World's Worst Man

1080i sucks for movies. Actually, 1080i sucks for everything except still pictures. Given the choice, I'd take 720p over 1080i any day of the week. 1080p is obviously the best, because it's a higher resoultion than 720p AND not interlaced, and thus won't have the problems that 1080i has. 1920x1080 vs. 1280x720 vs. 1920x540. There's a long road ahead, so who knows what will happen, but a week ago I was fairly convinced Sony would easily lead the market again. But now after the MGS4/VF5 news, I'm not so sure. If that sort of thing becomes a trend, I can see a dead-heat this time around.

Looks like I won't be getting a PS3 in February. I hope Sega releases the updated version of VF5 on XBox 360, assuming there's a new version between the PS3 and XBox 360 release. I also hope they release it on time, I don't want to have to wait more than 4 or 5 months for the game. Funny though, 2 of the 3 big, announced exclusives I wanted the PS3 for are suddenly no longer exclusive.

So, Super Swing Golf is pretty fun. I've basically been using a one-armed quasi-golf swing, because my "real" swing was too fast for the Wii remote to track. Not a problem, I wasn't expecting it to work like that anyway. The backswing is easy, because you can hold it as long as you want to make sure you get max power. It's actually good that you can do this, since the backswing seems very hit or miss with how it's tracked. Often times there are delays and pauses with the backswing meter, which requires the previously mentioned method for the backswing. The downswing is the tough part, both in getting the right amount of speed to match the power you selected on the backswing, and to hit the ball straight. That's the main part of the swing mechanic that is fun to try and get right. I'm not a big fan of the spin system, where you pretty much pick the spin you want to put on the ball before the shot is played. You can manually make the ball curve left or right during the swing, but you can't affect backspin and vertical trajectory without setting it before the shot. Realistically, that's not really something a golf game can implement, so it's not a huge deal. The swing mechanic isn't true to real golf, although you can make a "real" golf swing if you keep it to a slow tempo. Even doing that though, the game really didn't accurately measure the swing I was taking. A 3/4 swing ended up being half power, a half swing ended up going almost nowhere. I also would have preferred a system where you just swing, rather than swinging back, pressing a button, then swinging forward. But it's still a fun, new way to play a golf game, definitely much better than other console golf games, but I think I prefer the mouse controls in the Tiger Woods PC games myself.

Got Super Swing Golf today, will post impressions later.

You'd be surprised how many people don't get that.

A little better is being awfully generous to Zelda. When I compare OoT/MM to FFVIII/FFIX, I don't see "a little better", I see one set that outclasses the other. Ditto for Wind Waker compared to FFX. Hell, FFX looks better than the Wii version of TP in every department outside of character faces. And FFX is 5 years old. This is from a purely technical view of course. Artistic is another matter, and quite subjective. I would say FFVII, FFVIII and FFX are artistically better than any of the Zelda games, but that's neither here nor there. Not to be a dick, but how many Final Fantasy games have you played? FFVII -> FFX all had completely different art styles, both technically and artistically. FFXII was quite similar to FFX as far as the characters go, but otherwise it doesn't look like the previous FF's (it does look like Vagrant Story however). FFIV is quite an odd selection, considering how archaic the battle system is compared to the newer titles. But again I wonder how many FF titles you've actually played after that last comment. FFIX, X, X-2 and XII all had significant amounts of random battles that required more than just selecting attack every round. Even FFVII and FFVIII had some challenging random encounters, albeit it to a lesser degree, and assuming the player didn't aggressively level their characters. This is true, but you haven't given certain FF games credit for exactly the same thing - requiring players to put to use many different skills to be successful in battle. Yes and no. A lot of the platforming in Zelda is quite tedious, and some of the puzzles tend to become that way as well (although they're good for the most part). Personally I'd rather have the fun of exploration rather than constantly being challenged through tedium or convolution. A gross generalisation and exaggeration. Actually, it's spot on for FFI-IV, but I don't see it in the later games. I don't consider random battles tedious when a) there is a variance of enemies, characters and/or skills to use, b) the rewards for powering characters up is satisfying (large amount of abilities and character customization), or c) the battle system is just fun to play. FFVI-FFXII all have those qualities in one way or another. Some, barely so (FFVIII) some in spades (FFX). The dungeon exploration can't be generalised either. Many of the FF games don't just have a bunch of standard type dungeons, but have slightly more non-conventional types (which I appreciate). The ones that do (FFIX, FFXII) were designed in such a way that the dungeons felt epic and important. P.S. For shits and giggles if we were comparing the 8bit to early 16 bit games, Zelda thumps Final Fantasy (so LoZ-LTTP vs. FFI-IV)

I like good character and battle systems (especially job systems) and good character development over anything else in RPGs, so I probably liked FFX-2 more than most. I really thought the stuff with Paine and her former companions was fascinating, and the game doesn't get enough credit for some of that stuff. I'd still only rank it 5th among the numbered FF's, behind the usual suspects, but I really enjoyed the game quite a bit.

I can't say I see it like that at all. The classes all seemed to have their own abilities and strengths and weaknesses. Granted, a few classes were rather worthless, but I thought the rest had their uses based on the enemies you were fighting, along with personal preference. Some of the dialogue was campy, yes. I didn't mind, because I wasn't expecting much given how the game was presented. I thought the game had direction though. It basically started with the girls looking for signs of Tidus (via the spheres) which morphed into vegnagun being the main point of the quest, with the Tidus stuff still in the picture. I also found the characters to be very well developed, particular Paine, whom seemed to have a fairly detailed and important history. Oh that's right, I should have known that My last game I got the Tidus ending, but not the extra cut-scene, since I didn't do the Bevelle dungeon. Kind of annoyed actually, because I went out of my way to get 100%, but didn't think the dungeon was required.

I'll agree with that, since you had to get 100% completion for that ending. It's sort of like how in FFVII, the cut-scene that made sense of the entire story was tucked away and easily missable. The player shouldn't have to go well out of there way for events critical to the plot.

Sorry for actually supporting my opinion with observations and facts. Next time I'll just be smarmy and say anyone who disagrees is a moron.

Sony will likely add "upscaling" support for 1080i. I don't really think it's a big deal anyway. You can still play the games if you don't have an HD-TV. And it's not like you'll be able to play FFXIII on the PS2 or something. You should get a next-gen console if you want to play the next-gen games. HD is just an added bonus if you have a TV capable of it.

I'd really love to hear why FFX-2 is horrible. Funny how I hear that a lot yet never see any reasoning outside of "LOL GIRLY FANSERVICE GAME". FFX-2 had really great gameplay thanks to the job system, which in turn makes the battles fun. Incentive to level-up the jobs plus a lot of different skills to use makes for fun battles to me. There was also a lot of fun side-quests, and a lot of stuff to do in general. The gameplay was certainly better than lets say, Chrono Trigger, which seems to be a popular game among the nostalgists. Unless of course one thinks that characters where you have no control over their progression, and a pitiful amount of variance in battles makes for better gameplay than FFX-2. Say what you will about the point or spirit of the game, the gameplay was there. As for the poll, it's not really even close. No point getting into story and character development, because the Zelda series isn't even in the same stratosphere as any post FFV Final Fantasy game. Gameplay? I can see the Zelda fans complaining about the repetitiveness of RPGs, but guess what? Zelda is repetitive too. Besides, battles in FF9/X/X-2/XII were hardly repetitive, as using a bunch of different skills was essential for completing certain battles without a large headache. I'd also like to add that I don't necessarily mind repetitiveness if there's some sort of reward. For example, I'm willing to take certain levels of repetitiveness if I'm leveling up characters, because it eventually improves the amount of repetitiveness and makes the game much funner. Anyway, FF also has the advantage of some solid character customization systems, which I do enjoy. Zelda's advantages come with the puzzles and boss battles. Although occasionally they're incredibly convoluted and not much fun, but in general I'd say that's the biggest strength of those games. The question likely comes down to which genre the person likes better. But I try looking at how the games do in their respective formulas, and I'd call FF the winner on the strength of FFVI, FFVII, FFIX, FFX and FFX-2.

YEA LOL IT SUXXX!!!! I'm surprised more games haven't gone multi-platform already (even though many have). Even if XBox 360 is slated to be #3 world wide, if a publisher releases the game on all three consoles, they obviously have a larger pool of potential buyers than if they were to release it on one system. The only advantage that staying exclusive has is if they get a big payoff by the console developer to stay exclusive. But I'm sure that's only the big-name publishers/studios who get those deals. And even then, I'm sure they must carefully weigh whether the money they're getting through those contracts is enough to make up the loss of possibly upwards of a million extra sales. Maybe that's why Rockstar moved the GTA games to simultaneous releases for the PS3 and XBox 360, considering they'll likely sell well over 1 million on the XBox 360.

My Wii has been collecting dust for about 2 weeks. Just waiting for Christmas which will bring Super Swing Golf.

VF5 in February? Well shit, I guess I'm getting a PS3 a bit earlier than I expected.

I made no mention of PS3. DQ9 on DS = greater sales than DQ9 on PS3 or Wii. They could have just released it on PS2 again though as the PS2 is still has more units sold than the DS.

Ah, no wonder the screenshots looked like ass. Well, I guess it's going to sell a bajillion +1 copies in Japan, rather than just a zillion if it was on a console.

Most RPGs now-a-days don't require extra leveling to fight bosses, thank christ. I actually don't mind if RPGs are lacking a New Game+ as long as they make the last save point in the game accessible. This makes it possible to start at the end of the game and have access to all the side-quests and what-not. New Game+ is always a necessity for games with multiple endings though.

I don't think Shinya Hashimoto's theme with intro will ever be matched for setting the stage for an epic match. Kenta Kobashi's Grand Sword theme with intro was along similar lines. A good intro adds a whole lot of dramatic effect. As far as some creative entrance music, The Rougeau's and The Quebecers had really clever pieces of music. I've always been partial to Bret Hart's music as well. Keiji Muto had a couple great themes that were mixes of his regular music along with the Great Muta music. They sounded great and were kind of chilling.

There are still various places and stories in the Suikoden world where they could base the game. I'm not necessarily sure there really is going to be a definitive ending. Even if they they did a game where the world ended, there's still other parts of the timeline they could make a game with. I think the real problem is that the games just don't sell very well. With S5, you could really tell they were running on a tight budget. I just wonder how they're going to continue the games into the next generation.

I wonder who runs that site? vgcharts.org says 6.21m for the 360, 1.7m for the Wii and 590,000 for the PS3. In the US, the Wii has been selling faster than the 360 did at its launch. In Japan, the Wii has already sold close to 3x as many units as the 360 has sold in its entire existence. Oh, and it appears that the PS3 has outsold the XBox 360 in Japan now, despite ridiculously small hardware shipments. Fancy that.

Suikoden 5 was the best in the series. Unless you mean the interest in the game is dead, which I definitely agree with.

That's the big downfall of the game for sure. It's like the anti-Chrono Trigger, as it has pretty good gameplay but junk character and plot development. If given the choice, I'd certainly go for the gameplay over plot, but there's no reason they can't exist equally.

Morishima will get the big, break-through title win against Misawa. He already asked Misawa to give him a match and I believe Misawa accepted. Once Kobashi's back, I expect Morishima to get a big win over him as well, completing the passing of the torch.

Kobashi just announced that he can't come back just yet, but will return to the ring.