Messages

26

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Pandora's Tower - Video Trailer

« on: March 30, 2012, 04:26:47 PM »

I'm pretty interested in this game. I feel like this is what a 3D Castlevania game should be like. It almost seems to be kind of like Metroid: Other M, but with more of a shadow of the colossus type vibe. The only thing that worries me is if the fighting is too much hack and slash. As long as they keep the enemy encounters down that shouldn't be a problem. The bosses that I've seen look pretty good.

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General Chat / Re: O Canada... (Seriously, Canadians, come in here...)

« on: March 20, 2012, 12:58:35 AM »

I've heard of this scam before. The buyer commits credit card fraud then has it mailed to your house because it is a legit address. He then asks you to remail it to him in a different country.

The credit card comes up stolen but it's too late, he's got the item smuggled to him by you, the Canadian patsy.

I know that it's a scam but I'm to polite to say no!

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TalkBack / Re: Colors! 3D Impressions

« on: March 18, 2012, 01:34:55 PM »

Am I the only one who thought the colors vs colours comment was a joke?  Someone needs to get their sarcasm detector back in line... hopefully it's not me since I just had it checked recently. 
 

lol bingo. "Pull that stick out and get educated" got to love the internet.

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TalkBack / Re: Colors! 3D Impressions

« on: March 15, 2012, 11:29:19 PM »

I wouldn't pay for a game that can't even spell colour properly.

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General Chat / Re: Hockey Discussion

« on: April 02, 2011, 03:39:27 PM »

The thing is, no team in NHL history has been as dominant as the Canucks have this year.

In addition to clinching the President's Trophy, the Canucks currently lead the league in goals scored, fewest goals against, powerplay percentage and penalty killing percentage. The closest any team has come to doing that since these stats started being kept was the late 70s Canadiens (who won 60 and 58 games in the seasons where they were close).

I know all of these things and they are very compelling on paper, but the playoffs are always another story. My two main concerns with vancouver are their goal tending and their grit. First, I personally think that Luongo is the most talented goalie in the league. Watching the way he moves and the angles he takes he is the best, yet it seems like he lets in soft goals in big games and goaltending is mostly mental. Second, vancouver doesn't have any real tough guys. Burrows and Lapiere are not real tough guys. The Canucks like to play a fast game in both skating and puck movement, and they do it better than anyone else, but you can't win a seven game series without getting your hands dirty. Again I would prefer the canucks to win it, but I have my doubts.

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General Chat / Re: Hockey Discussion

« on: April 02, 2011, 03:24:05 PM »

The flyers are just coasting to the playoffs. They will be fine once playoff hockey starts because they are a character team and know how to turn it up when it matters. The concerns about the san jose and vancouver doing the same are more well founded. The last few years I have pulled for the canucks because I want to see a canadian team win and I will probably pull for them this year as well. It bothers me, however, that even though they have now clinched the presidents trophy I still don't have very much confidence in their ability to pull off a stanley cup. Right now what I want to see happen is the canadiens lose the rest of their games and the leafs win the rest of their games so that the last game of the season between the two is for a playoff spot. It won't happen but I can dream.

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Podcast Discussion / Re: RFN Live Panel @ PAX East 2011

« on: March 17, 2011, 01:52:07 AM »

MH3 is the only 3rd party game I can think of off hand that doesn't feel like a bastardization of game that is available on the HD consoles. For FPS's the problem is nintendo's fault. Their online infrastructure doesn't allow for the full fledged FPS experience found on other consoles. It doesn't help that shooters seem to make up most of the AAA titles on other systems either. So I understand that if you want to make a shooter (which it seems many developers do) then the HD consoles are the only place where you can create a full experience and it also makes sense that these games don't sell well on wii as gimped shooter experiences. What I don't understand is why almost all third party wii games look WORSE than game cube games. Anyone here could have told you that most of these "good 3rd party games" were going to be sales flops. I'm not saying that they are necessarily bad games, but if you say to me fragile dreams is a good game and it didn't sell, I'm going to ask you seriously if you didn't see that coming. That game has no mass market appeal and I am the only person that I know personally who even knows the game exists. If a third party developer wants to be serious and make money on the wii they need to either release a mainline game from one of their existing AAA franchises, or decide to create a dedicated wii franchise with real gameplay and promote it like they would any of their other titles. I can't think of the last time any 3rd party did this on wii, with the exception of MH3 and I think that was fairly successful for what was a fundamentally niche game to begin with. It seems to me that developers are the only ones shocked to see their games fail.

Consider also that Nintendo themselves have second tier franchises that are amazing games that will never sell. I love Pikmin and Wario Land to death but they will never be successful like Mario and Zelda no matter what nintendo does with them. I think the best example of this is the metroid franchise. Metroid is a fantastic, but niche game. With a push from nintendo the Metroid revival boosted the popularity of metroid and fans think of it as one of nintendo's big three, but it won't ever sell as much as mario or zelda. I don't think that anyone, including nintendo was shocked at the sales figures of Wario Land shake it. Why should third parties expect their games to do any better when their games aren't made with the same amount of effort or skill as a second or third tier nintendo developed game?

Edit: I have a feeling that this post is a mess. I'm falling asleep and losing my train of thought so I'm wrapping it up there for now at least.

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TalkBack / Re: New Gameplay Footage Compilation from NYC Preview Event

« on: January 20, 2011, 12:20:15 AM »

GO PACK GO!

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

« on: January 10, 2011, 06:59:43 PM »

If it works like the visors in Prime 3 then you won't have to worry about accidentally switching with the pointer. When you're holding down a specific button, the screen is divided into quadrants that represent each item you want to select and wherever your pointer is when you let go of the button, that item is selected. I think that would work quite fluidly. The "item screen" would be transparent and superimposed over the game which wouldn't pause in the meantime. That way you actually have to take time to switch items, but it wouldn't be too difficult or clumsy.

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General Chat / Re: Hockey Discussion

« on: January 06, 2011, 11:40:51 PM »

Yes I did mean blackhawks I don't know how I got that screwed up. I was pretty disappointed that we didn't win gold only because they showed that they had what it took to win and then gave it up. Otherwise I think along the same lines as you, we win so often that history is stacked in our favour no matter what. Also when you could make almost an entire team of junior eligible players who don't play because they are in the NHL I'm not too broken up about it.

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General Chat / Re: Hockey Discussion

« on: January 04, 2011, 06:27:27 PM »

Haha I typically pull for the canucks in the playoffs because I'm a leafs fan and they won't be there so I'd just like to see a Canadian team (not including the sens) take the cup. I think that as long as the Canucks keep coming up against the Flyers they will keep getting knocked out. The Flyers play fast physical hockey and I think the Canucks are just too fragile to survive a long series against them. If the Canucks are going to make a serious playoff run then they need Luongo to be at the top of his game every game, which he has yet to do.

Edit: I can't believe I forgot to mention the Canada vs USA world junior game. Going for the gold baby.

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General Chat / Re: Hockey Discussion

« on: January 04, 2011, 05:46:22 PM »

It's okay, they're still going to blow it in the playoffs.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Donkey Kong Country Wii

« on: December 27, 2010, 09:54:31 PM »

I just got this game for christmas and I am loving every minute of it. I'm playing through it with my brother and when my brother isn't around I play time trials. My brother and I just got to the cave level and I'm pumped for some kart action. So far we have all the kong letters and puzzle pieces in all the levels we've beat and I managed to gold medal the time trials for all the levels in the first world. Some speed runs are harder than others, you really need to use the roll jump technique to full effect. I enjoy them because it really shows how much care was put into the level design, enemies and obstacles are placed exactly far enough apart to keep roll jump chains going brilliant stuff. After retrying the same time trial for about an hour finally getting it is extremely satisfying. Really love this game.

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General Chat / Re: Everything is in 3D!

« on: December 16, 2010, 10:43:45 AM »

I really despise 3D. It seems to me that there are two types of 3D showing up in movies now. The first type are those that are filmed with insanely expensive 3D cameras, where the 3D effect is much more authentic. The second is the type where 3D is added retroactively and it looks like a cheap gimmick. If you've seen the new jackass 3D then you can clearly tell which parts were shot with the expensive 3D equipment and which parts weren't. At first I thought that 3D would drive up the price of movie development similar to the way that HD drove up the development of video games, but since the majority of 3D movies seem to be content to tack it on after the fact I'm not sure it's the same.

I don't like 3D for all the same tired reasons that other people don't. I don't want to wear glasses, I don't want to pay extra at the movies, I don't want to replace the HD TV that I JUST got for my new place with a 3D one. On top of all that I don't think the effect (even when it's done properly) is all that impressive and certainly not worth the trouble. My problem is that the things on the screen that pop out of the screen are still flat objects. If a character is displayed in 3D then it looks like a card board cut out is moving around instead of a truly 3d image.

This all being said I'm pretty pumped about the 3DS. The 3DS really solves most of my problems with 3D. No glasses probably being the biggest deal breaker, but also that it doesn't matter if sprites appear flat in 3D.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Epic Mickey - Wii Exclusive

« on: December 11, 2010, 06:49:09 PM »

This game feels like Banjo Kazooie or DK64. Somebody on the Player One Podcast said that this game would have been great if it had come out in the early 2000's and I'm inclined to believe that as well. It's a real shame too because so far the production value has been great and there have been several gameplay ideas introduced that seem like they could really be the root of some interesting puzzles but then they don't go anywhere. Instead of having to figure anything out you typically just shoot 6 things with paint or shoot 6 other things with thinner as you platform through a corridor or search an area to open the next door. I also think that the whole paint vs thinner dichotomy is silly, apparently I'm also playing fable or something. I hope the environmental puzzles get better, I'm not too far in the game, but what I've seen so far doesn't make me very optimistic.

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General Chat / Re: Hockey Discussion

« on: December 10, 2010, 11:51:52 AM »

I'm from Toronto so I'm a leafs fan... so yeah, I'll just show myself out. Seriously though, I don't think that the leafs have been playing terribly in the last 3 games which is nice to see. Tough loss against Philly, there were some pretty soft goals given up, but other than that I thought it was reasonably close. I still think the flyers were the better team and deserved to win, but at this point I just like to see them give it an honest effort.

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General Chat / Re: Your #1 meal at Fast Food Restaurants

« on: November 09, 2010, 01:26:54 AM »

When I go out I'm all about value. You have to know how to get the most for your money at these places.

McDickerson's - McDouble meal with a jr.chicken on the side. This costs about 7 bucks (which is less than a big mac meal) and then you take the jr.chicken and put that bad boy in between the patties in the mcdouble. I like to call it the McGangBang and that's what winning looks like.

A&W - had to eat here all the time in university because it was on campus and it took debit... $4 for two mamma burgers was a pretty good deal.

Subway - another university favourite. You can't go wrong with a $5 footlong meatball sub.

Quiznos- When they had the $5 footlong beef and cheddar I was all over that. Since they took it off the $5 menu I have switched to the ham and swiss or meatball sub.

Pizza Pizza - This is clutch because it's open late and it's good to have an option other than Dickerson's. Usually me and my friend will get plenty for $20. That's 10 wings, 3 topping large pizza 2 dipping sauces and 4 cokes. A little more expensive than usual, but you get a lot more and I'm guaranteed to be full.

I've got a couple other places, but they're local joints so unless you live in toronto they're no good for this thread. I'm always looking for places with good deals on food, I love food.

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Movies & TV / Re: Rate the last TV show you've seen

« on: November 06, 2010, 01:33:31 AM »

I just finished watching the first season of Community. It started off a little slow. I was enjoying it, but I didn't find that I was laughing very often. By the fourth episode though, things really started clicking and it just kept getting better every episode after that. The cast chemistry is really great. I feel like it is difficult for a cast of seven main characters to be fair to each one, but I really felt like there was no weak link in the line up. At some point in the series every character had moments that I enjoyed or found funny. Highlights for me were the chicken finger mafia episode, the paint ball episode and Allison Brie's cleavage in the debate episode. I look forward to season two.     4/5

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Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 216: Made from Real Explosions

« on: October 27, 2010, 03:13:11 AM »

I for one appreciate it when the crew talks about games on other platforms. Although I sometimes feel that this can take up a little more time than I like, I generally find it helpful. I find that even when I am playing another platform, I am a nintendo gamer. I get a similar feeling from the crew of RFN (with the possible exception of Jon). I find the games they enjoy are games that a fan of nintendo games would enjoy. I find that my gaming tastes fall somewhere between Jonny and Greg, so I have a general idea about whether the games they are talking about would appeal to me. I only own a wii, but I get the chance to play other platform games every once and a while, and I may eventually pick up another platform. Thanks to RFN I have a shortlist of games that I feel a nintendo fan like myself will enjoy, and I don't waste whatever time I have with an aimless guessing game.

And if nothing else, being rude only discredits your criticism. The Retronaughts tribute made me think about a day when RFN is finished, and that will be a real shame as I have enjoyed it for a long time. I wouldn't have the podcast be any other way, and I hope it continues for a long time into the future. Keep up the stellar work guys, it is much appreciated.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Donkey Kong Country Wii

« on: September 30, 2010, 04:25:58 PM »

This is the first DK game without Enguarde the sword fish. It's too bad, he was one of my favourites. Also the spider, but he didn't come in until later. I think squawks is a lock to be in there, I hope the frog makes the cut too. I doubt the elephant will make it in... maybe the ostrich?

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Metroid Other M

« on: September 20, 2010, 05:52:58 PM »

So far every metroid game that I"ve played with the exception of the original, and excluding 2 because I have never played it, has been a solid well crafted experience. Even fusion, which I would consider the weakest of those was a great game which only really had some nit-picks here and there. Other M feels like it was made by polling a room of 13 year olds. The game play is fragmented and the pacing suffers for it. Thankfully the largest fragment of gameplay is also the best, but even that is flashy and shallow. I wouldn't give this game a failing grade either, there is definitely fun to be had with it and when I'm not in first person I generally enjoy myself. The game just isn't satisfying on the same level as every other metroid game, and I expect better than "decent" from this franchise. I guess I'm not that phased by it though because after corruption I had resigned myself to believing we wouldn't get another metroid until the next console. This game is like a bonus for me, an interesting aside that I didn't expect.

*I also don't consider hunters a metroid game...

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Metroid Other M

« on: September 20, 2010, 01:55:08 AM »

I guess I was just at a point in the game where it had happened 3 times in an hour, and as I said 2 of those time took me ten minutes to find something that I had been looking at the whole time. In my opinion those sections shouldn't be in the game at all. The game feels an awful lot like the very limited amount of ninja gaiden that I've played and I'm not crazy about that. It just feels like it's all flash.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Metroid Other M

« on: September 20, 2010, 12:50:32 AM »

I just picked this game up and I've played up until sector 2... There are some serious flaws in this game. They are impressively bad. I can suffer through the agonizingly bad cut scenes, but when I get trapped in first person view and have to find something that the game gives me nearly no indication at all as to what it might be I get seriously frustrated. At least two times I've been stuck at one of these parts for 5-10 minutes. Even if you see something that looks suspicious the icon doesn't always come up unless you are in just the right spot. At the end of the biosphere there are several of these forced first person parts interspersed among the almost as annoying over the shoulder parts. I thought I was looking for something during the over the shoulder parts, but no, you just have to walk down a long hallway really slowly. Why couldn't it have put me in over the shoulder view once it got me into the room where it actually wanted me to see something? Far and away the best thing about the game is the combat,  but it has more or less come down to dodge, shoot, jump on head, shoot, melee attack, rinse repeat. If you want you could cut most of that out and just dodge and shoot over and over, but if you're not going for style points it would be boring. I'm not having a terrible time with this game, I actually look forward to playing it, but there are glaring flaws in the design of this game.

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General Chat / Re: Your Mortality

« on: September 11, 2010, 01:29:15 AM »

One thing is for certain, we're all going to be dead for a much longer time than we will ever spend alive, so I  believe it is a question worth some consideration. I have always thought that The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis is an amazing book for how succinctly he is able to forge the metaphor of the end of the world and the afterlife. The Great Divorce is similarly themed, also by Lewis and is an interesting read. I wouldn't necessarily put all my stock in some of his theological conceits, but I think most of his work is well thought out.

I take some resignation to the idea that faith is "just a lie people tell themselves to stave off thinking about death." I am a Christian (though that can mean a great many things to different people and isn't the topic of the thread) and I have given death, life, and purpose a great deal of consideration. I could just as easily say that claiming an afterlife doesn't exist is a narcissist psychological mechanism for inflating the importance of your present experience. In the end, however, I think that it is all important, it all deserves some care and thought. I don't think there is any merit in avoiding the question, you just have to be open minded, yet critical when it comes to the answers. I am secure in my faith and my faith grants me security in the face of my own mortality. If anyone wants to PM me I can share why I feel this way or even send you some books that I've found to be helpful but I think I'm going to leave this thread here.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: NWR Monster Hunter Club

« on: August 30, 2010, 12:04:12 AM »

I'm going back on for an hour or two. Only HR 21...