bishopcruz

Well, Ys Seven came out today, Angel got his collector's edition, and mine is on its way from Amazon. Let me just say, I love Falcom, a LOT! The game is great so far, not sure if its better than Oath in Felghana yet, but it is definitely a hell of a lot of fun, really no one makes old school Action RPGs better than Falcom, the gameplay is sweet, the art is great, and the music is sublime. Also, props to Falcom for actually pulling off a party well in an Action RPG without slowing the pace down in the least. This looks to be the most ambitious Ys ever as far as gameplay is concerned, and it looks to be very successful. If you have a PSP I'd say get this game as soon as you can, not only to support XSEED for taking one hell of a risk, but because I'm hearing that these games might be having limited print runs because the series hasn't been all that successful in the past. The collector's edition is pretty badass by the way, the cloth map is HUGE, and the art book is really, really nice, with Art from Ys 7, Oath in Felghana, and Ys 1 and 2 Chronicles. I'm giddy right now, I never thought I'd see another Falcom game over here after YS 6 and Legend of Heroes failed to make a splash but we're getting 3 Ys games in 6 months or so, and all 3 Legend of Heroes 6 games. Awesome.

Man, shame so many people didn't like 2 much, gameplay was REALLY good, Story and Atmosphere weren't as strong overall as 1 but I really likes the plasmid + weapon stuff, the drill, and the last areas were awesome. Even the multiplayer was actually pretty fun, was not expecting that. As for this: Looks awesome. HG Wells had a great imagination, and this looks like it came straight out of it, the depraved, racist, piece of shit.

We'll see how it goes, I know the new big series is supposed to be something called Batman Inc. Maybe its Bruce training Batmen around the world or something? Batman and Robin will continue after Morrison with Tomasi writing, and I hope to god its still Dick in that one as Tomasi does a great job with the character. In other news, the Batman Beyond comic is awesome.

As for the minis, haven't read them, and when again, there are so many issues, why are they even necessary? Mr. Negative is probably the most tolerable of the newbies but we know nothing of his goals, powers, or personality honestly, he's a fairly standard mobster outside of his look and wacky abilities. To be fair it has probably been done elsewhere as well, but the whole villain pulling the strings behind the scenes in order to send a constant stream of villains the heroes way in order to break him, I mean, that is Knightfall condensed into one phrase. I know Spidey was dark in the 90s and it felt out of place back then too. The Lizard one was just a little odd to me, there had been few hints in previous appearances that he was THAT unhinged, and I felt that was just too damn harsh and kinda a cheap dramatic device. And that's all well and good, that Spidey has been dark in the past. But this whole new direction was supposed to be a return to the good old days right, that golden late 70s early 80s era that Joe Q pines for. With the beginning stories though the villains were hit and miss, I felt they got that down fairly well, after 600 it seemed to just be relentless in its darkness. Spider Man to me has always had an underlying optimism to it, even when Peter was down on his luck, there was a feeling that things would get better, and that it was the little things that mattered. I loved the arc with the Shocker, I loved the Osborn arcs, some of the romantic entanglements have also been fun, and the supporting cast has overall been strong. It however took a major dark turn, and it just didn't feel right. I mean ritual sacrifice, a mutated hitman that spits acid and looks like an early 90s Image comic reject, the return of Kaine? Eating your own kid? Frank Miller-esque in costume fucking? I mean hell, that's a lot of dark. I don't mind dark as a rule, but in Spidey it just feels a bit over the top. I think part of it is the sheer number of innocents who have horrible, horrible shit happen to them. Even Issue 2 was better than issue one, but they were both pretty lame. The idea of Peter missing the wedding is one thing, the execution was dumb as all hell. Which was the same problem as One More Day, finding a way to retcon the marriage was one thing, Joe Q just picked the stupidest way possible to do it. In OMD it was Mephisto, in OMIT it was Peter Parker, the man who takes punches to the head from the Hulk, get crushed by a fat guy. It's like they weren't even trying. The conversations in OMIT 2 weren't that bad, but they weren't all that great either. A break-up at that point I would have bought, or maybe an off and on thing. But instead it was a cop out, and where it had seemed that Peter and MJ hadn't seen each other in quite some time at the start of BND, instead it seems that the break up was very recent, just seems dumb as hell. And again, the manner Aunt May's survival was just plain dumb.

Having finally decided to give Amazing Spider Man a shot I have spent the last few days catching up on the whole shebang. I have mixed feelings about it. First, One More Day was a fucking mistake. A hardcore fucking mistake. Quesada's editorial mandate was idiotic in the first place, but even assuming that splitting Peter and MJ up was a good idea, the way that they went about it was the most convoluted and idiotic way that pretty much anyone could think of. Spidy makes a deal with the devil to save his septuagenarian aunt who he had just recently had a spirit talk with and she told him she was OK with dying. Sigh. I know that was a few years back, but god it was stupid. Moving on tho. Once the reboot got into gear it was pretty good overall, though the first year seemed to go out of its way to introduce a ton of new, crappy villains, and honestly it reminded me quite a bit of the clone saga reboot in that regard. Really, most of the new villains sucked. I mean really sucked. Still the supporting cast was pretty good, and a lot of the issues had a great sense of optimism, and its great to see Harry back. The most recent issues though, hoo-boy they were mixed. The lead-up to the Grim Hunt storyline was a fairly blatant ripoff of Knightfall, the stories themselves got WAAAY too dark, Dr. Connors Aunt May goes evil? The new EXTREEEME Vulture? It at times felt like the worst of the 90's all over again. I like dark tales but Jesus, I've never read Spidy when I wanted to be depressed. The Rhino story was well done, the stuff with Harry has also been well done, but a lot of the rest just seemed either trite, or dark for dark's sake. Especially when Then we have the latest arc, One Moment in Time. Good Art, when Quesada is no where near it, but boy is is stupid, nearly up there with One More Day. I mean, Spidy misses his wedding because he was pinned under a fat man? Aunt May still gets shot the same way, but Peter just had to perform CPR? What were they smoking? Am I alone on this one? I mean it isn't a horrible run, in fact there have been some great stories, but overall it feels like its missing something.

So a really good game, mixed with a horrible one. WE'll see, personally I think a Capcom x Namco would have been a better overall fit though.

New E3 Trailer, BADASS!!!!!!!!!!

For 5-10% done it's looking pretty damn sweet. People are speculating that the trailer might just be from the multiplayer, but color me psyched. NG1 and 2 were awesome as hell, haters be damned.

Gah, Gran Pulse is damned cool in so many ways, but it is also probably my biggest disappointment in the game as well. It's open, it has some awesome geography and there is NO REASON to explore it during the main playthrough the game, and that it what makes me sad. There are so many cool things to do, but the game trained you for the previous 30 hours to go forward, to find out what the next big story revelation is, to SAVE the world and all that jazz, but it is all about killing big monsters. I LIKE killing monsters and all but it feels so pointless on Gran Pulse. A town, some reason to explore and find things would have been keen. Making the main area a hub, with 4-5 objectives that needed to be taken care of to advance the story (each giving you more information about the main plot) would have made that area so much better. FFXIII was still one of the best FFs in recent memory (which now that I think of it isn't saying that much because we've had what 3 in the last 2 gens?) In XII the huge world felt like a part of the game, in XIII the big world when it finally opens up felt like it was hastily grafted on to the main game. I loved the feel of but the story did fall apart for me at the end. I just wonder why the FF games as a whole have had such a horrible time keeping the narrative going all the way to the end? Other JRPG series (Suikoden, Lunar, are two examples) have been able to keep a level ov tension going leading into the finale, and WRPGs have been able to do this for years as well (Mass Effect 1 and 2, Torment, Dragon Age, KOTOR, even Fallout to a lesser extent.) What is it about FF games that have kept them from being able to keep the necessary levels of tension through to the end? Though I suppose XIII gave it the old college try in

On the random people part, I know I can't be the only one who accidentally shot someone being chased by cougars right? It was when I had Dead Eye level 2, and yeah, I killed the animals, but also the woman being chased. Sorry lady.

The PS2 remake of Phantasy Star 1, along with the remake of 2. You told me you PLAYED a bit of the one remake, has your memory gotten that bad iwth old age, I think I even lent it to you I own them both. Originally there was supposed to be a release of rmakes of 1,2, and 4 to come stateside, but when the remake of 4 got cancelled the whole shebang went to hell. Japan did get a Phantasy Star collection rerelease of all 4 games as they originally were, along with some extra art and other crap like that. Those had an English option and apparently the emulation was perfect, but it only came out for the PS2 in Japan. Sad but true. Still would love a correctly translated 4. We've gotten better translations of 1 and 2, but not 4.

Last Night was Epic!!! I say we need to get that posse going again and find a pretty full free roam place and wreak some havoc. Could definitely be fun. Taking over Chuparosa was awesome, maybe we should try Armadillo next time?

Nah, that's just how it goes, there are a few times that you do it before you get the payoff for it. But there is nothing you are missing story wise for that one. This is not true, well the last part anyway, I'm doing it myself to get stranger missions and the like I missed.

What do you mean non GTA? GUN DID THE SAME FUCKING THING!!!!

Surprised that no one else has posted on this one. Great game overall, pretty much tense throughout, and the game is gorgeous. It's a very Remedy game, but the action is great, the atmosphere is unmatched this gen, and the story is better than I expected. Damn fine game.

Looking forward to a big posse with this game. On the SP I have to say that this is be best western game I have ever played. The SP missions, with a few exceptions have all been damned good, and the ending was amazing. ROckstar San Diego really gets what made the great Westerns great.

I think it all depends on how many they are planning to sell. If they didn't pay through the ass for the license, then they might do OK. Xseed does specialize in the release of niche titles, and I can't imagine that many of them sell anywhere near the top 10. If they can make a profit on like 20k or so (guessing here) it might work out. But I will say that anyone who is remotely interested in this series and these type of games had better BUY the damn things at release. Honestly I have played both 1 and 2 and Felghana to death, and purchased them for around a hundred bucks each with shipping from Japan (PC), and I will still be buying the PSP ones as soon as they come out. I won't say I'm not worried, but... here's hoping right?

Well, we'll see. Xseed is actually bringing out GOOD versions of these games (the PS2 and PSP ports of VI were mediocre, and the less said about the port that was Legacy of Ys the better.) If the rumors of them buying the translation from Deuce (well known Ys translator) are true, then costs might be down for the actual localizations, and that would be keen. VII looks SO AWESOME, I cannot friggen wait. The only one I have yet to beat is V, and that's mainly because I have been waiting for the fan translation for fucking ever. Let me also say how psyched I am for Legend of Heroes VI. THAT is going to be the sleeper in this if there is one. I mean people in the US kinda know Ys, if from the hushed whispers of fanboys like myself, the Legend of Heroes games we got here were some of the worst translations I have ever seen. They would have been embarrassing in the days of FFII and PS3. I mean honestly, there was no damned excuse. Now that the 6 trilogy is getting a proper translation, (hopefully) the charm might actually come through. I for one am psyched. Edit: One of the reasons Falcom fucking rocks as one of the greatest game companies EVER! They allow the use of ANY Of their music, even in a commercial setting, some 3000+ songs and some pf the best game music EVER, for free without royalties so long as you credit them! I mean how cool is that? I love these guys!

Yeah because Vogel did indeed say that hardcore DRM was a mistake. That was the point of that entire article. Also you are smoking some heavy shit when it comes to the Bioshock 2 install BTW. It DOES have GFWL, but it doesn't even have online activation if you don't want to fuck around with its multi player. I know that for a fact because I OWN THE PC version, and I only had to worry about activating it when I did the online shit for achievements. When I lent the game to Angel, he installed it and used an offline account with no problems at all. As for the rest, no one is saying that piracy hasn't helped some outlying cases. Maybe like your odd french movie. Perhaps something like that might have been better off releasing strictly online in the first place, like Dr. Horrible or the guild. But it is the owner's CHOICE to put it up or not. Bad DRM sucks, I'll be staying away from the crazy Ubisoft games in the future because well, I DON'T want to support that level of pain in my ass. I understand that. But that's kinda not the point of the thread, we have a thread that no one gave a shit about for that The fact is, piracy IS theft, it's a different kind of theft, and that is and has always been the problem. It ISN"T the same as stealing a Porche. It is more along the lines of something like plagiarism. You are taking the fruits of someone else's hard work and assuming them for yourself. That's the issue. We have no way of judging whether or not say having a game pirated has helped sales, or to be fair, hurt sales. At least no way of knowing with any sort of certainty. So we can't judge the ends of piracy, maybe World of Goo wouldn't have sold a single copy more if it hadn't been so easy to pirate. What we can look at however are the means, and the means of piracy are unequivocally shitty. You are in essence taking something that doesn't belong to you. Convenience doesn't change that.

It's actually more like a near perfect replica of a Porche being given away next door for free. Digital copies are pretty much identical to the actual products. Your cheap ass might not have ever been able to afford a porche, true, but it lowers the value of a REAL porche because far fewer people are going to actually buy one. I'm not saying this doesn't happen. But that doesn't make the initial piracy right. Thieves buy things too. Whee. And are you really telling me that piracy is GOOD for business? I mean you can't be that naive. So you're not only a thief, but an impatient thief. You're saying that you don't even have the patience to wait for a game. Gamefly is cheap, very cheap, it is a little inconvenient but hey at least it's legal, and it's cheaper. Essentially it's about getting what you want when you want it. Netflix has a ton of movies streaming on demand. Marvel has a ton of its comics available for viewing on the interwebs, there are legal ways to get all of the stuff you say you pirate to see if its any good or not. But the legal means just aren't good enough for you. The companies realize that the people stealing from them are lowering the value of their product. It's great that you buy trades, see movies in the theater and rent movies. Awesome for you, but again, why not Netflix Still Waiting if you really want to see it that badly. I also think that it's interesting that for all the talk of piracy helping sales it is the geek heavy industries that get boned most by it. Anime especially gets badly damaged by piracy, as does gaming. I've read that comics and manga have been getting badly stomped on as well. Um, what? You do know that the author still gets paid when people buy an MP3 or an Ebook right? Technology killed the CD, that is true, but Itunes sells an ass ton of MP3s as does Amazon. Piracy has however hurt many companies and individuals. Sega's Dreamcast was majorly fucked by piracy, and the PSP has been as well. PC gaming has been gutted by pirates, look at the info that gunsmith threw up there. Piracy has always been around, but the ease of it recently has really ratcheted things up. Edit: There are differences. Libraries did pay for the items in question at least once. Second, there are a limited number of copies available, so you have to weigh the value of the book against the inconvenience of having to return it and it maybe not being there. Libraries also don't kill book sales.

If we came to terms with the fact that Rocky and Apollo weren't gay, I think Iceman and Maverick are safely hetero.

Monster Squad is a legitimately cheesy great film! As for MK2, even my love of bad cinema can't save that one. Christ, outside of the rain of Ninjas it is awful. What's scary is how many of these I have podcasted on. Heh. House of the Dead 2 looks to be a better Resident Evil movie than RE: Apocalypse was, god that movie sucked. A LOT! I have trouble putting the next one here because I think it is legitimately awesome, but: Commando This trailer explains its awesomeness to all! Back to the truly bad, yet so good. McBain Christopher Walken, Action Hero. Greatest kill ever! And who can forget: Roadhouse god I miss the 1980s! Look, 1980s films were all about a good motherfucking yarn. Realism? Fuck it! Story? FUCK IT! All you needed were great one liners, a metric fuckton of testosterone, and some 1980s rock. Top Gun is awesome because it doesn't try to be anything more than AMERICA ROCKS, and so do fighter jets. And because of that it succeeds.

Top Gun bad? FUCK YOU!!!!!! Anyhow irredeemable films that you love anyway? Street Fighter for sure, love that film, love it more with time. So definitely agree. American Ninja 2 Which at points reminds me of Shenmue, maybe it's the main character's outfit throughout most of the film. DOA: Dead or Alive Eric Roberts doing martial arts. Kasumi with small tits. And Tim Hayabusa. Bloodrayne Drunk Michael Madsen, Michelle Rodriguez as English Noblewoman, and the most awkward sex scene ever in a theatrical release Hard to Kill Steven Segal. At his greatest!

I'll agree with you on a ratings hit, got more stone trophy's than I would have liked my first playhtrough, and quite a few of the deaths were because of missed QTEs. I will say the integration of a lot of the QTE like actions during boss fights is a lot better than other games of the genre though. As for bosses, right on a replay they may not be long, but the first time through is about experiencing the game, the later playthroughs are about being an uber badass, and getting all the stuff you missed.

Not particularly. Some of the boss fights are ridiculously long, having to replay an early section of a fight over and over again when you die at say the last form of a 5 form boss BLOWS. Kamiya was smart enough to realize that it isn't fun having to redo those parts ad nauseum and thus we have mid boss checkpoints. Overall the game isn't all that hard though, it's no DMC3 or NG. Haven't played it on hard yet. The QTEs can be annoying at times, but there are not all that many of them. I just hate QTEs that cause an insta-death and then affect your rating for the level. Makes me a sad panda. I've seen games with much more annoying QTE stuff, RE4 and 5 come to mind.