Insert joke about using the words "good" and "Tomb Raider" in the same sentence. lawl.

The problem with Tomb Raider is quite simple: it is, and always has been, about Laura's boobs. I really, really wanted to like Tomb Raider: Legend. I'd even go so far as to say I didn't regret spending the money on it. But even with the reboot, the new devs in the form of a studio I had spent years fanboying over since Soul Reaver and an actual, serious attempt at a narrative, it's still more about Laura's bulimic polygons than anything else, certainly to the rest of the game's detriment.

I don't care about the platforming/shooting ratio, I care about how a mechanic is executed, regardless of how much it exists. Uncharted isn't better because it has more shooting (Legend certainly had more shooting than previous TR games anyway,) it's better because the platforming has better visual cues and controls that actually respond like I think they're going to based on what I see on the screen and what the camera angle is. That bit near the beginning of Legend where you're parkouring around that godawful pit with all the spiky deathtraps and you have to do it exactly right or start the whole thing over, assuming it doesn't kill you, was about where I decided that no, the reboot did not fix the problems the series has always had. You can criticize Uncharted's platforming for being too easy if (like me and I'm sure like many others, especially anyone who's played this type of game before) you barely died or even just messed up a platforming segment and had to start over, but I'd rather that than die twenty times on one tiny chunk of platforming as an artificial, frustrating game-lengthening device akin to old-school arcade games with their quarter-dumping mechanics.

I've given up on Crystal Dynamics ever since Amy Hennig left (and headed up Uncharted.) I wouldn't even want them to make a go at another Legacy of Kain, since they can't even grasp that Laura's knockers and clothes that are overly sexualized even when they aren't outright stripperiffic don't actually make an interesting character or a fun game. Maybe Underworld is leaps and bounds above the rest of the series and does fix these problems, but the rest of the series has done nothing but tire me out from any interest.

God, it never ceases to annoy me when people compare Uncharted to TR. They are totally different types of games. Uncharted is an action game with minor platforming and puzzle elements. You spend the bulk of the time shooting bad guys. TR is a platformer with minor action elements. You spend the bulk of the time platforming and solving puzzles.

It's fine if you like Uncharted better because of its action focus. However, stop comparing it to TR because they are different types of games. It's as dumb as comparing R6 to Quake or C&C to Total War.

Sorry, I didn't realize the artistic integrity of Tomb Raider was serious business. Can't a man admire a videogame character's physique in peace anymore? Sheesh.

I'll just be over here playing Uncharted and admiring Nathan Drake's butt in those tight jeans realistically wet shirt.

Please don't be delayed please don't be delayed please don't be delayed please don't be delayed...

While I'm sure South Korea will disagree, DoW2 > Starcraft 2.

That was a bit of a let-down, really. Starts off referencing RAINBOW, 'kay, but with thirty seconds, you're really wasting time with that better spent on hooking the viewer on the actual game. And of course, the F-35 is practically radiating apple pie when it shoots down the Berkut.

Now I want to go play Ace Combat so I can have fun in a Berkut...

In all fairness to motion blur, it usually does a great job hiding jaggies so you can turn your AA down a notch without noticing anything except lots more frames per second, but the trick is for the effect itself to be pleasing, as well as subtle and not a spam of post-processing every time you move your mouse half an inch.

Definitely looking forward to this. The Marine campaigns in AvP and AvP2 were scary as shit with frantic panic and subtle creepyness mixed perfectly. I hope this follows in those footsteps.

Much as I miss AvP and as much as I love stalking around as a Predator, if they're going to do a game based on one of those races, you can't go wrong with the Marines since they're the 'jack of all trades' of the franchise.

Will this have the infamous Dr. McSteamy scene? 'Cause if it does, I am so there.

Death to the false emperor! Death to the weak Imperium of Man! Skulls for the skull throne!

(Also, woo, 'nids!)

I've already said what I find wrong with it - it has precious little to do with the Star Wars that I know and love. It's before the Empire; before the Tie Fighter; before the Rebel Alliance; before the Death Star; before the Star Destroyer.

Before everything about the franchise that sucks, you mean?

Bleh, who am I to drop burns, this thing'll blow. KotOR3 would've been so much better.

Oh, the crazy things the economy is doing to the risk-aversion attitude. Namely, making the people who are in charge of these decisions even less sane than usual.

Guess it's time to give Ace Combat 5 another playthrough while hoping HAWX doesn't blow chunks.

If Steam or Impulse is too much DRM for you, then you might as well leave PC gaming. I've been using Steam for years now and couldn't be happier. Some of you won't be satisfied until the devs come over and blow you.

SecuROM is useless, install limits are retarded, but I'll deal with Steam in my system tray if it means I get awesome community features and unlimited game installs. I love being able to reformat my PC and have Steam download my game collection the next morning, totally updated and good to go. There's always the risk of Valve going tits up or screwing us over, yes, but over the next decade, I expect all gaming to be done online. Publishers have eliminated the resale market for PC games; consoles are next.

Seconding ^This.

It's like...EA has been cured of AIDS. It's a Christmas fucking miracle.

That's not as impressive as Batman being able to breathe in space.

The biggest loss are the lack of grenades IMO

You can mess up grammar in my language due to your language being different all you want, this is where credibility goes out the window. If you want grenades, go play Halo. The rest of us will be content playing a game where the winner is decided by factors other than throwing things at walls with precise angles to bounce them into appropriate places over and over again.

Much as I want this game to be awesome, red flags start waving whenever MMO developers start talking about how "Our story is different!" Good luck with story in an MMO, guys...

The sad thing here is that there's no good side to take. As obnoxious as this whining is, I sure as hell am no fan of Gamestop and their "Buy your game for five dollars store credit and resell it for five dollars under retail price" business model.

Oh, and this:

"What the used games are doing is forcing publishers and developers to incur bandwidth costs for updates and support at least twice -- once for the game's first owner, then again for the owners of the used versions."

Well gosh golly gee! Maybe if you finish your fucking games before shipping them instead of shoving them out the door with the now-standard "we'll just patch it" rationale, you might not have to worry about blwoing bandwidth on updates! The entire reason for this absurd mentality is to make as much money as fast as possible anyway, so since its apparently not working like that anymore, how about, I don't know, you re-think your development process (and it's not like "finish the game" really needs much rethinking) to just cut out this factor?

Oh, and notice how he doesn't say anything about having to deliver DLC to the second-hand market. After all, DLC is all about the gamers, not more profit, and it's actually priced at a loss compared to the bandwidth used to deliver it. [/sarcasm] Give me a fucking break.

::Sigh:: Anyone remember that time before gaming became "mainstream" and the worst thing we had to worry about was the quality of arcade to console ports?

You know, the shit of it is, there's no way to win here. We can make all the valid points we want about ow ridiculously whiny this whole "used games steal from us! Wahhhhh!!!1!!!!!one!!!1!!!!eleven!!!!" attitude is, but they're not going to magically grow a brain and get a clue. We could have these people in the same room and it still wouldn't make a difference; the more used games are sold, the more they're going to be convinced its the devil's work and drastic measures must be taken.

Frankly, at the end of the day, my opinion on the matter is to not buy used games. Not for love of the industry's profit margins, but rather out of spite for Gamefail's horrible business model. All the morons wanking about used game sales do get one thing right; they're lining their pockets at the expense of consumers.

I call Akiba as MGS5's main character. I just hope he's gone out and gotten his shots, because the magazine should be the only way to distract guards.

Then again, the idea of guards saying "What is that smell?" in the same tone of voice they said "What was that noise?" in MGS1 makes me laugh.

Unrivaled teamplay? I just don't see that at all. Play it all the time, but the team modes are hardly groundbreaking. Unless it's Team Anything on Shipment with max players, in which case it's the worst clusterfuck ever.

I still don't understand why CoD4 is so popular. It's basically the same game as CoD1 and 2, only in a modern setting.

Because it's the same game as CoD1 and two, only in a modern setting, is a big part of it for most of us.

CoD MW2 = Oh god yes. Admittedly, CoD was the only series to ever make me like the World War II genre again, but I'm so tired of it.

It would be great if CoD6 would not be so heavily scripted and linear. But that's the kind of gameplay the devs think people want. Console kiddies maybe. And I hate the infinite respawning of enemies until you reach a certain point. DUUUUUUMB!

Actually, it's pretty much what the devs like themselves. Search around and you'll find some older interviews where they totally rail on open-worldism because good scripting is an effective tool for emotional attachment.

I disagree with the hardline attitude and love me some open-world when it's done right, but I didn't care in this case because CoD4's scripting is good. If it's not until a third playthrough I begin to see the largest, most obvious events as scripted sequences, I'd say it worked.

I'd love to see CoD try and incorporate the director style gameplay we see in Left 4 dead. Spawning different waves of enemy forces would be pretty dang cool.

Christ, I hope Infinity Ward reads that.

it would be nice if they include some of the famous battles/operations in afghanistan on COD6. like re-enacting the longest sniper kill by a canadian soldier. or the operation by british SAS to save american soldiers trapped at the bottom of a valley by the taleban.

I wouldn't expect it to be explicity set in Afghanistan; CoD4 is set in Unspecifiedistan, after all, but having some stuff based on real battles fought at this point without the proper nouns shouldn't be all that tasteless.

Also up for consideration: This incident where two-hundred-fifty Taliban fighters ambushed thirty Marines and lost.

The irony being that since this is basically the idea behind the protagonist in any FPS, this one would rely on the scripting to make it work as a high-tension scenario. It could even be a sniper mission:

During the battle, the designated marksman single handedly thwarted a company-sized enemy RPG and machinegun ambush by reportedly killing 20 enemy fighters with his devastatingly accurate precision fire. He selflessly exposed himself time and again to intense enemy fire during a critical point in the eight-hour battle for Shewan in order to kill any enemy combatants who attempted to engage or maneuver on the Marines in the kill zone. What made his actions even more impressive was the fact that he didn’t miss any shots, despite the enemies’ rounds impacting within a foot of his fighting position.

Heck, the Marines certainly deserve a break after the nuke in CoD4.

Microsoft: Sony is less supportive of creative staff.

Why do Microsoft and Sony sound more like a pair of bickering politicians than anything else these days?