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Which appears to have been a thread posted to the wrong board, so which one takes priority, then?

I really liked the first game, but when i started reading quotes from the developer talking about how the sequel won't have any of the gravity-bending portal-madness, it kind of tanked any interest i had in the sequel. Like, hey, those were the two most interesting things about that game.

I feel like if the 3DS reaches the same level of ubiquity as the DS did, street pass will become just more and more viable because of how they've handled it this time. (I mean, this kind of functionality did exist in some DS games, but it was a specific game to a specific game thing instead of system to system and... Maybe it worked in Japan, but it didn't here, partly because nobody really even bothered to try.) Nintendo has done some really smart things here though, making the street pass a system-level thing, and having the pedometer play coins there as a way to encourage/trick people into having their 3DS's with them. Personally, i've had five hits on my 3DS, so clearly people are using it. (Those hits were probably from electronics stores, actually. Heh. Probably employees walking around with their 3DS systems trying to farm street pass connections off of customers, i'd guess.) Whether or not people keep up with it or not will depend on entirely on what interesting things Nintendo and other developers do with it, but i think it's a charming concept that i'd like to see explored now that Nintendo has a handle on how to make it work. Anyways. So, Shadow Wars aside, what other launch games have you people been playing? I sunk like forty hours into 100%'ing Ridge Racer 3D, but i'm kind of a sucker for those games. Nevertheless probably one of the best 3DS launch games. Still a little disappointing though, hard to overlook the fact that RR3D is noticeably less detailed and sporting a more inconsistent framerate when compared to the PSP's own Ridge Racer game, which launched with that system six years ago. (Despite the 3DS being ostensibly much more powerful than the PSP. Really, none of the 3DS launch games are at all attractive.) Some of the other things that are bugging me about the 3DS? All these "To be added in a later update" dead ends on the system's front-end makes it seem incredibly half-baked. You know, and Nintendo has somehow provided a unified friends list without any of the features that would make having a unified friends list useful. (You know, a message system? Invites?) Capcom also seems to be the only company doing any online MP, and the word is they're doing it on their own servers. (Speaking of which, RE:Mercenaries 3D is supposed to have online co-op. Swank.) Nintendo's own MP service is awol for the 3DS launch, very lame. Overall though, i do really like the hardware. I am especially impressed with the 3D screens, for the first time i feel like there might actually be a future to this big stereoscopy push. (Developers take notice - Set your huds into the depth of the 3D, and if you do a third person camera, don't sit the character squarely center screen. Pilot Wings is aggressively painful on the eyes with any significant 3d depth.) Edit: And the home screen! I love this, and the set of basic tools you can access without closing your game. (The basic camera, the screenshot/notepad thing, your friends list/notifications, and a browser.. to be added at a later date.) Not quite the 360 Guide, but it'll do for a handheld. Very well implemented functionality. Pretty class, Nintendo.

Heh, yeah you can, it's kind of buried in the options sub menu on the pause screen. Seems like a lot of people miss that, not the greatest UI.

I have been saving pretty aggressively, absolutely. Still no crashes though, like 8 hours in, i might be one of the lucky few. This game also has some pretty busted quest scripting, i read one story where save scumming the game was causing the mission scripting to endlessly spawn additional groups of enemies, and a few other stories where people simply broke the progression, creating unwinnable situations for themselves and having to start missions over. There's also a bug where you can dupe upgrade stars. Shadow Wars is very likely the most busted 3DS launch game, which is a real shame, the game is a lot of fun. I'd like to see these guys make another one, just hopefully less broken.

I've had a PSP since launch, but honestly haven't really touched in the last few years. That said, some of my favorites would be - Lumines, Loco Roco, Patapon, Metal Gear Acid, Ace Combat X, Ridge Racer, Wipeout Pure/Pulse, MegaMan X: Maverick Hunter/MegaMan: Powered Up. (And all the relevant sequels these games had.) As for the PS2, i don't know, just play whatever looks interesting. The PS2 has such a massive library of games that it's hard to sum up in any meaningful way, and my personal favorites list probably won't be very helpful in discerning the touchstone games most folks would recommend. (My personal favorite? Robot Alchemic Drive, that game is awesome. I also actually originally bought a PS2 to play Gradius V of all things. So i'm weird, i guess.) Ico and Shadow are probably the first two games everybody will tell you to play, but at this point, it's probably better waiting for the all-but-confirmed Shadow/Ico HD re-release on the PS3. Both of those games will benefit hugely from being on more powerful hardware.

As a person who grew up playing all the Mechwarrior games, Heavy Gear, Starsiege, all those, it has been positively thrilling seeing mech sims somewhat in vogue again. Mechwarrior 5 may be in limbo, but Hawken looks fantastic, and Armored Core V looks astoundingly awesome. (And it seems to be taking the best parts from the greatly underrated Chromehounds.) And as the biggest WTF, there's also Trenched from Doublefine. That that new Steel Battalion game looming on the horizon, but who knows what will come of that Kinect-tied weirdness. Giant robots! Wooo!

I've had my 3DS since launch day, and had no problems, with probably 80 hours of game time on the thing. I just started playing Shadow Wars though, which seems to be the litmus test for how broken or not broken your 3DS is. I've seen plenty of people say the game never crashed for them, and it hasn't for me either, with about four or five hours in.

I guess i'm joining up here a bit randomly, i loved the podcast, and the community here seems cool. So hey, random internet people. video games!