Just minding my onw business, playing some Halo 3, launching flags on Valhalla...
HOLY CRAP. MY 360 just had what amounts to a seizure. Take a look at the screen:
Seriously, is any other company in this day and age as good to their fans as Atlus is? Not only does Atlus Japan develop some amazing games, like the Shin Megami Tensei series (including Giantbomb favorite Persona 4), but Atlus USA actually brings these obsure games over- things no other publisher would take. Atkus USA localizes some of the WEIRDEST shit, which is great because it gets some of the things people would never experience outside of Japan to this sde of the Pacific. And their translation team is fanatstic- as anyone who's been watching the Endurance Run can surely tell you. Not to mention all the art books and plushes and other cool stuff they give out as preorder or loyalty bonuses for their fans.
Anyways, not much point to this besides to extoll the virtues of Atlus. They're a really great company, pretty rare in this corporate day and age. They're absolutely worth supporting.
I've always loved movie posters- have a couple hanging on the walls. I saw a thread on GAF today (and one on Penny Arcade a while back) about the best movie posters and thought it was pretty interesting, and I wondered what posters you all like. Some of my favorites:
Hitchcock's Vertigo:
Episode 1 had a great poster, even if the movie wasn't so rad
The Shawshank Redemption had a great one too
Just received these in the mail.
Two days from now, 7/7/09, is Bungie Day. Why should you care? Why, because Bungie day is always great for Halo and Bungie Fans. Last year we got a free map in Cold Storage, this year there's a chance to win some Recon Armor early, face Bungie in matchmaking, and play some community maps. The've also teased releasing some screenshots for the ODST multiplayer maps.
All Day 7/7, there will be a special Halo 3 playlist called "Bungie Vs. The World". It will be 4v4 on 35 brand new community-Forged maps (made on Sandbox and Foundry). Bungie Employees will be playing in this playlist all day in teams of four. If you manage to come across a Bungie team (You can tell them by their flaming helmets) and beat them, your team just earned themselves some Recon Armor. If you're unlucky and DON'T run across Bungie, there are still some unknown metrics you can complete and get Recon Armor. 
Me and some other dudes from GB are going to be playing, and we're going to hopefully beat Bungie. Even if we don't it should be good times, and an opportunity to check out some sweet community maps. You can check all of the maps that will be in the playlist here, and Bungie should be posting their roster of teams with the times they'll be playing soon. If any of you guys want to hit up some Halo on 7/7, send a friend request to beat82 and we'll see if we can't get a GB team rolling.
Penny Arcade, one of the best gaming webcomics out there, is getting a site redesign. But before they launch it, they're doing a public beta. Mostly just new looks, but they've also got an improved search and archive.
You can check out the new site design here:
http://beta.penny-arcade.com/
I am not a fan. The design should go live soon, but I figured you guys might like to see it a bit early.
Hey, suppose you make a sweet-ass next-gen sci-fi RPG. It's critically acclaimed, sells over a million copies, and has a sequel coming soon. You feel you want to expand this universe and bridge the two games. You want to know what to do. I'll tell you what you do.
YOU DON'T MAKE MASS EFFECT GALAXY.
You ever run across something in another media form and think to yourself: "this would make a great videogame"? No? Well no matter. Because I did... and this is horrible stylistically. Let's cut to the chase, shall we? These two franchises should have better games than what they currently have.
Some minor spoilers probably. Might not want to read this if you've yet to play Mass Effect.
Mass Effect is a great game, no doubt about it. One of it's main selling points is the massive (excuse the pun) replayability the game has, as you can make different choices each time through. I took this to heart, and have played the game an unknowable number of times (My 360 harddrive erased itself a little ways back, so I can't check the clearsaves). I even got all the achievements, which everyone knows is a giant pain in the ass. And I have an important message for you all: Don't play Mass Effect multiple times.
It will ruin the original experience for you. When playing through the first time, the game seizes you with a sense of wonder and impact. It feels as if everything you does has an impact, and every choice you make seriously alters your play experience. This is a lie. Going back again and playing through really shows how little the game varies- the linearity is cleverly disguised, but it's still there. Oh? I can choose to save or destroy this colony? Well even if I save it I can't ever re-visit it and no one will ever mention what happened to it besides this Citadel elevator. Oh, I can kill or save this entire species? Bet THEY won't ever re-appear. Even though you're told that your choices will have huge impacts on the galaxy, they do not. Most of them don't even have a self-contained impact- someone will make a comment about your decision, then the story moves forward.
This even carries over to some of the dialouge trees. If you have a conversation and choose one option, then reload and choose anoher, the response is often exactly the same. There are a few honest-to-goodness moments that really do have an impact- the showdown on Virmire was probably the high point of the entire game for me- but these are few and far between really. They do certainly exist, but not to the degree you would think. And let's not even go into sidequests. Because really, I think we all know the problem there.
Log in to comment