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This Week in Games - On the Verge


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Barbobot



Joined: 06 Feb 2007
Posts: 460
PostPosted: Thu Aug 25, 2016 10:38 am Reply with quote
Not even a mention of WoW? That's what I'll be doing all day on Tuesday.
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Aura Ichadora



Joined: 25 Apr 2008
Posts: 2281
Location: In front of my computer
PostPosted: Thu Aug 25, 2016 12:12 pm Reply with quote
Didn't know that Animal Crossing: New Leaf was about to drop to $20. Might be the time to re-pick it up then. I had a copy, but had to sell it for gas money during a rough week, unfortunately. >.>
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belvadeer





PostPosted: Thu Aug 25, 2016 12:35 pm Reply with quote
Game Freak: This company has some interesting game development history if people bothered looking it up, but I'm sure all they care about is Pokémon. Sad really.

God Eater 2: Rage Burst: This game is the highlight of this article for me, but I haven't finished the first one nor do I own a PS4 yet. I'm beginning to wonder if I'm ever going to finish my backlog of unfinished games at this point.
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doctordoom85



Joined: 12 Jun 2008
Posts: 2091
PostPosted: Thu Aug 25, 2016 3:27 pm Reply with quote
One can never own enough versions of Resident Evil 4! But yeah, I'll be getting the PS4 version of RE 4 (to join my Gamecube and Wii versions) as well as the PS4 versions of Attack on Titan, God Eater 2, and Hatsune Miku: Project Diva X (might get the Vita version of Miku down the road).

Also, I haven't played Axiom yet, but best Metroidvania in years? Bold claim since Guacamelee!, Ori and the Blind Forest, and the recent Shantae games exist.
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Themaster20000



Joined: 05 Aug 2014
Posts: 863
PostPosted: Thu Aug 25, 2016 5:00 pm Reply with quote
doctordoom85 wrote:
One can never own enough versions of Resident Evil 4! But yeah, I'll be getting the PS4 version of RE 4 (to join my Gamecube and Wii versions) as well as the PS4 versions of Attack on Titan, God Eater 2, and Hatsune Miku: Project Diva X (might get the Vita version of Miku down the road).

Also, I haven't played Axiom yet, but best Metroidvania in years? Bold claim since Guacamelee!, Ori and the Blind Forest, and the recent Shantae games exist.


Haven't played Ori yet,but I would definitely put Axiom ahead of the others ones. What makes it work for me is how it doesn't really hold your hand at all. The environments and soundtrack really give this eerie atmosphere to it. The twists to the formula are quite creativity (it's take on the Morph ball comes to mind).
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dkbailey64



Joined: 25 Aug 2016
Posts: 20
PostPosted: Thu Aug 25, 2016 5:43 pm Reply with quote
doctordoom85 wrote:
Also, I haven't played Axiom yet, but best Metroidvania in years? Bold claim since Guacamelee!, Ori and the Blind Forest, and the recent Shantae games exist.

Ori is close, but I stand by the statement.
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doctordoom85



Joined: 12 Jun 2008
Posts: 2091
PostPosted: Thu Aug 25, 2016 6:30 pm Reply with quote
Admittedly I'm also skeptical because 2D Metroid never really appealed to me. There's nothing wrong with the gameplay obviously but it just never clicked with me. Metroid Prime 1 and 3 are fantastic (2 is alright but dragged down by the whole "dark world" segments where I found myself waiting for long stretches in bubbles to heal. Exciting!) but the rest of the franchise just doesn't hold appeal to me. Also the environments of the 2D Metroid (and what I've seen of Axiom) aren't really my cup of tea as opposed to the environments in the other Metroidvania games I mentioned in my first post.

It probably also doesn't help that sci-fi mixed with horror has never managed to scare or even unsettle me. For example, I love Alien and Aliens but for their narrative and characters as opposed to their failed attempts to scare or unnerve me. It's why I consider Aliens to be the better of the two as it was more focused on characterization and action than dread. And I'm not trying to act like a tough person here or anything. Horror works on me in almost every way in video games, movies, etc. (this year alone The Witch had me on the edge of my seat, The Conjuring 2 was pretty scary, and even Lights Out had the occasional scary moment even though most of it was tame. And I am praying super hard that Blair Witch lives up to the original film) but anytime somebody adds sci-fi to the mix I just can't get unsettled at all.
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BadNewsBlues



Joined: 21 Sep 2014
Posts: 5886
PostPosted: Thu Aug 25, 2016 7:02 pm Reply with quote
Aura Ichadora wrote:
Didn't know that Animal Crossing: New Leaf was about to drop to $20. Might be the time to re-pick it up then. I had a copy, but had to sell it for gas money during a rough week, unfortunately. >.>


If you had Club Nintendo when it was still around you could've gotten it digitally for free like I did.
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Sloppy_Jimbo



Joined: 01 Oct 2015
Posts: 98
PostPosted: Thu Aug 25, 2016 7:17 pm Reply with quote
It's probably 25 years too late but can we shorten that abbreviation to Metrovania? Phonetically, it just sounds better. Castleoid might work too...maybe not.
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BodaciousSpacePirate
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Joined: 17 Apr 2015
Posts: 3017
PostPosted: Thu Aug 25, 2016 9:19 pm Reply with quote
Sloppy_Jimbo wrote:
Castleoid might work too...maybe not.


"Castleoid" sounds too much like the name of some hypothetical Nathan Fillion vocaloid.
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Hoppy800



Joined: 09 Aug 2013
Posts: 3331
PostPosted: Thu Aug 25, 2016 10:06 pm Reply with quote
There were loads of Japanese game announcements including expansion DLC for Gundam Breaker 3 which I really need that and Puyo Puyo Chronicle which was cute beyond belief, I'm definitely picking that up and I'm going to play both the RPG mode and just regular Puyo Puyo on the Sun ruleset.
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SilverTalon01



Joined: 02 Apr 2012
Posts: 2401
PostPosted: Fri Aug 26, 2016 2:06 am Reply with quote
I really wish the whole retro graphics thing would die already... that game may be the closest thing in years to the old Metroid titles, but I didn't play those on a 65 inch HD tv. Actually, I only played Super (and later fusion and zero for gba), but whatever. The point is that on a maybe 24 inch old school tv when that old school visual style was literally top of the line, the stuff looked great. Well it looks like lazy crap now. There are plenty of games showing what you can do with some really nice looking sprites.

Wahtever, I get people just desperately want to relive the past by taking swing showing you can do better within the tech limits they had at the time, but on the other hand, you can take advantage of the changing tech and create something superior which is still failthful to the core values of the original. And to top it off, nothing happens to the original as a result. So if peopely want to idolize that, they still can.

Now we we're talking game following the same principles at 'the good old days' but being done UP to current style/standard. The Castleroid part can stay the same. Just use the new tech to create some interesting and perhaps not immediately obvious depth. The 2-D sprite based game is fine, but they need to be sprites that are up to current high standards for sprites in games.
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BodaciousSpacePirate
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Joined: 17 Apr 2015
Posts: 3017
PostPosted: Fri Aug 26, 2016 2:18 am Reply with quote
SilverTalon01 wrote:
Just use the new tech to create some interesting and perhaps not immediately obvious depth.


You're basically describing Axiom Verge at this point. The way the game intentionally uses spoiler[sprite flicker] and spoiler[graphics rendering errors] as gameplay mechanics came across as extremely innovative.
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Northlander



Joined: 10 Feb 2009
Posts: 900
PostPosted: Fri Aug 26, 2016 3:07 am Reply with quote
Is "Metroidvania" used as a common term for every game that has a large, open and explorable map? Because Axiom Verge is a purely Metroid experience. There is no (Castle)vania in that game at all. I mean... I know they coined that term when the Castlevania series took some cues from the Metroid games and turned it into a journey of mapping and exploration as well as a platform slash 'em up (or whip 'em up) with a somewhat more renaissance/gothic stylings with the graphics instead of Metroid's sci-fi/alien setting.
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Paiprince



Joined: 21 Dec 2013
Posts: 593
PostPosted: Fri Aug 26, 2016 1:27 pm Reply with quote
I remember Pulseman from Gamefreak. That should count, right?

The coming few weeks are gonna be a bonanza for Japanese game lovers with CS2 coming out in the West and P5 coming out in Japan.

Also, I can't wait for all the clickbait coverage of "lel Japan so weird Anime hyper" from uninitiated normie media come 2020. Bring on the cringe!
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