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I get all of the images for the Slashdot videogame reviews from GameTab, which hosts the buckets and buckets of promo screenshots that game companies put out. I'm not actually on that many PR lists, so I use this resource to ensure there are shinies on our game reviews.

I agree with the implication you're making: Twilight Princess did *not* look that good on my TV. But, it didn't look half bad either. I just got the component cables for the Wii the other day, and on my set (which does up to 1080i), it looks really really nice. I'd rather have slightly nicer-than-the-real thing images than nothing at all, which is what my choice was here.

The request you're making, that I take my own screenshots, is something that I'd very much like to do myself. However, I'm just not set up for such a thing here. See, the first step along that path would be to hook a PC up to my home entertainment setup. As I have a.) a wife and b.) no spare PCs lying around, that plan pretty much stalls out before it even leaves the hanger. :)

See Gametab.

No wonder the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory game was so awful. David was too busy watching cinematics and writing articles to develop a decent game. Fortunately, the cinematics in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory skippable. Unfortunately, skipping some of the cinematics caused bugs.

Its all in the *games* guys... and so far the delivery of good games just hasn't happened.

Err. Maybe you don't have any friends, because I could have sworn I that playing DOA4 just last week on my friend's Xbox 360 was an absolute blast. Project Gotham is also a fantastic game. Call Of Duty 2 also looks great and plays well - but to hate 360 because there happens to be a first person shooter or two in the lauch lineup is, at best - illogical.

How many A+ launch titles do you need anyway? Gametab lists 11 launch titles with ratings of over 80%. Most 360 owners will have picked out just one or two games from the launch lineup.

I only picked up the X-Box because of Steel Battalions

(1) It's "Xbox", not "X-Box".

(2) If you bought a $200 game for a $300 system - you, sir, are not necessarily the target market. You're a crazy lunatic "I only play games with Japanese voiceovers" import gamer, aren't you?

Ratchet, Sly 3, God of War

Wow. That's hardkore. Congratulations. Soon all games will be third-person action adventures - and YOU will be to blame. I can't think of anything more bland than yet another a third person action adventure. Just couldn't get enough Mario 64, eh?

Need for Speed Underground

I... I'm sorry. Did it hurt?

I'm supposed to be impressed by Live Arcade so I can play games I can play for free in Flash online

Talk out of your ass much, or does Sony do it for you? Have you even seen Xbox 360 Live Arcade - particularly Geometry Wars?

Or maybe you couldn't find a 360 at the store yet, are regretting the second PS2 and thought you'd badmouth the 360 to make yourself feel better?

Where are all these people that have $500C for a game system with no games?

[snorts milk out of nose] Uh-huh... yah, there are no games for the Xbox 360.

What drugs are you on? There are 18 launch titles, 7 of which are currently getting reviews greater than 80%. And that's not counting the games on Xbox Live Arcade.

Project Gotham Racing 3 - 92%
Call of Duty 2 Screenshots - 90%
Condemned: Criminal Origins - 82%
Need for Speed Most Wanted - 82%
Kameo: Elements of Power Screenshots - 80%
Tony Hawk's American Wasteland - 80%
Gun - 78%

Personally, I hardly ever need to check reviews by the time a PC game has hit stores. I'll know way before that point if I'm interested in buying or not. Everything gets preview'd beforehand. If somehow a stinker slips by me and onto my PC, I'll return it if possible and get my money back.

Only review I remember being super helpful was this one for Space Rangers 2. Never heard of it before finding the review but it been quite a time soak. :)

Eurogamer Review

Company site

GoGamer is one of the few places that has it

Just a few.

If this "F.E.A.R." game really requires a $500 graphic card to play then they can keep it. It's just a game, you'll play it and be bored within a week. Meanwhile you're still out the $500 and your computer is taking "yet more power" to run.

I've only played the demo for F.E.A.R., but I was singularly under-impressed by the graphics - or rather, the design and artwork. Yes, it had fully dynamic shadows (but no radiosity), all sorts of refractive shaders and gloss-mapped, normal-mapped and parallax-mapped everything, but it didn't seem to do anything with that capability, beyond some hopelessly generic, cramped warehouses and pipe-filled rooms.

Turning the graphical settings up to maximum was a bit of an eye-opener on my not-cutting-edge GeForce 6600. I ended up with incredibly simple, blocky corridors making the game run at around 15fps, presumably because of the computationally expensive shadows and (naff-looking) shaders on the walls - despite all that, it wasn't exactly aesthetically pleasing.

When Half-Life 2's engine can do something like this on my PC with a decent resolution and 4X anti-aliasing at around 30-40fps, when F.E.A.R. might manage this at around 15fps, I do wonder if games engines are heading in the wrong direction. It's not so much 'optimisation' as 'making the best use of what's available'...

Easy, reload the Dell site every day until you hit a day with a sale and a coupon. I just bought a 21" monitor there and the total after shipping came to $529, but it was $489 before shipping.

They've got a 20.1" one there right now for $561.75, and two minutes on google will net you a $75 off coupon. They had a 19" version for $287 the other day... It's hard to find a good 19" CRT for much less that isn't a refurb.

BTW, that 20.1" monitor has a biger viewable size than your 21" CRT. Even the 19" version is bigger than the viewable on many 21" CRTs.

The Frugal Gamer website does a decent job of keeping tabs on the Dell sales and coupon codes.

The newest somewhat-high-profile adventure game is probably Another Code/Trace Memory by Cing/Nintendo.

Hopefully, this won't be the last good adventure game for the DS. I think the DS with its touchscreen might kind of start a new trend towards adventure-ish games.

How about the differences between American box art and Japanese box art?

There seems to be a trend to totally ruin the simplistic and quite often wonderful box art that Japan gets when a game comes to America. It's almost as if they (the companies) feel the need to dumb down the art here in order to reach out to a market that just does not understand videogames.

One of the most blaring examples is Ico. In America we get a box with some kid with a stick in his hand and a bunch of other random stuff on there. Sure, it does relate to the game but it doesn't make the game look very good. American box art.

Now compare that image to the one from Japan.
Japanese box art

Sure, it has the same stuff that the American one has, the boy with the stick, the girl, the windmill, but it has a much more ethereal quality to it which more captures the feel of the game, which for those of you who haven't played it, it's more what the game itself is like, simple, quiet, and a visual treat.

Another example is Final Fantasy VII.

Scroll down to the bottom. Compare the simple white of the Japanese to the more action-y (Cloud with his huge sword) American version.

No, it's just you.

I'd describe 1-up as a bleeding-edge website. They're based around a hardcore community of jaded console gamers who've played everything. I get the whole scary "I beat every Zelda game thousands of times" vibe from it. And it's no suprise to hear them beating on Nintendo's oldest machine (the Gameboy) - but it's only because they love it and can't see a "Zelda - The Next One" game on it with the focus on the DS and whatever the Revolution drags in with it.

I don't frequently visit 1-up, but I do pop over from Gametab to read an occasional article and I've not hated what I've seen so far.

Even if the content wasn't intended to be accessible, Rockstar developed it and burned it to disc. It failed to disclose that to the ratings board. This isn't the result of hackers creating porn using the GTA engine. This is actually a locked part of the game. http://www.gametab.com/news/321173/ Imagine you buy a house and the realtor tells you there are no skeletons in the closet. That shouldn't mean there are lots of skeletons in the closet but the closet is locked. If it is your home, you'll find a way to open that closet door, lock or not.

GTA is rated M, or 17+. It says so right on the box. This is NOT a game for kids.

Believe it or not, there are many parents out there who don't allow their kids to watch movies or play games because they have either too much violence or too much sex. They don't want to expose their kids to what in their view is not a good influence. They use the ratings on movies and video games, and often check out the material themselves.

They know that children need guidence and that the kids may not understand many of the things that seem obvious to adults.
Sure, there are some parents who believe that children should be exposed to everything and draw their own conclusions about their experiences, but these people are a minority.

So the "This is America, violence is OK but sex is not" statement simply isn't true when it comes to most parents. It's used by politicians who are trying to appeal to a specific demographic.

This article: http://www.gametab.com/news/316739/, even though it seems to be written by a non-techie, implies that animal crossing DS will have a USB to DS cable that connects directly, as an alternative to using a normal router. This seems much more likely than a wifi bridge.

A single 0% rating (or 1% if your system doesn't allow for 0) would bump the median down a lot. What you'd need would be deviation from average score for games rated > 80%.

Wabam!

If you have to read every rumor just goto Gametab

One of the most popular PSP titles with critics and gamers has been Lumines. It has also been one of the games flying off the shelves the fastest. It's being hailed as the best puzzle game since Tetris. Only time will tell if Lumines performs as a system seller in the same way that Tetris did for the original GameBoy. From the list of PSP titles at the site you can see that driving games in particular are performing well at launch.

GameTab - The Game News & Reviews Compilation Site

One of the most popular PSP titles with critics and gamers has been Lumines. It has also been one of the games flying off the shelves the fastest. It's being hailed as the best puzzle game since Tetris. Only time will tell if Lumines performs as a system seller in the same way that Tetris did for the original GameBoy. From the list of PSP titles at the site you can see that driving games in particular are performing well at launch.

GameTab - The Game News & Reviews Compilation Site

One of the most popular PSP titles with critics and gamers has been Lumines. It has also been one of the games flying off the shelves the fastest. It's being hailed as the best puzzle game since Tetris. Only time will tell if Lumines performs as a system seller in the same way that Tetris did for the original GameBoy. From the list of PSP titles at the site you can see that driving games in particular are performing well at launch.

GameTab - The Game News & Reviews Compilation Site

And don't forget Hit and Run... though nothing can compare to the old favourites like Virtual Bart.

Of course, on the flipside there was...

By counting Game Tab's list (I did it a primitive way; just counted the number of games that fit on a screen and counted the number of screens I had to scroll down), I got approx 388.

Game Tab might miss some games, I'm not sure.

I never ever read HomeLAN Fed for news. I only happened upon there if a GameTab feed looked interesting.

So long.

" but since when has Sony or Nintendo cared that much about baseball?"

Speaking of...

"In a surprise move, Nintendo today announced it will release its own baseball title, Nintendo Pennant Chase Baseball. The game is being developed by Exile Interactive, the studio that brought Sega's World Series Baseball 2K3 to the plate. It will be available on April 4 exclusively for the GameCube."

more here: http://www.gametab.com/news/205656/

Every decent movie has a lame game tucked on it and vice versa.

BTW, the latest game based on a movie license, The Chronicles of Riddick: The Escape from Butcher Bay is actually one of the best action titles of the year with many reviewers saying it was even better than the 2004 big three (Far Cry, Doom 3 and Half-Life 2). Movie spin-offs don't have to suck.

Keep an eye on Gametab's Frugal Gamer and you should be able to pick it up for ~$35 ($40 here). Whatever you pay, it's worth every penny.. it even just won Gamespy's GOTY award and a number of other awards (best character - Dog!).

here: http://www.gametab.com/xbox/halo.2/1472/

According to this it will be available for $45 at Circuit City this Friday. I would think that other retailers might follow suit. However, I think you're on to something since UT 2004 went for $35 initially and sold very well. On the other hand, every retailer is selling out so it's not like people aren't buying it. Personally, I couldn't wait. I got it last night and it's worth every penny so far.

Doom 3 fast approaches, and the newest edition of PC Gamer has the "world exclusive" review. How did it score? It scored a 94%. Check out its highs, lows and bottom line:

Highs: Extraordinary graphics and sound; incredible tension, atmosphere, and mayhem.

Lows: Some stabs at humor fall a bit flat.

Bottom Line: Just as we'd hoped, it's a non-stop ride of tension, carnage and terror. A new classic.

Here's the cover.

Check out this HardForum Thread for more information.

UPDATE: Here's some more info I've found over at NVNews:The game will apparantly have a DVD version. There are multiple covers for the PC Gamer mag and the game boxes are different than the pre-order boxes.

August 4th, in stores...August 4th in stores!!!

Over on GameTab you can see the large version of the game box and information on the PC Gamer review. Only time will tell whether the other reviews and gamers fall in line with PC Gamer's opinion.

Here's some more info on the review:

And the cover of the issue.

so check one of the meta review sites. read some bad reviews, read some good reviews, spot the plugs[click ad to continue(tm)], and be well.

i'm still in the (game from movie == junk) camp myself but thats what rentals are for.

This is the reason sites like this are created: GameTab Driv3r Reviews

They've also set up a nifty page where you can see all of the E3 headlines as they happen. They're a great news aggregator!

They've also set up a nifty page where you can see all of the E3 headlines as they happen. They're a great news aggregator!

But when you make a poor-quality game, all the screenshots won't help you. They can guarantee you initial interest, but not a favourable review. Consider Unreal II - with amazing (at that time) graphics it had a shitty story and shitty everything else. It got bad press.

The four biggest upcoming FPS games are not hyped for their graphics, or at least not for graphics alone. Half-Life 2 is supposed to have great story, great character animation, great AI and great physics. Doom 3 is supposed to have great gameplay and be really scary. Stalker is supposed to have a detailed simulation of the world and great AI. Duke Nukem Forever (I've heard it will be out soon) is supposed to have an extremely fun and cool game - graphics are pretty much irrelevant.

Sigh, just look through their press releases section and see how many times they mention Star Wars. While they have had some really good Star Wars games, there are lots of low quality ones that counted on the Star Wars name to sell. I have seen some of these that despite their low scores, they managed to end selling enough copies to be re-released at a cheaper price though programs like Sony's "Greatest Hits" series.

And it looks like their innovation and originality dying even more, they recently announced Mercenaries which is a generic 3rd person military unit behind enemy lines preventing North Korea from releasing nukes. Gee, I wonder where they got that *brilliant* plot, who would have ever thought about one involving North Korea and nuclear weapons in this day and age?

Even with their recently released original titles things haven't been going well. I wonder if those who canned Sam & Max 2 were also responsible for giving RTX Red Rock and Wrath Unleashed the ok. Plus games like Gladius and Armed and Dangerous probably could have done better if they were given more time. Now it looks like Lucasarts is going to take the safe and easy route by releasing cliches and Star Wars titles.

I can understand the canceling of Full Throttle 2, it was not living up to the original(I recall some game magazines who got to play some of it were disappointed ) and they didn't want to disappoint the fans. But I can't really deal with their canceling of Sam & Max 2 when things seemed to be top quality. Even Steve Purcell thought it was good, and I trust him more then Lucasarts with how Lucasarts has been doing for the last few years.

I think it was about two years ago the company head was going on about how they were going to restore things back to Lucasarts past history of releasing high quality and original titles, and look at how *well* they have accomplished that. While the games were original, they did not have the old Lucasarts quality and game play wise were quite poor. They have pretty much failed at producing high quality original titles, their releasing anymore adventure games seems unlikely, and are pretty much producing just Star Wars games. Thus for now I have given up with Lucasarts, unless they under go through some drastic changes I don't see anything worth my while being released by them.

Sigh, just look through their press releases section and see how many times they mention Star Wars. While they have had some really good Star Wars games, there are lots of low quality ones that counted on the Star Wars name to sell. I have seen some of these that despite their low scores, they managed to end selling enough copies to be re-released at a cheaper price though programs like Sony's "Greatest Hits" series.

And it looks like their innovation and originality dying even more, they recently announced Mercenaries which is a generic 3rd person military unit behind enemy lines preventing North Korea from releasing nukes. Gee, I wonder where they got that *brilliant* plot, who would have ever thought about one involving North Korea and nuclear weapons in this day and age?

Even with their recently released original titles things haven't been going well. I wonder if those who canned Sam & Max 2 were also responsible for giving RTX Red Rock and Wrath Unleashed the ok. Plus games like Gladius and Armed and Dangerous probably could have done better if they were given more time. Now it looks like Lucasarts is going to take the safe and easy route by releasing cliches and Star Wars titles.

I can understand the canceling of Full Throttle 2, it was not living up to the original(I recall some game magazines who got to play some of it were disappointed ) and they didn't want to disappoint the fans. But I can't really deal with their canceling of Sam & Max 2 when things seemed to be top quality. Even Steve Purcell thought it was good, and I trust him more then Lucasarts with how Lucasarts has been doing for the last few years.

I think it was about two years ago the company head was going on about how they were going to restore things back to Lucasarts past history of releasing high quality and original titles, and look at how *well* they have accomplished that. While the games were original, they did not have the old Lucasarts quality and game play wise were quite poor. They have pretty much failed at producing high quality original titles, their releasing anymore adventure games seems unlikely, and are pretty much producing just Star Wars games. Thus for now I have given up with Lucasarts, unless they under go through some drastic changes I don't see anything worth my while being released by them.

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.

there was an episode of X-Play the other day that had a trucking game that I just had to laught out loud at. No collision detection, you raced against an oppontent that never moved, and there was no sound AT ALL.

You're probably talking about "Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing," which was mentioned back in January here on Slashdot. From what I've seen of the game, it truly is one of the buggiest/worst games of all time, leading to its staggering 4% rating at Gametab.

Remember Next Generation magazine? That was the last seriously credible game review mag - and I was pretty upset when they folded.

Everybody I know uses online game reviews no (eg: Gametab and Metacritic). I'm not sure that a pure game print mag is able to survive anymore. Those that are left are probably still alive because they've resorted to using sex to try and help sell themselves.

If you take a look at the game's different reviews, you will notice that the average critics' score is 84%. Now I do not want to sound like some kind of demented fanatic - I know that 84% is a good score -, but in my opinion, the game really is underrated for what it is in terms of gameplay, longetivity, graphics, and story. I know I sound kind of biased, and as a fan of the PlayStation edition I'm sure I am, but surely Metal Gear Solid deserves more than that even as just introduced to new players.

Firstly, such an amazing gameplay surely deserves a bit more acclaim than it is currently getting. Some will call it 'out-dated' - those are the people who haven't really played the game but just checked the original release date and wan't to sound as if they know something about it. Great gameplay is never out-of-date. Metal gear Solid was, and still is, a game that you could play for days on end simply because the gameplay is pure fun; there are so much ways to play through the game, and now, the game has all the best things from its sequel: amazing AI, new moves, first-person-shooting, and general increased environment interactivity. I could already play the original game for a long time without even getting near the pit of boredom; now I have even more ways to play the game, more diverse ways to get through it. How could that possibly not make this gem shine even more?

Sure, once you will have played through the game a few times, you will be able to finish it in less than a few hours, but just being able to play through it in so many different ways will be what will make you come back to playing it over and over again. I just do not see how you can get bored of Metal gear Solid.

Silicon Knights have greatly updated the graphics, and it is a real pleasure to play through the game with 'next-generation' graphics. It makes the gameplay even more pleasurable, even more enjoyable. Some people say that 'gameplay is more important than graphics'. Metal gear Solid: The Twin Snakes has both great gameplay and updated graphics; what more could one want?

As for the story, well this is where the opinions are more diverse. The game is basically story-driven, and that is a bit of "the problem". Players of the original edition will remember hours upon hours - literally - of CODEC conversations, about nuclear war, government, terrorists and discrete love twists. Some will love the story, and I belong to that batch, but some will just want to get a refund because they asked for a game and not for a movie. The game's story is a bit like Marmite - you either love it or hate it - but you'll just have to do with it, because you can't skip the nigh-on 30 minute conversations, which you can probably do without. It seems Silicon Knights has not added a skip function, from what i have red in the reviews, and this is a feature they should not have overlooked, because of all the complaints when the game came out, most were about these "hellish" conversations. You will have been warned; if you wan't non-stop action, you will be somewhat disappointed.

All I have to say is, beyond the long conversations which cut the gameplay every so often - depicting a story you may love to follow or love to hate -, if you do not buy this game, you will be missing out on a gem of gameplay, one of the pioneers of the "stealth'-em-up" revolution. In my opinion, this will be a future 'must-have' for GameCube owners, and the memories which will be forged will be worth much more than the scores the reviews give to the game.

Where'd you get that impression? Deus Ex 2 for PC... average review : 80%. Looks like the critics liked it but the public stayed away. Too bad, I'm about halfway through and I'm liking the game.

Direct Torrent

Courtesy of GameTab.

You're probably right, I was thinking more like what I see here. Files are typically at least 5-10 megs, and when they are popular, they are very popular.

The problem with Square's games is that there is no actual game embedded within the product. Unless repetitive "random encounters", a level treadmill - and clicking "next" on a trillion annoying NPC speeches - is your definition of good gameplay.

Final Fantasy beats you over the head with the visuals so hard that you forget the gameplay itself is abysmal. And every single Square game has the exact same storyline: "save the world.. again". Boring!

Any emotions you get from a Square game are not because you're playing a game. It's because all the important parts of the product that further the story consist of pre-rendered movies. It's very, very easy to invoke emotions with movies because people just sit along for the ride, and there's a bag of tricks from 100 years of cinema that can be used to influence the passive viewer's emotions.

If you want emotion from *gameplay*, try picking up "Ico" on the Playstation 2. It's almost the "anti Final Fantasy" because of it's extremely delicate and haunting approach to making a game. Based on what you've said - you'll absolutely love this game.

BT is also an excelent too for (legal) gaming-related material (demos, videos, patches).

Check GameTab.

[]s Badaro

I got the Xbox version of Goblin Commander recently. There are a few minor gameplay irritations (there's no 1-player skirmish mode but the 2-player mode almost makes up for it) - and it rocks playing a decent strategy game on a console. Definitely one of the more original games I've played this year.

There are some reviews links on Gametab.