I about tossed my cookies when this raped my Logitechs.

If the Far Cry 3 devs wanted a high-profile 2012 reggae influenced bro-step song about fire, they could have at least picked Knife Party's Bonfire, which is still awful but... it's not Skrillex.

After hearing that Skrillex was payed to have his songs in this game, I'd much rather pirate it than buy it.

Anyway, here's a couple of questions for PC users in this thread:
Does installing games to a d (or non-c drive) drive make them run much slower or have noticeable lag?

And second, why is my steam folder so damn big? Does it count games you're downloading as taking up the full space, even though you only have a slight fraction downloaded? My Planetside 2 folder is 9 gigs, and I haven't downloaded anything of the game yet.

....That's generally how it works?

I phrased that poorly. What I meant is the fact that his songs are in the game at all is a point against it. That he got money for his awful music is like salt on the wound.

Games installed through steam show up in the steam folder. If you go to "My Computer" and "uninstall or change a program" then you'll see that those steam-installed game don't show up.

What? You didn't answer his question at all.

Anyway, yes, from what I understand Steam will basically "reserve" the full size it needs for whatever you're downloading as soon as you start it, even though it hasn't downloaded it all yet. It's to prevent you from accidentally using it up during the download process, I guess.

Everytime I play Deus Ex after playing another game, I mess up the controls. Dishonored had o on the PS3 controller duck. Borderlands 2 does as well.

This is the 2nd time that I meant to duck and sneak around and I tapped a civilian on the shoulder and then punched them in the face.

Man is Borderlands 2 fun. This one actually has a story. It's like Fallout 3 but cartoony and sillier. Borderlands is like Fallout New Vegas, where it lacks a good story but it's still fun. Both games just throw you out there in the wilderness. But Borderlands 2, I feel I have some purpose. There's a main bad guy. There's motivation to progress. There's still the looting and shooting, but when that gets boring then you can focus on the story. I got some triple barrel shotgun called Three Dog and it makes a reference to Three Dog on Fallout 3. It says something about one barrel ain't enough and two barrels are too low, it's Three Dog. Which is how he often introduces himself on the radio. Hah.

I heard Duke Nukem makes references to lots of games to mock them but the game itself sucks. Borderlands 2 makes some honorary references to other games and it itself is a good game like the ones it references.

So, nobody here who has Bioshock and can help me with my problem?

Ah, thanks for clearing that up, Failsafe, I was wonder why Dawn of War II and Left 4 Dead 2 seemed to be taking up 30 gigs.

does anyone have the new Wii U? Is the double scrren thing as gimmicky as it looks? I remember when motion control seemed like a good idea, then it turned out that most games didn't really need it.

I have the Wii U and I'm really liking it so far. The double screen is not a big deal as everyone who has not tried it claims it to be. The Nintendoland game uses the Gamepad in some exciting ways and really the possibilities are endless. I think it will mostly generate new ways of local multiplayer, with one person looking at the Gamepad and others using the television.

I hope developers come up with cool ways to use the Gamepad and not just use it to look at a map or something.

Look at how motion controls didn't really do anything that fascinating in the Wii's library. The excitement over the Kinect and Move (okay none there) was utterly brief too... you know maps and pointless things like that is all it'll probably get used for, lol. Sounds like 3D on the 3DS has been pointless as well.

And Reggie boasting about Blops II looking better than the other consoles baffles me. Congratulations Nintendo, your new system beats out 7 year old hardware! Not that graphics are everything and some Wii games look amazing, but I just don't' get the logic of releasing something so average internally. MS and Sony's next consoles which are only a year or two away are going to completely leave it in the dust right off the bat.

If Nintendo are so obsessed with the gamepad thing, I think they should've released a real console that was up to specs with the competition, and instead of the 3DS, they could've put out a tablet Gameboy or something that syncs up with the new console. Ideally it would've had a better name than "Wii U" as well.

Just like the 3DS's launch, because of the dumb name a lot of casual players don't even realize the Wii U is a brand new system.

Nintendo can keep fucking around but it will only last for so long before it catches up with them.

Dude that's exactly what people said about the Wii and it sold really well. Nintendo haven't really tried very hard to keep up with the other consoles in terms of power since the N64, and they've been doing fine. Gaming is about much more than graphical horsepower, and Nintendo's flagship games especially have never relied on it.

It seems functionally identical to a giant 3DS. You have your TV as the main viewing screen and the pad controller. The Wii U has a 2nd analog stick so it has that going for it. It's in HD instead of 3D which I'd prefer.

I don't have one yet. I'll most likely wait to see Sony and Microsoft put out before making a decision.

Who cares about numbers, the novelty wore off fast. lol

That's what I said about graphics too. But I think this time around people are going to really notice and the Wii U won't do as well.

Maybe I'm wrong LOL!

I got invited to a premiere event two weeks ago for the Wii U. I didn't get to play as much but there were some pretty weird things going on.
you can read my thought on the event here; http://nickcronomicon.wordpress.com/201 ... h-setting/

I don't think it will beat the amount of Wii consoles sold overall, but the system is looking pretty great apart from some annoyances with the UI. I still think the Wii was a great system, far better than the Gamecube. It did have a game drought towards the end there though. There wasn't much to play for a good while. Mine has been getting a lot of playtime recently, going back to the great games that came out and the Virtual Console. I got DKC trilogy before they pulled it down, going through that currently. DKC2 is still platforming bliss, much better than the first game.

Having played the other 4 Hitman games to death obsessively and learning everything I could about them, I am over the moon at the challenge hurled at me in the form of Hitman Absolution, although I'm concerned that it might be more a case of me being shit at it than it being hard

Yeah there was like 2 good games this year at best.

But there's still probably a good 20 or so games I want to get myself. So I certainly don't hate the Wii myself, it's just not what I wanted. I'll get a Wii U someday but it'll probably be the same deal again, I'll just end up getting it for some first party games and not much else.

And come to think of it I think the Gamecube was the most powerful system last gen. Definitely better than the PS2, but I'm not sure how it stacked up against the Xbox. The thing I'll give Nintendo is that their hardware is usually at least very reliable in comparison to the others. I guess that's a big thing there.

I think the original xbox had a slight edge over the gamecube. Very minimal difference all the same. Both were definitely more powerful than the PS2, which had the best library of games out of the three by a country mile!

It'll be interesting to see what Nintendo do with Wii U, and how it performs, sales wise. Hope to get one sometime next year and I'm looking forward to seeing what the Galaxy team and Retro put out for it. As someone said before, you buy Nintendo consoles for first/second party output. There's rumours of some kind of Yoshi's Island game coming out. I hope they're true.

Problem with the Wiiu is that it seems to be mostly ports that are already available on the other two competitors.

Oh yeah I agree. Kind of funny how I noticed I have 10 games for both the Xbox and Gamecube, weird coincidence. But yeah I probably have like 50 for the PS2 and counting, I keep that baby out but the other two have been boxed away for years.

I look forward to whatever Nintendo, Retro, and Monolith-Soft do next on the Wii U. I know some people probably want them to do something original, but I'd love for Retro to do another Metroid. No Team Ninja, please god no.

About to beat Thief II... amazing game, I don't miss the zombies from the first but I still might prefer the first for its weirder levels and story. Either way you may as well look at them as one huge game, so I love both. Looking forward to Deadly Shadows even though I know it'll be a weird change, it still sounds fairly good though.

Oh Jesus, I had totally forgotten about that abortion. Fuck you, Team Ninja.

Yeah the PS2's library was fantastic. There's been one in my bedroom for 11 years now and it still gets use. The only time it's ever been unplugged was when the system died and I had to buy a new one. Shit, I'm currently playing Dark Cloud right now. That's a weird game because it takes two completely incomparable genres (dungeon crawler and city builder), and just alternates between the two every few minutes, but it's addictive as fuck and I come back to play it every year or so. Totally flawed gem, I really need to get the sequel.

Dark Cloud 2 is classic. Couldn't get into the first one. Absolutely hated the water thing and losing your weapons permanently when they broke.

I've been meaning to check out Dark Cloud 2 for ages myself, always heard it improved a lot of things and was awesome. Loved the first game myself... kind of felt like a Zelda on the PS2 or something. I never did beat it though, I guess I remember it did get a little repetitive after awhile with how predictable the generating dungeons were and stuff. Still great stuff all around though.

So I haven't officially beaten Thief II, but I had to look up videos on that last level... just holy shit that thing is way too big and kind of annoying. I probably would have spent like five hours on it alone, if I would've even been able to get through it since my items were running really low. I think the game was glitching in the last two or three levels as well, items were clipping and I have no idea how some guards were hearing or finding me. So had to give it a rest for now.

Stephen Russel has to be one of the best voice actors ever in gaming, Garrett was amazing but ... lmao holy hell, he voiced Karras too? That's just crazy right there. Barbas the talking dog in Skyrim was also the funniest and most interesting NPC in the game, so kudos to that role as well. And XERXES in System Shock 2. Damn this guy is amazing. He should be the lead in the next Deus Ex or something. Just do an awesome low-tone voice like Garrett or something, no Batman-Bale voice like Jensen hah.

Started up Deadly Shadows and it definitely seems pretty faithful to the first two, love hearing the same voice actors and sound effects, but I just can't hate this engine enough. I'll deal with it for more Thief though.

But for now I'll probably just focus on Far Cry 3 which is pretty awesome so far, as is Sleeping Dogs.

Yeah the degenerating weapons and the thirst gauge are two things I'm not really a fan of. This run is going pretty smoothly due to the fact that I lucked out and found the Durable ability on the very first weapon I found (one of the few abilities that's entirely random and not tied to any one specific weapon), so it's been nice being able to take down like three Golems in the Sun & Moon Temple while only losing one WHp.

What are the mechanics in place in Far Cry 3? Is it still a huge land to explore and all? Compared to Far Cry 2?

It feels like the first game and FC2 merged. I don't know how that makes sense at all, but that's the vibe I get. The level design just feels more like FC1 so far, but the area is really big like FC2. Maybe not as big though, unless there's another surprise second map eventually.

In this one you actually take over the enemy outposts and those become your safe houses. Then your buddies will be patrolling the nearby area. It's funny because the spawning enemy camps in FC2 got tiresome, but then I wonder if this alternative will make it a bit boring off and on with you effectively eliminating the enemy patrols entirely? I noticed some enemy activity today around the borders of places I haven't discovered via radio tower takeovers, but yeah. There's still wildlife and loot/relics to find though. Stealth is doable in this one with takedowns and there's a auto-cover system that is VERY fluid and I don't mind it, when I usually can't stand that stuff. But it seems to work pretty well here.

Experience/skills makes the game feel a bit more rewarding than FC2 as well. As RockPaperShotgun put it (I think it was them), this is a game that does a good job of making you feel powerful as you progress. And I'm not missing that dumb plague thing. Overall I think FC2 was pretty decent, but the disease junk was bologna.


Story wise this one seems like the clear winner between the two so far. Is it kind of slow at first though? Definitely seems like a slow drive, but I'm digging it.

Interesting. I ''loved'' FC2 except for the constantly respawning camps and never being able to outrun enemy cars. Although I lost the game and never finished it... (was somewhere in the second map). But when I saw the first FC3 vid it turned me off entirely. I was like, yeah modern gaming reached Far Cry.

Having played and beaten it with (at the time) 100% achievements and looking back on it now months later, I can say that the one thing that irritated me is that in such a big city there wasn't much to do. Lots of driving far as hell from point a to point b, but that's what GTA IV did and that just made it tedious. The fights are some of the best though.

Second most irritating was how much the radio stations suck.

Not sure what you mean there. I say give it a shot.

If you mean that it looked very scripted/Uncharted like or something... the first 5 minutes are a bit like that, but 5+ hours later it's just all been open exploration and stuff. Feels a lot better than Crysis too. Crysis was just too empty I'd say, big maps but with nothing to really do.

@Ozzy: Yeah, well luckily I knew that ahead of time before going into the game. Still, I'd say the skills/leveling up thing at least makes it more rewarding than GTAIV was, the security camera thing is fun too and tracking down the shrines/cases. And after how dumb the plot was for Saints Row 3 and how all over the game was, it's nice to get a sandbox that is serious and very story oriented for once.

The Roadrunner station sucked of course, but everything else was pretty great. Perhaps not as universally sublime as GTAIV's radio, but leaps and bounds better than any of the Saints Rows or previous True Crime games. Really dug the abundance of Chinese pop songs--added yet another layer authenticity to the already faithfully rendered HK.

I'm having a blast with Saint's Row 2 by the way, except for an annoying bug that crashed my game right at the end of a difficult mission. It's basically just GTA: Vice City 2.0, except with a much sillier story. It has the cartoony physics of GTA 3/VC, rather than the more realistic (and boring) physics of GTA4. No getting thrown through your windshield when you collide with something, you can actually turn at decent speeds, etc. My only serious complaint is the lack of ability to import your own music to create a custom radio station. Oh well, I'll just listen to old funk a lot.

Can someone give me some tips for how not to suck at Ni No Kuni? I didn't see any explanation of the mechanics in the demo and I keep getting my ass kicked to the extent that I can't even really get a feel for the game (specifically the combat, but I can't fuck with any other parts of the demo until I figure that out).

I'M NEVER WRONG!

I swear you could play your own music, on the 360. Are you playing this on the PC? I've always heard this one had horrendous optimization and issues.

But yeah I don't kid about my Saints Row 2. Would be interested if you check out 3 sometime to hear your thoughts on it. It's more over the top, but 2 was charmingly stupid B-grade badassary, and 3 was just like jr high potty humor and with no real interesting characters/plot lines. The map is also notorious for being like the 10th the size of the 2, I'm not joking. Some people liked that I guess but that bugged me, in a fast car you could cruise around the entire game in a few minutes. It just felt like minigames within minigames.

Who knows. It was like the series went full retard. Really fun over the top stuff for awhile, but then I hit a wall and it just all got old and I felt like I was working towards nothing, but SR2 had more drive behind it to keep me going and interested.

And speaking of, the driving mechanics are weird as crap in Sleeping Dogs. Something about the camera controls or something, it's really weird and it's taking awhile to get used to.

Been playing a lot of CS: Global Offensive. I really enjoy competitive mode. I'm gold nova 3 ranking right now; my 1.6 skills transfer over fairly well.

Team ninja did a good job with Other M. Sakamoto was responsible for the scenario/story, which draws a lot of criticism (and rightfully so). Team ninja had nothing to do with Samus and her wussification.

I was pretty happy with the gameplay in it, it's not Retro level of quality, but it had fun combat and the usual metroid style gameplay. Plus there was some nice references to other games in the series (Phantoon and Nightmare boss battles). It's a solid game despite the character rape.

So, Dark Souls II was announced. I wish this trailer actually showed some gameplay footage, but oh well, I'm sure it'll rock.

http://kotaku.com/5966786/here-is-dark- ... ut-trailer