Tell us what video you have been playing.

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I was well north of 7M. It was a total fluke. I could pretty routinely get 750k or so, but this thing was crazy. Everything was going my way. Kept my sides clear, and just could not be stopped. I stopped playing after that. This would have been around 2000. Ah well, back to MARATHON 2.

Decided to play Dark Souls on the PC and it took me forever to be able to use my spanking new xbox controller with the game.

For those not in the know, the port to PC was pretty shit. Everywhere you go, the hints are directions to xbox controllers (like, to 'dash' hold B while pushing left stick) clearly fucking useless when you have a mouse and keyboard. Obviously, it would be better if I used my new Razer Onza controller.

So I plug in the controller and, bink, it doesn't work. 24 hrs of research tells me that wired xbox controllers are not supported by x360ce (the little program that you have to add to Dark Souls to route commands to the xbox controller) because the program has recently been updated. A kind soul tells me to google 'durazno' and use this as the command router in the program. Finally, it works. What a PITA.

Christ on a bike, if you are going to port something, at least supply the tools to get the fucker to work properly. All this because Japanese gamers don't really use PCs, apparently, they are more a console nation. Brilliant.

Played some more FTL tonight. Defending boarders is easy after using your tips (open all doors and hole up in the sealed med bay and heal while fighting), so I got that figured out.

I was also able to get enough scrap together to buy a teleporter really early and, man, that thing really makes a difference. I had enough crew that once I got a Mantis he became a permanent member of my boarding party, along with the crewman manning the weapons station. Killing enemy crews and salvaging the vessels is so worth it for the extra scrap you get, akin to the difference between going to landed vs. crashed UFO sites in the original X-Com.

Of course, I did manage to cock things up pretty good a couple of times. I lost my original boarding party when, on a lark, I beamed them over to an AI ship to see if it was worth it to try and disable the weapons from within. I knew that the ship had no oxygen, but I underestimated how quickly their health would deplete, and I also underestimated the recharge time on my teleporter. Scratch one away team.

Later in the same game I boarded a rebel ship and I set my Burst Laser MK 2 on Autofire, targeting their weapons. I got caught up in playing grab-ass with the enemy crew (beam over, attack, beam back, heal, beam back over, etc.) and I wasn't keeping track of the enemy hull condition. I had no sooner killed the last crewman and gotten the post-battle message when a final volley of laser fire came in and finished off the ship, including my two doomed crewmen. Scratch another away team.

I finally bought it in the fifth sector which was a Rock Men sector. It was an asteroid field and I got boarded immediately by two Rock Men. I killed them easy enough, but I was too focused on the boarders and forgot to fire weapons back (MUST PAUSE MORE OFTEN!). By the time the boarders were dead my shields were down and I was dealing with damage all over the ship (that damn Rock Men ship was firing two missiles a turn), and it was only a matter of time until I was dead.

I did much better this time, and if I can stop acting like a total spaz with the teleporter I think I can get further next time.

Just finished XCOM and Sleeping Dogs this weekend. Man, that's really like having a double orgasm.

XCOM is a solid game. There are some flaws, but it's solid. Totally XCOM. Epic ending similar to Mass Effect. The difference is that ME is scripted, while XCOM is all about emergent story.

Sleeping Dogs is an awesome sandbox, with awesome story. Violence ramped up quickly as the end was near, and I was genuinely shocked by 2 scenes near the end. I've seen more violent stuff, but somehow this one got all the circumstances right to make it more harrowing.

I found the story a bit bland in XCOM compared to the original, but it didn't bother me in the slightest. The game was just so damn good that I didn't give a shit. I think the reason I give an edge to the earlier game is that the alien invasion felt a bit more active somehow. Those buggers were up to something, and if you didn't stop it before it hatched, they would unleash some horrifying shitstorm down the road. Losing that is a small sacrifice because the new game is better in every way that matters (except for the inexcusable omission of lobster men).

Picked up Metal Gear. It's a great hack and slash that doesn't take things too seriously and goes right into an over-the-top 80s cartoon kind of action. Climbing a flight of missiles to hack apart a giant robot was hilariously dumb but somehow tickled my lizard brain in just the right way. I'm not sure why so many cyborg samurai are running around, but I honestly don't care as long as I can keep ripping their spines out. Really not caring that this game doesn't feel like Metal Gear at all, it's just fun.

SaMoKo wrote:

Yeah, the original was much more dynamic, in that the alien AI was actively trying to accomplish certain goals, and things would change based on how you handled each new threat. The new XCOM is excellent, but it has a much more linear structure, built around narrative checkpoints. It doesn't even come close to the emergent nature of the original.

Finished Metal Gear Rising, played through a second time, finished it, started a third run through. Man that game is pure adrenaline in the most awesome way possible. It's just so addictive and perfectly video gamey. I love it. Just about finished DMC, love the traversing in that game, love the combat.

I'm really thinking hard about picking up Tomb Raider for some reason. I don't get to play the Uncharted games because I'm a 360 man and TR looks like it's as close to it as I'll get on the 360. But I'm at odds because I wanted to play Sleeping Dogs and it's probably cheap now (thanks Sevej), I want to play X-Com as well. I'm not sure what to do really. Maybe I'll just play through MGR again.

Now that I have experience with MGR I have to say that as much as I love it I still think Bayonetta is the better game. It has a deeper and more rewarding combat system, it's an original IP, the story is better (or more surreal which in this medium is the same thing for me), and one of the best end bosses ever.. the only thing that MGR:R beat it at is the freshness. MGR feels like a new game, it feels like they've pushed this ancient genre forward whereas Bayonetta feels like the culmination of several idea's finally reaching their peak design potential. Tough to say what's more important for me but Bayonetta in general is a better more complete game. However neither game will let you down, both give you all the thrills you should be looking for and both are best in class.

I'm going to go look at Sleeping Dogs and hope it's cheap now.

Played a couple of rounds of Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012 with Barney last night. He trounced me 3-1. I've definitely got the bug again. I'll be playing the 2013 version on my iPad this weekend as I travel.

I have been fiddling around with Metal Gear 2 (yes, that one) because it was the subject for tomorrow's article. I liked it more than any of the modern sequels I've tried.