RCmodeler

I prefer the 3rd person view. I recollect the jumps I had to do in Metroid Prime and Turok 2, and it was extremely difficult to know where the platforms stopped and started. It's better to be able to see your character's position in relation to the platforms... like Banjo-Kazooie and Mario Sunshine. HEIGHT: When has the height of your enemy made any difference? It made no difference in Kingdom Hearts or Zelda: Wind Waker. I could have played both those games from a top-down perspective. REAR ATTACKS: What made me think of this topic is the new Rare game called Ghoulies. You can be attacked from any direction (like Smash TV), and so you end up with a blind spot if they attack from the direction of the camera. For Ghoulies, the ideal position would be above & looking down.

Some do... some don't. Just like any console. But yeah, it's annoying that the Castlevania programmers didn't use the L2 and R2 buttons to control the camera (like Kingdom Hearts). Sheer inexperience with the 3D world I bet.

Cameras are frustrating. It seems you can never get them where they need to be to see all the action, or else they move behind some annoying wall. Most people put the camera directly behind their character (Mario or Link or whoever). Problem with that is what happens when the enemies are coming from directly behind you? Sneak attack! So placing the camera directly behind yourself is still not a perfect solution. Therefore, I submit that the absolute best camera angle is straight above, looking downward. In essence, the same camera angle we had with 2D games like Berzerk and Link to the Past.

Sure, why not? In the late 70's/early 80's games were $30 new. The release of the Nintendo ES re-conditioned people to think $50 was "normal". It wouldn't surprise me to see the price jump again to $70. Gaming is actually pretty inexpensive. You pay $50 to get a 40-50 hour game... just over $1 per hour. Movies cost ~$4 an hour at the theater & ~$7 an hour on DVD. Another thing developers might try is creating simple budget games. Like R/C Copter or Mr. Mosquito that rely on gameplay and ignore the graphics demo.

Shower scene? I was going to skip PE2, but now I may have to reconsider!

I know the ideal camera angle: Straight above looking downward. But then, you'd have Berzerk, because that's what this game is: A roomful of enemies trying to kill you, so you must kill them first. Ghoulies = Berzerk in 3D with powerups.

Agree. Whether the game is delivered by a ROM or a CD or DVD or DSL... it's still a games machine and therefore a console. And yes, this thing will be obsolete by the time it's released, and quickly over-shadowed by the Gamecube 2, Xbox 2, and PS3. Also, I thought it was funny when the article writer said, "We could have been looking at an empty case with a bright blue light." I suspect that's exactly what it was!

Went to Best Buy today, and the PS2 price was still $40. I was bummed.

How do you figure? ICO is one of the most overhyped games for PS2. Since when? The mainstream gamers I meet at the store have never even heard of it!

Commodore never had a chance against the Wintel behemoth. Even Apple almost declared bankruptcy (until Bill Gates "generously" gave them money).

It wouldn't be an add-on if it was included as a pack-in cartridge. By your argument, if Atari 2600 came with the "Basic Promgramming" cartridge (instead of Combat) then it would be a computer. That's a load of BS. A computer is a *useful device* that can be used for word processing, balancing your checkbook, turning on/off your house lights, or whatever else you can contrive. A console like the 2600 or O2 does not fit that description.

True. For a $100 pricetag. Remember, 32 megabytes of ROM was not cheap in 1996. Like I said before, the largest cart was still only 8 MB. Are there any other FF-style RPGs that we can use for comparison (on the N64)? Someone already said Ocarina, but that's no where near as large as FF7 was. Ocarina's like a short story. FF7 is like a thick novel. Also, I can't imagine FF7 without videos. For example, you wouldn't have that awesome cut-scene with Aeris & Cloud in the gondola. Or any of the other awe-inspring cutscenes. Also, all of the beautiful background art would have to eliminated. If you add up all those still pictures, I'm sure they take a huge chunk of space on the discs.

If the women at Ninja are like the women at my company, they can only *dream* of wearing those tiny swimsuits. (i.e. they are thuge ladies) I HOPE it's appeal isn't solely T&A, because I have a sister who likes DOA2. Perhaps your sister is like me? I thought DOA2 was good, but then I upgraded to Tekken Tag and Virtua Fighter, and then I realized what a piece of crap DOA2 truly was. Sure it looks good, but it plays terribly. Another example of a great game ignored by the customers: ICO Result: No Ico 2. :-(

REVISED: [FF6 was a 4 megabyte cart. It's safe to assume FF7 would look like FF6... but with polygon people instead of sprite people.]

OOT was also a late-release game (32 megabytes). At the time FF7 was released the largest cart was only 8 megabytes. FF7 would probably end up looking like Mario64 or RPG: A relatively large world, but not a lot of detail. Just lots of multi-colored blocks. FF6 was an 8 megabyte cart. It's safe to assume FF7 would look like FF6... but with polygons instead of sprites. As for Resident Evil, it managed to squeeze all of the PS1 videos into a 64 megabyte cart. However, those videos looked like CRAP. And again, this was a late-released game. I'm sure Square would choose not to include FMVs rather than give us grainy 160x100 resolution vids. Also, the battle engines would not be hi-res (640x480) like the PS1 version was (just thought of this today). IMHO.

DOA: XXX Volleyball is a game where you play volleyball so you get money... so you can buy smaller and smaller swimusits... to reveal more and more tits and ass (with the ultimate swimsuit (Venus) being nothing but a chain and a couple gems!). The whole point of the game is to reveal tits and ass. Yeah, it's original alright, but is it a "good" game? Not for me. And then there's the actual Dead or Alive fighting series (1,2,3). This fighter SUCKS from start to finish. So why does it sell so well? One reason and one reason only: Tits & Ass. In other words, customers are buying the games for the LOOKS rather than the fun/gameplay. Sad. Meanwhile more superior fighters like Virtua Fighter Evolution get ignored, because the characters wear too much clothing. Sad.

Blame the media? Why don't you try blaming *yourself* for making a poor design?!?!? Man, it must suck to have to be a Nokia apologist. Source: http://www.gamespot.com/all/news/news_6077184.html

"Who cares how it looks.... how does it play?" That's all I care about.

How would it be different from the FF7 we actually got? I thought of a couple things that would be left out: - full-motion videos/pre-recorded movies (not enough room on N64 cart) - the backgrounds would probably be flat, dull polygons like Mario64 or RPG rather than the hand-drawn art backgrounds (again, not enough room on N64 cart) - Anything else? I wonder if Square would have used the N64's memory expansion for hi-res 640x480 mode? Probably not.

So, if the Odyssey² came with a pack-in BASIC cartridge then it would be in the computer category rather than the console category? The cartridge is an ADD-ON. Just like the Basic cartridge for the Atari 2600 console. These machines, by themselves, are not programmable. They are designed primarily for games/entertainment not "open-ended" like a computer.

Now it is 100% confirmed that you have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. Really? I don't see any confirmation. Where are your facts to prove me wrong?

So what's it like? Got screenshots?

My cell phone (a freebie) is about the same size as the N-Gage. It doesnt bother me to hold it to my head. (shrug) I just realized, the PSX is a lot like the N-Gage. It includes a lot of extra crap (TV tuner, DVD-burner, hard driver, et cetera) that drives the price to $800 and most people won't buy. Difference: You don't have to buy a PSX. You can buy the cheaper, stripped version of the PS2 for $180. Nokia should do the same thing for N-Gage... provide a lower-priced stripped version without the phone or MP3 player or other crap. ASIDE: I bet the Japanese love the Nokia N-Gage. They love having "all-in-one" gadgets that do everything. Is it available in Japan?

Well... (1) I never buy used games. Most times they are scratched, and therefore difficult to sell on ebay and get a decent price. (2) I have a $150 gift card for Sears, and I want to spend it. So anyway, I'll pick up both games today, play Jak, sell it on ebay as "like-new", and then keep Sly for myself. Thanks guys for the advice!