Messages

10151

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Epic Mickey - Wii Exclusive

« on: October 12, 2009, 12:46:33 PM »

The classic mountain climbing episode with old Donald, Mickey, and Goofy is probably the greatest piece Disney ever produced.

Oh I don't know about that.  I'm rather partial to the Donald; Mickey; and Goofy "Ghostbusting" short, as well as most of the Donald and Chip 'n Dale shorts ("Donald Applecore" is a personal favorite, where Donald eventually resorts to trying to nuke Chip and Dale to kingdom come with an atomic bomb.  How's that for "family-friendly entertainment"?    ).

As for the Oswald shorts posted, meh.  It's the same sort of humor done in the Mickey shorts, and it's just not interesting enough for me.  Like I've noted several times now, I'm a Donald fan and he has his own special blend of humor.

10152

General Gaming / Re: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Official Best Single-Player Game Ever Thread

« on: October 12, 2009, 06:29:52 AM »

I guess you can put me up on the list of people playing Uncharted 2 when it comes out.  I'm clearing-out my backlog of games I don't think I'm going to get around to finishing or want to keep, and I think I'll have just enough cash for Uncharted 2.  I thought about picking up A Boy and His Blob instead, but I'm in something of a shooter mood right now after playing 80+ hours of Persona 4.

10153

Podcast Discussion / Re: Radio Free Nintendo: Episode 165

« on: October 12, 2009, 03:57:02 AM »

I also just tonight started watching Lost, which so far has been pretty ****ing boring (I'm on Part 2 of the Pilot).

Love Lost.

I'm really up in the air about the show so far, having gotten up to the 7th episode and so far not found the show all the great.  There's just a whole lot of talking and little actual doing.  Now, I'm fine if a show wants to do a lot of talking, as I'm a big fan of The West Wing, but Lost can't seem to make up its mind if it wants to be a spooky action show or a "let's talk about our feelings" kind of show.  I just find it a very hard show to sit through, especially since I only see maybe 2 characters worth caring about (Jack and Locke).

10154

General Gaming / Re: Sony bad-mouths Nintendo yet again

« on: October 12, 2009, 03:04:23 AM »

That's my exactly point. They chose the safest option. Saying they took the biggest risks may or may not be true, but they had no intention to gamble.

I don't see what's so safe about loading up a $600 console with features most people will never use.  For instance, I'd hazzard a guess that maybe 1% of all PS3 owners actually know about the ability to install an alternative OS to replace the XMB, and of those maybe 5% who would actually use it because the XMB is fine as it is.  How about the ability to play streaming video, audio, or images from a network?  That's a feature I didn't know it could do until I recently installed Windows 7 and I laughed at seeing a Microsoft logo appear on my PS3 XMB.  My PS3 has 4 USB ports, but the console only comes with 1 controller and for the life of me I can't think of any 4-player PS3 games right now, and I'm primarily a single-player gamer anyway.  The PS3 is full of stuff like that: features that most people will probably never use but probably do jack up the price.  Add them all up and you get a $600 console in a bad economy.  Sounds pretty risky to me.

10155

Podcast Discussion / Re: Radio Free Nintendo: Episode 165

« on: October 12, 2009, 12:57:56 AM »

As for the issue of the story itself being unintelligible, I can see people feeling that way if they only played through the first third, or maybe even half. But much like, say LOST or Twin Peaks, if you stick it out you're well rewarded. Okay, maybe not so much with Twin Peaks.

Funny you should mention Twin Peaks, which amazingly I'd say actually makes a great deal more sense than Killer 7.  I actually just this last week downloaded and watched the series up to the point where the killer was "dealt with".  Man, and they say 24's writing is laughably bad.  An entire show devoted on an FBI agent who gets his leads and "evidence" though dreams and visions involving giants and midgets...and the whole town just goes along with him as if he's not insane.  Yeah, if you can look past the utter absurdity of the show there is some redeeming stuff in there.

I also just tonight started watching Lost, which so far has been pretty ****ing boring (I'm on Part 2 of the Pilot).

I've played through the entirety of Killer 7 3 times over several years, and the story's just as impenetrable now as it was when I first started playing the game.  The only part that makes sense is, once again, the last chapter.  The rest is just rambling nonsense, like Suda 51 decided to suddenly go Hideo Kojima on the conspiracy theorizing.

10156

Podcast Discussion / Re: Radio Free Nintendo: Episode 165

« on: October 12, 2009, 12:41:39 AM »

In other words, you can't excuse bad gameplay by saying it's artistically bad.

Indeed, and from my experience this is a problem Suda 51 has in general of just putting bad gameplay in the game for whatever reason (ex. No More Heroes' "open world' sections) for the sake of saying...something.  In the meantime, though, the game's still awful.

Regarding Killer 7, I didn't actually have fun with that game till the last 2 chapters of the game (the chapter that mocks sentei shows with Dan and the final chapter where stuff actually started getting explained).  Up till then, the story was just complete nonsense and the game wasn't all that fun to actually play to me.

10157

Podcast Discussion / Re: Radio Free Nintendo: Episode 165

« on: October 11, 2009, 11:45:56 PM »

The last question brought up an issue that's really started to become troubling to me: for years it seemed like the handhelds were just complimenting the console experience, but now the handheld market seems to be starting to supplant the console market (at least in Japan).  I look over some of the big handheld announcements in the past few years, and I see things like Valkyria Chronicles 2; the remake of Persona 1; Okamiden; and even Dragon Quest IX leaving their console roots and moving over to handhelds.  And it's not just that these series are moving over, but they're bringing the full console experience as well where previously they would be adapted into something more experimental or more suited to handhelds.  I'm starting to wonder if we're just not going to see Japanese games on consoles much at all if this keeps up, which would be a shame.

10158

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Silent Hill: Shattered Memories coming October 13th

« on: October 11, 2009, 11:37:55 PM »

I'm gonna wait to see some reviews before I take the plunge with this game. Maybe it just didn't demo well, but I'm just not sure how long I can wander around with a flashlight and sometimes run away from poorly-textured ragdolls.

Indeed.  Not only that, though, but I'm really starting to wonder just how much confidence Konami has in this game, because I've seen absolutely no marketing for this game in several months (if ever).  The game was only recently delayed, and prior to that it was only a month away from release, and yet nothing but silence out of Konami about the game.  Now that they've delayed the game to just before Christmas (and after both the mega-releases of NSMB Wii and Modern Warfare 2 have come out), I'd say the game needs the marketing more than ever.  And yet...silence.  I know "silent" is part of the game's name, but if they don't get the ball rolling this will be yet another poor-selling Wii 3rd party game.

10159

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Wii are #1.... and DS is #2!

« on: October 11, 2009, 02:24:26 PM »

No wonder DS has such high sales, kids have to convince their parents to buy more after they finish eating them..

I thought we settled in 103 that Jonny was the one buying all the DSs.   

Seriously, though, what a list of crap.  It inspires all sorts of hope for a slimmer America.

10160

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Silent Hill: Shattered Memories coming October 13th

« on: October 11, 2009, 01:03:44 PM »

They are trying to bring the quality that Nintendo fans have been crying for, and now they get lambasted for it.
Nintendo fans are impossibly difficult.

I somehow doubt that this 1-month delay has anything to do with polish.  I get the feeling that they failed the Nintendo submission process and were forced to fix something that violated a Nintendo Standard.  The typical submission process is about a month, so that sounds about right.  Either that, or they wanted to get out of the way of New Super Mario Bros. Wii, which comes out within 1 1/2 weeks of the original release date.

10161

General Gaming / Re: Sony bad-mouths Nintendo yet again

« on: October 11, 2009, 06:25:28 AM »

Sony probably thought everything they did was perfectly logical, a risk shouldn't count if you don't realize it is one when you take it.

By that logic, nothing Nintendo's done in the past decade or so outside of handing Metroid Prime to Retro would count.

What about when Nintendo said they were taking a gamble on releasing the DS and that their future console plans were kinda being tested by market results of the DS? Then making motion controls the standard of the Wii & not significantly bumping the hardware specs, using mini-game collections & experimental software with peripherals and focusing a part of the market that doesn't even normally play or buy videogames? How could that not be considered a risk when Nintendo stated as much with the play-by-play of their strategy the entire time they were doing it?

Every time I've ever heard Nintendo speak of the DS and the Wii, I've heard nothing but utter confidence in that strategy.  I can't remember the last time (if ever) I heard Nintendo Corporate publicly state that they weren't sure that something they were doing would catch on.  You might have a point with the DS due to the whole "3rd pillar" thing, but considering the DS was their justification for what they were doing with Wii I wouldn't consider that one of Nintendo's "known risks" as well.

10162

General Gaming / Re: Sony bad-mouths Nintendo yet again

« on: October 11, 2009, 03:59:58 AM »

Sony probably thought everything they did was perfectly logical, a risk shouldn't count if you don't realize it is one when you take it.

By that logic, nothing Nintendo's done in the past decade or so outside of handing Metroid Prime to Retro would count.

10163

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Silent Hill: Shattered Memories coming October 13th

« on: October 11, 2009, 12:27:10 AM »

Anyone else see that this game has apparently slipped...again...from an early November release to December 8th?  I'm really tempted to just cancel my pre-order now and put it towards A Boy and His Blob.  At this rate, who knows when Silent Hill's coming out...

10164

General Gaming / Re: Who is going to buy a PS3 Slim?

« on: October 10, 2009, 11:49:18 PM »

I have yet to try Demon's Souls, but it's been getting some good reviews.

The consensus seems fairly clear on that one:  it's an interesting, pretty, and well done game, that's so insanely hard it will have you bleeding through your eyeballs just to press <start> at the beginning.  Everything kills you, it's incredibly easy to die, dying punts you back to the beginning of the level (and often causes you to lose everything), levels are not easy to get through and you often end up dying near the end, and.... dying, in some cases, causes the game difficulty to increase.  Also you can't pause the game.

That guy who finished uncharted in 6 hours should eat it up tho...

All reasons (and more) that I'm steadfastly ignoring Demon's Souls.  Sorry, but Atlus can have my money again when they put Persona 5 on the PS3.  I don't need something that looks that uninteresting and that difficult clogging up my backlog.

10165

Reader Reviews / Re: Rate The Last Game You Played

« on: October 10, 2009, 11:38:40 PM »

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 - Well, it took me nearly a year to finally beat this game (including having to play through most of it twice because I wasn't satisfied with my S-Links and started over), but I finally did with the "True Ending" and all S-Links maxed.  Overall, I'm quite happy with the game and it's by far my favorite Persona game.  I have a few minor issues with the game, such as how it devolves in the stereotypical "save the world!" RPG cliche towards the end (really, merely stopping the homicidal rampage of a deranged serial killer wasn't enough?); how many of the S-Links solve themselves without you really doing anything; and how much of the game feels like a secretarial simulator with all the scheduling.  The music's also all over the place in quality, ranging from mediocre to awesome.  That said, though, the battle system is awesome and the story's very well-written, as are the characters.  9/10.

10166

TalkBack / Re: A Boy and His Blob are Back

« on: October 10, 2009, 08:15:45 AM »

You know, you'd really think after all these years of practice that companies would finally have a handle on how to do 2-frickin'-D platformer controls.  Apparently, between Scribblenauts and Boy & His Blob it's just too difficult for modern gaming companies. 

10167

General Gaming / Re: Sony bad-mouths Nintendo yet again

« on: October 10, 2009, 08:09:22 AM »

http://gonintendo.com/viewstory.php?id=99531

"In an industry that's certainly had its challenges this year, we like to say that the environment where PlayStation wins is best for this industry. We have a brand that can play on a worldwide basis, young and old, male and female, where our competition tends to be relegated to either select regions or to select consumer audiences. ...We don't have unlimited money, we cater to a more mass market audience. I think we're willing to take a little bit more risk than a competitor like Nintendo is and ultimately we deliver to the masses on a worldwide basis and that's what we've done for the last 15 years." - SCEA boss Jack Tretton

This Jack Tretton jerk really deserves to have his mouth smacked for such rude comments.  Seriously, Reggie needs to hunt this guy down and punch his teeth in.

"Rude"?  Oh give me a ****ing break...stuff like this is why I can't stand Nintendo fanboys.  The guy's a Sony PR guy!  Do you really expect him to state that a Nintendo brand being dominant in the industry is what's best for it?  All companies have someone out there who says silly things on behalf of their company to try to spin things that make them look favorable.  Sony has Jack Tretton; Nintendo has Reggie and Cammy; and Activision has their president, for example.

Now, Tretton spins an awful lot of hyperbole about what Sony's been doing in the HD era, but it's not all ridiculous.  Sony has been more bold than Nintendo of late in trying to develop new IPs and trying to get worthwhile new IPs on their platform.  Uncharted, Resistance, Infamous, LittleBigPlanet, The Last Guardian, etc. are all recent Sony ventures.  Meanwhile, if it's not the core of Mario; Metroid; and Zelda for Nintendo, it's the latest Wii (add new title here) string of tech demos and casual whatevers.

Now, on the flipside Sony trying to make the case that they're going for the mainstream whereas Nintendo's been going for the niche is one of the most laughable statements I've ever read.

10168

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Epic Mickey - Wii Exclusive

« on: October 09, 2009, 05:14:56 PM »

Disney to Celebrating the 70th Anniversary of the Phantom Blot Summer 2010

there's no bad guy like the guy whose 70th anniversary we celebrate this summer: the Phantom Blot, Mickey Mouse's scariest foe! A mystery man hidden under a ghostly black cloak, the Blot can shadow you while you think he's just a shadow. And his motives are shadowy, too. The Blot might want wealth or world control — or just ruthless revenge. But Mickey never knows how those goals will come together... till the Blot catches him in a devious deathtrap!

Coincidence? I don't think so.

Heh, this is the Phantom Blot I'm familiar with: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPFiz9hVgec (warning: contains extremely infectious theme song)

10169

Nintendo Gaming / Re: What are your most-played Wii games?

« on: October 09, 2009, 05:03:49 PM »

Alright, just a disclaimer here: these numbers are extremely skewed.  My Wii has spent probably around a year with my best friend, who played a lot of Fire Emblem; Smash Bros. Brawl; Tales of Symphonia 2; and Metroid Prime 3.  That said, I am a little surprised at some of the games on this list (especially since I never beat 2 of them):

1.  Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn -      146 Hrs. 29 Min. -      83 Times.
2.  Super Smash Bros. Brawl -      129 Hrs. 6 Min. -      49 Times.
3.  Okami -      79 Hrs. 54 Min. -      11 Times.
4.  Metroid Prime: Trilogy -      76 Hrs. 50 Min. -      10 Times.
5.  Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World -      61 Hrs. 37 Min. -      21 Times.
6.  Metroid Prime 3: Corruption -      58 Hrs. 4 min. -      25 Times.
7.  Opoona -      44 Hrs. 15 Min. -      5 Times.
8.  Super Mario Galaxy -      41 Hrs. 2 Min. -      12 Times.
9.  Zack & Wiki -      38 Hrs. 40 Min. -      15 Times.
10.  The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess -      38 Hrs. 22 Min. -      9 Times.

Wow, how'd all that time rack up on Opoona of all games?  I never even beat that one, and I probably played Symphonia 2 for a grand total of 10 hours.  Interesting that 3 games that I hated (Okami, Opoona, and Tales of Symphonia 2) all ended up on my Top 10 Most Played list.

10170

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Epic Mickey - Wii Exclusive

« on: October 09, 2009, 04:07:30 PM »

Actually, if the game was truly being developed as a multiplatform title they could always use Hi-Def textures; sound samples; and particle effects for the HD versions.

Graphics> Gameplay

I think you jumped a few steps getting to that point, GP.  If the gameplay's the same across all 3 platforms (assuming the game was multiplatform, of course), then hell yes I'd want to buy the best-looking one.

But the thing is that from what we know this game could not be done on 360 or PS3 with the brush mechanic unless it was built for the Natal and PS3's Ice Cream Cone. Both of which are going to be niche and will require spreading out of resources, not to mention we still aren't sure how well either will work with this type of game (or in PS3's case if you would even want to play it with the Dual Shock in one hand and the wand in the other).

Well, we'll see.  There's speculation right now that the "Ice cream cone in one hand + dualshock 3 in another" method on the PS3 could just be a placeholder for some sort of wireless nunchuck-ripoff, which would make the game control exactly the same as the Wii version if coded properly.

Hopefully we'll be seeing some gameplay footage in the near-future, so we can see how ambitious the game truly is.  We could all be hanging our hopes on what inevitably could be a generic cookie-cutter platformer with Okami elements.

10171

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Epic Mickey - Wii Exclusive

« on: October 09, 2009, 03:57:37 PM »

Actually, if the game was truly being developed as a multiplatform title they could always use Hi-Def textures; sound samples; and particle effects for the HD versions.

Graphics> Gameplay

I think you jumped a few steps getting to that point, GP.  If the gameplay's the same across all 3 platforms (assuming the game was multiplatform, of course), then hell yes I'd want to buy the best-looking one.

10172

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Epic Mickey - Wii Exclusive

« on: October 09, 2009, 03:27:54 PM »

Well, to me it's a shame that so far there aren't plans for an HD version, especially since by the time this game is out all 3 companies will have motion control out in the market.  Just based on that concept art, it's a shame to have to settle with SD on this one.  Here's hoping they make the most of it being on Wii then.

They cannot make it magically look better on the HD systems, it'd still look like a Wii game on those. Unless you expect them to make a whole new version of the game that costs 2.5x as much to develop for a niche peripherial for consoles that combined merely match the userbase of the current lead platform.

Besides, I'd trust them to get that art to look good without needing HDR rendering.

Actually, if the game was truly being developed as a multiplatform title they could always use Hi-Def textures; sound samples; and particle effects for the HD versions.

After many years of seeing ****ty-looking 3rd party Wii games, I don't trust anyone (outside of Retro Studios, Nintendo themselves, and some divisions of Capcom and EA) to make their art look good without HDR rendering.

10173

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Epic Mickey - Wii Exclusive

« on: October 08, 2009, 10:08:28 PM »

ntards are actually worse.  They seem to band together with positive energy and community to create Gigantic Voltrons of Stupid.

I'm almost afraid to ask what the Blazing Sword would be made of. 

10174

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Epic Mickey - Wii Exclusive

« on: October 08, 2009, 09:58:34 PM »

Are Nintendo gamers really that spiteful that they would _hope_ they can brag to non Wii owners about a game they can't play?  And then, be genuinely upset or panicked if that bragging possibility goes away?

Yes, they are.  Probably has something to do with all the games on the PS2/PS3 and Xbox/Xbox 360 that have never been on a Nintendo console.

Oh give me a break, Microsoft and Sony fanboys are just as bad.  Do I need to bring up the meltdown that happened when Final Fantasy 13 was announced to no longer be PS3 exclusive?

It's good to see that we're setting our standards so high that Nintendo fans are "just as bad" as Microsoft and Sony fanboys.

10175

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Epic Mickey - Wii Exclusive

« on: October 08, 2009, 09:07:40 PM »

Are Nintendo gamers really that spiteful that they would _hope_ they can brag to non Wii owners about a game they can't play?  And then, be genuinely upset or panicked if that bragging possibility goes away?

Yes, they are.  Probably has something to do with all the games on the PS2/PS3 and Xbox/Xbox 360 that have never been on a Nintendo console.