Malaki-LEGEND.sys   Members

Casual and hardcore are just buzz words used by marketing and the gaming press to sell stuff. All that matters is that a game is fun. Whether that fun is achieved by playing Hexic or Gears of War is all up to the end user.

Don't forget to blow on your cartridges.

Argh! I don't know who I want to main. It's between Sakura, Ibuki, or Juri... Decisions, decisions. I'm so damned excited for next month.

I'm pretty sure that when they mention backwards compatibility(which it's purported to have), it ceases to be a reiteration on the same series. In short, this is new hardware. I can't say that I enjoy seeing Nintendo emulating Apple's reiterative style, but it's making money for them I guess and as I said before, this IS the generation of multiple hardware SKUs... On the subject of iPhone gaming, when the hell did anyone seriously start looking at this? Why are we still taking it seriously?

Yeah, but I thought he was of Indian descent.

Dudley's actually Indian.

Well if they're boasting about it having the same power as a Gamecube, then I think it's reasonable to think that they could easily implement both of those.

Well I actually restarted the game again when I was already 40 hours in, so I've logged in roughly 100 hours, not counting all the retries. The first 25 hours have plenty of exposition(and yet so much of it is rushed), then there's about 20 hours of nothing(although at least the missions and wandering around is fun), and then a rushed 10 hour finale. The least disappointing thing about the ending was listening to My Hands.

No, they call it lazy because it just sits around eating cheetos and watching TV while the other eye does all the work. Dude, I'm a lefty, and some developers won't even put southpaw controller configurations on their goddamn game control options! I mean seriously, I'll understand if it's "too hard" to allow mapping of the ABXY functions on the Dpad, but no southpaw control stick options? Give me a fucking break.

Well, I finally finished the game and I can say without a doubt that I'm pretty disappointed. There were instances where I cared about the characters and their struggle, and I thought the dialogue at many parts was interesting, however once the game jumped the shark towards the end of the second disc, it slowly started to go downhill from there until the spiraling pitfall that are chapters 12 and 13. Honestly, there were CG sequences where I had no idea what was going on or why I should care. It's disappointing because I know that the intention to craft a great narrative was there, but it seems that most of their resources were pooled into the tech. To the teams credit, the tech is wonderful and this game is easily one of if not the best looking game I've seen on this generation. That's the real sell: The game's production values are through the roof, save for a sloppy job of audio/video compression on the 360 version which was clearly the fault of SE, and not due to the limitations of the system itself. Aesthetically, I believe that this game is the culmination of what they've been going for since FFVII, and the battle system is wonderfully crafted and fun as all hell, however, those who like me are also looking for a compelling story should look elsewhere, as while the intent and beginnings are there, there's no real follow through. Gears of War is very cinematic, however it doesn't depend on a compelling narrative as much as it does the gameplay. Final Fantasy doesn't have that luxury. This is a series that thrives on narrative just as much as the gameplay, and that "Hollywood cinematic" style a compelling narrative does not make. Anyway, closing the book on this one.

I forget how... Just don't focus on the words.

I should probably point this out. Good news for the series. I hope they take what they've learned from FFXIII, streamline it, and apply it to any next games in the series. Thus far, this game is fantastic. Also, more multiplatform, but less rush jobs.

SPOILERS(I think)!: Lightning, Sazh, Vanille Relentless Assault Bully(or Evened Odds) Combat Clinic Tireless Charge I actually restarted the game and I'm back in Gran Pulse actually exploring instead of heading straight to Oerba. I can't say for sure this'll work well on his second form(that one was a total bitch), but I tried this formation out on his first form, and destroyed him in less than 5 or 6 minutes. Basically you want to debuff the hell out of him and buff yourself as much as possible. Does anyone which mark I have to go on in order to be able to ride chocobos? I'm dying for some mobility.

Can someone give me a good idea of how Sentinel works? I can't for the life of me figure out the differences between entrench and vendetta, or provoke and challenge.

The MAC address is unfortunately on the back of the console and in the dashboard under system settings... You should just be able to call up MS and give them your live handle/account info though.

The question we should be asking is this: Will it have the intended effect? I.E. Will it take away the market share that the Wii already has under its belt?

There are four kinds of people out there when it comes to entertainment: Critics, fanboys, trolls, and the general populace. Critics don't like anything that isn't the flavor of the week. Fanboys don't like anything that isn't in line with their exact perception of what something should be(which to me is beyond daft when talking about the Final Fantasy series, being that it thrives on being a different experience each time). Trolls are haters who subsist off raging over things you like. and in the immortal words of R. Kelly as portrayed by Dave Chappelle, "Haters wanna hate." The general populace is made up of people who look at something, take it for what it is, give it a shot, and then determine whether or not they think it's excellent or crap.

So I'm worried that the game's plot is more than a bit rushed. I just hit Chapter 12. Should this continue to worry me?

I honestly didn't have a problem with any of the characters, being that I see girls like Vanille around here all the time, and if you actually sit back and try to understand what's wrong with Hope as opposed to "Hurr! He cries too much!", he isn't that hard to appreciate as a character. Also, has anyone ever had that "how the hell did I get a 5 star rating!?" after a battle that seemed total shit? Been happening to me all the time. Also, thank you SE for the battle restart. This system is exactly what I was hoping it'd be.

Pfft! Try running blindly into an Adamantoise? NYYYYYYYYAAAAAAARRRGH

All the shotos have different movesets, frames, power, and balancing. Sakura hits a lot and is fast, but her zoning game isn't as good as say Ryu and her hits don't do a lot of damage, Ryu is all about the patience and execution, Akuma is nothing but power and moves, but if you break his defense he falls like a little puppy due to low HP, etc. Sure they all have a hadouken, shoryuken, and a tatsumakisempukyaku, but anyone who plays 'em and against 'em know they're not the same at all. Ryu - balance fighter Ken - speed fighter Sakura - trick fighter Akuma - overkill fighter Gouken - defense fighter Dan - lolfighter

So I just got to Gran Pulse. WHEEEE!!!

I should point out that once you get the ability to change all party members and use all classes with them, keeping them maxed out is gets much harder, being that the CP cost for even the lowest level ability for a totally new class hovers around 8k points minimum.

Heads up for anyone who is wondering why the hell they need the shitty monster components for upgrading equipment. They're needed to build up xp bonuses, whereas machine components offer lots of xp, but take away said bonuses. The best strategy is to use monster components to build up to a x2 bonus, then use machine parts sparingly after that. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Hakan scares the living crap out of me.