Messages

1

General Gaming / Re: What is your most recent gaming purchase?

« on: Yesterday at 06:20:25 PM »

Code of Princess (3DS) - Saw a complete boxed copy (ie: with art book and CD) for $15 and couldn't really turn it down.  Had this game before, but traded it away for Heroes of Ruin, which was then traded for Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask. Obviously enjoyed Code of Princess enough to reacquire.


Bit.Trip Complete (Wii) - Despite already owning the digital 3DS version, this superior release was one of the (very few) games remaining on my Wii wish list. Well, seeing a complete copy (with CD) for $15 made me decide to cross it off the list while I had the chance.


Good night in my opinion.

Samba de Amigo (Wii) - 99 cents.
Some generic plastic maraca attachments, complete in box. $5.99.
...

For what it's worth, I think the game is more fun with the attachments.  Not better... but definitely more fun.

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General Gaming / Re: What are you playing?

« on: Yesterday at 04:50:48 AM »

Marvel Pinball 3D is currently hogging most of my gaming (and sometimes non-gaming) time at the moment. I really enjoy the Blade and Fantastic Four tables.  My only complaint: who is this annoying Yoshidious guy who tops all my friend list scores by a healthy margin?
 


For a "real" game, I'm making good progress on Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask.  Currently mid-way through chapter 4... but keep falling asleep while playing in bed.


Finally, I'm still working through Ys Book I & II on Wii Virtual Console after having started during the RFN retroactive, and have recently finished the Burnland section.  This gives an idea of how little TV time I get for gaming - unless you count Disney Princess games or Dog Island with my young daughter.

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General Gaming / Re: What is your most recent gaming purchase?

« on: Yesterday at 04:19:03 AM »

Awesome find for Metroid Prime Trilogy.

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TalkBack / Re: The Starship Damrey Review

« on: May 22, 2013, 04:18:49 PM »

I was excited to see reviews about this game, but based on the mixed reaction it seems to be getting Starship Damrey will probably be something I pick up later - either when it goes on sale, or after I work through some of my existing backlog first.


Still sounds interesting, just not quite the "sure thing" that I was hoping for.  Considering the price and format, I'm ok with that.

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TalkBack / Re: Precursor Games Releases Video Addressing Kotaku Silicon Knights Article

« on: May 22, 2013, 02:05:44 PM »

If he really did swipe Activision's money, why hasn't he been sued and/or indicted for doing so? That by itself should be enough for people to question whether the article is legit.  ...

"Swiping" money might be hard to prove.  A product was delivered after all, and the article seems to suggest that Activision didn't exactly follow up with the project as they should've (ie: fault for quality issues probably lies on both sides).

Off topic but related: Has Sega done anything regarding the release of Aliens: Colonial Marines? Will they?

But can't your last question be turned around? Can't the lack of any contradicting statement from Dyack, Silicon Knights, or any friends/employees that stayed with company be considered damning if the article really was blatantly incorrect and slanderous?  I mean, we have a statement being made now, after it's clear that his damaged public reputation is harming the ability to use crowd funding as a source of capital... but how credible is that?

I don't think any of us will ever know how accurate those anonymous sources were. My bet is that the one-sided story being presented by ex-employees (who probably weren't that fond of Dyack and/or Silicon Knights to begin with) is not a fair telling of what happened... but when you look at the overall track record for Silicon Knights over the past 8+ years*, it forces you to wonder just how much fire is behind all that smoke.

Again, very interested to hear what the NWR staff has to say - especially since at least one person has apparently met Dyack in person before.

* Track record in a nut-shell: mediocre and much-delayed Too Human release; disastrous Epic lawsuit that made Silicon Knights look rather bad; very poor X-Men Destiny release; difficulty meeting conditions for grant money from Canadian Government; then the article in question being unverifiable icing on the cake.

@ejamer This looks like a sure thing to me, as opposed to the Ouya which was a total unknown(still is)
...

The studio does seem very passionate about the project, and really wants to see it be successful. That is likely the best selling point we can agree upon at this point in time.

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TalkBack / Re: Interview with Orion's Odyssey Developer Island Officials

« on: May 22, 2013, 11:36:21 AM »

Although not a big fan of crowd funding or KickStarter, I finally decided to make a pledge for this game. Seems like a nice title and a good fit for the platform. Not having to pay extra shipping fees for delivery outside the US makes a difference.  Best of luck in hitting the goal, now that the project has reached the final stretch.


Edit: 
And the KickStarter goal has been reached just hours after the NWR post!  Congrats to the development team, and to all the backers who are looking forward to this game being published.

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TalkBack / Re: The NWR Staff Chimes in on the Xbox One

« on: May 22, 2013, 05:48:59 AM »

I don't think the XBox One name is nearly as bad as many people are making it out to be.


That doesn't mean it's good... but I understand how a marketing team would love the name, and think that the average Joe will be ok with it. Nobody who is in a position to be confused knows or cares about the original XBox anymore, and since that isn't an active product (unlike Wii/Wii U) there won't be in-store confusion to worry about.

If I don't have the ability to play offline/share games etc I wont be getting one. If it requires a check every 24 hours or so. What happens in 10 years?
...

This. A thousand times this.


As someone who still plays his original NES, the thought of leaving MS in control of me accessing my games in the future is terrifying.


Maybe they'll just "disable" online checks at the end of the console lifecycle.  Maybe they'll just decide when it's no longer profitable for them to maintain the service and then kill the whole thing and force you to either upgrade to the next XBox console (if it has backwards compatibility - don't hold your breath) or throw your collection in the trash.


This probably doesn't affect their target market, who want annual updates for sports titles and the latest FPS to play online.  But this presentation made it very clear to me that I'm not part of their target market to begin with.

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TalkBack / Re: Super Metroid Review Mini

« on: May 21, 2013, 02:30:58 PM »

Amazingly, there are people who don't consider this the best game ever made. I've even heard games like Symphony of the Night *snerk* and FF7 *snort* being thrown around.

Having also played Symphony of the Night (to completion, multiple endings) for the first time recently, that game doesn't hold up nearly as well as Super Metroid does. Both are classics for good reason... but in my opinion they aren't really in the same class.


FF7? A very large percentage of people wouldn't even consider that to be the best game in the series, and without nostalgia you'd be hard pressed to seriously consider it as "best in genre".  But that's just one opinion.

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General Gaming / Re: Xbox720 - that's 2 full revolutions - not till 2014? ~News/Rumor/Speculation~

« on: May 21, 2013, 02:24:20 PM »

...
Its odd the gamers seem to hate this press conference but i'm seeing a lot of positives coming from pure tech and mainstream media. Reading the comments on gaf (Uber negative) vs the comments from the verge (positive) is pretty interesting.
...

Maybe it depends on what you want the console to be?  For straight gaming, some of the decisions (and focus of the show) really aren't that appealing -- but for an all-in-one living room tech solution it might seem more exciting?


I'm not really in the market for an integrated entertainment solution though.

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TalkBack / Re: Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara Hits Wii U June 18

« on: May 21, 2013, 01:25:33 PM »

If the online is VERY WELL implemented, this might be awesome.  MIGHT.

I keep wondering how much I care about online play, but then realize that I have nobody close enough with time to come play... so yeah, it matters. Playing with friends in the same room would be infinitely preferable for me. That just doesn't happen so often anymore (except for some epic Toejam & Earl sessions on Wii VC a year or two ago).

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General Gaming / Re: Xbox720 - that's 2 full revolutions - not till 2014? ~News/Rumor/Speculation~

« on: May 21, 2013, 01:00:23 PM »

Still interested to see pricing models for XBox One and PS4. Any bets on XBox One going via a subscription/monthly payment plan instead of a straight sale? Will that information be out at E3, or will they (probably) save the new for closer to release to help stave off sticker shock?

I don't own a 360 so am probably not the target market, but have to say this presentation really turned me off from ever owning an XBox One. Reactivation fees for disc-based games, no backwards compatibility, always online being pushed (although not required), more focus on services than games, XBox Live fees likely to increase...  The only good news seemed to be that gamer scores would carry over, but (again) I'm not a 360 owner so that doesn't help me much.

Nope, this isn't what I want from a gaming console and isn't the direction I want to support for the industry.

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TalkBack / Re: Super Metroid Review Mini

« on: May 21, 2013, 11:22:08 AM »

I agree the video has some issues. If it did such a great job explaining how to play the game, we shouldn't have Miiverse posts asking how to open red doors, or "y can't metroid crawl".

Didn't watch the video, but would suggest that stupid posts (some of which are surely trolling) on Miiverse don't take anything away from the brilliance of this game and how it teaches you to play through brilliant design and level structure.

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TalkBack / Re: Roundtable Discussion: Reactions to the May 17 Nintendo Direct

« on: May 21, 2013, 10:52:31 AM »

Frankly, I'm more interested to watch how Sony and Microsoft transition to the next console generation. Will this be another 3DS vs Vita situation, where mainstream media sings praise for the future of Sony/Microsoft until finding out that a new console doesn't instantly get a full library of games upon release? Will the be major pricing/quality gaffs in their upcoming consoles, much like there were for the previous ones?


For me, Nintendo feels a much more "known quantity" on the whole.




PS - The Xenoblade sequel will almost certainly result in me buying a Wii U console. The big question is whether it's worth buying a cheap PS3 for HD gaming first - who knows how long the next Xeno game will take to finish.

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TalkBack / Re: Roundtable Discussion: Reactions to the May 17 Nintendo Direct

« on: May 21, 2013, 09:58:24 AM »

Good to see Carmine fighting the good (fanboy) fight. In many ways, he's right: Wii U will have many great games and will be a console worth owning. When you focus on the games that will be available during the full Wii U lifecycle, there is no doubt about that.


However... the console isn't there yet. In the present, in the right now, the many glaring holes and omissions in Wii U's software lineup outweigh any knowledge that good stuff is coming down the road. Why invest in an expensive new console when the software support obviously isn't in place yet? Having major publishers like EA openly reject the console doesn't help, and makes single console owners like myself think twice before opening their wallets at all.


Recent NPD results show that Wii outsold the Wii U last month, so this isn't an uncommon consumer response. Makes it hard to be too optimistic in the short term.

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TalkBack / Re: Precursor Games Releases Video Addressing Kotaku Silicon Knights Article

« on: May 21, 2013, 07:11:34 AM »

About kickstarter projects: I liked the idea of Ouya, but it was a flimsy thing with nothing that I actually knew of to back it up and it wound up making millions of dollars in a short span of time. ...

I'm probably missing the point, but... No, I'm definitely missing the point.

So Ouya earned a ton of money. So what?  It was a cool sounding product backed by some industry names that people know and respect. There was nothing to bet on but the reputations of the people involved, but that was enough for it to succeed.

Who really cares how much money a KickStarter project earns though, beyond the obvious made it/didn't distinction? Funding totals don't mean anything about the quality of the finished product, or about the relative value of buying in early (often blindly) instead of waiting to see what the end product is like.

Smart money doesn't drive crowd funded projects; passionate money does. I'd rather be in the former category, personally... although that is probably a function of my limited budget.


Edited because I kind of do get the point. Just not sure how relevant it is, since we aren't betting on the IP but on the ability of the team involved to create a new product based on that (or at least, similar) IP.

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TalkBack / Re: Precursor Games Releases Video Addressing Kotaku Silicon Knights Article

« on: May 21, 2013, 07:01:47 AM »

What's that sound?  Did someone bring popcorn?


There are so many interesting aspects to this whole thing.  I've made up my mind about whether to fund development, and the Kotaku article certainly did play a part... but not as much as the overall performance of Silicon Knights and Dyack over a period of many years.  Best of luck to Precursor Games with this project.


I look forward to reading the NWR roundtable discussion, and seeing the staff reactions.

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TalkBack / Re: Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara Hits Wii U June 18

« on: May 21, 2013, 06:32:09 AM »

Not a genre that everyone will appreciate, but these were fantastic arcade games and well worth replaying with a few buddies. Good to hear they will be available on Wii U - hopefully they find an appreciative audience.

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TalkBack / Re: Wario Launches Crowdfarter Campaign

« on: May 20, 2013, 01:56:05 PM »

Wait! Did Nintendo just come up with a good marketing campaign for a game?

Do you remember the awesome faux-Youtube (really Flash) ad for Wario Land Shake It on Wii?  Where he would literally shake your browser to pieces?  Wario seems to attract some of the better, more unique marketing ideas.

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TalkBack / Re: E3 Demos Playable at Best Buy

« on: May 18, 2013, 05:35:44 AM »

...would consider the hundreds of millions of players who live in Europe or Asia or Australia or the Middle East (you know, the majority of the world) where there are no Best Buy stores at all, and be thankful for this unique opportunity.

And in a perfect world, the staunch Nintendo defenders here would realize that millions upon millions of potential Wii U customers either (a) won't live near enough to one of the selected 100 Best Buy stores with demos for this promotion to matter, or (b) aren't able/old enough to drive themselves at will to one of these mythical demo stores anyway.


It's a great idea for Nintendo to make demos available to the public.  But covering 100 stores across two nations, all from a single retailer, just isn't enough given the current state of Wii U.  Seriously: Wii is outselling it's successor, and all meaningful support for that system was pulled years ago.  I'm not a doomsayer and I fully believe Nintendo can turn things around... but the outlook for Wii U really isn't very good right now.

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TalkBack / Re: E3 Demos Playable at Best Buy

« on: May 17, 2013, 03:37:01 PM »

Putting demos in 100 stores across the continent is a nice gesture... but nowhere near enough given the current state of Wii U.  Consumers don't want to buy the system. Developers don't want to support the system. Media and industry analysts consider it irrelevant already - if they stop to consider it at all.


Nintendo needs to think bigger and make it so that people everywhere experience and enjoy Wii U if they want anything to change.  That means putting demos in more locations, in a variety of environments, and on the eShop so that gamers who have invested in the system get engaged again and (hopefully) have a reason to talk about the Wii U in a positive light for a while.

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TalkBack / Re: No EA Games Currently in Development for Wii U

« on: May 17, 2013, 01:41:04 PM »

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=559004


So tell me how you really feel...

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TalkBack / Re: A Game Gear Baker's Dozen Coming to 3DS Virtual Console

« on: May 17, 2013, 08:59:19 AM »

I don't feel like most of the Game Gear library holds up well these days, but portable Shining Force does sound quite appealing.  Did anyone play that game back in the day?

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General Gaming / Re: On why I love the tales series... [Wall 'o text warning]

« on: May 15, 2013, 05:41:20 AM »

*standing slow clap*



Tales series is awesome. Wish we got more games from the series on Nintendo consoles.


So did everyone hear the rumor that Tales of Symphonia and Dawn of the New World are getting HD re-releases on PS3?

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General Gaming / Re: Capcom Store - Terrible experience so far... recommend checking your account...

« on: May 14, 2013, 10:26:54 AM »

(Hopefully) final resolution after not getting any response from Capcom again: called my credit card company directly.  They are getting things fixed.  I have no intention of dealing with the Capcom Store ever again, outside of doing whatever I can to get rid of my account there and remove any personal/financial details.


The only lingering downside: I don't think I want Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate anymore. I don't even want a free copy at this point. It's probably just being childish, but trying to play now would just feel tainted by the whole negative customer service experience.

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TalkBack / Re: Top 10 3DS Games: Two Years and Counting

« on: May 14, 2013, 08:54:14 AM »

You, sir, are objectively wrong.

And not for the first time.