im apparently one of the few that loved ffXII, and after reading this review i think i'll like XIII too. one reason i was such a fan of XII was because im so tired of the typical jrpg story, and i found XII a breath of fresh air. it didnt center around some whiny/emo androgenous guy trying to save the world from absolute doom, and falling in love for good measure. vaan was surprisingly kept in the background and i loved it. i got nothing inherently against the typical story, but im definitely sick of it. i was a tad lukewarm to XIII initially, but now i might give it a shot

@Valntyne
Hell yea, Skullomania (maybe Shadow Geist also) would kick ass.

And I'd prefer Darun Mister to Haggar anyday for an alternate bulky grappler. EX may have been crap, but I actually enjoyed several of their characters

Nice to see someone else wanting to see Doctrine Dark back. This article actually tackled the top 4 characters I wanted to see back (Elena, Ibuki, Guy, D. Dark). Adon and R. Mika are nice additions too, and Gill would be an awesome counter to Seth. Damn good list, though I'd also love to see Balrog and Dudley finally square off

this list brings back so many memories. i always thought chaos legion deserved more attention (i didnt think the game got really good until almost after you beat it), and ive been pining for a guardian heroes sequel ever since the original. throw in a new panzer dragoon saga and im a happy man. great list overall

how is shion from kofXI not on here? they didnt even bother to change the female voice they gave him!

ah, rose. i wanted to punch her in the face...and the colonel. hell, i wanted to punch my codec after a while

and dont get me started on otis...

haha i loved clayfighter 63 1/3 too! i totally knew it was bad and ripped off other fighters, but i think the crazy (and large) cast of characters and the slapstick comedy won me over. it was flawed but i still had a blast playing it, and i actually did dive into what little nuances the game had. tao feng, on the other hand, was a different story. i loved the graphics, the interactive environments, and the limb and visible body damage (which, given who was behind it, i kind of expected that). but i just couldnt get into it. i just found it too clunky and not fun. i wanted to like it before i played it, but playing it made that impossible

and i have no shame in admitting to being a wrestling fan, or a sd vs raw fan. the madden effect it has suffered lately has kept me from actually purchasing the games every year tho

oh, and when i was younger i actually purchased shaq fu, and didnt it was that bad a game. of course as i got more into fighters i realize its garbage, but still dont think its quite as bad as people make it out to be. whew, glad to get that off my chest haha

ive seen video of a gameplay walkthrough and was very impressed and excited. after reading this, im even more amped for it, although im not too sure about the lofty claim in the title of the article. seems like itll do gadgets and stealth better than just about anything else (and it should, since it has excellent examples like splinter cell and mgs to improve upon), but i dont see the whole package being better than the mentioned titles. at least not yet

i cant say that i harbor anything as strong as "hate" for most the games on this list (WOW and the sims are pretty much the closest i come to it), i definitely agree with most of the things in the article. i was waiting for a game to come up that i would be jump up in opposition to, but it just never happened. dont get me wrong, there are several games on this list that i actually like a lot, but i still share a lot of the same feelings, and i hate to use a tired phrase, but overrated does come to mind with most of them. i find it funny that none of these games are on my beloved list (super mario world is about the closest)

but i wish something other than fan service and recycling was called out against brawl. i could care less about the fan service and the recycling is annoying, but thats not why i dislike it. maybe its because im a fighting game junkie, but i cant stand it when people talk about smash bros as if its some legitimate tournament level fighter. its not. i have friends who i can beat consistently in just about any fighting game that have their way with me in smash bros. wonder why that is

and as much as i like silent hill 2 and ico, i have to say that i had the same thoughts about the game. i found sh2 boring a lot of the time and my biggest draw to ico is that i love the art style and atmosphere. nothing else about it really floored me, and the fact that i HATE escort missions always soured it in my eyes. plus, like braid, i always felt an air of pretentiousness about it and felt like i had to love it. i could go on about all the other games in detail, but im tired of typing so, most notably:

gta 4 and SA - call me weird, but i enjoy the games for a while and just end up getting bored with them like halfway in. its been that way for me since gta3

gt4 - gt completely fell off my radar after 3

halo 3 - i dont hate halo, but i just never got picked up by the bandwagon. i just never saw it as anything that special

cod4 - similar to the halo thing. just never reeled me in completely. 4 did it the most tho, just because i was tired of ww2

ff8 - was never that high on my ff list anyway. it was in the "not bad, not great, but better than good" pile for me. never liked the love story, or squall for that matter. helluva a lot better than tidus tho. i cant stand that guy

definitely sounds great, but i doubt itll "eviscerate" gow. those shoes are mighty huge to fill. still, im keeping my eyes open for this one, as i love both the divine comedy and epic violence in the vain of gow

@ Johnny6Gun

its dan in the orange gi. sagat killed go hibiki in the same battle where he was blinded, so it wouldnt make sense that hes wearing an eye patch in the picture. not to mention that its sf2 artwork, and the fight happened long before then. besides, go hibiki's gi has always been depicted as green =P

looks like you guys forgot about a little survival horror/action/piece of crap game called blue stinger for the dreamcast. not only did it have a beam sword, but also a stun rod that resembled a light saber even more

what a sad, but true ending. youll catch the real hedgehog in awesomeness again someday sonic. and i totally cracked up on the darkness one haha.

and thanks gamesradar, i now hate my life because no matter what good happens to me, i realize itd be a billion times cooler if i were in a video game

nice, but needs more fei long

i absolutely loathed blitzball at first. but then after suffering thru over 90 games of it to get a goddamn jupiter sigil it kinda grows on you. i never lost a game (i was like 95-0...) so it became kinda fun seeing how badly i could beat the other team and if i could make a goal from over 3/4 fields length away with 3 people guarding me (actually did it a few times). but yea, blitzball sucks haha

i am officially more excited about this game than any other game in the foreseeable future...that is by no means an exaggeration

@souleater77
i agree, and from what ive heard it mostly is. i would think that its some gameplay spliced with more cinematic segments. if that trailer was entirely composed of pure gameplay then i am beyond impressed, and not to mention curious as to how theyll pull it off. gow3 cant come soon enough

i remember the first time i saw that sf clip....i think i jizzed in my pants a little. daigo is a beast. and im not sure how someone could play ikaruga like that without suffering some sort of aneurysm or brain explodulation. i wont even get into the others

and @Patius
dont shake the ikaruga guy's hand. im pretty sure thats how he gets his brain powers. that or your hand will disintegrate

all in all, i feel like a complete and utter noob after watching these. thanks gamesradar!

first id like to say that i generally agree with the article, but its not as big a deal to me. i guess ive learned to accept a lot of these things the way they are, and in many cases i enjoy cutscenes and consider them a welcome break from playing. sports like football and basketball have halftime; does that mean they suck at being pure sports? you could somewhat liken the halftime shows and timeouts to cutscenes in the sense that they break the flow of the action. hell, why not just get rid of the pause button in games?

also, i noticed that the examples of good story development you mentioned were all fps. how about listing something that isnt? i think the first person view gives a distinct advantage because it gives the illusion that you are looking thru the characters' eyes; it pits you right in the cockpit, so to speak. and if "proper" storytelling means making more first person games, ill stick with the so-called crappy storytelling because ive had my fill of fps for a while.

thats just my two cents, but like i said i do agree with what was said in general. i just dont find so much urgency to get the some of the problems fixed. and its kinda funny how right under this article there's a link for best videogame stories ever with a picture of mgs on it.

warrior within wasnt THAT bad. it was a great game with image issues. PoP 3D was so much more worthy of the embarrassment title