Posts by _LS_

I was actually thinking of saying something similar.

I'd be really interested to see what would happen if an active and popular IP like Zelda just got dropped into the public domain.

Quote from Kaynil

I am not big in stealth game actors, what do you thin could have made this level better? Besides the idea of just scratch it off the game altogether. :lengua:

I think it would be hard to make it work, really. At this point, there have been a lot of non-stealth games that have tried to have stealth sections. And it's Alllllllways awful. I can't think of a single time where it has worked.

But I suppose lets say Nintendo offered me a bunch of money to fix that part of the game, and the refused to let me just cut it. Alright, lets see.

I think I would have added a special enemy to the game for that segment only. Something that had a really obvious range of vision. Like a monster with blue beams of light coming from its eyes, and it could only see things inside those blue beams. (The sight lines would also show up on the game's minimap.)

I'd also have the camera pull back a bunch to a fixed position, like they did in the stealth segment of Ocarina of Time. (Which, actually, wasn't that bad now that I think about it). If you're going to lose for being seen, then you need to be able to see the whole playing field. You need to know if there's a dude coming up behind you.

I'd also design the rooms with better thought towards sneaking through them. In WW they were really just normal rooms with guard patrols. They should have had things to hide under / behind / on top of.

I wasn't really old enough to make any purchases. My N64 was a Christmas present. And I imagine that if anyone had a video camera that morning, I might be the one who got famous for being The Nintendo 64 Kid.

Someday I'll write a successful SCP.

Someday.

My consoles are hooked up to an old CRT I picked up off the side of the road. I should probably replace it at some point.

Well I guess if Sardonic Pickle is going to be all "reasonable" about it. Yeesh.

"Soul Mates" are an eden fantasy. An imaginary person somewhere out there with whom everything will just make sense. Everything will be easy. Love will be natural. Life will be happy. Your soulmate will give you everything you want from another person, and they'll embrace everything you want to give them.

Reality requires a little more hard work than that. More effort, more compromise, more sweat and more blood. And reality is infinitely more meaningful and beautiful in its complexity than an eden fantasy could ever manage to be.

A decent gag video, though.

All non-PC gaming devices are equally inferior.

I used to know a guy. A WoW-friend of a WoW-friend, who was really bad at WoW. He was so bad that he held back everyone who played with him, and made the game much more difficult. One day I was on my Ventrillo server (an old form of gaming voice chat, for the younguns), and my WoW-friend told me that his WoW friend, the sucky one, wanted to come with us to an instance.

"Eugh, that asshole? C'mon dude, he sucks. We'll be here all night if we have to carry his lazy ass."

"He's on Vent with us, Nick."

Fuuuuuuuuuuuck.

Bonus story, because I couldn't pick! A few years ago I wrote a review of an old TV show, basically calling it an overrated pile of dogshit. The article ended up ranging around the Internet a little more than my writing normally does. At one point, it ended up being posted on a facebook fan group for the show, and the show's producer saw it. The show's producer is by all accounts a nice guy, and he seemed really bummed out by how hard I ragged on the show. I recall him saying something to the effect of "We were just trying to do the best show we could."

Alright, new question:

What is something really gross you've done in your life?

When I was a little kid, maybe 6-8, I got some spider man bedsheets. I loved my spider man bedsheets. But I was a bedwetter, right? So I didn't want to mess up my spider man sheets. So at night I'd go into the bathroom and get a bunch of towels. I'd lay on the towels, so that I'd get those messy instead of the sheets. Of course, the towels got soaked right through and the sheets got messy anyway. But I didn't care, each night for a few days I'd sleep in my damp, smelly sheets. Because spider man.

Quote from Kaynil

Why so making shortcuts, guys? Live and let live... or die. :darkevil:

Quote from Kaynil

I see your point but I think TLoZ usually display this kind of puzzles. I don't particularly recall if tWW are way more often or if in OoT was more varied than that. Kill the enemies to open the door is a classic recurrence. Need an item to access is another. Feel free to remind me of good TLoZ puzzles. I am sure there are even in OoT (my brain keeps whispering the Spirit temple, but it won't give me a specific example).
That said taht idea you came up with is pretty cool.

It's true, puzzle design has never really been tLoZ's strong suit. Early Zelda puzzles were almost completely obtuse, such as when you need to burn the bush to enter the final dungeon. I don't remember if the game actually had any hints for this, or if it was merely expected that you'd eventually try burning the bush. (Though the saving grace of that puzzle was the fact that it could potentially be solved wayyyyyyyyy before you actually needed to go to the final level. AND, the tree you had to burn did stand out a bit.)

LttP is where I think the puzzles peaked. Which isn't to say they were perfect, but they were better. Getting the book of Mudora, for example, is a pretty good puzzle. You just got the dash boots, and if you've walked around the world you know you can use them to knock stuff out of trees. And you know right where the book of Mudora is, it's just on a high shelf. The game gives you all the pieces, you just have to put it all together. The game repeats this puzzle a total of twice, if I recall correctly. The two repetitions are with keys, and they were far enough apart that I had to spend some time thinking before I realized the solution to each one. (Mind you: I spent time THINKING. All of the puzzle pieces were on screen for me to see. Unlike with similar puzzles in windwaker where the solution is obvious, but the challenge comes from the puzzle pieces being hidden off screen, waiting for you to look up at the ceiling.)

In Ocarina of Time, there were some challenging block-pushing puzzles in the forest temple. And figuring out the weird gravity-shifting hallways was a bit of a puzzler for a bit. I also recall the spirit temple having some good bits, particularly with that huge statue. OoT also had a few places where the only way to reach something was to glide there on a cuckoo, which was never explicitly spelled out for you. That's some good puzzle design.

The whole "kill all the enemies to make the door open" bit isn't what I'd call a puzzle. It's more of a combat challenge.

Quote from Kaynil

I don't really recall that much platforming but it could be that I am just used to it so I didn't think much of it. I remember that in MM jumping to platforms felt odd, specially with Link frigging showing off with his different jumps. Just jump straight! I mean, don't get me wrong, I like the animation itself but sometimes it just didn't fit the mood or the angle.

There was, for sure, tons of platforming in WindWaker. Several dungeons had large rooms with spiraling pathways to the top, including moving platforms. Other areas had long rooms where you had to maneuver moving platforms by spinning levers with the leaf item.

This trend probably did start in Majora's Mask, though I think it was much less prominent in that game. Usually only brief segments in the Deku form.

Quote from Kaynil

Do you mean by design or dialogue?
Would you mind comparing two NPCs to better illustrate your point

Both, for sure.

A game can be cell shaded, with a cartoon style, without resorting to making its characters look this ridiculous. Link himself looks great! Some of the main characters, like Tetra and Link's sister, also look pretty good. But then there's the secondary characters, like the pirate crew, who've got buck teeth, make strange noises, whine like children when they're scolded by Tetra, and so on. Or the kid with the booger dangling down by his feet. Or that weird shopkeeper wearing a parka.

I feel like all of these characters are trying to make the world seem silly. Like it's all a joke. I can take a cartoonish world seriously, but I can't take Wind Waker's world seriously.

Compare to Ocarina of time, for example. The NPCs were colorful. We all remember the various Kokiri, the dancing lovers, the guard who believes in ghosts, Malon, and so on. But of all of Ocarina of Time's NPCs, the only ones I'd call 'goofy' are 1. Talon, and 2. The construction workers. And both of these are considered lazy by other characters in the game, and there are consequences to their laziness.

Quote from Kaynil

Crap. Probably here I have an unpopular opinion but I thought it was a very interesting approach. You have no weapon and are trying to pass the enemies walking undetected. The problem with it is that the barrel thing gets old awfully quick once you realise it is not difficult to pass the guards just too damn slow.
another gripe I had with the dungeon was accidentally falling on the lower flows because I didn't grab the rope in between rooms, it was a pain finding the way back to the above floor as it usually involved exiting the rooms and going up by the side yet again.

Stealth games are my favorite genre of video games. The Forsaken Fortress is a terrible stealth game.

If it was good, I would have enjoyed it. But like I say in the podcast, it's a very jarring way to begin a game where the gameplay will focus on swordfighting.

There's no denying he's a hard worker and a pioneer. I don't find him entertaining, but people that I DO find entertaining wouldn't exist if they hadn't been inspired by him.

Having never played spirit tracks, I can't really comment. If she was playable, then that's kind of a whole different thing.

I was thinking more of Zelda as I've known her, in TLOZ, AoL, LttP, OoT, WW, TP, and SS.

Quote from Kaynil

- Rygar for the NES feels more like a Zelda game than the first Zelda and it is an underrated game.

I've never heard of this game, but I will keep it in mind. Sounds interesting.

I think I agree with pretty much all your unpopular opinions. I guess I'm unpoular.

Quote from Kaynil

Interesting, I guess his humour is not your type. Or is it his opinions on the games he reviews?

If you can even call what he does humor, then no, it is not my type.

His opinions are all equally overstated and bland.

I have never enjoyed the Angry Video Game Nerd.

Not even a little.

To put it in his terms: "AVGN is an ass fucking' fuck fucker pile of shit."

Yeah, obviously I don't mistreat anybody. =P

Really, I like most of the folks I assist. Though I am glad I don't have to be there during the day. I'm not well equipped to handle them in large doses.

Day of the dead is a beautiful holiday. I lack the proper cultural grounding in its traditions, but the artistic side of it is very inspiring to me. I hope Mexico finds a way to keep the feel and the meaning of DotD, even if they're incorporating more elements of an American Halloween into their culture.

As a kid I remember really liking the Roger Rabbit game. But looking back, I don't think I ever made a single bit of progress while playing it. It was just fun to drive around, really.

I'm doing alright with mine. Being in-home assistance for the mentally challenged is a pretty stable gig. And since I work graveyard, I don't have to handle any of the really difficult stuff. Plus my patients are all pretty chill, and my coworkers are great.

The administration is weak, but overall I'm pretty happy with my current arrangement. At least, as happy as I ever am with paycheck work.

Did you guys know The Inhaling One has a butt for a face?

Just like, where his face would normally be, instead of a face, there is a butt.

And it's not like he's got a face where his butt would be, either.

Where his butt would normally be is something worse than a butt.

But this is a PG-13 forum, so I can't really talk about that.

The important thing is that you know about The Inhaling One's butt face.

I've heard a lot of good things, and I very much wanted to get into it myself a few years back. I bought Soul Reaver for the PS1, and really enjoyed it. Was never able to finish it though.