Calax

It did have one, but it was basically like the old command and conquer maps where it was just a 2d illustrated piece of parchment with dots for the various locations that you can go, and a dotted line from point a to b that traces where you went before getting access to the airship.

Except they weren't? Well, he worked on the scenario and probably wrote the original story and setting (the second being pretty good imo), but the Lead Writer for both games has been the same guy that wrote X, X-2 and XII. Daisuke Watanabe. XIII-2 was pretty good imo, too. And while 3rd Birthday was terrible I still really liked Bahamut Lagoon. Edit: Also Versus is written by the same guy that wrote Advent Children and FFVIII. Personally, ranks lower by me. The thing about FFXIII is that I actually thought the story could have been very interesting, Toriyama or not. They just waste it all by having most important bits in a codex. Other games have codexes, but they are there to flesh out story and lore. In FFXIII, they have all the important bits in the codex. I was lost before reading the entries you unlocked. I can't comment on Versus yet, but if it lets me explore and not just run through (beautiful) corridors, I'll be happy. I don't care if they do it like FFXII or like the old FF games with a world map. All FF games are linear, but FFXIII took it to a new level in the first half of the game. This might have more to do with the fact that the game was built graphics and scenes first, everything else later. I've seen a post mortem and from everything I read, they literally didn't know what each group was doing until they saw the deadline closing in and had to make a game out of what they'd built.

Life gets pretty heavy. Taking today off so I don't wreck myself any more. Feeling better overall, but still a bit unsettled. Gonna try to get most of my book done tonight for class so this weekend I can read my other book. I've fallen way behind in class

I know that the Bonus Series on each planet can get annoying because you don't want to out level, but you want to do your class quest (and usually new planets just start beating you silly if you don't do the bonus series)

I have a psyciatric professional, but he's not the "councelor" type. And I'm in the same town as Hades was, which is about 1000 miles away from any family.

Slowly starting to unravel. Had a damn near complete break down at work while on my break... ended up pulling a 5 hr shift, and telling them to write me off tomorrow because of this. Don't know what I'm going to do now. Starting to feel a bit like Sisyphus... trying to drag myself up only to watch all that going "up" get rolled right back down into my own face.... Also tigs, apparently my second cousin (a cheerleader) is in paris right now too

reason is because those nice girls? want a guy with a good car, a good job, and enough money they don't want to have to worry about anything and instead just have you pay for everything because it's "chivalrous". And now to drag my broken ass off to class for another 13 hours of torturous walking/standing.

Thing is, you knew what it was like to have that. I've never had that. Hell, most highschoolers have seen/been with more women than me. I know it's shallow, but it'd be nice to just once be able to snuggle up to somebody, watch a movie, then chase them back into the bedroom... rather than turn up the volume because my roommate decided to get it on (when she's home) and is QUITE loud while at it.

Roomie is out in Norway. Not able to do to much, because I'm taking summer courses, and between those and work, I'm doing 13 hr days And not 13 from wakeup to sleep, that's 13 from starting class to ending work. My feet hurt, my ankles are barely letting me walk, my back is killing me at the end of the day... And to add to my depression, I'm single, have been forever, and everyone around me is either getting married, starting families or just doing the whole "happy couple" schtick... and honestly, when everything I'm bombarded with is either attractive women who want somebody younger, in better shape, and has money/a respectable job, I see no reason to continue with this sham of a life. I need no reminders of how I "should" be living, or of how far from it I am pitched in my face, but even the act of trying to watch tv ****s me up at this point. As it is right now I"m staring at 600 mg of benadryl... debating.

Not really, she's seventeen and seems like she'd prefer me not "creeping" on her

Sometimes all you want is to be needed, and all you need is to be wanted... and yet you feel neither.

Text her back and just get a "Oh, everything's fine now" response. And it turns out she has "episodes". Basically it seemed to be a pretty serious case of depression that leads to her doing nasty things to herself. And she has nobody who even understands the depression in her life.

As I was going to bed, I collected my phone from my pants pocket (It's doubling as my alarm clock right now and find a text message from a 17 year old co-worker Text her back and just get a "Oh, everything's fine now" response.

Part of this is digital distribution. Means that a lot of the overhead costs of having the game sent to gamestop/bestbuy, and even printing the disks are gone, so the games can be sold at a lower price but earn more per capita. Only issue is it requires a stable internet connection to receive the game in question. Much of Paradox' more current success can be attributed to Steam, and that, mixed with a dedicated fanbase for their "more complicated than an excel spreadsheet trying to give you Ford Motor Companies financial info" games, mean that they have a consistent ability to create a growing fanbase at a lower rate. Now if they could just get their heads out of their rear ends on things like King Arthur 2 (held to 24 frames per sec or so, HATES duel core... and duel monitors) they might actually be able to take on THQ and win. One thing I think we'll see over then next years is more revivals of old gaming classics, rebranded, remarketed, and rebuilt under at least a member of their original team. I mean Twisted Metal probably got greenlit because David Jaffe really wanted to get the franchise back to life, and finally had enough pull with SCEA to get it up and running. And as time goes on, more of the money guys will start being hustled out the door (at least in terms of creative overlords of things like Acti, EA, THQ, and Nintendo) in favor of the project leaders behind the more successful games. As to true Triple A titles? They'll still be around. But I think they're going to become SIGNIFICANTLY more limited in number per year. So instead of a constant stream of 30 or so games with 100 million dollar budgets per year, it'd go down to 12-15, with the backups being competant games that don't need the over the top graphics, voices, soundtrack, or scope. Another thing that's going to help with this is the fact that we aren't progressing NEARLY as fast for graphics upgrades, so an "A" title and a "Triple A" title won't be TOO different between how they look.

I'm not exaggerating that much. And while you might have been okay with it, this was what was bothering me as I finished up the game. And some of the "breaking apart" platforming is just stupid given that it only starts breaking when NATHAN goes over it... but it had perfectly held both Sully and the other people Nathan runs around.

Everything I've seen says that watching it without reading the book is like only knowing half the story. I'm not sure why so many people were gushing over it but it wasn't horrible.

The thing is, the first two games seemed to have at least some connectivity between levels. You were going to this place or that one because the place before had given you a reason to go there. That's why it felt like Indiana Jones the Video Game. Uncharted 3 has about as much connecting some of it's levels together as there is connecting Pawn Stars to Cajun Pawn Stars. I mean there's one level that just ends with Nathan floating in the ocean... and he just MAGICALLY turns up at his ex's door half concious. And I'm not saying that the transportation or whatever is bad per-se. It's just that every time he gets into a plaforming segment (which often includes transportation) instead of just being able to platform normally, instead you leap from one thing to another and instantly everything just throws you all over the place for 10 seconds while Nathan goes "yaah yaah yaah! AAAAHHH!" before you're allowed to go back to actually playing the game. And there is no "high tension" moment of platforming (where you're trying to get away from somebody, or need to do it somewhat fast) where a rock falls, or the railing gives way, or the train starts flying, and you spend 30 seconds watching Nathan get tossed around, and it just gets REALLY tiresome.

I don't mind the "On rails" bit myself. But I would like it if the game actually made some modicum of sense in terms of the progression from level to level instead of "I'm magically here now!" There's a pretty definitive point near the 2/3rds mark where it feels like they just ran out of money or something, and just said "Ok, We've got these four levels, and some sand physics made, find a way to stick em in and connect them via cutscene!" so Drake magically is on a boat... then at an airport, then in the desert. And it would have been nice if they mixed things up a bit. Having every single thing that Drake is hopping around on start instantly falling apart as he moves across it just gets.... boring. It seems like no matter what drake does, every single time he gets on ANY slice of transportation, he's going to have to make a harrowing escape from it so that he doesn't get killed in the crash/sinking/roll/ejection.

Just wait for it... it gets more scatterbrained and stupid.

How... Biblical.

El Shaddai. WTF is this? A drug trip given religion and style?

Everything Bad about that conference was wiped away by ubisofts usage of "Girl Wood". Need to get new shoes, my feet are killing me at work after 4 hours. And only today I realized that Captain America was the male lead of Not Another Teen Movie.

Given how they've got her being potrayed, that sounds about right.

I didn't buy it... Back to Volourn... Free 2 play Free 2 play Haven't quite heard of the last 2 in a while, so not sure how they fare. Are they still on a subscription model? I don't think you can just dismiss a game because it's free to play. City of Heroes ran for 6-8 years as a sub, Which is a LOT longer than most mmo's even survive. And even now it still HAS a sub you can do, and it's suggested you sub for at least 3 odd months to provide yourself access to things like Global names and global channels. Also has quite possibly one of the least antagonistic player bases in the entire world. For the record, Rift is effectively WoW with everything that the Blizzard team had learned from the 5 years WoW had been working applied to it. It's nice because there are 4 basic classes but 9 sub classes within those. You can basically set yourself up with whatever role you want with vastly different play styles.

The demo looks really good, but it also looks really staged so, who knows? The idea of hacking with your cellphone, including stuff like traffic lights, honestly isn't bad at all. It might not be risky or boldy, but you certainly can't deny it looks interesting. And the apparently seamless insertion of coop, so that you main player is doing the story while the others are covering him from nearby rooftops etc, possibly without the first guy even knowing