Thought about this a bit and I have an answer. Ninja Gaiden Sigma. Or black, I don't remember which one is was.

The story goes I originally bought a PS3 many moons ago when it was new. I downloaded a few game demos expecting to be blown away with the next gen graphics and awesome gameplay. I nabbed the Heavenly Sword demo, Ninja Gaiden SOMETHING and a few other demos. Heavenly Sword was bad but not horrible, however Ninja Gaiden was just awful. It had a totally forgettable story, un-interesting gameplay and was the same thing over and over again. It also had these mind numbingly boring combinations to have the ninja do absolutely uninteresting attacks.

All the demos I got on the PS3 were so disheartening I returned it. A few years later, when the catalog improved and I wanted BluRay the price dropped significantly so I picked up another PS3. I bought The Orange Box and Civilization Revolutions. It finally was worth buying. But yeah, Ninja Gaiden was so bad it was part of the reason I returned my first PS3.

True story.

Ninja Gaiden Sigma was the PS3's version, and dude that game is AWESOME! Heavenly Sword was good, not fantastic, but good. I can at least understand why you wouldn't like it, but NGS is amazing! If you only played the demo you missed out on some of the gameplay styles and plot. The plot is bizarre and mostly unimportant, but that's nothing new for that kind of game.

I will admit it might have to do with the head space I was in at the time. I came off a LONG break from any kind of video gaming and was somewhat jaded to the new direction games where going.

If I tried it now I imagine the game might not totally grab me but it might not be such a disaster as before.

I will agree with that. It is very rare to find a game these days that really pulls you in the way the old ones did. Maybe it's a function of growing up. I find myself playing a ton of western RPGs these days just because of the immersion.

I think game designers are building games for a bigger audience. Well, maybe.

The games I ate up as a kid were Link to the Past, Links Awakening, Romance of the Three Kingdoms 2, Secret of Mana, Final Fantasy 2 & 3, Doom, Starcraft, Warcraft 2 and Simcity.

Wherein there were TONS of games when I was a chitlin that were not terribly deep, they were also not terribly popular, well at least not with me. I think a badass quck action game sells pretty well and all told it doesn't seem too hard to crank up the graphics. It seems much harder to crank up the immersion though and story, I guess id say its harder because less people seem to do it.

The game mill will always continue churning but the great ones really stand out. Youd think studios would attempt to copy the current greats, like Skyrim and Starcraft 2 simply on mad sales alone.

"The game mill will always continue churning but the great ones really stand out. Youd think studios would attempt to copy the current greats, like Skyrim and Starcraft 2 simply on mad sales alone"

I was just thinking about this the other night. In ten years, people are going to be talking about Half-Life 2, the Portal series, Bioshock, Skyrim... but nobody is really going to be talking about Call of Duty: Flavor of the Year. I'm not bashing those games, I've played a few and can see the appeal, but yearly releases are cheapening it. But my point is, just because it is the top-selling game series right now doesn't mean anyone will really care about it later on, and it certainly doesn't mean it's the best game series out.

It has to be cheaper to make since it's somewhat fill-in-the-blank at this point, and they know people will buy them, so why fund the next big amazing, groundbreaking game when it might flop? I'm hoping the big drive toward Kickstarter funding changes the business so we get more visionary games. Sure, we'll get some stinkers, but I hope it doesn't deter people from donating, because it may turn out to be the best thing to happen to gaming in years.

http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/17

I was just saying those games were the ones I played back in the day and was attracted to them because they had a immersive world and story. If Nintendo released Link to the Past 2 I would pre-order it.

I agree that people won't be saying the latest NBA 2k 2031 or Call of Duty 49 are the greatest games ever like you said. At least, I don't hear about people going back to play Madden 1999 on PS2 emulation.

The game with continual churn, I am not sure its cheaper as much as a good investment. Large game companies make choices based often on what sells. Its just awesome that games like Skyrim, Borderlands and Diablo 3 sell well. Other great games don't pull in those numbers but do well, like Cave Story or Minecraft. Then again, those indie examples are the cream of the crop as most go mostly unnoticed.

All that so say, I don't prefer shovel-ware games either. I do like new games though quite a bit but do fondly look back at awesome SNES games with wonderment.

I wonder how well its made. I mean, if I punch it ten times, will it last?

Wow.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/67353763/borderlands-bottle-cap-earrings?ref=sr_gallery_6&ga_search_query=borderlands&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_ship_to=US&ga_search_type=handmade

Wife and I play Ticket to Ride on our iPhone's and love it! Haven't tried the original board game yet. We do, however, have Ticket to Ride Europe which is cool to bring out round friends.

Europe added the train station which allows you to make a connection if the rails are blocked. Kind of nice but people can get upset after interpreting the rules creative ways.

jdodson "The train stations are an interesting mechanic and can allow you to salvage a bad game. I like USA's simplicity and such as Europe seems to have more routes but more constrained. At least that's how it seems when I play Europe. Fun, but after playing many more games I think I like USA."

I agree. Simplicity is better.

I still need to play this one! It sounds fun but I just haven't been in a position to play it!