toxicitizen

I think I know what you're talking about. I remember reading an article on Oblivion back in the days about some tech that allowed to grow trees "naturally" in the game world. I might be remembering wrong, but I think it was a tool for the development team rather than something that would happen in-game. Like, instead of modelling and skinning the trees themselves, they would just "plant" them and the tech would grow the trees in a realistic-looking way. Ah, google found something! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpeedTree Seems it was originally meant for a golf simulation, but that fell apart and Oblivion ended up being one of the first games to use it. The tech was used in quite a few recent games, according to that list. Here's what it looks like in action.

I know what you mean. When I found out that the Disgaea (and also VC) sequels weren't about the same characters, I was really disappointed. (Though from what I understand, VC3 is supposed to feature a bunch of the characters from the first one. I got a wallpaper of it for my laptop and the Edelweiss is on it.) Also, I have to say the characters in Disgaea 3 really grew on my over the course of the game. Well, except for Beryl. She can die in a fire, for all I care. Anyway, fan service doesn't bother me too much as long as the game remains good, I guess. I'll have to see if there's a demo for it on PSN.

So, this somehow doesn't have a thread yet! Feel free to discuss anything: the original, the PSP sequels or the anime series. If you're into SRPGs, this is one of the best PS3 exclusives, imho. The cell-shaded graphics look pretty great through the game's painting-style filter and the mix of turn-based and third-person make for some very addictive gameplay. I'm on the chapter 16 of the original right now, so I'm almost done with it. I plan on eventually picking up VCII, but I was wondering about something. If anyone has played VCII, did they address some of the balance issues of the original? Right now, I can beat pretty much any map in a turn or two by buffing up Alicia (or any Scout, really) with defense and evasion boosts and then just rushing the objective. It's very game-breaking, but once you're strong enough to do it, it feels kinda silly to even engage the enemy. What's worst is the ranking system is kinda broken and only takes into accounts how many turns it took you to win, so you're actually getting LESS XP by wasting turns fighting than you would if you just Scout rushed. :/ It's an amazing game, but that right there is a serious design flaw. Did they fix it in the sequel?

Personally, I've little to no interest in shows that have no overarching plot. It's kinda why I eventually lost interest in House and why I don't watch crime procedurals. I need something to keep me coming back week after week. Self-contained stories just don't feel like they're worth investing my time into. Of course, a truly great show will be good no matter the format. There are always exceptions. For example, Nathan Filion makes Castle extremely enjoyable to watch. Anyway, as for Fringe, back when I watched season 1, I kept waiting for "something to happen", which from what I heard is a sentiment many shared. I think it just gets better as the show progresses. Can't wait to see where season 4 will go. And while the show mostly maintains its "case of the week" format, it does get a bit more serialized in season 2 and 3. Also, for some reason, I find that Fringe works best in marathon sessions. I have difficulties keeping interest on a weekly basis. I watched the pilot back when it started and liked it, but only watched the whole season after it ended. Then season 2 started and I watched it for all of two weeks before I stopped. I only caught up with it about halfway through season 3, watching all of season 2 in a matter of days, and then watching the fifteen or so episodes of season 3 that were out at the time. Then I once again stopped. The wait between episodes just takes me out of the story. That usually doesn't happen with other shows.

I haven't seen the movie yet, but I know for a fact that J.J. Abrams used to shoot movies on Super 8 as a kid, so I'm pretty sure he knew that. They probably ignored that fact for creative reasons. It's not that surprising, really. Anyway, just watched The Man Who Wasn't There. Like every other Coen Bros. movies I've seen, it was strange but very good. The more of their movies I see, the more I like them as filmmakers. I really need to watch True Grit soon. Also got Barton Fink that's been sitting on my HDD for a few months.

I think what I like most about this title is how butthurt PS3 fanboys are over it being multiplat Seriously, the tweets insomniac keep getting are just batshit insane. They range from "this is going to suck because it's multiplat" to "you backstabbing assholes!" But like everyone said, I love the style and humor of it and I can't wait to see some proper footage. I especially love the NOLF vibe I got from the trailer.

Yeah, I know. That's what I was saying. I've been playing the HD campaign first and Eliminator is from Fury, so that's why I hadn't played it yet.

Yeah, that was pretty awesome, even though I was absolutely terrible at eliminator I have a perfectly valid excuse for my poor performance, though! It was my first time playing it! I've been playing the events in order and haven't reached Fury yet. Gonna have to rethink that approach, though, because I don't want to fail so miserably next time we play!

Damnit, my cousin was here minutes ago and talked to me for like 20 mins, so now I don't have time to finish my current mission in Valkyria Chronicles Oh well, I wasn't doing that well, so I'll just start over, I guess. Anyway, I'm still down for Wipeout. And I do have Fury.

Ha, I can relate. Fellow trophy whore here and I've pretty much given up on the Arkham Asylum platinum. The advanced combat challenges are damn impossible to gold medal, and that's preventing me from getting the trophy for beating them, the 100% completion trophy and the platinum As for the plats I do have http://us.playstation.com/publictrophy/index.htm?onlinename=Toxicitizen

Ha, thanks. L.A. Noire should be my 13th plat. I'll add you next time I get on the PS3. And I'm in Quebec.

I'm not European, I'm Canadian.

Sounds good to me.

You know, I don't remember to check this thread/section of the forum often enough to catch people when they go "I could play now/in a bit". Would be cool if we could plan ahead a specific day/time to have a session.

Thanks, that did it. Still, I distinctly remember the games saying 'demo' on the XMB, so it was odd it was removed after redeeming the free game promotion. That's because Wipeout is one of those games that upon buying it you only download the demo and an unlock key. When I redeemed it, 3 things were added to my download list: Wipeout HD demo, Wipeout HD unlock key and Wipeout HD Fury Add-On. I remember a while back I had tried a demo of a game (not 100% sure, but I think it was Castle Crashers) and liked it, so I went to buy it. But I first deleted the demo, worried that it might interfere or something (I can't really explain the reasoning either...). Then when I bought the full game, I had to redownload the damn demo

Yeah, that bird demo looked merely normal. Not impressive by any stretch of the word.

So the new controller would be basically kind of an "accesory" and the Wii-mote remains the regular controller? Sounds more and more like a simple Wii HD. Especially if it's limited to a single screen controller. I never got around to buying a Wii but I might be tempted to get this after a price drop of two.

GMT -5 and I'm definitely in if we're playing Wipeout HD. I'm loving the hell out of it. Though I turned off Pilot Assist last night and now I keep hitting the sides, so yeah, no that great yet either. I think a few of you are already on my friends list? So many people got added to it when we started playing Uncharted 2 a few months ago that it's hard to keep track...

Has it been confirmed that we would need to buy two versions of the game for that? I was wondering the same thing for the PSP HD Remaster line. Will the HD version also get me a PSP copy? If not, it's kind of pointless to have save files be compatible. If they really expect people to buy two versions of the same games they're going to be very disappointed.

In terms of horsepower, it is behind, though. It's only slightly more powerful than the GameCube. I'm not saying it wasn't innovative or anything like that. But it's a fact that its hardware is weak in comparison to the other current-gen systems.

So... this is basically the console they should've released back in 2006? Good for them, I guess. Now they'll also get the games we've all been playing for the past few years. The new controller has potential, of course. But it's like the size of a fucking tablet pc. I'm surprised it kept the Wii name, though. I'd say it seems unlike Nintendo, but we just got the 3DS. The name does carry some brand recognition for all the non-gamers who bought a Wii, I guess. But I don't think those people are ready to buy a new system so soon. But like the 3DS it doesn't really feel like a new gen to me (unless you account for the fact that the Wii was kind of a gen behind). But the 3DS and this both feel more like upgrades to existing systems than true successors.

Yet another PSOne-era RPG that I need to play... Oh well, hopefully it'll see a PSN release someday because I don't see myself hunting down a copy. Oh and even though this feels like stepping on a landmine, I have to ask: what's so bad about Uncharted ? How exactly does it "prove what's wrong with games" ?