I-n-j-i-n

How is it even possible to 'grind CoD4' anyway? There's so many ways to play and the ebbs and flow in the game is unmatched as far as FPS games go (well, maybe except for Battlefield or Unreal Tournament or something). I played it at least for 50+ hours online time and it still feels very fresh. Then again, I never resort to one tactic ever. Onetime I'll camp and snipe, then next, run around with a heavy gun + extra armor, or next time I'll go on suicide bombing runs all the time. Then there's the fact that most maps feature at least four or five routes to fight in. There's so much more variety to it than any other FPS game I ever played. Those naturally averse to online FPS play won't understand that of course. I think Halo is still pretty fun but it is pretty basic in how people manipulate the respawns by moving to strategic parts of the map. To me, that's not cheating. It's just the way people figured out how the game works. It's very archetypal of FPS games but I still think it's done really well. I remember playing Goldeneye for long hours at a time if I'm playing with other people and yet objectively, Halo has way more options going for it. Also, special stipulation matches in Halo is just amazing if you can arrange it (basically like Smash Brothers. Special custom rules just makes Halo almost unbeatable in terms of all the wacky stuff you can do. It's like f'n Portal but with people manipulating the game unnaturally). I don't think people understand how fun it can be without being burnt by all the Halo junkies who slaughter people online all the time. People can bash Halo at the surface all they want, but I know they, for the most part, haven't bothered to delve into it on the first place.

I guess it depends on how much of a Halo fanatic you can be. I don't think they're worth it since they become free after 3 months. CoD4 ones, I probably have to have them now since they are apparently so well designed and basically guarantees another 25+ hours of online play time.

I'm planning to get both Ikaruga and the Call of Duty map pack soon. 800 points for Ikaruga is a highway robbery. $10 for such an ultimate version of the game. I'm so glad I didn't spend $50 for the Gamecube/Dreamcast versions.

Season started as 'meh' then 'lol' then 'WOW'. The creative staff is amazing for keeping up for so long. I hope they can at least do another 10 years before stopping. It'll be pretty sad to see South Park go once that happens.

I'm pretty sure 99.999% Japan isn't Akihabara, the Mecca of anime nerds everywhere.

The only times I 'buy on a whim' is when the games are $5 to $10 and have basically lost all market value. Suikoden 4 (the supposedly one of the worst Suikodens ever) and I'm having fun with it. Though I'm still bitter I paid full price for Suikoden 3, which has one of the most shallow and noneventful stories in RPG history. Then there's the cheapo Persona 3 edition that is coming out soon and Odin Sphere. Lots of cheap PS2 games without a lot of risk. Also, some purchases like Godhand actually turned out to be one of the best games of the year and IMO it even trumped Clover's other effort: Okami.

It's not a real future jump though. The plot probably advanced about a month at the most, if not shorter. Just a lot of brainwashing involved.

I think the mystery works for Geass personally. Hopefully they will get around to explaining all of it soon. Also, the Emperor seems apt to playing a lot of mind games with his son, so I think there's a lot of conspiracy going on beyond the Black Knights. I'm just glad to see that the staff working on Geass is willing to do all these radical ideas, throwing caution to the wind quite literally. I can acknowledge that some people won't like them and some will. I'm cautiously optimistic, but just about everything that director Taniguchi Goro works on ends up being fun to watch. I disagree with the OP. The OP was great IMO. The ED, though, was simply forgettable. The Ali Project (The first ED) was much better, even if musically it does sound...crazy. Yeah, I think they needed to show more of the oppressive side of it and it was pretty strange seeing Kallen like that. The most macho of women in the Geass world and to see her get subjugated. I know, that's why I quantified Geass' success almost with its infamy and criticisms just the same. I still think the show is finally a well deserved hit for Taniguchi Goro, though objectively, I thought Gun X Sword was the tighter-run ship, but that show never took off with the viewers. I know Geass could have catered more towards more conventional and better exposition and make it less open to criticism, but I think the way it divides the viewers (like the old Suzaku/Lelouch thing. I actually side with Suzaku, traitor or not) is one of the show's charms. I can fully accept people even hating the show. I just love that bold direction the show has, at least in how it's presented.

Too awesome, too difficult and too obscure for most. But I agree. Also Super Dodge Ball for the best sports game for NES (though most football junkies in the gaming world will say Tecmo Superbowl)

Call me crazy, but Sonic's shitty friends™ are basically cooler and more dynamic than Sonic is nowadays. It's just that they find ways to mess around with Sonic's premise.

I don't think Geass is psychological as it is philosophical. There are a lot of Macbethian themes in the show including a lot of Nordic references and lore. Then there's the distinct philosophical difference between LeLouch and Suzaku on how they're handling being taken over by a much superior empire. Also, Clamp only designed the clothing a bit it but the actual character designer did action anime works before that, and I think he knows how to do great looking designs without making it look super-shoujo (girls' anime) like Clamp always does. And isn't it THE hottest shit though? I think the astronomical download numbers and hype basically proves it (that and the ever present criticism for the show, which I think is basically overthinking the show as much mecha criticism is. Mecha is not supposed to be realistic to begin with..) As for the first episode, though the action was pretty cool, they never got around to explaining anything yet. Most likely, the next few episodes should show how LeLouch was captured and brainwashed.

Either the censorship situation is actually great like it apparently is in Canada or down the fucking drain and Nazi-wrangled like in Australia (at least with videogames) or even teased at a total ban of certain games like in China and a lot of European nations struggling with the idea of banning games even more than America is. That and it's somewhat unnerving that even in Japan, they were teasing around a very American-esque idea that games featuring little girl characters = pedophilia. If that kind of backlash goes back to Japan, I think that's troublesome. There's that big issue that was floating around concerning MPAA controlling every digital medium with a James Bond style explosion device (sarcasm, but is it really?) I wonder if it's an American thing for there to be monthly book banning considerations in schools. Some of the trashier reads that are basically novel-porn I can agree, but they sometimes aim to take off literary classics. In the radio front, there was that whole mess with Imus, Opie and Anthony and all the 'shock jocks' getting pulled for what they are supposed to do: Doing silly crap that isn't technically illegal or barely so, but not enough to try to totally squash the first amendment and to give fodder to the reasoning that Janet Jackson is the reason why the Superbowl was the catalyst for excessive censorship in media. For those radio cases, disciplinary action, I can understand. But grilling them in other media forms like it's some news to say 'outrageous' things when it's their job to do so, or to hold the slight racist twinge that most people in real life have anyway, to actually banning them from radio or even threatening legal action against them is just excessive. I think it was always popular to rage against books and certain types of movies except NC17 types of films and outrageous indy movies typically never make it to theaters. Also, books just has lost that cultural relevance with the younger audience like it used to 50, 60 years ago. TV as a medium, as censored as it often is, at least moved on to cater to the more complex tastes of teen audiences, not to say they don't pander a lot towards the 'totally stereotypical sex and violence' crowd. As for games, the only risqué game in the playstation era, I can really only remember Tomb Raider, Mortal Kombat and Fear Factor (that old lesbian action game series). I mean, having a female in the lead is just not a factor at all (yes, even voluptuous ones), violence should never have been an issue to begin with, and some premises will always get the criticism when it comes down to sexuality. I agree there's a lot of originality and deviant setups in games now, but I find it difficult to name many of them before 2000 or so. Back then, every FPS games had you as the hero. Now, you can play as the terrorists or Nazis all the time. Now being an actual bad guy who kills heroes is almost vogue rather than being a teasing anti-hero who is actually a total softie inside. I think it's all relative really. Videogames just are that much more relevant to our lives today than any single form of past media, so the criticism aimed at games have more in stake and it simply is just more relevant as a topic. It's just that I got burned out by the various entertainment industries basically trying to tweak the way people buy and enjoy things too much. I think some form of censorship is always necessary. Like, you should never have a game that goes out of its way to sponsor illegal activities directly (hence, why GTA and other games are so sensationalistic and/or comedic) or has real propaganda against America (like, Taliban sponsored) or anything like that. Like I said before, ESRB should basically be it. And maybe even a game developers' union that can counter something like the EA forcefully acquiring companies all the time or trampling on game developers' most basic rights as laborers. But if it goes to MPAA/FCC lengths, I think that's dangerously close to media fascism. PS- Though FCC touts itself as a Federalized group now, it started being a regulation group for radio and now it has a strangling hold on much of TV media and especially Radio. It'd be beyond terrible if the Federal government gets hold of games. It can only go down hill where some senators are actually horrified at the relatively tame combat sport like mixed martial arts (because Boxing isn't totally brutal too).

And I thought it was bad in Mario Kart DS, with the item spamming. POW block?

I wouldn't count a remake to be a real successor to Shining Force. It's like with Phantasy Star. They keep spinning off course instead of making true sequels. I know the first Shining Force on the market, but that's like saying Phantasy Star 1 is there when the best version, Phantasy Star 4 isn't there. I find it funny that most VC requests are like a cry for help for RPGs. I agree with Actraiser though. More relatively obscure games if possible. Actraiser 2, UN Squadron, Secret of Mana. I think I keep mentioning some games that are either already available for Japan or don't have that sequel tagged on.

I seriously doubt they'll add online play to older games. This is Nintendo, remember? I don't think the Wii has the infrastructure to support it either, compared to the 360 or even the PS3. I think they said the same of RPGs too, for some reason or the other. If it's at all possible, I wish they had Shining Force 1-3. Basically nobody seems to remember that series, not even Sega.

I really hope you're kidding.. Because there's so much recent furor over banning books from libraries (the typical sexual/violent content), schools wrangling over legalizing certain types of books, to Hollywood being rung by its MPAA standards (which is why so many conventional movie types are so heavily promoted while the more risque indy projects are still struggling and don't nearly get the same type of backing), to music being strictly controlled by corporations, etc etc. And don't even get me started on the Nazism of radio today, trying to flatten out alternating opinions and any type of edge. Yeah, Videogames do get the dose of criticism, but it's not as bad as some other medias are getting it as I see it. Except in the context of games having relatively realistic violence and serious plotlines and ability to show distinct sexuality (no, the extremely polygonal games of the 90's mostly don't count IMO) is becoming more evident since around the Playstation 2 era, so it still is a pretty new medium as far as how it's represented. Books and movies never had that type of transition period as apparently sudden as videogames did, it seems. Even in the PSX era, most games were the typical 'good beats evil' epics or were just simple adventure/action titles. Games, since the PS2 era or so, really has stepped up with the riskier game plotlines and more games lets you play the antagonist or an anti-hero nowadays. I think that specific aspect frightens some non-gamers. Not the 'Flame hero beating evil empires in Suikoden' of the past. I seriously doubt even the most ardent videogame haters are really looking at those types of old archetypes. I disagree actually. The industries are what's ailing the each media type. The more bureaucracy and control over things, the worse it gets. I hope videogaming, other than the standard ESRB, doesn't get wrangled in politics like all the other medias (especially movies and radio) has been. If anything, there should be less of a dog collar on various media.

Yeah, I guess it only becomes an issue when there's different types of parties there. I mean, a 12 year old did something that dire in that situation. What would happen if a pet killed someone if its master was being attacked? I'm sure that'll cause a lot more ruckus even if it may fall into the 'self defense' technicality. Then there are those cases where there are two distinct parties involved getting into a legal mess over it being self defense or plain murder.

For some reason, Army of Two has gotten a lot of funny press. EA making a game about tagteam skullfaced killers who fistpump and ride on eachothers' backs flying in parachutes. I don't think there needs to be a punchline.

That is technically wrong actually. If it's your own home and your own family you're defending, laws do support it as a form of self defense. Going by some simple semantics doesn't work. "technically" that isn't correct. It's only not self defense if your family member is in an illegal fight and not in an act of self defense. BTW, I almost ran across the same situation two months ago when I had to fend off a daybreak invaders with a few of my kitchen knives. I don't care what anybody says. If you are stupid enough to attack and/or invade, you deserve what's coming to you. That includes death. Really, I'd only worry about there being enough evidence for it to point towards self defense. In the end of the day, that's what matters. Good thing for the boy that the mother herself is the witness.

Everybody saw the ending coming 10 years ago. And yeah, that's a very sad plotline. Probably the saddest one in all FF7.

Nice article by Kotaku. They don't update often, but they sometimes have really great articles. I tried playing the actual game, and it's beyond terrible. As in that it's basically unplayable, and the plot is possibly the worst ever. It's probably much worse than any single game the Angry Videogame Nerd ever reviewed. He'll have fun with this one. What the hell is up with the great remixes anyway?

The only thing low budget about it was the lack of Hollywood talent. Actually, yeah. Olando Bloom still would be a perfect match since that's the type of role he always plays. And he's best when he keeps his mouth shut.

Site is still swamped. I never knew online April's Fools jokes are still this popular. Ha~Hi! That is the best sig ever.. PS- Just watched in Youtube instead and I thought it was actually pretty good. Link could've looked better, but the costume was spot on. Basically something geeks would go crazy over... like it has.

That would've been funnier if they incorporated more Assassin moves and plotline or something instead of just slapping on Altair-skin for Snake. Now I actually want a real Altair costume in MGS4.

The End was arguably the best game boss in history IMO. Stamina kill is really not a factor. As long as you fiddle around with the equipment, you should find out where he is at all times. Also, you can stamina-kill The End too. Just put spoiled and poisoned foods everywhere and he'll actually kill himself before you really do anything. The only annoying part is how you'd have to zone in and out constantly though. And the pixelations didn't help, though it was the best PS2 could do.