Messages

176

General Gaming / Re: Official NWR PAX 2008 Thread

« on: July 30, 2008, 10:19:52 AM »

Ok guys, we are 30 days away now.  I'd like to get everyone that's attending to meet up at least once to say hi before disbanding into nothingness.  To make this possible, could each of you PM me the following information:

-Which days you plan on attending
-What hotel your staying at
-Your forum name and real name
-A brief description of what you look like (maybe attire as well)
-Cell phone number (if you want)
-Where you'd prefer to meet at PAX
-Your email address
-Any events or parties you plan on attending that others might find interesting
-DS/PSP games being brought for multiplayer
-Any open invites or challenges to gaming in the freeplay areas (not console specific)

I'll compile all of this data into an email and send it out to everyone.  This way we can keep personal information, er...personal, and keep the forum clear of our PAX clutter.  How about we say that I'll send out this email about two weeks before PAX, which should give everyone here about two weeks to send me the info.

Or am I just being too controlling again?   

177

General Gaming / Re: Soul Calibur IV First Impressions

« on: July 30, 2008, 10:09:07 AM »

From the limited time that I've had with it, I noticed that Yoda is borderline broken.  All high attacks go over his head and he can't be thrown, but he can throw other people.  As cool as he is, I think ROTJ Luke would have been a more logical choice for both game play and story purposes.  Oh well.

178

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Final Fantasy IV DS

« on: July 29, 2008, 01:37:39 PM »

I'm about 4-5 hrs in and so far it isn't bad if you take some time leveling up. Not sure how it compares to FF3 remake because I've never played it.

Agreed.  Although this game definitely features that random whooping feature that appeared in earlier FF's.

Say for example your walking around a dungeon and get into a battle.  The fight starts with you being surprised.  One of the Ice Lion things decides to cast Freeze on the party which kills two characters outright (one of which is always the darned healer), brings one character to his knees, and the last character to 50% hp.  Then the second Ice Lion thing feels like it has to outdo it's friend and casts Freeze as well, killing off the rest of the party.

Also, it may seem obvious, but never use a Phoenix Down on a dead character unless you have another character ready with a healing item or spell.  If not, the computer takes great joy in always targeting your newly raised person.  As a bonus, it will use a group damaging spell to make you pull out a few extra hairs from your head.

These sort of thing happens from time to time, but not too often.  It can even happen to you if you have been grinding levels and are wearing the best equipment.  Sometimes old FF games just thought it was time for you to take a break, but instead of using a quite "Open window with a breeze" picture, they just wipe your party out. 

179

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Final Fantasy IV DS

« on: July 26, 2008, 01:23:09 AM »

You know what I've found most shocking is how good the voice acting is.  Yeah, I said it, the voice acting is actually good.

180

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Fire Emblem DS

« on: July 25, 2008, 02:41:12 PM »

New videos from the commercial in Japan:

http://www.dsfanboy.com/2008/07/25/get-fired-up-about-fire-emblem-after-watching-video-footage/

The first video is kind of a Fire Emblem tutorial, mainly stuff regular players would already know.  The second video is played out in a board game style.  A FE board game would totally rock.

The game releases in two weeks in Japan.  It hasn't been mentioned for a US release, so I'm betting around Feb or March of next year.  I hate waiting.

181

General Gaming / Re: Do you advocate a "medium and a half" mode for Guitar Hero/Rock Band?

« on: July 24, 2008, 05:03:01 PM »

I think it would be better just to introduce the orange fret from earlier on or possibly the beginning. You learn bad playing habits when you don't use it, like getting used to never moving your hand.

This is true.  Perhaps easy and medium modes should just be a "speed and number of notes" type of thing rather than excluding buttons.  It takes a lot of work to re-train your brain once they introduce that fifth button.

Orange is my nemesis.  I've already re-trained my brain with brain age, now I gotta re-re-train it with Rock Band?!

Blue! Blew! BLOO!!! ARGH!

182

Nintendo Gaming / Re: The World Ends With You

« on: July 24, 2008, 04:58:18 PM »

That's my biggest complaint with the game--the menu system is overly complicated.  I don't like that info on the pins and items are spread out over 3 or 4 pages.  It makes it difficult to look at a large number of possibilities and determine which is the best in a given situation.

I wish there was on option to auto-equip the best items depending on a set of basic criteria (e.g. defensive, offensive, increased HP, well-rounded, better items to go my partner, etc.).  It would make up for the terrible menus.

I hear ya with those menus.  I hated having to go "phone"->"pin" to get to my pin list.  It would have been nice to have a configurable hot key or two (the shoulder buttons maybe?) that would jump you right to where you wanted to go.  Oh well, maybe in the sequel...if there is one.

i've barely left the gate..

i played it the day i got it, then put it down to finish other games.
then i ignored my DS for months due to backed up wii games i wanted to complete. i played it once more and realized i didnt save so i had to to the intro over again, got really into the fighting system (its.. interesting...)

then i didnt play for months. i tried it again a few weeks ago and i go and started trying to defeat some "noise" to break the curse of that statue thing and died after a few battles. havent played since.

I did the same thing with Battalion Wars 2.  Of course, that was around the whole holiday season, but still no excuse to leave it hanging like that.  I definitely think you should pick it back up and give it another chance.  The combat system is the best and the story isn't half bad.  Neku actually becomes a likeable character as the game progresses and there are plenty of triple double crosses down the road.  Some are obvious, others not so much.

The pin system reminds me a lot of the "catch em all" aspect of Pokemon for both good and bad.  Much like Pokemon, I was having a blast getting the pins and leveling up, but after a while I didn't care as much and just wanted to finish the game.  That's probably just me though.

183

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Final Fantasy IV DS

« on: July 24, 2008, 09:10:55 AM »

So I died three times trying to cross the desert to the cave where you meet Tella.  Then I got raped by 4 tiny mages in the cave.

Man, I love the difficulty of old-school RPG's.  Every battle could be your last. 

184

General Gaming / Re: Do you advocate a "medium and a half" mode for Guitar Hero/Rock Band?

« on: July 24, 2008, 09:07:26 AM »

Amen to that idea brother.

My crew and I were playing RB last week and I made the same remark after scoring a 94% on Medium and failing out three times on Hard.  I noticed that not only are they adding the orange button and increasing the speed, the heartless bastards add a ton more notes in addition to adding multiple button presses.

I can handle hitting two buttons next to each other, but when there is a space between them it takes me a second to wrap my brain around it.  When the are coming at you at a million miles per hour, you can just get ready to start the song over.

I guess that's one of the reasons I main the mic.  That and none of the other guys will do it.  A few songs maybe, but on the whole they'd rather play without the mic then sing.  Cowards.  Real men sing.

185

Nintendo Gaming / Re: The World Ends With You

« on: July 24, 2008, 08:57:52 AM »

Bump.

So I seemed to have stopped earning PP after battles.  What gives?  I'm on day 3 of Beat, and haven't earned a single spec of PP the whole week.  At first I thought it was a story element that would be explained, but ... nothing.  Is there anything I can do, or are my pins doomed to stay at the same level for the rest of the game?

I bet you have an article of clothing equipped that stops you from gaining PP.  Double check your "diggs" or "threads" or whatever the hip kids say now-a-days.

stopped playing this game. am i a bad person?

Depends.  Did you finish it first? 

186

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Bangai-O Spirits

« on: July 21, 2008, 09:39:45 PM »

Aren't you glad you waited or should I ask again in 3-4 weeks?

187

General Gaming / Re: Official NWR PAX 2008 Thread

« on: July 16, 2008, 08:28:10 AM »

I got my Hotel Room today, staying at the Hilton. Hotel taxes suck.

Tell me about it.  My room tax is 15.6%!  Explain to me how that is legal.

188

General Gaming / Re: Quick help - complete

« on: July 15, 2008, 10:24:39 PM »

lol the last two frames made that comic awesome.

I had to close my eyes and hear Carlin in my head to get that quote.  Ironically enough, I nailed it on one try.  Either vulgarity rolls right off my brain or I was channeling some Carlin.

Haha good stuff, loved the line about PS3 owners working their second jobs.

IIRC, those were Kaz's words, not mine.  BTW, did you see that I gave you props on the front page?

189

General Gaming / Re: Quick help

« on: July 14, 2008, 09:22:52 PM »

Ok, so the comic is up now.  Thanks to everyone who participated in this thread and I did hand out some props on the front page.  Here's a link to the comic, let me know what you think:

http://www.mondaynightcrew.com/comic.html

190

General Gaming / Re: Official NWR PAX 2008 Thread

« on: July 14, 2008, 05:55:29 PM »

They began to announce the competition for the Omegathon this year.  Hopefully, they'll release the game list soon.  I got to get going on my training.

191

General Gaming / Re: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness

« on: July 14, 2008, 05:53:56 PM »

To those who have played and completed it, how long would you say it is?  I just downloaded it this weekend and got by the opening part.  I'm hoping for a game under 10 hours to be honest.  As I've gotten older, I've liked my games shorter (6-10 hours) or portable.

Stupid real life getting in the way all the time.

192

General Gaming / Re: Rock Band 2?

« on: July 14, 2008, 05:51:52 PM »

Am I the only one here who doesn't like AC/DC?

Yes, and you're probably a communist as well.

193

General Gaming / Re: Rock Band 2?

« on: July 14, 2008, 04:28:52 PM »

I can transfer all of my DLC AND Rock Band 1 music (for under $5)?!

Oh...and AC/DC?!  I mean, AC friggin' DC!  The week that their albums become available, the store will probably crash from the traffic.  I'm calling it now, AC/DC album in November just to screw with our holiday budgets.  Guaranteed.

It's almost as though the game creators actually care about the fans for once.  Rock Band 2 has now been confirmed as a Day 1 purchase.  Bravo Harmonix, bravo!

194

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Fire Emblem DS

« on: July 12, 2008, 07:24:58 PM »

That thread can suck it.

Whoa, nice graphics!  Those animations, oh, so to die for!  If only I could coat myself in animations...

195

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Final Fantasy 6 help

« on: July 12, 2008, 12:45:57 AM »

If I recall correctly, you should leave Narshe and travel southwest to get to Castle Figaro.

196

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Fire Emblem DS

« on: July 11, 2008, 08:12:10 AM »

First video of the game in motion:

http://www.dsfanboy.com/2008/07/10/eleven-seconds-of-fire-emblem-beats-eleven-seconds-of-anything-e/

Where is the old "The animation in Fire Emblem sucks" thread when you need it?

197

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Fire Emblem DS

« on: July 10, 2008, 09:41:08 PM »

I really, really need this game.  Hopefully E3 will give us a release date that is sooner rather than later.

198

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Captain Rainbow?!

« on: July 10, 2008, 09:37:33 PM »

I think you should shut your goddamn mouth.  I lament the fact that I'll never get to play this wackiness.

So certain are you?  Nintendo has done nothing but surprise people for the last two years.  Maybe this game will make it to the states.  If not, you can always import it and spend hours rifling through translation guides. 

199

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Wii Fit

« on: July 10, 2008, 09:28:46 AM »

So how's everyone doing with the exercise? I've been trying to break down my days into Strength Training, Yoga, Half and Half, with some Aerobics during each if I have the time. Still don't feel like I'm any different, and I'm only really doing three times a week plus some swimming at the pool.

Are you guys sticking with it?

Yeah, I've been trying to keep up with a M-F, 1 hour a day schedule.  I missed about one day a week on average last month, so that's not too bad I suppose.  Definitely room for improvement.  On Monday, I finished my work out with a 20 minute free run.  On Tuesday my calves were sore as hell, so I took the day off.  Wednesday, the power went out and I ended up missing that day as well.  Looks like I'm going to have to hit the balance board this weekend to make up for it.

BTW, my exercise breakdown spread sheet is finished and now I'm going to make a weekly work out sheet.  If anyone is interested in the break-down sheet, let me know and I'll send it to ya.

200

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Fire Emblem DS

« on: July 10, 2008, 09:25:12 AM »

I highly recommend the first game (released in America) for GBA.  It's totally awesome.

OMG, what he said.  No, what he said times a hundred and dipped in honey sauce.  Awesome honey sauce.

I actually just started playing FE GBA again.  I'm about half way through and I'm falling in love with it all over again.  The characters and the story are the best of all of the versions I have played (which is all of them released in the US).  The GC and Wii FE's definitely improved the combat and overall system of the game, but the characters are just barely edged out by the original GBA ones.