FredEffinChopin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_-HqcNum7M

What an experience. There is certainly quite a bit of Flower present here, which I didn't really expect. It's mainly in two respects; The search/release nature of most of the level progression, and the dramatic pacing of the narrative. Neither are bad things, and both are more satisfying here than they were in Flower. While the game is gorgeous and the exploration is a lot of fun, the unique style of anonymous co-op is definitely what had me most intrigued. It's an interesting dynamic, one that I'm sure can potentially work against it at times, though I've had nothing but a good time with everyone so far. There is something to be said for having nothing but the other person's behavior and their patterns of circle-pressing to go on when working as a team. Not even a name to send a PSN message to. I feel like it served to create a perfect atmosphere of intimacy for a game that has you exploring vast and empty areas as a team. Each person I had played with was attentive in a slightly different way, but everyone was attentive. As Thursday mentioned, some people will watch where you move and fork out to cover the maximum area in minimum time, whereas other stick close. Sometimes my partner and I were close together the whole time and so totally in tune with each other that we spent most of the time in the air, recharging each-other as we flew around. One of my favorite pairings (that unfortunately had to end before we got to finish the entire journey due to me having to leave the house) was with a player who shared my desire for exploration. After we saw each other tentatively taking little steps towards various corners of the maps, we got the hint and started getting in every crevice we could. At some point (in the area where you're dodging the giant dragon-ish thing) we hit some areas that didn't even seem like they could be reached until we really started making the effort, and timing our leap-frogging correctly. Anyway, I think I'm rambling. I love the game. I had fun, it made me think and explore, I worked as a team with different personalities... and the smile this thing brought to my face on several occasions was something that few games have achieved. In particular *sigh* Good times. Bravo.

I'd say especially Microsoft. Watch how quickly consumers jump ship if games are solely available through 12-hour downloads, and at a price that is set by MS. They'd shoot themselves in the foot with a bullet so giant that it would take a leg with it. The time just isn't right yet to make digital distribution the sole method for a home console. Our tech needs a little more time in the oven. My prediction is along the lines of Thursday, PS5 at earliest.

A true masterpiece, and perhaps even more relevant in recent years than when it came out. It's always a pleasure when I dig this one out. It usually results in at least two back-to-back plays.

God my schedule sucks. Got this plat about a week ago and have been meaning to comment, but I've barely had time to do much gaming. Truly tragic. If you're still curious for a count Cowboy, it took me about two weeks in 99 hours. A good 8-10 of those were spent when I went out and left the slot machine running. Oddly enough, I was way down when I got home, and less than 30 seconds after I turned the TV on it went nuts and started jackpotting left and right. I'm pretty sure I had something like 150k coins when I finally stopped it. Anyway, I was pretty darned pleased with the game experience overall. The story kind of had me yawning in the early stages, but it eventually got kind of interesting and entertaining. The side missions helped with that sometimes too, providing some interesting supplemental information and such. I felt the biggest blow to the quality of the story was really Serah and Noel. Noel in particular was boring, especially for someone who has such an incredibly unique background. When he wasn't boring, he was just weird; either inexplicably aggressive, or coming off as a little creepy. Both of those could be justified by his upbringing, but I'm certain that that isn't what was intended. It's just poor dialogue, and a character that wasn't nearly as fleshed out as I felt he should be. While the combat had some nice improvements, I was pretty disappointed with how infrequently I was required to call on customization or unusual tactics to deal with difficult enemies. There were very few fights that forced me to change my paradigm setup, and even fewer fights that deviated from a repeating A-B-C pattern of attack on the part of the enemies. I feel like XIII made me work for it a lot more during the endgame where I had to hunt down all the badasses in the game. My biggest complaint here is the handling of the DLC, which I am seriously irritated about. It sounded lame at first that Lightning was only playable as DLC, but it made sense once I started playing the game. What doesn't make sense, is the fact that the game shows you: 1: A Colosseum 2: A costume section of the menu and you cannot do anything with either of them. With the latter it's something that wouldn't be as offensive if it was presented differently. If it was somewhere in an options or extras menu, it wouldn't feel so much like something that you're missing. With the former, it comes off as if they worked something into the game that is essentially a DLC teaser in the form of a necessary fragment (which is supposed to be story-related). In both cases I would be totally ok with it if they gave you something in each of those areas to begin with. Unlockable costumes for accomplishing certain things, with special DLC costumes for sale. An arena where most of, all of, or just some monsters from the game can be fought, and where unique enemies/members can be purchased as DLC. With the Colosseum it's especially fucked up since it's something that has appeared in several FF games, and been a source of a good chunk of endgame pursuits. I'm sure I'm not the only one who kept checking up on it, waiting for it to open, only to beat everything and discover that it's still just an empty (though slick looking) arena. I don't like it, not the idea of a FF Colosseum that is only populated when you populate it one purchase at a time, nor the idea of them selling you a feature that most games include, while only selling you additions to it. It's possibly the most unarguable case of withheld content that a developer simply decides should be DLC instead. And yeah Dean, "The story so far" wasn't quite capable of keeping up as the story progressed in different directions, and was rendered somewhat ineffective after a point. I had a feeling it might wind up being the case. I still dig the style of it though, I hope that the trend of games doing things like that continues to rise. For appropriate games, anyway. I know that looks like a lot of complaints, but really, I dug the game overall. Good times. 90 hours is pretty healthy, and I had a good time through the majority of it.

The epitome of the (to me) forgettable studio track that, with a little reworking, shines like a fucking star live. It's also a great example of music I wouldn't throw on if front of many of my male friends >.>

Brain Blast is a dick.

*hangs head* I bought Enslaved for $20 when that was a good price, and still haven't gotten around to it. I actually started moving with it a week or two ago, but then got derailed by who-knows-what. I really do need to get around to the whole thing, the game seems pretty darned solid so far. And yeah, I'm a big fan of that type of aesthetic as well.

Wow, I hadn't even caught that. I'm glad I didn't choose to have that one backup online. On an actual game note, this is such a departure from the general structure of XIII's world that it almost has the feel of a scorned artist's work. Indignant. I very well may be reading into it a bit, but everything is loaded. I'm accumulating pets at a rapid rate, as well as items to level them, xp for my characters, areas to explore, and missions to take on. "Here, this is what you wanted, right?!" I might not be so willing to give into that suspicion if not for the vocal-heavy music in here. That has to be an act of spite and/or revenge. And an effective one. It wouldn't hurt so bad if the music being crapped on by the vocals wasn't so damned good.

Yeah, but... Pictures!!! Seriously though, I'm very impressed with the presentation of it. Perhaps it's just the fact that it so closely resembles a TV show, but I'm find it very satisfying to sit through. It's definitely a step beyond the text recap. Credit to Witcher 2 if they did in fact beat them to the punch on this. Here is a video someone put up of it. It obviously contains .

Thanks for the heads up on the rocket launcher functionality. It all makes sense now. Since I hadn't used a sniper rifle until a couple of days ago, I decided to go a little snipe happy the past few times I'm playing, and I must say I'm very pleased with how well that thing works. Very neat. On a sadder note, I thought I finally earned 1st in a TDM when I went 9-1, but I only placed third. I suppose building factors more into the score than I suspected.

I'm about 2 hours in. It's going pretty well so far, though I have some complaints (mostly about inappropriate use of music). This game does something that I've never seen a game do before though... "Final Fantasy XIII-2: The story so far" Is this old news and I'm the only one who didn't know about it? For those of you who are scratching your heads, when you boot your savegame file, you're basically treated to a sort of "scenes from the last episode" montage that brushes through major events. Such a simple idea that I can't believe has ever been incorporated into a game before this. I hope this becomes the norm for games that have long and (arguably) complex narratives.

Sniper rifles are indeed in the towers. Perhaps you overlooked it or someone snagged it. Rocket launchers are in the supply depot/bunker things that cost 4... whatever the hell the building currency is. The same building that also has the shotgun. The thing that is mapped to up is indeed that rocket launcher and how you destroy vehicles and buildings easily. There's some things I'm still figuring out like the repair gun. I know where it spawns on one map, but not the smaller one. Ah, ok thanks for that. They (the rockets) just didn't look the same coming out of enemies shooting at me while I was in a Hawk so I wasn't sure. I haven't seen one repair kit yet, I was wondering if they had ditched them altogether. There is probably a lot I haven't seen...

Well, it depends on which aspects turned you off. Control-wise the vehicles are mostly similar. The Hawks seem a bit more limited in that you can't hover in place anymore, and it doesn't seem like you can do a vertical 180 (which I'm pretty sure you could pull off in Warhawk), though I've only attempted that once. Instead of hovering though, they change into giant mechs. Depends on how that sits with you. The ground controls are far more solid despite the flaws we just mentioned in here. If that was something that bugged you then you will be pleased. I think the beta is going PSN-wide next week, but don't quote me on that...

Yeah, so far people do seem pretty good about following the next guy's lead. I have had a few matches where we've had like three different Hawk pads in the same vicinity, but I got over my sheepishness and just started reclaiming structures in those situations to balance out our resources. I haven't heard anything about a mic bundle, but Warhawk had one when it came out, so I'd say the possibility is certainly there. They've released a new iteration of the official bluetooth earpiece since then too, so that possibility may actually be pretty good. Quick question: Have you figured out where people are getting rocket launchers and sniper rifles? I thought at first that the sniper towers were the likely culprits for the latter, but the couple of times I climbed one I didn't find anything at the top. I can't even begin to imagine where people are getting shoulder rockets, they aren't in supply bunkers. Unless I'm just confused and the weapon I'm seeing people use isn't a rocket, but that thing that's mapped to "up" on the control pad...

Yeah, I'm a little embarrassed by how long it took me to figure everything out. There are likely still a couple of elements or features that I'm completely oblivious of. I only discovered that the glowing barrels weren't for blowing up shit in the vicinity when I was playing this morning. At least my Warhawk experience left me familiar with the general control scheme and layout... though I think some of the button layout for ground (foot) combat may have changed. But anyway, once I got past the intimidation of having so many choices of how to approach the battle, I started having a really good time. Those ground controls have improved big-time, along with the visuals, which are on a different level altogether. I have to say, I'm not sure how cool I am with the way the melee attacks seem to suck people into you, even if you aren't directly facing them. One of my only successful (small as it was) killstreaks took place when I forgot about shooting and just ran in a zig-zag up to the enemy and slashed. I'm sure that wasn't the intention of the devs, for people to do that. Also, unless I'm missing something and there is a way to toggle which side the reticle sits on, it doesn't seem like one can peer around the left side of a wall without exposing one's body completely... They're tweaking frequently though, and I remember back during the Warhawk beta that these guys communicate well with their audience, so I have faith in them. The game still shines as it is anyway. I don't know if it's just me, but it almost seems like the relationship between vehicles is much more like a game of rock, paper, scissors. I feel like while there was an element of that in the previous ones, it was much easier for someone to just stick to their choice mode of transport if they chose to and still do well, without necessarily being worthless to the team either. Just try to spend a whole round operating from a Hawk in this one though, and a lot of that time will be spent respawning. The removal of the hover mode greatly facilitates that, but I'm very pleased with the balance everything has achieved in this one. It makes you change your methods up, and give more thought to your approach. It seems like the emphasis on team coordination and strategy has increased significantly with this pecking order that's harder to circumvent, which is a good thing, though it may not work so much in my favor, as I never really roll with a clan or anything. But yeah, I'm going to be all over this shit when it drops. It's got a nice release date too, right before the summer lull. Great opportunity to get myself lost in a few weeks of mayhem. I'm definitely psyched.

Yeah, it probably wasn't the most apt analogy to convey the relationship between the participants. It was more to highlight the absurdity of someone willing to take a position, performing the complete opposite of the way he/she should, and then placing the blame of it on the fact that they can't handle the job they willingly took, all while looking around doe-eyed. Or someone else close to them in the organization saying it for them, in this case. Which I guess I didn't need an analogy to point out... It's true, they totally run the place and can do what they see fit. My criticism comes when an they adopt a holier-than-thou stance when it comes to forum conduct, and then have the balls to defend the type of behavior they usually condemn when it comes from one of their own, asking people to try to be understanding. That too is their right if they feel like operating that way, but it seems only natural and right to me that they get a little of shit kicked in their direction for it. The Jesus thing didn't get me irritated as much as it made me chuckle. The Andrew comments were the ones that burned me a bit. It seems a bit disingenuous to me to keep leaning so heavy on the "it's a privilege" line, as if the relationship between the reader and the site isn't mutually beneficial. Even the (as Andrew put it) "asshats" that have the nerve to accuse writers who print stories with images like this one next to the headline of being sensational. All those jerks who visit too, which I'm pretty sure they're aware of if their willingness to print provocative and sensationalist flamebait is any kind of gauge. While the Gawker site as a whole has taken a measure to convey that they don't condone that type of behavior from their staff, the immediate reaction to almost complete criticism from readers, at least one of their camp decided to say "Hey, you might be an asshole too if you had to deal with as many assholes as we do!" It seems like poor form to me, at best. The only reason I know Jesus Diaz's name is that he's a known troll, and (unless I'm confusing him with another writer from the Gawker network) I feel like I've seen links to him being a huge baby and a general jerk in the past. Evidently Gawker are comfortable with the negativity he draws to the site (as negativity tends to do), so I don't feel sympathy for the fact that he or anyone there has to read a lot of FUs in his mailbox. Their job, not ours. Our job is to sit through overbearing ads and crappy site design (honestly, a couple of things weren't working right in Chrome last night, all this time after the redesign), and our payment is the content that is on the site. But yeah, it just made him come off as brazen and ungrateful to me. Instead of pulling the old "privilege" line out on another reader, he might want to consider that it's also a privilege to have your name plastered all over a site as big as Gawker with the word "editor" next to it. I'm sure plenty of out-of-work English majors would gladly take the burden on, annoying text and all. I don't think those guys are so quick to apologize to Jesus for making him flame them.

Wow, I just spent a lot of time writing about my observations, only to have my strange touchpad placement and functionality kick me right between the legs and delete it all. It happens from time-to-time. I often periodically save long posts I'm typing on the web because of it, but I'm not always as diligent as I need to be, evidently. *sigh* Anyway, any other + subscribers fire this bad boy up yet?

I feel the same way about it. Not only is it a huge convenience for me to be able to try out games before I buy them (often from Gamefly, but not always), but I also feel like it's a relatively innocuous (to the industry that is crying poverty over used game sales) way to provide people who can't constantly drop $ on games an alternative to get to experience more titles than they could hope to otherwise. To my knowledge anyway, I could be mistaken. While they do also buy used games off of customers, from what I understand they buy up a certain amount of a game at launch and purchase more retails copies as/if the demand for a title increases, and then sell them off steadily as demand decreases until they have a comfortable amount to keep in circulation. Anyway, I'd be seriously sad to see our way of doing things become obsolete. Especially since console developers could find that that obsolescence may work both ways. That type of a decision might seriously wind up coming back and biting the next gen right in the ass, for everyone involved. *crosses fingers*

I really hope the used game rumor is false. As a person who hasn't owned either XBox, there wasn't the strongest possibility of me buying the next one to begin with, though I won't say the possibility is or was nonexistent. If it's possible in one camp though, it's possible in all, and Sony embraced the online pass as the norm for all first-party titles, so I don't put this kind of nonsense past them at all. It's 100% PC time at that point. In the event that Sony, MS, and Nintendo all do something similar that is, as unlikely as it might seem at this point in time. Whichever consoles remain traditional in their treatment of physical copies of games are the consoles I will choose from if only one or two of these companies get silly. However, combined with the news of Netflix ditching their game rental plans, the integration of XBL into Windows 8, and the email I got from Direct2Drive last week notifying me of their merging with and being integrated into Gamefly, it looks like things may possibly wind up being so drastically different during the next console gen that the options won't be as clearly defined as I believe most people assume it will be. If this news (about the XBox and used games) is true, I think there are some very interesting times ahead. Especially so for Gamefly and brick & mortar retailers.

Holy hell... What a image-clusterfuck they're gotten themselves into over there. There is so much ego in the Gawker staff that it's making my laptop reek. I was just reading through some of the threads that got him banned (I'm still shaking my head at the idea of it), and one commenter in particular stood out to me. Here are a couple of excerpts from Andrew Tarantola (editor), in response to commenters who are pointing out what an dickhead Jesus was being: "If we didn't have to deal with dozens of asshats like this guy weekly, yeah, we'd probably be a little more tolerant. Remember, your ability to comment on this site is a privilege, not a right. Much like your stars. " "Just as soon as I don't have to sift through a half dozen emails every morning telling me how much of a shithead I am for making a single spelling mistake the night before. " Poor baby. I'd love to spit in this guy's mouth and slap his stupid ingrate face. That isn't me trying to make an abstract point about hyperbolic language and expression or anything like that, I'm being literal. Does he really want sympathy for doing his job? No commenters forced him to become an editor for Gawker, that was his choice. I also suspect that it isn't charity work, and he is being payed. Let me paint a picture. Imagine a local cop is walking down the street, and gets bumped into by a pedestrian. Then imagine that individual saying "Hey, watch your step", and the cop taking a nightstick to his face in response. Now imagine that cop trying to explain his behavior to a judge or superior, and justifying it by talking about how he handles the scum of the Earth all day, and that anyone might do the same in his situation. Can you even imagine someone with balls that big and a head that empty? Would that not be the moment that indisputably shows that this man is unfit for the profession he's taken on? This guy seems to have zero grasp of the nature of his profession when applied to a website where the public are allowed to discuss and offer feedback on the stories. That type of interaction is going to take place. If the stress of reading words they don't like is too much for anyone there, they aren't people who belong writing for or editing that kind of site. This is what happens when you put your work out there for the world to see. People will criticize. Especially when you sensationalize/bait people like they do. You don't see writers for other sites calling their readers "corporate cocksuckers" when having a text dispute with a reader. That might fly (in my opinion) on a site that isn't so notorious for banning people for their conduct in the comments section, but certainly not on Gawker. Also, am I the only one who feels like every time one of these people bans someone or types the reminder that commenting is a privilege, they are doing so with a full erection? Whatever, self-righteousness and egomaniacal behavior isn't exactly news (no pun intended) coming from Gawker. It's amusing to see that they've gotten so tangled up in knots over their policing of comments that they've had to put a man-leash on one of their writers. Frustrating to know that not everyone over there gets it, still.

Yeah, I was going to say I'm pretty sure I unsubscribed from EA mails if/when I was ever treated to onein the past, it's standard protocol for me. Anyway, as far as the demo, it seemed cool but didn't really grip me strongly enough to make me complete it. This could also be because I just came off a Dragon Age 2 playthrough, which was hot on the heels of my brief Skyrim stint. Perhaps I wasn't ready to run around another town hearing people's woes and accumulating a list of fetch missions again just yet. I get that way sometimes. While it's nothing to do with the game, I should also mention that I wasn't a fan of the "You've unlocked this item! Go find it after you buy the game!" messages. It's not the biggest deal (especially for a demo), and I'm probably more sensitive to it because I generally find the way EA chooses to use their powers of internet in games to be annoying. Still though, thought I should mention it.

I don't think so, the email is titled "Thanks for playing the demo". Here is a chunk of text from it: "Now that you've had a chance to experience the engaging storyline and responsive strategic combat of Reckoning, share your impressions of the demo with your friends and help us spread the word." Ugh. Reminds me of some of the car salesmen I've been dealing with recently. I know where you are dude, I don't need you to remind me.

Not exactly about the game/demo itself, but: I've never had a demo send me a follow-up email for playing it. I have to say, I found it to be pretty fucking obnoxious.