Roderick

Yyyyyessss that was a major usability annoyance.

That's terrible, Synth. Bah, I hope you land a job soon.

Who's talking about the game? We're indulging in a wonderful fantasy, for a thing that won't exist for a long time. Reasonable expectations don't apply here!

Manus was tougher. I needed the assistance of the magnificent Osmosisch to best him. Artorias was no slouch either, but I get the feeling he was easier to learn after a few goes.

A fascinating and true thing in that Eurogamer preview, when the guy says that only a small team would be able to pull off something like this - a large EA-monger would get trapped in the planning and conception of it and it would never get off the ground. I agree.

It's a bit of both, Tanu. It's a feature neatly incorporated into their account system (which is, of course, horrible). You activate it for you save and then you can't undo it again, and all the dudes in your current group get max ides health.

I have but one thing to say on the matter.

The idea to have one area or city set in wildly diverse times and eras is very appealing.

Oh man, I'm not there yet. I am taking it really slow with TOS, I've started the second season. It's become my palate cleanser for Breaking Bad. Taken in rare doses it is still really enjoyable, but I'd be loath to binge on it.

Quick! We must protect our videos from being seen by actual people! ... Actually, that's a pretty solid move, considering the crap it apparently is.

Finished Dual Destinies (not the DLC yet though!) and it was really fun. For some reason it didn't make the huge impression on me afterwards. I see no reason why it shouldn't have in terms of quality. Maybe it's just that it was all familiar ground? I also felt the difficulty was on the easy side. I was never stumped and the game seems to telegraph the solutions heavily as soon as it intuits that you might be slightly unsure about the puzzle. It's a far cry from the obscurity of Justice for All, but misses the refined balance of Trials & Tribulations. Perhaps that's the reason it didn't make a big splash for me. Though the excellent 'unmasking animations' top everything that came before. I've started playing Final Fantasy VII, the Steam version. «Whaaaaat», you say, for two excellent reasons. You say this firstly because it's not an adventure game. Yes, no, but it totally is. I'm using a thing called «character booster», which is a legit option offered to give your fighters basically infinite health, mana and money. This makes battle a formality and is excellent for me, since it shifts the focus on the story flow and progression. You say this secondly because I'm an avowed Hater Of Final Fantasy VII. Yes, 'tis true. It was the first JRPG I played and the reason I despised the genre and the game for a long time. But now I'm a different person, I've come around to appreciating (some) of the trappings of the genre and am curious what I think of it now. So there you have it. Fun fact: I'm playing the game with the Xbox 360 controller mod made by our own Thunderpeel2001! Also, the game looks good in high res, even without graphics mods. About the story: so far Cloud is being a morose asshole, Barret is an insane caricature and it's all pretty clunky and hilariously overt. Please, Tifa, tell us more about the childhood promise you made with Cloud. Cloud, with his dreamy Mako eyes.

Even though it was the only album I bought this year in the last six years, it was pretty good, so it deserves a place here.

Sick dad dressed as SANTA then raped us -- th-th-th-that's life!

Every time she puts her foot down, a system of tiny ropes and weights pull her nipples down in defiance of gravity and physics. It's quite brilliant, if you think about it.

Fantastic trailer, it really captures the imagination. Can I say I'd be happy with just a Proteus experience, but then with flying around on space ships and exploring oceans and skies and lakes?

This weekend I had my brother's 2-year-old around. She was incredibly contented with watching the home screen on my 3DS, pushing the game icons and seeing what animation and sound played on the top screen. Ah, the simple pleasures of youth. (When she was gone, uncle resumed Fire Emblem Awakening.)

It seems like a completely logical and human step, doing what you most want to do. It's easy to get lost in corporate planning. I did use PAR every now and then, so it'll be weird to have that go.

I wonder if the Luigi actor saw it coming. «Ooh boy, this is gonna be MY year... they're coming for me!»

When that happens, the film pulls a "Usual Suspects".

If that's the case, it'll be a hard switch, but there are precedents. There've been games that required some peripheral or other to function properly on the Wii, whether it's a motion plus remote or the balance board. The Wii U case is different in that it's included in the base set, but I wouldn't be surprised if Nintendo made that decision nonetheless. Or, you know, just take the hit in income and lower the price without chipping away at the hardware.

Really? From what I've seen, the tablet is rarely used in any game (even first party) to any good effect. Only Zombii U did a marginally interesting thing. The vast majority of games won't do anything with it rising above the level of gimmick or as a repository for UI. No one would miss it if the tablet went. But isn't that the same with the Wii Remote? Another Nintendo innovation that nobody, including they themselves, knew what to do with.

Oh, I forgot to comment on the tablet-less Wii U: I'd buy it for a low price! I think that would be a smart decision and one that I actually see Nintendo doing. They're not above revising their hardware if market realities force them to. It's a move way more logical, even, than the 2DS.

I'd say the answer to that lies in exactly how infinite the world is. If there is truly an endless ream of worlds to explore, you'd naturally at one point settle, because you'd understand there's no end game or progress in a territorial sense. If there IS a finite amount, you'll want to 'catch them all' and probably settle on the last, or return to your favorite. Still no idea what kind of game Starbound is, but the hints of possibilities are interesting.

Replace the elf for a dinosaur and make christmas AWESOME!

I think Kohler is on the money with the notion that Nintendo will 1) continue to make hardware until they're dead, 2) survive no matter what and 3) get up on top again. I've said as much earlier in this or other topics. The 3DS alone will see to that. Nintendo still dominates the handheld space. Having said that, I am MASSIVELY Mario fatigued. Mario has become a trivial thing, where it was once and should be special. This already started in the Gamecube era with one after the other sports title, Mario Party, Mario this, Mario that. The latest trend of platformers has only exacerbated that. I get the feeling that 3D World suffered directly because it looked too much like the 2.5D line, rather than its own thing, like a Galaxy. For all the brilliance that surely is in the game, 3D World doesn't instantly captures the amazement like Galaxy, or even Sunshine did right out of the gate. I'm not surprised it didn't sell very well. I mean, when was the last time a new Mario game was truly big news, something you looked out for and there was a palpable tension even in the mainstream press? I'd say the first Galaxy. Nowadays it's like the Wii U itself; it barely registers that it's a new thing.