Sno

Ever played any of the Metroid games? (Specifically Super or the Prime trilogy.)

Thanks to Fallout, i think he could probably define what he's looking for as a "perks" system. If i'm understanding his post correctly. It's certainly not uncommon though, seems like most games are filthy with that style of progression system these days. (CoD4's MP is probably what really set it off.)

The Wii U to me seems more like another obvious continuation of Nintendo's "withered technology" philosophy, something that has been with them pretty much from the beginning of their Video games business. Whether it's the right thing to do is a good question, i feel they've definitely put themselves in a difficult position, but the approach has always treated them well in the past. (Excepting the rather qualified success of the Gamecube or the N64, which were contrarily very much attempting to be technological powerhouses.) I'm absolutely not ready to count the Wii U out, Nintendo's been down this road before. We've seen a lot of Nintendo consoles seem utterly dire for the first year or so and then just flip a switch. (It is happening with the 3DS, there is currently nothing i am more excited about than that thing.) As for new franchises out of the Wii console cycle, i think Xenoblade is a pretty fucking incredible thing, but i can certainly admit that i'm kind of reaching by pointing to a game that just barely got released.

I played Nano Assault's retail version and i think i posted about it a while ago, but i haven't played the EX version. I liked the retail game a fair bit, they do some neat things with the design, there's some pretty cool levels. It also looks great and it sounds great, it feels good to play, it's a pretty pleasing little action game. However, as a matter of difficulty, it tops out pretty low and i don't think their scoring systems provide any particularly interesting additional challenges, so it's a pretty short lived game. I think it's quite middle of the road compared to the other shooters those guys have put out, but if you're okay with a thing that is about four hours of pretty loose, lax shooting, it's pretty fun. As for EX, i did some digging a while ago to figure out exactly what was different and found that: - They apparently fixed some crash bugs related to the leaderboards. - They added some new visual effects that negatively impact the framerate. - They added support for the CPP. (Which is definitely needed.) - They added a somewhat disappointing sounding survival mode that gives you one life and throws random levels at you. (The levels are not randomized, it selects randomly from the campaign/score attack levels.) There's also another Nano Assault game on the Wii U's download service that, honestly, looks like a much more impressive game.

So this was just released and it seems very, very awesome, it is definitely a thing worth talking about. I'll probably have some thoughts to share once i put some more time into it, but right now I'm curious to see if anybody else here is playing it.

The 3D doesn't drain any more battery than the brightness settings do, it's the wi-fi that kills the battery. It's probably more that the 3DS's battery just kind of sucks regardless. Also, will be getting a worldwide release through the eShop, but i won't be surprised if i'm the only one that cares. I've admittedly heard some mixed things about the game, mainly that people don't like how the tank's turret is controlled via buttons instead of some kind of touchscreen free-aim or CPP support, and that the co-op only supports local play, but hey... G.Rev... They have made a lot of very cool games that i like.

Pretty much the only thing i got out of Donkey Konga was an awesome peripheral to display on my shelves. Let's be clear. I adore Rare's three DKC games. Those are still terrible character designs.

I didn't see any threads for this one already, and i think it probably deserves one. I just finished this, all the way to the final ending, and i'm curious if anybody else here has played through it. It's kind of hard to talk about it without getting into big spoilers, but on the whole I think it's a better "game" than the first. I didn't think the puzzle rooms were as interesting, but i think it's a better story with some good additions that make it much easier to keep track of the branches. 999 is kind of required reading though, a lot of the wilder elements would probably feel completely out of nowhere without it, and the big revelations would probably ring hollow. I think VLR is excellent though, one of the best things on the 3DS and probably one of the best things on the Vita. That all said, I had also run into the really awful save bug on the 3DS version and lost a lot of progress, but i once i started over and took the measure of avoiding making saves during the puzzle rooms, i didn't run into any further trouble. Fair warning, i suppose.

I think it's a toss up between Star Fox's crew and DK's crew as to which is the worst stable of characters in Nintendo's franchise library. Go check out those Star Fox Command endings. Amazing. Actually, thinking about it, it's Star Fox by a long shot. At least the DK games are generally good. (It is my opinion that the original Star Fox is the only good Star Fox game.)

There were rumors some time ago that the PS4 will be handling things in exactly the same way, and i hope people will notice that Sony has been expertly dodging any questions about DRM and always-online. Anyways, i don't like the sound of what that Polygon article is saying about achievements. "Microsoft is playing around with cross-platform achievements as well. Ideally, these achievements could be earned by playing a game on the next-gen system and then using a companion app, a website or maybe even by playing a specific game, like a prequel to a next-gen title, on the Xbox 360." "LIKE OUR FACEBOOK PAGE" is the grossest kind of achievement, and that sounds like the direction Microsoft is going in. Also not into the idea that they want to continually tweak and add achievements to games. Having a goal line is part of the appeal, when you're at 900 points as there's a few tough achievements left to get.

I guess it can still crash regardless, but your save game only corrupts if you save during the affected puzzle rooms.

I've definitely had my 3DS's lower screen leave some obvious scuffs and marks on my top screen, but no actual scratches, nothing I haven't been able to wipe off. Did the Spice Gamecube definitely never come out in North America? In a case of shamefully demented youthful excess, I owned at least three separate Gamecubes over the course of that thing's lifespan, and I could swear one of them was the Spice one. I remember having another Gamecube at the time and giving away the Spice GC because it was the one giving me some technical grief. Not having any materials left over to confirm that it was ever in my possession, and subsequently hearing a lot about how the Spice Gamecube was either never released outside of Japan or is otherwise very rare, I've started to doubt if i ever had one in the first place. I still have its Spice controller, which I remember keeping because it was one of the least busted GC controllers I had. It would be a weird thing to have constructed a false memory over, but I'm not even sure anymore. Heh. Edit: Also, holy shit, that lime DS lite is nice.

There was quite a shortage for the North American release as well. Nintendo tends to ship its RPG's in ridiculously small quantities. Xenoblade's NA version had such a bad supply/demand problem that NA copies are now selling for hundreds of dollars. Awakening's at least available on the eShop.

It's Adam Malkovich from Metroid: Other M. It is the poorest of the Metroid games.

I enjoy the scientific speculation of Vsauce.

He chose to go because it was hard.

Nordic Games/JoWood really went for a grab bag of stuff, holy shit. I feel like i just saw Supreme Commander get scattered to the wind. It's probably a reasonable assumption that they're going to try and make sequels to Red Faction and Darksiders. They picked up so many properties though, they can't realistically do something with all of them, can they?

I would love to see some of the fan edits that have been done of the Star Wars prequels, just out of morbid curiosity. Can a watchable film be salvaged from that footage?

I'm kind of in the same place with Gearbox, though perhaps with still a more positive outlook, because i really enjoyed both of the Borderlands games. While I remember Cataclysm quite fondly, it was a horrendously balanced game, and lost a lot of the more distinctive elements of Relic's own Homeworld games. (Cataclysm was developed by what would become Rockstar Vancouver.) Cataclysm actually took on a bit of a Starcraft vibe, it's certainly an interesting game in its own way. As far as i'm concerned, Homeworld 2 had the deepest, best gameplay of the 3, though it's ultimately marred by an inexplicably awful singleplayer campaign. So i would say the first game still holds up the best, and is a game i would certainly count among my favorites.

If i had a choice, i would have gone for the purple 3DS, but i bought a system at launch and so have to live with aqua blue.

For all my own various troubles in life, i've never been significantly at odds with my family, i can't imagine what it would be like otherwise. I hope things work out for you Tegan.

Well, not exactly. Colonial Marines was their fuck-up entirely, from start to finish.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/190985/Gearbox_Software_has_acquired_the_Homeworld_franchise.php Huh. Huuuuuuuuuuuuh. So Gearbox owns Homeworld now. Apparently the #2 and 3 bids were Stardock and Paradox Interactive, trailed by that sketchy indie team and their kickstarter campaign.

FEA is still the best thing i've played this year. I don't know if the spotpass stuff is going to be rolled out on a different schedule for the European version, but all of it will be available for the North American version in just another week. That includes six additional story paralogues with new story characters to recruit. The DLC stuff should also all be up for the North American version, if anybody is so inclined. (Again, i don't know about the European version.)

The only thing to keep in mind is that, during a level-up, stats grow based on what the currently selected job is, but otherwise nothing is permanent.