FORT90 forum

1. Just starting playing Little King Story. It's totally awesome; a cute JRPG mixed with Pikmin mechanics. The interface is super smooth and intuitive (something I'm always wary of in any strategy title) and the A/V is top-notch (the music in particular is extremely charming). Unfortunately, I encountered a game killing bug very early on, which is not good news. I should perhaps tell XSEED, but it's already too late, since all the copies have been made.

2. Still working on Flower, Sun, and Rain, mostly for review on my site, since it'll be one of the absolute few to be glowingly positive. Everyone hates the game, but not me. Which I guess is especially funny considering how much I hate Killer 7, and both it and FSR contain the same esoteric elements, yet none of them is a detriment in a non-action oriented affair like FSR. More to be disclosed in the eventual write-up.

3. God, Bit.Trip Core is like crack. Can't get enough. And even harder than Bit.Trip Beat. But unlike that one, Core relies more on memorization than pure dexterity (though there's plenty of that too), hence why I should be able to beat it in the end, unlike Beat (if there was a paddle controller adapter, it would be a different story).

What about you guys?

what, exactly, is Bit.Trip.Core?  i keep seeing you make reference to it, but have no idea what it's like or what it's for.


i'm currently dividing my time up between a few games.  currently, the most played for me are

Call of Duty 4 (finally, after Amazon lowered the price of the PS3 version to $28 for a day), which has some really fantastic moments in it, though i feel like some skirmishes last just a little bit too long, making it irritating when i'm almost through a segment and then die.

Devil Survivor - classic SMT-style battles (yet slightly remixed) mixed with a tactical RPG and an interesting system that involves the passing of time.  the last part makes it similar to the Persona series in that you can only do so much in one day and (game) life will go on regardless of what you've done.

Knights in the Nightmare - it's a game by Sting, which means it's very esoteric and a bit cryptic.  Sting made Riviera and Yggdra Union, both games that are really worth at least trying, but sort of fall flat in the new ideas they try out.  this game attempts to make itself clear through a VERY thorough tutorial section you can read through at your leisure, but a lot of stuff only makes sense once you try it out.  and even then, i sometimes feel like i'm winning based on luck.  but like every other Sting game, i appreciate how different it's trying to be in a sea of JRPG mediocrity.

i'm playing through the Metal Gear Ac!d series sort of off and on, too.  really enjoyable, assuming you enjoy the idea of turn-based strategy mixed in with a stealth game (oh, also a card game).  kind of weird and surprised they actually made two of these games.

I really need to pick up Devil Survivor. To be honest, I've been somewhat non-plussed by Atlus's recent offering, primarily Devil Summoner 2, which was about as boring as you said it would be. But I've heard lots of great things and am not willing to give a non Persona SMT title a shot.

As for the Bit.Trip games, they're both WiiWare titles, easily the best ones available on the service (till Cave Story comes out, and even afterwards, will still be able to hang with it). You should definitely try them out, especially since they're pretty dirt cheap.

ah, ok, i'll check them out then.  maybe even today.  should i just get the newest one?  does one build on the other or are they different enough to justify getting both?

Each one is different. The first plays like pong, the second... more like a classic shump supposedly. Apparently, the creator has like ten different game variants in mind, and I really hope that it does well enough to bring up the eventual driving title. To be honest, I'm surprised the first one did well enough in the first place to warrant a follow-up.

oh, if anyone had been at all interested in Black Sigil for the DS, for whatever reason, don't even bother with it.

i didn't have much faith in the game to begin with (especially after how long it had been delayed), but its graphics and aesthetics seemed to imply that it was at least trying to be a competent ripoff of mid-90's era Squaresoft.  there are far worse things to try to rip off, for sure.  anyway, the game itself is just so horrid and unplayable, that no amount of detailed, pretty spritework can possibly save it.  what's funny about this, is that it's quite possibly even more antiquated feeling than an NES-era RPG.  that's...that's really something, i think.  

it just makes no sense to me; why base your game on something and not even copy what it does well?

Back to Knights in the Nightmare, I found myself really digging the tutorial and going "can't wait to finally do this thing!" and then literally an hour later, giving up all interest since I was still stuck learning stuff. Seems really neat, but the fact that EVERYONE has stated that it's the most complicated game ever makes me not even want to bother.

last week i replayed halfway through FFVII for the first time in years and... its still not bad, it has a good story, perhaps badly written and probably stolen from a million other places, but still a good story.


its fun. just fun

I'm still trying to beat Death Smiles in Death Mode, which should kick my high score up to 150 million or so (it's at 120 something million right now, but I just can't get through the final level with suicide bullets).

I've also been playing Ghosts N' Goblins some more after setting a not-so-high high score at Barcade last week.

I'm also playing through Jedi Knight again. There is a re-texture mod you can download for it, and the game still looks best at 640x480, but the mod does make it look much nicer.

In the throes of beating Devil Summoner 1 right now, which makes me want to toss my ps2 at the wall not out of difficulty but at the sheer mundanity. And I like this series.
Upon beating that I plan on rolling over immediately into Devil Summoner 2.

Also trying my best to throw Devil Survivor a bone because it is apparently actually good.
I have beef with the art style (it doesn't even look like the art of a typical pixiv user, Atlus went straight for deviantart), and the protagonists just seem like ports of Persona 3 characters after a cleveland steamer from The World Ends With You. But the presentation is really impressive and the promise of street cred looms ever above me.

As for games I am having legitimate fun playing: Cookie Shop, Astro Boy for the gba, and...well, TWEWY.  Haters gonna hate.

lol

Not to mention their unremarkable clothing implies that TWEWY's heart wasn't fully in it...I'm pretty sure the act was a business transaction as opposed to an act of love, a consummation of a relationship. Persona 3 paid The World Ends With You to take a dump on its chest.

I have fanfiction to write, excuse me.

far cry 2. in small doses, quite fun. still far too repetitive, though not quite as suicidal as the pre-patching version was.

looking forward to age of decadence as per the usual. hopefully it'll be out before christmas, 2012.

I really want to play Far Cry 2 with those nVidia 3D glasses. I've got my save game just sitting here waiting for that to happen.

Still Playing: Fallout 3, Dragon Quest V and Oblivion(?)

Coming in: The Dark Spire and Sonic Chronicles(from what I hear it's the best Sonic game currently. Which probably isn't saying much.)

Eagerly Awaiting: Dragon Age, Mass Effect 2 and Borderlands.

I'm playing Fallout 3 as well, got it from the Steam sale, which is nice except that dealing with any of the downloadable content is horrific, as you have to try and make Steam and Windows Live for Games play nice with each other, which is a bit of a struggle. For a bit there I thought that they had deleted all my saves; what had actually happened was that they'd created a new Windows Live for Games User Folder that was where all "my" games were, which was of course empty because all my previous saves were in the folder above that. Very silly. And now it looks like it'll crash forcing a hard reset roughly 50% of the time I try and quit the game. I'm hoping that just killing the game from the Task Manager will work instead, not that that's a particularly elegant solution.

The game is pretty fun so far though, if pretty rough-edged a la everything Bethesda makes. I'm finding myself wanting to play the game entirely through VATS, which I'm having some difficulty with as you run out of AP fairly quickly, meaning that you either have to sit there and take damage (or preferably, hide) waiting for your AP to regenerate, or you can just mow people down FPS-styley, the only disadvantage of that being that you run through your ammo pretty quickly and also that as an FPS, it's pretty crappy, with precision aiming being quite difficult and the lack of stuff like lean just generally makes it a budget-ass experience.

i've been playing Dragon Quest IX, using my limited understanding of Japanese and my fairly extensive knowledge of how to play RPGs.  it's a lot of fun and will probably be even more fun when i can read it in a language where my literacy is stronger than a kindergartner's .

i've also been playing Space Puzzle Bobble (Bust A Move) and...i dunno, i actually think this is a really fun game.  i mean, it's Bust A Move, so there isn't anything necessarily new to see here, but it's portable and there are wi-fi vs. options, so...i'm actually considering purchasing this game when it's released in the US.

There's a perk you get at a higher level that makes using VATS as your main combat mode more useful. I just wish it wasn't by the time you become a demi-god with stats. I think your AP is tied with your agility as well, so yeah... If your agility is low your AP will be. It's one of those games where you have to kinda figure out what you want your character to excel at when you start.

I hate using the normal combat for anything other than melee since it just isn't worth it.

So what's the overall consensus on Ghostbusters? That's it's boring and not funny at all? Cuz that's certainly the case, and I can't see anyone who doesn't have a hard-on for Ghostbusters wanting to bother, and anyone from that camp not being severely disappointed.

I recently finished Red Faction: Guerrilla - a great game, if not all that guerrillay. I'm also grinding my way through Black Sigil on the DS and Cross Edge on the PS3.

Got myself busy with Battlefield 1943 personally.  I was really into bad Company because of the destructability and loads of work they put into sound and it's basically bad Company arcade style.  3 classes, inifinite ammo.  A fun, quick fps with a reeeally neat Air mode; first game I played that did air combat over mutliplayer well enough I felt like I could actually fly a plane in a battlefield game.

Actually I found the demo fun.  Both me and my bf had major fun fanboying over the orignal cast talking and enacting with'em.  The PC port is atrocious, while my lappy can't run TF2, my bf's is capable of running Crysis decently and lagged majorly until we lowered it's priority and di a few other kinky things and it still lags when it shouldn't plus some atrociously stupid bugs.  There was no support given for the PC port, only console.

Still good though.

Just got back from Nintendo's Wii Sports Resort thing in the middle of Times Square. Was always mildly interested, but never had plans on nabbing it day one. That was until I saw that Wii Bowling is back X 100. Didn't get a chance to actually play it, just ran to the Nintendo World Store and bought a copy (they're selling it early).

Did go through a few of the other mini-games though, like sword fighting and archery. For all those people who are complaining that the Motion Plus device is too exact. I... feel differently, but maybe the sensitivity is just more forgiving in Sports Resort.

Oh shit, that thing's out?! Maybe I should head there now....?

edit: so do you have to buy two copies, or does it come with two of the new devices?

The module is sold separately, for $20, which is a lot. But at least that means no extra game purchase.

Though who knows if there's gonna be an enhanced version of Wii Play that will throw an extra one in for free, like the original had the free Wiimote. Nothing has been announced, but I wouldn't be surprised if it eventually happens. I'll bring it over tomorrow for breaks during Street Fighter school.

Awesome, bring the game too. I'd love to try it out. At $70 to properly get going with it, I think I'll pass for the time being.

Played a lot of KoFXII and Blazblue today.  i know neither of those really jive with Matt or Dave, but after spending a good deal of time with each, i think as of right now i'm inclined to say "Blazblue wins."  as far as bringing 2D games into HD and all that means, Blazblue seems to get most of what had to be done, done.  whereas KoFXII is really...inconsistent.  it doesn't mean i don't like KoF, because i do; but until i see some videos of some really insane stuff i never saw before or even thought of, it right now feels sort of like a great idea that wasn't executed properly or successfully.

hopefully, they'll pull a Third Strike with KoFXII.  i mean, the first two SF3s are decent fun, but 3S is what changed everything.


i also downloaded the demo to Final Fantasy: Dissidia.  haha, yea.

well, it's actually kind of fun, i think.  if you take it at face value and as a portable fighting game, it's pretty food for what it is.  and if you have any kind of fond memories of older FF games, the earlier casts are well represented.  i might actually consider getting this one, if i don't get exceptionally tired of the demo.

hungry?

Hey Joe, maybe you've noticed already in the Street Fighter School thread, but Katie is also becoming quite the fan of BlazBlue, so at least you have someone to play against, other than the unwashed masses online.

yea i saw that!  glad someone else around here appreciates the game.

in other news i got some dude to rage quit on me yesterday.  it was fun!

Rage quit?

well sometimes in fighting games, people get upset when you beat them repeatedly

so they'll do a rematch or so with you because they want to beat you to show that they're "better."  if they do beat you, they'll leave immediately after, so you can't challenge them to a rematch.  but in some cases, if they NEVER win, they'll just, in a fit of rage, disconnect their xbox from the internet in the last few seconds of the last round as they're about to lose.


also, TDS:  yes, i am hungry.  i sort of wish you still worked at BK now.

nice burn, sir

I just beat both campaigns for Revenge of the Fallen (360). It's a shame the game was rushed, because they have some pretty cool idea - dialogue based on performance during post-mission councils - that I can see being used by other studios with lesser constraints later on. Infamous is pretty good, actually getting better as I go on. I also picked up Ground Control plus expansion off of Good Old Games, but I've only played the tutorial and first mission - pretty good so far.

the past few days ive been trying to return to FFVII after a few weeks away from it but my psone is having overheating issues.


so lately its been pokemon blue

Yesterday I check out some upcoming Ubi Soft stuff, like Assassin's Creed 2, though the real highlight was finally finishing Flower, Sun, and Rain, which everyone can read about here...

http://www.fort90.com/journal/?p=707

... Time to head down to Gamestop and trade in some clunkers for Devil Survivor! Often I play something one last time before letting it go, but I honestly could care less about Halo Wars and Ninja Blade.

It's been a mix of World of Warcraft and Guitar Hero/Rockband. GF has the 360 so that's what we play when I go over. At home it's just WoW, maybe some SF4 when the neighbor visits. Matt (DJ) keeps telling me to get BlazBlue like it's the Second Coming or something; I dunno, I tried guilty gear once and it just seemed weird.

No more than Mortal Kombat, I suppose.

Just got Punch-Out for the Wii. Was never a biggest fan for the NES and SNES editions (I liked them, but am totally nostalgic for them like some) and like this new edition a lot, maybe more than the other two, though the motion controls fucking bite. Guess NES-like set-up is the way to go.

Actually, there's an achievement for Pyro in Team Fortress 2 to have someone ragequit on you after you've dominated them

Haha, that's awesome. Best use of achievements?

BTW, I can confirm that Punch Out of the Wii is 100% better without the motion controls. A bit of a shame, but that's just the way it is.

Started up with Holy Invasion and it's pretty cool, but there are some annoying things. I don't like how when trying to make dragons, often, just before you can click on the square, a spirit sucks some mana out of it and it becomes a Lilith. I'm also having a hard time understanding how those spirits work. Sometimes a whole bunch of them completely fail to put their mana together in one block, and sometimes just a couple will randomly make a dragon. I'm just having a hard time making it all come together.

For those of you that haven't downloaded the demo of the new Turtles In Time remake for XBLA, save your self the trouble. It kinda stinks.

I'm curious about the Monster Hunter series. Goozex has the PSP releases from 2007, 2008, and the newest one (Unite? United?) as being available. The 2007 release is only 100 points, so for those in the know, would that be a good place to start, or has a lot changed to the point where I wouldn't get the right impression?

I finished up Infamous last week, and I will be starting Ghostbusters shortly.

I'm also looking forward to going back to Dawn of War II with the release of There Is Only War - now maybe I won't get my ass handed to me online.

I've always been moderately interested in Monster Hunter, but am not much of a PSP person, so I'm definitely keeping my eye open towards the Wii version. Which will hopefully have all those freezing issues worked out by the time it comes to America.

I finally got bit trip core today.

I really like it but holy fuck is it a short game. For $8, 3 stages seems kind of stingy in my opinion. Especially considering how quickly I beat it. So now I'm kind of not sure if I want to shell out for the other games.

Shatter came out this week on the PSN (Are there even any Triple owners on this board?).  Gameplay wise it's basically Arkanoid, albeit with some very fun twists.  Like most of the good digital releases this gen it's got a Rez/Geometry Wars-inspired aesthetic, including the obnoxiously good music.  I saw literally no hype or discussion of this game anywhere, but it's pretty much the bee's knees.

It's only the first level, but you get the gist:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pO1lOokz7d0 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pO1lOokz7d0)

I've been trying to force myself through Blue Dragon, thank god I got hooked on this.

Seriously? Cuz absolutely no one complains about the length due to it's high difficulty. Can't recall ever hearing beating the game their first time out. I myself am barely able to get halfway through the second stage, but then again, I suck at all games!


The funny thing is how Isfet said the same thing regarding the DSi Art Styles game; didn't bother to hype them up on my end since I go to all these places that talk about them to death. In the case of Shatter, been hearing about it for almost ages over at Offworld and Original Sound Version (both awesome places btw). Anyhow, I keep saying it, but I might get a PS3 relatively soon and it's on the top of my list. Mostly because I have yet to get sick of the Rez/Geometry Wars look, though that day is almost here.

I think I'm almost already done with Ghostbusters. Wow. If the last two levels take as long as the others, then that'll be about 6 hours of total play time. The PS3 version has a few extra clips of interviews and stuff, which is nice, but the trailer for Year One seems out of place.

ive been replaying MGS3 lately, and after playing MGS2(i played 3 before 2) i think these games just get worse as they go along or maybe 2 just left a really bad taste in my mouth.


makes me worry about how i'll take 4

I've been back into L4D this past week or so. I cannot get sick of this game.

I almost picked up L4D this weekend, actually. I'm starting to drop my fear of playing a game that's so heavily into online multiplayer. If I suck, I suck, so be it.

I picked up Left 4 Dead a few weeks back at target for $12.97 on the 360. I just figured out how to use my iMac as a wireless connection for my 360 - moderate NAT problems aside - so I'll be trying it out shortly.

I was enjoying Ring of Red for the PS2, but trying to save it while it's being played off the hard drive corrupted my saves. I had the problem initially, then thought it was save slot 1, so I started it off the disc and got 3-4 missions in and decided to save off HD to a new slot, thinking I could go to slot 2 save and repeat last mission if there was a problem, but doing that fucked it all up. I can't load any saves now, and the game crashes when I go to 'Continue.' Argh!

Well if anyone wants to pick up L4D for the PC, I'd be happy to show them the ropes.

This past weekend I finished up playing Prototype on the 360. Overall: It's a lot more fun if you don't play the storyline missions and just run amok in the city for an hour or two, and then call it a day.

The way they implemented cutscenes as a collectible in the game is a mechanic that I thought was kind of nice (though combining that with "collect 50 of this, and 200 of these ..." got to be a bit much in the 'find all the orbs' genre). Having a reward for humping your ass up and down Infected Manhattan in the form of more bits about the story was nice.

Shame that the ending felt totally tacked on, rushed, and generally lame as hell. I was very frustrated and irritated by the last hour or 2 of gameplay. The buildup and various conspiracies led to some stupid stuff. And without getting into details that would 'spoil' the plot, the main character does some deeply stupid "that doesn't make sense why are you DOING THAT" actions towards the end that are just plain silly.

Still, up to the end of the story, I had an ok amount of fun with it. The game tries too hard to be a technical brawler with lots of combos and different button commands, but combat is so fast, and your controls so clunky, that you only ever want to use "jump high in air, use ranged attack. land, rinse, repeat" because any amount of standing on the ground gets your shit pushed in at roughly warp speed.

yea, 4 is kind of a bizarrely mixed bag.  the last stage in particular.  if the game had been basically like the first 2 parts of the game throughout, it'd be amazing.  it's a weird experiment of a game.


Fort:  i'm not necessarily suggesting that Bit.Trip.Core is too easy, but for me, it was moderately difficult. it only felt hard enough to be an "intro" or something to the rest of the game; leading into something ridiculous.

I have been loving Melty Blood: Actress Again at Chinatown Fair!

I finally got around to finishing Gears of War 2 this week. It's pretty fucking epic. The second half of the game has you piloting Reaver's and Brumak's to great effect. And all the levels are even more gorgeous than the first game (they added a bit of color this time around). Really happy with this one. Anyone want to play through on the Extreme difficulty I just unlocked online?

Guess it doesn't hurt to mention that I'm currently playing Shadow Complex, right? MS was nice enough to give me a download token a bit before it's release, which I think is next week... Anyhow, I like it a lot! Far more than I thought I would. Mind you... I'm still not a fan of the aesthetics, but the gameplay is pure Super Metroid, period, more so than any of the Castlevanias that have been molded in its image.

OMG, I can't believe Kotaku (and it's readers) like the new Turtles In Time for XBLA. Jesus fucking Christ...

http://kotaku.com/5336181/tmnt-turtles-in-time-re+shelled-micro-review-were-really-hip

Eh... it's them. A really fun thing that Tom Chick does at Quarter to Three is he will randomly research a Kotaku article. He's only done it two or three times, to my knowledge, but it always leads back to some random forum post or blog entry that's been quoted and cited over and over until it hits there, where it's posted as some sort of official or newsworthy item.

Haven't finished Shadow Complex yet, and might not anytime soon, now that I'm playing Trials HD. Which is hella fun.

Lol Kotaku. No one even wants to play as Raphael.

bit.trip core has destroyed my thumb. And what's the deal with no online scoreboards? I'm not too big into online features for games - well, they normally aren't deal breakers at least - but it seems strange to not have one in a game you can only download.

prototype is really fun thus far.

and now i have reached that point where my skills are insufficient to deal with the difficulty curve. yeeeeesh i suck at games.

I checked out the demo of Shadow Complex. Set it to the insane difficulty and I'm really looking forward to the MS Live Points card I bought on Amazon to qualify for free shipping so that I can play it. And I tried out Trials HD. I think it's the first Trials game rather than Trials 2 because I don't recognize the levels.

I borrowed an EX2 fightstick from a coworker and have been playing SF2HD Remix (or whatever the hell the XBLA one is called).

I suck, is the short version. But I'm somewhat enjoying playing vs. Mr. Computer, and it's proving vaguely useful to learn how to defeat some of the characters that have always (and currently still do ...) whipped my ass, like T.Hawk.

It's not you, the game itself has issues, many of which we went over in the last iteration of the forum. Once again, I never did get a straight answer as to why they didn't bother to add frames of animation in-between the new art... which was originally because they didn't want to change anything... and then they added a bunch of new moves.

so after having his CD now for about a year, i finally installed Mike's copy of Fallout onto my PC.

i'm liking it a lot so far!  i'm actually sort of mad that i didn't know about this game when it came out because i could definitely see my younger self really getting into this kind of game.

but considering i just spent about 2.5 hours playing it, i guess i'm getting into it all right.

the amount of freedom is definitely a plus; at first i was going to play the game as a "good guy" but as soon as i entered the first town in search of rope, this quickly ended.  i didn't really care about the scorpions attacking their herd and "oh hey look this guy has rope let me steal it."  so i headed down into vault 15 in search of the water chip, but found that the third level is covered in rubble.  i decided maybe i should try setting dynamite, but didn't know what i was doing and blew myself up.

anyway, it's already much more fun than Fallout 3.  the only thing FO3 has over this one thus far is the character customization (in terms of appearances)  but the setting is much bleaker and a lot more intriguing and nothing has made me groan yet (as opposed to FO3 which only took about 10-15 minutes).


another thing i've been wondering about is "what if i don't bring the chip back in time."  with the amount of freedom i appear to have, would it even matter?  would the game just go on?  or would it actually be game over?


technical question for Mike:  i did the biggest install possible; do i need the CD for anything else?  i made an image file of the CD just in case, but if i don't need it, i'd rather delete it.

point a: well, stuff happens but you do have to get the chip back in time. but like i said depending on your actions stuff happens.

point b: i don't think so? but honestly i'm not 100% sure.

thus far it doesn't seem like i need the CD.  the music (ambient as it is) still plays as does all the FMV stuff, so i guess the full install does it all.  ahh, back in the days when developers were more naive about piracy.

anyway, i'm still playing Fallout and liking it even a bit more than before.  for the first day i was basically playing it like i play GTA games: go around killing shit and wreaking havoc.  this, in some ways, makes the game significantly more difficult even though it means more free shit.  but yea, people start hating you

so

i started a new game.  what surprises me so much about this is that the "sidequests" are pretty entertaining to carry out.  and they're also relatively straightforward, in a good way.  each town is sort of its own "world" with different tasks to accomplish.  and while there is some degree of "go here and do something," most of it is immediate.  like, for example, two rivals want each other dead, so you choose which one you're going to kill.  or not at all!  this, to me, is a lot more enjoyable than what i played of FO3.

FO3 immediately turned me off when it sent me on a fetch quest to a village to deliver a letter, then turned it into another fetch quest to go somewhere else entirely.  honestly, things like that in games really irk me. 

also, some of the humor is actually kind of funny in this game!

traditional snob response: you can almost taste the future that was killed by apathy and console tards.

i'm only half-joking when i despair while considering the wreckage caused by the animu. compare fallout with final fantasy 7. the gods themselves weep.

at the risk of sounding on the fence, I never saw a reason why there couldn't have been room for both types of games.  but I'm guessing economics took care of that one?

I guess it just speaks to the state of games in general. I don't want every game I play to be the same.  I assume I'm in the minority there (judging by other gamers on comment sections)?



 

this is perfectly reasonable, but...war...war never changes.

collectathons and achievements are in.

you may be interested, btw, in the upcoming age of decadence (http://irontowerstudio.com/). it looks like crazy isometric tastiness.

that looks like it could be pretty fun!  the graphics also don't look "mindblowing" so maybe i could even run the thing on my PC?  we shall see.  but yea, i'll keep an eye on that; when's it due out?


oh, Fallout, how it mocks me.  those fucking Deathclaws in the Boneyard aren't fucking around, are they?  i feel like that's a quest i'm going to need to put away until i get a rocket launcher or something.  either that, or maybe i'll try again, but with a fuckload of grenades.

also, stealing is fun, especially when i never get caught.

also, while i was tempted to have Katya as my NPC (to get this whole post-apocalyptic lesbian death duo thing going), Dogmeat seems like he's pretty much amazing thus far.


still not too sure where the hell i'm "supposed" to actually be in the game right now, but thus far i'm just sort of going around changing shit.  good times!

ok, played some more today, and the updates are as follows:

1) managed to find the water chip and return it to the vault.  kind of an interesting ordeal and it was even more fun when i realized the "alternative" paths to getting around that one mutant guard.

2) killed all the Raiders in that camp.  they started it!  now they're all dead.

3) if the leader of the Mutants is that one guy who kidnapped me in failed play, then i'm assuming i have a lot more work to do as far as preparing myself for that battle.

4) not having a deadline is a little bit comforting and i think i'm just going to go around enjoying myself and taking care of stuff i neglected to do earlier in the game.

5) ammo isn't exactly difficult to find, but for my main weapon (the SMG), it seems somewhat sparse.  and not every vendor sells every kind of ammo and it becomes difficult remembering who sells what in which areas.  i picked up a Desert Eagle from the Raiders' leader, but i kind of prefer having the "Burst" option with the SMG.  it's fun when people fall apart into little bits of people.

6) i'm starting to invest points in using larger guns (miniguns, rocket launchers, etc) as it seems like the enemies are only going to be getting beefier as this stuff goes on.

7) some items i really have no clue how i'm going to afford.  that one armor is like 12,000 or something; the game hasn't encouraged grinding thus far, so i'm assuming things will fall into place in a little while.


hopefully i'll beat this soon.  the only problem with a game like this is that i'm afraid of backing myself into an unbeatable corner.  i'm not beating stuff by the seat of my pants, so to speak, but i don't feel overpowered either.  i guess looting dead bodies is probably the way to keep going?

anyway, when i beat it, Mike, i'll be needing Fallout 2, k?


edit:  oh, something i forgot to mention.  i think it's really cool, actually, that the game has its own internal clock and things happen in the world in spite of what you're doing.  for example, on one save file where i dawdled a little bit and fucked around, when i went to Necropolis, i found that everyone was fucking dead.  and, in place of the ghouls, super mutants had taken over.  after trying to deal with this for about 20-30 minutes, i decided it would probably be easier to load an earlier save and just go there when the ghouls were still alive.  and, turned out i was right.

still, pretty cool that things like that will happen when you're not looking.

fo2 was made mostly by a different team. i strongly prefer fo1.

on a separate note: is shadow complex worthwhile?

i've heard the Fallout games have basically a downward slant in terms of quality.  i know why FO3 isn't quite up to par, but what is it about 2 that makes it significantly worse?


re: Shadow Complex.  in my opinion, it's not worth the asking price.  i would wait a few months for it to (inevitably) go on sale (as many popular XBLA games do).  it's not bad, it's just...i dunno, not completely my cup of tea.  it feels kind of cheap and not fully realized in a lot of ways and it's emphasis is more on action than it is on exploration.  you CAN explore, but for the most part you're on a track and deviating from it isn't very easy to do.

also, unlike, say Super Metroid, the environment is just so bland that i've never even really felt inclined to want to explore it.  nothing about it is mysterious or interesting or beautiful; it's just an underground fortress with the typical greys and electronics everywhere.


with Dave tonight, we were able to try out the demo for WET.  while i expected it probably would be more bs than it would be Devil May Cry, i didn't realize it would be that bad.  it's a game about trying to make you look like a badass with minimal effort and crappy controls.  also, within five minutes of playing i probably heard "fuck" about 100 times and already discovered a "TOY MONKEY" item that you will apparently have to collect throughout the game.  yay, collecting!  who doesn't love collecting things in a game, right?

Regarding Shadow Complex, I believe I mentioned it before, but will say it again... which more or less mirrors Joe's two cents: the game's severe lack of personality is its biggest detriment. It actually reminds me of Metroid 2 for the black and green Game Boy because I found myself having a hard time figuring what element of the environment to interact with due to everything looking so bland and gray. Though I never got lost, due to the severe degree of hand holding as Joe also noted.

I fondly remember everyone being up in arms with Super Metroid's map system, making thing far more linear than the original. Truth be told, I was in that camp. Well that game ain't got nothing on SC.

I also hate the awkward shooting into the background. Nice idea, poor execution.

Moving on, I recently downloaded Super Empire Strikes Back for the VC, mostly cuz it was one of those SNES games that I never got the chance to experience back in the day. And... what a piece of shit. Seriously. I can't believe everyone was so ga-ga for the Super Star Wars titles. What gives?

collecting is a bad deal.

i'm slowly grinding through prototype. i do mostly like it, though more weapons variation would have been nice. throwing cars at tanks from the top of a skyscraper doesn't really get old.

regarding fallout 2: it's more "gamey" if that makes sense. they fixed some UI issues, and your companions are no longer totally stupid and a danger to you and everyone around you, but it's definitely more har har. on the plus side there's a bunch of music from the selected ambient works 2 era of aphex twin.

it's certainly worth playing, but its not as streamlined an experience as the first.

well, i'll definitely check it out, then.  thus far the only companion i've used regularly is Dogmeat, but i have a feeling he isn't going to survive much longer.

which brings me to an update with the game.  so basically i'm fairly sure i'm right at the end and it's just a matter of going there and finishing things up. 

when i stated before that i didn't feel overpowered, well...things change.  actually, i take it back; i'm only overpowered against certain stuff, now.  i've still died a few times.  what changed this?  well, #1, i got some Power Armor and that shit is friggin great.  #2, while wandering through the desert i happened to come across something really....strange.  foreign, of the most severe degree, if you will.  and on one of the bodies i found a really awesome weapon and apparently this is some kind of super-rare occurrence in the game that only happens if you have a decent Luck stat.

so, yay for me on that front.


not quite sure if i want to go finish the fight now or fuck around a little more and see what else there is to do.  i'm not totally sure if i'm ready to take everything on yet, but from the 10 minutes i spent there just checking it out, it didn't seem like i'm totally underleveled.

and then there's The Glow, which i really haven't checked out beyond the minimum that one is required to check out.  i assume there's probably some cool stuff in it.

I'm going through Red Faction: Guerrilla - Badlands DLC at the moment. It's nice starting out with upgraded armor, and the Marauder weapons are fun to use so far. My main complaint is that they haven't really taken advantage of the creepiness of them yet, so far it's the standard transport, demolition, and house arrest rescue side missions, but the story might be picking up with this latest quest.

I also beat Wolfenstein on the 360. What a chore. Whatever good ideas Raven had, they just stomped them into the ground over, and over, and over again. You use the veil weapons and powers so rarely that I was mostly wishing I was playing Call of Duty 2.

I just pulled off a really sweet sequence break in Shadow Complex, it's my second one, but the first one was some sort of a glitch (I think I caused it by wall jumping around some sort of trigger) where I was able to get the foam gun early, but then I died and I couldn't get it again. But I got up on top of everything outside when I'm supposed to be getting the omega suit. So I'm just cruising around the early areas looking for secrets.

i haven't played anything, but i realized something today that made a lot of sense to me (although it may end up giving Mike some kind of stroke) in regard to Fallout.

Fallout is the American version of Shin Megami Tensei.

not literally, of course, but basically, the main SMT series (the post-apocalyptic one) has quite a lot in common with Fallout in terms of atmosphere.  of course, the main variations between the games come down to cultural ones.  i.e. one has mutants and one has demons.  and of course the general differences between J and American RPG gameplay systems that exist across the board.

but neither game is overdramatic, nor are the choices you make in the game painfully obvious and trivial.  the way you choose is different (once again, a cultural RPG thing), but both games rely more on your sensibilities than black and white objectivism.

Shit, I wasn't careful enough and now I've made my Shadow Complex save worthless. I didn't even have the omega suit yet and I had 700 health, 6 or 7 of the 10 armor upgrades, 40+ foams, who knows how many grenades.

I triggered the cutscene where they take your girl away (huge mech dudes this time, one of which I had run into earlier, too early, and he wouldn't attack me and I couldn't hurt him) twice, and the second time it caused the doors to lock down so that I couldn't go back, only forward. The problem is I need the gun that opens red doors to advance, and I don't have it. I can't find a way out and I think I'm totally stuck. It was fun while it lasted. I am at level 28 too, I believe the cap is 30.

So you can actually become stuck in the game? As in, there's no way to pass, but also no way to backtrack and do whatever you need to do to advance? Well that's royally stupid.

Speaking over overrated, can anyone explain to me why everyone is going ape-shit over the new Batman title? I just tried the demo and couldn't deal with more than five minutes of the thing. Aside from the atrocious character designs, which was the first real big turn off, the controls are really floaty, plus I hate how the action constantly slows down for the sake being dramatic, but it just drags everything down period. The camera also sucks, and even though I'm hardly the biggest God of War fan in the world, that guy David Jaffe was totally correct when saying that, when you have such a game, in which swarms of enemies are all coming after you... but aren't necessarily all attacking at once... you gotta have them do something while they wait their turn to get pummeled. Have them run back and forth or in circles, just anything other than just stand there looking dumb. Like all the enemies in this Batman title.

On a side-note, I love how everyone tries their best, but no one is going to top the Batmobile design of the first Tim Burton flick. Not gonna happen.

Get power armor, stock up on medkits and stimpacks, boost your med skills, and tank. Your character will endure much pain but it's entirely possible to beat the game with Dogmeat alive.

I haven't played FO in a decade … time for another spin, I think.

It turns out I wasn't stuck. It was just extremely difficult to see the way I had to go. So I just had to get missiles and I was good to go. Here's a list of the stuff I collected and didn't collect:

Collected:
Flashlight
Climbing Gear
WSP40 Pistol,
WSMP50 Compact
WSM400A1 Carbine
CLD Thrust Pack & Fusion Body Armor
SCHCA Mask
Grenades
Foam Gun
Missile Launcher

Skipped:
Omega Armor
Friction Dampener
WSAR60 Coil Rifle
Hook
Thrust Boots
Inertial Element
Fusion Helmet

I'll have to play through the game normal now. I must have missed half of it playing like this.

ok, so the part where everything starts blowing up after the cutscene

what's the plan there?

also, is that close enough to the end?  i'll go ahead and beat it if i'm almost there.

Spent the weekend mindlessly indulging in Batman:Arkham Asylum.  Finally a productive use for all that Bat-trivia I have in my head.

I don't know how you had a problem with that. I did it without the friction dampeners on my second attempt. You just run back the same way you came in. Out that room to the right, up the ladder, run to the left, up the elevator shaft, and out the door to the left and you're good. You can then look for more power-ups you might have missed, or head for the lake for the final battle which is pretty damn easy, but sort of awesome.

i think this is huge. HUUUUGE even. at least for rpgs. it'd be nice in most games but a lot of extra design work for most genres. a little bit of subtlety goes a long way, i feel.

I'm going back through and collecting the stuff I missed out of sequence to see if anything weird happens right now. I did find an interesting area where you had to go straight up, but it had a soft ceiling that kept you from jumping, and I foamed my way through it, which was pretty awesome.

In addition to Beatles Rock Band (http://www.fort90.com/journal/?p=719), my labor day weekend was dedicated towards beating MGS4. I forget what the opinion around here is on that game, but it went a long way towards validating my PS3 purchase.

And as noted in the aforementioned review, I finally ditched my copy of Guitar Hero 4, towards Muramasa for the Wii, which is pretty neat thus far. Also gave Shadow Complex another shot, and sorry, but that game can no longer hold my interest for more than 30 seconds.

almost done with prototype. running up buildings in times square to throw taxis at a giant exploding mutant lady is compelling stuff.

I think I like Shadow Complex more than Super Metroid maybe. It's the best side scroller I've played in a while. Becoming a badass new-god as you level up is very satisfying in insane mode because it's nice to finally be able to just wipe everyone out (there's definitely still a threat of dying though), and the foam gun is such a great idea.

Didn't we try that once?

yes, but we were defeated by the ascotted avatar of tedium and the giant shrimp alien that controls tiger woods. there were also cows and a security guard.

it's too bad i have no urge to make games because i'm pretty sure that's half an outline right there.

Demon's Souls arrived today. So far, it's a bit of a bitch to have to start over from the beginning of the level after dying, but I'm having a great time. Need... more... souls...

i downloaded Contra Rebirth on the Wii tonight.  i've really been looking forward to it and...it's kind of lopsided, on all accounts.  it definitely has heart in some of the right places, but the difficult is waaaay too scattered.  it's only five (rather short) levels, two of which aren't difficult at all.  the others have difficult parts in them, but nothing practice can't handle.  at the same time, you have unlimited continues, so nothing is really stopping your from credit spamming your way through the game.

i guess if i want to get satisfaction from it, i'll have to have to self-imposed limits.  which, to some extent, always comes off to me as being somewhat lazy on the part of designers.  unless it's a straight arcade port or something (which this is not).

the parts that are good are definitely good and it feels more like Contra to me than Contra 4 did, but i just wish there more of something in this game.  kind of a shame, and kind of a waste.

but, i definitely see potential with this game for making a decent two-player experience.  the problem, i've found, with most Contra games is that if one person is good at the game and the other is not, one person is ultimately going to end up watching the other play for 30 minutes.  this one, especially on Easy mode, is pretty accessible, so i think it might be a good time with another person.

oh, another thing that kind of sucks is that there are only four weapons:  machine gun (which you start with), spread, laser and homing missiles.  Contra: Shattered Soldier technically on had two or three weapons, but they were perfectly balanced and you had access to all of them at all times to use depending on a situation.  in this game, it just feels like laziness.

though i know it'll never happen, i feel that, for the reasons stated above, Nocturne on PS2 might be the only game from Japan you might possibly like in this day and age. 

but um, even biases aside, with your upcoming...stuff!...i'm sure a 40-50 hour RPG is probably not high up on your "to do" list right now.

but hey dude, i'll totally let you borrow my PS2 in 20 years.


as for Fallout:  i'm finding myself at somewhat of an impasse.  i find that the end part of games is where things generally fall apart for most games.  while i wouldn't say everything has gone to shit (at all), i do feel like to finish up this very last part, i'm going to have to invest some time in not-so-fun things, game wise.  but i'm there, and maybe this weekend i'll try to go through it again.

i'm having issues with miniguns.  they're very inconsistent.  they go from doing zero damage to killing me instantaneously out of nowhere.

I'm embarrassed to admit that I've had this for almost forever and have yet to give it a spin! I guess now that I'm done with MGS4, I've got no excuse...

the rule is "stay away from burst weapons at all times".

oh man, Demon Souls is out???  crap, i gotta get that as soon as i get paid.

how did MGS4 go for you, Matt?

Sorry, but Ryan and I are talking about our press copies. The retail version hits... early October I think?

Just got platinum medals (and the top friend leaderboard score) for each of the Shadow Complex challenge stages. They are really good despite a bug that forces you to wait until after you start to hold the run button down.

As already explained last night to Joe in person, I absolutely LOVED MGS4. Sorry if that makes me look like a Kojima mark, but it was a damn near perfect gaming experience to me, with enough flash and genuine substance to totally justify my PS3 purchase. I suppose I wouldn't feel as strongly if I wasn't such a Metal Gear fan boy, and as a result, stuff like the REX vs RAY fight made me feel like a kid in a candy store.

Also, Old Snake is easily the greatest video game character of all time, period. And that final fight scene, with two old guys trying to beat the shit out of each other? Fine comedy at its best.

man, Contra Rebirth is just so unengaging :(

it just misses the point so bad.  and it's such a shame, considering how good Gradius Rebirth was.

i guess i'll just go replay Neo Contra and Shattered Soldier

or Hard Corps

finally finished prototype. big ups to the devs for including a post-game free running, clean up your unfinished business mode. there's a new game + which i might consider if i'm in the market for some beat em up time in the future. (note: there will be no such market)

so i bought Muramasa on Wii last night, even though Matt said he was kind of "meh" about it.  i was actually sort of feeling bad i'd spent the money, since i wasn't really sure what i was getting myself into.

anyway, i actually like it quite a bit!  i agree with Matt's assertions on a few points, like the fact that there are times when you just travel through empty screens.  but what tends to make up for this is that you move relatively quickly and the game looks reaallllly pretty, so it kind of doesn't matter?

things i like:  the food/cooking aspect of the game.  i really, unnecessarily enjoy eating virtual versions of the food i eat at Kenka.  that's...really, stupid i know, but what can i say.  i'm also a big fan of the combat in this game.  this is probably because i'm playing in "shura" mode as opposed to "muso."  quick:  " Muso Mode focuses on character leveling as opposed to action, whereas Shura Mode is more action-based, recommended for skilled players." 

the combat system is actually a lot of fun and i can't even begin to imagine how boring it would be if the enemies didn't fight back as hard as they have been. 

and, as mentioned above, the game is exceptionally nice to look at.  it also has that certain Japanese aesthetic that i really love.  it's not anime, it just heavily draws on actual Japanese mythology and aesthetics, which is something i've always enjoyed.  there are no anime cliches or stupid facial expressions or sweat droplets running down the back of someone's head.

so instead of playing some bound in blood last night i loaded up diablo 2.

oh god.

Have actually been meaning to mention how I've been playing Muramasa for a couple days now, and as Joe noted, my initial impression was basically "this is fucking retarded". Since then, I've warmed up to it, but every time I'm ready to go "okay, this game is pretty awesome after-all", I get severely annoyed by one of its many quirks and get pissed again.

Let's start with the cooking, which is pretty cute. Yet despite also enjoying unnecessary stuff, I can't be bothered in this instance, due to the annoying menu system. Which doesn't break the game but is just so poorly laid out.

The whole thing is a bit of a mess. It's a GORGEOUS (like one of the prettiest 2D games ever made, seriously) game trapped in an overly complicated package, which in turn makes the combat even more boring that it truly is. I personally find Shura mode just as much of a button masher as the easier setting, but that's mostly thanks to the completely idiotic decision to not have a jump button. Any degree of precision that the game deserves has already been thrown out the window from the get so, imho, so perhaps I'm not allowing myself to really get into the right state of mind.

Also, I'm so fucking sick of the mission objectives, which are "meet [long ass Japanese name] at [long ass Japanese name] by taking a short-cut through [long ass Japanese name]" with zero context.

I think having a jump button would have made more sense at times, but some of the simplified controls allow for more precision. Being able to hold down the attack button and then slash around the screen by just hitting a direction is great.

Also, the "missions" are silly, yes, but I think the emphasis is more on combat than on exploration, so it's not necessarily as important. Every enemy has a different way to defeat it, so i see the story as mainly a way to give some simple meaning as to why you're killing people.

Welcome to the Terrordome. I have probably lost more man-hours to Diablo 2 than any other game.

I never got to play Diablo 2. I loved the first game, but something about 2 turned me
off at the time. Maybe because it seemed so big?  I mean, the first one was essentially
one small town and a very deep church.

I liked how you revisited the first game's areas though (nostalgia trip)

Yeah, the first game is almost certainly better; Diablo 2 has a more robust network setup though, so it's easier to play with multiple people at the same time, which I find horribly addicting.

so in short what makes 1 better than 2? i have spent very little time in the first one.

Diablo 2 overcooks the formula, it becomes "too much" for me in that you're fighting through waves and waves of often the same enemies over and over again and it winds up dulling the brain. It's as if the same experience of your character getting stronger, getting the phattest lewt and defeating various bosses takes place in both games, only it takes place over a much longer span of time in the sequel, possibly three to four times as long.

so diablo 1 is shorter? sounds good, 2 was just grinding nonsense to me.

i just a-b'd that shit:

2's interface is legions ahead of 1
1 does have an odd kind of character that's somewhat endearing
2 is a lot faster, if more crowded
2 having skills does add a bit more strategy
war cries are still lame

Yeah, the interface is way nicer and the game is a lot prettier. Having the skills and minions and such mean that there's more of a higher-level strategy to the game as well, although that mainly only comes out in playing through multiple difficulty levels or in PvP.

It's a close call and as I said before, I've played the second one a lot more, mainly because it's far easier to set up online/LAN games. I like that in the original, finding good items and going up levels feels more significant as there isn't so much of everything. It's a "feel" thing for the most part, to be an indie-style ass.

naw, i can totally see that.

the first is more personable and unique looking, if uniquely a bit gross. and definitely feels more rogue-y.

so much lewt...so much.

i can't stop playing Muramasa.

i beat the girl's scenario and i'm in the process of the (more difficult) dude's quest.

and then apparently when i beat it with both characters there's more stages and multiple endings

shiiiiit


also, i want ODST but lack the funds for it.  will everyone still be playing in 3 weeks?

Return some of those jRPGs and get credit to buy ODST. We need you for Firefight. I'm gonna go grab my copy in about an hour at WIZARD ELECTROLAND.

man, even if i traded in 30 of those jrpgs, i'd still need $45 for ODST.


i'll get it soon! 

maybe sooner if i can't control myself....

This new soundtrack is really nice. Without anything going on in the city, it doesn't feel like the Halo 2 New Mombassa teaser like I was kind of hoping. The city actually all feels very samey, which also helps make this feel even more like Halo 1. It actually so much like Halo 1 that I was having a really hard time using the right bumper to reload instead of the x button.

I should probably just put this in the Halo thread.

Batman Arkum Asylum is some goty material. I'm really enjoying it. Beyond the combat being excellent, the dialogue and story being the quality you would expect from a feature length animation, and the nice graphics, there is some interesting stuff going on with the parallels that are drawn between the Joker & Riddler and the game designers. The most interesting moment was when I happened into an area I wasn't compelled to go to, the visitor center, and inside was a Joker mannequin with a television for a head through which the Joker was talking to Batman. He was asking about who is "the man behind the mask," which of course is a standard question for the Joker, but it was interesting that the view was also switched to a first person view here.

I should note that there is a high score mode where you can play through certain encounters for time and/or score runs. Some of them are things like beat up 20 guys, or take out six armed men as quickly as possible. The game is fun enough that this is the sort of stuff you will be able to enjoy doing after you've played though the entire game.

The downloadable content, particularly some of the more complicated stealth boards are excellent as well.

They benefited greatly from having Paul Dini do the writing for it and getting three of the core voice actors from the DC animated shows for the game.

ive gotten a few games recently but the one ive been playing the most is call of duty 2. sometimes im up till 5 in the morning playing that thing and i dont even realize it.


i love call of duty

the mobs of the burning hells are kicking my ass in diablo 2. need to start using, like, strategy or something.

What difficulty level are you on and what kind of character are you playing?

normal, barbarian, leapin' and double-slashin' my way across hell. mephisto was a walk in the park but i finally got tagged last night real hard. lame!

As another selling point for Batman: Arkham Asylum, you spend most of the game beating up juggalos.

so i finally got around to renting Prototype

or rather, Blockbuster finally had a copy when i was there the other day.

so, i'm glad i rented it.  it's really not doing much for me in any of the ways i assume it should be.  the combat feels unsatisfying (though i'm a bit stuck up when it comes to beat'em up combat) and the freeroaming appears somewhat illusory.  it's cool, in theory, to run all over Manhattan with ridiculous powers, but i don't feel threatened by anything.  and there's no real punishment for being a jerk either.  i find myself just destroying stuff because the game makes me mad.

but, yea, not my cup of tea.


what i played of the new Batman game at Dave's convinced me that i'd probably buy it when it's $30.  if i loved Batman that much more, then i'd probably have it already.  but yea, pretty good fun.

I tried giving the Batman demo another shot earlier today, to understand why Dave and the rest of the world loves it to so much. And I must admit, the MGS-esque elements are pretty interesting, but otherwise, I still find the game to be a boring eyesore as before.

The combat is mostly "eh", due to everything being so stupidly float, though the wonky camera is the biggest culprit. Though the enemy's AI started to shine as I trudged forward, so maybe the later boss battles are lots of fun. But once again, I can't recall a game with such putrid art direction. As stupid as it sounds, if it had a slightly better coat of paint, I'd be willing to give it more of a chance.

Then again, maybe I just have bad taste, because another game that everyone seems to be jacking off to, Muramasa, is also equally annoying, which I'm trying my best to at least clear somewhat. Am on the final boss with the girl and dear God is the lack of a jump button really getting in the way of things.

mostly for scratchmonkey: diablo! diablo keeps fucking killing me. i'm up to level 32 and still getting whacked hard every time i try to go toe to toe. leaping in and out helps, but homeslice just keeps kicking my ass. (all my elemental resistances are at 75%, highest you can get on normal) running away from the chain lightning thing he does works out ok but every other attack he has is just total dickery.

the internet is no help in this regard, being all up on the "here's my level 99 barbarian who specialized in throwing pink javelins eastward" and other boutique builds.

oh, forgot to mention that i started a new game of Romancing SaGa on PS2.

i think the title of "favorite JRPG series" (by which i meant "only JRPG series i can really still enjoy") is something of a tossup between Shin Megami Tensei and the SaGa series.

i've spoken at some length before about my trek through the unabashedly bizarre Unlimited Saga, but Romancing SaGa is much more accessible to anyone.  or, at least it appears that way to me after playing Unlimited.

but the thing about SaGa games (in the Playstation era and beyond at least [never got to play the SNES games]), is that they're probably the only true "nonlinear" JRPGs in existence.  they're nonlinear in the way that Fallout is nonlinear.  there are certainly things you can do to advance the plot, but you aren't necessarily told "GO HERE" or forced to move in a straight path.  the lack of a level system also eliminates grinding to a large degree.  it's basically one of the only JRPG series i've played that doesn't immediately assume the player is a complete and utter moron.

sometimes it even assumes a bit too much of the player.  but that turns out to be a really good thing when you give the series enough of a chance.


anyway, i'm currently playing through as the prince who wears fairy wings for some reason.  i've recruited a big amazonian Norsewoman, a king and his knight and the acoustic-guitar-playing Bard who leaves and joins randomly but is an amazing attacker.

hoping i can get the pirate to join me soon.

Yeah, good luck. I guess they figured as the initial end-boss, Diablo hisself needed to be at ridiculous levels of powerful. The main thing with his attacks is to avoid the red-breath thing as it does ridiculous amounts of damage and I don't think any of the resists apply to it.

Generally, the strategy that I wind up using is placing a town portal fairly far away from him so that he can't Bone Prison it, making sure that you've got a fairly useful minion and having a lot of potions. It's one of those fights where you're probably going to be spending a lot of time hammering on the number keys so that you can keep yourself at a non-critical amount of health. Remember that you can use the Horadric Cube* to combine potions.

I imagine that when you finally do it, it will involve a lot of running back to town to resurrect your minion and buy more potions. At least that's how it goes for me.

* - You have quite a treasure there in that Horadric Cube.

i'm going to level up to 35 or 36 and then try him again. it's ruinous to keep dying like that.

right now i'm trying to figure out what other prereqs i need for whirlwind. i have a bunch of good weapons (dual wield) but i'm not sure if i want more mana/leech combos or to keep what i have now, which is a good main weapon and an off hand that drains mana and ignores target defense when striking.

i've used the hordradic cube to build perfect versions of all the gems and combine runes. am i missing out on something else, though? i.e. will 3 super potions make an ultra or something?

Here's a list of transmutations you can do with the Cube (http://Here's a list of transmutations you can do with the Cube).

The most important one is that you can use 3 Health potions + 3 Mana potions + one chipped gem to make a rejuv potion and that 3 rejuv potions can be combined to be a full rejuvenation.

In terms of weapons, I'm not sure that mana stealing sounds that great unless that weapon has good damage to go with the ignore defense. Generally, you want to concentrate on maximizing damage above all else, especially as a barbarian.

because otherwise i run out of power for my double strike, which is my main attack. leap is my secondary attack as i don't have the prereqs for whirlwind yet.

am i doing something wrong?

Leap or Leap Attack? I'm assuming the latter, since the former doesn't do any damage in and of itself. So that involves a lot of running around trying to get the space necessary to leap into him, then running away again?

As for Double Swing, yeah, that sounds like a pretty bad skill, especially for use against Diablo. The main function of it is that you can hit multiple enemies at once. There's no damage bonus though, which means that it won't be that effective against a single enemy with a large amount of health who can hurt you faster than you can hurt it. The "money" skill for dual-wielding Barbarians is Frenzy, which is what I max out most of the time, along with points in the various Weapon Mastery skills for further pumping of damage.

Whirlwind might be helpful once you get it; I think you might be boned in that you won't be able to put enough ranks into it to make it really effective.

This highlights one of the issues that I have with Diablo II -- it introduces the skill trees to the game and while they seem pretty useful early on, once the game gets reasonably difficult, it becomes clear that certain skills aren't that useful and that spreading your points around isn't useful at all -- you really need to concentrate on creating a character around a "theme" that usually involves putting almost all of your skill points into a handful of skills and 1 skill into those that you might need for prerequisites. This is pretty much true across all of the classes.

dang.

on solo enemies it hits with both weapons. i'm mostly one or two hit killing everything in hell that's not diablo, really, minus some of the more annoying guardians of the gates or whatever they're called. i mostly use leap attack to run the fuck away from diablo rather than hitting him. maybe i should just try bashing his ass and circle strafing instead?

daaaaaaaang.

ok, gonna try to build up frenzy. we'll see how that goes.

i think i spent too many points (12) in swords mastery, maybe.

i really, really want Demon's Souls

but have no money until tonight at 1am

so uh, guess i have to wait for that.


in the interim, still playing Romancing SaGa.  i like how some quests turn out to be a lot...simpler, than a long-time RPG player might think.  for example, some guy asks for bodyguards to assist him into the catacombs of a city.  i was expecting the typical RPG-ish catacomb-ish dungeon crawl with some undead enemies.  but uh, no!  apparently once you get to the room, he just does some grave robbing and then you're done with the mission!

one might call that "lame," but i think it's actually rather interesting.

and while the game doesn't necessarily have a good/evil system, apparently doing certain missions will affect which other missions become available to you.  so if i kill so and so, i can't accept a mission from him later, etc. etc. 

good times!

So long as you're only using swords, that's fine. Most folks just max out one of the weapon skills and then stick to those weapons for the rest of the game.

You might want to try and see how Leap Attack works out, I'm not sure how many points you've put into it; it does a large amount of damage though. That said, I don't think it really works with dual-wield. It's more of a spear or polearm thing.

Been mostly playing lots of arcade titles on the 360, along with demos here and there..

First off, I simply cannot recommend this game enough: http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/games/media/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d8025855031e/?bt=0&sb=1&mt=32&gu=66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d8025855031e&p=1&of=0

... It's by far the most polished, and most fun to play, indie game on the 360. Yes, even more so than Streets of Fury.

Kaiten Pastissier, another indie title from Japan, is also a nice little distraction, and costs only $1 to fully unlock. It's VERY much like a GBA game, which you'll see for yourselves.

I gave the demo for that Lucasarts sidescroller a spin for a bit... I forget the name. Wonderful graphics. But really boring.

Semi-related: anyone else give the demo for Brutal Legends a spin? It's... "eh". As expected. My hunch is that the final product will be just as vastly overrated as Psychonauts.

Also nabbed the demo of Wet. I kinda like it? Since it reminds me of Stranglehold. Though it's not as interesting, when you get down to it.

Then there's the new Need For Speed, which I like a lot. Aren't the people who make Project Gotham Racing behind this?

Though I'll get it when it's $10, cuz the only racer I want is DiRT2 based from it's demo. Among other things, it seriously has the most beautiful racing graphics that I've ever seen. I can't understand why more folks aren't making a stink about it.

Meanwhile, on the PS3, I just nabbed Critter Crunch. Was a BIG fan of the BREW and iPhone versions, and the console iteration is also a sight to behold. Too bad it's the kind of game that just works far better on a portable device.

Oh, and I got the Japanese demo of Bayonetta. I guess because of my SD set, I can't tell how bad it supposedly looks!

I played quite a bit of Dirt 2 when I was home last and I really enjoyed it. I would probably pick that up over Forza or NFS:S just because it's Rally anyways. But I should mention that Forza is running at 60fps for people like me that care about that. :/

I watched my roommate play Uncharted 2 for a while today. It's kind of awesome; I would totally watch the movie anyways.

Wait, isn't DiRT2 running in 60 fps? Isn't that the big thing this time, that they managed to bump up the frame rate? For the record, I prefer 60 as well, but in the age of HD graphics, its becoming hard, at least for me, to differentiate between 30 and 45 and 60, at least for the AAA titles. Also, I believe folks who say that it makes a major difference when playing the games to be somewhat full of themselves, but we all have our things. Though them saying people who dig games that dip below 60 are retards is fairly obnoxious.

Oh, I also forgot to mention that I picked up Uncharted 1 today! Finally found a brand new copy that isn't the fugly greatest hits edition (though with the new package redesign, I should forget about any semblance of consistency on my shelf... sorry, but I'm one of those kind of people). Thus far its great! I love the pace and atmosphere, plus the lead character is extremely likable.

Yeah, Uncharted 2 is making me think I'll have to borrow that one from you sometime after you finish.

Dirt 2 might be over 30fps because it did look pretty smooth, but it's not at 60. You could tell just from screenshots, it just looks too good to run at 60fps. Forza 3 looks great too, but it has a lot less going on in terms of effects and rendering I think.

WET would be much better if everything was toned down a bit. Unless you have a perfect run through every level, you come to realize how inadequate the exagerrated animations/moves are - I'm tired of overshooting a platform because she feels the need to leap everywhere.

Its fun listening to Katie play LittleBigPlanet in the background, cuz her range of emotions is typical to what most folks encounter when first trying the game...

"Hey, this is awesome! ... Well that's certainly interesting... What's going on here? What am I supposed to do? ... Enough with the stupid narration... WHAT THE FUCK IS WITH THIS STUPID CONTROL?!?!"

finally beat diablo. dang. finding the expansion (lord of destruction) to be far more "well-plotted" for an arpg than anything that came before.

At the moment I'm trying to finish the games that I had on my shelves for a while (but it most likely won't happen).

Managed to beat Blazing Angels 2 - arcade plane shooting game with WWII pulp / Indiana Jones "story line". Only two really frustrating missions (out of 18) - which is a good thing. Ace Combat 6 is another fun modern plane arcade sim/shooter, but it has the most horrible "plot" and cutscenes ever which made me hate it after 5 or so missions. I just could not make myself watch another one of those overtly dramatic JRPG quasi-intellectual 3 minutes mini movies with melancholic music that to be honest have not a lot to do with what's going on in real game (judging from mission briefing). I want to fly and shoot crap down, I'm not interested in a story of a woman who lost their child in a bombing and now she is wandering through war torn countryside trying to cope with her loss and having way to many inner monologues and constant flashbacks to happy old days.

Next are Il-2 and Project Sylpheed but I haven't really put any significant time into them. Il-2 seems way more fun that Blazing Angels for a WWII plane arcade shooter (but also requires more dedication and attention), and PS is just insane sci-fi anime space shooter (from Square Enix) with dozens upon dozes of rockets and multi color explosions filling up the screen.

Raiden IV is yet another game that I haven't set aside enough time to get into, but it feels a bit different (harder) than Fighters Jet. Other difference is that you have only one plane available at the beginning (and two more waiting for you as DLC for about a dollar each, which I do not mind at all, considering that game is $40). Manic shooter fans fans will find Dual mode really interesting - it allows you to play two ships with one controller (anyone remembers that insane Ikaruga video with double play (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToBdzV7w5Pc)?)

Battle Fantasia which I got after yet another price cut at gamestop (now, new for $20) is pretty fun fighting game with last boss reminding you of KoF last boss syndrome (aka. cheapness). For fans of wacky and cute characters (not as wacky as Guilty Gear). Interesting thing is that it looks quite similar to SFIV, not really in the art style, but in the 3D character models fighting on 2D plane way.

I "finished" single player career in Dirt 2 and I have to say this game is excellent. More arcade driving and damage model (over the one known from Dirt1), introduction of (limited) time rewind feature known from Grid, coolest user interface in racing game ever, lack of music during race (only in menus, and soundtracks has only one track that mildly irritates me - so that's a huge plus), mind blowingly good graphics and no frame rate issues (I had it happen to me once, but I think i was playing it constantly for six hours at that point) make this game really shine. On the other hand the game is WAY more forgiving than it's predecessor, introduction of X-games gives it more "american flavor" (as opposed to straight euro-tentric WRC known from part 1). There are no more huge trucks or Paris-Darkar challenges, damage does not carry over the races in one event and managing repair time feature was dropped entirely (i heard it will be in Forza, where instead of spending time, you'll have to spend money earned in career mode to fix your cars. I have to add that I never played Forza game before, but after seeing some of the footage from the new one I kinda want it). There is no rain, snow or any other weather effects. Dirt 2 has one other nice addition - in timed events start times between cars have been significantly shortened, so there is a possibility to catch up to and pass even other drivers that started before you. In short - if you like your driving games - you'll like Dirt 2.

Currently I'm getting back into Chromehounds, arcade mech game on 360 (that still has a lot of people playing it on-line) and I'm reading Demon's Souls guide before I start playing it.

Thanks for the head's up regarding DiRT 2. Yeah, the interface gives me a gigantic hard-on... I'm so into such things, and it's amazing how Codemasters seems to out do themselves each and every time. It's almost to the point that I get their racers just for that. And they even managed to make me not mind the X-Game-like quality, which I normally abhor.

That being said, nothing other than desert? No rain or snow? That.... really bites, especially for an off-road racer. Hmmm...

BTW, there's a sale going on at Toys R Us; buy two, get one game free, anything. Was gonna maybe pick up this game as part of some package, but now might just wait.

Oh, I've asked Katie to pop in and talk about her playing Jet Set Radio Future. Though the most important thing is her constantly asking: "Are you sure this was made by the Japanese and not some weeaboo?"

The rewinds in Dirt 2 are great. And it keeps your entire race so when you're finished you can watch it with slow motion and rewind, which is great for those exceptional crashes. My grandmother even thought it was kind of neat to see my car flip several times after hitting a boulder and then landing on all four wheels, in slow motion.

My brother says the physics aren't good enough in Dirt 2, but it feels fine to me. I think he might have been a little sore because I was doing slightly better than him and he's usually the racing pro.

I've been playing Scribblenauts too. It has plenty of levels, which is great, but maybe it has too many? You sometimes see the same basic challenge over and over again, but even very similar challenges will be approached totally differently by different people. Sometimes you'll just look at things so totally differently. I've been abusing tornado perhaps a little too much though.

Dirt 2 has a lot of different locations actually. You start in Baja, so sand dunes and dirt all the way, London has more of the industrial feel of racing on asphalt / gravel of industrial area (quite similar to those events in Grid where you race in a shipyard), Croatia is mostly hilly terrain covered with gravel / dirt and patches of grassy mountainsides. Morocco and China - are dry, Morocco has more winding hill roads, China is all about flat country roads and sharp turns thru narrow villages anbd prett ysweet long bridges. Japan is quite similar to England - asphalt mixed with dirt and mud. There is one event in Japan that is setup in converted sports arena - pretty sweet. LA is again mix of England and Japan - mostly converted racetracks (F3 maybe?) so there are a lot of asphalt / dirt transitions changes. Utah - really flat desert / canyon terrain with occasional elevation change and a lot of dangerous rocks littering the side of the track. Malaysia is covered with mud and muddy forest roads - quite tricky epecialy when you race on them in the buggies.

I actually do not mind lack of weather and consider it to be something to improve upon when they release Dirt 3 ;)

man, baal is even more of an asshole than diablo was.

So I was passed along a copy of Katamari Forever, and if there's ever a clear-cut sign that the franchise has no life left in it. But that being said, I'm still moving forward due to the FANTASTIC soundtrack. Believe the hype. It also says something when the YMCK tracks are the weakest of the bunch (since they too are pretty phenomenal).

been debating picking that one up.  not really sure if there's a point other than "it's there."  it certainly looks and sounds pretty, though.

i guess my only reservations tend to stem from a weird sort of "allegiance" towards the creator.  he obviously had no real input on the game and has set his attentions elsewhere, so it's like, what's the point?

but is it relatively fun yet more of the same?

Nah man, he's a pussycat, especially compared to fighting the Ancients and those horrible creatures that he summons before you go and find the actual dude.

Yeah, but there's just SO much annoying nonsense and clutter. The story and structure for one, which isn't particularly offensive, but just makes no sense, and not in a whimsical manner.

There's a new point structure at play, which makes the game more of a game, but it too is unneeded and somewhat goes against the spirit of the original.

The visuals now sports this colored pencil filter, which is neat, but again is completely unnecessary.

Oh, don't forget about the new jump move, which doesn't completely break the experience as I had originally feared, but mostly because it's so utterly useless.

At this point, I'm just rushing through the thing so I can review it on my site.

ahh, yeah, i get murded by the hyperspeeded demon fucks whom i believe are the last round of summons.

the ancients were easy as hell, though. at least, i found them as such.

Demons Souls

holy


holy shit i love it.

it's like an action rogelike and it's totally fucking radical x 110.  loving the shit out of the game and how incredibly mean it is.  the multiplayer aspect is amazingly inventive, too.  you're always connected online, so people can leave messages to warn you of traps or enemies, or...just fuck with you if they're mean.  you also can look at bloodstains where people died, and it will replay how that person died, thus giving you an idea of what's coming up.

just overall, really happy with the purchase.  

Mike, i definitely think you'd be loving this game

if it weren't on PS3


Dave you should get this

Sounds interesting enough. I don't really feel like paying $60 for a video game right now though.

fair enough.  maybe i'll show it to you this weekend or something.

anyway, played more Demon's Souls last night and it's still unrelentingly hard.  at the very least, it's nice that they don't take away all your items from you when you die or i'd probably cry.  i'm currently working on a section that requires precise timing:  run through a castle wall fast enough to avoid a dragon that is swooping down every few seconds and burning everything to hell.  once i've made it past that, i need to fight a few knights (who are incredibly tough) and then there's the boss, who i tried once last night and...well, figured out how to hurt it, but still not sure the best method yet.

apparently there are more multiplayer options than i initially thought in the game, too.  you use stones to have your spirit summoned to another player's world.  and you can do co-op OR, and this sounds fun, you invade the person's world and have to hunt them down, kill them and take all the souls they've accrued.  good times and something i'm likely to try when i'm a bit stronger.

overall the atmosphere of the game is great.  it's not scary, but it's absolutely tense.  the game is pitch black at times, meaning you can't mindlessly run through areas.  i've tried summoning some other people's souls into my game, but so far all the summons have failed.  not sure if this is because they quit before i get to them or if it's a network thing.  the PS3 has a really shitty online component, not gonna lie.

MGS4 spoilers I guess; trying to get through the part where Old Snake is crawling through the microwaved corridor to GW, furiously tapping triangle and cursing my carpal tunnel syndrome hands.  I'm going to hurt like a bitch tomorrow, but dammit was that immersive.

This makes me realize I can never replay an MGS game and be able get through the torture scenes :(

Persona on the PSP, which is decent and about what I recall from playing it way back when. I need to beef up my party some more. I am almost done with Darkest of Days, which has to be the sloppiest game I've playing in this generation - nothing like spawning over a bridge and falling straight through it.

is darkest of days worth toying with?

edit: demo was kinda ok. interesting premise, shit execution. shooting roman legionaries in the face, though...that's tempting.

finally beat baal so i'm running through the last game i bought, which is bound in blood, the call of juarez sequel. it's the best western fps since outlaws, but seeing as the only competition was it's predecessor, that's not really saying too much.

been playing Uncharted 2 quite a bit lately.  it's pretty much the best of its kind when it comes down to the American 3rd Party 3rd Person adventure games.  most, i find, have absolutely horrible controls and play like some kind of budget shovelware (see: Brutal Legend), but Uncharted apes so many "great" games that it manages to make something potentially boring into a lot of fun.

none of the game is groundbreaking per se, but it's almost always enjoyable to play.  it doesn't matter that some things make no sense, plot wise; ultimately, you're playing an action movie.  and it helps, a lot, that the dialogue is actually well executed and funny.  like, to an amazing degree, at times.


also been playing the PSP a bit.  i picked up Prinny: Can I Really be the Hero?  despite its connections to Disagaea and all that type of animu, the game is actually a pretty intense sidescroller.  i'd compare it to something between Mega Man Zero and Ghosts n' Goblins.  that's actually the best comparison i could make, i think.  really worth playing if you're into challenging platformers.

also played the demos of Half-Minute Hero.  i'm pretty much in love with the game's execution, but not totally sure of "Evil" side's game yet.  the RTS kind of segments aren't really interesting me as much as the 30-second JRPG games.  still, i'll pick up the full game eventually.

all right, so what the hell is the deal with this game Borderlands?

it appears like it might be kind of fun!  people on SB are comparing it to something like Diablo (or a less messy Hellgate).  i can't tell if it's freeroaming or not, but it has some decent co-op options it would appear.  it seems like something that would be on Mike's radar.  is it?

how about you, Dave? 

either way, i'm pretty interested in the game.

borderlands is on my radar. i may or may not pick it up in a few months when it's less than 50 bucks, however, unless one of you guys gets all GET THIS NOWWWWWW on my ass.

a little birdie has told me we're going to see an age of decadence public combat demo shortly.

I haven't been paying enough attention to what's up and coming since I quit my job. Basically I know about L4D2 and SSFIV. Borderlands sounds familiar, but I really don't have any idea about it.

well, as far as i can see, it's a post-apocalyptic future RPG FPS type game.  some people are saying it's a bit more Fallout than Fallout 3 was, but i'm not sure if they know what they're talking about?  though the prospect of that sounds fun.  the main thing i'm unsure of is if the game is freeroaming or not.  it could still be fun even if divided into stages, i'd imagine, but the former would probably be a lot more enjoyable in the long run.

anyway, i'm researching....

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009/10/20/the-rps-verdict-borderlands/

hmmmmm....

sounds kinda neat. Maybe after this coming paycheck, I'll consider picking it up.

Dave: check out some videos. I think we could have some fun with this one

Yeah, see here's the problem with that game: it looks great and all, but it's a PC game, and yet I think I'll find the most people to play with on XBL, it's just better suited for multiplayer games with specific friends. I also wouldn't want to pay an extra $11 for the console version.

Played a bit of Borderlands. Unfortunately I also realized that it's not just UT3 that is giving me problems saving, and when I moved my stuff around and changed permissions and ownership and stuff I messed something up and games and apps are having a hard time saving file preferences and such, so I played Borderlands for an hour or more, it doesn't have a save system, only autosave, so of course I didn't get any error that it couldn't save, and now it doesn't remember a damn thing.

Anyways, it's pretty cool, but it already feels very grindy and a little too much like a lonely MMO. Very charming intro with fitting music. The graphical options are all great (occlusion shadows), but lack of V-Sync is sort of driving me crazy. I picked the girl and have been tearing it up with a nice scoped pistol, but apparently I'm too good because she says way too often "Damn, I'm good at this" or something to that effect. The sort of soundbite that should be played much less or at least should have alternates. So yeah, good graphics, nice fps meets RPG, but I'm not really deep enough to say if it makes a good singleplayer game or if it's only worthwhile with other people. And even then, the combat isn't sooo exciting, the vehicles will have to be a lot of fun.

i'll try to see if i can rent it at some point and give it a spin.  i have some suspicions about the game that are holding me back from purchasing it.  well, that and being broke.

When starting a new character you can't skip ANYTHING. I'm going to take that to mean that they don't think their game is good enough that you'd want to play through again or start a second character.

i'm not sure i follow.  what do you mean "skip ANYTHING?"  character-creation wise or are we talking about cutscenes here?

All the cutscenes in the beginning and all the tutorial-ish stuff in the beginning with the robot like getting your HUD set up. There is no character creation, that's all done by picking one of four characters and then using skill points in one of three different threes (each branch has maybe 4 or 5 levels with two skills per level that take about 3 to 5 points to go full). The beginning movie is really nice and all, but I don't need to see it again. You also have to delete all the intro videos (like NVidia and such) somehow because you can't skip them. Why do developers do this?!

I broke down and pre-ordered L4D2 for $45 bucks. The demo will be available to early adopters in an hour and I'd like to play with some people. At least with a game at $45 (no tax) I can feel good about having saved about 30% of the $65 I would have spent on a console game.

EDIT: In Borderland's defense, you can alt tab out of most of the intro stuff without a problem and let it run in the background.

Just tried playing the Wii JU-ON game. Might possibly be the worst Wii game ever created. Was gonna beat the game as soon as possible and then hope to trade it into Gamestop before they start refusing to accept copies. But now am thinking of holding on to it, for purely historical purposes.

Tekken 6 just arrived in the mail! Both versions... so the question is, which one do I crack in first/spend most of my time with? Anyone else around here playing the game or have plans to? And if so, what platform?

i'm going to get Tekken 6 eventually and will probably get it for the PS3.  how soon i do that, kind of depends on the financial stuff in the next week or so.  but yea, i'm definitely looking forward to picking it up.

played Metal Gear Ac!d 2 a bit last night.  it does everything that 1 does, except better and with more style.  someone on sb described it as "Metal Gear Persona" and that's actually a pretty apt description, if you ask me.

so i can't remember; do Dave and Mike enjoy adventure/exploration games like the old Lucasarts style games?

http://machinarium.net/demo/

if so, then you should go play Machinarium!

it's the newest game from Amanita Design, the guy(s) who brought out Samorost some years back.  i actually interviewed this guy back in college, though the electronic transcript of that is long gone (thanks to hotmail).

it plays pretty similarly to his other games, but the puzzles are a bit more logical than in Samorost, which tended to kind of be...point, click and see what happens.

i'll probably download it sometime in the not-too-distant future.

Seems cool enough, but I don't know that I'd pay $20 for it.

Curious: why the PS3 version? Since you have a stick already for the 360.


I'm willing to give the game a shot, despite the fact that such a description originates from SB. I'm assuming that they enjoyed P3/P4, though to what degree is perhaps something I'm maybe better off not knowing about.

i mean, it's not like it's a life/dating sim, but it's got a particular....style, that Persona also seems to have, if that makes sense. 

as for Tekken 6 on PS3, well, the reasons why are this:

1) it was developed on PS3
2) i have a stick for the PS3
3) games look better on PS3 on my TV (Bayonetta is the exception here)

The Left 4 Dead 2 demo is out. Joe, you should get a new PC for this (well for the full release in November anyways). And then you can play Stalker too.

After spending some time on the 360 version of Tekken 6, gonna concentrate on the PS3 version. Till I get a stick for the 360, the PS3 pad will do, since I'm used to it for Tekken since part 2 on the PSone. Though the already long load times are pretty much intolerable on Sony's machine.

Also, and this was a problem in Soul Calibur and a number of other recent fighting games: when I hit continue after losing, why can I just get right back in? Instead of having to wait for the stage to reload, and forget about how here it boots you back to the character select screen. The time wasted is seriously agonizing.

Matt:  does PS3 Tekken 6 not install to the HDD?  secondly, with continuing, it might be an option you have to turn on to skip the character select screen.  some games have that feature, anyway.

Dave:  $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Just installed Tekken 6 onto the HDD and the load times is now on par with the 360 version. Which still isn't good enough imho; you'd think stuff would be pulled up in an instant, though I don't know how much was actually installed either (guess you can't check for such info while in mid-game).

As for graphic quality, I actually prefer the slightly softer look on the 360. I'll have more to say later tonight on the blog.

Soul Calibur, at least the original, has an option to continue with the same character so it doesn't have to reload.

Yeah. I'm seriously pissed that this wasn't carried over.

It's been a while, but I believe that option was dropped as of part 4, but I could be wrong. I still remember there being no way to just jump right back in, perhaps for other reasons.

Back to Tekken: part 6 reminds me of why I'm more in love with the idea of the series than playing the games themselves; the AI is just annoyingly cheap.

Last Friday I finally got Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection on 360 and then I played it for better part of the weekend. I have to say if you like pinball machines from late 70's and early 80's you'll really dig it. This game is miles better than Pinball FX available on XBLA marketplace and Zen Pinball on PSN and has near flawless hit detection, HD visuals with a lot of viewing angles available to chose from, all the controls - customizable.

Three out of 12 (or 13) available tables have with dot matrix displays and really advanced scoring schemes, but older ones have certain charm to them (like Taxi for example where you can pick up Dracula, Santa or Gorbachev and drive them to the airport). There are two offline modes - classic single player mode and Williams challenge (where you have get certain score on each table to move to the next and when you beat last one  [about 1-2 hours of play] the only locked table is made available for play). Few tables require credits to play that you earn by beating missions / high scores and getting achievements, but honestly I never felt like I was short on them. Some older tables have clearly broken extra ball features (Space Shuttle) that allow skilled player to play forever (or in my instance till I get really bored), others (Arabian Nights) have really frustrating non-register glitches on some ramps (that will hopefully get corrected in a update). I have to add that each table has excellent instructions that break down scoring and all the features in a really approachable matter. 

As a plus older tables share a lot of sound effects with golden age era arcade games made by Williams (like Joust for example). Well worth $29.50 I've paid for it (on Amazon).

On a side note drozdal, have you seen this yet?

http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2008/04/column_cinema_pixeldiso_tilt_t.php

Okay, I'm pretty sick of Tekken 6 already.

The last boss is the cheapest in the history of Tekken, which is saying A LOT. But worst of all is how when I finally beat the fucking thing, I didn't get an ending, which has always been the feature attraction of the series. Apparently I have to beat the lame ass Tekken Force mode to unlock the ability to unlock them in the arcade mode. FFFUUUCCCKKK...

As neat as Tekken Force was in part 3, when you make it the primary focal point this time around but don't actually make it any better than it was in 1998, it becomes hell on earth.

Another stupid thing is how the one legitimately cool background is not manually selectable and only pops up when choosing random. Why?

Oh, and online is the absolute worst. I've never experienced online bouts with so much lag. It's insane, and pretty much everyone at message boards are up in arms, and for good reasons.

Plus Joe, apparently the 360 version looks much better in high def. I'll bring over both for you to see for yourself next time.

if you wanted a colorful, lewt-filled version of diablo 2, torchlight will treat you right.

man, computers always give me a reminder of why i love them so much.

so i downloaded the Torchlight demo via Steam a little while ago and whenever i try to load it, the screen turns black and my monitor greets me with "frequency out of range."  i'm at a loss of what the hell i'm supposed to do.  the internet tells me vague things about the resolution and refresh rates (don't understand that).  if it's that the game is starting off in a resolution that's too high for my monitor, wouldn't it be nice if i could change that setting ahead of time?  but no, of course i can't do that.  and when i try to change the "launch options" of the demo through Steam, i'm told it's for advanced users only, but with no explanation of what that actually means.

so uhh...yea, no Torchlight for me.

Matt:  that would be awesome; i'd love a side by side comparison of the games.

I didn't knew this documentary existed, after reading your review I ordered it without thinking twice about it.

Speaking of pinballs did you guys heard of Pinball Parlour (http://www.pinball-parlour.com/index.php)? They are located about 2-2,5 drive from the city - about 30 minutes outside of Philly - their machine list (http://www.pinball-parlour.com/gamelist/index.php) is amazing.

isfet: that's not a resolution problem but a refresh issue.* depending on your screen it should be 60hz or 75 hz.

* probably. it might also be an overheating thing. who made your vid card and monitor?

It is also a resolution problem. If you try feeding through a resolution that your monitor can't handle it will give that same message. It doesn't necessarily have to be too big, it could simply be a resolution it doesn't know how to handle. That seems a little weird though unless your monitor is very old or cheap.

Try right clicking on the demo in Steam, go to Properties, General Tab, Set Launch Options button and add "-width 800 -height 600", if that doesn't work try "-w 800 -h 600".

If that's the button you're referring to that won't let you use, that's pretty weird since demos should allow access to that as well (L4D2 does), then there is a workaround. Go into C:/Program Files/Steam/steamapps/common/torchlight demo and make a shortcut to the exe, right click on the options of the shortcut and add the h/w hash after the link to the exe in the shortcut's properties.

Because I've become bored with Tekken 6, decided to try out the PS3's PSone compatibility with PSone games with Tekken 2 and 3. And after a few minutes with one, I'd try the arcade version on Tekken 5 via the PS2.

Man, I remember the final boss in 3 being so massive, so impressive. My how things have changed!

I then decided to pop up Virtua Fighter 2, the not so shabby PS2 port. Christ, that game is still amazing, but still be my fave all time fighting game come to think of it. So, SO fucking tight.

Right this very moment, everyone's yelling and screaming outside for the Yankees, who I guess just won the World Series, but I could give two shits because I JUST GOT THE HIGHEST SCORE IN PAC MAN CHAMPIONSHIP EDITION ACROSS ALL MY FRIENDS!!!

I still marvel at how Namco pulled off Tekken 3 on PS1 hardware.

http://i.neoseeker.com/p/Games/Playstation/Action/Fighting/tekken3_profilelarge.jpg

that and R4 have some of the cleanest looking visuals on the system.

I actually neglected to mention that I also popped in R4 along with all the Tekkens, simply because it wasn't part of the topic at hand, which was fighters.

But yeah, seriously the most brilliant use of color in any game. Still totally beautiful. And the best soundtrack, which is saying a lot, since each installment has had amazing tunes.

torchlight keeps sucking me in. but this review nails its ups and downs:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/torchlight-review

so since i can't get Torchlight to run on my computer, i decided to buy a game i had never played which is probably superior to Torchlight:  Diablo II!

i'd played the original game like crazy, but without really understanding how things like "roguelikes" or "dungeon crawls" really work.  as a result, i'm having a pretty easy time thus far with DII.  is the sequel easier or have i just gotten a lot better at these games?  i'm assuming...a bit of both?

currently using a polearm-wielding Amazon.  maxing out my dexterity like it ain't no thanh.  she can use a bow, too, but i'm wondering if it's really necessary to invest the time into it.  carrying that extra weapon in the inventory really breaks up my loot flow.

headed to the "underground passageway" right now, in search of Diablo I reference.

II is definitely easier, or at least the difficulty spikes don't come until much much later in the game.

There are some nice references to the original game in the first Act, they taper off entirely after that though.

Anyone here playing Dragon Age. At Bioware fans here at least? Aren't you one Mike? Though I know your hands are kinda full at the moment... but this is worth a gander, though there's plenty of spoilers, so be warned...

http://gza.gameriot.com/content/images/orig_320200_1_1257581825.png

short verdict: best bioware game in a long time. combat is actually difficult and vaguely tactical. story is "gritty" and surprisingly bloodly; sort of reminds me of the good old days in that regard. good art design in the environments and UI/journal system, decent facial animations. mostly good voice acting.

absolutely atrocious outfits for women, nipple points breaking the fourth wall, etc etc.

New SMB Wii is pretty cool. It's almost exactly like the one on the DS so far, but the levels are a little better.

I've also been playing MW2 campaign on the 360 and it's excellent as expected. Nothing as good as the gunship level in the first one, but it might have more really good set pieces. The novelty level in this one is even better than the last too (it gives you the option to skip it because it might be too offensive for some players :D ).

I've been playing Forza 3 almost exclusively for the past week (with short bursts of Torchlight, which is really fun in small doses). In short - game is great. Beautiful visuals (but I  think that Dirt2 looks a bit better), smooth gameplay, no slowdowns at all. Interesting career model where not only your driver levels up, but also car you drive in. Speaking of your driver lever - it seems that developers put it in game only to get you achievement points. I did not notice any extra benefits of having a really high level driver - extra cars unlock as you finish races and parts/upgrades are getting cheaper only when your car gains a level (aside from your gamer score of course, if anyone cares, and I bet a lot of people do).

Compared to Dirt 2 (I know it's silly, but Dirt2 was the only other recently released racing game I've played, I'm planing on getting Need For Speed Shift sometime in the future) Forza has this "sterile", high polish and clean feel. Everything is and looks really shiny, new and high-end. Car models are flawless, buildings on the side of the tracks are highly detailed, audience looks way better than people in Dirt2 did (but as with Dirt  only white people are here to watch cars race).
 
Haven't got the chance to dive into tuning / painting and designing vinyls, but I bought few cars on in-game auctions and that was fun (if you have decent amount of money and some spare time). Cars that I purchased were about 30% or less of retail (in-game store) price which is great news when you need upgrade fast (because special event is just around the corner) and you do not swim in money at the moment  (which was the case with me for the most of my 3 seasons of play so far).

The only mildly frustrating thing I've noticed is a bug that deals with calculating your opponents car shadows (especially on the track with a lot of turns and bright sunlight) - they tend to randomly jump from one side of their car to the other while shadows on your car are displayed properly all the time. Lack of weather effects suck too, but I got over it in Dirt2, so it should not be a problem here in the long run.

Forza 3 has more racing simulation feel to it than arcade driving model known from Dirt, but people looking for arcade action can easily replicate Dirt feel with a bit of tweaking to the difficulty settings.

Finally beat the 300,000 barrier in Pac Man CE, by 1,000 to be exact.. Have developed a new strategy from watching various superplays on YouTube, though I still have a ways to go before I top the newest top score on my friends list, which is 311,000. Is that yours yellowoystercult?

Also played some Espgaluda last night. As much I as I want to love Dai Ou Jou, I just suck at it, whereas Espgaluda is not as punishing, plus I really enjoy it's scoring system.

I've been playing some Devil's Crash on the Arcades with Sega emulation. I had to change the input settings in the emulator, but I got it working so that the paddles are controlled with two buttons (rather than left on the dpad, and a button) and it's pretty awesome. My top score so far is about 16 million.

And the NSMB:Wii multiplayer is a lot of fun.

nice score!  yea, everyone needs to play more Devil's Cru/a/sh.  also, Dave, you may not be aware, but if you press and hold A, B and C at the title screen and then hit Start, you're taken to an option menu where you can reassign the buttons.  dunno if that's necessary since you reworked the emulator, but...just in case.

been playing NSMBWii multiplayer a lot, too.  got up to World 6 so far, but i'd definitely like to give the game a spin with you guys.  the game works for people of different skill levels, but i'm looking forward to PWNING the shit out of the game with other people.

So I just got the Xbox 360 demo of Bayonetta, and its a lot better than the PS3 one. For whatever reason, I just found the controls to be a lot more enjoyable, plus there's less load times of course. Though it still kinda sucks for the same reasons as before. Sorry, but channeling Cowboy Bebop is so 1999.

Just beat MW2. Clocked in at 5 hours, which felt just about perfect. The last level is a chase scene kind of like in the first game, but with boats, and unfortunately it's not as good. But overall I think this game was probably better. There were just a lot of great moments that made me think these guys could be writing decent Hollywood action movies too. The stuff that happens while the credits roll is really awesome. It's like an IW museum with sets from the game in a sort of SMB3 sort of presentation (although it isn't prevalent throughout the game as in SMB3, just at the credits), very cool stuff.

I watched my GF play L4D2 for about two hours yesterdayt. Levels seem a bit shorter, but are way harder to navigate through. A lot more zombies, she was getting close to 200 kills on each "chapter" and melee weapons are essential for survival - as they can clear a lot of infected that are swarming you, new guns are great too - especially grenade launcher. Campaigns lasts about the same as in the first game (close to an hour) but now there are five of them (I've seen one and a three quarters of the second one). There are new "tasks" characters need to do to advance in a level sometimes (as opposed to press something and kill all the zombies that show up - known from L4D), like find deliver something to the guy who can give you an access to the rest of the level, or switch off alarm that's three stories above you (while being attacked by never ending horde).

New infected are a lot of fun - especially the witch who just wanters around.

I know that people were complaining about this game being L4D 1.5, but it doesn't feel like it, there is more than enough new content in to justify the sequel.

Up until 6am last night. o_0 I knew there would be a lot of trouble with people getting in the way with melee weapons, but goddamn. The magnum is as good as it gets, and I would put money on players picking that one 75% of the time once everyone figures out how to play. Melee weapons aren't THAT good.

The game, however, is awesome.

Dragon Age Origins has been banned. Until I have enough free time, I can't even load it, otherwise I burn through a few hours of questing. Borderlands was great, and Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising was satisfying in a sad way - great feel and mechanics for the actual shooting, but a little unfocused and buggy otherwise.

Scavenge mode in L4D2 is awesome. Short and sweet competitive game. It's basically survival mode for people that prefer vs to campaign.

Not sure if most of you will care, but I just got through the Sgt. Pepper DLC for Beatles Rock Band. I kid you not, some of the best visuals thus far for the game. Simply mind blowing.

Though not surprisingly, at least to those familiar with the music, there's many parts in which you're not playing guitar, even though you're holding a guitar-shaped controller. Which has always been the case to varying extents, but it's very true here, and I'm sure folks are gonna point and laugh or just bitch.

So Dave, I finally got an external hard drive yesterday and spent all last night backing my shit up. And RIGHT before I inserted the Windows 7 install DVD, my brand new and still shiny drive went dead. lol. So it's gonna be a tad bit more time before I can get Steam up and running.

Your backup drive died? You bought it new so it's under warranty right?

Yeah, I can totally return it to J&R, but since I'm the paranoid type, I prefer taking the long and safe route when it comes to erasing any drive.

Though I'm somewhat at a loss since the next one I was going to go for, which I've heard generally good things about, apparently sucks according to a friend who recently got his. It just seems like, no matter what, external HDs totally blow.

Yeah, unless you're putting the external in a fireproof safe (that's how I roll), it's best to backup on a separate internal drive (which I also do, yes I'm paranoid about my data). But since you've got a mac....

Try newegg.com. Usually the stuff the users are pretty savvy and good about reviewing stuff so you can get a good sense of the quality of an item, and they have good deals.

I've had my external 500 GB Lacie for a short while now, and have had zero issues. But it's pretty much tapped out, so I backed most of my most important stuff (sans music... had to sacrifice something, but most of it is replaceable), and plan on disconnecting it and pulling it only when needed.

The new drive would act as my primary back up drive, via Time Machine.

My next drive is only going to be 640 gigs big. Which is more than enough... for now. But you can never have enough storage, but at the same time, I've noticed that drives around the 1TB range are more prone to breaking down for whatever reason. A part of me thinks I should get 5 or so of those durable travel ones, just because.

Well I finally got Windows 7 installed on my Mac. And... still won't be able to play Left 4 Dead 2 I'm afraid. :(

I think it's best I explain in the Win7 thread, since that's what it's there for. So moving on...

Last night was even more 4 player (actually 3 player) New Super Mario Bros Wii action, this time at Stephen Totilo's (yes, of Kotaku fame, I'm friends with the dude) housewarming party. And like the night before at Dave's, half the fun and most of the frustration comes when you play with a bunch of people of disparaging skill level.

Yeah I don't even know if I'll ever get Youri to play again. The 4 player stuff just drove her crazy. I was being pretty mean sometimes though. The best part was when four starmen popped out of a block and I grabbed them all in one fell swoop.

haven't had a chance to play NMSB more than 2 players.  it can get a little frustrating in the latter and vertical levels, especially.  i think it's one of those things that needs to be played competitively, otherwise a lot of accidental deaths occur.

Downloaded Bit.Trip Void late last night, and it's maybe my favorite one yet. Dave, you TOTALLY need to get this one, since as you might already know, its draws much from bullet hells.

Recently downloaded Ballad of Gay Tony for a variety of reason (mostly for potential material for an upcoming article), and guess what? I really dig it. Controls still suck, plus people looks weirder than I remembered, but the story is nice thus far, and most importantly, you start out in Manhattan.

I started playing japanese copy of Sin and Punishment: Successor of the Earth over the weekend. Put in about 4-5 hours and  I have to say the game is great. Seems like Treasure tired to put everything in it, so you have platforming elements, hori shooting sequences, vert shooting sequences, bullet hell / bullet dodging sequences and on top of that occasional hand to hand with enemy or the boss, and believe it or not it all works rather well together.

I'm not very fond of new, at will flying, I dug jumping from the original more - but those are details that do not really matter. What matters is that controls are responsive enough - especially for aiming (I have no clue if game supports motion plus, I do not have one - default controller does a decent job), graphics are good (or great for the Wii game), considering the fact that there is almost non stop action happening on the screen - I haven't noticed any slowdowns and everything runs smoothly.

Will be picking up US version too, I can't read japanese (not like you need to, to play and enjoy the game) and I kinda want to know what is going on story wise.

EDIT: I'm also playing Mushihimesama Futari on 360, but I won't talk about it until all of you get your copies.

Oh damn, I didn't even know that S&P2 was out yet. I'm downloading it now to give it a spin. Hopefully Futari will be here in a week, two max.

Amazon has December 31 2011 (:D) as listed release date, Wikipedia claims it will be out somewhere in Q1 of 2010.

Dave, I was also surprised when I heard that S&P 2 is out already - I knew it was coming, but for whatever reason I thought it will hit somewhere in 2010.

Word is that it did terrible during it's launch week in Japan.

modern warfare 2 is very confusing.

please elaborate!



currently alternating between:

Mushihimesama Futari

and

Fallout 3

the latter is more enjoyable than when i rented it and is also more enjoyable since i bought it for $24.99.

mw2 changes moods faster than a woman who hates you; it can't decide if it wants to be a mil-tech thriller or a james bond movie; the most controversial part of the controversial mission is actually handled well, but it's poorly integrated into the rest of the game; your player character dies more often than even begins to make sense. the infinity ward trick of putting up quotes about how shitty war is when you die has been expanded to include dick cheney and barbara erhrenreich.
 
on the other hand it quotes red dawn and basically reenacts it. it's a good pastiche of 80s action films, in its own way, but not nearly as good a game as the first (which itself wasn't as good as the russian segment of cod2).

edit: my one legitimate gripe against the xboxification of american games is the loss of lean functionality in fps games. lean is something i tend to lean on, and i miss it terribly.

The real xboxification shame here is the loss of servers. The multiplayer is really pretty good. Making custom classes is a blast. I usually end up going for a standard assault style loudout, but last night I begrudgingly got put into a game that was on a sniper map (my brother was happy because he loves sniping), but instead of playing the sniping game, I choose Marathon Pro (run forever and climb stuff faster), Lightweight (move faster), and Ninja Pro (no heartbeat and no footsteps) and just ran around the sniper map knifing and shooting people with double barreled shotgun. It ended up devastating the other team. I was fast enough that unless they had really good aim, they couldn't get a killing shot off on me before I could get up to them, and even if they did get me, they had to take a few shots so by then they'd given away their position to my brother or dad.

why did they go out and do such a thing? it seems counterproductive.

just finished mw2 single player. it was...unique. not bad. not necessarily good. but one of the stranger endings/end credits ever.

I really loved the end credits. Reminded me of SMB3 in a way.

And yeah, definitely counterproductive. I think it's part of consolification and charging $60 for the PC version instead of the regular $50. They want the PC to be an XBOX because it's more lucrative so I think maybe they're just trying to make the two seem like one.

The next step is to take away custom video options. It seems ridiculous, but taking away dedicated servers  a few years ago would have been a laughable idea. I wouldn't have believed it.

i haven't played MW2 yet, but i'll probably wait a while or until someone buys it for me.  but huh, it's interesting to hear some non-glowing opinions on the game.


i'm really digging Fallout 3.  it isn't entirely Fallout, but...i don't necessarily feel as strongly as, say, the people on "no mutants allowed" with that one review.  the game is flawed in terms of "feeling" like Fallout, but it's still pretty fun and i'm having a good time exploring everything.  the pacing feels just right, too.

might be a little too easy, though.  i'm at a point where anything other than a mirelurk doesn't give me too many problems.  but man, fuck the mire(and nuka)lurks

some good news on the fallout 3 front is that a new game using the engine and universe (called fallout: new vegas) is being made by obsidian and will come out some time in 2010. fallout 3 with decent writing will still be stuck with vats but this is still exciting news.

Just starting playing Spirit Tracks. It's okay. Like Phantom Hourglass, I really want to like it, but the stylus controls really kills it for me. But at least controlling two characters at once mixes it up quite a bit.

Mike:  i know you really enjoyed KotOR2, though as a half-finished idea kind of thing.  i unfortunately have never played anything by obsidian.

but yea, i find Fallout 3's world and atmosphere really nice.  it almost makes me wish they'd remake the first game with this style.  though, VATS: what exactly do you dislike about it?

is it the fact that it makes the game impossibly easy?

i'm not sure if i hate that yet, but yea, it's kind of a silly, poorly-thought-out system.


still playing lots of FO3.  currently trying to rescue some rangers from a rooftop in exchange for their armor.  sneak attacks are wonderful.

yeah, that it makes combat basically pointless.

kotor 2 is a 3/4 good game, 1/4 unfinished mess. but it has one of the better antagonists in a game ever.

I played Bayoneta demo on 360 for the first time few days ago. It was really enjoyable, so enjoyable actually that I replayed it 3 more times in a row. This will be my first purchase of 2010.

Still playing Spirit Tracks. What can I say? The lame controls is off-set by the whimsey of everything else. The music especially rocks.

Oh, and as noted elsewhere, Valkyria Chronicles is $20 at Gamestop and figured what the hell. And must say, now that I'm giving it a serious shot, I dig.

i bought a few games yesterday at gamestop's buy 2 get 1 free sale. Godhand has almost the same feel as rising zan(i think they were made by the same guys?) but the inlcusion of dodging with the left analog stick makes the game, not easier, but definetly more playable. also it seems that after every level there is an option to shop or go to the casino, the latter is wrong for me since they have blackjack and video poker,it'll just keep me away from the main game.

God of war is fun but im stuck early in the game at this part with archers that keep shooting the box you have to get across the room.

Devil may cry is just awful, it takes everything i hate about resident evil(the camera angles, they keys and puzzles bullshit) and adds double jumps. its awful, awful and i just want to get rid of it.

Deus Ex, i heard this was amazing but i cant say the same thing. i can see it but i get the feeling that the mouse does wonders for this game that a dualshock cant. i also dont think stealth works in an fps but thats just me.

Okay, re: Valkyria Chronicles, I think I finally hit upon why the game just doesn't appeal to me... It simply makes ZERO sense.

I get the strategy elements, that all makes sense to me. But the parts where you actually control troops directly is where the actual problems lie, at least for me. When you're looking top-down, all the arbitrary rules are not an issue, since its so abstract to begin with. But when you create an action-oriented environment with those same rules... why the hell can't I shoot more than once? Stuff like that.

when you're on defense, you attack things within range of you.

if you want a soldier to attack more than once, select them again after their turn is over.

i bought a ton of stuff on steam when it dipped to five buck or below prices, but i've been playing half life: source.

dang the combat is wonky as all hell. still, a pleasant classic.

I understand how it works, but to have board game rules applied to a kinda more real setting is jarring at best.

i guess maybe if you don't really play a lot of SRPGs, it isn't going to really going to have the same effect on you.  the whole thing that makes Valkyria different is the fact that it's a mix of real time and turn based. 

i'm not saying everyone needs to love the game, but i think that's really supposed to be what makes it appealing.

I've been playing Bayonetta for the past few days (VGNY had it in stock since 31st). In short - action sequences are awesome, combo system stellar, excellent character design (especially enemies), responsive controls and a bit hectic camera, but you can get used it it (especially when you figure out how to operate it with the right stick. Thing that bugs me the most are cut scenes - too frequent and too long, character models in them look ok, but I got the feeling like backgrounds and buildings were taken out of PS2 game). But you can easily skip them if you do not care about the silly story and only want action. And there is a lot of insane and over the top action to be had.

Game has some silly puzzles that are slowing down otherwise well paced time between fights (what's the point of looking for huge angelic key in the basement to open the door anyway? In the action game that comes out in 2010? This is not Tomb Raider after all). Maybe designers are teaching me something that will be utilized latter in the game, but I doubt it. Also game rewards you for running around and shooting / destroying everything you see on screen (sometimes you get items hidden in a bench or a flower pot).

Not frequent QTE are messing up the otherwise excellent pacing during fight sequences (but that might just be me - I disliked God of War for the very same reason).

There are a lot of extra combos / moves / weapons / abilities to be unlocked / bought for golden rings you collect for killing / comboing enemies during play (those rings are called halos, but I think they are a nod to old Sonic games) and each level ends with rather awkward shooting mini game.

I'm playing on normal (hardest mode available on start) and the game isn't really that challenging (yet), achievement list suggest there is a hard mode - surely unlocked when you complete game on normal.

unrelated to playing, but i just discovered that there's a fairly old mod for hl2 that does a texture pack and animation replacement, which is apparently half good. of course, they had to change the alyx character into a halter-topped dd boobicon. the only female character in all of gaming* who didn't look like a stripper.

people make me sad sometimes.

*adult female. sorry japan.

Oh come on, you can't drop that on us without a screencap or a link. Let's see sexy Alyx! I hope she's wearing enough shiny leather!

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=fakefactory+alyx&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=aa5ES-zrJZqutgfB9qz8CA&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CBAQsAQwAA

weep.

Oh god, I'm tearing up a little here. That's pretty good stuff, the bra just barely peeking from underneath her shirt.

BUT this mod actually does sound pretty nice:

And as silly as it is, I certainly don't object to having boob-job-Alyx showing some skin.

she looks a lot worse than the original, though. the thing about hl2 is how expressive the characters you aren't shooting at are, especially ep2.

it's such a "this is why we can't have nice things" thing. :(

It looks like you can actually keep the original Alyx with it too. The newest version of that mod, v10 I think, requires a system more powerful than mine because the engine doesn't scale up to high end very gracefully.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/01/05/hevy-metal-half-life-2-gets-upgraded/

this mod is also ridiculously high-ended, but looks a little less super shiny/forced.

That looks like the right way to do it. I guess I'll have to finally buy EP2 on the PC (only played it on the 360). Then maybe I can use the weapon balance mod from that other one and I'll be all set.

edit: Someone please let me know the next time the PC Orange Box goes on sale and then I'll just gift everything I don't need to my dad because he might like the game.

good lord the end of the first half life is terrible.

trying out some of the impulse buys from the massive steam sale. gta4 is still very, very impressive in how it captures the flavor of so many nyc neighborhoods (astoria park is excellently compressed into a six or eight block simulation). it's simulacra: the game.

It's really too bad about the main design game -- the art, the music, the general aesthetic is so good; they just had to go too far in terms of favoring cinematic game design.

yeah, i can see that already. too bad. i even like how the cars handle like real cars, which makes driving otherwise a pain in the ass. (motorcycles, on the other hand, are awesome)

That game lasted about an hour on my hard drive. What a shitty port. It can't even run at the lowest possible settings (so low that there are only like two cars on the street at a time and the resolution is shit) with a decent frame rate on my PC.

Seriously? That retarded cycle chase mission just a few hours in, the one that starts in Coney Island, is where myself and lots of people just flat-out gave up on the game.

Anyhow, just started playing Silent Hill for the Wii. Long story short, it's easily the best SH I've played, but since I never liked any of the previous entries, perhaps my opinion means nothing. But of all the goofy horror games in which you walk around, controlling a flashlight, it's easily the best.

I played that mission when I was playing the game at my parents' place when I was there for Christmas and I killed that biker guy in about 10 seconds. Actually, the funny part was that I killed him before we even got to the entrance to the gated community the guy lives in that gives you the mission so I didn't even have to go out of my way.

i'm actually running pretty good here; the only trouble spot i have is during rainstorms at night because of the headlights. but i'm running on medium-high here. it seems the november/december patches did a lot to fix some of these problems.

it is a chunkity port, however. people bitch about crysis and other envelope-pushing AAA titles, but nothing is less well optimized than a chunkity port.

on the subject of ports, the demo for devil may cry 4 is surprisingly well optimized.

edit: just played the biker mission. was pretty easy, even fighting all seven of those guys.

if it wasn't for the whole needy friends simulator thing, i'd flat out declare this the best gta yet.

How far are you though? The mission design really tweaked me off, mainly because it eschews a lot of the stuff that makes GTA games fun -- one example that has been brought up elsewhere is that in some of the missions, the traffic is scripted, so that you always have to avoid one car doing something stupid at a certain point. The mission that really got to me was the one where you have to take a guy out. So you drive to his house, which triggers a cinematic sequence where he jumps out the window and takes off in a car.

In GTA3, which I think is still the pinnacle of the series, that mission would have allowed you multiple ways to succeed -- you could try and gun him down as he went for the car, you could shoot out the window and throw a grenade through it, you could try sniping him through the window from an appropriate vantage point, you could steal his car and put a car bomb on it and then come back and allow him to try and escape only to have the car explode, you could engage in a car chase, etc.

In GTA4, you have no option. You have to engage in a somewhat-scripted, "cinematic" car chase because the developers value constraining the player to their vision of an action-movie game instead of allowing the player choice in how things might play out. Given, I think the majority of people playing games probably prefer the former for some reason, I'm just disappointed that one of, if not the, main franchise for the latter approach has apparently switched over.

And yeah, the friends thing is BS. Easily one of the worst design decisions in this generation.

ETA: The cars handle great. Still don't understand why people gripe about that so much.

I think it's because people think that cars should handle smoothly when you have the pedal all the way down to the floor.

I didn't mind the friends thing too much because I never really bothered with it. It's kind of like a less annoying version of that guy that's always calling you in Dead Rising, but in Dead Rising there was no easy way to ignore the call.

im in the boogie down bronx section now. i got around a few scripted moments. (Stealing a car for the juicehead which involves three other cars...unless you just kill them all first) but yeah, the lack of freeform engagement is really unfortunate.

i do love brucie, however. perhaps my favorite game character of all time because he's exactly like dozens of dozens of dozens of guidos around here.

just to keep tooting the car horn as it were, there are a lot of things i really like about this gta. the cars. the setting. the combat, which while not great is so much better than previous installments. the roll your own radio station is perfect and should be mandatory in all games*, or at least all pc games that involve radios.

but damn there's some puzzling shit in here. why does nico do the whole "random friends" thing? he's clearly not lonely and kinda hates america, so...whhhhut? the crackhead rich kid was great, though.

i'm sure this will be explained, but why doesn't he know michelle is a cop? why doesn't anyone else? also, fuck dating in games. seriously. what the hell? same goes for mandates, beyond brucie because he's hilariously shitty. speedboat racing sounds like fun - i ended up reloading when i got into a small misunderstanding involving a police cruiser and an suv and an overhead ramp, so i haven't gotten to do it yet.

* i have quite literally broken hearts with this argument before, but since i don't make games...piffle!

The Michelle thing is kind of a good example of the thematic conflict at the heart of GTA4. On one hand, they're trying to have this gritty story about Nico being all screwed up because of conflict in the old country and now he's dealing with all this violence in his new home, etc. etc. and then they're like oh hey guys it's Brucie! Or in Michelle's case, it's a running joke that she's obviously a cop and either nobody can figure it out or they're playing along in a hilarious manner, despite all these people being hardened criminals from wartorn countries.

Basically they want to have their cake and eat it too, in that they want the game to have Serious Themes while at the same time having the satirical edge of earlier GTA games and as you're noticing, they don't blend together too well.

yeah, it's a shitty blend. sometimes you gotta pick something and stick with it.

however, i will say this for rockstar - they could give the rest of the industry a serious lesson on how to do voice acting casting. even the way roman says "titties!" every 30 seconds is well-done.

This is obviously more appropriate for the shit your looking forward to thread, but Mike, Crysis 2? NYC + Crysis (which you liked, if I'm not mistaken) = your dream game?

maybe? i mean, yeah, crysis is still amazing, but this is being released on consoles as well. consoles = death as far as fps games are concerned, if only because the engine has to be scaled.

GTA4 is a game i really like until it comes to chase segments.  unless driving on the PC is very different, i'm with Matt in that i just can't get comfortable enough with it in the game.  which is a shame, because there's a lot to like.

i've done a few chase sequences now and i actually like it. the dude you have to chase from the chinatown arcade was a bit tricky at times but i eventually ran him down. trying to shoot and drive is mostly aggravating.

Which is as it should be, really (although the counterpoint is that if you make driving and shooting appropriately realistically difficult, maybe you shouldn't require the player to do a lot of it).

Generally I find that trying to draw a bead on them while actually chasing them is not worth it and your time is better spent concentrating entirely on driving until you can get them pinned against the scenery/they plow into it their own fool self, at which point you should unload everything you have while they fuck around in reverse.

or drive them off an overpass, which was funny as hell.

also had a street race where three of the folks crashed into the gas station, which exploded. this apparently cancels out a street race, fyi.

played a bit of xenogears over the weekend and today, and it feels ,in some ways,like FF7. it does a lot of things better and some worse,story and style wise.


i cant help but imagine an alternate history where XG caught on instead of FF7, where dozens of fat highschool kids desired ponytails like fei instead of spiky cloud hair. oh wait,lots of fat kids had ponytails when i was in highschool, nevermind.

another wrpg classic (albeit flawed) hits gog.com:

http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/arcanum_of_steamworks_and_magick_obscura

dear gta4: you just had to try and shoehorn "ha ha he's gay!" in there? really? yeeeesh.

supposedly the ballad of gay tony is add on is very good. it's coming to pc so in a year or so i'll give the steam sale a try.

Thexder Neo on PS3 is bloody aces. It's basically a shinier version of the PSP game, but this one also has the original Thexder packaged with it.

Also been playing MAG, bit underwhelmed really.

Tonight was my third attempt at playing Bayonetta, and for the third time in the row I simply had to turn off the console during the overly long and boring opening cut scene. I'm having a hard time putting my finger on why the game irritates the shit out of me so much. Though near the top would be how it tries way too God damn hard to be funky and cool and wacky and irreverent.

whoa when did this happen? AvP demo is out, downloading now...

Well, at least I can save myself $50 since I don't have to buy this game. The demo doesn't even run. It locks up when trying to connect to the multiplayer demo. Completely locks up, can't even alt tab have to ctrl alt delete style. This does not bode well for the final code.

i heard it blows dead bears anyway.

final note to gta4: a series of increasingly annoying obstacles does not a good finale make.

Yeah, I never finished the final missions because like many previous GTAs, they seemed to exist to be entirely ridiculous.

I can't believe you beat it so fast. As far as I can tell I'm still nowhere near the end. Too much fun stuff to do that isn't missions.

i found this to be a lot easier than most gta games. it's the first i ever finished. if i get a chance, as per scratch's recommendation, i'll get gta3.

Last night I finally gave Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes for the DS a spin. It's been the darling of the indie world, due it being a produce of Cappy, which made the extremely awesome Critter Crunch. And... I literally fell asleep while playing it while on the train. Oh well.

I felt my heart break a bit after I realized I won't be able to play Crimson Skies online in a month.  It's one of a few games I'm genuinely good at, I dumped countless hours into this back on the OG Xbox.  I'm going to try to show my old Xbox games some love before they become somewhat useless and get put onto the shelf with my favorite useless Dreamcast games.

I'm debating on whether if it's worth it to shell out the $40-ish for an unmodded Xbox and Steel Battalion: Line of Contact.  I loved the first game but getting it set up properly was such a hassle, but I know on my deathbed I'll have wished I had the chance to play this stupid thing online.

picked up the new stalker for 20 bucks due to previous brand loyalty spent on the less than worthy clear sky.

a decent promotional idea, i think.

for my first bit out double crossed some double crossers during a midnight raid and picked up some great weapons. and then i saved the game because it is pitch black at night and i'm not in the mood to get jumped.

Played a bit of Dante's Inferno (which EA was kind enough to pass along). And... I sorta like it?

I remember Joe going off on it earlier this week, and can understand his reasons, but.... Ultimately, it's a shameless God of War clone, but since I can't stand that game's aesthetics, and graphics here are pretty cool, plus the controls are tight, with nice upgrade options, plus other nice flourishes, I kinda don't mind it being so derivative?

call of pripyat = fucking awesome.

that is all.

Chime (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=occXkoV3KWg) on XBLA (400 points) is really interesting take on puzzle game.

It's basically Tetris mixed with Lumines - quite relaxing and not super challenging but at the same time having enough depth and not being boring.

Game's only major flaw is lack of songs / levels (it comes with 5 of them and has two modes - timed and free). You can be done with it in an hour, but I kept coming back to it for the whole week.

Interesting way to do an ARG (of sorts):
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/03/02/portal-theres-something-going-on

Just downloaded Mega Man 10. And I'm gonna see how far I can go without resorting to easy mode (which I'll probably have to in quick fashion).

oh, wow, this is out already?

guess there wasn't as much of a media blitz this time.  i'll pick it up when i get home, fer sure

so i finally downloaded Mega Man 10 last night. i'm sort of unsure what i think of it. i'm having fun playing it, but i'm a whore for all things Mega Man, so this is no surprise. but as i'm playing it, certain things are just irking me. MM10 comes off like the prime example of everything that's wrong with MM sequels in general. also, the stage, boss and music design is kind of boring thus far.

granted i've only beat four bosses so far, but...yea, definitely not enjoying this one as much as MM9, which is unfortunate.

Well, you're not the only one who thinks the music is boring, that's for sure.

Anyone else a part of the Blur beta? It's not bad... though after trying out Split/Second, pretty much everything is a disappointment.

call of pripyat is HOT TO DEATH. hard as hell, spooky as shit, [adjective] as [vulgarity].

at points it's more like survival horror, a la x18 in the first game. the emissions mechanic works great - in the middle of a firefight the notice will go out and everyone scrambles to find some place to hide from the blast.

holy shit the Just Cause 2 demo

i think i might be in love with it?  everybody should probably download it now so they can swing on a grappling hook and blow up shit in Southeast Asia

been playing clear sky, the stalker prequel. it's easy to see what was fixed and why it was so broken upon release. most of the issues have been fixed, and i've only had one crash in a few hours of gameplay, but pripyat was a hell of a step forward.

i do like the scarcity of cash, though having invincible bloodsuckers (when invisible) is pretty shit. you get about .5 seconds to shoot them before they start eating your face.

Hey Dave, you ever get that Blur demo?

Yeah, I've been playing a bit of that too. It's even better in HD! :D

Just Cause 2 demo holy shiiiiiiiit. The demo suggests that the game completely delivers. I'd almost be content with the demo as they give you quite a large area to work in, and a good 30 minutes or so to rampage, but I'm gonna have to get this because cruising around on your parachute listening to the soundtrack is a blast.

dhex, have you tried this out yet? It's been out since early March and I somehow missed it.

Also currently playing Battle Bakraid. I've never been a big Yagawa fan, so I didn't ever even try this one, but after watching a playthrough I thought it looked pretty good. It's much better than Battle Garegga and Armed Police Batrider I think. It's like the most Cave-ish of the three, I guess because the bullets are all completely visible, which makes me seem fair.

the just cause 2 demo is on my list.

I recommend moving it to the top of your list.

I thought I could see the entire game world from within the demo because I flew up to the ceiling of the game world in a helicopter (and then jumped out), but when you finish the game demo is shows you how big the game world actually is and it's quite a bit larger than I thought. And the nice thing is that it's a variety of terrains, not just desert. I think this game is going to deliver in the way that Far Cry 2 never did.

Downloading the full game of Just Cause 2 now. Oh this is bad because I have plenty of work to do today before the evening, and I'm just going to want to be hijacking helicopters and dragging civilians from behind buses.

friggin sweeeet.  yea, i might pick up JC2 by the end of the week, but it depends on if i want to buy this $70 mini guitar kit instead. 

i never quite figured out how to drag stuff in the game, though.

Fuuuuuuuuuuck. This game is awesome. I won't spoil it for you even with my own anecdotes of the stuff I've been doing and found (I just found what has to be one of the coolest areas in an open world video game), but just let you know that you have to get this.

I started with the mouse and keyboard, but actually switched up to the 360 controller because it is easier to lounge in my computer chair while I play, and you don't need real precision aiming (I'm getting headshots just fine with the 360 controller), and because you have the option to be in vehicles quite often (all the time really if you wanted) the analog stick and triggers are nice.

This is the best $45 I've spent on video games in so long. GotY already. I have no doubts. Not that it's my game of the year, but that it will be on the top of everyone's GotY lists.

I haven't played too many missions yet, but they're nice. The introduction missions are actually pretty cool, and those go by really fast and then the world is opened up to you and you're supposed to meet some faction leaders to do some work for them, and unfortunately each of the three factions give you the same starting mission, just in different locations (basically storm the base). Luckily each location is different enough to keep it fun. Hopefully the missions will get more interesting, but the thing is, they don't even need to.

The voice acting keeps up on par with the demo for most ridiculous, cartoonish voices in a game I've heard lately, and the dialog fits with it perfectly. It's not so campy that it's good, but it often makes me laugh. But not as often as I laugh because I did something really cool/fun/ridiculous with a combination of my grappling hook, parachute, weapons, and vehicles.

I kind of want to get a new processor/mobo just to make this game look even better. It's already gorgeous, but there are some filters that make it look amazing but are too intense for my system.

I got Infinite Space (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinite_Space) for DS which I realized I'll never finish (at least 50+ hours). Game looks really sweet, reminds me of old PC game Battlecruiser 3000AD (http://www.3000ad.com/games/battlecruiser-3000ad/), has a lot of JRPG tropes (teenage main character ect.) but I'm willing to give it a chance.

I'm also trying to wrap up 6th (and last?) career year in Forza 3, I think I have 6 more weeks left before it ends and I promised myself to do at least one game week a day. Only problem I had with this game was year 4 and 5 of career seemed to drag forever, same tracks over and over again and not enough prize money for wins, but game picks up in year 6 where you get few new tracks to race on and few R1 cars to race with (which can actually compete in manufacturer races with lower ranked cars). I have to say, months after this game launched I'm still enjoying playing it.

playing din's curse, an indie roguelike of sorts from the guy who made depths of peril. it's a dynamic roguelike, so if you're too busy collecting xyz for one task, monsters start taking over, start wars with each other or send assassins to kill your town. if you don't get back in time, you might show up and have all your weapon sellers dead, and have to complete tasks in order to resurrect them. it's fun.

Yessssss!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaYeeSflhrU

Still playing Just Cause 2 like yeah, and if this happens it will be the end of me.

Everyone with a 360 has been playing Afterburner Climax to death, right? Right?!?!

After Burner Climax has taken a little while for me to love.  at first, i didn't quite get how to play it properly, but it's promptly become increasingly addictive.  this and Outrun; why doesn't this team still make games?

Anyone else pick up Super Mario Galaxy today? Man, Yoshi is hella fun to play around with!

Downloaded this one. I've played the first few stars, and I'm not terribly excited so far. I wish they had addressed the fact that collecting coins and star bits feels like such a hollow task.

Played some more this morning. Still have no come across the a world that is really interesting, without the novelty factor of the first one, I'm just kind of wishing I were playing NSMBWii.

playing new drop of stone soup (.6.0)

Sorry Dave, that you somehow hit your head or something; Galaxy 2 is awesome. Again, adding Yoshi to the mix makes the game so much more fun (though yes, like in NSMBWii, he's not in it nearly enough), plus the level designs are simply superb, like the harder ones in the latter part of 1, but with an extra edge (kinda like the original SMB 2, but actually playable this time).

My only complaint is that the presentation is not quite as strong (that's not to say the story in the original was amazing, but at least it moved the action along), to the point that it should be far more bare bones, but whatever.

Of course, my opinion could very well change, since I haven't had a chance to try out the other abilities, but I'm confident that the game will be consistently sweet throughout.

What's up with the levels you can die from falling off when there are no black holes around? Instead of a flat world, why not just a larger sphere? Can the engine not handle it? I don't like pits in a 3D mario game, they're worthless.

Is it just me or did Mario 64 have far fewer areas where you could fall to your death save for the Bowser levels? It's not that I'm dying a lot from it, it just makes it not as fun to run around and just screw off.

guys ive been playing no more heroes lately and after killer7 ill be goddamned if suda51 didnt make an actual fucking videogame this time.


its great

For reals. While not necessarily better, part two is still just as awesome.

So I guess you have a Wii now?

yeah, or rather my brother has a wii and im just borrowing it for the week. the copy of NMH is mine though.

the only other things ive played for it is wii sports(i love bowling) and red steel,which i bought paired with NMH. red steel is awful

Deathsmiles II X is a piece of shit port. It's a real shame because I actually kind of like it.

That sucks to hear. What's so bad about it to be exact? Are the backgrounds shitty again? And did Cave handle the port?

BTW, anyone else got their hands on Red Dead Redemption? I've had a copy for over a week now, but have been too damn busy to actually give it a spin. And now that No More Heroes for the PS3 just arrived... might be some more time as well!

SURPRISE! No More Heroes on a system that's not the Wii is not a whole lot of fun! Also, Christ the PS3's retarded loading times.

Once again, anyone else here playing Red Dead? Everyone seems to love it to death, but I have the same basic issues as with GTA4. Plus it's not nearly as much fun; there's so many ways to screw around in the faux Big Apple, but the old west? Not as much.

alpha protocol is pretty good thus far, though it has some serious mechanics problems.

Recent games I've been playing that I might expound upon in a future blog post:

Naughty Bear - One of those games that, if it had a bigger budget or some extra hands, could have been epic. But as it, its a fun distraction for a few minutes.

Puzzle Quest 2 - Take a rock solid puzzle mechanics and wrap it around the absolute lamest RPG package and you've got a shitty sequel.

Nighty Nine Nights 2 - They say there's a million new features this time around. Is everyone looking dark and gray count as one or two?

Lego Harry Potter - Perhaps the best Lego title yet!

I've been getting my ass kicked in Blur. If it wasn't for one person on my friends list whose done really well, I'd say it was impossible to actually get good at that game. Although, I have to say, it's a better Wipeout than some of the Wipeouts.

Since I was on the beta, they sent me a $20 off coupon, which is sweet and all. Except you need to install some goofy program, and I'm on a Mac lol. Which sucks cuz, man, $20.

Hey, I forgot about this thread!

So I'm playing a shit ton of stuff right now, but the stuff I'm enjoying the most is Dragon Quest 9, mostly since I have a regular job now and am therefore on the train quite a bit. Even single player is lots of fun, though I know the real money is in multiplayer.

Otherwise, got it on day one but only now am I giving Sin & Punishment 2 a go. Dave, you need to give this game a shot, I believe you'll really enjoy the mechanics.

Whatever the heck you're downloading at the moment:

Used my Japanese xbox points I picked up to download Deathsmiles Mega Black Label. I'm pretty psyched about that.

Also downloading Other M to see if it's actually decent or if SB's lenses are a little too rosy.

Hey Long time no post (due mostly to work related grind).

I finished Ace Combat 6 and Hawx. Ace combat is decent (for 2007 game). Nice variety of planes, cool missions and a bit a bit of sci-fi flavor with giant planes and massive land fortresses armed to teeth. You can tell that it's a game developed by Japanese studio - the amount of "moving", "patriotic" and "emotional" content during cutscenes and in later parts of the campaign during flight (non skippable sad monologues of your wingmen) is ever present, hillarious and frustrating at the same time. Developers are clearly trying to create "something special" with it, but failing in every regard, with shallow, cardboard characters and cliched situations, but maybe they are aiming for a much more younger audience than I. Also - we are being served with impossible to shot down enemies (from enemy elite squadron) - the only way to take them down is not call for massive air support time after time until they are dead.

HAWX as for first game in the franchise is really fun to play. It has one or two super stupid, frustrating and boring escort missions, but aside from them it's a great fun if you like to just fly around and blow stuff up.

I play a lot of arcade sim flying games recently, and I noticed that designers like co copy one of the most boring features from each other all the time. First of all - death star trench run. Cool in X-wing, not really cool for the fifth or sixth time in AC6 campaign. Another classic below radar flight in some sort of canyon or enclosed mountainous area - those mission are supposed to keep you on the edge of your seat, but in reality are boring as hell.

I have to say that I'll most likely pick up HAWx 2 and AC Rebirth when their price drops below $30. Sadly those games are not worth their full price.

After Burner Climax was excellent!

Picked up Skate 2 (surprisingly fun) and FUEL (missed open world racing opportunity). In the mean time I'm trying to get back onto Batman: Arkham Asylum, but I find puzzles frustrating. Another thing worth mentioning is Limbo - playing it I feel a bit like I felt back in the day playing Out of This World (or Another World as it was known in Europe) for the first time. We need more grayscale games in our hobby.

Monday Night Combat is cool mindless fun, but not really worth those microsoft points they are charging for it..

minecraft.

http://minecraft.net/

gotten so popular the server is down, so it's free to play until they're back up. totally worth ten bucks.

edit: awesome overwrought fan trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaMTedT6P0I&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kn2-d5a3r94

... I would seriously love to see work in progress footage, of tons of folks all building pieces at once.

This one is even crazier...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGkkyKZVzug

minecraft is the shit,yo.

playing new vegas. it's pretty good thus far but i've only logged about three hours.

Meat Boy and ODST. It strikes me that ODST is Bungie's take on COD4.

As unpopular as it might be to admit, something about Meat Boy is not clicking with me. Something about the physics...

new vegas: real good.

I should be stating that Pac-Man CE DX is dominating my mind at the moment, but it's not. I'm like the biggest Split/Second fanboy you'll find anywhere...

Matt, could you tell me what makes Split/Second worth it? I haven't gotten it yet, but Amazon has it for $20.

Recently I got NFS Hot Pursuit and it was largely a disappointing experience most likely because I was expecting something along the lines or Chase H.Q. reboot. The thing that frustrates me the most is awful rubber banding that won't allow you to outrun the cops (if you play as a racer), but will allow racers to outrun you if you're in the cop car pursuing them. I admit I got this game mostly because of how good Criterion's past "racing" releases were, but that awesome feeling you got every time you've played Paradise City is lost in NFS HP. Cop gameplay feels like a chore and is really rigid and structured, being a racer is way more fun, I would say feels a bit like Outrun fun - but maybe I'm more into running away than catching up with other cars. Big plus is weather / night racing - but they do not really affect the gameplay - this is arcade racing game after all.

NFS Shift is another game I had opportunity to play for the past few days. It's not Forza, but it feels like a fun and solid sim-arcade racing game especially for 11$ that I've paid for it. I dig the small tasks that are associated with each track, which upon completion give you extra stars - treated in this game as an currency that unlocks previously unavailable competitions or races. There is leveling system in place and trophies you get awarded for  either clean or dirty driving - but they are not affecting anything besides your gamer score. Most disappointing thing - just like with Forza and Dirt 2 - no weather effects whatsoever.

minecraft, shank.