Toothball • Comments

• Atari assets up for sale: Rollercoaster Tycoon for $3.5m, Test Drive for $1.5m, Total Annihilation for $250k

• Toothball 23/05/2013

  Total Annihilation remains the only RTS I've ever played. I had one game at a LAN party and no one told me how to play. Ended up walling my commander within some factories, attacking my team mate with a puny fleet of flying things and at the end of the game only outlasted my team mate because I got lost wandering around the map.
  
  I can't imagine any subsequent game being as much fun as that one. Reply +2

• Penny Arcade series concludes in early June

• Toothball 21/05/2013

  @Pit-O-Matic
  
  Oh, I didn't pay all that much attention to the story. By the end I was playing it just to get into random battles. Having to move on because I'd killed everything in an area was always distressing. Reply 0

• Toothball 21/05/2013

  @Pit-O-Matic
  
  Did you get to play Grandia 3 at all? Not only did they include air combos that were awesome to execute if you got the timing right, they also kept records of your highest combo count and height. Every battle turned into an attempt to beat your previous record. It was beautiful. Reply +1

• Toothball 21/05/2013

  @Pit-O-Matic
  
  Grandia's battle systems are my favourite of any RPG. Hadn't realised that Precipice used something similar. May need to play it now rather than leaving it in the unplayed collection. Reply +1

• Toothball 21/05/2013

  Good thing I checked in over breakfast, If I'd waited until I was at work I'd have missed this. Reply +1

• What to expect from tonight's Xbox reveal

• Toothball 21/05/2013

  I'm just going to check back at 6pm for the highlights. Can do without the pomp and ceremony that come with these announcements. Reply +2

• Sony on Vita: "Sometimes you've had slow starts which have suddenly sprung into life"

• Toothball 15/05/2013

  My Vita has been seeing a decent amount of use recently, mostly through games I've got from PS+, like Virtue's Last Reward and Thomas Was Alone. People tend to play home console style games on home consoles rather than on the move, so if this increase in indie games keeps up it might not be too bad a situation.
  
  It's a little strange that it's not doing so well, as the hardware seems to be what many people want the 3DS to be - beefier graphics, bigger screen and two analogue sticks. But games are what everyone wants. Reply +9

• Man on fire: an afternoon with Borderlands 2's new psycho class

• Toothball 14/05/2013

  @arcam
  
  Oh, I'm not saying that it's a good name for it. I just thing the best way to tackle dodgy marketing tricks is to expose them for what they are.
  
  I don't tend to leap straight into Season Passes myself, so can't think of any troubled ones offhand. I do recall seeing other complaints along the way, so I'm sure someone will come up with one soon. Reply +2

• Toothball 14/05/2013

  @arcam
  
  "Season Pass" is just a phrase that marketing departments have latched on to to persuade gamers to buy some amount DLC in advance. They'll probably keep calling them that until they think of a new marketing trick.
  
  The one for Borderlands 2 did turn out to be a little better than advertised, as while it doesn't include Krieg and some of the other DLC, they did include the level 61 pack. Reply +1

• Toothball 14/05/2013

  Sounds like an interesting character. I'm still having a great time with my Mechromancer though, having barely spent any time with the rest of the line up. I might pick up Krieg somewhere down the line, but I've no pressing need to at the moment. Reply 0

• BioShock Infinite sells "significantly" more than series predecessors

• Toothball 14/05/2013

  I was planning not to buy Bioshock Infinite at launch, but the offer of a free XCom and some other games got the better of me. Was planning to get XCom eventually in a sale, but now I don't need to. Reply +9

• Ace Attorney 5 will be an eShop-only offering

• Toothball 14/05/2013

  I don't mind the download-only nature or the price so much. I don't like Nintendo's hardware-bound DRM though, as it means that if you lose the device for some reason your games are gone too. Reply +3

• UK chart: Dead Island: Riptide top for third week

• Toothball 13/05/2013

  @Big-Boss
  
  Publishers lately don't seem to care about sales figures after launch day. That's why pre-order promotions have become such a frequent occurrence these days. Pity really, as some games benefit far more from extended exposure. Reply +10

• Tales of Symphonia and sequel getting HD PS3 remake - report

• Toothball 13/05/2013

  I picked up the Gamecube version a while back but have yet to play it even though everyone tells me I should. Reply 0

• Civilization 5 - Brave New World: Are culture players finally getting the endgame they deserve?

• Toothball 09/05/2013

  I've yet to get stuck into Gods and Kings, so I've got a bit of catching up to do. Sounds like this will liven up the end game a bit. Reply 0

• There's an RPG sale on PSN that includes Ni No Kuni for £20

• Toothball 08/05/2013

  They also launched a GTA sale today as well, hang on to your wallets. Reply +6

• Eclipse: New Dawn for the Galaxy review

• Toothball 07/05/2013

  I played Eclipse at a friend's place. Was a lot of fun, but the slightest nudge to the table and cubes go everywhere. Also it's so far the only game where we've needed to set up a second table to allow everyone to get their place mats and the tech tree down. Reply +1

• Add money to the $1.6m Dota 2 International prize pool by buying a "living" virtual book

• Toothball 07/05/2013

  I enjoyed watching the International last year. Still can't figure out how to actually play the game, but the commentators do a pretty good job of pointing out the interesting bits. Reply +2

• Microsoft cautious on Windows 8 success: "we realise that change takes time"

• Toothball 07/05/2013

  @DrStrangelove
  
  I use Windows 8 at work and 7 at home, so I switch between the two without thinking about it much. I have started to miss the new gestures at work though.
  
  I'd imagine Microsoft removed the Start button to encourage users to try the new style rather than immediately switch back to what they know, which for whatever the reasons people tend to do more often than not. Perhaps it was the variety of Start button alternatives that cropped up that swayed Microsoft's decision on it; if people are going to add their own Start menu, they may as well offer their own. Reply +1

• Toothball 07/05/2013

  I upgraded to Windows 8 while it was cheap and don't regret it. It's fast and I don't miss the Start button at all. Reply +3

• PlayStation 3: retail disc vs. digital delivery

• Toothball 06/05/2013

  @super_monty
  
  You do realise that this is an article about changing the drive in your PS3? You don't need to run games from an external drive as you can get a bigger internal one if you need. Plus the download history in your account is a pretty good reminder of what you have digitally.
  
  It's fine to want games on disc, but the problems you're having with downloads are solvable. Reply -1

• Eurogamer seeks Web Developer for companionship and maybe more

• Toothball 03/05/2013

  I know some of those things but it's been a while since I've actively wrangled PHP into the shape of a web site. Also I live at the other end of the country, so the commute would be murder. Reply 0

• Wii U Virtual Console goes live in Europe tomorrow

• Toothball 26/04/2013

  @CallousB
  
  I called about it and offered whatever details they wanted, but they said there was nothing they could do without the console. Haven't bought anything digital from Nintendo since. All they could suggest was that I claim it on insurance.
  
  Ironically, I didn't lose any of my physical games in that incident. Reply +1

• Toothball 26/04/2013

  Oh yeah, I had Mario's Super Picross on Wii Ware, until my Wii was stolen and I lost it with the rest of my collection. Will be tempted again when eShop purchases aren't tied to the console. Reply +3

• Sony adds ability to queue PlayStation downloads from your browser

• Toothball 26/04/2013

  Nice, I often find myself checking the store at work. Especially when the new PS+ titles go up each month. Being able to click and find the game downloaded later is a useful addition. Reply +6