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this is the prog revolution hail sweden

Resonance of Fate
Why It Might Be Good: A steampunk JRPG from tri-Ace. I don't know much more about it other than that. I think it just came out today, but has only 2 reviews up on metacritic. This looks like the kind of game that will fly under the radar and may be worth picking up at a price-drop.
Why It Might Be Bad: tri-Ace also made Star Ocean 3.

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey
Why It Might Be Good: SMT: Nocturne is my favorite MegaTen game so far, and this sounds closer to Nocturne than Devil Survivor and Persona 3 & 4.
Why It MIght Be Bad: As far as I know it doesn't use the Press-Turn battle system. Could be grind-heavy.

Dead Rising 2
Why It Might Be Good: Though heavily flawed, Dead Rising is actually one of my favorite next gen games. The teasers showing combined weapons like a shotgun with a pitchfork bayonet look awesome. The developers promise that the game will have a lot more variety than the original. The graphics look better too.
Why It Might Be Bad: Will the survivor's AI be better? Please say yes. The game could easily end up being more of the same, which isn't going to cut it in a game that can be summed up as "killing lots of zombies"

Super Street Fighter IV
Why It Might Be Good: $40 for SF4 with 10 new characters and additional content.
Why It Might Be Bad: I don't know whether Capcom is going to offer the new stuff as DLC for people with the original game. Like with RE5 Gold, it may be cheaper to buy a copy of the old game and get the DLC separately.

Dragon Quest IX
Why It Might Be Good: It's Dragon Quest IX.
Why It Might Be Bad: It took me awhile to get over that the next installment jumped to DS after Dragon Quest VIII looked and played so well. I don't like what I hear about the game being created with "multiplayer in mind" and making changes to appeal to Western audiences. Frankly I'm more interested in the DS remake of VI.

Prince of Persia: Forgotten Sands
Why It Might Be Good: I loved the recent POP games, including the next gen one. The old Prince is in this one.
Why It Might Be Bad: This is like what.. the 5th one of these since Sands of Time?

Alan Wake
Why It Might Be Good: The old previews always sounded promising.
Why It Might Be Bad: I have serious concerns about a game that's been in development hell for so long.

Fable III
Why It Might Be Good: I loved the first two games. New art direction looks great.
Why It Might Be Bad: I don't like what I hear about the game possibly being released in episodes. I'd rather have a full game at release. If that's the case, I'd rather wait until everything gets put on a disc.

Fallout: New Vegas
Why It Might Be Good: A new Fallout game using the Fallout 3 engine and from a studio founded by former Black Isle members. I have a feeling the story, characters and quests will be better than Fallout 3's.
Why It Might Be Bad: Is the game going to play differently enough from Fallout 3?

Mood: Studying
Game of the Day: Devil Survivor
Song of the Day: Kayo Dot - The Manifold Curiosity

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Thanks to being away at school, I haven't even had a next gen console for a year. In that time I've played quite a few games, but I feel like I've missed a lot too. In about a month and a half I'll be done with classes forever and be back to having consoles with me full time. So what great 360 games have I missed out on, folks?

I have/have played:

Assassin's Creed
Batman: Akham Asylum
Bioshock
Brutal Legend
BlazBlue
Bullet Witch
COD4: Modern Warfare
The Darkness
Dark Sector
Dead Rising
Dead Space
Devil May Cry 4
Earth Defense Force
Fable II
Fallout 3
FEAR
Final Fantasy XIII
Gears of War 1 & 2
Ghostbusters
Grand Theft Auto 4
Halo 3
Left 4 Dead
Lost Planet
Mirror's Edge
Prince of Persia
Resident Evil 5
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

Need to play more of:
Mass Effect (I feel like I didn't give it enough time)
Ninja Gaiden II
Tales of Vesperia (played 10 hours and lost interest randomly)

Plan on checking out:
Bayonetta
Bioshock 2
Assassin's Creed 2
Mass Effect 2
Modern Warfare 2
Lost Odyssey

Mood: Frustrated with all the school work I'm going back to
Game of the Day: SMT: Devil Survivor
Song of the Day: Some k-pop in espiga's honor

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Considering I've loved a quite a few of the recent SMT games (Devil Survivor being my favorite DS game), I'm quite excited.

Mood: Excited
Game of the Day: Final Fantasy XIII
Song of the Day: Frédéric Chopin – Nocturne in B Flat Minor, Op. 9, No. 1

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The 360 version is heavy and installing it takes a long time.

Mood: Excited
Game of the Day: Final Fantasy XIII within the hour hopefully.
Song of the Day: Electric Wizard - Dopethrone

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I enjoyed this movie, but holy shit that hyped "plot twist" is so obvious.

and 2 more days until visual novel of the year is released!

Mood: Hungry
Game of the Day: Bioshock (360)
Song of the Day: Between the Buried and Me - Swim to the Moon

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Did anyone's PS3 Fat die last night?

http://kotaku.com/5482328/ps3s-suffering-from-global-network-lockdown-%5Bupdate-6%5D?skyline=true&s=i

Mood: Hungry
Game of the Day: Chrono Trigger
Song of the Day: Radiohead - Treefingers

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My weeaboo list:

http://myanimelist.net/animelist/GilGrissom

Mood: Weeabooish
Game of the Day: Devil Survivor
Song of the Day: Sigur Rós - Sé Lest

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i am very excited to watch this movie

Mood: excited
Game of the Day: nothing because I have to study for some stupid practical exam on stupid shit
Song of the Day: Orphaned Land - Sapari

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I can't sleep now because I slept like 12 hours last night, so I'm going to write my thoughts on some gay anime (gaynime?).

K-ON!
Comedy, Slice of Life, Music
13 episodes

This was pretty much the anime of last year partially because Haruhi Season 2 bombed, but also because it had two extremely popular characters (characters being more important than plot for most modern Japanese anime otaku). K-ON! is a comedy, music show about a bunch of high school girls that join the light music club. The show unfortunately relies heavily on just having overly cute characters, which have been dubbed "moeblobs." For awhile it's enjoyable for what it is, but eventually it wears out its welcome. The show just doesn't really have any jokes or plot. Every episode is just "Yui acts dumb. Mio gets embarassed" over and over again. I overall liked the show but with such little substance I ended up being bored during the last four episodes of a 13 episode series. I can't see the second season being very good without more substance.

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
Mecha, Comedy
27 Episodes

I'm sad to say that I actually watched three episodes of this when it was airing and then stopped. I decided to give it another go a two weeks ago and loved it. Gurren Lagann is just a very epic, excessive and weird mecha anime. It's surprisingly light on filler until a couple of dull episodes in the second arc. It's unfortunate that it falls into a few cliches, has some truly forgettable supporting characters, and falls into a predictable formula often (Gurren Brigade is losing until Simon draws on his strength to use some ridiculous attack - admittedly most shonen action shows are like this).

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Season 2
Comedy
14 episodes

It's hard to imagine that three years earlier Haruhi was the probably the most popular anime. It took Kyoto Animation three years to finally deliver a much anticipated third season and it absolutely sucks. The first episode is fantastic (an episode where Kyon goes back in time to convince Haruhi to go to their High School) and the first of the despised Endless Eight arc is fun. Unfortunately there are then 7 episodes that are nearly identical in content. The only differences are merely cosmetic - scenes redrawn at different angles, characters in different clothing. But watching the same shit 8 times with minor differences is incredibly boring. I can't imagine why anyone thought this was a good idea. The last 5 episodes are better but still very disappointing and pointlessly retread on Haruhi's film for the Cultural Festival. It's so dry you finally start to realize Haruhi's once humorous, abusive behavior is annoying. I can only hope this was lazy effort while they were working on the upcoming film.

Minami-ke
Comedy, Slice of Life
13 episodes

Not really much to say about this one. It's a very funny, well-done slice of life comedy about three sisters. It's very reminiscent of Ichigo Mashimaro only less creepy since the characters aren't 12. It has two traps! I'm hesitant to start Season 2 however since I've heard it's a disappointment.

Hanamaru Youchien
Comedy
Airing

From Gainax & the director of Gundam 00 - a show about kindergarten. There was a bit of controversy over the show when it was unveiled. It's about a male kindergarten teacher, Tsuchida, and one of his students, Anzu, having a huge crush on him; however, Tsuchida is clearly interested in one of the other teachers. Much of the show's humor is based off the kids' ignorance on "grown-up topics" (think Yotsuba but not really as good or funny) and Tsuchida's nerdiness (HE REALLY LOVES DRAGON QUEST!). It's not a fantastic show, but it's surprisingly pleasant and not as creepy as the previews looked. There are still a few moments that flirt with being too perverted (such as Anzu wanting big boobs to impress Tsuchida). Since the show is still airing I hope it doesn't degenerate into pedo shit.

Mood: Wide Awake
Game of the Day: Chrono Trigger
Song of the Day: The Antlers - Slyvia

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As Final Fantasy XIII gets closer and closer to release, I get more and more tired of mindless 360 bashing. I had forgotten about how immature and moronic most gamers act on the Internet. I don't know how many times I've seen the same interview on cut content cited as DEFINITE PROOF that the 360 RUINED the game (if you haven't read the interview, the art-director essentially states some cut areas may appear as DLC).

Have gamers really become so stupid that they can't bear to have an anticipated title also appear on their non-preferred console? Do you people realize how idiotic they sound when they claim ,"Final Fantasy is supposed to be a Sony brand!"? Let's face it: if you only have a 360 or PS3 you're going to be playing a lot of the same games with negligible differences. That is unless amazing exclusive content like "no disc swapping" or "uncompressed audio" is enough to make you ejaculate.

Is either console really that much better? The PS3 has some of the better looking games, but the 360 has the more versatile graphics card. 360 has some great exclusives. PS3 is finally getting good exclusives. Both have a library of fantastic multiplatform games. Mainly because the 360 has a strong presence in the West, a lot of Western developers are making great games, and games cost so much they need to sell well in multiple regions. Frankly I don't think there's ever been a generation where two consoles were so similar. The failure rate of early 360s was a joke and made me glad to adopt much later. The PS3 is not an unbreakable machine either (remember the PSX & PS2?). Playing games from the hard drive on 360 is awesome, but being forced to buy expensive Microsoft hard drives is not. The PS3 lets you use any hard drive, but its Blu-Ray drive sucks (and the Slim's sucks even more - why do you think some of those installs are mandatory?).

Essentially my point of this rant is simply Xbox 360 vs PS3 - who cares?

PS: Boycott Devil May Cry 4

Mood: REFLECTIVE
Game of the Day: Homework :|
Song of the Day: The Antlers - Two

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me (6:56:14 PM): which would you rather have
me (6:56:19 PM): a woman or your ps3
friend (6:56:24 PM): My PS3

Mood: Awesome
Game of the Day: Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
Song of the Day: Rome - Rape Blossoms

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In alpha order

Akumajou Dracula X: Chi no Rondo (Turbo)
Castlevania III (NES)
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PSX)
Chrono Trigger (SNES)
Contra: Hard Corps (Genesis)
Cotton 2 (Arcade)
Dragon Quest IV (DS)
Dragon Quest VIII (PS2)
Devil May Cry (PS2)
Donkey Kong Country 2 (SNES)
Doom II (PC)
Fallout 3 (Xbox 360, PC, PS3)
Final Fantasy IV (SNES)
Final Fantasy VI (SNES)
Final Fantasy VII (PSX)
Final Fight (Arcade)
Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Father (PC)
Garou: Mark of the Wolves (Arcade)
Gears of War 2 (Xbox 360)
Goldeneye (N64)
Grandia (PSX)
Guilty Gear X2 (PS2)
Half-Life 2 (PC, Xbox)
ICO (PS2)
King of Fighters '98 (Arcade)
Kingdom Hearts II (PS2)
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES)
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64)
Lords of Thunder (Turbo)
Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete (PSX)
Metal Gear Solid 3 (PS2)
Metroid Prime (GC)
Mike Tyson's Punch-Out! (NES)
Ninja Gaiden Black (Xbox)
Panzer Dragoon Orta (Xbox)
Panzer Dragoon Saga (Saturn)
Prince of Persia: Sands of Time (PS2, GC, Xbox)
Resident Evil: Director's Cut (PSX)
Resident Evil 4 (PS2, GC)
Sam & Max Hit the Road (PC)
Samurai Shodown II (Arcade)
Secret of Mana (SNES)
Shadow of the Colossus (PS2)
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor (DS)
Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 2 (PS2)
Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne (PS2)
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 (PS2)
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 (PsS2)
Shinobi III (Genesis)
Silent Hill 2 (PS2)
Skies of Arcadia (Dreamcast)
Snatcher (Sega CD)
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Genesis)
Star Ocean 2 (PSX)
Star Wars: KOTOR (Xbox, PC)
Street Fighter II' Champion Edition (Arcade)
Suikoden II (PSX)
Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES)
Super Mario World (SNES)
Super Metroid (SNES)
Tales of the Abyss (PS2)
Twinkle Tale (Genesis)
Xenogears (PSX)
Ys Book I & II (Turbo)

I really haven't played enough Saturn or Turbo games. Perhaps I should rectify this someday....

Mood: Hungry
Game of the Day: Policenauts (PSX)
Song of the Day: Lady GaGa - that song where she goes RARARARARARA

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I'm gonna finish the Alpha marathon this year. This is probably way too ambitious since I only wrote 5 review last year and 6 the year before that. But I've played a ridiculous amount of games over the years and lately I've been penning short reviews so I could probably accomplish it. One of the biggest problems for me is just starting, but once I do it's pretty easy. For the past 3 days I've had reviews for these games planned in my head. I will force myself to start one today:

Brutal Legend
Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
Ghostbusters: The Video Game

PLEASE LOOK FORWARD TO IT

Mood: Lazy
Game of the Day: Dead Rising
Song of the Day: Venetian Snares - Dolleater

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Batman: Arkham Asylum
CoD4: Modern Warfare
Halo 3
Assassin's Creed
Oblivion GOTY edition
120 GB Xbox 360 Hard Drive
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince 2 Disc Edition
House of Leaves
Choke
Library of America Collection of 4 Philip K. Dick novels
Operation (the board game)
Harry Potter 2010 Wall Calendar
$25 cash

happy halloween everyone

Mood: Merry
Game of the Day: Batman: Arkham Asylum
Song of the Day: Radiohead - Videotape

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01) maudlin of the Well - Part the Second
02) Magma - Ëmëhntëhtt-Ré
03) Converge - Axe to Fall
04) Natural Snow Buildings - Shadow Kingdom
05) 椎名林檎 [Shiina Ringo] - 三文ゴシップ [Sanmon / Superficial Gossip]
06) Raekwon - Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... Pt. II
07) Between the Buried and Me - The Great Misdirect
08) Have a Nice Life - Voids Disc 2: What Happened Next Was Worse
09) Sunn O))) - Monoliths & Dimensions
10) Brand New - Daisy

Honorable Mentions:
The Antlers - Hospice
Mastodon - Crack the Skye
Mono - Hymn to the Immortal Wind
Rome - Flowers from Exile
Wolves in the Throne Room - Black Cascade
Burn Her Letters - Gravity
Clark - Totems Flare

Mood: Contented
Game of the Day: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
Song of the Day: Albert Ayler - For John Coltrane

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