miffy495

Holy crap. A roomate felt so bad about the pedal breaking while he was playing last night that when I got home from work there was a whole new drumset waiting for me. I will (of course) be paying him back as soon as my next paycheque clears, but right now I'm just astounded by the quality of the people I live with. Damn. Brief review of the second-run drum sets. Pedal is the same as my old one, which means that another part of my next cheque will be going to an Omega Pedal, as that one looked the most appealing to me. Drum heads, much more responsive. I can actually hit rolls now! All this time I thought it was me, but really my drum heads were just dropping notes left and right! I'm thinking that I may pick up those Goodwood heads in a month or so and see how much that improves my performance as well. Yay! Drumming is go again!

Well, I don't live in BC, but I'm right next door and head over there quite often. Vancouver is a frequent destination as I like to keep in touch with my Grandfather. It's a beautiful city, with (as n0wak said) a lot of rain. Still, as Canadian cities go it's one of the warmest, which is a plus. Can't really speak for the jobs, but every time I go to the city I start to want to live there. To me, one of the main appeals of living in Vancouver would be cutting the drive to the Okanagan from 8 hours down to about 3. The entire valley is one of the most beautiful places in Canada, lots of good beaches, really warm, still in the shadow of the rockies. Stunning. I go there for the Salmon Arm Roots and Blues Festival every year, and having a music fest in that kind of setting makes it my favorite weekend of the year. Of course, a lot of this may be because my own city's main attraction is the Stampede, where a bunch of rednecks put on hats and hurt animals for tourists. I don't like my hometown much. Like, at all. What's keeping me here is that this is where I'm going to school. My own plan is to get to BC when that's done. So would I recommend BC? If you're coming to Canada, that and Montreal are your best choices.

Glee! I just keep going back. I have yet to make something I don't like, too. I hope they can pull of the rest of the game as well as this part.

Oh man, it's so awesome. Love it to death. I'll be spending way too much time with this when I want to play something but don't have time for Metal Gear. Thanks for the link, man. Brilliant fun just dicking around with this thing. If anything could put a smile on my face after losing another drum pedal, this was it.

Shit. I just broke another pedal. And I'm no longer under warranty. Awesome. Any tips?

Before I begin, I'm at the start of Act III right now, so any spoilers I give will apply to that point. Don't look if you don't want to know. I've only experienced one boss fight, Laughing Octopus, but that one was indeed completely insane. Really cool too. The different ways that she'd hide herself to try and fuck with your head were awesome. I found it was just as crazy as the best boss fights from older MGS games. As I recall, only The End and to a certain extent The Boss ever really required stealth. Fights like the ones against Vamp where there was nowhere to hide in the arena are par for the course as far as I'm concerned. Part of making a fight unavoidable is that the enemy will have to know you exist. Playing on normal myself, because I'm honestly not that great at these games and I love to just sit back and watch the story unfold. Also, Raiden is a complete badass! His fight with the Geckos and Vamp was amazing. I'm a little worried that he may have died in that cutscene. He just passed out, right? RIGHT??? So cool. Can't wait to see the next bit. Unfortunately, I have other obligations tonight, so now I wait until Monday. Boo. EDIT: Cygol's post went up while I was typing. He's right about the combat. Much better. I still find myself sneaking everywhere just because I want to though. It's especially satisfying to silently take out a defense force and clear a path for soldiers that have a similar cause as you, without either side ever knowing you're there. Sweet times. The game tells you how many you killed per act as well which, if you're at all like me and feel bad when you see a huge number, is a good way to keep your fatalities down.

Put me down for Chibi-robo, Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, Super Mario Sunshine, and Killer 7 as well. Also, as you already mentioned Twin Snakes, I'll say get it. I've actually bought it twice now, as my first copy went with a friend who moved and forgot he had it. Actually don't regret spending that much on it. It's that good. Plus: - Alien Hominid (if you haven't bought it on XBLA) - Viewtiful Joe - Battalion Wars (I really liked it, despite the lukewarm general reaction) - Odama (I recently got it for $8. Totally worth that. Don't spend more than $15 on it though) It's odd. For the last generation, the GCN was my only system for four years and not much else is really jumping out. I still love that little purple box though.

No I live in Calgary, which is about a 3 hour drive Southwest of Edmonton. As such, I make frequent trips there, and can definitely admit that their weather is worse than ours. Mostly because Calgary has the luxury of Chinooks (infrequent warms blasts of air from the nearby rockies which give us temporary respite from the winter) and Edmonton does not. Any time I head up in the winter I make sure to get myself good and prepared.

So far the stealth is pretty basic. Still quite thrilling when you're able to dodge a large group of soldiers though. I'm also dismayed by the amounts of brown. I'm hoping there are a couple of switches in environments. I miss the jungle... Otherwise, holy crap good. There are a few things I've had to fill in for myself (these spoilers are from old Metal Gears, not IV) ]such as Sunny. She is Olga's child, right? Also, was the reveal that Campbell is Meryl's father in the "other" ending to MGS or something? I think I'd remember something like that if I'd seen it... But by and large it's fantastic. That bit with Akiba that perfectly mimics Snake's first exchange with Meryl in MGS is wonderful. It's total fan service, but I'm cool with that. Time to get back into the game. I really want to see more of Raiden right now. If this actually is the end for Snake, I hope Hideo decides to bring Raiden in as the hero of future Metal Gears. Dude got a bad rap, but I still like him.

Popping in the game as soon as this comment is posted. I'm trembling a little. Game time! EDIT: Crap, forgot there was an install...

Bah, you in Montreal can't complain about winter until you've experienced Edmonton (or to a lesser extent, Calgary). Forty below in a damned desert? I rest my case.

I intend to go see Young People Fucking sometime in the next week or so. I'm actually pretty excited at the idea of (to quote one of the reviews I read) "a sex comedy for people who aren't virgins." In other words, intelligent and adult, but still funny. Sounds like this one may actually have pulled it off. I'll report back if I manage to make it out to it.

Um... you bastard? Way to beat release. Knowing I need to wait an extra 2 days just got that much tougher.

Yeah, combat doesn't decline in frequency, just difficulty. I actually quite liked the combat system though, so I didn't mind. I'm actually meaning to replay this once I've finished MGS4. How're you finding the PC conversion?

Hurray! I get to pick mine up as I leave work on Thursday. Don't actually get to play it until about 9:30 Friday night, but at least I'll have it in my grubby little hands. And Wrestle, I completely agree with you about Ac!d. Those two games were bloody incredible, and the first one happened to be the game that got me interested in Metal Gear in the first place. To think I was just looking for something (at the time, anything) to play on my PSP. Now I've played through all of the series several times. So good. Definitely get that PS2 fixed up, too. MGS3 has some really awesome stuff going on. The idea that Granin was the scientist who originally came up with the concept of Metal Gear is just too cool. Portable Ops just went on Greatest Hits I believe, so you should be able to get it a bit cheaper. Neat touches like the first appearances of Roy Campbell and Frank Jaeger (Grey Fox/Cyborg Ninja) make the story plenty compelling, although without a second analogue stick the camera can get kinda irritating. It can also be a bit tedious grabbing every character you can find, though it is ultimately helpful. Of course, kidnapping everyone is entirely optional so you don't need to worry about it too much. I'd forgotten how epic the endgame in MGS3 was. I got to Volgin at about midnight last night and figured, "Hell, I can beat this before bed!" Credits finished rolling about 3 am. Man I was tired at work today. Store is apparently opening early on Thursday for MGS4 and as games guy I have to be there, so I get to be even more tired that night. Hooray.

Well, as I understand it, the cutscenes will be pausible, which should definitely help. As long as I can run off and get a coke in the middle, I should be fine with it. And just finished my replay of MGS3. Right on time. Woo! 'Course, I have to be at work in about 7 hours, but these are the sacrifices that must be made sometimes...

As a side note for anyone else who may be replaying the earlier games in anticipation, playing MGS3 and MGS: Portable Ops at the same time is weird. Every time I knock someone out in Snake Eater I instantly start looking for the truck I need to drag them back to for recruiting. Doesn't help that I just lost the eye in Snake Eater so now both Naked Snakes have the eyepatch. Still bloody amazing how well they pulled off a portable Metal Gear though. Both games = the shit.

Also, I wasn't here to recommend it. Would have been my pick, right after Metroid. Seriously, get that one some time.

So psyched. Have had my preorder for a while. Hoping to get my replay of MGS3 done today to be fully prepared for tomorrow's launch. Although I probably won't get a chance to actually play it until the weekend. Stupid job...

Those drums look mighty tempting, except it seems they don't ship to Canada. Boo... And once again, I gotta disagree on the guitar. I'm now forced to ship mine back to Harmonix because the fix I preformed only held out for 4 months. It's stopped registering notes again. Now that I have to use a GH guitar, it just feels so wrong. I don't like the GH controller anymore. At first I preferred it as well, but after several months I realized that it was just because it was what I was used to. I then came to embrace the awesome that is the RB strat.

I did exactly the same thing about a week ago, but I ended up watching for about 2 hours because I didn't have to worry about waking anyone. Brilliant stuff.

Shit, happy belated man. I was nowhere near a computer for the event itself, I swear!

GRAH! So apparently the 60GB PS3s have some issues with MGS3: Subsistence. There are several cutscenes that simply don't work on my system. Luckily, I was only an hour in when I discovered this. I'll have a go with an older, non-subsistence copy and see what happens. Aside from that, finishing MGS2 was a pleasure as always. So good. And my shiny new Dual Shock 3 is fantastic. Actually feels like I'm playing a proper game again, rather than just flicking around a cheap and way too light piece of plastic. One week left until MGS4, though I won't have anymore game time until Sunday. I'll have to really set myself to finishing MGS3, especially if I'm restarting next time I play. Also, MGS: Portable Ops = . I'm spending way too much time with Solid/Liquid/Solidus/Naked Snake and Raiden these last few weeks, but damn do I love it. EDIT: Turns out that the version of MGS3 in the essentials pack is Subsistence anyway, just without the second disc. Mysteriously though, this one is working fine. Even lets me use the save I had from before, so no starting over necessary. Also, I still get to use the 3D camera. Score! They must have optimized the rerelease to make sure it works with the people who are most likely to be refreshing for MGS4.

The demo one at my work went down too. Full on RROD. Seems like a good week for it. I'm going to stick to PS3 for a while to avoid tempting the gods, methinks.

Happy birthday, you two. As for me, I just started a full time job three weeks ago after two months of unemployment so my free time has dropped considerably. Mix that in with the girl's birthday and a trip to a music festival last week and I've been pretty away from all things game. Still, I had a solid day off yesterday during which I played some more GTA IV and about half of Metal Gear Solid 2. I'm getting myself psyched up for MGS IV at the moment. Replayed Twin Snakes last month, almost done 2 now, and will hopefully blast through Snake Eater in the coming week leading up to Guns of the Patriots. Even bought a Dual Shock 3 today just so I'd be ready for it. It's still in the plastic. I'm psyched to get it out and have some honest to god PS3 rumble later tonight...