The Video Game Thread

[clevername]

I liked it.

it wasn't revolutionary or anything like that, but it does what it does well. The puzzles were engaging. The combat was ok. Story was appropriately mangled and sometimes incomprehensible. Has one of the better "here comes the sequel" endings I've seen.

I didn't time it completely, but I think it was in the 20 hour range for me. I found a fair amount of the hidden chests but not all. I suppose the combat can become repetitive, though you do get different combos to use and have several different weapons to choose from. The format of each level follows Zelda closely: explore dungeon, get dungeon treasure, use dungeon treasure to then get to parts of dungeon you couldn't before and use it to fight boss. It's a repetitive structure, but the levels themselves don't feel like copies of each other.

There is a semi-fetch quest that shows up near the end of the game that many seem to feel is tedious and tacked on to lengthen the game. I can see complaints that it just has you retread areas you've already been to and gives you nothing new, but at the same time I found it helpful to go back through some of those areas while on the fetch quest and grab some of the hidden items I'd missed.

[Jocephus]

to mw2 fans...i recommend watching "the sandy ravage"

http://www.youtube.com/user/TheSandyRavage#p/a

he's damn good but also he does "booster justice" (hunts down nuke boosters)

[TimeForGuinness]

I liked it.

it wasn't revolutionary or anything like that, but it does what it does well. The puzzles were engaging. The combat was ok. Story was appropriately mangled and sometimes incomprehensible. Has one of the better "here comes the sequel" endings I've seen.

I didn't time it completely, but I think it was in the 20 hour range for me. I found a fair amount of the hidden chests but not all. I suppose the combat can become repetitive, though you do get different combos to use and have several different weapons to choose from. The format of each level follows Zelda closely: explore dungeon, get dungeon treasure, use dungeon treasure to then get to parts of dungeon you couldn't before and use it to fight boss. It's a repetitive structure, but the levels themselves don't feel like copies of each other.

There is a semi-fetch quest that shows up near the end of the game that many seem to feel is tedious and tacked on to lengthen the game. I can see complaints that it just has you retread areas you've already been to and gives you nothing new, but at the same time I found it helpful to go back through some of those areas while on the fetch quest and grab some of the hidden items I'd missed.

Thanks...I'll wait for it to go on sale.

With FFXIII, GoW III, and Bad Company 2 coming out...I'll need to save my moolah.

[Blitzer]

MLB The Show 10 comes out tomorrow. I'll be running over to pick it up as soon as I get off work!

[Leroy]

Game Stop - what the world?

I haven't bought a new video game in probably three years. The olympic hockey kind of charged me up, so I thought I'd pick up a new version that had Oshie on it. So Wal Mart didn't have it, so I went to our Game Stop. I guess EA doesn't make one, so I grabbed a used NHL2K10. I wrote a check. The guy told me they couldn't take my check. I have no idea why, there is $600 bucks in there. Anyway, they ran it again and nothing. So I said I'd write a check from our joint account. They wouldn't take that either.

I don't know what the hell.

[JackofDiamonds]

Game Stop - what the world?

I haven't bought a new video game in probably three years. The olympic hockey kind of charged me up, so I thought I'd pick up a new version that had Oshie on it. So Wal Mart didn't have it, so I went to our Game Stop. I guess EA doesn't make one, so I grabbed a used NHL2K10. I wrote a check. The guy told me they couldn't take my check. I have no idea why, there is $600 bucks in there. Anyway, they ran it again and nothing. So I said I'd write a check from our joint account. They wouldn't take that either.

I don't know what the hell.

So you killed him?

[Leroy]

There were witnesses. You gotta pick your spots.

[PujolJunkie]

I just sold a PS1 copy of Legend of Mana for 54 bucks on Amazon. I love Amazon.

[cpebbles]

Almost bought MLB 2k10 today but decided to wait on the reviews. Unfortunately, I'm at my parents' for another week, and their "broadband" is quite literally a bit slower than good dialup. It'd take me half an hour to get to an IGN or Gamespot review, so somebody save me the frustration and let me know what the reviews for the two new baseball games look like. If The Show is again the overwhelming favorite, it's going to be one more year of playing 2k7 for me, because EA has never made a baseball game I've enjoyed.

[ghostrunner]

I take IGN and those places reviews of baseball games with a grain of salt, because it usually seems to me they don't know the game that well or don't know baseball that well.

Here's IGN's closing comments:

MLB 2K10, despite its many flaws, is still a much better core game of baseball than the series presented last year. It's just too bad that My Player mode didn't work out as well as I had hoped after first playing it. There are some very questionable design decisions that will hopefully be ironed by next season because the idea behind the mode itself is sound. You can also see that the foundation for great baseball is nearly there with things like the pitcher vs. batter gameplay going so smoothly. I feel like I've said this for the past several years with MLB 2K, but I'm really looking forward to what they can put out with MLB 2K11. Let's hope that release will be able to capitalize on what 2K started with MLB 2K10.

OperationSports has better info and knows what they're talking about and PastaPadre is a good sports gaming blog.

Pasta Padre doesn't have anything up yet. Operation Sports' summary was this:

I can say one thing with total confidence: MLB 2K10 is a solid game. It has a chance to be a good game and it is light years ahead of last year's effort. I'm going to try to get a couple more games in tonight before really recommending a buy/no buy on the game, but right now I think XBox gamers finally have at least a serviceable baseball game to call their own.