I've finished playing Mortal Kombat vs DC Heroes and Resident Evil 5 this week and written a review for both games, click here (MK) or here (RE5) if you're interested.
Funny thing is that Cousin Eddie and I seem to be the only ones in ESHU to have enjoyed RE5. I do understand that it's a degeneration of its survival horror roots but I can't find flaws to fuel my hate. If this game was called The Adventures of Chris in Africa then I'd probably have given it 9 or 9.5.
It all boils down to taste I guess. I simply loved the in game movies and quick time events. I mean, I find it way better than watching a 30 minute footage of Metal Gear 4. Some say QTE take away the player control as if one had any sort of control during the time Eva slowly and painfully tries to ties the lose ends on MGS4 plot. I wish I had a QTE to strangle her and go back to the action. It's not that I do not like plots and all, I just prefer no plot over a bad one. To me, RE5 and God of War did a perfect job with QTE.
MK vs DC and RE5 were my first games with trophies! Addictive little shiny things those are. They do add re-playability to a title when they're interesting like Go to The Light (kill 2 infected with a flash grenade), Lead Aspirin (kill an infected with a headshot while its jumping), Who do you Trust? (build a certain level of trust between partners) but others simply require a given amount of replays to fulfill and aren't really interesting like Stockpile (obtain all weapons) or Take it to the Max (fully upgrade all weapons). I think devs should play close attention to this feature as it's really a tool to make people care for or hate your game.
I've given up on The Longest Journey and Final Fantasy XII this week as well. The first seemed to have a nice story and plot but the items were used in puzzles with no common sense and that required a lot of pixel hunting. I'd prefer if it were more of an interactive story and less a try all your items in every part of the screen that highlights your mouse cursor thing. It seems the sequel is more to my taste so I'll be sure to give it a try. Final Fantasy XII has a solid combat system, awesome graphics and music but I found impossible to remotely like the characters or ignore the Star Wars rip offs, which is a series I stopped caring a long time ago, in a galaxy far far away.
Well, enough rant about games everyone loves and love for games everyone rant about. Tell me your thoughts on those games, QTE or whatever you feel like.
Comments
"RESIDENT EVIL" definitely died with the REmake.
I did enjoy FFXII's combat system, music and graphics but I felt like I had been cheated and was playing a Star Wars game with 15 year old main characters. I mean, the non human races are a combination of Gamorean guards, Jar Jar binks and other SW races. I know you dig the series but I kinda miss the games without space ships (with the sole exception of your own flying ship) and judges dressed as Darth Vader and plots that were not related to aiding rebellions against the Empire. Seriously, it's a blatant rip off ;P
I respect your opinion but there were times in MGS4 I almost fell asleep.
I've been playing the series since the very first Metal Gear in MSX, before its release on NES, and played Metal Gear 2 as well. After it has gone "solid", I did enjoy very much MGS1 and MGS3. It seems Konami and I always disagree on even numbers so I have high expectations to 5.
Eva's explanations and the final moments when Big Boss decides to come back from the dead for 2 hours just to explain the plot to you for the 1000th time (he suffers from the same morbid desire to explain every single of his action like any other character but Snake) and then die, taking Zero with him were so boring I could barely hold my attention.
Jokes aside, it all boils down to taste, old friend. At least we agree on trophies and I'm really looking forward to the new Prince of Persia.
@bigd575 : Thanks for the compliment, mate.
Also, good to know about The Longest Journey. I was considering that one, but maybe I'd better steer clear.
As for The Longest Journey I remember forcing myself to play it because everyone said it's such a great game. I managed to do that only after finishing Dreamfall. I gave TLJ a high score because it was good but I guess I would enjoyed it more back then in the year it was released.
RE5 was an ok game, in co-op (as I've written in my review nobody seems to like), but it is a great game I can play over and over. But yes, the achievements/trophies are great.
I mean, after FFX, FFX-2, Dirge of Cerberus and the fact that I didn't bother with FFXI due to it being online, it wasn't exactly hard for FFXII to seem like it was amazing.
FFXII was the 5th Final Fantasy title to appear on the PS2, but it was the first GOOD one, so maybe thats why I enjoyed it as much as I did.
I don't think the problem with The Longest Journey is related to its age, even though I'd probably have more patience with it back in its release but Sanitarium is an older and, in my opinion, a much better game.
@Dark_Being: I knew you'd say something
You've given the game a perfect score! I do respect your experience as an adventure gamer but TLJ might be one of those games for hardcore adventure players only. I just could not get into it.@TheKungFool: You did not like FFX ?
I think FFX gets more attention than it probably deserves due to it being the first one on the PS2 and the fact that it followed VII, VIII and IX which were all very good, hence it was met with anticipation at time of release. FFXII was met with skepticism because it followed the likes of FFX-2 (pointless tie-in sequel), FFXI (online only), and FFVII Dirge of Cerberus (craptastic 3rd person with almost zero playability and even less to do with FFVII).
TheKungFool
As for trophies, I agree, they are addictive as hell. I've already gone Platinum on both Uncharted and DeadSpace, and I'm currenlty working on Platinum for Killzone2 and Prince of Persia, the latter of which is one of the more brilliant gaming experiences I've had in a long time.