Messages

251

Nintendo Gaming / RE: Is Nintendo DS really inferior to the SONY PSP?

« on: January 19, 2005, 11:57:17 AM »

Erm. The DS is selling so well here because the PSP isn't out. And, most people in the US don't know it exists anyway. We'll see the sales trends at the end of the year when both systems have been out for a while.

It's also worth noting that in Japan the PSP is in a better position now than DS, but in America when the PSP comes out the DS will be in a better position. Right now in Japan the DS and PSP are both out, and neither systems really has any games worth having. PSP has Ridge Racers which has shiny graphics and fun, but shallow gameplay. DS has Mario 64 which is a great game but it's one everyone's played and the lack of analog doesn't really help much. So at the moment, since games are pretty bad for both, the only thing to go upon is hardware. The DS's advantages are it's two screens, touch screen, microphone, high quality speakers, better craftsmanship, and better battery life. The PSP's strengths are its more powerful hardware, larger storage medium, multimedia playback, better screen, and analog disc. So in Japan, gamers will be taking a risk to invest in the DS since its strengths are mainly innovations that may or may not catch on. With the PSP they will be safer because its advantages are purely technical, it's just a better GBA.

In America, when PSP is released it won't be even as far as software goes. The PSP will just be coming out with a few launch games (most Japanese games won't find their way over here anyway) and PS2 ports. However at the same time DS will be seeing the influx of it's second wave of games, such as Mario Kart, Metroid Hunters, Animal Crossing, and so forth, all of which will likely support online play and will be released sometime after E3 and before the end of summer, hopefully. And by the time the PSP even comes out in March or whenever, the DS will already have a significant lead. And heck, the DS will probably see its price drop this holiday season. With both a low priced DS and Xbox2 out this holiday, the PSP won't seem as great to customers. For half the price they can get the DS, or for a little more than can pick up a brand new console. And I don't know if even Sony has the balls to drop the PSP's price so soon. Either way they are going to lose money. Keep the price up at around 200 and lose some sales to MS and Nintendo. Drop the price and see those extra sales negated by the fact that they are losing even more money. And not only that, by the time the PSP is out the DS will be steamrolling out of factories. The PSP is still struggling to be produced (and they are rather fragile and shoddily made anyway) and that just for when Japan is the only source of demand. Sony has a lot of advantages with the hardware and coolness, but they are paying a steep price.

And before you scream about how the DS is selling better in Japan, yeah it is, but it is a Nintendo handheld and taking that into account the PSP is doing far better than expected. Yeah, it's not beating DS, but who expected that? I sure didn't. Many journalists are quick to proclaim their predictions and deduce about how so and so is doomed because the other company has such and such, but these people fail to look at the entire picture and just generally be smart.  

252

Nintendo Gaming / RE: METROID PRIME 2

« on: January 19, 2005, 12:23:42 AM »

I'm just going to say as far as art goes, Metroid Prime 2 and World of Warcraft had the best art direction last year. Same thing in 2002 with Metroid Prime and Warcraft III.

But, as for graphics from a technical point of view, while Metroid Prime 2 and World of Warcraft each have their own strengths (lets see Half-Life 2 without loading times) the advanced engine of Half-Life 2 simply outdoes them. Although...the lighting is inferior to DOOM 3 and Resident Evil 4.  

253

Nintendo Gaming / RE: Resident Evil 4 Discussion

« on: January 17, 2005, 09:07:28 PM »

Well keep spoiling away why don't you.

254

Nintendo Gaming / RE: LOZ: 2005

« on: January 17, 2005, 09:04:40 PM »

Um. I'm extremely disappointed by the new Zelda graphics. Of course, that was almost a year ago and it's probably better looking now.. But yeah apart from Link's model they are pretty bad as of E3 2004. And by bad I don't really mean bad, but they are definately not Zelda calibur. This title should be the best looking game the Cube has ever seen, and it's... not. And with RE4 looking the way it does, and with EAD's 3D work on Cube so far lacking compared to other top Cube developers (heck even Wind Waker's frames per second was worse than technically more demanding Star Fox Adventures... certain effects in WW were more impressive but for most of the game it was well below SFA technically) I'm doubting Nintendo will be able to deliver a 10/10 game in graphics.

255

Nintendo Gaming / RE: Four Horsemen Of the Apocalypse???

« on: January 17, 2005, 08:58:10 PM »

lol that game.

lol

256

Nintendo Gaming / RE: METROID PRIME 2

« on: January 17, 2005, 08:57:08 PM »

Who said Metroid Prime 2 had better graphics than HL2? How did this argument even get started? Learn how to read. You guys seem to think I'm am angry at IGN for not making MP2 win, when I'm clearly showing my surprise that it did as well as it did, get runner up in the two most competitive categories.  

257

Nintendo Gaming / RE: Resident Evil 4 Discussion

« on: January 17, 2005, 08:16:03 AM »

Notice how a single critic hasn't said anything negative about this game. Some people didn't like Metroid Prime 2. Some didn't like Halo 2. Some didn't like World of Warcraft. Some didn't like San Andreas or Snake Eater. A couple were even disappointed with Half-Life 2. But no one is complaining about Resident Evil 4. One look at metacritic.com (like gamerankings, except they don't accept reviews from all sites, just the mags and sites that are quality stuff, and they take submissions for new sites, and they also weight reviews from respected publications like Gamespot higher) will show that Resident Evil 4 has an overall rating of 97 at the moment, with the lowest review a 90/100. Metroid Prime also has a 97 (and that's with 68 reviews) and only had 2 reviews in the 80's. Ocarina of Time has a 99 and is the highest rated game, and all reviews for it are 100 except 3, which are all in the 90's.  

258

Nintendo Gaming / RE: METROID PRIME 2

« on: January 17, 2005, 08:09:30 AM »

So.... how do you guys feel about IGN naming Metroid Prime 2 the runner up to Best Graphics (behind only Half-Life 2) and a runner up to Game of the Year with Burnout 3 (Half-Life 2 got GOTY)? I think this just proves IGN XBOX and IGN PS2's immaturity and inability to ignore hype. They rated San Andreas and Halo 2 9.9 and 9.8. They are fine games to be sure, but there is no way the PS2 version of San Andreas deserves a 9.9 with it's clunky controls, technical issues, and pitiful graphics... And this is the third PS2 GTA and it's still not fixed. As for Halo 2, just like the original it is an unfinished, rushed game, and this time there are graphical issues and abnormalities too. Anyway, at least it shows the rest of IGN isn't crazy, because they got all the editors from all IGN sites together to vote on the awards, and they named Metroid Prime 2 the 2nd best looking game of the year (above even DOOM 3, Far Cry, Riddick, and Rome: Total War) and named Metroid Prime 2 in the top 3 overall games of 2004. I want to see the rest of their top ten though, I'm curious as to what order they put the rest of 2004's best games in (Rome: Total War, Far Cry, Halo 2, San Andreas, Snake Eater, Ninja Gaiden, World of Warcraft....).
Oh, and Paper Mario 2 got best RPG. It's been sweeping this award on all sites...

259

Nintendo Gaming / RE: DS RULES! psp is for losers.

« on: January 17, 2005, 07:58:17 AM »

Hey I'm rich and insane but I'm not going to do that. They're rich, insane, and stupid.

260

Nintendo Gaming / RE: METROID PRIME 2

« on: January 15, 2005, 06:53:25 PM »

Halo 2 is more accessible? Have you tried Legendary?

Anyway.... Thought this might interest you guys. IGN has finally postd their overall multiplatform GOTY 2004 awards... All editors from all IGN sites voted. While Prime didn't get the top award, it did very well. To very surprising categories, seemingly proving that IGN isn't crazy after all...

For best graphics, Half-Life 2 got the award. Big surprise. Now guess which game was the single runner up? Metroid Prime 2! IGN seems to really adore this game's art direction, placing it second overall in graphics for 2004 over the likes of technically impressive PC juggernauts such as Far Cry, DOOM 3, Rome: Total War, and Riddick. The only other console game that might have been a challenge was Ninja Gaiden, but I don't know how much of a chance that had in the IGN editor's minds.

And finally, for overall Game of the Year, IGN chose to have one winner and two runners up. Half-Life 2 won the overall award, fairly unsurprisingly. Remember, IGN's overall GOTY was voted by all IGN editors, and there are a lot of IGN sites. One for each console, the PC, the handhelds, hardward, sports, cars, blah blah. And guess who the two runners up for Game of the Year were? Halo 2 and San Andreas? Nope. World of Warcraft or Metal Gear Solid 3? Nope. These four may be the most rabidly publicized, but the IGN editors voted Burnout 3 and Metroid Prime 2 to go down as their top 3 games of 2004 along with Half-Life 2. Not bad for an arcade racer and an overblown expansion pack (of epic proportions, to be sure...).  

Oh, and Samus is shorter than the Marines because she is a chick a the marines are big buff dudes. And yeah, if you look up various nerdy pieces of info from old nerdy Nintendo sources you'll find out that Samus is like 6'4" or something crazy like that. Now her suit only looks like it adds maybe 3 or 4 inches to her height.. But still a six foot chick is pretty ridiculous and I think Nintendo was just trying too hard back then to stress the point that Samus is a big tough manly girl.. And Retro probably laughed and shrunk her back to a normal height....  

261

TalkBack / RE: Nintendo Boosts R&D Spending

« on: January 15, 2005, 08:52:49 AM »

No. I doubt there are no prototypes of the Revolution at all with E3 only 4 months away. And anyway, who said anything about the PS3? Nothing Sony says leads me to believe that it also exists on anything more than pen and paper and software, even though it may be bragging about it's Cell processor, which I've always thought as hyped garbage... And anyway, what's with this nvidia GPU then? As for Xbox, it's probably farther along than PS3 or Revolution but Microsoft's whole strategy is beating the other 2, while Nintendo and Sony are just content releasing it "on time" and not trying to be the first out or anything.

262

TalkBack / RE: Rare Boasts

« on: January 15, 2005, 08:38:18 AM »

Well I highly doubt Rare would touch PSP, and Rare is usually on top of the technology, so it must be for DS.

263

Nintendo Gaming / RE: should we worry now?

« on: January 12, 2005, 12:45:46 AM »

um....no
You see, the PSP has built in MP3/movie playback... And guess what, that requires a Memory Stick. Memory sticks cost a LOT more than SD cards. People will buy the cheapest one, which will only have enough for game saves. So tons of PSP users aren't going to use it either.
Anyway, SD cards are very cheap, and while Nintendo is adding an SD adaptor it might as well use it for more than just MP3 and movie playback... Remembor Nintendo had a similar product planned for GCN... a memory card which was an SD adaptor. It can be used for many things, lika mini hard drive. With online games coming out, many games might have downloadable content or patches. Also, the SD card could be used in conjuction with DS Download play.. I mean a couple megs of RAM aren't going to cut it when the big games come out.
Anyway, then Nintendo could just have two packages, a DS system for 120, and a DS with play-yan for 150....

264

Nintendo Gaming / RE: GCN menu color

« on: January 12, 2005, 12:38:41 AM »

Yeah I had them hooked up to the same TV and the old is pink and the new is purple.
My original is Indigo (dec 2001) and it's pinkish.
My brothers is Platinum (nov 2004) and it's purple. His also doesn't have component cable support...

265

Nintendo Gaming / GCN menu color

« on: January 10, 2005, 11:30:50 PM »

I got a gamecube back in Dec. 2001 when Smash Bros. came out. My brother got a platinum one this November...
You know when you are at the main menu, and go to the game disc menu, and it says "press start" in old school boxes? Mine is always in a pinkish color and my brother's is always purple. Is this due to the console's color? Or did they change it at a certain date (like the GCN's without component cable support, like my brother's).

266

Nintendo Gaming / RE: should we worry now?

« on: January 10, 2005, 11:05:48 PM »

Yeah, the DS may not play old GBA games in multiplayer... HOWEVER, a GBA game can be made specifically for the DS... Any games that come out from now on on a GBA cart can support multiplayer over the DS... The developers just have to add suport for DS local wireless and/or WiFi on the GBA cart as well as standard GBA link.

I think the easiest option for Nintendo would be to hurry up and finish the play-yan, have some GOOD working features in it, and bundle it with all DS's at 150, or else just sell it seperately and have the DS at 99... I mean 150 isn't a bad deal if you get a DS and a play yan, and a demo of some game. And the DS is already out... By the time PSP has more than 15 games (read: E3 or later) the DS will already be an even bigger hit (with more games coming like mario kart and metroid) and in a position to drop the price just as sony is getting it's first big game. Not to mention that around E3 PSP will just be starting in North Am. while the DS will have sold millions by then AND be starting it's online gaming with Metroid Prime and Mario Kart... I think the PSP has a tough battle... I think Microsoft said it best.... Sony is just wasting it's effort trying to use a little twig to pry the hippo named Nintendo from it's throne while MS gleefully sneaks up behind Sony and kicks the PS3 in the balls.

267

Nintendo Gaming / RE: Soul Calibur DS CONFIRMED!

« on: January 10, 2005, 09:36:33 PM »

NO!

Anyway, Hubris in SC2 was definately amazing.. And the Zelda Overworld lol.. But yeah overall SC1 was better... Soul Edge had some good stuff too.

268

Nintendo Gaming / RE: should we worry now?

« on: January 10, 2005, 09:34:33 PM »

Nintendo can match anything sony does and still make money... Heck my brother got a gamecube, two controllers, mario kart, a mad catz controller, a memory card, and an extension cord all for 99 dollars...
Anyway, If sony does match the DS's price, Nintendo can easily drop to 100 or stay at 150 and add in the play-yan thing...

269

Nintendo Gaming / RE: Resident Evil 4 Discussion

« on: January 09, 2005, 10:48:33 PM »

9.6 from Gamespot...

270

Nintendo Gaming / RE: Soul Calibur DS CONFIRMED!

« on: January 09, 2005, 07:36:06 PM »

Well back then it was just speculation...

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Nintendo Gaming / RE: Soul Calibur DS CONFIRMED!

« on: January 09, 2005, 06:56:33 AM »

Dude the thing about special moves on one button isn't new. It's in soul calibur 2. The second analog stick. You just press it in a direction to do the "special moves" aka the moves that require that multiple buttons be pressed at once, like soul charge, and the various button pair moves like Y+A, X+Y, and A+X...

And S-U-P-E-R, Club Nintendo is Nintendo's official magazine in Latin American countries, it's simply the Spanish equivalent of Nintendo Power, so yeah "good source" is an understatement. The only thing more official than this would be if Namco themselves announced it, which can't be far away now. Typically magazines always get things first so that when those magazines go in to print the websites will just be recieving the same news... so an official announcement can't be too far.. They are probably waiting because most sites are still on vacation...

The other thing might be that Namco is actually waiting for E3 and Club Nintendo accidentally spilled the beans. This definately wouldn't be the first time Nintendo of Europe accidentally announced a game before it was supposed to be... apparently they aren't seen as worthy of much notice and attention by Nintendo of America and NCL in Japan and just like with games they seem to get the memos about not announcing news about a half year later than everyone else.
lol it must suck to live in Europe... your department always tells the world about games that you are going to get last.... It's like the loser of a contest detailing all the prizes he didn't win... teehee

272

Nintendo Gaming / RE: Will FF7 be possible on DS?

« on: January 09, 2005, 06:35:56 AM »

Why do you guys even want FF7... If any already released game should be put on the DS, 7 would be the last I'd want to see. FF4, FF6, Secret of Mana, Chrono Trigger, and FF Tactics are all better than 7, more suited for the DS, and simply deserve another chance in the world...there's a whole generation of gamers now who NEED to experience these games, as these people still seem to be laboring under the delusion that the death of Aeris is the epitome of emotion and storytelling in video gaming and that Sephiroth is somehow one of the greatest villains of all time. Speaking of great villains, there's another game that desperately needs to be on the DS... Starcraft and Brood War.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE: Soul Calibur DS CONFIRMED!

« on: January 08, 2005, 09:01:47 PM »

Ridge Racers for PSP is also a different game than Ridge Racer DS, by a different developer.

Oh, and another thing I totally forgot. SC would be perfect for game-sharing multiplayer. I mean, all you need to send from one system to another for a match is a stage, that stage's music, two characters, and those character's sound effects.

And I wouldn't worry about each person needing his own DS. DS's are everywhere by the looks it...I seem to be the only person waiting to buy one. My cousins nearby who aren't really that serious about games (they have a PS2 and a couple of PC games) got one which surprised me, and tons of people at school seem to have gotten one, which also surprised me. I'm a senior this year and sit with all the seniors at lunch and just the other day a bunch of kids (not dorks either, these were the last kids I'd have expected to have DS's) pulled out some DS's during lunch and started playing Metroid. Then they said I wasn't cool cause I'm waiting till next year to buy one. And this is in high school, at lunch, at the "cool" people table. And just a note, I've never seen a Gameboy pulled out during school other than by one or two dorky looking people, usually fresman, sitting at some table with a bunch of Yu-Gi-Oh cards or Magic cards on it. So, I was pretty surprised....

274

Nintendo Gaming / RE: Soul Calibur DS CONFIRMED!

« on: January 08, 2005, 07:05:43 PM »

And hopefully the SC2 movesets, not SC1. Ivy is way more fleshed out (lol) in SC2...Cervantes is more balanced...and so on.

275

Nintendo Gaming / RE: Will FF7 be possible on DS?

« on: January 08, 2005, 06:43:51 PM »

Actually, the game cart in question just has to put code into the RAM that tells the DS not to shut off if the car is ejected. Or, another thing, games could ship on two DS carts and a GBA cart, with the GBA cart holding crucial data as well as the code to keep the DS on...This will probably jump a games price to 50 bucks though, and few companies will choose this unless they are garaunteed a best selling game...highly unlikely.