I've had mine since March, so I don't care.

Me too
Actually I got bored of it after a week and a half and gave it to my girlfriend.  She loves the brain training games and the new tetris game though!

Interesting ... think I'll get in the commercial mod making business now then. Hmmmm, people liked the ones I gave away in Morrowind.

I never thought I'd see the day when the Bethesda community was so "money grubbing" - used to be all about sharing and creating together. But if this is the new wind blowing, I'm onboard the boat. :mrgreen:
=======================

PS...Brilliant videos, Andrew Wonser! In what medium were they made? I love those kind of causality sequences. :idea:

If you're going to use a different colored text, could you pick one that isn't migraine-inspiring?

Contrast is reading's best friend.

It looks fine to me.  But in your quotations it definitely makes me want to get my eyes checked.

Yes believe me I've been reading it.  It got me playing HOI again but I suck horribly.  I'm trying the Italy scenario just to get my combat skills down but I can't manage to successfully invate the Italian boot after taking over Sicily.

Your right it isn't interesting to me.  Where's the story?  You replace the entire game with Warcraft 3 and you'd have the exact same AAR.  And yes, it's a run of the mill RTS. Of course it's probably one of the best, but it's essentially the same as every other RTS out there.  You build up your forces, you go attack the other guy, maybe you rush maybe you don't.

Don't get me wrong I don't mean this as a swipe against the authors-like I said it's a fascinating concept and I wish I could get someone to play against me and do the same thing.  Only playing a game that has a little better background or story that you can relate to.

But hey what do I know.  I thought people who downloaded other peoples' Warcraft 3 matches and watched the replays were stupid.

These are the types of games that I like reading AAR's of:

Birth of America
Take Command
Combat Mission
Close Combat
Hearts of Iron
Europa Universalis
maybe even Civ 4

The writing itself also matters and this is a completely different topic altogether.  I've done a couple AAR's myself and believe me they are nothing special.  But I have read some absolutely amazing AAR's some gripping and others just comical.  I have to admit though today was the first time I ever read this in an AAR:

BAHAHAHAH! YEAH! EAT IT PUSSY. EAT IT. LOLOLOL. THAT WAS PURE OWNAGE.

*edit* Oh I just saw that you can actually download the replay of the game.  Now that's a surprise.

The concept is great of course-but I would much rather read an AAR about something more than just your run of the mill RTS.  I mean it's not exactly interesting stuff.  Give me WWII, or Civil War or Renaissance (a la EU2) any day.

[pu-ray station su-ree]

I Wiiwii wove it. Wiiwii I do. I do I do I do.



Thing is, Nintendo is a worldwide brand. Wii (whee) is a syllable. It is going to sound the same everywhere; it's not going to beat the market share of the "Pray-shtashun tree-oh!" but it will be a popular product.

/quote]

If thats your Japanese katakana then I think it should actually be: pu-ray station su-ree

Well I'm a big fan of PC game manuals.  Console manuals I usually only glance at if I need some help.

Meh I bought a DS a month ago when they came out here in Japan.  I feel like I wasted my Biccamera points.  I bought one of those "brain training" games that are all the rage over here and gave it to my girlfriend.

All of this just comes to show that the best review is a review that does not give a score. Knightshade, the fact that you give games scores and then bash another publication for giving a score that you disagree with is contradictory. If you want to take a stand, remove the numerical scoring system GT uses and hope other publications begin to follow suit. I used to feel the same way about many publications giving games perfect scores when the game was far from perfect, but then I came to the realization that the numerical score is really only the most basic generalization of what to expect from the game. So while some of the technical aspects may be marred in the game as you've pointed out, the game itself may really be the perfect boxing game (in comparison to the others that are available).

When you think about it, there's no such thing as 100% perfect, there's always a tiny, insignificant flaw somewhere in the game, so if you can't ever rate a game perfectly how do you judge how far it is from perfect? The point being: Ignore the score and read the review for the real lowdown, then you be the judge.

Scores are kind of arbitrary aren't they?  How often are we guilty of just looking at the number and not even bothering to read the review.  Over at The Wargamer none of their reviews have scores and you have to read through the whole review to see what type of game it is.  Kind of good and frustrating at the same time

Considering how long the Xbox 360 is out, being the fastest selling game on the XBOX 360 isn't that impressive to me.

People shouldn't be allowed to start topics until they've made at least 10 replies.

It turns out the PSP version is actually better than the DS version.  I bet people didn't see that coming.

so anyone want to guess why it doesnt work for me?

Are you sure you extracted it properly?  I just tried it and it works fine for me.  Did you extract it to the right directory?  My download game with two different options and I chose one of them rather than extracting both.

This is one of the big things I love about Elder Scroll games in general.  The games are so configurable by the community that it almost boggles the mind.

That's one thing that I don't like about the Elder Scroll games.  The games are so configurable by the community that it does boggle the mind.

I actually just discovered youtube last night.  Kind of interesting.

Honestly though guys, don't you waste enough time gaming with modern games nevermind some crappy 8 bit games?  I mean come on, they're fun for 10 minutes for the nostolgia factor and then you have to think to yourself, 'jeez I actually liked these games??'

Ughhh!  I don't-the only thing most old games have in common is that they suck.
At least compared to todays offerings.

If you have any interest interest in the Civil War then I would highly reccommend it.  I admit that I have no interest whatsoever in the Civil War so it took me a second try of the tutorial to get into it but after that, I was hooked!!  Great gameplay and great graphics.  The actual map is HUGE it just goes on forever.

I just downloaded MadMinute Games recent release demo and I thought I would give it a whirl since it sort of plays like Combat Mission (only real time.)  I posted this on another forum but I thought I'd copy and paste it here just in case anyone happens to be interested in the Civil War period.  I'd love to flesh out the AAR a little more than it is, but to be perfectly honest, as a Canadian I don't know jack about civil war history.

Author's Note: Please forgive any glaring factual errors-I know absolutely zilch about the Civil War.

29 August 1862

Virginia has been blistering hot these past couple of days, just one more reason to curse those damned Rebs who've brought me here in the first place. Today was a fairly eventful day and my men, the Michigan regiments of the 3rd Brigade 1st Division III Corps Army of the Potomac, performed well.  We first encountered the enemy as we were passing through some farms and orchards.





They were a ragtag bunch who were hiding in the treeline and we finished them off quite easily.  Shortly after the last shots fell silent, we were met by a courier carrying a message from General Kearney.

Proceed through the woods,he stated.  At the western edge of the woods are two more regiments that have recently lost their brigade commander, these regiments are now under your command.  After the new regiments have joined, continue west along the road and join up with the division We are expecting heavy resistance before nightfall, so I expect you to make good time. If you encounter any resistance you are to attack and destroy.  The road you are taking is our supply link and it must be kept free of enemy resistance.

Major General Kearny  

With that we quickly got on our way, following the road through the west woods.  After exiting the woods on the other side, we met up with the two orphaned regiments; the 5th Michigan Regiment and the 37th New York Volunteers regiment.  We continued to follow the westwards road and soon met up with elements of  Archer's Brigade which consisted of approximately five regiments.



We were quick to form up and engage the rebels and quickly overwhelmed them.  We lost a few casualties but they lost much more.





After dealing with that distraction we quickly doubled up our pace  in order to join up with the rest of the Division in time before it came under attack.  Halfway to our target, we are met by another of the General's couriers:

Colonel,

Move your Brigade to the left flank, the Division is weakest there.  The enemy has been sighted heading in our direction and is expected any minute.  Your orders are to hold the left flank against the initial attack.  Do not allow the enemy to get around on our left flank.  After the initial enemy attack, you may counter attack if the situation is favourable.  I am counting on you Colonel; do not let me down.

Major General Kearny

We arrived at our goal and met up with the rest of the Division.  Major General Kearny had the 1st and 2nd Brigade lined up behind a stone wall overlooking a grain field.  By the time I got my men into position, the enemy army appeared on the horizon.



Elements of the 1st Brigade moved out into the field and engaged the approaching enemy.  It was one heck of a battle to see from my position, sitting on the back of my horse.  It was intense, with no quarter given.  The two sides fired back and forth at each other from almost point blank range.






The enemy was begining to approach our left flank now so I had to turn my gaze back to matters at hand.  It looked like they had focused close to half of their strength on our position.  Fortunately most of my men were behind the protection of the stone walls.



And just like that, our own battle had begun.  My men opened up on the enemy with their rifles.




The 3rd Michigan regiment managed to repel and enemy advance through the grain fields and my far left flank was starting to feel the pressure so I had them doubletime it over to help out the 1st regiment and the 37th New York. A full out battle proceeds.




Things were going well until, I realized to my horror, that the enemy was moving around my flank and were threatening to engage us in a crossfire.  I couldn't help remembering the words of my Major General; Don't let me down...  Quickly I wheeled the regiments around to meet the enemy.  They did have us caught in a crossfire but at least they weren't able to fire into our flank.



Under the combined firepower of all five of my regiments the enemy soon broke and ran for the treeline.  We'd done it! We'd managed to hold off the enemy assault!




Col Orlando M. Poe
3rd Brigade
1st Division/III Corps/AotP

I agree with you completely mike.  I've tried Morrowwind a couple of times and I just absolutely cannot get into it.  I get to the part where you get out of the boat and make your guy and then you go talk to the owner of that bar or whatever and it's just heaps and heaps of text. Enough to bore you to tears.
You spend forever just clicking through all the different dialogue options.  And I never got the feeling that I was ever actually talking to the barman, more like just reading some book that he had left on the counter.

(Oh, and a fifteen year old puzzle game is a big release?)

It is when it has 10 player multi player and online multiplayer, not to mention many new game modes.  I loved the original Tetris and this seems to improve on it greatly.

If it was a new Super Puzzle Fighter Turbo coming out THEN I would be very excited!
I'm sorry but Tetris just doesn't do it for me and never has.

No.

Never played Metroid Prime.  Don't particularly like Tetris and I could never get into Morrowind

Huh.  Seems hard to believe.  Especially considering that that's only 8 months away.

Anybody checking this game out?  I just glanced at IGN and saw that they had the review up.  They claim it's a console defining game.  I'm not sure if that's the same as a "killer app."  The most recent games for the PSP have been Daxter, Syphon Filter and Generations of Chaos.  Could it be that we're starting to see a brand new, glorious stage in the life of the PSP or is this just a short blip?

It does kind of make you want to buy GC2 though doesnt it?  Beside the obvious reasons I mean.

-1 for backwards compatibility through emulation?

lol
Has that been photoshoped or can you actually do stuff like that?  Seems a little openended.

No it feels real solid.  And it's that nice hard shiny plastic unlike the cheaper (at least in my opinion) plastic that the old DS had.  Unfortunately this means that your DS will now be covered in fingerprints like the PSP (although with the white colour it isnt quite such a problem)

Well I've never had a DS before so I don't know what impressions I can give.  The screen seems nice and bright but like I said, I don't know what it was like before.  I'm glad it's so small and light because I'd think that it would eventually hurt to have to hold it with one hand all the time.
In terms of how it feels, my hands are probably a little smallish so it felt perfectly natural for me.  I haven't really had to use the shoulder buttons yet.
If you are playing a GBA game, the cartridge does stick out, a LOT.

The guy standing next to me in line was playing on his DS lol.

So I picked up my new toy today.  I stood in line for about 3 hours with probably 10,000 Japanese people.  I got to Bic Camera at approximately 8am with some kind of strange delusion that since everyone in Japan already had a DS, the demand for the DS Lite wouldn't be that big.  Boy was ever wrong.  That was the biggest line up I've ever been in and the first console I've ever waited in line for.  My number was 359 and apparently this particular store had 600 units so the line must have had at least 600 people in it.   It was 3 colums wide and must have stretched for a good 100-150 metres.

One thing that really surprised me was the demographic variety of the crowd.  As I stated before I've never lined up for a console before but I imagine most of the line is made up of adolescent and post-adolescent male nerds.  This line up had a mix of everything.  Younger (early 20's) to older people, including little old ladies.  There were university students and business men and even, God bless'em, gorgeous Japanese girls lining up to buy a DS lite.

Errr...you're looking for a 30 minute RPG game?? :shock:

Do you really need a manual for Halflife 2 though?

Woah woah woah!  DId someone just say "Super Puzzle Fighter" for the PSP??
That is going to be awesome!!!

Wow that with Street Fighter and now Tekken and the PSP will definitely be the portable of choice for arcade fighters.

They take pictures of everything else-why not the dead?

That's what I didnt like about Advance Wars.  The story was so cheesey and Nintendo-esque.  I didn't like all the different abilities for different generals and things like that.  I mean, power ups?  Come on give me a break.

I've also thought that the PSP and DS aren't really all that much different when it comes to games.  I did something similar to Gamefaqs search but I just browsed through IGN's top reviews (complete shit yes but at least they're complete shit for both systems.)  The DS and the PSP basically both have the same number of high rated games.  In fact it always seemed to me that the DS had more poorly rated games.  But the fact that the DS has games like Nintendogs and Animal Crossing give it a bit higher acclaim (both games that I have absolutely no interest in.)

Well I'm getting a free Nintendo DS Lite on March 2nd because I just bought a 130,000 yen camera for my friend and I used my Bic Camera card which gave me 13% points.  Over $160 worth of free money!!  So I'll be turning all those points in in early March

Browser + HDD = DS Pr0n

Just think of all the applications for the pointer!!  All the different gestures.
Actually now that I think of it, they probably already have hentai games over here in Japan that utilize some of those functions.