Messages

76

TalkBack / RE: REVIEWS: Nitrobike

« on: February 05, 2008, 04:44:47 AM »

Sounds just about right.  I remember selling this one back two days after buying it with sheer anger.  It's one of the only Wii games I've sold out of hating it to the extremes.   About the online matchmaking, supposedly the European version will be setup so that it doesn't require the maximum amount of players if you pick something like 6 player or 4 player race.

77

Nintendo Gaming / RE: Third parties hate me.

« on: February 03, 2008, 02:50:38 PM »

They want me to buy a game of theirs?  Make something I'll actually want to play, and that goes for any company 1st, 2nd, or 3rd.  3rd parties can make great games, but it'll never help their case if the only thing they'll do is a crap port of a big franchise, or try to supposedly "match" the product to the userbase.  It makes them look weak to the owners of said system, and it forces them to buy other consoles just to buy something that in 99% of the situations could've worked just as well on what they owned if they actually bothered to do it right the first time or not be so chicken.  When said ports/adaptations don't sell, guess whos fault it is?  Late ports that don't sell?  Once again, who's fault is that?  I'm not going to be apologetic for 3rd parties.  This is a business, not a 3rd party charity bash.  Give me something that I'll want and I do business with them.  Try and screw me over with a bad port and I'll be one of many who stabs your publisher in the back when the game doesn't come even.  If I do buy it, you'll be stabbed in the back and be on my blacklist.  Unless your next game does a complete 180 it ain't got a chance in my home.  

And on that note, I'll end it by saying this my DS and Wii are about half and half on the 1st and 3rd party spectrum.  That's better than the GC and N64 by a large margin.  It's not better than the NES.  I will say my Wii library has more variety than anything I've had before it, NES included so that's a definite good sign.  I've only had to sell 3 games so far  because of sheer hatred for them, one of them was 1st party.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE: Why does Nintendo hate the Game Cube?

« on: February 03, 2008, 02:11:24 PM »

Nintendo hides the GC because the last thing it wants to associate the Wii with is a loser.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE: Why does Nintendo hate the Game Cube?

« on: February 02, 2008, 04:15:40 PM »

It's not that many 128 games out there, and a majority of the 32 to 64MB games don't even use all of it, some barely use half.

80

TalkBack / RE: EA Confirms Rock Band for Wii

« on: February 01, 2008, 11:23:41 AM »

The reasoning for some of the graphics cuts on PS2 was due to RAM, not having internal storage, as well as processing power required to sync what will usually be 4 different instrument timings and notecharts on the screen at once.  Even on PS3 and 360, the background animations only run 20 fps while the scrolling notes are at 60 just so the framerate could stay up.  Even if it only had an effect temporarily, the PS3/360 versions of Guitar Hero 3 had slowdown on star power and a lot of notes on screen, add two more things to keep up with and see where it all goes.  

Now the PC version of GH3 was just pasted together, that's why that ones runs like crap on anything that probably isn't current.

81

Nintendo Gaming / RE: Why does Nintendo hate the Game Cube?

« on: January 31, 2008, 01:00:36 PM »

N64 was a better console than the GC but that's not even saying all that much.  At least the west somewhat cared for it.  Either way they both blew, I remember giving up of them both of them around 2 1/2 years in.  N64 got too western oriented for my liking and the GC had next to nothing because even then most of Nintendo's titles on there I didn't have the first care for and third parties pretended like it didn't exist or threw the worst forms of everything they had on there.  SNES was OK, but that drought they had during that one period of time.  They recovered, but for me things were never quite the same.  The game security on a platform was gone now.  Screwjobs on both sides became rampant.  

82

TalkBack / RE: Virtual Console Mondays: The Rest of January

« on: January 31, 2008, 12:49:22 PM »

Super SFII SNES fixed a lot of the control issues that was wrong with HF SNES (Special Champion Edition on Genesis had no such issue) and updated the characters some while adding new ones.  How in the world is HF a better game unless your favorite character was nerfed.  Even then it was a far more arcade accurate port.  And of course Capcom was going to do that, they want to make money as much as anyone else.

Truth be told, the ultimate release was SSF2T which I hope either gets released as Wii Ware or in the form of Hyper Street Fighter 2.  The only version of the game Nintendo ever got was the GBA title and irregardless of the buttons, it was obviously rushed out the door with bugs and slowdown galore.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE: Tecmo announces Fatal Frame for the Wii developed by Grasshopper Manufacture!

« on: January 30, 2008, 04:31:06 PM »

According to IGN, there's rumors going around that Nintendo has purchased the rights to the Fatal Frame name.  If that's the case, it's put this whole involvement in development thing into a whole new light.

84

Nintendo Gaming / RE: Why does Nintendo hate the Game Cube?

« on: January 30, 2008, 01:28:14 PM »

Everybody says the dark days started during the N64 era, but I'd actually say it all started during the SNES era.  They never really won it by that much, not to mention that they never really started recovering from that time until recently.  Worst of all, their profits started eroding at this point. Their install base was decreasing which meant less profits than the NES by far.

As for the N64 cartridges were only a small part of the issue. Saturn had CDs and yet they didn't light the world on fire either.  Most PS1 games could not have been that big if for no other reason than the fact it only had 2MB of RAM to load anything on that disc into, all the storage in the world doesn't get around that.  Several games if you're just looking at the graphics and basic sounds did not go over 40MB  (aside from the awful videos Mega Man X4 could've easily been on N64 storage wise).  If storage size was a real issue the DS would be getting raped by the PSP which we know isn't happening.  Most DS games are in the range of 8 to 16MB at the most which is the majority of N64 cartridge sizes.  It was primarily their royalties and programming difficulties of the consoles in both Sega and Nintendo's case.  Everybody wanted to get away from Nintendo mainly due to that as well content control (Duke Nukem 64 had no strip joints, saved women instead of kill them, etc.) which they sure as heck lifted during the GC era. (BMX XXX uncensored on GC, censored on PS2)  During the 16 bit era, most developers had originally jumped over to Sega hoping for them to be a salvation until they figured out that Sega as far as royalties were concerned WANTED to be Nintendo.  Part of the reason Sony became third party to these companies in the first place during SNES/Genesis was to study the industry at the time.  They figured out about the royalties and to an extent corrected them for their Playstation brand.  That and Sony literally opened up the floodgates and didn't stop much of anyone from making a game on the system (unless it was 2D...) which lead to one of the biggest libraries in history.  Having the system easy to program for didn't hurt either.

As far as bringing back GC games on the Wii, to be honest with you I hope not.  The Wii needs NEW, FRESH content, let GC and it's games go for a good while before revisiting them.

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TalkBack / RE: Nyko Unveils the Cord-Free Wireless Adapter for the Wii Nunchuk

« on: January 30, 2008, 09:29:45 AM »

But when the product isn't available and you want something now, what are you gonna do?  You're not waiting if there's a decent enough alternative.

Why March, wasn't it originally January?  Do they just not give a crap?  This can't be because of the way the guitar works is it?

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General Gaming / RE: Burnout Paradise

« on: January 30, 2008, 09:25:18 AM »

I do actually want to give this a look, but the whole free roam idea kind of bugs me in the sense that it seems like they're going for a deep immersion factor over the arcade type of game that I had liked to begin with.  I hope I'm wrong about it, but I just can't shake the feeling.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE: Why does Nintendo hate the Game Cube?

« on: January 30, 2008, 09:21:48 AM »

More like billions, remember for the XBox brand to get to where it is now they really threw what was literally over what could very well be the equivalent of half of what Nintendo has in assets down the tube.  Nintendo doesn't make anywhere close to the kind of profits that they lost on that, even in good times.  It shouldn't be a surprise as to the things that they do and say, it keeps them afloat in a market that is becoming more and more hostile by the day.  

To be honest with you, I didn't care for either game.  Then again, I didn't care much for the GC or the N64 eras either.  And that includes the PS1/2 and XBox.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE: Why does Nintendo hate the Game Cube?

« on: January 30, 2008, 07:52:49 AM »

Funny thing is, a lot of what you seem to hate are also some of the very reasons the company still exists and makes money even despite the declining sales since the SNES era.

I do have to ask, why don't you have a 360 or a PS2 at least?  Or do you?  I mean for someone like you I honestly can't see why you'd stick with just one if you're as hardcore as you say you are.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE: Tecmo announces Fatal Frame for the Wii developed by Grasshopper Manufacture!

« on: January 30, 2008, 07:39:54 AM »

Or that all of a sudden Tecmo can't afford to handle their own games in their entirety anymore.  Now that I think about it, this ain't the only company doing stuff like this either.  Can't be boding that well for the industry if the individual development groups can't publish and develop their own games anymore.

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TalkBack / RE: REVIEWS: Indianapolis 500 Legends

« on: January 30, 2008, 07:35:23 AM »

Sounds like not much of a budget was given to the game to begin with, and then they wonder why games like this don't sell on the platform.  I am honestly beginning to think that this is their way of saying "Go buy another platform if you want our premium games".  They may not come outright and say it, but it's this indirect form of communicating it that's  been turning me off from the industry the last 4 or 5 years.  I mean what the hell, if you don't plan to do a semi-decent job with a game just don't bother.  Is it THAT hard?

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:Tecmo announces Fatal Frame for the Wii developed by Grasshopper Manufacture!

« on: January 30, 2008, 04:43:33 AM »

On one hand this sounds like a great proposition because it now definitely means that the game will get more than just adequate treatment for the Wii on day one.  There's no doubt in my mind that it will get the development attention it needs.

On the other hand, what the heck was stopping them from doing this without Nintendo's development or publishing help?  I can understand the assistance on technical details on the system, every company does that,  but outright joint development?  Why have them publish the game when on another console they would've more than likely done it themselves.  What happened to just making a good title and giving it enough push to survive on it's own two feet?  They've done that on the other consoles with successful results and yet for some reason when it involves a Nintendo system they're taking safeguards as if to say that without their logo on the box it won't sell?  It's not that I don't like the idea of Nintendo being involved with the title like this, but it just seems a bit odd to me seeing them go this route on here when anywhere else they would've handled it on their own.  With Arika and Endless Ocean I can see it since Arika isn't that big of a company, but Tecmo is a huge name.  I don't get it.  

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:Why does Nintendo hate the Game Cube?

« on: January 27, 2008, 08:46:54 AM »

I still see a few new Wavebirds around here and there, and some used ones as well.  Unless you just can't stand the used controllers, all you have to do is just look around.  They are out there, it's how I grabbed up one.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:Why does Nintendo hate the Game Cube?

« on: January 27, 2008, 06:08:46 AM »

I think the better question is why wouldn't they?  It called reimaging your brand.  Yeah, sure in a few of the ads you see them do a quick blurb on Gamecube backwards compatibility but that's all they ever plan on doing with it.  The last thing they want to do is deeply associate the GC with the Wii.  Stuff like the Wii name, knocking the Nintendo label away from the Wii logo so it stands on it's own, and underplaying GC compatibility along with limiting GC was to get as far away from those days as they could.  Which they should do, afterall the GC was in trouble on day one of it's arrival.  

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TalkBack / RE:REVIEWS: Geometry Wars: Galaxies

« on: January 23, 2008, 08:57:42 AM »

If you're a beginner to Geometry Wars, get the DS one.  If you're looking for the original difficulty and experience get the Wii version.  I own both of them and they are night and day different games.  The DS version has a clear enemy spawn cap that it adheres to that along with the slowdown makes some stages on there so easy that you'll only die when you've honestly had enough and just start crashing into things on purpose.  On about 4 planets, I've managed to get into the top 10 and with two of those, I was third.  I should also mention that the top 10 scores on the DS for pretty much every level is absurdly high compared to the Wii numbers.  Between the two of them stage wise some of the score requirements are different, the enemy spawn rate ranges from about the same to far less than Wii (they definitely knocked back the black holes on DS), enemies in general are slower and not just because of the added slowdown either, some enemies are bigger for visibility reasons (mayflies and replusors), those are the main things off the top of my head even though I know a few more differences exist.  

However, I don't really want to sound like I'm dogging the DS version entirely because for what it is they managed quite a lot with what they had.  Some of the later stages can still get a bit frantic due to throwing harder enemies at you, and for all intents and purposes it's Geometry Wars on the go which for some people like me was worth the price of admission on its own.  Stylus control works great, maybe too great for this version.  The music made it over almost completely intact which was also impressive considering how it seems like most development studios throw DS audio away despite there being quite a damn bit more to work with than the GBA.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:Geometry Wars Galaxies

« on: January 21, 2008, 10:05:29 AM »

Yeah, the pink fragments are especially nasty on Wii because if you're not at the right distance to kill them there's a significant chance that one of them will get you.  Protons can be much scarier as well since their will be times where there could be anywhere from 4 to 10 gravity wells on screen and if more than one of them gets set off it's a hell of a situation.  Combine them with neutrons, and I hope you're extremely skilled at clearing paths.

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TalkBack / RE:New VC Games Announced

« on: January 21, 2008, 05:50:11 AM »

Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo is the last one that was made, however it's the only one that didn't get a SNES port.  Unless they offer it through Wii Ware, don't count on it anytime soon.  Heck, I doubt it'll even go there because they're going to be releasing the HD remix version on PS3 and 360 and I doubt that they want anything to take away from it.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:Contra 4

« on: January 20, 2008, 05:26:40 PM »

When I played the demo before it came out I had no problems with the first stage other than dying a couple times to a random shot, it was stage 2 and on that worked my nerves like crazy.  Truth be told, I was never able to beat it on normal until I've gone through about 14 of those challenge mode objectives.  By that time the game started clicking, but yeah it did feel like the game was out to kick your teeth in a little too early on.  I'm not the biggest fan of the jumping in this game either.  On numerous occasions I've attempted a jump onto a platform directly above me only to fall right through it even though the sprite is clearly above its ground level, something that never happened on any of the older games.  Another thing is that I feel like the palette of the game is not necessarily too dark, but that there's not enough contrast between the environments and the sprites and projectiles that you really need to see.  It's been the cause of my deaths in so many situations it's bothersome.  Other than that, the game is pretty damn good, especially considering that for whatever reason or another Konami didn't make the game.  Virt nailed the soundtrack though, they couldn't have picked a better musician.

[FAR]

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:Geometry Wars Galaxies

« on: January 20, 2008, 05:12:25 PM »

If you want the Geometry Wars that feels the closest to Retro Evolved on the 360 in terms of difficulty, the DS version ain't it.  On any of the BAT planets, and in some of the later stages the slowdown begins almost immediately.  Nowhere close to as much spawns on the DS version either, on more than just one planet have I been able to survive for more than 2 hours without any effort whatsoever and place in the top 5 on the leaderboards for those stages.  Speaking of which, the DS leaderboards on a whole have FAR higher scores than on the Wii because of that difficulty difference.  On the DS the green and pink squares are no threat at all, on Wii you will FEAR them because on there just about everything moves faster, comes at you in much higher numbers, and you get no slowdown assistance in dealing with it at all.  

Other than that, for kicks on the go the DS version is quite nice.  Just don't expect to feel the same level of dread that you do on the home game.

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General Gaming / RE:Soul Calibur Jumps the Shark, and then beats it with a lightsaber

« on: January 20, 2008, 04:26:41 PM »

Even if they didn't say it, they expressed it in the game itself.  SC3 was broken beyond belief.  To the point where a lot of SC veterans who played in the tournament scene around here dropped the series like a bad habit over it.  IMO, the whole series didn't have that great of an engine to begin with.  The only reason a lot of people started saying anything now is because beforehand you could sort of work with it, but SC3 really exposed the BS of the series tenfold while somehow adding it's own crap on top of it.  No matter what they say, the core engine itself is not going to be changed all that much because it would set off the fanbase.  Adding Yoda and Darth Vader just confirms to me what they plan on doing with the game.  Fixing the engine and balance overall isn't one of those things.  

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:Factor 5 working on a new Wii title

« on: January 20, 2008, 09:07:05 AM »

Quote
It makes me sad that FPSs are so set on fancy, realistic graphics.

Team Fortress 2 says hi.  Very clean, stylized look without the grunge and plays great too.