Sheikah

For me, FFVIII is definitely the best one. If any game is deserving of the term 'masterpiece', it is this one. The characters have distinct personalities, and Squall has the most depth evident in a Final Fantasy character. Most of all- they were real. VIII being down-to-Earth like it was, the story centered on real themes such as romance, loneliness, rivalry and corruption. It was groundbreaking for its time, and still is. A lot of the hatrid for the game seems to be either from the switch in style from the much overrated FFVII, or simply that the junctioning system was too difficult for people to make use of. While true, junctioning is not as straight forward as the clear cut materia system, it allows for a lot more flexibility. On top of this (given that I hate levelling up), it allowed you to max your characters stats in a few hours. No-encounters on the Islands from Heaven and Hell while drawing, as well as card modding let you rack up powerful magic for junctioning. I also think that the weapon upgrade system was rather well done, and was a nice change from cliche dungeons with mysteriously placed treasure chests. I have replayed VIII numerous times simply because of the story and sidequests, which are some of the finest from the series. For me, VIII is far more playable in this day and age than VII. As shallow as it sounds, when playing VII the cow hooves for hands Cloud and 'tinny' sounding music tracks (although some were excellent) discourage me from carrying on. A not too distant second would be IX. If VIII wins on everything else, IX at least excells in the environments. If we somewhat push aside Esthar from VIII, I think IX had some of the best drawn backgrounds creating wonderful atmospheres. Who can forget Cleyra, Alexandria or Treno when they first saw them? The music combined with this produced a very traditional game, with great characters and a solid weapon system. After that, I'd probably go with VII; while overrated it still does have an excellent story (somewhat better than IX's), while missing the extra oomph in the characters. I didn't like Cloud's personality so much, as well as some of the characters. Kudos to the game for some awe-inspiring moments such as Aeris's death. From there on, I'd say X closely followed by VI. X was a little too linear, yet pushed Final Fantasy to a new level. This wasn't necessarily a great thing - I missed the pre-drawn backgrounds, but welcomed the speech. Saying that though, I prefer the thought of games such as VIII having no voices, since I don't think anyone could have captured Squall too well. I did like the Sphere grid however; although it was somewhat easy to abuse and make characters who are scripted mages in the game do 99,999 physical damage. VI was fun for me quite a while ago, but I felt that the depth of the PS titles surpassed them. I still noticed that the characters were very developed however, and the gameplay was solid. I suppose it would be a game that I'd have loved more had I played it at the time, before the PS era. I'll move onto XII, briefly. My my. I completed this quite a while back (US release date), and I wasn't too happy. At first it feels great as the gameplay is super. But after a while you begin to take the gameplay for granted, the license grid is soon mastered and you begin to see the game for what it is. The characters are heavily underdeveloped, and there is little dialogue had between your party. I'd say even as little as one tenth of that in FFX. I don't even recall members of the party, such as Basche and Penelo, even talking to each other! The game consists of going through repetetive dungeons to face a boss, after which you would be lucky to have a short party skit. The majority of the story is dictated through a narrator with a text background; rather appalling for a Final Fantasy game in my opinion. Not just this, the story seems to be centered on politics and advancing armies, rather than your party being at the forefront of the plot. It just seemed more like a generic RPG than a Final Fantasy game to me. Saying that, as far as RPGs go, it is a good game. It's just not in the same league as the others. Anyway that's a short summary of the games for me. I could go on, but then this would be even longer. I haven't really played much of the games before VI (apart from III for DS, which is on hold due to it not inspiring me to play it enough).

For me, it has to be Majora's Mask. Ocarina of Time did have great dungeons, but MM certainly does some more polished and advanced. To me, MM will always be one of my favourite games. I absolutely loved how at a given time on a particular day, an NPC would be in a given spot, and you could even see where they were going. Essentially groundhog day. Completing the stock pot in sidequests was some of the most fun to be had, while the dungeons often had a lengthy requirement just to gain access to them. Then there were lots of separate dungeons, even ones to gain masks or upgrades that were as good as dungeons in their own right. Masks added a whole new angle, giving you extra abilities and adding more to dungeons. Faerie gathering made you absolutely master the dungeons (ie. get the most out of them) if you wanted a really good sword. Put simply, there was a lot more to do and as a result I became more attached to the places such as Clock Town. The surrealness of the dungeons was great too. The music seemed to fit the occasion just right. I can't forget about the moon dungeons either, which were literally out of this world. Although I loved Ocarina, this was so much more fun for me and had a lot more to do.

It would have to be Link for me. He has very balanced methods of fighting. He's a great melee fighter as well as having some great projectiles. A powered up bow can hit for 30, a close range boomerang the same. A bomb can cut people up before you launch a melee attack. His cyclone slash is great for clearing shield rollers. Two of my friends play Roy and Marth. The Marth friend is speedy and great at countering, while the Roy friend is extremely powerful and can take me out quite often.

Zen stone 1GB off Amazon for £20: I chose the black one.

The one and only Fierce Deity Link. And it's done in the Wind Waker style... Seen that picture around a bit...5/10

8/10 since Scrubs and Elliot =

Agreed, the music is completely forgettable if you compare it to games like FFX or the PS1 FFs. The greatest downside to FFXII is the poor story and character depth. Chunks of the story are simply narrated with a text background, and half of the characters have no real reason to be there. Add on top of this that they rarely interact and dungeons are simply something to work through to get a little cutscene at the end, FFXII went a huge step backwards in story. It is appealing too far to powergamers who like insanic side quests, rather than having a decent story for the experienced FF gamers.

This is an excellent example of 'he who talks louder talks ****'. The human body is not designed to eat meat. Animals designed to eat meat have sharp teeth and fangs. Humans shouldn't be proud of killing animals. Animals are killed to provide meat, but that doesn't mean we should gloat about how we 'store' animals like crap and do the most to 'maximise taste and profits'. You missed the entire purpose of this program. People who just buy meat from the supermarket take it for granted, and don't even think twice about it. The purpose of the program is to get rid of the obnoxious elitist attitude that you have, and be educated on the matter. People may or may not change their minds after watching it.

Same. I missed them narrowly I think, and my neighbour who said would be in actually wasn't. Then for sod knows why they took the parcel to stoke instead of my local depot - meaning I have to go on a 50 min car journey or longer to get the bloody package. Ridiculous really.

Admittedly their delivery was perfect. It must have been before 2pm. However, what they do if they don't deliver it is silly. The should have taken it to my sorting office, not Stoke depot - 35 miles away!

Who cares if it feels like it will break? As long as it doesn't break that's all that matters. Light is better than heavy anyway, as proven by the original Xbox pad.

I'm going to get a lift to Stoke tomorrow, ridiculous really. Why they couldn't drop it off at my local post office sorting office (it's huge and unmissable on the way to my house) I'll never know. Look at a 1 and a half total journey time (there and back). You're kidding, right?

Very angry with my neighbour now. Since I was at uni I asked them if they would be in to accept it. She said yes, and lo and behold she wasn't. Now instead of taking the Wii to my local sorting office (30 or so seconds from my house) they took it to Parcel Force depot in Stoke. That's an hour away by car on the motorway. I either have to go get that or wait for it to be delivered on Monday. Parcel Force deserve to die. :awesome:

Hmm, I don't see that message on their main Wii page...

It's out!!!!!!!! Edit: for those who care, my amazon tracking status updated: "Dec 07, 2006 10:59:29 PM Stoke Depot Arrival Scan"

Already rang Gamestation, and they said they were only allowing for people with preorders to get stuff at midnight. My 24hr tesco didn't get any Wii stuff in, but said that the nearest 24hr Tesco that did has had people queuing up since 2 in the afternoon. Guess I'll have to wait until Saturday then. I can always download some VC games.

In a bit of a fuss here, anyone fancy giving any advice? My Wii is nicely on the way from Amazon for delivery tomorrow, but my 2 games seem to not have been dispatched yet, and probably will not come until Saturday - not good. My local gamestation is doing a midnight launch. Do you reckon this allows you to turn up without a preorder and simply buy the games? If I leave this until tomorrow the likely situation is that Amazon will have shipped the games and I can't cancel. If I go to the launch in an hour and a half do you reckon there's a chance of getting the games? I realise I can ring them but I'd like an ask around first.

Exactly the same. For anyone who's interested, when I go to track it: "Dec 07, 2006 01:09:00 PM National Hub Departure Scan" Yet my order with monkey ball and zelda hasn't been dispatched yet.

There are actually several problems you can get from your Wii, such as electrocution. Make sure you check out this vital snip before playing.

I'm sorry, but were we not playing mega drive games in 50Hz in the first place? It will feel exactly the same as playing them back in their day. The graphics and speed of the games are meant to be crap - they're old school! Besides, I'd probably wait out for better SNES and N64 games to be honest.

That sounds very likely actually.

They actually had a "student" (using the term lightly) on one of their adverts buying a laptop and the staff boasted the specs (using dumbed down terms) and even saying "Not like you'll get any work done". A bunch of stereotyping bastards!

What, are you attending there? I live there! About 2 minutes from Altrincham GS...had no idea they were doing a midnight launch, what with them being a small store there and all.

They just pulled this guy off the street didn't they? XD

I'm beginning to wish I didn't spend those 3,500 stars on a Nintendogs T-shirt for my girlfriend... *Clenches fist*