JonCole

Phaedrus' Street Crew
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Everything posted by JonCole

  1. Recently completed video games

    I played about 30 minutes of Ninja Gaiden Sigma Plus on the PlayStation Vita. It is Ninja Gaiden, so don't play it if you already played that game and/or don't love that kind of combat. They didn't really do anything to adapt it better to handheld. I'm done with it. Thank goodness I got it on PS+.
  2. Did I miss some explanation of Nick being back? He's been on for the last few episodes, but I don't seem to remember anyone saying something to the effect of "he's back, for good*!" Anyways, it's good to have him back though the dynamics of the Idle Thumbs conversations have changed and it's a little jarring for me.
  3. PS Vita

    I love how it seems like some of the best games for the platform are reasonably priced on the PS Store. It's just a shame that memory cards are so hideously expensive. It does prevent me from racking up too much of a backlog of games, though. Meh.
  4. Nintendo 3DS

    I really enjoyed Majora's Mask, but am I the only one who thought it was pretty hard with that time limit in place? I also didn't particularly love the puzzles that required you to get one thing done on day one, another done in the daytime of day two, and then something right at noon on day three. Just seemed a little too fussy for my tastes, but I guess if I just stopped being a completionist many of my Zelda problems would be solved as well.
  5. Link 2 The Past: 2 Past 2 Furious

    Very excited! I feel like I've been screaming for a 2D (polygonal is fine, and 3D elements in the platforming is also fine) Zelda since Phantom Hourglass, though I feel like the DS ones don't really count because of the reliance on touchscreen. Now Nintendo just needs to release a modern, 2D Metroid game and I'll be fully back in loving them forever territory.
  6. PS Vita

    Nope. Amazon Warehouse deals has had some seriously crazy deals on used stuff lately. If you're interested in similar deals, I'd keep an eye on the Warehouse Deals thread on Cheap Ass Gamer. Just this week I've gotten Mass Effect 3 Collectors Edition (New) for $19, Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Like New) with music CD for $23, and Killzone 2 (Like New) for $1.72. The "Acceptable" condition Vita I got had a slightly beat-up box and one point that was worn on the Vita near the power port that almost certainly was from the previous owner just missing the port every now and then. Very slick deal.
  7. PS Vita

    So, got my Vita yesterday and spent a little bit of time with it. The screen is great as everyone says, but the fact that it's OLED is readily apparent at every transition when the full black screen is ridiculously bright. Also, I'm not really sure how to comfortably hold the device; more than any other handheld, I feel like I'm using the super-not-ergonomic "claw grip". The OS is surprisingly touch-based. I kind of expected it to be a weird middle ground UI like that of the 3DS, where you really can and probably prefer using the physical controls and the touchscreen is just another option with situationally more precision. Not so with the Vita, which seems to make the physical controls all but defuct until you hop into a game. I like it. That said, I don't find the UI all that intuitive, the way you transition between apps is a little odd and doesn't map 1:1 with any other touchscreen OS I can think of. Not anything I can't get used to, obviously. Started playing Ninja Gaiden Sigma Plus this morning... it's Ninja Gaiden. I imagine it's not the best way to start off with the system, but it's one of the biggest (storage-wise) games I have in my PSV backlog so I figured I'd go with it first. The graphics are pretty remarkable for a handheld device, I can only imagine this thing being really impressive when devs gets particularly ambitious and have a bit more experience with the platform. The controls are very nice - I'm kind of glad that there seem to be no first-person shooter games that are universally agreed upon to be good for the platform - it's almost the only application where I feel like the precision needed would outstrip the tiny control mechanisms. I'm eager to check out Guacamelee for this reason, seeing as miffy said that the controls were a bit of a problem for him. Anyways, just had a few hours with it but I'm feeling no regret whatsoever buying it. Well, except now I want to buy PSV games. Persona 4 Golden just went up for $30 on Amazon and I feel like I'm dying not buying it. Seriously, I have no need for another RPG in my backlog.
  8. PS Vita

    I'm just concerned about the Vita end of the cross-buy being an afterthought, but if the game doesn't really feel like it (since it seems like the actual hardware is the only problem, from what you said) then I won't mind picking it up.
  9. PS Vita

    Is Guacamelee good on Vita rather than PS3? Most of the reviews I've read were of people playing it on there, but my backlog is big enough that I wouldn't want to add that to it. PS+ has a discount on it but I think it's only for a week.
  10. PS Vita

    Welp, Amazon deal killed me. Got a Vita 3G/Wi-Fi with a 8GB memory card for $130. Simply could not resist at that price. Luckily I have a backlog of games from PS+ that means I won't spend any more hard earned money on that platform for the foreseeable future.
  11. PS Vita

    I feel like I'm almost surely going to get one of these once Spelunky hits. I love that game on my Xbox, I feel like it'd be the perfect game to have at all times whether its to do a few runs on my lunch break, play while watching TV, or whatever. Plus, I've seen them regularly popping up for $150 on Amazon and Cowboom so it seems like a no-brainer. Biggest cost will be the stupid memory card.
  12. Pokémon X and Y

    Now that I think about it, Frieza and Cell are like exactly the same as far as their forms go. Weird.
  13. (IGN.com)

    I guess re: the Retronauts thing, I should post that there's a Kickstarter for a revival of Retronauts as an independent entity from any other organization. It really flew under my radar for a while until one of my friends in the press happened to mention it - http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2005831476/revive-retronauts-your-favorite-classic-gaming-pod Rewards look fairly similar to what we got with the Idle Thumbs kickstarter, I'm either going to throw in just a little bit as a show of support or $50 to get that sweet T-shirt.
  14. Ouya: Ooooh Yeah!

    Yeah, I'm a little wary about giving a single shit about reviews for products like Ouya at this stage in their retail schedules. From the very beginning, the Ouya devs said that the product released to Kickstarter backers would be pre-final release. Some products like for instance the Able Kone III (a cone-shaped coffee brewing system that fits into a Chemex) use Kickstarter as a preorder system; the day the item ships to backers is the same day that the item is available for purchase. If me, someone who often doesn't care about Kickstarter, could buy a Ouya from Amazon right now I'd care about The Verge's review. I feel like product reviews are supposed to provide insight into product purchases. I can't buy an Ouya, so a review is pointless. Especially in this case, when most of the knocks against the device are software-related. I'd be living in a fantasy dreamland if I assumed they'd all be fixed at the time of retail release, but it still does the product and consumer a great disservice to put out a review based on things that could almost certainly change at the time of release. This is part of my problem with early SimCity reviews that plastered "REVIEW" on the headline rather than something like "REVIEW IN PROGRESS". If you give something a really high score and I pick it up only to find out that it's broke as shit, your review is a total failure for me. This example is a bit more distant from a hardware review because a game like SimCity can be regarded for artistic merits as well as mechanical merits, but I feel like my point stands.
  15. Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain

    I really liked MGS2, but maybe that's because I wasn't really a PlayStation owner in the normal cycle until the PS3. I played MGS2 first on the original Xbox, then I played MGS1 briefly on a PS2 and didn't take to it much. I eventually played through MGS1 on Gamecube via Twin Snakes, but I still liked 2 more. Man, I could go for a hell of a lot more Metal Gear Acid.
  16. BioShock Infinite

    I thought the incidental Elizabeth stuff was generally well done, except the fact that it'd bust right in the middle of a voxaphone playing. I also wish that they could chain Elizabeth giving you stuff with using the skyhook, mostly because there were far too many times where Elizabeth shouts that she has ammo or something for me just as I'm jumping up and then I inevitably run out of ammo/salts or die seconds later. If jumping on the lines could also trigger a cool automatic catch of those pickups mid-leap, that'd solve another niggling problem I had.
  17. Sportsfriends!

    Watching the Giant Bomb guys play Hokra during their GDC livestream, that game looks incredible. It just continues to remind me that I really need to get a group of friends that's up for playing games on the couch.
  18. Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain

    Fair point, but my wordplay hinged on the band being called Garbage and therefore the possibility that I would call this trailer garbage. Also, I can both know who Garbage is and believe that not many people know who Garbage is (which I do in fact believe).
  19. Games giveaway

    Oh, it's awesome. Gets you walking around and forces you to meet with other gamers in your community for ridiculous group field trips for hours and hours to capture enemy portals. Best execution of a game of this nature that I've seen personally, just wish it was a little easier to explain.
  20. Games giveaway

    I have an invite to Ingress, a GPS/ARG game from Google that you can play on Android phones - Anyways, if anyone is interested (for real, I only have one invite and these are kinda hard to come by) and is interested in joining the Green/Enlightened team, hit me up.
  21. Recently completed video games

    Well, rewarding a "perfect" alignment seems far from ideal as it is. I'm not really sure how I feel about completely filling a blue or red bar and that dictating my fate. I feel like if morality has to continue being a theme in games, it should be the combination of several points of data rather than how far you're slid down a continuum scale.
  22. Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain

    Yeah, Joystiq got the same message on it being two games. Interesting. I don't really know why either of you thought that my comment suggested I don't know who Garbage is. I'm fully aware of them so I don't need an excuse. I was going for wordplay, not ignorance. I wouldn't count on it!
  23. Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain

    It's appropriate that a band called Garbage played over that trailer. What the fuck is with that flying fire whale? Also, why are Phantom Snake and Ekans Motnahp riding a horse? Also, why everything.
  24. Recently completed video games

    Re: incentivizing the middle ground I find it fascinating that games with morality systems that basically make anything less than 100% good or bad worthless often get mods on PC that essentially bring value to that middle road through as little as a different ending cinematic/text or full gameplay sections that mirror differences in gameplay based on being good or bad. I remember at least in the case of KOTOR and Fallout 3, there was clearly some interest in playing the the morality system since there were literally fans out there that would develop some kind of reward for being the (appropriately) Han Salo-esque Scoundrel in KOTOR that mostly cares for opportunity and momentum rather than being "good" or "bad".