twmac

That is some inflammatory nonsense commenting right there. 1) NiGHTS was released on the Saturn not the Dreamcast 2) Jet Set Radio is one of the cleanest looking games around, the HD remake looks good because what it is based on looked slick at the time, which makes your freaking out about the quality in MGS2 and ZoE particularly gauling. Given that the smeared-in-vaseline-shakey-crappy-anti-aliasing-ridden PS2 looked appalling for pretty much its entire career. On an aside am looking forward to the ZoE HD remake when it eventually comes out as it was one of the titles that looked pretty sweet but I could never be bothered to track it down. I like that, no matter what else I might think of Hideo Kojima's ouevre, he and his company do have genuine affection for their past titles.

Got the Retriever last night, and am going through unlocking more of the animals rather than focusing on the story. I should probably get on that though as it is nice to have those unlockables as further incentive to explore. This is a great game to dip in and out of.

Received everything at the beginning of the week. My postcard talked about mini-hamburgers. I like it.

Despite myself, I played it again last night and unlocked the Beagle and the pig. The game is clever in the way it sets up the challenges and makes you start moving around the map with the promise of finding something new and interesting. Desperately trying to get a 3000KCal challenge with the Gazelle caused me to outrun a Crocodille and end up in a Lion's den where I got ripped apart. Will probably try out the Beagle at some point this week. Want to unlock the Rabbit so that I can get my hands on the Porcupine.

Because the gap between 4th and 5th is about 20 thousand points and that is a lot of time and effort.

So I played this all weekend and had a lot of fun with it. Unlocked some of the baisc characters (Cat, Chick, Gazelle) and mucked around with the systems. I like that the amount of food in each area fluctuates and seems to be affected by pollution and heat as well as an increase or decrease of certain animals. The unlocks seem a little punishing and I am not sure that I will play it for much longer but it was definitely worth experiencing.

Actually that can be the game's fault. There is a good chance that something like the gameconfig file was not correctly updated. It fixed itself but at a cost.

Agree with most of the spoiler stuff. Except for comments about Ben, hate that guy. There is a particularly nasty bug in the X360 version that happened to me and a friend. The achievements pop-up as unlocked but don't enumerate your overall score nor do they increase the game's score. Not sure why it happened, but it means there is one achievement I can't get ever because I have technically unlocked it but the score won't tally up. It doesn't seem like a big deal but it irks me that I cannot have it registered as 100%. My buddy got it worse as none of the achievements for this chapter enumerated in his total score. This actually felt the weakest of the series, maybe as it is a tough act to follow up on episode 3. There were just a few things both narratively and mechanically that really, really annoyed me.

@ Sno Nice, is it the opening cutscene to Armored Core IV perchance? As for Darksiders, I very much enjoyed it, the combat served up as a means to break away from the puzzling (that I did enjoy more). Something just clicked with that game and everything just felt intuitive. There was enough variety and mix up in what was expected of you that I was utterly hooked for the time I spent on it. I kept it on the hardest difficulty as it was way more fun that way (the combat was far too easy on Normal to the point where you didn't really appreciate it). I loved Darksiders and was very keen to play Darksiders II, unfortunately I haven't knuckled down and finished it. I played the sequel for about 5 hours and it hasn't clicked with me in the same way. It is still a lot of fun and they have definitely improved many of the elements I just have too many things to play right now. I suspect that Darksiders 1 might have suffered the same fate if it had not come out in January.

Is that an Armored Core avatar Sno? Toblix, there is a thread about Darksiders here. Some people liked it.

As much as I enjoy hearing Klepek. I was a bit disappointed that it wasn't the real Hot Scoops on the podcast.

Haven't read it yet, my copy arrives on the 22nd of this month. After listening to the Bookcast I went and ordered it. Sorry, didn't use the link supplied but will do so for all future bookcasts!

Although I didn't get as much out of the book - in part because its impact was diminished by other books having explored the same thing for me and also because it is one of my obsessions anyway - I really liked your talk about the book as it has urged me to get back to finishing one of my own chapters. One of the things that really nailed it for me was that reading Tony's perspective irritated me from the offset and continued to irritate me to the end. I couldn't put my finger on it and when you pointed out all the annoying little pathetic/pedantic things he did that it became apparent as to why I hated him. Please note: Hated him as a person but as a well written character I thought he was very good because he was so annoying.

That is the one, it is a pretty good book from what I remember (badum-tish).

Pretty much what Gwardinen said in the spoilers section was something that I felt was too jarring; similar to one of the puzzles in Ep 2 where it made no narrative sense to do so if only to make me solve a problem in a very gamey way. I wouldn't normally say this but I am absolutely fine with the Walking Dead removing the more game-focused elements. Certainly keep the short fights in there and when a puzzle doesn't feel too shoe horned go for it. Otherwise just give me more of the talking and the interactions, which are almost all superb. The only other complaint I have is that it doesn't really feel like the climax of Ep 2 really paid off in Ep 3. Cannot wait for Ep 4 and can't wait to see what you guys do next.

No problem, I just remember getting to exactly the same point and almost quitting and then getting through that section and being hit by some pretty awesome and brutal moments that actually had me reacting in the same fashion as the last Episode of The Walking Dead game. Yeah, I do wonder if everyone was on the same page, in the case of the takedowns they get more and more brutal as you progress. Did the guy doing that know why they wanted them to be depicted that way? Also, I wrote a review for the game, it is a little messy but hopefully conveys what I was trying to say.

Just finished it and enjoyed it thoroughly. Would agree with Accros that I would prefer no 'next time' preview on the game. It might fit the show format but I just don't want to know anything that happens in the next episode and just wait for it. I do have some complaints but I am finishing my lunch break so I might jot some praise and condemnations down when I have some spare time. But in short: am looking forward to the next episode!

Been playing the game over the weekend and absolutely loving it. The combat and traversal has this wonderful flow to it. Easily one of the best games this year.

Toblix, you are a wuss. Also you are missing at least two awesome narrative beats after that fire fight.

Pretty underwhelmed by it so far. There is nothing in this game that hasn't been done by another game and done better. The combat is clumsy and unsatisfying. The car combat is stolen from Wheelman and lacks the out and out craziness of that and Just Cause 2. The mission are pretty unappealing and the free-running is passable. The world is really pretty though and the voice acting is solid - it amuses me that the main character is voiced by the actor who played Iori in the terrible King of Fighters film.

That was along the lines of my logic, dreams, especially conflict dreams don't tend to have a lot coherency and you find yourself doing things that make no sense. That is why I didn't bat an eyelid at some of the ridiculous thngs asked of me.

Read Illuminatus trilogy last year. My word, did I not give a shit about what was happening by the end. It spent so much time trying to confound me that I then just read it like the long drawn out acid trip waffle that it was. I can pick out moments that sort of stood out but really, I stopped caring about half way through and just let it happen (a bit like an acid trip).

So is Amelia the same person who identified Resident Evil as a film based on a Video Game? You guys grow up so fast.

It also ends rather abruptly.

At work right now so can't reply in any great length but some really good points in the last couple of posts. Will reply later if I am not too tired after work.