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[Ian Sane]

101

TalkBack / RE:Nominees For 5th Annual GDC Awards Chosen

« on: February 15, 2005, 07:21:47 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: Ian Sane
Where is Metroid Prime 2?!  ARRRRGH!

And what's the big deal with Burnout 3 anyway?  Any impressions that I've heard about it is that it's pretty much Burnout 2 only with more crashing stuff and now published by EA.  To me it seems that most of the people praising it never played the first two games so the concept of the Burnout series is what they like as opposed to Burnout 3 itself being such an amazing game.

Lol your kidding right? Burnout 3 is so much more than 2 it's not even funny. Burnout 3 is easily the most fun I've ever had with a racing ever (and I love racing games) and possibly my favorite game of 2004. This game just plays perfectly, it's fast as heck (i'm talking F-Zero GX speed here, except way more chaotic since you have to dodge traffic and such), and oh yeah... online! <---- Very very very very fun
You have to play to understand. Burnout 2 was just a good arcade racing game. Burnout 3 is the first racing game I've ever played that made me say, this should be Game of the Year. The sheer fun of this game is mind blowing... I'd play this over Half-Life 2, Metroid Prime 2, MGS3, any day of the week.
Basically the same reasons this game rules can be foundin Smash Bros. Melee - Tons of content and amazing, suberbly polished, extremely fun multiplayer.

Oh and while not perfect, this list is at least better than the crap one put out by AIAS...

Although if you are only going to have 5 GOTY nominees, I'd definately take out Half-Life 2 and stick in Ninja Gaiden.

And I'd also take out San Andreas - brilliant game, but the PS2 controls and graphics just ruin it. If it was the upcoming PC version I'd be the first to nominate it but no matter how brilliant the content is, the fact that they are too lazy to fix the horrible PS2 version controls after all these years since GTA3 just pisses me off.

Burnout 3 and World of Warcraft are great choices. Katamari Damacy I'll let slide...it may not have the sheer quality of games like Metroid Prime 2 or Far Cry but at least it's innovative and original...and it's really fun too.

As for games like MP2, HL2, Halo 2, Rome: Total War, MGS3... in a year with so many sequels, none of those games IMO change enough to get GOTY, no matter how polished or high quality they are. After all with over a dozen incredibly high quality sequels that would get GOTY any other year, how can you choose one? I'd rather go with a game like Burnout 3, Ninja Gaiden, or World of Warcraft which take their genres to a new level. Metroid Prime 2 is just Metroid Prime under different circumstances. Halo 2, Riddick, Far Cry, and HL2 play just like high quality FPS's have played for years, with small improvements and better online play. Rome: Total War, Pikmin 2, and Paper Mario 2 are just sequels that improve on their originals exactly as everyone though they would: higher quality, and fix the stuff that was bad before.
And the only reason I'm considering Ninja Gaiden is because it just came out of nowhere, isn't a sequel (ok technically it is, but come on, you can't compare this to an ancient NES game), and is an extremely high quality action game like the old school ones... Basically the same thing that made Viewtiful Joe work...
Personally I'd bring it down to Burnout 3 vs. World of Warcraft. Burnout 3 is just insanely fun, but WoW is extremely deep, addictive, and is definately the first game in the genre to actually fix the genre... It is to MMORPG's what Half-Life and Goldeneye was to FPS's...

102

TalkBack / RE: Blue

« on: February 15, 2005, 07:02:18 PM »

I just hope it doesn't actually say Pepsi anywhere on the DS, and is just a blue DS.

103

Nintendo Gaming / RE: playing USA bought games in Ireland/UK

« on: February 14, 2005, 08:48:48 PM »

What Bill said.
By the way, if you ever go back to the US, know that handheld games (such as the Game Boy Advance or Nintendo DS) work on any region. A British Game Boy or DS will play Japanese or American games perfectly.

[PaLaDiN]

104

Nintendo Gaming / RE:psp is online now wheres nintendos plan

« on: February 14, 2005, 08:45:10 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: PaLaDiN
Great. Then why does Microsoft charge for Xbox Live? Is there some additional cost they're trying to cover or are they just being greedy?

darkheart, I apologize if it seems that way. I'm being relatively tame right now, believe it or not. I just naturally like big confrontations, and arguments are fun.

My argument isn't "since I'm fed up with online gaming everyone should move on with me", I'm not that naive. My argument is "I'm fed up with online gaming and I won't shut up about it."

Blizzard games are not P2P. Blizzard provides tons of their own servers and features a centralized matchmaking service (Xbox Live and Halo 2's online interface is completely based on Warcraft III's online interface). The reason World of Warcraft had some problems is because
1) It sold way more than expected
2) Running a persistant world that has to be constantly updated and synchronized perfectly across everyone's computers is much harder and more demanding than something like Warcraft 3 where there are hundreds of 30 minute matches which are completely unrelated to each other and have only 2 to 8 players per game.

Answering your question, the reason Blizzard doesn't need to charge for Warcraft III is because they don't have as many costs to cover. They just develop the game and provide servers, all of which is covered with the games price of 50 bucks.

MS on the other hand needs to charge for Xbox Live in an attempt to make for their losses in hardware. Of course this could have meant that next generation, where MS is not going to suffer huge losses on hardware, Xbox Live could be made free. Unfortunately, Xbox Live and Halo 2's success has proven that consumers are willing to pay $50 a year (not really that much, just the cost of one game) to play online, and I highly doubt MS will see any reason to stop charging consumers who don't know any better. Unless of course Nintendo or Sony announce their own centralized services free of charge.

[Ian Sane]

105

Nintendo Gaming / RE:V-pocket PDA?

« on: February 14, 2005, 08:34:24 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: Ian Sane
Turning the DS into a PDA seems pretty un-Nintendo like.  Not that I don't want them to do it.  Afterall it sounds like an option which I like since some people want just a game machine and some want more and this could allow both choices.  I just don't think it's likely because of Nintendo's past attitude about being "games only."

Well Pictochat is pretty un-Nintendo like. And the fact that the DS actually includes features like Wi-Fi, and promised voice chat for online games, and new technology and stuff. The whole DS thing really surprised me. I was expecting some worthless piece of antiquated crap. Since Nintendo has been promising online play since the DS was unveiled, and has included all these features to make it as much a communication device as a game device, I wouldn't be surprised if Nintendo releases things like a web browser or PDA functionality.

But I don't think it has anything to do with V-Pocket. It's pretty obvious that's just the real name for Play-yan, which wasn't exactly a catchy name. And how many things start with "V" anyway? Video... Virtual... I doubt Nintendo ever wants to associate with the world Virtual anymore, and since Video fits in perfectly with the Play-yan...

I mean what does V have to do with PDA functionality? And why sould something like a PDA need the word Pocket in the title? Aren't all PDA's pocket sized? However fitting a movie player in your pocket is a great advertising angle...
 

106

Nintendo Gaming / RE: preferrend metroid input mode

« on: February 14, 2005, 08:28:49 PM »

er s mode...
I mean, the other ones just suck... Dual Digital? lol

107

General Gaming / RE: Ill-feelings towards SNES-era Nintendo?

« on: February 14, 2005, 08:23:43 PM »

Huh? Perhaps someone tampered with my memories, but I definitely remember the SNES being the "cooler" system. And it definately had more and better games (although I never passed up a chance to play Streets of Rage 2 on my friend's Genesis).

And I also definitely remember Genesis losing the console wars. It almost had as much as SNES market share in US.... but in Japan (the larger market at the time) it was owned almost as badly as Xbox. (mainly due to certain SNES exlusive RPG's....now PS2 exclusive. Funny how that works)

Also, SNES lasted way longer than Genesis, well into the PSX/Saturn period and even sold fairly well the year N64 was released (mainly due to the DKC trilogy and a few other late games like Killer Instinct).

Also, SNES completely owned the important 1994/1995 period (the last big hurrah before the new systems) with games like Super Metroid, DKC trilogy, Final Fantasy 6, Chrono Trigger, Killer Instinct, Earthbound, and so on.

108

General Gaming / RE: Is anyone familiar with Tommy Tallarico?

« on: February 14, 2005, 08:15:55 PM »

Well a Ferrari looks cool but it would only be good as a second car. They aren't very practical, and I can't think of many situations where I'd even come close to using it's full power. I mean, those bothersome speed limits....

I'm perfectly content with my 2005 Honda Accord Coupe V6. It's fully loaded, has enough room for me and a friend or two, sufficient trunk space, a perfect interior, has great handling, and is more powerful than any car in it's class (240 hp, 250 with premium fuel, 0-60 time of 5.9 secs is faster than Porsche Boxster, BMW 330, basically everything up to an M3). I mean, a Ferrari's fast and looks good, and gets the ladies.... But what if you already have a lady? And dare I say it, need to take home some groceries or something? I'd rather spend $32,000 on an Accord Coupe V6 that looks good enough, drives fast enough, and is far more luxurious and comfortable on the inside than any Ferrari, then spend over $200,000 on a cop-magnet that I'll never get to drive like it was meant to be driven.

On the other hand, if anyone would like to donate a Ferrari, I'll grudgingly accept.

109

General Gaming / RE: Xbox 2 suffer same doom as dreamcast?

« on: February 14, 2005, 08:07:53 PM »

Really? How did it damage it? The only thing that damaged the GCN was not being able to play DVD's... and that's not a problem with Xbox2, since it will play all the movies you need. It's not like all of a sudden all movies are going to ship on blu ray or HD-DVD
The low space hasn't hurt GCN sales.. most consumers don't even know the GCN discs hold less space. I'll tell you want they do know. That the GCN discs load way faster than PS2 discs.

110

Nintendo Gaming / RE: psp is online now wheres nintendos plan

« on: February 13, 2005, 06:53:43 PM »

lol
MS definately did NOT lose over 2 billion dollars on Xbox live. Their Xbox live budget isn't even anywhere near 2 billion dollars.
The entire budget for managing Xbox and it's games is about 2 billion dollars. And MS sure as heck didn't lose every single  dollar they ever spent on Xbox. That's just ludicrous. They lose money on each Xbox, yes, but they make tons of money off of games.

No one with any sort of knowledge would ever believe it takes 2.4 billion to set up and maintain Xbox live. MS charges people yes, but they hardly do anything. They run some servers for games and they make certain features standard across games that support live. Big deal.

PC games are free online. Blizzard doesn't charge people for playing Warcraft III online. There are more people playing Warcraft III online than any Xbox game other than Halo 2, which it probably rivals very closely. Running an online service doesn't cost that much money. They price of maintaining servers is covered in the ridiculous 50 dollars a game costs. PC game companies prove this. Nintendo is just retarded since they think online play isn't profitable. Yes, they won't make as much money as they did before online, but they definately won't lose any amount worth crying over, and they aren't in any sort of financial situation worth worrying about, so why not do it since it will pay off later?

[Gamebasher]

111

Nintendo Gaming / RE:Must-read article: DS turns Nintendo haters 180 degrees!

« on: February 13, 2005, 06:46:23 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: Gamebasher
You know, I don´t care a flying bit about what these websites are saying. They will be proven wrong!

Just look at the response from people who never played games!!! You´d NEVER see that kind of response with the PSP! That much is sure.

Um that's a bold statement to make, since the PSP isn't out anywhere but Japan yet.

As for Sony charging a Wi-Fi fee, I don't believe that. They don't charge a fee for PS2 games online.

Anyway, this isn't really that bad since I fully expect Nintendo will in fact release an online Mario Kart and they have an online plan. They just need to hurry up, and freaking say something about it.

112

General Gaming / RE: Xbox 2 suffer same doom as dreamcast?

« on: February 13, 2005, 06:42:03 PM »

20-50 GB discs will give you what? about 3 or 4 years before some RPG already needs 2 discs
Once you start having CGI cutscences in high definition that space will be gone quick

Anyway, I don't think having DVD's will make it suffer the same "doom" as N64. First, N64 didn't do bad, second, it made tons of money, way more than Sony made off PS1 despite the higher sales.

Second, I think comparing DVD to Blu-ray isn't the same as comparing carts to CD's. It's more like comparing GC discs to DVD's. The worst that could happen is some compression issues for cutscenes or making a game two disc.

113

General Gaming / RE: Xbox 2 arrives in oct.-nov.

« on: February 13, 2005, 06:37:49 PM »

Dude, everyone knows the PS2 is the worst to program for.

114

Nintendo Gaming / RE: Silicon Knights still working on games for GC

« on: February 12, 2005, 04:00:04 PM »

dude quit being so stereotypical.
Any developer will tell you developing for Xbox is not much more like windows development than GCN is. It's just a myth fanboys came up with cause Xbox started as a PC.
The name of the parts haven't changed but it's heavily modified.
In fact the ATI Radeon 9700 Pro (the card that saved ATI, developed by ArtX based off their GCN chip) is more like the GCN GPU than The Geforce 3 in the Xbox is like a real Geforce 3.

[Lord_die_seis]

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:Must-read article: DS turns Nintendo haters 180 degrees!

« on: February 12, 2005, 03:55:52 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: Lord_die_seis
Why do you only care about a online mario kart? Are so narrowminded that your whole system purchase revolves arround one game and if it has online or not?

No I'm making a point. Nintendo should focus on making online multiplayer standard and revolution games with new forms of online multiplayer using the DS's features, instead of trying to convince Nintendo fanboys that DS owns because Nintendo has captured the attention of your mom and sister who have found a new toy to play on weekends.

At the expense of your brother and father now playing a PSP.

I mean, great Nintendo DS attracts non-gamers. So does Game Boy Advance. Everyone has one. Those people aren't that important. The core demographic - 13 - 30 year old males - is being ignored (ok not ignored, but they aren't being focused on) and it's going to regret it.

Nintendo is just being it's usual stubborn self, trying to act smarter and wiser than it is, trying to fix something that's no broken. And you know what happens when you try to fix something that's not broken. You break it.

116

General Gaming / RE: Is anyone familiar with Tommy Tallarico?

« on: February 12, 2005, 03:50:37 PM »

Well, how is he so obsessed? He obviously prefers PSP, but he is definately not telling people to buy PSP no matter what. He even says the dude should buy a DS if he doesn't like Sony.

I mean, I completely fail to see the point of this argument or topic. Normally Tommy is being stupid and would warrant a topic but this time he is acting perfectly un-fanboy-like and I don't really see what you're trying to prove.

117

Nintendo Gaming / RE: Must-read article: DS turns Nintendo haters 180 degrees!

« on: February 12, 2005, 12:13:31 PM »

Who cares.

I only care about freaking online Mario Kart.

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General Gaming / RE: Xbox 2 suffer same doom as dreamcast?

« on: February 12, 2005, 12:11:19 PM »

Well it could pull a Dreamcast... (die)

Or a PS2... (win)

Or a Genesis... (stay strong in US, die in Japan) <----------------- Likely

All of the above systems launched 1 year early, and were less powerful than their competitors (Xbox2 is garaunteed to be less powerful than Rev. which will have a 1 year newer CPU/GPU from the same companies, and also PS3 which will be very fast).

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General Gaming / RE: Is anyone familiar with Tommy Tallarico?

« on: February 12, 2005, 12:06:53 PM »

Wow you just made a fool of yourself.

Bloodworth seems to be the only sane one.

And I happen to agree with Tommy, I will get the GBE when it comes out in several years but that's too far to ignore the PSP or DS. And titles that are on both DS and PSP, I see no reason to buy the DS version, unless it's proven better cause of something.
Personally, I don't recommend either at this point, and both have cool games coming.

120

General Gaming / RE: Xbox 2 arrives in oct.-nov.

« on: February 12, 2005, 11:59:34 AM »

Nintendo never said they would place an emphasis on launching early. In fact Nintendo's stance has always been "launch around the same time as PS3"
Microsoft is the one with the early stance.
Neither PS3 nor Rev. dev kits are out, trust me.

121

Nintendo Gaming / RE: Silicon Knights still working on games for GC

« on: February 11, 2005, 11:23:52 AM »

In fact, NO ONE is developing for PS3 or Rev, cause there ain't any dev kits

122

General Gaming / RE: ps3 is going to be seen b4 e3 go figure :/

« on: February 11, 2005, 11:20:07 AM »

Well that's good, then I'll know going into E3 if I care about what I see at Nintendo's event or not.

123

Nintendo Gaming / RE: Star Fox Assault

« on: February 10, 2005, 12:19:05 PM »

Matt doesn't even run the DS site, he runs the Cube site, Craig runs the DS and Game Boy sites.

124

Nintendo Gaming / RE: psp is online now wheres nintendos plan

« on: February 10, 2005, 12:17:23 PM »

Actually, Nintendo definately has the biggest operating budget for games of all three companies. Nintendo has no debt and 6 billion dollars in cold hard cash just sitting around that they can spend purely for games. Sony definately doesn't, and I don't think the execs want to leech money from other departments, and MS has already constantly increased its games budget and it's lost all that money pretty much...

So don't say Nintendo shouldn't spend money on online or that it doesn't have the money, cause it does and it's stupid not to use it. Nintendo made more money off the N64 than any companies probably made off of anything in gaming history.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE: psp is online now wheres nintendos plan

« on: February 09, 2005, 11:09:34 AM »

So what are we arguing about again?
We all know the DS is going online and we all know it will have online voice chat so yeah let's stop arguing since it won't affect anything.