Oddworld: Stranger and Scrapland in XBN

[Ed Oscuro]

I'm a little bit late here, but am I the only one who's a bit peeved that XBN (XBox Nation magazine) didn't call this the Odd West?

Anyhow, while I'm probably not alone in never having been too interested in the series up to now (especially the first XBox release which I "played" in demo form on the Halo disc...that was quite enough), I think this one looks more fun than most anything on the horizon for next year, given the interesting bits (a "double barrelled" crossbow with living ammunition like Chippmunks that "talk a bunch of sh*t," and a Ghostbusters-style bountyvac? Yes plz)

Perhaps not so obviously "fun" but still mesmerizing is the project American McGee's been drafted to recently, called Scrapland. It mostly just looks really pretty impressive (it takes ten minutes to run through one end of the game's city to the other - wow) and detailed in a cartoonish sense. Character models fit their environment perfectly, which seems a bit like an American take on Phantasy Star Online, though I don't care much for the character model that I assume is for the heroine (robot). This game seems to exhibit many similarities to Alice, but let's hope poor AI isn't one of them.

[Daria]

You may think Stranger's more fun. But I doubt I'll play it. First person action games just aren't my style. (And first person anything just makes me physically nausious).

I read the XBN article and I found it... amusing. They start off by saying Microsoft backed out of publishing because the game didn't cater to the casual gamer. That it was hardcore material. But once they began describing the game, how they droped the puzzles and odd speak, made it more FPSish it sounded well... more and more mainstream then the previous Oddworld games.

I'm positive the game will maintain it's "odd-ularity" and style. Which is a welcome edition to any genre. But again I don't see myself playing it.

[Ed Oscuro]

They start off by saying Microsoft backed out of publishing because the game didn't cater to the casual gamer. That it was hardcore material. But once they began describing the game, how they droped the puzzles and odd speak, made it more FPSish it sounded well... more and more mainstream then the previous Oddworld games.
It actually says that Microsoft was probably looking to move from casual gamers to hardcore ones.

I agree that this new title sounds pretty mainstream. I've always thought the old Oddworld games were hardcore, or perhaps rather niche games, with a following similar to that of Planescape: Torment, say. Is Halo "hardcore?" Hardly, I'd say it's a classic example of an arcade shooter. The folks who spend time learning a Rainbow Six game are what I'd call hardcore.

It doesn't really matter, though...I think you can get wrapped up in details like Oddspeak and miss the picture of what the game should be about. Again, my knowledge of the previous XBox title was limited to that demo (and a couple "good" rankings seem to indicate the game was considerably better than the demo would imply, especially in the area of graphics featuring a number of great outdoor scenes, whereas the demo was basically a movement tutorial in a skate park), but it looked like it was trying to be as mainstream and mediocre as possible - if I was sitting in the chair at Microsoft I'd have said "this game is pushing anti-corporate values as gameplay...hmm, no thanks." I think they goofed with Oddysee's gameplay, but Oddworld Inhabitants is set to redeem itself in stunning fashion with me, if not a number of other folks as well.

Though I think I need to pick up Munch's Oddysee, clumsy gameplay and all.

[Daria]

I must have mis-read my mistake. :o

Although I have to say I didn't find Munch's Odyssey's gameplay to be clumsy. Especially consider it was one of the first 3D games I really got into. So if anything it should have made it even harder for me, but I was able to control the game ratherly smoothly.

I recently bought Abe's Exodus but haven't had any time to try it out.

[Ed Oscuro]

Well, it's a different kind of clumsy. Getting powerups out of soda machines is about as imaginative as putting a spoiler made out of three pieces of plywood on the trunk of your car; both will work marginally well, but they still are pretty clumsy and will get you laughed at. Immediate movement controls worked pretty well, but some of the extended stuff...well...it's also got the "run through level, free Mukodons, find an exit and repeat" problem going - that sort of gameplay is always slow, and I've hated it in every game right down to Pac-Man.

According to IGN's review, some levels are small enough that you can see the exit from where you start, which means the demo level wasn't so far off base.

[JJNova]

Abes Odyssey forever.

"Follow Me"
"Okay"

[Captain Wrong]

Oddworld always strikes me as some obscure movie that critics hype to the heavens and no one actually goes to see. Granted I've never played the games, but I always find it bizarre the way many in the gaming media treat it like a A-list franchise when most people could give a toss.

[bargora]

Captain Wrong, you have missed the boat. I have played through Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee twice and have almost finished Abe's Exoddus. I really like both of them, despite my general platformer apathy. This is probably because the Playstation Oddworld games were less about endless mindless reflex platform jumping and more about thinking really hard figuring out how to accomplish ten seconds of perfect platform play. Oh, and you can chant to possess machine gun-armed slugs who wear mechanical pants.

Plus, the whole thing (in both games) was just charming and looked really good. (I'm also a sucker for Klonoa, another pretty platformer whose charm lies in overwhelming saccharinity.)

Seeing how both Playstation Oddworlds are running in the $5-7 range, you should stop missing the boat. That's a hell of a lot cheaper than that Batsugun I've had my eye on for a while.

As for Munch's Oddysee, well, I've played it for about ten minutes. I'm not so sure about that 2-D to 3-D transition. I may warm up to it later.

[SpasticFuctard]

I loved the first Oddworld game (even got the perfect ending), I have yet to get Munch's tho I do have an Xbox now ,maybe the time has come to peruse the clearance racks.

SF

[Captain Wrong]

Seeing how both Playstation Oddworlds are running in the $5-7 range, you should stop missing the boat. That's a hell of a lot cheaper than that Batsugun I've had my eye on for a while.

Fair enough, but personally I think I'd get much more mileage out of Batsgun. ;) I'll have to check those out though when I get a chance.

[rxd]

I thought Oddworld was great myself...

[whoisKeel]

heh. i figured there would be boatloads of oddworld fans on this forum.

i've played through the 3 console titles, and they're all great. they just ooze with style. the first one is the best of course, but a bit hard. definitely one of the best 2d'ers on the psx for sure.

i can understand if you've only played a little of the xbox game (munch's). it was a pretty good game, but did get repetitive. considering that you should be able to beat the game in a few days, i don't see that as much of an issue. i dunno, i just always found the series to be 'fun', but each title drastically gets easier.

[Ed Oscuro]

ODDWORLD CONTROVERSY!!!111ONEANDAHALF

Seriously though, I suppose I'll look into getting the PlayStation titles sometime. Can't hurt me more than finishing Light Crusader already has today LOL