Messages

4851

General Chat / RE: ghostbusters 3?

« on: September 15, 2005, 04:04:02 AM »

Who's to say they can't use the original cast?

[kirby_killer_dedede]

4852

Nintendo Gaming / RE:The Official IWATATON Speech Thread

« on: September 15, 2005, 03:58:19 AM »

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Originally posted by: kirby_killer_dedede
dragon quest was confirmed for the rev at press.nintendo.com

This actually seems somewhat plausible. The thing that's bugging me, though, is that the press release refers to the console as 'Nintendo Revolution' instead of just 'Revolution'.

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Originally posted by: MrMojoRising
Happy?

Yes. Yes I am.

But I'm very disappointed in you, Mantidor.
And you, Pale. And you, KDR.

If you don't show your support for Our Great Leader Iwata, the Secret Iwata Police will have to come and get you.

What's that, you say? The impending IWATATON is making me lose my mind? That's ridiculous!

edit spelling
 

[ON]

4853

Nintendo Gaming / RE: The Official IWATAON Speech Thread

« on: September 14, 2005, 07:34:36 PM »

No, see, the "mispelled" thread title is actually a secret code implanted by Nintendo as part of a vast viral-marketing scheme.

Can't you see it?

IWATAON

Innocent mistake indeed!

4854

Nintendo Gaming / RE:The Official IWATAON Speech Thread

« on: September 14, 2005, 07:18:24 PM »

Okay, but only people with Iwata avatars are allowed to post in this thread.

4855

Nintendo Gaming / RE:last minute rev predicts! go! go! go!

« on: September 14, 2005, 12:47:10 PM »

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A two piece controller with each hand only being responsible for a different dirrectional movement seems far more plausible to me if they used gyros.

Plus, Nintendo actually patented a 2-piece splittable controller awhile back....

4856

General Gaming / RE: DOA4 Gamespot Exclusive Video

« on: September 14, 2005, 10:02:46 AM »

Just looked at the MGS screens. I'm officially impressed.

4857

Nintendo Gaming / RE: Burnout DS! First pics

« on: September 14, 2005, 09:54:02 AM »

well, it would suck for them.....
if they bought the PSP to play PSP games.

4858

Nintendo Gaming / RE: My two cents: Revolution will have more third-party support than PS3. (No, I'm not crazy.)

« on: September 14, 2005, 09:19:37 AM »

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The DS being a high quality , technically advanced product doesn't hurt, but the name is this initial surge in sales.

Well... I agree that if, say, Cingular created/released the DS instead of Nintendo, the system probably wouldn't have sold as well.

But, if Sony had created the DS, and Nintendo had created the PSP, I think the DS still would've sold better.  

4859

General Chat / RE:This month is Iwata Month, and there's nothing you can do about it! (IWATATON!)

« on: September 14, 2005, 04:59:56 AM »

My frothing anticipation for IWATATON....increases!

[IceCold]

4860

Nintendo Gaming / RE: My two cents: Revolution will have more third-party support than PS3. (No, I'm not crazy.)

« on: September 13, 2005, 08:36:26 PM »

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Originally posted by: IceCold:
But I seriously doubt that it will be like the DS with tonnes of 3rd parties jumping on board. You have to remember that the GBA was the king of the portable market for a long, long time, and it sold millions of units. 3rd parties aren't just going to ditch its successor. However, the Rev isn't the marketshare leader.

The DS became popular, IMO, because of its affordability and innovative features. The fact is, as important as name recognition can be, overall product quality trumps everything. The PSP could've snagged first place easily if it was a better overall product.

Of course, analysts now point to Nintendo's handheld name recognition as carrying them through.... but remember, back before the DS was released,  they were saying that the PSP was a sure thing and the DS wasn't. They said that PlayStation had better name recognition than Nintendo (without the Gameboy branding); they pointed to the PSP's better graphics and sexiness; they noted that, since both PlayStation and Nintendo were going 'high-end', the gameboy's younger fanbase would be a non-issue and further gaurantee the PSP's success; etc.

The DS, in fact, beat the odds...mainly because it's, you know, more fun to play with.

I'm fairly sure that even developers weren't sure which system would come out on top, and support for the 2 systems seemed like it would be equal early on. AFAIK, the DS didn't snag first place becasue of third party support, third party support came because the DS snagged first place.  

4861

Nintendo Gaming / RE:My two cents: Revolution will have more third-party support than PS3. (No, I'm not crazy.)

« on: September 13, 2005, 08:09:54 PM »

 

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I'm a huge fan of impressionistic, highly-charged visuals, though more in landscapes than characters (in some ways, I'm really a Victorian romantic at heart).

The thing I love about Nintendo is that they really are impressionists at heart. Take, for example, Hyrule Market town in OOT. If you look at the individual details, everything is rudimentary and simplistic…yet, when you go there, you feel like you’re in a bustling, vibrant town regardless.

Anyway, I find it interesting that you like stylised landscapes but prefer photo real characters…. I think I'm the opposite. I can enjoy photo-real fantasy landscapes, but, when it comes to humans, it's easier for me to sympathise with them when they're slightly stylised (compare, for example the impressive yet creepy people in Final Fantasy: TSW to the more likeable humans in the Incredibles).

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But the emotional impact of a visual system can be achieved in subtle deviations or simply by using exotic or unusual formations (the skies in HL2 are good examples of this). I don't think there's anything superior in either approach, but one is clearly more suited to hard sci-fi and the other to very soft fantasy.

Probably right... I'll concede to the virtue of visual variety. Good artists can achieve a lot with all kinds of different visuals.

The one thing I’ll add though, is that, while Nintendo always seems to have an eye on what’s important, other developers tend to focus on the wrong things. When developing a game, most devs these days seem to put priority on creating the most photorealistic and technically impressive graphics possible, without first asking themselves what they’re trying to communicate with their game’s visuals.  When creating a character, they might focus on getting all of the small visual details right without regard for what’s actually important: namely, what’s going on in the character’s head, and how their eyes should move, and what expressions should come over their face, etc.

While there are exceptions (and HL2 may well be one of them), for the most part it feels like we’re being shovelled the same generic crap in terms of visuals (and gameplay).

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I tend to doubt the application of the uncanny valley to CG. Again, take HL2, with has highly sympathetic characters which are also as photorealistic as possible.

hm - You might be right.

I haven't played HL2, but from what I've seen, the characters don't bug me as much as in other games (though they still look a little 'off').
And Leon from Re4 didn't bug me at all.
Then of course, in the world of movies, there's Gollum, who is incredible.

So, yeah, the uncanny valley may not apply to CG. The problem is, there are so many PS3 games bug the heck out of me. Take a look at Fight Night Round 3, for example. It's like a friggen wax museum.
...Actually, I think that's true of most games from this generation and next.

I miss the good old N64 days....

4862

General Chat / Happy! Mario 20th

« on: September 13, 2005, 05:01:46 PM »

Happy anniversary, Mario!
The greatest 2d platformer of all time was released 20 years ago today. Go forth and buy a Gameboy Micro to celebrate!

Ah....I still remember my first time. On a windows emulator.

God, I loved it.

4863

Nintendo Gaming / RE:last minute rev predicts! go! go! go!

« on: September 13, 2005, 03:35:02 PM »

Apart from being able to control things like airplanes with ease, the thing that excites me about gyros is that it could give you pc-like disembodied hand control. Imagine a myst-like point and click that is controlled entirely with a gyro and the a button. Or a complex RTS where you can navigate complex menus, fiddle with your troops, etc with ease.

Or, imagine a 3rd person adventure game where - instead of fiddling with an annoying camera - you simply point at what you want to focus on with the gyro control, and an intellegint camera automagically gives you the best view possible.

The possiblities are endless.

4864

Nintendo Gaming / RE:last minute rev predicts! go! go! go!

« on: September 12, 2005, 09:55:14 PM »

"like a newton? I love newtosn"

No, no, I love newtons too. It's hard to imagine the extent of the undeliciousness of frookies without actually having tasted one.

4865

Nintendo Gaming / RE:last minute rev predicts! go! go! go!

« on: September 12, 2005, 09:34:09 PM »

"What's a frookie?"
It's like a cookie. A fruit-juice sweetened, horribly undelicious cookie.
 

4866

Nintendo Gaming / last minute rev predicts! go! go! go!

« on: September 12, 2005, 09:09:46 PM »

Less than 3 days til IWATATON......then, after Iwata doesn't reveal any new info, only two more months until REVOTON1!

So, this is your last chance to guess. What's in and what's out?
Person who gets the most right wins a frookie.
Bonus points for coming up with a good controller mockup.

Here's my predictions:

IN
-controller that plugs directly into TV for some applications
-controller that splits in 2.
-gyro (or other device for reading movement) in ONE of the 2 controller halves.
-3-D!
-advanced feedback (maybe haptic feedback, or air that blows on your hands....I have no idea.)  
-touch-sensitive technology in some form

OUT
-trackball
-scrollwheel
-hot/cold output
-traditional SNES button layout
-reconfigurable button layout/wholly virtual buttons
-dual gyro setup
-dual screen setup

4867

Nintendo Gaming / RE:My two cents: Revolution will have more third-party support than PS3. (No, I'm not crazy.)

« on: September 12, 2005, 08:26:47 PM »

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First: you believe that Nintendo is doing kid games because that is where its artistic sensibilities lead it. Nintendo has tons of artists, and the odds are good that many of them would love to pursue a mature game and are held back by Nintendo corporate calculations of exactly the kind you don't want directing game content.

Perhaps.

I do sometimes treat Nintendo like they're an artist instead of a company.... but I think that's how they tend to act. Sure, there are (stupid) corporate decisions: Nintendo's whored out mario like crazy, rushed Wind Waker, etc. But other decisions (like the decision to make Wind Waker cel-shaded, or the decision to set Sunshine on a tropical island), felt like they were motivated primarily by the artists, and they represented directions that they, from an artistic and creative standpoint, wanted to explore. I find it hard to beleive that Nintendo's top brass ordered Wind Waker to be more tiku tiku tiku!  because they felt it would make more money that way.

I also find it hard to fault Nintendo for not producing Halo-like games where you shoot at things with pistols and such. I'm sure there are some artists at Nintendo who would be interested in that sort of thing....but it's hard to take a 20-year corporate philosophy and separate that out and simply say Nintendo is suppressing various game types for profit-motivated reasons. What types of games Nintendo creates is undoubtedly engrained in everyone who works there...and to expect that Nintendo could simply shift their policy and start pumping out games like Halo or MGS is somewhat ludicrous.

With that said, I wouldn't at all mind seeing more games like Another Code coming from Nintendo. I haven't played it, but from what I gather there's a complex back story, an older protagonist, mature themes, etc. Nintendo should make more games like that (if they want to). I think we can both agree on that.

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And Twilight Princess is not close to the maturity of LoTR - compare the enemies in the shots with the Uruk-Hai, for example.

mmm- maybe. But I'm afraid you might be confusing maturity with photo-realism. One of the things I love about Nintendo is that they seem to be one of the few companies that intuitively understands that when you try to make a game photo-realistic, you wind up with something that lies in the uncanny valley. Miyamoto had a great quote about this, where he described a hypothetical game where a detailed photorealistic hand passes through a bottle, and thus counteracts all of the detail and realism.

Stylized graphics are good. I can't for the time when other companies follow Nintendo's lead and leave behind gee-whiz photorealism for more stylized, artistic (dare I say impressionist?) visuals.

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They worked with second parties to create mature titles last generation. We lost the second parties. They promised better relationships with 3rd parties last generation. We lost still more third-party support.

Maybe I'm fooling myself, but I think Nintendo will do things better next time round. The DS is proof that the philosophies they're espousing, about creating cheaper and more innovative systems, can work in the real world. And comments from developers lead me to believe that 3rd party support for the REV will be good.

As far as Nintendo's strategy of getting mature games through 2nd parties, sure it didn't work well this time around, but Nintendo just didn't have the userbase to support niche mature titles like Eternal Darkness. I'd like to think that will change this time around. I'm counting on Nintendo coming out with good launch games, an innovative console, and an affordable price.....if they do that, a larger and more diverse userbase should follow.

4868

Nintendo Gaming / RE:The Divinations of Bombadil

« on: September 12, 2005, 07:11:37 PM »

Cute.

The interesting (and infuriating) thing about this blog is that I was thinking about doing the same kind of thing: creating something Rev - related with coded messages and such, that people could read a lot into, without actually having to, you know, lie directly.

I think that's what this guy is doing anyway.

4869

Nintendo Gaming / RE:More Revolution details soon?

« on: September 12, 2005, 07:26:21 AM »

And pass up the chance to get people addicted? No way!

When you go with Mario, the first mushroom's always free.(TM)

That should be Nintendo's slogan.

If they, you know, decide to go the mind-altering drug route.

4870

General Chat / RE: Does Cartoon Network Hate And Love Me At The Same Time?

« on: September 11, 2005, 08:02:03 PM »

It's not all bad in anime dub land....
Cowboy Bebop  

4871

Nintendo Gaming / RE:My two cents: Revolution will have more third-party support than PS3. (No, I'm not crazy.)

« on: September 11, 2005, 07:52:38 PM »

 

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Also note: if Nintendo made a game with the visual maturity of LotR, I would be well satisfied.

Twilight. Princess.

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And didn't you just say that movies that products that aim to please everyone will please no one? How is that different from "a movie everyone can enjoy"?

Erm.... Okay, here's the difference. When making art, the artist's intention is often to introduce his audience to things that he enjoys. If an artist enjoys watching paint dry for hours at a time, he probably wouldn't make a film of paint drying for several hours....but he might make a film that explores paint-drying in some kind of witty and fun way that his audience can appreciate. This is pandering, in a sense, but not in a bad way.

The flip side of this is someone (or more likely, several someones, who form a committee of some sort) who tries to predict what is popular/well-liked and then tries to mass-produce that thing and make as much money off of it as possible. The result of this sort of thinking is things like summer buddy action comedies, MTV, and EA games. This is bad.

It's the difference between labouring over a great movie that a wide array of people can enjoy, and painting a movie by the numbers in an attempt to acquire the most amount of money possible based on the latest statistical reports of what is popular. It's the difference between Finding Nemo and Shark Tale. It's the difference between Sony and Nintendo.

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Here's why: Nintendo's image is driven by their first-person titles.

Nintendo's image is driven by Nintendo. Nintendo can take many steps to create a more 'mature' image of its console than it has in the past, without sacrificing what kind of games they want to make personally. They can do this by making a more adult looking console (done), and building better relationships with 3rd parties (apparently being done), and working with second parties to create exclusive mature titles (hopefully being done).

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What I value about Nintendo is its dedication to quality, innovation, and solid engineering, not its dedication to an E rating. Yes, a Nintendo that produced the occasional Halo or KotOR or Fable would be different. And I would celebrate that. It would mean they had embraced a broader form of entertainment.

I wouldn't mind this IF THAT'S WHAT THEY WANTED TO DO. And maybe it is. Another Code isn’t 'I LOVE HALO 2'. OOT had blood. Miyamoto worked on Eternal Darkness. If Nintendo wanted to create a Touchstone-like first party mature games division, I wouldn't necessarily object. But what I do object to is people constantly calling for Nintendo to cave into every market pressure, every trend. 'Who cares if Wind Waker is artistic? It's teh I LOVE HALO 2!' 'Nintendo should put voice acting in Twilight Princess!' 'Nintendo needs to go online RIGHT NOW!!' 'Nintendo games should have more blood and less bright colors!'

Maybe, while we're at, Nintendo should have produced a generic Space Invaders clone instead of a cartoony jumping game involving an Italian carpenter and a gorilla back in '81.

.......sigh. I feel like we're arguing over a lot of nothing, in any case. I want variety; I want more mature games (and by mature I don't mean GTA or any of the other junk passing off as mature these days). I just don't want Nintendo to sell out, that's all.

P.S. A Beautiful Mind was generic paint-by-the-numbers, warmed-over, academy pandering, that didn't offer a particularly accurate view of either John Nash or Schizophrenia. Just my two cents.

4872

Nintendo Gaming / RE:Super Princess Peach

« on: September 11, 2005, 01:46:42 PM »

If she wasn't the player charachter I guess it would be kind of sadistic....but since you are peach while playing, it's more like you're making yourself cry.

At least, that's how I see it.

4873

General Chat / RE: Does Cartoon Network Hate And Love Me At The Same Time?

« on: September 11, 2005, 12:25:42 PM »

Tom goes to the Mayor is great. One of the few shows on (american) TV that has a complete loser as its star.

Billy and Mandy is good too.

4874

Nintendo Gaming / RE:My two cents: Revolution will have more third-party support than PS3. (No, I'm not crazy.)

« on: September 11, 2005, 12:18:24 PM »

"Do you have any examples that prove that point? I have many examples that disprove it....but you first."
How's about Wolfgang Peterson's TROY film? It was like 3 hours long and somewhat artsy, so as to appeal to critics... yet they also loaded it with poular actors and replaced Gabriel Yared's beautiful score that he worked on for a year with a more 'commercial' hack job, so as to appeal to the masses. At the end of the day, the movie was widely panned by both critics and average moviegoers.

"Instead of making games that appeal to all audiences, they should make many games that appeal to different groups of people."
I actually agree with this, partly. Revolution should definitely have a wide variety of games. It's just that I think in order to acheive that, Nintendo should change, not the kind of games that they produce personally, but rather their level of 3rd part support.

Variety is no problem for the DS: the system offers everything from simple pet simulators, to complex RPGs, to bloody action games. This is because the system has great 3rd party support. Which is because the system is poular. Which is becasue of low cost and innovative features. And since Revolution is also supposed to be inexpensive and innovative.....I'm not too worried about game variety.

4875

Nintendo Gaming / RE:My two cents: Revolution will have more third-party support than PS3. (No, I'm not crazy.)

« on: September 11, 2005, 09:04:57 AM »

"A movie like "A Beautiful Mind" is not exactly a gorefest, and yet it is by no stretch of the imagination a family movie."

Nor is it by any stretch of the imagination a particularly GOOD movie.....
And note further that Lord of the Rings, a movie that nearly everyone can enjoy, did much better at the box office that year.

I don't have a problem with Nintendo coming out with more second and third party mature games like Eternal Darkness, RE4, and Geist (I like more adult games too!). But I do have a problem with people saying Nintendo should make first-party mature games. Then they wouldn't be Nintendo....they'd be some kind of souless EA-like company who makes games solely based on what it thinks will make the most money.

"Everybody" games do sell and do have broad appeal. The N64 didn't 'fail' because it launched with Mario instead of Goldeneye....it 'failed' becasue it didn't have third party support, and it didn't have that because of a bunch of other stupid decisions Nintendo made. And GameCube 'failed' because it never really aquired a killer app...NOT because the games they produced at launch were 'tiku tiku tiku! ', but becasue the games were neither particularly amazing nor easy to get into.

"Tragically, Nintendo is mostly empty every night, and will remain so until it "caves in" as you say and starts offering a more rounded menu."

Companies who spend all of their time trying to please everybody invariably wind up pleasing nobody. Nintendo needs to convice people that what Nintendo offers is worth getting into, and they can do that without changing what makes Nintendo... Nintendo.