Messages

13476

Nintendo Gaming / RE: News article assessing Nintendo future, reveals possible hidden agenda of gaming media

« on: February 13, 2004, 07:41:41 AM »

"As far as many people are concerned SEGA and NIN are the ones who have gone stagnent."

As opposed to who?  Sony and MS aren't exactly innovating the industry.  The Microsoft's big Xbox game is an FPS. WOWEE!

Besides it doesn't matter what "the majority" thinks.  My whole arguement is that the people that want Nintendo to go third party don't realize their importance.

I will agree that by the super high standards everyone holds them to Nintendo has gotten somewhat stagnant.  But they still bust out some crazy new stuff, just not as often as before.  They're still more innovative than the other console makers.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE: News article assessing Nintendo future, reveals possible hidden agenda of gaming media

« on: February 13, 2004, 07:01:11 AM »

I've too have noticed a significant bias against Nintendo from the gaming media.  It almost seems like they WANT Nintendo to fail.  They want them to go third party.  And really it kind of makes sense to want that.

The NES is perhaps the best console of all time.  It had everything: a huge variety of third party games and some amazing first party games.  Aside from Sega and Namco games if you owned an NES you didn't miss out on anything.  For the most part this continued with the SNES.  However now Nintendo is no longer on top so those third party and first party games are on different consoles.  Let's face it if you want to play the latest game from a series that started on the NES you have to own a PS2 and a Gamecube.  That's expensive and a pain.  The ideal situation is to have all of those games on the same console.

There are only two ways that will happen.  Either Nintendo has to become number 1 again and thus get back all of the third party support or they have drop out of the console wars and go third party.  Right now the second option seems more likely.  So thus the gaming media (and a lot of gamers in general) deep down wants Nintendo to go third party so they can have all the games they used to play back on one console.

Of course all of these people fail to realize that without "real" game companies like Sega and Nintendo having a major effect on the console wars the industry will become really stagnant.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE: Resident Evil 4 Discussion

« on: February 13, 2004, 06:12:08 AM »

"I truely hope all that information isn't right. I don't mind all the other stuff, but if the game doesn't get rid of the old crappy control a mack truck control scheme I will not be as enthusiastic about buying this game as I was before."

Isn't the view always over Leon's shoulder in this game though?  Therefore the RE controls will work fine.  It will be just like an FPS.  Having to use up to go forward works fine when forward is always in front of your character.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE: FF Crystal Chronicles: Ask a question, get an answer

« on: February 12, 2004, 08:01:29 PM »

"The instruction booklet doesn't have enough info in it (how do things work? Find out on your own)."

I noticed that too.  It doesn't even tell you who the different races are.  When starting the game my brother and I wanted to set up 8 characters with the idea being that we would switch between dungeons to balance things out.  However after selecting the first characters it goes to this little cutscene.  We thought we would have to play the first dungeon with the characters we selected and we both initially chose the same race so we reset and started again.  Turns out that the little cutscene doesn't do anything and you can go back and set up new characters before you start the first dungeon.  That should have been described more in the manual since it confused the hell out of us.

I also don't get how the letters work.  It asks me to select "I'm fine" or "Thank You".  What the hell do these mean?  Why doesn't it describe it in the manual?

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Nintendo Gaming / RE: Resident Evil 4 Discussion

« on: February 12, 2004, 07:35:30 PM »

I take back my initial concern.  After seeing those pics I can safely say that this remains true to the RE style.  Those villagers technically don't look like zombies but they're mindless killers nonetheless.  The survival focused style seems to remain intact.  It reminds me of an episode of the New Adventures of Jonny Quest where Jonny was in a villlage where the whole population was under mind control and at one point they were all trying to kill him.  Freaky sh!t.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE: Resident Evil 4 Discussion

« on: February 12, 2004, 01:52:09 PM »

From a storyline perspective I hope there's a better connection to the rest of the games beyond the main character.  Being hunted by supernatural spooky creatures is the whole appeal.  No zombies at all would pretty much kill the game's appeal regardless of how good it is.  If there's no zombies then Capcom shouldn't call this game "Resident Evil".

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TalkBack / RE: Game Informer Gets RE4, Killer 7 Exclusive

« on: February 12, 2004, 01:43:48 PM »

So you guys can't discuss it until mid-March.  So that means that even after this issue of GI is out in stores you guys still aren't allowed to talk about it?  If so that's kind of dumb but GI has to make a buck so I can see why they would want to be the only source of RE4 news for a bit.

But what if someone on the forums bought the mag and talked about it in the forums?  Would that be allowed?  I'm not talking about scans or word-for-word transcriptions.  If someone bought the mag and posted "hey according to GI RE4 has this" would they be allowed to?  I mean that information is public then isn't it?  It's not like when I buy a magazine I have to sign an NDA.

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TalkBack / RE: Burnout 3 Swerves to Miss GameCube

« on: February 12, 2004, 11:35:46 AM »

"But then you'll fall in another s-f prophecy: We don't buy the games because the 3rd party doesn't put as much effort in the Cube as it does to the other consoles and the 3rd party either releases Cube versions late, or releases a half-assed port, or doesn't release the game at all because they don't sell."

What are we to do?  Buy games that are inferior just so that a third party will support us?  They'll continue to do the same thing they're doing now.  True it's a self-fulfilling prophecy but it should be noted that it was the third parties who started this, not us.  Most of the third parties who have low sales for multiplatform games have ALWAYS given the Cube the short end of the stick including back at launch when there was no userbase and no sales data to base these decisions on.  For the most part they decided ahead of time that the Cube wouldn't be worth the effort and sure enough they've screwed themselves and us because of their idiotic pre-launch bias.

I figure the only thing we can do is what we're doing now: supporting the third parties that treat us fairly and not supporting those that don't.  Although it's not great it's really the best option.  For their next console Nintendo should ensure from the get-go that not only are third parties not releasing N5 versions later but don't create inferior ports.  I'm not sure how the quality of a port can be included in a licensing agreement but it should be.

Maybe Nintendo should bring back the requirements that all third party games have to be tested by Club Nintendo to ensure quality control.  They removed that policy to attract third parties but all it's done is allow third parties to release crappy ports and then complain when the sales suck.  Maybe they could alter the policy to only have required testing when porting from one platform to another.  Anything built for the N5 from the ground up is then excluded from the testing process.

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General Chat / RE: Challenges that are fun to do (CHECK IT OUT)

« on: February 12, 2004, 10:05:14 AM »

So do I need to provide any proof?  If not then yeah I can do all those things.  

My challenge is for you to win the tag team belts in Slam Masters and then defend them until you get the ending credits.  It's not exactly amazing but I've never met anyone beyond my brothers and I who have done it.  Of course I've never met anyone who even owns that game.

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TalkBack / RE: Burnout 3 Swerves to Miss GameCube

« on: February 12, 2004, 08:27:46 AM »

"I find myself agreeing with you more than anyone else here."

How ironic since whenever I get into a big debate with someone here 90% of the time it's you.

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TalkBack / RE: Burnout 3 Swerves to Miss GameCube

« on: February 12, 2004, 08:13:59 AM »

"But look at SSX 3, XIII, Prince of Persia, Beyond Good & Evil, Need for Speed Underground, T.H.U.G., Metal Arms and Splinter Cell for examples of great games that deserved better sales but sold zilch on the Cube (Beyond Good & Evil is particulary puzzling, since it's exactly the kind of game that the Zelda crowd wants to play).

It's pretty clear that most of the Cube user base bought it to play Nintendo games, and those who have another console usually end up buying multiplataform games for their other consoles."

Didn't most of the games you mentioned come out for the Cube at the very least a few weeks after the other versions were released?  Plus I found that with most of those games the Cube versions was incredibly scarce.  Stores would only get a few copies.  And in the case of THUG the Cube version didn't have all of the features of the PS2 version.  So basically you have SH and SC2 which were released either first for the Cube or at the very same time and they sold great.  And then you have Cube versions that come out later, are missing features, and are impossible to find in stores.  It seems pretty obvious to me why people are picking up the other versions.  If I had another console there's no way I would have bought the Cube version of POP because I couldn't FIND it anywhere.  The Xbox version came out sooner and was in every store I went into.  I still, even now, can't find BG&E for the Cube.

It comes down to this: if a third party f*cks us over, we f*ck them over.

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General Chat / RE: Original Star Wars Trilogy to finally be released on DVD

« on: February 11, 2004, 08:30:34 PM »

"Maybe I shoudnt ask this but what exactly is the big problem with episode II."

It's quite simple really.  The story sucks, the dialogue sucks, the acting sucks, the direction sucks, and the action scenes are nothing but special effects.  It's the movie equivalent of a videogame that is all graphics but no gameplay.  In short it was BORING.  At least in my opinion it was.

I'm aware that Tolkien tinkered with The Hobbit after it's original publication.  I don't LIKE that personally.  I mean if he wants to change it fine but there should be an "original edition" available for those who want to buy it.  With a book though it's a little more forgiving since one who has not read the original book could never tell what was changed if it wasn't pointed out.  But with these movies most of the changes are obvious to anyone regardless of whether they have seen the original films.  When a film from 1977 suddenly cuts to a CG scene it sticks out like a sore thumb.  It's an obvious change that hurts the flow of the movie.

George Lucas isn't the only one to do this and piss me off.  Nintendo for example when releasing SNES ports on the GBA will always f*ck around with the original design to make it easier or add voice samples.  That bugs the hell out of me and that's why I stick with the SNES versions.

I don't CARE if it's the artist's "vision" or whatever.  It pisses me off that he's changed something and is not letting us see it as it was.  If an artist wants to change something that's fine, just let me see what it used to be like as well.  If anything it's interesting to see what the artist wanted at different stages in their life.  Just give us BOTH and explain in the commentary why this was changed and that wasn't.

If I wrote a book any revisions would be clearly marked with the original text in the appendix.  If I made a movie any alternate versions would be on the same DVD as the original (Terminator 2 did this).  Let the audience choose which vision they prefer to read or watch since they're paying for it.  I would consider the "old" version to be historic and thus not to be forgotten.

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General Chat / RE: Original Star Wars Trilogy to finally be released on DVD

« on: February 11, 2004, 01:53:35 PM »

"I didn't mind the special editions much, but I still see them as alternate versions and don't like being forced to get them instead of how the movies were originally produced."

This is exactly my issue with the special editions.  This is like if they made it so the ONLY version of the classic A Christmas Carol available was the colourized version.  I want the f*cking OPTION to see whatever version of the movie I want.  It's  revisionist history otherwise.  I mean I prefer the extended cut of the Lord of the Rings movies but I'm still very grateful that if I want the original theatrical cut of those films I can get them on DVD.  The ONLY way to get the Star Wars trilogy as it was originally shown is pre-owned on VHS.  That's just crap.

I'm voting with my wallet.  I'm not buying THIS version of the Star Wars trilogy on DVD.  Not that I totally hate this version it's just that I want the option.  I suggest that if you want that option available hold off on buying the DVDs even if you prefer the Special Editions.

"but the point to remember is that it's George Lucas' vision, not ours."

Yeah but he ALREADY gave us one version over twenty years ago.  Why the f*ck shouldn't we be able to get that version if we want to?  This is about what movie I want for MY collection.  That has nothing to do with the "vision" of a talentless hack who got lucky once.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE: Accessories for the GC?

« on: February 10, 2004, 11:11:01 AM »

Well I think I can safely say that online GBA games is not going to happen.  Nintendo doesn't even want to make online Cube titles.  Why would they make online GBA titles that can only be used with the GB Player?

On thing I would like to see is a mouse.  I don't mean for something like Mario Paint I was thinking more for an RTS.  An exclusive Nintendo RTS that comes packed-in with a mouse could be pretty cool and if they kept quiet about it until only a few months before release the competition wouldn't be able to release anything similar to steal its thunder.  Stuff like konga drums are neato but they really only work with one game.  A mouse is flexible enough to accommodate several different games.  Aside from strategy games it would work well for sim/tycoon and point-and-click adventure games.

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TalkBack / RE: Burnout 3 Swerves to Miss GameCube

« on: February 10, 2004, 06:48:21 AM »

"I think EA's getting a little bit too 'big' for it's own good. I'm afraid one of these days I'm gonna boot up Gamerfeed and find out EA's developing their own console..."

That would be pretty cool actually.  First of all it would split the Playstation userbase up big time.  Tf the EA machine bombed it would lessen their importance in the industry which can only be a good thing.  And if it didn't bomb it's unlikely it would be popular enough to be a major threat to Nintendo.  It would be the casual gamer's machine thus stealing away users from Sony and MS but not so much from Nintendo.

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General Chat / RE: Arcade Games

« on: February 10, 2004, 06:37:29 AM »

I don't know how PSO figures into an arcade discussion but anyway here's my take on arcades.

I used to love them and would go to them fairly regularly.  I rarely had money as a kid so I didn't play as much as other people but at the very least I liked hanging out in arcades.  Not only did they often have a cool atmosphere but some of my favourite games like X-Men and WWF Wrestlefest were only available as arcade games.

I don't really go now.  Why?  Well first of all the local arcade I used to go to closed down.  A Chuck E. Cheese has opened up in my town but I don't go there because it's always full of little kids and it looks pretty odd for a full grown man to walk in on his own.  However what really turned me off arcades was the cost.  Games started costing 50 cents and then a whole dollar.  I'm sorry but if I've never played a game (ie: I suck at it) and I'm not even sure it will be any good I'm NOT going to pay a whole dollar just to test it out.  A quarter is cheap enough for a test run but not a buck.

If they went back to making each game a quarter then I would be back in a second.  Actually that Chuck E. Cheese I mentioned IS doing that but again I don't like people thinking I'm a pedophile so I don't go, but I would otherwise.  And don't give me this crap about fancy sit-down arcade machines being too expensive to make to only charge a quarter.  Outrun and After Burner both had fancy moving sit-down units and neither of them ever cost more than a quarter back in the day.  Plus having me play two games for fifty cents is better than me not playing at all because I think it's too expensive.

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General Gaming / RE: Nintendo DS: Ingenious anti PSP countermove or new Virtual Boy type flop?

« on: February 10, 2004, 06:17:10 AM »

"What cartridge? woopty frick'n doo! Like the article said, they are just trying to extort the developers all over again and it'll come back to screw them in the butt. It is just too similar to the N64/PS1 days"

It's not quite the same.  This is a portable console remember.  Therefore a cartridge format is going to be not only more durable but also will not skip.  There's no moving parts either which again adds to the durability of the system.  I think it's wise to stick with cartridges in this situation.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE: New Miyamoto interview over at IGNCube

« on: February 10, 2004, 06:11:46 AM »

"Would you like to come up with something better? It's easier said than done, and you can't be overcreative because of technology limitations..."

Would I LIKE to come up with something better?  Sure would.  That would be cool.  Can I come up with something better?  Probably not but it would at the very least be different from anything Miyamoto makes.  True he doesn't really make games on his own anymore but he's basically just training more of him which kind of hurts the variety of Nintendo's lineup a little.  Train ONE guy to be another Miyamoto and let the other guys define themselves.  Otherwise it's just to much of the same thing.

Of course that point would be moot if Intelligent Systems would make some f*cking Cube games.  "Duh, we don't know how to use 3D" is NOT a valid excuse in 2004.

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

« on: February 09, 2004, 01:49:55 PM »

"GCN launched here halfway through 2002, if GCN2 comes out in 2005 then that's a pathetic 2-3 year lifespan."

Sorry Australian launch date doesn't count.    Seriously though you were comparing the Aus launch date to the N5 US launch date.  No matter what that will seem shorter than it should be.  If the N5 came out in 2005 Australia would likely still have to wait until 2006 thus giving the Cube a 4 year lifespan.  It's all moot anyway.  I don't want something earlier but I don't want something really late either.  Just match the PS3 and I'll be happy whether it be in 2005 or 2006.

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

« on: February 09, 2004, 01:08:50 PM »

Summary of NOA's response:

"It's all a bunch of phooey."

Thank God.

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

« on: February 09, 2004, 12:05:56 PM »

"A new gamer will go into the store to see a 300 dollar Xbox2 or PS3, then look at the 99 dollar GC, and will most likely go with the cheaper one..."

I doubt it.  When the PS2 was released you could buy an N64 or Dreamcast for less money and both of those consoles had a superior lineup of games.  But people didn't.  They bought a PS2 or waiting until they were available.  When the PS3 comes out people are going to assume the Cube is an out-of-date machine on it's last legs.  Maybe if Nintendo were the market leader they could pull this off but they're not.  People still bought an NES when the Genesis was released because Nintendo was the market leader.  This next generation will follow the PS3.  Nintendo can't release their console whenever they feel like it.  They don't have that kind of presence in the market to do that sort of thing.

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

« on: February 09, 2004, 11:56:21 AM »

I think I speak for everyone when I say WHAT THE F*CK?!  This information is just, well, weird.  Is IGN full of sh!t or has Nintendo gone nuts?  Either way I'm confused.

Nintendo has been saying in like every interview that games are too complex for the average person and simple games are the future of the industry.  They then go and completely ignore their own statement by making a portable with two screens and now they want to make hardware add-ons as well?  Seems to me that that's going to confuse people more than anything.  The simularites with Sega's own demise is unreal as well.  Surely Nintendo isn't stupid enough to think hardware add-ons will be accepted.  The 64DD BOMBED.  Surely they remember that.  Sega had to leave the console market because of this sort of crap.  Surely they noticed that.

This also is in stark contrast with what NOA has been saying all along.  They always talk about being commited to matching the competition with the next console.  So now that's not going to happen or what?  Has NCL just made these decisions out of nowhere without alerting NOA or was NOA just full of it all along?

I'm going to wait and see if any new info comes up because these just seems like such a dumb idea I don't even think Nintendo would think they could do it.  I'm hoping for some clarification or it turns out to be a mistranslation.

One good thing of all this though is that if Nintendo decides to emulate the fall of Sega maybe their last console will be as cool as the Dreamcast.  One can only hope.

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General Chat / RE: MTV=The Evil Empire... music is dying...

« on: February 09, 2004, 10:54:55 AM »

Enya is spared from my hating solely because of "May It Be" from the Fellowship of the Ring soundtrack.  Damn that's a great song.  Plus I feel there is a difference between layering various tracks of one's voice to achieve harmony and doing the same thing to hide the fact you can't sing worth sh!t.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE: New Miyamoto interview over at IGNCube

« on: February 09, 2004, 10:48:25 AM »

"Sequel or rehash? from what I have read here it seems most of you actually just want Mario 64 recreated in a sense. Not really a squeal at all. But a big land with snow, fire and mushrooms to jump around on."

Yes of course.  And then we'll all be like "where's the innovation, dude?" when it comes out.  Remember we're Nintendo fans and thus can never be satisfied.

What I really want is just a solid game that improves on Super Mario 64.  Super Mario Sunshine tried too hard to change Super Mario 64.  I don't want an overhaul I just want some improvements.  Super Mario Bros 3 added flight to Mario games.  That was pretty cool.  Would we have liked it if you were stuck as Racoon Mario ALL THE TIME and thus could always fly?  No of course not.  That was the problem with SMS.  No one wanted to wear a water pack all the time.  Nintendo seems to have this bizarre attitude going where they have to completely re-invent the wheel each time so we get gimmicky stuff like a water pack or toon shading.  If that's ALL Nintendo can think of to innovate then I would rather they make something more cookie-cutter provided that it rocks.  Super Metroid didn't change the Metroid formula much but it sure kicked ass.

"The whole point is that someone could potentially steal their ideas and beat them to market with it..."

True but it's unlikely.  I don't think copying Nintendo is something most developers feel is necessary anymore.  They're grossly underestimated by Sony and MS.  Why steal an idea from old fuddy duddy Nintendo when they can't sell anything?  I think the bigger problem is that this "our idea is so amazing we can't tell anyone about it" stuff creates hype that cannot possibly be fulfilled.  It's better that they either show it before building it up or not talk about it at all and just say "we're working on it and we'll show it when we feel it's ready."

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TalkBack / RE: Sega Toying with DS Development Hardware

« on: February 09, 2004, 10:12:01 AM »

Sega made the f*cking PICO so they better support the DS.  It's rather hypocritical to have a history of creating your own crazy hardware and not support someone else's.  I figure they will support the DS simply because they support pretty much everything to some extent.

Plus they have Naka and Suzuki both of which are crazy Japanese designers and thus seem likely to support something like this.