Sweet. Pretty uneventful month otherwise. I see a 9 in there for Motorstorm too--good stuff.

7.5 isn't a bad score, though I suppose from 1up that is sorta low. I'm getting it too.

And yeah they write three reviews, and I would imagine sites like metacritic use all three. I don't really like their reviews much, outside of a large release they're usually pretty small and untelling..sorta like 1up's.

Yup, strange and wrong. It may be the most beautiful PS2 game ever made though. Even that is open to interpretation. I do see where you are coming from--it's more impressive as a PS2 game than perhaps your average current gen game is on newer hardware--but it's still a PS2 game and there are certainly better looking games.

I wholeheartedly agree. I'm playing Secret Rings now, and there's this level called Levitated Ruin.. and it's just so damn beautiful I just can't help but.. feel that I've somehow lost a bit of respect for HD. Sharpness is fun, but there's something about this way of... sort of capturing your *overall visual attention* and just painting this awesome visual experience on the whole that.. just wins for me.

The feeling of being overwhelmed is a matter of balance.. it's a matter of balancing expectations and setting up "combos" of visuals.. creating contrast to catch you off guard. If this exact game had been running on PS3, would we feel as blown away? Truthfully? I don't think we would.

So why is that? And even more importantly; is that a good or a bad thing?

If this game on this platform gives us genuine feelings of amazement, then surely the fact that the same exact experience on better hardware is inferior to that is a horrible, horrible truth. I wonder sometimes what the right balance is in regards to this fact, and I wonder if tech advances in terms of graphics is naturally a good thing.

I firmly believe limit in tech is a real catalyst here, and I think it's an interesting thing to ponder what that means. For us - for games and the feelings they give us.