End of the year video game stuff

[sakuraamplifier]

I finally got a chance to play with the Orange Box this week, and I have to say that, aside from its length, I see no reason Portal shouldn't be considered a game of the year candidate. It's easily the most fun I've had playing a game this year, the writing is definitely the funniest and possibly the best I've ever encountered in a game, and for a

Comments

[encyclops]

SMG is just one challenge after another that makes you say "Thank God I never have to do that again."

That's often been my experience with Super Mario games and many others that have been less fun than advertised. It's not really a good way to think about a supposedly fun activity.

I'm totally loving Phantom Hourglass for the DS.

[sakuraamplifier]

I have Phantom Hourglass, but haven't played enough of it yet. I like it for the most part, but I hate having to do that one dungeon over and over.

There's a certain kind of difficulty that ceases to feel challenging and starts to feel like programmers just being assholes. I actually like the notoriously difficult Super Mario Bros. Lost Levels, because it makes you look at the original SMB formula from a new perspective. Galaxy just feels like Nintendo's programmers sat there and came up with the most obnoxious challenges they could.

[encyclops]

I thought I would really hate the dungeon and its time limit but so far it hasn't been that tedious. My biggest fear about the game right now is that it will be too short.

I'm SO glad to hear that about Galaxy because it's exactly the kind of game I'm swearing off. That's just a drag.

[vitiosuslepros]

I guess I am weird that I didn't have that much of a problem with the difficulty of the game. I've just always assumed Mario games are supposed to be hard as fuck and the satisfaction comes from getting through it.

Super Mario World was an exception for me.

Work is a great place now when the gamers come in pumped to rip Gamespot apart. I was never fond of the Gamespot system, and I did go there when the Kayne & Lynch stuff was all over...shit-tastic.

Now I return to playing another game you don't like, Pokemon.

[sakuraamplifier]

The weird thing is, I've never thought of Mario games as being all that difficult. Except Lost Levels, obviously. Even Sunshine had some fucking hard levels, but you could do really poorly on them and still beat the game. Of course with Galaxy, I'm thinking mostly of the Boo races as being both impossibly hard and no fucking fun. But the underwater levels looked pretty unfun, too.

I used to really like Gamespot. It was the first site I started reading game reviews on, and I always felt like they were less biased than 1Up, who often come off as arbitrarily hating (or loving) games. I'll probably still glance at their reviews from time to time, but it will always be in the back of my mind that good scores there are for sale.