Yahtzee reviews

[RPGmasterBoo]

rechargeable shields make more sense than insta-heal first-aid kits in other games do imho at least if you place the enemies right. it helps making the game more dynamic, at least that's how I see it.

 

Does it? You have to run to get a health pickup, while with rechargable stuff all you need is a dark corner to hide in.

[sorophx]

my point exactly. although I liked how half-life did it btw, with rechargeable shields and health in dark corners (iirc)

[Niten_Ryu]

Codename Eagle, a predecessor to Battlefield was certainly released before Halo:

Date: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codename_Eagle

Description: http://uk.gamespy.com/articles/552/552075p23.html

 

Somehow this game is totally unknown to me and back in 90's I bought (or tried the demo if available) most of the FPS. Cool, you learn new things every day.

 

/goes check game info

 

Aha, released nov 1999 in US and apr 2000 in UK and rest of europe. I was spending too much time in Asheron's Call (also released in nov 1999) so I complitely managed to miss this game. Oh well, live and learn.

[Meshugger]

What's with the multiplayer-yahoos? What made Halo 1 great back in 2001 was the combination of gameplay, atmosphere, soundtrack and graphics into one beautiful package. Single-player or Co-op rocked my world. Never cared about multiplayer.

 

Also, i do not recall any other game at the time with the same level of A.I. It actually got better and smarter for each iteration of difficulty. Legendary difficulty was truly Legendary. Halo 1 was Combat Evolved.

 

Then came the second installment, with no changes to A.I., more focus on multiplayer than on singleplayer, silly and convulted story, same soundtrack, celebrity voices, no atmosphere and everything bumpmapped to hell. My god, that thing was an abomination. The first one was the creation of a bunch of nerds with the idea of making a fun and simple game. The second one was the creation of jocks with buzzwords like "epic" and "0wned".

[Malcador]

I concur with Operation Flashpoint, it was something fresh aside from other FPS games. Shame the fools at Codemasters keep pumping out garbage with the OpFlash name attached though.

[Calax]

All hail Myth II.

Who's plot was blatantly stolen from The Black Company.

 

So? Whats your point?

At least its a good pick.

 

Its the only fantasy strategy game that I've played in the last decade whose plot was worth following.

Well, when you use "creative" make sure you qualify that Stealing the entire story from another media isn't generally considered creative.

 

I will give you the fact that they implemented a pretty good physics and formation engine, but not the story.

[RPGmasterBoo]

All hail Myth II.

Who's plot was blatantly stolen from The Black Company.

 

So? Whats your point?

At least its a good pick.

 

Its the only fantasy strategy game that I've played in the last decade whose plot was worth following.

Well, when you use "creative" make sure you qualify that Stealing the entire story from another media isn't generally considered creative.

 

I will give you the fact that they implemented a pretty good physics and formation engine, but not the story.

 

Well it was well told and charged with an atmosphere the actual gameplay supported, with the edgy battles and all. It takes talent to weave aspects of game design like that - i don't think its just a matter of ripping off someone else...

[Calax]

True, but still, I gotta hype Glenn Cook somehow

 

I'm guessing bungie might find something OTHER than Halo to do, but then if halo continues to be this lucrative probably not.

[Hassat Hunter]

rechargeable shields make more sense than insta-heal first-aid kits in other games do imho at least if you place the enemies right. it helps making the game more dynamic, at least that's how I see it.

Meh, it makes games boring. Instead of scraping on your health, you just sit back for a while (depending on the game) and wait for it to regenerate. No more "OMG, a room full of enemies and I only got 2HP, how am I going to do this?" feel like the good old games had.

and come on! vehicles are the shiznit! especially for co-op multiplayer battles

Nah. The only vehicles in online games I like are Enemy Territory (since they aren't controlled by players) and Unreal Tournament 2004 (since I can simply ignore them and blow them away with heat-seating AVril's :D).

[Thorton_AP]

Meh, it makes games boring. Instead of scraping on your health, you just sit back for a while (depending on the game) and wait for it to regenerate. No more "OMG, a room full of enemies and I only got 2HP, how am I going to do this?" feel like the good old games had.

 

And certainly no more "**** I'm stuck because I don't have enough health, time to reload and replay parts of the game that I've already played through."

 

 

The thing I like most about recharging health is that it keeps me in the intense action without backtracking and scrounging for health. Since I find that action part more fun, I tend to support the regenerating health mechanics.

[Tigranes]

That's such a tired argument, though - I mean, seriously, how many times were you stuck with low health and had to stop, backtrack, and scrounge in cold corpses for the odd health pack you might have missed?

 

Actually, much more likely is that you had to figure out how to get by with your low health, making the action even more intense - or you would die, having to reload. If the argument is against reloading, then it's not a case about intense action, it's about reducing the frustration associated with reloading and wanting to move forward. i.e. it's directly connected to making the game easier in a specific way - which brings us to the sheer question of preference (i.e. does a 'hard-set' challenge making you reload give you a sense of achievement, or would you just be frustrated?). For instance, I'd much prefer the former case, where I actually then get a sense of limited resources, which makes me play more strategically, and if I have to reload a few times to get past a difficult area that's all the better for the sense of accomplishment.

 

So it comes down to preferences about what kind of challenges excite you - the whole thing about "oh I have to go back 8 rooms for the healthpack" is really blown out of proportion. That said, I don't mind recharging health unless it's too much, and if it's offset with challenging enemies/AI.

[Calax]

Tig hit it on the head. HP regen levels can be wayyy to high (the highest I've seen was CoD2 where I felt like I wasn't even human anymore because of the amount of punishment i took in one section of one level).

[Thorton_AP]

That's such a tired argument, though - I mean, seriously, how many times were you stuck with low health and had to stop, backtrack, and scrounge in cold corpses for the odd health pack you might have missed?

 

More times than I can remember. Especially in the original Call of Duty.

 

 

Actually, much more likely is that you had to figure out how to get by with your low health, making the action even more intense - or you would die, having to reload. If the argument is against reloading, then it's not a case about intense action, it's about reducing the frustration associated with reloading and wanting to move forward.

 

Except the argument actually included "scrounging for health packs." And yes, I remember back tracking to see if there were health packs missing.

 

For instance, I'd much prefer the former case, where I actually then get a sense of limited resources, which makes me play more strategically, and if I have to reload a few times to get past a difficult area that's all the better for the sense of accomplishment.

 

Right Because my justification and preference is obviously undermined because you're grasping at straws of strategy. You make it sound like you never die with health regen. Guess you're just a superstar.

 

So it comes down to preferences about what kind of challenges excite you - the whole thing about "oh I have to go back 8 rooms for the healthpack" is really blown out of proportion. That said, I don't mind recharging health unless it's too much, and if it's offset with challenging enemies/AI.

 

The whole "oh I can just hide behind the cover and I'm invincible" is blown out of proprotions too. Maybe Calax is a superstar too, but I died a ****ton in COD2 too. Modern Warfare is one hell of a tough game on the hardest difficulties as far as I'm concerned. If I'm not careful and strategic, I'm dead in an instant.

Edited October 8, 2010 by Thorton_AP

[Malcador]

Modern Warfare was just hard due to facing an unending horde of Arabs/Russians. I must have killed an entire company in that Pripyat level, heh. Regen'ing health is fine for games like COD, but it's terrible when it finds its way into games like Rainbow Six.

[Calax]

So it comes down to preferences about what kind of challenges excite you - the whole thing about "oh I have to go back 8 rooms for the healthpack" is really blown out of proportion. That said, I don't mind recharging health unless it's too much, and if it's offset with challenging enemies/AI.

 

The whole "oh I can just hide behind the cover and I'm invincible" is blown out of proprotions too. Maybe Calax is a superstar too, but I died a ****ton in COD2 too. Modern Warfare is one hell of a tough game on the hardest difficulties as far as I'm concerned. If I'm not careful and strategic, I'm dead in an instant.

I wasn't saying that I didn't die, but in CoD2's last level alone I took about 4 tons of lead plus 2 tank cannon blasts and survived while completing objectives.

[Tigranes]

If you're the player that did backtrack a whole lot for healthpacks back in the day, I can see why you'd prefer it this way - again, I'd argue that it's not a natural evolution here but a taste/preference thing, based on the kind of challenges you like and the kind of way you play.

 

No need to feel like I'm patronising you because I use the word 'strategy' - the last part of my post should make very clear, in any case, that I'm not opposed to health regen completely. I'm not sure why you feel the need to be so combative here, but my main point is health regen isn't a clear cut issue of "stopping the player".

 

I don't think I can say too much about how extreme regen can get these days, apart from hearsay, since I don't play COD, MW and the like. I thought the original Halo's wasn't too bad, though, and same with AP.

[RPGmasterBoo]

Pulling CoD out is a bad example. I finished CoD5 on the hardest difficulty, and I died a million times - but that has nothing to do with health mechanics and everything to do with a) AI picking me all the time and b) AI throwing 17 grenades at my feet.

CoD games are an arcade shooting gallery that's all about twitch reflexes and enemy spawn memorization - nothing to do with tactics. The combat areas are too confined and linear to offer real tactical depth.

 

Games are about overcoming obstacles. Every single one I played that had health regen was a pushover and gave me no satisfaction in the long run. Gunning down enemy after enemy while below 10 hp is what gets my adrenaline rushing. Not sitting in a corner and waiting for the irritating blood thumpin' animation to stop or bar to fill up.

[Humanoid]

I had hours and hours of fun with the Starsiege: Tribes demo just playing kamikaze with the vehicles, even in offline mode. Wikipedia tells me this was in 1998.

 

 

The last FPS which really grabbed me was No One Lives Forever 2, which I am informed was back in 2002. Shame that was the end of the road barring a crappy spin-off (Contract JACK).

[Gorgon]

I'm in favor of automatic regen, up to half your full health bar. While I do expect to die when playing, I don't want it to happen constantly.

 

I'm also in favor of alternate ways to keep track of injuries, that is ditching the health bar altogether and instead have alternate animations (Far Cry 2) abilities and movement degraded (broken bones in FO2)

[Oner]

Developers could always use the Chronicles of Riddick method.

[Oner]

Dead Rising 2

[Purkake]

The 43151th Spider-Man game

 

 

And now to wait for Yahtzee to hate on New Vegas.

 

Edited October 20, 2010 by Purkake

[Oner]

K

[Meshugger]

K

[Purkake]

Enslaved: The Quest For More Steroids

 

He really rips it apart.