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This 'preview' is an excerpt from the manual concerning game races. Would my copying the spell section from the Neverwinter manual qualify as a 'preview'? It's as detailed as Cheesetor's review of Grand Theft Auto: "It's the best game in the world. You can steal cars, shoot cops and run over prostitutes!" Elftor

Slashdot, don't waste our time.

For more detailed previews of the game, check out Gamerankings

As a rule of thumb, I visit third-party sites for product reviews. These sites do have links to the given products and earn a little on comissions, but in general strive to provide an objective and balanced service.

Check out Game Rankings for some overviews of scores only. This can help weed out the trash on each system, and highlight some great buys.

I'm a Nintendo fan myself so here are some resoucres I have found helpful:

Planet Gamecube - Great news, reviews, and info
IGN Cube - lots of Insider-only material, but decent reviews.
N-Sider - They update very infrequently, but their reviews and editorials are insightful and some of the best I have seen.

My own GC picks (in no order):

Metroid Prime
Timesplitters 2
Super Mario Sunshine (you should have this already!)
Super Smash Brothers: Melee (same here)
Super Monkey Ball 2
Eternal Darkness (although it was released a while ago)
Pikmin (this one as well)
Animal Crossing
Sonic Mega Collection

But if you don't have one yet, buy a Gamboy Advance! It has many, many excellent titles, and is portable!

Half.com
Amazon.com
Ebay.com
GameRankings.com
UsedGames.com
Recycle-Video-Games.com
ABC-VideoGames.com

Heck Gamestop even has their own site . You can always try on their site instead of going to the store. I am not sure if they have a fully integrated web site and brick and mortor store. If they don't they should hire me to fix that! :)

Imagine a cross between Harvest Moon and The Sims. The player controls a small, cartoonish character and basically lives their life. You begin by getting a mortgage on a house, which you then have to pay off by performing tasks for the other villagers in town. There are also Pokemon-like collection aspects to Animal Crossing in that it features over 40 species of insects, dozens of fossils to discover (which you can sell for profit or donate to the museum), and also tons of fruit to collect and sell (or consume). You are also given a rating on your house, depending on how good your Feng Shui is. Actions affect how other villagers react to you. If you dig up their gardens, they'll stop being curteous to you, and eventually run the other way when you come around.

But the game is about communication. You can visit other people's villages by inserting both your and your friend's memory card in the Gamecube. Items can then be traded with each other and collections can be completed. Don't have friends? You can also trade over the Internet by providing passwords that are keyed to the player name and the village name. There is already at least one good community for trading.

Finally, the game runs in real time, based off of the Gamecube's internal clock. If you can only play after work, then the villagers will begin to make fun of you for being a night owl. Holidays occur on their specific days, and special things happen (presents exchanged on Christmas, girlfriends on Valentine's Day, etc). Also, you will receive presents on your own birthday (set at the start of the game). Seasons change, and snow or leaves fall according to the season. Sales happen during specific hours, and if you miss it, you miss the sale. And don't try to reset the clock - if you do, a character named Resetti will be coming after you and bother you with text for a full 5 minutes.

How does this relate to the story at Slashdot? One of the things to collect are first party NES games. Donkey Kong, Pinball, Ice Climbers, Balloon Brothers, and dozens more are available. All of them can either be played in-game or downloaded to the Gameboy Advance for play on the road (until the power is switched off, it's stored in RAM).

I advise anybody who's into addictive, play-for-30-minutes-a-day-everyday games to buy it. You won't be disappointed. Now if you'll excuse me, Tanooki is having a sale on coconuts in an hour and I don't wanna miss it.

The MTV Music Generator series seemed to fit the bill for a music construction kit. As an added bonus, it was released for the PSX and PC, and the sequel was released for the PS2.

Remember: Before you Ask Slashdot, Ask Google.

That's why, despite my love for the look and feel of MacOS (I first got started on Macs), I could never buy an Apple machine. I like hooking up new bits of hardware, and being able to use almost all PC games, and being 100% interoperable with the hardware and software used by 85-90% of my fellow home computer users.

Oh please, this argument is so old and so bogus.
Seriously, how many PC-only games have you really
played that were worth playing and didn't
end up on either the Mac or some console? The only
one in my catalog (and basically, the only reason
I even turn on my PC anymore) is Evercrack. In the
future, all I see coming down the pipe is SWG. As
for everything else, feh. If owning a Mac means I
don't get to play Odium or Mortyr,
then hey, I win.

And on your first point, really, how the hell much
hardware are you really gonna plug into your
machine? Unless you've got money coming out the
proverbial wazoo, that routine's not gonna last
long.

OS X is a fine OS. But it doesn't have the hardware and software support many, and perhaps most, want.

Provide examples of lack of hardware support. Hell,
provide examples of lack of software support that
most of these "home users" you supposedly speak
for truly need.

SSX was a great game at launch time. Tekken Tag was pretty, as well. And anyone who tells you that Sky Odessy wasn't worth $50 (let alone the scant $15 it can be found at in places now) is smoking some serious industrial solvents.

If, by "killer app", you mean "game that people will buy the console for, sight unseen", then yes, GT3 was probably the first of those (although Twisted Metal" Black could also qualify).

MGSX is still a rumo(u)r. There's been no confirmation from anyone re: an XBox Metal Gear. Indications are that if there is one, Kojima won't play an active role in developing said game.

As for Genesis vs. SNES, well, Genesis didn't have FF or Super Mario World, now did it?

I think it speaks volumes about a game's quality when a handheld remake of a 10-year-old 16-bit game can garner innumerable praises.

Now let's all hope that Super Mario Sunshine is a great game...

There were also other things to dislike. While Materia building was optional in FF7, FF8 was spent with hours and hours of painfully drawing spells from enemies. While FF7 kept a brisk clip, FF8 didn't let you skip those 3-minute attack spell animations. And there is also the best bad-guy debate: Sephiroth or that old womanie thingie from another dimension that didn't appear until right at the end.

It's not a very heated debate.

And yes, if you were there at the time, Square's original intentions with FF8 were to have the players play as both sides of a war-torn conflict. This was abandoned, due to financial considerations, and the plan at the time was to release FF8 and 9 as an intertwining series that fully realized the story according to the original vision. The story was never realized. I can't seem to find any trace of this on the web... the original stories were printed in mags such as Game Fan and VG&CE.

I had never before heard anyone claim that FF VIII was the worst in the series.

Well, now you have. Don't you feel better?

However, since I have heard different people claim that each of FF IV, V, VI, and VII were generally regarded as the best in the series, I guess I should be used to people making bullshit claims about the relative popularity of Final Fantasy without any data to back it up.

We're not talking about data here, we're talking personal preference. Yes, as far as I can tell from the people I've spoken to FF8 ranks below FF7 in terms of popularity. People have lovey-dovey feelings towards FF2, 3, and 7, that not many (in my experience) have towards 8. It just didn't evoke the same sort of reaction. People have feelings towards Porum and Palom, towards the destruction of the planet, towards the suicide of Celes, toward our bifrucated Cloud, towards the giant Whale, towards gold saucer, and towards moogles / namingways / chocobos that just don't have corresponding moments in 8. Sure, 8 was a good game with some good moments (like the parade of the queen), but none were as gripping as the killing of Aeris.

From a personal standpoint, many people feel FF2, 3, or 7 closest to their heart. Mine happens to be 3 with a close second to 7. Your mileage may vary.

It's a very good game, with heavy focus on flanking units, configuring well-balanced troops, and actual STRATEGY, with an innovative and streamlined resource management model. It's highly recommended to anybody who wants to play a strategy game.

I think you may need to spend a bit more time absorbing the wisdom of Penny Arcade.

But you're right. If you're looking for bland photorealism, Gamecube is the wrong place for you. I've seen it mentioned elsewhere, and I think its true, that 3d graphics rendering is similar to oil pantings from one to two hundred years ago, where photorealism is quickly developing, and surrealism develops.

My suggestion is to read the lowest rating and maybe one of the more verbose high ratings. Of course, as always, keep your wits about you to guard against fanboys and trolls.

As for the games that were ported over from Windows, Why not just go and check a place like Gamerankings.com and see a good compilation of reviews? All you have to do is check on the games that have been ported to Linux and figure it out from there!

For my money, though, Xbill is excellent :-)

*nudge nudge* Reviews of Halo are off the charts...

Kohan is apparently a rather traditional fantasy RTS, but also a pretty darn good (as in "Done Right"). At least that's what I get from reading the reviews.

Gameraider

Gamespot

Gamerankings

I am going to give it a try.

--Flam,
who has never played games as little as the time when he was paid for it.

Still, I'm gonna miss the peep show. I'm sad to see you go, Daily Radar.
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