S.C.G

I would have replied to this sooner but... y'know, I was busy. So I've finally played over fifty hours of Monster Hunter so I can now say that I'm officially 'initiated' and erm... perhaps worryingly addicted. The review is coming along nicely, I should be writing up the majority of it tomorrow, I had a pretty awesome online session earlier with a full party where I got to hunt a variety of monsters and I managed to upgrade my current weapons. : peace: Anyway, must dash I just remembered... I left a piece of meat roasting, *presses A Button* 'Soooo Tasty!' I don't think I'll be playing much else for a while somehow. :p

Pokémon 'Gotta try to buy - then cry when you don't get the one you want - them all!'

See, this is another reason why I'm trying not to post too much in here too - aside from not being able to say much because of the embargo - as I know what it's like to be anticipating the release of a big game, if it's any consolation though since receiving the review copy I haven't had time for any other games - apart from one hour of Mario Kart a week and the odd VC game to review - for instance I was considering picking up the new Tomb Raider game but then I thought 'what would be the point?' as I knew I wouldn't play it. So although I'm playing it early, it's definitely dominating my life at the moment but this will obviously be good for the review so I don't mind but my advice to those waiting for the game is to just enjoy playing whatever other games you like because once MH3U arrives, it'll be like they don't exist so finish as many games as you can while you can!

Mhmm, regarding starting out... as some of you are aware I never really got that far in MH Tri but this time around I've been doing things properly, I didn't venture online until I'd played offline for a good few days and even then it wasn't for very long as there aren't too many players on the servers atm obviously as it's just reviewers on there afaik. I don't like letting people down when it comes to playing in a party so I've made sure that I've learned a decent amount so that I can at least hold my own, as such most of my play time has been on my own but I have had a couple of enjoyable online play sessions with one other player in the party so far - I can't really go into specifics but the online is improved this time around - which is hardly representative of what Monster Hunter is all about I know but I am trying to get a party of four going, it's just proving difficult at the moment so I'm just exploring as much of the game as I can solo currently. Anyway, roll on release day as I look forward to playing with all of you at launch, I really do I may have had something of a 'head-start' due to reviewing the game - around thirty-odd hours played so far - but I'm sure you'll all be over-taking me in no time due to most of you being better 'acquainted' with the series than myself. : peace: For what it's worth though I am really liking the game, a lot!

Although I'm technically not supposed to say much until a few days before launch, I can confirm that the load times between areas in MH3U are pretty minimal when you compare them to the Wii version. All of the ones that I've seen so far have literally been around 1 - 2 seconds long so they hardly impact on the game at all.

Wow, truly one awesome 'cake' and that's no lie!

Happy Birthday!

It's Monster Hunter... ... you hunt monsters! What's not to like? :wink: ------------------ In all seriousness though I kind of get where you're coming from, as when I originally played the Wii version I didn't quite get 'into' it fully yet I could definitely see why it's so popular. So now I find myself in the position of playing a game that I always felt that I never devoted enough time to the first time around and I'm gradually falling for it. There's no way I can let this brilliant game pass me by again!

Well... I think we both know it's going to get a good score and that's about all I can say, the question is though, just how good? :wink:

Ok, ok... I have the game! There I said it and it actually felt good, but I'm not allowed to really go into specifics until March 18th... ... right you can all hate me now. *vanishes from the internet*

What gets me is the fact that you need to have your Wii U connected to the internet via a wired connection, which means buying another adapter, I suppose this was probably the only way they could get it to work but it still probably rules out a lot of people being able to take the 3DS version online - like myself - due to being too far away from the router. Still being that I was planning on getting the Wii U version anyway for online play it's not really much of a concern, I always just assumed that if I were to buy the 3DS version that I'd only be using it offline when away from home so that I could continue to level my hunter.

Happy Birthday!

Finally completed the game! Played it for ages last night trying to beat the final boss... It's a truly stunning title, Platinum Games have developed something special that is not only a cut above the competition but manages to slice them to shreds! :wink: Definitely a delightful addition to the genre after the disappointment that was Ninja Gaiden 3 and the very good but not quite great DmC reboot. Is it a Bayonetta beater though? I think so, but better than Bayonetta 2? That remains to be seen... either way Platinum have delivered again, not that I ever really doubted them. : peace:

I downloaded the above pack earlier, can't wait to give it a go later on!

@Serebii Seriously, let me know if you decide to sell/trade, I'd give you a decent offer for it. ------------ @ReZourceman Regarding the Lego, judging by the amount you spend on the stuff a year ReZ they should already be sending you the odd freebie as you're effectively advertising for them I wouldn't be aware of nearly half the sets that they release if it wasn't for your posts here, I know I don't actually buy the stuff - I have very little room as it is - but I still find it interesting seeing you post about it.

As do I, it really should do given how good the first game was but then again the original came out around a decade ago so we'll just have to keep playing the waiting game I guess. It would be interesting if it appeared as a Wii U exclusive at this years E3 but if it did then I suppose that would be doing something of a disservice to those who bought it on other platforms, didn't it originally sell the most copies on the GC though back in the day?

And in the final game it was replaced with this brilliant scene... Still interesting to see what ideas Rare where playing around with at the time though.

Revengeance difficulty? Speaking as someone who went straight into the game on Hard difficulty and am already finding it challenging, I can only imagine how tough or even borderline masochistic any higher difficulty levels may be. :p

'A new “Options” button combines the functions of the DualShock 3′s “Select” and “Start” buttons for operating in-game menus' Call me old-fashioned but I'd still prefer to have a dedicated button for actually properly pausing games and not just merely 'suspending' them, of all the things to change I feel they perhaps should have had 'Start' and 'Select' on either side of the touch-pad and made all of the other newer functions accessed by touch, to me at least that would have made more sense. Aside from that, what we have seen looks graphically impressive but I'm still skeptical being that we haven't seen the actual console yet, something just doesn't seem right.

Shuuuush! we're already breaking the first rule of Drive Club.* :p *Well someone had to say it. -------------------------------------- Seriously though, slightly 'obvious' name aside, what was shown did look graphically intensive but I can't help but wonder if it will live up to the hype long-term.

I must admit that I too grew up owning a Sega Megadrive though I regularly got to play on the SNES at my friends house rather regularly but it was definitely my Sega System that I remember most fondly for being there for some of the best years of my childhood, right up until I bought an N64! Sonic was obviously a favourite from day one as I received both Sonic 1 & 2 with the console one Christmas, indeed I remember getting the console and was happily playing Sonic 1 then later I unwrapped Sonic 2 so the first thing I did was rip the cartridge from the console while it was still on in my excitement to try out Sonic 2 I only did that once though and I was six at the time but I think it's a memory rather representative of my excitement at the time. Other classic games included those from Disney as I would regularly rent both Castle and World of Illusion when I would go to stay with my grandparents Micro Machines was also one of those greats as well as the inevitable Sonic sequels which were fantastic back in the day but one game that I particularly remember fondly was the first game I actually saved up all my pocket money for which was Ecco the Dolphin; I recall mentioning 'I'm saving up for Ecco the Dolphin' many a time when visiting relatives... eventually I saved up enough, I believe it was around £30 at the time, I handed over the money and I was both mesmerised and traumatised in almost equal measures by what to me is still now such a powerful game. Indeed to this day I still have my original Genesis copy of Ecco in its box - never had any probs playing it on my Pal Megadrive - but nowadays I usually play Megadrive games on either my Sega Multimega-32X setup or on my Sega Nomad which I very recently acquired causing me to get properly back into loving Sega all over again. Ah to appreciate Sega this much truly takes ages! : peace:

I bought a Dreamcast in its 'last days' when you could pick up the console for £50 with four games new, it was an absolute bargain, I ended up picking up most of my games for it rather cheaply, in fact my only real outlay was a Dreamcast Keyboard and probably internet charges for playing PSO online, ah those were the days. But yeah, then the GC came along... even better times!

This is kind of a milestone for the Virtual Console, it really shouldn't be as we really should have had this happen long ago, but it is a milestone indeed. *sheds a small tear* Expect a full review in the next edition of VC Weekly.