Jake

Except the PS2 has two shoulder buttons on each side, while the XBox instead has single annoying versions of the Dreamcast throttle-shoulder-trigger buttons on each side. Jayel I hope your post was more than half-joking, because otherwise and JBRAA - Luigis Mansion isn't the Mario game on the Cube, Mario Sunshine is, and it's very fun. It's not too different from Mario 64, but I had just as much fun with it as I did with Mario 64 - it's just a lot of very fluid, well-built jump and swing 3D platforming puzzles and the occasional boss battle... but I haven't played a platformer I enjoyed as much as that since Mario 64.

Might as well point out, re: that pic, that the XBox ports of BG&E and POP:SOT have a lot nicer visual goodies than their Cube counterparts. The gameplay is obviously the same on both, but the water looks great in XBox BG&E, and Xbox POP has this crazy sort of glow about it... That said I'd recommend you don't ask my opinion since I own an XBox and a Cube and split their use about 50/50 as my primary console... ¬

Where'd the screens go?

Oh man. Woot.

Take a look: Download: http://games.softpedia.com/public/cat/8/8-142.shtml Yes! I was (and am still a bit) dubious of this game, but there is no denying that that trailer is awesome. What a great, hilarious, classic Hollywood adventurey sounding musical score! And the fighting and sailing looks like it could be fun and actually doable unlike the old one. I'm sad by the named and shamed presence of the little "Live the life" underneath the Pirates! logo though. Are the press materials calling it "Sid Meyer's Pirates!: Live the Life?" If so, booo! But the trailer has made me happy.

Uh, yes you're right. You also entirely missed the fact that what I said had a point. GameCrazy doesn't sell PC games, therefore piracy has, I suspect, little to no bearing on things like their preorder or return policies.

What percent of American gamers download PS2 games? Hint: less than 1%. GameCrazy, the store I attempted to get the game at, is 100% console too.

I agree with you! Hooray, sorry for the misunderstanding

No probably not. I overstepped in my early morning excitement.

He insisted during the Alice days that EA marketing were the people who put his name on everything... Whether that's the case or not, I'm glad he's doing it! Why on earth not? If it helps slightly off games like Scrapland get recognition, why not? If it helps get creator driven and creator owned titles off the ground and gets that concept further rooted into the minds of the gamers why not? Whether or not it was American McGee who started the trend of slapping his name on everything or if it truly was EA marketing, the fact that people know who he is is, in my opinion, really cool. Not enough game designers get to put their name on the box, whether or not American McGee has "earned it" or not, the fact that he is allowed to ... well, I think the last thing people should be doing is to try and get less game designer names on boxes. Its I guess slightly shady in the case of Scrapland since he's producing it, but whatever.

There's now a making of Pirates! video online, it's about 9 minutes long. Enjoy.

I said "certainly interested" because I'm curious as to what specifically they had in mind. That said I don't know much about mobile phones outside the few that my friends have - none of which I could picture playing an adventure game on. I never know what "next gen" means either. Would I be interested in episodic adventure games? Yes. In adventure gaming on a portable system? Yes. Episodic adveture games on a cell phone? Ehh, I'd need some convincing.

New Scrapland preview up at IGN. and my favorite bit: Etc etc read the article.

Thats kind of bad re: stacking on an entertainment center shelf. The Cube has the same problem for me... Not a huge deal though.

*stab*

Possibly entirely kidding. I didn't actually mean it personally towards you (especially after you qualified what you said -- the code theft delay is beyond dubious). Arbitrary Valve haters (of which you are not one, but they do exist) amaze me though.

I was like that too until I realized I was missing 80% of the good games that came out each year. Now granted, I still miss most of those, but I at least sleep soundly knowing the possibility is there that I could conceivably buy [insert hot new xbox game here] at some point if I wanted to.

Developers who support their community, actively go back to their community for support, and work to escape the current developer/publisher relationship suck, clearly

Heh erm yes that's the entire point of the company making both the operating system and the hardware configs. (That's one of the reasons the idea of Mac clones didn't work out so well. That and they were stealing profit from the already strapped-for-cash Apple)

Ok the word "pennies" made me do a double take, I can't deny.

That's not a catch, dammit. It's not like Apple says "ULTIMATE CUSTOMIZIBLE PC!!" They in fact say the opposite. Those PC's aren't at all targeted at people who want to ever look inside, except maybe to add some more RAM. That's in fact the point of it all - the parts inside an iMac are exactly the parts Apple, and by extension MacOS X, expect to be there - so, in theory, it won't randomly fuck up. You don't have to worry about any of it.

My iPod has one of those.

Surely you've all played Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast: The Revenge of Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight 1. As some of you may have noticed, we have a review in the works for Jedi Outcast and are looking for some second opinions from you. What did you think of JK2? The story, levels, the lightsaber stuff... The multiplayer? Did it do it for you, or do you still find yourself loading up your hideously patched-up copy of JK1 for a quick round in the Massassi Temple? Got a story to share of something fun, or shit, that happened to you while playing? Is the game a hideous pimpley scar on the face of FPS gaming, or Extended Universe mythology, or does it totally rule and you're offended by my implications otherwise? You must share your thoughts! Spaff won't even publish the review until you guys speak up, so let's hear it, what are your thoughts on Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast?

Hey guys, any of you who have played Rise of Nations, what did you think of it? What sucked, what ruled, what "truly made your blood boil?" How did it relate to your favorite and least favorite strategy games that aren't Rise of Nations? Tell us, we'll listen to you.

Thank you for putting that so well, you rule.