AncillaryDrone

The Swordquest series definitely isnt the same old games they throw into every comp. I wonder if the manual is going to include the comics or some explanation of what these games are (were) all about?

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Civilization IV is coming out at the end of the month. Black & White 2 isnt too bad. edit: I'll second Dungeon Siege II

People have been playing Cornhole in Indiana for years, my wife's family is responsible for bringing the game to Cleveland, or so they say. It's supposed to be popular on a lot of Ohio campuses too.

MORE SPOILERS AHEAD Yep, and you can pick up the Queen too! Sorry about all the spoilers, it's hard to talk about this game without spoiling everything. It took me a few days but I've managed to find all of the cousins which unlocked a level where you have to roll up all the cousins on the Flower stage. That was easy, but then it unlocks another stage where the rose that's on the selection screen asks you to roll up a MILLION roses. I didnt think it would be too bad but the catch is that the katamari doesnt grow, all you can ever pick up are roses and, well, let's just say it would proably take a week of solid rose picking to get a million of them. Thankfully you can quit anytime you want and it starts you off with the same # of roses when you start again. I've gotten a little over 50,000 and I'd say that took at least a few hours, maybe four. I've got a tip though, once you pick up about 3,000 roses they start to respawn slowly, so if you exit the level and go back in the board is repopulated with a lot more roses which makes gathering them up faster. There are three stages in the rose level, it seems to be random which you will get when you enter the rose level, sometimes it is a snow stage, a town stage or a racetrack stage. The racetrack stage by far has the most roses on it and they respawn at a decent rate so you can spend a lot of time there even once you've rolled up a few thousand roses. What a job, I dont think anyone knows what happens when you roll up a million roses.

Yeah, the final level is fantastic. Like "Make the Moon" it starts you off at 1 meter, and it starts you in "Area 3" (see my first post). Unlike Make the Moon it doesnt turn into a big snoozefest once you get really huge, it just keeps getting better. I managed to get 1100m on the first try and the King was not impressed at all. I've heard of people getting over 4000m. It's too bad you cant start in the house but the previous level where you can start off in the house does allow you to get extrememly large, too bad you only have 12 minutes. That would be a nice level to have an eternal on.

It is indeed out, should be out just about everywhere today, yesterday it was mostly at places like EB and Gamestop. Definitely an improvement over the original and with a wider variety of things to do. I've noticed that the ball rolls along much better, although it's hard to describe exactly how. The ball definitely reacts better to oddly-shaped pieces which affect how it rolls. Also the graphics are slightly better with a very noticeably improved framerate. It's also "busier" than the first game, it seems like there is more stuff moving around and definitely more objects total to pick up, you get big fast on some levels, and by KD1 standards you think you are doing fantastically only to realize you didnt pick up half the things you could have. Again, the goals in the game are very "modest" just like the first one, so I havent had much problem unlocking the levels, although the game hangs up your progress slightly by (I believe) requiring you to find all of the cousins at couple of points before you can unlock the final few bonus levels. The size and scope of the levels are pretty amazing if you're used to the levels in KD1. Spoilers ahead... There is another similarity to KD1 in that there is a main "world" level which you have to play at varying points in the game where the king will give you more time and a bigger size to reach each time in this same level, sometimes starting you out further into the level. The other levels, of which there are many, are like bonus areas for specific tasks which are not part of this main level - off the top of my head I can think of a zoo level, a racetrack, a campground, a solar system, a school, a ski resort, you've probably seen a lot of these already. But the "main" world is something else. You start off in a house and then when large enough you can go to the next area, the game actually has to load the area in this time because it's ENORMOUS. The town is just god-awfully huge with so much going on that it's not like anything in KD1, and as near as I can tell you could keep going until you've rolled up most of the world as it just never seems to end! I couldnt even get to a point where it loaded in the next level. Hopefully later in the game (although I fear I'm very close to the end) it will give you enough time to completely explore the world, it just seems to be never-ending. Here's what I found in a faq on gamefaq's that better describes the progression I'm talking about: MAP 1 - The inside of a house, with tables, sofa, and chairs. [ Leave by rolling off the balcony. Caution: once you leave this area, you can never come back. ] MAP 2 - The garden of the house. MAP 3 - The garden of the house, plus the town the house is in, and the playground of a nearby school. MAP 4 - The garden, town, and playground, plus two extra urban areas. MAP 5 - The garden, town, playground, extra urban areas, plus two themed areas meant to represent France and London, and also a construction site. MAP 6 - The garden, town, playground, extra urban areas, France, London, the site, plus areas meant to represent America, China and India. MAP 7 - Everything in the previous map plus areas to represent Egypt, Russia, a giant robot launch site, a rocket launch pad, etc. MAP 8 - Everything. In the world. And Atlantis. And the King walking around. Enjoy. These different "maps" are actually one huge, huge, huge, huge map. For instance going from map 1 to map 2, then 2 to 3 you have to go through cones just like in the first game. The difference is that once you are large enough to get through the cones the King notifies you like in the first game but then loads the next portion in, you can still roll around where you are and traverse back to earlier sections (except the house, you'll see why) or you can move on to the new section by rolling over the cones. The scope of these areas is immense, it makes the final level in KD1 look totally puny. So far it's only given me enough time to go from map 1 to map 3, although one level started me out in map 3 and I was able to get through most of map 4. I'm hoping at the end of the game it gives you a chance to go from map 1 to map 8! If someone's already done this let's hear about it please.

I wonder what the chances are of some unsold stock of NTSC Mangia's lying around somewhere, waiting to be unearhted, just like the NTSC Motorodeo and Ikari Warriors now flooding the market... Cheers, Marco 908200[/snapback] I've been out of the loop a while, has even one NTSC Mangia been found? I'd like to see a remake of this game with better (i.e. more disgusting) graphics. It would make a good little flash game.

Right, if the lens has any dirt on it you'll get read errors. Usually the dirt is from old, dirty disks. It's important to store those babies properly. Of course these floppies wont last forever no matter what you do. 20-50 years is the expected lifetime, which means time is running out. If you have c-64 stuff that's irreplacable then it's time to get it onto your PC.

I've got ones from 1986/87 that still work great, even the cheapo ones still work. I think taking them out for a spin once in a while helps. Oh and most importantly your 1541 should be very clean.

Although the PS2's "capabilities" leave a lot to be desired, lately some very talented programmers have been able to squeeze every bit of potential out of it and have achieved some amazing results. I've been playing a lot of God of War lately and I gotta say that this game, Jak 3, and what I've seen of RE4 have revived the PS2 in my eyes. God of War especially is a fine, fine looking game, to me it looks as good as anything on the Cube or X-Box. I'd say the PS2's got some life left in 'er.

I think it needs to be re-iterated that in the article they are specifically talking about the triforce hunt part of the game which was certainly boring, but they are probably referring more to the Japanese version of the game where the Triforce quest took MUCH longer and was said to be extremely boring, if not painful. The rest of the game is pretty good, it's just that once you've gotten to the end of the game the last thing you want to do is sail around some more. It's the sailing around that gets old... they tried to spice it up a little with the enemies on the water and the coin and treasure chest fetching but when you're maxed out on rupees then all of that is pointless. Anyway it's hardly a "diss" of the entire game, these guys have SUPER high standards for "fun" in gaming but of course not every game is going to be perfect.