The mall near my house when I was growing up had an aracde from the Dream Machine franchise. Generally speaking, it was a pretty cool place. There were all sorts of flashing screens from every genre of gaming goodness; I could pop from GI Joe to Final Fight to Operation Wolf -- if I was really lucky and the Neo Geo machine was on the floor that weekend -- Samurai Shodown 2. For a kid whose world revolved around video games it was Xanadu, baby.
Now I go there and a part of me wants to weep. Instead of a glowing paradise filled with every possible game my brain could conceive, there's approximately three titles. Time Crisis 2, Street Fighter Alpha 3 and skeeball. An entire wall of machines has been removed so two big-screens could be installed to attract as much attention to the flavor of the month. It may not always be those two exact games, but I guarantee you it'll be some variant. Always a shooter and always a fighter. Once the shooter was replaced with a driving game, but that was it. Back in a neglected corner I found some pinball machines, Ms. Pacman, 1943 and a poor Neo Geo MVS cabinet with the second stick ripped out. I couldn't tell if it was the one I first experienced SS2 on, but I fed it a quarter on principal and left. Xanadu is gone and all that remains is a business struggling to keep it's head above water by pushing whatever the current hot game is and only that. It makes me wonder what'll happen to the place when the next hit game does a bellyflop...
"While Phrank had quick benefit from this loot/linkdeath scam, a not uncommon one, the question is if he knew the larger repercussions from this kind of action. Needless to say, none of the members is ever likely to invite Phrank into a group again except perhaps for the chance to punish him. Several members took the time to inform their guildmates that this character was not to be trusted."
And now not only does that guild know, so does everybody that's read the paper through Slashdot. If he hasn't deleted that character by now, I'd say he's about to!
Oddly enough, I'm better with a keyboard than a gamepad/arcade stick... Though I think I can blame marathon sessions of One Must Fall for setting the precedent there. MAME and SNES9x just honed the ability ^^;
...When someone goes on a rampage with an NES Light Gun. I can see the police log now...
"This afternoon, officers were engaged in a three hour stand-off with an armed suspect as he held a Golden Retriever hostage. He was reported to be screaming "Giggle at me NOW, b$#&@!" The suspect was apprehended without further incident after being distracted by a flock of Canadian geese flying overhead."
...Lionheart OR Fallout 3. Arcanum made a decent "filler" game until my quicksave randomly corrupted itself. I didn't feel like replaying the last 20 or so hours from my last hard save, so it's back on my shelf...
The one thing that I would like to see in Fallout 3 would be some expanded customizability for character graphics. It's not a major issue, but it would be nice to at least be able to select my hair color/length...
Feel the need to h4xX0r t3h 4m3r1c@z 4rM33 to hide you lack of shootin' skills? I hereby put forward the motion that anybody caught cheating in that game has to go through basic training. Not so 1337 with a real gun, now are ya?
...Warcraft Adventures? I've been waiting for YEARS on that one.
...
Cancelled? What do you mean cancelled? I don't believe you! No, no, I'm not listening! La-la-LAAAA, got my hands over my ears can't hear you LA-LA-LA-LA-LA!
Actually, the latest Ragnarok beta is quite laggy and currently experiencing a wave of botters and cheaters unseen since...well...since the last time the game was free.
Vampires or Nazis... Vampires or Nazis... Hmm. I can point my NES Light Gun at the Nazis and pretend I'm playing a crazy Wolfenstein mod... Yeah, Hitler it is.
Well of course. It generally goes without saying if somebody has the moves down, they'll thoroughly trounce anyone that's just huddled in the corner pounding Weak Punch...
But there's just no way I'd feel the need to get to that kind of skill level on one of these games. Frankly, the thing that really puts me off the most about Capcom's fighters is the physics. Everybody's just sliding all over the place. It doesn't "feel" right to me. All of the SNK fighters I've played, on the other hand, have all felt very solid. I can function better in them because the movement looks right.
It's an interesting concept (Can adamantium claws cut a man of steel?), but doubt I'd play. Capcom's latest fighters have been pretty and all, but I just haven't seen any real gameplay. A button masher's paradise perhaps, but certainly not titles I would rabidly pump quarters into. I guess I'm just an eternal slave to SNK...
"Castlevania:Lament Of Innocence for PS2 is a 3D action title that finally puts to rest those horrid N64 Castlevania games..."
I can't be the ONLY person in the world that actually enjoyed those games. Well. The original wasn't too hot, but Legacy of Darkness had it's share of moments.
The thing that makes AD&D great is that you and your friends are the protagonists. The heroes. Through your actions you shape the world. Here you're Elven Magic-User #48994 with head #14. Through your actions, you can add another Wand of Fireballs to the market pool, lowering their overall price by 3 copper.
This is the most drop-dead sexy RPG I've seen in a long time. I was thinking of playing WoW or FFXI, but I do believe this is the little beauty I'll be going with for my next MMO addiction.
Why aren't there any lists of the top 25 Enix games? Now that'd be interesting.
It probably has something to do with exposure. For the youngin's whose memory only goes back as far as the PS1, FFVII is "old school." I recall once hearing a kid looking at the DQVII case say "Huh? How is this the seventh? I didn't hear about any others..."
I had a knight on Chaos until the wipe... I tried Loki and it was absolutely awful. Basic social conduct seems completely absent there -- I've been KSed, looted and sworn at more times in the couple days I was on there in the whole three months of the closed beta. I'm guessing it has something to do with most of the iRO vets staying on Chaos, so the population of Loki is mainly new players... Either way, I think I'll be waiting until it closes again or is p2p before I give it another go.
Maybe I'm just jaded. Glad you've had a good time with it, though.
This current beta stage is absolute hell thanks to the throngs of freeloaders that swarmed in and sucked all the fun out of it. I'll play again when I'm sure I can go five minutes without some jackass stealing my monster drops and calling me a "n00b" because I didn't pick it up instantaneously. Yes, "SSJ4GOKUVEGETATRUNKS27", obviously I'm the clueless newbie.
Those zombies in #1 were the worst. Annoying as heck to dispatch and pretty darn creepy the first time you run into them.
They're especially bad in the level where you have to go through the city ruins and the buggers are everywhere...and you then you realize you have to walk to your early morning class through Ghettosylvania. Ahhh yes. You cling to that fence for dear life, skulking up the street. And just when you reach school and think you're finally in the clear...the instructor arrives behind you, asks for a light for his cigarette and you dive into the bushes screaming like a little girl.
Slashdot Mirror
Father: "Shucks Timmy, it looks like the order got cancelled."
Little Timmy: "No worries, pop. I'll just download it instead."
Now I go there and a part of me wants to weep. Instead of a glowing paradise filled with every possible game my brain could conceive, there's approximately three titles. Time Crisis 2, Street Fighter Alpha 3 and skeeball. An entire wall of machines has been removed so two big-screens could be installed to attract as much attention to the flavor of the month. It may not always be those two exact games, but I guarantee you it'll be some variant. Always a shooter and always a fighter. Once the shooter was replaced with a driving game, but that was it. Back in a neglected corner I found some pinball machines, Ms. Pacman, 1943 and a poor Neo Geo MVS cabinet with the second stick ripped out. I couldn't tell if it was the one I first experienced SS2 on, but I fed it a quarter on principal and left. Xanadu is gone and all that remains is a business struggling to keep it's head above water by pushing whatever the current hot game is and only that. It makes me wonder what'll happen to the place when the next hit game does a bellyflop...
Well. THAT was melodramatic, wasn't it?
And now not only does that guild know, so does everybody that's read the paper through Slashdot. If he hasn't deleted that character by now, I'd say he's about to!
Oddly enough, I'm better with a keyboard than a gamepad/arcade stick... Though I think I can blame marathon sessions of One Must Fall for setting the precedent there. MAME and SNES9x just honed the ability ^^;
"This afternoon, officers were engaged in a three hour stand-off with an armed suspect as he held a Golden Retriever hostage. He was reported to be screaming "Giggle at me NOW, b$#&@!" The suspect was apprehended without further incident after being distracted by a flock of Canadian geese flying overhead."
The one thing that I would like to see in Fallout 3 would be some expanded customizability for character graphics. It's not a major issue, but it would be nice to at least be able to select my hair color/length...
Feel the need to h4xX0r t3h 4m3r1c@z 4rM33 to hide you lack of shootin' skills? I hereby put forward the motion that anybody caught cheating in that game has to go through basic training. Not so 1337 with a real gun, now are ya?
Cancelled? What do you mean cancelled? I don't believe you! No, no, I'm not listening! La-la-LAAAA, got my hands over my ears can't hear you LA-LA-LA-LA-LA!
Actually, the latest Ragnarok beta is quite laggy and currently experiencing a wave of botters and cheaters unseen since...well...since the last time the game was free.
But I'll probably be sticking with Tile Layer (found here). It was good enough for me in high school and it still does the job today.
Vampires or Nazis... Vampires or Nazis... Hmm. I can point my NES Light Gun at the Nazis and pretend I'm playing a crazy Wolfenstein mod... Yeah, Hitler it is.
But there's just no way I'd feel the need to get to that kind of skill level on one of these games. Frankly, the thing that really puts me off the most about Capcom's fighters is the physics. Everybody's just sliding all over the place. It doesn't "feel" right to me. All of the SNK fighters I've played, on the other hand, have all felt very solid. I can function better in them because the movement looks right.
It's an interesting concept (Can adamantium claws cut a man of steel?), but doubt I'd play. Capcom's latest fighters have been pretty and all, but I just haven't seen any real gameplay. A button masher's paradise perhaps, but certainly not titles I would rabidly pump quarters into. I guess I'm just an eternal slave to SNK...
I can't be the ONLY person in the world that actually enjoyed those games. Well. The original wasn't too hot, but Legacy of Darkness had it's share of moments.
Wow... Just... Wow. Do they still pull themselves up stacks of crates or try to jump onto moving platforms in lava flows?
The thing that makes AD&D great is that you and your friends are the protagonists. The heroes. Through your actions you shape the world. Here you're Elven Magic-User #48994 with head #14. Through your actions, you can add another Wand of Fireballs to the market pool, lowering their overall price by 3 copper.
That hideous monstrosity ain't gonna be bringing you any good luck any time soon.
Now if only I had an XBox.
Kinky.
It probably has something to do with exposure. For the youngin's whose memory only goes back as far as the PS1, FFVII is "old school." I recall once hearing a kid looking at the DQVII case say "Huh? How is this the seventh? I didn't hear about any others..."
It was sad, really.
Maybe I'm just jaded. Glad you've had a good time with it, though.
Sadly, I'm not exaggerating any there.
Then again, it HAS been several years since I bothered to check up on the project. It could have turned into a platformer at one point for all I know.
They're especially bad in the level where you have to go through the city ruins and the buggers are everywhere...and you then you realize you have to walk to your early morning class through Ghettosylvania. Ahhh yes. You cling to that fence for dear life, skulking up the street. And just when you reach school and think you're finally in the clear...the instructor arrives behind you, asks for a light for his cigarette and you dive into the bushes screaming like a little girl.
*cough* What true story? >_>;;
...Will that damn dog pop out to laugh at me if I miss and hit my foot?