Great article, @Articuno76. I remember those day as well, fighting with a cheap gamepad and trying to get it to work with various games. I went through a lot of different controllers before buying a PS2 to USB adapter as well and before that it was almost always a hassle. Since then, I've been pretty satisfied using software that supported PS3 controllers and now PS4 controllers with "plug and play" functionality.

Better yet, the free DS4 software allows me to remap the Dual Shock 4 buttons to any key on the keyboard. This makes it so that I can play Final Fantasy 7 through Steam and use the digital buttons for menu selection and the analog for walking around. It can be saved to a separate profile for easy access. Sadly, Square Enix has been making half-assed PC ports of almost every good console game for too long except for the big money maker MMORPG's FFXI and FFXIV. They'd see much better sales on the PC if they would just put the extra effort into the ports like they do with those 2 games. I hope it doesn't affect our chances of getting a 60 fps high quality PC port of Final Fantasy XV soon after its console release.

I remembered having a pretty smooth experience playing Final Fantasy VIII on my roommates PC back in the day, so he must have found one of the few gamepads that actually worked with the game. I remember that the polygon visuals looked really sharp at that higher resolution with texture smoothing, but the field graphics were terribly pixelated.

@T3H_1337_N1NJ4: It's true that the graphics are simple and bland at times. I would have preferred enemies with color instead of the basic black and white in battle. Despite the fact that I would list the enemy battle sprites as a negative, I still enjoyed battles a lot more than most turn based RPG's I can think of. I often kept hoping to have a random encounter instead of being annoyed by them. The graphical style is intentionally simplistic though. While I agree that it isn't the best pixel art out there, once you get drawn into the game, the atmosphere combined with the music and simple art might make you appreciate the environment for the sum of it's parts rather than focusing on the simplicity of the graphics.

http://i.imgur.com/PnwX0DH.gif

The link to the image I posted doesn't look like anything special out of context. When it's experienced with the music, journey you've gone through, and overall atmosphere of the game, it can be appreciated in a completely different way. Also, notice the tiny movement by the house in the forest clearing.

I'm seeing a lot of thought provoking comments on this page. There seems to be a lot of backlash from people who have never played this game, so I created a new forum topic titled, "Undertale Review Controversy - How could this game earn a 9 in a professional Gamespot review?"

It is a really interesting topic and I think it's explored in depth. To read the article, go to http://www.gamespot.com/forums/games-discussion-1000000/undertale-review-controversy-how-could-this-game-e-32781985/

Feel free to post a response on the forum whether you enjoyed it or not or have any thoughts about what is said in the article :)

@kjouda: Holy smokes, your opinion sounds so obtuse because you don't seem to respect the perspective of anyone else on the issue. Maybe you love the sound of your own voice, but if you stop insulting people for a minute, and contemplate what others are saying you might actually learn something.

@kjouda: Do you really want me or anyone else to explain why Fallout 4 didn't get twice as many points as the maximum possible? I get the point you're trying make with that statement, but I think you're still missing out on the basic reasoning behind scores like this one, so I'll try to explain it in depth without boring you if that's possible.

Advanced or high end graphics, physics, and mechanics might be an essential part of the experience for you, but there are a lot of gamers out here who don't require them for a game to be fun, even though they can add to the experience as I'm sure you've noticed.

In addition to that fact, there is a large population of gamers who have massive backlogs containing dozens if not more than a hundred great games we want to play, but we'll never have enough time in our life to complete them all. We make enough money to buy whatever games we want, but there will never be enough time to play through all of them. This is partially due to work, school, dating, family, and life in general being a higher priority then the games, even though we are passionate about them. It's also a result of our situation where video games have become so popular that there are more good games being created now then there are hours in a persons life to play all of them. This is the world state that developed over time as we became adults. Because of those things, this demographic of gamers often appreciate a simple game that can be played through once in a few sittings such as Undertale. Even though I love games like Bloodborne, The Witcher 3, and Fallout 4, it's a breath of fresh air to play something as unique and ambiguously straight to the point as Undertale.

I've put in dozens, if not over a hundred hours into the first 2 games that I mentioned and they were great experiences. That doesn't mean that those types of gameplay are the only experiences I can enjoy. It's true that AAA games require a lot more effort, development time, and money put into them, but that isn't going to guarantee the experience will be more enjoyable for every gamer. That's one of the big reasons why review scores are subjective and points are usually not added or subtracted for effort, game length of one play-through, development time, or money spent. Music, gameplay, and story can be the biggest factors in creating an enjoyable experience for some of us, and Undertale exceeds in all three categories. This is a game that actually leaves a lasting impression on most of the people who play through it, and I can attest to that.

Another thing it does right, is that it does not waste the players time with "filler" content. The game only presents the best of it's ideas and does not encourage the player to dick around with content designed to extend the experience through boring generic scenarios. Think of your entire experience with a game like Fallout 4. How often did you feel like, "this is boring / repetitive, but it will be worth it when I get to the really good content."? I feel that filler content is a waste of time, and it's only valuable to players who currently have a limited budget and can only play a few games per year. I used to be in that situation, and trust me, it gets better and you start to appreciate different things in games when you can afford to play any game you want.

Based on the content of your comments here, I can tell that you're a young gamer, probably in your late teens at most. I don't mean that as an insult in any way, and we've all been gamers of that age at one time. I remember being baffled when short and simple games were given high scores when I was younger as well, so I think I understand where you're coming from. Undertale is the type of game you might enjoy when you're a bit older. Maybe in 10-20 years, after you've had kids, nieces and nephews, or found an appreciation for the value in the moral behind a story that pleasantly defies you're expectations at every corner. As deceptively basic as the game may look on the outside, it is very capable of drawing players in and making them feel things that they haven't felt since they were little kids. That can only happen to people who give it an honest chance and let go of whatever preconceived notions they previously had. At the same time, it won't have that effect on everyone.

It's unfortunate if you feel like people ganged up on you in response to your original comment. I'm guessing that you already know that's how it usually goes when you demonstrate a strong opinionated stance through a comment in most forums. Just in case you didn't already know that, welcome to the internet.

Regardless of your age, it's perfectly fine if you prefer high budget triple A games and dislike simple, retro, or short length games like Undertale. Just don't expect everyone else to agree with you because we all have different preferences, experiences, and life situations that influence the way we enjoy games. Game journalists and reviewers are all entitled to their own opinion and that won't always agree with your preferences. This is one of those things you'll have to get used to if you continue to spend time on video game websites that publish reviews. Just remember, a review is a single persons opinion, not much more. If you want a review to be more than that, you can simply go to metacritic.com , read a variety of reviews, and make your own judgement through collective opinions. Hopefully you don't need to be reminded repeatedly that each individual review is only a single persons opinion.

If you want to start off on the right foot in the gamer community, start by making the effort to understand the difference between complaining and constructive criticism. The forums on this site would be the perfect starting point to demonstrate that. Google is a good place to look for answers and advice.

There are some games that change peoples lives or at least influence them in some small way. There is something about Undertale that makes it stand out among other games that may appear to be so much greater on the surface. Will you ignore it in your search for knowledge and chalk it up to yourself as the only opinion that matters? Or will you dig deep and concede that understanding is the greatest power we are capable of utilizing?

It's been said many times in the past and it bears repeating, "never judge a book by it's cover."

@Random_Matt: Good job demonstrating how to make an insult. I'll bet you're pretty good at being insulting. Maybe it just comes naturally to you.

@jdlok: I'd agree, Bloodborne is definitely the most enjoyable gaming experience I've had this year. It's hard to imagine it winning game of the year though, just because too many gamers aren't willing to "git gud".

@chris120379: I've been wondering the exact same thing since my only character is at the beginning of a ng+. The way that they're now advertising it as a stand-alone game makes me wonder if you can just start the expansion from scratch. I think it would be pretty cool if that's the case.

@jackgriffin: I hear you man. I'd be ready to give up on the company as well if I had to go through that. Hell, I'll be trying to avoid WB and Rocksteady anyways after seeing how big of a disaster this PC port was.

@jinzo9988: I've got a GTX 970 running on an i7 4790k and I was planning to buy a second GTX 970 for SLI when they go down to around $200. After seeing some games that won't support SLI and stats showing that the highest performance gain is about 50%, I'm debating whether I should just scrap the 970 and spend the extra cash on a GTX 980 instead.

I'm planning to keep gaming at 1080p (limited to 60 fps by using HDMI on an HDTV instead of a monitor) for the next year or two and I can currently run most games on high settings at 60+ fps. It would be nice to play games such as the Witcher 3 on ultra settings with the advanced hair physics with out dipping below 60 fps though. Hopefully DX 12 will make dual GPU's a more viable option in the future.