Hurlshort

That's pretty insulting. And yet you've made know attempt to explain Lord Tingelings post.

I've already explained why I made my original post. It was off-topic. Thank goodness you've shown me a shining example of how to stay on-topic Sarjahurmaaja. But at least I've been trying to explain my posts. You've just spewed insults. I've yet to hear an explanation for Lord Tingeling's Presidential post, which seemed to start this whole off-topic discussion all over again. Lord Tingeling has made some vague promise about an upcoming explanation...I guess he's trying to seem presidential.

He seems to be pretty much forgotten. He finally got out the game he wanted, and it wasn't spectacular. I heard it was alright, but without a story, people never bought into it. He put all his eggs in one basket, I guess.

Sarjahurmaaja. Battlewookie wrote: I seriously doubt you actually read these threads, Sarhurmaaja. My first post dealt with contrasts in the US. It was in response to Battlewookie's post. All my later posts have been about why European game developers have yet to rival US and Japanese. I'm speaking about the cultural impact of the games, so it's no use listing off quality European games. The US has made more inroads in gaming than Europe. I wrote: It's not misplaced nationalism. People bash the US all the time. I choose to defend it, just like you seem to be defending all of Europe.

I started this because people were bashing the US. I'm simply defending the fact that many good things come out of America, even if there is a strong conservative political bent. I also stated the US is a country of contrasts because despite the prominent right wing society, there is also a pretty strong liberal movement as well, and a ton of stuff in between. You say my argument is retarted, and yet you've made no effort to show me why that is so. Clearly I didn't get Lord Tingelings argument, so telling me to reread it is pretty worthless. Perhaps YOU should be the one to go back and read the threads.

Blizzard North was located in Northern California. I'm not sure if that is really Europe, although, Santa Cruz is a bit out there. I agree that Rockstar North, which originally developed Lemmings and is based in Scotland, is an outstanding developer. But you still aren't listing enough to challenge the US in terms of PC developed games. Madden sells huge. It doesn't matter that it doesn't sell huge internationally. It makes a ton of money.

Uh, Madden sells crazy numbers. It brings an entirely different audience to video games. Don't bad talk Madden, he will eat you.

I actually really like the term Hurlshotian logic. I plan on using it often. My point is, I'm not saying there aren't many games coming out of Europe, I'm saying there aren't as many major games coming out of Europe in comparison to the US. Each year there are maybe 6-12 major games that come out. I don't just mean big budget titles, but games that sell well and are able to capture the attention of the media. You can go ahead and name a few important European titles, but the fact is the US and Japan dominate this. You haven't given me anything that compared to the impact of Doom, Ultima, Madden, Half-Life, Fallout, Warcraft, Command and Conquer, Kings Quest, GTA...the list goes on. Tomb Raider is the only one you've mentioned that really captured that upper platform of gaming.

What the heck does that even mean? Is there some relation between videogames and Presidents? Ok, how about more Hurlshotian logic...can you name 6 or 7 presidents from any other countries?

Pirates was a lot of fun. You definitely have to dig the pirating lifestyle. It's a light adventure and it's definitely replayable. I only played the PC version. Also, if you played the old Pirates, it really is the same game with new technology. That's not a bad thing in my eyes. I wish they'd do that for Xcom as well. I've never played a game in it's entirety and felt it was a waste of money, but I don't have a great attention span. I only feel like I wasted my money when a game fails to hold my interest. I'm glad to hear Fareinhiet was good. It's an adventure game, so you're pretty much guaranteed a shorter game.

NHL Preseason is a pretty good indicator for how the season is going to go. There are more penalties called and a few more prospects on the ice, but it's pretty intense. Also, these guys haven't played for awhile, and they are rearing to go.

It's called Sid Meier's Pirates. Unfortunately despite high reviews, I don't think it's selling well. I just don't care about a game being lengthy. I want a good story. Most games do not have good stories. They have mediocre plots. Instead of worrying about length, I'd rather they know how to use it. This is getting dirty...I'm stopping now

If you build it, people will buy. I remember Doom being a mail order game. An outstanding product will find a way to sell.

Master and Margarita by Mikhael Bulgakov Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe The Richard Sharpe Collection By Bernard Cornwell

Oh, pick up Frolov, he's going to have a good year and he scored two goals last night. My picks (now that I get the scheme): Langkow, Ruutu, Niewendyk (who is Malone?), Morrow, Frolov

I want games to be shorter in length. I don't enjoy many 3 hour movies, and I don't finish many games that take more than 40 hours. Games in general used to be much shorter, across all genres. Adventure games used to actually be the big sellers (Kings Quest, Monkey Island, Quest For Glory, Space Quest, Maniac Mansion...) and they were all beatable in one sitting if you knew the way through it. I think the expectation of a long game actually killed adventure games, because you can't tell a great story if you are stretching it out for 50 hours. Does a shooter really need to be 50 hours long? I think that just convinces the developers to put in more mindless filler. Give me a succinct storyline anyday. RPG's are a bit different because they often have a degree of freedom. You don't have to follow the main storyline in games like BG 2, Morowind, and many of the Ultima's. You are given many side quests that have little to do with the over-arching theme. That's actually my least favorite part of RPG's. If my childhood friend has just been kidnapped, I don't want to clean up some freakshow circus tent. I want to move forward with the friggin rescue. I spend $50 on games. I expect more than 5 hours of entertainment, but if I get a solid 15-20 hours then I am happy. I want good entertainment, not mediocre time filler.

Can you pick and choose or is it just one row you can take. The Ruutu line is good because Hecht, Robataille, and Yzerman are all solid. Personally I like the Czerkawski line, lots of speed there. If you can pick and choose I'd say Ruutu, Hecht, Czerkawski, Frolov, and Morrow

I play Ice Hockey every chance I get.

I question whether this game was actually play tested. You can't change your lines or pull your goalie when you are the away team. I can change the opponents, but not my own. Also, it seems impossible to get open, take a good shot, and score. But it's way easy to score one-timers and such. That's typical EA hockey though. Still, it's pretty, and I like the varied player animations.

Just be patient

Canada is part of America, and Canadiens may object, but it's tied pretty closely to the US. Sir-Tech was a legendary Canadien developer as well.

I'm not even talking about publishers, since they really don't "make" the games. I'm talking about development houses. You listed a few European developers, great, but you also listed a bunch of American companies that created genres from scratch and revolutionized the gaming world. Sierra and LucasArts still hold huge chunks of gaming history, and no European company has come close to replacing them. Blizzard still releases the top games of the genre. EA still controls a sick amount of gaming development. Id still created Doom. I'll give you Alone in the Dark. There is a game that set the tone for a genre. But that's one game, and American developers still control the PC market. I'm not arguing consoles, because consoles suck in comparison. I would like to see you try not to buy any games developed or published by American companies. This also means burning all the previously bought American games you have.

The US is a country of contrasts. I keep hearing people bashing America because all this censorship, but the fact is most of the best games come out of the US. I can name maybe a habdful of quality games to come out of Europe in the last decade. Japan is probably second, but the fact is many of their games don't translate well so I'm not sure about that. They also release sequels like crazy, whereas original content is a bit more common in the States. I just don't like blanket statements about what crap America is. We have problems, we have a lot of people on the right and left of the political spectrum, and we have religious zealots that argue with overboard athiests. But you still buy our crap, so get over it.

Forsberg does all those things in real life...thankfully he's built like Louisiana levee and breaks pretty easily. EA should have made his chance of being injured stat super high.

I don't really think scoring is going to take off. I think it will increase with the home run passes, but goalies are still better than they have ever been. Right now the NHL has a wealth of outstanding goalies, and even with smaller gear and not being able to play the puck as much, they are still going to dominate many games. I also worry about the enforcement of obstuction, hooking, and holding. They've been trying to cut down on this for years, and every year you get a ton of penalties for the first 15 games of the season, but eventually the refs and the league let up. I'll believe it when I see it. So I think 25 goals is a decent amount.