Mister Jack

I'm sure Naughty Dog has a good reason and all but for god's sake can we have ONE major release come out on time this year? It's starting to look like 2014 all over again.

I still wear a watch because I don't always want to have to fish out my cell phone when I want to know what time it is, but I just wear a cheap Timex. It's more than enough to get the job done.

Well it's failed twice now so hopefully they'll stop doing it, or at least start having the decency to include a proper campaign.

You and me both. I've already got Xenoblade pre-ordered. I'm not taking any more chances when it comes to Nintendo.

Oh, that. Well, I do occasionally see it for like half a second if I turn my head away for a while or put the 3DS back down and pick it up again, but so far the 3DS has always corrected the viewing angle so quickly that I don't even have time to get annoyed by it. If the system has my full attention and I'm not constantly moving around, though, then in my experience the 3D never wavers. Admittedly, I have not tried it with SMT IV yet, but I have tried it with Persona Q, Majora's Mask, Animal Crossing, Monster Hunter 4, Bravely Default, and Super Smash Bros. So far, everything has been near flawless. Even with the very rare and very brief instances of ghosting I see, this is still the best 3D I've experienced yet, and that includes what I've seen on television and movie screens. *edit* On an unrelated note, is it just me or did they improve the speakers too? I could almost swear it sounds better than the regular XL did.

If I lived in a fantasy world where I got to call the shots regarding how this game ended up, I would have done the following: - Make it free to play. If that's absolutely not possible then for crying out loud don't charge 60 dollars for it. Assuming my hypothetical version of Evolve has the same amount of content as the real one at launch, there is no excuse for that. If you're going to charge full price, you'd better be putting out a full game. - Weapon and character skins would be free. They wouldn't just be put out as free DLC, though. They'd be like the items in TF2, something you work toward either with challenges or in-game currency. That would give the playerbase a reason to keep at the game after the initial novelty has worn off. The more customization options, the better. If there must be a cash shop, make it a secondary way to get new skins, not the only option. Even this kinda rubs me the wrong way but it's an area where I'm willing to compromise. - Maps would still be free. This is the one thing they did right. - Monsters should cost 8 dollars maximum. That's the standard price for a DLC character in fighting games, and since they keep using that price I can only assume it works well enough for most people. Hunters can be bought a la carte for 5 dollars each or you can get a four-pack of all four new hunters for 15 dollars. I'm not totally married to those prices, but I think they'd be an improvement. Now would all this make the game successful? Perhaps not, but surely it sounds better than what they actually did?

http://www.vgchartz.com/game/78280/evolve/ Evolve is a flop. It was outsold even by Majora's Mask, a handheld exclusive game, and even if these figures are outdated, the developers still haven't announced their own sales numbers to anyone, preferring to use "matches played" statistics to impress people. On top of that, nobody's playing it on steam. That screen was taken right after release, by the way. The player count has only gone down since then, so I think it's safe to say this game is going to die an undignified death just like Titanfall did. Rest in piss, you DLC nightmare.

You were right about those Wahl trimmers, Ethan. I got it in the mail today (which was suprisingly fast) and just finished using it. Shaving the back of my head was kind of a bitch since I have nobody to help me out with that but the trimmer itself performed great. I didn't cut or even nick myself a single time while I was using it, and this is the first time I've ever cut my own hair. Best five dollars I ever spent.

It may not seem like it, but Apple is performing a public service. They've created a fashion accessory where all you have to do is glance at a person's wrist to know what's up. If you see a 10,000 dollar watch there, you can say to yourself "Wow, that guy's a douche bag" and steer clear of him.

Finally, someone besides me who actually thinks Kai is better.

Rogue Legacy isn't even a roguelike depending on who you ask. "Teh hardcorez" call games like that roguelites, which just makes it that much more complicated.

Ebay sent me a 25 dollar coupon so I decided to use it on that hair trimmer Ethan recommended. Ethan, if this thing ruins my head I'm holding you responsible.

Ghosting?

I started the new Shantae game today. It's pretty fun so far and it seems to have fixed the complaints I had with the previous game, particularly by ditching the strange background/foreground level design that made it easy to get lost. The levels in general are also just more fun to play through, and Shantae uses special items for her abilities rather than transformations this time around, which I see as an improvement because each item is mapped to a specific button rather than there being just one button for every dance. If there's one change I have to gripe about it's that each level is split up into a separate island now instead of there being one large open world. This would be fine except that this also means there's no fast travel, so unless you buy teleportation items before each island you'll be doing a lot of backtracking after each dungeon. This would also be fine if the game wasn't so stingy with money. Most enemies will only drop 1 gem, maybe 5 if you're lucky, and a single pirate flare (which is how you warp back to the ship) costs 30. New moves and upgrades can cost up to 400 gems, so you really need to pinch your pennies and not waste them on things like flares unless you plan on grinding for money and I say nuts to that. Still, backtracking at the end of each level is about the worst thing I can say about the game, and even then it's not that bad because there's usually new paths or secrets you can access with whatever item you got from the dungeon. I also feel like it should be cross-buy with the 3DS but I don't know if that's more Wayforward's fault or Nintendo's.

Yeah, I know, and part of that range is 1000 to 5000 dollars. I don't see how what I said is confusing.

What idiot is seriously gonna pay more than 1000 dollars for one of these things? If you're determined to spend that much money you might as well just invest in a tower.

You know, as much people are getting fed up with DLC lately (and for good reason), I feel like this is the right way to do it. After you make a game, don't just try to squeeze a season pass out of people who bought the disc. Use the assets you already have to make something new that's standalone. Everyone wins in that scenario. You don't have to spend as much on development, people who liked the original game get to have more of it, and people who never bought the original game can still try out the new one without having to own the old one first. If you think about it, Majora's Mask was the same way when you compare it to Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask turned out to be my favorite Zelda game.

May not be simultaneous but let's be frank here, you PC users still got lucky here.

Sadly, new triggers are the main reason I wanted a grip but nobody seems to have perfected that yet. I've only seen a few grips that even try.

Unless you're seriously dedicated, I wouldn't even bother. That trophy requires you to hear EVERY SINGLE ONE of Rise's support sound files. This means you have to get every character in the game afflicted with every single status ailment at least once. You have to find enemies weak against and strong against every single element. You have to get every single character wounded, then killed. You have to fight enemies above, below, and at your level. You have to fight the secret bosses. You have to afflict other enemies with every single status ailment. You have to end battles with every character below a certain HP threshold. It's just too much god damn work.

The "Rise's Biggest Fan" trophy on P4G is completely ridiculous and the reason I still don't have (and probably will never have) the platinum for that game.

If you do find one with good triggers, do let me know. I bought the PDP one, and while the grip is certainly very nice, the triggers are....mediocre.