Haha, okay, I did not say that I liked the fact that you have to use a train to get anywhere, but I was willing to tolerate that part because there were things about it that I really liked.

I guess I should say what I appreciated most were the dungeons and bosses, and some of the extra features that had me surprised and delighted. I definitely don't want them to bring trains into Skyward Sword. (I don't even really want gimmicks in my Zelda games, but if the gimmick in Skyward Sword is really the sword itself I can't really say that's a bad thing.) There were things brought in that could be carried over and applied to a more dense console-Zelda setting that would make fanboys like me squeal with joy, because I definitely did that a few times in my head while playing Spirit Tracks. I make no apologies for that.

I played Minish Cap enough to know that it's actually spelled Vaati. I did a three heart run of that game and when I went to do a third playthrough, my heart wasn't in finishing it. I guess I'm over that game.

The thing about Spirit Tracks is I expected it would be dreadful. I remembered playing Phantom Hourglass and I was just baffled that they'd make another game in that style. Still, I got it as a gift, and then I was in the hospital with nothing else to do, I eventually started playing it... and then I was playing it like mad. And the thing is, it's way better than Phantom Hourglass just because it improved every single thing. I could even put up with the train and went out of my way to collect all of the train pieces (and I RARELY do stuff like that). What you guys feel about Spirit Tracks is exactly what I feel about Phantom.

Really there are about six handheld Zeldas out right now (not even counting Four Swords), by MMM standards that would mean 3 of those games were completely solid, so I don't know about them outperforming the console titles as of this point. That definitely USED to be the case. Right now I'd say they're about equal, with Skyward Sword making or breaking it for console.

So, about the formula and what was meant by it: Spirit Tracks did away with finding maps, and there were no heart pieces, only containers. I did not really like stuff like that at first but in the end I didn't mind. (I'm unsure of which things carried over from Phantom Hourglass because I really just put it out of my mind.)

The formula... kind of needs to change, just a little I think.

Previous Zeldas never really forced you to angle your sword correctly to do damage to anything. I may not necessarily like swinging the wii remote as a sword when I get the chance to play it, and it's possible the end result might be less than intuitive... think of Phantom Hourglass and how necessary it was to be able to roll and how freaking difficult it was (and how awesomely it was improved in Spirit Tracks).

I like the idea of having to do more than just hold shield and strike to finish off most enemies. I liked the mention of being able to use potions on the run, but I wonder at what that suggested about the difficulty. Will you really end up running away from enemies just to heal? I'm surprised and delighted at the possibility of the difficulty being raised, yet somehow I kind of doubt it. Not when it comes to one of Nintendo's flagship franchises.

There were a lot of things I loved about Spirit Tracks that I want to carry over into this game, and that game messed with the formula a bit, I think. I liked the fact that I had pretty much no idea when the end of the game was in sight. It just kept building and building and you kept fighting more and more things. The final battles really did wear me down quite a bit (even though one part was kind of cheap) and they should.
The developers at that point basically said, "Okay, every single Zelda veteran is coming into this fight with full hearts and four gold potions. We need to keep that fully in mind," and it worked out pretty well.
I liked the minigame dungeon thing where you progressed through these small areas full of enemies without any ability to heal, and came up against a bunch of old bosses at the end, and then a surprise hidden boss at the end of the hardest one.
I liked that a lot of the minigames in general seemed to take a lot of practice to perfect.

I was more impressed by the music in the other trailer that wasn't anything backwards.

ALL of the bosses in Twilight Princess were SO easy. I had trouble with only one boss I think, and it was the Sand Temple one... but that was very minor trouble and I still got out without dying.
It takes away from the epicness of the game if even the boss has no chance of killing you. I'm not complaining about the difficulty exactly, I mean I could always do a ten heart/three heart run after playing through it once, but an improvement would be nice.

I'm not really nervous, I'm cautiously optimistic, and with Nintendo's recent track record with Mario and Spirit Tracks, I don't THINK I will be disappointed.

The only thing I REALLY want is to have Zelda orchestrated like Mario Galaxy was.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWY5sV2g_fA

Oh ye gods.

I live for this kind of platforming.

If anyone died they won't be in the next game. You get bonuses based on what your level was (extra experience points). You get money bonuses for mining a lot. Paragon/Renegade bonuses as well.

You can change anything from your class to your appearance, as the classes level differently and gain different abilities in this game, and they added new features to the face builder.

The big decision you make at the end game seems to reflect the atmosphere of the Citadel.

The main general plot (there isn't much of one) seems to be pretty much unaffected. It's possible that the compilation of decisions might have a more diverse effect on the third game.

You just stated my exact opinion of Mass Effect 2.

The thing is, I would love to play Mass Effect 3, but... I don't want to be a customer of EA. Any other means of playing it sends the wrong message.

If that picture of her is down it means you've f'ed up that relationship (we'll see how much that comes into effect in the next game).

I did, and I did so on purpose, is what I meant to imply. I kind of gave in, simply thinking that the end result would be more interesting.

I suspect there will be a big fight or something and one of the characters (probably Liara) or maybe both will leave the party and/or die somehow and I don't think it will be much of a big deal given the mass amount of party members there actually are, plus I intend to do another complete playthrough... sometime.

And since I'm not actually attracted to these computer generated images her "looks" weren't a factor.

Of course. Nor do I really see myself as my character even though I named him after me. I was just thinking, "My Shepard is too 'perfect' anyway."

I don't really want to be a customer of EA at all so I might not even get Mass Effect 3, and I haven't gotten Dragon Age.

SABIN, I PRESUME?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2u84cH_bmTA

I don't really think you need to worry about messing up your character build. It seems like all you need is a good shield to get you through the game, and you can get one that blocks 100% damage early on. I actually haven't died as much as I expected. A lot of it just has to do with being very cautious and alert, and studying every enemy you fight so that even if they kill you, they'll never kill you again.

Even the traps that catch you off guard (the traps are usually very obvious) give you plenty of time to react to save your life.

Anyway it also doesn't hurt to learn at least one spell, though spells seem to divide the difficulty unless you perhaps go FULL WIZARD.
But nobody ever goes full wizard.

Tower of Latria, part 2. OH MAN. The swamp area. Chills were going up and down my spine. Those things are the worst creation ever.
Surely you know what I mean if you've been there.

LA Noire sounds like it's selling entirely for its gimmick. All I hear are people intrigued by the technology involved... but I'm never immediately impressed by that stuff. It has to be properly executed.
That's not to say it won't be. I just don't expect much.

I remember. Not that cover, but her.
There were probably a lot of similar covers to the one you just described.

Ha, she's like the Green Ranger.

Yeah, lol about the romance.
When I was playing Mass Effect 2 I would go to all the characters just to enjoy the conversations, and all the girls were like "So I have feelings for you because we were flirting," even though just like the first game there was hardly any of that in the dialogue option or in the speech itself.
My memory might be a bit vague about this, I could be a bit off about the lack of flirting.

But anyway I denied all advances because I was like "You know what, I like Tali the most out of the bunch, (as a person, not as a horny snotface) but I'm LOYAL so it's not HAPPENING."
And then even though I told Jack I wasn't interested in her BAM, she comes at me all like "I WANT YOU FOR SEX."
And I was gonna say no but then I was like "This is a VIDEO GAME. WHO GIVES A #####."
And now Liara's picture on my desk is face down. I just can't bear to have her LOOKING AT ME.

I also figured the events in Game 3 would be lolworthy.

I'm playing Demon's Souls right now. Well not right now but you know. Let's just say, as a fourth dimensional object, part of me is playing Demon's Souls. I learned that from a video John posted on facebook and my application of the knowledge could still be entirely wrong. It's some semantics that someone's gonna call me on later and I don't feel like checking my phrasing right now or looking it up to make sure.
I'm not drunk, just tired.

I am quite impressed with Demon's Souls, though my playing and strategizing is tempered by reading a lot of the wiki. I've avoided reading direct walkthroughs and boss strategies, but more about items and upgrading weapons.
I think I will inevitably buy Dark Souls and try not to read any guides for the first playthrough of that game.

All of us just secretly redraw Veronica with no clothes on!

...

No? Just me?

...

In real life, this where I would just walk away, but I can't express that in a forum post. I'll just leave this here so you at least know what the hell I was trying to joke about so that this discussion can continue.

Exactly, it was close enough to the day, but I might have wondered why it was a day off.

[/ireallywishididn'thavetoexplainthejokebutiknew thiswascoming]

Sooo...I lost my house. I was doing some exploring for pumpkins (which I found), and now I have no clue where the ##### my house is. Any idea how I can find it again?

If this was in the "How Was Your Day?" thread I would have raised my eyebrow at the date of this post and shrugged.

Hello?
Is it me you're looking for?

: (¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯)

But yeah, why?

I returned a mechanical keyboard because of that dang clicking noise.

Well, that just about frightens the ##### out of me, John.

By computer you mean specifically the desktop itself and not the input/output devices?
You might convince me to just do exactly what you did, if I feel competent enough to emulate your skills.

Yeah, it's an older computer though. So what was $1200 five years ago is probably not much now.
Either way it just doesn't perform so well anymore. I've formatted it and defragged it and stuff.
My best bet seemed to be to upgrade the RAM, but I also see a benefit in having two computers. One I can plug up with all kinds of downloads and freeware that I might use on the spot, and one for actual performance. I wouldn't keep both running at all times, of course.

Then again I kind of really just don't know what I'm doing and that is the biggest reason I've been so hesitant to actually take action.

I want to click like on that because I'm tired and facebook has broken me.

My computer was 1200 dollars in 2006, built by the same guys and it was more of a gift for graduation. It doesn't actually seem suitable for upgrade with what's on the market right now.

And right now I don't even have a limited budget because I'm making more money than I actually expected.

Cold in April is unusual, but becoming a trend.
I put my winter coat back on after the end of a slight reprieve in temperature, it goes back down and stays down for a few more weeks, and then...

I don't know how you can stereotype climate, though.

Also I have this feeling I'll screw up horribly if I try to build a computer because the parts I order will not fit or something. So I'm gonna get some local tech guys to do it.

I'm not bothered by usability in any of these situations. I just don't want my hand tied to a keyboard for long periods of time. I've survived carpal tunnel this way and I'm pretty happy about it, but I started getting cramps playing Super Mario Bros. X, and I intend to play more PC games in the future (though I keep putting it off).

My conclusion: Keyboards are not for long-term gaming.

It'd be different without my illness, I suspect, which can and sometimes does affect the joints, so keep that in mind.
I don't know what it is about controllers, but I've had my hands to them for years and nothing bad ever happened.

I'd think that something similar to a Wii Nunchuk but with more buttons on the inside, where your fingers are, would be perfect.

In a heartbeat, you'd be able to tap a key on the keyboard if absolutely necessary (if you run out of buttons).

It was on the receipt.

I sold it in January last year.

I'm still happy about the 2.95 I got for selling it.

Barring certain information, I'd go with what's cheaper, and if I get screwed over, I'll figure out how to carve it out of the company when/if I intend to play it again later.

Or just make a backup disc.

Sorry if that doesn't help, I just thought I'd point out more options.

Wow, really? Thanks for telling me.
Checking email...

Got the URL. That's awesome. I completely missed the email explaining that to me.

I still haven't touched the games from the last Humble Bundle I got, which had Braid and... others.
They're just sitting uninstalled in my downloads folder.

Too bad I missed the Penumbra one. I only got the other one because Chaos facebook'd it and I heard good things about Braid.

Playing the demo, I got kind of anxious. At a certain point though I was like "Wait a minute, why the hell do I care if I die?" And then I stormed through a door all like "GIVE ME YOUR WORST" and then I closed the door behind me and explored the room. And then I heard the growling noise and something started banging on the door and I was like "FUUUUU"

I think I'd have to get a solid working computer, move it to an open space in the dark empty basement, and LP this after hours, perhaps on Skype.
More hilarity would ensue if I have my back to an open area in complete disregard of anticipation of family members coming up behind me in the middle of a session.

If the content matches what you pay for it, it really doesn't matter and I'm pretty sure anyone who takes like three seconds to think about that would completely agree. Furthermore, you could have a 40 hour game that is 20 hours of doing the same thing over.

So Amnesia is ten dollars on steam, for 8+ hours of worthy, well-reviewed entertainment.

I'd have to play it fully myself to decide if it was too short, but it seems about worth it.

Eight hours unless you have no idea what the ##### you're doing in a first person survival horror game.

Why not? (@ the latter statement)

Sell after playing?

(I am so anti-DRM that I will avoid gaming experiences entirely if I don't feel guaranteed that I'll be able to keep the software, unless I don't intend to play it again, in which case I want to resell.)

3D Platformers are in the clear though.

Actually I kinda just thought of something cool.
I wonder if Nintendo thought of a mechanism to lock the slider in place and have it act as a D-pad, with arrows in each direction lit up or just painted on or something. It would add functionality to more old-school type games if the d-pad that's already there is kind of out of the way.

Yup. I'm not getting one. Gonna see if I can actually hold off until the next model of it comes out in two years, and if things keep on as they're going right now, that really won't be so difficult.
Guess the only danger is somehow missing out on good titles that stop selling, so I'll be careful there.

I just realized the other day that it must have been five years as of February since I joined this place. I think it was 2-11-06.
John, was it 06?
We both joined around the same time.

Matrix has helped shape my identity. I think I've learned and taken something from every member here.
Even freakin' dzx9.

SO boss.

Looking forward to that sequel 'cause I fully expect it will be even better.

I don't know why but when combining words, especially stuff like names, I pay attention to how many letters from each name are used.

Recurring letters are avoided unless placed in an manner indicative of who's name it's from.

GOOD THING I DON'T MAKE THE DECISIONS

HEY YA DON'T SAY THAT

I wasn't speaking really at you but more at the general vibe I'm getting.

I wasn't talking about the short-term side effects that we know about.

I meant more like possible long-term side effects of viewing 3D 4 or 5 hours a day for possibly more than one day per week. I don't think any person can say they've done anything like this to their eyes before 3DS. And some people play video games a lot more than I do.

Why is "it doesn't hurt to be cautious" unreasonable? I didn't say, "Don't buy it because it'll make you go blind." I'm just saying, we don't really know.

When have you tested that beyond movie-length, John? Do you have a 3D TV?

Still, prominent 3D crap is kind of a new thing.
We don't exactly have a way to test that 20 years down the road something's gonna happen as a result of training your eyes to do this messed up thing.
I'm not saying that any entertainment shouldn't be 3D. It just doesn't hurt to be cautious, is all. I care a LOT about my eyes.

This isn't my criticism for the device itself, and if asked why I got it despite this I would say "It's NINTENDO, guys." I'm just saying I think I'll try to use the 3D effect not so much.

Most of our worst nightmares here have pretty much already come true.

Star Force, BN6, et cetera...

I'm interested in getting like, all of the 1st party games without even trying them out first like certain people smarter than me have done.

But until then, maybe Res. Evil?

Guess I'm not worried about the eye effect because I don't wear glasses... but then again I don't know if there are long-term side effects of playing 3D for long periods of time.

I suspect there may be lawsuits in the future regarding harm for playing 3D stuff like 5 hours at a time.

This is probably the best you're gonna get for Link's Awakening (though I don't mind one bit):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvsJB9k9o8s

Fair enough. I probably have no business bringing up how arguments should be provided for in a forum anyway, because I'm not a mod here and the community that I am the admin for is actually quite informal in manners of discussion. (Not that MMM isn't.)

I should say that it's nice to have you here and it's nice to hear a different opinion. It's just how it can be interpreted sometimes. Also, I know I (for one) tend to provide a rebuttal even when given nothing to refute. I might try to discern a person's reasoning beforehand. It's an assumption but also kind of an educated guess to help bring the topic somewhere on the off chance that I'm correct.

I don't think you'd be banned over this.

Trolling = "Phoenix Wright would've been the worst use of a character slot."

Whether you think it is or not.

You're ALLOWED to say your opinion, however no one digs the whole anti-statement thing when it begs the question, "Why do you think so?" WITHOUT an actual answer.

I think Mega Man would get a character slot over Phoenix Wright any day, but not necessarily because he's the better choice. He's just more popular, I would think.

Anyway this all came off a lot angrier than it was supposed to, given that I'm not mad. Pretty much all I'm saying is I took one look at your post and I figured you should've seen this coming.