Daeval

That's friggin' cool.

How so? I find your reasoning a bit lacking. Games like Final Fantasy Tactics, Disgaea, Phantom Brave, Hoshigami etc. etc. are Tactical RPGs. I'd say they are more than qualified to be in the eastern category. And like Mr. G said, most MMORPGs are pretty much western, with a few excpetions like Final Fantasy XI Online, Phantasy Star Online and a whole bunch of Korean ones. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I kept them seperate because Tactical RPGs and MMORPGs have entirely different gameplay from what people think of when they think Eastern (Final Fantasy, Suikoden) or Western (Fallout, Morrowind) RPGs. Tactical RPGs come from the East, but play more like a turn-based Western RPG. MMORPGs use many of the same principles as Western RPGs, but package them entirely differently. You don't like FF7 yet you find 9 an "exception". Check your weed bag and clean out the beaver tranquilizer. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> FF7 was an extreme dumbing-down of the Final Fantasy series. Equipment selection was reduced to a linear progression of single weapons and a single armor pieces. All of the magic and other special abilities were reduced to a single, incredibly simple, universal, and easily abuseable special ability system. Characters were reduced to a magic stat, some hit points, and some cute limit animations by the Materia system. It didn't matter who you used - the guy with the highest magic and the most materia slots was always the best choice if you knew what you were doing. The story was stupid too, full of throwaway characters and literary cop-outs, but that's subjective so I'll let it slide. In short, FF7 hit a homerun with an easy to learn (and easy to master) system, lots of time-wasting mini-games, and a "cool" attitude, but it sucked as an RPG compared to the SNES titles. FF9, on the other hand, was a welcome return to the series' roots. Characters had individual abilities, so who you used actually made a difference to gameplay beyond the occasional limit break. The item combination system made equipment more interesting than "more AC, more slots." The story was more traditional, but wasn't bogged down with "My main character is a spirited youth, no he's a clone, no he's an incarnation of gaia, no he's the son of a man and a hedgehog" for half the freaking game. But that last point comes down to subjectivity again. The art direction wasn't "cool" like FF7's, but the game was far more intricate and entertaining.

All three of the villians they've brought into play so far (Norman, Dock-Ock, Harry) have played on the internal conflict that the Spider-Man comics used to do so well with Parker. They could pull that off with the Lizard (being Parker's prof) or Venom (on a number of basis), but definately not with Carnage, as he's just a mindless killing machine. He would also be really watered down in anything less than an R-rated flick. Also, most people don't remember it, but I really liked the short-lived days of Venom as a psychological villian. In his first few appearances, he was tormenting Mary Jane while disguised as Spider Man (who was wearing an identical, but non-living, black costume at the time). This made her paranoid and uncomfortable around the black costume and spider-man in general, and led to the switch back to the red and blues in the comics. A few issues later, an artist who hated the character (Larsen, I think. McFarlane did his first apearances.) was asked to draw him and made him the oversized, drooling idiot he is today. Those early days would play well with the 2nd movie's focus on bringing Mary Jane into the action, and with the internal dialog they seem to like for the new movies. I remember hearing about a potential Venom movie, but I don't think it panned out, so they can probably get the character if they need it (based on the amazing (ba-dum-ching) success of the movies).

I would have easily said Eastern up until Final Fantasy 7 was released. Despite that it sucked hard, that game became the model for future Eastern imports. From that point on, most of what has come to the states has been wretched, with a few notable exceptions (IE Final Fantasy 9). Way to go U.S., we might as well have taken the bait on Mystic Quest. The lack of quality in Eastern console RPGs drove me to playing western PC RPGs and finding much quality there - such as that in Fallout and Morrowind. I can't throw my lot in entirely with them though, as I still hold some Eastern classics dear, especially Final Fantasy 2 and 3 (American numbering). Where do some things fit? For example, Strategy RPGs like Final Fantasy Tactics or Disgaea? They're mostly Eastern, but don't really fit in with the regular Eastern RPGs. Also, do MMORPGs count as Western? And what about action RPGs like Secret of Mana or Diablo? I didn't consider any of those when casting my vote.

Deus Ex was cool. I went stealth\nonlethal and eventually switched to stealth\lethal before losing my saves to a bad hard disk and never picking it up again.

I find it funny that this is "news." I guess most people wouldn't have heard of stuff like this, but working customer service at Sony, I heard it just about every day. Angry ex-girlfriends and ex-wives would delete EQ accounts, give away items, steal characters, sell accounts, etc, etc, etc. My favorite was when an ex-couple had shared an account - which is a bannable offense. A guy would call in with the necessary account information to get a password reset. Then a few hours later a woman would call in about the same account. Then a few hours later the guy would call back and a tech would be like "wtf man, we've gotten a few calls about this one today" and at that point the guy would fly off the handle about "that biatch" the ex. At this point, the guy inevetably begs and pleads to get the girl locked out (or vice versa). The tech won't do it, because both people have the right credentials, and will suggest that they work it out on their own and not mention it anymore - as a shared account is supposed to be banned. (this is us being nice to them) Either the guy hangs up and we don't hear about it anymore, he turns his attitude on us and we ban the account for good, or the girl calls back a few hours later and turns HER attitude on us and we ban the account. Wheeee, online relationships!

yeah I get that feeling too. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Yeah, they've set up for it as well as can be expected in the movie. I'm not entirely sure how they plan to capture the epic-ness of it in 2 hours though. That does make me a little worried. I'm just hoping they focus on more than just logan - there are too many cool X-men characters to waste more time on him. A wolverine movie would be nice as a seperate piece though. I liked the recent Spider Man movies as well, because they were tasteful hollywood-izations of the comics. I can see why a lot of people called the first one cheezy, but most of that had to do with swapping Gwen Stacy for Mary Jane. If they'd used the actual ending from the comic books, I think fewer people would have had that problem, but it wouldn't have been hollywood-safe. I was also surprised that they were able to turn Doc-Ock into a respectable villian, I always thought he was the cheeziest of the old baddies and he turned out quite freaky. I also like that they left things wide open for the sequel. While the return of the Green Goblin seems likely, they've laid paths to Venom (Astronaut Jameson brings back the costume) and the Lizard as well (we won't mention Man-Wolf). Any of those would turn out very nice if given the same loving treatment that doc-ock recieved.

In my opinion, video games have an effect equal in importance to that of TV, music, books, or movies - not significantly any more or any less. All of these things are popular mediums for creative output. Creativity comes in all shapes and sizes, and some of it is clearly NOT for everyone, in ALL of the above media. The difference is that Americans (and others) know what to expect from most of those, but not from games. Games are still in the age of the Atari in thier minds - consisting of abstract kids' games of logic or skill. They don't think of them as creative canvases capable of capturing the realism or feelings of the other popular entertainment. The media, in the meantime, is having a ball at the public expense - making a spectacle of every misguided case brought before a judge. Those who don't understand cry outrage, those who are familiar with games cry foul, and the media picks the most sensational voice - that of the angry mob - to amplify and draw more ratings. In turn, the public and the government, respond to the misguided angry voices and ignore the voice of reason. This ignorance should filter out in a generation or so - as new adults are increasingly familiar with video games as they really are. However, if some hand-holder bill is passed to "protect" us from this "evil" new phenomenon, it may take longer to come around.

I think someone should read Romeo and Juliet and then stab themselves so irresponsible parents and money-hungry attorneys can rally for a ban on old english prose.

Sony should track how frequently people use the /pizza command and issue health warnings.

That is flocking awesome! I especially like the Dark Elf deliverman. I wonder if it tells the people at the store that you ordered through everquest II so they can mock you while they're making your pizza..

The Latest Game informer says the situation is being watched by the French government, which regularly helps french businesses in this way. They want to preserve the deals ubisoft has with other french companies, and by extension their own economy, I suppose. Ubsisoft itself is considering a buyout of Eidos as a line of defense. How buying out a crappy company like Eidos is going to save them, I'm not entirely sure. Infogrames has said it is willing to help but (as of the Game Informer writing), nothing solid has been laid down. Chairman Bruno Bonnel told reuters "When Ubisoft has defined the limits within which it is prepared to work, they know we are ready to listen." and "I hope Ubisoft will find ways to defend itself so that Infogrames does not become the last bastion in the European video games community. It would be a pity to see great European creations end up in a relatively hegemonic US conglomerate." While I can't help but imagine he said that first sentence with a sly smile, I can't agree more on the second one. It has also been rumored that Vivendu Universal, also a French company, has made mention of a merger with Ubisoft. This was denied by Vivendi, but it wouldn't surprise me.

Tron 2.0 First time playing it. The story is nothing to write home about, but the gameplay is neat. Character options are cool and streamlined, but combat is kind of a chore sometimes.

Nifty.

I wish that would happen to some of my friend's xboxes. geez they will not shut up about that damn game. Well one, until i gave him a pc with farcry and half life 2. he shut up real fast. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Bwahahahaha! Beautiful on both counts!

That was kind of harsh, but necessary. Drake, pay attention when your teachers start talking about Economics - I gaurauntee they'll mention what gryph and others have said. One of the fundamental rules is: Competition fosters Growth. Basically, your idea assumes that a company without competitors becomes a benevalent organization with the consumer's interest in mind. In short, this is the opposite of what actually happens, and is contrary to the reasons for acquiring a monopoly. Pressure to make good products does not, as your theory assumes, come from consumers. Yes, consumers want nice things, but if there is only one thing on the shelf, guess what they're going to buy? You might say "If this happens, then independent game developers will appear and people will buy their things instead." First of all, that's basically the way it is now. Second of all, with a monopoly in the picture, it's a little more complex. Here are some basics: First, there's money. Making products costs money, especially games. A new company has to get that money from somewhere, and it's going to be a while before they start making returns on their investment. The monopoly, in this case EA, already has more money than they can count, and can easily buy the independent out for more money than the independent could ever hope to make on its own. It's a drop in the bucket for the monopoly, and it ensures that consumers continue to buy their product. Second, there is a matter of establishment. A monopoly will have its slimy tendrils in all sorts of places that an indepentent needs to be. The most obvious in this case is retail stores. With it's large budget, a monopoly is able to make a much bigger impression on customers, and can secure deals with the retail stores that give its product priority. Furthermore, a monopoly will have a much stronger stance among the mainstream public. It's pretty well established that people are more likely to go with what they're familiar with than to try something new. Nevermind the scary, scary possibility of owning an entire platform. If EA has exclusive rights to publish on the XBox3, guess whose games XBox3 owners are going to be buying? Not the indepentent's... For a really good, and obvious example of all this stuff at work, look at Microsoft in the last 10 years or so. They have a really strong, near-monopoly level hold on the PC market. Despite having almost no competition whatsoever, their response to consumer demands is minimal at best. Almost anyone who has ever run a rendition of Windows has had problems on some level, whether it's a random blue screen of death to the operating system itself eventually just dying off. There are alternatives out there, like the various flavors of unix, or BeOS, but still nearly every mainstream user runs Windows anyway. Windows has a deathgrip in terms of establishment - it comes pre-installed with almost every consumer pc, and because everyone already uses it, it's hard to make non-windows computers interface with existing systems. Etc, etc, etc... It's obvious that Microsoft's hold hasn't made things much better (advancements are mostly in hardware or data-transfer technology, not Operating System), and that an indepentent would have a hell of a time showing up now. I didn't mean to turn this into an economics lesson, but it's better than just bashing your head in, I figured.

How dare you! Virtua Fighter set a very respectable standard years before dead or boobs was a hardon in tecmo's pants.

I agree. I played it a little back in the day and it wasn't as bad as everyone said. I thought the ATM/Terminal thing was pretty cool, and was there before Deus-Ex's if I remember correctly.

Are you vying for K's position or something?

Ever heard of Adult Swim? "Not for Kids" isn't a reason not to air anything on Cartoon Network anymore. Unless it's REALLY not for kids. I have mixed feelings about Cartoon Network. The only anime they've aired that I ever liked was Cowboy Bebop, which is among the best dubs I've ever heard and wasn't flocked with in any significant way (save possibly the twin towers sequence). As such, I can't really hold a grudge. If they bring it over and it's good, and I don't mind at all. That's how mainstream US audiences get exposed to anime, and ultimately it means more of it.

Considering the target audience for DOA, rumors of a nudity hack could only possibly HELP sales.

I don't mean to sound like a rabid fanboy, although I'm sure that's the case. It's just that, in two or three years, I'd still like for there to be something other than EA games on the shelves. I'd stand up for any game I thought was decent if I felt people were making non-applicable arguments against it. I totally agree, for example, that the urge to buy this will be less if you already own 2K2 on DC, but to say there is nothing new is just not correct and is misleading. It seems particularly like fanboy-ism here becuase it happens to be SNK I'm supporting, but if someone hadn't already put their quarter down for Dawn of War I'd give you that chance too.

I had no problems with controls whatsoever. In fact, in both of these games, I was able to pull of HCB, F+Button moves as easily as QCF moves, where previously I was unable to do them reliably at all (In, say, CVS2). Just because it's old, or because you own it, doesn't mean it's any less fun than something else that was released recently. If YOU personally have played it to death, that's fine, but that's not something that should be reflected in a review. I've played Mario Brothers 3 a million and a half times, and probably wouldn't spend much time with it if you put it in front of me now, but that doesn't mean it's any less a good game than it was when I picked it up. In terms of age, the only real thing to complain about are the graphics and the sound, but neither of those is behind on these titles. The graphics have even been overhauled to look good on a modern system. Finally, the PS2 DID add something new - an entirely new freaking game - KOF2K3.

I was going to make one and post it, and then I saw Ghost's... Nothing I could do could, or should, follow that.

That is basically what PlanetSide is, except it's near-future style sci-fi instead of modern combat, and the three sides are established instead of different groups popping up. All three sides fight for control of a number of continents, and there are bonuses to holding a whole continent - kind of like in Risk.