Evilhead

FYI, that is the NEW Maria. The original Maria was a little cute anime girl from Rondo of Blood. She is made of kittycats and win. I do like the newer, older SoTN Maria better, but it seems like they will be going back to the originals this time around. And Alucard has always looked like a girl.

Castlevania is one of my favorite game series of all time and I love 3D fighters so I'm not getting my hopes up but I'd like to give it a try. Still, Konami doesn't have a history of making good fighters, so unless they get some kind of good development team in there it's probably going to be a sub-par engine, though I thought the fighting system in the PS2 Castlevanias weren't half bad. Although the fact that it's coming out for the Wii pretty much guarantees it's going to be shallow and annoying. It will probably be a generic Soul Calibur ripoff with lots of remote wagglin'. God the Wii is retarded... But still, I'd like to give it a shot, but I won't be buying a Wii for it, that's for damn sure. Here's hoping for Maria as a playable character though!

Wow, I can't believe people are still whining about their barbs getting nerfed. I played D2 for a long time, and the patches kept things fresh and exciting. Plus they addd alll kinds of new content with each patch. You missed a lot. By the time a certain build was played out and common Blizzard mixed it up to make things exciting. I always got bored with played the typical strong builds anwyay. After some patches it took some real skill to win a duel with a necro or some other builds of classes, but that what made it fun. I had a charged boltress who absolutely killed in duels, but later on I was playing hardcore exclusively so I didn't duel too often for that reason. Anyway, I am so fucking stoked for this game to come out. I'm going to get it the first possible second I can, and I know it's going to own my life for a while. But I don't care! I've been waiting for this game for years now.

Best deal in this thread by far. Damn! For me probably getting a complete Japanese Famicom for about $2.50 at a recycle shop. Already had a nice toploader but it's still good to have the original system. Finding a seller at a flea market or junk shop that don't know the market value of old Famicom games is also great. For instance, getting Ice Climber for $4 when it usually goes for about $40 in a lot of shops. Personally I hate spending more than $15 or so on old Famicom games, but some of them are crazy expensive. $200-$400 for some of the rarer boxed games. My holy grail would be to find the original Castlevania for less than $20. Most of the time it goes for at least $100, even for a loose cart...

Deerhoof is an American indie rock band with a Japanese girl singing for them... Not really the same as an all Japanese band from Japan. Anyway, this whole argument can be had over bands from lots of countries... It's really a matter of exposure and how the record industry works.

Yeah, I came across that game in the same way... Probably because it was such a weird title. But it turned out to be a fantastic game! It was actually released in English as Little Samson, and is one of the best sleeper hits/underrated NES games out there. A bit of a Megaman clone but you can play as four different characters who have different strengths and weaknesses. Great level design too. Definitely worth checking out for platformer fans. As for my avatar I chose it because I love Castlevania and the ghost is one of the coolest looking enemies from the game. Plus I made and submitted this avatar! Didn't realize there were so many new avatars... You guys have been hard at work!

If you're serious about learning instrument, taking lessons is the best way. Not only do you have someone teaching you how to play, but it forces you to practice more than you usually do and play stuff that is new to you. A lot of players fall into the habit of playing stuff they are familliar with instead of breaking new ground. Having a teacher assures you that this won't happen. But if money is an issue that might be difficult. Luckily playing bass is very easy. Playing bass WELL is difficult, but anyone can play a song on bass within 15 minutes or so. Just get an instrument, watch a few video tutorials and start playing every day. Try to practice at least 30 minutes to an hour every day. You will quickly improve. Think of all the time you waste playing video games/surfing the net/whatever. If you just take one hour of that time every day you'll be a good bass player in no time.

http://www.serebii.net/pokedex-dp/ ?

Disgaea PSP rules. I mean, it's pretty much the same game with some extras, but talk about a great time waster. The NA release should be out by the end of the year, but I'm enjoying the Japanese version since I'm impatient. I hear the US release will have multiplayer, but that might be kind of scary with all of the maniacs out there.

Screw you guys, Spoon is awesome.

What would be the most lightweight scanner out there? I've used AVG and others but they still seem to be more annoying than useful.

Basically if you want to do anything involving GBA games/homebrew, you'll need a slot-2 card. The R4/R3 can't deal with GBA roms at the moment, and probably won't ever be able to. Beyond that I don't know much about the slot-2 cards.

Yeah, seconded on µ-ziq for great electronica. You might like some jungle as well, like AK1200, Dieselboy, Goldie, etc.

Tell that to PC gamers! Some people pay that much for their video card. As for me, I just spend three grand on a biwa, plus I have to pay more than that to move into my new place, so I won't be buying ANY game systems for a while. Looking to sell some in fact. Anyone need a Japanese Xbox and a library of games?

ME, part of the Nintendo Club? Oh ho ho! Actually no though... And a game that you control only using your voice? Hmm... sounds like it could get a little old, and there's no way to play it on the train! These days it seems like I do about 90% of my gaming on the DS. Having an R4 card is the best. There are a lot of DS games worth purchasing, but the card has allowed me to check out games I normally would never think to buy, and enjoy others who have the ability to be entertaining for just a week or so. A few sleeper hits that I've really enjoyed lately is Picross DS and Sega Presents Touch Darts. I know there have been other Picross games for portable systems, but this is the first one I've tried out, and obviously it makes good use of the stylus. For those of you who haven't played it, it's kind of like Sudoku with pixel art. The puzzles start of quite easy but level up in difficulty quite smoothly. It's quite addicting! And Touch Darts is a really fun game. I enjoy darts in real life (just played with some friends last night, in fact), but I'd imagine it would be fun for just about anyone. It's kind of like the darts in clubhouse games except you have much greater control of the darts. But there is definitely room for error and skill to come into play so it replicates real darts quite well. Except in real darts I rather rarely get that treble 20. The game is also quite polished with a nice variety of boards/venues, and the customizable 3D darts look quite nice. Check it out if you see it.

Well, they did that with the GBA. I wouldn't say it's out of the question to see another DS remake down the line, but I'd say it would be at least a year or more from now.

So wait, people are actually going to get together and play pretend music together with toy instruments?

I saw the guy play in LA a few years back. Amazing show. What's weird is he's this middle aged English dude with long hair who looks like a professor or something, then he yells, "let's fucking rawk!", after which he proceeds to do so. He plays the bass like a robot on crack. The show is mind-bendingly loud and the light show is intense. I really enjoyed it, but when I hear about military groups subjecting people to audio torture I can't help to imagine what it would be like to be be locked in a room with Squarepusher being played for 48 hours on end. Electronic hardcore at it's finest!

Yeah, that's what I immediately thought when I heard about this. I already own two versions of SF3:TS for consoles, but I'd love to be able to play Red Earth at home.

If I want to get my ass beat at SF3:TS, I just go to the arcade, but I know other people aren't that lucky so this is still good news.

Anti-virus programs are stupid. Aside from the blaster worm back a few years ago that wreaked havoc on my system for a couple weeks, any virus program running constantly slows down your system more than getting a virus from time to time and deleting it. It's like choosing to have a cold all the time so you never get the flu. Just scan every month or so and surf the net wisely.

wait, are you saying the grind was bad FF12?

I guess I'm one of the few that finds this game incredibly boring. Maybe because I'm not so great at making chains, but to me it seems like it has a lot to do with what is given to you rather than your skills (although I am definitely a noob). Playing the normal game is the most boring thing ever though... I just keep playing until I get bored and turn the thing off. I've tried to get into this game many times over the years but just never could. I find chain building in Puyo Puyo to be much more satisfying. Puyo Puyo 15th Anniversary for the DS is one of the best versions ever, by the way, since you can play with so many different rule sets.

Get a PSP? But seriously, I saw some kind of special GBA cart that would let you watch anime on your GBA at an E3 several years back. Not sure why you'd want to do that though...

Did you really even try google? First thing to pop up for "mario sound effects WAV" http://www.themushroomkingdom.net/wav.shtml