Current gen: Whats left?

steviec

With the release of Shadow of the Colossus today it got me thinking, have we seen the last great PS2 game?

Looking ahead, there's Black next week which looks like a lot of fun but nothing really ground breaking. Then somewhere in the distance there's Final Fantasy XII and Suikoden 5, both series I'm hoping to see return to form but can't be sure.

Is there anything I'm missing? On Gamecube there's Twilight Princess although personally I've always thought Zelda was a glorified platformer(I'm well aware I'm in the minority). On xbox there's, um, FIFA 2007....

With Oblivion leading the second wave of 360 games next month I think we could start to see a real shift and a lot of reasons to switch over to next gen(I already have, I'm a sucker for technology!)

Retr0gamer

You seem to like your RPG's so I'd recommend Grandia 3. It's getting decent reviews but it seems to be a bit shorter than the other games and SquareEnix haven't been able to emulate the charm of 1+2.

Black looks promising.

Zelda is far more than a platform game. Shame on you.

eyerer

i dont own a PS2, but i was hearing noises that there are a lot of good things forthcoming....since the ps3 is still a good bit off
cant actually name any of the games, but there is hope, maybe.

as a cube owner, im still playing the backlog and zelda is the only forthcoming release i know/care about. i've still got a good handful of older A quality games to play

xbox haven't heard anything, in my world it barely exists

OctavarIan

That's why PC is the place to be for gaming. My collection of 20-odd Gamecube games gathers dust now, and I don't think I'll even bother getting the new Zelda.
Bring on Guild Wars: Factions and Elder Scrolls: Oblivion!

Timans

But what about your eye-sight?


...

qz

Not really willing to shell out €100 on two video games in the next week, so I have a slight dilemma: SotC or Black? I've played both in demo forms, and while Black was more fun to replay, SotC was quite beautiful. But then again, destroyable enviroments in Black...

Help!

GrumPy

Dont TOUCH black, i have it and as an avid fps fan, it is not worth playing.

pick up any other fps then this tbh, cod big red one is a gr8 game for you cube/ps2er's, seriously, if you must rent black, dont buy.

rainbow kirby

Zelda is the blatantly obvious one. If you don't already have We Love Katamari, get it. It's GODLY. And Dragon Quest VIII and Tales of Legendia should be out for PS2 this year.

B00MSTICK

Oblivion is how I can justify a dual-core processor and a 7800GTX, BF2 looks sex aswell... http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/battlefieldmoderncombat/screenindex.html

projectmayhem

Irish GrumPy wrote:

Dont TOUCH black, i have it and as an avid fps fan, it is not worth playing.

pick up any other fps then this tbh, cod big red one is a gr8 game for you cube/ps2er's, seriously, if you must rent black, dont buy.

damn. that was going to be one of my last ps2 releases to buy (my ps2 collects dust these days)

steviec

projectmayhem wrote:

damn. that was going to be one of my last ps2 releases to buy (my ps2 collects dust these days)

I hope you bought Katamari and SOTC this month at least. I don't know if Shadow of the Colossus is going to be my last purchase. There's bound to be something that grabs my attention...

monument

Irish GrumPy wrote:

Dont TOUCH black, i have it and as an avid fps fan, it is not worth playing.

pick up any other fps then this tbh, cod big red one is a gr8 game for you cube/ps2er's, seriously, if you must rent black, dont buy.

80% or 4/5 from Times Online (from the Sunday Times’ Culture section, I’m guessing), also 80% from the Official U.S. Playstation Magazine, and the Guardian’s the Guide gave it a positive review on Saturday (they don’t do scores)

As the Guide says, it’s billed as "gun porn", or in my words doing a Burnout on first person shooters – and some hardcore racing sim fans didn’t like what Burnout did to racing, so the same might apply to some hardcore FPS fans.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguide/games/story/0,,1711039,00.html
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,18589-2039689,00.html

[first two vie metacritic.com; the Guide’s reviews are called ‘previews’ – same with their reviews for books, films, bars, clubs etc]

Dont be at yourself

80% for such a hugely hyped game from OPSM is a bit worrying, I'd have to say - usually that kind of score translates to 'average'. The Times and Guardian offer hope though! EDGE reviewed it yet?

steviec

http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/ps2/black

No reviews from any independent games specialists yet.

The fact that there's so few reviews of it so close to release date is usually a bad sign for a game like this. Get the impression EA want to try and get early sales from the preview hype before the word gets out of what the game is really like.

All we can do is wait and see really.

ObeyGiant

Edge reviewed Black this month and gave it 8/10. All this negativity on here is making me curious: why is Black so bad?

December Son

After playing SOTC i really dont see how anything else can top it. To me, that is the absolute pinnacle of what this generation is capable of. An FPS with destructible scenery isnt liekly to change my opinion of that, red faction did the same thing in the first days of the ps2's lifespan.

Retr0gamer

Still think Zelda will be something special. The no. 2 unwritten rule of gaming is that the underdog console will have at least one stupidly brilliant game before it bites the dust. Rule no.1 involves monkeysn and is therefore not applicable.

rainbow kirby

Well that happened with the N64, with Majora's Mask and Paper Mario late on in the lifespan...

madrab

personally i would go for sotc rather than black, black is quite clunky & if you like fps' then a pc is your only way to go

CiDeRmAn

Black plays a little too like Killzone of rmy liking, may wait til its available 2nd hand, DragonQuest VIII looks great as does a SciFi followup Rogue Galaxy, I know the former is due for EU release next month and is a must have.
The new Zelda will be an essential purchase as will chibi robo, super monkey ball adventure should be good, all in all there are a couple of things certainly that are interesting on the horizon but yes, looks like the best is over, time to look to the nextgen, maybe the lack of releases for the ps2 is indicative of the impending release of the PS3 and continued support for the PSP, which both must be draining a lot of resources from traditional PS2 developers.

monument

NekkidBibleMan wrote:

80% for such a hugely hyped game from OPSM is a bit worrying, I'd have to say - usually that kind of score translates to 'average'. The Times and Guardian offer hope though! EDGE reviewed it yet?

steviec wrote:

http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/ps2/black

No reviews from any independent games specialists yet.

80 Edge Magazine...

Anyway, in my experience the reviews from the Times/Culture and the Guardian/the Guide are as spot on as Eurogamer.net etc

monkeyfudge

Retr0gamer wrote:

Still think Zelda will be something special. The no. 2 unwritten rule of gaming is that the underdog console will have at least one stupidly brilliant game before it bites the dust. Rule no.1 involves monkeysn and is therefore not applicable.

The monkey rule is always applicable, to all aspects of life!

Retr0gamer

monkeyfudge wrote:

The monkey rule is always applicable, to all aspects of life!

Thinking about this you maybe right about this rule when applied to twilight princess. Rule no. 1 states: Any game with monkeys in it (as opposed to apes, completely different) is an automatic classic. I saw baboons and monkeys in the trailer.

rainbow kirby wrote:

Well that happened with the N64, with Majora's Mask and Paper Mario late on in the lifespan...

Saturn: PAnzer Dragoon Saga, Nights, Radiant Silvergun, Soukyugurentai
Dreamcast: Ikaruga, Shenmue 2 amoung others.
PC Engine: Castlevania Rondo of Blood, Sapphire
Even the Jaguar: Attack of the mutant penguins

Gizzard

Dragon quest 8 is an excellent RPG

projectmayhem

steviec wrote:

I hope you bought Katamari and SOTC this month at least. I don't know if Shadow of the Colossus is going to be my last purchase. There's bound to be something that grabs my attention...

tbh i wasn't big on ICO so i doubt sotc is going to keep me entertained... and i aint paying €60 for what is essentially a novelty game with no major replay values

Kiith

having played both (briefly) Black and SotC, i'd say go for SotC. From what i've seen, its both a beauty of a game, and actually has some amazing gameplay. i've only played it for a few minutes, but i really liked what i saw.

And zelda better be god damn brilliant, or i wont be a happy camper...thats all from me for today, time to enjoy rag week to its fullest....

GrumPy

I have both too man ^^ and as far as fps goes, black is NOT worth your cash, SoTc is (if your a rpg fan) if your not, and like fps either buy a pc, or check out old xbox games that you aint played yet, theres plenty of great fps on the market, and black isnt one of them (unless you like ugly graphics, and no-brainer style run and gun:D)

kaimera

...black is on the xbox aswell :rolleyes:

Anybody know if the they fixed the shells coming out the wrong side as seen in some videos?

toca3 xbox

Retr0gamer

TBH I hope there aren't too many good games for quite awhile and we have quite a big transition period like we did with the PS2. Have loads of current gen games as well as PS1 and Saturn games to complete.

eyerer

rainbow kirby wrote:

Majora's Mask

most disappointing zelda game ever, after OoT i was really looking forward to it and just never got on with it at all
i looked at walk-throughs and still couldn't be bothered with it

WW is decent so far, hope TP is a worthy successor to OoT

Vegeta

eyerer wrote:

most disappointing zelda game ever, after OoT i was really looking forward to it and just never got on with it at all
i looked at walk-throughs and still couldn't be bothered with it

WW is decent so far, hope TP is a worthy successor to OoT

No way MM was class, fierce diety link was cool made the final boss a walk in the park but i still loved that game, just all coming back to me now. Personally i think Kameo is a complete rip off of Majoras mask (which is prob a rip off of other games)

For the record Minish cap ftw!!