lobotomy42

Not only did Takahashi not want the series to continue, but he also wasn't thrilled with the Wii controller concept. (Granted, it's an old, vague article...but still!) So I don't feel great about this. One Katamari was plenty. Maybe these sequels were the price he paid for being allowed to work on something new? Man, they better be giving him all the freedom in the world.

Your review sounds kinda the same as the impression of the game I got from the trailers, previews and what-have-you, which is why I never bought it. Western RPG developers these days seem to really like the idea of character customization. (Notice the same emphasis on this in all the previews of Mass Effect.) This is just anecdotal, but I feel like most people who play RPGs are in it for the story/characters more than for maximizing saving throws and working towards a moral alignment. Am I wrong? Personally, I'd rather have a bit of linearity in my title if it means that the story and characters are reasonably written rather than just there. Curse you John Romero! It's ok to have cut-scenes sometimes, but no one wants them anymore! Obviously, I'm ranting now about games I haven't even played...but you get the idea!

If it's obvious in context who you're talking about...yes. Ragnar, for example, is the only Ragnar I know of in video games...or indeed, anywhere. I suspect that even those of you who are cultured and sociable enough to know multiple Ragnars could still guess who was meant by simply "Ragnar." Also, it sounds better than just saying "Tornquist." Also, I'm excited for Dreamfall. Unfortunately, I doubt these episode will be any better than the Dreamfall we already have, which wasn't fantastic. But, mediocre sequels to TLJ are still better than none.

Well, the reason I hear most often from PC developers these days is "You can't pirate an MMO." Ragnar insinuated as much on his blog, suggesting that all PC games will be at least partially online since single-player games always get pirated. Honestly, while I'm sure loads of piracy happens, I don't think it can possibly hurt the industry as much as they claim. But whatever.

Well, you could buy a pre-paid phone card, and use that at a pay phone or something to make the call. Just be careful not to scratch the card too hard, or you might rub off the security code! Then you'd have to call the phone company's customer service...

Maybe this is just me, but how is "Lock on with Z...now move forward with the joystick...now swing" any more reliable a method of doing a forward stab than just doing a forward stab? I find myself screwing it up more often than I get it right, since half my brain is thinking "motion sensor to swing!" while my other half is thinking "but, um, use the buttons and control stick to alter the type of swing!" The whole process gets even weirder when I'm a wolf, because at that point there's no godly reason why swinging the remote should make the wolf lunge forward and bite. *sigh* And what's with all these games using small iconic gestures? I don't want small iconic gestures. That's just swapping out button presses for...well, iconic gestures. Wasn't the whole point of this thing to find new ways to play and make gaming easier and all that good stuff? I thought moving the remote could actually translate directly into moving stuff onscreen? Grrrr. I'm just whining at this point. I know that in a year, some real games will come out and it'll all be good. But in the meantime, I'm frustrated that I spent $400 on a Wii, games and accessories only to find myself doing nothing but using "Everybody Votes Channel" all the time. So rant I shall. Zelda's Wii controls suck (a little bit), and I'm sticking by that.

The biggest problem, to me, with the sword controls is that I feel like they could be more motion-sensitive. They already built in stabs, horizontal slices and vertical slices. Why should I have to Z-target and move forward AND swing to do a forward stab? Why can't I just, you know, do a forward stab with the Wiimote? Why does it just ignore which direction I'm swinging the Wiimote? This, combined with the fact that at E3 2005 we were *assured* repeatedly that it would it in November 2005 for the GCN (it was Nintendo's centerpiece by far) and the Wii version wasn't announced until a year later at E3 06, makes the controls seem "tacked on."

Touché my friend. Tou very ché.

...How is it looking like that?

Also, this title will probably not get mentioned a lot, but it's one of my favs: Tales of the Abyss It's a fairly traditional jRPG with two very cool features: cooperative multiplayer (for the significant other) and a fast-paced action battle system. The battles play out like a convoluted fighting game, with up to four human players playing your various party members (computer AI plays the rest). It's pretty fun as a mindless time waster. The plot is nothing to write home about (or even UNDERSTAND at times), but that battle system makes up for many other faults. Most of this praise also applies to other "Tales of" games, but Abyss is the most recent release on the PS2.

Another price drop? Did I miss the first one?

The two biggest upcoming names are Sonic and the Secret Rings and Super Paper Mario (a delayed/ported GCN title). Both look to be pretty good, but the ones I'm really waiting for (Mario Galaxy, Metroid, Fire Emblem) are going to be a long time coming. Also, Konami just unveiled Dewey's Adventure from the Elebits team. It looks kinda cool, but I haven't played Elebits yet. Speaking of which, Elebits is out. I don't know, man. Right now we're getting the "post-launch shovelware," as they say in the biz. (That biz being "commenting on internet forums.") So...yeah. I'd say the really good stuff is still further down the pipeline.

*ducks* I still like them...They distinguish this forum from the countless others that exist on the net...

Regardless of Mac or PC, I would say the advantages of a laptop over a desktop (even a small one) are enormous. It's so nice to be able to have your computer available with you at *all* times, I can't imagine going back to a desktop for my primary usage. If you're concerned about screen size, I find that it's more worth it to just invest in some good output cables for whatever laptop you choose, and then just use your existing TV set / monitor / whatever as the viewing platform when friends are over.

Oh man, I was just thinking about these guys the other day. What a show.

Confession: I never finished this game! Am I a bad person?

Dude, check the map!

I'm sure I'll buy it eventually, but my plate is too full at the moment to warrant rushing out to get it. Maybe in a few months.

What do you mean? You press L to lock on and...that's it! Unless you want free-hand aiming, in which case you use R. But you don't really need it. If you're asking "Why didn't they implement Dual-Analog Controls?" then the answer is that it's not (at least, not intentionally) a first-person shooter as much as a "first person adventure," to use Nintendo's words. Really, it's an attempt at translating the 2D Metroid mechanics over into 3D.

To be fair, IGN has always been more of a news site than a reviews/editorials site. They're frequently the first to break news that might otherwise not be broken. Sure, Gamespot and 1up get the follow-up, but IGN has been known to hound Nintendo/Sony/MS for questions on specific tech features that may/may not appear in the console until some information breaks. Reviews and awards tend to be seconday. Their editorial content is divided into sections by platform, so reviews are standardized across a single console, but not across the site as a whole. I dunno, I think the site is misunderstood. It's definitely the pinnacle of the testosterone-laden "Games should be violent and sexy!" faction of games, but at least the individual editors are allowed to show some personality behind their own individual sections. I definitely prefer them to the sterile "objective-viewpoint" Gamespot. (Or maybe I'm just trying to justify spending another $19.95 to renew my IGN Insider subscription.) Then again, I've always preferred Gamespy (now owned by IGN, and News Corp, etc.) to everything else. Not sure why, but at least their Game of the Year Awards have some actual text to back up the award.

I guess I technically came from adventuregamers.com. I didn't use that site much (and still don't), but I randomly happened to be there around the time there was some sort of announcement about Idle Thumbs. I immediately noticed that Idle Thumbs was some sort of Video game website that didn't completely suck (unlike almost all the others). I didn't use the forums then, because Idle Thumbs still had articles. Once the articles vanished, I kept checking back, hoping that "today would be the day they post a new one!" Eventually, I realized that the forum headlines on the right were still changing, even though the site wasn't, and I got the brilliant idea to start posting. (This was under the assumption that, you know, it's the internet, and no one would mind.)

I prefer the older ones to the newer ones, but I'm in the minority. "The City of Death" is pretty good, and "The Talons of Weng-Chiang" also. If you've ever read Hitchhiker's Guide, you might like "The Pirate Planet" which was written by Douglas Adams.

I like it, so far. You're right - it is like an adventure game from an alternate dimension, but I sort of like the surreal feel.

I'll avoid asking the eternally-obnoxious "Is it dead yet?" in lieu of a slightly-less obnoxious "Does it completely suck these days or what?" I used to be a PC-exclusive gamer, but these days the market seems even more generic and derivative than all the consoles and handhelds, which are pretty derivative themselves. I subscribe to "Games for Windows - The Official Magazine" (formerly Computer Gaming World), and it seems like every game for the PC can be lumped into one of four categories: - stuff for the Source engine - real-time strategy - MMOs - niche adventure games Not that I'm opposed to any of these categories, but...come on! Each of the major console manufacturers does a good job of lining up a variety of content for their system from all across the spectrum. By comparison, the PC market feels like a couple of narrow genres with hard-core devoted fans, where each game is a marginally more complicated (and more niche) version of the last one. There are so many RTS's now that you can't sneeze without knocking one off the shelf, but God help you if you decide to actually get into the game. The mechanics have become so intense and layered upon the foundations of previous games that newcomers are completely lost. (Or at least, I would be, were I a newcomer.) I liked WarCraft 2, gosh darn it. There was gold, and occasionally, a tree. Whoever got to the dragons first pretty much won and that was that! The same can be said for the other genres as well. Either you're an expert and can jump in, or you're not, and you can't. I suppose adventure games have a slightly smaller learning curve, but they almost never show up on shelves anyway. What happened to dialogue-heavy RPGs? Or turn-based strategy? Or action? Or even flight sims? Or whatever genre "SimCity" was? Some have moved to consoles, certainly, but it seems that most PC-centric genres have just plain died. I don't know that I have a point to make, other than...it sucks. I keep wanting to buy a new gaming PC, but then I think "Why?" It used to be expensive to be a PC gamer, but now it's just pointless.

I actually like the look of all three consoles. And a new Xbox 360 model might convince me to finally buy one, if I became rich suddenly. Is that what we're still talking about?