jazo
Nov 11, 2006, 03:36 AM
I picked up PSO v1 for the DC shortly after it was released. Like the majority of everyone who has ever played that game, I was fully hooked to the point where all I would do is go to school and play PSO. I followed it through the many times it has been re-released owning and trying all of them at one time or another (Gamecube, Xbox, and BB). I love PSO, always have and always will.
I found out about PSU a long long time ago. I'm gonna say E3 2k4, when most everyone else did as well. I didn't really follow anything about PSU up until people started importing it after the Japan release. At that point I started researching what sort of gameplay PSO's first true sequel was going to offer. I mainly looked for people talking about the difference between it and PSO. What I gathered was that people were pretty much split about their impressions of the game. Some like the differences between the two games and others do not. I knew it was only going to be a matter of time before I bought the game and saw for myself, so I focused more on things like Photon Arts and the Partner Machinery. These things looked really interesting because well, there is no denying that PSO is simple as hell. Photon Arts add a whole new dimension to combat and the PM stuff looked awesome compared to what Mags did.
Alright so fast forward to tonight. I finally got the game up and running. I skipped single player because I really could care less about single player PSO. The main reason the game is fun is because of the interaction with people working through the dungeons. Anyway I got all set up and then created my character. I have to say, PSU's level of customization on the characters is impressive. It is a big improvement over PSO's for sure. After I made my guy (without knowing what my voice would sound like because it wouldn't preview it when I hit the space bar?) I found myself in my room. This was cool and all but what I really wanted to do was go down and kill some shit.
So here is where I start noticing things. First and foremost, I completely hate the camera system in PSU. PSO's character movement and the way the camera simply stayed behind the whole time created a much more fluid experience. In combat all you had to do was worry about clicking the L trigger whenever you turned around so that the camera would reset itself. I am bothered by the height of the camera and also the fact that if I do rotate it up or down it resets itself back to the original height. The running speed is way to fast and goofy looking as well.
Now as I am discovering these things, I'm also trying to find my way down to the planet below for some combat. I keep telling myself thats where all the camera mechanics really matter because that is where the action of the game takes place. After searching for at least 10 minutes I finally found my way into a mission where I was beamed into a grassy area with the objective to kill all of the enemies. Five or so rocky hippo looking things spawn and charge me. I have a sword and handgun equipped and start hitting them. The camera thing is really bugging me at this point. Then I got a hang of locking onto enemies, and that did make it a bit better. It still was not close to the same experience PSO combat brought, and I personally think it feels less engaging. Also: WTF Sega! PSO had one of the most unique online RPG combat systems. The timed combo attacks were easy enough to perform but also did require some skill to master, especially for all of the weapon types. PSU is basically mash the buttons till three attacks hit, pause, then mash again. What fun is that? Why are we reduced to button mashing when we did have a perfectly good and unique combat control scheme. As simple as it was, it was more complex then what PSU offers. Please note, I have not yet acquired any Photon Arts, and from what I understand there are some button combos with them. I literally played the game for about 3 hours, leveled only once within that time and am now writing my initial impressions.
One last final gripe that I have. Maybe it is the way I have my video settings configured but every single player character appears as the simple grayed model for around 5 seconds before their avatar loads. PSO never did any of this, and I have also been in much more crowded ship lobbies then the city I was in tonight. That is sort of disappointing because it is very distracting to see models popping in and out.
So I guess I am sad... The only other game that I have been more addicted to was Halo 1. The same thing happened to both Halo 1 and PSO. Their sequels brought about changes to the core gameplay. Sure they introduced some pretty awesome new features that definitely are improving the experience. However, in place of the old gameplay engine we have this new weird stuff that doesn't feel quite as right as the old. In my opinion in both cases the old functioned much better then the new. The best part is, the new features that are brought in are not really dependent on the engine. So why? WHY! Am I the only person who feels this way?
If you have read all of this I thank you and hopefully you will respond with your thoughts since you have already taken the time to read my own.
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: jazo on 2006-11-11 00:38 ]</font>
I found out about PSU a long long time ago. I'm gonna say E3 2k4, when most everyone else did as well. I didn't really follow anything about PSU up until people started importing it after the Japan release. At that point I started researching what sort of gameplay PSO's first true sequel was going to offer. I mainly looked for people talking about the difference between it and PSO. What I gathered was that people were pretty much split about their impressions of the game. Some like the differences between the two games and others do not. I knew it was only going to be a matter of time before I bought the game and saw for myself, so I focused more on things like Photon Arts and the Partner Machinery. These things looked really interesting because well, there is no denying that PSO is simple as hell. Photon Arts add a whole new dimension to combat and the PM stuff looked awesome compared to what Mags did.
Alright so fast forward to tonight. I finally got the game up and running. I skipped single player because I really could care less about single player PSO. The main reason the game is fun is because of the interaction with people working through the dungeons. Anyway I got all set up and then created my character. I have to say, PSU's level of customization on the characters is impressive. It is a big improvement over PSO's for sure. After I made my guy (without knowing what my voice would sound like because it wouldn't preview it when I hit the space bar?) I found myself in my room. This was cool and all but what I really wanted to do was go down and kill some shit.
So here is where I start noticing things. First and foremost, I completely hate the camera system in PSU. PSO's character movement and the way the camera simply stayed behind the whole time created a much more fluid experience. In combat all you had to do was worry about clicking the L trigger whenever you turned around so that the camera would reset itself. I am bothered by the height of the camera and also the fact that if I do rotate it up or down it resets itself back to the original height. The running speed is way to fast and goofy looking as well.
Now as I am discovering these things, I'm also trying to find my way down to the planet below for some combat. I keep telling myself thats where all the camera mechanics really matter because that is where the action of the game takes place. After searching for at least 10 minutes I finally found my way into a mission where I was beamed into a grassy area with the objective to kill all of the enemies. Five or so rocky hippo looking things spawn and charge me. I have a sword and handgun equipped and start hitting them. The camera thing is really bugging me at this point. Then I got a hang of locking onto enemies, and that did make it a bit better. It still was not close to the same experience PSO combat brought, and I personally think it feels less engaging. Also: WTF Sega! PSO had one of the most unique online RPG combat systems. The timed combo attacks were easy enough to perform but also did require some skill to master, especially for all of the weapon types. PSU is basically mash the buttons till three attacks hit, pause, then mash again. What fun is that? Why are we reduced to button mashing when we did have a perfectly good and unique combat control scheme. As simple as it was, it was more complex then what PSU offers. Please note, I have not yet acquired any Photon Arts, and from what I understand there are some button combos with them. I literally played the game for about 3 hours, leveled only once within that time and am now writing my initial impressions.
One last final gripe that I have. Maybe it is the way I have my video settings configured but every single player character appears as the simple grayed model for around 5 seconds before their avatar loads. PSO never did any of this, and I have also been in much more crowded ship lobbies then the city I was in tonight. That is sort of disappointing because it is very distracting to see models popping in and out.
So I guess I am sad... The only other game that I have been more addicted to was Halo 1. The same thing happened to both Halo 1 and PSO. Their sequels brought about changes to the core gameplay. Sure they introduced some pretty awesome new features that definitely are improving the experience. However, in place of the old gameplay engine we have this new weird stuff that doesn't feel quite as right as the old. In my opinion in both cases the old functioned much better then the new. The best part is, the new features that are brought in are not really dependent on the engine. So why? WHY! Am I the only person who feels this way?
If you have read all of this I thank you and hopefully you will respond with your thoughts since you have already taken the time to read my own.
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: jazo on 2006-11-11 00:38 ]</font>