand why but when I played it I had fun. Sure it wasn't revolutionary, and yes it was very immature; but it felt like a Duke Nukem game and it was fun while it lasted. Sure it wasn't revolutionary, and yes it was very immature; but it felt like a Duke Nukem game and it was fun while it lasted. |
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Affected by 'Laziness Syndrome'
Registered: 05-20-12
Location: Texas
Last Post: 2986 days
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Affected by 'Laziness Syndrome'
Registered: 05-20-12
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Last Post: 2986 days
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06-03-16 08:33 PM
| ID: 1273557 | 99 Words
| ID: 1273557 | 99 Words
I have a plethora of unpopular opinions. Here are a few. I don't really like RPG's. Especially turn based ones, I just can't get into them. That doesn't mean I have no respect for them, but they really aren't my thing. I'm not a huge Nintendo fan. They make really good games don't get me wrong, but as far as my retro consoles go. I don't play on my Nintendo systems that often. I usually play on my Sega consoles. I could never get into ANY of Bethesda's open world games. I really tried but they aren't for me. I don't really like RPG's. Especially turn based ones, I just can't get into them. That doesn't mean I have no respect for them, but they really aren't my thing. I'm not a huge Nintendo fan. They make really good games don't get me wrong, but as far as my retro consoles go. I don't play on my Nintendo systems that often. I usually play on my Sega consoles. I could never get into ANY of Bethesda's open world games. I really tried but they aren't for me. |
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Affected by 'Laziness Syndrome'
Registered: 05-20-12
Location: Texas
Last Post: 2986 days
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Affected by 'Laziness Syndrome'
Registered: 05-20-12
Location: Texas
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06-03-16 08:29 PM
| ID: 1273555 | 53 Words
| ID: 1273555 | 53 Words
For me it would be a tie between the Sega Genesis and the Playstation 1. Both consoles had really good controllers and had 2 of the most diverse libraries of games available. Though I like the other retro systems as well. These systems are the ones I spend most of my time on. |
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Affected by 'Laziness Syndrome'
Registered: 05-20-12
Location: Texas
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Affected by 'Laziness Syndrome'
Registered: 05-20-12
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04-03-16 07:52 PM
| ID: 1258735 | 27 Words
| ID: 1258735 | 27 Words
Here are my submissions. I'm liking this idea of hiding the submissions! 1st submission (Content hidden from non-administrators!) 2nd submission (Content hidden from non-administrators!) 3rd submission (Content hidden from non-administrators!) 1st submission (Content hidden from non-administrators!) 2nd submission (Content hidden from non-administrators!) 3rd submission (Content hidden from non-administrators!) |
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Affected by 'Laziness Syndrome'
Registered: 05-20-12
Location: Texas
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Affected by 'Laziness Syndrome'
Registered: 05-20-12
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03-07-16 08:10 PM
| ID: 1252010 | 13 Words
| ID: 1252010 | 13 Words
5th Submission: Double Dragon (Final Boss) https://www.vizzed.com/videogames/music.php?game=2999#/player1?catid=0&trackid=2 6th Submission: Ghostbusters (Main Theme) https://www.vizzed.com/videogames/music.php?game=3259#/player1?catid=0&trackid=1 Double Dragon (Final Boss) https://www.vizzed.com/videogames/music.php?game=2999#/player1?catid=0&trackid=2 6th Submission: Ghostbusters (Main Theme) https://www.vizzed.com/videogames/music.php?game=3259#/player1?catid=0&trackid=1 |
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Affected by 'Laziness Syndrome'
Registered: 05-20-12
Location: Texas
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Affected by 'Laziness Syndrome'
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03-06-16 11:34 AM
| ID: 1251469 | 32 Words
| ID: 1251469 | 32 Words
Can you add the soundtrack for Robocop vs Terminator on here? The Cool Spot sound track is also missing from this list. If you can add that it would be much appreciated. The Cool Spot sound track is also missing from this list. If you can add that it would be much appreciated. |
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Affected by 'Laziness Syndrome'
Registered: 05-20-12
Location: Texas
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Affected by 'Laziness Syndrome'
Registered: 05-20-12
Location: Texas
Last Post: 2986 days
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