loonyboi

Either way, I don't think so. I hope BS4 sticks to the templar story like the first and third games. The second one went into that whole aztec thing and wasn't nearly as good IMHO.

I haven't seen Fantastic Four yet, but plan on renting it when it's out on DVD. Jessica Alba + skin tight spandex == win. She's also in Idle Hands, which was pretty awful.

What, you saying you're too good to eat shit for breakfast? Man. You used to be cool.

I'm not particularly excited about QWars, but Quake IV I am. I don't care for team based games. I like to kill everything that moves. And some things that don't. My only issue with Quake IV is that it's a direct sequel to Quake II, which is my least favorite in the series. The gameplay is more UT than Quake II from my brief time with the game, so that's a plus. Oh and the Remo stayed in my room at the Gaylord. He snores like you wouldn't believe. (Kidding, kidding. It was a two room suite, so I wouldn't have heard him even if he did)

As the only person here with a genuine reason to hate EA, I just have to say... I genuinely enjoyed the first game and am heartily looking forward to the sequel. So there.

Then clearly you haven't been lurking here as long as you claim. I cough up things more disgusting than that before 9 AM. Then chew 'em up, spit 'em on a plate, douse 'em in hot sauce and call it breakfast.

Funny, I'm the same way. I know I enjoyed it, but I'll be damned if I can remember much of anything.

Five words:

Oh, come on. That's not true and you know it. You might not like the games they make, but they're at least different. These guys have been literally remaking the same game for all these years. As in, minor improvements in interface, but otherwise pretty much the same. You can't tell me that Doom 3 is the same as Wolf 3D is the same as Doom 2 is the same as Q3A, etc.

That's no excuse. THERE WAS NO ENDING. It wasn't a cliffhanger, it just freaking stopped. You can analyze it all you want and pretend it makes some kind of sense, but it doesn't. It was sheer and complete gibberish, attempting to create closure in about a minute of storytelling. It seemed pretty obvious to me that there was at least another hour or two of storyline that was dropped in order to get it out for christmas.

Slow down there. I said I found major flaws in the game. I didn't say I found the same flaws in the game. My issues: - The game was unfinished and clearly rushed. I found the ending bafflingly unsatisfying, and thought I missed a good third of the game. - The stealth gameplay was simplified to the point of nonexistence and absurdity (the guys who just stood there and rotated were just plain silly). - While the basic character concepts were appealing, I felt like they were under developed (and major facets of the characters went unexplained -- see reason #1). These are not small problems, and were this a game that was generally perceived to be average, I would agree with that perception. But somehow the game has garnered this rediculous reputation as being a classic, and it's not. It's a game with good ideas that weren't realized, and stands as an example of how things can go wrong when games are rushed.

You sir, are my brother. I've been saying this stuff for a year now, and it's nice to know i'm not the only one who finds major flaws in this game.

Everyone congratulate Chris on getting hired by Shacknews: http://www.shacknews.com/ja.zz?id=10463500 He'll be taking over my old job, doing nightly LNC posts plus additional content.

Snatcher is brilliant. Okay, maybe not brilliant, but it's very, very, very good. The gameplay's old-school menu-driven adventure gaming, but the story's great (even if it does shamelessly rip off Terminator, Blade Runner and other movies).

Slow down there kiddies, don't get too excited yet: http://www.gotfuturama.com/Futurama/News/1121562320,52120,/

I'm going to let you in on a little secret........ Every major English language site has some crazy dutch guy working for them. Or Belgian. Or occaisionally Norwegian. Every site i've ever worked for or been in contact with has someone from that part of the world on their staff. Frans from 3D Gamers lives out there, and we worked pretty closely together on Blue's News back in the day (he still provides news for Blue's, although his primary work these days is on 3DGamers).

If anyone wants advice on getting the Shacknews job, feel free to ask. That is, after all, my old position you're filling.

Pussy. I kid, I kid

MGS gets a lot of hate because the stories are always complete gibberish. I've played every Final Fantasy (except for XI -- that doesn't count), plus countless other japanese RPGs, and these are still total gibberish. I really enjoyed the gameplay in MGS2 (never liked MGS1 myself) and really, really like Ac!d, but I'm not going to attempt to explain the storyline in either. They're so bad, it's like punishing people for enjoying those games. I have MGS3, and I'm looking forward to trying it eventually...but I'm prepared for the story to be utter nonsense.

Psychonauts isn't selling because Majesco's done a pretty lousy job explaining what the hell the game is about. I read every gaming mag, and I still haven't a clue. I mean, I know it's a platformer, and it's clearly a very original one, but the specifics of the gameplay have not been conveyed to me in ads I've seen in magazines or online.

this guy

That's the gist of it. But the difference is that anyone can create an MP3 file. There's also an RSS enclosure system that lets you subscribe to a podcast, either with iTunes or any other program that supports it. I've never listened to podcasts, myself...I imagine it's just fanboys ranting. I can get that in text form and that's good enough (or not) for me.

King's Quest II starts off with a synthesized version of Greensleeves. That's not the game you're talking about (probably not), but I always loved that opening.

I'm totally late to this thread (and being lazy, I can't be bothered to read the whole damn thing) but I'll weigh in anyway... As I work at a publisher, my stance on piracy should be pretty obvious. I'll skip that part. As for buying games: I do it all the time. I buy lots of games because I play lots of games. I work at a publisher, so I get games for free, but those are my games, and who wants to play those? (Ignore that I just said that...I have worked and continue to work on many fine products). Thankfully I can trade with everyone else in this industry, so I get a lot of other games for free too. But of course, that's still not enough. I've never had a problem with buying games. If I couldn't afford them, I'd rent them (but I always preferred to buy anyway). These days, I tend to buy a lot of used console games, or at least, games that are really really cheap on sale. That's because it takes me so long to finish games, that by the time I do, I can usually get 'em pretty cheap (this is especially the case with PC games). Even though I'm not really giving any money to developers when I buy used games, it's better than warezing and I sleep fine at night. But then, I also pay for shareware a lot too. I'm a mac user, and there are so many small shareware developers doing great work on that platform that I'd feel really guilty if I didn't. I can't imagine life without some of those programs, and they only cost $10 - $20 each.

Let's see.. I was really little (like four) when my father got an Atari VCS for the whole family (back then, that sort of thing happened...he hasn't played a game since). Then for I guess my ninth birthday (or maybe it was Chanukah...I can't remember) I got a Sega Master System. Several years after that, I got a Game Boy, then a Game Gear, and eventually a Genesis. Then when I was in college I bought an N64, and got a PlayStation for Chanukah. I remember that in particular, as that was the year I spent several days during the week after Christmas locked in my dorm room doing nothing but playing FFVII. I discovered that by ordering Dominoes in the early afternoon, I could get food all day long. This repeated for three or four days non-stop. It was a good time. After college is when I decided to beef up my console collection, buying the systems I played at other kids' houses when I was younger. This includes a NES (which is probably my least favorite system), a SNES (Chrono Trigger and Mario World made this one worth it), a TG-16 and Turbo Duo (Ys made that one worth it), a Jaguar (Tempest 2000 is one of my favorite games of all time...it's right next to me on my desk here at work) and a Saturn (my favorite system of all time...Panzer Dragoon > *.*).