For the past six or so months, I've been waiting for Mistwalker's epic Lost Odyssey to be released. After playing Blue Dragon, I was very disappointed. I expected Blue Dragon to be the must have RPG for the 360. Being skeptical, I waited for reviews of Lost Odyssey in order to form a more rounded opinion.

I couldn't have made a worse decision.

When I read the IGN, GameSpot, and 1up reviews of Lost Odyssey, I began to notice a trend. What's happening to game journalism? It seems that when Spore was announced, and Portal came out, a magic spell was cast on the entire gaming press, making them innovation whores. Lost Odyssey was receiving mediocre grades because it's traditional, regardless of it's well written story.

Lost Odyssey is a fine game, and doesn't take risks for a good reason. Most JRPGs in the past few years that have tried to take risk were fun, but forgettable, with the exception of Final Fantasy XII, which is a change for the series but not 100% innovative. People need to understand that JRPGs are traditional by default, and that's what gave the genre it's name. The genre is heavily story based, and it keeps their gameplay intact for hardcore fans.

GameSpot, IGN and 1up, Final Fantasy VII was a great game in your opinion, wasn't it? You flourished it with near perfect grades, even though every RPG from eras before it shared the same gameplay. What happened now? Portal changed your life, and mine too, but it's unnecessary to make every game different. That will only dry out ideas, and curse the industry for the rest of its days.

So the other day, I was wasting some time, sitting at my desk, and I remembered that I had never beaten many of the world's most famous RPGs.

So I've decided to start a playthrough.

I've decided to start with 16bit era RPGs. This is my current list (in order of playing):

*edited according to suggestions*

Final Fantasy IV (GBA or SNES?)
EarthBound
Chrono Trigger
Final Fantasy V (GBA or SNES?)
Super Mario RPG
Final Fantasy VI (GBA or SNES?)
Secret of Mana
Seiken Densetsu 3


Queue for later:
Breath of Fire 1 & 2 (GBA or SNES?)
Tales of Phantasia (Playstation version, Translated.)

I'm open to more suggestions. Dtoiders, go go go!

Advance Wars: Days of Ruin is awesome. Sure it's a little emo compared to the other games in the series, but the characters are fleshed out a lot more, and the gameplay is totally more refined. My favorite part though, is the online play.

The Wifi modes are pretty typical for a DS game. You can search for random fights, or you can battle friends. The random battles have two options, finding people of a similar rank to you, or finding anyone (which is probably a pretty bad idea.) Friend mode supports microphone chat though, and that's a neat feature, although it's been in other games. There is also an online ranking list, but I'm not quite sure how it works.

So yeah. If anyone's interested, my friend code is 395261 091160. If you don't have this game, go buy it! Or flash cart it, like I did, because I'm poor.

A pirate's life be the life for me. Good night!

So yeah. Today I woke up at 9 AM, browsed the internet for a while, and then watched the Fox News report on Mass Effect.

I'm starting to believe the philosophy that most of mankind is mentally retarded.

Do parents not know that it's much easier to sneak into a movie theater? Because the content in movies can, and usually is, a lot worse than the content in games. My friends who have oppressive parents go to buy tickets to Pixar films and then sneak into Saw films and other rated R 'epics' such as Superbad, Borat, and more. I have nothing against any of these movies (except Saw. LOL ORIGINALITY) but they need to widen their focus, or trust their kids more. After all, parents, anything bad your kid does is your responsibility, and probably your fault. I'm 16, and my parents raised me to know right and wrong. I've been playing rated M games since i was 7 years old, and I've never shot someone, and I do not treat women like beings that have no other meaning but pleasure.

Another thing: I'm sorry, but hardly any new generation teenager thinks of women and sex like that. The only ones that I've ever seen that think like that, are the ones who's parents teach them. Sexism is like racism. It has to be taught, no one who grows up naturally in today's society naturally thinks in a sexist manor.

Hey guys. I've been lurking the site for a while, and I notice there's a lot of Assassin's Creed hatred. I've never touched the game, and planned to get the PC version, but I'm reconsidering.

The first time I saw this game, I was amazed. For whatever reason, I was expecting it to be the new Metal Gear stealth action epic. Now, it looks more like a Tomb Raider game with blood, gore, and the middle east. It also looks like a pretty repetitive game.

So I ask you, the people. What's so bad about Assassin's Creed? Try and save your new friend Alucard a buck, will ya?