I'm one of the few that liked JSRF better.

I guess I wasn't aware of the general opinion on one game versus the other, but yeah, I liked JSRF better too. Not that JGR was bad; it was obviously excellent. JSRF just shined it up, was more open, and offered (in my eyes) more appealing design work almost all around.
If only it weren't for that goddamn Birthday Cake song.
Curse that damnable song.
At least JGR had Dragula.

^^I've been feeling the same way. I mean, in the past it's taken them a full year to get each of the games translated and released outside of Japan, and it was done by a relatively small team as far as I know (part of the whole reason we keep getting the games; low-cost localization = more realistic expectations for profit)...
But with a game this size, who even knows how long it would take a team like that?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUxKmzSqgWQ[/youtube]

I really don't want to get AC1. Youtube?

You could go that route I suppose, but nothing adds impact to a story like interactivity does. Without actually playing AC1 and experiencing it for yourself, all future mentions of Altair (of which there are many in AC2 and Revelations) will probably be a lot less impacting than they would otherwise.
Just watching a bunch of videos will make him feel like "that guy you saw ", rather than "that guy you were ". And actually being someone holds a lot more weight than just watching them, obviously.
Though I'd say the same for any game, really. It's an interactive medium. In most cases, just watching videos negates the whole point.

Holy shit.
Just saw some footage of Ken's Rage 2, and goddamn does it look improved. I didn't have much of a problem with how the characters moved in the first game myself, but it's still awesome to see how everything has been sped up, with new moves and animations all over the place.
Having finished the first game pretty recently, the improvements are incredibly obvious just from the first few seconds of seeing it. The environments thus far still look a little empty, but hopefully they'll at least match their counterparts from the anime a little better this time.

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

And even cooler is seeing the new trailer, which shows off a bit of the sort of "re-interpreted" parts from the first series, along with footage from the bits covering the second series as well. Adult Bat looks like he'll be incredibly fun to play as.
Can't wait to see more of Ein and Shachi too.
And goddammit, I want to see some boss battles now. Hopefully it'll have an actual lock-on button this time

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVbuQY-aFmU

This one has me pretty excited. People will no doubt still have their complaints about it, but both as an adaptation of the anime and as a flat-out beat-em-up, this looks like it'll wipe the floor with the first game.
Already bought.

EDIT: I may have to wait on making a video for the first game like I had been planning, and do it on this instead. I was intending it to cover both the game and the anime, so this looks like it'll be a bit more apt.

I'd forgotten all about the voice acting in Jet Set Radio until I played the HD demo just now.
I love how DJ Professor K's voice actor sounds like he's trying really hard to sound enthusiastic, but also totally sounds like he's reading his lines for the first time.
That, ladies and gentlemen... is good old-fashioned videogame charm.

Also it's been a while since I've seen those beautiful deep-blue Sega skies. Just not enough of that in games these days.

A suggestion:

A twenty-something signs up to test high-tech weapons in a series of Duels to wipe his debt. His next opponent proves to be his equal... but if one of them doesn't win soon, both will lose!

Just my preference, but this one combines the mention of duelling to test weapons (which is an awesome freaking idea) along with the idea that one has to kill the other, or neither will remain alive.
I think the "weapons testing by way of duel" is the clincher, the unique twist on action concepts that immediately sets it apart (kind of like the idea of curving bullets in Wanted, for example). And the "both will lose" part makes sure they know that it has a sort of Battle Royale-style requirement for death, which would immediately get someone interested in the possible tension it might allow, since these two are apparently equals in skill.

Who are all these strangers, and why are others changing their names? It's all very confusing , and makes me hate immigration and desegregation even more than I already do.

Thanks to your avatar I imagined that whole thing in Dr. Claws voice.

:lol:
That whole "once you see it, you can't un-see it" concept applies for me here.
Kiba's post just got a whole lot more awesome.

I thought that shit was so funny. Like he's trying to be all punk rock about it. :lol:

I honestly don't think I've ever seen another mainstream band that tries so hard to fit into a specific "scene" label as much as they have. I remember seeing a Behind the Music with them, and half the damn thing was them talking about how every time a new album or song came out, they'd wonder "is it punk enough?"
Hilarious and pathetic all at once.

The man is making some good sense. I studied all three games and i love em all to pieces, but I gotta say, you ever notice most people play the start of Xenogears, stop, then months/years later play the start again? The game has really bad pacing, it takes over an hour to even get into a fight and even longer to get into an exciting fight, and hours to get into a mech fight.

I still haven't finished the game, but I can't say the reason I've started/stopped/started again is because of pacing. In fact, my absolute favorite part of the game is still, even after having finished over half the game, the very beginning in Lahan village before the fighting even starts. And that's just because of the totally innocent atmosphere.
Not saying you're wrong about the pacing, just that that's never been the problem with it for me.

Personally though, I'd still say the idea of good or bad pacing in an 80+ hour long RPG is kind of a joke anyway. What with the presence of level-grinding, exploration, item hunting, and side-questing, the pace is dictated very much by the player. Can't really see why an RPG fan would have a problem with that anyway, since progressing at your own pace has always been one of the appeals of the genre itself.
EDIT: ...like AG said. Sorry, only skimmed his post befre typing that.

just don't tend to fly quite so much anymore (unless they're indie games, in which case they're generally DLC-only).
I wonder if the aspects that made the originals so unique could ever be translated faithfully to a retail game made now...
It depends how they made it. They could go down the route of making it like Sonic 4 with a 2.5D game, that could work. Actually thinking about it, I think it would be better to go down the Sonic 4 route with it, not sure what people think.

That could work, I think, but it would probably feel like a step backwards. They've already covered the 2D route pretty thoroughly with the two Genesis games, and just a little bit extra with Ecco Jr.
If they want to keep moving forward with it, I think the best route would be to go fully-3D, like the DC/PS2 iteration. The series is very reliant on (and is very good with) atmosphere, and I think keeping it in a fully-explorable 3D environment would be the best way to go about utilizing that strength.
Part of what I said also questions whether it could work as a retail game, specifically, meaning one that would be released physically in stores, sitting alongside the rest of the big guns. If it were 2.5D, chances are that it'd be digital-only.

They're just never effective. They always look like a bunch of commercial actors trying too hard, rather than being movie-like, they way they're intended. The worst I've seen was really recently, for Borderlands 2. The live-action commercial looked like a bunch of idiot cosplayers running around a playground somewhere. It's just... bad.
Use game footage, or don't do a commercial at all, I say.

To be fair, I rarely read reviews prior to playing a game either. I play games based on whether they look like they'll actually appeal to me, not based on what other people think is good or bad.
If I do end up reading a review, it's usually because it's on a game I like, and I'm really just seeing what I agree/disagree with the reviewer on, and whether they bring up any interesting points.

:lol: The topic title has changed.

But yeah, those tidbits about alternate routes depending on the character sound great.
I think this is going to turn out better than I was expecting. I still have my gripes about certain things (chiefly how close the camera is to the characters) but it's sounding like it'll be a great experience either way.

Yeah, there are some multiplayer modes out there that are pretty sweet. Assassin's Creed has a good one, as you said. Red Dead Redemption's seemed like it'd be cool, riding around causing havok with your own little posse. The old Splinter Cell one seemed worthwhile too, with its whole mercs vs. spies thing.

Well the dick being in his mouth in one of the shots was certainly a, um... interesting expressionist act.
Peeps being all artistsic.

Haven't heard this in the longest time, but stumbled upon it while doing some research, and it all came back.
Easily among my favorite Jesper Kyd tracks.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aQFdRFzBDY[/youtube]

"Best" always ends up being purely subjective, even if one tries to be ob jective about it. I personally try to make a distinction between "best" and "favorites" myself, but obviously people won't always agree.
They are kind of right that games tend to blend genres these days, but that just makes it important to set even more specific distinctions between different types of games.
I'd personally name Uncharted 2 as at the very least one of the greatest action/adventure games ever made. But "action/adventure" can cover a lot of ground, so in saying that, I need to specify that I'm speaking in comparison to all other games that involve a combination of shooting, puzzles, and some manner of "platforming".
Genre distinctions aside, it's just an amazingly solid action game with great level design, excellent control, fantastic acting, and one of the absolute best senses of adventure and excitement ever put in a game.
Almost anything negative that a person could say about it simply comes down to personal preference issues, rather than the actual quality of what's there.

Same goes for many popular titles these days: solid genre games with adrinaline ridden set pieces that get praise like if they were ground breaking or the works of geniuses.

Just to be clear, I was never making the point that it was innovative or ground breaking in any way. It absolutely isn't, at all. It takes elements from other games and runs with them. I simply think it executes those ideas extremely well, and can't think of another game that necessarily does the same things better .
If it's been glorified by people as something completely original and innovative, then I suppose I can understand others having certain feelings against it. But that still doesn't diminish its ability to incite (in most audiences, at least) an excellent sense of excitement and fun.
That's what I love it for. Not speaking for anyone else.
And I don't generally hold hype against a game as a detractor. If the game weren't hyped at all but were still exactly the same, I don't think anyone would be arguing against it like this.

To play devils advocate you do have a nack for liking games with not so stellar reviews. Not harping on you or anything and not disagreeing or agreeing with the reviews as I can't judge for not playing a single entry since 4. Just saying you often gravitate towards games with mixed reviews or bad ones. Not always but quite a bit and not saying it's a bad thing. Just making a neutral point.

I understand what you're saying, but I think it's a bit of a misconception. It's not that I gravitate toward games with less-than-stellar reviews, necessarily. It's just that when I find one like that which I feel is unjustly trampled on (or ignored) I tend to sing their praises more, because I think more people should take note of them and maybe give them a fair shot.
I usually love games that are reviewed really well too, it's just that they usually have no need for me to spread the word about them; people already know about them, so a slightly more quiet appreciation of them is fine on my part (though the nerdy fondness I have for them still occasionally comes out).
Hence my usual silence on series like Half-Life or Zelda. I love them both to death, but people already know they're great.
Something like, say, Dead to Rights: Retribution or The Club?
Most ignored them, so I might be a little more vocal on the subject.

:lol:
That's special.

The first day I bought ZOE2 (which was the very day it came out) I brought it to a friend's house to play it before going to the movies later on. A few other guys were there, and one of them couldn't help but laugh every single time someone said the name "Dingo". And just because he was laughing like that, the rest of us slowly started doing the same thing. Eventually everyone in the room was laughing maniacally while I played the game (myself included) and the name "Dingo" kept being mentioned, and we must have gone on like that for almost an hour.
You'd never see another roomful of people laughing so hard while playing a game unless they were drunk or high, which none of us were. We were just laughing because someone else was.
And it was all over the name "Dingo" for some reason.

Odd memory, but good nostalgia nonetheless. I still smirk a little at the mention of Dingo because of that. :lol:

^^That's the big old cliche flying around, usually followed by a complaint that the game isn't like the old ones, which they then go out of their way to compare to George Romero movies.
Let's be completely honest though; most of George Romero's movie suck ass too. One or two good ones near the start (no different from Michael Bay, really), then a whole flurry of low-budget trash flicks thereafter.
Not the most flattering of comparisons either way.

Newsflash I have 22 systems SEGA systems I have out numbers Nintendo systems 313 retail games.
Also click the top link in my sig and suck on that

Why are you so stuck on how many games/systems you have?
I'm not taking a shot or anything, you just always bring it up like it's some kind of grand accomplishment, or like it makes you a better gamer.
"I had 953 games at the beginning of the year, now I have 10872!
I'd like to thank the Academy. And Jesus. And Elvis, for always being there for me, even when I had too many games."

I may technically be a collector myself, but I just fell into it because I enjoy the games I get and want to know that I always have access to them. I honestly couldn't tell you how many games I even have, because it's a point that makes no difference either way.

:lol:
Of all the things in life that a person could get so livid over...

FFS.. every game I want comes out on Oct 30th.

Zone of the Enders HD Collection 10/30
Assassin's Creed III 10/30

I'm getting these two on the day. The others I can wait for.
Still, I've been saying: this year has been pretty crazy for videogame releases. I don't honestly know that there's ever been another year where I've been looking forward to so many games, and getting most of them right when they come out. Lots have come out already, and there are still a ton before the year is over.

The story is good, although many of the important background details are essentially missing from the games themselves, and require a little bit of research to fully understand them.
Regardless of stuff like that, if you care to invest some time in getting into it all, the ZOE universe is pretty well-thought-out. Along with the two main games, there's also a really story-intensive strategy title on GBA called Fist of Mars (which I still haven't played through yet; maybe I will when I hit my inevitable ZOE mood when the HD versions come out), an anime OVA called Idolo, and a full-length tv series called Dolores. I've seen Idolo and the first several episodes of Dolores, and it's actually pretty good (and canon to the games' story, if I remember correctly), though it deals with a whole different cast of characters than the the game does. Thinking about the fact that I haven't seen it inspired me to go order the complete collection just now.
So there's a lot of background stuff to get into.
The games themselves have pretty good stories overall, though some elements I could do without (as much as I want to like him, Leo Stenbuck, the protagonist from the first game, is one of the whiniest main characters in videogame history). They roll along at a quick pace like a good, action-packed anime series or movie. Very Gundam-ish in tone, but with much flashier designs and action.
Both games are really short though. Last I played them, it was about 4-6 hours for each one. So they're best played back-to-back as one big experience. The gameplay is about as fun as can be though.
Easily among my favorite videogame series ever.

Yeah, the only version I saw of 4 was the director's cut/unrated version, and I liked it well enough. Bloody gunshots and plenty of "fucks". Edited in afterward, like Kenny said, but it still worked okay. Can't imagine seeing the lame-ass PG-13 version.
Definitely not as good as the preceding three movies, but it was a big, fun, dumb action movie, as it should have been. I'm with Mitts, it got too much shit for what it was.

I liked the teaser for this one. It may get cut down to a PG-13 initially, but there will no doubt be an R version eventually.

That's not Die Hard. That could be any film with a different name!

Die Hard is about regular cop, John McClaine, trapped in a building outnumbered by terrorists using his wits to battle them one by one and keep other people safe.

I agree that it should be more about McClane outwitting the badguys, but the rest of that is why John McTiernan didn't want to come back for Die Hard 2. The script was just the same as the first, but in an airport. He wanted to do something different, which is why when he came back for 3, it was a totally different kind of setup.
I don't mind seeing McClane in different situations, myself. It's more fun than just rehashing the same old thing.

Anyone ever seen the alternate ending for Die Hard 3? One of the coolest alt endings I've seen. Bit of a tonal shift, but it comes off as much more creative than the ending they eventually used.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmCyWvFGUuU[/youtube]

People say that Vampire Hunter D on the PSX is a retarded RE clone and sucks as hell, but they say the same thing about Galerians, and I love Galerians.

I can't wait to get it in my hands, but I still didn't beat Parasite Eve 1... Deer Gohd, my backlog is killing me!

Parasite Eve and Galerians mentioned in the same post... this is making me want to try the Vampire Hunter D game too.

I hope to hell it gets made. Reading the script a ways back, it felt like just the kind of movie I'd want to go see in theaters. Really want to see how it would end up somewhere other than my mind's eye.
I don't often read scripts, but in the few cases that I have, it's for movies I haven't seen yet. And when I finally get around to seeing the actual movie, it's always really interesting to see how things look and change in the final product compared to how I pictured them.