twmac

Have played through the demo a couple of times and loved it. It feels like a fantasy version of Lost Planet 2, I know that will lose the game a few points to some people (it shouldn't because Lost Planet 2 is fantastic). The reason for that is that the Chimera fight and the Gryphon fight can last a while or not very long at all depending on where you hit them. On one playthrough it took me a while to kill the Chimera and the Gryphon was a cake walk. On my second attempt, once I knew what the Chimera wasn about, I climbed up onto the beast (in a similar fashion to Shadow of the Colossus) and wailed on its weak points. It was dead in a matter of minutes. With the Gryphon I actually ran away from it and did a bit of exploring. There are some amusing outcomes if you wander too far with the demo being limited to 1.5 Gig. The third attempt had the Gryphon kill me when I got too cocky and stood right in front of it. My point is that this might be an RPG but it sits in the 'hit the not so glowy weak spot' Capcom school of design. The HUD can be made a lot less busy if you go into the options settings in the Main Menu and turn off the tutorial text, Pawn chatter etc.

This might seem like a weird criticism, but you might want to sort out a more appealing art asset for when people link it on Facebook. Just did that now and it gives the choice of 17 little images that don't really look all that appealing.

Couldn't find a thread for this but inbetween playing Fez and Witcher 2, I've just picked up this game on XLA on recommendation from an old idle thumb forumite. http://www.anomalythegame.com/default.aspx The game is really rather good with the reverse tower defence approach being way more appealing to me than a standard one. The story is a bit mental too (you are going into Baghdad after it has been hit by an alien invasion). If you have a Mac, iPhone, PC or X360 I strongly recommend you check it out.

Okay, fine. I'm going to have to talk about this game. Despite his penchant for women with insanely large boobs I've always been a fan of Joe Madureira. I honestly believe that he helped change a lot of popular western comic art with his anime meets marvel style. Anyway he is behind Darksiders: The Wrath of War, and visually it is fucking sweet. Eurogamer have screenshots and a video that is kind of cheesy: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/darksiders-wrath-of-war-may-hands-on I was going to buy this just because I'm a fan of his art style but after reading the hands-on above I'm trying to hold back my enthusiasm (and failing). If it turns out to be a Soul Reaver/Zelda-meets-God-of-War then there is a chance that it might actually be fun to play. Anyway, I will try not to enthuse about this anymore but I thought I'd throw this game out to the thumbers just so, you know, people are aware of it. I think thats what the internets are for

The only reason I even heard about this game is because of some tie-in to the SNK sale (I am not entirely sure what that was), the game was mentioned ages ago and then vanished: http://www.edge-online.com/news/diabolical-pitch-trailer It seems like Grasshopper haven't really pushed this game which suggests that even they don't think it is very good. Regardless, I am sold on the game and have already downloaded it for a drunken evening of baseball-themed demon fighting. The review from Eurogamer is mainly positive: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-04-04-diabolical-pitch-review I smell a delightfully stupid Friday evening coming up.

Well Eurogamer reviewer Christian Donlan was nice to reply to a tweet and give me the answer - Graft basically is the only way. I wasn't doing anything wrong just not doing it well enough.

So I have now played it for a couple of hours and it was all shallow, harmless fun. Unfortunately I have ground to a halt on the third world while fighting a UFO-flying Elephant. At this point I am not really sure what to do. I have played through the first couple of worlds in the hope of unlocking something else that will aid me and it has exposed the excruciating grind for coins. Everything costs between 100 and 600 coins so far and to be able to buy the 600 coin abilities I would have to play through World 2 about 4 times. The game just isn't fun enough for me to want to do that. The multiplayer is actually pretty fun and the problem I was finding is that my friend is too used to Wii remote gestures (ie: not really putting effort into it). The Kinect has only misinterpreted my throws a couple of time. The thing is the whole game has a heavy amount of assisted game play and it can often feel like you are just a puppet to its whims. Not sure I am going to be able to finish unless I can figure out a trick with that UFO boss. EDIT: Argh! There is nothing on youtube, gamefaqs nor on IGN. I have no idea how to beat that UFO boss. I feel like a proper n00b on this one.

People should really try out I Am Alive, it has the same visual style as this game with a lot of fun mechanics. Tequila works have a lot of people who worked on the ost recent Castlevania game and on that Clive Barker game. Both were bad. I am quietly hopeful that this will turn out good as I really want a Shadow Complex game that has little to no combat.

Will write up as soon as I finish playing it on Friday.

You are right, those are both excellent from a visual perspective, even if they were a brief.

I did find anything clever about looking at a star, then looking at a tower. The puzzle being that you had to look at it in exactly in the right way or else it wouldn't trigger a cutscene. The three pillar on the parchment puzzle was okay but everything else was just 'find X insert into Y' or 'Open book, look at answer, follow steps'. The Uncharted 2 ones weren't any better but they just felt less intrusive. The highlight of U3 for me so far is the Boat. A similar scene in Tombraider: Underworld (which, admittedly, did it first)now pales in contrast.

Oh fuck, they brought back the supernatural fights for a third time? Do they not learn? Have steamrolled throught the first two Uncharteds in about a week. I spent the whole tme scratching my head over why people liked Uncharted 1 (the only thing I can think of is that it is one of those early release platform games when there wasn't much worth getting that people latched onto). I finished it in less than a day and spent a lot of time trying to come up with reasons why it was good. Then I played Uncharted 2 and the difference between the two games is night and day. For what it is Uncharted 2 is a masterpiece. Pretty much everything was tweaked for the better, the shooting (although not perfect was a massive step up), the platforming (felt more fluid and there were definitely some influences from Assassin's Creed) and the setting (everything was more vibrant and varied). There was very much the feeling that I wasn't doing anything that was any different from anyone else but the sheer spectacle was enough. Uncharted 3 feels wonky so far, it isn't as buggy as Uncharted 1 but I got Drake stuck in the 'rotating jesus' position in the museum and I have had the title crash on me twice. The shooting has gone back to the crumminess of U1 and the platforming just doesn't seem to be as fluid as Uncharted 2. The puzzles, always the weakest point of the Uncharted series are abundant and worse. I don't enjoy hidden item searches and this game throws three of them at you in a short period of time. I am dragging my feet on this one but I should finish it by the end of the week. Overall, I wish I had just stuck with 2 and not bothered.

Agree about the whole thing seeming bland at first, that is why I am glad that OXM released those videos because now my interest is piqued and I will definitely be pre-ordering this. Along side Witcher 2 I am going to have no time for anything. As for Asura's Wrath it was alright, I played through the whole game and reviewed it on Arcadian Rhythms, I reckon that Giantbomb got a little too excited about it. For reference my review.

Trying to meet up with some friends in London to do a short podcast/vidcast for the buddy's site and we were trying to find a pub to meet up in London and chat. Looking for somewhere that isn't going to be completely mental in the area between Victoria and Paddignton (or anywhere centralish) that might be suitable for the occasion. If anyone can at least offer some suggestions it would be much appreciated.

That's been a massive help, combining the two posts we have settled on heading to Lancaster Gate as we can always do stuff in the park if the pub we select is too loud. Thanks a lot for taking the time to answer my post, I know it was a bit short notice.

Also just watched The Hunger Games, having just finished reading the book I have to say that they actually did the best job they could given that the book alludes to a lot while staying in a first person perspective. There were some nice inclusions from the beginning of the second novel and the cast were all good (although Woody Harrelson and Lenny Kravitz did not resemble the people in my head but that will happen). The lead from Winter's Bone and X-men: The first Class nails the main character's depth of emotion while still managing to keep a stern facade. My main complaint was the Batman fighting (even if it makes contextual sense) and the 12a rating. Not to sound like a gore monger but the books gave you a very real sense of brutality happening and in the film it is toned right back. Anyway as a person who thought the book was good but not the be-all end-all (a shit ton better than the awful Battle Royale book and manga) I would recommend the film to anyone who likes the book. However, for a film exploring the horrible concept of teens killing each other; Battle Royale is the better film.

So it looks like Idle Thumbs and Three moves ahead are teaming up. I have to say that since I rarely play strategy games I don't tend to listen to their podcast much but I make an effort because I like Rob Zachny and Julian Murdoch (who also appear on the gamers with jobs podcast). Good to see that the money is going towards these guys as they do make a genuine dent on my indifference towards RTS and the like. I almost started playing Men of War because of them.

Right I see what you mean about the MPAA: http://www.forbes.com/sites/rogerfriedman/2012/03/21/bully-doc-families-come-east-to-get-mpaa-rating-changed/ On the topic of ESRB I wouldn't start boycotting a video or video service site just because I had to enter my age. In a 'for the greater good' way I would rather spend 5 seconds entering my birthdate than have to order games from abroad like a few of my friends in Australia have had to do.

Sorry Rodi, was trying figure out where it should go and went with idle banter. If it is more suitable for the casts section then I am sure the helpful admin will move it there. I find it quite funny that there are other people like me who will listen to podcasts on topics they have almost no interest in just because the people talking about it are saying interesting things. I thought I was weird but if it is weird then at least I am not alone. We are only a few days away from the end of the kickstarter and I think that the guys have done a good job of trickling the info to the readers and keeping the frothing anticipation rising.

If anyone can explain to me why the ESRB is a bad thing. And debunk why it is tolerable in its enforcement of policies in constrast to USK (that heavily censors all content by law) or the Australian board (that refused to admit there was such a thing as 18 ratings and makes everyone edit their content, by law, to fit in with their draconian views that games are only for kids) then I won't bother to defend them. However, that games in America and most of Europe have not undergone the kind of censorship laws that Comics and Films suffered during their period as the enfant terrible of the media is something I am thankful for. Yes those age ratings are pointless and yes, they stop no one but I feel that the fact that the games industry is a least showing attempts to self regulate in the mainstream is good way to keep the old fuddy duddies away.

It is not going to be 500 pounds. Or at least the guys manufacturing it claim it isn't going to be. http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-03-15-neogeo-handheld-confirmed-500-price-tag-mooted

I was going to make this a separate post, but ended up just putting it here as it seems relevant: http://tap-repeatedly.com/2012/03/in-memoriam-ethan-finkbug-sicotte/ It is a weird thing to think that forums and communities get behind the death of another community member. I've never witnessed anything similar before, but then again I am a little removed from most of the communities I frequent. It made me a little morbid, only a bit mind because I am sort of on Cloud 9 about something else.

Thanks, this is the 3rd time we have been featured there. We got in for a piece I did on Passage, another that this guy Spann did on Tropico 1 and now this piece written by Walker (not idle thumbs' Nick or Dan). Pretty proud that we managed to do that, I've always wanted to have the chance to write for RPS but being linked is just as good - seeing as I almost never play PC games.

Oh dear, that is kind of sad. I thought that I was missing something in that regards as I don't really pay attention to stories in games all that much but it seems then that if you dig to deep then there are a lot of confusing issues.

That sounds pretty terrible, the only appeal of sitting through another snooze fest was to see what would happen next with the Shepard I have been carrying around on a Memory Unit since 2007-8 (seriously that Shepard has travelled with me across 3 continents). One of the guys on Arcadian Rhythms wrote a lengthy reason as to why he was no longer interested in ME3. Haven't paid only the minimal amount of attention to the plot is it true that the plot holes in ME2 are really that bad?