Raven10

Kratos destroyed the whole world in that game. He pretty much destroyed the entire human race in his quest for vengeance. I hated him for everything he did that whole game. He went from being an anti-hero to a pure villain.

I haven't played Heroes 1 in years, but when I first played it I loved it.

I liked it as well. Wouldn't mind another.

While I agree with you, the VGA's are the single most important video game show of the year. Why? Because outside of GTTV it is really the only nationally televised gaming show. And GTTV comes on at some godforsaken hour like 1:00 AM or something. For people who care just a little about video games, they are going to watch the VGA's over any other gaming show. Their knowledge of what will come out next year is determined by the trailers shown during that show, and the games they think are good are those given awards during the show. And, honestly, save for a couple awful choices, most of the VGA winners were decent. 
 
Point is, we gamers who care about games as more than a way to spend an evening with friends may hate the show. It is overall a terrible show to anyone but the lowest common denominator. But it is the most watched gaming event of the year. Does it matter who wins the AIAS Awards? Who wins the GDC Awards? Who wins the Giantbomb Awards? No, it doesn't. Because who cares? Maybe the five thousand people that read the article about the GDC winners. But in an industry of billions of dollars and hundreds of millions of sales, five thousand people just don't matter one tiny bit. Award shows simply don't matter unless they are watched by millions of people. Yea if you win that may be a great honor (or maybe not in this case) but who cares about you? Anyone know who the lead designer of Red Dead Redemption is? How about Mass Effect 2? I know that for Mass Effect 2 the answer is Casey Hudson, but how many people other than me here knew that? So that dude feels great about himself, and personally I am really happy for his success. He has brought us a ton of great games over the years and deserves a lot more recognition than he ever gets. But did they even say his name when Mass Effect 2 won the awards? Did they say the good Doctors' names when Bioware won Studio of the Year? I didn't watch the show this year, but in years past they haven't. Point is, the sole purpose of this show is to increase Christmas sales of the best games released this year, and hype up the releases of big games next year. And guess what? It is a huge success at doing that. And let's face it, Limbo probably just earned itself a good 50,000 sales off that award. And I for one can respect that.

I think both the water and snow in the Uncharted games looked great. Not the best snow or water ever, but still quite good. As for the sand, I assume it will be great. But I don't think that is going to be the reason to buy the game...
 
Anyone who says the snow and water look bad, though, are crazy. They aren't the pinnacle of those effects but they are still better than 95% of the games out there.

" You bilked yourself out of a lot of enjoyment of ME2 having not played ME1 first. "

For those talking about the engine, Gamebryo no longer exists. The company went bankrupt a couple weeks ago. So I would assume that the new game is not using it. Also, it wouldn't use Id Tech 5 because it wouldn't fit on even two or three discs. Mega Textures take up a huge amount of disk space, and for something as big as an Elder Scrolls game you'd probably need two or three blu rays to hold it all.

" They mispronounced Mass Effect 2 at the end.  Uncharted looked incredible.  Were Naughty Dogs the only ones to show gameplay?  I didn't watch all of it but the Uncharted trailer was th only one I saw that had gameplay.  Was really hoping to see some from Batman and ME3. "

You know I haven't played the first Heroes since the mid 90's but at the time I loved it. I wonder how I would feel about it these days? I still play 3 and enjoy it. I actually have a mint condition copy of Daggerfall that I picked up at a used book store for like $20. Never tried to make it run but honestly, why risk scratching the disk of a mint condition game worth over $100. 
 
And since I didn't get a chance to comment on your other Dos blogs, I'll just say that if you decide to play Ultima Underworld anymore (Which you should) be sure to have a guide with you. I've played the game several times, and even with a guide I've never actually beaten it correctly. But the atmosphere is worth the effort. Also, Arx does make a bad impression, but it gets better. I have played maybe four or five hours of it and enjoyed it, but moved on after that. It was supposed to be Underworld 3 but EA wouldn't agree to publish it and they held the rights.

I always wanted to play Wizardry 8. I remember when it came out and I really was thinking of getting it but ended up not. Probably a bad choice looking back on it. Let's see, of the others I've played DMC3, Bioshock, and Age of Wonders. Agree that DMC3 is the best game in the series, and that Bioshock is better as a piece of interactive art than as a shooter. Age of Wonders is okay. Never found it as good as Heroes, Disciples, or Warlords. 
 
Also, if you want a much better 4X space game then try Galactic Civilizations. It's one of the best turn based strategy games out there. Not on the same level as Heroes 3 (what is?) but still awesome in its own right. 
 
And finally, you should keep playing Ultima Underworld. It is one of the best games ever made. It takes some time to get used to the controls if you are used to modern day first person games, but the atmosphere and gameplay are superb, and in many areas still unmatched. Interesting subnote. The creators of Bioshock, Irrational Games, was a successor to Looking Glass Studios, the team behind Ultima Underworld and later Thief and System Shock. The team split into a couple of teams, Irrational continued the System Shock series and then later created Bioshock. Ion Storm Austin continued the Thief series and made Deus Ex and was later disbanded. Many of those people ended up at Junction Point which just released Epic Mickey. And then the third group started Arkane which made Arx Fatalis. Other members have worked on projects as far ranging as Guitar Hero and Half Life 2. Definitely an old school group of folks you should check out.