Messages

1

Nintendo Gaming / RE:Nintendo's Online Strategy

« on: February 15, 2007, 04:07:55 AM »

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Your logic here is flawed. You imply that without friend codes, it wouldn't be easy to play online with friends, and that's just not true. With Xbox Live and even PS3, it's actually a lot easier to connect with your friends, because you don't have to worry about entering in each other's friend codes. And you can connect with people around the world just as easily through the provided system. Whereas with Nintendo's friend code system, if you want to connect with people you don't know, you have to deal with the hassle of outside means provided by various websites. Add to this the fact that it still hasn't been confirmed that you won't have to enter friend codes on a per-game basis, and that could possibly mean needing several codes per person for every game you want to play with them. I fail to see how that's easier in any sense. The friend code system isn't streamlining the process, it's just making it harder to connect with the world at large.

At the end of the day, Nintendo's going to have to choose between having a "comfortable" service, or one that would actually be supported.

Wait a second. I haven't played online DS much, but from what I remember hooking up with strangers in MKS involved hitting a single button in the game. Hooking up with friends involved entering their codes. The implementation was flawed in that you couldn't add players who you had raced online with, but it wasn't so bad as not allowing you to play ANYONE until you entered their friend code. Random matching was easy. Connecting with friends required some extra work.

With the Wii, I'm really hoping that the system address book is used too. The DS was designed to be carried around with you. Friend codes could be exchanged by meeting someone in person. The Wii doesn't work that way, and so I'm hoping Nintendo realizes that something needs to change. I'm hoping, but I'm not overly optimistic about it. If it does go the DS way, odds are I won't play online with friends very often. That's all there really is to it. I may play in some random matches. Random matching is fairly fun anyway, but I probably won't deal with the friends thing at all.

[Artimus]

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General Gaming / RE:Behold! Maturity!

« on: February 14, 2007, 07:09:39 AM »

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Originally posted by: Artimus

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Originally posted by: Ceric

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Originally posted by: Ian Sane
"Notice that even though those girls were lounging 'naked' in a tub that there Privates as dictated by Federal Law are covered. It's one thing to make a few parents mad it's a whole other to make the Federal Government mad. If they were uncovered it be considered pornography and all applicable rules may apply."

I don't think that's how it works.  I've seen HBO shows with full frontal nudity from both sexes and I don't think that was legally classified as pornography.  I don't know exactly what IS defined as pornography (probably something to do with touching) but there are R-rated film with privates being public.

Thats why I said may apply, at the very least it probably get AO which is like X.  It's sort of different for the medium.  In person that would be  indecent.  In a movie it's just an R rating unless its a focus.  Games I don't know because of the interact elements. (Even though in this case there is none.)  I wonder what the ESRB said in response to that scene.  Also since you pay for HBO there is a different set of rules. Ironically enough.

It is interactive. That's why you're pressing buttons?

I think that HBO has some sort of rule about not being able to show (male) arousal or actual petetration. Same rules as apply for movies. There's a line between R and X there that's pretty strictly defined. Regardless, I don't really get why people are complaining about this. If you don't like it, don't buy it. It's that simple. We can argue all day about whether its demeaning to women or not, but Sony has every right to publish it if they want (I assume the publisher is where the final buck falls in these decisions?)

3

Nintendo Gaming / RE: Wii takes 6 of 10 on Famitsu's post-E3 Poll

« on: May 25, 2006, 11:37:36 AM »

I think the game looks really really good. And it seems to play just like WW. I really don't get the complaint.

[Strell]

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:Is Galaxy the "real" new Mario?

« on: May 25, 2006, 11:25:35 AM »

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Originally posted by: Strell
Man.  Did people play a different Mario Sunshine than me?  Cuz it was pretty brilliant.

I keep thinking the same people that say things like that are the same ones saying Wind Waker was the worst Zelda.

I loved SMS too. In fact, I went back right after it and played SM64, and the game is completely unplayable next to Sunshine. It was a huge jump. Not to mention the coolness that the special levels were.

If anything, Galaxy is what will sell me a Wii. I could care less if its revolutionary or not.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:Wii's hardware

« on: May 18, 2006, 12:37:51 PM »

Did anyone else notice this in the PGC interview:

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PGC: We saw at the press conference that when everyone was playing tennis, they had Mr. Iwata's face and everyone else's face put on the characters. Are there any thoughts of putting in a system were players can draw their own faces?

TT: Yeah, that's going to be a part of [Wii Sports] and it's going to have hardware functionality, that you will be able to use some set images and match them up together to create faces. You can also do some editing of your own to create stuff that's closer to yourself and your friends. These will remain in the hardware system so that you can use them throughout the Wii Sports titles and maybe with other software titles, too. We'll just see how that works….so we'll have a character-creating piece of software, I guess.

Does this imply that the character creation software is build in, like PictoChat?

[Ian Sane]

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General Gaming / RE:Factor 5's "Lair". Holy crap.

« on: May 17, 2006, 01:07:28 PM »

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Originally posted by: Ian Sane
"Don't you use this excuse with Silicon Knights and Rare, too?"

Yes, because I think it applies there too.  No one ever said anything bad about these companies until they left Nintendo and then immediately afterwards all these negatives that no one seemed to notice before came up.  All three companies were praised when they were with Nintendo and all three started getting bashed right after they left.  It seems rather coincidental for that exact scenario to happen three times.

Including reviewers. SK was getting ripped up before they left Nintendo, although ED was well received. MGS:TTS wasn't loved though. And Rare's game quality slipped starting with Star Fox. I really think you can make a fine case for Rare just not being what they used to be anymore. I don't think its that Nintendo left them. It's that everyone great they had on staff left. Same here I think. F5 got horrible reviews on Rogue Squadron III. People stopped loving them even before they joined Sony.

Wasn't this E3 footage the same stuff they showed at CES? I don't get why people are excited about it all the sudden.

[ruby_onix]

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:Wii's hardware

« on: May 16, 2006, 09:35:40 AM »

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Originally posted by: ruby_onix
I think they said during the "Wii24" on line thing that the Wii will be one of those systems that's powered up all the time, just in sleep mode, like the PS2, and that will contribute to shorter startup times (like the PS2, LOL).

What? I don't think the PS2 is always on. It just has a little lite on the front to show its "off". If I'm wrong, tell me, cause' I'm sick of having to load games up every time I start it.

I'm imagining the Wii's "Always On" feature will be more like the PSP or DS's. If you're in the middle of a game and have to run out for a while, you can just put the thing into sleep mode. Minimizes all the power needed, but can bring itself back to life nearly instantaneously when you get back. I'd love a feature like that.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE: Email Nintendo and tell them you HATE the name!

« on: April 27, 2006, 01:33:54 PM »

"There are far more than 10 people in the US who won't buy something with a lousy name, like easily 200 million who won't."
You're kidding right? There haven't been 200 million consoles sold this entire generation. There are less than 300 million people in the US. I would think you're exagerating, but you wrote that whole "easily" part in there.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:Email Nintendo and tell them you HATE the name!

« on: April 27, 2006, 01:07:37 PM »

"I have never seen the internet blow up like it did today. What a terrible terrible name."

Lol. You haven't been around long, eh? Just wait a week and a half for E3, and the internets will blow up again. It happens all the time, but especially around the time consoles are introduced. Everyone fights and bitches and moans, and in the end, life goes on.

Unless Nintendo is extremely successful, most people won't have the slightest idea in the world what a Nintendo Wii is. If they are successful, everyone will, and it will make for great jokes and great tag lines. The success of the console won't depend even slightly on the 10 people out there who won't buy it because of the name though.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:EGM super-psyched about Rev! "It will be a winner"

« on: April 26, 2006, 01:42:44 PM »

I think it has more to do with the world knowing almost nothing about the Rev, and pretty much everything about the PS3. It's a more interesting story IMO.

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TalkBack / RE: Revolution May Have Twenty Launch Titles

« on: April 10, 2006, 06:28:14 AM »

I'm betting at least 3 of Nintendo's games are non-games, designed for non-gamers. That cooking game for instance, or maybe an upgraded version of Nintendogs.

OSX has a ton of great features that Vista is nowhere near seeing either. Microsoft may rip them off, but they've got such a mucked up dev platform that nothing they do will ever be near the quality of a Mac. PCs outsellig Macs has nothing to do with features. It's entirely based on price.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:My Revolution Conspiracy Theory

« on: April 10, 2006, 06:17:27 AM »

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I think Nintendo just isn't revealing the specs because they cut corners on it big time and don't want to officially reveal it.  All this de-emphasis on technology is likely due to one thing: Nintendo are cheapskates and have no problem with shooting themselves in the foot in the long term if it means they still make a profit in the short term.  They don't want to spend the money on extra hardware so they're not going to.  Using a new controller and focusing on innovation is a good way for them to keep costs down while still having some way to attract attention from the more powerful consoles.

Developing a completely off the wall controller that uses untried technology is not cheap. Writing API's for dev's to use to interface with that new controller isn't cheap. Give 'em SOME credit.

[Smash_Brother]

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:Red Steel Topic, new details added!

« on: April 10, 2006, 06:09:10 AM »

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Originally posted by: Smash_Brother
We've kinda touched upon what you said, but more along the lines of being impressed that Ubi, a company which normally sticks right with whatever is selling, appears to be striking out and doing something new and different with the Rev controller.

It gives credence to Nintendo's theory that developers want to try new things, because Ubi apparently leapt on the opportunity.

UBI's actually been pretty good about strikiing out in new directions. They created Splinter Cell, PoP, and BG&E this gen alone. They've (supposedly) dumped some thatweren't selling well, but they seem willing to take risks a lot of the time, just to try things. They're one of the better publishers out there in my opinion. To tell the truth though, a lot of dev's have stepped out this gen and done interesting things. Capcom (Killer 7) and Sega (Monkey Ball) come to mind real quick for me.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:Will the gamecube 2/revolution succeed?

« on: April 07, 2006, 05:39:07 AM »

I know I sorta buy into Nintendo hype, but I think the Rev has potential to totally take over the market next gen. Not by winning over those kids who called the GC tiku tiku tiku! , but just by expanding the market. I can easily see people in their mid 20's, early 30's picking it up simply for the nostalgia factor of old games. X360 and the PS3 are trying to sell themselves on this same point right now, but the general consumer seems oblivious to it. I've heard people excited about the VC who know very little about gaming though.

Secondly, I think they'll release a lot of crazy, interesting, and fun games for the system. I think probably it will have to start with Nintendo and a few select 3rd parties releasing some killer apps that make really good use of the controller. Nintendo's usually come through on doing that. If its killer enough, one great game can propel a system to the top. One great app that appeals to older gamers and a second one for younger ones, and I think they have the potential to dominate in just a few years. GC, while I absolutely love mine, didn't seem to provide that to the casual user base.

So that's what I'd say went "wrong" with the Cube. There was never a game that the public latched on to like they have with GoldenEye, Halo, or ever Super Mario Bros. back in the day.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:IGN Leaks Some Rev Specs Again! 3/29/06

« on: April 05, 2006, 08:13:43 AM »

Sorry if I came off sounding... upset in that earlier post, but I think its a bit ludicrous to take these IGN specs and say, "Look at the GC and XBox. The GC was supposedly weaker, and yet their graphics were about the same." The GC and the XBox were speced about the same CPUwise. The XBox had more RAM and a HardDrive. The Cube had much faster RAM from what I remember. In the end, they were about equal. Any comments about which was more powerful were pure Microsoft PR.

These Rev specs and the 360 are nowhere close to each other though.  If you think that its gonna play 360 games in low resolution, you're deluding yourself.

And that's why I don't think they're real specs. They're some dev unit specs that someone stupid leaked. Maybe someone not even in development, but just some guy they threw an old dev kit to when a new one was released by Nintendo. I doubt we know what the real Rev's specs are until the console is released and someone opens it up to look inside.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:IGN Leaks Some Rev Specs Again! 3/29/06

« on: April 04, 2006, 02:58:09 PM »

The reported specs, which aren't in any way official from what I've heard, are more than a little below what the competition is offering. They're way way WAY below it.  Iwata said that they weren't going to be the most powerful, but he also said that their console wouldn't look that much different when viewed on SD TV's. This IGN report goes directly against that.

And it has very little to do with graphics, and a lot more to do with what a system can do. Will the Rev be able to handle hundreds of enemies on screen at once? Will the Rev be able to improve AI over what we've seen previously? Will ports to the Rev have unusually long load times over their counterparts? Or is every Rev port not only going to have drastically reduced graphics, but hundreds of enemies removed, portions of levels cut out, and AI who makes it hard not to win?

I'm all for the controller, but I don't want gimped games on the system. Face it. Ports are important. Often times they're fun, and they save me a ton of money because I only have to buy one system.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:IGN Leaks Some Rev Specs Again! 3/29/06

« on: April 04, 2006, 11:53:06 AM »

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1. Xbox was SOOO much more advanced than the GameCube. Yet in the real world there graphics were comparable.

No. The XBox had slightly larger specs, the difference between the PPC and IA32 architectures made up for that easily. However, the "Rev"'s CPU is 1/4th as powerful as one X360 core (the Xenon CPU has a simple architecture but it's still on par or above the ancient chips used in the GC), the X360 as three of them. While more cores don't give a linear increase they certainly add SOMETHING.

2. Last(technically still This-)-Gen ps2 was the weakest graphically... did it matter? No. what mattered is what always matters, the games! ps2 had them, now with Rev, the exclusives are going to off the charts compared to prev-gens (previous, just making up a new word :p ) and that's where it's going to count imo, who delivers the best experience.

Actually I think the Dreamcast was the weakest platform. But these specs put the Rev at N64 level in the comparison.

Still, the specs and that Ati contradiction (modified Flipper vs. completely new GPU) really sound like these are the specs of a preliminary devkit. The XC's alpha devkit was 1/3rd as powerful as the final product (according to MS's claims), if that ratio holds true here the Rev would be quite an adequate system (while still having specs that can't cost THAT much).

I've been wondering that too. I don't mind the Rev having less power than the other two, but this seems a little too low. This processor is around the power range of a PowerPC G4 which have about 1/3 to 1/5 of the power of DualCore Intel or PowerPC chips. A comparable Pentium 3 runs about $50 for the normal consumer nowadays (I don't have any idea where you can buy PowerPC chips that aren't add-on boards). A dual-core pentium chip, on the other hand, runs about $200 for the cheapo ones, whereas a non-dual P4 can be had for $100-$150.

All that to say, it just seems TOO low. Forget dual-core junk. They could tack $50 onto the price and put a nice little 3GHz P4 in there and the whole world would be plenty o' happy.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:IGN Leaks Some Rev Specs Again! 3/29/06

« on: April 03, 2006, 03:35:12 PM »

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Though probably the biggest goof up was launching with a flagship title that could be beaten in a weekend and then after the initial launch period having months go by with nothing.

I've been wondering about this. The XBox360 made this exact same mistake with its launch, but I've yet to see any articles complaining about it. Not saying that to say people are unfair to Nintendo, but its interesting. I think it has something to do with "public" (aka media) perception. The 360 wasn't really seen as the dawn of the next era of console gaming, and as such, people haven't been that disappointed in the lack of titles available for it. After all, next gen doesn't really start until this November, so why should we expect a boatload of titles for the console yet. Something along those lines.

Either that or the lack of consoles and lack of games mirrored each other so well it just seemed natural.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:No Revolution loving from the analysts.

« on: April 03, 2006, 11:15:31 AM »

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It's a very very rough extension, mainly in name only. You can buy all the Superbits you want but they're not High Definition. If you don't get HD cable then it's really pointless owning an HDTV (or if you have an XBOX) since DVDs look just as good on a really nice SDTV. That being said, a really good DVD transfer looks fantastic, and more isn't that necessary.

I know this is a few pages late, but the main reason people are currently buying HD-TVs isn't decause they want higher resolution pictures. It's because they want widescreen. At least, I think that's the reason my parents and a few of their friends have gone out and bought them. I know that's not technically the definition of HD that the industry wants spread, but its the one they put out. The two are synonymous among the public now, and my parents are perfectly happy watching non-high res content in brilliant stretched out widescreen.

I think the most interesting thing about the games industry has been the way "pure power" hasn't really ever played a role in what sells. People want games in the end. A lot of games. A huge variety, and some of them even have to be good. That's what the NES, SNES, PS, PS2, and now the DS all have had in common. It's never been about DVD playback or cartridge formats (although the cartridge format directly effected what games were released for the N64). It's just about how much and what you can play on the system. Games drive console sales and console sales drive development. I firmly believe the same will take hold in this generation, and it really looks like Sony hasn't lost any of their support, so I really doubt their market share drops any time soon. Microsoft doesn't really have a whole lot to put them over the top in that sense.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:Kotaku Insider suggests Revolution delay?

« on: March 30, 2006, 07:50:31 AM »

I think people just hate them because they release a new Madden every year... well that and their signing of that exclusive contract with the NFL... and those reports that they were treating employees really badly... and they decided to move Burnout off of the Cube. Really, they've just kinda been asses to everyone.

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General Gaming / RE:PS3 getting live-like online service

« on: March 27, 2006, 11:03:04 AM »

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microsoft: all the players connect thu the microsoft dedicated servers
nintendo: p2p play using gamespy tech

I don't think this is true. Most Live games are P2P. Microsoft just does the matchmaking, exactly the same as DS games. The few exceptions are usually MMORPGs.

EDIT: Fixing my quoties.

[Ian Sane]

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General Gaming / RE:Sony Receives Award for Pioneering 3D Gaming

« on: October 11, 2005, 07:32:29 AM »

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Originally posted by: Ian Sane
Nintendo is the real pioneer of 3D gaming because before Super Mario 64 polygons were largely seen as a sparkling innovation but afterwards they were considered absolutely essential.  Before Super Mario 64 polygon games were obscure oddballs that came out once in a while and had tons of novelty appeal.  The Playstation may have been the first console to focus on it but most of the early Playstation games SUCKED.  Most of the time the games played very much like a sprite game but with polygons.  There were some gems like Jumping Flash but s adlyno one paid attention to them so they have no major influence.  Super Mario 64 was different, original, and it was a HUGE success and its influence is still felt today.  You play any sort of full 3D game today and you can't help but see comparisons to Mario 64.  There was a time shortly after Mario 64's release where people would refer to totally unrelated games as Mario 64 clones just because they were in full 3D.

Novelty on consoles of course. Games like Wolfenstein and maybe even DOOM had been out for awhile, and made 3D FPS's at least, normal affairs to see on PC's. They were really shocking to play too. I think I had assumed that something like them was impossible until I first played Wolfenstein. Even after that though, I assumed that Mario64 would also play like ass. It wasn't until I got my hands on it and actually played that I realized it was actually possible to make games like Super Mario Brothers in 3D. Nitendo shattered my conceptions of 3D gaming with that one.

Honestly, I don't remember anyone even caring about the PS1 (seems like every electronics company tried to put out a console in that 6 month span there) until FF7 came out, and then it wasn't for the console's 3D abilities. It was for its ability to spit out movie's for cutscenes. In fact, I always thought the console was made for 2D, and 3D was shoved out of it eventually when they realized they had to compete with the N64.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:rev vs 360 price

« on: September 30, 2005, 08:00:10 AM »

I'm betting the Rev will ship at $300 with one controller and a free game download or something. It will sell just as well at that price as it would at $200-$250 for the first few months, and why not sell it that high then.

Plus, I really don't think the R&D and production costs of this 3D remote were cheap. Nintendo's gotta make up that cash somehow. Not to mention the online service being added, etc.

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General Gaming / RE:Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

« on: September 23, 2005, 12:58:59 PM »

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It looks nice, and I might get a PS3, but it won't be for that game alone.

It's not ingame, but its real-time. So they don't show what it will be like to play it, just what a real-time rendered cutscene might look like, which is really pretty. The ingame stuff I'm sure will look great, but I have a feeling that it will also look a lot like MGS3 with higher-res models and textures. Afterall, they can't zoom in to show you the logos on Snake's outfit every 30seconds during gameplay, so in the end, who really cares that they're there?

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:A more "traditionally designed" controller for Rev?

« on: September 20, 2005, 11:07:14 AM »

I really think this shell is probably a bad idea. I think it will probably get the Rev a lot more ported games, but at the same time, it'll encourage devs to not use the wand. I'd rather get neat wand games than thousands of ports.