Messages

7301

General Gaming / RE: Sony getting hit Hard lately (Now with 80 to 100 units less fat!)

« on: July 13, 2007, 08:19:51 AM »

Is the 20gb PS3 model still in stores, or has that completely sold out? If there are still some on shelves I wonder how the stores would price them....

BTW, does the 20gb have the EE chip in it? If so, it would make a good bargain if it is about $399 or whatever... someone can always add a bigger hard drive to it later on.

7302

General Gaming / RE: Microsoft showing their true colors once again.

« on: July 13, 2007, 08:15:32 AM »

MS knows how to grease the wheels of its anti-trust investigators. I'm sure they can grease their way out of a recall too, lol...

[MarioAllStar]

7303

General Gaming / RE:PS3 price cut canceled! (effectivly)

« on: July 13, 2007, 06:23:12 AM »

Quote
Originally posted by: MarioAllStar
So how long until the stock is cleared?

Since the PS3 has been selling like hotcakes, it shouldn't take too long. [sarcasm]

I think it will take less time than we might think, especially if consumers realize what a better deal the 60gb one is than the 80gb one.

I don't plan to get a PS3 anytime soon, and perhaps I never will, but if I did there is a good reason for me to go for the 60gb with the EE chip while it is still out there....

7304

General Gaming / RE: Microsoft showing their true colors once again.

« on: July 13, 2007, 04:50:16 AM »

Microsoft seems to be perpetually under investigation by government authorities somewhere for something or other.... nothing ever comes of these investigations, though.

7305

General Gaming / RE: PS3 price cut canceled! (effectivly)

« on: July 13, 2007, 04:48:11 AM »

Sony has a long record of assuming consumers are morons. Look at the PSP's buttons and how they would stick.... Sony just said it wasn't a defect and they had meant for it to be that way. They also tried pushing UMD movies as if they were the best thing to come along since sliced bread, but consumers apparently disagreed. Not to mention the SIXAXIS controller, which is the same as past generation PS controllers, but with the new amazing feature of tilt! Wow, Nintendo came up with this 10 years ago for the original gameboy, but Sony spins it off as the greatest innovation in gaming history.

And now they pass off this PS3 feature-cut as a price cut for consumers?! Give me a break... They are just cutting their own production costs to save their own asses.

But then again, I'm not surprised. I've debated with a few diehard Sony supporters, and I couldn't help but feel I was talking to a chimp. They'll undoubtedly swallow this hook, line, and sinker. Same with that Darth Vader PSP.  *shakes head in disgust*  

7306

General Gaming / RE: Sony getting hit Hard lately (Now with 80 to 100 units less fat!)

« on: July 13, 2007, 04:38:27 AM »

Sony doesn't seem to like price drops for some reason.... instead of dropping the price of the PS3, they just come out with a shoddier version with a slightly bigger hard drive for the same price. Real savings!

Well, it is savings for them, but not for the consumers. It would be better to have the EE ship than a hard drive with an extra 20gb.... however, the intelligence of some Sony supporters I've talked to online leads me to believe they'll eat this up.

[Ian Sane]

7307

Nintendo Gaming / RE:All the unique game ideas for the Wii Balance Board

« on: July 12, 2007, 03:43:50 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: Ian Sane
"Just think if all these ideas are rushing through our heads just think of what developers may be thinking up."

The sad thing it doesn't always work that way.  When GBA connectivity was revealed for the Cube tons of cool ideas were passed around that were better than anything that was actually done.  Same with the DS touchscreen.  I've read some cool ideas on this board and the real games that come about have not been nearly as cool.

That's true, and I was disappointed that GC-GBA connectivity didn't work out better than it did.... one of the reasons was because the GC never really caught on. I think Wii-DS connectivity will work much better because these products are both insanely popular so it is far more likely consumers will have both at the same time, plus they have built in capability to communicate with one another and don't require a seperate cord...

As for this Wii Balance Board, that really depends on how well it catches on. I think if Nintendo created a Wii bundle that included this board, the nunchuck, and the Zapper along with the wiimote and Wii system for a bit extra it would sell really well and cement these accessories in as standard peripherals that developers would have to take seriously. Nintendo needs to ensure all Wii owners have these so developers will adopt them.

They also need to lead the way and push first party games for them.

7308

General Gaming / RE: New PSP version announced

« on: July 12, 2007, 03:34:09 PM »

I was hoping for more out of the new PSP....

Well, no, actually I wasn't. I'm glad Sony didn't do very much to improve it because I like gloating over Sony fans for the way they bashed Nintendo in the past.

You know a company is getting desperate when they start using paid actors dressed in costumes to promote their products, lol.

7309

Nintendo Gaming / RE: All the unique game ideas for the Wii Balance Board

« on: July 12, 2007, 03:29:54 PM »

How about a surfboarding game? Or a skateboarding game?

Lots of WarioWare type microgames could make use of it as well. I can see it being used to pump up a tire, or to move one of those railroad car things you move yourself...

[couchmonkey]

7310

General Gaming / RE:Sony getting hit Hard lately (Now with 80 to 100 units less fat!)

« on: July 12, 2007, 09:51:31 AM »

Quote
Originally posted by: couchmonkey
I'm not  that worried about MS anymore.  After all their talk about reaching casual gamers, they gave us what?  Viva Pinata Party and Scene-It.  As good as Microsoft is at bullying people on its PC software "home turf", Xbox and Zune both appear to be huge failures compared to the leading products, and the way things are going, Wii is set to clobber Xbox 360 as well.

Ultimately, Wii has so much momentum right now that I think only Nintendo could screw it up.  Microsoft could repackage the Core as a Wii-killer with motion control, $250 price tag and all tomorrow, and it would still have to overcome Nintendo's headstarts in brand recognition and casual software development.

Yeah. Nintendo has the initiative and their competitors are a few steps behind. Sony has a long history of copying Nintendo's ideas and innovations, but the problem with this strategy is Sony will always be behind Nintendo and have to catch up.

By the time Sony and Microsoft are able to counter Nintendo's Wii-mote idea Nintendo may be doing something different by that point. In any battle the ones with initiative have the advantage, but it has to be handled properly. Nintendo has their opponents stunned, but hopefully they can follow through and not wait for them to recover and adapt.

7311

General Gaming / RE: Sony getting hit Hard lately (Now with 80 to 100 units less fat!)

« on: July 12, 2007, 09:42:44 AM »

No one is invincible, not even MS. For a long time the gaming world thought Sony was invincible, but not many feel that way any more. Same with Nintendo before Sony, and Atari before Nintendo.

Even if MS forces Sony out and captures 90% of the market, Nintendo will still be around doing what they've always done and generating profit even with less marketshare.

With success comes arrogance. This was Napoleon's undoing, it was Hitler's undoing, it was Nintendo's undoing, and now it is Sony's undoing... one day it will be Microsoft's undoing as well.

Why worry about it? I'm more worried about Microsoft installinng chips into people's brains and controlling them with their proprietary sofftware than anything, lol. Look at Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri and how the Morganites goal is to get everyone nerve stapled. That's what we need to worry about from MS.

7312

General Gaming / RE:New PSP version announced

« on: July 11, 2007, 05:15:20 PM »

I recall back around last year's E3 (or perhaps some time after) Sony dismissed the Wii as being just a competitor for the PS2 instead of the PS3, but isn't this more the case with their PSP?

I see the PSP and PS2 as being in competition more than it is with the DS, but maybe that's just me... I mean, the types of games on the DS and PSP are not really the same. The DS retains the handheld/portable feel, but the PSP is just a console you can hold in your hands. I don't know if that makes sense or not...

7313

Nintendo Gaming / RE:Advanced Wars Series of Games

« on: July 11, 2007, 04:44:20 PM »

I think WiFi playability is pretty much a given.

Other than that, what else would they add to improve over the first DS iteration?

7314

General Gaming / RE: Sony getting hit Hard lately (Now with 80 to 100 units less fat!)

« on: July 10, 2007, 03:36:27 PM »

Zelda TP had to compete with a Gamecube version of itself... plus not many people owned a Wii and still don't, because it is always sold out. Whenever I find a Wii and can afford it, you can be sure Zelda TP will be one of my first games. Problem is, I don't even have a Wii yet, lol. Anyeay, that's the reason its sales aren't as good as they would have been.

7315

General Gaming / RE: Sony getting hit Hard lately (Now with 80 to 100 units less fat!)

« on: July 09, 2007, 05:47:57 PM »

If the BRD doesn't account for a big chunk of the PS3's cost then why do stand alone BR players cost so much?

[Mashiro]

7316

Nintendo Gaming / RE:The Pre-E3 expectations thread

« on: July 09, 2007, 05:10:54 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: Mashiro

Quote
Originally posted by: Chozo Ghost

Quote
Originally posted by: UncleBob
Am I the only one who thinks Zelda isn't suited for an MMORPG.  Mario either, for that matter.

What is wrong with an MMORPG set in Hyrule or the Mushroom Kingdom?

It just doesn't make much sense . . . I don't see a need for it. In those games its (usually) only the main character who saves the day. Mario or Link. While the worlds themselves are fanciful and interesting they don't make for a good MMO setting.

What would people play? A Hyrule Guard? Toad?

It just doesn't make for a good MMO.

Well, in the case of the Mario universe a person could choose their class of any of the things that have appeared in Mario games. For example, a person could be a Goomba, or a Koopa, or a Toad, or a Yoshi, or god knows what.... Or it could use the Mii system for your character.

But maybe it could be like Super Smash Bros. in that all the Nintendo franchises would come together in some sort of ficttional realm where the MMORPG would take place. It couldn't be taken too seriously, but it would probably be a great deal of fun.

[Kairon]

7317

General Gaming / RE:EA CEO calls Video Games "Boring" and "Too Complicated"

« on: July 09, 2007, 05:00:10 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: Kairon
Back in the days of the Iliad and Moby Dick, many people couldn't read.

Some couldn't read, but the literacy rate in the US during that time was much higher than you might expect. There were no TV or video games, and so reading was a major form of entertainment then. Plus people tended to be more religious, and that meant reading the bible.

The literacy rate today is considered higher, but I think the percentage of people reading books like the Iliad has fallen drastically. Nowadays we consider people literate if they can read the menu at McDonalds or the Tv guide. So yeah, our literacy rate may seem higher, but that may be because we've lowered the criteria of what makes a person literate.

Anyway, getting back on topic here... I'd say Nintendo is moving in the right direction with games like Brain age and those puzzlers. They require a person to think, and that's certainly more than can be said about Halo or GTA....

[UncleBob]

7318

Nintendo Gaming / RE:The Pre-E3 expectations thread

« on: July 09, 2007, 02:56:56 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: UncleBob
Am I the only one who thinks Zelda isn't suited for an MMORPG.  Mario either, for that matter.

What is wrong with an MMORPG set in Hyrule or the Mushroom Kingdom?

[BigJim]

7319

General Gaming / RE:Sony getting hit Hard lately (Now with 80 to 100 units less fat!)

« on: July 09, 2007, 02:48:02 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: BigJim

Quote
Should be cutting features instead, such as blu-ray. A blu-ray free PS3 for 200-300 dollars less would solve their problems.

That would make their problem infinitely worse. The BRD drive doesn't cost that much, for one. And just eliminating it means they'd need to entirely start over from scratch this generation, recall and replace all systems, recall, re-develop and replace all games on the market, as well as redo all games in development. The PS3 as it is would retail for $300 before they could even recover from the cluster-f associated with that alternative.

I don't think that would be that big of a problem at all. The PS3 systems already out there can read regular DVD movies and CDs, can't they? They can play PS2 games, can't they? If they can read DVD media right now then all they need is a firmware upgrade for the PS3 to become a DVD video game console rather than (or in addition to) being a blu-ray game console.

They wouldn't have to recall or replace anything because a firmware upgrade could make the transition possible. Maybe they'd want to recall the current blu-ray games that are in stores and replace them with DVD alternatives because the Blu-ray free PS3s couldn't handle them, but for people who already own a blu-ray enabled PS3 it wouldn't really matter since they can play it as normal.

As for the games in development, this would be a trivial issue. Dvd or Blu-ray is just a storage medium, and the software doesn't really care which one it is on. Just like any other data doesn't care if it is on a CD or DVD... it reads from it just the same. Storage space might be an issue, but are there really any games out now that need more than 4.7gb of storage? Probably not many, and any that need to could be broken up into multiple discs.

So again, I think Sony really should make the Blu-ray aspect of the PS3 optional. A premium model could offer that capability for movies, but for people only looking for a gaming console they should have a far cheaper DVD model. Better yet, they could also offer an optional blu-ray drive add-on just like the 360 has a HD add-on. Nice for movies, but not really essential for video games.

7320

Nintendo Gaming / RE: Do you think the DS game cases are excessively large?

« on: July 09, 2007, 02:34:23 PM »

@PartyBear: I think a lot of paper and lumber comes from tree farming these days rather than from virgin forests. Trees are cut down, but they are replanted so they can be harvested again in the future. I don't think that is much more environmentall harmful than the forest fires which take them down anyway. Plastic is more destructive to be made and never biodegrades, but that wasn't really what I was arguing.

@Ian Sane: I don't see why it couldn't be both a tiny plastic case, but still be inside a large cardboard box. Wouldn't this be the best of both world's? I actually have most of the cardboard boxes that my SNES, N64, GB, and GB games came in. Even have 1 or 2 NES cardboard boxes still, but most of those were thrown out because I just didn't save them back then.

My point is, if you take good care you can keep a cardboard box in great shape over a long period of time. I don't really have to keep opening or closing them because I keep the games inside the sleeves, cases, or third party storage solutions I have for them. I do keep the manuals in them, and that keeps them in good shape but I very seldom look at the manuals anyway.

7321

General Gaming / RE: EA CEO calls Video Games "Boring" and "Too Complicated"

« on: July 09, 2007, 02:17:24 PM »

Many popular games seem very dumbed down to me these days. I briefly owned one of the GTA games but I didn't find it very challenging, and after killing people randomly for awhile it just got boring.

Video games are basically experiencing the same thing as literature. People used to read the Iliad and Moby Dick... now they just read magazines about Paris Hilton. Why should video games be any different? People just seem to get stupider as technology increases its grip over us and we are no longer required to think or imagine anymore. Technology does those things for us.

[Lord_die_seis]

7322

General Gaming / RE:Sony getting hit Hard lately (Now with 80 to 100 units less fat!)

« on: July 09, 2007, 06:31:22 AM »

Quote
Originally posted by: Lord_die_seis
http://kotaku.com/gaming/we.re-slashing-prices/sony-confirms-ps3-price+cut-80gb-bundle-276091.php


Sony announced their new PS3 pricing structure

499.99 - 60GB PS3
599.99 - 80GB PS3 w/ Motorstorm bundle (available august)

Sony doesn't get it. Performance isn't the issue, and increasing the hard drive size accomplshes nothing. The price is the problem.

Should be cutting features instead, such as blu-ray. A blu-ray free PS3 for 200-300 dollars less would solve their problems.

7323

Nintendo Gaming / RE: Do you think the DS game cases are excessively large?

« on: July 09, 2007, 06:31:12 AM »

Ian, it just seems like such a waste. Plastic costs more than cardboard and is not renewable.

Wasn't there a plastic shortage or something that was hindering DS production a while back? Maybe Nintendo would have had more plastic to make DS systems if it wasn't all being sucked up to make the DS game cases, lol.

Like I said, the plastic cases are good, but why do they need to be so large? Think back to the original gameboy cartridge cases which were only slightly bigger than the cartridges themselves. That's really all the plastic that needs to be used.

7324

General Gaming / RE: MS says Xbox problems won't effect sales in Japan (lol)

« on: July 09, 2007, 06:26:39 AM »

Mr. Burns: "How are my slave holdings performing?"

Mr. Smithers: "They're, uh... stable sir"

Mr. Burns: "Excellent"

-------------------

Mr. Gates: "How are our Japanese Xbox sales doing?"

Bill Gates' Assistant: "They're, uh... stable sir"

Mr. Gates: "Excellent"

[TVman]

7325

Nintendo Gaming / RE:Do you think the DS game cases are excessively large?

« on: July 09, 2007, 04:04:00 AM »

Quote
Originally posted by: TVman
I don't bring my DS cases when I travel. They're fine just sitting in the pouch I bought for my GBA a few years ago. I keep my DS in the same pouch. My friend actually throws his away.

You should tell him to just give them to you instead, or make him aware that people would actually be willing to buy them from him on ebay or something. (just make sure in the auctions he lets them know it doesn't include the actual game, lol)