Messages

1276

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Mistwalker's new RPG "The Last Story" coming to Wii in Japan in 2011

« on: January 21, 2011, 09:04:59 AM »

Yeah, but Nintendo of America would only need to translate into English. It does suck that at the very least Europe may not get it because of the language issue. I am starting to lose faith North America will get it either though.

They won't translate the voice acting for other languages so that effort is reduced. Also there's reason enough to believe that the game will sell at least a few hundred k in Europe which would justify spending millions on the translation.

1277

TalkBack / Re: 3DS Online Game Store, Other Features to Miss Launch?

« on: January 20, 2011, 03:45:23 PM »

Yep, this is pretty disappointing. This actually seems very un-Nintendo; typically they like to give customers a complete experience, especially hardware-wise, so gamers don't have to futz with the system after they plug it in.  They updated Wii after release, but the amount of updates for Wii were miniscule compared to those for PS3 and 360 (with Sony and Microsoft revamping their systems repeatedly), and didn't add a lot in the way of core functionality (save the SD card fridge-cleaning update).

Of course, I pre-ordered my system from Amazon yesterday.  Hahahaha.

The Wii had some not-yet-implemented channels initially that told you to wait for an update.

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TalkBack / Re: 3DS North American Price, Date, Colors Set

« on: January 20, 2011, 03:42:06 PM »

Was the focus group composed of Ken Kutaragi and Kaz Hirai?

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TalkBack / Re: 3DS to Implement 'Nintendo eShop'

« on: January 20, 2011, 02:37:34 PM »

Using direct currency means the cards will be labeled with their value and stores can't get away with charging 25€ for a 20€ card.

I highly doubt there will be a "spinach" option for original Game Boy titles on 3DS. Those games were programmed in black-and-white; they only look green on the original GB system due to the screen technology. If you play them on any other model (Super Game Boy, GB Pocket, GB Color, GBA, etc.) they look black-and-white, not green-and-white.

The GB pocket is the only one of those with a fixed color scheme, the others let you choose one.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Official Wii Sales Thread

« on: January 20, 2011, 02:30:56 PM »

Didn't PSP beat the DS in YTD according to Media Create?

DS moved ahead in the last 2 weeks of the year.

DENIED!

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Mistwalker's new RPG "The Last Story" coming to Wii in Japan in 2011

« on: January 20, 2011, 10:48:09 AM »

The Famitsu review of Last Story is a 38 out of 40. Not a bad score, but I was hoping a perfect score.
 
http://www.1up.com/news/japan-review-check-last-story-valkyria

Sorry, but you need to pay Famitsu good money to get that perfect score.  They have a reputation to maintain, after all!

And the price for RPG scores is higher than normal it seems since they usually rate lower than other kinds of games. IIRC Tales of Symphonia got a 34/40.

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Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 36: A Return to Normalcy

« on: January 20, 2011, 10:01:10 AM »

DKCR: Everybody's got a D'Oh moment!

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TalkBack / Re: Samus to Appear in DOA Dimensions

« on: January 20, 2011, 02:51:23 AM »

But without a strong man at her side who will stop Samus from zoning out at the sight of Ridley???

This is just a transparent attempt to give DoA any chance in face of SF4. DoA has always sold because there were no alternatives, it arrives before any better fighting games come out but now it's up against one of the most respected fighting games out there.

Not to mention the way Samus was portrayed in Other M always is CANON. Not to mention it was quite realistic, and she's still a strong woman in her own right desptie any drawbacks, and those are what make her all the more human.

Canon does not fucking matter unless we're discussing printers. This is like the Kutaragi argument of "if an architect placed the path so it doesn't line up with the door nobody would call him out on that". It does not fucking matter what the creator thinks of the work, it matters what the audience thinks because art is primarily emotional and the audience's emotions are the only ones that are perceived. If the audience does not feel the intended emotions the artist has failed. Sakamoto has failed.

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TalkBack / Re: 3DS Online Game Store, Other Features to Miss Launch?

« on: January 20, 2011, 02:40:55 AM »

Overpriced AND rushed? Talk about caring for the customer.

1285

Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 227: National Pastime

« on: January 18, 2011, 02:30:31 PM »

Thanks for the discussion on horror in games. When you lay it out like that, contrast between the creepy aspects of the design and the rest of the game is quite important in terms of actually getting a reaction out of the player. In a game like F.E.A.R., where the theme is explicitly stated on the face of it, it doesn't really get to you because you're expecting the weird little girl to try and mess with you at every spare moment. As you put it so well, you quickly become desensitised to the effects that the game throws at you.

The real problem with FEAR is that it's a generic repetitive FPS with the horror elements just thrown in randomly. Crazy images are just CG and most adults have grown out of the phase where they're amazed by special effects, when you want to instill fear the gameplay mechanics must match that. Being a superhuman death dealer just doesn't really do much to help there. In Shattered Memories the enemies were too predictable and the mechanics too easy, I'd often just charge at an enemy and use the QTE to push him over. I wasn't afraid of the enemies because I could just shake them off. In Amnesia they don't cling to you, they slash at you so every close encounter is detrimental to your health. At one point I resorted to running like crazy instead of hiding, that was much scarier because I knew if they caught up with me I'd die, not just be prompted to tell them to get off. I managed to make it to the level exit and only took one hit but still, that was intense.

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TalkBack / Re: Nintendo 3DS Preview Day: What We Expect

« on: January 18, 2011, 02:20:03 PM »

DoA is losing its launch window advantage this time, SF3D will likely eat its sales alive.

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TalkBack / Re: 3DS Details Begin To Surface

« on: January 18, 2011, 02:17:30 PM »

I was hoping it would use the MICRO USB adapter that almost everything has nowadays. :-(

I guess the 3DS does not fall under the EU law that forces them to use the same charger for all cellphones...

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TalkBack / Re: Mature 3DS Games Get Black Boxes

« on: January 18, 2011, 02:15:00 PM »

Ninjas wear peasant clothes because that doesn't stand out against a background of peasants. Soldiers wear spotted green clothes in the forest to blend in with the foliage. A black case among a sea of white ones stands out.

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TalkBack / Re: Sengoku Basara: Samurai Heroes Review

« on: January 18, 2011, 02:12:46 PM »

Dunno, I liked N3II (at least the bit I played so far which was only a couple of levels).

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TalkBack / Re: 3DS Region Lock Reasons Explained

« on: January 18, 2011, 10:01:06 AM »

Yeah, if it was local laws or age restrictions they'd have to single out Germany.

The only real reason is the weak dollar that lets Europeans import games from the US for cheap but the weak pound means these days we can just import from the UK instead.

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TalkBack / Re: 3DS Metroid Announcement Coming?

« on: January 17, 2011, 03:43:49 PM »

No, the 3D Zelda games are pretty different from the 2D ones too.

Prime is a side-track story wise, it doesn't continue the Metroid storyline, only pad it out a bit. A proper sequel would continue after Fusion but it didn't look like Samus was going to avoid the court martial at the end of Fusion so the story probably cannot continue there.

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TalkBack / Re: 3DS Metroid Announcement Coming?

« on: January 17, 2011, 03:30:26 PM »

The lack of it is the reason I didn't buy Other M.

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TalkBack / Re: 3DS Metroid Announcement Coming?

« on: January 17, 2011, 03:05:05 PM »

Everyone on this forum is going to hate me for saying this but I would mind a Metroid: Other M sequel on the 3DS, but done right. I thought that game was pretty good and I hope to see more like it in the future. Although a 2D hybrid between Fusion and Other M would be even nicer.

For me that depends on what "done right" means. I don't think Metroid is done right unless there's a large interconnected world that you explore, using upgrades that change the way you play the game from combat to basic movement.

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TalkBack / Re: This Week in Nintendo Downloads

« on: January 17, 2011, 02:51:57 PM »

It's pretty retro to have Super in the name of your game, they just don't do that anymore. No Super Killzone, no Super Uncharted, no Super Gears of War...

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TalkBack / Re: This Week in Nintendo Downloads

« on: January 17, 2011, 12:34:06 PM »

Perhaps he goes by the US names where the first game was called Super Army Wars, it's Glory Days in Europe so they used that name for the second in the US too.

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Reader Reviews / Re: Rate The Last Game You Played

« on: January 17, 2011, 12:28:31 PM »

I think at some point he stops being emo and just becomes pure evil.

Prototype is really a game about doing unnecessary nonsense, nothing makes that more clear than the curb stomp move which only works on dead enemies anyway. And hey, when would you ever NEED to use a civilian as a surfboard down a flight of stairs?

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Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 227: National Pastime

« on: January 17, 2011, 12:15:32 PM »

If you need a proper scary game then try Amnesia: The Dark Descent. The sanity meter there is restored only by making progress in the game, you lose sanity for looking at monsters and hiding in the dark. So don't hide in the dark closet for too long but when you're hiding in a well lit room you better hope the monster won't check this room.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/2092-Amnesia-The-Dark-Descent

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TalkBack / Re: 3DS Metroid Announcement Coming?

« on: January 17, 2011, 12:09:56 PM »

So a British celebrity knows about that stuff when Nintendo notoriously won't even clue in their European branch on things like that beforehand?

Anyway, I think Metroid needs a major overhaul, re-using the same old powerups just removes a large chunk of the discovery aspect.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Official Wii Sales Thread

« on: January 17, 2011, 12:07:07 PM »

I'm just opposed to the "everybody has a Wii already so it's natural" logic.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Official Wii Sales Thread

« on: January 16, 2011, 02:17:13 AM »

Did the GC and Xbox ever catch the PS2 in that manner?