Diogo Ribeiro

Maybe I'm misunderstanding your suggestion, or thinking of something else entirely, but wouldn't that tamper with players who attempted to form groups since there'd be unique instances for every single player?

They could make these heroes and villains be actual irreplaceable NPCs in the gameworld, and the players would not be able to take their place. Or they could prohibit any given number of elements - such as names, power sets and costumes - from being used. But none of these actually seems like a good idea, the first because it isn't that much of a safeguard, the former because it's too restrictive. The downside of making a game, especially a MMORPG, which is based around a known and well-established franchise with popular characters is that most every gamer will want to be the main characters. While I haven't played the Matrix Online, I assume many gamers try to create characters who are very close, aspect-wise, to the movies' characters. They also tend to use name variations of these characters. NEO, ^NEO^, NeO, Neo1, NeoTheOne, >oxNEOxo<, TehReal1, 3niTY, m0Rph3uz... You get the drift. I suspect much the same will happen with any superhero-themed Marvel and DC MMORPG. I think the best way to deal with this would be to create a middle level for gamers. Some incentives. You can't be any of the "hard-hitters", but you could play as a character who eventually gets to interact with them, either in a friendly or hostile basis. You could be a vigilante who just started his 'carreer' and meets up with some Marvel of DC character who could use some help; then progressively become of greater help or danger to established heroes or villains (but obviously never destroying them or taking their place - an unfortunate side-effect of licensed products like these). I'd like to see special events could spring up, such as top players being given temporary high places in the game. Something like the "Death of Superman" or "Knightfall" story arc, or any other character-shaking plot being transposed into a MMORPG, but that these players could take their places. Much like Bruce Wayne chose Azrael to be the new Batman for a while, so could players take his mantle for some time. Unfortunately, there's always the chance that players that would perform actions deemed unrepresentative of their characteers by their respective owners, which would probably result in not using something like this at all. Maybe they could pick on these storylines and expand them a bit to allow players to become important in some other ways. Or they could do something wacked out like making a central server which housed all the main heroes and villains which stood for the Earth used in DC canon, but then used all other game servers as parallel Earths, something in the vein of Crisis On Infinite Earths (DC) where there were heroes of multiple earths and timelines more or less co-existed. Something like this for Marvel could also be applied. No one could play the original versions, but instead they'd be able to play near identical versions without needing to worry with iron-fisted, licensing rules.

No disagreement there, but these so-called interactive scenes allow me to do things that standard controls wouldn't allow because these things weren't built into the game under the same principles that standard gameplay was. That's my gripe, so to speak; it's mostly a detachment from the flow of the game, and the game itself. In some ways it feels akin to playing a game where the character can't do anything really special, but during rendered cutscenes he is a superhero of epic proportions, capable of doing things he can't during standard gameplay.

I'd just prefer if they decided to allow for constant player interaction with the gameworld. More of a "let the player explore whats around him to let him decide how to solve something". A simple example I remember was the Akropolis Tower in Parasite Eve 2, where Aya has to confront this giant (No. 9) who is coming at her in the fire escape. I remember shooting at it and being able to kill it with no great problems, but on a replay I slightly nudged the buttons and the targetting icon flipped over to (what I think were) nearby electric cables running up the walls - shooting these while the boss was next to them caused much more damage. Extremely simple, but more compelling than "mini DDR" sequences.

Granted some people find it difficult, but it seems (at least from my experience) that most gamers don't have a problem with this at all, only a few find it difficult to proceed in circumstances like these.

Fixed as in mandatory, which seems to be the case. True. Yes, and that's why I questioned how challenging these things are. If it is as easy to perform as simply playing the game then it feels a pointless abstraction or more of the same, not much of a challenge as far as I'm concerned.

All sheep are evil. Except Belle.

That's the winning ticket for Morgan Spurlock. Anyone can realize the problems inherent in having McDonald products be a part of your diet. His documentary is alarming because it shows what would happen if someone had a diet only consisting of their products and nothing else... Apparently, some people won't realize the problems unless they see said problems taken to the extreme.

I don't believe that fixed, sequential input has the same value as standard input used in the remaining stages of the game, considering the different applications and outcomes. A mandatory sequence carried out by a character that just isn't carried out until you press a series of buttons is definetely not the same as reacting to events happening in realtime. Considering that it actually is (or should be) something I have control over rather than the character, then why is my direct control being switched for something not so direct? If I can do these things, let me actually do them instead of placing me in a position where I have to direct the character to do them. Player reflexes over character reflexes. Also, if as you say those events aren't that different from the rest of the standard gameplay in the game and they mesh with it well, then wouldn't it at some point become a mundane task of minimal to no challenge? This would be especially true of console gamers who have grown accostumed to this type of thing in console games and can perform these things effortlessly by now. Challenge is usually a personal thing, but if as you say there is no difference between either element and if both are actually easy to perform, then where is the challenge of perfoming these sequences?

You can add challenge to a game without needing to have players go that way. You can even use hardware in clever ways - Metal Gear Solid allowed players to use the second gamepad to fight against Mantis, and the Castlevania title for the Nintendo DS will allow players to use the Stylus to apparently cast spells and cause changes to some of the game's areas - but just having players tap a sequence of buttons, wheter in fixed or random order at several points trough the game isn't terribly new or exciting. It's like developers go "Hey, we don't have a good challenge for players, so why not just make them tap the controllers' buttons randomly? That'll win them over." What is the problem with making areas or situations challenging? Hell, even with my dislike of FFVII, the scene where the initial trio of Barret, Tifa and Cloud having to pass by some guards by running and hiding behing pillars is, even as simple as it is, much preferable. Saying it was like DDR would be the big exageration... That's why I said mini

The train sequence in FFVII was tolerable in the sense that its one of those areas which is optional when it comes to exploration, as you can try to get everything from everyone or just advance with no visible penalty trough the train. The sequence in FFVIII was aggravating, though. Forcing to use your gamepad as a mini DDR pad however, is annoying and one of the things I dislike in console games.

Even moreso when one uses the Breast Increase pills, age change and has her wear the dress that makes her naked, then chooses all endings, one at a time.

Fixed

Considering it is a prequel of sorts, that's a given.

BUT What if I'm roleplaying a rogue with wierd and unexplicable random insights into the future?!

Dark Claw, actually

Laying traps is a good thing but using them with foreknowledge that you're going to fight something very powerful isn't my cup o' tea. I prefer to use them in situations like bringing down an half-orc patrol or somesuch; going invisible and lay enough traps to kill a dragon the minute he becomes hostile and before he even manages to be a threat is a no-go.

Wolverine's blue and yellow had two versions, though. The more developed one we know, and the ugly one he used in his first appearance when he battled the Hulk and Wendigo. For some reason, I liked his Amalgam suit.

I only found the suits in the movie to be lacking and 'meh' at best; I made no point about his story and personality being supposedly changed by his suit.

I don't think it was important. I loved the first Batman movie and the main character wore what was nearly an armor instead of what was originally a skin-tight suit with some kevlar and other materials reinforcing it. It didn't negatively contributed to the character's portrayal, at least not to any noticeable level. However, it seems strange that several comics characters get a somewhat faithful recreation in movies but Wolverine was skimped out on. In X-Men it wasn't so much a problem with Wolvie's suit, it was a problem with why was everyone wearing nearly the same leather outfit.

I couldn't gauge all that from Gears of War's footage, so I can't really share the optimism or discuss those elements which I usually can only get a feel of when playing a game.

One thing I like about a feature like 7 player support is the idea of creating a game where all these players have to advance trough a gameworld by helping each other out. Perhaps like Project Eden, but better. Or something along the lines of an adventure game. Possibly with a "solve the murder" theme, where six of the players are innocent but one of them is the culprit, and players can either try to solve it, lay false clues, or even join up with the murderer. Essentially, a single or multiplayer team-based effort but larger in scope than usually done that actually is designed with multiple, simultaneous players in mind, but that it would not fall into the traditional elements of firstperson shooters or massively online RPGs. One thing I dislike about a feature like 7 player support is the idea that it'll be wasted on sports games. Though I suspect it might be good for sports games enthusiasts. Other than footage and a suggestion of what the games will be like, is there anything about these games that's impressive beyond a visual level?

I agree we're not close of seeing that kind of gameworld developed, at least I'm not aware of any shifts in the industry that would allow it to become a reality in the (very) near future. The problem is, it's a relatively young medium, with an industry that's still trying to reap the benefits of the advancements which are easier to develop and captivate gamers - graphics. I believe both gamers and companies are to blame for the redundant nature of most games, which tends to sweep inovation or new forms of gameplay under the rug. Sure, there's always a level of success or failure that comes attached to every new game released, but how many times do we see game using already tried and true gameplay methods being incredibly successful? This seems to happen primarily because of advanced graphical technology, though I wouldn't discount that its also appealing because it's reaching new generations of gamers... Which in turn just seems to help stagnate things again and form a vicious cycle.

It seems photoshopped. Notice the light grain over the entire picture, while Av's face is cleaner. Or it could just be his body fuzzes out cameras.

There was the Minor Whimper.