Those holidays are coming. You know the ones.

[CronoLuminaire]

Chanyulkwanzmas is coming up. And I'm wondering what the gang here thinks in terms of game type fun that is worth asking for.

I'm not too up on the news of what is out and what is coming out very soon.

By the way, I enjoy the ownership of a PS2, Gamecube and a GBA.

Suggest away.

[KingOfDoma]

Get a DS, unless you've got a ton of GB/GBC games you're really attached to.

For PS2, Soul Calibur 3's out. So's Burnout Revenge.

Dragon Quest 8's on its way. So's the actually-cool-looking King Kong movie tie-in game. Oh. And Shadow of the Colossus is out, and plays great.

And it's Christmachanukwanzakah. Don't you watch Virgin Mobile commercials from last year? <p>

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<div style="text-align:center"></div></p>

[CronoLuminaire]

I managed to grab SCIII already, and Dragon Warrior VIII, I also grabbed Shadow of Colossus, and agree about the greatness of it. But any other PS2 gems I am not aware of would be appreciated.

How much do DSs go for? My family tends to only spend a game's worth of money for my present. What games on it are good and not just "Oh look a pen!" gimmicks? I do have a few GB and GBC games I like to pop in from time to time, but I won't be getting rid of my GBA, and GB Player.

Also, Chanyulkwanzmas manages to both be a much shorter word, and cover more holidays.

[Elitegamer7539]

If you can find them, and if you're into consol RPGS, anything from the Shin Megami Tensei series is a good buy. Digital Devil Saga is currently my favorite RPG EVAR, and I'm about to tear in to SMT:DDS2 in a few minutes. There's also We <3 Katamari for some LSD induced wackyness, and a slew of good platformers such as the Jak, Sly, and Rachet and Clank games. Last, just about anything made by Nippon Icchi is a good deal, Disgaia: Hour of Darkness and Phantom Brave especially. I'm still hoping to get Makai Kingdom myself, but it good good reviews, so...

For the DS, Mario Kart is a sure thing. I've heard good things about Metriod Prime Pinball as well. It's a bit gimmicky, but Kirby's Canvas Curse is really fun too. Last, you might try out Advanced Wars DS if strategy is your thing. <p>

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____<span style="color:fuchsia;font-family:helvetica;font-size:x-large;">t(</span><span style="color:black;font-family:helvetica;font-size:x-large;">'.'</span><span style="color:fuchsia;font-family:helvetica;font-size:x-large;">t)</span>____
Kirby is not amused.</p>

[Ganonfro]

...Honestly, DS doesn't have terribly many games to want to play yet. They still have yet to come out. GBA has more awesome games still coming out, like even more Final Fantasy remakes. 4 comes out Dec. 12th, while 5 and 6 come out in January/February.

[PriamNevhausten]

I also hear Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney is a very fun DS game. <p><span style="font-size:xx-small;">"It's in the air, in the headlines in the newspapers, in the blurry images on television. It is a secret you have yet to grasp, although the first syllable has been spoken in a dream you cannot quite recall." --Unknown Armies</span></p>

[Groxley Grunk]

Hey, in that new Dragon Warrior game, do you do anything in battles other then push attack until the moster or you die? I mean, that's the only thing keeping me from picking that game up. The fear that the fighting is going to be boring as hell.

...oh, and uh... Gunstar Superheroes was the only game I really was paying any attention to the release date as of late. Sorry.

[CronoLuminaire]

Well, I'm not exactly the best person to ask, because I always tend to conserve resources in RPGs as much as possible.

But, while this is no SMT, DW 8 does have some options. All of the party members have weapon proficiencies you can spend skill points on, you get these points at level up. At certain intervals, the character will learn skills with the weapon.

For instance, apparently the main character gets something to cut through those damned metal slimes at a certain skill with sword. But, more importantly one character will learn a move that gives you a steal command (although it operates more like mug,) the success rate so far has been none at all, but one hopes it gets better later on.

In addition to the weapons each character also has a personality "skill." The main character's is courage. I don't know if all of them are useful, but courage is. You get some unique spells, including a very useful "return" type spell.

Each character can use three different weapons, as well as bare hands that is probably complete crap. You can use a weapon regardless of the skill points invested in it. So it probably pays to focus on getting good skills, and worry about weapons later.

The game seems to give options, with the amount of them increasing as you go along. But, my own play style is "use things that don't use up anything as much as possible," so there is a lot of the attack command going on, however, some other moves cost nothing, so even if you use a similar style, the attack command is not all that is open to you.

Also, the main magic user has the potential to have free MP recovery every turn. And another character has the potential for that or a steal MP attack. So if you like magic, you're covered.

Speaking of magic, apparently there are MP recovery items in this game. I have not seen them for sale yet, but enemies have dropped them, which means they are a renewable resource.

All in all, it's a pretty good game, not the deepest, but it has grown from its humble "Hurtmore" roots.

Oh wait! I forgot a couple of things.

One of the big aspects in combat is the "tension" mechanic. You can spend a turn "psyching yourself up" and your tension goes up in a somewhat DBZish display of glowyness. Higher tension makes your attacks stronger. No biggie right? Well, it also applies to magic. Damage them; heal you, either one gets a boost from tension. Some enemies can boost their tension as well, so watch out for those ones.

Tension goes away when you attack, cast a spell, defend (I have never found reason to use the defend command) or take too much damage. One more thing, if you boost more than once before using it up, the tension goes up by increasing amounts.

And finally, one nice addition is the Intimidate command. If you find some weak enemies crossing your path and you don't want to fight them, and they hadn't had the sense to run away, you don't have to run away and boost their low level monster self-esteem. You can intimidate them and make them run away. The value of this command is in the eye of the beholder, but I think it is a nice touch. You can also try your luck intimidating things closer in strength to you, but it probably won't work.

And that's about all I can say, system-wise. Trash or treasure on a per customer basis.

[The Great Nevareh]

No one has mentioned Dawn of Sorrow for the DS!

IT IS!

I have a strangely awesome mental image of it, though, because I can't play it due to nonownership of a DS. <p>[---------------------------]
"There is great disorder under Heaven, and the situation is excellent."
-Mao Tse-Tung

"I eat the talking bees because I am George Washington Christ"
-From "Bob the Ball"</p>

[BrainWalker]

Though I have yet to play it, I would venture to say that the reason to own a DS right now is probably Mario & Luigi 2: Partners in Time. Both Mario's Pinball Land and Metroid Pinball are surprisingly awesome for pinball games, but ultimately, they are still just pinball games, and that has never been my favorite jenre. Mario Kart is always a good idea, and I've heard Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow is awesome enough to rival SOTN, but I can't say from personal experience. I'm hoping I'll get it for Christmas.

There's also Animal Crossing coming up if you're into that sort of thing, and I hear Sonic Rush is supposed to be a Sonic game that is actually a Sonic game, but neither of those are holiday titles. I have also discovered that Square is apparently doing a remake of Final Fantasy III (no, not VI. III. The one on the NES.) for the DS, in 3D and everything. I'll have to look out for that one. FF3 was pretty sweet for an oldschool RPG.

On the PS2 front, everyone's already mentioned that DQ8, Shadow of the Colossus, and SCIII all rock. DQ 8 also comes with a demo of FFXII, which should help you get a feel for what their gameplay overhaul on that series feels like. Pervy would probably tell you that The Warriors is awesome, and from his accounts, I am inclined to agree, although I have not played it myself. Guitar Heroes is a game that needs to be experienced by everyone who has ever called themself a gamer, and if you have never played Resident Evil 4, you are a terrible person and need to rectify this immediately.

About Dragon Quest VIII.

DQ8 is pretty cool. CL covered a lot of it, but he left out the fact that it has VA. Pretty good VA most of the time, but it can be massively irritating in a few short one-shot situations. It's worth it, though, 'cause everyone exept, like, maybe half a dozen people are British, and the dude you team up with at the start of the game speaks cockney. Good times.

Things you can do that aren't pressing the attack button:

1) Alchemy! Eventually, one of your companions manages to fix up an old alchemy pot he's been tinkering with. You toss a couple items in there, let them stew for a few minutes, and then it'll ding, (Just like a microwave) signaling that it's ready for you to lift the lid and see what wondrous new thing you have created. It's pretty darn useful. It's a great way to get some good equipment that you can't find in stores, and just about the only way to get some decent healing items until probably late in the game. There's even a black market dude who commissions you to make new and rare things that aren't on the general market. It's fairly lucrative.

2) Monster slavery! Eventually you come across a place called the "Monster Arena," which is a place where the idle rich go to blow all their money by watching monsters they've bought from hunters beat the shit out of each other. You're not rich, but you get in good with the guy who runs the place (who is fucking awesome, by the way), so he waives your entry fee. You have to go out and find your own monsters, though. Scattered across the world are unique and more-hardcore-than-usual monsters that actually show up on the overworld map; these are the guys you can recruit. There's nothing quite as satisfying as watching your own personal golem smash the unholy bejezus out of something. They do it with such gusto.

There's probably other stuff, too. As far as regular gameplay goes, most of the time you can't just mindlessly attack everything you see because you'd end up dead. Monsters can come at you in some pretty huge groups, so a little strategy is often necessary whenever you're exploring a dungeon. Threat assessment and enemy formation are important.

The graphics are pretty cool, too. They're oldschool and newschool at the same time. Toriyama character design seems to work really well in 3D, and the classic monsters somehow manage to look pretty much like they always have, despite being 3D. I was impressed.

This post is way too long. <p><div style="text-align:center"></div></p>Edited by: BrainWalker&nbsp; at: 12/1/05 19:23