BardicKnowledge

Done -- hope you guys do well! Edit: I will tweet you tomorrow after my latest blog post has had a chance to make the rounds.

MAG7 really stood out to me in this way when we heard the Megas live -- on the disc their mixing is pretty rad and you can clearly hear everything. In the hotel it was like some guitar with a dude screaming to backup our DRUM LEAD SOLO WAAAA! Seriously, those drums were super loud.

Orchestral music is awesome live -- you can physically feel the sound hit you in a way that is impossible to replicate on a home system.

Ever finish Golden Sun 2 by carrying over a GS1 save?

Mike, thought you'd enjoy seeing this if you haven't stumbled across it already -- geckoyamori's take on 8-bit BC2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNi-Bd8WbfA&feature=related Thanks to everyone over at Capcom for having the contest, and keeping the community involved with your projects!

New favorite character: Mu-12 (beat story mode to unlock). She's awesome.

This is what a good trailer for this type of film should do -- introduce the main players, and give us a hint at the big overarching plot without spoiling the whole thing. Looks great to me! When's the release date, and what's your method of distribution?

Happy birthday! Keep up the awesome videos

Yeah, people need to realize that this isn't setting out to be the next big thing. If you don't like Metroidvanias, this probably isn't for you. Also for the $15 price tag it's a lot more fun than I expected. Yeah, I was hoping to get Richter instead of Jonathan...but at least we're getting Maria! Hopefully they find a way to truly differentiate between Julius and Jonathan...

Best of luck to you, Wes!

First of all: Hard mode is hard. The puppet master boss is sick when he does >300 damage per capture. Shanoa could use another spell or two also -- I only have 2 weapons and 4 spells for her. If anyone is just picking this up, stay away from Jonathan and Charlotte unless you like to grind a LOT. Both of them are pretty terrible without having lots of things leveled up. Shanoa has the most mobility and can finish levels the fastest, while Soma and Alucard are the hardest hitting characters with no leveling at all. Alucard is probably the only char that can easily solo Hard Mode, as his mist makes him invulnerable to everything (including Puppet Master's warp).

I've now played the first five levels (haven't done the finale yet), here are my first impressions: First and foremost, this is not setting out to be the next great evolution of Castlevania, so if you want that you're out of luck. It is a great deal of fun if you can get past that though. My biggest issue with it is that the character balance is not very good. Soma and Alucard are the dominant solo players, while the Portrait cast gets left in the dust offensively...though apparently they're supposed to be good if you level all of their stuff. Takes too long for an arcade title though, so I will likely not be using them. Shanoa is inbetween -- she is easily the most mobile due to the Magnes power, but lacks some of the offense that Soma/Alucard do. Her glyph system appears to be limited to 3 or 4 extra spells, so unlike Charlotte what you see really is what you get. Finally, only Soma and Alucard (thus far) have found any new usable weapons. It would be nice to have small variations on things for the other three (I'm told Shanoa can find weapon glyphs from bosses, but it hasn't happened for me yet). I'm a diehard CV fan and this game ranks a B- from me. I love the idea of multiplayer Castlevania -- IGN's review said that the groundwork was set for a great followup title, and I agree wholeheartedly. Hopefully the next one is better, and hopefully Konami continues trying new things as this did turn out largely better than the reviewers have said.

Yeah, coming back with Vikings to get Colossi / Void Rays might not be a bad idea. Siege Tanks should be the defining moment though -- once you have them a bunch of missions will get a lot easier. Edit: I know Turrets hit colossi -- will air-air units hit them also? I actually don't know.

Agreed with everything in this post -- Order is easily the best of them thus far, AND the most changed since SOTN since you're relying on your magic meter with every attack. Admittedly, there is still a balance issue with traditional weapon glyphs at certain points in the game, but overall I'd say that it's pretty decent.

I have it for 360, hit me up (MasterTenor). Oh, and Makoto is sexy -- well worth the extra $8.

I think that you will have to use Psi Emitters to beat the last mission on Brutal for sure. Hope that you do well though! If you decide to use upgrades, post a list of what you take to get through things.

I thought that Braid's story was awesome -- you are the villain not the hero, but you're so obsessed with this girl that you don't realize it. If you're talking about the alternative ending with all the stars, I have heard that it was included as a warning against being obsessed...but I don't know if I buy into that as much. Totally agreed about AC though...except that the final statement from the "alien" is sweet and makes me want to know what happens in AC3 really bad.

Are you sure it's possible to beat the campaign on Brutal without any upgrades? The campaign may not be designed that way, you know.

For arcadey games I use my Madcatz SE Fightstick (360). For everything else I just use the 360 stock controller -- everyone complains about the dpad but really it's not that bad.

I honestly don't think the last mission on Brutal will be possible without Psi Emitters...

My current rig is having difficulty playing certain games because the cooling is inadequate for high-task gaming during the summer. This is only a big issue when I come back from a weekend away (when I shut my AC off, ambient temp in the house climbs to 85 F), but it's really annoying. Last time I looked into it (years ago) water-cooling was prohibitively expensive. Now it seems more of a standard. What price should I be looking at for a water cooled case to fix me up, and assuming that I know how to install things into a standard case, how difficult is it to figure out? I'm under the impression that adding one more standard fan probably isn't going to fix this unless I make my computer super-loud, which is the last thing I want to do...but let me know if I'm off base.

What really? What's your ID? I haven't played xbox for a few weeks and I don't see a message waiting for me.

Hit me up on IRC anytime Jhawk.

I went with ghosts also (mainly because I <3 nova), and I've gotta say that perma-cloaking is amazing. Also, I have finished the campaign as of 15 minutes ago -- the ending is amazing. If you don't think campaign is for you you're crazy...this is the easily the best single player mode of any RTS ever made. Speaking of which, once all 3 campaign chapters are released, someone needs to make a custom multiplayer mode where you get to choose all your research bonuses etc and then use them to fight other players. Obviously can't do it now because terran would be super OP, but a mode like that would be a ton of fun down the road.

That's awesome -- it's crazy that "future" dates are actually coming and passing us by and we still don't have super-fighting-robots, giant nuke-equipped mechs, or bionic commandos.