Vigil's Rants.

Meh. I thought PART of AvP was OK (the fight between two of the Predators and Grid) but I can't stand the 'bonding' parts.
"You know what we call a moon like that in Italy?"
"No, what?"
"Hunter's Moon."

Oh, really? Darn, that's a clever piece of foreshadowing between two characters that we WANT DEAD.

In AvP II... the trailer was actually better than the movie. Y'know, the one with the population countdown?
And last I checked, French Impregnating is actually how Pretorian aliens impregnate in some of the comics. The problem is, the whole movie was done so wrong, and they targeted pregnant women for extra gore points.

New rant later today.

Sorry for the delay, but I was going to do one about the early christmas advertisements, but I got bogged down in stuff to do and when I got around to it it was late November.

Careful...
You tread on MY territory.

Vigil’s Rants

Part VI: Bosses, and how they have been beaten.

Is it me or have bosses gone the way of the health bar? I mean over the last few years bosses seem to have gotten either insultingly easy or just aren’t present at all.

I mean think about some recent games, like MW2, while it had a villain, and you do face in a confrontation, it comes off as a glorified cutscene where all you do is press a few buttons and bam he’s dead. This isn’t a new phenomenon; look at Skorge in Gears of War 2. Now in the original Gears of War, you had General RAAM, who was true rock hard boss, who would kick your ass, and beating on the hardest difficulty took a lot of skill and luck. Skorge however was insulting. It was just button mashing session followed by fighting off about 4-5 of his minions until he came back. It took me one attempt on Insane to beat him, while RAAM took me a good couple of hours to beat on the same difficulty.

Halo 3 had a similar problem. After Tartarus in Halo 2, although once you knew how to beat him is was pretty simple, you still had to put some into beating him, especially on Legendary. Guilty Spark can be beaten by strafing then shooting three times. You could do it one handed, or hell with your feet. Batman Arkham Asylum also had pretty poor bosses, with only Poison Ivy really standing out, as Bane and Scarecrow was repeated 3-4 times, and they were very simple. The final confrontation with the Joker is an absolute joke and is one of the few things that let the game down, as you don’t really fight him, you just tackle his goons like you have through the entire game then you punch him three times and he’s beaten.

Some games don’t even bother with bosses at all, which is a shame as in some cases it would be awesome. RPGs have a tendency to have large scale epic boss battles in them, especially turn based ones. Yet for some reason, Bethesda, who I like have a real problem when it comes to bosses. They missed out on truly great battles in both Fallout 3 and Oblivion. I mean seriously, you have Lord Dagon, a 50 foot Daedric god who you see, would have been a epic confrontation, but no, we have to sit back and watch him get defeated. I will give them credit that Umaril in Nights of the Nine and Jyggalag in Shivering Isles were good bosses, and they were pretty tough to take down. Fallout 3 misses out big time, as they’re were plenty of opportunties for some hulking super mutant monster to come out and fight you, hell even makes us fight Liberty Prime. Bethemoths were okay, but they were honestly to easy, one mini nuke and they’re pretty much done. The final boss of that game would be Colonel Autumn who I killed in one shot. The addition of some new creatures for higher leveles were good, but still, they’re basically minibosses, and stand no chance against you.

This year I picked up Lost Oddesssy and I have to say, some of the bosses in that are brutal. The first few bosses in that game kickied my ass with ease. The first boss is widely considered to be one of the tougher first bosses in a game. Sure he has a relatively simple weakness which can be exploited, but even then if you use it, it increases his damage to you, and he has several devestating moves that will force you to start again. Even as you progress in the game there are several boss that are very tough, the optional bosses in particular, but the sense of achievement for beating them is so much more than a simple acheivement unlock. As you progress through the game you get better and better at fighting these bosses, until the last battle has you use everything you’ve learned over the course of the game for a final epic showdown.

Fighting games, like Street Fighter 4 and the Tekken series just love putting bosses into their games. I remember when I first played Tekken 2, and having the second to last oppenant kicking my ass over and over and over, because he could flawlessly 10 hit combo me and there was little I could do to stop him. Even now, when I’m a true vet of the game, he still gives me problems from time to time, as does the final battle. Azazel and Jinpachi both are pretty tough as they are pretty cheap, but being them really makes you fell like a sense of accomplishment.

This is why I don’t understand why they seem to be dying out of late. The Japenese developers seem to be able to make them by the bucket load, Capcom, Namco, Nintendo, Square Enix, all churn out grade A bosses for their myriad of titles, but why aren’t western developers so keen? You can still make a game accessible with one of these bosses in them, and figuring out how to beat them and then doing it is a far greater reward then a few points to your gamercard. I like a bit of challenge in my games, something to make me strive to be better. Bosses fill that role perfectly, and are a perfect way to test and challenge a player, I just hope more developers actually see that and start adding to the list of the great video game bosses. It will be a sad day when they are no longer around.


I leave you with one of the hardest bosses of all time, as an example of how they can make a gamer better and the sense of accomplishment gained from it.

I think it's because a lot of games go for a 'realism' and a general that can take 50 AK-47 shots to the head and not flinch isn't exactly real.

I agree Vigil. Some games though I think don't really need/shoud have a "final boss" that's hard. Like MW2.

Which is why I'm glad I still have Nintendo games. While the final boss may not be hard at all, it's still present.

Good rant.

Have you played Phantasy Star Online Episodes I & II? Its japanese made, so you're right about that, but the bosses in that game a really nice. They start out easy, progressively hard, until the last boss is just rediculous unless you're a really high level.


Loved that game.

I liked the GlaD0S fight at the end of portal. Not the hardest or greatest fight but it was memorable.

I just watched that video of Hardest boss ever...

My responce: Good lord! That guys must be asian.

Yam Head wrote:I liked the GlaD0S fight at the end of portal. Not the hardest or greatest fight but it was memorable.

Agreed

RockaHolicGameR wrote:I just watched that video of Hardest boss ever...

My responce: Good lord! That guys must be asian.

Two words: Hit boxes. As bad as Counter Strike

You forgot some of the bosses in Ninja Gaiden. Some of the ones in number 2 are bloody hard

RockaHolicGameR wrote:I just watched that video of Hardest boss ever...

My responce: Good lord! That guys must be asian.

You haven't seen anything yet. That boss has another stage, and there is a video of a guy doing that WITHOUT DYING.

Oh and I didn't mention Ninja Gaiden as I haven't played it, though I know they are supposed to be nightmarishly hard.

I've never been particularly fond of having bosses. Sometimes they're necessary, but I'd rather games not go out of the way to have a cheesy boss battle.

Vigil wrote:

RockaHolicGameR wrote:I just watched that video of Hardest boss ever...

My responce: Good lord! That guys must be asian.

You haven't seen anything yet. That boss has another stage, and there is a video of a guy doing that WITHOUT DYING.

Oh and I didn't mention Ninja Gaiden as I haven't played it, though I know they are supposed to be nightmarishly hard.

I...I.... i cant beat the first boss, he kills me in two combos... and I have to kill him in a minute. That boss is so hard, he makes me want to kill myself.

RockaHolicGameR wrote:I just watched that video of Hardest boss ever...

My responce: Good lord! That guys must be asian.

I can honestly say that boss was NEVER intended to be beaten.

Anyhow, I like boss battles sometimes. Halo didn't have any, and I liked it. Halo 2 had the Heretic (Hardest boss... and the first one) the Scarab (In my mind, it's a boss. And I liked it) but it also had Tartarus (difficult, and WAS kinda cheesy) and the Prophet of Regret (Come ON! It's a boss battle. Couldn't Bungie have at LEAST put in six different animations for punching the guy, more animations for his reactions, and more voice acting?)

It all depends. For example, MW2 very well couldn't have had a general for a boss, but having to take on a tank in, say, a closed gymnasium before it killed you, with only small arms, might have worked out.

Shit vigil, that boss battle is way to hard, and that guy must be japanese.

Elabajaba wrote:and that guy must be japanese.

Did the anime girls screaming in jappaness give it away?

For Bethesda I'd like to call Dagoth Ur to their defence. He lived in a cave at the end of Morrowind. The combat mechanic pretty much sucked, but they still made the fight pretty epic through the room you were in.

You had two weapons that could kill him (you'd got these on prev quests) - a hammer and dagger. You had to hammer him good and then stab him in the heart; which was in a chamber in the middle of the room.

I guess this does agree with the boss battles dying though.

Also Fable two...

I haven't played Morrowind. I did think Umaril and Jugyalag were decent foes.

Fable 2's has no bosses. It has an assortment of mini bosses, and the final 'boss' is so insultingly easy you can win BY NOT DOING ANYTHING.

Jack of Blades FTW, now that guy was a decent boss, in both his forms.

Yeah that's what I meant by Fable two. Stupid expectations of a final boss.

I really enjoyed the boss fiight at the end of the wind waker... it was really awesome (Samuari swords!)
<3

noir wrote:I really enjoyed the boss fiight at the end of the wind waker... it was really awesome (Samuari swords!)
<3

Sword in the cranium FTW!

Lol.. yeh that was funny!

From what I can tell, the boss battle was less about dodging all of the bullets and more about dodging enough until you can deal a specific set of damage, which voids all of the bullets in the air and moves to the next bullet pattern. The player did very well at first, using his shields to soak up the bullets he couldn't dodge, but near the end, he just got creamed over and over, relying heavily on his quarters to get him through.

Rasq'uire'laskar wrote:

In AvP II... the trailer was actually better than the movie. Y'know, the one with the population countdown?
.

The one with Silent Night playing was a good one too.

Rotaretilbo wrote:From what I can tell, the boss battle was less about dodging all of the bullets and more about dodging enough until you can deal a specific set of damage, which voids all of the bullets in the air and moves to the next bullet pattern. The player did very well at first, using his shields to soak up the bullets he couldn't dodge, but near the end, he just got creamed over and over, relying heavily on his quarters to get him through.

That reminds me of the Magician from House of the Dead I and II.

Now he was a tough boss to beat.