Messages

2626

TalkBack / Re: Xenoblade Hitting North America with GameStop Exclusive?

« on: December 03, 2011, 02:09:38 PM »

Thankfully the trailer is so haphazardly edited that it is hard to tell what was going on unless you were familiar with the game in the first place.

Still, some of the scenes they picked looked like they could be late-game stuff to anyone who is very familiar with JRPGs.

2627

TalkBack / Re: New Details Emerge Regarding the 3DS Firmware Update

« on: December 03, 2011, 02:06:20 PM »

Is it really an exclusive Best Buy promotional application? From a different article I read, it sounded like a general promotional channel like the Wii's Nintendo Channel.

2628

TalkBack / Re: Xenoblade Chronicles Confirmed for North American Release

« on: December 03, 2011, 03:21:27 AM »

I would find it hard to believe that Nintendo of America would spend money to redub the voice overs when they were wary of the title making money in the first place. Besides, the English English will add an exotic air to the game.

What I can see NoA doing during the 4 months in the meanwhile is editing the text to US English. I will miss those 'u's and 's's.

2629

General Gaming / Re: Battlefield 3

« on: December 02, 2011, 08:36:11 PM »

Mm, I see. There is quite a lot of clipping in Battlefield 3. I've done my own testing and had my legs sticking out of a shutter gate.

2630

TalkBack / Re: Xenoblade Chronicles Confirmed for North American Release

« on: December 02, 2011, 02:04:40 PM »

Begging has worked for once!


Kidding aside, I'm excited.


EDIT: Now, I hope nothing stupid happens like the Japanese voice track being removed or whatever.

2631

General Gaming / Re: Battlefield 3

« on: December 02, 2011, 01:09:55 PM »

Another thing that annoys me is how people can essentially hide camp in walls. Whoever at DICE thought that keeping this in all iterations of the Battlefield franchise is a complete idiot.

I don't understand your what you are trying to say. Are you referring to some sort of wall-hacking or players being prone and sticking out the other side of barriers? Is it players being prone in odd spots?

2632

TalkBack / Re: Xenoblade Hitting North America with GameStop Exclusive

« on: December 02, 2011, 01:03:28 PM »

I have yet to import and un-region-lock my Wii, so I hope this rumor comes true!

2633

General Gaming / Re: Battlefield 3

« on: December 01, 2011, 11:59:21 PM »

There are close-quarters maps like Seinne Crossing, Tehran Highway, Operation Metro, and Grand Bazaar. Also, Damavand Peak is pretty small. There you have to contend with mortar spam.

Operation Firestorm, Caspian Peak, Norsharr Canals, and Kharg Island are quite big and not helped by the 24 player limit on consoles.

2634

TalkBack / Re: EU Nintendo eShop Will Undergo Maintenance for System Update

« on: December 01, 2011, 12:11:51 AM »

Don't raid on patch days.

2635

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Official Wii Sales Thread

« on: November 30, 2011, 04:44:56 PM »

Japan numbers
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2011-11-30/zelda/skyward-sword-tops-weekly-chart-with-194978

Japan's Game Ranking, November 21-27
Rank   System   Title   Maker   Release Date   Weekly Copies   Total Copies
1   Wii   The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Including Limited Edition)   Nintendo   November 23   194,978 194,978
2   PSP   7th Dragon 2020 (Including Limited Edition)   Sega   November 23   122,498   122,498
3   PS3   Saint Seiya Senki (Including Limited Edition)   Namco Bandai Games   November 23   66,557   66,557   
4   3DS   Super Mario 3D Land   Nintendo   November 3   61,710   560,960
5   PS3   Metal Gear Solid: HD Edition (Including Limited Edition)   Konami   November 23   61,192   61,192   
6   PSP   Danbōru Senki Boost   Level-5   November 23   60,727   60,727   
7   PSP   Weiss Schwarz Portable: Boost Schwarz (Including Limited Edition)   Namco Bandai Games   November 23   47,586   47,586   
8   PSP   Uta no Prince Sama Music (Including Limited Edition)   Broccoli   November 24   38,918   38,918   
9   Wii   Taiko no Tatsujin Wii Definitive Edition (Including Bundled Edition)   Namco Bandai Games   November 23   32,098   32,098   
10   PS3   Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (Subtitled Edition)   Square Enix   November 17   29,726   210,098
11   NDS   One Piece Gigant Battle 2: New World (Including Limited Edition)   Namco Bandai Games   November 17 27,379   143,441
12   PSP   Pop'n Music Portable 2   Konami   November 23   20,965   20,965
13   PS3   Ni no Kuni: Shiroki Seihai no Joō (Including Bundled Edition)   Level-5   November 17   20,185   87,217   
14   Wii   Hoshi no Kirby Wii   Nintendo   October 27   19,527   255,566
15   PSP   Final Fantasy Type-0   Square Enix   October 27   16,655   698,828
16   PSP   Hatsune Miku -Project DIVA- extend   Sega   November 10   16,322   231,037
17   Wii   PokéPark 2 ~Beyond the World~   Pokémon   November 12   14,710   69,740
18   Wii   Just Dance Wii   Nintendo   October 13   14,013   230,268
19   Wii   Wii Party (Including Bundled Edition)   Nintendo   July 8,  2010   13,756   2,036,622
20   PS3   Sengoku Basara 3: Utage (Sengoku Basara 3: Party)   CAPCOM   November 10   13,233   163,201
Source: Media Create via 4Gamer

Almost 200k in its first week in Japan. That's a bit better than what Twilight Princess (Wii) did, I think?

2636

TalkBack / Re: Iwata Asks: Mario Kart 7

« on: November 30, 2011, 04:19:21 PM »

I hope Nintendo is still able to develop the community feature for the 3DS at a system-wide level. That sounds like a useful thing to have.

2637

TalkBack / Re: Gaijin Games Teasing Wii U Development?

« on: November 30, 2011, 01:48:33 AM »

It would be good to seem them on the next home console. Maybe they will spear head the Wii U download offerings.

2638

TalkBack / Re: Ace Combat: Assault Horizon Legacy Review

« on: November 30, 2011, 12:07:24 AM »

Good to hear that the plane tuning is in. The high prices of the parts must be carry over from Joint Assault. The prices of planes in Joint Assault were much higher then in previous Ace Combat games.

2639

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Official Wii Sales Thread

« on: November 29, 2011, 04:58:45 PM »

That 'ought to bring joy Microsoft's Xbox division. Hopefully this will mean that interesting and great games for Kinect will come out.

2640

TalkBack / Re: Mario Kart 7 Review

« on: November 29, 2011, 04:12:52 AM »

Really hope someday they get Hal, GameArts, Sakurai, or whoever lines up the features for Super Smash Bros. and have them help on the next Mario Kart. The absence of advanced mode customization is becoming more and more intolerable.


I'm sad to read that the kart customization isn't as fleshed out as I hoped it would be. I know it would've been a long stretch, but I hoped for some mech-lab-lite with karts.

2641

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Official Wii Sales Thread

« on: November 29, 2011, 02:48:59 AM »

It's funny when crap games like Donkey Kong Barrel Blast can sell for $50 used/.

After the recent Connectivity episode, I checked how much a new copy of Excitetruck was selling for: $44.87. That is a third-party seller on Amazon. It's cheaper in other places.

2642

TalkBack / Re: Ace Combat: Assault Horizon Legacy Review

« on: November 29, 2011, 02:40:30 AM »

I still miss the Japanese title of Ace Combat 3D: Cross Rumble. Oh well. Props to mentioning that the campaign is a remake of Ace Combat 2. It was hinted at lightly in the few trailers for the game.


The short length of the campaign has been a trend in Project Aces games. Of relevance, Ace Combat X: Skies of Deception and Ace Combat (X2): Joint Assault for the Playstation Portable have short 5-6 hour campaigns even accounting for branching paths. Even the home console entries of Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War (PS2) and Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation (X360) have the same short campaign lengths, although that may be because I'm very familiar with how to play the series. I've read that Ace Combat: Assault Horizon also has a short 5 hour campaign.


In the case of Ace Combat X and Joint Assault, they both had multiplayer offerings with Joint Assault supporting online play. It is a real shame that Ace Combat: Assault Horizon Legacy doesn't have similar content. Heck, it would've been nice if Namco Bandai ported over the campaigns of Skies of Deception and Joint Assault to give something more for 3DS owners to play rather than grind the Legacy campaign to unlock all the planes and weapons.


Is plane tuning present in Assault Horizon Legacy? Being able to tune the planes to different statistics and abilities was a fun part in Ace Combat X, Joint Assault, and The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces. I was disappointed that the feature is not present in Ace Combat 6 and (seemingly) Assault Horizon.

2643

TalkBack / Re: LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes Is Now In Development

« on: November 29, 2011, 01:09:47 AM »

LEGO Justice League would make more sense. Having Batman in the title probably makes it more bankable (or something).

I never had a chance to play LEGO Batman. I've only heard the bad buzz on it. One of the complaints is that the game doesn't parody well-known stories like the other Lego games do.

2644

TalkBack / Re: Skyward Sword Sales Surge In First Week

« on: November 29, 2011, 01:04:04 AM »

A half of a million units in one week on a system at the end of its life cycle looks pretty good to me.
The same number in two weeks for a new system is good as well, right?


I'm curious to see how these sales will soften Nintendo's recent report of a loss.

2645

TalkBack / Re: Pink 3DS Headed to North America

« on: November 29, 2011, 12:56:08 AM »

The pink color and cute animals. Nice that you're getting the game for free.

2646

TalkBack / Re: LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes Is Now In Development

« on: November 29, 2011, 12:48:49 AM »

The first game is said to be the weakest of the Lego games. I hope Travelers' Tales recognizes what went wrong and fixes it for the sequel. With the inclusion of other DC characters, there's a chance of environments other than Gotham City.

2647

Nintendo Gaming / Re: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

« on: November 27, 2011, 02:34:14 AM »

I'm not going to suggest not putting in a minimap or compass is somehow an eastern thing.  It's a bad design thing.  Flying around the landmark-free sky without a compass is bad design.  Having beacons that you can't readily see is bad design.  Yeah, I can get used to bad design, but that doesn't change the fact that it IS bad design.  Someone at Nintendo should have screamed in the designers ears until these sorts of things are sorted out.  There is no excuse for these things and calling it Japanese seems insulting to every Japanese person that didn't work on this game. 

anyways. past the 3rd dungeon.  Still too much padding and very little actual game.

Grand beams of light and the only major land mass in the sky aren't landmarks?

I'm not suggesting the lack of a mini-map or compass is an eastern design style. Actually, Japanese games has mini-maps and compasses as often as western games.

The sky is so sparsely populated and all locations of importance clearly marked or visible that not having a mini-map or compass isn't much of a detriment to navigating it. Beacon's can be a bit finicky in the sky or on the surface. I've had one occurrence where I set a beacon in the sky and not be able to see it. Other than that, I've found Pumpkin Island, Bamboo Island, and Fun Fun Island just fine. Within the relatively closed confines of the surface areas, using beacons can be difficult. Especially so when you have to remember to retrieve the beacon in order to set it someplace else. Early on, the surface and the dungeons seem to be straight-forward enough to not really require a mini-map or beacons.

I recently wrapped up the 2nd dungeon and am liking the game so far. I'm not having as much trouble with bomb rolling or throwing as I've heard other people have. I just have to remember that the game responds best to big movements and responds poorly to small ones.  I assume the rescue of three NPCs and the key separated in to five pieces is a sign of things to come.

2648

Nintendo Gaming / Re: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

« on: November 26, 2011, 02:14:41 PM »

The auto-jumping system being archaic? Nearly the same system is in use in Batman: Arkham Asylum and the Assassin's Creed series. Typing of Assassin's Creed, Link has learned an extra step or two from Altair and Ezio when dashing in to a wall.

2649

Nintendo Gaming / Re: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

« on: November 26, 2011, 04:05:23 AM »

7 hours in. Everything is coated in a layer of bad design.  Flying is frustrating.  Everyone talks too much and says NOTHING of interest.  Every NPC is annoying and just doles out the most pointless, asinine tasks.  How come I can't fly at night?  Where is the F_ing minimap?  How come I can't access the beacon and move it whenever I need to?  WHERE IS THE F__ING MINIMAP?  How come i have to jump off a specific point to be able to call my bird? GTA 3 was more limited by the ps2's tech and it had a huge open world (which SS doesn't have) with seamless integration of MULTIPLE vehicles and on foot portions let alone how much GTA SA did on the PS2 what... 7 years ago?

There are far too many poorly done, disjointed pieces to this and none of them are interesting and none of them are fun.  Combat is waggle +.  Outside of the music, everyone that made this should be banned from ever working in the videogame industry again.  This is Nintendo's Chineese Democracy.  Bloated and masterbatorial.  Where is the fun?  7 hours in and I've yet to find it.

Flying takes some getting used to. I've played a lot of the flight mode in Wii Sports Resort so that helped in reminding me in Skyward Sword that you have to quite steady with the Wii Remote. A quick up-then-down motion is needed to flap the bird's wings so you can't be lazy about it. I've found that you don't really need to flapping all the time unless you need to gain altitude (which you need to flap for). So far, it doesn't seem significantly faster to flap the wings constantly. I'm early in the game and the flight mechanics are satisfactory.

The map beacon has the annoyance of requiring to retrieve it in order to set in a new position. Sort of like how in Smash Bros. Melee (iirc) you needed to pick up the character puck in order to select a new character. Sad thing is that Brawl let you press B to retrieve the puck.

Dialog and quests I have nothing to argue against with at this time.

Minimap? Not able to call the bird at will? Ha! You have to be more in-tune with your inner Japanese gamer and be able to memorize maps and only call the bird where the game lets you.
....
A mini-map at all times is what I expected and would've helped. Interface does look nice a clean in Pro or Light mode. It's odd that you have to jump and fall in specific places and specific manners in order to call the bird.


EDIT:

The lack of minimap is a symptom of a larger problem that encompasses this game--nothing, NOTHING is designed well.  everything takes at least a few more button presses, a few more minutes than it should.  The game has NO flow.   Fi is part of that.  Endless, un-skipable exposition is part of that.  The disjointed world is part of that.  Yes, pausing every few minutes isn't difficult, but it would be unnecessary if things that worked well were kept in the series.


Look at the town.  How come I can't jump off wherever and call my bird... or why doesn't my bird just show up when I'm at Y coordinate under the island?  Why can't I leave at night?  Why am I wasting any time running back to my bedroom so I can select it to be daytime?  Why is the game pausing every time I pick up a scrap of whatever for the upgrade system that seems totally pointless?


Everything feels anti-intuitive and massively user unfriendly. 


Also, Zelda 1 had a minimap.  This isn't a return to it's roots (since it's roots were basically Gauntlet with a dose of RPG) this is disappearing up one's own ass.

I would say the game is designed in the an odd and (old?) Japanese manner. Feel free to call such styles not well as I wouldn't blame you.


I wouldn't say the game has no flow. I think it is more apt to say that the game has a slow flow. Glacial, if your shoulder is feeling particularly icy. The slow flow exemplifies itself in how pressing A just speeds up dialog rather than displays it all at once. When I let the dialog go by itself, it can be a bit charming to see how the display speed is used to inject some personality to the text.


With some other video games being accused of appealing too much to those who can't hold their attention for long, it's interesting to see a game that goes far in the opposite direction in aspects of its presentation.


As for the hand-holding, Nintendo does lay it on in a thick and tiring manner.

On top of all the other obvious padding this game showcases on a by-hour basis, I just don't understand how this game took five years to make.  I really don't, especially since the game world is so small you could probably fit it all inside a handful of Xenoblade's larger maps.  If you stripped away all the re-used encounters and blatant padding with fetch quests and pointless errands, this game would be around 20 hours long.  I'm around 40 now, which I wouldn't mind if that was 40 hours of new experiences, but it's not.  And why is this game so small and the assets so few?  It's a AAA Nintendo flagship game, with presumably all the time and money in the world dumped on it.


  This is getting ridiculous, and it's a shame because when the game isn't playing "keep away" with the story it's really good.  But every time I start to get invested in this game and having a great time, the designers pull the rug out from under me.

Well, I may have took 5 years but I doubt they kept even half of what they made in that time. Maybe Nintendo feels pressured with Zelda to provide a long experience no matter the cost. The worse thought is that they convinced themselves that it's okay to reuse areas and applying minor tweaks makes them interesting again. As for the time and money comment, I first and foremost trust Nintendo to be cheap on their end no matter the situation.

2650

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Official Wii Sales Thread

« on: November 23, 2011, 11:07:34 PM »

Even Japan is caught up in the CoD while the Ghibli-Level-5 collaboration Ni no Kuni takes third.

Nice to see Super Mario 3D Land and Kirby's Return to Dreamland sticking around. 3DS pulls in another solid week.