Edge Issue 136 *Official Thread*

[spagmasterswift]

Last two issues have been good, got me reading cover to cover again. If they continue like this I shall still buy it. Terrible cover though...

[Saurian]

I fail to see how anyone can't fall in love with this game. I had a couple of mates come around the other week, who play nothing but Pro Evolution 3, so I stuck Psyvariar 2 on. 3 hours later, we were still trying to pwn Earth as Buzz Type

Same as that man!

My friends that pass round for games play nothing but VF4 Evo usually but now psyvariar 2 is always the first game to go on. Even get heads phoning up with "Bruv! Let me pass down and watch Psyvariar 2!"

The reason I love the game so much is this: I'm a lot of shoot em ups (even highly regarded ones surprisingly) there is not enough variety or even thought in the enemy shots. Enemy shots are the key to the gameplay in a shmup, they are more than just blobs that home in on you. Stages in shmups where the player has to keep "leading" the aim of the enemies to stay ahead of and avoid the shots imo are very boring and tactically too simple. The shot patterns in Psyvariar 2 are absolutely superb, there is a lot of tactical depth in every enemy setup with shot colours and neutrino bar colour determining the rate of your shield. Enemies dont simply shoot at you, enemies appear in sets and you have to work out a routine for each set - every time a set comes up you can repeat the tactic. I feel shmups are made on their shot patterns, what I've seen in this game is genius - especially stage 6, I've never seen anything like it before in any game.

Psyvariar 2 makes you work with the enemy shots and the way they are orchestrated always allows you to deal with any attack using the system you have and also the freedom use your own style. It teaches you how to attack shot patterns rather than avoid them, after a while when you get the feel for how close you can get to the enemies b4 they attack a whole new gameplay style of buzzing attacks at point blank opens up - this suicidal souding gameplay system is so stable that once used to it you can do even the sickest sections without watching the Neutrino bar at all and no chance of death. Another thing I dont like is when games have a set way you have to do something - there is no set way to do anything in Psyvariar 2, every player's stage routine I have seen are completely different, the scores might be the same but the method isnt. Different stages offer different style of Buzz gameplay, stage 2 for example is totally different to all others as you have to control the enemies - or stage 3 where you have to keep the Neutrino blue as you work you way around a course of your own creation in order to kill the enemies at the right moment too.

Then there's the bosses.... I dont have in me to write that much technique up! Anyway it's my fave shoot em up of all time, wasnt sure at first but now I'm certain.

[Bleeders]

Good issue again this month.

Particularly enjoyed the Kojima interview and of course, Nagoshi's column.

[Geoff D]

I particularly enjoyed the Kojima interview - he's not fond of the Japanese gaming press now, is he...

[Ady]

Yup, it looks like the Edge I used to enjoy reading is back.

As others have opined, the Kojima interview was great. Pretty candid and personal, and very 'human'. We need to see more interviews with developers like this.

I was also fascinated by the Chernobyl FPS article.

The cover did make me go "Oh Please!", but it's not really a big deal. Edge of old would've done it, and it does its job (ie gets you talking). Still couldn't care less for all this NextGen guff though but that's just me.

Biffo's article was amusing, but I felt RedEye didn't really back his point up with anything concrete. It was mostly flowery language. I didn't agree with what he was saying, but (as is usually the case with RedEye) I was waiting for something that would at least make me think but it never came. Ho hum.

More when I've read more.

[Lebowski]

I live with three other people who I could play with though, so I'd need at least two for them to join in, wouldn't I?

you can play one of the modes in one player were you controll the other links, or you can have your mates drop in and join in at any point during your quest. it sounds like its what FF crystal cronicals should of played like cant wait...

[Alf-Life]

Yeah, I really enjoyed the Kojima interview. However, is it just me or does MGS3's camo "system" just seem like a rip-off of Splinter Cell's light/dark meter only with the added need to adjust camouflages manually?

[mid]

sed s/Splinter Cell/Thief

[Pirotic]

"the console war is over"

no matter how you look at the XDA story, they have no excuse for that cover title other than to grab sales on a false pretense.

[HaHaUK]

Also have to admit, the MGS3 feauture was great. Cant wait for the game! . Also, whats up with Nintendo, arent they releasing any new games as Edge had no gamecube/gba games on TestScreen.

[Ish]

Yeah that cover sucked. As did the whole XNA piece I thought. There seems to have been a lot of promotion and coverage of XNA (not just by Edge) when really there's no content to report.

The Kojima interview - I didn't enjoy at all. Maybe I was in the wrong frame of mind when I read it but it all seemed rather pretentious. I'll reread though.

The Stalker preview - I was pleased to see that the preview code got a bit of a kicking in the AI stakes (though they did let themselves down a bit later on by backing away from the criticality I thought). I'm really fed up of previews that are just free marketing that glosses over the negatives (usually not mentioning them at all) instead going for boundless enthusiasm. And its not just Edge that gets my goat with this: all the mags seem to do it.

In general I thought it like last months was a really good read. Definetly seems to be finding its feet again.

I think they need a shake up of columnists though. The Steven Poole and Red Eye columns feel very tired now, and Nagoshi is becoming far less entertaining than he was. I guess there's only so much you can say!

[Alf-Life]

I thought differently; I felt the 'pretensiousness' of Kojima was a little false, as though he's really a polite guy but puts on that false pretention to act like some egotistical Hollywood director (see: Tarantino :P).

(Actually, Tarantino's "if I wanted computer **** I'd stick my dick in a Nintendo" was a bit... well, he used cgi for the bullet effect, and he could have benefitted with CG or at least better fx for the top of Oren's head. Although, maybe it was intended to be like that... I dunno I'm not enough into Kung Fu films to know if it was a parody/homage.)
I digress.

Anyway, yeah I also agree with the columns. TrigHap has been bearable but slowly declining, but RedEye has totally lost it over the last year - they've all been a bit crap tbh. And I don't mind Nagoshi, although I loved the stuff he wrote about GTA, so I'd be well interested in more opinions from him on how Japanese developers view Western games.

[markgreyam]

What do people think of Edge nowadays?

i like the magazine style, and they always have enough interesting content and overall game info to keep me buying it, but unfortunately it still reeks of pretentiousness as it has from pretty much day one. they try to deny their mild xbox fanboyism and ps2 dislike, but they just blatantly lie when doing so.

also, and they have done this from day one, they make what i regard as one of the biggest sins in game reviewing, and thats that they put a lot of weight on what they think is missing from a game, as opposed to what the game actually contains. ill never forget one of their early reviews, which was of Doom, and they only gave it a 6 and said that it would be more interesting "if you could talk to the enemies, create alliances etc".

i mean seriously, take your head out of your ass often at all?!?!? youre talking about a balls-out first person action game about a portal to hell being opened and all manner of demons spewing forth to rip humanity to shreds, and youre being harsh on the game because you cant talk to them?

but then, this is just part of the pretentiousness that i speak of. you cant review a game on what you think should be in it, you review it on what it contains. saying that about Doom is pretty much giving an action FPS game low marks because its not an RPG. bad, bad reviewing.

and its continued right up to Halo getting 10/10. that game has the most non existent level design ever, and im currently playing Breakdown. sure, I regard Halo as a horribly over-rated game anyway, but you cant honestly tell me that with the generic weapons, shocking level design, slow gameplay, and about nothing else going for it other than excellent vehicles, that its worth full marks. methinks they played co-op like everyone else and went 'OMG BEST GAME EVAR'

but then again, they do talk a lot about the international gaming scene, especially import style games and stuff, which i used to not understand the logic in doing, until i purchased modded xbox/ps2s so i still cant help but make the purchase each month.

[superkully]

They said that about Doom? If you can host a scan I'd like to see that with my own eyes, that comment seems completely out of character for Edge (or any other magazine pretending to have an ounce of intelligence).

I've taken your comments with a larger helping of salt after your comments about Halo, what do you mean no level design? Were you expecting a virtual corridor a la MOH: Rising Sun?

[mid]

They did indeed say that about Doom, and thoroughly ridiculed themselves for doing so in both the monthly look-back column and in the Retro reviews compilation special. Classic case of not getting the game the reviewer wanted, but you see that in several places; not least this month's Psyvariar 2 review where they complain that it lacks longevity just because its a proper shooter without silly extras to unlock.

But then the number of 'mainstream' mags that beat up Rez for being linear and only having 5 levels isn't exactly small either.