Messages

1026

TalkBack / Re: Why New Super Mario Bros. 2 Cannot Rest on the Original's Laurels

« on: August 09, 2012, 03:04:00 PM »

Gamespot just dropped a 7.0 on it. Which is about how I felt about the first game. Was holding out hope that this was going to tack toward an enhanced Super Mario Bros. 3, with NSMBU tilting toward a revamp of Super Mario World. Looks disappointing on the handheld front, but hopefully NSMBU is as better than NSMB2 as NSMBW was to NSMB. (This nomenclature is getting out of hand)

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Super Smash Bros. WiiU (& 3DS)

« on: August 09, 2012, 02:14:44 PM »

I'd expect the 3DS version to hit first with the Wii U version to follow a few months later.

gotta force as many people as possible to double dip by giving them the portable version first before the big graphical showcase version.  I also wouldn't be surprised if this is aimed at Xmas 2013 to try and overshadow the PS4/720 release HYPE trains.

Hm, good point, Ninty won't have a Zelda or a Mario ready to draw off attention from the new consoles, and Smash has probably the most active community of any of their properties. I bet they would love to launch holiday 2013. With full patching capability they might feel more comfortable releasing a somewhat rushed product.

Then again, Retro's project might be slotted to fill that gap, though unless it's based on an existing property it would by very unlikely to match Smash-level hype. 

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TalkBack / Re: Mass Effect 3 Impressions

« on: August 06, 2012, 10:18:09 AM »

Looks like the map will allow you to actually give useful directions to your teammates. I never even bothered using commands 95% of the time given how flighty and noncommital your homies are with d-pad input.

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General Gaming / Re: Sony Playstations: Are it Doomed?

« on: August 05, 2012, 07:14:01 PM »

Sony's PSP market penetration is a pyrrhic victory. While they have been the only contenter to have ever made any inroads against Nintendo's handheld, it hasn't had an true lasting effect. Unless there is a massive turnaround on a greater scale than the 3DS, the Vita is going to die on it's feet.

While Sony is in trouble, it still has one console generation left in it. The moment Sony revels it's hardware, we will know whether it has future or not. If they pull another insane custom job like the PS3 trying to tie in technologies from other divisions which have little utility in gaming for the gamer or the developer, its good bye.

MS is already receiving some backlash for it's lack of gamer focus and forced Kinect usage. My money is on Sony doing their upmost to delay PS4 unless the WiiU spooks them.

This sounds right to me. It might make more business sense to stick with the PS3 for an extra year or two; assuming the WiiU is not a huge leap above current gen, WiiU+PS3 could hold back the success of the Durango by keeping the target platform at a more modest spec level. And this would give Sony time to configure hardware that bests Microsoft's next console without being outrageously expensive, and to do what they do best: copy the most successful features of the WiiU and Durango.

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TalkBack / Re: Mario Isn't Missing

« on: August 04, 2012, 01:37:02 PM »

Rayman Origins certainly looks better, but I'm not sure it's better from a gameplay perspective. I definitely liked what I played of Rayman Legends better than NSMBU, but that may just be because I really didn't like NSMBU. I'm definitely more excited for NSMB2 than Rayman Legends, though.

Yeah, I'm with you there. Origins looked great, but there was a cog missing somewhere that kept it from reaching NSMBW's level, despite the latter game's conservative visuals.

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General Gaming / Re: How have your gaming habits changed as you became older?

« on: August 03, 2012, 02:37:50 AM »

I, too, have lost patience for most games. I remember being really appalled when games started shrinking to 4-6 campaigns, but now I prefer it. Most games run out of ideas within that time frame, so I'm happy to be done with them at that length. The only game I can think of that I wish was longer that I've played in the last few years is Limbo. Donkey Kong Country Returns might be the game I've spent the most time with in the last half-decade based on how satisfying the extra playthroughs were. Just beautiful classical design.

I tired to get in to Oblivion and Fallout 3, but both games made me gag after about 10 hours. Something about them just feels wrong to me, like the content is all synthetic filler.

Interestingly, I've gotten really sucked in to Dark Souls in the last few weeks, after almost giving up on it ten times in the first five hours. I might actually put 40 hours into iy, which I haven't done with a game in lord knows how long.

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TalkBack / Re: Mass Effect 3 to Launch Alongside Wii U

« on: August 03, 2012, 02:27:53 AM »

I played ME2 without touching the first game or reading anything about the story, and found it very compelling. ME3 blew comparatively, so I can only imagine what it would have been like without an ME2 background.

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General Gaming / Re: Sony Playstations: Are it Doomed?

« on: August 02, 2012, 02:28:09 PM »

Yeah, I guess I shouldn't have implied that their gaming division is leading their losses, but at this point it doesn't appear to be holding the line either. Mainly I think the topic has some renewed interest in the face of how badly Sony appears to be doing as a whole, and how that's going to affect next gen. Microsoft posted its first company-wide loss ever at nearly the same time, so I'm wondering how nervous the stock holders at these companies are becoming about risky console propositions, and how much of their emphasis on video games is driven by a weird sort of pissing contest over sound business fundamentals. This is all Nintendo's got, but Sony and Microsoft are huge companies with varied products and divisions. If the PS4 does as badly out of the gates as the PS3 did, I think the gaming division is in genuine danger of going tits up for the first time.

I was surprised, though, by the fact that the PS3 was able to play late-game catch-up with the Xbox 360, and that the PSP remained popular in Japan despite the silly and confusing iterations Sony released.

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General Gaming / Sony Playstations: Are it Doomed?

« on: August 02, 2012, 11:59:34 AM »

http://www.gamespot.com/news/sonys-game-division-loses-45-million-6389811

The bad news just keeps on raining on Sony, both company wide and specifically on the gaming division. I'm an old-school Sony-hater from the PS1 era, and, despite the fact that I'm now an adult and have dropped the console war mentality, I can't help but derive some schadenfreude from this gloomy parade of fate. They also seem to have shaken a good amount of fan faith with their handling of the hacking incident last year.

So in the face of this most recent profit report, how do people see things going for Sony next-gen? Do you think it's possible they'll sit out the PS4 for at least a few years? The Vita seems to be doing ominously badly as well; will they keep supporting it no matter how futile it as a viable competitor to the 3DS? I'm not sure it's possible for them to launch another console that takes the hit the PS3 did, without seriously tanking the company, Dreamcast style. Would this put more pressure on Sony to go light on the specs for the Orbis?

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

« on: August 02, 2012, 11:26:03 AM »

I think you also have to take into account the cooling attitude of the "hardcore gamer" contingent against Microsoft. If you scan the comments sections on news stories on Gamespot you'll see a lot of people bitching about how Microsoft sold them out for the Kinect and multi-media functionality, and that they'd prefer to just go PC only at this point. Anecdotal evidence, but Microsoft really has shifted gears, and there was bound to be some blowback, though it's more surprising to me that anyone ever thought Microsoft was really was "down" with the core and not just sociopathically chasing market dominance.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Wii U

« on: August 01, 2012, 03:28:59 PM »

Hmmm, I wonder what graphical improvements they are talking about.  Is it just some better lighting, higher poli counts on the character models, 1080p 60 fps, or just more  thinigs taking place and scattered about on the sidelines. 

This is the big question, and I think it's going to come down to a matter of design. If devs start using the increased horsepower to make living open worlds with tons of destructible physics (not just chipping columns and concrete barriers), Minecraft-like materiality, time -control (Blinx the Cat on steroids), and other genuine gameplay advances, the WiiU could get orphaned. But if the major studios stick to their current favored methods of hallway simulators with primo effects, you'd think WiiU could scale sufficiently. That Star Wars 1313 footage, for instance, looked next-gen graphically but from what little was shown of the gameplay it looked like pretty typical third-person cover shooting stuff with quick-timey events. Same with Watch Dogs, but with a scripted sandbox veneer. I've seen some claims that AI will be opened up by better specs, but I frankly haven't noticed a huge leap in AI in the last two console cycles, other than that enemies will camp out more. It's still pretty bad, and the increasing concentration on multi-player and co-op would seem to deemphasize developments in this arena.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Wii U in Review (News & Rumor Consolidation)

« on: July 29, 2012, 12:30:02 PM »

I would love it if someone kicked UE to the curb. I'm convinced it's one of the main reasons aesthetics got so crummy this gen, as well as underpinning textured hallway mania. I don't have a great grasp on what CryEngine brings to the table, but I remember that Crysis 2 felt more like Perfect Dark than most games attempt at this point.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Nintendo Land

« on: July 28, 2012, 02:41:52 PM »

I dunno, I get the feeling that Nintendo considers this a AAA product, and might not want to give it a "freebie" association. They could have made a Wii Sports U pack-in collection based on some of the initial sports demo footage from last year's E3, but seem to have consciously chosen to steer away from that into an IP heavy collection with higher production values. If it is retail, though, I spec this mofo will bomb pretty hard.

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TalkBack / Re: The Next 3D Zelda

« on: July 27, 2012, 04:03:22 PM »

The most important thing about Majora's Mask getting a remake would be the mask selection screen. It would greatly open up the feel of the gameplay. Hell, I'd be down for them using that to add new dungeons that make more out of swapping mask abilities.

Beautiful game, though, and probably one of the most emotionally affecting games made to this day, using its unique non-linear narrative technique. That's what story telling in games should aspire to, not Hollywood-style cut-scenes.

I disagree with the sentiment posted above that it was a bad "Zelda" game. It was the last major attempt to experiment with the formula (that wasn't just turning the overworld into an ocean, cloud bank, or of set of train tracks), and the series could dearly use another such shot in the arm.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Wii U

« on: July 23, 2012, 03:42:05 PM »

I'm finding it unnerving how quiet they're being. The Caesar of the games industry gave them a pronounced thumbs down coming out of E3, and they've so far done little to dig themselves out of that hole. They should at least be trying to gin up interest via some viral marketing campaigns. Game sites have nothing to do right now, you'd think they'd eat up promotional efforts. I mean, we don't even have a main page write-up on Nintendo World Report from one of the hands-on events. I guess it might be redundant after E3, but that goes to show that we need some new information. As of now what news there is is just a series of reports about developers and industry hangers-on badmouthing Nintendo, with the occasional counter piece where someone says "the WiiU is pretty good, I guess."

1041

Nintendo Gaming / Re: The OFFICIAL Big N rumor thread *bring your own salt*

« on: July 20, 2012, 06:52:01 PM »

Didn't quite a few staff members leave after just about every game was published, starting with Goldeneye and culminating with the Stampers hanging it up? The Conker project was long-in-the-works, as was DP/SFA, so you could maybe assume that those teams were constituted during the height of their creative prowess. But then you've got Mickey's Speedway USA, DK64, Jet Force Gemini (people have a lot of nostalgia for this game, but I don't think it stands up next to BK or PD), and the announced Kameo (which looked lame to begin with and turned out to fulfill that promise). Then Microsoft era: Grabbed by the Ghoulies, Conker port, Perfect Dark Zero (hiss, boo), BK: Nuts and Bolts, Viva Pinata (which was actually pretty good), and finally Kinect Sports.

I think Rare looked on the wane toward the end of the 64, and never really recovered creatively. The question might be how much of the staff defection and creative decline can be directly attributed to Nintendo's meddling. Probably a lot. I used to read the Uncle Tusk and Letters columns back in the day, and in the last few years they were letting quite a few thinly veiled jabs fly at "Ninty", culminating with that Mr. Pants Christmas Tree image with what were clearly a PS2 and an Xbox wrapped beneath it.

1042

TalkBack / Re: Unreal Engine 4 Can Run on Wii U

« on: July 20, 2012, 02:48:55 PM »

My read on the UE4 situation is that outside of digital gearhead culture, the most important leap about the new engine in the real-time editing capabilities that are supposed to streamline production. If you could do that while stripping down the dynamic lighting it seems like it would still be worth it to use UE4.

1043

Nintendo Gaming / Re: The OFFICIAL Big N rumor thread *bring your own salt*

« on: July 20, 2012, 12:49:29 AM »

You know, it is possible that some Retro folk were fans of some Rare franchise and started dabbling in a side project off of a Rare franchise and Nintendo was so impressed that they are trying to acquire the property.

Yeah, it could be that Retro is trying to pull off a reverse (or anti?) Dinosaur Planet, working up a next-gen platformer/adventurer game with the hopes that they can plug in Banjo and Kazooie.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Rare and Nintendo?

« on: July 19, 2012, 09:35:06 PM »

Now this rumor is just insane, but it certainly is interesting. Just no way.

[size=0px]According to the tipster, Nintendo is in direct negotiations with Microsoft to buy RARE, though the purpose of buying them seems to be all based around getting the rights to Banjo and Kazooie. Of course, we can't forget the other key franchises Nintendo gets with the acquisition. Conker's Bad Fur Day may have been shunned by Nintendo, but a sequel to that game should be embraced by the Nintendo brass if they want the Wii U to really be for everyone. Of course, this rumor doesn't stop there - it goes as far as to suggest that Retro Studios is actually deep into development on a Banjo and Kazooie title, and that the talks with Microsoft have been ongoing for some time."[/size]

http://www.zeldainformer.com/news/comments/rumor-nintendo-attempting-to-negotiate-its-way-into-ownership-of-banjo-and

Yeah, no way in hell that's true for any number of reasons. Out of curiosity, though, is there any precedent for a developer buying the rights for a single franchise when it didn't involve a company going bankrupt? Nintendo knew what they were doing when they sold Rare, but I can almost countenance the notion of them trying to get B&K back. Microsoft clearly doesn't need the franchise, and doesn't seem inclined to let Rare do anything else besides Kinect games. They've probably juiced the HD versions of the original games for about as much as they're worth at this point, so it wouldn't be a big loss to take them off Xbox Live.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Western Developers That Should Develope Future Metroid Titles

« on: July 18, 2012, 09:13:17 PM »

Is there that much animus against Fusion, though, compared to Other M? I thought Fusion had some really strong points, even if it did veer too much toward missile heavy Contra-esque boss fights and under-utilize the titular Fusion. I recall it having some split opinions about the direction it took the series in, but nothing like the Other M backlash.

The more I think about it, the more I think Rocksteady would be the best fantasy draft choice from a Western developer. They managed to finally make an awesome Batman game in the third person that felt like it was an extension of the ethos of the franchise. And it combines fast-paced combat, boss-fights, vertical exploration, gadget upgrades, and environmental puzzles into a pretty seamless package. If they had Nintendo supervising the art direction, I'd be optimistic about the prospects. I can't think of another western studio off the top of my head making third person games that doesn't fall into a cover-shooter, beat-em-up (ala Lords of Shadows), or GTA and/or Prince of Persia-derivative sandbox category, none of which would be 'troid appropriate.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: People Need To Stop Bitching

« on: July 18, 2012, 02:11:57 PM »

Activision isn't for sale right now (and haven't been for many years, before COD came out), so no one has had a chance to buy them.

Wait, this bloomberg article makes it pretty clear that Vivendi (who owns a 60+% controlling share in Acti as far as I know) is looking for a buyer, but is still In a vetting process in which no strong suitors have stepped forth.
The article:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-13/vivendi-s-search-for-activision-suitors-off-to-slow-start.html

@MagicCow, the article also goes a bit into why Microsoft has balked despite the obvious development assets they would gain...it may boil down to the conflict a specific platform holder would have with shareholders if they were to significantly limit the publishers prospective revenue by forcing them to publish for MS platforms only.
Just using the CoD example, for instance, cutting out a PS (and in the future Wii U) would comprise a hefty bulk of the game's revenue and thus impacts the true valuation the company would have for a "biased" suitor like MS.

Ah, thanks for the info, that does indeed make sense. I was thinking about Microsoft as if they were Mr. Burns and could do whatever they want, but yeah, shareholders would probably not be too jazzed about having half their revenue amputated in the pursuit of monopoly market share by the umbrella entity.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: People Need To Stop Bitching

« on: July 17, 2012, 10:37:56 PM »

Are you saying Nintendo was too reliant on 3rd party devs in 1996?

Honestly, a fair amount of Sony's recent 1st party efforts have just been coasting on their respective franchises' histories, something that NSMBU threatens to do as well. At least the 3D Mario efforts, Zelda, and Metroid have been attempting to build and evolve in core concept and design- none of Sony's IPs seem to be doing that. The Last of Us looks like it could just be Uncharted with a kid.

I'm mildly curious as to why Microsoft didn't jump at the opportunity to buy Activision. They'd lose multi-platform money, but if they could deprive PS4 of the Call of Duty franchise in perpetuity, it could seriously hobble Sony. Even if/when CoD fades in popularity, the PS4 would be knee-capped out of the gate (not to mention the WiiU). Sony's first party stuff is indeed feeling a bit wheezy, and if they had another leg kicked out from under them they could be in serious trouble. Alas, my 13-year-old dream of Sony going away will not be aided by this scenario given MS' pass.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Western Developers That Should Develope Future Metroid Titles

« on: July 17, 2012, 10:24:35 PM »

Yeah, all those things you've listed, pixel hunts, bad cut scenes, dumb upgrade system, missile aiming, and what have you were unforced errors. But I still think the basic style of the game, rolling around in isometric third-person, would have been underwhelming even if the other design and presentation problems weren't present. It felt more like a Ninja Gaiden/Devil May Cry-type game than a Metroid game. I don't know how else you'd translate Metroid into 3rd person without taking that route, but then again I wouldn't have been able to conceive of Metroid Prime either. It took luck and top-rate talent to pull that off. Basically I think someone needs to reinvent the wheel for a 3rd person iteration, not fall into a Sonic trap where every game promises to be a reboot but ends up having all the same problems, which is what I suspect would happen if a studio took another whack at that pinata without letting Other M sink well into the dustbin of history.

I think it's really hard to pull off, given the style of Metroid and the constraints of the third-person outside of platformers and shoulder-rig games like Gears of War. I mean, Retro basically had to invent a new genre to get it to translate into 1st person. I hold that something equally inventive needs to be done to successfully adapt it into 3rd. Other M felt very inside-the-box to me on the broadest level of its conception. The Arkham game style wouldn't really work, but it would need to be something that original and tailored to the content.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Western Developers That Should Develope Future Metroid Titles

« on: July 17, 2012, 07:09:26 PM »

Other M isn't rock bottom.  A whole series of Other M's to the point that that is the "normal" design for a Metroid game is rock bottom.  It's like how with Sonic the problem wasn't that Sonic Heroes was a bad game, it was that all Sonic games after that were crap.  It wasn't just a mistep or one bad title but a whole series of them to the point that the whole brand is associated with crap.  I would rather tell kids of future "did you know about this series called Metroid?" then to tell them "did you know that Metroid used to be GOOD?"

I'd go so far to say that Sonic Adventure (maybe 2) established a fundamentally broken architecture that Sega never managed to veer away from. I gave Colors a shot based on its positive reception, but it didn't feel significantly different than previous efforts to me, other than being streamlined. People concentrated so much criticism on the mech/combat/werehog levels, that I think the "fast" stages got a pass, when they're really only good comparatively.

By way of that, I think Other M gave us a pretty decent glimpse of what a 3rd person Metroid is going to feel like in the hands of most developers, and it's best to stay far away from that until someone can totally rethink it from the ground up. Right now the options are classic 2D style (verified great!) which I don't see Nintendo doing with the 3DS or the First Person Adventure style (verified great!), but I really doubt anyone would want to follow Retro with that, and Retro clearly has had its fill (which is fine).

I'm kind of leaning toward putting Metroid away for another decade chill. I don't think we're going to top Super Metroid/Zero Mission on the 2D front, and I don't think we're going to top Metroid Prime1/3 on the FPA front. And 3rd person is tainted, if not simply unworkable (in the sense of AAA success).

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Wii U in Review (News & Rumor Consolidation)

« on: July 15, 2012, 07:45:16 PM »

It needs a more cartoonish artstyle to go with Deadpool's hijinks.

Yeah, it looked like they lifted the art design from an original Xbox movie tie-in game.