Happy 10th Anniversary Sega Dreamcast

I thought the 1st GOW was way overrated and didn’t even look that great .

2nd game however , was one of the best games I played in ages insane mindless action all the way through , and some of the bets graphics I’ve ever seen

Strangely enough, I thought Gears of War 2 was a downgrade in terms of the campaign. Way too many gimmicks thrown in at various intervals that took away from what makes Gears of War enjoyable for me: the cover-based combat. They all reminded me of the obnoxious vehicle levels in the Lego Star Wars games… they have awful controls and they end up functioning as “variety” for the sake of it. Sorry, but I get no jollies from riding horde creatures.

Horde mode on the other hand, completely made up for the weaker campaign. I played a fair number of hours of it before moving on to other things.

Gears 2 is better in every way, if you ask me. The campaign is really intense, and opens up a lot of questions for Gears 3. I still play horde to this day, have reached level 50 on my own (casual). Gears 1 is still an awesome game too though, don’t get me wrong. Solo get an Xbox so we can co-op that shit up.

Sounds fun. I’m quite content living in the past for now, but I may tire of last generation limitations eventually.

I mostly agree with TA and Shadow about the two Gears of War games, but I’m not sure I’d call the campaign itself strictly better in Gears 2, and they’ve both got problems. In truth, the Corpser fight in the first game is one of the lowest points to me, it’s very anachronistic to the rest of the gameplay, which is part of why it reminded me of Panzer… it would have seemed almost less out of place in something like a Panzer Dragoon shooter. I had to go back to the game much later to finish it as well, but the mansion is a great scene, though it gets super bitchy right before the end.

And Parn made some good points about the direction of Gears 2, it’s even more ‘arcadey’ in a way. But though the anachronistic set-piece segments are even more prevalent, they’re less egregious for it, and generally better done. Plus some stunningly cinematic setups. So it’s basically six of one; half a dozen of the other, for me. But it’s the game system itself that’s vastly refined in the sequel, and again, Horde is just brilliant.

Gears 2 also looks more solid and smooth generally, but it trades away some of the atmosphere of the first game. An almost necessary trade though, in terms of functionality.

I don’t believe that game wise online was better (i was promised online sega rally 2 in 1999 boooooo)
but i believe the portal, dreamarena, chat, etc was a lot better.

But that could also be because internet was still relatively new to everyone back then

Dream Arena is what XBLA needs, and now!

That said, PSO is my favorite MMO because it has robot maids that I probably would not take home in a large truck to degrade.

Profit!

Anyway I’m not much of an MMO fan myself, I play PSOBB and for a brief while Guild Wars on the PC at home, but the main problem with all of these games is that they are MMOs. Why play with actual people when you can upgrade to non self aware AIs that don’t get pissy at you if you make racial slurs or bring their mother’s sexual decency into question!

And then there are the ones who stop half way through a game to discuss their fantasies of sexually assaulting Haruhi Suzumiya before randomly dissapearing without saying bye.

And I’m not sure I “get” leveling up… like… it is not a task that particularly requires skill, just perseverance and getting bored titless. Why not spend time getting good at something that doesn’t suck balls?

PSO’s “reward” for reaching High Level was kind of a let down, a re-skinned ultra hard difficulty mode is just rame.

Nah in all seriousness PSO was kind of fun, although I would have preferred maybe a more consolidated ending to the story than “Congratulations! you are the hero!” o_O

Except for the fact that the controls made it nigh unplayable.

Yes, that was the problem with that version… but I got used to it (sure it helped that I was forced to play that game for hours on end). But given a proper interface, it’s pretty awesome.

In fact, some friends of mine and I made a rhythm puzzle game based on very similar mechanics for the GBA for an indie game development competition. (We lost, but I believe my friends have taken the idea and are going to make a full-blown game out of it. Yay! Too bad I can’t get involved due to… prior engagements.)