IYO what game company did you gain the most respect for this year?

YAY!
Sony - They did well, Wipeout Fusion was better than I thought it would be, Mark of Kri and Sly Cooper was good. Tehy aren't so much a developer as a publisher, but I like them none the less.

EA - Great year on the PC for them, they even made MOHAA fun in multiplayer with thier recent expansion. Toos a few cues from Halo and looked at the MP community to see what needed some balanceing. Less grenade spamming and more serverside options. Realisim is still a bit wonky though. Machine Gun has a range value of 9500 and the Sniper Rifle has only 9000. That makes no sence. In either case, I still thnk they are aces. I really will like to play Sims Online too, even my sister enjoys the original.

Capcom - More of an antispiation of what's to come but I love the new direction of Dino Crisis, and Steel Battalion is amazing. Odds are we won't see anything like it for sometime to come. Then the slew of GC titles coming out that aren't Resident Evil is really out of left-field for Capcom. I'd still appreciate if they transfered thier Dreamcast styled arcade games to Xbox deployment but that likly won't happpen. Thier PS2 games all seem the same to me.

UNCHANGED!
Nintendo: I don't think better or worse of them this year.

Activision: Same as Nintendo, they haven't diappointed me or really suprised me either.

BOO!
Sega: Because of the lofty position that they once held, the orginization has been visably crumbling and the calibur of thier games is exhibit A. HotD3 and TJ&E3 are great, SegaGT2002 is good GunGrave is a short but fun romp, Beach Spikers is one of the best games on GC but is still far shy of what I've come to expect from Sega. UGA did nothing (in the US) this year and even if one were to count SC5(2) I still don't think that it is a worth additon to any library. None of these games have any real magic to them. GunValkyrie is really good and JSRF is in my opinion great but those 2 are the last Sega quality games to come out the them. Panzer Will kick the new year off the same way JSRF did, with a bang, but I don't see much coming down the line at Sega that really impresses me. As a business - they look pretty shakey still and it leaves any fan with the question in thier heads "when will they go out of business?"

ºTracer

I don't get it...u like a bunch of Sega games you liked this year and then say that they suck...

And what does their business performance have anything to do with your enjoyment of their games?

They don't make consoles anymore. You can't accuse them of not "supporting" the games that you bought.

This is too easy

United Gaming Artists. Rez and Space Channel 5 Part 2, moved these guys up from "promising" to "genius". Two releases like that out of nowhere, right in a row. Really drove the message about UGA home

Quote:

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Originally posted by TracerBullet
UGA did nothing (in the US) this year and even if one were to count SC5(2) I still don't think that it is a worth additon to any library.

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That's retarded. Have you even played it? One of the best games of the year, easily. It's a whole new level for its genre.

Yea:
Nintendo - Not really specific games per say, but I'm just grooving on the GameCube lately. I think the GB Player is an awesome idea and the platinum Cube looks very cool. I don't see what the big deal is about Metroid Prime yet (only watched it), but I'm glad Retro / Nintendo proved themselves in most peoples' eyes. But most importantly -- the Cube enables my current PSO addiction.

On the nay side, they need to make much more original GBA content. I can't stand GBA SNES ports.

Sony - Some good first-party stuff this year, including what may be the year's best platformer: Sly Cooper.

Nay:
Sega - Their game quality seems pretty iffy this year, particularly after the quality DC onslaught of 2000 / 2001. This is mended somewhat by the release of PSO... but that's just a (really, really good) retread of a 2001 game.

Microsoft - I've liked next to nothing on their machine this year, which makes it two years running. They also squelched the US release of one Xbox title I was looking forward to, Shikigami no Shiro. (Ended up getting the JP release.) And let's not talk about the pain that is Blinx.

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Originally posted by Masters
Infogrames gained a lot of my respect with Stuntman.

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Shit, I forgot about this. Easily one of the most under rated games of the year.

I'll second that vote for Space Channel 5 part 2 as game of the year.

Ehh, I can't downgrade Sega, after Gunvalkyrie (!), Gungrave, Beach Spikers, TJEIII, NBA2k3, and NFL2k3.

Might as well say here, too - I really liked what I played of Blinx.

Quote:

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Originally posted by Frogacuda
This is too easy

United Gaming Artists. Rez and Space Channel 5 Part 2, moved these guys up from "promising" to "genius". Two releases like that out of nowhere, right in a row. Really drove the message about UGA home


That's retarded. Have you even played it? One of the best games of the year, easily. It's a whole new level for its genre.

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That's what they said about the first and I didn't agree then. No I haven't, but one game doesn't not a year make. Especially not for Sega and Rez was last year. UGA is amazing. Their out put has been modest though so they haven't regeistered with me this year. Get off my back ok?

I like Sega alot, as such, I expect a lot out of them and this year has been thier worst in a while barring the dry period between Saturn and DC. That is of course my opinion... I don't know why I always get attacked for it. It makes good sence if you calm down and not assume I'm smashing Sega in my posts.

ºTracer

Quote:

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Originally posted by TracerBullet
That's what they said about the first and I didn't agree then. No I haven't, but one game doesn't not a year make.

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Who the hell said that about the first game? I remember it getting pretty mediocre reviews, and honestly it was a fun, cute game, but nothing extraordinary. The fact that the second was such a huge step up was precisely why I gained so much respect for UGA. SC5-2 is Rez-calibur work.

And I think Rez came out in the US in 2002, no?

Anyway, I wasn't really arguing with you post as a whole, I just found the knock on SC5-2 really misplaced. If you haven't played it, that explains alot.

You really need to play SC5 2 first. It's so much indescribably better than the first one, you can't even think of the 2 being anywher in the same league.