Silent Hill 2 and Genma Onimusha (1 Viewer)

[Jake Gove]

I had been primarily a PC gamer until the XBOX came out. I've been playing these two games and am so annoyed with stupid "save points". If the xbox has such a huge hard drive, why can't you just save any time you want? Or at least do something like the checkpoints in Halo. I know these are both ports of PS2 games, but are supposedly "enhanced" for XBOX. To me it seems the key enhancement would be taking advantage of the frickin hard drive and allowing you to save your game whenever, like on PC games. An unrelated rant is why don't the developers make every game able to support your own soundtracks?

 

[Dave Falasco]

I feel your pain, Jake. Haven't played SH2, but I played a lot of Genma, and that was supremely annoying to me, too! The other thing I wish they had ditched was the need for the "Now Loading" messages whenever you walked off the screen. As you said, it is a port of a PS2 game and thus somewhat subject to those limitations, but damn I wish they had utilized the hard drive a little better in those two areas!

 

[Andy Sheets]

I really don't know but I'll take a wild guess that the answer to both questions might be pickiness on the developers' part. To them, maybe having those "save points" is something to force gamers to be more strategic in how they play and ups the challenge posed by the game.
And regarding the games not taking advantage of CD-ripping, well gosh-gee-darnit, the developers work hard at making that oh-so-wonderful video game music and sound FX to craft a particular atmosphere for their games. To allow gamers even the very option of listening to, say, Britney Spears while playing might utterly destroy the GRUELING experience in abject TERROR that is...Silent Hill 2
So, basically, game developers are a really pretentious folk (I'm actually not totally kidding about the soundtrack thing. I have seen people associated with developers claim that the idea of custom soundtracks by players makes them uncomfortable because of the work they put into producing the game's own soundtracks. Which sucks because I really want a good FPS that lets me listen to my Ennio Morricone soundtracks while playing )

 

[Romier S]

To allow gamers even the very option of listening to, say, Britney Spears while playing might utterly destroy the GRUELING experience in abject TERROR that is...Silent Hill 2

Britney herself can instill as much terror with that singing of hers.
I do agree with your statements though. The soundtrack ripping option really has its place in certain games and in others like SH2 I dont see as adding anything to the game.. (besides that, well, the soundtrack to SH2 is fantastic. Im listening to it now). Especially in a game like SH where the music is as important to the game as the graphics. Onimusha is another game that has a wonderful orchestrated score (another soundtrack I listen too often) that adds allot to the game. Granted giving gamers the option is always a good thing but there are some games that I dont feel need that option.
As for save points, I agree they can be a real pain in the butt. Genma Onimusha especially since you could bite in a second and realize you have to go through a whole section of the game again.

 

[Dave Falasco]

Good point, Andy. Can you imagine playing Halo without the Gregorian chants and the driving cello? Some games would be much lesser experiences without the in-game music to set the mood.

And I can also see the challenge with save points that are few and far between, but man is it ever aggravating to have to redo large sections of a level over and over and over again until one advances to a save point! Seems like there are better ways to up the difficulty than to make a player fight the same nasty buggers a dozen times or so until they finally reach a save point.

But the loading screens...that's something that I do think can be tightened up. Maybe Silent Hill didn't have them, but Onimusha sure did every time you walked off the screen. Every time it popped up it was a jarring reminder that I was playing a video game. (Not that I normally go around with a big old sword lopping the heads off of demons in real life, mind you.)