Ken Horowitz
Hmm, where to begin? My tastes have been so erratic these last couple of weeks that I really have no idea where to start. Oh yes, I know! I'm still battling Resident Evil 4, and progress has been slow. I know, I'm taking far too long to beat it, but my play time is limited, and there's just so much goodness to get to! Having to consistently watch over Ashley as she turns those darn winches can be a pain at times, but I do so love to nail those monks in the knees as they try to carry her off. Sadistic? Perhaps, but you have to admit that it fits the tone of the game perfectly. I've fought long and hard to get here, so why shouldn't I have a bit of fun before saving the world?
I guess I'm just marking time until my 32X AC adapter arrives. I have quite a few gems to try out, including Tempo, Virtua Racing, and the ever-campy Night Trap. I can almost hear Sen. Lieberman whining! I'm also in dire need of a spacer for my model 2 Genesis (please direct your donations to ken@got-next.com!), which would make my 16-bit Franken-console complete. Say what you will about Sega's beleaguered add-on, but I like it. The small library is easy to complete, save for two titles (Web of Fire and Darxide), and there are some great games for it. Besides, what kind of Genesis fan would I be without one?
Edward "Teddman" Boyke
With my limited playing time this month, I'm still eking my way through the original Knights of the Old Republic on Xbox, and so far I've been loving every minute of it--and I'm not even a huge Star Wars fan. The combat system, subject matter, and morality choices are such a refreshing change of pace from Japanese RPG's, which I've more or less exclusively played over the last decade or so. The only problem is that KOTOR gives me almost too much freedom in choosing my path through the game...I don't know what to do with myself.
See, I'm the type of gamer who likes to see every little bit of content in an RPG, all the optional sidequests, all the bonus items, hidden characters, etc. And with a game like KOTOR, it's pretty much impossible to do it all in one play-through. I can either go the jedi-like route and do the right thing, or turn to the dark side, rob some people, slit some throats, and get some cool evil force powers, but not both. At a key point, I was given a choice of completing a key quest, or making a bargain with a villain and instead killing the guy who sent me out on the quest in the first place. For a second, I considered using multiple save files and going through the game step-by-step, seeing both the light and dark outcomes for each scenario.
But considering how long it's taking me to get through the game on just one path, I scrapped that idea and just played on, sticking to (mostly) the light side. One very, very cool thing about KOTOR is the ability to save anywhere at anytime, and to rack up as high an amount of save files as you'd like. I can always go back to one of my now over two-dozen save spots and see what it'd be like if I had a change of heart and instead killed a few innocent (but annoying) villagers.
I'm aware PC RPG's have had this luxury for years, but it's pretty uncommon for a console RPG to allow saving at any point of the adventure.
Hopefully we'll see "save points" disappear almost altogether in Japanese RPG's as well in the upcoming generation of the PS3, Xbox 360, and Nintendo Revolution. There's really no excuse for it any longer, except for lazy programming: all three consoles will have memory cards or hard drives with enough space to allow for a save at any point of the adventure.
I used to dread playing something like Xenogears if I didn't have at least an hour or two to sit uninterrupted in front of the TV. And nowadays I rarely have that kind of time! But I can pick up and play KOTOR just as conveniently as I could something on PSP or Nintendo DS, and with just as flexible a time table (as long as I'm near my Xbox). It's an idea whose time has come... Let's see saving by checkpoint go the way of the wired controller!
