(how beautiful is that?)
But yeah, D2. FUCK. This is the single most atmospheric game ever made. Period. Forget Clock Tower, Phantasmagoriana, Silent Hill, Resient Evil (back when they were survival horror games and not buddy-action games that take place in daylight, of all things), even.. gulp... Metroid.
I have a weakness for snow. Batman Returns, Simple Plan, Home Alone, Christmas Evil, Fargo -- all movies made a thousand times better by the snow (in Christmas Evil, it was -- get this -- shredded plastic bags!). D2 has snow. Lots and lots and lots of snow. You run around in high heels and a secretary outfit (?!) in the snow after a plane crash. You kill creatures. You level up! The first person perspective where you can't move is sorta like Killer 7... it works great, and I wasn't expecting to level up! Experience points and shit in an action-adventure game? Cool! It works great, giving you more health, making you faster, making the aim on your sniper rifle more steady... cuz you also hunt for game, well before Metal Gear Solid 3, and it's a lot more fun too. You also take pictures, before Metal Gear Solid 2, and save em to your memory card (er, was that feature in MGS1? I dont' think so. I think it was in Twin Snakes though).
The game is disturbing. Flower demon monsters force women to gag on their big monster dick!
The game, with much skill, combines disturbing images, psychosis, imaginative puzzles, a twisted plot and decision making, which is accompanied by brilliant audio and sound effects. Definitely one of the best soundtracks ever for a game. The game just remains consistently fun, inventive, and a true work of art. If I remember correctly, it was a launch title, and was touted as a killer app for the system (along with Sonic Adventure and Soul Calibur).
Dreamcast, to me, represents something far greater than mere video games. The amount of innoative, truly unique titles on that system borders on the insane. There is very very little absolute CRAP on it. And D2 basically represents just about everything I love about video games: it's unique, it's fun, it's inventive but not so convoluted that it's ridiculous.
Warp very much embodied gaming as an
experience. Hideo Kojima (to mixed results), Team Ico (with -- so far -- always-brilliant results), and Grasshopper (about 80% overwhelmingly brilliant) have taken what Warp did and ran with it. The designer of Ico actually helped on Enemy Zero. Warp for life..... After like a decade, the creator of Warp and all the games -- Kenji Eno -- is working on a new game for the Wii, btw (he already released one, not sure how it is though the screens look amazing). He came out of retirement specifically to work on games for the Wii, basically. Another reason to get a Wii.
....
Speaking of Wii and Grasshoppers and whatnot, I just bought this for my girlfriend for X-Mas:
Got it for cheaper than fuck, almost for free really. I've played through most of it a few years back, it's quite awesome, it's no Killer7 which is probably in my top 10 games of all time but it's almost as fucked up and brilliant, and the sloundtrack is possibly better. If she likes it, I'll buy her the 2nd one too. I'm glad those games did really really well in the U.S.A, as they sold horribly in Japan. All people want to play in Japan is Brain Age and shit.
GOOD NEWS: THE SILENT HILL COMPOSER I MENTIONED ABOVE -- ...Akira Yamaoka... -- LEFT KONAMI AND JOINED GRASSHOPPER! I didn't realize he helped with the music on Snatcher -- which is an amazing soundtrack, btw -- as well as rocket Knight Adventures (developed by the team that went on to become Treasure), Contra:Shattered Soldier (an absolutely AMAZING Contra game for the PS2, which is just a tad too easy; it feels more like Hard corps than Contra 3, thank god, and it's nothing like the 3D PS1 games,
THANK FUCKING GOD. Neo-Contra isn't... TOOO... bad, but who else is SUPER excited for the new Contra Hard Corps sequel developed by the Guilty Gear team?! fuck yes! Anyway, isn't it weird I bought this game and I just mentioned Silent Hill and the composer left to go to Grasshopper?!?!? Weird shit like that happens to me frequently... Anyway... that was my post with lots of random info no one will find interesting, hope you all liked!)