Strangelove

Fucking magnets...

It looks great, but there's something that just doesnt seem like its worth 40 dollars. Maybe 30.

http://www.destructoid.com/retro-city-rampage-supports-free-ps3-vita-cross-play-230374.phtml This is pretty cool. Im not going to buy this game, but this is something more companies should seriously consider. Especially for these older titles.

I havent, but Ive heard some pretty good things about it. Its not freeroam, but a lot of reviewers are saying the free roam sucks in the console versions.

Jesus, they moved TAY into the bowels of hell. It's basically in the same place as the cornfield now.

http://www.deculture.es/2012/06/29/ni-no-kuni-ira-bruja-blanca-edicion-coleccionista/ If you dont know Spanish, its basically that plush doll, those 2 dlc creatures, the game, and a 300 page spell book or something that has a bestiary, item list, a history of the world, and uhh..magic spells. And its all in a bigass white box.

Im also going to recommend the RE Chronicles game. They were a lot of fun on the Wii. Then there's Dead Space Extraction, hands down the best rails shooter in the last decade or so. Now if we could only get Sin & Punishment 3...

BY the way, in the extended cut, is there extra or different stuff after the credits or just the same cutscene(s)? Cus I turned my PS3 off when the credits started rolling.

Those arent from Monster Hunter though. Those are Sony's Japanese mascots. Were they in Monster Hunter? I never saw them til Street Fighter X Tekken.

They removed the link to go to the main site instead of the mobile version a year or 2 ago. It used to be at the bottom of the page. It was very annoying, Im sure there was probably some workaround, but I never found it.

Thaw me out when robot wives are cheap and effective. PS - please alter my pants as fashion dictates.

I think you get it once you finish the game the first time.

One of my biggest gaming regrets was never playing Cannon Spike. Ive been wanting to play that game so badly. I tried to use an emulator, but that game just didn't work with it.

I have no reason to post these, I just think theyre cool.

Tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiits...

Mass Effect 3 - Unlike the rest of the internet, I'm not one to toss around the word "epic" when describing something, but Mass Effect 3 was epic to me. In a way, I still prefer ME2 for it's closer more character driven story, but ME3's gameplay is truly better. It's smooth as butter and a lot of fun. This is also the only game where I've played the multiplayer for over 30 minutes. I actually put in over 10 hours. Im not an online gamer at all, but ME3's multiplayer was awesome. And then to top it all off, the scenarios youre thrust into were all amazing for the most part. It's one of those games that tries to outdo itself every single minute and tries to make your adrenaline run throughout the entire game. It kind of reminded me of the first time I played Uncharted 2. Resident Evil: Revelations - For my money, the best game on the 3DS so far. Yes, Super Mario 3D Land was great because it's a return to form for the Mario series, but Revelations is easily the second best RE game ever only behind RE4. It had a great story mode AND a great optional mode called Raid Mode that was also really addictive. Not only that, but it brought back some of the "horror" to the series by putting you in some very tight situations. They brought back that ominous mood RE5 left behind(and RE4 to a certain extent).The addition of aiming and walking seems almost silly to point out, but it's a big deal for the RE series. It makes this game the best playing RE so far. Plus, Jill in a very tight suit. Come on. Gravity Rush - This game took me by complete surprise. I only heard about it about a week or 2 before release, but it turned out better than I ever expected. It's not only beautiful in it's graphics, but in it's gameplay and grace. It's one of only a handful of games that made me feel truly free and kind of made me feel like a kid again. Flying in the game is hypnotizing. Add in an amazing and huge city, great music, and some really grounded and down to earth characters, and this is easily the best game on the Vita. This is the kind of game I expect and hope to get more of on this machine. Journey - It's a fucking work of art. It's an emotional experience, it's beautiful, it's like the first time I listened to the Beatles. Final Fantasy XIII-2 - Im actually one of the few people who enjoyed FFXIII. The battle system more than made up for all of it's shortcomings. It was a lot of fun and reminded me of my favorite rpg battle system ever, FFX-2. FFXIII-2 does everything FFXIII did, but better. Lots of content, lots of story, lots of places to visit, and a new monster catching gimmick makes the game a lot of fun to play. Plus, the awesome dlc it had. It really had some great dlc. Though a bit overpriced.

Since we're 6 months into the year and not a lot of new high profile games will come out til the holiday season, I thought it was a good time to review the games that will probably be forgotten and eclipsed by the holiday blockbusters for GOTY next year. I also think this is a good way to get the newer members to post here. Consider it a sort of initiation without the ass paddling. So let's do some mini-reviews and try to narrow it to 5 games or less if you can. Even if you feel that you haven't played any games that are GOTY material, feel free to name some of the games you enjoyed this year. And go!

Gamestop Vita sale next week. I got this from Cheapassgamer. http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=323992 Purchase a NEW Vita system between 7/4-7/10 and receive a $50 gift card. Daily Deals: Wednesday 7/4 ONLY : MLB 12 Vita $19.99 Thursday 7/5 ONLY: Unit 13 Vita $19.99 Friday 7/6 ONLY: Reality Fighters Vita $14.99 Little Deviants Vita $14.99 Saturday 7/7 ONLY: Mortal Kombat Vita $19.99 Sunday 7/8 ONLY: Wipeout 2048 Vita $19.99 Saturday 7/9 ONLY: Modnation Racers Vita $19.99

Here's the insane thing about this whole ordeal that really bugs me - it's that a company like Square Enix knows how good their past games are. That's why they do so many ports and remakes and reference them in their newer games(Setzer's Dice as an item and Gilgamesh as a boss in FF13-2), but for the life of them they can't repeat that success. This goes against my point of trying something new, but I feel that time has passed long enough that the old feels new again. How hard would it be to make a turnbased 2D Final Fantasy game as good and broad as FF4 or FF6? FF4 on th DS was a good remake, so they made The Heroes of Light with the same engine, but they obviously didnt do it with the same scope or deep story in mind. Same thing with FF4 The After Years. They didnt bother at all. They changed the gameplay too. I think FF6 is one of the greatest games ever made, likable characters, varied and exciting and fun battle system, and a huge and beautiful world. Its 2D and its 16bit, but few things nowadays are as beautiful as that game and it's cities and caves and forests and everything else. The game in my mind, still wows. It captures my imagination. The HD era is costly and takes a lot of time, so their games get smaller and less varied, but another 16 or 32bit 2D game in HD? Thats doable. Its very doable. Any time Square chooses to go "retro" and tries to be whimsical, they go too far back I feel. THoL was basically as empty and lifeless as FF1 or FF2 in comparison. That's not what people want. Its like they cant balance their games well. They never fully commit. The indie community has the enthusiasm to bring back 2D SNES games, but they dont have the money or manpower to make something as big as an SNES FF game. Square Enix does. I wish there was a way to combine these two together. And no, its not a direction I want the main series to go in, just a side project that I would like to happen. Costume Quest made me realize how much I still like turnbased rpgs. Costume Quest with the scope of FF6 would make for a kickass modern game. I hope thats what the South Park rpg is going to be like.

What do you mean with the FF13 as a demo thing?

I think the same will happen to "us" too. The FPS, the open world game, the yearly installments. I can see these things turning against us. Its already started. And honestly, I think Im partly to blame on my less than enthusiastic view of the Japanese game industry. I dont know about anyone else here, but im in my mid 20s right now, but when I was a kid and a teenager, I was ridiculously fascinated with Japan. This was before the internet or Toonami, back when the regular person didnt see much from Japan aside from Mario, Final Fantasy and Transformers. When Anime on tv was a rarity and we had to go out and buy Manga vhs tapes and hopefully land on a good one. I ate every little bit of Japanese media up. I just loved it. I grew up on Ghost In The Shell, Ninja Scroll, Akira and hated that The SNES never got any DBZ games. I used to see screenshots of DBZ fighting games in magazines and was really jealous of it. I was so deprived of it, that I didnt care about quality. I played the crap out of DBGT Final Bout, even if it sucked. I loved FF7 like everyone else because I felt Japanese games always did everything a lot more showy and flashy and to my childish mind, better. I remember evry single summon from FF7 because at the time that was the best thing I had ever seen in a videogame. It captured my imagination. The big eyes, the spiky hair, the feminine face, I thought those things were cool back then. But im old now, anime is everywhere, and Ive opened up to a bunch of other stuff. The appeal and fascination is gone. Now I only judge Japanese things based on their quality, not on their showiness. Theres nothing there that I havent seen anymore. The internet has helped with that. I think we've all seen tentacle rape, so what else can anime do? We've all seen gigantic monsters and big swords and seizurific effects in our videogames, so now what? I dont think japan knows that were numb to their charm. Its not charm anymore if its the norm. Japan is the norm now. Thats just not very exciting. And no, Im not discounting the 80s and 90s classics, even i I were an adult back then, I would still Love FF6, Chrono Trigger and Ghost In The Shell. I just played CT(DS port) last year and I loved it. So its clearly not nostalgia on my part. The games just arent as good. Neither is the anime, but thats another topic entirely.

Ahh ok. That makes sense. Doesn't stop it from being wrong though. Theyre crapping all over their biggest fans. At least thats how I see it.