Semjaza

[url]http://www.fileplanet.com/180411/180000/fileinfo/Prince-of-Persia:-Sands-of-Time-Full-Game-%5BFree-Game---Ad-Supported%5D[/url] Prince of Persia: Sands of Time is free ad-supported as well. And Rayman: Raving Rabbids.

I picked it up the second I saw it the other day. Can't pass this up for $20. I loved the old Mario's Picross on Game Boy. Its presentation is a bit bland, although thankfully there are different designs used as you progress. Plus it's pretty nice that once you wear out the preset puzzles, there are random ones you can still do. Great time waster. Probably more so than anything I own on the DS right now. It's one of those games that clearly benefits from the input system too.

I really wind up falling back on my singular discussion issue. I don't know that any of the proposed ideas are [I]perfect[/I] obviously, but you have to bring up the merits and downsides each of them to really get to any final conclusion. I think the basic idea can result in some good final action. For my side (which is essentially in agreement with Gavin), let's say there's this game every one wants to talk about. And let's say one group wants to talk more about the characters and the others want to talk more about the battle system. And let's say both of these topics are well developed and interesting. With the current format they'd just be completely meshed together. It's extremely difficult to jump into existing conversations that are going anywhere unless you were part of it from the onset because at any given time all of these points (and more) are being addressed in one singular place. It very much makes me wonder whether or not many people avoid posting entirely over this. Then there's the expectation that you should have read every single post in the thread before you posted... which would be a hell of a lot easier if it contained one real major idea. Instead if contains many and it's just confusing and time consuming to sift through 40 posts that are quoting 10 different people and discussing 5 related topics simultaneously. Certainly one thread reduces the [I]number[/I] of threads in each forum, which in turn reduces clutter. Yet I do not think that this method reduces clutter [I]within[/I] the actual threads whatsoever. I personally think rectifying the latter is a bit more important... but at the same time, I don't exactly want to see 15 threads on Harry Potter either. I think that the modship will have to look at these individually and continue to decide which can live in harmony and which cannot. To me there must be a reason why a forum of OB's apparent size sees the same cliques in every single thread over and over again. And I think part of that is people just have a really hard time joining in on anything. Maybe I'm alone in this thought. If I am, whatever, there's obviously no real need to address my points lol. [quote name='Desbreko'][color=#4B0082]In the case of the Chromehounds thread, though, it was more a case of not allowing advertising than not allowing people to organize online games. Posting a thread solely to get people to join your clan/guild isn't much different than posting just to advertise a website.[/color][/QUOTE] There's not really any difference in games on XBL between joining your friends list so you know when someone is online and joining a "clan" though. I mean, what is really the differentiation there? You have to have people added to your list and meet up in game to even [I]do anything.[/I] I find this extremely confusing and I think it's very clear that current set up is simply not working. Even that thread is hard to follow as the opening post contains a bunch of information only mods can edit, but nothing new is added into it... people are talking and posting their information and it becomes a chore to cycle through all of it. It's basically an example of what I'm referring to above.

The Halo 3 one isn't really worth it. It costs $50 more than the premium does and I'm not even sure how they'll be handling that in Europe anyway. 360 has quite a lot of good games and quite a few more coming this year. I don't think it would be a wasted purchase. As for DS, I'd personally mostly recommend Etrian Odyssey. It's an old-school dungeon crawler. Will take up a lot of time, if you're into that sort of stuff. That and Tetris DS, which is pretty self-explanatory. Most of the other DS games I get I wind up not playing more than a month.

[quote name='Charles']Oh man, you didn't tell me there was an OtakuBoards thread about this, Semjaza. I don't know now; the game just suddenly became far too mainstream to be cool. It's probably all of the "samas" and "sans" that are attracting attention. I swear to God if I see one "^_^" smilie in this game, I'm going on a rampage.[/QUOTE] You never buy anything cool to begin with, so you're in luck. You can talk with someone in a MMORPG in the game, so I'm sure you'll see that face somewhere along the way.

Really, I think the random forum idea is a lot better. I don't think it would be that difficult to decide when it's become slow enough to be archived and then just turn into a singular thread when that time comes. I'm not big on separate forums if they're not necessary (such as when the games sections were getting so slow that there was no need for them to be separated by company any longer), but I think this would [I]encourage[/I] a lot more posting than anything else. And I'd say that's the goal of any forum. I don't come here a lot any longer, but I still think having new members (or even less common visitors) sift through some sticky threads to make sure it's not ever been talked about before is pretty ridiculous... and I don't know about anyone else, but I feel stupid resurrecting a thread that's not been used in 6 months, even if it is the "official" one. Plus, I really think that sometimes even if something is about the same general subject (be it a game, or whatever), there might be some completely different ideas addressed in there. Essentially, we wind up with one thread containing 10 different lines of thought and it gets incredibly confusing and becomes very difficult to respond to. If something is separate enough in construction to warrant two threads on the same overall subject, I do not understand why that is considered a problem. It also eventually ties into being restrictive over what can even be talked about in these threads. I know in hardwired that if there's any inkling that a person is trying to get people together for a group or play a game together that there's kind of this basic threat of "this isn't allowed, it'll be closed if that happens!". This happened with the Chromehounds thread, for example. I just find it bizarre when games are becoming more online based and there's been some attempt with the (super messy) "hardwired online" thread. Maybe some people think that's off-topic, but I think it's something that is important to discuss when considering singular threads versus other methods and the general restrictions that go along with that. It's just an example.

Atlus's shipping dates tend to be the date they give out. So, more than likely, it'll ship today and you'll get it tomorrow (assuming you had overnight delivery). It's reviewing very well, which surprised me at first. Metacritic has it at an average of 88 out of 100. There's a surprising amount of 10s for the game so far. Personally, I think it's excellent and I'm glad it's getting what it seems to deserve. I didn't write a review per se, but I do have my thoughts on it here ([url]http://www.digitaldevildb.com/games/persona3/d3_impressions.php[/url]) if anyone cares to read them.

[quote name='silpheedpilot'][SIZE="1"][COLOR="SlateGray"]Well, I don't know about you guys but I think the worst place to get customers is at, hurray, a game store. GameStop in fact. Now, granted, this isn't one of those mean customers with a mean attitude kinda deal just some kid being stupid. So, there I was, reading the newest Game Informer when this kid comes up to the counter. I've seen this kid around before when I used to work in the mall store and I know this kid is a straight up mallcore DDR junkie who's only aspirations in life are to emulate what the Japanese anime sub-culture does, so whatever. He points to a box with Dante from Devil May Cry on it with the words 'PLAYSTATION 2' printed nice, neat, and white along the top and the words; 'DEVIL MAY CRY 5th ANNIVERSARY EDITION. INCLUDES ALL THREE GAMES!' in explosive text. 'Whats' that?', he asked I kinda glance over, look back down at my magazine and keep reading with this response; 'Devil May Cry.' 'Well, I know that but...what is it?' I look up again, this time at the kid himself and go; 'Uh. It's Devil May Cry. Can't read?' 'You know what? You're a jerk. No. You're a jerk. Now I know why I avoided you when I went to EB in the mall. Now you work here.', he just keeps going on. 'Okay, dude. You're getting mad at me because you obviously don't know what Devil May Cry is. You're pointing in a game case, to a box that says Devil May Cry and Playstation 2 across the top. It's a game. It's Devil May Cry.' He left, probably mad and broken that his mallcore japanophile wit was matched by the great folks at GameStop. Remember, kids. Don't be a retard![/COLOR][/SIZE][/QUOTE] I'm sorry, but even by your explanation of events you're kind of being mean here. Unless I misunderstand the job and your actual task is to just read a magazine and not interact with the customers whatsoever (which wouldn't surprise me, I avoid the place all I can as it is). Would it have been [I]that hard[/I] to just say it's a "collection of all three games"? It would have taken less energy than what you did in the first place, even if it was an obvious response.

This is honestly the dumbest thread I've ever seen and I run a pretty dumb forum.

I don't know that it was ever advertised to be anything else, so I guess you just missed all the stuff leading up to it? lol That said, it's largely an attempt to get people in the US to even give two shits about her and her husband. A LOT of money was spent to get him on a US team, I think largely in the interest of him perhaps pushing interest for the sport up here. As it stands now, the US has never had someone on the scale of say Michael Jordan or Dan Marino for its national soccer league. The problem is that I still don't think people will care. You have to know who the man is in the first place to even want to know about him playing soccer. Bizarrely, Victoria is probably still more well known here thanks to the Spice Girls. This show is her "soccer game" so to speak. It's to get her name and such in your face. It's very much a publicity stunt for her, obviously, and the network is hoping to cash in on that. I mean, it's not like costs much to follow someone around with a couple of cameras. I'm kind of predicting that it will all eventually just turn into tabloid articles like it does with every "new" celebrity couple, general interest will die down and whoever paid Beckham all that money to come here will realize it was not a useful endeavor. [quote name='Posthumous'][SIZE="1"]Man, I clicked into here hoping this was about the old Coming to America with Eddie Murphy. I was sorely dissapointed.[/SIZE][/QUOTE] You win.

Honestly, there must be a better way to handle this. I was considering this even back when I first started the Gamertag thread that (I believe, I could be wrong) eventually morphed into this thread. It just gets confusing. The first post can only be edited by a few and then discussions about it all wind up losing things in the shuffle. I do have a few suggestions, which I have done at Group Sounds. I think they are good ideas. If you want to use them OK (whether now or in the next version), if not OK too. For Xbox Live, there's a plug-in that works wonderfully. It creates a page that you can link to from where ever you please that lists all sorts of information that MS makes available based on Gamertags and user stats (assuming their 360 allows it -- there's an option in its settings to tell it to share this information with everyone). [url]http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=139958&highlight=xbox[/url] I have it installed here: [url]http://www.orangelazarus.net/groupsounds/gxboxlive.php[/url] PSN doesn't seem to be covered at all currently, but from what I understand Sony doesn't share any stats to make it interesting anyway. In that sense, maybe even a custom field to show their username in their profile would work. You can do the same thing with the main Wii Number... unfortunately, since I know each game uses its own friend code as well, I'm not sure how to best handle that. That might still require an updated thread or something. I think this would make a lot more sense and then open this thread up more for discussions about games people want to play together, setting up matches, etc. I don't know if anyone agrees with me.

[quote name='James'][color=#606060]They now haven't validated my second gamercard thing yet, so I'll just post my name here. I'm registered under [b]Moloko Live[/b] and my email is [email][email protected][/email] If anyone wants to add me feel free to do so. :catgirl: I've so far only played one online session (where my connection decided to be slow enough to stop the game), but it seems I wasn't penalized for that...which is good. Xbox Live seems to know if it's a legitimate connection/lag issue where the game itself has stopped the match, versus someone actually quitting. So that was a relief.[/color][/QUOTE] This is probably because the person didn't bother to vote you as negative. Your penalties and such are in the hands of the people you play with essentially... and while you'll likely find jerks that give you poor marks for seemingly no reason, I've found that it balances itself out fine if you're a decent person on it. I don't think Live itself makes any decisions to that effect.

I use Pocomail... but I'm fine with the more archaic methods of filtering e-mail by fields and searching normally. I actually read a good article about Gmail's systems and how all of that works and how much better it is... if I needed a web client I guess I'd give that a shot.

I personally like downloading my mail on my computer for access even when the Internet isn't working for me... so in that sense, web mail never will really replace anything for my uses.

[quote name='Goodbye, Face'][font=arial][size=1]You can change your name for 800pts, I think. I know you can do it, I'm just not sure about the amount.[/font][/size][/QUOTE] It's 800 points. Be careful because you're tied down to every thing with this. Like the new update allows MSN chats, but you can only use the account you registered your Gamertag with... you can't switch it. This isn't important to me, but I know some people like it. I'm assuming your old name has you registered as being an adult too. If you're registered as a kid, that basically gets locked down with your Gamertag as well. Otherwise, just try to connect with your old name and you should be prompted to give it some sort of online Gamertag as opposed to just your real name. Should be really simple.

[quote name='James'][color=#606060]Oh, in that case I wonder...if I delete my Moloko Lite account I could presumably sign up with "James" and just change the name back? Since I have no gamerscore on Moloko Lite I might as well try that option.[/color][/QUOTE] Assuming you have Silver right now and not gold it's probably the best thing to do.

Even talking about these things with people that are known to you to be a minor (whether or not they actually are) is against the law in most states. It doesn't matter if he made the "mistake" or not, in that sense. it's just an attempt to stop things before they even happen, which I think, personally, is far better than waiting until they're just about to or after the fact. There's also the fact that Dateline didn't invent this concept and that law enforcement has been doing stuff like this for years in different ways. Dateline didn't invent this concept or even the group they're working with. They're simply publicizing them. I really don't see how it's that different from having a police officer pose as a prostitute and then get talked to by some random guy. He doesn't have to have sex with her or even give her money first to have broken the law. The [I]solicitation [/I]is enough. It's the same concept, but obviously it has to be approached differently. I mean, considering how integrated the Internet is into people's lives, you simply can not approach it in the same way as you would a traditional bust. I mean, do people honestly expect them to have people show up undercover and actually meet with and talk with these men? I mean, what real example could you create where you could make a traditional sting/ambush set up given that this is about going after children? By simple appearances they'd be able to tell these people weren't underage for the most part. I know there's obviously ways to work this, but they're more expensive and involving. This is more about getting it before it becomes a major problem. I always think there's kind of this question that pops up when you stick temptation under someone's nose in an attempt to convince them to break the law. It bothers me. At the same time, we're talking about adult males who, at least in their minds, are significantly older than the so-called "victim", know the situation and still dive into it to some degree. They should be restraining themselves, if they can't manage to not even think about it at all. Who is to say how many of them would actually go through with it? I'm assuming the majority would not. The fact remains, however, that they shouldn't even have gone as far as they did in the first place. They all know it too and clearly some of them reappearing quickly shows... what would have happened if they reached an actual kid? Some things are worth stopping before they even get to that level... and, beyond that, obviously getting caught chatting to some underage kid does not carry the same legal repercussions as actually going to their home or whatever else. The men who make some "mistake" in judgment in these chat rooms are not going to be subjected to the same things as those that actually take action. Beyond that, though, I'd say show is mostly sensationalist drivel. They've shown it so much that I don't eveI really don't think any of it's faken know why they bother to put the Dateline header on it anymore. It's practically taken over the show. At this point I'm surprised they haven't done an episode about how people can use Pictochat on the DS and now all your kids are in trouble. I do not think it's really that fake, however. Do people honestly believe that people would appear on that show, have their faces shown and their name give, simply as a volunteer or to make some money? Someone somewhere is going to recognize them. It's not something to be taken lightly. Even just making up phony portions of the case and presenting them as actual events could land the network in some hot water.... pedophiles or not.

Who cares? It's like nerds getting upset that they're called nerds. I'm willing to be there are people that wear all of these "insults" as some sort of badge of honor.

[quote name='indifference'][COLOR="Indigo"]The biggest one that cracks me up the most is since I'm polite and nice to pretty much everyone I meet, people here automatically assume I'm LDS/Mormon. That one always has me wanting to laugh, I mean come on! Nice people who are not religious do exist! [/COLOR][/QUOTE] That's a really weird conclusion given people like Mitt Romney are running about. :animeknow

[B]I added some new stuff to this post as of July 28th and August 5th to better answer your questions.[/B] [quote name='Wondershot']Really, I'd be happy to write for Digital Devil DB if you wanted me to.[/quote] Sure, feel free to IM me or PM me or whatever. Really, all I ask is that people write what they want and add to what they want... I have no demands or expectations there. Anyway! [quote name='Wondershot']There are a couple things I am curious about, though, before I play it. On the occasions when you're in class, is it true that [spoiler]the teachers usually ask you questions about incredibly obscure facts about Japanese history that most people in North America wouldn't know about?[/spoiler][/quote] I'll spoiler this, but I didn't write anything that'll ruin anything for you: [spoiler]If it's something you wouldn't know, the teacher usually prefaces it with the answer. It's mostly a game of paying attention. For example, a teacher mentions her favorite Japanese author, notices one of your friends not paying attention and asked who she was talking about. He bothers you for the answer. If you're playing the Japanese version, I'm sure this is handled differently... There has been one that threw me off. The teacher asks what a Japanese word means in a sentence... but if you actually pay attention to the sentence, only one meaning makes any sense. There was one question about who was on what bill though and I don't know how anyone outside of Japan would really have ANY idea. It's easy enough to look it up. There's other questions where you actually have to know things. The difference between the different eras of the Stone Age, for example... Which theory of a few is Einstein's, but I've not found any of them difficult... There are midterms in the game that test if you've been paying attention to the questions teachers ask in the classes. Doing well affects your popularity and you get some nice items if you get first place.[/spoiler] [quote name='Wondershot']Also, when exploring Tartarus, is it true that [spoiler]experience bonuses decrease the higher you ascend?[/spoiler][/quote] [spoiler]Tartarus is divided up into blocks, each of which has a set number of floors in it. I'm not entirely sure where you heard this at, so maybe I'm misunderstanding... but as you go higher in the tower you fight different, more powerful monsters. You definitely get more experience from them. In the first block the Shadow give so little experience that I was getting kind of worried, but it picks up near the end and definitely gets better in the second block. Plus, randomly after battles you get to choose cares (which are then shuffled) and sometimes you get one that gives you extra experience. As you get higher, the numbers on these cards raise (I'd assume up to 9, starts at 1 obviously). Edit - I'd say this isn't really true, honestly. It depends on the enemy, obviously... but I think some people are confusing this with how many people you have in your party. For a while you only have 3, but when you have 4 experience has to be divided up more and thus decreases some... but if you keep going up in Tartarus, things are stronger and worth more experience to begin with.[/spoiler] [quote name='Wondershot']Finally, what is the ratio, more or less, of time spent in school to time spent climbing Tartarus? I assume that Tartarus would take up more game time than school, but I am just wondering about these details. I know the spoiler tags probably aren't that necessary, but hey, I wouldn't want to ruin the surprise of any details.[/QUOTE] At least so far, it's pretty balanced... and honestly, in many ways it's completely up to you. Other than for story segments (the first hour or so of the game is very linear to help you get adjusted, but after that you're given a lot of free time), I've never actually been [I]forced[/I] to do anything. If I want to hang out with a friend and build up my social skills (which give you Persona bonuses, but also just nice story/character interaction) or study at night instead of going to Tartarus, that's my decision. You have to remember that depending on the day of the year, much of the school day will be skipped entirely unless something of interest comes up. There's day where you'll go to school and it will skip all the way to after school. As you get stronger, though, you can spend a hell of a lot more time in there if you want. Even still, I'd say it's balanced... there's days when you can't go to Tartarus at all for various reasons. [quote name='Deathknight']How is the difficulty in the game Tony?[/quote] They don't seem pleased about it, but in the long run I think their decision is the best one. I've only seen one person get [I]really[/I] annoyed about it and that was on Joystiq's comments. Said he was canceling his pre-order, but he even seemed mad that there was no Japanese language track and that Fes wasn't included. I don't know how much you can expect lol. As for difficulty: My initial thought was that it was rather easy. This changes midway through the first areas, where the difficulty ramps up. I don't think it's impossible, but there's definitely a lot of strategy involved... If you're smart, you can attack the weaknesses of two different types of enemies (if not more) by just using your main character during one turn.

[quote name='Tombstone'][color=gray] (With Skies of Arcadia, Tales of Symphonia, and F-Zero being the only exceptions.)[/color][/QUOTE] I forgot about F-Zero GX, but that game is ****ing amazing in every last way. If you're looking for something more offbeat, Cubivore is a surprisingly fun title on the system. It's kind of repetitive, but I felt the minimalist art style and weird sense of humor really added to the overall package. It's kind of on the steeper side though, $20 used for a random GameCube title seems like a bit much to me. There's Eternal Darkness, which I really enjoyed. It has its problems (I think most notably some iffy enemy designs), but it's also pretty unfairly criticized. There's also Killer7. Controls really weirdly, but I don't think it's hard to play. Interesting story, if you can manage to understand half of it at all. Best part is you could probably find it for like $5. I really think it's one of the system's must play games and it's far superior to the PS2 version.

I can't even imagine trading in a PS2 for a GameCube. Didn't you want Persona 3? But if you do, most of what's been mentioned are the best things. I'd recommend Double Dash too. It's given more **** than it necessary and is a lot of fun with a friend. I also liked Metroid Prime 2 a lot. I don't personally think the life draining aspects hurt it that much, although it can get confusing when shifting dimensions. Otherwise it's a lot more challenging, probably better laid out and a lot of things are improved over the original. The boss fights, in particular, get pretty damn amazing.

[quote name='Wondershot']Stuff[/QUOTE] Boy, if I knew there was someone on this site that actually like Megaten as much as you apparently do I would have put something in my signature asking for staff for Digital Devil Database here lol. In any case, the game is being delayed slightly: [url]http://www.atlus.com/atlus_forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=116&sid=e1bb43ee4fa445d0980d1e8f53f56d45[/url] It's going to miss the July 24th date. It's not hitting stores till August 14th now. I just got my review copy in today, though, so I guess I can answer questions about it or whatever as I play it. (Edit - Game's ****ing awesome by the way)

I think the rap versus hip hop argument is a fair one to deal with, despite my previous post. I suppose It's kind of like the different types of any genre, the average person cannot tell them apart because the basic construction is obviously similar... but I have to scratch my head when I say I like Edan or Mr. Lif and people equate it with something like you (Sloth Girl) are referring to. I suppose I [I]do[/I] mind when people use their presuppositions about a genre to attack it. I actually feel that, even within the music industry, there's been more of an effort to push hip hop styles in recent years... it's definitely more single worthy, if nothing else. Unless I'm just listening to the wrong stations? lol

The only real point to be made here is that almost no one on the planet uses genres (particularly sub-genres) correctly and thus I don't really see the point in having to really differentiate between them to this degree. I suppose it is of interest when really trying to pin down what you like and what you do not so that you may find new groups that interest you, but when it has to debase into "he doesn't scream like this so it's not my genre!!!" I think it's into new territory entirely. This isn't in reference solely to screamo vs emo, since I know of the differences, but rather this whole overall wave of [I]be really specific or I'll rip your face off[/I] genre discussions that seem to have taken over the Internet. I don't even know how people [I]enjoy [/I]music anymore. Meanwhile, we have people writing off really amazing bands such as Say Anything that don't fit into ANY definition of "emo", whether it's low key crap about feelings or screamo or whatever else. I mean, what's the point of genre labeling in this case? To dismiss a band for false reasons? I mean, it's one thing when you apply the things [I]correctly[/I] (like perhaps I'd say Jake does), but it's another when you apply these [I]incorrectly[/I] as attacks. I don't even see the point. We're in a situation where somehow "indie" is a genre and if no one else finds that ridiculous, I'm not sure what to say. Genre whore-ism has to die.