Ryan Williams

I totally agree with #2 (Chris). It's getting fairly ridiculous how poor the storylines in games are, largely driven by cliches and uninspired design. Although this post is rather accurate, it's certainly not something I feel inclined to encourage use of as a basis for creating a good enemy.

The most interesting enemies in my opinion are always those who aren't so predictably evil, and whose threat isn't immediately apparent. The threat becomes more pronounced and sometimes surprisingly so (ie: a twist) as time goes on. A good example is actually the recent film Batman Begins, as is the Watchmen example given above.

Of course, it seems that the most inspired 'guy turns out to be evil' twist that most game writers can come up with is some kind of close ally turning out to be a spy or something. Yawn.

I guess I'm kind of just ranting about the state of video game writing in general here, though. While I do love my action fests from time to time, I'd really like to see more substance start to creep into games as the industry develops. It doesn't seem to really be happening at the moment, and games are largely strictly contextual rather than following an excellently written storyline.

I guess it'll come with time. We're still in the hardware race era after all. :)

If there's one thing you don't read games magazines for, it's news and information. We're on the internet here, guys. An unparalleled world of information is at your fingertips, long before it hits any magazine (with the exception of rare scoops that hit the web the second the magazine goes out anyway).

What you *do* read a magazine for is opinions and interesting articles. Edge excels in this department in that it has a lot of great writers, the features often look at stuff most magazines don't such as in-depth looks into how classic games were designed (a monthly feature in fact), plus other general gaming culture type articles (eg: girls' roles in games).

In short, a great magazine. Worth at least buying one issue of. :))

No guys, what are you talking about? The Wii might have a few bad games?! It's clearly doomed!

... ;)

Plus let's not forget this is Sonic, so chances are all that scenery will be whizzing past at, well, sonic speed. It'll probably look rather spiffy when playing it.

Overall, pretty impressive considering that indeed the machine's graphical capabilities have been downplayed by all parties.

I was kidding.

It's a slightly exciting prospect though, assuming the creature editor ends up being as flexible and easy to use as it looks (a pretty damn good looking Carebear was made in an old demo).

I just hope they don't stop me from having model headcrabs and goombas made! :)

You realise of course that this could put the filthy toys industry out of business. >:)

I'm betting that the darts will be more like the catapult minigames in Mario 64 DS and New Super Mario Bros.

That is one of the most inspired things I've ever seen.

Yeah gamer9190, totally. It's not like tens of thousands of people have bought a machine that is essentially identical to its cheaper predecessor in every way but aesthetics or anything like that. ;)

Fact is, looks matter. Looks are what settled the decision between buying and not buying a DS for many people. To deny that cosmetic appeal matters in the modern world is plain lunacy.

Ah, that's a good question Optimus. I never play it like that either, but I know somebody who does. I'll have to ask him to whip it out next time we meet.

The DS Lite that is.