Messages

13551

General Chat / RE: ASIAN-STYLE ACTION MOVIE LOVE!!!

« on: January 30, 2004, 06:35:25 AM »

I remember there was some crazy kung-fu film where the hero tore out a guy's intestines and then choked him out with them!  HA HA!  It seems kind of redundant though like stabbing a guy in the face with a sword set on fire.

I'm not too familiar with kung-fu flicks but the best I've seen would be Jackie Chan's Police Story.  The story and the dubbing are ridiculous but it's funny so it works.  Like all Jackie movies the stunts are amazing and the end fight is a f*cking huge battle royale in a mall and EVERYONE goes through a window or a piece of furniture.

Another film I recommend is Rapid Fire which stars Brandon Lee.  It's an American film but it's still a great kung-fu movie with Brandon taking on an entire criminal organization single handedly.  It's of course total fluff but the action never stops and the fight scenes are fantastic.  

13552

General Chat / RE: Bush ads

« on: January 30, 2004, 06:18:59 AM »

I vote in every election, even the municipal ones.  Personally I think living in a democracy and not voting is a big "f*ck you" to people who live in dictatorships.  The fact that anyone doesn't vote in federal elections just boggles my mind.

However I will not be voting in this coming election.  Why?  Because I'm Canadian.

13553

TalkBack / RE: Killer7 No Longer GameCube Exclusive

« on: January 30, 2004, 05:59:30 AM »

This kind of sucks.  I mean we still get Killer 7 so that's good but the loss of exclusivity is a bummer.  It's not really our fault either.  While I don't know what VJ's sales are any low sales of PN 03 for example are Capcom's fault.  THEY made the game suck so thus THEY killed its sales.  That's how it works with the Cube userbase.

I figure we don't have to worry about scaled back graphics.  They designed Killer 7 for the Cube first and I figure they'll continue in that direction.  The PS2 version will be a port.  Odds are it will even come out later.  If the PS2 version is released later then the Cube will still benefit if the game is really popular.  Limited exclusives (ie: nearly every major Xbox game) can be just as good as full exclusives provided the game is an immediate hit.

As for Shinji Mikami it sounds to me like he doesn't like the corporate BS at Capcom.  That makes perfect sense since Capcom is the king of milking franchises for all they're worth which would naturally piss off creative developers.  Nintendo would be a pretty good fit for Mikami since he would be allowed much more creative freedom, he wouldn't have to worry about ports, and he wouldn't have to see his creations be farmed off to someone else for endless sequel making.  Nintendo could also use him since his mature style is a stark contrast to Miyamoto's family-friendly style and having two completely different developers working at Nintendo would cover more genres and demographics.  However he might not leave because if he does he completely loses control of Resident Evil and all his other creations owned by Capcom.

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TalkBack / RE: Latest DS Details

« on: January 29, 2004, 11:21:11 AM »

"But does nintendo really think that a handheld with 2 screens is the future of handheld gaming??"

I think they do and I don't think it's such a dumb idea.  A dual screen design is more flexible because it can have both dual and single screen games.  It expands the options for designers without forcing them to a new standard.  All this needs is a killer app that could not be done without two screens.

Interchangability between the GBA and DS would suggest a GB/GBC style system where most of the games are playable on both but with some extra features or graphic enhancements on the DS and all two screen games are DS exclusive.  If they go this route however over time the GBA will be phased out in favour of the DS.

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TalkBack / RE: Latest Nintendo Performance Numbers

« on: January 29, 2004, 11:12:00 AM »

"i cant remember the last time nintendo put something original out."

Someone has a short memory then.  Aside from the familiar main character Warioware is a completely original game and came out only a few months ago.  One could argue the since it was never released in North America Fire Emblem could also to considered original.  Original to us anyway.

And since when did originality have to do with supporting multiple consoles.  I REALLY doubt we're going to see Sony bust out some incredibly original content for the PSP.  The launch lineup will likely be similar to the GBAs with lots of ports and everything else being a sequel.  PSX ports are going to be as common on the PSP as SNES ports on the GBA.  Original games aren't as important as GOOD games.  Therefore I think Nintendo could support these three platforms at the same time.  Afterall a lot of third parties are supporting three consoles now.

My concern isn't with Nintendo being spread too thin but rather the reasoning for making this a third pillar.  From a pure technology point of view a dual screen portable should make a single screen one with older hardware obsolete.

13556

Nintendo Gaming / RE: MP2 details and IGN Capcom hyping

« on: January 29, 2004, 09:54:40 AM »

"E3 2004 will be happy and warm."

Translation: E3 will have at least one Cube game that, unlike most of the connectivity stuff that dominated Nintendo's lineup last year, people will actually give a sh!t about.

Where is this Capcom stuff coming from?  Matt doesn't mention them in the post you quoted.  We probably shouldn't be too excited though since the PS2 guy is talking about it which suggests it's not exclusive.  I mean a good multiplatform game is still great but it's not going to sell any Cubes.

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General Gaming / RE: GBC=NES, GBA= SNES, can the "DS" = N64??

« on: January 29, 2004, 06:46:57 AM »

"whether its a portable N64 or not, if the DS has 'N64' like graphics what does that mean for the GBA2?"

I'm pretty sure the DS is the GBA2.  Nintendo is likely either playing up this third pillar stuff so as not to hurt GBA sales or like oohhboy mentioned they're going to see how it's accepted and they'll only make a new Gameboy if it completely bombs.  Anything that can be done on a single screen portable can be done on a dual screen one so there's no point for the GBA to coexist with the DS.  The GBA will remain a "pillar" like the PS1 is a "pillar": a budget system with minimal support.

While I don't really have a problem with a 3D portable, though I wish 2D would stick around longer, if it's going to look like the N64 they shouldn't bother.  Those games look terrible and will only look worse on a tiny screen.  The PSP is supposedly going to have near PS2 graphics.  If the DS is 3D it should look at least Dreamcast good for both clarity reasons and to compete.

13558

Nintendo Gaming / RE: Pokemon Colosseum pre-order bonus disc.

« on: January 29, 2004, 06:24:01 AM »

That's pretty cool that the disc also fixes the calendar bug.  Not a bad way to ship a patch for a non-PC game.

While these pre-order promotions are pretty cool they're making it hard to resist pre-ordering a game.  Now obviously that's the whole point it's just that I usually like to read reviews before buying a game and I can't do that if I pre-order.  A once in a while promotion is cool but I don't want to feel I need to pre-order every game Nintendo makes or miss out on something major.

13559

General Chat / RE: Funny discussion with an Xbox owner

« on: January 28, 2004, 12:49:07 PM »

"it's not that everyone from toronto goes down to vancouver to cheer on the leafs."

Well obviously not.  These are people who are originally from Toronto and for whatever reason have moved to Vancouver.  Seriously there is virtually no one who was born and raised in BC who likes the Maple Leafs (none I've ever met anyway) so it's not a universal appeal factor (at least not here).  I will at least admit that Toronto has a pretty good team this year I just don't like seeing Vancouver residents cheering for a rival Canadian team especially when any other team comes to town GM Place is packed with like 90% Canucks fans.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE: FF Crystal Chronicles: Ask a question, get an answer

« on: January 28, 2004, 11:43:07 AM »

A lot of people point out that the reasoning for the GBA requirement is so that when playing multiplayer the action doesn't pause when someone is using an item, etc.  That's fine with me.  But is there a way to pause in this game?  If I'm playing four players and the phone rings I want to pause the game.  In most RPGs you would just open the menu but that's not an option for multiplayer mode.

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TalkBack / RE: Third Parties Start Pledging DS Support

« on: January 28, 2004, 09:59:16 AM »

EA's attitude towards the DS isn't very surprising.  First of all they likely know very little about it.  Second a lot of their success has been on Sony consoles so in regards to which portable they will be more dedicated to the PSP is the obvious choice.  Finally EA isn't a very creative company and thus isn't going to think of some amazing dual screen ideas as quickly as some of the more quirky Japanese developers.  It's no surprise that the first company to commit support is a Japanese company like Namco.  I have a feeling that the DS is going to have much more Japanese support than American.  American developers tend to not take as many risks and thus will want to go with something more tried and true.

I'll bet you though that if/when Nintendo announces that the DS can play GBA games EA will immediately pledge support.

13562

General Chat / RE: Need A great shoot 'em up game

« on: January 28, 2004, 08:56:28 AM »

Whenever I hear the term shoot 'em up I never think of an FPS.  I guess I'm too old fashioned.

Anyway like someone else mentioned go with Timesplitters 2.  That is easily the best FPS on the Cube and it has amazing multiplayer.  Metroid Prime is a great game but it is NOT a FPS, at least in the traditional sense.  It's more like a Zelda-style game with a first person view.  Although I think it's a great game if you want a shooter stay away from it because you'll be disappointed.  Get Metroid Prime only if you like the original Metroid games or Zelda.

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TalkBack / RE: Latest Nintendo Performance Numbers

« on: January 28, 2004, 06:54:37 AM »

"Anyway I wonder how confident sony is about the PSP now that nintendo has reached 20 million GBA's in America only and now nintendo has a new system to compete against the PSP even though nintendo says it wasnt made to compete with the PSP. I bet sony has been wetting their pants since the december."

I doubt it.  Sony isn't stupid.  They know competing with the GBA is going to be hard but they're probably banking on the popularity of the Playstation name and the superior specs of the PSP to give them an edge.  If the specs are accurate a game designed to use the full hardware of the PSP could never be made for the GBA and that's an advantage for sure.  The DS also changes things a lot.  If Nintendo focuses too much of their efforts on this new portable it could hurt the GBA.  If anything since the DS was announced Sony has become more confident.  By introducing an experimental piece of hardware Nintendo is risking weakening their stranglehold on the portable market just as Sony enters.  Sony may be betting on Nintendo screwing themselves over just like they did the last time Sony took the market out from under them.

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General Chat / RE: Funny discussion with an Xbox owner

« on: January 28, 2004, 06:25:16 AM »

"Ya, but you get fanboys with every console. And Leaf fans. Hate them."

Ah yes, Leaf fans.  Sorry to get off topic but one thing that really bugs me is when the Leafs come to Vancouver and half of the audience arrives wearing Leaf jerseys and cheering the Leafs to victory over the Canucks (a victory which ended their undefeated at home record this season).  So all these people leave Toronto because they like Vancouver better and then show allegiance to their old hometown when their team is in town?  Talk about having your cake and eating it too.  What bugs me is that no one cheers for the Canucks when they play in Toronto.

Anyway getting back on topic the thread starter's conversation with an Xbox fan reminds me of the time a friend of mine was playing Resident Evil for the Cube and his roommate thought that Code Veronica X for the PS2 looked just as good.  We shut him up pretty soon after putting CV on for comparison.  

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TalkBack / RE: National Video Game Tournament Announced

« on: January 27, 2004, 01:38:55 PM »

"I think the company who is sanctioning this forgot that the GCN is usually superior in multiplayer games."

And half of the games are for the console with only two controllers.  I figure the idea is to focus on two player multiplayer games because they work better for a tourament setting.

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General Chat / RE: Happy Birthday, Knowsnothing!

« on: January 27, 2004, 01:32:38 PM »

Happy birthday!

14, eh?  Damn, that makes you young enough for me to be your... significantly older brother.

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TalkBack / RE: National Video Game Tournament Announced

« on: January 27, 2004, 07:47:12 AM »

It's nice to see that there are a variety of genres covered in this tournament.  I was afraid it would be all sports games.  Too bad there's no Smash Bros though.  Or Rampart which I assume they excluded because they were afraid that too many people would sign up for it and its greatness would greatly overshadow the other titles.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE: New Nintendo Game Studio?

« on: January 27, 2004, 07:06:16 AM »

"And how many 1st-party branches make Mario spinoffs?"

Well Intelligent Systems did work on Paper Mario and Mario Kart: Super Circuit but overall, yeah, you're right.  I forgot that most of the developers that do spin-offs are third parties like Hudson and Camelot.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE: New Nintendo Game Studio?

« on: January 27, 2004, 06:54:31 AM »

The real question is who is the head of this team.  I mean the five greatest third parties in Japan are mentioned but that doesn't mean that much if these employees were only minor players in their companies.  A former Konami employee doesn't mean sh!t if all that guy worked on were Disney sports titles.  I want to know who the head of this team is and what he's worked on in the past because that wil give some indication of what this studio is capable of.

If they exist they better be working on some new stuff in genres Nintendo isn't too hot in.  If they're just making Mario spin-offs that EAD doesn't have time to do themselves then there's no point in forming this studio.  Every Nintendo studio should have their own style and work on their own unique type of games.

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TalkBack / RE: Consoles Drive Game Sales

« on: January 26, 2004, 07:08:46 PM »

"I was in Toys R Us just yesterday. Some 20-ish guy picks up the Wind Waker. His girlfriend (or perhaps sister or something) said to him "You're getting him Zelda?" He says "Of course! Zelda rocks!" She says "But he has a PS2." He says "So?" She says "The PS2 doesn't play Nintendo games. You'd have to buy a Nintendo to play Zelda." He hangs his head and walks over to the PS2 rack."

That's pretty funny.  It reminds of pretty much every time I see a kid looking at Cube games with his parents.  Every time the kid will want a highly acclaimed tiitle (SSBM, Soul Calibur II) and immediately the parent will dismiss it and suggest something REALLY bad like the f*cking Scorpion King.  "Hey they have Pikmin!  I want that!"  "I've never heard of that.  What about this Spyro game?"  I mean seriously why do these parents give a f*ck about what their kid is playing if it's not an 'M' title?

Just today a family was looking at the used N64 game section and both kids wanted Star Fox 64 because they heard it was good.  The parents didn't know what it was about so I politely told them about it and that it was a really good game.  The dad is all like "Oh that sounds cool.  What do you know about this game?" and he pointed to some golf game that neither I or the clerk had even heard of.

I guess the point I'm making is that ignorant people are strangely attracted to the crappiest titles.

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TalkBack / RE: Consoles Drive Game Sales

« on: January 26, 2004, 01:52:32 PM »

Imagine if they literally had no clue what they were buying.

"What the hell?  I thought this was Rez, man.  And I can't return this Matrix crap because I already opened it.  Damn."

It would explain a lot anyway.

What these lists really need though is to keep track of returns or trade-ins.  A game can sell huge in the first week only to be returned by half of the people who bought it.  The sales indicate it's a hit but the game could still be hated by those who foolishly bought it.  Once you've bought a game no matter what you can't indicate to the publisher to stop selling bad games.

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TalkBack / RE: Consoles Drive Game Sales

« on: January 26, 2004, 01:21:59 PM »

Does anyone else think it's just f*cking wrong for Need for Speed to outsell a ZELDA GAME?!  At least Madden has a large following but I've never regarded Need for Speed as a major series.  Of course just the fact that Enter the Matrix even made it into the top 100 let alone the top ten shows that the PS2 market is driven by f*cking morons.

I'm happy to see that it was the Xbox instead of the Cube that was absent from this year's top ten.  Maybe that will convince some of those braindead Japanese publishers *cough*Sega*cough* to stop releasing exclusives on that console over the Cube.  I think it's pretty significant that despite its troubles the two most hyped up Cube titles of the year cracked the top ten.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE: Mario 128/WW2 at E3

« on: January 26, 2004, 12:39:45 PM »

"Do NOT expect the next Mario game to be ground-breaking in graphics..."

I find it funny how people assume that Mario games and ground-breaking graphics don't go hand in hand.  What about Super Mario Bros 3 which looked so good for an NES game that it could have passed off as a SNES launch title?  What about Yoshi's Island which was absolutely amazing looking from both a technical and artistic point of view?  Despite what revisionist history has indicated good graphics and Mario games have traditionally gone hand in hand.  Even the super ugly Super Mario Bros was incredible at the time of release.

The only pre-Sunshine Mario platformer that didn't look that great was Super Mario 64 but because it was such a new concept, was a launch title, and still looked better than any PSX game from the time, everyone cut it some slack.  That's ONE Mario title that looked like crap and thus not enough to justify Super Mario Sunshine looking as underwhelming as it did.  Launch games looked better than Super Mario Sunshine.  While it very well might look just as bad the next Mario has no valid excuse for not having great graphics.  It doesn't have to be super realistic but it should still look good.  As least as good as SSBM.  It probably won't and I'm going to justifiably criticize it if that's the case.

As for how the next Mario should play I think the full 3D exploration gameplay of Super Mario 64 still has some life left in it so there's no need to change formats.  Super Mario Sunshine was a disappointing game but not a bad one and Super Mario 64 was a classic so it's not like the formula is broken.  This isn't like the Sonic Adventure series which always had problems that needed to be fixed.

The problem with Super Mario Sunshine is that it changed a lot of stuff and removed stuff but didn't really improve very much.  The result is no flight for Mario, no non-island themed levels, no collecting stars/shines out of order, and a new permanent water pack.  Basically if for the next Mario they ditched the water pack, put flight back in the game, had a variety of levels, alowed us to collect stars out of order, improved on technical stuff (controls, camera, etc), and added some new power ups (ie: NOT permanent) they would have a sequel that although not really ground breaking would be REALLY good.  Super Mario Sunshine tried too hard to innovate and the result wasn't so hot.  Something similiar to Super Mario 64 that improves the formula is ideal.  A Super Mario World instead of a Super Mario Bros 2.

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TalkBack / RE: Nintendo DS Interview

« on: January 26, 2004, 06:38:54 AM »

"Unfortunately, I think that if Nintendo doesn't get out the gate a few months early, PSP will completely overshadow this thing."

I think that's likely as well considering the huge hype the PSP will have going in regardless of what games are available at launch.  I'm hoping that like virtually every non-Nintendo portable ever made the PSP will have some crucial flaw that will kill any chance of it taking off be that battery drainage, high price, potential skipping with the discs, fragile design, etc.  However Sony fans are the same people that accept the fact that they may have to buy a replacement PS2 while the console is still current so they're willing to overlook crappy hardware more than others.

While I think the concept of a two screen portable is pretty cool the timing of its release might not be ideal.  When a serious competitor is entering the market the last thing you want to do is take a big creative risk that may not be accepted by the mainstream audience.  The time to take creative risks is when you're in a comfortable position and can afford to have a blunder.  The Virtual Boy for example was released during the height of the SNES' popularity so when it bombed it didn't totally f*ck them up... until the N64 was released at least.

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TalkBack / RE: Third Parties Start Pledging DS Support

« on: January 24, 2004, 10:43:25 AM »

I wonder how Kojima feels about the DS.  He's a really creative guy and I imagine some pretty neat ideas popped into his head the second he heard about this.  If the guy can create a game that incorporates SUN LIGHT I'm sure he could create something that uses two screens.  I'll bet even if this thing doesn't really take off a good deal of the elite Japanese developers (Kojima, Naka, Suzuki etc) will at least want to try something on the DS.  The two screens idea is unique enough to attract those types of ambitious developers.