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Christophero Sly

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Posts posted by Christophero Sly

  3. Posted

    Condemened: Criminal Origins (360)

     

    Some interesting ideas in this one, but the overall experience is significantly undermined by stiff, sluggish gameplay, arbitrarily restrictive maze-like level design, and a nonsensical plot. (6/10)

     

    Streets of Rage 2 (Genesis)

     

    Widely considered to be the gold standard of console beat-em-ups. While I mostly agree with that assessment, I find the gameplay repetitious, the generic street-brawler aesthetics unappealing, and the boss fights dull. Though I suppose those first two gripes have more to do with the conventions of the genre than anything this game does distinctively. (7/10)

  6. Posted

    Dragon Age: Inquisition (PS3)

     

    Dragon Age: Inquisition isn't an "RPG". It's one of these new breed of shallow, open-world, MMO-style, chore-list games that seemingly every "AAA" title has, unfortunately, become these days.

     

    Repetitive busywork quests are the order of the day here, or, more precisely, the fortnight, as it would easily take that long to exhaust the nearly endless stock of them that this game supplies. The game provides several large maps to explore, but 90% of the content in the game (closing rifts, finding shards, establishing camps, collecting materials, etc.) is identical map-to-map.

     

    The game's plot was stolen from a Saturday morning cartoon, and the story-related missions that support it are few, brief*, and poorly-designed, in particular, the final mission of the game, which has since become the embodiment of the term "rush job" for me.

     

    Combat ends up being as simplistic and repetitive as that found in any pure "hack-and-slash". The AI that governs the NPC's in your party is among the worst I've ever worked with. It is so bad that it renders meaningless any strategic or tactical consideration you might be inclined to give to any particular encounter. The game includes an option to switch to a "tactical camera", which provides an overhead view of the battlefield and allows you to issue individual commands to your party members, but it's so tedious and unwieldy that it's not worth using with any regularity. Moreover, most bosses in the game are immune to the status effects that facilitate the cross-class combos that you're probably trying to set up by issuing individual commands anyway, so in addition to being unwieldy, the tactical camera is mostly pointless too. In addition, the skills system is broken. Even after several patches to the game, half of the skills don't work as they're supposed to. Some don't work at all.

     

    The dialog system is, flat-out, the worst I have ever experienced in gaming. I never had any confidence in what was going to come out of my character's mouth in response to the dialog choices I selected.

     

    The cinematics are terrible. I'm not sure I've ever seen cutscenes more clumsily choreographed and more crudely animated than those in this game. It's like the motion capture work was done on broken marionettes. Every movement is ridiculously awkward and stilted, and my character seemed to take great delight in making goofy facial expressions during nearly every scene.

     

    On the technical side, the game's performance on the PS3 is pitiful. The framerate chugs, textures and scenery elements are constantly "popping in", and the load and save times are the worst I've ever experienced. However, on the plus side, I didn't notice any frame tearing, and for that, I'm grateful.

     

    It's remarkable that despite all of these things I was able to salvage a passable experience from the game almost solely out of the opportunities it offered for exploration and sightseeing. Still, I don't understand how, except in this one obvious area, the game turned out to be even worse than Dragon Age II.

     

    That this game received GOTY accolades from several outlets is astonishing to me.

     

    5/10

     

    *Well, except for that one insanely tedious story mission that takes place about halfway through the game, the purpose of which seems to have been to test the limits of my mental endurance by subjecting me to a procession of ever more ludicrously awful attempts by English-speaking voice actors to affect a French accent. Indeed, I can scarcely conceive of a more arduous test of one's mental stamina than that regimen proved to be.

    • Like 1

  7. Posted · Edited by Christophero Sly

    Drakan: The Ancient Gates (PS2)

     

    Not the deepest game I've ever played, but it offers enough variety, task-to-task, that the experience never grows stale or repetitive. What the game lacks in scope it makes up for in scale, however, as the gameworld is impressively large. A better camera and control scheme would have benefited the game, and the save and load times are painfully long, and a couple of nasty bugs can cause you to loose substantial progress should you happen to encounter them. All told though, Drakan: TAG is a solid action-adventure game, and I enjoyed my time with it. (7/10)

  9. Posted · Edited by Christophero Sly

    Resident Evil: Code Veronica X (PS2)

     

    The weakest of the traditional Resident Evil games. Didn't click with me at all. A chore from start to finish. The fully-3D visuals are comparatively bland, the boss fights stink, and the story is insufferably stupid, with an atrocious script and voice acting that doesn't even rise to the level of pantomime. After the advances made in RE3, this one feels like a step backwards. A middling game, at best. (4/10)

    • Like 1

  10. Posted · Edited by Christophero Sly

    Beyond: Two Souls (PS3)

     

    Not a game, but I guess I'm not letting you in on a secret by telling you that. "Interactive cinema" is the label I see more commonly applied to this title, but, frankly, the "player's" role in all of it is so passive that I hesitate to call this active-anything.

     

    I don't know; maybe this could work if the writing was of a caliber at least an order of magnitude greater than the overworked drama and emotional cliches that constitute the core of this material. Still, I don't get it: If you don't intend to engage my faculties in any active and significant way, then why are you working in this particular medium?

     

    I hate to sound trite, but if I wanted to watch movies on my PS3, I'd get a Netflix subscription. (3/10)

    • Like 1

  11. Posted · Edited by Christophero Sly

    Pillars of Eternity (PC (Mac))

     

    I backed this game's Kickstarter campaign with the expectation that it would deliver a fresh, innovative, and progressive take on the classic Infinity Engine CRPG's of the late 90's (Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, etc.) Unfortunately, Obsidian's ambitions for the game were considerably lower.

     

    Pillars of Eternity is the dullest CRPG I've ever played. It's a devolutionary step backwards in classic CRPG design and I can find nothing positive to say about it. I have issues with every aspect of its design from its depthless combat to its ineffectual narrative, from its homogenous class system to its witless AI, from its repetitive encounter staging to its desultory pacing, from its feeble lore and insipid setting to its broken stealth mechanics, from its otiose philosophical explorations to its derisory crafting and enchanting elements, from its shambolic inventory system to the dilatory inconsequentiality of its entire stronghold module.

     

    The primary philosophy shaping PoE's design seems to have been one of "balance", which is a worthy objective. Unfortunately, Obsidian seems to have mistaken uniformity, monotony, and redundancy for "balance".

     

    It's not enough to say that Pillar's of Eternity is a disappointment; I'm genuinely shocked by how lackluster, unengaging, and flawed this game turned out to be. (4/10)

    • Like 1

  15. Posted · Edited by Christophero Sly

    I've sold off my entire 5200 collection over the last two months. The last item remaining in my collection is the "Merry Christmas" cartridge that I received as a "Thank You" for donating to the 2006 AtariAge Secret Santa conspiracy.

     

    I have no idea what this cart is worth, so best offer takes it. I would think, however, that $25 is a fair minimum as CPUWIZ has reminded me that the cartridge was only given to those individuals who donated at least that amount to the 2006 Secret Santa.

     

    If you're interested, please PM me your offer. The offer window will close at 8:00 PM (MST) on Wednesday, April 29th.

     

    *Edit (4-27-15 @ 2:10 MST) I believe the best way to do this is to allow everyone who is interested to make just one single "best" offer, with ties being broken by temporal order of seniority.

     

    In keeping with the spirit in which I acquired this cartridge, the proceeds from this sale will be donated to a worthy cause (a charity that helps children who have hearing disabilities).

     

    I should note that I've never used the cartridge; I've never even taken it out of its protective bag.

     

    Also, I have to restrict this sale to the USA only, no exceptions. Sorry.

     

    post-2851-0-43088300-1430159413_thumb.jpg

  17. Posted

    Onimusha 2 (PS2)

     

    Something of a re-hash of the first Onimusha that recycles the plot (more or less) and many of the locations from the original game. Onimusha 2 does successfully add some new weapons and enemy types to the formula, but the new friendship and gift-giving system it introduces is poorly implemented, and without a guide, I don't see how anyone could effectively navigate its insanely abstruse trial-and-error mechanics. It's critically important that you do so, however. Otherwise, you'll miss out on many valuable healing items and ammunition stocks, as well as the sub-character side-missions, which makeup about 20% of the game's content. Not to mention missing out on all the special items that are needed to uncover the game's numerous secrets. Onimusha 2 also presents itself as much more of a straight-up action game, in contrast to the atmospheric "survival-horror"-type vibe that I prefer from the first game. The voice acting in the first game wasn't great, but here it's often miserable. At times, some of the characters come dangerously close to slipping into pantomime.

     

    While I found it a bit disappointing in comparison to the original, Onimusha 2 is still a solid game that I enjoyed playing. (7/10)

    • Like 1

  19. Posted

    Can anyone here share their experience with eBay's global shipping program? I'm talking about the program where you send your item to a shipping center here in the USA and then eBay takes over from there, apparently, handling all the details of shipping your item on to your international buyers.

     

    My main question is whether the seller remains on the hook for shipping loss or damage on the international side of the equation, after an item has passed through the US shipping center, or does eBay assume all responsibility for an item once it reaches the shipping center?

  22. Posted

    Double box it. Even if it's well packed, get another, bigger box, stuff it full of good padding material (newspapers are for fire starting, not for padding) and UPS would need to intentionally run over the box to damage anything inside.

    I don't think I can find a bigger box than the one I've already got, but I will take your advice and re-package everything into a series of smaller boxes and then fit those into this larger box. Thanks.

     

    As for one lot vs breaking it up, it comes down to: do you want to sell it fast and easy or get the most money? For fast and easy, one lot usually works. For more money, break it up and take your time describing everything. More work as you'd need to pack individually and keep track of who gets what.

    My concern is one more of logistics than profit. I have no urgent need to sell these items. I'm barely reconciled to the idea of letting them go, to tell you the truth. Nevertheless, I have a price in mind that I think the lot is worth, regardless of whether I sell it in one lot or piece it all out. If I can get that price, I'll be happy to sell. If not, I'll be patient.

     

    Thanks for the advice, everyone. I feel better about selling these items in one lot now.

  24. Posted

    I'm going to be selling a bunch of 5200 stuff here shortly. I was planning to sell it all in one large lot to save myself time and hassle, but now that I've got everything all packaged up in one large box, I'm starting to question whether it would be better to instead break the lot up and sell it all in pieces, more or less.

     

    My concern is mostly how well USPS will treat a ~50lb., 24"x18"x18" package. I'm visualizing it being routinely dropped 2-3 feet to the ground because it will be too heavy and awkward for postal workers to set it down properly. I've packaged everything as well as I can, and of course, the package will be insured, but it's my understanding that it's very hard to get USPS to make good on the insurance in cases of shipping damage.

     

    Anyway, is there anyone here who has experience shipping large lots of gaming stuff in a single shipment who can give me some advice?

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