Messages

351

General Gaming / Re: Xbox720 - that's 2 full revolutions - not till 2014? ~News/Rumor/Speculation~

« on: June 10, 2013, 08:46:29 PM »

I'm surprised.  I'm been wandering around various forums and the xbox 1 vibe doesn't seem to be that negative.  To me, I think this is a horrible trend and I have no desire to pick it up.  Especially at the prices they are asking.  I somewhat accept Steam and tablet game prices because you can get lots of games <$10.  $500 for the ability to buy $60 games that you don't own?  I never pay $60 now for games.  Literally Rock Bank Special Edition was the only game I paid >$50 this gen. 


I'm curious about the fees.  Initially it was the used fee will be the same as buying it new.  Now it seems they've dropped off that point.  But you can expect the overshipment and <$20 prices within 6 months to stop.  I just don't see how this benefits the industry.  Are people really going to spend more on games?  I have a set amount I spend on games and I try to maximize my enjoyment out of that.  If I spend $60/game, my budget would be like 3 games a year.  I'm not not paying $500 to play 3 games a year.  And consumers will really think twice about buying any game that doesn't get 9.5 on all the major review sites.  So expect the trend of sequels and copycats to get worse.


I really hope Nintendo doesn't go this route next gen.  The Wii U may be the last console I own if they tread this path.  If the Xbox 360 for $99 rumor comes true, I'd have to pick up a 360 though.  As a PS3/Wii owner, I think I could find enough $10 360 games to make $99 a go. 

352

TalkBack / Re: Best Buy Taking Part in Wii U Basic Returns

« on: June 09, 2013, 11:21:23 AM »

It makes sense now.  The deluxe sold much better than the basic.  It's assumed a $50 price drop will hit this holidays with the soft relaunch of the Wii U.  The Deluxe will be at $300 and be the only model.  Both Xbox 1 and PS4 will only have one SKU so Wii U will just consolidate.  They are going to have a white deluxe model coming so why not just add the 32 gig hd and Nintendoland to the package rather than let them sit on the shelves. 


A 64 gig is still not big enough to make a difference and doesn't look any less inferior to the 500 gig the competition is offering.  They built the Wii U too small for a hard drive, so they might as well just ride out the 32 gig hard drive with USB expansion ability. 

353

Nintendo Gaming / Re: The Wii U and next Gen: What can Nintendo do?

« on: June 03, 2013, 07:01:46 AM »

Eh, I don't plan to download retail games and I'm pretty constitutionally opposed to DLC. If I fill up the existing space with eShop games or something I can just get a cheapo external to pad it out a bit. Although 8 gigs is a joke, so is 32 gigs at this point.

It's definitely a joke.  I've been hard on Nintendo for not including a hard drive.  It may cost marginally more $, but they make more selling a digital title than a retail title so they would recover the cost quickly.  I did forget that an external thumb drive would work.  They go up to 64 gig and are about $20-30.  So that would be a decent cheap way to expand the memory for people like us that don't want an external hard drive and don't want to spend alot.  I still think the 3 gig they give you with the basic is way too little.  I have the 4 or 5 30 cent VC games, 6 or 7 demos, and Bit Trip Runner 2, and I only have 16 gig available on my deluxe.   

354

Nintendo Gaming / Re: The Wii U and next Gen: What can Nintendo do?

« on: June 02, 2013, 02:20:59 PM »

I think they needed to drop the 3DS price, but I think once the games were there it would have been fine to only bring it down to $200 instead of going all the way to $170. They overreacted when the main issue was lack of software, and I think that's what they're trying to avoid right now with the Wii U.

I think they needed to get the base unit to $170 so the XL could be under $200.  I think that is the key point for consumers and that the XL sells better.  I know if a sub $200 XL didn't exist I wouldn't own a 3ds.

With that $240 Target sale, there was no way I was going to consider shelling out an extra $100 for the deluxe set. If they do anything with price cuts, I imagine it'll be putting the basic at $250 to run out the stock and then just have deluxe sets with maybe a few different pack-in game options.

I know I'm the old now and out of touch.... but I don't see how you can use the basic without buying a $70 external hard drive.  I'm buying all retail discs and downloading only VC and Wii U Ware titles and I expect the 32 gig to hold up for the life of the unit.  We'll see how much dlc gets released, maybe I'm too optimistic.  To me the extra space is worth $70.  Then you have the other add-ons which aren't too bad. 

355

TalkBack / Re: Super Ghouls'n Ghosts Review Mini

« on: May 31, 2013, 08:30:59 AM »

I have it for the SNES.  This game is hard, but I still feel it's rewarding.  You can get to level 4 and have fun without beating it.  I still get enjoyment from games like this that I can't beat.  This game is a game that adds a lot from save states on the Wii U.  I was very close to beating this game at one point and I'm not a great gamer so it is obtainable.  I'll have to give it a go sometime.

356

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Verdict on New Super Mario Bros. 2?

« on: May 28, 2013, 11:08:17 AM »

I was surprised how much I liked NSMB 2.  It has some solid level design and a focus on coin collecting that has never really been what I look for in prior Mario's.  But it turned out pretty fun when the screen is covered in gold and you have to run everywhere to finalize it.  There are more levels in NSMB 2, but as discussed above, it's hard to judge if it will take you longer.  I think the price point makes it a must have.

357

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Wii U to miss out on 15 EA Games

« on: May 22, 2013, 08:04:58 AM »

Now that EA is building Wii U games....

Seems to me that EA is acknowledging that the PS4 and Xbox ONE used game lockout and game delivery method may negatively affect consumer perception.  They want to leave the door open to go back to the Wii U which uses a traditional game delivery method.

I'm sure third parties will push their big games to PS4, XboxOne to try and make this more lucrative delivery model work.  I've been surprised before so I don't want to say it'll fail, but I think this is a big deal and makes me feel alot better about my decision to get on the Wii U train.  Last generation I was a PS3/Wii gamer.  This gen I'll probably be a Wii U/PC gamer to make up for the games that miss the Nintendo console.

358

TalkBack / Re: Date, Retail Release, and More Revealed for New Super Luigi U

« on: May 17, 2013, 10:43:47 PM »

I wonder if the retail version is to give the illusion of the Wii U having more games on the shelf.  The store shelf is a minor marketing tool.  If people are walking through the store and they see a barren Wii U shelf they figure the system has nothing going for it.  This just puts some extra item on the shelf so the Wii U looks like it has a few more games.

That goes against Nintendo's new policy of under-shipping games so you have to buy the digital version.  They should still make more $ off the digital copy off of the game.  And like the last few releases, you'll probably have to buy online to find a copy of the physical version. 

359

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Frostbite 3 ported to mobile platforms

« on: May 17, 2013, 09:49:29 PM »

I know this is old, but this article was not vengeful and gives some really good business background from EAs perspective why they would not want to continue with the relationship with Nintendo and how they have put some effort into the relationship.

http://www.notenoughshaders.com/2013/03/25/the-sexual-history-between-nintendo-and-electronic-arts/

I know it's easy to pick on EA because they don't always put alot of effort into ports and release sequels that sometimes are flawed.  But let's bet honest here, they do the same things on other consoles and succeed.  The initial PS3/Xbox 360 ports of Madden were way worse than the Wii U initial version.  And they sold much better.  That's the business rational for EA.

The vengeful PR actually has a business purpose too.  Now that they've gone the route of not supporting the Wii U it would be better for them to not have the Wii U and whatever is on the Wii U competing for consumers money.  It's a little outward and pretty unprofessional, but the Wii U is getting crushed in the media and this is just piling it on.  So EA appears to be accomplishing their goal of at least limiting the competition that Nintendo provides. 

360

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Will the Wii U be Nintendo's Last console?? Will they go handheld only??

« on: May 14, 2013, 06:53:19 PM »

The ipad and smartphones being popular is a double edged sword.  They may be popular but there is a large portion of the population that is priced out of buying a $500 ipad or paying $90 a month for a smartphone.  From what I could find online less than 10% of US homes own an Ipad. 

Then you have the other side of the coin.  If you think money is no object then you can have an Ipad and a 3DS.  I think an Ipad is an inferior gaming device to the 3DS and I think there will always be a market for a cheap dedicated device that does it's job well. 

Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft make some really good games that they make console exclusive.  As such, games will drive a portion of the market to consoles.  These makers make money off of licensing fees and incentivized to be really competitive in the market even if their competitor becomes the Ipad.  That's why they are looking at FTP games, DLG, and the future delivery models.  They also know that $60 games won't work on an Ipad and they want to conserve that future revenue stream.

Consoles may eventually die, I just don't think tablets are the technology to make that happen.  I also think that Nintendo going a hybrid home console/portable will not make any headway in the home console market and will probably lose portable market share quickening the death of the model for Nintendo. 

361

General Gaming / Re: Ocular Riff: Is This the Future of Electronic Games?

« on: May 14, 2013, 06:23:31 AM »

The future of looking like an idiot while playing a game, oh wait, that's already here, it's called Kinect

I was thinking just dance, rock band.  Most party games make the users look like idiots so others at the party can have a good laugh. 

362

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Will the Wii U be Nintendo's Last console?? Will they go handheld only??

« on: May 13, 2013, 09:00:30 PM »

Nintendo has been always pushing the industry to do something different.  And Nintendo has been moving each generation to focusing more and more of its core business on its handhelds.  I believe this is because where Nintendo lost ground in the home console fight, Nintendo only continued to gain ground in the portable market.  To me everything points towards Nintendo moving towards another industry and company shake up for them.

Nintendo seemed to really start focusing on pushing the industry to do something different with the Wii and now with the Wii U.  The N64 and Gamecube were really good traditional game systems.  It's like Nintendo knew it was losing 3rd party support and wanted people to focus on features(experiences) for purchasing their game systems.  They thought if enough consumers bought in 3rd parties would have to develop for their systems instead of trying to entice 3rd party developers with either partnerships or money changing hands. 

Ian Sane - If they combined the two then they wouldn't have to worry about spreading their resources thin trying to supply games for two formats. 

Software is hugely profitable for Nintendo.  They could expand their teams to make more games if they wanted to.  I don't think they want to flood the market with their games because it will drive down the value of their brand and the profitability of individual games they release as people would be more inclined to skip iterations of their games.  For example, the Wii had 3 tradional Mario games and the DS had 2 Mario games.  Would the market support 5 Mario games on one console?  The Wii U will soon have 2 Mario's and the 3DS already has 2 Mario's. 

I think the more reasonable expectation if Nintendo were forced to focus on one console would be that they would shrink development teams and possibly close some of their development studios.  It will be much harder to squeeze the same profit from just one system without a systemized cost reduction or significantly increased demand. 


And I think that is the key to this argument.  Nintendo wouldn't want to focus on one system because it will mean less profit for them.  It's possible that the market may eventually move this way, but the Wii, PS3, Xbox360 all are going to sell > 100 million units so there is still a strong market there.  I think the home market could shrink as handheld entertainment becomes mainstream but I think people still want the TV to be the entertainment centerpiece of the home. 

There are alot of good reasons why the home console/handheld markets would struggle and are iterated within this thread.  But I'd like to add one other reason.  They are almost two different markets in and of themselves.  Home consoles focus on performance, 1080p and big screens.  TVs will continue to get bigger and 4K screens will be appealing eventually.  I don't see a handheld that costs <$400 having a hope of creating the experience I'm looking for on my big screen and this is complete overkill for mobile gaming where I want a 5" screen to look good. 

I also think we are ignoring the effect that kids have in the market.  I'm not happy if my kid breaks their $150 3ds but it's a risk I'm willing to take.  I'm also willing to buy a 3ds per child because that is what is needed for a road trip experience.  I'm not willing to buy multiple Wii Us for multiple children, and I'm not willing to risk my child taking a $350 Wii U to school and risk it breaking.  So I think a $400 unit that can be a handheld fails.  I think this would cause a collapse in the handheld market dominance where a $100-150 unit seems to flourish.  I also think that people are willing to have a handheld as an add on because the cost is not seen as a dealbreaker(maybe even an impulse buy) and is much cheaper than other alternatives such as an ipad. 

363

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Wii U to miss out on 15 EA Games

« on: May 12, 2013, 08:21:43 AM »

<quote>"RISC is the style of architecture. Pretty much any modern processor except x86 based CPUs uses RISC."</quote>

But PS4, Xbox and PC games all use x86 right?  And these are what the majority of console makers make their games on.  So it seems to add an extra step in the process to port multi console games to the Wii.  Frostbite 3 already works on x86, it would require optimization for the Wii U.  I don't buy that they can't get it working, but it seems if Nintendo was going for more 3rd party support, they should have used the standard system rather than just use what Apple uses.

<quote>I don't understand the appeal of system wide achievements.</quote>

I don't think achievements are the end all, but they expand a games playtime and typically enjoyment.  I.E. PS3 games have trophies that require a specific thing or type of playthrough to obtain.  Like a game might give you a trophy for beating levels without getting damage, or beating a game only using one weapon, or beating a level without killing anyone.  People that like to 100% games would enjoy achievements.   I like having these additional goals instead of just beat the game. 

364

TalkBack / Re: Just Being Mii: You're Doing It Wrong: Gaming Without a Backlog

« on: May 10, 2013, 11:17:37 PM »

I'm kind of with Ian here.  I game jump, not a big RPG fan because if you leave those games you'll have a hard time getting back into them.  But I have an incredibly large backlog.  The older games because of opportunity and price.  If I pick up an SNES game for $1.99 and only play it a couple of hours, I've probably got my money out of it.  I'll pick up newer games too though.  I have a soft spot for Gamefly sales at $9.99.  That's mainly because I'd rather have a perfect condition game than eventually pick up a newer used game at $4.99 and it looks like somebody played hockey with it. 

So I have a backlog I embrace.  It doesn't bring down my enjoyment.  I'll get to the games eventually.  And if I don't I won't have that much money dropped into them that I'll feel it's a total waste.  I think the key is games are supposed to be fun and I'll play and buy what I want to.  The games in my backlog I want to play, but life is busy with a kid and I'll get to them when I get to them. 

365

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Wii U to miss out on 15 EA Games

« on: May 09, 2013, 09:32:35 PM »

If Frostbite 3 is so CPU intensive, then wouldn't they have issues running it on the PS4 as well? Last I heard the PS4's CPU wasn't anything to right home about.

The PS4 is rumored to cost $500+.  The CPU rumor is wrong.  They are moving from the Cell, but it will be a strong CPU.  When has Sony ever skimped on hardware?  People get too hung up in a speed #.  Architecture has changed dramatically and it will be a nice CPU.  It's like a 2003 Pentium 4 went up to 3.8 ghz, and today the fastest I7 processor goes about 3.8 ghz.  Do you think they are comparable?  Not so much. 


They are putting a huge amount of RAM into it and basically making it a PC so ports are easy.  EAs excuse for the Wii U is they need a dedicated team to develop for the Wii U.  Xbox is basically developing a PC as well.  This is the risk of going early.  Wii U should have went with an OS that was basically a PC. 

366

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Will the Wii U be Nintendo's Last console?? Will they go handheld only??

« on: May 08, 2013, 08:18:05 AM »

As far as I can tell, every single facet of the Wii U has been a disaster. 
- The console is underpowered.  -First Nintendo HD console, more power than PS3 or Xbox 360, console has plenty of power. 
- The OS is slow and buggy. -The recent patch helped alot.  In my experience, it went from a Vita like experience to a PS3 like experience. 
- Frequent game crashing.  I've not experienced a crash yet.  Not saying they don't exist, I've just not experienced it yet. 
- Pretty much nothing standout in the way of games. -I'd challenge you to find many systems that have a great lineup at this point in their life.  I'm very excited about Pikmin 3 and Wonderful 101.  The Wii U will get great games, I'm not worried about that. 
- Been shunned by 3rd parties.  As has every Nintendo console since N64.  You can say EA shunning them is new, but they got shunned by EA for mainstay launches on the Wii (Battlefield, Deep Space) and always had the worst port in the sports departments. 
- Hardly any information pre-launch. (Ordinary PR) -? We still don't know anything about the Durango console and that is expected to launch in November. 
- Missing DLC -So far one title has not said what their Wii U DLC plans are, and EA dropped Wii U support.  The capacity for DLC is there and will be utilized by most people who put together a Wii U game.
- Staple titles absent from the system. -This is really the same point as shunned by 3rd parties since Nintendo staples will obviously appear.

You say your not here to cause issues, but it seems like you are just trying to rail on the Wii U to me.  The measuring stick of any consoles is the games.  I'll give you, the Wii U is lacking games at this point in it's life so it's hard for me to recommend a purchase at this time.  But the system is the best hardware that Nintendo has released.  It will probably be outshined by the PS4 and Durango, but they will be outdated by PC within a few months anyway.  It does 1080p and people that take the time to port correctly put the best versions on the Wii U.  The system is fine and won't be a Wii to PS3 downgrade.   

Other positives not mentioned above.  Nintendo has gone back to a focus on core games, which I'm excited about.  Also, the Wii U not selling great isn't necessarily a bad thing for Nintendo fans.  With the Gamecube, there was a players choice within a year of the system launch.  When did the Wii get a players choice?  It seemed like year 6 to me and they kept it limited to games that had sequels or didn't really sell well in the first place. 

I don't think home consoles will go away.  The DS is a monster brand and I don't think Nintendo is in a hurry to get the DS to compete against the PS4 and Durango.  You have the issue with multiplayer.  Do you buy multiple DS's?  Do you sell stand alone controllers for the DS?  How do you do storage?  Do the games use 32 gig sd cards or do you build in a hard drive?  How do you implement the dual screens?  Also,  the DS would cost $500+ if it had enough power to do 1080p and multiplayer with just one system.  I also think the market for handheld will try to stay portable only.  I think Apple wants to sell 3-4 Ipads to your family.  They are in no hurry to give you a one shop stop to get everything you want in just 1 device. 

367

TalkBack / Re: Tank! Tank! Tank! Free Download on eShop Gives You 60 Club Nintendo Coins

« on: May 04, 2013, 08:37:05 AM »

I never got a survey.  Which is too bad, I'm 60 points from platinum.  I have several unregistered games around. I was just hoping that I could save them to net year. 

368

TalkBack / Re: Eternal Darkness Spiritual Successor Slated for Wii U Release

« on: May 04, 2013, 07:34:18 AM »

I know SK has a sketchy track record outside of ED, which they worked with Nintendo, but this excites me.  ED was awesome and I would much welcome a sequel.  I loved the Gamecube and the Wii was good, but less so than the Gamecube to me.  So if the Wii U misses some of the big games but picks up games like this, I will be excited.  Sales aren't everything. 

369

TalkBack / Re: Nintendo Downloads - May 5, 2013

« on: May 02, 2013, 08:55:05 PM »

Somewhat intrigued by Dillon's Rolling Western.  Is it worth paying $6.99 even though a sequel exists for it?

370

TalkBack / Re: Madden Skipping Wii U in 2013

« on: May 02, 2013, 08:16:57 PM »

The Dreamcast to Wii U comparison is a bit harsh.  Sega was bleeding money, Nintendo just became profitable again.  Nintendo made money on the Gamecube (actually I think more than the PS2 and Xbox) so there is little concern they can't make $ on a Wii U.  I think Gamecube is the low end of the Wii U, it's hard to know the high end.  The 3DS shows Nintendo can recover from a bad start.  Plus, we don't know the pricing/mistakes that Sony/Microsoft will make that may make people re-evaluate a Wii U purchase.  I think most people are waiting till all consoles hit because $350 is a lot to drop on a possible regret.

The NFL definitely doesn't pick consoles.  It's like Directv Sunday Ticket.  Directv pays something like $700 million a year for exclusive rights.  If Directv decided to price everyone out of the market and charge $2,000/year for Sunday Ticket, NFL couldn't do anything and I don't think they would care anyway.  They have their money from the exclusive agreement. 

I'm disappointed by this announcement.  After Madden 25 wasn't announced for the Wii U, I figured it wasn't an oversight.  It seems to me though that EA should have given the Wii U another year and given Madden an optimized engine released on-time with the other versions to give it a fair shake.  My assumption is that they are going to release PS4/Xbox720 versions this year, after they get trounced by the PS3/Xbox360 versions in sales are they going to cease development on those systems?  Probably not. 

My bigger disappointment is that EA releases some good games over a wide range of genres.  My one friend is a battlefield 4 gamer and I think the loss of that game hurts.  I read EA has 1 Wii U game in development.  My guess is Fifa 14 does well enough in Japan/Europe and that EA brings that game for the Wii U. 

371

TalkBack / Re: Nintendo Selling Refurbished Handhelds 

« on: April 30, 2013, 07:41:55 AM »

And a refurbished console is better than preowned. I bought a refurbished iPad 3 for my mother and it is (for all intents and purposes) completely new.

Gamestop sells refurbished consoles as well.  But definitely, Nintendo refurbished >>>>>>>> Gamestop refurbished.

372

Nintendo Gaming / Re: What's the one biggest Virtual Console game you're upset isn't hitting day one?

« on: April 29, 2013, 08:26:37 AM »

Harvest Moon SNES - I recently got the itch to play this game and a cart is $40 so this would be the perfect $8 VC pick-up.  This was out on Wii VC.  I'm not going to pick it up now though, I'll wait for a Wii U edition.  If it takes them 2-3 years to re-release I'll probably just move on to other games and not end up purchasing it. 


That's the biggest disappointment in my opinion.  Yes, this service would never get 100% of the available games, and yes, it probably made sense to trickle out new re-releases on the Wii VC.  But they are seriously missing an opportunity here.  They can't trickle out games for the next 2-3 years that have been available on the Wii VC for the last 5 years and expect it to bring excitement to anyone.  Even people that love the games will be hardpressed to pay the $1 or $1.50 upgrade fee after they've gone 3 years without a Wii U version. 


They should focus on growth.  Arcade, Gamecube, Wii U, maybe even Win 95 games, or fill out older catalogs for Neo Geo, Game Gear ect.  I want this to succeed, but I just don't see this succeeding if they plan on rereleasing the already available Wii VC games over the life of the Wii U.  I never even moved Wii VC games to my Wii U and it looks more and more likely that I won't waste my time. 

373

TalkBack / Re: Wii U System Update Releasing Monday?

« on: April 21, 2013, 04:10:23 PM »

I think it's more likely it was complete, but they wanted to roll out the VC update with this update instead of having 2 large updates in back to back months.

374

TalkBack / Re: Wii U System Update Releasing Monday?

« on: April 21, 2013, 03:36:18 PM »

It seems to me that if it was to address people's concerns that it was coming they should have addressed them a while ago.  But that's a valid reason to announce a fix ahead of time. 


And I know they said April, but they said April the last week in March leading me to believe it would be released first week of April.  Especially since they showed a video of how much quicker the boot time was.  So you'd have to assume the update was complete a month ago. 

375

TalkBack / Re: Wii U System Update Releasing Monday?

« on: April 21, 2013, 02:19:33 PM »

All great additions.  But am I the only one who thinks it is odd that they announced this update and features a month ago?  I just figured when I heard the press release for a quicker operating system I could go download it and update.  Then I repeatedly checked the eshop to no avail.


Really?  Hyping an update?