Metroid Prime Comments by Kristan Reed

What great games?

Why can't I side step? why do I have to press a button to look up? a lock on button? why surely I can aim for myself!

Cannot comment on Halo, but I do agree. You can side step by holding onto L (or so the manual says, yet to try it out), but TS2 style controls would've been nicer/ With that said, The current system does help push it into further away from a FPS experience and a 3D platform/adventure one.

Krudster, how would you compare MP to Half-Life,innovation wise i mean.

The BBC online chap has clearly had a 30 minute session on it and evaluated it on that. Fools. He makes it sound like a generic load of crap. Sure the controls are different, and perhaps the option to allow users to change it to the TS standard would have been good, but come on, it's doing things differently, it's defying convention in a good way. The changes of approach should be applauded, as it makes the game feel distinct and different from the FPS herd. And to just lazily bracket it as being an FPS is massively wide of the mark. While it would be plain stupid to deny its FPS leanings, there's so much more going on here.
It delivers that sense of awe with Half Life (and some of the creatures, come to that) but that's about it.

By the way, how are the controls, similar to Goldeneye? The thing I hate about cube is the gamepad...
Sort of, I think. I'm only going from the review since I haven't had chance to pick up a copy yet, but it sounds like the left stick works the same as in goldeneye, though if you hold down the R trigger it turns into the left stick of a more modern FPS to allow you to look up and down. You can strafe using the left trigger (or circle strafe if you're locked on to something).

It delivers that sense of awe with Half Life (and some of the creatures, come to that) but that's about it.

Don't forget the room just before the final boss which was obviously designed by the guys who were sacked from Valve as punishment for the Xen levels...

Pff they should make one console that plays every game released, backward engeneered or something.
Because I want to play zelda, I really do, and I probably would get MP too, but 199€ for 2 games, that's plain crazy.

It's a pity that so many people are unable to suss out the fact that if a game is played from the FIRST-PERSON perspective it DOES NOT automatically mean it's a shooter.

I would categorize Prime an exploration platformer, with combat spicing the travel.

gamecube is a kiddy platform with kiddy games built for kiddies.... except for this awesome game I envy that makes me want to go get a cube and metroid!!!!! give me a blowout price baby i'm there!! (always wanted that rogue leader game too)!!!!!!
wheres that article about the release of that advance wars2??????

ADAVANCE WARS 2 JUNE 23RD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's a pity that so many people are unable to suss out the fact that if a game is played from the FIRST-PERSON perspective it DOES NOT automatically mean it's a shooter.

Pff. That's just semantics. The problem I have with FPS games is not that they're shooters ('cause I lurve 2d and third person shooters) but that they're controlled from the first-person perspective. So MP may not be a FPS but I'm still biased against it for the same reason I don't like FPSers.

Mind you, I'm biased towards it by the fact that it's a metroid game and that it's getting such stonking reviews everywhere except at the BBC. Oh boy oh boy.

I wobble my swollen chalfonts at the UK stores that dropped the Cube.

Wot the hell are Chalfonts - dictionary.com didn't know either.

Chalfonts?

Chalfonts (from Chalfonts St Giles) is British rhyming slang for piles.

www.probertencyclopaedia.com/slang.htm

Phew, I thought she might have just been large breasted!

But then look at the name again.... (H)Emma Roids.

*badaboom tish*

Great game, the way your visor steams up when near a waterfall and the water flows off the visor when you come up from underwater left me smiling :P

and to update - to my delight i stood infront of a steam pipe and it made my visor freeze up :P

Chalfonts = two villages, Chalfont St Giles & Chalfont St Peter actually, ask Mugs... ;)

/me was born in Chalfont St Peter

*pride*

had half an hour go so far. seems class :) cant wait to play more in the morning

I think it was Mugs that reprimanded me for suggesting it was an FPS at heart; but the mighty Mugs soon showed me the error of my ways...

Amazing game so far!

dont know what ur on about tho.... the controls are spot on!

Why should a console first person game control like a pc one? I'm sick of games like halo and timesplitters trying to emulate a mouse and keyboard with those little sticks, it's shit.

BBC an authorative games review source? My chuff!

Halo's controls are class. i love the dual stick shinanigans. I also have an xbx and many games so suck my joystick :p

GAHHH!

Can someone show me the passage in the games design bible where it says that jumping challenges in FPS games are fun?

AS lots of people have said, its not an FPS!

I don't get this resistance to the FPS tag. Are good games not allowed to be FPSs?

99.9% of the rooms in Metroid Primes require something to be killed. It's in a first-person perspective. To my mind that makes it a FPS because I do more killing than exploring.

As far as I'm concerned it's an FPS as well and I have to agree having to do jumping around stuff in first person isn't a great idea. There should be a way of switching to third person when you do your jumping around.

It's a great game though whatever it "is".

It is basically an FPS, although I can understand the resistance to tagging it as such (even though I like the genre) as the game places more emphasis on exploration. I've found the looking system a bit annoying at times, particularly when the game makes you do platformy jumpy bits, as you can't easily see the ground under your feet. Still one of the best games I've ever played though, even if it *just* falls short of grabbing the "Jim's favourite ever game" crown from Halo.

Its not a FPS in the same way Deus Ex isn't. The gameplay emphasis is much more to do with exploration and adventuring. The shooting bits are indeed first person, but enemies are tackled in a fashion much more akin the tge likes of Zelda than Half Life. Plus, if you took a percentage of the time spent actually shooting stuff (excluding doors) it would be a small portion compared with exploration.

And yes, of late the tag FPS has come to mean shoddy, production line, seen-it-all-before PC shooter and I'd rather not have a pice of gaming genius such as this be tarnished with that monicker.

Metroid Prime controls are perfect for Metroid Prime.

Halo controls are perfect for Halo.

100!

Oh, and as a side-note, I'm tempted to get a GC now what with all these Argos/Dixons shenanigans. Thing is - apart from Metroid and SMS (and Zelda in May)what game would my fellw good EG folk recommend I get with it?

Super Monkey Ball (1 or 2) is also a must for any GC owner with friends.

i got rid of pikmin, didnt draw me back in and ended up never touching it again.

"Pikmin 2 : Online Smash" should be cool, i think that the name they've decided on now anyway - hmmmm online!

If you get the Cube, you should also consider picking up Eternal Darkness sometime Dabs. (EG review) It's genuinely scary, original, and just plain good. I've already finished it twice, and am now two thirds of the way through a third time, so I can get to see the über-ending. That's about 32 hours right there. What more could you want?

I would also recommend ED, it was the game I got with my Cube from Argos and while I've not completed it once yet it's been a lot of fun so far. Going insane has never been more entertaining! :-)

Another one to buy then?
My first post on my new phone. :)

"Chalfonts = two villages, Chalfont St Giles & Chalfont St Peter actually, ask Mugs... ;)

/me was born in Chalfont St Peter

*pride*"

Small world, I lived in Chalfont St. Peter for around 15 years and I went to all three local schools.

I've just moved away from CSP recently though.

"That's about 32 hours right there. What more could you want?"

Heeeeeem hem hem...a lady friend maybe?

I would buy this if I wasn't already too preoccupied with Animal Crossing (running on Freeloader), Phantasy Star Online (the "offline" game, haven't bought the adapter yet) and Eternal Darkness.

The 'Cube definitely has it.

cor small world bystander!

My parents moved back to Chalfont a couple of years ago. (I grew up in Beaconsfield.)

It seems clear to me that many people commenting here just haven't played any of the Metroid games. This is simply that - a Metroid game - but this time from a first person perspective. Retro and Nintendo have done an unnervingly good job at recreating the mystery and exploratory action of the originals. Those of you who make the comparisons to Zelda are spot on, it's just that kind of game.. there is no point in making comparisons to Halo (worth nothing though is the fact that Halo's 3D Engine has a very low frame rate in comparison to this beauty!)

I'm undecided over the control issue though.. during the sun loving plant boss battle I was instinctively attempting to look with my right thumb.. and needed 3 retries to get used to the controls. Now after playing it for several hours I can understand why they are trying to distance themselves - to encourage a slightly different approach to the game but would have preferred the option of customising the controls.. at least to see if it made the game 'feel' better for me.

Laters,

D.

I was just playing MP and thought this really reminds me a lot of Zelda, there is more shooting and jumping and it uses a first person perspective, but the basic gameplay is explore, collect some power up to gain access to a new area, explore some more.

Animal Crossing, Pikmin or Eternal Darkness sound the most promising. I think I'd prefer to give AC a try but is it due for a European release? If not, I'll probably just go for ED and wait for Pikmin 2. With these slew of recent ace games though, I can't see why it would continue to be so unpopular sales-wise.

FPS or adventure, its still a superb game - call it what you like.

Playing the US version of Zelda, I have to say it's very very special.

For me, two best games of all time are now on the Cube. Who would've thought a few months ago?

"cor small world bystander!

My parents moved back to Chalfont a couple of years ago. (I grew up in Beaconsfield.)"

I don't suppose they worked at any of the schools in CSP?

heh, nope. Small, but not *that* small... ;)

I meant to give the PAL version of Prime that my housemate picked up "a quick go" yesterday. Five hours later.... What an amazing game. Again.

The thing is, I have a deep suspicion that Zelda IS going to be as good as, if not better than, Metroid Prime. Desperately trying to resist the temptation to import it at the moment...

why not just pre-order it from th eg shop shinji? ;)