Messages

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Nintendo Gaming / RE: OFFICIAL Online mouse_clicker vs the world thread

« on: June 01, 2004, 11:14:45 PM »

Runescape has some serious charm when it was first put online. I liked it. After about 18 months the userbase had gone completely downhill, the new areas were'nt that great and now the new graphics are even worse. Runescape is a strange sucess in the way it is quite playable by any gamer, and more accessable than most other games to non-gamers. This does, unfortuantly, bring it down to the bottom of the barrel as far as its userbase is concerned... The most interesting thing, however, is the huge number of people from non-gaming backgrounds who became 'achievers'. This ruined the game, but really kicked up the scociology surrounding it.

In short: Runescape's failure = other's sucess.

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General Chat / RE: Satoru Iwata is coming to Down Under?

« on: June 01, 2004, 10:40:52 PM »

I remember once Miyamoto came to New Zealand... wandered around Queesntown or something. N64 sales were actually quite strong here at one point, then our idiot media decided to endorse the rumour that 'Pokemon was comming out on Playstation'. Bastards.

Bloody hell, NAL are going to have to polish their nobs if they're to impress Iwata. From what I can gather, it's not unlikely that the next generation won't be released in Australia... I certinally don't expect it to be released here. We have a small, yet instensly loyal market (many of whom are employed in retail, I might add), and a distributer pissed off at the debt it rolled up at the end of the 64 days. The strange thing is that  most people who buy consoles here aren't actually gamers, and are easy swayed into buying crappy products (the XBox is outseling the PS2) by worse advertising (DOA Beach Volleyball onyone?)

Reggie really needs to start kicking some ass down here.

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TalkBack / RE: Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures Review (TYP)

« on: June 01, 2004, 09:56:50 PM »

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Friends must also collaborate to solve ingenious puzzles that toy with seasoned gamers’ preconceptions of Zelda games. (I don’t want to spoil any surprises.)

This warms my heart. WW disapointed me in some respects with what I saw to be the lack of originality of puzzles... I see now most of the new ones were so easy I didn't really see them as puzzles, just as obsticles, but this is good news regardless.

Four Swords looks to be one fo the few new GC games I'm planning to buy. Any game touted as containing ALttP-sytle action I'll be wont to buy immediately. Damn I hope someone hears that.

Any official release for Europe or Australasia?

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TalkBack / RE: Metroid Prime 2: Echoes Screw Attack Video

« on: June 01, 2004, 09:49:46 PM »

Well, that looks pretty good, I guess. Camera changes from 1st to 3rd person are IMHO the holy grail of 3d aventure games. The transition seems quick and clean, and it doesn't look like you'll at one point or another become vunerable to enemies/frustrated from/by a bad camera angle.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE: Silks' Theory of Revolution

« on: June 01, 2004, 07:11:41 PM »

I really think the 'revolution' will be just some sort of crappy connectivity/eReader thing that Nintendo tacks on for product differentiation. They've tried the whole 'play away from your TV' thing with the Virtual Boy, and, well, it sucked. What if you could use the DS' wireless to play games by proxy? That's the sort of semi-redundant stuff I'm talking about.

As cool as those ideas are, Nintendo is already stressing their handheld market with the both the GBA and the DS.

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General Chat / RE:What to learn?

« on: May 30, 2004, 10:09:01 PM »

Well, KDR summed it all up pretty well, but there are a few things I could add. First of all, if you wish to be a designer, write design documents and keep them. Make them pretty brief (a few hundred words), or even just keep a notebook of ideas. Even if they don't ever ammount to anything, writing is an important skill that you'll have improved. Writing is important if you're a designer.

Another thing to consider is learning the very basics of programming. If you can do this, then you'll know much better what ideas of yours can actually be implementsed, and could even earn brownie-points from programmers by suggesting ways in which they could be implemented. I'm a bit of a Python fan myself, and there are lots of good tutorials out there. I think the language of choice for most coders of console games would be C or C++, but they can be difficualt to learn, especially if you aren't planning to use them full-time.

Othe than that, GamaSutra (you need to sign up) is not only a pretty good news site, but it has regular articles from people who work in the industry.

I'm not a modeller, so I won't really be able to help you with that, but another free piece of somtware you could check out is Wings3D. I've heard some people like it more than Blender.

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TalkBack / RE: Revolution Rumbling

« on: May 29, 2004, 10:36:03 PM »

As much as everyone here loves the GameCube, in terms of sales it would hardly be as prudent to grant it on-going support as it was the SNES. Or at least not without a 'killer app' like DK Country.

I really don't see how you could deny that the GC has had image problems, either. I don't live in North America, but from those I've seen, the advertisments suck. I'm under the impression they're non-existant everywhere else (except Japan; that Mario vs. DK one looks good.)  

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General Chat / RE: Tommy Tallarico: New (not really) Target of the Nintendo Fans

« on: May 28, 2004, 04:23:08 AM »

Bleh. The videogame media is largely screwed, bar from one or two websites like PCG and Penny-Arcade. I'm being serious here: bar their humour oriented content, GameSpy and IGN are rubbish; nothing more than adverisements... and yet they're so popular! Most of the others are just ametuer wesites - not that that makes them automatically bad, just that they lack the quality/quantity of content provided by professional sites.

These guys claim to base a show on personal opinions only, which is okay in my book I guess. He does, however, seem to think that he can use this to stand up to any criticism what so ever towards his work. If all this latent support for his view exists, as he so claims, where the hell is it? The only thing wrong here is how his crappy journalism gets any respect. Even the guy at GameSpy made an attempt to justify his rating of Nintendo's booth. His seeming paranoia, conspiracy theories and inability to come to a logical conclusion when faced with lucid evidence indicate symptoms of schizophrenia.

Nintendo gave the all-out this year, I couldn't think of two titles that Nintendo could display that would capture the 'mainstream' audience more than RE4 and a 'mature' Zelda.  

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General Gaming / RE: Official "My GameCube is broke thread"

« on: May 27, 2004, 07:24:01 PM »

Well, I'm guessing that when the Cube fell on its front end, the most pressure was applied to controller port 1, and the pins were either damaged or shifted. I'd look closely in the port, and try poking the pins around with a screwdriver or a pair of tweezers a bit (while the power is off, of course .)

As a last resort if you think you'll have to buy a new one, you could take apart the Cube for a closer inspection... maybe try to replace port 1 with port 4 or something, but I doubt it would work and the Cube would look ugly afterwards.

If that doesn't work, call Nintendo, I doubt there's much else you could do, sorry.  

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Nintendo Gaming / RE: Ideas for ds marketing!!!

« on: May 26, 2004, 08:01:30 PM »

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Take whoever works on the Cube ads and fire their worthless ass and then get the GBA guy to work on Cube ads as well.

Well said.

I really hope Nintnedo don't push the whole 'two screens, twice the fun!' thing, that was never really much good in the first place. Just get a good advertiser to do all the work, and don't set the target audieance as kids. Kids will watch adds displaying products for older people, but older people won't watch adds displaying products for kids.

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General Chat / RE: Aussie Gaming Bargains Thread

« on: May 23, 2004, 08:34:12 PM »

Well, I really can´t believe that there are still big and cheap memory cards  and Billy Hatcher available. If I had money, I´d snatch this up ASAP... is it not to rare aussieland?

EDIT: Butchered the links.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE: The Legend of Zelda 2005 Preorder Ideas

« on: May 22, 2004, 11:50:24 PM »

I wouldn´t mind a version of Link´s Awakening redone with the Four Swords GC graphics-pack. Or, now that I think about it, Four Swords itself. They did it with the GBA ALttP, right?


After reading Penny-Arcade´s Nintendo E3 rant, I think that Donkey Kong Jungle Beat should include Punch out and Super Punch Out. That would be awsome.  

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General Chat / RE:I'm gonna start a web comic...

« on: May 22, 2004, 11:41:27 PM »

The only thing I could recommend that you do is learn HTML. It´s pretty easy and your pages will have have clean and concise code. There are lots of good tutorials (Google it), and it´s a really good skill to have. You can make a simple webpage pretty easily.  

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Nintendo Gaming / RE: REALISTIC ZELDA TRAILER!!!

« on: May 18, 2004, 07:40:26 PM »

Ah, I see what I mean. If you focus mainly on landscape exploration, I guess MM just doesn´t suit you. I went in expecting something similar to OoT, and I at first hated it when I discovered what it was, but I later played it and loved it.

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"I saw the passing of time more a gate to interesting character relationships"

Wha? O_o

Yeah, that was definately the wrong term, sorry. Perhaps ´character development´ would be more apropriate. The emphasis on charaters is something that shows how Nintendo is willing to change the series. If I was making the series, I wouldn´t have dreamed of bringing in a mechanic that restricts environmental exploration in favour character exploration; but Nintendo did, and I think I like the game better for it.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE: New North American (NPD) Sales Thread

« on: May 18, 2004, 07:17:45 PM »

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Even if the userbase is mostly kids, kids LOVE 'M' rated games.

The problem is, that as far as I can tell, Nintendo´s fans (in relation to Sony and MS) tend to be a bit older, usually late-teens or adults, and I think the biggest markets for specifically ´M´ games are early and mid teenagers.

I remember an uncle of mine telling me about how he got nightmares after shooting people in Goldereye - older people tend to have a greater sense empathy, and pretending to kill people just doesn´t do it for them. Some ´M´ rated games like Resident Evil sell well because they are not necessarily focused on combat, but rather on a scary atmosphere instead.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE: REALISTIC ZELDA TRAILER!!!

« on: May 18, 2004, 06:53:03 PM »

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I'm more than half-way through the game, Mousie, but I just don't feel like finishing it...It's not that I'm not able to complete the game in the time given, but the fact that I'm being timed in a game that is all about taking your time...

I really disagree with this. As long as you slow down time, it should be enough. I think there was only once when I had to go back half-way through a dungeon, and it wasn´t that bad.

I saw the passing of time more a gate to interesting character relationships and more game-content than one of those bloody grey boulders that block your path. I would really recommend playing it more, even if you have to endure the dungeons. I traded in my Cube and bought another one so I could get the disc and once again play MM.

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General Chat / RE: Please help!!!

« on: May 17, 2004, 11:00:39 PM »

The GIMP is a good tool, though not as user-friendly as Photoshop. It has a Windows port, but it can be a bitch to install, and isn´t as stable as the Linux version. Still, when I was using MS, I had more crashes from IE than The GIMP. I would recommend it over anything else I can think of.

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General Gaming / RE: I want to make a Reggie fansite

« on: May 16, 2004, 08:11:30 PM »

Wow, I sort of presumed it was some sort of soft-drink that has lots of sugar in it or something. That really changes my perception of his post.

In New Zealand, we tend to import packeted dried fruit from the pacific islands. The leading brand is calledRaro here. I used to just eat the flavour-filled powder instead of making a drink from it. Though they have the sugar in the powder, nothing more than water and a sachet is required.

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General Gaming / RE: I want to make a Reggie fansite

« on: May 15, 2004, 10:47:45 PM »

Yeah, but Reggie is really a breath of fresh air. Nintendo has been kicking everyone´s ass for ages, but now it´s Reggie who´s telling them it´s being kicked.

Iwata seems to have adjusted nicely, though there was a dodgy patch for Nintendo. It´s hard to say if it was because of Iwata moving in/Yamauchi moving out or something that was going to happen anyway, but with the latest E3 Nintendo seems to have finally stopped pissing everyone off so much. Kudos to him.

And Kool-Aid? What is Kool-Aid?

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TalkBack / RE: Realistic Zelda!

« on: May 15, 2004, 10:36:34 PM »

I feel that as long as the time-delay is long enough, the eye movement decreases frustration more than difficulty. For example, I spent 10 minutes (and I could have spent much longer) looking for the scroll in the teacher´s house before I noticed Link´s eyes.

I can´t remember how many times I´ve solved a large puzzle several times over but not completed it because I missed a small part of it. Imagine trying to light a whole lot of torches: you run from the start to the finish, and by the time you get to the finish you presume the reason nothing´s happening is because the earlier torches have gone out, but the fact is you´ve missed one all along. That´s the sort of thing that Link´s eyes can tell you. What they can´t tell you is why you need to light the torches, or when you need to to turn the dungeon upside down, or how you need to defeat phantom gannon etc.  

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TalkBack / RE: Realistic Zelda!

« on: May 15, 2004, 09:39:48 PM »

Still, Link could turn his entire head to face the main object if too much time is spent in once room. Or they could just bring back the faeries

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Nintendo Gaming / RE: REALISTIC ZELDA TRAILER!!!

« on: May 15, 2004, 09:33:34 PM »

Going back to OoT and MM after WW was much harder than I though, especially with regards to the camera. People seem to like most the Zeldas that they play when they are new. I guess people´s taste in games isn´t backwards compadible.

I think the best way to rank the overall popularity of the Zelda games would be to find the proportion of their console´s userbase that bought the game.  

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Nintendo Gaming / RE: REALISTIC ZELDA TRAILER!!!

« on: May 15, 2004, 08:34:58 PM »

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as well as the fact that the Japanese like easier games

I know this is said a lot, but where exactly does it come from? I´m not necessarily questioning it, but I´ve never seen and sales figures or anything that suggest it.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE: REALISTIC ZELDA TRAILER!!!

« on: May 15, 2004, 07:32:23 PM »

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Am I the only one who likes Majoras Mask more than Ocarina of Time?

Absolutely not, though we seem to be a minority. I don´t like the dungeons in MM anywhere near as much as I do the ones in OoT, but the storytelling aspect and re-occuring themes seal it for me. I just traded in my Cube and bought another one with the collector´s disc to play this game, and I´m loving it.

Honestly guys, you need to calm down. This incessant bickering in almost any topic related to online/WW really pulls the forum down.  

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TalkBack / RE: Realistic Zelda!

« on: May 14, 2004, 04:38:58 PM »

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Hah hah ... talk about overanalyzing a game too soon

Yeah, I get what you mean. A few drinks + a new computer to play around with = hours of writing fun. Keep in mind I do realise that that was only a trailer, and that there is lots of development time left. Still, the trailer itself, while both being real-time and looking far more stylish than the older Spaceworld one, lacked the polish that older one rovided. Despite my drunken ramblings, don´t think I´m judging the actual game here: I once again wish to stress that I realise this was only an early trailer.

I´ve actually neveer seen anything more than screenshots from older Zeldas before they were released, but I realise that´s not in-game music. Once again, ignore my drunken ramblings.