Video Games Thread

[harv]

Xenoblade Chronicles is the best JRPG released last gen. Nothing else even comes close.

If you like JRPGs then it's worth buying a Wii for alone. No exaggeration.

I've seen plenty of people cancelling their pre-orders for Ghosts because Infinity Ward have decided to only allow 2 player splitscreen local multiplayer instead of 4. Didn't think it was a big deal myself but there's a fair bit of Nerd Rage going on

[ancelotti]

Whilst I agree its probably the best JRPG this gen.. this gen has been woeful in terms of quality JRPGs.. Lost Odyssey, Resonance of Fate and Blue Dragon were the only 3 I really enjoyed.. and I pretty much owned 90% of all of the ones released in Europe.  I hope they make a sequel - there is so much scope for it.. but I wouldn't hold out for one...

For sure. I hope next gen isn't so FPS-centric... but I know it will be. Since Square Enix haven't made a good FF since X and Tri-Ace aren't making any more Star Ocean games, I'm not too confident about the situation improving. American action-RPGs seem to be the preferred route for devs now.

[Late]

Traded it in for about £2.
Crying shame, but I could say that about pretty much every game I traded in - but the reality is most would've never been played again.

Have you played Lost Odyssey, Harv?


Hadn't heard that, about COD being only 2 player splitscreen. Damnit IW - I was looking forward to playing it with the kids.

[jman]

Nintendo have always had decent JRPGs.. mainly because its a Japanese company that Japanese developers prefer to work with - but there's no way I'd want to play on a wii - with its shit visuals and shitty control system - if it was on the xbox harv, I'm sure I'd of snapped up xenoblade.. as it is, I haven't played it.. and I don't feel like I have missed out on anything because it is on a shit console!

[harv]

Traded it in for about £2.
Crying shame, but I could say that about pretty much every game I traded in - but the reality is most would've never been played again.

Have you played Lost Odyssey, Harv?


Hadn't heard that, about COD being only 2 player splitscreen. Damnit IW - I was looking forward to playing it with the kids.

Yup, borrowed it off a mate of mine a couple of months after it came out. The story is great, the characters are great but the combat, like the majority of JRPGs, is turn-based bollocks. Xenoblade Chronicles is so much better in so many ways. The story and setting in particular is original, the combat is fluid and doesn't take hours to beat an enemy lol. If I wanted to play a turn-based RPG I'd do it properly and dust off many D4, D6, D8, D12 and D20 lol, either that or play Crimson Shroud on my 3DS.

But what really sets Xenoblade Chronicles apart is the scope of the game. The world is bloody HUUUUUGE, and the exploration possibilities are unbelievable...and that's what RPGs should all be about imo.

You can pick up a Wii second hand for a pittance these days and it's worth doing so just to play Xenoblade Chronicles. It may not look great, particularly the character and enemy models, but as far as JRPGs goes it's not only the best of last generation but is right up there with the best JRPGs of all-time.

[harv]

And I also forgot to mention The Last Story and Pandora's Tower, although the latter is more of an Action RPG. Those three games were a great swansong for the Wii.

[Late]

Grandma vents whilst playing GTA-V:

British Gas bastards.

[harv]

Lmfao

Have started playing Wind Waker HD and it's awesome Looks amazing, and the bloom, which looks awful in screenshots, is a very clever design decision which makes the islands appear to be tropical. Weird how it doesn't convey that in screenshots but as soon as you view it on a HDTV in 1080p and 60fps you 'get it'.

The Miiverse interaction is excellent, you get to send messages in a bottle which float in the sea of other people's games, the first one I sent was the first few lines of the Police song lol Not very original but I don't care lololol

[harv]

Have Activision run out of money..? That Ghosts advert was partly an old ad and a new ad duct-taped together, wasn't it..?

[Late]

Yeah, they're probably flat broke...

No idea what ad you're on about.

[harv]

The original ad was for Modern Warfare 3 or Black Ops 2 and has gamers with weapons fighting as if in real life. They've just added a few Ghosts parts to it like the space suits and dog.

[jman]

Bloody game.. I asked the guy in the shop - can you use the gift cards online - "yes you can was the answer"... just found out you cant use them for pre-orders so that's bloody useless!

I wanted to pre-order DR3 and Forza 5 online, I told the guy I was going to pre-order DR3 and he bloody pre-ordered it for me there and then - I'm sure I didn't actually ask him to do that.. but he did.. so I should of pre-ordered Forza 5 at the same time.. but it was still in my mind I was doing it online... so now I either have to go back into the store to pre-order Forza 5 or don't bother and just hope they have a spare copy on launch day.


Stuck the last load of games/accessories on ebay now.. including Kinect, guitars, hard-drives and controllers lol - shelf is looking decisively bare.. only keeping the console, 16 games, 1 wired controller and a headset (as its worth nothing).

And just finished Disc 3 of Lost Odyssey.. 26 hours in.. Disc 4 is going to take a while as I've got to do a lot of the side-quests as well, I'm planning to have it finished a week on Sunday.. then the ceremonial moving of the 360 from the lounge to the bedroom can begin.. and reserve the space for the new daddy!

[harv]

Apparently the PS4 SKU of Ghosts has some major framerate issues. That's Infinity Ward for you I guess, I expect that the One version will also be buggered.

Had a look at reviews the other day and they're mixed, Metascores hovering around the 75 mark or so. Could this gen see the end of the franchise or will people continue to buy anything with the Call of Duty name on it..?

[Late]

Still haven't bought COD yet. Will probably just leave it until the 22nd, now, and skip the xb360 version. (I assume Game will have plenty of stock.)
I've plenty of games to keep me busy for the next fortnight. Still quite a lot left to do on Saints Row 4, and I was about a quarter of the way through Far Cry Blood Dragon when I put it aside to play GTA 5. And there's plenty of life left in GTA - especially with us supposedly getting out first $250k this week. And that's without looking at the game backlog that I've not yet tried, which includes Witcher 2...

[jman]

Probably the best thing to do... I think harvs right in a way - I can see this COD being the last yearly iteration of the franchise (maybe).. they need to go away and rebuild it from scratch again - come up with some original ideas and actually make a different game to the generic formula they keep ploughing out year after year... you can get away with that in a sports game - not in an FPS...I suppose if they get the sales numbers.. they may not change at all - but I think this years COD will sell far less than normal - and not just because the next gen is just around the corner, so I don't think you'll be left behind (too much)