Gamelore

Exactly what I was thinking. Unfortunately, they're waiting 3 years for everyone to get all settled in before the real fun begins. By then, too many people will have upgraded to Vista to justify a full-blown switch to Linux. Pretty sick. Well whatever. In any case, I'm going to switch.

Hahahah... agreed. I never shut up about how WarCraft was a better game than WarCraft II. Then it just got crazy ridiculous with WarCraft III and World of WarCraft. *barf* And the soft classes of Diablo I were vastly more enjoyable than the strict classes of Diablo II.

A fun question, as sequels are rarely better than the original due to the "cash-in" factor. Totally disagree with FFIV > FF. FFIV was waaay more contextually restrictive. And why even bring up Toe Jam & Earl 2? It's not even in the same league as Toe Jam & Earl. Huge Sonic 2 fan, but I have to disagree. Mildly disagree. Phantasy Star 2 had better music and a better interface, but the top-down dungeons were total mazes and mind-numbingly repetitive. Thank you. Finally something I agree with. Herzog Zwei > Herzog Warrior of Rome II > Warrior of Rome Road Rash II > Road Rash Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight > Dark Forces Descent2 > Descent Duke Nukem 3D > Duke Nukem 1 & 2 And as a controversial contribution: Deus Ex: Invisible War > Deus Ex. All of the problems with Deus Ex were fixed in the sequel. No more worrying about performing every task for "skill points" in a given area. No more worrying about ammo types. No more enemies that you aren't allowed to kill for no reason. Excellent grahpics and physics -- I must have spent half my time just stacking objects around for fun.

107.9.... ugh. Apparently, the stupidity runs deeper than their choice of music.

I feel this wonderful remix is actually quite fast and intricate most of the time. Hearing people claim that it's "slow" and "ambient" is the exact opposite of how I listen to it. Must be a different mindset. Doesn't get much more intense than this rich track. Lovely.

Lady Vox in Everquest around August 1999. Before planar gear. Hardest boss ever. Trakanon in EQ around July 2000 was a huge bitch too. I want to say Cazic Thule around Jan 2001 was one of the hardest bosses I've ever beaten. They re-tuned him 2-3 times in a matter of weeks there, but one variation of him required cooperation between the two top guilds on the server (around 75 people) trying about 10-15 times to defeat. Extremely tough. Dain Frostreaver, Zlandicar, and Derakor the Vindicator/Statue of Rallos Zek were huge pains in the ass too. Beat them shortly before I quit. The 4-5 boss(es)-in-a-row level of Viewtiful Joe on Adult mode was also damn hard. I don't know about anyone else, but it took me around 45 continues to beat that one level. That fire boss was pretty tough too, but not as bad as all the first bosses in a row.

http://www.gamespot.com/promos/eveonline/ 14-day free trial. I've been playing it for about a week and I'm fairly impressed. A little too slow paced for my tastes, but I love the idea of it. Eve - one of the only MMORPGs I haven't played. Just haven't had time. But coincidentally, a friend of mine has been bugging me to do the free trial with him. Going to try it tonight

Holy crap, I think I find myself agreeing with Beatdown. Take those 2 months or so in EQ between level 50 and the planes opening up. You could not imagine all the crazy stuff I did to entertain myself because the engine let me. It's all about what you are capable of coming up with, not what is spoonfed to you by the devs. That's another thing I dislike about WoW. Whenever something new comes out in a patch, they tell you what you have to do IN GREAT DETAIL rather than let you have at it. I like to use my brain to come up with my own solution, but I find WoW too restrictive for my style (too well-tested, contrived, constricive). It's subtle, and most people don't know any better anyway, so they don't care.

I play-tested it for 8 months. The first few weeks of exploration are always fun, in any high-budget MMOG. But WoW really shows its ugly side once you get a couple months into it, moreso than most MMOGs I've played. The systems used, like instancing, fast travel time, and having almost no death penalty really cheapen (spoil) the game. It's still unanimously, somewhat "fun" up till level 20, at which point the free trial ends for a reason. MMORPGs have been done far better.

It's not common that a piece will keep repeating in my head like this one has. It is very well-crafted, kind of reminding me of an Asian horror/drama soundtrack combined with Uematsu quirks. Many of the samples actually sound similar something that would be on the SNES. Overall, I *love* this arrangement and I wish there were more "remixes" like it here.