Are you ready for some (American) football?!? A bunch of you had fantasy drafts yesterday and are amped for the season to start. Why not increase the anticipation with some Madden NFL 12? If you’re more about guns than balls then you should keep an eye on Bodycount, the spiritual successor to the underrated Black. Looking for something more esoteric and Japanese? How about Cladun X2 from the excellent people at Nippon Ichi Software America? You can add some (scary) spice to your life and get in shape on the Wii with Get Fit with Mel B.
Anyone buying new games this week?
No Madden… Maybe NCAA, but I doubt it. The engine for EA football games hasn't changed in 25 years or so. I'm over it.
I might grab MK this week on Xbox. I already bought Freddy, now I just need the game.
@ Fantasy Draft
I ended up with both Mannings, Peyton Hillis, Anquoin Boldin, and Plaxico. I'm pretty happy with my squad. Unfortuneatly, most of their bye weeks are week 5. I'll have to burn that bridge when I get to it.
Ray, what do you think about the PC releases coming up that are priced $20-$40? I'm sold on Hard Reset at $30. Single player focus with high end gfx. Yes please.
I think that's the only way to go. Digital games, particularly mobile, have changed consumer expectations of pricing. It will be interesting to see how publishers handle things. It's a tough balance between increasing game budgets, lower prices, offering value relative to cost, etc. The upcoming generation will be full of changes and challenges tontraditional PC and console gaming.
None for me. I was going to buy super paper mario but forgot my gc.
No games right now, but will most definitely be picking up the new Red Hot Chili Peppers album this week.
Who's on guitar now? The Chili Peppers were at their best when John Frusciante was powered by the creative forces of heroin.
lol yes they were good like that. It's Josh Klinghoffer now, he has toured with the Chili Peppers before and actually worked closely with Frusciante on some of his recent solo albums. He's a talented guitarist, and the album is definitely a slightly different direction than their Frusciante albums. I am hoping this isn't a blemish in their discography like their album with Dave Navarro was. So far I have high hopes.
I just got Batman Arkham Asylum (Game of the Year Edition) a couple of days ago. I will 100% that game as soon as I am done with Fallout 3. This will be semi-difficult since I really like Fallout 3's sandbox and can see myself playing this game long after I've finished every quest, however, I am trying my wife's patience thin as she can only stand so many slow-motion head decapitations in VATS. I, personally have no idea what she's talking about; watching someone's head explode off their body in a bloody mess as a result of a high-powered rifle round to the face never gets old.
Well, just as a way to say "thank you for putting up with me", I bought her The Sims 3 (she really loves The Sims franchise for some unknown reason) so now it might be a struggle to get some playing time on the 360. I might have to pull a N8 and get another Xbox for the other TV.
-M
Batman: AA was a fun game. I didn't play it on hard difficulty, only on normal. I might've been able to beat it on hard, but near the end of the game I struggled enough on normal difficulty. Beat em' up games aren't my forte, but this one was a lot of fun to play. I still love the stealth missions. They are fun to play and replay many times over.
Edit: I strongly recommend a second xbox for your wife. We only have one of them hooked up currently, but once we can move in to our apartment and have two tv's it will be well worth it to have multiple xbox's in the house.
Good friggin' luck with the fighting challenge maps in Batman. Once they hit extreme, I can't do it.
I'm with you on those headpoppers too. G4 ran an article about "Genocide Mode" in Fallout 3 years ago. It said the goal is to kill everyone and everything indiscriminately at first sight. I've never tried it since dead men give on quests. But I have played through that game like 5 or 6 times. Did you get the android's plasma gun?
I too advise the second Xbox. It helps in the long run.
Yeah the only things I didn't do in that game was beat it on hard and any of the fighting challenge maps. Everything else in the game wasn't too bad, and was a lot of fun, but those two things were a little too hard for me to really have fun with or want to try. If you are good at beat em' ups though I think you would have a better chance at both of those things.
I have spoken! Normally, I balk at 100% completion of games that have multi-player achievements because I typically hate those, but for single-player games, I usually go all out. I'm kind of obsessive about it, just ask my wife. Also, I figured that if I could 100% Bayonetta, I can do it for Batman since they are both fighting/action games. And let me tell you; Bayonetta was a pain in the ass to complete. It, too, had challenge rooms that I thought were impossible to beat at first.
If you're talking about Harkness' A3-21 Plasma Rifle, then yes, I got it when I did "The Replicated Man" quest. It was actually my go-to gun for a long time until I beat Operation: Anchorage. Then, the gauss rifle became my new favorite gun. I carry the gauss rifle and tesla cannon with me at all times. I know I should probably pick one since they are the same "type", but I just love them both! Regardless of weapon, the rednecks, ghouls, and raiders are kicking my ass in Point Lookout. Are they on steroids or something? What weapon did you use to dispatch those swamp hicks?
-M
If I remember right, I mainly used the double barrel.There's also an alien blaster and many rounds for it in the north/central sector of the wasteland. It's where you get called to for the Mothership Zeta, but you don't need the DLC to get it. Its the most powerful gun in the game.But, Harkness' rifle was my go to gun too. You can get it rather early too.
Funny that, I actually tried to get the alien blaster early on in the game, but when I get to the alien crash site, I automatically get beamed up to the mothership since I bought the DLC a while back when it was on sale. I reloaded my last checkpoint since I want to save that episode for last. And no, I'm not going to uninstall the DLC just so I can get the gun then re-install it. I'm way too lazy for that. I just went through the game without it.
I did find another alien blaster in the armory of the Enclave's mobile weapons platform at the end of Broken Steel. I haven't really used it that much, though since I couldn't stop using the tesla cannon. The continuous electrical damage is great! Also, I'm worried about running out of alien power cells for the gun. I really can't find that ammo anywhere, especially not from merchants. Do you know if I can create more of it in the steel mill ammo press in The Pitt?
-M
Yeah, all the ammo is laying around the alien or on the ship.That happened to me too after I got the DLC. You can still get it, but it's tricky. After you beat the Mothership, you can walk right up no problem.I'll chat you sometime when I see you playing it.
Been playing Madden for about a week (review is up on the site) and it's solid, but NCAA is a better football game for the second year in a row.
So I was watching gameplay for Bodycount and I just realized that when games go for realism they forget that people don't pick up ammo via their feet.
Also I just had my OG Xbox 360 RRoD on me
I know a want to get an old/used android phone at some point (since I do have the unlimited data to use it with after all) but right now I really really am finding myself dying to get my hands on a WinMo7 phone again. Not necessarily for use as my actual phone, but I could probably replace my iPod touch with an non-contract WinMo7 phone 90% of the time. I'm on the lookout for one of these, and I've found a couple for prices I might pay (140-170) on amazon, but the downside is they are at&t phones and in the off chance I wanted to switch my primary phone to the WinMo7 phone for a while (I could easily do that as long as I don't upgrade my contract) I wouldn't be able to do that.
So my dilemma currently not knowing anyone who wants to get rid of a WinMo7 phone on Verizon or being able to find a cheap one online. I didn't realize how few Verizon capable models there were out there. If only used or unlocked phones didn't cost so much money!!! I'm definitely not spending $400 on a phone in general, let alone for simple use like how I would be using it.
Bodycount SUCKS
What is wrong with Bodycount? I was mildly curious about it and want to get the opinion(s) of people who have played the game.
-M
Graphics and just plain bad. Very much a PS2 quality game.
The actual gameplay seems pointless. They want you to just blow up barrels to see the explosions. Sometimes after blowing up a barrel it stays there untarnished but you can't shoot it anymore. The sounds are random and repetitive. I had no idea where to go next because the fire fight sounds are generic and are just there, they don't lead you to were you are going. You can hear people shouting at you but they could be 200 yards away in a building playing cards and have nothing to do with anything.
Every person drops orbs they are of no use in the first level and they are EVERYWHERE and you can't pick them up after a certain point. It doesn't really explain what they are for until the second mission.
The game just feels unpolished and slapped together to me, but I have been very cynical of games lately.
@Ray
So I have an issue with the site. I was looking for this post and it had been pushed off the page and the last article posted was dated the 29th. When I go to page 2 the first article posted was on the 24th. There is a group of articles missing. I got here because I saw N8R's post in the righthand side. This happens quite a bit to me.
Browser and OS?
Windows 7 Pro 64-bit. On Chrome 13 and Firefox 3.6.2.0 I have the same problem. On IE 9 it works properly