oh please, like America don't make cheap ripoffs

I've had plenty of sodas, cereals, etc etc etc that makes it look similar to another brand, but is not.

Exterior design looking similar, and name looking similar is not something that's illegal. Misleading yes, but not illegal.

TriangleHard

If you read the posts in here again, carefully, you'll see that not a single person accused the Chinese console rip-off designs of being illegal. What was deemed illegal was the potential ROM content in those consoles. The cheap imitation aspect of these consoles are, as you say, just that -- imitations, rip-offs, misleading, and what have you, but not illegal. Agreed. But take a look at what's running on them. Those files could be illegal, depending on whether or not they're copies of software that have entered public distribution (which I highly doubt).

Anyway. I think it's pretty fascinating how these shoddy knock-offs exist. On the one hand, you've got people who want to file a lawsuit for ripping off an IP, or housing illegal software. On the other hand, it's interesting how radically different some of these things can actually be once you use them. I saw an iPhone rip-off on the subway once that wasn't an iPhone, or even an iPod, but a handheld poker machine. My friend who runs a Guitar Hero tourney at her bar gave away, not too long ago, an iPod Nano rip-off that the winner said had a whole boatload of features and capabilities that no iPod has ever had. I'm not advocating or demonizing anything about those devices, by the way; I just think it's amusing and fun to see how people (mis)use popular imagery.

pokemon is more along the lines of just catching them ... and now with WiFi people actually take care in setting up a good team and whatnot but DQM is wayyy more complex, you need to breed/learn abilities/equip/etcetc but all in all im not sure which game is better...i like the easiness of pokemon but i like the fun/hard parts of DQM like beating hard bosses ... id say get the game , its a little short but theres alot of breeding and leveling to do in the end whereas pokemon can take alot longer to "finish"dvinb1234

I think this is spot on in terms of the leveling. When playing this for review, my biggest complaint was that the game was making me level grind to get my monsters to breeding status, but wasn't doing a very good job of masking it. In level-grindy games these days, usually the developer gives you side quests or large areas to explore so that at least you feel like you're seeing new stuff while you're sitting there leveling up, instead of running around in circles all the time. Dragon Quest games in general - not just the main franchises - also always like to make you level-grind when coming upon new areas out of sheer difficulty, and that's the case here. But the breeding is worth it if you take the time to carefully allot your monster's skills. In most cases I'd say, get it and enjoy - it's just not for those who can't stand blatant grinding.

http://www.gamespot.com/pages/forums/show_msgs.php?topic_id=24035492

^^^Read that.

After i have seen and read about Manhunt 2. I think that Rockstar have gone to fare this time, especially with the Wii remote system in mind.

Ban this game

SaintRasmus

The problem with your statement is that you're preventing me from potentially purchasing something I may think I can handle, that isn't detrimental to me and that ultimately isn't truly detrimental to society in general (unless we are to irresponsibly place blame on software and not the appropriate guiding forces in our lives). If you don't want it, don't buy it. Don't insinuate to me that I can't - this is in essence what banning does.

Article

I tell myself to not get my hopes up but man I am truly hoping this gets worked out in way that maintains the integrity of what the developers invisioned for the game. I am curious to see how this pans out. Apparently, it took almost six weeks for Rockstar to get their appeal together. I interested in what would have taken so long for them to do that. Nevertheless, In the next couple of weeks we should soon see the outcome of what I think is one of the worst things to ever happen. But that's just me.

juradai

Now would be a good time to pimp DON'T FEED THE GAMERS, Smitty :) But yeah - for some reason I thought that the appeal had to be filed within 30 days of the original ruling. I'm hoping that either this is not the case, or Rockstar did file the appeal and is only now making the public announcement. It's not that I necessarily want to see the nastiest of the nasty stuff in Manhunt 2, but I'd like for the game to come out as the developers originally intended.

I'm one of the 7 people worldwide who doesn't think that Ocarina of Time was the best game ever...

Peter_Skerritt

Where do I get a membership card for your club? ^_^ (Before anyone flames me, I really did enjoy OoT an incredible amount - I just liked many other games better.)

This is a toughie, because I've managed to find games that I highly enjoy on each console that I own making me not ever regret a purchase. But since this isn't a "regret" thread but instead a "most disappointing," I'll just cheat and go with the qualifier that "most disappointing" used in relative terms doesn't necessarily mean that I was "very disappointed" in absolute terms.

So with that I'd go with the original Gameboy, given the 20 years of hindsight from since I started playing videogames. The original Gameboy is the system I have the least fondest memories of when I consider my favorite and most memorable games for the system. There were some great games - Link's Awakening and Wario Land, for instance - but things like Mega Man simply did not translate over well (the control felt floaty and sloppy).

My most memorable experiences, Final Fantasy Legend and Final Fantasy Legend II, had not aged well at all when I played them again about 8 years after I originally picked them up(with the former being far worse) and are even worse today. When the Gameboy took up a large proportion of my videogame time, I was a twit of a child and bought things like Killer Instinct (which actually, believe it or not, played decently...), Street Fighter II, and College Slam. ... ... yeah. Don't even remind me about Castlevania Adventure, which made it into this week's Bag of **** for the podcast.

The best games I had for the system, aside from the aforementioned Zelda and Wario, were Donkey Kong Land I and II because of the fact that - despite the spinach-color palette - the platforming and control translated over quite well. (I have yet to dip into the reputed awesomeness that is the remade Donkey Kong for the Gameboy.) Perhaps if I had known more about games at that age and branched out, I would be more pleased with my Gameboy experience; and suffice it to say I did have good memories of the system. But in the grand scheme of things, considering what I've owned over the course of my life, the Gameboy would qualify as the "most" disappointing out of all... even beating out the Neo Geo Pocket Color.

(Note: I do not own a Game Gear, Sega CD, 32X or any of the oft-joked-about systems like Jaguar, 3DO or CDi, nor did I own a TurboGrafx/TurboExpress. Sega Saturn could potentially be a close second, but since I import, Radiant Silvergun is so all-kinds-of-awesome madness that I can't possibly be angry at my Saturn.)

I'd say that yes - games have gotten easier, overall, for the gaming enthusiast to complete - though as a sidenote, someone already made the salient point that this doesn't necessarily mean that the games are more accessible. In any case, the factors for why games have gotten easier (in my opinion) have already been laid out above: more sophisticated development and design tools, along with the maturation of the medium, which lead to better development and design choices. Instantly respawning enemies - in inconvenient places - from Ninja Gaiden on the NES? Gone. Simon Belmont's cumbersome gait? Gone.

As someone already said, another prime motivating factor of lowering difficulty in games is to let people finish them. That means that the choice was a conscious design choice made not to fix something that was broken, but to just go down a different path. That God of War and God of War II are quite easy to beat is testament to that - they're wonderfully designed games (for the most part... *curses at the balance-beam mechanic*) and they're quite enjoyable despite the ease of difficulty. Basically I'm saying that it's not just maturation and it's not just that people want consumers to finish their games, but a combination of both.

I will say I sometimes miss the days when games thumped their chests and dared you to beat them - games that said, "I'm better than you." Remember those magazine print ads for Equinox? What about the insanity that is the Gradius series? Thank goodness that Ikaruga made an appearance in modern-day United States videogaming.

At the same time, as the years pass I have less and less time to dedicate to learning a game. I still want to be able to appreciate my hobby without feeling inept, so I'm not upset that developers have decided to be more lenient in general. I just hope that there is a mini-resurgence of difficult games - or at least, crazy difficulty settings - to balance things out and keep me on my toes. I just started playing Soldier Blade on Virtual Console and my shmup skills are totally gone. Part of the fun for me in games is knowing that I conquered something challenging.

They will be getting this fixed soon:

http://www.gamespot.com/pages/forums/show_msgs.php?topic_id=25795017