unskilled-

Go play DeadSpace if your looking for the second coming of System Shock (1 and 2).

Hah, last time I hit the gym was pretty painful. My face was all bruised up from hitting it pretty hard. 'suppose next time I'll use the frontdoor and actually work out As for lifting weights, you don't even need that. Situps, pushups, squats and other such fun calisthenics. But it all starts with eating healthy. Gym time won't be as good as it can be if your eating unhealthy and at messed up times. 3 meals a day of non sugary and non-fat concentrated substances is a good start (Oatmeal is KING), no need to be planning meals out and throwing in whey protean and other stuff like that unless you want to eventually look like a brickwall.

Played some Donkey Kong Country on a working SNES today! Although the game isn't my cup of tea, it was fun to finally hold an snes controller after 10 years or so! :| Now I'll just have to get my hands on the n64 and a crapload of games that include ogre battle 64 *orgasm*

Why not, they already own the "Earth". I'm just waiting for some classic google porn.

I like Steam. Its a fantastic piece of software in my lowly opinion. I've never had any complaints or serious problems with its offline mode either. If you don't like Steam I suppose you could go for Impulse Now (Stardock).

*nods* Lets not forget price either. Given that the majority of PC users are not savvy enough to build their own from scratch, or are too lazy too, they generally buy pre-fabs or slighty used ones that would go from 1000-5000 depending on what all you want with it. Console only costs 150-500 (500 being what us suckers paid for a ps3) depending on whether its a console launch or later into its lifespan.

I'll parrot what everybody else already said (or most). DX was amazing, IW was crap. AP is somewhere inbetween. You can't really compare games from 10+ years ago to today, not even 5 years ago. When technology changes, so do people's expectations of what a game can do and look like. For a treat, here's one of the best scenes in DX:

I remember playing the aeon genesis translation for Shin Megami Tensei. In one of the routes you can pick there was a very serious game-stopping bug. Needless to say I happened to stumble upon it and my 80+ hour uber-romp was destroyed! Took me a few years to work up the courage to tackle the game again :|

If your into emulators and fixing translation patches to obscure games, I highly recommend Romancing Saga 3 for the snes (translation by aeon genesis). Non-linear story, 8 main characters to pick from, plus 12+ side-characters to recruit and a plethora of mini-games as well. Or you should give Shin Megami Tensei (for the snes, aeon genesis translated) a shot. Its pokemon before pokemon, 'cept more serious and darker, harder and a helluva lot more fun (imo). Ogre Battle 64 for the n64 emulator is a true classic. Now thanks to emulation improvement, you can run it without any graphical glitches that were present in years prior. Or you could settle for Ogre Battle for the snes/ps1 or even Tactics Ogre for the ps1 as well. If you want to go old school, you could try Darklands (if you can find it that is, its pretty rare). It is the game that Mount and Blade tried to recreate, with some degree of success.

Rome Total War: Rome Total Realism mod. Grab that and see you in a few months! If not, Front Mission 3 for the ps1 is a good turn-based strategy game. Final Fantasy Tactics too if you're into that sorta thing. Mount and Blade perhaps? Go for the old x-com games then, or maybe Jagged Alliance 2 1.13 mod. The Themepark game made by Chris Taylor is pretty addicting as well. Rollercoaster Tycoon i think. For sports, Baseball Mogul is where its at for baseball, as for Soccer games I'd recommend Football Manager.

Kids these days... Veteran is absurdly difficult. For all the wrong reasons, which you described. I got through it with WAY too many reloads. Oh, and I didn't start the game until it "recommended" me Veteran in the tutorial. Even then it was brutal. Yeah, I think I reloaded a good 10-15 times per checkpoint and had to figure/luck out in the majority of situations. The times when you are able to take your time were not too bad, but when your forced to haul-ass it really became a pain in the ass. The favela in brazil kicked my ass so many times Now, if only MW2 had MW1's online system, it would be the greatest action game EVAR.

X-com Apocalypse >

So apparently AP sold over 9000 games..

There are two over-arching types of "RPGS". The ones where you roleplay a character the developers want you to as to progress the story how they want it to, characters and all (pretty much the majority of JRPGS, Final Fantasy being the patriarch of the group). The other where you pick your own character, class and other details and go off to complete the storyline (Western RPGS, such as any d20 game or the elderscrolls series). Picking skills is irrelevant because both types incorporate it in their own unique way. Depending on what battle system is used, whether its turn-based, real-time, group-based or single combat varies what they call skills and how you use them (menu selection, skill tree, hot-button, etc). Ontop of that RPG games are less reliant on reflexes, hand-eye coordination and other such things that FPS require, and focus more on strategy and thinking. They are also, on a whole, generally 2 to 3 times longer then your average FPS as well. When talking about ActionRPGs and StrategyRPGs, they essentially fall into the two over-arching categories. The majority of ARPGs and SRPGs tend to follow what the developers want you to do. What separates an ARPGS from a traditional RPG is that it emphasises more reflexes, hand-eye coordination, etc.. ontop of the usual RPG mechanics. Mass Effect and the Castlevania games (post ps1) are some good examples. SRPGs place more emphasis on strategy, tactics and the use of the game engine. Fire Emblem, Final Fantasy Tactics are the best examples. While action and strategy games are becoming more cinematic, it should be noted that while you are Role Playing a specific character to complete a storyline, its lack of traditional "RPG" mechanics, such as experience, levels (or whatever the game calls it) and/or expenditure of skill points/picking skills/talents/traits/perks/etc, means they are not a TRPG, SRPG or ARPG (horray for acronyms!)

I do this for my first play through. I'm more of a "story" guy than a "get excitement from combat" type of guy, so I'd rather see first how the story plays out than worry about being stuck at the first boss fight for three days and be unable to advance the story. I suppose I'm the kind of guy who wants my cake and being able to eat it too! But, uh.. why play any game on easy? That just takes away from the glory of beating an incredibly tough game and then basking in your accomplishment as the ending cinematics roll. The minute I finish MW2 on Veteran Difficulty.. I'll celebrate by getting smashed, or something...