Personally, I'm equally hyped about both consoles now. I'm pretty much positive I'll get both eventually, but at the same time, I'll probably get neither until they're gone through at least one design revision. When you compare the original DS to the DS Lite, or the PSP-1000 to the PSP-2000, I think the logic of my…

Pandering to western tastes will get Japanese developers nowhere. In order to successfully create a game based on western sensibilities, Japanese developers would have to understand and appreciate those sensibilities. The clearly don't, and their attempts to emulate western games end up coming off as bland and…

@J3ffG1lb3rt001: Yea, if every game I played did that, I wouldn't mind achievements at all.

@Geohound: I do. My point was, if you're going to have achievements at all, shouldn't getting one actually provide some sort of tangible benefit?

The biggest problem I have with achievements is that they don't really do anything. They usually don't unlock anything, so you're not getting cool stuff you can use in the game. They don't really give you any prestige, because there are too many easy achievements, and people have found ways to cheat the system. At the…

@traintracks: I really didn't read that article very carefully... But, ok then, so it takes a pot shot at the idea of open world gaming because it involves a lot of travel time, and suggests that gaming be limited to specific fenced off areas. Didn't we already try that, like, in every single damn console game (not…

If gamers don't like too much freedom, then why wasn't Minecraft an abysmal failure? If anything, games don't give us enough freedom! I'd just once like to see a game based on the butterfly effect. That is to say, playing the game in a slightly different way would have drastic effects on what challenges you would…

@Honoguma: I'm going to have to second what TimeNeverRests said. It be foolish not to take full advantage of the time you have now. I think you'll also find that as you get older, it never gets any easier to motivate yourself to accomplish something. When I was 13, I put off pushing myself to learn coding properly,…

@zeovgm: Uh huh, Final Fantasy X you say? Why do people like that game again? I mean, it wasn't awful (except the English voice acting, but thankfully there is an undub floating around out there). I just don't get why it would be considered great. It has an ok, battle system, but nothing spectacular. The story is…

You know, there hasn't been a really outstanding game in the Final Fantasy series in two whole console generations now. I'm almost positive the only reason the series is still selling is a combination of nostalgia, brand recognition, and shallow gamers buying shiny looking things. It's a shame, because FFXII, despite…

@BigManMalone: What about this one?: [www.youtube.com] It works based on a sort of a temporary burn-in effect that takes place in the cone cells of your eyes.

@Krackato-ATOMIC COLLIDER!: I don't know, maybe things have changed in the world of SF since I last checked. After bad experiences will Soulcalibur IV and Tekken 6, which I actually expected to be reasonably good, I figured Street Fighter IV wasn't even worth trying. But if they have actually addressed the balance…

@Archaotic: Umm... yea, they actually found the PSP master key in the PS3's PSP emulator once they decrypted it so...

@Krackato-ATOMIC COLLIDER!: Look, nothing I can say will probably ever convince you VF is the better game. You'd have to actually start playing it seriously for that to happen. You are right about one thing though, that VF is sorely lacking the player-base of Street Fighter. What really irks me about this though, is…

@Krackato-ATOMIC COLLIDER!: When you get down to it though, can you honestly say Street Fighter is as balanced as VF? Or as deep? Or nuanced? Hell, I think VF is even more accessible if you count the fact that two inexperienced players who start learning VF at the same time will be able to have matches just as fun as…

@Yuki-Ijuin: It's a real problem to keep interest in VF5 going since Sega won't release the new updates on console (or even in arcades outside of Japan). Right now Japan is just about the only place left that does have a decent VF5 following.

@peteer02: hates geofencing: What are you talking about? VF5 has 17 characters. ;)

@Krackato-ATOMIC COLLIDER!: I should clarify. By "competitive gaming that actually works", what I mean is that the game engine is designed with competitive gameplay in mind. Most game engines force you to narrow your focus significantly to play it competitively (Tekken is a particularly bad offender in this respect).…

@Bubbleman! gets the Lead out.: Since I heard nothing bad about VF or DOA, which are just about the only two fighting games I like to play, I 100% approve of this post.

I suck at most fighting games because they are poorly designed unbalanced garbage not suitable for competitive play. Often the only way to be good at them is by doing things that aren't fun, like turtling, or spamming exploitable moves. Not to mention being forced to pick a character you don't like because the…