@asatiir @angryjedi Thanks, gentlemen. I’d be more then happy to give Corpse Party a spin as the Vita seems to be the perfect “experimental” platform. Velocity is already in the queue. Hot Shots Golf will be more of a stretch, though. One sports game I am keen on trying is MLB ’13 The Show. Had a quick fling with Vagrant Story in the past and found that I liked the idea and world more than the execution.

@beige @asatiir I’m always up for a scribble, or at least a Squad exquisite corpse. Might be easier to wrangle than the now-beached Squad Music Mix project.

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Ooooh. Hawken alpha deployment. Excuse me while I flood my epididymis.

@asatiir That’s a cool idea, although ironically(?) I stopped drawing when I was a teenager because of videogames.

@angryjedi How much does it hurt your DNA as an Englishman to see Lucy Liu playing Dr. Watson?

@asatiir I think it comes down frames of and attention to animation, primarily. Who knows.

@asatiir I’ve actually never played a Way Forward game. ALIENS: Infestation looked right up my alley, but I certainly wasn’t going to rebuy a DSi or anything for a downloadable handheld game. Shantae folks, right? Everyone raves about that franchise…can’t say it does much aesthetically for me, which I suppose is not really the point when you get down to raw platformer mechanics.

@asatiir Interesting. Had my eye on this bizarre use of the IP. In Way Forward we trust, right?

@angryjedi No, sadly, but I did play the heck out of Hostile Waters: Antaeus Rising, so there’s an extreme love afloat.

@beige Interestingly enough, unlike the original, Borderlands 2 is – thus far – a remarkably competent and enjoyable single player experience. So, at least there’s that to fall back on. I do weep, as I always do, in regards to timezones…but @shingro picked it up on PC, that much I know.

Runs like absolute butter on max on my aging laptop, too.

@asatiir Good man.

@asatiir Be sure to nab some photos of the event. I’d really like to see what a games expo looks like in Dubai!

@asatiir I think Human Revolution especially needs a little in the way of humour, here and there. I’m all for stern, grizzled experiences, but hell, even STALKER has light-heartedness amidst the drizzle and desperation.

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Incidentally, and on the topic of totally Squad-squad business…are folks in the know about CYPHER: Cyberpunk Text Adventure? Inspirations on sleeve, but goodness gracious me. Who can say no to a Mac & PC milkshake of Bladerunner/Snatcher/Noir cyberpunk in true old school Infocom text-prompt format with updated interface and visual accoutrements? Not I, says I.

If that doesn’t scream the names of many squaddies for different reasons, I will remove prior-mentioned pantaloons, splash with Worcestershire sauce and consume. Prices start at 14.99 for the standard, collector’s edition at 19.99 and the deluxe at 24.99. Lots of old school printables, each version comes with the soundtrack.

@bowlisimo *manly hug* I concur. And I like Halo’s level of ‘bounce’, for lack of a better word. The physics, the lean military utilitarianism matched by this ornate palette of incandescent pinks, aquas and shimmering purples. Oh, and the grass textures and skyboxes went a long way. Whoo boy. Incidentally, I actually thought the USMC contingent was relatively restrained. They could have gone painfully overboard on lifting the Colonial Marines formula, but it was fairly tasteful.

@asatiir It’s an interesting experiment that falls flatter than a crêpe. A strange piece of work, especially given the developer.

@asatiir As a man – possibly due to some degenerative brain disease – who owns one copy of Stormrise for PS3 and, somehow, two copies for PC, I feel it is my duty to advocate indulgence only at gunpoint. A few levels in, you’ll be begging for the assailant to pull the trigger – if only for the fact that it could have been something really interesting…

…but in truth, it is busted to buggery and back. Do not touch! Unless, like my copies, you’re propping your laptop up on them.

@pepperized I’ve been forced onto my backlog by being broke. Maybe this is just all my Steam purchases catching up to me.

@asatiir Oh shit you played Solatorobo too? I got a little ways into it and it currently sits somewhere in my massive handheld RPG backlog. Great though. Seeing that game’s excellent art direction on the DS makes me really interested in what it would look like on more powerful hardware like the 3DS or even a console (given what CC2′s console games look like).

@asatiir That’s interesting to hear with the netbook. Hope you dig it!

@asatiir Get to Video Games Live if you can. It’s a great experience. Such a feeling of communal joy among both the audience and musicians.

Steam sale for me so far has seen me pick up the Alan Wake pack, Sonic Generations, the two Ys games and possibly something else I’ve forgotten. There might be more to come. We’ll see. Most of my play time at present is split between The Secret World, Yakuza 3 and occasional forays into Spelunky and Minecraft.

Speaking of Minecraft, do we have a Squad server anywhere? If not, would anyone be interested in us setting one up?

@asatiir Awesome. And can I just mawkishly say what a lovely global gang we’ve got. The Arabian Peninsula, The New World, the Old World, the Antipodes by way of Japan…a nice change to the usual wailing and spite the Internet seems to be brimming with.

@bowlisimo Christ, and the loveable Red Faction Guerilla won over that? I’m not surprised on account of it being great fun, but I’m perhaps most alarmed that not every bloke and his dog haven’t already played it. Well, fingers crossed JA:BiA pops up in a flash sale. I really would love someone else to get their mitts on it so we can compare notes and war stories. Will do another run with the new LoS patch on hardcore – like the old days – after I’m done with my Endless Space/Krater and, soon to be, Confrontation run. Bit of a noble lame duck, that last one. Looking forward to sinking teeth into it, although Krater is more than a mouthful of Swedish goodness.

Jagged Alliance: Back in Action DOES have a demo on Steam, if you care to try it. Hideous demo, on account of the scenario within being a construct of fangs, grenades and razorblades, but baptism of fire, right?

@asatiir Man, if you get some time in the gaming schedule, let us know what you think of JA.

@beige I see @tolkoto is perineum-deep in Anno 2070! Wonderful stuff. Wondering what he’ll have to say on the next EBP.

@asatiir I still don’t get this damn “movie like” argument in defense of 30fps. Framerate in games was never chiefly about how smooth the game looks. That’s part of it but the reason all racing games and fighting games have an unwritten 60fps rule is because it cuts down on input lag and makes the controls tighter. That’s the main reason Call of Duty has better controls than every other console shooter, because it’s virtually the only one that runs at 60fps.

With MGS3, Kojima confirmed that it was originally always his intention to run MGS3 at 60fps, he just couldn’t do it on the PS2. According to comments from articles and Kojima’s twitter, he seems to chaimpion 60fps MGS3 as the way to play the game. I even think the cut scenes might still run at 30.

@asatiir For some reason I just don’t think of MGS2 and 3 as something that needs to be played on a handheld. Possibly MGS2 because of its old school control system but that’s it. Playing the PS3 version of the HD Collection also reveals to you that Peace Walker really should have been a console game. I don’t know how the games look on Vita, but on PS3 MGS3 looks cleaner and smoother than ever. In case you don’t know, this is the first time that game has ever run at 60 frames per second. I wish they’d gone with the controls from the 3DS version though, which were actually modernized.

Oh, and does the Vita version of the collection include the old MSX games? You should at least play the second one.

@asatiir That’s awesome, man. I do hope to see a lot of interesting things spew forth from this Suite. Early days, but it’s a step in the right direction for Sony.

It’s also another tangent from which to holler to anyone with a PS3, PSP or Vita to buy Velocity. Great to hear it getting so much buzz around the traps, given it’s a humble PS Mini.