Necrotic

Missed some pretty big ones. "What is a man? A miserable little pile of secrets! But enough talk... Have at you!" -Dracula (Symphony of the Night) "Die, monster! You don't belong in this world!" -Richer Belmont (SotN)

It's fair to compare the PS3 and 360 I'd say. Same audience, same ability to run the same games, and hardware that aims for similar goals. The Wii sort of has to be seen in a sort of different light, but while it's not always possible to compare or contrast directly to the other two, it certainly has its strengths and weaknesses that can be put up against them. How much that affects the your opinion on it really depends on how you weigh either or I guess. I'm going to reinforce this post just by saying that everything Strike said is exactly what I was going to mention. Even down to the detail about Sony really seeming to try, which is true. Right now, I'm the happiest with my PS3, because of the features that are always trickling in and the future games look the most promising for me (MGS4, the RPG's due out later this year). The 360 has the most well-rounded package and is probably the safest investment, and really is ridiculously close in rank to the PS3 for me partly because Microsoft doesn't need to try, they've nailed a lot of stuff like the online, steady flow of good games, and marketplace. The Wii is a bit of a tragedy in that has much more potential than is being shown by either Nintendo OR third-party devs, but not to say I hate it, I just wish more was done with it. I enjoy my fair share of games on the Wii, but when you can count the number on one hand and it's been this long, you know there's a problem. At least the handhelds this generation don't suffer from anything negative except maybe DS online but its best games are singleplayer so who cares. Both handhelds are fantastic.

Just thought I should note that he's also well-read into comics so a lot of older stuff would probably have been known or already read by him. That's what makes this difficult. He has subscriptions that he gets every Wednesday or Thursday from the comic shop, I just don't know what they are so I don't want to get him the same ones. So standalone series/miniseries are good suggestions because they're more self-contained. Tradebacks are actually a good call also, and basically any recent comic which despite having the story known to you might be nice, isn't necessary to enjoy the comic or a certain number of comics in the series (that said I'll probably get him a bunch of comics.) Think if I phone the local comic shop they might tell me what series he's subscribed to? I might do that some time this week. Keep the suggestions coming!

I have a friend in the hospital right now. He has a hole in his lung for no apparent reason and that is apparently a life-threatening concern that he now has to deal with for some time. He's had to spend two weeks at the hospital so far to recover from a surgery. He has at least another two or three weeks of tests before he'll get released and that's being optimistic. I figured I'd do something nice and get him some stuff to take his mind the hospital because he's got absolutely nothing to do. He really likes comics. Many people at OCR like comics. But I don't really keep up with them. I was wondering if any of you guys might be able to take a few minutes out of your day to help me figure out what kind of comics would be good for him. Good candidates would be comics that came out in the last couple weeks (because I don't know what series he's been keeping up with), comics that aren't especially old (same reason, he might already have them), and ones that are especially awesome and/or hilarious (the Deadpool comics I've seen online come to mind.) If none of that's possible then I'll have to figure something else out.

Zed. Zee. Z. Whatever you want to call it, however you want to spell it, whatever you want it to look like, it's your friend, it's intuitive, and it rarely misses me a power slash. You should try using it more often if you don't already, or maybe you just need to find something to steady your wrist with. Sometimes I fumble up the circular motions, but I find half of the problem is my Wii sensor bar really acting up when I sit in certain ways and not the game itself. The game has actually recognized some pretty awkward looking circles as being what I intended them to be, though, which leaves me impressed. Sadly, I never had a chance to play Okami before the Wii version. But so far I'm left wanting to slap myself for never realizing how awesome of a game it is, and I'm telling everyone who has a PS2 or Wii that likes Zelda-style adventures to buy it. Especially now more than ever, since the Wii version is out and there's no excuse not to buy at least one of the two versions. I don't know which of the two has superior controls, I'm sure different people you talk to will have different opinions, but the whole painting with the Wii remote aspect has been a lot of fun for me.

As far as tech issues go, the hardware's pretty strong and the only thing that'll break it is a tiny cabinet that'll keep all the heat and dust concentrated in one place, but most computer hardware will break that way. Plus I doubt they'll go any further than the Dual Shock for new controllers so I'm sure you're good there. Hardware revisions on the other hand, that's all very confusing and what your opinion is on that, I won't really fault you for being skeptical about it, because that's a bit of a mess. My suggestion is, if you get one, have a good reason to. I have a 60GB with the PS2 hardware, and most of what I play on my PS3 is PS2 and PS1 games. That's not to say I never use the PS3 for PS3 stuff, but the two games I've been using it for basically comes down to Rock Band and the Metal Gear Online Beta, and one of those is a preorder bonus on top of that. There's other games I own and play, but they're either multiplatform or worth playing once. So, basically, what I'm trying to say is wait for something worthwhile like Metal Gear Solid 4 and Metal Gear Online to be released and you'll probably end up happy with your purchase (come to think of it Uncharted is a great game that I keep forgetting to buy, but rented once.)

Arsis is pretty damn amazing from a technical standpoint. Lately I've been listening to them nonstop. Also, there's nothing wrong with death growls. They're done like any other vocals, except that you have to train your vocal chords to distort your voice as you sing. Proper death growls require just as much vocal training as any other type of singing to not permanently injure your voice. Something technically difficult to accomplish and something that, when you listen to enough, you learn to appreciate.

rule of thumb if it can be done by someone, it can be undone by someone -- chances are the makers of the emulator would get wise and fix it if it was at all possible I'm not sure to what extent the game itself would be able to be designed to access a computer running an emulator, though. And it would be illegal to cause their computer to be destroyed or cause any sort of lasting presence that they don't agree to I'd wager. EDIT: also this

So apparently EB left a message on the phone about the preorder bonus, according to my mom. If my brother doesn't pick it up later today I'm going to head out tomorrow to pick it up. It'll be rad, and all of us who get our hands on the preorder should definitely try and play together.

The problem's not so much which version of the firmware that's on it that makes it crackable (that's not too difficult to fix), it's that you need to have to literally nab a battery from a PSP Fattie, hack it with what's called the Pandora's battery mod (involves cracking open the battery), put it in your slim, hack your slim to accept custom firmware, putting custom firmware on it (which involves multiple progressions, although that applies for the Fattie as well, it's still a time consumer), and from there you still can't get things like SNES emulation because the Slims don't accept 1.5 Homebrew. That's what Baha means by needing a Fattie to crack your Slim.

I think the controllers are part of it, but I think everyone's kind of lost sight about what this topic is about and are focusing too much on the controllers strengths and weaknesses themselves. The controllers would be useless without games, so let's take a look at what they're actually used for. It's my opinion that a good game should give you an idea of what it sets out to do, and from knowing this, you should be able to see what the developer was trying to accomplish with their control scheme. There are certain games where you absolutely must have options to accomplish what the game sets out to do. Good examples of this are fighting games and technical action games like DMC. The controls are quite complex, but too complex? I think the only way to justify saying they're too complex is if the controls failed to work right, but as people we learn to adapt to new conditions, and games like fighting games become a test of our ability to master timing and said conditions. If a fighting game's buttons did not work the same way every time, then I think that's something you could consider a failure and much to complex for any user to call usable. There are some games which are more leisurely. An RPG generally has an accept button, a back button, and a menu button. The rest is left up to the brain to crunch numbers in one's head and interact with the world at an easy pace. In this sense, the game is complex, but the complexity of the controller isn't even taken into account. It does not fail at what it sets out to do either. Ultimately, it's the developers decision as to the degree by which a complex controller can be simplified or utilized to its fullest, but the worst thing a developer can do is make something that either does not work, or is inconsistent to the point where the game cannot be mastered. Take for instance the GameCube controller. One might say the GameCube controller is excellent for fighting games while another may disagree, but consider that if the game is not designed around the specific strengths of the controller, the game becomes unenjoyable. In this sense, the person who says fighting games work on the GameCube probably played Soul Calibur, which is an excellent game because it's forgiving to use the analogue stick. If one were to play the Megaman games however, they'd quickly realize that the developers were not able to completely overcome those shortcomings and the games become uncomfortable to play on that system. And for one thing, having a tightly controllable game with two buttons and a D-pad doesn't necessarily make a game any easier or less frustrating, it just gives you less options to interface with it and conquer those problems. The cost of your own personal frustrations with the complexity of a controller may be worth the time of someone else to learn that controller, realizing that by learning they make the game easier for themselves. You don't really get that option with simple games. For some people though, that's more than enough.

Yeah, me and my brother (we've gone halfers on each) have all three consoles now. About Lost Odyssey, it's been quite some time since I've been infatuated with a game like Lost Odyssey to the point where I want to play it as much as I have. I haven't been this addicted to an RPG since I last played one from the SNES or PS One. Probably because it recalls so many of the rules that made those eras of games fun and addictive while practically perfecting the gameplay (between the battle front end and the stuff in the back like skill links and rings, it's like Swiss clock work.) It's beautiful and has a solid next-gen polish, although with some blemishes. Not to mention the emotional soundtrack which fits the game better than a glove. And some of the boss battles are actually challenging enough to die at least once. I'm impressed.

Me and my brother paid for most of it, but it still makes me laugh thinking about that single conversation that lead up to it. My best friend was sitting next to me at the time too and the expression on his face was, "Are you guys... is that even allowed? Isn't there some societal rule where you have to plan these things? Or something?" then the expression was "Fuck it, that's awesome."

It was about 5:30PM. We were eating dinner, me and my brother had a half-finished plate of spaghetti that, while delicious, we were just not feelin' last night. My dad comes over from the living room. Lost Odyssey is fucking fantastic by the way.

Pretty much everything I was going to say on the subject. Other than those 3 things (finger strength, left hand dexterity, sense of rhythm) though, I don't think Guitar Hero does much else for musicianship really. But I will say this: coordination. Between playing coordination-testing video games like Guitar Hero, various fighting games, and DMC-style action games, (as well as more recently a real guitar), my fingers are more comfortable moving by doing what I want them to do instead of them fumbling as if they have their own mind all the time, and this is especially true when you're dealing with things like hand-eye coordination or sound cues which triggers you to coordinate your actions more concisely which I used to have major problems with. In other words, to the original poster, I think your article has some merit based on the my skim over.

1. Fair enough. 2. And still only a 7? Where would you put Ninja Gaiden; its story, characterization, voice acting, and presentation are even worse by comparison I'd say, despite me being one of many who would put it among their favourite action games. 3. But not enough to justify his character? 4. Good to hear. 5. Okay, I can see that. 6. I'm sorry. 7. Hey, don't be so unfair. Actually, it probably will change, but I can't say whether that'll be positive or negative. 8. Well, calling DMC4 a 'fuck up' kind of puts it that way. 9. In retrospect, I apologize for being so damn cheesey. -Nick

Haha, don't tell me you were expecting a story from DMC? As far as I'm concerned, the game is about the action gameplay. As for Nero, I like him. His style of play is quite a bit different because of what the Devil Bringer gives him. Now, in fairness, I haven't played Dante yet because that comes later, but I'm assuming he's similar to the way he was in DMC3. If that's true, then I have nothing against Nero being in the game to mix things up. That's not to say you're not entitled to your opinion here, but I don't see any reason to be hatin' on Nero or calling him irrelevant. He's new, he has different abilities, he's fun to play. Now, I can't comment on the actual lack of Dante for most of the game cause even that would piss me off. I've heard that playing him on harder difficulties can make up for what little you play of him though. I'd say the main reason that DMC2 is an epic fuck up is because not only did Capcom not put the original director on the game, the gameplay was just not anywhere near as good as the original and especially not 3 and 4. And everything about it felt unfamiliar. I'm wondering if, by the end of the game, my opinion on DMC4 will change drastically (I'll be the first to admit nothing I say here really holds a lot of ground yet) but I see nothing so far that fucks the game up to those proportions. But if it frustrates you that much, I'm assuming you picked your name for a good reason.

I just got it yesterday, and I've barely run through it, but I like it a lot so far. Were you much of a DMC-style action game fan in the past? I'm aware of Dante having to go through much of the same stuff you play through as Nero and fighting the bosses 3 times, but that doesn't bother me, and personally I like the idea of having to try and defeat the bosses with Dante as well as Nero. But other than that, I haven't heard of any more of its shortcomings, so I'm curious to find out what you think. Also, if you end up telling me you played it on easy (like my friend), you're not entitled to your balls or opinion anymore.

hey atma sup go to the ETG site, there's a link "Chat with Admin" near the bottom of the menu, wait 5 minutes, someone will talk to you, then they'll generally unban you unless you were doing something wrong intentionally

Yes, what he said.^ If you're curious to try out Linux and never touched it before, you might be more interested in getting a full distro if you can, whatever it might be. Ubuntu (or the KDE alternative Kubuntu which I tend to prefer) is pretty easy to figure out so I suggest that but you have lots of options otherwise.

They're not really programs. They're distributions of Linux that are small and designed to run off of a CD. The idea of the ones that BlueMage listed above is that they're small enough to fit into the RAM and drain as little power as they can from your laptop, but powerful enough to have word processing, browsing, and IM capabilities, and stuff like that, plus more than likely the tools you need to perform some maintenance on your PC. And if you have a USB stick or a external USB hard drive you can save data from them, if you need to. Part of the reason this is good is that, if you can manage to get any version of Linux, whether it be a LiveCD or a real install, there's enough tools that you should be able to diagnose or even fix the problem with your hard drive (if you're lucky enough not to have a drive that's just completely gone bad) if you're experienced enough. Maybe you'll be able to find some tutorials or how tos to get you started. Seems like you don't have much to lose with tinkering if there's nothing you can do with that hard drive.

It's basically an .iso file you download and burn onto a disc. When you restart your computer and set the computer to boot from the CD-ROM drive, the disc loads up a temporary Linux desktop environment. When Ubuntu loads up, you can run the GParted program and partition your drive. Resize the drives you want to free up the extra space for, then create a new partition from that extra space. It's pretty simple. The LiveCD is basically used by people who don't want to keep Linux installed but might need some of its features, test Linux out, or use its recovery tools.

It's true. The fact that DMC is hard is why it gives you to the tools necessary to be good at it, it just takes a little bit of patience, and feels rewarding to kill enemies stylishly to get you more abilities to unlock. Really motivated me. Also, keep in mind that if you've been playing DMC3 and not DMC3: Special Edition that you're really punishing yourself. The Special Edition makes the game feels more complete, balances out some of the difficulty which makes the game feel a lot smoother, and gets rid of the god-awfully sadistic save system from the older games. From what I've read, the difficulty issues aren't so much a problem in DMC4. I wanted to pick it up today but I may have to wait 'til the end of the week.

There's a pretty good chance I'll get CoD4 soonish (as in within the next 2 months), and it'll be for either PC and PS3. I'm a huge fan of keyboard and mouse though, so I think it's practically already decided. Plus my PC can run is respectably as an added bonus. The only trouble is, my Windows is broken and I really can't be bothered to fix it right now so if I break down and buy it then I'll have it for PS3.

Oh, that's a good assessment. EA is just a terrible company with no way of protecting other companies and anything they touch is just shit right guys? I mean, I don't like EA, but for fuck's sakes.