miffy495

We don't have a ban hammer here. People (almost universally bots, actually) get administratively raped through the pants. It's all about learning the proper jargon.

I've been playing mine more lately anyhow. Aside from a quick go at Rock Band, I can't remember the last time I turned on my 360, and aside from signing up for streaming Netflix, ditto for PS3. So much Wii gaming though. Still waiting on someone to make Time Crisis with the balance board as a cover pedal though.

That was your vagina full of STDs?

Baldur's Gate? Abra-ca-purchased. Not happy about the shit that they pulled here, but as long as they keep on providing classics, re-jiggering them to work on Vista/7, without DRM, and reasonably cheap, I just can't stay mad at them. They pulled a stupid marketing stunt, yes, but as far as online stores for games go, they've got one of the best things going.

Shit, that was my test. I streamed the opening credits of an episode of Mad Men Season 2. What's stopping you from getting a show made in your own country?

The answer to both would have to be "yes." Since writing that, I successfully got it up and running on my PS3. Finally. Damn, that was so infuriating always hearing about it from Americans. Now I too can stream episodes of Mad Men while sitting on the couch with my girlfriend! $8 a month? Deal!

FUCK YES!!!!! About damn time! EDIT: What the hell? 360 compatibility "later this fall," but it works on PS3 and Wii right now? Do I need a disc for the Wii, or a platinum account for PS3? If the answer to both of those things is "yes," I'm still screwed for now.

Hell, I still haven't even tried it, despite downloading it. I'd be game sometime.

When listening to the latest Bugle, Andy was talking about how Shinty is the manliest game ever, using the example of the goalkeeper who stopped a 90mph penalty shot with his bare forehead like it was nothing. Knowing the podcast's affinity for bullshit, I decided to call his bluff. That'll teach me to doubt him. Lo and behold, a man bashing a high-speed wooden ball with his face: gcRwbuSoGyc

Holy crap, people are making a huge deal over cost here. Look, I don't care about 3D really, but for curiosity's sake I glanced through a flyer last weekend and there was a store in my city selling some 50"-ish 3DTVs for about $1500CDN, 4 pairs of glasses included. That's not great, but also not ridiculous. Can we stop assuming these things cost more than anyone could possibly ever afford now?

I believe it's closer to 5 for them. I don't actually have anything constructive to add to this, not having the game and all, but I still feel compelled to speak up for some reason.

You'll need to supply your own ice.

I too just woke up and left. Never threw up once. Took the painkillers they gave me for the first dose, but didn't care enough after that. Still have a 3 year old bottle of painkillers sitting around somewhere with only two pills gone from it. They've probably gone off by now, I should throw them out. Episode 51 was indeed crazy. After the discussion on the Friday night, I was hoping for more stories about Benjamin Franklin, but was damn happy with what I saw. Still haven't listened to the recording, but my buddy who works at a games store has ordered in a copy of Weinhandler for me.

Interesting. I love Catcher, but that's actually the same reason I couldn't stand On the Road. I didn't feel like Kerouac was really rebelling against anything, but rather acting like a spoiled and entitled twat, totally blind to his own entitlement, whom I wanted absolutely nothing to do with. Maybe the difference for me was that Catcher was fiction and that Holden actually seemed to grow up over the course of the book?

Another thing that happens is I find myself going in platform cycles. For a few months earlier this year, all I wanted to do was play my PSP. I have no idea why. Then I went through my "summer of PC" where I've burned through about 15 games on my Steam list. The past week or two, it's been all Wii all the time. Usually this happens when there's one game that I really want to play that gets me started on the platform, then I just binge on other games on the same thing for a while. The Wii was brought on by Other M coming out (and also playing Kirby and DKCR at PAX), but I'm also putting a bunch of time into Mario Galaxy 2 and Sin and Punishment Star Successor now as a by-product. The PSP was Half Minute Hero, and lead to a ton of Metal Gear, Patapon 2, and Vice City Stories. The PC was probably just that summer Steam sale making me go crazy and then play a ton of things. But yeah, I don't know how much you have available to you, but just making a switch from gamepad to mouse and keyboard or to remote, or stylus, or whatever can be enough to keep it fresh sometimes too. I don't think it's a coincidence that each of the platforms I've really gotten into this year use quite different control methods. Let one skill fade a bit, then pick it up again so it feels like a fresh challenge. Kind of like what OssK was saying, but also a way to speed up the process.

Morph ball jump is the jump button, charge shot can be instantly filled by hitting and holding the fire button at the right time during a dodge move (not just out of first person). I'm not actually sure if you can dodge in first-person, as it's done by tapping the d-pad. The dodges I've done coming out of that mode are by turning the controller back sideways at the right moment, then tapping to the side to roll out of the way. It's weird how people have been so conditioned to expect bad motion controls in a Wii game that their mind puts them in there even when they don't exist...

I got 'em out when I was 19 under general. If they're going to split apart a tooth in each corner of my mouth and then dig out the shards, I don't fucking want to be awake for it. The anesthetic really varies in how it gets different people though. I actually went out drinking with my friends the same day I had the surgery, but my buddy who got the same treatment was out for two weeks. Hope it doesn't hit you too hard, Jake.

Yeah, keep in mind this is coming from someone who tries to be pretty conscious of sexism in games. If I weren't so into the Metroid story and knew all the background crap, I probably would be on board with the G4 reviewer. As it is, I see the narrative reasons for why Samus is deferring to Adam. Still, I'd much rather see someone bring this up when it is worth discussing (as it is in this case I think) than have them "keep their dirty politics to themself." That shit sucks, and is why I never read comments on any site ever, with the exception of Idle Thumbs posters on this forum. Again, in this case I see it more as bad writing in general than sexism, but there is certainly a point to be debated here.

Having read all of that, I have to say that so far what I have seen that G4 is calling sexism I would simply call bad writing. In Fusion, there was a lot of dialogue about the almost father/daughter relationship between Samus and Adam Malkovich, so having that played up by Other M feels more to me like ham-fisted expansion on what was already established. He was the only person she respected during her time in the service, and having that reciprocated was important to her. Saying that she has become subservient and is simply waiting on a man to give her the word to do something seems to be an oversimplification of the relationship they had established in previous games. Again, that's not to say that Other M portrays this well, but from the context of the series I can understand Samus' motivations in that regard. As I said before, I'm actually impressed with the amount of restraint Team Ninja has shown with this, as Samus remains covered and a badass throughout (at least the 4 hours I've played so far of) the game. That said, I still found it amazingly stupid when I was taking heat damage from the environment for 20 minutes before getting a radio transmission telling me to "activate my Varia suit functionality to prevent damage from heat." What the fuck? As for the Ridley thing, I haven't run into it yet, and the first I'd heard of it was from Tanukitsune. I'll probably just have my eyes gloss over as another terrible cutscene happens like every time. And again, after the fight in MP, I can completely understand being terrified of Ridley. Dude kicked my ass more times than I can count. Tanu, the scanning thing is horrible, but still not a motion sensor thing. I've run into it 3 times now. The game shows a cutscene, then stops while you do a pixel-hunt with the pointer until you find whatever it wants you to look at, then another cutscene happens. It's pretty damn weird, and breaks flow terribly, but not a motion sensor thing and rare enough so far that I can look past it.

Actually, I haven't seen a single thing that uses motion control yet. It uses the sensor to know if you're holding the remote vertically (in order to recharge your missiles) but the only time the Wiimote is actually used as anything more than an NES style pad is when you're manually aiming your missiles. I don't actually know the Ridley thing, but if he's anything like how he was in MP1, I'd be fucking terrified to fight him too. That was one of the hardest boss fights ever. If they're saying that Samus is paralyzed with fear to fight him, they're catching how I would feel pretty accurately.

...and Metroid 1, 2, Zero Mission, Prime Pinball, Hunters, and a copy of the Prime Hunters Demo that came packed in with launch DSes. I may be too much the Metroid fan, I guess. I don't know why I held on to that demo, but it's a level that didn't make it into the final game, so I can't bear to let go of it. Also, the pinball game is surprisingly good.

Sorry man, I'm out of the house today, and as such unable to attend. Next week will be a yes.

Oh man, she's awful. It's so bad that I'm not even convinced she understands English. She sounds like she actually has no idea what the words she's saying mean. Everyone else is competent, if stereotypical and flat, but she is completely terrible. I've usually had a decent tolerance for bad VO in games, but this one is ridiculous. Every time there's a cutscene, I end up laughing. That can't be what they intended.

I played the demo for the first game and couldn't stand it. I played the demo for JC2, bought it immediately, and then put about 30 hours into the full game having a fantastic time. The biggest difference between the two (aside from 2 being much more polished) is that in the first game the grappling hook would only attach to vehicles. Given that the main strength of the sequel is grappling to anything and everything and using that to do crazy shit, it's a much worse game because of that restriction. Seriously, just get JC2. It's one of my favorite gaming experiences this year.

Mafia 2. Man, fuck the haters. This game was rad. It wasn't fast-paced, but it didn't need to be. The that people seem to be complaining about was great. It was slow, sure, but it played right into the game's biggest strengths. That is, setting the mood perfectly and making you role-play the character rather than just be "fuck around in an open world" guy. Also, anyone who has finished the first Mafia and thought that the ending was great needs to play the first part of chapter 14. As there are only 15 chapters in the game, at that point you may as well finish it. The ending in this one is pretty poignant as well, but for different reasons than the end of Mafia was. All told, I'm really happy with the time I spent with this game and would happily recommend it to anyone who appreciates a brilliantly realized setting. I think I'll re-read RPS' Wot I Think to see which of their points I agree with, but the massive disappointment they registered is certainly a point of contention I have.