wow no more heroes is like a good version of assassins creed.

I still haven't opened No More Heroes. Maybe this weekend? That's wishful thinking...



Meanwhile, I have a copy of this with my name on it. Nabbed it (only $20) to see if I can find some work based on it. Can't be as bad as those budget Wii racers I've plowed through recently.

Bought this over the weekend thanks to the recommendation up thread. Played it on the plane, and it was good fun. The presentation is indeed awesome, and I love these types of brain teasers (though I've seen a few of them). And yeah, the candle puzzle made me want to cry.

lawl fuck that candle puzzle. My ego doubled in size when I figured it out though(eveeenntually, after many tries). Fuck that digital clock puzzle too.

Me playing the digital clock puzzle:

"This is simple, I just have to count it out"
Submit
"No? What did I forget? Oh yeah!"
Submit
"No? What did I forget? Oh yeah, silly me!"
Submit
"Que? Pretty sure I accounted for everything. Oh yeah!"
Submit
"The fuck? This game clearly has a bug, I clearly had the right answer. Oh shit, I'm a collosal idiot."
Submit
"NOOOOOOOOOO"

etc

Yeah, people on another board I go to are all over it. They are big fans of dork culture and obscure references.

It does look cool though.

no shit they just name dropped takashi miike

I'm having a lot of fun playing AudioSurf on PC. The GUI and interface is pure elegance and the gameplay is wonderful.

The game automatically generates a race track based on any song you choose (it detects your iTunes library & any other directory you wish) and you race along this twisting track collecting various colored blocks. A bit like Rez and Tetris with the styling of Wipeout. Pretty fun.

It's all interneted up. So, you got your high score boards, friends list, streaming audio and all that.

I raced through all of Is This It, Screaming For Vengeance, Discovery and finished first place in the US on the song "Deepest Blue". All awesome.

On a related note, there is an abosolutely hilarious porno clip floating out there of the most horiffic orgasmsic schreeching on the planet. When the broad cums, you'd swear she was the spawn of Cloverfield Monster and the demon from The Exorcist. Pure comedy gold.

So of course someone ripped the audio and used it as a track in Audio Surf. Video here. (Not the porno, but the audio surf clip. So pretty SFW but a bit of swearing.)

i only found audiosurf really fun for a day or two.

Sounds rather reminiscent of Frequency/Amplitude.

About as long as I've been playing it so far. Been playing in short bursts mostly. So haven't exhausted the game's gimmick just yet.

The various game modes and competitiveness of the game go a long way to keeping me interested.

Just beat this, it was pretty fun, though all the gameplay besides the assassinations got tedious, but they were at least more interesting that assassins creed's missions. Definitely my preferred assassin game that came out recently, and the whole thing reeks of style.

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This is so cool. Using a pair of googles with LEDs attached, dude uses the Wii remote to create a virtual-reality system on his computer. Skip to the actual demonstration around 2:20.

If you had to choose one: Crackdown or Dead Rising. Thoughts?

suicide or save the money and put it towards a good game

Both. They're cheap and awesome.

But if forced to choose, go for Dead Rising first. The save system will frustrate, but it's one of my favorite 360 games.

wait who did?

I'm too scurred to kill myself. Those are good games, at least so I hear. Yeah, I don't know which one to get. I don't really want to get both because I have all these other games to finish, and TF2 is impeading my progress. Can't stop playing it. Plus Smash is coming up. I don't know don't know don't know.

Fuuuuuuuuck.

EA is poised to purchase Take-Two (either willingly, or by hostile takeover), which means elimination of virtually all competition for EA Sports. Smart business move for EA, horrible move for fans of console gaming.



http://www.gamespot.com/news/6186640.html?...estnews;title;3

Earlier today, Electronic Arts went public with the news that it had offered to acquire Take-Two Interactive for nearly $2 billion--and that Take-Two management had turned the offer down. EA's offer broke down to $26 per share for Take-Two, a 64 percent premium over the stock's price of $15.83 at the time the offer was made.

Speaking with GameSpot today, Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter questioned Take-Two's judgment in turning down the deal.

"The share price on Friday tells you that investors think the share price is $17. So an offer of $26 by definition is more than adequate," Pachter said. "And if the only argument management makes is that they have a turnaround plan and to give them time...It could take two or three years for them to get [the stock price] to that same $26. Who in their right mind thinks $26 three years from now is better than $26 today? This is a bird in the hand."

Despite the rebuff, Pachter predicted the acquisition will happen one way or the other. If the board of directors won't sell the company, he said EA can perform a hostile takeover, buying up enough shares on the open market to gain control of the company and show the current management team the door.

"By going public, EA is telling you, 'This deal is happening.' The only way you can credibly reject the deal is if there's a better one behind it," Pachter said. "I don't see how anyone can afford to pay this much or more for the stock."

More so than Take-Two's hit properties like Grand Theft Auto IV and BioShock, Pachter believe sports are the driving motivation behind the deal, and a main reason he doesn't expect other acquiring suitors to come calling. The economic advantages of eliminating 2K Sports--EA Sports' primary competitor in the market--are so great that they could pay for the $2 billion deal on their own, Pachter said.

"There's only one company that can make sense out of an acquisition of Take-Two, and that's EA," Pachter said. "For anyone else to buy Take-Two, they'd have to decide either to bloody themselves competing in sports against EA, or shut down the sports business and give up. Either way, there aren't many people who are going to pay a premium for the right to engage with EA or shut down that business."

One question mark about an acquisition of Take-Two is how much of the company can actually be transferred to EA. Pachter said key development personal like Firaxis' Sid Meier, 2K Boston's Ken Levine, and Rockstar's Sam and Dan Houser likely have change-of-control clauses in their contracts that would allow them to jump ship if ownership of the business changes hands.

"If any of the people under employment contracts with Take-Two have lawyers who are worth anything, there are change-of-control provisions," Pachter said. "They all should have that, but I don't think this deal is about retention of employees. With the [possible] exception of the Rockstar North guys, I think all of the [contracted] employees at Take-Two would actually welcome working for EA. I think Sid Meier would love to see Civilization have broader distribution and more focused marketing, and EA is really good at both."

According to Kotaku, Take Two declined the offer, so don't worry for now. EA already locked up the NFL license, but it would be horrible if they killed off the 2K basketball games. They would also get BioShock and GTA too wouldn't they?

Sure as hell wouldn't mind seeing a next-gen MVP Baseball 09 next season! That's the only personal upside I see in a merger/purchase.

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I'm doing pelvic thrusts as I type. Can't wait for that song though I won't be able to enjoy it was much playing it people who will most likely be oblivious to Portal. They barely survived the performance.

Everyone gets so bent out of shape when EA buys another company, but it's not as bad as one makes it out to be. The only bad thing that could ever come out of it is that EA ends up buying out so many companies that there isn't enough competition and we get a heavier number of bad games made than we do now. Then that'll be a pretty pathetic time for gaming. But I don't think it will diminish the quality of certain franchises that are already established really. Still, props to Take Two for saying no. Nothing funnier than a big company like EA getting shot down.

Andy, have you played any preview builds or anything of the baseball games coming out this year? Anything worth talking about? If anything is put out there that's worth it I might actually buy one. But then you and I still wouldn't be able to play each other since you'd get the PS3 versions anyway. Lame.

Ohhhh... and I've been playing Lost Odyssey. Yes, really. It has its share of problems, but it's just what I wanted in many ways. Screw you, progressive gaming.

You must have me mistaken. I'm the guy who always buys the 360 version over the PS3 one, if I have a choice.

I've played builds of MLB 08 on PS2/PSP, but not much... and not enough to say much about either. I'm still most looking forward to 2K8 on 360, but The Show on PS3 has potential. Waiting to see how reviews shake out, but I'll buy 2K8 regardless, I'm sure.

According to everything I've read, by announcing the deal, EA is essentially saying it is going to happen one way or the other. Either Take-Two will agree to it, or EA will buy up enough shares in the open market to bounce Take-Two's management.

For sports games, this will be devastating. For stuff like GTA and Civilization, experts say that they most likely have change of control provisions in their contracts which would allow them to walk away if something like this happens.

One of the interesting comments I've seen is that if EA keeps this up, they could be positioning themselves to create their own console, essentially screwing the third-party consoles out of business by controlling most of the best games. Wouldn't that be something?

On a related note, some shenanigans going on (this is from Bill Harris' blog):


According to an 8-K filing with the SEC, on February 14 (coincidentally the day before rejecting EA’s first offer, which had been made on February 6) Take-Two proposed several changes to its management deal with ZelnickMedia, whose top execs run Take-Two.

They include:
–Boosting ZelnickMedia’s monthly pay to $208,333 from $62,500 per month.
–Boosting the annual bonus to $2.5 million from $750,000.
–A grant of 600,000 shares of restricted stock that will vest over three years unless the company is acquired, in which case they’ll vest immediately.

This is where it gets good, and I’m somewhat paraphrasing from the filings:
The shares won’t vest immediately if, prior to the company’s annual meeting, which is expected to be before April 1, the Company received a bona fide indication of interest in, or offer to enter into, a business combination (which it did); the offer specifies, with some degree of particularity, the material terms (which it may have) and (my favorite) the offer’s existence hasn’t been publicly disclosed or confirmed by either company before Take-Two’s annual meeting. (Oops, definitely happened.)

That’s right: Take-Two received a rich and serious offer from a substantial company. It didn’t disclose the offer, and hoped to keep it secret until at least after the annual meeting, when investors might have challenged the compensation package and attempts by the company to block the deal. Then, in a public filing, Take-Two in effect threatened EA not to make the offer public by giving ZelnickMedia a chance to enrich itself, at the expense of shareholders, by granting restricted stock that will vest immediately if EA made the deal public.

Here's analysis that suggests EA is looking to knock out the sports competition, and that GTA is "gravy."

http://gamepolitics.com/2008/02/25/pachter...a-gta-is-gravy/



Forget Grand Theft Auto.

According to Wedbush-Morgan analyst Michael Pachter (left), Take Two Interactive’s 2K Sports unit alone makes acquiring the company a winning deal for Electronic Arts. Pachter told GamePolitics:

This [$26 offer] is a very fair price. I do not think there’s another bidder. I don’t think there’s any prayer of a bidding war.

Only EA can can make sense of [Take Two’s] sports assets. It doesn’t makes sense for anybody else to buy Take Two to engage in a battle to the death with EA for sports games, whereas EA can consolidate all the sports games and make a profit from it.

GP: Currently, EA has an exclusive on NFL-licensed games with its Madden series. T2 tried to challenge that last year with All-Pro Football 2K8, but the unlicensed game was a retail dud and garnered poor reviews. Take Two has a third-party exclusive on Major League baseball.

For EA, sports is enough to pay for the whole [$2 billion] thing. If you get rid of sports competition, you suddenly add Take Two’s $200 million per year in sports revenue and EA doesn’t compete on price anymore. So, theoretically, they could grow that business by $100 million [per year].

Currently [EA and Take Two] compete in pro basketball, college basketball and hockey. So by taking out all of that, EA has a monopoly in sports. If these guys have a monopoly, they’re not going to cut pricing on sports games as quickly. We’ve been seeing sports games come down [in price] before Christmas the last couple of years. That’ll never happen again.

That’s worth a lot [to EA]. Everything else is gravy. GTA is just gravy…

PHustler, couldn't it just be that that 8-K filing is describing a poison pill that 2K sports has put in place to prevent EA from taking it over by making a takeover too costly, and then throwing in a defense in case a white knight appears -- ie, if the white knight makes a public offer the poison pill won't apply?

Could be.

Sweet. Hopefully 2K8 will be worth it because I've been wanting to get back into playing another MLB-licensed game, and now I'd have someone to play against online, too.

First impression: Meh. Second: Ugh.

haha i saw this on a torrent site
that's gotta be pain, are you forced to review it?

Nah, decided to jump on it out of curiosity. Figured it'd be mediocre... but it feels pretty inauthentic so far, and that's bugging me to death. Only played through the first "episode" (of seven, I think), but I don't know how much more time I'll put into it.

uhhhh....so when can I start mailing my congressman?
I mean, this is more blatant than microsoft.
Not that I care, it's not as if I play any other sports games than Pro Evolution and I can patch that game.

i was so close to getting a wii this week. place by my house got 6 in, but i got there 15 minutes after they sold out >.<

BEFORE I THROW THESE ON EBAY

ANYONE INTERESTED IN BUYING COPIES OF

ORANGE BOX(360)
CALL OF DUTY 4: MODERN WARFARE(360)
MARIO STRIKERS: CHARGED(WII)

ASKING PRICE WILL BE SOMEWHERE BETWEEN 30-40, PM ME OR POST IN HERE IF INTERESTED

Your best bet is to go out on a Sunday morning. That's when most stores get their stock out there. I just read on CAG that Circuit City will be getting a minnimum of 15 Wii's per store tomorrow. Plus with Smash coming out next week, Nintendo should be stepping up Wii availability for the US. Good luck finding one.

I have been craving some bullet hell/shmups , and since I have never played this before, it seemed like a no brainer. I like how you can complete the game in 30 minutes, but I can see how that might be a turn off for some people. It's an intense 30 minutes for sure. I'd like s'more bullet hell please. Give me Ikaruga though. What I really want is my favorite game of all Radiant Fucking Silvergun, though it isn't considered to be a bullet hell game, it is an awesome shooter nonetheless.

edit

SMASH BROS NEXT SUNDAY AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
I know Sausage's already experienced it, but I can't wait! Get ya friend codes ready.

PROBLEM IS I MIGHT NOT BE MAINING PIT ANYMORE BECAUSE HIS ENGLISH VOICE ACTOR IS SO FUCKING BAD.

I want Radiant Silvergun to be ported to something; that'd be great. And cheaper than getting it on eBay. And as much as I love Treasure, I never got into Ikaruga. Bangai-O, on the other hand...

HEY DUDERS HERES A DREAMCAST SCHMUP COLLECTION

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=XCJWWC2V

IKARUGA, Psyvariar 2: Trigger Heart Excelica:
Under Defeat: AND Zero Gunner 2:

Oh man, I made some monies when I sold Radiant Silvergun, and to this day I still regret it. I never got to play Bangai-O, but Treasure is doing a Bangai-O game on the DS, so that might be worth checking out.

cod4 on live is way too good. not having my ass handed to me every match is quite the pleasant surprise.

i play warcraft 3 and DotA way more than is healthy.

Anybody here want to help me get my xbox 360 back online?

Here's how my setup works: Wireless router in garage, but I believe it's actually hooked to the main computer (hereby called Desktop 1) in one bedroom, my desktop (let's call it desktop 2) has a linksys usb receiver in another bedroom. What I did when I got the 360 over a month ago was plug the ethernet chord into the 360 and Desktop 2, then go into network connections and check a box on Desktop 2 that said "Allow other computer to use the internet through this computer" or something of that nature. Somehow my net connection got reset on Monday, and I can still get online on desktop 2, but that little checkbox and message are nowhere to be found.

Help. Please. Thank you.

EDIT: After 7.5 hours of working on this over two days,and more than 7 different tech support calls to everyone from microsoft to verizon to hp, this is finally fixed.

Headed to San Francisco tomorrow to visit all my editors, get interviewed for a full-time j-o-b, and possibly see about an apartment.

If only I didn't have a fucking sinus infection that's been making me hazy for days. Finally went to the doctor today when Zicam and Benadryl Allergy didn't help the sitch any. Have some sweet pills now, but man, I feel rough. Hope I'm better for Friday when all this visiting/interviewing goes down.

Bringing my DS with only Professor Layton, so I'll finally be forced to play it. Which I want to, but there's always something else going on... not so much on a four hour plane ride!

Good luck Andy. Maybe you'll work your way up to Bryan Intihar's job as Previews editor now that the Fragile EAgle is flying away from 1UP. Tell Jenn Frank I want her. Professor Layton is a good plane ride game. Unless you hate math. Also, whenever it's between two choices always pick the less obvious answer lol.

speaking of cool shooters, kotaku says cave is porting some of their stuff to 360, a donpachi game and ketsui

hopefully this leads to more stuff, ibara on home consoles would be nice

then maybe a r*s port?

i am so getting a 360