I pre-ordered through Gamestop and it includes the soundtrack.  Don't kno about the guide thing, though.

Myself I would of ranked it in the mid 70s. The combat is too flawed and the story wasn't that engaging. Still, props for doing an original rpg set  in something other than a LOTR rip off

My thoughts exactly.  There was nothing about the story or characters that interested me at all, and I quit about 11 hours in.  It just felt like an asian-themed KotOR mod to me, which wasn't really that interesting.

You are a Jedi Guardian.

The Republic wouldn't be the same without you. There are alternatives to fighting, but you will do what you have to do to defend the peace. Refine your skills by growing stronger in your connection to the Force. It will get you through many difficult circumstances.

May the Force be with you.

I think that quiz just called me a pussy.

Picked up Clone Wars this afternoon and just finished watching it.  It can be summed up in a single word.  

Wow.

While I agree that some of it was unnecessary, the majority of those episodes were amazing.  The elite Clone Troopers and Mace Windu episodes were especially good.

Now I just wish May 19th would hurry up and get here.

The worst ever was Splinter Cell.  For me, playing splinter cell consisted of hanging from a railing, running down an alley, doing a wide variety of immersive gameplay and then being killed by Russians.  It was pretty cool - the graphics were great, and I could try all sorts of things before the Russians killed me.  I could throw a can to distract them before they killed me, hide in shadows and sneak to where they were going to kill me, break ones neck before the other killed me, make them all look green and grainy while they killed me.  They may have been Ukrainian, actually.  Anyway, they would kill me and then talk in Russian about how much of a tool I was.  I really couldn't get past the first half hour of the game.

That description gave me a chuckle, as I am the exact same way with the Splinter Cell games.  I love stealth action, but I just have never been able to do the SC games.

Or Dungeon Seige
Or Sudeki
Or Fable

Gratch- what am I looking at in that picture?  Is that something behind the screen?  Based on your post, is it vomit  :shock:

Yep, that would be pooled cat vomit that actually got between the screens.  My model of TV has 3 screens that are basically glued together.  When the cat got sick, it ran down the front of the TV, pooled at the bottom, and seeped between the screens causing that permanent black smudge at the bottom of the screen.  Unfortunately, there is no way to pry the screens apart to fix it, and the only fix would be to completely replace all three screens, which will run about $800.

Moral of the story:  Make sure you cover your TV screen if you have cats in the house.

P.S.  BTW, the entire saga (including the nearly $1,000 vet bill to try and find out what the hell was wrong with the cat) can be found here.

If it makes you feel any better:

Barfing Cat on top of the TV + 52" HDTV =


$800 to get it fixed.  

[Played a Fair Amount Of, Didn't Really Click Then, Feel It Might Click Now, Therefore Damn Good Chance It Might Be Played Soon]

Played a Fair Amount Of, Didn't Really Click Then, Feel It Might Click Now, Therefore Damn Good Chance It Might Be Played Soon:
Resident Evil 4

Man, I have so many of these.  When a bunch of new games come out at the same time, I tend to get them all at the same time.  Then, unless one really grabs me, I end up jumping around from game to game and never put in the time or effort to really just enjoy one of them.  

Of course, now that my income has been slashed in half, that is going to drastically change.  I'm going to have to be much more picky on what games I buy from now on.

Ive never understood the hate some people have for FF8; that was one of the few games which actually made me wake up just to play it.  But I agree, the junction system was pretty annoying, but I found battles pretty easy and mainly stuck with physical attacks.

The main problem with FF8 wasn't the junction system, it was the draw system.  Having to continually draw spells from enemies was possibly the most annoying gameplay mechanic I've ever run across, and untimately killed my interest in the game.  I managed to get through about 35 hours, but I just could take any more 15-20 minute battles simply because I needed to draw more spells.  The other main problem with FF8 was that for most of the game, Squall was a completely uninteresting and unlikeable main character.  His only motivations seemed to either be apathy or just plain rudeness, which made me really dislike him.  

That being said, FF8 does have possibly the best soundtrack of any FF game.  'Liberi Fatali' is really an incredible piece.

Yep, Shadow Hearts Covenant is a great game - I would highly recommend it. Though, I'm pretty sure LE's thoughts on it was it got . . . what's the word . . . maybe silly? Or had an identity crisis of sorts when Joachim was introduced into the story. Anyways, something along those lines.

IIRC, Gratch really loved it.  Judging by how much I'm enjoying the first Shadow Hearts (which I'll finish Monday) I have no doubt I'll love SH:C too.

That I did.  SH:  C is easily my favorite next gen RPG.  Honestly, I thought everything about that game was as close to perfect as you can get.  Great combat system, fantastic story, memorable characters, excellent soundtrack, perfect voice work, etc., etc.  Someone in another thread mentioned that SH:  C was one of the few games that they really felt emotionally attached to the characters, and I agree.  It sounds strange, but I was actually sad when the game ended simply because I was leaving such a fantastic group of characters.  I can count the number of games that elicit that type of reaction with me on 4 fingers (FFVII, Xenosaga, Beyond Good & Evil, & SH:  C).

Oddly enough, I picked up the first SH game completely on a whim, only because I knew Mitsuda had a hand in the music.  Wasn't expecting much, and the game just floored me.  I can't recommend the SH series highly enough.  If you're an RPG fan, you owe it to yourself to play them.

There, is that a glowing enough endorsement?  

Is it bad to admit I got chills watching that?  I'm trying not to get sucked in by the hype (I remember thinking how amazing the Ep 1 & 2 trailers looked), but it's becoming really damn hard.  Everything I've seen looks fantastic.  Maybe, just maybe, Ep III will actually be as good as we hope.

8 hours in now, and I'm actually starting to complete some of the storyline parts.  The further I get, the stronger the story becomes, with some genuinely funny and interesting elements.  My favorite line so far was Viper to Viser:  "C'mon, don't be such a dick."

I am a growing quite frustrated by the fact I can't seem to find any of the 'Rank Up' items.  All my characters now have every available abilities and skills, so I don't really have a way to advance them any further until I find these stupid items.  Grrr...   :x

Heh, that subject line gave me a chuckle.  I felt exactly the same way about FF X-2.  I picked it up on release after reading the reviews talk about how great the battle system was and how it really expanded some of the characters.  Put in about 4 hours before I lost the ability to stomach the giggling schoolgirl/Barbie/Charlies Angels feel of the whole thing.  About the time Yuna got to her second Britney Spears-ish song and dance number, I shelved it in complete disgust.

I have Skinny Puppy's Greatest Hits, Assemblage 23's 'Failure', and Fronline Assembly's 'Implode' on my XBox.  They make for superb racing music.

wow!...

get it while it's hot - spreadsheet for item fusions here...

Awesome, thanks!

I put in about 4 more hours today, mainly getting a really good handle on the battle mechanics.  I've basically just been doing catacomb battles and trying to get all my characters levelled evenly.  I picked up an 'Iron Fist' melee fighter along with the cleric, so my party of 5 is now all at 5th level.  I've only played through 3 (?) of the actual storyline scenarios so far, but am having a blast fiddling about in the catacombs.  

Thankfully, the more I play, the more I am enjoying it.  The ability to adjust turn order and AP points adds a great layer of strategy to 'ye old grid/turn based' game mechanic.  I can't vouch much for the story (since I haven't really gotten into it), but that actually says a lot about how fun the battle system is, since I usually only enjoy games with solid storylines.  As I said before, SD truly feels like the spiritual successor to Final Fantasy Tactics, and is very good so far.  

EDIT:  Are the items needed to 'Rank Up' obtained through the storyline?  Do you have to buy them?  Do you win them randomly in catacomb battles?  Anyone know?

There is one absolutely unintentionally hysterical section that features perhaps the worst voice-acting I've ever heard in a game. So bad it was almost physically painful. Those who've played it probably know what I'm talking about SCHLOOP!.

That portion of the game is burned into my memory forever! It was sooooooooo bad!  I burst out laughing at what was meant to be a very serious moment!

I'm not sure the Sea Mother bit was intended to be completely serious.  There's no way they could have intentionally recorded something that ludicrous without having tounge firmly planted in cheek.

At least I hope not.  

the psp has a Tactics game

It does?  Not one that I'm aware of.

Edit:  Maybe you're referring to the Metal Gear game, which I guess is technically a tactics-style game.

FWIW, Stella Deus looks, sounds, and plays exactly like the original FFT.  Not quite as similar to FFTA, but still very much in tFWhe same vein.

[huge]

Picked it up tonight, and have put in an hour or so.  Quick impressions:

1)  Looks, feels, plays, and sounds exactly like Final Fantasy Tactics.  This is a huge plus in my book, but your mileage may vary depending on how you felt about FFT.  The main character looks exactly like the cover art for Ramza, the score sounds very similar (but different enough to be enjoyable), and the gameplay is identical down to the menu layout.  

2)  After reading so many bad things about the VO work, I muted the voices from the get-go.  The writing must come across better with text-only, because I've been really enjoying it so far.

3)  Difficulty seems to be right on, which I hope holds up.  My major complaint about most SRPG's (and the main reason why I rarely finish them) is that the difficulty level becomes ridiculous the further you go in the game.  Hopefully, SD doesn't suffer from this.

I'm very pleased so far.  The similarity to FFT has made it that much more enjoyable, and I hope it holds up.

On the derail subject of FFIX, I agree with LE's assessment.  The lack of a strong villain really hurts the game, and it made it tough to get all the way through.  The payoff for doing so, however, is superb since FF IX has one of my favorite endings of all time.  Besides, how can you not absolutely love Vivi?

Vertical for 3 years now with no problems.

Same here.

Now that football and NCAA basketball are over, the only TV I watch is the occasional Iron Chef.  Probably less than 2 hours a week total.

I'll stay happily outside the pop-culture bubble, thanks.

Awesome!  Thanks for the info EddieA.

(Damn, Depward beat me to a SH:  C comment.   )

How the f**k do you grab onto ledges?  I'm going through the training drills (the last THPS game I played was 2), and I'm supposed to jump onto a box and grab the ledge.  The instructions say "Press X (jump) and the R trigger to grab".  I've tried every conceivable combination of these two buttons, yet I can't seem to grab onto the ledge.  Is there some sort of trick I'm missing here?   :?

My experiences with Gamestop is that they hire lower-quality employees. They pay less money than the competition and so they get what they can afford. I have only been to one Gamestop and not been completely turned off by the employees, be it from the lack of politeness or the comple mis-understanding of customer service to the fact that every single Gamestop in Richmond Virginia is staffed by your a-typical video-game geek loser anti social loser. I honestly feel dirty after leaving there sometimes, the guys and gals in there smell and look that dirty. I'm geeky, but at the least I understand that there's way more to life than videogaming.

Funny how it can differ so much from region to region.  Around here, the description you just gave of Gamestop employees fits every EB employee to a T.  Every one of them is rude, haughty, and doesn't know nearly as much as they think they do.  Mention anything less than the top A-list titles, and they will practically ignore you.  It's gotten to the point that I will travel any amount of extra time to find a Gamestop rather than go into an EB store.  So, in a sense, I think the change may be good.

However, I think we can all agree that the lack of competition would be very, very bad.

Prerendered cutscene, methinks.

[ever]

The platforming elements in Hades (spinning blades, especially) were annoying as all hell, but didn't come close to ruining what was an excellent game.  GoW was the most fun I've ever had with an action title.

I don't like this at all unless EB remains its own seperate Business unit.  I can't stand Gamestops but love my EB very much.

Of course it probably has more to do with individual store management than anything else but...meh.  It's the only reliable and decently honest and good game store anywhere in Houston IMHO.

Around here it's the exact opposite.  Most of the Gamestop stores are great, and the two EB locations are absolutely horrible.

Now, this is cool

Heh, that was pretty damn funny.

You're an RPG fan and you don't have a PS2?  What's wrong with this picture...

For wipeout Ive got a tip, it may be obvious, but I didnt figure it out for quite a while. The circle button will absorb the weapon you have to increase your hp.

Cool.  I knew you could absorb the weapon, but didn't notice that it increased health.  Very handy tip, that.

Also, dont forget to flip over when in the air so you get the boost at the bottom.

Flip over?  How?

Thanks for the input.  I ended up getting Wipeout Pure, which is an absolute blast so far.  I'll wait on a soccer game until FIFA is released, just so I can check out the comparison between the two.

Whoever said they felt like JE feels like a KotOR full coversion mod hit the nail on the head.  It really does feel like I'm playing through a Japanese version of KotOR.  That's not necessarily a bad thing, but having played KotOR 3 times and KotOR 2 twice, I was hoping for something a little different.  

I'm not a big fan of the combat so far.  However, I only got to play for about 90 minutes last night (just finished the Spirit Cave), so I'm sure it will get more complex as the game progresses.  It just feels too...slow, somehow.

I have been far less than impressed with the prerendered cutscenes as well.  While they do a decent job conveying the story, the graphics simply awful.  Maybe I'm just spoiled by the excellent cutscenes in games like Final Fantasy X or God of War, but the ones in JE are not good at all.

I'm withholding judgement until I can play some more.  Right now it just feels  like more of the same, which I was hoping it wouldn't be.

[IS NOT]

I don't get all the comparisons to Ninja Gaiden.  I never once, in all the previews I read, got the impression that JE was supposed to be an action/adventure game to compete with the likes of NG.  Isn't JE supposed to be, y'know, somewhat of an RPG?  Is it because they both have swords?  I'm confused here.  Maybe it's because I disliked nearly everything about NG, but I sincerely hope that JE is nothing like it at all.

I'm pickup my copy this afternoon and hope to have some impressions later tonight (provided Comcast actually decides to get my connection working again).

Thats the point....

Ninja Gaiden...is a console fighter with lots of combos eastern fighting and mythilogical monsters, story, and abilities.

JE is an action adventure with martial arts fighting and eastern weaponry and mythilogical monsters story and abilities.

JE is advertised as having an awsome combat system with 40 unique fighting styles and lots of combos for combat in an RPG system where you grow your character as you choose amoungst the styles to choose from.  JE is advertised as having an incredibly challenging, fun, and ground breaking "contact based fighting system" as well.

Now tell me.  DO YOU SEE ANY RESEMBLENCE HERE?!  I do.

However, the point of the comparisons made so far is....JE IS NOT NG!  The point is so that people don't accidently mistake JE for a Ninja Gaiden RPG!  The point is to say that they actually have nothing in common in spite of the fact that if you just read the advertisements and watched the sample videos and looked at screen shots you'd think one was a sequel or something.

Yeah, yeah...I understand the content similarities.  Thing is, everybody seems to be comparing the gameplay similarities ("Combat in JE is similar to NG", "Combat in JE is not as hard as NG", "X aspect of combat in JE functions differently than in NG"), which seems odd given one's a straight-up action game and the other is an RPG.  It's kind of like saying "The combat in Diablo II is not as hard as the combat in Morrowind.".  True, they're both fantasy games, but they have totally different systems and gameplay styles.  Therefore the comparison doesn't really make any sense.  Other than the asian theme, I've never thought there seemed to be any sort of similarity between NG and JE, even in the marketing.  But that's just me.

Then again, I haven't played JE yet, so maybe they are similar enough to warrant the comparison.  It just didn't seem like it from all the previews.

I don't get all the comparisons to Ninja Gaiden.  I never once, in all the previews I read, got the impression that JE was supposed to be an action/adventure game to compete with the likes of NG.  Isn't JE supposed to be, y'know, somewhat of an RPG?  Is it because they both have swords?  I'm confused here.  Maybe it's because I disliked nearly everything about NG, but I sincerely hope that JE is nothing like it at all.

I'm pickup my copy this afternoon and hope to have some impressions later tonight (provided Comcast actually decides to get my connection working again).

Usually the exact same posts are in both places, sometimes with the exact same responses from the exact same people.  Seems a bit repetitious to me. :shrug:

I post here for console-related stuff, and there for off-topic stuff (although under a different name).

Damn, I love it when all of a sudden you just 'get' a game.

I had been getting frustrated as hell with Lumines.  I just couldn't seem to figure it out, and my high score was only around 12,000.  The farthest I'd gotten was the third song, and if I had to hear that damn 'creepy silence' song one more time I was going to scream.  I was seriously considering trading it in for something else, but decided I'd give it one more try last night.

Suddenly, it just clicked.  I started seeing the patterns, started using the special blocks better, and ended up with a 49k score.  Still nothing compared to most people here, but certainly better than 12k.

I think I'll hang on to this one, 'cause now I'm hooked.  

I can squeeze enough $$ for one more PSP game.  I have Lumines and Untold Legends (which, btw, is much better than the so-so reviews) and am enjoying both quite a bit.  The ones I'm looking at (in order of interest) are:

1.  Wipeout Pure
2.  Ridge Racer
3.  World Tour Soccer

I'm a fan of fast-paced, arcade-style racing, provided it's done well.  It looks like Wipeout Pure has this nailed, but I'm not sure about Ridge Racer.  Does it lean more toward the arcade or realistic racing end of things?   As a soccer player, WTS intrigues me but I'm debating on waiting to see how FIFA compares.

So, which one do I get?

Wow, I really need more practice.  I'm having a hell of a time even getting over 10k.

Man do I suck at puzzle games...