Grazza

Well, I've stopped playing Dragon Quest Monsters for now, because I don't know which monsters to have in my team or which to synthesise. I'll go back to it, but it's more in-depth than I want at the moment. Instead, I put in Dragon Quest V and, I have to say, for one reason or another, I'm feeling the atmosphere much more than DQIV. The opening cruise on the ship set the right tone, the music reminding me of "Travelling With Wagon" from DQVIII. At the moment, I'm heading to the haunted mansion. I'm not sure which weapons or armour to buy, as by the time I've saved up for the best ones, I'd probably be at too high a level.

Caris, I agree 100%. I spend all my gaming time playing GameCube, PS2 and DS, and even with the latter, I feel the sub-N64 graphics seriously harm the games! I have nearly bought an Xbox 360 so many times, but every time I thought "Oh, I'll wait for the Jasper". Then when the Jasper arrived it became "I'll wait for the Valhalla". When the Valhalla arrives, I don't know if I'll buy one because I honestly can't think what I'd play on it apart from Tales of Vesperia. I know there are loads of technically great games, but not much appeals to me. As for the Wii, I'm not trying to annoy anyone, but I honestly don't think Nintendo knows what it's doing with its more traditional games. Look at how long it's taking them to make Zelda, and the apparent indecision of whether MotionPlus will benefit it at all. The first cycle seemed based on Wii Sports and Wii Fit; the second looks to be based on Wii Sports Resort and Wii Fit Plus. Yes, they have also produced Mario, Metroid and others, but how does the hardware benefit those? Not at all, in my opinion. Where is the grand vision to take these series forward? The Wii is entirely built to suit the "blue ocean" games. They don't care how much it ruins the others. Worst of all, the Wii is keeping my favourite series, such as Zelda and Dragon Quest, as last-gen games, and potentially ruining them with motion control. To end on a positive note, the PS3 and Xbox 360 are both fantastic pieces of hardware and once they have "settled down" (price cut and slim version for the PS3 and the "Valhalla" or better for the Xbox 360) and attracted the big games like Dragon Quest back, I can see this generation eventually becoming as good as the last.

Hello, I wonder if anyone could help me with this please? I'm new to iTunes and my first purchases were some audiobooks, which I intended to burn to CD. I was disappointed that they weren't broken up into chapters, the result being track lengths of 1:44:44, 1:49:34 and 2:28:47. They wouldn't burn to CD, as they were too long. I burnt one to a DVD+R (which is what my computer has), but it won't work on any of my DVD players. Is there any way I can break them up into shorter tracks? Or is there another solution? Any help would be much appreciated.

I went on a Dragon Quest buying spree yesterday, buying Dragon Quest V and Dragon Quest Monsters! I haven't tried either yet, but I'm more keen to play the latter - despite being a spin-off, I suspect it will have more in common with VIII.

Maybe we can start a club to help each other through that bit! It probably does, but I don't know if the battery would still be active. Personally, I don't mind using the analogue stick for the Collectors' Edition. After all, we've got this far and it wasn't easy, it's just this last bit is extra-difficult. I've just thought of something actually. The Collectors' Edition is 60hz only, whereas most European Virtual Console games are strictly 50hz and haven't been PAL-optimised. In theory, wouldn't this make the Collectors' Edition run faster and be slightly more difficult than the original PAL/Virtual Console game?

And this is what I hope is he future of motion controls - something that is very subtle. I imagine a control pad that can: a) know exactly what you're pointing at b) have gyroscopes in both hands c) recognise very small movements and translate them into the game (or not) Applying this to Zelda, for example, the left gyroscope could control the Mirror Shield, the right gyroscope (and perhaps infra-red pointing) controlling the aiming (eg. bow) and advanced (but limited) motion control/accelerometers controlling sword swings. Personally, I wouldn't mind if they left out the last one. With Natal, on the other hand, you could use a normal controller but sometimes lift your finger up to gently press a button (like entering the code on a safe). They could always still have the capability to do games like Wii Sports, but I can't see that much movement being welcome in a long game. Motion control is interesting, but something that perhaps needs to "calm down" before it truly benefits gaming.

LMAO! Oh dear, I'd better stop there...

Ah, thanks. I like some of the things in his games. Fran and Balthier were very appealing characters, and I like the Viera in general.

I've got to back up killer kirby here. I've no idea who Nomura is, but it's interesting to see he may have been involved with two games I didn't like. I tried both Kingdom Hearts and The World Ends With You, having no idea who made them, and I didn't like either of them. I'm not going to say they were "bad" as such, as I literally just couldn't stick with either of them. darksnowman, are you going to give Final Fantasy XII a go? It was my first Final Fantasy and I had a lot of reservations about it, but the truth is a played it in a very naive way. Still, I could tell it "had" something, and I did complete it. I should have been more sensible with the Licence Board and Gambits, and I actually prefer the ADB (Active Dynamic Battle) to the ATB (Active Timed Battle).

Wow, I don't know how you got that! It's hard enough to find a new Platinum one nowadays! Good buy though.

The only thing that matters to me is honesty. I disagree with almost everything GameCentral on Teletext says, but I value their opinions massively, because they appear to be honest. For the same reason, I wouldn't criticise IGN AU for their Wii Sports Resort review. Using the whole scale from 1-10 is a very valuable thing. Jeff from Gamespot was one of the best reviewers - I still think he was right with his 8.8 for Twilight Princess, but people were furious with him for being honest. People have too much emotional attachment to systems and games. Now, let's look at the article dwarf gourami posted. I appreciate the fact the author is trying to be open minded, but you have to review with instinct. As long as you're not actually biased, there's nothing wrong with not liking something. Take his example of Prince of Persia. Yeah, it may have realistic rock climbing, but instinctively a reviewer knows that's not the focus of the experience. It's only natural to judge the overall quality and feel of the game. The other game he mentions seems pretty offensive to me, but reviewers have always been able to be impartial about games that don't have good graphics or fit the usual formula. My example - Tetris. All the magazines when I was young held it up as a great game, which it was.

Congrats, Emasher. What impresses me about the bosses is that each one teaches you to become a better player. I used to think the final boss was impossible, and I know some people consider the two before it difficult as well. The funny thing is, they can seem impossible at first - you might think you can't beat them even with all the Energy Tanks - then you learn how to dodge their attacks and use the right attack, and you can actually beat them without losing much health at all. It's also quite neat that there are only a handful of big bosses. Makes them seem more important. To be honest, each to his own, but I'm surprised people who are good enough to complete the game don't like it much. Like I say, I respect everyone's viewpoint, but the only reason I used to dislike it was I found it overwhelmingly difficult. Now I've fully conquered every aspect of the game - overworld, bosses, ball jumping - I think it's excellent. It's just a game where you have to rise to the challenge. OK, I do generally prefer games where you get an easier ride, like the 3D Zeldas, but Metroid is about intensity, and I've come to like it!

You're too good at it! Seriously, I thought it was the right length. ICO is good - I'd give it an 8/10. I didn't like it very much at first, but then you get into the groove of the puzzles and moving through the castle. It's very similar in gameplay to Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, but by the end of the game, I'd appreciated its unique atmosphere. Shadow of the Colossus, which I prefer, is a direct prequel to ICO. There was just something I loved about roaming the land looking for giants. [spoiler=]The ending of the game explains the mystery at the beginning of ICO.

My interpretation of Famitsu (and I could be wrong) is that they may try to keep publishers happy, but they still only dish out the 10s if they mean it. If all four of them really think this is a "10", I'm optimistic. Not sure how three of them could think Phantom Hourglass was a "10", but I agree with their perfect scores for Ocarina of Time and Wind Waker (Twilight Princess was 9, 9, 10, 10 for both formats). As for Nintendogs, they were probably being a bit too generous in an "It's perfect for its audience" kind of way, which is an issue, I admit, as something like that can never be as good as Zelda or Dragon Quest.

Agree. They always make me feel really sick, then I switch to 60hz and I'm fine. I don't know if the higher refresh rate cures me, or I just get used to it, but desert levels have always made me feel sick. The one in Banjo Kazooie certainly did, can't remember if Mario 64 did too. It must be something about the way they represent moving sand. The odd thing is I never get seasick or motion sickness on thrill rides.

I was going to say, the funny thing about sales is that they don't actually have much to do with the quality of the game. The quality of Dragon Quest VIII probably sold this more than the actual quality of DQ IX! I'm still looking forward to it though. Have Famitsu reviewed it yet? I do still trust their opinions a great deal.

It seems to me that some of these scenes are pre-rendered (like the title screen), and they literally have to crop some off to make it widescreen. There's just nothing extra to show at the sides. As for the cut scenes, well, you'd think they were real-time, but them being pre-rendered is the only reason I can think of for cropping them.

Yep, you can definitely turn them completely off in the PAL version. I'm afraid I agree. I couldn't understand that game at all - the style, the combat, anything. It's not like something I need to get used to, I just didn't like a single thing about it. If you like DQ VIII, it ends up being very long, so you might want to polish off GTA first. I find that, thinking about Fable, Starfox Adventures and to a small extent, Dragon Quest, some of the actors perhaps think it's a kids' game and ham it up too much. Too wacky. Even when I was a kid, I didn't like "wacky" voices in cartoons. If the actors take it as seriously as they would a film, and don't overact, it adds a great deal to the game. Mario, Metroid and Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath have brilliant voice acting, in my opinion, same goes for the small amount in Zelda.

I've got to agree with Skies of Arcadia - ideally, a remake for the 360/PS3 and then a sequel using the same engine. I want to see that belly dancer in HD! OutRun 3 would also be lovely.

Would it help if I played Donkey Kong Country 2?

Well, I completed Metroid Prime last night! I can't understand why I once thought it was so hard, and I'm embarrassed I put it on my list of "Nintendo games you just didn't like". Needless to say, it is now fully removed!!! The 2nd stage of the Metroid Prime fight is a doddle. It's so much easier to dodge its attacks and conserve ammunition than I thought. The 3rd stage is a tad fiddly to see the Metroid Prime and the pool of Phazon at the same time, but I still did it! (Seeks out Metroid Prime 2...)

The Hero is silent and Angelo (the guy in red) has the best voice acting I've ever heard. He's completely neutral and believable. At first, I thought some of the other voices were a bit overacted, and so I turned them off for the whole duration. However, I ended up loving the game so much that I played it again, this time with the voice acting on (for the full experience), and I ended up enjoying it. I couldn't imagine Yangus now without that voice, and I know the comedian who plays him too (not personally)! It seems to me the secret of voice acting, whether British, American or other, is not to ham it up or overact.

Yup, I agree. I'm glad darksnowman's got past at least one colossus, as it took me a while to get used to the controls and the general gameplay. However, once you get going, you realise how incredible it is. Is your copy of Shadow of the Colossus 2nd hand? I'm not keen on these disc-cleaning machines some shops use, as it seems to me it's just superficial and could make a disc look perfect when it's not. Unless I'm misunderstanding it. Don't worry about that, I'm sure you'll get used to it. OK, the pad's not as good as the GameCube's or Xbox's, but it's good enough. Oh, and don't forget Dragon Quest VIII! Hero of Time, do you like that one? It's funny how some of us want to digest all these last-gen games at the moment. I'm at the very end of Metroid Prime, and I think I'll search out Metroid Prime 2: Echoes next!

Darksnowman, it might be worth shelling out for an official Sony memory card. Don't want to get deep into anything and lose it! Of course, it depends on whether your Shadow of the Colossus disc is in good condition. I forgot about OutRun 2006 - got that on the Xbox. Love it.