PixlBit

Thanks Travis, you've always been really supportive and nice to me since I got here and I appreciate it. You're hilarious too. There's always a funny line somewhere in your reviews that kills me lol.

Luckily I've been feeling pretty good for a while. I haven't been too "low" for quite a while. I've had lots of good games to play, gamer friends to talk to, blogs to write, and other things to keep me busy and happy. Thankfully the form of manic depression I have seems to be relatively mild and not as chronic or severe as some people have. Anytime I get really low it must be a chemical imbalance of some kind, but I'm always able to use my hobbies to use up energy and stay busy till things start trending upward again.

I haven't done handheld gaming since gameboy color, and I've been looking to get into it because I think it's a lot of fun and there's games I want to play on both DS and Vita, but there's so many options now especially with how many various DS versions there are, that I don't know where to start. I wanted the 3DS to be the one for me to jump on but I'm not sold on that line yet.

That's true, they should always do the best with what they have. I just think a second stick should be one of the simple things they should have lol. You can make great games without a second stick, Nintendo has done it plenty times before. There are mountains of great games to play across the DS lines. It's been a long time though, I don't see a need to release new lines of the DS unless you add something like a second stick. Just taking a DS and making it have 3D doesn't really sell me. Taking it and making the screen bigger (3DS XL) doesn't sell the platform to me either. You could just go get an older DS from a different line, have more games to play, and forget the 3DS exists.

If they're creating this new DS line and the only catch is 3D I don't see why it matters. A second stick might make it more interesting and give developers and players more options.

The ones out at the moment might not need another stick, but getting another stick won't inhibit them. It'll allow more variety and freedom to designers and gamers. A second stick doesn't detract from the situation in any way so there's no reason to oppose it really. Saying it's unimportant is like saying a second thumbstick on the 360 controller is uncessary because I don't need it when I play an old Doom game in the XBL Arcade.

Actually I probably do use the second stick when I play Doom, I wasn't thinking about that enough. The second stick is just a good idea because it won't necessarily make the current 3DS games obselete, you'll still be able to play them and have that functionality, but you'll also have expanded functionality.

Just because current games don't need a second stick doesn't mean future games should be deprived of the option.

It's the devs job to make a good game with the tools and functionality given to them. It's the platform designer's job to give the functionality people want. Nintendo's designers failed to give people what they wanted in the functionality with just that one element of design. It's not really my opinion anymore either, the data and feedback speaks for itself. If it wasn't a big deal people would be asking for it and Nintendo wouldn't be spending money to dish out silly accessories pertaining to it.

Dumb. Nintendo designers really shot themselves in the nutsack when they designed the orignal 3DS and they're still paying for it and likely feeling silly. You can tell they aren't happy with the design of the line but they can't really do anything about it at the moment besides release silly extensions that give you the functionality they should've had from the get-go on the original 3DS. The designers made a big mistake in the beginning and now they probably have to swallow their pride every time they see the stupid Circle Pad Pro accessory. Players want it, I'm sure developers would like it, Nintendo wants it, but everybody has to settle for a lame accessory just to satisfy a basic need like a second circle pad lol.

I have plenty of space on my hard drive for Halo 4, but 8GB is still a ton of space. Installing the entirety of Oblivion and all its expansion packs takes up only 6GB on my HD at the moment. With Halo 4's 8GB I'll still have over 100GB left, so I don't have to worry, but I still don't understand why it takes up so much space. That amount of space will absolutely kill the people with the old 20GB 360s. Back when I had my old white 360 I use to stress out over finding space and downloading a game trial that was like 500MB. Halo 4 being 8GB would take that stress to a whole new level for people that don't have the space to spare.

Starting with the xbox games you've put the least time into: Play Dark Souls. The PS3 games you've put the least time into: Play Uncharted. For the games you're deeper into: Play Vanquish. For the ones you want to replay: Play Dragon Age Origins. That's a balanced list so that you won't get too worn out on any particular genre. My list contains 5 games, meeting the criteria you set. Plus my list spices up the variety and gameplay a little bit but it still favors the RPG since there are two great ones on there (dark souls and dragon age).

Dark Souls (rpg)

Uncharted (action adventure)

Vanquish (tps)

Dragon Age Origins (rpg)

We are going to all get through this together lol.

Thanks Angelo and Mike for getting me interested in this game. I'm so sold on this now. There's so many systems and mechanics built in, but they seem to work so fluidly. I can't believe how under the radar this is. Looks like one of the most fun games I've seen this whole generation.

Do you know who is taking up lead design role for this? Is Sid involved? I love Meier, but I'll play any Firaxis game in general. I never played the older games so I have no connection to the series or any expectations. Your info sounds really cool though, I think this would be a lot of fun. I'm with you on the statement, "This is the game that Firaxis hopes satisfies the core XCOM fans while being something that new players like myself can play and enjoy."

If anybody can take a complex system or a deep strategy game and make it something that new players can hop into, learn, and enjoy, it's Firaxis. I hopped into Civ Rev without every having played a Civ game in my life and I was having a blast within minutes. Not only was it accessible, but the systems were so deep and I had so many options that it has been keeping me in the game long after I first played it.