^Yeah that was a bit disappointing. What character class did you select? And PC?

Take time to study the menus, particularly when given the chance to upgrade your skills (you get one point to spend each level increase).

Not that I, of all people, shoudl be dispensing advice on paying attention to details in a game.

Weekend Game Deals Courtesy of PCGAMER:

The Tropico series is on sale! Oh wait, that’s every week. No, the big deals on Steam this weekend are 75% off Nexuiz (which is also free-to-play for the weekend) and 80% off Dungeons: The Dark Lord.

• 75% off Nexuiz – $2.50
• 80% off Dungeons: The Dark Lord – $3.99
• 75% off Binary Domain – $9.99
• 75% off Tropico 4: Steam Special Edition – $7.49
• 20% off Deponia – $15.99
• 66% off Jagged Alliance – Back in Action – $13.59
• More Steam deals

GamersGate’s Summer Sale is on! I don’t know when it’ll flip from the Week 2 sales to the Week 3 sales, but as of now tons of action games are on sale. Check prices here before accidentally spending too much elsewhere!

GameFly has discounted part of its shooter shelf, including the Battlefield and Crysis series.

• 25% off Battlefield 3 – $29.99
• 70% off Crysis 2 Maximum Edition – $11.99
• 70% off Crysis Maximum Edition – $8.99
• 70% off Dead Space 2 – $5.99
• 70% off Dead Space – $5.99
• 70% off Bulletstorm – $5.99
• More GameFly deals

GameStop has 12 pages of deals listed — see them all here. I’ve pulled out a few notable discounts:

• 66% off Assassin’s Creed Complete Pack – $37.38
• 30% off Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter Bundle- $13.98
• 75% off Total War: SHOGUN 2 – $7.49
• 30% off Beyond Good and Evil – $6.99
• 30% off Heroes of Might and Magic V – $6.99
• More GameStop deals

Last week’s Take 2 sale remains active, at least at the time of writing, which means Civ V for only $8.99!

• 30% off Civilization V: Gods & Kings – $20.99
• 70% off Civilization V – $8.99
• 75% off Civilization III Complete – $1.25
• 75% off Civilization IV Complete – $7.49
• 70% off Mafia II – $8.99
• 60% off BioShock 2 – $7.99
• 75% off Stronghold 3 Gold – $9.99

GOG’s weekend theme is its Special Summer Selection, which strikes 50% off seven apparently-Summery games.

Amazon’s come back to form this week with a bigger selection of deals, though none of them are especially high profile. Note that a few of these deals, such as for Assassin’s Creed Revelations and Civilization V, are may be beaten by the retailers above unless their deals expire first.

• 64% off IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover – $17.82
• 37% off Assassin’s Creed Revelations – $25.24
• 55% off Assassin’s Creed 2 – $8.92
• 26% off Sid Meier’s Civilization V – $22.26
• 26% off Saints Row: The Third – $36.80
• 52% off Supreme Commander 2 – $7.23
• 32% off Mass Effect 2 – $13.58
• 41% off Might & Magic: Heroes VI – $29.26
• 25% off Empire: Total War – $15.05
• 72% off Mount & Blade – $4.17
• 35% off Mount & Blade: Warband – $13.00
• 27% off Dragon Age 2 – $14.56
• 32% off Mass Effect 2 – $13.58
• 71% off Trine – $5.83
• 27% off Dungeon Siege 3 – $14.68
• 50% off Tropico 4 – $19.99
• 26% off Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 – $14.84
• More Amazon PC game downloads

Skyrim is so incredibly easy right now. I fought two dragons almost at the same time and was never in danger. I even upped the difficulty but I am so powerful nothing in this game is a challenge. I am going to rush through it now. One day i will buy the GOTY edition on a better system and play through all the stuff I missed.

Dvader said:

edgecrusher said:

Potential GOTY.

I'm surprised you know of this series Vader.

edgecrusher said:

I'm surprised you know of this series Vader.

Xcom is one of the greatest games ever made. Played it on the PS1.

Yodariquo said:

Actually, he said Adam West's Batman, so he's 46 years old and is comparably AWESOME

No, I was saying that the analogy does not work because 80s Batman is 23 years old and still looks good, it defined the style of modern, current Batman and still looks good. So this whole going back and picking out Adam West Batman was a waste of time. Also, from what I have read, Adam West Batman was meant to be a piss take when it was made.

Archangel3371 said:

@ Chistopher Walkenthrough Zelda "Holy crap! Quad-vagina!".

Dvader said:

Walkenthrough!

I LMAO when he said that Link had a cross on his shield because he was a Christian and like all good Christians etc etc

Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon: Big improvements seriously impress

We have a confession to make. Until recently we weren't exactly bouncing off the walls with anticipation for what used to be known as Luigi's Mansion 2. Naturally, we enjoyed the GameCube original back in the day - but when we first tried an early version of the 3DS sequel at E3 2011 it just felt so... similar that we struggled to find ourselves getting excited for it.

Yep, it was fun to see Luigi back in the starring role, but that early version of Luigi's Mansion 2 felt suspiciously more like fan service - "Hey, it's that GameCube game you loved before, but it's on 3DS now!" - than a truly improved version of what is (let's face it) a decade-old game. You'd have thought that in an entire decade the sequel would have looked a fair bit better, even though it's admittedly a handheld game now.

It's for this reason that we didn't exactly run over to the newly-renamed Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon when we saw it on display at Nintendo's E3 showroom. We're nothing if not open-minded, though. By the end of our play session with it though, Dark Moon had become the 3DS game we're most excited about... by far. Zoinks!

The improvement this has made over 12 months is staggering...

The difference in this game from the one we saw 12 months ago is absolutely staggering, particularly when it comes to the animation. Whereas the version we played before had Luigi with a more or less permanent look of worry on his face, this time his mug is blazoned with a myriad of expressions. His entire face twists and bends as he runs through the whole gamut of emotions while exploring each of the three mansions available in the demo version we played. Happy Luigi! Bereft Luigi! Er, Luigi labouring under the bitter inheritance of sibling rivalry! He looks absolutely incredible - he's easily the most well-animated character we've seen to date in a Nintendo game, Mario Galaxy and the like included.

The plot has been given a bit of a tweak this time too - in that there actually is one now. Instead of having to wander through a single mansion in search of the missing Mario as you did in the original game, this time Professor E Gadd dispatches you to a number of different mansions with zany missions to perform in each one. Some things haven't changed completely though: once again, you're armed with a torch and a Poltergust vacuum cleaner (the Dyson-esque 5000 model this time, not that banger of a 3000 from the previous game). This time, however, they've got different abilities and new upgrades.

Simply pointing your torch at a phantom isn't enough to stun it now - you need to charge up and fire a strobe shot with the torch instead. This dazes it and shows off its hit points, allowing you to nab it with the Poltergust and wrestle with it, trying to deplete its hits and suck it up. It's not quite as satisfying as it was on GameCube, mainly because you don't have that delicious accompanying rumble that made it feel like you were really struggling with a supernatural enemy. The fact that you can now scoop up two or three ghosties in one go does make up for it to a certain extent, though.

HAUNTED HOUSE RIDE


The strobe attachment can also be used at other points in the game, such as when you come to the special doors and panels that need a strong burst of light before they'll activate. Later on, you'll get a rainbow attachment for your torch too, which not only uncovers hidden items, but also gives developers Next Level Games another opportunity to show off the game's newly-impressive visual oomph. Not that they need a poxy rainbow torch to do that, mind you - the lighting effects are incredible, with lightning periodically bathing the room in brightness and the torch creating some impressive lens flare effects that don't feel rubbish for once..


The whole game's just bursting with character and interactivity. At times you'll look through windows and see spooks in other rooms playing out genuinely funny cutscenes; then you'll need to find and confront the protagonists. At one point you'll need to use the Poltergust to grab and pull back a carpet on the floor to uncover a secret. At another you have to get to a balcony and blow a chandelier so a special attachment for your torch falls off it. Or sometimes you'll have to suck up hot chunks of coal from a roaring fire so you can fire them at frozen doors and melt them, letting you proceed.

We were absolutely delighted with our last play of Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon. After just a couple of minutes playing this enhanced preview build we could already tell how much extra work had gone into it, and after an hour it had been transformed from a game we weren't really bothered about to one of the games we're most eagerly anticipating on 3DS - perhaps even more than New Super Mario Bros 2.


Top marks to Next Level for making such drastic home improvements over the past year, and roll on that non-specific "holiday" period so we can get hold of the finished article

travo said:

That is one of the main reason for picking up a 3DS.  That's a day one purchase.

For me too.  I have it pre-ordered.  Same as Paper Mario and Animal Crossing.

I got my Playstation credit card. So Robio, all I had to do was link the card to my sony rewards account to earn points?