To me the realFallout concluded with Fallout 2...everything after has been a cheap spinoff that fails to capture the atmosphere of the first two games and instead comes off as an attempt to cash in on the series name alone where basically none of the original development team has been involved....so I much rather play Fallout 1 & 2 then what the series has turned into.

I'll definitely take the original Silent Hill on PSX over SH4 and the upcoming next-gen SH5.

I'd rather play the old school methodical and tactical Rainbow Six games with mission planning, tactics, etc over the action shooter games the series has become.

Just a few that come to mind...

Planescape Torment
Baldur's Gate 2
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines

Those right there are examples of games that don't stick to a ridgedly linear story, and provide multiple outcomes and choices where each path still makes up an excellent story.

I don't buy PC Games from Ubisoft or Microsoft since they usually lack effort, support, and especially optimization.

And If I buy a Console game published or developed by Ubisoft, Microsoft, or even Activision, I make sure to get them used.
Probably the only exception of a game I bought new from any of those publishers was Beyond Good & Evil, that's it.

In fact, I get a large number of my Console games used except when I really want to support the Developer or even the Publisher.

- Having the ability to view movies or cutscenes again in the options menu after you've already gotten them. God of War II is an example of this.

- Being able to pause and skip a cutscene if you wish.

- Being able to view a written dialogue text log in the options menu. Planescape Torment is an example of this, and in a way so is BioShock.

- Parts of a game that introduce and teach gameplay aspects that don't seem like a tutorial or a distraction......Half Life 2 is an example of doing this really well when you first get the Gravity Gun and get to play with Dog.....that part both fuctioned well in teaching the player how to use the gravity gun, but it also acted as a nice little break from all the action while still feeling connected with the overall game.

- Like someone else said....realistic dialogue, but probably more so, Natural Dialogue. Dialogue that flows well in addition to actually being something a person in a specific situation would realistically say.

- Subtle Sky Effects.....I like it when you look up at a sky and after awhile notice that the clouds are gently rolling along, and I dont mean blatantly obvious as if it looks like some major storm is happening. When it comes to sky effects, subtle seems more realistic and natural. Especially when the clouds cast shadows in a subtle manner, I actually thought Assassin's Creed did a great job with this.

- In Shooters.....being able to at least issue "stay" and "go there" commands to friendly NPCs travelling with the player.

- In shooters / action games.....being able to shoot out a light bulb. Maybe it's nitpicking....but I find it unrealistic if you blast a lamp or lightbulb with a gun, or a grenade gets tossed into a room, and the lamps and light continue working perfectly find after taking direct hit.

- In Shooters / Actions games.....NPCs that dynamically react to each other, especially in dialogue....NOLF & NOLF2 are two big examples of this of how you could listen in on guards conversations, especially in NOLF2 where the conversations would change around...the original HL did this in a ground breaking way at the time. For example when two barneys / guards were with each other travelling with the player, the dialogue and reactions would be slightly different then when it was a guard and a scientist.

[QUOTE="Oilers99"]

[QUOTE="rragnaar"]I think it is so odd that I side with EA when it comes to Skate vs Tony Hawk, and Rock Band vs Guitar Hero... but they really have done a great job of beating Activision at their own game. Now if only they could make a Medal of Honor game to compete with COD4.UpInFlames

Or they could do something, God forbid, original. :(

This too:

It's funny how people still bag on EA, when out of the Major Publishers it's EA that currently has the most interest in supporting and highlighting original IPs, new development studios, and seems to be taking the most risks.

Meanwhile, we have Publishers like Activision and Ubisoft continuing to churn out endless sequels, and pretty much telling us they are gonna continue to milk those series with annual installments for the next few years.

Am I the only one who thinks Bioshocks story sucks? Besides Zero Punctuation (or Yahtzee, w/e you call him) of courseElArab

BioShock doesn't have a story in the narrative sense of the term where it is simply delivered to the player.

Like games like Half Life 2, System Shock, etc....the "story" of BioShock is presented in the environment itself and it is up to the player how much they want to explore and how much of the story they want to uncover.

Rapture of BioShock actually has an excellent story behind it, but that's only if the player is willing to explore the world in order to discover it.

Of course the core gameplay plot is the story about the player (jack) and his quest through Rapture.....but that is hardly the actual story of Rapture, in which there is actually more then one throughout the game.

That's an AP article, not Fox News.

EDIT: There are over 100 news sites reporting the same story.

Oleg_Huzwog

The research article was an AP article.....however the negative bi-line spin focusing solely on videogames was Fox News not to mention it gives a very false impression of what the article is really about.

A majority of other news sources like here, here, here, and here kept the original AP bi-line, which doesn't have the negative spin nor does it specifically single out of videogames in that way that Fox News changed it to.

And this is an example of what Fox News does best....they take information that in original form was truthful in its core information, and then they put a spin on it to fit with their agenda. Researches never said "Video Games May Hurt Nature", and Fox News seems to claim in their bi-line and which singles out videogames and suggests they have a direct negative effect on nature.....what Researchers said was that the rise in home entertainment interests such as tv, videogames, and computers have lead to a decrease in interest in outdoor activities which could lead to a decrease in interest in conservation topics.

Not to mention the spin on this article comes shortly after the whole Mass Effect fiasco with Fox News.

According to an article from Fox News, of all things, it's videogames that are leading to a decrease in natural conservation and awareness for the environment:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,328384,00.html

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