Super Mario Galaxy

i haven't played it, but it's getting amazing reviews. unfortunately, i'm not getting a copy until christmas. so hard waiting. i should find a way to freeze myself until christmas, then unfreeze myself when i get the game so i won't have to wait the next month and a half.
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Currently: Rob
Formerly: TurdFerguson

tear yourself away from it at some point today to let us know how it is :)
it will probably be my post-exam gift to myself

This game is ridiculous good times. I recommend this title to everyone.

the wife and I have 58 stars.. The 'trial' (green star) galaxy was terrible, especially the 'rolling around on a ball level'.

we've just started the engine room levels...

jc

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John Douglas Carter, MSc
Dept. of Computing & Information Studies
PhD Student, University of Guelph

Radiant Dawn is rough, it's true. I'm a little past half-way through on the Normal campaign and I have to say, it's noticeably harder than Path of Radiance was.

I tend to agree with IGN's scores on games more than GameSpot's.

The story seems alright to me, but I can't say for certain because I'm not through the story yet. It seems to be building up to something, but maybe it will fizzle out in the end. While it's a bit frustrating for team building, I'm enjoying how I seem to be switching around to different factions a lot instead of simply playing as the Greil Mercenary group the entire game. I definitely miss the support conversations, while you get more info convos in this game they served to help flesh out the huge cast of characters (that's even bigger now). Overall, it's not a grounbreaking fantasy masterpiece, but I certainly don't feel it's terrible compared to PoR (Which GS seemed to like).

The gameplay is mostly like PoR with a few minor additions. There are different levels of terrain now, which affect accuracy, and change up how strategies for blocking/chocking enemies and assaulting fortified enemy positions. Armour and horses can't get up these at all. Combine it with a new light spell that actually makes a physical barrier for units and there's a bit more to using the landscape. Laguz have some improvements, they can now revert to non-animal whenever they want to try and conserve their transform gauge. Combined with the abundant supply of items to keep laguz transformed you laguz being more useable and the Heron clan being even more useful. Finally, there are third tier promotions for units now, so you hit a maximum level of 20/20/20.

The game is hard, I have to say. Hard mode for Japanese players is Normal mode on the North American releasee (and our Hard is their Maniac) so it's a noticeable step up from PoR. I never let anyone die either, and I've had to reset oh so many times by this point. Luckily there's that new feature where I can make a save mid-level, so it no longer involves starting an entire hour long map over and over. I usually use it to test out strategies on maps, but it could be used to save every turn (just don't save in a bad situation, or you won't be able to recover). Additionally, there are often multiple ways to win a map or things to do on a map as a sort of challenge. Some require you to defend for X turns, but killing the boss will both end it early and net you a good item. Or, there'll be a good item to steal or a house to visit or a chest to plunder that you might want to race to, but it makes the chapter a lot harder as a result. I failed trying to do this more than once so far.

Graphics are sub-par, as every review has noted, but it's not worse than PoR and I did notice the attack animations were improved. Armour and Halberdiers use shields instead of showing ridiculous agility in big armour, flying units don't charge forward on their dragon only to stop dead and poke a little bit anymore.

I recommend it if you're a fan of SRPGs or TBS games, and especially if you enjoyed Path of Radiance.

100

Anyone else notice the positional warping they do? On numerous occasions I was just short of making a jump and Mario's position got lerped over a couple frames to the platform I was trying to land. It is mostly noticeable because his animations just don't match the movement. I determined it was an attempt to solve some of the wonky controls. IMO, they are the sloppiest of any 3D Mario game to date.

I figured you guys may be intereste din this:

http://msm.grumpybumpers.com/?p=17

It's someone's (an acquaintance of mine) attempt to figure out the physics behind the game.
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Justin Arnott (Zdolski)

One of the first times that I fought Bowser, he jumped (as he does usually to hit the glass spots) but somehow jumped at a certain angle that broke him free from gravity and ended up jumping off into infinity while screaming.

Now, my housemates were howling, but I was not impressed as it was a reset the system kind of situation.