miffy495

Yay! Either way, the one I ordered comes from one of those official (non-Hong Kong) ebay stores, and claims to have an actual Microsoft warranty, so hopefully no worries at all. I got burned by one of those Hong Kong ebay stores a couple of years ago, and have been very careful since.

Man, I forgot to talk about the stealth. There's a section at the beginning of chapter 14 or 15 where you emerge from a temple unarmed and are faced with patrolling guards. The game expects you to off one, grab a gun and shoot the rest. Going Splinter Cell on those bastards was just so damned rewarding. Like, holy hell this game is good. I can't believe they integrated stealth into the game so well. I always go as long as I can picking off the guards one by one because it gives me a bit of a power trip. When I almost inevitably fuck it up though, I'm never hosed. Just dive for the nearest cover and keep playing as if it were Drake's Fortune or Gears of War. So well done.

Ooh! Are they? I may be persuaded to pick it up at that price. What version of the game is that?

YAAAAY!!!

Well damn. Just finished chapter 18. This game is fucking great. I knew there was going to be a supernatural element to this game, just like last time, but I didn't anticipate that it would freak me out as much as it does. I'm much more accepting of the supernatural this time. In the Drake's Fortune, going from really enjoyable gunfight to really enjoyable gunfight for 17 chapters and then having a bunch of zombies thrown at you for what I thought was no goddamn reason irritated the hell out of me. Up until that point, the game had shown no sign of buying into the supernatural, and I really liked that about it. Drake is making fun of all of the superstition and I figured it had no part of Uncharted's universe. Then zombies. Now, I know that the series allows for things like that and am much more willing to accept it from the sequel. I will say though, I find it a bit odd that Drake is so dismissive of the supernatural in this game, as if he hadn't been beset by zombie hordes a mere two years earlier. He still laughs all that stuff off, right up until . You'd think he'd be a bit more cautious around ancient legends this time around. I like to avoid discussing graphics as much as possible, but it's very hard to avoid in this case. Game is pretty. Almost unbelievably so. Not to mention the platforming sections being genuinely heart-poundingly intense. Two words: Tibetan ruins. I was letting out an "oh shiiiiiit!" with every movement. A lot of places are calling this game of the year. I don't know if I'd go that far. It deserves a game of the year award about as much as the recent Star Trek movie would deserve a best picture award. Still, both are incredibly fun experiences and wonderful examples of what can be done with an excellent grasp of the craft of their medium. It's by no means intellectually stimulating, but damn if this game isn't an amazing experience. Highly recommended.

Awesome! I'll have to download my preorder when I get home from work!

Whoo! Hard Drive shipped! I may make day and date if customs isn't a bitch getting it here from the states.

Very true. I'll also better be able to know if I can afford it.

I'm actually getting a little nervous for this game. Between the fact that it's getting reviews all over the place and the fact that I'm currently replaying Psychonauts, I'm worried that after finishing the current playthrough, Brutal Legend just won't compare to the wonder and majesty of Psychonauts. I'm already fairly certain it won't be as good, but most of my worry comes from the proximity that the two experiences will have in my mind. Knowing it isn't as good is different from having it explicity shown to you in the space of a couple of weeks through personal experience.

Well, when I saved about US$50, I'm willing to take the hit in shipping time.

Bah. Gamestop was sold out when I went to get it. Apparently they did one of those "only getting preorders in" things that they love so much. Thing is, it's also a $70 game, which I consider fucking ridiculous. I have yet to pay that much for a game that didn't at least come with a bobblehead or something. Gonna wait til next paycheque now and then check Amazon I guess. That gives me a week and a half (during which time I have 4 papers due, so it's probably for the best I'm less distracted than I could be) to decide which version to purchase. I'll be following for any news of Thumb multiplayer, and if there's a lack of it, probably going for the PS3 version. I really do prefer it for most multiplatform games. Don't even know why.

So I'll be a bit late to the party. I'll party as hard if not harder than all o' ya when I arrive though!

Yeah, she feels like watching a flat film through a cinemascope lens. But everything else in the game looks so great. I don't get it at all.

Just like you secretly want to be dickbutt? If you mean otherwise, I advise you to choose your words more carefully. Myself, I just don't see the similarity...

Update: apparently if you look around you can get an American 120GB drive from ebay for about CDN$90. Works for me. 10 to 30 business day shipping, but I'll live. How long til Gay Tony is out, anyway?

Wow. First 3 chapters completed. This game is beautiful. The only things I've noticed breaking the illusion are that your tracks in the snow disappear after about 10 seconds and there's something really creepy about Chloe's eyes. Like, really creepy. I can't take too much of any scene with her in it. All the other characters are fine, so I don't know what it is about her. Maybe they thought that dewey eyes were more attractive and just went way overboard with the gloss? I dunno, can't quite put my finger on it. Weirds me out though.

Yeah, when I went in to see if they had Brutal Legend (like Chris, I prefer to avoid the place, but it's on my way to school so it's the damned convenience) I noticed that the PC section had vanished. Last time I went in (Scribblenauts hat preorder bonus) there was at least a shelf with some copies of Spore and an Age of Empires III bundle. Now, even that disappeared. I think there were Beatles Rock Band copies stacked where PC games used to be. Also, the used 360 games took up 3 shelves. New had one.

Goddammit. I'm totally screwed and need to buy a new HDD to experience this now. Guess I have no choice. Wonder how cheap I can find one.

Yeah, I know of a similar store in Calgary. They're damn great, but don't stock anything current gen. Pity. I actually had an identical experience to Nick, as he remarked in the background. Went into a Gamestop, asked for Brutal Legend, was told no way, bought Uncharted 2 instead. Now it's off to Amazon to order Brutal Legend. Still need to figure out which console to buy for though.

Hey, I ain't gonna leave you hanging. I got me a reputation to uphold!

As I've played through it twice and it's one of my favorite games of this generation, yeah, I think Drake's Fortune is worth a look. Seriously, go get it now. We'll talk when you're finished.

Hey James, still no word from Danny, although he accepted my friend request. Any idea what's going on with the bundle?

I got stalled right before the final boss. I haven't touched it in over a week. Thanks for reminding me to go back and wrap it up before it gets added to *that* pile.

Two things: Toblix, what do you mean by "in" Arcanum? I bought Vampire on Steam a while back, and from my experience, it simply does not work with either Vista or a 64-bit OS. No luck every time I try to run it. Now that I have a laptop running the same version of Vista but with a 32-bit system, I'm going to download it again and see if that helps. Sigh. I've really wanted to play this one for a long time.

My 360 has kind of been making me hate it lately, with the tiny 20GB hard drive issue finally becoming too irritating to deal with. As such, I'm leaning heavily towards picking this up for PS3. On the other hand, I don't want to be depriving myself of any Grand Thumb Auto style awesomeness. I'm going to be buying this game on the way to work tonight. Help me out here: What's my format?