Loki

I always imagined that owning a Saturn was a bit like owning a Jaguar - disappointment and a sense of unfulfilled promise. With the exception of a couple of titles, all the cool shit was happening at the same time on the Playstation.

My fave version of Bomberman was the Neo-Geo one. That was the machine that all the rich kids had on import.

I had Dues EX in @ No 13 on my list .. Great Game

Deus... it's Deus chaps.

Bomberman was a good call earlier, one of the most resilient game titles, it's still fun in every incarnation I've played.

You know what's sad? I have those original issues. God I feel old now.

I still have mine, occasionally get it out for a burst of Brutal Sports.

Good list there Whinehouse. The original Quake was the business; a hacked copy of it went all round uni, which at the time was probably one of the only places in England to have a decent internet infrastructure, meaning the computer rooms were awash with Quake players at about 1 in the morning, taking on the Yanks.

I'm talking '96 here, and I don't think I played another online shooter until about Halo, 6 years later.

Best thing about Quake? You could fire upwards.

The controller was boss, each game came with a little plastic cover that went over the numbered controller, themed to the game:

As JLM says, there were some classics on it: the best versions I've played of AvP, Doom, Tempest. The real downfall of it was that it wasn't designed to kick out millions of polygons, and came out just before the explosion in 3-d gaming. Though technically more powerful than the PSOne, it was totally outgunned in the polygons department, and lacked the capacity of a CD drive.

They made a bolt-on one though - can anyone spot the unfortunate side-effect of it, visually speaking:

I go away on holiday, come back and see the last 10 titles....

What a disappointment. The diversity of the 50-30 range gave me hope, but as I said in the pre-thread, what's happened is that the vote is massively skewed to games in the last 10 years, and also massively to series. The GTA series, whilst good, does not deserve 4 top 50 finishes for goodness sakes.

I said to Black that I thought my choices were really mainstream. How wrong I was.

1. Frontier: Elite 2 (Amiga/PC)

 

The greatest game ever made, it took the infinite breadth of Elite and added incredible graphics, storylines, planets, immense space battles. First Encounters, the sequel, is even better IF you can get a fully patched and working version.

 

2. Super Mario Kart (SNES)

 

Both a brilliant single-player and multiplayer experience. BattleMode in this original is the best by far.

 

3. Halo (Xbox)

 

Completely reinvented the shooter genre. Multiplayer and online set the benchmark for all other games. Sequels hugely disappointing on all fronts.

 

4. Jet Set Willy (Spectrum)

 

Brilliantly inventive, sprawling game that epitomised the joy of 8-bit games. The WRITETYPER poke opened the whole mansion up to prolonged exploration.

 

5. Call Of Duty 4 (360)

 

The pinnacle of modern console gaming. Immersive, exciting singleplayer story, and superlative online action. Better than film.

 

6 Bard's Tale (Spectrum)

 

The grandfather of modern MMOs, this huge game ate up your life for years on end. The graphics were genuinely spooky in their sparseness, and for the time this way a very tense play.

 

7.Tekken 2 (PSOne)

 

The king of fighting games. Every character was balanced, the graphics rocked, and it had bears in for the laydees. Yet to be surpassed.

 

8. Gran Turismo (PSOne)

 

A game so graphically advanced, it sent shivers through the dev community. Hundreds of hours of gameplay, and real racing control for the first time.

 

9. Deus Ex (PC)

 

A neglected classic. Attempted something really different, a large complex story with multiple pathways. Foreshadowed sandbox games, and the production values were high for the time.

 

10. Medal Of Honour: Allied Assault (PC)

 

The soundtrack for this game was inredible and immersive, and launched my towards my career in games. The Omaha beach assault is the best scene in game history, a jolting reality check.

 

11. Target Renegade (Spectrum)

 

Hitting girls with baseballs bats = fun for teenagers in the 80s. Rocking music that I hooked the Speccy up to a guitar amp to hear in all its goodness.

 

12. Aliens v Predator (Jaguar)

 

The best Aliens or indeed Predator game made, but on a very unpopular platform. Atmospheric, scary, and very very hard.

 

13. Star Wars Battlefront (Xbox)

 

My gosh this was fun to play. The shock of turning the tide in the favour of the Rebellion only for Darth Vader to turn up and slice you repeatedly to pieces was epic. An early online classic on the Xbox too. Deserves a thorough reworking for the next gen consoles. The best Star Wars game ever made.

 

14. Sentinel (Spectrum) / Sentinel Returns (PSOne)

 

Not a game as much as an interactive conceptual puzzle. The original C64 game was brilliant - astonishing 3-d graphics for 1986. Crammond went on make Stunt Car Racer. The PSOne/PC remake of Sentinel is absolutely brilliant too, and much more accessible for being on more modern platforms, with music by John Carpenter.

 

15. Syphon Filter (PSOne)

 

A lost classic, it and its sequel probably the best games on the original Playstation. Cracking plot, fact action and cool combat, it's really the perfect console game. The series didn't make the jump to next-gen, sadly.

Fair enough nobody voted for Target Renegade, but where is Deus Ex? Where is Elite in any of its forms? Where is Gran Turismo? Tekken? I would have laid heavy odds on those being in there.

Enough with the GTA, Mario and football already! I forget that some people just relentlessly play the same games over and over in slightly different clothes.

Mario 64 outside the top 10 is a BIG shock. One of those rare titles where a genre is divided into pre-Mario 64 and post-Mario 64. I didn't vote for it as I really don't care for Mario titles, but I expected everyone else to

I'm getting a sinking feeling that Target Renegade's not making it onto the list now.

I didn't see the original Halo coming, but I guess 2 will also appear now.

 

why?

 

it was the worst in the series, from both a multiplayer and single player POV.

 

it's the reason Halo 3 has a theatre mode, and a huge contributor to the reason you can report cheaters on live with a few button presses.

Yeah, I'm shocked to see Halo this low down. I assumed it'd be a lot higher. If Halo 2 comes the top of the series, some of you need your head examined! It'll be interesting to see what FPSes come in above Cod4 and Halo.

Some good titles so far - Mario 3 and Silent Hill 2 are both worthy.

Good shit so far, Black2 you hunk of gorgeousness.

I'm quite surprised that ... Call Of Duty 4 made it in as well.

I'm quite surprised it was so low. It's the most extraordinary production, and the best of that entire genre of modern war FPSes. I was certainly expecting it to be in the Top 20 at least.

The two ISS titles of that year were by completely different teams. The N64 one was arcadey and Japanesey, the Playstation one was fucking awesome. It's the football game I've spent time with, and I've yet to play another one that was so much fun. 2 player was a riot.

I think the screenshots are PSOne.

New-ish BBC Weather girl, Wendy Hurrell. REALLY pretty.

She alternates on BBC Breakfast with the ugliest girl on tv, so when it gets to the weather reports in the morning it's a real lottery.

Signs - Mel Gibson + Joaquin Phoenix

Granted I didn't see it right from the beginning which can make a difference with the enjoyment of a film as it might not make sense but this was rubbish. When the alien turned up at their house towards the end they boarded up the place instead of getting tooled up. Gibson's acting was very poor, he just looked dopey as did Joaquin who seemed to be playing Gibson's backward brother. I get the impression they had all been told to under act when the alien arrived the 2 kids were unbelievably calm. Oh yeah despite the use of Joaquin's baseball bat on the alien it was good old strategically placed H2o saving the day.

The matter of Gibson's faith being questioned seemed to be the most important factor of the film. I'm presuming Gibson directed the movie himself. The best scene of the film I saw was Joaquin and the 2 kids sitting on the sofa wearing tin foil hats

Joaquin has been so good in other films I couldn't believe it.

 

Anyone else seen this, what do you reckon?

It was M Night Shymalan, not Gibson who directed - you can tell by the big twist that's in every Shymalan film.

It's not really very good, is it? I still like 6th Sense, Unbreakable and The Village, but the rest of his stuff is derivative.

It was posted a while ago that Senshi had signed up to a WWE contract, but no sign of him on tv so far. Is he still there?

I'm currently thumping through Angels & Demons, as a mate gave me his spare copy (he bought it twice by accident). It's actually a better book than The Da Vince Code. His style may be bordering on bloody awful a lot of the time, but he has a knack for writing like a series of Alias, one cliffhanger after another, which keeps you interested.

It also has the potential to make a better film than DVC, which made for a really boring 2 hours.

I've just finished watching Dune. As I'm at a location without a DVD player, I had to choose from a small selection of VHS. I only point this out because I assume/hope the DVD release has been remastered. The print this VHS version was taken from is filthy, shakey, and the colours aren't consistant throughout various scenes. This is a poor quality release.

 

Anyhow, the film's enjoyabe enough, although it does drag in scenes that feel like they're there just to show how epic the film is, and how much it cost.

 

The special effects have dated quite badly, with colour castes on the bluescreen scenes, sub quality Dykstrascope style shots and rotoscoping. The computer generated shield suits still look pretty good though, with the eras limited CGI ability giving it some style.

 

The soundtrack still holds up though.

I've got the good DVD release, and it's pretty good. The colour balance is fantastic, the effects and bluesceen all sits pretty well. The best thing is the proper widescreen - if you were watching the old 4:3 VHS, you literally missed 1/2 of the set design, which is one of the film's strong points.

It's an uncompromisingly hardcore scifi, plus it's Lynch, so it's not exactly a mainstream film, but I still think it's enjoyable.

someone made a retarded remark about paraplegics on air the other week without knowing it,

Wasn't that you?

She does sound like a few braincells short of an Essex girl.

I agree with Steve.

I also didn't like Raging Bull because it was black and white (couldn't afford colour film? cheapskates), and thought De Niro's performance in Taxi Driver was a bit over the top for an action hero movie.

Plus, how come in Reservoir Dogs you don't even get to see the heist? I know it was low budget, but that's ridiculous.

Wolverine sounds like the sort of film I hate, one where the filmmakers completely fail to grasp the concept of internal consistency, something that not only underpins the art form of cinema but that is of even greater importance to the scifi/fantasy genre, where a credible metaworld is vital.

Games were simply much harder in those days; no such thing as playtesting. I remember Thundercats on the Speccy being insanely difficult, just getting to the 2nd level and the hoverboards was a massive achievement.

Anyone who picks anything other than Under Siege is a fool.

 

On topic: Go and see Star Trek, when the masses are allowed in. I saw a preview screening in Australia a couple of weeks ago and it rules. I had to sign a thingy saying I wouldn't tell people what happens in it, but I can say it finally makes Star Trek cool and even if you're not a Trek fan, as I'm not really, it's a great, fun movie..

You know, I really hate you. You went to Australia to see behind the scenes of Superman Returns and now your telling us you've been back out in Australia and have seen the new Star Trek movie.

 

Your a bastard!

Erm, yes... that'd be me.

 

My colleague Andy and I were sent to do the official online edits ("domestic" (plenty of interviewee soundbites) and "international" (as little talking as possible for "no habla ingles" countries)) of the world premiere at the Syndey Opera House by Paramount as they liked the work we did on the UK prem of Watchmen. Andy was also the interviewer for the "official generics" at the junket. When a media outlet isn't invited/can't make it to the interview junket, they can ask for the generics tapes to cut a piece for their TV show/website. Andy was given so long (an unheard-of-in-the-UK 15 minutes (most UK junkets, you're lucky if you get 5 minutes)) with the talent (who are all really nice) that he was able to do the generics and then effectively interview them again for our own exclusive piece.

 

Anyway, we didn't ask why they wanted to send two Brits to the other side of the planet, but went with it and had an awesome week.

 

The "domestic" edit of the world prem is here, our "domestic" coverage of the UK premiere is here and when I find out where the "international" versions got placed, I'll pop a link in here.

 

Also, if you become a fan of Moviebeat on Facebook, you'll be able to see photos from the prem and the trip, a couple of Facebook-exclusive "extra minutes" from the UK and Australia premieres and a video of our trip to the Sydney Aquarium.

 

Gratuitous plug over.

Haha! That's top ligging mate, hats off.

Excellent news!

Haye could do well against Wladimir. The heavyweight division is wide open for a hard-hitting but more mobile natural cruiser.

2nd series of Mad Men starts this week. The first was a real slow burner, a brilliantly understated drama. Reminded me of the old BBC style of dramas, with all the repressed emotions and tensions being played out through decent acting rather than long expositional dialogue as the Americans tend to do nowadays.

Also, finally got going on The Wire. Jury is still out as to whether it's DA BESTEST EVA, but it is really, really good so far.

Laura Tobin! She gets me up in the morning, for sure.