Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A

[Satya]

Someone gifted me Portal 2 the other day in return for something I got them for Christmas.

I don't know when I'll have time to play it but I'm looking forward to it given the popularity.

I never played Portal 1 though, aside from a few minutes of demo.

What to expect?

[Bean_wannabe]

Play Portal first. I've got a spare copy if you want one - but definitely play Portal.

[Wind Swept]

Are any of you interested in a coupon for 50% of a Valve title or 25% off Serious Sam 3 on Steam? I have no need for either.

[Satya]

Oh yeah, sure. That sounds great, thanks.

Will probably take me all year to get through both, but probably worth it considering.

[Bean_wannabe]

Just pm me your email or Steam name, and the game's yours.

[UnnDunn]

Oh yeah, sure. That sounds great, thanks.

Will probably take me all year to get through both, but probably worth it considering.

Both games are actually fairly short. Portal 1 in particular will take maybe 3-4 hours of play time to get through.

[Dr. Mobius]

Portal 1 in particular will take maybe 3-4 hours of play time to get through.

At which point you unlock the hard modes where the game assumes you actually know what you're doing and removes 90% of the portal-able surfaces. I still haven't beaten some of those yet. I wish 2 had the hard modes, it lacks practically all of the replayability of the first one due to that. Both the single player and co-op campaigns are awesome and better than the original, but once you figure out the puzzles there's really not much point in coming back without that something extra to make it challenging again.

[Bean_wannabe]

If you want more challenging maps, try Thinking With Portals. If you look in the archives under the community contest winners there are some really good ones.

[Satya]

Don't ya already got me on steam?

[Janus%TheDoorman]

Forza 4's great. Like Forza 3 except everything's better. Moving on.

Played some Skyward Sword. I don't own a Wii, but played through dungeons at various stages of the game with other people.

I couldn't shake the feeling that I was playing Zelda Lite. It felt... kinda like a Megaman game, actually. The area above the Sky functioned as a graphical level-select screen. Journeying to and from places had none of the usual feeling of adventure. In OoT, running through Hyrule Field, seeing all the different locales... Seeing the castle, Lon Lon Ranch, Death Mountain... In SS instead we get giant pillars of light in a vast, featureless cloud-ocean. Flying to-and-fro felt tedious.

The cast of secondary characters was absurdly shallow. Majora's Mask was great at making Termina and all its people really come alive. All the rewards for sidequests, usually masks, became personal mementos, and the sidequests themselves were engaging and interesting. I know we all remember Anju and Kafei, and even little things like dancing with the Rosa sisters. In SS we get one town's worth of people, and most sidequests are fetch quests that result in... gratitude crystals.

The decision to make the areas leading up to the dungeons more gameplay-centric contribute a lot to the Megaman feeling. Instead of Meeting the Gorons before busting into Dodongo's Cavern to restore their food supply, or meeting Lulu and the Zora band before rescuing her children and getting the concert back on schedule, instead you get what feels like a constant tutorial in the new game mechanics. In most Zelda dungeons, each new room is a new challenge or puzzle, but in SS the answer is usually swinging the Wii-mote in a different way, rather than the coordinated timing challenges or miniboss fights that required you to figure out how to exploit an unknown weakness with new tools. The only time I consulted a guide in my play of SS, it turned out that the solution to the "puzzle" was to roll a bomb across a sand pit. I had tried that, but apparently because I didn't get the angle quite right, the bomb stopped only about halfway across the sand pit. In a later boss fight, in the dungeon where you get the bow (which has lost the ability to be used from a third person perspective as far as I could tell, since that wouldn't let you use the awesome motion controls to awkwardly try and shoot an enemy while he's charging at you ) the only use of the bow is to shoot the giant, pulsating eye of the enemy in between using dozens of the always tricky to perform Skyward Strike.

The final boss sequences are only more difficult than a random enemy encounter because they require you to change the direction of your strikes slightly quicker than the usual enemies. And that is pretty much what every single enemy encounter consists of. Do I swing horizontally or vertically? If they're tricky, maybe you have to stab.

The music was great, though, and the graphics strike a good balance between Twilight Princess and Wind Waker's styles. I just don't think we're going to be telling stories about playing through Skyward Sword in a few years the way people still reminisce over its predecessors.

[UnnDunn]

Don't ya already got me on steam?

anonthonye

Is there an official PWEB steam group I can join?

[Satya]

Don't ya already got me on steam?

anonthonye

Is there an official PWEB steam group I can join?

Yes, there is! - http://steamcommunity.com/groups/pweb

And thank you, BW!!!!!

[Bean_wannabe]

No worries - I still have a Portal/Portal 2 bundle and a couple of copies of 2 left if anyone wants one.

[Platypi007]

No worries - I still have a Portal/Portal 2 bundle and a couple of copies of 2 left if anyone wants one.

Oh really? What do I need to get a copy of 2 from you?

[Bean_wannabe]

Ask nicely and pm me an email address/Steam name?

[UnnDunn]

Is anyone here getting a PlayStation Vita? It's out next week for First Edition Bundle purchasers, and the week after in stores.

[Platypi007]

Is anyone here getting a PlayStation Vita? It's out next week for First Edition Bundle purchasers, and the week after in stores.

Well, if we go by how long after the PS3 came out I got a PS3, we can figure on me getting a Vita in 2016. However, if we go by how long it has been between console purchases for me then I'll get whatever Sony releases in 2035, probably a couple of years after it has been out. So maybe I'll get something to replace my PS3 by 2040 when I'm 60 years old.

:)

[Mich]

Whelp. Might as well admit it. I've been playing, off and on, Katawa Shoujo. And it is, for a visual novel that occasionally turns H-game, pretty fantastic. Not ashamed to admit it. Might even turn off the adult content (what there is of it) the next time I play through. I've genuinely laughed at its humor, gotten misty-eyed at its heartbreaking moments, and now, having finished two "paths", am not sure I want to go on. That last one was too much of an emotional roller-coaster ride, and hit too close to home.

The stories are fantastic. The writing is great, although the main character can be a bit thick. The art varies between beautiful and passable. The music is actually awesome at some points.

I can't believe it all started as a joke three years ago. 4chan continues to amaze.

EDIT: My Kindle is horrible for typing, apparently.

[Satya]

Someone got me Saints Row the 3rd the other day as a gift on Steam. $50 gift.

[UnnDunn]

So I got my PS Vita a couple of days ago, and it is really good. I think Sony has truly done a good job with this one. If you're at all interested in portable gaming, you should give it an honest look.

Lumines Electronic Symphony has wormed its way back into my heart, though I may also pick up Wipeout 2048 soon.

[zeroguy]

The other day I remembered a conversation I had with someone about the medals in Star Fox 64, and how I wasn't sure if I'd ever gotten all of them. I hadn't, so of course I finished that up... was missing titania, y, aquas, zoness, and z. I think I remember trying to get y as a kid and being frustrated; and that continues! For some reason y is possibly the hardest one for me to get, but nobody else online I see seems to have that problem (I seriously think it took me like 10 tries). But others that I hear are harder like z and corneria I find the easiest (possibly just because I've played them so much, I guess, even if I wasn't trying to medal them most of the time).

The game is still pretty much as fun as I remember, although lacking in levels/playtime. It did not take me long to remember how incredibly frustrating it is when the lock-on mechanism locks on to the wrong target, or when you have to deal with those stupid stupid allies. Good times :)

[Wind Swept]

Anyone else prepping for Mass Effect 3 by playing through the first two?

Coming off of Skyrim, the first Mass Effect felt incredibly short.

[UnnDunn]

Anyone else prepping for Mass Effect 3 by playing through the first two?

Coming off of Skyrim, the first Mass Effect felt incredibly short.

Mass Effect 1 was really only a beginning mission, three main missions and then an ending mission. You could get through it in 8 hours if you were speed-running it.

I replayed ME1 to prepare for ME2. I thought about playing both games to prepare for ME3, but I find my memory of both games (at least, the important details) is fresh enough that I don't particularly feel the need to replay them. My saves for both are nestled securely on my Cloud Storage locker on XBL, ready for Commander Nadine Shepard to return and save Earth from the Reapers.

[Bean_wannabe]

I already have two characters ready to import into ME3 and one part way through ME2. Hasn't stopped me starting ME1 again yesterday...

[Wind Swept]

Mass Effect 3 SPOILERS ahead.



All I got out of the ending of Mass Effect 3 is that the catalyst is very, very stupid. Millions of years spent 'saving' organic life, and it couldn't come up with a more elegant solution than,

Step 1) Use mind control and robot zombies to terrify and distract organic life.
Step 2) Melt down the majority of each race into goop.
Step 3) Use the goop to build giant synthetic/organic hybrids that are totally under the catalyst's control and not at all the same thing as the organic life they're meant to preserve.
Step 4) Kill everything else.
Step 5) Wait 50,000 years, and repeat.

It's like, I know my computer will likely, eventually get a virus, no matter how careful I am. To prevent this, I will back up the operating system into a tree, introduce my own viruses onto the computer, and then blow up the computer, one component at a time.

[Dr. Mobius]

I still need to play 2... I played the first Mass Effect back when it came out but never got around to playing the second one.

[CezeN]

So, there's going to be a classic, old school Smash Bros 64 tournament at my University. March 20 something.
64 isn't really my forte compared to Brawl, but if I can win this tournament too, I will be more of a smash legend than I've already become.
Thereby upping my Kvothe Quotient. (lol its all about the Kvothe Quotient!)

Considering I was also consistently dominating a variety of my friends in the 64 version, as well as the Wii and Gamecube version, last year - I stand a decent chance. Even though I rarely play any Smash this year. Assuming there isn't some Smash pro/tournament winner lurking out there in the masses.

Ironically, since I was complaining about them using Smash 64 instead of Brawl, the people at the front desk felt the need to try to convince me that anyone including me stands a decent chance of winning because of the statistics? Some weird reason I can't remember...They didn't realize they were talking to CezeN the Smashkiller. A Smash Guru. The Hero of Smash. My friends say I should use Jigglypuff to make it fair.

*deep breath* Okay. I'm done bragging about my smash bros skills. (Watch me lose the tournament [Oh wait- that's what I said before the other tournament lmao] )
Here's a smash bros Christmas comic for your trouble created by this guy named Taste:

http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/8503/53137177.png
http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/3107/55819894.png
http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/42/541r.png


Mod Edit: If you're going to post obnoxiously long images, please post them as links or thumbnails. Thanks. - Doc

[zeroguy]

My friends say I should use Jigglypuff to make it fair.

If you get really good at landing that 'rest', see if they still say that... (jigglypuff isn't even bottom tier from what I hear)

[elfprince13]

So, there's going to be a classic, old school Smash Bros 64 tournament at my University. March 20 something.
64 isn't really my forte compared to Brawl, but if I can win this tournament too, I will be more of a smash legend than I've already become.
Thereby upping my Kvothe Quotient. (lol its all about the Kvothe Quotient!)

Good luck! I've been trying to plan a Broodwar tourney for one the weeks after spring break. I don't know how serious the other participants are about RTSes, but I don't think any of them have even played SC2 yet, so I feel like I'll have a bit of an advantage, at least macro-wise.

[Platypi007]

I still need to play 2... I played the first Mass Effect back when it came out but never got around to playing the second one.

I haven't played 1, but I picked up ME2 last week on sale (got it for less than $12 with shipping) and have been enjoying it, and will be ready when I can afford ME3!

[Mich]

I just beat 3. Just-just did. And it's honestly okay in my book. There is a lot to be desired there: it's true that your choices throughout the trilogy ultimately don't matter in terms of affecting the story. However, I guess I've grown to see the story of Mass Effect as being prewritten, and the choices I made through the games as part of me making up the story of who Shepard is, not who the rest of the galaxy is. So that doesn't bother me too much. I even thought that the main complaint, the three choices thing, was okay and kind of in line with the overall themes of the story.

The only big disappointment was not seeing the results more than a kind of non-sequitur chase scene.

Hell, even the post-credits scene was okay. Seriously. I was fine with it, in a way. It was just a way of saying "more things happened, maybe not even DLC-related things!"

Oh, and by the way, the Prothean DLC was totally story-related and I thought it was majorly important to the game and to its themes. If I hadn't had it the game would have felt a lot different. So that was really a jerk move.

[Dr. Mobius]

Would you have preferred horse armor?

[Mich]

Would you have preferred horse armor?

I enjoy DLC that extends my gameplay and contributes to the world, but not DLC that, if missing, would majorly detract from the actual story.

So yes, I suppose. Because horse armor adds something that previously was not there, is not necessary for the story, and probably was enjoyed by some people.

[UnnDunn]

Anyone headed to PAX East?

Two and a half weeks to go. I CANNOT wait!

[Dr. Mobius]

WTB PAX Midwest. Seriously, I hate how con organizers think they have to target one coast or the other and leave those of of us in the center of the country with nothing.