Malaki-LEGEND.sys   Members

I don't think it's a fanboy/girl thing at all. I was never a SEGA guy at all, and even I thought the Dreamcast was freaking amazing when I saw it in action at Babbage's or EB. I remember wanting Soul Calibur so hard. I also got to play Sonic Adventure and and NBA2k at a friends house a few times. I loved the feel of the analog stick and those two games blew my mind. Sonic felt much more realized to me, and NBA2k played so damned well. Unfortunately this was back when I was a kid and didn't have my own source of income, so I couldn't actually grab the system. I DID however grab Final Fantasy VIII on 9/9/99(and it did come out that year) so the sting wasn't that bad. Dreamcast, here's lookin' at you.

Hey gang, I probably already mentioned it in Off-topic somewhere, but we recently finished closing off part of the upstairs of our penthouse into a sort of entertainment/lounge room, and I'll be needing a better wireless router to get a good net signal up there. Currently, I'm using a Linksys WRT45G that we bought back in '05 for all our networking duties, however being that the houses and apartments here are built with concrete n' stuff, it's kind of hard to get a decent signal from my room(router location and corner of the apartment) to the new room upstairs. There's also the matter that whenever there's another wireless device activated, there's an abnormal level of net congestion present. O usually attribute it to either my mother or stepfather's laptops aren't properly maintained or the fact that I'm operating on an almost 6 year old router that isn't in the best of shape... Or it could just be the natural side effect of having multiple devices on the LAN at once. Anyway, I like Linksys, so I was thinking of upgrading to a wireless N model, but I'm not sure of a few things. All our devices are wireless G, so obviously we probably won't get insane speed gains, but would we still have access to the full range of the router I.E would I get a better signal upstairs? Would the network congestion be lowered at all? Any advice would be appreciated, as well as any recommendations for other brands. Thanks in advance. TL;DR: I needs a new router. Is wireless N a sure-fire bet?

So anyone read about Microsoft dropping their requirement that all 360 games have to be 720p native? I think this could be a very good thing for small developers of niche games like Muramasa and such. Maybe a port of Madworld and No More Heroes is in order. I dunno about 480p, but my one problem is that at least on my HDTV, 480i is blurry as all hell. I don't like the blurry.

So this God of War collection containing the PS2 titles on one Blu-ray disc and remastered in 720p being released on the PS3. Anyone have any thoughts on what this could mean for the plethora of popular PS2 titles out there? Of course this is a first-party IP so it might be an isolated thing, but it'd be interesting to see what other publishers would think if sales were pretty decent.

Well as long as you admit you don't speak for everyone then we're all good here.

I don't think you quite understand the psychology behind it... Achievements are reinforcers that keep you playing much like the variable win ratios on slot machines. Who doesn't wanna show off that they won 25 ranked online matches in a row in a game like Street Fighter 4(not an actual achievement)? That's actually something worth talking about, as that isn't easy at all. Congradulations! You just beat the hardest chapter in Gears of War 2 on insane difficulty! Damned right I want cred for that.

Achievements add replay value to a 60 dollar game that you probably wouldn't bother touching again, or a game that you forgot you loved and went back to just for the sake of completion whoring. And not all achievements are easy to get either. End of story. Also: Nostalgia is the only reason everyone thinks FFVII is the most amazing thing ever. 'Cause you know, it's not n' stuff. There I said it.

Too bad they'll never have Itagaki on Ninja Gaiden III. I also agree with Flare. I think Team Ninja(and thus Tecmo) made the right choice by taking Ninja Gaiden in the direction they did.

Who cares what kind of games a person enjoys? I like newer games as well. Higher production values(even though I still think it's going overboard lately), increased quality control, creative ideas, etc. You couldn't make a game like Gears of War back in the last generations of gaming, or a game as damned pretty as Eternal Sonata. And online play people. The only platform to do online well before the Xbox(which was nothing more than ass compared to Xbox Live on the 360) was PC, and who the fuck plays PC games anyway(I kid )? Don't get me wrong. I'll fire up the PS2 and the emulators on my lappy 'cause I thoroughly enjoyed(and enjoy) a lot of the older games, but this generation is loads of fun.

I'm gonna go with A, as when I think of Final Fantasy game, I think of a high-production value RPG that'll usually hit all the right notes for me. I think of great characters, battle mechanics, a good soundtrack, etc. Sure, most of the Final Fantasy games could probably sell well enough on their own, but putting that name on the box will raise the chances that it'll sell more copies and as I mentioned before, it sends the message "hey this is Final Fantasy, therefore you can expect good things from it" to the consumer who likes that sort of game. I can't blame a company for trying to maximize profit, especially when it means that it'll be likely I'll see more of the games I like. I don't think that games like Dead Space or Kingdom Hearts by themselves could be considered franchises however. Both game series have interconnected stories and the same game mechanics spread between the whole series. I think what makes a game a franchise would be for the series to "branch out" in terms of ideas. Take Ninja Gaiden for example(the latest Team Ninja series). On it's own, it's not a franchise, but if you put it together with the DOA fighting game series(also Team Ninja), you could say that it is a different take on the same universe, and if Code Chronus had ever been in development, that would have furthered the "Team Ninja" franchise by adding and action/RPG to the series. tl;dr : I think a franchise is just fine as long as it makes sure to keep up quality control. It also needs to "spread out" genre-wise.

Sorry Neko, but after the awkward plot twist at the near beginning of the game and the "laughing scene"... it just doesn't get that much better. For it's time it was definitely a pretty game and it had some great moments that I can't mention due to spoilers(although I doubt you care at this point), and a battle system that was kinda cool, but overall I see it as the weakest link in the series. If I were you, I'd go back and revisit FFIX, then hit FFXII(I thought you played that one already though...). Maybe try out X-2 if you're feelin' it(I liked it a lot although I'm in the minority).

This is the kind of PR crap that Sony has to stop. Obviously people bought that PS3(save those who bought it strictly for Bluray) bought it to play PS3 games. Otherwise, why the hell would they even bother upgrading from the PS2? That doesn't mean a lot of them didn't expect to be able to play all their PS2 games on it though. This is what Sony doesn't get: Backwards compatibility is the safety net that'll make sure people adopt the PS3 and buy more of 'em. There aren't that many PS3 games coming out that you want? Well here's a metric fuckton of games you probably will enjoy until those games start pouring out.

I played through more than half of First Departure and about 7 hours or so of 'Til The End of Time. FD would have probably done more for me had I played it when it was originally released back in '96 since it has all the trappings of a mid-90's JRPG, although I'll just say that I don't like randomness in my crafting systems, which is something that all Star Ocean games have in common. And the combat always feels like it's missing a few things to make it feel truly satisfying, and I don't like games that only let me learn 4 or 5 abilities during the course of the damned thing. Another thing they have in common is that they always have an interesting start that just falls flat later on with all the traipsing around technologically inferior worlds helping the local residents(why bother having the UP3 if NOBODY deigns to follow it) get their kitten out of a tree. Maybe it's just my system(two speakers on a TV), but what the hell is up with the sound engineering in this series? The voices are too low during all if not most cutscenes, music volume too high, treble and bass is all goofed up, etc. Really takes away from the immersion to me. Star Ocean 4 has all these problems and more, and yet I still played through it, rampant disc swapping to go back to previous areas and all. One thing they DID do was actually give you recipes for different items, but the ingredients are so goddamned impossible to acquire normally, why even bother. I find it hilarious that Infinite Undiscovery is still my favorite JRPG this generation(and rightly so, it's a damned fine game). Not even Tri-Ace's "AAA" game could do better. I just hope End of Eternity(Resonance of Fate in the west) really does do a lot to bring back my faith in them. As of now I'm just glad I bought SO4 used. They're not getting my money for that one.

It's already confirmed. Hopefully they'll add a new plot, better characters... In fact, hopefully they'll change everything about the game save the battle system and music, because that game was pretty underwhelming as it was nothing like the epic prologue to the series that they had promised. It started off well enough, but then just went to shit later on. It does however satisfy in the combat department and for some strange reason I can't hate on the game despite its serious flaws. As for the PS3 Slim design, I kinda like it. I'm not a fan of glossy finishes on anything, and it looks pretty chic. Sony's definitely trying to deliver a better product, and in terms of tech specs they ARE the best what with the cell processor, Blu-ray, a FREE online service, a much more aesthetically pleasing system, and a much better controller, but for every step forward they take, they take a good two steps back. The system is a hot rod, but hard as hell to program for according to developers. Why isn't Sony hooking 'em up with a team to help 'em work out the kinks? All their first party stuff looks killer, so why not help out other devs? All that being said, I can't wait 'til I can own a Slim myself. I hear it handles Blu-ray better than the fats. This true?

Apparently Kotaku has even more FFXIV videos from Gamescom. Now I really like.

Early dev stage gameplay vids right here. Looks... interesting. Can't tell much about it yet myself.

Well thanks for pointing out another one of Sony's problems: Not marketing the hell out of the fact that you can switch out the HDD for a bigger one. They're actually responding to this though with the Slim. The HDD slot is in the front of the system and all it takes is the removal of two screws and you're done. It almost seems that up until now, Sony wasn't even serious with their PlayStation strategy.

If they're waiting for PS3 sales to gain momentum to put the PS2 to pasture, then they're in for a long wait. Backwards compatibility is hardly the most important aspect to the PS3, but it would make some damn good financial sense if they'd nix the PS2, put software emulation back into the bloody PS3 and open up the god damned library of PS2 games onto PSN, and then charge 20 bucks for each. There's no physical production cost, no retail middleman, just pure, unadulterated cash flow. They wanna make money back on software for every system they sell, then this seems to be the easiest way to do it. They have the tools. All they have to do is get it running and market the hell out of it. "You all know those great games you played back on the PS2 but can't find anymore? We're putting a bunch of them on our easy to use PlayStation Network. Buy and play all your favorites and maybe some you missed instantly." PlayStation 3: It prints money.

Seriously, all Sony has to do is put part of their PS2 catalog on PSN along with more PS1 games and they could have the masses literally eating at their hands. I don't understand it, because as a consumer I WANT to give them money. I'd GLADLY pay 20 bucks for a game like Rogue Galaxy, Ico or the FF games on PSN, and I already owned those games at one point.

Is this actually confirmed?

Ok guys. I'm seriously considering grabbing a slim. Final Fantasy Versus XIII, Final Fantasy XIV, Uncharted, Metal Gear Solid 4, Valkyria Chronicles, PSN and Blu Ray have convinced me. Thing is, I'm also a big fan of fighters. The PlayStation controller is still the best for this and there are plenty of decent USB sticks for the system, but how is the lag for online play? I've been hearing everywhere that it's pretty bad all around, although I haven't had any personal experience with it. Anyone know about this?

Exciting news. Finally a significant price cut and a lighter package. Color me impressed. I think I shall be investing in one soon.

It's a move on their plan to put most PS2 games on PSN and forcing you to pay another 20 bucks for a game you already own.

Looks like it's time for a thread merge.

Why do people fire their load all over Miyazaki stuff? Princess Mononoke was weak, and Spirited Away was meh...