Welcome to the Next Level, a.k.a. The Video Game Thread Options

[monkeyman]

Not exactly sure. I imagine it's because relatively speaking there's not a huge amount of players using it and they'll be losing money on it which will cut into the game profits; specially as they won't be getting additional DLC income or anything. The game sold much much better than expected but I guess the server costs aren't being outweighed by total sales

[monkeyman]

Littlebigplanet 2 has an amazing music sequencer/creation tool
The way the guy used it which they show in the first few minutes is just fucking genius. I love that media molecule have hired a few people from the gaming community because they made such amazing things in the first game.

In LBP1 you could make your own music tracks/remakes etc but you had to make that be your whole level. You'd have they player get on an automated vehicle which would move along a straight path past emmiters which made the notes as you got within a certain distance of them. Lbp2 is completely different and it looks bloody incredible.

[logger]

After 2 weeks I'm bored of Fallout3. It's too big.

[Hobbes]

Completed Mass Effect 2 yesterday. Really bloody enjoyed it, terrific game which markedly improved on the annoying things about the first game (shitty inventory system, average combat) and kept the things I really enjoyed about it, namely lots of characters, choices everywhere etc. Considering I financed it by a trade in so paid £0 for it, I'll take that any day of the week. Going to leave it on the shelf for a while now, but I can sense another playthrough on the horizon, probably when I start getting excited about Mass Effect 3.

Also, Martin Sheen on the voicecast was absolutely fantastic, I've got no idea how they recruited him but what a coup. Really shows how far the medium has come form being a laughing stock & derided as kids' entertainment that the star of Apocalypse Now has provided voice acting for a video game.

I've got Bioshock 2 waiting for me once I come back off holiday as well, that's very exciting to boot. Spoiled at the moment, but I should probably temper things a bit because I won't be able to afford another game for ages after these two.

[Kick in the Head]

Finished No More Heroes 2, which was fairly disappointing compared to the original. Still has a fair amount of that classic Suda 51 oddness and humour, but by ditching the hub world from the first game, there's little sense of adventure or purpose to all that you're doing. There's no real impetus to make money in the mostly dull retro-styled mini-games beyond customary combat upgrades and a fairly poor selection of character clothing compared to the original, so it's more of a case of just ploughing through the main action stages and boss fights. The combat is still entertaining, but it does get fairly repetitive, despite attempts to inject some variety with different playable characters at certain points. Still worth playing through if you liked the first game, but seems like a bit of a step back rather than forward. It does however have an in-game cameo from Takashi Miike, so that's something.

[Sir_Robin_the_br...]

Dragon Age: Awakenings is teh aces, if fairly short in comparison to the main game. This worked in it's favour though as it felt more focused and less overwhelming. Plus I didn't get stuck in the fade for a week this time. Onto the Mass Effect 2 Overlord DLC now. Solid stuff so far.

I heart Bioware.

[sweetbutinsane]

Trying to build a castle on The Sims 2 is harder than it looks. I need more expansion packs.

[monkeyman]

Xbox live price hiked just before the release of Halo:Reach? What a coincidence....

People really should get over it though. It's like an extra tenner a year. Having said that, it's not something that actually affects me so I guess I'll just be quiet

[Llama]

People really should get over it though. It's like an extra tenner a year. Having said that, it's not something that actually affects me so I guess I'll just be quiet

Doesn't look like it affects those of us who buy yearly subscriptions either, so I'm happy.

[monkeyman]

Jut for the rest of September I think you can but a year at the old rate. After that it goes up. The article I read may have been wrong though.

[zeden]

They're increasing the quality of the voice chat too, though I don't know if they're using that in the press as an excuse to raise the price further.

I'm currently playing a PS1 game called Brigadine. I thought I'd at least played, if not finished just about every RPG ever released for the console but this hidden gem had passed me by somehow, until my brother put me onto it. It's a nice mix of squad building and tactic battles played out via a turn based system and it all works very well indeed considering how old the game is now. It's the closest thing to Dragon Force (the Sega Saturn game, not the band) that I've ever seen and that's no bad thing in my book.

[Llama]

Jut for the rest of September I think you can but a year at the old rate. After that it goes up. The article I read may have been wrong though.

Narp, yearly rate is staying the same.

Again, the only subscription packages impacted are those mentioned above. For instance, the 12m UK Price? Not affected since it is not mentioned above.

[monkeyman]

Ah my bad, I was reading a US site and assumed the changes would apply worldwide. S'interesting though. I wonder why the yearly American subscription is going up but the UK one isn't.

@Zeden: I believe they are using that, twitter, facebook, espn and inflation as reasoning behind the raise.

[Llama]

I wonder why the yearly American subscription is going up but the UK one isn't.

Maybe people were bitching that American users get it cheaper - $49.99 being about £33. $59.99 brings it up to about £39, so I guess it's fairer.

[Jimmay]

I've been playing through God of War III after picking it up for £20 in the States and it's really spectacular but absolutely horrific. I know Kratos is a bastard but some of the sequences so far have been absolutely brutal to the point of actually flinching away from the screen in a stereotypical comedy fashion. Not sure how far through it I am but so far so very good.