Mike Epstein's discussions

And that's a serious problem, assuming that they did it intentionally, because it shows that choosing aesthetics over mechanics. If you care more about how a game looks than how it plays, than you should just ditch the controller all together and just make a movie. Uncharted is great because it straddles that line… Read more

The AI has been a big question for me. On the hand, the enemies seem relatively organized and are good at flanking. On the other, they're way too aggressive about getting in close: Sometimes they do it to start a fistfight, other times it's to shoot you. There's little rhyme or reason to their strategy, which makes… Read more

While we're talking about combat in the game, the larger combat sequences have emphasized some of the problems with the shooting, which have been a chronic issue for the series. Shooting from the hip is very loose, which ordinarily would be fine, except that you move so slowly while aiming that it become difficult to… Read more

Nope. I think pretty much everyone's face looks a little different. The girls are definitely the most striking but I think Drake's face has also changed a little. Read more

Thats interesting because I've felt like the puzzles are so much less important in this game, mainly because they seem pretty transparent. Theres always one missing piece of information between Drake's journal and the puzzle. It seems like they're all designed to make you stop and think for a moment, and then move on. Read more

I had those issues too, and thats definitely the downside of Uncharted's approach. If you get stuck, either because you dont know where to go or just keep dying, then the game loses its appeal very fast. Read more

Would you prefer to watch an Uncharted movie? Read more

I thought that too until I remembered that earlier on there was a giant cave with tons of spiderwebs and when, you crawl through it, a couple fall on you. Honestly if that hadn't been there I would've thought beetles or something. Read more

Except that when you stay in one place for too long the AI moves on without you. The game definitely wants you to stay on pace. Read more

At the end of chapter 9 the group leaves Syria. Read more

The opening of Uncharted 3 adds a new guy to Drake's crew. Do you guys like Cutter so far? I like that he's funny, but I also kind of feel like he's a bit of an empty shirt. The fact that we already have a history Chloe and Sully make him feel superfluous - he's kind of a generic british guy. Also after the Syria… Read more

I really don't like Spiders, and while I'm glad that there haven't been any giant spiders to date, I kinda have a feeling that there might be one later on. Assuming that the spiders are a part of this game's supernatural twist (an Uncharted series staple), it seems odd to me that they're telegraphing it so early on.… Read more

Actually, I love that idea. Rather than costing money, each player would get certain amount of locust units each round. Upgrades could become available via kill and/or death streaks. Yes, it's not an idea that could be directly translated from either Beast or Horde but it would still be worthwhile. Read more

Thanks for the fix. Read more

That brings up an interesting question: Do a lot of people play Horde mode solo? Read more

That is a very economical approach. The question is, do you like the fact that you have run around or does it seem like a chore. Playing that way creates lots of little objectives which can be fun - I think it almost make Horde more like the campaign, where you always know what you need to do. Read more

No I think that's how it's supposed to be. I think the difficulty of those choices the best part of it. In the end it becomes really tough to maintain a base, especially if you buy a lot of fences. Things work best when your team communicates on what the want to maintain and what should eventually stay broken. Read more

I have to confess, and I'm little embarrassed about this, I've only gotten the top tier once in Beast mode. Read more

While I really liked the complexities of Horde and Beast mode, I'm wondering if there were any players who were turned off by the resource management element in both modes. For many people Gears is all about simply running around and shooting, so the fact that you can shoot yourself in the foot by not being mindful of… Read more

As I said above, since this is our last week covering Gears of War 3 we need to pick a new game for us to take up for next month. The game should be something that has been released recently or is coming in the next two or three weeks. Even though Gears 3 was a Xbox 360 exclusive, we're looking across all platforms… Read more