What game are you PLAYING now?

[Phoenix]

As long as it's rated a 'hard R' like The Rock promised in the latest Fangoria I will go see it. But if the studio caves and makes it a 'PG-13' I will boycott it! I love The Rock but I dont think I can do another PG-13 cut-up piece of shit.

[frankenjohn]

Doom is rated R. I checked.

[ZapRowsdower]

Final Fantasy X is a fine game. Been a fan of the series since I was a kid.

[Pulpmariachi]

I really messed up with Final Fantasy X. I got the sphere grid things all mixed up and the characters had powers they weren't supposed to. I had a friend help me and he just laughed, saying he was surprised that I had gotten as far as I did. He told me to level up but by that time I was getting annoyed.

I liked kid Tidus in Kingdom Hearts better anyways.

Oh, Final Fantasy VII is my favorite of the Final Fantasy games I've played.

[ZapRowsdower]

With me, it's a tie between VI, VII and Tactics.

I'm growing increasingly fond of VIII as well.

[frankenjohn]

I ditched 8, loved 9, and thought 7 was the greatest game of all time. It's so awesome. It'd be the best movie ever if done right, probably. IF DONE RIGHT...

[Quorthon]

Ahh, you guys are too "new school." Final Fantasy VI (Final Fantasy III on the SNES) is my favorite of the series. Any story where the world is destroyed halfway through is big enough for me--cuz I love the giant epics.

I thought FFVIII was a major disappointment--it was too much Sci-Fi and not enough Fantasy. Haven't played any after that...

[frankenjohn]

For everyone that hasn't played 6, let me inform you: (SPOILERS!) it is a good game. It is very challening. There are (if I can remember) fourteen characters? in the game (for those who played 9, one is Mog the Moogle) and most don't do shit. Also, the ending is a flashback.

[Quorthon]

frankenjohn said:

For everyone that hasn't played 6, let me inform you: (SPOILERS!) it is a good game. It is very challening. There are (if I can remember) fourteen characters? in the game (for those who played 9, one is Mog the Moogle) and most don't do shit. Also, the ending is a flashback.

That ending was awesome! And it ran for nearly half an hour! That was unheard of back then! Yeah, 14 characters--2 secret "extra" characters--Gogo the mimic and Umaro the sasquatch. If you play it like I did, level-up every character until they all have every available spell, then the final battle is kind of a pushover. But it's still awesome. I have the 3-disk soundtrack for that one, too. Cost an ex-girlfriend $70 on eBay.

[Quorthon]

I felt like reviving an old thread to update what I'm playing every night:

Resident Evil 4 for GameCube

and occasionally,

Animal Crossing, for GameCube.

RE4 has yet to fail in constantly scaring the shit out of me and keeping me tense. The mutants in this game are simply unbelievable, and the gore! It just keeps getting worse!

In Animal Crossing, I taught one guy to refer to everyone as "blowhole."

[Phoenix]

I've been playing 'We Love Katamari' on PS2. VERY addictive crazy japanese game.

[Pulpmariachi]

I'm playing Star Wars Battlefront II.

And sometimes there's this war game that I forget the title for. Call of Duty or something, but mainly Battlefront II.

It's very fun. Especially slicing up rebels as VADER, or the Empire as everyone else.

[Termination]

Still find Star Wars Episode III an entertaining game.

Went into EB the other day asking if they are taking any pre-orders for Sony's PS3 & the guy there said Sony might delay the intial release of Spring to Fall.

[Quorthon]

You're like the second person I've actually seen interested in the PS3.

Nasty, nasty rumors swirl around that thing the past month or so. The most prominant is the estimate that it might cost $400+ for the core system alone. The last one I heard was that Sony is considering implementing coding on the games that won't allow the systems to play used games. In essense, you have to register every game you buy--and they all have to be bought new. That means no secondary market, and no rental market--just Sony-sponsored demos only. In case you're wondering why Sony would do that, I can tell you--because I see just how and why that would happen. Also, I'm not sure if it's been announced yet or not, but I don't recall hearing that the PS3 would be backwards-compatible.

If Sony really delays until fall, it may be interested in going up against Nintendo, who's console is rumored to hit around Thanksgiving--and will be light years ahead in creative design over the PS3 and X360. The PS3 And X360 will never expand the gamer market, and despite the lack of growth that will happen, games will now cost 2-3 times as much to make as they did during the GameCube/PS2/Xbox days.

Be warned: Since the PS3 and X360 are identical to previous consoles (just prettier and louder), they will not attract people who weren't interested in games before and the market will not grow, possibly not enough to make back the money spent on game development, and in turn one of two things could happen: A) Games will become increasingly uncreative and identical, tailor made to sell millions of copies rather than be original, new, different, or fun (Microsoft actually stated this last year at the Game Developers Conference as part of their game plan). or B) the price of individual games could increase up to or past the $60/game range in order to "make the bottom line." Sony has a history of selling (or trying to sell) high- and even over-priced goods to consumers believing that people will just fall for it if you advertise accordingly. For proor, just look at the PSP. That thing is completely pointless, and needlessly expensive. A portable DVD player costs 1/2 to 1/3 as much as a PSP, and standard DVD's are, on average, $5 cheaper than PSP UMD's--which can only be played on a PSP. This is in part my own prediction, but based on trends of the video game industry, and consumer history.

The PS3 will no doubt be the most powerful system in terms of raw horsepower--but that's just prettier graphics and crisper sound. It'll cost an arm and a leg, financially--and in the end, all the games will be exactly the same as the ones on the PS1 and PS2--again, just prettier. The controller is almost exactly the same as the previous design, just slightly streamlined.

It's my personal belief that every two console generations, the video game industry needs to take a dramatic leap forward.

During the 80's, the industry almost died completely, all thanks to Atari's lack of creative vision. The NES came out and revolutionized video games. The Genesis and SNES followed, perfecting the standard set by the NES (and to a lesser extent, the Sega Master System and TurboGrafx). After that, the N64, Playstation, and Saturn were released, revolutionizing the industry again, this time by offering a new way to play (which is the key to change and success in the industry)--gamers entered the 3-D realm--Nintendo, again, pushed the boundaries the furthest showing just exactly what you could do in a 3-D game, and they changed the controller by adding the analog stick (which was copied by Sony and Microsoft). The next generation, Dreamcast, GameCube, PS2, Xbox was merely the cleaned-up, perfected form of the idea given to us with the first generation of 3-D consoles.

Now, Sony and Microsoft have decided innovation is pointless and that more horsepower is the way to go. But within a year or two of playing X360 and PS3, gamers will begin to notice that they haven't seen anything really new since the late 90's when the 3-D era really began. Metal Gear Solid 5 (or 6 or whatever) will no doubt look fucking amazing, but it'll play almost exactly the same as Metal Gear Solid 2 or 3.

The reason so many Mario games are so memorable is because they're so different. Obviously, if I have money by then (damn poverty!!), I'll be supporting Nintendo--since they seem to be the only company that really gives a shit about innovating. And from the sounds of it, the system will be heavily supported (at long last) by third party companies--because it's design is receiving praise from all corners of the industry.

Anyway, sorry about the rant. Just felt I should warn you all of the bleak "Biblical" future of video games!

I finished Resident Evil 4 the other night and loved ever single minute I played the game (even the mildly aggravating moments), and, thuroughly unhappy with the void left by completing the game, I decided to restart Resident Evil 3--and actually finish it this time.

So the best horror video games of all time:

Resident Evil 4
Eternal Darkness
Resident Evil (remake)

RE4 seemed to borrow a lot from Eternal Darkness...

[Phoenix]

I 100 percent disagree with you Quorthon. I was in Vegas for the CES (computer electronics show) with my husband this weekend, and the gaming industry is WELL AWARE of all the consumer complaints.

Poor Sony is struggling right now because of some bad decisions (mainly in their music industry) and they may push the PS3 because they want to make it different than the Xbox 360 and they need to debug the hell out of it. There was a mock-up at the convention but the general murmur was that it's just not ready. I'll take it as 'just not ready' instead of a piece of crap that breaks all the time. No need to rush. Anyway, the PSP is doing well now. Yes, it's selling REALLY well, and I've played it and watched some movies on it and it's actually very cool. I dont see the need for one in my life but I can see how rich parents could shut their kid up very easily with one of those.

Consules are expensive to make - that is why they are expensive for the consumer. It's really that simple - they lose money for every system they make, so I think that Sony wants to have some stellar games for the PS3 for when it comes out so it can start turning a profit ASAP. Of course, they want to have high production numbers too so they dont face shitty ass shortages as well. AND as far as the 'rumor' that they are going to 'code' their games - it's pretty much a myth.

The gaming industry has changed DRAMACTICALLY with the introduction of online gaming, first with Xbox Live. You suggest it's been stagnent....totally disagree.

Nintendo's new gaming system is very different but I am not sure how popular it will become. They are centering it all around 'party' gaming - not sure how well that's going to translate here. Have you seen the demo for the Revolution? I LOVE nintendo products and they have such a huge following in Japan they dont really need our stinkin' dollars so I'm sure it will be successful no matter what.

I stopped playing video games for a long time but recently I've been totally immersed because of a lot of AWESOME games that have come out. Resident Evil 4 is a good example of how a franchise can actually GET BETTER. I think that's awesome. There are some great games out there - you just have to know where to look.

Just an argument against the DOOM you would like to bring us...