AndrewTS

3 words... Super. Mario. Sunshine.

It's more or less what I've been thinking, indirectly, already. Sandbox games don't lend themselves well to speeding through, when most of the point is the freedom of the environments and planning your game around the missions you want to do and when. A sandbox game where you have to do stealth quite a bit too, well, even more so. Crackdown I played 1-2 hours a day, sometimes much longer on days off, slowly taking down the kingpins one by one and finally finishing it about 2 weeks after purchase. I'd heard other folks who "finished" it in 6 hours and, unsurprisingly, didn't like it, while it was one of my favorite games of the year.

The score itself is pretty meaningless, but the pre-embargo scores vs. post-embargo scores are rather suspect. However, the game is very good, even if the game may have been overhyped by Ubi marketing dopes, who apparently dreamed up the brilliant plan to bring some airheaded female figurehead to do PR for the project. The reviews gripe about the combat and enemy a.i.--and yeah, the combat mechanics are kind of flaky and generally enemies will fight you one-on-one even if you're surrounded. However, the things that I was looking forward to in the game--the huge, explorable environments (where you can climb nearly everything) with terrific art design is there, along with the varied play mechanics for both exploration and stealth.

Well, in addition to Warhawk, Heavenly Sword, Resistance, and Motorstorm, there's the recently released Assassin's Creed, Call of Duty 4, Folklore, Ratchet and Clank Future, and Smackdown vs. Raw 08. Plus, Time Crisis 4 and Uncharted are coming out next week, and the latter is getting great scores all around. lol no games Those "recent" releases are all within the last month or so. Meanwhile, the amount of worthwhile release Wii games can be counted on a one shop teacher's hand.

I did at first too. Remember that *holding* the wiimote tilted is unnecessary, because you'll keep trying to steer left/right and lose control. Quick tilts, holding slightly longer for a sharper turn, is key. Also, don't tilt too far, because then it kind of messes you up when you're trying to right it.

Wait, what Mario underwater level are you talking about? I can't think of one that seemed unnecessarily hard or frustrating.

Unlocked 3rd dome and had my first Bowser fight. Was glad to hear the Mario 64 Bowser level music, and the fight was a blast, though I'm itching for some giant swinging.

Played about 3 1/2 hours so far, 16 stars unlocked. Great game, and feels a lot like Mario 64 + Sunshine, minus Sunshine's annoying bits, and turned on its head with the little planet courses. Sweet Sweet Galaxy seems like a long-lost Sunshine obstacle course level, and the game looks fantastic. I hate, hate, hated Ray Surfing for a bit (there's not much of a tutorial, there, just "yeah, tilt it to the left/right...") until it just clicked, and now I like that too. When I got to the Super Monkey Ball looking level, I thought for sure I'd be frustrated--but surprisingly I sailed through it, albeit without many coins. The bosses have been pretty easy so far, and I'm aching for something as grand in scale and up-close as the Mario 64 Bowser fights, but I haven't seen 'em yet, so we'll see. I'm curious if, come end of this year, "the" GotY is going to involve a floating arm shooting people in the face for 6 hours, but I honestly don't care one way or the other.

Agreed, and wanted to also remind you of Carnival Night Act 2. It's not so much hard but so friggin' long you could actually be doing well and run out of time. Lots of people complained aabout the vertical barrel section, but I figured that out right away. It's just getting to the end and time-overing right at the boss that sucks.

Wading through the slow-ass intro now. This'll be my 3rd time replaying the beginning levels due to my plays at Gamestop. The game looks much better on SDTV.

While I own Crimson Skies and Halo already on disc, it's a neat feature to have available, and it's nice for the folks who have the larger hard drives. More importantly, though, does this mean online multiplayer incorporated in some fashion? Here's hoping for more good xbox1 games to be added to the BC list.

Reminder bump: this game ships tomorrow! Tomorrow/Wed my wallet is going to be attacked aggressively.

The ads I've been seeing say "in store November 14th." Meaning 13th is the ship date. If you're in a major city, you may get it, but if you're not (like me) it means there's a slim chance they'll have it but most likely not.

That Obligatory Stealth Level(s). I guess it's to add "variety" to the gameplay. However, game designers need to recognize that gamers don't want stealth unless they're playing as, oh, Solid Snake or Sam Fisher or something. If you must have it in other games, we want to able to break a ******-****er's neck at least. None of this run/hide, then get caught and killed/thrown back into a poorly-guarded cell with the same escape hole you already made there. I'm talking to you too, Aunoma. I honestly didn't find this part to be too bad. It's just a matter of shooting the propane tanks and never dawdling if an area isn't super brightly lit. However, playing it co-op it annoyed the hell out of a friend, who kept getting his ass killed.

Am I the only person around who beat the Water Temple, no guide, and didn't think it was the worst thing ever? Friggin' long, though.

Any particular part? I found the jungle area a bit annoying because it's hard to tell where certain paths begin/go, but otherwise no problems. Tyranno Lair? I would have nominate... -Virtually every auto-scrolling level ever. Having to pick, for example, an upper/lower path to take and then finding out you're about to be crushed/scrolling off the screen to death can be a real annoyance in an otherwise fun game. -God of War 1: Hades, and any level in it where there was a lot of platforming, because said platforming controls were just sloppy and lame. -Halo series: those levels with The Flood? Yeah, those. -Sonic Advance/Rush series: the levels with bottomless pits -The bug-hunting quests in Zelda: TP. -The timed watering quest in Zelda: Wind Waker. -Any game where you have a long, boring, unskippable cutscene before a really tough boss, and then when you die you have to go through it over, and over again. Every water level in the Sonic series is the suck except for Hydrocity. In fact, Labyrinth Zone isn't nearly as bad as the water level in Sonic Rush, IMO. There's parts where these balloons float to the top and explode, and without perfect timing of jumping off and flipping to the right with R, you'll either fall to the bottom or be hit by the explosion. Screwing up too much either way can often lead to drowning. Oh, and then there are the pits. Lots of pits. So many ****ing pits. It's bad enough it's a water level without ***-**** *****-****ing ******* pits, too.

Since all the in-game wrestlers and CAW wrestlers looked virtually indistinguishable (and you could actually piece together a CAW that looked like a feasible pre-created one, unlike virtually every other game featuring a CAW except Fire Pro), you could make a lot of the WWE roster without doing much more than compressing scans of faces they already have on file and whipping up a few cheap new textures for outfits.

I guess 360 owners have some Duty to take care of at the moment. I'm a bit surprised, as there appears to be a lot of Bioware fans on the board.

This could be a bigger widespread issue than the RROD. Aside from playing Blu-Ray discs, the thing that the PS3 was best at in the past year was collecting dust. I kid, but it's possible they had a fair argument. Apple has done the same thing with at least one computer that I know of, because the inside of a computer had crucial components caked with huge piles of dirt, hair and a rich, foul stench of cigarette smoke. Let's not even insinuate this reaches the stupidity and stubbornness of "things break." However, the woman he spoke to sounded like a huge TWA/T. Plus, a Mac can be opened and blasted with a good dose of canned air now and then. What are you supposed to do with a game console that, when opened, causes you to void its warranty?

There's enough graphics whore gamers I doubt it's a real concern. However, graphics whore gamers probably either don't own a Wii, or own an actual next-gen console besides.

There are already VC games that require you to use one of those.

EGM rumor : No Mercy with updated roster as a WiiWare release. Grab your pipes and dream along with me.

It's supposed to be a Feb release and no screens have been shown yet. So it's up in the air.

Ok, so what about the wireless PS3 controllers themselves. Do they charge when not in use, or do they have to have batteries replaced as well? EDIT: Nevermind, they do charge w/USB cable, but do the controllers come with the USB cable for re-charging, or is the usb cable a seperate purchase? USB cables come with them, as it's like the 360's Play n' Charge kit, but with a built-in battery. The battery is like an iPod or GBA SP/DS battery. When it finally dies it will need to be replaced, but that'll be, like, years probably.

Yeah, going for 100% would put you in that 40+ hours range, but so much of it is stuff you're never, ever going to need (yay, more rupees I have nowhere to store!). You can unlock more fairy fountains, but one is more than what you'll ever need. Cave of Trials is just dull and an excuse for the rupee-eating armor to be used, and that armor is like an excuse for the excessive amount of rupees scattered around the game.