Why can’t all articles be about the great level design in Halo games? Good write-up. Reach has some of the best direction (in-mission and cutscene) of any game, which doesn’t get much attention.

Why did he say “move over Metal Gear Solid 2" when talking about the rain and wind effects? Did he mean 5/GZ? Or was he actually talking about MGS2 (from 2001) as one of the last landmark titles to push weather effects forward? Both are valid, I guess, it was just confusing.

I think what surprised me the most was how little I’d thought about the people in the Star Fox universe. I’m protecting them, and my squadron is made up entirely of anthropomorphic animals. Still, somehow, I never really bothered to consider all the “people” I was saving were just other weird animals, mostly dogs and…

Got yr back bro
Metroid III > DKC 2

You’re exaggerating a bit for effect, but I actually agree. Maybe it was the Guacamelee pedigree that made me expect something different, but battle systems with no onscreen protagonists or weapons are a real turn-off. I’m also not big on games that force smudgy fingers all over the beautiful Vita screen. Guess I’ll…

Truth: when I walked out of The Hateful Eight (a 8pm showing) I was horrified to see how many kids had been in the audience. Like Eddie Murphy says: “Oh you’re gonna be fucked up”

Can’t tell if that’s shots fired...

Geometry Wars 2/3 Pacifism mode

Backtracking in a Metroid game isn’t a choice between bad/good, though: the way it is implemented and the rewards for doing it (both in your play experience and progression of upgrades) is always clever, engaging, and reveals a hidden depth to the level design. I think compared to, say, Paper Mario: The Thousand Year…

They sorta did, but Lego Creator came out well before most people’s PCs could handle a game that lets you build anything.

This is what I’m wondering about, especially since the Wii U was able to give a discount for previous Wii purchases and everything should be linked by your Nintendo account

*better Splatoon players (they might still be bad at Pokemon)

According to this, only Gen II allowed it by TM. I still might be wrong though

I immediately thought about how this might break some of the game. I remember making a Kadabra in R/B that had thunder punch, ice punch, fire punch, and psychic. Pretty sure they outlawed that after gen 1...

The problem with this specific type of fiction is that it only encourages starry-eyed yokels from across the country to think they can move to NYC and instantly have a dream living space.

I think this is exactly right: the more heavily stylized a game is, the more likely the graphics will withstand the test of time. Wind Waker is a great example, same for Okami and Paper Mario. Even the Gamecube Resident Evil’s still look pretty good because of their graphical trickery — using FMV and high-res stills…

If you’re really that sensitive to having something presented to you in its originally-intended reveal format, you need to take responsibility for your browsing. Kotaku can post whatever they want, spoiler or no. Complaining because of your personal preference doesn’t equate to wrongdoing on their part.

Same for Tactics Ogre, though my preference is rooted more in the fact that rotating SRPGs make me dizzy. Give me FF Tactics Advance, Fire Emblem, and Tactics Ogre, no matter how much I’d love to play the original FF Tactics.

I agree completely: 5 may not be as strictly realistic, but the realism of 4 came at the cost of it being playable. In between the GTA games, Sleeping Dogs was released and, while the driving was far from realistic, it focused on ways to keep you on the road and keep you moving, much to the benefit of the game. I’m…