Gaming Resources that you couldn't live without?

[gingerj]

Easy all, I just thought I might start a topic about gaming resources that help you make your mind up on purchasing games and that help you acquire your gaming knowledge in whatever genres you love. For me I've got some essentials that I don?t think I could live without in my little slice of the gaming world.

www.ntsc-uk.com with its honest reviews and great forum community its a must for every gamer not just ones who specialise in imports.

www.markinjapan.com I find this site to be one of the best around for working out what games have been released and there availability its a good read just to browse through the database.

www.siliconera.com Is another amazing review site that produces honest and well balanced reviews for a lot of niche titles that sometimes don?t make the ntsc-uk review list.

www.shmups.com Is in my personal opinion the best site on the net for shmup coverage and has a terrific community of skilled gamers.

www.gamerankings.com I don?t even think about purchasing a western game without first consulting this site I know sometimes review rankings get dodgy overall scores due to the site having and eclectic mix of scoring systems but it does give a good indication of a game is a good purchase or not.

Yeah so there?s my list hopefully its been some sort of use to you and maybe you guys could share your lists.

[Paul3704]

https://www.gamefaqs.com

Mightily Useful. How could anyone forget this?

[Flabio]

One I've discovered recently:

http://www.filefront.com

Usually the same files as fileplanet (as far as demos and videos go anyway) but much shorter download queues.

[Concept]

http://www.ccgr.org/

Christian Game Reviews. Just for the inadvertant humour.

I found them when browsing Game Rankings a while back, they always seemed to rate the videogames I happen to love with low scores, and I always find it fascinating reading negative reviews of titles I rate.

Considering I don't follow any religion, I find the 'Appropriateness' scoring somewhat amusing I suppose.

Here's what they had to say about Ocarina of Time's 'Appropriateness' (how anyone could find the game offensive is almost beyond me):

Because of the dark elements, this game does not score very high in the Appropriateness category. In the game, there is a story about three goddesses creating the earth and all life on it. This strongly goes against the Christian religion. Plus, there is use of magic and spells. (Only three though). Violence is really not a problem, and the dark elements are nothing worse than J.R.R. Tolkien's writing.

Their reviews on Silent Hill 2, Manhunt and San Andreas are particularly good.

[Ish]

I used to have a list as long as my arm I could post. But I've got far too lazy. I just hang round here these days. There are a few people who post on here who's (surprisingly! stupidly some might say) opinions I trust so I just read the First Play threads and the site reviews.

[evert]

The frightening thing about that Christian review page is that other than the claptrap about appropriateness, the reviews are quite well written and put together!
Scary how seemingly intelligent people can be so easily scared and offended by things which THEY don't believe in.

Anyway, on topic, GAMEFAQS is very good as a quick resource site, but the boards are probably the most depressing game boards I have come across on the net.
Looking for info on DK Jungle Beat I checked out the board, only to find page after page of long posts arguing about how the game is /isnt bastardising "Donkey Kong" and everything Rare "had done for his image" ..just pathetic stuff really.

For quick Gamecube related news I always check

www.cube-europe.com

Nothing special but lots of tidbits for Nintendo lovers

[babs]

Skirting briefly on-topic, Magicbox is a handy place too.

[hankwangford]

Concept, it wasn't your post, it was sausage lips that got our blood a little boiled. CCGR deserves a smackdown from any intellegent Christian for being so extremist in their judgement of videogames!

[gingerj]

http://dynamic5.gamespy.com/~japangaming/main.php I just found this site and i'm sure many of you guys here will appreciate it.