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BydoEmpire

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Posts posted by BydoEmpire

  9. Posted

    The only store nearby doing a midnight sale is the 24-hour Walmart, so I'll head there a few hours before midnight. I'm going to be busy all day Sunday and I'm not taking a chance. I'm not sure exacly what games I'm getting, but atm I'm leaning towads Zelda, Red Steel and Rayman as "must buy's" and THDJ, Trauma Center, Metal Slug and Monkey Ball as "maybe's."

     

    LoL to anyone who camps out, there will be plenty of them to go around come sunday.
    Why don't you give it a rest already? We knew 5000 posts ago that you're not a fan, so just let it be. Camping out for a new system can be fun - especially with a lot of DS multiplayer going on. Bringing that new console home, trying everything out... good times. Of course, I wouldn't miss work for it, and I certainly would't sleep on the concrete in heavy rain like the PS3 Best Buy campers here, but whatever, to each their own.

  10. Posted

    Yep, definitely. The wiimote-based gameplay looks really fun and different. I wasn't able to preorder, but I'll camp at Best Buy or Target or something, and I plan on picking up up Zelda, Red Steel, and Rayman right away; though I may break down and pick up a couple other games (Monkey Ball, THDJ, Excite Truck, etc). I'll probably get either a 360 or PS3 next year, but I'm in no hurry for those, especially considering the price.

  14. Posted · Edited by BydoEmpire

    I played single player for a couple of hours, then dived into online. One week and 30 hours later, here are my impressions.

     

    SteveW is right about the lock-on - it's not there, and it's a little hard to adjust after having played a TON of PSO. But imho it just makes you pay attention and be a little more careful using ranged technics. The other big thing missing is the three button timing-based combos. I thought that would be a deal-breaker for me. But what they have instead is just as good - it plays a lot like a simplified God of War. Fast, essentially two-button fluid action combat that lets you change targets quickly. You're given a "weapon palette" of about 8 slots. Each weapon has a normal attack and a "photon art" such as a Freeze Hit for a gun weapon, or a spinning combo for a sword. Technic (spell)-based weapons such as staves and wands cannot be used for melee, but can have any two spells assigned. So my force carries four wands - usually a heal spell and a different attack spell. Switching between weapons and one-use items is very fast, so you actually have more variety than PSO. There is also a strafe move, which helps balance out the lack of auto-lock. The combat has REALLY grown on me the more i've played it.

     

    My biggest gripe is the lack of missions, and the lack of random dungeons. That's what really hooked me on PSO. But in Universe, you get three areas (a fourth planet is currently locked), each with about three quests. So you're going to be playing the exact same dungeons over and over and over again. That said, the areas themselves are pretty big, I still get lost, and even after 30 hours I'm still seeing new stuff. Since all the quests are simply "kill all the monsters" the lack of randomness is tolerable, but I hope Sega starts adding new quests soon.

     

    A positive new feature of PSU is that you can change your class (Hunter, Force, Ranger) at any time! Higher levels of the classes give you extra abilities. That's a nice way to keep things interesting. You level up your character by killing monsters (or just damaging them if you're in a group), but you level up your class via "mission points" you get after finishing missions. This gives a lot of incentive to get an S-ranking by doing it quickly, killing all the enemies and not dying.

     

    You've got a lot to do online besides hack up monsters. You can set up your own shop, for instance, and make money selling items to other players. You've got a mag-replacement called a Partner Machine to level up (it's initially stuck in your room, but after levelling it up you can take it with you on missions). You've got your own room to decorate with hard-on trophies. You can synthesize new items from a billion different materials you'll find on your quests.

     

    Some people have complained about the item synthesis. I agree, it's much less intuitive and accessible than PSO. But it does offer an awful lot of variety, and finding rare synth components is kind of cool. I think I'd still rather just *find* cool weapons and items, but after playing a little while, and actually finding enough components to be able to create items, the "synthing" system is kind of fun. It has you hunting for rare ingredients, some can only be found on certain planets. Note that you will still occasionally find weapons, and you will get lots of monomates and other consumable items in crate along the way, just like PSO. But the frequency of finding weapons and armor is WAY less. I've found 3-4 weapons dropped in games the entire time I've played.

     

    I think it's a nice looking game for ps2. There is some slowdown here and there, and it's kind of jaggy, but I love the art style. To me, good art is good art regardless of technology, and PSU has... style. The music is likewise excellent. Though not quite up to PSO's high level, it evokes the same feel. The sound effects, however, are a little repetetive (especially the character voices).

     

    Again, I haven't played much single player, but after a few chapters I've read you unlock Extra mode, which lets you create a character PSO-style and basically play the online game in an offline mode, with all quests, planets, and weapons available. If you get sick of paying the $10 per month, but want to keep playing, this is for you. You cannot, however, transfer your characters between online & offline modes (to prevent cheating I suppose).

     

    I'm playing on PS2, and I really didn't notice the load screens. They're frequent, but pretty short. Loading into a mission is 5-10 seconds. Perhaps the single-player load times are longer, but I didn't notice them in the 2-3 hours of that mode I played.

     

    The game does suffer from a lack of content. There's an awful lot locked, which sucks, since I just spent $50 on the disc and the content is there. I don't mind paying $10/month for a little while to play online and get new quests an items, but at least give me what I've already payed for. But this can't detract from what is, at its core, a very fun game. And in the end that's what counts.

    After a solid (30 hour) week's worth of play, I give the game a B+.

     

    [Edit] - I clarified, added, and reworded a few things.

  17. Posted

    I read several stories online about wii/ps3 preorders starting Sunday. So Thursday afternoon (around 3-4pm) I called my local TRU to check and they said "we don't know anything yet, so call back every day we expect to hear soon." So I called Friday (i.e. the NEXT DAY) at noon and they said "oh, we did our preorders this morning - they're all sold out." Grrrr... thanks for nothing TRU. Guess I'll be camping at BB/Target/Walmart...

  21. Posted

    Yeah, I have a bunch of Atari carts with various kids' names scribbled on them. It honestly doesn't bother me *too* much, because none of them are rare. It does suck that they go for the same price as a clean cart, though. It's like used games at Gamestop without box & instruction that go for the same price as a CIB game.

  22. Posted

    Nes - Ring King.... :D :D :D hahahaha!

    Wait, isn't Ring King the Data East boxing game? Anyways, I did really love NES Pro Wrestling. I enjoyed Royal Rumble for the Dreamcast, although it wasn't a *great* game. I also liked the Wrestlemania arcade game, but I wasn't a huge fan of the home conversions.

  23. Posted

    I don't have any of the store promo catalogues, but I have a bunch of Nintendo catalogues from the E3 when the cube debuted. They look *very* similar to what you've got. I also have a ton of coin-op game flyers from various AMOA/IAPPA/etc trade shows (my favorite is an autographed Elvira Pinball promo sheet - I wish I actually had the pin to match!). When I lived in Chicago a certain Borders store had a advertising-postcard display in the lobby with free postcards, and they had tons of Nintendo and Sega postcards, so I always grabbed a couple.

  24. Posted

    Single player is pretty fun for what it is. They took just the dungeons out of a 2d zelda and made an entire game out of them. It's more arcadey that a typical zelda in that each dungeon stands completely on its own. There is no carryover of items or health from one to the next. Fun, but it doesn't feel like a "complete" game. Not an A title single player, imho, but still worth $20 if you like that kind of thing.

  25. Posted

    Why would anyone preorder a wii? From the sounds of it, there will be more than enough.

    Because it costs me nothing, and even though there should be lots of units available, the demand will be high. I've been looking forward to the Wii for a while now, and I'd like to get it on day 1. Preordering should guarantee that for me. Again, at no cost (other than loaning Gamestop $50 for a month). That said, based on the projected numbers, it doesn't look like you'll have too much trouble finding a Wii if you want one. But it's worth $0 for the peace of mind.

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