AndrewTS

I'll be picking it up, too. I'm also coming from a rather quaint perspective of only recently playing through the first 2 games: I played through and beat Halo on Saturday, got Halo 2 yesterday, and expect to finish it some time before the H3 launch. The cliffhanger ending won't matter for me. I'm still not exactly drawn to online matches, although with Gears I enjoyed playing co-op. Online co-op may be a big difference-maker for me.

free 1 year subscription to egm: https://www.zdmcirc.com/forms/secure/EGM_joystiq_Partn.html

This info isn't actually from the yet-to-begin TGS, but full details on it will be revealed then. http://kh2.co.uk/ I think it's a Wii game, because it still looks like a console title but I think it's a bit late for a new PS2 title.

It'll lag like hell if you're, oh, in North America and playing somebody in Japan. That's a given for any online. More locally should be smooth. It better be. ChrisM is in the Philly area and I'm in the Pittsburgh area, so I'm expecting a good experience.

*thumbs up* Online *finally* confirmed. *thumbs down* Friend Codes. Uuuuuuuuuugggggggggggggggh

http://www.gamesradar.com/gb/wii/game/news...402143948293070

Yoshi Story is every bit as pointless, derivative, tedious and soulless as the gaming press says Donkey Kong Country is. Even the press release can't make it seem fun. PICKY EATING, what a brilliant game mechanic that was. They left out about the sniffing skill...which requires being in the right spot, holding "Up" I believe, until your Yoshi shrieks. Every FEW STEPS is a possible new location for a fruit. You can play through different levels depending in on...your score, or something...each time, so you can experience different lousy level designs each time before getting the "end" of the game to hear the diabeetus-causing Yoshis song. End of the game, I believe. But NOBODY forgets the Yoshi song. It's like some unholy mixture of Teletubbies and Barney. And the reason everyone hates Yoshi's Story is that Yoshi's Island is one of the best games ever made, and Yoshi's Story is garbage. Garbage baked into a cake and covered with sweet icing. It looks innocuous, it looks sweet, it has a pedigree that tells you it has to be great, but it isn't. It's just a total kick in the balls. I've seen people trying to justify it in that it was "meant for young kids," which is utterly laughable.

VC games for North America today: Yoshi's Story (Nintendo 64, 1 player, 1,000 Wii Points) Super Thunder Blade (Sega Genesis, 1 player, 800 Wii Points) World Class Baseball (TurboGrafx16, 1-2 players, 600 Wii Points) I guess this makes Super Thunder Blade the "winner." Do *NOT* get Yoshi's Story unless you know exactly what you're getting into. It's quite terrible.

That was a tough boss, yeah. I wouldn't say I'd lower my score over it (what was hard about Aries, btw? The rest of the game was pretty damn annoying because of the lousy platforming, but I beat him without too much trouble), though. However, if you don't blow out his reactors it's easy for him to completely restore himself to full health. Just blowing those damn orbs is time consuming, too. I think it took me 45-50 minutes or so to beat him.

http://www.newtrackandfield.com/ Looks like a hilarious, awesome, fun game. Plus, the character roster is a hoot. Sparkster is cool though, but this tho... http://www.newtrackandfield.com/atg/characters (and click on...)

New trailer: http://media.wii.ign.com/media/873/873984/vids_1.html (well, 2 days old...)

Because you need a DVD *burner* to *read* DVDs? Combos or Supers were all at the very least *options* on the G4s.

G4 probably is fine. G3ers? Bye-bye! Good riddance, all you no-DVD-drive-having whiners.

Thoth: The wording your post is rather confusing, but I assume you meant to say that Neo Geo games are official for North American VC, and those titles are the first three. As seen here: http://www.snkplaymoreusa.com/pr-9-12-2007.php Although--meh. The PS2 AoF and Fatal Fury 1-3 comps are 15 bucks on PS2. Hurry up with Magician Lord! The bad thing about Virtual Console is that it's discouraging compilations, which are typically great values plus they also don't take up space in my console memory. At least we got the Metal Slug compilation.

Odd typo. Unless there were some cutscenes I missed. If Nintendo would be able to sort out the legal issues, Goldeneye would be worth buying even at a "premium" price (i.e. an extra 100-200 Wii Points). Anyone who has downloaded an N64 game on VC knows that the games no longer have such ridiculous blurring. Textures are far clearer and crisper. Couple that with classic controller support (dual analogs) and you have a game that will look and play better than it did on its native hardware. Although, rumble would probably be out...did GE have rumble? I didn't really make much use of it on N64 aside from Starfox since I had to shove that big clunky rumble pack into the pad.

I would saw those could be *charitably* called "competent*, but miles away from "good." To each his own.

Since when has PWS Anderson made anything good? Are you mistaking him for another Paul Anderson? WS is the one who makes primarily video game movies, writes or directs vehicles for his girlfriend, and pissed AVP's potential down his leg.

http://kotaku.com/gaming/big-in-japan/micr...ease-298968.php Microsoft started with a pre-show press event. That's a lotta shooters. But hey--freakin' Rez!! Most interesting item, curiously glossed over in the press release: http://kotaku.com/gaming/pardner/microsoft...ners-298918.php An (apparently exclusive) Tri-Ace RPG for 360?! Completely real-time? Ok, I'm intrigued.

Also, they mention that the neutering is gone completely. Ironic. Plus, look at precedent--they can't even have the original uncensored scenes in the game code for action replay hackers to uncover, lest the wrath of the ESRB and other rating agencies come down upon them.

Manhunt 2 to bomb in sales confirmed.

Wrestling goes out of its way to avoid logic. Like WWE's booking decisions. In the case of video games and bad movies, "it looks cool" justifies a lot of really stupid stuff.

A: Turn the development of an acclaimed Japanese horror game series over to a team of American developers, who not only have never made a horror game, but their past works are average at best games, and nearly all are licensed titles and beat 'em ups. Much like with Contra 4, Konami made a curious choice in who would be making the next major installment of Silent Hill. However, The Collective's track record has been spottier than Wayforward's. An Associate Producer at Konami, Tomm Hulett, though said "Konami is not giving developers a license, a check, and a deadline." Akira Yamaoka will be serving as an advisor, although unfortunately the bulk of Silent Hill V's creative roots are unknown at this point. 1up/EGM has been putting together a massive amount of coverage on the game; there's an EGM cover story on it, and the 1up site has new media on it as well. 1up Preview: http://www.1up.com/do/previewPage?cId=3162608 1up Exclusive First Look Video: http://www.gamevideos.com/video/id/14542 Gametrailers link: http://www.gametrailers.com/player/usermovies/103527.html Akira Yamaoka interview Part 1: http://gamevideos.com/video/id/14522 Akira Yamaoka interview Part 2: http://gamevideos.com/video/id/14523 (sorry, only gamevideos seems to have it up now) BTW, Shane was mistaken crediting Yamaoka as the "creator" of Silent Hill. Keiichiri Toyama was the creator, but left after the first game and created the Forbidden Siren games (the first game was released in North America as Siren). The biggest concerns I have is how eager the developers are about improving the gameplay...yeah, it's a nice thought, but in a horror game that's basically the last thing you want to worry about. It's good that it's not going to be like every Resident Evil game before 4 (Capcom admitted to game magazines the crappy controls would stick around to make it scarier), but the worry is there of it being creatively mundane at a time when the series needs one that is a creative blowout. Alex (the main character) being a former soldier could provide lots of excellent opportunies for pushing the series in a great direction creatively. The developers favor Silent Hill 2 above all the others, and due to that game having the main character's deep-rooted issues play a large role in things that unfolded (monster designs and some of the best scenes), we could see something similar here. I'll be maintaining my skepticism for a while...but hey, the game looks great and will sound great too. Hopefully that's not all, because I'd had for it to be a repeat of the Silent Hill movie's issues.

I know it came off that way, but they are quite different weapons. I know, I know. I just had a chance to call you a Smart ass...so I took it. On a serious note, I don't get why the crossbow is such a popular weapon in fantasy/horror, whether it's movies or games. The firing mechanisms are prone to failure, they take a bitch of a time to reload, and the range ultimately isn't all that hot. The advantages are a lot of power for a short-range weapon, You can have it aimed and ready to go without expending strength, and it doesn't require a lot of strength to wield. However, a longbow has better overall range, accuracy, and obviously doesn't have the reload issues. A pro archer can fire off 20 arrows a minute with a longbow. I blame crappy vampire movies. You almost always see somebody with a crossbow in there. Of course, it's a lot more similar to a modern gun--which is the reason why it isn't a stretch to be controlled by the Wii Zapper.

I played Half-Life and Deus Ex recently for the first times (I played HL2 before, though), and I'm still very impressed with a lot about those games. Deus Ex, especially. DE makes me think of what the new Shadowrun *could* have been. Half-Life's graphics and the gameplay is no great shakes compared to today, but the way the storytelling and presentation is done is still very good.

I know it came off that way, but they are quite different weapons.