Shacknews Holiday Game Guide

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Posted by CowboyNeal on Saturday November 30, 2002 @03:12AM from the shopping-made-easier dept.

rosewood writes "Shacknews' Jason Bergman, aka loonyboi has his 'Holiday Buying Guide 2002' up and ready to read. PC, Gamecube, PS2, Xbox, and Gameboy Advance and over 70 games are covered! You can also look up how other games have rated each game at Shackreviews." Not every game is touched on in-depth, but it's a great resource to narrow down the choices for that special gamer in your life.

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Is Santa a Slashdot reader? by natron+2.0 · 2002-11-30 03:18 · Score: 5, Funny

I have forwarded the link to Santa.

--
[n8.r0n] http://petesweb.spymac.net/
Let me save the editors some time... by tmark · 2002-11-30 03:26 · Score: 5, Funny

In other news....
- Wired released their holiday gift guide.
- ThinkGeek releases their holiday gift guide
- Tom's Hardware releases their holiday gift guide
- Scientific American releases their holiday gift guide
- Popular Mechanics releases their holiday gift guide
- Business 2.0 releases their holiday gift guide
- Anime Weekly releases their holiday gift guide
- Hello Kitty World magazine releases their holiday gift guide
and finally....
- Slashdot releases their holiday gift guide
Re:Nethack? Yup. by GoofyBoy · 2002-11-30 03:35 · Score: 4, Informative

Yes they do.
Although, I'm a bit disappointed that they don't have Angband.

--
The surprise isn't how often we make bad choices; the surprise is how seldom they defeat us.
No Macintosh games? by LordNimon · 2002-11-30 03:36 · Score: 5, Insightful

Macintosh owners play games, too. In fact, a guide like this would be of more value to Mac gamers. Mac games are harder to find, so if you want to buy a game for a Mac user, you probably can't rely on your local CompUseless sales droid to know what's hot and what's not.

--
And the men who hold high places must be the ones who start
To mold a new reality... closer to the heart
1. Re:No Macintosh games? by tmark · 2002-11-30 03:54 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Here's the sum-total of a complete Macintosh game-buyers guide:
  
  1) Diablo II
  2) Lemonade
2. Re:No Macintosh games? by loonyboi · 2002-11-30 05:03 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  For the record, I'm a Mac user. A Mac gamer, too. I left Mac games out because Mac users make up a very small portion of our audience, and those who *are* Mac users, like myself, have a second Windows PC for games. It's the same reason we don't have Mac games in our ShackReviews.
3. Re:No Macintosh games? by AHumbleOpinion · 2002-11-30 05:31 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  And Diablo II doesn't run under OS-X
  
  Actually it does. For Starcraft and Diablo II there are patches that upgrade the original MacOS version to MacOS X. Warcraft III shipped with MacOS X support.
4. Re:No Macintosh games? by cosmo7 · 2002-11-30 09:58 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  BLOFELD: Ha ha, Mr Bond. You see, with this massively parallel supercomputer I can control every satellite in the world and destroy your precious civilization!
  
  BOND: Does it have any games?
  
  BLOFELD: What?
  
  BOND: You know. Counter Strike. Warcraft. Quake.
  
  BLOFELD: It's got Quake.
  
  BOND: Huh. I'll stick with the PC.
  
  BLOFELD: It doesn't need games. I've got a fucking XBox for games.
  
  BOND: Hmm.
  
  BLOFELD: Oooooh!
Gamecube is the console to get this season by wobedraggled · 2002-11-30 03:41 · Score: 5, Interesting

I'll probably get yelled at from the ps2/xbox fan base but screw it, both systems are lacking in any real innovation. I only need so many fps and run-n-gun games. The cube has one of the best and original video game lineups in years, and I hope people can see that.

--
Ubuntu- Linux for human beings.
1. Re:Gamecube is the console to get this season by peculiarmethod · 2002-11-30 03:49 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  i hate you for saying it, but I agree.. I only invested in a ps2 thinking it would take the great lead with its year head start (and lot more titles).. alas.. it's starting to look like the same mistake pc games had back when vesa drivers exploded and simple 3d walk-around mazes flurried the download screens.. made me sick of them, and almost kept me from checking out doom (THANK GOD I reconsidered.. this was after castle wolfenstein).. in my opinion the PC games market didnt really pull itself out either.. the platform wars did that .. and it seems ps2 is killing itself off with the unfortunate release of DOZENS of clonish games.. I'll still be hanging on to sony until the ps/3 specs come out.. if they seem weird, I'll look to other platforms.
  
  Pm
  
  --
  ** "It's not my job to stand between the people talking to me, and the ones listening to me." -- Pego the Jerk
2. Re:Gamecube is the console to get this season by Sludge · 2002-11-30 06:53 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  Metroid is hardly a run and gun. When you leave a room, enemies reappear. Holding down the L button locks on to the nearest enemy to your crosshair. You then press the fire button as fast as you care to, to destroy the creature.
  It's hardly linear, and it's hardly an FPS in the conventional sense. It's more an adventure game with non linear exploration. For example, when I was five hours (17%) into the game, I was brought full circle to the initial place of my dropship. I then spent the next hour exploring the places I had already been, trying out my new suit powerups in old circumstances and finding new secrets and even the way to go.
  Sure, you use guns to immobilize threats, but that does not make this a conventional FPS.
Other resources by Omkar · 2002-11-30 03:43 · Score: 5, Informative

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!
Hmmm by fleener · 2002-11-30 05:34 · Score: 4, Funny

I'm getting "that special gamer in my life" a basketball, football, soccer ball and tub of Slim Fast.
the old tired kids argument by newsdee · 2002-11-30 06:15 · Score: 5, Insightful

Chances are that most trigger-happy fps players will hate Metroid Prime. It's not hyped because it's a standard FPS, but because it's a new game of the Metroid series (and actually succeeds in conveying a similar gameplay to the older 2D version).

Also to pretend that GC games are only appropiate to kids is a major fallacy. A game does not need a rating of Mature to be enjoyable.

Besides, if what most people call "adult games" are in fact new instances of "Quake3 nth-clone" or "Famous Name's Hyped Sport", then I'm very happy playing kiddie games, thank you.

--
The ENIAC Demo Competition
Consume! by nfotxn · 2002-11-30 06:26 · Score: 5, Insightful

I love how holidays are synonymous with buying now.
ugh.

--
_nfotxn
1. Re:Consume! by Fantastic+Lad · 2002-11-30 08:00 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  I love how holidays are synonymous with buying now.
  
  Not just buying, but buying things that distract everybody from the real show playing live right outside our 'windows'.
  
  -Fantastic Lad