Messages

101

Nintendo Gaming / Re: IS Nitro Capture - The official Nintendo DS video capture device

« on: September 08, 2020, 09:44:43 PM »

This is really cool!  I would have killed for one of these when the DS was current.  At first I was thinking that two monitors makes sense but seemed very unwieldy, but then I saw the ability to put both screens on the same display.  Some DS games would connect the two screens as one big vertical display and a developer would need the ability to view that easily.  The two TVs arranged vertically doesn't seem practical enough for Nintendo to expect people to do that.

Of course what would be cool would be to be able to switch between screens on the fly.  Sometimes you would want to see both screens at once, sometimes just the "main" screen for the action and sometimes the other screen for stats and items and such.  You could switch to whatever screen is most important to you at the time.  But I'm thinking from the perspective of a consumer device specifically to play DS games on a TV.  The intended purpose of this device wouldn't need that functionality.  Now this is making me wish the Wii U had a 3DS player.  Top screen on TV, touchscreen on Gamepad - DONE.  Oh well.

And yes you should play Ghost Trick on it.  Or just play Ghost Trick period.  That's probably one of my top three DS games.  The video was well done as well.  I saw it had a 20 minutes length and I was worried it would have pacing issues but it was thorough and interesting all throughout.  For me it whizzed by before I knew it.

102

TalkBack / Re: Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity Revealed, Releasing November 20

« on: September 08, 2020, 11:14:36 AM »

There's the usual problem with a prequel where you know the end of the story already.  Spoiler: the good guys lose.

This seems like the exact sort of game that a company makes when they realize they need something for the holidays and still have enough time to get something ready.  Omega Force can pretty much make Musou games in their sleep and this looks like it reuses tons of assets from Breath of the Wild.  I did like Hyrule Warriors.  That introduced me to Musou and those games are good dumb videogame fun.

But it really does feel like after a strong start with the Switch, Nintendo has fallen into their old routine of infrequent releases.  A Musou game is a good compliment to a strong lineup, not a high profile game in itself.  The Switch benefits a lot from attracting decent third party support (which is a very good thing) and from Nintendo being able to recycle Wii U games that are "new" to most Switch owners.  But shouldn't Nintendo have figured out this release schedule stuff by now?  They've effectively run out of Wii U ports and the competition is starting a new console generation.  This was the time to fix this problem and I feel like they've not taken that seriously because the Switch was so successful.  Hey, didn't Nintendo rest on their laurels and not improve their deficiencies that LAST time they had a successful console?

103

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Super Mario 3D All Stars: Yea or Nay? (And other Nintendo ports)

« on: September 04, 2020, 06:13:44 PM »

My general feeling is that collections like this or special editions and such are great for newcomers.  But if I bought a game at the time, I don't buy an updated version later on unless it's a major overhaul like Metroid: Zero Mission.  I have bought arcade compilations that had games I already owned in it and I bought a lot of the recent mini consoles but each time there was some game in there that I didn't have so the redundant titles were more extras.  I've actually done the opposite where I bought some retro collection and then ended up getting the original release later.

I want people to have access to classic games and you shouldn't have to own a bunch of old systems and hunt down an out-of-print game to do it.  When records went to CDs or VHS went to DVDs you could get the noteworthy albums and movies in the new format quite easily.  I understand with software it is not as easy to do that since everything relies on the hardware it was designed for but with emulation and backwards compatibility I still think a much stronger effort can be made to always have the classics available for purchase.  There are always new kids becoming the age where they want to check out the games from before their time.

I don't have a problem with newcomers buying an old game on a new system.  I don't have much of a problem with someone buying a game they already owned at some point on a newer system so they don't have to keep old hardware hooked up, if the price is reasonable.  I've repurchased some old PC games from my youth where I don't know where the discs are and the game cost $5.  I didn't pay $60 for it.  I don't like people buying a game for the second time because Malibu Stacy has a new hat.  There is a deliberate strategy for companies to pad their release schedule with ports that have a bit of new content in it to get people to double-dip.  That's generally a rip-off and those with self-restraint get punished for it, because enough people do it that it encourages it.

Notice that you don't see as many retro compilations as you did during the PS2/Xbox/Cube era?  Notice that Nintendo has never had a VC as strong as the Wii one was?  Notice that backwards compatibility has disappeared?  That's because the buying behavior of people double-dipping has encouraged the market to push HD remasters.  The PS5 made a big stink about GTA 5 being on it.  If you want GTA 5 it's on tons of platforms brand new for like $20.  Yet, there will be people that buy a PS5 and the first game they get will be GTA 5, even though they already played it on the PS3 and/or PS4.  GTA 5 should be on any popular new system but it should be an afterthought.  Super Mario Bros should be on every Nintendo platform on day one but with no real fanfare to it, just there in case you've never played it and you should be able to.  But these re-releases shouldn't be filling gaps in the release schedule or being charged full price.  A Nintendo Direct focusing on re-releases is pretty damn absurd.

New games should be the focus, old games should be available at a lower price to be an accessible option for new players.

104

General Chat / Re: Hockey Discussion: The Leafs Would Like To Borrow Taylor Hall's Horseshoe

« on: September 04, 2020, 01:36:27 PM »

Double game sevens!  Unfortunately I won't be able to watch it tonight.  D'oh!  No way I could avoid spoilers either.  If the Canucks win then I'll hear horns honking and if I don't hear them that it will mean they lost.

All things considering though, I wouldn't have expected this group of players to be one game away from the conference finals in their first playoffs so whatever happens there is lots of optimism for the future.  Hughes has really impressed me and he's a rookie so he should only get a better.  Pettersson and Horvat have been great.  Boeser was disappointing me at first but he's picked it up the last few games.  I was really happy with Markstrom's goaltending and was worried that he would leave in free agency.  But he's been "unfit to play" (ie: presumably has covid) and Thatcher Demko has come in and killed it.  So maybe we can let Markstrom leave if his asking price is too high.  Though I notice Demko gives up a lot of rebounds which hasn't gotten him burned yet but is something I hope he improves on over time.

The Canucks seem quite overmatched against Vegas so I'm blown away they were able to force a game seven.  It's a nice situation because the pressure is on the Knights.  They lose and it's a choke.  Vancouver loses and it's an underdog team going down after a strong effort.

105

TalkBack / Re: Nintendo Celebrates Mario's 35th Birthday in Style

« on: September 03, 2020, 12:31:23 PM »

Instead of this Game & Watch why not make a Game Boy Classic?  This has an LCD screen and can play Super Mario Bros so surely similar tech could handle Game Boy games.  This is just a novelty, a Game Boy Classic is an obvious product with some real practical functionality that compliments the NES and SNES Classic and could fill demand for more Classic systems, particularly since there isn't going to be an N64 Classic.

106

TalkBack / Re: Super Mario 3D All Stars Brings Platforming Goodness to Switch

« on: September 03, 2020, 12:24:50 PM »

I like Super Mario Galaxy 2 more than the titles that did make this.  What possible justification was there to exclude it?  They could save it for a second collection with 3D Land and 3D World but then they wouldn't be re-releasing 3D World by itself.

Though it's not like Galaxy 2 is an expensive or difficult to find title in the used market and there are a stack of Wii's at every thrift store next to the big pile of Rock Band/Guitar Hero controllers.  If you want to play that game today you don't have to jump through too many hoops to do so.  But it should be there.  I wonder if they ran out of space on the cart.

107

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Switch 2 Speculation

« on: August 27, 2020, 10:53:32 PM »

I would be fine if they just stuck with the name and replaced the SKUs over time. Release a new model every other year or so and let people upgrade who want the latest. The scaling capabilities of the Switch could allow this to occur seamlessly until they pull a Microsoft and release an "X" version that then cuts off the older models from newer high-end games. People understand this with Apple and Android products. Some newer software only runs on a newer OS/phone model.

Those old systems would go out into the market (potentially to siblings and friends of the original owner who don't own a system) and this could create more Switch users over time to buy more software.

I feel if you do this there effectively aren't consoles anymore.  There is just a series of software platforms.  Consoles were supposed to be the easy approach to videogames - you buy the system and everything released for that system works 100% with the same experience for everybody.  It has blurred with the PS4 Pro, Xbox One X, DSi, and New 3DS.  This setup where at one point new games run poorly on your system or not at all and you're pushed towards buying a new model but without any clear distinction between generations introduces the hassles of PC gaming that made it less accessible.

I feel this makes Nintendo and Sony direct competitors with Apple.  If their platform lacks the distinctiveness of a console then I don't see how the general public makes the distinction.  Apple has games too, plus other software that is not game related.  Nintendo's game focus may make them the choice for gaming or it could have the negative effect of their platform just coming across as lacking features since it probably won't have the extra bells and whistles.  The less of a console these things are the less reason there is for all of these similar computers to co-exist in the market.

I think Nintendo would do best if they stuck with the console approach in contrast with everyone else so that they're the straightforward games company, designing hardware specifically for games and using the console model that is easy to understand, particularly for families who don't want to have to buy their kids a new console every two years for minor improvements.  Nintendo did the New 3DS to try to get people to double-dip, which isn't very nice, but they do not demonstrate any particular need to improve hardware to tweak frame rates.  They've exclusively used outdated hardware for 14 years now.  Updating the hardware every five or six years like normal fits their approach to game design.

108

General Chat / Re: Epic vs. Apple and Google. Title fight!!!!!

« on: August 19, 2020, 05:48:01 PM »

Couldn't this lawsuit have a ripple effect on Nintendo if Apple lost the case?  Nintendo, and Sony and MS of course, have closed platforms like Apple does and set their own pricing and policies and such.  What is the precedent that gets set?  Closed platforms can't exist?  In that case the console market is dead.  I have no horse in this race if it just ends up with a settlement but it could have major consequences if Apple was found to be violating anti-trust laws.

109

Nintendo Gaming / Re: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword - Coming to Switch maybe someday?

« on: August 19, 2020, 11:31:24 AM »

I was thinking about how annoying Fi was.  And I'm not a fan of motion controls.  And then I remembered the guardians... and the repeated imprisoned battles... and the flying mini-games I actually had to get my brother to complete for me because I couldn't work the controls... and the fact that the overworld is split into clearly defined levels instead of a connected world.  ****!  Do I even like this game?!

Oddly enough I still did enjoy it which goes to show how good the Zelda formula is and how talented Nintendo's devs are at designing dungeons.  But in the wake of Breath of the Wild, Skyward Sword looks like the Zelda tipping point where it was clear that an overhaul was needed.  Is there much demand for it to be remade?  I figure it's too new still.  I don't think it can be remade without motion controls and we need time before there is nostalgia for that.

110

General Gaming / Re: Sitting on the sidelines: PS5 vs XB Series X

« on: August 14, 2020, 11:48:59 AM »

Discussing the prices made me think of something regarding the future of consoles.  The traditional model is to somewhat take a bath on the console and make it up with game sales.  This trickles down to the stores as well as they have a smaller profit margin on the system but they're willing to put up with that so that you return to the store to buy games.  But as digital purchases become more common what incentive is there for the stores?  So Wal-mart is going to sell you a console they make little profit off of and then you buy all your games from the eshop and never set foot in the electronics section of the store again?  And the inevitable future is digital-only consoles, in which case the only items the stores will sell will be the systems and controllers.  In that world why would any store bother to sell those items unless they could get a good mark up for them?  So what's the future for selling the hardware?  Does the MSRP end up with a large profit margin or do the manufacturers just sell the systems from their web site directly?

111

General Chat / Re: Hockey Discussion: The Leafs Would Like To Borrow Taylor Hall's Horseshoe

« on: August 13, 2020, 11:20:33 AM »

That was a little more nerve-wracking than I was hoping for, but a win's a win. Carter Hart, who turns 22 tomorrow, out-dueled Carey Price, his idol growing up, in game 1. Flyers got annihilated territorially in the 2nd period but managed to answer right back 16 seconds after Montreal leveled it, and that turned out to be the difference.

Carey Price is old enough to be another player's idol growing up?!  But I'm older than Price so that must mean...

Canucks won game one so I'm happy.  In the first two periods they would get a lead and then let the Blues tie it up like a minute later due to a boneheaded turnover but in the third they got that out of their system and put them away decisively.  They were never behind so I didn't spend any time stressed out of my mind (watching sports where you care about the team is surprisingly stressful for something that's supposed to be fun).

112

General Chat / Re: Hockey Discussion: The Leafs Would Like To Borrow Taylor Hall's Horseshoe

« on: August 08, 2020, 02:21:37 AM »

In my work playoff pool we're including the qualifying round and the round robins.  So a safe strategy would be to only pick players from the round robin teams because they will stick around at least to the first round of the "real" playoffs.  But I was thinking that maybe they wouldn't try as hard and the teams in the qualifying round would score more because their games were more important.  Plus the goal is to pick who goes all the way so if I thought a team was good enough to do so I should pick players from that team regardless.  And my thinking also was that some weak teams that were not going to make the playoffs pre-covid would be matched up with clearly superior teams.

I had some players from Pittsburgh, Nashville and Edmonton - 10 players from my 20 player roster - and they all got eliminated tonight.  That's all the players I had that were in the qualifying round as I split my roster evenly between that and players from round robin teams.  Well it looks like my strategy was the shits as I'm now probably doomed after one bad night.

But on the bright side my Canucks made it to the next round and can be considered a proper playoff team.  I didn't pick them in the pool because I never do.  If I did then if (or let's be honest, WHEN) they get eliminated it then is a double-shot of bummers - my team is out and my playoff pool is screwed.

113

Nintendo Gaming / Re: The Official "Oh ****, I forgot to preorder the Analogue Pocket" thread.

« on: August 04, 2020, 04:30:03 PM »

I feel kind of guilty for some reason but I managed to get a pre-order for the system, dock and Game Gear adapter.  I got the shipping calculator spinning thing that most people got.  I had entered my shipping address the prior night, though I had no idea it would save.  I wanted to get some idea of what the shipping to Canada would be and had put their Sega Genesis product in the cart to calculate that and then removed it.  When I saw that the shipping calculator was taking its sweet time my developer instincts kicked in and I suspected that maybe it had not properly sent the shipping address and thus was spinning indefinitely.  So I went back to "edit" my shipping address but didn't actually change anything and saved and that appeared to wake it up because it then figured it out very quickly.

Of course requiring people to think of developer tricks to get websites working isn't really fair.  I wish this had been an open pre-order to determine the quantities needed to produce.  But with covid-19 messing manufacturing up and Analogue being a small company I can understand that they might already have a fixed number of items because that's all the factory would allocate for them.  But their products in the past have also had limited runs so it appears to be part of the way they do business which sucks from a consumer perspective.

The Neo Geo Pocket and Lynx adapters aren't available yet and that creates another hurdle for me as those were part of the whole point of me buying this.  I want to have one system to handle all of those handhelds at once and display on a TV so I can collect the games but not fuss with old systems that need caps and screens replaced.  Am I going to have to be extremely lucky to land those as well?

Analogue appears to be a luxury brand but I don't really want a luxury product.  I want something in between where the quality of their FPGA hardware is there but the rest of the product is of typical quality for a mass-market consumer item.  Like their NES had an aluminum shell.  I don't need that, I'm in the market for a FPGA NES clone that runs both NES and Famicom games and connects to HDMI with no lag.  That in itself is a specialist product but it doesn't need any other expensive bells and whistles and doesn't need to ship priority only.  They need a budget line.

114

General Chat / Re: Hockey Discussion: The Leafs Would Like To Borrow Taylor Hall's Horseshoe

« on: August 03, 2020, 11:46:48 AM »

Canucks lost game one.  Waiting months to see hockey again and five years to see your team in the playoffs (though maybe I should write it as "playoffs" for the qualifying round) only for them to get shutout is very disappointing.  In the context of a whole season the odd shutout isn't that deflating as you've probably watched lots of games throughout.  But I realized as the third period was wrapping up that there was no moment where I was excited and cheering and after such a delay that was a real letdown.  The Canucks fell behind pretty early on as well so that initial beginning-of-game buzz wore off quickly.

Hockey works quit well without an audience.  Baseball is uncomfortably silent if crowd noise isn't piped in but hockey is very loud on it's own with all the skating sounds and voices echoing.  The game sounded like if you went to your kid's game and the audience is just the small group of parents.

115

General Chat / Re: The Fast Food Thread - Would You Like Posts With That?

« on: July 18, 2020, 02:14:41 AM »

Okay, so I had Mary Brown's for lunch today.  Got a two piece meal with normal fries.  And it was fine but not really exceptional.  I like the Big Mary sandwich and will continue to get that but the normal chicken lacked the flavour the KFC or Popeye's has.  It was much more subtle.  The fries weren't bad but didn't stand out.  They're just perfectly acceptable fries.

116

General Chat / Re: The Fast Food Thread - Would You Like Posts With That?

« on: July 17, 2020, 01:12:02 AM »

Ian Sane mentioned not liking wedge fries but doesn't state that he's tried them. Complaining about something before he's tried it? That doesn't sound like Ian at all. However, you can also get regular straight cut fries as well. You have the option for any meal to get fries or taters and there is no price change difference for either selection. No excuses for not trying out the menu more!

Well I have tried wedge fries in general, just not Mary Brown's.  But I didn't know you get normal fries as well so now I'm thinking I should try that out.

Competition for fried chicken in my area is fierce though.  Aside from Mary Brown's and KFC we also have a Popeye's now and then there's Brownie's.  In the early 80's Brownie's was a chain in BC.  I remember as a very young kid eating at the Hope location during a trip to the Okanagan.  The chain had long disappeared until it was resurrected recently, by the old owner.  There are only two locations, in Mission and Maple Ridge.  They have regular and cajun flavours.  I don't like the regular but the cajun is fantastic.  The place also has no difference in charge between white and dark meat so naturally I always ask for all white.  The fries are also really good, soft potato with a flaky, crispy skin.  If you happen to be in the Fraser Valley of British Columbia and want fried chicken then I suggest checking it out.

117

General Chat / Re: The Fast Food Thread - Would You Like Posts With That?

« on: July 14, 2020, 03:40:27 PM »

Someone mentioned Mary Brown's.  All I have had is the Big Mary chicken sandwich because they have a deal on Monday for it.  It like it.  It kind of reminds me of the Big Crunch (or whatever it's called) at KFC.  I haven't tried the straight chicken yet though.  They have wedge fries and I don't like wedge fries so I haven't fully explored the menu because the combo would naturally come with them.

118

TalkBack / Re: LEGO And Nintendo Announce Retro NES Themed Set

« on: July 14, 2020, 11:27:30 AM »

The first Lego-Nintendo sets seemed to not understand the appeal of Lego itself, being more of a playset than a building toy, and seemed aimed solely at children (which isn't a problem; I'm just not interested).  This is the opposite, a model style set aimed at adults.  And it's great!  I imagine it will be hard to find these and the demand will be pretty high.

119

General Chat / Re: For all the Karens

« on: July 10, 2020, 06:15:04 PM »

If "Ian" became a slang word to describe somebody in a negative way I would be pretty upset about it.  Think about it with your own name and see how you feel about it.

120

General Chat / Re: Official NFL Discussion: Great Googly Moogly

« on: July 07, 2020, 04:24:40 PM »

I've already heard some hot takes about what Dak is going to ask for in the aftermath of the Mahomes deal.  Well, Dak is hopefully going to tell his agent not to mention the Mahomes deal and make him look like a goddamn idiot.  I've heard talk about Watson's upcoming deal as well.

Patrick Mahomes is looking like he's on pace to be the greatest quarterback ever.  After only three seasons he has an MVP award and Superbowl win, with a Superbowl MVP as a cherry on top.  So this isn't in the discussion for comparing salaries to any other quarterback in the league, at least based on the current situation.  I always hate when players become the highest paid player ever when they're not even currently the best.  I think Matt Stafford was the highest paid player at one point which is ridiculous.  He is a good player and the Lions should have kept him but he's not even in the discussion for best active player of his position so he shouldn't get paid the most.  And any salary negotiation that brings this stuff up should take that into account.  "That guy's overpaid, you don't necessarily deserve the same salary for being as good as him."  In Mahomes case it's "he's the best in the world, you are maybe in the top five, but you're not at his level so you don't deserve more money than him."  But the agents for these players will probably ask for Mahomes money and some teams might cave because quarterbacks don't grow on trees so anyone that is at least good enough that their status as a starter is not questioned has the team over a barrel.  And I'm fine with this if the best quarterbacks get paid the most but it probably won't work like that.

121

General Chat / Re: NBA Thread: Season Suspended Due To Pandemic And Gobert Dumbassery

« on: July 03, 2020, 06:02:31 PM »

An asterisk is kind of silly because what the hell are you even looking at?  This is the internet era.  You're not looking at some NBA records book to look this stuff up.  Wikipedia has a list of NBA champions.  So does Basketball Reference.  So does probably a hundred sites.  How they format things isn't standardized.  Maybe they make a note about peculiar situations that resulted in shorter seasons or maybe they don't.

122

General Chat / Re: NBA Thread: Season Suspended Due To Pandemic And Gobert Dumbassery

« on: June 26, 2020, 02:03:13 PM »

So Vince Carter retired.  When I graduated high school there was a little poll that the yearbook club gave to everyone in grade 12.  This was "most likely to succeed" kind of stuff.  Anyway, one of the questions was "most likely to be the next Vince Carter."  This was in '99 and was his rookie season.  One of the yearbook club guys kept getting asked "who's Vince Carter" as the question was his idea and he was making too big of an assumption that people paid close attention to the NBA.  Also at the point the Grizzlies were still in Vancouver and the Sonics were still in Seattle so there wasn't as much attention paid to the Raptors in the Vancouver area as there is today.

Needless to say I feel old.  The last active player from when I was in high school has now retired.  Though ironically I would have thought this would have happened years ago.  Who knew the guy from my high school yearbook poll would set the record for most seasons played?

Oh and my classmate that was voted "most likely to be the next Vince Carter" ended up being a bench warmer for a community college team.

123

General Gaming / Re: Meanwhile, Over At The Other Developers...

« on: June 25, 2020, 07:18:43 PM »

You know how in other mediums there are only a handful of major publishers?  There's the big three labels, the big five movie studios, and the big five book publishers.  It isn't like that in videogames... yet.  We don't have as many publishers as we used to have but we still aren't down to only a handful.  If the budget of game development keeps increasing then it will shrink the amount of publishers that are still in the business.  But for the biggest publishers that may be worth it to narrow the competition down to an oligopoly.  Controlling the market in that manner might be worth the investment.

124

General Chat / Re: In the dreamtime

« on: June 25, 2020, 07:10:32 PM »

Well, there it happened again. I just had a dream I was walking around a college campus looking for my class which happens to be a t-shirt making class. I can't find it. I end up in the wrong class, and it happens to be a patch making/embroidery class ran by Rastafarians. I figure this class looks cool so I sit down and start making patches. Then I wake up.

I'm amused by how it is specifically a t-shirt making class.  "Well I guess I could use these skills to sew lots of different clothing."  "NO! ONLY T-SHIRTS!!  And you need these credits as a prerequisite for the long-sleeve shirt class next semester!"

125

General Chat / Re: The COVID-19 Virus is Coming For Us All Thread

« on: June 25, 2020, 07:07:23 PM »

Uh... it doesn't have to be a pandemic for me to condemn shitting in burger boxes.  Like that's just a gross thing to do period.