The "Sony Games" forum, which includes Retro Game Reviews, has been archived and is now read-only. You cannot post here or create a new thread or review on this forum.
Things developers have forgotten:
When thinking back to older games sometimes you realise a great feature that has somehow been forgotten about in newer titles.
Maybe it's just me but I can't remember being able to shoot guns out of people's hands since the original Perfect Dark on the N64. With the Havoc engine featuring heavily across a fair-few titles this would seem to be the perfect use for it, I wonder why this sort of advancement has slipped by and been forgotten about?
Further more: why don't we have extra lives in things anymore? Why do we have to have dumbed down checkpoint systems instead of a decent lives system?
I'd really like to play a version of Halo that has scores like Serious Sam and multiple combo bonuses and style bonuses and above all: lives instead of checkpoints. It'd be more satisfying knowing that proper skillful play reaps rewards.
I suppose this is what achievements are for: to put the challenge back into games for those who want it and don't want a checkpoint or autosave every ten feet during play.
Bring it on I say: I want achievements for finishing levels without continuing, ending fights with stylish manouvers or brutal tactics and I want the game to push me into playing through it multiple ways (oooh imagine Deus Ex with some nice achievements where you get one for each faction you help achieve world domination: nice!)
Saint's Row currently has some nice ones hidden away where you have to fully complete all the levels of non-essential mini-games which looks like a fairly decent challenge. But the best achievements I have seen have to be the ones found in Hitman: Bloodmoney. They are spread out across the entire game: meaning you can't just skip through to the harder difficulty settings to get to the decent challenges (COD2 I'm looking at you here). In Hitman you get the most out of the game by methodically working through each difficulty, learning the level a bit more each time so you can progress better on the harder settings and the achievements are setup perfectly to do this making it a great example of how developers can use achievements to make sure players get the most out of their title and play it the way it was made to be played.
But then there are the poor and downright LAZY achievements that developers put into their games like 'collect 100 hidden icons', now while in something slow-paced like Oblivion a few hidden things (with hints to where they are) will encourage a bit of exploration, and closer examination of surroundings, on a more linear game like TombRaider or Far Cry it's just a chore that breaks up the action and will ultimately lead to the search for a walkthrough. These achievements do not require much skill, they just require a lot of trial and error and a lot of pacing about: Dull.
It's this lack of challenge that has me worried about developer's approach to the Wii, are we simply going to be challenged by a few difficulty settings or will the controller allow enough detailed movement to allow developers to put some hard to perform moves in there for those after a challenge? I hope every game doesn't just turn out to be a cakewalk with a new control system or simply rely on the same old 'up the difficulty' routine - there need to be subtle nuances that enable some killer moves to be performed by the very deft whilst not making it impossible for someone less skilled to compete aswell (a bit like how the better beat 'em up titles are setup).
So what good ideas do you want brought back from the gaming abyss and what type of achievements would you like to see developers put in their games?
When thinking back to older games sometimes you realise a great feature that has somehow been forgotten about in newer titles.
Maybe it's just me but I can't remember being able to shoot guns out of people's hands since the original Perfect Dark on the N64. With the Havoc engine featuring heavily across a fair-few titles this would seem to be the perfect use for it, I wonder why this sort of advancement has slipped by and been forgotten about?
Further more: why don't we have extra lives in things anymore? Why do we have to have dumbed down checkpoint systems instead of a decent lives system?
I'd really like to play a version of Halo that has scores like Serious Sam and multiple combo bonuses and style bonuses and above all: lives instead of checkpoints. It'd be more satisfying knowing that proper skillful play reaps rewards.
I suppose this is what achievements are for: to put the challenge back into games for those who want it and don't want a checkpoint or autosave every ten feet during play.
Bring it on I say: I want achievements for finishing levels without continuing, ending fights with stylish manouvers or brutal tactics and I want the game to push me into playing through it multiple ways (oooh imagine Deus Ex with some nice achievements where you get one for each faction you help achieve world domination: nice!)
Saint's Row currently has some nice ones hidden away where you have to fully complete all the levels of non-essential mini-games which looks like a fairly decent challenge. But the best achievements I have seen have to be the ones found in Hitman: Bloodmoney. They are spread out across the entire game: meaning you can't just skip through to the harder difficulty settings to get to the decent challenges (COD2 I'm looking at you here). In Hitman you get the most out of the game by methodically working through each difficulty, learning the level a bit more each time so you can progress better on the harder settings and the achievements are setup perfectly to do this making it a great example of how developers can use achievements to make sure players get the most out of their title and play it the way it was made to be played.
But then there are the poor and downright LAZY achievements that developers put into their games like 'collect 100 hidden icons', now while in something slow-paced like Oblivion a few hidden things (with hints to where they are) will encourage a bit of exploration, and closer examination of surroundings, on a more linear game like TombRaider or Far Cry it's just a chore that breaks up the action and will ultimately lead to the search for a walkthrough. These achievements do not require much skill, they just require a lot of trial and error and a lot of pacing about: Dull.
It's this lack of challenge that has me worried about developer's approach to the Wii, are we simply going to be challenged by a few difficulty settings or will the controller allow enough detailed movement to allow developers to put some hard to perform moves in there for those after a challenge? I hope every game doesn't just turn out to be a cakewalk with a new control system or simply rely on the same old 'up the difficulty' routine - there need to be subtle nuances that enable some killer moves to be performed by the very deft whilst not making it impossible for someone less skilled to compete aswell (a bit like how the better beat 'em up titles are setup).
So what good ideas do you want brought back from the gaming abyss and what type of achievements would you like to see developers put in their games?
*Not for 360*
Try getting a lap time under 1:16:00 for the "Outer Ring" circuit track on Need for Speed: Underground 2.
Try getting a lap time under 1:16:00 for the "Outer Ring" circuit track on Need for Speed: Underground 2.
*Beat Baal with just one level 1000 character out on the map*
Now that's damn near impossible :-D
Now that's damn near impossible :-D
Those achievements are just about grinding though.
They're just flashier versions of achievements such as 'achieve 1000 kills' in Perfect Dark.
I'd rather have ones based upon skillful play and not just ones gained for slogging through the game or simply being persistant.
They're just flashier versions of achievements such as 'achieve 1000 kills' in Perfect Dark.
I'd rather have ones based upon skillful play and not just ones gained for slogging through the game or simply being persistant.
I'd like to see the achievements for a Disgaea 2 game
*10 players all at level 9999*
*Laharl must have an ATK stat of over 15 million*
:-D
*10 players all at level 9999*
*Laharl must have an ATK stat of over 15 million*
:-D
If you want challenging achievements play FFXI. I've been playing nearly 3 years and currently have one job at level 41.
Official achievements include having 18 jobs at level 75, something only a handful of people in the world have attained.
Official achievements include having 18 jobs at level 75, something only a handful of people in the world have attained.
Things developers have forgotten:
When thinking back to older games sometimes you realise a great feature that has somehow been forgotten about in newer titles.
Maybe it's just me but I can't remember being able to shoot guns out of people's hands since the original Perfect Dark on the N64. With the Havoc engine featuring heavily across a fair-few titles this would seem to be the perfect use for it, I wonder why this sort of advancement has slipped by and been forgotten about?
Further more: why don't we have extra lives in things anymore? Why do we have to have dumbed down checkpoint systems instead of a decent lives system?
I'd really like to play a version of Halo that has scores like Serious Sam and multiple combo bonuses and style bonuses and above all: lives instead of checkpoints. It'd be more satisfying knowing that proper skillful play reaps rewards.
I suppose this is what achievements are for: to put the challenge back into games for those who want it and don't want a checkpoint or autosave every ten feet during play.
Bring it on I say: I want achievements for finishing levels without continuing, ending fights with stylish manouvers or brutal tactics and I want the game to push me into playing through it multiple ways (oooh imagine Deus Ex with some nice achievements where you get one for each faction you help achieve world domination: nice!)
Saint's Row currently has some nice ones hidden away where you have to fully complete all the levels of non-essential mini-games which looks like a fairly decent challenge. But the best achievements I have seen have to be the ones found in Hitman: Bloodmoney. They are spread out across the entire game: meaning you can't just skip through to the harder difficulty settings to get to the decent challenges (COD2 I'm looking at you here). In Hitman you get the most out of the game by methodically working through each difficulty, learning the level a bit more each time so you can progress better on the harder settings and the achievements are setup perfectly to do this making it a great example of how developers can use achievements to make sure players get the most out of their title and play it the way it was made to be played.
But then there are the poor and downright LAZY achievements that developers put into their games like 'collect 100 hidden icons', now while in something slow-paced like Oblivion a few hidden things (with hints to where they are) will encourage a bit of exploration, and closer examination of surroundings, on a more linear game like TombRaider or Far Cry it's just a chore that breaks up the action and will ultimately lead to the search for a walkthrough. These achievements do not require much skill, they just require a lot of trial and error and a lot of pacing about: Dull.
It's this lack of challenge that has me worried about developer's approach to the Wii, are we simply going to be challenged by a few difficulty settings or will the controller allow enough detailed movement to allow developers to put some hard to perform moves in there for those after a challenge? I hope every game doesn't just turn out to be a cakewalk with a new control system or simply rely on the same old 'up the difficulty' routine - there need to be subtle nuances that enable some killer moves to be performed by the very deft whilst not making it impossible for someone less skilled to compete aswell (a bit like how the better beat 'em up titles are setup).
So what good ideas do you want brought back from the gaming abyss and what type of achievements would you like to see developers put in their games?
When thinking back to older games sometimes you realise a great feature that has somehow been forgotten about in newer titles.
Maybe it's just me but I can't remember being able to shoot guns out of people's hands since the original Perfect Dark on the N64. With the Havoc engine featuring heavily across a fair-few titles this would seem to be the perfect use for it, I wonder why this sort of advancement has slipped by and been forgotten about?
Further more: why don't we have extra lives in things anymore? Why do we have to have dumbed down checkpoint systems instead of a decent lives system?
I'd really like to play a version of Halo that has scores like Serious Sam and multiple combo bonuses and style bonuses and above all: lives instead of checkpoints. It'd be more satisfying knowing that proper skillful play reaps rewards.
I suppose this is what achievements are for: to put the challenge back into games for those who want it and don't want a checkpoint or autosave every ten feet during play.
Bring it on I say: I want achievements for finishing levels without continuing, ending fights with stylish manouvers or brutal tactics and I want the game to push me into playing through it multiple ways (oooh imagine Deus Ex with some nice achievements where you get one for each faction you help achieve world domination: nice!)
Saint's Row currently has some nice ones hidden away where you have to fully complete all the levels of non-essential mini-games which looks like a fairly decent challenge. But the best achievements I have seen have to be the ones found in Hitman: Bloodmoney. They are spread out across the entire game: meaning you can't just skip through to the harder difficulty settings to get to the decent challenges (COD2 I'm looking at you here). In Hitman you get the most out of the game by methodically working through each difficulty, learning the level a bit more each time so you can progress better on the harder settings and the achievements are setup perfectly to do this making it a great example of how developers can use achievements to make sure players get the most out of their title and play it the way it was made to be played.
But then there are the poor and downright LAZY achievements that developers put into their games like 'collect 100 hidden icons', now while in something slow-paced like Oblivion a few hidden things (with hints to where they are) will encourage a bit of exploration, and closer examination of surroundings, on a more linear game like TombRaider or Far Cry it's just a chore that breaks up the action and will ultimately lead to the search for a walkthrough. These achievements do not require much skill, they just require a lot of trial and error and a lot of pacing about: Dull.
It's this lack of challenge that has me worried about developer's approach to the Wii, are we simply going to be challenged by a few difficulty settings or will the controller allow enough detailed movement to allow developers to put some hard to perform moves in there for those after a challenge? I hope every game doesn't just turn out to be a cakewalk with a new control system or simply rely on the same old 'up the difficulty' routine - there need to be subtle nuances that enable some killer moves to be performed by the very deft whilst not making it impossible for someone less skilled to compete aswell (a bit like how the better beat 'em up titles are setup).
So what good ideas do you want brought back from the gaming abyss and what type of achievements would you like to see developers put in their games?