Non-Japanese made games you are enjoying

[FatCobra]

Although this is a forum where we talk about a genre that values old school Japanese gameplay above everything else, I'm curious to know if any of you are playing any games not crafted in the land of the rising sun. It seems lately that the Japanese developers are stumbling over themselves (except when they make a shmup), while American and European developers are making some stellar titles. True, no matter who makes them videogames are videogames, and anyone can make a stinker. But the tables seem to have turned...

Anyway, I rented Midnight Club 3 and was blown away by it. I liked it so much that today I ran out and bought it at full retail price. I know I have been stingy in the past and bitching about how most games today aren't worth 50 bucks, but this is a solid well made racing game, seeing as I haven't played the other entries in the series.

Strangely enough, this racer feels kinda shmuppy. No, your car doesn't blow up when you barely touch a wall or another racer, but there's alot of shmup elements I can see in this game. For starters, you have a ranking system of sorts. Powering up your car will make the other racers harder as well. It's a great feeling when my tricked out Lancer Evo VIII destroys the more expensive cars like the Lamborginis. The racers will try their best to win, and the traffic really seems out to get you. I think soccer moms in their minivans have something against street racers, because whenever I cross an intersection, a minivan comes out of nowhere and slams into my ride, unless I hit the zone power, which brings me to the special moves. If you've played Strikers 1945 II, Strikers 1999, or any shmup with charge shots, then these moves work in a similar way. You have the Zone power, which slows time down and makes your car or bike super manuverable, so you can dodge that semi Fast and Furious style or line yourself up for that jump. The tuners, sport bikes, and excotics have this. Then there's Roar, where you rev your engine so loud that it releases a shockwave and knocks any fool dumb enough to be in front of you. Muscle cars and choppers have this power. Last, but not least, is Argo, which basically like invincibality. Traffic and racers alike get tossed around like rag dogs and you keep going at full speed without flinching. The Trucks/SUVs and Luxury sedans have this. All vechiles have Nitrous, which is pretty obvious what that does, and you get a limited supply, just like bombs.

The racing is all twitch-based, you have to act on instinct. Knowing the layout beforehand helps, but many things can happen, espeically if you're racing online, which rocks by the way. Even just crusing around with other players is fun because you can check out each others' rides and just screw around. I like jumping the aircraft carrier in San Deigo and screaming "Turbo Boost!" Knight Rider fans will also like the fact that you can emulate KITT and suddenly drive up on two wheels. The customization doesn't hurt either.

Not bad for an American-made game. So what non-Japanese games have you all been playing?

[freddiebamboo]

I was playing Gran Turismo 4 far too much recently and it is a great game.

I kinda lost interest though when I found that race that gives you 250K for 4 minutes of racing. Sort of ruined the whole structure of the game, which up until then was perfect.

EDIT; and I just remebered that it's japanese!

[sethsez]

Morrowind (which I play constantly) and Serious Sam (amazingly fast-paced FPS that has a scoring system and entirely twitch-based gameplay... if there's one FPS shmup fans could like, it's this).

[FatCobra]

Morrowind (which I play constantly) and Serious Sam (amazingly fast-paced FPS that has a scoring system and entirely twitch-based gameplay... if there's one FPS shmup fans could like, it's this).

Morrowind kinda bored me to death, not to mention that it's one of the worst coded games I've ever played. No computer today could make that sucker move smoothly. Serious Sam rocks though. I think Croteam is making a sequel.

[Zach Keene]

Been playing Wipeout 3 again lately for some reason. (I prefer 2097/XL, but 3's been kinda growing on me lately. Stanza Inter with the Feisar and Goteki still piss me off though.)

[roushimsx]

Right now I'm playing Neocron 2, which is a cross between Deus Ex and Shadowrun but in a MMORPG. Enjoyable, though the population blows which makes the early level grinding quite difficult.

Probably going to install Tribes Vengence this weekend and get started on it now that I finally finished off Shining Force (on genesis) during my lunch break. Irrational Games is the closest thing we have to a Looking Glass Games right now

I'm really looking forward to Armed Assault, by Bohemia Interactive. I maintain that Operation Flashpoint is one of the best (if not THE best) squad based tactical first person shooters ever made.

[8 1/2]

Archer MacLeon's Mercury on PSP. Quite a gem of a puzzler. Great progression of difficulty and amazing design to some of the puzzles later on. A thinking man's Monkey Ball in a way.

[MSZ]

I was playing Gran Turismo 4 far too much recently and it is a great game.

I kinda lost interest though when I found that race that gives you 250K for 4 minutes of racing. Sort of ruined the whole structure of the game, which up until then was perfect.

EDIT; and I just remebered that it's japanese!

I know its off-topic, but anyway...go to the DTM Championship series and you can win 900k in 15 minutes(or less) in B-Spec mode. Once you get bored with the AI racing you can always pick up the controller and play the N-Ring race yourself.

[shariar07]

Jet'sN' Guns

[sethsez]

Morrowind (which I play constantly) and Serious Sam (amazingly fast-paced FPS that has a scoring system and entirely twitch-based gameplay... if there's one FPS shmup fans could like, it's this).

Morrowind kinda bored me to death, not to mention that it's one of the worst coded games I've ever played. No computer today could make that sucker move smoothly. Serious Sam rocks though. I think Croteam is making a sequel.

It runs fine for me. And yeah, it's buggy as hell, but that's an unfortunate reality with games of that scale. Since I love everything about the game, I'm willing to overlook the bugs.

It does require a ton of work to get into, though... the game makes no concessions to the player. You get what you give.

And yes, a sequel to Serious Sam is in the works (a true one... Second Encounter was more of a continuation than a full sequel). I'm very excited about it.

[dave4shmups]

Well, through a trade, I just got Vexx, which was developed here in the USA by Acclaim.

AWESOME platformer; best that I've played on the PS2 by far.

[Specineff]

Wipeout 3 and Star Wars Episode 1 Racer on DC.

[BrianC]

I have been playing Project S-11 and Xtreme Sports GBC on GBA lately. Project S-11 is a pretty cool shmup and Xtreme Sports is a cool game that mixes platform, arcade sports, and RPG elements. I was also playing some Addiction Pinball on PC recently. It's very aptly named. I have been playing some Battletoads GBC too. It's similar to the NES version, but with different levels and somewhat more balanced difficulty.

[magnum opus]

morrowind - which sucks total ass, BUT with the blood moon expansion you go to solthestien and the quests are a bit more interesting, and if you cheat you're ass off it actually becomes vaguely entertaining.
spiderman 2
tony hawk underground 1&2 (although this and spiderman are constantly played you could ask me five years from now and the list will include the latest tony hawk and the latest freeform spiderman)
farcry
gta: vice city
myst 4 (just now getting around to it)
um... really most of the games i play are north american or european, shmups and console third person action games are really the only thing japanese games i play (well at least in this current generation, dreamcast library is/was almost entirely japanese)

[Acid King]

MLB 2k5. I haven't purchased a sports game in a long time but 20 dollars for a pretty damn good baseball game was just too good to pass up. Tag team home run derby rules.

[Cthulhu]

Prince of Persia: Sands of Time was all that and a bag of proverbial chips. Haven't played the sequel yet, but I heard it wasn't as good.

I want to play God of War, but haven't done so yet.

Those are about it as far as non-Japanese games go for me. Oh yeah, Guild Wars looks kinda fun too. I can't stand FPS games anymore, so Halo 1&2, HL 2, and Doom 3 all totally fail to pique my interest.

[Marc]

Burnout 3, and lots of it. A great game, though I stll maintain that Burnout 2 is the better racing game.

[Capt. Takehiko]

World of Warcraft... wait, is it Japanese?

[system11]

Anyway, I rented Midnight Club 3 and was blown away by it. I liked it so much that today I ran out and bought it at full retail price. I know I have been stingy in the past and bitching about how most games today aren't worth 50 bucks, but this is a solid well made racing game, seeing as I haven't played the other entries in the series.

The racing is all twitch-based, you have to act on instinct. Knowing the layout beforehand helps, but many things can happen, espeically if you're racing online, which rocks by the way. Even just crusing around with other players is fun because you can check out each others' rides and just screw around. I like jumping the aircraft carrier in San Deigo and screaming "Turbo Boost!" Knight Rider fans will also like the fact that you can emulate KITT and suddenly drive up on two wheels. The customization doesn't hurt either.

I've been saying this about the MC games since the second one appeared - there's nothing quite like them in arcade racing terms. Shame MC3 didn't have 60fps like MC2 did, but online it keeps a respectable rate.

If you want a race online let me know - I'm currently ranked 24th in the world (or I was last night when I turned the console off), but of the people above me, only a handful can match me in a set of career races. There are somewhere over 13000 players in the rankings.

Doesn't matter if you haven't unlocked/bought the faster cars yet, I'll happily bring something of the same class as your car. Wish other people would learn that one courtesy - kind of annoying when you're in a room racing muscle cars and some idiot decides they need to use an exotic class car. This type of person usually loses anyway, but only after pushing everyone off the track for a bit until they run out of nitro.

[MadSteelDarkness]

Somewhat ironic (because it's set in Asia), but I'm digging Jade Empire.

[Bar81]

Prince of Persia: Sands of Time was all that and a bag of proverbial chips. Haven't played the sequel yet, but I heard it wasn't as good.

I want to play God of War, but haven't done so yet.

Those are about it as far as non-Japanese games go for me. Oh yeah, Guild Wars looks kinda fun too. I can't stand FPS games anymore, so Halo 1&2, HL 2, and Doom 3 all totally fail to pique my interest.

Word. The sequal blows. Everything that was good about the original was butchered in the sequel. None of the charm and glorius adventuring of the original is seen in the sequel, only ass, tits, and the typical hack and slash crap. Sadly, it outsold the original by boatloads so part three will likely be more of the same no matter what Ubisoft claims.

GoW is just fantastic. I didn't want to give it a chance due to all the hype (I HATE hype) but I picked it up and played it and it's what a 3D beat-em-up should be. Apart from some niggling annoyances in some levels it's top rate.

Most FPSes lately have bored me to tears also, Doom III was atrocious; Halo 2 was worse than Halo 1 in single player due to a hackneyed story, having to play as the arbiter, and teh BRUTAL storyline, not to mention the fact that those f*ckers at Bungie blatantly lied about the game content; and HL2 was so overhyped (it's okay but nothing nearing the legendary/revolutionary status the clones/magazines afforded it). The most fun I have had with an FPS released recently was republic commando. It's just balls out fun. The squad element is really well done. You feel like you really are a squad leader and the simplified squad controls make sure that your team does what you want without getting in the way of your own blasting. Ended way too soon imo just because I was having a blast.

[PaCrappa]

Honestly, I never enjoy non Japanese games. It's not because I'm a hater it just works that way. Smash TV is dope. I'd love to try that God of War. But I'd say 99.9% of my library is made up of Japanese developed games. Skullmonkeys and Super Smash TV are the only non JP games I can even think of that I own.

I have no idea why. I like sushi, Pride Fighting Championships, Toyota cars and videogames. But I'm far from being a Japanophile elitist.

Pa

[captain ahar]

Doom III on Xbox, Band Of Brothers on Xbox. Gradius Galaxies is a good bit of fun, but i still can't get the clear.

i don't touch many non-shmups/non-japanese games these days though.

edit: apparently, while Mobile 21 isn't Konami (sort of), they are japanese, so nevermind on that point.

[it290]

Fallout, man, Fallout. I think that game says it all when it comes to the superiority of Western RPGs. (IMO, no flames please)

[SheSaidDutch]

Fallout, man, Fallout. I think that game says it all when it comes to the superiority of Western RPGs. (IMO, no flames please)

I must concur

Although I lost my RPG spirit either 1 or 2 years ago

[sethsez]

Fallout, man, Fallout. I think that game says it all when it comes to the superiority of Western RPGs. (IMO, no flames please)

It's also the perfect reply to people who claim that Western RPGs have no style (though I'm of the opinion that completely generic anime characters and big colorful environments made of things that have no logical sense or purpose isn't "style" but that's another argument). The retro-50s feel mixed with Mad Max is pretty amazing.

[SheSaidDutch]

Fallout, man, Fallout. I think that game says it all when it comes to the superiority of Western RPGs. (IMO, no flames please)

It's also the perfect reply to people who claim that Western RPGs have no style (though I'm of the opinion that completely generic anime characters and big colorful environments made of things that have no logical sense or purpose isn't "style" but that's another argument). The retro-50s feel mixed with Mad Max is pretty amazing.

I agree!

Encore!

[mannerbot]

Planescape: Torment.
StarCraft: Brood War.

[roushimsx]

Fallout, man, Fallout. I think that game says it all when it comes to the superiority of Western RPGs. (IMO, no flames please)

God yes, Fallout was so damn good. I'm with the majority that believes that 2 wasn't as good (it just didn't flow as well ), but god damn did I love playing Yojimbo in New Reno. It's a shame that the Brotherhood of Steel games (both the Strategy game and the action rpg) weren't nearly as good. Hopefully Fallout 3 will live up to the first two, though given who's developing it I'm kind of expecting it to be buggy as a motherfucker

[sethsez]

In all fairness, the first two Fallouts were buggy motherfuckers too. Fallout 2 in particular gave Morrowind a run for its money, and was in some ways worse (car trunk!).