...

It still is brilliant platforming. I replayed it early this year and loved it as much as the first time.

Such as? Only games I can think of right now are Chronicles of Riddick Escape from Butcher Bay (which is an extra that comes with the sequel anyway) and the first Call of Duty (downloadable), but those aren't merely HD re-releases, they are full blown remakes with modern graphics. These PoP games aren't remakes, the graphics look exactly the same (last gen) except with a cleaner HD look, like Nintendohnut already pointed out.

Finished the game yesterday, 100%ed it. What a truly phenomenal game, this is one of the best games of this generation, no question. I absolutely loved everything it had to offer. It was beautiful to look at, great soundtrack and ambient sounds, great story and characters (hey, it's Rockstar afterall), a great gigantic world with a very varied landscape, all fucking awesome. Stories of development hell before it came out (that can be read in this same thread in the first few pages) induced concerns that the game might actually come out rushed and flawed, but this did not happen. The game came out perfect. Like I said, I 100%ed it and only encountered like 3 or 4 bugs in all my 70 hours of play. I already bought Undead Nightmare too.

Hmm, I don't know much about the game either, but I reckon the neon lights are only in Vegas itself. And the developers have said that the game map is roughly the same size as the one in Fallout 3, so there will be plenty of Wasteland to explore outside of Vegas.

Well, I'd argue that's why it's called an "achievement", wouldn't you agree? What would be the point if everyone was able to get 1000 in every game? In my opinioin, and I like achievements although I don't "overcare" for them, a game should have achievements for completing each chapter and the game itself in the different difficulties, but that should not be the whole 1000. A game has to have more achievements, those that not everyone will get. 1000 points should only be awarded to completists. I'm not one. I look at a list of achievements and choose the ones I will pursue and just don't bother with the others. To give an example, the pigeons in GTA4, I would never bother with that crap. I don't like that kind of fetch quest anyway. The film reels in Godfather, the pigeons in GTA4, etc. I think the only quest of the sort I ever completed were the 100 skulltulas in Ocarina of Time. And I did those without guides in the 90's. :awesome: But it doesn't bother me. I will never get the pigeons achievement in GTA4 because I simply don't care about it or its gamerscore points. I enjoyed GTA4 to its fullest (well, I still have to play the Ballad of Gay Tony, I have it there on the shelf still) without killing pigeons or getting 100% (which would include the fucking birds). The game is so much more than that. Others too. Let achievements make you enjoy your games more, but don't get so obsessed about them that they make you enjoy them less. I for one strongly believe in achievements and think they are a great idea to make you pursue some objectives. But only the ones you really want, and never at the cost of enjoyment. If you don't think it's fun, forget about it, just play the game.

Do you really think it's that surprising? I saw it coming since the 1st trailer I saw a year ago. Been eagerly awaiting this game's release ever since.

Wii looks good on a 1080p LCD (I have a 37'' one) just as long as you make sure you have a component cable. With the stock cable (composite) it looks crap. Anyway, have you seen a DVD playing on an HDTV? They look good too and they're 480p too. I don't have a Blu-ray player yet and I'm completely satisfied with DVDs.

Well, you can't go into the water in Red Dead Redemption either. But is it confirmed you can't go into the water in the full Mafia 2 game, or did they restrict you from that only in the demo?

What's wrong with the water? Apart from not being able to go in it (which I'm hoping is just in the demo, since you can't go to the other side of the river), the water looks absolutely amazing! Better than anything else I've seen.

Ok, I got you, I just thought you meant timed cause I'm sure there's more than one untimed Purple Coin stages. At least the Sweet Mystery Galaxy one isn't timed either. And I think there's more.

Timed, you mean.

Why no options? You want motion, ok, but let others who might want classic have them too. I don't think they'll include the option myself, but yours is a very selfish statement. As long as there can be options, I'm all for options, so everyone can enjoy what they want.

Hmm, Fluzzard is very responsive. But I hate him anyway.

But that's classic Mario. All Mario games can be cut short by skipping the intended method.

Clockwork Ruins is one of the greatest galaxies in the game (I haven't seen them all yet, I'm up to World 6). The amount of awesomeness in it is off the scale. And so is Melty Monster. So many great, great levels in this game. Before it came out it was impossible to imagine how SMG1's galaxies could be bettered in imagination and design. Leave it to Nintendo to pull it off and then some.

I know it's a different tech, but it effectively gives you a window into a really three-dimensional world. It's not holographic projection or anything of the sort (and I don't know how the 3DS does its 3D, haven't read much about it yet), but this video clearly shows a 3D game environment with the Wii's current tech. And no game has tried this yet.

3D is already possible with the Wii, it just hasn't been done yet. Everyone here has already seen this video, but people seem to forget, so here it goes:

Bill looks like Bruce Campbell there. :lol:

I entered World 6 earlier, but still haven't played any of its galaxies. The game just gets more and more amazing, just like the 1st one. It just never ceases to amaze, the amount of creativity is off the scale! I dunno, I must have a soft spot for Desert Mario levels cause they're always amongst my favourite levels. From Shifting Sand Land in SM64 to Dusty Dune Galaxy in SMG1 and now Slipsand Galaxy in SMG2, all those are some of the best Mario levels ever, in my opinion. Also, I loved Bowser's Gravity Gauntlet (end of World 4) because it was basically an old school Bowser level, in the spirit of the old X-4 worlds in the original SMB, except with a gravity twist. The only thing missing was the old school x-4 Bowser castle theme.

You must know something the rest of us don't... Care to share?

They said "next year" at the end of the Zelda presentation during the conference. Didn't you see it yet? Another thing... the HUD needs to be less intrusive. Like in SMG where the HUD disappears when moving and your health is full and only appears briefly when you pick up something. That or include an option to customize opacity like in Metroid Prime. In modern times, all games have screen burn-in precautions and so should Zelda.

Yeah, it sounds irish or something. That music for some reason makes me think of lumberjacks!

Not really, only in the nazi connotation. The swastika is actually thousands of years old and a hindu and buddhist symbol.

I'm up to 48 stars now, and in World 4. The game has actually been easier thus far than I expected, after talks of its hardcore difficulty. I've found every Comet Medal of every galaxy I've entered until now, they weren't hard to find or get at all. I've also completed most galaxies on my way (well, not with the Crown symbol, but got all the available stars at the moment) and in many of them I even picked up a hidden star before the 1st main star. They are a bit easy to find, or maybe they're just intuitive. The Prankster Comets started appearing now and I've done a few speedruns and daredevil runs. I really prefer the map system in this game, it's so much better than the Observatory. I only dislike that we return to Mario Spaceship everytime we collect a star. It would be great to always be in the map grid and only go to the spaceship when we choose to. The variety is great, it feels like an oldschool Mario game and the ideas are endless. And Yoshi controls perfectly for the first time in 3D, I wasn't fan of Sunshine at all. SMG2 is the best 3D Mario ever. I love that level, so full of imagination.

Well, the demo, seeing it live, didn't impress me, like I said a few pages ago. Reading about it and seeing the screenshots confirms that it's going to be a great game, though, as should any Zelda game be. Zelda is as much great as water is wet. You just can't argue with facts. Whenever it is said that a certain Zelda game is weak or poor, it must be taken in consideration that that is being said relatively to other Zelda games, and not games in general. TP was/is a weaker Zelda game than its predecessors, but still a great game. SS (hehe) has a great artstyle, I like it. Some of the screenshots are very beautiful, it's a great cross between TP and WW. It suits the Wii well. In the future, I'd like to see/play a Zelda with Assassin's Creed graphics, but on the Wii this style will do just fine. One thing they can do on the Wii, and they haven't done it yet, is refine the animations. Link moves like a robot in TP and I see the same problem in SS. They should work on this and make him more fluid, make his upper body move more when he runs, not just his fuckin legs. I think OoT Link looked less robotic than TP/SS Link, at least in OoT he moved his shoulders while running! I see people saying they'd rather hear/talk more about the game world and game structure than its looks. Well, me too, but the thing is looks and controls is everything we've got to talk about now, so... not much we can do about it. But however great Zelda is, it would benefit from some sort of evolution to the structure and gameplay. Like the Mario series evolved greatly with the Galaxy games, Zelda needs a move like this, something that keeps it fresh for the new millenium.