Necro

To an extent. A great story doesn't need deep, involved gameplay, but it has to work. Broken gameplay will always break immersion. Kind of. A bad story will always stink the game up, but a game can still be fun if the gameplay is amazing. Unless you have a game like the Elder Scrolls games that's all about the story. Not a fan. If you want me to keep paying, use a subscription system, don't make me pay you $25 every few months. Especially DLC that adds significant content. I still think Valve has the formula perfect with Team Fortress 2; actual game content is added for free. Microtransactions on nonessential items and cosmetics are the only sources of added transactions. "Downloadable content" you have to buy is entirely optional and mostly aesthetic. The game itself can be enjoyed completely and fully on nothing but the price of admission, but paying enhances your experience in a nonessential way that doesn't create unfair imbalance. Good: Valve. Bad: EA. I know how generic, trite an argument this is, but it's true; EA seems to love on-disc DLC, day-one DLC, DLC that is required to really fully enjoy the game. Valve gives you a ton of stuff for no additional charge. Call of Duty. Elder Scrolls games honestly drag on for me and get quite boring. I was not a huge fan of Halo either. Also, the Arkham games are overrated, and I say that as someone who thought Arkham City was a very fun game. I also get really bored with the Lego games. I have seen a surprising amount of vitriol towards the Mega Man Battle Network games. Yeah the anime's dub was pretty bad, and yeah the story really went downhill in the last few games, but the gameplay was outstanding, and the story for at least the first three was fun lighthearted stuff that could get serious. A lot of Star Wars games, too; there's a lot of rubbish, but the Jedi Knight games get a lot of undeserved flak just because licensed games are automatically bad, right? I could sit here for a solid three hours writing an essay on the subject, you'll need to be more specific. Bonus: Connection. It's when the gameplay is so smooth and fun and intuitive, the story is so involved and emotional and natural, and the characters so deep and well-performed, that you stop seeing it as "This is a fictional thing I'm watching happen that I am doing for fun and I need to dodge those bullets so I don't get a game over" and start seeing it as "This is a thing that's really happening and I need to dodge those bullets so I don't die". It's like any form of media; immersion is when you really start to empathize with the characters, setting, story, etc., to the point that you care as if it were real, rather than taking it in as fiction. So I may have done these backwards

Overall or session? 60-70 minutes is usually where I call it quits for a session, though boss fights and quests can drag that out to 80-90. Overall depends on cost. For $5, I'm fine with a few days of fun I never dig up again. For $60, I want something that lasts at least a month. Quality > quantity though, a shorter experience that I love and want to revisit is better than one that drags on and on just to fill a length quota. RPGs, action-adventure, mystery, turn-based strategy, and some shooters(Games like TF2 that are much more complex than "Click on man's head to win" or ME3 that have it bundled with a great story or a fun physics engine that lets you mess around and fly and manipulate the environment and that sort of stuff) One, good gameplay. Bad, awkward gameplay breaks focus, takes me out of the moment, ruins the story experience on top of, obviously, being unfun gameplay. Two, appearance. Don't confuse this for graphical elitism; HD graphics and gritty realism are not inherently good, hence TF2 and Okami being favorites while I don't really care about Gears of War or Call of Duty. But you need a cohesive, consistent art style that meshes and creates a tangible environment and atmosphere. Disjointed styles, palettes, and whatnot are like seeing the wires holding up Superman. It takes you out of the moment, disconnects your involvement to the game, and with a game, it takes you out of the enjoyment of the play. Three, little details. Things like the books from Elder Scrolls that all have actual writing, or the C-Sec cops in Mass Effect 3 that you can overhear talking about keeping the peace before their home planet is invaded, then about leaving the force to go join the war effort once it's conquered, add so much depth and life to the game's universe. The C in NPC stands for "character", and it means something. Indulge your background characters, make the environment feel real! One, broken or awkward controls. If it's impossible to play the game right, I stop focusing on the rest of the experience, and all I start trying to think of are how to work around the controls or camera and all that. Two, bad voiceacting. A good cast can make a bland story pop, and a bad cast can make a great one feel uninteresting. Three, bad writing. If you're doing a story, don't leave it half-baked. Four, the devaluation of a player's choices. If you're going to give the player a choice, make it matter, or at least feel like it matters(The Walking Dead did a very good job of letting you feel like you were being impactful without extreme variation in conclusions). Nothing is worse than feeling like your decisions are meaningless. Massive impact. Music in a game is as important as music in a movie, and movies can be made or broken based on their score. It's even more important in a game, because in a game you have to involve the player and make them feel what they're doing. Probably the most overlooked part is making the cues seamless. One of my favorite parts of Twilight Princess is that its music was composed in a way that allowed any blow from Link's sword to be accompanied with a stab of music, and to be given a quick musical conclusion before being faded when a battle is over or a scene changes. The entire thing created a much more engulfing atmosphere. See #3. Most of what makes a game pop for me - background details, vibrant NPCs, cohesive style and feel, an established tone - is a good atmosphere. A lot. Too hard, and it stops being fun because you're smashing against a brick wall. Barring specific difficulty-based challenge modes and maps and sidemissions, we're well past the age of Nintendo Hard being a good thing. Too easy though, and it's not fun, because there's nothing about being Arnold Schwarzenegger from Commando, fighting an army of mooks with the aim of stormtroopers and hardiness of redshirts, that creates lasting fun. Difficulty is a delicate balance, and that's one of the things that I think a lot of sports games do really well; not only do you get anywhere between four to seven difficulty settings, you have a bunch of sliders that, in Madden for example, let you set penalty frequency, AI awareness, tackling consistency, and a slew of other options on a scale from 1 to 99. Difficulty has to be perfect, but skill is varied so widely that nothing will ever be perfect. An ideal game has comprehensive settings that can be adapted to each individual player's desire for challenge and adjusted as their skill increases, but can also be as simple and one-touch as picking one of a handful of presets. Really depends on the atmosphere you're going for. There's a certain element of personalization and closeness that comes from a customizable avatar, but a Legend of Zelda game where Link has a beard, black hair, and a really long face just wouldn't feel right. There's a merit in having pre-established characters, especially in terms of writing. Mass Effect handles this really well though, with a great balance of Shep costumization and prewritten storylines that let you feel a connection while still having a woven backstory. Nonlinear, but with a certain amount of player guidance. Exploration and being able to choose your own direction and go at your own pace really help set an atmosphere, but I end up getting way too sidetracked, forgetting the story, and losing interest in games like Skyrim where it's completely nonlinear. The World Ends With You is a strong candidate. Okami's Wii port was probably the best use of the Wii Remote, too. The Wii U release of Madden also had a pretty cool mechanic where you could draw out a play on the gamepad when you audibled. That said, the portal gun takes the cake. So much physics engine fun, so many clever puzzles! (Bonus 1) One time I was playing Team Fortress 2, when suddenly the cart stopped, rose up off the tracks in a slow, foreboding fashion, spun around, then started going backwards through the air. Another time back when people still really liked Rock Band, a song started playing without the music. We failed horribly because it looked hilarious. The first Mass Effect game loses its mind if you escape the map, too. (Bonus 2) I'm really partial to letting the player choose. If they want to be evil, let them. If they want to be a hero, let them. If I have to choose one though, I think heroic stories are done better. Villainous stories never seem to be done right.

I can never limit it down to one. It'd probably end up being one of Team Fortress 2, the Mass Effect trilogy, Wind Waker, Fire Emblem(Either the first GBA one or Path of Radiance) or Pokémon Ruby. It really depends on the criteria we're judging it by and what I'm looking for. As far as disappointments, it's still too early to decide but Destiny is teetering there. Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon is pretty high too, because it was so loyal a remake that it preserved all the flaws and shortcomings from the NES era. I may get a lot of heat for this, but I'll also say Ocarina of Time. It was a great game, but it's tired now. I know that's because the ideas and concepts have been reiterated, improved, and refined for years, and that it was revolutionary at the time, but it just has not stood up to the test of time in my personal opinion. It's still a very good game, but not an earth-shattering experience.

I always see people raving about the comics, looking forward to finally reading them.

How about if I add a trumpet-playing Muddy Waters?

How's that?

An accurate representation of Alpha Sapphire, apparently.

Can I get an example of a game made like a movie? Depending on what we're talking about I don't know where I stand.

Guys, guys, guys, come on. Iron Man? Lets be serious here. It's obvious he was talking about this guitar, which was made in California.

Now that you have mentioned it, it has become a very real possibility.

Funnily enough, yes. I have flat feet, which stretches the muscles and ligaments in my leg in a way that makes that position very easy and pain-free to achieve. The stretched ACL in my right knee is more flexible and can go farther, too. In retrospect, testing that is probably not too bright. That depends. Is Dr. Leo Spaceman licensed as an orthopedic surgeon?

I can only enjoy them up to a certain cap, but as long as their humor doesn't around each other, I'm pretty flexible with them at this joint. Depends. Red or yellow? Only one way to find out: interview farm animals.

1. When I was 12 my foot got caught in a bike spoke, and when I fell I twisted my knee. Stretched my ACL, sprained my MCL, and the doctor said I was lucky the ACL didn't tear. Normally it required surgery, but since I was young he thought it would heal, and it seems to have done so. 2. The anterior cruciate ligament, only because football's plethora of ACL injuries mean it's the one I'm most familiar with. 3. They kneed to get over it. 4. I did not, but since it's a penguin doing it, I imagine it's somehow adorable.

Never done one of these before with any actual response. Kinda bored, so why not?

I disagree to an extent. I've written stories about deranged conspiracy theorists who I portrayed as the only voice of sanity, stories about 1984-esque governments that I've written to have the government in-question reflected as just and right, stories about organizations who are for all intents and purposes fictional terrorist organizations but I wrote as noble rebel causes even though their actions indicate otherwise. Stories about abusers from the abuser's perspective, complete with presenting the reader with their justifications and rationales, stories about racists and homophobes and all sorts of unpleasant people wherein they're not demonized, and if anything their bigotry is normalized. Warriors who would rather die by the sword than surrender, religious zealots who view consequences in the physical world as unimportant, all manner of things. In spite of all this, I can promise you with complete certainty that I laugh at the tinfoil hat brigade, I find the concept of a government like that of Oceania horrifying, and that I find terrorism pretty horrible too. I've been in an emotionally abusive relationship, so I'm certainly not attempting to minimize the helpless despair, conflicted emotions, and pain both mental and physical that come from being abused, and unless I've been lied to about what the words mean, I'm pretty darn sure I'm not a homophobe, a racist, or any other type of bigot. I'm also positive that, if offered a noble death in battle or a quiet shameful surrender, I'd take the option that involves living, and I've always made a point of keeping my philosophical beliefs to myself unless asked about them. I am none of these things I have written about in any way, shape, or form, and my views or opinions are not reflected in any way in these writings. To discount the possibility that a writer is using a character they write in order to make a statement, or to assume that the characters they write have no relation to the way they view or experience things is folly, but to assume that the characters they write are automatically indicative of how they feel and what they believe and how they interpret things, and aren't just that way because it's interesting or a concept the author felt like exploring without any vested interest, is equally erroneous.

I want it because I actually already have it so I'd be spreading the joy of winning something to other friends!

Things college doesn't give you time to do: Write a novel in a month. Things college might give you time to do: Make some headway on trying to make an album or something maybe. Also grow an ugly beard to help raise awareness and show support for colorectal cancer.

FIRST NAME: Ján LAST NAME: Ĩtor SOLDIER GENDER: Janitor Male ARMOR COLOR: Dark blue Preferably a support class.

You had your chance at the cotillion, you!

Music Horses are Best Horses.

Immensely and incredibly.

What I got from this is that they should reboot Bad Dudes vs. Dragon Ninja to try and make it better. I would buy a Bad Dudes vs. Dragon Ninja reboot in a heartbeat. There is no other dude I trust to be bad enough to save President Ronnie. Bravo sir, you have managed to, for the time being, sway my opinion. Still need to see them in-person before I'm totally sold, but I am at the least excited now. I am very happy to be, by outward appearances, wrong on this one.

Admittedly the Megablocks comparison was probably a bit off the mark. The armor pieces just look so streamlined and so "clean", for lack of a better word, that my first thought was to their heavy use of specific molded pieces. Maybe I'm just being a bit cynical, but the difference with those is that there was some versatility in them; the Toa Mata bodies had well over a dozen sockets to attach parts to on them, even if they only used about seven of them. The Bohrok body pieces only used five but had eight(There was also a functional purpose to their design, the ability to roll into a ball). As far as I've been able to tell up to this point, the new sets were exactly the same as the past few Toa sets that I just got bored with; a skinny technic skeleton with some molded armor pieces attached by a two-stud rod. That said though, there's clearly some sort of gear function in the backs of them, though nobody has mentioned any of that until now so I have no idea what it is. There's also more complexity than the front suggests. I suppose I'll be cautiously optimistic, but I'm hesitant any time something is being rebooted. For every Dark Knight trilogy, there's a Transformers saga that makes Bad Dudes vs. Dragon Ninja look like a masterpiece of storytelling. For every Captain America, there's a Pink Panther. I can't trust a reboot until I can see it in-person. I am still not a fan of the molded hands though. Constantly clenched fists lack any sort of expression, at least with the old ones there was some interpretation, and they were much more versatile.

I was using Axonn's hands as an example of the only "realistic" Bionicle hands that I've actually been fond of, not to say that those should be on every single one of them. And as far as I can tell from the photos I've seen - which again, have all been straight-on and from the front - there are no gear functions, so I was unaware of their existence, hence this line: Yes, I have looked at them. And with the front-only photos that I have seen, it just looks like a basic technic skeleton covered in gigantic pieces of armor, primarily oversized chestplates and shoulderplates. Maybe I'm out of the loop because every time I've browsed through the lego aisle, none of the Hero Factory sets felt worth their price to me, so I have never bought any of them, but I'm just giving my impressions. And there's the issue. Everyone that seems to think otherwise has seen them in-person, whereas the internet is all that is available to me for their designs, and the photos that are online aren't the most helpful in the world. People are saying they're great, but those same people on here praised the sets that I really lost interest in. And there's nothing wrong with that, if people like that, more power to them, it means they're having more fun than me. But when the people going "This is really great" also said that about things I didn't like, and the only photos I can find suggest it's a thing I won't like, what reason do I have to think otherwise?

Having now actually looked at the reborted Bioniceties, I'll be perfectly honest: I am really disappointed. The masks look less like magical artifacts and more like a cross between an industrial welder's mask and a goalie's facemask, the armor looks less like Lego and more like Megablocks, the hand pieces look even more ridiculous than they did a few years ago(Want some cool Bionicle hands? Look no further than Axonn's giant four-fingered maulers. Otherwise these did just fine without looking like painted Hulk Hands), and as far as I can tell there's no actual internal intricacy or interesting design, it's 90% molded plastic pieces made specifically for that set which simplify the design, and a bunch of ball joints for what basically amounts to a build-it-yourself action figure rather than a building set or something interesting. The only thing I'm really that pleased about is making Pohatu brown instead of making him grey or black or whatever they had started making the Po-sets. I'm not trying to rain on the parade, but for me personally, this is a letdown. I was expecting a return to old form, and it looks like it's just dressing the new standard up in nostalgic clothes. Hoping someone that actually saw them can correct me(Some rear pics would be great since that might give more insight to how they're constructed).