Messages

[Edfishy]

1251

Nintendo Gaming / RE:First Twilight Princess Review

« on: November 15, 2006, 12:34:12 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: Edfishy


And yet Nintendo persists to constantly make the same series of games over and over again.  How many Pokemon clones have they made... this month?

Ha ha, this is true, but as you went on to say, I think his point is more about graphics (and content in general).  Tycho on Penny Arcade was recently complaining that Gears of War's matchmaking isn't on par with Halo 2.  He considers what is supposedly the best console FPS the baseline for online matchmaking.  How many more people would buy Gears of War if it had even better matchmaking than Halo 2?  How much would it cost to have that?

In an even more extreme example, you've got Matt on IGN requesting voice acting in Zelda.  How many more customers would Zelda draw in if Nintendo spent $5 million on voice acting?  Some games are beginning to go for a-list Hollywood talent.  What would $20 million in voice acting get Nintendo?

Sequels are still important, but refreshing them instead of always adding on to them (and coming up with brand-new game concepts) may be a more realistic solution business-wise.  

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Nintendo Gaming / RE: First Twilight Princess Review

« on: November 15, 2006, 09:17:38 AM »

Quote
Ian sez:  Regarding graphics can we all agree that since this is pretty much a Cube game that at the very least it should look as good as Resident Evil 4? What I'm hearing is that it isn't that good and ideally it should be the best looking Cube game there is considering how much later after RE4 it is being released.

This brings us to one of Nintendo's philosophies on Wii.  Genyo Takeda said:

Quote
After speaking with Nintendo's development partners, I became keenly aware of the fact that there is no end to the desire of those who just want more. Give them one, they ask for two. Give them two, and next time they will ask for five instead of three. Then they want ten, thirty, a hundred, their desire growing exponentially. Giving in to this will lead us nowhere in the end.

Edit: Nah, I'll let the quote speak for itself.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE: Where the hell are the US Wii commercials?!

« on: November 15, 2006, 08:55:11 AM »

Yeah, cause "you suck" is just what non-gamers have been waiting to hear.

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General Gaming / RE: Ridge Racer 6 & 7 comparisons

« on: November 15, 2006, 08:40:15 AM »

You could program a game to do that, but I think it would be quite a lot of work for arguably little gain.  Looking at PC games, I've seen them allow you to set texture resolutions and overall resolution and framerate, but  I don't think I've seen anything like that (then again I've only played a couple).

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General Gaming / RE: Sony getting hit Hard lately

« on: November 15, 2006, 08:36:16 AM »

I'm surprised considering how humongous the lines I saw on YouTube were, but I guess maybe quarter of the lines were resellers.

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General Gaming / RE: I played PS3 last night

« on: November 15, 2006, 08:29:00 AM »

There are like three basketball games, and one of them was cancelled.  The EA one.  I think this is the Sony one.

Edit: thanks for the impressions, guys!

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Nintendo Gaming / RE: Worst sentence in worst Wii "first look" ever.

« on: November 15, 2006, 08:04:42 AM »

You know why this is?  Because Washington Post writers and their audience don't care about graphics enough to tell the difference between PS2 and Wii.  Lots of people won't be able to tell the difference - only nerds will notice. (edit: I include myself in that group).

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General Gaming / RE: Sony getting hit Hard lately

« on: November 15, 2006, 07:52:58 AM »

On PS3 scalpers:
I'm surprised!  I assume it will go better in North America based on the preorder sales, but it looks like the market for gold-digging is shrinking.  Selling internationally would be your best bet, but I suppose there may be some kinks in that plan.

On Wii shipment numbers:
IGN said: 1 million Wiis at launch - September 26th - but it turns out Nintendo retracted that statement later on.  I never saw that retraction - figures a filthy Canadian would lie to us.

TheInquirer said: 11 million units by the end of March - BUT that's according to an analyst at a place called UBS, Nintendo is officially sticking to 6 million.  I bet Nintendo could produce more if it needs to, but will it?

So where is the 500K-700K figure coming from?  I can't find any official comments from Nintendo on shipment numbers.

Edit: the only numbers I know are straight from Nintendo are still: 4 million by year end (most for Americas) 6 million by fiscal year end (March).

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Nintendo Gaming / RE: New Wii Information via Magicbox

« on: November 15, 2006, 07:39:50 AM »

Good questions!  I believe I heard on IGN that you will be able to transfer games to a new console, but it will actually require a call to customer service (and probably serial numbers or something).  I agree that it should be tied to an account instead of a console.

[Pittbboi]

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:Where the hell are the US Wii commercials?!

« on: November 15, 2006, 07:28:44 AM »

Quote
Originally posted by: Pittbboi
Don't expect Nintendo to just come out of nowhere at the absolute last minute and just steal their thunder.

In short: it'll be the PS2 launch all over again.

Sure, Wii's are going to sell out at launch, and I'm going to be camping out for my very own, no doubt. Nintendo has done all they've needed to do to attract their established fanbase. But this target audience they're going after doesn't even know it exists yet for the most part. Because of this, I think Wii's launch is going to be a lot quieter (Which will make early adopters happy, as I'm sure it'll be a lot easier for them to find a Wii at launch than it was for any other console). It'll still sell, but don't expect the market demand to be as great when the launch stock is all gone, and because of that, I think Nintendo's missed out on generating a LOT of free and effective publicity.

I agree that Nintendo isn't that far in to the general public's mind yet.  The system has been mentioned in the news, but people who don't pay attention to the news don't know what Wii is.  So yeah, marketing is necessary.  And it has begun.

The other side of the coin is that Nintendo can't possibly match Sony's "free" shortage publicity because PS3 is coming out in extremely limited quantities.  The only way to do it is to cut launch shipments (intrestingly, Nintendo is supposedly saying 500K-700K instead of 1 million, I wonder if that's a real shortage, or a plan to capture some of that free publicity?)  Here's the point: Sony's shortage publicity isn't "free" after all, because once Christmas has come and gone, demand for the system will drop dramatically.  By having such major shortages, Sony is giving up its chance to capitalize on the hype.

Edit: But in the end, if the question is one of marketshare, Nintendo will win that through games that grab the attention of the target audience.  Just as PSP has nothing to compete with Animal Crossing, Nintendogs or Brain Training, Xbox 360 and PS3 will have nothing to compete with Wii's killer apps...if they exist!

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Nintendo Gaming / RE: New Wii Information via Magicbox

« on: November 15, 2006, 05:31:15 AM »

It's a shame that rumble and sound can't be controlled individually.

There are other good and bad points here, but that's the only one that really strikes me.

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NWR Forums Discord / RE: Wow, the site's new name is crap!

« on: November 15, 2006, 05:12:12 AM »

Nwar?

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NWR Forums Discord / RE: AgentSeven is the prophet

« on: November 15, 2006, 05:07:04 AM »

They'd sacrifice virgin launch consoles on stone altars and post the results on YouTube.

[is]

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General Gaming / RE: Sony getting hit Hard lately

« on: November 15, 2006, 05:03:49 AM »

Spak: 500,000-700,000 is half of what Nintendo was saying in September.  I heard 1 million on launch day up until now, plus 1 million more by the end of the year.  *worries*

The price of PS3 won't matter as long as it's in such short supply.  People are paying $2000 for them on Ebay. Until the system is easy to get I don't think we'll really know what effect the cost has.  But supply issues are still a big problem - if Sony only reaches say, 3 million by March, publishers planning their 2007 releases will have to seriously consider how many customers will be able to buy their games on PS3.

Edit: Can't spell Septebmer.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE: Official DS Sales Thread

« on: November 15, 2006, 04:49:20 AM »

Actually, PS3, PS2, and PSP combined might match DS sales.  I guess it depends on if Nintendo added enough new stock.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE: Where the hell are the US Wii commercials?!

« on: November 15, 2006, 04:28:35 AM »

Although I'm quite sure Wii will sell out this year, I have to say that with potentially 4 million units available, advertising is still important.  This is easily the biggest system launch (supply-wise) ever.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:IGN reviews

« on: November 15, 2006, 04:24:05 AM »

On IGN's reviews:

Graphics - I think they're focusing too much on graphics.  I will admit that very few of the launch games appear to be pushing the limits of even the GameCube, but I'm still seeing too many comparisons to Xbox 360 and PS3.  That's invalid since the system simply isn't designed to be that powerful.  I think this issue will stop coming up in reviews after a few months go by and expectations wear off.

Scores - Matt gave everyone a peek inside his brain when he mentioned in his blog how proud he was of the score IGN gave to Luigi's Mansion.  I think Matt considers it a big deal to be critical of launch games so that there's room for growth...if you score Luigi's Mansion 9/10, then what score does Super Mario Sunshine deserve?  I also agree with Pro's suggestion that he might be trying to bring game scores back to "reality".

Unfortunately I'm not sure the other IGN channels are onboard with that type of thinking.  Does the original Halo still deserve a 95.7% score (according to GameRankings)?  Not bloody likely.

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General Chat / RE: Sofia Coppola

« on: November 14, 2006, 10:09:05 AM »

Speaking of not staying awake, I tried to like The Incredible Hulk and had the same problem.  Movies are one part experience TIH suffered from catching me at my lowest energy point during the week - 11 PM on a Friday night.

Not to say you were too tired to appreciate Lost in Translation, maybe you were fresh as a daisy, I just think it's interesting how a movie gets one chance to make an impression on you, and everything from who you're watching it with to what time of day it is can affect that.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE: Official DS Sales Thread

« on: November 14, 2006, 10:00:36 AM »

Thanks for the correction!  I still question if these features are enough, but at least there are other features that someone like my aunt might appreciate.  Another point that I forgot to concede earlier is that, yes, Blu-ray is better for holding loads of content, a plus for games.

I think Blu-ray may be a big draw for PS3 down the road, but it will depend on PS3 and Blu-ray maintaining a certain level of popularity until such a time as Blu-ray players become a big plus for consumers.  

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Nintendo Gaming / RE: Wii Pre-order Woah (Update: Actually getting 0 for the store)

« on: November 14, 2006, 09:46:01 AM »

I don't think Wal Mart does bundles in-store.  They didn't last generation anyway.  However, they were totally unorganized, I'll admit that.

I repent some of my earlier comments...apparently Sony really is facing a shortage.  I don't know what's up with Nintendo.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE: Official Countdown to wii

« on: November 14, 2006, 09:40:34 AM »

I'll be in the stores on Friday trying to get a couple of PS3s, so date-breaking shouldn't affect me much.  I don't expect to see much of that happening around here anyway.

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NWR Forums Discord / RE: Guess the Next Poster

« on: November 14, 2006, 09:36:46 AM »

Ian has only been to the Funhouse once or twice.  Svevan, maybe?

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General Gaming / RE: Ridge Racer 6 & 7 comparisons

« on: November 14, 2006, 09:33:21 AM »

Honestly, I don't really care which system looks better, but certainly it makes PS3 look bad since Xbox 360 is about $200 cheaper.  In the end, though, the game lineups will be the deciding factor.  Right now 360 is way out in the lead in that respect, but maybe PS3 will catch up.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE: First Twilight Princess Review

« on: November 14, 2006, 09:21:14 AM »

Miyamoto, a lefty himself, has said that it's hard for him to play left-handed.  I'm sure he had the opportunity to play left-handed without the mirror mode as well.  And Miyamoto doesn't strike me as someone who would just say that...he strikes me as someone who would tell the developers to fix it if it was a problem.

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General Gaming / RE: Sony getting hit Hard lately

« on: November 14, 2006, 06:39:44 AM »

I'm sure that a few important games have been hit if 200 are borked.  I don't consider backwards compatability that huge, but still...