First off, apologies if this is a repost. That being said, this may convince me to pick up a Wii: It looks great, but when I saw Daniel Craig's caricature overlooking the dam part of me thought "this ain't right." I mean, did they really have to replace Pierce Brosnan's Bond? Although when you think about it, remakes of movies don't usually include the original actors, so I can see both sides of the coin. Still, I'm conflicted. On a completely unrelated note, does anyone here play Battlefield 1943 on Xbox Live? I could use a partner in crime.
Yes. They did. It's a contractual issue. Pierce Brosnan is no longer James Bond. Daniel Craig is. Besides... I think that Craig is a better Bond than Brosnan. I thought that Timothy Dalton was better than Brosnan, too.
I'm starting to trade in a lot of games and am trying to find the most cost effective way to do it that takes little to no effort. So far the best solution I've come up with is trading them in to Amazon as they seem to give slightly better value than GameStop. Does anyone else know a better way that again, takes little to no effort? Not a bad plan at all, but I'm entirely too lazy to follow through with it. I was too lazy to return non-working used games when I was a broke college student, now that I actually have some money I know I'll be even worse and end up spending way more than I otherwise would. Plus the nearest GameStop is 15+ minutes away and in a direction I never go in. I'll probably stick with the Blockbuster thing until it gets axed, which might be sooner rather than later since they're probably filing for bankruptcy (I think it's actually chapter 11 since they'll still be operational) next month.
I have one of you goons to thank for allowing me to take my StarCraft game to the next level. I don't entirely remember who it was (I think it was Spekkio, but I don't entirely remember) who advised me to get my fucking economy in order before I do anything else. A few weeks ago I was one of those people that would place a single worker on each mineral patch and consider the entire field saturated. Now that I've learned to build a more robust economy I'm having no problem chowing down on the noobs in my last few practice league matches. Thanks again, whoever you are.
The whole idea behind starcraft is flexibilty. You should have 2 workers/field, 3/gas and add more later on while you expand and move the new units onto the new expansion. My APM is surprisingly high considering I don't click around like a psycho or multi-tap commands. I play Terran Reaper-rush early game, Mid/Late-game I go for M,M,Tanks and Kings. I only have trouble against pro Protoss players who keep me in check until they get the rapists (err, Colossus) out. I would recommend for people to constantly attack, constantly pester and keep the other player on the defensive. Never bother building defenses (maybe some detectors, invisible units are a bitch) because those minerals and time is opportunity to fuck with the opponent that will make him spend that much on static defenses which give you the ultimate advantage. The only exception would be a bunker or two photon cannons at the ramp to prevent an early rush or the same at your center to prevent a reaper-rape. But I salvage the bunkers anyway. Always group your unit-making buildings in a group (say 4), your center buildings (5) and your armies to various arrangements in 1,2,3. If you play Zerg you should group your queens and constantly use their make larvae ability, Protoss have a great speed-up ability and Terran have the mules, free supply depots and scan ability. Spell-casters need to be handled with care. Don't build more than two unless you are a pro, and use them well. They can change the tide of any battle with one move. EMP strike? Fuck your Stalkers, bitch. Nuke is a good distraction as you can move in your reapers, or dropships and fuck him up as he frantically looks around. I usually try to target some Pop-buildings when I'm done messing with his worker-units, it's an easy way to cost him 100min. LEARN YOUR HOTKEYS. That often makes the difference between winning and losing. Living and dying. Just ask Al Pacino. If you have any questions fire away, I'm decent Zerg, good terran and don't know enough Protoss to give Platinum advice. I'm only not diamond because I'm still not as sharp or well versed in some late-game abilities enough, give me till next month.
Anyone played Mafia 2 yet? I rented it the other day, it's pretty solid. It's hard to not compare a modern crime-based 3rd person shooter with GTA. Which is what most reviewers have done and said it's good, but not GTA good. It looks like a sandbox game, but is extremely linear. There aren't side quests and half the time the car is on auto-pilot. All this doesn't make it a bad game. But we've come to expect from GTA, this is far from it.
Actually, it's 3 workers per mineral field. Either way, you want to keep producing workers throughout most of the game so you always have enough to send to a new expo. Another tip is to make sure you don't get yourself supply blocked and so try to always be a little ahead with the supply. Hotkeys and unit/building grouping is also a must. By putting your army in hotkeys 1-3, and having your unit-producing buildings on, say, 4 and 5, you can easily swap to your base to continue producing units even while you're still looking at your army fighting the enemy. Macro is so important and once you figure out these basics you have to practice your ass off to improve reaction speed. Also, don't forget to watch plenty of replays to give you an idea of some good strategies vs each race. They also help you figure out little tricks that good players will do to get a good advantage. <a class="postlink" href="http://www.gosugamers.net/starcraft2/replays" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.gosugamers.net/starcraft2/replays</a> is a great site for replays that are uploaded on a daily basis. Teamliquid.net is also a great forum dedicated to SC2 and so it's full of good players talking about all things Starcraft.
In addition to what everyone else has said: Split your workers when you set up at your natural expansion. I send around half of the probes I have on minerals to the natural when its about 90% done. They get there and start to mine just as it finishes. Then you can continue to pump out workers at both saturating both quickly. I usually continuously make workers until I have two bases saturated. If I need to set up a third, usually the first is mined out so I just transfer those. Also, 100% focus on macro rather than trying to do "pro" stuff with your units micro. It doesn't matter how good your micro is if your opponent's army is twice your size because he did a better job of keeping his econ going and pumping out units. That said, I'm only platinum and been struggling a bit lately. Zerg that masses hydras or mutas give me trouble. Terran that just MMM pushes as early as possible beats me unless they completely screw up. Other toss I usually do well against unless they do some insane early pressure build that I'm unprepared for. Also, check out day9tv.blip.tv/, he does a pretty good job of pointing out things in replays. For newer players #132 (I think that's the right number, the title was "Back to Basics") is a great explanation of the things you should focus on in your game. That one is nearly 2 hours long, but most of them run 30-40 minutes with 10 minutes or so of him answering viewer questions.
<a class="postlink" href="http://day9tv.blip.tv/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://day9tv.blip.tv/</a> High level commentary on competitive Starcraft matches from an 11-year veteran and top player. Day[9] has been rated A+/A on ICCUP/PGT on multiple accounts over multiple seasons, has qualified for the WCG USA finals 7 times, has qualified for the WCG Grand Finals 3 times, and won the Pan American Championship in 2007. In Starcraft 2 Day[9] is a top rated diamond player as random. I feel like this is a must watch show for people who want to improve. I recently saw a neat trick with the MULE from terran. Enemy has a lot of tanks holding you back? Toss a mule at them and let the splash damage of the tanks wreck themselves. EDIT: Totally did not see the poster above me post Day9's link. Regardless, needs to be repeated anyway. WATCH IT!
I have it and I'm sad I bought it (Deluxe Edition on Steam. Those fuckers make it so easy to order stuff and I decided I wanted to play Mafia at 4AM while drunk). The game itself is very short - around 11 hours and a lot of it is cutscenes. Now linear gameplay and focusing on the story is something that made Mafia 1 a great game, but here it doesn't seem to work out so well. They tried to create a grand storyline across two decades, but it feels like a lot of the story is left out and you just get a few glimpses into parts of it. The gameplay is great. Shooting, driving, fighting, the works, but as I said, there's very little of it. Unlike Mafia 1, there isn't even a Free Ride option in the unmodded version of the game, so after that 11 hours is up, you can pretty much throw the game into the bin. I say unmodded, because the Free Ride option IS in the game, it's just hidden away and can be unlocked by a patch made by some community members. That, plus a list of items, cars and weapons hidden in some gamefiles that are not in the final release seems to suggest that all of these options will be released as DLC in the future, meaning 50$ isn't going to be the price you have to pay if you want the full experience. Considering all of this, I say rent it or wait for a pack with all the DLC included, but do not buy.
Just picked up Metroid: Other M. This is my first real foray into 3D Metroid. I couldn't ever play the Metroid Prime series due to my crippling motion sickness when I play FPS games. This Metroid, however, is very action oriented. The controls took a bit to get used to. It uses the wii remote, turned sideways, the vast majority of the time, so it controls like a 3D version of the original Metroid (1 button shoots, 2 button jumps, run around, A turns you into the morph ball). To fire missiles and look around, you aim the remote at the screen, and this switches to first-person view. You can then lock on and fire missiles, or scan items in the environment to determine what destroys them (missiles, super missiles, bombs, etc). This was kind of clunky at first, but I got used to it quick. There is also a dodge function. Right before an enemy attacks, you hit the left or right button and Samus dives out of the way. If you happen to be holding the 1 button, you automatically get a full charge. Overall, it has been pretty fun. More story-oriented than I recall Metroid ever being, and slightly more linear, but there are still secrets and upgrades a-plenty to find. Overall, about 2 hours in, and it has been really fun, and the story isn't bad. The voice acting leaves something to be desired (Samus sounds completely emotionless), but otherwise pretty good so far.
Metroid: Other M Played this at a friend's house. Overall, it's a disappointing, mediocre game. In third person, Samus runs way too fast for the camera, making it annoying on the eyes. Similarly, the flare effects are just too spastic and bright. There are endless irritating, idiot cutscenes, (the last reason anyone ever plays Metroid) and overall, it's a lot like the Metroid Prime games...except worse, with inferior level design, enemies, bosses, etc. Rent this if you're skeptical, but save your money and don't rush out to buy.
I'm unsure if anyone has mentioned this yet but after watching an embarrassing number of commentated games by HDStarcraft, Husky + the whole Raleigh tourney I can safely say that if you are Terran or Pro ALWAYS use your initial buildings to block off a choke point. It makes preventing all forms of rushes 100x more defendable. Also, don't rush if you suck. Focus on getting fast expansions and you'll win macro in the long run. And mass hydras are pretty simple to counter. Terran = 6 siege tanks at the back of your army and own with splash damage. Pro = storm the living christ out of them and they drop fast.
I took an early lunch yesterday to buy my copy of Other M. I played it for 2 or 3 hours last night and I'm loving it so far. It's a little different than the titles that came before it, but that's not a bad thing. I like change. "Derp! I don't like that I can only use the Remote to play!" Switching from holding the Remote horizontally to pointing it at the screen did take a bit of getting used to, but after the first half-hour or so, it started to feel natural for me. And as skeptical as I was about the CQC aspect of the game, that's pretty fucking fun once you get used to it. The first time I had to jump onto an alien's head was weird, but now it's just jump, blast and kill. No problem. "Derp! Cutscenes and other characters in a Metroid game are stupid! Derp!" I don't know why people are whining about the cutscenes. I really don't. They don't take away from the isolated feel of the Metroid series. You spend 2 or 3 minutes watching a cutscene that's directly related to the PLOT of the game and then you're on your own to explore for nearly an hour. Small sacrifice to have to make. "Derp! She has all of her weapons at the start of the game and won't use them without permission! Derp! Derp!" I laugh when people complain about this. It's a Galactic Federation mission. There's a commanding officer. Samus is following orders. What's not to get? Hell... It's explicitly explained why she's not authorized to use her Power Bombs right away. Spoiler If Samus drops a Power Bomb near the rest of the GF team, she'll fucking kill them. She's wearing a Chozo Power Suit. They're not. Anyway... Can't wait to get back into the game. Having a lot of fun with it.
So I preordered Medal of Honor yesterday, mainly because you get access to the beta for Battlefield 3 when it comes out. Anyone else going to try it? I'm gonna give EA a shot this time, I'm a little tired of CoD.
I beta tested the multiplayer. Graphically it looks phenomenal, wasn't a big fan of how the Tiers were implemented though. There was very little difference in the classes, of which there were only 3. Has offensive and defensive killstreak rewards, but it's very much similar to MW2 in many regards.
I plan on giving it a shot. I hadn't been playing many shooters lately until I finally decided to give BF: Bad Company 2 a try (which I'm having a lot of fun with). Got me back into the shooter mood, so I'm looking forward to MoH.
One of my oldest son's classmates came in to my store the other day with his mom, specifically to buy this for the kid. He's 11. Granted, I haven't played the game (nor do I intend to - it's not my cup of tea) but something tells me it's not a game for the pre-teen set. Amazon still hasn't sent me my copy, the bastards. Maybe it's because I keep rolling over my credits. This must be akin to Netflix throttling people who rent movies too quickly. It's okay though I guess. I don't really have the money right this second anyway.