To be honest, none of the new systems interest me at all -- I'm mainly basing my rating off of XBox Live Arcade. And, also, 360 has DeathSmiles.

Emulating stuff on PS3 would be the only reason I'd get one, if I found it used for $30 or something. I mean, I'm sure there are a couple random Atlus games worth getting, and Disgaea 3, but eh.

I really can't think of a single game this generation that interest me in the least (besides the Live Arcade/WiiWare/etc stuff) besides Children of Eden (Rez sequel) and BlazBlue. Console gaming is so bland.

Only thing that makes me happy is that the DS is the best selling system of all time -- and the Wii is the 2nd best selling of all time. Even though I think the Wii is absolute garbage, I hope Nintendo completely takes over the video game industry, which I'm sure they will with Dragon Quest X (the only reason I'll end up getting a Wii) and the 3DS. Nintendo actually cares about the integrity of games and not just making things shiney. I really think HALO, for example, is one of the worst games I've ever played in my life, it's so boring and bland and lifeless. Just a joke. So, for Nintendo to actually somewhat care about gameplay -- even if they still almost exclusively release baby games for babies, at least on the Wii -- inspires a little bit of hope in me. Maybe NEXT-gen (not this-gen), I'll care again.

Ehhh...Blazblu is a bit overrated in my book. After I started playing it a bit more...I got bored.

and well...about nextgen gaming...uh....yeh...it sucks and I can't blame anyone who lost faith. It's hard to push gaming forward when the plan is to make as much money as you possibly can....

I've never played Blaz, I'm just a huge Guilty Gear fan. Wouldn't be surprised if it's absolute garbage.

I wouldn't call it complete garbage...cause I know there's a few characters who are really in depth. but it seems They tried to balance it out with characters that can win a match with one button....and well....yeh.

damn I was considering buying an x files game, cause I am at season 7 now, and after finishing I am out of stuff. but I also remembered them as not being good

i've never played the newer x-files game. but i remember playing the very first one for playstation. i liked it.

i'm a huge enough x-files to enjoy ANYTHING x-files. even a crappy video game

the new gen systems are largely crap. fps after fps.

portal is worth playing. and the multiplayer in l4d2 is good.

also amnesia - the dark descent pc is excellent. i urge everyone to pay for a copy because the developers are small and actually care about what they are doing and put a lot of effort in.

the 2 latest zeldas, windwalker and twilight dissapointed me so i have lost hope in nintendo.

dont understand why anyone would need a console. just use emulators - you can buy all the console controllers for your pc. so buy an pc n64 controller and use it for goldeneye. in fact use it for psx games, would be better than the dpad

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

you're wrong.

as for what i'm playing, i've installed Risen yesterday and I'm happy.

Goldeneye was one of few video games I ever enjoyed.

Wind Waker is one of the best Zelda's of all time, so not sure what n'ik is getting at. PLUS, Wii isn't all FPS's. Although I will say I enjoy the hell out of the Wii lightgun rail shooters. House Of The Dead Overkill is a bloody masterpiece.

wind walker is crap. maybe crap +1.

ocarina/majora = win all.
wind walker is just an unnecessary detour. it has none of the mood or atmosphere that ocarina or majora had. i dont care about the actual button bashing of the game itself, and even that isnt any better than oc or maj.

twilight went back to the right style but just rehased elements of ocarina. it was ok but it lacked the zelda charm. it just wasnt good enough considering the leap forward it could have been. but by the time of twilight nintendo had ceased innovating and just stuck to remaking their old games over and over.

i will not accept either of those games from nintendo because they are just not good enough. twilight is playable but there is nothing in it that makes you want to keep going after youve completed it. you have no urge to do any of the side quests or things. and i dont care about that rat thing or turning into a rat. but i did care about the characters in ocarina and was gripped the plot and suspense of majora.

i mean by 2006 i was not expecting a simple remake of the n64 ocarina engine. i wanted a NEW game. as in totally new innovations that we hadn't seen before. not the same basic gameplay style only with less charm.

yr out of yr f'ing ming man. Wind Waker is like a 3D version of Link To The Past. It's so beautiful with its cell-shaded graphics and its got so much charm. I don't know what game you were playing.

Occarina is really over rated. SO many gamers S that one's D. Honestly, yeah it was the first 3D Zelda. Yeah it pulled it off instead of sucking like it could have. But the camera sucked and the polygons are ugly. Link LOOKS ugly in it.

Now the story is great. ANd yeah the story in Majora's could even be somewhat better you could argue.

But Wind Waker is a frickin' masterpiece and I'm not sure how you could see it any other way. It to me is the closest to the naive-exploration aesthetic that the orignal Zelda was meant to convey.

ugly ocarina polygons are infinitely preferable to cutesy wind walker cell shading.

in fact i'd uglify the polygons even more y'all if i could.

more blocks. more picasso esque down syndrome faces. yes. chunky n64 ploygons, swinging the camera round so its a wrong angle and you are seeing the blackness off the level. its hot.

wind walker had the niaevity but it wasn't able to contrast this with any sense of looming danger or threat. plus the plot and characters were just crap. there was just nothing new in it that remotely wowed me or tugged at my heart strings. it felt like a massive regression. maybe the bit were you see that massive castle under the sea from the old times was ok. but thats not enough to make up for the whole game. im sure a young kid whose like 6 years old could enjoy it but not me.

now majora - that was a fucking game. i wonder if anyone will make a game that weird ever again ffs. the fact that it was originally japanese and they translated it into english made it even better. it was simply a moody and weird game. not a game with moody and weird elements. it was great.

seriously show me a game like majora and i'll play it. but i stopped playing rpgs at all after zelda. dont care about final fantasy. dont have the time. and have yet to see another rpg that doesnt look STUPID but not stupid in a way thats part of the charm, stupid in that overblown pompous spirit dragon way that rpgs are.

UGLIFY THE POLYGONS Y'ALL!!!!!!!!!!1111

 

 

 

 

yeah, ugly.

Wind Waker looks amazing.

Who cares about graphics?

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!

p.s.-evolghost glad yr making progress! Game rules hard.

I do and I don't. What I mean is, I think 16bit graphics look better than 32bit graphics... but if we're going to do a 3D Zelda game, I prefer the cell shaded cartoon look over the let's-try-to-make-this-shit-look-dark-and-grown-up look.

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.

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!

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....

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...

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

most annoying mob ever!

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.

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

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.

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.

is n'ik on speed?

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..

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.

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.

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

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.