The exploration is a lot more directed than in fallout 3. I'm not minding it so far, as it's more of a broad swathe than a linear path and it feels organic (well, except for the invisible walls - WTF?). The map itself feels bigger to me, but with less content spread out on it. Gives the game's exploration a completely…

What can I say, I'm a sucker for good writing and design - really looking forward to it, hope they deliver a Mask of the Betrayer instead of a KOTOR2 (which I liked just fine, mind!)
Looks like they've amped up the humor, as well, and brought back dialog options for low stats/abilities. Can't wait.

All of these games have boobies, except for Heavenly Sword. It seems to be a genre convention. Another one is that the character needs to be a completely unlikeable piece of shit, which thankfully neither Heavenly Sword nor this game conform to.

Sorry, yes, Darksiders- my bad.
My problem with it was that it was, well, bland. Not bad, necessarily, but other than an interesting art style, the game never really came alive for me at all. It just reminded me how much better the games it was aping were. I really wanted to like it, but hey.
(Also, I remember it…

Combat in this game is actually very different from GoW. You're encouraged to approach battles carefully and with a tactic in mind; if you just wade into a group of enemies, especially on hard, you will die.
That being said, it's the combat I'm enjoying the least. The game is at its best in its scripted moments (and…

Add another agreed to the can. I'm not that keen on the gameplay, but the storytelling and characterization are magnitudes better than almost any other game out there. Trip is a bit of an asshole, but she mostly reacts to things as someone who's led a mostly sheltered life would; and Monkey more or less goes along…

Mimicry
So yeah, this game steals ideas like no one's business - but for some reason it doesn't grate like, I dunno, Darkstalkers or Dante's inferno. I thought that it did a pretty good job appropriating the stuff it took, and offered a few ideas of its own.

They're mercifully few - and though annoying, they were so pretty I didn't care so much. The scene where the one in the frozen lake assembles itself is wonderful.

There's also finding power ups for weapons and you already have (a stake for your chain cross, for example, or an upgrade to the amount of secondary weapons you can carry) and every now and then you get a new piece of kit that gives you new abilities. Many of these you can only find by replaying levels.

philosophical, affecting stories
No, they weren't. I loved the gameplay (at least for 1 and 2), but just about the only thing I remember about the stories is "well, I guess it isn't as bad as metal gear 2"
Seriously, I love that Kojima exists - he's definitely got balls, has some good ideas, and at least tries to…

Bleh, I completely misread Girard's post…
Jade Cocoon was alright - I have very few memories of it other than it being a perfectly adequate pokemon-style RPG. I do remember getting bored with it very quickly, though.
My favorite level5 games remain Dark Cloud/Dark Chronicle - I'd love to see a sequel to those…

Thanks. I'd rather buy it here and support the local publishers, but if it looks like it'll get delayed indefinitely, I'll import it. I've got a soft spot for Nippon Ichi, even if I'm crap at their games.

Oh, and it's actually got localized, and is coming out next month!
Looks brilliant. Hope it gets a UK release date…

That'd be White Knight Chronicles - and yeah, the environments look lovely, but that's about it. Its writing/story, in particular, is lazy even by bottom-shelf JRPG standards.

sarc, that's one hell of an insult there. I mean, saying that Gears of War has a better story than your game… ouch.

Oh oh- the new Duke is being made by the people who made their name by releasing… Opposing force.
Dammit, they're going to ruin Duke Nukem's story!

Ghaleon, aren't you being a bit harsh on them? Penumbra Overture was fairly bad, but they learned from the mistakes and Black Plague got to be pretty good. And I'd count building graphic adventures based on ambiance and physics puzzles as an innovation (even if both had been used to break up the action in FPSs before.)
…

And since the PC is getting some love…
…what about a review for Amnesia? Brilliant little game. Also, fucking terrifying.

I thought Brutal legend did a very decent job updating Herzog Zwei - if it had focused on its strategy battles instead of the sandbox overworld/action adventure elements, it could have batted it out of the park. (For the record, I'd have preferred it to be the other way around, but hey - it was conceived as a Herzog…

"In a town with no future
But that's where my future lies"