Triad Orion

Disgaea 2's the better gameplay experience, IMO. Though the characters might not be quite as good, the polish that 2 received really makes it a game that's easier to sit down and play for longer periods of time. That's not to say Disgaea: Hour/Afternoon of Darkness isn't fun. I love that game to death; I just happen to like 2 more.

The random element for the stickers is a pain in the ass. Too many of them and simply for not enough gain. I didn't mind the collection element of the Trophies so much because those are much more worthwhile; they're shinier, and they have entries about their importance in Nintendo history, which can be kinda cool. Granted, they have no impact on gameplay and are merely extra cheese on a loaded, delicious pizza.

I know I've hardly played recently, so my vote really doesn't matter much, but I say keep it banned. It's a pretty shitty thing to do. Yeah, you can circumvent it with good teamwork, but it's just not cool. It breaks the spirit of the game, IMO.

And so, Atmuh did conquer the universe with his army of warmongering Glitches. And it was good.

Well, to be fair, there are a lot of people with that kind of reviewing style out there. Most of them aren't published, and more importantly, virtually none of them possess the sharp wit that Yahtzee does. If he wasn't funny, he'd be out of a job because he'd be pissing everyone off. Anyway, I watch his reviews for the humor. Sometimes he has astute observations (a number of them on JPRGs, who may be easy targets, but whatever), but his tastes in games differ so much from mine that taking a recommendation or a down-turn from him comes with a grain of salt. *Shrugs* That said, this week's was quite funny, actually. I've never played EVE, but I've heard stories of people dual or triple-boxing to make money and attempt to dominate like that. Yeah. No thanks.

God. Dammit. I really liked this guy, and I admit the thought of him dying crossed my mind a few weeks back. It just sucks, is all. He had a genuinely awesome and identifiable voice, and it's going to suck not hearing it anymore.

I second Ace Combat 5. It's a bit peacenik-y and so forth, but it definitely warrants a play. (I personally love the game.) You don't get better than Ace Combat for arcade-dogfighting games. If you want to avoid the ham-handedness of Ace Combat 5's anti-war message, start with Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies. It sounds more like you're a professional military pilot and its messages are separate from the flight. That's a really good game too, and is worth your time. The good news about both titles is they're Greatest Hits titles, so you can get them for cheap. I also second MGS3, but try to get Subsistence rather than just Snake Eater. I heard Subsistence is a better game for what improvements are made.

He was already forced to review Peggle, which he made abundantly clear in said review. Escapist probably DOES force him to review some games. From what I gather, they help pay for his video games, especially for reviewing purposes. Escapist probably nudges him in various directions on reviewing, but I have no idea just how much if any pull they have over him right now. Considering ZP is pretty much the only thing Escapist has going for it, I'm pretty sure it'd be wiser to let the man have his freedom.

This may be one of the older posts in the thread, but I've only just now gotten around to peeking back in. ...Jam, I can safely say you spoke for me too here. Well said.

I dunno, while the ending may have been short, a lot of Zelda games share that fate. And I dare say the finale after the last boss was just... brilliant. I loved Wind Waker. I loved its style and its graphics. They were offputting at first, but once I saw it in motion, I knew it was great. Hell, even your enemies emoted very well. I never, in any other Zelda game, found mashing a moblin's face in with a boomerang MORE entertaining.

I apologize for the double-post, but considering the length of time that's passed, I feel it's warranted. A gameplay video for Chop Til You Drop has been released at Leipzig GC 08: http://wii.ign.com/dor/objects/14267382/dead-rising/videos/deadrising_gc082008_wii.html The video is taken from the beta version of the game that was used to give the early screenshots. Capcom has stated that this early build does not hold nearly as many zombies as the final one will. The good news is the game looks pretty smooth all things considered and aiming looks relatively intuitive. The Resident Evil 4 Wii Engine really shows through in the video. More good news comes from that there seems to be at least a handful of new enemies. The bad news is it seems like the emphasis has been shifted back toward guns considerably more than the original. The GameSpot preview indicates that there will be separate inventory slots just for guns. I just hope that melee viability is still possible given this change. Several melee weapons have been cut too. We knew this from before, but GameSpot is reiterating it, so it's probably a noticeable change. The only real gripe I have about the graphics are the shadows in the game. We expected significant graphical downgrade, but the black blobs beneath people as shadows wore thin in the N64 era. It just looks cheesy considering the rest of the game looks okay, relatively speaking. I'm confident now that Dead Rising can work functionally on the Wii, but I remain cautious on whether the game will be as morbidly fun as its 360 counterpart.

These broken records really make me wonder just how much more we can push the limits of human strength, endurance, dexterity, and speed. It's extremely amazing to watch in action, but I think it's even more difficult to fathom people going *faster* than that. And I guess that's the real thrill of the Olympics. Seeing them try! XD

God. Damn. XD I suck at this game. I didn't get very far at all before I got confounded. I guess this is why I majored in history and not engineering, physics, or mathematics.

Also thirded. Hell, mine has to put up with enough abuse when I get pissed at it because I suck at Dracula X Chronicles. Thank goodness swearing doesn't damage the PSP. It's about the only thing that doesn't nick the screen if you're careless with it. XD

I'd rather watch in Arenas anyway. I have this nasty tendency toward the status known as "Death." It doesn't really help one's team in that kind of mode. XD

Yeah, this is pretty much the case with China. It's rather barbaric. Considering our Olympians are strictly volunteers, we do really well for ourselves. And also, yes. Australia's been kicking some ass this year. I was actually shocked to see them lose to the US in women's water polo. Considering the Australians had a winning record against the US and I think are considered the better team, to see the US win was a surprise. ...Though they did blow a three goal lead in one quarter, despite it.

Actually, Tartakovsky created Dexter's Lab and Samurai Jack. He wasn't the creator of the Powerpuff Girls, though he did work on the show. Also, that Clone Wars cartoon was kick-ass. Anyway, I want Lucas to stay the hell out of movies, especially if he makes a new trilogy. If they make the Thrawn Trilogy into movies, they need to have someone else actually do the work. You know, someone who doesn't throw CGI at everything and expect it to fix writing issues.

BE WARNED. LONG POST IS LONG. Some of these titles aren't bad. The biggest problem across the board among a lot of the titles I've played are the physics tend to be way off for a Sonic game. That probably has more to do with Multimedia Fusion than anything else, but a lot of games need to retool the air-physics to be a little more loose rather than having Sonic maneuver like a concrete block whenever he goes airborne. Though largely, I had fun playing around with these games, it has to be said. I'd like to hear everyone else's opinions too, considering I'm about to spout a very long post of mine. Mecha Madness has potential, but it seems to be pretty mired in bad level design as far as I've played. Areas where you have to repeat portions of the level if you fall, especially in a game with the aforementioned concrete block physics, are a big no-no in a Sonic title. Plus, the basic foes having so much health so early in the game feels weird, though it can work to your advantage if you can cluster them together and beat the snot out of all of them at once. Also, get some better music. While I appreciate Rize's Rude Awakening OC Remix as the menu music (Big Castlevania fan), it's not really appropriate for a Sonic game, nor is the stage music for most of what's here. Angel Island's music seems to fade away before long, and that really doesn't do wonders for presentation. Moreover, it uses those damn Sonic Advance sprites. Personally, I hate those sprites, though the design choice is probably to mitigate lots of spriting work to make Sonic look like he's fighting properly. That much is understandable, I guess. Still, I think custom sprites would suit the game better considering its engine is trying to be unique as well. Sonic Rebirth is a neat concept, but it would definitely be better if the music wasn't low-quality MIDIs that put you to sleep. The physics need work here too. Still, kinda fun and reasonably polished and the graphics are pretty nice. Use of different Sonic sprites than from the games is a bonus, too. Sonic Fusion was meh. Very good speed comparatively speaking, but poor airborne physics make this speed a hindrance when trying to do anything complex. Common enemies that inexplicably take more than one hit to do in really hold it back, especially with the rooms that force you to fight them before you can go anywhere. This was a contentious point in Sonic Rush. It didn't work well there, and it certainly doesn't work in a fangame. And again, the Sonic Advance sprites were used, and I am still not a fan of that. Customs or older Sonic sprites would work better, in my opinion. Right now, Emerald Ties feels closest to a complete game out of the lot of them. Decent physics, good (largely custom/modified Sonic 3) graphics and level design, and a coherent (if a bit out-of-character) story. I like the particle effects and the little touches like the flames left behind when Sonic's running at top speed. The new shield type is actually fun and intuitive. The returning elemental shields work just like they did in Sonic 3 and feel quite at home. I haven't played beyond the second zone, but my chief complaints come from the Boss Battle in zone 1 being really dark for no reason and the inexplicable just... movement of Robotnik into a place where you can hit him. That boss fight doesn't feel polished and detracts from an otherwise excellent fangame. On another note, the physics could stand to be loosened in the air just a tad, but Emerald Ties has far better physics than most other demos there. If you go to SAGE, play this game. The one exception would be Sonic: Fated Hour. This game feels a lot like a tech demo (which it is, really), but there's a lot of raw potential there. The physics engine is actually excellent, it's the fastest fangame out there, and the sprites are bright, colorful, and animate well. This one feels really close to the mark for mechanics. The level design is pretty good, minus the part where you have to climb up a shaft with collapsing bridges. The game isn't *quite* polished enough yet to sell me on that as a wise design. The idea of skill loadouts seems to be taken from Secret Rings, but it actually looks interesting, and the sets do in fact play differently. All of the mechanics aren't in place yet, so there's more waiting to see a finished product. The other critique I have is that the level itself looks rather plain, even if Sonic looks good. There's not a lot going on with it and it doesn't really feel like it changes much. Some foreground scenery would really help break it up. I dunno, this may be the one to watch in the long run. I believe it's this game that's been in development for ten years, which I guess makes it the Duke Nukem of Sonic fangames, but if the project actually gets done, this may be one of the definitive fan titles for Sonic.

Nah, it's really just more of Valve's shoddy patch-work showing again. Don't get me wrong, Valve's a good company and makes some great games, but damned if their TF2 patches actually work more than half the time. Any new content patches typically create a gaggle of new gremlins. Granted, usually only for a little while, but I'm surprised they rushed this out the door instead of fixing it first. But what do I know? Anyway, I'm interested in these Heavy updates. The sandvich sounds fun, but is sacrificing the shotgun really worth it? I know the shotgun's not a great weapon, but it really helps the Heavy in the rare situations that Sasha isn't appropriate. XD Oh well. Experimentation will be the word of the day. Also? This will be a sublime time to play Medic.

Normally I'm not one to really complain about biases in judging but some of this does seem a little fishy this year. I'm with Arek in that there does seem to be some anti-American bias, especially after Nastia Liukin lost the gold on what amounts to mere technicalities to a Chinese gymnast. I'm sorry, but I simply smell a rat here.

I wouldn't be so negative on that. If you're dealing with an otherwise logical individual, you can end up opening their eyes further to greater understanding. If you're dealing with someone who refuses to be logical over such an ultimately trivial matter, you probably have better people you can deal with. I catch flak from some of my friends initially when I tell them the majority of the music I listen to is instrumental game music or remixed game music. Usually then I express my opinion that most pop music is dreck and the songs are always about either love or other inane, cliche topic. While I certainly have no problem with love, I get really sick hearing about it lyrically all the goddamn time. Usually expressing that sort of opinion opens the door to further discourse and normally leads to acceptance.

Congratulations on another year. Hope you continue to do well in your health. Don't give your friends another scare, huh?

I heard this song mixed into the Otakon 2008 medley video, and I'm glad I did. It's a great piece of work, fluid, vibrant, and full of energy. I'm sorry I missed this earlier, but this is an awesome mix that deserves to be pointed out yet again.

Yeah, personally I liked the game. It's like DragonAvenger said, it's a good way to show the song breakdown and the extremely basic assembly of parts into a finished remix. And really, that gave me a better idea of how a lot of remixes are constructed. It does give some basic understanding, and I actually found it pretty informative considering I really didn't have the slightest clue how everything was tied together.

It's funny because it's true! ....That's also why it's sad.