Thanks, I'm going through wikipedia trying to fill in holes.

Does FIFA have this all accurately done? I've played schedules without really knowing what is going on in the past.

The way the GameStop model works is, they want to encourage you to trade stuff in so they can make an obscene margin on pre-owned sales.

I'm not sure what Best Buy is doing, other than hoping if they get someone into the store with a gift card, that they'll a) spend more money on top of that and b) fuck over GameStop.

There's been a lot of start-stop-start on the idea of Best Buy and used games over the years, so I'm in a firmly wait-and-see mode. :)

not really, but that´s part of the nature of play-yourself-games for soccer. They somewhat have the basics and of course only the first or the first 2 leagues of the more prominent countries (4 for england is the exception) , have never played in a non-european league in 09 or now in 10, so no ideaif/how this is implented there really.

What i allways loved about PES is that they didn´t pretend to portray the real soccer world and just invented their own version (Master League Mode) and went with it. I don´t need real in a soccer game where i play myself, i need fun. And PES was highly immersive in the Master League Mode and tons of fun playing against friends. Unfortunately the last couple of versions went downhill fast in terms of animations (running styles are horendous ...) and physics, absolutely loathed PES09 and 10 has gotten even worse judging from the demo.

If you want to have a game really digging into this it would have to be Football manager. Of course that is a text sim with a crappy 3 D matchdisplay (but a terrific 2D engine) and in an entire different ballpark.

Yeah, it's not that important to me since I couldn't even name 95% of the teams in the game.

What I would love is a true World Cup mode. One where you take a country and play through all of qualification. All FIFA countries in the game. I know 98 had it in it and I played the hell out of it on the computer. You could play as England or as small as the Faroe Islands.

EA had some awesome stuff going on back then, it's sad that they gutted most games and they have no depth.

I don't get why they eliminate so much stuff from the demo. I mean I couldn't even call a timeout. Is this a space issue or what?

Based on history, 2K will be the better game. But if you went into a decision with no knowledge of their history, NBA Live Demo makes that game look much better.

Just seems to me if you have a superior product, you'd want to showcase it in your demo. Not put out a half assed attempt at a demo that makes your game look bad.

Thumbs up to the opening scene of the Brutal Legend demo (available for XB Live Gold members until tomorrow I think).

Good sense of humor. Based on my son's review of playing earlier, it's probably not going to be my cup of tea as far as gameplay but it's pretty cool in tone & look.

They release a separate game every four years that does exactly this. The yearly FIFA releases focus on the club teams, while the World Cup releases focus on the qualifying and/or World Cup stages for countries.

That's what I figured, but the last few installments of the World Cup game have not had the full qualifying.

Great deals on both the PS3 and DSi. PS3 for $230 and DSi for $126. That's nuts. Note that price is actually cheaper than link even indicates when you stack the coupons. This one isn't going to last long.

Sony Playstation 3 Slim 120GB Console $243, Nintendo DSi Handheld Console (white or pink) $132 - Slickdeals.net

dola

Really good Uncharted 2 commercial. Love the new schtick that the recent Sony commericals have been using.

http://www.viddler.com/explore/sceablog/videos/608/

All the FIFA talk tempted me to go play some soccer so I played a couple games of FIFA 09 and then fired up my old Winning Eleven 9. WE9 is SO far ahead in terms of game play it's ridiculous. It feels so much more like a real game of soccer. I hope the PES series will feel the same way again.

More Direct 2 Drive game deals. Lots of strategy titles in this one.........

Direct2Drive $5 War Games (PC) Downloads: Company Of Heroes Gold, Supreme Commander Gold, World In Conflict Fold, Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War Dark Crusade & More - Slickdeals.net

Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising Video Game, Exclusive Launch Trailer HD | Game Trailers & Videos | GameTrailers.com

It's almost here!

When is Diablo 3 coming out?

Some have said the release date is sometime this Christmas season... That would be most excellent.

There has been no announcement. There is almost no chance of it being out this year. Maybe next holiday season.

Relatively sure I read that Blizzard said no Diablo in 2010, but I might be wrong. Starcraft coming next year and I assume the WoW expansion makes me think they will wait to release it.

As for Operation Flashpoint 2, is there a reason to be excited? I bought and enjoyed ArmA 2 by the guys who made the original OpFlash and I was under the assumption the new guys were making a much more arcade focused game. Doesn't interest me, but I haven't been following.

I'm excited to try Demon's Souls on the PS3 which is out today I think. I've heard lots of raving about the import version. Don't think I can swing a purchase this week but I will definitely nab it at some point.

Still no NBA 2k10 in the stores here in the Philippines. The shelves are all stocked with NBA Live 10... and noone wants to buy them. :D

Very well written review:

Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising Review for Xbox 360 - VideoGamer.com

I must say, I'm pretty excited about COD: Modern Warfare 2 coming out on nov 10. I played the hell out of COD: WaW on my old 360 before I sold it. I just need to figure out how to use my bluetooth headset with my PS3 now.

I hadn't even noticed that there were several releases of note this week.


2K10, Afrika, and Demon Souls could make this a pretty expensive evening.

Apparently Brutal Legend is impending as well. My review copy arrived back in California yesterday.

The Brutal Legend demo was fun. I've also seen the multiplayer tutorial video that looks pretty cool.

I wanna' know right now what you were given to review this!

Just a curious question.

How much does a video game there cost?
How many hours would one have to work there in order to purchase one?

For reference sakes, I'd guestimate the average worker in america might have to work about 3-4 hours to purchase a 60 dollar video game.

A trip to the post office to pick it up once it gets rerouted from CA to WI.

But I gotta pay for the trip.

What are your thoughts on that mandate anyway?

I think it's mostly meant as a "disclose your ties" sort of thing, to prevent companies from setting up shell blogs or whatever that rave about a game so that they have a quote to stick on the box.

I'm also thinking of a couple weeks ago, when EA sent out a bunch of checks to various game sites to promote "Dante's Inferno" (disclosure: we weren't one of them). Right there, it's a promotional thing that puts the sites that receive them in an awkward position. You can take Kotaku's stance, which was just to burn the check and post a video showing that they did so. I thought that was a little bit self-serving, shouting "you can't buy us!" when I don't think that's what EA was trying to accomplish in the first place.

You could cash the check and donate the money to Child's Play or what-have-you. I think that's probably what EA was going for. Here's this interactive publicity thing involving the websites, and the intention was that the money would get given to an industry-related charity.

Or you could cash the check and keep the money, and those are the sites I'd question. I don't think any of the ones who received the checks took that route, but that's the most obvious situation in which you'd want some disclosure from the site if they ended up giving Dante's Inferno a ten.

But that kind of thing, that's fairly rare. Most publishers/PR firms, in fact, won't get that obvious with influence attempts. I know of a few who'll host dinners/get-togethers centered around an upcoming release. Kind of a "come check out what we're working on, and we'll feed you" sort of thing. I've received a couple of invites of that nature over the years. Only one of those has been a situation where travel was actually comped, and that was when I wrote for GameSpy.

So it's kind of a weird situation, you know? The sites most likely to get influenced by the kind of nefarious what-ifs are the sites least likely to really get made those offers-that-you-can't-refuse. The kind of eyeball traffic EA gets from Kotaku, Joystiq, GameSpy, GameSpot, IGN, etc - that's going to dwarf, for reasonably low cost (review copies) anything they could do by trying to "buy" a smaller site's review scores.

That's why I'm kind of confused by the whole thing.

Anyone have any comments on Demon's Souls I'd love to hear them. I really haven't bought a new game in about a year, but I might have to pull the trigger on this one potentially.

Dubious Quality: Demon's Souls (PS3)

Come on. Can you guys avoid talking about the good games in these threads? Now I have to go buy Demon's Souls.

I'd make sure your copy has all the souls included. The version with only one soul has a very short campaign mode.

Well, the reviews sucked me in, picked up Demon's Souls this afternoon.

Anybody pick up Operation Flashpoint? I just rented it for the 360 and wondering if anybody else got it. From what I hear the Co-Op mode is fun as hell.

yep.. picked up mine today.. haven't had a chance to play it yet.. and now the Cardinals game is on..

Maybe tomorrow Mizzou ;)

I should probably play by myself anyways as I have never played OpFlash in my entire life and from I gather I am in for one hell of a learning curve.

Yes! Although I think I'm taking Friday off!!!

In Greek Mythology, Sisyphus was condemned to roll a boulder up a hill only to have it roll back down again.

If this myth was rewritten in 2009, Sisyphus would be playing Demon's Souls instead. Good.. lord. I don't know whether I hate the game or love it.

I just put in a 3-4 hour block of online co-op of Operation Flashpoint. I met this guy who was gung ho, spoke in military jargon, and as a result I had a fucking blast. Pretty sure this rental is going to turn into a purchase.

Definitely a massive change of pace from Call of Duty and the like, but I like it so far.

I heard that it's similar to a roguelike?

Yes.

Although, in an odd sort of way I think it is the Guitar Hero of RPG's. For Guitar Hero, you can't stop, you have to get through a song and on certain songs you fail alot, but every time you try you get a little bit better and a little bit further.

Yeah, it's quite a joke, but blame the 10-18 year old demographic for allowing it to happen. I just laugh when I see what they offer, and then turn around and do...but again, more power to them...

I ended up renting the new Operation Flashpoint last night, because they didn't have Demon's Souls and I'm trying to be a bit frugal. I spent a couple hours on it and it definitely isn't my cup of tea.

I absolutely loved the first OpFlash and really enjoyed Arma and Arma2. This type of game just does not work well on the console. It feels like they tried to cater to the run and gun crowd and the milsim crowd, and will probably end up aggravating both. Controls seem too convoluted. I'm not sure they could have done it much slicker but it still is a pain. I'm not sure you can make something like this feel good on a console. The PC version might alleviate these issues but I don't see a benefit to this game over ArmA on PC. The bonus is definitely playing on the console, but that doesn't work well imo.

It is a nice looking game though and I actually thought the opening intro was done in a really neat style. I imagine it would be a blast coop as I think this style of game is the best for that. OpFlash definitely had a lot of my favorite coop moments.

It's not just the 10-18. There's plenty of adults who do the same thing, but just don't give a shit because it's less money out of pocket right then at the moment.

The 10-18 crowd, especially at the lower end, those are kids who want new games, but they don't have jobs (obviously) and Mom and Dad are trying to teach them that money doesn't just grow on trees, so they trade in games they're bored of to get the latest Pokemon.

So what do you guys think of Demon's Souls? I just watched a review of the game and it looks pretty sweet..

Demon's Souls...

All of the reviews are right. This game is hard. I played for about an hour yesterday and I died a dozen times, repeating the same sequence of the game about 7 times. I'm thinking I either suck at video games or it is just hard.

Frustrating hard or a good hard?

I was frustrated with it last night, but not this morning. It is the first level, so I haven't really experienced much of the game yet. I like it so far.

It isn't strictly a roguelike though is it? I mean when you die you still maintain some things?

How twitchy is the combat? I love how it sounds strategic in combat, but I'm getting older and less interested in fast twitchy combat. I'm looking for something more RPG than Devil May Cry.

You keep your items when you die, just not the souls that you collect which help you level up and buy stuff. If you found something to heal you, didn't use it and died, you would still have it. On the first level, you can't level up past 9 until you defeat the main boss and then you can start turning in souls.

If you don't like twitchy games then this isn't one for you. It is like Oblivion or God of War, just harder. My statement that the game is like Guitar Hero isn't too far off in the sense that when you are going through it, you learn the placement of all the enemies and know what is coming up as you dig deeper, plus you start learning their tendencies and how to fight them better so, as you die, you are learning and it becomes easier.

A few tips on starting out, if you are going to die or close to death and you have items to heal you, you don't necessarily have to use them. Sometimes it is better to die and keep your items rather than waste them if you are having a bad run up to that point.

Fire is your friend. Some of the enemies are stupid so, if you get them to run after you and you place fire in between you and them, they will run through it and take damage. If you kill them this way, you still get their souls.

My first go around, I played for 3+ hours. I probably died at least 30+ times.

Have you guys played the MP part of Demon's Souls? I think I'll give this a rental first. I've been buying to many games lately - and there are at least 3 Nov. release games I plan on buying. Fuck - my gaming hobby is expensive ;)

I haven't touched the MP part yet. I was getting a server connection error and didn't bother looking into it since I wasn't interested in MP yet since I suck so bad.

Next "big game" pickup for me will probably be Dragon Age: Origins, though I'm going to wait for some reviews. If it ends up too similar to Fable II, I'm going to skip it...I could not get into Fable II, especially some of the stupid things that the game really wanted me to do (like mingle with townspeople, find a lover, have a family, etc).

Game I'm playing right now is one probably nobody's really thinking is a big game but is hella fun: Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection for 360.

/tk

Next couple months have a few titles that interest me for the 360:

Borderlands
Dragon Age
Modern Warfare II
FIFA
Left For Dead 2


going to be a busy next couple months on the gaming front, for sure.

All of the previews make me think that Dragon Age: Origins will be nothing like Fable II. It sounds like a true spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate 2. Most early previews sound in awe of the game and how well done it is. I can't wait to pick it up on release date.

The only certain week one purchases for me are New Super Mario Bros. Wii (first new 2D Mario for consoles since 1995's Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, I can't wait) and Football Manager 2010. I'll probably get FIFA and NBA2k10 (already out but not the PC version which I might get instead of the PS3 version) at some point.

Yeah, which is why I'm so stoked. :) But I still may wait for a week, just to read the comments.

/tk

I'm probably looking to purchase one of these: Demon's Souls or Uncharted 2. Both reviewed real well so I'm coming here to decide which one to get. Has anyone played the MP part of Demon's Soul yet?

Not yet. I have thrown my controller a few times and have used a nice selection of swear words though.

I am still on the first level so, got that going for me.

Just picked up Uncharted 2 and played for an hour. Simply amazing. A MUST get even if you didn't play the original.

Stop it right now. I've still got a couple of hours before I can pick it up. It's killing me.

Graphics are more stunning then Zac Lee in the 4th quarter of a Rivalry game. I don't think the first one was in 1080p, but this was on sure is and it's just amazing.

That's pretty stunning. :D

Uncharted 2 and Brutal Legend today. Good stuffs!

Toys R Us is having a buy two, get one free sale on all video games this week. It sounds like a great deal until you realize they don't stock all games; for instance I want to pick up the Fallout 3 GOTY Edition and they don't carry it.

Do you think they carry NHL10 and NBA 2k10?

I know the local TRU near me does not carry NHL 10. It's listed on the TRU website though so you could always order it online.

Man, Uncharted 2 is all kinds of fantastic. The plot and characters are really engaging, even moreso than the first one. It truly feels like you're playing through an interactive movie.

I need to go sell my body for the night, I may be able to get $180 if I try hard enough. Both games that came out today are games I want to buy, Uncharted 2 and Brutal Legend, and next month comes Modern Warfare 2. My wife will hate me (for buying so many games, not selling my body). I will have to put things off for a bit and say they are my Christmas presents. Income is fine but not as reliable right now to jump into these purchases. Oh well, I am busy enough I won't notice a little wait.

If someone gets them, beats them, and then wants to sell any of the ones that came out today let me know in a month or so. :)

Are the gun battles improved? ie - the AI less predictable.

Yup. AI is much improved. You can't just retreat and pick them off. They'll follow you around now.

Cool, that kept me from completing the first game.

I never played the first Uncharted and this isn't really the kind of game I'm normally into but after reading about how much seemingly everyone loves it (gaming press and gamers) I decided to rent the game today. I'm on Act 5 now (only been doing singleplayer) and this is a lot of fun. It's a nice mix of climbing, jumping, exploring, stealth segments, and shooting. I was worried it might be too heavily focused on the shooting but that is not the case so far. It's also the best looking console game I've played, at times I find myself just panning the camera around looking at everything. The characters and story are also pretty good so far, although it seems like I'm missing a bit of background info having not played the first game I don't really mind.

The one by me had NBA 2k10 today. Did not look for NHL 10.

After hearing how hard Demon's Souls was to find (and holy crap was it hard to find) I picked it up today. Out of town for a few days but looking forward to trying it and also Uncharted 2. They both sound fantastic.

That's part of the soul-crushing. ;)

What an awesome game Uncharted 2 is! I'm also up to the 5th act (how many acts are there?) and the pace of the game is perfect. I played about 1/2 hour of the mutli player and it seemed pretty good (I think I'm spoiled with COD MP though). I don't finish many games but I definitely see myself completing this one.

I think the first Uncharted is the only PS3 game I have that I have finished.

I played a little of Brutal Legend and Uncharted 2 last night. Brutal Legend made me chuckle a few times. I played it for about 90 minutes. It is pretty cool so far.

I'm in Act 2 of Uncharted 2. I think the beginning is done very well. I'm really interested in finding out what's next.

Uncharted Spoiler - Read if you've been through Act 2.

I've played up to chapter 7 in Uncharted 2. Can this game get any better?! The action sequence in the end of chapter 6 was sweet!!

I saw that you can download the character generator for Dragon's Age: Origins.

I downloaded it last night, but didn't have time to install it or play with it. The game looked really promising, then I got kind of down on it after seeing and reading some things, but now I am back on the upswing with it.

Bioware(well EA probably) have done some of the most horrific marketing for Dragon Age I've seen for a game.

Its really turned me off on the game I was easily most excited about this year. I'm hoping it is just the ad team attempting to be "extreme" and not accurately representing the game.

The best gameplay footage I have seen about Dragon Age is from here:

http://www.giantbomb.com/quick-look-...igins/17-1477/

It's about a 20-minute video of the gameplay. I watched it yesterday and I am really psyched for this to come out. Once I know what DRM is involved for the Impulse/Direct2Drive/etc., I will be able to make a purchase decision (whether to get physical copy or downloadable). I have heard that there is no SecureRom (or whatever) in the physical box version, but I wouldn't put it past EA to put it in the downloadable version (like they did with The Sims 3 downloadable version).

And I have now pre-ordered Dragon Age (360 version) from Amazon.

First game I've pre-ordered in awhile.

/tk

Charles Martinet teases new Mario game! October 17, 2009

Filed under: News — DarkWish @ 6:07 pm

Thanks to some tweets from Charles Martinet, the voice of Mario, we know that Nintendo is working on yet another Mario game! And no, he’s not referring to New Super Mario Bros. Wii or Super Mario Galaxy 2, it’s something different. Here are his tweets…
- Mama Mia!!!! I’m going to Seattle this week to record a new Mario game! Woo Hooo!!!!! I can hardly wait!!!!1
- Big day tomorrow! Seattle for a new Mario game! Yippee!!! And just as a joke, it’s going to rain….in San Francisco tomorrow!
- Awesome new Mario Game! And it’s not NSMB Wii, and it’s not Galaxy 2, but it’s going to be crazy fun!
What could it be… a Mario sports title? Mario Party 9? Is it for Wii, DS, or DSi? Could this be related to the game IGN was teasing? Whatever it is, it’s got the voice of Mario excited.

I read something about the Super Mario All-Stars trademark recently being renewed in Japan, maybe that is being rereleased for DS. An announcement of a third new Mario platformer in such a short period of time is probably unlikely.

God of War Collection trailer is up.

http://www.viddler.com/explore/sceablog/videos/624/

Sweet!!:popcorn:

Man - how good is this game?!! I'm in chapter 17 and loving every moment of the game. I don't care for the multiplayer so much (only really played about a hour of it) but the single player mode is probably the most fun experience I've had in a game.

:+1:

I've got no interest in multiplayer modes of most games. I'm a single player kind of guy. Uncharted was fantastic and Uncharted 2 does not disappoint at all. Love how the story draws you in.

dola

Rumor that Resistance 3, Killzone 3, and a sequel to COD: WW are all in the works for fall 2010.

http://e4g.info/1667/killzone-3-in-2010.html

I give up on Demon's Souls. I'm going to try something easier like licking my own back.

Going to through it out on Ebay tomorrow for $50 free shipping (to the US) so, if anyone is interested before that, let me know.

Traded-in some games and had a bigger than expected return (they have a 25% promo for 3 or more games plus 10% additional if you signup for their card). Got FIFA for free and then decided to pick up Borderlands since it's co-op and my good friend and I like playing those games.

Played Borderlands for a few hours and have to say it's pretty fun. It has a lot of elements of Fallout 3 in it. Not sure if there is some connection, but the types of characters and such is eerily similar. They have a ton of guns and so far it's been a lot of fun building up XP to get more skills. Apparently you can drop into games with other people online. If you're into co-op games and have some friends with this, it's a real blast. Basically Fallout 3 co-op.

Who is this "they" you speak of? Have a bunch of games I don't play anymore, wouldn't mind trying to scoop up that FIFA game.

I am not very good at FIFA so far. Dribbling is really hard, as soon as the other team comes near my guy he loses the ball, all those slick skills I mess around with in the arena while the game is loading are useless in game situations so far in my experience. I can maintain possession and pass the ball around but good scoring chances are few and far between.

Reminder for me to pick that one up this weekend. Keep at it, you'll get better!

I think he is referring to Gamestop. If I recall correctly it is Gamestop's card that gives you 10% off all purchases, and 10% more in trade-in's. Not 100% sure though.

Yeah, right after I posted I finally managed to score a few goals with a non-elite team against a team of similar quality.

Later on in a different match I even managed to burn a few guys with trick moves, although that was with Messi and Argentina so no big feat there. It was raining in that game, I thought it was cool how the players slid further on tackles and the ball moved faster on the slicked up surface.

PS3 version here if anyone wants a game against someone who is a FIFA noob.

Sorry, Gamestop.

http://www.gamestop.com/gs/specialty/tradeins/

And as scoobz said, you can get their discount card that will add 10% on to trade-ins. So you get 35% on games which is pretty good these days. I traded in Fallout 3, NBA 2K9, Assasins Creed, and Ghostbusters and it came to about $60.

I picked up Borderlands last night and I have to agree with RainMaker...it's a lot of fun. Basically they've taken elements from Diablo and similar games and used them in a first-person shooter. That's not to say that it has a fantasy theme, but the loot (read: guns) are randomly generated, so each one feels unique. This gets pretty fun when you start finding weapons that have different special effects. A few examples of fun stuff I've found so far:

1. A shotgun that fires a wave of blue energy that travels along the ground, hitting multiple targets.
2. A submachinegun that sets people on fire. :devil:
3. A sniper rifle that explodes in a small fireball effect upon impact.
4. A mod that turns my hand grenades into bouncing betties.
5. A shotgun that fires rockets.

Each of the four different characters also gets a special ability (my soldier drops down a turret/shield combo that shoots at enemies autonomously and also provides cover) as well as skill trees like you see in Diablo and WoW. I haven't messed with co-op yet, but it seems like there could be a lot of potential there as well. You're supposed to be able to drop in and out of co-op at will...you can take your single-player character into co-op and still have all your skills, gear, etc, and the difficulty is also supposed to automatically scale based on the number of players.

If anybody's on Xbox Live and wants to give co-op a try, give me a shout.

Reading reviews I get the impression that Borderlands is meant to be played on multiplayer or local co-op. Is the single player game secondary in terms of length and development? I don't play online much but would be interested in picking this one up if the single player is also strong.