Messages

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TalkBack / RE: Phantom Hourglass Claims Game Critics Award

« on: July 31, 2007, 07:24:54 PM »

Why isn't Nintendo on that list somewhere?

Hasn't Nintendo Power folded? If so, then there are no Nintendo-specific magazines anymore.

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TalkBack / RE: EA Admits To Focusing Development On The Wrong Console

« on: July 28, 2007, 08:27:23 AM »

Cause stock holders sound like they want to hear it?

Actually it's two things.

Stock holder see Wii running away with the industry (poised to beat 360 before Halo 3 ships), and they want to know what EA is going to do to get a slice of that pie. Apologizing for not having done enough Wii development shows the stock holders that they're serious about Wii. Basic damage control, despite being one of the most prolific Wii 3rd party developers.

Secondly, they can point to their fairly stagnant stock and say, "That's because we haven't ramped up on Wii enough." Forget other reasons (stagnant development, raping franchises like Wing Commander with their new Live Arcade game, rising cost of next-gen development without a subsequent increase in profits, etc). This is something stockholders will believe, and it's very simple.

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TalkBack / RE: INTERVIEWS: The Denis Dyack Interview

« on: July 19, 2007, 05:22:46 PM »

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At this point in time, however, games look pretty for the sake of looking pretty. They don't make a statement. They don't fit the style and mood of the game. I don't think a masterpiece like FF6 could be created at this point in time, given the current standards of the industry. There are far to many distractions. Costs are far too high.

That's an interesting comparison. You're comparing FF6 to, well, the average modern game. Why not compare FF6 to Halo? Or FFXII? Or Metroid Prime? Or Wind Waker? Or Soul Calibur? Or even Gears of War? Say what you will, but the visuals in all of these games make a specific statement.

Sure, if you compare FF6 to the average modern game, they do tend to look average. But so too does the average SNES game compared to FF6. Comparing a masterpiece to an average work is silly; of course it will come out better. Of course you'd prefer FF6 to random licensed garbage. That hasn't changed.

You think Retro Studios, given the opportunity for 360 development, would not yoke it to produce some awesome artistic production? Even Wind Waker's minimalistic style could have used the technology from 360 to improve its visual quality: textures that don't get nearly so blury, etc.

The issue has always been what you do with the tools you have available. And while I personally don't feel the need for greater-than-RE4 quality graphics, that doesn't mean that I don't appreciate the effort.

Furthermore, you (and Dyack, because he's a short-sighted hack) discount the possibility of new gameplay possibilities that are impossible on prior consoles. Super Mario Bros was simply not possible on an Atari; it just couldn't cut it. And so on. Even in the relatively modern day, something like GTA3 couldn't have been done on prior generations; it had certain basic memory requirements that made it impossible before then.

Who knows what gameplay possibilities exist with the kind of CPU performance and memory the new consoles have? Maybe nothing. Maybe we'll never find out, because developers don't explore them. But I would prefer to offer that one visionary developer the chance to make that power do something that was fundamentally impossible before.

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And thats where Nintendo stepped in, unfortunately its also hard to see, because they implemented a remote and a touchscreen not because they think games are art (and I believe they have already stated that) but because they want to reach as much people as possible because they like money.

That is something far too few people realize. Nintendo didn't create these new devices to spur innovation. They didn't do it because they thought it would make games better. They did it to make more money by allowing them to more easily make content for more people. If it improves game design, it is merely a pleasing side benefit.

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I wonder how much he knew about the remote before the split, that would had also clouded his judgement.

I don't think it would matter to him. It's clear that his focus is specifically on the visual realm. The possibilities inherent in remote-based control would be meaningless to him, just as the potential gameplay outgrowth from the greater memory and CPU of the other consoles is likewise meaningless to him.

[7]

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TalkBack / RE: INTERVIEWS: The Denis Dyack Interview

« on: July 19, 2007, 12:15:45 PM »

This just in: Dennis Dyack sues Epic, citing the "inadequacies of the Unreal Engine 3 code it provides to its licensees".

Know what, Dyack? Maybe if you could cobble together some real developers, you could actually finish a game. I don't see BioWare saying that U3 is inadequate. And U3 has already shipped a game, which is a lot more than anyone can say about you.

God, he is such a poser.

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The turning point was actually due to graphics

Actually, no. The turning point of the Genesis/SNES race was Sega going nuts with SegaCD and 32X. Not that DKC didn't hurt them too, but it was more like something bad that happened at just the wrong moment for Sega.

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In the end, power means nothing.

In terms of making money, sure. In terms of making great videogame art?

It's the one thing I still have some respect for with regard to Dyack. I don't agree with his Graphics Uberalles philosophy, but he has a vision for his games and he wants to get it across, regardless of whether it makes money or is even popular.

Yes, FF6 is a great game. So is FF4. But wouldn't you like to have FF4 with FF6's graphics? Wouldn't you like to have FF4 with FF7's graphics (Giant of Bab-il in 3D FTW!)? Would FF4 with the better graphics not be a better game?

If your goal is to make money, Nintendo's strategy makes perfect sense: go after the biggest market and don't look back. But if your goal is to make the best videogames, in all respects, that you can, you have to admit that games like Wii Sports, Rayman, etc are not really the kind of intense videogame experiences that a seasoned gamer would want. And while yes, there are still the Mario Galaxies and Metroids Prime (that I will be buying on release day), these games could have been made better on consoles with more hardware.

They may be the best that Wii can do, but they're still limited by what Wii can do. And there are alternatives to Wii.

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TalkBack / RE: INTERVIEWS: The Denis Dyack Interview

« on: July 17, 2007, 08:33:58 PM »

Lesson #1: If you're trying to reach out to a new audience it's not a very smart thing to insult them.

He's not reaching out to a new audience; if he were trying that, he'd be making a Wii game.

Personally, the fact that Dyack can't seem to make a game anywhere close to on-time (unless it's already been made. See MGS) is a scathing indictment. What do game developers do? They make games. They don't spend 8 years making one game. Even StarCraft 2 hasn't been in actual development for that long; Blizzard only started developing it a few years back. And nothing that Dyack makes can stand up to SC2 in terms of game design, so I don't see where the time is going.

I mean, Eternal Darkness was a great game. But did it really need something like 4 years? Twilight Princess didn't take that long to develop, and they had to bootstrap an entirely new control scheme onto it towards the end. And TP is a much larger and more dynamic game than ED.

Dyack is a hack. Maybe a talented one, but he's been making games for 15 years and he's only shipped like 4. And one of those was just a port. In half that time (perhaps less!), Retro Studios will have built a Metroid Prime engine, and shipped 3 games on it, each with steadily improving visual quality to it. And each of similar if not superior quality to anything Dyack has done.

What does that tell you about how much we should care what Dyack thinks?

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TalkBack / RE: Video Games Live DVD and CD Announced

« on: June 21, 2007, 08:01:40 PM »

It's about time that one of these videogame concerts started selling CDs. Now if only we can get Play! and the Eurpoean one to grace us with their music.

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TalkBack / RE: Wii Not as Powerful as the Xbox?

« on: May 10, 2007, 05:53:02 PM »

Bet that was Mark Rein. Le sigh...

Regardless of who it was, it's not entirely inaccurate. Given that Wii is just an overclocked GC with 64MB of extra RAM, that means it's using the GC's GPU. Which means it was developed 7 years ago.

The problem is that you're reading into this, "OMG, Wii's gr4p1x r teh sux0rz!" Sure, 360 and PS3 can out-match it easily. Can the X-Box?

Probably not. GC was in many ways superior to the X-Box in actual performance, so a GC 1.5x should still be superior. There may still be some functionality differences on the GC/Wii (specific bits of X-Box hardware that GC/Wii can't emulate), but that's about it.

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TalkBack / RE: Star Fox 64 Patch: A Mixed Blessing

« on: April 30, 2007, 03:02:29 PM »

So, if I were to buy the game now, it would be the "patched" version?

Almost assuredly.

I don't understand what the problem is with slowdown. It was in the original. And if this is supposed to be a near-perfect version of the original, then slowdown should be on the VC version too. It might make it actually possible to medal on Area 6.

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TalkBack / RE: Radio Free Nintendo: Episode 47

« on: April 12, 2007, 12:31:12 PM »

About 16:9, FYI: movies aren't filmed in any particular ratio either. They do pretty much whatever they want.

16:9 means that you're a lot closer to the average movie's ratio than 4:3.

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TalkBack / RE: The NWR Mailbag Talkback Thread

« on: February 07, 2007, 02:08:58 PM »

I consider snubbing Twilight Princess just because it happened to be a Wii launch game too to be equally arbitrary.

It is well known that the Wii version is significantly different from the GC one. Besides the control scheme (which tends to favor ranged weapons over melee combat), the world itself is actually reversed. So that world that is supposed to harken back to OoT in its geography doesn't (though when flipped, it does resemble LttP).

Furthermore, Twilight Princess belongs to the GameCube as much if not more than Wii because Wii is a GameCube. It may be a "pimped" GC, but the beating heart of it is still a GC. It was born a GC game, forged in the earliest tech demos for GC. It was the Zelda game Nintendo promised us over 5 years ago, and they promised it to us on GC. It didn't take much advantage of the "pimped" nature of the hardware, as texture diversity and quality were not improved.

Lastly, there's this fact. When it's all said and done about Wii, Twilight Princess won't deserve a mention there either. Because there's going to be another Zelda game, built for Wii from the ground up around that controller. And it's going to make TP-Wii look like a relic controller-wise. It will define Wii, as much as MP3 or Mario Galaxy. So too much of a Wii game to be a GC definitive, too much of a GC game to be a Wii definitive. So what, it gets lost between the cracks just because it happened to release at the wrong time?

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (and the ones for TV and radio) also require companies to pay to be members (and receive services).

First, the Academy doesn't require that a movie's production company be a member in order to win an Academy award. That was the point I was making; that to even be considered for an award, you have to pay money.

Consider that if Tetris had been developed as an indie game and created a revolution akin to when it was released. AIAS wouldn't be able to give it an award because the developer isn't a member. Whereas the motion picture Academy can give awards to those who aren't members.

Second, the Academy actually does something besides host awards. Outside of the DICE Summit (which is not much), the AIAS does precious little besides give out awards to members.

Other similar organizations like the Screen Actors Guild/Writers Guild/Directors Guild/etc. also require membership dues.

Those are more like unions than the AIAS. Your membership dues actually go to fund something.