Heh, I still have a bunch of those PC Gamer CDs from 96-98 with the 'elevator ride to hell' UI to get to the demos. I loved those days personally. Standardized = Boring.
I had been boycotting the big N since this time, they seem to have learned their lessons after the relative disasters of the N64 and Gamecube (not profitwise, but marketshare wise, they were disasters) and for the first time, I am seriously considering buying a Nintendo console.
Infact, it's the only nextgen console I AM considering, since the PC, GP2X and Dreamcast fill my needs more then adequately for now.
Could not agree more. I am currently making the commute dissapear every day playing classic SNES and Genesis games on the GP2X, and after winning Final Fantasy 3(6) finally, I am absorbed in the fan-translated hacked version of Seiken Densetsu 3 (Secret of Mana 2) that was done by fans upset it was never localized for an English language release, and what an amazing gem this game is, the pinnacle of 2-d console sprites and animation I think.
So many classics to play again on the 2x, no fan of Linux or classic games should be without this gem of a handheld game/music/movie/picture/ebook media player./preach OFF
admittedly a latecomer to the series, I missed it during its actual television run, of all the episodes i've since acquired I find the Mike ones are preferable in comedy and cohesiveness to the Joel ones./em ducks the incoming fire:)
Have to throw in my nerd-2c here.
Kefka went insane due to the imperfect 'magitek fusion' procedure that he was the first to volunteer for, the process of fusing esper energy to the human mind was poorly understood, and failures in the first attempt caused Kefka to go batshit insane bit by bit.
This was mentioned in the plotline, just not strongly played up.
I tell you what tho, I never dreaded what was going to happen next in a console RPG as much as when I heard the kefka 'giggle' off screen and knew bad shit was about to go down.
Sephiroth in comparison was a whiney emo-fag with a crush on Cloud, he was a third rate villian at best.
Should be looking at a gp2x. Don't reply with 'but does it run Linux?' cos the answer is YES. It is a fully open-source linux-based media and entertainment player, with nearly every good linux emulator and good game project already ported over, and a thriving community at www.gp32x.com .
Currently emulated (allowing playback of a massive retro library) is Atari 2600, 8-bit and 16 bit computers, Sega Master System, Genesis/Megadrive and Gamegear, Neo-Geo, MAME arcade (based on the.36b romset) TG-16/PC Engine, and near 100% SNES, as well as a working and growing daily PSX emulator. This on top of support for DivX/Xvid, MPEG3, MP3, WMA(I think) and OGG formats with automatic video scaling and tv-output it's the best $200 I ever spent.
www.gp2x.com
GHAAA those effing little black worms!
I had a deep abiding love for this game from the first time I watched the intro sequence on my trusty Amiga 500, but I HATED that goddamn worm level more then anything, one slight overstep and it was poison fang death. Grrrr......no video game that old should inspire an instant upwelling of hate when a part of it is mentioned. Thats what makes it legendary!
Ma-choo-ba!
If emulation is all you want my friend, I highly suggest you check out the GPX2.
This is a linux-based opensource handheld gameplayer and media player. Files are stored on standard SD cards, full support for just about every encoding method around for movies and music, and emulators for nearly every classic console and computer are either in development or 100%.
With it's dual 200MHz CPUs (overclockable to 266Mhz, and for some units 300MHz even PSX emulation is becoming playable dispite the lack of a 3d GPU.
www.gp32x.com is the main community site and file archive.
Best $200 I ever spent.
I would honestly change 'Eastern' to 'Console' and 'Western' to 'Computer'.
After all, the great 'eastern' RPG series' are all primarily developed for consoles, and sometimes the best of the best ported to PC. the 'western' RPG of character development and creating your role originated with and continues to be the domain of the personal computer, from the early Ultimas, Questrons, Phantasies and Alternate Reality: the City and The Dungeon on the Apple and Atari 8-bits and Commodore 64 to the more modern Elder Scrolls, NWN, Fallouts etc all on modern PCs with some portage to consoles.
Its only with the simultanious launches of TES III and IV to the Xbox as well as the PC that the 'western' RPG has been developed at all with consoles in mind.
SO I say it's Console RPG vs Computer RPG, and many an arguement about which is best will be waged, but in the end, it all comes down to taste.
When I want to be fed a good story i'll play the latest Final Fantasy. When I want to MAKE the story, i'll play Oblivion.
Good point.
Another factor as to why I never gave it another chance was probablly that I was into a huge EverCrack addiction at the time of Baldur's Gate, and everything else, including my own family, had a hard time competing for that time available away from EQ.
From what I have heard from a LOT of people, I should really give Planescape Torment a go. Perhaps when Oblivion fever dies down, I will dig it up.
Even though I am a huge old school RPG gamer (if you haven't won Ultima IV, you have no RPG cred with me)and player of AD&D from age 10, I really could not get into Baldur's gate (or BGII) in the slightest.
The first time I loaded BG with high expectations, the first thing I see is that annoying 'hehe, it's me Emowyn!' girl giggling and following me around. I started to grate my teeth right then, she's the only fictional character I disliked on sight more then Jar Jar Binks and after she followed me again after the death of my mentor, I told her to piss off and stop following me and she called me a 'rum duke' so I killed her and deleted the game off my HD and never looked back.
Kevin Smith should have been brought in to ghostwrite on the project.
My brain just exploded from a vision of Obi-Wan sarcastically asking a walking-by Padme if she'd ever had her a$$hole licked by a fat guy in an overcoat...
but for 'The Cyberiad' "tales of the cybernetic age" which at age 11 was the first exposure to not only humorous SF, but truely 'intelligent' SF. Rest in peace Stan.
The Star Wars Devs (and Raph the supposed 'Genius of MMOGs'in particular) should have realized that in a genre selling 'you are the hero' that everyone wants to be the hero, aka a JEDI.
They should have therefore made the game with the design that the players WERE the jedi in the game, would be the jedi class at start for the most part and the world based around that concept kind of like a massively-multiplayer KOTOR.
Had they realized that other classes would be the exception to the rule, included spaceflight and combat out of the box and they would have been coding a lisence to print money for the next 10 years.
Wow, i had a buttload of +40 runes laying in the bank of my farmerdruid when I quit playing that game, I too said i would consider going back when it was free, maybe I should do just that and see if my stash is intact.:)
Me.
If I still had the time to devote to a dedicated group of AD&D players to game with at set times for hours at a time, i'd still be playing actual tabletop AD&D with them.
A MMOG I cannot solo in is a MMOG I will never play.
It takes time and patience to make that scheme work. Eventually, when he holds all the items in question in that level range and none are availible, his price becomes the 'going' price. People coming into the market to sell will sell at or near his price, (or be bought up by plate) and new buyers are forced to pay the 'going' rate as that's what it is.
You have to speculate for a long time and prepare to lose some gold before you start earning it back in bucketloads, but it does work. A guildie of mine did this as well, and lost his shirt a couple times figuring out the right items to do it with. (dont try it with any tradeskill supplies)
Agree wholeheartedly, and thanks for the link to the fansite.:) I am very glad to possess a copy of the final beta version of this game that was leaked to the 'net, it is perhaps the finest multiplayer experience on a console and I firmly believe it would have saved the Dreamcast.
However, in the context of this article which seems to reference only PC games, it really wouldn't have fit.
Me too, this is a great site, however i'm not about to cut into my WoW time, this will be a good 'stick it to the Man's bandwith' site for the day instead. It may not beat the Dilbert Blog ( http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/ ) for hours of humor, but it'll do nicely.:)
Slashdot Mirror
I for one, welcome our new Lego Robot Overlords...
No. My father is a private pilot (Flies a ww2-era Navion, beauty plane) and uses his cell in the air all the time, there is no restriction.
Heh, I still have a bunch of those PC Gamer CDs from 96-98 with the 'elevator ride to hell' UI to get to the demos. I loved those days personally. Standardized = Boring.
I had been boycotting the big N since this time, they seem to have learned their lessons after the relative disasters of the N64 and Gamecube (not profitwise, but marketshare wise, they were disasters) and for the first time, I am seriously considering buying a Nintendo console. Infact, it's the only nextgen console I AM considering, since the PC, GP2X and Dreamcast fill my needs more then adequately for now.
Could not agree more. I am currently making the commute dissapear every day playing classic SNES and Genesis games on the GP2X, and after winning Final Fantasy 3(6) finally, I am absorbed in the fan-translated hacked version of Seiken Densetsu 3 (Secret of Mana 2) that was done by fans upset it was never localized for an English language release, and what an amazing gem this game is, the pinnacle of 2-d console sprites and animation I think. So many classics to play again on the 2x, no fan of Linux or classic games should be without this gem of a handheld game/music/movie/picture/ebook media player. /preach OFF
admittedly a latecomer to the series, I missed it during its actual television run, of all the episodes i've since acquired I find the Mike ones are preferable in comedy and cohesiveness to the Joel ones. /em ducks the incoming fire :)
Have to throw in my nerd-2c here. Kefka went insane due to the imperfect 'magitek fusion' procedure that he was the first to volunteer for, the process of fusing esper energy to the human mind was poorly understood, and failures in the first attempt caused Kefka to go batshit insane bit by bit. This was mentioned in the plotline, just not strongly played up. I tell you what tho, I never dreaded what was going to happen next in a console RPG as much as when I heard the kefka 'giggle' off screen and knew bad shit was about to go down. Sephiroth in comparison was a whiney emo-fag with a crush on Cloud, he was a third rate villian at best.
Should be looking at a gp2x. Don't reply with 'but does it run Linux?' cos the answer is YES. It is a fully open-source linux-based media and entertainment player, with nearly every good linux emulator and good game project already ported over, and a thriving community at www.gp32x.com . Currently emulated (allowing playback of a massive retro library) is Atari 2600, 8-bit and 16 bit computers, Sega Master System, Genesis/Megadrive and Gamegear, Neo-Geo, MAME arcade (based on the .36b romset) TG-16/PC Engine, and near 100% SNES, as well as a working and growing daily PSX emulator. This on top of support for DivX/Xvid, MPEG3, MP3, WMA(I think) and OGG formats with automatic video scaling and tv-output it's the best $200 I ever spent.
www.gp2x.com
Ayn Rand was stupid. To all her glorification of monopolies in 'Atlas Shrugged' I have one word to say. Microsoft.
If you call it the N-Wii you sound like you should be a teenager with an angsty livejournal page! :D
GHAAA those effing little black worms! I had a deep abiding love for this game from the first time I watched the intro sequence on my trusty Amiga 500, but I HATED that goddamn worm level more then anything, one slight overstep and it was poison fang death. Grrrr......no video game that old should inspire an instant upwelling of hate when a part of it is mentioned. Thats what makes it legendary! Ma-choo-ba!
If emulation is all you want my friend, I highly suggest you check out the GPX2. This is a linux-based opensource handheld gameplayer and media player. Files are stored on standard SD cards, full support for just about every encoding method around for movies and music, and emulators for nearly every classic console and computer are either in development or 100%. With it's dual 200MHz CPUs (overclockable to 266Mhz, and for some units 300MHz even PSX emulation is becoming playable dispite the lack of a 3d GPU. www.gp32x.com is the main community site and file archive. Best $200 I ever spent.
Excellent on topic read.
I would honestly change 'Eastern' to 'Console' and 'Western' to 'Computer'. After all, the great 'eastern' RPG series' are all primarily developed for consoles, and sometimes the best of the best ported to PC. the 'western' RPG of character development and creating your role originated with and continues to be the domain of the personal computer, from the early Ultimas, Questrons, Phantasies and Alternate Reality: the City and The Dungeon on the Apple and Atari 8-bits and Commodore 64 to the more modern Elder Scrolls, NWN, Fallouts etc all on modern PCs with some portage to consoles. Its only with the simultanious launches of TES III and IV to the Xbox as well as the PC that the 'western' RPG has been developed at all with consoles in mind. SO I say it's Console RPG vs Computer RPG, and many an arguement about which is best will be waged, but in the end, it all comes down to taste. When I want to be fed a good story i'll play the latest Final Fantasy. When I want to MAKE the story, i'll play Oblivion.
Good point. Another factor as to why I never gave it another chance was probablly that I was into a huge EverCrack addiction at the time of Baldur's Gate, and everything else, including my own family, had a hard time competing for that time available away from EQ. From what I have heard from a LOT of people, I should really give Planescape Torment a go. Perhaps when Oblivion fever dies down, I will dig it up.
Even though I am a huge old school RPG gamer (if you haven't won Ultima IV, you have no RPG cred with me)and player of AD&D from age 10, I really could not get into Baldur's gate (or BGII) in the slightest. The first time I loaded BG with high expectations, the first thing I see is that annoying 'hehe, it's me Emowyn!' girl giggling and following me around. I started to grate my teeth right then, she's the only fictional character I disliked on sight more then Jar Jar Binks and after she followed me again after the death of my mentor, I told her to piss off and stop following me and she called me a 'rum duke' so I killed her and deleted the game off my HD and never looked back.
but for 'The Cyberiad' "tales of the cybernetic age" which at age 11 was the first exposure to not only humorous SF, but truely 'intelligent' SF. Rest in peace Stan.
The Star Wars Devs (and Raph the supposed 'Genius of MMOGs'in particular) should have realized that in a genre selling 'you are the hero' that everyone wants to be the hero, aka a JEDI. They should have therefore made the game with the design that the players WERE the jedi in the game, would be the jedi class at start for the most part and the world based around that concept kind of like a massively-multiplayer KOTOR. Had they realized that other classes would be the exception to the rule, included spaceflight and combat out of the box and they would have been coding a lisence to print money for the next 10 years.
Wow, i had a buttload of +40 runes laying in the bank of my farmerdruid when I quit playing that game, I too said i would consider going back when it was free, maybe I should do just that and see if my stash is intact. :)
Me. If I still had the time to devote to a dedicated group of AD&D players to game with at set times for hours at a time, i'd still be playing actual tabletop AD&D with them. A MMOG I cannot solo in is a MMOG I will never play.
It takes time and patience to make that scheme work. Eventually, when he holds all the items in question in that level range and none are availible, his price becomes the 'going' price. People coming into the market to sell will sell at or near his price, (or be bought up by plate) and new buyers are forced to pay the 'going' rate as that's what it is. You have to speculate for a long time and prepare to lose some gold before you start earning it back in bucketloads, but it does work. A guildie of mine did this as well, and lost his shirt a couple times figuring out the right items to do it with. (dont try it with any tradeskill supplies)
yes, and eating a Putain is likely to give you the clap at the very least as well, stick to the poutine. :)
Agree wholeheartedly, and thanks for the link to the fansite. :) I am very glad to possess a copy of the final beta version of this game that was leaked to the 'net, it is perhaps the finest multiplayer experience on a console and I firmly believe it would have saved the Dreamcast.
However, in the context of this article which seems to reference only PC games, it really wouldn't have fit.
Me too, this is a great site, however i'm not about to cut into my WoW time, this will be a good 'stick it to the Man's bandwith' site for the day instead. It may not beat the Dilbert Blog ( http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/ ) for hours of humor, but it'll do nicely. :)