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I'm so sick of hearing PC snobs talk about the keyboard/mouse as if it's somehow the perfect controller. The fact is that they're just used to it

No, the fact is that when you pit keyboard players vs. controller players in an FPS, the keyboard players win. It's plainly obvious why. With an FPS, you have a character, and you need to move the character and shoot. With a K+M setup, your left hand controls movement and your right hand controls rotation and shooting. It's extremely fast and easy to target your enemy when you're using a mouse. For left hand movement, when your hand is on the w/s/a/d movement keys, there are 20 other keys in range of your fingers. When I'm playing an FPS I'm not wondering which buttons to hit or looking at the controls, I'm always looking at the screen. When I set my roommate up, who doesn't play either computer or console games, with a computer to join me in some Steam games, all I had to do was tell him that w/s/a/d move, space jumps, ctrl crouches. I didn't even have to explain how to turn and shoot because it's so obviously intuitive. Even his first time in the game he was able to make his character do what he intended, not dicking around with thumb-controlled joysticks trying to find the perfect place to make your character rotate and face the direction you intend. If you think that joysticks controlled by your thumbs are somehow more accurate or intuitive than point-and-click, then I'd like you to get me in touch with your drug dealer.

In every way, the modern game controller is superior (and it should be, as gaming is what it was DESIGNED for).

Statements like that are just stupid. Yeah, a controller is great for a fighting game or side-scroller, it's fine for flight simulators. It's terrible for FPS games, RTS games, and anything decently complex. Look at a game like X3, and how many commands it has, and see if you can figure out a way to map those controls to a device with 20 buttons. Sometimes playing X3 seems more like typing a document with the number of keys you need to press to move through the menus and accomplish the various actions. It's a great game, and completely unsuited to your "superior in every way" controller. Guess what the reason is why Egosoft doesn't bother to port the X series of games to consoles. Look at Civilization on the console, and how it's completely different than the PC versions. When people fell in love with Civ, they did it on a PC.

BTW, I like how you talk about "PC snobs" and then go on to proclaim that a console controller is superior in every way, as if one device was somehow designed to be the perfect controller for any number of game genres and situations. If it's so perfect and superior, then why do we need joysticks and yokes? What about driving wheels and pedals, isn't the controller superior in every way because "gaming" is what it was DESIGNED for, in all caps?

My Googlefu is strong and I believe you are talking about:

http://www.gamespy.com/articles/490/490363p1.html

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqddFGYvfgs

See details about the Magnavox Odyssey 2 here, including mentions of the Arcade ports that were relatively unpopular in the US but more successful in other countries:

http://www.allgame.com/cg/agg.dll?p=agg&sql=5:17

I played C+C on a PC several years ago and the controls for the keyboard were not that detailed [see], especially not enough to warrant all the rubbish above going on about how a controller can't replace a keyboard/mouse.

Though I only played the demo, End of War is fully usable just through voice controls. Considering it was a demo I was very impressed with how well it worked like this... no keyboard.. no mouse.. just me shouting "UNIT .. A.. ATTACK.. ALPHA.." and so on. (it's early I may of shouted a lot of things).

I don't see why a combination of 2 sticks, a D pad, 10 buttons, and a headset can't replace a few keyboard functions and being able to drag-select units using a mouse.

You're the same people who believed trains shouldn't travel over 10mph for fear of demons invading their souls.

I think you meant this game.

I would love to play this game with the sword tracking the Wiimote...

I bought the UK version on eBay, and I probably play the internet on my DS more than any other game now.

Best series-of-tubes game since Pipe Dream!

Ohh! and dont forget the SNES racing game which you could play with up to 4 friends, what is its name? you participated in races in the sand (top view) with trucks. That was quite fun...

Are you reffering to the Off-Road series of games? I use to love these as well. Infact, I bought (well, at this point in my life, more like begged my parents) for the 4-player multi-tap for the NES.

I realized that I never finished my comment on the game "Metal Warriors". This game was awesome for the fact that in 2-player mode (you could only fight each other, unfortunately, while I'm more of a co-op person), you would pick 1 of 6 mech-machines, then then fight the other person. The cool part? You could jump out of the Mech and fly around with your little pilot. Some other mechs where hidden in some stages, so if you lost your first one, you could bail before it blew up and try to survive until you got another one. Just, lots of fun and balanced player vs player fights.

Of course, who could forget the TMNT arcade game and all the numerous 4-player clone games after it... like the Xmen and Simpsons version of the games (which had either 2, 4 or 6 player coin-ops).

Cheers,
Fozzy

For the non-gamers/non-historians in the crowd, the Starfleet Academy idea has been kicked around for quite a while now, not the least of which was rumors about it before Enterprise launched. The primary motivating factor for the idea however has been the series of games Interplay published in the 90's under the Starfleet Academy title, the first of which was a SNES title and the second a whopping 6 CD full-motion-video/space-sim game for the PC. Like most of Interplay's Star Trek games, they were poorly received, but the PC game amounted to an interesting prototype in how a Starfleet Academy series might pan out, and why it's a plausible idea in the first place.

That's not really "interesting" -- Kabuki Warriors for the Xbox when it first came out was a high price, so were other games. The "given" price for a new game is usually $49.99 regardless of where you purchase it. However, this does cut down on development costs. You may not be able to get a cheaper game, but you will get more out of it... I wonder how much Honda paid for the Element being in SSX3... It's almost ubiquitous without being overloaded-- the fact that you sail through one (with all doors open-- screams "product differentiation") makes it very immersive.

I'd say the worst example is Spot Goes To Hollywood the game featuring the 7-Up icon...

Another good one is All Game Guide. It mostly covers technical facts and history, but a good portion of their games are accompanied by reviews.

Allmusic.com

They have many reviews, essays and maps of how a style of music came to be. I enjoy being able to look up a song and hunt down what album it was on. They seem to be a one stop answer for most question on music.

They also have sister sites that are for Games and Movies.

Plus I like to support a company in home state.