Monster Mash: A roundtable discussion of all things gaming

Have you ever wondered what gaming insiders think about the video game industry? Wanna talk games? Good, bad and butt fugly, your M&C gaming editors and writers discuss your gaming questions, comments and concerns on today's Monster Mash.

Wanna talk games? Good, bad and butt fugly, your M&C gaming editors and writers discuss your gaming questions, comments and concerns on today's Monster Mash. Now you can find out first hand here at Monster Mash, a roundtable discussion where your editors and writers will take your gaming questions and answer them as best we can. Since this is the first edition, we're starting with some general questions but we'd love to hear from you about your concerns, gripes, yays and nays and overall questions about gaming. Email us here with the subject heading: Monster Mash Question Submission to get your question answered by our panel of gaming addicts.So without further ado, let us begin.Question #1: What game are you most looking forward to in 2007? Derek: This is really a tough one. There are a lot of good games on the horizon and so choosing one is fairly difficult. I'll bypass the obvious choice of Spore and go with BioShock, though. Spore looks to be amazing and revolutionary in every sense of the word, but I'm a huge fan of System Shock and a stickler for atmosphere. From what I've seen, BioShock looks like it captures all the paranoia of its spiritual predecessors and sets it in a new, more open-ended direction.

You want atmosphere and mood, look no further than BioShock.

Casey: There's a lot of great games coming out this year- BioShock, God of War II, GTA IV, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Heavenly Sword, Half Life 2: Orange, Assassin's Creed - but I'm going to go with Halo 3, hands down. Seriously, finally being able to finish the story, and more importantly, new multiplayer options (you can only play SWAT on Lockout so many times) make Halo 3 the shoo-in for most anticipated game of 2007.Hector: I'm going to go with Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed. The game looks absolutely gorgeous and the AI seems to be the best ever in a console game. I was a huge fan of the recent Prince of Persia games and Assassin's Creed looks like it will fill the void of no PoP game on next-gen consoles quite nicely.

Question #2: Do you think the gaming industry is going in the right direction? Derek: The game industry as a whole could be going in a better direction, but it also certainly could be going in a worse direction. Right now, I think games are coming into their own as an art form, and as such are experiencing some growing pains. The consolidation of the industry worries me, as more and more studios get scooped up by the big boys and as the industry falls into the familiar habit of churning out formula after formula. But the light at the end of that tunnel is the rise of the independent game, and the fact that we're seeing some genuine innovation and quality come out of that area is definitely heartening.Casey: Yes and no. Yes because there were so many great games to come out last year and the list of fantastic games this year even looks better. No because the industry is still making the same lame mistakes - games based on movies and cartoons still mostly suck, AI still bites (except maybe F.E.A.R.) and sadly, the gaming industry still hasn't figured out how to make a decent Superman game. For Kryptons sake, why do these humans always make me look so bad?

"For Krypton's sake, why do these humans always make me look so bad?"

Hector: I believe the industry is headed in a direction it would have been years ago had it not been for bad publicity arising from such incidents as so-called "video game-related" deaths. Games weren't seen a viable forms of entertainment by the mass media. Until recently, thanks to Nintendo, there seems to be an embracing of the gaming culture. With the DS and the Wii, Nintendo has now included those in the mass media who felt excluded, thereby changing their perception of the gaming industry.

Question #3: Which game from your childhood do you wish would be remade or ported to a current handheld or console? Derek: I wish the game industry would stop trying to make money off our nostalgia. The games from my childhood are just that, and I want to see new games that captivate me for what they are and not what I remember them to be. The whole 'spiritual successor' trend is to me what the nostalgia kick should be: taking the best elements of games from our childhoods and injecting them with new life through some of the recent advents in technology and gameplay. Taking a good thing and making it better, instead of taking a good thing and making it all over again.

Casey: Bruce Lee, from the Commodore 64, would be a perfect game to port to the Xbox 360. After all, what gamer wouldn't want to play the ultimate beat 'em up game as THE Bruce Lee? I can imagine it being a cross between Ninja Gaiden and God of War, all action, brawling, and crazy platforming, with some abdomen-electrocution work out and Kareem Abdul Jabar dodging mini-games.Hector: I'm still waiting on Square Enix to port of remake the best SNES game ever released, Chrono Trigger. I have fond memories of that game. It's actually my favorite game of all time. Having a portable version on the DS Lite would make my year! Of course, I also wouldn't object to a true sequel... I'm looking at you Chrono Cross! Come on Square, what’s taking you so long? Booyah.

Booyah.

And there you have it folks. If you want to submit a question to Monster Mash, please do so by sending an email to Hector with the subject heading: Monster Mash Question Submission.Casey Lynch is the console editor at M&C.Derek Boiko-Weyrauch is the PC editor at M&C.Hector Cortez is a console games writer at M&C.