merry xmas and happy new year to all

[skullo]

i know the xmas bit 2 days late but i been away

just wanted to wish you all a good 1 and a happry new year.


p.s

NC  Emerald Dragon  looks awsome as all your work does, cant wait to play it

[Princess]

Merry Christmas 2008!!!  

[Nightcrawler]

Merry Christmas right back at you!

What games will you all be playing on your Holiday break?

I plan on playing Popeye - Tale of Teasing Sea Hag which KingMike's Translations just released! It's a fun little board game mixed with platforming action.

After that, I'm thinking about starting Shadow Hearts. I've already beaten Koudelka and have bee meaning to continue in the series, but never got around to it yet.

[ultpaladin]

I got an XBox 360 a few weeks ago and I just finished Tales of Vesperia and I'm playing Eternal Sonata right now.  I have to say though that I'm pretty disappointed with this generation's choice of RPGs for the top 3 consoles when compared to the previous generations on the SNES, PS1 and PS2.  I just hope Star Ocean 4 makes up for it a bit.

I was curious if anyone has tried Last Remnant because I'm hearing such dramatically different things about it.  Some are calling it a technical disaster but then others say it is outstanding and I heard Famitsu gave it a 38 out of 40.  I just went in for that cheap hard drive offer from Microsoft because they said it was impossible to play the game from a memory card that I have.  Hopefully the hard drive will be easy to install.

[Nightcrawler]

Yeah, that's one reason I haven't bought any current generation systems. The RPG library is not really there for any of them as compared to the previous generations. That and they are still quite expensive.

I wouldn't worry about the hard drive. It should be pretty easy to install. Have you ever installed a hard drive in a PC?

Last Remnant looks pretty cool to me. I would definitely consider trying it out if I had a 360 of PS3. I'm interested in hearing some hands on opinions as well. It sounds like a good blend of what we know and love from both SRPGs and standard turn based. And it seems to have a strong story from the reviews I've read.

[ultpaladin]

I've never needed to install a new hard drive to my computer before, but I'm guessing it won't be too challenging for the Xbox 360.  I'm just relieved that I can install one at all so I can store the really intensive games that might have slowdown on the hard drive.  I read that helps a lot with Last Remnant because of the scale of some of the battles.  I'm curious about the game because it seems to have some interesting innovations displayed on such a grandiose scale.  

Dragon Age also seems to look interesting and its supposedly the spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate.  I think that game is still pretty far down the road.  

[honookatana]

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all you guys.

I'm playing Suikoden Tierkries at the moment, it's really good so far. I was a bit dubious about it being on the DS instead of a console but they've really put some work into it. Animated cutscenes, a fair bit of voice acting and the detail in the backgrounds were more than I expected. I'm also playing Ouendan on and off as usual too.

I saw Public Enemy last night for NYE, they were awesome. They showed up the other, younger artists that were around there.

[ultpaladin]

Whats Suikoden Tierkries like?  It comes out here in a few months and I was worried they would make it some kind of side or gaiden game.  Is the game pretty close to previous Suikodens?  Do you still collect the 108 stars and build your own town?

[honookatana]

Unfortunately, I haven't had as much time to play it as I would have liked so far, which makes it kind of hard to comment on. I'm really enjoying it though but I could understand if others didn't. There are no army battles or duels and only 4-man parties. The storyline is pretty good at the moment, with a return of some good old-fashioned political intrigue. Hopefully it can deliver on what I've seen so far and come together strongly in the end.

[enigma]

Haven't been on in awhile, so this response is a little late.  
To Nightcrawler: If you still haven't started Shadow Hearts or are still considering it then I highly recommend playing them.  Shadow Hearts and Shadow Hearts: Covenant are some of the best rpg's I've ever played.  They have a good storyline, and fun battle systems.  I haven't played the third Shadow Hearts because it seemed different from the first two, and didn't have the same main character.  As for The Last Remnant I thought it was good except for the battles, where you basically get to choose you actions from a list of choices randomly generated by the computer.  The often moronic choices you are given make battles artificially difficult, because if you could actually control each characters actions you could implement actual startegy and use decent moves every time( as well as being able to properly heal your guys whenever it was necessary).

I now realize that my post has nothing to do with z-mas so I'll stop now.  Happy 4th of July though( sorry that's the closest holiday available :/)

[Nightcrawler]

I never did make it to Shadow Hearts. I've been unable to really play video games most of the year thanks to my injury (and the first few months were taken up leading up to the wedding). That may change the second half of this year depending on whether or not I need any more surgery. It is likely I will be able to play RPGs again since they don't require fast and frequent button pushing. I know Shadow Hearts has the ring system with timed button pushes, but I'm hoping I can handle it. Action games probably not this year.

Don't let your tendons get injured guys. It's severely debilitating for video game playing!

[Next_Gen_Cowboy]

I have had alot of minor tendon pulls, and strains; for me they are unbearable, as everything I do relies so heavily on that entire region. I honestly cannot fathom the difficulty of some basic task without full or relatively full use, and range of motion.

I sincerely hope that this is not something that will require more surgery, or become permanent. More so than it already is at least. I wish you well, and hope you regain full range of motion.

Onto lighter topics, I did love Shadow Hearts: Covenant, I never had the chance to play the first one or Koudelka, and I am not sure if I want to play the 3rd in the series. My only gripe with Covenant was that it seemed like 2 condensed games instead of one long game, though my view is skewed by not having been introduced to some characters from the first game.

Recommendations for the 3rd?