Atarinvader

Bleem already did it anyways after the Bleemcast incident... You need to remeber one of the greatest games in the last 5 years, Ico - not only on PS2, but developed and publsihed by Sony. Also Guilty Gear X (and XX), Capcom Vs. SNK 2, Gregory Horror Show, Freak Out, Fantavision, Rez, Hardware... do I need to go on? If you want to slag anything off then look at the X-Box.... I think it has a real lack of PC ports and FPS games Sorry, let's not get in to a fanboy console war.

Soul Reaver is superb but if you found Resi tricky and got lost then you'll have a hell of a time with it. Similar with Shadow Man, but it isn't even as good - mediocore at best. You do always have GameFAQs.com though. UFC is superb. You can sit on someone and repeatedly punch them in the face till they get knocked out. Extremly violent and good for button-bashing. Haven't played Virtua On as it wasn't released in the UK. Sorry.

Mayhem, aren't arsebiscuits a refrence to the cartoon Stressed Eric?

Gamer Nation Article

Well, I am looking for a few US only DC games. Namely Seaman, Fatal Fury: Mark of The Wolves and KoF '98. Have plenty of SMS about that I don't want so much.

Oh, no way. The Jr is an awful system, it couldn't feel any more cheap. The buttons and switchs don't last five minutes. The TG-16 is simply ugly, especially when you consider all the PC Engine models (except maybe The Shuttle) and PS2 is horrible due to the fact that it has no proper on / off button on it's front, if you have it vertical (which looks better) it's unstable without the base and scratches your disks, those ridges along the front collect dust (the same reason the woodies didn't make my selection) and it isn't symetrical which is an awful aestic design disaster. The PS2 sometimes feels like it was rush released to compete with the DC. The Saturn's ugly too. And the Master System I and II are nice.

I have over a 100 games (including the rare rare PAL Samba de Amigo boxed set), about 20 imports, two machines (one being see-through green), 2 arcade sticks, fishing rod, 5 or 6VMUs, mouse, keyboard, VGA box etc etc... I'm just pissed off that to complete my collection I'll have to buy all the shitty sports games...

Best: GP32 Jaguar Dreamcast Worst: TG16 PS2 2600 Jr.

Plus if you get the GBA, you'd want the eCard reader.... then all NES games on card..... then the GC-GBA link cable..... and a second GBA to link to with the link cable (that's extra).... but if you want to play movies or MP3's then that's another $200-300.... Or you could by GP32 and have all the NES, Genesis, PC Engine, NGPC etc etc games you want aswell as playing movies and MP3's straight out of the box. Would that be too easy?

Just to let you know that this article will be published on Gamer-Nation.co.uk in the coming week or so.

I'd say aviod it. Nothing that whoopty-doo for the system, except Mario 64. For the same price as a N64 you can almost buy a second hand Cube nowadays (saw one for £30 ~ $60 with game and mem card the other day) and the system is a lot better. The only games I can see being worth anything in the future for the N64 is Majoras Mask, Orge Battle and possibly Bangi-O (not sure on the Jap name for this game). Very little third party support has left it a bit unpopular for the hardcore / collector scene. Waste of money I say... but then again, this is coming from the guy that was sure the X-Box was gonna be a faliure and the N-Gage the next big thing

It's an excellent article, which really should see it's self in print. I don't think your average Gamespot reader is going to appreciate that much detail. I'm a massive SNK fan and it was far far too much for me.

Viewtiful Joe isn't 2D. It maybe 2.5D, due to the fact it's 'on-rails', but that is it. It's visual style definetly encompasses a lot of 3D elements. I don't think you can really call Capcom Vs. SNK a new 2D game because it's essentially a rehash. Morigan looks awful on it, I'm sure she's straight out the Saturn Darkstalkers. Perhaps the last great 2D game of the none-portable era was Mr Driller or Guilty Gear?

Wow. That's.... comprehensive!

What about Guilty Gear XX? That was full price and 2D. If you think that the real reason that Metal Slug isn't appearing on PS2 (even after it was announced) is because it's 2D then that's complete bollocks, why would they say that when Sony gave Activision Anthology the go ahead? I think this is more a problem with M$ handing over a big stack of cash to SNK to get the Otaku scene in and then hope the rest of the west will follow.

People seem to be tending to look at games that are heavyily lead by narrative. How about Space Invaders? Yes it has a narrative, but it is extremely weak. This is a bit of a chicken and the egg scenerio. How could 'arty' films be made when peoples interpertation of film as art were not yet defineded? Peoples understanding of subconcous semiotics didn't develope in a film sense as soon as someone said 'let's make an arty film', it was an evolutioniary process.

It's essentially a revamped version of 2 which was 'slow-down free' though, and there are 2 NGPC versions (which makes 8, with 5 on it's way and a special GBA version in dev). X is the one I was refering to with the 30 credits, I know loads of people can run 'one credit' runs on all the games, but your average gamer wouldn't come close on their first few run throughs, right? These games are tough to keep your continues down on. 3 is the fans favorite. I've only played X and 4 and I have to say X is by far the best out of those.

Definetly aren't.... Extremely common in Asia where piracy is so high. Don't think there hasn't been a cart system that hasn't suffered one of these. Often contain interesting hacks. I know Dev0 has a Famicom cart with Street Fighter II on it.

The problem with interactive narrative is that it's extremely difficult to compare with conventional narrative rules (Todrovs etc), but with some stretch of the imagination they can be, but that is dependent on how you choose to interperate them. That is something that is a completely different subject and very difficult to explain here. If you trawl through the archive here you should be able to find an early draft essay I wrote on the subject about 3 years ago. But since the invent of modern art – some would argue - that narrative is no longer an essential element of art. Something completely abstract can be art based purely on aesthetics, however it’s an interesting subject none the less. An easy mistake is to compare with other media or art forms too easily, it's as if comparing a newspaper to a film - the narratives work in completely different ways. The games industry need to realise that and start to develope it's own unique open ended (to some extent) narrative, moving away from the linearity of Tomb Raider and Resident Evil and in to Shenmue and finally in to some completely organic, user decided, narrative. This however, would only become possible through mass-multiplayer games like perhaps PSO. Remember that the context of film never changed, yet since this 50's has been one of the most viable art forms. Before that actors acting in films were considered lesser than their more traditional thespian peers, often actors would change their names on film credits as to not be associated. The more tradition art forms (as mentioned in my article) will eventual reach out and grab from the Videogaming culture (in some ways it already has). Intertextuality between media and art forms is what makes for the richness and diversity of the current society we live in. Once Videogames have lost their 'new thing' stigma then people’s acceptance to them will be changed. Essentially in a strict sense Videogames are art, what this argument is about is when or how they will be seen as so and not if they are.

I always guessed that was a cable tidy...

The NGPC games play a lot different from their older brothers, but I actually prefer them a lot. The arcade ones are just that and you'd be lucky to complete any in under 30 credits unless you're a really great gamer.

Below is an article I've just written for some on-line magazine or another. May try to get it published a few places....

Playmore really seem to be pushing SNKs back catalouge in the West. Great news as I'm looking forward to playing the new Metal Slug for the GBA and SVC Choas if it's released outside Asia (looks unlikely).

Activision Anthology for the PS2 has a 3D intro in the style of Barnstorming, which is brilliant. Just thought I'd mention it. On some Gamecube models you can use the C-Stick to move the start-up logo like the menus on Super Smash Bros Melle. Also if you hold down the Z button while booting on the first controller the start up sound changes and if you have 4 controllers in and do the same on each you get a different sound again (The Jungle and Kids respectively).

I think that the explosion (especially in the UK) in perhaps the last 3-4 years in the number of collectors on the scene is a sure sign that videogame collecting is going to remain and that the current consoles are the future collectables. I think that perhaps making straight comparisons between the 2600 and the Dreamcast is wrong. The majority of the Dreamcast or Saturn scene is based on the import market, and I think that it's something that won't change. Although there will be the odd extremely rare release we'll never see another Men-A-Vision Air Raid because of the fact that the industry is much more regulated now than it was then. The finanical outlay involved in producing games means the publishers will want to make their money back, it no longer takes one person a few weeks to make a game, but a 100+ team months, if not years. Bigger outlay means a need for a higher return and less games but higher production runs. Perhaps people should start looking towards the East for their Jap Exclusive releases in limited edition boxed sets or the homebrew scene for the 'one off' runs. Feet of Fury is definetly worth the $19 from Lik-Sang I should say. Battle Spheres on the Jag is a good example of that. But could there only be about 10-20 years left in reusable media, it seems that pay-per-play downloads could be something of the future perhaps? The phone industry definetely have the right idea with that. Also, how long will TV's have RF inputs for? And after that will AV not be phased out by some wirerless comunication? If that happens games will be almost impossible to play on a standard TV and will perhaps be worthless?