Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A

[neo-dragon]

I don't know much about PC gaming, but I do know about emulators. It doesn't take a high-end machine to handle an N64, PS1, or even a Dreamcast emulator.

Congrats on your new netbook. They are very underrated little devices, although not really meant for gaming.

[Wind Swept]

Three things:

This looks like it's going to be incredible.

I'm incredibly happy this isn't a joke.

Also this.

E3 hasn't even started, and my mind is already mostly melted.

[CezeN]

I think I'm gonna start Zelda: Twilight Princess today.

I've been putting it off for nervousness, and rereading The Wise Man's Fear, but I guess it's time for a new adventure.

Hopefully its playable with a s***** gamecube controller that has a Z button that at best doesn't work, at worst temporarily disables the controller till I unplug it and plug it back in.

[Mich]

I've been thinking of replaying Twilight Princess. My backlog is so huge, though. Mostly of replays, but a few I've not beaten because I lost interest (Dragon's Age II, the second Penny Arcade Precipice game, Overlord, Super Meat Boy, Spacechem). The problem is that these are either a) extremely fluffy, little-to-no effort really required except time, or b) modular and the same thing over-and-over again with a story that doesn't really matter. I'm thinking of installing Riven and playing it for more than ten minutes this time, but it's soooooo haaaaaaaard. Uru held my attention for longer, but was infinitely more complex.

[LilBee91]

I started playing Paper Mario this last week. I'm kind of a RPG noob, so I thought I'd start on something easy. =]

[Wind Swept]

I'm thinking of installing Riven and playing it for more than ten minutes this time, but it's soooooo haaaaaaaard. Uru held my attention for longer, but was infinitely more complex.

I picked up the iOS version of Riven a couple weeks ago, as it's been years since I last played it. I got about ten minutes in before I stopped, and I've yet to open it up, again.

Uru was really quite fantastic. I was so sad I missed the initial MMO version, then elated when Gametap picked it up, then depressed again when they dropped it before getting around to adding any new content. I'd love to drop into the "open source" version they're running now, but I'm short a functioning Windows machine...

[Mich]

Because I don't have enough games to play, apparently, I saw Rune Factory 2 at Costco today and picked it up for a cool $15. I'm excited to play it... but saving for the first time has taken ten minutes so far, and doesn't look like it's crashed or something. Golly willikers!

[mr_thebrain]

i was this close to buying a wii yesterday. cuz i want to play me some classic games on my big ol' hdtv. oh and monster hunter. but even the sales dude was like "just wait till the new system comes out in 2012."

i was teetering on the idea as it was, so yeah, i'll just wait. maybe buy l.a. noire

[Janus%TheDoorman]

I went to check the release date on the Wii because it seemed really unlikely to me that Ninty would be putting out a new console so soon, but apparently it came out in 2006. Somehow it feels newer than that to me. Maybe it's because I don't have one, maybe it's because I have a constant feeling like the Wii's "real games" are still around the corner. Either way, if there really is a new console coming in the next two years, the Wii will be the first Nintendo console I have no strong, fond memories of.

[Wind Swept]

[T]he Wii will be the first Nintendo console I have no strong, fond memories of.

Really? The Wii has sat unused in the corner for the latter half of its life, but for the first three years I owned it, it was my constant companion.

There are well over one hundred Miis on that box, most of them people I never met a second time, all of whom were absolutely fascinated by the Wii, and hilarious to watch flail about.

Countless hours with roommates and friends were sunk into MarioKart 64, SSBB, MarioKart Wii, Wii SMB, Raymond's Raving Rabbids, Boom Blox... The most cumulative fun I've had playing split screen multiplayer of any console was definitely done with the Wii.

I lost 30 lbs. and got into the best shape I've been in in years with the help of Wii Fit. The competition it wrought between my roommates and I was absolutely fantstic.

And it had some okay single player experiences--Galaxy, Zelda, Metroid, etc.--but that's definitely not the purpose for which I purchased the Wii.

It was an absolutely fantastic device to play with friends, but has fallen into complete disuse now that I'm not spending most of my time on a college campus. I'm looking forward to a Nintendo console with a proper online multiplayer experience. If they continue to fail in that regard, I will probably be saying goodbye to Nintendo until I start a family of my own...

[Mich]

It was an absolutely fantastic device to play with friends, but has fallen into complete disuse now that I'm not spending most of my time on a college campus. I'm looking forward to a Nintendo console with a proper online multiplayer experience. If they continue to fail in that regard, I will probably be saying goodbye to Nintendo until I start a family of my own...

This is pretty much my main concern. I don't know what I would do if I didn't own the most recent Nintendo console.

I really want to open a restaurant using the project names of the last three consoles, though. The "Dolphin Revolution Cafe" or something like that.

[zeroguy]

I like how "Wii U" is a name practically made for memes.

the Wii will be the first Nintendo console I have no strong, fond memories of.

I remember SSBB had some kind of achievement-like thing after you log 10 hours of multiplayer play or something like that (maybe it unlocked a character or stage? I don't remember). A friend of mine got it at the midnight release. I think we unlocked whatever it was before noon.

For me, the "no memories" console was the Game Cube. Well, I suppose I also don't have any memories of the Virtual Boy, because I've never encountered one in person. And some of the handhold variants aren't very distinctive from each other...

[Wil]

Went to Target, purchased a Black Nintendo 3DS (noracist). Got a $25 gift card for doing this. Turned around and immediately bought LoZ:OOT usng the $25 gift card. Boo yah.

Seriously though, Nintendo could sell a steaming dog turd and as long as they released a Zelda game for it I'd buy that s*** no-questions-asked.

[GS]

Just finished up with InFamous for PS3. It was a fun game to play. Running around zapping the crap out of people and things. It was relatively easy, but the story was okay. Definitely some characters that I cared about and a couple twists at the end that set up the sequel, which is already out.

I also picked up the 3 Assassin's Creed games. The story definitely caught me off guard with the sci-fi angle. I enjoy the game, but it is frustratingly repetitive. I had heard as such before the purchase. Just trying to push through it to finish up the story and get on to the next in the series.

[Mich]

I also picked up the 3 Assassin's Creed games. The story definitely caught me off guard with the sci-fi angle. I enjoy the game, but it is frustratingly repetitive. I had heard as such before the purchase. Just trying to push through it to finish up the story and get on to the next in the series.

Yeah, the second definitely improves on that. I can't even replay the first one, despite trying twice. But that's funny you picked up all three of them without knowing a thing about it!

Man, now I'm flashing back to when the first one came out. My roommate had it preordered and claimed to have been waiting for the game for the past four years. We turn it on and... what the heck? Glitches? That chick from Heroes?

I guess I figured the sci-fi thing was kind of a twist everyone knew about by now. Good show not letting it be spoiled.

[Wind Swept]

I want Assassin's Creed 3. I've had enough of Ezio and Altaïr. Shouldn't they have both passed on their genetic memory by now?

[GS]

Mich,

It wasn't that I didn't know anything about it. I knew the general story that you were an assassin in the holy land. I watched my younger brother play some of them for Xbox (I think it was some of the first and second), but I guess only saw him as the assassin. I've been wanting to pick them up for a while, but I was in a several year funk with video games. I just didn't put enough time into them or would leave them unfinished. So I was randomly in best buy and needed something new to play. I figured I would just get all three in one shot. Because I can't just pick up the latest, I have to play from the beginning of the series. That being said, I'll be happy when I'm finished this one. My brother also said that the second in much better.

[Mich]

Mich,

It wasn't that I didn't know anything about it. I knew the general story that you were an assassin in the holy land. I watched my younger brother play some of them for Xbox (I think it was some of the first and second), but I guess only saw him as the assassin. I've been wanting to pick them up for a while, but I was in a several year funk with video games. I just didn't put enough time into them or would leave them unfinished. So I was randomly in best buy and needed something new to play. I figured I would just get all three in one shot. Because I can't just pick up the latest, I have to play from the beginning of the series. That being said, I'll be happy when I'm finished this one. My brother also said that the second in much better.

Well, good sir, do tell us what you think once you complete them. I have yet to play Brotherhood, and am debating getting it for PC or 360. I don't know anyone who plays it, so getting it for PC would be kind of pointless other than playing on PC is nice if I have to do grinding (watching TV makes things easier).

On a similar "grinding" note, I just left a huge thread on a different, anonymous board where everyone was hating on Final Fantasy X. This made me very sad. Tell me someone agrees that it's in the top tier of FF games. Disclaimer: I haven't yet played any of the pre-PS1 games, although I played a lot of Tactics Advance.

[Janus%TheDoorman]

Honestly... FFX is pretty down there. I'd say, Tactics, 9, 7, 4, 1, 12, 5, 6, Tactics Advance, 10, 8, 11, X-2. There's a huge drop after 10, but it's the worst of them that I still like.

[Mich]

Hahaha, I notice X-2 is still on the list of ones you like. I own it, but only played a few hours before realizing I was JRPG'd out for a while.

[zeroguy]

Disclaimer: I haven't yet played any of the pre-PS1 games

You haven't played VI? I mean, I knew plenty of FF fans existed that hadn't played it, but... you're Mich! You need to fix that, man.

[Mich]

You haven't played VI? I mean, I knew plenty of FF fans existed that hadn't played it, but... you're Mich! You need to fix that, man.

It's on DS, right? It's on my to-do list. I've heard great things! There's this guy named Kefka.

But as I may have mentioned a decade ago or whatever, I only really got into FF in college. This has limited me in many ways, mostly funding.

[GS]

I completely disagree with Janus. On almost everything. I really don't understand the obsession with Tactics. I have tried to play it multiple times and could not get into it.

I can't see 9 being that high. I enjoyed playing 9. But the story was meh. The characters were even worse. I could careless about any of them, except Vivi. Because, well, Vivi is awesome.

7 is the reason that I got into RGPs so I have an unhealthy love for it. I can't really rank it against the other games because of the sentimental value.

The pre-PS1 games kind of run together for me. Not because they aren't good in their own right, but because I've only played through them once and played them back to back. I definitely need to get through them again.

I really think 8 is terrible.

I really like 10. It is definitely my favorite one to replay. There is only one character that I really hate (Wakka), which is pretty good. I usually hate a bunch of characters. I like the battle system, weapons and Aeons. This is really the only FF game where I use regularly and enjoy using them.

I enjoyed 12 after getting used to it. But there are two throw away characters in your party. They bring nothing to the story. I liked the story well enough. But if you know how to set up your gambits, you just cruise through this game.

I liked 13 okay. It was pretty much the exact opposite of 12. Very linear, kind of a throw back. Characters were fine, story was fine, game was fine.

People hate X-2. I have a much more mild view of it. Could I really tell you what the story was? Not a chance. There was something about dresses in the battle system. But I had fun playing it. I think I might have even played through it twice. But I would only rank it above 8.

So my order would be:

7,10,12,13,9, a large gap, X-2, an even larger gap, 8

With the pre-PS1 games getting a TBD.

[Janus%TheDoorman]

Hahaha, I notice X-2 is still on the list of ones you like. I own it, but only played a few hours before realizing I was JRPG'd out for a while.

No, I meant to say that after 10, those on the list are those I don't like. The thing about X-2 is that I'd put down even money that it stared development as a new series and then was simply warped into an FF game at some point. IIRC Square was still desperately trying to recover from bankruptcy at that point, so they needed ways they knew they could make money, not riskier new IPs.

I really don't understand the obsession with Tactics. I have tried to play it multiple times and could not get into it.

On almost every level I find Tactics to be the best thing SE has ever produced. Again, strangely enough, I wouldn't be surprised if it was originally a new series that was shoehorned into the FF franchise riding the success of FF7.

The gameplay feels awkward at first, especially if you're expecting it to be similar to the other games in any way, and the lack of decent tutorial didn't help. I remember a ton of people, me included, couldn't figure out how to deploy units properly and were trying to win the first battle with just Ramza and Delita as a guest. Once you got into it, though, the gameplay was smooth and well executed. A few balancing issues were present, to be sure - Haste, Blade Grasp, Calculators, and Cid each were enough to almost guarantee victory alone, let alone all together. But it was deep and robust enough to let you play however you wanted, from Solo Single Class Challenges to an Uber Team of special class characters, to a carefully crafted team of generics.

And those characters are some of the best in the series. Beowulf and Reis, and Mustadio's side stories are well played out, and the main characters are some of the most complex in the series. Ramza isn't a textbook hard-charging hero like Cecil, Cloud, or Zidane, nor an out of his element unlikely hero who somehow manages to save the world one day- he's got a real motivation to save his sister. When confronted with the evil and corruption of the world, he doesn't pick up his sword to fight, he runs away. It makes his character arc much more compelling. There's also very few outright evil characters - the church is corrupt, for sure, but even the Temple Knights, and Delita only reach for power when they lose something precious to them. Seeing Wiegraf tempted and convinced to change into Velius is much more intimidating than watching Sephiroth rampage through the world.

Also, the actual job and levelling system is much more interesting than the typical grind until you're the right level to fight the next boss. Each new ability or class means real changes to the way you fight, and if you've raised a character up from being a Squire who could only chuck rocks and tackle his enemies into a dragoon who can leap from across the field to kill a behemoth or a ninja who can strike three enemies before anyone of them has a chance to react, it makes you much more attached to them than say the new master swordsman who joins your party and you're suddenly supposed to care about. Not to mention the fact that these characters can then actually die. I care a lot more when Rad and Alicia are in danger than I do if Wakka or Tifa are about to be crushed to bits.

Damn... now I want to play Tactics again.

EDIT:

Okay, so I went back and reviewed the plot of Tactics are realized there a a number of huge, gaping maws that the term "plot hole" doesn't even begin to describe, which diminish my enthusiasm for it a bit, but it's still my favorite.

[zeroguy]

mostly funding.

Psh, with the age of the FF series this isn't really any excuse. I even played VII on an emulator (because I didn't realize a Windows port existed).

Also, re: Tactics. I thought Tactics was fun, but after a while I got pretty bored with it, just trying to rush through things. I have absolutely no idea what happened with the plot, since by halfway through (probably much earlier) I was just trying to get it to end. Games that let me wait and theorize and pick and choose stuff aren't great for me, since I tend to take forever, unless I rush.

[locke]

I had so much fun playing through Megaman X on the virtual console. Love playing with the classic controller. Now I see that Chrono Trigger and FFIII have just been released to it, pretty much the trifecta of awesomeness right there.

I went and bought the two megaman collections on GC to play on my wii, only to discover that the controls are backwards on the NES collection, and the GC controller makes playing the X games more or less impossible unless you're willing to switch control setups (by saving, restarting the game and changing your control schemes) depending on what you need to do. There's no reliable way to dash+jump+fire on the GC controller if you want to still be able to use the controller for normal gameplay. Still I played through X2 this way (no way it is possible to get the shoryuken upgrade on the GC, the control scheme makes it more impossible than it already was). But I'll probably still buy the VC version if it comes out because the game is damned fun.

[Mich]

Demon to my wallet, they name was Steam Sales.

Even when I was on vacation I found myself checking the site at least once per day and I managed to make two purchases. Horrible.

[locke]

Friends of a coworker made this, Stan Fox 64

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bb2FVJLzCsg

[zeroguy]

Friends of a coworker made this, Stan Fox 64

Hahaha, oh man, I was waiting for "do a barrel roll" the entire time; I almost gave up hope.

I think there's more potential for "be careful, it might be a trap", but still, that was pretty good. That "Perry" is great.

[Mich]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGzpzlvf ... r_embedded

Holy crap I'm almost in tears. This is the most ridiculously awesome video game trailer I've ever seen.

Can't wait for next month.

[mr_thebrain]

looks excellent, the cut scenes should be awesome. i wonder if the game play will be.

[CezeN]

My dad took away my wii for reasons. A couple of days ago.

I need a good online game to fill the Smash Bros hole that's left.

[zeroguy]

So I've been playing Metroid Prime lately. But slowly, very slowly (like an hour or two a week). Today I got to that "research area" where you get the thermal visor, and I realized something.

It doesn't matter how many years it's been since I first encountered a metroid in a game. It doesn't matter what game I'm playing when I see a metroid. It doesn't even matter how they are portrayed; I've seen metroids drawn in a very cutesy style. And the Metroid series of games isn't exactly part of the horror genre.

Even considering all of that: metroids always scare me.

In "Prime" it's probably worse than it's ever been, since I don't recall before any time where they are visible on screen when you can't touch them. There have been several in "Prime" so far where I can see them, and I know that they are there, but they are behind some barrier and aren't directly an enemy yet. But I know that whatever they are behind is going to break or become deactivated or whatever, but I don't know when and that makes it worse.

It also probably doesn't help that I don't have a way of freezing them yet, and in Super Metroid they're almost invulnerable without freezing them first.


Semi-related, I just wanted to write down an instance of sheer stupidity when I was playing. In one area, there's some metroids in stasis tubes (or whatever they call them), and next to them is an energy tank in the same kind of tube. I thought at first there was something to activate to make it available or something, but then I thought maybe the containers are just breakable. A normal shot and a charged shot don't break them, but what about a missile?

For some reason I decide to test this theory on the tank containing a metroid. GUESS WHAT HAPPENED

Anyway, for lacking wall-jumping and running, "Prime" is pretty good so far!

[neo-dragon]

I agree. There's something scary about metroids. They're not even the most powerful or difficult to kill enemies that you encounter, yet I always feel especially on edge when they're around.

[locke]

that is because they suck.

I remember how 'scared' I got when walking into an area with a Metroid in Metroid 2. Stupid game.