Right, because writing off the argumentative jerk as "just" the argumentative jerk makes it all ok. Can't human decency, the protection of standards, interfere with his postings... Why does it have to be up to us to choose to ignore his style of posting? Why isn't it up to him to shape up?

I, personally, decided to stop worrying about it and love the bomb a long time ago. Really, it's up to each individual poster. For what it's worth, having since made the decision to not care about Cody's tone, I feel like I've learned a lot from a valuable perspective. I mean, has anyone not tried Vanquish because they think Cody is dumb? That's a sad thought, right there.

I like to think that I, too, have learned to side-step his tone better than I used to.

I'm big enough to admit that I've been offended by Cody not engaging me the way he would people he has met or known for years. Chalk that up to human nature on both our parts.

The lack of humility still bothers me. All this talk of him in the third person isn't helping that!

I'll say directly, Cody, I appreciate what you have to say, if not always the way you say it.

I find that in the end, the ultimate question has been Intent. The reason for action. I have asked of this. Choose as you will, but I find this response very telling, not just in the saying, but in what was chosen to be said.

Right, because writing off the argumentative jerk as "just" the argumentative jerk makes it all ok. Can't human decency, the protection of standards, interfere with his postings... Why does it have to be up to us to choose to ignore his style of posting? Why isn't it up to him to shape up?

I, personally, decided to stop worrying about it and love the bomb a long time ago. Really, it's up to each individual poster. For what it's worth, having since made the decision to not care about Cody's tone, I feel like I've learned a lot from a valuable perspective. I mean, has anyone not tried Vanquish because they think Cody is dumb? That's a sad thought, right there.

I like to think that I, too, have learned to side-step his tone better than I used to.

I'm big enough to admit that I've been offended by Cody not engaging me the way he would people he has met or known for years. Chalk that up to human nature on both our parts.

The lack of humility still bothers me. All this talk of him in the third person isn't helping that!

I'll say directly, Cody, I appreciate what you have to say, if not always the way you say it.

I, personally, decided to stop worrying about it and love the bomb a long time ago. Really, it's up to each individual poster. For what it's worth, having since made the decision to not care about Cody's tone, I feel like I've learned a lot from a valuable perspective. I mean, has anyone not tried Vanquish because they think Cody is dumb? That's a sad thought, right there.

Reasonable thoughts. For me, I view tones as an important part of communication. Words have multiple meanings and varied implications, together they form more complex meanings, and coupled with subtext and other tools like tone and style, those words become your ultimate message. When I write, I rely on all those tools available to me, viewing wording and tone as equal and interconnected parts, and even then I don't usually feel I can convey every nuance and subtlety my thoughts and feelings hold. So if you remove any tone I may have weaved into my post, my message may mean something to you entirely different from what I had originally intended. I hope people don't do that, so I try to return the favor. There will always be multiple readings of course, but I have to take your post for what it is, whatever you include, whatever is there. If I start picking and choosing signals to interpret and others to ignore, I worry I may get it all wrong.

I had tried Vanquish and was not interested before I had ever heard Cody praise it, but yes, having experienced so many discussions with him over the years, I'm now conditioned to ignore most of his recommendations. But by the same token, I often become interested in games he slanders. :) That could always change of course, I'd love to be surprised.

But I will never be able to overlook the tone, whether pleasant or pretentious, from Cody's posts. They are a part of those posts, they mean something, and they imply something about the message and the person. I might be interpreting those signals incorrectly, but I can't pretend they are not there. And after all our back and forths, I have become fairly confident in those interpretations, so I now choose to ignore most of his posts altogether, weighing my frustration against the positives received. That is not to say he is dumb or does not have ideas to offer, but after years of discussing with him, the high blood pressure greatly overwhelms anything we have not already thoroughly beaten to death in past conversations.

I mean, has anyone not tried Vanquish because they think Cody is dumb? That's a sad thought, right there.

Vanquish is good. I don't know if it's everything Cody says it is, but it's pretty damn fun.

And that story is so pacific rim it hurts :3

Right, because writing off the argumentative jerk as "just" the argumentative jerk makes it all ok. Can't human decency, the protection of standards, interfere with his postings... Why does it have to be up to us to choose to ignore his style of posting? Why isn't it up to him to shape up?

I, personally, decided to stop worrying about it and love the bomb a long time ago. Really, it's up to each individual poster. For what it's worth, having since made the decision to not care about Cody's tone, I feel like I've learned a lot from a valuable perspective. I mean, has anyone not tried Vanquish because they think Cody is dumb? That's a sad thought, right there.

This is just a gut feeling I have from reading a lot of praise of this game, and some negative reviews, but I feel like it's meant to be played differently than most people's instincts based on other 3rd person shooters would suggest. One reviewer mentioned something about it not being a good idea to take cover all the time, as opposed to Gears for example where it's nearly always better to be in cover. I took this to mean that you do better if you're always up and moving around frantically, rather than being slow and methodical. Which is a good way to die in Gears or Mass Effect (campaign, anyway).

Yup. This is how you play the game, and why it feels amazing.

I took this to mean that you do better if you're always up and moving around frantically, rather than being slow and methodical. Which is a good way to die in Gears or Mass Effect (campaign, anyway).

If you're a balls-to-the-wall Nova-Vanguard like me, you feel right at home. Vanquish is a great game.

• First, just explore the powersets, get used to them, kill whoever you feel like it (and some of them might give you pause).
  
• Second, do a pure pacifist/ghost run. Be seen by no one. Kill no one. Pray the Outsider will give you some useful bone charms and not bloody land you with whisper kill again.
  
• Third - high chaos, no magic run. Overclock your grenades, ignore all magic, put your trust in steel and gunpowder and make them pay for everything they've done to you.
  
• And always, always sign the guestbook.

My first run was high(est) chaos. Really enjoyed that perk where bodies disolve into ash upon death. Didn't discover the guestbook until right before leaving. Signed it as I walked out.

So deliciously evil.

I'll find out very soon, as my copy just arrived today. It's the 360 version (I ordered it before this thread popped up) but I'm not too worried. I'm sure it'll still be decent.

Now that you have a PS3 buy Vanquish (it's quite a bit better than the xbox version). Immediately. It's the best game so far this decade, and definitely the best console third person shooter to date.

That's a pretty tall claim. The demo was terrible, so I expected it to be throwaway trash. Unless the actual game is significantly different...

I played through 3 levels or so before I got sidetracked, and I was really liking it. I'm starting fresh next time, and it's near the top of the to-play stack, so I hope to get through it in the next several months.

Other updates:

I tried the demo for Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch. Perhaps if I played it from the start I'd feel differently, but the demo didn't do it for me. There's a class of video games I never really got into, and I think this probably pushes some buttons for people other than me. I like anime, but only certain kinds. That said, the story sounds similar to Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, which I really enjoyed, so maybe I'll pick it up cheap sometime.

The Last of Us is still amazing. I'm about to go retrieve a battery, if that tells you where I am in the story. It has some of the best characters I've seen in a video game, in that they're complicated in a realistic way. They have to do extreme things, but gosh, in that world, you have to or you're dead. There was few moments during my first battles with Clickers where I thought it might be too intense for me, and I still feel a sense of dread, but I think I might make it.

+ All the voice acting for all the languages on the disc! Hear it all in German or Japanese!

This is actually pretty major.

I'd need a 3rd party controller, though. Thanks, Cody.