the new systems

[morgorath]

First Mantis I dig the MXC avatar...

Ok it has been said before but is worth saying again. Specs mean little to nothing. Back in the day when we talked about 16 bit and 32 bit specs mattered more. Why because companies needed the extra power to create the game they wanted. If we look at the level of games now I have one pure question. Are the gaming companies pushing the limits of the systems. I don't think so...

Schultz has pointed out many times that no gaming compaines use the full power of the PS2. Doom 3 finally pushed the xbox to it's limit (but if you own a Dreamx-xbox no one has even come close to pushing that to it's limits.) And the Gamecube did one thing that few people give them credit for. They mad it possiable for all of us to own all 3 systems. Hell you think Sony or M$ would have lowered thier prices if they didn't have too.

Look new systems are on thier way. M$ will be a FPS dream machine. Sony will have the biggest selection.(which is nice but how many god awful titles have we seen grace are tv screen thanks to the PS2) And Big "N" will make the best first party games. Hell who here is just waiting for the new Zelda. Also they put the most thought into games or pay 3rd party compines to take thier time. Look at FF:CC and RE:4.

I buy for gameplay and in the end I will own all 3 but not until the price matches what the gaming library looks like. Oh and Cidien backwards compatible is made via the source Sony, M$, and "N". It's an emulator built by the makers to have a library at the ready for launch. If M$ doesn't make the 360 fully backwards compatible it will hurt sales. People won't buy a system if there are no games (good) to be played on it. Look at the launch of the PS2 for a quick market history lesson.

[kanedaestes]

all the talks about the power of the systems, does it really matter? i still play snes and sega, and sometimes nintendo, too me it is and will always be about the games. if xbox 360 has better games and gameplay then i will get it, but then again the ps3 is backwards compatible so that's an even bigger plus for ps3 since i have nothing but ps1 and ps2 games, and why cause they are fun, who care about graphics, give me a snes 4 controllers and super bomberman and i can garauntee that anyone of u will have a blast and play for hours

[Batz Kage]

all the talks about the power of the systems, does it really matter? i still play snes and sega, and sometimes nintendo, too me it is and will always be about the games. if xbox 360 has better games and gameplay then i will get it, but then again the ps3 is backwards compatible so that's an even bigger plus for ps3 since i have nothing but ps1 and ps2 games, and why cause they are fun, who care about graphics, give me a snes 4 controllers and super bomberman and i can garauntee that anyone of u will have a blast and play for hours

I agree with them. I for one still play SNES games ALL THE TIME.
I've been bitching to my friends that SquareEnix needs to bring out a "hardcore" 2-D RPG, cause for the most part I like adventuring in 2-D just as much as 3-D. I mean FF 7-9 were ok, but there was something about 10's exploring I didn't like. It just seems like they did all this 'beautiful' artwork & there wasn't much to explore (I say this & the reason I quit playing it is because i'm at Zanarken & can't navigate with the map XD).

[Schultz]

I will agree FFX was to Linier.. and about old games.. thats the games i play on my current Xbox all my SNES, NES and Sega games.. that why i am looking foward to Revolution to be able to play them.. As long as they are like a few dollers for the download not like 20 or 30..

[geo85]

While gameplay would be most important, graphics to me anyway are too. They dont have to be the best but good nonetheless. The power of the system has as much to do with graphics as it does with everything else. The more memory and speed the less loading, larger worlds, better graphics longer game. It affects it all. But I feel games should be a fun experience over all, I play for entertainment and to escape the stress of the world I'm in I dont need more stress and frustration from a game thats just hard and not fun.

[Schultz]

While gameplay would be most important, graphics to me anyway are too. They dont have to be the best but good nonetheless. The power of the system has as much to do with graphics as it does with everything else. The more memory and speed the less loading, larger worlds, better graphics longer game. It affects it all. But I feel games should be a fun experience over all, I play for entertainment and to escape the stress of the world I'm in I dont need more stress and frustration from a game thats just hard and not fun.

I beg to differ on one thing.. games have been getting shorter and shorter for game play not longer with newer systems. Because more money is spent in the graphics for the game so less to develop the story.

[Batz Kage]

I beg to differ on one thing.. games have been getting shorter and shorter for game play not longer with newer systems. Because more money is spent in the graphics for the game so less to develop the story.

How Many hours long is FF-X? Even though it bored me through out all of them it seem shorter 9.. I'm wrong? if so take out the time for each of the GodD*** cuts seens I had to sit through on FF-X & see if it's shorter

[Andromeda18_]

I finished FFX in about 65-70 hours (I did every little thing that was supposed to be done). The first time I played FFX-2 it took me 35 hours (with 61% of game completion) but the 2nd time around it took me 80 hours (100% game completion).
Schultz is right, the games have been getting shorter. I usually finish the more recent RPGs in about 60-80 hours but older RPGs like FFVI were much longer than that.

[Batz Kage]

I usually finish the more recent RPGs in about 60-80 hours but older RPGs like FFVI were much longer than that.

Lol like I said I got stuck on FF-X, er nvm, last I remeber I was on the air ship traveling around from place to place I went to the trapped monk's place, leveled up, kept saving every other level, then went to a place with to high of level monsters, they wiped me out & when I loaded my save it was from hours before. What had happened the last 5 times I'd saved???? I got mad & turned it off.

I played X-2 for about 45 minutes, said I was through, then turned it back on & ended up getting about 1 & 1/2 into the game.

FFVI, I got to the part where you ahve to sneak through the enemy camp sometime before the second world if I remember correctly (ok that might be really off). I was stuck because I was following a walkthrough that wasn't very detailed & appearently the path I was to take was hidden. I came back to the game like 5 months later, having forgotten most of the story, & made it through & further into the game, but it wasn't so fun because I couldn't really reemmber what as going on.

I recently restarted CHrono's Trigger, but it's not linear enough for my simple brain (sorry to say that). I don't like having to rely n a walkthrough, but in the case of this game, there's some much side quest junk to affect the future & al, plus you keep having to go back in time to effect the future & get those sealed items & the sort.
Then moved on to FF5 again, which at one point was my favorite FF game, I made it to about mid-second world, not even as far as I did my first play through, for some reason I quit..

RoboTrek, got to Count Pinky's Manson & quit (last time I made it to a different planet or something like that).

Now I'm playing Dragon Warrior V (er I was about 3-4 days ago).

That's one thing I hate about myself, I never finish anything, I leave it & come back to finish it later (sometimes a year or two later), but with RPGs that's hard to d because when I spend so much time away from them the story tndto turn into a bore..

The only RPG I can't remember beating is FF-9, which is my favorite of the series.

[geo85]

While the games might be getting shorter that has nothing to do with the power of the system, that is the developers making the game. The power of the new systems could very easily run high end graphic masterpieces with 100 hrs of gameplay, but companies like EA drive up production costs so small developers cant put out their new innnovative game and were stuck with another damn ww2 game. I agree games are getting too short but like I said that is not because of a lack of power in the system.
I finished ffX in 85hrs only because I played a lot of that underwater sport ( I forgot the name) and did all the monster ranching including the ones where the guy custom made them, and all the weapon quests. I think rpgs should have a min play time of 90 hrs.
Or at least have tons of mini content like mini games and stills etc.

[tsunami]

I know the PS3 will be the one that gets the top-dog prize. Why? Cause sony always makes the play-station machine easy to program for thus easier to make a kick-arse game. Many developers get scared by high-spec consoles cause that sets a high-standard of quality to meet which can be down-right stressfull. (Plus I heard the PS3 game footage is a little too good and that the real system graphics are gonna look a little cheaper.)

As for the Revolution and the 360 I hope they do what they are best at which is providing gamers with multi-player action titles that need high-specs to be good.

As for FFX I beat it in 36 hours and only 20% of the shpere grid completed. On top of it that was my first time playing so about 6-12 hours was cut-scenes/reading dialog/figuring out where the hell to go. The last battle took me 25 mins to win lol.

[morgorath]

Well I have to disagree. While it is easy to program for the Sony machines it is not because Sony makes it so on purpose. "Path of least resistance" is a great way to sum it up. If a developer really tried to use all of the power a PS2 could muster the programming would be anything but easy.

Of the current systems the Xbox is the easiest to develop for. Why you may ask? Because it is easy for PC game makers to port their PC games over to the Xbox then making a port for the PS2/Gamecube. If I remember right the Gamecube development kit gets high praise from 3-rd party companies. The reason Sony has so many games on their system has less to do with the development and more too due with Quantity over Quality. They would rather have a whole bunch of games with a few gems hidden vs. then a Limited amount of great games.

[Batz Kage]

Quantity over Quality. They would rather have a whole bunch of games with a few gems hidden vs. then a Limited amount of great games.

You say that, but as I see it, there's still seems to be more better games for the PS2, than for other consoles. Sure there's like 2 good games for every 11 made, but the good one (in my opinion of course -_-) out number the other consoles.

I forgot what I was gonna say...

[geo85]

Just look at the ps2 launch titles pure S**t. The ps2 is and was not easy to program for they just had lots o developers ready to develop games. Only now at the end of the ps2's life span do you get games like god o war. They could of made games like that all along but you would get less games=less profit. The ps2 might have a massive library but I still only enjoy about 46 total and ive owned since the beginning. Xbox is a computer. Hence easy port. Nintendo goes for quality over quantity, its first party games are great most of the time.

[Batz Kage]

Only now at the end of the ps2's life span do you get games like god o war. They could of made games like that all along but you would get less games=less profit.

*sigh* thank god they didn't I don't think I could handle too many more over hyped games, it's about as bad as Fable.. which then again I'm biased when it comes to judging Fable.
But really, I'm sure GoW was nice & all (I passed up every chance to play it, as it didn't seem to appealing to myself), but there were game breaking glitches & graphics issues. the majority of the people I know that bought the game bought it because you could have sex & for the gore factor.
Then there was the whole GameFaqs battle between it & DMC3. During which time people claimed that it was just as hard as DMC when playing God mode. I sat right behind a guy, & watched him play god mode or whatnot. The Hydra (the last battle with it) was taking him to town & I had to ask where the life bar was becasue there wasn't much changing.

It ended up being a game that I most often found fans say: Despite (insert five things that I find to be major problems) 1t'5 t34 835t 6@m3 1/\/ t3h w0rld!1!1!111oneoneoneone..ok, maybe I hate my friends in my home town..sorry if it seems like i'm taking out my hatered on your opinion or whatnot.