Cybergoth

The Orange Box definitely, or maybe something like BioShock. Bioshock, sure, but for The Orange Box, wasn't the main "mature for solo players" content basically just Half-Life 2, which has been previously released on like a million platforms? I thought Bioshock had the greatest potential here to please my needs, so thanks for confirming. I also thought I might like the Uncharted games, but they're on PS3 again

After a great start yesterday, tonights hacking sessions got rather tedious. There's over 20 databases you can hack into, all of which have several levels of access with different passwords, so one has to write down tons of info. All those databases are full with dozens of usenet like pages where users are talking to each other, with important info bits randomly spread inbetween. I totally drowned in all the overwhelming information, so I consulted a walkthrough more than once tonight, just in order to figure out what I was supposed to do next, to get the next puzzle piece of this scavenger hunt. This kind of clue seeking detective-adventure gameplay never was a favourite of mine...

Considering a rough current market distribution of: Wii 50% // 360 30% // PS3 20% I'd assume 50% of people are happy for the Wii price drop, 20% for the 360 price drop and 30% for the PS3, so while the Wii will stay at 50%, the PS3 and 360 distribution will even out on 25% each during 2010.

There isn't much coming from Nintendo for the Wii this fall, though, is there? Just Wii Fit Plus and New SMB Wii. That's probably all there is, unless you're a fan of Endless Ocean. Next year Nintendo has a killer lineup though, with Monado, Sin & Punishment 2, Tact of Magic, Metroid Other M and maybe even Kid Icarus One'd also think that Intelligent Systems, Retro Studios, NST and others will eventually drop the curtains of their current projects.

Actually to me it still *seems* so. Maybe I should've been more vague as in "...all must-have RPGs...", but anyway, I'd always go with the PS3 here.

The Mistwalker games, I remember reading about those. Vesperia really is only a timed-exclusive, like FF13 coming out first on the PS3. I think in Japan it already is out on the PS3

I was only taking games into consideration with a metascore of 75 or higher and I also ruled out PC games like Fable and Mass Effect when trying to make a fair choice between PS3 and XBox360. Not sure how many, if any, titles of your list qualify past those hurdles, especially when taking into account that at least Tales of Vesperia already got a PS3 port?

"supposed" is the correct term. Well, I'm sure it'll outdo Iron Man, Wolverine, 007, G.I.Joe and other Wii license disasters, but I won't bet on a >70 Metascore either. I read a very promising preview in the german N-Zone mag though. Unless bigN pulls another Disaster out of their hat soon, they won't see a penny from me this christmas

FF12 was some kind of menu driven real time combat, I've no idea how 13 will be. The PS3 generally seems to have all RPGs the 360 has, plus exclusives like Folklore, Disgaea 3, Valkyria Chronicles and Demon's Souls. One of the many reasons I'd currently opt for a PS3 Slim. Other factors are the much better and more reliable hardware, blue-ray, MGS4, better Ninja Gaiden, RE5DC, God of War and that I think there's still much more to get out of it than for the ~2 years older 360.

Hi there! And yet another quarterly forecast of promising Wii games which might end on my christmas shopping list: Mario & Sonic At The Olympic Winter Games Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Republic Heroes A Boy And His Blob Tales Of Symphonia: Dawn Of The New World Rabbids Go Home Ghostbusters: The Video Game Tornado Outbreak Muramasa: The Demon Blade James Cameron's Avatar: The Game Surprisingly not a single Nintendo title in there. Ghostbusters, Muramasa and ToS are coming late to Europe, but at least they finally do... Greetings, Manuel

Way cool I was more or less expecting just another EA shovelware dump here, like the majority of their other 50+ Wii titles, but this one really looks like tough competition for Darkside Chronicles. I even might go so far and get both

I guess that works both ways. RE5 Directors Cut for the PS3Mote will soon enough teach a lot of people what they've been missing all those years. Now that they're finally upgrading to state of the art gaming controls even I might give HD consoles a try BTW: Since I'm currently reading a lot of PS3 reviews, I find it funny to read so much about sixaxis support and how well that enhances the experience when done right, so it seems the PS3 crowd already loves waggle controls, no matter how loudmouth they dismiss them considering the Wii...

I dunno. Most X360 shooters seem to be just plain multiplayer kill-o-zap Doom/Quake style stuff. Is there anything more mature for solo players, something that can compete with Metroid Prime? Same with RPGs. I see actionized ego-style Oblivion and Fallout 3 stuff, but is there anything tactical or turn-based that can compete with Fire Emblem? Also, it seems 80%-90% of the HDs shooter/action-rpg libraries are available in keyboard/mouse controlled PC-Versions, so if I seriously wanted to play those, I'd probably just get a PC.

Hi there! Interplaying Neuromancer (1988): I remember that back in the day Neuromancer was filed under RPG, but after just spending a first night playing it, I must say it felt much more like an adventure to me. There are a few role playing elements in it, like the upgradeable skill chips and softwarez, but other than that most parts are a lot closer to e.g. Space Quest than The Bard's Tale. Based on the book from William Gibson, you're taking the role of a computer hacker in Chiba City, trying to figure out some sinister plot including mysterious deaths of other computer hackers and evil artificial intelligences. What I found interesting is that LSD guru Timothy Leary was somehow involved in the project - can't be a bad thing After reading the short manual I started playing and got quickly totally sucked into it, despite of the weak graphics of the DOS version. I've been solving the first couple of puzzles, like getting my computer back and already hacked a few things like clearing my hotel bill What I really dig is the great humor the game showed so far. See the screenshot above from the House of Pong, where the worshippers of the only true game sent me on a mission to return their "Holy Joystick"... Another great bit was in the "Donut World", where you can cheat some passwords out of a policeman once you have a "coptalk" skill chip implant Version Played: Abandonware, from "Home of the Underdogs". How to Run: I've been running it in DOSBox on 1000 cycles. IP Status: Still owned by William Gibson. Greetings, Manuel

Also *Cursed Mountain, *Another Code R, *Overlord and the best Version of Mini Ninjas!

Also Darkside Chronicles, Silent Hill, Mario & Sonic Winter Games and James Cameron's Avatar!

Hm... with all the recent price drops I actually just checked the 360's lineup and it did nowhere look superior, or what am I missing? If I'd buy a secondary HD console at all, then probably a Slim, at least it has 1-2 RPGs, the prospect of FF XXIII, a few gems like Folklore, inFAMOUS and the sigma versions of the Ninja Gaiden series. Add in RE5, BioShock, GTA IV, Fallout 3 and a few other games, then I count roughly a dozen PS3 games that I'm interested in. That's nothing compared to the 30 Wii games I already own - and I still have a dozen games on my wanted list for the Wii as well.

Dead Risings Frank West in action:

Hi there! That's surprising news from the TGS, this installment of the series will also make it to the States and Europe! A first (CGi-) Trailer: Greetings, Manuel

A new trailer, which does no less than skyrocketing Crystal Bearers to the #1 spot of my personal Most Wanted list:

Not a Mario fan? Not much of a J'n'R fan. And I've already played plenty of SMB and SMG before. I love the Mario RPGs though, if it helps

No way. And I'll be ignoring SMG 2 as well.

Hi there! Let's have a look at the first game of a team that would later create Grand Theft Auto: Well, back then "Rockstar North" was still called "DMA Design". And before creating GTA they would still waste a lot of time working on thousands of Lemmings games I was positively surprised from this Psygnosis production, especially since their first two Amiga games (Barbarian and Terrorpods) did turn out pretty bad when scaled down to the C64. (Of course, the 16-Bit versions weren't that great to begin with ) Truth to be told, Amiga Menace was nothing too special either. The main difference though, it didn't lose anything in the translation. Graphics and music are good on the C64. No competition for the top like Wizball or Katakis, but still really good. Gameplay is just average though. The level design is boring, the extra weapons are bland and the end bosses unspectacular. The standard enemy designs and their attack schemes are okay though. While Menace is a technically flawless and solid crafted game, there is absolutely nothing "new" in there though - we've seen it all before, down to the spaceship-flying-away-from-exploding-planet ending! I'll spare you that, but show you another picture from the ending sequence, where the players ship happily reunites with its mothership: Some future day the "Playing..." series may see another DMA Design game in the form of "Blood Money", but first it'll continue with something else. Greetings, Manuel

Hi there! Here comes Eliminator, John Phillips next game after Nebulus: Cooking with water only this time, he created a not so fresh mixture between Trailblazer and RoadBlasters. Flying along abstract roads and tunnels, your ships task is to eliminate (Aha! ) everything in your way. Okay, it's not that easy. You have to stay on track, avoid obstacles and use ramps carefully to jump from one lane to the other. In a few spots you can even hop to the ceiling and drive there, which is pretty confusing at first. The graphics are very fast for the C64. Not Trailblazer fast, but still fast compared to many other games showcasing this kind of 3D effect on the C64. The music is pumping electronic/techno style, which really supports the "driving" mood. My main gripe once again is the heavy need of memorization. Thank heavens the game does occasionally offer passwords for already beaten levels. I was of course using even more convenient save states, so I made it through all 8 tracks tonight already: Overall it's an above average game, worth a try. It's definitely better than all other RoadBlasters type games on the C64, albeit that's not too impressive a feature, especially considering the lackluster competitors: The substandard RoadBlasters conversion, Overlander, Fire & Forget 2... Some future day the "Playing..." series may see another drive and shoot game in the form of "Live and let Die", but first it'll continue with something else. Greetings, Manuel

Good to see you have other hobbies too! Congratulations!