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Fable is getting some pretty solid reviews.

I don't know what planet you've been living on, but South Park for the N64 was no success.

Um, they don't?

Maybe _you_ don't think their games rank at the top, but i can show you any number of other sources that think that Nintendo has always had a lot of the very best games out there. The general complaint has never been that they don't have some of the very best games out there, it's that they don't have enough games in general, especially in the "pretty good" to "almost but not quite the very best" range.

Not that owning multiple consoles is a bad thing (i go for the PS2 and GameCube myself) but one could make a reasonable argument for any of the big three that they have the very best games as long as you were looking at the right criteria.

I'm aware that a lot of people put little stock in game reviews, but given its current 91.7% rating (before added content/camera change) on Game Rankings, I don't think Ninja Gaiden can be categorized as "a broken game."

there's a playstation2 game called Magic Pengel where you have a very bare-bones mario pait like program (that lets you model an object in 3d) and you draw 'doodles' that they come to life for you to use in creature combat (sort of like a pokemon game, but the characters are 'sketchier.. ooh, bad joke..) something like that would be PERFECT on the DS, and while you can do it on the ps2 with analog controls, it would really shine on the DS with touch-screen drawing.

However, Sega are out of the console business - dreamcast compatibility would be doable (though they'd probably improve the copy protection from the original...), add that to xbox 1 compatibility and you have a library that comes close to rivalling the PS2.
I don't think so. You're forgeting the PS2 backwards compatibility with PSone.
But even without PSone games, I think that the PS2 has more games than Xbox + dreamcast. See here.

"Another interesting speculation is that xbox 2 and revolution could be the same console - after all nintendo sells in Japan and xbox in the US. However, I think both companies are too proud to take this step."
Now *that* would be interesting.

Let's also examine this exchange:

quote:Originally posted by Unknown Target Derek,
we're all trying to calm down now. Please don't instigate people to flame again. This community is 99% proffesional, and everyone that's been here for more than 1 or 2 months acts very mature. If you'll look through the other threads, you'll see this to be the truth. It's just this whole...issue has raised tempers somewhat.

Wot? You finally decided to take your meds? I'm not inciting nor flaming anyone. Thats not my style unless the other side (like you for instance) starts first. I'm an equal opportunity jackass.

It is generally unwise for the public face of a game company to start flamewars with the potential fanbase. Hence, you don't see Gabe Newell showing up and talking smack whenever someone makes a fat joke. It is also unwise to believe this statement: "Gents, some of the posts in this thread, are EXACTLY the reason why game developers AND publishers hardly pay attention to a game's fanbase." Game developers and publishers don't stop paying attention to its fanbase because a few people start spewing vitriol about them. They simply learn to ignore their anti-fanbase. Derek Smart, on the other hand, pays way too much attention to his anti-fanbase.

Battlecruiser 3000AD is not as horrible as everyone makes it out to be. The initial reaction was mostly the fault of Take 2's decision to release it in a buggy, unplayable state. But because of the Derek Smart mystique (somewhat akin to the John Romero mystique), people get in on the running joke without really knowing anything about the game. Then again, were Mr. Smart not so outspoken, he probably wouldn't have as much name recognition as he does now. (Does anyone know who the lead developer for Extreme PaintBrawl was?) Maybe Battlecruiser would have just faded away if he hadn't kept himself in the news. So I guess it works for him.

I am impressed by your high game quality standards. Viewtiful Joe has to be a pretty bad game to get a weak 92% in Gamerankings.This clearly indicates that the game is no good.Sony's US refusal to distribute VJ had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that the game is a 2D side scroller, as TFA says.

I guess somebody will have to tell the guys at Capcom that if they want to be able to sell their PS2 games in NA they better start learning from the companies that made Big Motha Truckers and Army Men:Green Rogue

I am impressed by your high game quality standards. Viewtiful Joe has to be a pretty bad game to get a weak 92% in Gamerankings.This clearly indicates that the game is no good.Sony's US refusal to distribute VJ had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that the game is a 2D side scroller, as TFA says.

I guess somebody will have to tell the guys at Capcom that if they want to be able to sell their PS2 games in NA they better start learning from the companies that made Big Motha Truckers and Army Men:Green Rogue

I am impressed by your high game quality standards. Viewtiful Joe has to be a pretty bad game to get a weak 92% in Gamerankings.This clearly indicates that the game is no good.Sony's US refusal to distribute VJ had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that the game is a 2D side scroller, as TFA says.

I guess somebody will have to tell the guys at Capcom that if they want to be able to sell their PS2 games in NA they better start learning from the companies that made Big Motha Truckers and Army Men:Green Rogue

I guess something should be said about the game, since it didn't get a lot of press when it was released in 2001: it's a unique action/adventure title for PS2 that got great reviews (91% average), and was nominated for or won a bunch of awards, but didn't sell very well. It's still available, though getting harder to find.

Maybe you disagreed with my initial comments about Gamerankings.com, because you don't really understand the site.

It has media ratings, AND user ratings (rankings).

Take a look at: http://gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/561532.asp?q=ni nja%20gaiden

Look at the little section on the right, that is a small chart with bold/red headers. It shows the media rankings, AND the user rankings. Now I may be stretching a bit, but I assume that 'users' on Gamerankings.com are gamers.

Sure, if UTTERALY failing to tap into the ONLINE gaming market is "pretty well"

Since when is the online gaming market any measure of success of a console? I'd hardly call the horde of asshats running around on XBox Live! the "online gaming market" anyway - more like the "online stupidity market".

if failing to get support for HDTV monitors is "pretty well"

I'm sure Nintendo has lost a lot of sleep over the 0.000001% of the public that has an HDTV monitor and therefore won't buy a Gamecube.

if failing to get games that cause players to buy the console (Halo, GTA, etc) is "pretty well"

What a joke. Look at the first rate Gamecube exclusive titles: Metriod Prime (rated the 4th best game ever according to some), Zelda: Wind Waker, Super Mario Sunshine and Viewtiful Joe to name a few. Then we'll look at the first-rate XBox exclusive titles ........ (sound of pin dropping) ...... uuuuh, yeah.

Holy shit! An unreleased game (according to Mike) on GameRankings?

Good thing it isn't on Amazon, either, Mike. Or on GameStop.com, Mike. Or Toys R Us' website.

Good thing you only check EBGames.com, Mike... Otherwise you might actually have some facts to back up your claim.

Or, are these sites not worthy of your checking to make sure your foot doesn't end up in your mouth the moment you open it? "If it isn't on EBGames.com it doesn't exist!!!!"

The game looks interesting.. I'm a huge fan of Ghost Recon, hope this comes to the PC.

Keep in mind that this game is only similar to Ghost Recon and other such games (SOCOM, the Rainbow 6 games, etc) in that it deals with squad-based tactical combat. In all other respects, it's completely different. It's not a first-person shooter, nor even a third-person shooter. In fact, you never actually pull the trigger on a gun yourself (excepting grenades, but even that is still just giving orders to your soldiers but that you can pick exactly where you want the grenades to go). It has a lot more in common with a real-time strategy game than Ghost Recon. Take a RTS like C&C:G, remove the need to manage resources and the ability to create new units and perform upgrades, put the viewpoint at a battlefield-level third-person view, and constrain your movement options to only what your soldiers can see, and you're getting close to what FSW is like.

Personally, I love the game. I've been playing it since Wednesday. The retail game is very Hollywood, and fairly easy on lower difficulty levels (I've yet to try Authentic difficulty). Gamespot's review was correct when they complain about cover being all or nothing, though the seem to have neglected the destructable cover (cars, wooden carts, crates, etc that provide cover but can be destroyed out from in front of you). It seems that this was a concession made for playability in the retail version. It does lead to some Naked Gun-esque firefights where you can be only a few feet away from a bad guy and they can't hit your nor you them because the cover is too strong, but it also prevents you from "cheap" kills where you think you're in cover but not. The army version "fixes" this. Cover is only as good as what it's made from. You still have perfect cover if you're hiding behind a stone wall, or around a corner, but if you put your back up against a wooden fence you can expect to take a few rounds in your soldiers. The army mode also lets the AI move around a lot more, so that they're not always in the same place on every mission. The retail version seems to always have the enemies in the same place initially, but they do have freedom to run to new cover, or get scared and run away (happens, but rarely).

In short, the game rocks, but you'll be disappointed if you go into it expecting a Ghost Recon copy. Gamespot's review is really an anomaly in my opinion, and GameRanking's review aggregation seems to validate this. Supposedly it will make its way to the PC, but if you're into military simulation games this one is definitely worth buying an XBox. It controls perfectly with the gamepad (I would expect it to be worse with a mouse, in all honesty), and DD5.1 is required to play this game properly (audio situational awareness is key).

i'd really like them to release dragon warrior, final fantasy and faxanadu

i'd really like them to release dragon warrior, final fantasy and faxanadu

The MMORPG genre, across all platforms, has become an incredibly crowded and competitive marketplace. In response, Microsoft Game Studios has decided.

READ:

The MMORPG genre, across all platforms, has become an incredibly crowded and competitive marketplace. In response, Microsoft Game Studios has decided that 'True Fantasy Online' might be too blatant a rip-off of other RPGs from more experienced competition, especially given that the everyone's favorite pseudo-PC has had such great success in the exclusive RPG genre

C'mon, with a name like "True Fantasy Online", you're pretty much begging Japan to laugh at you. I guess this sort of adds insult to injury with regard to acceptance in Japan. But at least our Japanese brethren have an equally anticipated and deep game to play 'til Halo 2 comes and dies on a cross for our sins (or whatever ailment the Xbox evangelists are proclaiming it will heal)

Clicky link for the GameRankings thing, my bad.

Gamerankings.com has an interesting page where you can see the average rating of a game review site.
I belive that these numbers should be around 50% but they are around 75%

Link

I realize that you have an axe to grind against the Xbox, but it's pretty sad that you're willing to call KOTOR and Ninja Gaiden bad games just to make yourself feel justified.

I mean, check out Game Rankings and look up those two games. See the universally high ratings? Face it -- the game reviewers of the world are right, and you are wrong.

speed of loading

Barely anyone, including Microsoft themselves, use the caching abilities of the Xbox hard drive, thus leaving many games to have near PS2-ish load times. Ninja Gaiden does seem to use the hard drive, as it has about 5 seconds of loading when it does load, but most other games go on for 15 seconds or more. This is especially true of Microsoft published games, and if ANYONE should be using the hard drive how it is supposed to be, it should be Microsoft. Way for them to set an example.

Oh, and on average the GameCube has the fastest load times out of the three consoles; followed by the Xbox, on average; and then the PS2, on average. This doesn't apply in all games cases, as some games take a long time to load on one while others may load lightning quick; but on average the GameCube beats out both the Xbox and the PS2 for fastest loading times.

speed of saves

Depends on the game. Some games save lightning quick, other slow as molasses. Same thing for loading saved games. This is true on all three consoles, as well.

number of saves

Again, this depends on the game. For example, Ninja Gaiden only allows for 10 save game slots, other games (Halo for example) offer as few as 3 save game slots, while others offer unlimited slots.

amount of user-defined information

Care to elaborate on this one, chumpy? Because the only thing I can think of that comes close is my gamertag and credit card number for my XBL account.

downloaded content

I can give you this, to a degree. Downloadable content has, however, been far and few between for most games that offer it; and in some cases the 'downloadable content' is actually already on the game disk, but you need to download somethng to unlock it.

knowing that everyone has room for the save

How are they supposed to know that gamer X hasn't filled his Xbox hard drive with soundtracks? It isn't imposible, you know. It can be assumed the majority have room on their hard drives for saves, but it cannot be assumed that EVERYONE with an Xbox does.

custom soundtracks

Used in less than 10% of the entire Xbox library, hardly something that can be touted as a must have feature in the console.

That is technology that the Xbox has- that developers can use to create great games.

So why aren't there all the very best games on the Xbox? Hardware does not talent in game developers make. See: Kabuki Warriors, Kakuto Chojin, Tao Feng, Blinx, Azurik, Nightcaster, Obi-Wan, Kung Fu Chaos, Fusion Frenzy, Drake of the 99 Dragons, Bruce Lee, oh hell, just go to GameRankings, put in Xbox and worst games with as many results as you can find, and you will see 132 games for the Xbox have averaged a 65% or under (going by school terms, in my area a 64 is an F).

Again, hardware will not help one lick if the games suck already. As soon as people learn this, the world will be a smarter place.

Most of the people that play down the importance of things like on-line gaming (Live) are the ones that have never used it. For the rest of the people that do use it, it becomes very, very important.

While I enjoy playing my Live games, they aren't the be all and end all of gaming. I don't always need to hear smart mouthed 13 year olds cursing on their mics just because they want to sound 'mature' and other bullshit that happens on Live (can we say quitting before the end of something just because they're losing?).

Also, the numbers don't lie. A year plus to get up to 750k WORLDWIDE subscribers to Live... and around 14 million Xboxes shipped worldwide. That means only 5.3% of the Xboxes shipped have Live accounts on them. Hardly a number which states Live's importance to gaming. Either the 94.7% can't get online with their Xbox, or they just simply don't care about Live.

Not to worry, though, Sony claims to have 2 million online users worldwide, out of 70 million plus PS2s shipped. Or only 2.8% of the PS2's in the wild online.

It seems the masses don't agree with the importance of online gaming.

Indeed. Several times. There is at least metacritic, GameRankings and Rotten Tomatoes. The first and last of those also have other media reviews.

Numbers don't always suck though.

There are plenty of sites that average review scores. Others have already pointed out GameTab and Rotten Tomatoes. There is also GameStats, Gaming Chart and Game Rankings

Game Rankings in particular is good because they include a "difference" listing for each site to compare how far their reviews are from the average of each game.

For example, you can see that the average PSX Nation review is 8.5% higher than the average.

Numbers don't always suck though.

There are plenty of sites that average review scores. Others have already pointed out GameTab and Rotten Tomatoes. There is also GameStats, Gaming Chart and Game Rankings

Game Rankings in particular is good because they include a "difference" listing for each site to compare how far their reviews are from the average of each game.

For example, you can see that the average PSX Nation review is 8.5% higher than the average.

hmmmm

Time Splitters 2
Game spy
Game Spot
Computer and Video games review>
Game Pro

Grabbed by the Ghoulies
Game Spy
Game Spot
Game Zone
Team XBox

So what do we see here? "Time Splitters 2" has glowing reviews, "Grabbed by the Ghoulies" is at best considered average, and below average by most. I am not sure what all this means, oh right your next line is likely something about how "reviews are crap" or something like that.

hmmmm

Time Splitters 2
Game spy
Game Spot
Computer and Video games review>
Game Pro

Grabbed by the Ghoulies
Game Spy
Game Spot
Game Zone
Team XBox

So what do we see here? "Time Splitters 2" has glowing reviews, "Grabbed by the Ghoulies" is at best considered average, and below average by most. I am not sure what all this means, oh right your next line is likely something about how "reviews are crap" or something like that.

hmmmm

Time Splitters 2
Game spy
Game Spot
Computer and Video games review>
Game Pro

Grabbed by the Ghoulies
Game Spy
Game Spot
Game Zone
Team XBox

So what do we see here? "Time Splitters 2" has glowing reviews, "Grabbed by the Ghoulies" is at best considered average, and below average by most. I am not sure what all this means, oh right your next line is likely something about how "reviews are crap" or something like that.

hmmmm

Time Splitters 2
Game spy
Game Spot
Computer and Video games review>
Game Pro

Grabbed by the Ghoulies
Game Spy
Game Spot
Game Zone
Team XBox

So what do we see here? "Time Splitters 2" has glowing reviews, "Grabbed by the Ghoulies" is at best considered average, and below average by most. I am not sure what all this means, oh right your next line is likely something about how "reviews are crap" or something like that.

hmmmm

Time Splitters 2
Game spy
Game Spot
Computer and Video games review>
Game Pro

Grabbed by the Ghoulies
Game Spy
Game Spot
Game Zone
Team XBox

So what do we see here? "Time Splitters 2" has glowing reviews, "Grabbed by the Ghoulies" is at best considered average, and below average by most. I am not sure what all this means, oh right your next line is likely something about how "reviews are crap" or something like that.

hmmmm

Time Splitters 2
Game spy
Game Spot
Computer and Video games review>
Game Pro

Grabbed by the Ghoulies
Game Spy
Game Spot
Game Zone
Team XBox

So what do we see here? "Time Splitters 2" has glowing reviews, "Grabbed by the Ghoulies" is at best considered average, and below average by most. I am not sure what all this means, oh right your next line is likely something about how "reviews are crap" or something like that.

hmmmm

Time Splitters 2
Game spy
Game Spot
Computer and Video games review>
Game Pro

Grabbed by the Ghoulies
Game Spy
Game Spot
Game Zone
Team XBox

So what do we see here? "Time Splitters 2" has glowing reviews, "Grabbed by the Ghoulies" is at best considered average, and below average by most. I am not sure what all this means, oh right your next line is likely something about how "reviews are crap" or something like that.

hmmmm

Time Splitters 2
Game spy
Game Spot
Computer and Video games review>
Game Pro

Grabbed by the Ghoulies
Game Spy
Game Spot
Game Zone
Team XBox

So what do we see here? "Time Splitters 2" has glowing reviews, "Grabbed by the Ghoulies" is at best considered average, and below average by most. I am not sure what all this means, oh right your next line is likely something about how "reviews are crap" or something like that.

Strangely enough, it was called Rocky. Personally, I think that the Game Rankings score of 79% is a little too high.

(since I've already posted, I sure hope someone with mod status tags the parent as flamebait or troll)

Um, you do realize that I was the Lead Programmer on DX:IW, right?

As far as reviews go, DX:IW ended up with marginally worse reviews than its predecessor, see:
GameRankings or
MetaCritic

Note that the vast majority of reviews are in the 80-100% range. And then read a few of the ones that aren't to get a gauge on their quality.

Anyway, sorry that you didn't like the game. I hope that our future endeavors are more to your liking.

Well, the xbox line up is particularly strong in sports and FPS, while the GCN is stronger in adventure-like games, Zelda and Metroid style. Jost go to Gamerankings, click on Rankings and select the console you want to check from the list.

SaGa Frontier was a console RPG from Square for the Playstation 1 that passed almost unnoticed in the USA (the weird and argueably broken gameplay presumably had something to do with it). One of the playable characters was a woman, Asellus, who developed a somewhat romantic relationship with another female character. I remember finding out about this in the GIA review, and corraborated later when I had the chance to play the game.

For some reason I didn't consider this that shocking... I've always found that anime and manga are open to same-sex relationships and gender-bending characters (like the lesbian couple in Sailor Moon and the affeminate Pisces Aphrodite in Saint Seiya), so I wasn't that shocked to find it out in a japanese videogame. But it was pretty novel for american released videogames for that time - I don't think Nintendo would have allowed during the NES or SNES eras!

http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/554980.asp

I want emulators because I am a purist and I get frustrated with the tiny little changes Nintendo continues to insist on making when they rerelease a classic game on the GBA. Link, Yoshi, and Mario now make their annoying N64/Gamecube sounds. Yoshi and Caped Mario can no longer bounce from saw to saw in the Cheese Bridge Level. You have to buy add-on cards to get powerups. If these were complete remakes of the games I might understand, but when games are mostly unchanged, the minor changes become very distracting and do nothing but alienate the nostalgic audience Nintendo is marketing the games to. I personally bought and discarded copies of Super Mario World, Yoshi's Island, and Zelda: Four Swords, because I couldn't deal with the annoying changes that were thrown in.

If you want an example of a remake done right, look at Metroid: Zero Mission. It's a complete remake of the original Metroid, taking full advantage of the GBA's new technology. It's a great new game on it's own, and as a bonus, it includes an emulated and completely unchanged copy of the original game. The only enhancement is that it saves your password for you so you don't have to write it down. This way you get to play through an entirely new game filled with homages to your old favorite, and then get to play through the original for old times' sake. With Zero Mission I felt like I got more than my $30 worth and walked away a very happy customer, unlike the other remakes (SMW,Yoshi,Zelda) where I was paying new-game price for an inferior version of a game I already had.

I hope Nintendo learns for Zero Mission's popularity and continues to follow its model. If not, I will exert every effort I can to circumvent their meddling: be it by emulation or other means, I am determined to play the ORIGINAL game.

Deus Ex (PC): 89.3% ("B+")
Deus Ex: IW (PC): 82.0% ("B-")
Deus Ex: IW (Xbox): 85.5% ("B")
Slashdot Games commentators: Whiny bitches ("D-")

It took Midway forever to transition from arcade development, but it looks like they are back with a vengeance. I wonder if it will keep up past those two titles, PsiOps and MK this xmas?

Are you thinking of Jet Li's Rise To Honor? It was mentioned in the article. :)

So... you might say it's like a "Hidden Invasion" ...

The Simpsons: Hit and Run actually did quite well in the long format. It was fairly entertaining throughout.

I don't know if one successful Simpsons video game necessarily indicates a successful movie implementation, but it does demonstrate that with clever writing and good pacing, a Simpsons storyline can be carried out well past the 1/2 hr. mark.

call of duty.

This is exactly what you are looking for.

The game has amazing graphics and sound, it's fun, and overall i would say the average skill level you will find while playing online is low, when compared to bf1942 or cs.

But you don't have to take my word for it:
rottentomatoes.com 96%
gamerankings.com 92%
gamespy pc game of the year 2003
shacknews pc game of the year 2003
ign best pc action, best sound, best multiplayer game of the year, 2003
etc

Not to mention, killing russians never gets old ;)

Think about it:
...
Geist (Halo clone)

You should reserve judgement on a game until you've seen more than just a couple of screenshots... From my understanding, this game will be a bit more like Messiah, in that you are infact a ghost of sorts, and the object of the game is to complete certain objectives by possesing the in game inhabitants.. the difference lies in the fact the in Geist, you have to scare the bejezus out of your potential flesh vessel before you can take them over...

Halo clone? I think not... except maybe that they're both from a first person perspective... but if that were case, wouldn't HL2 just be a Catacombs3D clone?

I know it's one of the games I'm looking for, and it's certainly not because it's a Halo clone (if it was, I prolly wouldn't even know it's name)

Dominion was one of the first Ion Storm titles released, and was almost universally panned.

In the game, regular sounds come from the TV, but a tormentor speaks to you through your headset (if you are so equipped). Also, stealth is an important part of the game, and people who are trying to kill you hear your voice in the microphone. You can use the tactic to distract others.

• Pitfall
• Spy Hunter
• Tron