phantom_leo said:

Sadly, Game and Wario is --NOT-- getting good scores so far. Two that I have seen have been in the 60's out of 100.

On one hand that's sad. On the other I've actually never played more than 5 minutes of any WarioWare type game, so really this isn't that upsetting. My entire interest was based on me just having nothing I'm interested in playing on the U.

This is going to sound juvenile, but my mom is going in for a surgery today. It's a hip replacement, so it's not anything **too** life-threatening...

...but I'm still somewhat scared for her...

...she and I just started getting somewhat close again. We've been playing Animal Crossing together.

I'm irrationally "stuck" on "what if something happens..." and it's driving me nuts... Don't know why I am posting this here other than... just keep us in your thoughts please... Thanks.

There's always something excistentially creepy about having stuff happen to your parents, nothing juvenile about being worried.  I'm sure by this time tomorrow you'll be handing her that box of choclates you bought in the little shop at the entrance of the hospital, while talking small talk and all of that.  Good luck to her though, I'm terrible when it comes to hostipals.

Famitsu reviews

The Last of Us (PS3, Sony): 10 / 9 / 10 / 9 - (38/40)

Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millenium Girl (3DS, Atlus): 9 / 9 / 9 / 9 - (36/40)

Gundam Breaker (PS3, Bandai Namco): 10 / 9 / 8 / 8 - (35/40)

Digimon World Reigitize Decode (3DS, Bandai Namco): 8 / 8 / 8 / 8 - (32/40)

Sangoku Hime 2: Tenka Hatou - Saki no Keishousha (PS Vita, SystemSoft): 7 / 6 / 5 / 5 - (23/40)

Memories Off: Yubikiri no Kioku (PS3/PS Vita, 5pb): 7 / 8 / 7 / 6 - (28/40)

Memories Off 6 Complete (PS3/PS Vita, 5pb): 6 / 7 / 7 / 6 - (26/40)

Toukiden (PS Vita, Koei Tecmo): 9 / 8 / 9 / 9 - (35/40)

Toukiden (PSP, Koei Tecmo): 8 / 8 / 9 / 8 - (33/40)

Urakata Hakuouki (PSP, Otomate): 9 / 8 / 8 / 7 - (32/30)

Starry * Sky: After Autumn Portable (PSP, Alchemist): 7 / 6 / 6 / 6 - (25/40)

School Wars: Sotsugyou Sensen (PSP, Quinrose): 7 / 7 / 7 / 6 - (27/40)

Daisenryaku: Dai Toua Kouboushi - Tora Tora Tora Ware Kishuu Ni Seikou Seri (PS3, Systemsoft): 7 / 6 / 5 / 5 - (28/40)

Injustice: Kamigami no Gekitotsu (PS3/Wii U, Warner): 8 / 8 / 7 / 8 - (31/40)

Escha & Logy no Atelier: Tasogare no Sora no Renkinjutsushi (PS3, Gust): 10 / 9 / 9 / 8 - (36/40)

Date A Live: Rine Utopia (PS3, Compile Heart): 8 / 8 / 7 / 6 - (29/40)

Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 (PS3/Xbox 360, Cyberfront): 8 / 7 / 7 / 6 - (28/40)

A-Ressha de Ikou HX (Xbox 360, Artdink): 7 / 7 / 6 / 7 - (27/40)

Dat music

Animal Crossing New Leaf tips:

Change shop hours with Ordinances

Once you get your mayoral powers (you should have them by now if you bought the game on launch day), you can build Public Works Projects and enact Ordinances (laws).

You can only choose one Ordinance to be active at any time, but we recommend going with either the Early Bird or Night Owl ones, depending on when you play the game. The former opens all the shops three hours earlier than usual (they close at the same time), whereas the latter keeps them open for three hours longer.

Ordinances are useful, then, if your day starts with an early commute, or if you tend to play in bed at night.

Alternatively, the Beautiful Town ordinance is perfect for lazier types who still want a nice town, because it makes your fellow villagers water your plants for you and ensures you never get weeds or cockroaches.

Be patient, the High Street will evolve

If you bought the game on Friday chances are your High Street still looks a bit barren. Animal Crossing isn't designed for speed-running, just play the game as normal and everything will eventually improve.

Each improvement is based on a number of set criteria. If you want to find out what's next, here's how to unlock each shop in the rough order they should appear. (If you want to discover each new addition for yourself, please ignore.

The island (it's awesome)

After you get rid of your tent and Tom Nook sorts you out with a house, he'll ask you to pay a mortgage of 39,800 Bells. Once you pay that off you'll trigger access to the island, which you can reach by heading to the dock on the beach and paying Kapp'n 1000 Bells.

The island gives you access to a number of 'tours', which are mini-games that give you medals as a reward. You can then spend these medals on the various beach-related items on sale in the island shop, including wetsuits (which then let you go diving in your own town's sea)

Register Best Friends and if they add you as a Best Friend too, you can have text chats with them in-game without even having to visit their town!

• Build the most useful Public Works Projects - I'm not even going to post this as its too awesome..... police station?!
• Set up exhibitions at the museum!
• Much more

No wonder my high street seems limited!

The developers say there's about 50% more furniture over City Folk.

Digital foundry hands on PS4 tech:

Killzone: Shadow Fall currently delivers a largely 25-30FPS experience with v-sync engaged, where a long overview of the forest tests the hardware most. A strong trace of input lag is felt when turning the analogue sticks - a quirk that hangs over from the Killzone 2 days. It's a delay in response that is impossible to ignore after playing snappier low-latency shooters, and at the default 50 per cent sensitivity for the X and Y axis proved tricky to adapt to. Migrating to the new and more shooter-friendly Dual Shock 4 controller isn't the cause here, as this is the only game we test with such problems. Rather, the issue is likely to be the result of latency being built up over the course of a long and complex rendering pipeline.

DriveClub only 35 per cent complete.

1080p . Unfortunately, this higher resolution only amplifies the low quality, blurry, flat-looking textures used across this level, which would easily look at home on current-gen hardware. There's an incredible amount of pop-in for trees and waving NPCs as we approach at high speeds.

To its credit, the cars look top-notch in terms of polygonal detail, and vehicle deformation uses a more realistic model that allows metal to crumple realistically over impact points. The interior cockpit view of our Audi R8, set by default, is also very well replicated and shows no sharp polygonal edges. It remains to be seen whether next-gen features like tessellation have made an impact here, but the results are very smooth indeed. Frame rate dips noticeably below this point - a feeling of 20fps being achieved during doughnut-turns, where lots of tyre friction smoke is produced. Bearing in mind the PS4's next-gen tech (not to mention its 32 ROPs), we're somewhat surprised to see alpha transparency effects still having such an obvious impact on performance.

Knack - The Pixar aesthetic is let down by some muddy image quality, and heavily dithered shadows. We're promised 1080p, but Knack doesn't look as crystal clear as we'd expect from such a pixel count. It's a real disappointment on the grounds of image quality, and while the transparency effect on Knack and the big, beautiful ocean view during the first stage are visual treats, there isn't a whole lot to the rest of stages shown.

Certainly, the physics are impressive and technically taxing. The only problem here is that, despite being a 30fps game in target, we see dramatic frame-rate drops when too many of these pieces go zooming across the screen to form a shell around Knack. To achieve this bullet-point trick, the performance has to take a noticeable hit in the current build.

The frame-rate isn't smooth for the current built in general, and it stutters even as Knack trots through empty streets unengaged. There's no evidence of tearing, but this choppy motion is surprising given its overtly simplistic visual style.

Infamous Second Son - 30FPS

At a confirmed 1080p resolution as well, Sucker Punch's latest is the most polished and CGI-like title on display. It looks gorgeous in play, with its per-object motion blur being up to God of War: Ascension's lofty bar of quality.

Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag - 30fps presentation

The plants look incredible in motion, with a dewy reflective layer that comes alive under the moon's lighting, and a convincing level of opacity that lets light shine through to their undersides.

The only disappointment is in the blandness of some textures around the initial camp area which, compounded by some rigid geometric designs.

Thief: 30 FPS

V-synced, but very jittery in the frame-rate stakes for transitions into new areas, and throughout an entire sequence where a bridge burns to cinders. It also appears to run at native 1080p. It's only a shame that surrounding texture-work and alpha effects appear so mismatched with these more "next-gen" elements in this current build

Conclusion:

The situation as it stands is surprising. On the one hand, freely playable first-party titles such as Knack and DriveClub suffer from noticeable frame-rate stutters down from 30fps, while on the other, "hands off" demos for the new Infamous and Assassin's Creed games appear to run without a perceptible hitch. This is in stark contrast to the playable software confirmed to be running direct from Xbox One hardware, such as Forza Motorsport 5 and Killer Instinct, which benefit to no end for targeting the 1080p60 gold standard, and largely succeed in doing so.

Such a disparity in performance is far from the outcome we had expected going in to E3, but Sony's agenda with this initial wave of games is clearly hinging on visual fireworks rather than maximising frame-rates to the full 60Hz refresh.

A bit disappointing from this supposedly powerhouse console. Xbone seems to have better frame rates. Wii U is going for a lot of 60 FPS games (at 720p)

WTF there's three hands in there. D:

phantom_leo said:

This is going to sound juvenile, but my mom is going in for a surgery today. It's a hip replacement, so it's not anything **too** life-threatening...

...but I'm still somewhat scared for her...

...she and I just started getting somewhat close again. We've been playing Animal Crossing together.

I'm irrationally "stuck" on "what if something happens..." and it's driving me nuts... Don't know why I am posting this here other than... just keep us in your thoughts please... Thanks.

Will do. And she will be fine.

Potential BIGGEST NEWS OF THE YEAR

http://www.giantbomb.com/articles/microsoft-to-pull-complete-reversal-on-xbox-one-dr/1100-4673/

MS to drop ALL DRM POLICIES FOR XBOX ONE.

Might happen today.