I played the demo and watched my brother play through some part in the main game for an hour, and yeah, it looks great. I'll be starting it soon.
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One game I'm currently playing through Skyward Sword, and wow, people shit on the motion controls way too much. Sure, they're
a little clunky sometimes, but given what it is and what you have to work with, they work
pretty dang well. It took a couple hours to get used to the combat, but I'm pretty good at it now. I actually find the combat extremely fun. My only criticisms are that the diagonal strikes seem to be more difficult to pull off for whatever reason, and that you can't attack while running, which feels like a noticeable downgrade from Twilight Princess.
I've completed the first dungeon so far, and I really like the format they're going for: longer pre-dungeon stuff. It feels far more like an adventure, whereas I found that in older Zelda games, the pre-dungeon stuff was just shallow padding as a means of establishing some kind of setting really quickly before shoving you right into the puzzle solving segments. That being said, I appreciate dungeons now more than I did when I was younger - when I was younger, I would always kinda groan when I got to a dungeon and wanted to get them over with quickly - which could be in part due to the fact that the longer pre-dungeon segments in Skyward Sword allow you to build up the anticipation to start craving whatever dungeon lies ahead.
Regarding the first dungeon though, I've gotta say, that boss was way too hard for a first boss. His attacks require retardedly precise timing to avoid, and you need to be in the right position and react pretty quickly in order to even land a hit - this was more of a Dark Link-type fight (which usually come near the end of the game). The first phase was also cryptic as fuck and took me dying almost three times before I figured out what to do. I also hate it when games don't replenish your shit when you die - it's as if they're thinking "oh, you had trouble beating this boss on your first try? Well now on your second try you have no fairies and your shield is broken, have fun!"
The music and artwork are
fucking phenomenal. Not that the previous Zelda games' weren't, but they've taken it a step up here. That track that plays when you're chasing Fi to the temple on the first night, for instance, was positively awe-inspiring.
This probably goes up there with the other Zelda games for me: amazing, and I can hardly decide which one I like best. I think the reason I usually say that Twilight Princess is my favourite is because Midna is hot, and it's the only game that didn't focus on trying something totally new. Ocarina was the first 3D game and thus, while being outstanding, does (only mildly) suffer from first-time syndrome, Wind Waker had the boring ocean shit and was generally very easy, and Skyward has some a few minor questionable design choices, and the motion controls (I admit they're unnecessary - there's nothing I've seen so far regarding the combat that couldn't have been done with a controller), whereas Twilight Princess was just an amazingly polished experience (level design, combat, etc), in addition to having rich and deep environments and atmosphere.
Of course, I still have to beat the other 6/7 of Skyward Sword to really tell. It's looking to be a really long game.
Also, for note, I don't really consider Majora's Mask a mainline Zelda title (hence why I didn't include it in the list) due to how different the flow of the game is.
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The other game I'm currently playing through (under Keane's mEgAvision) is the original Half-Life, and wow, from the moment I started, I understood why it was considered one of the greatest games of all time. The level design feels so fresh and creative, even nowadays; I can only imagine how amazing this game must've seemed in 1998. All the laboratory environments, the destruction effects, the comical gore, it's so well done. I'm right near the end of the game in the alien home world right now, and it's crazy how much time and effort they put into it. entirely new assets, enemies and challenges, while still pushing you to your limits in terms of making use of every skill you've honed prior. Another thing - and this is incredibly rare for a game to pull off - is that I still find myself using
every single weapon among the 20 or so you have by this point.
-- BEAR IN MIND: Everything you're about to read is being played on the hardest difficulty, and I'm aware developers often don't really test their hardest difficulties --
The only thing about the game that feels dated to me is combat against the humans/military. It's sort of clunky, and, unlike when you're fighting the aliens, there doesn't seem to be any real strategy that goes into it. The fights usually cumulate to hiding and throwing grenades or setting mines. Alternatively, you can use a dominant exploit I found within the first few minutes of fighting them: if you peek out from behind some cover very slowly, you can get a clear shot in at their heads and they won't even see you. Enemies don't react to other enemies being killed either, so you can take out an entire platoon by just standing in one spot basically.
Oh yeah, and then there are the random ninjas that show up at like two spots in the game: shit enemies. They're basically like the military except they run ten times as fast, their shots are like one-hit kill, and they're
literally invisible.
I've also only ever been at 100% health at two very brief points in the game. The vast majority of the time I'm somewhere between like 2 and 30, which I actually like a lot (it makes everything super tense!!) except when you're fighting the fucking ninjas where like just fuck off.
But yeah, alien combat? Phenomenal. Dodging the vortigaunts' attacks and then double-barrel-shotgunning them in the eye(?) is ridiculously satisfying.