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[Industrial Kybos...]

How good is GTA4 really? GTA3 was fun, but got old fast. The one after that was a lolsequal that was pretty much the same game. I hear the one after THAT one was roughly the same thing but with more liberal usage of the N-bomb.

Im not sure if GTA4 is gonna be all that worth it. Someone sell me on it, prease.

To a degree, it's more of the same, but a damn sight prettier. There are a lot of subtle improvements, though - the whole thing seems a lot more involving, like a high-octane 'Shenmue'. Much as I loved that aforementioned Dreamcast classic, it didn't 'alf need a jalapeno up the tailpipe...

[cheese is funny]

I actually got to see some GTA4 this weekend being played. While it was pretty damned pretty, and I enjoyed some of the storyline I got to see, and the gameplay actually looked like there might be an inkling of challenge to it, I didnt like the idea of having to go on dates with every storyline NPC to raise or lower faction with them. Im not sure if Ill buy or not. Still sitting on a strong maybe. Like... maybe after the price drops.

Warm coffee was amusing though. :3

[CommieBastard]

Dead Rising on the Xbox 360 - it's fantastic, tons of fun. At last count I have killed around four and a half thousand zombies, and it's still not boring. Whey!

[Industrial Kybos...]

Dead Rising on the Xbox 360 - it's fantastic, tons of fun. At last count I have killed around four and a half thousand zombies, and it's still not boring. Whey!

I may have to pick that up again soon. Killing zombies with stuff is a passtime that can never get old.

[cheese is funny]

Dead Rising, at least to me, wasnt that special. The annoyances of the radio killed me very much. Other than that, I have a blast mindlessly rocking zombies. That and the psychopaths were annoying as hell the first couple of times I attempted their deaths.

I picked up GTA4 today! Played after knocking back a pint... Im a bad driver. :x

[Industrial Kybos...]

Dead Rising, at least to me, wasnt that special. The annoyances of the radio killed me very much. Other than that, I have a blast mindlessly rocking zombies. That and the psychopaths were annoying as hell the first couple of times I attempted their deaths.

I picked up GTA4 today! Played after knocking back a pint... Im a bad driver. :x

The driving is not easy this time around. A mere few minutes into starting, I executed a simple handbrake turn which sent my arse-end spiralling into a clump of pedestrians. A few hours later and I wasn't much better. Thankfully, mowing down innocent bystanders is all part of my general strategy. Hooray for that.

[mooooooooooopo]

I picked up GTA4 on Tuesday, having been awake for 36 hours at that point (travelled back from the US). I stayed awake for a further 8 playing it then spent the next day playing it too. It is addictive and I like what they've done with the phone and internet features.

In the process of buying it I came back to find someone eyeing up the lock on my bike! I wasn't thinking quick enough to get my camera phone out and snap them but they slunk off anyways when they realised it was my bike. There's something amusing about someone trying to steal your transport while you buy a GTA game though.

I keep meaning to get Dead Rising. It looks pretty awesome to me and so far none of the negative stuff people have said about it (mainly the save system) has put me off.

[Industrial Kybos...]

I've still been caning the GTA (the intrigue! the danger! the swearing!), but my wife has been playing Persona 3, which looks like fun on a bun. I love the grapical style - a sort-of cel shadey malarky - and the anime cutscenes are teriffic. Plot is mad as badgers as well. I may have to give it a go myself.

EDIT - I have since done just that, and can safely report that the badger-madness translates itself into an oddly pleasant gaming experience. Who'da thunk?

[Mata]

GTA4 - it is very good, but it has annoying aspects too. It's also not actually an open-world game: it's a linear game where you have several threads that you have to drive between and mini-games added in to distract you from the linear structure. The presentation is utterly amazing - the amount of effort that has gone into fleshing out a uniquely cynical and satirical game world is so far beyond any other game that I'm not sure if any team will ever have the resources to make anything more detailed in the future. The game cost $100m to make, which is five times the usual budget for a very big title, and you can see where it went in the quality of the writing.

The technology behind the game is also jaw-dropping. Being able to smoothly stream in so much of the world is an amazing feat. I'm not sure if even the Ratchet & Clank game engine could do what the GTA4 one does.

But the gameplay... It's great at what it does, which is allow you to sneak around a bit then shoot people, or drive and shoot people, but there's no real variety. I enjoy the shooting because it's well paced and reasonably responsive, but it seems odd that with a whole wonderfully constructed city and the resources that they had that they couldn't give more variety in the central missions.

I don't know... I was just expecting something a bit more from the game that's had universal praise. It concerns me that they haven't found anything new to do with the series.

But still, the writing is amazing. I don't think any game has ever said so much about the effects of war as GTA4. The silences of Niko when he's asked about his history, before he replies, or while he chooses his words, are perfectly judged.

However, it's got Ricky Gervais in it, which should instantly remove score points. Why does that man still have a career?

Anyway...

Dead Rising? Really? I've tried to love that game, I really have, but the sheer number of difficulty spikes and the infuriatingly stupid companion AI have irritated me time and again.

I started playing Lost Odyssey on the 360 last night. I now have bruising on my chin from where my jaw hit the floor after seeing how astonishingly beautiful it is. I've only played it for 90 minutes so far, but some of the writing is excellent - it's already made me cry (although I am a big girl's blouse, so perhaps this shouldn't be used as a marker of excellence). I hope the main character becomes a bit less surly. Still it's a traditional JRPG, which after all the active battle stuff of recent RPGs is a nice change. I'm really looking forward to playing it more.

[Industrial Kybos...]

Lost Odyssey is a stunner, it's true, and there's some very tight plotting and characterisation that's been missing from Square Enix offerings lately. Plus, it is, as you have said, flippin' gorgeous.

[cheese is funny]

Inky, youve made a wonderful move picking up P3 and giving it a go. Its bar far one of the best RPGs Ive played.

And much to my absolute joy, being as I own all the persona games (minus the one game that was never released out of japan), Persona 4 is preparing to make a splash in japan in the near future. We probably wont see it in the west until '09, sadly.

If you want, Inky, I can give you and/or your wife some links to the official persona anime that Atlus released not terribly long ago. It takes places after P3 though, so you might not want to ruin anything by watching it early.

[Industrial Kybos...]

That's a very interesting offer, cheese. I'm still working through the game right now, but the idea of an anime follow-up does appeal. I'm also very excited at the prospect of a fourth game - I've played the first one too, and I can safely say that it's a series that never fails to be interesting and different.

Loving the new banner sig, too.

On other playing news, I've recently come out of a serious addiction to 'We Love Katamari'. Who would've thought rolling a giant ball around could be so utterly captivating? Maybe it's the soundtrack...

[cheese is funny]

Well, if you want some P4 video goodness, Ill happily link you (they dont appear to have any call backs to P3 and from the rough translations of moon speak, it appears to be a complete stand alone game [much like most of the series]) And the anime series links, I have them favorated multiple times, so whenever you want, Ill send it your direction. :3

And thanks, Ive used this banner around various gaming circles Ive been in, figured its time to revive it again. What can I say? Teenagers holding guns to their heads just makes me melt. <3Yukari. /sigh

Yes yes! Katamari games are always wonderful and wonderous and...... filled with wonder. I didnt like the xbox 360 version, sadly... too glitchy for my tastes. Constantly falling through the world = pissed off me. It was also very very unresponsive on the controls. Phailure, imo. The soundtrack was great though. I need to find an OST for it.

[Industrial Kybos...]

I'd read poor reviews of the 360 edition, so I tracked down the old PS2 one instead. Glad I did too - top ball-rolling satisfaction.

Yeah, drop me any Persona links you've got. I'm very interested, I have to admit. Cheers!

[cheese is funny]

Yay! P4 spam = <3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ko3EC5RvMIw appears to something of one of the opening videos to the game, much like the Burn My Dread video that P3 opened with. <3 the song, I want a full version.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5xia_klAU8...feature=related Is some random bits of gameplay out in the world and interactions with NPCs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7GWGd2mqdE&feature=related Is in battle gameplay and persona usage.



http://www.megavideo.com/?c=search&s=persona+trinity&p=1 is a list of all Persona -Trinity Soul- episodes on Megavideo. There will be a good handful, along with repeats of episodes, possibly with subs in other languages. (The anime itself is in all moon speak). I generally ran with the episodes titled Persona - Trinity Soul # Eng Sub.


(How obessive do I look right now? I feel like I look well crazy. =D)

[Industrial Kybos...]

You're in good company, cheese, trust me...

Thanks for that, dude. It'll make my late shifts go that little bit more easily at the very least.

[cheese is funny]

Haha, well thats good. :3

I remember reading some time ago before P3 was officially released stateside that there was a group online taking Persona 2: Innocent Sin and translating it into various languages, english being one of them. I should really look into that again.

Also, did you play the Snow Queen quest in P1? You kinda need to... cheat a little to get it, as atlus didnt want to let anyone out of japan play it. Its similar to the hot coffee mod on San Andreas. A little game shark action though and you get a complete new different section of the game. =D (its all in moonspeak or indecipherable garbage though... but you get alternate graphics for some of the player characters. =D)

[Industrial Kybos...]

I never did, no. Makes me want to dig out my old chipped Playstation just to check it out...

On the topic of the links, I'm loving the vids from YouTube - nice graphical style again, brilliantly inappropriate chirpy J-Pop tunes, some weird thing with a zip-up neck... All in all it promises to be another corking installment. I'm getting a bit excited.

[michael1384]

Mega Man 9. This is awesome. But sooooooo hard!

[EvilSpork]

Played a little bit of Mega Man 9 the other night. It's brilliant.

[Mata]

I'm mostly on Tenchu Z at the moment for a bit of old-school ninj-ing, but Wipeout HD is getting a fair bit of my time too. It's so shiny!

[Izzy]

The Solitaire on my iPod. It's fuuun. Heh, I was playing it during maths, and the teacher came up behind my and started shaking my shoulder and told me to put it away.

[michael1384]

I bought Spore, DRM issues aside, it's pretty good.

[Industrial Kybos...]

Mucking about on Persona 3 for the second time around. I'm intending to pull one of the main characters - I'll keep you posted on developments. Come to me, Mitsuru...

[MistressAlti]

Just finished Fable II on the Xbox this week, and have belatedly begun Fallout 3 now that my husband's finally done with it. If the demo's crazy camera angles don't make me ill, Mirror's Edge will be up after that.

(this thread needed some love. the holiday gaming season is in full swing these days!)