Messages

3651

Nintendo Gaming / Playstation Portable vs. GameBoy Advance: The War is On

« on: May 13, 2003, 10:24:56 AM »

Good point...I bet it plays mini-discs.  Battery life isn't that much of an issue since it's rechargeable.  As long as it lasts 10 hours non-stop I think that's reasonable.

silks

3652

Nintendo Gaming / Playstation Portable vs. GameBoy Advance: The War is On

« on: May 13, 2003, 10:16:05 AM »

Wow.

That's all I can say.  Finally Sony has announced its GameBoy killer, the Playstation Portable.  Check CNN.com's E3 page for the full scoop.

Hmm, it'll use a proprietary disc format, feature 3-D graphics, use Sony Memory Stick data technology, feature a backlit screen and a rechargeable battery.  In other words, it has all the strengths of the GBA SP and then some - essentially a portable PSOne.

Looks like Sony is trying to bury Nintendo once and for all.  I wonder how the Big N will counter this one?  They have the massive installed userbase of the GBA, but assuming the PSP can play all Playstation games that gives it a library just as massive (and one would argue a lot more up-to-date) than the GBA's library.

The thought of playing Final Fantasy VII on the road does indeed intrigue me...

silks

3653

TalkBack / Nintendo: The Problems, The Plans and The Future

« on: May 13, 2003, 05:02:26 AM »

My two favorites parts of this article were:

1) The Rick Powers "deer in the headlights" picture
2) The Jonny Metts "professional photo shoot" picture, fresh from his new portfolio

Very professional, boys

silks

[Gamefreak:]

3654

General Gaming / Who's going to E3?

« on: May 13, 2003, 04:54:54 AM »

Gamefreak: I'm also lost in the Atlanta suburbs, and I wish they'd bring E3 back to Atlanta too.  I moved to Atlanta the year after they had it here...sigh.  So ironically, the first E3 I went to was all the way out in L.A. in '99.

Rick: You could try to kick my ass, but I run fast

silks

3655

TalkBack / Music Star

« on: May 10, 2003, 09:15:27 AM »

I do what I can to spread happiness my man ;-D

[mouse_clicker:]

3656

TalkBack / Infogrames becomes Atari

« on: May 10, 2003, 09:14:05 AM »

mouse_clicker: Couldn't agree more.

Deminisma: The Atari name has been pimped out so many times to so many companies that it doesn't mean anything anymore.  Its ties to the Atari 2600 are all but non-existent.  What I'm saying is that it's good to have a decent company backing the Atari name again.  You can boycott Atari/Infogrames if you want, but personally I'm going out and buy Ikaruga (I can't say I'm checking any of their other games though).

silks

3657

TalkBack / GameCube Price to Plummet at E3?

« on: May 08, 2003, 08:52:04 AM »

If the GC goes down to $99.99 it will definitely move consoles.  Holy crap, the Gamecube is worth owning just for Wind Waker and Metroid Prime alone.  Not to mention Mario Kart Double Dash, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, F-Zero GX, Mario Golf: ToadStool Tour, Starfox Armada, Viewtiful Joe, Resident Evil 4, Rogue Squadron III, Metroid Prime 2, Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes...at $99.99 that would be an absolute steal.

If the GBA SP hits $79.99 I'm trading in my normal GBA for one next week.

I LOVE the month of May.

silks

3658

TalkBack / Pay-to-Play Online Madden?

« on: May 08, 2003, 04:32:09 AM »

Online gaming is easier with PCs though, because every person playing the game has the potential to run a server b/c they already have the hardware.  Not everybody that has a console has a PC to run a server on, or the technical ability to know how to do so.  PC gamers as a whole are a much more tech-savvy crowd than console gamers (because they have to be).

So by its very nature, online gaming for consoles needs more hand-holding from the publishers.  Somebody has to dumb-down the process for people that don't have access to a server or don't know how to set one up.  This means they have to take on the burden of running the server.

silks

3659

TalkBack / Music Star

« on: May 07, 2003, 05:06:28 PM »

Eve is hot.

silks

3660

TalkBack / Infogrames becomes Atari

« on: May 07, 2003, 05:05:10 PM »

This is great news.  As an old-school gamer, it warms my heart to see the old Atari name return to prominence.  There's also something really cool about having the Atari logo on Ikaruga's box.

silks

3661

TalkBack / Sega and Sammy Call it Quits

« on: May 07, 2003, 05:02:21 PM »

If Nintendo bought Sega the company would become the Jedi Council of videogaming.  Miyamoto, Suzuki, Naka...it would be mind-blowing in terms of its potential for original content.

Sure, from a business standpoint Nintendo supposedly shouldn't buy Sega (the old "Nintendo is a healthy company, why would they buy Sega when Sega is struggling financially" argument), but think about it...Sega's development resources and game properties could fill a LOT of gaps in the Gamecube game library:

- a Gamecube-exclusive fighting game (Virtua Fighter)
- realistic racing game (Daytona USA or Sega Rally, or use these developers to make a Gran Turismo-type game)
- RPGs (Phantasy Star Online, Skies of Arcadia)
- Gamecube-exclusive sports games (that would blow away Sony's second-party sports games from 989)

Nintendo has plenty of money in the bank so it could afford to absorb Sega's losses.  Not that absorbing these losses would be ideal, but they'd get a lot of amazing franchises in return.

On top of that, you already have Yuji Naka openly declaring his love for the Gamecube console.  And you know that Naka and Miyamoto would love to work on a project together and hold an immense mutual respect, not to mention the fact that the two companies seem to have very similar philosophies.

Heck, if you would have told me five years ago that Square and Enix would eventually merge I would have said you were nuts, but they did.  What's so crazy about Nintendo and Sega merging?  I'm beginning to think it's going to happen, since it's pretty clear what Sega's asking price is.  And Nintendo would also like to stick it to Microsoft and rob it of its crown jewel of acquisitions.

These are very interesting times, my friends.

silks

3662

TalkBack / Pay-to-Play Online Madden?

« on: May 07, 2003, 04:42:44 PM »

Pay-to-play makes sense as far as I'm concerned, but I don't think the masses will be willing to shell out $5-$10 a month to do it.  I think it would be more reasonable if they did this:

- make an online game cheaper to draw people in, like maybe $39.99 instead of $49.99
- have online play for that game cost about as much as a yearly magazine subscription, like $19.99 or $24.99

To me this is totally reasonable for discretionary spending like this.  $10 a month isn't much, but when you stretch it out to $120 a year that's pretty costly for most people.

silks

3663

Nintendo Gaming / Has anyone seen the new Game Informer?

« on: April 22, 2003, 06:16:08 AM »

Unless Billy's going to be editor-in-chief, the magazine isn't going to change.

Whether or not Billy "likes" the magazine isn't really that much of an issue...it's a job, and his big break in the industry.

silks

3664

Nintendo Gaming / Will the big N merge (OR BUY)?

« on: April 21, 2003, 05:42:21 AM »

What many are forgetting here is that in Japan, companies merge so they can compete with Nintendo.  Nintendo is the 900-pound gorilla of Japanese software development, regardless of where they are in the console race.  Did anybody see that they beat out Konami last year for most software sold in Japan?  Yup, Konami sold the most the year before, but Nintendo outsold everybody last year.

They don't need to merge with anybody, because in terms of software sales (Gamecube and GBA combined, mind you) the rest of the world is trying to catch up to them.   If they merged with anybody at this point they'd be doing that company a favor, because Nintendo is perfectly healthy and companies like Sega and Namco are struggling.  Sega has posted losses for their last five fiscal years.  Yikes!

silks

3665

Nintendo Gaming / NINTENDO FANBOYS

« on: April 20, 2003, 11:33:25 AM »

I think one of the reasons why Nintendo fanboys seem to be more open to other systems is that many of them have been fans since way back.  They've seen systems come and go and know that good games come out all over the place, not just on Nintendo platforms.

I'm not a fanboy at all - I just love the video game industry.  But I do favor Nintendo systems over others...I'll always buy a Nintendo system the day it comes out, but Sony or Microsoft will have to give me a darn good reason to pick up their console or I'll ignore it for the most part.

silks

[manunited4eva22]

3666

Nintendo Gaming / Shells, baby, shells

« on: April 20, 2003, 11:15:47 AM »

Quote
Originally posted by: manunited4eva22
How exactly would you switch shells? Would there be a base cover alread on, and thenyou just cover it over with a new shell? Also how would you keep the shell in place? Remember Nintendo does not like too many moving parts, so I doubt we would use screws. Any ideas?

I'd say sell it with a black shell by default.  Black is a "safe", generic color.  True, Nintendo would want as few moving parts as possible (saves money and tech support) so screws would be out.  Just design the console so you could have a top half and a bottom half that snapped together.  Then people could get any color they want, or ever personalize it by painting it or something.

silks

3667

TalkBack / Must See Miyamoto TV

« on: April 18, 2003, 11:31:42 AM »

I watched the show...it was OK.  It honestly didn't say anything I didn't know already.  For those that enjoyed it, I'd suggest reading "Game Over: Press Start to Continue" by David Sheff.  It's an amazing book that provides a very detailed chronicle of the history of video games up to about 1996.  It includes everything that was in this show and a whole lot more.

The story of how Nintendo got Tetris is worth the price of the book alone.

silks

3668

Nintendo Gaming / new dev house for nintendo

« on: April 18, 2003, 11:21:50 AM »

Grey Ninja - Brownie Brown is of course developing a new Secret of Mana game for GBA, but I sure do hope they release a GameCube RPG along with it.

silks

3669

TalkBack / Billy Berghammer Retires From Planet GameCube.com

« on: April 18, 2003, 06:03:49 AM »

Hey Billy, good score man.  Great to see some of the PGC peeps moving up in the world.  It was great hanging with you, Jonny and Max at E3 2001.  I can't wait to see your first print interview with Miyamoto...go get'em boy!

silks

3670

TalkBack / Nintendo Announces Game Development in Tokyo

« on: April 17, 2003, 11:59:47 AM »

Nintendo basically needs to fill some genre gaps, namely RPGs, racing games and some edgier content for the adults.  Once they have that they're golden.  Hopefully this development house addresses some of these needs.

silks

3671

Nintendo Gaming / Timesplitters 2...

« on: April 17, 2003, 11:45:19 AM »

TimeSplitters2 single-player is there as an excuse to make you work for the unlockable stuff (levels, characters, etc).  Seriously, that's the only reason you play it.

Multiplayer is the ultimate bomb though.  I think its multiplayer is better than Halo because of its incredibly fast pace...it reminds me more of Quake III Arena in the sense that things just get hairy sometimes.  My only complaint is that the frame rate gets chunky when you have lots of bots (e.g. 8 bots and 2 humans).

I love it though.  One of the best FPSes I've played on any system.

silks

3672

Nintendo Gaming / The Rumour Corner

« on: April 17, 2003, 11:33:54 AM »

You gotta think that Earthbound 64 wasn't scrapped.  I guarantee it'll get the same treatment as Eternal Darkness - in development for a while on N64, then shifted to GameCube mid-stream to be released later down the line.

I still gotta play Earthbound on my SNES.  I bought it for a pittance at Wal-Mart years ago (seriously, they were clearing all the SNES stuff out and I got the cartridge+strategy guide pak for less than $20) and haven't had a chance to play it.  Now it's sitting at my parents' house 800 miles away, and I'm jonesing for it along with my Super NES and all my other games.

silks

3673

Nintendo Gaming / Ugh... Metroid Prime Errors

« on: April 17, 2003, 11:05:13 AM »

My NTSC version froze up twice at the beginning (at the very first elevator, when it runs the FMV to show you coming up out of the elevator shaft).  It never froze after that.

I figure it's a bug that happens when it loads off the disc.

silks

3674

Nintendo Gaming / I just rented Eternal Darkness

« on: April 17, 2003, 10:30:27 AM »

That was my only beef with ED - projectile weapons were useless.  In the later levels I found myself using guns as little as possible and then switching over to blade weapons as soon as I found them.  The blade weapons were much more fun and efficient.

I didn't think the healing spells made the game easy, it made the game not frustrating.  There's a difference.  It still took me 20 hours to beat first time through.

silks

3675

TalkBack / Ikaruga Ships for GameCube

« on: April 16, 2003, 02:38:57 PM »

I'll definitely get Ikaruga, it's just a matter of time.  Man, I haven't played a good top-down shooter since Blazing Lazers on the TG-16.

silks