Samba de Amigo: it's got rythm, it's cheerful, one could use the WiiRemote+Nunchuck instead of the maracas. Plus it's simple and the perfect game for Wii users. View

So what about Sid Meyer? He's got his name all over Civilization covers, Railroads, Alpha Centauri... and who knows Meyer outside the gaming world? Even inside the game world, I mean?

The names in the cover don't mean a thing. The reason why we know Spielberg is because he's been around for a longer time, and he has more media coverage. So whenever he's into a new movie, TV features appear, interviews. He can be seen on popular magazines, because he makes money and he's a man of art and business, whose job as movie director is highly recognized.

Miyamoto is successful, but his triumphs were always made in the shadow of Nintendo who has limited his success. Sure he's known among videogame players, and that's a great crowd in fact.

Spielberg is a movie director, he does revolutionary things: he brought back dinosaurs to life, he blew up a huge shark with a compressed air bottle, he created alien creatures, made bikes fly... he's a wizard, and his feats are recognized. But he's not just a showman: what he did in Schindler's List or Munich was serious, emotional and disturbing in a level videogames CAN'T be. I mean people value the human element, the drama, the tears and the realism. They enjoy seeing the actors play. That's why cinema is respected, because the human element isn't disguised as it is in videogames.

What about Miyamoto? Well he made a pixel plumber jump and eat mushrooms and save the princess - people out there see things this way because videogame is not a medium recognized by older generations like movies are today (may I remind you they weren't always recognized?).

So it's not the covers or the names. It's the perspectives, it's the media coverage and the way media approaches videogames. And, of course, it's the medium itself which is too focused on quick entertainment and light contents: I mean, who'd want to play a dramatic game in the lines of Schindler's List or Amistad? Me and a few at best.

Videogame players - because they're undemanding and simple minded - are always to be blamed for this. They want cars and guns and cheap thrills because they don’t fathom videogames to be anything more than that. So videogames be damned, this medium is rotten from the inside. View

Please... how does an article of this nature gets to the top of N4G news I can't really tell. No wonder everyone thinks that the average gamer is a nerdy, ignorant fool who "digs" into stupid contents such as these. Here's proof that it is true. View

More than three and a half decades after, and a lot of people still want to try the game! View

It's a Treasure game for the PS2 which is called FreakOut in Europe. It's quite impressive actually and genuinely freaky.

But I think that this author was after the light-freaky games, not the really FREAKY games. Wanna know more on the subject, google for:

Mel Croucher or Automata's spectrum games
9 The Last Resort for the PC
Eastern Mind for the PC
LSD - Dream Emulator for the PSX
Paranoiascape for the PC and the PSX
Peter Gabriel's Eve for the PC
Pu.Li.Ru.La the arcade game
Switch /or Panic! for the Sega CD
Blue Ice for the PC
Weird Dreams for the Amiga

the list could go to a hundred if I had the time... View

I think the article is very well written and it does touch some of the issues where GTA, and the majority of games to be honest, still shows that videogame production has a long way in order to achieve the same emotional levels we see in movies or read in books.

Most reviewers were too hasty in establishing comparisons between the emotional content of GTA IV's somewhat mediocre story (which stands for above average in the videogame realm) and the quality which movie narratives (a much more refined art in this sense) like The Godfather have achieved. This revealed the immaturity of videogame reviewers and supposed 'experts'.

On the paper it may look similar, as a script, but the execution differs quite a lot: while cinema borrows the talent from actors (in Godfather, Pacino and Brando among many other thespian "gods" of those days) which channel their human emotion into each scene, in GTA there is a virtual acting process which is still far from the thousand nuances real actors can provide. What can be reproduced, however, is the mise-en-scéne, the photography and many other elements which compose the wonderful cinematic scenes. But I ask you what would movie myths such as The Godfather or Goodfellas be without the Joe Pescis and DeNiros, the improvisations and the human component? With less capable actors they would be missing a great deal and end up being lesser movies, even with the brilliant editing and direction.

However, I don't think Junot knows enough about videogames so that we may consider his opinion beyond a mere trifle. I'm sure he knows a great deal about literature and that he is being very brave when he admits he enjoys videogames - which is sort of a toxic subject among intellectuals - even if he has won a pulitzer prize and is a renowned writer. But this shouldn't be interpreted as a definite opinion, or even an educated one on that level, since he seems to ignore many other videogames throughout his article which refute some of his claims.

I'm sure videogames may attain other qualities as they progress, specially emotional qualities which even gamers miss when they play. But there are on the other hand many unique artistic triumphs achieved in videogames which render literature and cinema to a lower level of artistic expression - the interactive contents, the real-time audiovisual splendor, the branched narratives, etc. In a time when videogames need approval from scholars and people who ignore the medium, maybe it is time to start underlining these unique qualities.

But if the videogames reflect the market and the public, part of the responsibility for the videogame's lack of progression in certain fields belongs to the public who opts for the lesser products instead of investing on original and innovative games. GTA is that pleasurable exception that combines the ultra-violence and the free-roaming system that most videogamers look for with the wit, irony and somewhat elaborate contents which only a few are qualified to understand. View

This is a great article, I mean it is so bad it somehow became good to read. This may have happened because the person who took care of the prizes didn't know about videogame consoles and the present market. So they found an cheap Nintendo console and thought it was OK?

I say a gamecube is a very good prize for a kid, the games are sold cheap in stores, there's a lot of variety and the console is really easy to work with for a 6-year old. View

It's OK! ;) View

I'm sure you'll find that Tidus' father is named JECHT. View

This time of the year is always pretty tricky when it comes to know what to expect. Most of the games presented in Game Shows are already confirmed and we can even tell when they're being released on the market: Re5, Killzone 2, Little Big Planet, Mirror's Edge or even FFXIII. Those aren't necessarily great titles, just popular releases.

I think that the game I'm expecting the most - and keeps me connected to the videogame world of today - is the next game design by Fumito Ueda at Sony. View

This list does cover most of the game consoles of the time, although it does get lost somewhere in the lmid seventies covering all the PONG clones and it forgets to include essential consoles from the last decade .

Also, it produces nothing but a photo of each console: no background information, no nothing. If you're interested in knowing about the history of Home Consoles try GamePlan's book by Winnie Forster. View

I think that every game, as long as it is well executed, is an educational experience, as you always learn something with it, even if just about yourself - how you deal with panic situations, with danger situations, etc.

Educational, as in a game intended for kids, is a lable which fortunately can be discarded by modern-age videogame productions. The time has passed when the videogame companies needed to sell their products as "educational" so that the parents would purchase them. And, in fact, they would only be opening the door to something much, much larger than educational tools. Presently, games should be designed for more than just the younger audiences, so I take my cap off to Platinum games.

As for the parents worried about the contents in videogames, spend your money elsewhere: there's a great deal of traditional toys and child books which are wonderful means of education for kids.

Videogames are NOT a substitute for toys. View

This specific video of LBP gave me another impression of the game. I looks just like the castle levels of Super Mario World for the SNES, with all the moving platforms... what a great homage to the original platformers. LBP is surely going to innovate, but it will also be a delight for those who've been around for long. View

Let's face it: you can find a description of Rez anywhere. If you're going to write something about the game today, let it be something new and in depth. View

Exactly. Though a SEGA GENESIS exclusive, Treasure was a third-party developer. It's like citing Secret of Mana as TOP 30 Nintendo games only because Squaresoft was creating games exclusively for the Super Nintendo due to license agreements.

One thing is an in-house studio like Amusement Vision or UGA (Rez) or Team Andromeda (Panzer Dragoon). Another is to place outside products a part of SEGA's own production. Shows what these guys know? View

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 on the top of the list? That is possibly the worst Sonic game of the original Genesis series and they place it in front of the original, revolutionary and MEMORABLE 91 title? (still a great game though)

What about Shenmue? SEGA's greatest production, the game that has changed the way game designers approached the making of a 3D world and the way the player could interact with it? Fools... go learn videogames before you talk about them. Where are the professional videogame journalists these days?! View

There is a great deal of Japanese-only titles and others which are memorable and were not included in this list like SEGAGAGA, Roomania #203, L.O.L., the Sakura Taisen episodes 3 and 4, Prismaticallization, E.G.G., ElDoRaDo Gate, REZ and many many others which were revolutionary in their own genre.

I liked the fact that PSO was placed first, it is the acknowledgement of an achievement which, in its time, wasn't recognized. Today we see many websites and magazines mentioning PSO as the first-ever, functional and amusing MMORPG in full 3D. At the time I remember many websites weren't so enthusiastic about it.

That's what I keep saying to people: reviewers lack vision. View

This is the weakest feature I've seen in years. Badly written... it shows lack of videogame culture as the writer seems to aim for the most popular choices.

They don't even set the difference between Original OSTs and Licensed ones. How can Okami or Halo, composed strictly for the games they're a part of, be placed in the same group as a playlist like Guitar Hero or GTA?

Who publishes these articles anyway? View

In this world there is nothing which is loved by everyone. Gta lovers and haters will always come up with sound arguments because there are aspects of the game which are, in fact, remarkable and others which provide frustration. It's the weighing of both which leads you to decide wether you think it is positive or negative.

GTA IV is an important game, from both perspectives. It generates sales, marketing and media frenzy. And that's what keeps videogame websites alive. View

These lists... I mean, so many ignored games out there to play and they always stick with the same ones. Which doesn't mean these aren't titles.

Also... where did they hear a fully orchestrated soundtrack in ICO? View