extremus

It goes to show that if you take the effort to put a quality game out there, it can sell in downloadable form. For those of you who haven't yet played a Sam & Max game, it's a point and click series where you look for and piece together objects and clues to solve bizarre mystery capers. Not for everyone, probably, but I really like them a lot. The offbeat and often laugh-out-loud humor disguises a bunch of cerebral gameplay where you often have to think outside the box to move on to the next puzzle or event.

I think that the downloadable market could potentially be a huge and profitable way for lesser-known but still quality games to do well instead of having to compete directly against the major disc-based franchises. There already is a much wider representation of genres on PSN and XBox LIVE than there are in either console's disc-based library. Honestly I don't care if the games are disc-based or not; if they're good enough and are what I am looking for, I'll buy them.

See the above comment to know why I'm REALLY miffed, then. The lack of Southpaw basically renders the game unplayable for me, and I don't have the time to waste learning to adjust against competition who already have the "home field advantage". Like I said, this release may be high-def and prettied up, but underneath it's been neutered big-time. If you were a southpaw my bet is you'd be complaining, too. You all would.

Only four bots. The N64 had al lot more at once. So much for this release being "enhanced" in so many ways. Thanks for nothing, Rare.

Yeah, but Perfect Dark XBLA only has four at once selectable. The N64 had up to eight or twelve, if I recall correctly.

And by the way, what happened to all of the bots you could play against on the N64? This release is pretty much neutered. As for Southpaw control settings being "outdated", I guess that means being left-handed is, too. Come on!

If you happen to be a southpaw like me, this game is a bitter and unnecessary disappointment. This release, after we've been made to wait for so long, only came with three configurations, two of them nods to other FPS games and NONE of them with stick reversal or further customization? Ridiculous, Rare. I waited nine month's since the game's announcement, plunked down my 800 points this morning, and promptly found a game I can't play.

For any of you "majority" folks out there accusing me or other lefties of overreacting, just consider how you'd feel if, say, Halo Reach came out this fall with ONLY southpaw configurations. Would it be worth it to you to learn to adjust when you'd be at a constant disadvantage against natural lefties, or would you just return the game? Too bad you can't return downloadable content, because I'm calling bull-caca on this one. This is one of the worst fan service blunders I've ever seen from a developer, and unless Rare gets a Southpaw patch out FAST, I'll always consider this release on par with PD Zero which launched with the XBox 360. Yeah, that bad.

Maybe because Joystiq realized some folks don't like profanity, asterisk-mouth. Freedom's only worth something if it's worth something.

Obviously it's a matter of personal preference as to whther one likes JRPG or western-style RPGS, or a combination of the two. I'm open to either, but personally I like the ability to identify and empathize with my character(s), to see them go through and respond to things in a way that evokes a personal response on some level from me.

The last time I felt that in a game was during an event about midway through Sega's awesome Valkyria Chronicles (I won't spoil it here; if you haven't played it yet and consider yourself a gamer of any standing you need to do so NOW). Sure, there are other types of emotion that games can create, from the apprehension of survival horror titles to the adrenaline rush of first-person shooters, but I'm talking about genuine, sympathetic "Old Yeller" moments. You don't get that in a sandbox RPG where you customize and design your character down to their tattoos and simply wander around; the only thing you're not controlling are the pre-made "event triggers" and the high-definition cutscenes. All of that's fine if that's your preference, but for me the ability to get to know the characters I'm playing with (or as) through dialogue and superb storytelling trumps graphical presentation in terms of importance (don't get me wrong though; graphics and sound are very important, too). Seeing Cecil's superdeformed head slump forward in shame when he had to steal the crystal from Mysidia in Final Fantasy IV (II when I first played the SNES version), the fantastic opera scene from Final Fantasy VI, or learning the guy who'd been building the aircraft in Panzer Dragoon Saga had been killed in a test flight late in the game are just two examples of how great storytelling overcomes technical limitations. And you can't experience stuff like that playing as a lone wolf character going for your next bounty or mini-quest.

Bottom line: western RPGs and SRPGs are fine for the folks who enjoy them, but there are plenty of us who long for the return of superb linear, character driven, JRPG flavor in our quests. Final Fantasy XIII is already near the top of my "to get" list; now let's see some more great franchises make a return to their roots! Sega, I'm looking at you especially; where are our new Phantasy Star (Algol-based, please), Shining Force, Dragon Force, Panzer Dragoon Saga, and Skies of Arcadia installments? Stop adjusting Sonic's quills back and forth (what a pathetic debate) and bring us the franchises that REALLY made you great back in the day!

I have to agree with Toriyama's take here. One only has to look at what has happened to gaming, especially the RPG genre, since Final Fantasy VII supposedly made RPGs "mainstream". Ever since then developers have been tinkering with or outright ditching the old "outdated" turn-based and linear story-based formulas in favor of open-world, often online experiences which seemingly include more and more complex combo systems and button mashing on the part of the player during combat. A lot of gamers who consider themselves RPG fans today have been used to stuff like Fable, Oblivion, and Dragon Age: Origins; many of them simply aren't open to the linear, story and character development-heavy (primarily JRPG) titles of yesteryear.

Cases in point: the Phantasy Star series, which rivaled the early Final Fantasy games in terms of quality, haven't seen a traditional turn-based entry since the Sega Genesis; instead we've gotten mostly frankly mediocre pseudo-online, 3D iterations from an entirely different continuity. Final Fantasy began to ditch its menu-based, linear format in favor of increasingly more radical design changes after FF IX on the PS1. The excellent Lunar series hasn't been seen since the late 90s on the PS1 remake, Lunar 2: Eternal Blue (although a very good-looking update to the original Lunar is headed to PSP soon). Skies of Arcadia, which won EGM's Game of the Month award twice (and over a year apart), was Sega's last true console turn-based RPG, and while a remake was made for the GameCube the original was on the Sega Dreamcast.

I know different gamers have differing tastes and preferences, but a huge mistake the American market is making is in assuming that ALL gamers here desire a sandbox, button mashing experience. While I do enjoy some real-time games, I frankly prefer turn-based mechanics and linear, party-based, story based gameplay when it comes to my RPGs and SRPGs. I like the ability to put my feet up on the couch and plan out my strategies, to be able to relax and enjoy a well-told 50 to 100-hour long story (how many modern games can boast that with any real quality nowadays, by the way?), offline and totally free of random idiots who are more likely to backstab you or drop out of the game than they are to help you. I hope a lot of Japanese developers are reading this, because a whole lot of other American videogaming hobbyists feel exactly the same way.

To clarify my earlier statement, I wasn't just referring to Battlefield: Bad Company 2 when I referred to Day One DLC being a bad idea; nor did I mean to imply that I assumed that game's Day One DLC would come with a fee. I simply meant to say that such a concept is becoming a growing and troubling industry trend.