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I question the accuracy of the list.

Yep, Autoduel was also available for the PC. Here's another list .

It boggles my mind that the author's first theory on the lack of good mint old boxes is that the cardboard has fallen apart and that his second is that stores must be throwing them away. It seems to me to be FAR more likely that what's happening is that people like me DON'T KEEP OUR PACKAGING. I have a lot of games and a pretty small appartment. When I pack to move, my first thought isn't "oh man, I'd better work out how to fit all of this cardboard into the moving van".

I'm especially surprised, given that this article is coming from GamerDad. I mean if he's a dad, that means he has children, right? So maybe he's seen how children treat their toys? When I was a kid, I was pulling heads off of G.I. Joes. Do you think I was treating the packaging in a respectful manner?

From my point of view (I like games, not boxes) the only real problem that he raises in the entire article is that sometimes the games are missing the manual. Here are some solutions:

1) Don't worry about it, most games have ingame tutorials and most manuals were pretty useless. You can learn how to play by experimenting with the game.

2) Check out sites like GameFAQs. Many of the best written FAQs have instructions on how to play the game in the introductions.

3) Pay extra for games with manual (and box if you really want it). Then stores can pay kids selling games extra for their used games with manual (and box) and there will be incentive for them to take care of the product.

It may not be the best FF, but its popularity has caught me off guard before, even though I already knew it was high. Even if it doesn't win, I somehow doubt a GTA game will win. Given the strong PC influence on GameSpy I suspect Starcraft, actually.

It may not be the best FF, but its popularity has caught me off guard before, even though I already knew it was high. Even if it doesn't win, I somehow doubt a GTA game will win. Given the strong PC influence on GameSpy I suspect Starcraft, actually.

It may not be the best FF, but its popularity has caught me off guard before, even though I already knew it was high. Even if it doesn't win, I somehow doubt a GTA game will win. Given the strong PC influence on GameSpy I suspect Starcraft, actually.

Don't get me wrong, I know a few people who were enraptured by GTA, but I honestly think this article is overplaying its importance. I know several PS2 owners, and not many who actually own GTA3 or GTA:VC.

Don't get me wrong, I know a few people who were enraptured by GTA, but I honestly think this article is overplaying its importance. I know several PS2 owners, and not many who actually own GTA3 or GTA:VC.

GameFAQS.com

While I agree that I don't enjoy playing as much by myself, I do not agree that I play with other people to learn more about the game.

The way we learned tricks in games has changed over time. It started with learning from the masters as you talked about here, but it also began to spread through your networks of friends and the through the growth of strategy magazines.

Today, I don't know anyone who plays games and doesn't go to GameFAQs. It remains to be seen whether we are just too lazy to do this on our own, but places like GameFAQs are probably the staple of where most of the gamers learn the tricks these days.

I believe that the important issue of arcades is the SOCIAL aspect. The lure of becoming the expert and the arcade game to show off your skills is nowhere as prevalent as it is in the arcades. The crowds that develop around a master can't happen at home. The competitiveness in a racing game or the cooperation between two shooters is a great lure.

However, even this is under attack by consoles, with World-Rankings, Xbox live tournaments, and the growth of 4-player gaming.

Perhaps its more that PC gamers have longer attention spans when it comes to online games than Console gamers, or maybe just the target audience of XBox Live/PS2 online users. However, Console gamers don't have short attention spans. I know firsthand that there's still strong and growing messageboards for Super Metroid (1994) and Final Fantasy Tactics (1998). Pac Man and Super Mario Bros have their own solid fanbases as well, and I know several console gamers who still play NES games.

Now, console gamers are divided. I've heard from teachers of high-school age students who buy a shiny new game every month. My strong suspicion is that online console gaming is new/expensive enough that this is the primary audience. When it becomes more practical, and when there are games worth going online for, then, perhaps, you'll find online console gamers with quite long attention spans indeed.

Tennis is a relatively obscure Dreamcast game - well, isn't everything obscure when compared to Quake? The control system's pretty neat, but it could use support for more than four players and really needs some power weapons. And don't get me started on the scoring system.

I did a little searching to answer my own question, and discovered the following.
Check out 2E.

I'm not sure what you mean by "once again". Hardware-wise the PC was already ahead at system-launch (or that's what I remember from E3 reports). Game-wise, I honestly can't say it's caught as much interest for me as the PS2, or the GC, or the GBA, and I'm not alone. If anything the XBox has been offering some kind of middle-ground as a cheap PC and a powerful platform.

A large storage medium allows you to store stuff for later. Things like save games vs save points, patches, upgrades, extra content, user made content etc etc to your hearts content.

That said, I don't know anybody who has managed to fill up a PS2 memory card, and the idea behind consoles is that you don't need patches because you have a finished product. Upgrades, extra content, and user made content are all good in theory; how many XBox games impliment them?

Remember Kotor? On the x-box a simple game. The moment it came out on the PC people were hacking it.

And do you think that any console can ever match the PC in that regard? Heck, I hear a lot about Metroid and FF6 mods, but again those are obviously PC-based. These are all (legal or not) essentially open-source projects...which MS tends to loathe. I'm too cynical to see them intentionally encouraging such projects, but feel free to prove me wrong.

Judging by the information and screenshots from the above poster, Speedball's spiritual successor seems to be Deathrow for Xbox. Here's an excellent review for the game from gamefaqs that should give you an idea of the gameplay. It's an excellent game, a blast to play 4 players against each other or even against the CPU (it's the first sports video game I've ever played where everyone actually works together as a team, as opposed to trying to get the ball to be a glory hog, since hanging back and kicking the crap out of the point guard and flicking him off after you KO him is just as satisfying as scoring).

Nah. No Japanese needed.

Most FPS seemed to have the default setting that you mentioned here, but every single one at least had the option to change it to 'Halo's' scheme. Everyone I knew used this scheme.

I know that Timesplitters 1 had the same default scheme as Halo, and was released a month or two earlier. The controls can be found in this FAQ. Unfortunately, I can't find any games that had that default earlier, though.

And someone already pointed out that the C-buttons were used instead of a stick in GoldenEye.

Best control scheme on a console, ever

Now, I've never played Halo, but I wasn't aware that Halo has a radically different control scheme.

In fact, according to this FAQ, it appears to have the exact same layout that was originally pioneered by Rare in GoldenEye: Left stick for movement (forwards/backwards and strafing), right stick for direction (turning and up/down), and index finger(s) for firing.

This is the same control scheme used in just about any console FPS released these days, from Bond games, to Timesplitters, to Brute Force.

In fact, the only game to break from this 6 year standard that I can recall is Metroid:Prime. Many people were confused the way Metroid no longer used the right thumbpad compared to the standard typically used today, but others have found it to be a welcome change of pace.

Like Wizardry? (Actually, that one is pretty much dead. You don't see any dungeon crawlers anymore).

Wizardry: Tale of the Forsaken Land for the PlayStation 2 was an absolutely excellent old-school (I can create my ENTIRE 6-character party however I like) dungeon-crawl. I absolutely loved it.

Even PC RPGs lately have been getting away from the multi-character stats-based games that I loved as a kid. The old TSR gold box games, Bard's Tales, and especially Wasteland. Anyone who thinks that it began with Fallout is just sadly missing out on where it was really at: trying to get through Fenster's devilish mind maze, and second-guessing yourself about whether those paragraphs that you read "by accident" weren't really true... We're going to MARS!?!? heh.

The Play Station Xtra was originally an addition to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Nintendo got cold feet and we Nintendo funs got stuck with the far inferior Nintendo 64. For more information poke around a bit around GameFaqs.

American cars don't sell well here because they (historically) are huge, have bad mileage, and break down a lot.

The Xbox is huge, and from my personal experience breaks down a lot. As far as mileage goes, my Gamecube travels with me to my casual gaming friends because it is smaller with a handle, and it has better multi player games.

I checked on Gamefaqs for Japanese release dates and found nearly all of my favorite Xbox games have been released in Japan. Unfortunately, most of them didn't sell well in the US either.

You may be referring to Gamespot's Xbox game of the year Star Wars: KOTOR which hasn't been released there, but this topic is about top selling games of 2003 and both of Gamespot's GC and PS2 games of the year came out in Japan in 2002.

American cars don't sell well here because they (historically) are huge, have bad mileage, and break down a lot.

The Xbox is huge, and from my personal experience breaks down a lot. As far as mileage goes, my Gamecube travels with me to my casual gaming friends because it is smaller with a handle, and it has better multi player games.

I checked on Gamefaqs for Japanese release dates and found nearly all of my favorite Xbox games have been released in Japan. Unfortunately, most of them didn't sell well in the US either.

You may be referring to Gamespot's Xbox game of the year Star Wars: KOTOR which hasn't been released there, but this topic is about top selling games of 2003 and both of Gamespot's GC and PS2 games of the year came out in Japan in 2002.

American cars don't sell well here because they (historically) are huge, have bad mileage, and break down a lot.

The Xbox is huge, and from my personal experience breaks down a lot. As far as mileage goes, my Gamecube travels with me to my casual gaming friends because it is smaller with a handle, and it has better multi player games.

I checked on Gamefaqs for Japanese release dates and found nearly all of my favorite Xbox games have been released in Japan. Unfortunately, most of them didn't sell well in the US either.

You may be referring to Gamespot's Xbox game of the year Star Wars: KOTOR which hasn't been released there, but this topic is about top selling games of 2003 and both of Gamespot's GC and PS2 games of the year came out in Japan in 2002.

American cars don't sell well here because they (historically) are huge, have bad mileage, and break down a lot.

The Xbox is huge, and from my personal experience breaks down a lot. As far as mileage goes, my Gamecube travels with me to my casual gaming friends because it is smaller with a handle, and it has better multi player games.

I checked on Gamefaqs for Japanese release dates and found nearly all of my favorite Xbox games have been released in Japan. Unfortunately, most of them didn't sell well in the US either.

You may be referring to Gamespot's Xbox game of the year Star Wars: KOTOR which hasn't been released there, but this topic is about top selling games of 2003 and both of Gamespot's GC and PS2 games of the year came out in Japan in 2002.

American cars don't sell well here because they (historically) are huge, have bad mileage, and break down a lot.

The Xbox is huge, and from my personal experience breaks down a lot. As far as mileage goes, my Gamecube travels with me to my casual gaming friends because it is smaller with a handle, and it has better multi player games.

I checked on Gamefaqs for Japanese release dates and found nearly all of my favorite Xbox games have been released in Japan. Unfortunately, most of them didn't sell well in the US either.

You may be referring to Gamespot's Xbox game of the year Star Wars: KOTOR which hasn't been released there, but this topic is about top selling games of 2003 and both of Gamespot's GC and PS2 games of the year came out in Japan in 2002.

Uhm, Crystal Chronicles came out in August in Japan, so considering how popular Final Fantasy is over there, I think that's definitely a little disappointing, although understandable considering the smaller install-base of the GameCube compared to PS2.

How did you think FF:CC sold 300,000 or more without having come out, anyhow? :)

Finally, Heavy Gear II apparently has little red-and-white Santa hats on the Gears on Christmas day. I don't know for sure if this works in all versions, but I know it did in the Linux one.

i give this game a week before someone cracks it and figures out where the WMD are.

what actually would be funny is if someone did finish the game and put the FAQ here

well its already past the 14th so shouldn't sales be picking up by now? Looking at gamefags.com I have to agree the lineup this christmas looks pretty lacklustre.

...which is from Scarface. Its hardly an incitement to race crime, its just a depiction of the speech patterns of an obvioulsy repellent character.

First X box live allows it, and now gameboy games are getting patched. I think it's great that Nintendo is going the extra mile for it's customers, but as soon as console game makers get the idea they can rely on patching, shipping games broken will be as prevelent as on the PC.
Hooray. At that point, consoles get added to the list of vices i'll be able to cut out of my budget.

Every time someone talks about this bug or that bug on a console game it seems like people start complaining in the way that you are now complaining. "Oh no, patching will mean that formerly bug free console games will now have bugs. Why oh why are PC game makers so lazy? Blah blah blah."

Bugs have been with us in consoles for a very long time. Remember Enter the Matrix? It's not alone. SSX Tricky has bluescreened my GameCube, people have already mentioned KOTOR and Crimson Skies, the list goes on.

And it's not limited to modern games. Bugs have been around for ages, just we called them 'glitchs' and wrote them up in FAQs as cool things that people could explore. Here are a few, to refresh your memory:

NES Metroid
On most levels with the doors you shoot to cause them to open you can use a door to climb up many many walls/levels above. Simply shoot the door and stand with the front 1/2 of Samus wedged where the door will reform. After you are partially ''sealed'' by the door just quickly tap up and down on the control pad. You will slowly climb up the wall. It is possible to get stuck while using this trick.

Super Mario World
Go to World 1-2. At the pipe that leads to the flag, break two blocks so there's one at the end touching the pipe. Now duck and jump backward toward the brick (don't break it!). You should go through the wall and pipe into a warp zone. Jump down the first pipe you see and you will be in the Negative World (-1)!

And so on and so on.

Which brings me to my second point. The reason that there are more bugs on PC games is because there are a lot more ways that things can go wrong. On a console you have one set of hardware and maybe a few different controllers. You have a very small OS and no other programs running.

PCs have untold billions of possible configurations, countless types of inputs, a very large and complicated (and buggy!) OS competing for RAM and mediating between your program and the hardware and who knows what other programs running in the background. There is no way that you can adequately test for this wide a variety of conditions and it is inevitable that you will run into unexpected problems when you ship the game.

What have we learned today?
1) Console games have lots anf lots of bugs. Anyone who says they don't is lying to you or stupid.
2) PCs have more bugs than consoles because they do not have a unified configuration and there is lots that can go wrong.

Thanks for coming out.

Forget that they review games. Forget that they have a competent writing staff that shames the competition.

Forget that they've been in the game for what...6 years?

Forget that they have the resources to do head to head comparisons of multiplatform titles. Forget that they produce quality video features weekly.

Do you think they're biased? Do you think they take the old payola?

Final Fantasy Tactics. After you beat it once, just tryyy beating it with the challenges! They make it insanely hard. My girlfriend has come up with some strange moves I would never have seen :) Best of all? It's a playstation 1 best hits! which means system + game would only cost like $50 which is less than some brand new games today :)

It's obvious from the odd M$ figures, the XBox had the lowest sales...why else would they mix figures...someone had to tell em "But Sony and Nintendo gave us numbers, not percentages"...you can bet that if they outsold even Nintendo they'ld want everyone to know...from these figures, the XBox was probably outsold by the NGage :)

Of course, this is how things were last year as well...noone has released any new hardware in the set-top arena and the PS2 has got a few more tricks up its sleeves since last year...what would be interesting to see is how much of Nintendo and Sony's sales were XBox owners...

Wanna see how the real figures probably work out...just look at GameFAQs' Top Games...this is a telling list, it tells you exactly what ppl are playing right now...

In the top 10, it looks like we have 7 PS2 games, 1 PC game (highest of the "one hit wonders"), 1 Nintendo game, and 1 XBox game (almost didn't make it on the top 10)...

Which sounds about right for what I've seen as well...

you got different ratings dependant on HOW you completed the level with wicked unlockables being the reward. play before posting

Oh, right, yes. The "wicked unlockables". Heaven forfend that I forget about unlocking three extra types of gun .

You're missing my point. By effectively making the whole "stealth" aspect optional, a lot of the allure of the game was removed.

Sure, you can go for the challenge of getting a "silent assassin" ranking and I guess you could force yourself to restart the level each time you died, but there is no tension, no suspense. Nothing compared to, say, the final docks mission in the original where just one single mistake would cost you the game.

Seems like rock star did a rush job on the Xbox version, or a duplation plant got the wrong code because people are reporting glitches. Apparently the sound goes out after a while, which is a bad thing considering you can't hear the cops.

I believe Midway have already released a bunch of these retro-styled titles for PS1 - one of them is Arcade Party Pak, and there are a few others.

As for why they've targeted PS2, I think people like the idea of buying a new PS2 game with the content, even if it could theoretically be done on a PS1. Also, Xbox and GameCube don't have such decent backwards-compatible options, heh.

This must be a joke! perhaps you should have been moderated as Funny. While every snk character has more moves than the average capcom character, ANY soulcalibur character has a stupidly long array of moves.

I have never understanded why almost every 3D fighting game (VF, Tekken, SC) relies on the player learning an endless amount of movements, and each one has a different way of blocking/countering, while 2D prefer simpler set of movements, combining them in diferent ways to get complexity.

This must be a joke! perhaps you should have been moderated as Funny. While every snk character has more moves than the average capcom character, ANY soulcalibur character has a stupidly long array of moves.

I have never understanded why almost every 3D fighting game (VF, Tekken, SC) relies on the player learning an endless amount of movements, and each one has a different way of blocking/countering, while 2D prefer simpler set of movements, combining them in diferent ways to get complexity.

GameFaqs still has the Gamecube release of Midway Arcade Treasures listed as Dec. 1st, unlike the 17th listed here - anyone know of any statements by Midway or whoever that can confirm the release date for it?

I am planning on getting it the day it comes out - regardless of the fact that I already have all of these games for MAME on my PC - and not only do I have all of them, for many of them I have mutliple different romsets. Gauntlet, for example, seems to have as many as 15-20 romsets, with various releases as they developed the game, foreign versions, often with multiple releases, and even 2 player versions. I can wish they'd have multiple versions available, as the final version of Gauntlet is overly hard, probably the only release of the game where it is pretty much impossible to play forever on one credit when you get good enough. (Don't believe you can do it at all? The MAME Action Replay Project has various recordings of people playing Gauntlet for a hundred plus levels on one credit.

But even though I already have it on the PC, I want the comfort of being able to sit on the couch and play these games, using the incredibly well-designed Gamecube controller, and enjoying the larger screen and sound piped through the stereo system. I want to be able to play 4 player Gauntlet without having to crowd people around a PC keyboard. And it's a way to further encourage companies to release compilations of their older games, so we can enjoy them again.

But why-oh-why did they not include Gauntlet II in this compilation? The MAME folks could surely tell us that it wasn't hard to add Gauntlet II after they had Gauntlet in there. It's not like it was a big hardware change from the first one...

For those too lazy to actually look at the site, review scores for the PS2 version of Enter the Matrix typically are in the 7-9 range with 2-6's sparsely mixed in, and a handful of 10's. It's good but not great*.

*: Actual results may vary.

However, read this review of Eternal Darkness if you consider buying it. I wish I had done so before bying it...

What the hell are saying? Karaoke Revolution was the FIRST game on TIME's game list thingy...

You're using Karaoke Revolution's placement on one list as your counterpoint? Time magazine, for that matter. Not exactly what I would call a trusted source for video game reviews, or a good indicator of what's hot in the U.S.
Keeping with the Karaoke Revolution example, I bet you didn't know that there are TWELVE versions of Karaoke Revolution scheduled in Japan, with (I'm sure) many more coming? Or that another Japanese company beat Konami to the punch on Karaoke games, with 3 or 4 versions already?

Checking IGN's list of PS2 music games, I see only a handful that were developed in the U.S. Most of the big names started off in Japan, and they have a lot more versions to boot. DDR has 20 console versions in Japan, a whopping 5 in the U.S. Most of the arcade versions are supposed to be Japan-only.
Mad Maestro has four different versions in Japan. The only (good) music game which is U.S. (and Europe) only is Frequency and its sequel, Amplitude.

And then there are games which won't ever see the light of day outside of Japan due to the expensive controllers that are required to play them, and also due to the insane learning curve. Most of these come from Konami's Bemani line. Games like Beatmania (5 keys and a turntable) and Beatmania IIDX (7 keys and a turntable), Keyboardmania (2 octave keyboard), Pop'n Music (9 round buttons), Guitar Freaks & Drummania (umm.. a guitar and a drum set). Non-Bemani games include Taiko no Tatsujin, Donkey Konga, Vib Ribbon (and Mojib Ribbon),

Here are some links to some nifty videos of a few of the games mentioned above. Watch them and tell me something like this would go over well in the U.S.
Beatmania IIDX 1
Beatmania IIDX 2
Drummania
Keyboardmania

Try importing them sometime. They don't require knowledge of the Japanese language, they're a lot of fun, and well worth the money- I highly recommend them.

What the hell are saying? Karaoke Revolution was the FIRST game on TIME's game list thingy...

You're using Karaoke Revolution's placement on one list as your counterpoint? Time magazine, for that matter. Not exactly what I would call a trusted source for video game reviews, or a good indicator of what's hot in the U.S.
Keeping with the Karaoke Revolution example, I bet you didn't know that there are TWELVE versions of Karaoke Revolution scheduled in Japan, with (I'm sure) many more coming? Or that another Japanese company beat Konami to the punch on Karaoke games, with 3 or 4 versions already?

Checking IGN's list of PS2 music games, I see only a handful that were developed in the U.S. Most of the big names started off in Japan, and they have a lot more versions to boot. DDR has 20 console versions in Japan, a whopping 5 in the U.S. Most of the arcade versions are supposed to be Japan-only.
Mad Maestro has four different versions in Japan. The only (good) music game which is U.S. (and Europe) only is Frequency and its sequel, Amplitude.

And then there are games which won't ever see the light of day outside of Japan due to the expensive controllers that are required to play them, and also due to the insane learning curve. Most of these come from Konami's Bemani line. Games like Beatmania (5 keys and a turntable) and Beatmania IIDX (7 keys and a turntable), Keyboardmania (2 octave keyboard), Pop'n Music (9 round buttons), Guitar Freaks & Drummania (umm.. a guitar and a drum set). Non-Bemani games include Taiko no Tatsujin, Donkey Konga, Vib Ribbon (and Mojib Ribbon),

Here are some links to some nifty videos of a few of the games mentioned above. Watch them and tell me something like this would go over well in the U.S.
Beatmania IIDX 1
Beatmania IIDX 2
Drummania
Keyboardmania

Try importing them sometime. They don't require knowledge of the Japanese language, they're a lot of fun, and well worth the money- I highly recommend them.

What the hell are saying? Karaoke Revolution was the FIRST game on TIME's game list thingy...

You're using Karaoke Revolution's placement on one list as your counterpoint? Time magazine, for that matter. Not exactly what I would call a trusted source for video game reviews, or a good indicator of what's hot in the U.S.
Keeping with the Karaoke Revolution example, I bet you didn't know that there are TWELVE versions of Karaoke Revolution scheduled in Japan, with (I'm sure) many more coming? Or that another Japanese company beat Konami to the punch on Karaoke games, with 3 or 4 versions already?

Checking IGN's list of PS2 music games, I see only a handful that were developed in the U.S. Most of the big names started off in Japan, and they have a lot more versions to boot. DDR has 20 console versions in Japan, a whopping 5 in the U.S. Most of the arcade versions are supposed to be Japan-only.
Mad Maestro has four different versions in Japan. The only (good) music game which is U.S. (and Europe) only is Frequency and its sequel, Amplitude.

And then there are games which won't ever see the light of day outside of Japan due to the expensive controllers that are required to play them, and also due to the insane learning curve. Most of these come from Konami's Bemani line. Games like Beatmania (5 keys and a turntable) and Beatmania IIDX (7 keys and a turntable), Keyboardmania (2 octave keyboard), Pop'n Music (9 round buttons), Guitar Freaks & Drummania (umm.. a guitar and a drum set). Non-Bemani games include Taiko no Tatsujin, Donkey Konga, Vib Ribbon (and Mojib Ribbon),

Here are some links to some nifty videos of a few of the games mentioned above. Watch them and tell me something like this would go over well in the U.S.
Beatmania IIDX 1
Beatmania IIDX 2
Drummania
Keyboardmania

Try importing them sometime. They don't require knowledge of the Japanese language, they're a lot of fun, and well worth the money- I highly recommend them.

What the hell are saying? Karaoke Revolution was the FIRST game on TIME's game list thingy...

You're using Karaoke Revolution's placement on one list as your counterpoint? Time magazine, for that matter. Not exactly what I would call a trusted source for video game reviews, or a good indicator of what's hot in the U.S.
Keeping with the Karaoke Revolution example, I bet you didn't know that there are TWELVE versions of Karaoke Revolution scheduled in Japan, with (I'm sure) many more coming? Or that another Japanese company beat Konami to the punch on Karaoke games, with 3 or 4 versions already?

Checking IGN's list of PS2 music games, I see only a handful that were developed in the U.S. Most of the big names started off in Japan, and they have a lot more versions to boot. DDR has 20 console versions in Japan, a whopping 5 in the U.S. Most of the arcade versions are supposed to be Japan-only.
Mad Maestro has four different versions in Japan. The only (good) music game which is U.S. (and Europe) only is Frequency and its sequel, Amplitude.

And then there are games which won't ever see the light of day outside of Japan due to the expensive controllers that are required to play them, and also due to the insane learning curve. Most of these come from Konami's Bemani line. Games like Beatmania (5 keys and a turntable) and Beatmania IIDX (7 keys and a turntable), Keyboardmania (2 octave keyboard), Pop'n Music (9 round buttons), Guitar Freaks & Drummania (umm.. a guitar and a drum set). Non-Bemani games include Taiko no Tatsujin, Donkey Konga, Vib Ribbon (and Mojib Ribbon),

Here are some links to some nifty videos of a few of the games mentioned above. Watch them and tell me something like this would go over well in the U.S.
Beatmania IIDX 1
Beatmania IIDX 2
Drummania
Keyboardmania

Try importing them sometime. They don't require knowledge of the Japanese language, they're a lot of fun, and well worth the money- I highly recommend them.

At the other hand are games in wich you do nothing but click through text and watch some pics. Some force you to do option 1x2 option 3x2 then option 2x1 but this is just filler, not gameplay.

In between are an awfull lot of crap and enjoyable games that are usually labelled hentai games or more politly dating games.

So how acceptable are they? Several of them have been turned into anime shown on tv. So perhaps they are as acceptable as the porn movies "Deep Throat" and such classics were once.

Japan and the west, certainly america, have radically different ideas of what is acceptable.

Nowwhere does this show more then with the disclaimer in translated games. Kana Little Sister is a game liked by those who played it for the story. One of the few games that makes you sad, however you also screw your sister. However the american company felt need to warn you that all models are 18 or over. We are talking drawings here. Drawings of a girl in highschool.

That she is your sister is apparently of no concern although the story could easily have been adjusted to make clear from the beginning that she is not.

Oh well. In short I think that a game like True Love, To heart or Kanon is fairly acceptable in japan, in the same way that say playboy is here. Popotan and Kana Little Sister are probably titles you better not mention playing at work.

Any japanese around who can confirm or deny this?

Oh and as a side note. I wish some western games would spend half as much time as hentai games on plot and just working without crashing thank you very much.

EA can charge as much as they please, just as SEGA charges for PSO. That's not the issue. The problem (for Microsoft) is that EA wishes to completely bypass the XBox Live service in favor of their own. We all know what happens when Microsoft doesn't get complete and utter control of such a thing. This is the issue. Microsoft is banking on total control of online content with this platform, hence the reason for its excellent network capabilities out of the box. XBox Live is a great service, however I don't blame EA for wanting to deny Microsoft control of their own (EA's) content. This is probably why many publishers are opting to stay away from the XBox Live service. It takes control (and general income) out of their hands. I can't tell you how many times I've heard XBox PSO owners complain about having to pay *two* fees. This is the reason that the PS2 is begining to eclipse the XBox live in online games, aside from the fact that more people own PS2 consoles.

Still, a recent GameFAQs poll shows that most gamers (almost 75%) really don't care too much about online gaming with their consoles.

http://cgi.gamefaqs.com/poll/index.asp?poll=1434

Hmm... Maybe Nintendo had the right idea after all, with such a low-priority online initiative.

...this reminds me of an old Squaresoft game.

From the latter article I reference above:

"The Wachowski Brothers' vision for The Matrix is one that extends far beyond the theatrical trilogy, and the world they have created is so rich that we've chosen to tell inter-connected Matrix-related stories in multiple mediums," said Joel Silver, producer of the Matrix films. "Our goal in collaborating with Ubi Soft is to create a multiplayer online game that reflects the trilogy's highly stylized storytelling and innovative action, taking fans beyond the boundaries of the movie screen and into a 'persistent world' where they can fully explore the vast realm of the Matrix."

Revolutions wasn't supposed to give you the answers to everything. In fact, at the same time that Reloaded came out, a video game called Enter The Matrix came out, which contains some information pretaining to the Oracle and the family (father, mother, child) you see at the beginning of Revolutions in the train station. You learn who the family is, and, more importantly, what deal the father made with the Mero (french dude) in Reloaded (yes, he's in Reloaded, being led away from the table when Nero, Morpheus, and Trinity approach the Mero in the Resturant in Reloaded). In Revolutions, you only learn of the father's side of the deal. You never learn what the Mero got in return.

I've seen the movie and was dissapointed that it didn't answer my questions and I would probably have to play Enter The Matrix and The Matrix Online in order to grasp some of the answers I was expecting. I'm not a game-playing person and don't necessarily want to play the games.

If you realize that Revolutions isn't going to answer your questions and just sit back and enjoy it, it is actually a good movie. The more I think about the movie (I saw it Wednesday morning), the more I realize that it wasn't nearly as disappointing as I first thought.

I just wish it answered more questions, and, therefore, didn't force me to play the video and on-line games to fully grasp everything.

Deus Ex had excellent voice acting.

And oh, as to Eternal Darkness, this review says it all.