Messages

[Renny]

401

Nintendo Gaming / RE:No Hi-def resolution, Nintendo's cost benefit analysis

« on: June 11, 2005, 05:13:22 PM »

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Originally posted by: Renny
A point that was raised earlier in the thread that most of you seem to be glossing over: this will hurt 3rd party sales of Rev games because people will see Rev versions of multiplatform games as weak.

Ironically, the actual effect of not having HD may well be an increase in the quality of the Revolution's graphics, because developers won't have to limit their geometry etc. to accommodate the slower processing that would happen in HD mode (because of fill-rate issues or whatever).

Of course history does seem to show that the public cares little about reality, and are as likely to base their buying decision on one of Kutaragi's hallucinatory fits as anything else...

402

Nintendo Gaming / RE:Resident Evil 4 has sold 1.23 million units world wide

« on: June 09, 2005, 08:07:15 PM »

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Logic would have it that you would release more games for GC, as you are selling more copies per Title.  But rarely does Logic and Business Management ever meet (at least in my personal experiece)

It's even worse in Japan.  Japanese in general, and big Japanese companies in particular, are very risk adverse, and loooove a bandwagon.  Once they've got it in their head that a particular thing is "it" -- usually because it gets lots of press and hype -- they'll stick to this notion like glue, regardless of the results, on the assumption that just a little more perseverance will show their assumption to be correct (and a fear of admitting their decision was wrong).

(I work for a large Japanese company, so I constantly see this in painful detail)

403

Reader Reviews / RE: Metroid II Retro-view

« on: May 30, 2005, 11:57:03 PM »

Metroid II was the first Metroid game I played (only about 6 years ago!) and instantly hooked me.  It's not nearly as lush as more modern metroids, but it's a damn good game, and there's a sort of elegant simplicity about the B&W presentation that I thought actually enhanced the atmosphere of the game -- it felt ... starker, more lonely.

404

Nintendo Gaming / RE:Are Retro working on something new?

« on: May 30, 2005, 09:36:21 PM »

Retro's textures are incredible as well, things in MP just look sort of ... real,  It's very hard to see where the polygons are because their textures are so good.  This is in stark contrast with Nintendo itself, whose textures always seem little low-res to me.

405

TalkBack / RE: I Think I Hypnotized Myself

« on: August 16, 2004, 03:39:08 AM »

ha ha! ... I can't even see the flash anim, but the funniest thing about that page is the "Genre" entry for the game:  mawaru shunkan action, i.e. "revolving instant action".

A whole new genre!  Nintendo is truly the master of creativity.

406

TalkBack / RE: Pikmin 2 European Date

« on: July 16, 2004, 02:25:56 AM »

It's only the underground levels that are randomly generated, and they're quite fine -- not really very big, and not at all a focus of the game.  They're more like a sort of extra little jaunt you take once in a while, and they're actually a nice change of pace as they're more "battle oriented" than the above ground levels which are all about puzzle solving & exploring.

It's a brilliant game.

407

Nintendo Gaming / RE: Im Getting an SP, What game do I get?

« on: May 16, 2003, 01:40:28 PM »

That's a pretty hard question, since there are sooo many great games for the GBA...

I'd say, any of the castlevania games to start -- not much story, but they have a great smooth difficulty curve and are just completely fun to play (indeed, addictive).

[Luckily with an SP, you won't be bothered by the rather dark color color palette used on the first one, which annoyed many people with original GBAs.]

408

Nintendo Gaming / RE: Gameboy SP a waste of time?

« on: May 12, 2003, 03:14:14 PM »

The original GBA has a nice comfy shape, but the SP is really, really cool -- what may seem seem like a bunch of small differences at first, make make a big difference in practice.  For instance, the original GBA is just a liiiiittle too big and clunky, so I'd always have to think about whether I really wanted to tote the thing along, but the SP is small enough to throw in your bag and carry around without a thought.  The light also obviously makes a big difference in letting you play whenever you want (not just when conditions are right), and the rechargeable batteries are really well done, they charge fast, and last a long time.  Absolutely worth the difference in money (and more I'd say).

409

Nintendo Gaming / RE: GC demo disc for sale this month

« on: May 07, 2003, 02:57:16 PM »

Heh, I thought the reason they put prices like $10 on this sort of thing is so that they can act like they're doing you a big favor when they give it to you for less (or throw it in for free with something)...

410

Nintendo Gaming / RE: castlevania: aria of sorrow

« on: May 07, 2003, 02:53:31 PM »

I just picked this up yesterday (I thought it was supposed to go on sale today, but there it was, in the store...).

So far it seems way too easy, I never seem to die unless I get very careless, and the first couple of bosses practically keeled over when I yawned at them; the GBA CV games seem to be getting easier and easier with each release, I really preferred CotM in this regard -- with a game this fun, I don't really mind playing again and again to do get past a hard bit.  The `soul' system is kind of cool in the effects it gives you (love that giant skeleton arm!), but again a bit too `easy' -- you just get these abilities straight out; I thought the dual-card system in CotM was more interesting.

So... basically so far it seems just OK to me -- it really seems like Konami is churning these out as fast as they can -- but still, `just OK' for a CV game is pretty damn good, and it's still tons of fun to play.

[loserfish13]

411

Nintendo Gaming / GIFTPIA is going to ROCK

« on: May 07, 2003, 03:27:40 AM »

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Originally posted by: loserfish13
I read in a preview that there is no battle system, but i can't find which preview. Maybe the hearts are for some sort of mini-game?

I don't know if you saw my list-of-annoying-things-about-giftpia on another thread, but the hearts are -- yes! -- another annoying feature.

Basically you lose hearts constantly with time and you have to find new ones to not die.  It's not slow either -- you'll die after about five minutes if you don't go find some more hearts -- so it rather ruins the feeling of leisurely exploration you get with most rpgs.

I stopped playing after dying a few times from heart shortage; it was just too absurdly annoying.  I hope there's some item you get later than reduces this problem or something, because it seems like a pretty severe flaw.

Giftpia looks really nice, but it feels to me like the designers were so obsessed with making it `alternative' that they forgot to actually make it fun to play...

412

Nintendo Gaming / New GiFTPiA vids!!!

« on: April 26, 2003, 05:44:14 AM »

I bought Giftpia today.

I've only played it a few minutes, but my first impression:  annoying.

1. The characters are annoying (hard to explain why, they just are).
   
2. Fixed perspective, like Animal Crossing; after playing ZWW, this is kind of annoying.
   
3. Extremely annoying fake voice sounds (that play whenever someone says something, though you have to read the actual text).
   
4. Lots of `answer this question but if you give the wrong answer, just repeat the question' questions -- annoying.
   
5. Stupid robot follows you around and if you try to go beyond invisible boundaries starts blabbing at you, requiring to hit the A button a bunch of times to make him shut up.  I really wish there was a way to kill the robot.
   
6. In general too much can't-skip-it-have-to-hit-the-A-button-100-times dialog sequences

On the plus side, the graphics are excellent, and your girlfriend keeps kissing you (or hugging you, I can't tell exactly because your face is constantly hidden by this blurry pixel thing [oh, that's another thing that's annoying]), which I found kind of nice.

Hopefully it will pick up a bit after a while, but right now I feel vaguely cheated...

[Grey Ninja]

413

Nintendo Gaming / nintendo's return to glory

« on: April 13, 2003, 02:05:11 PM »

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Originally posted by: Grey Ninja
The only thing lacking is popular support from the mainstream audience, but really, who gives a rat's ass if the 12 year old next door doesn't like GameCube?

That sums up my feelings nicely.  However, 3rd party companies do care what all those slightly below-average 12 year-olds think, and I think 3rd party support is a good thing (though maybe Nintendo is one of the few companies that can go it alone if necessary).

[thecubedcanuck]

414

Nintendo Gaming / Nintendo lowers profit expectations... again

« on: April 08, 2003, 03:37:55 PM »

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Originally posted by: thecubedcanuck
I know one thing is for sure. If nintendo doesnt start making more FPS or games in the style of GTA for example them this will be my last Nintendo console.  Games like Zelda could have been so so great. The graphics were great, the game play great, the depth of the dungeons unmatched, however the game was clearly targeted at little kids.  Everystep you made there was something telling you exactly what to do next. I know my brother in law has already said he will not but another Nintendo system.  I cant imagine we are the only 2 people who feel this way.

Probably you're not the only ones who feel this way, but that doesn't make you the majority either.  There are lots of styles of gameplay, and each ones has it's fans; if you're a FPS fan, well, great, maybe you should go for the Xbox or something.  Indeed, look at the wild success of console RPGs in Japan, many of which are are far worse than zelda in terms of `hand holding.'

Personally I love Zelda, it just has this great `feel' that most other games come nowhere near capturing, and manages to seem far freer than a typical console RPG (despite the same general system of linear or semi-linear goals).  So, Nintendo:  more Zelda please!

[as for `clearly targeted at little kids', that's just silly; I suspect this comment says more about you than about the actual game]

415

Nintendo Gaming / SP plastic's color if scratched?

« on: March 31, 2003, 03:42:18 AM »

I'm in Japan.

I forgot that they're not selling the black SP in the U.S.  That's frankly kind of bizarre if you ask me, given Americans' penchant for black when it comes to electronics.  But then Nintendo's always been a bit wacky with regard to colors...

416

Nintendo Gaming / What game???

« on: March 31, 2003, 01:36:13 AM »

I think Yoshi's Island is also a standout game on the GBA.  It just exudes playability and charm (and looks fantastic)...

417

Nintendo Gaming / SP plastic's color if scratched?

« on: March 30, 2003, 03:16:12 AM »

Here's what I saw when I looked at some display models that had been ravaged by the crowds, and so got pretty scratched up:

• Underneath the silver paint is a sort of milky-grey plastic; it's about the same darkness as silver (maybe a bit lighter), but stands out pretty clearly through scratches.
  
• Underneath the blue paint is a somewhat darker greyish color, which is also fairly noticeable through scratches (I'm not as sure about this one, as it's been a while, but I clearly remember that the scratches were pretty obvious).
  
• Underneath the black paint is black plastic.  Unlike the others, scratches are pretty hard to see on a black model.

I ended up getting black, not only for the scratch resistance, but because it's less distracting while playing (the blue and silver, while very pretty, are rather bright).

[yrrab436]

418

Nintendo Gaming / Starfox Adv. = Zelda. I don't understand why people did not like it.

« on: March 28, 2003, 02:19:09 PM »

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Originally posted by: yrrab436
I think it would have been better if they kept the original complete Dinosaur Planet story and upgraded the game.  The whole "let's slap the Star Fox license on it" thing really bugs me

The thing is, the star fox characters are the only interesting ones in the whole game!  All the `dinosaur planet' characters are complete cardboard cutouts -- the dastardly villain is dull, krystal is dull, all the planet's inhabitants are dull, dull, dull.

Rare's a very technically competent company, but they seem completely unable to tell a story well, or create a compelling character, and I suspect that if the SF license hadn't been added, then `Dinosaur Planet' would have been even more dull than SFA, hard as that is to believe.

419

NWR Feedback / These `takeover' adds screw up mozilla

« on: March 26, 2003, 12:31:00 PM »

I wonder if it has something to do with the connection speed -- I'm using a 56K connection so the main page is only partially downloaded/displayed by the time the `takeover' happens, and similarly, the `takeover' page really hasn't been displayed at all when it suddenly reverts to the main page again (from there, it just loops forever).

BTW, I made a post recently to this thread which showed up for a while, but now seems to have been deleted.  Are you guys going through and deleting posts?!?  Apologies if not, but if so, man that's really obnoxious (shades of big brother...).

[RickPowers]

420

NWR Feedback / These `takeover' adds screw up mozilla

« on: March 17, 2003, 02:25:42 AM »

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Originally posted by: RickPowers
As I've told you SEVERAL times now

Maybe you told someone; not me.

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the takeover ad works just fine in Mozilla.  I tested it myself.

Did you test in windows?  Linux?  Which version (of mozilla)?

Perhaps they worked fine in whatever configuration you tested, but apparently the method the ads are using is fragile enough that they don't work everywhere.

I'm running mozilla 1.0.0 under Debian (using the standard package), BTW.  PGC is actually the only site that's ever failed to display like this for me...

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You have a setting in yours that you've changed that's causing the problem.

I tried it with all profile info removed (I deleted the entire .mozilla directory), and the problem persists; whad'ya want me to say?

It's bad enough to have intrusive ads, but when the ads cause the entire site to fail, it's a whole 'nother level of annoying...

421

NWR Feedback / These `takeover' adds **** up mozilla

« on: March 16, 2003, 01:27:04 PM »

When I try to visit www.planetgamecube.com, my browser starts constantly switching between that page and some `takeover' page, never actually showing any content, and as far as I can tell, it's in an infinite loop.  I don't have cookies blocked, BTW.

Since I don't have windows or a mac, that means I basically can't use PGC at all now (I had a direct bookmark to the forums page, so at least I can post this).

BTW, this is mozilla 1.0.0, I don't know if other versions have the same problem (though I don't really know if it's a bug in mozilla or whether whatever the ad's doing is some dodgy IE-specific hack).  

422

Nintendo Gaming / Which is a better SP colour as regards scratching?

« on: March 07, 2003, 03:06:00 AM »

I don't own one, but I checked out the display models at a store, and both the silver and metallic blue models showed obvious signs of wear (as it had only been out a few days, they must have really gotten worked over by the crowds [it was a very busy store...]!).  The black model looked much better, though I think this may be in part because the underlying plastic is black just like the paint (as far as I could see, the black model is actually painted too, though I could be wrong about this), making any wear/scratches a lot less obvious.

[tech9]

423

Nintendo Gaming / Gameboy Advance SP extra batteries???

« on: March 01, 2003, 03:05:23 PM »

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Originally posted by: tech9
They are predicting 500 recharges or 3 years. From the video press release i saw the unit must be sent back to Nintendo or one of there factory service centers.

I think this is just typical nonsense included for legal reasons (i.e., they don't want to support users that have fumbled a battery change, however unlikely it may be).

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I dont think they are going to make changing the battery that easy. It may even be soldered onto the pcb for all we know (anybody with an import SP open it yet??)

Judging from Lik-Sang's dissection of the SP, the battery is easily user-changeable (assuming you can get an extra battery, of course!); it looks like it just drops out once you remove the cover.

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What i would like to see is a powersupply fot the SP that is totally independent from the battery charger circuitry, but seeing how nintendo is claiming that you can play while charging the battery, that doesnt seem to be the case.

Yeah that would have been cool.  I really liked the one on my girlfriend's cellphone, where the recharger was this tiny plug that attached directly to the [tiny!] battery; they included two batteries, but you could still recharge the one actually in the phone while it was in use!

I expect there will be 3rd-party rechargers soon that allow separate recharging (my brilliant idea is that someone could market a charger that includes an extra battery and a replacement battery-cover that doesn't require a screwdriver...).

424

TalkBack / Konami Gets New Logo

« on: February 26, 2003, 12:31:38 PM »

The thing is that many of these `rebrandings' are complete and utter bullshit jobs (maybe not yours, Rick :-), seemingly designed mostly to generate warm and fuzzy things to say to stockholders, and often ignoring such basic facts such as `everybody hates the new logo and thinks it looks like ass'* in favor of vague hand-waving like `this precise shade of reddish green implies creativity and high-fibre.'

The new Konami logo seems better than most, actually (the biggest victims of `rebranding scams' in my experience tend to be institutions like universities, which are apparently hungry for the warm fuzzies, but have even more politics and less common sense than a typical corporation).

* What often seems to be worse than the new logos is that they usually come with reams of rules about how to `maintain the image,' which can border on the absurd, and usually cause more damage than good.

425

TalkBack / Important Game Boy Player Info!

« on: February 22, 2003, 06:15:30 AM »

Don't know what's up with them, but I have one reserved, and the receipt says `pick on up March 21' (also the ads say the 21st).

Perhaps the 27th includes shipping time or it's the hong-kong release date or something.