A blessing in disguise

[Zzz]

Zzz

[Redeemer]

One game springs to mind. Eternal Ring. It's an old game, actually poorly made and the magic system is confusing as hell. The only way I got through it was with physical attacks, and at first I hated combat. It was slow and sometimes delayed, and it would certainly put me off any other game. But in Eternal Ring, it was actually a blessing.

As you progressed, enemies began to get very overpowered. I still hadn't figured out the magic system or ring-forging advantages, so all I had was my sword. Each swing was heavy, took what felt like forever to deliver, and sometimes even glitchy in the sense that the sword was moving so slow, it hit enemies twice. I was actually so thankful for this later on, because I would have had my ass handed to me if it wasn't for this pain in the ass combat.

[Zzz]

Zzz

[Star Fox Runner]

Let me quote myself from a journal post on dA when I was asked a lot of questions about Metroid Prime:

That's really just my opinion but if it was a deliberate attempt from the makers or not it still had that effect on me personally.

My question to you:

Have you ever encountered flaws or imperfections you enjoyed in a particular video game that would otherwise be considered bad in another game?

I'm glad you mentioned Metroid Prime, because next to SF64, it's my favorite game!

For what you said about the controls in Prime, I never did actually think about that, but I always felt that as I played, how you get more agile as the game goes on and you get more powerful. It just makes you feel like you are getting stronger as you go from being defenseless to unstoppable.

[Redeemer]

To talk about controls briefly, here's a great example: Legacy of Kain: Defiance.

Here you play 2 characters, Kain and Raziel. These two move completely different due to their body types, Kain being heavy and Raziel being light. This is a feature, when I think about it, that I really love. I wish more games actually did this, I believe it's a feature to be shared around.

Back on topic: Block puzzles. Block puzzles are a huge hit or miss with me but seem to be reoccurring in some adventure games, such as Soul Reaver, Zelda, SF Adventures and even a little in Tomb Raider. I think that a game has to have specific qualities in order to present you with a block puzzle that won't suddenly make you super pissed. I love these kinds of things in Zelda, but in Soul Reaver, they appeared a lot, especially in the Cathedral level, and it infuriates me every time. I hate this section of the game for this reason. I really, really do.

Why do I think this? Pace. Zelda introduces the use of blocks early on, and Soul Reaver does as well, but Zelda starts off with little puzzles generally. With SF Adventures, they appeared every now and then and because pace was so fluid, I had no complaints.

In Soul Reaver, all you use blocks for mostly is to get to higher areas or to hold down switches, but suddenly, out of goddamn nowhere, bam, 5 or 6 block puzzles pretty much in a row. I love Soul Reaver, I truly do, but goddamn it that's just not how to do it. It actually ruins my experience while I'm having to do them, not to mention how you're getting your ass bitten by several respawning Zephonim as you're trying to solve these goddamn puzzles.

[Zzz]

Zzz

[Redeemer]

Other M's Samus and her fans can bite me. I have spoken to Other M fans about Samus' character, and I basically got responses like "oh she's great becuz they gaev her emoshuns and ther was acually a romance story that brot depth and empathy into Samus' otherwise lonely lief and it also explains why she's so cold and is maybe bitter abutt the death of her lost love".

People that have emotions don't become bounty hunters. Bounty hunters become bounty hunters because they're good at hunting and killing, and can get money for it. Sure you find out stuff about Samus' past, her origins, etc., but Other M was just... it's the sanitary towel of the series, letting all the little girls bleed all over it the same way 40 year old mommys bleed over Twilight.

Anyway.

Another thing I dislike about some more modern games is the ability to select items ingame. I think this is something that only combat or first person shooters can pull off. I've seen it appear in some others, like a couple of the newer Silent Hills and Resident Evils (I think, don't quote me on that one because I paid very little attention to the new REs).

Perhaps it's my inability to select things properly with the D-pad, but I always accidentally select the wrong weapon, the wrong item, or even worse - use a goddamn medpack when I don't need it. I'd much prefer to go back to the good old start menu and do it there, because in Silent Hill, I'm too busy trying not to get my ass kicked by the terrifying creatures around me to even look at this tiny item menu in the bottom corner.

[Zzz]

I didn't do too much research but here's a video that shows the complexity of lightsaber duels in JK2 quite nicely:

[media=]

There's a whole lot of lag going on so this doesn't really represent the fluent movements in the actual gaming experience.

The netcode is actually very good, to be honest.

The reason why these two players glow is because in the FFA mode (free for all, or deathmatch) you can challenge players to duels and it goes into that mode. No one can harm you then and you can fully concentrate on your opponent.

This game is very, very easy to modify since it's based on the quake 3 engine. So a lot of these graphical effects can be either replaced by other things or completely deleted, as well, by just editing the rar files (actually .pk3)

Anyway, since this game has a very deep fighting experience everyone kind of develops their own style. A lot of players (like those two in this video) try to keep their distance and thus their focus. Only lashing out every now and then.

After years of playing I finally got around playing in a much more agressive style, launchining myself at players making them tired so I can break their concentration much easier. This style really proves ineffective against the best players tho.