The Glade 4.0

Even better than Lair? Damn . . .

It's an RPG, not an action game.

And Noggel - It's not that hard. The hype on the difficulty is completely overblown. It is however a beautiful game with fantastic mechanics. Also the multiplayer stuff isn't forced. A) You have to have online mode on and B) You have to use certain items to join in the PVP thing, people can't just randomly join your game and attack you. The Online mode is pretty damn cool too - you can see brief flashes of what other people are doing and also see messages people leave behind. I ran into a ton of messages warning about traps, hidden items, ect. It's really neat.

Ah, hrm. Pretty sure a review I watched said otherwise on people joining your games to kill you, but reviewers these days are far from knowing everything about the game. A friend of mine just recently got it 2 days ago so I haven't heard much directly secondhand yet outside reviews.

Hrm, I guess they can if you're in Body form, but it doesn't matter since you don't have to play in online mode and you'll spend the vast majority of the game in Spirit form.

Hmm. Uncharted kinda struck me as "Tomb Raider with more gunplay and less boobies." Which would be a net negative all around...

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Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

Me too...except after watching video reviews for both Uncharted and Tomb Raider Underworld, I had to pick Uncharted.

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Ron Paul 2012

There are busty female companions, tho. And yes, it is more combat-heavy.

The female lead in Uncharted wasn't that busty really. Though Chloe in Uncharted 2 on the other hand..

That said, Uncharted 2 is perhaps the most mindblowing game I've played in like...maybe ever. And not just because it handily takes the graphical crown of this console generation thus far from Killzone 2.

Fantastic scenery, dialogue (along with pretty well perfect voice acting), action sequences/escapes that give me goosebumps, etc...it's just an insanely wild ride.

I'm a bit late to the party on LittleBigPlanet. I knew of the game, and was excited by some of the videos I saw prior to release, but when it arrived, I wasn't on a big gaming kick. Played the demo last night, introduced Phe to it, and twenty minutes later we were at Walmart purchasing the full game. What an adorable, utterly charming work.

Welcome to the party. Have fun twiddling your thumbs while Phe spends 20 minutes customizing her character in the middle of a level.

I am only in Act 4, but so far my mind has still not been blown. Killzone 2 still has the graphical/technical edge, and what I have experienced is pretty much what I did in Uncharted 1 (not necessarily a bad thing). Perhaps the changes later?

Some of the most fantastic effects happen later, yah, but I felt from the beginning that Uncharted 2 took the crown from Killzone 2. (Seen agreement from reviewers and most others I know that have played it so it's not just me hehe). Well, I guess the technical edge that Uncharted 2 has over KZ2 does becomes a lot more obvious later on...(Just wait til you get to Nepal...I know there's gotta be some trickery there, but you get to a high point in the city, and can look for miles around at the city, all the way to the mountains in the distance, with still flawless detail and not a frame hitched or dropped. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mxtvW89 ... re=related doesn't do it justice, but can get an idea)

The only graphical annoyance I'd had was that the character's eyes were a bit too shiny, but beyond that, Uncharted 2 has higher poly counts in the characters, better textures, far wider use of colors, more seperate objects on the screen, more detail in the environments and textures, more varied and fluid animations...the only thing KZ2 really had that I don't think Uncharted surpassed was the volumetric smoke etc.

Amusingly, Uncharted has a few filters that you can unlock that change the look of the game...one of them is a "Next Gen" filter...which turns everything brown. Kinda smug of Naughty Dog.

Okay, that's pretty funny and cool of them.

Not enough to make me forgive them for creating (and requiring) an update that won't load on my PS3 for Uncharted 1, but still pretty cool nonetheless.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

I guess I just prefer the grittier darker feel of KZ2. It seems more . . . real to me for lack of a better term. That's not to say that UC2 is an ugly game by any means (quite the contrary in fact), just that I am more wowed by what KZ2 does than UC2.

All that said, I must say they nailed the characterization in UC2 dead on. The one thing that really keeps me coming back for more is the characters themselves and the amazing chemistry they all have (love the dialogue, too).

I am in Nepal now as a matter of fact, and things are getting a bit more interesting. Still nothing that really stands heads and shoulders above the original yet. Hopefully that changes.

You might need to replay the original and compare hehe. The technical advances between the first Uncharted and the second are *huge*. Naughty Dog has described them in some depth (150 objects on screen compared to 500 in the second, main characters with 80k polygons, etc), and despite how much better it looks, it performs better too. (Uncharted 1 had some screen tearing when the framerate dipped below 30fps...that was fixed completely for the second).

As for Killzone 2, I still love the graphics there, and think the 2 games compare very favorably, but the technical strengths of Uncharted 2 do edge out KZ2. I really think when the 2009 video game awards are handed out, you'll see Uncharted 2 receiving the Graphics awards, among other things.

But yah, my reason for being so blown away by Uncharted 2 goes far beyond just the technical merits...just so much is done right, with the dialogue, characters, presentation, story, and action, that I couldn't put it down for like 15 hours after I picked it up hehe. Beat it on Hard within 24 hours of purchase and am now working through Crushing.

(And sorry for the raving hehe...most of my RL friends have been putting up with me geeking out about it all week.)

Well I just finished it.

I will have to say, the game picks up tremendous amounts of steam and interest around mid-way. The story gets to a point where you simply HAVE to keep playing to see what happens next. I rarely get attached to video game characters like I have in this game. They just have some odd kind of magnetism to them that keeps you cheering (or jeering) them on.

Graphically, there were many jaw-dropping moments. Colorful and shiny are the terms that best describe UC2's graphics. KZ2 and UC2 are kind of polar opposites, both technically and graphically brilliant for different reasons. After my playthrough, I'd have to retract my earlier statements and put them both on equal footing. UC2 is just a graphical juggernaut.

Sound and voice acting were amazing. I remember reading on NeoGAF how someone said they hated the dialogue, as it felt flat and forced to them. I could not disagree more. I found the chemistry between the main characters to be brilliant.

Controls were spot on for the most part, but I found them a bit floaty in some areas (along with some interesting bugs if you hit the geometry of a wall surface incorrectly). I thought the combat would get boring quickly, but it actually was able to hold my attentions throughout the game. And some of the action sequences get damn intense -- like good action movie level intense.

The story was fantastic, and fantastically told. But therein also lies one of my only complaints of the game -- it was too short. The story moved you along so quickly, so that it seemed like you only got to really soak in something cool before you had to proceed to another plot point. I wanted to savor the story a bit more. I wanted more backstory to some of the characters, but alas. That said, it only very very marginally hurt my overall enjoyment of the game.

There's lots of hidden things and extras to find and unlock. I think I wound up with only 36/100 treasures.

Beyond that tho, the main reason I enjoyed the game so much was due to factors that I can't really quantify or put into words. There were just a lot of little things and "you had to be there" moments that really fleshed the game out into something potent.

For anyone that has a PS3 -- I will have to say now that I have completed it, Uncharted 2 pretty much defines what a "must have" title is. Play the first one if you haven't, then play this. It's well worth the money.


Oh and BTW Coren -- how do you actually use the stuff you unlock with the treasure money?

Can't play the first one, the 1.1 patch hangs on install. Sony support tells me I need to send it in and pay them $150 to replace it with a refurbish. I told em to **** off, heh.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

My god, Ratchet & Clank is full of win. And rated E for everyone! (Well, E10+ anyway...which might as well be E. I have no issues with my son playing it.)

Oh, and the new TV is awesome. First HD tv for us, we bought it this weekend.

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Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

It really is. I had never played any of the games until Tools of Destruction. There's a full sequel coming soon (A Crack in Time), but there's also an "interim" game available in the Playstation Store that bridges the gap between Tools and Crack. It's pirate-themed, and called Quest for Booty. It's usually $15, but right now it's on sale for $10.

Grats on the first HDTV. It's so nice to get. It's like finally going to the optometrist after a long abscense and updating your prescripton: "Wow, I can see!"

The only downfall is that TV's advance so quickly, it's hard not to feel regret when they drop in price the next, though this is unavoidable. My TV went from $1100 to $750 in one year.

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"It's real, grew up in trife life, the times of white lines
The hype vice, murderous nighttimes and knife fights invite crimes" - Nasir Jones

Heh, my wife and I had to buy a new HDTV this weekend, due to all the new games coming out that we both want to play. Some would think a 42" LCD is too big for a bedroom, but it's just about right for the size of our room... and it will let me play Dragon Age on the 52 in the living room while she plays the upcoming Ratchet and Clank

Yeah, although they seem to be disappearing rather than drop below a certain price threshold. (Like, discontinued lines and such.) I'm of the opinion that one should never pay for the top-of-the-line bleeding-edge stuff in any rapidly-advancing tech field, though. I'm sure the TV i bought will be discontinued by next year, and Samsung's better models will replace it at the same price point, but anyone who builds their own PCs is already used to that tech cycle and can live with it.

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Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

Yea, it's a good point. If you constantly wait to buy something for the potential regret on saving next year, you'll never be able to buy anything!

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"It's real, grew up in trife life, the times of white lines
The hype vice, murderous nighttimes and knife fights invite crimes" - Nasir Jones

Finished Ratchet and Clank: Quest for Booty last night. Fun, and funny, but I miss Clank.