Messages

4226

TalkBack / RE:Paper Mario 2 on the Way

« on: April 01, 2004, 03:51:13 AM »

NO, you are all blasphemers!  Paper Mario is one of the greatest games ever!!!  I don't even think Mario & Luigi, as great as it was, lived up to Paper Mario.
I will buy this game the day it comes out.  I am ecstatic!

4227

TalkBack / RE:Nintendo February Sales Data

« on: March 18, 2004, 11:13:03 AM »

But whether or not the demand for GameCube is actually "huge" is impossible to tell, since Nintendo isn't producing enough units!   Considering that you can still buy them for $70 on Ebay, I'd say that the demand is nowhere near the insane level the PS2 achieved when it was launched.  

I only have one more thing to add: who here has actually noticed a shortage of GameCubes where they live?  There was a shortage here in January, but every retailer I've visited in my city in the past several weeks has had an ample supply of Cubes.

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TalkBack / RE: Resident Evil 4 Preview Update

« on: March 17, 2004, 06:40:57 AM »

All sounds good except for one thing: the self-adjusting difficulty level.  If executed properly it will be awesome, but, particularly with the Resident Evil series, I'm afraid of getting stuck later in the game.  We'll see!

Never been a huge fan of the series, but I'll definitely be renting this one at least, it looks incredible.  I hope the additions to the control scheme are as nice as IGN claims.

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TalkBack / RE: Nintendo February Sales Data

« on: March 17, 2004, 05:47:06 AM »

Anybody know what the actual sales were?  To me the real question is whether or not GameCube managed to compete with Xbox and PS2, not how out of stock the GameCube is.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE: Bomberman Jetters?

« on: March 15, 2004, 11:05:12 AM »

So, it's supposed to be out now, but I haven't seen it.  All I want to know is, is it better than Bomberman Generations?

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TalkBack / RE: Rumor: Nintendo DS Specs?

« on: March 12, 2004, 08:16:43 AM »

I'm not that interested in multi-purpose devices myself, and I wouldn't want Nintendo to include extra functionality unless it came at a minimal cost.
But on the topic of the specs, I wonder if the "touch pad" is perhaps the portable alternative to analog control sticks?  In the past Nintendo has always used analog in its 3D games, and this is one reason why I usually preferred N64 games to the Playstation, it just feels more natural to me.  Anyway, a control stick isn't really practical for a portable system, so if it's not a touch screen, this could be another possibility.
You can't spell speculation without specs...err, minus the s....

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TalkBack / RE: Prince of Persia Movie in the Works

« on: March 12, 2004, 04:10:25 AM »

WHY?  At least it sounds like they want to preserve the integrity of the game, but really, can't Hollywood just come up with its own movies?

4233

TalkBack / RE: Activision in Financial Trouble

« on: March 12, 2004, 04:05:58 AM »

I thought the Spider-Man games were excellent.  Too short, but excellent.
Anyway, I don't know if this really signals the demise of Activision, going by its stock price (even if it is inflated) and the popularity of some of its games (particularly Tony Hawk) the company appears to be in better shape than, say, Acclaim or Interplay - if Interplay is still around, I may be making that up.

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TalkBack / RE: Rumor: Nintendo DS Specs?

« on: March 11, 2004, 04:04:42 AM »

Mustn't...let...juicy...rumours...increase...anticipation!
Must...stop...talking...like...Spiderman...from...70s...cartoon...
Must...concentrate!...Got to...Stop...Mysterio!
Hope it's all true and then some.  Still don't think this is going to stop the PSP, but if these specs were real, and if it beats or meets the PSP release date, then Sony is facing a much tougher battle.

4235

TalkBack / RE: Whoooooooshhhhhhhhh!

« on: March 10, 2004, 09:29:43 AM »

But really, aren't names like DS and SP just the way for company executives be top of cool in the new millenium?  "Oooh, sounds like a luxury car."  Nintendo's next home console should be named the NES 5.0 - the NES plays on  nostalgia while the unecessary "." makes it sound technologically advanced.  

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TalkBack / RE:AIAS Interactive Achievement Awards announced

« on: March 05, 2004, 04:08:10 AM »

Personally, I didn't think Prince of Persia was that great.  It was an excellent game, no doubt, but...I don't know, I guess I'm too much of a communist - I want to see everyone get an award!  

[Ian Sane]

4237

TalkBack / RE:Princeton Hosts Forum on Game Criticism

« on: March 04, 2004, 11:43:19 AM »

Quote
Originally posted by: Ian Sane
I guess maybe the guideline should be "realism should only be used to make the game more fun."  

Absolutely!  The long sailing times in Wind Waker (and gigantic game worlds in general) are a good example of how this rule should be applied.  While a big, empty wilderness is probably more representative of reality than the obstacle-laiden overworlds of games like Mario & Luigi or the older Zelda titles, it's still not as much fun.

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TalkBack / RE:Princeton Hosts Forum on Game Criticism

« on: March 04, 2004, 05:01:51 AM »

I don't think these guys are aiming to come up with a formula, necessarily.   If they're truly interested in videogames as an art, they should realize that art can't be reduced to a formula anyway.

Whatever the case may be, I find this to be a very interesting concept, but I highly doubt that it will "improve" games.  Talking about games or anything in these high-minded academic terms is fun for dorks like me, but I don't see a bunch of eggheads talking about what makes games great having any real bearing on developers.  Look at movies, you can win an armful of awards at fancy European festivals, but 99% of the time you're still screwed compared to the next James Bond movie or animated Disney "Masterpiece".

(No offence to Eggheads, fans of James Bond, or people who actually consider Disney's animated movies to be masterpieces...I've been all of the above, at one time or another.)

4239

TalkBack / RE:Iwata on DS Connectivity

« on: March 02, 2004, 11:08:05 AM »

I think Nintendo deserves some credit for identifying a major problem with games today...their complexity.  I tried playing a football game a few months ago and was at a complete loss.  I've played the training level of Splinter Cell three times because I keep forgetting the controls (yes, sadly, I am becoming a casual gamer).  And if you've ever tried to teach someone who hasn't played many videogames in the past ten years to play Super Mario Sunshine or any of the 3D Zelda games...it seriously takes hours to catch on.  Compared to Super Mario Bros. or the original Legend of Zelda, modern games are really, really complicated.

Unfortunately, Nintendo is chasing a lot of red herrings and making bad assumptions (such as people don't care about pretty graphics) in it's attempts to fix this situation, but I truly believe that coming up with new, simpler game concepts is something worth investing time in.

4240

TalkBack / RE:Nintendo GameCube Nearly Sold Out!

« on: March 02, 2004, 04:44:12 AM »

DevAdvocate: I think the simple answer to why we all criticize GameCube sales is because it's the weak link in Nintendo's hardware.  People prefer to worry about what's going wrong rather than applauding what's going right, and so I think some would agree that Nintendo isn't necessarily stupid in general, just with respect to the GameCube.

For that matter I don't think that Nintendo is all that stupid with the GameCube.  It is a little questionable that they keep running out of hardware, but I think we have to see February sales to decide how bad it is.   Otherwise, I think Nintendo is fighting an uphill battle and doing pretty admirably.  To expect Nintendo to magically remove PS2 from it's entrenched first place position is not really fair.  In the 80s, Sega could have given away Master Systems and the NES would still have held first place.  Everyone thinks Nintendo should be doing more, but what is that "more"?  I don't know.

4241

TalkBack / RE:Spyro and Crash GBA Games to Link Together

« on: February 23, 2004, 05:04:13 AM »

To quote Bart Simpson, I smell another cheap cartoon crossover.  And as if it wasn't cheap enough, they randomly threw in some colour names so people would think of Pokemon when they buy them.  I hope the developers are working harder than the marketers.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE: GCN 2 possibly delayed...

« on: February 09, 2004, 11:17:18 AM »

I actually tend to agree that the improvements that can be made to the next-gen systems are going to be minimal, which is one reason why Nintendo may have done this, but having said that, I don't think it will stop Sony, and it's definitely not going to stop Microsoft, which is what worries me.  I believe that a lot of consumers will buy those systems even if they show no marked improvement in technology, and that's where I think Nintendo could be left in the cold.  If PS3 and Xbox2  aren't that much greater than the current systems, than Nintendo's next system obviously won't be much greater than PS3 or Xbox2, either.  In which case, Nintendo may lose out on a huge share of the market.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:GCN 2 possibly delayed...

« on: February 09, 2004, 11:06:35 AM »

Why is Nintendo intent on proving moronic Wall Street analysts right when they claim it is going the way of Sega?

My best guess is that this is a strategy to stay dominant in the handheld market - marketing DS, a new Gameboy and a new home console all in the space of two years might be expensive and "cannibalistic".

Having said that...SEGA!!  This is exactly what killed Sega...pumping out peripherals that didn't really add that much value to the hardware and releasing new systems out of sync with the other major players.  I love Nintendo, I don't own any other systems and I'll buy the next console anyway, but frankly, even I'll go buy a PS3 or an Xbox 2 if Nintendo doesn't release a competing system within a year of their launch.

I can only pray that this is a mistake...bad translation, misinformation, anything!  Either that or I'll pray Nintendo really has an honest-to-goodness secret up it's sleeve, but I'm not holding my breath.

4244

TalkBack / RE: Splinter Cell Sequel Delayed On GameCube

« on: February 04, 2004, 05:34:29 AM »

"Empowered with the Fifth Freedom - the right to spy, steal, destroy and assassinate to protect his country"  *puke*  As if being dreary wasn't enough for espionage and war games, they have to go throw some blind, macho patriotism into the mix.  Is this game actually developed in France?  That would be pretty ironic.

4245

TalkBack / RE:Killer7 No Longer GameCube Exclusive

« on: February 04, 2004, 05:28:46 AM »

I can't blame Capcom for hedging their bets, this is not the type of game that typically sells on the GameCube.  Exclusivity deals sure are breaking down a lot since Microsoft entered the game (not that I'm blaming MS, although they do seem to wave a lot of money around and put more emphasis on timed exclusivity than true exclusivity)...Rare, Final Fantasy, Grand Theft Auto, Resident Evil: "loyalty" is out the window, it seems.  If it ever really existed.  I'm getting off track...

This is frustrating, but then again, as long as we're still getting the game, why make a stink?  Yes it would be nice if Killer 7 sold GameCubes to PS2 and Xbox owners, but how does it affect us personally?  Capcom could dumb the graphics down, but it probably won't because the game has already been in development for the Cube for more than a year.  Most likely PS2 will get a simplified port and we'll get the exact same game we would have if it wasn't exclusive.

4246

TalkBack / RE:Latest Nintendo Performance Numbers

« on: January 27, 2004, 11:02:04 AM »

I once looked into investing in Nintendo, but I couldn't find them on any of the North American exchanges.  Maybe I didn't look hard enough, though.
Anyway...this is all good and well, but I think Nintendo should shut up until it has some NEW landmarks to tell us about.   They've already said the exact same thing ten different ways.  Nintendo: come back when GameCube surpasses Xbox for total sales since 2001.

4247

TalkBack / RE:EA Snags Timesplitters 3

« on: January 21, 2004, 08:41:38 AM »

New Timesplitters?  Awesome.  EA publishing it?  Hmmm....
Why is EA suddenly buying everyone's best games?  I suppose all's fair in war and capitalism, but it seems like kind of a sleazy move.  Then again maybe the other publishers had lost interest in the games and it's just coincidence that EA picked them up.  I somehow doubt it though...
On the bright side, EA will probably publish a GameCube version, which might not have been the case for Eidos.

4248

TalkBack / RE:Nintendo Reveals "Third Pillar"!

« on: January 21, 2004, 04:55:36 AM »

This is an interesting idea, but it smacks of connectivity to me...what does having an extra screen really do for me?   The example of a soccer game on two screens is WAY too familiar, it reminds me so much of the original supafly GBA connectivity example of choosing secret football plays.  Still, connectivity always sounded cool in theory, maybe this will be cool in practice.

Pros:
- you don't have to buy extra hardware which I think is a big part of the problem for connectivity
- even when it's not used well, having an extra screen wouldn't be a bad thing
- I'm secretly thrilled to see the cartridge format is still being used

Cons:
- extra screen = extra money, will the innovations that come out of it be worth the cost?
- dual processors?  Wasn't this a nightmare for developers on the Saturn?
- third parties will probably be annoyed that the cartridge format is still being used

I'm also hoping Nintendo gives this system enough juice to play 3D games.  I know that's not the "point", but I think Nintendo is just begging to give away its handheld market share by not releasing a system with similar 3D capabilities to the PSP.  But I'll reserve my judgement until I see the hardware and some games.

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Podcast Discussion / RE:Planet Trivia 19 January 2004

« on: January 19, 2004, 04:50:09 AM »

Hey!  Since I can never make it to the real trivia, I'll overcompensate by showing off my encyclopedic knowledge of Mario enemies.  There is another way to tell which the real Yaridovich is:  Use Mallow's Psychopath on one of the Yaridoviches and press the Y button just as the two spotlights converge on him.  If you time it correctly you will hear a "power-up" tone and you will read his mind.

The real one thinks, "My promotion's at stake!" and the fake one thinks, "I'm not the real McCoy!"

You can use this trick to read any enemy's mind, actually.  It's practically useless, but pretty cool.

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TalkBack / RE:1080° Avalanche Review

« on: December 22, 2003, 06:32:05 AM »

I thought the review was decent.  A brief comparison to SSX 3 would have been nice, but it is a review about 1080...read a couple of reviews of each and draw your own conclusions!  Better yet, rent them.
Personally, I'll be buying SSX 3, but I will definitely look at Avalanche when/if it becomes a Player's Choice title.