Korax

Thought I'd give the demo a try, and was pleased when right out of the gate, there was a nod to Psychonauts. The little squeaking dance that the guitarist was doing on the stage setting is the same dance one of the kids in Psychonauts does (unless it was a reference to an even earlier game that I don't know about). It sounds like they brought Raz's voice actor over, as well.

Yeah, Chloe's eyes are weirdly moist. I also think that some of the body proportions are a bit squished. It's almost as if they made a great model, decided it was too tall, and fixed it by reducing the "height" parameter without changing anything else.

I had an oddly positive experience with GameStop's pre-order bullshit. I went to pick up a copy of Odious Tea without having pre-ordered it. Either the guy wasn't paying attention to me or it was my lucky day, because he opened one of the drawers, pulled out a brand new, shrink-wrapped copy, and even gave me one of the Sgt. Johnson Firefight codes. I payed for the game and left, amazed that I spent so little time being hassled by a GameStop clerk. Also, Donk? DONK? I hear the sound of a million Star Wars fans crying out, only to be silenced by what I'm sure is your apathy.

Why am I up at this hour? Time to listen to the Thumbs while I drift off to sleep...

Oh, man, I completely forgot about that video! I love those guys!

Well, I just got this today, and what can I say? It's great. I think I'm about halfway through. I'm still having some of the same issues with the platforming, but everything else makes me quickly forget the occasional frustration. It's nice to see some non-jungle environments, too.

I think it depends on your allegiances.

What's wrong with this one? Do you mean to tell me that other countries don't encourage the slapping of Japs?

VtM: Bloodlines was neat, but it kind of discouraged social characters. There were all sorts of little things social character could do, but most of the story progression came down to killing dudes before they killed you. I had to exploit the weak AI during every boss fight just to keep playing, and never actually defeated the final boss, because surprise, surprise, temporary invisibility and a high subterfuge stat don't help one bit when you're locked in a 10'x30' room with something that kills you in three hits.

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Dead Space: Mandelbrot 2: Death Spiral. Coming soon from Visceral Games. "It's like Dead Space meets math meets Dead Space 2, with a little bit of Llamatron sprinkled on top!" - ign.com I usually listen at least twice, because I'm almost always doing something else as I'm listening, and sometimes miss things. I was listening again today and realized that nobody addressed the "turning off" of achievements in this thread. If you bring up the guide, go to the "Settings" tab, and select "Notifications," you can turn off all on-screen pop-ups. You'll still get the achievements, but they won't interrupt your gameplay in order to tell you that you got them. It also turns off message and friend notifications, though, so may be inconvenient if you want those.

I hated the points system for a long time, but I seem to have gotten used to it. I don't know what the points-to-pounds conversion is, but it's 80 points to a dollar over here. It's a quick mental conversion, as almost everything is a whole dollar amount, with a few 50-cent prices. There is still some aggravation, though, in the fact that points have to be purchased in weird amounts. Still, given the choice, I'd much rather have real money pricing, so a point to Sony for that one.

Took the words right out of my mouth. It looks like somebody went through a department store catalog and did a cut-and-paste of the clothing models.

Giant Bomb just put up a QL: http://www.giantbomb.com/quick-look-demons-souls/17-1485/ I have it queued for rental, but I'm more and more considering a purchase. It may be hard, but it seems to be more or less fair.

Not cold blood, exactly. At the beginning of the game, you're leaving the mine at the end of your shift, and see a guard abuse and eventually kill another miner. This, as opposed to all the other horrible crap the miners are put through, is the final straw, and you attack the guard.

I had the same reaction to the demo. It was kind of neat, but forgettable. The full game, however, is one of my favorites this year. The demo doesn't really give the best impression due to its closed-off nature.

I absolutely agree. The Survival Guide is amusing due to the serious way it treats zombie-self-defense, but in WWZ Brooks does a great job of telling the story of a worldwide zombie attack with "interviews" of prominent people post-attack. If you're forced to make the choice, WWZ should take it, easily.

If you scroll all the way down to the bottom of the group's main page, there's a link that says, "View current status of all members." It gives a nice list of members with status and current game right next to their avatars, and if any are joinable, a "Join" link, as well.

Oh, man. I didn't even make that connection. Awesome.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOHHH!!!

I know zombies are a bit played out, but The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks by Max Brooks just came out! Also, if you haven't read the original Zombie Survival Guide or World War Z, you're missing out on some great books.

I have heard many people refer to it as "Indiana Jones written by Joss Whedon." Usually those people also say that Fillion should play Drake in the event of a movie adaptation.

Amazing. I want all of those things. Love the Hellraiser.

I don't think there's any way that Volition couldn't know how ridiculous Red Faction is. Have you played the "Ultor Exposed" DLC for Saint's Row 2? You end up driving around with a character voiced by Tera Patrick, digging up nanite-mutilated corpses and avoiding Ultor forces that are chasing you down in prototype EDF APC's. When I heard about The Ripper, the game I was picturing was a futuristic third-person shooter wherein you play Jack Steel, bounty hunter. Some sort of mind-controlling alien parasite or possibly pod-person-like doppelganger race is overtaking the space-prostitute population, and you're the only one who can stop it. With your wrist-mounted chainsaws (or possibly a large, chain-broadsword), you must take back the space-red-light-district before humanity is lost forever.

Huh, I just now realized that. I actually don't remember getting any sort of message regarding sticks of any kind. I just thought the game was being a dick.