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.

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..

Video ad for Russian "club" on Ave O in Brooklyn

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoIJ9co2GnY

As usual comments are hilarious (this is quoted from under the article in NYT):

Anything Jason Chen did was in the service of journalism; that much is patently obvious. Gizmodo was publishing information - however abrasively - about upcoming tech products. Trade secrets are only secrets as long as the owners keep them secret - quite unlike copyright, patents, etc.

Also - this.

I has Super since Saturday. My live account ran out, so I haven't played against Ken's, Akuma's (or Juri's) on-line yet, but so far it is pretty solid.

I like Hakan and Makoto - they force you to re-learn the way you play SFIV again.

Also, back to Kotaku, lol at them pulling out the journalistic integrity card on a week like this...

http://kotaku.com/5520937/do-not-trust-this-magazines-review-scores

You have to generate page hits somehow, right? Best way to fuel the fires is to have people argue in comments.

I find it really hard to believe that there are people walking around with iphone prototypes in their pockets. Stuff like that is always being handled behind closed doors. Of course there are idiots who will bring secrets outside, but those idiots will get sued bad after company finds out about it (because they all have signed confidentiality agreement and at the same time are damaging the company by revealing it's secrets).

There are two things that might have happened - either this dude really lost this phone while he was at the bar (and if he gets fired / sued soon then we will know that it was the case), or it's all an orchestrated marketing stunt aimed at creating buzz about the new piece of technology.

Does anyone remembers the story of Chinese Apple engineer who lost prototype of the iphone last year and killed himself? They better put that guy on suicide watch...

I just want to see some in game videos, not the silly teasers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAFvw94qdXA

On a realted note...

Friend of a friend worked with Steven Segal on the first season of this show and she said that he was (unsurprisingly) a huge asshole.

I got 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, 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.

My thought exactly.

I think SSFIV will be sold as a kit, for the operators who already have SFIV machines and MAYBE as separate cabs too (but I doubt anything except for marques and board will be new in them). Way easier to recycle cabs you haven't sold than manufacture new ones.

SSFIV will get arcade version

I also haven't seen SSFIV. It might have been setup at the console freeplay room.

A lot of videos from SSFIV played at PAX.