Not to live up to my reputation (in various forums online), but this has got to be the prettiest girl I have ever seen in a video game. I know, I know! She's not real, so there's no need to say it. Seriously though, this red-haired girl has now taken the crown from Talim (from the SC series) in my opinion, but that's fine. Talim has had a good run and it had to end sometime.

How many times have you said to yourself, “I’d like to play that game, but I think I’ll wait until it’s cheaper”? I’d bet that many of you say that quite often (given that I see that comment on various gaming forums almost every day). Now, I can’t blame you; money is often in limited supply and there are so many cool games deserving of your time. That said, what you are really saying is that you aren’t willing to buy a game new at retail price and instead are going to wait until you can buy it used, or perhaps wait until it becomes a Greatest Hits release (maybe eBay, etc…) for less money.

The problem of course, is that every time you buy a used game at GameStop, the game makers never see a dime of your purchase. Lately, game companies have been trying to figure out a way to kill the resale business. They want to try digital distribution (which many gamers are against for various reasons, such as wanting a physical copy of a game). They want to try various DRMs to make you register a game to your PC (or console) so that it can only be played on that one machine. They want to try a bunch of things, but what they don’t want to try is lowering the price of the game.

In other words, game companies don’t want to hear that you aren’t interested in spending $60+ for their new game. Instead, they choose to pray (I suppose) that you are the minority and that there will be many others who will buy the game at full retail price, preferably sometime within a couple weeks of release. We all know this doesn’t happen though. For the few blockbuster games with enough hype to stir the masses into a buying frenzy, there are many more games not selling to their full potential.

This leads me to wonder, when people say that they’ll wait for game ‘X’ to lower to price ‘Y’, what is this mystery price they are thinking of? Is it half the cost of the game upon release? If so, then wouldn’t it be in the best interest of game companies, to lower the price in the first place? I mean; I know that games these days can cost serious money to make, but if lowering the price could eliminate people waiting to buy the used copies of those who trade in said games, thus keeping the resale cycle in business, wouldn’t it behoove the game companies to give it a try?

It could be a win/win for everyone. Gamers can buy more games and game companies could stand to make more money with increased sales of new copies (over a longer period of time I might add). Of course this would all depend on how much of an increase in sales each game would receive. So I ask you this…

If games cost $30 instead of $60, would you be more inclined to buy games new rather than used? If at the same time, a used copy of a game that sold new for $30 was on a shelf for $25 (based on the current GS way of pricing used games $5 less than a new copy), would you be more likely to spring that extra $5 under these circumstances, if it meant that you’d be giving the company who actually made the game some money too?

Does anyone else think it is worth a try?

So I quit playing ToS, because I found it to be boring as all heck, and instead I've picked up my Xbox controller to give Operation Darkness a try. To give my initial thoughts on the game, I think it would be easier to create a list of pros and cons with short explanations. I know a bunch of you have probably tried the demo on XBL, but hopefully, I can share some more information on this game.

I think I'll start with the bad...

Bad

1. Graphics: Like all SRPGs for the newer consoles, the look of this game begs the question of why it is on the 360 instead of the PS2. Just like Disgaea 3 and most every other SRPG we've seen screens from so far, I can't see anything in this game that the PS2 couldn't handle. Maybe the FMVs wouldn't look as crisp, or maybe they couldn't have added all the dust or snow effects on the maps, who knows. All I can say is that I've seen better shaped human character models in Dreamcast games. It's not bad, if you don't really care about graphics, but it is something that is worth mentioning for the majority who do.



2. Camera: Of all the things I read in various opinions of the demo, the camera was the #1 complaint. I'll be first to admit that this game has a wonky camera, but it all seems to stem from what I'd think is one small piece of bad script. Every time your character takes a turn the camera shows their face, the problem is that the camera the doesn't spin around to show what they are looking at, instead leaving the camera looking at the front of your character. If the game had just spun the camera around after showing your character a whole lot of camera moving could have been avoided. To compound the issue, the stick that controls camera movement is way too loose, so the camera will move very quickly on screen. This is something I am starting to get used to, but it will take some more time.

3. Range: After six battles, I still have no idea how to tell my characters hit range in squares on the screen (beyond the movement range). This is a pain in the butt, since I basically have to guess how far I can throw a grenade or shoot a gun (etc...). The biggest part of this problem is that a bit of strategy in SRPGs involves moving your characters just inside the hit range of the enemy you want to attack, trying to stay as far away as you can. So far, that just isn't possible in this game. It can also be a bit frustrating to move your character, thinking you're in range for an attack, only to come up a bit shy and have to leave your character a sitting duck on the battlefield. If it weren't for the fact that healing items are easy enough to obtain (at least so far), this would be an even more serious problem.



4. Map Design: When you enter a battle, your characters are at a serious disadvantage every time. Often there is no cover for your party when attacking an enemy position. I suppose this is realistic of war (I mean why would the enemy design their bases with bunkers for the enemy?), but it is different than almost every other game in the genre I've played. Once again, the lack of cover leads to a sitting duck syndrome, especially when there are tanks on the map and you have to wait for your party members with bazookas to get their turns before the rest of your party can advance.

5. Cover System: This game has a cover system thing going on in battle, but I still haven't really figured it out yet. Truth be told, it seems like more trouble than it's worth, but I am sure I'll have to figure it out before too much longer. As it is right now, I don't understand it and I don't like it, but this could change. Until then, I'll just stick to straight up fighting.

Good

1. Characters: The characters in this game are nicely done, not in terms of their 3d representations really, but their character portraits and voices are top notch. I love that none of your characters have an American accent, at least not yet. As all of the party members are from Britain or Ireland (etc...) and they all have the appropriate accents and slang, which while sometimes it gets a bit carried away, does sound kind of nice. In other words, be prepared to hear a lot of "mate", "jollies" and such.



2. Camera: Camera was a bad thing wasn't it, so what's it doing in the good list? Well, it turns out that many of the camera problems are also the result of a nice touch if I do say so myself. When attacking an enemy, the camera does these neat little tricks to show enemies being taken down. Most of the time, the camera will sort of, like, follow the bullet, and it is a pretty cool effect to what could have otherwise been shown in a very boring way. Over time, these animations start to repeat themselves, but it hasn't gotten old yet, so no complaints there.

3. Rob the Dead: Want to find a new weapon, or stock up on healing items without having to spend KP on the over world map? Rob the dead bodies of fallen enemies and you can find all types of nifty stuff. I don't know how many other people playing this game will do what I've been doing, but in every battle, I've been leaving one enemy alive until I've searched all of the dead soldiers for loot. It is kind of cheap, but then again, maybe the people making the game expected a bit of this type of play? Who knows...? The only bad thing is that it isn't worth picking up stuff you don't need, since you can't sell it at shops later and also because each character can only carry five weapons and five items each. This point leads in to...

4. Equipping Characters: From the over world menu, you can save your game, buy some supplies with KP (kill points) and also customize your party members. Customizing your characters is a breeze, in my opinion. Each character can carry five weapons and five items. While you'd think it is best to load them all up with as much as possible, if you did, you'd slow them down with the extra weight of the items and be limiting their ability to raid the fallen on the field. Instead, it is best to give your troops the weapons they are best with, maybe a couple of healing items and some more ammo and that's it. It's a very easy setup and I like it.



5. Story: Some parts of the story so far have been hokey as it gets, but that's to be expected. A game involving WWII, Nazis, Zombies, and the cult, all set to the background of WWII information is killer though. It's a very nice, if way far out there, set up. I dig it so far.


So that's about it. There are other things I could talk about, like the flow of battle, etc.., but I think I'll hold off on giving my opinion of such things until I've played more of the game. The reason for this is that some of these things might change later in the game, so it'd be unfair to comment on them, not to say that my above opinions aren't subject to change too though.

Overall, I'd say this game isn't as bad as I'd read. I doubt many of you will buy this game, but I figured I'd give an initial opinion anyways. I'll be sure to update as I keep playing with more information.

Hey Dtoiders! This is just a reminder that the Mega Man Marathon is going on right now. Check it out and show your support for these guys and for Child's Play (which is a great charity I am sure many of you are familiar with already).

http://www.megamanathon.com/

http://www.childsplaycharity.org/

Right now, you can get SMT: Nocturne for only $30 at Amazon.com. Click the link below.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000208101&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=right-1&pf_rd_r=1WGAP9AYGQTJKZNMAR24&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=410200701&pf_rd_i=468642

As this was once the hardest and most expensive PS2 RPG to obtain, this is one heck of a deal. I don't think it comes with the soundtrack disk like the original printing did, but trust me when I say that is hardly a reason not to buy this game.

For those who don't know, I will issue a warning though... This game is full of religious figures and symbolism that many people (of all faiths) might have a problem with. If you are in that group of people, this game is not for you. I say this as a Christian myself, and even though I like this game a lot, I just wanted to make sure anyone considering a purchase knows about this.

For more information on this game, I suggest reading the story at the link below.

http://hg101.classicgaming.gamespy.com/megaten/megaten5.htm

Here it is, a teaser trailer for Call of Duty 5: World At War. Enjoy.



I think it's looking pretty good so far. What do you guys think?