Pikmin is a very good game, with a lot of great ideas. I couldn't finish it because of the limited save system and the 30 days (I think) time limit which is a thing I hate in any game. Can't say a thing, though, the game is great, give it another chance.Black_Knight_00

The RTS idea behind Pikmin is to try to keep 100 guys doing something useful for you at all times. I don't know, I guess my whole approach to games is to get them done as quickly and efficiently as possible, so the first time I played Pikmin 1, I was done in 18 days and the second time was 11 days. 30 days seemed too generous to me and I still don't see where it comes into play unless you just spend all your time checking things out without actually doing anything. In the case where you have a bad day, you can always revert to a previous save.

Pikmin 2 expands the idea, but maybe too much. There's so much there that you could never feel "wow, I just played that perfectly." That's good for some people, but I can't imagine being into Pikmin so much that I play this huge game enough times to feel that I've really done a great job on it. The multiplayer modes were a great addition though (co-op and versus.)

The only movie that I can think of that seriously challenges thought is The Matrix trilogy ... MetalGear_Ninty

You might want to graduate yourself from the scifi/action genre. Maybe even try a movie that doesn't have 50+ copies at Blockbuster.

Sorry if this is old, but it was new to me:

head tracking: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd3-eiid-Uw

tracking fingers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0awjPUkBXOU

white board: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s5EvhHy7eQ

touch screen : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlsUiO1mLew

Businessweek story: http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/mar2008/id20080324_098151.htm?campaign_id=yhoo

[QUOTE="ymi_basic"][QUOTE="MarcusAntonius"] I would rate most videogame plots above 90% of the braindead trash that comes out of Hollywood. MarcusAntonius

10,000 B.C. says hello;)

edit: Sorry, I guess my "plunged to the depths" comment invited the crap to crap comparison. However I still see no reason why someone would willingly choose to see such a thing. Even at that, I doubt that the Mass Effect story, dialog, and acting would be better received if presented to an impartial audience than was 10,000BC.

I would rate most videogame plots above 90% of the braindead trash that comes out of Hollywood. MarcusAntonius

[QUOTE="rragnaar"][QUOTE="ymi_basic"][QUOTE="rragnaar"]Personally, I like where the industry is heading...VegetaJr

I'm not bummed at all about sequels, and would play all those games. Games are about entertaining me, originality is a nice bonus. New IPs are just as capable of sucking as anything else. Frankly, I think people like ymi just need to find a new hobby and stop hoping for it to become something it isn't and never has been. Or they can just hang around and moan about how much gaming sucks on these message boards, as they tend to do.

Personally, I like where the industry is heading...rragnaar

As to this "new" trend of games as interactive movies - wasn't that a fad a long time ago, i.e., CD-ROM games like Night Trap, Phantasmagoria, some Zeldas, etc. Didn't it fail? Seriously, I don't get all this talk of new games being = to interactive movies.Solori

The trend that is hurting games the most (imo) is the emphasis on story telling. The problem is that no one likes to see a story grind to a halt or get bogged down, so story driven games tend to be designed so that the player's progression is assured. To me, most of the fun in gaming comes from white knuckle success after numerous near controller-throwing failures. Now, that side of gaming seems to be left only to online multiplayer modes.

Despite gamers proclaiming the virtues of the interactivity of their pastime, it seems these days that most of them prefer that interactivity to be so unchallenging that it doesn't really differ much from passive entertainment.

[QUOTE="ymi_basic"]For me, I find books (and to a lesser extent, movies) so vastly superior for story telling that I have completely given up on game story lines.UpInFlames

There's no need to phrase that as an opinion. Those are hard facts. However, I don't see why give up game storytelling because of it. Literature has been around for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. Film over a hundred. Games are still in their infancy and they are not dependant on storytelling unlike literature and film. Even so, I think games are progressing much faster in that area than both literature and film. What did the first 30 years of film bring that was so compelling? Absolutely nothing.

The final point is the biggest one, imo. In the example of "Into the Wild," I see an RPG of this story turning into a massive exercise in "What if?" ... What if the main character had taken a proper map? What if he had gorged himself on the few animals that he killed instead of just taken what he needed at the time? What if he had arrived at the river at high water? .... That exercise would only take away from the power of the story because the whole point is that things didn't happen that way.

[QUOTE="ymi_basic"]I don't read or watch sci-fi, fantasy, or action movies or books. I prefer to read books that I can relate to my life and my experiences... which btw rarely involves shooting people, zombies, dwarfs, aliens, knights, nor does it involve the overthrow of corporations or governments with evils plans for a doomsday device or genetic mutation.UpInFlames

Well, wouldn't it be awesome if games actually covered themes you can relate to on a personal level?

An example of a recent book that I read is "Into the Wild" (which has also been made into a movie). It's the story of an idealistic young guy who wanders the country trying to live off the land in a minimalist way and eventually finds himself dying in the Alaskan wilderness. Here, I can see some possibilities for a game in that the guy made hundreds (if not thousands) of crucial (and minor) decisions about what to do to survive. However in the end, he makes several bad choices that cost him his life. If the story was interactive, I don't think anyone would end up in his predicament. While that might be interesting to some, I can't believe it would be nearly as compelling as the true story as it was written by John Krakauer (sp?).

For me, I find books (and to a lesser extent, movies) so vastly superior for story telling that I have completely given up on game story lines. In fact, I just find them annoyingly intrusive in games.