Magus

So the last time I posted in this thread was nearly a year ago. A lot has changed since my last post. For starters, my interest in the fighting game genre is beginning to wane a bit. Outside of Street Fighter 3: 3rd Strike, Street Fighter x Tekken, and Super Street Fighter 4: Arcade Edition 2012 I've pretty much lost a lot of interest in them(although I will say my interest in Tekken Tag Tournament 2 is beginning to rise). That being said, SSF4:AE2012 is another game I don't play at all, although I will watch it being played at a high level or whenever there is a tournament going on. I am far too behind to even attempt to try to learn the game properly (it's been about 2-3 years since I've had the game). I don't have the time for it so I'm mainly focusing on 3rd Strike and SFxT. I stopped playing Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 altogether. Like SSF4, I'll watch it, but won't touch it.   Anyway, still playing [b]Mass Effect 1[/b]. This time I'm playing it for the PS3. I gave my Xbox 360 along with all of my games for it to my brother since my entertainment area looked very cluttered no matter how I tried to organize it. I haven't made much progress since I haven't made it off of the Citadel yet. I just got the evidence to expose Saren. Playing as male soldier and going the paragon route. One thing I've notice between the 360 and PS3 is that the loading times on the PS3 is much longer, and there's a lot more technical hiccups. I just hope I don't run into anything drastic. Oh yeah, the main reason why I decided to buy the PS3 version is because of the DLC seems like it could be a lot easier to access (I've never bought anything through Xbox Live before)   Also playing [b]Warrior's Orochi 3[/b]. This has been my go to game for anger. For quite some time after Dynasty Warriors 4 I decided to leave this series alone because it was doing nothing but repeating, and nothing has really changed now, but I can't deny that it's just mindless fun, and it feels pretty good to just hack away a countless enemies on the screen. I've also tried [/I]Bleach: Soul Resurrecion, Sengoku Basara: Samurai Heroes, and Dynasty Warriors Gundam 3[/I] and was very disappointed in all 3 games. Considering the amount of characters in each series and the amount that was used in each game, and the characters that were missing just made it an overall disappointment (felt as if they were half-assed Musou games). I've been thinking about getting One Piece: Pirate Warriors 2, but I'm thinking I'm going to run into the same problem as the other games. Warrior's Orochi 3 is good for me considering the amount of characters in it and the amount of enemies you can kill. The same with [b]Dynasty Warriors 8[/b], although, DW8 was good I did hate that it forced you to use characters instead of giving you the option to pick who you want.   And then there's [b]Street Fighter x Tekken[/b]. Like I said, I don't really have the time to put into learning fighting games the way I want to, but SFxT is on the easy side imo when it comes to it's mechanics. CADC is probably the only hard thing in the game for me, but it's not absolutely needed, whereas the FADC's in SSF4:AE is needed to really progress in that game, and it's a mechanic that I find pretty hard to learn and I don't have the time for that. Anyway, the last time I spoke about this game I was using Jin, Hwoarang , Ken and possibly more. Not much has really changed, although I've narrowed my character choices down to Jin and Hwoarang, I've added Asuka to the mix as well. I'm still thinking about using Ken too mainly because he has a costume where he wears a tux, and well, all my picks has a costume where they are wearing some form of a suit (except Hwoarang)   As far as the new gen games, I don't own the Xbox 1 or PS4, and the games that're out on it at the moment I have no interest in them, and the only games I've seen that are coming out on them are coming out for the PS3 as well so I don't see a reason to get either at the moment. I will get a PS4 later on down the line though.

Wow, seems like most of you've been having quite the adventure. I haven't done much of anything but work and trying to keep myself from going crazy because of my job and the crap that goes on at my home Full house, too. Me, my brother and his wife and their newborn child (Oh, goodie, I'm an uncle >_>) and my parents. The good news is I finally made it out of Detroit. The bad news is everyone else came with me. It's not so bad, but considering this new house (3 bed, 2.5 bath townhouse. Roughly 1600 sq. feet) is under my name and I'm paying majority of the rent, plus student loans and a $200 phone bill, I haven't really been able to spend my money the way I want to as of late.   Like I said, my job's been stupid as well. Outside of last week (I go back to work Thursday) I haven't had any days off (outside of Sundays) and majority of those days were 9-11.5 hours. I was suckered into using up my time before transferring to the department I'm in now (We were told to use our vacation time or lose it because at the time we went bankrupt and didn't know if our jobs were safe or not). The stupidity I deal with at work and the garbage I come home to, I'm surprised I haven't went off yet. I really need to look into buying a punching bag or something because games don't cut, and even then when I come home I'm usually way too tired to even attempt to play any games. Not to mention I've been going to a podiatrist for about a year now. I'm 29 (I feel so old) and having problems with my feet and ankles.   2013 haven't really been that great for me in terms of doing anything that I wanted to do, however, I guess the only savings grace is that I've been able to brush most of this garbage off my shoulders.   As far as anime and stuff, yeah, I've pretty much given up on anime. I still play games (mainly fighting games, that hasn't really changed) here and there when I'm not too sore or sleepy. Speaking of sleep, I gotta get myself a new workout schedule. Over the past 2 years I've been on so many shifts and haven't been able to fully recover from any of it. Developed a nice little gut due to eating late and sleeping on it. Hopefully when I get back to work I'll be able to figure one out since we should be back on our regular 8hr shifts (My boss told us that our workload should get easier so I'm holding her to that). So I should be able to get home by 4:30-5ish to still squeeze in some form of a workout.   As for how to catch up with me, that's pretty tough since I haven't updated with the times (I'm not a fan of social media). I guess you can try and email me (BigBoss4477@gmail.com) but I'll try to check in once in a while.   Happy Holidays

  Would you look at that. Come back to visit and I see this. Yeah, you're definitely late. Because you're 6 years too late I don't really know how to respond to this either. Around that time I was more of a RPG rookie. Now it's more like if it's not the Mass Effect series you won't really see me touch RPG's let alone, JRPGs. I won't say that I'm done with them (yet) since I just bought a JRPG for the 1st time in a long time (Tales of Xillia), but I will say even with this HD remastered whatever, I have no desire to play it. Turn-based combat is something I've gotten tired of quite a while back, but then again, to be fair my interest have died on quite a few things. I was picky with my games back then, but I'm even more picky now.   I suppose I could try to give some valid reasons, but considering this was a 6 year old post, there's really no point in doing that.   I must admit that I can't help but laugh at that old post of mine. Wow.

Mostly anything pertaining to Street Fighter 4, Guily Gear, or Street Fighter 3rd Strike.   For the most part, you can catch me roaming about Miles923 (play's a lot of Marvel vs Capcom 3, but I mainly watch him for 3rd Strike videos), SSF4Evo (SSF4, 3S, SFxT), Goldenrody (Gulity Gear), CrossCounterTV (SSF4, hilarious stuff), The Shend (high level 3rd Strike videos) and YogaFlame (long playlist of high level players for SSF4)   I used to watch Vash12349 for his let's play, and while I do find him to be funny, I'm not interested in the games he's been playing as of late, not to mention I've been heavily into the 2D fighting games and other games I don't have much of an interest to watch these days.

I used to like watching long running series. Not so much now. The modern shonen series, or rather, shonen for that matter is basically repeating the same things. I just grew tired of it as of late. I suppose I'll read them over watch them though, but even then that's a bit of a stretch.

I just recently finished playing my brother-in-law in [b]Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3[/b]. To be blunt, I got bopped. Some games he won convincingly, and some games I gave away, but in the end I learned a couple of things. 1) I need to really stick with Spencer, Dante, Hawkeye and Nova over everyone else. I haven't found my team as I'm going through a character crisis in this game (I'm actually trying to narrow down the characters this time around whereas in SSF4 I was trying to find a character to fit my style and stick with). Those 4 characters are not only fun to use, but they fit my style, and they compliment each other well. 2) I need to learn to keep things simple. Like I said, I clearly could've won some games had I kept things simple and not try to go for some of the longer combos, especially when I haven't mastered anybody in the game, let alone advanced yet. I did notice some improvements in my game although I really need to hit training mode more often than 2 days a week. Overall the games were fairly close and fun.   I also finished up [b]Mass Effect 1[/b] yesterday, and while it still holds a special place in my heart I did find myself to be more frustrated in this play-through, and that's mainly because of the Mako. I don't know what it was but for some reason I couldn't drive that thing in a straight path for nothing, and it really showed when I was driving on Ilos. Other than that I still had a blast. I do have to talk about a technical hiccup I ran into. Shutting down the Geth posts, I decided to start a long range fight (very long range) against the Geth and Garrus was firing his assault rifle, but I tried to get him to switch to his sniper rifle, but he just kept on shooting. Got in the Mako and he was still shooting (heard the noise, and you could clearly see the bullets firing behind the Mako). Got inside the building and he was still shooting. The only way I could actually stop it was to leave the planet and come back. I'm thinking about playing it again because I just made an Xbox Live account and nothing went over to ME2, and well, I don't want to play the default story.   Anyway, I got a buttload of games to arrive recently. Dragon Age 2 (I hate it), Bioshock 1&2, Borderlands 1&2, Halo 4, Infamous 1&2, Prototype 1&2, Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 and Super Street Fighter 4: Arcade Edition (I plan to get fighting games on both the ps3 and xbox360). I do plan to get DmC: Devil May Cry on the Xbox 360 as well because there's quite a few glitches on the ps3 version. I heard a lot of positive feedback about the Bioshock series along with the Borderland series. I had the 1st Infamous at one point, but last time I didn't really give it a chance. Halo 4, well, I've heard mixed opinions about it, but I like the Halo series and I'm willing to try this one out.   As for what will I be playing next... Probably Halo Reach, Halo 4, and of course more UMvC3.

Wish I could find a job that I actually enjoy and still get paid a nice amount of money at the same time. Current job I'm at now, we don't know if our jobs are secure or not. They been firing people left and right, not to mention taking away paid sick and vacation days (we are currently going through bankruptcy), but even then I'm hoping to find a new job that's better (I'm actually hoping to get a job at one of the big 3)

I haven't gotten deep into the game yet, and I'm still getting used to the controls, but I'm enjoying this game. The better I get at this game the more hooked I become because the combat just feel so good. If there's a story I don't know about it because I haven't been paying attention to it. A lot of games these days are lacking in the fun department, and lacking the replay value that I look for. I feel MGR:R brought me out of my funk simply because of how fun and satisfying it is. I'm hearing it's a short game, but that gives me even more fuel to replay the game on a higher difficulty, especially since you actually unlock meaningful stuff for beating the game on higher difficulties (I'd much rather unlock costumes than pay for them) I also took silpheedpilot's advice and ordered DmC: Devil May Cry. I'm expecting it to arrive between today and tomorrow. I don't expect to have his reactions and claim it's the best in the series, but I do expect to have fun and feel satisfied. The combat looks like it'll have that satisfying feel to it, especially after a long day at work. I also hear that this game is fairly short, but again, that's giving me a reason to replay the game. I'm also trading in a buttload of games (pretty much doing an overhaul in a way). I'm keeping the Metal Gears, Uncharteds, Mass Effects, Halos, Devil May Crys, Ninja Gaidens, and my fighters, but everything else is gone. Not exactly sure what I'll be getting in return. EDIT: 4 days later and the game is now done, at least the story is anyway. Great game imo, especially since it was something I needed. Blade mode nearly pissed me off towards the end, but I think that's because I was pressing the buttons instead of using the Right Analog stick. I feel stealth wasn't needed at all for this game since it felt like a waste. For this type of game, that encourages you to try and rank as high as possible, trying to do a stealth run feels outta place. Not to mention from what I gathered of it, the only possible way to be stealthy is to stick to higher ground and even then, that can only get you so far (there are these little critter-like things that is hard to see). Anyway, the game didn't bring anything new to the table, and I can't say that it's better than DMC3 or DMC4, but even then, it's just a great game to play simply because of the satisfaction of slicing people up (as demented as that sounds my sanity is still in check). In some ways I wish the game could've been a little longer just for the sake of having more weapons and whatnot. Speaking of weapons, the sub-weapons in the game were useless. Those definitely could've went towards more weapons to collect and upgrade. But then I just like the idea of upgrading and customizing these days. But in the end it's just a fun game. Now I'm off to play DmC: Devil May Cry. EDIT2: DmC: Devil May Cry I will say that I am enjoying the game from a combat perspective. Story never really mattered when it came to these types of games, but it is hit or miss,but then again I'm just not a fan of the atmosphere. However, putting that aside it's not nearly as bad as fanboys put it, but it's not nearly as great as the critics acclaim it is either, nor is it the best DMC game as of yet, at least not for me, but it is a good game, and it (along with Metal Gear Rising) brought me out of my slump. The combat portion of the game is fun from what I've played of it. I won't say it feels force, but having to switch the way you fight when they start bringing in demons that can only be hit with a specific type of weapon can feel a little forced. I don't think it takes much away, but I do wish NT would've given us the freedom to fight the enemies anyway we want. I will say that the combat feels much more satisfying here than the other games in the series. I don't know, the decision to slow the camera down when you finish off that last foe just felt great. And then there's this whole 30 and 60fps debacle. I can't speak on it since that kind of talk is way above my head, but I will say that it runs decently. I say decently because I'm playing on the PS3, and I've ran into quite a few hiccups. Now I understand why they suggest getting the game on the Xbox 360. The game froze on me while I was in the middle of platforming (and fell). Small thing, I hate the music, but that's remedied by being able to turn the music down or off, so I'm good. Other than that, it's a fun and good game. Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 Decided to put in more time on this game. Not to mention I also decided to drop Vergil even though he's one of my favorites. I dropped him because at the moment his combos seems more tedious, and not to mention I'm just finding his movelist boring. My current team is Spencer, Dante, Taskmaster and my secondary is Wolverine, Spencer, and Magneto. I'm actually landing combos now even though they are fairly basic, but I'm landing them now so I'm happy.

Gotta say, you're not who I was expecting to revive this thread lol.   Yes, the 1st Hokage's personality is a lot different from what I thought it'd be, but at the same time, while I won't say that I don't care for his personality, I will say that it will take a bit for it to grow onto me. Even though he's quite jerk-ish, I like the 2nd Hokage over the others. I can see where Danzo's personality came from through the 2nd as well.   Lots of ups and downs since I've last posted in this thread. When Madara showed up to fight Naruto and company, I thought they were screwed, but since they summoned the 10 tails I've been bored with this war. I think I'd rather see Madara do more clones and put Naruto and gang in the same situation that he put the 5-kages in. I know it's repeating a little bit, but I'd like to see how they would get out of battling so many Madara's along with Susano.   And then there's Neji's death (I suppose? I know they said he's dead, but after so many plot no jutsu's I don't trust it anymore). Had Kishi focused more on his character than Shikamaru (at least given him the same amount of attention), I think there would've been more of an impact. I mean I am glad that now some of the known characters are losing, but with it being Neji, I'm like "Okay, he's dead" No wow or anything for me (And I liked his character is part 1 of the series).   With them shifting the focus to Sasuke a little bit I must admit that I've become intrigued again. 1 thing I'm hoping for is that Orochimaru join the battle and help Madara (because the villain's are far more enjoyable in this than the heroes, plus I'm playing devil's advocate) because I just want to see everyone's face when they have to face the 4 previous Hokages with Orochimaru, which I think he's giving himself very little credit because I don't think Sasuke could fight him with the 4 Hokages. But, yeah, I don't know why I just want to see the heroes in this situation put in the worst situation ever lol.

More [b]Street Fighter X Tekken[/b] madness. Then again, I wouldn't call it madness since I'm finally beginning how to utilize training mode. I'm probably not doing it correctly, or doing it like everyone else does it (I think they go into movement and practice normals first), but I think I'm getting how to utilize it better. I think part of this also comes from the Tekken cast. I don't know, I'm just finding them a lot more enjoyable than the Street Fighter roster, but then again I just really like Jin and Hwoarang (maybe I really need to get back into the Tekken series). I will say that I hate these troll characters that're in the game though (Cole, Toro, Koro, Puma, Pac-Man, Megaman... They have no business here what-so-friggin-ever. I know Puma is a Tekken character, but I hate that he was in Tekken to begin with).   That set aside, Capcom did lie to me. I thought I was getting all DLC costumes when I bought Street Fighter 25th Anniversary, but all that was included was the 1st character swap, not to mention these color palettes and gems cost as well. It's stuff like this that really pisses me off when it comes to DLC, and reminds me why I hate DLC in the first place. I was talking to someone at another site about why games don't have that replay value anymore (Originally we were talking about Batman Arkham City). To me DLC is the cause of it. We used to be able to play games and unlock meaningful stuff in the process (Outfits/Costumes that boost stats or something of that nature). Finding hidden cutscenes (but then again, I'd say RPG's got that covered at least) that you didn't find on your first playthrough. I used to back Capcom, but I understand why they're being called Cashcom (I'm a little late to the party though).   Not to mention I'm currently going through one of those little gaming funks where nothing really satisfy you, but a few slump of games (and right now that slump for me is SFxT, Mass Effect and MGS). Hell, I tried playing God of War 3 and Assassin's Creed Brotherhood for the first time, and damn near wanted to seal them up and send them back to the place I got them from.   Anyway, trying to come away from all this moody stuff, I am trading in quite a few games (some big names along with no names) for Infamous Collection, Prototype 1&2, Alpha Protocol, Dragon Age 2, and Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. Hopefully these will get me outta my funk. If that don't work then it may be time for a break from games in general.   Sorry for the venting/ranting. Had to get some stuff off my chest.

Ah yes, Mass Effect 2. It's been a while since I've last played it, and even then I still never finished my 1st playthrough of the game (I've had it for almost 2 yrs now), mainly because I just don't want to see the game end yet. I've become quite attached to the crew in this one, and to hear/read all the complaints about ME3 not having some of the characters returning to be apart of the crew made me a little disappointed. Not to mention, I also don't replay games until I beat every other game in the series before coming back. Kinda making me wish I bought ME3 a little later than buying it on day 1. Last time I played, I seem to recall either finishing all the loyalty missions or I have only Miranda left. Everything felt like I was coming to the endgame and I didn't want to continue lol.   Anyway, a lot of my time (what little of it I have) has been spent on playing fighting games. [b]Super Street Fighter 4: Arcade Edition[/b] to be exact. Sometimes I switch to [b]Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3[/b], but most of my attention has been on SSF4. Me and SSF4 is like a marriage if I had to compare it. Some moments I love it and think it's the best fighting game around, and other times I hate it and want to chuck it out the window. The main reason is because of my limited time to learn the mechanics (especially since I came into the game pretty late). I don't want to be a tournament player or anything, but I'd like to be really good in the game. I even decided to dial it back a bit and start fresh. Made the full transition to using a fight stick, and went back to playing shoto characters, mainly Ken (and possibly Evil Ryu) because I gotta have fun with the game as well as learn the fundamentals all over again too.   I've dabbled with [b]Persona 4 Arena[/b] too, and I was caught completely off-guard by the game. I was amazed at how easily accessible the game was, especially considering how technical SSF4 is where you gotta focus on learning links even though they can be so hard to pull off, while here in P4A, you can just push buttons and feel like you know what you're doing. Of course that's not the correct way, but you get the point. It's too bad that the roster is small though, and I think this is my issue with all of Arc Systems games, but I understand why they do it as well.   The game I'm focused on now is [b]Street Fighter X Tekken[/b]. There was a lot of problems when the game 1st came out, but since the release of the 2013 patch it's had a resurgence, and it looks really fun, and even before the patch came out the core gameplay looked fun. Not exactly sure who my main team will be, but I'm leaning towards Jin/Hwoarang, Jin/Steve, or Ken/Jin. But even then, I'm also considering Kazuya, Guy, Cody and Lars as well. I won't be messing with the Capcom characters too much since they're almost identical to the way they are in SSF4. The Tekken characters on the other hand, because they have dashes that get them through fireballs, and the Tekken chains can make up for all the fancy combos that I'll have a hard time pulling off, just makes them more interesting. Because this game is using a similar engine to that of SSF4, I am glad that FADC's are gone. That made SSF4 far more complicated than it needed to be (Ironically I still want to learn how to do that). I do like the idea of having charge moves that you can cancel out of though. Makes things a lot easier, I actually wish they make all special moves charge-cancelable, but that's just a nitpick. Anyway, do I like this game more than SSF4? I can't answer that yet, but I can see myself liking it a little more down the line considering it's more accessible than SSF4.

Sounds exactly like an approach to an actual match in a fighting game.

Hmm... Honestly, with the exception of the WiiU I don't think these next gen consoles are even needed. I think they're fine as is, and then with all this talk about used games being axed and needing the internet to actually play these games I'm not even sure what to say at this point.   Other than a graphic upgrade (which I don't even think that's needed) I can't think of anything.

Agreed. 

It takes a while for things to hit me, but once I get going, yeah. But even then, one of the guys I went to ITT with said something along the lines of all drafters/architects should check it out.

I've been hearing a lot about Minecraft for quite some time now. Maybe I should check this thing out as well.

  I saw that review, and I appreciate him going after both sides, and it's pretty good to get a more level headed review from someone whose a fan, but still willing to give the game a fair shot.   It'll be interesting to see how much the game has sold.

    1up - A IGN - 8.9 Gamespot - 8.0 Gametrailers - 8.5   With that said, people are going ham over this (still going ham). I definitely think Capcom/Ninja Theory has succeeded in alienating their fan base. As for me, I don't have the game yet, and still undecided on if I'll get the game or not. On one hand, as far as gameplay I like what I'm seeing. I won't say it looks as good or as stylish as DMC3 or 4, but it looks good. On the other, the atmosphere of the game is really off-putting, not only that, but the environment and graphics. Don't get me wrong the game looks good, but everything moving around the way it does and then the bright colors, it really messes with my eyes. I don't wear glasses or anything, but looking at that stuff too long will make me feel dizzy.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRmD4RFDeq8   Anybody have the game yet? Thoughts?

2 things. OH SH!T!!! And Yama-ji, you really are stupid. I'm spilit on this chapter because it's really great to see an unseen bankai for once, but at the same time did he not get the memo? But still, finally, a new bankai.

Lets try to get some activity going on here. [url="http://www.1up.com/previews/metal-gear-solid-ground-zeroes-preview"]http://www.1up.com/previews/metal-gear-solid-ground-zeroes-preview[/url] For those who don't want to open the link [quote=1up]As part of an event celebrating the 25th anniversary of Metal Gear in Japan last night -- the original MSX2 title came out in 1987 -- Hideo Kojima and company had a big surprise to share along with a look back at the history of the franchise. A brand-new Metal Gear Solid game made its debut, and while those in attendance were not allowed to film the 20-minute demo that ensued, accounts of what took place have come out and should pique the curiosity of even those who have grown tired of the series' formula. We know very little in the way of hard details concerning the curiously titled [url="http://www.1up.com/games/ps3/metal-gear-solid-ground-zeroes"]Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes[/url]. The reportedly impressive-looking gameplay demonstration was powered by Kojima Productions' Fox Engine, first [url="http://www.1up.com/news/kojima-productions-shows-off-new-game-engine"]revealed[/url] last year, which was running on a PC with current-gen hardware. Following a scene with a young boy and an older man who was accompanied by soldiers and guard dogs in which we see an "XOF" emblem, the phrase "From FOX, two phantoms were born" appears on-screen. Next we see a man with an eyepatch and facial hair who appears to be identical to Big Boss and is only referred to as "Snake." A patch on his shoulder seems to support that this is Big Boss and the game will take place in or around the 1970s, a theory that isn't disproved based on the level of technology seen in the video. Of course, given what Kojima has [url="http://www.1up.com/features/metal-gear-solid-2-gamings-greatest-con-job"]done in the past[/url], it's impossible to know if Big Boss (or a Big Boss look-alike) will be the game's protagonist or if he is merely a placeholder. What's potentially even more exciting than the return of Big Boss are indications that Ground Zeroes will be an open-world title. Aside from engaging in the kinds of things we expect the star of an MGS game to do, like crawl around while prone and take out security guards, there was evidence that player freedom will be a major point of emphasis. [url="http://uk.gamespot.com/metal-gear-solid-ground-zeroes/previews/metal-gear-solid-ground-zeroes-shows-off-fox-engine-shine-and-possible-open-world-elements-6393924/"]GameSpot[/url] describes the military base Snake explores as feeling "expansive and huge," and Snake has the ability to drive around in a jeep or call in a helicopter to transport him around, neither of which points to a linear game. Kojima indicated he hopes to provide players with the ability to use all of Snake's tools to escape when discovered instead of presenting them with a game-over screen, something that would work best in an open world. Further supporting the idea that Ground Zeroes will be more open-world-like is the fact that, last we heard, Kojima was at work on Project Ogre, a game he himself [url="http://www.1up.com/news/kojima-productions-shows-off-new-game-engine"]described[/url] as being "very free" and set in an open world that players could explore at their leisure. He also claimed the game would provide new things to do and places to find after 100 hours of play. Rather than Big Boss being a placeholder for some other protagonist, it could be that Project Ogre was the next MGS title all along and that it was presented as something unrelated until now, although we don't know if that is accurate at this point. If it is the case, this would be a dramatically different direction for a series that is traditionally more linear and cutscene-heavy. In addition to his description of it as being "very free," Kojima indicated last year that his next project would avoid being "something very cinematic," which would suggest Ground Zeroes will spend more time in control of the action. Although long cutscenes are frowned upon in many games, they are an intrinsic part of the franchise and the notion of having a Metal Gear Solid game that strays from that is rather odd. Assuming Ground Zeroes does prove to be as different as this first look (and previous details on Project Ogre) would suggest, I find myself very excited. A stealth-based, open-world game would be unlike the vast majority of open-world games on the market, as they tend to follow the [url="http://www.1up.com/games/ps2/grand-theft-auto-iii/"]Grand Theft Auto III[/url] mold in being more action-oriented. As with any change to an established franchise, should Ground Zeroes be leaving behind both the structure and cinematic-heavy nature of previous MGS games, longtime fans may take issue with this game carrying the MGS name regardless of who the main character is. That's even more true because, as we're seeing with [url="http://www.1up.com/games/xbox360/mgs-rising/"]Revengeance[/url], it's not as if Konami is against dropping the 'Solid' part of the Metal Gear Solid name when it's necessary. Until an open-world game can be shown to drive the kind of narrative experience fans want from an MGS title, there will be a heavy amount of skepticism surrounding the game. And it may be a while yet before fans can be convinced Kojima knows what he's doing -- the game has been designed with the current consoles in mind, but as the Fox Engine is built to support next-gen consoles, it's possible we'll be waiting until Microsoft and Sony's new platforms arrive before we get to play Ground Zeroes for ourselves. What's sure to frustrate fans in the meantime is the lack of confirmed information: no release date, no guarantee Big Boss is the protagonist, no word on where this fits into the overall storyline. However many things may be in the air at the moment, though, the potential for a proper Metal Gear Solid experience to unfold within the framework of an open-world game where you can tackle things in any order and feel like you are actually deciding how Snake approaches a situation is very intriguing, if nothing else.[/quote] Heck, I'm still anticipating Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, and they're already bringing another, and going back to the "Solid" franchise (I still haven't completed MGS4 yet). I'm excited to hear about this and I'm very intrigued to see how this'll turn out since it's going to be in an open world environment. Thoughts?

Unforunately I haven't had the desire to start reading anything new. I've been losing interest in anime/manga in general for quite some time now. If I ever decide to check out something new, I'll give that a shot.

I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't pissed off at the whole Tobi = Obito outcome. And I seem to recall stating something along the lines of if that were true then I'm done with this series. I won't say I'm done yet, mainly because I want to see the reasoning behind it. If it turns out that he's doing this out of jealously then I'm done. So now that Obito's alive (Apparently, boulders are too weak to kill) there's definately a lot of questions that need to be answered. Was that actually Madara or Obito back in Kushina's flashback? If Obito, how? That's some big a$$ growth spurt he got over Kakashi and Gai. Unfortunately I don't care to know these answers anymore since my interest in this series is deteriorating fairly quick. (Here I come Psyren)