BardicKnowledge

Here we go.... On OCR, you'll find the following: Mario Sleigh Ride (from SMW) Christmas Cave (from DKC) Prehistoric Xmas (from Bonk's Adventure) Christmas NiGHTS_MerryLittleChristmas (from NiGHTS) Christmas in the Village (from Lufia 2) Dirge for the Frosty Plains (from Secret of Mana) Frosty Delight (from Megaman Go grab all of Dale North's Christmas stuff that isn't on OCR already (especially the FF1 sailing Christmas mix) Then, Asheman's "Carol of the Final Fantasy Belles" is extremely good as well -- don't know where you'll find it with VGMix down though...give it a shot!

Any Midwesterners attending at the end of the month? I already bought my tickets (Row C on the end...seats 13&14?), but we could meet up before / after the show -- I'll get to Mizzou around 5, if anyone's interested. PM me for a phone number. And hooray that VGL finally made its way to a place I can come up with an excuse to visit!

Zircon is (as usual) on top of the ball with this -- I wouldn't mind the left sidebar ads either, which is what seems to be the main debate at this point. As long as there's no audio / flashing video, people won't mind at all...most of us understand that running a site this big eats lots of money.

****** Round Fourteen: ****** Final Fantasy VIII -- NO I'm a big FF fanboy, and while the soundtrack to this one is amazing, the gameplay is completely broken. Getting the ultimate weapon on Disc 1, a main character that is entirely overpowered, and a magic system that outright sucks. Oh, and because you can junction magic to your stats to improve them, once you get the right magic you basically become a god. This is the only FF game where you really feel the pain of grinding (try drawing 300 Ultimas sometime). Epic Pinball -- NO It pains me to say this about my favorite pinball game, but computer pinball just isn't the real thing. If you want a virtual pinball game though, you'd be hard pressed to find one better than this. The closest no vote so far for me. Taito Legends -- YES Hooray for emulation! I love this disc -- in addition to all of the oldies, I get the original arcade Bubble Bobble -- what's not to love? ****** Round Fifteen: ****** Unreal Tournament -- YES This is the game that defines what an FPS should be. While the single player does suck (note: everything between Quake II and Metroid Prime / Halo had the same problem), the multiplayer is absolutely perfect. Assault mode is absolutely amazing (especially the castle level), as is the crazy variety of weapons....if only they would bring back the Ripper for UT3! Cosmo’s Cosmic Adventure -- NO This game just isn't as fun as other things available during the same time period -- note that I have only played the first episode of three (never paid for this one). In any case, the suction cup gimmick gets old after a few minutes, and it's just straight left to right the rest of the time. Final Fantasy IV Advance -- NO If you haven't played a properly translated version of this game, then this is the edition you need to play (until the DS remake next year). However, the fact that they used the WonderSwan graphics instead of the SNES ones makes me unable to really get into the game. The crazy level of polish that FFV/VI Advance had just isn't here in this one.

QFE. If they screw this up I'll be absolutely furious. Also, has anyone played the Game Boy game, and is it significantly different enough from the NES one to warrant me downloading it today in honor of the announcement?

I'm way behind, and probably will remain so. Still, lots to vote on today! Starcraft -- YES The game is 10 years old, and still the best (one could make a strong point for C&C3 just because the UI has improved so much...but I don't want to start a massive war meant for another topic) Total Annihilation -- NO I'm probably going to get some hate for this one, but I see a clear difference between "must play once at a LAN" and "must have" -- this one's the former. Sword of Mana -- NO It's a good game, but like FF 1&2, time hasn't treated the remake well. Kudos for adding all kinds of things though. GoldenEye 007 -- YES The only thing missing from making this the perfect game is the Farsight, found in Perfect Dark. Still, this game is awesome, and wasn't surpassed until Halo came out years later. Prey -- NO Once you get over the idea of the portals, the actual game sucks. Golden Sun YES This is the definitive RPG of portable gaming, as far as I'm concerned. Innovative combat system with dynamic classes, a plot with the right amount of twists, and the only GBA game so big they make you switch cartridges to keep playing it.

So far, I'm unimpressed -- fewer weapons available than UT99, and I have to put the graphics so low that UT2K4 on max settings (which my comp can handle fine) the older game looks better.

^^ His level could be the Syrup Pirate ship, which would be pretty cool. I'll admit that I think wario could use a shoulder charge... With that said, I do like his WarioWare costume much better...

Playing through TLL on the Wii as Luigi is incredibly difficult because of the skidding -- especially since my brain assumes SMB1 physics given the graphics set...and that's not the case, even for Mario.

ZSS Final Smash = Crystal Flash. Problem solved.

^^ I agree -- if the February date isn't met, I'm going to be extremely pissed. If they really needed more time, say "1st Quarter 2008" or "Winter 2008" etc. Don't give specific release dates and then bump them back a hundred million times. Metroid Prime 3 seemed to be pushed back every time we got within a month or so...

Descent -- YES The Descent series really needs a fourth entry with modern graphics engines. In any case, you haven't experienced a "3-d shooter" until you've tried to play this game. Also note that the 360 controller has exactly enough buttons to fly the ship without (absolutely) needing the keyboard. Hooray for tunnel spinning!

1.) What is your favorite game series? A tie between Final Fantasy and Megaman. Special mention to the Flying Warriors (Hiryu No Ken) series by Culture Brain. 2.) What is the game series you are best at? Donkey Kong Country and Castlevania (2d) 3.) What game from your favorite game series is your favorite? Final Fantasy VI, and Megaman 3 (the "revenge" levels were amazing). 4.) What games in your favorite series do you OWN (Rentals and Past Ownership don't count, though you can include Past Ownership if you note those). I own Final Fantasy 1, 3 (on NES!), 3DS, 5-10, 10-2 (not as bad as everyone says), and 12 I own Megaman 1-6, X4-X6, X8, Battle Network 2, 3, and 6, Starforce Dragon. And I own Flying Dragon, Flying Warriors, and Hiryu no Ken 3 (the sequel to Flying Warriors, Famicom only). 5.) WHY is your favorite game series your favorite, and why would you suggest others to look into it? Final Fantasy because I didn't play Dragon Warrior instead (joking). Really though, it's the first long-scale RPG I played, and I just stuck with it. 8-bit Megaman will always be the pinnacle of side-scrolling action for me, for countless reasons. The music is amazing. Flying Warriors (and Little Ninja Brothers) by Culture Brain is a gem of an NES game. Completely unique gameplay that everyone should try once. 6.) What game series do you wish you were better at? Tekken -- I suck horribly, despite the fact that I can hold my own in Soul Calibur.

It might just be me, but as Christmas and the holiday game season approaches, I'm feeling way behind on PC computing power when I shouldn't be. I'm currently running a 3 Ghz x86 processor, a 7800 GTX, and 1GB of RAM. Yes, I need a little more RAM, but that's not the issue. The real question is: How many of you guys are DX10 / x64 capable, and how many of you are going / willing to upgrade if it becomes neccessary? Crysis, Call of Duty 4, and UT3 all call my name...but if they don't support DX9, I won't be able to play them -- I personally can't afford a new mobo/processor and graphics card with college bills to pay.

It's still keeping me occupied -- it's rare for a single player game to hold my attention this long nowadays. And the multi-player game is good too. I still need to finish a match without items, and without dropping Force Gems...

SMB3 definitely has the tightest and most responsive control set -- this is very apparent if you patch SMW to the SMB3 levels and try playing it. Not that SMW doesn't have near perfect controls anyway. SMW it's harder to change directions mid-flight (and impossible in the GBA remake due to the lack of buttons). It eventually boils down to whether or not you really like multi-directional pipes. SMB3 has em, SMW doesn't (unless you're playing one of the great rom-hacks out there, Super Demo World: TLC.)

Is this x86 or x64?

This is even worse than when Metroid got delayed. Damn you, Nintendo for getting my hopes up (even though I'm still spending a mint on you this Christmas).

Still can't believe that the Wii was sold out for more than 30 weeks following its release -- that's gotta be a crazy record. With the holiday lineup as good as it currently is, it's poised to claim even more market share.

Superstar definitely had the best movesets -- I was just pointing out that it's not the only Kirby game to do so. Squeak Squad had 2 moves per power, which is a step in the right direction. With that said, SS is still the best of the series...one of those games I'm glad to say I played on an actual SNES back in the day.

My friend code is 0301 7708 7464 in case anyone wants to play me online. This game is crazy good, and while I do wish it was a bit harder, the game's not a cakewalk either.

The Amazing Mirror did a pretty good job of following up on Superstar's gameplay -- there were many abilities with more than one move per power. Squeak Squad was also a solid game...but I do agree that Superstar is the pinnacle. Here's to a remake!

Not much more to say than that -- of all three GBA Castlevanias, this is the one that made me think "wow, this is epic." I'd love to post spoilers and talk about things...but that's beyond the scope of this post (and will piss numerous people off -- get an emulator!) YES Doom: So, I shouldn't have to say much about this one. I read in a guide for Doom II that if you played the first one, you "probably think of it [the shotgun] as an old lover." Personally, I'm a plasma rifle man. YES

Morrowind: YES (a real big one) Holy cow. This game caused me to fail my first semester of college, no joke. Never before had I spent time just wandering around in a video game enviroment (picking flowers and mushrooms, no less!) In any case, this massive game is still better in some respects than Oblivion, and did more for artistic setting in games than generations of previous games. Hooray, Morrowind! Call of Duty: YES A shooter that made you feel real emotional connections to characters and situations, had a good plot, and had great play mechancis to boot? The yes vote.

Civ IV: YES It's amazing in all respects -- a game my fiancee can play and enjoy, a tour of music and world history, and with the expansions, I can even raise my own colonies! Badass.