Salacious Snake

I love this game. It's super fun and totally mental. I don't know why you say this. That's not at all consistent with the reactions I've been seeing, namely Metal Gear fans (like myself) going apeshit for this game. Although my experience is mostly limited to the Something Awful forums. As a Metal Gear game, it's maybe not up to the highest standards of the series, nor is it the best Platinum brawler either. The unique blend of those two things is something really wonderful, though. It's a killer match. The writing is in the Metal Gear vein, full of heavy-handed moralizing, editorializing and sermonizing. (And ultimately not necessarily being coherent.) Looking at the text of your spoiler (which isn't really spoiling anything), I think you're giving regular Metal Gear too much credit. It's full of clumsy shit out of left field, and in my opinion, it routinely fails to back up its loftier theses. The style of gameplay is very appropriate for Metal Gear. If you look at the progression of the series, it's essentially an action figure simulator. Snake starts off simply in the MSX games (though he comes with an amazing suite of accessories from cardboard boxes to IR goggles to cigarettes), and gradually gains increasingly superfluous features as the series goes on. Initially he can punch shit, and by the second game, he can crouch and crawl through ducts. Before you know it, he's got the kung fu grip (CQC), can hang off of ledges (and do pull-ups), roll around in a barrel, play dead, slither around on his butt… the list goes on. It ends up being kind of absurd by the time you get to MGS4. You only need the barest subset of his features and accessories to progress. It's all there because it's fun in its own right and adds to immersion. Like, I can't imagine a predominantly first-person Metal Gear, simply because if you couldn't see your character doing all the cool stuff, then what would be the point of any of it? A "character action" game, like what Platinum is known for, is the mainstream genre that most shares this action figure ethos. And I have to say, this new Raiden figure has some sick-ass moves and weapons and stuff. The game is far from perfect; your point about how poorly it explains some of its key systems is so true. You can see a lot of spots where things might have been better had this incarnation of the game not been on such a tight schedule. But man, I'd much rather have this Revengeance than nothing. Even if it's not a great Metal Gear, it's a great tribute to Metal Gear. Also, the way the hard rock vocals kick in during the boss fights is so great. I'm always stoked to the max when that happens.

I'm sure you can still find a GX TV somewhere. http://www.retrothing.com/2009/06/samsung-tv-opens-its-doors-to-retro-gaming.html

I think I'll get a PS4. The main reason is that my PC (which I want to keep at a desk for stuff like SimCity) has western games covered, generally. The PS4 will probably be good for Japanese-developed stuff. That's all I've got, since the coming options (PS4, Xbox 420, whatever steamboxen type things show up) look like they're going to be so similar. I want to play games at 1080p on my TV, something that the PS3 promised and almost completely failed to deliver. I'm hoping it will at least do that much this time around.

Randy Pitchford told me to my face that Duke Nukem Forever was awesome. The implication was that he meant awesome in the sense of "very good."

I just watched the videos now. It's pretty funny… their casting of the PS1 and PS2 as wild success stories rings true, but spinning the PS3 as such a great thing seems ridiculous. They show Kutaragi taking the stage and all I can think about was what a boondoggle it seemed to be in the beginning.

They should bring back Polygon Man. Also, U R NOT E

I'm pretty sure I'll want to get one of the coming consoles, but I feel no particular pull in one direction or the other. It's weird. I'm trying to think of exclusive franchises that I care about, but nothing is really coming to mind. If Sony Liverpool were still around, I'd be stoked for a new Wipeout, but who knows what the future holds for those?

For more on the fucked up US Internet situation, I recommend this Bill Moyers interview with Susan Crawford, who is really smart and just awesome: link It'll make you mad about stuff. It touches on issues like what Luftmensch posted above.

call me

I interpreted montage guy in the same way as Chris. "Montage crew" totally meant montage editing team to me.

In this particular case, it kinda looks like the demo video wasn't even being rendered in realtime, so it's a bit like the "target renders" that everyone got mad about with the early PS3 demos (Motorstorm/Warhawk). Whether or not it's a dishonest practice, it's still disappointing to see the actual game being nowhere near as nice looking. That youtube video illustrates it pretty well. I get the whole "this is a work in progress thing," but that doesn't really cover it in this case. It's more like "This is what we wanted the game to look like."

Haha, I came here to post that.

If they were so concerned with slavishly reproducing elements of Aliens, I find it lame that they'd use trendy color grading. At least, the official screenshots make it all look super blue and orange. The movie had sort of a limited color palette with lots of red lights and fire in a steely environment, which created a similar effect, but in a far more natural way. I guess it's a silly thing to nitpick in such a trainwreck. At least it captures all the "epicness," according to that ign dot com review. Ugh. I hate it when the internet jumps all over people like game reviewers for having unpopular opinions, but "epicness" is a horrible thing to write. I feel dirty even with the scare quotes. Man, I really am a huge nitpicker this morning.

The original Xbox had pressure sensitive buttons. They dropped the feature for 360. Only game I can think of that used it was, erm, Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball.

I thought you meant Nick Breckon at first. I was wondering why it would be any of our business.

I've played a bit of Anarchy Reigns and I like it so far. I know a repetitive brawler type of thing is not going to be everyone's favorite, but the multiplayer is crazy. I like the sense of chaos, with seemingly random bullshit poppin' off everywhere (such as air strikes and runaway trucks). It's a bit like the stage shifts in Power Stone 2. I even kinda like the single player. I mean, it's boring, but in a way that I find relaxing. I like just sorta hanging out and exploring the maps while beating up whoever comes my way. It doesn't prepare you for the multiplayer at all, which is unfortunate. The best thing is the music, though. I'm listening to the soundtrack (available on Amazon and iTunes) right now. It's really weird and corny but it has a weird appeal; I guess that applies to the whole game for me.

The boomerang reminds me of the Nuon pad: (Apologies for the cell phone pic and dirty controller. It doesn't get a lot of use.)

That's a pretty terrific response to that article. I hope Beyoncé sees it, and not just the The Guardian piece.

That's a very cute cat. I went to the basketball recently. I snagged a few shots of the electric violinist half-time show. This new arena is pretty crazy.

Well, if you want something in the style of a JRPG, then Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden should be mentioned. Its vision of post-cyberpocalyptic Neo New York is… quite something.

I really need to go to Sleep No More. Everyone loves that thing.

Beneath a Steel Sky (it's free) Hell: A Cyberpunk Thriller (it's bad) Burn:Cycle (also bad) Actually, I bet there are a lot of FMV-laden CD-ROM games in the genre if we think hard enough. edit: This is a game that never came out called Black ICE\White Noise that was in development for the Jaguar CD. I think I have a couple of partially working builds of it.

The Knights of Bredon have guarded his true identity for centuries.

Ugh. Also, somehow I managed to get this far in life without knowing what Esquire was. I mean, I knew it was a magazine, but I had no idea beyond that.

This is super common and poisonous. Dissenters are labeled "shrill" or "strident," as if it's a crime to state an opinion with any strength or commitment. The privileged are accustomed to being handled with kid gloves.