loonyboi

Oh yeah, like I KISS YOU!!!!!!!!!!! That never gets old.

Neither do I. What's the joke?

west

zork

Defiance is awesome, story-wise. It brings everything together, and has one of the best endings (plot-wise) of any game I've ever played. Too bad the gameplay still involves levers and finding items associated with the elements (ugh).

You are one twisted fairy.

I love those games to death. The art direction, story and voice acting is among the best in the industry. The gameplay however can be frustratingly dull. It's the worst part of every game in the series.

I want Rez, but since that's next-to-impossible to find, I'm going to pick up Devil May Cry (1) one of these days. Yes, I've never played it.

Those of us who have those Infocom games memorized would spoil that for everyone else. Of course, if you were to use a less well known game (like...IF Quake ) that would be awesome.

Graft the ELIZA engine on to it and watch the hilarity that ensues. Example: http://fury.com/aoliza/ Even better is if it randomly starts talking trash. Ex: <gametitle> is gonna SUCK. or man that <designer name> is a complete idiot. who does he think he is? or Hahah. <game company> does it again. What a bunch of morons they are. Can't they see how wrong they are?

True or not, that sentence is total hyperbole.

I do. Civ 4 is one of my games. I think it's a bit early to make guesses about what it's going to be like...the reports I've read make it sound like a souped-up version of Populous, which is totally awesome as far as I'm concerned.

As someone working on Civ 4... HEY! Them's fightin' words.

The problem is in both cases, that's debatable territory. I don't own a DS, so I can't say whether or not either game actually works. But I've heard from enough people on both sides to know that it's not as cut and dry as the DS actually being able to do either game better than any other system. FPS games on home consoles are problematic enough...handhelds are always going to have problems. The Turok control scheme (using the left stick for looking and the right buttons for movement) will probably be the best way to play an FPS on a PSP. The DS...well, I have no idea. Using the screen as an analogue stick seems odd to me, but that's because I haven't tried it yet. Yeah, don't hold your breath for that one. You're better off with a Zodiac and ScummVM.

For the sake of all those people who bought the DS, I hope Nintendo follows through on their promise with this thing. I just don't see it happening. GameSpot's reviews today do a good job of illustrating my point(s). Yoshi's Touch & Go review: "The novelty of the gameplay is almost palpable, but so are the game's tech demo roots." Pokemon Dash review: "Pokémon Dash is simply one of the laziest uses of the DS's touch screen technology to date, featuring highly repetitive gameplay that gets old before you've even finished your first race." ...and while it's for GameCube, not DS, I'm including this one because it uses a non-traditional interface: Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat review: "Donkey Kong Jungle Beat is a scream...for the first eight levels. Once you've seen what the game has to offer, though, there's not a lot to come back to." Again, I'm not saying that games for the DS have to suck, I'm just saying it's going to take a lot more than fiddling around with the hardware possibilities to do it (and that may be beyond what most developers are willing to do).

Woops, I left out the description of the actual game, I just threw in the hyperbole. Spore could end up being quite literally the biggest and most ambitious game ever attempted. Although it begins at the microscopic level, with players taking control of a monocellular organism in a tidal pool, the scale changes as the creature evolves and grows. The end result: A massive adventure spanning an entire galaxy with player-driven gameplay and design shared seamlessly online among the entire Spore community.

Sorry, your roll came up as a rogue, and a rogue you shall be. :ponycrap:

Yes, the DS stole my girlfriend. Thank god I have a wife to fall back on. There's no story here. I just think the DS was missold to a lot of people as a next-gen GBA. I think if you look at sales numbers for hardware vs. software you'll see what I mean. I also always roll my eyes when people try and make the case that alternative interfaces are somehow the way of the future. They're not. They have their place, but it's small. Don't ever think cameras or microphones will replace the gamepad.

Generally speaking no, that's not the case. If you want something that's original for originality's sake, knock yourself out. I'll take great games over gimmicks any day of the week. Nintendo's committed to the DS, and I don't doubt that there will be interesting games on the platform. But let's not kid ourselves into thinking that Project Rub and Nintendogs are going to be Game of the Year material.

It won't be. I don't know what it will be called, but it won't be Xbox 2. That would make it sound inferior to the PlayStation 3.

And I say more power to you. If the DS creates an entirely new market, or even just manages to do marginally well over the next few years, I'm not going to say that's a bad thing by any means. More game sales == good. More people buying games == good.

Don't be silly. My initial response to the DS, was skepticism because: A) I dislike alternative interfaces in general and I want a second-generation GBA, not a gimmicky device But that's beside the point. It's the games that define a system, not my personal feelings about the company behind it. The DS hasn't delivered the games, and I seriously doubt they will. I'm sorry, but Nintendogs will not change the world. Mario 64 is one of my favorite games of all time, but the DS additions add nothing to the experience. You can pretend all you like that developers were just sitting around waiting for Nintendo to come along and hand them this incredibly innovative (if somewhat underpowered and clunky) piece of hardware, or you can accept the fact that Nintendo sprung this on an industry that didn't ask for it, and now developers are scratching their heads trying to figure out what to do with it. Hardware sales for the DS have been great (which I attribute to people thinking it was going to be the next GBA). Software sales have not. The games just aren't there.

Is it really? Because I'm looking at the games, and I'm not seeing anything particularly original. I'm just seeing touchscreen stuff being added to existing games that really don't need it. And that's the problem with the DS. Like I said: it's a platform nobody asked for. Nintendo decided to tell developers what they need to be creative instead of asking them. And while I don't doubt we'll see a few original games, the vast majority of them are going to be ho-hum at best. Okay, I can understand the argument for the other stuff (even if I don't agree), but the microphone? You can't be serious. Maybe on a home game, but certainly not on a portable system. I can't wait until I'm sitting next to someone on a plane who's yelling into his DS. Oh yeah, that'll rock. And you could play the same kinds of games on the GBA on the SNES, and the Game Boy classic on the NES. What's your point? Does that make Advance Wars somehow less awesome? A game like Infected does interesting things with the PSP hardware, using the WiFi to "infect" other players in multiplayer. That's kinda cool, but I don't think it's particularly necessary. The "OMG THE PSP IS JUST A PORTABLE PS2" argument is perpetuated largely by people who have bought nintendo's DS line completely. I ain't one of them. Bring on the GBA2, which will most likely be a portable 3D machine, with games I would want to play at home or on the road.

Put me down for Infected and Lumines as well. Plus Wipeout Pure I think looks awesome, and Brotherhood of the Blade looks pretty cool. ...not that I can afford a PSP anytime soon.

Sigh. Every now and then I have this argument with people. I had it when DDR first showed up, I had it when the EyeToy was released, and I'm sure i'll have it again when the Revolution comes out. My prediction for the gaming industry: in 20 years, the primary input device for game consoles will be... Ready...? ...the gamepad. It'll have different buttons, I'm sure, but it'll still be a gamepad. You can lie to yourself and pretend that we'll all be using voice recognition and motion sensing, or that we'll be using some kind of futuristic input device, but the fact of the matter is that the gamepad, in all its forms, works perfectly. The biggest innovation in PC input devices over the last two decades was the mousewheel. Don't hold your breath for anything bigger than that in the next few years.