manny_c44

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Posts posted by manny_c44

  1. Posted

    My Summer Vacation 3 on PS3.  It is in japanese so a proper playthrough is more or less impossible (there is an incomplete pseudo-walkthrough somewhere out there), but still once in a while I will turn it on and just run around the farm.  The feel of this game is really just perfect; sadly I can only make a very little bit of progress.

     

    Pushmo is also an incredible puzzler, one of the top 3DS games for sure.  Generally these non-violent and clever games are the ones that leave you with the best feeling I think, instead of the guilty time-wasting feeling.

     

    Also Gran Turismo :mellow: --but everybody's played that.

  4. Posted

    Welp, Amazon deal killed me. Got a Vita 3G/Wi-Fi with a 8GB memory card for $130. Simply could not resist at that price. Luckily I have a backlog of games from PS+ that means I won't spend any more hard earned money on that platform for the foreseeable future.

     

    Is this $130 a typo?  I haven't seen it dip down that far anywhere.

  5. Posted

    If you haven't checked out Crimson Shroud yet, you should absolutely take advantage of the sale when it starts.

     

    Yeah thanks for the heads-up I wanted to get this (vagrant story fan), but the board game aspect was kind of making me hesitant.

     

    Finally bravely default gets a date, that was the main reason I got the 3ds, that and Luigi's mansion (which so far is quite good).

  12. Posted

    Speaking of JRPGs I really liked the 4 Heroes of Light on DS...but I never beat it, because towards the end it serves up a 'play all of the bosses again, now with more strength' dungeon. So I left it. It's really NES in its design and gameplay, but the art direction is fresh/awesome. It is also very difficult until you get into the top level of certain job classes. I recommend it to anyone into JRPGs because there are few of them that pull me in like this one did.

    I can't think of a recent game I've played that I've completed. Unfinished: Solatorobo, Whispered World, Sword and Sorcery, Botanicula, FFXII, Gemini Rue.

  14. Posted

    AC!D 2 is awesome, peacwalker and that are more or less the must play games on the PSP. (AC!D 2 has a very poor story/scenario though, so heads up)

    Portable Ops has very poor controls, if you play peacewalker you won't be able to go back to it.

  15. Posted

    Yes this game was quite excellent, although for me the bosses were very difficult (never bothered with the co-op that's probably why).

    There are all sorts of interesting aspects to it, recruting and building the army was definitely neat. But there was one thing that really made the game, in my opinion, and that was the retrieval balloon. The sneaking and stealth aspects of the game are just perfected by the balloon. You can disable an enemy and then clear him from the field (rather than killing him), making a patient and careful stealth play of the game feasible and rewarding (as opposed to more recent MGS outings where the game degenrated into a [clumsy] action game).

    My hope for the next console Metal Gear: no heavy weaponry, lots of retrieval balloon.

  16. Posted

    Finally, just as a random aside, i think System Shock 2 is probably the one game that got more under my skin than any other.

    I've played through it so many times that i can't really look on it as being a scary experience anymore, there's too much familiarity, but calling on vague memories of my first couple playthroughs, i remember being just terrified by the sense of complete fraility forced on the player. (And the game just narratively reinforcing it, showing awareness of how it was making you feel.) You were remarkably weak and frail, your supplies were extremely limited and your gear was barely holding together, and the enemies were constantly respawning and always roaming.

    Agreed, this is the only 'survival horror' (if it can be called that) game I have ever enjoyed.

    Routine looks awesome, the 80's scifi trappings, exploration-centric gameplay. Just seems really cool.

    Also the permadeath thing can be good if its merged to gameplay well. Imagine Super Mario without permadeath, or any of those old gameboy/arcade games or any shmup. Challenge and permadeath in those games were pluses: the levels were tightly focused and well made, you could see your skill building with repeated play andthat skill building became the fun of the game.

  17. Posted

    Looks like mostly anything they needed to previously bake into the textures is now done in real time, which is a big step.

    Also the particles were very filmic-- but like was stated above, it will be used for big expensive games I will never want to play-- Ihaven't even seen the previous Unreal engine in action.

  19. Posted

    Looks like they just funded it yesterday, I'm looking forward to the game. After playing Overseer I agree with the bad controls comment-- just make it control like an FPS I say, also the pacing and awkward/constant insta-deaths were jarring.

    Still I backed it in hopes that they'd fix those things and keep all of the good stuff.

  24. Posted

    I have a 22" Viewsonic LCD with 5 MS response time which displays 1680x1050 natively. It's probably about 2 years old and these are the things that I regret when thinking about the purchase.

    -I wish I bought a monitor that displayed 1080p

    -I wish I bought a monitor that had an HDMI input

    -Viewing angles are so critical. My monitor has a fine viewing angle (in theory) you can look at it from any angle and see text or whatever on the screen-- but the vertical viewing angle is touchier than the horizontal viewing angle. This is a barely a problem until you start doing illustration on the monitor-- colors and contrast change very slightly depending on your posture...a lot of times using a tablet I will scrunch up my back and be viewing from a much lower angle than is preferable, which leads to a slightly different looking picture than if you were sitting relaxed.

    Even stranger is that the best angle to view the monitor is from slightly above the center of the screen, and I am never sitting higher than monitor, so I never view it from this angle.

    These viewing angle things are somewhat minor and you would never notice them in a store when just casually looking at monitors, but remember your monitor will be much closer to your face than a television and therefore your relative angle to the screen will vary much more than a television. Pay attention to viewing angle. Get up close to the screen.

    -The above problems are exacerbated by the fact that the monitor has no height adjustment. Only tilt, which is kind of shit.

    -Pay special attention to how the screen is backlit. Just pull up a totally black picture and look at how the light spills across the monitor, mine is uneven from top to bottom.

    -Many Viewsonic monitors, mine included, have an eye-bleeding-bright blue LED on the front panel, which I had to cover with electrical tape.

    -The menu and buttons are annoying

    -The pixel pitch (size of the actual pixels) is kind of large but I actually prefer it to smaller ones.

    With those things in mind my monitor is still pretty great and the ordinary user would find it satisfactory. The response time is not noticeable when watching films or playing games-- more expensive monitors have 1ms or 2ms response times so go for that. The color, contrast are great. I find many LCDs to be too bright at normal settings but that is just the norm.

    My advice to you guys would be to buy a larger monitor (maybe 24-28") that displays 1920x1080 or higher and place it further away from your face than you might be used to now. Make sure it has height adjustment and good vertical and horizontal viewing angles.

    Also:

    -Apple monitors are usually very nice-- but you can get many side by side reviews on the internet of competing monitors. I would get a monitor that might be more expensive but has a many of these in-depth, positive reviews.

    -Don't buy Cintiqs, they have bad color/contrast compared to regular monitors.

  25. Posted

    I picked up the whole NIN back catalogue last night (:shifty:)

    I'm not sure if releasing The Slip for free was intended as bait, but I have to admit this is the first time I've listen to NIN since high school and I'm going into the back catalog too.

    ..the lyrics are still :shifty: