From reading this thread at GameFAQs, it looks like there was a manufacturing defect with some of the CDs.  I can see the defect by looking at the CD, and it causes the PS2 to chug and whir and makes load time increase to one or more minutes, when they should be 5-10 seconds.  I don't know how many bad ones were made, but it looks like most people's work fine.

There's also the Lord of The Rings games - Battle for Middle Earth and The Third Age, Zelda : The Minish Cap and Kingdom Hearts (December) for GBA, Mario Power Tennis, as well as the RPGs Baten Kaitos and Growlanser Generations.  There would have been more, but Suikoden 4, Digital Devil Saga, and Wild ARMs Alter Code F were delayed until next year.

From a chat at Strategy Core -

Arach: Will Gothic II : Night of the Raven be published in the UK, US? Additonally, anything on Gothic 3?
JoWooD: We are working on that =)
Gothic 3 will come at end of 2005

If you're into RPGs, Dragon Warrior 1+2 and DW3 are great.  There's also the Dragon Warrior monsters games, which are kind of like Pokemon with DW monsters.

I have no idea if it works, but you might want to have a look at this.

PoP : WW did get a 10/10 from PSM, but with their new design that is apparently supposed to be read only by people whose attention span is shorter than that of a hyperactive rabbit, I'm not sure how much that means.

Thanks for the replies.  I got it today, and I'm glad I did.  The controls work fine, and the game is a blast.  Unfortunately, I got one of the "bad" ones that have an error, so it chugs my PS2 and takes over a minute to load.  I'm exchanging it at Best Buy tomorrow and hoping the other copy they have works.

EQ2 :



WoW :

"I have FURY!"  - Fawful, Mario & Luigi : Superstar Saga

I don't know if all these games will make it, but that's also the day Prince of Persia : Warrior Within, Pirates!, GoldenEye 2, Call of Duty : Finest Hour, and Baten Kaitos are scheduled to ship, and Metal Gear Solid 3 is scheduled for the day after.

I can't remember where I read it, but one of the newer previews said 30-40 hours for the main quest, 60 to do everything.

I've been thinking about picking up Katamari Damacy, but I'm worried about having problems with the controls.  I suck at using the analog sticks in FPS games, and I had fits trying to get used to controlling the boats in Ape Escape with the analog sticks.  I read that you control your ball using both analog sticks, rather than just the one.  Are the controls hard to use?  The game seems like a fun little romp, and the last thing I'd want from it is frustration.

I'm glad I read this thread before installing Plus, since I've played way too much to even think of restarting.

It's games like Paper Mario that will make me always love Nintendo.  There's just a special magic to their games, some sort of mixture of nostalgia and great design that add up to something special.  The battle stage is a brilliant concept, and the game is just great fun to play.

I'm finding it very addicting so far.  As much as I love big, involved stories with lots of cutscenes, it's fun to just spend lots of time just battling monsters, too.

Target has the game on sale this week for $35.

In case you haven't seen the ad, Target has both Tales of Symphonia for Gamecube and X-Men Legends for XBox and PS2 for $35 this week.

It's been about 9 months since it was released, and I think it sold pretty well, so it might be going on Greatest/Platinum Hits soon.

The second has more characters, is quite a bit longer, and is much easier.  The best thing it adds is the ability to hold down one of the shoulder buttons to instantly use up to 5 skills, rather than the clumsy selection method of the first game.  I actually thought the graphics in the first were better, since the sequel has a lot of boring, overly brown levels.  Overall, the second is definitely better, but the first is still worth playing.  Champions of Norrath is better than both, but still not that great.

It does seem like fun, but I can't figure some things out.  I was using one of the guns, and it stopped working.  I don't see anywhere where it mentions using ammo, and there's no option to recharge it.  I've tried using the melee weapons, but I take a lot more damage that way.

"Now I'd love to see Microsoft trim the Xbox by 75%"

That would bring it down to the size of an oversized suitcase

The action RPG Space Hack has been renamed Maximus XV Abraham Strong: Space Mercenary   :shock: according to Worthplaying.  There's also a demo available.  Apparently, they decided Space Hack was just too plain, so they came up with a bunch of random words and added "Space Mercenary" to the end.

Between this new name and the Bad Mojo rerelease news, I'm beginning to think April Fool's is coming late this year

IGN just did a preview of the US version of Virtua Quest.  I think it's due out in January.

I also read on the GameFAQs forum that you can get skills than increase or decrease the encounter rate, like the newer Final Fantasies.

The Gamestop calls went out because they didn't stop their automated calling service in time.  The game won't be in stores until Friday.

From what I've read, the game isn't plot-heavy, but the plot is still good.  The game I've seen it most compared to is, oddly enough, Pokemon.  It's battle-heavy, and the purpose of the battles is to level up and evolve your pokedemons, so you can fight stronger and stronger pokedemons.  There's also supposed to be some involved and tricky puzzles in the dungeons.  I think there might be a pretty high frustration factor, but it also seems like it will be worth it.

There are some reviews praising the game at GameFAQs.  The one that sold me was the "One of the PS2's largest, longest, and most surreal RPGs" review, especially the part describing the dungeons.

Not sure if this should go in Road To Gold since it's a rerelease, but the 1996 cockroach adventure game Bad Mojo is going to be rereleased this November.  Now I challenge everyone to come up with a news story more bizarre than this one

No one seems to know why, but the game is now supposed to ship Thursday, and be in stores Friday.  I was forced to get Paper Mario yesterday to make the wait easier

Other than the little blurb in Game Informer stating that it would use technology from Elder Scrolls : Oblivion and be set in  a major US city, not much is known.  I would guess that it might be a System Shock 2/Deus Ex kind of FP RPG, since that seems to be a growing trend in the genre, with Vampire : Bloodlines, Bioshock, and Bioware's unannounced game all going this route.  

Troika is also working on a post-apoc RPG, and it looks like it will be isometric and real-time, although there might be a turn-based option.  There are posts about the game at No Mutants Allowed.

Gamespy has posted the first major preview I've seen for Sega's upcoming action-RPG spinoff of the Shining Force series.  It certainly sounds interesting, especially the 2-character control, which I thought worked great in Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga.

Alas, I am weak.  With all the RPGs coming out, I was going to limit myself to the more obscure ones, and buy the bigger ones down the road.  Needless to say, I'm now playing the game and loving it

I picked it up a few weeks back for $25, and I'm glad I did.  One thing I didn't see mentioned much was the art style, and it surprised me.  At least in the areas I've been to, the game is very beautiful, with lush colors, nice vistas, and a kind of fairy tale vibe to it.  Of course, there's also the rather gruesome scenes, with farmers impaled on pitchforks and miners with pickaxes in their heads.  Overall, I expected to like the game, but I'm finding it even better than I thought it would be.

The PSP price has been rumored to be anywhere from $200 to $500.

This probably isn't uncommon.  The last time I read PC Gamer, they even stated in their score explanation that "niche" games wouldn't score over 90% no matter how good they were.  This is very stupid, though.  Even a cursory glance at a game like Paper Mario is enough to tell you that it's not going to be some sort of dark, adult-oriented game.  It should be easy to tell from the review if it's a kind of game you would be personally interested in.  There's no need for that to be reflected in the score.

I'm playing 3 GBC games now (Dragon Warrior 1 and 3 and DW Monsters) and they all work fine.  This is just a guess, but I would think the batteries would be good for about 10 years.

I just wanted to mention that I'm proud of myself for figuring out what this thread's title means before clicking on it

"Was going to get it for the Xbox for the surround sound"

Are you talking about Battle for Middle Earth or the FarCry DVD mentioned in the first post?  AFAIK, BfME is a PC-only game.

"I only feel this way because I see a ton of potential still left in the GBA and I think that developers will jump on the bandwagon if the DS becomes popular."

It looks like that's already happened.  There are a few big releases left, like Kingdom Hearts and the new Zelda, but I think the GBA's going to be pretty much dead after this year as far as new releases go.

It's Under the Skin, aka Panic Maker.  Mytocles, go ahead and post the next shot since you had to pass before.

"Anyway, for my next image, I bring your way this classic RPG from when story and plot meant far more than graphics and sound."
You mean now?

Anyway, it's Final Fantasy 6 (aka Final Fantasy 3 on the SNES).

Here's a shot from what is actually Square's best RPG