The 2010 Video Games Thread - Page 30

Kodos · 08-19-2010, 12:55 PM

It's LARA!

MizzouRah · 08-19-2010, 03:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kodos

It's LARA!

Piss of Kodous!

Greyroofoo · 08-20-2010, 10:44 PM

Rock Band 3 Set List:

Spoiler

SackAttack · 08-20-2010, 10:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MizzouRah

Ok, who's getting this on XBL?

Laura Croft and the Guardian of Light

I played through most of it last weekend. It is fantastic. I can't wait for online multiplayer to drop in September.

SackAttack · 08-20-2010, 10:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Greyroofoo

Rock Band 3 Set List:

Spoiler

I am strangely aroused by...

Spoiler

cartman · 08-20-2010, 10:55 PM

There is quite a bit of awesome on that song list. Esp. with the ability to learn to play them on a real guitar.

MizzouRah · 08-21-2010, 08:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SackAttack

I played through most of it last weekend. It is fantastic. I can't wait for online multiplayer to drop in September.

Thanks.. I will have to check it out.

Chubby · 08-21-2010, 10:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cartman

There is quite a bit of awesome on that song list. Esp. with the ability to learn to play them on a real guitar.

Free Bird

sterlingice · 08-21-2010, 11:25 AM

I dunno- I've been quite underwhelmed with GH4, GH5, and RB3's set lists. There's a lot of rehashed stuff (about a third of RB3's set list was on a previous GH) and a lot of songs that don't really make me want to go buy either of the two new games (GH5/RB3). Tho, to be fair, RB3's set list is quite a bit superior to GH5's

SI

Groundhog · 08-21-2010, 08:32 PM

Roundabout!

JonInMiddleGA · 08-21-2010, 08:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sterlingice

I dunno- I've been quite underwhelmed with GH4, GH5, and RB3's set lists. There's a lot of rehashed stuff (about a third of RB3's set list was on a previous GH) and a lot of songs that don't really make me want to go buy either of the two new games (GH5/RB3).

+1

It just seems like a genre that's pretty played out to me.

Mustang · 08-22-2010, 01:25 AM

It has The Smiths on it so it will be a buy for me.

sabotai · 08-22-2010, 07:06 PM

I'm loving Victoria 2, but it becomes so slow by around 1890-1900 that it's unplayable.

I think the problem (or one of them) is too many POPs and military units. By the late game, I don't think they need a bunch of 100-500 people pops. Some, yeah, but as the US, some of my provinces were getting ridiculous with the number of pops. There is a problem with the game right now with large pops assimilating too quickly, but I think after some time they should just have these tiny pops convert or assimilate or something to merge them with larger pops

And did I mention way too many military units? Again, as the US, around 1900 I had 575 military units. Each of 3000 soldiers, so I had a standing army of about 1.6 million soldiers. Anyone know what the size of the US army was in 1900? I'm going to take a wild guess and say it wasn't 1.6 million. And the crazy thing was I could have had 6000 (!!!!!) units. Yes, my military costs were completely out of control. Good thing I stockpiled a load of cash and that my pops didn't mind 75% tax rates. The Socialists were in charge for a good 40 years.

And I didn't even have the largest army. That honor belonged to the Russians. They had 1100+ units.

It's now 1903 and the game is S L O W. My spending is way out of control since I can't lower the size of my military. I mean, it's silly that I can't just say "Hire 500,000 soldiers and no more." I can lower military spending, but that lowers the pay of soldiers so it pisses off the soldiers I do have. I want to pay my soldiers well, but I don't want millions of them. There should be two sliders, one for pay and one for size.

I think I'll keep playing just to see what happens. I'm pretty sure my soldiers are going to go apeshit because I have to lower their pay to such a low amount to keep my country from going bankrupt.

The early game is great, but they need to work on it to keep the later part of the game playable.

Greyroofoo · 08-22-2010, 07:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sabotai

And did I mention way too many military units? Again, as the US, around 1900 I had 575 military units. Each of 3000 soldiers, so I had a standing army of about 1.6 million soldiers. Anyone know what the size of the US army was in 1900? I'm going to take a wild guess and say it wasn't 1.6 million. And the crazy thing was I could have had 6000 (!!!!!) units. Yes, my military costs were completely out of control. Good thing I stockpiled a load of cash and that my pops didn't mind 75% tax rates. The Socialists were in charge for a good 40 years.

I had to look this up but according to Wikipedia's infallible wisdom, the US military strength during the Spanish-American War (1898) was a total of 300,000 regulars and volunteers.

Edit: Upon re-reading wikipedia, the US was led by the Sith and US military strength was augmented by a host of Elves from Lothlorien.

Flasch186 · 08-22-2010, 08:09 PM

I edited it.

jeff061 · 08-22-2010, 08:17 PM

30 matches into Starcraft multi. I never really understood the obsession with multi in the original. Full onset addiction is setting now though. Loving it.

Still not that good, I don't think. But I'm no longer an oblivious newbie with only a grasp of the most basic game rules. Generally when I win it's deserved and when I don't I know exactly why, pure luck is needed far less. Lot of cool vids with commentary on youtube of matches as well and the ingame replays are a godsend.

Next step is to get a little tighter with the build orders and use hot keys better for macroing.

Big Fo · 08-22-2010, 08:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sabotai

I'm loving Victoria 2, but it becomes so slow by around 1890-1900 that it's unplayable.

I think the problem (or one of them) is too many POPs and military units. By the late game, I don't think they need a bunch of 100-500 people pops. Some, yeah, but as the US, some of my provinces were getting ridiculous with the number of pops. There is a problem with the game right now with large pops assimilating too quickly, but I think after some time they should just have these tiny pops convert or assimilate or something to merge them with larger pops

And did I mention way too many military units? Again, as the US, around 1900 I had 575 military units. Each of 3000 soldiers, so I had a standing army of about 1.6 million soldiers. Anyone know what the size of the US army was in 1900? I'm going to take a wild guess and say it wasn't 1.6 million. And the crazy thing was I could have had 6000 (!!!!!) units. Yes, my military costs were completely out of control. Good thing I stockpiled a load of cash and that my pops didn't mind 75% tax rates. The Socialists were in charge for a good 40 years.

And I didn't even have the largest army. That honor belonged to the Russians. They had 1100+ units.

It's now 1903 and the game is S L O W. My spending is way out of control since I can't lower the size of my military. I mean, it's silly that I can't just say "Hire 500,000 soldiers and no more." I can lower military spending, but that lowers the pay of soldiers so it pisses off the soldiers I do have. I want to pay my soldiers well, but I don't want millions of them. There should be two sliders, one for pay and one for size.

I think I'll keep playing just to see what happens. I'm pretty sure my soldiers are going to go apeshit because I have to lower their pay to such a low amount to keep my country from going bankrupt.

The early game is great, but they need to work on it to keep the later part of the game playable.

The developers have said part of the reason assimilation happens so quickly is that it reduces the number of POPs and makes the game run faster later on. So I'm not really looking forward to getting to 1900 using a mod that reduces assimilation in certain parts of the world.

And I totally agree with you on the military budget needing two sliders and there being too many soldiers. I thought I had a strong enough military as the US in the 1870s with around 200,000 troops (with the Civil War and the Mexican Wars over I had been at peace for a long time and felt pretty secure). But then all of a sudden the UK declared war on me with a half dozen 50,000 man stacks on the Canadian border pouring in. With large parts of India and the rest of their empire containing British citizens instead of locals they can field some massive armies. My military budget had been under 50% for years I could have had an army 3-4 times larger, I just didn't see the point until I saw those doom stacks.

dawgfan · 08-23-2010, 12:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

+1

It just seems like a genre that's pretty played out to me.

I'm not a big fan of the Guitar Hero series - I like the presentation and gameplay better on Rock Band - but I've bought a lot of them simply because of songs not available elsewhere. I can see someone that prefers and has only bought Rock Band software appreciating seeing some songs that had been GH exclusive up until now making the move over to Rock Band.

For me, I'm really happy to see the keyboard peripheral added to the mix as well as the real guitar controller and the potential to learn how to play it via RB3.

Atocep · 08-23-2010, 12:34 PM

Reviews on Mafia 2 so far are mixed at best. Kotaku was mostly negative, XBox UK didn't like it, IGN gave it a 7, but Game Informer gave it a 9.

Major complaints are the length of the game (apparently can be finished in under 10 hours), lack of interesting missions, zero side missions, no reason to explore, and awful AI.

MizzouRah · 08-23-2010, 12:36 PM

Yep.. basically the world felt dead from what I've read (Mafia 2)

Scoobz0202 · 08-23-2010, 02:00 PM

Damn. Was pretty excited for this one.

Tangent: What is the game that Rockstar was developing? Something about being a police detective maybe??

Edit: L.A. Noire is the game I was thinking of. Couldn't find a release date though. Thats another one that I heard about earlier this year that had me excited like Mafia 2. Hopefully it isn't a let down as well. (Maybe Mafia 2 isn't and I'll enjoy but the earlier impressions aren't getting me too excited.)

cartman · 08-23-2010, 02:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

It just seems like a genre that's pretty played out to me.

I see what you did here...

Tasan · 08-23-2010, 04:39 PM

I've been beating my head on my desk over the last mission in Starcraft 2. I just can't seem to finish it.

Honolulu_Blue · 08-27-2010, 04:30 PM

While I just posted this in the "Zombie Apocalypse" thread and it's not a 2010 video game. I still felt like I should share:

Zombie RPG. Turn-based combat. It sounds awesome:

Dead State: The Zombie Survival RPG

A Blood Red State: Dead State Revealed | Rock, Paper, Shotgun

When the Obsidian/Troika veterans Doublebear announced that they were making a Zombie-themed RPG, there was an immediate response in our comment thread. Namely, posting comments. It was then codenamed ZRPG. Now, it has a real name. It’s going to be called Dead State and we’ve got the first hard information, screenshots and an interview with head Doublebearer Brian Mitsoda.

Dead State is set in Texas in the fictional town of Splendid, in the middle of nowhere. The idea being to create a landlocked place with few large cities and a distance between towns – and, metaphorically, a dying area in real life too. The game is predominantly rural and suburban in design, with the major cities basically forming a natural border for the map area. Because, frankly, due to the disaster, the cities aren’t where you go.

You’re in charge of the local shelter – a school – which works as your base of operation. The basic mission is survival. You go out, gathering food and finding allies – and every person who can join you is a defined personality. You stay in, improving your defences and upgrading equipment. The sort of elements of the game are discussed further in the FAQ but the key element is freedom. The game doesn’t have any defined enemies. Yes, it has people who you’ll likely end up hostile to, but other groups of survivors will like or dislike you based upon your actions to each other.

Zombies, of course, won’t like you at all. It’s a zombie purist game, concentrating on shambling brain-eaters rather than any manner of super-sprinting-zombie. Alone, they’re not really much to worry about. In large mobs, attracted by gunfire – like, for example, you may engage in when fighting other survivors for precious supplies – they’re rather more troublesome.

In short, with its freedom to explore and lack of a classical arc, this seems to draw heavily from the Fallout well. Marrying that to an unexplored (in this particular genre) theme, and we’ve got something that’s terribly exciting for anyone who cares about RPGs. We talked to Brian Mitsoda (ex-Troika, ex-Obsidian) about what’s waiting out there in the desert…

RPS: Can you elaborate on your vision of zombies? What are you trying to evoke in the game? What kind of things have influenced you?

Brian Mitsoda: On paper, our zombies are really not supposed to be threatening. They’re dumb, they’re slow, they’re unorganized – your very basic shambling corpse. They’re only dangerous when you forget about them. Make too much noise, get cornered, ignore them – that’s when they get dangerous. Most games deal with a Night of the Living Dead scenario where you have to survive one night, one wave, one map. We’re dealing with a long-term zombie threat, where you have to worry about keeping people fed, friends getting bit and infected while scavenging, and the desperation of other human beings. Honestly, the game is not about the zombies, but about how people react to a crisis and what they are willing to do to other human beings and even members of their group to stay alive or protect their own. The zombies are just a cause, like economic collapse or a massive earthquake, and it’s really the human self-preservation instinct and the survivor mentality that we’re interested in portraying.

I think the interesting thing about a disaster is this mentality that everything is going to be okay – that “someone” is going to come in and save me, of course. This idea that as long as you aren’t in immediate danger, you can keep your head down and hope the problem will go away. We’re short-term thinking creatures and we don’t like to think of the big picture implications of our actions – global warming, borrowing money, cutting education/space spending. I think rationally we want to believe the governments of the world would mobilize quick enough to stop a zombie plague (only infected people rise from the dead in our game) but I think that generally we’re only mobilized when we are directly threatened. By the time people start to notice the dead walking in their neck of the woods, the problem has spread beyond containment. The zombies in Dead State are a faceless (sometimes literally) force and dealing with the zombie problem is a lot like waging a war on an ideal.

RPS: You’ve said that you don’t want to have “The bad guys” and can find ways of working with or pissing off anyone. Care to elaborate on that?

Brian Mitsoda: Allies in the game are people who have asked to join or have been convinced to join your group. We did this because we wanted a large pool of unique survivors and also because we wanted some randomness in the makeup of your group. You probably won’t be able to find everyone in one game, and your dealings with many of the survivors may be different depending on how you govern the group, how much they get along with some of the others, their mood/morale, and when you bring them in. Morale tracks the overall mood of the Shelter – if it’s positive, mostly people are happy, if not, you need to start raising mood and accomplishing goals that will make people forget about the horror outside. Allies won’t be 100% loyal to you once they are in the Shelter, so you’ll have to throw them a bone every so often or impress them to make them stay. In a way it’s like being a real leader – you can’t make decisions that please all of the people all of the time.

When we say we don’t have bad guys, what we mean is, we want to leave the moral judgement up to the player. There’s a very specific type of person or organization that might survive a major catastrophe, as you can imagine. We have some other groups in the game, and a few that had a head start over the player’s ragtag bunch. For example, we have a group that is primarily made up of members of a militia. They’re pretty much the kind of people you think you’d find in a Texas militia group, but they were quite prepared for a social disaster to hit the area. You may not like them, but you might be able to come to an arrangement with them (especially if one of your allies knows them), though they may not be keen on it if you’re aiding a group they hate. It’s more likely the militia doesn’t want anything to do with you.

Most of the groups either don’t want to deal with you or they just want your stuff, so convincing them to work with you or teaching them to fear you will take some doing. Not everybody wants to be found and most people will see you as a potential threat. NPC groups will act against each other, so sometimes your help or inaction can have an effect on other groups. We let the player choose their allies and their enemies – there is no ultimate bad guy threat to all the groups, well, I guess unless the player manages that.

RPS: The Combat system will be turn-based, without full party control – though with room for you to equip characters – and heavy on psychological modelling. What are you trying to evoke with the system?

Brian Mitsoda: As I was mentioning earlier, we wanted to make our allies feel as though they were individuals rather than extensions of the player. They can be ordered around by the player, but as to whether they will follow that order or not depends on their ability, their aversion to the task, and their respect for the player’s commands. That might make it sound like they will NEVER do anything you say, but really what it means is if your ally is scared of zombies and you tell him to run into a pack of zombies, he’s most likely going to ignore the order or do it and possibly start panicking as the zombies start to mob him. Each ally has different perks and personalities, and most of these can be altered by your interaction with them. Through dialogue/time they might grow to respect you and be more likely to put themselves in danger to protect you or your encouragement might make them fearlessly aggressive – there’s quite a few ways you can shape their behavior, and not always in healthy, feel-good back-patting.

The big difference in our group and something like Jagged Alliance is these are normal people with little to no combat experience, not a veteran squad of commandos, so they handle like you’d expect them to. It’s best to think of them as intelligent Gradius options – they’re there to assist and absorb damage. They make combat much easier than going it alone, but they can die and you’re really going to have to work at it to bring everyone home all the time. Sometimes you may have to let someone go to get the rest of your group out safely. If everyone else is at the rally point and one ally is still in that house surrounded by ten zombies, let ‘em go, ‘cause they’re gone.

RPS: Care to talk a little about the difference between human and zombie opponents, in terms of how they work in game? I especially like a the genre-staple of a firefight against humans where the gun-shots attract zombies.

Brian Mitsoda: Assuming you’re not hitting a human hideout, humans you meet out in the field are likely to be in small groups, ready to confront you for the same resources or just because. Some of them were working in a frozen yogurt shop up to a few weeks ago, and others might have been hardcore gang-bangers with access to heavy weaponry. Humans are faster than zombies, better armored, and a lot more likely to kill you one-on-one. They might actively seek you out or they might try to stay hidden. Just like our allies, they have their own overriding combat imperatives. They’re unpredictable, which makes them dangerous.

Zombies, on the other hand, are unorganized. They could be anywhere, but their behavior is predictable – they are attracted to noise and will attack the first human they see. They don’t care about sides, so if your opponents are using loud guns, the zombies will go after them. If you can use the zombies to your advantage, you might be able to take on a larger force – and there are some items/strategies that can help with this – but it’s a gamble. It’s generally never a good idea to invite zombies into an area you want to explore. And don’t forget – enemies (and allies) killed by zombies will get back up!

One thing we really wanted to capture with the gameplay was that feeling of dread that was a big part of X-Com. You only have line of sight to what you and your allies see. It’s very easy to be in a situation where you turn the corner and there are five zombies waiting there or a case where you fail to properly sweep a bedroom and one lunges out of the walk-in closet while you’re about to search the dresser. I think that’s a big part of the zombie genre, that experience where your friend gets bit that one time you weren’t careful. It makes the zombies in the game scary and the exploration very tense, rather than just consisting of killing all the enemies in the area and opening all the containers, repeat ad nauseam.

RPS: I suppose leads to another question – what sort of AI does the zombies have?

Brian Mitsoda: Well, we only have one type of zombie – three if you count crawling zombies and zombies that have been set on fire. Zombies are attracted to sound – in fact, you can even make noise to try and lure them out of a building, If you’re unsure how many there are. There’s a noise meter in the combat interface to let you know how much noise has been made. Make noise, local ones will come to investigate. Make a lot of noise and distant ones will start looking for you. Make enough noise and zombies will be lured to that map. It’s okay to be loud once in awhile, but if you sustain noise for too long, they’ll be coming from all over. Stay quiet for a few rounds and they will forget about you if you haven’t been spotted.

Zombies will attack the closest human target that they can see. It may look like they are intelligently mobbing someone, but it’s most likely that the NPC had the unfortunate luck of being the closest or loudest thing in the area. It’s hard to predict where or when they will show up, since they might just be randomly walking around the map. On their own they’re pretty weak and slow. They really gain the upper hand when people get isolated or occupied with another task.

Unfortunately, zombies that see humans will often start moaning, which increases the noise in the area. If a character gets surrounded, generally they won’t have enough action points to destroy all of the attackers in one round. Zombies will frequently lunge to try and knock down humans, to gain better access to the squishy parts. And if an NPC is already weak or wounded they are susceptible to being infected, which is a permanent status, assuming they survive. Infected NPCs will become zombies if they die in combat or stop receiving antibiotics, which is the primary way to control the infection in our game.

RPS: The Shelter is a school. Why did you decide on that – and also, could you elaborate how it leads to interaction. The game ends if it’s taken, I believe, and it’s the place for the whole hotbed of internal interactions, yes?

Brian Mitsoda: We chose a school as a shelter because American schools are frequently used as emergency shelters for many communities and modern school designs resemble prisons more than schools. They’re designed not only to keep kids in, but to keep out people who aren’t supposed to be there – security windows and doors, metal detectors, perimeter fences. We worked off a couple of actual school layouts – it was fortunate or maybe sad that these schools were built like fortresses.
The shelter is where all the allies can be found – and it might seem like a pretty safe place to be, but once the danger of zombies and starving humans is escaped, you have the petty bickering and power struggle of the allies to contend with. Your player is the leader of the group – there’s going to be a lot of people sniping at them and expecting the player to give them special treatment. You’ll have to gain the trust of allies, raise the general morale of the shelter, and make deals with other authority figures to try and keep everyone loyal. Allies will come to you with their problems or requests and they’re going to expect you to help them – sometimes this means favoring one over another or bribing them with an extra ration. Dialogue skills will help, but they usually open up alternate solutions rather than just bypassing the decision. If you make a promise to someone, they will expect you to follow through, and within a certain amount of time too.

We have certain situations – crisis events – that require the player to make especially difficult decisions. These decisions affect the law or policies of the shelter’s inhabitants, and most every ally will lose or gain confidence in you when you make these decisions. If you have authority figures in the school, they will want to recommend a course of action and depending on how well they respect you or if you consider their advice, they may be able to persuade other allies that you made the right choice.

For example, one crisis involves the supply of antibiotics running low and dealing with the school’s infected allies. You might want to make finding antibiotics a priority or give them to a few key people, or kick the infected out, but it’s not an easy decision and some people are going to die, some will hate you, and some will think you run a tight ship. This is the political side of being a leader, and I think it’s one of the more exciting parts of the game’s story mechanics.

RPS: It’ s a survival game. Hence, food matters and such things. Care to elaborate how you see the game working here?

Brian Mitsoda: We definitely wanted Dead State to be about survival, and we needed a resource to reinforce this. Allies need food every day. If they start to starve, it causes morale problems, which can start to impact the ability of the shelter to function. Having to go out for food is risky, but necessary. For gameplay mechanics, it prevents the player from just turtling in their shelter. It also organically raises the difficulty of the game – more allies, more food needed, more (and farther) locations need to be reached to gain access to food (and the chance of running into more hostile groups). Then you factor in luxury items to help with morale and fuel for generators and parts for shelter upgrades and there’s an awful lot of reason to go out and search for more people to help. The more you have, the more you need, and so on. Also, food and other items can disappear over time due to the looting efforts of other groups, so the game gets a bit harder as it goes on, and forces you to start taking risks, like trying to loot riskier areas or take on larger groups for their supplies.

RPS: Thanks for your time.

Atocep · 08-27-2010, 11:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scoobz0202

Damn. Was pretty excited for this one.

Tangent: What is the game that Rockstar was developing? Something about being a police detective maybe??

Edit: L.A. Noire is the game I was thinking of. Couldn't find a release date though. Thats another one that I heard about earlier this year that had me excited like Mafia 2. Hopefully it isn't a let down as well. (Maybe Mafia 2 isn't and I'll enjoy but the earlier impressions aren't getting me too excited.)

This one has been pushed back to 4Q 2011 "at the earliest".

Here's some info on how much of a train wreck this game is rumored to be.

Rumor: LA Noire's Development More Of A Mess Than We'd Imagined

MJ4H · 08-28-2010, 10:42 AM

3 days until the new Metroid (Other M) is out. Pre-ordered for my birthday. Can't wait to pick this one up. Looks like a lot of fun.

MizzouRah · 08-30-2010, 01:46 PM

DJ Hero 2 - I'm finally going to make the plunge.. the part pack includes two turntables and a microphone..

Here is the song list.. freaking awesome!

2Pac feat. Dr. Dre and Roger Troutman - "California Love Remix"
50 Cent - "In Da Club"
Adamski - "Killer"
Afrika Bambaataa and The Soul Sonic Force - "Planet Rock"
Armand Van Helden - "I Want Your Soul"
A-Trak - "Say Whoa"
B.o.B feat. Bruno Mars - "Nothin' On You"
Basement Jaxx - "Where's Your Head At"
BlakRoc feat. Pharoahe Monch & RZA - "Dollaz & Sense"
Busta Rhymes - "Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See"
Calvin Harris - "I'm Not Alone"
Chamillionaire - "Ridin'"
Chic - "Good Times"
Chic - "Le Freak"
Clinton Sparks, DJ Class, & Jermaine Dupri - "Favorite DJ"
Daft Punk - "Human After All"
Damian Marley - "Welcome To Jamrock"
David Guetta & Chris Willis - "Love Is Gone"
David Guetta feat. Kid Cudi - "Memories"
David Guetta vs. The Egg - "Love Don't Let Me Go (Walking Away)"
Deadmau5 - "Ghosts N Stuff"
Deadmau5 & Kaskade - "I Remember"
Deee-Lite - "Groove Is In The Heart"
Dillinja and Skibadee - "Twist 'Em Out"
Dizzee Rascal & Armand Van Helden - "Bonkers"
DJ Qbert - "Super Battle Breaks"
DJ Shadow - "Midnight In A Perfect World"
DJ Shadow feat. Q-Tip and Lateef The Truth Speaker - "Enuff (DJ Fresh Remix)"
Donna Summer - "Bad Girls"
Edwin Starr - "War"
Eminem - "Not Afraid"
Estelle feat. Kanye West - "American Boy"
Flo Rida - "Low"
Flo Rida feat. Will.I.Am - "In The Ayer"
Gorillaz feat. Mos Def & Bobby Womack - "Stylo"
Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five feat. Melle Mel & Duke Bootee - "The Message"
Harold Faltermeyer - "Axel F"
House Of Pain - "Jump Around"
Iyaz - "Replay"
Janet Jackson - "Nasty"
Justice - "D.A.N.C.E."
Justice - "Waters Of Nazareth"
Kanye West - "Heartless"
Kanye West - "Love Lockdown"
Kaskade & Deadmau5 - "Move For Me"
Kelis - "Acapella (David Guetta Extended Mix)"
Kool & The Gang - "Jungle Boogie"
Lady Gaga - "Lovegame"
Lady Gaga - "Bad Romance"
Lady Gaga feat. Colby O'Donis - "Just Dance"
Lil Jon & The East Side Boyz feat. Ying Yang Twins - "Get Low"
Lil' Wayne - "Go DJ"
Lil' Wayne feat. Static Major - "Lollipop"
LL Cool J - "I Can't Live Without My Radio"
M.I.A. - "Galang"
M|A|R|R|S - "Pump Up The Volume"
Major Lazer feat. VYBZ Kartel - "Pon De Floor"
Malcolm McLaren - "Buffalo Gals"
Metallica - "The Day That Never Comes"
Missy Elliott - "Get Ur Freak On"
MSTRKRFT feat. N.O.R.E. - "Bounce"
Nas feat. Keri Hilson - "Hero"
Naughty By Nature - "O.P.P."
Nelly - "Hot In Herre"
New Boyz - "You're A Jerk"
New Order - "Blue Monday"
Newcleus - "Jam On It"
Nightcrawlers - "Push The Feeling On (MK Mix 95)"
Orbital - "The Box"
Pirate Soundsystem - "Bashy Bashy"
Pitbull - "I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho)"
Pussycat Dolls feat. Busta Rhymes - "Don't Cha"
Rihanna - "Pon De Replay"
Rihanna - "Rude Boy"
Robin S - "Show Me Love (Stonebridge Radio Edit)"
Salt N Pepa - "Push It"
Sam Cooke - "Chain Gang"
Sam Sparro – "B&G" a/k/a "Black & Gold"
Sean Paul - "Infiltrate"
Sean Paul - "Get Busy"
Snoop Dogg - "Who Am I (What's My Name)?"
Snow - "Informer"
Soulja Boy Tell 'Em - "Crank That (Soulja Boy)"
Sparfunk & D-Code - "Apocalypse"
Stevie Wonder - "Superstition"
Talib Kweli - "Get By"
The Chemical Brothers - "Leave Home"
The Chemical Brothers feat. Q-Tip - "Galvanize"
The Crystal Method - "Busy Child (Still Busy After All These Years Remix)"
The Jackson 5 - "ABC"
The Notorious B.I.G. feat. Mase & Diddy - "Mo' Money, Mo' Problems"
The Prodigy - "Omen"
The Prodigy - "Firestarter"
Tiësto - "Speed Rail"
Tiësto & Sneaky Sound System - "I Will Be Here"
Tiësto vs Diplo - "Come On"
Tiga - "You Gonna Want Me"
Timbaland feat. Drake - "Say Something"
Timbaland feat. Keri Hilson & D.O.E. - "The Way I Are"
Tweet feat. Missy Elliott - "Oops (Oh My)"
Walter Murphy - "A Fifth Of Beethoven"
Warren G feat. Nate Dogg - "Regulate"
Wayne Smith - "Under Mi Sleng Teng"
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "Heads Will Roll (A-Trak Remix )"
Young Jeezy feat. Kanye West - "Put On"

MikeVic · 08-30-2010, 01:57 PM

Anyone else playing DeathSpank? I think it's pretty good for $15.

MJ4H · 08-31-2010, 05:42 PM

Wow Metroid Other M is amazing.

I LOVE IT

mckerney · 08-31-2010, 06:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MJ4H

Wow Metroid Other M is amazing.

I LOVE IT

I preordered Other M from Amazon and was hoping they'd ship it yesterday but it looks like they'll be sending it tomorrow. Hopefully I'll get it by the weekend.

MJ4H · 08-31-2010, 06:22 PM

Hands down best looking game on Wii. Fun to play. Control is super-responsive. Lots of cut-scenes but I don't mind that too much.

Big Fo · 08-31-2010, 09:25 PM

MJ4H, I just started the game so I can't really judge it so far. But did you have to adjust your TV or anything? The game seems so dark, at times I can barely make out where I'm supposed to be jumping to.

Super Ugly · 09-01-2010, 12:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Atocep

This one has been pushed back to 4Q 2011 "at the earliest".

Here's some info on how much of a train wreck this game is rumored to be.

Rumor: LA Noire's Development More Of A Mess Than We'd Imagined

That's disappointing.

Speaking of disappointing, has anybody else downloaded Dead Rising Case Zero? I gave it a whirl last night and was left feeling pretty underwhelmed.

MJ4H · 09-01-2010, 12:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Big Fo

MJ4H, I just started the game so I can't really judge it so far. But did you have to adjust your TV or anything? The game seems so dark, at times I can barely make out where I'm supposed to be jumping to.

No, but it is a bit dark. Nothing out of bounds, though.

Mizzou B-ball fan · 09-01-2010, 09:27 PM

Nice. New Valkyria Chronicles sequel on the way. PLEASE be a PS3 game.

Sega registers Valkyria Chronicles 3 domain | Joystiq

SackAttack · 09-01-2010, 10:01 PM

Isn't Valkyria 2 a PSP game?

Mizzou B-ball fan · 09-02-2010, 08:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SackAttack

Isn't Valkyria 2 a PSP game?

Yes. The original was a PS3 game and the second is a PSP game.

Atocep · 09-03-2010, 04:25 PM

Rumors that Gearbox Software (Borderlands) was working on Duke Nukem: Forever were confirmed at Pax today. The big surprise though is that it's playable, looks great (according to Kotaku at least), and is set to ship in 2011.

Bearcat729 · 09-03-2010, 05:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Super Ugly

Speaking of disappointing, has anybody else downloaded Dead Rising Case Zero? I gave it a whirl last night and was left feeling pretty underwhelmed.

I kinda liked it.

sterlingice · 09-04-2010, 09:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Atocep

Rumors that Gearbox Software (Borderlands) was working on Duke Nukem: Forever were confirmed at Pax today. The big surprise though is that it's playable, looks great (according to Kotaku at least), and is set to ship in 2011.

You lie

SI

jeff061 · 09-04-2010, 09:26 AM

It's been playable and looking great for about 8 years now

. Just need to finish the damn thing.

Neon_Chaos · 09-09-2010, 10:16 AM

Just got Valkyria Chronicles 2 for the PSP, and it is awesome.

I am now PO'd that I never bought the first game for the PS3. Sigh. More purchases for me.

cthomer5000 · 09-09-2010, 11:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Atocep

This one has been pushed back to 4Q 2011 "at the earliest".

Here's some info on how much of a train wreck this game is rumored to be.

Rumor: LA Noire's Development More Of A Mess Than We'd Imagined

You mean 1Q 2011? That was the lastest I heard. Another year push-back and that being 'at earliest' would seem a bit extreme.

Anyway. I can't wait for Fallout New Vegas. I'm just killing time until that's released.

DataKing · 09-09-2010, 11:34 AM

Fallout: New Vegas and Gran Turismo 5 will be the two biggies for me this year.

SackAttack · 09-09-2010, 01:02 PM

Be excited for New Vegas all you want, but I'm still not convinced Gran Turismo 5 is shipping this decade, let alone this year.

DataKing · 09-09-2010, 01:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SackAttack

Be excited for New Vegas all you want, but I'm still not convinced Gran Turismo 5 is shipping this decade, let alone this year.

I wasn't either, until I watched the 24 Hours of Le Mans earlier this year. Banners and advertising for GT5 all over the place. If it doesn't ship, Sony will have thrown away alot of money.

SackAttack · 09-09-2010, 01:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DataKing

I wasn't either, until I watched the 24 Hours of Le Mans earlier this year. Banners and advertising for GT5 all over the place. If it doesn't ship, Sony will have thrown away alot of money.

I'm fairly certain that GT5 has already claimed the crown of most expensive game ever. I'm not sure how it's going to break even once it DOES ship, never mind turn a profit.

Kodos · 09-09-2010, 01:16 PM

Not to mention the series has never featured AI cars that actually race against you. They're all just out for a drive.

Cringer · 09-09-2010, 01:20 PM

Would Gran Turismo 5 Prelude 2 count as a release?

Mizzou B-ball fan · 09-09-2010, 03:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SackAttack

I'm fairly certain that GT5 has already claimed the crown of most expensive game ever. I'm not sure how it's going to break even once it DOES ship, never mind turn a profit.

It will turn a profit pretty easily. It's easy to forget that they've already made millions off the release of a glorified demo in the form of Gran Turismo 5 Prologue. If you include that profit, they only have to sell around 2M copies worldwide to break even. They'll do that in the first week.

Also, it's been mentioned by developers that Gran Turismo 6 will be released using the GT5 engine, so they're going to be printing money with the lower development costs on that game, which should be out within 3 years.

08-19-2010, 12:55 PM	#1451
Kodos Resident Alien Join Date: Jun 2001	It's LARA! __________________ Author of The Bill Gates Challenge, as well as other groundbreaking dynasties.

08-20-2010, 10:44 PM	#1453
Greyroofoo Pro Starter Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Alabama	Rock Band 3 Set List: Spoiler - Amy Winehouse – Rehab - Anthrax – Caught In A Mosh - At the Drive-In – One Armed Scissor - Avenged Sevenfold – Beast and the Harlot - B-52′s – Rock Lobster - The Beach Boys – Good Vibrations (Live) - Big Country – In a Big Country - Blondie – Heart of Glass - Bob Marley & The Wailers – Get Up, Stand Up - The Bronx – False Alarm - Chicago – 25 or 6 to 4 - The Cure – Just Like Heaven - David Bowie – Space Oddity - Deep Purple – Smoke on the Water - Def Leppard – Foolin' - Devo – Whip It - Dio – Rainbow in the Dark - Dire Straits – Walk of Life - Doobie Brothers – China Grove - The Doors – Break On Through - Dover – King George - Echo and the Bunnymen – Killing Moon - Elton John – Saturday Night's Alright (For Fighting) - Faith No More – Midlife Crisis - Filter – Hey Man, Nice Shot - Flaming Lips – Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Pt. 1 - Foreigner – Cold as Ice - Golden Earring – Radar Love - HIM – Killing Loneliness - Huey Lewis and the News – The Power of Love - Hypernova – Viva La Resistance - Ida Maria – Oh My God - INXS – Need You Tonight - J. Geils Band – Centerfold - James Brown – I Got You (I Feel Good) - Jane's Addiction – Been Caught Stealing - Jimi Hendrix – Crosstown Traffic - Joan Jett – I Love Rock and Roll - John Lennon – Imagine - Juanes – Me Enamora - Lynyrd Skynyrd – Free Bird - Mana – Oye Mi Amor - Marilyn Manson – The Beautiful People - Metric – Combat Baby - The Muffs – Outer Space - Night Ranger – Sister Christian - Ozzy Osbourne – Crazy Train - Paramore – Misery Business - Phish – Llama - Phoenix – Lasso - The Police – Don't Stand So Close To Me - Poni Hoax – Antibodies - Pretty Girls Make Graves – Something Bigger, Something Brighter - Primus – Jerry Was a Race Car Driver - Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody - Queens Of The Stone Age – No One Knows - Rammstein – Du Hast - The Ramones – I Wanna Be Sedated - Raveonettes – Last Dance - Rilo Kiley – Portions of Foxes -. Riverboat Gamblers – Don't Bury Me… I'm Still Not Dead - Roxette – The Look - Slipknot – Before I Forget - Smash Mouth – Walkin' on the Sun - The Smiths – Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before - The Sounds – Living in America - Spacehog – In the Meantime - Steve Miller Band – Fly Like An Eagle - Stone Temple Pilots – Plush - Swingin' Utters – This Bastard's Life - T.Rex – 20th Century Boy - Tears for Fears – Everybody Wants to Rule the World - Tegan and Sara – The Con - Them Crooked Vultures – Dead End Friends - Tokio Hotel – Humanoid - Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers – I Need To Know - The Vines – Get Free - War – Low Rider - Warren Zevon – Werewolves Of London - The White Stripes – The Hardest Button to Button - Whitesnake – Here I Go Again - The Who – I Can See For Miles - Yes – Roundabout Last edited by Greyroofoo : 08-20-2010 at 10:45 PM. Reason: Added spoiler tag

08-20-2010, 10:55 PM	#1456
cartman Death Herald Join Date: Nov 2000 Location: Le stelle la notte sono grandi e luminose nel cuore profondo del Texas	There is quite a bit of awesome on that song list. Esp. with the ability to learn to play them on a real guitar. __________________ Thinkin' of a master plan 'Cuz ain't nuthin' but sweat inside my hand So I dig into my pocket, all my money is spent So I dig deeper but still comin' up with lint

08-21-2010, 11:25 AM	#1459
sterlingice Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Back in Houston!	I dunno- I've been quite underwhelmed with GH4, GH5, and RB3's set lists. There's a lot of rehashed stuff (about a third of RB3's set list was on a previous GH) and a lot of songs that don't really make me want to go buy either of the two new games (GH5/RB3). Tho, to be fair, RB3's set list is quite a bit superior to GH5's SI __________________ Houston Hippopotami, III.3: 20th Anniversary Thread - All former HT players are encouraged to check it out! Janos: "Only America could produce an imbecile of your caliber!" Freakazoid: "That's because we make lots of things better than other people!" Last edited by sterlingice : 08-21-2010 at 11:26 AM.

08-21-2010, 08:32 PM	#1460
Groundhog Coordinator Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Sydney, Australia	Roundabout! __________________ Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. --Ambrose Bierce

08-22-2010, 01:25 AM	#1462
Mustang Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Wisconsin	It has The Smiths on it so it will be a buy for me. __________________ You, you will regret what you have done this day. I will make you regret ever being born. Your going to wish you never left your mothers womb, where it was warm and safe... and wet. i am going to show you pain you never knew existed, you are going to see a whole new spectrum of pain, like a Rainboooow. But! This rainbow is not just like any other rainbow, its...

08-22-2010, 07:06 PM	#1463
sabotai General Manager Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: The Satellite of Love	I'm loving Victoria 2, but it becomes so slow by around 1890-1900 that it's unplayable. I think the problem (or one of them) is too many POPs and military units. By the late game, I don't think they need a bunch of 100-500 people pops. Some, yeah, but as the US, some of my provinces were getting ridiculous with the number of pops. There is a problem with the game right now with large pops assimilating too quickly, but I think after some time they should just have these tiny pops convert or assimilate or something to merge them with larger pops And did I mention way too many military units? Again, as the US, around 1900 I had 575 military units. Each of 3000 soldiers, so I had a standing army of about 1.6 million soldiers. Anyone know what the size of the US army was in 1900? I'm going to take a wild guess and say it wasn't 1.6 million. And the crazy thing was I could have had 6000 (!!!!!) units. Yes, my military costs were completely out of control. Good thing I stockpiled a load of cash and that my pops didn't mind 75% tax rates. The Socialists were in charge for a good 40 years. And I didn't even have the largest army. That honor belonged to the Russians. They had 1100+ units. It's now 1903 and the game is S L O W. My spending is way out of control since I can't lower the size of my military. I mean, it's silly that I can't just say "Hire 500,000 soldiers and no more." I can lower military spending, but that lowers the pay of soldiers so it pisses off the soldiers I do have. I want to pay my soldiers well, but I don't want millions of them. There should be two sliders, one for pay and one for size. I think I'll keep playing just to see what happens. I'm pretty sure my soldiers are going to go apeshit because I have to lower their pay to such a low amount to keep my country from going bankrupt. The early game is great, but they need to work on it to keep the later part of the game playable.

08-22-2010, 08:09 PM	#1465
Flasch186 Coordinator Join Date: May 2002 Location: Jacksonville, FL	I edited it. __________________ Jacksonville-florida-homes-for-sale Putting a New Spin on Real Estate! ----------------------------------------------------------- Commissioner of the USFL USFL

08-22-2010, 08:17 PM	#1466
jeff061 Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: MA	30 matches into Starcraft multi. I never really understood the obsession with multi in the original. Full onset addiction is setting now though. Loving it. Still not that good, I don't think. But I'm no longer an oblivious newbie with only a grasp of the most basic game rules. Generally when I win it's deserved and when I don't I know exactly why, pure luck is needed far less. Lot of cool vids with commentary on youtube of matches as well and the ingame replays are a godsend. Next step is to get a little tighter with the build orders and use hot keys better for macroing. __________________ Last edited by jeff061 : 08-22-2010 at 08:18 PM.

08-23-2010, 12:34 PM	#1469
Atocep Coordinator Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Puyallup, WA	Reviews on Mafia 2 so far are mixed at best. Kotaku was mostly negative, XBox UK didn't like it, IGN gave it a 7, but Game Informer gave it a 9. Major complaints are the length of the game (apparently can be finished in under 10 hours), lack of interesting missions, zero side missions, no reason to explore, and awful AI.

08-23-2010, 12:36 PM	#1470
MizzouRah Hall Of Famer Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Troy, Mo	Yep.. basically the world felt dead from what I've read (Mafia 2)

08-23-2010, 02:00 PM	#1471
Scoobz0202 Pro Rookie Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Dayton, Ohio	Damn. Was pretty excited for this one. Tangent: What is the game that Rockstar was developing? Something about being a police detective maybe?? Edit: L.A. Noire is the game I was thinking of. Couldn't find a release date though. Thats another one that I heard about earlier this year that had me excited like Mafia 2. Hopefully it isn't a let down as well. (Maybe Mafia 2 isn't and I'll enjoy but the earlier impressions aren't getting me too excited.) Last edited by Scoobz0202 : 08-23-2010 at 02:02 PM.

08-23-2010, 04:39 PM	#1473
Tasan College Starter Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Houston, or there about	I've been beating my head on my desk over the last mission in Starcraft 2. I just can't seem to finish it. __________________ 2011 Golden Scribes winner for best Interactive Dynasty

08-27-2010, 04:30 PM	#1474
Honolulu_Blue Hockey Boy Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Royal Oak, MI	While I just posted this in the "Zombie Apocalypse" thread and it's not a 2010 video game. I still felt like I should share: Zombie RPG. Turn-based combat. It sounds awesome: Dead State: The Zombie Survival RPG A Blood Red State: Dead State Revealed \| Rock, Paper, Shotgun When the Obsidian/Troika veterans Doublebear announced that they were making a Zombie-themed RPG, there was an immediate response in our comment thread. Namely, posting comments. It was then codenamed ZRPG. Now, it has a real name. It’s going to be called Dead State and we’ve got the first hard information, screenshots and an interview with head Doublebearer Brian Mitsoda. Dead State is set in Texas in the fictional town of Splendid, in the middle of nowhere. The idea being to create a landlocked place with few large cities and a distance between towns – and, metaphorically, a dying area in real life too. The game is predominantly rural and suburban in design, with the major cities basically forming a natural border for the map area. Because, frankly, due to the disaster, the cities aren’t where you go. You’re in charge of the local shelter – a school – which works as your base of operation. The basic mission is survival. You go out, gathering food and finding allies – and every person who can join you is a defined personality. You stay in, improving your defences and upgrading equipment. The sort of elements of the game are discussed further in the FAQ but the key element is freedom. The game doesn’t have any defined enemies. Yes, it has people who you’ll likely end up hostile to, but other groups of survivors will like or dislike you based upon your actions to each other. Zombies, of course, won’t like you at all. It’s a zombie purist game, concentrating on shambling brain-eaters rather than any manner of super-sprinting-zombie. Alone, they’re not really much to worry about. In large mobs, attracted by gunfire – like, for example, you may engage in when fighting other survivors for precious supplies – they’re rather more troublesome. In short, with its freedom to explore and lack of a classical arc, this seems to draw heavily from the Fallout well. Marrying that to an unexplored (in this particular genre) theme, and we’ve got something that’s terribly exciting for anyone who cares about RPGs. We talked to Brian Mitsoda (ex-Troika, ex-Obsidian) about what’s waiting out there in the desert… RPS: Can you elaborate on your vision of zombies? What are you trying to evoke in the game? What kind of things have influenced you? Brian Mitsoda: On paper, our zombies are really not supposed to be threatening. They’re dumb, they’re slow, they’re unorganized – your very basic shambling corpse. They’re only dangerous when you forget about them. Make too much noise, get cornered, ignore them – that’s when they get dangerous. Most games deal with a Night of the Living Dead scenario where you have to survive one night, one wave, one map. We’re dealing with a long-term zombie threat, where you have to worry about keeping people fed, friends getting bit and infected while scavenging, and the desperation of other human beings. Honestly, the game is not about the zombies, but about how people react to a crisis and what they are willing to do to other human beings and even members of their group to stay alive or protect their own. The zombies are just a cause, like economic collapse or a massive earthquake, and it’s really the human self-preservation instinct and the survivor mentality that we’re interested in portraying. I think the interesting thing about a disaster is this mentality that everything is going to be okay – that “someone” is going to come in and save me, of course. This idea that as long as you aren’t in immediate danger, you can keep your head down and hope the problem will go away. We’re short-term thinking creatures and we don’t like to think of the big picture implications of our actions – global warming, borrowing money, cutting education/space spending. I think rationally we want to believe the governments of the world would mobilize quick enough to stop a zombie plague (only infected people rise from the dead in our game) but I think that generally we’re only mobilized when we are directly threatened. By the time people start to notice the dead walking in their neck of the woods, the problem has spread beyond containment. The zombies in Dead State are a faceless (sometimes literally) force and dealing with the zombie problem is a lot like waging a war on an ideal. RPS: You’ve said that you don’t want to have “The bad guys” and can find ways of working with or pissing off anyone. Care to elaborate on that? Brian Mitsoda: Allies in the game are people who have asked to join or have been convinced to join your group. We did this because we wanted a large pool of unique survivors and also because we wanted some randomness in the makeup of your group. You probably won’t be able to find everyone in one game, and your dealings with many of the survivors may be different depending on how you govern the group, how much they get along with some of the others, their mood/morale, and when you bring them in. Morale tracks the overall mood of the Shelter – if it’s positive, mostly people are happy, if not, you need to start raising mood and accomplishing goals that will make people forget about the horror outside. Allies won’t be 100% loyal to you once they are in the Shelter, so you’ll have to throw them a bone every so often or impress them to make them stay. In a way it’s like being a real leader – you can’t make decisions that please all of the people all of the time. When we say we don’t have bad guys, what we mean is, we want to leave the moral judgement up to the player. There’s a very specific type of person or organization that might survive a major catastrophe, as you can imagine. We have some other groups in the game, and a few that had a head start over the player’s ragtag bunch. For example, we have a group that is primarily made up of members of a militia. They’re pretty much the kind of people you think you’d find in a Texas militia group, but they were quite prepared for a social disaster to hit the area. You may not like them, but you might be able to come to an arrangement with them (especially if one of your allies knows them), though they may not be keen on it if you’re aiding a group they hate. It’s more likely the militia doesn’t want anything to do with you. Most of the groups either don’t want to deal with you or they just want your stuff, so convincing them to work with you or teaching them to fear you will take some doing. Not everybody wants to be found and most people will see you as a potential threat. NPC groups will act against each other, so sometimes your help or inaction can have an effect on other groups. We let the player choose their allies and their enemies – there is no ultimate bad guy threat to all the groups, well, I guess unless the player manages that. RPS: The Combat system will be turn-based, without full party control – though with room for you to equip characters – and heavy on psychological modelling. What are you trying to evoke with the system? Brian Mitsoda: As I was mentioning earlier, we wanted to make our allies feel as though they were individuals rather than extensions of the player. They can be ordered around by the player, but as to whether they will follow that order or not depends on their ability, their aversion to the task, and their respect for the player’s commands. That might make it sound like they will NEVER do anything you say, but really what it means is if your ally is scared of zombies and you tell him to run into a pack of zombies, he’s most likely going to ignore the order or do it and possibly start panicking as the zombies start to mob him. Each ally has different perks and personalities, and most of these can be altered by your interaction with them. Through dialogue/time they might grow to respect you and be more likely to put themselves in danger to protect you or your encouragement might make them fearlessly aggressive – there’s quite a few ways you can shape their behavior, and not always in healthy, feel-good back-patting. The big difference in our group and something like Jagged Alliance is these are normal people with little to no combat experience, not a veteran squad of commandos, so they handle like you’d expect them to. It’s best to think of them as intelligent Gradius options – they’re there to assist and absorb damage. They make combat much easier than going it alone, but they can die and you’re really going to have to work at it to bring everyone home all the time. Sometimes you may have to let someone go to get the rest of your group out safely. If everyone else is at the rally point and one ally is still in that house surrounded by ten zombies, let ‘em go, ‘cause they’re gone. RPS: Care to talk a little about the difference between human and zombie opponents, in terms of how they work in game? I especially like a the genre-staple of a firefight against humans where the gun-shots attract zombies. Brian Mitsoda: Assuming you’re not hitting a human hideout, humans you meet out in the field are likely to be in small groups, ready to confront you for the same resources or just because. Some of them were working in a frozen yogurt shop up to a few weeks ago, and others might have been hardcore gang-bangers with access to heavy weaponry. Humans are faster than zombies, better armored, and a lot more likely to kill you one-on-one. They might actively seek you out or they might try to stay hidden. Just like our allies, they have their own overriding combat imperatives. They’re unpredictable, which makes them dangerous. Zombies, on the other hand, are unorganized. They could be anywhere, but their behavior is predictable – they are attracted to noise and will attack the first human they see. They don’t care about sides, so if your opponents are using loud guns, the zombies will go after them. If you can use the zombies to your advantage, you might be able to take on a larger force – and there are some items/strategies that can help with this – but it’s a gamble. It’s generally never a good idea to invite zombies into an area you want to explore. And don’t forget – enemies (and allies) killed by zombies will get back up! One thing we really wanted to capture with the gameplay was that feeling of dread that was a big part of X-Com. You only have line of sight to what you and your allies see. It’s very easy to be in a situation where you turn the corner and there are five zombies waiting there or a case where you fail to properly sweep a bedroom and one lunges out of the walk-in closet while you’re about to search the dresser. I think that’s a big part of the zombie genre, that experience where your friend gets bit that one time you weren’t careful. It makes the zombies in the game scary and the exploration very tense, rather than just consisting of killing all the enemies in the area and opening all the containers, repeat ad nauseam. RPS: I suppose leads to another question – what sort of AI does the zombies have? Brian Mitsoda: Well, we only have one type of zombie – three if you count crawling zombies and zombies that have been set on fire. Zombies are attracted to sound – in fact, you can even make noise to try and lure them out of a building, If you’re unsure how many there are. There’s a noise meter in the combat interface to let you know how much noise has been made. Make noise, local ones will come to investigate. Make a lot of noise and distant ones will start looking for you. Make enough noise and zombies will be lured to that map. It’s okay to be loud once in awhile, but if you sustain noise for too long, they’ll be coming from all over. Stay quiet for a few rounds and they will forget about you if you haven’t been spotted. Zombies will attack the closest human target that they can see. It may look like they are intelligently mobbing someone, but it’s most likely that the NPC had the unfortunate luck of being the closest or loudest thing in the area. It’s hard to predict where or when they will show up, since they might just be randomly walking around the map. On their own they’re pretty weak and slow. They really gain the upper hand when people get isolated or occupied with another task. Unfortunately, zombies that see humans will often start moaning, which increases the noise in the area. If a character gets surrounded, generally they won’t have enough action points to destroy all of the attackers in one round. Zombies will frequently lunge to try and knock down humans, to gain better access to the squishy parts. And if an NPC is already weak or wounded they are susceptible to being infected, which is a permanent status, assuming they survive. Infected NPCs will become zombies if they die in combat or stop receiving antibiotics, which is the primary way to control the infection in our game. RPS: The Shelter is a school. Why did you decide on that – and also, could you elaborate how it leads to interaction. The game ends if it’s taken, I believe, and it’s the place for the whole hotbed of internal interactions, yes? Brian Mitsoda: We chose a school as a shelter because American schools are frequently used as emergency shelters for many communities and modern school designs resemble prisons more than schools. They’re designed not only to keep kids in, but to keep out people who aren’t supposed to be there – security windows and doors, metal detectors, perimeter fences. We worked off a couple of actual school layouts – it was fortunate or maybe sad that these schools were built like fortresses. The shelter is where all the allies can be found – and it might seem like a pretty safe place to be, but once the danger of zombies and starving humans is escaped, you have the petty bickering and power struggle of the allies to contend with. Your player is the leader of the group – there’s going to be a lot of people sniping at them and expecting the player to give them special treatment. You’ll have to gain the trust of allies, raise the general morale of the shelter, and make deals with other authority figures to try and keep everyone loyal. Allies will come to you with their problems or requests and they’re going to expect you to help them – sometimes this means favoring one over another or bribing them with an extra ration. Dialogue skills will help, but they usually open up alternate solutions rather than just bypassing the decision. If you make a promise to someone, they will expect you to follow through, and within a certain amount of time too. We have certain situations – crisis events – that require the player to make especially difficult decisions. These decisions affect the law or policies of the shelter’s inhabitants, and most every ally will lose or gain confidence in you when you make these decisions. If you have authority figures in the school, they will want to recommend a course of action and depending on how well they respect you or if you consider their advice, they may be able to persuade other allies that you made the right choice. For example, one crisis involves the supply of antibiotics running low and dealing with the school’s infected allies. You might want to make finding antibiotics a priority or give them to a few key people, or kick the infected out, but it’s not an easy decision and some people are going to die, some will hate you, and some will think you run a tight ship. This is the political side of being a leader, and I think it’s one of the more exciting parts of the game’s story mechanics. RPS: It’ s a survival game. Hence, food matters and such things. Care to elaborate how you see the game working here? Brian Mitsoda: We definitely wanted Dead State to be about survival, and we needed a resource to reinforce this. Allies need food every day. If they start to starve, it causes morale problems, which can start to impact the ability of the shelter to function. Having to go out for food is risky, but necessary. For gameplay mechanics, it prevents the player from just turtling in their shelter. It also organically raises the difficulty of the game – more allies, more food needed, more (and farther) locations need to be reached to gain access to food (and the chance of running into more hostile groups). Then you factor in luxury items to help with morale and fuel for generators and parts for shelter upgrades and there’s an awful lot of reason to go out and search for more people to help. The more you have, the more you need, and so on. Also, food and other items can disappear over time due to the looting efforts of other groups, so the game gets a bit harder as it goes on, and forces you to start taking risks, like trying to loot riskier areas or take on larger groups for their supplies. RPS: Thanks for your time. __________________ *Steve Yzerman*: 1,755 points in 1,514 regular season games. 185 points in 196 postseason games. A First-Team All-Star, Conn Smythe Trophy winner, Selke Trophy winner, Masterton Trophy winner, member of the Hockey Hall of Fame, Olympic gold medallist, and a three-time Stanley Cup Champion. Longest serving captain of one team in the history of the NHL (19 seasons).

08-28-2010, 10:42 AM	#1476
MJ4H Coordinator Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Hog Country	3 days until the new Metroid (Other M) is out. Pre-ordered for my birthday. Can't wait to pick this one up. Looks like a lot of fun. __________________ My YouTube channel My Twitch channel My Sharona

08-30-2010, 01:46 PM	#1477
MizzouRah Hall Of Famer Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Troy, Mo	DJ Hero 2 - I'm finally going to make the plunge.. the part pack includes two turntables and a microphone.. Here is the song list.. freaking awesome! 2Pac feat. Dr. Dre and Roger Troutman - "California Love Remix" 50 Cent - "In Da Club" Adamski - "Killer" Afrika Bambaataa and The Soul Sonic Force - "Planet Rock" Armand Van Helden - "I Want Your Soul" A-Trak - "Say Whoa" B.o.B feat. Bruno Mars - "Nothin' On You" Basement Jaxx - "Where's Your Head At" BlakRoc feat. Pharoahe Monch & RZA - "Dollaz & Sense" Busta Rhymes - "Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See" Calvin Harris - "I'm Not Alone" Chamillionaire - "Ridin'" Chic - "Good Times" Chic - "Le Freak" Clinton Sparks, DJ Class, & Jermaine Dupri - "Favorite DJ" Daft Punk - "Human After All" Damian Marley - "Welcome To Jamrock" David Guetta & Chris Willis - "Love Is Gone" David Guetta feat. Kid Cudi - "Memories" David Guetta vs. The Egg - "Love Don't Let Me Go (Walking Away)" Deadmau5 - "Ghosts N Stuff" Deadmau5 & Kaskade - "I Remember" Deee-Lite - "Groove Is In The Heart" Dillinja and Skibadee - "Twist 'Em Out" Dizzee Rascal & Armand Van Helden - "Bonkers" DJ Qbert - "Super Battle Breaks" DJ Shadow - "Midnight In A Perfect World" DJ Shadow feat. Q-Tip and Lateef The Truth Speaker - "Enuff (DJ Fresh Remix)" Donna Summer - "Bad Girls" Edwin Starr - "War" Eminem - "Not Afraid" Estelle feat. Kanye West - "American Boy" Flo Rida - "Low" Flo Rida feat. Will.I.Am - "In The Ayer" Gorillaz feat. Mos Def & Bobby Womack - "Stylo" Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five feat. Melle Mel & Duke Bootee - "The Message" Harold Faltermeyer - "Axel F" House Of Pain - "Jump Around" Iyaz - "Replay" Janet Jackson - "Nasty" Justice - "D.A.N.C.E." Justice - "Waters Of Nazareth" Kanye West - "Heartless" Kanye West - "Love Lockdown" Kaskade & Deadmau5 - "Move For Me" Kelis - "Acapella (David Guetta Extended Mix)" Kool & The Gang - "Jungle Boogie" Lady Gaga - "Lovegame" Lady Gaga - "Bad Romance" Lady Gaga feat. Colby O'Donis - "Just Dance" Lil Jon & The East Side Boyz feat. Ying Yang Twins - "Get Low" Lil' Wayne - "Go DJ" Lil' Wayne feat. Static Major - "Lollipop" LL Cool J - "I Can't Live Without My Radio" M.I.A. - "Galang" M\|A\|R\|R\|S - "Pump Up The Volume" Major Lazer feat. VYBZ Kartel - "Pon De Floor" Malcolm McLaren - "Buffalo Gals" Metallica - "The Day That Never Comes" Missy Elliott - "Get Ur Freak On" MSTRKRFT feat. N.O.R.E. - "Bounce" Nas feat. Keri Hilson - "Hero" Naughty By Nature - "O.P.P." Nelly - "Hot In Herre" New Boyz - "You're A Jerk" New Order - "Blue Monday" Newcleus - "Jam On It" Nightcrawlers - "Push The Feeling On (MK Mix 95)" Orbital - "The Box" Pirate Soundsystem - "Bashy Bashy" Pitbull - "I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho)" Pussycat Dolls feat. Busta Rhymes - "Don't Cha" Rihanna - "Pon De Replay" Rihanna - "Rude Boy" Robin S - "Show Me Love (Stonebridge Radio Edit)" Salt N Pepa - "Push It" Sam Cooke - "Chain Gang" Sam Sparro – "B&G" a/k/a "Black & Gold" Sean Paul - "Infiltrate" Sean Paul - "Get Busy" Snoop Dogg - "Who Am I (What's My Name)?" Snow - "Informer" Soulja Boy Tell 'Em - "Crank That (Soulja Boy)" Sparfunk & D-Code - "Apocalypse" Stevie Wonder - "Superstition" Talib Kweli - "Get By" The Chemical Brothers - "Leave Home" The Chemical Brothers feat. Q-Tip - "Galvanize" The Crystal Method - "Busy Child (Still Busy After All These Years Remix)" The Jackson 5 - "ABC" The Notorious B.I.G. feat. Mase & Diddy - "Mo' Money, Mo' Problems" The Prodigy - "Omen" The Prodigy - "Firestarter" Tiësto - "Speed Rail" Tiësto & Sneaky Sound System - "I Will Be Here" Tiësto vs Diplo - "Come On" Tiga - "You Gonna Want Me" Timbaland feat. Drake - "Say Something" Timbaland feat. Keri Hilson & D.O.E. - "The Way I Are" Tweet feat. Missy Elliott - "Oops (Oh My)" Walter Murphy - "A Fifth Of Beethoven" Warren G feat. Nate Dogg - "Regulate" Wayne Smith - "Under Mi Sleng Teng" Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "Heads Will Roll (A-Trak Remix )" Young Jeezy feat. Kanye West - "Put On"

08-30-2010, 01:57 PM	#1478
MikeVic Head Coach Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Hometown of Canada	Anyone else playing DeathSpank? I think it's pretty good for $15.

08-31-2010, 05:42 PM	#1479
MJ4H Coordinator Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Hog Country	Wow Metroid Other M is amazing. I LOVE IT __________________ My YouTube channel My Twitch channel My Sharona

08-31-2010, 06:22 PM	#1481
MJ4H Coordinator Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Hog Country	Hands down best looking game on Wii. Fun to play. Control is super-responsive. Lots of cut-scenes but I don't mind that too much. __________________ My YouTube channel My Twitch channel My Sharona

08-31-2010, 09:25 PM	#1482
Big Fo Pro Rookie Join Date: Jan 2005	MJ4H, I just started the game so I can't really judge it so far. But did you have to adjust your TV or anything? The game seems so dark, at times I can barely make out where I'm supposed to be jumping to.

09-01-2010, 09:27 PM	#1485
Mizzou B-ball fan General Manager Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Kansas City, MO	Nice. New Valkyria Chronicles sequel on the way. PLEASE be a PS3 game. Sega registers Valkyria Chronicles 3 domain \| Joystiq

09-01-2010, 10:01 PM	#1486
SackAttack Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Green Bay, WI	Isn't Valkyria 2 a PSP game?

09-03-2010, 04:25 PM	#1488
Atocep Coordinator Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Puyallup, WA	Rumors that Gearbox Software (Borderlands) was working on Duke Nukem: Forever were confirmed at Pax today. The big surprise though is that it's playable, looks great (according to Kotaku at least), and is set to ship in 2011.

09-04-2010, 09:26 AM	#1491
jeff061 Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: MA	It's been playable and looking great for about 8 years now . Just need to finish the damn thing. __________________

09-09-2010, 10:16 AM	#1492
Neon_Chaos Pro Starter Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Parañaque, Philippines	Just got Valkyria Chronicles 2 for the PSP, and it is awesome. I am now PO'd that I never bought the first game for the PS3. Sigh. More purchases for me. __________________ Come and see.

09-09-2010, 11:34 AM	#1494
DataKing Pro Rookie Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Chicago	Fallout: New Vegas and Gran Turismo 5 will be the two biggies for me this year. __________________ Current Games Diablo III (BattleTag: DataKing#1685) Allegiances: Chicago Bears - Detroit Red Wings - Kansas Jayhawks Awards: 2011 Golden Scribe - Other Sports Category (The Straight(away) and Narrow - A Forza Motorsport 3 Dynasty)

09-09-2010, 01:02 PM	#1495
SackAttack Head Coach Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Green Bay, WI	Be excited for New Vegas all you want, but I'm still not convinced Gran Turismo 5 is shipping this decade, let alone this year.

09-09-2010, 01:16 PM	#1498
Kodos Resident Alien Join Date: Jun 2001	Not to mention the series has never featured AI cars that actually race against you. They're all just out for a drive. __________________ Author of The Bill Gates Challenge, as well as other groundbreaking dynasties.

09-09-2010, 01:20 PM	#1499
Cringer Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Edinburg,TX	Would Gran Turismo 5 Prelude 2 count as a release? __________________ You Stole Fizzy Lifting drinks! You bumped into the ceiling which now has to be washed and steralized, so you get NOTHING! You lose!

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