miffy495

Jesus. ONE time...

As a student, my schedule changes with the tides. Rather, with the seasons. As we're entering into January, this is the last week when Wednesday (the 7th) would be a good time for me to play GTA with you fine people. I very much enjoy these games though, and as such feel compelled to make a plea for a change of day for sessions after this Wednesday's. The current day of Grand Thumb Auto I have class until about 5:30 this term. This is 12:30am for you UK thumbs, which is probably just a tad unreasonable a time for me to be joining a game at. Both Tuesdays and Thursdays however, I'd be getting home between 2 and 2:30, which is 9 and 9:30 for you. If either of these days is good for the majority of people, hopefully we can have the odd (or even regular) game on one of them. If not, scheduling unfortunately demands that I withdraw from the roster of Grand Thumb Auto regulars until late April.

Yeah, I have all three of those as well, and none count. Well, My Picross is the Japanese version, so it wouldn't count either way, but you know what I mean. Still curious as to where to actually find the code to register VC games though. I may try a few just to see. It may only be the first party ones again, but I should at least be able to get some coins for Kirby, Zelda, and Mario 64...

Yeah, there's a way. Gamecube games don't count though, and I noticed some of the much older DS ones don't either, though how they determine this I couldn't tell you. Nothing for Super Princess Peach, but Kirby Canvas Curse netted me some points... Click on My Account Settings, then there should be a "products registered" thing on the side. "See all" will get you the complete list. You can register Virtual Console games? How?

Situation resolved. Twice over, actually. Between Tetris DS (holy hell puzzle mode is addictive) and Kirby Super Star Ultra (been meaning to get this for forever) I now have 840 Coins. Rather, I now have 40 Coins. 40 Coins, and a copy of the DS Game and Watch collection on its way to my house. Man, I was looking at importing this back when it was released in Japan, for upwards of $60. Now I get it as what is essentially a pack-in with two great DS games. Hooray Club Nintendo for having a rewards program that's worth a damn!

I absolutely loved that part as well. It may cheer you up a bit to know that there's an extended bit in that world right before the big final fight. God it's beautiful. Actually, as irritating as I found collecting light seeds to be at first, as I progressed it became less of an issue. I just started looking for new paths to and from places and grabbed the seeds as I went. I had to grind for seeds to get my second Elika power, but that was before I started playing like that. Once I'd got the feel, I never had to grind again. I ended up always having juuuust enough light seeds to get to the next power when I ran out of places to explore. It may be that after getting the second power I started beating the generals and they give you 25 apiece for taking them down, no hunting required. That definitely sped things up. In the end, what irritated me most at the beginning ended up being fairly benign. What ended up being my biggest frustration was the quicktime events in the boss fights. I'm mashing x as hard as I can, why do you keep fucking killing me? Stupid Alchemist...

I don't think I've clicked that button since 2005...

Hey, my nominees made page 2! I don't know if that means anything...

Well, I've now beaten it. I don't actually manage (read: bother) to do that with all that many games so there must be something about this one. In a rather interesting stylistic choice, the entire last battle is in black and white. Considering that the game's plot revolves around shadow and light, this was pretty cool and impressed me. Unfortunately, this also led to a few deaths that really shouldn't have happened, which resulted from me not being able to differentiate anymore between climbable vines/fissures and solid wall because the camera was pulled back and there were no colours to distinguish by. Frustrating, and it made me wish they'd made some interesting game design choices to accompany the style. Then ending after the last battle is a bit weird to be honest. It seemed like they had a game wrapped and ready to ship and then remembered "oh shit! We're going to have to make a sequel!" As a result, after the last battle you have no choice but to do some incredibly out of character things to set yourself up for the return of the big bad. I won't spoil them, but the entire time I was doing this I was looking for any other option that the game could give me. None came up. Just weird, and left me feeling like the game could have been so much more without that bit. Oh well, still a good game. Definitely above average. Give it a play if you have the opportunity, but you probably shouldn't drop the full $60 on it.

Have one area left to purify, then two (I assume) bosses to fight. Then I'm done. Pretty short game, but the crazy jumping near the end is getting really intense. If I put some time in tomorrow afternoon before going out, I should be able to finish this one before the new year.

Funny. I was just about to pick up that hobby in honor of the new year. That AC/DC album is only exclusive to Wal-Mart in the states. The HMV I work for is selling them too, and has been since launch. As an aside, despite my having no taste for the music, somehow that AC/DC Rock Band pack is a lot of fun. The songs are just so damn perfectly formulaic that it fits perfectly into big group rock sessions.

Yeah, short as it was, I didn't really care. Too fun to worry about. I'm pretty happy when a game is short. I got Prince of Persia on Christmas and will likely have it beaten before New Year's Day, but I'm happy with that. Loco Roco was as long as it needed to be. Even by the end of that short game I was starting to wonder if they were going to add anything new to spice up the gameplay. Then the game ended. That's about the perfect time for a game to end, right when you're getting tired of its mechanics.

Quite well, actually. In order to up the precision, it seems they added a bit of Auto-aim functionality. By this I mean that when you get near something you might like to glom your ball of goo onto, it would almost lock in place and the pointer becomes a method of fine-tuning your placement. I have no idea if this is present in the PC version, but it strikes me as a console addition. I never really found that anything got too fast or impossible to handle on the Wii, and it's a game that makes very good use of the remote. I really liked the way they handled it, truth be told.

...I bought the Wii version.

I was actually quite close to voting for Spaff, if only out of sympathy because I tend to have the "bum fluff" kinda beard myself. In the end though, I'd rather help the cause.

Y'know, more than one people can have the same name. For example, if you googled my name, you would hit upon articles by an octagenarian news editor from Toronto explaining things like why we shouldn't worry about carbon emissions because we're carbon-based life forms. Man I hate that guy.

Oh man, I would totally buy both of those...

Yeah, when I saw n0wak's post, I was expecting it to go to Burnout or NHL, but Metal Gear is (one of) the more deserving on the list. Damn that was a long list though. I actually asked out loud "Are they ever going to stop naming fucking nominees?" It got sort of ridiculous. Metal Gear certainly wasn't my GotY, but it's one that I respect as a real candidate for it.

I was hoping I came off overall positive. As I said, I am enjoying it. For what it's worth, I felt compelled to beat almost half the freaking game in a single day. It draws you in pretty well.

Got it for Christmas, and have pumped a few hours into it now. Lots of fun, actually. Even though I'm enjoying it, I don't know if I could quite say why. Objectively, the entire game seems like a really epic Quick Time Event. The combat, the platforming, everything. It's just hitting buttons exactly when you're supposed to with little to no variation. That said, when you hit a groove and it begins to feel like you're actually doing it, it feels incredible. Then you fuck the same jump up about twelve times with no penalty and remember what you're playing. It's a pity, really. It's coming much closer to recapturing what made Prince of Persia great in the past, but still falls pretty short. And, as others have pointed out, having the voice of Nathan Drake playing the prince is really weird. I just completed a section of the Concubine's levels. I have two of the four powers you can beef Elika up with (the wall running and the flying) and seem to be going through the game at a pretty brisk pace. If I keep this up, I could have it finished before the year is out. Close, if not. Depends how much I get to see the girlfriend, I guess. If you're playing the game, or gave up on it, I will say this much. If you haven't fought through the Citadel with the Flying (yellow) power, you're missing out. As irritating and arbitrary as the flying bits seem to be, the scenario where the hunter is actively stalking and trapping you is one of my favorite parts of the game so far. Not once during that segment did my disbelief get shattered. It was really intense all the way through. Excellent level. Even if you never intend to finish the game, at least complete that part. Anyway, I get to work the boxing day sale at HMV tomorrow, so I'd better get some sleep. Night all. Merry whatever.

The 360 version was $30 on a boxing day sale (a bit early, yeah, but online shops open for boxing day on Christmas eve!) so I ordered it. Will begin playing as soon as it's arrived. Getting kinda psyched, actually.

Yeah, but in the whatever-the-crap-happens-after-that, things can only improve...

Man, cats make everything better. Sorry to hear your day actually got worse. Spaff's surgery is over now though, so at least things are starting to clear up.

Hey, with the newest build, I can actually play the game! Just took a tool around for a bit, see the sights. Man, this is a beautiful game. Upside Town is brilliantly designed. I absolutely love the style of it. Can't wait for the next North American game so I can get in and see how it runs for real.

Awesome. Although I've always heard "male camel toe" referred to by the much more concise "moose knuckle."