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Messages - Smash_Brother

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7101
TalkBack / RE: Report Says DS Outplays PSP
« on: July 10, 2005, 05:31:51 PM »
I've not played it so I couldn't say, but it's a new franchise which may not even appeal to the American segment and it doesn't feature online play. I understand the game has excellent reviews and all, but that's from Famitsu and the Japanese segment tends to have a great deal more affection for the "giga-pet" genre than the US does.

I'm not doubting the selling power of Nintendogs, but unless Nintendo fires up a multi-million dollar ad campaign for the game in the US and hypes it like crazy, then I doubt it'll see the same sales here that it did in Japan.

I cite MK and AC because we already know they've both succeeded around the world AND there has been a great deal of fanfare about seeing both games online (MK more so than AC, but AC was still widely speculated as being an excellent potential online game). Before the release of MKDD, people were going crazy over the notion that it COULD feature online play.

If Nintendo launches the game with an online meeting server, ladders and even tournaments, then I expect it will tear up the sales charts for quite some time and lend the DS its first TRUE system-seller. Right now, my friends who don't own the console find it to be a neat gimmick, but I don't yet have a game I can place in front of them which will cause them to say, "I need to buy this." However, AC online would do that in a heartbeat and MK online would likely do the same.

Maybe Nintendogs could perform the trick, but I'll have to play it before I can make a judgement call and thus I'm not certain. Unless MK and AC are royally botched, then they'll both haul DS systems like nothing else has yet.

-SB

Edit: And no, that was not intended as a pun.

7102
TalkBack / RE: Report Says DS Outplays PSP
« on: July 10, 2005, 02:17:13 PM »
It's all about the killer app.

If Animal Crossing Online and/or Mario Kart Online hit before the PSP can get any form of killer app out there, then it's going to be game, set, match: Nintendo.

There is currently no true killer app available on the DS, but once it goes from being a simple handheld to being an online portal device, love for the machine will increase tenfold.

I've read some of the details for AC DS. It's like Nintendo robbed my bank of AC online ideas. I'm not saying I'm taking credit, but everything I could think of which would make AC online fun, they're already doing.

-SB  

7103
TalkBack / RE: Killer 7 Released
« on: July 06, 2005, 10:03:43 AM »
The main complaint I've heard about it thus far is that the gameplay is very repetitive and lacks imagination while the game itself tries too hard to be "art".

Don't let my findings stop you from trying it, though, but know that the reviews haven't been rave.

Also, did anyone else chuckle at the fact that the personality which uses stealth and "silence" is called "Kevin Smith"?

-SB

7104
TalkBack / RE: Killer 7 Released
« on: July 05, 2005, 05:21:59 PM »
Just looked around at some scores. Sounds like rental material at best. :\

-SB

7105
TalkBack / RE: Killer 7 Released
« on: July 05, 2005, 05:14:58 PM »
It's even funnier if you imagine satan himself, the great king of lies, making snow angels.

How did this do for reviews? I don't remember hearing good things...

-SB

7106
TalkBack / RE: Reggie Interviewed on Revolution
« on: July 01, 2005, 08:39:35 PM »
People, it's quite obvious to me from the name alone...

The REVOLUTION controller will clearly orbit the console, which will only play games which can be designed around the concept of frantically mashing buttons each time it passes your position. I mean, how thick can you people BE?

(for the sarcasm impaired, I AM kidding)

I think Nintendo was hiding the GC controller's design back in the day because of the analogue shoulder buttons with the digital click (I remember hearing that, but I cannot confirm it).

I hope it's not something which only some developers would take advantage of but most would simply ignore...

-SB


7107
TalkBack / RE: Nintendo DS Sales Spiked
« on: July 01, 2005, 06:31:14 PM »
1 mil on Mario?

Damn, I wonder if the NEW game will actually sell as well...

-SB

7108
TalkBack / RE: Nintendo DS Sells One Million in Europe
« on: June 29, 2005, 09:34:10 AM »
Pokemon, Mario and Luigi, Fire Emblem, FF 1&2...I'm sure there are plenty I'm forgetting as well.

As for the discussion, I played Meteos using the E3 demo which you can get off the web, so it's fully possible that anyone here could do the same thing, but I should also note that people here come from around the globe so I'm sure you have dozens of PGC forumers who have the game, either through import or otherwise.

In any case, the only point I'm trying to make is that the game is excellent. Get your hands on it whenever you can.

-SB

7109
TalkBack / RE: Nintendo DS Sells One Million in Europe
« on: June 28, 2005, 09:53:21 AM »
I meant the US release.

But my friend had an application which would wirelessly broadcast the E3 demos for the DS, one of which was Meteos, which is why I know how good it is already.

-SB

7110
TalkBack / RE: Nintendo DS Sells One Million in Europe
« on: June 28, 2005, 08:43:40 AM »
Yeah, it is good to see it doing well.

The sales have slumped off for the DS, but the same goes for the PSP. Frankly, there's just no reason to buy a DS for many until the truly killer apps hit home, as the GBA is still an excellent gaming machine for them, I'd wager.

When MK and AC come rolling out with their online program, I'd expect that to boost sales dramatically, as well as Hunters.

Until then, Meteos is the rock and walls, if you catch my meaning...

-SB

7111
TalkBack / RE: MTV Launches Game Division
« on: June 27, 2005, 12:11:20 PM »
Just what we don't need...

-SB

7112
TalkBack / RE: Bomberman Ships To Retail
« on: June 20, 2005, 05:29:48 PM »
I think Kirby is referred to as a "he" in the instruction manuals. Also, Kirby is named after a male developer and was a placeholder until they could design the real character but they wound up keeping him instead.

Though I'll be the first to admit that Kirby is about as androgynous as they come...

Also, unless Battlefield 2 has a mac client out there somewhere, it ain't gonna happen.

-SB  

7113
TalkBack / RE: Bomberman Ships To Retail
« on: June 18, 2005, 09:36:57 PM »
Does Mrs. Kirby know about your tawdry affair?

Wait, I have my spherical heroes mixed up: Kirby's the perpetual bachelor.

I'd very much like to see a review of this game. I've found that bomberman titles are often hit or miss...

-SB  

7114
TalkBack / RE: Editorial: Hotties for Rent
« on: April 11, 2005, 07:45:12 PM »
Sexually oriented marketing has had a rather a reverse effect on me, and I'm SURE that a lot of guys feel this way so I'm not just talking about me here.

You see, having it been made clear just how far companies will go to try and sell you a product, especially by targeting your desires as a male, well, it sickens and infuriates me. It's like boxing when you have a cut under your eye and your opponent keeps punching it: they try to take advantage of a weakness and it only results in angering you.

Continuing with the boxing metaphor, when a company presents its product WITHOUT trying to sell it with sex, that's a "clean fight". I assume, no, I'm FORCED to understand that they feel their product stands so well on its own that they don't need to resort to methods of sale other than simple trial. In other words, my opponent knows the cut is there, but he ain't gonna punch it because he knows he can win the fight without it. My opponent (aka the product being marketed) is just that good.

So, when I see women being thrust into my face when I'm considering making a purchase, it immediately lights up the red flag in my mind.

My advice: let it light your red flag too.

-SB

7115
TalkBack / RE: Sega Confirms Shadow The Hedgehog
« on: March 24, 2005, 08:33:04 AM »
Sounds more and more like "Grand Theft Hedgehog" the more I hear about it.

Though, I think the entire internet should just refer to this as "Shadow's Bad Fur Day"...

-SB

7116
TalkBack / RE: Silicon Knights Partners with SEGA
« on: March 23, 2005, 07:16:42 AM »
Remember the Penny Arcade comic about Sega's games directly equating snuff films? Yeah, I thought that was pretty damn accurate.

And up until this point, I thought Dyack was a reasonably sensible guy...

-SB

7117
TalkBack / RE: Iwata Keynote Tidbits
« on: March 10, 2005, 08:43:21 AM »
Curious to see this trailer...

-SB

7118
TalkBack / RE:Bonnie Ruberg EDITORIAL: Role-Models or Ubisoft Dolls?
« on: January 24, 2005, 08:29:01 AM »
Quote

This story seems strangley true, too plain to be consdered a stunt.


Honestly, I think it sounds more like a stunt than anything.

I've seen sites like this before: the idea is to build up a rhetoric so the male gamer will be looking over it thinking, "Boy, these must be such nice, sweet girls! I had better brush up on my skills at <insert game name here> so I can beat them and win their respect at the next trade show!" The end result is to get male gamers to buy more games.

It's attempting to tap into the part of the male mind which attempts to find anything it possibly can in common with the female mind in the hopes of romantic involvement. The sad part is, it usually works. Not too long ago Sprint had paid models carrying their phones go into bars across the country and sit there playing with their phones. The idea was that, by the time the guy hitting on them was done talking to them, he would be convinced that the Sprint phone would make him desirable in the eyes of attractive women (since these were presumably attractive women pushing these phones). Even if a man reads the site and is disgusted by it, odds are he'll say, "Damn, I need to get better at <insert game name here> to prove these girls are fakes." Trouble is, when the only battlefield you can meet them on is being sold by Ubi Soft, then the trap has worked.

There's no feminism going on here. To call it as such is to spit into the face of any progress which actually stems from the efforts of feminism.

If this was ACTUALLY about advancing the female gamer, these girls would have been selected on their gaming skill alone and would not have been chosen based upon their looks whatsoever. In fact, they could have been downright ugly, but that doesn't matter as their SKILLS would have been what carried them into reputable status.

I don't buy the notion of them being good gamers. Unless they all tied for first in the PAX Halo tournament or something, I'm not buying it. It'd be ridiculously easy to drown out people saying, "Yeah, I played the frag dolls and I kicked their asses at everything." with Ubi's own coverage of "some guy" who was supposedly on the floor saying, "Wow, those frag dolls sure do win at everything!"

-SB  

7119
TalkBack / RE: Bonnie Ruberg EDITORIAL: Role-Models or Ubisoft Dolls?
« on: January 21, 2005, 10:24:06 AM »
If their true goal is to eliminate stereotypes or to make female gamers more accepted, they need to make them appear just like the most talented male gamers out there who have spent years and years honing their craft: like vicious, virtual killing machines.

The path to paving the way for female gamer acceptance would be to make the populace aware of the fact that female gamers can look just like any other gamer, and that includes being immensely unattractive.

One of the best female gamers I knew was in my UnrealFortress clan. She was a 39 year old British lesbian who proudly announced that she "looked like a bloke". She was an arsonist and she did the class justice where many others had failed.

This is an advertisement to attract male gamers. Nothing more. Their attempt to dress it up as a step forward for female gamers can be viewed as anything from hypocritical to outright contempt for the gender. That may sound harsh, but I don't see how masquerading a ploy to attract male gamers as a movement in gamer feminism can be seen as anything but.

-SB

7120
TalkBack / RE: Bonnie Ruberg EDITORIAL: Role-Models or Ubisoft Dolls?
« on: January 21, 2005, 09:52:12 AM »
This was all I needed to see...

http://www.fragdolls.com/images/fd_hd_couch.gif

Absolutely goddamn ridiculous.

Any credibility the entire organization might have had in its crusade against eliminating female gamer stereotypes goes RIGHT out the window with that picture alone...

-SB

7121
TalkBack / RE: Namco Releases Two DS Games
« on: December 02, 2004, 08:27:10 AM »
Sadly, I'm looking in the direction of "We can make more money this way."

But maybe that's the natural pessimism which soaks in over time...  

7122
TalkBack / RE: Namco Releases Two DS Games
« on: December 01, 2004, 05:57:57 PM »
Yeah, but I hear Mr. Driller ISN'T single card...

Not sure what's up with that...

7123
TalkBack / RE: Experts Sound Off On DS vs. PSP
« on: August 18, 2004, 07:20:06 PM »
I hate to say it, but the one and only thing which matters in any console war is software. If there's one thing Sony has done, it's shown that sheer number of titles is what makes a system a best-seller, coupled with a few massive hits here and there.

The first time this happened (N64 vs. PSX) it was exactly this scenario: lots of software on Sony's side and Square's support for the PSX. This time around, the DS has Square's support (from what has been said thus far) and the DS certainly SEEMS to have a plethora of titles, most of which are original games, and certainly more so than the PSP currently has lined up.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to underestimate Sony, but I haven't seen nearly the software support for the PSP that the DS has been shown. If there's one thing I had to call it on, it'd be software. I think the whole double screen idea was a gamble, but judging by the fact that developers are leaping on the DS wagon like crazy, I think it's going to pay off...

-SB

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