Messages

11376

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.

11377

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.

11378

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.

11379

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.

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

« on: November 10, 2008, 04:38:07 AM »

Hey John, since you're playing the Warhammer MMO and seem to like it, would you like a free item to go with your character?  Everyone who ordered the Special Edition of Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 got a slip with a code for a "Kossar Helm" in Warhammer that apparently does something silly like turn you into a bear.  I have no use for it (I have a friend addicted to World of WarCraft, and it's not a pretty sight), so if you're interested PM me and it's yours.

11381

TalkBack / Re: PODCAST: Radio Free Nintendo: Episode 120

« on: November 04, 2008, 09:36:43 AM »

Yay, I finally got a new router installed that actually lets me access the site from home.     I'll actually be able to visit the site normally now.

Good to see at least one of my questions get answered, even if the answer wasn't exactly what one could hope for (I didn't know OB64 had emulation issues that would make it problematic to put on the VC).

As for Dennis Dyack, the thing that bugs me about the guy is that he's fond of going out into the community and railing off against some facet of the gaming world...but only when it negatively affects him.  Funny how there was apparently never a problem with the videogame preview system or internet message boards till they started coming down hard on Too Human.  But when they did, suddenly in comes Dennis Dyack, Gaming Crusader to whine and complain that these things are crippling the industry.  It just comes off to me as opportunistic, and I highly doubt he would have gone off on all these rants if those things had actually been favorable towards his game.  I'm curious if we're going to hear Dyack go on one of his mega-rants now that the game's been almost universally panned by reviewers.  Will the Reviews process now be the thing crippling the game industry, because it lets gamers form judgement about a game before they go out and buy it?

11382

TalkBack / Re: PODCAST: Radio Free Nintendo: Episode 117

« on: October 12, 2008, 05:04:43 PM »

So...does that mean since you guys lost the Reader Mail for the past 3 (?) weeks, does that mean you'll re-address them in a future show?  I had a couple questions in that bag I'd still like answered.

Also, do you guys have some wierd encryption process or something in the coding for this site?  For some strange reason, my Internet Provider is blocking the site so I can only access it when my laptop's using a different Wi-Fi hotspot.