If they dropped the price of the PS2 I'd get one.  Not that Microsoft would be losing a 360 sale because of it (can't remotely afford it), but I might finally break down and get a PS2 at $100.  Guitar Hero is calling me.

+1

In many ways, they bring up very valid points in that article.  It can be said about every console launch, though.

Man, if I had the cash to just throw around with reckless abandon, I'd pick up four DSes and four Mario Kart carts for me and my buddies, get sauced, and play this around the house. I think that'd be hilarious. Too bad we're all broke, and too "old" to have a reason to buy a handheld. More the broke part though.

*Checks his age*
32

*Looks over at his DS, GBA SP, and PSP*
*shrugs*

Glad it was mostly the borke part, though.

If I was getting a 360 (and I am not because I still haven't gotten my stupid bonus), I would be up for Kameo and PGR3, probably, with a maybe on Condemned.  However, when I actually get my bonus (probably mid-December), there will be no 360s to be had.

Mario Kart DS and possibly the Tony Hawk for the DS as well (depends on the money situation).  I would love to get Sonic DS, too, but there is no way in hell I can afford three games if I am struggling to afford two.

If the open-endedness of Morrowind wasn't enough for you, I can't help you.  Oblivion looks to be the same, except they are making the world actually seem alive which was the biggest complaint by most people.

This thing hitting retail?

Weren't they doing a bundle with Mario Kart DS and the wifi thing?  I need both anyway.

I doubt it since the only reason you really need one is if you have no wireless router, you need to click on a web-based EULA to access your wireless, or you are smart and use WPA, which Nintendo stupidly doesn't support.

I enjoy playing my PSP and have quite a few games for it, but for me, the DS trounces it as far as amount of time I spend playing games.  The DS really offers some unique gameplay with the stylus and dual screens and it is something the PSP can never match.  Sure, the PSP games look great, but I think they suffer from having games just ported over to it.  There are a few exceptions of course.  If you can, buy both.  If you can have only one, go with what types of games suit you better.  I don't consider Nintendo to be too kiddy (I am 32 years old), but are just games which can be enjoyed universally, by people of all ages.  Honestly, that is one of the reasons I love Nintendo so much.  However, you might, and if you do, go with the PSP.  Really, only you are going to be able to make that choice.  Which unit has gotten more of my money so far?  The DS, even with PSP games being higher in price.  That won't change for the rest of the year, either, since I still have Mario kart, Viewtiful Joe, Sonic, Animal Crossing, Tony Hawk, etc. still to come out this year.  There will be a couple of PSP games I might consider picking up this year like Metal gear Acid 2 and that RPG that is about to come out (Something of Legends...can't remember the exact title).

As far as new games go, I have GTA and X-Men 2 and enjoy them both.  The controls seem to be too much of an issue for me to drop the money on Star Wars Battlefront 2.  LotR might be good, but I need to see some more reviews.

I have been a Nintendo fan for years and still am.  I truly think they are the driving force in innovation in games, not Sony or Microsoft.  When I found out about the touch screen on the DS, I knew Ninendo was onto something and they haven't disappointed since the DS is the console I play most.  Finding out about the controller for the Revolution also has me very excited for the future.  There are many times I wish I hadn't sold my PS2 a long time ago (I did it because I couldn't stand the load times) due to all the great RPGs I have missed out, but I have played many enjoyable games on my Gamecube and I think Nintendo is really going to separate themselves from Sony and Microsoft with the Revolution so that many will buy either a PS3 or XBox 360 and a Revolution.

I play it all the time and I suck at it.  Doesn't stop me from playing it all the time, though, because it is such a fun game.  I just realized I start the mission with bombs, though, so that ought to help me get better scores.

Maybe Star Wars Battlefront II for the PSP if it gets good reviews.  So, probably nothing.

There's a front page?

You know it is fun pinball when you immediately go plunk in another quarter after your last ball (or in this case hit start).  Non-pinball fans need not apply, but I think if you enjoy pinball, this is definitely a fun pinball game.  I have played both of the starting boards and I got to one of the boss boards (which I did not beat, but was lots of fun).  I like all the little mini-games on the boards, though I need to figure out what the point of the wall jump board is (I need to read the manual).

The rumble pack noise doesn't bother me at all and I like the feel of the rumble, since it varies in intensity depending on how hard to hit the things that trigger it.  So far, I am loving it as much as I loved Pokemon Pinball, though that game had the appeal of trying to 100% your Pokemon collection, which this one will of course not have.  Still, I can definitely see me picking up this game even after I have mastered to boards for some quick pinball action.

I think the reviewer is saying if you die and have to load a save it takes two minutes then you have your travel time etc.

So if you never die it is seamless.

No, he's saying that to do a 5 to 10 minute mission, you have to tack on 5 minutes for travel and 2 for loading.  Then, if you happen to die, you can tack on more time, but he is saying just doing it once is time consuming.  Now, maybe the 2 minutes of load time he is referring to is just to load the city up after you get your mission or something and the 5 seconds of island loading pause actual gets counted in his travel time.

3. load times sound terrible! "More importantly though, these travel-intensive missions become wildly time consuming -- Every mission in LCS takes only five to ten minutes of action to complete, but then there's the five minutes of travel and two minutes of load times to consider. Plus, some of the missions can be tough, so you'll try each several times."

Why does this part of the review seem to contradict that?

The game only loads on start-up, when loading a save or during cutscenes. Apart from this, there's absolutely no loading when driving around town. Of course, when going from one island to the next there's a five-second pause, but that's very understandable.

If it is only a 5 second pause between islands, why would you have to tack on 2 minutes of load times to complete a mission spread out across the three islands?  The part of the review I quoted is mostly what I have heard in regards to load times in the game and I don't think they are all that bad.

Liberty City Stories and Metroid Prime Pinball

I've done two of the endings, have about 70% souls, one weapon upgraded to where it needs a boss soul, Julius Mode unlocked and I am still loving this game.  I will probably go do the final boss battle for the third ending next and then just go back and 100% all the souls and map.

Only 90% for the hands-down best game on the system?

It's because the touch screen implementation sucks.

Explain to me again why every DS game has to use the touch screen?  I hate when reviewers use that as a con.  I love my DS and what it can do, but I fully recognize a game on the device can be great without using them.  Castlevania is one of those games.

If you read the impressions over at IGN about it, they say it's the loudest rumble pack they've ever heard  

Still.  A rumble pack for the DS?  I'm in!  

The sad part is that Penny Arcade also backs that claim up.  Nintendo has never done a poor rumble pack, so not sure why they decided to start now.  They both claim it sounds like a chirping.  I am sure that will be annoying.

Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time will also use it.

I could answer many of your questions, but I would consider it spoiling, so I don't want to spoil things for you.  In order to beat the game, you will definitely need to figure out the time stop thing.  With regards to mirrors, that part is optional.  Thanks for reminding me about the bell thing.  I totally forgot about it.

I have beaten the game and gotten the "Lame ending."  I have been grinding zombie souls to get enough money to buy the soul ring and I just did that last night.  (What I do is go in that one room near the vendors with like 5 zombies in it and get my max of 9 of their souls.  I then use them to turn brass knuckles (which you buy at the vendor) into cestusses (cestii?).  Then you seel them for a nice profit.  I did it over and over until I got the 300,000 I needed to buy the ring.  Now, I have been going back and collecting souls I don't have, but I think I will take a break from that and get the other two endings to the game.

This game rules, by the way.

Oh, you can also do that spike/water room in Subterranean by using the Bat Company ability to fly to the wall and dropping down.  The nyou equip skeleton ape + puppet master to throw your puppet the exact length needed to get to that other gap.  Then, you jump out of the water and hit the Bat Company ability again.

Wait...why are Microsoft's and Lionhead's sites telling me Fable: The Lost Chapters s out this week for XBox and it isn't on this list and Gamestop shows 11/1?  I was looking forward to finally playing Fable.

The game with the bear was Crystal Castles.

Oh, how I miss you, Bentley Bear!

And the little warp trick on the first level.

I dunno - I've tried violently pushing every single button, equipping/unequipping every weapon/soul/etc., and I still get stuck.  Sure, if I get lucky and a medusa head hits me I'll get unstuck, but there's a couple of rooms where there are imps and nothing else.  Guess I'll keep soldiering on....

I ran into this today and it is definitely the power of the creature.  WHat I do to get out of it is press my D-pad back and forth.  Eventually, within about 10 seconds or so, I am freed.  Just for good measure, I hit my attack button as well.

I'm talking details like zooming in on the back of the helmets in Madden and seeing the warning label that tells you not to block with your head.  I'm talking creases in your pants when you kneel.  

This is great and all, but too bad the animations in Madden look very outdated.  I would rather have good animations than being able to see warning labels on helmets.

Pong.

The battles are sort of odd, and I don't know if im missing something, but I have yet to figure out how to select who I want to attack first, but I'll just have to check the manual for that.  

My understanding from the reviews is that you can't select enemies to attack.  This and the losing-HP-while-running thing sealed the 'No Buy' for me.

Just the inability to select targets made this a no-buy for me.  I totally don't mind losing HP while running around at all.  I was all set for this one, until I found out you can't select targets.  How boring combat must be.

Thanks for the heads-up.  It has been awhile since I read about it.  I am then assuming capturing souls is the same as it was in Aria of Sorrow (getting all the souls in that game took forever!).

Perhaps my initial impressions of the upgrades and whether it was originally started as a GBA title are a bit off due to the fact it is a direct sequel to Aria of Sorrow (unless that changed too!).

I need this game!

All the real Castlevania fans have a DS and are playing it right now.

I don't think it because of Nintendo's wi-fi announcement, but, since I won both and can say for certain, the DS is indeed greater than the PSP.  I love them both, though.

OK - IN!

Where should I get it from?

I'm trying really hard to love my DS and this might do the trick!

I have a stack of DS games which say you shouldn't have to try to love your DS.

The problem is that these are from EA and I tend not to believe anything they say until I have the product in my hands.  They are the masters of making screenshots make the game look better than it does in reality.

Castlevania DS.

Here is what I posted at OO:

I love the game. I played it for a couple of hours last night and I know I love a game when I have to force myself to go to bed because I want to just play one more day. Now, I know this game is not for everyone. THis is for the types of people that think Harvest Moon is good fun. I loved Harvest Moon Friends of Mineral town on teh GBA, for instance and I have really been enjoying this game. I got to a part of the game where I have fleshed out my cave a little more and I am starting to see how the game can open up and offer more.

The beginning can be tough. In fact, I died the first day because I couldn't find any bark to make my fire generating tool. It can be a very big challenge to get you levels of water, food, and energy up. Especially when your tools break and you don't have a lot of energy to go out and look for more items to rebuild it. However, I think this stuff is great and you really feel like you are trying to survive on this island.

The reviews haven't been that great, tending to be mid-7s, but I really think this type of game has to be your thing in order to enjoy it. So, I think if you like Harvest Moon, you can bump the score up some.

I had been debating on possibly getting Lunar and definitely getting Lost in Blue.  However, after reading some initial Lunar reviews, I think I won't be touching that one with a ten foot pole.  If I were rich, I would pick up Tiger Woods, Pokemon XD, and Trace Memory.  So, looks like just one title for me this week.

I really hate this time of the year because there are far too many games to possibly be able to buy.

That and the fact that the PSP is lousy with racers

*blink* *blink*

Huh?

Gotten plety of enjoyment out of Ridge Racer here. Wipeput is great too, but it's too hard for me.

When you say something is "lousy with something" it means that there are lots of that something, not that the racers suck on the PSP.  So, I think the fact that there are so many racers on the PSP is what is keeping him from maybe picking up yet another one.

I am thinking CGI for some reason.  I am hoping I am wrong.

Yeah.  Basically you can come up with any phrase you want to associate with the action the puppy has performed.  FOr instance, you can associate "Chew on your baby, [puppy name]" with the sit action.

Twisted works just fine on the DS.  In fact, if you have both Twisted and TOuched in at the same time, you unlock something in one (or both) of them.  I forget what it was because I did it so long ago.

Yeah, I did all that.  It sounds clear on the playback.  For instance, Sit and Shake kept getting confused by the dog.  I finally had to change sit to sit down.  I keep wasting a lot of my training time having to retrain to try to get the dog to stop confusing things.