Llyranor

Heh. All those games except Advance Wars are bound to become hard to find pretty soon. Etrian, though, I'd say will be very rare not too long from now, given that it's Atlus publishing.

If you have a DS, you have no excuse to not get this game unless you're a chickenwuss. In terms of player impressions (Japanese ones from a few months ago, and the recent NA ones since the English version just came out) so far, they've all been pretty much glowing all-around. 'Professional' reviews have been less than stellar, but the game isn't built for mainstream audiences. From the sounds of it, this is an old school dungeon crawler for hardcore gamers. Apparently, there isn't too much to the story, but the narrative is supposedly pretty good. The turn-based gameplay is also supposed to be topnotch. It occurs via random encounters (unfortunately). A nice twist to it is that there are these bosses which you can see on the map (via the second screen) while you're in a fight. For every step you make or turn you pass in battle, the boss makes one step (possibly closer towards you). So if a boss (or multiple) is chasing you around and you take too much time in one battle, you can end up having to fight the boss without any break. Sounds pretty intense. In terms of mapping. The DS has two screens. One of them is touch-enabled, so you can use a stylus to write on it. The game has no automap feature, so you have to draw everything yourself. It doesn't sound like the best idea ever, but player impressions have been pretty good on that end. Sounds interesting, at the very least. I'm just waiting for the game to show. It's already shipped. If Haitoku is around, he should have some nice impressions. In any case, for all the Bioware fanpeople out there, you should be getting a DS anyway, what with the DS title in development that supposedly should be out before the end of the year.

Is that why they went third-party?

I just started a new scenario for Airborne Assault - Highway to the Reich, an operational wargame portraying Market Garden. I'm playing as the Amie paratroopers tasked with capturing Eindhoven. I haven't actually *issued* any commands yet, but I've just spent about a whole freaking hour just making out a battle plan (which won't survive first contact with the enemy anyway), taking into account the positioning of my units, areas and timing of reinforcements, local geography, potentials fronts that the enemy could attack in, which bridges I have to capture while avoiding having the enemy detonate them, etc. <3 wargames.

Haha, so much for different 'endings'. In any case, I'm all for the challenge. In terms of bosses, I just beat the water serpent thingie. I've played about 3 hrs of Metroid Prime when I had access to a cube. The exploration/atmosphere was very nice, but I couldn't really stand the controls. I'm wondering how receptive I would be to that type of gameplay using the wiimote. I'm not completely opposed to console FPS gameplay - I quite enjoy Halo (though only in coop). But the lack of dual analog really did hurt it. The boss battle in MP3 shown at E3 where you're falling off some pit looked really fun.

I'd be inclined to agree with my good Jedi friend Hades. DX was a fun experience, but I didn't find the roleplaying elements particularly enticing. In terms of how I was playing the game, it was just a well-designed FPS, with a bit more freedom compared to others of the genre. The story seemed decent at the time, but I don't actually remember any of it, so maybe it wasn't that memorable. What I do remember is slashing anything that moved with that sword they gave you.

I've put about 2 hrs in, taking my time. I'm wondering how close to finishing I actually am (I've beaten 3 or 4 bosses so far, I think). Then again, if replayability is good (and the gameplay does seem to warrant multiple playthroughs, especially if it entails different endings), it doesn't bother me too much. From memory, Dawn of Sorrow took me 6-7 hrs, and it was easily worth the price of admission (though it was the first 'Metroidvania' I fully played, so it was a new experience too - and I easily see how similar the two series are now), so this is pretty much a non-issue. The game certainly seems linear, but the exploration aspects have been pretty enjoyable so far. The bosses have been pretty nice, but not necessarily mindblowing. I've died a few times, but the game hasn't been particularly difficult. Do you actually unlock a hard mode afterwards, or is that Zero Mission? Maybe I'll get Super Metroid on the Virtual Console once I get a Wii.

Well, I'll just pick it up in the bargain bin if it meets expectations. I'm not a massive fan of SS2/Thief, so this isn't one of my most anticipated games. I'm leaving myself to be potentially pleasantly surprised, while avoiding disappointment.

I double-posted. I'm like Hades, hahahhahshdhashfsasjh. Oh man, sometimes I'm just so funny.

I just started Metroid Fusion for the GBA. I've never actually played any Metroid more than just superficially before, so it'll be interesting. Too bad Super Metroid never got a port on GBA. Zero Mission is in the mail, though. Otherwise, what with the playoffs and all, my brother and me have been going through a NHL 2007 (360) season. I have no idea why we're playing as Washington, though. The new use of the right analog as the hockey stick is pretty fun, actually. I quite like the new controls. We both still kind of suck. Aiming isn't so easy, and I always lose faceoffs. Our defensive has improved quite a bit - at least our habit of giving away completely idiotic goals has trended down. Our offensive is pretty horrible. We get very few shots on goal, and those usually aren't very good. Great fun, though. On the PC end of things, I'm still trying to claim Carentan in Combat Mission - Beyond Overlord. At this end, I will never ever finish the Combat Mission series, much less in time for the new one (Shock Force, which apparently comes out in 1-2 months).

Eternal Sonata/Trusty Bell must be the most refreshing JRPG I've played in years. Awesome battle system. The demo is available on Live Marketplace if you make a Japanese account. I'll be picking it up come Sept 2007. Coop doesn't hurt, either.

A 'strategy' RPG could be nice.

I'm looking forward to Kane & Lynch, mainly for the splitscreen coop. I've never played any of the Hitman games, though.

Since Dead Rising dropped in price, I just ordered that.

Just finished a NWN2 coop session with Nick (just got Khelgar). Him as a priest and me as warlock. It was actually pretty fun, but the main thing it made me want was for the bloody game to be turn-based. Oh well.

I never really got too much into Starcraft, nor any of the other Blizz RTSes for that matter. WC2 was my first RTS. It was fun enough, but I can't stand many of the genre conventions. I stick to wargames nowadays when I want some emphasis on tactics and strategy. Dawn of War was a fun endeavor. Can't say it diverged too much from other RTSes, but the setting was pretty nice. Gameplay-wise, I really liked the resource system (capturing points and so on). I was somewhat refreshing. That being, I didn't marry the game or anything, I just prefer it to other RTSes - which I can't stand for long on average.

I think the US demo had some sp missions. That should give you a good idea.

Since I have the game reinstalled, I guess I'll go over the contest mods http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=nwn2m...ory_select_id=9 Only 16 submissions, so it shouldn't be much trouble to get through them. Reviews to come. EDIT: Wait a minute.... This isn't just a writing contest. Some of these are supposed to be hours long. Hahahahahahahahasagasgasgashaa, I don't have the time for that. Anyway, the link is still there for those interested.

Well, to be fair, I haven't played much of it. The whole point of getting the game for me was the coop anyway. The first mission was decent enough, but didn't actually involve any combat. After that, the story diverges into 3 possible missions. One is the main one where it's a big battlefield where two large masses of dudes shoot at each other. One of the optional mission was basically sniping some convoy. The other was sneaking in and blowing up some tanks. Playing by yourself, it just isn't, well, fun to sneak into an enemy camp at night to blow up some tanks that's being guarded by 5-10 enemies, with more reinforcements on the way in a few minutes. You shot one guy, you hide and sneak around some more, then shot another, then rinse and repeat. Or one of them kills you in one shot from far away. Yeah yeah realism blah blah. But 'realism' in and of itself is pretty moot when you're not dealing with realistic teammates and tactics. The AI is decent, I guess, but I wouldn't actually call it *good*. If I were doing the same missions in coop, I'd be having fun, but I don't find the gameplay conducive to singleplayer *at all*. But then, I'm like the biggest coop proponent ever, so take that as you will.

I haven't played OFP (burn the heretic etc I no lol), but reading on other people's impressions, it's a fair step down from OFP's. The biggest dealbreaker though is the lack of coop through the campaign. I might just have to pick up OFP at some point for some coop.

Nick and me will be starting a new campaign in NWN2 in coop mode. Armed Assault's singleplayer has been pretty lackluster, but tomorrow there'll be an opportunity to test the waters of full-fledged coop mode with a good group of people emphasizing proper tactical teamplay. Hopefully, that won't disappoint.

http://www.steampowered.com/v/index.php?ar...=7650&cc=CA 2 freaking dollars. Sold.

True. I mean, who would want to shoot lovely Gabs in the face repeatedly?