Topic: Gaming Shaming

[peanutbutter]

I've just checked.  You can go back to the Black Materia corridor to grind.

Yep, that's what I thought. Nowhere to sleep or anything though, right? And that level of outright grinding would be the most tedious thing ever. I think my logic at the time was "well... I enjoyed the game up to this point, it'd be more fun to replay it"

In 2019, with as many distractions as I have now, I'd never touch it again at that point.

[Thursday]

I've just checked.  You can go back to the Black Materia corridor to grind.

It may be at the time I was so incensed by the idea of grinding more that I refused to do it for as long as possible and so it created a false memory.

... no actually forget that, it must have been a glitch on the original PS1 version... you're probably playing a version that had that bit fixed, yeah that's it, honest.

[St_Eddie]

Yep, that's what I thought. Nowhere to sleep or anything though, right?

There is.  There's the little wizard fella, who you can use to rest and/or save.

[peanutbutter]

There is.  There's the little wizard fella, who you can use to rest and/or save.

The cosmo canyon guy? That sounds familiar... where was he? which screen, like.

Still, crazily claustrophobic area to be stuck in, can't blame 8 year old me for not bothering.

[St_Eddie]

The cosmo canyon guy? That sounds familiar... where was he? which screen, like.

The fella to the left, at the start of this video here.

[The Lion King]

I remember having to go back and grind to beat Demon’s gate. Also the materia keeper, big blue bastard in mt Nibel, had to slog out some battles to get past him. Years later when I played through the game with a housemate he was perplexed st the idea of having to level up to get past certain parts, but he was always really thought full with his materia and would use loads of added effect items like fury to get by

[Cerys]

The Demon Gate always gave me trouble - apart from in my No Materia playthrough, when it died like a tadpole in a vice.  I can't remember why it was so easy - possibly the limit breaks.

[St_Eddie]

...when it died like a tadpole in a vice.

How disgustingly descriptive.  I love it!

[Fry]

Playing A Link to the Past for the first time at the moment. Went in to it determined not to use save states at all, play through it all the way old style. Was doing quite well, until I got to the dungeon in dark version of hyrule forest. Those fuckin' little hands that come down from the roof and diddle you, taking you back to the entrance and resetting all your progress. Too fucking irritating for words. Then I got to the boss, that moth twat with the moving floor. Just absolutely nuts, had to chuck a save state down just before him, fuck traipsing all the way back through that dungeon 40 times. Feeling shamed.

[Golden E. Pump]

I've never collected all the chaos emeralds in a Sonic game without cheating.

[St_Eddie]

I've never collected all the chaos emeralds in a Sonic game without cheating.

But if you hadn't have cheated, then Dr. Robotnik's evil plan would have have come to fruition and chaos would reign supreme.  There's no shame in cheating when it's for the greater good.

[Cerys]

^ This.

[madhair60]

But if you hadn't have cheated, then Dr. Robotnik's evil plan would have have come to fruition and chaos would reign supreme.  There's no shame in cheating when it's for the greater good.

So you forgive me for buying the RE2 remake infinite gatling gun?

[St_Eddie]

So you forgive me for buying the RE2 remake infinite gatling gun?

Racoon City was still swarming with zombies and other nasty beasties by the time you'd finished gatling gunning your way to victory, so no.  No, I do not.  The only thing your gatling gun managed to achieve was saving your own worthless skin and the life of an annoying little brat.  I said for the greater good, not for the worse!

[JesusAndYourBush]

and done some Chocobo breeding but nothing to progress the story

I spent the best part of a couple of days on the chocobo breeding, never been able to get the special one I needed... can''t remember as it was some time ago, I think you needed one that had the ability to cross water??   So I gave up on that and carried on with the game, and it turned out there was another way of crossing the water (to get to an island or something??) so I never needed to breed the sodding chocobo in the first place.

[Poobum]

It took me 11 hours to complete Shovel Knight and I was trying really hard. Also, and this is the really dark one, I play Forza with the racing lines and rewind turned on.

[St_Eddie]

I spent the best part of a couple of days on the chocobo breeding, never been able to get the special one I needed... can''t remember as it was some time ago, I think you needed one that had the ability to cross water??   So I gave up on that and carried on with the game, and it turned out there was another way of crossing the water (to get to an island or something??) so I never needed to breed the sodding chocobo in the first place.

No.  The only way to acquire the Knights of the Round summon materia, is via a gold chocobo.  The airship can't land because the island is too small.

[Yussef Dent]

I never completed Sonic 2 properly. The Christmas I got it, I remember vividly. I was 9 years old, I got a Mega Drive (with Sonic and Mega Games 1), a TV (Matsui, Curry's pseudo-Japanese brand), and Sonic 2. Didn't come from a well-off family at all so it was a gobsmacking thing.

Dad set it up and he wanted to play "football" on it and as we were both huge football fans, I had no problem. Thing was, the game was World Cup Italia 90. Think it took us 20 mins to both agree it was terrible and I was left to myself to play Sonic 2.

Emerald Zone Act 1 and 2 despatched with no fuss, as was Chemical Plant Zone Act 1. Chemical Plant Zone Act 2... now we have a problem. Just before the boss, the pink liquid rises up and you have to get up and over it onto a bit where a moving platform slides across. Miss the platform and you go tumbling down into the liquid again, and have to work your way back up these moving block things that can also make you lose a life by effectively crushing you. Don't get up and out of it quick enough and you drown.

I looked for air bubbles like in Labyrinth Zone, but it's chemicals. I cannot time landing on the platform, at all. The countdown music. The drowning noise. Over and over again... I need to get ready to visit family, but I can't sodding do this bit. So, basically, since that despite the odd few goes at it and failing it, I gave up. Angry at my cack-handedness. How could I not get past the second bloody level on one aspect? Sonic 2 gathered dust on the shelf for a bit. However... the old level select cheat eventually came to pass (done through the sound test in options, probably read about it in Sega Power). I didn't take the mick, I went straight onto Aquatic Ruin Zone (3rd level) and continued on my merry way to finishing it. But the head-hanging shame of cheating never wore off.

So Sonic Mania comes along, remixed levels, remixed music... remixed Chemical Plant Zone as a pissing second level. They're going to put that bit in I couldn't do aren't they? They're going to do that. And replicate it perfectly, they did. And yes, I was still crap at it. Nevertheless, there was no way I was succumbing to it this time. No way. This time round, you're not bloody beating me. No chance. Don't Google for a level select cheat, this is our time now.

Anyway, after nine attempts. It was done. There was shouting, there was a fist-pump, there was swearing abound. My housemate wondered what the celebration was. When I explained, he was like "well the easiest way was to walk onto the platform rather than jump on it."

I was terrible at both disciplines involved in that bit, but Sonic Mania finally put that all to bed.

[Noonling]

I will shame anyone who likes FPSs or "AAA" games generally but hasn't played Half-Life 2. I've met a few people like this and it shocks me. It is nothing but wilful, embarrassing ignorance, like saying you love action movies about robots but have never seen Terminator.

Nah mate. Tried HL1, and a dash of HL2, couldn't get into either of them. Now to be fair I don't like FPS games in general, but the fact is, just because something was massively influential or groundbreaking or one of the first of its kind etc doesn't make something good when you're comparing it to later games. Same applies to TV.

Final Fantasy 1 was generally well reviewed and spawned some of the most well known video games, doesn't mean everyone should rush to play it. Until The Sims came out, Myst held the position of best selling PC game - from 1993 to 2002, almost a decade. Does that mean anyone who likes 3Dish (or actual 3D) puzzle games or walking simulators or anything inspired by Myst has to play it? Hell no.

If you want to be the type of person who waxes lyrically about the history of video games or the influences on certains games then sure, it would be strange to not play HL2 to grasp this. If you just want to play games and have fun why would you play a 15yr old game with worse graphics and fewer features than more modern games?

[druss]

Nah mate. Tried HL1, and a dash of HL2, couldn't get into either of them. Now to be fair I don't like FPS games in general, but the fact is, just because something was massively influential or groundbreaking or one of the first of its kind etc doesn't make something good when you're comparing it to later games. Same applies to TV.

Final Fantasy 1 was generally well reviewed and spawned some of the most well known video games, doesn't mean everyone should rush to play it. Until The Sims came out, Myst held the position of best selling PC game - from 1993 to 2002, almost a decade. Does that mean anyone who likes 3Dish (or actual 3D) puzzle games or walking simulators or anything inspired by Myst has to play it? Hell no.

If you want to be the type of person who waxes lyrically about the history of video games or the influences on certains games then sure, it would be strange to not play HL2 to grasp this. If you just want to play games and have fun why would you play a 15yr old game with worse graphics and fewer features than more modern games?

Batshit, sorry.

Half-Life 2 is still the pinnacle, if anything FPS games have gone backwards since then. The graphics aren't as good, there's no way around that, but I haven't found an FPS that matches it for gameplay (willing to hear suggestions to the contrary). If you've only played "a dash" of HL2 then this might be the problem.

[Twed]

There are a lot of games with "worse graphics and fewer features" that are better games than their better graphics and more featured counterparts.

[Thursday]

Half Life 2 has long stretches where I'm not particularly having fun, not really a fan of either of the vehicles, and that bridge bit among others. There's always sections where I'd replay it where I think. "I don't really like this bit"

[Noonling]

To clarify I don't personally feel graphics are particularly important, but they are for other people. My standards are mostly "not ASCII", but these days most of those type of games have a tileset available (whether fanmade or not). Old 3D games with repetitive textures (like the dungeons in Daggerfall) also put me off.

I can't say with certainty that my opinion above applies to HL2 - like I said I played very little of it, but I do think people view older ground-breaking games through rose-tinted glasses. They may have been world-class for their time, doesn't mean they are a must-play now.

[popcorn]

I don't think HL2 is the best FPS because it was influential (if anything I don't think it was influential enough - see below), I genuinely think it's the best FPS to play today.

To clarify I don't personally feel graphics are particularly important, but they are for other people.

Games are a visual medium. This makes as much sense as saying "how a film looks isn't important to me". It gets weirder the more you think about it.

I can't say with certainty that my opinion above applies to HL2 - like I said I played very little of it, but I do think people view older ground-breaking games through rose-tinted glasses. They may have been world-class for their time, doesn't mean they are a must-play now.

There are elements about it that have dated but I sincerely believe that HL2 presents a unified vision of design that no game of its type has rivalled. It should have set a standard but very few people heeded its lessons, or seemed to misunderstand them. For example, everyone suddenly went "oh shit we've got to have physics now", and added some telekinesis power you use occasionally to solve puzzles, or whatever. Compare that to the gravity gun in HL2, which touches every part of the design.

It was also seemingly the last FPS to have art direction. As in it had a distinct, interesting visual style and mood, whereas everything since has worn the clothes of Generic Xbox Sci Fi.

[FerriswheelBueller]

So you forgive me for buying the RE2 remake infinite gatling gun?

I used to gameshark the absolute fuck out of the RE games as a nipper and go to town on every undead cunt in Raccoon City. Ooh, zombie? Desert Eagle for you, pal. Ooh, licker? “Licker” this flamethrower you twat.

Loved it. Nothing wrong with it.

I’ve also never completed a FF game, finding them to be unfun bits of shite. Never put any time into one to prove myself wrong, of course. I probably am wrong on this, but I’m too old to put the time into these gams any more so there we go.

[Noonling]

Games are a visual medium. This makes as much sense as saying "how a film looks isn't important to me". It gets weirder the more you think about it.

Uh...No. There are games for blind people, or playable by blind people. There are text based games. There are ASCII games (which despite what some weirdos think, cannot be pretty). There are plenty of great games with mediocre graphics. It can't be compared to films in this respect.

[popcorn]

Uh...No. There are games for blind people, or playable by blind people. There are text based games. There are ASCII games (which despite what some weirdos think, cannot be pretty).

These are 0.1% of games. There are novels with pictures too.

There are plenty of great games with mediocre graphics. It can't be compared to films in this respect.

Like films, games aren't always great for the same reason.

[popcorn]

I get what you're saying - it's the old "graphics don't mean anything if the gameplay is bad!" routine. But I think it's a confused and old-fashioned way of thinking. Might have been truer in the Spectrum days.

How a game looks is 95% of how we receive its information (which directly connects to gameplay), let alone respond to it emotionally. I'm not just talking about polycounts and technical fidelity, but everything from art direction, animation, menu design, font, lighting, colour palette, etc.









Graphics don't matter? Mate.

[Noonling]

I said I don't personally feel graphics are particularly important, but they are for other people. Not that they don't matter at all - I'll grant that games do give more of an emotional impact when they have good graphics (and I'm including art direction to an extent) and they are more important in some genres than others. Not all games have to be about the emotional impact though. Many of my favorite games are mediocre in appearance.

[popcorn]

Those games look bollocks and boring.