Which games are you currently playing?

[Darth Marsden]

Originally Posted by corruptbiggins

But there is another annoyance with that, and that is the auto save part. Now I should say I'm playing this on the Xbox 360 so I can't say if it's true for all versions but the auto save after getting a gold brick say takes about a minute and that just feels like an eternity at times especially when you can't do anything at all while it's saving. And I'm gonna have to sit through that at least another 100 times yet.

Exactly the same in the Wii version. Takes a good 10-15 seconds from picking up a Gold Brick to actually being able to move again. VERY frustrating.

[corruptbiggins]

Originally Posted by Darth Marsden

Exactly the same in the Wii version. Takes a good 10-15 seconds from picking up a Gold Brick to actually being able to move again. VERY frustrating.

Especially considering how many times you actually have to do it as well.

[Alcoremortis]

Well, because now I finally can... Witcher 2. It's nice to be able to move around and not have the actions on the screen lag behind the buttons by a few seconds. I still suck, but now I can play horribly in real time!

[Zeruis]

Stuck on Zelda: Minish Cap. I'm also playing different play-throughs of the Walking Dead game to hold me over until episode 3.

[RetroVortex]

Monster Hunter Freedom Unite.

Killing lots of Yian Kut Kus for ears.

Damn things. >:/

[Darth Marsden]

I have finally decided to start playing through my games list, so, starting with A, I've played a little of A Bug's Life.

It does not hold up well.

[Giant Tope]

This pretty much sums up the relationship between Rather Dashing's character and mine.

[Farlander]

Originally Posted by Darth Marsden

I have finally decided to start playing through my games list, so, starting with A, I've played a little of A Bug's Life.

It does not hold up well.

That's sad. I remember I loved that game.

[Darth Marsden]

Originally Posted by Farlander

That's sad. I remember I loved that game.

I went and reviewed it as well. Eep.

Ah, the humble video game tie-in. Once upon a time, they were generally considered to be quite good. These days, you’re lucky if you can actually find one that is. The primary problem is that while the old games were in 2D, the newer ones are in 3D, and 3D games tend to take much longer to make. What with these tie-ins being restrained by a strict release date, developers frequently have a similar timescale as they used to with much more work required to finish a game, which is why most 3D video-game tie-ins tend to feel rushed and unfinished.

A Bug’s Life sadly falls into this category. Released on the PC, PS1 and N64, this was one of the many tie-in games by Traveller’s Tales, who would later find their niche in making incredibly repetitive Lego games. But before then, they were known for making games like A Bug’s Life, which is an incredibly basic 3D platformer.

Whether the developers were constrained by the limitations of technology or the lack of development time, A Bug’s Tale feels very unprofessional, right down to the load screens featuring still shots from the movie with incredibly generic text over them. The movie clips used have a rather bad frame rate, making them feel choppy, and the music is incredibly bland, when it’s not simply missing. It all feels like placeholders, meant to be replaced by more professional work that was never actually made.

Once the game starts, it fares little better. The main goal of the game is to simply reach the end of each level, but this is made surprisingly difficult by the questionable level design. The low draw distance means that it’s hard to see what’s ahead, and an now industry-standard poor camera that, in this case, moves incredibly slowly makes it hard to navigate through the obstacles that you can see.

The controls are somewhat sluggish, and the interesting mechanic of having to grow plants into various platforms to manoeuvre around the world is rendered much more difficult as a result. Jumping in particular is incredibly frustrating, being very floaty and imprecise. It turns what should be a relatively fast-paced platformer into a slow plod through the levels, and means that the player is fighting against the game rather then actually playing it.

The only other aspect of the game worth mentioning is the combat, which is limited by your very basic attacks. All of which are rendered moot once you obtain the first weapon powerup that turns your throwing attack into a homing missile, allowing you to throw in random directions and still hit enemies even though you couldn’t see them. It almost feels like you’re breaking the game by doing this, which makes it all the more baffling that it’s an actual design choice.

A Bug’s Life feels more like a chore to play through rather than a pleasure. I’d say it hasn’t aged well, but that implies it was good in the first place. Which it wasn’t. Besides, I always preferred Antz. Suck on that, Pixar.

[Farlander]

I don't remember any of the problems you've mentioned. Although, I was seven years old when I played the game, but it's not like I couldn't distinguish a good/ok game from a crappy game at the time.

[Gman5852]

Mass Effect 1.

Now there is something I must rant about now about this game, and that is the god-awful autosave system. Now the game doesn't use checkpoints, it just makes you go back to the previous save(manual or autosave), however, the autosave is so terrible, you don't want to ever use it! I started at some station that I needed to get completely repaired, and remove some pest that keeps attacking the area. I repaired the station, met scientist from a lab past the system, fought for a bit, and then had an attack by the same pest, which had glitched itself(Another problem, I've gotten a LOT of bugs on this game) so it could one-hit kill me at max armor and health(the same enemies that do damage sure, but never one-hit kill), so I died and the game NEVER autosaved, this was an HOUR of gameplay magically lost because of the game's crappy autosave.

TO ALL DEVS! If you are going to put in an autosave feature, that doubles as your checkpoint system, for the love of god please make it during every loading screen/after every cut scene. ESPECIALLY if they are unskippable(BTW why is dialog skippable, but not cutscenes?) Yes I get it, Geth attacked this area, I don't know why its cutscene worthy when they've attacked EVERY area I've been to, but I don't need a near minute cutscene showing the same geth attacking this area, I freaking get it!

Ok rant over. The game is still very good beyond these stupid problems.

[der_ketzer]

What problems?
Sorry but if you don't know how to use the save yourself it's your own fault. Just be glad the game has some sort of auto-save.

[Darth Marsden]

I'm with the oddly-voiced one on this. Either use autosaves properly or don't have them at all - nobody wins when you half-arse them.

[corruptbiggins]

Batman: Arkham Asylum.

[Gman5852]

Originally Posted by der_ketzer

What problems?
Sorry but if you don't know how to use the save yourself it's your own fault. Just be glad the game has some sort of auto-save.

I'm not going to be glad the game has some sort of autosave when the autosave isn't good! Especially when it takes forever for me to save the game manually. Not to mention the game sometimes doesn't allow you to save, so its tedious to check if you are allowed to or not.

[der_ketzer]

There is a quicksave button. Use it. That takes no time at all
And yes: like in the old DND games you cannot save in a battle.

[Gman5852]

Originally Posted by der_ketzer

There is a quicksave button. Use it. That takes no time at all
And yes: like in the old DND games you cannot save in a battle.

False and false.

I'm using the 360 version with no quicksave.

Secondly, its not just combat. There were moments where nothing was happening and it wouldn't let me save, I was just in one of the towns doing nothing! My men weren't in combat, they were acting normally, I couldn't use the run option that is in combat, nothing! I couldn't save then!

Finally, if I die and have to go back, that should be my punishment, but when I die from a glitch(just played and had my vehicle phase through the ground completely and die) and the autosave goes back an hour because it won't let me save(again, no combat, I already took care of the enemy!), then we have a problem!

[der_ketzer]

Originally Posted by Gman5852

I'm using the 360 version

Well that explains everything then.

[Gman5852]

Originally Posted by der_ketzer

Well that explains everything then.

lol. Had to, it's a rental.

[corruptbiggins]

Metal Gear Solid 2 courtesy of the Metal Gear Solid HD collection. It's interesting to go back to a game like this to see how much nostalgia affected my memory of the game. For one I don't remember the controls being as awkward (and not being able to move the camera with the right stick feels so weird these days) but I sure remember the 5 minutes of game play followed by 20 mins of cut-scenes and codec conversations. One really annoying thing is that there are only two ways to leave the game and go back to the main menu. One is dying (or any other reason for a game over screen) and the other is the nodes spotted through out Big Shell (an option which obviously isn't available during the tanker portion of the game). Annoying.

They could have improved a few things other than the graphics (which just make it look a bit better at a higher resolution), like take the controls for MGS3 but no. There is one more thing about the whole collection that confuses me and that is the lack of the first Metal Gear Solid game. I mean, it has MGS2 & 3, Peace Walker and within 3 are the two Metal Gear games so why miss out what is arguably the best title of them all? I know it's originally made for the PlayStation 1 but there was also a Gamecube version released in 2004 which used MGS 2 as a base for controls & graphics. Why not include this Twin Snakes version? Bah.