Yeah it was. The creativity of games like B-17 Bomber, Sea Battle, Utopia, Shark Shark, Bomb Squad, and Minotaur (or Treasure of Tarmin, as my cartridge read) was light years beyond anything on the Atari.

I played DQ8 when it first came out, and I liked it quite a bit, although I'm not sure I would like it as much now. It's very standard old-school Jrpg game mechanics, nothing fancy graphically, typical DQ style--Final Fantasy's silly little brother that doesn't take itself seriously. Fun characters with a decent story.

Basically if you have a nostalgic inkling for an old 90's Jrpg, then you'll probably like it. If you want something that plays like it was made this century, then it's probably not for you.

Since I was a wee tyke with an Intellivision -1981. I don't bother with cable, so my tv only exists for gaming and Netflix. I prefer active entertainment to passive so I see myself at 104 playing Final Fantasy 52-8: Lightning's Diaper Surprise and Assassin's Creed 88: Dinossassin and Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Are You F@$&ing Kidding Me Edition.

I can totally believe it. People grab whatever they can in the heat of the moment, especially when alcohol is involved. I have a friend who is in prison right now because after a drunken argument with his brother, his brother came at him with a broom handle and my friend grabbed the nearest thing, which just happened to be a cheap display katana, and despite what people say about the blade on those things, you can send a person to the hospital with one of them. He proved it. We're all just glad is wasn't a real katana.

I'm playing The Last Story right now on Wii, and I'm really digging it. Enjoyable characters and story, and the combat system really shines. It's like Mass Effect meets Zelda (it works surprisingly well for a "Final Fantasy" game) and the bosses are very Zeldaesque.

Most of the time I would rather play through a game once and then move on. I'm at a point in my life where I don't have 100 hours to spend on a video game, but I did play Mass Effect twice to experience the dialogue of different teammates. Like you said, if there are a plethora of choices, then I'll go another run because it adds to the story. A second run of Mass Effect 1 with diametrically opposed choices (i.e. male/female + renegade/paragon + kill everything/don't kill everything) was almost like a different game. On rare occasions I'll also play through a second time on a higher difficulty level if I really enjoyed the game, like I did with Alan Wake. But to just play a game three times because the game designers are so self-delusional that they think their game is worth playing three times to get all the achievements--*cough* Infinite Undiscovery *cough*--I consider that a complete waste of time.

E.T. for destroying the American console market, and Halo for rejuvenating the American console market.

I can remember that little doorbell ditty that would play every time you picked up a flag in AC1. ^_^

The music fits each moment in the game well, but it's so unobtrusive that it doesn't stick with me like the works of Koji Kondo, Nobuo Uematsu, or Jeremy Soule. It's not a bad thing because that in itself demonstrates a certain skill at songwriting--to capture and compliment a moment without overtaking it.

Yeah...that video was all I needed to get my goat fix. I was amused for about 30 seconds, and I attribute that to me having a bad case of stupid.

Lost Odyssey really is a good choice for learning English. It contains numerous short stories which are read in small sections that pause indefinitely, so if he needs to look up words, he can. And the writing is top-notch and deeply emotional at times.

Another game is Alan Wake. Not only is there plenty of dialogue, but you collect "manuscript pages" along the way written in a terse narrative style. These manuscript pages relate to events in the game, so it's like reading a novel while watching a movie.