Messages

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General Gaming / RE:Final Fantasy XII sucks...

« on: October 18, 2006, 05:52:13 PM »

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...The game just went into turn based mode when you encountered an enemy and that's it.

Chrono Trigger (in my opinion) achieved a perfect balance, here: plenty of encounters if you're in the mood for them -- many of them avoidable -- and almost no transition time between combat and exploration both before and after battles.

I'm bored when I play the FFXII demo.  Random encounters and turn-based strategy can be frustrating, but they're at least not automatic processes that lack interactivity.

[Smash_Brother]

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:Rumour: Third Party companies are shifting many of their projects from the PlayStation 3 to the Wii

« on: June 15, 2006, 03:43:58 PM »

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Originally posted by: Smash_Brother
I'm not even a game developer and even I see developing for the PS3 as near-suicide.

1. The PSP demonstrated that an overpriced Sony console doubling as a movie player for a proprietary format is capable of failing.

2. The Wii had people running from the opening of the E3 floor to get to Nintendo's booth, running right past Sony's booth on the way.

3. Price always carries more weight than people realize. $200 vs. $600 is a colossal difference, especially in a crappy economy.

Moving games from the PS3 dev to the Wii dev, IMHO, isn't wasting money on the porting, it's abandoning a sinking ship.

1.  The PSP is hardly "failing."  The UMD format isn't at all nearing expectations, yes, but it also is inherently limited by its implementation in a single platform.  Sony is attempting to market Blu-Ray as a more universal standard; UMD is nothing more than a facet of a portable entertainment device.

2.  Doesn't guarantee success of the Wii or failure of the PS3; of course those attending a trade show are more interested in unique or at least buzz-heavy products.  The American market has proven repeatedly in its ridiculous buying habits, though, that more of the same is quite capable of selling very well.

3.  Agreed, at least in principle; a "crappy economy" certainly hasn't slowed sales of the relatively expensive Xbox 360, though (not in the United States, anyway).  $600 is 50% increase over $400, yes, but it won't stop early adopters of both the PS3 and of the Blu-Ray format (considering how steep prices of individual Blu-Ray drives are set to be).  I do believe that both face a steep uphill battle, though, once that honeymoon period is over.  If increased developer anxiety is to surface, it'll probably occur around then.

I'd love for this rumor to be true, but I simply don't see it happening unless sluggish sales of the PS3 prompts it.

[very]

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:quack quack: Duckhunt bitches

« on: May 14, 2006, 12:43:09 PM »

I had a chance to play this demo at e3 and, no, the remote needn't be pointed directly at the sensor bar in order for its movements to register properly; it'd otherwise be pretty danged counter-intuitive.

On that note, having the cursor helps a heck of a lot considering that the sensivity of the Wii remote is very high (as was the case in each demo I played: table tennis, tennis, Zelda) and requires quite a bit of acclimation.

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General Gaming / RE:Too Human Trilogy: Exclusive for 360

« on: May 07, 2006, 09:38:01 PM »

Am I entirely alone in my thinking of Eternal Darkness as a largely lackluster affair that, while conceptually sound, was realized terribly in its gameplay?  Too Human doesn't look to me as though it'll fare any better.  Silicon Knights have seemed since their temporary enlistment by Nintendo to be a company that runs with ideas but doesn't know how in the hell to properly implement them in settings that make them fun.  Both Eternal Darkness and Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes are based upon games of much smaller scales (the N64 version of ED and the PSX version of MGS, respectively) but failed in their upconversions, for the most part, to become truly next-generation games; the environments of Eternal Darkness boasted N64-level design (environments, effects, enemy repetition) that -- to me, anyway -- detracted immensely from what was supposed to be the strength of its presentation (never mind its arrogant narrative) and Metal Gear Solid was hardly updated beyond its cosmetics and now-ridiculous cutscenes (those upgrades that were made to its gameplay, like first-person gunplay, seemed poorly incorporated into the game's unchanged environments).

Let Microsoft have Too Human; as long as Silicon Knights remain as full of themselves as they were during the prior generation, I doubt that those without Xbox 360s will be missing very much.