Mr_Putter

This was released like 4 months ago...I remember at the start off summer when I got off school I spent 4 solid days playing and never played it since. Was amazing, but then I got a job ;<.

AAA isn't some exclusive club. Most of those games I put in the lower section are probably more AA (just remembered, forgot Force Unleased - that's AAA). I consider AAA games to be big budget, full price titles from well-respected and experienced developers. By your definition, what you consider AAA I would consider a killer app (exclusive, system-seller, the biggest releases). GTAIV wasn't really a killer app cause it didn't convice people to go out immediately and buy a console because it was on both (and most regular gamers have one of: 360, PS3 or gaming PC by this point). AAA is a designation, not a rating. I've played hardly any CoD4, but I fail to see how I couldn't consider it AAA

Why though? Oh ya, and Gears might sell more than 5 million. It's got a lot of buzz, and the 360 market has expanded a lot since the last one. And CliffyB never shuts up about how cool it/he is. Throw a melancholy song into a faux-arty TV spot and Epic can just print money. -BUT- At the same time, there are all those other enormous games coming out this fall to eat into its sales. And also, since it's release, Gears has gotten a lot of critisism for it's [wagon]-slapping uber-macho frat guy appeal that has turned a lot of adult gamers off.

I just have wierd tastes in racing games...mostly because most of them have bad learning curves. They are either too easy with very little time taken to become a champion, or they are too sim-like and then people who have put in months of time will win every single time (and that's intimidating). In the past, though, I've enjoyed GTR2 (unbelievably difficult), Need for Speed 3, 4, 5 (Hot Pursuit, High Stakes, and Porsche Unleased), and Trackmania Nations Forever. I kind of want to try GRiD as most reviews said it was too sim-y for arcade fans and visa-versa. Though since I didn't get it at launch, I'm now doomed to be beaten by people who did.

I've been meaning to catch up on old graphic adventure games, but they are way at the bottom of my list. I own 45 games I haven't played yet, half of which are unopened (I've had an injured wrist for 6 months now). After that, though, I'll probably ebay the Monkey Island series, Day of the Tentacle, and Full Throttle (the Lucasarts adventures). The only Lucasarts adventure I've played is Grim Fandango, and I think that's the last one they released. One day, though, I'll get to these (and the old Sierra adventures like King's Quest).

http://kotaku.com/5040773/japan-reverts-to-xbox-ignoring-habits The world makes sense again.

What's your definition of AAA, then? Cause other than maybe a few of those that are debatable... (L4D is hyped, but may not sell millions). Guitar Hero and Call of Duty are two of the top franchises in the world right now, MotorStorm sold over 3 million copies, WotLK is a guaranteed multi-million seller, and Spore is quite likely to be aswell. SOCOM and PoP are multi-million selling series. And hey, I forgot Resistance 2 (PS3), which is the successor to a game that sold over 2 million copies and is one of the biggest PS3 franchises. The Animal Crossing series has also sold millions (and as the Wii's biggest game of the fall, I wouldn't be surprised to see it be the best selling title in the series yet) and Fallout 3 is the hyped next title from the makers of Oblivion which was somewhat of a phenomenon (and FO is one of the most beloved cRPG series of all time). Gears might end up the biggest game (save maybe WotLK), but there are other enormously popular games. And since Guitar Hero and CoD5 are mutli-platform, there's a very good chance they will sell as good or better. Plus, you never actually said the only AAA exclusive, IRC. And the moral of the story is, no matter what platform you are on, there's a lot to look forward to. 'Cept MAC.

Most of those games come out in mid-late October, and Gears is Nov. 7. A good chunk also come out the same day or after Gears... Just noticed Killzone 2 is pushed back to next year, though.

Guitar Hero World Tour (PS2, PS3, Wii, 360) Rock Band 2 (PS2, PS3, Wii, 360) MotorStorm 2 (PS3) Fable 2 (360) FarCry 2 (PS3, 360, PC) Killezone 2 (PS3) LittleBigPlanet (PS3) Spore (PC, MAC) Left 4 Dead (360, PC) SOCOM: Confrontation (PS3) Fallout 3 (PS3, 360, PC) WoW: WotLK (PC) Animal Crossing: City Folk (Wii) Call of Duty: World at War (PS3, 360, PC, Wii) Prince of Persia (PS3, 360, PC) Doesn't even include other big releases like Mirror's Edge, Dead Space, Fracture, Project Origin, BiA: Hell's Highway, Mercenaries 2, Crysis Warhead, Tom Clancy's EndWar, C&C: Red Alert 3, Warhammer Online. And those are just the big releases. There are atleast 10 more less notable games that should (but won't) get any attention in the next few months. But I'll save that for a different post.

Still, too many bad design decisions keep it away from being excellent. In my mind, mods ought to improve on an already amazing vanilla, and not need to dramatically change the gameplay. SS2 is great, don't get me wrong. It's just that it's so grossly overrated for an underrated game, if you follow. The cult following it has praises it endlessly around the internet, when really it doesn't come close to its cousin, Deus Ex. The other over-rated cult game: Beyond Good and Evil.

Come again?

SS1 was better...and I actually played SS2 first so it's not nostalgia or anything, I just legitimately think it's better. SS2 had too many problems - degrading weapons, respawning enemies, awful character models...Everyone I've talked to has said it's so immersive and creepy, but I was pooped right out of immersion every time I had to reload because of the unexpected difficulty messing me up, or any time I saw one of the Many, or those big balls of muscle. I have Bioshock, but haven't played it yet (other than the demo). From Bioshock's demo, it felt to me like what SS2 should have been graphics and mechanics wise, just with all the same depth as SS2. Edit - You can find out more information by playing SS1, or google or whatever. But I'll let wikipedia explain cause it does it perfectly:

:lol:

I think I've probably been to most major general gaming websites (as in, not company or platform specific). As of this moment, I spend way too much time on gaming sites/blogs. I frequent the following, usually daily: kotaku.com rockpapershotgun.com brainygamer.com 1up.com (reviews suck, but they do some good features) ign.com gamespot.com (almost never use this since all their writers quit) gamespy.com (used to be the best gaming site on the net, but since they merged with IGN years ago their new content has almost vanished) firingsquad.com gamesradar.com escapistmagazine.com (I actually read the magazone :geek: ) gamasutra.com gamese[bleep]ch.com computerandvideogames.com I also make occasional visits to a lot of other places, like sexyvideogameland.blogspot.com, gametrailers.com, destructoid.com and joystiq.com, but not daily like all the ones above. Also visit metacritic almost daily, though not always for gaming. And I also frequent some niche gaming blogs every now and then.

Only 40 hours to 100%? It took me over 70 to 100% San Andreas...

Goldfinger - Solid Bond, though I'm not really much of a fan to be honest. This is said to be the best in the series, and I thought it was good, but nothing terribly special. A good watch. Brick - Quite good, but made bad by constant Rewinds...The dialogue is fast and hard to catch with the slang, and my audio is pretty weak. And it's noir, and therefore a relentless onslaught of characters and its hard to get everyone's motives straight without pausing to work it over. It took nearly 3 hours to watch this movie, and its playtime is under 2. I actually watched the first 25 minutes and apparently wasn't paying attention because I had no idea what was going on. So I completely restarted the movie at that time. I still thought it was pretty great, though this is the kind of movie you will have to get back to me on. It took me months to figure out that The Machinist was amazing. No lies.

Highwaymen? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0339147/

Watched Dark Knight a few weeks ago, it was good. But more recently, since I'm pretty much home alone all weekend, I thought I'd rent some movies. Went in to blockbuster with only a loose plan (some combination of Alien, Pan's Labyrinth, Amos Perros and Lost in Translation), and ended up renting Alien, Goldfinger, and Brick. I got there and started thinking and figured "I want some fun movies", and so that's what I got. Just watched Alien...It was good, not great. Never actually seen it in its entirity before, but I was sort of expecting a bit more. I'll probably get around to watching Aliens sometime...my movie watching has slowed way down to almost a stop since I went to university. It seems like I'm home for less big blocks of time, and when I am at home it seems there's too many distractions (and watching movies in dorm on a monitor with bad speakers is no fun). I'm also just not really in a movie watching phase right now (sorta in a comic books and literature phase, and I think the next two phases are going to be video games and anime...). I think next year I might sign up for Netflix, I think access to a much bigger library of movies that come right to my door would be just the ticket. But in the meantime, I'm excited to watch Goldfinger and Brick tommorow. And to Indy: I found the Southland Tales comic book in the comic book store, so I'll hopefully finish it and watch the movie by the end of this month. I'm excited :thumbsup: .

Favorite game is GTA: San Andreas, but my booty call is Unreal Tournament. It's also probably my second favorite.

Can't argue with any of those, they are all true. However all of those problems can be fixed if you have the PC version. The only one that I don't know if anyone has fixed yet is the overuse of voice actors. All the rest have been taken care of with mods except the gates, and there is a console command to close them. I usually like to play vanilla first time through, and since I got this game on release I sort of had to. That and I don't generally replay games in the short term. If I replay it in 5 years, I might check out some mods...we'll see. That's precisely what I mean.

I beat about 120 levels out of 500, and I had already spent many, many hours (and almost messed up my exams cause I was playing too much). Great game, too many levels.

Ya, Dark Brotherhood was by far the best. However, I did that quest line last, so my opinion had already been formed for the most part.

So, what do you hate about Oblivion? I'm just curious. -Poor story -Largely uninteresting world outside of towns (neat to explore the first time, then just dull) -Overuse of the same voice actors -Level-scaling -Unsatisfying combat -Horribly boring dungeons -Terrible quests -Too many damn Oblivion gates (basically like playing "The Library" 10 times over) So ya. I know there's a lot of Oblivion fans here, but damn, I pretty much dislike everything about it. Still crazy enough to give Morrowind and Fallout 3 a try, though.

I think you mentioned Sandman last time. I've since looked around at the book store, and they have a few issues, but I might have to go on amazon or something when I get my credit card (soon). Also, def gotta check out Southland Tales comic/movie, if they have the comics at the comic book store.

I read the Watchmen series on your word Indy (in that old comics thread), and it was great! The best comic books I've ever read! But also the only comic books I've ever read...Any more suggestions? I'm really excited. That Dr. Manhattan part at the very end of the trailer...you can actually pick out the panel they are doing there, and it's almost exactly the same. Looks very faithful to the graphic novel. I hope the studio lets Zac Snyder make the 3+ hour movie that he wants. Word has it he will also release a 4.5hr directors cut on dvd. =P~ .