Was Nintendo's problem that the casual audience left them, or that the casual audience bought their $200 Wii Bowling Machine and didn't feel the need to buy any other software to go with it?

Just beat Symphony of the Night. I liked it, but it got pretty monotonous and frustrating at times.

I liked SotN and found it to be consistently entertaining throughout. What parts did you find monotonous or frustrating? I'm curious to know. Maybe you didn't like the second half of the game where you basically had free reign to explore wherever and collect all the Dracula parts? I could see that wearing thin if the combat didn't interest you.

Also the fact that he gets to enjoy some of the profit from sales of the game discourages him from making the game world too miserable.

Also, it depends a lot on what the game is like and how godlike being a god makes you. It could range anywhere from his presence being an amusing treat for those lucky enough to meet him, to him simply being the living equivalent of an unkillable boss monster that the other players flee on sight. Either of those are not necessarily game killers.

I could even see you monetizing an online game by letting players buy god-mode and building the whole game around the fact that those god-like players are a major antagonist, possibly balanced by good god players who try to maintain equilibrium.

There's just too many possibilities to assume off the bat that this is going to be a disaster, and the possibility of failure is actually a step forward for Molyneux. His other "Novel" games like Fable are just bland and shallow applications of mechanics that have been in games for ages. This actually shows some creativity.

The XBox One is designed to overload your senses via multitasking with a controller, motion control, and voice control until all that is left is a drooling shell of a man who will buy the latest version of Windows without question or hesitation.

Also, whenever you curse or flip the bird at the screen the XBox will use your online credit card data to issue a fine to you Demolition Man style.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curiosity_%E2%80%93_What%27s_Inside_the_Cube%3F

Prepare for more pretentious bullshit than you could possibly imagine.

I thought the prize inside the cube was actually neat. His playing up of the prize was hyperbolic, but it wasn't a bad reward. The idea of a single all-powerful griefer player (or possibly a benign player) in a huge world might not be as annoying as one player in a relatively small starcraft map. I could see it just becoming a part of the game.

What are the puzzle things people posted a few pages back? Community drawn pictures? They remind me of Infinite Blank.

Except they prefaced the statement by saying "No Final Fantasy". Somebody could make a Gex game, though. Remember Gex? Anybody? Hello???

Lack of backwards compatibility sucks, but that doesn't bug me as much as the fee for registering used games.

My concern is that this is the sort of thing that has the potential to fail catastrophically when a server somewhere goes down, or a game is programmed wrong and doesn't authenticate or whatever it does.

I thought they figured this thing out when they just put 10 bucks worth of DLC in the package. It seemed to me like it was the least obtrusive way of drilling Gamestop for selling used games.

I suspect the first thing we'll hear when it launches is about people trying to jailbreak the thing.

Youtube people don't think at all, Moi.

Looks like I'll go another console generation without an XBox.

He takes seven seconds to simply say the words "Komodo Dragon" and "Dragonfly", then walks away with all the money from his expensive licensing deal.

The "pay to win" thing in MMOs isn't always done wrong. I don't mind people buying their way to top tier if the game is fun to play to get there without paying. Like, that thing with the iOS Megaman X where you could pay to unlock all the weapons at the start doesn't bug me. Or if somebody wanted to pay 100 bucks to get all the equipment from a high level dungeon in an MMO without playing it, I'm cool with that so long as playing the dungeon is fun so I can earn the equipment and have fun doing it.

What bugs me is when the game is just tedious to play and you're paying to make it not tedious so you can get to the fun part.

I've been playing the new Neverwinter MMO that went into open beta this month. It's a mixed bag. I love how the combat is more action oriented than your usual MMO and the exp curve is pretty shallow since everything gives you good xp. The cash shop borders on intrusive, though. The only way to get any of the advanced crafting tools is to buy cash booster packs, which is lame. The same goes for inventory space, when they could have just included bags are super rare items and maybe kept the biggest bags for cash shop only. Earning all that stuff by doing quests and then enjoying the added flexibility is a big part of the game and I'm sad I won't get to enjoy it.

The fact that you can still play it for free and not feel punished for doing so is refreshing, though. Most of the cash items are just luxury mounts and companions that you can live without for a long, long time.

Also replaying Pikmin 2 since last time was when I rented it for a weekend ages ago. It's cute how it takes ordinary household objects like jar lids and can openers and turns them into treasures you delight in finding and hoarding.

I beat the third dungeon with a hero rating of two. I died a lot.

I got stuck for a bit in the part where you first have to activate the colored paths. I found the room with the "Fountain" and after a little while figured out I had to kill colored monsters to score three hits in a row. After that happened, I wandered around for a while in those rooms until I eventually figured out you have to fill in the path. I think it would have been better if there was one more room in that section to clearly indicate you need to start highlighting the path, using a dead-end so the player can't exit the room until they figure it out.

Once I figured out the path thing the rest of the level went smoothly. I liked how the path mechanic varied as you went along.

The boss took a few tries, since it wasn't clear how it was deciding where to move. Eventually I figured out it moves in a straight line until it hits a wall, then it moves towards your current position, but it took some trial and error to get that. Two hits was about right given the difficulty.

I'm disappointed there isn't an exterior part of the dungeon like in the first dungeon. Even if there's no puzzle to solve to get in, I like that extra step of transition from the overworld to the dungeon interior.

I am impressed that nobody yet has used this as an opportunity to shill out their game with the claim that any Reddit user that posts in their thread can be immortalized as a founder of the next Minecraft-style success story.

Make a vaguely sandboxy game that's browser launch-able and encourage people to play it via links in the Minecraft thread. Bonus points if you pay somebody to edit their minecraft thread page one post to surreptitiously mention it. Include a prominent paypal link. Achieve victory.

Remember Niko when you do reach the top.

I think we had this last year too. Maybe it should be a TIGs holiday.

Be careful guys, I buy games on your recommendation. Sarcasm without an accompanying caution could doom an innocent soul to spend $20 on a digital dead-end.

Oh, I know which one you're talking about. You get a group of heroes, make a party, then cruise the map tying up thugs, looting the area, and trying to find hidden treasures in the corners of the area. There was a thing where sometimes you get attacked en-route and set an ambush or something.

I got that in some strategy game 6-in-1 with Prince of Qin, some chinese military strategy game that bored me, and Disciples 2 plus expansions. The Robin Hood game was probably the best in the pack.

It's not really difficult, but it's a fun relaxation game as you move through the map clearing out guards and occasionally trying to determine the best way to get to some part of a map to complete a task or get some loot.