Messages

11351

TalkBack / Re: PODCAST: Radio Free Nintendo: Episode 123

« on: December 17, 2008, 02:06:23 AM »

You know, it's funny but when I submitted that question about comparative reviews, the section on comparing games in reviews within a franchise was actually meant to bait you guys into a discussion on your previous discussions of the Zelda series.  ^_-  I really consider sports games to be an exception to all this, as they just use literally the same game design document from installment to installment with minor tweaks.

Good episode, though, and great to see it "recovered."

11352

TalkBack / Re: Advice to PS3 Fans from a Nintendo Fanboy

« on: December 17, 2008, 01:36:53 AM »

Back in July after Nintendo's abysmal E3 showing, I resolved to purchase a new console to fill in the inevitable drought till something I was interested in appeared on the Wii.  At the time, my financial situation wasn't as bad as it is now and I could actually afford to do that.  However, despite how hard the GameStop folks were trying to push me to buy a PS3, I decided instead to buy one of the brand new slim PS2s that fit right in alongside my Wii on my shelf.  Why?  It's too damn expensive, I couldn't buy a new model that still had 100% perfect PS2 emulation, and there really weren't any games on the thing I was interested in.  Those 3 things (well, 4 when you count their supreme arrogance) essentially doomed Sony this generation.

If Sony wants to make some recovery, the best thing they can do is modularize the PS3: gut the Blu-Ray player and reinstate the PS2 emulation hardware.  I don't give a damn about Blu-Ray (and given how strong DVD continues to do, I'm far from the only one), and when the time comes that I do I'll get a standalone player for it.  Make the Blu-Ray player a separate attachment for those who want it.  Ditto for the hard drives, which right now just lead to too many SKUs in the marketplace and outright confusion.  I'm interested in playing the games on the system first, and the removal of these components would probably drop the price of the PS3 by at least $100-$150. 

I consider Sony's removal of the PS2 hardware to be an especially aggregious error, because what if I want to bring over the sizeable collection of PS2 games I've collected over the past 6 months with me when I upgrade?  Right now, there's no guarantee that I could play all of them unless I got a 60 GB PS3 model, which are no longer being manufactured if I remember correctly.  Given the massive install base the PS2 has, I can't imagine it did Sony much good to essentially slam the door in their face with this, if in public relations alone.

As for the games, they are starting to appear.  Valkyria Chronicles and Little Big Planet in particular have me quite interested in the system, and there will be more on the way in the future (most systems have a library of games worth playing).  Sony, though, has priced the PS3 to the point where the cost of the experience outweighs the benefits, and unless they change that the system will never perform even modestly.

The window has long passed where Sony had a chance to win this generation, and they only have themselves to blame.  Their only recourse if they want to stay alive as a hardware manufacturer is to cut down on the excess, bring down the price, and make the console more accessible to your average gamer.

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TalkBack / Re: Nintendo to Help Promote Dragon Quest X

« on: December 16, 2008, 12:01:18 AM »

I just love how even the most positive of Nintendo news can be turned around into a negative, angst filled event :p .

Guys, this is normal. Dragonquest X might be the biggest Wii third party title yet, one that isn't a spin off, a party game or a quirky new IP. Its a canon entry to one of the biggest franchises to ever come out of Japan. Can you blame Nintendo for pledging support?

Not to mention that if this works out, other third parties will want to offer their big games and know that Nintendo will support them.

I said at the outset of the news that the Wii would be getting Dragon Quest X that this would be huge for the console in Japan, and that even though I dislike the series it was good for 3rd party support that Nintendo got it.  Bringing it over here is a completely different story however, because no amount of marketing spin will get that series to sell well in North America if the game itself doesn't offer anything new.  Good for Nintendo to stretch out the olive branch...again...to Square-Enix to establish stronger ties to 3rd parties.

11354

TalkBack / Re: Nintendo to Help Promote Dragon Quest X

« on: December 15, 2008, 10:51:15 PM »

*yawn*

Whatever.  The only way that series is going to sell well over here is if Square-Enix stops using its 20-year old design document from Dragon Quest 1 for every game in the (main) damn series.  And if they did that the series wouldn't sell well in Japan, so that's just not going to happen.  A shame, really...I could really dig a DQ RPG that expanded on the concept of Dragon Quest Swords.  But no, it'll be the same damn game as the 9 other games in the series that came before it, with slight graphical tweaks.

Nintendo can promote that game all it wants here, throw up all the commercials they want of "casual" players fiddling with the thing...but if the game itself isn't significantly different it'll sell tepidly here just like all its (numbered) bretheren before it.

11355

TalkBack / Re: Persona 3 Audio Discussion

« on: December 11, 2008, 04:20:07 AM »

I've never even heard of this series.

GoldenPhoenix, you can currently buy Persona 3 FES from Amazon with the (FES version) soundtrack and artbook for only $23.01.  If you like RPGs (and strange ones in particular) and own a PS2 or backwards-compatible PS3, you're not going to find a better deal for the game than that and you are commanded to pick it up.  ^_-

Incidentally, I'm curious if you guys will do a Persona 4 podcast.  Playing through 4, I really have mixed feelings about some of the changes they've made from 3 FES (I'd detail them, but I've seen from experience that that takes up half a screen of text) but I do think I like it better than 3 FES.  I'm curious what your thoughts on the game are.

11356

TalkBack / Re: PODCAST: Radio Free Nintendo: Episode 124

« on: December 11, 2008, 01:01:50 AM »

What do you know...this site's doing podcasts again.  What's next?  Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling!  Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes... The dead rising from the grave!   Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria!

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TalkBack / Re: Dragon Quest X Coming to Wii

« on: December 10, 2008, 02:05:15 AM »

I strongly dislike the Dragon Quest franchise (I recently played DQ VIII, and it played exactly like an NES game with no evolution whatsoever), but this is huge for the console.  Even an RPG from a franchise I don't like is a strong movement towards more RPGs I DO like I the Wii.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: What Virtual Console Games Do You Want? (Realistic Possibilities or Not!)

« on: December 05, 2008, 11:52:36 PM »

Earthbound
Mother 0
Illusion of Gaia
Terranigma
Lufia 2: Rise of the Sinestrals
Star Fox
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The Arcade Game
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time
Ogre Battle
Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Calibur
Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

That's just off the top of my head.

11359

TalkBack / Re: REVIEWS: Sonic Unleashed

« on: December 02, 2008, 03:04:52 AM »

I've never been much of a Sonic fan, but I'll never understand why Sonic Team can't just leave the series core concept well enough alone.  After all these years, they've apparently finally gotten traditional Sonic to work in 3D, and yet they still continue to screw things up by throwing in crap that no one likes.  They just can't leave well enough alone and ship a game that only has the fun stuff, but feel compelled with every installment to come up with something new that's impossible for any sane human being to enjoy.  It's crap like this that makes me wish that the Sonic franchise had been buried 2 generations ago.

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TalkBack / Re: Monster Games Working On Secret Project

« on: December 01, 2008, 09:11:44 PM »

...Why is Excite Truck 2 unimpressive?

I doubt it will be something groundbreaking, but it's nice to know that they are working on something of some importance, even if its something as predictable as a follow-up to Excite Truck.

It's unimpressive because it is so predictable, and just about the only thing the first game was notable for was the ability to play your own MP3s off the SD Card.

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TalkBack / Re: Monster Games Working On Secret Project

« on: December 01, 2008, 05:10:01 PM »

Meh, this reeks of PR B.S. to me.  It reminds me strikingly of the "TEH MEGATON!" hype from so many years ago.  As like is not, they're just developing a run-of-the-mill game that they want to drum up the hype for, and they know that traditional Wii gamers are desperate for just about anything at this point.  I'd like to be wrong on this, but it will probably be something incredibly unimpressive like Excite Truck 2 or Excite Bike.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World

« on: November 26, 2008, 10:05:29 AM »

Whatever.  Apparently, the fact that I don't worship this game and sees that it has flaws means that I don't "get it."  It's a decent Tales game, but nothing special.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World

« on: November 26, 2008, 07:12:55 AM »

Wow, NinGurl69 *huggles...way to overhype a game.  Dawn of the New World is a good game, but I'm in Chapter 3 (just completed the Iselia Ranch section) and I'm not seeing that it's headed towards "great game" territory.  Despite just recently evolving a kickass trio of Manticore; Salamander; and Fenrir monters, I'm just not sold on the monster system.  Yes, the things can grow absurdly powerful, but most look (and sound) incredibly lame/generic and all of them take a great amount of work to make good.  There's also a very real problem with having 2 monster characters alongside Emil and Marta: you get Game Over when all your human characters die and your monsters can't use items, setting up a very real situation where you get a Game Over even though you still have 2 fighters in the battle.  I've come very close to hitting that situation.  It's a fun idea (and certainly better done than in the GBA Lufia game, which was the last game I saw to use a similar similar), but it just isn't implemented very well.  I'm not thrilled with how you basically have to mess with the elemental affinity of the battlefield (which isn't even possible till after acquiring the first Centurion Core) just to get one halfway decent generic-looking unison attack now, either.  I would have prefered instead of this whole convoluted monster system that they would have just let you select one monster at the beginning of the game who would travel with you, level-up, evolve, and fill a 4th slot in your party.

Likewise with the Quest system: the Quests are generally fun (though hard) at first, but like I said I'm in Chapter 3 and I'm already seeing repeats of very generic dungeon crawling missions, and they don't get any more interesting the second time through.  They would have done better to have story-based sidequests tied into these Quests.

Then we get to the visuals.  Yes, the motion-capture does give some fantastic animation in the cutscenes, but the whole game looks substandard with this very bland color pallete and very soft edges.  In other words, it looks just as half-baked as Tales of the Abyss.  The voice-acting and music, though, are outstanding.  Most of the recasted Symphonia voices even sound good, and there's a lot more nuance in the acting now.  And after this game they can't go back to not voicing the skits, because it makes all the difference in the world.

My opinion of the game may change as I get further along, but basically if you loved Symphonia you'll like this game.  If you didn't or didn't play Symphonia, this really won't do anything for you.  Vesperia, though, looks amazing and from what I've read sports a very interesting main character...though not the most interesting supporting cast.

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TalkBack / Re: PODCAST: Radio Free Nintendo: Ocarina of Time

« on: November 26, 2008, 06:24:43 AM »

Ocarina is probably my 3rd-favorite Zelda game, preceeded by Twilight Princess at 2 and Majora's Mask at 1.  It still has my favorite Zelda dungeons and bosses, though, and the sheer scope of the game is incredibly impressive for its time.  Ocarina also introduced a sense of cinematic presentation and story to the series that we're still seeing the ripple effects of today.  One thing, though, related to your discussion of the game: Z-Targeting DOES have a gameplay element: while Z-Targeting Link raises his shield, and it is the ONLY way to have his raise his shield while moving.  Otherwise, he just stops in place and you can move his shield around.

As I said, though, my favorite Zelda is Majora's Mask, partly because it is so abstract and inventive.  However, the big reason it's my favorite Zelda game is that it's the only one in the entire series that goes to great lengths to make you feel like you are a part of the game world, that the actions you make actually make a difference to the people around you.  Throughout the game, you essentially become a citizen of Termina: you follow their movements, you learn their stories and ambitions, and in the end you make decisions that personally impact their lives.  And through this, you gain a connection to these NPCs and I can't think of another Nintendo game that does this so well.  When nighttime of Day 3 comes around the world comes to an end, you CARE about what happens to the world as the ground starts shaking and the clock tower starts chiming like an air raid warning.  THAT'S what I want in the next Zelda game: that connection and the feeling that my actions make a difference, not just Wiimote controls and better graphics.

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TalkBack / Re: PODCAST: Radio Free Nintendo: Episode 122

« on: November 24, 2008, 08:07:13 PM »

So are we still two weeks behind? I lose track!

Considering no podcast went up over the weekend I'd say we're actually starting to approach being 3 weeks behind.   

I know editing takes a considerable amount of time and energy to do, but c'mon...split editing duties between Carl and James until the podcast catches up to present time.

11366

TalkBack / Re: This Week's Virtual Console and WiiWare

« on: November 24, 2008, 03:56:15 PM »

A truly "bleh" lineup, although I have to say those first few sentences of the official press release give a good indication that Nintendo of America is tired of being served by Nintendo of Europe when it comes to truly ridiculous marketing writing.

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TalkBack / Re: Capcom Comments on Wii Sales of Okami

« on: November 24, 2008, 03:22:41 AM »

From my point of view having bought and played the Wii version of Okami, the game is massively over-rated with some of the most tedious combat I've ever seen in an adventure game...but it is a decent game.  Still, Capcom has a great deal of nerve to just come out and say that they expect us to do their job for them and shill a game they can't be bothered to actually advertise themselves.  They couldn't even be bothered to help the development team put the game together from the remnants of Clover, or for that matter even pull up their OWN copy of the concept art used for the game's cover.  Capcom is practically demanding that we help their game sell, yet they've put no effort into this project whatsoever so why should we care?  It's not like Capcom will ever do another one, not with the mere "slow, but steady" sales this game has.

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TalkBack / Re: REVIEWS: Sam & Max Season One

« on: November 22, 2008, 10:58:07 PM »

Meh, I couldn't really care less about this version, as I already own Seasons 1 and 2 on PC, and Season 1 is pitifully weak compared to Season 2.  Aside from Abe Lincoln Must Die and Reality 2.0, there just isn't anything altogether noteworthy about the first 6 games; the writing isn't nearly as funny as it should be; there's a trend towards the gimmicky; and there's a ridiculous re-use of environments.  They did make some very funny internet shorts, though, that pop up on the PC Season 1 disc.  It doesn't surprise me to read that the Wii version is glitchy, because the PC installments are as well from my experience.

I think if Telltale does a Season 2 Wii version, you'll like that game much better than this one.  Just like with real TV seasons, season 1 is all about throwing ideas around and seeing what works.

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TalkBack / Re: PODCAST: Radio Free Nintendo: Episode 122

« on: November 18, 2008, 01:23:05 AM »

I actually felt the collecting was pretty obnoxious in Banjo-Kazooie because every time you died in the level you had to start the collection process all over again.  That meant repeating levels over and over again just to collect the damn notes, which was so incredibly tedious I never really enjoyed B-K that much.  I actually didn't really mind collecting the bananas in DK64 that much, but that was mostly because I enjoyed exploring the levels with the different characters and seeing how I could use their individual skills.  Doesn't mean it was great design, but it didn't bother me that much and I felt the creative boss battles made up for it.

Now, where collecting got really tedious and pointless was with Star Fox Adventures (where most of the stuff you collected wasn't even needed), which Penny Arcade spoofed with a really funny comic at the time.

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TalkBack / Re: PODCAST: Radio Free Nintendo: Episode 122

« on: November 16, 2008, 05:25:53 PM »

Apart from invisible walls, those are more the result of bad programming and testing than bad design.  They were talking about bad design elements that are actually part of the game's design (escort missions, randomly generated stages, etc.).

I'm kind of surprised with all the Persona 3 mentions that no one mentioned that Persona 3 is probably the exception to the rule on the randomly-generated dungeon hatred.  Despite the floors being randomly generated, none of them are very big, they all follow the same rules, and there's a set boss encounter with a warp point back down to the ground floor for healing every set number of floors (which the game will, usually, tell you).  Not to mention a substantially better battle system than any of the mystery dungeon games.  Plus, there's a whole other half to the game with the social links that make it so you continually feel like you are getting stronger, even if you aren't dungeon crawling (and the game highly recommends that you don't continually dungeon crawl).

Come to think of it, I think I'm going to put a question about something like that in the mailbag for the next show...

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World

« on: November 14, 2008, 12:22:04 AM »

Emil is only super-wimpy in the first dungeon from what I've seen, before he becomes a Soul Reaper (yes, that is a play on his voice actor).  He's still a little whiny after that, but nowhere NEAR as bad as the main character of Tales of the Abyss.

As far as Voice Acting goes, there's a lot of familiar voices at play here.  Just off the top of my head, we have Cam Clarke playing the narrator again and Johnny Von Bosche playing Emil.  I know I heard Wendee Lee in there somewhere, too.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World

« on: November 13, 2008, 11:35:37 PM »

I'm only a few hours in (I just arrived in Asgard and had my first run-in with Alice), but so far I'm really enjoying the game...at least once Emil stopped being as much of a total pansy.  I have to say, though, that Marta has to be the easiest girl in the history of the franchise, even taking the crown from Phantasia's Arche (and that's saying something).  I really miss Symphonia's cel-shading, because the game is noticeably uglier without it and looks more like an early-Playstation 2 game than a Wii game.  However, the character animation is leagues beyond even what was present in Tales of the Abyss (and certainly blows away the animation in Symphonia), and my god there's a lot of voice.  The vocal casting is excellent, the script is snappy and genuinely funny, and we finally have what looks like all the in-game skits voice-acting (which makes a world of difference).

The Wii Pointer stuff, though, is nearly useless.  I only use the Phantom Hourglass-style movement when I'm running around a monster-less area and don't feel like using the Nunchuck at the moment.  It's too unreliable to use anywhere else.

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TalkBack / Re: Namco Bandai Discusses Tales Series on Wii

« on: November 13, 2008, 11:27:55 PM »

Man, I finally got my Wii back after about 4 months out of loan.  It's been so long since I've held a Wiimote that I'd forgotten how small the thing is.  Yeah, I wouldn't use the D-Pad shortcuts for any moves I'd execute as Emil, but it is handy enough to map teammate spells to for quick access.  The motion shortcuts work well, too.

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TalkBack / Re: Namco Bandai Discusses Tales Series on Wii

« on: November 13, 2008, 06:36:53 AM »

*shrugs*

There's nothing in this interview that I haven't heard already on several other sites, but it's good I suppose that you got it.  The game looks great, though, and as soon as I get my Wii back (it's been on loan to my best friend since E3 2008.  Take a guess why.) I'll look forward to playing my copy.  I'm glad the English dev team took the time to add the gesture  shortcuts, because looking at the manual the original shortcuts are a disaster.  Really, what genius thought that mapping them to the D-Pad when your thumb is below it on the A button and your trigger finger underneath on the B button was a great idea?  Bleh.

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TalkBack / Re: PODCAST: Radio Free Nintendo: Episode 121

« on: November 10, 2008, 10:51:42 PM »

Wow, nice.  I didn't think people actually did that.  I could certainly use the money right now with CT coming up.