The Mask of Norro

Novel was the best of the three for BR for me. Absolutely loved the characters in the novel more than either the manga or the movie. Movie didn't feel like it truly developed much on anyone (although I still loved it to death), and the manga was great but as has been said towards the end there it really flew off the handle. Spoilers in case somehow anyone here hasn't read the story yet, but...

Kiriyama's DBZ-style fight with Sugimura was just... I mean yeah it was cool but it was so out-of-place that it was a total what-the-fuck moment for me. Sugimura pulls some energy ki bullshit, actually masters it, and Kiriyama just watches and goes "Oh so that's how it's done" and perfects it even faster just to kill him with it.

I didn't care much for the whole "chosen one" bit either. Give me an innocent child Kiriyama who gets fucked by a wreck, sure, but "daddy said I was the chosen one" was just... uuuuuugh.

Anyway, never read Hunger Games but damn does the trailer have me interested. I would still pay good money to see an American Battle Royale-- though I'm not entirely certain how they'd pull it off-- but if Hunger Games does as well and is as good as it's being hyped to be, I can see it being on the horizon too.

Why is that anyway, with the UFC Career Mode? I appreciate giving me the option to fight in two weight ranges, but if I want to make this massive hulking giant of an axe-murderer who's like 6'7" I'm not going to be happy when I see his weight set to 210 after I set it to damn near 300. 6'7", 210lbs is a fucking twig is what it is.

Granted my heavyweight was supposed to be 6'4" 240, but the point still remains: you set it to the tallest height, and the fattest figure, and the dude's still gonna come out cutting just around 210. It's insanity.

Anyway, had to return the game yesterday and I miss it already. Such a great game, can't wait to buy it. The only thing I'd say about Career Mode is that while I do love how streamlined it all is and how fluid the training feels compared to last time (much less of a grind-it-out mentality to all of it), I kind-of miss the story aspect to the career modes in the past. My favorite part about finishing my fighter's story in the last game was watching him build his own gym to train new guys in, it was a nice touch. Still, it's not a huge thing, and they definitely improved everything else in the right areas for me this go-round.

Is he seriusly talking 20 Minutes about how Minecraft is bad because he neither understands Minecraft nor Indygaming. I turned it of at the six minute mark...

So you missed how they use "retro" graphics as an excuse for being lazy, stealing game mods from lone programmers and incorporating them into the real game with no credit, released an unfinished game to market, and pointed out how much of an extreme cunt Notch is?

I'll check out Future Diary, as it sounds fairly interesting. I did watched Death Note up to a point, but I didn't really enjoy it compared to the manga. Even the movies were done better, I think.

And Fullmetal Alchemist isn't my cup of tea.

Fullmetal Alchemist wasn't my cup of tea either, LUKIE, but I assure you Brotherhood was leagues beyond what was set be FA's original run (in my opinion anyway). Story is so much better, character development is there in all the right areas... I dunno, I enjoyed it so much more to be honest. It's worth at the very least giving it a shot if you haven't before.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_cqg6JcwfI

Hrm. Found an annoying bug in career mode. In the WFA right now training for my 6th fight and every time I try to do the transition drill training I get about halfway through and the screen doesn't return from black, all I hear is background noise and the game is effectively frozen there. Forces me to restart my whole system, I've replicated this quite a few times now. This happened to me once when trying the exact same drill training in a previous match so I don't know what it is about the transition drill training, but it just won't let me get through it.

Anyone else experience this issue? I'm thinking it might just be the copy I'm borrowing. Hoping that when I buy this the problem isn't still persisting.

So Lorina and I just started watching Mirai Nikki today and holy fuckdamn it's incredible so far. We're probably going to cap off the day on Episode 10 by tonight, not certain yet. Right now we just left off on Episode 5, the character development in this is fantastic.

I'm seriously so conflicted on Yuno's character especially, but the investigator and the terrorist... Jesus. Plus it was nice to see Yuki kind-of get his "be a man" moment in Episode 5... he's the stereotypical 'weak-willed character grows balls as the story goes forward' type which has populated anime for so long, but despite that I have and probably always will love those moments when those weak characters finally do grow a pair and become the character they're meant to be (see: Simon in TTGL).

We'll definitely be following this one. No doubt about that.

Also, Ruki: you're only just watching Brotherhood? You're in for one hell of a ride. Quite possibly my favorite anime, it actually has more appeal to me than Gurren Lagann which, well, that conflicts me to say the least

Will the Vita still be able to play PSOne Classics? That's a pretty big thing for me. I mean, I wouldn't mind one, but the main thing I like my PSP for it playing FFVII and VIII on the move. I'd be kinda bummed out if that wasn't an option.

Yes, and it works with saving to the cloud so theoretically you could be playing the game on your PS3, save it to the cloud, and pick up where you left off on the road with the Vita.

... I want one is what I'm saying here, basically

Anyone else picking this up on the PS3? It's lonely over here

Have the option of picking it up for either console but damn it, I prefer the PS3

Fought my first dragon this morning, that was a hell of a rush. Right near the start of the game when the dragon goes and takes out the Watchtower outside, like, the first major city you come across (forgetting the name at the moment). Everyone flips shit when it appears and I come running out of the tower from my conversation with one of the survivors to see it just rush by overhead. Got out my firebow and got a few shots off at it, my allies were wailing away at it when it landed and after a couple of minutes I found myself in the perfect position to get behind the dragon and absolutely wreck its shit with my Great Frost-Sword from the overlord of the zombie things.

I'm slowly falling in love with this game. The fighting mechanics are smooth, taking on monsters is a rush, and I'm loving the raw number of options I have in this game to do what I please-- absolutely immense.

Less than a month away... I can't wait. I've been waiting for this game since the moment the credits rolled on ME2 for me early last year. Can't believe it took me so long back then to get into this series, but damn it, I fell face-first into it when I started.

I have full intention of buying the N7 edition. I would prefer to get it at GameStop since, you know, discount, but back after I left the company for awhile I put my preorder in at Best Buy. They damn sure had better still have it in their system... planning on finding out some time this week. Between this, Skyrim's collectors and attempting to import the Animus Edition of AC: Revelations, Norro is pumping out far too much on games and damn it, I'm loving all of it

Matz, you are going to fall in love so hard with ME2. Such a brilliant game.

Also having gotten to see the Vita first-hand in my new store this week, I've got to say... do want. It looks awesome. I may even spring for the 3G version if I have the money to in a few months, because pay-as-you-use-it 3G sounds like a pretty fine deal to me, AT&T or not.

I've been a fan of the Duke games for ages. I haven't even played Forever still, I just bought the game on the principle of the fact that it was a Duke Nukem game in 2011. That's good enough for me.

Besides, I'm sorry, but my gigantic fuck-off Alduin eats your 'lost credibility' talk and spits it back in your face while Ezio watches on disapprovingly next to my Apple of Eden

Anyway. Didn't get the chance to play yesterday so I'm hoping to today after work. Fingers crossed, can't wait to try this thing out!

Just grabbed the collector's edition for PS3 (I've got a Mac, no point in getting the PC version). Will be playing this starting Sunday more than likely... fairly excited. This should keep me occupied until Mass Effect 3 comes out in March at least, and I've heard nothing but good things so yeah.

You got the one with the big dragon statue in it?

Yep!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v64/NorrisScott/IMG_2405.jpg

Got it set up with a bunch of my other figurines from collector's editions in the bottom half of my entertainment area. Right now it's watching over a Duke Nukem statue while Altair hides behind it

Just grabbed the collector's edition for PS3 (I've got a Mac, no point in getting the PC version). Will be playing this starting Sunday more than likely... fairly excited. This should keep me occupied until Mass Effect 3 comes out in March at least, and I've heard nothing but good things so yeah.

Why not, I'll join.

You're welcome

I understand, but it's also the gamerunner's job to deal with inactivity rather than just let it slide.

Oi. I tried to deal with it. I got replacements early on. Then my replacements went inactive too

Like I said, not blameless in any way, it's just that by the time my players finally started picking things up, I was in a position where I couldn't pick up with them, and then we've sort-of bumbled are way through this thing ever since. I agree with the census thusfar though, smaller games may need to take a stronghold here for awhile, get the demand for a big game to come back up again when we've got enough interested people ready to commit to staying active in it. We've seen a few successful ones, they're still possible, but it might be better to work our way up to those rather than have so many.

Don't look at me. I had every intention of Anime Mafia being over months ago. But the game started dragging from inactivity and then had the misfortune for me of dragging just long enough to stretch into my holiday working time. I'm a retail store manager, that shit wasn't gonna end well when it happened. Soon as I hit holiday everything drug even worse, and there's been little I can do but do sporadic updates since then.

As far as improving graphics for next-gen go, I saw some video awhile back about replacing polygon graphics in gaming with molecules to do more realistic, detailed graphics than what are capable now in gaming while keeping load-times to a minimum at the same time. Seemed fairly impressive, though I did wonder how people would look in the engine since all it showed in the video was grass, rocks and trees.

I mean they were sexy, sexy grass, rocks and trees, but still.

EDIT: Some company named Euclideon, that's the one. "Unlimited Detail Rendering". Lot of people critical about it, not sure if it's really going to work or if it's just blowing smoke or what, but if this sort-of thing takes off then that's where I see graphics going next. It's really nice and I could see a lot of potential out of it-- ESPECIALLY in the realm of ensuring less load-times for games. That's what I'd like to see.

AVADA KEDAV-- oh, wait, that's gonna be a scum tell isn't it? Shit.

Totally in.

I'm fairly certain Supermodel Island still gets the mantel for longest running Mafia game. I doubt I'll ever touch that one.

I really didn't think, when I began this game in August, that it'd be dragging on into bloody December. It's rather ridiculous to say the least.

You really do. That win was brilliant.

No worries mate. Tomorrow is my day off and I don't foresee anything stopping me from getting out the update and sending everyone a wake-up PM. We will finish this game, damn it.

Somehow I knew you'd be the one to say something, Sean. Don't know how, but I just knew it.

Anyway, I'll definitely admit to being far too busy at the moment to properly put together much of anything just yet for an update. Fact is I didn't expect the game to drag on this long, figured it'd be done by now. Since it's not though, it's kinda been cut into by my now heavy work schedule due to the holidays. So, that being said, I'm still planning on getting the update out, and hopefully those left are still willing to play, but yeah. Definitely didn't realize I'd still be working on it in mid-to-late-November.

To everyone in Anime Mafia: my apologies for what is now a major delay on my end. My sister-in-law had her wedding over the weekend and the past week has been a mix of me getting all my hours in at work early so I could assist with everything over the weekend for it. Suffice to say I've had little to no internet access for awhile now, just enough to pop in on my phone from time to time.

So yes, the update is coming in the next day or so. Sorry I didn't say anything sooner, but a lot of what was happening was very rushed and last minute so I didn't have very many opportunities to

I'll understand if because of this you've all lost complete faith in me as a human being (inb4 'we already did' jokes )

Still waiting on someone-- anyone-- who can replace Hickey. Anyone?