Dead Rising 2

[Formica Archonis]

Ah, Hacker. That game was brutal. Figuring out the mechanics was quite fun (and finally getting the location of the test site so I could bypass all the early security stuff was great!), but it's on such a tight schedule that once you have the mechanics down you have to trial-and-error it to try get all the document pieces. Once I had the mechanics nailed down progress ground to a halt and I got bored. Never got into Hacker II: The Doomsday Papers at all.

 

[mParadox]

I remember that bloody ledge in Flashback. Annoyed the hell out of me.

Aye. Hated that part. Took me a bloody long time to figure it out.

OT: True to the points, the game is as hard as you make it. Fallout 3, for example, is still challenging after my second play through while games like Bioshock 2 becomes trivial and too easy to be taken seriously after the first time.

 

[Trogdor1138]

I only finished Dead Rising 1 a few months back and had owned for about 3 years I think. I tried several times in the past but just got frustrated with some of the cheapness of the difficulty etc. But I was looking for games to play and went "You know what, fuck you Dead Rising, I'm going to finish you" and I luckily did and enjoyed it so much more than the previous times I'd played it after having the things I remembered from the first attempts.

I'm likely going to try again and get the best ending etc. soon. Then hopefully get Dead Rising 2 down the track.

 

[BrunDeign]

I'm glad Yahtzee found the game so much fun, because I did too. The defiler is quite the Disc One Nuke (Go to TV Tropes if you don't know what I mean) though.

I wonder if he'll review Fallout tomorrow. Here's hoping he likes it, also: zombies.

 

[For.I.Am.Mad]

What Yahtzee calls 'exploration' I call trail and error. To each his own but I didn't get that same sense of awe when I found out the sword worked better than the axe or coffee is better than potato chips.

 

[Dora]

The more I read about this game, the more I kind of feel like I need to play it, even if the time limit SHOULD be a game killer for me. I've just played so many HURRRGH SERIOUS BUSINESS GRRRRRR games over the past year this kind of seems like it would be a nice change of pace. I mean, I loved Heavy Rain, but CHRIST that was a downer, even with the good ending. After that I could use some pointless, extravagant bloodshed.

Stuff like this is what GameFly is for.

 

[KDR_11k]

Go play Minecraft then, that game embodies discovery and if you discover everything there will be more after the next patch.

 

[jeff02x2]

That ledge! it was the bane of my life for hours every time I wanted to play that game. Even when you read the manual and it says you have to sweep your fingers up the d-pad I could never get it just right.

 

[CrystalShadow]

Nice article, Yahtzee. but stil...
the Mario Galaxies? Seriously? Even after you made your thoughts on those games abundandtly clear?

You obviously weren't paying attention to what he said then.

It's especially apparent in his review of the first one;

He criticises the hell out of it for lacking any kind of originality, but points out that despite that, it is actually fun.

See, from that I gather that he actually likes Mario Galaxy, but just refuses to accept there is any merit in a company that rehashes the same characters plot and gameplay over and over.

You could call that hypocritical, but to be honest, liking something and finding fault with it aren't always mutually exclusive.

 

[Electrogecko]

First of all, I have regained hope in Mr. Croshaw after reading that he did indeed enjoy the Galaxies enough to merit another play through. (rightfully so) People who say that either of the games are rehashes or not creative have obviously never played them.
Also, as somebody who hasn't played Dead Rising 2, I can't help but feel that the experience will be spoiled for me if I ever do get around to it. Now I know which weapons are best and what to drink fequently.

 

[CitySquirrel]

that is very true, i found this game much easier in comparison to Dead Rising 1... i guess it's because DR1 was so masochistic that by the time i had played through that 50 times i only needed 3 tries to get through DR2 (and i only threw the controller once!)

oh, and for the record, my favorite melee weapon is the knife-gloves... owns EVERYTHING!

I found the overtime mode easier for 2 and I reflected that this was not because it was dumbed down so much as because overtime mode on 1 was so hard it was almost not fun. The only way to survive was to kill the new enemy with swords and getting them while constantly being attacked... man, I rage quit after a while.

On the topic of Yahtzee's comments about experimenting, I just tried the tenderizers on Leon... a guy who took me close to 10 minutes to kill the first time... and he died in less than 3. So many new ways to do it!

 

[DayDark]

Extra Punctuation: Dead Rising 2

And with that in mind, I remembered that my first attempt at the game had been fraught with difficulty. Bosses gave me considerably more trouble, and several of them I'd simply gave up on ever beating. This wasn't just because I was low level and hadn't learned the dodge roll: Until I conversed with a friend about it, I didn't actually know that you could make combo weapons even if you haven't found its recipe card.

Sometimes it's nice that you have to figure stuff out yourself, but there's the huge disadvantage that you just showed, what if you didn't have that friend? Than you would just have ended the game there, and what fun would that be? Is this not a fail for the game? If you have to get out of character knowledge, is that not a fault? Of course, it depends entirely on why you had to seek knowledge outside the game, but when the game doesn't present any knowledge, how can you not?

Trial & Error is a hit 'n' miss when it comes to games, because your solution to a problem might be different than the solution the designer intended, and if he hasn't recognized your solution, your effectively stuck until you find out what you were "meant" to do. In the real world there are millions of solution to a problem, and in games there are only as many as the designer intended.

 

[Stabby Joe]

Despite all the cries over the time limit, the only mission I didn't do I can think of off the top of my is the tiger trainer... and that wasn't even scripted. I was able to fit nearly all missions in one playthrough, hard but fun.

 

[Slothboy]

Oh man, Hacker. Loved that game. My buddy and I played the hell out of it. We never did quite make it away safely. I remember fleeing down the tunnel to Australia as fast as possible trying to beat the clock and missing it by mere seconds. Good times.


I might have to check out dead rising 2 now. It was mostly off my radar... I'm all zombied up as far as that goes. If it really is that free-form though it might be worth putting some time into.

 

[Amazon warrior]

*goes to check the Hacker wiki page* Ohey! It is the one I thought it was! I played it a bit back in the day. Probably could play it now too if I really wanted - we still have our C64 kicking around somewhere. I <3 old computers.

 

[ewhac]

This is one of those times I wish Yahtzee read the discussion fora more regularly:

...this was back in Amiga days when 90 percent of your game collection was copied from schoolyard chums. And don't even try to deny it, you thieving prick.

*ahem*

I flatly deny it.

The only game I can immediately recall having only in its unsanctioned form was Datastorm [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datastorm]. It was basically Defender on steroids, and since I sucked at Defender, I never played more than a couple of times. If I am to be scrupulously honest, I probably have a handful of other unsanctioned copies in my collection. (I also made inappropriate use of a unicycle, but that's a long and somewhat embarrassing story...)

The crushing majority of my collection I paid for, or was gifted by the vendor themselves. I [em]own[/em] a copy of both Hacker and Hacker 2. I also paid for several iterations of Deluxe Paint.

I sincerely hope you paid for Disney Presents: The Animation Studio [http://amzn.com/B000658QSW] .

 

[RJ Dalton]

Cue my obligatory mention of the original Deus Ex. That had a training mission at the start that was completely optional and you could skip it if you wanted to jump right into the game. Thief: Dark Project had the same thing. I think that's a good way to do tutorials; helps you get used to the controls if you are unfamiliar with them, but allows you to skip them on second plays, once you've already learned them.

 

[Frozengale]

Personally I agree that more games need to have experimentation and not hold you hand throughout the whole game. But I also think that in some games there is a difference between lack of instruction and keeping you woefully ignorant. For example Demons Souls was one of those woefully ignorant games in my opinion. I had to look up online just to find out some of the basics of the game (Such as what the whole Light and Dark thing on the Map was). Games designers need to be careful about which parts they pick and choose to hold your hand on, give hints, and just straight up leave information out on.

 

[FallenMessiah88]

Well im just glad that there are still games that actually require the player to think for themselves. Its interesting that a game the revolves around braindead flesh eating zombies, actually forces you to think and not just become a zombie yourself.

 

[blainemono]

Great, you just had to go ahead and spoil orange juice for everyone, haven't you?

Also, But then again, am I really so hard to please?

Yes. Yes, you are.