Azure79

My mom who lives in Seoul, called me up the other day and had this to say. "Aren't the North Koreans so cute? I mean they try so hard."

I think it looks worse than the previous games. At least in KoTOR lightsabers would clash and there were fancy parries and things that made the combat interesting to watch. In the combat video none of those things seem to really happen. Hopefully, they'll add more combat animations before final release. Its not a major point for me since I expect to play most of the game in isometric view, but still better animations would be welcome.

This is good news. I hate the idea of limited installs and online authentication. I bought a product, I want to play and install it as many times as I want without jumping through hoops. Also...why do people like the Sims so much? I don't get it.

Watched High Tension. Pretty good slasher flick, but the twist was kinda corny.

I'm with Tigranes. All I really want is some really nice tactical combat in the spirit of the IE games with a good story and setting to back it up. I hope the origin stories really do change the game's story a lot with NPCs treating your PC different according to race and gender. Don't really mind that the art direction is similar to the recent LOTR movies. I just hope the story is more deeper than, 'As the chosen Grey Warden, you must go to location A, B, C and D to collect the pieces of the legendary artifact, which when put together will create the ultimate weapon/ show us where the Big Evil is/ and conquer the Blight forever. AH! I'm so starved for a new swords and sorcery RPG right now I'll play anything. Really looking forward to this game. Hmm, I just watched the combat vid, and the animations seems really...awkward. Swords and shields don't clash against each other, monsters just run up, stand still and swing using two repeating animations. Enemies fall over and die while your character is in mid swing. Even KotOR had lightsabers clashing and parrying. Hope they add more animations for combat in the final product.

I played Heavenly Sword for PS3. It was short but sweet, I finished it in s sittings. I enjoyed the cinematic feel the game had, although since Andy Serkis provided his voice and likeness for the main villain I kept on seeing Smeagol in my head. I can't say the combat was particularly deep, but it was flashy and entertaining enough. There were a lot of combos available but button mashing seemed to get the job done just as well. There were some fun boss battles, the last one feeling particularly epic as it took place in the middle of a battlefield with hundreds of soldiers onscreen being blown back by attacks from the pro and antagonist. I think my favorite part were the cannon and arrow sections. There is a cool little feature where you can guide your projectile after you launch it to its target. Of course immature person that I am, I immediately went for groin shots and giggled along with the character everytime it hit. Actually, I would have been content just playing the cannon section where you're shooting cannonballs at the advancing army. Overall good game. I might buy it later on for my collection when the price goes down. I want to play the cannon sections again.

OngBak was the perfect movie to watch with some buddies. I first saw it in Korea with two of my friends and we were hooting and shouting at all the brutal moves being unleashed. Sentiments of how we should have all done Muay Thai instead of Taekwondo were shared by all. Of course then we had to see if we could do any of the moves in the movie and ending up hurting ourselves. When I moved back to the States, I was shocked that no one had seen this movie, so I got out my copy and watched it with some other friends. The fact that it had no English subtitles did not deter anyone enjoying the bone crushing goodness that is Ongbak. When Tony Jaa leapt from atop a flaming truck to smash his knee down on the poor fellow on the motorcycle there was much manly laughter and high-fiving. This time I persuaded everyone that we shouldn't emulate the movie.

It was a design flaw for sure, and one that the recent Sword Coast Stratagem-mods fix. No more cheesing! I love Sword Coast Strategems. Makes the combat much more interesting, though I regret having installed the option where certain spiders can shoot webs at you. It would be ok if it just entangled one character, but run into three of those spiders and they shoot 3 webs at you simultaneously getting your entire party webbed and you're pretty much screwed. The combat with mages can get pretty tricky too. I installed the option where mages can use BG2 spells in Tutu, so they have contingencys and spell triggers along with Stone Skins. My low level party doesn't have access to counterspells yet so even one mage poses an incredible threat...as I think they should. Unfortunately, this means I've had to resort to some cheese. I usually scout ahead with a hidden thief or ranger and when I see a hostile party with a mage I make myself known then immediately run away to hide in shadows again. This usually results in the hostile party scattering with the melee fighters chasing after me while the mages prepare spells. I lead the over zealous fighters away from their group into an ambush with my fighters, mages and bowmen, quickly dispatch them and then scatter my party before the mages arrive. Then I scout out each individual mage with my hidden character waiting until their protective spells have worn off. Then I reveal myself and have them chase me, hopefully making him waste spells on the way, into another ambush where they are quickly surrounded by my melee fighters and cut down. Its cheesy because a smart mage probably wouldn't go chasing willy nilly after a one rogue who is obviously leading him into a trap. This doesn't stop the mage from unleashing a fireball centered around him while stoneskinned and still taking out half my party, but my bowmen can usually hit him with fire and ice arrows to disrupt spellcasting.

Nah, its Coruscant. Nar Shadaa looks seedier.

I've never understood this, myself. Some people rave on about Starcraft but it was just your generic Monster Race vs Human Race vs Super Alien Race filling in archetypes and duking it out. Diablo and Warcraft have utterly generic stories as well, though I don't know if WOW has advanced the latter beyond, say, Guild Wars-style "Tons and Tons Of Generic Fantasy Fare That Is Just There To Fill Its Position". It's just that Blizzard has always been excellent at delivering those stories (e.g. Diablo 2 movie clips were amazing). Maybe he meant the writing itself and not necessarily the story. I never felt that the writing in Diablo or Starcraft was corny, except for some of the jokes in there. I agree that Blizzard presents its stories very well via cutscenes. I think the stories in Starcraft and Diablo were also pretty good and were presented in such a way that made you feel like you were the center of the story. In Starcraft, you had a special role as Commander for the Terrans, Executor for the Protoss and Cerebrate for the Zerg. The player was addressed as such by the other main characters during mission briefings when they put you in command, and that really made you feel at the center of the story. I'm a little disappointed that Blizzard decided to change that in Starcraft 2 where you'll just be playing as Jim Raynor etc. I would have preferred being addressed as Commander again and feel like I was in charge of how well a mission would go down.

I am Legend, good book by Matheson. I cry every time I see Will Smith making a movie out of books I've enjoyed. Please stop. I've found myself not going to the movies completely. Too expensive and whatnot. I thought about going to see the Watchmen, but I had read the comic I borrowed from a friend and didn't see the point in it. I think I'll just watch Transformers part 2 this year in the theaters since the idea of seeing the Constructicons forming Devastator and then wreaking devastation on a city sounds highly entertaining. Still no Dinobots though . Until then Netflix it is. Oh I recently watched The Gamers: Dorkness Rising, which I found hilarious. I've never played Pen and Paper DnD, but I guess the years of playing Infinity Engine games and NWNs made me understand all the jokes.

And there was much rejoicing. I actually have the PC versions buried somewhere deep within my closest. Also, Sands of Time is an excellent game. You do have to like platforming, but none of the game's challenges are that difficult since you have the ability to rewind time and try again. I think you'll find yourself having a great time as you have the Prince perform some cool acrobatic feats. Some of the combat challenges might get tedious, though I thought the combat was really enjoyable, but nothing too difficult. One you learn how to use enemies and the walls as launching points for attacks it really becomes fun and fluid. Nothing beats luring an enemy close to a wall, have them swing at you only to miss as you've used the wall to soar through the air over them, hitting them twice before you fall. I love Sands of Time.

I'm already worried that Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2 will utterly destroy my life. Now its a new game! Well, I hope its not an MMO and its new ground for Blizzard. Here's hoping for a single player RPG made by Blizzard!

Aww, I love you Purkake. *hugs* Anyways, I've decided to play the BG trilogy, even though I find the first game endlessly boring, and the last 'game' horribly munchkinny and devoted to combat. I've downloaded EasyTutu and BGNPC w/ music. Then I searched through the gazzilion or so mod and found not one 'Viconia likes girls' mod. First off, Viconia would have sex with a good looking woman in a minute. She might not fall in love. She might decide the next morning to insult and belittle that woman for chuckles, but she

Ninja Blade does too look cool. I mean the game is called Ninja Blade. That's cool in itself! The only way it would sound cooler would be to change it to: Ninja Blade: Pirate Storm.

I liked the ending to the new PoP. Can't compare to the Sands of Time ending, but it was something original and set up the next game nicely. I thought it showed perfectly the depth of feeling the Prince had developed towards Elika and the committment towards her cause.

Whoa, 50 is way too much for a GBA game. I got my copy browsing through a local Gamestop. It was decently priced at around 17.99 if I remember correctly.

I'm afraid I've gone and done something foolish. I have once again installed Baldurs Gate 1 and 2 with their expansion packs and the Tutu mod and the NPC banter packs for BG Tutu. Its been years since I played these games last and I missed them. I also installed the widescreen mod and I'm playing at 1920x1080 resolution. Contrary to what I thought, the characters don't seem all that small, but the environments stretch out so much more that it really feels like your party is wandering around in the wilderness. This game has only gotten better with time with all these mods. I've already had funny conversations with Imoen, Xzar and Montaron. I'm trying not to play as if I know where to go and what to do. My PC is weak and he knows it so he sticks to the road and went to meet Khalid and Jaheira right away at the Friendly Arm. I made a kensai (I just like the kensai class) so its tough going. My entire party is level one and we're surviving on hit and run tactics with bows and slings with my kensai darting in to deliver a single devastating blow before retreating. Thanks to mods, I can now direct my party members to wait at certain locations, so I'm looking forward to actually doing quests that I've never done. Like going with Eldoth to 'rescue' whats her name from the Silvershield Estate. Looks like good times ahead.

Plus the music is awesome. I find that I can still hum the themes of various characters. I like FF6 so much that I bought the PS1 re-release version which also comes with new CGI cut-scenes and stuff. I found this version inferior to the GBA version due to load times though. I remember when I finally beat the game. It was around 4am and the ending started to roll across the screen(its a pretty long ending) and I sat there with a huge satisfied grin on my face for about an hour. Definitely one the best gaming experiences I've had.

Awesome news! NG2 was the only game making me want to buy a 360, but I was hoping this would happen. With MGS4, NG2 Sigma, Uncharted and God of War 3, I'm glad I got a PS3. Although that Ninja Blade game looks pretty cool for 360.....damnit. I'm with you Mes, A MAN GAME!

What about the annoying combat like the animals continuously knocking you down and killing you?

I'll be happy if our main weapon is a big ass drill with a chain attachment so we can swing and drill at the same time. Anyone remember that Mecha-beat em up game like Final Fight except with giant mecha robots? It was in the arcades. You could swap your arm attachment with a variety of weapons and one of them was a big drill. I want that weapon in Bioshock2. Oh and please make it so when I shoot splicers in the face with a gun they die immediately.

I remember learning about imaginary and complex numbers when I was highschool in Korea. The only reason I remember is because my math teacher pronounced the word as, 'Comperex'. I thought he meant complex until he wrote down 'Comperex' on the blackboard. I thought it was a special math term until years later when I picked up math again. Still that teacher was good at maths.

Regarding FF series. I would actually recommend FF6 for Gameboy advanced which you can also play on your DS. Its the best FF in my opinion even with random battles (which I hate). There are a lot of enjoyable characters. The story is your typical evil empire wants to dominate the world using old forbidden magic, but the main villain is just so comically evil that you don't mind so much. The main cast is large but somehow the game makes you care about them in all their 2d sprite glory. You don't have an androgynous (sp?) annoying emo 16 year old boy as your main protagonist, but instead the game throws at you a young king fighting for his kingdom, his self-exiled martial arts master brother, a samurai-knight whose entire kingdom was murdered, a mysterious assassin, a girl used by the evil empire for her magical abilities, a betrayed female knight and a rebellious rogue she falls in love with...and more. And they all share the main spotlight and have their moments. Its the only FF that I can still play through completion today just because I enjoy the characters so much.

That reminds me, Team-Gizka is almost done on the restoration pack. The next version should be release candidate 1. I have been holding off on replaying it for soo long. Really? Their site says they still have 85 bugs left, unless they haven't been updating the site. Haven't really been following the progress in a while. Assassin's Creed is 50% of at steam for 10 bucks. I think I might give it a whirl. I just finished playing Splinter Cell Double Agent. I love the Splinter Cell games for some reason. Can't wait for the next one where it seems Sam will have more close combat options, which I always thought he should have just in case he got caught sneaking around.