Shakesbeard

Haha oh geez that's great. Well put.

Oh snap, sick burn yo! I think I'm going to reserve comment for a later date when we get some footage of the game in action. It's interesting because at this point I feel like it's on a knife-edge in my mind, it could go in either direction but there's nothing in particular that has pushed it either way. I just finished playing through the first two games and they're still really enjoyable and the gameplay/story delivery holds up really well. In particular, I fucking loved standing around watching the Lynch-inspired "Address Unknown" and I hope the new game can flesh out its' world even nearly as well.

So we have the inventory system on the list of crummy Mass Effect stuff, I'd also add the lack of variety or interesting locales while exploring planets in the Mako, also the fact that systems would have one visitable planet and a few scannable ones always felt really gamey. Just mix it up a bit! Then we've got load times, the elevators in particular. Texture pop-in (product of the engine at the time) and some other stuff? I'm curious, what is everyone hoping to have fixed for ME2?

Very good, thanks for the heads up, I'll probably start playing today... Indeed the world is pretty big, but I'm doing it for IMMERSION, you just don't understand my superior method of playing.

That's fair, but I totally disagree. I mean, I don't own a PS3 so the choice was between Red Faction and Prototype and I ended up getting them both. Looking at them as only open-world games is pretty silly, Red faction has more of a Gears style camera and control system with a wide variety of weapons, engaging multiplayer and a really cool destruction mechanic. Prototype has more of a Prince of Persia/Spider-man third person camera, a huge focus on crazy transformation powers and ease of movement, and the gameplay is handled completely differently. Those are just surface differences (camera, controls, etc.) but the games are so completely different I'm honestly kinda shocked whenever someone complains about open world games being released in the same month or two. A good game is a good game regardless of how they choose to give you missions. Would you buy both games if Prototype was the same as it is now, only linear with a constant stream of missions? Where do you draw the line?

I'd buy as many as is reasonable for your particular situation. You're asking the wrong guy though, I have about fifteen scattered throughout my apartment, most of which are crammed full of DC goodness. If I was to be perfectly honest I would tell you to buy as many as possible, forgoing food for the joyous nourishment of days of Sega gone by...

Well, official VMU's have 200 blocks if I'm not mistaken, and off the top of my head Sonic Adventure uses between 15-20, Project Justice is like 5 or 6 blocks, Shenmue is 80 (!!) and Crazy Taxi/Skies of Arcadia are both around the 20-25 area. So even with just five games, you're already using 75% of your vmu. If you have more than five games you might want to think about getting more than one memory unit.

OA sounds pretty cool, thanks for that. I'm going to play on Hard this time around and I'm even considering placing some strict boundaries on my playstyle in order to give myself more of an "authentic" challenge. (For example - no fast traveling, which would place a lot more importance on strategy and planning ahead instead of jumping all over the map and ending up as a demigod with a million guns like my first game). I'm wondering less about which DLC to get (I plan on getting them all ) and more about when to get them. Like, Broken Steel I think changes the endgame, so should I get that before heading to the final climactic battle? Or is there stuff that I can access at any point in the game? There's so many options now like with Point Lookout, I don't know anything about what it contains, I'm just curious as to whether or not I should start a new game with it installed.

I really wish V.A.T.S had proper targeting for melee weapons, even though I'd probably treat it just like firearm combat (head,head,head,head,attack) it would be nice to have the option of disarming a supermutant with a slice to the arm and then following that up with a killing blow to the FACE. Any suggestions for a new playthrough? I've beaten the vanilla game on a friend's 360 using an explosives/small arms character and now that I have a copy of the game myself, I'd like to switch it up a bit. Is a smart/stealthy melee character feasible? How does the dlc factor into things? It's a little overwhelming and I'm not sure if I should get everything from the start, or wait and get everything after completing the main questline, or some crazy combination of the two.

Indeed. I've actually only played minimal amounts of BP over the last few months, Big Surf Island just sounds like a cool addition but I'll be waiting to get it once I manage to complete most of the game's regular content. Back to the subject of...uh...life, I've been shopping around for some motorcycle gear so that I'm ready for my mid-July training course and I've run into a bit of a snag. It's my head. It's massive. We're talking my dad's XL helmet barely going over the top of my head. Anyone know of any affordable venues through which I could obtain a comically large helmet in Canadiaville?

Oh snap I got totally owned! Thank you for showing me the error of my ways

Jake is the best, he and Vinny (of GiantBomb fame, who actually kinda has a similar voice...) are two of my favorite game podcast people for reasons that will remain a mystery. But to be honest, disembodied robot jerk voice is rising through the ranks fairly quickly...

Jumping on the naked play bandwagon, I'm at work but now I have something to look forward to when I get home!

Alright! I like where this is headed, good timing too, since I just completed my work contract and have a few days off before the next one picks up. Do you guys have Big Surf Island? I should probably pick that up...

Screw this guy, join me in raising funds to stick them in a room without doors or a pool without ladders!

This is really clever, nice job.

Luckily you'll only need batteries to play the goofy VMU minigames and use the VMU's seperately from the system, they work fine without them if you're just saving games and such. (I've been playing a lot of Dreamcast games recently, Power Stone, Rival Schools, Zero Gunner 2, Soul Calibur...so much fun)

I know right, look at these plebes, who let the rabble out of their hovels?

WHOA WHOA WHAT IS GOING ON IN THIS THREAD?

Damn, so close...

I think it just sounds ugly. Although to be fair I still cringe a little when people talk about playing dohda and wow and see-ess and god knows how many others. Oh well.

Stay classy, Idle Thumbs... It's Ghostbusters! There's no room for your pc/console silliness! Look how far we've come! <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reE95exnMAo&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reE95exnMAo&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

Hey Patters, hang in there buddy! I've been there. Do you have Burnout for the 360? If so, we should play online so that I can make terrible jokes and awkwardly try to cheer you up.

I've never had a 360 red ring, and I've been installing games to the hd like crazy in an effort to preserve my system, I'm wondering what your situation was before it crapped out. Did you notice anything strange beforehand? How long did you have your 360 for? (oh and if anyone has any questions about the 360 version, feel free to ask away.)

God? God is the guy you call when you want to a kraken. (2:08)