The Gaming Thread

[aniwahya]

0_o Gravekeeper quoted me /swoon
/fangirl off

<coughs>

Hmm I still need to play Rainbow Six Vegas; Rainbow Six Three was awesome. Speaking of games that need sequels, how about a sequel to Legend of Dragoon, Primal, Chrono Cross, and Shinobi (Nightshade is fun but NOT the same as a true Shinobi sequel).

I want to play The Witcher but I don't think my comp can handle it (AMD Athlon 3200+, GeForce 6800xe 1gig of RAM), Bioshock is another game I want to play but I'm not sure i'd be able to play it smoothly. Which reminds me i need to download a demo for it. Damn attention span pwning me again. -.-

Bargin bin games are <3. I've given up on renting games and just buy them from bargin bins now. The only downside is having a growing pile of games I still need to play/finish. I'm not even close to ready for a ps3 because of all the great games I'm finding for $5 - 10$.

WoW makes me nostalgic for Warcraft and Warcraft II, neither of which would play on my comp last time I installed them. ><

Heh, is anyone else annoyed that game consoles are moving away from backwards compatibility? Take the XBOX360 for example, I've already paid for my Xbox games, wth should I have to pay a fee to play a game I already own?

Edit: I just got a copy of Ratchet and Clank and it is insanely fun. Awesomeness in a box I tell ye! Check it out if you like platformers.

I hath found my true love and thy name is "Suck Cannon". <3

[Chanlin]

Fans of the series have been itching for a good sequel to Crono Trigger for a long time. Many many many fans HATED Crono Cross, myself included. The game had a decent story but the elements that made Crono Trigger a really good hit were just gone from Cross.

Other titles I have not mentioned. I'm a huge fan of the Ace Attorney series for the DS.

The Longest Journey 1 and 2 for the PC and Still Life are both very good if your into puzzle games.

For PS2 I really enjoyed Ico. As simple as it was the game was kind of emotionally involving and had some wicked hard puzzles to work through.

How could I not mention the Metroid series. Even with Prime 3 being incredibly easy (I beat it on hard on my first play through).

Zone of the Enders 1 and 2. These are really decent titles but did not quite get the folowing that some of the other Hideo Kojima games did. Speaking of which the Solar Boy(the games that use the solar sensor) series for the GBA and DS rock.

Pretty much anything by NIS (Disgea, Phanto Brave, La Pucelle) is worth checking out also.

If your into horror survival type games Fatal Frame is really worth checking out. If you don't like ghosts and spirits and such this game is not for you. To its credit this is the one survival horror game that scared the ever living sh** out of me.

I'm wracking my brain for other sleeper titles but I can't think of any more This post was mostly spawned by the need to comment on Crono Cross

[aniwahya]

lol I separate Chrono Cross from Chrono Trigger in my head because they're really nothing alike. I think they both need sequels though. But while I would petition for a Chrono Cross sequel a Chrono Trigger sequel would tempt me to do much, much darker things.

*Edit I apologize if my lurking is monopolizing. I'm just so excited to be able to talk games.
<-- A girl living in a "little big town" >< in northern Illinois. All my friends live far far away and people I socialize either don't admit to gaming or actively burn gamers at the stake. ><

[Gravekeeper]

Yeah, Trigger and Cross were nothing alike. But I'd take a sequel to Trigger over Cross in a heartbeat. I could enjoy Cross as long as I took it as separate to Trigger.

0_o Gravekeeper quoted me /swoon
/fangirl off

and again! ;p

I want to play The Witcher but I don't think my comp can handle it (AMD Athlon 3200+, GeForce 6800xe 1gig of RAM), Bioshock is another game I want to play but I'm not sure i'd be able to play it smoothly.

Bargin bin games are <3. I've given up on renting games and just buy them from bargin bins now. The only downside is having a growing pile of games I still need to play/finish. I'm not even close to ready for a ps3 because of all the great games I'm finding for $5 - 10$.

Yeah, the Witcher is a beast for resources. It'll sit and suck about 1.2-1.7 gig of ram when its running. Bioshock was easier on the system. Both are really must plays though. You should be able to handle Bioshock on that rig. But the Witcher will lust for more ram. I could run Bioshock on my old box which was a puny 1.7ghz, 1gig with a pitiful old Geforce. But I could only squeeze out 15-20fps. Thus I refused to buy the game till I bought my new machine. I wanted to experience it in its full glory. ;p

To be honest I buy 98% of my games off of Steam and Direct2drive.com now. Its cheaper and saves me having to go wade through the idiots at the mall. Plus they often put up older games you'd never find anywhere else like the aforementioned Longest Journey 1 & 2.

I keep finding older gaming goodness on D2D.com for $10-20 a pop like Vampire: The Masquerade.

If your into horror survival type games Fatal Frame is really worth checking out. If you don't like ghosts and spirits and such this game is not for you. To its credit this is the one survival horror game that scared the ever living sh** out of me.

The next Fatal Frame is going to the Wii. ^^


But right now I am desperately waiting for Advance Wars: Days of Ruin. 2 more days! ;9

[lordlundar]

I'm wracking my brain for other sleeper titles but I can't think of any more This post was mostly spawned by the need to comment on Crono Cross

If you like good story, the Legacy of Kain series has one of the best (just don't get Blood Omen 2 <shudders>)

[gunsage]

Hoo boy...working from the bottom again. Legacy of Kain was awesome, but so was the original Blood Omen. Kinda reminded me of Zelda, but as more of an antagonist than anything. I appreciated what Cross was trying to do, but they did it wrong. I really didn't understand all the different setup as far as the abilities and such. Surprisingly, CT was simple enough in that design along with the combo techs and everything that it just WORKED. Even if the story hadn't been all that great, the concept would've still dragged people in.

Chrono Cross had an awesome story, but it was one of those games you had to force yourself to play. Here's a list of things I either "didn't get" or just flat out hated from Chrono Cross, and I'm sure you'll all agree:

- No true levelling up. Oh sure, every so often a stat or two might increase, but often randomly and seemingly only a few here and there while in a particular dungeon, meaning there was no purpose to grinding. This reminded me of the grinding involved in Final Fantasy Legend 2, but at least there it didn't stop and wasn't limited to dungeons.
- Final Fantasy 8 style equipment upgrading. Come on! That was one of the things I absolutely LOATHED about FF8. And really, it would've been one thing if you needed a LOT of materials but you got some every battle...nope, they seemed more rare than anything like, oh I don't know, FINAL FANTASY 8 WAS.
- Skill setup. Nuff said. Didn't get it and often went for automatic. It was just too confusing. Some will argue that added an element of strategy, but I say it was more like Squaresoft dicking with us.
- Only seemed to be two time zones. Granted, I never got that far in it, so maybe I'm wrong here, but it seems like you only have the two time zones. That's crap. In CT, there were enough time zones, each quite unique, that it offered LOTS of gameplay, bonuses, endings, etc.
- Hard as hell to emulate. Yes, this is to all the emu fans out there...how the hell do you set up the options to emulate it properly? It never keeps a steady framerate in battle. I don't think I've sold my PS1 copy yet, but I don't want to go and sell it and never be able to emulate it properly.

That said, Chrono Trigger is an excellent game, rivaling even that of Final Fantasy 6 and 7 in my opinion. By the by, you've got better specs than I do on my PC, so I'll let you know whether it works on mine or not. I was deeply saddened when games like Oblivion and Condemned didn't work on my comp, so here's me crossing my fingers!

Longest Journey and Dreamfall (LJ2 for those that didn't know) are very good games, but the puzzles can be very HARD. Definitely recommended if you're a diehard adventure fan though and while we're at it...

- Monkey Island series
- Grim Fandango
- Full Throttle
- Return to Zork
- King's Quest Remakes
- Quest for Glory series

Oh sure, there are more, but definitely check these out if you haven't already. I wholly endorse Fatal Frame as well. I only have 2 & 3 right now, but I have plans to get the original and I'm glad to see the series will be continuing. Advance Wars is also very cool, but I wish there was more of an RPG aspect to it, given it's by Intelligent Systems who also assisted with Paper Mario and Fire Emblem.

Well, I think this comment's long enough! But hey, here's a sleeper title you most likely haven't heard of: Juggernaut - PS1. In this beauty, it's kinda like Myst, except you're trapped in a demon world of sorts to save your girlfriend who's under control of a demon by going through this weird ass mansion. Yeah, the story's very odd, but it's actually a pretty interesting (and very cheap) little title for the PS1 that kinda reminds me of D.

[Gravekeeper]

You missed:

3792 playable characters. Each with approximately 2 lines worth of back story and / or personality. -.-


I have Sam & Max Hit The Road running on my DS right now. Its fantastiawesome.

Someone wrote a DS homebrew emulator that runs all the old Lucas Arts games ( Sam & Max, Kings Quest series, Monkey Island series, Day of the Tentacle, etc ). All you need is the original game files:

http://scummvm.drunkencoders.com/

Of course you need to be an uber nerd like me and actually have development hardware for your DS that lets you boot code off an SD Flash card....but still! Fantastiawesome.

[gunsage]

Yeah, I heard about that, but most older Lucasarts titles I've already beaten anyway. Sam & Max is VERY awesome, however, and currently I'm working on the new ones. So far I've beaten...

- Culture Shock
- The Mob, The Mole, and The Meatball
- Most of Reality 2.0

Fun stuff...kinda little bit size adventure games. Plus, they still have the charm and wit of the original Sam & Max game, so there you have it. And yeah, I thought it was also annoying how very little the actual characters were developed in the game, primarily focusing around your main character and Kid...the most annoying thief ever right next to Yuffie.

Speaking of an abundance of characters, have you tried Radiata Stories yet? I don't really like how the battle system is set up, but the story's awesome, the sheer amount of recruitables and how you recruit them is awesome, day/night with plot progression is awesome...I mean, really, it's best played with a strategy guide because of all the stuff you can do!

And yes, I shouldn't leave out the Suikoden series in that respect. Honestly, I haven't tried Suikoden Tactics, but I've thoroughly enjoyed all the other Suikoden games...yes, even number 4. By the way, on the topic of the SCUMM engine, there is one game I got emu'd for the PC that I'd never beaten: Flight of the Amazon Queen. Fun stuff.

[Gravekeeper]

Sam & Max <3. I even have full voice working. Just need to run a small command line utility to covert the original sound file to mp3 and viola.

I'm not a fan of games with immensely huge casts of characters for exactly the reason I just mentioned. Quantity over quality sucks ass. The only game I've ever played that beat that hurdle was the Fire Emblem series.

Ah yes...Yuffie. I had blocked that out. Hell, I blocked out most of FF7 to be honest. Then even more of 8. I gave up on the series after 8 to be honest. Squaresoft has been sucking pretty harsh.

I want another Xenogears. Not a Xenosaga. A Xenogears dammit.

I still slather for the FF2 ( 2 by the US titles. The one with Cecil ) remake on the DS. It's god damn awesome but I couldn't get too far since its in Japanese. So I have to wait for the localization. I just hope they don't screw it over with a terrible English dub. All the major scenes are fully voice acted and the voice acting is awesome in the Japanese version.

I near weeped fanboi tears when I hit start and the red wing theme started playing... -.-

[gunsage]

Well, it is true that often with a wider cast, it feels like it's dominated by extras more than anything. The primary reason I like Radiata Stories, though, is that it's more of a fetishy collection-type deal. There's another game that had a lot of characters but didn't manage to sweep them under the rug too badly: Final Fantasy 6. If I recall, weren't there about 20 characters including the bonus characters?

Personally, I really enjoyed FF7, but I acknowledge that it's also probably the worst of the series. How, you ask? Well, think about it...it's THE highest grossing FF ever and has been heralded as the best FF by so many people...which has led to CRAPPY sequels, a CRAPPY movie, NONSENSICAL involvement in the Kingdom Hearts series, UNNECESSARY cameo appearances in such titles as Final Fantasy Tactics...to put it bluntly, Square milks that puppy for all it's worth.

And why not? Capcom has attempted it many a time to the point that there may never be a good Megaman game ever again and I'm starting to lose faith in what could otherwise normally be a great game: Street Fighter 4. I loved FF7. I'd love to see it brought to portable, too. But come on...enough of the sequels and fanboy BS.

That said, 8 was okay. It had a nice story, awesome movies, good length, etc., but they tried to add too many concepts that just didn't work well. Final Fantasy 9 was pretty bad ass because of how you developed abilities, which was later ported to Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. Final Fantasy 10 was cool, too, but maybe a little too straightforward. It felt highly mission-based, and FFX-2 put the final nail in the coffin on that one. Ugh. Two things I would have to compliment FFX-2 on are ability development and battle innovation. AND THAT'S IT...NOTHING MORE.

Never played FF11, but then, I'm not much of a MMORPG person. I really like FF12, but there's SO MUCH stuff that it's a little overwhelming. Well, that and it also kinda feels like a MMORPG, but still. It's actually pretty fun and if you're a veteran of the series, you can really get a lot out of it. For example, you have the ever-revised FF theme...then a FF12 theme that sounds like something straight out of FFT...and then...THE RED WING THEME FROM FF4 right on the title screen! Good stuff.

Honestly, Xenogears could/should be remade for the PSP. I mean, after all, Valkyrie Profile was, there are plans for Star Ocean Second Story and even the original Star Ocean, so why not? Ah but here's one I'm finally glad happened that not a whole lot of people have been talking about, probably because it's very grind-intensive: Front Mission. Love that game.

[aniwahya]

Legacy of Kain series needs more sequels, they can't end it with defiance ><.
For that matter they should make Thief and Deus Ex sequels before they even THINK about making another Lara Croft game .-.-

Radiata Stories was a lot of fun. If you guys like games that have a darker sense of humor try Shadow Hearts (the first one is the best imo). Drakengard is also interesting (the story is great, if twisted, but the gameplay gets old fast). Also fun (and twisted) is Messiah for PC.

Chrono Cross was really just off the top of my head. =p

I'd also like to see an Oni sequel. Did I mention a Shinobi sequel? That game is awesome<3. THey need to make Bloodrayne 3 too. You can't just tease people with post-apocalyptic vampire futures! Oh! I can't believe I forgot Drakan.

Zone of Enders is awesomely fun, but too short.

I wish Legend of Legaia and Jade Cocoon would have had worthy sequels.

Also, why can we not get a Secret of Evermore sequel/remake (why not both?)? Or Kid Icarus?

I do think games with heavy storyline content do benefit from having less main characters because you are able to focus and "bond" more with the characters.

Xenosaga 1+3 were alot of fun, but I'd love a new Xenogears. Hell just tweak it and stick it on the PSP and i'll buy it again. A new Brave Fencer Musashi for psp would be most excellent as well.

I want a ps3 just to be able to put ps1 games on my psp. >< Soon I shall be able to work and then my plans of game conquest shall be of use yet again.

[ShetenshiSenshi]

I'm mostly a FPS player, mainly Xbox games such as Painkiller, the Halo series ( No 360, since I don't have the third one yet), Doom 3 since my PC can't run it, Serious Sam, and Black. I've also been playing Ninja Gaiden Black.

I also have a DS Lite, but use it to run homebrew ports of Doom, Quake, Hexen, Heretic, Rise of the Triads, Descent, and Duke Nukem 3D. I've also been playing some Metroid Prime Hunters online the last few days.

[gunsage]

Yes, I'm going to work from the bottom up...

BUT FIRST...!

I finally figured out what the hell I was doing on Unlimited SaGa. "Unlimited" is a very ironic title, because even though it seems that there's a lot to do, you're VERY limited in upgrades, development, etc. How so? For those that haven't played this, not all of your characters can do...well...everything. Now, while this would normally make sense, they still try to make the characters classless (Final Fantasy 2, Final Fantasy 12, etc.) and yet...unique. Okay, for example, the character I'm playing as now is a carrier, meaning he can accept carrier missions.

Most characters have little differences like this here and there, but mostly it's just the story that changes. That said, it's not that it's a bad game per se, but quite repetitive, a little boring, and very...random. Let's put it this way...having to select your attacks, actions, etc. on a ring is kind of annoying. There's a fairly decent amount of strategy, but throw in enough random crap like that and it dumbs down the game. Not a bad title, but you really have to go into it already liking the SaGa series to get anything out of it.

Next, I started playing Lord of the Rings: Third Age again. Fun stuff. Not that big of a LOTR fan, but it's still a fun RPG with plenty to do. NOW, back to responses. I haven't tried Serious Sam yet, nor am I much of a Halo fan, but the others are quite nice. BTW, what are the main differences between Ninja Gaiden and Ninja Gaiden Black? I had the original for a while, but then had to sell it. Yeah...gas vs. videogames always ends the same.

Oni was pretty badass, but I don't see Bungie returning to any of their previous games because of such fanboy-age with Halo. This is yet another reason I'm not a big fan of Halo. The Myth games were quite fun and while I think the shooting concepts needed tuned up in it, Oni was a VERY cool action game. LOVE SHADOW HEARTS BTW! I have all three in fact. Personally, I like the second the best. I love the first, but the sheer amount of stuff that was enhanced on the second makes it a definite hit.

The third could've been a lot better. I really liked the environments, battles, etc., but the characters didn't seem the have the same appeal. Frank was still cool, but...yeah. I guess it was also the fact that the main character got annoying QUICK. Never tried the Legaia sequel, but I really like the JC sequel. The only gripe I have about it is your main character can't attack AT ALL. The throw-in tactics make it worth it, but still.

And now, because of the sheer amount of others...here goes...

Thief - I can only get the first and third working on my PC. Weird, huh? The second doesn't work on my PC. I really enjoyed the first, but for some reason didn't get into the third that much.

Lara Croft Games - The first and second TRs were awesome, hands down. The third was a little disappointing and while the fourth was a little better, the fifth was crap. Didn't bother trying the sixth, but the seventh was BAD ASS.

Shinobi - Still haven't tried that one and kind of intimidated to. I heard Ninja Gaiden was hard, and it is. I also heard this one was VERY hard. Not sure if that's right or not, but I remember the arcade game being tough (and yes I have it on MAME), so most probably.

Secret of Evermore - I won't warrant this with a comment. Check the link if you're interested.

Zone of Enders - Ditto, but haven't tried the second.

Bloodrayne - Tried the first, but didn't really like the clunky physics. Maybe the second's better. The audio also had a horrible time syncing up on the first one, which caused me even more grief.

Drakan/Drakengard - Haven't tried them. And that's about it.

Whew...and finally, you're right about Kid Icarus. They had a GB version, but it wasn't all that great. Now that Pit's starring in Smash Bros., who knows? Maybe he will get another sequel.

[Kara]

Chrono Cross had an awesome story

Except for the part where it took anything and everything we loved about Chrono Trigger, spit on it, threw it on the ground, stomped it into the mud, set it on fire, pissed on the ashes, and gave those ashes to Keith Richards to snort like cocaine.

...
...
...
...
...
...

Is the sheer amount of raw hate I feel towards Chrono Cross evident, or need I elaborate more?

[Chanlin]

Thief - I can only get the first and third working on my PC. Weird, huh? The second doesn't work on my PC. I really enjoyed the first, but for some reason didn't get into the third that much.

Bloodrayne - Tried the first, but didn't really like the clunky physics. Maybe the second's better. The audio also had a horrible time syncing up on the first one, which caused me even more grief.

I really enjoyed all of the Thief games.

Bloodrayne 1 was decent, way out there story line which made little to no sense at some points and was completely random. Some of the humorous dialog made it worth it, but overall it was just wayyyyyy too hard at some points and the.

Bloodrayne 2 made up for this somewhat, but again there were points where it was way too hard, and IMO the guns were just useless. Still its a great set of games if your looking for that extreme gore factor.

Gunsage your Evermore review is spot on as well.

Radiata Stories I really liked. The story kept me hooked despite the horrid combat system.

I know they have mentioned, but I have to say I'm a fan of nearly all things Mega Man except for the battle network games, and Mega Man 8 and X8 were just terrible.

Another game that is worth mentioning is Terranigma. This was one game that sucked me in from the moment I started. The story line is very good, the music very much fits the moments and overall I could play it again and again. I would put this up on the same level as Chrono Trigger in some regards.

As for the Final Fantasy series I agree that 8 was a huge blot on Squares record. But I think 10 and 12 have more than remedied said blot.