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Halo 3 ODST and Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2. I'm working on all the achievements for GW and I have to say, it's one of the only games I've played where the achievements add to the experience and make sense.

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I started playing Dark Cloud, mostly because the main tv in the house was already in use and so I was making do with my lil' deuce coup SD and PS2. I kind of like the setup with items so far: The mayor of your town gives you the stuff you'll need, but you only get one of each thing, so it becomes a little resource management dealy. It's definitely a collectathon (and spiritual sequel to Act Raiser?) and the combat is really really shallow, but I dunno...it's kinda just pleasant.

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I played the first level of the psx game Medieval today. I had to run around killing zombies and collecting rocks to open gates. The controls are psone-clunky (moving in a 3D environment with a D-pad anyone?) so it took kind of a while and it was really tedious. I guess I only stuck with it because I respect the art design of the main character. So I killed everybody I needed to kill, got the special chalice I needed to get, and on the way out, fell into a body of water that I didn't know I couldn't walk through (I was able to walk through water earlier in the level) and died which spit me out at the title screen. FUCK.

Also, speaking of D-pads, did anyone ever notice that (at least on the 360) you can drive your car with the D-pad in Burnout Paradise? It's pretty messed up.

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I guess I was being presumptuous. I suppose I've gotten used to analog sticks to the extent that I took for granted that they're a natural-feeling control method.

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I was going to make the joystick comparison, but then I realized that you only use your thumb on an analog stick, as opposed to a whole hand for a "true" joystick...Plus there are two of them. I like analog sticks though and I can't think of a control method for movement that would be better.

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I played Adam Cadre's "1981" today. It's the first IF game I've enjoyed. I think part of what made it great was that it was designed in such a way that I never typed in anything that parser didn't recognize. Then I played "I-0" for a while (another Adam Cadre game). I typed "get out of the car" and the game said "you have to unbuckle your seatbelt first" and I remembered that I don't really like interactive fiction.

For the record, that didn't stop me from playing through to a couple endings, but IF games make me feel like I'm treading water in a vat of syrup. And I read lots of novels. I'm not intimidated by text.

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Revenge of the Wounded Dragons. You know, it's almost kind of good.

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My Wii told me it was sad because I don't play it, so I bought a gamecube controller along with Spartan: Total Warrior and Luigi's Mansion. While I was browsing the GC games, I saw a few others that looked interesting, but I didn't want to spend more than I was already. Those titles were: P.N.0. 3, Geist, and Zatch Bell! Mamodo Battles. Are any of these worth playing? Because they were really cheap and I would consider picking them up in the near future.

Edit: Sorry, I meant to put this in quick questions but clicked on the wrong thread.

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I've been playing Spartan: Total War for 40 minutes, and I realize now why God of War is garbage.

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Please elaborate/clarify.

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I said I'd been playing Spartan for 20 minutes when I meant to say 40. It takes a few minutes before you understand what that game is doing but once you do it's pretty incredible how smartly designed it is and that nobody seems to have learned from it.

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Tuff E Nuff - I think this could be one of my fighting games if you know what I mean. Not because it's great, but because it's so bare-bones but still smooth. It seems like a decent game with which to learn some fundamentals.

AWAY Shuffle Dungeon - is welcome to at least one hour of my day for the next couple weeks or so.

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Played a TON of Katamari Forever. Fuck you Spin Doctors...because: two princes? Yeah, well this game has TWO KINGS!!!!

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I'm glad Muramassa is compelling Mikey, I received it as a Christmas present. I've been playing a little Tekken 6. I bought it because Amazon had a sale on the 360 stick bundle for $70 (down from $150) and I've wanted an arcade stick for a long time. Also, hey...I like Tekken. I'm torn between whether or not to bother with scenario campaign mode. It looks pretty lol-anime, which I like, but the cutscenes are too long and the fighting engine can't really handle the beat-em-up style gameplay they've shoehorned in.

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When I played the demo for Dead Space, I was like..."gross," and then I never considered playing any Dead Space again.

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Played a bunch of Infamous. It's pretty fluid...and I got a kick out of the chubby friend Zeke and the stuff with the characters watching tv. I wish you weren't constantly getting shot at in between missions, though it kinda takes some of the fun out of free roaming rooftop traversal. Also, if anyone has a PS3 and hasn't played Astro Tripper, it's pretty damn cool. Only shmup I've ever played that had a minimap.

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Still loving inFAMOUS; I feel like I'm in the middle of a war when the combat gets raging...but in a fun way. Too bad the platforming mechanics are not very flexible (it just doesn't feel spontaneous the way Prototype kinda did...but Prototype is a stupid game, so...tradeoff)

Also: Serious Sam HD. I've never played this before, but I love it. Like someone said on the podcast about God Hand, Serious Sam loves being a videogame, and that's really refreshing in this day of "visceral immersion" and all that jazz.

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Also...I totally didn't compare Serious Sam to God Hand. I said that what someone said on the selectbutton podcast about God Hand seemed to apply to Serious Sam. Just because I'm saying the games had one characteristic in common doesn't mean I'm saying they are similar. It's like you're accusing me of saying Fig Newtons and Calamari are similar because I claim they are both meant to be eaten.

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I whipped out my Wii recently (HAHA) and played a couple gems. First one being A Boy and His Blob and the second Tomena Sanner which has a level that takes place inside of 80s hip-hop culture and also has giraffes that walk on two legs and fart on you. I've always felt like the Wii is probably very underrated but it's been a slow process gathering the evidence. What's the Select Button feeling about Zack and Wiki? I never got too far in it, but the level where you sabotage a primative worship ceremony with a bad mushroom is sublime.

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