Gabriel

This past weekend I was really craving a certain kind of flavor of death from above game. I wanted something with fast playing levels, fairly rapid (but not machinegun) fire, and a strong early 80s feel. I went through lots of stuff in my collection, and nothing quite scratched my itch. Then I was messing around with my 5200 and popped in Millipede on a whim. After playing it for a few minutes, I realized it was exactly what I had been looking for all weekend. It was delivering constant action with levels that were distinct, but which had such quick spaces between them that there was no real downtime. Plus it had a strong feel good component with the constant sounds and the fanfare of regularly acquired bonus men. I don't know why I had forgotten the game and didn't seek it out earlier. It was like I forgot I even owned it.

I've never been past Frank and his hunchback in all these years. It's sad I suck at this game so much, because it's one of the very few NES games I absolutely love.

Yeah. I'm even more torn now. On the one hand, I wouldn't mind supporting CGR. On the other hand, the higher goals seem at odds with the kind of CGR I'd want to support.

I'll have to think about this. I feel that CGR is, by far, the best gaming channel on YouTube. However, I also feel the quality has dipped quite a bit in the past couple of years. If it meant more videos like the phenomenal AT-AT review, or a return to the 20 minute features of Mark geeking out and being in love with shmups, I'd definitely pay for a subscription. He needs to also tone down some of his stock routines. Stuff like the love of flamethrowers never really gets old and isn't overused, but the whole prequel and Jar Jar hate is really old and tired. To me, CGR is about a love of all things geeky. It's about fun. It's also about providing information, and it's ironic that a show done mostly for laughs is so much more informative than genuine reviews of the same things. If CGR could return to that, instead of a frantic dash to produce six five minute videos a week, then that would be worth it.

Gaming Hell You wake up on Christmas Day. You rush to open your presents. Your present is your favorite, greatest console EVER! You also got the games for it you wanted more than anything else! You hook it all up so you can play, and the system doesn't work. Since it's Christmas Day, there's no option to return it that day. You can't play the games you so dearly want to play. You keep trying to get the system to work during the day, hoping against hope that something will be different this time, but you always get the same dead screen. The day passes painfully as you wait for tomorrow and the chance to trade in the system for a working one. You go to bed, and restlessly toss and turn because TOMORROW you will finally be able to enjoy those games. You wake up on Christmas Day. You rush to open your presents. Your present is your favorite, greatest console EVER! You also got the games for it you wanted more than anything else! You hook it all up so you can play, and the system doesn't work. Since it's Christmas Day, there's no option to return it that day. You can't play the games you so dearly want to play. You keep trying to get the system to work during the day, hoping against hope that something will be different this time, but you always get the same dead screen. The day passes painfully as you wait for tomorrow and the chance to trade in the system for a working one. You go to bed, and restlessly toss and turn because TOMORROW you will finally be able to enjoy those games. You wake up on Christmas Day. You rush to open your presents. Your present is your favorite, greatest console EVER! You also got the games for it you wanted more than anything else! You hook it all up so you can play, and the system doesn't work. ...

Dragster wait, what?.... Edit: Sorry, couldn't resist. Also didn't notice that this is in the computer forum.

You've got it wrong. That's pretty close to a paradise.

None of my BluRays have ever required me to have a network connection on my PS3 in order to play. I typically watch movies with the network turned off. They also have never asked me to update firmware, although I do keep up to date on normal PS3 firmware updates. The only irritating thing is that the PS3 will always ask if I want to enable online content and I have to select "No." If I ever accidentally click "Yes" I have to go into system settings to change it back to asking me instead of defaulting to yes. There is no option to default to no. I have well over 100 movies on BluRay and several series sets in the format varying from older releases to things as recent as Mad Max Fury Road and Avengers Age of Ultron. I have never seen anything about a validation certificate.

Looks pretty cool. But Atari won't care about the name because Jeff Minter isn't involved. I don't think Atari has done anything with the name for 8 years, and even that was just a half assed port to XBLA.

The series is almost over. Any guesses what #25 will be?

I think #20: Rollerblade Racer is the best yet.

5200.

I had to dig this thread up because AVGN is doing a series on bad video game art this month (December 2015). He's done a video on Action Fighter's cover. He calls the thing in the lower left a magnifying glass.

Nope. This one is worse. I'm calling it for the shameless money grab that it is. I also will predict they'll go to the well at least one more time before this saga concludes.

I don't know how you got through the trailer without automatically writing it off completely. It's an absolute travesty.

Looks like Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky Second Chapter finally got a US release. It's on PSN and GOG. I honestly didn't think it was going to happen. Although, I'm reminded of that scene in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy where the prophet dude makes his long overdue second appearance at Milliway's mere seconds before the final end of the universe.

As bad as this one is, the one I found a couple of months back of the original modelbuilders for the TMP Enterprise wanting a few million dollars to build "the Ultimate Enterprise" was even worse. Still, I was at least tempted to donate to that one. For $50, I'd get a book that seemed at least kind of interesting. (About the construction of the original model seen in the films) For $50 on this one, I'd get a photo of Don Bluth and Gary Goldman and a lanyard. ... wow. For $25, they'll give.. updates. Sorry. Not feelin' it.

YES!

I could wax poetic about Super Castlevania IV or Castlevania Bloodlines or even the original Castlevania. All three are great games. But my absolute favorite is Portrait of Ruin. That's the one I had the most unreserved fun with.

A note about Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles. It now shows up in the PS TV shop. The message that it is not compatible with the PS TV no longer pops up. It can be downloaded directly the the PS TV, not requiring a PS3 workaround. Then when you attempt to start it on the PS TV, it refuses to do so.

Looks like the character roster has expanded a bit from last time I checked. I was a bit irked when it was announced they were mixing Streets of Rage in, and instead of doing the extremely obvious pair unit of Axel and Blaze, they made Axel a solo unit. That struck me a such a fail. Combine that with using stupid Natsu from the pure distilled essence of fail which is Soul Calibur 5 instead of any of the iconic Soul characters. Ugh. The initial two waves of announcements really didn't wow me. Now that Zephyr, Leanne, Kos-Mos, Reiji, and Xiaomu are confirmed to be returning, I'm recovering my interest in it.