this morning, after a particularly challenging chicken vindaloo the previous night. To use a cinematic metaphor, I would go as far as to describe the whole experience as a "Jerry Bruckheimer moment" at least in the sense that the emotional investment it tried to demand from me didn't really pay off in the climax; it may have been an explosive three-flush porcelain-pebbledasher, but there's only so much you can do to disguise the fact that it was just another rather predictable turd. I came out of the toilet feeling manipulated to say the least :/ 

[nt] 

builds a charming metal picture 

and I will spare the details because I'm a fecalphobe, but I was driving home one morning after having a late night diner at a Greek restaurant in Washington DC where I had a shell fish dish, and I had to stop at a McDonald's to use the facilities. In the middle of doing my business, the guy in the next style over yelled at me something like, 'you son of a bitch, that smell . . ." and then he preceded to puke. Yup, so bad it made a guy puke. Beeming with pride here. 

Someone move this discussion back to console gaming before it's too late.

I know!

How about that one game on that console? Sure was a good/bad/average game, wasn't it? 

 

Hey, if any of you guys are picking up Gears 2 and want to play this weekend, I'll be playing a lot of multiplayer. If you want to party up, friend me as "WarrenM".

See you out there! 

need to get me an xbox. Willem, would you mind if I passed on your gamertag to my little brother? Pretty sure he's got Gears2 on pre-order and I bet he'd love to play against a developer :) 

Sure. I can't guarantee I'll accept the friend request but tell him my tag, "WarrenM". Come find me. :) 

Just watched the video review on IGN - there seems to be a Qonquer mode. Nice. 

I just finished this game. Short summary: decent game, but you could skip it.

Longer summary: The first Metroid Prime was an excellent game in almost all respects, with a whole set of new 3D game mechanics that fit the Metroid feel, great envioronment art and level design, and good boss fights too. Everything worked and it felt like Metroid.

This sequel (as expected) continues all of those successful game mechanics, introduces some new ones of which none really enhances the experience, and strays a bit from the Metroid vibe with the storyline and the use of cutscenes and HALO-style FPS tropes.

So what's new?

Wii Controller

The control scheme from the earlier Prime games had to be re-mapped from a gamecube controller to the wii controller. Since the wii has a pointing device, this means that the big success is the aiming and shooting, which feels very good. The "lock on" mechanic of the gamecube Primes is still there but less important now that you are able to aim so easily.

Aside from that, there are fewer buttons on the wiimote and they are layed out pretty awkwardly, so a lot of secondary functions are mapped to weird buttons that are hard to reach. The designers had a moment of inspiration when figured out how players would switch visors: hold a button and aim at a region of the screen. If they had taken this to the logical conclusion they could have put even more options on this on-screen menu, and reduced the need for physical buttons even more.

Weapons and Abilities

There are no new weapons that introduce anything really novel to Metroid Prime, though all of the beams are slight variations of previous concepts (e.g. ice missles) or slight tweaks (e.g. upgraded grapple beam can damage opponents)

The only new major ability introduced is the Screw Attack, an old 2D favorite which didn't really belong in a first-person game. It's reintroduced here with an automatic switch to a third-person view when activated. To me it felt pretty much like a gimmick, you can only really use it on special "screw attack" walls means that it is just a key to get past a certain type of gate.

There was also a new minor ability; there are special green "grab ledges" which if you jump towards, Samus will grab and climp up, like prince of persia. Once again the camera switches to a third-person view, which i would say indicts both the screw attack and grab ledges as things which do not belong in a first-person game. They are just an excuse to play a cutscene. Speaking of cutscenes, more on that later.

Hypermode

The subtitle "Corruption" points to the main thematic and plot element of the game: Samus is infected with this "Phazon" substance, which threatens to destroy her body and is also responsible for corrupting and mutating many of the creatures you fight in the game.

This generates a new gameplay mode, "Hypermode", in which Samus's attacks are much stronger, but entering this mode will cost a full energy tank (a large measure of health,) and while you are in this mode you are in danger of being so corrupted that you die.

Is hypermode fun? Well, it's actually not that bad. It means you have a special way to blast through a challenging fight, but you have very limited uses of it (until later when you have lots of energy tanks to spare.)

Also, in a game where you rarely are in danger of dying by running out of health, it gives you a reason to need all that stored-up health. (more on the difficulty below.)

Exploration and Progression

Exploration and progression work in the typical way for Metroid, with some small changes.

First, the "zones" are all spread out on different planets, so instead of one giant map of connected zones, you have chunks that you have to fly your ship between. The ship basically functions the way the elevators did in Prime, but since you can choose your destination it lets you get around a bit faster.

Second, the game overall felt more linear and plot-driven, with objectives being given to the player so they always know where to go next. This doesn't mean you don't have tons of secret side areas, just that it feels like you never have to find your way. Prime had some of that too, but it was generally just a mark on a map.

(continued below) 

Story and Cutscenes

This game was chock-a-block with cutscenes and voice actors, including a gruff military commander type guy that made me feel like i was playing medal of honor or halo, getting told to "secure that hill, soldier!" And just in general the world felt more populated and less lonely. You were always in radio contact with someone, so you're not really "lost in a cave in the farthest reaches of space", as it feels when playing previous Metroids.

Rather than Exploring the Unknown Places and Discovering Ancient Mechanisms, you are following NPC instructions, going to known locations and activating things the NPCs know about. This just overall gives it a different feel.

Difficulty

The game was quite easy, i mainly died when i forgot how hypermode worked and got fatally corrupted. Most bosses i beat on the first try. This is in contrast to Metroid Prime 2, which was full of super hard bosses, and Metroid Prime 1, which had a pretty good balance, with a few hard bosses, but more exploration in between.

HUD

Prime 1 had a way to turn off the intrusive Visor graphics, and yet still see your health and ammo count in a simple display. With Prime 3, turning opacity to zero will turn off all of the visor, so you can't see your health or ammo. Because of this, I played most of the game with the visor turned off, and only turned it on during boss fights. This is partly why i died during hypermode, i couldn't see the "corruption meter" that displays when you are in it. :)

Power Cells

There was an interesting setup where you early on find a derelict spaceship, but most of the ship is inaccessible. Over the course of the game, you can find "power cells" which you can plug into various panels to gradually gain access to the rest of that ship, collecting items and eventually a passcode to get into the final area. The power cells are hidden throughout the areas of the game, and you find clues to their locations on the derelict ship. You also have a choice what order you use the power cells, and which order you collect them, so that part is nice and nonlinear.

Okay, that's probably long enough of a review for a game that I'm not excited about. 

one more thing to say. There was a mini-boss called "Metroid Hatcher" which i was able to kill in a single shot. I hope that was a bug :) 

sounds like they lost a bit of the metroid spirit :( 

I've been stuck on the same boss in Metroid Prime 3 forever, and you beat most bosses on the first try. Pluh. I find it to be pretty difficult. I think I keep getting stuck on combat areas in this game more than the first one. I can't say how far in I am, probably not even half way, but it just gets infuriating getting stuck on these spots for a week or more. 

i had that problem with Prime 2 (still haven't beaten it, stuck on boss X whenever i try to dust off my old save game.)

Which boss are you stuck on? 

big statue thing with arms that float away to suck in these orbs - I remember I got him down to like 10% health and then unfortunately died due to a freak wiimote accident, got super pissed, and then decided to put the game down for a good long while. 

yeah i remember him being hard... he's got like 4 orbs in his body, and if you damage them enough they break and expose a hole that you can blast in Hypermode.

But then he sucks new orbs in to replace them -- make sure you completely destroy the orbs as they float towards his body, otherwise he fills in a hole with the replacement.

Then i think there's a part where he runs around with weird shells on his feet, if you roll into a ball you can damage the shells with bombs.

The last orb is on his back, this takes longer because it's hard to get behind him. I think i used ball mode to move around faster plus it gives you a wider FOV so you can see where he is. 

Yeah that's pretty much what I did. I guess I just haven't found enough life containers cuz I usually die, even if I spend a good amount of time picking up floating life thingies to recharge. 

the number of energy tanks you have probably makes a big difference in how hard a boss fight is. I remember that boss didn't give much opportunity to regain health during the fight.

Definitely worth checking to see if you can get into any previously-inaccessible doors or rooms on the map with whatever items you most recently collected. 

I didn't find too difficult compared to normal game bosses - but you've been cushioned into the 'nearly fps' theme by then that you try to beat him the same way. Shoot the orbs, when he tries to get them back shoot the connections. And concentrate on getting out of the way.

Once you figure out the patterns he's not so difficult. Same as the rock boss from 2. Or 1.

As to 3 - the robot city level was a travesty of level design.

I guess some exec found the levels too difficult and the whole thing got cut down to a poor version of its former self in a short time. 

xxx 

God I hate you.

But seriously, 248 posts vs 35000. Just merge the damn threads. 

Is he supposed to do that? Also 3500. 

Yeh, typo, obviously. Also, 3600 now.

And by allowing this thread to die (which it had) and reverting the name of the other pc games thread to 'other games'.

Simples.