Irishjohn

True. I can't make out like I was particularly prescient; I just stay away from the hating mostly. Other than perhaps employing miniature one-man boycotts here and there.

Yet again, EA is the good guy... Suddenly I'm glad I didn't join in with the EA hating five years ago.

I think I need help. I can technically afford it, though I really shouldn't... I have a sudden compulsion to get the PSP Go this weekend. I used to have a PSP and traded it in because I never played it. But now I can see myself playing PS1 games ALL THE TIME, really, and what once looked so ugly and pointless now seems so... SHINY!!! I really need help. I am what is wrong with consumer culture today.

I remember my dad got me Riven when I was a teenager. He was so proud of the gift, after all he'd read about it. I never got into the game! I got stuck ridiculously early and never learned to love it. It LOOKED amazing though. And to be fair, it was a pretty cool present.

Hmmmm.... Looks... rad? Dang it, it looks like I'll be picking up a PSP in the next few months. I used to own one but I traded it in because I never used it. PSN is starting to make me change my mind. Suikoden on the go? Yes. If more awesomeness like this hits PSN (and I do hope the awesomeness promised by the quick look is there), I might have no choice.

I like your title for the thread, though.

I'm not finished the campaign yet but I agree, the whole relationship stuff was boring and has been done to death. I particularly like the significantly more terrifying impact of hunters in the game.

That sounds cool, I'll check out the thread. GTA multiplayer doesn't work with random Xbox people.

I absolutely loved L&D, and it got me right back into the original game. Even watching these trailers makes me want to go back and spend a little while driving around in the game world. This expansion is looking cool. I believe this is it? I'm kind of sad. Seeing as it will be many years before the next GTA I assume.

Yeah, I saw videos of the first Lost Planet and got ridiculously excited, then I played the first level and... I don't know, it never grabbed me for some reason. I have no doubt Lost Planet 2 will rock for those who liked the first game. It looks like they're bringing a lot of stuff forward without breaking the core ideas of the game. And I guess after RE:5 Capcom aren't afraid to rock it with the co-op. Was there co-op in the first game? I don't remember.

Ha ha, well the crucial difference here is the song list, I suppose... Things are getting a bit thin on the ground now. So in THAT respect it would be difficult to claim Guitar Hero 5 is better. If I was asked to recommend one of the two to somebody with a similar taste in music to mine I'd recommend 2 ahead of 5.

Well, it's definitely streets ahead of Guitar Hero 2, but I recognised a lot of the advances from Rock Band. Like I said before, these games mean less to me than they used to, and so for me the bigger issue is the lack of room for change at all. You can probably genuinely say that Guitar Hero 5 is a vast improvement if you're really into rhythm games and understand a lot of the nuances that are there in design. If, like me, you used to like hitting plastic keys in time with music and are apparently no longer bothered, there's not a whole lot going on that's different in any major way.

I'm pretty excited about this game, but it's probably going to have to wait a few weeks. My wallet and time aren't in a position to squeeze it in right now! I downloaded Paper Mario last year (the 64 game) on my Wii and it rocked my world. I have never touched a Mario RPG otherwise. This looks really good.

I grabbed Guitar Hero 5 the other day, and I've already returned it. I've heard so much good stuff about The Beatles: Rock Band, but I think I'm done with rhythm games in general. I'm off to play some ODST. There is nothing tired about that franchise/genre/fictional universe. AT ALL.

Whatever the reason, it is a good reason. I've heard a lot about this particular mod, I'd definitely be interested in finally giving it a go.

I too, have had this experience with Mount and Blade. I relegated it temporarily to "must play in future".... where it remains. Well, the future isn't here yet!

Yup, I agree fully with the time-consuming thing. I would have liked to have watched more often, but work and real life kept getting in the way! And fandom is a great word!

Yes, I'm definitely with you on the "fanbase" thing. The Giant Bomb dudes are running a cool site, but they're still just dudes. There are definitely users at Giantbomb.com that have this weird loyalty/cult thing going on. Jeff got screwed at Gamespot, and I don't use that site any more for that reason, but it was more to do with the gradual slide of the site than any kind of martyr complex around Gerstmann.

Ha, ha! Indeed. Now THAT would have been a party. I would probably still have been very entertained.

That site is groovy. Yup, the beauty of the game is that everything is done to such a consistently high standard.

I really liked the ending to Mass Effect. I thought it had a really cool space opera feel all the way through the last hour or so of the game. When that Faunts song kicks in with the end credits, well that was a really cool moment. I felt like I had just completed a very cool sci-fi action game. A lot of games just... end.

I get what you're saying; I did find that funny and it didn't really get old for me! Why hate Jeff Gerstmann though? I can understand being a bit nonplussed with people who use a picture of him as their profile pic on giantbomb, but he seems to just be a dude that likes video games.

I really enjoyed the Endurance Run, though my watching became erratic after about episode 90 or so. I liked it, but I like the Giant Bomb presentation in general.

I'm really interested in grabbing the game. I also like the way the game title is extremely friendly to alphabetically listed collections of games! Like the habit some people have of putting an 'aaa' in front of the name of the person whom they call most often on the phone.

Oh, no argument there! I wrote a paper a couple of years ago on the evolution of CRPGs and JRPGs. Actually, since I started playing D&D I've gained more perspective on video game role playing games.