h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I feel increasingly sure that either I missed a major point or the whole gaming industry did: how can you 'go back' after the end of the game? Surely the end of the game features the climax of the world's events, when everything changes, and the characters' entire impetus for carrying on is eliminated. How could they possibly carry on putting their lives in danger when they could just go home and live their lives in peace and happiness? It makes no sense unless you have to complete everything you're going to _before_ you undertake the end-game content.

Depends on the game.

In Grand Theft Auto, you can "complete" the game, which is to say complete the main storyline, and still have many, many loose ends and secondary characters whose storylines are still only half complete, still many missions to do. There was a whole subset of San Andreas missions that I never finished because one of the missions was too hard - but it didn't stop me "finishing" the game, i.e. the main story.

And even then, when all the side characters have been satisfied, there are tertiary missions such as collecting hidden packages or stealing cars to a particular list.

And even THEN, when all those are complete, there are STILL ongoing things like street races, rampages and emergency service missions which are effectively infinite. And even if you get bored of those, there are still the stats to chase, like longest wheelie, longest jump etc.

It also depends on a) if you're playing an RPG and b) what the motivation for your character is. Some games make sense for them to continue (Skyrim) and some not (Fable III). If your character is the son of an ancient king who is thrust into the mission because of fate yadda yadda yadda, then yes, I know what you mean. But if your chracter is an explorer who gets muddled up in a plot to save a kingdom, what's stopping them going back to their old explorer lifestyle if they wish?

I guess if you are going to write a game where you want to allow the players to continue exploring the world, you've got to write the characters and plot to match. Final Fantasy X ended well, but I also enjoyed X-2 (if you can cope with the vomit-inducing girliness of it all). I wouldn't have enjoyed being put back into the world of X after you resolved the plot because it wouldn't have made sense to do so - you needed a new game with a new plit for it to work.

I hope I made sense. I think I talked in circles a lot.

So anyway I wrote a blog about the Mass Effect 3 ending controversy.

http://lunchtimelegend.co.uk/2012/03/mass-effect-3-ending-controversy/

It contains spoilers. And loads of typos probably because I banged it out quickly.

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Oh and an amusing downfall parody!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b33tJx8iy0A&feature=related

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http://www.uesp.net/wiki/

I've been using this site to try to do all the quests. Unfortunately there are some uests which require you to have ow charisma which I only found out when I had the Charisma to bed a nun.

It should help you finish all of SKyrim as it has quests listed by village etc..I don't see it as cheating as I only did that for Oblivion once I had finished the main quest...still have not finished Oblivion or Skyrim yet...but ticking off the minor quests is fun.

Been playing Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning.

Basically it is as if the first Fable game and Dragon Age had a kid. But in a good way. Silly, light, fluffy RPG. Which post Mass Effect (ending controversy in all) is just what the doctor ordered.

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I got a 7 days free trial for Star Wars: The Old Republic.
I stay with my opinion that their story thing they have is really interesting. However some things really didn't improve at all since the beta, I had expected that. Tried it on 3 computers and it lags on all of them. I also expected more in terms of character creation. It's a bit like 5 or more years ago, quite basic. Maybe they didn't manage to finish it.
Fighting is really the usual 21111564112 stuff too. Although my bounty hunter makes a good deal of 'boom' and fire and smoke. But I *could* live with that I think. What I don't think I can live with (and would probably not pay for) is really the lags. It's a pity.

I've still got play time till Friday evening. I really want to see more of the story, but I don't think I want to pay for lags. And I'll preorder Guild Wars 2 soon anyhow, which means getting into the beta.

I just bought Soul Calibur 5 ( Ezio) but haven't played it yet. I wanted the new SSX game but every shop in the retail park was sold out for some reason

I have got an http://www.icontrolpad.com/ a bluetooth controller with a nifty little clamp to hold your phone in.

I have therefore been thoroughly enjoying playing "Link to the Past", "Super Tennis" and "Super Mario Kart" on my phone in lunch breaks at work.

Seriously whilt not cheap it is boss, and turns your smart phone into a really tidy portable gaming system. I am delighted with it.

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Wow. That looks fantastic.

Call of Cthulhu: the Dark Corners of the Earth.

Quite unsettling... not in a full-on Silent Hill kind of way but in a general 'something ain't right' way. Would be improved without the random POV shots which give away some of the monster sightings before they happen, and for full atmospheric 'into the unknown' stuff it'd actually be best played by somebody who hasn't read The Shadow Over Innsmouth, because that's what the game seems to be (albeit loosely) based on,

Vip it is really good. You can use it on computets if you have a bluetooth dongle too.

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I played Soul Calibur 5. Maybe I'm being a derp but I find it kinda hard to play

Mostly just playing Snes games with my iControlpad on my phone.

Jayze I had forgotton how stupidly brilliant Zelda: A Link to the Past is. Also just how derivative of it all subsequent Zelda games have been (no bad thing!)

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Ahhh, good old Zelda We have a SNES in the cupboard and I wouldn't mind getting some old skool cartridges for it

Fords try:-

http://www.explusalpha.com/home/snes9x-ex

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Why play an emulator when you have the real thing?

Convenience?

I find that it is a nightmare connecting old machines to modern TV equipment. Even though I have loads of old ocnsoles and games I find emulation a much easier way to play them these days.

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Incidentally been utterly hooked on this game, New Star Soccer:-

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.newstargames.newstarsoccer

It is also available on IOS and PC I think. But been playing it on my phone and I have to say I think it is the best game I have ever played on a mobile device.

If oyu ever played "Footballer of the Year" on the Spectrum or C64 then you will know hat to expect. First class.

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