GameFAQs Contests
Best Game Ever 2 Contest Analysis Crew (Part Two)
hate to say I told you so! though I bet he wrote that before yesterday. --- xyzzy http://i42.tinypic.com/2vbwhn4.jpg |
G/S only getting 17% would be something though! Man that'd raise even more questions. --- Moltar Status: you can't hide forever Match 17 - Bracket: Zelda: MM > RBY - Vote: Zelda: MM (50/64) |
anything's possible when it comes to Pokemon. it just seems to fluctuate so damn hard, at least for its characters. --- xyzzy http://i42.tinypic.com/2vbwhn4.jpg |
On
a side note, I think you guys are underestimating Deus Ex some. It's
one of the most popular and influential PC games of all time. --- http://thengamer.com/guru/ |
I
had it higher before backing off - I just felt funny bringing anything
from the top 3 below 20%. something is going to bomb here. --- xyzzy http://i42.tinypic.com/2vbwhn4.jpg |
It
could get Fourth Place Factor'd, but honestly I could see it being
close to Half-Life, and quite a few of you have that beating FFIX. 7% though? Way, way too low. --- http://thengamer.com/guru/ |
fourth place factor'd more like game that's way weaker than the other three --- xyzzy http://i42.tinypic.com/2vbwhn4.jpg |
honestly I could see it being close to Half-Life No chance of this at all. --- http://i44.tinypic.com/hwh4yo.gif |
Haha
that's awesome that you threw that at the beginning of my write-up. In
retrospect, though, it was a kind of bad thing to put at the beginning
of a write-up! Totally ruined my intro...! Not surprised there isn't Pokefear here, though, we crew members are reluctant to back off our bracket or support Pokemon. Though I figured it'd get some support from guest for the "edgy upset", Ed Bellis cause uh... well, gut, and of course tranny for his always present eagerness to bet against his bracket so he can say we're too attached to our brackets when we analyze. In short, this is exactly the split I expected, right down to the analyst !! --- So I lost a bet to creativename (yeah...hardly shocking). Like usual, I should've known better! FACT: Halo 3 was 1000% responsible for Master Chief's boost. |
JC Denton has a cooler character design than GFNW, yet he's fodder and GFNW isn't. Pretty obvious choice here as to which one is way stronger imhhho. --- So I lost a bet to creativename (yeah...hardly shocking). Like usual, I should've known better! FACT: Halo 3 was 1000% responsible for Master Chief's boost. |
I
love Deus Ex and JC Denton is the most boring character in existence.
This coming from someone who also loves Gordon "you never see him in
the game" Freeman. --- http://thengamer.com/guru/ |
Considering
about half of the Noble Nine don't do anything other than shriek
"EYAHHH!" or go "..." for the whole game I somehow doubt many voters
care how boring a character is. --- So I lost a bet to creativename (yeah...hardly shocking). Like usual, I should've known better! FACT: Halo 3 was 1000% responsible for Master Chief's boost. |
In
a game with excellent characterization for everyone else, it's highly
noticeable. JC also suffers from having no set personality; you choose
what he does, so it's hard to get attached to him as a character even
if he was interesting. Man, what an argument fifteen minutes before a potential barnburner! --- http://thengamer.com/guru/ |
I actually was going to go FFT, but just felt worse and worse about it throughout the day. and I wasn't calling you on clinging to your bracket, I was calling you (not you specifically, just HM and Leon really) for refusing to pick Pokemon despite how many times it's burned them in the past! --- xyzzy http://i42.tinypic.com/2vbwhn4.jpg |
Two in a row for me, woo. Stupid Punch-Out, leaving my bracket dead on Day 1.... --- ad hominem appealing to one's prejudices, emotions, or special interests rather than to one's intellect or reason. |
Ngamer's Rebellious Writeup Good gracious, I haven't been this shocked by a match result since... well I guess you could say Snake > Cloud and Kirby > Sonic, but those were weird L-Blockish bandwagon kind of results that you have to just shake your head at and move on from. This appears to be a completely legit result, considering how R/B/Y is beating three of the N64's best games combined literally all by itself, and has done so with an incredibly consistent performance throughout the day. After a powerhouse Top Ten-level showing like this you'd have to make the game a lock to slide through into Round Three... but wait a minute, will there be another Pokemon option there to hinder its progress? Let's find out! Got to agree with the earlier comment where SB must have glanced through his records to see what where the close matches back in '04 and then gave himself a big pat on the back for setting up this R1 rematch. Unfortunately for him, the only thing we can be completely sure about is that MGS is going to be finishing ahead of FFT in this one- not only is the site not as Square-crazy as back in '03 and '04, MGS has also had three huge reasons to boost since then compared to FFT's one, or possibly none depending on your respect for handhelds. (Oh I guess the other thing we can be sure of is Deus Ex for last with something like 8-10%, but that's not really worth talking about!) The real question is, what position does Pokemon end up slotting itself into? It's a pretty exciting proposition, considering how you could make a strong case for first, second, OR third! Now, I'll agree with most of the comments I've been seeing today in that MGS and FFT are probably stronger than MM directly and that G/S/C is surely a league below R/B/Y. But what people seem to be forgetting is that in 4ways, many times the most important factor to have going for you is the Sore Thumb Factor, and tonight Pokemon's going to have that baby working overtime. Not only do MGS and FFT share a console, Pokemon is also the only non-"mature", non story-driven option out of this whole poll. I guess you could say that unlike today's battle it's not the only RPG option, but ehhh, Tactics and Gold are about as far apart as any two games can be while still getting labeled RPGs. Plus the site is still going to be swarming with Poke-fans after yesterday, and Platinum still being hot certainly helps as well. ALSO, check out that match pic- G/S/C with the major advantage of being just labeled "Pokemon" up top, which might work wonders! In short, all signs are pointing to this being a 48 hour Poke-fest up in here, and that's why even though I would still take FFT > G/S/C 1v1 and even though I wouldn't have made this choice a couple days ago, it's time to pick against my bracket for the second time this year and say: Metal Gear Solid - 36.07% Pokemon Gold/Silver - 27.80% Final Fantasy Tactics - 27.70% Deus Ex - 8.43% Come on Poke-fever, don't let me down! --- The Guru ROCKS, son! http://thengamer.com/guru/ (thengamer.com/xstats & board8.wikia.com aren't awful either) |
I take these loss of points knowing I made the better choice, yo! --- http://i44.tinypic.com/hwh4yo.gif |
I'm
not submitting to Pokefear any more than my bracket tells me to! RBY
> MGS next round still happenin just with different circumstances! --- So I lost a bet to creativename (yeah...hardly shocking). Like usual, I should've known better! FACT: Halo 3 was 1000% responsible for Master Chief's boost. |
KamikazePotato | Posted 4/23/2009 9:19:34 PM | message detail It could get Fourth Place Factor'd, but honestly I could see it being close to Half-Life, and quite a few of you have that beating FFIX. 7% though? Way, way too low. *coughs nervously* Being influential and respected is all well and good, but it's still a game with extremely low playership going up against three of the most popular franchise names in the world. It would have been incredible for Deus to even make the double digits in this one. But yeah, look at me, pulling the Crew out of the fire once again by taking us back to even after you guys go 4 to 3 in picking the wrong option! In all seriousness though, I tried really hard to justify sticking with my bracket here before realizing "you know what, even if Gold IS a scrub compared to Red and even if FFT HAS held up well from '04, how in the world would Pokemon not absolutely murder during the Day against Deus Ex, Metal Gear Solid, and a Tactical RPG?" It just stood out way too much for any other choice to make sense to me. --- The Guru ROCKS, son! http://thengamer.com/guru/ (thengamer.com/xstats & board8.wikia.com aren't awful either) |
Who likes Ramza, anyway? I... (shut it, Leonhart) Nevermind. And darn it, I need to start being a procrastinator and stop writing my analysis a week in advance! Or at least revise my predictions. Heck, if I'd switched FFT and GS's percentages, I'd be in good shape! And yeah, I admit, I was being stubborn by sticking to FFT in the first place, but hey, these things happen! --- http://www.court-records.net/animation/phoenix-superobjection.gif |
Banjo-Kazooie....................................8.75% 10563 Perfect Dark.....................................11.71% 14141 Pokemon Red/Blue/Yellow.................50.68% 61189 The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask...28.86% 34837 TOTAL VOTES...........................................120730 Matches Completely Correct - 10 Matches Partially Correct - 7 Matches Completely Wrong - 0 What Happened - 'whoa pokemon' is what happened. It ends up with 50% of the vote in a match against 3 N64 games, one being ZELDA: Majora's Mask, which does worse than most people expected. MM still has no problems beating PD for second though. Why it Happened - Nostalgia + Everyone's played it = RBY I guess. It's hard to get a solid reading from this match. MM looks to be on the lower-end of the Zelda games (which still makes it at least a strong midcarder), but how high can you realistically put RBY after this? Top 10 game is being thrown around, but who knows for sure. PD looks awful here, but the whole Goldeneye/SotN/PD trio didn't look to be their 2004-selves. What Will Happen - I wonder how far RBY can go now... Crew Prediction Challenge - 3 Poke-pickers get points. HM - 11 Tran - 11 Moltar - 9 Guest - 9 Lopen - 8 Leon - 7 Ed - 7 Crew Accuracy Challenge - Soul gets the point for Pokemon, Lopen gets the point for MM, HM gets the point for PD, and Moltar and HM get points for BK. Moltar - 18 HM - 16 Tran - 13 Lopen - 10 Leon - 8 Ed - 6 Guest (Luster, Zylo (3), HaRR, Kleenex, Soul) - 7 --- Moltar Status: you can't hide forever Match 18 - Bracket: MGS > FFT - Vote: MGS (52/68) |
Division 5: Round 1 - Match 19 – Final Fantasy VIII vs. Soul Calibur vs. Starcraft vs. Xenogears Moltar’s Analysis FF8 2004 Results: N/A Only FF8 character we’ve seen is Squall. Does the rest of the game stand up? Soul Calibur 2004 Results: Lost in Round 1 against Kingdom Hearts Needs the power of the Soul Edge to advance here. Starcraft 2004 Results: Won in Round 1 against Halo Won in Round 2 against Kingdom Hearts Won in Round 3 against Zelda: Wind Waker Lost in Round 4 against Super Smash Bros. Melee The dark horse of 2004. Xenogears 2004 Results: Won in Round 1 against Pokemon G/S Lost in Round 2 against Final Fantasy VII Going by today’s results, Xenogears is about equal with MGS! Well this is a weird match. Instead of people looking at it thinking who’s going to be stronger, it’s turned into who’s going to bomb. FF8 and Starcraft both have reasons to be overrated, but which is going to come out ahead here? Before I answer that, let’s look at the other two games. Xenogears got an impressive (considering SFF) 20% against FF7 back in 2004. Secret of Mana did something similar against CT, and performed really well in its match. The competition here is tougher here, so I don’t expect Xenogears to pull in a quarter of the vote. Plus, FF8’s presence doesn’t do it any favors either. Soul Calibur was very overrated in 2004. It nearly beat Kingdom Hearts in R1, and then it’s behind Starcraft. Since then it hasn’t really done anything impressive. It’ll probably end up around Xenogears or a bit higher. It does have an outside shot at second if either FF8 or SC flop. So between FF8 and Starcraft, the latter looks better to take first here. If you really believe in its 2004 run, the choice should be obvious as that would easily make it a Top 10 game on the site. FF8, while it should be strong, is in the shadow of FF7. It has its fans and it has its haters. The problem with Starcraft is that no one really believes in its 2004 run anymore. Barely beating Halo, which was hated and anti-voted back then, isn’t impressive. Beating the original KH, which definitely wasn’t as strong as it is today, isn’t impressive. Beating Wind Waker, which was also hated, isn’t impressive. Coming close to SSB:M because of MASS CARRIERS isn’t impressive. Now throw in about 50000 more voters and SC isn’t looking too hot. The format does help it out though. If it can muster up a consistent 30% through fans and rallies, it can go far. The format also helps out its opponent, FF8, which does have a tight fanbase that will vote it over anything. With Xenogears and Soul Calibur bound to pull in decent percentages, this is battle of who isn’t going to bomb between FF8 and Starcraft. Starcraft has more reasons to disappoint, but it also has more fuel if this match is even remotely close. FF8 also has Xenogears holding it down, which I think is being overlooked a bit. Yeah yeah, I know SFF hasn’t been working out the way a lot of people thought it would in this contest, but Xenogears has proved it has a fanbase, and did that against FF7 of all games. Moltar’s Bracket Says: Starcraft > FF8 Moltar’s Prediction is: Starcraft: 33% - FF8: 30% - Soul Calibur: 20% - Xenogears: 17% Lopen’s Analysis So you've got the unknown in FFVIII, a Xenogears that might look good after what we've seen from GS (not a chance), and Soul Calibur that went neck and neck with the game that lost to Starcraft a few years ago. By 2004 standards, this match could be interesting... I don't think it will be, though. Soul Calibur can't recapture the magic it showed against KH five years ago, and Xenogears will probably be pretty weak, even though The Fitness Guru Fong Wong looked better than fodder last contest. |
Anyway,
the real interesting part to me, in this match, is Starcraft. You may
or may not know, but I have this badboy going pretty far. I think
Starcraft has all of the X-Factors going into this contest-- a devoted
fanbase, an independent fanbase, rally potential, and even bandwagon
potential. The game never fell below 49.74% last time. Pretty rad,
right? The game's just popular... this isn't like World of Warcraft
where we're asking for rallies to raise a game from fodder status. This
is the real deal... real strength, all the other stuff is just gravy. Unfortunately, this match isn't going to tell us a thing about Starcraft's strength unless it totally flops. It could blow out this pack in epic fashion and we'll basically just think “FFVIII flopped” or it could get knocked down to second place, and I still wouldn't rule it out to keep going far because I think its fanbase will be more static than most others. I'm banking on the blowout here, though, mostly because FFVIII has always seemed the black sheep of FF that has a few crazy fans, and while that makes it perform well in the multi-way polls it makes it pretty weak in normal polls where it can't even get the full support of its core fanbase behind it. Before you scream “Squall omg omg” realize that before KH the guy only got like 35% on Snake. And also realize he's the only redeeming feature of that game. Okay, Zell is okay too, and maybe Sei-- no weakness! Prepare for fatality! FFVIII is primed for failure, and I shall enjoy watching it die. Lopen's prediction: KOREAN RUSH KEKEKE – 40.02% RUINED IN DISC 3 – 26.02% Soul Calibur – 20.02% RUINED IN DISC 2 – 13.94% Transience’s Analysis Starcraft is overrated trash. It is the original bandwagon pick. Starcraft had a perfect storm in 2004 - an anti-vote magnet in Halo, Disney crap in round 2, Celda in round 3. Then, as the bandwagon picked up and Starcraft hype reached deafening levels, Starcraft increased in strength throughout the contest. Starcraft did this in a contest with 60% of the votes that we get today. Starcraft is five years older and is unlikely to repeat what it did again. In a format completely conducive to Starcraft -- The List -- it couldn't even pull off a top 15 spot. People have been overrating this game for years. And yet, it's somehow not the most overrated game in this match -- that would be Final Fantasy VIII. FF8 has always been assumed to be strong, and I believe that it would have been in 2004. I don't believe that time has been kind to it, though. FF6 put up a relative egg, losing updates regularly to a low-tier Zelda game. FFT is currently getting smashed by a game that it 50/50'd 2004 and a game that lost to Xenogears. (FFT has excuses, but let's face it - this is not a flattering performance.) I think FF8 has kind of faded from the public consciousness. When I hear people talk about Final Fantasy, they talk about 6, 7 and 10. 8 and 9 have their fans, but they're not numerous -- hell, I hear more about 9 than I do 8 these days. The argument in favour of FF8 is Squall, but he's completely a different case - Kingdom Hearts means a ton to him. I've never believed Squall was a top 10 guy based primarily on FF8. Hell, I'd probably take KH over FF8 indirectly. And then there's the whole anti-fanbase thing. FF8 is just not a uniformly loved FF title. For a series that's supposedly reliant on franchise voting, FF8 will be the exception. I can see FF8 fans voting for FF9, but I'm not sure if FF9 fans would do the same for FF8. Maybe I'm speaking out of bias - I don't like this game, after all - but I don't feel like FF8 has the full-fledged support of the Square fanbase. It's got its diehards, there's no doubt about that. But I think it'd need a bigger fanbase than that to beat Starcraft. |
I
haven't even mentioned my darling Xenogears. Yeah, fanbase overlap
hasn't been that big this contest, but this is different. Xenogears's
fanbase is *hardcore* and will not abandon it for one second. Not for
FF8. The fact that Xenogears got 20% despite it being Xenogears's
absolute worst match is pretty impressive, especially when you consider
MGS only got 28%. Without Xenogears I might go for FF8 > Starcraft,
but with it I've gotta go with the damn Blizzard game. vote Xenogears vote Xenogears vote Xenogears vote Xenogears please transience's prediction: Starcraft - 34% Final Fantasy VIII - 32% Soul Calibur - 21% Xenogears - 13% Leon’s Analysis Final Fantasy VIII: It’s hard to get a good read on Final Fantasy VIII on poll data alone because you can only find a few polls with it that aren’t a Final Fantasy series poll, and they’re all super old. The game did very well on The List, ranking in the top 20 and behind only the FF games you’d expect it to (FFVII, FFVI, and FFX). It even outdid StarCraft by two spots! Before the contest, I was thinking that FFVIII couldn’t beat StarCraft and may even be in danger of failing to place due to Xenogears’s presence, but after seeing how little LFF has seemed to affect results, I’m changing my mind here and going against my bracket! What’s this? Leonhart making a biased argument for Final Fantasy VIII?! Shocking! But hey, if I’m right, it’ll pay off! StarCraft is very overrated, and I think people are going to be expecting way too much of it this time around. Again, there’s not much logical reason for taking FFVIII because there’s not much data on the game, but I think the FF name and the fact that the PS generation are the most played and known games in the series will help it since it gets both franchise votes and more genuine fan votes than earlier FF games. I understand the game still gets a lot of hate, but it does have plenty of fans who love it. It is definitely strong enough to beat StarCraft on its own, but can it handle Xenogears? I think so! Soulcalibur: This game surprised a lot of people back in 2004 when it not only nearly beat Kingdom Hearts, but it was the bracket favorite! The series got ripped apart by Metal Gear in the Series Contest and finished behind even Fire Emblem, which ain’t good. Soul Calibur IV also did pretty poorly in the 2008 GOTY poll, only getting 6.48% there. It seems that the 2005 site shift didn’t fare too well for the series. I think the game still has a small shot at second place due to FFVIII/Xenogears potential LFF, but I’m not expecting it. Plus, isn’t this game a Dreamcast exclusive? That can’t be good the longer it’s been since the system’s demise, though I don’t know if it really amounts to too much in the grand scheme of things. StarCraft: StarCraft is basically the Gonzaga of this contest. It was the Cinderella story of the first Games Contest, making a run to the Elite Eight before being ousted by Super Smash Bros. Melee, but now it’s not going to take anyone by surprise. In fact, people are going to be overestimating it and expecting it to go super deep. And Gonzaga has never lived up to its expectations or up to the glory of their first contest appearance, though they always show up to the big dance. I think it’ll be the same for StarCraft. I think people are expecting too much out of it, and I don’t like depending on outside sources/illegal means for victory anyway, which people seem to be doing with this game. It may win due to that, but I don’t depend on it when I make my picks. It may even be strong enough to beat FFVIII on its own, especially with Xenogears there, but we’ll see. |
Xenogears:
After seeing Secret of Mana do so well, I’m thinking maybe Xenogears
hasn’t really aged that poorly either! After all, the game is more
recent and was released during Square’s peak years, when the company
was most popular. It did defeat Pokemon without much problem back in
2004, and 20% on FFVII isn’t that bad considering that was the worst
possible opponent it could’ve gotten. The game doesn’t have much of a
chance to advance because it’s just not strong enough, but it may not
do as poorly as some think. Leonhart’s Vote: Easiest vote in the contest so far, Final Fantasy VIII! Leonhart’s Prediction: Final Fantasy VIII – 33.48% Soul Calibur – 17.11% StarCraft – 32.11% Xenogears – 17.30% Ed Bellis’s Analysis Final Fantasy VIII. As Majora’s Mask was the biggest wildcard of the Zelda series, so is FF8 the biggest wildcard of the Final Fantasy series. Some estimates have pegged it as being as strong as 10 (HA) or as weak as 1 (HA); as usual, its strength will probably fall somewhere in the middle of those. The major question is whether or not it will be strong enough to defeat Starcraft. My take on this is WELL YOU’LL HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL THE END OF THE WRITEUP WON’T YOU Soul Calibur. Remember when this game almost beat Kingdom Hearts? I do. Remember when that was relevant? I don’t. Soul Calibur is a likely contender for last here, solely because the other games are out of its league; this is probably the first poll where all the games are decently strong. Starcraft. And here we come to the first of Blizzard’s Terrible Three. In 2004 Starcraft shocked damn near everybody by pulling off one of the greatest Cinderella sprints in contest history. Now, faced with even tougher opposition, will it have the strength to move on? I say “probably,” at least for Round One – I don’t have nearly as much faith in FF8 as others do. Xenogears. I really hate generational seeding, because it means that Xenogears gets wasted again. It’s probably really strong, but who knows? (Though watch it beat FF8…) So yeah, Starcraft preps up its first victim for its second Cinderella run. This one won’t be nearly as successful (there is an OoT in the way), but it should be good regardless. Prediction: kekekeke Final Fantasy VIII with 31..00% Soul Calibur with 10.46% Starcraft with 37.83% Xenogears with 20.71% Guest’s Analysis - The Real Truth Hey I actually get to do another one of these. I picked this match for a reason. FF8, Starcraft and Xenogears are all top games for me. I haven't had much experience with the first Soul Calibur, but I played SC2 a decent amount. It's really a shame that Xenogears isn't going to win a match, when it's such an amazing piece of work. I'm not even going to look at past stats. People are taking Starcraft to place first here, but I don't think it happens. It stands out for sure, but FF8 should do rather well and I'm expecting it to SFF Xenogears badly. There's a chance that Soul Calibur could actually beat out Xenogears for 3rd place here. Starcraft may very well take first place, but I don't think it happens. Even though Fei did respectably in the character batttle and Xenogears beat Pokemon in the first contest, I think the votes it would receive here are all going to FF8. I'd really love to see FF8 push 50% in this match if at all possible, even if it's at the expense of Xenogears. Although Starcraft 2 is on the horizon. What really happens will be a surprise no matter what, I'm sure. Final Fantasy VIII - 44% Starcraft - 35% Soul Calibur - 11% Xenogears - 10% I'm sure I'm going too low with Starcraft, but that's just me hoping FFVIII looks awesome. Crew Consensus: Leon and our Guest have FF8 > Starcraft, but the majority has Starcraft beating FF8. |
the percentages on this match are probably going to be completely different than ours. lookin' forward to it. need some HM FF8 picks since you know that's where he's going !! --- xyzzy http://i42.tinypic.com/2vbwhn4.jpg |
This might be my most anticipated match of the contest so far -- and maybe my favorite one depending on how the results go! There's a lot to keep an eye on in this one: how does FFVIII stack up all these years after release, does StarCraft benefit enough from the format to retain the same kind of strength it had back in 2k4, and is Xenogears enough of a problem to give SC the win. It's good stuff all around, though the crew will probably near unanimously side with BlizzardFEAR. But I'm sticking with Final Fantasy here. I've always had my doubts about StarCraft, even after its 2k4 run. I think StarCraft's legit, non-bandwagoned, non-cheated strength was what it showed against Halo. That's impressive enough for a PC game, but a far cry from going even with Melee and beating The Wind Waker. On the other hand, I'm a believer in Final Fantasy VIII's strength. I think it's always been a top 15 game here, maybe even creeping up toward the top 10. There's admittedly not much to base that on, but if there's one Final Fantasy we haven't seen that would show powerhouse potential, it's FFVIII. I wouldn't say Squall's necessarily indicative of what's to come here (even if Squall is clearly Noble Nine level at this point), but it probably won't be too far off. Some will argue that FFVIII gets a lot of anti-votes, or hate or whatever -- but I point everyone to Pokemon. It's not exactly the same thing, but most of the hate surrounding FFVIII has died down considerably over the years, most of it shifting on to games like FFXII. And unlike, say, Majora's Mask, FFVIII isn't a forgotten game in its series nor is it a low-selling, end of the lifespan one (FFVIII is actually the second best selling FF). It doesn't have much reason to be a weak game. Final Fantasy VIII has everything going for it to be a powerhouse, to the point where it should crush this match -- except for the fact that there's a Xenogears in the way. If FFVIII loses today in a close match, it'll be because of that. But after seeing FFT fail to do much yesterday, though, I don't think the past five years are going to have been kind to ol' 'Gears (then again, Fei managed to get into the past contest, so who knows). It isn't going to completely collapse like most niche RPGs, though. This isn't Phantasy Star or Suikoden -- it's a legitimately loved, well-known game. But even with Xenogears taking up a solid chunk of the votes, I'm pulling for FFVIII to cruise to an easy win. It'll be partly because of SC just being outclassed, partly because of FFVIII's own strength, and partly because if FFVIII doesn't do anything here we're all doomed to Nintendo c'mon Squall time to save this contest from being overrun by Pokemanz Final Fantasy VIII -- 38% StarCraft -- 29% Soulcalibur -- 19% Xenogears -- 14% Bracket: Final Fantasy VIII > StarCraft Favorites: Final Fantasy VIII > Xenogears --- http://i44.tinypic.com/hwh4yo.gif |
Dang it HM, get that pick in! I can't not be the last one into the pool! --- The Guru ROCKS, son! http://thengamer.com/guru/ (thengamer.com/xstats & board8.wikia.com aren't awful either) |
Favorites: Final Fantasy VIII > Xenogears argh --- xyzzy http://www.mistwalkercorp.com/en/_src/sc569/HNI_0022.jpg |
Whoops, let him ninja past me there. Alright, time to get cracking... --- The Guru ROCKS, son! http://thengamer.com/guru/ (thengamer.com/xstats & board8.wikia.com aren't awful either) |
Ngamer's Rebellious Writeup Goodness me, do I ever like being right! Now granted I actually made a pretty bad pick that's going to be way off percentage-wise, and granted I get as sick as anybody about these half dozen "I can't believe people got this one wrong!" topics that go up after every match is decided, but still... I can't believe people got this wrong! Even if FFT would have been constant from '04 there's no way it could have survived that brutal Pokemon ASV (seriously, did you see that thing?), and even if it'd been a decent bit stronger than G/S/C directly there's no way the sore thumb factor wasn't going to carry it to the win. Alright, I guess I'm overstating things a bit; there was still some kind of chance that Gold would flop, but after seeing Red smash faces the day before it was just weird to see 4 Crewmembers cling to their brackets instead of going with the flow. Most importantly this result leaves poor old Majora's Mask looking much much better than it did 24 hours ago, and those opinions are only going to continue to improve next round when Red vs MGS vs MM turns into a three way dogfight! Heading into this season there were four entries that I was most excited to see take the field in this 4way format: StarCraft, Diablo II, World of WarCraft, and Half-Life (well, both HL1 and 2, but I combine them in my mind since they should be very similar). Strong yet independent titles like that are always the most enjoyable to predict, especially when a bracket is as flooded with Nintendo and Square as this one- and that's not even getting into the crazy rally potential all of these guys have! So from one perspective you could say that these 4 might be poised to make deep runs through this tourney, but looking at it another way... have you SEEN how badly the PC has been thrashed so far this year? Maybe that's a silly thing to point out given that the only PC title so far with any kind of potential strength has been Doom, but the most important computer FPS of all time going down easily to a Donkey Kong entry (that was dealing with Zelda) doesn't exactly inspire confidence. That's why despite StarCraft being something like my third favorite game, I'm expecting it to be a disappointment this season, at least relative to that magical (if fishy) 2004 run. It just seems like the '05 site shift wouldn't have done this game any favors, nor would the increased vote totals, and with SCII still a long ways off I'm not seeing much here to help it. HOWEVER, the results so far this season have left me with even less confidence in FF8! FF has just not been impressing no matter how you slice it, and this bad loss by FFT is probably the worst outing yet. I originally only took SC for the win in my bracket because of Xenogears being in the mix, but at this point I think I'd have to side with SC even if if X had been replaced with a neutral title. So yeah, I've got to go with StarCraft to take home a fairly comfortable 3-6 percentage win here just as pretty much everyone else seems to be doing. The cool thing about this poll though is that people seem to have no idea what to think about the bottom two choices. Does Xeno's 20% on FF7 mean it could hold up equally well today, like SoM did? Does Soul Cal's near-win over KH mean anything at all five years later? Personally I have no idea what to think about those two games, so I've just got them finishing about the same and will hope for the best. Which puts us at: Starcraft - 35.67% Final Fantasy VIII - 32.40% Xenogears - 15.98% Soul Calibur - 15.95% Here's hoping to see something exciting! --- The Guru ROCKS, son! http://thengamer.com/guru/ (thengamer.com/xstats & board8.wikia.com aren't awful either) |
whoops, there goes my streak damn you FF8 --- xyzzy http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/7033/trannyanalysis.png |
now we have to figure out if FF8 is strong, Starcraft is weak (I'm banking on this, and not out of bias), or a mix of both. round 2 will be funny though.. there's an OOT in the way which will suck up votes. --- xyzzy |
Favorites: Final Fantasy VIII > Xenogears The **** is this ****. --- No matter what, no matter how, I know I'll make it through somehow. http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b146/KleenexTissue501/Saturn.gif |
Gosh,
I don't know, it's hard to chalk this one up entirely as an SC
disappointment. I mean, it IS putting up 68% on a game it was only
expected to score 54 on based on '04. The more troubling thing in my
mind is that FF8 is putting up 74% directly against a game that even
FF7 only managed 80 on. I guess you could say "last place factor" and
all that, but considering the trouble that anything is having SFFing
ANYTHING this Contest I don't know how much I would buy into that. So I suppose I'm leaning more toward FF8 being legitimately frightening, at least in this format. --- The Guru ROCKS, son! http://thengamer.com/guru/ (thengamer.com/xstats & board8.wikia.com aren't awful either) |
nah,
it's like Cloud:Vyse::Tifa:Vyse. (I keep coming back to this for some
reason) did anybody really expect Xenogears to contend here? FF8's looking good - better than I thought. but I don't think this tells me much. Starcraft is such a huge wildcard that I've doubted for years so I can't say this impresses me, and Soul Calibur has sucked everywhere since 2004. need OOT to confirm. --- xyzzy http://img.imgcake.com//chewing.jpg |
I
don't think StarCraft's all that weak. It's definitely not up to its
2k4 bandwagon levels, but it's hard to imagine it's dropped so far down
that it's just weak -- it isn't doing that bad here, considering the
gap between second and third. Hard to really say since we haven't seen
any of these games in five years, but FFVIII's definitely strong. --- http://i44.tinypic.com/hwh4yo.gif |
Good to see that I picked this one right. --- GameFAQs isn't going to be merged in with GameSpot or any other site. We're not going to strip out the soul of the site. -CJayC |
'weak'
might be the wrong word.. only relatively weak, really. more like
decently strong, but nothing like what you saw before and nothing like
the great Starcraft hype would have you believe. probably about the
level of a Super Mario Kart or something. --- xyzzy http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/7033/trannyanalysis.png |
Well,
I'm not going to set my bracket ablaze yet, though I am a bit
disappointed in Starcraft here. I will say my projected percentage was
more me thinking FF VIII was weak than SC being capable of huge
blowouts. Still think SC advances next round no problem. --- No problem! This is a cute and pop genocide of love! |
Lopen's
not been his usual self rcently,he hasn't got the record for most risks
and it seems like he's more cookie in his picks but hammers in
percentages to the extreme! --- Pearl FC:2450 0974 5734 *shakes fist* |
Starcraft bombing doesn't really worry me. World of Warcraft bombing... that would kinda worry me. >_> --- This was KING BELLIS LOL ed status: [00:26] <pxl> i'd steamboat her willie if you know what i mean |
Deus Ex............................7.67% 9608 Final Fantasy Tactics...22.79% 28531 Metal Gear Solid...........37.08% 46422 Pokemon Gold/Silver....32.45% 40625 TOTAL VOTES........................125186 Matches Completely Correct - 10 Matches Partially Correct - 8 Matches Completely Wrong - 0 What Happened - Pokemon again! Metal Gear Solid is able to take first, but not far behind is G/S in second. FFT doesn't even get close. Why it Happened - Turns out the gap between R/B/Y and G/S isn't that huge after all, depending on how strong MGS is (many consider it at least in the Top 15). FFT has clearly fallen off too. MGS turned a 50-50 match into a 60%+ win. G/S has also soared up in stock with Pokehate pretty much gone, as it lost to Xenogears in 2004, and now it's getting over 45% on MGS. What Will Happen - RBY/Majora's Mask/MGS/GS, wow this is crazy. MGS stands out like crazy, but based on pure strength, RBY looks stronger at the moment. Crew Prediction Challenge - 3 Poke-pickers get points. Tran - 12 HM - 11 Guest - 10 Moltar - 9 Ed - 8 Lopen - 8 Leon - 7 Crew Accuracy Challenge - Moltar gets the point for MGS, Tran gets the point for FFT, Ed gets the point for GS, and Leon gets the point for Deus Ex Moltar - 19 HM - 16 Tran - 14 Lopen - 10 Leon - 9 Ed - 7 Guest (Luster, Zylo (3), HaRR, Kleenex, Soul) - 7 --- Moltar Status: ahh, there you are Match 19 - Bracket: Starcraft > FF8 - Vote: SC (54/72) |
