Read the latest Game Informer yesterday (the AU edition -- which will be a thread of it's own at some point) and the US reviews inside of it give Monster Hunter Tri a 9.0.  Then on the next page they give Splinter Cell: Soldz Out Our Base a 9.0.  Fair enough.

Then they give Game of the Month to Splinter Cell.  Naturally.  They usually give it to the game with the highest score.  EGM used to issue ties, not sure what GI's policy has been in the past, but anyway, there you go, something to grumble about.

gamingeek said:

Weird too because the US Gameinformer site review is 7.0

 That partially explains it then.  Most of the Au GI is US content, so they probably would not re-jigger the GOTMonth content just because the AU reviewer went higher... very interesting.  I'll wait for my US copy of GI to arrive to see how similar they are. (Yeah I'm a tool, I get the AU and US copies even though there is only 4 pages of different content).

Dvader said:

The demo doesn't look like that on my TV. Is that on an SDTV or something.

Huh? No, it's on Youtube.

Are you guys playing on an HDTV?

It's taking all my willpower to avoid buying this game, only because I have this nagging feeling that the game will kick my ass and be too complex for me to enjoy. 

Dvader said:

Of course.

I am sure you will get used to it. The demo did kick my ass though and pissed me off. I know they say the game eases you into it so much better than the demo does. Still I fear that most battles are nothing more than you slashing at an enemy for 10 minutes.

Dvader,

plz stfu about anything MH.

Best regards,

Agnates.

Dvader said:

So it doesn't take an absurd amount of slashing to take down an enemy.

Actually, no it doesn't! If you prepare well, maybe drink a Demon Drug Potion or eat a Might Seed to boost your strength, maybe eat a meal at the Canteen that will boost many of your stats, you'll find the battles go much quicker.

I love how the Jaggias and Jaggis actually gave me a bit of trouble at first, now I am sending them flying and/or killing them in one or two blows!

It's all in the preparation before the hunt. Do nothing and yes, you'll be a weakling and have to fight a Monster for a half hour to kill it. Fight smart and you'll be rewarded.

By the way, KILLING things becomes easy. It's when you are asked to TRAP things, where things get a bit trickier!

The Great Jaggi for example. You have to capture one of those early on. This entails tracking it down, maybe tagging it with a Paint Ball so you can follow it easier. Fighting through hordes of Jaggia and Jaggis that it calls to aid it in it's fight against you. You have to weaken the Great Jaggi enough so it is limping. Not breathing heavy, not panting... limping. (Most large monsters go through a few different visual phases of damage/weakness as you fight them.) Then you have to set a Shock Trap. Lead the Great Jaggi into the Shock Trap, then throw a couple of Tranquilizers at him to capture him.

This, again, may sound tedious to some, but no other game makes you feel SUCH a sense of accomplishment when you Hunt and eventually capture/kill your prey!

Agnates said:

That looked absolutely nothing like PSO. You can't even move around like that in PSO since combat was with lock-on and yet there's no strafing so you didn't dodge monster attacks like that, you just went up close and hammered them. I can see how it looks like PSO to a total noob though. So, stfu about anything MH. And anything PSO.

I know more about PSO than you ever could and how about you stop being a complete douchebag all the time.

It looks like PSO, four characters fighting monsters as a team, brings back memories. Obviously it doesn't control like it but the idea is the same, play with others to take down monsters, though PSO is more about finding rares and clearing levels.  Lock on is a good thing, I wish MH had lock on, would help so much.

phantom_leo said:

Actually, no it doesn't! If you prepare well, maybe drink a Demon Drug Potion or eat a Might Seed to boost your strength, maybe eat a meal at the Canteen that will boost many of your stats, you'll find the battles go much quicker.

I love how the Jaggias and Jaggis actually gave me a bit of trouble at first, now I am sending them flying and/or killing them in one or two blows!

It's all in the preparation before the hunt. Do nothing and yes, you'll be a weakling and have to fight a Monster for a half hour to kill it. Fight smart and you'll be rewarded.

By the way, KILLING things becomes easy. It's when you are asked to TRAP things, where things get a bit trickier!

The Great Jaggi for example. You have to capture one of those early on. This entails tracking it down, maybe tagging it with a Paint Ball so you can follow it easier. Fighting through hordes of Jaggia and Jaggis that it calls to aid it in it's fight against you. You have to weaken the Great Jaggi enough so it is limping. Not breathing heavy, not panting... limping. (Most large monsters go through a few different visual phases of damage/weakness as you fight them.) Then you have to set a Shock Trap. Lead the Great Jaggi into the Shock Trap, then throw a couple of Tranquilizers at him to capture him.

This, again, may sound tedious to some, but no other game makes you feel SUCH a sense of accomplishment when you Hunt and eventually capture/kill your prey!

Hey a proper explanation, how nice.