Momo

Well, it's done...I've per-ordered Final Fantasy XIII-2.

Don't feel bad. I have too.

I only lost a few minutes of progress, so I'm lucky. So far, I've traveled half way across the map and liberated a pirate ship from a cave of undead pirates. I now have to rebuild it.

Fallout 3 was the opposite for me. I hated it for the first -10 hours I played. Didn't like the world, found it too bleak and depressing....

...THEN it pulled me in and I racked up about 50 hours on it before my console hard drive reset.

Ditto for me. Bought Fallout 3 and just couldn't get into it. Left it alone for almost a year, and then came back to it after watching a mate play for a while. Couldn't put it down after that.

On a more related note, bought Oblivion in the Steam sale last night. Was really enjoying it... until I became encumbered, couldn't move and received no direction as to how to drop items. I changed window so the internet could tell me, and when I came back, it had frozen.

That match hasn't come up for me yet...when does it happen? Is it a set time each year? And what happens if you don't attack either man?

It's the main event of the RAW after Elimination Chamber. Like I said, if your rumble winner wins the title before that match, it won't happen. I presume if you don't attack anyone, you'll take on the champion of your brand... and you won't get the trophy/achievement.

It will say Royal Rumble Winner's event underneath the RAW logo where it normally says One on One. I've had it glitch out on me a few times though. It's not really a big issue past whatever storyline you're trying to run though. You can just skip through to the next Rumble etc to go for the trophy again.

Vladimir Kozlov is an absolute beast. Also... with the Rumble Winner's event, what do you do? Just play the match? Manually interfere?

When choose to go to the match screen, the game will ask if you want to watch the match as the royal rumble winner. That character will sit at ringside during the match, and at any point, you can choose to get up and attack one of the competitors. You could probably manage to hit both, but it'll only count the one you connect with first.

Also, won't work if your Rumble winner is one of the current champions.

Get out.

If that's in reference to Skyrim/Bethesda worst of the year, I specifically mean the PS3 version. They can go fuck themselves for ever having the balls to even think about releasing that mess, let alone going through with it.

GAME OF THE YEAR

Batman: Arkham City

STUDIO OF THE YEAR

Naughty Dog

BEST PS3 GAME

InFamous 2

Uncharted 3

BEST PC GAME

Battlefield 3

BEST SHOOTER

Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Battlefield 3

Portal 2

BEST ACTION ADVENTURE GAME

InFamous 2

Uncharted 3

Batman: Arkham City

BEST RPG

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

BEST MULTI-PLAYER IN A VIDEO GAME

Portal 2

BEST STORY IN A VIDEO GAME

Portal 2

Uncharted 3

Batman: Arkham City

BEST SPORTS GAME

WWE '12

BEST INDEPENDENT GAME

Limbo (If it was this year)

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

Deus Ex: Human Revolution

inFamous 2

Portal 2

BEST PERFORMANCE IN A VIDEO GAME

Mark Hamill - The Joker (Batman: Arkham City)

Nolan North - Nathan Drake (Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception)

Ellen McLain - GlaDOS (Portal 2)

BEST DOWNLOADABLE GAME

Limbo (If it was this year)

MOST ANTICIPATED GAME

Assassin's Creed 3

Gravity Rush

Final Fantasy Type-0

WORST GAME OF THE YEAR

Skyrim

WORST STUDIO

Bethesda

Team Bondi

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

Mark Hamill - Outstanding Voice Acting

Fumito Ueda - Contributions to Games as Art Movement

Shigeru Miyamoto - Innovation in Video Games

Final Fantasy XIII-2

Still haven't beaten XIII, so I really have to get around to that. Loved Pulse though, and so long as XIII-2 takes place on Pulse, I'm really looking forward to it.

Gravity Rush

Looks amazing. Hoping some great moments will come from figuring out the mechanics, especially in battle.

Uncharted: Golden Abyss

As much as I feel like I'm done with Uncharted for now, I can't help but look forward to this. I get the feeling this will sit away for a while so that XIII-2 and Gravity Rush can get most of my attention.

Assassin's Creed 3

I rushed through Revelations. I was largely disappointed, not by the game though. I knew what to expect from Revelations gameplay. I was disappointed that it doesn't live up to its title. I haven't done any of the sidequests yet, but the main narrative answered absolutely nothing from the cliffhanger Brotherhood ending. AC3 should hopefully give some closure, and with any luck, also bring a bit of innovation to the franchise.

Final Fantasy Type-0

What Benji said. I haven't kept up with this one much, but it's basically the last hurrah for PSP. PSP has basically been a solely Square-Enix machine for me, and I'll be celebrating that fact with this release.

The Last Guardian

Played Shadow when it got re-released. Absolutely loved it. Never have I felt as clever or as dumb in my life as I have playing Shadow. Last Guardian is a must for me.

Tekken Tag Tournament 2

Got the demo with Tekken Hybrid, and loved it. Tekken always delivers for me. I don't think I'll ever not get it (except the 3DS one).

Final Fantasy X HD

I don't think I really need to explain this one.

Journey

It just looks gorgeous. I love the concept, I love what the developers are trying to do, and I'm hoping to god that it will be as relaxing as to play as it is to watch. I also hope that it's playable on PSV when it comes out, because that's how I picture myself playing it anyway.

Honorable Mentions/Undecided

Mass Effect 3

I've yet to beat ME2, and I like it well enough, I just feel like I'm going through the motions playing it. Probably when it drops in price (which is when I got ME2 anyway)

Kingdom Hearts 3D

I just don't want to buy a 3DS, but KH: Birth by Sleep was my favourite game of last year without question, so KH3D will probably be worth it.

Metal Gear Rising

If I have to buy a PSMove to get the full experience, I'm out.

LittleBigPlanet PSV

The PSP one pissed me off. It felt so much less charming than the original LBP. I'll have to demo this before I get it.

ModNation Racers PSV

The original interested me, but I never wanted to put down the money for it. I'm liking the way track creation is looking for this one. Seems intuitive and it might foster creation a fair bit. Demo first is a likely scenario again.

WWE '13

Depends on how much in the way of extra features goes into create an arena. I can update my own rosters now. I don't need to shell out $90 AUD a year for THQ to do it for me.

Made a great Ayumi Kurihara CAW last night/this morning. I've only seen a few matches though, so I'm not confident on doing a moveset.

This is the first WWE game I've had in about 4 years, so I've basically missed all the online sharing and extra creative components up until now.

- Create an Entrance is a little clunkier than whichever one I played last. I should not have to add a screen effect to choose camera angles. Overall it's not a big deal.

- Loving the online community aspect. Downloading CAWs is fantastic, and a reasonably quick process, provided the server isn't having issues.

- I hadn't touched Universe Mode (which is where the core gameplay is as far as I can see) until tonight. I've basically spent my free time for the past week (which has been a lot) just CAWing, and making storylines and altering attires and creating highlight packages to use as entrance videos.

- On the storylines note, I'm a little pissed that I can't upload a storyline I've done because it uses downloaded CAWs. I can't see why the download point can't just go to the original creator for the CAW, and you get one for the overall storyline.

- I'd prefer if the counter system was a little more forgiving on timing but brought back some of the guesswork so that matches became less about knowing the game and more about knowing your opponent. Matches against friends are little more than counter-fests.

- But absolutely love the way they've set up finisher counters. Feels exciting and tense. Probably the closest they will come to replicating false finish matches.

- The attire system is fucking Ace. I've filled the 4 attire slots for my main CAW, and I'm considering copying him to another slot to give him some more.

- RTWM is dire.

- A bitter experience has left me not liking comebacks. Orton landed an RKO on me and then proceeded to perform a comeback and land a few more hits on me, followed by another RKO. I don't know how he had a comeback while he was winning, but he did it.

- Disapponted by Create-an-Arena. Got my hopes up and thought you might be able to make/place set pieces on the stage area as well, but it was not to be. Massive variety of options in there already though, and a fine first effort. Create-a-Logo really makes every aspect of this game feel more alive and real.

I didn't realise it, but that comes across as some pretty big criticisms. Basically, those are only the small things for me. Creations and community is where it's at. Fantastic game IMO.

I have fond memories of XII, I should get around to re-playing it someday. The only thing I remember about the story is that it was more than a little bit Star Wars - which, while you could pick worse things to rip off, makes for a story that doesn't really break any new ground. I did enjoy the battle system, and while most of the other characters weren't too memorable, Balthier (Han Solo) stands out as one of my favorite FF characters. Also I thought the Judges looked cool with their badass armor.

Did anyone ever beat that final optional boss in XII? It was a gigantic dragon that had something like 200x more HP than the final boss. Never saw the point, personally. I gave it a shot but after hours of battling, I had barely put a dent in his health bar(s). Plus I think you got the most powerful sword in the game after beating him, but then you'd be left with nothing meaningful to kill with it.

I did the week XIII came out. My PS3 died two days beforehand and I'd taken the week off work. Figured I had nothing better to do.

Also, to get that sword, you have to beat another optional boss (way harder, less HP but way harder) and a lengthy but fairly easy sidequest.

Undies? As if

Picked up cowboy bebop recently. Haven't had the time to watch it but I'm really looking forward to it

In all honesty, I've only played Final Fantasy VII the once. But the first time around, I felt like Midgar just dragged on and on and on. I couldn't wait to get out, and I imagine if I played again, I'd have to get through Midgar quickly.

Final Fantasy VIII, I'm fine until the start of Disc 2 in the Prison, and the ensuing missile base. Such a slow section, not helped by massive amounts of backtracking and running back and forth, and every single room looking the same.

Final Fantasy IX... just evil forest. I love most every other part of that game. Evil forest is OK too, but there's nothing there to really grip you and make you want to play the game some more.

Final Fantasy X. If I can get to Kilika Island, I'm good. Everything carries itself forward from there.

Final Fantasy X-2... yeah. I've never actually finished this one. Started playing it again yesterday as a break from XIII. I'm generally fine right up until Chapter 3 (I think that's where the concert happens), but after that I'm lost.

I've only got 2 files for Final Fantasy XII, and I've not really had a problem motivating myself to play until the end on either of them, but by that same token, it's not a game I want to revisit from the beginning for a long while.

I'm not sure I'll ever play Final Fantasy XIII again after I beat it. I loved it when I was down on Pulse, but seeing as how it sends you back to Cocoon by the end of the Chapter, it's a short lived freedom. I can see myself going back to my save file after I finish and just doing random questing though.

I must admit, I've never got the allure of IX. Maybe I should play it again.

And V and VI are available for download on PS3, or only PSP? I'm not sure how that whole thing works.

PSOne Classics play on both, but I don't know if they're up in the American Store. They've been up on the Aus Store (and so I presume the UK Store as well) since the network came back online.

I, II, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX all on PSP. Would get IV as well, but I already have it and III on the DS.

For those that haven't noticed, V and VI are out on the PAL PS Store.

And people who already own a phone don't need an iPhone, and nobody needs an iPad. People still buy them. It's got more to do with marketing than existing ownership.

iPhone and iPad both have killer apps on their online stores. So for people that already have a phone, but want an iPhone, there's reason to upgrade.

As I said earlier, if Nintendo really wants this to work, they need to get some exclusives that aren't good old Nintendo favourites. Whether that means they come up with some new IPs that cater to the market they're trying to attract, or whether they pay a 3rd party developer to make a big exclusive for them is anyone's guess, but it's something that needs to be done.

Is it just me, or did River seem genuinely perplexed by the child ripping her way out of the Astronaut suit in the Silent episode?

Surely she'd have to know who it was, she'd remember it.

The problem is that unless this has a significant improvement in graphics over the PS3 and the 360, it's not going to mean much. Yeah, graphics aren't everything, but they are a massive part of the reason third party developers didn't really support the Wii.

While that problem is now fixed, we face the problem of consumer support. Will someone who owns either a 360 or a PS3 be tempted to buy this. All the games coming for it are also coming to 360 & PS3. Most of those will be released earlier on the other consoles as well.

Which means to sell this console, there needs to be significant improvement over current gen consoles, and the services they offer (online play, graphics, streaming entertainment, e-shopping). Alternately, Nintendo could offer some killer exclusives, but not just the Mario's and Zelda's of days past. The people that will buy a console for those games, are already buying the console.

In short, people that already have a seventh gen console, don't need the WiiU

Been watching Eden of the East recently. Fairly enjoyable, if a little over the top. The follow up movies to the series come out in dvd tomorrow. Definitely looking forward to them.

Ugh, so fucking over FFXIII. It's taken me just over a year to even get to...

Gran Pulse, and now that I'm there and I can kind of sense the looming freedom, I just don't want to play. Who's fucking idea was it for 20+ hours of tutorial?!

I really want to like this game, but I'll be damned if it isn't doing its hardest to change that.

3D wassent even new 15 (?) years ago wen i saw my first 3D Movie. It´s like saing... wow, instead of listening to music in stero i can listen to two different songs in mono. Impressive.

Now say fuck a lot to make me less right.

... Not at all.

It's like saying... wow, instead of two people listening to the same song, they can listen to 2 different songs playing through the same speaker at the same time, but each only hears one of the 2 songs because of a special device they put in their ear to filter out the frequency that the other song is playing in.

You're a fucking plum.

KH: Birth By Sleep is easily the best thing Square-Enix has put out since FFX. They're also far more likely to receive a collection, as they're a proper series, and not just a bunch of completely different games with the same name.

If I could, I'd get an FFX, FFX-2 and FFXII Collection going, but aside from the voice acting, I don't think they really need the HD upgrade. The earlier Final Fantasies are just too long ago and would require a complete do over just to get them done. World Maps are just too large and require too much space, and with the detail fans would be demanding, it just wouldn't be possible, so I won't even ask.

The only other Square-Enix series I care about is Star Ocean, and in all honesty, I'd do the reverse to it. Having beaten 1 & 2, and now moving on to 3, I think they should be moved back to Sprites on a world map with Anime cut scenes in a PSP/DS game, not whatever they've done to it now. I've not made it to SO4 yet, so I can't judge, but I'd venture my feelings on it will closely mirror those of SO3's.

Kingdom Hearts I & II, with either Chain of Memories or Birth By Sleep.

Would prefer the former, as I have the latter. Hopefully would be announced at the same time as KHIII, so just after KH3D is released.

I am going to unashamedly request that Ruki and stok give me permission to run the next Anime Mafia, because I now have a brilliant idea that I really want to see go down

Pre-reg.