I absolutely detest RPG reviewers.

No one played Okami either and it was critically acclaimed..

And talking about Gears 2 did anyone see the presentation with the shiny cube of meat?





Edited by king of Siam - March 27 2008 at 22:40

duly noted

Salvo_ wrote: Baldur's Gate 2 Or if you're not so big on the D&D fantasy setting, Fallout 2. Both can run on any modern PC and can be gotten very cheap.   MO, are you talking about games like Diablo 2? I don't recognize all those Japanese names, but from what you said I assume they're not JRPGs.

Absolutely -not- Diablo 2   It's like they tried to make a Roguelike, but took out all of the strategy and left only the superficial aspects of it

Man Overboard wrote: The PS2 had a ton of incredible RPGs, but no pure Roguelikes that I can recall...  you may try Rogue Galaxy, Nightmare Of Druaga, Persona 3, and even Final Fantasy XII (the character/battle system is pretty impressive).

I haven't played Persona 3 yet, but I'll suggest another Atlus game for PS2: Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne.  It's one of the best RPGs I've played for PS2, excellent story and gameplay. It's similar to Persona 3 in that you can summon demons, but you use them as party members.  Highly recommended!

Final Fantasy XII was also excellent, as was Okami. 


Edited by darkmatter - March 28 2008 at 00:54

^those are roguelikes =) Angband's my favourite of the text batch.

my favourite roleplaying game remains Ultima Underworld. It's not a console game so it has little repeated content or grind value, and there are relatively few "towns" (since the whole game takes place underground) and even better, the dialogue isn't stupid. The music was actually relevant to the game unlike swathes of jRPGS - I love light-jazz town music soundtracks but how did we ever become convinced that they fit such desperate situations as you find in FF, Grandia, et al?

Earthbound's my favourite console RPG if it comes to that. But I prefer the first-person PC games like UU, Morrowind, etc. Maybe it's time I went back and played System Shock...

-----

I think part of the problem is that professional reviewers write for each other rather than for an audience, so in music journalism you tend to see swathes of ridiculous adjectives that in no way describe the music to anybody else, while in film reviewing what you mostly see is a plot synopsis written in the most thoughtful and eloquent way possible. In a professional reviewer's assessment of a game the most important element seems to be the wow factor. maybe if journalism wasn't a vocation we'd have people in reviewing roles who actually like the product ;P


Edited by laplace - March 28 2008 at 09:29

rileydog22 wrote: It sounds just like being a prog fan.  You just have to find people who are into about the same stuff as you, and ignore the people who (like me) don't know anything about RPG's beyond a couple of Final Fantasy games.  I know that laplace is really into RPG's, maybe he'll have something to say here.  BTW, as I said before, I know virtually nothing about RPG's beyond Final Fantasy IV and V.  What others would you recommend?

You, sir, are about to open Pandora's Box.

stonebeard wrote: I was toying with the idea of getting Baulder's Gate (1 or 2...meh) and/or the likes of Fire Emblem. Any suggestions, or reinforcements of those I've already said, since I've payed neither?

God, I love FE. FE games are all the same, though, so don't get your hopes up for any one if you don't like any other. Simple turn-based strategy RPG. You move your troops and attack once or twice. Enemy dies or doesn't. Axes beat lances beat swords beat axes. It's only slightly more complicated than chess, really, but its simplicity is why it is so great. Unfortunately, the recent titles have been a bit on the easy side.

As for Baldur's Gate, I'd say your time is better spent with Planescape: Torment -- among the best stories in a video game ever.

The Lost Chord wrote:   I don't like RPGs, never have.  But I do find that games get reviews based pretty fairly.  Unpopular games like PC adventure games always come out on top in reviews, and they are bad sometimes and reviews are fairly accuarte for me.  My personal experience is that SCREW reviews and just do your own thing, but I use them, definitely, for reference. ... Take it easy and don't feel pissed at the RPG reviewers man because they are just fiends trying to make a point and look at us doing the same damned thing what a beautiful world of constant craziness and brilliance let us just live and let live baby come on thats right go for it!

Here's the thing. They're just not always objective. Look around at major media outlets and how they treat FPS games. Prior to Halo, most console FPS games sucked, and Halo just wasn't nearly that great, either. Sure, there was Perfect Dark, but there were other games out there getting 9/10 like Medal of Honor games (which were absolutely horrid). Look at Call of Duty 2 and 3 -- weak, weak, and more weak. Hardly worth a playthough, and some of the worst multiplayer in the genre, yet they score extremely highly. Just take a look around at FPS games: they all score highly, even when most of them aren't that good. And Halo 3 was the most disappointing FPS in years, with its lackluster AI, unbalanced weaponry, and astounding volume of rehash (not to mention the neglect of the Elite story). But what did it score? Hype-whores at Gamespot gave it a 95%.

darkmatter wrote: I haven't played Persona 3 yet, but I'll suggest another Atlus game for PS2: Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne.  It's one of the best RPGs I've played for PS2, excellent story and gameplay. It's similar to Persona 3 in that you can summon demons, but you use them as party members.  Highly recommended! Final Fantasy XII was also excellent, as was Okami.

Heh, I remember Persona 2: Eternal Punishment. Such horrible censorship in that title. I didn't ever play Okami, but I may go for it on Wii because of the celestial paintbrush.

laplace wrote: Earthbound's my favourite console RPG if it comes to that. But I prefer the first-person PC games like UU, Morrowind, etc. Maybe it's time I went back and played System Shock...

System Shock 2 and Deus Ex were awesome. Bioshock is also incredible, but there aren't really RPG elements, per se. Just a world under the sea. Deus Ex 2 was a disappointment.

The Lost Chord wrote:   TOTALLY DISAGREE. Period!   Halo 3 is probably the best FPS in years that I have played, perhaps not for single player but the multiplayer is astounding and doesn't gather in millions of people for no reason!   FPS have always been great since their 3D debut.  From Doom and Duke Nukem, Goldeneye and Perfect Dark, the medal of Honor games which I find are all excellent ESPECIALLY the first three...Game reviewers are accurate as far as I am concerned, for the most part.   When a game gets super hype and turns up terrible I think usually the reviewers are honest and are like "what the hell happened to this game?!"...i've seen that so many times!

Aussie IGN did call out Halo 3 on not living up to the hype, actually. Halo 3 is not popular because it's great; Halo 3 is popular because it's Halo 3. It's a flagship of the console. It's the game that everyone plays because everyone else plays it. It's like WoW: at least half of the players are only there because their friends are there.

And speaking of which, there have been quite a few bad FPS games. Hell, Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault is a memorably bad one: you constantly overrun your enemy's spawns, enemy and teammate AI is terrible (the medic will run straight into enemy fire to save you and enemies will try to run up to melee-kill you from 20 metres away -- and once, I had a medic come and pick me up after I overran the spawns and 10 guys spawned on top of me, but they just chased him up to me and stood around us unable to actually hit the medic). GameStats average press rating: 8.0. The entire genre is babied to death.

Salvo_ wrote: Gamemako wrote: As for Baldur's Gate, I'd say your time is better spent with Planescape: Torment -- among the best stories in a video game ever. But the combat in BG2 is much better, and good luck finding Planescape. It's on Gametap, but other than that the few copies are absurdly expensive. I haven't played Planescape yet, so I don't know which one is "better". But BG2 is still very very good. Eh, I don't like Halo 3 all that much, but I don't know if I could call it a disappointment. It was better than H2, and lots of people played it, which is what was intended.   TLC there are LOTS AND LOTS of abysmal FPSs. I don't know what the hell you're talking about. Even ignoring Daikatana, there's tons of games like Hour of Victory and Turning Point.

LOL, I forgot to mention Daikatana. Thanks for correcting my oversight.

By the way, both Baldur's Gate games are excellent, but Planescape is just such an incredible game. It's the reason I can't call The Witcher the best PC RPG ever.

The Lost Chord wrote:   TOTALLY DISAGREE. Period!   Halo 3 is probably the best FPS in years that I have played, perhaps not for single player but the multiplayer is astounding and doesn't gather in millions of people for no reason!

Maybe it's because I'm a PC guy, but  for multilayer, Team Fortress 1& 2, Half-Life death match, Counter-Strike, and Battlefield 2 all surpass Halo.

It's cool for consoles because I can play with my friends who aren't PC gamers, but for competitive play nothing beats PC games.


Edited by king of Siam - March 28 2008 at 21:23

I have Vista, will they still play?  

I haven't had any problems with much, but are they compatible?