edgecrusher said:

I didn't mind the backtracking, because the levels you backtrack through were awesome for one thing, and it was a nice twist going through them at a different time of day and fighting a different, and much creepier, enemy.

I almost forgot about the Flood. I think at the time I was torn between hating them because the game went from having some of the smartest AI to some of the dumbest. And then loving it because it was a change and creepier too.

Which Mario is hotter?

Or:

Also:

The glasses!

Yeah I was correct about San Andreas Xbox looking worse than the Xbox GTA Double Pack, from the gamespot review of the GTA Xbox Double pack:

"For starters, it must be said up front that the Xbox versions of GTAIII and Vice City are the best versions of the game so far. The PlayStation 2 versions looked fantastic, given the relatively underpowered PS2 hardware, and the ports that appeared on the PC did a nice job of cleaning up and improving upon the original PS2 games. But the Xbox versions of the games go one step further than that. You'll immediately notice reflections coming off the cars, and the lighting in general is better. The texture quality and character models have been improved. The draw distance seems a little further out. And the frame rate remains pretty stable throughout. The games take advantage of the Xbox's audio prowess by playing in Dolby Digital 5.1 sound and offering support for the custom soundtrack feature"

So yeah, after those San Andreas on Xbox seemed like a visual downgrade.

And from the Xbox review of San Andreas from Gamespot:

"Xbox version tends to get a little too blurry in spots. Visual weirdness on the Xbox and a handful of technical issues on the PC prevent either version from being the clear-cut best of the bunch. The Xbox one has 480p support, but when enabled, the aliasing is out of control. Portions of the environment look so unbelievably jaggy that you'll wonder if your eyesight is failing you. At times it looks like you're playing a 3D game without putting on the glasses. But if you can get past that (it isn't quite as noticeable in standard resolution)"

And this is from IGNs San Andreas Xbox review:

"It's my opinion, of course, but the difference between the PS2 version and the Xbox version isn't all that great. In fact, it seems the difference in clarity between Grand Theft Auto III and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City on PS2 and their Xbox versions is greater. Perhaps because of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas's voluminous size, it simply doesn't allow for much visual improvement. Perhaps because there is so much on screen that the margin for technical improvement might be much smaller. Or perhaps it's because of the skill of the porting team itself. I don't pretend to know. Either way, the visual differences aren't that noticeable. You still see aliasing, shimmering, draw-in and pop-in. It's not nearly as bad as the PS2 version, but it's there. It's a little disappointing. But to put things in perspective, nobody really plays GTA for its graphics. They do it for the addictive gameplay."

CALL OF DUTY® ELITE WILL UNITE AND IGNITE GAMING’S

LARGEST ONLINE COMMUNITY


Activision’s New Service Will Offer 30 Million Call of Duty Players

Innovative Ways to Connect, Compete and Improve


Will Launch With This Year’s Most Anticipated Release

Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® 3 on November 8, 2011


Santa Monica, CA – May 31, 2011 – The world’s most passionate online gaming community can now connect, compete and improve their Call of Duty® multiplayer experience through Activision’s (Nasdaq: ATVI) innovative new online service, Call of Duty Elite.


Developed from the ground up by Activision’s new Beachhead studio, Call of Duty Elite offers cutting-edge features that significantly enhance the franchises’ multiplayer experience and deliver a new level of social engagement that will unite more than 30 million players worldwide. Additionally, the service will offer exclusive, high-production value, original entertainment programming designed exclusively for the Call of Duty community.

“The average Call of Duty player spends 58 minutes per day playing multiplayer. That is more than the average Facebook user spends per day on Facebook. And yet, right now, there are very few tools to unite and super charge that social community,” said Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing. “Whether it’s allowing you to connect with your friends, or people of a similar skill level, people who live in your city, people who share your favorite passions, join competitive clans or social groups, or upload, view and comment on the incredible mass of player-generated content, or watch and comment on exclusive created content, Call of Duty Elite will give people more ways to connect with fellow players than ever before. Elite will also allow players of every level to improve their game with an intuitive suite of tools, and compete in tournaments for both real and virtual prizes.”

 

Call of Duty Elite will include several industry-first innovations, and is a key differentiator for this year’s most anticipated game, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. Elite will offer two-way communication between the service and the game, so that the choices and decisions that players make in Elite through the mobile and web interfaces will affect their in-game experience. The service will be fully integrated into Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and will launch alongside the game on November 8, 2011.


Call of Duty Elite’s features and services engage the community in three key ways:

• Connect: Call of Duty Elite gives players unprecedented control over their multiplayer experience, transforming it into a true social network. Players can compete against friends, players of similar skill levels and players with similar interests, join groups, join clans, and play in organized tournaments. They can also track the performance, progress and activity of their entire network, both in the game itself, as well as through mobile and web interfaces. Elite will be an "always on" way for players to connect with the Call of Duty community.


• Compete: Call of Duty Elite establishes the most exciting, competitive environment in a multiplayer game. Players will have available a constant stream of events and competitions, tiered to group them with those with similar abilities. Both in-game and real-world prizes will be rewarded to all skill levels.


• Improve: Call of Duty Elite is like having a personal online coach. It provides players with a dynamic strategy guide that tracks their statistics and performances down to the most minute details. It can show gamers how they stack up against their friends or others in the community. Tools and information are provided so players can learn and up their game.

Carrying forward to future Call of Duty games, Elite will chronicle a player’s gameplay history in a cohesive career record, keeping track of every kill, every game and progress.


“Call of Duty Elite has been tailored for Call of Duty’s diverse base of players – hardcore gamers, casual weekend warriors and even beginners,” added Hirshberg. “Over 7 million gamers play Call of Duty online each day logging hundreds of hours of multiplayer per player per year. Of course, the out of the box Call of Duty multiplayer experience that gamers have come to love and expect will continue as is. However, for those players looking for more, Call of Duty Elite will supercharge their experience.”


Many key features of Call of Duty Elite will be available to Call of Duty players free of charge. Additionally, for players who want to up their game, Call of Duty Elite will offer a premium membership with a wide range of state-of-the-art services, exclusive entertainment programming and all-inclusive game content for less than the cost of any comparable online entertainment service currently in the market.


The service will be accessible on a number of platforms -- via web browsers, mobile devices, through game consoles and within the game interface itself -- so that players can connect with Call of Duty Elite whenever and wherever they want.


Call of Duty Elite will launch this fall with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. However, to test the scale of the service, Activision will hold a public beta this summer for Elite with Call of Duty®: Black Ops. For more information, go to www.callofduty.com.

So CoD Elite is optional, holy shit Activision did something smart. That is totally acceptable and a great way to get some revenue from the online side.

Syphon Filter 4 would be one hell of a reveal for Sony at E3. We are getting lots of Uncharted 3 info from IGN but its just beta maps and crap. DMC HD?! Ohh I maybe want, except that means it comes with DMC2.

GG Dragons Dogma is an online Demon's Souls like game. Huge world to explore, team up with players to fight giant monsters and stuff.

The Zelda article is so awesome.

• As little things like that accumulate, you start getting a feel for how dense the game is.

Miyamoto: I don’t pay any mind to things that are going well because I can only see the parts that aren’t so great. I think that might be why this game doesn’t have too many.

Mario ripped off the chain chops and fire bars.

Miyamoto: Now that you mention it, it was Mario that did the ripping off. There were things we couldn’t use in the first Zelda, you see, but as time passed and the statue of limitations was about to expire, we thought about using them again and ended up implementing them in this game.

Nakago: They were originally made for Zelda 1.

Here he does not take his own advice...

Miyamoto: These days, fantasy games with swords and magic are quite common. When we first started out, there wasn’t a market for that, so that’s where the game got its appeal. However, now that we’re doing a series, we’ve got no choice but to continue using swords and magic. But the more we do that, the more we’re reluctantly forced to go in a different direction than we were aiming for. I feel like there’s no challenge in swords and magic anymore.

• That’s very true.

Miyamoto: It’s no good to have a constant stream of sidequests, but you can’t make a game without doing that. That’s why I didn’t want to have quests that told you to “Go give the medicine to the girl,” but rather for the players to think for themselves what they ought to bring to her. Early on, we planned to have more actions available like “Eat” and “Dance”, but we couldn’t deal with them all in the end.

Then why do all Zelda games still have those fetch quests???

That LttP interview brings back a lot of great memories, just at the time when I need them the most! I just said good-bye to one of my last college buddies and anything that reminds me of those days is worth it's weight in gold!

It's timely too, as I just came to the realization as to WHY I am enjoying Dragon Quest VI so much and it ties into this kind of memory directly...

A Link to the Past was the ultimate vision of Zelda when it hit the market. It looked like the original, perspective-wise at least, but the colors, the parallax scrolling, the enhanced sound and music, the additional buttons on the SNES controller and expanded memory of a SNES cartridge made more of everything possible... It literally was a SUPER version of The Legend of Zelda!

Playing Dragon Quest VI now, I can see just how much of a break thru this game would have been, had it actually been released in this country when it SHOULD have been! There's just sooo much more of everything: More Monsters, More Job Classes, More Attacks and Spells, More Lands to Explore, More Mini-Medals to grab... more, more, more...! Where-as Dragon Quest V was a SUPER version of the NES Dragon Quest IV, Dragon Quest VI is simply a SUPER version of a Dragon Quest series game.

I can totally see why V may be many people's favorite, due to the story line and character of the, well, characters --BUT-- DQVI is shaping up to be one of MY favorites of the series --JUST-- because of the SUPER amounts of freedom in the jobs classes and exploratory nature of the Two Worlds. DQV had (mostly) pre-set characters, but VI, between the Jobs and copious amounts of "Seeds" you get in the game, IT gives you A LOT more freedom to play the game as you want, and THAT I LOVE ! ! !

My mind BOGGLES at what I would have thought of this game back in the early 90's ! ! !

As usual, there's a deep story-line hidden under the deceptive meandering, and seemingly un-related quests. Who ISN'T intrigued at the thought of exploring who we are in our dreams versus who we are in reality? What's more important? Giving in to what "reality" deals us or pursuing the ideal that our dreams allow us to be? Maybe life IS just a dream, afterall? The beauty of the DQ games ISN'T that they try to FORCE FEED you concepts (like that FF game does), Dragon Quest games just give you hints here and there and leaves it up to you to explore what you will... both in concept --AND-- in the way you play the game!

This is quite literally a brand new game delivered to me from my days of youth, at a time when that is taking up all my thoughts and time... but I am old enough to recognize it and completely appreciate it for ALL that it is!

Oh!

...and Boobies!