I just noticed that for each version of the game here on GameSpot, the user score seems to have been reset. There's only 3-10 votes on each version of the game and last time I checked there were thousands. What's going on? I was curious to see the current user score after this amount of time.

Definitely don't skip to the second one just for the mechs. The storylines that transist in between each game are vital and you'd probably have a loose idea if not being completely clueless about the storyline. The battle system in the second game is kind of a pain, as well. It'd simply ruin the experience and the Xenosaga games were meant to be experienced as a trilogy.

If you could play Kingdoms of Amulur that well, you could most likely blast through Risen 2 at a sexy framerate on high-ish settings. All should be fine.

You could try the Front Mission games. They have a more... tactical RPG approach and are kind of retro-style, but it might suit you. Go check it out. Also there's the Armored Core series, but they don't often get good critical reception, and they're more of an actiony mission-style game rather than an RPG. I haven't gotten into either but I've heard of them and thought they might match what you'd like.

I have an nVidia GeForce 9500 GT and it cost $100 at the time I bought it (2-3 years ago) and I can run Mass Effect 3 at 720p resolution with all the high graphic settings smoother than the PS3 or Xbox could. (35-50fps for me, 25-30fps on consoles) That certainly tells you something about consoles even at this point. PCs are completely different deals when you compare them to consoles.

A console is a device exclusively for gaming and what you get is what you get, and you know for sure it's capable of doing what it can do. But with a computer, you need to upgrade that thing and when it comes to finding out if you can play a game efficiently, there are many variables to consider. PCs MAKE games, therefore they must be superior to a console. Modern PCs can easily run tech demos of tesselation technology, various realistic physics sims that the PS3 and Xbox 360 couldn't even touch for years.

The next gen will most likely be the best of PC gaming we saw a few years ago, and as the consoles set milestones for technology, they are set in stone, and PCs will keep advancing, and consoles won't be able to do anything about that until the next gen.

The reason why the PC doesn't often see the best graphics it could handle is because the rarity of PC exclusives. Most things are multiplatform and are developed for consoles, and ported to PC. The graphics must be under a certain line to be handled on the console, so the PC version usually isn't that much better besides featuring some extra settings like being able to use any resolution you want or enable Anti-Aliasing.

I've found when a game uses a motion blur effect during fast movements. It really makes it look more realistic. If you've ever seen a CGI movie in theatres or on DVD, you'll notice that if it's a pro 3D animated feature, they use motion blur, or else the movements would just lack the realism. Because in real life, our eyes have motion blur, video cameras we use to record movies, have motion blur. Why don't games pick up on that? The only few games I've seen that have a motion blur effect are Crysis, Mass Effect and LittleBigPlanet. Two other games I can name that slightly use it are Uncharted 2 and Mass Effect 2. But I find it really helps make the movements seem less digital.

You can see motion blur here and in other videos if you look harder to see what I mean: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhKxex4RW3U

First off, ever since the layout update, User Score display barely works right, and changes from listing the votes and listing the amount of reviews, and sometimes doesn't even have a User Score displayed at all. Also, certain forum topics/reviews and tons of older game pages give me a 404 error and redirect me to a GameSpot search. Is this just a temporary explosion of bugs because if the site keeps acting up like this I'll probably either stop using the site or just not use it until something is done. Also, the whole Metacritic score isn't as good as the previous Critic Score Gamerankings list. I liked seeing what tons of other magazines/review sites had to say.