I played the demo on PC.  Seemed pretty decent to me.  I saw plenty of blood 'n' guts dark fantasy, darkspawn, dragons, sexy pirates and Captain Janeway, which was pretty much all I expected from a demo.

The graphics seemed great to me, but that could be a difference between PC and console, obviously it's much easier to tailor graphical options to suit the user on a PC.

I do agree some of the gameplay streamlining is a little severe though.  I hate to say 'dumbed down', but it's definitely more... accessible?

The lack of an isometric viewpoint hurts me.  I don't know about anyone else but I felt the standard camera angle was stuck way too low making it hard to get a feel for the larger battles and difficult to plan out tactics/strategies, which ultimately resulted in most battles becoming a hack-fest.

Maybe it's because in the demo we don't have access to the full spectrum of character options, skills, equipment and customisation - I'm willing to bet there's plenty of opportunity to geek out with character development that will make it seem more like an RPG.  Also, we really only saw battle gameplay in the demo - not much questing, exploration or plot development going on in this brief taster.  There's still hope!

Anyway, my pre-order is safe and I'm still looking forward to the full caboodle... with some reservations.

drug possession is life. murder is usually 10-25 years.

waflerevolution

I don't mean to take this topic off course but if what you say is true, there's something inherently wrong in a system where a cokehead gets a harsher punishment than a murderer...

Of course, I guess you knew that so I'm just stating the obvious.

Here, on the other hand, we have so little room in our prisons (all filled with benefit fraudsters and people who stick gum on train seats) that for a while they were considering turning some old moored cruise liner into a minimum security prison.  That's right, giving the bad guys free reign of a boat.  What can I say... even our axe murderers are civilized...

Just a few more pick-ups.  February's turning out to be a pretty good month for acquisitions.

From eBay:

     Eliminator Boat Duel (NES) - complete, near mint, £1.99

     New Ghostbusters II (NES) - complete, very good condition, £7

     Devil Man (FC) - complete, very good, £4.01

A couple more NES games and a random Famicom title. NGB2 is a PAL exclusive, much better than the other GB2 game on the NES and thankfully quite easy to find over here.

From Game:

     Prince of Persia (X360) - complete, good, £4.99

Just a used 360 game, one I've been meaning to pick up for a few years now.

From a charity shop:

     Point Blank 3 (PS) - complete, near mint, 99p

     Wipeout (PS) - complete, very good, 99p

Amazingly, I never had a PS copy of the first Wipeout until now.  I used to have a PC copy years ago, sadly lost in the great game cull.

And finally, another eBay lot:

     Conflict Zone (DC) - new and sealed

     Freestyle Scooter (DC) - new and sealed

     Jet Set Radio (DC) - new and sealed (a.k.a. Jet Grind Radio)

     Metropolis Street Racer (DC) - new and sealed

£11.99 for the lot, not bad for four brand new games.  I'd have paid that just for MSR and JSR, so the other two are a bonus.

[QUOTE="totalgridlock"]Maybe they should just throw a couple of 'em in jail as a deterrent.

someNONSENSE

Yikes :(

Well, maybe that was a bit extreme.  After all, there's limited room in our prisons and that room is best reserved for axe murderers and people who put cats in dumpsters.  But perhaps we can get them all doing some community service instead... litter-picking... graffitti-scrubbing... or does anyone need half a million birdhouses? ;)

Seriously though, my point is valid.  Ethical considerations around cheating etc. aside, a lot of these folks are actually breaking the law and could, at least in theory, face a harsher punishment than a ban.

Yep, a massive thumbs up from me.  While there are a few instances where a modded console could be of use - playing imports for example - I think the cons outweigh the pros.  I'd be willing to give up a little freedom in what I can and cannot do with hardware in order to have a cleaner gaming experience. Too many cheaters, hackers and modders out to ruin things for the rest of us and probably the main reason I avoid online gaming now.  Pirates too.  While I don't believe the piracy problem is nearly as prolific as some publishers want you to think, it's not healthy for the industry.

Actually, circumventing security measures in consoles has been illegal here and in other countries for some time - they banned PS1 'chipping' services outright back in the day - so in theory being hit by Sony's banhammer should be the least of their worries.  Having said that, I don't think any individuals have ever actually been severly punished for modding... companies have been fined, but I doubt anyone's gone down for this.  Maybe they should just throw a couple of 'em in jail as a deterrent.

13,000 posts and still going strong.

As you were...

Interplay 10 Year Anthology: $36

Includes Mind Shadow, Bards Tale, Tass Times, Wasteland (needed for a review of the Fallout series), Dragon Wars, Battle Chess, Lord of the Rings, Castles, Star Trek 25th Aniversery, and Out of this World. Like new condition with big book of all the directions for the 10 games.

 Legolas_Katarn

Nice.  I adore Wasteland even though it is stupid hard at times.  It was nice to see some elements of Wasteland creeping into Fallout NV.  Star Trek 25th Anniversary was always one of my faves too, and you can't go wrong with OOTW/Another World (or any Delphine game, for that matter).

Good pick ups all round, guys.

Here's my latest acquisitions...

From eBay:

Castlevania (NES) - complete, fair condition, £10.  The cart/book are near mint, shame the box has a massive rip down the back but still, I finally located an affordable PAL copy.

Double Dragon III (NES) - complete, good condition, £5.50

James Bond Jr. (NES) - complete, near mint, £2.20

Super Turrican (NES) - complete, near mint, £10.80.  A little pricey, but one that doesn't show up too often and the condition is not to be scoffed at.

Yep, I'm slowly ticking off those PAL NES games.  I wish I didn't have to resort to eBay, but alas, I haven't seen a NES game in the wild for a long, long time.  It's getting to be an expensive business as I already have most of the cheaper titles and while £10 doesn't sound like much, it adds up pretty quickly.  I'll admit, I almost gave up when I saw a copy of Rodland go for £122 and that's not even close to being the rarest PAL game!

Also, some Dreamcast games from eBay:

Shenmue (DC) - complete, very good condition, £16

Shenmue II (DC) - complete, near mint, £24.99

Since I'm just starting out with Dreamcast, I figured I might as well go straight for the so-called cIassics.  From what I've heard, Shenmue is a bit of an acquired taste, but I'm going to give it a go.  Shenmue II usually sells for a bit more than what I paid, but I saw a newly listed Buy It Now and snapped it up quick. It's perfectly mint too, hardly looks used at all.  The first game has some minor wear to the card sleeve, but they still sit nicely together on my shelf!

Anyway, from The Entertainment Trader:

Space Harrier (GG) - cart only, very good, £2

Streets of Rage (GG) - cart only, very good, £2

I thought SOR would be awesome to play on the go, shame it's so blurry I can't tell Axel from the bad guys.

And finally, from Watermelon Productions:

Pier Solar and the Great Architects (MD) - brand spanking new, $30 (about £23 today, though it was probably higher when I ordered it early last year)

Yep, it finally arrived!  After being stuck in customs for an eternity it dropped through my door yesterday.  It's the original edition (the Japanese styIe, sadly the European edition was already sold out when I pre-ordered) and it's verrrry nicely put together for a homebrew.  Much cIassier packaging than the Super Fighter Team games and I love the Mega CD addition.

 

[QUOTE="totalgridlock"]Just checking, you are using my Google Docs list?gmsnpr

No worries, just concerned that I somehow lost 50 games from my collection without noticing... :P

I thought my mum had been round with a large black bin bag again! 

Just a few random finds to report...

From a couple of charity shops:

     Godzilla: Save the Earth (PS2) - complete, near mint, £1.99

     Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams (PS2) - complete, near mint, £1.99

     R-Type Final (PS2) - complete, near mint, £1.99

     Ultimate Spider-Man (PS2) - complete, near mint, £1.99

     Tomb Raider Chronicles (PS) - complete, very good, £1.49

     The Nomad Soul a.k.a. Omikron (PC) - complete budget release, near mint, £1.99

From eBay:

     Videocart 14: Sonar Search (ChF) - complete, fair condition, £1.75

     Videocart 16: Dodge It (ChF) - complete, good condition, £5.56

     Gun.Smoke (NES) - complete, very good bar the huge "Not for Resale" scrawled on the box, £5.50

Slowly but surely ticking off those remaining Channel F games.  They've been showing up more often recently, so hopefully I'll have them all before long.  And I've started picking up odd NES games again with several more on the way.  They are really getting pricey round these parts :(