JsARCLIGHT

Bah. I'm one of the only ones at work and I'm bored.

I think it should just be assumed that all gaming consoles today are market tools of their corporations... just like consumer vehicles you should expect a replacement to hit the market sooner rather than later. That sort of treatment by the industry can be a boon or a bust for fans. If you talk to parents (who buy most of these games for their kids) they will tell you the companies don't really support any of their consoles. Parents think in terms of ice ages and when a new console shows up they always say "what? another one? what's wrong with the one you kids already have?" But on the flip side of the coin there is the new adult market... and adults like us who grew up along with the computer industry know that hardware advances quickly and constantly along with software and something better is always around the corner. To me, the video game market is the ultimate expression of the "disposable society" that people accuse us of living in. The degree to which something is supported by it's creator depends a lot on market share, installed user base and the general disposition of the company. By that I mean how greedy are they? Look at Sega. In a rash attempt to gain ground on Nintendo by any means neccessary and to line their pockets in the process they released console after console, leaving most of their fans to foot the bill for their market grabs when Nintendo kept beating them back. I think it is still those business practices of old that creep into people's minds when a new console shows up nowadays. No one wants to get "burned" yet everyone wants the new tech. I guess that is why you have this strange condition coming down the pipe of two types of games being offered, the new and innovative risk taking games and the old school rehash "safe" titles... which is something Nintendo and Sony seem to accell at, repackaging and re-releasing old product with a new coat of paint and selling even more of them. From most accounts the Gameboy Advance is just a handheld Super Nintendo with a new twist as the DS is just a handheld N64 with a new twist as the PSP is just a miniature PS1 with a new twist. In a few years when we have the new Nintendo googlebox and the PS3 you will see them porting over the Gamecube and PS2 tech into handhelds and rehashing the games we have today as new versions with two letter special names like Resident Evil 4 EX or GTA: San Andreas PX. What my point comes down to is that when it comes to consumer electronics in today's world it's not so much how long the company will support the console as everyone's track record shows that the tech is fleeting, you will only be at the peak for a year at most before the next thing comes along and you start wondering if you should buy it or not and whether or not the company will support the new thing... not noticing that the old console you love so dear just had it's death warrant signed.

You were sitting in the back next to me drawing in the margins of your math book waiting for gym class so you could move around some more. You are not the only one who forgot all basic math.

I remember seeing Droids and Ewoks on TV back when they were first run and even back then thinking "hmmmm... crap.... I wonder if Battle of the Planets is on..." click. As for the Tour of Duty thing (not do derail the thread) but we had a big long talk about it HERE.

Another "not quite real but real enough" JFK game is from the movie Kentucky Fried Movie, and the film dialogue goes a little something like this: It's the new Board Game "Scott Free!" "You've just assassinated the president, can your team escape?" "Good job! You've found a patsy!" "Great! You got Jack Ruby to kill your patsy!" "Uh oh! Time Life just bought the Zapruder film!" "But you buy Time Life and show the images out of sequence!" "You've done it! You got away Scott Free!"

There was a really old strategy PC game I had years ago that might make a good "bookend" title to this one... it was called Re-Elect JFK, and what it was in a nutshell was a presidential sim that went under the guise that Kennedy escaped Dallas alive... you then got to play him and deal with Civil Rights, 'Nam and all the other problems that he left stewing in the pot for LBJ to handle.

I don't know about the "big" thing but I sort of found the play mechanics a tad awkward. I'm not sure I was playing the game right but moving with the plus, shooting with the shoulder button and aiming with the stylus was sort of hard to hold in your hands for the Metroid demo. I amost wanted the grip portions of the thing to be bulkier so you could solidly hold it with one hand while the other one drew on the screen.

I'm pretty sure any appearances of anything on Megas are covered under the US laws of "parody". HG could take them to court but CN would most likely win at the end of a costly fight. Plus why sue a parody show that is indirectly giving you advertising?

A guy in our office had one this morning and he let me take a turn on it. He had no games outside of the Metroid demo but I was very impressed. Seeing 3D on a handheld was (to me) quite a departure from the handhelds I'm used to. Also the whole touchscreen / stylus thing was not as gimmicky as I thought it was. Color me impressed. Has anyone seen or played the Madden Football game for it? I might try to hunt down one of these DSes just for the football if it plays as hot as it looks... the concept of using the stylus to call plays and watch your plays open up on a second screen really intrigues me.

Out of sheer interest I called around the area before I left work... no one in Saint Louis near me has any left. Target, Beast Buy, even Wally world are all sold out or holding their stock for people. A guy at the local Target even asked me if I wanted my name put on a list to get the next ones coming in. Meh. I'll pass just because one is not immediately available. I should not be buying more toys anyhow seeing as I have not beaten HL2 or GTA: San Andreas yet.

OK, stupid old man question here... having owned Game boys in the past I find I tire of them quickly. Would someone like me like one of these things? There are elements of it that appeal to me but others that seem childish... it's not like buying one will make or break me and I tend to just sell things I don't like so I'm not worried about being "stuck with one". I guess what I am saying is that I'm interested in getting one but I have memories of the GBA and SP still in my mind and how I just got over them within weeks of purchase.

Just a question to those in the know... are these things pretty much sold out everywhere right now?

Wouldn't it be ironic if HG actually did take on Nike?... and then got themselves crushed by a shoe maker of all people? Years and years of court actions only to be felled by someone not even in the same industry... Sweet dreams are made of these.

That is the trick though, is she not referring to "Godzilla" which was released in 1954 in Japan but was then re-edited with Raymond Burr footage added and released in the US around 1962 or so? Technically Godzilla was "remade"... and they went out of their way to show it listed in the timeline in the booklet...

My Wife picked "MGS2" and I picked "MGS1" and so far we have not seen any differences... then again she is way farther ahead than I am. Most of the goofy stuff in the game (other than the typical strange "obvious this is a game" dialogue the characters have... you know the kind, like when people tell Snake "push X button" and such. That kind of thing really takes you out of the game IMHO) that I have encountered was in the Snake Vs. Monkey mode. Heck the whole opening dialogue between Snake and what appeared to be Colonel Campbell from MGS1 was a riot. The other bits of goofyness that I've encountered have of course been the whole "Raiden" thing and a few other choice pieces of dialogue that have just been bizzare.

The demo I had was a pack-in demo disc that came in a domestic Playstation magazine. They might have released it on your side of the pond as well in a magazine as a promo... might ask around.

I finally got to play it when my wife went to bed late last night, here are my thoughts: - while the lack of the soloton radar makes awareness of your surroundings a bit difficult it does add to the realism and the "keep your eyes open" element of the game. - the gameplay has had a few things added that make it fresh but it still has all the elements there from the previous games that allow the older players it get into it. - It's not so much the "cutscenes" that are long but the radio conversations, just like previous MGS games the characters just looooove to yak... along those same lines Hideo's "beat the player over the head with his views" scripting is still there. I wish I could play a MGS game without having to be spoon fed this guy's psudo politics on everything. - Much like GTA: San Andreas' added character features most of the added "suvival" elements in the game are simply additional Secret Agent Tomigotchi sort of stuff that is simple to do, does not take you out of the game and can sometimes be fun. Now onto my questions for other players who have gotten further / know more about the game than I (no spoilers though): - what is the deal with the "question" at the beginning before it asks you for the difficulty setting? Does answering differently change something in the game? - I think I found the infamous "Raiden" that people have mentioned... not what I expected and kind of goofy... then again all you have to do is play Snake Vs. Monkey to see just how goofball this game can get.

I have not seen it but it would be my choice.

I bought it tonight and have not been able to play it yet... my wife saw it and started playing it while I made my dinner. ... she is still playing... From what I have seen and overheard from the living room the game seems very long on cutscenes and dialogue like MGS2... then again I am still waiting my turn to play, I've only played the demo hands on. Also the lack of a widescreen mode for us HDTV players is yet again disappointing... GTA is onboard with it why is MGS still behind?

Funny you should meantion James Bond... being one of if not the longest running movie series of all time the James Bond line has gone through some high points and low points. Most of the highs and lows correspond with changes in the franchise. Case in point, Connery's movies show a trend of increasing popularity and ticket sales then there is a sharp drop when they switched to Lazenby... the final Connery Bond movie made almost double what Lazenby's movie did. Same thing went for the change to Moore and Dalton. The stories were pretty much the same, the characters were pretty much the same and the general action and plots were pretty much the same... so why did the profits drop with those changes? The moviegoing public just did not like the "new turn" at the license. The same thing can be said for Toy Story 3... same characters, similair plotlines, different people handling it. Will the public accept the difference for the similarities? Only time will tell.

If you want to be technical about the "3rd time is the charm" movie syndrome it is a proven hollywood track record that the third movie in a series almost always underperforms and begins or continues a trend of depreciating return on a property. Almost every "3rd film" in a series has marked the downturn of the line, even in such "notable" series as Back to the Future (the third movie doing the worst of the three at the box office). Even such landmark series as Harry Potter show a downturn in profit from the first movie to the third (Prisoner of Azkaban doing much less than 1 or 2). Sure there is a chance the "3rd movie" can be a decent film in people's opinions but as far as the business angle of hollywood goes number 3 is usually just a try for more money that never makes the cash the first one did. The only "3rd Movies" that I have ever seen break that cycle have been Spy Kids 3D: Game Over and Return of the King... with Spy Kids actually doing better than the second and almost surpassing the first in box office totals and Return of the King surpassing both 1 and 2.

The way it is "supposed" to work is that you must start Steam, log in, tell Steam to "remember your login", launch HL2 while still online, exit out, shut everything down, then restart Steam and select "offline mode" and HL2 and HL1 are supposed to be playable offline... I ran that maze about three times and finally got HL2 to work offline but not HL1. And to answer Chowser's question, yes you need an active internet connection to install HL2 with the ability to create the Steam account but from what I understand once you authorize the game you can install it on as many computers as you want... the limitation being the authorization is linked to your Steam account and you must "log in" that name at the computer you wish to play the game on. I'm guessing that means HL2 is like what we in the CG world call a "floating license" meaning you can have the program installed and useable on several machines but you can only have one seat running at any given time.

I think we owe it to Max to be honest in that once you yell and scream and pound on HL2 for a while it will eventually let you play the game without an active internet conneciton. I have no clue how I got it to do that but it does allow me to play the game offline now. HL1 is not so lucky, it will not allow me to play it without running in "online" mode... so screw that.

OK, let me try the reasoning this way: It's all fine and good that they have this "download the whole game online!" "never see a retail box!" "Maker keeps all the jack!" distro setup going for the people that want it... but I did not want that. The reason I bought the package and the disc and the receipt from a store was so that I could avoid having to connect to the internet. I dislike having to download things, let alone "ask a server if I might play the game I just purchased" online. I want the games I buy in a box to not need the internet to work... to me it is assinine that a game that does not require the internet as an integral part of gameplay still requires the internet to work. It may not seem like it but there are still people like me out there, old timers, who don't like having to log on to the internet every time we want to play a game. It's like having to ask permission when you want to play the thing. I do not like having to register things that I paid money for... outside of offering you some hollow promise of tech support (that very few people ever use) there is no reason to register software... the only reason they make you do it is under the guise of "piracy protection". Well I don't want to have to pay the penalty for someone trying to keep pirates away from their games. When I buy a game from a store I want to be able to stick in the disc and hit "go" and not have to worry about getting someone's permission to play it.

Big... Fat... Stupid... wanna shoot him... Yeah, I'll give you Meatloaf.