The Gaming Thread

[Wind Fish]

All my life I've had two main interests: sports and video games. This year though I haven't spent that much time gaming. Really, the only games I spent any time with were 3 Zeldas (A Link to the Past, Link's Awakening, and Minish Cap) and Resident Evil 4. That's a really small amount for me in 6 months.

That all changed when I received my new (to me) NES about 2 weeks ago. Now I'm obsessed with the thing. I think I'm trying to make up for 8 years of lost time with the system. But not only am I playing the games, I feel the need to talk about gaming to anyone I possibly can. Which means that I'm being myself again.

That's where this thread comes in. Does anyone else play video games? If so, what have you been playing lately? Anything new or old, good or bad, feel free to talk about it. Is there anything you're looking forward to playing? Go ahead and mention that too.

Me? Right now I'm spending my free time trying to conquer The Simpsons: Bart vs. The Space Mutants and Top Gun. Top Gun has been a thorn in my side since I was about 6. Back then the levels were easy enough, but I could never land or refuel the plane, which ended up costing me my 3 lives. Now I can do those things just fine, but submarine missiles completely baffle me. I know I can cheat, you can avoid almost everything by just flying really high, but that's not any fun.

As for the Simpsons, I made it to level 3 yesterday, which I never came close to doing as a kid. I made it past the giant Krusty head before some rolling carnies got me. I don't even know why I like this game. The controls are slippery, hit detection is off, but something always drew me to it.

One newer game I’m looking forward to playing is Killer7. It looks so... interesting. I hear that it’s a game more suited for renting than buying, but my local rental places aren’t carrying the GameCube version. So I need to wait for them to get it in, or the buying price to come down a lot.

Alright, it's your turn if you want. And if you don't want to... well, don't be surprised if I come back here and start posting to myself.

[bvfan Randy Giles]

Well i mix sports and gaming in NCAA and Madden and with NCAA coming out today i am probably gonna start playing that but i was playing Halo 2 while waiting for other great games to come out.

[Emcee]

I'm a pretty big gamer. It depends. I get into moods were I play a lot and then other times not at all.

I'm almost exclusive with NES and SNES. I never really grew past them. The only games I play that are on other systems are "Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds" and "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban". Both games I play mostly because I'm fans of the series. But Buffy I might play just because it's fun. HP&tPoA can get a little dull and repetitve and the controls are a bit dodgy.

Buffy, on the otherhand, has great controls (except for the fact you can get "stuck" in complicated attack routines and complete miss the bad guys. That can get a bit annoying.) the graphics are awesome (you can see the vampire's skeleton when they dust), the enviroments are huge and can be explored and it doesn't really get boring. I've played it a couple times and its still cool. And for fans of the show (which I believe everyone here is) the actors do their own voices-- with the exceptions of SMG, Alyson Hannigan and Emma Caulfield. The main game is cool, but I think their two-player games leave a little something to be desired.

The only other game I've really played on PS2 is "Star Wars: Battlefront", which was cool, except it was DEAD easy. I completed all of the missions in about a day. One good thing is you CAN pick other fighter types to be in each level, so it varies things up a bit.

With classic gaming, I love the Mario games. When I was a kid they were my favourite and they still are. I think my favourite was Mario Bros 2 (I mean the American Mario Bros 2, not Lost Levels, which I find INFINITELY hard). I also like 3, but I played it so much when we got Mario Bros All-Stars that I kind of got sick of it.

I also love the Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat games. The only thing I always found disappointing with those games is there were so few females to be. I suppose this is because they were geared more towards guys. But then, I've never been the typical girl. I almost exclusively used Chun-Li in Street Fighter (even when I was playing versions with Cammi or other girls). In Mortal Kombat I either used Sonya (in MK1) or Kitana (in MK2). I don't actually have any memories of playing MK3.

My brother was a big fan of RPGs, but I always got really frustrated with them, so I didn't play them much. The only ones I ever really played was Link's Awakening (which was the only Gameboy game we had for YEARS even thought we had both a Gameboy and a Super Gameboy) and MysticQuest. A couple of years ago, I really liked the Pokemon games (which I felt were a lot of fun).

Personally, I'd really like them to come out with a new Buffy game. I really liked Chaos Bleeds and I hear the first Buffy game was pretty cool too. Now that both Buffy and Angel are over, they could have a lot of freedom with the storylines. I would like to see a game with both Buffy and Angel characters. I think they could make an awesome Buffy and Angel Tournament Fighting game. Each of the characters could have different powers, based on what they had on the series. Good characters to fight as: Buffy, Faith, Angel, Spike, Connor, Illyria, Willow (Maybe as Black Veiny Willow?). Or an RPG style game, where you could have a team of characters. Ah, whatever. Any excuse for a Buffyverse game.

[Wind Fish]

You know, bvfan, I've never been a fan of EA's 3D sports games. I've always preferred Sega Sports' 2k series. Now the older EA games, on the SNES and Genesis, those were fun. I always loved in the first Madden how when a player got injured the ambulance would come out and run everyone over. But anyway, now that EA has the exclusive NFL license, I'm going to have to buy Madden this year. Or go without an NFL game. Yeah, like that'll happen.

Sports is actually the reason I started my gaming career. When I was 4 I asked for a "baseball video game" for Christmas. My parents bought me an NES that came with Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt, and also Major League Baseball. I was really bad my first game. I gave up over 100 runs. I remember the computer's score going from 99 back to 0. But I was having a blast and was hooked.

I'll play pretty much any genre of game, but I never got into the one-on-one fighting games. I played Mortal Kombat and Soul Calibur with friends from time to time, but I'd much rather play a straight beat 'em up like Double Dragon or Streets of Rage. The exception is Super Smash Brothers, but that's a whole different type of fighting game.

My favorite series would be a tie between Mario (i.e. the platformers, though a lot of the spin-offs are good too) and Zelda, since from the early days to now just about every game is solid. I can't pick a favorite game from either, but I am more likely to pick up and play the older ones because I can get through them quicker.

A couple weeks ago my step-brother asked me to beat levels 8-3 and 8-4 of the Lost Levels for him. Yeah, that game can be frustrating as hell, but I usually just start laughing at myself for how bad it seems I’m playing.

Speaking of frustrating, one of my most bittersweet gaming experiences was Final Fantasy 7. It was the first RPG I played on my own, and I really got into it. But when I got to the third disc, my memory card decided to delete itself. I went through the game again only to have the same thing happen. The third time was I finally was able to finish it. I'd say I put about 150 hours into that game easy. It did teach me, eventually, to make a backup of all of my save files though.

There's been three different occasions now that I've intended to buy Chaos Bleeds only to change my mind at the last second. I'll get to it at some point. As for a new Buffyverse game, I’m surprised there hasn’t been a straight fighter yet (unless there is and I don't know about it). It’s not like there aren’t enough characters. And I’m sure it wouldn’t be too hard to give everyone their own fighting style.

But I’d be interested in playing a game where you take the role of one of the new Slayers. Depending on how complex you wanted the story to be, you could choose different ways to complete missions. Maybe you start out not knowing how you got your powers. Then the council, or whoever, finds you and then you can choose to start working with them or on your own. Or even with the villains. I don’t know, I’m just brainstorming on the fly here.

[Wind Fish]

To anyone who picks up Madden 2006 in the next few days, would you mind posting your impressions of it here? If I buy it this week, I'll be able to get another game I want practically for free, but I'm still on the fence on whether I should or not (I'm a little short on cash). Since I probably won't be able to play it enough before hand in order to make an informed decision, I'm trying to gather as many impressions as I possibly can before Saturday. So yeah, I'd appreciate the help. Thanks.

[Buffy8Fan]

The only video game of Buffy I've ever heard off is Chaos Bleeds. Are there any others?

[Wind Fish]

You know, I was under the impression that there were quite a few Buffy games, but I was wrong.

Chaos Bleeds is obviously one. The only other console Buffy game seems to be "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" for the Xbox. That one came out before Chaos Bleeds.

Then there's also a couple handheld games: "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" for the Game Boy Color, and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Wrath of the Darkhul King" for the Game Boy Advance. Neither of these seems to be any good though.