Oblivian has some annoying issues. What kind of conversation have you ever had where during the course of it you have to compliment, insult, (and 2 more things I don't recall) the other person.

Other issue I had was the leveling system, it's dumb enough that monsters scale with you so everything is always kind of tough but when you get to a high level your character is pretty much the same as any other high level character.

Fuck angry birds, tetris is where it's at.

I have been getting into Battlefield 3. No need for a review, you probably already know if you like this sort of game.

Been playing: Tomb Raider Anniversary. It's a modern day remake of the first tomb raider and it's a lot of fun but way more difficult than I remember.

Total War: Shogun 2: This game is huge and I have barely scratched the surface. Great co-op haven't messed with the single player.

Recettear: An Item Shop Tale: You run an item shop, including decorations and hire adventurers to take you on dungeon crawls. It's just as corny as it sounds but I like it.

Space Rangers 2: Reboot: This game is crazy, part space trading sim, part space shooter, part RTS and part text adventure. The text adventures involve missions like successfully managing a ski slope or "choose your own adventure" book type stuff. Very bizarre and lots of fun.

Mount & Blade: Warband : Melee combat with bladed weapons and bows and horses. This is as cool as it sounds. Like playing with sticks when you were a kid but nobody gets hurt.
They make a version of this game with guns, skip it, bows are more fun.

Still haven't made much of a dent in the new Deus Ex, Fallout NV or Witcher 2.

I keep starting Fallout and making characters who bore me but work well. Next up for me is a melee only bruiser. With high luck and incredibly low intelligence. I realize I'll take a hit on skill points but I don't want to play a smart big dummy.

My biggest issue with Fallout NV, was that it wasn't as wide-open as Fallout 3. Sure you can go anywhere, but they purposely crowded the entire middle section of the map with hordes of Deathclaws so you can't just hike right up to the Vegas Strip. They pretty much force you to take the long, safe route so you may reach the strip at a more appropriate time. I also don't like how they relegated all of the super mutants to a certain area. No more random super mutant encounters. I was also unfortunate enough to buy the game on release and deal with the myriad of bugs and glitches that accompanied it's initial release. I was falling through textures, watching entire bodies of water dissapear, seeing dead people get up and walk around, etc. It made for a worried experience that had me saving more than playing. Still a damn fun game regardless of the faults that I, personally, found in it.

Have fun with Tomb Raider Anniversary. The original Tomb Raider is one of those all time classics that's nigh-impossible to go back to because of the ultra-slow, jagged polygonal world that came with it. The remake is a perfect way to go back to that title and all of the exploration that came with it. They even revamped some of the puzzles to make more sense. I still go back to play through it through it every now and then.










Well if you take into account the full name: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, you could easily get a Panzer-style classic of old people rimming each other on a plane.

Totally agree with tomb raider. I just don't get how with all th gaming experience I have had in the last 1 years how the game has become harder for me. My suspicion is that the controls have changed. I don't remember the original having mouse look.

This sounds nit picky but the main reason I like New Vegas over F3 so far is the tweaked stats. No longer is there an Energy Weapon Category and a Guns category. They condensed the two stats into just Guns and it means I can carry a more versatile arsenal.

I get your point, and I agree the option should be there, but to be perfectly honest I DON'T want to fight deathclaws till I am a higher level. Also, if you feel like wandering to the middle of the map at an early level you can fight (and be torn limb by limb) by as many deathclaws as you want. Don't let the linearity of the plot missions keep you from playing as open ended as you feel like.

I made a good sneaker last game and at level 1 I walked from the start to the vegas strip just so I could use it as a fast travel location later on. So I get your point about deathclaws being in the middle, but I don' think you tried to sneak past them.

About SKYRIM, could someone wake me up when it stops looking exactly like oblivion in gameplay videos. Can't help but feeling like that game is more of the same. The monsters and landscape look like Oblivion.

Battlefield 3 (pc version)is a total blast. Strongly recommended. 64 player maps are fun. Word of warning, nothing special happens if you beat single player. No special unlocks for multi-player but the single player campaign is still fun if you aren't ready to get your ass kicked by tons of guys.

It reminds me of Section 8 Prejudice but is much less silly (no jet packs).

And Fartz, I know you are a console person. I can't stress enough how good Potal 2 is. Plus you can play co-op with PC players (hint hint). Hit me up in PM and we can exchange Steam information (if you have the game)

No can do, my friend from the north. My home PC is a fucking Emachines with a mid-level AMD Athlon. I paid like $280 for it at Walmart using gift cards I got from switching to ATT. It's strictly a porn/internet machine. Sucks that we game on different platforms. I'm tired of wiping the floor with my seven-year-old's ass in Marvel Vs. Capcom 2.

Tomb Raider is a little tougher. I think that's mostly from games becoming easier and more willing to hold your hand as time goes on. I can honestly say that I was a much more skilled gamer at the age of 14 than I am now in my early 30's That one level that's completely vertical( St. Francis' Folly I think) still pisses me off to this day. I fall to my goddamn death 10-20 times every time I play that level.

You should have seen the stats on NV when they first released the game. There was a bug with one of the companions, where if you give him the Sniper Rifle it gave him like +11 critical multiplier or something ridiculous. I had this guy one-shot killing deathclaws from miles away. They nerfed the shit out of him with the second patch, though. I do own Portal 2, although my sister in law is currrently borrowing it. Are you telling me that I can play portal with you over XBOX live while you play on PC?

PM forthcoming--

Nigga, its buy 2 get 2 free at GameStop. Whenever that deal comes around, hopefully soon.

There's this show. It's hosted by a Brandon budget whore and self-professed hipster douchebag regularly, people of this site. They got an interesting approach to game journalism. If some people writing there loathe PR department press releases regularly, it might be the right direction.

Thanks for the link, PD. I will now be reading that site instead of Bland old GameSpot/Gamefaqs.

On an unrelated note, I really feel as if this Wii-U shit is spelling the beginnning of the end for Nintendo. Their fans are always boasting about how Nin. "marches to the beat of their own drum". Well, I think their comes a time when even your most dedicated groupies get tired of your tunes.

When they released a graphically dated and inferior machine with the Wii, they wowed the critics and analysts by sticking with motion control to lure non-gamers (or casual gamers, as the industry dictates) into the fold and it paid off because it was something new, interesting, and $100-$200 cheaper than Microsoft and Sony's boxes, respectively.

This Wii-U shit is touting "better graphics" HD support and a gimmicky touch screen controller thing. Is it really a good idea to put all of your eggs in one basket when your competitors are gearing to roll out true "next gen" systems? Nintendo should have worked on something that was as powerful as what Micro and Sony are gearing to put out. While Sony and Micro are approaching the next generation, Nintendo is just playing catch-up. As is the rule with gaming, "if the games are fun, the system will succeed". That's the problem though. I pretty much hated the Nintendo Wii (outside of Mario, Zelda, and Metroid) We bought it for the kid, and even he wants an XBOX instead. I honestly think the Wii-U is going to really have to pull out all of the stops to not be a monumental disaster.

Sure thing. I don't read the site mostly, but their comedy presenter show duo is worth a laugh here and there. I had to get used to their style, but actually like it now.
Nintendo dropped the price of the 3DS sooner than expected to stimulate sales, they mentioned somewhere. Anyway, nothing reeks more of fading fad than their hardware. And Nintendo make the most cash on every system they ever put out, via software and hardware.
All console companies are catching up to vastly superior graphical fidelity on the PC and while the new consoles will surely be a kicker, they'll get out-dated really soon. Nvidia and AMD allowed themselves to wait before putting out new graphics hardware. This should change quickly with the new boxes by Microsoft and Sony.

From what i've been hearing, the next-gen leap won't be as drastic as it was in the past. It will be better graphically no doubt, but nothing as stunning as PS1 to PS2.

I hate the 3DS. I fucked around on one in a store and walked away feeling like I just stared at one of those 3D, "picture in picture" things that was popular like 18 years ago. Fucking thing hurt my eyes and my head.

Consoles are lame.

the jump from ps2 to ps3 was alot more than that of 1 to 2.i got one from xmas and it blows 2 out of the water.only have black ops but its lots of fun,especially the zombie levels.

dled mvc2 and am slowly getting better at it since the last fighting game i played was mugen years ago.i dled the platformer bloodrayne because i loved the first 2 games on the ps2,but im not sure if i want the retail because i can only imagine how hard it must be to beat the bosses even though i beat all the demo levels.ill probably go retail on the new magic the gathering eventually,especially since the availabe decks suck shit and i want to make my own blue deck.

Just found out that I need GameCube controller in order to play GameCube games on Wii.

The Wii has been out in civilized countries since late 2006. That's over five years eternally-in-community-college boy. Why would you think the Wii Remotes would work for GameCube games? Inform us when you save GameCube games to the Wii's internal memory or a SD card.

Fuck, I wish the gamecube controller worked with all Wii games. Metroid Prime 3 almost gave me Carpal Tunnel.

I guess yer playing MVC2 on PS3 not 360, then Frankie?

yup.

Count yourself lucky.

I bought the Classic controller for Wii that plugs into Wii remote and I was hoping that it would be compatible with GameCube games.

In a few weeks when it's time for your monthly bath take a plugged-in toaster oven in with you and report back on your findings.

Picked up Skyrim (PC) and have played all of 5 minutes of it. I seem to have grown tired of the generic medieval fantasy setting taking place in somewhere that vaguely resembles medieval Europe.

Give me an RPG where I don't have to play a hominid. Let me play a dog or a tentacle monster or just something new.

I will attempt to get into the game when insomnia takes hold tonight but for now I am not sure why I got it.


Serious Sam 3: BFE. (No, not boyfriend experience, before first encounter)

Fucking awesome game, 12 player co-op. Looks great. Is absolutely as over the top crazy as you might expect from Serious Sam.

Also picked up the "stadium pack" DLC for Saints Row 3 and am totally unsure of what it actually is so no comment on that.

And I keep revisiting "The Binding of Issac" and "Dungeons of Dreadmore" if anyone wants a cheap rogule like that you can sink a lot of time into both of these are good choices. Though Issac is a bit more casual.

Finishing up Mass Effect for the second time, gearing up for Mass Effect 2, and then 3.

i dont know ;),i played the arade mode today and beat the game with venom,morrigan,and mega man.first time against abyss i made it to his final form with 2 characters but he got me when he just had like maybe 2 or 3 hits left.beat his ass the next time.the analog stick is way more responsive than the d pad,it just takes some time to get used to it.

it was weird that there was no ending though.i did beat it on easy,but still.its as challenging as the settings id have on ps1 fighting games from capcom.i think with no individual endings ill be less inclined to beat it with every character like i have for any fighting game ive had(other than def jam fight for ny).

No, I mean count yourself lucky that your not on 360 where I'd hand you your ass over and over again.

Oh, and Megaman is a cheap, projectile-spamming bitch. I let my kid play as him as I feel it helps the handicap.

yes i know thats what you meant.and megamans a great character.

Heavy into Skyrim at this point. If you want an especially long RPG check it out. Looking through my steam account I can see people I know having clocked as much as 247 hours on this one. This was the largest I could find but to make a point.

Gearing up for Mass Effect 2. Can't wait to fuck the quarian.

Playing GTA IV again. My 360 crapped out and the harddrives on old and new are incompatible, so I've had to start over from off the boat, as it were.

Fallout Las Vegas and the ICO and Shadows of Colossus two-fer reissue for PS3. ICO is probably my favourite.

I spent a good six months of my life searching with about 20 others for secrets in shadow of the colossus. You wouldn't believe the theories and research and exploring we did. We had a hard, hard time believing that the Shrine Of Worship was only climbable to a certain point. There had to be a way to the top. Sadly there wasn't. One of the guys started emulating the game and ended up glitching himself up there, and he also found a large dam/bridge structure outside of the map that was some scrapped idea left in by the developers. Here's the thread where we wasted all of our time:

http://community.us.playstation.com/thread/2267051?start=0&tstart=0

Here's the guy glitching himself to the top and wandering around. He had to manipulate the games code to make the textures on the shrine solid.




Here's the dam that is in the in-accessible eastern area of the map:



And here's your's truly using a rudimentary method (hawk-humping) to try and get to a ledge on the side of the shrine:

This fits in here.

Thanks Fartz, can't wait for their Last Guardian game to finally get finished.

You know Ueda resigned from Sony, right? He's staying on as a contractor for TLG, but he's no longer directly employed by Sony. It's rumored that the TLG is taking so damn long due to this complication. Here's the scuttle:



Following a series of rumors that Ico creator Fumito Ueda has left his position at Sony, Gamasutra can confirm that the esteemed creator is no longer an employee at the company.

In a statement received by Gamasutra on Monday, Sony confirmed that while the creator is no longer working as an employee, he is finishing the upcoming The Last Guardian on a contract basis, and is "committed to completing" the project.

Ueda's sudden departure is particularly significant, as The Last Guardian is still in mid-development, and is very much a product of Ueda's creative influence. In addition, Ueda's pedigree of successful games has placed him among Sony's top developers -- making this move a notable loss for the company.

Since joining Sony in 1997, Ueda has released just two titles: Ico and Shadow of the Colossus. While his catalog might be sparse, both games stand among Sony's most celebrated classics, with modern developers still lauding even the decade-old Ico as one of their primary influences.

Prior to joining Sony, Ueda worked at the now-shuttered WARP, where he worked as an animator on the 1996 sci-fi horror title Enemy Zero for Sega Saturn.

The Last Guardian will be Ueda's first project to be released since Shadow of the Colossus in 2005. First revealed in May 2009, the game has seen numerous delays and has been withheld from the public eye for quite some time, with Gamasutra's most recent update dating back to September of last year.

The news of Ueda's departure follows similar news from last week, when The Last Guardian producer Yoshifusa Hayama announced his decision to leave Sony for social gaming company Bossa Studios.


I fucking loved Shadow Of The Colossus, almost to an obsession. I spent hours roaming those lands, climbing, hawk-humping, Agro-launching, and just taking in the beauty and loneliness of the land and it's ancient architecture. I also loved the slightly open-ended canon, as well. All Ueda really said about the story is that it takes place in the same universe as ICO, and Baby Wander started the curse of the horned children seen in ICO. Speculation is that TLG is a pre-cursor to Shadow, so we may find out more about The Forbidden Lands and how they where settled and abandoned.

Sounds like Ueda may be the the Al Columbia of game design.

been playing dirt 3 since saturday.i cant remember but i think imalmost done with season 2.i dled the xgames asia pack and plan on getting the monte carlo pack.its one of the funnest games ive played.

also dled black ops rezurerrection pack.lots of zombie fun.just wish it included call of the dead and the other zombie level that i dont have.

I started playing Skyrim on PS3 and was blown away. I loved it. I think part of it was that I was coming at it from exactly the opposite perspective. I was actually LOOKING for a generic medieval fantasy game and I think that this more than hit the mark.

I saw a couple of interviews online from the guys involved in making Skyrim while hunting for hints on the game and it was interesting to note that several developers seemed to claim that many of them are becoming inpatient with manufacturers coming out with the next generation of consoles.

Ey, I think why I am not that into it (level 36) is that the game lacks humor and it's all fetch quests. And my character can't talk but can shout?

Skyrim is the new Crysis for nerds. On a high-end gaming PC, the fantasy stuff probably looks nothing like its counterpart on consoles with a higher resolution, particularly more and better lighting effects and everything else. The combat looks really weak.

I'm still extremely excited to see what the Creation engine does for Fallout. I'm almost positive they'll save it for the next generation. I think it's safe to say that Half Life won't move on until the next-gen, either. Too bad that consoles dictate the market or you PC fucks could possibly be already playing theses.

PC gamers don't care about console games. most obvious example is how much fun are you playing Serious Sam or the Witcher 2 on your console?

Oh yeah, I can mod Skyrim to make it look better.

Battlefield 3? best games come out on pc because we have the hardware. I am using 16 gigs of ram and can load a whole game into a ram disk. They run great. and also do not need to pay for console net access.

I have 6 terabytes, how about you?

64 player multiplsyer games. Can console's do that?

And yes, my video card cost as much as a PS3.

I'm just waiting for Mass Effect 3. Cannot fucking wait.

Which kind of card did you buy, cqd; is it some monster or something a bit more reasonable?
It is just that what is usually called the "enthusiast" crowd is getting ripped off regularly, looking at the general performance advantage of roughly ten percent the top cards have in comparison to the models just below the top. The difference is about a hundred bucks in money spent.

Using a gtx 480, probably not much better than a 460 but leaps and bounds better than a shitty console.

PC gaming will always better. The whole free internet access is a big plus. Unless you want to pay to play on your xbox or feel like having your account hacked on PSN.

Also the dual monitor thing is nice with a hdmi out for the TV.

I'm stoked too, but less so the more I keep playing Mass Effect 2. Everything was great until they sprung the talking geth on me. It's getting kind of campy.

totally agree about ME2 but ME 3 is supposed to have some kind of co-op component. Can't wait!

And by some miraculous reason maybe it will be cross platform kind of like Portal 2.

Also Fartz, keep on the lookout for Postal 3 on the console. It get's horrible reviews but it's a blast. I get the sens the reviewers weren't willing to admit they like juvenile humor and wanted to try to be snooty.

It's silly and it's fun and nowhere near as awful as Duke Nukem for never.

Runs on the source engine instead of number 2 which ran on the unreal engine.

Highly recommended.

ME2 streamlined too much. They got rid of a lot of the free-form exploring and simply created two distinct modes of play: combat and talking. Sorry, but I'm an old school RPG-er. I want to fool around with inventory, spend time selling stuff, out-fitting my guys IN DETAIL , explore every inch of terrain, etc...

Yes the production values were sleek and the combat was good, but it just wasn't the RPG experience I was hoping for. I just missed that ME1 feel.

(P.S. - I fucked the shit out of Ashley in ME1. I had a black shepard too -- OF course!!!)

Tritone, my last build in dragon age was a thief/rogue and the way my party worked sometimes I could get them to do all the boss fights for me. If you haven't replayed it I suggest giving it a shot with a weird build just to see what the game will let you do.