The GHZ Forum

Let's have a poll or something? To garner discussion, I guess.

MYSELF nowadays I mainly play variations on survival horror and western RPGS. I'd also say TBS but I only really play Civ IV.

I like platformers, shooters and action games. Basically, I enjoy anything that requires play skill through direct control of a game character's movement and actions. I've always been less fond of strategy games and other genres for this reason. Also, I'm terrible at fighting games, I generally dislike racers and sports games, and I've become increasingly impatient with RPGs both western and eastern.

Nowadays I'd say I only like good games, even outside my preferred genres. I will give anything a fair chance if it can either present a new idea/concept/innovation regarding gameplay in a competent manner, or polish an established style of gameplay in a way that appeals to me (through nostalgia, simply great design, or whatever else). If a game fails to grab me in the first half-hour to hour (okay, so it's more like 15 minutes) then I'm done.

I've become less patient with platformers lately, sadly. Meanwhile, I still get really excited by the concept of games that combine, subvert, or are outside of genres -- often to the point where once I play the game my expectations are too high and I'm disappointed. I keep buying them anyway, whenever I can.

The only FPS's I've ever thoroughly enjoyed are ones made by Valve. I've played the Halos, the Call of Duties, the Killzones, and the dozens of shooters packed into the spaces between those releases, but the only thing they are good for is short bouts of multiplayer with friends. On the other hand, I generally love third-person shooters. I suspect that this has to do with two things: First, a third-person view, even over-the-shoulder, gives you a wider range of vision and feels more binocular. Second, I think that most third-person shooters (TPS's?) put more thought into level design, and this is also true of Valve's games. In Halo I feel like I'm running around shooting people with no purpose, but, in Gears or Half-Life, I feel like I can use the environment as an advantage.

I'm still in love with Bioware and Bethesda. I love to lose myself in the game world. My only problem has always been that I can never replay such a game because I always feel compelled to make the same choices I made on my first play-through; even though it's a just game, I can't bring myself to do things that aren't in my character. I don't spend a lot of time on the "evil" path.

Platformer, I only tend to play rpgs is they are fun and easy like Superstar saga or Chrono Trigger...

I tend to stick with the action/adventure and platforming genres.

Segaholic2 wrote:I like platformers, shooters and action games. Basically, I enjoy anything that requires play skill through direct control of a game character's movement and actions. I've become increasingly impatient with RPGs both western and eastern.

This. I haven't been too into RPGs in the last couple of years. I managed to finish Superstar Saga, but I can't say I really loved it. I don't think anything will beat The Thousand Year Door (the last RPG I liked through and through). I did get into Grandia not too long ago for its story and attention to detail, but I don't care that much for crawling through dungeons as much as I used to. The fear of getting lost in a dungeon neglects how close the save points are, and I try to play it in bigger chunks of time (which I don't usually have). I'm still going to try to jump back into the Pokemon games when Pokemon Black/White eventually come out.

I can't get into RTS or strategy games, but I enjoy the likes of Risk and chess. (I was digging through the closet the other day and saw a box for Tiberian Sun. I must of bought it at some point and forgot about it. The game wasn't there, so I probably gave it away after trying it).

Racers are good for challenging competitiveness and time trials, which I like both of. Being not much of a gearhead, I can't get into the more sim-like racers like Gran Turismo. F-Zero GX remains one of my all-time favorite games.

I can occasionally get into survival horror (though there really hasn't been much out lately), music, puzzle, shooters, tower defense, and other genres.

Personally I prefer the goatee to the van dyke-- oh wait.

I'm a platformer fan through-and-through. Though the fire is more of a smolder these days. Mario Galaxy got me, but 2 still remains in its shrink-wrap, unfortunately. What I wouldn't give for a sequel to Drill Dozer, though~.

Do games like Mega Man and Cave Story qualify as shooters or are they strictly platformer fair?

I think MegaMan is a platformer, but Cave Story is Action/Adventure. Megaman can't shoot in multiple directions, only has three bullets on screen at a time, and you're more likely to be dropped down a hole by a moving platform or disappearing block than killed by an enemy, and enemies tend to appear one at a time (Compare with Gunstar Heroes, where your attack can take up a huge chunk of the screen, enemies come in waves, and other "shooter" characteristics). Cave Story is a great game, but it draws on its story and setting primarily to make it compelling (ie, making backtracking or fetch quests entertaining), whereas Megaman makes challenging obstacle courses to make it compelling. The difference is that a platformer (or a shooter) emphasizes mechanics but action/adventure emphasizes setting. Obviously there is no game that really fits entirely in one category but they'll be closer to one end of the spectrum than another.

That's reasonable, I guess. I wasn't too confident about putting 'strictly' in there, but people have a tendency to want to neatly jam shit in pigeonholes, even if means grasping onto the thinnest of straws so their totally rad RPG shrine can have Zelda Rinku in it.

gr4yJ4Y wrote:I can occasionally get into survival horror (though there really hasn't been much out lately)

Have you played Alan Wake? It's not strictly the same thing, but it's the closest we've had for awhile. (That Frozen Memories bullshit does NOT count.)

Senbei wrote:I'm still in love with Bioware and Bethesda. I love to lose myself in the game world. My only problem has always been that I can never replay such a game because I always feel compelled to make the same choices I made on my first play-through; even though it's a just game, I can't bring myself to do things that aren't in my character. I don't spend a lot of time on the "evil" path.

Heh, I have a similar problem. I tend to stick to a gray area (i.e. I'll help you defend your town but I have no problem stealing all your shit when you're not looking) and I hate being mean to my crew, whoever they happen to be. Except Kaiden. I had no problem being mean to Kaiden.

It's cuz he was a tool.


I've always wondered what kind of people just naturally do the evil paths.

Sounds like a good poll topic to me.

I play mainly platformers and RPGs. Specifically, Eastern RPGs and Western RPGs that begin with "World" and end in "Warcraft". Eastern RPGs just seem to be more colourful and diverse. In a typical JRPG, you could be battling an octopus in an opera house one moment and within the hour you could be competing in an intergalactic cook-off on the moon. Most Western RPGs, by contrast, take place in muddy versions of Middle Earth and usually spend their time getting you to grind woodland creatures. And once you've seen one muddy Middle Earth forest you've pretty much seen them all. I'm generalising in both cases, of course, and there are dull JRPGs as well as exciting WRPGs, but compare the box art of Morrowind to the box art of Dragon Quest IX and tell me which one is more visually exciting.

I don't play many FPSers. The reason being that, when I play a game, I need either immersion or some kind of interesting game idea to hook me in, and FPS is a genre apparently specifically designed to go against those criteria. First-person is the least immersive perspective, ironically, thanks to the uncanny valley effect and motion sickness caused by a simulated field of vision. And shooting guns, while fun, isn't particularly interesting and oftentimes tedious or repetitive. The first-person games I do enjoy have some kind of interesting twist on the genre; Half-life 2 (gravity gun, pheromone pod, narrative style), Left 4 Dead (teamwork, offensive and defensive strategy, narrative style to a limited extent), Team Fortress 2 (I play Spy and Medic), Metroid Prime 1 (lock-on, scanning, gorgeous art direction), Portal, Mirror's Edge, etc.

I am trying to get into RTS games right now. So far it's going surprisingly well.

Delphine wrote:

gr4yJ4Y wrote:I can occasionally get into survival horror (though there really hasn't been much out lately)

Have you played Alan Wake? It's not strictly the same thing, but it's the closest we've had for awhile. (That Frozen Memories bullshit does NOT count.)

No I haven't. Not having a 360 hinders me from playing it, but I could probably talk my brother into letting me use his (I'm writing this on his laptop right now). I haven't gotten around to Dead Space yet either, which I've been meaning to play.

Don't have a particular genre preference since most games in all of them are crap. Still, I usually end up with 2D fighters and 3D hack 'n slashers. Only racing games I really liked so far are Burnout 3 and Revenge.

I also tend to kill time with some random JRPG instead of watching TV or otherwise doing something productive.

gr4yJ4Y wrote:No I haven't. Not having a 360 hinders me from playing it, but I could probably talk my brother into letting me use his (I'm writing this on his laptop right now). I haven't gotten around to Dead Space yet either, which I've been meaning to play.

Boo. Make him lend it to you. Both games are excellent creepy shit.

MiraiTails wrote:Sounds like a good poll topic to me.

GOOD CALL FRIEND

I am surprised that no one here plays 'Life Sims' ! I used to enjoy a good game of virtual Barbie when I was a wee, effeminate lad.

Perhaps this may change when PPA starts posting again.

Well hey, Harvest Moon was cool. Only really got into the first though.

My interest mainly lies in platformers, action/adventure and JRPGs, particularly those built around strong franchises. Trying differene genres is generally due to said franchises having a spinoff, eg Mario Kart for racing. As for why JRPGs and not Western, refer to Crysis's explanation.

Unfortunately all these genres are not doing so well presently, at least in the sense that the franchises I was attached to have mostly decayed, so much of my gaming in recent years has revolved around older titles I either missed or could play again.

particularly those built around strong franchises. Trying differene genres is generally due to said franchises having a spinoff, eg Mario Kart for racing.

This is the most depressing thing I've read this week. :(

I've mainly been playing platformers (both old and new, such as Mega Man 10, Super Mario Galaxy 2, and the older Mario games) and Konami's Bemani games on the PS2, mainly pop'n music. (Ugly characters notwithstanding.) The only JRPG I've played this year was Final Fantasy XIII, which I lost interest in about 40 minutes - maybe I should continue sometime. I don't play racing games aside from Mario Kart (which I like, other people's opinions on the site notwithstanding. Yes, even Wii), though I did buy Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing, which is one of two or three non-Mario Kart racing games I've ever bought. I don't play most puzzle games aside from Puyo Puyo, and I never play shooters. I got about halfway through Bayonetta before my brother's friend took it back, and I never bothered to buy it.

I haven't really been playing video games much recently, though. My brother and I went back and played Mario Party 1 and 2 last week, which is the most I've played in months. Even Super Mario Galaxy 2 has barely been touched by me since I bought it..

Green Gibbon! wrote:

particularly those built around strong franchises. Trying differene genres is generally due to said franchises having a spinoff, eg Mario Kart for racing.

This is the most depressing thing I've read this week. :(

Relax, I didn't play Mario Kart that much.

Seriously though, 'generally' is the operative word. Different incentives include the usual developer's reputation, friend's recommendation or just plain hype.