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The Giant Bomb crew spent a little time looking at it in their RE:Revelations quick look. It seems like a weird thing, it's super crazy to me that it doesn't make a physical connection with the 3DS, it communicates via the infrared port. It also doesn't lock onto the 3DS securely, it just kind of smooshes into place and is held tight by rubber grips. It also needs only one triple A and apparently lasts for nearly 500 hours, so battery life isn't an issue. You probably want it if you want to play RE:Revelations, it sounds like it's fine for what it is. The Giant Bomb guys were taking issue with how big and heavy it is, how little functionality it offers while sacrificing portability, but... you know... are you fine playing RE:Revelations with RE4-style control, or do you want dual analog? I guess that is what it comes down to. (For now at least, because other big games are going to need it. Kid Icarus Uprising is just going to use it as an alternate control option for lefties, but some of the other games will probably have greater need of it.) Anyways, those guys also seem pretty down on Revelations, but it seems more to do with philosophical umbrages than the game itself.

The best way i can think of for them to do it, is to release a Wii app that lets people tie their Wii downloads straight into a Nintendo account. This then wouldn't require a Wii U to carry out, but would still require hanging on to your Wii until you can complete this process. (Is that still funny? "Hanging on to your Wii?" Can i still laugh at that?) There was the Flipnote program, the neat little animation tool with some web uploading functionality, that's the only one that sticks out in mind as not being possible to transfer. I think i had read that it was because it wasn't actually able to work properly on the 3DS, i believe it was stated to be some kind of server issue. Didn't Nintendo say they were making a new version of Flipnote for the 3DS, though?

I can't imagine they wouldn't allow that, right? That'd be crazy, and incredibly upsetting. It would destroy absolutely all of the good will and faith their digital distribution platforms have gradually accumulated. I mean, but i had some stuff on my DSi that i bought through the DSi store, and i was able to transfer that stuff hardware-to-hardware onto my 3DS. I'm hoping from there i can then eventually tie those things into this new account structure. The DSi though, it wasn't built to allow that, there was a small app i had to download from the DSi store that would allow the licenses to be transferred between the serial numbers of my DSi and 3DS. (With the 3DS having this functionality built in, buried in the menus.) I had to sit my DSi next to my 3DS and let them talk to each other and Nintendo's servers for a couple hour process as it all kind of slowly processed and executed upon each downloadable game's transfer. I'm betting it'll be something similarly convoluted for the Wii to Wii U/Nintendo Network. I'm sure there's going to be a way, it's probably just going to be a really laborious and time-consuming one.

Nintendo has finally announced that they're going to build a proper account structure for their systems. First wave of it for the 3DS sounds like it will be bolted on as an in-game thing for multiplayer and as a way to "securely" have you buy DLC from in-game DLC stores. By the time the Wii U rolls around, it sounds like it's probably going to be a required thing at system level, for both the 3DS and the Wii U. Nintendo was very unclear about how this affects the current business model, if/when the existing shops will be overhauled, and if existing purchases can be transferred to this new account structure. All of which are very important questions. That Nintendo was specifically avoiding these questions, even trying to lead interviews away from them, it sounds like this shit is super in its infancy and they have no idea what they're going to do with it yet. They were also talking about wanting to eventually sell digital versions of retail 3DS games, but noted that SD card capacity will surely be a problem. (RE:Revelations is on a four gig cart, for example.) So yeah, the story was basically that Nintendo is saying they're going to do things, but has no idea how they're going to do those things.

Soul Calibur V in a few days! Very excited.

I had no idea people had codified it to this degree, i was just always spamming the roll in random directions on recovery and it seemed to work out well for me.

Everybody's a beta tester. There are millions of people investing on average, let's say, dozens of hours into Skyrim. That game is being twisted into every conceivable permutation of events, and when people encounter problems, they're rightly pissed and will make it known on the internet. And yeah, it kind of creates a slightly skewed perception online. There are many games released in last year that were magnitudes more fucked up that Skyrim is, even in pursuit of smaller ambitions, but problems with those did not get nearly as much attention because those player bases were not as big and as vocal. Even relative to the previous TES games, you'd get the impression that Skyrim is significantly more busted, but it's simply not the case. (Basically all of the TES games have been incredibly crash prone, but Skyrim is a markedly more stable game, for starters.) And yeah, there's also kind of the looming spectre of the PS3 version. Apparently all of Bethesda's games have had the exact same issue on the PS3 and just nobody really paid attention until now. People are finally calling them out on it.

Heh, i've had that one too. I think i've iterated my views on this a couple times already, but I still think it's an accurate assessment that Skyrim isn't nearly as buggy as its predecessors. I definitely still believe it's the most polished game Bethesda has ever put out. All the time i've put into that game, and in terms of bugs that have actually negatively impacted my game, i've seen probably fewer than a dozen. I mean, and yeah, i've had to revert to earlier saves or kind of finesse the game systems to get things moving again at times, but... I dunno, it comes with the territory, i guess. You know, of course that sucks. Somebody's sixty hours into the game, It doesn't matter how obscure or random a bug is when it stops the game dead. It's completely fair that people get pissed off.

I've definitely been back-stabbed from odd angles, i think it's a sync issue with the netcode, with the player executing the stab getting priority based on how they saw the scene. Considering both my initial run through the game and the time i spent with it again not long ago, I had won probably 3/4th's of the PVP encounters i had while playing, including fights against backstabbers, by just playing a fairly defensive and straight-forward knight with very good armor. I've survived backstabs and come back to win by locking opponents in stagger with repeated strikes from my sword. (Having very high stamina and a very good fire longsword with a bleed bonus, getting in one hit on an opponent usually let me carry through to a kill.) Post patch, you can also lock onto stealthed players at close range, eliminating one of the major tools of backstabbers. (The Tranquil Walk miracle was one of the others.) I don't know, the netcode in Dark Souls isn't great, but i never felt like it was costing me wins. (But again, i had enough armor, health, and stamina to afford mistakes and hiccups.) I had actually also sorted out my build such that i was wearing armor that was comparable to some of the best armor in the game, while i was moving with the sub-50% encumbrance move set. All in all, i was really happy with the build i had worked out for myself. I mean, but yeah, from my perspective, i wasn't having that much of a problem with backstabbers.

I actually did go back and play another ten-twenty hours of Dark Souls, the patch is very nice and very comprehensive. Most of the bugs and exploits that i was aware of seem to have been fixed, they've tried to address some of the performance problems in certain areas to admittedly middling results, and most of the rebalancing makes a good deal of sense. One of the more in-your-face annoyances, the bug that was causing randomly dropped inputs, was blessedly fixed. The only thing that wasn't sitting well with me was just how hard the Tranquil Walk miracle was nerfed. (It was nerfed because it was being abused in PVP, but it's so weak now that it's of no use for anything but PVP, and i was using it for general combat. Arrgh.)

This is just going to be a running thing now, hey? Well here's another - Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth is one real beast of creative and cool game design. A bit like the Riddick game, it kind of slides between adventure gaming, stealth, and shooting on a whim, in addition to have some incredibly tense chase sequences where you are fumbling with door bolts and various environmental tasks while being hunted. (There's also a remarkably elaborate health system, with you patching and treating different kinds of wounds while abusing painkillers to help you muscle through the negative effects.) ^ There are unfortunate issues and glitches with each version of the game though, and it can also be brutally difficult. You know, and the turn survival horror has taken for tighter, better designed combat mechanics probably helps make it count too. Resident Evil 4 and onward, or Dead Space 1 & 2, for example.

That's what i had heard too, that the next game would be a continuity reboot. Maybe the toxic reaction to the DMC reboot changed their minds?

How about some of the Starbreeze games? Namely, The Darkness and The Chronicles of Riddick. (With Riddick, just play Assault on Dark Athena, it contains a fully remade version of the first game in addition to a new campaign.)

It's actually supposed to be out before the end of this year, so there you go. Given that 2K's game was just delayed, the Firaxis game will actually be out first.

It really does look fantastic, and it has RE fans in a speculation tizzy. (A tizzy!) Personal theory? I think there's going to be a single-player campaign where you jump between Leon and Chris' perspective, and then a co-op campaign with the other two characters.

Majora's Mask being my favorite Zelda game, i would definitely like to see it get a nice remake.

At this point, i'm just going to assume you've played BioShock and the Deus Ex games. (And if those are ace, look into their precursor franchises, Thief and System Shock.) If you like the Fear games, you should check out the Condemned games if you haven't already. They're first-person brawlers as opposed to shooters, but are awesome. (The first game is better, the second kinda loses the plot, but still has some real standout moments.) ^ In fact, most of Monolith's backlog could be considered awesome and in the vein of what you're looking for. (No One Lives Forever, Tron 2.0, etc.) Alright, so bases are covered. Timeshift? Super janky game, but i always really loved it. Wolfenstein (2009)? Another Raven Software game very much like Singularity that Activision just unceremoniously dumped into the market with no fanfare. Metro 2033? Super atmospheric, super hardcore, very much worth playing. (And if you dig it, it's time to go even further down that rabbit hole and play the Stalker games.) It sounds like we a appreciate a lot of the same things in shooters, i'm not going to feel good until i can leave one good solid recommendation. Heh.

Have you played the Fear games? (Specifically, the games Monolith developed, so the first and second games. Fear 2 is good on all platforms, the first game is ideally played on the PC.) Or, instead staying with Remedy, the Max Payne games.

Has anybody in this thread noted that Charles Martinet is the voice of Paarthurnax? Mind = blown.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/01/23/youre-going-to-suffer-levine-on-1999-mode 0451 simply must be the password.

You'll probably really like Singularity, that game has a very distinct Half-Life vibe, kind of Half-Life x BioShock. Really cool game, sadly overlooked by most people. What specifically about Half-Life do you find appealing? (To help narrow down some suggestions.) Though right now, I'm just going to go ahead and say that you'd probably also really like Alan Wake. It's currently 360 only, but coming to the PC soon.

I've actually kind of been wanting to play through RE5 again too. I'm on the 360, of course.

Man, that RE6 trailer was pretty incredible, wasn't it? The Revelations demo on the 3DS was pretty incredible too. Anyways, RE5. Don't play it alone. The main campaign and all of the mini-campaigns/dlc are built around a two-player dynamic. See, in making it a pretty good co-op game, Capcom kind of ruined it as a solo experience. The game is balanced for two capable players acting in tandem, and the solo game stands in a kind of shitty AI for that second player. (Capcom did this to Lost Planet 2 as well, and it went over even more poorly there.) Basically, on anything over easy, RE5 is just a really, really shitty solo-experience. Your AI partner is just incredibly stupid in some really infuriating ways. It's a pretty enjoyable co-op experience though, online is very solid and all that. It's also not scary, if you're looking for that. RE4 was already very action-focused, but still had some incredibly tense stuff. RE5 goes even further though, it has no tension, it's very much an action-movie in tone. Some of it's to do with the co-op nature of the game, having somebody watching your back, but a lot of it is just the game itself. Edit: (RE4 was hard? Maybe i just played through that game too many times to notice anymore, but once you had a handle on how to abuse the sprint & quick turn to put distance between you and your enemies, it was pretty easy.)

The 3DS is really starting to look like an excellent system, and is also backwards compatible with about six or so years of frequently-excellent DS games. (Though the 3DS Virtual Console is probably not particularly exciting, with its emphasis on selling only old handheld games.) For 3DS software, Mario Kart 7 and Super Mario 3D Land are both very good classical Nintendo games. The 3DS also has an updated version of Ocarina of Time, which is still popularly held as one of, if not the best game ever made. (For non-Nintendo fare, things are looking pretty exciting, RE: Revelations is potentially crazy awesome.) It's still new hardware, it could suddenly drop off the face of the planet as Nintendo systems can tend to. Support just randomly dies off and no games come out. Right now though, it's looking pretty promising. If you want to go diving through backlogs though, the Wii could probably be a good place to start. As Tanu noted, its Virtual Console library is incredibly comprehensive, and the hardware is backwards compatible with Gamecube games. (Personally, i feel that the Wii itself has been a so-so Nintendo system in regards to its own software, but it has some pretty incredible standouts like the two Super Mario Galaxy games.) The Wii is also nearing the end of its life. Its successor, the Wii U will be backwards compatible with Wii games and likely its digital library in the Virtual Console and Wii Ware services, but the Wii U will not have hardware compatibility with the Gamecube. (Which was an excellent and seriously under appreciated platform.)

Are... you... conflating different games? Huh? They're talking about adding weapon specializations, being unable to use certain classes of weapons without the requisite allocated points, which is very much a thing System Shock 2 was doing. The problem i had with BioShock is that you never really had to make choices. You were brimming with abilities that all could solve the same situations. (The game was also easy, over-stuffed with supplies, and had no death penalty.) So introducing a more restrictive specialization mechanic and generally increasing the difficulty, i think could probably be positive for the game. You could turn them off in BioShock post-patch. I also didn't really have a problem with the chambers in System Shock 2, with some of the things they did in that game. (Having to activate them first, there being a penalty for using them, and everything else in that game being so damn harsh.)