Why on earth does Portal 2 cost so much money, if it's only a few hours long? I've heard the game's great but my machine can't handle it at the moment (also I'm waiting for the price to go down, dramatically).

Why on earth does Portal 2 cost so much money, if it's only a few hours long? I've heard the game's great but my machine can't handle it at the moment (also I'm waiting for the price to go down, dramatically).

The game developers in this case are probably viewing the single player portion as a small Portal "experience", sort of like saying, "Hey, see all the new and nifty things you can do now?", and then reasoning that the multi-player portion is going to be what everyone wants to play. Portal 1 didn't have that capability so they're banking on people shelling out money so that they can at least experience it to see if they like it. Homefront has that problem too...roughly 7 hours of single player game play and the rest is designed around multi-player. But other than Team Fortress II and a very few other games I really don't care for multi-player games and it's the single player portion I'm primarily playing for in the first place.

Not to mention that Portal 2 is about the closest thing anyone's gotten in the Half Life universe in going on...4 years now? That itself is insane. C'mon Valve, get it together!

I went to Gamestop yesterday on a whim and picked up two games for the Xbox on the cheap in the re-used section. The first is F.E.A.R., which I already have on PC, but it was super cheap and I'm always looking for more Achievements to add. The second game I picked up was Tomb Raider Anniversary. This latter one is definitely my favorite of the two as I'm an old Tomb Raider fan from when it first came out. This edition is basically the same game as Tomb Raider 1 from back in the mid 90's but with a completely revamped graphics engine. The levels (thus far) share many similarities with one another, so far as I recall, and doggone it, the game is just a lot of fun.

So anyone here playing The Witcher 2?

Not really a game that I can recommend for everyone but this is one of the deepest RPGs that came out in a long while.

I am greatly anticipating Zelda: Skyward Sword. But I'm understanding it's June 2 release date is not happening. They do this with nearly every Zelda game: delay the release, but Nintendo has never failed. Each delay has translated to more dungeons/temples and a flat-out much better game. This will require the Wii Motion Plus, which will make it better for actually mimicing user-defined sword actions. And I hear players must actually target specfic part of regular enemies (not just bosses) instead of just hack-and-slash. And I hear that this will have an orchesta for the soundtrack. Could this be the best Zelda game to date yet? We'll see.

It has a november release date right. A year after the original release date.

It was announced yesterday that they expect episode 2.5 of WolfQuest to be released by August. They say they are currently working on fixing a few glitches...

Personally I'm really excited about this update. From the looks of it-it involves snow I love winter. They said they might release more screenshots, but no video

More info here: http://www.wolfquest.org/bb/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=50595

And screenshots here: http://www.wolfquest.org/screenshot_gallery.php

I can't wait!

Is anyone else as excited as I am for E3 this coming Monday!
I can't wait, the conference has become like a mini holiday for me and my sister!
Really looking forward to seeing what will be coming out, and getting info on games I'm already looking forward to, like, Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception and The Lord of the Rings: The War in the North!

Speaking of The Lord of the Rings: The War in the North, a new trailer for the game was released today!
(The Game is rated M (mature) for bloody and gory violence, if you have seen The Lord of the Rings Trilogy then you know what to expect )

If anyone is interested here is the new trailer for it (featuring Beleram the eagle):
http://www.ign.com/videos/2011/05/31/lo ... ctid=45924

Mainly looking for Nintendo at E3 (as usual)

I'm certain Fencer and ILF will applaud this news item. I have a room I call my "library", although only one shelf there is dedicated to books. Two are for boardgames, and recently I thought about expanding my horizons a bit and plugging in the old Nintendo. You know, the original Nintendo .

I got rid of mine many years ago (and have regretted it ever since) as well as all my games (don't get me started), but I really lucked out when I married my wife because not only does she love me, but she brought her own NES into the marriage. What a wife! So recently I've been lurking about the local thrift stores and visiting an online auction site (no, not that one) and have managed to assemble a pretty respectable list of NES titles, and I'm fairly excited to play em'!

On the way via mail:

Final Fantasy I (the one, the only, one of the best ever titles for the NES)
Mike Tyson's Punch Out
Star Tropics (a thoroughly underrated classic, only a hair behind Final Fantasy in quality and fun factor)
Legend of Zelda (the original!)

And a Super Nintendo I scored as a bonus on the cheap, with 5 games of its own including Zelda: A Link to the Past.

Wifester brought with her:

Faxanadu
Super Mario Bros.
Super Mario Bros. 2
Super Mario Bros. 3
Yoshi's Cookie
Dr. Mario
Excitebike (awesome!)
Contra (seriously...one of the greatest NES games ever made and my wife owns it? What are the odds )
Bigfoot (it's lame)
Some weird Disney games
Top Gun
Metroid

And a few others that don't come to mind.

Of course I'm still on the lookout for a few I let go years back...if you've seen these in your local thrift stores lemme know!

River City Ransom
Metal Gear I
Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link
Rygar
Ninja Gaiden I
Ninja Gaiden II
Ice Hockey
Pro Wrestling (the one with the Amazon!)
1942
Mach Rider
Kung Fu
Castlevania I
Castlevania II: Simon's Quest
Tetris (either the Tengen or Nintendo kinds)
Romance of the Three Kingdoms

And if you come across em' for SNES then look for these too
Final Fantasy II (my favorite FF)
Final Fantasy III
Pilotwings

Thats awsome i would like to one day do the same thing. I still have my 64 though. Nothing beats the nintendo 64.

I remember having a list of 31 NES games before we sold them at a yard sale before my family's big move (and only). Here's what I remember we had.

Super Mario Bros/ Duck Hunt
Super Mario Bros 2
Super Mario Bros 3 (IMO tied with Zelda for best game of its generation)
The Legend of Zelda
Tetris
Pac-Man
Pac-Mania
Dr. Mario
Yoshi (bad puzzle game. You can check it on Wii VC, but NOT worth it)
Yoshi's Cookie (much better than Yoshi)
Mickey Mouse Capade
Bible Adventures
Jesus of Nazareth
Exodus
Spiritual Warfare
Joshua (These five Bible based games were made by Widsom Tree who did some very questionable game productions. Very cheezy, especial Bible Adventures and Jesus of Nazareth. Exodus and Joshua were puzzle games and Spiritual Warfare did resemble the original Zelda VERY closely).

My memory has run out on the rest but here is the list of games I've played on the NES with friends or whatnot.

Mike Tyson's Punch Out (now known as Punch Out Featuring Mr. Dream)
Battle Toads
Batman (I think based on the Michael Keaton movie)
Arkanoid (great arcade style game)
Jeapardy
Wheel of Fortune
Major League Baseball
Totally Rad (horrible action/fantasy game)
Castlevania (original)
Castlevania II: Simeon's Quest
Adventures of Link (Zelda II)
Mega Man (original)
Bubble Bobble
Metal Gear (original)
Jackal (2D shooter)
Skate or Die (skateboarding game)
720 (skateboarding)
Gauntlet
Joust
Xevious

That's all my brain can muster now. All the good old days.

I think it's very poor form that Christians plagarised games and created sub-par (below sub-par games). Now THAT is taking God's name in vain.

In other news, I loved the NES. So many fond memories from my childhood. Duckhunt was an absolute favourite of mine. The Mario games were also pretty amazing.

That was a problem Nintendo realized they did. It wasn't hard for companies to essentially steal the technology. Wisdom Tree was not the only culprit. So was Tengen. Any game that did not have the standard gray, rectangular cartridge was not approved or liscensed by Nintendo. I had six games, Pac-mania and the five 'Bible games' that were like that and I didn't know it until actually just a few years ago. It was sad but even doing something illegal in the name of Christ is still illegal. The Bible does say to conform to the laws of the land as long as they do not violate the Word of God.

I have so many fond memories of my NES days. It was really good physical therapy for me. Growing up I couldn't do two things at the same time like sit up straight at the table and eat. My muscles couldn't do it. So my parents got me a Nintendo and I could only play by sitting on a one-legged T-stool (that I still have) and it worked. Also due to my Asperger's, neighborhood kids would never play with me but they were always found looking into our window, watching me doing things with Mario that they couldn't do. It's been forever, but I've beaten the original Mario straight through without warping or dying. And I can beat the original Zelda backwards (just getting the necessary items to advance) and without any of the power-ups (sword, shield and defense rings). I haven't tried that again lately, but I might be able to do it.

And I can beat the original Zelda backwards (just getting the necessary items to advance) and without any of the power-ups (sword, shield and defense rings). I haven't tried that again lately, but I might be able to do it.

That's quite impressive...I remember it being quite difficult just to get through it the first time . I remember that when you finished the game for the first time you could play it again and that the dungeons would then spell out Z E L D A, so even if you didn't have a map you could still figure your way around.

I had many of the same games on your list, and I remember seeing the Wisdom Tree games down at the local Bible Book Store and looking at them as a novelty or curiousity. Of course this was right on the cusp of the release of the SNES (Wisdom Tree has a notable oddity for that platform) so I'm thinking they probably didn't sell many.

We got ours at the local Christian Bookstore as well. I'll bet they didn't know either about what they did. I also know about the Wisdom Tree's attempt at a Noah's Ark thing on the SNES. It looks scarily like Doom, almost too much. It's sad that those with great ideas to make games based off Bible stories had to resort to cheap tricks. I'm certain people would buy games today that are Biblically based but as long as they are super cheesy.

As for SNES games, I never really had many myself. By the time I raised enough money with my paper route (I was only 12), it was almost time for the N64 to come out. I have four games for the SNES and played many more. I have
Super Mario World
Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
F-Zero
Sim City

I have a longer list of games I've played on the SNES

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
Plok
Clay Fighter
Mario Kart
Aladin
Chrono Trigger (one of the best RPG's of all time, if not one of the best games of all time)
Star Fox
Animaniacs
Super Mario RPG
Secret of Mana
Mega Man X
Mega Man X2
Mega Man X3

I'm sure there are more. I never did play Final Fantansy II or III (IV and VI) for the SNES. My only RPG experience then were Super Mario RPG and Chrono Trigger. I still hold Chrono Trigger to be one of the best games of all time. It still beats a lot of the modern stuff with story, playability, and music. It is dated with graphics, but that's it. But Chrono Trigger truly changed the gaming universe in a similar way FF VIII and Zelda: Ocarina of Time have.

Overall, I hold the games of the 90's to be peak of the gaming industry. That was when the makers focused on making the best games they could and didn't resort to mere graphics. There hasn't been a single game out since FF VIII and the N64 Zeldas that has changed the industry like those two have. While the Wii has changed the industry in terms of gameplay, there hasn't been one game that does it all. Halo is very popular but it didn't really renovate the industry. It just made 1st person shooters more popular, but not much else industry wise. Even Zelda Twilight Princess and what I expect from Skyward Sword won't really impact the industry like Ocarina of Time did. But I'm not giving up hope that Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft will re-discover how to truly make a spectacular game that will have a great impact on the industry.