Headshots & Friendly Fire: Round 9
The gaming industry has gotten bigger and better with each passing year, but sometimes it just doesn’t do things right. Whether it’s gameplay, story, pricing, or business practices, sometimes the industry needs a little friendly fire from gamers to keep it in line.
Other times, developers look down their sights and fire off a well placed bullet right into our thrilled heads. This is Josh & Cameron, and today we have a special guest for Headshots & Friendly Fire.
A Bit of Friendly Fire
Yakuza Releases March 9th
I know what you’re thinking: Is Sega evil, or just stupid? Sega didn’t want to release Yakuza 3 over here, and they don’t want to release Yakuza 4 over here, either. So the question is: are they deliberately releasing Yakuza 3 on the same day as FFXIII so that it doesn’t sell well and they can justify not bringing Yakuza 4 to the west? Could Sega not realize that they are pitting Yakuza 3 against one of the biggest games of the year? Judging from Sega’s past history with marketing, it would be typical for Sega to screw up the marketing for Yakuza 3. Sega needs to decide if they want to support games in the US and Europe, or if they want to be a Japan-only company.
Still no Trophies?
I’ll be the first guy to tell you that trophies shouldn’t matter if the game is good enough. That still holds true, but in a game market where trophies are such a sought-after commodity, there is really no excuse not to patch a game for trophies, then turn around and complain about lack of sales. Every time a for sale article goes up on Valkyria Chronicles, one of the top 10 PS3 games to date, you will always find complainers about no trophy patch. While I still think everyone should play this game, I can’t help but get upset at SEGA over not patching this and getting themselves more sales. Another game in need of some trophies just to make it playable is 50 Cent Blood on the Sand. I rented the game to gain trophies and have fun with a friend (no offline co-op, another story) and alas, no trophies. The game even got patched in Japan, where I don’t even think 50 has any fans. Add replay value, guys, and make an extra buck or two, though it might be a bit late for both of those.
I like him...just not this year.
Batman 2 Preorder Already Available
Batman: Arkham Asylum has been on the market for less time than Conan O’Brien has been on the Tonight Show, and yet pre-orders for the second game are already available. In the last H&F, I said that Batman: Arkham Asylum 2 needs to have a long develpment cycle, and not just be pushed out the door. Now, it’s starting to look like my fears may be coming true. RockSteady, don’t let success go to your head.
Built around Co-op, but no Offline?
I mentioned 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand earlier and its lack of offline co-op. Why do developers decide to make a game that is supposed to be played with a friend and yet fail to make the game offline co-op compatible? I know online is where it’s at, and more and more people are going online to join up with friends, but every so often, people like to play a game together while sitting in the same room. The only reason a lot of these games are rented is for just that feature, and when it’s not made available, it leaves gamers feeling frustrated.
Fiddy don't play nice with others (offlline).
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4 Responses to “Headshots & Friendly Fire: Round 9”
Hmm, honestly I wouldn’t think about a pre-order meaning a game will come out soon hell… Look at Gran Turismo 5?
Haven’t they had pre-orders for the longest time… It’s still not out, and I think you had a typo on develoment but I am on the second page as I type this so yeah XD
GLAD to see someone appreciates WKC, too many nit-picky people complaining about everything in the game >.>
And I have to agree and disagree with enemy health bars
I love them, but if they’re gone I love them just as much it seems
Mainly I think back to the first Devil May Cry, regular enemy fights such as the Shadow Cat enemies could take forever(especially on Dante Must Die! Mode, that took fooorever to beat) and you just had to stick it out the best you could, cause sometimes it sucks dying knowing TWO hits would’ve killed the sucker >.>
EITHER way I say health bars on enemies are fine both ways, but I’ve not played Darksiders so I can’t comment really on health bars in that sense.
l agree with the full health when you die in a game, l mean why give half when you just died from fighting something that took full from you or you accidently killed your self but jumping of a cliff.
l also agree with the health bars being visble. Either make it visible or at least show signs that the enemy is recieving damage such as the enemy is bleeding and looking battle damaged
hmmmm… health bars? sounds like somebody is being a wuss…. haha… but no seriously, I think this is a situational thing. Some games are about utilizing good item management to make sure you have the health when you need it, and restarting every check point would be an easy way to cheat and refill your health by killing yourself. However, games with no inventory or portable healing items probably should refill your health upon restarting. Enemy health bars are pretty unecessary – boss battles seem less epic when you know exactly how many hits it will take to kill them, and normal enemies you should generally get a feel for how many hits it takes to kill them after a few kills – thus you learn by playing what combos to use and what not to use.
Totally agree on the lack of local co op in games designed for co op. I found myself really disappointed when uncharted 2 had no local co op, when resistance 2′s local co op was impossible without being online, and when other games flat out have no co op and it feels like they should. Is it really that hard to tweak a campaign slightly to allow for a second player to run through it? I don’t even care if it makes no sense story wise, and treats it as if theres one person even though there’s two. I just wanna play some games with my friends, dammit.
The lack of Local co-op pisses me off so much. I can understand it for big name titles, like GOW- 1 player only, fine. Great, makes sense. But stuff on the PSN, short titles that cost <10, and are quirky and fun SHOULD be the games to play with friends.
Pixeljunk Monsters is my FAVORITE 2 player game, and then when I find anotehr title and buy it thinking it might be fun trying it out on 2 player…and it doesn't have one, or a shitty one, i get pissed.
Also, totally agree about ripping shit up as Delta. What a fabulous feeling.