Oh Phil Collins, how I love you. You and your sentimental Popeye face.
I have nothing else to say this week, but I need at least a paragraph, even though only 10% of the readers actually pay attention to this part. I can't just reference Phil Collins' cheeky uncle visage and expect that to be enough. I wish Nex was still around, just to do this. I might pay Wired some pounds to have Nex write this bit for me. That would make my life so much easier.
Right, that's my minimum quota fulfilled. Hit the jump for games of the week.
Jim: Otherwise known as the "Article of GTA IV."
Dale: First! Oh shit... can we do that as editors? Anyway, in before GTAIV! I've been playing SNK's Arcade Classics Vol. 1 for a review, but I'm still enjoying it even past that. I still play Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds online, nearly nightly. And I'm still in love with my Sega Saturn, this week trying to replay Guardian Heroes (import ver.) to get to a point where I'm not hitting continue every 5 minutes.
Savant: Guess what? I'm not playing GTA IV either!
As of late, I've been going through a transition phase, of sorts. I reopened my World of Warcraft account for all of two weeks, and promptly canceled it to upgrade my GameFly plan to two games, instead of just getting one. I also recently purcahsed a TurboGrafx-16 and have been playing Keith Courage and Final Lap Twin fairly heavily.
What else? Uh, l'see... I'm nearing the end of Condemned 2: Bloodshot, so that's a plus, I guess. I also have been playing a great deal of Mario Kart Wii -- though, my wireless router just gave up the ghost the other day, so that puts my online racing on hold for a little while. (!@#$)
I've also been crawling around eBay looking for a decently-priced copy of Revelations: Persona for the PSX (Is this game really worth $80 these days?!) But to no avail.
So, yeah, that pretty much sums it up at this point. Oh, and if you didn't believe me, I'm still not playing GTA IV.
Jim: You guys need to play GTA IV, otherwise what I said isn't going to work.
MEET ME HALFWAY, PEOPLE!
Savant: Addendum per Jim Sterling: I apparently need to meet his ass halfway and state "Yes, I am playing GTA IV." Though he has offered various sexual favors, I will not say that I am playing GTA IV... Oh wait.
Colette: Hitting level 70 in Persona 3's Tartarus, and as much as I love the game I feel like it is never going to end. Also, I went on Wikipedia looking for the game's length and accidentally read the entire ending. Do not go to Wikipedia when you are playing an RPG.
Also playing a bit of Lost Winds when I want something more chill, checking out Perfect Cherry Blossom for the first time, and not-downloading a fat pack of Mugen characters.
Nick: Not a huge week playing games here. My son used my Wii Points to buy Defend Your Castle while I was asleep, so I played tha for a bit. Nothing happens the first fifteen stages, and I nearly stopped playing, but it eventually picked up. Still, it's a five dollar Flash game with what appears to be very little depth.
Of course, also played GTA IV for a bit; Rock Band, of course; and I just started Secret Agent Clank for review. Clank wears a bow tie and it's adorable, but I can't say much else.
Samit: This was finals week for me, so I did very little gaming. In other words, I squeezed in as much GTA IV as I could without actively trying to fail my exams. And last night, I got to Stockholm in my Rock Band drums career on Hard, and now I can feel blisters forming on my fingers and palms. Oh well...at least I'm home for the summer!
Also, I finally got my hands on a copy of The Orange Box for PS3 (praise be to Goozex), so I should soon understand why Anthony fawns over the Half-Life games with every chance he gets. *goes to Wikipedia page for Half-Life to read plot summary*
Dyson: Sorry Jim, but I don't play GTA IV either. I know that every other publication on the planet is still busting a nut over it, but most of the time I just stick with other genres. I've been playing the original Parasite Eve, and the new DS game from Square, World Ends With You. Both of these games are pretty badass, but I'm barely past the beginning of both, so I can't really give a firm yay or nay on them yet.
DMV: Writing papers, and mostly spending my time buying games. When I'm not doing that, I was banging my head against the wall with Final Fantasy Tactics. Sometimes, I hate the A.I. -- namely, when a character I need to protect goes and gets herself killed BEFORE I GET A TURN. Thanks for giving me a game over for starting the battle, you dumb whore.
As soon as I finish my paper, though, I'm going to start rubbing myself with my new copy of Chrono Trigger, bought for $3, and playing "Yuusha no kuse ni namaikita." As far as I can understand the title, it means "Because of that brave man (this is meant accusingly) I became saucy." It's a really rough translation, and it'd help if I took the wrapping off the game and actually read the manual.
Also, taking a dump on Necros' copy of Daigasso Band Brothers.
P.S. What's a GTA IV?
Jonathan: One game I'm really not playing at all is GTA IV. I did watch other people play it for a little while, and I found that to actually be more entertaining than playing it myself. I was the same way with the Metal Gear Solid games and Shenmue. They all just feel like work after awhile, though all have interesting enough storylines that watching them is still rewarding.
One game I did play for real this week was Lost Winds. That is a one heck of a great game. Also caught up on some Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core and Apollo Justice.
Chad: Um. Grand Theft Auto IV and LostWinds. I know, not very original or exciting. But I love them both!
Oh, and I have to add: my new favorite videogame character is GTA IV's Brucie. He is seriously amazing.
Hamza: I layed GTA IV, Contra 4 ad picked up Metal Slug advanced. Cnra is
fuckig hrd, holy shit!
Aso played Bajo Kazooe: Nutsd and Bolts, Ninja Gaiden II, Penny arcade
for XBLA, viva pnata 2, Too Human and whtever the hell else I wrote
aout this week.
played ab uncj of ubisoft games rthast i acnt talk about. and ddr at
konami by accidnet.
i playred go karts today and shit yoi not that mario kart theeme ws
ibn my head the whol time. super nintendo.
Samit: I'm going to give Hamza the benefit of the doubt and assume he was inebriated when he wrote that.
Dyson: I'm thinking the same thing myself. He must be having a great time.
DMV: You should still post it like that, anyways.
Jim: I am not editing that in the slightest.
Gameboi: It has been another one of those busy weeks, but I did play GTA IV briefly. If all goes well, I'll be hopping back on the Wednesday and Friday Night Fight train with the PS3 crew this week.
Topher: Am I too late for this? I'm too late, aren't I? Dammit. I have been playing Lost Odyssey. Also, there was a NARP here this weekend at Hitogoroshi's place, and I played some Rock Band, Radiant Silvergun, DonPachi (on its own cabinet!) and Ikaruga on an absurdly large television. Then came home for more Lost Odyssey.
What have you guys been playing?
Inebriated FTW!
I've put down GTAIV myself for a bit and have been playing HL2 ep2 and TF2.
Plus I am almost with Chad with his opinion on Brucie as I have never actually laughed as much with a video game as I have with that guy.
@Chad: Stay alpha bro.
Also bought and beat Metroid Prime Pinball, and creeping up on the end of Metroid Prime 2 and the World Ends With You.
10% of what now?
Been playing a lot of Phantom Hourglass lately. I figure before I go trying to trade it away on Goozex I may as well try it the hell out proper like. It's not bad, but not great.
Also threw down in some Super Mario Galaxy again. Trying to get through as Luigi so I can get all 121 stars, but it's a pain in the ass 'cause Luigi handles like a cow in a supermarket trolley. Frustrating!
I picked up LostWinds on Saturday and played the bloody sack off of it! What a fantastic game! I've been pretty much constantly saying to myself 'this is a downloadable game? I only paid $10 for this?! There are minigame compilations that cost more than this and are absolute shit when compared to LostWinds.' It's absolutely great.
Oh, and I finally just this weekend (Friday night) played Guitar Hero for the first time ever. It was really fun, and I can finally understand why people like it. It's like, DDR for your fingers. So awesome.
cocks
@ DMV
Damn you! You better take care of Daigasso!
I'd be playing DS too, but my boyfriend has been monopolizing it to play TWEWY...
I mostly been playing pixel junk monsters encore on PS3.
Also a little Everybodys Golf on PS3.
PC- Company Of heroes: Opposing fronts, TM Nations forever and I just re-installed sid mieres railroads now i am fed up of simcity 4 again.
Played some GTAIV and my weekly Rock Band experience as always.
Started the Lion Wars for the PSP, but I am not sure, need to find another RPG for my PSP.
Went back into WoW and got my PvP Paladin up to level 59 and into Outlands. Ah earning the right to play last year's expansion all over again!
Also, more FFCCMLAAK (That's fun to pronounce) and putting my brain on auto pilot. Its strange that its a game that I can enjoy by putting very little though into, as well as if I put a great amount of planning into it. Its a good thing I don't drink.
So, that's me entertained for a week or two.
I played some Mario Kart Wii online with the roommates. I also squeezed in a little Dino Run here and there. Mostly though it's been long sessions of Chrono Trigger.
I really want to get Lost Odyssey, that'll probably be my next purchase after I finish a couple more games in my backlog.
I just got into GTA4, and the controls are absolute shit but it's worth getting through.
I'm working my way through quest mode in Virtua Fighter 5 with Wolf on normal mode, which is actually the cleverly disguised easy mode.
And for some inexplicable reason, I keep going back to HexicHD every now and again.
Also, I just bought Ninja Gaiden Black and Fable: Lost Chapters as a primer for their upcoming sequels, and Blue Dragon for $20 new.
Amen to that, I spoiled a couple games :(
also I've been playing all the previous Metal Gears leading up to 4