^ F*** Sonic CD! I already own that on GCN, Sega. Release NiGHTS Into Dreams on XBLA, dammit!

"Sega is on crack. Predicts >750k sold for Anarchy Reigns. And they think Binary Domain will sell over a million"

This needs either you stock tips or a pachter joke.

That Rage trailer looked good, very nice graphics was that the PC version? Shame about the characters animation, it needs to be better it looks so stiff and artificial.

No Aspro?

The only time I bother posting news is if its a story that really interests me and I notice nobody else has posted it yet.

BTW....Human Revolution is amazingly badass.

gamingeek said:

So who has played a Professor Layton game before?

I saw the movie recentely and it piqued my interest in the games. I know its puzzle based, what I wanted to know is if there is any sort of overworld. Well, to put it better do you walk about like in a graphic adventure game and then solve puzzles? Or is it just puzzle after puzzel strung together by cutscenes?

What is the order of the games released so far and which ones did you like or not like?

I've played the three that have been released in NA so far, and have for the most part enjoyed them all. It's more of a passive adventure and that's important to remember. The puzzles you solve really have nothing to do with the mystery that Professor Layton and Luke are trying to solve though occasionally they find a clever way to link the puzzle theme to the current conflict in the story.

You walk from screen to screen searching for puzzles by tapping areas of the screen. They are usually very obvious (other people on the screen mainly), with a few being required to proceed. Additionally by tapping the screen you'll find other items for mini-games as well as hint coins that can be cashed in for hints for  puzzles that give you trouble.  In that manner there is an overworld to walk around and explore. And after you've found enough of these puzzles you'll gain access to a new area where the next cutscreen begins and the plot progresses.

The order of which the games have been released is: The Curious Village, The Diabolical Box, and The Unwound Future. The upcoming Layton game is chronologically before all of them.  As far as the stories goes I think the Curious Village was still the best. The puzzles in the Diabolical Box were probably the best, though frankly they're all very similar and none are remarkably better than the others in that respect.

robio said:

I've played the three that have been released in NA so far, and have for the most part enjoyed them all. It's more of a passive adventure and that's important to remember. The puzzles you solve really have nothing to do with the mystery that Professor Layton and Luke are trying to solve though occasionally they find a clever way to link the puzzle theme to the current conflict in the story.

You walk from screen to screen searching for puzzles by tapping areas of the screen. They are usually very obvious (other people on the screen mainly), with a few being required to proceed. Additionally by tapping the screen you'll find other items for mini-games as well as hint coins that can be cashed in for hints for  puzzles that give you trouble.  In that manner there is an overworld to walk around and explore. And after you've found enough of these puzzles you'll gain access to a new area where the next cutscreen begins and the plot progresses.

The order of which the games have been released is: The Curious Village, The Diabolical Box, and The Unwound Future. The upcoming Layton game is chronologically before all of them.  As far as the stories goes I think the Curious Village was still the best. The puzzles in the Diabolical Box were probably the best, though frankly they're all very similar and none are remarkably better than the others in that respect.

Thanks Robio.

Are there lots of cutscnes and are they all animated and do they have voice acting?

Also is there a hint system?

robio said:

There are a lot of cut scenes, but most are brief and they are not animated. The longer ones for the bigger plot twists and resolutions are animated though. The voice acting in the game is quite good, but I think only the animated ones have voice acting. Honestly I don't remember for sure.

There is a hint system that uses those hint coins I mentioned above. Each puzzle has 3 hints available. The first one is pretty generic and vague, the second hint is more specific and points you in the right direction, and the third hint all but tells you how to solve it. Each hint will cost one coin. There are a limited number of hint coins to be found, so it's best to only use them when a puzzle is particularly tough.

I'm not always great with puzzles. I made it through Zack and Wiki allright though. In difficulty terms, just how hard are the puzzles?

robio said:

They're not like Zack and Wiki puzzles. There are several different kinds. Mostly logic based that require some thought. Stuff like "I handed you 4 coins. If none of them have the same value, what is the greatest monetary value they can have?"  Then there are things like two pictures that are made up of match-sticks and the question will be, "how do you make picture A look like picture B by moving only one match-stick?"

Really they're not video game kind of puzzles. ALmost more like something you'd find in a travel magazine to pass the time on a long trip.

Eh.

I haven't done those sorts of things since I joined Mensa.

gamingeek said:

Eh.

I haven't done those sorts of things since I joined Mensa.

Wait, what? You are part of Mensa?

Do you want to be insulted today GG?