Tale

It doesn't play the same as typical MGS. There's very little emphasis on sneaking in MGO, except for Snake. The ability to fire from virtually every position, play dead (including remaining limp from explosions), cardboard boxes, magazine traps, and SOP (though people never use it after the initial spawn, bastages) all can make things very interesting.

I'd wager I'm the only one here who's actually played it. The mode where Snake and MK II come into play opened up just yesterday (or Sunday, I wasn't paying attention that day). MK II is on the team with Snake, not red or blue. And basically, I'm having lots of fun with it. I killed so many Snakes yesterday. As with most things in the game, it'll be a while before many people get the hang of it. I've only got to play as Snake when I hosted a passworded game just to try him out. In the interest of full disclosure, the game is damned frustrating sometimes. The stun knife is horrible imbalanced for the way hit detection works. You can and will exchange fire and damage each other around the same time. Countless times I've gone to grab someone with CQC only to get hit by the stun knife right after. But with the stun knife, you're down. There's also lots of people who are just getting used to it. And quite a few old hats from the original MGO pulling headshots out of their asses. There's other modes aside from Sneaking (the one with Snake). Deathmatch, team deathmatch, a multi-point king of the hill mode called Base, and a capture the flag variation (I don't recall the name of the mode) that features two neutral flags in the shape of a duck and a frog. PS: I'm kicking ass using nothing but a stun pistol, CQC, and the knife. PPS: Red sucks, blue rules!

As long as we all agree that he's right, though. With the Nintendo DS as a close second. By like a hair.

For your sake, I hope you did not just insult Tic Tac Toe. Consequences.

Why does it need a 2.4 Intel but only a 2.0 AMD? I'm no expert, but my guess is that's around the mark where AMDs were more efficient than Intel processors at the same clockspeed. Though I hear AMD are struggling in the dual core benchmarks. I absolutely loved my AMD 64 3000+, personally.

I've always thought of GTA as more of a taupe.

Ahh, so Mass Effect can be recommended to people who like KOTOR and hate Jade Empire? Sand's comparing it to Jade Empire was making me second think my interest in it.

It's the original PS1. The set is a reprinting.

Persona 3 FES This includes the original game (with bonuses) as well as a new 30 hour epilogue. Giving the original (with bonuses) a 2nd runthrough for all the neat new stuff. Also been playing Metal Gear Online's "premier beta." I hear that the EU and JPN region betas have gotten a new game mode featuring Snake. Hopefully NA gets it soon, too.

I beat Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem. Now trying a no alert run through of Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence. The new camera angle is a godsend. I can actually SEE enemies, which is important without the old radar. Getting the better hang of CQC now than my last two playthroughs. I'll regularly run up to enemies and slam them to the ground instead of wasting Mk22 ammo to knock them out. It's actually kind of fun to do that while under fire. Having Snake run up to a guy who is shooting at him, grab the soldier, and faceplant him into the dirt is exciting. I'm on a no alert run, so being suicidal like that when I get caught is a-okay. The fight against the Ocelot Unit was pretty tough to do this time around with no alerts, so I got lots of opportunities to practice. I actually was able to faceplant 6 of them before getting taken down by the 7th.

Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem This is one of those games I put down earlier and am coming back to finally beat. I don't know where I put it down before, though. Not particularly scary, particularly easy, but plenty fun.

I only played Fallout once, but I don't recall any far reaching consequences for entering a house uninvited. But that might be because I didn't particularly like that game so I didn't pay close attention.

I thought BG1 had incredible choice and consequences. Walk into a particular wrong house, you get attacked by the residents. It took me forever to figure out why all the guards hated me. I thought it was just because I had Viconia. But apparently it was because of casual home invasion and murder. Then the whole Xzar-Jaheira event. Nothing says choice and consequence like choosing to have a party with people who can't stand each other and it erupting into violence.

I stand by what I said, well enough, whether it be "personality" or "consequences." Though, I should add that I now recall NWN2 tried implementing actual consequences to previous choices. Though they only really came through at the finding allies stage for the siege.

I'm not sure what you're saying here. Diablo, Elder Scrolls, and Final Fantasy all get by without "option to show our different personality." Only game I can recall playing where that expression mattered where the Baldur's Gate titles. Act like an **** too much and there can be consequences from companions. I would nay anticipate such a thing occuring in another game. Planescape: Torment probably had it too, but I'm guessing.

Only things I care about are fun gameplay and a good story. The rest is just flair. I don't particularly care for complex dialogue trees, either. I can't say I've seen any I would consider complex. Token differences for alignment purposes with generally only trivial immediate effects I'd be wary of considering complex. And I'd be afraid of overcomplexity from any that tried.

Finished Condemned 2 yesterday. With my computer still wonky, I've gone back to playing Rogue Galaxy a little instead of what I should really be playing, Kane's Wrath.

1) Final Fantasy Tactics - I want to label it somewhere around 2 or 3, but I've probably spent enough time playing it to put up higher. 2) Xenogears - Disc 2 sucked, but the story presented by it was quite incredible and dramatic. 3&4) Metal Gear Solid 2&3 - I'm including both here because I don't know which is 3 and which is 4. They both have significant faults that make it hard for me to figure out which I like more. 5) Suikoden II - Probably the most emotionally compelling take on a war story I've ever experienced. And the ultra bad ending was one of the first games to make me cry. 6) Phoenix Wright: Trials and Tribulations - Fudge yeah! 7) Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - The original fudge yeah! Final Fantasy VII - Screw you guys. Probably should be higher on my list, but it's been so long since I've played that I'm knocking it down a few points. 9) Xenosaga: Episode III - When I played it, I thought for a time that I was going to like it more than Xenogears. However, the hasty conclusion suffered similar faults as gears and was ultimately less dramatic and interesting. 10) FEAR - My favorite FPS for SHOOTAN. It's possible this will be surpassed with Resistance, but I need to give Resistance some more play before I make that decision. Honorable mentions to Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete, Legend of Dragoon, Counter-Strike, Team Fortress 2, Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer, Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, and Baldur's Gate II. All of which have been favorite games at previous points and are not included somewhere on this list simply because of whim.

My Metal Gear Solid Essentials Collection finally arrived, so I'm starting up Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance. Sucks that my Sons of Liberty saves don't work with it, all those dog tags lost. Also got my HDMI-DVI cable, so I'm playing a bit of Condemned 2 on the side. Don't like moving my monitor between my computer and my PS3, so it's strictly an on the side project.

I'm rather enjoying it and finding it to be scary. If you like the first, you'll likely like the second, it's mostly more of the same. The changes from the first are near trivial except it seems to be going for even more supernatural and violent.

I'll take his gun!

Dial back the elitism. Just because a player doesn't want to wander around staring at corners and opening every single door looking for some thing that may or may not even exist doesn't mean you're better than they are. The simple fact of the matter is that if a developer is trying to present something, if he actually wants something to be seen or experienced, hiding the keys to progress or understanding somewhere the target audience likely won't reach defeats the purpose. If it's a matter of a little extra rewarding for extra effort or skill, it's an entirely different matter and not what Levine is talking about. I don't even know what to say to the rest of your comment. The little side paths in games are traditionally the absolutely most boring parts of them. Hell, if developer can't make an interesting main path, how the heck are they making interesting side paths?

Why put a lot of effort into something only 5% of the players can see, when you can instead put that exact same effort into extra things for everyone to see?