Video Gaming Chat

Hello guys and gals of the interwebs. Tom here with some more video gaming goodness. I figured I'd put this thread up as a general videogame rumor/speculation/whatever thread, or rather just about anything that I couldn't slap together for a review using all the knowledge available to me (mostly that of the newest issue of Game Informer. Well, I try).

It's been a good month for gaming with the highly anticipated Halo 3 (see my review for more on that) coming out as well as the remake of Final Fantasy Tactics. Valve had some awesome to contribute as well in the release of 'The Orange Box', a set that apparently includes Half-Life 2 in its entirety (including a second 'episode' to the game) as well as two other titles, Team Fortress 2 and Portals. All in all, a good month for Xbox 360 owners. PSP holders have plenty to be happy over as well, with Final Fantasy Tactics being reproduced better than ever (although with lag! Now there's one they won't tell you in the magazines!). And let's not forget, the remake of Disgaea, Afternoon of Darkness, is right around the corner, coming out on October 30th. How appropriate!

Meanwhile, PS3 still sucks. And damn it, I'm allowed to say so as an owner. There is, to date, one PS3 game worth buying, that being Resistance: Fall of Man. Everything else that's on the PS3 one could get just as easily on the 360. Shame, shame.

There's plenty to look forward to next month as well. Mass Effect is scheduled to release on the 20th and it's looking incredibly impressive. A game by the makers of Jade Empire and Knight of the Old Republic, Mass Effect is following in the footsteps of it's predecessors and seems to have come out as quite the impressive end product, ranking in another impressive score and another good game for the 360. PS3 owners have something to look forward to as well, with the release of the highly anticipated Assassin's Creed, although it would appear that the PS3 lost the rights to be the sole owner of the title. That's right, 360 is getting a piece of the Assassin pie as well, when did that happen? Oh, and rock fans? Rock Band. That's right. It's coming. One more month.

But I'm skipping ahead. More news on releases this month, the DS owners amongst us are surely excited about the release of two new hits to established series. Pheonix Wright: Ace Attorney — Trials and Tribulations and Mega Man ZX Advent have both been released. Wii owners may have something to get excited about as well with the release of Zack & Wiki, a puzzle/adventure game with sickeningly cute characters and surprising deep puzzles. Huh, neato.

Beyond all this, some more of what you'd normally expect. Some new RTS and Shooter for the PC, high grades, (Enemy Territories and Medieval 2, respectively) as well as the release of an expansion for Neverwinder Nights 2, featuring the d20 system and epic level characters. It's supposed to be good too, so DnD players may want to give Mask of the Betrayer a shot... if they have the original game, of course.

That's it for current gaming news, but there's plenty more to speculate over. Apparently at the end of the PSP Final Fantasy game, Crisis Core, the remade opening sequence of Final Fantasy 7, as seen at an earlier E3, plays, at the end of which the words, "Continued in Final Fantasy 7" appear. This is leading many to believe that Square is truly remaking Final Fantasy 7 for the Playstation 3, but as of now it remains nothing more than an unconfirmed rumor.

But enough of that. Back to Rawk. Apparently Guitar Hero 3 was released sometime in October and I wasn't notified! Or it's about to be released and... whatever. Cool stuff there. I've already gone on about how Rock Band is releasing next month, what else could add to the awesome? Well, Game Informer's cover story maybe. Brutal Legend. Yeah. It's the story of a roadie who gets transported to a mystical land of heavy metal and embarks on an epic quest to free its enslaved people from their demonic overlords. Yeah. Did I mention that Jack Black is voicing the lead character? Or that Tim Schafer, creative genius behind The Secret of Monkey Island, Grim Fandango and Psychonauts, is leading the project? Or that the game has managed to bag some heavy duty names to rock out for them, including Black Sabbath and Kiss, and that what's more there are actually bands offering to make completely new songs just for this epic, axe-swinging, guitar mashing, army clashing road tour across the history of metal music? Yeah. Keep an eye on this one. That's Brutal Legends. Remember.

But that's all from me. Our friend Kojima has leaked out some more information concerning MGS4 and it looks awesome, sure, but it's mostly more of the same. Any other juicy tidbits, gang? Thoughts? More information on the awesome Brutal Legends? I'm all ears.

Tom reminds me of Ben. An old friend of mine with an equally English sounding name who is made of Win and Awsome.

d(^.^)b

Feb 10 FTW!

Tom....Ps3 sucks now, but keep in mind it is getting Disgaea 3 and FFXIII.

Honestly, I'm more interested in the PS3 than the 360. There's Ratchet and Clank coming out next week, MGS4 and LittleBigPlanet in the near future, and awesome stuff like White Knight Story further down the line for PS3. On the other hand, the 360 has Halo 3... and still Halo 3. Mass Effect may be awesome, but buying a 360 for an RPG is just blasphemous. <__<

Hey, Knights of the Old Republic 1 and 2 were awesome and they were only console releases for the original X-Box. I'd buy the 360 for Mass Effect and a few other games. Of course, I continue to be seduced by the lure of future PS3 titles.

Thankfully, one of my best friends has all 3 systems, so I can just mooch off his PS3 and 360, saving me tons of cash. Besides, I'm pretty content with my Wii, so there's not much point in me getting another system right away.

I'm not really content with my Wii...Not until Brawl...

'Okami' is coming for Wii. 'Destroy All Humans' is coming to Wii. They're still warming up for good Wii games.

In the next 4 weeks, the Wii gets Zack & Wiki, Battalion Wars 2, Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, and Super Mario Galaxy. I'd say things are pretty good even without Brawl.

I honestly doubt I'll play any of those games.

I need a PSP so I can get Disgaea and FFT.

But for now I'll replay Shadow Hearts 2.

I've got a lot of things to look forward to on the PSP, two which Zan mentioned. I also am still living up the PS2. My biggest problem now is that the XBOX 360 has a lot of good stuff now and is looking decidedly better price-wise than the PS3, but on the other hand, PS3's still getting some stuff I don't want to relinquish, such as Disgaea 3. Almost entirely Disgaea 3. XD

The 360 and PS3 are finally getting cheaper, but both are losing so much functionality for it... The $400 PS3 isn't even backwards compatible!

Mario Galaxy and Battalion Wars 2.

Ratchet N' Clank and MGS4.

Mass Effect and Halo 3.

Those are the games I want. Blargh for consoles.

They already released the newest armored core.

I played it at a Wal-mart (They sell stuff other than walls O.o) at one of their consol-y things as a demo.

I luv'd it (even though they further made teh controls complicated, but then again giant robot controls would be complicated)

The PS3 has some great titles in the future, and not just shooters like the trigerhappy 360. I mean, look at what all the current 360 big hits are about: Shooting and killing things every 30 secconds or else it becomes boring because there is nothing else to the story plot or game.

PS3's future looks bright, shiny, and awsome to the nth degree.

Ah, Zolem, you say shooting as if it's a bad thing.

But if you cut right down to who's doing what right now, it's pretty clear that the Xbox 360 is the system to own. Just comparing the good titles out to what the other systems have available, the difference is staggering.

PS3 - Resistance:Fall of Man, Oblivion: The Elder Scrolls IV, Armored Core 4
Wii - The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Resident Evil 4
Xbox 360 - Prey, Saints Row, Halo 3, Dead Rising, Lost Planet, Bioshock, The Orange Box, Oblivion: The Elder Scrolls IV, Dead or Alive 4, Guitar Hero II, Gears of War, Gun, Condemned: Killer Origins

Am I missing anything? The worst thing of all is that some of the titles on the other systems that are actually really good, you could pick up somewhere else. For the PS3, Oblivion is a recent port and in fact was going for a whopping 60 dollars when the Xbox 360 version was down to 30 (though this changed some two weeks later). And, what's even more terrible, two of the Wii's big games are available on the Gamecube for just as much. The 360 on the otherhand has one game that didn't originate on it, that being Guitar Hero II, and it was remade with new songs and Xbox live options, things that the original couldn't hope to achieve. Oh... and Gun. So strike one for the 360 as well (although still a damn good game, I haven't played a Western-based game since the SNES). So, currently, the only incentive for getting a Wii is Metroid Prime 3 and for the PS3 it's Resistance and Armored Core (and only then because I'm a rabid fan boy of the Armored Core series).

That's all fine and good for looking out to the future, but right now being a PS3 owner isn't that cool. I've been frightened off from playing Lair because of it's bad reviews and Resistance still costs too much for my cheap ass to buy (although I did rent it, freakin' sweet game). My PS3 basically sits on a counter looking pretty and collecting dust while I play my 360 and the huge amount of awesome games available for it.

Still, my review of things might be a little skewed, I really can't see things from the Wii owners perspective of things. The Wii does have some great features, being able to download previously made Nintendo games is flat out awesome, I'd kill for a chance to play Super Mario 64 again. But even with this really cool feature, the system really only has, to my knowledge, one great game that's out for it and only it.

EDIT: Jeez, I keep remembering more good titles for the 360... Also, I know there's a Need For Speed game that was highly ranked on the 360 and was a port from another system, I just can't remember the name...

EDITX2: Also, about this backwards compatability stuff? Not true, the 360 is backwards compatable, but only selectively so. I can play the majority of my 360 games, it's just that there are plenty that aren't able to be played... including Psychonauts, argh! As for the PS3, everything I've tried on it from the PS2 implies that it's bakwards compatable, the only issue is that there's no standard memory card slot. You apparently have to buy some kind of attachment to use your memory cards. As for PS1 games, I haven't tried it, but I can test it when I get home, never even thought about it. The cheaper model of the PS3 might not be backwards compatable though. Hmm.

What is your definition of 'good games', Tom? I know more Wii games that are exclusive. very good and enjoyable. It just depends on your tastes. Zelda, Metroid Prime 3 and Resident Evil 4 have dark themes. But games like Dewy's Adventure, WarioWare Inc, MySims (it's actually a pretty good game for an Animal Crossing copy), Super Paper Mario, Mario Strikers (which has WiFi connection) and games like 'Big Brain Academy' are also pretty fun. It really depends on your definition of a 'good game'.

It's true the REAL games come later. Smash Brothers Brawl. Mario Galaxy. NiGHTs. And lots of others. But there are already games available that are enjoyable too.

I'd also like to state that most, if not all, XBox 360 games are also ported to the PC.

Oh, I was just going by game reviews really. But I had forgotten about Super Paper Mario, that's pretty much indisputedly good. Nothing I can say there, heh. I've heard good things about WariorWare as well. So, as I feared, I did miss some Wii titles. But I'm fairly certain that I'm still in the right place with the PS3.

EDIT: Really? I know Bioshock was also available to the PC. Oh, and The Orange Box. But the rest? Hmm. Not to mention, as cool as that'd be, I don't think my computer could handle 'em, heh.

The fact that Disgaea 3 is quite likely to be PS3 exclusive is my biggest concern with getting an XBOX360 as it stands.

Oblivion and Gun are for PC too, I think. Don't know about Gun for sure. Halo headed for the PC too in the begin. Halo 3 will follow for shur.