I'd say they're most like the early Final Fantasy games, with your party on one side and the enemy on the other in turn-based battles.  They're best known for their nice and numerous anime cutscenes and endearing characters.  The graphics are simple SNES quality, but still charming.  They're definitely worth playing, and I see them fairly often at used game stores, so they're probably not that rare.

They're also working on a game called Makai Wars for the PSP, which will presumably tie in with Makai Kingdom.

According to RPGamer, a game called Lunar Genesis is in the works for the DS.  I loved Lunar : Silver Star Story, and Eternal Blue to a lesser extent, so I would love to see another game in the series.  This good news almost makes up for the bad news that Phantasy Star Universe is going to be a sequel to the PS Online games, rather than the original RPGs

I don't know if it's in the article, but Square Enix has announced two Dragon Quest games for the DS - a DQ Monsters game and a Slime Mori Mori Dragon Quest game, in addition to FF3.

"Not to mention it has even more cutscenes than the original, and the original had more cutscene time than gameplay time."

It may have seemed that way, but it's not true.  It certainly had a ton of lengthy cutscenes, but there were only 8 total hours of them in a 40 hour game.

None of the reviews I've read have mentioned the game being overly difficult, while pretty much all of the DMC3 reviews did.  Whether this means that it's not incredibly hard or they just didn't mention it, I don't know.

There's a very nice piece of artwork accompanying the article, and it's in the same style as the Stranger artwork, so I'm pretty sure it's legitimate.

There's a blurb in the new Game Informer about the next Oddworld game in the works for XBox.  It will be a first/third person game like Stranger's Wrath, with a new character named Fangus.  Fangus is a shepherd with rabies who uses guns and his flock to attack enemy invaders.

My "free" copy has shipped from Gamestop, but since I chose value shipping, it's probably going to be a while before I actually play it

I put in my preorder today.  I was pleasantly surprised that the clerk knew what game I was talking about.  I was dreading having to spell out Shin Megami Tensei : Digital Devil Saga and be met with a blank stare

"Sweet... mind grabbing me a copy of Seven Kingdoms 2? I'll pay for both the game and your shipping costs."

Sure.  I'll be going back there in a few days, and they had several copies.

Yes, the Pit of 100 Trials is optional.  It's even recommended that you finish the game first before trying the harder levels.

"WOW. I'm so impressed by the ingenuity of the gaming community."
I just wonder how the idea ever popped into someone's head.  "Gee, my DVD isn't working.  I think I'll stick it in boiling water - that should help."

I'm definitely looking forward to it, although I'll be waiting until the price comes down some.

YMMV, but my local Deals (one of those "everything's a dollar" stores) had a bunch of copies of Law & Order 2 : Double or Nothing and Seven Kingdoms 2 for $1 each.  They actually have several computer games, but most are ones you've never heard of.  This is the first time I've seen such a recent game there.

There's also an FF7 action RPG called Crisis Core in the works for the PSP.

Firaxis just announced that they're using the GameBryo 3D engine, which they also used for Pirates!, for Civ4.  It's a pretty good bet it'll be in 3D

Thanks for the tip. I was going to preorder the game at the store tomorrow, but free is much better

Great news, plus there's a good chance it will be released in the US.  According to an interview with one of the developers of the series, the game sells as well in the US as it does in Japan, so it they get the sequel, we should too.

It looks great to me.  I love games with complex characters and storylines.  I guess I better get cracking on finishing the first game

I've read all the previews, and still don't get the comparisons to MMORPGs.  The story and characters look to be as deep as any other console RPG, the combat is reminiscent of KoTOR, and the game is strictly single-player.  I think most of the MMO talk came from early interviews about elements of FFXI being in the game.  However, the only elements ever mentioned were being able to see armor/weapon changes on your character's model, large cities teeming with people, and combat that doesn't take place in a separate battle arena, all of which appear in single-player RPGs as well.

" I just hope they have seriously revised the combat. the old style was classic yes, but it was hopelessly archaic and needed an update."
It depends on what you find archaic about it.  From what I've read, combat is pretty similar to the old games.  You input your team's commands, and then you and the enemy attack each other based on each combatant's agility score.  The biggest difference is, as in DW7, there are tons of skills to use.  DW7 had a great variety of skills, and I thought the combat was great, and DQ8 looks to have great variety as well.  Also, for the first time in the series, your characters now appear in battle, rather than the first-person view of the previous games.

"The biggest selling game of all time is still from the NES- Super Mario Bros 3. Its the Titanic of videogame sales- not even GTA or Halo 2 has come close."
That's true, but you have to take the market as a whole.  There are vastly more games being released nowadays, and they're spread among more systems.  Each individual game may not be as big a seller, but taken together, they're making much more money.  I would guess that the total number of games sold a month in today's market is several times that of the SNES days.

The characters do look pretty terrible, but the backgrounds are nice, especially the exterior of the X-Mansion.  I think the gameplay is much better than the BGDA games or CON, though.  The differing moves (tripping, throwing, etc), the powers, and the destructible environments really add to the experience.  The game got unfairly compared to the dungeon hack type games, when it's really more of an action-RPG.

According to an interview at RPGFan, Square Enix will release Dragon Quest 8 in the US "as soon as possible".  Also, if it's a success (and it should be) other DQ games will be brought over

The IGN review said 20 hours each time for experienced gamers.

"to say this, & fail to mention the necessity of restarting the whole level each time this happens, is just plain poor/deceptive writing"
According to the Gamespot review, you can buy an item that lets you restart mid-level if you die.

Is a portable Gamecube even realistically possible?  Assuming Sony was pushing for the best graphics they could get for the PSP, they only managed graphics somewhere between PSOne and PS2 quality.  It just doesn't seem possible to me that Nintendo managed to get better than PS2 graphics on a handheld, much less a $99 one.

EddieA,Proudmoore,Alliance,Keldrynn,Druid,Night Elf,none,Leatherworking
EddieA,Proudmoore,Horde,Shaeya,Hunter,Tauren,none,Alchemy

The game sounds cool to me, especially given that Chunsoft had a hand in creating some of the Dragon Quest/Warrior games.

I haven't played 6, but I thought 5 was a big improvement over 4.  6 comes with a microphone and some microphone-based minigames, if that interests you.

Do the reviews mention what level of difficulty the reviewers are playing at?  There are supposed to be 5 levels.

The movie was an amazing technical achievement, but for some reason, they skimped on the translation.  Much of the phrasing didn't sound natural at all, which is odd, given the much better translations that the Square games of the period got.  Then again, the games' dialogue might have sounded worse spoken.

The very intriguing Fahrenheit is coming to the PS2 under the name Indigo Prophecy, according to Worthplaying.
Gamespot has a preview.

From reading the GameFAQs forums, you could save mid-game in ESPN 2K4, but you can't in 2K5.  I really wish the option were there, as I don't always have the 45 minutes to play a full game.  Do the others allow mid-game saves?

IMO, FFX is still the best RPG on the PS2, but I'd put Star Ocean : Til the End of Time second (although it's action and not turn-based), and Shadow Hearts : Covenant third.

In terms of battle style, LoTR : The Third Age is most similar.  Overall, I'd say FF8 is the closest to FFX, although the battle system is quite different.  You can see the roots of much of what they pulled off so well in FFX in FF8.  I'd also recommend Arc the Lad : Twilight of the Spirits.  It's turn-based and the story is serious.  It's sometimes labelled as a strategy RPG, but it's much more along the lines of a traditional RPG with a larger battle area.  
You might also want to check out Digital Devil Saga, coming out next month.  It's an offshoot of the Shin Megami Tensei series, but it's supposed to have a greater emphasis on story, at least from what I've read.

Whoops - I forgot there was a Sports Forum.  I wondered why no one was talking about the game  I'll be picking up the XBox version tomorrow.

"Hurley's cameo made me sit up real quick. So what's his story?"
I don't want to spoil anything here, but the TVGuide.com plot synopsis for next week reveals the basics of Hurley's backstory, and why he would have been on television.

This was definitely the best episode of any show I've seen this year.  I find Jin and Sun's backstory much more interesting than any of the other ones, and this episode was even better than their last one.  I'm actually more interested in what happens to these characters than about the island's mysteries.

I thought this game wasn't supposed to ship until next week, but the Gamestop website has the XBox version as having been released, while the PS2 version is labelled 2/28/05.  I'm not usually into sports games, but the $20 price tag is too hard to resist.  Anyone seen it in stores yet?