I've been doing some retrogaming this week and I've been throwing an idea around in my head while doing it.

Basically, i want to amass a list across several different platforms of the all time greatest rpgs... and then i
want to beat the living shit out of them while blogging about them. 50 rpgs in a year, screenshots, reviews,
comparisons, historical impact, the works.

My reason for this is two-fold

1) I have a massive back catalog that i need to get through. There are too many quality games that i just didn't
make time for. Nothing screams frustration more than looking at all the quality games that I just haven't opened
yet.

2) Journalism/convergent media project. I am approaching graduation time and I would like a project that lets me
have fun, but shows off what I can do. This is a project from the ground up that I will be handling from concept
to completion.

I think my limit in this project is console and finite rpgs. PC games are fantastic and there have been several
great titles over the years, but I really don't want to get my ass kicked by a game that is going to grind out too
much time (ala baldur's gate, NWN.) I'm also wrestling with what constitutes an RPG. Do some hack and slash
games make the cut? Other than that, i also need to make a nice criteria and rating system to evaluate my
playthrough and time spent in game.

Also, the games have to be in english since my Japanese blows.

Thoughts? Suggestions? My biggest hurdle at this point is amassing a list and parsing it down to a level that is
manageable. If you guys have a game suggestion, please give me a reason.

Suggested Games thus far:

Snes:
Earthbound, Chrono Trigger, SMRPG, FFIII/VI, SD III

Genesis:
Shining Force 2, Phantasy Star 2/3/4

PSX:
Suikoden 1/2, FF tactics, Vagrant Story

PS2:
Disgaea, FFX,

SMS:
Phantasy Star

NES:

To do list:
List roughly 100~150 games, parse list down.
Establish solid criteria for reviewing.
Build breakout box for taking SS on console games.

Quick shout out to our athletes in the games right now. I'm having a blast watching this stuff go down.

Here's to you guys. Im ready to go march on France now after watching the American's demolish the trash talking bastards in the Men's Freestyle Relay.

Oh and soccer should be kicking into gear this week too.

Double point blog today that I assume will probably be ridiculed to no end. I'm going to touch on two things that most of the destructoid community can't stand: Fraternities and Madden.

I'm still green to the community but I don't get it at all. Was there a meeting held behind closed doors at E3 that everyone just agreed to hate Fraternities, Halo, Sports Games and other FPS games not named CounterStrike? Are people really stuck into that kind of stereotypical lock and load mentality that they really can't try someone else's shoes for a session?

I could relate a ton of stories at my college fraternity house about gaming life. Things like us pooling our money together to get a Cube, four controllers and a copy of SSMB on the day it came out. Or how our school senate pushed for a campus gaming league to promote new social activities? Or wasting a slow saturday afternoon setting up an eight person live Madden fantasy draft for fun? Maybe it was the time that four of us became obsessed with Final Fantasy Tactics challenges for the better part of a semester? Games are the rule, not the exception, with almost every college student.

Games aren't played with the amount of collars you have popped on your shirt or with the 12 pack of natty you just shotguned. Games are playing with the controller and your mind and as much as the "hardcore" community would like the think themselves as the penultimate in gaming culture, there isn't much difference between them at the guy wearing his letters. It shouldn't be a crime to get excited for a sports game just as it shouldn't be wrong to get excited for the umpteenth million release (or in this case RE-release) of a Final Fantasy game. Give me a fucking break if you really think its that different.

Ive been a card-carrying member of both subcultures for a long time and seeing the stereotypes thrown around both are just plain ignorant. If someone likes a game series and it isn't your particular brand of Whiskey, shut the fuck up right there and don't bother speaking for an hour until you can come up with something that makes you seem like you have half a brain.

Madden comes out Tuesday. It sure does, by george. There's also a demo up on the marketplace. Checked it out yet? Have you already bitched about it somewhere without playing it? Good chance that many of us already have. Go ahead and bitch about EA not fixing slider bugs from year to year or finding something else completely new to mess up. Ride EA for all their worth because they certainly deserve every bit of criticism that can be blogged about for a year. Guys! Don't put them bats down yet, there's still some life in that old horse!

I'm still excited for it though. Even though the game sometimes has all the charm of a bathroom at a truckstop, I still smile over some of the fun that I know is coming. I've got a group of friends heading over Tuesday afternoon and we are firing up the grill, filling the coolers and we are going to play some simulated football!

The Wii doesn't do it for me. Yeah, I said it.

The company that defined my childhood has become a marriage that neither party is happy with each other, but still codependent on. As long as she has my money to go shopping during the day, relative peace is kept on the homefront.

The 'cube made me feel a little dead on the inside after putting up with complete bull headed tactics of the 64. Nintendo took the few good ideas that they had in the Project Reality era and ran them into the ground and THEN pissed on the remains.

Every major title looks and plays like the same damn game! 3D world, behind the shoulder auto-follow camera that you prayed didnt change at the worst possible time (see also: Ninja Gaiden), bad clipping and face-palming decisions that made little sense. Nintendo continued their heavy handed tactics and dictated to their developers how things were going to be in a time that the industry was changing. During the era, you had Sony, Nintendo, Sega and a few other also-rans that were giving developers real options for the first time in gaming history. There had to be an open dialogue between the first party and the third party to make sure that the gamer was getting the best experience possible. Instead, Nintendo limited access to their developers kits until the end of the console's lifespan and this only helped complicate a machine that had hardware that was held together by wishes, rubber bands and magic fairy dust.

The big N also has this really dangerous habit of throwing the bird to the rest of the industry at any time that they so feel like it. They don't understand that other companies can and do have good ideas.

Lets compare shall we?



vs



Yes, im aware that this was the second psx controller. At least that fucker didnt give me Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. Which one of these made more sense? This was a classic example of Nintendo being different almost for the sake of being different. The 64 controller was terrible and had only one good use. The same thing happend with the Cube. Weird controller and a proprietary disc format which ended biting them in the ass. Online support? Forget it. Apparently gamers didn't want it.

I still bought my Wii and i share the sentiment that most everyone else does. The thing still stinks to hell of the Big N being smarmy when they know that they can't do that anymore. Congrats on installing a user base for the first time in ten years... NOW DO SOMETHING WITH IT!!! Surprise us! Motivate us! INSPIRE US!!! Look at what other companies are doing well and make it better. Listen to your community and open a dialogue with them again and jump back into the race. It really is ok to be an alternative to the Coke and Pepsi war going on but it doesnt mean you have to make a TAB cola. Be the fuckin' Dr. Pepper for once.

<insert generic introduction here!>

My name is Ryan. Im a twentysomething gamer living in the midwest where I dabble in excessive drinking, DJ'ing and Convergent Media.

When i first hit that power button and that grey box lit up to red, i knew I was home. Actually, it was the first time i yanked that game out in sheer frustration after seeing my Zelda save erased by the complete "fuck you" of childhood gaming frustration: the gray screen of almost certain doom. Passive-Aggressive was in my vocabulary at a very young age.

Im still in love with the games of my childhood and the amazement of games from this era still put me in awe. When I walk by a display promoting this year's "it" game, I still get that little feeling inside that is turned like jack-in-the-box waiting to burst and bloom.

I am using this blog as a springboard into Gaming (big G. I know!) and writing. I will be finding a job in my field within the next year (Think backpack journalism or "How you get all those pretty little movies and tidbits up on your computer screen) and this is a field that show so much promise for fostering that type of media growth.

Deep down, Im pretty sure I still want to geek out and just write about games.

This blog will center around gaming commentary both in the retro and present tense. I have been toying around with rolling out a podcast, which Id like to assemble a team for that since solo podcasting is masturbatory.