WeekEND gaming(4/16/10)- What are YOU playing?

[Purple Santa]

Dear Weekend Gamers,

Due to the long week for Purple Santa caused by the extended celebrations for his birthday which included all night D&D marathon sessions, bargain hunting for comics at at 24 hr comic store then suffering from insomnia the last two nights, I am once again at the helm of writing the weekend thread. So I give you a representation of Purple Santa’s recovery weekend will look like:

http://i365.photobucket.com/albums/oo92/PurpleSanta/Kitty_sleeping.jpg

I guess if Purple Santa wakes from his rip van winkle inspired sleep, looking at his "to play pile" if he was coherent enough to type what he might say he will play:

SMT:Strange Journey- He keeps mumbling “gotta catch em all” and when I ask about Pokemon, he says no demons. I didn’t know Pokemons were now demons.

Splinter Cell Conviction- The guy with the funny goggles on. I watch PS play one then swore never again. Boring.

Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love- PS refused to tell me what this game was about. He just said it was one of the JRPGs which means to me he’ll never get done playing it.

So as Mr. Purple slacker sleeps and/or games the weekend, I will be working on three papers that need to be finished if I want to graduate. Anyone else suffering through writing papers instead of gaming?

Enjoy your weekend whatever you are doing.

Sincerely,

ADDGirl

Edit: Almost forgot…What are YOU playing?

[Kelegacy]

1.) Highly Dangerous Hunch - I still don't know what to make of this one. I know the fighting sucked in the prologue, wasn't satisfying at all--though I hear that's a common complaint. Weird game, the open world stuff will probably be up my alley, and I have barely even started. I JUST got a car, so I'm very early.

2.) That Guy Who Sabotages Nazi Shit - This is a game that really is dangerous for me. There are hundreds of things to be sabotaged (blown up) and it is distracting me from the story missions. It's moderately fun to destroy things, but they have no impact on the game itself, which sucks. So this weekend I might ignore a lot of them and just focus on the main story. It's too bad, as these side missions could have been awesome. But there's also just TOO many and they are fairly shallow. Each tiny portion of the map is peppered with things to destroy. I guess it's an easy to earn money, though. I also don't die very easy, and can absorb a ton of bullets on Normal. I ran around for a half hour the other night destroying things even though I had a 2 or 3 alarm rating and the nazis were actively hunting me as I ran across rooftops destroying things.

3.) Alpha Build of a Potential Future Product - if this shows up from Gamefly (bought it for $10) this weekend I'll pop it in. I'm also happy I didn't give Activision any of my money since this is a former rental.

I'd also like to hook up the PS3 to my other tv so I can play Demon's Souls or another PS3 game, but who knows. Doubt it will happen this weekend. Plus, it's not like I could actually succeed with the game with a young child causing chaos around the house.

It's going to be a rainy weekend apparently, or wet enough, so that means I probably will be confined to the house, playing games or cleaning. My former office needs to be cleaned up as we may just use it as multi-purpose room. My bookshelves, the baby's changing table, my geek stuff like action figures and games in the closet, my wife's area for digital picture printing, an sdtv for potential retro gaming and a toybox or two. Place is a fucking wreck. At this point I wish I had a Kindle just to cut down on the hundreds of books I have (thought that would mean repurchasing them all!). I also need to clean up the basement and put some shelves up in my son's room, and hang some other crap around the house. Wife also wants to put down the bathroom floor (she'll be doing it herself she says) with some tiles we bought weeks ago. None of this stuff may get done this weekend, but you never know.

1). Deadly Premonition, 2.) The Saboteur, 3.) Prototype

[frederec]

I'm continuing with my obsessive playing of Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey. Lately I've been grinding through some of the earlier levels trying to find some fiends. I've managed to kill the Matador and the first two Riders. I've seen the rider in Grus, but he killed me. Currently trying to find the rider in Fornax. No luck yet, but I'm getting some halfway decent experience, which will make my next trip into Grus easier.

Don't take this as complaining, but after my experiences with these guys in Nocturne and the Devil Summoner games, I'm a little surprised at how easy they are here. Except for the Pale Rider in Grus, who got me with an instant death attack, I've killed each fiend I've found the first time. This is strange considering this game is not afraid to throw crazy hard bosses at you. But I'm grateful, since the encounter chances of a fiend are pretty darn low.

[Vigil80]

I had to prod myself a bit, but once I finally pressed start on Splinter Cell: Conviction, it's been a swell time. I was not much of a Sam Fisher devotee before, but Conviction is more satisfying and fluid so far than previous entries I've spent time with.

That will take up at least half of my gaming time during what I hope will be a lazy weekend. Warband continues to delight, and with a major update this week, too.

[Gorvi]

Final Fantasy XI For the next few months this is going to be my console game of choice. The only game I plan on buying on consoles for the next few months is 3D Dot Game Heroes, so this will be my focus. This will probably be the last 6 months or so that I play with FFXIV coming out, unless SE totally fucks that up, so I'd like to finish up some of the things I've been meaning to do, such as completing Zilart, ToAU, and WotG (since I was able to finish CoP last year). My main focus right now is ToAU and getting my Red Mage to 75 (currently very close to 66), but I may even try to find a Dynamis shell to join and get some relic. Or get a Nyzul static.

Red Faction Guerrilla I was complaining about this game earlier in the week, but I've changed my perspective on it a bit. While it's not something that holds up to long play sessions, it's the perfect "take a break" game from FFXI to just run around destroying crap.

Class of Heroes I'm going to try to actually get past the obtuse beginning of this game now and get into the meat of the dungeon crawling. I really need to just settle on a portable game, hopefully this will be it.

[rein]

I'm going into the weekend gameless. I'm sure I will probably play a little Opoona again and I have plenty games sitting on the shelves, stuffed in the closet and boxed under the bed but nothing is interesting to me right now. :(

[menage]

Bought the GTA4 packs on disc yesterday. God that game becomes so much better with the better retry option. I'm mainly playing the LATD now, which is quite good actually.

Zen Pinball.

[Kelegacy]

I have plenty games sitting on the shelves, stuffed in the closet and boxed under the bed but nothing is interesting to me right now. :(

That sounds an awful lot like me. But instead of games I have human heads.

[Xydarc]

This weekend I hope to play:

Torchlight: I'm about to hit the Dwarf Prison. Getting close to finally beating this one.

Mimana: Iyar Chronicle: Sophie is still in a coma and the 7th Gem remains lost. I'm trapped in the hidden world of the Elf Tree right now, hopefully I will be able to make my way out. I thought that Ghaleon knock-off was my enemy, but now a Black Knight stands in my way as well.

X-Blades: Not as bad as Spigot described. I'm suprised Kel hasn't picked it up yet, it's totally his kind of game: cheap, mediocre, and fun in small doses.;)

I'll probably do some CP and Gil grinding in post-game FFXIII, start a new Origin in Dragon Age, or take a stab at another game in the backlog.

[Spigot]

Class of Heroes I'm going to try to actually get past the obtuse beginning of this game now and get into the meat of the dungeon crawling. I really need to just settle on a portable game, hopefully this will be it.Obtuse is the right word. Once you start to get a handle on what the hell you need to do in that game and how it works, it's a MUCH more enjoyable game. But dear lord... the beginning portions are awful.

I'm sad that I can only determine one of the games that Kelegacy is talking about. I must be too tired right now. Sigh.

I have a bit of a busy weekend with work and my mom's 60th birthday dinner tomorrow and all, but I'm going to try to get some gaming in regardless.

Fragile (Wii) - I'm going to beat this thing by Monday at the latest, hopefully sooner. I just need to make sure I don't do what I did last night and fall asleep in my chair at 10:30pm :( This game is pretty friggin' creepy but in an almost cute, naive way. I am really looking forward to seeing exactly how the world got to the state its in... and if the game doesn't tell me that, I'll cry.

Again (DS) - I haven't had a chance to play this for the last couple of days but I'm going to fire it up tonight before bed if I can.

SMT: SJ (DS) - I might get to this but that would mean not playing Again...

Deadly Premonition (360) - If I beat Fragile and don't get sucked back into FFXIII or one of my DS games, I'm going to crack this open and see what all of the fuss is about.

Saboteur (PS3) - I grabbed this the other day and might take it for a spin. If nothing else, I have the special code that will let me see booooobies... booooooooobies!

FFXIII (PS3) - This may get some play but like everything else, that depends on how Fragile goes.

Cryostasis (PC) - I'm working on a TTS for this game and spent a good chunk of time with it last night BUT I'm having an annoying glitch where my earlier saves weren't loading so I had to restart from the beginning. If that glitch continues tonight, I'm going to be very sad because the game is awesome and I want my TTS to be full of happy, not full of qualified sadness.

Dawn Of War 2 (PC) - I decided to play some of this last night and it's rubbing the RTS and RPG glands in my brain in the right way. And hey, achievements without turning on the 360? Bonus! :)

[Kelegacy]

The boobs in Saboteur are okay, but I wish they had actual physics tied to them.

And Xydarc, I'm trying to change my ways a bit. I'm trying to refrain from buying every cheap game under the sun.

[National Kato]

A lot of Splinter Cell: Conviction this weekend with some moderate dusting of Metro 2033 and Just Cause 2.

Heading to Jekyll Island on Sunday to find what is considered one of the best Key Lime pies around. Not for me, but for my girlfriend's mother, who used to go there with her husband prior to his passing from leukemia last year. Ought to be a bittersweet trip, literally and figuratively.

[Spigot]

The boobs in Saboteur are okay, but I wish they had actual physics tied to them.

And Xydarc, I'm trying to change my ways a bit. I'm trying to refrain from buying every cheap game under the sun.
Xblades is a good place to start the restraint.

And physics-free boobs are a wonder of modern technology. I mean, just look at the reviews of Dead Or Alive Paradise on the PSP to see the horrors of boob physics gone horribly awry!

[Xydarc]

Xblades is a good place to start the restraint.

And physics-free boobs are a wonder of modern technology. I mean, just look at the reviews of Dead Or Alive Paradise on the PSP to see the horrors of boob physics gone horribly awry!
X-Blades isn't that bad. Besides, it has...thong-physics!

Hmmm...I may have to investigate DoA: Paradise further. Of course, if you are looking for the best boob physics around, God of War III is the place to be.

[Commissar Rob]

Hrm,

Not just because of Xydarc's endorsement of the wonder of physics, but I will be playing some God of War III this weekend.

More than likely, my co-op partner and I will return to Borderlands which I acquired from Goozex recently. So far, we haven't got far, but I'm really digging the cell-shading and gameplay.

Back to WoW as I work towards the final piece of my Gladiator's Thunderfist by playing many, many random battlegrounds. I'd also like to give the random dungeon finder a whirl with my resto build.

That ought to get me through the weekend.

[Kelegacy]

I...went a little crazy today. At the Movie Gallery going out of business sale, they finally let the newer games go up for sale. I had a moderately good score, I guess. Borderlands was out for rental still, which I wanted BADLY, and no sign of Arkham Asylum or BFBC2. WTF, I went there at 15 mins after opening and most of the new games were already gone! Here's what I picked up:

Heavy Rain - $25
Halo 3 ODST - $20
Sonic & Sega Allstars Racing - $20
Dark Void - $17.50
Mini Ninjas - $12.50
Rabbids Go Home - $12.50
Little King's Story - $12.50
Conduit - $10
The Biggest Loser (for my wife) - $15

All the games were complete with original box and manual except Halo was missing the manual and TBL was just a game in a rental case.

I feel a little dirty spending all that. A fucking slob of a woman before me had piles of shit, and even grabbed the last copy of Ponyo for $7 or less.

When I told my wife what I spent she wasn't exactly ecstatic (except that I got her Biggest Loser). But we're going out to dinner tonight, so she'll get her way with an expensive meal, I have no doubt.

They had a few other games still in stock, and PS3 Darksiders for $22.50, but I passed. I should go back down, but I fear most everything will be gone at this point. I love and hate deals like these, because I hate competition but love a steal.

[National Kato]

Heavy Rain - $25

That's a good deal and on my list for future purchase. It's not that cheap around here yet, but when it drops I'm adding it to my library.

[Gorvi]

Holy shit, Kel. See, I used to do that same thing, but I know that there's no chance in hell I'd ever get around to playing all of those, so I've quit doing that. Heck, I hate the fact that I have 5 current gen games sitting on my shelf that I haven't played yet, and at least 10 more that I really want to play more of, what you just did there would drive me nuts these days. :p

[Spigot]

Rabbids Go Home is awesome.

And Xydarc, my favourite line from a review this year has been about the breast physics in that DOA game: "They behave not so much as breasts as two sackfuls of badgers struggling to be free."

The Gametraliers review had a pretty funny line about them too, but I forget it off the top of my head.

Yeesh. I am glad I caught that typo. It said Rabbis Go Home up there :)

[Gorvi]

Yeesh. I am glad I caught that typo. It said Rabbis Go Home up there :)
Would the circumcision mini-game use Wii Motion Plus? :eek:

[Xydarc]

And Xydarc, my favourite line from a review this year has been about the breast physics in that DOA game: "They behave not so much as breasts as two sackfuls of badgers struggling to be free."

SOLD!:eek:

[Kelegacy]

Holy shit, Kel. See, I used to do that same thing, but I know that there's no chance in hell I'd ever get around to playing all of those, so I've quit doing that. Heck, I hate the fact that I have 5 current gen games sitting on my shelf that I haven't played yet, and at least 10 more that I really want to play more of, what you just did there would drive me nuts these days. :p

I do have a slight backlog, but I don't let it bother me too much. These are games I would pick up eventually anyway, so I guess it saves me looking for them down the road. A game like Dark Void I could probably finish in a weekend, so it's not a long commitment. My trouble is the sandbox games, which are like crack for me. In the last couple weeks I've finished Brutal Legend and also that Sega Tennis game. So I'm not COMPLETELY a snail these days.

I have traded or sold games I have never even opened, so it can be a problem. But I usually buy them cheap enough that it doesn't wind up hurting me. Just my pride, perhaps. :)

[Gorvi]

I do have a slight backlog, but I don't let it bother me too much. These are games I would pick up eventually anyway, so I guess it saves me looking for them down the road. A game like Dark Void I could probably finish in a weekend, so it's not a long commitment. My trouble is the sandbox games, which are like crack for me. In the last couple weeks I've finished Brutal Legend and also that Sega Tennis game. So I'm not COMPLETELY a snail these days.

I have traded or sold games I have never even opened, so it can be a problem. But I usually buy them cheap enough that it doesn't wind up hurting me. Just my pride, perhaps. :)
Yeah, that was my problem, I ended up with around 150 PS2 games by the time the generation was over (or mostly over, the PS2 is a freaking zombie) and completed maybe half of them. So many games I never touched, and though I'd like to play them, I doubt I ever will.

There are a ton of games that come out these days that I'd love to play, but I've conditioned myself to only buy what I have time to play. It's tough, but I don't have nearly as many half played or still sealed games on my shelf as I used to. It means I miss out on a lot, but I'm finishing more and spending much less.

Of course, when I come across a deal on a game I really want I still end up picking it up more often than I probably should. :p

[Xydarc]

I do have a slight backlog, but I don't let it bother me too much. These are games I would pick up eventually anyway, so I guess it saves me looking for them down the road. A game like Dark Void I could probably finish in a weekend, so it's not a long commitment. My trouble is the sandbox games, which are like crack for me. In the last couple weeks I've finished Brutal Legend and also that Sega Tennis game. So I'm not COMPLETELY a snail these days.

I have traded or sold games I have never even opened, so it can be a problem. But I usually buy them cheap enough that it doesn't wind up hurting me. Just my pride, perhaps. :)

Yeah, that was my problem, I ended up with around 150 PS2 games by the time the generation was over (or mostly over, the PS2 is a freaking zombie) and completed maybe half of them. So many games I never touched, and though I'd like to play them, I doubt I ever will.

There are a ton of games that come out these days that I'd love to play, but I've conditioned myself to only buy what I have time to play. It's tough, but I don't have nearly as many half played or still sealed games on my shelf as I used to. It means I miss out on a lot, but I'm finishing more and spending much less.

Of course, when I come across a deal on a game I really want I still end up picking it up more often than I probably should. :p
I have the same problem. I resolved it by calling myself a Game Collector, not just a game player.;)

[Kelegacy]

If I had that kind of restraint I'd probably be a rich man. :)

No, but I have this big problem with "deals". If I walk through a store and I see a package of women's panties for $10 that USED to be $60, I'd probably buy them. And I don't even wear womens underwear [anymore].

I won't buy games over $30 (unless with giftcards), and most purchases are $10-20. $25 for Heavy Rain is more money than I've spent on a game since...well, I don't know. I have spent lots on games, no doubt, but the dollar amount does tend to add up very very fast even when buying cheap.

Were Gamefly a faster, better service I'd be saving hundreds of dollars a year easily by using them.

[Purple Santa]

Bought the GTA4 packs on disc yesterday. God that game becomes so much better with the better retry option. I'm mainly playing the LATD now, which is quite good actually.

Zen Pinball.
LATD and TBoGT are both excellent. I am liking TBoGT even more than LATD which I really liked.

X-Blades: Not as bad as Spigot described. I'm suprised Kel hasn't picked it up yet, it's totally his kind of game: cheap, mediocre, and fun in small doses.;)

If Kel ever wanted to play it, I could send him my copy. I bought it for $2 from Gamefly.


Again (DS) - I haven't had a chance to play this for the last couple of days but I'm going to fire it up tonight before bed if I can.

SMT: SJ (DS) - I might get to this but that would mean not playing Again...
My own intervention with the battle between these two games for my attention, I am digging out my DS lite so I can play Again and the DSi keeps SMT in it. I have some serious gaming issues.

Saboteur (PS3) - I grabbed this the other day and might take it for a spin. If nothing else, I have the special code that will let me see booooobies... booooooooobies!

Now Kelegacy I could see making that comment. I thought more restraint from you. Still made me laugh though...kept hearing Homer in my head...
The boobs in Saboteur are okay, but I wish they had actual physics tied to them.
Ok, now that I would expect from you :p


And Xydarc, I'm trying to change my ways a bit. I'm trying to refrain from buying every cheap game under the sun.
Like the sale you just bought about $80 worth of games? You show as much self restraint as Spigot. And sound as convincing too ;)


Yeesh. I am glad I caught that typo. It said Rabbis Go Home up there :)
My old rabbi would of loved that. He had a good sense of humor.
Would the circumcision mini-game use Wii Motion Plus? :eek:
He would of appreciated that even more. He was way to cool to be a rabbi.

[Kelegacy]

Like the sale you just bought about $80 worth of games? You show as much self restraint as Spigot. And sound as convincing too ;)


Oh God, you are so right. I make a statement first thing this morning about not buying too many cheap games, then I break it two hours later. You HAVE made me feel like Spigot.

But wait. I DID pass on crap on the shelves like Shellshock, GI Joe and Rogue Warrior. I meant actually mediocre or bad games, like I used to do more often.

And I actually bought about $150 worth of games....I wish it was just $80.

[Gorvi]

I have the same problem. I resolved it by calling myself a Game Collector, not just a game player.;)
I used to use the same line on myself. :p Heck, I'd still be doing it if I wasn't supporting myself, my wife, and the kids all by myself........

[Kelegacy]

Last year I had over 100 360 games. I've parsed that down considerably, but I still have a good amount. I only want to keep a small personal collection, but I'm having a hard time with that.

PS3 games are at about 10+, Wii at about 10+, 360 is still way too big. I think it's because there are a bunch that don't trade for shit or I haven't completed yet.

[EWolfmanD]

Yakuza 3 - I'm going to work on some more substories and then try to finish the game this weekend. I want to work on the trophies, but some of them seem really time consuming, so I'll wait until I buy the game for cheap eventually.

Again - I think I'm at the end of the game. If it actually is the ending, it seemed to happen a little faster than I expected. Some of my theories were correct, but not exactly the way I thought. I still need to find out a few things.

SMT:SJ - I haven't played all week, so I'm really looking forward to getting back to this after I finish Again. I need to remember to use frederic's useful links to finish a few quests.

Sakura Wars and FFXIII - Hopefully I'll be able to get back to these games too.

Spigot and Santa, you need to play Again some more. :p

[Vigil80]

Gamefly has done much to help me keep it in my pants. (My wallet.) I have only abount 10 360 games I own outright, and 2 PS3 games. PC games which can't be rented, on the other hand...

[rein]

Gamefly has done much to help me keep it in my pants. (My wallet.) I have only abount 10 360 games I own outright, and 2 PS3 games. PC games which can't be rented, on the other hand...Same here. I'm about like Gorvi when it comes to last generation (and the ones before them) but this generation I have been able to keep spending in check using Gamefly. I hardly ever buy a game without renting it first. While rentals have always been around the "keep it" option with the discount puts Gamefly on another level as far as I am concerned.

I know Gamefly gets knocked for their shipping and turn around times but I have become a lot more patient as I have gotten older. Free shipping, an additional 10% off and the coupons won me over. Not to mention the games I play and send back without purchasing.

/Advertisement over.

I'm having a really crap day of work. First the horrific conference call and now my network connection is borked. I have things to do and I really wanted them done yesterday. Between conf calls, network issues and my work laptop running like ass it looks like I will be doing some work over the weekend. :mad:

[Norse]

God of War 3 will take up most of my gaming time this weekend. I've played an hour or so and it has been pretty epic so far.

Torchlight will probably get some attention too. I've played a few hours and I've been loving it. The amount of loot pleases me.

[Gorvi]

Damn it. Between watching the new trailer for Peace Walker (http://blog.us.playstation.com/2010/04/16/metal-gear-solid-peace-walker-a-field-guide/) and this showing up on my iPod on shuffle:

uhRw3nE67aw

I have a feeling I'll be playing some MGS of some kind this weekend, just to get it out of my system. I swear, both MGS and FF can do that, I hear the theme for the series and I get the uncontrollable urge to go run and play one of the games.

[Evil Avnovice]

http://i758.photobucket.com/albums/xx230/Avnovice/Video%20Game%20Boxart/4636.png

http://i758.photobucket.com/albums/xx230/Avnovice/Video%20Game%20Boxart/KnightsintheNightmareboxart.jpg

[Daytime_Lantern]

Got a week off from work...

I plan to dabble in Final Fantasy XIII. I'm about 5 hours into it now. So far, I'm not super into it. I appreciate what it's doing with almost a narrower scope but with more depth kind of thing, but the pacing is off which is completely evident when it took about 3 hours for me to even begin to understand what is happening. Now I'm saddled with a weaker character and forced to juggle between full on auto attack and defensive paradigms, which I'm still trying to wrap my head around.

Other things I hope to get done this week:
Fragile Dreams looks fascinating. I want to at least give it a chance.

No More Heroes 2. Picked it up on sale on Amazon today.

Metal Gear Solid 3: Substinance Need to beat this so I can go on to do Portable Ops -> 4 -> Peace Walker

BlazBlue Portable Still trying to master Litchi's 5B 2C itsuuA combos. Other than that I've tried to pick up Taokaka which requires muscle memory up the yin yang.

[frederec]

Awww, Avnovice in playing with a KitN! So cute. I really need to get back into that game. So weird, so awesome.


No More Heroes 2. Picked it up on sale on Amazon today.


It's hard to resist those sales.

[Evil Avnovice]

Awww, Avnovice in playing with a KitN! So cute. I really need to get back into that game. So weird, so awesome.

After completing Nostalgia, I decided to replay Avalon Code since that was another game I left on the curb that deserved my attention. Knights in the Nightmare (KitN:p) was something I could do on the side inbetween breaks when I wasn't playing that.

[Spigot]

I resisted getting Wet, Prototype and Dead Space Extraction today while I was out. Found a bunch of games I've been interested in for under $25 each, but remembered the stack I have not getting played at home and the fact that I'm trying to stay in the black, financially, for the next while, so I didn't get them.

Plus I'd just dropped about $120 or so at the comic shop :P

[Kelegacy]

Well, I found out why so many good games were missing from the Movie Gallery sale early this morning. I went back during my afternoon break with my wife and I saw Borderlands behind the counter in a huge pile...with Bioshock 2, BFBC2, Dante's Inferno, Batman, etc. Multiple copies of each. I asked if they were games going back out on the floor and the woman said a guy came in the night before, gave his credit card to them and said charge them all (he must have picked which games to take). Multiple copies of the same game!!

That chaps my ass. He either sounds like a reseller or a flipper, which I hate with a deadly passion. They weren't even on sale yet, which is why he had to give them his card to charge the following morning. I told my wife I might wait in the parking lot to see who picks them up, follow him home, bump him off violently and then take all his shit (giving the multiples to the poor of course).

Anyway, my wife picked up a movie for our son and also bought Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader (360)and Animal Crossing: City Folk for less than $20 together. We're having some people over tonight and maybe we'll play the former with healthy doses of Sonic Racing.

[Vigil80]

Neat, just found out today that I no longer have one of my clients with work. Not an integral part of my paycheck, so not a tragic loss. Slightly more gaming time for me, for a while. :)

I know Gamefly gets knocked for their shipping and turn around times but I have become a lot more patient as I have gotten older. Free shipping, an additional 10% off and the coupons won me over. Not to mention the games I play and send back without purchasing.
Their shipping times and all are pretty reasonable to me as long as you spring for at least the two game plan, and get a feel for what their turnaround is like. I'd expect it to be a little different depending on your location, too.

If you absolutely have to have a game on day one, purchasing is still your best bet. But with so many games coming out lately, plus a healthy backlog, I sometimes wonder how I called myself a gamer before signing up.

[Xydarc]

Well, I found out why so many good games were missing from the Movie Gallery sale early this morning. I went back during my afternoon break with my wife and I saw Borderlands behind the counter in a huge pile...with Bioshock 2, BFBC2, Dante's Inferno, Batman, etc. Multiple copies of each. I asked if they were games going back out on the floor and the woman said a guy came in the night before, gave his credit card to them and said charge them all (he must have picked which games to take). Multiple copies of the same game!!

That chaps my ass. He either sounds like a reseller or a flipper, which I hate with a deadly passion. They weren't even on sale yet, which is why he had to give them his card to charge the following morning. I told my wife I might wait in the parking lot to see who picks them up, follow him home, bump him off violently and then take all his shit (giving the multiples to the poor of course).

I know you missed out on some good deals, but that guy was smart and I can't fault him for taking advantage of the situation to make a lil profit.

[Spigot]

It might be smart, but it's still scuzzy and underhanded and does not give the guy many points to spend in the Brotherhood Of Gamers fan club store.

[Gorvi]

Kel, I'm with you, I can't stand those jackasses who will go to sales and buy up damn near everything. Last year when Best Buy had that huge $10 sale around this time of year there were asshats going in and grabbing 5-8 copies of pretty much everything that was worth a damn, they were cleaned out of anything worthwhile in 10 minutes. It makes you want to follow them to their car and lose at the Rayman's Raving Rabbis circumcision game on purpose.......

[Xydarc]

Kel, I'm with you, I can't stand those jackasses who will go to sales and buy up damn near everything. Last year when Best Buy had that huge $10 sale around this time of year there were asshats going in and grabbing 5-8 copies of pretty much everything that was worth a damn, they were cleaned out of anything worthwhile in 10 minutes. It makes you want to follow them to their car and lose at the Rayman's Raving Rabbis circumcision game on purpose.......
This needs to be made ASAP.

[Spigot]

Well, in an effort to help curb costs and bolster willpower, I have signed up for Gameaccess.ca, which by all accounts looks like a true Canadian version of Gamefly (unlike Getgames, which I used for years despite horrid service and barely there functionality).

The nicest thing is that I CAN buy games I rent from them, which is a function I've been looking for in a game rental service for YEARS but haven't had access to.

This will be most helpful.

[Spigot]

Isn't that why most sales like this have limits per customer? I understand they're going out of business and all, but why not share the love?

Or at the very least, give a few people a chance to get in on the deals.

[Kelegacy]

Kel, I'm with you, I can't stand those jackasses who will go to sales and buy up damn near everything. Last year when Best Buy had that huge $10 sale around this time of year there were asshats going in and grabbing 5-8 copies of pretty much everything that was worth a damn, they were cleaned out of anything worthwhile in 10 minutes. It makes you want to follow them to their car and lose at the Rayman's Raving Rabbis circumcision game on purpose.......

That happened to me at the Best Buy sale, too. Some fat fuck sprinted to the aisles and had a stack of the same copy of whatever game it was I was looking for. I thought, if there isn't anything left I'm going to tear his obese ass apart (non sexually...maybe). Thankfully I got what I wanted. I heard other people lamenting they couldn't find that game later on as I moved onto the next rack.

I always grab one of each game that I want. Greed is something I really cannot stand on any level. Stores should enforce something here. "No resellers" tells me that if someone is buying 5 copies of the same game, this guy might be a reseller. And even if he isn't, just in case I wouldn't sell to him. It's a good thing I don't work retail.

The guys in gaming threads that yuk it up about cleaning out stores and flipping all the games back to Gamestop for credit piss me off. I think there is a circle of hell just for them.

I also don't sprint across stores like a five year old to get a deal, or push and shout and fight. That's why I can't deal with going to a real store on Black Friday. I think that's an example of consumerism at its worst.

But they get the deals. I keep my dignity. I don't know who wins. :)

[Vigil80]

But they get the deals. I keep my dignity. I don't know who wins. :)
Depends on how high your dignity can be appraised versus those deals.

Hm... maybe you should start clipping coupons, or something.

[Kelegacy]

Well, in an effort to help curb costs and bolster willpower, I have signed up for Gameaccess.ca, which by all accounts looks like a true Canadian version of Gamefly (unlike Getgames, which I used for years despite horrid service and barely there functionality).

The nicest thing is that I CAN buy games I rent from them, which is a function I've been looking for in a game rental service for YEARS but haven't had access to.

This will be most helpful.

I tried to do a free trial of Gamefly last fall and they wouldn't let me. I had purchased at game at that new home, so they said it was an established account. I even created a NEW account before trying the free trial. They were on to me and wouldn't let me do the free trial. I should do it under my wife's name with her debit card and see if it works.

I can't sign back up for Gamefly unless I try it out free or at a discount for a month or even the 2 week trial period. I need to see if the turnaround times are still as bad for me. Half the time they wouldn't tell me they had my game until I complained that I mailed it a week bebore. Then magically it would register as received. Bah. I kept them for 3 or 4 months then quit.

EDIT: This is why I like the Weekend/Weekday Gamer threads. We don't need to start new threads for different topics, we just state what we want here. We've covered what we are playing, rental services, deals, circumcisions and probably next will be our favorite toppings on pizza.

[Xydarc]

The guys in gaming threads that yuk it up about cleaning out stores and flipping all the games back to Gamestop for credit piss me off. I think there is a circle of hell just for them.
I can understand if they guy is a seller on Amazon or eBay trying to make a buck to support his family/habit/alimony. But that is the lowest of the low. I'd lose that Raving Rabbis game on purpose on them, over and over and over.

[Purple Santa]

But wait. I DID pass on crap on the shelves like Shellshock, GI Joe and Rogue Warrior. I meant actually mediocre or bad games, like I used to do more often.

You are a better man than I. Gamefly lures me into buying these god awful games because...well because I want to try them but don't want to clog my Q with them. So for $8...I buy games like Shellshock. OMG...the horror. I mean the game is so awful you know you are laughing at the badness but...it controls for shit then you cry for a different reason. I don't think I have it anymore but if I do i'm sending it up your way to cause you some gaming illness :p
Last year I had over 100 360 games. I've parsed that down considerably, but I still have a good amount. I only want to keep a small personal collection, but I'm having a hard time with that.

I used to keep games for my collection but then I went your way on games. I started questioning why am I keeping these if I won't ever play them again? Why not get some good GS credit for them? If GS is running a good sale between now and the DSi XL comes out, i'll try to get some GS$ and get an XL for "free". Otherwise the only games I buy now are for the ridiculous CEs. But I enjoy having that crap around. Now I keep the stuff and sell the game when done. The lone exception is Heavy Rain and Yakuza series. Everything else gets sold.



Spigot and Santa, you need to play Again some more. :p
I am taking a break from SMT. If I don't i'll just obsess the weekend away again playing that only. This will allow Again to get much needed play time. I just spent the day cleaning the house, so my reward now will be hours of playing Again.
Gamefly has done much to help me keep it in my pants. (My wallet.) I have only abount 10 360 games I own outright, and 2 PS3 games. PC games which can't be rented, on the other hand...
I don't know what I would do without Gamefly. I am a loving member since 2004, I would have missed so many games this generation without them. The only downside is when I pick up the under $10 which often turn out to be awful (see Shellshock and Turning Point Liberty).



Plus I'd just dropped about $120 or so at the comic shop :P
You just reminded me why I most likely will not go back to being a comic collector. I do miss it though. I used to go to the most amazing comic store in NYC. Ah the days of going in, picking up my reserves and finding some good to great indie titles. Back then it was easily $50-$75 a week. This was a good...ten years ago. I can't imagine what that would cost now. The store does offer a online/shipping service which I really liked but shipping is a killer. And so is paying for an expensive habit comics can be. I miss collecting...I almost want to go back...then I question if I really could afford it (when employed) and think I rather spend the money elsewhere now. I need an AA meeting for comics addiction :D


That chaps my ass. He either sounds like a reseller or a flipper, which I hate with a deadly passion. They weren't even on sale yet, which is why he had to give them his card to charge the following morning. I told my wife I might wait in the parking lot to see who picks them up, follow him home, bump him off violently and then take all his shit (giving the multiples to the poor of course).


I am one of the poor. Keep me in mind if you do that violent but justifiable act :eek:

Enough typing...i'm off to take Wolfie's advice and play Again...

[Spigot]

EDIT: This is why I like the Weekend/Weekday Gamer threads. We don't need to start new threads for different topics, we just state what we want here. We've covered what we are playing, rental services, deals, circumcisions and probably next will be our favorite toppings on pizza.I'm a double cheese, pepperoni and bacon guy myself, though I love the perogi pizza at Boston Pizza and a good spiced potato, chicken and cream cheese sauce on my pizza can be delightful.

I use these threads as my way to stay out of the horror show that is The Lounge :) All I need to do is try to have at least one sentence per post that is at least remotely game related and I don't feel dirty for it.

Speaking of which, I need to copy my P4 and SJ soundtracks from the CD to iTunes so I can load them onto my iPhone/iPod. My kids are in a game soundtrack mood of late. Take that, Raffi!

[rein]

I tried to do a free trial of Gamefly last fall and they wouldn't let me. I had purchased at game at that new home, so they said it was an established account. I even created a NEW account before trying the free trial. They were on to me and wouldn't let me do the free trial. I should do it under my wife's name with her debit card and see if it works.

I can't sign back up for Gamefly unless I try it out free or at a discount for a month or even the 2 week trial period. I need to see if the turnaround times are still as bad for me. Half the time they wouldn't tell me they had my game until I complained that I mailed it a week bebore. Then magically it would register as received. Bah. I kept them for 3 or 4 months then quit.

EDIT: This is why I like the Weekend/Weekday Gamer threads. We don't need to start new threads for different topics, we just state what we want here. We've covered what we are playing, rental services, deals, circumcisions and probably next will be our favorite toppings on pizza.

You forgot shitty work day!! but I think I was having that conversation with myself. :)

I'm with you guys about the vultures at sales. I despise them. While I can't fault them for taking advantage of the situation to make a lil profit I can fault them for being a dick.

edit-since the Pizza thing is out there. I'm not a big fan of pizza these days. If I do eat pizza I like fresh veggies. Every now and then Pepporoni.

[frederec]

You forgot shitty work day!! but I think I was having that conversation with myself. :)

I'm with you guys about the vultures at sales. I despise them. While I can't fault them for taking advantage of the situation to make a lil profit I can fault them for being a dick.

edit-since the Pizza thing is out there. I'm not a big fan of pizza these days. If I do eat pizza I like fresh veggies. Every now and then Pepporoni.

I'm the same with sales. I've driven right next to the Hollywood video near a grocery store that's going out of business, selling everything. I've never set foot in there. Just can't quite do it.

[frederec]

Does anybody know what time it is? Yep, that's right, it's time for the CoG resident math professor to write a math final while altogether too bored. Here's an actual question I'm planning on giving on my statistics final next week (numbers left out to protect the innocent):


A research team wants to see if Awesome Sauce can make people more cool, in addition to making them more awesome. They pull ten people out of the population (possibly by driving up next to them in a van and grabbing them off the street) and test their level of cool (measured in megafonzies) before and after use of Awesome Sauce. With an alpha of 0.05, can you say their levels of cool are noticeably different?

[frederec]

Bah! Everyone must be playing games! What do you think this is? Friday night?

...

...Oh, yeah...right.

Anyway, more statistics questions. The next one starts out with


In a survey of 200 old people, 121 said they, "wish those dang kids would get off my lawn." Find a 98% confidence interval for the proportion of old people who wish kids would get off their lawn.

[EWolfmanD]

I finished Again. After a slow start, the game stayed consistently good once it got rolling. It ended a little faster than I expected, but I was satisfied with the way things wrapped up and thought the ending was pretty good.

I'm not sure if this would spoil anything or not, so I'll spoiler it:
The ending made me sad, but not because of how the game ended. Although the cases were wrapped up, the final line of the game basically said that there would be a sequel. Which will probably never happen now. Hopefully it somehow will, because I would like to play some more and interact with the characters again.

[Spigot]

Must resist looking at that spoiler text.

And frederec, I love those questions.

Spent the night cleaning my house for when my mom stops in to visit tomorrow. Fu-un. I DID spend some time tonight working on The Hat level of Geo-Defense on my iPhone, finally getting past Wave 21 and all the way to the final wave when I died. Sob.

[Purple Santa]

EDIT: This is why I like the Weekend/Weekday Gamer threads. We don't need to start new threads for different topics, we just state what we want here. We've covered what we are playing, rental services, deals, circumcisions and probably next will be our favorite toppings on pizza.
I consider these threads like the large family at the extra large dinner table. There are many many conversations going on at once. You catch on to what you can and just enjoy the ride for the rest of the conversations.
You forgot shitty work day!! but I think I was having that conversation with myself. :)

edit-since the Pizza thing is out there. I'm not a big fan of pizza these days. If I do eat pizza I like fresh veggies. Every now and then Pepporoni.
I read with interest about your shitty work day. I didn't want to make it worse by dredging up questions on it or observations. Sometimes it's just about the venting :D

And pizza is always good. You are depressed if you can't enjoy pizza ;)

Does anybody know what time it is? Yep, that's right, it's time for the CoG resident math professor to write a math final while altogether too bored. Here's an actual question I'm planning on giving on my statistics final next week (numbers left out to protect the innocent):

Bah! Everyone must be playing games! What do you think this is? Friday night?

...

...Oh, yeah...right.

Anyway, more statistics questions. The next one starts out with
I should know how to do both of those questions. I was once upon a time a whiz at statistics. Now...bah. I'd have to look at a textbook to brush up on how to solve them. Great questions though. I would laugh if I read those on an exam.

Friday and I was...well all by myself so I was downloading a ton of music :D I want more statistic questions though. I am going to see if I can find my statistic text.

Edit: Just want to let Frederec know, I am now driving ADDGirl crazy with your questions. We both took statistics for undergrad and then used extensively in two research classes. Despite all that, we can't remember basic statistics. And we both like statistics. But thanks for the challenge...

[Pale Ale]

Due to the long week for Purple Santa caused by the extended celebrations for his birthday which included all night D&D marathon sessions, bargain hunting for comics at at 24 hr comic store then suffering from insomnia the last two nights, I am once again at the helm of writing the weekend thread. So I give you a representation of Purple Santa’s recovery weekend will look like:

Way to live the stereotype! :D


3.) Alpha Build of a Potential Future Product

That might well just be fare more truthful title.

You are a better man than I. Gamefly lures me into buying these god awful games because...well because I want to try them but don't want to clog my Q with them. So for $8...I buy games like Shellshock. OMG...the horror. I mean the game is so awful you know you are laughing at the badness but...it controls for shit then you cry for a different reason. I don't think I have it anymore but if I do i'm sending it up your way to cause you some gaming illness :p


Don't do that! It's like robbing yourself of a whole Large Value Meal. Think of all the Cheeseburgers with Bacon your missing out! Are you really hard up for coasters? :p




Just Cause 2: I love driving around and blowing shit up. Which is great because that's the core game mechanic. Also I didn't know you could make hombre have 3 syllables.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2: Ran through it once this week. Playing to the other "side" to Trophy Whore, kicking myself for doing it too. Deadpool is sugar that helps the bitter medicine go down.

Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2: Gonna try this after I put the stake in MAU

[Vigil80]

Finished a Splinter Cell playthrough. The last couple levels were big b.s. in terms of mechanics/difficulty.

I remember reading in GamePro, I think it was, that the creative director the game ended up with wanted to keep more of the Splinter Cell hallmarks than the team originally planned on. Seems like he could have held more true to that than he did in the second half of the game. But, it was still a good time.

[Purple Santa]

Way to live the stereotype! :D
I left out the part about living in my parent's basement. Now I live in someone's attic. I am no stereotype! :D Actually, it wasn't that long ago I was living that stereotype. Parent's basement, comics, video games, shy geek...did I miss something? Oh yeah, and I was over 30...yep all there. Ah, the wonders of divorce. :p


Don't do that! It's like robbing yourself of a whole Large Value Meal. Think of all the Cheeseburgers with Bacon your missing out! Are you really hard up for coasters? :p

My days of eating such meals...thankfully are long gone. However, I do own the disc, and if Mr. K truly needed to play Shellshock I think he should share in the horrors of the game. Then he should play X-Blades and then he will enter into a .Hack like coma.

As for me not buying cheap games that should never be bought...a fool and their money are forever parted. I'll show you my vast CE collection from various video games to prove that :)

[Spigot]

Ok. I figured out what Highly Dangerous Hunch and The Guy Who Blows Up Nazi Shit is but I have NO idea what the Alpha Build Of A Potential Future Product is... At least I'm not able to parse it right now. Grr...

I just wasn't in the mood to play games last night after my wife wandered off to bed, cursing my name for not helping her do dishes. I fired up the DVD of Death Note that I have out and fell asleep sometime in the middle of the second episode. Sigh. My recliner is evil. If you're the slightest bit fatigued, it will pop you into a coma the second you elevate the legs.

I'm working today but I brought in the Blu-Ray of Gamer for everyone to watch, so hopefully that will satisfy my urge to game, though I highly doubt it. I wish I had The King Of Kong as that at least has substance.

[frederec]

I should know how to do both of those questions. I was once upon a time a whiz at statistics. Now...bah. I'd have to look at a textbook to brush up on how to solve them. Great questions though. I would laugh if I read those on an exam.

Edit: Just want to let Frederec know, I am now driving ADDGirl crazy with your questions. We both took statistics for undergrad and then used extensively in two research classes. Despite all that, we can't remember basic statistics. And we both like statistics. But thanks for the challenge...

The first one you can't do, because I didn't give you the little chart of numbers the students are getting to be able to solve the problem. This and the second one are all part of this huge list of confidence interval/hypothesis testing problems that have taken up pretty much the second half of the course. They're all very similar, with slight variations in the formulas depending on the setup. I don't envy the students having to keep them all straight.

I don't like statistics. Big confession time. I've taken over fifty math classes in the course of getting my bachelors, masters, and doctorate degree, but I've never taken a statistics class. I've taken a probability class (and a class about conformal invariance of random distributions, but that was more complex analysis than probability), but never statistics.

So my school dumped two sections of statistics on me, and I didn't know the subject at all. Like Marge Simpson said when she went in for substitute teaching, "I just need to stay one lecture ahead of the students."

What's worse, I find statistics boring. And I'm always saying that as a teacher, I should find whatever I'm teaching interesting. Because if the teacher is bored, there's no way the students can be interested in what's going on. And yet here I am. Even better, they've got me teaching a section of this class in the fall. Yay.

[Kelegacy]

Okay, as much as I was irritated yesterday, I am probably more irritated with myself this morning. Here's why:

Last night we went out to dinner with a couple friends. There's a Hollywood Video going out of business on the way (owned by same company as Movie Gallery) so we stopped. I didn't think after that morning's debacle with the hoarder/reseller that there'd be any games left here. I mean, it's only like a 10 minute drive away from the other store.

As soon as I walked in I saw tons of games and I was an animal, ripping games off the shelf. I grabbed Arkham Asylum, Bayonetta, Dante's Inferno, Mass Effect 2 for 360, Borderlands and Genji (it was $5, so what!?) for PS3. For Wii I snagged Klonoa, No More Heroes 2, and Boom Blox Bash Party. I also picked up Jungle Emperor Leo and Ponyo on DVD. I was so happy to finally score Ponyo, and to my amazement they still had a couple more in stock. Out of all the games, for some reason I was most proud of that, since I enjoyed the movie quite a bit.

They had many more good games (like Tatsunoko vs. Capcom for Wii), but I restrained myself. My wife wasn't angry, but she told me this is IT for game buying for a bit. I hope so, as I have way too much to play now. Bioshock 2 was probably the only holdout I didn't see, otherwise I think I got most every game I wanted that came out since last fall.

Borderlands is PS3 only, which stunk, but that's okay. It was cheap so I didn't care much. All the games came complete, I think, except for Dante's Inferno and Borderlands. I have the manuals and the boxes, but they are rental boxes only since he couldn't find the originals. Well, he DID find original boxes but they were for the opposite systems and he asked if I wanted them and I just said yes. So for each game I bought last night I wound up with a rental case and a real one.

So when I started this post I said I was irritated with myself...mostly because I spent waaaaay too much money yesterday. That's not like me at all. It was like I found too many deals and blew a gasket and went temporary purchase insane. I haven't even beaten ME1, but I bought the sequel for a bit over $20. I bought No More Heroes 2 and I haven't even PLAYED the first. But with the price I couldn't refuse. I probably SHOULD have. Yesterday we bought 20 games overall, two of which are for my wife. I feel a bit dizzy saying that...I should probably go lay down.

To top it all off, I woke up in the night to go the bathroom and it was snowing outside! It still is snowing very lightly. I think that's a sign that God is mad at me for yesterday's gluttony.

As for weekend gaming, proceeded to play Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader on 360 last night with the other couple and I beat them each time. It isn't fun when you sense other people are starting to get irritated that you are getting too many right and winning all the time. Happens all the time with those types of trivia games. I feel bad, so sometimes I let others win and then they try to rub it in my face that they won finally. Double edged knife, I guess.

[frederec]

To top it all off, I woke up in the night to go the bathroom and it was snowing outside! It still is snowing very lightly. I think that's a sign that God is mad at me for yesterday's gluttony.


Yes, I think that's definitely what's up.

And my air conditioner is on right now. I think I saw some snow this year. Not sure.

[Kelegacy]

Yes, I think that's definitely what's up.

And my air conditioner is on right now. I think I saw some snow this year. Not sure.

It didn't snow much this year, and hasn't snowed since like Februrary, maybe early Feb. January was a scare when we got some big storms, but thanks to the currents we missed every major storm after that by maybe 50 miles. The rest of New England was bombed.

So when I saw it this morning I was shocked. I've been wearing t-shirts and it has been spring since early march or so. We usually still have snow on the ground on Easter. Not this year.

[Gorvi]

As planned, I was on FFXI last night. I continued, with a friend and some random people we were able to gather, to make progress through the Treasures of Aht Urhgan storyline. I swear, what a disappointment that has turned out to be.

It's not that the story is bad, far from it, it's damn good, with some very well done cutscenes (some topping 15+ minutes), but the battle themselves are a total joke, especially after coming off going through the masochistic as hell Chains of Promathia missions last year. There's a total of 7 fights in the entire line of missions, so far we've done 4, and not one of them has even been remotely challenging, and so far the next one doesn't look to change that. There were as many fights in one mission in CoP (Three Paths) than there are in the entirety of the storyline for ToAU. Somethings just wrong with that. They're fun fights, and the story that goes along with them really is quite good, but they're just far too easy.

Oh well, at this rate I'll be done with ToAU by mid next week (stupid quests making you wait til after Japanese midnight til you can progress) and then it'll be on to trying to finish the last two Zilart fights and moving on to WotG. Tonight, though, should be all about leveling Red Mage, unless I can get group together for the Moogle mission I need. I need to grab a 360 copy of that Ultimate Collection that came out late last year, it's only $15 and I still need access to the Shantotto add on, which is $10 by itself.

Like that entire post makes any sense to anyone but Cyndair........ :p

[frederec]

Finally found and killed the black rider in Strange Journey, just a minutes ago. I know all the riders have low encounter rates, but that one took forever. At least since I was running through Fornax looking for him, I was getting decent enough experience to level up a few times.

Only one rider left, and I've seen him before in Grus, which is where I'm supposed to be right now anyway. And why am I so focused on the riders right now? Who knows. I think after finding and killing one, it built my confidence and curiosity to try to get the others.

[Pale Ale]

I haven't even beaten ME1, but I bought the sequel for a bit over $20.

Score!


I bought No More Heroes 2 and I haven't even PLAYED the first.


Don't sweat it the game doesn't care, it literally tells you as much, so why should you?

[Xydarc]

Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa.

Whoa.

Kel, you bought Genji...but scoffed at X-Blades? Hmmm, the requires...a scene!

Setting: The offices of SouthPeak Interactive
Players: Anton and Kiril Yudinstev, John F. Kaiser III
Scene:

John: Guys it's good to finally meet you in person. I know Gaijin Entertainment's in Russia, so I appreciate you making the trip to the States.
Anton: You're velcome.
Kiril: Ve are glad to be here.
John: As you know, SouthPeak Interactive is all about making the quick buck through lack of creativity. X-Blades looks like it's going to fit the bill nicely. That story is so wonderfully generic.
Anton: *Grins* You see my brother. Did I not tell you?
Kiril: *rolls eyes* Da, da. You vere right. All that anime vas not a vaste of time.
John: The way you skillfully rip off God of War with slippery controls, weak jumping, and repititious enemies is fantastic. Nothing screams fun like failing to make a jump for the 10th time. Plus, the fact that I'm 50% done with the game and fighting the same aerial enemy types is way cool.
Kiril: Don't forget the gunblades! They vere my idea.
John: A brilliant touch. Nice way to remind gamers of a Final Fantasy that was released in '99. The targeting is great too, I love how random it is and that you can't manually change it.
Anton: Boris vill be pleased to hear it. It only took him 3 days and ve vere wery glad that he could move onto something more important. What's the Americaninski for it...ah yes: boob physics.
John: Comrades, I'm glad you brought that up. *frowns*
Kiril: You no like the jiggling?
John: What? Oh no, it's great, but it's been done to death. I mean, every Tecmo game coming out has some sort of jiggle algorithm. I've heard they're gonna include cheerleaders in the next Tecmo Bowl for Jiggle 3.0.
*The two Russians lean in close to each other*
Anton: *in Russian* Brother, how do we escape this predicament? If SouthPeak deigns to sign us, we would be reduced to peddling our wares at Majesco. *shudders*
Kiril: *in Russian* Worry not, Anton my Brother. I believe I have ascertained this American's weakness. Did you not espy the gentle lady that is his secretary? *Anton shakes his head* Observe then, fellow product of my mother's loins.
John: Gentlemen, is there a problem?
Kiril: *smiling widely* Oh no, no problem Comrade. Ve vere...how you say...hesitation at showing you this. It may be innowating.
John: Oh?
Kiril: *Displays a video of Ayumi in her bikini top. However, the character model is sporting a white thong bikini bottom.* Comrade John, I give you: Ass Physics!
John: *Silent, while watching the video, as if hypnotized. After a few minutes he shakes himself out of his reverie* Gentlemen, I'm speechless. It's brilliant!
Kiril: *in Russian* Your faith in me is duly rewarded, my Father's other son.
Anton: *smiling* You vill sign us?
John: Of course! We'll be sending you the contract shortly.
*John's secretary walks in, dressed in a thonged dominatrix outfit, holding a ball gag*
Secretary: It's time for your 1:00, naughty boy.
*John stands up and strips off his pants to reveal tight leather shorts. Anton and Kiril quickly leave*
Secretary: Today's safe word is "Last Remnant".

/scene

[Purple Santa]

Ok. I figured out what Highly Dangerous Hunch and The Guy Who Blows Up Nazi Shit is but I have NO idea what the Alpha Build Of A Potential Future Product is... At least I'm not able to parse it right now. Grr...

You will kick yourself harder when I tell you...Kel gave the answers on the bottom of that post. Unless he's edited them out. I'll let you go read it since you will kick yourself for not thinking of it. Very clever of Kel i'll admit...

What's worse, I find statistics boring. And I'm always saying that as a teacher, I should find whatever I'm teaching interesting. Because if the teacher is bored, there's no way the students can be interested in what's going on. And yet here I am. Even better, they've got me teaching a section of this class in the fall. Yay.
I was and still told statistics isn't "math". I don't argue the point since I am clueless about the definitions, philosophies and theories of mathematics to state either way. I'm not surprised you didn't have to deal with statistics. I always thought it was considered some bastardization of math anyway. Or that is what the impression I get when you talk to a statistic professor and/or professor heavily involved in social science research.

For someone who doesn't like statistics, you at least make the exams interesting enough to read the questions.

I have found the perfect game for the gym while I sweat away pounds on the elliptical machine: Again. The making the DS a "book" makes it perfect to rest on the book holder as I can tap on the screen and read through the game. Certainly makes the hour go by quickly.

[Vigil80]

You will kick yourself harder when I tell you...Kel gave the answers on the bottom of that post. Unless he's edited them out. I'll let you go read it since you will kick yourself for not thinking of it. Very clever of Kel i'll admit...
Meh, putting "sabotages" in the second title was lazy. ;) Should have been something like "intentionally breaks."

[Spigot]

Bah. Real men don't read footnotes. And I am kicking myself now.

Awesome 'scene', Xydarc...

And we just watched Gamer here at work. I didn't realize it was by the same guys as Crank *eek*

[Superman's Dead]

Just sent Saboteur back to Gamefly. It was a lot of fun, but I'd been drawing it out for too long and I didn't really feel like blasting through it now that I have more time. Time to load up my Queue!

[Zecon]

I'm working on Conviction and BFBC2. Gamefly shipped me Bayonetta and Dante's Inferno, so it should make for an interesting weekend if those both arrive today.

[Purple Santa]

@Xydarc: Forgot to throw you a "kudos" to that scene. You ever think of trying playwriting/screenwriting? Take a class for it.

Maybe a collaboration is in order for a weekend/weekday thread. If you are ever inspired...shoot me a PM.

[menage]

The GTA dlc packs are pretty cool. I even like TLATD very much even though I thought I wouldn't dig it that much with the biker theme.

I also almost bought Borderland cheap today, but passed on it because I was afraid SP the game would get boring real fast. Anybody have an idea?

[frederec]

I was and still told statistics isn't "math". I don't argue the point since I am clueless about the definitions, philosophies and theories of mathematics to state either way. I'm not surprised you didn't have to deal with statistics. I always thought it was considered some bastardization of math anyway. Or that is what the impression I get when you talk to a statistic professor and/or professor heavily involved in social science research.

For someone who doesn't like statistics, you at least make the exams interesting enough to read the questions.
screen and read through the game. Certainly makes the hour go by quickly.

Yeah, in many places statistics is an entirely different department from mathematics. This school isn't nearly large enough (or science-oriented enough) to justify something like that. So that's how I end up stuck with it.

[Xydarc]

Thanks for the compliments. I've never been serious about writing, maybe I should take a class. Hopefully jpublic won't notice the "safe word.";)

[Kelegacy]

Prototype did indeed arrive today, but I have enough on my plate. I am also going to put a new media stand together which should hold every single current-gen game I own. I hope.

[Spigot]

Thanks for the compliments. I've never been serious about writing, maybe I should take a class. Hopefully jpublic won't notice the "safe word.";)If it's the 360 version, then it's not a very safe word at all :)

And it's revery, not revelry...

Well, I was out at the same used game/DVD/CD store today with one of the guys from work when what to my wondering eyes should appear but a copy of Shiren The Wanderer for the DS for only $19.99 used... and since it's Record Store Day (a day I didn't know actually existed), I got another 25% off, so it only cost me $15 for the game. Woo! Now I can see what all of the pain and suffering is about :)

[MagGnome]

Happy belated birthday Mr. Santa!

*runs from thread*

[EWolfmanD]

Spigot, you really need to finish Again. And Miles Edgeworth. Stop buying more DS games. :p

[Spigot]

Spigot, you really need to finish Again. And Miles Edgeworth. Stop buying more DS games. :pOh, I'm not likely to fire up Shiren any time soon. I couldn't pass it up for $15 though.

Again will get played tonight. Miles Edgeworth will be played when Again is done.

[Purple Santa]

I also almost bought Borderland cheap today, but passed on it because I was afraid SP the game would get boring real fast. Anybody have an idea?
Depends who you ask. Some really liked the gameplay, a grind/find loot type of RPG/shooter. The comments of why others liked it reminded me of why others liked Diablo and Too Human. How cheap was it?

Happy belated birthday Mr. Santa!

*runs from thread*
Thanks Mags. I know you are a busy watchmaking Gnome these days. I'm glad you stopped in for a fast greeting before fleeing again.
Spigot, you really need to finish Again. And Miles Edgeworth. Stop buying more DS games. :p
I put some time into this today before the red light on my DS forced me to put it aside. I'm on chapter 2 but i'm far enough in to have some of the plot to unfold. I'm easily amused with games of this nature, so i'm really enjoying it. I think i'm going to focus since it's not very taxing as I watch TV or go long distances in a car.

[rein]

Played a little Opoona. It's starting to piss me off with all of the random battles. It's like every two steps and I'm dropped into a new battle. There is an item to avoid them but then I wonder if I will be too low level when I face off against a boss. I want to continue the game because there is a lot of neat little extras while playing but damn if progressing the story isn't getting annoying.

[menage]

Depends who you ask. Some really liked the gameplay, a grind/find loot type of RPG/shooter. The comments of why others liked it reminded me of why others liked Diablo and Too Human. How cheap was it?

20 bucks. Not real cheap but it's still a good title.

[Xydarc]

If it's the 360 version, then it's not a very safe word at all :)

And it's revery, not revelry...


You're right, but it's "reverie". Still, would you mind being my editor?;)

That $10 Target gift card is burning a hole in my pocket, and the God of War Collection is calling me...

[Xydarc]

20 bucks. Not real cheap but it's still a good title.
I've found Borderlands SP pretty boring. Multiplayer, from what I've played on the PS3, is much more fun.

[Vigil80]

You're right, but it's "reverie". Still, would you mind being my editor?;)
Both are correct. (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/reverie)

I need help. Someone motivate me to play Bioshock 2. I finished my Splinter Cell playthrough and can't find anyone for co-op, so I figured I'd knock out my other Gamefly game.

But the intro is not grabbing me. For a big daddy prototype I'm dreadfully squishy, the combat feels boring, and combing every room for pickups makes me feel more like Rapture's janitor. :(

[Purple Santa]

20 bucks. Not real cheap but it's still a good title.

$20 is a good deal for the title. Still, I hate to say "buy" at that price when you are slightly iffy.

No Again marathon for me tonight. I instead had a telephone marathon with a friend who needed "advice". While it was nice to help a friend in need...I tried to play Again while I was on the phone, but it was to hard to play and try to concentrate on the phone call.

@Vigil: I don't know if there is anything that anyone can motivate you for more Bioshock 2 play. If you liked the first one but feeling this way about the second...I don't think the eventual upswing in gameplay will have you changing your mind. B2 is a solid title, but it's much like the first which isn't a bad thing but for many that I read it wasn't enough to have them enjoy it the second time around.

How far in the game are you?

[Spigot]

Played a good chunk more of Fragile tonight. Just when I thought things wouldn't get weirder...

And the 'monsters' are getting both deadlier and stranger. Not quite as scary/creepy as a lot of the earlier ones though...

Rein: I'm at the rubble pile/Archive 3. Am I much closer to the end? I STILL have no idea what's going on, though I did stumble upon a newspaper clipping on a wall that at least hinted a bit at what might have been the trigger to the apocalypse...

Oh, and on a side note: We went out for dinner for my mom's birthday today at a nice steak & seafood place that was like stepping back in time about 50 years. It was staffed by a crew of incredibly classy elderly Italian gentlemen who were very nice and friendly. We were all kind of thrown by this as we're used to having the bubbly blonde server when we go out to restaurants and we weren't quite sure how to handle these guys. That said, they were great servers, the food was amazing and I think one of them was trying to hit on my wife because he brought her a prime rib that was about the size of a small moose. Seriously, we've cooked roasts for our family that were smaller than the slab of meat that she was brought. The leftovers alone from her meal will feed our family for 2-3 days. Of course, this meant I get to give my wife the gears about her Latin lover for the next few days :)

It was an odd meal, but a thoroughly charming kind of odd that was the perfect way to step out of our comfort zone. I'd do it more often if it was as enjoyable as this :)

[Purple Santa]

Oh, and on a side note: We went out for dinner for my mom's birthday today at a nice steak & seafood place that was like stepping back in time about 50 years. It was staffed by a crew of incredibly classy elderly Italian gentlemen who were very nice and friendly. We were all kind of thrown by this as we're used to having the bubbly blonde server when we go out to restaurants and we weren't quite sure how to handle these guys. That said, they were great servers, the food was amazing and I think one of them was trying to hit on my wife because he brought her a prime rib that was about the size of a small moose. Seriously, we've cooked roasts for our family that were smaller than the slab of meat that she was brought. The leftovers alone from her meal will feed our family for 2-3 days. Of course, this meant I get to give my wife the gears about her Latin lover for the next few days :)


Italian male = latin lover now? Interesting. I didn't realize Italy was part of Latin America ;)

No opinion for Menage on Borderlands? I know you played it for a bit. I thought you liked it enough but I can't remember if you found it a bit repetitive but it was still fun.

Be careful with the ribbing and Mrs. Spig. She can turn around stating she's still a hot and viable woman who gets a males attention. Women are evil that way to point that out :p

[rein]

Played a good chunk more of Fragile tonight. Just when I thought things wouldn't get weirder...

And the 'monsters' are getting both deadlier and stranger. Not quite as scary/creepy as a lot of the earlier ones though...

Rein: I'm at the rubble pile/Archive 3. Am I much closer to the end? I STILL have no idea what's going on, though I did stumble upon a newspaper clipping on a wall that at least hinted a bit at what might have been the trigger to the apocalypse...

Oh, and on a side note: We went out for dinner for my mom's birthday today at a nice steak & seafood place that was like stepping back in time about 50 years. It was staffed by a crew of incredibly classy elderly Italian gentlemen who were very nice and friendly. We were all kind of thrown by this as we're used to having the bubbly blonde server when we go out to restaurants and we weren't quite sure how to handle these guys. That said, they were great servers, the food was amazing and I think one of them was trying to hit on my wife because he brought her a prime rib that was about the size of a small moose. Seriously, we've cooked roasts for our family that were smaller than the slab of meat that she was brought. The leftovers alone from her meal will feed our family for 2-3 days. Of course, this meant I get to give my wife the gears about her Latin lover for the next few days :)

It was an odd meal, but a thoroughly charming kind of odd that was the perfect way to step out of our comfort zone. I'd do it more often if it was as enjoyable as this :)I'm trying to remember exactly where that is and I don't want to ask in a way that can spoil it. If you're where I think you are you are getting pretty close.

[Cyndair]

Like that entire post makes any sense to anyone but Cyndair........ :p

But I appreciated it!

Curse my busy schedule lately... I wanted to do ToAU w/ you guys.

[Gorvi]

But I appreciated it!

Curse my busy schedule lately... I wanted to do ToAU w/ you guys.
I won't mind helping out, it's been incredibly easy so far. There are literally only 7 fights in the entire thing, the only thing that slows you down is having to wait for Japanese midnight between most of the fights. There are a decent number of people doing them now, as you need to complete ToAU in order to open up Alexander and Odin as summons.

We did the next mission tonight, so only two to go now. The storyline, so far, has been great. If all goes well we'll have them done Sunday and Monday night, then it'll be all about going through the huge number of Wings of the Goddess quests and missions.

[Pale Ale]

Italian male = latin lover now? Interesting. I didn't realize Italy was part of Latin America ;)

Romantic (in the literal sense) language speaker= Latin

Latin + salacious = Latin Lover


You act like you've never watched television! :p


I picked up, in the metaphorical sense, Beat Hazard today from Steam.
I'm a sucker for music based algorithm games and I have noticed a few things.

1. I'm glad I'm not prone to seizures.

2. I'm glad I'm not color blind.

[Vigil80]

@Vigil: I don't know if there is anything that anyone can motivate you for more Bioshock 2 play. If you liked the first one but feeling this way about the second...I don't think the eventual upswing in gameplay will have you changing your mind. B2 is a solid title, but it's much like the first which isn't a bad thing but for many that I read it wasn't enough to have them enjoy it the second time around.

How far in the game are you?
Not far at all. I did like Bioshock, but I felt little enthusiasm for a sequel, like others have mentioned. I also remember the intro to the first being much more mysterious and engaging. So far it feels like I was simply dropped in the middle of the city with not much purpose. I also don't feel like a big daddy - except for being slow and plodding - which was one of the main selling points for me to try the game.

I know I'm going through something of a picky phase with my games. Not long ago, it was enough for a game to merely be something I hadn't played yet to get me going. Maybe Gamefly is spoiling me.

[Satertek]

Beat FF XIII. Disappointed.

(I don't consider any of this a spoiler, but I'm tagging it for the paranoid)

Ending sucked, and there was never a clear indication of what the final boss was or when the game actually ended, so I never let myself relax and enjoy was was there of the ending. It was just boss, cutscene, boss, boss, cutscene, boss, cutscene, credits. Wait what?

Never in the game was it ever made clear exactly who or what the objective was. This was the Star Wars prequels of Final Fantasy. A ton of cool effects and eye candy to go along with a story that doesn't even try to make sense.

[Xydarc]

Oh, and on a side note: We went out for dinner for my mom's birthday today at a nice steak & seafood place that was like stepping back in time about 50 years. It was staffed by a crew of incredibly classy elderly Italian gentlemen who were very nice and friendly. We were all kind of thrown by this as we're used to having the bubbly blonde server when we go out to restaurants and we weren't quite sure how to handle these guys. That said, they were great servers, the food was amazing and I think one of them was trying to hit on my wife because he brought her a prime rib that was about the size of a small moose. Seriously, we've cooked roasts for our family that were smaller than the slab of meat that she was brought. The leftovers alone from her meal will feed our family for 2-3 days. Of course, this meant I get to give my wife the gears about her Latin lover for the next few days :)

It was an odd meal, but a thoroughly charming kind of odd that was the perfect way to step out of our comfort zone. I'd do it more often if it was as enjoyable as this :)
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/il-cantore-resaurant/2494/

[Spigot]

Italian male = latin lover now? Interesting. I didn't realize Italy was part of Latin America ;)

No opinion for Menage on Borderlands? I know you played it for a bit. I thought you liked it enough but I can't remember if you found it a bit repetitive but it was still fun.

Be careful with the ribbing and Mrs. Spig. She can turn around stating she's still a hot and viable woman who gets a males attention. Women are evil that way to point that out :pHey, where do you think Latin came from? Not Latin America! I'm talking about the classics here, man!

And I like Borderlands a lot on the 360. I would probably rather play it on the PC for M/KB but I know that at release it was very much a port of a 360 game, as far as a lot of the interface stuff went, than what you'd expect from a game that had been touted as having the PC as its optimal platform.

And if my wife wants to start chasing around 70 year old Italian restaurant hosts, well, more power to her. I can handle the competition if that's the age division I have to contend with :)

[Spigot]

I'm trying to remember exactly where that is and I don't want to ask in a way that can spoil it. If you're where I think you are you are getting pretty close.It's one of the offshoots of 'the big shaft' area. I still have NO idea where this game is going and if nothing else, I hope they at least resolve what happened to the world and what is going to happen to Seto. I love the game as it is but if it just kind of meanders into an Evangelion-esque ending that doesn't tie anything up and just postulates a bunch of pop-psychology blather I'll scream. As it stands now, it could go that way OR it could tie everything up very nicely and I'll be happy as a clam.

[Purple Santa]

Romantic (in the literal sense) language speaker= Latin

Latin + salacious = Latin Lover


You act like you've never watched television! :p


I was the original tv generation...those kids who had the tv babysit them. I am surprised I have found a way to ween myself of most tv...but I digress...

Spigot is usually, unless when he's bombing us with puns, is much more literal. I thought it was a stretch for him. I was just ribbing him on the stretch. I'll blame it on him being tired...I expected higher standards from him ;)


I know I'm going through something of a picky phase with my games. Not long ago, it was enough for a game to merely be something I hadn't played yet to get me going. Maybe Gamefly is spoiling me.
Gamefly does do that. I find if many games don't grab me, I just send it back. I have to much other stuff to try that might engage me faster or to a greater degree.

From your comments so far with B2...it does take a bit of "it's not going to be the classic the first was". For those who did, had fun with the game. Those who decided to not forgive that there was a sequel...didn't enjoy it. I am open to nuances in the story. I found the story and the way it was tried to be integrated into the first, interesting. But i'm not someone to compare the plots of both and find holes why it wasn't possible. My threshold for fun with games is pretty low. The game and the plot worked for me. So the game as it progressed, which it does get better, I really really liked. There was a running theme in the story that resonated with me on a personal level. But I don't think that is going to be the case with many who played it. Although I am curious when Spigot gets around to playing it..and finding his reaction...
Hey, where do you think Latin came from? Not Latin America! I'm talking about the classics here, man!
I'm sensing cop out answer too :p I thought you were going to throw that out there. Yes, I am familiar with Latin as a language versus Latin as a geographical description of a continent. Still, I think for you...I was just surprised you would "mix" such contexts. I thought you were to much of a grammar purist to do such things :p

I await your scholarly snarky reply to smack me down :D

[Purple Santa]

On a gaming note, i'm stuck already in Again. Why can't I just move objects because I know what is different! Let me fix this damn room!

[Spigot]

Some of the spots in Again are tricky to set right but I think that you can do everything in that room (if it's the one I think it is) on the first visit. Some of the later investigation areas require you to do a certain amount of poking around and then you have to go out and talk to people to get new items, etc. before returning to finish the scene properly.

[frederec]

I love the game as it is but if it just kind of meanders into an Evangelion-esque ending that doesn't tie anything up and just postulates a bunch of pop-psychology blather I'll scream.

I think this describes the ending to practically every Japanese anime, movie, and video game in existence. As a culture they seem to have a lot of trouble not getting existential in their media.

[Kelegacy]

20 bucks. Not real cheap but it's still a good title.

I bought Borderlands for PS3 on Friday for $17. I think it's going to be decent, but I've only played a few missions. It wasn't as exciting as I thought it would be immediately, though.

[Purple Santa]

Some of the spots in Again are tricky to set right but I think that you can do everything in that room (if it's the one I think it is) on the first visit. Some of the later investigation areas require you to do a certain amount of poking around and then you have to go out and talk to people to get new items, etc. before returning to finish the scene properly.
I fooled around with it and found I could actually leave, save then come back. I then quickly realized I must have to go somewhere else to find more info before i can do anything else in the room. I started a conversation with someone who I had spoken to and now was willing to speak more. I then had to put the game down (once a week call to the mother) but after reading your helpful hint...this is indeed what I needed to do. I'm so used to games being so closed, if you are to find four "events", you must do them before leaving otherwise you can't move on. I like that I can move around and leave which is necessary. Makes it feel a bit more like a investigation that way.

[Gorvi]

I almost forgot, I also tried the demo for the new Sam & Max that went up on the PSN this week. Now I'd never played a game in the series, so I didn't know what to expect, but damn was I ever not impressed. The entire presentation just looked sloppy and it did absolutely nothing to set up the situation they put you in. The writing was clever in places, I guess, but for the most part it was nothing to write home about. I was certainly well below your average Ratchet & Clank game, which so far as I can tell was the tone they were going for.

[Purple Santa]

Bah. Spigot was right. All I needed was in that damn room. I just didn't use the evil eye properly on something. At least i'm not stuck anymore. But I did go out and find more information about the case before getting unstuck.

[rein]

It's one of the offshoots of 'the big shaft' area. I still have NO idea where this game is going and if nothing else, I hope they at least resolve what happened to the world and what is going to happen to Seto. I love the game as it is but if it just kind of meanders into an Evangelion-esque ending that doesn't tie anything up and just postulates a bunch of pop-psychology blather I'll scream. As it stands now, it could go that way OR it could tie everything up very nicely and I'll be happy as a clam.You are getting "fairly" close to getting some answers and the end. It still took me a few of hours from there. Going through those tunnels is when I started getting a little anxious and wanting to wrap things up but I still spent a little time exploring. The game turned out to be a little longer than I expected.

[jpublic]

Thanks for the compliments. I've never been serious about writing, maybe I should take a class. Hopefully jpublic won't notice the "safe word.";)

Your hope was in vain, my friend. :D

Anyway, I avoided this thread mostly because of the sadness it would entail.

As I posted in my poll yesterday, I spent the entire freaking Friday evening and Saturday cleaning out the storage room in my place. 6 big black garbage bags of crap out of a 8x8 room. Gah.

Items of note:

Finally tossed my Gravis Ultraound Ace. Seriously, why was I keeping that? It's a freaking ISA card.

Speaking of ISA cards (and old PCI ones), why do I have all these damn 10BaseT and 10Base2 cards sitting around?

I only got to play Assassin's Creed 2 for about an hour, even though I had the damn thing queued up on my computer all damn day. I did get to play an hour of White Knight Chronicles while I lay on the couch nursing my aching muscles, and I'm enjoying that one.

I was originally going to play more FF13, but something about that Ch 11 turns me off.

[Spigot]

You are getting "fairly" close to getting some answers and the end. It still took me a few of hours from there. Going through those tunnels is when I started getting a little anxious and wanting to wrap things up but I still spent a little time exploring. The game turned out to be a little longer than I expected.Cool. I was just curious about if it was going to end up going for another 5 hours after that or if I was relatively near to the end. Hopefully I'll have it finished either tonight or tomorrow evening.

I'm starting to get a little less explorey and a little more wrap-this-uppy now that I'm in the tunnels. It's probably because I have a stack of other games that I've put on hold until I finish Fragile that is causing this feeling... I can't neglect my babies :)

Bah. Spigot was right. All I needed was in that damn room. I just didn't use the evil eye properly on something. At least i'm not stuck anymore. But I did go out and find more information about the case before getting unstuck.I really liked talking with people from earlier cases once I was on later ones. It was neat to see what they'd say about the resolution to their cases or other things.

[MagGnome]

The only game that I've been playing lately is Minecraft (http://www.colonyofgamers.com/cogforums/showthread.php?t=16493).

It's basically a building/digging game. The multiplayer is entirely creative at this point. We have a COG server up where a bunch of us have been building castles, towers, tunnels, pyramids, etc. It's pretty awesome!

The single player survival mode is also a lot of fun. Unlike creative mode, where you have an infinite amount of all the blocks and you cannot die, in single player you have to mine to get blocks, and you have a health and armor bar. There are monsters in the game that will attack and kill you. It can be a little scary when you're underground mining coal, iron, gold, etc. and all of a sudden a skeleton is shooting arrows at you.

Right now I have a small stone fortress built in survival mode, and I'm slowly mining out a large area for resources. For some reason going underground in this game really scares me, and more than once I've let out a loud scream after stumbling upon a monster.


Here's a shot of my fortress in the COG server:

http://www.flexamail.com/GetImage.ashx?id=3012

[Spigot]

I've got Agentgray chomping at my heels to play Sleep Is Death (http://www.sleepisdeath.net/). It sounds awesome and I MIGHT give it a try later on.

[MagGnome]

Sleep Is Death looks great. I'm tempted to pick it up at some point.

[Kelegacy]

Played Dante's Inferno today, passed Charon and I'm in Limbo now, in the Gluttony level I think. So far I'm really impressed. This game got shat on by some people, but it's definitely a God of War clone...but a really good one so far. I guess if GoW is going to be cloned, it better be like this and not half assed.

Now I'm going to pop in Arkham Asylum and give it a run. People compare it to the first time they played Bioshock...so this should be fun. It's about time I played the game!

[Spigot]

That's good to hear, Kel. I am very interested in playing Dante's Inferno but it is selling for $59-69 everywhere around here. I have near the top of my queue so hopefully it will come soon.

I have the house to myself right now and tried to play Fragile but my living room is too bright and the setting is too dark to really appreciate it. The Glass Cage is about to start...

[MagGnome]

I got a good ways into Arkham Asylum on the PC. I was enjoying it until I came across Bane, after which I quit. I hate boss battles.

Still, I should get back to it and figure out a way to beat him, as the rest of the game is great.

[frederec]

I tried the Arkham Asylum demo, but I couldn't even finish it. I couldn't stand the art direction. Everyone looked like ugly shiny over-pumped bodybuilders. It's a shame, because the way everyone raves about it, I was looking forward to playing it.

[Superman's Dead]

I tried the Arkham Asylum demo, but I couldn't even finish it. I couldn't stand the art direction. Everyone looked like ugly shiny over-pumped bodybuilders. It's a shame, because the way everyone raves about it, I was looking forward to playing it.

But...for the most part, that's exactly what they are.

I mean, it's prisoners, prison guards, and a super-hero. They hit the gym every so often.

[frederec]

But...for the most part, that's exactly what they are.

I mean, it's prisoners, prison guards, and a super-hero. They hit the gym every so often.

Yeah, but the shine everyone had got me. And their faces were all butt ugly. It's not just the muscles, otherwise I wouldn't ever want to play God of War.

[Spigot]

Yeah, but the shine everyone had got me. And their faces were all butt ugly. It's not just the muscles, otherwise I wouldn't ever want to play God of War.I didn't find it particularly shiny on the PS3. I mean, not like a lot of early 'next-gen' Unreal games looked back a few years ago when everything looked like it was made of wet plastic.

[Kelegacy]

I understand what frederec is talking about. It does have a bit of the shine factor MAYBE, but so far it's been a fun game. I got past the demo portion, fought my first mutated enemy and then I had to save. Was going to the in-laws for Sunday dinner, this week a BBQ.

But about 100 feet down the road my wife and I get into a stupid spat--something laughably silly--and she turned around and dropped me back off at the house. Whatever, I got to spend the last hour or so playing games. :) Popped Dante's Inferno back in and am still amazed at how this one is a great rip-off of GoW and a damn good one at that. How some reviewers can give games like this a bad score is beyond me. I swear that doing reviews for a living must really fuck with the enjoyment factor for a lot of games.

But perhaps I haven't gotten to the bad parts yet. I've read it can get a bit repetitive, but we'll see.

[frederec]

I plan on trying Arkham Asylum again when it gets cheap. I think part of what got me about it was that they seemed to be going for the feel of the cartoon with the voice acting, but the art style was so very different from that of the cartoon.

Sorry you got in a fight with the missus, Kelegacy. I hate situations like that. Even while it's happening there's a part of me saying, "This argument is stupid, there's no reason for us to be having it," while at the same time I'm digging in my heels and refusing to budge. The worst is when that shit lasts for a while. No fun.

[Purple Santa]

I really liked talking with people from earlier cases once I was on later ones. It was neat to see what they'd say about the resolution to their cases or other things.
Well although i'm not far (only chapter 4) there was one minor resolution which I was impressed with when I meandered back to talk to them. I love not going directly where the game "suggests" you go instead walking around to talk to everyone else but who you should be talking to. I have found some interesting info that way.
The only game that I've been playing lately is Minecraft (http://www.colonyofgamers.com/cogforums/showthread.php?t=16493).

I've got Agentgray chomping at my heels to play Sleep Is Death (http://www.sleepisdeath.net/). It sounds awesome and I MIGHT give it a try later on.
Both of these look great. I'll put that on my to play list especially the free one :D
I got a good ways into Arkham Asylum on the PC. I was enjoying it until I came across Bane, after which I quit. I hate boss battles.

I'm no fan of bosses. But they were pretty tame in AA.
I tried the Arkham Asylum demo, but I couldn't even finish it. I couldn't stand the art direction. Everyone looked like ugly shiny over-pumped bodybuilders. It's a shame, because the way everyone raves about it, I was looking forward to playing it.
I hated the demo for AA. I ended up loving the game when I rented it though. The art direction won't get better if you find a way to rent it, but the game plays better than the demo displayed.

Spent the afternoon trying to solve a 19 yr old murder cases but now i'm stuck...Again. I might have to take a break and play something else. Splinter Cell is sitting there as is Sakura Wars.

[Kelegacy]

I plan on trying Arkham Asylum again when it gets cheap. I think part of what got me about it was that they seemed to be going for the feel of the cartoon with the voice acting, but the art style was so very different from that of the cartoon.

Sorry you got in a fight with the missus, Kelegacy. I hate situations like that. Even while it's happening there's a part of me saying, "This argument is stupid, there's no reason for us to be having it," while at the same time I'm digging in my heels and refusing to budge. The worst is when that shit lasts for a while. No fun.

It's nothing big--silly shit like that happens sometimes. I had a hard time putting my son in the car seat--belting him in, I couldn't get it to latch--so I said "you do it," and got in the car. She had a hissy, and when she got him in easily she said something about me being 12 years old and not able to do something so simple. I told her to let me out of the vehicle and she just laughed and kept driving. I said, "You make me go to these things every weekend against my will," which was a joke, but she turned around, drove me home as I protested the entire time, and dropped me off. Once even a smidgen of a tiff has started, she runs with it. Ridiculous stuff. I'm too old to play games, and I've told her that. I used to play games with my girlfriends when I was in high school and college, but I'll be 30 this year. I'm far past that point now.

I think if she wants more drama in her life she should watch Lifetime like other women. :)

[Spigot]

Popped Dante's Inferno back in and am still amazed at how this one is a great rip-off of GoW and a damn good one at that. How some reviewers can give games like this a bad score is beyond me. I swear that doing reviews for a living must really fuck with the enjoyment factor for a lot of games. I'm not even going to comment on the 'spat with the wife' part. I'm so innured to that at this point that I feel almost strange if I don't do SOMETHING to piss her off at least once a week :)

And I wonder if Dante's scores with reviewers would have been better had God Of War 3 not been coming soooo soon after Dante's release. From all accounts, the game has great level and artistic design and while the story might not be anything to write home about, you can't really say that GoW's story is Pulitzer material either.

The thing that GoW does do so well is the sense of scale and that is one thing I haven't heard much about in Dante's.... plus I hear that the enemies can be a little annoying at times unlike the cannon fodder in GoW that exists only to be turned to mulch.

Having already finished GoW3, I am very interested in trying out Dante's to see which I like more. From all accounts, you really need to do a comparison between GoW1 and Dante's in terms of raw potential than trying to do a direct comparison from the third, very polished iteration on a formula with a newcomer.

And having played a lot of really BAD GoW clones, I get the distinct impression that Dante's is something that actually deserves to be called a GoW clone unlike trash like X-Blades or Ghost Rider or the like.

[MagGnome]

I think if she wants more drama in her life she should watch Lifetime like other women. :)

Ha! You are hysterical. :D

I just spent 1.5 hours playing Magic: The Gathering on the 360. Apparently I hadn't played since October. :eek:

[Xydarc]

Mimana: Iyar Chronicle finished. Enjoyable mediocre, I think Spigot and/or Gorvi would enjoy it around the $15 range. I paide $29.90 for it thanks to GoGamer, but that was $10 too much for me. It was better than Crimson Gem Saga, but not as good as Brave Story. The game's battle system is very Star Ocean/Tales of-esque with limited AI configuration. There's also a limited "dating" bit, but it didn't really go anywhere as the entire ending was: there's 5 more priestesses to find, so we better go do that. Cya next game! Oh and you get to ride the train with the girl you paid the most attention to. Romance? What do you think this is, a BioWare game?;)

The dungeon map puzzles, after the first 2, were nice and tricky. The English voice acting is okay, with the exception of Melrose. Her voice actress was great. The music was standard JRPG, nothing special. The boss battles were the worst part. Boss battle 1 was incredibly tough. You had to grind to at least level 9-10 to stand a chance. After that, no real grinding was needed as the rest of the bosses were cake. That is, until you hit the final boss, who managed to almost always heal just as I got it down to the last sliver of health.

Another complaint, the game pulls an Aeris on you just before the final battle. So, that character, which I had been developing and had good equipment on, wasn't available for the last boss.:mad:

There is a new game +, so you can play over and "romance" another girl if you want, but I have no real motivation to do so. I'm not sure there are enough anime scenes (too brief) to keep my interest. There's also some kind of password thing involving the Mimana website and supposedly there are multiple endings. However, there are too many other games to be played and the story and characters, while okay, didn't really hook me on the world and story.

To sum up: not bad, not great. A couple of enjoyable moments (a couple of them involving Melrose had me laughing out loud) lost in a sea of mediocrity. If you do play it, I recommend this guilde: http://guide4gamers.com/mimana-iyar-chronicle-psp-guide. The dude's English is terrible, but the maps are great.

[MagGnome]

I'm envious of your guys' ability to finish so many games.

[Kelegacy]

I'm envious of your guys' ability to finish so many games.

You have to focus on one and don't play another until it's finished. I can multitask games, but not the greatest. Right now I'm playing Batman and Dante's Inferno...well, probably a bunch more, but those are the two I'm going to focus on the most. I bet one of these days I'll hit a stride and wind up playing one for hours on end or focus more on it than the other until I beat it.

But it's easy to get distracted in this era of so many games. I have a shelf full of games I won't trade away because I haven't played much of them.

[Purple Santa]

My younger self (granted a very long time ago) would of jumped in with all kinds of commentary about the relationship talk. Time has taught me to do more listening and stay far away from discussions about religion, politics and relationships :). That said...sorry to hear about your fight with the missus Kel.

I was in Target tonight and saw some deals I wish I could take advantage of. Nothing great i'm sure but still I wish I had some cash. Borderlands for the PC for $20. Then I saw some old PC games like Age of Empires and similar titles that I really wanted. Someone was willing to buy me a belated birthday gift but what I really wanted wasn't there. I have seen the Fallout set (1,2 and tactics) at this target always resisting. I actually went in tonight to buy it but it wasn't there. Maybe i'll play Civ III at my internship tomorrow since it's my last day. If the phones are quiet, I can play on this relic.

Day 5 and counting in Again. The plot is thickening and is getting weird.

[rein]

I'm envious of your guys' ability to finish so many games.
Pretty much what Kel said. I lost interest in games because I could never seem to finish one. Since taking the approach that I would stay focused on one game I have completed 4 games already this year. That is more than I completed all of last year. I'm actually close to completing my 5th.

[Xydarc]

Purple, GoG.com has Fallout 1, 2, and Tactics. DRM free and at a great price.

[Spigot]

Ah bullpucky. I had my plan to play through the end of Fragile dashed tonight by making the mistake of sitting in my ever-so-comfy chair. Grr.

I had 10 minutes of a DVD to finish watching before I was going to fire up Fragile and the next thing I know, it's 2am and the menu screen on the DVD is playing. Craaaaap.

I did get to play a bit more Again though. Maybe I'll go play a little bit of that before crashing for good and true.

[Spigot]

Hey Mags. This one is for you. Some guy built a PC INSIDE Dwarf Fortress.

Enjoy (http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=49641.0).

[Purple Santa]

Purple, GoG.com has Fallout 1, 2, and Tactics. DRM free and at a great price.
So true. I've actually looked at that lovingly from them too. That will probably be the first purchase when i'm employed again.
Ah bullpucky. I had my plan to play through the end of Fragile dashed tonight by making the mistake of sitting in my ever-so-comfy chair. Grr.

Reading this, I immediately checked to see the posted time. Yep, you fell asleep in your chair waking up from your nap..poor Spig...
Hey Mags. This one is for you. Some guy built a PC INSIDE Dwarf Fortress.

Enjoy (http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=49641.0).

I don't even play that game (although I should) and i'm jealous. Here is hoping Mags goes back playing it. I loved his screenshots and his game tales from the game.

[Spigot]

Yup. I fell asleep on that chair and didn't wake up until 3ish. I did play some Again when I went to bed and got to Day 6.

[MagGnome]

You have to focus on one and don't play another until it's finished. I can multitask games, but not the greatest. Right now I'm playing Batman and Dante's Inferno...well, probably a bunch more, but those are the two I'm going to focus on the most. I bet one of these days I'll hit a stride and wind up playing one for hours on end or focus more on it than the other until I beat it.

But it's easy to get distracted in this era of so many games. I have a shelf full of games I won't trade away because I haven't played much of them.

Thanks for the advice! I have so many games now that it's actually hard for me to play any of them. I look at the list, become overwhelmed, and go back to surfing the net.


Pretty much what Kel said. I lost interest in games because I could never seem to finish one. Since taking the approach that I would stay focused on one game I have completed 4 games already this year. That is more than I completed all of last year. I'm actually close to completing my 5th.

My other problem (besides owning too many games) is that I tend to lose patience quickly when gaming. For example, I was having a great time in Batman: AA until the Bane fight. He killed me a few times and then I quit out of frustration. I haven't gone back to the game since. The same thing happened in Aquaria.

I also cannot even begin to count the number of games I've played a few hours of and then stopped for no apparent reason - Oblivion, Fallout 3, and a few dozen others I'm sure.


Hey Mags. This one is for you. Some guy built a PC INSIDE Dwarf Fortress.

Enjoy (http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=49641.0).

I don't even play that game (although I should) and i'm jealous. Here is hoping Mags goes back playing it. I loved his screenshots and his game tales from the game.

I actually saw that computer the other day, but thanks for the link! It's really awesome IMHO.

I really should start playing Dwarf Fortress again. I made myself stop playing Sins of a Solar Empire and Dwarf Fortress a little over a year ago because I wasn't playing anything else. I figured that I would spend all that time playing games I could actually finish, but ever since I've only played through a couple of games. Obviously that plan was stupid, and I should probably just play whatever I'm enjoying regardless of whether or not it has an ending.

[Purple Santa]

My other problem (besides owning too many games) is that I tend to lose patience quickly when gaming. For example, I was having a great time in Batman: AA until the Bane fight. He killed me a few times and then I quit out of frustration. I haven't gone back to the game since. The same thing happened in Aquaria.
This occurs quite often with me. I guess I should be more patient but I don't have the time to hone whatever particular skill it is the game developers want me to have to beat said boss. I don't play games for the challenge of my thumbs and eye/hand coordination of the controls. As much as I love games, I need to draw a line how much time I spend with them. That's why I love renting. And Youtube. If I can't finish a game now, I go watch it there if it's one I care that much about. I used to feel guilty about not finishing or getting past a particular boss. Bah to that. I just move onto another game that i'll immerse my attention in.

I also cannot even begin to count the number of games I've played a few hours of and then stopped for no apparent reason - Oblivion, Fallout 3, and a few dozen others I'm sure.
I don't think it's coincidence that games get put down and never again to be played. That doesn't mean they aren't good games, but I think there is a pattern in games that make many gamers become bored, or become distracted. I think this correlates to the frustration factor and time. To much padding in a game or just doing events in a game to do more of the same. I really have taken notice of games that grab me, hold my attention until I finish. You begin to realize why some game although popular, don't grab you as an individual. For me, unless you can draw me in with some kind of interesting plot, no matter how hackneyed or ridiculous, i'll move on. Also, accessibility and level of difficulty. I want to be able to go through a game and finish. I don't want a cakewalk but don't make it suddenly ridiculous with thumb bending bosses.
[quote=Mr. Gnome}
Obviously that plan was stupid, and I should probably just play whatever I'm enjoying regardless of whether or not it has an ending.[/QUOTE]

You collect games because you can try a bunch to play and see the few that will appeal to you. I know you buy many Steam games but I see it as sifting through enough to find a few gems that you will enjoy. That's the bonus of buying them so cheap. If you don't get to most or don't like so many...just the cost of trying not different than going to a movie, restaurant or buying clothes. Sometimes you like what you buy, sometimes we don't. Other times stuff sits in a closet never to be worn. Just go play and find what is good for that moment. Even if it means starting and stopping through a pile of games.

[MagGnome]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, PS. You bring up a lot of good points!

I suppose I shouldn't feel so bad about all of those unplayed games. It just gives me more options in the inevitable apocalypse. :D

[Purple Santa]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, PS. You bring up a lot of good points!

I suppose I shouldn't feel so bad about all of those unplayed games. It just gives me more options in the inevitable apocalypse. :D

I thought of this with you and the apocalypse:

UAxARJyaTEA

[MagGnome]

Thanks Santa. That was both amusing and tragic.

[Spigot]

I'm afraid of a nuclear future where all colour is blasted from the world...

[Purple Santa]

Thanks Santa. That was both amusing and tragic.
I grew up on the Twilight Zone, so i'm a huge fan. Amusing and tragic sums up TZ pretty well. If you haven't seen many episodes, make a marathon night of them with friends. Even if you have seen them...great marathons to watch with others.
I'm afraid of a nuclear future where all colour is blasted from the world...

Oh you mean this colorless maddening world?

7elIuEACmkQ

[MagGnome]

I grew up on the Twilight Zone, so i'm a huge fan. Amusing and tragic sums up TZ pretty well. If you haven't seen many episodes, make a marathon night of them with friends. Even if you have seen them...great marathons to watch with others.

I actually queued up "To Serve Man". I think I'll watch it tonight. I've never seen any Twilight Zone episodes.

[frederec]

I actually queued up "To Serve Man". I think I'll watch it tonight. I've never seen any Twilight Zone episodes.

The SciFi channel (last time I had cable, a few years ago), would love to do Twilight Zone marathons for just about any old holiday. I now have the complete series box set, but don't watch it nearly as much as I should.

"To Serve Man" is one of the classics. But like any show, keep in mind that as you start watching more of the show, some episodes are just hokey.

One of my personal favorites is "Living Doll." It's the only killer doll story that I think is actually kinda creepy.

Now I've got myself running through the awesome quotes from all these different episodes. But I'll resist, since you haven't seen them before. They tend to be very spoiler-y.

[MagGnome]

I'll check out Living Doll as well, thanks!

[Purple Santa]

One of my personal favorites is "Living Doll." It's the only killer doll story that I think is actually kinda creepy.


I saw that episode again when Syfy was running their last marathon. Thanks for reminding me how creeped out I was when watching that. I hadn't thought about that episode in a long time. I know why I like to forget it...brrrr...creepy indeed.

I know we are derailing, and continuing this thread but oh well...as a kid when I had a tv in my room, the tv was never turned off. Twilight Zone was a nightly showing back then on "regular" tv. First Star Trek, then right after would be TZ. Midnight for Star Trek then at 1 am was Twilight Zone. I usually made it to through the creepy music then get to spooked to watch the episodes. I covered my head with the blanket. I still don't think I can watch TZ at night all alone. Well if I left the lights on...maybe...

[MagGnome]

I watched To Serve Man. It was good, but was also very familiar. I don't think I've ever seen it before, but I'm pretty sure I read a short story that had a similar plot line.

I couldn't find Living Doll on CBS' website, but I'll keep an eye out for it.

[frederec]

I watched To Serve Man. It was good, but was also very familiar. I don't think I've ever seen it before, but I'm pretty sure I read a short story that had a similar plot line.

I couldn't find Living Doll on CBS' website, but I'll keep an eye out for it.

That will be an issue with a lot of the very famous episodes. They're old and iconic enough that some of that stuff has slipped into the collective unconsciousness. I've lost track of how many Simpsons episodes referenced various themes (including To Serve Man, in an early Halloween episode).

It doesn't hurt that a number of them are based on classic sci-fi stories too. So yeah, if you're at all familiar with sci-fi, most of it won't blow you away or shock you with their twist endings. But I feel there's a timelessness to a lot of the episodes that allows them to hold up, while many newer things, like from the eighties (Tales from the Darkside for instance) aged very poorly, for the most part.

[MagGnome]

I know what you mean. I recently watched some episodes of Are You Afraid of the Dark?, and they were terrible.

Granted it was the second-run of the show with a different cast, although I'm guessing the originals haven't held up well either. My standards were a lot lower when I was in middle school and high school.