The direction is more toward a direct "narrative" which basically sucks out a bulk of the fun.

So you're saying they added more of the worst aspects of the series (monotonous missions) and reduced the amount of freedom that made the franchise so successful in the first place?

Got it.

Oh hell yes.

I think it's a glitch. I've beaten Super Mario World a few times and I've never had that happen

If you can't get around it, I seem to remember a back door into Bowsers Castle you can get to via the Rhino fortresses.

I have been able to get around it about once every 20 times when I get a "p" balloon from one of the glitch boxes that appears. Somehow floating prevents squishing from the boxes that pop up.

Damn, and here I always thought it was normal haha :). I guess it just adds a little extra dimension to that last castle.

Someday, I'm gonna beat that final mission.

The direction is more toward a direct "narrative" which basically sucks out a bulk of the fun.

Just Finished
http://www.talesunion.com/images/box...f-legendia.jpg


Second Playthrough Starting Now:

http://www.animepile.net/images/anim...-the-Abyss.jpg

samurai shodown II
haha ;)

Well besides the graphical and physics upgrade the most noticeable would have to be the maturity of the game. This has had mixed feelings though, some people claim that the cartoony nature of the game helped negate the murder and mayhem that was the game. Now that certainly is a fair comment to make, with a more cartoon style animation and often times comedic styled missions, it did help assuage any guilt one would have over massacring half the city because someone told you so. On the flip side you have people like me who were either 12 or 13 when Grand Theft Auto III came out and were exactly like the game, violent and slightly immature. You had your basic story for revenge but there really weren't any deeper messages in the game. The point of the game was either to kill people on a mission, or kill people while off mission. This was great for a 13, 14, and 16 year old me (ages correspond with the releases of GTAIII, Vice City, and San Andreas) but as I started to age I found myself wanting more from the story. I almost wanted the game to try and teach me something or at least have some underlying message to it.

Grand Theft Auto 4 pretty much gave me that on a platter. As you're driving your cousin around you're listening to them banter on about what the American dream is and what it's like for immigrants when they first arrive. You get to see and experience the xenophobia and hostility a lot of immigrants feel. It puts you in their shoes and shows you why immigrants often flock together when they first arrive here, it's because they only feel like their own people are the only ones that are accepting of them. As an immigrant myself I found this to be incredibly true and it shows that Rockstar have decided to mature the game, just like I've matured in my life. I think the seriousness of the game was my favourite part, but for many people, Grand Theft Auto is about "I pushs teh buttons and they people DIE!" I don't even care if I'm stereotyping now because there's enough element of truth to that stereotype. While yes I agree the game can be incredibly cathartic it doesn't just have to be thing for you to vent on.

One of the other improvements of the game that was almost universally hated was the friendship element of the game where as people start to trust you you can befriend them. This means that they will have certain things for you, like Little Jacob will sell you weapons out of the trunk of his car for less than the gun stores. However to earn the respect of these individuals you have to take them out places such as restaurants, bowling, pool, darts, or bars. Every so often you'll be on your way to do a mission or something and a friend will call you up wanting to hang out, now a lot of people didn't know this, but if you accept and then call them back to cancel, you won't lose any status with them and you still get to do whatever you were about to do before they called. I actually didn't mind going out with the characters, it gave you a lot of back story which helped make the characters seem more rounded and made you actually care about them. I remember praying that I wouldn't have to kill the character Packie because I liked him so much. Not only does it give you background info on the characters, but it also gives their perspectives and opinions on the world around them.

So to sum it up briefly, the biggest improvement on the game was the maturity level. That said, if all you want to do is cause mayhem then it's certainly an option, I've caused my fair share of rampages throughout the city and loved every minute of it.