Yeah I really enjoyed Nocturne as well, but man that game was hard my first time playing through. Fuse the wrong demon without knowing and suddenly you can kiss hours of progress good bye. This game taught me the importance of keeping multiple save files.

I also really enjoy MegaTen's Persona series but those games can really make a person OCD at points. Especially in P3:FES were you had to max all your social links if you wanted the best persona in the game.

Also some other games you might like (if you don't already own them for the PS2) are Okami and Godhand. Okami is great simply because it is sure a beautiful game and it's a pretty fun platformer/adventure game while Godhand is just awesome and difficult beat em up that actually forces you to think.

On the topic at hand I agree that most modern games are simply becoming way to short (I'm looking at you Ghostbusters, Fable 2, ect.) but I have also recently played a number of modern games that were acutally pretty damn long and took me a while to complete. Of course most of this games were rpgs but at least modern rpgs for the most part are continuing the tradition of taking at least over 50 hours to complete.

Just last week I finished playing through Tales of Vesperia and that took about 80 hours to complete (granted I'm sure a nice chunk of that time came from grinding for skills, doing sidequests and playing the poker mini-game) and that time just keeps going up due to the bonus content that unlocks after you beat the game. So I guess what I'm trying to say is that even though most modern games are becoming extremely short it is at least to see that some games are continuing the tradition of being long enough to consume a good two to three weeks of your free time.

 

By contrast, I absolutely loved that game, and have replayed it pretty much front to back many times over.

I do agree with you about this quote here, though:

Far too many games are like that.

 

I have both Okami and God Hand, Sora. They are epic.

 

Especially Maniax version. You think you're doing well then the Fiends come out and go FFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!

 

Maniax is the version Americans got, yeah. Basically, if you choose hard mode, you're asking to lose your sanity.

 

What are your guys thoughts on Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3?

 

26 days, 10 hours, 32 minutes.

or 634 hours 32 minutes in CoD4 online.

Yeah I think I need a new game to play :awesome

 

Someone mentioned DLC. Blessing and a curse.

Nice to get map packs, every once in a while

But oh my fucking god if people like EA don't bend you over and ream you till you cry using DLC. Lol Sims 3. Did a comparison between Sims 3 basic game, and Sims 2. Sims 3 had more complex building tools, but FUCK ALL FURNITURE AND OBJECTS in comparison. Also fuck all hairstyles. And guess what? You can get oooodles more through paid-for DLC. Fuck off, I just shelled out £40, I shouldn't have to spend a shitload more just to get more than one type of big TV.

And L4D. Christ. Biggest let down ever, for me, by a videogame developer. They released the game, acknowledged it was a bit half-arsed as they needed cash desperately, and promised extensive DLC. DLC came months late, and was less than half of what was promised (no new weapons, no new campaign maps - survival mode was cool, but frankly should have been in release). Now they've announced L4D2. I would expect it to be £40. It is basically the content update L4D should have had. So Valve lied through their teeth. And I have to shell out more fucking money to play the game I bought in the first place.

Only good thing I've seen from DLC is LOTROnline content updates. Now those are meaty and regular. But then again, subscriber games need that.

DLC is just an excuse to release a shit game and then update it in drips and drabs, while making money hand over fist. Also EA are total cocks- Spore was also bollocks, and now they're releasing a paid-for expansion which makes the Space stage what it should have been IN THE FUCKING FIRST PLACE, AND MAKING ME PAY MONEY FOR THE PRIVILEDGE OF PLAYING THIS. Oh and remember the whole buying guns for multiplayer thing? Thats also an example of GOLD PLATED FAGGOTRY.

Whose fault is this? Casual gamers. Go play the Wii, the lot of you. I bought mine, played twilight princess, and have basically not used it since. Biggest let down in a console ever. I don't want to shell out £30-40 on some shitty minigame. I want to shell £30-40 out on something like fallout.

 

I haven't played Halo yet so someone is going to have to explain that one to me. I'm curious now.

Shit, I remember playing video games ever since my brother got his Nintendo from Santa 19 years ago and then from there it was Sega, N64, Playstation 1/2/3, Xbox 360, and a variety of hand helds (Gameboy, Gamegear, Gameboy Color etc).

I think modern gaming has gone down a little. It seems to me that a lot of companies are more worried about fan-servicing already released games instead of creating newer, fresher games.

At the moment it looks like the companies are trying to fan-service the older generation by 'reimagining' really old games. Only problem is by the time they are done revamping the damn thing they no longer resemble the original games we all loved playing growing up.

I haven't really played a good rpg in a while. Final Fantasy 12 was okay, but I hated it. The main charcter (Vaan) had no business being the main character and was pretty annoying. 13 looks fucking hardcore though, gotta admit that. I went to the EB the other day and bought Knights of the Old Republic because my gaming well has sorta dried up lately.

Not to big on multiplayer myself. I prefer playing a game with the storyline and having that feeling of accomplishment once I beat it. The only game I've played online recently is MLB The Show, but my new LCD TV has a game lag so . . . yeah.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to put on 400 pounds once SC 2 comes out because I don't plan on leaving my computer chair. I'm putting down roots!

 

I don't know if I am just a retard with games, but currently, I am enjoying the hell out of the Spiderweb software games. They have an awesome story, decent gameplay, and are long and replayable. I seriously recommend them to anyone who prefers story over graphics in an RPG.

 

No one has mentioned God of War or its sequel. I still go back and play them almost monthly. And their hard modes are fucking challenging.

Then I have Monster Hunter. Before Freedom Unite came out, I'd logged over 450 hours in Freedom 2.

I also go back and play Oni, by Bungie occasionally.

 

You must've been one of the lucky bastards to not know about how 90% of the game's promised features were missing, lol.

As far as If you don't like it, don't buy/play it.

It's not that simple. When all that's put out is shit, folks will buy it, just to have something to play. The uber over simplification of gaming, and the total abandonment of gameply for graphics has crippled gaming.

Halo series. Sucks. Just because millions of units have sold doesn't mean it's awesome, it means folks have lowered their expectations, or that folks have become so used to that sort of stuff, it's normal now.

Every idiot I know who plays it said, aw man, awesome 6 hour story for 60$! Fuck that. Jedi Knight 2 was 30$ brand new, had awesome graphics, and multiplayer that kept hundreds of thousands of folks active for years, with like 20+ hours of singleplayer.

MP only? Which is basically what Halo 3 is? Tribes 2, Diablo, Battlefield 2, BF 2142, games that graphically were awesome in their time, gameplay was amazing, and well hell, I can't talk about them well enough to do justice.

Running around with a gun that kills people in 2 seconds, while assisted by the built in auto aim, while playing against 4 other folks on the oppisite team just isn't gaming to me. But sadly, it's kinda what I'm pigeon holed into, since so many have been taught, that that's what gaming is. PC gaming used to be a haven, and for years I didn't touch consoles, but now, everyone's making games for the console market, and we're screwed with very few good titles.

Bioshock, AC, ME, and a few of the others on Sree's list have really been the only exceptions.

 

If I could count the number of hours I spent playing Pokemon Blue and Pokemon Silver on my Gameboy Color. Holy Shit. 26 days, 10 hours, and 32 minutes would be absolutely blown out of the water. Literally, in the amount of time I have spent playing Pokemon, I could have learned how to speak French fluently. Or invented a cure for swine flu.

 

Yeah I understand that but I wasn't even counting all the pokemon shit I played when I was younger. :awesome

And the 26 days was on me only counting MP.

 

Something else

Gears of War 2. I've got it from Gamefly. It's got a very well fleshed out story, it's got multiplayer (that I think is shit, but any console FPS multiplayer is shit to me so whatever) It's got a nice loooong campaign, that surprised the shit out of me when I wasn't done with it in coop in a few hours. It's sold through the nose, and is a jizzfest for many players.

It's a good example of what a good console game should be... except for the fact that it's blindingly easy. I play games to have fun to, but if I wind up feeling like I'm godmoding through the game, it's boring to me. The only time I've had trouble so far was the annoying bit with the monster attacking your raft. I couldn't get the shitty grenade controls to get the damned grenade in the fish's mouth.

I've had it for like 2 months, I put it down because I got bored with it, and just didn't feel like finishing it. Hell I'm forcing myself to play it now so I can return it having beaten it.

Easy mode does not a good game make

 

Sins of a Solar Empire is fun. It's utter lack of a storyline, and relative simplicity are forgivable since it's so ridiculously moddable (if only I could get that sweet Star Wars mod to stop freezing the game...). And many a time have I skipped a meal playing Civ 2 and 3. Best turn-based strategy games evar.

For xbox, strangely enough I'm a fan of the Jedi Knight series. The graphics suck, and the storyline in all three games is cheesy as hell, but the gameplay redeems it. Fallout 3 was cool too, but once you got to Level 20 (or 30, if you got the Broken Steel DLC), it was pretty much over. Barring IRL death, it's almost impossible to die at that point.

And that was before the Operation: Anchorage DLC pack brought us the Chinese Stealth Armor. I shit you not, after I got that thing, about 95% of my kills were one-hit surprise K.O.s, and I could effortlessly pickpocket the shit out of everybody. At first, I was like :awesome, but then I realized that I had negated pretty much every challenging aspect of the game with that fucking armor.