Defense: Add two buttons for swat, one for each hand

GVRH​ Oh, those bricks. And you couldn't do anything. What is funny is when you blow into the NES cartridge, and on it it literally says don't do it, but we have all been doing it since the 80s.

Exactly! When you watch football, and you see Deion Sanders and Emmitt Smith come on to the field, it does not matter what team you root for. Those guys had their game on point. But yes, very different times. I remember the first time I had to buy my own gas. $1.09 a gallon. 89 Nova, the last year of the fifth-generation Nova. And it had some power because my cousin modified parts of it. We have very different issues these days, but some of the same ones. The difference is the cost to fix, replace, or repair them.

EA_Shepard​ LOL... there is with no doubt in my mind any feeling closer to a near death experience than firing up your console and getting blank screened. Apart from your house burning down, days didn't get much worse than getting bricked. The full-on five stages of grief in ten seconds pretty much sums that up perfectly, lmao! 🤣

I'm going to have to say, your response is pretty similar to how a lot of the greatest athletes who have ever played summed up opinionated comparison. Apples are not oranges; COD is not Battlefield; and just because Michael Jordan is considered the GOAT by many, doesn't mean we should forget what Magic Johnson or Wilt Chamberlain did...much less not have appreciation for what others like LaBron, Mello, Kobe, Curry, etc. have done. Different eras. Different styles of game even. I think you're probably most right when you say life was just different then too. Gas wasn't over $5/gallon; food was affordable. We have a lot of different problems, priorties, and things in general to think about now. I think it was easier to honestly just enjoy more then when stress levels weren't quite as high as they are for many now.

GVRH​ Man, that memory card panic was real. That memory card was something you held onto for dear life, too. If that messed up, you had a bad day. Nothing quite like turning the system on, seeing that blank screen, and immediately feeling your soul leave your body lol. Same with corrupted saves. That was full-on five stages of grief in about ten seconds. And yeah, the old universal fix for everything was basically remove it, blow on it, smack the console once like you were trying to wake it up, and hope the gaming gods were in a good mood that day. Those older consoles really were built differently, though. Between cartridges, memory cards, and those giant brick cell phones, half that stuff probably would survive the apocalypse.

And, I get what you mean about games not always hitting the same now. Sometimes it really is just life and time more than the game itself. FF6 through 10 was such a ridiculous run, though, so that’s a hard era for anything to live up to. FF15 never quite grabbed me the same way, either. Baldur’s Gate 3, though, that game absolutely deserved all the love it got. Elder Scrolls, Diablo, RE, SH, old God of War, early COD, even those random demo discs and trials you’d play way more than you probably should have...that whole stretch of gaming just had a different magic to it. The one issue I have in my position is when newer (let's say the last 5 years) games are compared to things they shouldn't be. Games evolve, they change, they introduce new aspects. Game A is not Game B, but realistically, most games these days I can see being copies of others or playing like others, so it is hard. You want to give your opinion but you cannot. I have straight out said to players. BF is not COD, so we aren't going to keep comparing it in the thread; if we do, I will shut the thread down. We aren't playing COD, we are playing BF.

EA_Shepard​ Oh man, speaking about memory cards. Another thing many in this generation will never experience is the horror of plugging in your memory card and not having it load properly....just a blank, black screen. You wanna toss something in a time capsule, toss in a picuture of the face you make when that happens, lmao! Heaven forbid you find a corrupted file on your card after too. Talk about a hissy fit. That's the cartridge era in general though... all else fails, pull it out, blow on it, and pray. Maybe slap it up a little. Half those old consoles, tv's, and cell phones could survive a nuclear blast.

Man that's cool you've gotten to have that experince in the industry though. I would have loved to been part of it myself, but went a different direction. I tried FF15 demo/trial or whatever, and I just couldn't get into it. Just didn't hit the same for me as 6-10 did, but maybe that's just because I'm older now, idk. I spent most of the time when FF11-14 came out playing MtG and COD with a variety of other stuff. God of War had its time. Elder Scrolls games; Diablo; Madden; and a variety of Survival Horror like RE and SH. I have a hard time getting through most games now. I just don't have the ability to invest as much time anymore, which frankly has made Madden perfect for me. Can pick it up, take an hour to play a game, and I'm good for the day. Last major game I got through was Baldur's Gate 3 which I absolutely loved. After all this talk about gaming though, nothing will literally ever hit more me as the fun of playing actual tabletop D&D. Idk if that's anything you've ever tried, but it's peak gaming imo. The level of imagination and creativity is really hard to top. Computerized games will always have some limitations involved, but D&D is truly limitless. I've really enjoyed seeing the resurgence of it.

GVRH​ They were the best. You got just as mad when you died and could not revive, but you didn't rely on servers and back-ups, just a memory card, which I still have with my original FF games on! Those should be in a time capsule lol. 

When I started in gaming, I actually worked for Sega and the Dreamcast, so that is how far back my CM days will go. That is why I do what I do here. I am a true gamer. PS2 will be my starter, so I will always be a fan. They have them all on Steam, and Xbox pushed some, I believe, as well, with remasters of them. I have not played anything from rebirth on. I believe 15 was the last one I played. I liked it. 7 and rebirth and all these, I don't have the time to get invested in them and learn them again lol. I play way too many other games, and with a new Switch 2, I need to play those.

I have the new FF7 because it is on my queue, but I have not played it. I have watched a bunch of playthroughs, and it seems good, but I need to actually jump in and play.

EA_Shepard​ Yeah man, they were the best of days for gaming imo. LAN parties were some of the most fun I think I've ever had, especially in college. Maybe we didn't have the best graphics and whatnot then, but the games they were putting out then were innovative, creative; absolute bangers! Tbh, I literally almost forgot about GameCube because Smash Bros is pretty much all I ever played on that and I never personally owned one, but I'll never forget the N64. With games like Mario & DK 64, the first Smash Bros, Starfox, Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Zelda Mask/Orcarina, Pokemon Stadium, etc...easily my #2 favorite console of all time. PS2 will always be my favorite, but N64 gives it a run for its money imo. Yet another I think I might seriously consider investing in again.

Man, idk if I can ever pick a favorite Final Fantasy at this point, because you're right when you say that 6-10 were all stacked and great in their own right. I'd like to play through each of them again at some point, and maybe then I could choose. But right now I have such fond memories of each there's no way. Some say 12 is woefully underrated, but I've never played it. Some say 16 is another more matur installment, almost Game of Thrones like, so that's why I'd like to at least give that one a try. 7 Rebirth I might give a go after the final insallment comes out, but idk how it compares to the original and I don't want it to ruin my memory of the original either, so idk. Have you played any of the new FF7 games? If so, what's your opinion on them?

GVRH​ Man, Halo LAN party days were something else. That whole era just hit different. PS2, original Xbox, GameCube...there was just a crazy amount of good stuff to bounce between back then. I made my niece play a game, told her no saves, no memory card, there is no cloud backup, you'd better survive!

If I had to pick, 6 is probably still my favorite overall, but 9 has always been right up there for me, too. 10 was awesome in its own way. It's hard not to compare them, but they were very different. Honestly, that stretch from 6 through 10 was just stacked. I still want to give 16 a shot too, because I’ve heard some really good things about it. If you do end up jumping in, let me know what you think.

UtahUtes32​ BTW, I have sent this to the team, so it didn't go unnoticed.

EA_Shepard​  Man, that's seriously so cool that you found that! You gotta let me know if you get that genie cleaned and fire it up! I never actually got to own one. Only time I got to use one was when my friend brought it over and he'd let me keep it for a few days at a time if I was lucky. He had a SEGA one I remember. No better way to play Sonic & Knuckles at the time. It was especially useful for a lot of the older Konami games like Contra and Castlevania.

PS2 days were the best of gaming days for me. I got Xbox for Halo eventually (I feel bad for those who have never experienced a LAN party), but PS2 I always played more. Which of the Final Fantasy games was your favorite. 6 and 7 seem to be what most prefer, but 8, 9, and 10 especially were all great in their own right imo. Since then my interest in them has waned apart from wanting to give 16 a try.

The buttons change every few years...  Sometimes it's better.  Sometimes it's not.  

GVRH​ Found it last night, SNES one, and now I really want to clean it and see if it still works. Oh I would. I bought one and cleaned it up too. A lot harder than an NES though. I started on PS before I went to Xbox so PS2 took a lot of my gaming days. Come to think of it, I think I still have a Madden 2003 game. Now, if I can find the NCAA 04, that would be nice.

FF6/7 will always be in my collection. I have almost all of them in the 4 disc set cases. I'll never let those go.