Topics

1

General / Dissertation Survey

« on: May 02, 2016, 05:07:54 pm »

My final year dissertation deals with the censorship of Japanese video games for release in the west (particularly in terms of content deemed to be of a sexual nature).

As part of that I have set up a survey to gauge people's opinion on the matter; and I need members of the video game community to fill it out.

It's split into two parts (I'm a poor student so I can't afford Survey monkey premium features )

Part 1: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/PYLYYTB
Part 2: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/PYY96X5

Please answer both parts and do so honestly. It should only take a few moments of your time.

I am eternally grateful for any respondents. i would say there's cake but that would be a lie

2

Classic Video Games / Best Gameboy and Gameboy Advance titles?

« on: May 01, 2016, 04:58:05 pm »

I feel sometimes these systems are wrote off as the 'Pokemon systems'. I love pocket monsters just as much as the next guy but there's other games out there. Just curious as to what people's favorites are?

For the Gameboy; honestly I loved my Gameboy Pocket but I'm going to admit I primarily utilised it for Pokemon . However I did play some other games. I loved Space Invaders, I felt it was the perfect way to play Space Invaders, in your hands there and then. I also enjoyed the Mario Land series but in particular Mario Land 3: Wario Land; it's probably my favorite handheld platforming title. My favorite Zelda title is The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (yeah I'll take the Ocarina and Links to the Past armies on my own  ). I also played my fair share of Castlevania and Megaman, however I can't recall exactly which titles; really enjoyed them though. Arguably my favorite Gameboy title other than Pokemon was Monkey Puncher; c'mon you get to raise a monkey boxer and become champion of the world, game's have never been better than that.

The Gameboy Advance was a fantastic system for ports of 16-bit JRPGs. Honestly there aren't too many GBA exclusives that I love but that doesn't change my appreciation for the platform. Final Fantasy Tactics Advance; not as good as the original but nonetheless a great tactical J-RPG. Advance Wars and Advance Wars 2: Black Hole; either title and a GBA and it's endless fun with a friend, to this day we still get the GBA out on flights and pass it around, that's a testament to how good those games are. Golden Sun and Golden Sun: The Lost Age are fantastic little RPGs; they may be short but they have a decent difficulty level, charming characters and an interesting story; only years later I discovered it was developed by the same folks who made Shining Force.  But the ports, the ports.... The Final Fantasy ports are great, to be able to play Final Fantasy on the go, was wonderful. First chance I got to play Breath of Fire and Breath of Fire II; honestly I may even prefer them to III and IV. And the aforementioned Shining Force, ported as Shining Force: Resurrection of the Dark Dragon.

So what are your choices folks?

3

General / People Selling Their Collections

« on: April 04, 2016, 04:31:53 am »

Ha maybe I'm alone in this but it always disappoints me to see people selling their collection or even downsizing. I can never bring myself to buy anything from them as I feel like I'm contributing to that disappointment. Just seems like a shame that someone who has put time and money into collecting these games, suddenly decides to sell them for whatever reason. I get that sometimes it's a necessity; babies for instance tend to be a common cause for people deciding to sell, as they're expensive; however that isn't the only reason I've seen people sell.

So I'm just curious as to other people's input on this. How do you feel when you see someone selling their collection? Have you sold a large chunk of your collection before? Why did you do it? Do you regret it?

4

General / Games Lost in Development

« on: December 28, 2015, 09:27:08 am »

For every great game we get to experience, there is always one that gets lost in development hell and never sees the light of day. What are the titles that upset you the most when they were cancelled?

For me three titles spring to mind....

Star Wars Battlefront III - I was never a big shooter fan pre-Seventh generation; the three series that were an exception to this were Star Wars Battlefront, Timesplitters and Halo. So you can imagine my excitement when I heard the developer of one of my favorite series was handling development on the latest entry in another one of my favorites. Free Radical's plans for Battlefront III were so ambitious; I mean being able to jump between battling above the planet and on its surface in the same match, with 100 players in the game. Not to mention an expansive single player campaign. Arguably this was the game to end all games for me. Yes they scaled back their ambitions on the single player front and in reducing the players to 50, however it was still going to do things that no other game had done before. I'm not sure I've ever been so devastated to hear a game had been cancelled; I cursed Lucas Arts at the time.

Star Wars 1313 - I love Star Wars games, no secret there. There's been some awful Star Wars game but there have been some amazing ones that rank among my favorites. One of the 'hidden gems' per se of the Star Wars franchise for me was Bounty Hunter; might be stretching it to give it that label, however it didn't belong to any of the big Star Wars franchises like Jedi Knight, Knights of the Old Republic or Battlefront, nor was it a move tie in; so to me it's as close to a 'hidden gem' as you're going to get with a Star Wars title. So when I heard a rumor that there was a new game coming out, where you played as Boba Fett; and then seen that jaw dropping trailer that revealed 1313, my mind was blown. I was so disappointed when the title became a casualty of the take over. Rumors that Visceral's Star Wars title was an adaptation of 1313 gave false hope as it doesn't seem to be the case

Prey 2 - I'll level with you, this one didn't upset me as much as the former two, however I feel it' worth a mention as its not necessarily a title that would have registered on everyone's radar. I really enjoyed the first game; yes I could see the effects of it's long stay in limbo, it wasn't the prettiest game of the previous generation, however it was an interesting entry in what at the time was often an over-saturated genre. So to hear Human Head were working on a sequel and hear their plans for that, really excited me. it sounded like things were going to be brought to a whole new level. Its a shame as this studio had an idea for an interesting series; the first title is dated at launch due to a stalled development and the sequel gets canned; I can't help but think about what could have been.

So what are some of the cancellations that disappointed you the most?