Semjaza

While I can agree with Nintendo and the overexposure argument, I still personally would put them high up on the list because they've been around for decades, not simply the past five years. I'm not going to completely ignore a vast amount of past innovations and games thanks to current flaws. It's easy to put a company like Capcom into this same category, what with sprites being reused for several years in different series, reliance on countless SF, RE and Megaman ports, several Megaman EXE and Zero games in a couple of years time span with little key differences and so forth. In fact, even with Nintendo's overuse of the Mario characters, I'd say Capcom's approach with many of its larger franchises is generally considered the epitome of milking. I can complain about how there are already six Mario Party titles (which are not made in-house or by a second party since its inception, but rather by Hudson Soft; if we're not going to count ED, we might as well not even count that as Nintendo developed anyway) but I can also complain about how there are also several versions of Street Fighter II (with even smaller differences) and there is even still a possibility for more. Even then, I don't think this makes any of their original contributions any less important or their good games any less good. Works for both of them in both senses, although Nintendo is obviously playing it safe more than Capcom has in terms of games themselves. I won't disagree that Viewtiful Joe, Killer7 or that upcoming alien game (I can't remember the name) look like bigger risks with completely new properties in many senses than what Nintendo has done the last few years. As for someone else's Bungie argument... They're a company that's been around quite a long time and has been respected long before Halo over their excellent Marathon titles. I guess a lot of people have only played Halo since Marathon was largely Mac only, but there is certainly more to them than that. Anyway, I don't know what my top three are, but my top one on consoles is Atlus. In my opinion, the games they have themselves created are among the best RPGs on their respective systems. There are weaker titles, of course, but I don't think any one franchise interests me more than MegaTen. Plus the US arm puts out a lot of fun and interesting games that a lot of other publishers ignore. I don't know about anyone else, but I really enjoyed Cubivore lol.

Hm. I have the first five seasons of The Simpsons, Volume One of Family Guy, Season One of Futurama, Seasons One and Two of Ren and Stimpy, Volume Four of Remastered Robotech, Season One of Dead Like Me and Season One of Twin Peaks. I guess the most obvious reason is that I can now watch these shows as a I please with no real interuptions. I don't even have Cartoon Network right now, so Family Guy and Futurama aren't even an option. I don't think anyone even shows Twin Peaks, Robotech or Ren and Stimpy anymore. Plus it's nice to see these shows uncut. It's surprising how much is removed from a typical Simpsons episode when it's syndicated, simply to stuff in more commercial time. There are entire scenes on those sets that I've never even seen thanks to syndication. With Ren and Stimpy, some of the shows were edited before they even aired and can only be seen completely on the set. I don't have Showtime either, so the box set is the only way I can easily watch Dead Like Me... lol

[quote name='Lore][color=4b4b7']Like what? I'm really interested now, heh.[/color][/quote] Ghost World, From Hell, Road to Perdition, Men in Black, The Mask, The Crow, Judge Dredd. While perhaps how much better, if at all, these films are is arguable, I have to say I'd watch these any day of the week before Punisher, Hulk, Catwoman or Batman Forever. I think Ghost World is the best of those, personally. I'm sure there are a lot of people who know of all these comics, but I know a large amount who didn't realize they were comic films largely because they weren't based on some massive property. There's also a surprising amount of people that think TMNT originated as a cartoon before going on to films. The films are more like the comics than the original cartoon show ever attempted to be. Oh, I'd also love a Books of Magick film... although I'd prefer it was based on the Life During Wartime series, where Hunter is grown up.

I think some of the best comic book movies are actually ones most people have no idea are based upon comics in the first place. There's a surprising amount of them. I love comic books, but as a fan, I'm extremely tired of comic book films. Marvel, in particular, has done everything it can possibly do to get every last one of their "major" licenses out to some company and really doesn't seem to care how they turn out. Hulk had a million and one problems, Elektra is apparently awful (on rottentomatoes.com it had 46 reviews last I saw, only one was positive), no one seems to care much about Blade anymore, Daredevil was largely ignored (making it even more strange that there is an Elektra film), etc. For every decent one there's quite a few bad ones. I do think The Walking Dead would be good on screen, although not so much as a movie as a TV show on cable. The characters are well developed, something I think is lacking in a lot of horror/zombie-related things lately. I'd watch it. Ex Machina honestly seems like it could be a decent drama series as well.

Living in this country, you should get used to the fact that media outlets and whatever else use statistics to prove absolutely anything that will get some sort of response. I get papers from guys out on the street all the time telling me all sorts of strange percentages of people that do this or that, all of which they happen to hate for some reason. Sampling a small amount of people and then multiplying it over the entire population of a country this large may work in some cases (like who likes what toothpaste), but when it comes to religious, political or ideological concerns, it never ever turns out. I wasn't asked if I think the rights of Muslims should be constrained and I'm sure neither was anyone else here. Mindsets are too different for such general numbers, in my opinion, so I see no real reason to ever get myself worked up over them.

Jimi Hendrix was a good guitarist, but I don't quite get why so many people consider him the best ever. I will say he has a good warm quality a lot of players lack, but I've heard better overall playing, whether technically proficient or not. To me, Kurt Cobain is another one of those good, but not amazing guys out there. After twenty minutes, I find his voice grating. I can see what people like, I just don't like it to the same extent. Personal preference, I guess. As for Page, he is excellent, but at the same time, a lot of his work is incredibly similar to others work preceding him (in some cases, it almost feels stolen, but who knows). For me the greatest is David Bowie. Perhaps not as influential on the very foundations of rock music (the guy pretty much revolutionized post-war music) as someone like Muddy Waters as HC mentioned, I think he is definitely one of the most influential people in terms of actually building upon that foundation. I don't think a single artist/group has matched the consistent, high quality of output that Bowie managed in the 70s and early 80s. In addition to this, I think he managed to remove rock music from the progressive rut it was in. At that time, people were buying stuff that mostly consisted of some guy sitting in flannel and whining out heartfelt songs. Bowie's back catalog around that time (66 to 68 or so) mostly just contributed to that rut and deepened it. When Space Oddity came out shortly after, I don't know what happened exactly, but he completely broke free of all of that. I'll never understand how he could come from such predictable, tired material into something that excellent. Later following it with Ziggy Stardust really just cemented it. Of course it helped that his backing band was phenominal at the time (and really, still is, despite different members). Mick Ronson is probably the most underrated performer I can think of and completely integral to Bowie's sound at the time.. I think the whole costuming element was a big thing too. There were other glam rock bands at the time, but Bowie's image was [i]the[/i] image. Other bands/artists have images and costuming, but by comparison, most of them are arbitrary and have no meaning. Kiss's make-up and costumes had no effect on their music, neither did thirty plus years of Alice Cooper in the same eye make-up. The image meant something. These were personas; actual characters. They affected the songs, they affect the story, they affected everything and were their own voice in many ways. It's something you rarely see in music anymore and really, the only band that has really managed to secure this since then has been Marilyn Manson... although in far more sinister way. Look is one thing, purpose and meaning is another. In both cases, I think the depths of these images and characters is lost on a majority of people. I remember watching some show where they mentioned a huge group of rock artists were asked various questions. One was who did they consider their largest influence. Bowie was number one. I think that says a lot.

This kind of came out of nowhere. I was at the store and there it was. I just stumbled upon it. I'm quite impressed. The game looks great and animates wonderfully. The story and characters are enjoyable and I was glad to see the continued development of Zelda as an active, talking character. It's better than saving some mute like in the old Zeldas. The Minish stuff is quite cool. It does a good job at making this one feel quite different from previous titles. For some reason I like the stupid little hat too. It's funny when Link has to nudge the hat back awake when they take a nap.

I've not really noticed walking through trees or anything to that effect simply because there's very little reason to even be near enough to a tree for it to happen. I do notice the window jump clipping, which happens so quickly I couldn't really be pulled out of the game at all. You'd think that would be addressed since the windows are mostly small... Oh well. I don't mind the wandering merchant (an idea around long before Ninja Gaiden, lol). While him being in places randomly is certainly different from past titles in the series, that's what I like about him. I've ran into a rocket launcher out in the open, so perhaps not [i]everything[/i] has to be purchased. At the same time, it adds a sense of planning that I enjoy. Money is plentiful, but you still don't easily get enough to buy every last weapon... especially when you also have the option to upgrade them. It becomes a question of which is better, upgrading or buying new things, especially when you only have a limited amount of space. Plus his target practice game is fun. I will admit the use of the same few models can get irritating. However, I don't find it to the point of games like KotOR, where super important characters look exactly the same as five other people in his general vicinity. When you consider that there are times when there are literally a dozen villagers (or whatever) on-screen at once, I guess it's more forgivable. This is definitely going to be more of a problem as games get more and more realistic looking... Spending time to make tons of individual enemies seems tedious lol. Anyway, I'm really loving the game so far. Despite very, very minor issues (and really, you have to search for these so you have something to fault it for), it is better than I expected and absolutely slaughters every other game in the series in really every last respect. The characters' voice-overs are actually decent unlike most of the REs and their actions seem mostly natural. While control is mostly the same, the over the shoulder perspective the game uses fits it perfectly. I have not had a single control-related problem at all. Everything else just comes together. The story is actually interesting, particularly due to characters. I think some of the dialogue is a bit strange at times, but overall it's fine. The game looks great. It has some blurry textures and I've noticed very slight slowdown in some places (well, just one place, where dirt is blowing around in gusts -- more impressive stuff runs fine, strangely), but it's still amazing. Animation is great, small details are impressive and the models are fantastic. Music is mostly background/atmospheric, but very fitting and very well-done. It's well cued too, as I've noticed slightly different music depending on whether or not enemies are nearby and what type they are. I think what makes RE what it is, however, is gore and scary stuff... and this game really has a lot of it. Headshots are very present in this game (removed in a few of the titles, for some reason) and weapons are very powerful. What's great about them is that while the weapons are strong and hit enemies with big impacts, they often react as though it didn't do much to hurt them. It makes them seem nearly invincible, rather than making you feel like your weapons suck. Seems to be a problem in a lot of games. The scary stuff is well used, in different ways. There's stuff that's just creepy or disgusting (the later effects of the virus are pretty nasty the first time you see them, as well as surprising). So many times I think I'm fighting off the last enemy and a few are behind me, ready to attack. This is made stronger because the enemy AI is strong. They flank you, come through windows, throw things from a distance, climb ladders, etc. I think what really helps this game is that, unlike most of the other things in the series, things aren't set up for you. Other RE games had methods that generally made me get ready for sudden changes or new enemies. This one doesn't do that as often, things just happen. [spoiler]I didn't expect that weird creature to explode out of the neck of a guy whose head I just blew away with a shotgun... and as time goes on, the things evolve into different forms[/spoiler]. Plus, some of the bosses are surprising and pretty disgusting/freaky. Anyway, great game.

Signatures in general are annoying. I've turned them off in my profile. If it's that much of an annoyance, I encourage others to do the same... but I guess not everyone likes to make them disappear entirely.

Unlike any game I've ever ordered online, RE4 was shipped Monday and I have it right now. Too bad I can't play it for a few hours yet...

[B]What was it?[/B] Play It [Forum] [B]Why was it nifty?[/B] This might seem like a strange one coming from me, mostly because I wound up leaving my "position" there. Admittedly, I do have problems with the forum, but I have the nifty ability of finding small problems with everything. Despite this, I still honestly believe the forum contains the best stuff on this site. One could say the great members in there are outnumbered by the crappy ones, but this is true of any website on the entire internet. But, when one takes into consideration the sheer amount of quality posts from the better members in there, I really don't think all the crappy posts even matter. I still think that the combining of all consoles was a good idea however... at this point, the place has become slow enough that I think that's one of the few things still saving it. Plus, it leads to nice multiplatform discussions. What I really like most about it is that debates in there really feel like debates. While there is the occasional "you suck" post or other posts where some guy comes out of nowhere with false information, for the most part it's not like that. People strongly disagree, but most of it ends there. There's a lot of people in there I don't agree with on a regular basis, but I like them all the more for it. If we all agreed, I don't think it would even be worth reading through. This vote also includes the members that regularly go there. I'm not going to name names, as I think it's rude, but I think the people who are good members in there really know it. [B]What was it?[/B] anatema [member] [B]Why was it nifty?[/B] An all around amazing person. I had all these things in my head to type here about her, but as I sit at the keyboard, none of them really do her justice. I think everyone should strive to be as good as she is in every possible facet, really. [B]What was it?[/B] Kill Adam [thread] [B]Why was it nifty?[/B] It's just been enjoyable. I don't really participate in RPGs and the only ones I've bothered to read through are the three I've actually been in (and even then, before Kill Adam my work only consisted of three posts). While I'm sure there are lots of other excellent RPGs (as evidenced by other comments here), I think the fact that this one bothered to interest me to apply for it is a good compliment lol. [B]What was it?[/B] Shinmaru [member] [B]Why was it nifty?[/B] Strangely, a lot of the people I think I have the most in common with here are the ones I talk to the least. Shinmaru and I have had very, very few direct conversations, although we do post on eachothers sites rather regularly (well, as regularly as I can lately lol). All around cool guy with good game and music taste. [B]What was it?[/B] satan665 [member] [B]Why was it nifty?[/B] Basically everything said about Shinmaru applies here... except that we've never talked on messaging programs lol. Doesn't post much, but I enjoy what he bothers to write. I do get the impression that many people here don't read things the way he means them sometimes, though lol. [B]What was it?[/B] Shy [member] [B]Why was it nifty?[/B] Shy and I used to talk rather regularly, but time kind of destroyed that. Even so, I find him to be one of the most likable people on the internet in general and surprisingly restrained when he has every right to go nuts heh. Between his general posting and RPGs, I'd say he's one of the top people here. [B]What was it?[/B] Queen Asuka [member] [B]Why was it nifty?[/B] Another person I would literally talk to for hours if time and such provided it. Unfortunately I've really not talked to her in quite some time. She has this strange addictive personality that's hard to explain and I rather enjoy her posts here and on her myOtaku. [B]What was it?[/B] Heaven's Cloud [member] [B]Why was it nifty?[/B] HC has somehow managed this strange mentor position here, at least to me. I guess that's strange, but I probably think this because we are rather alike in many, many ways... he just seems to articulate them better lol. Our direct conversations are always very brief, but for whatever reason still manage to be interesting. [B]What was it?[/B] James [member] [B]Why was it nifty?[/B] I'd not be here if it wasn't for James, which is really the most important thing I could say. All around cool guy who is enjoyable to work with on a variety of mediums. It's a shame none of our design/site collaborations ever panned out lol. I don't think I need to even really mention James' posts throughout this site and others. [B]What was it?[/B] Charles [member] [B]Why was it nifty?[/B] Funny, interesting and smart. A lethal combination. ----- [B]What was it?[/B] All the other people I like and whose names I can remember offhand [members] [B]Why was it nifty?[/B] I don't even know if this would count as a vote (especially since it's my 11th one), but there are a lot of people I like or respect or whatever else here for a variety of reasons. Some are still here, some are not. I'll list some...Lore, Arcadia, Sennen, Azure, Dagger, Panda, Aleia, Mitch, Piro, Ryan, Desbreko, Alan, Asphy (what is she going by now?), Scrios, Hevn, DDG, Shinji, Ajeh, Chabichou, Manic, Siren, Bombu, wrist cutter, transtic nerve, amibasuki (spelled right?), Anna, Annie, Mimmi, Ken, Babygirl, Ed, Boba, Doc, Roxie, Charles, Baron, Lady K, Lady M, Drix, etc etc etc. Don't feel bad if you're not mentioned... I can't even remember half the usernames at this place and I really only visit like two sections here now lol.

James invited me. We originally wound up speaking to eachother over AIM and such when I e-mailed theOtaku's now deceased Xbox game site. Xboxotaku or something. I wound up here under another name and posted maybe 30 times, I'd guess. I wound up running into Crazy White Boy thanks to link from James. It was some argument over what was the best upcoming system or some nonsense. I wound up leaving shortly after. James and I continued talking and months later I wound up here under this name. By that point, CWB was a mod, much to my surprise... but the whole previous "debate" was largely considered a joke by that point. To explain it all to people who weren't around would take a whole new thread. The place, at the time, still had a rather strong gaming community, largely because of the gaming sites that were once hosted in addition to this. People stuck around after those sites went down, but gradually faded away, leading to a whole new group. Somewhere around that time I became a mod, which was my main reason for being here so often, I'd say. I remember Anna.

Too bad we can't double post sometimes. I wonder how many people saw your edits so far? heh Anyway, Gamespot wound up giving it a 9.6. The guy gushed over pretty much everything, the only sore spot seemed to be that he wasn't too big on the limited inventory system and going into menus to use items. Comes out tomorrow... although most retail places are getting it Thursday. Mine should be at my place sometime on Wednesday. Can't wait.

[quote name='Morpheus']DS carts are 128mb.[/quote] That isn't a static figure. Carts aren't like CDs, there isn't just one size you're stuck with for the duration of the system's life.

Man, there's some weird, totally wrong information in here... lol. Sometimes I wonder what websites people visit when they read about games. I don't think any of them will fail, in terms of next gen consoles... However, one will always have to be in third place. At this point, I would figure it would be Nintendo, but it's possible things could change by then. It depends on what reason, if there even is one, they're calling this thing "revolution" and whether or not they keep pushing 3rd party relations. I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt since the GCN was conceptualized and launched under Yamauchi... I think Iwata has been a nice breath of fresh air, overall, and I think some things may be different since this is his first launch while being in charge. However, if the Microsoft rumors on Xenon prove true, I think they'll be shooting themselves in the foot. It's well known that the original Xbox was planned to be a media center of sorts, a set top box. This all fell apart when companies said they wouldn't make games for something like that. But now that MS has a rather large foothold in the market, they might feel like that sort of thing may be feasible at this point. Gamespot recently reported on their rumor control page about MS wanting to do three separate versions of Xenon. A normal one, one with a hard drive and a PC version. I think this, if it even happens or is true, really coincides with their past ideas. Splitting up their own market like that could really hurt them and if they go along with that plan, I really can't see them out on top. At the same time, they're supposedly launching sometime in 2005, quite a bit of time before the other two tentative system launch dates. Who knows. As for the PSP, I don't care about it personally... but I think it will do well. Nintendo owned nearly 90% of the market with the Game Boy line and killed off many competitors, even if they had great games and more powerful hardware. Sony has its work cut out for it and I don't know that large amounts of flash are enough to push it ahead. Personally, I have no real interest in playing PS2-style games on the road... the reports of nearly 15 to 20 second load times for certain games is very disheartening and I don't know why anyone would buy movies on discs that couldn't be read by a single other thing. I have other issues with it, but I have issues with the DS and whatever else too. Who really knows what will happen.

[quote name='Ganon6d9]I dunno, The 64 cartridges went all the way up to 512 megabytes, half as much as a cube disc. And if I'm not mistaken the DS carts are only half that of the 64, I'm not so sure it's going to be as [i]complete[/i'] as the other versions.[/quote] N64 carts were measured in mega[b]bits[/b], not mega[b]bytes[/b]. 512 megabits is only around 64 megabytes and I believe that cartridge size was only used for Resident Evil 2, which had tons of compressed video. By comparison, Super Mario 64 was only 8 megabits. GCN discs are like 1.5 GBs, so it's nowhere near half. I'd not worry about this game fitting on those carts at all, particularly because, if needed, Nintendo could easily increase their capacity. I'm looking forward to this, simply because wireless play just seems like the next step in this series. It would have been online play, if Nintendo would get around to it, but this is still in the right direction. I actually had someone ask me on the train if I had my Metroid demo with me so we could play a quick match the other day. I think games like AC will really help push that whole connectivity thing if done right.

Quick question: Do we have to stay within the traditional DC/Marvel properties? There's some characters within other lines that I would rather use that are actually owned by those two companies (Vertigo is owned by DC, for example). I wasn't sure if that'd be okay.

For the record, I think Xenosaga is trash, but this is something I think Monolith should be very happy with. I was interested in this game, but found myself less and less interested as time went on. I recently picked it up, however, and have been playing the hell out of it ever since. I'm not going to bother talking about the graphics because everyone knows how good this looks. The game also has some simply excellent music. However, I think the sound effects often just don't sound right (footsteps and splashes particularly) and the voices are just this side of awful. I turned them off right away which is thankfully an option. Sadly, you still have to put up with it in the battles either way... What this lacks in voice overs, however, it certainly makes up for in translation. The game is wonderfully written and I oftentimes found myself surprised by it. Even some of the most basic town-wandering NPCs have interesting, lengthy things to say. This is usually something console RPGs lack compared to PC RPGs. There's exceptions and not everyone is a blabbermouth, but it was definitely welcomed. While the story makes use of some well-used ideas, I don't find myself minding. It's very well paced and things happen at welcome and opportune times. Twists and developments are all well done. Again, the translation is welcome here because I find myself very interested in the main characters and what exactly is going on with the Empire and their quest. The battle system is also more interesting and challenging than I expected. Most people shy away from card RPGs simply because they're rarely done well, but this game makes a different use of it than any other I've played. It's really just an excuse to randomly mix up what you can and can't do each turn. Sometimes I find myself unable to attack without wasting a defense or healing item, for example. The combo system is well done and I really like the way mixing up opposite attacks (ice and fire or whatever) is handled and appropriately dealt out. The camera system for earning money is also quite unique and interesting. Anyway, there's not much else to cover, but I've put about twelve hours into the game so far and I'm quite happy with it. I'm not sure if I like it more than Paper Mario, but it definitely beats out Tales of Symphonia as the best original RPG on the system.

Love stories on a whole are annoying, not simply because I'm a guy and hate lovey things, but because 9 out of 10 times, they're handled horribly. There's no reason why some smart girl should fall for these guys in these games. I never get it. No one in their right mind would like Squall. If I was a girl, I'd not date him just because of his stupid *** name. Anyway, while I complain about RPGs a lot, they're also probably my favorite genre other than "miscellaneous"/puzzle/music (which I guess includes stuff like Katamari Damacy, Gitaroo Man and Bombastic)... so I probably see more tired, rehashed ideas within that genre than most others. As for the story thing... most games have to end. I'm sure most game makers don't really give a crap about fanfics related to their titles. I, peronally, like an ending that covers all the bases without telling you [i]everything[/i]. A good example is the ending to Dragon Warrior IV. Anyway... 1.) RPGs have the tendancy for you to face off against a future teammate. When you first battle them, they usually have insane powers and a massive amount of HP. In some examples, such as Star Ocean: Second Story, these battles are often incredibly difficult and early on in the game. Yet, when this character is finally won over to your side, they're often pushovers who offer nothing of value over what you already have. I'm not saying I expect my new character to have 30,000 HP and ultimate attacks when my other guys are Level 10... but I'm just tired of this. It happens in nearly every single RPG. 2.) This same thing is even more annoying when you wind up fighting a character that was already in your party. Usually they tend to be one you don't really care to use in battles because they're nothing special... but then they suddenly cross you or attack you in some hypnotised daze and they're about 300 times stronger. Unless this character was possessed or suddenly gained superhuman powers, there's no point to this at all. I wish it would end. 3.) Crystals. I'm freaking tired of these. Align the crystals to save the universe in some aspect. A handful of Final Fantasy titles use some variation of this and so do countless other RPGs. Some have taken this idea to different lengths... for example, Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door uses Crystal Stars and Baten Kaitos uses a similar idea with the End Magus essences. I welcome these a bit more, especially if they're used effectively. But crystals should be outlawed. 4.) Angsty main characters. This became a common occurance in the late 90s and still continues today in games such as Shadow Hearts 2: Covenant. I'm simply just tired of it. Lately, I find myself more interested in lighthearted RPGs (good example is Skies of Arcadia) simply because I'm just tired of all the related melodrama. I don't care that these characters are all alone in the world or anything else. I can see why this is often used. It seems as though console RPGs, as a whole, appeal mostly to a teenage audience. Perhaps these problems are common to them and they can relate on some level. I'm to the point where enough is just enough, personally. 5.) Super happy kids who save the world. This is a hard one. While there are games I absolutely love that use this idea, such as the Earthbound/Mother titles, it is simply used too much. I found in FFX that the most interesting character was not any of the teenagers or young adults, but Auron, who I remember being the oldest one there. Of course, this can also lead to the adult character being forced into an annoying "teacher" role, which is also annoying. I guess you can't win here. 6.) There's a plotline that a few FF games use, as well as many others. It basically involves the heroes going after some sort of government figure (Empire, Shinra, the Queen whatever) until that is overthrown by some sort of super villian/wizard (Kefka, Kuja, Sephiroth, etc). It's an easy thing to rely on and something that many stories, in games and otherwise, use very often. I wish more games attempted to avoid this. Anyway, that's all I can think of right now.

While it's true that Take2 cut prices dramatically once they got the series, I would argue the "quality" aspect of it. Sega was making some rather large strides and while I don't really love football enough to buy every title, every year, the Sega titles had enough going for them to be good competition. In fact, many things were actually better. The only reason I think EA bothered to do some of the things in recent games in terms of "bettering" or "evolving" them was simply because Sega was the only decent competition since the Genesis days. With Madden being the only game in town with any real teams or names, they solidify being in front now without really having to do a single thing to the gameplay other than adding new stats because not a single other game can really compete. Take 2 didn't cut these prices that long ago, really. I'm sure this has been a goal of EA's for quite some time and not simply a knee-jerk reaction because Take 2 made their games $20 or whatever. I doubt it's that simple. Madden is the biggest football title there is and its name goes a long, long way. Hell, look how well Live was doing even when it was well known that it was absolute crap for quite awhile. It takes different tactics to bring those sorts of things down.

I'm glad to see Katamari Damacy get a nod a few times... but these awards seem incredibly narrow, with only a few games even being mentioned at all. I know not as many games have come out in their territory, but it still is rather strange to ignore so many games and then mention Mawaru, which isn't even out there yet last I saw. Monster Hunter is awful, by the way.

My favorite games are usually not even nominated, let alone voted for. I expect this as I know I tend to go for more off-key games that a lot of people don't seem into for whatever reason. Because of this, I'm not like "I'm mad my favorite game didn't win!!!". I don't have weird fanboy expectations where I get upset if Nintendo doesn't win best game or Shin Megami Tensei is not even talked about. Yet, I'm still like "My god this show is unknowingly cheesy, poorly produced and full of things that are only there so the show will appeal to a broader spectrum of people... which it still didn't even manage to do". Still, I don't know how anyone wouldn't be bothered to see Streets of LA win a major award, regardless of how dumb the show is. I've not seen GPhoria, but I'm glad that it sounds as if it's a better show.

I don't care for sports games on average either, but if this is as far reaching as it seems, it's obviously not a good thing. It effectively kills off any real competition without them having to do anything in terms of making their games better.

[quote name='ThatOneOddDude']Thats not quite what I was thinking... I was thinking more in terms of a turn based or time based system, where you would be walking along, when suddenly your in an FPS battle. Like a first-person Tales of Symphonia. But your lists and ideas are good too.[/quote] Hmm, I didn't really get that idea from your words above. Oh well lol. There are RPGs that have first person battles, but I don't really know of anything like what you're describing. There are dungeon hack games that seem similar to that, but they're entirely first person... not just the battles.

I remember last year that a lot of people involved with game creation were rather put off by the show (even those invited to appear on it) because of how much of it really made fun of gamers more than tried to embrace them. That and various other reasons you mentioned. I have no plans on ever seeing this, mostly because I think TV award shows are always a sham.