ThunderPeel2001

You mean... these things? (I was actually looking for some pictures to illustrate my point that Edge from FFIV looks like Eddie Campbell, but I couldn't find the right ones -- and then they appeared!) Pretty cool stuff, actually. Edit: Oh wow, this is quite a popular craze -- I had no idea!

Well VII was somewhat special because so many Westerners experienced a JRPG for the first time. It was like a global event. You felt connected with all the other people who had sunk tens of hours into it. I remember that me and two of my housemates literally played through the entire game together. Then VIII came out and everyone was like... "*sigh*, you mean these things have different characters and worlds every time...?" And those that stuck it out (like me) got bored, despite the beautiful opening sequence promising amazing things. So VII was special for a lot of people. I mean, you couldn't go to some cosplay event dressed as Cecil from FFIV. I mean, you could, but hardly anyone would understand who you were.

Yeah the strategy involved can be really satisfying. (If it wasn't, games like FF Tactics couldn't exist and still have fans.)

I've heard Chrono Trigger was something really special, but I haven't played it myself.

I'm going to make an idiotic generalisation: Maybe if you loved 7, it was your first JRPG...? That's what it is was for me... I LOVED that game, even if it was all a bit silly and the story was bloody difficult to follow (and Cloud was irritating). I loved it because I'd never played a game with that atmosphere before... the crazy world, Japanese oddness, melodramatic moments that occasionally hit home. Amazing music. Wonderful artwork. It was just really, really cool. Now I've played more of them I still have nostalgia for it, but I can see how it fits in and really, the others are equally as good or better (although I found 8 a bit tiresome -- but I'll try it again one day). 9 was a great reaction to the forced Westerness on 8 -- totally stupid fantasy again, wonderful. 4 does indeed have a great story -- I've just picked it up again after a year of not playing it and been totally sucked in (can't wait to finish it). Ah, I do love the crazy, semi-serious worlds of Final Fantasy.

Yes, you're right. The idea of "complete reinvention" is stupid and couldn't be applied to ANY game series (otherwise what would tie them together?!). Does the GTA series "completely reinvent itself" every time? :-/

Bah, haters. I LOVE the Final Fantasy series. That video is embarrassingly bad, however. "Completely reinvents itself"??? Ok, I do love the series, but even I can't pretend it comes close to anything like that. Hell, I wouldn't WANT it to, but *yeesh*, you can't even suggest that. Pardonez moi?

Lol. I take it you had to go back to an earlier save then? (Sounds pretty frustrating, but hilarious at the same time.)

Good to hear! So when are you joining Grand Thumb Auto again?

In the end they all suddenly died of a common cold. It seems their alien biology wasn't equipped to handle a foreign virus. Sad really.

Yeah, but they only found the equivalent of "a dozen two-gallon buckets" of water. It'd be more of an underwater shed than a city :-/

Only 90% of it. 10% of it was pure gold.

Or does it?

Thanks for posting that, Ossk. A highly enjoyable little game.

While there are some absolute stunners in there (Number 40!), I think the person compiling that list sometimes got confused with bad writing, and deliberately pantomimey performances. Still, there's plenty of bad acting in games to choose from.

Wow, the way you guys were talking about it made it sound like it was a 100+ hour game. 30 hours doesn't sound too bad.

Naw. Like you said, Spinal Tap rips heavily into the stereotypes of metal bands but they're also liked by metal fans (and metal bands). Schafer said it several times that it was his intention to acknowledge the eccentricities of the genre while still honouring it, and I think (in the same way School of Rock does), it succeeds. I mean, you're still driving through the world listening to metal tracks and unlocking them.

Wow, I'm surprised to have had completely the opposite experience. Although the missions are a little weird, I figured they were just trying to do something new (and extreme) with all the options they had. There's a ton of other types of missions in GTAIV and LATD, but with BGAD I think they thought, "fuck it, let's have some real fun here". I appreciated that. The missions are also a lot harder than before, which for me meant they had me as a player in mind. GTAIV is just SO goddamn easy once you've gotten good at it -- which doesn't mean it's still not fun, but I appreciate how they tried to put up a harder challenge this time. The missions may be a little uneven, but I was glad to have the opportunity to do all the things I always wanted to (train surf, parachute, nitro boosts, explosive shells, drive a tank, etc.), even if they weren't quite as fun as I probably imagined they would be. I also really liked the characters. I found Louis to be pretty UN-gangster myself and lo, if GTA didn't actually manage to have a gay character that wasn't 100% stereotype (not a big feat, to be fair). I was glad to be part of a world that wasn't so seedy and grimy as the other two games and I felt it was a good capper to the series. It's not perfect, sure, but I really enjoyed it.

Yeah, they took their time (apparently, quite some time!) to re-edit it completely. The reviews from the US are now saying it's pretty good. I'm kind of interested in watching the two versions to see how they changed it.

Do tell! I'm interested to hear. I thought my rig was pretty hardcore, but Crysis brought it to its knees. What proc have you got?

What's weird is how poorly it's done outside of the US. Mirror's Edge sold almost double of what it did in the US, worldwide (excluding Japan). Brutal Legend seems to have done nothing in Europe...

Take that, Activision!

YES! (I just didn't want to say it.)

Hmmm... that's not quite how I remember it (Although damn if that guy didn't look like him.)

Most of everything is bullshit. (I think science put it at around 90% of everything, last time I checked.)