SoulChicken

"this high speed talk" "some of the most touching games ever made."

wierdo, that game plays just fine. Story's pretty subpar though.

I miss them : (

Getting close to the Gaynor Shock Effect 2 special, right?

I was wondering if the thumbs might do this for this year, mainly because the site looks so pretty. I'll have a little guess at the top picks Chris - Torchlight Jake - Uncharted 2 (only game played) Nick - Rogue Warrior Seriously though, this would be splendid!

I was just thinking about all this a bit more while procrastinating at work and I just thought to myself "Man, I love video games."

NOT CHEATING! I played this a lot like Dragon Age when I was heavy bioticing (a lot of pausing). Then after Virmire, my pistol was maxed out and I was a biotic with a gun, I was mainly shooting then firing off LIFT and SINGULARITY, playing it largely realtime. Apart from when I'm checking on the kids shield recharges are kicked off when they should be. It was awesome. The pistol is awesome. I am in some awe.

the two biotic missions are the hard hard ones when you are under 20. I left them until a lot later. Also you have experienced the setup of most every sidequest. I did the first two planets that weren't Noveria (hard), then I did a bunch of side missions. Also on the base approach, I always used the mako cannon from afar to take down the defences. With the turrets and big robot things, you're going to have to. Sounds like you aren't having a problem with the dudes outside though. Upping your armour and health early on helps a lot, leave off the sniper rifle talents for a few levels to funnel them into that. Otherwise you are a complete squishy. Don't be taking Liara with you either until you can hold your own, she is another squishy. Wrex and Garrus are great in this period, Ashley too. You can use Tali instead of Garrus for the electronics, she might look squishy but she gets mad good shields quickly if you use her talents correctly. Then load her up with a shotgun and boom. Seems like that sniper rifle is always involved somehow in people struggling.

For me gotd.cx is Half Life 2. No diggidy. All of you haters is krazy.

I don't know... right at the end you totally get called out on it, it kind of gets put center stage, it wouldn't matter if there wasn't a sequel but I think it sets things up for your choice of path to affect something in Mass Effect 2. I felt a little bad about the "judgement" I got but honestly I looked at how I had acted and they were pretty much spot on. Of course basing an entire galaxies perception on humans on my actions as a spectre is pretty ridiculous. Other than that it was only reflected in the extra dialogue options and that one mission you get when you get full paragon or renegade (not very interesting mission). The side missions where all shite though, which is a pretty big chunk of this game (where they werent in Dragon Age) and definitely the game's big flaw for me.

I just finished the game last night and the final acts of the game, from Virmire onwards, were absolutely fantastic. I was engaged by my character in a way I wasn't in Dragon Age. Dragon Age's immersion was not worse, just different, I felt attached to my cohorts in a more organic way than I was in Mass Effect. However I wasn't really attached to my wizard as a character in the story. I totally agree DanJW, the voice acting made a huge difference, particulary for FemShep. The actress who voiced her was fantastic, didn't miss a beat. I made a clear decision in my dialogue options and the FemShep perfectly conveyed my intention, so it became real in the game world. This never happened with DragonAge wizard. Up until Virmire, the story was alright but as soon as I rolled up to the camp there, things kicked off and I was sold. I remember Nick complaining the game was called Mass Effect but it was only really important to the inital text that came up at the beginning, saying humans found out about Mass Effect and then hung out with Aliens. But it turns out the whole plot is about that! About the last decision you make in the game: I was a renegade femshep and I loved it every step of the way! I went back and started a male paragon but just wasn't feeling it. Firstly the voice acting was no way near as good but also it felt like I was being a total pussy most of the time. I'm a bloody spectre! Great game, before Virmire I would have said it was a pretty good game and I am looking forward to Mass Effect 2 now.

Bloody acronyms. I thought "Why is he hating on Wind Waker out of nowhere" I enjoyed PoP2008 for an hour or so, then I realised the game was playing itself and became pretty certain that if I got up and made a sandwich, read the paper, eat the sandwich I made and then returned to my living room, my dude would be onto the next world he was going to repaint with moss and trees, happily jumping away. I became quite detached from the game and then just stopped playing it. I wasn't angry I had just become disinterested. one of the most inoffensive games ever. i was playing the Enya of video games.

This game scared the shit out of me I played it for half an hour and then uninstalled it for fear of having a heart attack. So ashamed.

What did you think of that game?

It's not grinding, I didn't grind once in that game. Pretty much all the battles happened as part of the story, maybe I got ambushed a couple of times travelling. I never went looking for battles solely to get more xp, which is necessary in a lot of RPGs, especially Japanese one. That's grinding. If the battle system was shit it wouldn't matter how good the story was but the battles become really fun. I started out on easy and by that time they had adjusted difficulty so it wasn't as brutal as Mr Breckon mentioned. It progressed brilliantly, once I remembered how to play this game, I felt more confident. I played on easy for my first two recruitment drives and then I bumped up the difficulty to normal all the way until the deep roads (my last pre-landsmeet quest). By that time I really had a grasp of the battle system and I had a broad arsenal of talents. Which made me feel pretty powerful. Especially with my wizard, this game did an amazing job of making the wizards feel powerful and useful, probably better than any other game I've played. At which point I did the unthinkable and bumped it up to hard! Fighting all the darkspawn at this point in the game was so enjoyable because I felt powerful and clever. I think the game does a great job of giving the player that sense of empowerment as they progress. I mention this because I was surprised how much I enjoyed the battle system, I paused a lot and it became really tactical. Also every battle felt like part of the plot and connected me more to my characters. I was so proud of them when they did their jobs well! I think the combat was a crucial part in building those relationships. If you don't like that kind of play, then that would feel like a grind but all that means is you dont like that kind of rpg combat. There was no grinding (in the RPG sense) in Dragon Age, which I think was pretty remarkable. I was not a big fan of rpg combat either going into the game but Dragon Age really did win me over in that respect. After I finished I went on to play Mass Effect, obviously choosing the Wizard (Adept). Its been funny because I've been playing it the same way I did Dragon Age, although I feel a lot less in total control. It's like I make suggestions to my party members, which is an interesting dynamic also. In that game you definitely can grind, a lot of the side missions are pretty similar and offer little narrative flow. but even in that game you don't really have to. If you don't like the combat you can play on easy and stick to the main planets and do just fine and dandy. I'm glad you liked Dragon Age Chris, I thought that it turned out that that original playthrough of the underclass Dwarf origin you talked about way back was alot more representative of the game than anything in the marketing. I did find that the gift giving part of it reminded me of Dead Or Alive Beach Volleyball.

I really just wanted to make the Rogue Warrior joke anyway.

I sorry!

I was fine with the graphics but after I finished the game I started playing Mass Effect and that made them look rubbish! I'm now pretty much playing Mass Effect like I played Dragon Age - I'm a mage (adept) and I'm constitently pausing and issuing instructions to my (fucking stupid in this game) team mates. I love both these games!

Shit this reminded me I don't own Vib Ribbon

I remember when I was living in England around the time of the PSX and getting a chip put in it so I could buy Japanese/US games. This was so I could get my hands on Tekken 3 Ridge Racer 4/Rage Racer Parasite Eve Parappa The Rapper FFVII Metal Gear Solid and a bunch of shitty japanese games. Importing these games made me feel so badass because back then things took soooo long to get released in the UK. It was really exciting going to that shop on the Tottenham Court Road to see what strange unknown overpriced games had shown up that week. Then giving HMV the finger as I walked past with my exclusive treats while the stupid gaijin flicked through yesterdays tired ol' games. A beautiful time of innocence where I wasn't completely saturated with information on what was coming out, working mainly off of what I had read in magazines. Good times, happy times. Nowadays, Demon Souls, a totally fucked port of Bayonetta, some train games and no doubt a zillion hentai games await your $$$. I did regain some of the magic when I ran down to Chinatown in NY after work the day I first read about Osu Tatake Ouendan to buy a copy. Oh and I bought a DS Lite that same day, which some places were selling before the official release date.

scrub!

My friend is working on this game and he is mad excited about it.

Yeah I'm going to play it on easy like I did with Fallout 3 and Mass Effect, I play games mostly for the story and rpg experience.

Oh man, those links are amazing. My retarded plagarist blog thanks you.

0d2SI1SCEck My dog is a wizard. This is clear from his white hair and also sometimes he stands on his rear legs and throws his arms about, which is clearly him casting spells. He is a pretty shitty wizard. This video features "The Wizard" by Chris Remo and I think it is a pretty interesting videophonic interpretation of the song. I wouldn't be surprised if, in addition to Diablo 3 and Trine, Chris was thinking of a wizard in dog form having a bit of a play with a toy, casting some spells and then eating some Mexican Corn when he was writing that anthem. Jude is a big fan of Idle Thumbs. He hates Peter Molyneux because of the whole dog thing in Fable 2. He growls whenever ever Nick Brekon spoke since about September. He initially liked Torchlight but now resents that the utility of the pet has put a lot of pressure on him because I question why he can't pop into town to run errands for me. Little fucknut. Okay I'll fess up, I made a dumb video of my asshole dog and need some music to put over it. I'd wanted to share The Wizard with my friends, none of whom play video games but all of whom are fans of my stupid dog. I am waiting with baited breath for one of them to watch it and ask me "Nicholas! I sense there is a world of delight and wonder behind that beautiful song about The Wizard! Can you take me there? Can you share the joy of video games with me?"