Here's an old post of mine that I made in Tendo City before this forum existed. I thought I'd re-post it, and make little edits here and there (such as adding a score out of 10, as requested my Barbara EdenMaster & Rtan (I'm too lazy to come up with a silly name for him)). So here it is:
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God damn it, people, you just love to keep things from old beanjo, don't you? Once again, you've failed to let me in on an underrated yet awesome N64 title. CHOKE ON AIR, YOU BUNCH OF NEGLIGENT SONS (and daughters) OF SEA COWS!!!
So I bought this game recently, for a measly 4 bucks (maybe 5, I don't remember - I buy old N64 games all the time). I heard that it was a sleeper hit, and remembered that those who played it and talked about it on message boards had loved it. So I bought it in hopes that it would be another Rocket: Robot on Wheels, a simple yet addictive title hidden among piles of gaming excrimient.
So anyways, who else was left back at the station when the Body Harvest hype train departed? Well, you sure wouldn't have to walk far to get back on it, 'cos it broke down about a mile down the tracks. Because people are dumb.
The graphics of Body Harvest are simple, but they get the job done. Given that the player gets to run around in enormous fields and cities, the simplicity of the graphics can be excused. The game plays a little like GTA, actually (its maker is DMA). You have to jump in and drive random cars travel the map more quickly, which so far (I'm only in the 1946 Greece stage right now, but there are different stages which I assume have different cars) range from tanks to motorcycles. However, the gameplay differs between the two games in that Body Harvest is more oriented towards puzzle solving and bug shooting. The shooting parts have been ridiculously easy so far, but I finally got stuck at one point at the end of the stage where I have to fight this huge, hard boss. Oh, and there ARE civilians running around that you can run over or use as target practice, although if you kill enough, you lose the game. :( There are a few parts where you even have to save civilians in cities from invading alien insects.
The atmosphere of this game is the best part! The very first feeling I got when playing was that it felt like Starship Troopers in video game form. I'm a sucker for sci-fi, so this enhances the experence all the more for me. The background music is very creepy, and it gave me an uneasy feeling after listening to it nonstop for a span of a couple hours. A game hasn't had that ability to genuinely creep me out since Silent Hill (for PSX). I doubt it'd creep many other people out, though... it's just one of those strange situations where something very simple can make you and you alone feel anxious and panicky.
I have only a few qualms with this game. For one: the save points are spread far apart! This actually only bothered me when I got stuck at one point in the game (this was before I found the first save point) and ended up running around in circles for a good hour and making no progress whatsoever. I didn't want to play the game, but I wanted to first find a save point before quitting. I actually wouldn't have been stuck, had I known that I was actively being given clues via informations transmissions. When an information transmission arrives, an "E" icon appears next to the energy bar, and I could never figure out what that damned E meant until recently, so I just ignored it. Anyways, the player doesn't reach the first save point until 1/4th the way through the first stage. Then, generally, when another 25% of progress through the stage is made, the player is given another save point.
Secondly, if the player dies just once, it's GAME OVER. I've died a few times, mosty by either drowning or a large bug landing on my head (they're beamed down from the sky when you fight them). The player is advised to retrace his steps back to save points often, just in case the shit hits the fan in the middle of a mission.
The puzzles in this game are pretty easy, especially with the information transmissions as an aid. For example, at one point, you need to find a way to break down a blockage in the road, to get a cog from a miller to give to a different character, who in turn opens a water gate for you.
The weapons, so far, are nothing short of awesome. At the start, you're given a standard pistol that can't run out of ammo. Later on, you find a machine gun, dynomite (although I've never used that in battle), and my personal favorite so far, the sun shield. :D This baby is used to reflect a powerful beam of sunlight and fry insects, I suppose to allude to the archetypal mischievous kid who uses a magnifying glass to burn ants.
The bottom line: Body Harvest is awesome, so if any of you see it in the store for just a few bucks, do yourself a favor and pick it up. I don't know what games (other than GTA) I can use as a point of reference, since this one is quite unique. It isn't all that much like Jet Force Gemini... it's less concentrated on shooting and more concentrated on puzzles. Plus, it's stages are much longer, although I believe there are only four of them in total. I suppose I'd describe it best as a cross between GTA and Jet Force Gemini (although I'm sure there are better games to compare it to).
Okay, so there was a huge piece of earth-shattering action going on last night. I'm going to explain what happened, and the causes.
Basically, the flashpoint was the Reviews forum, which I recently revived. As soon as I did, I and Edenmaster drafted a series of rules and guidelines for reviews that were to be posted. These rules were not new to the Reviews forum. They have been in effect, if unwritten, since we started doing them four years ago. Some of them I tuned down or eliminated, by request.
OB1 writes a pair of "reviews" that totally, flagrantly disregard these rules. As such, I have Edenmaster remove them. This was done both with proper warning beforehand, and proper explanation afterwards.
OB1 decides to express his discontent by writing a thread that is inflammatory to say the least. I respond. As usual, it escalated. Soon, the flavor of the comments he posted about me go from merely inflammatory to rude, outright lies and personal insults. He makes ridiculous accusations towards me, and I respond with quite an unhappy tone.
This went on for several hours. And it resulted in him deciding to leave for good.
Now, I want to stress that I did not ban OB1. In no way was he forced or coerced into leaving Tendo City. What he did was of his own free will, including starting the argument and escalating it the way he did. I gave him many, many chances to stop without consequence. He was determined to push me until I gave up and let him have his way. I was not about to do that. I almost never make a point to mention, but this is my place, and while I always welcome advice from people, I do not enjoy getting second-guessed, nor do I like being threatened and pressured into doing anything.
So what has happened is that OB1 is gone, presumably. I have removed his administration abilities. I will not ban him, and he is welcome to return any time he pleases, as long as he remembers how to conduct his behavior. I will not restore his admin priveleges, because I no longer feel I could trust him with that sort of power, but I will not stop him if he has a change of heart and decides he can be a normal human being once again.
I was not at all happy to experience what I did, and I am not happy with the result. I did not want him gone. I never had the problems with him that some have,until last night anyway. It's been weighing on my mind all day. But I did what I had to do.
OB1, if you read this, and I'm quite sure you will, I don't want anything from you. I won't demand an apology or anything. The door's always open. I hope you have the chance to look back and see what you did, and see it for what it really was.
Oh, to clarify. The boards did go down for a good deal of the day, and I know some people suspected him. It was not his doing. It was actually mine, and it was an accident.
Well, apparently while I was gone yesterday for most of the latter half of the day, quite a few things happened and our most prominent member left in anger, which is not usually a good thing as it is hard to reverse a decision like that. Anyway, so what exactly does that mean for TC as a whole? I'm sure most of you are thinking "Finally! Now maybe things will quite down here and be more peaceful". Yes, that's true I suppose, but I think the danger here is that things will become TOO peaceful, if you catch my meaning.
In a very real way, OB1 has been the fuel that has kept Tendocity's fire burning for the past year or two. We've been bleeding badly here for a long time, people have been leaving and the people that are here have been posting less and less. Now, every single potential post maybe by OB1 is gone, which is likely a good 25% of the posts made. That's big, but it does deeper than that. Think on this for a moment: how many posts did OB1 generate INdirectly. A large portion of ABF's posts were arguements with OB1. Now those posts won't be forthcoming anymore. A large portion of MY posts have been in direct response to something OB1 posted. Now those posts won't be forthcoming.
OB1 is likely the single most important member to keeping TC alive aside from Ryan. Without him, there's going to be a lot of slack to take up and I just don't think there's enough interest from other members to do it. There's a real danger here that, maybe not in one week or two, but perhaps in four or five months, that TC could become a ghost town.
I'm not going to pass blame or judgement on anyone here, that would just be pointless, but I think we need to step back here and look at the future of our little forum. TC's on life-support right now and is fading fast, even quicker now than it has been for past year, so unless something happens soon...
I have a quick question that I wanted to ask you guys. Do you believe that human beings are inherently good or evil. I'm not looking for a discussion or a debate (hence it is not going in thr debate forum, where this kind of question might seem to fit in better). Please just answer the question and maybe a couple sentences about why you think that. I believe this is a key viewpoint into why people believe what they do, and I was just curious what you all thought. Since we have a pretty good range of beliefs here, and since I know most of you pretty well, I thought you would be good people to ask. Thanks!
The small, third-world country of Arulco is being terrorized by a ruthless dictator named Diedranna. The former leader of Arulco, Enrico Chivaldori, thwarted an assassination attempt and escaped the country when Diedranna, his wife, framed him for his fathers murder. Ten years have passed, and Diedranna's rule has turned the country into a desolate, poverty-stricken nation. She takes money away from all public services and spends it on lavish possessions for herself and leves the populace destitute. Her army is substantial, crimes are determined at the whim of Diedranna, and the punishment is almost always death. Now, Enrico has enlisted you to hire and lead a squad of mercenaries through Arulco to dethrone Diedranna once and for all and bring peace and prosperity back to Arulco.
<b>GAMEPLAY</b>
JA2 mixes so many genres together that it defies description. In a way, it's part RPG, as each of your mercenaries have skills (such as marksmanship, medical, explosive, strength, experience, and wisdom) that can be improved upon and made more useful to the team. It's also real-time AND turn-based strategy, as you lead your mercenary team into battle against Diedranna's forces. When no enemies are in view, or in the sector at all, the game moves in real time, though when battling the enemy, the game shifts to turn-based. Then, the individual mercenaries skill points give them an number of "action points" to spend during their turn. A certain number to move, to shoot, to heal, to reload, how you spend each turn must be managed carefully to ensure all your men and women get out alive.
Hiring your mercenaries can go many different ways. You're given the opportunity to create your own custom mercenary, with their own skills and personality. Beyond that, you can visit the recruitment sites of The Association of International Mercenaries (A.I.M.) or the More Economical Recruitment Center (M.E.R.C.). While A.I.M. offers the best talent in the business, they're pricey. On the other hand, M.E.R.C. offers cheaply priced but low skilled mercenaries. Furthermore, you'll find plenty of people in Arulco willing to join your cause, some for a daily price, some for free. All methods used together to create a balanced team is a recipe for victory.
The game has an excellent curve. As you start, you have a small team, so you face smaller groups of enemies in towns like Drassen and Chitzena, but as you move into larger towns like Balime and Grumm, the difficulty gets higher to accomodate your probably larger and more skilled team By the time you're busting down the Queens door in Meduna, your team is probably very strong and can even take down the feared Elite Forces.
<b>Sound</b>
JA2 does not skimp on the voice acting. Every mercenary and major character has a voice and several lines of dialogue, some of which can be very entertaining. While some voices obviously come from the same person, everyone you meet has their own distinct voice and personality, which makes it easy to relate to your mercenaries and try to see them through.
The sounds of war are here and they sound great. Guns fire off with differing sounds depending on the firearm, soldiers yell in pain when shot, bullets ricochet off of walls, explosions rock your speakers, and footsteps nearby can alert you to nearby enemies.
<b>Graphics</b>
Graphicallt the game does not disappoint, but it does not greatly impress either. All characters share the same general body types with swapped color shirts and pants, and aside from hair and skin color, all enemies look identical. Environments are detailed, but not stunning. All in all, average.
<b>Replayability</b>
Immense. It's impossible to get the full scope of the game on one play through. So many mercenaries you have yet to hire, lots of side quests, and lots of Arulco to explore. Plenty to keep you busy in Arulco, even after the game is over.
As PC games go, Jagged Alliance is probably the most critically acclaimed sleeper hit series ever. It's gotten numerous awards and lots of praise, but almost nobody I know has even heard of it, it's such a shame, because it's such a great game to experience. I rate Jagged Alliance 2 a 9.5, and highly, highly recommend you try to hunt down a copy. It's a relatively old game, so you should be able to find it on the cheap used or in a bargain bin.
I mean, I knew that the 360 is more Mac-ish hardware, with that IBM CPU, and the dev systems were mac-based, but it's just as funny now as it was then... Microsoft makes a console. ... and they run it on Mac hardware.
...
Yeah, this makes sense... I mean, I'm not a Mac fan by any means... why? IBM made them a better offer than Intel for the CPUs?
<i>Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door</i> (henceforth simply "Paper Mario") is the spiritual successor to the SNES Super Mario RPG, GBA's Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga, and of course the original N64 Paper Mario. Princess Peach has found a strange map that she believes will lead to treasure, and she writes to Mario so he can come and help her look. Mario then sets out for the dreary port town of Rogueport, where he runs into plenty of trouble, but no sign of Princess Peach. After meeting a spunky young Goomba named Goombella, Mario discovers the map is the legendary "Magical Map" which will point the way to the seven Crystal Stars, which will open the Thousand-Year Door, hidden deep below Rogueport. What lies behind it? Nobody can say for sure, but there are many who wish to find out. Mario soon learns the mysterious X-Nauts are behind it, and he races to find the Crystal Stars before they do, because who knows what they could be planning.
This game also has one other great feature: it's hilarious. The same quirky humor found in Super Mario RPG and Superstar Saga is alive and well in this game. Whether you're watching Princess Peach try to teach a supercomputer the meaning of love, watching Bowser and his cronies try hopelessly to find the Crystal Stars themselves, hearing Luigi tell you about the equally bizarre journey of his own, or watching the incredibly inept X-Naut lackeys fail time and time again, this game will keep you laughing from beginning to end.
<b>GRAPHICS</b>
One of the features that makes Paper Mario so endearing is it's unique graphic style. While the 3D environments and worlds are big and vibrant, all the characters, enemies, and anything else that moves are all paper thin. An unusual style, to be sure, but Nintendo pulls it off flawlessly. The characters and environments mesh together well, and the game never looks odd. Also, since the sprites take so little processing power, there can be hundereds of them moving around on the screen (and sometimes there are!) without a problem. The game also takes advantage of Mario and gangs thinness by allowing Mario to turn himself sideways to squeeze through tight spots, roll into a tube to roll into small areas, and into paper airplane so he can glide to faraway ledges.
The worlds themselves are detailed and look incredible. From the dreary and dirty Rogueport, to the surreal Boggly Woods, to the flashy and bright stadium town of Glitzville, to the creepy Twilight Town, the graphics never fail to impress.
<b>SOUND</b>
You'll hear plenty of familiar Mario sounds here, the jump, the stomp, the shell kick. Nothing new there, however the music is almost all brand new and very well done. Each stages music fits in well with all of the worlds.
<b>GAMEPLAY</b>
Mario meets many colorful characters in his journey, and he finds many willing to join him. To proceed through the game, you'll need all of their skills. Shy Koopa Troopa Koops can shoot out his shell to press faraway switches and grab items. Wind Goddess Madame Flurrie can use her powerful breath to blow away obstacles. You can ride newly hatched Baby Yoshi (and you can name him anything you want) can make you move faster and hover over short distances. You'll meet other characters too, all of which have their own skills to help Mario on his quest.
Stages and situations vary greatly from stage to stage. One requires Mario to sign up for a fighting competition, and fight his way through the ranks, during this time his manager assigns him a new name to fight by (I won't tell you, it'll be funnier if you see it for yourself), competitors try to bribe and poison Mario before his fights, and other such instances. Another stage is set completely on a moving train, where you have three days to solve a mystery and find who is behind some dastardly deeds on the train. Yet another results in a doppelganger stealing Mario's appearance and posing as him, while Mario must attempt to reveal him for who he is to get his body back. The stages are always fun and a joy to complete.
Battles themselves have a unqiue and interesting twist added to them as well. Every battle Mario and party faces is set on a stage with spectators in the audience. This may sound cheesy, but it works really well. The more people in the audience, the faster you can fill your "Star Power" guage and unleash powerful combo attacks. Additionally, depending on your performance, the audience can throw you items like coins, health refills, mushrooms, and ton of other useful items. Conversely, if you're not doing well the audience may throw hammers, rocks, and such at you. In this case, you have to watch the audience for anyone wishing you ill will and kicking them out of the audience before they get a chance to throw. Kick out a fan who was trying to help you, though, and your audience will diminish. Furthermore, the stage itself can be your enemy. Props and backgrounds can fall down if the stage is rocked, lights can fall from the rafters onto Mario, his ally, an enemy, or into the crowd. No two battles are alike, and there is no predictability, and in this way, even the most mundane and repetitive of battles feels fresh and fun right till the end.
<b>REPLAYABILITY</b>
Once you've beaten the game, there's not much left. You could try to go back and find more badges, star pieces, or try to beat the optional 100-level dungeon, but for the most part, one play through is all it's really good for.
All things considered, Paper Mario is still an entertaining, funny, and worthwhile adventure, and I would definitely recommend checking it out. I rate the game 9.0 out of 10.
I think we all need to have a talk about certain goings-on at TC, some of us anyway. I would like to have a group discussion on MSN with as many of our major posters as possible. OB1, GR, ABF definitely, and anyone else who wants in as well. It's kinda important.
If we could do this around midnight tonight, that would be wonderful.
Quote:One major surprise is that some copies of Metroid Prime Pinball on the show floor featured rumble capability. Yes, rumble as in force feedback like Pokemon Pinball. This obviously couldn't be built into the tiny DS packs, so I had a look underneath the DS playing the game and it had a GBA cartridge plugged in as well. I figured that the GBA cartridge was the one doing the rumbling, and this was later confirmed by PGC chum Chris Kohler. Apparently Chris saw someone booting up a DS with Metroid Prime Pinball in it, and the initial selection screen said that there was a "GBA Option Pak" in the GBA cartridge slot. I'm not sure whether or not Nintendo will sell this standalone Rumble Pak for use with rumble-enabled games, but it definitely exists. Hopefully it will be a pack-in when Metroid Prime Pinball is released, because it works like a charm.
And some new game announcements... PC ports. Let's see how they go... Age of Empires II has been changed almost beyond recognition in being ported to the GBA (or is it DS?), so who knows about these...
Anyway, it's Europa Universalis II, Disciples II, and Jagged Alliance II.
Quote:Europa Universalis II gets some company.
Pocket PC Studios, who specialize in Palm/WinCE games, announced two projects more for the Nintendo DS. If you recall, they already announced Europa Universalis II, which seems to be a proper port of the strategy game. Well now you can add Disciples II: Dark Prophecy and Jagged Aliance 2: Gold Pack to their DS list.
Jagged Alliance 2: Gold Pack
The small country of Arulco has been taken over by a merciless dictator – and only you can loosen the iron grip! Jagged Alliance 2: Gold Pack features the wildly popular strategy title Jagged Alliance 2 and its mini-sequel, Unfinished Business for hours and hours of gameplay. Featuring an enhanced version of Jagged Alliance 2, Jagged Alliance 2: Gold Pack immerses you into an elaborate role-playing universe where you will interact with more than 150 characters, recruit your own band of soldiers and create your own custom mercenary to win back Arulco – not once, but twice! The perfect blend of strategy, role playing and tactical combat!
Disciples II: Dark Prophecy
Disciples II: Dark Prophecy returns gamers to the magical realm of the Sacred Lands where four races - the Empire, the Mountain Clans, the Legions of the Damned and the Undead Hordes - continue the battle for the destiny of their Gods. A decade after the First Great War, the final prophecy continues to unfold. Deep within the crevices of the Sacred Lands, the Chosen One has emerged, fated to bring salvation to some and destruction to others. Braced with renewed faith and newfound conviction, each race must once again take up the sword for the sake of their people and the glory of their God.
