The Uncharted series might be to your liking. There is lots of FPS-esque action, but there's plenty of puzzle and platform elements to the game too. Which sounds like more your speed, I'm assuming. You might find Assassin's Creed fun too. Like the other person, Shadow of the Colossus is really fun from a gameplay standpoint. You'd probably hate the story though since...there barely is one. Still, I know I love good stories in games (I mostly play/buy RPG's) but that didn't stop me from enjoying SotC for what it is.

Uncharted stands out because I thought the story was well thought out and relatively based on facts and history. Lots of action, comedy, great characters and the story carries a purpose with what your doing. Plus I liked the platform element, I prefer using my head a bit more to mindless brain blasting. A healthy mix as I like to say. I'll admit though I've only played the first game, and just a portion at that so I can't speak for the other two games. If your looking for something with a good story (in my opinion) that you'll be at for awhile, I like Chronicles of Valkyria. It's more traditional RPG with levels and whatnot, but its really easy to get into and battles have a feeling of real time. Challenging missions too, nothing too impossible though. Best of luck finding something your family to buy you for Christmas. =p

FFXIV is the first 'main Final Fantasy' that I genuinely have no opinion about. I played FFXI but I probably won't ever play an online game again if its a pay-to-play. Guid Wars gets away with it just fine. In fact, they seem to be doing quite well. So what's everyone else's excuse? And greed doesn't count. Granted, I'm no tech guy, far from it. But aren't generally server's just server's? Maybe some cost more than others, but are SE's so much more expensive than the ones that keep Guild Wars and eventually Guild Wars 2 up and running?

 I played FFXI back in the day and it was fun as an MMO, I just won't pay 12ish dollars a month to play it. I'm expecting that's what they'll do with FFXIV as well. So if that's the case, I intend to just ignore it basically. No big positives or negatives with me, I just don't care. If I have to pay monthly fees to play it, then I'm not going to get excited about what I might see only to kick myself about it later. But if it will be free-to-play besides those real money for in game item things...then why haven't I been informed!?

My favorite Final Fantasy is FFVIII. Ironic, I typically hate romance in games but I loved VIII for that very thing. Probably because I felt they actually did it well and explored Squall's personality really well, along with the other characters being the most realistic cast in a Final Fantasy. So I guess none of the other games I've played with romance in them has stood much ground in comparison. Still though, the game is far from perfect. I wish the other characters were fleshed out more. Well, a lot more. As a kid I was shocked about the Orphanage part but as an adult its quite an eye roller.

 Ranting again. My favorite character...honestly I can't say. I like parts of many of them for entirely different reasons. In how I like Selphie and Yuffie for being bubbly and insane, I like Lulu and Quintis for being smart, or Vincent or Auron for being so mysterious and badass. Maybe when I play FFXIII I'll give one of them a mention. Just by looking at her, I get a feeling I'll really like Fang. XD

I'll state my opinion but I can't vote since I haven't played all of the characters. How do you know which one if you haven't played them all, hmm!?

I haven't played Kain, in fact I don't even know which FF he's in. I have no doubt I own it, but several of them I haven't played or aren't very far in at all. Anyway, Cid probably just squeaks out from Freya. I really like Freya, but she didn't end up as useful further along in the game as some others. At first I thought Cid was just the white version of Barret, but he grew on me and I found him one of the most humorous FF characters, period. Plus he's a great fighter which is always a plus. Kimahri...I didn't really like Kimahri. He could be like Lulu, be like Rikku, be like Wakka...except not as good as any of them. Kimahri has a bad rap, but the game didn't do anything to help him either.

Zidane's still the best thief IMO. He not onl steals items, but he steals laidies' hearts. :P

DrAwesomeMD

Well he sure didn't impress me much with his 'moves' on Dagger. XD

I think Locke plays the 'thief' the best, but I think I'd vote for Zidane. The 'thief' class usually ends up having them acting as secondary characters. Like the comic relief, jokers, whatever you choose. Zidane wasn't like that though, he was a thief and a bit of a jokester, but still the leading man, as Balthier would say. So my vote goes to Zidane.

Speaking of Balthier, lets just replace him with Vaan. He was better at it than Vaan, and Balthier was a Sky Pirate. =p

[QUOTE="Bioshockraptor"]

[QUOTE="sleepinglion987"]so, is anyone here a fan of Naruto?lightwarrior179

:lol:

I'm the exact opposite of a fan.

I am on your side as well.

My fave animes are Cowboy Bebop and Ghost in the Shell. :D 

Your my new best friend. XD

Cowboy Bebop is my favorite anime, bar none. Clearly noted in my sig for any other fan to notice, hahaha.

However...I've watched most of Naruto. Dubbed. I know, I know. Once you get past the actual character Naruto and his annoyances, the rest of the anime is actually quite good. I really enjoy the fight scenes and Shippuden is much more mature from the little I've seen. I accidentally saw a couple episodes, I could immediately tell it was a lot more heavy. But having seen nearly all of Naruto in dub, I'm going to wait for the series to finish in dub. I also watch Bleach, I missed its airing Saturday night though. I'll have to catch up when it pops online in a couple days. I watch Moribito right after it too, so I'll have to see that as well. I really enjoy Bleach, its a lot of fun to watch. Like with my RPG's, I have a lot of anime I have to catch up on...but probably never will. =p

[QUOTE="fffan9391"]

I hate how in FFVIII you can't switch Squall out of your party.

sk84uhlivin

Interchangeable with Cloud in VII, no? 

Actually I disagree. FFVIII is a very different game. It's played off of stats a lot more, the game can be much more difficult when one character like Squall is insanely over leveled. The other characters in your team suffer. The general idea is to keep a low to mid level through most of the game. So really, if you play VIII like VII, or any other RPG for that matter, you could get screwed over if you don't know what your doing. Easily solved by killing Squall off and letting the other two characters level, but still really annoying. FFVII is a ton more forgiving in that regard. FFVIII is just a lot more of a technical game, if you choose to play it that way. Took me awhile to learn, but through at least half the game I card my enemies instead of actually fighting them. Putsy, but oddly enough I tend to enjoy the game better.

Oh yeah, I forgot to say what I hated about FF. Besides Squall always being in the party of course. Drawing in FFVIII was a pain, especially if your preparing early. Not such a big deal if your casually playing through the game though. I hated that FFXII got rid of the classic summons. Of course, there were a lot of things I hated about that game too, haha. I hated the idea of X-2...and FFXI. FFX ended almost perfectly...why? I hate the final bosses that seemingly come out of nowhere, like Necron or Yu Yevon. And last but certainly not least, I hate Rikku. She was bad in the original, I was floored that she actually got worse in X-2. I didn't think it was humanly possible. Well...I was obviously wrong, wasn't I? XD

On Sephiroth's sword, in the fantasy world, naturally he's the best with it and naturally it's effective. Of course a sword of that size against another human being is completely impractical. Although having the image of Sephiroth slaying that giant Midgar snake is pretty badass.

I suppose ultimately I'd also have to agree that the topics of the Promised Land and the Love Triangle are up to personal opinion. There's no factual information in the game that says anything one way or the other, especially about the Promised Land. It seemed that the game was going on about the Promised Land for awhile, then just stopped. I think its one of the largest plotholes in the story and if the game was to be remade, one hole I'd like to see filled one way or another. My own personal opinion with the love triangle is that I doubt it was intended for Cloud to 'be with' either of the two. Aerith probably began to see a bit of Zack in Cloud, but Cloud had been friends with Zack, which makes for a disaster in any relationship. But before anything could happen anyway, she got wacked. Along the same lines with Tifa, I think Cloud saw her more as a sister or old friend than anything romantic or intimate. Although, I think Tifa wanted something more with Cloud. 

I think somebody is a little too emo absorbed with his little problems and the geostigma. I feel a bit sorry for Tifa, especially in Advent Children haha. 

Speaking of which, does anyone have much information on geostigma? It's been three or four years since I've played the original and a couple years since I've watched AC. I remember the illness being shown just a tad in AC, but I don't remember it being mentioned in the original game. I never understood or got a basic idea of what it was, where it came from, and what purpose at all it serves with the story. 

[QUOTE="ExireHG"]

Besides that, it was a mostly generic MMO, doing everything WoW had done, except not quite as well.NeoGen85

The real question is; who here has a played Final Fantasy XI longer then CamiKitten? Honestly that's the real question. At the same time, I will admit that there is only so much you can take(for some of us). As a Final Fantasy fan, I did not play Final Fantasy XI long enough to really see the story(or stories) develop into the spectacle that others have witness. I've only been able to watch video on youtube to see anything exceeding level 34(or watching my sister's boyfriend play it).

I still can't see why anyone would say Final Fantasy XI is uninspiring. Like you said; the only thing that really bothered me with the game was the time-sink. If followed some of the more traditional rule sets from prior MMORPGs such as Everquest(hours of grinding). Final Fantasy XI was literally caught between eras since City of Heroes and World of Warcraft were just around the corner. I just remember when it came out there was nothing but a positive response to it.

Well its not like I'm looking for a competition on who played the longest. I played pretty heavy for 6 or 8 months then a bit more sparingly for a year in a half and just quitting. But if you put a roman numeral on a FF it naturally will be compared with ones that came before it. And when you try comparing with other FF's...well you can't. It's an MMO and I don't find level grinding overly enjoyable. That's partially why I enjoy Guild Wars a lot more, apart from being, you know, free. There's a hell of a lot of things to do and see, and plenty of it I did not. But is what you do see, which most likely takes month to, worth the 100+ dollars you have payed in monthly fees by that point, to buy several of the earlier FF's? I would have to say probably not.

I'll admit it was caught between two worlds there, but I can't quite agree on you with it having nothing but positive response. Most official reviews were somewhat lackluster. All around I think it got a lukewarm reception. Probably a bit more positive amongst fans, especially to those who happen to love both FF and MMO's. Nobody was probably too sure what to expect. But having experienced what I did from XI, I don't have much to say on XIV. Then again, nobody really has much of a right to say one way or the other. What news do we have on it? A flashy FMV, that's all. FFXII had a lot of those, but I personally enjoyed X-2 more than that game. But discussing FFXII is a whole other topic.