Llyranor

Oh, man! I just RRoD'ed AGAIN.

I just RRoD'ed too! That's 4 times now

YOU get with the times, Bioware apologist.

What the crap, man? Where the freak is Pluto, Bioware? I'm going to bloody slit your collective throat.

Is George Ziets even working on this game, or some other Bethesda project?

My main gripe with PSX RPGs is how utterly pathetic their localizations were in the early PSX days. Lunar 1/2 were fun enough, but the gameplay itself was pretty bad. Grandia has one of my favorite JRPG combat systems as a series. Tales of Destiny/Eternia also had pretty fun combat (real-time). Looking forward to Vesperia. Valkyrie Profile has great gameplay. Pretty innovative stuff. Threads of Fate has Mint - great character. World Domination stuff, pumpkins, and so on. I found Suikoden pretty standard/mediocre, so I didn't really bother with the sequel.

There's a demo for Vesperia anyway.

Lost Odyssey is great fun if you like turn-based JRPGs. If you don't, it probably won't make you love them. The 'Dreams of a Thousand Years' are the real highlight of the game (short sidestories fleshing out the main character - who's a 1000-yr old guy who can't die). Nick will say it's the best JRPG he's played, and I'm not going out of my way to argue with him, if only for the Dreams. Here's one example (the first one in the game, which you get very early on), if you want to see how the audiovisual presentation of one is like (of course, spoilers, in case you want to see it in-game first): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPhG8XQKP9w Vesperia should be great for any fan of Tales of Symphonia/Abyss.

Nick has some interest, but he's a cheap idiot.

Irrelevant. They'd never be 6 of us on at the same time. Interesting tidbit re: L4D http://www.e3coverage.com/E32008/e32008_left4dead.html At 3:10, he mentions the 360 co-op (of which we already know has splitscreen included). "You and a buddy can play with two bots, or you can go online and play with other people". That sounds like guesting, but I'll try to look for a definitive confirmation.

I'd want to be either defense or one of the wings.

GeoWars2 is beyond awesome. The different modes are loads of fun. The achievements are also pretty entertaining. <3 <3 co-op. Soul Calibur 4 is better than I though as well. Maybe it was just the nature of playing SC2 with Zeli that lent it its spammy impression, but after a few bouts with Jigs, practicing and learning the movesets, dodging/parrying/repelling attacks, guard impacts, it's deeper and more fun than I expected. I could get used to this.

Looks like NHL 09 will allow 6v6. You can create your own teams, and each player can customize his/her character and assume one position, gain xp, etc. http://www.gametrailers.com/player/37454.html?type= http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/sports/nhl...amp;mode=recent TEAM TEAM TEAM

You guys should probably stay away from Wipwned for your own sakes.

I'm guessing there's more to TH's 4p removal than just 'pacing'. That would be a pathetic excuse, but it probably has to do with performance/coding/etc. Much like their 'people playing co-op don't want to see any cutscenes, that's why we're removing them completely from multiplayer rather than making them optional'. The devs' PR isn't particularly inspiring. I'm fine with 2p in Gears. The 5p horde mode should be awesome. You guys better get this game.

Well, it's not just a matter of 'adding it in'. There's all the required additional coding, which wouldn't be necessarily cost-worthy if they don't give it appropriate attention. Making sure the scripting doesn't fall apart, additional bugs to check, performance problems, and so on. Unless the game is designed for X numbers of players, Now, mind you, the game supports it, I guess. They just didn't think it was worth the extra work required to add it for the campaign. They never promised it, unlike freaking Too Human.

Re: Fable 2 co-op Hmm. Re: Gears2 So, more of a last stand where you fight wave after wave until you die. Could work well re: aiming for high scores as in Heavy Weapon, rather than just killing a set number of waves. Also, co-op campaign = 2p only

I quite enjoyed the Tales demo. The combat was as I expected (good fun). The demo didn't really explain the combat system, but since I've played other games in the series, I knew what to expect. The story segment was as dramatic as some people would have probably liked, but the it was a small lighthearted romp, which is probably somewhat representative of how the adventuring will be in the full game. It's a pretty different game from ES aside from the being of the same genre. I enjoyed ES despite its flaw (the story was so horribly bad that it was good, the colorful artstyle was nice, the music was fantastic, the combat was shallow but fun and fast-paced enough, and the co-op was what kept me playing through the game). It got decent reviews overall, but it seems most actual JRPGers didn't like it that much. By and large, Vesperia should be better in that aspect, given the proven credentials (some people would argue that Tales of Symphonia and Tales of the Abyss would be among the best JRPGs on the Gamecube/PS2, and this is made by the same team). I suspect the story will still be pretty cliched, but it should a fun lighthearted adventure. I don't expect it to be anything like ES'. Stay away if you're Kaftan, though. I'm getting the game for the combat and the co-op; the combat should be leagues beyond that of ES.

I'm still interested enough in the dual analog take on hack&slash + 2p co-op to give the demo a try. If it's entertaining enough, it might be worth the bargain bin somewhere down the line. 1942 is coming out this week. GeoWars2 is Aug 6. 4p co-op is going to be awesome. Apparently, it's local only, though (too bad, jerk), but I'll make good use of that 3rd controller I've been eyeing, at least. Otherwise, looks like I'm picking up Mercs 2 and Tales of Vesperia in August.

It's not that the shooting is bad, it's just that it's nothing special. I just have absolutely zero interest in Bad Company. I'm not investing in a PvP-focused game that no will end up playing unless I have interest in the actual game in and of itself. It's the same problem as in CoD4, even though they're different games. I wouldn't have bothered getting CoD4 if (and hey, the core gameplay WAS enjoyable, I just didn't find it substantial enough - or we had already exhausted all that was to be experienced in the game, at least for Nick and me) if other people didn't rave about the mp (and I wouldn't be nearly as disappointed if the sp wasn't a big bore). The same thing would have happened with GTA4. We were *considering* it for the Obs crew. But look at the lot of you. When was the last time you even touched that game? Did you even go through a single co-op mission together? Did you even get any substantial PvP out of it? I rant and whine, but the point is that I'm not investing in a game unless the actual gameplay has me interested. In Ace Combat 6, the bulk of the gameplay has been from the PvP, and it's just Nick and me, and yet the game has had incredible lasting value, and we still play it. L4D and Mercs2 will be completely different experiences, but if we're going to be comparing PvP, I'll stick with Gears2 once that comes out (+ co-op campaign, + Horde mode). Though, again, unfair comparison. Don't get me wrong, destructible terrain would be awesome if I gave half a Hades about the game. I'd just sooner get the next Brothers in Arms, and I don't think I'll even be picking that up. And I'd still get the game if Nick told me to. We just don't get to game much with the rest of you. You're either dead or in CoD4 most of the time.

Man, I can't wait to rule over nations with necromancy.

Could be worse. Could be Oblivion.

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/36029.html Eldar ^___^

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/36033.html EDIT: Wait, this is LOTR. But it does look nice.