WGAYPTW: The Metatron Will See You Now

[DJ_Lae]

Returned Madness Returns for Two Worlds 2. Apparently there's absolutely no limit on how many times you can recycle your game (as long as you use the credit to buy another game that's on the list), so go nuts until the 27th, Canada.

I will buy Madness Returns when it hits $20. And I don't mind buying it used because I'm a dick and redeemed the Alice code in the game I 'bought.' I have half a mind to see what other games in the list have some sort of new buyer protection (like Mortal Kombat) and get new copies through this promotion, redeem the codes, and then leave myself completely free to pick up used copies later on. There's really no reason not to, if EB Games is letting me do it so easily.

edit - I also picked up a new copy of Twilight Princess for the Wii at HMV, incorrectly priced at $10. It was one of the regular copies, too, with a metallic tri-force, not one of the player's choice editions or whatever Nintendo is calling them. Beating Ocarina of Time 3D made me want to revisit some recent Zelda games, and although I own the Gamecube version of Twilight Princess I've never spent a serious amount of time with the Wii one. I hope I can get over the waggle in favour of having widescreen support.

[AnonymousBroccoli]

inFamous 2 is starting to bother me some. Giant, explosive deaths--some seemingly by friendly AI throwing rockets/grenades at enemies while I'm in melee combat with them, some where I toss a grenade into a fray of unfriendly people in front of a TV news report, and somehow get blasted into a canal.

The user-created missions so far are pretty mediocre, at best. There's one involving stopping the detonation of a rocket that almost could have been good, if not for some pretty rudimentary errors on the creator's and/or tools' part. Having narrative that's entirely text-based (which I find tends to be hard to read in the first place... probably part of the blame is on my TV) really hurts things too.

[crimsonpug]

Working on finishing up Shadow of the Damned, just got to Act 5-3 so I'm soo very close to finishing. Looking through the chievos and it looks like I'm gonna miss a few but at this point I don't mind (although it still sucks that at this stage in the 360's lifetime and there is STILL a game that has difficulty achievements that aren't stacked, if I play through the game on Hard it should unlock the Easy and Mediums as well not require a whole second or third playthrough)

Other than that I'll probably try to log some time into The Saboteur and maybe mop up some stuff I missed in Pirates Lego.

[Dkittels]

Well I sat down to play a little Witcher 2 tonight, just an hour or two, and then wound up surprising myself by finishing the game. It's not that the game didn't put together one heck of a climax, and it's not that it's short -- I spent over 30 hours in the game (which I guess is short by WRPG standards, though this is a linear and aggressively paced affair) -- but it's more that while resolving the plot thread that kicks off the game a much larger story begins to take shape, and I expected everything to be tied up before the end. It isn't -- the game is over when you wrap up that initial plot thread, and though most questions are answered and there's no blue balling cliffhanger, when the credits roll there is a lot of serious shit going down, and you haven't seen the outcome of many of your choices yet.

I'm a little torn. On the one hand they're obviously setting up a sequel, and it feels a little cheap that they spent a good deal of time doing exposition for plot threads that you don't really step foot in in this game. On the other hand I admire how the game focused on a personal quest instead of preventing some world changing cataclysm or something like that. That's not to say big things aren't afoot in the game, but you as the player have little to do with them and are generally more focused on your personal mission. I also don't think I can judge until I play it again -- it's a dense game with some tough choices, but it's my understanding that the game will unfold in completely different ways -- including different characters, locations, and quests -- depending on some early in game choices. Because there is a lot going on, and because it doesn't revolve around you the player, I can see where getting a different perspective on events can reveal things I could only guess at during my first playthrough. It's a game where you can't do it all -- in Mass Effect 2, whether you're a Paragon or a Renegade you're going to going to go to the same places, do the same missions, recruit the same characters and fight the same bosses. In Witcher 2, you can't do it all and can't be everywhere at once, and I feel like even once through the game there's a lot I haven't seen.

So overall, I feel very positive about the game, though if my second playthrough doesn't capitalize on its promises of replayability I may sour a bit. Even then, I enjoyed the gameplay and think CDProjekt did a wonderful job of refining the formula of the first game. It was a game that engaged me both in its gameplay and its story, which is more or less what I want and rarely get from any RPG, east or west. The plotting is especially good, creating tense situations and forcing choices that are rarely good versus evil, but truly mucked in the gray. A few character, Roche and Lethos in particular, are ones I'll be remembering for some time (I'll also be remembering Triss and Ves, meeeeowwww). It also has some spanky boss battles, a rare praise for western RPGs. It's not a perfect game but I found it very satisfying and I'm already anticipating the follow up.

[lafinman]

According to Major Nelson's Live Activity blog the Indie Game " Total Miner:Forge " was the top download,

It's another Minecraft Clone so I decided to give it a whirl since it will be a while for MineCraft to be on the consoles. I liked Minecraft when I played the demo last year, but as with some people the learning-curve sucks. Not with Total Miner. One goal you are given is to collect blueprints which are scattered throughout the world. You're given a handy arrow guide to help you find the nearest blueprint. Once you collect blueprints you can make or buy that object automatically, so you don't need a crafting guide on hand.

So is it like Minecraft? In a way yes. It looks exactly just like it, but as some folks have said the developer wanted to combine Minecraft and Miner Dig Deep. The ladder being one I demo'd as well. However there's only one monster enemy and the combat is clunky, although you have the option to turn that off. Also not present is a day and night cycle so you don't have to build a shelter and fight for your life at night ( though that was fun in Minecraft )

For only $3 this game is pretty good. There are a few Minecraft clones on there and this is the best one in my opinion. Plus this isn't abandon-ware, the developer promises updates and it's already been patched once where they fixed bugs and added more items. Future updates include more monsters. And unlike most Indie games, at least they kept the music incidental. I've played some that seemed promising, but the same music playing over and over gain tuned me out.

[DJ_Lae]

I really need to finish off The Witcher 2, although it does bring my computer to its knees and in the warm of summer it's a bit disconcerting to see my CPU temperature rise higher than it does normally (49C is its norm, but in the air-conditioningless summer it will easily break 55).

Two Worlds 2 is interesting so far. I think the game is running at 60fps (I originally thought I had left the silly motion smoothing on for my TV, but no, it locks game mode to its particular input), which is nice. But the game is ugly...it feels like it's ten years old in that there are no graphical effects that the last few generations of video cards have given us. Even the lighting is almost completely flat.

The menus and interface are also extremely similar to Mount & Blade's, both in that they're hideous and clunky to navigate, but they also feel like they're sharing some of the same assets or something. It's weird.

Voice acting is improved from the first game, in a bad way as far as I'm concerned, as the original game's was so bad it was hilarious. Now it's just awkward.

Combat is acceptable, although I had that the right trigger is my attack. I'm hoping I can change it in the options, as mashing a stiff trigger to attack Diablo style is a recipe for cramps.

Dunno. It's given a pretty sour first impression and I'm tempted to just return it. But I've already been shamed into a couple of achievements and can no longer erase it from my profile, so maybe I'll see if it gets better. I know people like it more than the first game (and I actually kind of liked Two Worlds), but so far it doesn't have the stuff I liked about that one.

[C-mOs]

edit - I also picked up a new copy of Twilight Princess for the Wii at HMV, incorrectly priced at $10. It was one of the regular copies, too, with a metallic tri-force, not one of the player's choice editions or whatever Nintendo is calling them. Beating Ocarina of Time 3D made me want to revisit some recent Zelda games, and although I own the Gamecube version of Twilight Princess I've never spent a serious amount of time with the Wii one. I hope I can get over the waggle in favour of having widescreen support.

I'd like to hear your thoughts on the Wii version. I too have only played the GameCube version of Twilight Princess as I couldn't see myself wailing the wiimote around for every sword strike.