Avatar of Justice

What's been entertaining is that these guys have been pessimists about their project all along. I think testing wrapped up a lot quicker than they expected. Hopefully that's ok.

Why are these guys bothering to release on the Genesis? Why not release on a more profitable platform that is still cheap to develop for (PC)? I don't know what the quality of the games are, but this strikes me as highly gimmicky. If they are trying to make money, they are hurting themselves, and if they want as many people to see their art as possible, they are still hurting themselves. I'm all for retro gaming, but you didn't see Capcom release Mega Man 9 on the NES.

I got the headbanger challenge. Was honestly easier than I expected. I had the most trouble out of Hornet Man's stage because you can take some hits from those stupid scissors towards the end. I need to beat the game with Protoman, and I'll be done with this game until they release the hard and super hard modes.

Well I went ahead and bought a 72-pin connector replacement instead of the kit. It was only $10 and totally worth it for a new one. I've had to use my game genie a lot to keep the NES working and its just been a total PITA. Yay can't wait for it to work well again! Also got Mega Man 2, 3, and 4 on the way.

My NES is fairly flaky these days. I have heard that repair kits such as this can fix it right up. http://www.nintendorepairshop.com/nes_repairguide.htm Anyone have experience with these repair kits? Do they actually work?

I'm confused as to why Starcraft II has to worry about piracy. I thought the main draw was the online multiplayer which pretty much negates piracy for anyone seriously interested in the game.

I could care less whether the game is a direct sequel to SOTN or not. They've already released games that play like it with the Sorrow games and Portrait of Ruin. Hell, I think PoR is BETTER than SoTN as it is harder with the same style of gameplay. So all it is story and Castlevania ain't exactly Dostoevsky. I'd actually prefer a Castlevania III remake at this point. As for the alternate gameplay modes, the Richter or Julius modes to me give you the ability to play the more classic CV experience. I haven't beaten SoTN's Richter mode, but I did finish Aria and Dawn's Julius mode. I should go back and beat Richter mode in PoR sometime. I liked the 2 character system in PoR. It didn't make the game really different but was neat.

You guys are wrong, it is Gundam SEED. OH MY GOD. Gundam 00 is so badass. I don't think any other anime's ever get my heart racing like a Gundam does. They have the best intros ever.

I finally beat Wily. I was trying to avoid using E-Tanks, ended up using the two e-tanks I bothered to pick up over to course of the game. Didn't buy anything from that stupid shop. I think if I could get through Wily's 1st form without getting hit (which I occasionally do), I could deal with the 2nd form as I finally got the timing down for dodging the stupid fire. The attack where Wily's 3rd form fires 4 purple balls is what I can't figure out how to 100% avoid. Now, I'm working on the "Trusty Sidearm" (Mega Buster kills on the Robot Masters) challenge, as that's just fun. The boss fights are super cheap if you use special weapons correctly which I did, as on my first run-through I refused to kill a boss without the proper special weapon and kept doing trail-and-error until I figured out the boss order. After that will try to kill all the bosses without my helmet. That seems pretty hard since you must get through their stage without dying and you take more damage but doable. Once I do that, I'm done with this game, unless I decide to buy the Hard mode DLC assuming it comes out for the PS3. EDIT: So apparently by not buying anything from the shop, I basically played as Proto Man without his benefits/penalties. I was told the shop was there to mitigate the old school difficulty for people new to the franchise which is why I avoided it.

I think people don't consider Nintendo offering hardcore games unless it is a Zelda game with characters like this HARDCORE!

Is Nintendo really targeting the old DS gamer at this point though? The current market for the DS Lite is probably getting pretty saturated. Time to grow the market to include the people who wouldn't just buy a gaming device, but would buy a camera/mp3 player/game machine. If a parent next Christmas chooses to buy a DSi for their child who isn't really into games (yet) instead of a camera OR iPod, that's a victory for Nintendo. "Well little Sarah doesn't really like games, but this thing is a pretty good deal. I'll get this DSi for her along with a game or two and she'll be pretty happy since it has a camera and can play Hannah Montana songs." Here's a question. Are the old DS lites leaving the market once the DSi is fully released? That would suck ass.

Well, here's an academic (not a PhD but an academic at heart). Let's argue.

To me, there are several kinds of art. For the sake of my argument, I will cite two. First, there is art that comes together in a consistent, cohesive whole that has nothing extraneous and only beauty. Second, would be anything that touches you emotionally. They aren't mutually exclusive. For me, a video game that qualifies on the first criteria would be Shadow of the Colossus, an oft-cited arty game. There is definitely emotion involved, but what I like about it is how its music, gameplay, and subdued storyline come together to make a game where I can't point at anything in it and say "that shouldn't have been there." A game that qualifies on the second level for me would be Final Fantasy X, a game which moved me, but may well not have moved you. It's form is not necessarily perfect, but I was still touched by it.

Why is it a "recipe for disaster"? I managed to get through all of college without any credit card at all and only recently got one in order to build credit. I used a check card in place of a credit card for 4 years (should've gotten a credit card to build credit, I know). I charge only 30% of the limit each month and immediately pay it off, as I have no real need of the card. If I actually need money, that's why I have a savings account laying around that can keep me alive for 6 months in case of a job loss. I'm not saying a credit card isn't helpful in emergencies, but it isn't the only way. There are interest free ways (hell money in a savings account will earn you a miniscule amount of interest) directly under your control. Unless you are able to get a few credit cards with high limits, having a bunch of credit cards to match what you could gain with a savings account doesn't seem to have a point to me.

Um....MMMZ 2 through 4 went back to the stage select. I've been working on beating that series (borrowed all 4 from a friend), and I've found it enjoyable. The story throughout the series isn't half bad as they obviously thought up a lot of it before the first game was done. I played ZX for a few minutes and found it fun. I'm going to get to it at some point.

I assume part of the reason the stats were reset was because of things like the #1 player being someone who I've never even seen on the server and who hasn't played enough again to be back to #1 or in the top 50. If this stat reset thing is periodic, I think that's cool. It's a fresh start for everyone to start competing again if they care about points.

This is why current game reviews suck dick. Quantitatively breaking everything down ensures gaming will never get the criticism (like literary criticism) that it so desperately needs if it is to ever be a true art form.

Alltalk's a mixed bag. The conversations can be funny, but the other day my team wasn't saying much, while the other team kept bragging about their kills and it was just annoying. Is there a way to call a vote for it? Also, something I've been wondering. Are the admin powers (map changing and the like) just handed out at Bahamut's personal discretion or do all reserve slot folks have those? If not, who are the admins exactly?

If all that DLC is for real, one could argue you are actually getting a good deal. If you're me, you don't give a shit about any of that stuff except maybe the Protoman download. I get exactly what content I want, instead of being charged the entire price for a bunch of crap I don't care about. Sort of the same reason I wish I could get ala carte television programming. Remember, we used to pay $50-60 for a full Mega Man game. $12 for a Mega Man game with Protoman is a bargain.

I wasn't a fan of the original show (never saw it). I went into the movie with low expectations. What I got was a good movie. The directing was interesting, the story got my attention, and the visuals were great. I have no complaints with this movie, which is why I got the Blu-Ray this week when it came out.

I miss the days of Toonami and Gundam Wing. A lot of guys my age I know that are into anime were seriously introduced to anime through Gundam Wing. But instead of showing Gundam SEED during a daily afternoon timeslot, they showed it at 10:30 PM on a Saturday.

Keep crits. Valve put it in, I want the Team Fortress 2 experience as defined by Valve.

Wish I could play more during the day. I had the day off today and had a blast with the day/non-US timezone crew. Brushfire's arena commentary owns (except when he's tired).

I'm reading Red Mars right now, and these pictures help me better visualize how crazy red things probably would be to people colonizing Mars. Thanks!

I mean, DRM sucks. But if we must deal with it, I'd rather deal with Steam's. The only problem I see with Steam is how when the Steam server go down in the future, you will be screwed out of your copy. But the EA scheme is equally bad. I want to be able to play any game I buy FOREVER. On an unrelated note, why do people consider having to have the CD inserted into the drive a burden? It's no worse than a console, and when I was a big PC gamer 5 or 6 years ago, I never even thought to be annoyed by it.