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There is, it's called Halo and most gaming sites think it's at least 1/5 as good as MGS2.

Halo Review - 9.7/10
Metal Gear Solid 2 Review - 9.6/10

Halo Review - 9.7/10
Metal Gear Solid 2 Review - 9.7/10

So I guess that means it's a contender in your book.

well, according to the review at dvd.ign.com, the original dvd release sucked. non-anamorphic transfer, compression artifacts in the video, and barely any special features.

a friend of mine bought it and was very disappointed. if it wasn't for the many poor reviews of the original, i'd own it already.

this is also why i didn't buy the original monty python and the holy grail dvd, and why i'm not buying the clockwork orange dvd until it gets a better release.

Here's a better formated link

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.

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.

...The genre, already succesful on the PC, has yet to be tested on a console audience...

...is right here.

my hope is that i can add a hard drive to my ps2 and connect to my current broadband connection and everything will be hunky-dory...

any hope of that happening? probably not....

I find it very bizarre that the Majestic team attempts to vindicate their efforts by repeatedly referring to their game as "critically acclaimed."

Majestic got a lot of buzz and ink for being a novel concept, but in terms of actual critical reviews it was universally slammed by the gaming press. Since the Majestic team has such a short memory, they can find some reviews here and here.

Like the gaming press, I really wanted to like this game, but I could not be dragged into paying $120 a year for an elaborate "click here to continue the poorly acted movie" setup that lasts a few hours each month.

And when the DVD comes out, there'll be a revised version of the list, I'm sure. Yeah, I'll pick me up a copy...

Nope. The Gamecube takes smaller discs not because Nintendo is concerned about privacy issues, but because they want to save money. The Ultimate GameCube FAQ describes how the DVD forum requires a $20 fee per unit for everything that can pay DVDs. In order to keep their price point (ie -- Xbox), they choose not to include that functionality. The Panasonic 'Q' combo unit costs more partly because of the DVD playing penalty.

cube.ign.com has a great interview with two of the designers of the chip, and it's really informative. Part 2 is even better, where they talk about the competition's chips :)

The interviews really shed some light onto the chip's functionality; it's engineered for gaming and a far cry from the off-the-shelf XBox CPU. Additionally, they mention that IBM detailed the chips at Hot Chips and the Embedded Processor Forum. Can anyone dig that info up?

cube.ign.com has a great interview with two of the designers of the chip, and it's really informative. Part 2 is even better, where they talk about the competition's chips :)

The interviews really shed some light onto the chip's functionality; it's engineered for gaming and a far cry from the off-the-shelf XBox CPU. Additionally, they mention that IBM detailed the chips at Hot Chips and the Embedded Processor Forum. Can anyone dig that info up?

Will you personally buy a game cube? If you answer yes to this one you'll be the only one I know who will.

Get out a little more. They've sold a million of the things. By the way, great argument there. My dad can beat up yours.

I think I represent the average gamer and I want strategy games, fighting games, REALISTIC images, great audio.

Nah, the average gamer wants The Sims and Pokemon.

I want games to move me and scare me. I especially don't want Mario this or Luigi that.

Fair enough, but if you're going to speak for the average gamer, keep in mind that Nintendo sold about a billion dollars worth of software in 2000. Their closest competitor? EA, with under 500 million. Keep in mind that EA publishes games on all platforms and that Nintendo is restricted to their own. And in case you're wondering, those numbers don't include hardware, it's just the games. Doesn't sound like the average gamer is agreeing with you so far.

Game cube commercials are already touting a new Mario + friends mortal combat style fighting game. I truly think you need to be 11 to get a kick out of that.

Yeah, you definitely need to be eleven. Like last night, I was playing Smash Brothers with my roommate and two friends and it was so fun that we played for about two hours. Then I remembered that we're all over 24 so we threw that game out. I don't know what Gamespot was thinking when they put it in the top ten console games of the year, because I'm pretty sure their editors are over 11 (although sometimes it's a tough call). Good thing, we stopped playing, though, so we could move on to a game that lets you drive one of these armed cycles on some huge courses and blow your friends up.

But I'll admit that the Gamecube's graphics aren't that great, like that Rogue Leader game. I mean, did they really think anyone would want to play a game with graphics like this?

And in fighting games, we'll put aside the fact that you're superficial and clearly have no idea what you're talking about. I know Kirby and Pikachu are cute as all get out, but the fighting system in SSB is way more fun than DOA3's. And if that's not enough for you, Soul Calibur 2, successor to the real king of 3D fighters (OK, fine, Virtua Fighter rules, too), will be exclusive to the GameCube when it first arrives.

Speaking of realism, did you know that the water in Wave Race: Blue Storm, an amazingly addictive racing game with a tight control system, was so good, that Gamespot created a new category in their year end awards for it?

Oh, right, and you want to be scared. So, how about four Resident Evil games and Eternal Darkness? Is that enough blood for you, mister sophisticated mature gaming man?

I've got a GameCube, a Playstation 2, and a Dreamcast (which, as far as I'm concerned, still has the best catalog of games around), couldn't be happier.

Will you personally buy a game cube? If you answer yes to this one you'll be the only one I know who will.

Get out a little more. They've sold a million of the things. By the way, great argument there. My dad can beat up yours.

I think I represent the average gamer and I want strategy games, fighting games, REALISTIC images, great audio.

Nah, the average gamer wants The Sims and Pokemon.

I want games to move me and scare me. I especially don't want Mario this or Luigi that.

Fair enough, but if you're going to speak for the average gamer, keep in mind that Nintendo sold about a billion dollars worth of software in 2000. Their closest competitor? EA, with under 500 million. Keep in mind that EA publishes games on all platforms and that Nintendo is restricted to their own. And in case you're wondering, those numbers don't include hardware, it's just the games. Doesn't sound like the average gamer is agreeing with you so far.

Game cube commercials are already touting a new Mario + friends mortal combat style fighting game. I truly think you need to be 11 to get a kick out of that.

Yeah, you definitely need to be eleven. Like last night, I was playing Smash Brothers with my roommate and two friends and it was so fun that we played for about two hours. Then I remembered that we're all over 24 so we threw that game out. I don't know what Gamespot was thinking when they put it in the top ten console games of the year, because I'm pretty sure their editors are over 11 (although sometimes it's a tough call). Good thing, we stopped playing, though, so we could move on to a game that lets you drive one of these armed cycles on some huge courses and blow your friends up.

But I'll admit that the Gamecube's graphics aren't that great, like that Rogue Leader game. I mean, did they really think anyone would want to play a game with graphics like this?

And in fighting games, we'll put aside the fact that you're superficial and clearly have no idea what you're talking about. I know Kirby and Pikachu are cute as all get out, but the fighting system in SSB is way more fun than DOA3's. And if that's not enough for you, Soul Calibur 2, successor to the real king of 3D fighters (OK, fine, Virtua Fighter rules, too), will be exclusive to the GameCube when it first arrives.

Speaking of realism, did you know that the water in Wave Race: Blue Storm, an amazingly addictive racing game with a tight control system, was so good, that Gamespot created a new category in their year end awards for it?

Oh, right, and you want to be scared. So, how about four Resident Evil games and Eternal Darkness? Is that enough blood for you, mister sophisticated mature gaming man?

I've got a GameCube, a Playstation 2, and a Dreamcast (which, as far as I'm concerned, still has the best catalog of games around), couldn't be happier.

Will you personally buy a game cube? If you answer yes to this one you'll be the only one I know who will.

Get out a little more. They've sold a million of the things. By the way, great argument there. My dad can beat up yours.

I think I represent the average gamer and I want strategy games, fighting games, REALISTIC images, great audio.

Nah, the average gamer wants The Sims and Pokemon.

I want games to move me and scare me. I especially don't want Mario this or Luigi that.

Fair enough, but if you're going to speak for the average gamer, keep in mind that Nintendo sold about a billion dollars worth of software in 2000. Their closest competitor? EA, with under 500 million. Keep in mind that EA publishes games on all platforms and that Nintendo is restricted to their own. And in case you're wondering, those numbers don't include hardware, it's just the games. Doesn't sound like the average gamer is agreeing with you so far.

Game cube commercials are already touting a new Mario + friends mortal combat style fighting game. I truly think you need to be 11 to get a kick out of that.

Yeah, you definitely need to be eleven. Like last night, I was playing Smash Brothers with my roommate and two friends and it was so fun that we played for about two hours. Then I remembered that we're all over 24 so we threw that game out. I don't know what Gamespot was thinking when they put it in the top ten console games of the year, because I'm pretty sure their editors are over 11 (although sometimes it's a tough call). Good thing, we stopped playing, though, so we could move on to a game that lets you drive one of these armed cycles on some huge courses and blow your friends up.

But I'll admit that the Gamecube's graphics aren't that great, like that Rogue Leader game. I mean, did they really think anyone would want to play a game with graphics like this?

And in fighting games, we'll put aside the fact that you're superficial and clearly have no idea what you're talking about. I know Kirby and Pikachu are cute as all get out, but the fighting system in SSB is way more fun than DOA3's. And if that's not enough for you, Soul Calibur 2, successor to the real king of 3D fighters (OK, fine, Virtua Fighter rules, too), will be exclusive to the GameCube when it first arrives.

Speaking of realism, did you know that the water in Wave Race: Blue Storm, an amazingly addictive racing game with a tight control system, was so good, that Gamespot created a new category in their year end awards for it?

Oh, right, and you want to be scared. So, how about four Resident Evil games and Eternal Darkness? Is that enough blood for you, mister sophisticated mature gaming man?

I've got a GameCube, a Playstation 2, and a Dreamcast (which, as far as I'm concerned, still has the best catalog of games around), couldn't be happier.

Will you personally buy a game cube? If you answer yes to this one you'll be the only one I know who will.

Get out a little more. They've sold a million of the things. By the way, great argument there. My dad can beat up yours.

I think I represent the average gamer and I want strategy games, fighting games, REALISTIC images, great audio.

Nah, the average gamer wants The Sims and Pokemon.

I want games to move me and scare me. I especially don't want Mario this or Luigi that.

Fair enough, but if you're going to speak for the average gamer, keep in mind that Nintendo sold about a billion dollars worth of software in 2000. Their closest competitor? EA, with under 500 million. Keep in mind that EA publishes games on all platforms and that Nintendo is restricted to their own. And in case you're wondering, those numbers don't include hardware, it's just the games. Doesn't sound like the average gamer is agreeing with you so far.

Game cube commercials are already touting a new Mario + friends mortal combat style fighting game. I truly think you need to be 11 to get a kick out of that.

Yeah, you definitely need to be eleven. Like last night, I was playing Smash Brothers with my roommate and two friends and it was so fun that we played for about two hours. Then I remembered that we're all over 24 so we threw that game out. I don't know what Gamespot was thinking when they put it in the top ten console games of the year, because I'm pretty sure their editors are over 11 (although sometimes it's a tough call). Good thing, we stopped playing, though, so we could move on to a game that lets you drive one of these armed cycles on some huge courses and blow your friends up.

But I'll admit that the Gamecube's graphics aren't that great, like that Rogue Leader game. I mean, did they really think anyone would want to play a game with graphics like this?

And in fighting games, we'll put aside the fact that you're superficial and clearly have no idea what you're talking about. I know Kirby and Pikachu are cute as all get out, but the fighting system in SSB is way more fun than DOA3's. And if that's not enough for you, Soul Calibur 2, successor to the real king of 3D fighters (OK, fine, Virtua Fighter rules, too), will be exclusive to the GameCube when it first arrives.

Speaking of realism, did you know that the water in Wave Race: Blue Storm, an amazingly addictive racing game with a tight control system, was so good, that Gamespot created a new category in their year end awards for it?

Oh, right, and you want to be scared. So, how about four Resident Evil games and Eternal Darkness? Is that enough blood for you, mister sophisticated mature gaming man?

I've got a GameCube, a Playstation 2, and a Dreamcast (which, as far as I'm concerned, still has the best catalog of games around), couldn't be happier.

then make sequels exclusive to the SonyBoy Advance

There is no mass-produced handheld PlayStation product (this doesn't count), and Sony has not officially released plans to make one. Sony needs to get off its collective @$$ and produce a PSOne Discman. I'm pretty sure that a PSOne Discman would keep the PSOne platform alive, and it may be Sony's ace in the hole to compete with Nintendo's GBA. (I've read that GBA is twice as powerful as Super NES but half as powerful as PSOne.)

[Sony] owes its success to it's hard ass CEO. Do you think Sony's CEO is a creampuff?

"Creampuff" and "hard-ass" are not always mutually exclusive. See also Kirby.

Well, all your tirade really demonstrates is that you're willing to buy a console for one game. While that's not really a bad thing, it's also not how the vast majority of people decide which console to purchase. Most people are looking for quantity. How are you supposed to rate quality? Can you return games once they're opened? Store demos are usually broken.

I, too, bought N64 for Zelda, and I felt it was definitely worth it. At the time, it was the best game I had ever played, by far. I was sadly disappointed by Majora's mask, but that's beside the point.

Luigi's mansion and Pikmin look absolutely horrible to me, and the video of Zelda for gamecube looks absolutely awful, in fact it looks like a slap in the face to the people like me who grew up playing Zelda. I understand that Nintendo has traditionally been aimed at a younger market, but the market that was 10-13 when the original zelda came out is now in their 20s, and I for one don't want to play a game that looks like a cartoon. I thought that they ruined Super Mario Bros 2/3 with this.

Anyhow, while it looks interesting, it also looks stupid. It looks like they've already developed the game too much for them to change, but maybe the game will flop and the next iteration will be something most adults can stomach.

Here's some video of the game in all its horror.

Well, all your tirade really demonstrates is that you're willing to buy a console for one game. While that's not really a bad thing, it's also not how the vast majority of people decide which console to purchase. Most people are looking for quantity. How are you supposed to rate quality? Can you return games once they're opened? Store demos are usually broken.

I, too, bought N64 for Zelda, and I felt it was definitely worth it. At the time, it was the best game I had ever played, by far. I was sadly disappointed by Majora's mask, but that's beside the point.

Luigi's mansion and Pikmin look absolutely horrible to me, and the video of Zelda for gamecube looks absolutely awful, in fact it looks like a slap in the face to the people like me who grew up playing Zelda. I understand that Nintendo has traditionally been aimed at a younger market, but the market that was 10-13 when the original zelda came out is now in their 20s, and I for one don't want to play a game that looks like a cartoon. I thought that they ruined Super Mario Bros 2/3 with this.

Anyhow, while it looks interesting, it also looks stupid. It looks like they've already developed the game too much for them to change, but maybe the game will flop and the next iteration will be something most adults can stomach.

Here's some video of the game in all its horror.

Free version is up today.

Just go to http://ps2.ign.com and click on the link on the front page.

Yes, I believe our stealth ship has been around for a while. Sad that we don't have supersonic missiles on ours. I hope the Afghans don't get this new Russian ship and kick our ass.

I just hope things don't change for them since Microsoft bought Ensemble Studios.

Zeno
--------
"Your mouse has moved. Windows NT must be restarted for this change to take effect."

I was going to post a story on Ben Heckendorn's SNES portable, but I decided to wait until he is finished with something far more interesting.

The Gamecube is already a very much portable unit, considering it's external and internal size, carrying handle, and detachable screen. This is Ben's next un/confirmed project over at his site. I found his comment on this in the forums. While the portable aspect of the Gamecube is nifty, Ben focuses on making consoles into handheld units (so yes it is portable already, but not handheld). The SNES is interesting, but I'm waiting to see how this turns out.

Kind of on-topic: The article states that Square probably won't be releasing a game on a Nintendo system any time soon, but Brownie Brown will. They're made up of former Square employees who were behind Secret of Mana and they have confirmed that a GameCube RPG is in the works.

First of all, it's hard to post at all because Willow is on and it's hard to divert my attention.

Concerning Terminator 3, my griend Google me that Linda Hamilton will not be returning, Eddie Furlong will be playing John Conner, is titled Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, could possible star Chyna (WWF), will not be directed by James Cameron, up untill this past June there were talks that Ed Norton would be playing John Conner, and NoChickTrix will not be featured but is deffinatly worth checking out.

I've read the contrary, a review of SSX Tricky for the GameCube on IGN states the PS2 version of SSX Tricky was a lot faster and had better textures and an over-all clearer picture than the GameCube version. I wonder how he came to his conclusion? He never mentioned that, he assumed it was common knowledge. I didn't try the X-Box version of SSX Tricky as it wasn't out at the time (is it on X-Box at all?)

The PS2's Graphics Synthesizer is entirely too dependent on extreme parallelism in order to fill its 16 pixel pipelines which could be the cause of many of the slowdowns we've seen in games for the platform.

I don't think that's so evident, SEGA claims to have gotten Virtua Fighter 4 to do 63 million polygons/second on the PS2, and after seeing some screenshots running on the actual PS2 hardware, I don't doubt them one bit.

While the PS2's Emotion Engine has a lot of potential, developers have continuously stated that the platform is too difficult to program for.

Maybe so, Sony had recently released a tool that measures efficient use of the system, and apparently Gran Turismo 3 only uses 25% of the PS2's power (Official US PS Magazine Issue #52, Page 31). Games certainly will get better, and it's impressive to see how much growing room there is for developers. Developers mostly complained in the beginning that the PS2 was hard to program, but Sony's development kit wasn't complete. Once Sony had released debuggers for VU0 and VU1, things went a lot more smoothly and we were able to see games such as Metal Gear Solid 2. In any case, developers are doing pretty good considering the trouble they had with the Saturn which was also "plagued" by parallelism. I quote "plagued" because parallelism can be an advantage as well as a disadvantage.

I'm honestly not trying to flame Anand, but it seems like the way he drew his conclusions on the PS2 were sketchy at best:

Both the GameCube and Xbox are clearly superior to the PS2 in terms of the quality of the graphics seen in games available today. The transition from PS2 to GameCube and/or Xbox is a fairly large leap, but going between GameCube and Xbox is a bit less dramatic.

Statements like this appear opinionated to me... After playing the games I consider to be the top of the line in graphics for each system: Jak & Daxter (PS2), Metal Gear Solid 2 (PS2), Gran Turismo 3 (PS2), Rogue Leader (GCN), Halo (X-Box), DOA3 (X-Box), Luigi's Mansion (GCN), Wave Race (GCN), Splashdown (PS2), I don't know how he can even say that. The games look as if they were all played on the same system, each game seemed pretty on-par with their peers.

Perhaps observations like these will be addressed in Part 3 of the "Hardware Behind the Consoles" series? Does anyone have any other suggestions on what to look into concerning the PS2 in Part 3?

Concerning the GameCube itself, though, the article was definitely worth the read. It explained the GameCube's hardware at exactly the technical level I was interested in, good job!

I've read the contrary, a review of SSX Tricky for the GameCube on IGN states the PS2 version of SSX Tricky was a lot faster and had better textures and an over-all clearer picture than the GameCube version. I wonder how he came to his conclusion? He never mentioned that, he assumed it was common knowledge. I didn't try the X-Box version of SSX Tricky as it wasn't out at the time (is it on X-Box at all?)

The PS2's Graphics Synthesizer is entirely too dependent on extreme parallelism in order to fill its 16 pixel pipelines which could be the cause of many of the slowdowns we've seen in games for the platform.

I don't think that's so evident, SEGA claims to have gotten Virtua Fighter 4 to do 63 million polygons/second on the PS2, and after seeing some screenshots running on the actual PS2 hardware, I don't doubt them one bit.

While the PS2's Emotion Engine has a lot of potential, developers have continuously stated that the platform is too difficult to program for.

Maybe so, Sony had recently released a tool that measures efficient use of the system, and apparently Gran Turismo 3 only uses 25% of the PS2's power (Official US PS Magazine Issue #52, Page 31). Games certainly will get better, and it's impressive to see how much growing room there is for developers. Developers mostly complained in the beginning that the PS2 was hard to program, but Sony's development kit wasn't complete. Once Sony had released debuggers for VU0 and VU1, things went a lot more smoothly and we were able to see games such as Metal Gear Solid 2. In any case, developers are doing pretty good considering the trouble they had with the Saturn which was also "plagued" by parallelism. I quote "plagued" because parallelism can be an advantage as well as a disadvantage.

I'm honestly not trying to flame Anand, but it seems like the way he drew his conclusions on the PS2 were sketchy at best:

Both the GameCube and Xbox are clearly superior to the PS2 in terms of the quality of the graphics seen in games available today. The transition from PS2 to GameCube and/or Xbox is a fairly large leap, but going between GameCube and Xbox is a bit less dramatic.

Statements like this appear opinionated to me... After playing the games I consider to be the top of the line in graphics for each system: Jak & Daxter (PS2), Metal Gear Solid 2 (PS2), Gran Turismo 3 (PS2), Rogue Leader (GCN), Halo (X-Box), DOA3 (X-Box), Luigi's Mansion (GCN), Wave Race (GCN), Splashdown (PS2), I don't know how he can even say that. The games look as if they were all played on the same system, each game seemed pretty on-par with their peers.

Perhaps observations like these will be addressed in Part 3 of the "Hardware Behind the Consoles" series? Does anyone have any other suggestions on what to look into concerning the PS2 in Part 3?

Concerning the GameCube itself, though, the article was definitely worth the read. It explained the GameCube's hardware at exactly the technical level I was interested in, good job!

Just wait for Sonic 2.

The 440GP was being considered, but Nintendo opted to go with the 750. You can read all about it here.

Then you'll enjoy Jak & Daxter for the PS2. Give it a go, it's a hoot.

Also, Rayman Revolution for the oh-so-cheap DC should be a goodly entertaining platformer.

Oooh, and Bomberman Online just came out for the DC! Now there's some colorful, mindless fun!

Cool little screen

The kids may be getting a GC instead of XBOX now.

Well, I don't have an exact number on the amount of data that can be stored on the little dvds, but it is still quite substantial for a game. Somewhere around 1.5 Gigs should be plenty for a majority of games out there for the near future. The only thing that takes up tons of space is FMV, and if you want a game with tons of that, put it on a couple little dvds. They can't cost that much.

Besides, by doing this, Nintendo is essentially free from piracy.

Here's a link to the 1.5 GB estimate.

Read a few reviews before believing a word of what this guy says.

I don't know why I'm taking the time to reply to this...How bored am I?!?

Just wanted to point out that with this accessory: Mobile Monitor 5.4
the gamecube rocks! Puts the ps one to shame, and shows why it's an advantage to have a small console.

Virginia Madsen played Irulan, and Sean Young played Chani.

See for yourself.

I think the creepy little girl Alia grew up to be the hottest, though.

Statistics are statistics, and are made specifically to represent what the proponent wishes, but:

50 Million disabled Americans? Assume (generously) that there are 300 million people in the U.S. - does this mean that one in six people could benefit from accessibility technology?

No, it means that almost everyone will find some benefit from Assistive Technology, whether they realize it or not. One of the most common misconceptions of AT is that it will only benefit the disabled. The point of AT is to provide a STANDARD BASELINE, as well as EQUAL ACCESS. It's not meant to be necessarily the lowest commmon denominator, but it can be.

Think about lowered curbs at corners. Initially, they were created for people in wheel chairs in mind. Alas, everyone found them handy - people with stroller, bikers, pedestrians, everyone. In the end, it ended up benefitting everyone.

Assistive Technology will benefit everyone.

Currently, the only advanced and (semi) well-supported AT is for the Windows platform.

Screen readers,

screen magnifiers,

Braille boards,

haptic mice,

headset mice,

Braille boards,

Voice recognition,
and so forth. None of these are real options for Linux currently. Since alot of these products are pricey, I would urge open-source h4X0rZ w/big hearts to contact the hardware manufacturers if they can obtain some development-type hardware/software, so that they may be able to port some of these to Linux. GNOME is working hard, and have contacted them personally about contributing to the project. If you were lucky enough to have been blessed with good sight/mobility, and have the l33t skills, I urge you to contribute.

Because in the end, it's not about which OS you prefer, but which OS can you *use*.

bob alvarez
assistive technologies consultant
www.bobalvarez.net

I ordered it from therage.com for $50. Tronix has it on back order for the same price. One thing to keep in mind is that your Shenmue save can be used to start the game, but it has to be transferred into a PAL format. Hit IGN for instructions on how to do it...

In the United States the cooperation is not as well orchestrated as it is in Korea. It only takes a guild of 20 or 30 people to really take and hold a castle so it doesn't take a gigantic group.

1. IGN PC: (really good) Lineage: The Blood Pledge Interview
   
   
2. RPG Vault: Richard Garriott Destination Games Interview
   
   
3. RPG Vault: Carly Staehlin (NCsoft/Destination Games) Interview
   
   
4. Voodoo Extreme - Destination Games
   
   
5. Intelgamer: Review of Lineage
   
   
6. Wired: Audio interview
   
   
7. Gamesmania: Garrott and Long Interview
   

1. IGN PC: (really good) Lineage: The Blood Pledge Interview
   
   
2. RPG Vault: Richard Garriott Destination Games Interview
   
   
3. RPG Vault: Carly Staehlin (NCsoft/Destination Games) Interview
   
   
4. Voodoo Extreme - Destination Games
   
   
5. Intelgamer: Review of Lineage
   
   
6. Wired: Audio interview
   
   
7. Gamesmania: Garrott and Long Interview
   

1. IGN PC: (really good) Lineage: The Blood Pledge Interview
   
   
2. RPG Vault: Richard Garriott Destination Games Interview
   
   
3. RPG Vault: Carly Staehlin (NCsoft/Destination Games) Interview
   
   
4. Voodoo Extreme - Destination Games
   
   
5. Intelgamer: Review of Lineage
   
   
6. Wired: Audio interview
   
   
7. Gamesmania: Garrott and Long Interview
   

Pros:
- the visuals and environmental sounds are simply stunning, you'll find yourself running around just taking it all in
- the puzzles aren't TOO hard, but contain enough variety to keep you interested
- did I mention how amazing the visuals were?
- game design that uses the absolute minimum amount of characters, music and speech to tell a completely engrossing story

Cons:
- the game is very short, maybe 9 hours for my first run through and definitely less than 4 hours from start to finish once you know what you're doing
- almost zero replayability, all of the puzzle locations and solutions are the same, every time through (although, I still feel that I got my money's worth)

Links to two different reviews:
- IGN
- Penny Arcade

More reviews from the amazing Google.

Frequency is a great game. The objective is to move around inside a 8-sided tunnel. Each side is a track and in single-player mode, every two sets played (you tap the correct button on the controller when a note passes) it auto-plays the rest of the track for that section. Ultimatly the entire song gets played. It's much harder than it seems so don't think that this is easy. In multiplayer you battle eachother on hitting as many notes while getting as many points and trying to steal or disable your opponent. Don't even get me started on remixing the songs. This is a sure buy for PS2 owners who love music.

Ratings: GameSpot gives it a 8.7 and IGN gives it a 9.

Due out tomorrow Jak and Daxter looks like a worthy Crash Bandicoot replacement.

The Game is produced by Naughty Dog.

A preview at IGNhttp://ps2.ign.com/previews/16447.html

If you liked Kolona 2, this should be right up your alley.

This isn't my usual style of game, but man, is it addictive. A definite must-buy... especially if you have a GameCube.

Agreed. I was a huge fan of the orriginal, and just picked up Tricky a few days ago. Man, this game is awesome. Even though only two of the tracks are completely new, the old tracks are so drastically different, you'll barely recognize them. Snowdream in paticular doesn't look a thing like it did in the first game. The new characters rock, the soundtrack is better than ever, the graphics have been slicked up a notch, and the game is even more addictive than its predecessor. Another cool thing EA did was include a "DVD Extras" portion on the disc, which is basically a collection of making-of documentaries like you would expect to see on a movie DVD. Overall, the game is incredible. Go buy it, now.

I'm playing the PS2 version though, according to IGNCube's review the Cube version has some graphical and control issues. You might want to pick it up for the PS2 if you have the choice between platforms.

I can't believe no one has mention Jak and Daxter for the PS2. This is a pretty incredible looking platformer/action-adventure. You can read the previews, but it looks to have the following prominent features:

• Huge, seamless world. Apparently you can see distant areas of the island from any location.
• Beatiful smooth graphics. The movies (see the bottom of the page) should make this obvious.
• No load times. After playing things like GTA3, Ico, or MGS2, which have large areas and little or no load times, I believe this is possible, and it will certainly set a new standard for other games.
• Brought to you by Naughty Dog Software, so expect much goodness.

According the the IGN preview (as well as other articles and interviews), the authors are fans of games like Zelda which also feature large expansive worlds, so that vision combined with NDS talent might produce a top-10 title.

If you are a Gamecube lover like I am then you will probably been looking for these games:
Super Smash Bros Melee: what could possibly be more fun than beating the crap out of Pikachu as Princess Peach?
Pikmin: Miyamoto is a genius and has brought us another great game...I can't wait!
Sonic Adventure 2: Sonic on a Nintendo product...that is reason enough for me!

There are of course more, but these three are what I really want to get my hands on :)

If you are a Gamecube lover like I am then you will probably been looking for these games:
Super Smash Bros Melee: what could possibly be more fun than beating the crap out of Pikachu as Princess Peach?
Pikmin: Miyamoto is a genius and has brought us another great game...I can't wait!
Sonic Adventure 2: Sonic on a Nintendo product...that is reason enough for me!

There are of course more, but these three are what I really want to get my hands on :)

If you are a Gamecube lover like I am then you will probably been looking for these games:
Super Smash Bros Melee: what could possibly be more fun than beating the crap out of Pikachu as Princess Peach?
Pikmin: Miyamoto is a genius and has brought us another great game...I can't wait!
Sonic Adventure 2: Sonic on a Nintendo product...that is reason enough for me!

There are of course more, but these three are what I really want to get my hands on :)

If you are a Gamecube lover like I am then you will probably been looking for these games:
Super Smash Bros Melee: what could possibly be more fun than beating the crap out of Pikachu as Princess Peach?
Pikmin: Miyamoto is a genius and has brought us another great game...I can't wait!
Sonic Adventure 2: Sonic on a Nintendo product...that is reason enough for me!

There are of course more, but these three are what I really want to get my hands on :)