Hey let's catch up on some video gaming in the sandbox

NO BULLETSTORM NO CREDIBILITY

that reminds me, sandbox coint + plick?

new xbox ui is ugly

dude, i dunno about sandboxing c+p
when is this back up again?

New Xbox Netflix noises when scanning make me want to die

Also yeah, we don't normally start c+p noms until jan right? Hopefully we won't still be sand boxing then

we could maybe start a sandbox nomination list?
Now that I (and I assume most everybody else) are playing iOS games more regularly, I'm wondering how they'll dominate and how many are worth nominating. I mean there's like thirty or forty noteworthy ones dropped like every week it feels like.

I bought a whole bunch of DS RPGs this year & I had every intention to play them but iirc I end up playing Dungeon Raid & Ticket To Ride & Plants vs. Zombies & check my email & I bet those RPGs are very cool!

o/w I am just slowly making my way through C&P 2010 & 2011 re. AAA titles: e.g. DA: Origins, AC2, RDR, Just Cause 2. & uggh, FO3, Mass Effect 1/2. There are just waaaaay too many interesting looking games for the super limited time, like at most an hour a day & many days essentially no time, I have to play them. Which is another reason why iOS gaming works: a little Dungeon Raid on the can seems fine, whereas loading up even the DS for that seems like overkill.

Since last time: 3DLand best 3D Mario Ever.

So hyped about Monster Hunter 3GS I find myself looking at pictures of people lining up for it. Capcom SHOULD announce a western release soon if they're going to do it.

i was a bit unsure about 3DLand until the second half of the game unlocked - then i fell in love
Kart 7 online is sooooooo much fun!
also been playing Pushmo/Pullblox, simple but fun puzzle game made by the Fire Emblem people - huge amount of user generated puzzles out there already as well

i was a bit unsure about 3DLand until the second half of the game unlocked - then i fell in love

I'm just about to reach what I now assume is the end of the first half and am really relieved to hear that!

I loved the first part as well, at least knowing what would come. It's a game of two halves: Mario as a toy, playing with the creative level design, exploring the limits of them, speed-running levels... and then Mario as a set of skills you need to perfect, margins, 20 levels lost in minutes. Marvelous structure.

20 lives*

Hey Mordy:
http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/12/10/the-elder-strolls-part-1-fresh-off-the-boat/
Nondrick returns!

what if we did an iOS poll before we did the big poll?

I agree that we should be doing these polls in January, not now. And hopefully not in the sandbox.

i personally really don't want to break up gaming by portable/system

I don't want to break it up so much as I think there is a general interest in what the best iOS games are because so many people have iPhones, and doing a poll of them would be a good way to prepare for the big poll.

Doubt this is news to you nerds, but:

But the evidence is hard to pin down. Violent crime in America, Britain and Japan, the three biggest video-game markets, has dropped over the past decade at the same time as sales of video games have soared (see chart 4). That does not, by itself, exonerate the industry—after all, without games violent crime might have fallen still further. And several studies purport to show that playing violent video games raises aggression levels. But Chris Ferguson, a psychologist at Texas A&M International University, points out that much of this work is of poor quality. In a meta-analysis published in 2007, he found no evidence that games made their players violent. Indeed, after decades of research, he has concluded that violence in any media has little or no effect on their consumers. A review commissioned by the Australian attorney-general, published last year, backed this up.

http://www.economist.com/node/21541166

if anything, I'd guess people who normally would be out doing dirty are instead finding the outlet for violent crime that they need in, say, Wii Fit.

man, i played a lot of skyrim today. first time in a week. and about to go back in and try an all-night sesh. great game. so great just to play the 7000 steps quest and chill the fuck out during it - wander around slowly looking at the stars, following pointless trails.

gamers dont commit crimes, they too busy sitting on the couch

seriously

beautiful
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFLxi1ymrlY

i have never played a monster hunter game.... they look like hardcore pokemon?

nah, more a loot whore ARPG with timed missions

it looks stressful, and not in a fun way

It's not stressful because the fights always feel like real fights, and fair. Like, there's no secret trick to beating a monster, you fight it out in an honest boxing match, but you learn strategies with tools and bombs and traps and evasion and the fights become these 10-30 minute ballets with gigantic, gorgeous beasts.

Your character doesn't have stats, it's all in your equipment which you mostly forge from dead animals. Skill is much more important than whatever RPG elements are there, though, and filling your chest up with hundreds of items is just a bonus, adds to the excitement of planning these hunts.

Oh and the satisfaction from delivering the killing blow is more or less unmatched. You see signs that monsters weaken, but there's no hp or health bar so when they finally fall...

anyone else considering The Old Republic?

No Mac version, so no.

would play the fuck out of it if it was on the mac

ditto.

just bought skyrim based on all the above talk, looking forward to playing a lot, lying to gf about how much i'm playing.

really the only thing saving me from playing The Old Republic at release (EIGHT DAYS ZOMG) is the desperate need to replace my computer

Buy a Mac and continue the savings!

I already have a Mac, lol

(yes I have two desktop computers, shut up)

I was on the Old Republic beta but after an 8 hour client download, it refused to boot up.

so i've just been trying out the BF3 expansion, maps from BF2 and BF1943 i think, quite good. and then i change server and stupid Origin breaks. And now nobody can log in. hate EA right now.

especially since i had to reinstall windows the other day, and i currently don't have BC2 installed. aaargh.

and they've only gone and weakened my IR scopes, to a ridiculous low level that deems them pointless now. bah, i was getting most of my points with these.

new humble bundle

gonna have to l2play now ste

pullblox is sick btw

Away for 3 days for work, stuck in a hotel, srsly suffering Skyrim withdrawals. /twitch

got my early access invite for SWTOR, might start a char tonight

sword & sworcery? anyone has experience with?

also

http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2011/12/14/telltales-law-and-order-legacies-coming-to-iphone-and-ipad-this-winter/

yes plz

i bought sword & sworcery and had some fun for about an hour or so, but eventually got really bored and never came back. :-/

Yeah it was a fun hour.

lol finally went back to the main story line and discovered THAT'S where the elusive dragons are lurking; I had just been fucking around in Whiterun with the Companions and then in the Mage Colege in Winterhold. I'm currently aiming to be warrior mage with very little battle focus:

- currently leveling 1H, 2H and archery on the fighter side, with heavy armor specialization
- currently leveling destruction and resto on the magic side, with occasional forays into conjuration

dual-wielding Flames or going Flames/Shock is intensely satisfying and hilarious, it's like you are literally melting health bars; it's also fun to melt down to exhaustion with dual Flames, then switching to big fuckoff 2H axe as finisher

also discovering the joys of pulling via archery + sneaking; I've started 1-shotting weaker foes which is just awes

giant spiders can still eat it tho

why am i doing these bard college things when i dont care about bards and find them annoying

why do i find it so hard to get the thieves guild quests started which would be useful lockpick levelling just because i think the dude i need to frame seems to be a nice guy

the questions that try mens souls etc