Messages

226

Nintendo Gaming / RE: Silicon Knights still working on games for GC

« on: January 25, 2005, 12:08:50 PM »

Um Bill, where have you been? How could you possibly not know that SK is no longer exclusive to Nintendo? First of all, no one mentioned the word "second party" during the break up and they also never said they would continue making games for Nintendo systems. All they said is that they are no longer Nintendo exlusive and that they will not reveal anything about their projects or what system(s) it's on.
Perhaps you need to get your news from Gamespot and not Nintendo fansites trying to twist the words to their satisfaction
SK breaks exclusivity with Nintendo

227

Nintendo Gaming / RE: Take Two seeks MLB exclusivity

« on: January 25, 2005, 12:02:24 PM »

yup.. And seeing as how Sony makes a pretty popular baseball game I'm sure this was all planned.. I'm pretty sure the only reason Take-Two spent all this money was just to screw EA.. But of course MS, Sony, and Nintendo are still free to do as they please.
Now as long as EA doesn't get any ideas and try to co-publish with Nintendo or something... Sony obviously won't do it as they have their own game, and MS owns the High Heat Baseball license (though they aren't using it).. And I doubt Nintendo would want to try to circumvent a license deal by helping out EA... so yeah, EA's screwed. Haha.

228

Nintendo Gaming / RE: Fire Emblem

« on: January 25, 2005, 11:58:02 AM »

I never said "dark themes" I distinctly said that the Fire Emblem stories are darker (although MM is pretty twisted).. I'm talking about graphically. Nothing in Fire Emblem compares to things like the blood smeared Shadow Temple or the underground Well...

KDR, you're crazy. Age of Empires is FAR better looking than FFTA... I can't even begin to fathom such an inane comparison... Maybe you should go look at some screenshots to refresh your memory.

229

Nintendo Gaming / RE: Demasked Confirmation?

« on: January 25, 2005, 11:47:14 AM »

Man everyone needs to forget about DemaSked and not think about it at all until it's actually announced...otherwise I foresee a 90% chance of disappointment for everyone...

Anyway IGN has known to be wrong a few times (mostly a long time ago) but usually when their editors talk about rumors they are right. IGN says Rare is being sold off soon. Everyone hates them.. and guess what. There goes Rare. Now everyone's like "we didn't want them anyway."

This isn't Craig just purely speculation, they have their sources.. and you know what, they do in fact know more than you about these things, wether you want to believe it or not. They hear all sorts of things in passing when talking about others in the industry... most of which are too trivial for them to post, or would get them into trouble. What they post on IGN is all you guys have to go on, and when they say something everyone's like "wait there's no proof at all!" well they know things you don't that aren't on the website.

230

Nintendo Gaming / RE: don't let children play with your DS

« on: January 25, 2005, 11:38:50 AM »

Somone broke into your car to steal Pokemon? o_O

231

Nintendo Gaming / RE: I have a huge gripe for the DS that I have to get off my chest

« on: January 25, 2005, 11:36:30 AM »

lol DS is for non gamers and GB is for hardcore fans? haha yeah in the minds of deranged Nintendo executives. Go look around, most people buying DS are hardcore Nintendo fans and the vast majority of GB owners (almost 200 million people) are NOT in any way "hardcore" unless you consider little 7 year olds playing Yu-Gi-Oh hardcore Nintendo gamers. If you erase all hardcore Nintendo fans from existence the DS sales will easily halve... or more.

232

General Gaming / RE: Resident Evil 4 heading to Playstation 2

« on: January 25, 2005, 11:31:09 AM »

Apparently you've misunderstood my meaning. When I say "rivals DOOM 3" I know what DOOM 3's engine does, and I've stated that it's far more technically advanced... And that's nice and all, and is a great leap in technology, but unfortunately id hasn't applied it to as good of a use as a lighting engine of that calibre deserves... What I mean is when you toss all that out and just look at the end results on your screen, RE4's scenarios look more impressive. Most people aren't going to notice the tiniest shadows and flickers in a small dark DOOM 3 hallway and be like "holy crap! those shadow physics are awesome!" but when you look at the far more artistically awe-inspiring scenes of RE4 the end result is far more impressive.

Of course, if the DOOM 3 engine was applied to RE4 the game would look even better... but it's not. I'm not comparing which lighting engine is more technically advanced, I'm arguing about which game looks more impressive. And I don't think anyone is going to argue that the fire effects in RE4 beat everything down. I mean I was impressed when I played Far Cry for the first time, those explosions and such were amazing... Half-Life 2's Source engine didn't produce any fire effects worth talking about though IMO, not even on DX9c compliant cards. But RE4's fire just looks freaking amazing, and something I didn't think the little GCN wasn't capable of producing. And something the PS2 will definately NOT be able produce with a mere port team and a few months, if ever.

And the textures in the game aren't exactly high-res anyway, downscaling them will make them look ever worse. The poly counts of course will but cut too, simplify special effects, of course. Now that right there already makes the game look that much worse. Then factor in the PS2's inability to produce as sharp or vibrant a picture, and very aliased and jaggy images, and there goes the clean look of the game. And even after all this I doubt the frame rate will be steady. Anyway I'm not sure what you're arguing about. I'm sure anyone would agree that under the conditions that the PS2 port is being subjected too (main team not involved, few months of dev time, PS2 hardware) that there's no way the game will look as good or run as well as the GCN version. And we all know that dev teams matter, look at NFS Hot Pursuit 2 on PS2 and the versions on Xbox, GCN, and PC. All three systems way more powerful than a PS2, but all of them looking pathetic compared to the PS2 version, and on top of that, running at pathetic frame rates.

233

Nintendo Gaming / RE: Demasked Confirmation?

« on: January 24, 2005, 07:08:11 PM »

Nintendo doesn't equal DemaSked. Yeah yeah rumors, cryptic crap, blah blah but I'm not going to believe they're official until Nintendo says so. For all we know they could just be cooking up their own online interface for any third party to use (and are being funded by some rich dude or something) and will release the technology to third parties to easily take them online. Or maybe they are developing software that just tunnels DS games in some new way or some stuff.

That just goes along with what we know all along, that Nintendo IS working on some sort of online interface, and if the rumors are true Square has something to do with the scenario too.
Craig seems to know more than we do though (or he's just EXTREMELY sure of his rumor sources and is just acting like it because he knows he is right)... I wonder which game he is talking about? Hunters, Animal Crossing, or Mario Kart? I've been saying all along that Kart and Metroid will be online though, and Advance Wars as well (call it freaking DS Wars..) and maybe Pokemon Diamond and Pearl since Gamefreak was talking about them reinventing the series.
Oh and you guys seen those new NFS Underground pics? Game looks great...better than asphalt and ridge racers. The turbo programming seems nifty, I'm sure they'll think of other junk too... I'm guessing it won't be online though since it comes out in like 2 months... But Craig said Nintendo will be announcing the plans "very very soon" so that means maybe around PSP launch to E3 we'll see an online game...

And someone needs to take my advice on selling blank GBA flash carts (or equivalent) as "hard drives" for the DS... Those things are pretty cheap and can hold tons of stuff, that way you can store created maps in Advance Wars and stuff like that but more importantly download DS system updates and patches and stuff like that... That way nintendo can update things like pictochat and mario 64 with patches adding online play... And it would go great with DS download play since RAM is cleared when system is shut off. That way like PC games developers can post demos on their websites and you can download them to your DS GBA cart and play them... and it gives you much more than the 4 mb of ram to work with for single cartridge multiplayer

234

General Gaming / RE: GC technical problems in comparison to other systems.

« on: January 24, 2005, 03:44:36 PM »

The Metroid Prime errors are NOT a Gamecube hardware problem. Anyone who bought Metroid Prime within the first few months of released most likely experienced this problem at least once. It's a rare software problem that got overlooked, because it's not a bug. During the elevator sequences environment data is quickly streamed into RAM so that there's not loading screens. However on 2 specific elevators (i think one to phendrana and one to chozo ruins or something) the code for the game occasionally overflowed data and the GCN froze. This is a software problem that was overlooked during bug testing cause it's not a bug, it's a tiny programming glitch that possibly never occurs on developer's kits or any of Retro Studio's particular GCN's, or maybe one or two playtesters noticed but didn't know why the crash happened (most people don't know how MP loads unless they are familiar with the method or have been told how) or assumed it was being fixed as a bug..

Oh and this was fixed on later MP copies...this does not happen unless you bought MP fairly close to release date.

235

General Gaming / RE: Resident Evil 4 heading to Playstation 2

« on: January 24, 2005, 03:34:19 PM »

There's no way they could get it ported and running at over 1 FPS anytime around around now. The port has many things going against it:
1) It's for a system that's hard to program for and is technically inferior to the GCN in all areas, especially the ability to render complex special effects and texture maps, which even the Xbox can't do as well as the GCN.
2) The RE4 engine and graphical assets were built from the ground up and optimized for GCN.
3) The RE4 team, including Mikami, has nothing to do with the port. It's being handled by lesser people.

So yeah. This isn't Viewtiful Joe where you could port it to the Dreamcast or your Granny's PC without much hassle. We're talking about a game with very detailed models and environments, the best fire effects in gaming history (including the Source engine and CryTek engine), tons of other effects, and a lighting engine that rivals id's DOOM 3 engine (and looks more impressive I might add, the shadowing may not be as intricately detailed but the sheer awe of watching lightning clash in at night in rainstorm above a crowd of torch carrying dudes [night, rain, fire, lightning...Ganon battle anyone?] is more impressive IMO than watching the dim light of a flashlight cast random shadows in a small corridor)... This a something the PS2 can definately not handle at a solid 30 FPS, or even be capable of displaying some of the effects in the game.. Especially not with the aforementioned developmental hurdles. And the only way PS2 can render character models with this many polygons is to cut off environment detail and zoom in on the characters and action (ie Metal Gear Solid). Of course, Gran Turismo 4 proves that with lots of love and effort you can squeeze almost anything out of the little system... yeah but 4 years of love, effort, and talented and crazy PS2 developers is something this port doesn't have.

236

Nintendo Gaming / RE: I have a huge gripe for the DS that I have to get off my chest

« on: January 24, 2005, 03:22:12 PM »

It's not called the Gameboy DS because SP's are still selling like crazy (if the Playstation 3 is released now, PS2 sales will DIE) and because Nintendo doesn't want anything to happend to the GameBoy name with a risky product.

Bill, um, no one said Nintendo announced anything That doesn't mean stuff doesn't get out. You won't hear much of it on the main sites cause they won't post rumors unless they are really major, even though many of these rumors are from solid sources and are pretty much on the right track.

237

Nintendo Gaming / RE: PSP outsells DS for the first time (EDIT)

« on: January 24, 2005, 03:17:45 PM »

The media expects more from Nintendo. Anyway, I don't see any PSP reviews better than Mario 64 DS, which I think we can all agree on as a general disappointment as a launch title, and it's the only first party game from launch until now, and beyond. What does the PSP have better? Nothing I can think of. I think they both have things the other should have... I don't really care all that much for the second screen, although i'm not saying its bad, but there isn't TONS of reason not to go with just one big screen. BUT i'm totally for the touch screen, microphone, stereo speakers, Wi-Fi, wireless LAN, all of which I hope become handheld standards. At the same time I love the PSP's power and screen. You know, there's no reason the DS shouldn't be as fast as the PSP. What drives the PSP price isn't the 333 Mhz (as opposed to combined 100 mhz) CPU, CPU's are cheap as dirt. It's the disc drive, screen, and all that stuff... I think the DS should at least have have dual 166 mhz main CPU, and then the 33 Mhz GBA cp. The cost would barely go up, Nintendo could probably still make a profit, and at that level we're talking about the raw power of a Dreamcast, but all concentrated on rendering at half the resolution of a TV. Basically 2 times the clock speed to pixel ratio of the Dreamcast... At that speed the DS could output full 3D graphics N64 quality to both screens at once... Unlike where now if you want 3D on both at once it won't look to great...

238

Nintendo Gaming / RE: LOZ: 2005

« on: January 24, 2005, 03:07:54 PM »

Oh jeez. Okay, the Triforce of Power enables Ganondorf to turn into Ganon. That doesn't mean he can't be Ganondorf as well. People think (and this is exclusable) that Link kills Ganondorf, then Ganon forms out of dead Ganondorf. What really happened is that the Triforce of Power makes its owner immortal (hence Ganon/dorf can never be killed, only sealed away or trapped), but when Link "killed" Ganondorf in Ocarina of Time, that marked when a normal person would have died, but shortly the Triforce of Power revives Ganondorf and he can now use it to turn into Ganon. And its obviously not permanent, when you beat Ganon (link impales him through the brain in the last cutscene), he turns back into his human form as Zelda and co are sealing him away. Anyway, so the only uncertainty is if Ganondorf can switch between forms at will. Probably not, or he'd have done it in Wind Waker (or maybe the devs were lazy), so it seems the transformation must be triggered by something, such as the severe beatdown administered by link or the anger and humiliation of being beaten by a kid.

239

Nintendo Gaming / RE: Silicon Knights still working on games for GC

« on: January 24, 2005, 03:00:11 PM »

Well Nintendo and other companies are publicly traded... Personally I don't think Matt and Fran of all people would be heading over for a little visit if it didn't have something to do with Nintendo. And there's no evidence suggesting otherwise. All we have is that SK is no longer exclusive to Nintendo.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE: Fire Emblem

« on: January 24, 2005, 02:48:40 PM »

I've seen direct feed images TF... that's what I was basing my opinion on. I haven't seen any magazine scans... I'm talking about images from sites like here, Gamespot, and IGN. Anyway, look at this game, and then look at any other game, including EAD's Pikmin series. This game is about an level with Age of Empires technologically.... that's a 1997 PC game. And it's still not as detailed artistically as that 1997 game. This game looks ok if you're used to something like tons of Japanese PS2 RPG's, because those sport similarly crappy graphics. Anyway my point is this game looks BAD. At least Paper Mario 2 looked good, and had a reason for looking like it did. This game doesn't have any reason not to look like Zelda or something... except Fire Emblem is way more serious than Zelda (story wise at least..., it's definately not as dark artistically as some Zelda games).

241

Nintendo Gaming / RE: Starcraft: Ghost

« on: January 24, 2005, 02:42:43 PM »

Well we know what happens when Blizzards lays it's finger of light on a genre... RTS... MMO... Action RPG...

242

Nintendo Gaming / RE: LOZ: 2005

« on: January 23, 2005, 07:32:43 AM »

50 hours is too long? Well WW was definately too short...

243

Nintendo Gaming / RE: Fire Emblem

« on: January 23, 2005, 07:24:55 AM »

But if you can't read Japanese you will miss out on the story.. Fire Emblem games have excellenct stories. Gamespy is also saying this will have some really serious themes like racial tension and stuff.. Anyway the GBA Fire Emblem was awesome...
The only thing that concerns me is that while everything Intelligent System makes is awesome, they really aren't experienced with true 3D graphics (everything they have made, other than the 2 Paper Marios, were 2D games for GBA/SNES/NES). And Fire Emblem's graphics look.... bad. That's stuff the DS could put out no problem. It would be great if EAD was helping them out with the graphics... And if it had freaking voice in it... But IntSys is a great developer but they are a little behind the times technologically, still stuck in the 16bit glory days... But anyway EAD has about 1000 employees and they all can't be working on Zelda and Mario 128...

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Nintendo Gaming / RE: Starcraft: Ghost

« on: January 23, 2005, 07:19:04 AM »

Well it depends on how much Blizzard is looking over this. Blizzard North is great, Swingin' Ape is pretty good, but Blizzard is just godly... So the quality probably depends on how much they are overseeing it. Hopefully it will turn out great... We haven't heard from the game in a long time.
For those who don't know about it, it's basically something like a combination of Splinter Cell and Metroid Prime in the Starcraft universe...

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Nintendo Gaming / RE: Silicon Knights still working on games for GC

« on: January 23, 2005, 07:16:23 AM »

Actually, Matt and Fran are heading over to Silicon Knights for a few days and they will post their report in February. He likely doesn't know much about what he will find out... Of course the "real story" will be part of it but I think the main reason will be do reveal whatever SK is working on.
However, I think the fact that it's Fran and Matt making this trip and not Hilary or someone speaks for itself...

246

Nintendo Gaming / RE: I have a huge gripe for the DS that I have to get off my chest

« on: January 23, 2005, 07:00:31 AM »

raptorspike, it's not my idea, it's Nintendo's. They ARE in fact trying to make the GBE into a portable GCN. In fact, the DS was supposed to be a portable GCN...
Well short history lesson:
During N64 era, Nintendo made these prototype handhelds, codenamed "Nitro." They were supposed to be the successor to the Game Boy line. However the project got canned. Now, fast forward to when the GCN is about to launch. Nintendo plans on making a new handheld with the intention of making it a portable GCN to be launched sometime after the GCN. However pretty quickly they realize they still won't be able to make a profit off such an expensive handheld. So they instead resurrect the Nitro platform, power it up and add all those features and release it as the DS. However apperently work on the GBE is farther along that most think, and it seems Nintendo is once again trying to make the GBE into a portable GCN. And at this point in time they should easily be able to make it affordable (the psp did it after all).  

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Nintendo Gaming / RE: PSP outsells DS for the first time (EDIT)

« on: January 23, 2005, 06:52:31 AM »

lol Mario... learn to think next time you post. The wonderswan sold 3 million units. Okay. Now when did the wonder swan (and NGPC, and GG) come out? Yeah that's what I thought. The PSP has sold 800,000 in about a month in Japan, far eclipsing any other non-Nintendo handheld.  

248

Nintendo Gaming / RE: Questions

« on: January 22, 2005, 03:56:15 PM »

Yeah that's pretty much correct. I still have doubts personally on Warp Pipe.. Is it really with Nintendo or is it just some huge project they're doing by themselves?...
But yeah it seems Square and Nintendo are setting up servers for online play. Now, it's unclear as to what this means. They could just be setting up these servers for a single game they are working on (Crystal Chronicles?). OR, they could be setting up a bunch of servers that all Nintendo and Square DS games will use for online play. OR, and this I doubt but is possible, Nintendo is teaming up with Square to deliver a centralized online interface for DS (like MS's Xbox Live).

And lastly, this is pure hope on my part, but I really hope Nintendo uses the GBA slot as a "hard drive" of sorts for the DS. All they have to do is sell GBA carts with flash memory on them (you can already buy third party ones, and they go up to huge sizes). You can always have one in your DS to store extra game saves, patches and updates to the DS's operating system (which will be important for when online play is utilized).  

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Nintendo Gaming / RE: PSP outsells DS for the first time

« on: January 22, 2005, 03:46:51 PM »

800,000 for PSP may not sound like much to us, but for Sony it's a huge number. After all, they're starting with zero market share against the company the has owned the handheld since it created it years and years ago. When was the last time a non-Nintendo handheld did this well?

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Nintendo Gaming / RE: I have a huge gripe for the DS that I have to get off my chest

« on: January 22, 2005, 03:39:27 PM »

IF the GBE in fact doesn't have the second screen or touchscreen, that's all it won't it. There's no way Nintendo won't include wifi, stereo speakers, the microphone, GBA slot, etc. Heck it will probably have a touchscreen too. That will probably be a standard. The PSP would be that much cooler with a touchscreen. The only thing DS has that GBE won't have is the second screen, and who knows, maybe the GBE will have a second screen.

But then again, if Nintendo is making the GBE into a portable GCN, it will definately be more like a PSP. Except better, since the GBE will already have a huge library of GCN games.