I' m looking forward to this, nice simple blasting action :) sure there' s are a wedge of FPS titles I' ll be getting over the next 6 months but I' ve liked what I' ve seen atmospherically and it should be nice for the odd " pop in and play" after a hard day at work.

However if you want new and original, look elesewhere.

Within the RPG category, you can compare something like KotoR to Suikoden III or Disgaea to Star Ocean. Turn-based vs. real-time vs. strategy/RPG vs. hybrid. Not only are all the characters, worlds, and stories different (as in Deus Ex vs. Unreal), but the entire gameplay format is different. Real-time and turn-based are as different as night and day (just ask Terry!), strategy is basically a whole other world (I' ve always thought that games like Disgaea should be in a separate strategy genre, but most publications don' t think that way, and lump it into the RPG genre), and various hybrids like Star Ocean (battle exists in real time, but can be paused to provide non-controlled characters with commands, and issue new battle strategy orders).....it could go on and on.

To stray slightly off topic I found the Star Ocean comments a bit interesting. So basically the battles can take place in both real-time and via turn-based battle commands??? Like Tales of Symphonia?????

Next question is, is Star Ocean an easy, medium, or hard RPG series??? lol
I' ve invested 5 hours into Tales of Symphonia so far and am still enjoying the game so far. I dig this hybrid so far.

Lotusson/Yoshi: Time to leave, fu****. This isn' t even a flame war...as usual, you read nothing but the poster' s name. Maybe, if you could read what was written and provide useful discussion for once, you wouldn' t be the colossal jerks you are.

>>>You' re a horrible role model employee for this site. You' ve lost my patronage and recommendation for Kikizo. I' m out.

>>>Unfortunately, with morons like yourself, stimulating discussion isn' t possible in here. - Fathoms

>>> Hey, that' s a new one, you and spam, that fits well. And don' t even try calling him a moron or stupid when it was YOU who skewed this whole thread into something else entirely in the first place. If you don' t like a thread or what goes on in it, don' t post.

>>>*** you fathoms.
I' m no more a moron than you are an overanalytical windbag.

>>>You know, I distinctly recall someone telling me that this was a " public forum" and not only positive responses should be expected. I guess that doesn' t apply to me, right? - Fathoms

>>>If other CHILDREN could figure out how to do this, we might get something worthwhile going. - Fathoms

>>>But act like the asshole you are in here - Fathoms

>>>I love how fathoms essentially ruined a thread about Doom going Gold on PC by spamming it up with his posts that are completely unrelated to the topic. But then again, fathoms probably can' t grasp the concept of spam. It' s simple: Stay on topic and it isn' t spam, do what you' re doing and go off topic horribly, then it' s spam.

I think you should calm down sir.

NEW DOOM 3 VID

http://doom3.planet-multiplayer.de/download.php?view.42

I feel soooo left out. Why wasnt I invited to this arguement? Anyway, fathoms has a point on the hybrids, and whoever said Fathoms is overanalytical really has a point. So, could we all just play nice? Pretty please? Im leaving for Florida Monday to stay for a week and I dont want to miss the 5th Kikizo flame war.

Seriously though, why do you guys bother to argue? Fathoms never gives up with his endless list of quotes, and apparently neither does anyone else. And congrats Lotus, you werent involved, LOL.

And congrats Lotus, you werent involved, LOL.

Yeah, he flamed me when I wasn' t even talking to him, just making a general observation about the thread.

Guess I got the magic stick.

 

LOL, that is funny...didn' t even realize that until now. I can see why he went off on me but he also had the same to say to you Lotus.

Also, I used to post at Gamespot fathoms. I stopped however when I figured out that everyone there minus about 100 people are total idiots. And don' t get me started on how horrible their forums are now...

PS: The friend remark deals with people from TGIF, etc. I know that even you can get a few idiots on a friends list at Gamespot.

Does any1 know the system requirements for doom3?? i realy want it and wanna know how it checks out...

LMAO!!!

Nice to see nothing has changed since my Gamerweb days. FLAME FLAME FLAME FLAME!

On the subjects brought up in this thread.

1) Can' t wait for Doom 3. Got a new Uber PC and can' t wait to push it (Far Cry is doing a damn good job though) Graphics look imense, story is in place (this is meant to be more survival horror than standard FPS) and I am sure it will have the trademark ID polish.

2) RPGs ARE A VERY STAGNANT GENRE. I actually think the opposite from Fathoms here (which again isn' t surprising if I remember the ol' Gamerweb days correctly). I think RPGs have far more limited potential than FPS games. FPS don' t just have involve mindless shooting. You have horror games like System Shock 2 with limited ammo and a horror atmosphere, Metroid Prime which involves loads of exploration and the use of 3rd person at times, games like No One Lives Forever which have a lot of humour and involve a lot of stealth, mindless shooters like Painkiller, online multiplayer game like Battlefield 1942 which are completely different to the likes of UT2004 and Quake 3, games like counter-strike again break the mould etc etc. I am sure you get the point.

RPGs on the other hand generally stick to a tried and tested formula. Story, town, dungeon, story town dungeon, story town dungeon add infinitum. The stories, although not always, tend to be cliched works. Sure, the battle systems change, but they are always restricted to some form of turn based formula. Grandia, Shining Force, KOTOR all have what appear to be very different systems (gotta love the Grandia one in particular), but they are still turn based and have a background formula running to determine, misses, critical hits etc.

Nowt more to say just now. Tune in next year for the next post by that long-time no show Pierre2k ;)

Long time no see Pierre, you should post more often here.

Indeed it is Yoshi. As always its good to here from ya mate. I will need to get on Xbox LIVE more and dish out some pain

Still busy with the SOCOM clan just now though. Last time I posted on Rek' s VIP forums I put a link to our clan site **plug alert www.goodboyz.com ** as we had just won the European SOCOM league. We recently just got another honour on our way to clan superstardom. The UK edition of Official Playstation Magazine comes with a DVD that takes a look at PS2 online gaming. They have a section which lists the current top 10 European clans and >GB<Goodboyz are numero uno!!! Woo Hoo!

Ok, so that was a bit of shamless boasting but you can' t blame me

Oh, can you post a link to the VIP forums? I am using my new computer and my old one died. Lost the link from my favourites.

Terry: I was actually meaning to tell you about this. Yes, Star Ocean is very much like Tales of Symphonia. I have a friend that has been explaining ToS to me via e-mail, and he has drawn many parallels to Star Ocean: The 2cd Story (PSOne). You should look into it; I think it might be right up your alley. It' s a hybrid, and absolutely the best of its kind, IMO. The battles are in real-time, but can be paused indefinitely to assign commands and roles to each of your characters. You have four characters, but you can only control one of them at a time; the non-controlled characters simply execute the action you give them. For example, while you' re slicing things up with Claude, you can give the command of " Heal when necessary" to Rena. The AI is SURPRISINGLY good, in that she isn' t constantly healing, but " heals when necessary," exactly as she' s told. Very interesting, and one of the best.

yoshi: Depends on where you go. In one " homemade forum" that basically eliminates the trash, we have what I consider to be the largest gathering of intelligent, long-time gamers of any place on the net. Most are my age (25), and others are even older.

Pierre: Those are good points, but that' s not really what I was driving at. You' re looking at it from a creative aspect, and I' m well aware of the differences in FPS; I believe I listed some earlier (Deus Ex, CoR, etc.). But my point is not artistic or design, my point lies in gameplay mechanics. Due to the nature of FPS, they will all be played in a very, very similar fashion regardless of what kind of environment you' re in. The largest diversity will come from a mix of all-out action and stealth, but that' s about it. In the end, I play Deus Ex in much the same way I play UT; despite the obvious difference in style, the mechanics remain almost identical.

In the way of RPG' s, two games in that genre can play entirely differently. The biggest and easiest example is turn-based vs. real-time, but as indicated above with the Star Ocean and ToS games, even certain hybrids exist that provide an entirely new gameplay experience. In saying that RPG' s are limited because they all use the formula is misleading, because the exact same thing can be said of ALL genres. The fighting genre is limited because you fight, the action genre is limited because there' s jumping and shooting/fighting in a 3D realm, the sports genre is limited because you always play a real-life game on a screen, the platformer genre is limited because there has to be a lot of jumping, puzzle-solving, and attacking of some sort, etc., etc., etc. FPS is the most limited genre in terms of mechanics because of how it' s made, but I wouldn' t say it' s the most limited in terms of creativity, because essentially, it' s only the view they' re limited to (first-person). Can it be innovative? Absolutely; it' s been done, in fact.

My point is that RPG' s are no more " stagnant," simply due to the level of sheer diversity found in the genre, which is far greater than any other individual genre. Like I said before, many obvious strategy titles like Disgaea are frequently lumped into the RPG genre. While Deus Ex and UT have me using virtually the same button/mouse mechanics, I certainly cannot say the same thing of games as unbelievably different as, say, Legaia 2 (turn-based) and Tales of Symphonia (real-time). This is the point I was trying to make, essentially. I don' t really mean to say that FPS is more limited from a CREATIVE standpoint, because I don' t think that' s true.