Messages

201

General Gaming / Re: What are you playing?

« on: December 03, 2016, 02:23:52 AM »

La-Mulana (PC):

So I've been interested in this game for a long time, but was put off by the alleged extreme difficulty and abstruse puzzles. GOG had a flash sale last week, however, and I bit the bullet at $4.

I'm about three hours in and my feelings are decidedly mixed. I very much enjoyed completing the initial ruins zone (and didn't realize I could leave through the area exits), as I chipped away steadily figured out the grammar of the world interaction and the logic to the clues, while picking up some vital items. Controls are a tad stiff for the genre, but serviceable.

But then I beat the first boss and have pushed out the walls, so to speak, with grail warps into four or five other areas. With the increased scope I've lost serious track of any clue logic and don't have a clear sense of what I'm supposed to be doing or why, other than eventually killing the boss in each sector. Like, the last time I played I wandered into some labyrinth zone and stumbled into a shop that's selling a helmet that will let me progress through a waterfall on the other side of the world. Glad to get the hat, but I could use more rhyme and reason to the progression. 

202

Nintendo Gaming / Re: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Wii U/Switch) ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 2017

« on: December 01, 2016, 08:59:35 PM »

Hot off the presses, trailer from the game awards thingy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDFZIUdo764

My word this looks excellent

203

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Switch Rumors and Speculation Thread (Mighty Switch Force Edition)

« on: December 01, 2016, 07:50:28 PM »

Zelda 1:1 motion controls

I think there's about zero chance of that happening. If you'd played Skyward Sword, you'd know that the 1:1 motion controls of that game were not cosmetic. The entire game is essentially based around controlling Link like an action figure. There'd be no way to port it to traditional controls without neutering the experience. BotW meanwhile is clearly fully playable with the standard gamepad setup. The most you'd see is something like the Twilight Princess Wii port, with waggle sword and pointer aiming.

204

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Switch Rumors and Speculation Thread (Mighty Switch Force Edition)

« on: November 30, 2016, 12:06:10 AM »

Nintendo certainly dropped the ball on the WiiU and 3DS virtual consoles, and they can certainly bounce back by having robust libraries off the bat (or at least rapidly filled out in the first few months).

But I fear we'll never see the golden age of the Wii VC again. That was incumbent on many third party rights holders accommodating the platform, and we seem to be entering a new age of platform balkanization. While there isn't really anything like the fracturing Amazon/Hulu/Netflix/Etc. bases yet, I have to imagine a lot of folks are holding out to squeeze those old roms for as much as they can. Like, will Sega want to dump their library on a Nintendo system again when they can roll out those souped up "classics" as with the 3DS?

205

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Switch Rumors and Speculation Thread (Mighty Switch Force Edition)

« on: November 22, 2016, 03:25:18 AM »

Hey, looky there, it only took me 10+ years, but I finally got a non-title!

Your profile says you registered in 2010. That's about 6 years. I'm tempted to change that title to Liar! You're welcome.

Well, I've been around since the PlanetN2000 days, but had some off time between platform changes (and also got yelled off by Rick Powers at one point), but who's counting. Cheers!

206

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Switch Rumors and Speculation Thread (Mighty Switch Force Edition)

« on: November 22, 2016, 01:46:24 AM »

Hey, looky there, it only took me 10+ years, but I finally got a non-title!

Anyway, again, color me skeptical that the Switch Kart, Splatoon, and Smash entries are going to pass as full-fledged sequels. If anything I expect that they've spent their energy re-coding the engines/games to work with the new hardware architecture, and to set up a games-as-service platform for these franchises with the first new content packs included.

Which I'm not exactly wild about as an idea. Part of the fun of these franchises is seeing how they reconstitute between entries. Given that we've never seen more than one Smash or Kart per console (and that we're now merging the platforms), I'm nonplussed about potentially locking in point-five versions as the baseline from the get-go.

But we'll see! And alternatively, if my Nintendo account is worth anything and I can buy in to these franchises for a discount and continue accumulating content, I will probably be happy with the situation. Not holding my breath though.

207

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Switch Rumors and Speculation Thread (Mighty Switch Force Edition)

« on: November 21, 2016, 06:13:47 PM »

I take your point, Adrock, and I hope that's how it shakes out.

But I also have the Iansane fear tendrils about how a port-laden Switch launch period could encourage a certain narrative among the gaming press/commentariat that could smother the system in the crib. But I suppose those folks were hard sells anyway, and they're hoping for a fresh blue ocean infusion. Bless their hearts, I hope it works!

But to follow up to an above point, it sounds like they should really try to rebrand the hell out of the WiiU games and not emphasize at all that they're not "fresh". As was mentioned, they could slap the word Switch on everything, but it might be worth it to go so far as to just flat out call things Splatoon 2, MarioKart 9, and so forth, where possible. Might piss a few people off, but most Nintendo hands will know the score.

208

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Switch Rumors and Speculation Thread (Mighty Switch Force Edition)

« on: November 21, 2016, 01:04:13 AM »

Well that's the thing, yes, evergreen titles are good off the bat, but this presumes a fresh audience for these titles plus enough credulous WiiU owners to double dip. That's where I'm a little skeptical. Personally, I'm not going to spend even $40 on Mario Kart 8.5. I'd probably spend another $15 on four more cups, a la the DLC, but I don't think there's going to be any upgrade option or discount or whatever. Same for Smash Bros. and XBX (though that one's a little different). I can wait for full sequels.

The cumulative effect here is making me question whether I need the console in the first year, especially if Animal Crossing and Pokemon Eclipse are the big holiday games. New Zelda, Mario, and Pikmin will stay good. I'm an early WiiU adopter, so I worry about feedback cycles here.

209

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Switch Rumors and Speculation Thread (Mighty Switch Force Edition)

« on: November 20, 2016, 11:07:07 PM »

The port strategy is a bit of a gamble. Theoretically it's good to give the games some extra polish/content while putting them in front of a new audience. But during the launch window how many Switches are going to sell to people fresh or returned to a Nintendo platform? You have to assume that the ~13 million WiiU owners are the hardest of Nintendo's core, and the most likely early adopters, and to them (I would include myself here), even souped-up ports of the likes of Mario Kart and Smash Bros. might not do much for them given how much time was likely put into the alpha forms.

If the Switch takes off like a rocket then this is basically moot, but if it tracks between WiiU and Gamecube, it'll be something of an oatmeal first few years for the Switch.

210

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Switch Rumors and Speculation Thread (Mighty Switch Force Edition)

« on: November 18, 2016, 12:45:22 PM »

Isn't there a fairly well-regarded Rabbids cartoon show on the air? I think I saw Brad Neely say that it was one of the better all ages animated series around.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Switch Rumors and Speculation Thread (Mighty Switch Force Edition)

« on: November 17, 2016, 07:33:06 PM »

I want a 3D Mario with stages based on the Mario Kart tracks that aren't based on Mario stages (e.g. Music Park, Dragon Driftway)

I think we're getting something like this. The Latin-themed village in the trailer is a good indication. If the NSMB games taught Nintendo anything by the end, I hope it's that Mario needs to push out the aesthetic range of expression after basically stalling post Sunshine tropical theme. Different world world cultures is a good potential hook. Tropical Freeze also deployed this well in a few worlds.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Switch Rumors and Speculation Thread (Mighty Switch Force Edition)

« on: November 16, 2016, 07:36:20 PM »

What the hell? Super Mario Galaxy has a ridiculous amount of linearity.

Splat2n is the only thing about this list that excites me, because it's the most fun thing on this list. Otherwise, a return to the Galaxy formula is the last thing I want from 3D Mario after 3D World was finally a good show.

Well, we do have that micro-clip from the reveal trailer, which looks to me like a blend of 3D World obstacle course gameplay with a bit of the older style framing it.

213

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Switch Rumors and Speculation Thread (Mighty Switch Force Edition)

« on: November 14, 2016, 10:53:40 PM »

If it's delayed out of March, I can't seem them wanting to maintain a retail presence for WiiU stuff at all, especially not with enhanced ports rumored to be larding up the Switch slate.

So if there is a delay, I'd expect BotW WiiU to be digital only, or one of those Gamestop-preorder only jobs.

214

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Nintendo Switch Launch Lineup

« on: November 07, 2016, 02:29:33 AM »

I think we'll get pairs of Pikmin games. 1&2 were something of a piece, not that far apart, somewhat different structures.

3&4 will probably feel pretty close, and I'm curious about how they can further tweak the formula. 3 almost got all the way there finally. Also, I believe 3 had Wii origins? Even if 4 doesn't rock the boat too much a new Pikmim with a big graphical upgrade could be quite something.

To Kairon: Eh, I dunno, I think it's possible to make a good Pikmin game on a reasonable budget. Photogrammetry techniques could do some heavy lifting. The scope of the actual environments isn't huge, so you could spit shine it. The campaigns aren't super long, but they do usually include a lot of side content. They could tilt back toward more generative stuff, like the Pikmin 2 caves.

215

General Gaming / Re: What are you playing?

« on: November 06, 2016, 07:22:58 PM »

Owlboy (PC):

Another years-in the making indie darling, another dud. I hadn't heard of this before the release praise, at least, so there's no weight of disappointment here as with The Witness, Obduction, and to a lesser extent Inside.

I really need to learn to ignore indie game reviews. Owlboy has meticulous pixel art, but the general art design is fairly bland and repetitive (similar to Ori and the Blind Forest in that respect). The music swings wildly between chiptune type stuff and what sound like Andrew Bird tracks. There is way too much "story" for what I took to be an action adventure game from the trailer. It constantly jerks the control away from you to have the characters blather. Like Undertale, it treats emo "feels" baiting as profound, but it comes off even worse in this context given the genre of the game. And like Undertale it injects fedora-humor in at regular intervals.

And those are the aspects that seem to be universally praised!

The game itself is painfully mediocre. The controls are fiddly, the combat starts out as a chore and becomes insufferable. Level design is bland and it's hard to say what gameplay even really consists of; it'd be a stretch to call much of anything in the game a puzzle, moreso just very obvious obstacles that, again, feel like a chore to get past, and there isn't any platforming because you fly. There's really hardly anything to it. Oh, but there are regular stealth sections, which are predictably terrible.

All in all I have no idea how this game took so long to make. I think I'm near the final area, but I am having such a bad reaction to the game and its reception that I don't know if I'll bother to finish.

216

General Gaming / Re: What is the last game you beat? Thoughts/impressions?

« on: November 02, 2016, 10:06:25 PM »

I'll just say this- I believe Final Fantasy is a series that values narrative over gameplay. While that might be your cup of tea, it isn't really why I play JRPGs, and while VII put Final Fantasy on the map in the West and paved the way for many other series to come, I can really only appreciate it as one the first successful venture into 3D for JRPGs. There are other games that were the first successful venture into 3D for their genre and- surprise- they have also received stellar reviews. But the fact that VII is being remade with only its story being kept intact is damning evidence of what elements are the most praised about the game and the franchise, in general.

Personally, I play JRPGs for customization and engaging battle systems, which is why I try to broaden my catalog of franchises whenever I can. When a game mixes a good narrative with a solid battle system and deep customization, I'm all for it. But I've never really found a Final Fantasy title that has engaged me from any of those angles with the exception of VI, which is refined in presentation and soundtrack, had a massive cast of characters, and just the right amount of freedom. But it's really the only Final Fantasy title I've enjoyed (outside of the Crystal Chronicles games- again, combat system, customization, atmosphere), and I'm not particularly interested or thrilled by the prospect of getting back into the series again. Especially now that it seems to be stripping away the turn-based, tactical nature of previous entries for action-based combat systems.

I can't say I'm a huge turn-based RPG fan in general given that my interest expired with the SNES, but I agree with this. I really like FF VI, because it was my first RPG, and it had a compelling presentation and a bunch of unique characters with bespoke mechanics, lots of side quests, varied scenarios, secrets, etc. The story was just stringing it together, and the cut scenes were just brief intervals of sprites hopping around. I tried V after and hated the job system and found it overall unenjoyably primitive. I tried VII and found it ugly as hell, way too heavy on narrative, clunky in every aspect, mechanically generic due to the materia system, and worst of all incredibly slow due to the 3D battles, animations, summons, slow walking through the environments, loading, whathaveyou. I gave up on the second disc. I just don't think the gameplay is tenable in 3D, it requires the flexibility of abstraction provided by the 16-bit games.

The only other JRPGs I like are Earthbound, for its mechanics and aesthetic, and Chrono Trigger, for its great character tech system and time travel structure. I have the barest memory of the stories, but I'm sure they were nothing to write home about. Oh, and the pre-3DS Mario RPG games are good too, but those are practically poster children for mechanics over narrative focus.

217

General Gaming / Re: What is the last game you beat? Thoughts/impressions?

« on: November 01, 2016, 04:11:41 PM »

Delete your account.

218

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Forum Snap Poll: How Sold Are You on the Switch?

« on: November 01, 2016, 12:17:24 AM »

What I think some of this speculation about the Home/Portable question misses is that Nintendo's not going to be able to magic up some 4DS device out of thin air should the Switch flop. These things are in development pretty much from the moment the previous console releases. They'd have to be knee-deep in 4DS R&D already to plausibly have something ready to roll in 2018 to replace the Switch. And they'd have to call it on the Switch after Christmas 2017, less than a year after launch.

So, I'm skeptical. I think if the Switch crashes and burns it's going to lead to a pretty massive corporate shake-up and priority shift. Alternatively, they may not be in a position to let the Switch fail, which could lead to another Gamecube generation.

219

General Gaming / Re: What is the last game you beat? Thoughts/impressions?

« on: October 31, 2016, 08:54:31 PM »

I'm not going to read spectrumy walls of text, so I'm just going to assume that it was acknowledging that FF7 is terrible. It broke the abstraction layer that made turn based RPGs playable, and shifted the medium toward an embarrassing and wrong-headed emphasis on pre-rendered story segments (and really, a focus on narrative in general).

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General Gaming / Re: What is the last game you beat? Thoughts/impressions?

« on: October 29, 2016, 12:04:14 AM »

It's Square Enix. They'll make significant improvements to the graphics. Script and gameplay improvements are more murky.

Either way, it's cool they are doing a remake. I don't have much love for the game, but am in a stark minority. Most people agree that it's one of the defining classics in the RPG genre, and I don't deny that it had a huge impact on gaming in general.

A huge terrible impact.

221

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Forum Snap Poll: How Sold Are You on the Switch?

« on: October 28, 2016, 02:18:49 PM »

I also would not get my hopes up about any 3DS backwards compatibility. The won't include extra 3DS guts in this thing, nor will it likely be to emulate the 3DS.

As for the storage stuff, it's sounding more like the no external HD thing is true, which is troubling. I am personally more than fine with sticking to retail in order to be able to sell the games down the line, but for whatever reason more and more folks prefer to spend the same money on a license.

I do wonder if there will be some kind of middle ground, like you can't fridge games on an external dock HD, but you can download a bunch of junk like with Xenoblade X to improves textures and whatnot when playing at home.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Switch Rumors and Speculation Thread (Mighty Switch Force Edition)

« on: October 27, 2016, 02:23:02 PM »

Of course, that wouldn't solve the problem of ickiness if the player undocks the Switch in the middle of a 32GB transfer. But I feel like that ickiness is less than the ickiness of no HDD at all.

I dismissed this rumor on first read because it just sounds too counter-intuitive, but the above quoted, hrm, that does indeed seem like something Nintendo would be inordinately concerned about.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Forum Snap Poll: How Sold Are You on the Switch?

« on: October 26, 2016, 02:42:36 AM »

The only way there's a handheld successor (as in not a miniatured Switch SKU) is if the Switch bombs harder than the WiiU, and in that case all bets are off anyway about what happens to the games.

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General Gaming / Re: What are you playing?

« on: October 25, 2016, 06:07:17 PM »

It's been a while, but as I recall the Red Dead shooting system keeps evolving quite a ways into the game as the Dead Eye ability expands.

225

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Nintendo Switch Pre-Release Discussion (March 2017)

« on: October 25, 2016, 06:03:52 PM »

I have actually been mildly surprised by how long my n3DSXL battery holds out on a charge, though I've only used it lightly over time.

Anyhow, I'm expecting $300 for everything shown in the video. I don't see how they sell the grip separately. I also think there's a fair chance the "travel charger" is included as well (WiiU came with two power cords, after all).

Powerwise I just don't see how it gets on par with Xbone with just that tablet's guts, no matter how current the chip tech. The lower resolution will help close the gap, but I at best see it as like 3x WiiU=1/3 Xbone. BUT I was able to run Rise of the Tomb Raider at a playable level on the integrated graphics on a laptop I bought in 2014, so I think the hope has to reside in the scalability of current game engines.