AndrewTS

Actually, Attitude was fairly well regarded at the time, as was Warzone. However, Nitro and WCW vs. NWO came out at about the same time. I remember vs. the World being rather chunky and problematic, but when Nitro came out, I groaned at how awful it was. Then I got vs. NWO, which blew me away not only on how good it was, but what an improvement it was over Vs. the World. Most magazines grumbled about the Acclaim games, but there weren't any other AKI games for it but Vs. the World, and a lot of the Acclaim games' faults were forgiven because of the CAW. However, the ECW games simplified the controls for the Attitude engine, leaving all of the other problems of the engine intact, at a time when AKI was making the WWF games, making it look even more long in the tooth than it would have.

I thought it played much, much faster than any 3D fighter around at the time, featured super-cancels and a lot of bizarre new characters, and had more polish than basically any 2D-in-3D-fighter experiment then and since. I'm guessing it's just because it was only SF with 3D graphics. However, most other titles at the time just tried, "ok, let's put in a sidestep and...ok, that and the graphics is 3D enough". Making this game totally 2D would basically doom it as a low-budget, niche product, though.

Why is it that Thunder gets slagged to no end when people forget it was the SEQUEL to WCW Nitro, which plays basically *exactly* the same and has fewer play modes? Is it just the overall lack of any improvement? I'd actually love to see that. I actually dug out Warzone a few weeks ago and played a lot of it. The game's overall feel is clunky as hell, but the poly models have held up surprisingly well and I still remembered a lot of moves, so I ended up stomping a lot of guys in short order.

3D SF confirmed? Hm, I wonder if they can make the game look anywhere near close to that. I know it's just a cutscene intro/teaser, but the art design looks a-ok.

I'd also like clarification on that. I know when FFVII came out, they reviewed it with a mega-high score, as sweet electronic ambrosia we should have been honored just to play, then they called it mediocre later on. They had a tendency to do that with a lot of games. HCG is a pretty decent mag. It also is a lot more reliable for reviews than former-Gamefan-staff-member-Dave-Halverson's Play. Curious how often those scores show up on game boxes...of course, they are usually the highest game scores to be found *anywhere*.

Trailer for Bru(umlaut)tal Legend, a hack-n'-slash title by Tim Schaffer and Double Fine. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjW4vWrLizQ

Come on, you gotta love Tom's happy memories where Sarah clearly looks bored out of her skull every time.

New Bionic Commando game in the works: http://www.gamespot.com/news/6181070.html?...estnews;title;2 Check out the video. Looks like the classic gameplay, with a story borrowed heavily from Escape from NY.

Plus Robert, of course. "Watch yo' mouth, boy. Tom, shut the hell up!" "Tom, when I said you could stay, I thought it would be temporary. Now, though...it doesn't look like there's any end in sight." Tom: It's been two days. "Nigga, hush!" I thought it was a good ep overall, with the ass-kickings as the best part. Jazmin, though...shut up, bitch! Her annoying level was cranked up to the max this ep. I actually caught the episode on Youtube, probably ripped from the adultswim site (I forgot they often show eps of shows early). Watched it again actually, but with MUTE at the ready then.

Not even close to close enough. I fully endorse this plan, however. I still enjoy No Mercy even if it's slow as hell and BUTT-ugly. What the hell is taking this game so long? FFS, 2 Zeldas have been released since it was announced. I know building a game for the first time takes a lot longer than what Yukes/THQ is doing--just crapping out the same rehashed title over and over again with a few tweaks, but I think they probably had to have gone through scrapping and rebooting already. Would it kill whoever did that writeup preview to actually explain how the gameplay works? I don't give a crap what the crowd looks like.

Firefox 98% of the time. IE only when I have problems with flash vids in it.

Tonight's ep: Featuring the return of a pimp named Slickback!

I agree. Half-Life's reputation is good enough that it doesn't need it, plus I'm sure they can come up with something else if they really feel the need to shake up the series creatively. The gun itself it enough to sustain a game, and it would dilute the concept to have it be dumped in a "normal" shooter. However, it's probably inevitable that it will be copied, in which case all bets are off. I read up a bit on it. While the engine has changed, no much else has. It hasn't been truly optimized for the engine like HL2 was. There's a mod called Black Mesa: Source coming that reportedly is going to fix that, and it may be bundled with Episode 3.

Playstation, yes, but it's only available as an import. N64, no.

Not sure of it's source, but I've heard from other folks you can download an "optimized" version that seems to run smoother than the original retail one. I'm actually playing HL1 on PS2, which seems to run quite well except for loading points. Portal is one of the coolest, most original games I've seen in a long, long time. I honestly don't care if it gun makes it into Half-Life, they could expand on this game in about a million ways.

I'm playing both, trying to step up my completion of HL1. A lot of what's going on in HL2 is confusing the heck out of me. Eurogamer has a great review of Portal, worth reading even if you bought the game, because it has a lot of interesting info: http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?artic...5005&page=1

Okay, Portal is a fun little game. I knew the Half-Lifes were great, but this is a fantastic surprise, too. Warning: Portal spoilers It seems like Valve saw Lost Skeleton of Cadavra, too.

I've been sick and pretty much stayed in bed most of the day, but when I was up and finished getting the big plays on Zelda PH, I picked up my Orange Box (360) reserve. Played a good bit of Half-Life 2, made some more progress on trying to finish the first HL, then jumped into Portal. The voice is creepy until it says something really goofy...like R&C goofy. Does the whole game feel like this though (like a demo)? EDIT: Oh, I have 4 levels to go. I guess so.

Knuckles and Tails would be fine. Maybe Eggman but any more would be overdoing it. Even if it's only Sonic that's fine by me. I don't think they'll be able to resist putting a Knux rap in, though.

Yeah, nothing but decent to great games came out on NES. Oh wait... Nintendo's publishing polices are arguably less stringent than its competition. The Charlie's Angels game was rejected by Sony and Microsoft, but Nintendo allowed it to be released for the Gamecube. Then again, Chicago Enforcer was allowed to see release on xbox, but it was a "budget" release. I'm sure we can all cite a number of truly terrible PS2 games, but mostly those were 20 bucks or less upon launch as well. Nearly all of Nintendo's 3rd party crap is 3rd party *full-priced* crap, though. I'm sure you mean the straps. I've never heard of the remotes themselves breaking (unless them crazy krauts have been going Angry German Kid on them), and they've fallen 5 feet down onto a stone tile floor about a dozen times since I've gotten the Wii. I still put in an order for my Wiimote rubbers, though. JIC.

On Wii, "just barely mediocre" is the new "must buy!" What's that in reference to? It's in reference to 3rd party wii games sucking hard, usually following the recipe "take one PS2/Wii game, Just Add Waggle " or being flat out bad side projects that they didn't care enough to put a good team on. Umbrella Chronicles is going to be like an hour long. It's a rail shooter with apparently no real depth to speak of. Manhunt 2 -- PS2 game with waggle. Godzilla Unleashed -- PS2 game with waggle. Basically the same game as DAM Melee and Save the Earth. Bleach -- licensed game by Sega, and no Treasure. Accounts of the import peg it as "shallow but fun." Hardly a meaty game experience. At least it's an original game, though! Guitar Hero 3 is a game you get the chance to purchase by virtue of simply owning a relevant console (actually, not even that-- it's also coming to Mac, for crying out loud). Naturally, it's also on PS2. Wii owners need to quit lowering their standards, and buying any crap that's available to play. That's how things like Red Steel being a million seller happen.

Depends on what you go for in a FF/RPG. IV is narrative-driven and has more simplistic overall gameplay, but most folks have great unique abilities. V's class system is very well polished and versatile, so I think it has the edge in gameplay, but it has a relatively simple, straightforward storyline with less memorable characters. I think V is just plain more fun to play, but if you never experienced IV before I'd go with that one.

New PoP trilogy...finally something to materialize off that art leaked last year: http://softrockhallelujah.blogspot.com/200...-4-screens.html Obviously, I'm interested.

Played the Conan demo. "God of War clone" kind of oversimplifies it... But let's see--a horizontal and vertical strike (called "light" and "heavy" here, but they still are H and V...), a block, jump, and throw button, using right analog to roll, context-sensitive button commands for counters and interacting with objects (at the very least), orbs collected from defeated enemies (green to restore energy, red ones for upgrading abilities). Oh, and a zoomed-out, uncontrollable 3rd person view. Feels sluggish compared to the real deal, though.

Call MS and try to get it fixed. If nobody registered it before, you may be in luck. If they refuse (perhaps on the grounds that you aren't the original purchaser, which they mighty discover if it was registered to a previous owner), or you don't want to go that route--how did you pay? If it's PayPal they have buyer protection policies that should get you a refund back on it. It's a DOA system, after all.