Hard to say the smaller teams make better games per se (the visuals and music are usually worse than big studios) but their advantage is the advantage most indie developers share. That is, a more open environment to experiment and create unique gameplay mechanics. It's hard to try new things when you have to…

Almost finished with Radiant Historia. All that's left is "the final trial" sidequest. I can get through the first fight, but even the best strategy cannot overcome my low level to win the second fight. It took the whole length of the game before I finally have to resort to grinding. Has anyone finished this sidequest…

I'm divided on this. The main thing is my growing backlog. A change to a new generation could slow the game output a little (resources going to production of next gen games while still making current gen games) giving me some time to catch up. Then again, I feel like I just bought a current gen console and do not want…

I almost think it would be easier if they had to chose the best game of all time for each genre. Funny enough, last year's final list almost came out as one game per genre. Was that just a coincidence or do the developers share the opinion that the most important game in every genre needs to be represented?

I was quite vague. In this case I use efficiency to refer to the load times the article mentions and to a cost/benefit efficiency ratio. The performance boosts afforded by CPUs and GPUs is a less efficient road to pursue compared to the performance boosts one gets from going from an HDD to an SDD. From a pure visual…

I do not see there being a huge graphical leap next gen, with a focus more on efficiency, so I see SSDs as being a major contribution to the next generation of consoles. Take Intel's own 120gb SSD which was $400 a couple years ago, and now the newest version of the same product line is $229 on Amazon. Give it a couple…

To me the hate is simple, and it goes back to the big push in popularity that came with the first Modern Warfare. At the time the king of console FPS was Halo. Anytime something becomes wildly popular it attracts more and more people that are critical of it. So to get away from the Halo overload people went to Call of…

Good discussion on speakup today. Personal update: I decided to put Resonance of Fate on the side for the moment to try Radiant Historia. Not because RoF is a bad game or anything; I just wanted a break from arena grinding. I have to say that so far I am enjoying Radiant Historia a lot. I hope it does not get lost in…

As a fellow mid 20s person, I know what you are talking about. I just hope that when I have a family there will be plenty of excellent family friendly games to play with the kids!

Good to be noticed! For the record I do know why I have not finished many games this generation. It is a combination of the things I mentioned. Lack of time creates an ever increasing backlog, and I want to play those games at some point. So if interest wanes or frustration builds on a given game, and there is a shiny…

So... would we be able to make a Hot Wheels track with loopty-loops? I would love a mission with Cole stuck on a train that does barrel-rolls and loopty loops while shooting things.

It depends on what the game revolved around. The core mechanics and story are the most important, but this is one instance where graphics can play a significant factor. In general, SNES, PS2, and Gamecube games still look good. For graphics, the PS1 games are the ones I think suffer the most with time, but can still…

Truth be told, I didn't even know there was another shop contest after the Kalichun one. Bad advertising I say!

It seems to use "attach steering wheel accessory to" the most. First thing I got was "twirl nunchuck around penis." Meat spin it is!

Finally. Now the only ones Square has to put up is Brave Fencer Musashi and Chrono Cross.

How about: Top ten colors used in NES games

Just to be clear, is this an argument against character lines that are voiced or main characters having lines? For example characters like Adol (Ys) Chrono(Chrono trigger) and Link(for the most part) never have voiced or written speech. They are more the classical definition of the silent protagonist. Or does the…

Stencil or freehand? Either way it looks wonderful!

If only because the event is so rare.

I was one of those gamers that originally passed on Wind Waker. It was not because I thought the cel-shading made it seem more childish; I just disliked the cel-shaded look in general. It seemed like quite a few games in the 2000-2003 were using it (Wild Arms 3 comes to mind... but I grew to like it). It took a couple…