miffy495

They have a real analogue stick now, so they fucking better. I've never played that game and really want to. I avoided the DS version because of crappy controls, so now I want to try it out for reals.

I done voted as soon as I saw the thread, but won't post my votes here so as to keep the atmosphere as clear as possible. I tried to pick games that I thought would actually be worth playing, so I hope I wasn't wrong on the ones where I was guessing semi-blindly.

My system seller is a new Paper Mario. I see that, and I desperately want to play it. Nuts to everything else, I'm sold.

I would, but I will be in the booth at my own theater working, and also on a different continent. Any thumbs in the Calgary area though, we (the Plaza theater in the Kensington neighbourhood) will be running an Indiana Jones triple feature the previous weekend for the Family Day holiday. Come see stuff!

I saw the same level they showed in GB demoed at PAX (even got a t shirt with a giant swarmite on the front) and have been psyched on the game since. I'm really excited that this may be coming out soon. The demo I saw had a more thorough player, so I got to watch those little guys running around after every collectible possible. It was really charming.

Did get to see Black Swan last night after all. Really good, though I was able to predict the plot as it went along, and . I haven't seen Pi myself, buy my girlfriend who had told me that the plot was pretty much note for note the same, but replace mathematics with ballet. I'll take her word on that, and now want to see Pi more than I already did. I expect the impact of Black Swan would be lessened if you had seen the earlier movie, but she did say that it was still really good. It does not replace True Grit as my favorite movie so far this year, but I do recommend it.

I really like the FO3 hacking game. I totally agree it is by far the most believable. The Mass Effect 2 one and Alpha Protocol's are very similar, with AP pretty much just having you do it twice at once. If the controls for AP's weren't totally shit, it probably would be one of my favorites. As it is, the keyboard side moves infuriatingly slowly, and the mouse's is slow AND oversensitive, which sucked twice as hard. Still, I like it in principle.

Bioshock 2 was good, and I'd recommend going through it. That said, I believe that Minerva's Den on 360 was playable without ever having touched the main game of Bioshock 2. It's not standalone, so you'd still have to buy the game, but if you only want to play Minerva, that is an option.

Girlfriend and I went to see True Grit last night. Holy fucking shit. Best movie I've seen so far this year. I don't want to say anything more specific than that, as I may spoil moments by getting too into the movie, but I think that pretty much everyone should see this. Also, special shout out to the actress who played the 14 year old girl. She was bloody great. On a final note, I believe I like crochety old man Jeff Bridges even more than I liked young Jeff Bridges. Working our way through the big presitge movies of the year. Tomorrow night is Black Swan, and 127 Hours perhaps on Monday. Exciting times!

Orvidos is being a tad overzealous. The man is not a drooling idiot, he is just confusing leaps in game storytelling for games overtaking films. Bioshock is an excellently realized setting with a meh story, and Gears of War is fantastically exciting setpieces with a terrible story. Certainly I've gotten more out of some GoW moments than out of most recent action movies, and I've been sucked into Bioshock's world in a wonderful way, but that has nothing to do with their stories. While Red Dead Redemption is probably the most justifiable choice on that list in my opinion, it's mostly notable because it's a game with an honest to god denouement. The fact that that is a thing that has been lacking from games for so long says all it needs to. It is probably the best game story in years, but it has nothing on, for example, There Will Be Blood or the recent True Grit (saw it last night), to name two movies from the last five years that share the same setting. While I disagree with the man, I can see where he would be coming from. That said, he probably needs to see more good movies before making that claim.

I got an Asus N51 (Maybe N57? I don't remember) in late 2009 and it's my primary gaming system. It's really damn good, and I couldn't be happier with it. It's only a 32-bit system, with a dual-core 2.8GHz processor, but the fact that the max resolution is 1366x768 means that it can pump out really pretty pictures at native rez. Unfortunately the sticker with all the exact specs of my system has worn off, as it is right under where my palm goes when I'm typing, but I can certainly recommend Asus laptops in general as nice gaming machines for the price.

Yay logic guy! Thank you for saying that before I did. Anyway, I used to quite like Yahtzee, but he wore out his welcome rather quickly through false/forced anger. Those that imitate him are worse by virtue of what they're doing already being played out before they started. As for That Guy With The Glasses, you're the first person I've heard bring it up aside from a particularly horrible coworker who is horribly misanthropic and sexist who constantly talks about them. The association with him has made me never want to seek them out. If they do the same shtick as the others, they're probably not my cup of tea. Doesn't mean they're the worst thing ever or that I hate them, but I'm pretty tired of that trend in general. I'm much more into the Giant Bomb type of commentary, where they make fun of what is legitimately bad but are also bombastically (unintentional, but on re-reading, see what I did there?) enthusiastic about what is good. They're also far less mean-spirited and shocking just for the sake of being shocking. Even if I don't agree, I appreciate they're unbridled love for games. To all the Yahtzee-alikes, I just wonder why they play these things at all if they're so set on hating them? Anyway, weirdness. I find weirdness far more appealing than otherwise. The bizare mindfuck mythological stuff in Cryostasis made it one of the best games that I played last year. I honestly wish that more than silly cartoon weirdness, more games would go for the Lynchian head trip kind. I know the new Driver won't go for that, so much as just ridiculous (I'm thinking Just Cause 2 style would be nice) but I can dream.

Oh man, when I beat it in 2001 I totally must have glossed that scene over. My goal of replaying all three Paper Mario games before the end of the year may have to be put on hold. Also, Thunderpeel, I'm not sure how to feel about the new Tomb Raider game. I read that whole thread and found both sides of the argument to be pretty compelling, enough so that I figured I'd hold off on any kind of judgement until after the game's release. The designer's intent in that game is kind of questionable from the interview that was linked, but you're certainly not wrong. That said; the "If you enjoy seeing bad things happen to pretty ladies" quote from IGN is pretty stupid and awful, and the mocking of the quote was what I found funny, ignoring any claims about the game whatsoever.

That may be the best thing I've seen in a while. I can't stop laughing. I must show this to everyone I know!

Hahahaha. Well played, sir.

Can't they both be terrible? I personally find AVGN worse than Yahtzee, but given the choice would watch neither.

I quite enjoyed that moment as well. I'm never looking for anything Kratos does to be justified, as yeah, the whole point is that he is a ridiculous asshole who keeps fucking himself over through his violent tendencies. What I object to isn't that Kratos is a dick, or that he doesn't have any remorse for killing innocents. As I said, treating villagers as you would a pot in a Zelda game is no problem for me. That's just the game that I'm playing, and the game that they sold me. What creeped me out and made me not like the game isn't sacrificing a person to get to my ends. It's not the fact that that person happens to be a woman either (though a part of me is more creeped out by that, if I'm willing and eager to see a woman beat the shit out of some people [see: Kick Ass, which I thought was awesome] I should be willing to see her take a hit in a fight without getting my "think of the children!" buttons pushed). It's the glee that the designers had with it. It's slow. It's drawn out. There is begging. She tries to run. She's not getting hit in a fight, she's getting hit because she's there. She's half-naked for some reason (violence is always better when it's sexualized!). And then they give you a fucking achievement for it. That's my problem. There is a puzzle later in the game that requires . The fact that you're using the body of a woman you killed to solve the puzzle isn't so offensive to me there, because she's tried to kill you herself (twice!) already by that point. The woman in the disgusting puzzle just happens to be there, and you have to go so far as to rescue her from a cell before killing her. And earlier in the game you solve a nearly identical puzzle by using a pile of bricks instead of a naked lady corpse, so it really is that superfluous. I like violent asshole Kratos. It's part of why the game is fun. It is also, as you mentioned, actually pretty in keeping with real Greek mythology. Dude is a dick, gets fucked over by fate as a consequence of his own actions, maybe passes down curse to a child. Repeat. That's pretty much the classic structure there. How it's presented matters though. You kill two innocent people as part of puzzles in that game. The first is a dude who dies pretty quickly, a bit of screaming, you barely see him, and he's dead so you can take his bow. The second is a naked lady who you chase through a series of tunnels, throw into the solution area rather brutally, and gleefully murder for an achievement. There's definitely some misogyny at work here on the developer's part. That's what disturbs me. Anyway, I've probably talked this to death by now. Right now I'm playing the N64 Paper Mario on my Wii's Virtual Console. Much happier gaming experience.

God of War has always been excessive. That's fine. I knew what I was going in for in that respect. I don't mind the violence, and the sex scenes were always stupid little off camera things that were more funny that anything else. As I said, God of War 1, 2, and both PSP games are incredibly good and I would recommend them to anyone looking for a great character-action game. I haven't come across anyone who's done it better yet. God of War 3 does continue that tradition, but adds the really gross stuff as well. It's the fact that the action is so tight and the rest of the game is so great that's killing me about this, but gross is gross. I bought it on a one-day deal Amazon had going where you could get the HD remakes of GoW 1 and 2 bundled with GoW3 for $50 last summer, so I still feel good about the purchase because GoW 1 and 2 are so damn good and the remakes are great, but I'm bummed that 3 did what it did.

Pretty much, yeah. I've been getting more and more irritated with stuff like that lately a well, and wholly shit did God of War 3 push all the wrong buttons in that one scene. Hell, I've avoided the Girl With a Dragon Tattoo stuff because I'm sick of the only way to make a strong female character in so many stories being to have her be a rape victim before she can ever become strong. There's so much shit like that out there that once it's pointed out to you you just can't not see it anymore. To be as fair as possible, killing an innocent person as a side-effect of solving a puzzle is kind of a God of War tradition at this point, established in the first game where you have to set a guy in a cage on fire to get through a room. This however went too fucking far. It went beyond "Kratos is a brutal guy who does whatever it takes" into reveling it. Seriously. It's just fucking sick. And again, a massive fucking bummer that an amazing, unequaled (to my knowledge), and ridiculously ambitious sequence comes less than 30 minutes afterwards. Y'know what? The more I think about it the more I doubt it was worth it. God of War 3 has some bloody amazing things. It deserves the accolades that it got from so many people for them. But, if you care at all about the messages and attitudes that your games carry, I can't recommend it to you. The fact that if I had known in advance I wouldn't have bought it should be enough for me to say that I shouldn't recommend it to others. If you love the game, I understand why. But fuck am I ever grossed out right now. Also, please note: This does not reflect on the God of War series in general. In particular, Ghost of Sparta on PSP is one of the most fun times I've had with a portable system last year, and contains nothing so objectionable. God of War 2 on PS2 is one of my favorite action games out there. The series is really fucking good. I just can't recommend the last game in the series. The story is pretty lame anyway, so you're not missing much by skipping the conclusion. EDIT: 'blix, you posted while I was writing that, but I think I responded well enough in what I wrote. It's not that he kills an innocent. Hell, when walking in an area with civilians, I would routinely stab them in the chest for a health boost. It was done quickly and with as much voyeurism as breaking a pot in Zelda would have been (read: none). The sequence in question was so disgusting because of the joy that the makers of the game obviously took in putting it together. From the long lead up where you're seemingly meant to be savouring it, to the creepy and out of place nudity, to the achievement with a terrible name at the end of it all, the whole thing was just gross.

To bring it to a more modern game, I just beat God Of War 3 a few minutes ago. I'm not sure what to think, really. The boss fights are amazing, the combat is brilliantly designed, and some of the setpieces are unlike anything I've ever seen before. On the other hand, some of the shit the game made me do to get to the end made me physically ill, and this is after having beaten the other 4 games in the series without any problems whatsoever. In particular was probably the worst thing I've ever done in a game. I wanted to fucking vomit. Even worse was that when this happened, a trophy notification popped up called "I didn't do it, but I wish I had." What the fucking shit, Sony? That was goddamned awful. The worst part of that is that almost immediately afterward, you get thrown into a fight where you're which is what I would call the one completely unmissable part of the game for those interested. It was incredible, so fun, and so visually stunning. It's just so unfortunate that you have to go through the other thing I described to get there. That pretty much sums up exactly how I feel about the game. There are some things that I can't recommend enough, and some things that I can't condemn enough and made me feel disgusting for playing. On the one hand, it reaches highs that no other God of War game has. On the other, it slums much lower than any of them has either. As a result, it's probably my lowest ranked of the series. My ranking of the series, for those interested: Ghost of Sparta (PSP) God of War II Chains of Olympus (PSP) God of War God of War III I honestly don't know if I can recommend this game in good conscience. If I'd known some of the shit that I'd be doing going into it, I probably wouldn't have bought it. I enjoyed the other games in the series so damn much though, and it had gotten such great reviews, I gave it a shot. And it was good. It played extremely well. It looked great. It had some moments where my jaw was pretty much just on the floor. It was unfortunately also totally disgusting. Fuck am I conflicted about this one.

Yeah, it's really starting to get ridiculous how many there are. My description of Rocky Rodent above made me kind of nostalgic for it, so I looked it up on youtube. Only videos I could find were of some jerk getting unnecessarily angry about the plot and trying to be funny about it. Man is that shit played out. I just wanted to watch the first level to reminisce...

See, personally I don't see 3-5 hours as being that bad. If I'm going to be away from the house for longer than that and actually bringing a portable system with me, then in all likelihood, I'll be going somewhere overnight and would be able to plan ahead and bring a charger. Hotels have outlets, so I'm not too bothered. Ideally, I'll be gone that long in order to actually do something, so I should have more than the 3DS to keep me occupied anyway. 3-5 hours is fine for a portable. Hell, my ipod touch gets less than 5 hours with games (closer to 10-12 with music, obviously) and I still play stuff on that without any problems. It seems like the 3DS will have a slightly worse battery than the newer, longer-lasting PSP batteries (ie: the ones that are much better than what the PSP launched with). That's fine by me.

Why is everyone reading 3-8 hours as 3 hours? The way I see that, it'll be 3 hours if you have the brightness set to max, but if you have it tweaked down (as I always do on my DSi anyway) it'll last significantly longer. If I can push it to around 5 hours, it'll be the same as my PSP, so I don't have a problem with that at all.

I remember renting a game for the SNES back in the day where a "rodent" of unspecified species used different hair products to power up his 'do with various abilities. I particularly remember the boomerang mohawk and the 80's new-wave-thingy hair whip. It was awesome, and I didn't bat an eye. Actually, it was probably terrible, but I was 5. I believe it was called Rocky Rodent. Something about a blonde lady getting kidnapped by gangsters and Rocky (who was like a scuzzier Sonic) having to kill them all with his hair. Weirdness, yeah!

Like James, I will express an interest. I really liked the single player of DoW 2 and would be interested in playing more. Unfortunately, I work evenings and weekends, and still don't have an internet connection at the apartment I moved into last month, so I'm even less reliable than him for actually playing a game.