Messages

10576

Podcast Discussion / Re: Radio Free Nintendo: Episode 155

« on: July 26, 2009, 11:18:02 PM »

Chrono Trigger! Excellent choice! I agree with Johnny your going to have the best 300 hours playing it! haha It was my first RPG and my first game I completed. It holds a special place in my heart.

Excellent show once again, I always look forward to Sunday!

Go Lindy for not voting until Cho Aniki is up there! I want to play it but feel weird getting it for no reason!
Cho Aniki for RetroActive strike: Week One

Don't you mean it's "RetroStrike: Week One"?   

btw, you forgot Valkyria Chronicles as an example of a "lush and colorful" next-gen game.  For shame.  *wags finger mockingly*  Honestly, the next-gen systems get a bad rap when it comes to graphics.  Not all the next-gen games look like they were crafted from mud and few Wii games are candy-colored magical wonderlands of innovative imagination.  If you're into the whimsical, the Wii is definitely the place to be, but if you own an Xbox 360 and can't find a game on it worth playing for you you probably haven't looked hard enough.

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Podcast Discussion / Re: Radio Free Nintendo: Episode 155

« on: July 26, 2009, 09:57:57 PM »

Geez, tough crowd.  I apologize that I'm not doing a speed run through it.

Nah, it's nothing that serious, as I probably spent about 45 minutes -> 1 hour in that area my first time through the game on the SNES before I went back in time for the first time.  I just can't fathom anyone managing to hang around that particular area of the game for nearly 3 hours without dying of boredom, especially when you have a big sign saying "Big Epic Adventure this way!" planted right there in the back.  More power to you, I suppose.  I enjoy just exploring and soaking in the atmosphere in RPGs myself, but even I need a change in scenery once in a while.

10578

Podcast Discussion / Re: Radio Free Nintendo: Episode 155

« on: July 26, 2009, 08:10:01 PM »

Regarding James playing Heracles for his New Business: "He chose...poorly..."
Regarding Lindy playing Chrono Trigger for his New Business: "You have chosen...wisely..."

Seriously, though...2 hours 55 minutes of mucking around in the Millenial Fair and what little of the "Present" you can access at this point?  I guess we know who to have review the next minigame collection that comes down the reviewing pipe.

btw, back in the day I used to rent Chrono Trigger alongside Earthbound, as those two (along with Mario RPG) are what got me into the RPG genre.  Bit of a funny story there, actually, as to how I acquired Chrono Trigger: a friend and I at the time rented it from a rental store on a big "5 games for 5 nights for $5" deal (or something along those lines), but while we had the game checked out the rental store went out-of-business...so we got to keep Chrono Trigger.     That friend (he's not currently one because he turned out to be a royal jerk in the end) had no concept of what he had with Chrono Trigger, so I traded him like 5 games that were useless to me for it.  Best gaming move I ever made, though that copy of CT eventually made its way to my (still) best friend when I upgraded (?) to my N64 years later.

10579

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Wii Survival Horror Franchises

« on: July 26, 2009, 05:22:25 PM »

For a second I thought that was a new video...2006. 

Our video iz real. 

10580

Nintendo Gaming / Re: "Official" Metroid Prime Trilogy discussion thread ;)

« on: July 26, 2009, 05:10:59 PM »

It tries to rip-off Link to the Past's Light World/Dark World mechanic

Zelda invented light and dark worlds.

It is the most popularized version of the theory of parallel worlds in games, certainly Nintendo's in particular.  They even refer to the parallel worlds in Echoes as "light" and "dark" worlds, just as LttP did.  The way the two worlds interact to impede player progress is also very similar.

10581

TalkBack / Re: Wii Remake of Harvest Moon Magical Melody Confirmed

« on: July 26, 2009, 03:43:50 PM »

What's with all the pointless remakes lately?  It's not like the core harvest moon games have changed dramatically over the years, and what's the point of removing the ability to play as a female character from what was pretty much an already finished game (save to re-release the game AGAIN 6 months->1 year later with the option reinstated)?

It's also yet another glorified port to Wii of a game from last generation.  Will this ever end?

10582

General Gaming / Re: My PS3 "died" tonight...any way to fix it short of sending it in for repair?

« on: July 26, 2009, 03:16:57 PM »

So you ended up spending the $150+ on the repairs .

Welll if the federal case goes though the good news you might get that money back (similar to MS's case against the 360).

Me, I ordered a replacement laser lens finally (it's a hard item to get since the demand is so high) and should be getting next week.  Costed $60 total and with any luck it shouldn't give me any trouble installing--I just hope this is the last time (already replaced it once).

I'm afraid I'm not really cut out for DIY repair work.  As much as the repair cost hurts to get the Blu-Ray Drive replaced, I'd rather have it done by people who know what they are doing.  I appreciate the advice, though, and will probably try for a DIY if this happens again.

10583

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Why the Wiimote works for shooting and sports but not brawlers

« on: July 26, 2009, 02:40:22 PM »

I don't see any reason why the Wiimote can't work for any genre a talented developer sets for a project.  It's a matter of making the right effort and design choices.  I don't recall the Wiimote control being the problem with Madworld or No More Heroes (both "brawlers" when you get right down to it), but that the developers didn't make the right design decisions to keep those games interesting at all times.

The problem with the Wiimote is that developers seem determined to ditch the "fantasy" aspect of games just because the player can pantomime actions in the game.  Is there any reason why we shouldn't be able to pull off Hollywood-style Jedi manuevers just because I'm now directly swinging a "sword" with my controller rather than pressing buttons?  When I play a game, I should feel empowered, that I have the ability to do more than I can in real life.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: What is immersion?

« on: July 26, 2009, 02:35:20 PM »

To me, immersion is a total suspension of disbelief, where the player feels like they become part of the game world by nature of a well-constructed and entertaining world.  It's not merely a question of how the player interacts with the game world, but that the interaction feels meaningful and the player feels like they can make an impact on that world.  For example, a game I tout regularly as a great example of "immersion" is Final Fantasy X.  The world of Spira is absurd if we were to judge it by the rules of our universe.  However, I find the suspension of disbelief incredibly easy because the game world is completely focused around two core design elements: a dominant religion with a very detailed history and the circular shape.  Everything in Spira revolves around these 2 elements, leading to a very organic-feeling world that feels like it has a history and that it is worth exploring.  Add in a group of very likeable characters (yes, Tidus is annoying but his story does an excellent job of meshing with Yuna's) whose story all weaves together to reinforce a single decisive story (Yuna's pilgrimage to Zanarkand) that in turn revolves around those same 2 core elements; excellent production values; and an entertaining battle sysem and you have a very solid and worthwhile experience.

To me, a very carefully-constructed and believable game world does more to pull me into the experience than any waggling of a motion controller.  To use a Nintendo example, look at how well Majora's Mask's game world is constructed around time and the individual character stories.  It is immersive because it is a consistent and reasonably-believeable world that doesn't contradict itself and feels like what I do in that game world matters.  I can touch the lives of these NPC characters and make a difference.

Bah, there I go rambling again.   

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General Gaming / Re: Bioshock

« on: July 25, 2009, 10:54:54 PM »

Boy, I loved the final fourth of the game. Look, BioShock is all about the experience, more the art direction than the running and gunning. You find out where the Big Daddies are...*gulp*...manufactured, and the Little Sisters are conditioned to follow them around. It's kind of a disturbing section of the game.

It is a disturbing last portion of the game and some of the areas you visit are genuinely interesting (Fontaine's House for the Poor; Little Sisters' Orphanage; etc.).  However, it's also the part of the game where suddenly only your machine gun, chemical thrower, and grenade launcher are worth a damn against the splicers.  And your plasmids are completley useless, and it all ends with an escort mission (that favorite of gamers everywhere!).  It's just a tedious section of the game that I never have fun playing, especially since the game has already climaxed with Ryan.

10586

General Gaming / Re: The PATHETIC state of the gaming 'media'

« on: July 25, 2009, 10:35:01 PM »

I don't think The Conduit got inflated scores. Madworld, yes. What I think does happen is that many reviewers get strongly influenced by presentation, a well presented game that's just not terribly interesting to play (MaBoShi) gets high scores while many games that get described as fun but offer a bad presentation are called guilty pleasures by the reviewers and given a low score along with a purchase recommendation. Reviewers seem to disconnect the fun from the final score which seems to be more based on the "complete package", no matter how relevant the rest of that package actually is. A game is not "objectively" good or bad, that's rating it by technical merits. A game's purpose is to create a certain emotional response within the user to grant him entertainment and many games succeed at it despite "objectively" being low quality.

In other words, never call a game a guilty pleasure, recognize that it is a good game.

You don't think The Conduit got inflated scores?  I was just listening to a 1up podcast (ListenUp) the other day regarding the Conduit and they spoke to the game's reviewer for the site.  They asked him what he thought of the game, and he said "it's a good shooter for the Wii."  One of the other guys pressed him on this asking "strip away the 'Wii' part and is it a good 'shooter'."  "No" was his reply (he would later go on to quantify this).  Even though the reviewer gave the game a C+, it sounds like he let predisposed notions of the platform's capabilities and its audience influence his impressions of the game.  I also have a hard time believing that the IGN crew were unbiased with the Conduit's scores considering that they have been drooling over that game ever since it was announced.  Hell, they even have their names in the frickin' credits under the "Special Thanks" section.

If he really said that, it sounds like he did inflate it, as good does not equal C+.   Wasn't that Garnett who reviewed it?

http://www.1up.com/do/minisite?cId=3172882

It's the 6/26/2009 episode of ListenUp, and yes Garnett Lee did review The Conduit for the site.

10587

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Nintendo screwed me. >:(

« on: July 25, 2009, 10:14:38 PM »

If your Wii was really as "dead" as you say it was, maybe the Wii's flash memory was was corrupted or something and couldn't be recovered.  I have a feeling that Nintendo probably makes an effort to maintain the data of the Wiis sent back to them, but perhaps it just couldn't be saved in this case?

10588

Podcast Discussion / Re: RetroActive #8 Poll - SNES Edition

« on: July 25, 2009, 10:09:00 PM »

There aren't very many sidequests, just a few side things you can do here and there but the game is pretty straightforward. 30 hours seems a bit high of an estimation though; the game seems somewhat short to me, even for a Super NES RPG. Though it's been too long since my first play though and the game doesn't have a timer so I've never timed it.

I just replayed it about a week ago, and I'd be shocked if it took me more than 10-15 hours or so and I did all the sidequests (hell, Culex alone probably took me at least 30 minutes -> an hour to beat, and I had the Lazy Shell armor and everything.  I also went through Bowser's Keep twice to get all the items.).  It's not as long a game as we all remember, though still awesome.

10589

TalkBack / Re: Mega Man Battle Network Remake Announced for DS

« on: July 25, 2009, 10:07:23 PM »

Capcom needs to make sure they meet their quota of 15 Mega Man games a year, so this makes sense.

Seriously though, why re-make a GBA game? It's not that old. Why not re-make of the GB or GBC Mega Man games instead?

I'm kind of surprised they haven't tried to revive the Mega Man soccer game in some form or fashion (maybe with another sport or whatnot), considering we're talking about handhelds where that sort of thing would thrive.

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General Gaming / Re: The PATHETIC state of the gaming 'media'

« on: July 25, 2009, 10:05:38 PM »

I don't think The Conduit got inflated scores. Madworld, yes. What I think does happen is that many reviewers get strongly influenced by presentation, a well presented game that's just not terribly interesting to play (MaBoShi) gets high scores while many games that get described as fun but offer a bad presentation are called guilty pleasures by the reviewers and given a low score along with a purchase recommendation. Reviewers seem to disconnect the fun from the final score which seems to be more based on the "complete package", no matter how relevant the rest of that package actually is. A game is not "objectively" good or bad, that's rating it by technical merits. A game's purpose is to create a certain emotional response within the user to grant him entertainment and many games succeed at it despite "objectively" being low quality.

In other words, never call a game a guilty pleasure, recognize that it is a good game.

You don't think The Conduit got inflated scores?  I was just listening to a 1up podcast (ListenUp) the other day regarding the Conduit and they spoke to the game's reviewer for the site.  They asked him what he thought of the game, and he said "it's a good shooter for the Wii."  One of the other guys pressed him on this asking "strip away the 'Wii' part and is it a good 'shooter'."  "No" was his reply (he would later go on to quantify this).  Even though the reviewer gave the game a C+, it sounds like he let predisposed notions of the platform's capabilities and its audience influence his impressions of the game.  I also have a hard time believing that the IGN crew were unbiased with the Conduit's scores considering that they have been drooling over that game ever since it was announced.  Hell, they even have their names in the frickin' credits under the "Special Thanks" section.

10591

General Gaming / Re: Bioshock

« on: July 25, 2009, 09:54:02 PM »

I'm at the end, last fight. I've enjoyed everything thus far. I do a lot of exploring, and the game does have this Metroid Prime feel to it albeit somewhat claustrophic but that's expected being underwater and all. I like the music, overall aesthetic, storyline, voice acting, and in terms of game play mechanics of course it could be better but for a console it's not bad.

Wow, you've even enjoyed the last 1/4 of the game after meeting Ryan, where the game takes a spectacular nose dive in quality (compared to the rest of the game)?  I love Bioshock, and even I can't stand that last portion of the game (and the pathetic final boss in particular).

10592

TalkBack / Re: Mega Man Battle Network Remake Announced for DS

« on: July 25, 2009, 09:51:21 PM »

I can think of few things more pointless than this remake, and I actually liked the first few Battle Network games until Capcom ran the series into the ground like they do every other franchise (and Mega Man in particular).

10593

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Nintendo screwed me. >:(

« on: July 24, 2009, 07:34:26 PM »

All of my saved data - gone.

Wow. That really shouldn't happen.

I seem to remember Nintendo warning me quite explicitly when I sent my Wii in for repairs that they could need to mess with saved data, so to be sure to back mine up.  So I did, backing all the data onto my SD card.  It turned that I didn't need to do that for what they ended up doing, but it was still the smart thing to do.

Sorry to hear about your data loss, bob, but I get the feeling they probably warned you to backup your data.  If they didn't, I'm pretty sure we did.  If you didn't backup your data, well...you were warned.

10594

Podcast Discussion / Re: NWR Newscast: Episode 1

« on: July 23, 2009, 09:29:52 PM »

They just deal with news. It will probably branch off a bit differently as it evolves.

Ok, I just had to re-read that synopsis, as for some reason I thought I read something about a "review" of Little King's Story, not just a news story on it.  Ok, all well and good then.

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Podcast Discussion / Re: NWR Newscast: Episode 1

« on: July 23, 2009, 09:07:32 PM »

Cool, I could always use a new podcast to listen to at night.  But looking over the podcast description for this week, exactly how does this podcast differ from Radio Free Nintendo, except that it has a different cast?

10596

Podcast Discussion / Re: RetroActive #8 Poll - SNES Edition

« on: July 23, 2009, 09:06:06 PM »

Ogre Battle: OH LOOK!  NEW AND EXCITING! 

Expensive and sounds really boring, admittedly inaccessible by the one who nominated it.

I think I was quite explicit in the nominations thread that I was against Ogre Battle getting into one of these polls, and that if we were to nominate a game in the series it would have to be the Nintendo 64 iteration that basically takes everything the original did and makes it playable.  But it's here now so I guess that's one of its strikes down the drain.  Only 2 more and you won't ever have to complain worry about it ever again.

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Podcast Discussion / Re: RetroActive #8 Poll - SNES Edition

« on: July 23, 2009, 06:11:21 PM »

I think whoever voted for Ninja Spirit should be disqualified.

Agreed, Cho Aniki should have won. I am waiting for Lindy's strike so we play it!

I am really looking forward to Lindy announcing on the next podcast that "this is Week 1 of Cho An-Strikey!" (or something to that effect)

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Podcast Discussion / Re: RetroActive #8 Poll - SNES Edition

« on: July 23, 2009, 06:06:22 PM »

Anyway, I might have to play the winner through (as Broodwars puts it) alternative methods. I have a pretty good gaming computer, and already have emulators for the old systems (2600 and others). It won't be that hard to find something that will work. If anyone knows of a reliable and virus-free SNES emulator, could you please tell me?

Just a warning, but I don't think you're allowed to ask that here.

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TalkBack / Re: Nintendo Releases System Menu 4.1 Update

« on: July 23, 2009, 04:03:19 PM »

It's also for the non-forum users who only check the main page.

Sure, but you'd think a week later that they would have noticed the little blue light shining from their Wii and the note from Nintendo about the update.  Granted, the note doesn't say what the update's for and I suppose with the Wii library being what it is there could be a lot of people that haven't turned their Wii on in months.

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TalkBack / Re: Nintendo Releases System Menu 4.1 Update

« on: July 23, 2009, 03:30:04 PM »

Yeah really.  I'm sure the people who write for Talkback are very busy with other site-related work and real life, but if you can't get a news story up within a day or two of it breaking what's the point posting it now (unless it's to do necessary fact-checking)?