.hack: Infection

[Great Rumbler]

It's the offline-online RPG!! I got it this Saturday, but I haven't had time to play it very much, but it looks like it's going to be pretty good. It does a great job of creating an online gaming experience. Plus it comes with a 45 minute anime movie!! And the battles are non-random though, the creatures are reprented by a shining sphere and when you get close to it the creatures appear and the battles are in real time, so ABF should really enjoy this game.

The story about how I got it is so funny that I just have to tell it. I was at Hastings looking in the used game section and I saw two copies of Universal Studios Themepark for only $1.25 each! So, I immediately bought them and took them to a place the buys used games. I expected to get $10 tops for each game, but they gave me $20 in credit for each game!! So, I decided to get .hack: Infection.

I got a totally new game and only spent $13!!

[OB1]

I'd consider buying the game if Xenosaga weren't coming out in the same month. I can only handle one RPG at a time.

[Dark Jaguar]

Pfft, lightweight...

I have a better excuse, I just can't afford more than Wind Waker and Xenosaga, and that for quite some time will have to do. Yes ABF, it'll likely be a long while before I can get Frozen Throne.

[OB1]

I can only take so many random battles at once.

[Great Rumbler]

Didn't you read what I posted about .hack? It doesn't have random battles!!

[Dark Jaguar]

Pfft, and neither does Xenosaga if you had bothered reading even the earliest articles on that game.

[Great Rumbler]

Originally posted by Dark Jaguar
Pfft, and neither does Xenosaga if you had bothered reading even the earliest articles on that game.

I really don't think he has, I seem to remember him saying at one point that he wasn't going to read anything about it. But that might have been Weltall...

[OB1]

No that was me. And I meant to say turn-based battles, not random battles.

[Great Rumbler]

Well, there's still no problem. .hack has realtime battles!!

[Dark Jaguar]

And in fact, Xenosaga from the little I've read (I didn't read much myself, in fact I stopped after IGN's first character bio update) has more real time style battles too.

[A Black Falcon]

Sounds kind of interesting... unless its coming out for PC or GC though, I'll never be able to get it.

Oh... DJ, you've got until summer to come up with the $35 or so Frozen Throne will cost, because it won't be out till then...

[OB1]

$35 for an expansion pack? Yeesh. Well I shouldn't be too surprised since Blizzard charged $60 for WC 3.

[Laser Link]

Sounds cool. I read about it at IGNPS2 the other day, and I was impressed. Maybe someday.

[A Black Falcon]

At launch, Blizz did charge $60... or $75, for the Collector's Edition with a bunch of extras... now of course its $50 at best unless the store is ripping you off...

I said $35 because I saw the number in a preview...and based on the $60 standard price at launch, it sure wouldn't surprise me... even though expansion packs are usually $30 for normal games that usually start at $50...

[eXisTenZe]

I wonder if .hack//INFECTION is somehow related to .hack//SIGN....

[OB1]

Well the /Infection anime is the light-hearted sequel to the /Sign anime.

[OB1]

Or the other way around. I forgot.

[Great Rumbler]

I think .hack//Sign is the light-hearted spin off of the .hack OVA. But I could be wrong, all I know for sure is that there is a 4 episode OVA series, a 4 part game series, and regular anime series that runs on CN.

[eXisTenZe]

Shit, how many .hacks are there? Recently, I just saw .hack//LUMINALITY, what's up with that? (Sorry, I just don't dig franchises that goes on and on and on like Energizer. It's like Final Fantasy, even though it's not the last one, when the hell will it finally end?)

[A Black Falcon]

But long serieses are good, as long as the quality stays up... I like series that keep going, whether in TV or books or games...

The only problems come when the new sequels are bad -- which does happen too often.

[OB1]

It can be a bit overwhelming, I know. But once you get into these long anime series you only want more. It's the same way with Gundam. There are so many series it's crazy, but once you find out that there are only four 50-episode series that take place in the original Gundam's timeline and that the rest are alternate universe tales, it's very easy to understand. And then of course there are the movies and OAV's, but that's easily sorted.

[A Black Falcon]

Star Trek has to be one of the longest TV franchises ever... its in its 27th season (and most seasons are 26 episodes, not 22 like most shows), plus 10 movies... and hundreds of books... but I sure don't want it stopping anytime soon. Yes, it is tougher to get into something when it goes on for a long time, but its more rewarding in some ways... it isn't over, and IMO that's good...

[OB1]

Well you really shouldn't count Enterprise as the 26th season of Star Trek. It's a seperate series, and a prequel at that.

[A Black Falcon]

Star Trek is Star Trek... I don't see any way that Enterprise isn't the 26th season of liveaction Trek (if you don't count that one season of The Animated Series, which you should, making it 27). Its a prequel, sure, but its just as much Trek as Voyager or TNG... every Trek series is diffrent, but in the same universe so they have plenty of cross-continuity... what would you call it? A different series? Its no more different from previous Treks than Voyager is from DS9... or TNG...

[OB1]

Well it is a different series. What about Voyager and DS9? Weren't they on at the same time? So how do you figure that out?

[A Black Falcon]

Its a different series, in the Star Trek universe... so it is the 26th season of Star Trek. And yes, Voyager and DS9 were on at the same time for serveral years... the last year or two of TNG also overlapped the first season or two of DS9. But each series was quite different and unique... but still Star Trek. Just like how any spinoff or successor series with different characters is, nonetheless, effectively in that series...

[OB1]

Meh.