"'Ground Zeroes' is a prologue of MGSV," Kojima said. "9 years after that event will be 'The Phantom Pain.'" Metal Gear Solid 5 comprises these two parts, much like Metal Gear Solid 2 opened with the Tanker chapter, then moved onto the Plant portion starring Raiden.

that's pretty much what I expected they would do once they said
"Ground Zeroes and Phantom Pain put together is Metal Gear Solid 5"

two parts.  

now, what I'd like to know is this.  was the recent interview with the supposed producer cgi or real?

I like how he writes "and/or", as if being wrong about the specific order of those two would undermine his point. 

For future reference,  one way to make sure a dog release its grip on something is to stick your finger up its ass. Gross but effective. Or so I've heard... 

Pics or GTFO!

no pics or 

I have read reports that NK don't have enough food nor fuel for anything prolonged.

Couldn't they feed the army with the food stored in the president's cheeks? Ought to be at least a weeks worth in there.

Played about two hours so far.   They really draw out the intro, don't they? Graphics are maxed out and the game looks gorgeous.   Gameplay is exactly what you would expect, only brighter.   So far,  I've seen the usual progression of upgrades,  with one exception.   When you get the chance to buy a vigor early on,  I suggest doing so.   I have not come across it yet.   Otherwise it's the same types of things you'd see in either BS1 or 2.  Riding the sky rails is fun and is a great way to dispatch foes.   Felt a bit like Batman jumping back and forth

If there is one complaint,  it's that the game has been very linear.

[PS3:]

Another huge week for gaming it seems coming up. Let's take a look.

PS3:
Army of Two: The Devil's Cartel
BioShock Infinite
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14
Terraria (PSN)

PSV:

360:
Army of Two: The Devil's Cartel
BioShock Infinite
Final Fantasy XI: Seekers of Adoulin
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14
Terraria (XBLA)

WiiU:

3DS:
HarmoKnight

PC:
BioShock Infinite
Final Fantasy XI: Seekers of Adoulin

Sunday (4/24) Releases:
Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon (3DS)
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity (3DS)

What are you buying this week?

BioInf is already preloaded and waiting for tomorrow night.   

Considering picking up Luigis Mansion as the reviews have been good.

  although I'm not waiting until 4/24

Wow.   They took a character disliked from day one and made me care about what happened.   I am sad to see the character go.

btw, I ran across this link over at kotaku.  it has a bunch of codes that have never expired. 

http://orcz.com/Borderlands_2:_Golden_Key

Some PAX east codes:

PC/Mac: W3WJ3-3JXTT-6RW5T-SB53B-XJBX9
360: K3KJT-6HRT5-BHRTT-3BBTJ-RBWJ9
PS3: 5JKBJ-H5WCF-KWST6-K6BJB-FZ9BJ

Since this is coming from Randy I'm guessing that in the end we'll find out the PS4 is not really a console but a piece of toast.

it was a very good piece of toast though.

Looks to be a CCG called Hearthstone:  Heroes of Warcraft
Kotaku link (yes, I know)

Trailer

PC, Mac, iPad. 

looking to get some time with Tropico 4, StarDrive (although my interest has waned somewhat since my nth failed attempt at the early game), Star Conflict for the random mp action and maybe some Ni No Kuni.  first JRPG I've had any interest in since Lost Odyssey, which I got bored of.

FunToyLovinTeggy

AnalBeadGettinTeggy

ToyBoyTeggy

TeggysTickleTrunk

UncleTeggy'sNakedPuzzleManCave

People's exhibit No 438936091 in the case "Today's music has gone downhill" vs "These kids today"

too bad they didn't include the names on the list on the left.  would have made it easier to round them up for that new rocket to the sun trip. 

[TPP]

it keeps coming
Gameinformer

from Hideo Tweet

Today on Twitter, Kojima began by tweeting about the use of lens flare in the credits in a trailer for the upcoming Star Trek movie, saying:"Watched the new trailer of " Star Trek Into Darkness" and found lens flare on the credit part which made me laugh because I used lens flare on my GDC trailer as well. Well we've acknowledged each other that we both share the same fetichism on lens flare, and I guess that's it."

^^
Thats not the important part

In the larger version of the picture, you can see that the file name for the video is: "TPP_GDC2013_720p_ESRB." Obviously this would seem to suggest that it's a video of the mystery game The Phantom Pain

Sure TPP could mean something completely different,but it doesn't

oh gods, what if this is one elaborate prank? 

[Spoiler]

Well, IGN's review is out: You Will Believe a City Can Fly - 9.4

Perhaps more importantly: Due to the embargo, Kotaku has posted their review of IGN's review.

Spoiler for Hiden:

Thanks for the review of the review, but I'm waiting for impressions from fellow GT'ers before reading their review before spending any of my time on it.

Redband trailer out! Looks incredibly kick ass 

http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/videos/kick-ass-2-red-band-trailer/

That was pretty cool looking.

Anticipating some interesting responses to this post.  

Anal beads?

You just had to pull that out, didn`t you?

Poor choice of words.

By that point, the governor had already been so invulnerable in his mind that nothing was a threat to him.   Andrea's biggest mistake was not staying to finish the job.

I really dislike the  emergency clause in this bill.   With that, you can bypass the warrant initially.   But one you know what your suspect is doing,  getting a warrant will be a heck of a lot easier, right?

after watching a few minutes, this looks like Dead Island lite.  the melee combat is pretty basic.  three hits to any zed and it goes down.  there seems to be some level of damage reflected on the body, but very toned down compared to DI.  a few cuts and bruises.  I did see an arm fly off, and with the knife, you will be seeing the heads fly off quite a bit.  no stamina bar, no alt attack. 

watched a scavenging level and most of the doors are locked, leaving a very linear path to follow.  also saw a few elements that I really hate.  bodies litter the ground, but don't react to you hitting them, until magically, you trigger some action and they get up.  there's also an obvious element of gami-ness like having to route through a big infested building rather than simply crawl under the all too visible crawlspace under the semi truck trailer.  Daryl must have a bad back or something.  unable to jump on top of most objects and other objects you can push, but only from one direction. 

the environments are bland but do create a off-settling sense of isolation and death around every corner.  there were a few moments when a swarm is spawned, which sadly seem to be set-pieces instead of dynamically generated moments.  not blatant, like L4D but pretty clearly trigger points and actions which cause them. the character models are not current gen.  this and ACM could be cut from the same engine for all it looks like, but ACM had a more detailed environment. 

watching this, I get the feeling that they missed the boat quite a bit.  had they taken a larger world approach with a more rpg-like aspect to surviving and scavenging, this could have been quite fun. 

given recent high profile games that have been pre-release greats/post-release trash, waiting on pre-orders is becoming something of a gamble anyways.  all of these bonuses are just making the gamble partially pay off if it flops. 

So this is coming out today. I know expectations are super low. Hopefully it turns out to be halfway decent and not some generic zombie FPS with The Walking Dead name slapped on it.

I went looking for reviews and found no site has anything yet, which is never a great sign.

I did find this, though. 

a review of the game
by Rick Grimes

RickGrimes 7
My first issue is why isn't this game about me, I mean come on already. Let's check some key character flaws in our main character Daryl Dixon. 1) Daryl Dixon is a "master tracker"..... I really can't be the only one who knows this guys spent like two weeks looking for a little girl and only found some flowers. I mean this is Georgia, Ray Charles can find a flower here. (Since I woke up from a coma I have found a bicycle, Morgan and Duane, guns, a horse, a tank, Lori and Carl, a deer, a prison and that my best friend slept with my wife. I mean the list goes on and on.) 2) Daryl Dixon uses "stealth" to take down walkers....Oh yeah, "Mr. excuse my while I put my corss bow on my back and drive the loudest vehicle I can find". Because, you only need stealth after everyone in northern Georgia knows your on the road. (I stealth killed my best friend with a knife, two guys in a bar with a revolver and some tool in a prison with a machete. I also didn't get caught while we raided a town.) 3) Daryl Dixon wears a vest with angel wings on it..... I mean really, who still wears Affliction shirts? (You got me there, I wouldn't be caught dead in that vest.) I could go on and on but you all get the point, why him and not me?

word is that a new patch is incoming with some big changes, most notably better textures.  it's weighing in at 4gb 

General
Improved texture resolution.
Various visual improvements.
Added mouse smoothing to options menu.
Fixed crashes tied to launch and motion tracker.
Added additional safeguards to better protect save data.
Resolved an issue where a player's level could sometimes appear incorrect when backing out of a party.
Addressed several scenarios under which players could spawn without a weapon.
Changes to better prevent audio from sometimes cutting out during end of mission cinematics.
Fixed issue where Xeno death animation was not properly calculating momentum of the killing blow.
Smart Gun animation now properly tracks targets.
Addressed some instances where Xenos would display erratic animations.
Increased light radius for player's shoulder lamp.
Adjusted aim assist to better reflect player input.
Addressed an issue that could sometimes cause co-op player revival to not work under certain circumstances.
Addressed issues with players not spawning into a level properly.
Fixed a marine player invincibility exploit.
Resolved several instances where players could walk or fall outside of maps.
Addressed an issue where Ripley's Flamethrower (bonus content) would sometimes fire continuously without player input.
Fixed an issue that could cause localized text to sometimes display incorrectly.
Addressed an issue where weapon ammunition was not always highlighted properly.
General user interface improvements.
Miscellaneous bug fixes.

Campaign
Tweaked enemy and friendly AI to be more aggressive and responsive.
Modified campaign difficulty to account for improved AI responsiveness.
Improved enemy collision detection regarding doors and Power Loader.
Addressed some issues that could cause improper warping for co-op players.
Various tweaks to address instances where NPC characters would not always properly navigate to objectives.
Players will no longer bleed out immediately when downed in a Power Loader.

Versus
Fixed issues that could cause clients to report inaccurate results and statistics.
Addressed instances where a map would appear to "pop in" when loading into a new match.
New Xeno appearance customization added.
Multiplayer teams should now correctly auto-balance between rounds.
Increased duration of Lurker Pounce Challenge "Cat-Like Reflexes" from 10 to 20 seconds.
Fixed issue where certain multiplayer challenges would not unlock properly for all characters.
Crusher pick-ups now correctly appear as highlighted for clients.

I doubt even a patch of this size is enough to make the game as good as we all were led to believe, but at least it's an effort.

Anticipating some interesting responses to this post.   

Nothing this week.  Will be looking for reviews on the Walking Dead game.

given this was based on a matrix reference, I'm not surprised it's filled with over-the-top powers.  and it's also not exactly grounded in reality any ways, so why not? 

man, the early game is punishing.  it's almost a guarantee that the first race you meet will want to go to war with you within 10 years after you meet them and is usually no more than 4 stars away.  I've also noticed how quickly they expand.  before I had researched through 3 of the usual starter techs, I'd run across the robot/Owl collective race and they had already claimed 4 other systems.  I think my usual routine of teching up with small expansion to good planets may not be as effective as pumping out colony ships and scouting everything within 4 stars out. 

I also had the misfortune to have a core world rebel on me in my first game, which promptly signaled the damn wolves that I was a target, who then colonized planets in my existing systems and then threatened war unless I left. 

sweet zombie jesus.  glad you are feeling better Crusis. 

Is this really that big of a deal?  How often do we actually "see" anything of Garrett other than his hands in FPS view?  A couple cutscenes, maybe.

Ok, Gratch gets the Garrett model that looks like the Hamburglar.

   If the gameplay is solid, they can dress Garrett up like Bozo the Clown for all I care.

squeaky shoes are bad for sneaking though. 

splitting time between Star Conflict, Star Drive, and the decidedly Star-less-ly named Tropico 4. 

Glad I avoided this train wreck.  even when it was found you could get a copy for $28 off the India EA store.

say what you will about ACM, but at it's core, at least it worked as a shooter.  SCV doesn't even manage to accomplish what other games have done for years, let alone the last game in the series.  and they added in a huge layer of BS PR to cover their asses while forcing a restrictive DRM for no legitimate reason.

Amazon was right to pull sales.  they should do that again. 

played and love all of the SR games.  Looking forward to throwing myself in front of cars for money. 

I also got this as a gift, quite unexpected too.

I've spent about an hour and a half in it.  first impressions are, this game has more detail than I expected.  Very impressed so far.  the fleet management screen is probably the best I've seen as it is more than just a formation/control group, it allows you to build the fleet from scratch and requisition the ships without having to manage that yourself.  it also allows you to specify targets by size and range. 

the ship designer is also far more detailed.  weapon arcs, power management and individual item modeling, so having a power supply blow up near your other components damages those ones and could cause chain reactions, unless you buffer the internal structures. I've gone into some of the designs people have come up with and there's some pretty original ones, like putting all your weapons on one side, armoring the bejeesus out of the other and setting the ship to orbit. 

I spent a good chunk designing even the early ships you research and after seeing what people have thought of, I'm already looking to scrap and rebuild them. 

had a couple of hours to kill this morning so I fired up Wings to continue the campaign.  got all set to play when the game started updating and then it said it needed to reconfigure the game files, which proceeded to kill about 90 minutes with what appeared to be a massive download

It's preloading about 6 gbs worth of HOTS data, even if you didn't pre-order it.  It did that for me too when I re-installed SC2 last week.  If you go into your SCII install directory\updates folder, there should be a folder with HotS somewhere.

they actually did this?  loaded an entire expansion on your pc even though you haven't bought it.  what a pain in the ass if all you want to do is go back and finish up the first one.  I was tempted to revisit it myself and finish up WoL, but between the huge patches which it will need to get plus this, I'm going to spend my gaming time 'playing something', not watching a download bar inch across the screen slowly. 

want to explore skyrim, but without all that pesky snow and cold weather? 

try out tropical skyrim.  It's like "Skyrim with guns" without the guns

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/33017

[Settlers 7]

Got the city builder itch from all the SimCity talk, decided to give Settlers 7 a shot.  Played through the first 3-4 missions...fun little game, really enjoyed it.

Spent a lot more time in Skyrim.  Have already gotten further than I did the first time around and don't seem to be burning out yet.  Hopefully that keeps up.

Also got the city building bug,  but loaded up Tropical 4 instead.   

Put some more time in yesterday and I'm liking it as well.   It helps that you get out of the starter ship pretty quick and can try out the others.   Like the interceptors during the ctf matches as it lets you get cap points easily.   I need to plan out my upgrade path to get into the really fast ships.   

Once I get a little more time,  I'm going to try the scenarios so the pvp doesn't get old.

finished up Tomb Raider.  not sure what I'll start up next. 

Finished this up last night.  97% complete in about 15 hours or so.  got all the stuff on the map and left a few areas without finding the special items to find/shoot/burn.  really enjoyed it.  looking forward to the inevitable sequel and more elaborate tombs to raid. 

I have no reservations about recommending this to anyone.  one of the best games I've played in a long while.