What are you playing right now?

[Phoenix Gamma]

Son, you crazy. FF12 was plenty fun.

[10,000 Volt Ghost]

It felt like more of a chore.

[OxBlood]

I liked the battles quite a bit but the story and more importantly the characters were soooo fucking boring and forgettable it really hurt to watch all that crap. Worts FF-Story until 13 came out. Yes I´m aware that FF8 exists and even that had a better story and characters...I so wanted to like and play 12 but it just doesn´t work, I can´t do it.

Speaking of things I can´t do: Alpha Protocol. I thought it might be fun to play through that thing again on hard until New Vegas is released on Thursday but noooo, the game has to fuck things up again. Unbeatable boss in Rome. Almost unbeatable mission in Russia...not much fun at all. Might have something to do with me picking SMGs as my primary weapons, the most useless weapon-class in the game...

[10,000 Volt Ghost]

I liked the story for FF8 until the whole orphanage business happened.

[Phoenix Gamma]

Y'all bustas. Balthier and Basch were clutch. Larsa and Al-Cid too. Everyone's actors were fantastic too. Oh, and Cid was fucking awesome. Did NOT see that guy taking center stage in the third act.

I would go gay for Balthier. Probably. I mean, look at the guy. (http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20071217203817/finalfantasy/images/c/cc/Balthier_Pimp.jpg)
If Square hadn't given Matsuno shit, Vaan and Penelo wouldn't have been added, and it'd be even better.

X-2 and 5 are the worst stories of the series, but 5 gets some slack for being old, even if it's villain is a tree and it's hero is named Butz. X-2 gets no sympathy.

Speaking of awful Final Fantasys, I still need to uninstall the beta of FFXVI. I was in such a rush to never play it again that I forgot to purge it from my harddrive. That's game's not finished in the slightest and I recommend with every fiber of my being that you avoid it for at least one year.

[10,000 Volt Ghost]

Balthier was suede because he's basically Han Solo with a Shotgun. The sub story between Basch and his twin brother was garbage. I don't think Cid was any good because he was in the game for like half an hour, the came up with a bunch of convoluted garbage about him being posessed by a super being. When I was at that point in the game I was just grinding to get done with it.

5 had a good story, it just took a bit ages. x-2.....was more of a fan game

[Phoenix Gamma]

Yea...well...that's just like...you're opinion, man :posh

[OxBlood]

5 didn´t even need a good story imo, the job system was the star of that game for me.

12 would´ve been fine if it wasn´t for Vaan. That single character ruined the whole game for me basically. Not only because he was the Main but just because he was there. I mean would it have been so hard to let him die in the intro instead of his slighty better designed brother or something? Or how about killing both off and letting Basch be the Main or Balthier.

[King Hadas]

I liked 12's gameplay and, although it was weak, I didn't dislike the story. The fatal flaw for me was the in-game traveling. Getting from place to place was a huge pain in the ass and I never finished the game because of it.

Also, I liked 5's storyline. It's more lighthearted than anything else in the series, lots of comedic relief. And because it was lighthearted your characters rarely got mawkish on you.

[Phoenix Gamma]

12 would´ve been fine if it wasn´t for Vaan. That single character ruined the whole game for me basically. Not only because he was the Main but just because he was there. I mean would it have been so hard to let him die in the intro instead of his slighty better designed brother or something? Or how about killing both off and letting Basch be the Main or Balthier.

While I find it hard to believe that one character ruined a whole RPG (one who basically just watches the game with you and isn't even involved in the slightest once you get past the tutorial. He's transparent from that point on,) you might want to bring that up with the higher-ups.

He was added in a later in development because Square execs (actually, Enix execs. This all went down after the merger and Enix's sloppy steering of the company) believed they would alienate their fanbase unless they had an effeminate male lead again. Lots of arguing went on over this, and the director, Matsuno, left the project. Thus, Basch was no longer the set perspective of the story, and Vaan was created. Not that it matters too much, since Ashe more or less steers the boat once she joins and becomes the main lead.

The moral is that Enix is the worst thing to happen to Square and Dragon Quest isn't even that good >:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:

Jeremy Parish wrote a great article about this game on his site awhile back. That dude knows role playing games like no one's business.
http://www.gamespite.net/toastywiki/index.php/Games/FinalFantasyXII

@King Hadas: International Edition adds a turbo button. Press L1 and you basically have in-game frameskip ala an Emulator. It's pretty handy.

[Fathom Zero]

fallout killing things

also, will get Super Meat Boy in mere hours.

[OxBlood]

While I find it hard to believe that one character ruined a whole RPG (one who basically just watches the game with you and isn't even involved in the slightest once you get past the tutorial. He's transparent from that point on,) you might want to bring that up with the higher-ups.

He was added in a later in development because Square execs (actually, Enix execs. This all went down after the merger and Enix's sloppy steering of the company) believed they would alienate their fanbase unless they had an effeminate male lead again. Lots of arguing went on over this, and the director, Matsuno, left the project. Thus, Basch was no longer the set perspective of the story, and Vaan was created. Not that it matters too much, since Ashe more or less steers the boat once she joins and becomes the main lead.

I read about Vaan being implemented later but I didn´t know the details, interesting to know...

And yes, it can ruin the whole game for me because the game establishes Vaan as the main character, even though there´s no real main character after a while. Just the fact that you start out as him makes him the permanent main for me, my mind works that way. Vaan´s the main, his presence AND his voice ruin the story mostly. Honestly, who did his lines? *looks it up*...a boyband singer...great. As we would say in germany, it fits like a fist to an eye. >:

It doesn´t help that the story itself was fucking boring either. I never liked these political plots (but that´s just me, I know a lot of people liked the plot of FFT for example) and I don´t like the world it plays in (let alone the fact that Ivalice is a "used" world).

In conclusion, there was a lot to like about FF12 but for me personally there was more to hate about it and it was all about the story and the character, the battle- and leveling-systems were fine if a little stupid. Gotta get a license to wear a knit cap, we can´t have you run around town without a fashion license, that would mean TOTAL ANARCHY! :lol

Many people will disagree with me on this, but of the newer FFs, I still prefer 10 over 12...OR 13. Tidus is a fucknugget too, yeah but he´s not as annoying to me as Vaan. Err..is fucknugget a word? I think I just made that up...don´t know where it came from but I like it :)

[DougClayton4231]

I got completely lost in this conversation :lol.
Fallout New Vegas is great, but it feels like an expansion to Fallout 3.
I still haven't tried out Vanquish. I guess I'll get around to it eventually.
Arcana - Gothic 4 should be banned from existence for sucking as badly as it does. It feels like a game from 2000.

[OxBlood]

Arcana - Gothic 4 should be banned from existence for sucking as badly as it does. It feels like a game from 2000.


And this is where I have to apologize for german entertainment software development in general. We simply can´t make clean games. We have great ideas but QA is something we simply can´t do. Now don´t ask me why, if I had any say in any german software company I would bite my employees to death if they pieced together such a piece of shit like Gothic 3 or 4. In terms of games, we´re stuck in the PC-Era of 2002 or something. Some of our adventure games are good though :lol

And I am so getting Costume Quest tonight, looks fun :)

[Phoenix Gamma]

Many people will disagree with me on this, but of the newer FFs, I still prefer 10 over 12...OR 13. Tidus is a fucknugget too, yeah but he´s not as annoying to me as Vaan. Err..is fucknugget a word? I think I just made that up...don´t know where it came from but I like it :)

Sir, I challenge you to play those games again. I don't think you full comprehend the scope of Tidus'...failishness. Vaan's invisible 5 hours in. Him and Penelo are basically R2D2 and C3PO and mostly serve as a viewpoint for everything else going on. Tidus is at the forefront, laughing like a psychopath, whining like a girl, and being a goddamned dream manifested in the real world because...well because somebody out there really hates you, that's why.

AH HA HA HA HA HA HA....
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA.
AAAAAAAAAH HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!

>:

And 13 is just 10 with different combat. Except now this time people actually realized it was linear instead of totally missing that point years ago :X

[King Hadas]

As far as linearity goes FFX is nothing compared to FFXIII. The most apt description I've heard for FFXIII is it's like running through a tube for fifty hours.

And if we're going to use 'what could've been' as a valid argument for the quality of a game then Tidus' only fault is his english voice acting. Otherwise we would of all erupted into tears when he high fives Jecht at the end of the game (I know I did anyways).

[10,000 Volt Ghost]

As far as linearity goes FFX is nothing compared to FFXIII. The most apt description I've heard for FFXIII is it's like running through a tube for fifty hours.

That's spot fucking on.

FFX was cool because you can play as Bender. I read some interview with the maker of FFX and FFX-2 about the character Shinra in both games. In X-2 there's a side mission about how he learns how to harness the planets energy and use it as Mako or some shit. So then Shinra blasts off to another world to try it....later generations make a corporation.

I read the comment about being called a busta at work Phoenix and I almost spit out my coffee.

[DougClayton4231]

As passionately as everyone feels about the later entries, I still think that FF4 and 6 tie for the best in the series, hands down.

Ox, I don't think that German software is the problem, I think that a lack of will to keep up with the times is the problem. JoWood software really needs to kick the bucket already.

[10,000 Volt Ghost]

How were 4 and 6 tied in?

[OxBlood]

Njerg, I still like 10 better than 12, nothing I can do about it.

And yes, 13 IS a 50 hour tuberun, it was a horrible game. One that I did play through because I more or less enjoyed the combat in the "free" part later on but I would never have played through it if I wasn´t already unemployed when it came out. Didn´t have anything better to do...it´s like watching bad movies just so you can talk about how bad they are, same thing.

Played 40mins of Costume Quest. Very charming little game and we don´t even have Halloween over here (only St. Martin which is one aspect of Halloween with the other being incorporated into Karneval/Fasching). I for one do love the dark time of the year so it appeals to me a lot more I guess.


Ox, I don't think that German software is the problem, I think that a lack of will to keep up with the times is the problem. JoWood software really needs to kick the bucket already.

Amen to that. They just do what they did back in the day, make sloppy PC games.

[DougClayton4231]

I think that the combat is better in 6 but the story is better in 4. I can't believe people actually sat through 13, everyone tells me that it doesn't even get remotely enjoyable until about 20 hours in. WTF?

[Dimnos]

If you liked any FF game after 6 then you like the little yellow cocks of asian men. Sorry. Facts are facts. :\

[Esuohlim]

I've only played FFX. Blitzball is the worst >: Also I wish catching 10 of each enemy for the monster bank didn't eat up about 30 hours of my time.

[darkvare]

i got an arcade stick for y ps3 so i'm back playing ssf4

[DougClayton4231]

@darkvare, totally jealous :P

[Dimnos]

Why no 360 Vare?

[darkvare]

well cause i have ssf4 on ps3 lol so any further fighting games are gonna be on ps3 and they only had ps3 sticks

[Dimnos]

Well I supposed having the game on PS3 makes a good reason to get the stick for PS3. :lol I guess i meant why did you get SSF4 on PS3? We could be standing in line waiting for Sam to kick our asses.

[Sam]

THAT'S FUCKING RIGHT.

LINE UP YOU BITCHES. >:

[Fathom Zero]

DOUBLE FINE'S NEW GAME COSTUME QUEST IS OUT YOU GUYS SHOULD BUY IT IF YOU KNOW WHAT'S GOOD FOR YOU. THAT AND SUPER MEAT BOY.

SHIT, THERE ARE SO MANY GOOD GAMES OUT NOW.

[darkvare]

o i got it on ps3 cause my 360 was dead by the time ssf4 released

[OxBlood]

DOUBLE FINE'S NEW GAME COSTUME QUEST IS OUT YOU GUYS SHOULD BUY IT IF YOU KNOW WHAT'S GOOD FOR YOU.

Way ahead of you. I just finished it. Not very long but pretty enjoyable and full of fuzzy heartwarming love :lol The costumes rock too. Though not all of them are useful...

[Phoenix Gamma]

The dude making the HD remix of Sonic 2 posted a demo on his site.
It's like Sonic 4, except ACTUALLY 3D. And not awful.
Looks great at the highest settings. Really want to play Chemical Plant now.

http://sonicfanremix.com/

[10,000 Volt Ghost]

I've only played FFX. Blitzball is the worst >: Also I wish catching 10 of each enemy for the monster bank didn't eat up about 30 hours of my time.

Blitzball was sweet once you got Brudda and the Jecht Shot. A lot better than the garbage card game of FF9. How I miss Triple Triad from FF8.

[OxBlood]

There was one mandatory Blitzball game right? Cause I wouldn´t know where else I´ve seen footage of that minigame, never played it, never will. I also wasn´t very fond of the card games in 8 and 9, I want to kill monsters not play cardgames with people from the village...

[10,000 Volt Ghost]

I think there was a mandatory game but all your players are garbage. I thought either Tidus' or Benders final limit break were won with Blitzball but I could be wrong on that.

[Fathom Zero]

meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeat boyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

I'm gonna fail this semester with all these games, also because I'm being incredibly irresponsible with my time. >:

[10,000 Volt Ghost]

That's the worlds fault for not having more time in the day.

[OxBlood]

So the world should either be bigger or turn slower?

[Esuohlim]

I think there was a mandatory game but all your players are garbage. I thought either Tidus' or Benders final limit break were won with Blitzball but I could be wrong on that.

Yeah, the mandatory game was impossible to win without the Jecht Shot and a couple of lucky saves. All you get is a strength sphere for winning though.

I was all about the Jupiter Sigil, though, which means playing about 50 additional games. >:

[10,000 Volt Ghost]

Once you can start recruiting people get Brudda. I can't think of her name but she might have an asian sounding name or is really short. Reminds me of the Girl guitar player in the Gorillaz. She's an awesome goalie. You can also get the Jecht Shot II. Play around with some of the formations too.

Also, The world should be bigger.

[OxBlood]

I can´t even understand why someone would work up the interest to check different players or even how the whole thing works...it just looked and played soooo boring...it´s just not for me.

[10,000 Volt Ghost]

It plays exactly like Soccer(Football). The team you start with are terrible, I got rid of them as quickly as I got better players except Wakka(Bender). Once you get good players the game is really easy actually.

[DougClayton4231]

That sonic fan remix is amazing. It's everything that the new Sonic should have been.

[Fathom Zero]

So Atlus' Catherine is coming out in February. Looks like sexy, sexy fun to be had.

Also, I just remembered there's gonna be a pseudo-sequel to Demon's Souls from From Software. I'm excited for next year already.

[OxBlood]

It plays exactly like Soccer(Football). The team you start with are terrible, I got rid of them as quickly as I got better players except Wakka(Bender). Once you get good players the game is really easy actually.


Hm, I can´t stand soccer to be honest, it´s fucking boring as long as there´s no "we against them" going on in the world championship or something like that. I never watch or play it normally. ;)

[10,000 Volt Ghost]

As much as I'm looking forward to the new Twisted Metal I hope they at least do a re-release of Rogue Trip.

[Zomboid]

Yeah, Rogue Trip was faaaaantastic!

[DougClayton4231]

I beat New Vegas last night, mostly because if I didn't beat it, I was gonna sink another 20 hours into it. I might start over and try things differently. I can't wait to see what kind of mods people are going to create for it.

[10,000 Volt Ghost]

Just found out about Xenoblade but with little to no info on it. Also for the Wii and only in Japan but its supposed to be related to Xenosaga.

[LordSappington]

Been playing a shitload of Minecraft; that game is too addicting. So far I've built underground forests, an infinitely looping cart track across the ocean, a floating castle, and am now attempting to build Rapture.
This game has got me in its grips bad.

[Phoenix Gamma]

Just found out about Xenoblade but with little to no info on it. Also for the Wii and only in Japan but its supposed to be related to Xenosaga.

Didn't I explain this in this thread earlier? Or is this deja vu?

"I wanted to to have some sort of common point with the games I've made," Takahashi explained. "The world setting, story and other elements have no relation. It's a completely new title."

[OxBlood]

Been playing a shitload of Minecraft; that game is too addicting. So far I've built underground forests, an infinitely looping cart track across the ocean, a floating castle, and am now attempting to build Rapture.
This game has got me in its grips bad.

Yeah but it really earns the time you spend with it. If it wasn´t "released" in 2009 it would be my Game of the year 2010, honestly.

How did you build the underground forest? I´ve been trying to do that every now and then but the green fuckers refuse to grow. I suppose the cave I plant them in has to be EVEN bigger than it already is...it´s about 7 or 8 blocks high already...

Sadly (or luckily?) I can´t attempt big projects on the surface cause my authentic Stoneage-Laptop doesn´t have to power for that, so I stick to the caves and mines :D

I´m so looking forward to the Halloween update. Already build a Hell-Shrine next to my primary tower along with an Obsidian-Hellgate. Doesn´t work yet of course but why not plan ahead and make a stylish entrance to hell...

[kahljorn]

ive been playing dark age of camelot (MMORPG) on a free server

daocportal.net if anybody wants to try it. I play on Uthgard.

[LordSappington]

Yeah but it really earns the time you spend with it. If it wasn´t "released" in 2009 it would be my Game of the year 2010, honestly.

How did you build the underground forest? I´ve been trying to do that every now and then but the green fuckers refuse to grow. I suppose the cave I plant them in has to be EVEN bigger than it already is...it´s about 7 or 8 blocks high already...
A few things I've noticed: Make sure that the trees each have plenty of space all around (Needs to be room for leaves to grow, most of the time), and that it works best if you make a little trench around the tree and put torches in THAT, instead of right next to it. But sometimes trees just won't fucking grow, for some reason.
I was actually going to grow a house made out of trees; I spent two hours collecting enough saplings, leveled the top of a mountain, put them all in the shape I wanted, and only half of them grew.

[10,000 Volt Ghost]

Didn't I explain this in this thread earlier? Or is this deja vu?

If you did I missed it. Any info on it?

[Phoenix Gamma]

I haven't followed it that closely. All I know is that it's super popular in Japan and it has a bunch of different mechanics that I don't fully comprehend. Not a bloody clue if it's being localized. On the one hand, it's a first party game. On the other hand, I don't think NoA would go through the time/money. They don't really know how to market it either, especially since RPGs have been either lazily brought over to the states or not at all.

I hope at the very least Mistwalker takes a stab at it. Sakaguchi's mah bro.

[LordSappington]

I'm almost done with one of the rooms of Rapture I'm building. The room is 17x24x12 with a glass ceiling. Dear god this is taking forever.

[OxBlood]

Which tells me you're doing it the oldfashioned way which is good :)

For some reason I wanna build the Spencer Mansion from Resident Evil 1... that would be so awesome.

[Fathom Zero]

I unlocked the Kid from I Want To Be The Guy in Super Meat Boy.

I spent literally LITERALLY five hours on the three levels.

Most horrific experience of my life, but I wasn't going to let it beat me. Fuck this game. :explode

[OxBlood]

And there´s my PS3-New Vegas. Finally. Installing...

[LordSappington]

Which tells me you're doing it the oldfashioned way which is good :)
Dude, fuck those cheat programs. If I'm going to be spending this much time on these super-dorky projects, I might as well be able to say I did it the old-fashioned way.
Also, some pig got on my minecart for my ocean-wide tram system, and hit the boosters right before I could get to it. Fucker was LONG gone.

[OxBlood]

Oh the tales he would´ve told us hadn´t you murdered him once he came back, eh?

[Pentegarn]

ive been playing dark age of camelot (MMORPG) on a free server

daocportal.net if anybody wants to try it. I play on Uthgard.

I actually still play it on Gaheris

They have a free pve server there?

[kahljorn]

I actually still play it on Gaheris

They have a free pve server there?

its like a collection of free servers (they call it project DAWN OF LIgHT or some shit) but from what i can tell only two of them have more than 200 people, but the server lists might not updateorsomeshit. One of em has like instant level 50/rvr and shti. one of em might be a coop server or something

the one ive been playing is CLASSIC/shrouded only so there's nothing after that :( It's not really a co-op server just a normal one, but it has the most people. there's still dungeons but there's no instances. Also there's not a ton of quests, mostly they are in the starting areas/places they expect you to go. the only class that doesn't work (from tOA) is necromancer. they have darkness falls. It kind of sucks in a way and it might not compare to playing live but other than that its mostly the same. A lot of people who used to play live play there, so there must be some kind of a draw.
they ban buffbots and dual boxers ;o

i play on the onecalled UtHgARD

[darkvare]

fuking psn i need my zombie fix of undead nightmare :\

[OxBlood]

Fable 3. Pretty buggy.

[Guitar Woman]

I beat Symphony of the Night completely on accident about halfway through. :[

Guess I wasn't supposed to kill Richter!

[Zomboid]

Nope.

[OxBlood]

Hm, I think I should write John Cleese a mail or a letter or something. As far as I know he´s a cranky bastard, maybe telling him, that Lionhead messed up his character in Fable 3 makes him so mad that he starts calling Molyneux at night until they fix it...god this gets on my nerve. And it makes no fucking sense too. The Butler turns mute and can´t be interacted with and...yeah, that´s it. The most important Sidecharacter is just taken out of the game. Can happen as soon as you get your sanctuary, or at any point during the game. Great designers you got there Peter, really, there´s fucking bugs all over the place. The butler is bugged, the dog is bugged, the golden easymode-line is bugged, enemies are bugged, controls and interface are bugged...fuck man, you´re Lionhead not Obsidian or Jowood!

Oh and this time they lied about the weapon-morphing I think. Didn´t they say it was gonna be superduper realtime ultramorphing?

[Guitar Woman]

By now you should know that anything Peter Molyneux says that sounds too complicated to be true probably is.

Then again, I'm horribly out of touch with video games these days; I still consider the context-sensitive A-button in Zelda 64 to be the height of technological pioneering.

[10,000 Volt Ghost]

I beat Symphony of the Night completely on accident about halfway through. :[

Guess I wasn't supposed to kill Richter!

Supposed to kill as Richter.

[DougClayton4231]

Is it just me, or did Fable get stale during the first one?

[Dimnos]

If you got the Lost Chapters version of the first one it wasnt bad. 2 was good. Have yet to play 3 but from what I have seen of the boy playing it it looks cool. Have yet to see any bug in it either. Sorry Ox. :(

[OxBlood]

Fable 3 is essentially a direct copy of Fable 2 until you become king I guess (I´m not that far yet). You run through small, linear areas, slaughter helpless enemies, your dog doesn´t do shit apart from trying to find dig-spots...with an emphasis on "trying to", you can stand around town getting on peoples nerves which, again seems to serve no purpose, you can mary and raise kids - same thing...the game scores for the beautiful intro and some of the quests. Even the german dub is VERY good most of the time and thats really rare.

But...yeah, it´s even more streamlined than 2. One button for each attack-type, autoaiming, you get one spell to start you off, everything else must be bought on the "road to rule" which is basically just one of the graphical menus of the game. Looks nice, points for creativity but it could´ve been done with a simple and quick menu. The sanctuary menu-room IS pretty quick to load though. You got your hero-weapons (hammer, sword, handgun, rifle) that morph once each time you buy an upgrade for melee or ranged which is mostly just a cosmetic thing but what in Fable isn´t...

If it weren´t for the annoying bugs I wouldn´t complain that much I guess. That and it feels totally underwhelming. I mean I´m no progamer but I beat things like Ninja Gaiden 2 last year. Not that I want that level of difficulty but a little depth would be nice.

Actually...I want to propose a challenge. Anyone of you guys got a dog at home? If so, let him or her play Fable 3 and see how it goes. It should work in theory... :D

[10,000 Volt Ghost]

Does Fable seem like Sim-Warrior?

[Dimnos]

2 was like sim-shoot you in the face with my musket.

[darkvare]

i like fable but the artstyle and story always put me off

[Phoenix Gamma]

Playing Bit.Trip Fate. Music's still awesome. Gameplay's...weird. You're on a rail, but the screen moves forward, so you need to stay on screen, but dodge bullets. So you need to back up and move forward to dodge shit instead of moving 8 directions. And since aiming is done with the remote there's no set rhythm to it. You don't really play the same song/beats, unlike the other games, where you either hit X beat at Y time or miss.

Also ran into Meat Boy while playing. He made my bullets bigger (meatier?) :lol

Runner's still my favorite, but this one's pretty good.

[DougClayton4231]

I just hate the moral choices in the Fable games. It's either eat a live baby or eat two live babies. WTF?

[Dimnos]

Wtf are you talking about?

[darkvare]

i'm loving undead nightmare is awesome and some of the songs from the soundtrack remind me of grindhouse films

[OxBlood]

Tried out the Minecraft Halloween update...for 3 hours aparently...what the fuck...and it´s okay so far, we got hell to visit now aaaand a watch and fish and I think that´s about it. Still don´t know why Notch introduced a way to fast-travel without implementing a changable spawnpoint first but whatever.

[DougClayton4231]

Wtf are you talking about?

In Fable 3, all of the moral choices boil down to doing something horrifying or extremely horrifying. It's not really a good system.

Btw, Happy Halloween everybody!

[OxBlood]

Uh, yeah, happy Halloween. Kinda cute how some of the tiny malls we have in town try to celebrate Halloween...I´m sure you guys would laugh your asses off :D

Built my second Slipgate in the Nether in Minecraft (no enemies because I don´t want to permanently lose my stuff (bug)) and it seems to work. Came back into the normal world god knows where and now I´ll walk back to my base to see how far away I really am from there. Saw a forest and snow biome on the way, it adds a little more flair to the world as does the new sunrise and sunset, kinda pretty. Sadly the two new blocks don´t seem to have any use apart from looking strange...

[DougClayton4231]

What the hell is Minecraft btw?

[OxBlood]

What the hell is Minecraft btw?


Minecraft is a builder-game. The world consists of blocks, you run around, collects ressources, build tools to harvest or mine different blocks (shovels for dirt, pickaxes for stone and ore for example). At night or in darkness, monsters spawn and try to get to you, so you construct a little shelter, try to light it with torches and before you know it, it´s 4 in the morning and you´re standing on top of a giant tower overlooking your base or town or whatever you built. I´m still trying to build the Mansion from Resident Evil but I´m always getting the dimensions wrong somehow...
And yeah, there´s hell now in the game or The Nether as they call it. Pretty nice but kinda useless until they implement some other things.

In short, Minecraft is one of the best things that happened to gaming in recent years :)

[Dimnos]

In Fable 3, all of the moral choices boil down to doing something horrifying or extremely horrifying. It's not really a good system.

Btw, Happy Halloween everybody!

Since asking I poped Fable 3 in to check it out and I see what you mean. I like that they got away from the overly black and white choices. Some of them are actually rather hard ones.

[LordSappington]

JESUS CHRIST THE NETHER IS AWESOME.
It still needs more implemented into it, so it can be useful for more than just harvesting lightstone and going really far easily. I've made a gate into some random part of my world, but I haven't gotten to explore it yet.

[Esuohlim]

Minecraft is a builder-game. The world consists of blocks, you run around, collects ressources, build tools to harvest or mine different blocks (shovels for dirt, pickaxes for stone and ore for example). At night or in darkness, monsters spawn and try to get to you, so you construct a little shelter, try to light it with torches and before you know it, it´s 4 in the morning and you´re standing on top of a giant tower overlooking your base or town or whatever you built. I´m still trying to build the Mansion from Resident Evil but I´m always getting the dimensions wrong somehow...
And yeah, there´s hell now in the game or The Nether as they call it. Pretty nice but kinda useless until they implement some other things.

In short, Minecraft is one of the best things that happened to gaming in recent years :)

You seem like the type who loved the shit out of Animal Crossing. Minecraft sounds terrible.

[OxBlood]

I never played Animal Crossing but what I saw looked like shit to me. Minecraft isn´t about collecting stuff, it´s just about rearranging blocks in shapes and forms that you like. It´s your little (potentially endless) word. If you want to dig a hole and be done with it, do it, it´s as effective as building a giant tower with lava-fountains and obsidian decorations in terms of keeping the enemies away.

And why does that sound terrible to you? Never played with Lego when you were a kid? It´s the same thing basically. The material itself isn´t that much fun, the possibilities are.

[Phoenix Gamma]

I'LL EXPLAIN IT BETTER CAUSE I ALREADY EXPLAINED IT ONCE IN THIS THREAD BUT NOONE LISTENS TO PEEGEE >:

OKAY SO YOU GOT THIS BUCKET OF LEGOS. THEN YOU SPILL IT ON THE TABLE. NOW YOU'RE A LEGO MAN AND YOU EXPLORE THIS BIG MESS OF LEGOS ON FOOT AND YOU TAKE TREES AND TURN THEM INTO WOODEN PLANKS TO BUILD CABINS AND TORCHES AND PICKAXES AND SHIT. THEN YOU BREAK STONE AND MAKE STONE CASTLES AND PICKAXES CAUSE ROCK TOOLS ARE BETTER THEN WOOD ONES. AND YOU DIG HOLES AND FIND GOLD AND DIAMOND AND HUGE UNDERGROUND CAVES AND LAVA AND RIVERS AND SHIT. THEN OH FUCK A ZOMBIE. OH SHIT A GIANT SPIDER. FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK

THEN YOU RIDE ON A MINECART TRACK THAT YOU BUILT BECAUSE YOU'RE THAT AWESOME AND IT FLINGS YOU INTO A RIVER AND YOU HOP ON YOUR BOAT AND YOU RIDE THE BOAT UP A WATERFALL TO YOUR FLOATING CASTLE. BECAUSE YOU DECIDED YOU WANT A CASTLE IN THE SKY. AND THE DOORS OPEN WHEN YOU PRESS A BUTTON CAUSE THIS ISN'T YOUR DAD'S CASTLE. AND YOU HAVE A RIVER OF LAVA RUNNING UNDER THE CASTLE BRIDGE. I DON'T KNOW WHY YOU PUT LAVA THERE BUT IT LOOKS COOL. THEN YOU LEAVE AND IT'S NIGHT TIME AND YOU FIGHT OFF MONSTERS AGAIN.

It's pretty neat. Someone made a really good trailer for it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaMTedT6P0I
And some guy tried to show how to make indefinite fire. Except he fucks up around 1:10. It's hilarious.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnjSWPxJxNs

[Esuohlim]

And why does that sound terrible to you? Never played with Lego when you were a kid? It´s the same thing basically. The material itself isn´t that much fun, the possibilities are.

I never liked Lego, I was born without an imagination. :( I loved K'Nex but only if I was building something from the manual. If I had to make something from scratch then I wasn't having fun anymore.

So you need an imagination for Minecraft, then? Not for me.

[10,000 Volt Ghost]

THEN YOU RIDE ON A MINECART TRACK THAT YOU BUILT BECAUSE YOU'RE THAT AWESOME AND IT FLINGS YOU INTO A RIVER AND YOU HOP ON YOUR BOAT AND YOU RIDE THE BOAT UP A WATERFALL TO YOUR FLOATING CASTLE. BECAUSE YOU DECIDED YOU WANT A CASTLE IN THE SKY. AND THE DOORS OPEN WHEN YOU PRESS A BUTTON CAUSE THIS ISN'T YOUR DAD'S CASTLE. AND YOU HAVE A RIVER OF LAVA RUNNING UNDER THE CASTLE BRIDGE. I DON'T KNOW WHY YOU PUT LAVA THERE BUT IT LOOKS COOL. THEN YOU LEAVE AND IT'S NIGHT TIME AND YOU FIGHT OFF MONSTERS AGAIN.


Did you build super mario rpg?

[Fathom Zero]

I never liked Lego, I was born without an imagination. :( I loved K'Nex but only if I was building something from the manual. If I had to make something from scratch then I wasn't having fun anymore.

So you need an imagination for Minecraft, then? Not for me.

I'm kinda the same way now, but I loved building massive space ships as a kid. Now, I just modify things.

[OxBlood]

Hm, for me it's the other way round. I threw the Lego-manuals away and integrated the new bricks into my colorful collection, ready to build whatever came to my mind.

Now, I won't build the Eiffel tower in Minecraft or something, but only cause I'm too busy building underground forests and cosy cave systems to live in :)

[Dimnos]

Why does everyone who plays minecraft have a hard on for underground forests?

[OxBlood]

I don´t know other peoples motivations but I want to have one world where I grow all my stuff underground with no access to the surface at all, that´s what I need an underground forest for. Mining out the caves for these things is fucking tedious...at least 6 high and 3 blocks between trees and walls...takes a while. Underground farming is way easier and I think you can fish in any kind of water now so underground fishing is propbably the easiest way to get food down there.

I just finished Fable 3 with a "Me-Character" which resulted in me being neutral most of the time but in the end the game forced me all the way to good and glued wings on my back...and though they DO have a final boss this time, it still sucks and is about as dangerous as a sleeping puppy. You don´t even see the boss in it´s real form.

So yeah, the people liked me more or less but since I invested in Albions future with schools and preserved the landscape, 6 Million people died and there´s not much going on in the cities with everyone dead and all that stuff...oh and the moment I got back to my home, my wife left me. No reason though I mean I´m the fucking king...ah well...getting a wife in this game is a matter of minutes...I wonder where my son is though...haven´t seen the little gremlin recently...

[Phoenix Gamma]

Did you build super mario rpg?
No because I'm the only person in the world who did not like that game :\

Why does everyone who plays minecraft have a hard on for underground forests?
BECAUSE THAT'S NOT HOW FORESTS ARE SUPPOSED TO WORK. IT'S FUCKIN MAGIC.

Though I can't be assed to...like...water plants and shit. Actually I haven't even looked that shit up. I'm content with just exploring.

In the snow maps, if you dig in the ground, then tunnelled towards the water, the space under the ice is totally empty. No water underneath. I'm guessing the game just spawns the water when you break ice from above because he didn't think I would be fucking around as much as I have in my ice map. I found out after tunnelling for hours and working my way back up. It's pretty sick hollowing out the goddamn ocean then looking down at it all from above.

[DougClayton4231]

I don´t know other peoples motivations but I want to have one world where I grow all my stuff underground with no access to the surface at all, that´s what I need an underground forest for. Mining out the caves for these things is fucking tedious...at least 6 high and 3 blocks between trees and walls...takes a while. Underground farming is way easier and I think you can fish in any kind of water now so underground fishing is propbably the easiest way to get food down there.

I just finished Fable 3 with a "Me-Character" which resulted in me being neutral most of the time but in the end the game forced me all the way to good and glued wings on my back...and though they DO have a final boss this time, it still sucks and is about as dangerous as a sleeping puppy. You don´t even see the boss in it´s real form.

So yeah, the people liked me more or less but since I invested in Albions future with schools and preserved the landscape, 6 Million people died and there´s not much going on in the cities with everyone dead and all that stuff...oh and the moment I got back to my home, my wife left me. No reason though I mean I´m the fucking king...ah well...getting a wife in this game is a matter of minutes...I wonder where my son is though...haven´t seen the little gremlin recently...

Wow, I now have even less motivation to play Fable 3 lol.

[10,000 Volt Ghost]

No because I'm the only person in the world who did not like that game :\

I'm pretty sure you just described building the game verbatim though.

[OxBlood]

Wow, I now have even less motivation to play Fable 3 lol.

Meh, it was better than Fable 2, so I guess I´d give it a...let´s say 7/10. It´s okay, really. Not great, not a work of genius but okay. More to do, more to see, rather relaxing gameplay apart from the bugs of course...an okay game.

And am I a nerd for ordering the english starter-box of Gamma World? I´ve never played D&D (though I do know how to play it) but the setting just sells me on it. It seems so beautifully random and insane...I mean I could make up any kind of stupid LSD-induced story and it would fit right in (not that I take anything like that but my imagination can operate on such levels if I want it to).

[10,000 Volt Ghost]

Want to play Gamma world real bad.

[Phoenix Gamma]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_vjj4-CnTU
THIS. GAME. LOOKS. FANTASTIC.

God, Retro's batting 4 for 4.

Also, since I'm 100% positive the Goldeneye remake will be ass, I downloaded Goldeneye:Source. Game's pretty great, but not many people play it. The only server I found with a sizable group of players was set on License to Kill mode, which REALLY isn't fun when you're playing with more than the N64's 4 person limit (you'll spawn and get shot right away, and that's with 9 people).

[DougClayton4231]

lmao Ox, that might make you a nerd. Remember, Protoclown said that D&D nerds are nowhere near Fan fic nerds, so you're good.

Call of Duty Black Ops and Goldeneye for the Wii are awesome, that is all. Black Ops is definitely the swansong for the COD franchise though, they can't do any better than it.

[Dimnos]

Did I hear something about being able to play as Nixon to kill zombies?

[OxBlood]

lmao Ox, that might make you a nerd. Remember, Protoclown said that D&D nerds are nowhere near Fan fic nerds, so you're good.


I guess the fact that I don´t play P&P Rpgs works in my favor there...but damn, Gamma World is so colorful, I really wanna play that with likeminded people...first random Character became a hairless mindbreaker-catman working at a garage&grill, armed only with a boxcutter and a torn-up leather seat as armor. I guess his prime motivation could be finding a hair-golem to solve his little baldness-problem.

I really like that there isn´t much fluff in the rules, leaves more room for imagination I guess. They just state "pick a weapon, you decide what it is, we don´t care, go ahead."

[DougClayton4231]

Yeah, after you beat the game (or from the main menu) you can play zombies mode with Kennedy, Nixon, Castro, and some other guy. I still don't really care for the zombie mode though. Black Ops was a great game overall, but it is missing Spec Ops and the plot twist can be seen a mile away lol.

The new Goldeneye isn't a remake though, it's more of a reboot or reimagining and it's great. You definitely have to change your controls to your liking though. (Didn't any of the developers play Metroid Prime Trilogy on the Wii? The controls were perfect.)

[Dimnos]

Killing zombies and Nixon = the pinnacle of gaming.

[Shadowdancer21b]

Sega Bass Fishing on Dreamcast. No, seriously. I enjoy this fishing game and this fishing game only.

[Phoenix Gamma]

http://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/08-1448.pdf
THIS is funny shit. A summary of the Supreme Court case regarding Schwarzenegger's bill on violent video games. Arnold's lawyers got slapped silly. I haven't finished reading it, but my favorite bit so far is:

JUSTICE SOTOMAYOR: ...One of the studies, the Anderson study, says that the effect of violence is the same for a Bugs Bunny episode as it is for a violent video. So can the legislature now, because it has that study, say we can outlaw Bugs Bunny?

MR. MORAZZINI: No -­-Or this little bit thrown out when arguing about violence towards people:
JUSTICE SOTOMAYOR: Would a video game that portrayed a Vulcan as opposed to a human being, being maimed and tortured, would that be covered by the act?

MR. MORAZZINI: No, it wouldn’t, because the act is only directed towards the range of options that are able to be inflicted on a human being.

JUSTICE GINSBURG: ...does California have any kind of an advisory opinion, an office that will view these videos and say, yes, this belongs in this, what did you call it, deviant violence, and this one is just violent but not deviant?

MR. MORAZZINI: Not that I'm aware of, Justice Ginsburg.

JUSTICE SCALIA: You should consider creating such a one. You might call it the California office of censorship. It would judge each of these videos one by one. That would be very nice.

Lots of other parts are great. The justices were pretty much all against this and the people arguing for the bill just got slapped around.

[Fathom Zero]

Broke the Top 1000 in Super Meat Boy. Yay. Almost done with the Dark World. #926, yay

[Dimnos]

Beat Fable 3 last night. Did all the good guy stuff as kind and saved up the money to save everyone. Go business planning! I didnt really like the Road to Rule system. I would have prefered the same as 2. Mostly didnt like that slow time wasnt a spell anymore. Or that your couldnt upgrade your melee speed. Where before you could tweek out and specialize your character it now feels like the only real choices you have are what two spells to use. Weapons and clothing were lacking. I used the hero sword the entire time because nothing better ever came along. You can save a lot of money because of this but what the hell is there to do with it anymore? You just sit on it till the end to save a number of citizens from what amounts to 10 enemies and a lame boss. :rolleyes

[10,000 Volt Ghost]

Bad times.

[10,000 Volt Ghost]

http://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/08-1448.pdf


If they went with the anti violent video game rule but kept the violent movie is okay rule would they then ban violent video games based on violent movies or would it justify that its a replication of said violent movie that would be re-enacted through violent game play as opposed to just a violent videogame game play not based on a violent movie.

edit: This is fun reading.

[Esuohlim]

Paper Mario: Thousand Year Door, bitches

[Shadowdancer21b]

Thousand Year Door is fun as hell.

[Esuohlim]

It's way better than the original, I think. I just wish it was more difficult.

[Phoenix Gamma]

The original was more of a classic though. The final boss was fun. It also didn't have those awkward segments with Peach...
Mario and Luigi 3 pretty much tops every Mario RPG though. Holy shit, that game's tight.

It turns out an old forum I used to go to had a Minecraft server. I built a giant penis then quit. Then I loaded up TF2 and got a shitload of kills as the Scout. I was dominating the scoreboard and (for the first time ever) people started accusing me of cheating, saying I was running faster than a normal scout and shit. They were obviously jealous of my awesome random WASD mashing abilities. It was a fantastic match.

[Microshock]

Tried to buy COD:Black Ops today from my normal street date breaking store. No store has it for sale around here. The small stores don't even have them in.

sigh.

[darkvare]

speaking of black ops some robbers stole a bunch of copies
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/harford/bs-md-video-game-robbers-20101107,0,5201573.story

[Tadao]

It probably uses steam huh?

[caffman]

I've just finished Force Unleashed 2, midway through fallout new vegas and have Fable 3 waiting to start. Oh and Rock band 3, Guitar hero 6 and Black ops from tonight.
I need more hours in the day

[Dimnos]

You should blow right through Fable 3.

[10,000 Volt Ghost]

speaking of black ops some robbers stole a bunch of copies
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/harford/bs-md-video-game-robbers-20101107,0,5201573.story

That's ridiculous.

[StuntDouble]

Right now I'm playing Dragon Quest IX, and actually enjoying it. I used to despise RPG's, turn based ones especially, but I have to admit it has grown on me.

[Phoenix Gamma]

Sonic Colors got leaked.

It's...good?
The story's really weird in that it's trying pretty hard to be funny. Like, Paper Mario/Mario and Luigi funny. Eggman built some amusement park to atone for his crimes, and Sonic and Tails break in "because that's how we spend most of our time". There's lots of weird self-aware humor, or just weird humor in general (Sonic runs by Tails, stops, then moonwalks back over to Tails. What. Also Eggman's dialog over the PA system in the levels is actually pretty funny too.) It's not as good at the Mario RPGs in terms of humor, but it's a different take.

Supposedly they hired two dudes from Happy Tree Friends to help with the writing, which is weird too.

The game itself is pretty fun. Levels still have some trial and error, but less than usual, and you're JUST running this time. Finally. I mean, for fuck's sake, it took THIS LONG?!

Oh, and the music is really great. And the graphics actually give Mario Galaxy a run for its money.

It's a surprisingly solid game that's actually fun. Not a classic, but this is the only good Sonic game since Advance 1. I'd give it a B so far.

[DougClayton4231]

I've started playing Enslaved again and it's amazing. I honestly have no idea why games can't all have fantastic graphics, a great plot, or great acting like this one.

@Phoenix, I can't wait to play Sonic Colors. It actually sounds like Sonic, even Sonic Adventure 1 wasn't a true Sonic game.

[Dimnos]

I thought you said Enslaved was mediocre? :?

[Phoenix Gamma]

Beat Sonic Colors. The second half of the game isn't as fantastic as the first half, but it's still pretty strong and worth buying if you ever wanted to see a good Sonic game. Has some solid replay value.

Games Radar's review sums up the game perfectly:
http://www.gamesradar.com/wii/sonic-colors/review/sonic-colors-review/a-2010110816153062049/g-201005269481674075

[WhiteRat]

I've started playing Enslaved again and it's amazing. I honestly have no idea why games can't all have fantastic graphics, a great plot, or great acting like this one.

@Phoenix, I can't wait to play Sonic Colors. It actually sounds like Sonic, even Sonic Adventure 1 wasn't a true Sonic game.

So I take it this game is worth picking up? I read a review and I now i'm tempted to get it but no one I know has played it yet.

[DougClayton4231]

I love Enslaved, I just said that it wasn't as good as an investment as Castlevania for the same price. Enslaved is like 20$ now on Amazon, it's worth a buy.

[stevetothepast]

Black Ops is so far so good. The "one in the chamber" mode is fun.

[OxBlood]

Took the time to play through Resident Evil 1 again, this time on the DS. But I´m pretty sure this was the first time, Barry died on my...I wonder what I did wrong...there was no selfdestruction timer either...strange.

[10,000 Volt Ghost]

It's because you didn't use the Barry Sandwich.

[OxBlood]

I didn´t even OPEN that DOOR!

[WhiteRat]

Bought an Xbox (3rd times the charm!) and have been playing the hell out of New Vegas, Forza 3, and NCAA Football 11.

I reserved Call of Duty but i'm such a badass i'm not even going to pick it up!

ps i'm broke

[DougClayton4231]

I've never played through the PS1 version of RE, only RE2 and RE3.

I can't wait to play the new DK :P

[MarioRPG]

I've been playing the Ace Attorney games and holy crap am I ever impressed. I'm thoroughly enjoying it so far, the writing is amusing / funny and engaging. Kind of reminded me what I wanted to go into law for. Yelling and junk.
Characters are excellent and Godot is a god damn bad ass.

[Guitar Woman]

http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/1174/nobles.png

Nobles are permanently banned.

[darkvare]

Took the time to play through Resident Evil 1 again, this time on the DS. But I´m pretty sure this was the first time, Barry died on my...I wonder what I did wrong...there was no selfdestruction timer either...strange.
it has something to do with the giant snake and waiting for barry to return with the rope

[OxBlood]

Fuck I knew it. I just darted for the grave instead of waiting for the master of unroping. Im still not really good at dodging some Zombies, even after all these years...

[DougClayton4231]

The controls suck too much for you to be able to accurately dodge anything lol.

The Dead Ops Arcade mode on the new COD is better than the zombies mode lol. It's kind of sad that a Smash TV knock off can be more fun than half of the other modes.

[Guitar Woman]

Metroid: Other M.

Fuck every hater, this game is so awesome it made my knees explode.

Although the dialogue and cutscenes smack pretty hard of Hideo Kojima.* And what the hell, games industry, you are a multi-billion dollar establishment, can you still not afford voice actors that don't sound like benzo addicts or high-school drama students?


*Adam: Looks like the Galactic Federation is using the Bottle Ship to develop Bioweapons.
Samus: ADAM, IS THE GALACTIC FEDERATION USING THE BOTTLE SHIP TO DEVELOP BIOWEAPONS!?

[OxBlood]

Bought Two Worlds 2 today. Way better than the first one and waaaay better than Gothic 4 or Risen. Looks pretty good, controls well, the fighting takes a little getting used to but apart from that, I´m kinda suprised by the quality. The english main sounds like he´s asleep though :D

[Fathom Zero]

I'm playing Dead Space again. STILL ARSOME

[King Hadas]

Metroid: Other M.

Fuck every hater, this game is so awesome it made my knees explode.


I heard the game was sexist because they turned Samus into a gross weakling. I haven't played it myself though.

[darkvare]

I'm playing Dead Space again. STILL ARSOME
lol same here i went to wal-mart and found the greatest hit version on the bargain bin so i got it along with timeshift.

also a question rose in zero punctuation the guy claims issacs name is a pun but i have no idea why do you guys know?

[Fathom Zero]

I can't remember Issac's last name, so I dunno.

EDIT: lol wikipedia
The player takes the role of Isaac Clarke (named after science fiction writers Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke[6])

[Guitar Woman]

I heard the game was sexist because they turned Samus into a gross weakling. I haven't played it myself though.
I haven't gotten to the scene everyone seems to be complaining about where Ridley shows up and she starts freaking the fuck out, but the phrase I'd use to describe Samus so far is "characterless, deadpan retard." That Smash Bros Brawl shipping between her and Snake suddenly makes perfect sense; literally all of her narration is clarifying whatever completely obvious shit is happening on-screen at the time. It's amazing how giving her a speaking role managed to make her seem like more of an emotionally stunted robot than when she had Gordon's Syndrome.

Also, she's suddenly got ridiculous baby-birthing hips. I don't even know what the fuck, there.

Actually playing it is awesome, though. It's kinda like if Devil May Cry didn't suck a giant shitlog.

[Phoenix Gamma]

Except for the parts where you're zigzagging in the bigger rooms because of the D-Pad. And firing missiles with the awful first person controls. And pixel hunting in first person to progress the story (green blood on green grass! of course!) And fighting repetitive bosses. And charging through long hallways taking heat damage because Adam thinks you shouldn't have heat-resistant armor. And the parts were the environments are shallow, lifeless, and have almost nothing in them and zero exploring (which would be...all of it.)

Game's pretty shallow and mediocre. Also, Sakamoto's stubbornness to include joystick support is just retarded. I don't know if anyone gave him the memo, but the N64 got a joystick to make 3D games playable. That's why Sony added it after they realized how frustrating a D-Pad is in 3D.

That game's just packed with bad decisions. Gunpei Yokoi must be spinning in his grave faster than a morph ball.

[Guitar Woman]

green blood on green grass! of course!
goddamnit, this got me too. I kept thinking, "Well, guys, maybe I could figure out what happened better if you'd let me see the fucking body" and "Ok, James is probably the traitor, maybe if I shot him right away I could avoid a lot of Redshirtery"

Other than that you can generally figure out what you're supposed to be looking for if you either wave the Wii-remote around on the screen a whole lot or pretend to be Sherlock Holmes and deduce the fuck out of every visual clue. I apply a mix of either method.

I thought the controls would be horrible, but they really aren't. Simplistic, maybe, but Metroid has always essentially been a game where you do three things: shoot stuff, run around, and turn into a marble to blow the walls up. The core gameplay just feels right, for some reason; it's all fancy and streamlined and shit. I think I've accidentally turned on "squishy child" mode, since Samus seems to bullet-time dodge everything automatically if I'm not in motion and don't jump out of the way. Or sometimes when I am in motion. It's finnicky. I can kinda see the complaints about missile mode, but the only enemies you really need to use them on are either slow or stunnable with a charge shot; just beat up on them until they flash vunerable and shove explosives up their arses. My only real beef is that yeah, it's on rails harder than all the other Metroids, but so was Fusion and that's easily the best game in the series.

The Pyrosphere wasn't as retarded as I thought it'd be, since they scaled the convection-damage way down from what it was in the other games. The part that really pissed me off is how hard it is to get out of lava if you get knocked over. The boss in the volcano at the end really kicked my shit in because of his cheeky attack telegraphing, but I haven't really had a game wail on me in a while so I hope it gets harder.

I rather think the environments all look great, too, this is one of the prettier Wii games.

Haters gonna hate, I guess.

[OxBlood]

Hm, that 2 Worlds has kind of an interesting Magic system...all very modular...I combine the fire element with the projectile carrier and have some kind of fireball. If I leave out the damage modificator though it becomes a blinding projectile...or I could combine the air element with the summoning carrier and I get a Wasp-Pet...I need more modules...errr cards.

[Guitar Woman]

Oh my god, I just got to the Ridley scene :lol

Honestly, Samus shitting a brick might have been a decent idea if this game wasn't the second-latest in the timeline. So, after ruining Ridley's shit in Metroid 1, Metroid Prime 1 and 3, and twice in Super Metroid, she's suddenly all PTSD Clarinet Kid whenever he shows up? I would think Ridley'd be more terrified of her at this point.

That aside, I was almost able to take it seriously until the part where Samus falls a long way without the power suit, only she's doing ninja-flips for some reason while yelling "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" and I couldn't not bust out laughing.

The more of the plot I see the more I feel like a dirty whore for enjoying this game. As a Metroid fan, I am being anally raped, but as a gamer, I am being served a fresh, delicious guava on a golden platter.

I really have no idea what to tell people about Other M. The narrative is a filthy abomination, a repeat of which must not be encouraged, but on the other hand it's really a good action title and the Wii's still basically a starving african child in terms of releases actually intended for people who play video games.

NON METROID STUFF: I got Kirby's Epic Yarn, too. The ramped-up cuteness makes the wanton, ruthless slaughter of thousands upon thousands of Waddle Dees profoundly more disturbing than usual. Seriously, Kirby turns into a little pink yarn car when he runs and a submarine when he goes underwater! How fucking cute is that? It's the most ridiculously adorable game I've seen since Yoshi's Story. You're likely to get diabetes just by watching the trailer.

[DougClayton4231]

Except for the parts where you're zigzagging in the bigger rooms because of the D-Pad. And firing missiles with the awful first person controls. And pixel hunting in first person to progress the story (green blood on green grass! of course!) And fighting repetitive bosses. And charging through long hallways taking heat damage because Adam thinks you shouldn't have heat-resistant armor. And the parts were the environments are shallow, lifeless, and have almost nothing in them and zero exploring (which would be...all of it.)

Game's pretty shallow and mediocre. Also, Sakamoto's stubbornness to include joystick support is just retarded. I don't know if anyone gave him the memo, but the N64 got a joystick to make 3D games playable. That's why Sony added it after they realized how frustrating a D-Pad is in 3D.

That game's just packed with bad decisions. Gunpei Yokoi must be spinning in his grave faster than a morph ball.

I can't believe that we're talking about that piece of shit again. I swear to God that that was the most disappointing game of the past 5-10 years. If I ever hear her lethargic, braindead droning again...actually, I don't know what I'd do...

My girlfriend called me gay for playing Epic Yarn. Hilarious.

[Phoenix Gamma]

There's another scene where Samus gets taken down by one shot of the ice pistol, then is left totally defenseless, in her zero suit, unable to stand, gasping for air, for like 15 minutes.

Oh, and you'll learn to hate the missiles after you play the story's final boss, GW. Oh, and I'll tell you right now, the game never reveals the Deleter. It gets dropped for another subplot.

JAPAN. YOU SUCK AT STORYTELLING.

Epic Yarn convinced me to never kill a Waddle Dee. Especially the two sleeping under the tree together in that one level. One tried to tackle me, but he went like 2 inches, hit the ground, and squeaked. If you want disturbing slaughter, though, the new game added in the Super Star remake on DS has a story that basically boils down to "Kirby sees Dedede's castle. Kills millions. Even the right hand man who is just a Waddle Dee with a hat." Oh, and Squeak Squad, where Kirby loses his cake and decides EVERYONE MUST DIE. Then he accidentally saves the world in the process.

[10,000 Volt Ghost]

lol, kirbys a jerk.

[Phoenix Gamma]

Someone asked me if there was a game character who could beat Superman. Given that Kirby can't die in Epic Yarn, and he's split a planet in two with his bare...fist stubs...I'd say he's pretty much the strongest character in fiction next to God.

BUT HE'S SO CYUTE <33333333333

[Esuohlim]

WARIO CAN'T DIE EITHER

UNLESS YOU'RE PLAYING THE FIRST WARIO GAME FOR GAMEBOY

THE BEST ONE

[Esuohlim]

BY THE WAY IF THIS WERE 1996 I WOULD BE TOTALLY ON THE UP AND UP ON ALL THE CURRENT GAMES

YOU CRAZY KIDS

[Phoenix Gamma]

JUST WATCH OPRAH. SHE'S DOWN WITH THE KINECT AND SHIT.

ALSO WARIO'S UGLY AND NEVER KARATE CHOPPED A PLANET IN HALF OR KILLED THE SUN AND THE MOON AT THE SAME TIME. KIRBY WINS.

[King Hadas]

Oh my god, I just got to the Ridley scene :lol


I just watched that shit on Youtube. I don't know, maybe Samus suffers from some sort of extreme social anxiety disorder. She was fighting those lava monsters no problem before she encounters Ridley so maybe her reaction is more like stage fright because that other dude was there too.

[Phoenix Gamma]

It's hard fighting Ridley when you've already killed him twice. (four times if you count the Prime games as canon.)

Oh wait. It's not hard. At all.

[Esuohlim]

Why wouldn't the Prime games be canon? What makes them any less of a Metroid game dude don't make me KICK YOUR ASS

[DougClayton4231]

Why wouldn't the Prime games be canon? What makes them any less of a Metroid game dude don't make me KICK YOUR ASS

lmao. I thought that they were the games that preceded Super Metroid although I could be wrong :\

[Phoenix Gamma]

Yea, the Prime games are supposed to take place between Metroid 2 and Super. But since Sakaoto (the dude who directed Super, Fusion, and Other M) wasn't directly involved, he doesn't count them.

BUT THAT'S NOT IMPORTANT. THIS IS.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVoSYDWX2Ig
IT'S OCTODAD. A DAD WHO IS AN OCTOPUS.

[Dimnos]

Metroid 2? Wasnt that the one on the GB where you get the baby metroid at the end? Then doesnt she take it straight to the guys at the begining of super? How does she have the time to do anything in between? Is the baby metroid just sitting on her ship waiting for her to get done with whatever grand adventure? Arent there other metroids in the prime games? Isnt that baby supposed to be the last of its kind at that time?

[10,000 Volt Ghost]

I thought samus dropped the metroid off at the beginning of 3, end of 2. Then returned a short time later when ridley stole the metroid.

[Dimnos]

by 3 do you mean super? Because I thought super happened right after 2.

Note: I am NOT a Metroid aficionado.

[10,000 Volt Ghost]

yeah, 3 is super.

[Guitar Woman]

The prime games take place between 1 and 2, sillyheads

I wouldn't hesitate to not count Prime 3 as canon, what a piece of shit

[DougClayton4231]

I concur. Prime 3 was Metroid for dummies.

Anyone else excited for Splatterhouse and DKC?

[Phoenix Gamma]

Prime 3 was fine. It didn't shit on the whole franchise like Other M. Fans pretty much retconned it themselves.

AND I'VE BEEN POSTING SHIT ABOUT DK FOR AWHILE NOW. GOD NO ONE EVER CLICKS MY LINKS. >:
EDIT: actually I think I only posted 2 trailers. BUT Y'ALL A BUNCH AH BUSTAS REGARDLESS. >:

[OxBlood]

I´ve never given one shit about the story of Metroid. Some gal in a suit collects keys that take the form of weapons and armor and busts some purple or red Pterodaktyl´s ass and then the brain-squids show up but you freeze them and you´re fine. Credits roll, you had fun, thank you Metroid. Now just to clarify, I really like the Metroid games, the 2D ones at least, Prime didn´t do it for me somehow.

And again concerning 2 Worlds 2:
With the purchase of one spell card I unlocked about 40% more spells, yay. There´s so much shit going on with the magic in that game...

Also ordered Majin and the forsaken kingdom cause I loved the demo already :)

[Dr. Boogie]

Did they fix combat, and the way everything scales up in such a way that you never feel like you're getting any better at anything?

I guess what I'm saying is talk more about Two Worlds 2.

[OxBlood]

Oh I do feel like I´m getting better at the stuff I do this time. I´m a pure Mage so I can´t tell you how Melee and Ranged Combat fares this time around but in my "normal" boards I read that it´s pretty good in those departments though ranged seems to be a little clunky at times.

The enemies that scared me away 3 levels ago are now beatable cause I have so many more choices. I can work with damage-reflection, projectiles, shieldspells, summons, debuffs, buffs, I can blind them, I can raise their friends to do my bidding, I can lay heal-traps in advance behind me...Health regeneration is also really fucking fast out of combat like 10 seconds and I´m back to max.

The crafting is also more than "press two swords together and repeat it 100 times to get the best weapon in the game". You dismantle existing stuff to get ressources that you can improve your equipment with which also unlocks gem-slots for additional effects. You can then insert a finishing-gem that boosts all stats on that item but locks it at the same time so you can´t improve it any further.

Then there´s alchemy but that´s pretty straightforward. Pop some things in the pot and get a potion, easy stuff. Ingredients are everywhere, bonemarrow, plants, heads, tounges...

The best thing is the magic system as I said before because it´s so dang modular you can forge new spells in matters of seconds via the component-cards you have.

All in all I´m really suprised in a positive way about this game. I kinda expected another Risen or Gothic 4 and it´s way better than those in any department but story maybe. It also seems to be a direct sequel to the first game and you play the same guy I think.

[King Hadas]

I´ve never given one shit about the story of Metroid. Metroid has never really had a story to give a shit about. Most of what we know about Samus was probably taken from instruction manuals and passed on word of mouth. Other M is a departure because it has a very pronounced storyline and it's awful.

Anyways, beat No More Heroes. Here's a game that makes me feel like a bit of a chump for playing it. It's like I'm a rat being stringed along by the scent of cheese. The cheese is there but is it worth the time getting it? If NMH was difficult that would be one thing. In a narrative you have suspension of disbelief, in video games you have suspension of a guilty conscience. I could definitely be doing something more productive but if a game is challenging me it gives me the illusion that I'm accomplishing something. No More Heroes is pretty easy, and the difficult parts are hard like getting 777 on a slot machine is hard.

I liked the incomplete ending more than the real one.

"You've got to be shitting me"

[DougClayton4231]

I hated No More Heroes and its sequel. Travis Touchdown was a total douchebag and the gameplay was awful (why swing the wiimote when you could mash the A button?). I had such high hopes for the games but they both left a bad taste in my mouth.

[Phoenix Gamma]

The second game was better because it was less awful.

And Travis is supposed to be a more pathetic Johnny Knoxville. So yea, douchebag.

[DougClayton4231]

...really? That makes me cry. The second game had less glaring flaws, but it still managed to be monotonous and absurd.

My PC decided to have an aneurysm yesterday, so I had to replace the motherboard. Now I'm 50$ broker and my graphics card refuses to work :) Got to love bad luck days lol.

[RaNkeri]

4 hours of Sonic 3 & Knuckles with friends, fuck yeah!

[Esuohlim]

Now there's a sentiment I can agree with!

[OxBlood]

Finished Enslaved over the weekend. An okay game, but very repetitive and sometimes outright boring. Great presentation and characters though.

And guess what? Aparently many players feel cheated by Topware concerning Two Worlds 2 because the main island, that when you see it on the map makes you think "oh wow, so much space to run around!"? There´s only a teensy tiny spot in the middle that is actually accessible. The rest is either in multiplayer (who brings up ideas like this? Multiplayer in an RPG, theres MMO´s for that) or not there at all. Great stuff.

Maybe I´ll shove it back up Gamestop´s ass and trade it for Hot Pursuit...yeah right because I´m known for my extensive love for racing games...

[DougClayton4231]

LMAO, that reminds me of Fable 1. I thought that there would be so much to explore from the map but by the time I realized that it was bullshit, the game was over.

[OxBlood]

Yeah kind of. I AM having fun with the game but I´m gonna return it just because I can´t tolerate it when companies do things like that, it´s not right, not at all.

[Fathom Zero]

http://kotaku.com/5689669/alan-wake-coming-to-xbl-games-on-demand

I've bought a few games on the marketplace. It's very nice to not have a disc to lose or break and redownload later if I need to. Prices are mostly fair, but if it's an old game or an unpopular one, you'd end up spending $20 or $30 on a $5 game at Gamestop.

[Dr. Boogie]

For god's sake, go on Amazon or eBay!

[Fathom Zero]

Amazon rocks. I've got a year of Amazon Prime free for bein' a student. Free two-day shipping rocks.

[Dr. Boogie]

Playing Castlevania: Lords of Shadow

I can't decide what I hate the most about this game: the awful camera, the generic music, the drawn-out pacing, or the rote, soulless copying of other, better games.

[OxBlood]

Playing Castlevania: Lords of Shadow

I can't decide what I hate the most about this game: the awful camera, the generic music, the drawn-out pacing, or the rote, soulless copying of other, better games.

Really? I thought Castlevania was WAY better than God of war 3, which is probably the game you´ll be referring to. ;) If not, please continue

Though I do agree on the music and the camera to a certain extent. The music was just a lot of wasted potential. I mean, Castlevania games have about the best music in any videogame franchise ever most of the time and what we get here just doesn´t cut it. Not at all. The cam...well, it´s shaking all the time for no reason. Other than that I had no complaints about it.

And again about Gow3...and in spoilers because I don´t want to force you guys to read my ramblings about that game AGAIN :lol

I did play through God of War 3 and I really didn´t like it. It´s all the same...again for the third time in a row...or fourth if you count the PSP-Game. The gameplay is boring, the moves are boring, the weapons are all the same except for the gloves, the writing is...I´m lacking the right word here...atrocious? Yeah, atrocious. You can basically skip everything and yet you miss absolutely nothing, cause you already know what happens. Someone talks to Kratos, he doesn´t care and kills them all, the end. Cause that´s what he´s been doing from minute one in the first game.

Gow3 looks great, of course it does. But to me, that´s really all the game has to offer. The music is as generic if not even more generic than LoS´s, the gameplay is FAR worse in my opinion since you just run around and mash buttons and get away with it (apart from the Cerberus fight which was just annoying and way too drawn out), and they seem to rely more and more on really useless violence as a feature for their game.


I know I´ve said all of these things at least twice before, but I just really don´t get why people like Gow3 so much...it IS more polished than Castlevania, that I admit. And it has Kevin Sorbo, so that´s probably a plus too...

Also, I ordered Lufia for the DS and Dungeon Maker 2 for the PSP...I don´t know why but I really want to play both after reading about them. And finally, I did give 2 Worlds 2 back and I´ll get Hot Pursuit on Thursday instead, who knows, I might even like it.

[DougClayton4231]

I didn't hate the camera until the clock tower level. That level was completely awful.

Looking back on Castlevania, I was only really disappointed about the lack of a Frankenstein Monster. I mean, they talk about Frankenstein, you waltz through his laboratory, why not have you fight the monster instead of that stupid fucking robot?

I thought that everything was better about Castlevania though. I just wish that they used the old school music throughout the game, or at least let you do that after you beat it.

[Chojin]

goldeneyyyyye, i found his weakness
goldeneyyyyye, will do what i please
goldeneyyyyye, no time for sweetness
a bitter kiss will bring him to his knees

[Zhukov]

Is it any good Chojin?

[darkvare]

my sister bought a used ps2 and inside there was gta liberty city stories so i'm playing that

[Phoenix Gamma]

Goldeneye is good if you like:

-Call of Duty
-graphics that look like a PS2 launch game (sup Night Club level? Neat 2D people you have there!)
-a game that isn't Goldeneye the Movie or Goldeneye the Game whatsoever.
-Daniel Craig

I don't like any of those though. :(

And seriously...2D DANCERS IN A NIGHT CLUB?! IT'S NOT A BIG LEVEL FUCKING SONIC COLORS LOOKS GORGEOUS. RESIDENT EVIL 4 LOOKS GREAT AND THAT WAS A GAMECUBE GAME. WHY IS EVERYTHING SO UGLY GODDAMN. OH GREAT SOME SCRIPTED EVENT GET AWAY FROM ME UGLY CHARACTER.

Multiplayer's neat but it's straight-up CoD without any way to communicate.

I'm really surprised it's reviewing as well as it is. It's not bad, but it's just so bland.

[darkvare]

everytime i see that night club in videos i remember this
http://ps2media.gamespy.com/ps2/image/article/697/697040/hitman-blood-money-20060319083532290.jpg

also i was watching some videos of the ps3 bond game bloodstone i belive and craig looks like a freaking chimp

[Fathom Zero]

lol darkvare I was gonna pick Blood Money up again. Shit's hilarious. I remember the Blood Money thread here, as a matter of fact. That game rocks.

[Dr. Boogie]

Really? I thought Castlevania was WAY better than God of war 3, which is probably the game you´ll be referring to. ;) If not, please continue

Though I do agree on the music and the camera to a certain extent. The music was just a lot of wasted potential. I mean, Castlevania games have about the best music in any videogame franchise ever most of the time and what we get here just doesn´t cut it. Not at all. The cam...well, it´s shaking all the time for no reason. Other than that I had no complaints about it.

I intended for my response to be shorter, but things really took off once I got going:


The camera pisses me off because nearly every fight has been a case of me being just far enough from the camera and surrounded by just enough small, fast-moving enemies that the fights look like an argument between colored thumb prints. Plus, I find the sudden shifts in camera angles to be a bit disorienting, especially when the transition areas are placed near a fight.

As for the copying, a couple other reviews put it best: it's like they copied popular games without understanding what it was about those games that made them popular.

You've got combat from GoW, but the enemies overuse annoying attacks, in particular the ground pound that you have to avoid by jumping. Plus, buying more elaborate combos is all but pointless because they don't do that much more damage and pulling off long combos is too difficult on account of the nonstop blocking/dodging/countering from the enemies.

Then you've got the platforming and puzzle-solving from Prince of Persia. The problem with the platforming is that it holds your hand so much that it's little more than a slower version of walking to the next area. And the puzzles break up the action even more, but the game gives you the option to just solve them immediately in case you're getting bored. If the game had intense combat, I could see the reason for them including this stuff to give you a little break, but combat is just annoying, and then you have these boring interludes between battles.

And then there's the Shadow of the Colossus boss battles. Again, you've got an entertaining game element, but done in a terrible way. In SotC, the boss battles were epic because of the scale of things, but they were all the moreso because you had the anticipation of hunting down these large creatures beforehand. That way, you didn't get bored with slowly scaling and stabbing them. In contrast, putting such a battle in a action game, and dumbing down the entire affair so you're proceeding along a linear path looking for shiny spots so you can hit the magic context button, just slows things down even more, and that's when you're not getting shaken off and have to start things over again.


There's all that, plus the added bonus of having name-only references to Castlevania. Only the names of a few characters have made it in (Belmont, Cornell, Olrox, etc). The characters they were attached to have not. The best is Gabriel himself: in the game, they explain that he isn't even a Belmont; he just named himself "Belmont" because he thinks mountains are cool!

[Guitar Woman]

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines

I'd like to congratulate it on being the first FPSRPG with sustainable/useful secondary powers. I think my favorite trick is Obfusticating around a corner and shotgunning people directly in the face when they come looking for me.

Rolling Malkavian is lamer than I thought it'd be, since it just makes my conversation choices really flowery and gay. I think that's worth it if I get more chances to drive people so insane they think their friendlies are giant salmon which they proceed to shoot at, though

[OxBlood]

Wait till you get in the Taxi at the End :D I freaking loved playing Malkavian, one of the best Gaming-experiences ever, but then again Bloodlines IS an amazingly good game (if patched correctly).


I intended for my response to be shorter, but things really took off once I got going:


Oh I don´t mind.

Camera: Apart from the perma-shakyness, I really didn´t mind, I´m used to fixed camera angles though I thought it was fucking stupid that they didn´t use the right stick for dodging instead they use it for nothing at all. I don´t remember having problems seeing or encountering my enemies apart from the odd off-screen jump attack but those things just happen.

Combat: I kind of agree on the sense of longer combos, some enemies just break through your attacks and hit you anyway. But I thought it was a lot better than spamming Plume of Prometheus as your only needed move like in every GOW game. The ground pound took some getting used to but actually it reminded me that Gabe has some very powerfull mid air attacks so I just used them. All in all, the combat is much more challenging than in the game they copied here I think. As I said, Plume of Prometheus and Dodging, that´s it on normal most of the time.

Platforming/Puzzles: I liked the "Platforming". Sure, it´s not really platforming, it hasn´t been in that Elika-Prince of Persia either, it´s just player-controlled cinematic transitions but I like those for some reason when the rest of the game is mostly fighting.
I really liked the pace of the puzzles though. Just when you had about enough of killing stuff, they game you some quieter moments and when those started to get old, the action came back. I don´t know why they thought it would be necessary to include the insta-solve option though either, that was stupid. The puzzles are what... a 3/10?

Colossus battles: On that I actually agree. I didn´t like those very much. Felt tacked on and copy-pasted from Sotc only that the three Colossi in Castlevania aren´t any fun to kill, they´re a moving jump&run level wrapped around a big dude. It would´ve been nicer to battle them from the ground, then using the enviroment to destroy them. Drop something on them, crash them into something, I don´t know it doesn´t take a genius to design a fun boss battle.
Though I don´t think, Sotc is my type of game. I played it, beat...I think 4 or 5 Colossi and then got insanely bored with it and put it down. Haven´t played it since though I can appreciate what they did there. Great idea and gorgeous world and atmosphere. I want a HD-Remake please.

Castlevania-Heritage: That bugged me when I first heard about it but after playing through this reboot/alternate universe/whatever it´s supposed to be, I don´t mind anymore. It tries to find its own identity and I think it succeeded. Sure it´s not what the original Castlevanias are, there´s a different mood here and a different type of atmosphere, but I like it and I´m looking forward to see what they are gonna do with it in the future, the post-credits scene was pretty cool I think :)

But basically they could´ve called it whatever they wanted but then people would have said "hey, that´s kinda like Castlevania, isn´t it?" So yeah, I´m cool with what they did.


Man, I think this will be a busy month. Hot Pursuit, Majin, Lufia, Dungeon Maker 2 and isn´t Splatterhouse about to be released too? I really wanna know if it´s good, I love that Mask :lol

[DougClayton4231]

Vampire - Bloodlines is my favorite RPG of all time and one of, in my opinion, the best games ever made. It's so immersive :P

I can't wait for Majin and Splatterhouse. I hope that the new Assassin's Creed will be good too.

[Dimnos]

I hope that the new Assassin's Creed will be good too.


I just dont see this happening. :\

[Phoenix Gamma]

Epic Mickey is annoying. I can't do one fucking thing in this game without being interrupted by a cutscene and Gus explaining what I have to do next. The camera is really shitty too.

I'm really not enjoying it very much.

[DougClayton4231]

I just dont see this happening. :\

:lol I've heard that it's better than 1 or 2, but considering I hated 1 and loved 2, I don't know how I'll feel about it.

[Dr. Boogie]

Combat: I kind of agree on the sense of longer combos, some enemies just break through your attacks and hit you anyway. But I thought it was a lot better than spamming Plume of Prometheus as your only needed move like in every GOW game. The ground pound took some getting used to but actually it reminded me that Gabe has some very powerfull mid air attacks so I just used them. All in all, the combat is much more challenging than in the game they copied here I think. As I said, Plume of Prometheus and Dodging, that´s it on normal most of the time.

More than all that, it's the fact that enemies will often just ignore attacks and hit me anyway. I can understand some of the larger enemies doing this, but all of them? The worst is when you pull off a perfect block, but you still get hit in the midst of your celebratory bonus damage combo.


Colossus battles: On that I actually agree. I didn´t like those very much. Felt tacked on and copy-pasted from Sotc only that the three Colossi in Castlevania aren´t any fun to kill, they´re a moving jump&run level wrapped around a big dude. It would´ve been nicer to battle them from the ground, then using the enviroment to destroy them. Drop something on them, crash them into something, I don´t know it doesn´t take a genius to design a fun boss battle.
Though I don´t think, Sotc is my type of game. I played it, beat...I think 4 or 5 Colossi and then got insanely bored with it and put it down. Haven´t played it since though I can appreciate what they did there. Great idea and gorgeous world and atmosphere. I want a HD-Remake please.

Agreed. I liked SotC a lot, but it's really more of a puzzle game, in that once you've solved the puzzle (i.e., killed the colossus), there's not much reason to go back and do it again over and over again. It's a fun game, but I wouldn't pay $60 to play it.

Castlevania-Heritage: That bugged me when I first heard about it but after playing through this reboot/alternate universe/whatever it´s supposed to be, I don´t mind anymore. It tries to find its own identity and I think it succeeded. Sure it´s not what the original Castlevanias are, there´s a different mood here and a different type of atmosphere, but I like it and I´m looking forward to see what they are gonna do with it in the future, the post-credits scene was pretty cool I think :)

That's just it; you can tell they wanted to make their own thing here, so why did they just throw in a handful of irrelevant names just to make a connection to Castlevania? The only answer I can come up with is that they wanted to suck in some of the fans of that series, and just having vampires and werewolves wasn't enough.

It kind of reminds me of Marvel comics doing Marvel 1602 as a sort of reinvention of familiar characters in a different setting. The thing is, LoS isn't reinventing Castlevania characters; it's just making a completely unrelated storyline and using a handful of borrowed names to establish a flimsy connection with an established to get the title some free press. I get that starting a new IP is hard, but don't piggy-back in such a blatant, ridiculous fashion.

But basically they could´ve called it whatever they wanted but then people would have said "hey, that´s kinda like Castlevania, isn´t it?" So yeah, I´m cool with what they did.

I think that's a bit of a stretch. If this game was just called "Lords of Shadow" and featured the exploits of Gabriel Studebaker, I think people would be more fixated on how similar it was to GoW and Dante's Inferno. Like I was saying earlier, it features a few creatures in the Castlevania universe, but werewolves, vampires, and the like aren't unique to the series.


One of the biggest reasons I don't like the game is that it has Hideo Kojima's stink all over it, in the form of his design doctrine that holds presentation as being far more important than actual gameplay. I know he was only attached in an advisory capacity, but I can't help but think of MGS4 when I'm watching cinematic after cinematic after cinematic.

Also, the story isn't done all that well, either. Everything we know about Gabriel as a character comes second-hand from the diary of his gay stalker. In the actual game, he's just a standard action hero out for revenge, occasionally belting out some angry line at a big villain. We're told he's seething with rage and that he no longer has any compassion, but this doesn't come across at all in the game.

[executioneer]

replayin' mount and blade. I took out all three rhodok cities by myself, it was awesome. NOTHING STOPS THE HUSCARL

[OxBlood]

More than all that, it's the fact that enemies will often just ignore attacks and hit me anyway. I can understand some of the larger enemies doing this, but all of them? The worst is when you pull off a perfect block, but you still get hit in the midst of your celebratory bonus damage combo.




Agreed. I liked SotC a lot, but it's really more of a puzzle game, in that once you've solved the puzzle (i.e., killed the colossus), there's not much reason to go back and do it again over and over again. It's a fun game, but I wouldn't pay $60 to play it.



That's just it; you can tell they wanted to make their own thing here, so why did they just throw in a handful of irrelevant names just to make a connection to Castlevania? The only answer I can come up with is that they wanted to suck in some of the fans of that series, and just having vampires and werewolves wasn't enough.

It kind of reminds me of Marvel comics doing Marvel 1602 as a sort of reinvention of familiar characters in a different setting. The thing is, LoS isn't reinventing Castlevania characters; it's just making a completely unrelated storyline and using a handful of borrowed names to establish a flimsy connection with an established to get the title some free press. I get that starting a new IP is hard, but don't piggy-back in such a blatant, ridiculous fashion.



I think that's a bit of a stretch. If this game was just called "Lords of Shadow" and featured the exploits of Gabriel Studebaker, I think people would be more fixated on how similar it was to GoW and Dante's Inferno. Like I was saying earlier, it features a few creatures in the Castlevania universe, but werewolves, vampires, and the like aren't unique to the series.


One of the biggest reasons I don't like the game is that it has Hideo Kojima's stink all over it, in the form of his design doctrine that holds presentation as being far more important than actual gameplay. I know he was only attached in an advisory capacity, but I can't help but think of MGS4 when I'm watching cinematic after cinematic after cinematic.

Also, the story isn't done all that well, either. Everything we know about Gabriel as a character comes second-hand from the diary of his gay stalker. In the actual game, he's just a standard action hero out for revenge, occasionally belting out some angry line at a big villain. We're told he's seething with rage and that he no longer has any compassion, but this doesn't come across at all in the game.

To cut the whole thing short: You´re right about most things IMO, sure and I agree on most of them, though I still like the whole thing a lot.
Concerning the replay-value, it´s nowhere near any classic Metrovania title, that´s for sure but the question at the time was "Castlevania or Enslaved" and after playing Enslaved last Weekend I know I made the right decision :)

Is LOS as good as the 2D Castlevanias? Fuck no. Is it a good game? Yeah, I think so and as an additional Castlevania Sub-franchise, I´m okay with it.

Oh and once more about the heritage-thing: I´m sure younger, typical gamers would compare it more to GOW and Dante´s Inferno, but show me a dude that uses a whip against something supernatural and I´ll scream CASTLEVANIA without even thinking about it :D
It´s the whip, there´s only two beings that use whips, Dr. Jones and a Castlevania Protagonist :)

[DougClayton4231]

Also, the story isn't done all that well, either. Everything we know about Gabriel as a character comes second-hand from the diary of his gay stalker. In the actual game, he's just a standard action hero out for revenge, occasionally belting out some angry line at a big villain. We're told he's seething with rage and that he no longer has any compassion, but this doesn't come across at all in the game.

:lol I felt the same way about Gabriel. It's like he has no real part in the story, every ambition and emotion is described by a third party, so it's hard to give a fuck about him. But since when did Castlevania need a plot?

[OxBlood]

Oh yeah, that. I agree again. There was a lot of wasted potential. They told us that Gabe is like this or like that but we never saw any evidence that he was anything else but a silent, brooding and rather calm fellow.

Played about an hour of Hot Pursuit and I´m not sure if my splitting headache was a result of playing the game or something else...I remember that I couldn´t play NSF Underground back in the day because the flashing of the lights in drag-mode gave me such a headache...never happened before and never after that though.

Other than that...I guess it´s pretty good? I´m not the right person to speak to about racing games, they´re all the same for me more or less, just like sports games. It does have the rubberband mechanic though (is it called that in english too?) so it doesn´t matter how far ahead you are, your opponents will eventually gain on you and fast. At least that was my impression.

Lufia was okay, just played it for about 2 hours. Nice music but sub-par performance when a lot is going on and I´m not sure I like the way the fighting feels.
Crimson Gem Saga on the other hand is really nice. Very oldschool with beautiful sprites and nice battle-animation. Nothing special, very standart but nice so far.

[Fathom Zero]

Rage came out on iDevices. Possibly the easiest to control FPS on there, if only for the fact that it's on rails. Still fun, well worth the price of an 8-Piece chicken nuggets from Burger King.

[Dimnos]

The first time you play the first level of LoS when you fight the big warg as a boss is the most fun you have with it. :\ After that the game slowly goes down hill. I doubt I made it half way through before I just got bored with it. Im in some old runes where you fight a bunch of hooded ghosts that look like they were kidnapped from Lord of the Rings or some shit. Of course if do anything other than one wide area swing then dodge two times then repeat you get killed. Oh so fun. :rolleyes Boogie is right, LoS was very lacking to say the least. Had it not had the Castlevania name tacked onto it I never would have associated it with Castlevania. Camera angles normally dont bother me even bad ones but they were just plane horrible in LoS. Combat was crap. Hit. dodge, dodge, hit, dodge, dodge. They would have been better to copy Ninja Gaiden. Yes it requires a lot of dodging too but at least its fun and enemies actually react when hit. Not that this is solely a problem that plagued LoS but... WHAT THE FUCK IS UP WITH EVERY GOD DAMN VIDEO GAME CHARACTER BEING SO FLAT THESE DAYS? Is it so much to ask for a character that actually grows and changes as the story goes on? Is it to much to have a character you actually give a crap about? I cared more about the narrator whos name I cant even remember and I didnt care about him because of the character or anything he did I only cared about him because its fucking Patrick Stewart.

[10,000 Volt Ghost]

I'm at chapter 9 of LoS and I find myself just playing it to be done with it now.

[Dimnos]

Im only holding on to it so that one day I can play it just to be done with it. I just cant bring myself to put it in the xbox though. I would much rather punch heads off in Fallout.

[10,000 Volt Ghost]

Same thing with Star Ocean and FF XIII.

I killed a Jackalope in RDR though.

[Phoenix Gamma]

I've had Flower downloaded for months now and never started it. Then my old man asked me what this "Flower thing" was on the PS3. So I decided to play it today. Then about an hour later I beat it.

What an awesome game. Pretty as fuck, and really fun. The last three levels were awesome.

[Dimnos]

What is the point of that game? I have never played it and havnt heard anything about it other than "Its really beautiful!".

[10,000 Volt Ghost]

Is it like the flower level in super smash bros melee because I really like that level?

[Fathom Zero]

It's like Star Fox. For serious.

[Phoenix Gamma]

You fly around and make the environment pretty.

The last three levels do some really cool things. The last one is really, really awesome.

[captain516]

I take it none of you guys are interested in Black Ops

[Phoenix Gamma]

Only on PC. Except I hear the PC port is rubbish. So no, not really.

[OxBlood]

Nah, MW1 was enough already, the only interesting thing about BO is the zombie mode and I'm not paying more than 20 bucks for that.

Writing posts with an iPod is crap so here´s the rest: For more than one reason I´m absolutely not interested in Black Ops. For one, it´s the same thing for the third time, I can´t do shit in multiplayer because I don´t play that game 24/7 from day one and yeah, I really have enough generic shooters around. Cheap yeah but not full price. Funfact: The Nazizombie-Mode made it into the german version though I guess they´re just Zombies here...ahem.

[DougClayton4231]

The US media and Black Ops have had this interesting coincidence as of late, they've gone back to blaming communists for everything :P

I just got my DS up and running and I'm loving all the Castlevania action. No game does it for me like a 2D Castlevania for some reason :lol I think when my gf goes back home for next month I'm actually going to tackle some of the 360 games and Wii games that I've neglected. Mainly DBZ Raging Blast 2. I know that the camera sucks but I still get to shoot kamehameha's right...right?

[OxBlood]

My guess is...yes, you will get to shoot a fuckton of Kamehamehas :D

What does your media blame communists for? Climate change? The oil incident? Cheap pop music?

[10,000 Volt Ghost]

I played some of the multiplayer in Black Ops, mainly Nuketown which is fun to get used to the game.

[Zomboid]

Man, I'm pumped for Raging Blast 2. It sounds so homo-erotic, but my buddy and I played the shit out of the first one whilst drinking. It was a good pre-game activity before going out to a bar or whatever.

[Shadowdancer21b]

I'm playing the Megaman collection on Gamecube. I want to throttle the asshole who decided it just isn't Megaman without the disappearing platforms over instant-death spikes.

[Dimnos]

Fact of life is that it isnt Megaman without the disappearing platforms over instant-death spikes.

[DougClayton4231]

Man, I'm pumped for Raging Blast 2. It sounds so homo-erotic, but my buddy and I played the shit out of the first one whilst drinking. It was a good pre-game activity before going out to a bar or whatever.

It is a very good drunk game. GTAIV is only fun as a drunk game, everyone should try co-op drunk driving. One person looks while the other person steers :lol

[Flashman]

currently the Third Age Mod for MTW II

[Pentegarn]

Hello to you happy time! Your post is much transparent. Clicking your link i cannot do because I must not have spam time USA popular! Happy holidays to all spambot!

EDIT: The poster I was talking to has been deleted, good riddance to him

[DougClayton4231]

Pentegarn, you don't like hotels? lol

I've been playing the shit out of Castlevania - Order of Occlessia. I can honestly say I love the feel, I just hate the whole attack system. Since when do you need a fucking limiter on how much you can attack? I got to the end, but I missed two villagers so I need to go get them :|

[Supafly345]

Does anyone play Castlevania HD anymore? I am grinding the shit out of this game and its hard to find people to play with.

XBL: TheSupafly
COME ON GUYS

[10,000 Volt Ghost]

Does anyone play Castlevania HD anymore? I am grinding the shit out of this game and its hard to find people to play with.

XBL: TheSupafly
COME ON GUYS

I'll play but I don't have the DLC for it.

XBOX: Lockeness108 if you want to do it up.

[darkvare]

anyone owns a copy of kingdom hearts 2 they wanna sell me

[Phoenix Gamma]

Was anticipating Donkey Kong Country Returns, so I played the original series to hold me over. DKC2 is definitely the best of the original trilogy.

Then I got DKCR today, got to world 3. Really cool game, really hard too. It expects a lot out of you. The first bonus level (1-K) was exceedingly hard for a hidden level in world 1. I really don't like that there are three functions bound to shaking the remote, though, and there's no classic controller support.

Still really fun though.

[OxBlood]

anyone owns a copy of kingdom hearts 2 they wanna sell me

Don´t want to spend the 18 bucks for a new one?

[darkvare]

the thing is amazon charges me 30 bucks for shipping :\ i think i'm gonna get it like that cause its my sisters christmas gift

[Supafly345]

ebay?

[Phoenix Gamma]

Got to world 6 of Donkey Kong Returns. There are some fucking excellent levels in this game. Blows New Mario and Sonic 4 out of the fucking water. Also, the co-op is way better than the one in the old games. Diddy's way superior, but statistically Player 2 is a little sibling/cousin/parent/girlfriend, so it's all cool.

Also, Poker Night at the Inventory is really funny. I wish I was good at poker though. I spent 15 minutes locked in a one on one with Max and lost.

[OxBlood]

Hm. The more I play Lufia on the DS, the less I like it. The battles are boring and clunky, the performance is horrible - 4 enemies cause severe slowdown already, the story is very unelegant (it throws you into the fray immediately. Boss shows up, gloats, Maxim tries to beat him, gets his ass handed to him, mysterious woman appears and tells him to gather more warriors. So he does that. That´s the first 10 minutes of the game)...

I don´t know what to think about this one. I try to like it but nothing is really fun. As I said, the battles ain´t good, the constant platforming and lever-switching is kinda okay but there´s too much of it and I´m just in the second dungeon...
Plus, the game seems to be more about jumping and riddling-skills than fighting and that, Gentlemen, is not what JRPGs are about. They´re about kicking stuff in the balls constantly.

I´d play more Crimson Gem saga but I want to save it up for a rainy day so to speak...that one´s pretty good though the skills and spells use WAY too much MP. What good is a special attack if you only have mana to use it once before having to rest...

[DougClayton4231]

The new Splatterhouse, DKCR, and Sonic Colors are all pretty amazing. I'm surprised by how much loving attention Splatterhouse has recieved. The combat is great, the artwork is morbidly beautiful and imaginative, and it's a lot of fun. If you love some old school Splatterhouse, you'll love the new one.

[Esuohlim]

NEW SPLATTERHOUSE PLANED

[Zomboid]

YOU THOUGHT I KNEW HOW TO SPELL PLANNED?

YOU IGNORANT FUCK

[OxBlood]

The new Splatterhouse, DKCR, and Sonic Colors are all pretty amazing. I'm surprised by how much loving attention Splatterhouse has recieved. The combat is great, the artwork is morbidly beautiful and imaginative, and it's a lot of fun. If you love some old school Splatterhouse, you'll love the new one.

Good to hear :) I could´ve picked it up for PS3 but I´d rather wait till tomorrow or friday for the 360-Version.

I did get Majin and the forsaken kingdom though. Playing it for...let´s see...3 hrs now and so far I really like it. Very charming duo, the thief and the Majin. There´s actually equipment for the thief and you even see it on him which is always nice. The combat and the puzzles are pretty nice so far, you run around, trying to make way for the Majin which in turn boosts you up ledges or takes care of the tougher enemies...another good thing is, that you CAN beat the enemies by yourself, as long as the Majin is nearby to absorb their souls.
There´s even a day-night circle going on, didn´t know that yet...

The whole thing gives me some kind of Zelda-Vibe...in a positive way I mean, not the crapfest that was Phantom hourglass :lol

Good game, definetely.

[DougClayton4231]

I've played Majin too and I really think that it'll be a sleeper hit, like Beyond Good and Evil. I really hope Namco will give it some publicity, seeing as I didn't hear about it until it was in stores :lol

Contra 4 on the DS is one of the most merciless games I've ever played lol, I can't even make it to level 3 :(

[Phoenix Gamma]

The mirror mode in Donkey Kong Returns is retardedly difficult. No Diddy, only 1 heart. Fuckin A.

[Shadowdancer21b]

Timestalkers on Dreamcast. Dungeon-crawler with an interesting cast of characters and a decent enough story.

[Esuohlim]

I HAVE DOWNLOADED POKEMON DIAMOND. THIS BETTER BE GOOD. >:

I am NOT A FAN of the fact that each new game means the total number of Pokemon gets higher and getting 150 of them 12 years ago was a tedious task enough. But fuck I've got OCD so let's get this shit going

[DougClayton4231]

Timestalkers on Dreamcast. Dungeon-crawler with an interesting cast of characters and a decent enough story.

I remember playing that game at friend's house when I was younger, I couldn't remember the name though.

Anyone played Zombie Revenge or something like that on Dreamcast? That shit was boss.

The mirror mode in Donkey Kong Returns is retardedly difficult. No Diddy, only 1 heart. Fuckin A.

I'm only on world 3, I can't wait to try mirror mode :P