Messages

76

TalkBack / RE: Yamauchi Retiring from Nintendo Board

« on: April 27, 2005, 08:27:58 PM »

Good on him for refusing the money.

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But Iwata hasn't really knocked my socks off yet. He pretty much despresses the hell out of my every time he speaks. But Nintendo has been due for a change and this is a major one.

I used to feel the same way, but to be fair the 'Heart of a Gamer' speech at GDC was good. Even the ranting guy from Burning Down the House said he regretted implying the speech was stupid, and quite a few devs seemed to empathise with him. Look at the 'Question of the Week' replies from Gamasutra. I don't know what he's going to do at E3, but I now look foward to it.

77

Nintendo Gaming / RE: Revolution Secret 'Leaked' At Brokensaints (SPOILER)

« on: April 27, 2005, 06:50:24 PM »

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There are a lot of hateful people out there who can’t stand Nintendo, and I think that is being demonstrated by these impersonators.

This makes me the most suspicious. This and the fact that so much information was rleased in such a short period of time. It reinforces the idea that this is just a fanboy telling everyone his dream. Having said that though, the rumours are at least possible. None are particuarly farfetched. A guy from Gamespy also said something about SE jumping around next generation too, and I do recall before last year's E3 someone saying that 128 was in development for the Cube. Kojima working with Nintendo makes sense as well.

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NWR Feedback / RE:RSS Newsfeed

« on: April 27, 2005, 06:02:55 PM »

Ah, right. Well, if you're using, say, Firefox, and you subscribe to an RSS feed, then a sort of folder will appear in your bookmarks. The latest updates to the page you subscribed to will be recorded there, even if you haven't visited the site in a while. So instead of have to refresh the entire page every 10 minutes you could just check your bookmarks to see if antything new has been posted. I'm sure that's a very flawed technical explanation, but in practical terms it's correct. Orange buttons with the letters 'XML' in white also usually link to an RSS feed.

to your kitten avatar.

EDIT: If you're using Firefox and you go to a site like penny-arcade.com or slashdot.org, a new widget will appear near the bottom-right of the window. It should be in the same bit that displays what that browser's doing (e.g. connecting to 'penny-arcade.com', 'transferring data from penny-arcade.com', 'done'). There will be an icon inside of it, and when you click on it you can choose to subscribe to the RSS feed.

Opera also supports it natively, but you'll need to download something extra with IE.  

79

NWR Feedback / RE:RSS Newsfeed

« on: April 27, 2005, 05:45:59 PM »

There you go Kingvudu.

If one was set up for the forums I'd very much appreciate it.  

80

General Chat / RE:Official Avatar Discussion

« on: April 26, 2005, 08:18:24 PM »

We definitely need more kitten avatars. Mine's cuter than Bills.

81

General Chat / RE: PSP is almost here...

« on: April 26, 2005, 04:06:37 AM »

Uh, 430AUD is about the same price people pay for the unofficial import units in New Zealand. I'm going to be so pissed if NAL screw up now.

82

TalkBack / RE: Prince of Persia 3 Announced

« on: April 26, 2005, 03:48:30 AM »

Persia controlled Babylon from 538BC to 331BC, I think. During some of the time it was an important city, but it was never the capital. I guess if he just came back from travelling it would make sense that he was somewhere near a coast, though there are more logical options.

These guys should have said outright that WW was a mistake and taken it back to awesomeness. Then maybe they'd get a bit mroe respect.

83

Nintendo Gaming / RE: Nintendogs - 40/40 from Famitsu

« on: April 26, 2005, 01:44:37 AM »

WOW. How many other games have got a perfect score from Famitsu? If this isn't fake, I'm impressed for sure. This could help the DS further edge out the PSP in Japan.

EDIT: I think this is the fifth. The other four were Ocarina of Time, Wind Waker, Soul Caliber and Vagrant Story.

84

Nintendo Gaming / RE: Legend of Zelda: 2005 Official Discussion

« on: April 25, 2005, 11:49:31 PM »

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For example in Wind Waker, I disliked how each time I find a dungeon map I had to read through instructions on how to use it.

I didn't like that either but I think it's a seperate issue. I'd be annoyed if I had to listen to the same voice sample every time I talked to an NPC as well.

85

Nintendo Gaming / RE:Legend of Zelda: 2005 Official Discussion

« on: April 25, 2005, 09:11:10 PM »

If Zelda was a 'modern' RPG like Final Fantasy has become I wouldn't care. If Zelda was a survival horror game where I expect crappy acting I woldn't care either. But Zelda is Zelda, and contains a mood which swings from funny to serious. Sometimes I imagine the voices to be serious (such as Gannondorf), while at other times I think of them as slightly goofy (such as Talon). I don't think anyone in a studio can match anyone's thoughts about that kind of thing.

Because Zelda is an established series, we all have an idea of what, say, Gannondorf roughly sounds like. An imagined voice to match the grunts. When we hear another voice the dissonance will give us a bit of a shock, at least at first. It will definately be different to what we expected, and sound different to Gannondorf's grunts: the old 'actor' was Japanese and the new one cannot be. Most people expect to hear actors with a slightly modified American accent when they see a movie or TV show. I think it's reasonable, however, to believe that Nintendo will instead be inclined to hire an untrained actor from the deep south of the Texas panhandle. If I expected Nintendo to hire convincing and skilled actors, I don't think I'd mind so much. Instead, I expect them to hire terrible actors like they did with Sunshine.

What I'm trying to say here is that Zelda would be a particuarly difficult game to put voices in, that they wouldn't fit, and that bad voice acting would be detrimental to the game. A sort of more serious gibberish similar to what Banjo Kazooie had wouldn't be so bad, as long as it had a unique accent, was quiet, and not played in a loop. Jade Empire has apparently made an entire language, and we already have Hyrulian script. We already hear a low mumble sometimes anyway.

EDIT: Thanks HC and mantidor, you guys said it better and faster than me.

86

Nintendo Gaming / RE: Legend of Zelda: 2005 Official Discussion

« on: April 25, 2005, 08:20:41 PM »

To me, the best news here is the lack of voice acting. It's one of those thing's that's 'comming up' in the industry, and I'm really glad Miyamoto personally resisted it.  I bet Reggie hates it too.

87

Nintendo Gaming / RE: Legend of Zelda: 2005 Official Discussion

« on: April 22, 2005, 04:47:58 PM »

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Link's "civies" in this game are grossly inferior to the lobster shirt of Wind Waker.

What? Those scans are such low quality you can't possibly see what his new closthes look like with enough detail to judge. I think It would be cool if each new 3D game we got a new outfit at the start, then eventually move on to the traditional green tunic. I liked the lobster shirt in WW.

When I first heard the 70 hour thing I was a bit concerned. After WW, Nintendo seemed willing to flesh out a games lengh by filling it with long travel times. Then I read that Miyamoto said that WW was 40 hours long, so I think we can expect this to be about as long as an average Zelda game. Also, I doubt they'll skimp on dungeons this time as they already had one left over from WW and they've had longer to work on the actual game this time.

About Link 'maturing' throughout the game: Miyamoto said Mario was going to be more mature as well, and then we got Sunshine. It probably doesn't mean anything.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE: No Revolution at E3?

« on: April 20, 2005, 10:02:27 PM »

I think it's just video games that are screwing themselves with too much violence. As long as violence sells, games will not gather mainstream acceptance as something useful and worthwhile. Video is an example of a modern medium which has respect as an art form. Right now it seems to me that most of the big games are like the crappy blockbuster action movies with little internal value over the explosions. I like Nintendo's games because they have a sort of original and creatve character you don't find anywhere else.

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TalkBack / RE: Chrono Trigger Resurrection Update

« on: April 20, 2005, 09:41:49 PM »

The Zelda ones got cease and desist notices as well. Graal and the 2D OoT are both either down or not Zelda anymore.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE: No Revolution at E3?

« on: April 19, 2005, 07:24:39 PM »

Now holding a Spaceworld to unveil it wouldn't be too bad, just as long as they don't hold back too much at E3. Because it's a pretty quiet time of year, I think most large publications would cover it. Of course we'd also get more Zelda info

Sony and Microsoft can't copy Nintendo's ideas for the Revoltuon because their systems are being unveiled before E3. They can't just revamp their design a few months before launch. Also, if it's something like the DS it will be neat but not something that everyone else wants to copy.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE: N64 Games like to see get updated on Revolution

« on: April 19, 2005, 06:56:31 PM »

Don't worry, I'm sure it will have new and innovative mini-games to match the Revolutions new interface, which provides enjoyment to EVERYONE. We'll also maybe get another game a few months after launch.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:No Revolution at E3?

« on: April 19, 2005, 06:44:26 PM »

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Caillan, I think it depends. Hype is (ha!) overrated at this point in the game. If Nintendo really believes it has a revolutionary product, it would make more sense to drop the bomb the following E3 and upstage Sony a few months before they release.

That's something they could do if they were in Sony's position. Right now nobody takes much notice of them so it won't work.

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As for fallng behind, when the hell did Sony finalize its design?

I don't know if it's finalised. A few late tweaks can always be expected. But both Microsoft and Sony are showing off their consoles before E3, so they must be pretty close to completion.

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Um, what? It's the INTERFACE that's hasn't been finalized yet, not the hardware...

I'll take it that 'interface' is Nintendo's new buzz word for controller. If they've got the bulk of it done and are just wondering if they should add a mic or whatever, they should show it anyway. Why not? Ian pointed out why nobody's going to take their ideas, and it's not like the competition set to work on stealing Mario's waterpack from Sunshine. On the other hand, if they haven't got most of it done, they're behind.

93

Nintendo Gaming / RE:No Revolution at E3?

« on: April 19, 2005, 06:04:42 PM »

Demos of the games in development don't mean anything. We don't know if they'll be running off actual prototype Revolutions or on equivilent hardware. If Sony and Microsoft have finalised their design while Nintendo is still unsure of what features it's going to have, of course their bloody well behind.

The press is going to be all over MS and Sony at E3 while Nintendo gets shafted again. They're just losing more and more mindshare. Right now they're going down while Microsoft is going up, and as the new XBox launches early they'll likely lose more of the console market. They need to make an impact with the Revolution, and screwing around while Sony and MS show everyone what they've got isn't going to help them. If you want to see how casual gamers/semi-gamers react to this, look at the normally pro-Nintendo comments on Slashdot.

94

Nintendo Gaming / RE:No Revolution at E3?

« on: April 19, 2005, 05:44:53 PM »

This soon to be Slashdotted article suggests that it won't be. I don't know how reliable EuroGamer is, but refusing to show it on the grounds that it'll be stolen is a very Nintendo-ey thing to do. Nintendo is going to fall behind again if they don't show it sometime soon, and if they're still finalising their design they're behind already.

The article states that Nintendo is going to focus on Online at E3. I think this is a bad idea. They need to show and unveil it, but it shouldn't be the main focus. Nobody's going to be impressed when Iwata or Miyamoto show us their big plans, becasue the competition have been doing it for so long already. No-one's going to care because the XBox 2 and the PS3 are also being shown there.

95

Nintendo Gaming / RE: Odama cancelled for the Cube and switched to the DS

« on: April 18, 2005, 11:44:27 PM »

Bongos were just something a second player could use to 'keep up the morale' of your troops. A minimal addition, but nifty anyway.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:Odama cancelled for the Cube and switched to the DS

« on: April 18, 2005, 09:33:22 PM »

Well damn. The DS is already getting it's own pinball game. A Metroid one, which is clearly going to be the best game ever because Nintendo would never make a mediocre pinball game using one if it's biggest franchises. On top of that, it has all those awesome GBA titles like Mario Pinball available. The DS needed more games a month or two ago. Right now it's upcomming games are plentiful. The Cube, however, could do with a few more games toward the end of its life. Sure it has Fire Emblem, Kirby and Zelda, but Odama is listed for E3 so I guess it's a while away. Why the hell did they do this?

EDIT: Opps, it just occured to me that the RTS elements would work much better on the DS.  

97

Nintendo Gaming / RE: REV's appearance and marketing

« on: April 18, 2005, 08:32:15 PM »

I'm with Praxis here. I'm using the x86 archetechure and I'm ashamed of it. But Flux/Blackbox is still the best WM ever

I believe that only thing Nintendo needs to do is stop plastering Mario to every game that's not going to sell by itself. Then it's image will improve. Not only will the games not seem so 'tiku'd up', but Nintendo will lose it's image of a rehash company as well. I once had an idiot tell me that Nintendo never did anything original whilst he explained the merits of the Tekken series. No matter how stupid they are, if someone believes that then Nintendo has screwed up their marketing big time.  

98

Nintendo Gaming / RE: N64 Games like to see get updated on Revolution

« on: April 18, 2005, 07:55:58 PM »

Winback. Not that Konami would ever tarnish their beautiful, disgusting developers with a Nintendo dev kit, but I think it's the kind of game which would benefit a lot from new technology.

Rush wold also be nice, though I don't know what Midway have been doing to their development teams and I don't realy trust them to make a decent game anymore. It was a stretch back then.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE: What type of games should the Rev launch with?

« on: April 16, 2005, 07:44:34 PM »

All I really want is two solid first and/or second party games close to launch, one of which is an original franchise. By a month or two aftwerwards I'd hope there'd be at least one decent third party game(as well as all the Madden crap etc.) and maybe another second party one. I don't think that's too much to expect and it's a realistic goal for Nintendo to strive for.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE: Will it be called the Nintendo Revolution?

« on: April 15, 2005, 12:38:05 AM »

How about "The Carpocrates" then?