Messages

51

TalkBack / Re: Sequel To Breath Of The Wild Delayed To

« on: March 29, 2022, 01:40:22 PM »

This is why Nintendo should stop announcing games so early, especially Zelda. It rarely meets these self-imposed deadlines. That said, maybe don’t do that anymore? I get there’s probably pressure from shareholders. Then again, Switch has been cleaning up since launch. Did Nintendo really need to announce a new Zelda game that early?

I think this stems from the not-too-distant past where Nintendo consoles had issues with having a full release schedule.  They probably felt they needed to have big games announced ahead of time to give their customers the impression that the system was still being supported and was a worthwhile investment.  "Zelda is coming!  Don't be discouraged that there are only three games coming out for the next four months and buy a competitor's product!"  This isn't necessary on the Switch but old habits die hard and now that they had announced it all those years back they kind of have to provide an update if the deadline passes.

52

TalkBack / Re: Sequel To Breath Of The Wild Delayed To

« on: March 29, 2022, 12:26:15 PM »

So is the Switch successor going to get announced and this is going to show up as a simultaneous release for both the old and new system?  That's practically become a Zelda trademark.

53

TalkBack / Re: Switch System Software 14.0 Now Available: Adds Folders

« on: March 22, 2022, 12:14:16 PM »

I work for a software company and in development there tends to be three types of projects and they get done with this priority.

1. New functionality that can be sold as a new product or will meet a certain sector of the market's required features and thus expand our customer base.
2. Bug fixes - both crucial mandatory fixes and items that make the product more stable.
3. The "nice to haves" - items that are not necessary and don't have a direct connection to sales but make the product better overall.

Folders for the Switch falls into number 3.  Which suggests that maybe the team that maintains the system firmware are now looking for something to do.  They don't have anything urgent to fix and there probably isn't something planned at a system level that will encourage sales so they're working on the "nice to haves".  But they wouldn't have time to do this if they had their heads down on a Switch replacement either, unless that's entirely a different team.

54

General Chat / Re: Official NFL Discussion: If You Only Count The Legal Points, KC Wins

« on: March 08, 2022, 02:59:31 PM »

So Russell Wilson got traded.  Broncos are giving the Seahawks Drew Lock, Noah Fant, Shelby Harris, 2 first round picks and 2 second round picks.  They also get a fifth round pick but give Denver a fourth rounder so that's kind of evening it out.

I am not currently in a good mood.  Yeah, Seattle missed the playoffs last year but it was only the second non-consecutive season that they missed the playoffs since Russell arrived and he was hurt for a lot of last year.  That doesn't indicate a need for a rebuild to me.  But Russell has been making passive-aggressive remarks about moving to a different team for years so I assume he asked for the trade.  His phony politician-nice-guy personality is going to be a lot harder to tolerate when he's on another team.

I think that's a pretty good haul for the guy but draft picks are no sure thing and while the Seahawks nailed their drafts when they built the Superbowl team, they've been pretty lousy at it since.  So while lots of draft picks CAN turn out great if you blow them you gave up your franchise QB for pretty much nothing.  And I am not in the mood to go into QB limbo.  Some teams are stuck like that for decades and you cannot accomplish much without that position figured out.  Traditionally teams would blow up everything else and keep the star quarterback because they knew it would be extremely difficult to find another one.

There were rumours about Pete Carroll and Wilson not getting along.  If it became a "him or me" scenario they backed the wrong horse.  Carroll has been great and he'll be a hero in the Pacific Northwest forever but he's 70.  As much as he would hate to admit it he's on borrowed time and will almost certainly be retired before Russell is.  So in that scenario I think you need to pick the player.

Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to read up on this year's draft as this suddenly is important to me.

55

General Gaming / Re: How Do You Level Up?

« on: February 22, 2022, 12:34:25 PM »

If a game lets you auto-assign stat categories I tend to let it do that.  Otherwise I get overwhelmed by too many choices.  Historically I would try to balance things out.  My gut feeling being that if someone has weak defense for example I should give them some defense boosts.  But recently I'm trying to force myself not to do that so that the characters are more distinct and specialized.

I get pretty lazy about manually-allocated stats and weapon upgrades and stuff like that when playing RPGs, until I end up dying and then I'll catch up to get past where I'm stuck.  If I can still proceed I'll slack off on manual adjustments.

56

TalkBack / Re: Retro Studios Releases First Teaser Image for Metroid Prime 4

« on: February 18, 2022, 11:43:29 AM »

"So how far along are you?"

"Well, we've created this wallpaper for ultrawide monitors!"

57

General Gaming / Re: How do you feel about $69.99 MSRP for standard, non-special edition games?

« on: February 17, 2022, 07:44:50 PM »

Looking at this topic a few years later, my brother has owned a Switch for about two years and the higher prices, particularly in Canada, have affected his buying habits.  There are a few games that he has had his eye on since he bought the system that he hasn't bought, partially because he always buys physical if the option is available and partially because a lot of the games he is interested in are first party games which don't typically decrease in price. But during the Wii/DS years?  If he was really interested in a new game he just bought it, unless the timing was such that it was near his birthday or Christmas and he figured he would get it as a gift.  But now there are a handful of games that he's interested in that just sit on the shelf at Walmart for $80 CAD and that's just too much for an impulse buy.

One other factor is that he is primarily a handheld gamer.  DS and 3DS games were cheaper than Wii and Wii U games.  Now there is only the Switch and it has the higher console game prices.  So in the past a Pokemon game would have a bit of a price discount just by being a handheld game.

58

TalkBack / Re: 3DS And Wii U eShops Shutting Down In Stages, Official Closure March 2023

« on: February 17, 2022, 01:54:37 AM »

I've been intending to get Picross 3D: Round 2 for the 3DS for a while.  It's been on the Christmas list for a few years.  Guess I have to get on that now.  It's just a little bit more expensive then I would like but as a first party game I don't think it really goes on sale.

It would be nice if Nintendo could just get to a point where digital games are backwards compatible for a few generations and it's all one store.  You can play PS4 digital games on a PS5.  It would be ideal if Switch games were playable on whatever the Switch successor ends up being.  There are still issues with licensing and rights and games getting pulled because of that but at least a Nintendo first party Switch title would remain available for purchase for a long period of time on later consoles.  Nintendo essentially starts their eshop over each generation and the other companies have moved beyond that model.

59

Nintendo Gaming / Re: The Official "Oh ****, I forgot to preorder the Analogue Pocket" thread.

« on: January 25, 2022, 11:19:11 AM »

Well I did get my Pocket when they first shipped in December.  It seems like life is much busier now than it was when I pre-ordered so I haven't had as much time to play it as I would like.  Gee, I guess that can happen if something gets delayed a year.  But I recently got Kirby and the Amazing Mirror for the GBA and that seems as good of an excuse as any to play it.

This is my first Analogue product and it feels like a quality product in your hand.  It has a bit of weight to it, not in a way that would affect portability but just that it doesn't feel cheap.  The screen is the most impressive part.  It's very clear and bright.  It has different display modes to simulate different system models and they're fun to experiment with.  By default you can play a pixel perfect mode but there also modes to make it look like the old green Game Boy screen where the pixels are just slightly separated.  I usually try out scan lines and such on retro style devices but this is probably the most authentic looking display options I've ever seen.

I also got the dock and the Game Gear Adapter.  The dock is not a impressive as I would have liked.  Those cool display modes are not enabled for a TV screen, so you only have the pixel perfect mode.  It appears to always send some sort of signal through the HDMI connection.  I have an auto-switch for my TV to have multiple devices connected but this doesn't work with it because the TV always thinks the dock is sending something.  That's a very specific issue with my set up though.  I'm also concerned about how the Pocket connects to the dock as it connects to a port at the bottom but otherwise just sits in a little pit with a brace behind it.  What if someone knocked it with their hand?  It doesn't snap in so I fear it would bend the connector.

The Game Gear Adapter is very nice though.  Usually when using cartridge connectors, like the Super Game Boy, there can be challenges with connections because you need to connect twice.  But I find this works like a charm.  I had to give my Game Gear games a good cleaning first but after a round of that everything has been consistent.

There were some bugs I initially encountered but they were all fixed by updating the firmware.  The Metroid GBA games had a horrible distorted sound in their intros for the spaceship engine.  Castle of Illusion for the Game Gear did a weird thing where the screen viewed seemed zoomed in with the edges getting cut off.  The Game Gear hardware is really just an extension of the Sega Master System and many games released for the GG here were SMS games in other parts of the world.  I wonder if Castle of Illusion's code is literally identical between the two and displays in a different mode depending on what system is running it.  So maybe it initially thought it was running on an SMS and displayed a TV resolution in a handheld sized screen?  Anyway, that was fixed by the firmware.  Though one note with the firmware is that the Pocket uses a micro SD card to update firmware but the dock uses a USB stick.  So you need two different storage devices to update what is essentially two parts of the same product?

I haven't played a game that really relied on the L&R buttons so I don't really know if those are an issue or not.  I played a race or two in F-Zero and was fine.  The cartridge slot doesn't hold the games as tight as a real Game Boy but it isn't like if you tipped the system upside down the cart would fall out.  I haven't had any issues with a cart loosening during gameplay.

So far I like it.  Is it worth the money?  Eh, not sure on that one.  I think for me it will be once the other systems get cartridge connectors and then I've got one mega-handheld.  If you have no way to play GBA games otherwise though, yeah this is a must own.

60

TalkBack / Re: Microsoft Enters Into Agreement To Acquire Activision Blizzard For US$68.7bn

« on: January 21, 2022, 12:34:27 PM »

I wonder if people have gotten too used to the post-PS3/360 era where most of the games appear on both Playstation and Xbox consoles so they don't get the concept of exclusives.  Exclusives used to be the whole bread and butter of console gaming.  You secured exclusives specifically so people would buy your system instead of the other guy's in order to play those games.  With the 360, MS was kind of the de facto choice over the PS3 for Western gamers but Sony made due because they had Japan.  Last gen the Xbox One felt like a non-factor as the PS4 seemed to be the default choice and XB1 wasn't different enough to justify as a second purchase.  Having two systems that are almost identical isn't fun if you're the less popular one.  I suspect MS felt that and realized they needed to make their console an essential purchase as a first, second or third choice (though they would prefer first of course) and the best way to do that is lock-in exclusives.

61

TalkBack / Re: Microsoft Enters Into Agreement To Acquire Activision Blizzard For US$68.7bn

« on: January 18, 2022, 11:44:58 AM »

This isn't encouraging but not really surprising.  If you look in other fields like book publishing, music labels or movie studios the industry ultimately settles down to a handful of major companies that own almost everything.  So for it to eventually occur with videogames was probably inevitable.  Nintendo is actually kind of an oddity in that they're still just a videogame company and aren't owned by a larger holding company and haven't become one themselves.

The whole situation makes you wonder if the future is actually that third party support as a concept effectively doesn't exist.  The publishers could effectively be owned by the companies that make the consoles and each console's library is all exclusives.

62

TalkBack / Re: Super Mario 64 LEGO Set Honors Game's 25th Anniversary On October 1

« on: September 09, 2021, 12:08:07 PM »

I like this a lot more than the existing Mario sets, which are really more like playsets then a typical Lego set.  I think this concept of recreating levels from famous video games is one of those ideas that you don't think of until it gets announced and then it is so obvious in retrospect you wonder why you never thought of it.

Do something like this for Ocarina of Time with micro-versions of some of the dungeons from that game and I'm pre-ordering it.

63

General Gaming / Re: What Is Your White Whale of Gaming?

« on: August 24, 2021, 01:23:17 PM »

Back in the later years of the Gamecube I was debating getting a PS2.  One of the games that was making me consider it was Gradius V.  I ended up getting a PS2 in 2007 or 08 when they were marked down in price and Fire Pro Wrestling Returns was the first title I got.  But I never ended up getting Gradius V and I've never even played it.  It was on my short list of titles to get at first but I was probably playing other titles around the same time and was trying not to buy games that I was just going to put into a backlog.  Eventually you couldn't find that game new in stores anymore and the few times I saw it used it was now above the price range I was willing to pay, which of course has just gotten worse over the years.

My brother had a similar situation where he bought an N64 in 2000 and Harvest Moon 64 was one of the titles that factored into his decision but he didn't even up getting that game until a few years ago.

64

TalkBack / Re: Metroid Dread Announced, Launching October 8

« on: June 16, 2021, 12:35:20 PM »

My brother has recently had to start commuting to his office again after working from home because of covid.  When he got home our conversation went like this:

Me: Do you know about E3?
Him: Yeah, I had it on in the background at work.
Me: I had to miss part of it because of a phone call.
Him: Did you catch up?  Is there anything you don't know?
Me: I caught up.  I know everything.
Him: Okay so... METROID DREAD!!  HOLY ****!!

It was funny because we were feeling each other out like we were privy to some huge spoiler.  Obviously we both had the intention that if the other person didn't know what was up that they needed to see the presentation themselves, not have it merely be told to them.

65

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Nintendo E3 Direct announcements

« on: June 15, 2021, 07:30:13 PM »

With Metroid Dread, along with re-releases of Advance Wars and Super Monkey Ball, is anyone else feeling really old?  I can remember back when Metroid Dread was first whispered about.  I remember where I lived, the office I worked at, what this site looked like, and how I felt physically (less aches/pains, more hair).  I'm getting hit by this strange rush of nostalgia, which is funny because Metroid Dread is a new game.  My nostalgia isn't for it but for the time when news of that game first came out.

Nintendo could have called this new Metroid game something different since it has been so long but calling it specifically "Metroid Dread" makes it seem like such a huge deal.  Any serious Metroid fan knows about this game that got announced and had very little info revealed but was never completed, but now that loose thread is finally tied up.  In that sense it reminds me of Star Fox 2 finally getting a proper release.

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TalkBack / Re: Metroid Dread Announced, Launching October 8

« on: June 15, 2021, 06:23:32 PM »

Oh and when the direct said "we're still working on Metroid Prime 4 but this is something else" I was expecting some groan-inducing Federation Force kind of project.  Nope!  Nintendo actually delivered literally the only thing that wouldn't get backlash from fans.

I expected Samus Returns HD. While I still think that happens, it would be in Nintendo’s best interest to release it after Metroid Dread so as not to “steal” sales from the new game.

Not sure about that.  Nintendo has ported almost everything from the Wii U but that system was a flop so they were thinking that most Switch owners never played those games to begin with.  But the 3DS was a hit so Samus Returns isn't "trapped" on an obscure system.  We haven't seen too many 3DS-to-Switch ports from Nintendo thus far.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Games you DON'T want to see come out

« on: June 15, 2021, 03:35:49 PM »

There are lots of movies/books/TV shows where I feel the story concluded in a very satisfying way and there is no reason to go back to it.  The story is told, you told it well, leave on a high note.

But videogames are different because they're not just based on narrative.  Often videogame sequels are actually better because they refine the gameplay mechanics.  So when I think of how to make a sequel to a game I don't think primarily about the story but more about how the gameplay could be improved or expanded upon.

So in that sense something like Mario, where the story is irrelevant, can keep making sequels forever provided they still have good gameplay ideas.  If the gameplay gets stale and the level design becomes dull then you call it a day.

I don't want to see more DKC Returns games.  I just don't really like them.  Hard to describe why but I don't find them fun.  Also Retro Studios only releases one game at a time and I feel they're clearly talented so I would like them working on something a little more ambitious than a 2D platformer.

I also don't want to see more Metal Gear Solid games since they won't have Kojima and that series really is his baby and wouldn't be the same without him.

68

TalkBack / Re: Advance Wars Returning In 1+2 Re-Boot Camp December 3

« on: June 15, 2021, 03:02:49 PM »

I'm of the idea that if you neglect a franchise for 10 years you should reward the fans with a new game.  It's good for these games to be available again but if you've been anxiously awaiting a new sequel this has got to be a punch in the gut.  The same engine could probably be applied to a new game but they probably are waiting to see how this sells before greenlighting such a project.

There are lots of Wars games that American fans have never played.  If they remade those and put the Advance Wars look on them then they would essentially have a new game for the western market with the same lower development cost of a remake.

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TalkBack / Re: Sequel To Breath Of The Wild Coming In 2022

« on: June 15, 2021, 02:51:25 PM »

What I loved about Breath of the Wild was the big wide open world to explore.  Exploration is my favourite element of Zelda games and that was like the whole point of that game.

One thing I really did not like about Skyward Sword was how the world was broken up into chunks.  If you're going to do that you might as well have separate levels like I'm playing Mario Galaxy.

So those elements seem completely contradictory.  How do you have the exploration gameplay of Breath of the Wild if you're using Skyward Sword's bite size chunks?  I'm still excited about Breath of the Wild 2 but this is the first thing announced about it that makes me slightly concerned.

Skyward Sword is pretty crappy in a lot of ways and Nintendo has incredibly poor self-awareness if they're going to mine it for ideas.  If Fi showed up in that trailer it would have blown up the internet, in the bad way.

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TalkBack / Re: Metroid Dread Announced, Launching October 8

« on: June 15, 2021, 02:42:52 PM »

I got like two seconds into the actual gameplay when I got a work-related phone call.  Dang it!  We've been waiting for Metroid Dread for over 15 years and the call had to come in then of all times?!

Anyway, I'm thrilled to see this and I like broodwars' suggestion of it linking to Prime 4.  Why not?  The Cube/GBA days of Metroid were probably the golden age for the series at least in terms of games fans actually cared about routinely being released.  Things went astray for a long time but going back to having a 2D series and first person 3D series running concurrently would be a good way to get back on track.

Oh and when the direct said "we're still working on Metroid Prime 4 but this is something else" I was expecting some groan-inducing Federation Force kind of project.  Nope!  Nintendo actually delivered literally the only thing that wouldn't get backlash from fans.

71

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Where is Nintendo today without Pokémon?

« on: May 20, 2021, 12:00:36 PM »

During the Gamcube years I always felt that a proper console Pokemon game was the ultimate killer app that would save the system, and I got pretty frustrated that Nintendo kept those exclusive to the handhelds.  But the key thing is that it seemed like that was the one Nintendo franchise at the time that was hot with the mainstream.  The other Nintendo franchises were older and were at that middle period where they're not new anymore but they're not old enough to create nostalgia, so they're just old.

Initially the 3DS was not catching on and the Wii U was a notorious flop, so it looked like Nintendo was in danger of pulling a Sega at that point.  That's easily the closest they got.  What games came out around the time period that the 3DS caught on?  Did that coincide with a Pokemon game?  For me it did as I bought one for Pokemon X.  If the 3DS required Pokemon to be a success then that's Nintendo's whole future right there.  If both the 3DS an Wii U flop I don't see there being any Switch.

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General Gaming / Re: How do you feel about $69.99 MSRP for standard, non-special edition games?

« on: May 13, 2021, 12:42:41 PM »

Since the Canadian dollar fluctuates with the US dollar, my game prices have been quite different over the years.  Right now brand new games often cost between $80-90 CAD.  Back when game prices "increased" to $60 around the Wii era the Canadian dollar was about on par with the American one so while our new games were $60 that was a decrease from the $70 games of the Cube era (and N64 games were $80 because of the cart format).  If they increased to $70 USD then they'll probably be $99.99 CAD which would frankly SUCK.  Videogames are already too expensive new in Canada and this will just make it worse.

Though used games, provided they aren't old enough or rare enough to have been affected by the high prices of retro gaming, still remain affordable and non-Nintendo games still drop into the Wal-Mart cheap bin 9 months after release.  You can still afford things easily if you're not insisting on playing new games on day one.

But the PS5 is practically a digital-only console since you have to pay a premium for one with a disc drive.  There are no used digital games and no need to be clearing out old stock like a physical store does.  So price drops are entirely at the whim of the publisher.  So they nearly eliminate the few options available for people to buy games for current consoles at a low price and then increase the price of new titles at the same time?  Yeah, that's not a coincidence.

73

General Gaming / Re: I for one welcome the glorious return of overconfident E3 2006 Sony.

« on: April 20, 2021, 07:50:49 PM »

There were apparently devs who literally just bought a Vita Devkit right before the announcement was made. The whole thing was a trainwreck.

This is probably what convinced them.  Could they potentially have gotten sued for that?  This was probably a situation where the left hand didn't know what the right was doing so they decided to pull the plug without realizing that dev kits were still being sold.  I'll bet they're not selling dev kits anymore and they'll resume ending the store once they've reached the minimum amount of time the lawyers have determined would be sufficient to cover their butts.

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General Gaming / Re: I for one welcome the glorious return of overconfident E3 2006 Sony.

« on: April 19, 2021, 04:45:42 PM »

I am in shock that they actually reversed their decision on the PS3/Vita store.  I guess lots of people were buying stuff before it disappeared and the suits saw the sales figures and decided to keep things going.

I was planning on buying the Mega Man Legends games before July 1 but now I can get the first one and see if I like it first without pressure to grab the sequel and Tron Bonne at the same time.

75

General Chat / Re: The COVID-19 Virus is Coming For Us All Thread

« on: April 12, 2021, 01:30:47 PM »

Today Penny Arcade had a script about getting the vaccine.  The strip's creators are a few years older than me and it hit me of how different the situation is in Canada.  I work for an American company and in a recent meeting the discussion about offices re-opening came up and a manager remarked how "most of us" had received the first shot by now, and all the Canadian employees were like "uh, what?".  In Canada the vaccine rollout has been extremely slow. If you're of working age there is no real thought about whether or not to take the vaccine because it will be months before you're even eligible.  My father just received his first shot a few days ago.  He's 72 and was only eligible because he has health issues.  He was told he would get the second shot in 4 months.  The manufacturer's recommendation for the second dose is up to 6 weeks.

The extended period of time between dosages has contributed to apprehension for receiving the vaccine among people I talk to.  The concern is that it may make the whole vaccination ineffective, so why risk any side effects by taking it at all?  Or if you can't even get the second dose what effect does "half" a vaccine have?  And if the vaccine rollout takes too long then couldn't the virus mutate to a point where the vaccine has no effect?  Defying the manufacturer's recommended time between doses have given a lot of ammunition to the anti-vaccine narrative that Canadian citizens are being used as guinea pigs.

I find the whole situation very frustrating because the vaccine was supposed to be the light at the end of the tunnel.  Vaccinate the population and this whole nightmare is supposed to be over.  But at this rate widespread vaccination even months from now seems like an impossible goal.  And this only works if a significant portion of the population get vaccinated and the botched rollout has increased anti-vaccination sentiment.  And this only works if the four month period between dosages isn't a mistake.  And this only works if the rollout occurs faster than the virus mutating into something immune to the vaccine.  The whole situation feels like crossing your fingers and hoping that everything works out.