BooDidley7

Here's 3 for the taking: 9JFA-NN32-VF27-Y4ZA KRWC-HRQM-DYV7-XCTU W2WX-QR4D-GVMX-VFWF You have to go here to redeem them: Blurthegame.com/beta Enjoy.

Haha, it's not terrible, it's just I don't see it as something most people would play for weeks. Maybe I'm wrong about the drifting, and finding the 'sweet spot' somehow makes it feel better, or there's some other tweeks they can make to weapons. Maybe suspend them for the first 1/2 lap or something. Or maybe start everyone with a shield slot in the bigger races, so you got a chance at some of the alternate paths and to get away from some of the pack, before there's 10 different random projectiles being fired in your direction. I don't know. Split/Second just looks comparatively awesome at this point. Too bad they're not doing an open beta, I'd really like to see how that plays.

After spending a couple of hours with the beta, I can't say I'm terribly impressed. I like the idea for the game, but in execution, it feels a bit haphazard. The cars don't seem to handle right (maybe I'm doing it wrong) but I could never get a feel for the drifting on corners. The powerups create total chaos, which is fun, but it sucks if you get caught in a situation with where you're in 5th and seem stuck in a tug of war between the guy in front of you and the guy behind you the entire race. I can't imagine ever doing a 20-car race and starting in the bottom 5 and having a realistic chance of reaching #1 because it seems like there's just too much to overcome. Unless there's some crazy computer assistance. The graphics didn't impress me. The cars look nice, but most of the tracks I saw seemed to lack any character and were visually somewhat barren. I do think it's nice touch you can actually dodge a red turtle shell, I mean shunt attack. I like the idea of 20 car races on paper, at least. And who doesn't love rolling starts? Not sure if I like the idea of CoDing this game with perks. Also the car classes seemed to get unbalanced as the cars that unlock appear to have overwhelmingly better stats, instead of just 'different' stats. The problem here is that it gives the players who get those cars first, an unfair advantage, and lets them level up faster. I do realize this a beta, but I can't imagine much can be tweaked at this point, other than car stats. I prefer arcade racers over snore sims, but I think I'll wait for Split/Second, to get my fix in 2010. That or Motorstorm 3.

Terry is pretty great. He takes a character (Locke) who can really be hard-nosed and naive and makes him sympathetic and likable. I really can't think of a show that's had a better cast from top to bottom. Helen also references Locke's father coming to the wedding. Unless that's a sick joke, it MIGHT suggest his paralysis occurred in another manner. Also, Jacob did revive him (or something, after he fell). Smoke monster seems to have a specific weakness for ash also... Yeah, they've been hinting at this for years. The Others were kidnapping people based on these lists, I'd guess also. Yeah. Mostly because Jacob looks more and more like a selfish SOB. As much as I like the show, I kinda wish someone would just say, "Stop and explain what's going on -- with words -- and not treks into the jungle or off of sea cliffs!" Sawyer I'm looking at you... Good guess. Probably, or maybe that he decided to take a permanent (or semi-perm) corporeal form? Might've been the best moment from last night's show! Lapidis summed it pretty well also. Yeah, is Austin significant or just a red herring? I hope there's some deeper explanation of the numbers, since their origin at least go back to the 70's (as printed on the hatch). Money's on Sun as Kwon, cause Jacob was at the wedding, and in alternate reality, I think you pointed out they weren't married. Although, it might be notable that all the other numbers above are definitely men... But as usual they left us with more questions than answers in classic Lost fashion. Which is fine for the time being, but I really hope there's some concrete stuff before this is over. Also going to episode 1 of this season, here's a side by side comparison of the flights (crash and non-crash): Most notable difference? Jack is sitting in a different seat.

You know what else we did in the old days? Put our quarters in a better game instead.

I wouldn't call it a good game either. Definitely not an 8.4. They quickly go from at attempt of telling a mature, psychological murder mystery to giant bugs, killer apartments, deathtrap rollercoasters and running alongside the wall of a building in -100 Fahrenheit while carrying a schoolgirl in a skirt, as helicopters launch rockets at you, with an ancient voodoo assassin and some physical embodiment of the internet also trying to kill you at the same time. Oh yeah, I think the main character is technically undead at that point, or something. This was entertaining on a laugh my ass off at the absurdity level, but probably not the developers intention. Now having seen the Heavy Rain demo in action, so far it feels almost comical having to go through button sequences just to climb a muddy hill or pass a dumpster. Walking with R2 is awkward. And for me at least, some of the characters look dead stuck in the uncanny valley, and at this level, when there's flawed facial animation, it makes it all the more distracting. I can probably get over it, but utter realism was supposed to be one the game's big selling points. I like the idea of the CSI elements, but maybe it's not the best choice to introduce it to us by having a character walk around at night in the rain with dark sunglasses and a powerglove. The acting is all over the place too. The old detective has gravity and believability, but the hooker sometimes sounds robotic. I do wonder if the implementation of the QTE events and interrogations presentation will one day be seen as groundbreaking or a misstep. I think the most unfortunate part I take away from the demo is that we really don't have the technology yet to fully realize the kind of intimate experience this game really wants to deliver, and we end up chained to QTE's and floating text.

IGN: Heavy Rain: 9.0 Presentation 8.5 Graphics 8.5 Sound 9.0 Gameplay 8.0 Lasting Appeal 9.0 OVERALL Indigo Prophecy: 9.0 Presentation 7.5 Graphics 9.0 Sound 8.5 Gameplay 8.0 Lasting Appeal 8.4 OVERALL http://ps2.ign.com/articles/652/652204p4.html Heavy Rain does indeed sound better, and I do applaud Quantic Dream for trying to do something unique. But I wouldn't be sold on the game just yet after seeing IGN's Indigo Prophecy review.

I gotta try this demo now. I played through Indigo Prophecy (Fahrenheit), and if I paid more than $10 I would've been pissed. Otherwise it's entertaining, but often for all the wrong reasons after the first hour or two. Essentially it tried to be all the things Heavy Rain is now claimed to be, a mature storyline with adult issues and presented accordingly, but it quickly collapsed into laughable absurdity. I really doubt Quantic Dream can make it through the entire game (Heavy Rain) without eventually hitting similar pitfalls.

I guess either you get it or you don't. I'm not gonna try to rationalize it. I miss old punk rock.

Anyone else catch it? This aired at the end of SNL and might be one my favorite SNL bits of all time: http://www.hulu.com/watch/126479/saturday-night-live-band-reunion-at-the-wedding#s-p2-sr-i1 I thought they sounded better than 'Them Crooked Vultures' who also performed on the show. But in defense of 'Them Crooked Vultures' the mics seemed a bit too low...

Yeah, I was just thinking that the other day as I went through some nsf's, Sunsoft really did have some great 8-bit soundtracks. Although technically Spy Hunter was originally a Bally Midway title in the arcades. Then Sunsoft seemed to slowly fade away. It'd be pretty awesome if Blaster Master ends up the equivalent of BC: Rearmed, but I'll wait for the reviews.

Flashback to the swinging 70's. Adult Daniel Farraday, a young Walter Bishop, and an even younger Desmond with electrodes plastered all over his body and singing 'Pop Goes the Weasel' over the hum of the electromagnets behind him that randomly spew electrical charges... SPOILER: Walter Bishop is really Jacob!

Yes exactly! Momentum. Every time the premiere started to build some, it cut away to the plane stuff.

I gotta say, I was really disappointed by last night's premiere. Lost usually has great season premieres and finales, but last night felt like a bit of a drag. To me it's possible that the alternate plane sequence and landing, may very well be ending of the show. I could be wrong. But to think everything over the last 5 seasons could be all for naught kinda rubs me the wrong way. If this is the case, the show might find a way to put this a greater context, and in sense itself it's kinda cool, but seeing how so many of these characters grew and evolved and then to lose it all, well, would feel pretty empty. The other theory is that Desmond is time traveling somehow, to achieve exactly what, I can't say at this point, but there's really no logical reason he should be on that plane, at least as a casual passenger, and probably wasn't. Don't get me wrong, I liked the scenes with Ben and Evil Locke. Jack, Sawyer, Kate, etc. were ok. But man, I really hated most of those airplane/airport scenes, if only because we've mostly already seen these sides of these characters in one way or another. Sure, some things have changed, Hugo and Shannon, Charlie, but the Kate fugitive stuff bored the hell out me. Although I do wonder, how did Hugo win the lotto, if the island was sunk, and the 'numbers' would've never existed... Unless it was a different lotto.

I thought FF VI did a great job of decentralizing the character leads and gave us time and a lot of little moments with a diverse cast of characters and story arcs, that weren't walking amalgamations of cliches.

Can Heavy Rain really be considered an RPG? I see it more like an Adventure game with QTE's. If it ends up anything like Indigo Prophecy/Fahrenheit's laughable mess, it would be gold to see all the fanboys reactions, who bought the hype that this was a real AAA game. It's not that I don't find the idea and aspirations behind the game worthwhile, but anyone who's played through Indigo Prophecy/Fahrenheit will probably understand what I'm getting at. As a result, I don't have much confidence that Cage can tell a mature story all the way through. I was kinda excited about FF 13 until those god-awful trailers, and what looks like the most unlikable and worst named cast in FF history. Lightning, Snow, and a boy named Hope? It doesn't appear they even have one worthwhile adult to balance out the cast. The awful English dub didn't help either. I haven't been this disenchanted with an original FF game since, well, forever.

Neither PS3 or 360 is a perfect solution. 360 online is $50/year, plenty of people use mics, usually has more online players than PS3, more in terms of cheap downloadable games content. PS3 online is free, interface is not nearly as refined or deep as 360, not a lot of mic use in just about every game, less downloadable content, offers Home (but who cares?). PS3 has built in WiFi, while 360 makes you shell out another $80-$100 for an adapter. You should consider what system you'd rather game with friends on as well, if online is big deal. Games. You should look for yourself to judge what exclusives you like. The general trend after 3 or 4 years is that when there's a PS3/360 game on both consoles, the 360 one is usually as good, if not better in terms of build. This may change, but hasn't yet. 360 is entering it's 5th year believe it or not, released in 2005. System build quality. 360's RROD is well documented. Is it an issue anymore for new systems? I'd hope not, but double check forums to see or maybe guys here know. PS3 on the other hand has been pretty solid, although, I had a firmware update break my system back in September and Sony told me it'd be $150 to fix. Fortunately I fixed it myself by rebuilding the database, a solution SONY SHOULD'VE suggested. Might not be an issue with newer systems, but Sony has so many slightly different iterations of PS3 now, that as a 60GB owner, I hold my breath when forced to update. PS3 is supposed to let you expand the HDD capacity by pretty much any plug-in USB memory device (or you can even swap out the HDD for any compatible replacement), while 360 is all special overpriced M$ drives. Probably not a huge deal unless you plan on filling over a 100+ GB's on the drive. For shooting/driving games, 360's triggers probably feel a little more natural for certain actions. PS3 games that put the trigger button on R1 feel fine, but some like GTA4 restrict you to using the mushy R2 to fire, which I don't like. But really as a choice, it probably comes down to what games you have to play and what games you can live with out.

I think there needs to be more time between films for a reboot. By 2012 it'll be 5 years since Spidey 3, and only 10 after Spidey 1. At least with Batman we were 16 years from the first and 8 years from the last (Batman and Robin), and we were all well divorced from the franchise before the reboot. It's way too early to start Spiderman again. Maybe at least 2015-2017 at the earliest...

Family Guy was once seemed pretty clever, but that was about 10 years ago. Now it's just dial an 80's reference. Maybe M$ has decided they don't need any more disasters like the vomit commercial for IE 8: Don't watch it if you can't handle vomit. Serious.

Well there is Powerstone 2... It's a bit different than 1, supporting 4 players at once, if you're not familiar. What's nice about it though, it makes a great party game, especially for casual people, as it's not as technical and as overwhelming as Smash Bros can be for people unfamiliar with it. It's got some excellent, highly involved, interactive stages as well. Powerstone 1 and 2 (with online matchmaking) should really get a XBL/PSN reissue.

Well for starters, the Saturn's surprise US launch was a failed sneak attack, that left the Saturn stranded with few titles for months and a compromised version of VF 1. It was also after the whole Sega CD/32x debacle was still fresh in everyone's mouth, so there were a lot of bad feelings about Sega blowing another console launch. With the exception of a few noted flaws, Sega got so much more right than wrong with the DC. It arguably still has the best group of games a system has ever launched with at day 1, with plenty more soon following. In fact, I think you'd be hard pressed to find a better lineup of overall titles of any console in its first 2 years. If you can't appreciate what the DC represents in terms of what I've and others have stated, you're probably too young to understand.

1) On 9/9/99 it was the best hardware. Sony had everyone believing that PS2 (which was still over a year away) was gonna be something that could do CGI quality graphics in real-time. Which isn't even anywhere near true by today's highest consumer standards. Now that the PS2's run is effectively over, only the best of the best, like MGS3 had graphics that looked comparatively better. Shenmue still looks pretty great and a lot of other DC games still look really good, they have aged a lot better than the blurry polys from the previous generation. Graphically the DC was more than capable to hang against the PS2. 2) For me, in a lot of ways, the DC is the last great gasp of the arcades. Some of Sega's (and others) finest arcade games from the mid to late 90's were on DC. You could get perfect, or near perfect arcade ports of Daytona, HotD2, VFtb3, Virtual On OT, Confidential Mission, Virtual Tennis, MVC, MVC2 (MVC2 was done on Sega Hardware in arcades), Powerstone 1 + 2, Rush 2049 etc. Sega was one of the best at creating arcade games when arcades hit their peek and slowly began to decline. It was about spectacular presentation, coupled with tight and engaging gameplay, that had to grab the audience in a matter of seconds. Now those games could finally come home fully intact (or practically). These were real arcade games, not like MOST of the home brewed crap on XBL, that nobody would waste more than a quarter on. 3)Already mentioned but DC beat PS2 to the market in the US by more than 13 months. 4)Its greatest weakness, not much in terms of RPG's, and lack of second analog stick made it not so great a choice for FPS's. But it had great games across pretty much every other genre, many of which were good enough to get ported to PS2/XB1, or in some cases PS3/360. 5)If Sega still knew how to make compelling games like they used to, they MIGHT be as big or bigger than EA or Activision/Blizzard today.

I think this was actually more like 9/7 or 9/8. I still remember playing FF8, waiting for midnight to come, so I could go pickup my DC. A great gaming week, indeed. Those were the days...

TC, I charge 10% for consulting fees. By reading this post you are agreeing to these terms. Most of these ideas speak for themselves. 1) Hide and go seek 2) Who wants to marry a hundred-aire? 3) The Raker: Bard Sidashe (Bard's only dream is to become the world's greatest raker, but first he must beat Cyrus McGuff, the town bully and two-time county raking champ) 4) SimBurgular 5) Lemonaide stand - The Game! 6) Small village Gynecologist 7) Small village Proctologist Eight) Billy Jaspers - Kid Arsonist! 9) Invasion of the Carnies! 10) Luther Irontongue - Medieval Tattoo Artist 11) Don't get me pregnant! - An after school videogame special 12) Get of my lawn! - A Crotchety Simulator (Play as the kids or the old coot) 13) Who cut the cheese? - A crime investigation game 14) Mudpie fight 15) Dare (you and your grade school buddies try to one up eachother with crazy dares and acts of vandalism) 16) Dig a hole to China - The Game 17) Pig-Racer! Eighteen) You ever see that episode of the Twilight Zone with the kid who can control reality with his mind and holds an entire town hostage? Yeah, something like that where you're a villager trying to survive. 19) Rosie O'Donnell moves in 20) No more Zombies! (please) 21) Baby Jessica - The Game!

May these words echo through the Ages. I hate how people seem increasingly conditioned to clamor for the opportunity to be ripped on DLC. Namco leaves your character grid in SC4 incomplete unless buy the unlock key for the character that shipped on the disk. It gets so much worse I'll never stop, so I'll stop here. On topic, I think there some great games this current generation, but at the same time, there are just so many titles that get lauded and are entirely mediocre (almost everything by Ubisoft for example) and it feels like there's just so much more soulless crap out there. There is something about a lot of "me too" 3-D games that just feels so blank and impersonal, whereas in 2D games I feel more connected to what's going on. Not that games like Fallout 3 and Mario Galaxy aren't drawing me into their worlds, but so many others just can't. I think in general the music of the old 8-bit and 16-bit and even some of the 32-bit stuff was better, because the tunes themselves had to be so much more memorable because they had less to work with and still found ways to be great. Part of the reason why they're so ripe for awesome remixing is because they're so simple yet so deep. Although, Daisuke Ishiwatari, Martin O'Donnell, and others have certainly given us some great stuff in recent years.