aspro said:

robio said:

For the record, if you're not playing Trauma Team you're a fool and a communist.  This is such a ridiculously good game that it's just. . . ridiculous.

Hoaw far into it are you and how is the difficulty curve?

I'm on the final chapter of the first doctor's storyline, so I'm seeing an example of just how hard the missions can be. You can actually choose any of the 6 doctors at any given time, and each ramps up accordingly.

And so far it's as brutal as ever, however they've provided several options to make the gameplay easier if you choose and it's completely changed how I feel about the game. It's more much fun than previous Trauma Centers.  

I started at the standard difficulty which is "Resident Mode" and was unable to complete the second chapter.  I played through it about 4 or 5 times and still wasn't really coming close to the end. At any time in the game though you can change the difficulty mode to "Intern" which is significantly more forgiving. Once I did that, I got through the second mission with no problem. And at first it actually feels too easy compared to resident mode, but that changed soon enough.  A few chapters later, once again I was getting my ass handed to me.  But there's a solution for that too.

When you play in Intern Mode you're offered a chance to continue right where you failed. The patient's vitals are restored to near full and you play like nothing has gone wrong. This does affect your score - you only get a P for Pass instead of a grade of S, A, B, C, or D.  But if you just want to experience the story then this works out perfectly.  

Is Wayne Gretzsky so broke that he's endorsing that piece of crap?  Oh Mr. Great One. . . if only you sold your Google stock when the time was right.

And as far as my weekend has gone I've been playing:

1.  Light Trax - this game is either pure genius or pure crap. I honestly can't decide.

2.  Mario Galaxy 2 - My local Red Boxes now carry games so I tried this for a day.  It's okay, but at the risk of being branded a heretic, it didn't grab me and I returned it. I'll pick it up at some point, but not for a while. Maybe I need to be in a more Mario'ish mood.  Then again I'm eating Spaghetti for breakfast and that doesn't seem to be changing anything. I'll go plunge my toilet later and see if that helps.

3.  Trauma Team - It's probably too early for me to be saying this, but I'll go ahead anyway and say that so far this is my GOTY. If the reviews that I read are true and the surgery portions are the weaker part of the game (which I love) , and the forensics parts are better I'm sure I'll be in pure gaming nirvana soon enough.

gamingeek said:

*lostshrugging.gif*

Dvader I have a 0.24 mb connection at the moment and the Lost gifs and hitting the page loading speed like a brick wall in my face. No more, please.

You can always disable all images in your browser, GG. That will speed up your internetz considerably.

More Sonic Colours rumours.

Thanks to my awesomeness I have read the issue of Nintendo Power featuring the game:

The game looks pretty nice, think of it as a prettier looking version of the Wii version of Unleashed, the two zones that were featured were Sweet Mountain zone, and Tropical Reservoir zone, and the former is a mountain of pastries, the said they wanted to include the crazy level designs from the old games, which is fine by me. It also said that in the 3D sections it will focus more on running from A-B akin to the Daytime stages of Unleashed, while the 2D sections will be more for platforming.

The DS version, can easily be called Sonic Rush 3, it looks exactly like those games, even the tension gauge is there, they said it would be similar to the Wii version.

Tails appears in the story but Sonic will be the only playable, they said the story is simple, light, and goofy, which is fine by me. Knuckles, and Shadow may also make an appearance in the game.

If someone has scans, please show them, because seeing it, is better than me explaining it.

Oh and Eggmanland makes a return, Yaaayyyy.

Last time I checked the storybook games didn’t have platforming, and there will be platforming.

Also there’s a level with giant Cheeseburgers.

I’m being serious, its really there, you also bounce off jello.

Sky news

Israeli commandos have stormed an international aid convoy bound for Gaza leaving up to 19 dead and sparking mass protests across the world.

Britain joined other countries in denouncing the attack as "deplorable" with Palestinian leaders describing the bloodshed as a "massacre".

An emergency meeting of the UN Security Council is due to begin shortly.

Meanwhile, the attacked ship, the Mavi Mamara, has docked in the Israeli port of Ashdod.

The deadly dawn raid on the Turkish ship sparked a mass protest in Istanbul with 10,000 people marching through the street, burning Israeli flags.

Commandos, dressed in black and armed with rifles, dropped down ropes from helicopters onto the Mavi Marmara, heading a flotilla of six.

Flotilla Deaths

Israeli officials said soldiers opened fire after activists attacked them with iron bars, axes and knives.

They added that activists had tried to "lynch" one of the commandos and blamed the violence on passengers.

But a reporter on the boat - en route from Cyprus - said the commandos had begun firing before landing on the vessel.

And an Al-Jazeera correspondent said the Israeli soldiers continued shooting even though a white flag of surrender had been raised.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan later accused Israel of committing "inhuman state terror".

His administration successfully appealed to Nato to hold emergency talks on Tuesday to discuss the raid.

It came after his Israeli counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu, defended the attack and gave his "full backing" to the military force.

In a later press conference, he said the deaths incurred were "regrettable" but insisted his soldiers had been defending themselves.

Twenty eight Britons and a number of Greeks, Swedish and Irish were among 700 aboard the flotilla which was 80 miles off Gaza.

There were fears for two of the Britons - Sakir Yildirim and Cliff Hanley, both from Bristol - who were aboard the Marmara and have not been heard from.

Foreign Secretary William Hague said: "??I deplore the loss of life during the interception of the Gaza flotilla.

"We are asking for more information and urgent access to any UK nationals involved.?"

The raid was widely condemned by the international community, with France, Sweden, Greece, Ireland, Germany, Denmark, Italy and Turkey among countries denouncing Israel.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said he was "shocked" by the seriousness of the raid and demanded a full investigation.

White House spokesman Bill Burton said the United States "deeply regrets the loss of life and injuries sustained" in the incident.

Meanwhile protesters in Istanbul tried to storm the Consulate building but were blocked by police.

The flotilla, carrying about 10,000 tonnes of aid and up to 700 passengers on six vessels, had been warned by Israel not to pass a sea blockade.

The activists were headed to Gaza on a mission designed to draw attention to a three-year-old Israeli blockade of the coastal territory.

Israel blamed the activists for the violence but expressed regret for the deaths. It told its citizens to avoid travel to Turkey.

"They [the activists] initiated the violence," Mark Regev, spokesman for the Israeli Prime Minister told Sky News.

"We made every possible effort to avoid this incident. The servicemen were given instructions that it was to be a police operation and to use maximum restraint.

"Unfortunately they were attacked with deadly force by the people on the boats - with iron bars, knives and live fire."

Mr Netanyahu has shortened a trip in Canada and cancelled a visit to America in order to return home. He had been due to meet Barack Obama later this week.

The Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas described the deaths as a "massacre".

Hamas meanwhile urged Arabs and Muslims to "rise up" in front of Israeli embassies across the globe in protest.

"We call on all Arabs and Muslims to rise up in front of Zionist embassies across the whole world," said Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri.

There were plans for protests in Athens, while mass demonstrations developed outside Downing Street in London.

Protesters moved on to occupy the streets outside the Israeli Embassy in west Kensington.

Israel's Arab community called a general strike and hundreds of people from across the political spectrum flooded onto the streets of Nazareth to protest.

EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton called for a "full inquiry" into the raid.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denounced the attack as "inhuman", saying it brought Tehran's arch-foe "closer than ever to its end".

Sky's Middle East correspondent Dominic Waghorn said: "There already was much debate in Israel about the wisdom of blocking this flotilla from a PR point of view.

"But whatever the legalities storming an aid armada with commandos was never going to look good for Israel."

gamingeek said:

I want images. Just not bandwidth sucking gifs.

I did not know, thanks for explaining.

aspro said:

The other 4 I've played pretty well into (about a third I'd guess and then there is no progression).  But I've never tried them on Easy -- maybe I should do that and then consider this one -- since you say it is still brutal.  It's just tough for me to pony up for a fifth game when I have not beaten any of the ones I already have (even though I absolutely love the concept).

I remember it being hypnotic once you are in surjery, both on the DS and with the Wii.  For those few minutes you ARE a surgeon and it doesn't feel like you are playing a game at all.

I've started my own thread just for this game.  I do highly recommend this game even if the others were too tough. Things get changed up a lot in this game too. The 6 different doctors all have their own special type of scenarios, so the EMT's challenges are not the same as the Orthopedic surgeons, etc. Great game.