Vilge Duin

Phone up your EB. The one we frequent had a fair sized sign on the counter that says you get a GTA IV poster if you pre-order (it just has Niko on it with the logo). I'm fairly certain they'll only be available on release though.

Hmmm... News of possibly selling out and such is bothersome. Was actually tricky tracking down a copy of San Andreas around release, and this should prove more difficult. I very may well have to go a pre-order it. Get a nifty free poster at EB too.

At current exchange rates it's effectively... $256.97 for the instrument bundle and then another $98.84 for the game itself (in USD). Effectively coming to the price Marsh stated. They're getting fucked over on pricing. You may think it's a good deal at $170, but they're paying more than double that. In fact forcing people to buy the game separately is just a way to price gouge more. It is not worth it. Great game and all, but when you can buy numerous other games for the same price, or even a damn system, it's not right.

But they don't need to render the city twice, it streams off the disc anyways. If I can play Warhawk, with it's ridiculously sized maps, right next to my girlfriend with not a single element downgraded changed or even different... and two other people could join in if they wanted too, all on the same system, online might I add, then they could easily downgrade the graphics and cut back on some of the elements to include at least two player split screen in GTA. Do it like some games like Ratchet: Deadlocked did. Just add an invisible tether. You can't go a certain distance away from your friend. If both players are in the same region there wouldn't be that big of a problem. Yes, it would be a monumentally difficult task if they were allowed to be on either side of the city causing rampant havoc, but making them stay together isn't that big a deal. And besides, you seemingly don't quite get how the game would render the city anyways. Splitting the screen would not instantaneously mean the city would have to be render up twice on the same system. Especially if forced to at least stay near each other within reason (which I don't think most would have a problem with), all that would need to be done is offer to perspectives on the same area, which more CPU intensive than just one player, isn't a "oh my god! can't be done! get online or you suck!" thing. That section of the city, is after all, already being rendered and active anyways. You'd simply be adding a second player and giving them a perspective. A complete "two peopel roaming everywhere doing whatever they want" system however, would absolutely never work on these current systems with the size and scope of the game.

The Wii has its own individual friend code, while each game has their own you have to use. I grew tired of Mario Kart by the time of Double Dash. It's seemingly repeating itself and lost its charm to me. And this one in particular looks dreadfully dull.

100% agree it looked relatively good but I haven't played it since the day I bought it. Bowling is actually really fun, better if you have friends. Anyone want to set up a game of warhawk today? I can try and host an 8 person server. I'd be up for it sometime over the weekend if anyone else is. If I'm not mistaken I can host a 16 person server. Haven't checked in awhile though. And just picked up two sublimely wonderful DualShock 3's... Oh, and joy was had.

Xenosaga is quite good. And for the style of game I'll love it if only for the unique setting. Dark Cloud 1 & 2 (Chronicle elsewhere) are fun. And subsequently Rogue Galaxy is also a rather enjoyable action RPG. Exquisite graphics too. Have you ever tried out the Shadow Hearts games Cloudy? They're quite good. The first two are directly linked in and in ways are literal and spiritual successors to the old Koudelka game on the PSX.

I didn't get the Red Rings and they fixed mine for free and it was beyond the one year warranty. Go read their press releases and official terms of agreement. It's all their in writing. An exception doesn't make it the rule. And at that, Microsoft likely isn't too concerned right now anyways with enforcing their policy. That'll likely come later on. And more than enough people have had to dish out money. You're officially the luckiest video game player on the planet. The NES, PSX and PS2 are notorious for crapping out. I am meticulous about taking care of my systems, but even I couldn't save those three. The NES with all its urban legends of how to get the games to play, the PSX getting hot enough to light carpet on fire and PS2's Disc Read Errors were all pretty widespread problems. I wouldn't say I am. I've been instilled with a sense of pride in my possessions and I take meticulous care of them. A lot of people treat their systems like shit. That said, I did have my PC's power supply blow out from overheating while playing Empire At War for too long. My NES however is an ugly brown piece of shit that's original RCA connector doesn't work, but my Genesis one works with it. My Dreamcast crapped out once, but after adjusting the laser again it's been fine. A PSX for example though, should not ever once be on carpet to begin with, doesn't allow airflow. And at that I put ridiculous time into that machine (between the Tomb Raiders, MGS, original GTA, the Crashes, all of Squares RPGs, Twisted Metal 2, and so on). Then again, my newfound disdain for the 360 likely stems entirely from not ever having problems with my other systems. 3 and a half months of sporadic use including a two week break of even touching it before it red ringed, is shit. It's the worst designed mainstream system ever designed. How anyone can even defend it boggles me. The games can be fun and are great, but the system itself is shit.

Eye of Judgment strictly as a card game is quite balanced and enjoyable. The deck that comes with the game is decent enough to win against even people who have 'better' cards. The game is designed wherein' skill pretty much always trumps what cards someone has. Setting it up with the Eye can be a nuisance, but once you get a handle on it it's quite simple. And there's something incredibly and deliciously nerdy to like about playing down a card and seeing it animate on the screen. With the added online functionality and a decently sized community (especially on the official Playstation forums) there's just about always someone, somewhere, sometime that you can play. A much desired quality any CCG player would love. And of course the Eye itself has different stuff for it, none of which I've personally bothered with.

I usually play with Wolf, Toon Link, Snake and the Kirby man. Generally, I don't lose as Wolf unless it's my own stupidity. Thusly I've cut back on even bothering with him since it's borderline not fun anymore. Toon Link is Link but better in all ways. Little bugger can go. Snake is fun once you get a handle on how to use him properly. Kirby is just one of my favourite characters since the first, and since he's gotten a nice little boost he's quite great. Despite seemingly everyone loving the guy, and I can admit I know he's a good character, I utterly suck as Meta Knight. Although I've been slacking off playing Smash Bros. because of all the other games that have come out... I fear I won't play much of it until July... What with Crisis Core in my PSP, then GTA IV and MGS IV... Bah.

Didn't the 360 come out late 2005? The 3-year warrantee should still cover all of them at the moment shouldn't it? Mine's broken twice but the second time they just gave me a new one and a month's free XBL Gold. 3 year warranty is only for the RRoD. Anything else is only covered by the 1 year warranty and after that it's $100 a pop to effectively fix anything. The 360 actually has quite a lot of problems with faulty DVD drives and scratching of discs. And at that, once that warranty is up then what? Every system I've ever bought still works to this day. My 1988 NES my parents got me still works. My SNES, Genesis, N64, PSX, Dreamcast, PS2, GBA SP, DS, DS Lite, PSP and PS3 were all bought within a year of their releases and still work perfectly to this day. The only system I've had break on me was the 360. Backwards compatability is great, but I'm fond of pulling out an old system to enjoy a game from years past. The likelihood of that happening with the 360? Hahahaha.... And watching the new Gamestop ad and reading Kotaku's little preview of the game has made me want it even more. Ugh. 27 days seems quite long.

There's sadly not much else out there. Both the 360 and PS3 are loaded with shooter variants with the Wii having mainly mini game or gimmick compilations. Oblivion is a grand and ridiculously large game. Considered one of the best games in recent years. I personally didn't like it too much, but leagues of people do. Assassin's Creed is a solid experience, but has it's quirks that can turn you off or in fact may make you like it better. Now that I think of it, there's also stuff like skate (which is supposed to be better than Tony Hawk's recent incarnations) and Marvel Ultimate Alliance (dungeon crawling stuff with Marvel characters). Ninja Gaiden Sigma is also quite good, if a bit mind numbingly difficult (and Devil May Cry 4 at that). Folklore is a decent RPG/Adventure game that has some decent visuals and mildly interesting game play. Of course Guitar Hero 3 and Rock Band too. And of course there's Grand Theft Auto 4 out at the end of this month. Outside of that I can't honestly think of anything that's good enough for mention that isn't either shooter/racing inspired in a way.

Warhawk. Warhawk is all anyone needs. Warhawk is good. Warhawk's better than sex. Warhawk is life. But in all seriousness, if you're up for some dynamic third person shooter (with tanks, jeeps and planes too) online game play, it's one of the best, if not the best. Uncharted is good for a cross breed of Gears of War/Tomb Raider that Naughty Dog made their own, it's one of the best games the system has, and truly is a very pulpy action adventure. Ratchet & Clank Future isn't too shabby, but eh, not as good as the 2nd and 3rd. Eye of Judgment is pretty good, but the money sink and niche quality of it likely isn't for everyone. I haven't played them but stuff like Heavenly Sword and Motor Storm are supposed to be good if you're looking for a short derivative God of War inspired game and a middling atypical motocross game respectively. They're not mentioned much here, if anywhere actually, but some of the PSN games are quite fun. PixelJunk Monsters is a fun by yourself but a blast with a friend if you like Tower Defense type stuff. Super Stardust HD is fucking great, and an absolutely gorgeous game. And if you've never played a 360 either.... There's the smattering of random multi-platform titles. Oblivion, Assassin's Creed, sports titles, etc. Oh and Warhawk.

The Xbox 360 version will have rumble, achievements and exclusive downloadable content sometime in the future (which is supposed to be 2 separate 'episodes' that are in the 10 hour range each, no price point has been given). The Playstation 3 version will have rumble if you happen to have or plan to get a DualShock 3, will have possible Home integration and other such novelties tied to it (trophies, accomplishments, skins, etc.) and downloadable content. The DLC won't be the exclusive stuff for the 360 but will be some of the stuff that the 360 may get (no clue what it may be). Then there's the choice of Xbox Live or the Playstation Network, whichever suits you better. Other than that, both versions are supposed to be entirely identical. So it's really just a matter of preference and if the DLC for the 360 version means anything to you (there has been rumblings that it is a timed exclusive, but that's far from being proven). [EDIT]: I'm personally picking it up for the PS3. I've grown bored of the 360 and it has too much of a habit of breaking, which I'm petrified will happen again. Achievements mean fuck all to me, I plan to get a DualShock 3 in a few weeks when they're out and I much prefer the Playstation controller anyways. I also prefer the simplicity of the PSN, which will be up to par with all the features Xbox Live has by the time Home comes out, and it is free of course. DLC shit isn't impressive since it'll likely be upwards of $20 if not more, of which the game apparently takes over a 100 hours to finish 100% anyways, and I've never remotely been done with any of the previous installments to warrant such a thing. And since I have my PS3 hooked up through an HDMI cord, I much prefer the visuals I get from it than the 360. Oh, and it hasn't fucking broken on me like the 360 has... And besides I've played every GTA on a Playstation since I played the first back in '98. Wouldn't feel right any other way.

The thing with the Rumble match, or any match at that (particularly Iron Man, Submission, etc.) is a more varied and indepth damage system with a way to regain health and/or stamina/whatever in the match. The way the Smackdown games are designed is for 3-8 minute matches if you're lucky. The rare longer one may happen. But it's rather difficult to effectively pull a Flair/Mysterio/Benoit/Michaels/et al Rumble performance on a system designed for such short matches when these matches (and even in the game) can go for a time. Also once both guys are red in a Iron Man match it's effectively redundant as either can whip off a pin or submission with relative ease.

Ratchet & Clank along with Jak & Daxter are video games. You loathe them. Check up on your reading comprehension. Did I say you loathe all video games? No. You're now mincing my words in an effort to make some sort of issue out of nothing. I made two brief references to the series in my post about what we own (even going so far as to say Size Matters wasn't even that good). You said you dislike the games and don't see why people enjoy them since they bore you to tears. I asked why they bore you to tears, and stated why I liked them along with stating millions of people love them. Which is true. You come firing back seemingly offended by that at which I brought up sales data (do you perhaps have a seemingly better way to judge how well games are liked? even looking at aggregate rating sites they do extremely well).... See it's a matter of I made reference to them, you loathe them. Why exactly are you causing a problem where there needs not be one just because of your own self affirmed irrational dislike or a... video game? They're video games. Drop the fucking subject, as I am doing now since this is pointless.

It was you who decided to rail road it into said direction, to which you have brought nothing up to back your previous apparent stance that no one else should like the games (and it's a seeming impossibility to you anyways) due to an unjustified and unsubstantiated loathing of.... video games. Unless Ratchet raped your dog and your illegitimate father happens to be Jak, I see not what the issue is or why you brought it up with such animosity and vigour in the first place. Lots of people love them, you don't. End of story really.

(Insert cliched joke about Mario Kart 64 desensitizing me to violence) Not having a clue who she is... I must say, the short little snippets are in all honesty pretty spot on with what's in the games. And I could see someone taking them for that. Albeit the last bit of the Scarface thing just goes to show how fallible and asinine it is for governments to try censor and control things. I see the game has an 18 certificate, so what is her point about teenagers playing games like it? Either they're playing it without their parents knowledge or with. If without, their parents either don't care or are just plain ignorant. If with, their parents are either idiots or they know their children are mature enough to handle the game which nullifies the "my god video games will make my kid a killer!" anyways. I don't really see what the big deal is. Every single generation has had some sort of "evil" bad influence on our societies... Jazz music, rock music, colour TV, movies, hell the 60s in general, rap music, books, art, anything. Dating back throughout history. And none of it has been proven to have the effect the fear mongers wish them to carry because violence and apathy have generally decreased as time has gone on. But of course that leads to a boring news day and obviously politicians have nothing better to discuss.

I loved the original Tactics. Very enjoyable in all regards and one of my favourite games ever. I'm one of the few people who seemingly played it the very day it came out though. Too few know the loveliness of that game. It's also one of the few Final Fantasy's I've actually bothered to complete wholly more than once (instead of starting and stopping at some random mid point). I even had a few straight character challenges done too (Ninja, Knight and Geomancer in particular are quite fun). War of the Lions is a decent enough upgrade that brought back the enjoyment of the game for me after not playing it for a few years. My only problem really is you can't suspend play, which any good portable game should allow, especially one that can actually take a chunk of time to finish a mission.

First Interview: WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 And they have a video up too. -Playstation 3 - - Xbox 360 - - Wii - - DS - The PS2 will likely look like a slightly downgraded Wii version, with the PSP likely a slight downgrade of that. EDIT: The video looked a bit hokey to me. Odd animation and reactions, but that likely won't be how the game looks. Create a finisher sounds pretty damn cool in theory. In practise though I can see it coming off horribly. It's about time they finally did something with tag matches. Co-op story mode should be great, and a much needed feature. I've been wanting to play any semblance of a career with someone since 2. Everything else said in the interview is the standard stuff everyone's likely grown used to. "We're fixing that", "the fan's wants are what matters most", "we're updating the animations, online, graphics, etc.". Nothing overly impressive. The Wii version sounds like it will definitely be shit though. Surprised they're still going to pump out a PS2 version. I'll enjoy the game over the past few years as long as they add a lot of moves back in, take out the limiting restrictions and expand the rosters. But none of that will occur.

So because you have an irrational problem, that you can't even explain why, with electronic entertainment that precludes other people who obviously paid money from enjoying them? That's just units sold officially counted by Sony. That's not considering the used game market or just households with multiple people who enjoy games. Nor is it taking into consideration that people make borrow from friends and/or just rent. Hell, even those who pirate things. Why on earth would you "feel too strongly" about such a thing anyways? They're games. YOU don't like them, tonnes of others do. I really don't see why you have an issue with that.

They ARE loved by millions. The only games in both respective series that haven't cracked a million are Jak X Racing (which is a spin off anyways), Ratchet: Deadlocked (arguably almost a spin off) and Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters (which is on its way anyways). Daxter itself has sold over 2 million copies alone in the US.

Why do they bore you to tears? Classic platforming action with interesting characters and decent humour. They're loved by millions. And no, having played FF VII really has no bearing on being able to play Crisis Core. Since it's a prequel you don't need to know what happens, albeit you may appreciate certain things better if you do play VII first. You also may spol and ruin certain twists within VII beforehand if you play Crisis Core first. I just picked it up yesterday, and it's quite fun so far. I'm extremely impressed with the graphics and that. Sometimes its hard to believe this little thing is in my hands. The gameplay is akin to a modified Kingdom Hearts.

More heroes... and possibly villains. Just more characters to mess around with, especially She-Hulk. Punisher too. More characters is always good. Hell, if for storyline purposes it doesn't make sense for characters to be playable at first, just add them in as extra unlockables for a second run through. I'd adjust the gameplay and camera a bit too. Less button mashy and a camera better suited to showing what the hell is going on. The last game especially had a very cluster-fuckish nature at times. More varied enemies would be grand also. Differently sized guys or differently coloured guys, or both, get dull after a time. As for the story. I'd have no clue really, aside from wanting Thanos as the main villain. Do an altered take on the Infinity Gauntlet/War. After the story in the last game, there's really only so many ways to equal and/or top that.

Aside from what's been mentioned, I've always been fond of The Spy Who Loved Me for some reason. The best Roger Moore Bond movie for me. Casino Royale though is an absolute must.