A lot of the games the topic creator have played shouldn't be considered WRPGs as much as beat em ups or shoot em ups with some rpg style customizising of characters. For example the Baldur's Gate Dark Alllience games on the Playstation 2 are just hack and slash fests while the PC games Baldur's Gate are full fledged rpgs complete with romance, turn based combat and more stories and quests.

I think the differences in wrpgs and jrpgs, of which I like both are more in that wrpgs have less linear storylines and usually a lot of side quests, more customizing of characters. This usually means that they feel freer but less focused, and that most of what happens isn't as pre-determined. For example, the games Knights of the Old Republic 1 and 2 have potential love interests but it's up to the player to try to pursue those, if he even wishes to.

There's bound to be generalizations in a discussion such as this unless one compares specific games to each other. I'm just happy both styles are being made because they both have their fans and it's not too dissimilar a discussion as say, the difference between arcade racers and sim racers.

It varies a bit between how the different consoles will look on a HD set. Something you should get from the start is getting either a set of component or rgb scart cables to go with the console. That will make the picture sharper than the composite cables the PS2 comes with.

If all you've ever played is last gen consoles and games, don't worry about how it will look. It's when you've tried the current gen and go back to play the older two the experience becomes a bit jarring.

Secret of Mana - The one game that got me hooked on gaming. I had played games for many years before but this one's guilty in it becoming a hobby instead of a pastime.

Shenmue - Just incredibly incredible in it's amount of details and the varying stuff you could do. It wa sthe game that reaffirmed my love of gaming.

Final Fantasy VII - This was another eye-opener after Secret of Mana, it was just impossible to put down, and those seamless (at the time) trasistions from controlled game to fmv's.

Phantasy Star - Finally finishing it after a decade of playing it was an amazing feeling.

Crazy Taxi - The first 3D game that really sold the reality of it and sold me on the Dreamcast.

Myst - Even though it's basically a game of stills it was the most immersive game I had played up until that time. Still love it and the two sequels I've played. I just love the setting.

Goldeneye - was so good that I almost became religious.

Need for Speed - On the 3DO. When I played this, I had never played a 3D game before. This was the SNES era, and Secret of Mana and games like Super Metroid set the graphical standard. For me it looked as if it was real.

Only 8, but whatever :)

This is pretty much standard with me and my friends on friday and saturday evenings. It's either PC-lan or mmorpg gamin at a friend's house (and sometimes like my vacation now we've been at his house almost every night for the past three weeks playing D&D Stormreach), videogaming at my place or pen & paper rpg, also at my place.

Gaming has pretty much become the common interest that we socialize around.

You're not the only one. I got my HDTV when I got my first job a year ago. Out of all the people I know I'm one of three who have one. I think most people get one when their old one breaks. But I think here where a lot of people are very dedicated gamers they want a display that shows them what their new machines can do.

Besides, if you go for 32" or less, $2000 will get you a good HDTV, but you can get one for far less. The cheapest 32" one I've seen where I live (Sweden) is about $1000 and we have a 25% VAT included in our prices.

My N64 is on my bookshelf where I keep most of my consoles. I don't play it much anymore, every now and then I'll take out Goldeneye or Perfect Dark and play through a few levels. The biggest problem is the controller sticks which wore down after much use so I need to get replacements to play it properly.

Ebay or retrogaming stores are the best place to locate used or new games (yes, you can still find themcomplete and new in the box) controllers and parts.

It had some really great games.

Since all consoles will have good exclusives I just buy all of them. The price of the PS3 was a bit prohibitive until I started looking for an upscaling dvd and read that it does that well. That basically took a 3rd off the price, and then the Motorstorm-resistance-Extra controller-package hit Sweden and since I wanted both games it no longer was expensive in the same sense.

I have not gotten a wii yet. There's no game yet that is a must-have for me and I have yet to even try out the wiimote.