twmac

I would slag these people off, but I'm just as bad, if not worse.

I really, really, really wish I hadn't read that. I've notliked Sony since the joke that was the marketing behind the PS2... And now with the 'intellectual' property that is the UMD, the debacle which is the PS3 (who wants to bet that when the PS3 is released it turns out it is no way near as powerful as Sony have been saying), now the only way I could get a replacement Neo Geo Pocket Colour, gone. Sad day indeed. I swear to never buy another Sony product again.

Well at least EA have finally started being honest. Can't wait for the Battlefield, Madden, Fifa, NHL, and NBA Carbon Copy versions of last year's games. Mini-rant: I played Final Fantasy once or twice, it reminded me of why I have a DVD player to watch Anime, and a console to play games and not a horrific hybrid of the two. I swear you have to press more buttons to play a DVD than to play a final fantasy game. I'd never put that franchise in the same category as Okami or Shadow of the colossus.

Destruction Derby! That game suffered from something that is still evident in racing games today. The destruction bowl was fun, for awhile. But the racing levels: -Turn round first corner -Get the nth corner wrong or slow down too much on a straight... -Get creamed by 40 cars directly behind you, that only ever make mistakes if they ram into the back of you I've seen this in games like Burnout, where you race a perfect lap to discover that the guy in second place is a second behind you and about to overtake.

The first Ecstatica game on PC I got so far after travelling through the minefield of crashes (like as soon as you enter the village, don't turn left) I got a ways in and gave up because of a completely unavoidable one. Greendog the beached Surfer dude on the Megadrive. Why did I play that game? Why? Beatdown: Fists of Vengeance on Xbox, equal parts addictive and rubbish. I cannot currently put it down. It reminds me of River City Ransom but with plastic surgery and poor voice acting. It is also one of the few games I've ever seen that actively supports Memory Units. The Standards work done to get that working alone would explain why the game has graphical glitches all over the place.

After 6 years of waiting, they are finally supposed to be releasing an English language sequel to SNK vs Capcom: Cardfighters Clash, and on the DS. That is slated for November release and means that I might actually put my Neogeo pocket colour down and play that. If people like collecting games in the vein of Pokemon with a distinct Capcom/SNK theme, it should be worth it. The original included characters from every major game by the companies, since then Onimusha, Viewtiful Joe, Devil May Cry, Samurai Showdown V and the newest KOF have been released and/or become massive. Hoping to see them in there. Rocket Slime has been highly praised by everyone I've met.

Hmmm... Which reminds me of a rant from yester year, inspired by something DWalker wrote for the thumbs... Are we really asking the right questions here? Surely it doesn't really matter if more females become interested in games? Admittedly, it might lead to more good games. But if trends indicate anything then all it is going to do is allow big companies to tap another set of rehashes. Eventually (and probably sooner rather than later) EA, Capcom, Nintendo or Microsoft will find that winning formula for the [generic game that women will just buy every year without questioning the quality]and pump out the equivalent to the Madden, FIFA, or Final Fantasy series time and time again. I've met a lot of females who like games, and it is a joy to meet most of them, as most of them have a better scope on good games. Talking to alot of male gamers isn't the same as eventually I end up having the tedious argument of why I think FIFA sucks, Tony Hawks games are a tired formula, or how I think the newest JRPG is almost exactly the same as the last one. If the industry does get more females interested in games, will that make the world a more fun, better place? Or will it just make big games companies more money?

By contrast my girlfriend hates all things computer game related, won't touch them on principle. Whatever principle that is. Maybe it is the games I play, but I tried Sonic, Fahrenheit, Psychonauts, Puzzle Bobble, Stranger's Wrath, Streetfighter 3rd strike, The Punisher (I didn't actually try and get her interested in that one I just happened to be playing it)amongst others. The most enthusiastic response I got was Punisher: 'That's f***ed up' and the rest merited sighs, eye rolling, patronising laughs and a few 'whatevers'. Some people just don't want to play games, simple as that. And no amount of marketing will ever change that.

Don't worry it is rubbish. Go and get yerself something decent to play, I hear minesweeper is free and apparently the plot is a little deeper than 'Dirge'

Hmm... if this film does too well, do you reckon they'll do a sequel with otters, if not otters surely badgers are vicious enough. Also kudos for them upping the rating, and not wussing out like so many niche films. I say revive the 80's gore flicks.

Agreed, the intonation used on the word would alter whether I thought it was badly used or not. Maybe it should be encouraged that developers come up with creative new swear words, like Fable's Chicken kicker title. You could call people turnip benders, halfling lovers (would that be pushing the idea of racial hatred?), or salt water bathers for example. I've always thought 'half-witted crumpet chaser' sounds pretty offensive. On a side note the much underrated film 'The prophecy' has a great scene where one character, resourected by an Angel after their sucide attempt, uses the words 'shit', fuck' etc. But then he says 'Damnit' annd the Angel chastises him for being rude.

Sorry for not qouting, but that is exactly my point, graphically Psychonauts was fantastic. But we all talked about the script and the humour. What I perceive as the average gamer only wants a 'wow' factor, and unless the interviews are generic and 'wow' inducing to the average gamer, it generally won't sell (hats off to 'Shadow of the Collossus' for debunking that trend). And we willl be stuck in crap game limbo. The kid lives two streets from where I'm staying in England, in a twist of fate. On the flight back, I let him play Samurai showdown 2 on my Neo Geo pocket colour for a bit, he got bored and went back to some Episode three related game that he had on his handheld.

Has Rodi mentioned Black Books yet? That series is brilliant, also Father Ted is legendary, Mighty Boosh and Nathan Barley, although some hate the latter. I watched several Icons episodes and they almost make me want to cry, when they went on about Gonpei was handed the window seat after he tried to push the Virtual boy or how The matrix was partly responsible for the Dreamcast down fall (I knew I hated that film for more than one reason); I've had to turn it off for being truly heart wrenching.

I was warned that one requires a good sofa and a good seating arrangement to get the hang of this in single player, but all were extremely gushing about the game.

Although I agree with everything you wrote, I stil have to wonder if I am actually the average reader. I was catching a plane yesterday and this kid came up to me while I was playing my Neo Geo Pocket colour, he asked me if that was th eold Gameboy Advance. Which is fair enough as they are laid out in a similar fashion. As he carried on talking (bless him he was only about twelve) he showed that he thought the original Nintendo I was referring to was the N64. again I didn't hold it against him as he was young and hadn't heard of the NES. But then he made the statement 'Games have to have good graphics, or I don't like them' It strikes me that he might be closer to the average gamer than I am, sitting there with my obscure handheld, yearning to get home to my Dreamcast. And that, bulshit hype might be just what he wanted to hear ande only that he was only interested in listening in Hyperbole. This doesn't mean he is right though, little bastard.

Z's tactics worked it was just that the concepts were so foreign to everyone who was used to being able to sit in their little fort and build up enough resources to create a tank rush that they couldn't hack it and ran back to the safer Command and Conquer. The game was also setup in a manner that the computer was not allowed to cheat the way it does on other conventional RTS. So it might of been hard but unless you were rubbish, the battlefield was always evenly balanced. I have a sinking feeling that the Bitmap brothers are no more. Chaos Engine was never released for the GBA and Speedball Arena has disappeared off the radar. Oh yeah I forgot to mention that that statistic seems to be true. Every where I go in montreal, there is no sign of Speedball on the GBA. Also all the testers I talk to, at best have a vague knowledge of the name Bitmap brothers. Most just look at me blankly if I mention Gods, Chaos Engine (one guy who was into cheesey cyber punk music asked me if I meant the band), Speedball etc.

I think it is unfair to remove people just because they aren't involved in computer games any more. Tolkien's domination of fantasy fiction didn't really start to happen after he was dead. Much like the Pixies weren't fully appreciated until they split up. My vote (predictably) would be whoever came up with the visual concepts and stat upgrading on early Bitmap brother games. Every game feels the need to incorporate customisation into their games now (be it badly like EA, or in a fun way like Phantom Crash and Hunter: the reckoning). Oh yeah and the guy who devised the RTS system in Z, everyone goes on about how innovative Dawn of War was. That is only because 90% of North America never saw Z, a game released almost a decade before DOW, much less even heard of The Bitmap Brothers. Also, I reckon Tolkien would turn in his grave if he saw how many hippies read his novels now.

That is a great little find. Although it doesn't mention the way I 'adapted' my megadrive to run Jap games... Shame about the Amiga as the versions of the Bitmap brother games are superior on that platform. You should be able to pick up Speedball pretty cheap on Ebay... Optionally you could try this place: http://retropassion.co.uk/retro/online_store.php?os It is a bit short of stock at the moment... But it does have Micro Machines 96, which supports eight player action, no adaptor needed.

Depeding on what you mean by recently there is a thread discussing the merits of various 2D fighters here: http://forums.idlethumbs.net/showthread.php?t=3201

In terms of gameplay, a simple but fun leveling up option would be nice. Hunter the reckoning was rubbish but enjoyable, by including a leveling up option that involved creating more experience by using a particular skill successfully and thus making it more effective. Or Chaos Engine where the character's successfull killing and collecting led to them to become even better. Or just Ikaruga's approach of allowing the player to unlock more features by being good at the game (more continues, level select, higher difficulty levels etc). All of these things appealed.

Heheheh, I didn't mention it in the original post... But up until the moment when I saw the third kid casually waving the equivalent to 60 quid at cash converters from their belt time. I'd never wished to witness a small child being mugged by a skag head. Harsh, bitter, maybe. But ultimately satisfying.

I played Sonic Heroes for the first time two days ago, it was sweet. I'll probably get flamed for this but really enjoyed the gameplay and the switching idea... horror of horrors was fun and non intrusive. Was gutted to see Tails got a thumbs down Btw... He is my favourite character. This partially because I was forced to play as him on Sonic 2.

No confirmation on region free stuff. Ironically EA stuff (Skitchin, Buck Rodgers, ,General Chaos and Road Rash 2) is compatible with any region. Also a lot of the very early Megadrive releases work on any consoles (I eswat and Decap attack taht were american and they worked fine) If you want to make your megadrive compatible with japanese games all you need is a saw or file and some patience. You should purchase all the bitmap brother's stuff (Speedball 2, Chaos Engine, Xenon 2 and Gods) if you don't have an Amiga. Good luck on getting any of the Shinning Force games or Gunstar heroes for under twenty quid=impossible. Do not under any circumstances buy Street fighter Champion over Super Street fighter. It is good but they balanced the fighters better in the Super version and it actually makes it enjoyable to play as the bosses. Was Bubble Bobble on the MS mentioned? As far as I know it was never released on the Megadrive...

Popped into the local Gamestation, they were tripple manned because the demand for the PSP was over whelming... I overheard one guy in his late 20's enthusiastically saying that it would destroy the DS. Later still I worked a shift in my offlicence and noticed three separate occasions where kiddies, under 16(180 pounds!!!! How can their parents afford this shit!), wandering around with their parents, a PsP carry case dangling from their belt. PSP fever has hit Brighton.