The Official "EVERYONE COME BACK AND DISCUSS REAL ISSUES AND STUFF!!" Thread!!

[Great Rumbler]

Alright, here's the deal: I'll make better posts that consist of more than just a single emoticon or "..." if you guys start coming back the forums and POSTING. Don't just drop in once a week or once a month to post a couple of times, and then complain that no one posts anything good. Okay? If you come back and start posting more and my posting habits DO NOT get better THEN BY ALL MEANS COMPLAIN ALL YOU WANT!! Because at that point I'll be deserving of it. So, this is what it has come down to.


EVERYONE COME BACK AND POST A BUNCH OF GOOD POSTS!!

[A Black Falcon]

They all left again... it's the four of us alone once again. :(

[Dark Jaguar]

Oh don't worry. If a higher level of activity is what everyone wants, then I'll help out. The goal of this shall be how to come up with interesting and thought provoking topics, but more than that, also actively trying to prevent arguments occuring that make these topics undesirable.

One suggestion? There's a lot of power in tact. Polite respect of other's views so they can say what they want without fear of being made fun of is a good way to gain the trust of people.

Now, what sorts of topics should be brought up? Very few of us read news sites and post what we read any more. In fact, when someone actually does read some month old article no one else bothered posting about, if someone DID see it, they go Mapelgirl and say "OLD NEWS PEOPLE!". I know I do that a lot anyway :D. Ya can't complain about a topic being about old news if when you saw it you never bothered posting it yourself :D. Well, okay you technically can, but try contributing too :D.

I think a lot of us have been actively avoiding news about upcoming games because of the risk of spoiling the experience. So, let's post other things. Maybe we can start discussing retro gaming classics? I for one will start a topic covering tactics I've used to beat old game bosses, and we can all post our methods and how effective we thought they were. Then after reading it over we can all vote on what was most effective. I'll go ahead and do that now.

[A Black Falcon]

Nah, DJ, it's just a really dead time for most games...

I could talk at length about Guild Wars, since I think it's fantastic and really awesome and one of the best and most addictive games I've played in a long time, but no one else here has played it, so I'll just do that at the IGN Guild Wars forum...

But overall it's a very slow time for videogames. It always is, between approximately February and October... with the occasional release, of course.

Oh don't worry. If a higher level of activity is what everyone wants, then I'll help out. The goal of this shall be how to come up with interesting and thought provoking topics, but more than that, also actively trying to prevent arguments occuring that make these topics undesirable.

One suggestion? There's a lot of power in tact. Polite respect of other's views so they can say what they want without fear of being made fun of is a good way to gain the trust of people.

The problem is, even when there is a good thread, as we've all been saying generally no one else posts in it... or maybe makes one short post, like that's so different...

[OB1]

The sequel to one of the PS2's best games is out next month, Rise of the Kasai, but no one here aside from me has the first one and most likely doesn't give a crap about the sequel.

[Great Rumbler]

I have the first game, Mark of Kri. I haven't put a lot of time in it, since there's at least a hundred others game that I "just have to play". But it's a fun hack-and-slash kind of game, with a bit more emphasis on strategy than most.

[OB1]

It features the most complex multi-enemy 3D fighting system ever created. yet one of the easiest to just pick up and play. You must not have played it very much at all.

[Great Rumbler]

I played it for a couple of hours, but it has been I while since I booted it up.

[A Black Falcon]

Is that one with dual-stick controls where one controls the sword?

[Dark Jaguar]

Sounds interesting, though I never gave it a try. I've actually not played a beat-em-up in a long time.

[A Black Falcon]

There haven't been many good ones in a long time. That's one reason I liked Oni...

[OB1]

Is that one with dual-stick controls where one controls the sword?

Eh, no. But it does use both sticks.

The way it works is a bit complicated to explain but effortless to play. Basically you use the left analogue stick to move around and change direction like a normal 3d action game, but you use the right analogue stick not to change the camera but rather to select which enemies to have targeted. Imagine z-triggering if you could sweep around Link in a big circular motion and select up to ten or so enemies at once. Once you've selected a bunch of enemies, you use one of the four main buttons per person (if there's just four enemies selected) or persons (if there's more than four enemies selected). So let's say you have one guy north of you, one guy east of you, one guy south of you, and one guy west of you. You press triangle to hit the north guy, circle to hit the east guy, and etc (they can of course move around you, this is just a visualization to make it easier for you guys to understand). Sounds too simple, right? Just one attack button per enemy (or two)? Not quite. Depending on the combination you use for hitting the enemies coupled with some of the shoulder buttons allows for dozens upon dozens of combos. Though it doesn't feel like you're just setting off a bunch of videogame combos; it feels far more natural. There are also disarming moves, counters, blocks, and reversals, and each of the four or five main weapons make fighting drastically different from weapon to weapon. It's a fighting system that I wish more games would copy because it's so easy to learn yet so difficult to master. By far the best multi-enemy fighting system out there. You ever seen a Jackie Chan movie where he's hitting a bunch of guys all at once, going back and forth between multiple enemies? Kri does that like no other action game, and does it with the greatest of ease and confidence in the player's hand, not messy whatsoever.

So Mark of Kri really doesn't play like any beat-em-up out there. It's not Devil May Cry. There's also quite a lot of stealth in the game, and the whole package is simply wonderful and unique. That coupled with the incredible art direction places the sequel right at the top of my most-wanted games list, right below Wanda and Zelda.