What are some of your UNpopular video game opinions? (real ones, not just ones for the sake of trolling or something)

[Alder | 243]

It's probably important to distinguish between continues and lives. If you get sent back to the beginning of a level, then infinite lives might not matter much, a game could still be really difficult (long levels with tons of enemies and no powerups). But if you continue right where you left off, especially with a few seconds of invincibility, then yeah it just becomes a "press A to win" game. Not one press, maybe a few thousand, but that doesn't change the difficulty IMO.

[Sumez | 2,969]

Hence... 

4 hours ago, Sumez said:

You could rate the difficulty of each individual section sure, but the entire game would have no perceived difficulty at all because you can just keep trying.

 

[John198X | 55]

How does infinite continues negate all difficulty?

I can see that for games where it makes for no death penalty (respawn immediately, lose no progress), obviously.

But for most games with a lives / continue system, it's not like using continues suddenly means that if you keep tapping buttons, you'll eventually get to the end - like infinite monkeys with infinite typewriters will eventually write the works of Shakespeare, or whatever.

If I could theoretically just tap random buttons and eventually I'd clear level 4 only, then it follows that I could tap random buttons for a longer period of time and eventually clear levels 1-4 in one go.

Of course 1CC is more challenging, but the idea that infinitely trying from level 4, as opposed to infinitely trying from level 1, negates all difficulty doesn't make sense to me.

---

This line of conversation started with someone pointing out that most of the "consensus best" SNES games aren't that difficult. I'd agree, and go as far as to say that's definitely an aspect of why some of those are so popular.

You don't have to use continues in Turtles in Time or Super Castlevania, but you don't have to use the save function in DK Country, Super Metroid, or Chrono Trigger either. But I think it's fair to judge a game by the options it makes available to you. Taking that into account, I'd say a playthrough of any of those is a fairly mild challenge relative to the majority of games from the first half of the 90s.

Edited September 9, 2021 by John198X

[cj_robot | 544]

3 hours ago, John198X said:

How does infinite continues negate all difficulty?

Exactly what I was thinking.

For instance, it took me years to finally beat Castlevania on NES, despite having unlimited continues at my disposal on any given playthrough. To this day I've only beaten it one time, because those last couple levels are so damn tough.

But then there are, of course, those games where you die, press start, and just keep going from where you left off as many times as you want. The first time I came across such an egregious example was probably Strider 2 on the PS1.

And then there are games that actually limit the amount of lives you have, but are so easy that it doesn't matter. Off the top of my head, I remember beating Bonk's Adventure on NES the first time I played it. Actually, I have no idea if there are continues or not, because I never saw a game over screen.

So yeah, I'd say limited or unlimited number of lives/continues makes little difference when determining a game's difficulty.

[Alder | 243]

Case in point: Ikari Warriors with the ABBA code VS without 

[Sumez | 2,969]

7 hours ago, John198X said:

How does infinite continues negate all difficulty?

The question isn't whether it negates difficulty, but how you compare the difficulty between two games without any common fail condition.

It's simple to say Castlevania IV is "easy" because you can just continue when you fail and eventually you'll make it through all the instadeath traps in the dungeon stage no problem, but when making it through a game that's so much longer than most other Castlevania games without running out of lives is actually quite challenging, it's not fair to call it an easy game. If it were easy you wouldn't run out of lives.

Edited September 9, 2021 by Sumez

[Estil | 1,265]

7 hours ago, Alder said:

Case in point: Ikari Warriors with the ABBA code VS without 

I couldn't even get past the first level (I don't think I was even close; it seemed to go forever!) and I didn't even know about the code that Gives You, Gives You More Lives After Dying...won't this code help me chase the Game Over away?  

PS: Isn't Frida's faces/gestures in this video off the charts adorable?   

[zeppelin03 | 314]

21 hours ago, CMR said:

In 3D games pop up isn't that big of a deal.  Most of the time I barely notice it, but for some reason other people, especially game journos, act like the whole game is ruined from the least little bit.

I am not a fan of short draw distances in games.  Watching grass magically appear in front of me or vehicles pop in breaks the experience.  

[Estil | 1,265]

8 minutes ago, zeppelin03 said:

I am not a fan of short draw distances in games.  Watching grass magically appear in front of me or vehicles pop in breaks the experience.  

I take it you mean this as an example right?  You know I was only 15 years old and just graduated middle school in 1995...to think this was mind blowing cutting edge stuff in those days! 

It's a shame Sega killed off the 32X so quickly (as I honestly think it had some interesting potential) and rushed releasing the Saturn into the US.  As for how they put together the US launch of the Saturn:

 

[CMR | 521]

I prefer games with simpler graphics and a high FPS over more realistic games with lower FPS.  I also don't care for a lot of lighting effects or shadows.  Bloom lighting is an evil no one asked for.

 

 

[Tanooki | 4,940]

^^ Funny, I prefer the Genesis version of Virtua Racing.  Made a point of getting it back fast once I had a Nomad(Genesis) once again.  Low poly, plays nice, fun from a minimalist style really.

[cj_robot | 544]

1 hour ago, Estil said:

It's a shame Sega killed off the 32X so quickly (as I honestly think it had some interesting potential) and rushed releasing the Saturn into the US.

The 32X really had nowhere to fit in that market. There were WAY too many platforms still alive in 1994, and with the Saturn, PS1, and N64 on the way, it's demise was inevitable.

But, in an alternate universe where the next gen consoles were still along way away, I think it would have been really cool to see what they could have done with the 32X. Judging by the games we did see, I believe there was definitely some strong potential.

[zeppelin03 | 314]

8 hours ago, Estil said:

I take it you mean this as an example right?  You know I was only 15 years old and just graduated middle school in 1995...to think this was mind blowing cutting edge stuff in those days! 

It's a shame Sega killed off the 32X so quickly (as I honestly think it had some interesting potential) and rushed releasing the Saturn into the US.  As for how they put together the US launch of the Saturn:

 

I'm fine with the fog look of that after playing plenty of N64.  I'm thinking of more current games where you have grass and trees out a hundred feet then it's barren.  That line just moves as you do so you see objects and detail move in continually.  Fallout 4 was good for it.

[docile tapeworm | 4,204]

has anyone said xbox sucks yet?

[BriGuy82 | 777]

1 hour ago, docile tapeworm said:

has anyone said xbox sucks yet?

Never played an xbox, but I'll take your word for it.

[Estil | 1,265]

4 hours ago, zeppelin03 said:

I'm fine with the fog look of that after playing plenty of N64.  I'm thinking of more current games where you have grass and trees out a hundred feet then it's barren.  That line just moves as you do so you see objects and detail move in continually.  Fallout 4 was good for it.

Actually I do find it fascinating how creative game creators get around console limitations.  It even goes as far back as how a chess game on the Atari 2600 was made possible even though only six sprites can be on the same line and of course you need eight sprites/pieces on the same line for chess. How they was able to pull it off is pretty fascinating:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_Chess

[Estil | 1,265]

3 hours ago, docile tapeworm said:

has anyone said xbox sucks yet?

Well the 360 totally bites in terms of reliability    It's like the difference between Tim the Tool Man Taylor's MORE POWER!!! tools versus Al's more practical reliable tools; and consoles like Nintendo's consoles and most other cartridge based ones...

At the end of the day, Al's tools/game consoles still work!  

[zeppelin03 | 314]

1 hour ago, Estil said:

Actually I do find it fascinating how creative game creators get around console limitations.  It even goes as far back as how a chess game on the Atari 2600 was made possible even though only six sprites can be on the same line and of course you need eight sprites/pieces on the same line for chess. How they was able to pull it off is pretty fascinating:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_Chess

I do agree it is interesting how they made it work on older consoles.  Fog, convenient cliffs and walls, etc.

Current AAA tends to do well but when it breaks down you really notice.  I'm still amazed by what Nintendo did with BOTW in the opening scenes.  I think they pulled something special off with limited hardware. 

[zeppelin03 | 314]

5 hours ago, docile tapeworm said:

has anyone said xbox sucks yet?

But I like my Xbox Series X..

It is great for backwards compatibility.  I am playing many 360 enhanced at 4k with AutoHDR.  Looks amazing. 

Sure it doesn't have all the exclusives Playstation has but I think most of those are overrated.

Edited September 10, 2021 by zeppelin03

[noiseredux | 232]

2 hours ago, zeppelin03 said:

But I like my Xbox Series X..

It is great for backwards compatibility.  I am playing many 360 enhanced at 4k with AutoHDR.  Looks amazing. 

Sure it doesn't have all the exclusives Playstation has but I think most of those are overrated.

I always really appreciated the backwards compatability on Xbox One. It's funny, I sold my Xbox One a couple years ago when the game room was taken over by the baby. But, lately I've been thinking I sort of miss it and maybe I should see if I can find one to replace the broken BR player in the living room. Which would be an excuse to have another Xbox One.

At the moment, I don't see a reason to spring for the new Series X. But I will say that even with the lack of exclusives that PS has, Xbox is really the only non-Nintendo consoles that appeal to me now. Wonder how cheap I can find an Xbox One for now that X/S is out?

[Estil | 1,265]

3 hours ago, zeppelin03 said:

Sure it doesn't have all the exclusives Playstation has...

All the more reason I've completely ignored Xbox all this century.  Nintendo and PlayStation has nearly all the worthwhile exclusives, while all Xbox has pretty much is Halo.

Not to mention PS3 onwards has the neat trophy system, while all Xbox gives you is that Night Court in its fifth season lame Gamerscore 

That being said, I would like to someday get an OG Xbox as a MAME/arcade sort of machine; I've heard its most ideal for it?

[Estil | 1,265]

55 minutes ago, noiseredux said:

I sold my Xbox One a couple years ago when the game room was taken over by the baby.

Oooh, one of these kind I hope 

Nah, they'd take over your whole house/apartment  

[Estil | 1,265]

3 hours ago, zeppelin03 said:

I do agree it is interesting how they made it work on older consoles.  Fog, convenient cliffs and walls, etc.

Current AAA tends to do well but when it breaks down you really notice.  I'm still amazed by what Nintendo did with BOTW in the opening scenes.  I think they pulled something special off with limited hardware. 

From PS3 onwards though, there doesn't seem to be hardly any more real "limitations" to speak of.  Hence why there didn't seem to be hardly a dime's worth of difference between PS3/PS4 versions when the PS4 first game out...while in previous console gens the difference was like night and day.  Compare for example, the GC's launch game Luigi's Mansion with the very best looking N64 games.  Or Super Mario World with the very best looking NES games.

[zeppelin03 | 314]

4 hours ago, noiseredux said:

I always really appreciated the backwards compatability on Xbox One. It's funny, I sold my Xbox One a couple years ago when the game room was taken over by the baby. But, lately I've been thinking I sort of miss it and maybe I should see if I can find one to replace the broken BR player in the living room. Which would be an excuse to have another Xbox One.

At the moment, I don't see a reason to spring for the new Series X. But I will say that even with the lack of exclusives that PS has, Xbox is really the only non-Nintendo consoles that appeal to me now. Wonder how cheap I can find an Xbox One for now that X/S is out?

A number of Xbox One games were patched to run better on Series X.  Forza Horizon 4 got a nice bump and runs even better.  That has been a nice way to tide me over while waiting for some next gen games.  It has been worth it for the SSD alone.  I got sick of hard drives early last gen and ran external SSDs.  Its really nice having games load in half the time or less.

I've been tempted to pay the $20 to unlock developer mode.  Then you can run a bunch of emulators too.  I just was a video on Playstation running smoothly at 4k on them with Duckstation.

Edited September 11, 2021 by zeppelin03

[zeppelin03 | 314]

3 hours ago, Estil said:

From PS3 onwards though, there doesn't seem to be hardly any more real "limitations" to speak of.  Hence why there didn't seem to be hardly a dime's worth of difference between PS3/PS4 versions when the PS4 first game out...while in previous console gens the difference was like night and day.  Compare for example, the GC's launch game Luigi's Mansion with the very best looking N64 games.  Or Super Mario World with the very best looking NES games.

I get that the jump from an 8 to 16 bit game or N64 to GC might be big, but I haven't felt like those jumps have stopped.  I remember being impressed by what my PS4 was doing at launch and again with the PS5 and Series X.  I was frustrated with limitations of the last gen for years so its been nice to use these new consoles.  The only frustrating part is needing to invest in a OLED or similar panel to get the most of all those features.