[EVOLghost]

Originally Posted by Derek

Who cares about graphics?

I only care for graphics on the next gen gaming. I think that these systems are capable of decent graphics and to me it shows how much time is put into making the game. However! I don't believe that graphics make or break a game.(one of my favorite games is FF7!) Graphics is just a small luxury to enjoying a game I think.

[EVOLghost]

Originally Posted by chairman of the bored

OK, here's my attempt at a defense of the current gen. I think a lot of the complaining about it sounds the same as people who say there's no good music/movies/books being made nowadays. It takes time to weed out the abundance of shit in the present to find the stuff that will be "timeless".

There's tons of cool stuff happening right now.

Weird, innovative downloadable games: Flower, Journey, Braid, Project Dust (Eric Chahi's new game), Noby Noby Boy, etc. These are kind of a refreshing reaction to the big-budget bro shooters that are ubiquitous.

Wipeout HD.

Crazy shit from Japan: Bayonetta and Vanquish (from people who made Resident Evil, DMC, Viewtiful Joe, etc.), Disgaea 4 (this looks extremely promisig), Child of Eden, El Shaddai, Trico, Suda 51 is working on a horror game and a shmup, Demon's Souls, etc.

Bioshock.

Certain games are just refinements of what's happened before, but taken to a whole new level. Straight-up fun: Uncharted 2, Street Fighter 4,

ERm its getting busy at work gotta go!

I'm glad someone here is with me on the next gen gaming....

ANyway! I had you added on PSN...but uhh...I can't go online anytime soon..well..because...uhh...my PS3 is modded and I don't feel like getting banned. So...as soon as that is settled I'll let ya know and add ya right away!

[EVOLghost]

Originally Posted by atsonicpark

At this point, I think Goldeneye was probably the only good FPS ever made.

pff yer high. I don't want to sound like a fanboy or anything. but I honestly think Halo created the next step for FPS. Not saying it's the best FPS but it IS one of the best. I mean, XBOX's controller was MADE for FPS. I personally think it's the bets FPS controller out there! I've played FPS's with PS3's remote and while it's not bad at all for FPS, XBOX's controller easily takes the cake.


and this is coming for me....someone who is against the XBOX(even though I own one). but I own two games for the XBOX. CoD Modern Warfare 2, and Halo: Reach. You see that? the two games I own are FPS's....

[chairman of the bored]

good FPS (even though the categorization is debatable for some of these) that I can think of right now: Bioshock, Fallout 3, Jumping Flash 1 + 2, GoldenEye, Doom64, metroid prime, portal, killzone 2 (multiplayer), mirrors edge...

[Dr. Eugene Felikson]

I've actually been thinking about getting a current gen system. I might be getting my cousin's old 360 for XMAS. But the only titles I can really think of that I'd want are Dead Space, Dead Rising 2, and the new Bionic Commando.

Wii seems much more up my alley. No More Heroes 1 + 2, MadWorld, Super Mario Galaxy 1 + 2, Super Smash Bros Brawl, NEW Donkey Kong Country, Wario Land: Shake It, A Boy and his Blob, New Super Mario Bros, and Metroid: Other M, which looks sooo much cooler than the Prime games! Totally giving me a Super Metroid boner.

And don't worry NR, I liked Windwaker a lot too. I doubt that the Gamecube will ever get the respect it deserves.

[noisereductions]

word. Joe you'd like Wii a lot. I know yr taste, and yr a Ninty fanboy like myself, so there's a lot of throwbacks and series on there you'd like. You'd fucking love the new House Of The Dead too.

[atsonicpark]

I wouldn't necassarily consider Jumping Flash a FPS, but I do love those games. I think Halo is bland. Compare it to Goldeneye, where you had objectives, cool weapons, not everything looked the same (boring space corridors), etc. I just don't get FPS's -- that's why I love Goldeneye, it avoided the pitfalls of the genre, while being genuinely fun. I get the twitch appeal of those games, to an extent, but I'd rather just play a shoot em up. Ikaruga -- while being in a different genre altogether -- blows away every FPS ever made.

Wind Waker was good, until the end, when you had to do the ridiculous shit where you had to find the maps, triforce shards, get thousands of rupees (which required seeing three hidden fairies!)... I mean, that whole thing took literally 2-3 hours, and was the most boring thing ever. Twilight Princess was good, but it was just too fucking easy! I've beaten every Zelda game EVER MADE (except a few of the recent DS ones) so I can see why someone would be upset/disappointed in those games, especially after the high water mark of Ocarina and Majora's Mask. It seems with every generation, we're just treated to a lesser, but prettier, version of the same damn game. Where is a game like Beyond Oasis or Ranger X -- still-mindblowing, innovative games 17 years later?

Something that really disappointed me last gen was games like Okami selling like 3 copies. That was probably the only game that really pushed things forward -- also, if you felt disappointed by the latest Zelda games, it was a great game to play, since it was very Zelda-like in a way, but had plenty of unique innovations, and a storyline that made me weep. Of course, since it was actually unique, no one gave a shit, not even in Japan. That's why -- as many people are predicting -- games are heading towards the next crash. It costs like $15,000,000 to make a game nowadays... I mean, seriously! And, yeah, CHILDREN OF EDEN does look amazing, anything that guy (Space Channel 5, Meteos, Lumines, Rez, etc...) does is amazing, one of the only developers worth paying attention to.


I played through part of OTHER M recently, it was sorta lame, and this is coming from someone who thinks Metroid is the greatest game series of all time. It had its charms, but eh. It seemed to be programmed by a bunch of different people who wanted completely different things for it.

"I doubt that the Gamecube will ever get the respect it deserves." I'm not sure about that quote. The Gamecube was MORE THAN well-received and -loved in its lifetime, and beyond. While its best games were Dreamcast ports, my absolute favorite game for it is Pikmin -- which, I might add, sold a million copies (!) despite being absolutely insane and ridiculous and unique! So, yeah, cool system, and it wasn't a big FPS fest. Still, it didn't have a single good strategy game, and no good RPG's beyond Tales of Symphonia and Paper Mario, so it didn't get much play from me. Still, a Wii is worth getting, probably, for Cave Story (if, y'know, you can't just download it for free), MadWorld, Fatal Frame IV (if you import it), No More Heroes 2, and the game that will destroy all competition: DRAGON QUEST X!

This gen has a few cool looking games, I forgot about Bayonetta, that looks fucking awesome. Still, shiney FPS's/war games/"cinematic" games like Metal Gear Solid/ridiculous sports games seem to be all I see coming out, and none of those games appeal to me in the least. What's WipEout HD? Is that a PSN game? I would love to get that.. WipEout is my favorite racing game ever...

Finally, I never got the "graphics" thing... I think most Genesis and SNES games look better than current gen games. Not necessarily because of the polygon count, but because of the artistry! Seriously, look in the background of Sonic 2 sometime; you don't see shit like that nowadays (aside from whatever Team Ico is doing). I think a game like Contra Hard Corps looks better and sounds better than almost any current game.... ohhh, and I found out recently Arc Systems is doing a Hard Corps sequel. Downloadable. So, once again, chalk one up for downloadable games.

[chairman of the bored]

Let's be real: Ikaruga blows away most games ever made, regardless of genre.

I think Wind Waker has the best endgame of any Zelda game, if that makes sense. I love 90% of that game and it's prob my favorite Zelda.

WipeoutHD is a psn game. Look it up dude, it's great. I think the tracks are all from the psp or ps2 wipeouts, but with tons of new modes, music, etc. never gets old. Also has an expansion called wipeout fury with even more tracks/game modes. You should really check out the wikipeda and youtube or something. There's too much for me to go into here.

Wipeout is also my favorite racing game that i can think of...besides maaybe the first mariokart and rally cross.

[atsonicpark]

Sweet, yeah, I'm definitely going to eventually get a PS3, for all that modding shit EvolGhost mentioned. Will get WipEout HD.... funnily enough, I just got the original WipEout back from a friend the other day and have been playing it a lot. You know the COLD STORAGE guy, who did the music for those games? He added me on last.fm a while back! Haha. Big fan right here. I think WipEout perfectly encapsulates everything I love about gaming, the PlayStation, the 90's, etc.

And yes, the Wind Waker dungeons -- especially the last one, and that fucking final boss fight -- were absolutely incredible. I kinda dug the art style... it worked, I guess. And sailing was fun. I just felt the game dragged a bit near the end -- but the actual final dungeon/boss battles rule.

And, yes, IKARUGA is pretty much untouchable. It's mythical. It's just... I dunno. Something about it. OTHERWORLDLY. And, uh, 17mb!

[EVOLghost]

 

most annoying mob ever!

[chairman of the bored]

haha. the sound they make is one of the creepiest/coolest sounds in gaming though...you hear those bells then that fucker comes around the corner. They're much easier to kill with magic than melee. but, they're not as tough as they seem. 3-1 is one of my favorite places in the game. so. bleak. cool boss too.

[EVOLghost]

haha. I'ma knight remember? hehe...no magicks for me. I'm using a club to beat them down though...haha.

[ni'k]

the thing about getting a next gen, like a ps3 - is that for all the money it costs it'll prob fuckin break on you in 2 or 3 years. at least all the ps2s did.
whereas your old n64 you bought all those years ago is probably still working.

i actually got a ps3 for a while and returned it. was basically disgusted at myself for spending all that money on the thing.

i bough unreal for it and was just like - wtf. this is the same fucking unreal game i played as a demo on my pc around 1999. all these years later i by it and its improved barely one iota. played half life 2 again and portal. then thought - i need a new laptop.

i remember the late 90's and gaming - i was obsessed with it. and i was there when gaming morphed from a nerdy thing to a thing that your average dude did for fun and was not embarrassed by. this happened with the psx - i always hated sony and ps1 for that but to be fair it did have some great games. but that was the time when gaming started to become "cool" and then became like this typical male macho habit. i can still remember how people used to pay fucking money for fifa 2001 or whatever.

in the uk there was this thing on our teletext service on channel 4. don't know if you US people have teletext? anyway it was called digitiser and it was written by hardcore gamers that were into their shit. and i can remember them making the same points that adam is making - about dreamcast being this overlooked gem. they would get quite angry about it and bemoan people for putting another EA sports piece of shit to number 1 in the uk gaming chart.

ps1 was like the punk of consoles, because it opened things up to small cheap developers. but people liked ps1 because of the image and the marketing, because it transitioned gaming from something looked upon as childish and nerdy to something cool that 18 year olds did. whereas i can remember people wondering why nintendo magazines didn't give away free demo cartridges - the answer was because they would have cost like 70quid. ps1 opened up the floodgates to the kind of turgid crap we have today. were games are trying to be films. seriously, can you think of a more embarrassingly adolescent and stupid era for gaming than the 00's? every game seemed to be another fps designed for 13 year old morons who couldn't play something like pikmin or whatever because they are self conciouss and don't want to be seen as the children they are, so they choose some shitty "omg so awesome guns and blood" thing.

i know this is down to marketing and what sells - and i used to overlook this shit because i thought "well - the type of person who makes games is a nerd, a technically minded dude good at mapping pixels in white backrounds. not a creative or artistic in the way a songwriter or novelist or script writer is. but you'd think by now and with all the fucking money put into games they could be coming up with some better shit than they are currently.

now i'm sure there are a load of exceptions, that people who pay more attention to me have been mentioning already. i just got fed up and wasn't interested tbh. gaming will eventually get over these embarrassing ugly years and there will be games in the future that really push us into new frontiers, but so far what we've seen isn't really close.

i mean, its 2010 and what do we have. fps's that aren't as good as goldeneye, that haven't been able to even come close to matching the controller/gameplay quality of goldeneye.

i think back with n64 people were excited about gaming, and excited about going 3d. now - they probably use fucking focus groups like they do with films. what really clinched the deal for ps1 back in the day was that it was totally style over substance - people saw the FX cut scenes and thought it was so cool - like an adult cartoon. it seems most games now are just those fucking cut scenes extended the whole way through only with the most basic and clunky interactivity of an fps.

its sad what happened to sega. but the idiots are always going to pick style over substance. back in the day they all picked fifa because it had the official player names and the official logo and trendy music. whereas international superstar soccer was simply a superior football game, but it didnt have the marketing of course.

anybody else remember what you imagined games would be like by 2010 when you were a kid playing ps1 or n64? games were supposed to always get better. this was the thing about 3d and gaming and technology at the time. technology was becoming the new relegion in peoples lives by around the 80's. in the 90's you had the proliferation of home computers, mobile phones, gameboys etc. into the average home. back then as a kid it was quite dazzling and you really thought the sky was the limit. because everything seemed to be able to be made into a game. we really thought back then that innovation would only increase as the megabits got larger lol. WOW - PROJECT DOLPHIN IS GOING TO HAVE 128MB OMG THINK OF THE GRAPHICS! by the time i was a teenager people were actually playing the sims of their own choice and i was like - fuck this i'm listening to music.

[ni'k]

this is what i mean about the 90's -
http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3_pnuZhpIg

see n64 tried to compete with ps1 by attempting to be more adult and "edgy", but you knew it was still run by genius' like miyamoto, crazy disney esque people that had created this worlds out of their own imagination! but there was no room for shigsy in the ps1 world ffs. what there is room for now is the lone bedroom guy who has some really innovative ideas for puzzle games. thats great but what gaming really needs is artistic people. artistic not in the fucking drawing musclebound superheroes with big guns type way. thats just homoerotic idiocy. artistic in that mad way that zelda was.

miyamoto was initially resistant to having violent games on the n64 at all. and this seemed to happen more due to the fact ps1 was starting to trounce them and they knew they needed to get with the times. but miyamoto envisioned gaming as a family thing. bless him, he really pushed hard to turn gaming into something that would include the whole family. wii is i guess the fruition of this dream of his but at the same time how much does it really get played beyond everyone at xmas 2 years ago for the novelty value.

whats weird about gaming is that its mostly the stuff that seems the most childish that is actually the best. its the opposite of cinema, were the family friendly happy feelgood movie is always utter fucking shite.

anyway. everybody go play amnesia the dark descent for the pc. and buy it because the developers really deserve the money on this one. do it.

[noisereductions]

is n'ik on speed?

[EVOLghost]

Originally Posted by ni'k

the thing about getting a next gen, like a ps3 - is that for all the money it costs it'll prob fuckin break on you in 2 or 3 years. at least all the ps2s did.

lies! I still own a launch Ps2 and it works. and as for PS3's. While I'm not gonna say they don't last...I will say that it's not cheap like the XBOX. The new ps3 slims are debatable. Ps3's are actually made in Japan no in China like Wii's and XBOX's....so yehhh..

[ni'k]

thing is, you know sony would sell you a plastic case filled with rat faeces if they could get away with it. you know its always going to be designed to be replaced.

[ni'k]

Originally Posted by noisereductions

is n'ik on speed?

no. i typed that while waiting for a d/l to finish, took like 2 mins. i can type fast and i write long posts. i know, i'm sorry.

[EVOLghost]

Originally Posted by ni'k

thing is, you know sony would sell you a plastic case filled with rat faeces if they could get away with it.

honestly...I can't argue that....

[atsonicpark]

Originally Posted by noisereductions

is n'ik on speed?

Doubt it, but almost everything he says is right on the money, and everything he says is interesting, at the least.

Just played MAZIN SAGA

 

 

 

Unbelievable, incredible game! Imagine Streets of Rage but 100x faster, with swords and robots and shit. And then some of the boss fights are big mech battles.

Also still playing the AMAZING Ranger-X:

 

One of the best games on the Genesis, way underrated.