Less Than Daily

v 4.03: proof if needed that not all roleplayers lead interesting lives

Spidey2

I went to see Spiderman2 on Friday (Claire fell asleep halfway through…!)

As well, I’ve been playing the Spidey2 ps2 game a lot.

It’s just Great fun being Spiderman, swinging through the city, leaping from rooftop to rooftop, and diving off skyscrapers, plummeting earthwards and casting a web line at the last second.

It’s SO much fun swinging around, that I don’t know how the real Spiderman finds time to actually save people in distress.

I guess that’s why he’s a hero, and I’m not. (Other contributing factors: He has superpowers, he lives in a city populated by supervillains, and I’d have to move somewhere with taller buildings … swinging down Sandbach high Street would just be plain embarrassing).

But playing the game, I feel just like Spidey 🙂

Here’s what some Passing Idiots had to say:

  1. PickledPixie avatar
    PickledPixie

    A licensed game which is great, who’d have thought? It really is good.

    Reply
  2. PrinceGaz avatar
    PrinceGaz

    Just a pity the PC version is supposed to suck. A different developer wrote it to that which made the PS2, GC and XB versions. Apparently you can’t freely swing around the city like in the other versions which totally ruins it. In this case they should have saved some money and just ported the XB version as thats a trivial task.

    Not many skyscrapers in Sandbach eh? Well you could always patrol Crewe. Come to think of it I don’t recall there being many there either 🙂

    Reply
  3. PickledPixie avatar
    PickledPixie

    It’s a different game? OMG that sucks. Still it’s not a FPS or RTS, they’re the only games released for PC aren’t they?

    Reply
  4. PrinceGaz avatar
    PrinceGaz

    Heh, while theres a lot of FPS and RTS games for the PC, nah lets be honest, its swamped with them, the PC game sector still has by far the most diversity if you steer clear of the big-name releases and do a little digging.

    Reply
  5. PickledPixie avatar
    PickledPixie

    If you did a little digging on the console side of things you’d realise the diversity that side too.

    Reply
  6. Fluffy avatar
    Fluffy

    Whenever I seem to try digging on the console side.. I seem to unearth a load of crap 🙂

    Not that I’m saying there isn’t a lot of crap for the pc either.. but.. meh, I’ve been more often happily surprised by how good a pc game is.

    Fluffy

    Reply
  7. PickledPixie avatar
    PickledPixie

    When you realise how crap PC games are generally, you’re more likely to be surprised when one good one actually appears. I agree with you Fluff.

    Reply
  8. PrinceGaz avatar
    PrinceGaz

    When you have a decent gaming PC, you’ll realise how crap console games are in comparison to the latest best PC titles. Is ‘EverQuest Online Adventures’ a lot better than the PC version then?

    Reply
  9. PickledPixie avatar
    PickledPixie

    I have a decent gaming PC thanks. If you are going to base your reasoning on totally false assumptions then you’d be wise to stop now, you’re not up to it.

    Console games are not ‘crap’ in comparison to the latest best (like how you use the word best there) are. You don’t have a console, you have a PC and thus your experience of just what is out there is woefully lacking in the factual department. Since I have both a PC and a console I can see what’s available for both.

    I’ve never played EverQuest Online Adventures, it’s a totally different game. Similar but different from EverQuest, with lessons learnt from the PC version. Is it a lot better? I don’t know and I’m not going to assume I know enough about it to form an opinion since I haven’t played it, that’s the domain of uninformed fanboys.

    Reply
  10. PrinceGaz avatar
    PrinceGaz

    Just because I don’t own any of the big three consoles doesn’t mean I haven’t seen a selection of the games available for them, either in person or on countless episodes of Gamezville etc. I am interested in console games, if only to see what the competition is up to smile

    Perhaps the problem is that the TV at Blackpool where I’m exposed to them for the longest period at a time, hasn’t a very good picture and its sound is even worse. The games brought may not represent the best of the genre, or be played in modes which don’t show off their strengths at all– the SP campaign in Halo (XB) is presumably a lot better than the distinctly underwhelming MP mode.

    Console games at their best are very good, GTA3 (PS2) is a great game I’m sure everyone would agree. Gameplay is fantastic, sound is superb, graphics are… well it is a console after all and theres a limit to what can be done with 640×480 or so. The PC version of GTA3 kept all its strengths and improved the graphics slightly (though not as much as they should have) making it a better game overall. SSX3 (PS2) is another superb game that really shows what can be done, and to the best of my knowledge is unmatched by any PC game in that field.

    The two big handicaps consoles have when up against the PC, are the display and the controller. I’m sorry but theres no way a game with a resolution of at best 640×480 being played on a television, even a good large screen or HDTV model, can match the quality of modern PC games running at high resolutions with advanced filtering. The difference isn’t just cosmetic either, the higher resolution allows for far more information to be presented allowing for more in-depth gameplay for games that need that kind of thing.

    And then theres the controller. With very few exceptions, console games are made to be played using a gamepad. That doesn’t mean a gamepad would be the controller of choice for all those games in an ideal world, far from it, but its what you end up using to play the vast majority of them. With the exception of simulation type games (where movement is generally a combination of adjusting direction and altering speed), a keyboard and mouse is far more flexible and allows for faster more accurate movements than is possible with a gamepad.

    At the end of the day it all comes down to the games. There are a lot more PC games released than there are for all the consoles put together. There are also a much greater percentage of crap PC games than there are for any of the big three consoles (due to the lower basic cost of publishing a PC title). But the very best PC games if played on up-to-date hardware are, with only the odd exception, superior to anything similar available for any of the consoles.

    Reply
  11. PickledPixie avatar
    PickledPixie

    A previous post you said you had to dig to find out about PC games and then you go say your ‘vast’ experience of console games is Blackpool and Gamezville (hey spell it with a ‘z’, that’ll make it appeal to kidz). Gamezville only shows the ‘big’ gamez (sorry, games) so the diversity and the greatness of the more obscure/non-massmarket gamez (I must stop that 🙂 ) aren’t experienced by you.

    The PC version of GTA3 lost in the control department, it is shockingly bad compared to the PS2 version. For a game like GTA, control is the be all and end all. So the PC version is much worse than the PS2 version for me and many others.

    You seem to be arguing that graphics = quality. Graphics = graphics. They are part of a game and that’s all. Would Tetris be improved with graphics? No, of course not, gameplay is all that matters.

    You’ve mentioned the keyboard and mouse being the ‘ultimate’ control method for games and I disagree, controllers are evolving all the time whilst keyboards and mice (is that the same plural for a PC mouse?) are … not. Stick a PS2 controller in your hand and it fits wonderfully, sit anyway you like, lay down of the floor if you life, you have all the functionality still. You’ll not see that from watching Gamezville though. People who have been using the mouse and keyboard control method for decades may not be able to cope with a change to a vastly improved control method but that is their loss for being unable to adapt.

    Yes at the end of the day it does come down to the games. For RTS and FPS get a PC (for now) for diversity, get a console. The very best games are for consoles, fact. (Saying fact doesn’t make it any more so but why not, people giving opinion and pretending it is fact is what seems to be the thing to do these days :))

    Reply
  12. mcphee avatar
    mcphee

    I’ve got a ps2 and a pc

    I play the ps2 a lot.
    I use the pc for the internet, and occasional games.

    Pixie is right about GTA3, it sucked on the pc, because it lost it’s intuitive controls.

    The pc might be able to display better graphics … but .. only on a monitor ..

    If I had to chose between playing on a 17 inch monitor, or my HUGE widescreen tv … there’s just no competition.

    It’s not about which system is technically better, or can display more pixels, or can process more information, it’s about the game.

    To me that means the overall gaming experience.

    My ps2 has a HUGE widescreen telly, an intuitive comfortable controller, I don’t have to sit right next to the screen, and the games are designed for my EXACT set up, so the game runs for me Exactly the same as it does for Pixie, and Bowch, and Claire, and etc etc.

    On the pc I’ve got Everquest, Star Wars Galaxies, City of Heroes, and Worms installed.
    I no longer play Everquest, Star Wars Galaxies, City of Heroes, or Worms.

    To me the pc just doesn’t work as a gaming machine.

    I know general consensus is that the pc is better for FPS, but not for me, Socom 2 on the ps2 is the only online FPS I’ve ever liked .. the controls are intuitive, easy to master, and .. well they work.

    Games like the Sims work better on pc
    Online games.. I don’t think there’s much difference, keyboards are available for typing on both systems, headsets for talking, personally I’d rather play EQ on the pc, there’s SO much typing involved, that it helps to have one hand free. But how many games require a lot of typing?

    Tonight when I get home, I’ll play some Spidey2 on my ps2, join my Socom2 clan in kicking some terrorist ass on my ps2, play a bit of Need for Speed Underground on my ps2, and mebbe a game or two of Fifa04 on my ps2, my current games of choice. I’ll do all this whilst lounging comfortably on my bed, a couple of meters from the screen.

    On my pc I’ll check my emails, and chat to Pixie / Mojo / whoever is around. I mean to play Everquest at some point this week, mainly to catch up with mates I haven’t spoken to in a while. I’ll do this sat in the computer chair, at most two feet from the screen.

    Then I’ll go to bed and watch my Press Gang Series 1 dvd on my Huge widescreen tv… through my ps2, pausing it if needed with my ps2 dvd remote.

    In conclusion:
    pc’s: word processing
    consoles: gaming experience

    Reply
  13. Bowch avatar
    Bowch

    Well, pretty much all points have been covered. And it seems that Pixie, mcphee and Fluff feel that console games on a broad level have the edge over PC games. I’ve got a fairly shit-hot PC, an XBox, a PS2 and a Gamecube. And at various stages over the last couple of years or so I’ve played quite a few games on each format. I have GTA3 and Vice City for PC, PS2 and XBox and must admit that the PC version is clearly outshone by the PS2 version, which is similarly outshone by the XBox version. WWE Smackdown series on the PS2 are by far the best wrestling games I’ve ever played. I have Need For Speed Underground on both the PC and the XBox; I’ve played it briefly on the XBox but played it to death on the PC, and completed it; using a Sidewinder pad on my PC and a PS2 pad on my dad’s PC. I’ve played Quake 3 on both the PC and PS2 and it frankly sucks on the PS2; I’ve never, ever found an FPS I liked on any console; including Goldeneye and Perfect Dark on the N64. Give me a PC and any of the following: Painkiller, the whole Unreal series, spanning 4 games now, the Quake series, especially the original which was a revelation online even with only a 56k modem, Half Life, Counter Strike and even the original Doom, although I must admit I enjoyed that on the original playstation almost as much as the PC. Then games such as Neverwinter Nights, Baldur’s Gate, the Warcraft series amd Prince of Persia have seen lots of play on my PC.

    I think I’m starting to meander a bit, maybe some of the Jack starting to kick in, but I’ve played games I’ve liked on all formats. The Mario Kart series, nobody is gonna say they weren’t good games, Bomberman, the Sonic The Hedgehog series, the Grand Turismo series, and many others.

    I don’t think there’s any way I could say that one particular format is better than any other; I’ve played so many games, across so many formats, that I have favourites on all formats. But I tend to use my PC more than anything these days. My PS2 has only been used 2 or 3 times in the last year; and my Gamecube has hardly been used since I last took it to Blackpool, and my XBox, although it’s connected to my TV, is hardly ever on, and when it is, it’s usually only for 10 or 15 minutes at a time. I’d still rather play Unreal Tournament 2004 than anything else. But, there are games, on formats other than the PC, that I have enjoyed and would continue to do so if I had the time or inclination to play them…

    I think concluding that the PC is a word processor and the console is a gaming experience is a rather narrow view. The PC, for the last 3 or 4 years at least, has been much more than just a word processor, and spending money of decent hardware will ensure that you will always have a cutting edge gaming experience on the PC. It’s not cheap, but it is available…

    PC: Expensive gaming experience and many other tools.

    Consoles: Much cheaper gaming experience and not so many tools…

    Reply
  14. Fluffy avatar
    Fluffy

    Just wanted to clarify.. and wondered how Bowch had figured I prefer console games.. heh

    PC games are much better in my opinion.. simply because I’m fond of pc games.. I like mouse and keyboard.. especially for fps.. as I just can’t be dealing with the whole two joysticks thing as most modern consoles seem to use.. meh.. over time I might have learnt to use left hand with keyboard.. but.. throw in two independent joysticky things.. and I go all wobbly..

    The good big name console games are good, yeah.. but virtually every time I’ve just looked for a cheapish console game, that maybe I hadn’t really heard of.. it ends being utter rubbish.. so while I might stick with console versions of FF games (simply because they tend to come out on such first) .. I’ll always prefer the PC

    Reply
  15. Bowch avatar
    Bowch

    Ah, it was one of mcphee’s posts that I wrongly attributed as a Fluff quote; sorry guys…

    Reply

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