PixlBit

Looks like we might have another visitor at the party. New staff member, Stanton Daries, might stop by for some hijinx. The more the merrier I say.

4J Studios did a great job updating this game for Xbox Live Arcade. One of the changes you are sure to appreciate Kathrine, is the ability to collect all of the notes across multiple runs. This is a much harder task (given the level) in the N64 version, so it's nice to see it transformed from a feat of skill to a quest for discovery.

As I've mentioned many times in the past, I absolutely adore this game. Chessa and I make a point of playing it once a year, and even after countless playthroughs we are both still in love with it.

I'm not as much of a fan of Banjo-Tooie because I feel like the collecting got a little out of hand, as did the size of the world. Having played through B-K so many times, I almost wish it was a little bit bigger, but as it stands, it is fairly close to the perfect size.

Hopefully Rare revisits this style for the duo in a true Banjo-Threeie title, but of course, as I've expressed before, I still love the Nuts & Bolts approach as well.

Luke's right, headphones are a must if you play this game. I tried messing with it without headphones and you definitely lose some of the more subtle touches to the speakers.

Surprisingly, the sound quality that this thing pumps out is pretty damn good. Of course, it is limited to an extent, but given its simple synthesized sounds, it sounds pretty sharp.

I still haven't really gotten into Mass Effect 1 yet, but based on the changes I'm reading about here on 2, I almost want to totally skip 1 and jump to this one.

Hi this is Vince with slap chop chop chop chop chop.

Just finished the game 100% yesterday. Holy crap, the very last star is hard to get.

I foresee many smashed TVs thanks to this peripheral.

Yeah, all things considered, it is a good game; it's just not a good Splinter Cell game. Had I not been so familiar with the series, I might've given it a higher score, but honestly it's just not what I wanted it to be.

Chessa will have to give her 2 cents on it since she also played quite a bit of the game. Originally she was supposed to review it, but we flip-flopped games when 3D Dot Game Heroes arrived. She's not familiar with any other Splinter Cell games, and I know that she was really digging this one after a few hours with it.

Honestly, I'm really surprised. Who would've thought that the next Pokemon games in the series would be announced for America?