I am directing a new independent game project! It is currently called Project Darkside, and is heavily inspired by sci-fi games like Bioshock or Fallout. We need lots of help; right now all we have is a developer, animator, and writer. So, whatever you can help with will be great! This game is set on a Russian moon base that was built in the 80's as an experiment, to create a perfect Communist utopia. You discover this city, in the far future, after it's been long abandoned and destroyed by alien attacks. You are trapped here, and must fight wave after wave of aliens and mutants; all while discovering the dark truths of the city. You'll learn of it's origins, it's prosperity, and it's downfall; at the hands of communism, corruption, and an unending pursuit of science.

It's a very exciting project, and you can join at www.reddit.com/r/projectdarkside. Or message me here on Vizzed, over on Reddit, or via email at LWSrocks@gmail.com. I can't wait to hear back! Bye!

It's just that I've seen that same character a billion times. "Look at me. I'm a shadowy, mysterious figure with a dark past and a gruff voice." Now who did I just describe? Shadow, or Batman?

Sonic 4 would be great if it had lived up to the promises made when it was very first announced. The speed of a Sonic game is only rewarding when it's been earned. Games like Rush where you start out moving as fast as you can go, are not fun to play. The fun to play games are like the original where before going so fast, you need to build up momentum. Without momentum, the speed isn't rewarding.

This is what was basically said when "Project Needlemouse" was announced back in 2008, and it got me excited; unfortunately I don't feel that the game captured the "momentum" part at all. It was just speed. And the physics were messed up beyond all recognition. I didn't enjoy it as much as I could have.

Sonic 3D Blast is another example of Sega's huge rush to get games out by certain dates. In many cases, they forego quality to speed up development time, and that's why you see such a large decline in the Sonic games' quality these days. For Christmas of 1996, the big game was supposed to be Sonic X-Treme. They worked on it for awhile, did a few demos, it was supposed to bring Sonic into the 3D realm, kind of like Sonic Adventure. Some issues happened with Sonic Extreme, part of it was development issues and problems with the game engine. When it got cancelled, they only had a few short months to cobble together something for the Genesis ASAP.

So what happened? Sonic 3D Blast. The upcoming christmas special was retitled from Sonic's X-Treme Christmas, to Sonic's Christmas Blast; and the rest is history. As for my personal thoughts on the game, I'm not a huge fan. I got tired of the repetitive, un-innovative gameplay VERY quickly.

I'm gonna go against the tide here- and say Shadow. "WHAT!?!!?" you say! "HOW DARE YOU INSULT THE EPIC BAD-*** NINJA SHADOW!?!?!" And here's what I mean. Shadow, when introduced in SA2, was supposed to be an enigma. He was supposed to be strange and mysterious. But he's been SO USED TO DEATH that there's hardly any mystery left in the character. He's an over-glorified Sonic re-color with a predictable, cliched personality that's been hogging the spotlight for 10 years. You'll all agree, I'm sure, that Shadow the Hedgehog was a DISASTER of a game. It's use of vehicles and weapons were a fun gameplay element that I would've liked to see more of, but outside of that, it was an obvious attempt at pandering to an older crowd that just didn't work as intended.

You wanna know what character I want to see more of? Metal Sonic. MS pulls off the air of mystery that Shadow hopes so desperately to achieve. Metal Sonic is the closest any villain has ever come to defeating Sonic, and that's what makes him so interesting. Whenever Eggman runs off on one of his crazy schemes, you know that he's doomed to fail, but Metal Sonic is essentially a stronger version of Sonic- so anything goes for him. I want to see more Metal, less Shadow.

I also don't like that nobody has ever had a good idea of whether Shadow is a good guy or not. He's so unclear in his allegiances that it's just annoying.

I've found that every Pokemon player has a different strategy for how they play through the game. When I was younger, about 8, playing Fire Red on my Gameboy Advance, I wasn't a very strategic thinker- I didn't catch any Pokemon at all and barreled through the entire game with my Charmander. In fact I don't think I actually beat the game, I probably got stuck with a Gym Leader after realizing that I couldn't beat it without going back and catching pokemon, but I didn't really want to.

Now, playing Black, I'm very meticulous about keeping all six of my Pokemon on the exact same level. I'm about halfway through at the moment, and I've got a pretty solid plan worked out for whenever I reach the city. Using my starter Pokemon, I use it as my main weapon against random encounters up until I get to the city, and once I get there, I catch all of my other Pokemon up to it before battling the gym. Say my starter is at Level 24 by the time I get to the city, I would then get all of the other Pokemon leveled up to 24 before taking on the gym leader.

Alright, alright. I will admit that with BW, they made a lot of changed. BW is a tougher game, with better fighting, better graphics, and (IMO) better Pokemon. But when you get right down it's core, it's still the same game. We've been playing for 15+ years and they still haven't figured out how to move diagonally.

I think that after BW2, Grey, RSE remakes, and whatever else they decide to squeeze out of the 5th generation before addressing the elephant-in-the-room and FINALLY making a 3DS game.... it's time for an evolution. Here are things I think need to be changed about Pokemon.

Let's have some graphics that don't look like they're from the 90's.

BW, while it did have some wonderful camera angles and shifting viewpoints to allow a level of realism to the game, it still isn't nearly up to par with the current generation of games- and partly because it was released on a dying console. The DS has been around for 7 years, and the 3DS is MUCH more capable. It has better graphics than the Wii. Let's take Pokemon into the new generation and give it some graphics that are fun to look at. I'd like for the game to shift entirely out of the isometric birds-eye view.

How about a little bit of character customization?

I remember when D/P/Pt came out, and lots of people complained that because of the boy's stupid-looking hat, they were gonna play as the girl. In fact, have any of you seen the teaser trailer for BW2? I don't want to play as that guy, either. When the next generation comes along, I want Pokemon to catch up with the other major RPG franchises, and allow some character customization. It'd be great for this to introduce a gameplay dynamic where certain items can boost certain attributes, like a hat that strengthens fire-related attacks.

Why can't battles be a little bit more... animated?

Come on. These battles should be a bit more exciting, no? Rather than two static pixelated characters standing completely still and switching moves back and forth, we should have a bit more animation in this. Have the Pokemon characters be rendered in 3D, a la the 3DS Pokedex. Give them animations. Have them square off with each other before attacking, etc. etc. Another thing that would be great fun would be RTS-style combat, in the style of Advance Wars or Fire Emblem. Maybe not for the main series, but as a spin-off, you have to admit that would be pretty cool.

Let's be honest... what would you rather make an army out of? Cute little baby-themed Pokemon, or huge, kick-butt monsters. It is Pocket Monsters, after all.

I'm tired of seeing cutesy little baby Pokemon. If you consider that the average Pokemon player is a 13-14 year old male, not a 7-8 year old female, it simply doesn't make sense that the majority of Pokemon are meant to look cute. What if you took an awesome, butt kicking Pokemon like Zekrom or Kyurem- THOSE aren't cute. THOSE look like they could tear your face off. Now imagine that ALL OF THA POKEYMANS are like that, and the legendaries and evolved Pokemon are EVEN. MORE. AWESOME.

It's the same story. Boy meats evil team, boy fights evil team, boy saves the day and defeats evil team. (Insert cool sounding name here, like Rocket or Plasma)

Pokemon games have the potential to create enthralling stories but every single generation, it's the same old song. Your mom kicks you out of the house and says, "Okay honey, go take a journey and learn how to be an adult! I have absolutely no problem with this whatsoever!" and then you travel from city to city, collecting Gym Badges, filling your Pokedex, and trying to take down whatever "Team Blank" you're fighting in this installment. Why can't we have a rich, deep story with INTERESTING characters and dialog that doesn't make me want to throw my DS against a wall? Black had some interesting ideas, like how Team Plasma was kind of a PETA-esqe Pokemon's Rights group. And that's a fresh, new take on the idea. But it's still the same thing. You still collect your gym badges, fill your pokedex, and occasionally fight the Plasma grunts. That's all there is to it.

I'm not asking for a full on Mass Effect-style morality system, but give us some choices and branching paths.

Pokemon is already very open-world, so the ability to make some decisions and change the outcome of the game would be really fun to play with. I'd even consider the idea that you're a bad guy, and you're working for the villainous "Team Something". That would be really cool.

Pokemon has been absolutely BEGGING for a great multiplayer component since it's very inception. Can we make this a reality?

I'm not just talking about battling and trading with your friends- great features that are very useful and fun- I'm talking about being able to connect your devices and live and play in the same world. Battle together, in the double battle style (or rotation battle style) and do all sorts of those fun multiplayer things. THAT would be great. In fact, a computer based Pokemon MMO with ALL of these features, would be the best game ever made and would definitely make ALL OF THE MONEY.

So consider what I'm saying. What do you want changed, and why?

Also, a little diagonal movement would be very, very nice

I like it! I'll consider using it, but I'm gonna wait and see if there are any other entries.

Hey there. I'm producing dubstep music, and I want a cool logo to use as a cover for my first EP. I'm looking for something kind of like the Skrillex logo- cool looking letters, etc. I have one drawn up but I have no way to make it look professional or interesting so if somebody could make a logo of the words "Syntax Jet" and make it look cool, I will pay 20,000 viz- but only if it's the one I end up using. Submitting a logo will get 1000 Viz automatically, so it'll be worth the effort even if it doesn't end up being what I use.

DWhitSlaya : I've heard all of those artists before, I just mentioned Scary Monsters because it's well-known and accessible. My favorite dubstep artists are KDrew, xKore, and Tristam.

cooleo : What? I heard a Nyan Cat dubstep EXACTLY like that somewhere else.

Also to Leggy and maverick.... so did you guys come here just to say, "That's terrible music that you listen to, it stinks."? I don't go into Heavy Metal threads and talk about why it sucks or go into PS3 threads and talk about why I prefer Xbox, it's just bad netiquette.

Okay, just want to make it official - If you win, you do NOT GET BACK WHAT YOU BET. After Silverthundr said it should not be that way, I started thinking. What's stopping anyone from betting on 5 of the 6 spots, and when they inevitably win, they score the 1000 that was bet on the 6th one? This is what. You make the pot, LESS YOUR BET. If everyone bets 1000 and you bet 1000 on 3 spots, if you win, you only get 3000. This is to keep people from placing bets on a huge chuck of the slots to get easy Viz.

tRIUNE : yes, you are on four.

Alright. Its at 30,000. I hope someone notices this thread before like, donating 20 bucks or something. If you buy the gift code and trade it to me for 30,000 viz, your getting 10,000 more than you would if you donate.

5 is taken by Silverthundr. What do you want instead?

Someone took it already, sorry.

Yeah, I agree it was a mistake, I won't use links I don't know what they lead to.

tRIUNE : yeah, I was kidding lol. Hence the 'jk lol' in parentheses