P4: Gritty Reboot

This is a tough one. I've been thinking about it for a while now - narrowed down to the following list. Pokemon Blue Sim City 2000 Myst Tetris Super Mario Land Super Mario Bros. 3 Paperboy Asteroids It's hard to pick just one because of the variety present in classic gaming - how do you compare an experience like Myst to something like Tetris or Sim City? If I were forced to pick I suppose Super Mario Bros. 3. It's remembered so fondly for a reason.

More Team P4 changes - Samurott Scrafty Archen Victini Krokorok Joltik I don't have hardly any status moves, so I may make another swap (Litwick?) out for Krokorok because his attacks suck so far. Archen and Joltik are close to evolving.

That's a toughie. I've always been partial to Valve's Source engine games because they are understated; they don't overdo bloom, bump mapping, specular, or postprocessing effects but instead focus on higher resolution textures and a more grounded, earthy look. It looks far more real to me than games like Crysis (though that one was pretty too). It's hard to just pick one based off art style - off the top of my head, Chrono Trigger, Epic Mickey, A Boy and His Blob (Wii), Bit.Trip Runner, Super Mario Galaxy, Dragon Quest IX, TF2, the Myst series, Rise of Nations, Gish, and VVVVVV.

Yes, I do. God, I need to stop posting posting dead tired. EDIT: See? I EVEN POST WORDS TWICE! GRRRRR! *leaves the Internet* Your hatred of analogies is similar to how Hitler hated the Jews and other undesirables.

My Thunderbolt did not come with Goggles, but VZW got their grubby mitts all over it too.

http://ca.kotaku.com/5788857/the-nintendo-game-drought-means-one-thing-get-ready-for-wii-2 Whether or not their conclusions turn out to be true, I just have come to loathe the matter-of-fact way they state it and their crap-ola headlines.

These are classic. I demand MOAR!

As far as I understand it, mana now empties out of pools at the end of each phase and step, mana burn is gone, plus combat damage is all dealt instantly rather than resolving through the stack (which takes away a few tricks you could do with some cards). Really not huge changes, but any "change" freaks some people out.

I love that song.

Thread gravedigging alert!

Still a little unstable it seems; got a few force closes on it yesterday. I have been using Amazon MP3 Cloud Player over the last week or so.

Pokemon Black and Epic Mickey. Going to try the new community campaign for L4D2 later this week.

Yeah it was kinda change for the sake of change, but then again I can think of only 1 or 2 times the rule ever came into play in my years of (casual) MTG.

1.) Half-Life 2 2.) Half-Life 3.) Ocarina of Time 4.) Counter-Strike 5.) Chrono Trigger (DS) 6.) Portal 2 (PC) 7.) Knights of the Old Republic (PC) 8.) Diddy Kong Racing (N64) 9.) Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 10.) Super Smash Bros. Melee 11.) Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon (PC) 12.) Metroid Prime 13.) The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (PC) 14.) Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast (PC) 15.) Left 4 Dead (PC) Edit: subbed Metroid Prime for Pokemon Edit 4/25: added Portal 2, bumped Unreal Tournament

Most amazing MTG tutorial ever. Also, re: the question above, Planeswalkers are just like players. I believe you can even have your creatures block for them.

Call of Duty 2. Less in just about every way than its predecessor: no quicksave, regenerating health, repetitive missions, console-centric focus. I got all excited when my PC Gamer mag arrived heralding CoD2, what a disappointment when I got the game for Christmas. I still played and beat it, and it was better than some of the later entries, but it signaled a shift for the series after the brilliant United Offensive. Halo 2. Had to download a hack just to play it on Windows XP, the gameplay was less balanced and less fun than Halo: CE, the performance was abysmal despite it being years old, and the story was lame in this gamer's opinion (who loved the first's story by the way.)

While there are exceptions, I agree with this. Hideo Kojima also noted that the Japanese audience doesn't mind that some things are left up to your imagination and that some of the small things might go unanswered. The Western audience, however, want things explained and every loose end tied. I suppose my personal favourite story is from a Metal Gear Solid title, but I'm not sure which one. They each have a good mix of being taken seriously and being ridiculous in a good way. Excellent points all around. We in the West very much hate loose ends and unanswered questions much of the time. You also make a good point about the tone of the work: Japanese games tend to take themselves less seriously for the most part.

This is very true. Japanese games seems to be more cyclical, with the player expected to enjoy each little piece of the story rather than the Western point-A to point-B linear approach. Dragon Quest IX is like this, with tons of little backstories and side quests without a whole lot going toward the final goal for the most part. We Westerners always want to see the big picture and what part it plays in the whole logic of the story, whereas that seems to be de-emphasized in Japan.

You don't get the story =/= Story was bad. But it did feel pretty convoluted, making it kinda hard to follow for dozens of hours. I did like the setting and the backstories, but yeah the main story was kinda a mess at parts IMHO.

Chrono Trigger

ADW costs $; I just tried Zeam and it didn't have the stock-looking dock that I like. It didnt appear to have any better customization options either. Maybe I need to spend some time with it.

The reason they made it optional is because games that don't use it at all can use the consoles horsepower to look better. Also it has motion controls and using that with 3D wouldn't work. Doesn't solidify it as a gimmick at all. That's like saying anything on any console that doesn't force itself on all games is a gimmick which is ridiculous thinking. Not "anything on any console", the single biggest selling point of the system. The kind of lethargy surrounding statements like "we're not going to make games specifically for this feature", especially for Nintendo, doesn't bode well. Even with the Wii, which they at least went to some lengths to make games specifically surrounding motion controls, third parties couldn't be arsed to make a good game with good motion controls because Nintendo couldn't be arsed to do it themselves. Even their best games either used them very lightly or not at all. I still firmly stand by my "gimmick" assessment. For this specific implementation of the 3D, there's nothing that leads me to believe that it will be used for anything but cherry-on-top eyecandy. Sorry, but this argument is entirely inconsistent if you play any other console. I can't think of a single "selling-point" feature that is mandatory for any game on any system out today. Are 360 games required to use LIVE, a primary feature of the console? Of course not; not every game has multiplayer. Not every PS3 game is required to take full advantage of its Cell processor, which, if Sony is to be believed, is a major selling point of the console. We can only presume that not every NGP game is going to be required to push its hardware to the max, arguably the major reason to buy the handheld. And you know what? Who cares if it's eye candy? That's the entire freakin' point: to look pretty and wow consumers. I can't speak for most people, but I don't expect 3D graphics to revolutionize anything, but rather to augment an enjoyable gaming experience that little bit further. And there is nothing wrong with that. "Gimmick" is just a buzzword hardcore gamers use to make themselves feel less insecure over different demographics enjoying things like motion controls, dancing games, fake-guitarathons, and "casual" smartphone games.

I'm running HTC Sense on my Thunderbolt and it's slick, but the lag got to me. So I've been using Launcher Pro pretty successfully, also rooted and removed all the bloatware through Terminal Emu. Once a stable CM is out for the TB I'm goin' for it.