Shamoozal.com - Smorgas Board

I just got it from Gamefly. If you buy the first print, the Gears3 beta is included (when it comes out)...There's no way I'll buy it for full price, but I must admit I am tempted by the beta...

It sounds like Crackdown 1. They release a game with absolutely 0 hype, (Crackdown not this) and tack on a beta for a ultra popular game and it flies off the shelves. I was buying KZ3 and talking to the EB employee and he said that they had sold out twice that day.

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Great story and characters, but slightly repetitive at times. I recommend it if you like NV, it's definitely one of my favorite FO DLCs.

I think this is actually my first post in a "Games you Beat" thread. Usually WoW sucks my attention from everything.

Bulletstorm (PC) - 2/28

This game has a couple shortcomings. First off, way too linear. I've really become accustomed to the open-world flavor of shooters, like FO3, etc. And to be pigeonholed into basically following a single path the entire game is somewhat disappointing. Second, no jump button. I mean, really? WTF? What FPS has no jump button? Third, it was a little short, and way too easy, even on one of the harder difficulties. +/-7 hours or so, i'd say.

Aside from those couple things, the game was really good. It looks phenomenal, and even on my 3 year old machine it ran flawlessly. The weapons are interesting, but as is often the case, you stick to your three go-to's and the others don't get used much aside from very situationally. The skillshot system is a pretty neat addition, i'll definitely be going back to discover the stuff i haven't found yet. There are a couple more things you can discover throughout the levels -- booze bottles, news robots, and swarms of insects. I'll go back and collect them too.

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"Cook Free, or Die" -- Anthony Bourdain

When did it come out? I'm very interested.

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Came out on Tuesday for the PC and PSN.

Loved the crap out of it. It's a bit too short, and there are some technical missteps, but the characters and story keep you involved throughout.

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How about that ridiculous out of nowhere ending? Hahaha

I had a feeling that something weird was gonna happen because of the masks you collect throughout the game. Really crazy 4th wall breaking stuff.

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I loved it, even though it was kind of ridiculously unfair sometimes. It's charm makes up for it's faults. Only took me 3 years to finally finish it.

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I almost finished that game too. It's soooo frustrating. I made it pretty close to the end. One of the later bosses. You're running around the inside of some castle type place, but I forget exactly what the boss is.

edit: It was the boss of the world you posted above. How close am I?

If the boss is the 3 coffins, then you're pretty much at the end. There's only like 2 or 3 more stages after that.

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i got really frustrated with the boss with all the mirrors in zak and wiki. that's where i decided to stop playing it. i find its trial-and-error type of gameplay very frustrating, but it has alot of charm and appeal with its design and characters.

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Swear to me.

ghost trick

just finished this last night. it has alot of fun characters, and at its core is a good idea, however there was rarely a time in the game when i felt like more could've been done with the idea of manipulating objects instead of focusing on a rather silly and at times confusing plot line. spoiler:i have no idea how there was 2 missile characters in the end. i thought he didnt have the power to rewind time?? also how can two time lines be running at the same time?? it doesnt fit within the game's story structure. there were entire chapters where all you did was haunt a phone line (a common thing to do here), and then just read a bunch of dialog. this in itself would be fine. it works in the "phoenix wright" games because everything everyone is saying comes up again at some point adn its up to you to piece it all together. the dialog is far more passive in "ghost trick". for example, i played it for maybe an hour and a half to two hours last night. i think i spent maybe 20 min of that actually playing. now, i know the MGS games are guilty of this too, but at least those offer a very deep gameplay experience. "ghost trick" is not that involved.

still, it was a fun game as the cast of characters alone makes for a great ride. plus the art and character animation is really well done and a blast to watch. the rube goldberg-esque gameplay is fun and once or twice was really challeging. i just wish there was more of it. a really fun game that i just wish offered a bit more depth.

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Swear to me.

It was not as raw as you hoped.

haahahh it was pretty good and i enjoyed it, but yeah maybe not as raw as i hoped hah

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Swear to me.

Goodness, if this isn't proof I haven't been playing as many games as I normally do then I don't know what is. Anyway, I've played Edgeworth on and off for about a year. I didn't really start to dig into it until around November though. I was very slowly playing through it when I found a few minutes here and there which made it hard because these games are easier to play through in longer sessions (since there is so much you need to remember and keep track of). God this game was long as shit. I was on the final half of the last Chapter and I think I put on over 3 hours over the last three nights. Still, I enjoyed it a lot. Still has some quirks like the PW games, but it's still lots of fun in the end. I can finally pop open Prof Layton 3 now, yay. Been sitting in shrink wrap since the end of December.

Also, I guess I forgot to add Aladdin Genesis when I beat that a few weeks ago. It stinks. Capcom's is better. 20 year battle of Aladdins is meaningless and pointless... but the facts are facts.

Took around 23 hours to beat this one, and I played on casual AND used an XP glitch. The thing I liked about the first dragon age was mostly its story aspects. You really felt like you were playing the role you created. You got to pick your race and origin and then saved the world as that character. Dialogue choices were from a list of unlabeled options and you had to use your knowledge of the situation, or person you were talking to, to pick how you spoke to people.

Bioware didn't seem interested in keeping that feeling from the first game at all in this and the game as a whole feels extremely rushed. They've adopted Mass Effect's dialogue system where you just pick from good, bad, and neutral options, and you play as Hawke, the commander shepard of this game. You don't get to pick anything unique about him except for his class.

The story and characters weren't bad, but some of the characters seemed impossible to please. The 'morality' system in this one is related to your party members, like the first game, ranging from friend to rival. The way that played out for some characters seemed unclear, or maybe buggy, because sometimes a character would speak up against/for something, then I would do that, and I'd lose points for them.

The story stuff is obviously what I was more interested in, but the game itself wasn't anything special either. I said it seems like a very rushed out the door game because it really lacks the care/detail of the first game, and some of the exclusions are a little embarassing. A lot of the caves and dungeons are exactly the same, and you'll run through them many times. Literally, every cave that you can go into IS the same. Also, there's no description/personality to any of the items, and most of them they didn't even bother to name. You'll pick up many belts simply called 'belt', or even 'superior belt,' and that goes for all types of equipment. Customization of your party members' equipment is also extremely limited. You can't change their armor at all, and a lot of the equipment is restricted to only being used be your character.

I shouldn't comment too much on the quality of the gameplay since I obviously cheesed my way through it, but if you liked the tactical elements of the first game, don't expect it as much here. They tried to make it more of an action game, which basically just means it moves faster, and you have a normal attack button, A, which you'll be mashing on a lot. There's more emphasis on 'pressing a button and something awesome happen[ing]' then switching between all your party members and controlling the field.

I actually really prefer this one to the first one so far. I think it's mainly because of the gameplay and dialog though. I think I preferred the environment in the first one better.

But yeah, I like how the gameplay and dialog are more Mass Effect-like.

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Yeah, this game is all about the wider audience.

It's weird they did this because wasn't the first DA a big hit? You'd think they would have just improved upon what made that one work.

The first was just successful at selling so much because of how deceiving the marketing was, I assume. I bet there were many disappointed people on christmas when they went to play "MARILYN MANSONS ARE YOU READY FOR THE NEW SHIT, BLOOOOD: The Game" and got an old school PC RPG.

Prince of Persia - The Forgotten Sands (PS3) - March 13

This game had some pretty sweet rhythm sections. None of the puzzles were overly difficult, but some of the sequences of off-on-off again with water got pretty complex. I always knew where to go and how to get there, but execution was the hard part. It was a great change of pace from some of the other games out there where the puzzles are difficult, but you just turn switches on and off to complete them.
The final battle was pretty poor though. Leading up to it they had a great buildup and a really cool sequence where you're jumping from platform to platform in a sand storm/whirlwind. But the last boss was overly easy. The ending movie/dialog was boring too. Overall a fun game with a disappointing ending.

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- Oh, great. You killed the invisible swordsman!
-- He's dead, all right.
--- How was I supposed to know where he was?
- You were supposed to fire up. _We_ both fired _up_.

Been slowly playing through 3D Dot since Jan. It was a fun game though I'll admit it got slightly tedious towards the end. That final dungeon was just ridiculous. It was basically 6 mini-dungeons disguised as one giant dungeon. I'm going to guess it took me over 3 hours to get through the whole thing which was spread across last weekend and this weekend. I thought I played the game rather thoroughly but it appears that I missed a ton of shit. It wants me to play it again to get the better ending, but I don't think I'll be doing that. I finished with about 18 hours on the clock. Could have been shorter but like I said, I spent a lot of time trying to find all the goodies and items and I didn't even find half of them.

The final boss was kind of pissing me off because you need magic to fight him and run out of magic quick. Then you need to wait for him to summon little bad guys in hopes they'll drop more magic and most times they wouldn't. I eventually got mad, went back to down, juiced up all my magic and bought magic potions and healing potions, maxed out the sword I was using and then won the whole thing in like 5 minutes.

My favorite song in the game.

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