Currently Playing in 2014....

I'm still playing through Shadow of Mordor and really enjoying it. Looks really nice on a big TV, too. Shame Boomerang can't do PC rentals, as I'd love to see it running at 60fps.

I've branded 2/5 Warchiefs and am slowly branding pretty much every captain going and doing a few side missions on my way.


I've got Bayonetta 1&2 on Wii U but with all the winter releases coming out, I think I'm just going to keep it for next year. Over the next month or two I want to play Shadow of Mordor, Far Cry 4 and CoD first.

[iup=3606021]Parksey[/iup] wrote:Well, the old-school 3D "platformers" weren't really platformers at all, now we look back at the them. Or, at least, they weren't a true 3D representation of 2D platformers - they were more akin to just an open world, adventure game. The Galaxy titles and 3D World/Land games are a far more accurate 3D representation of a 2D Mario game than SM64 was.

But I still miss these old school 3D platformers. I was sort of raised on a diet of Banjo-Kazooie, DK64 and the like, as I grew up with the N64, and loved games of their type.

The 3D platformer has all but morphed into what we now see as open-world/sandbox games. Strictly speaking they're not platformers, but they have platforming elements - the parkour in Assassin's Creed/inFamous et al and the grinding and bouncing in Sunset Overdrive are natural extensions of the gymnastic abilities of the N64 era platformer protagonists.

To add to the Mario 64 discussion:

[I'll preface this by saying I've never had a N64, and have only briefly played the DS version before]

I gave it a go the other week, up to about the 20 star mark through an emulator. I think it's aged terribly.

Well, to be more specific, the camera in the game is horrible. The core platforming seemed solid enough and I did like exploring and getting to know the larger worlds, but I felt like I was fighting the camera the whole time and was just left frustrated. The N64 controller/DS version might fix this somewhat, I was using a 360 pad, but the whole time I was left thinking that I'd rather be playing SMW/Sunshine/Galaxy/3D World instead.

Finally got that fricking platinum medal on the drift tutorial in Dirt 3.
Been going at it like a madman since 5:30pm yesterday. I'll never have to
do that piece of garbage challenge again. Feels good

Infamous Second Son. I've only done a couple of story missions as I'm really enjoying just liberating each district of the city from DUP control.

rudderless wrote:

[iup=3606021]Parksey[/iup] wrote:Well, the old-school 3D "platformers" weren't really platformers at all, now we look back at the them. Or, at least, they weren't a true 3D representation of 2D platformers - they were more akin to just an open world, adventure game. The Galaxy titles and 3D World/Land games are a far more accurate 3D representation of a 2D Mario game than SM64 was.

But I still miss these old school 3D platformers. I was sort of raised on a diet of Banjo-Kazooie, DK64 and the like, as I grew up with the N64, and loved games of their type.

The 3D platformer has all but morphed into what we now see as open-world/sandbox games. Strictly speaking they're not platformers, but they have platforming elements - the parkour in Assassin's Creed/inFamous et al and the grinding and bouncing in Sunset Overdrive are natural extensions of the gymnastic abilities of the N64 era platformer protagonists.

Yeah, I was going to add how I think that the 3D Platformers morphed into the type of genre that gave us Crackdown or Infamous. Assassin's Creed is essentially a platformers, albeit you are generally looking for feathers, viewpoints or assassin targets instead of jiggles or golden bananas.

Gamerforever, I think it is intensely cynical - and probably baseless too - to say that Nintendo made Super Mario 3D Land simply because it was cheaper to make. Mario 64 was possibly an expensive title to make due to it being new technology and a launch game, but I don't think the Galaxy games or the 3D Land/World titles betray a cheapness on Nintendo's part. It is just evident that they took 3D Mario games in a very different direction with them.

They had already explored the traditional 3D platformer with SM64 and Sunshine, so I am glad we got something different. They'll probably change again in four or five years' time.

If anything, they've just distilled the actual plaform part down into something more focused, linear and intense. The 3D exploration, character interaction and large play areas have been jettisoned in favour of something more akin to a stage from the 2D games.

I don't think cost comes into it at all.

[iup=3606430]Parksey[/iup] wrote:

rudderless wrote:

[iup=3606021]Parksey[/iup] wrote:Well, the old-school 3D "platformers" weren't really platformers at all, now we look back at the them. Or, at least, they weren't a true 3D representation of 2D platformers - they were more akin to just an open world, adventure game. The Galaxy titles and 3D World/Land games are a far more accurate 3D representation of a 2D Mario game than SM64 was.

But I still miss these old school 3D platformers. I was sort of raised on a diet of Banjo-Kazooie, DK64 and the like, as I grew up with the N64, and loved games of their type.

The 3D platformer has all but morphed into what we now see as open-world/sandbox games. Strictly speaking they're not platformers, but they have platforming elements - the parkour in Assassin's Creed/inFamous et al and the grinding and bouncing in Sunset Overdrive are natural extensions of the gymnastic abilities of the N64 era platformer protagonists.

Yeah, I was going to add how I think that the 3D Platformers morphed into the type of genre that gave us Crackdown or Infamous. Assassin's Creed is essentially a platformers, albeit you are generally looking for feathers, viewpoints or assassin targets instead of jiggles or golden bananas.

Gamerforever, I think it is intensely cynical - and probably baseless too - to say that Nintendo made Super Mario 3D Land simply because it was cheaper to make. Mario 64 was possibly an expensive title to make due to it being new technology and a launch game, but I don't think the Galaxy games or the 3D Land/World titles betray a cheapness on Nintendo's part. It is just evident that they took 3D Mario games in a very different direction with them.

They had already explored the traditional 3D platformer with SM64 and Sunshine, so I am glad we got something different. They'll probably change again in four or five years' time.

If anything, they've just distilled the actual plaform part down into something more focused, linear and intense. The 3D exploration, character interaction and large play areas have been jettisoned in favour of something more akin to a stage from the 2D games.

I don't think cost comes into it at all.

I say cheaper because nothing really flows and it really is a bunch of mini levels, probably created by small teams rather than one large one. I am not saying the game is bad, as it is the best platformer this generation - perhaps my expectations of Nintendo are a little high.

They set the bar so high with their N64 games and have never really been able to match or better them imo.

It is pretty clear that 3D World started off as a 3DS game, and if it gets a sequel I will still be pretty happy, just not astounded like I used to be.

See, I never found M64 all that good. I thought it was ok. Galaxy on the other hand was amaze.

[iup=3606433]Pedz[/iup] wrote:See, I never found M64 all that good. I thought it was ok. Galaxy on the other hand was amaze.

Well everyone has their own likes and dislikes. As a child playing Super Mario 64 and then completing it was a dream. Still the best videogame ever made - just feels so complete and even now its amazing.

The Galaxy games are great too - I guess 3D World has helped me appreciate them more, which is a shame!

3D world, I think is a fantastic game. I do hope for a galaxy-a-like or even Mario 64-a-like 3D game next.

[iup=3606433]Pedz[/iup] wrote:See, I never found M64 all that good. I thought it was ok. Galaxy on the other hand was amaze.

Opposite for me.

Would love to see some 'proper' 3D platformers/adventures though, á la DK64, Banjo Kazooie, Rocket: Robot on Wheels, etc.

[iup=3605996]Fuzzy Dunlop[/iup] wrote:

[iup=3605690]cooldawn[/iup] wrote:In fact, where would one buy a Slim PlayStation 2 these days?

eBay, CeX or Cash Generators?

Yep...apart from eBay.

Gymkhana Gymkhana Gymkhana Gymkhana Gymkhana Gymkhana Gymkhana Gymkhana Gymkhana.
There is not enough gymkhana in Dirt 3.
Please sir, can I have more sir.

I always enjoyed playing Mario 64 but Galaxy never stood out to me as the best thing since sliced bread. I absolutely loved playing through 3D World so maybe my gaming tastes just lulled around the time of Galaxy.

I hope that we get a 3D World 2 or some sort of new Mario platformer for the Wii U in the next year or so. Thankfully, I still haven't played Galaxy 2 so I'll fire that up on Dolphin soon.

SM64 was a revolution in gaming, playing it back then was an amazing experience.

You will love Galaxy 2.

GTA: San Andreas

Damn this is strawberry floating me off.

There might be the odd good mission, but they're far outweighed by some really frustrating/boring missions. Then if you die on one of them, the 'mission checkpoint' system actually does strawberry float all and still results in you having to play through the entire mission again, including the tedious 'drive to x to pick up y, then you can actually start the mission' bits. Why can it cut that crap out when I've done it once?

There are also some generally frustrating elements; the weapon/targeting system is awful, some of the cars handle like absolute gooseberry fool and just clipping a wall or lamppost will send the car flipping all over the place, and on a couple of occasions I've been killed, have gone back to Grove St to attempt a mission again, and a group of Ballas is right outside my house and they kill me straight away. Ugh, so many annoying things in the game.

Just started Ys: Celceta on Vita. Initial impressions are that it is visually very fugly, and very wordy. But I've got through the tutorial bit in the mine at the start and am about to go out and explore, so I hope I'm left to get on with it a bit now instead of being stopped for dialog every few steps.

The fighting mechanics at least felt quite decent, so I'm hopeful of being able to get into it a bit more.

Monopoly

Damn now in jail

Hyrule Warriors
I need to start checking my Wii U daily logs because I just know I have put a stupid amount of time into this game over the last week, 3-5 hours a day on average I'm sure. It's just got so much content, it's going to be a long time before I need to buy any of the DLC.