"Wanky Things In Wonderful Games" or "God Damned 100% Completion Rate"

Seil · 10-11-2011, 12:07 PM

Now, like all of us, I appreciate a good wank. Not, however, when it's in my games. I mean, we've got brilliant games like Psychonauts, Silent Hill and Thief! Yet all of them are marred by one or two flaws.

Now don't get me wrong, Thief 1, Silent Hill 1 and Psychonauts are all great, wonderful, fantastic and rad... But there's just something that keeps them from perfection. In Silent Hill 1, it's the control scheme. I downloaded Silent Hill 1 over the PSN, after playing (and buying) nearly all the other games in the series, and all of them had 3D control. SH1, however, did not. It is extremely difficult to run away from the monsters when you can't actually run.

Thief 1 had that fetch quest mission for a ghost. I know that most games have a fetch quest hidden somewhere in them, but this was frustrating to me as it's on a trademark Thief huge map, with strong enemies in linear corridors that you couldn't really sneak by.

Psychonauts had the collectibles. I recently bought Psychonauts from Steam - my PS2 is dying on me - and it's every bit as great as I remember it... And just as frustrating. You've got several 'levels,' what with several collectibles, numbering in the hundreds for each level. From emotional baggage to figments to cobwebs to whatever - and if you're going for one hundred percent, and you're missing one figment, you've gotta go through the entire level. (And it's a figment! A semi-transparent scribble that in levels like Mias and Edgars are nearly impossible to see!)

These don't make the game horrible. The games are nothing short of brilliant. But they are very wanky bits. And sometimes I don't enjoy being jerked around.

10-11-2011, 12:07 PM	#1
Seil Super stressed! Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: British Columbia Posts: 8,081	"Wanky Things In Wonderful Games" or "God Damned 100% Completion Rate" Now, like all of us, I appreciate a good wank. Not, however, when it's in my games. I mean, we've got brilliant games like Psychonauts, Silent Hill and Thief! Yet all of them are marred by one or two flaws. Now don't get me wrong, Thief 1, Silent Hill 1 and Psychonauts are all great, wonderful, fantastic and rad... But there's just something that keeps them from perfection. In Silent Hill 1, it's the control scheme. I downloaded Silent Hill 1 over the PSN, after playing (and buying) nearly all the other games in the series, and all of them had 3D control. SH1, however, did not. It is extremely difficult to run away from the monsters when you can't actually run. Thief 1 had that fetch quest mission for a ghost. I know that most games have a fetch quest hidden somewhere in them, but this was frustrating to me as it's on a trademark Thief huge map, with strong enemies in linear corridors that you couldn't really sneak by. Psychonauts had the collectibles. I recently bought Psychonauts from Steam - my PS2 is dying on me - and it's every bit as great as I remember it... And just as frustrating. You've got several 'levels,' what with several collectibles, numbering in the hundreds for each level. From emotional baggage to figments to cobwebs to whatever - and if you're going for one hundred percent, and you're missing one figment, you've gotta go through the entire level. (And it's a figment! A semi-transparent scribble that in levels like Mias and Edgars are nearly impossible to see!) These don't make the game horrible. The games are nothing short of brilliant. But they are very wanky bits. And sometimes I don't enjoy being jerked around.