Messages

301

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Official Wii Sales Thread

« on: June 05, 2009, 09:25:00 PM »

BTW, is kingdom hearts any fun?

I know it was popular, but I just figured it's because it was a PS2 game from square, and those fanboys would eat up any old disgusting mess with a grin and a (slightly crazed) twinkle in their eye.

302

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Super Mario Galaxy 2

« on: June 05, 2009, 09:22:15 PM »

I agree with the poster who noted that SMG was too linear (even more frustrating since it had a design that hinted that it might not be linear, but after a while, you realize it really is...), but the level designs were simply so excellent...

One reason why the level designs in Super Mario Galaxy were so good is because it was linear. When it comes to platformers having a more focused direction makes them better, otherwise they lose some of the elements which make them a platformer and become too much like an adventure game.

I don't care if  something drifts between "platformy" and "adventury" really, I just care that it's fun.

SMG would have been more fun for me if it was a bit more open.

303

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Super Mario Galaxy 2

« on: June 05, 2009, 10:53:04 AM »

Technically SMS was pretty nice, I liked the explorability of some of the levels, but I personally thought the tropical-island theme got kind of boring.  SMG and SM64 had a lot more variety, and I just felt a lot more excited to open up a new level in them.  I did like the sense in SMS that it was a real place, with wider open levels.

I also liked the seamless interconnectedness of the levels in SMS (you could see the other levels in the distance); I know it sounds a bit contradictory to say this and also complain about the homogenous levels, but I'm sure they could make it work somehow... (e.g. like in MP1, where there's snow some places and desert other places, and it still all felt like it was part of one interconnected world)   

I agree with the poster who noted that SMG was too linear (even more frustrating since it had a design that hinted that it might not be linear, but after a while, you realize it really is...), but the level designs were simply so excellent...

Also somehow the music in SMS seemed very annoying.

It'd be great to see something that picked up the good points of all the games:  the variety and non-linearity of SM64, with the wide open levels and "seamlessness" of SMS, and the insanely good level design and top-notch tech of SMG...

304

General Gaming / Re: The PATHETIC state of the gaming 'media'

« on: June 02, 2009, 10:00:46 AM »

See, in my honest opinion I wouldn't condemn the whole company over one comment a PR did. I am saying this because we assume that if someone said it the whole company must believe it.

Well, you're right, but a lot of companies also seem to act as if their management pretty much agreed with this guy's blather.  So it's not much of a stretch to take what he said at face value...

305

General Gaming / Re: The PATHETIC state of the gaming 'media'

« on: June 01, 2009, 11:01:17 AM »

There's already a Malstrom response.

heh, he nails it, pretty much.

It always baffles me to see 3rd parties releasing craptastic and/or simply unappealing games for the wii, see them not sell well -- and then come to the conclusion that there's something wrong with the wii or the wii market, rather than their lame games.

I don't even know what games THQ is responsible for, but that certainly sounds like what the THQ guy is doing.  It's pitiful and depressing at the same time...

306

General Gaming / Re: PSP GO Officially leaked from Qore

« on: June 01, 2009, 08:23:06 AM »

The fact that Sony had dropped the crappy UMD format means they are on the right track, and this is a VERY bad thing for Nintendo. You can say what you want about the crappy design and how awful it looks, and you would be right, but the UMD was a ball and chain that would have prevented Sony from ever really dominating the handheld market, but now that's gone.

The UMD was crappy, but it was hardly some kind of singular factor that was preventing people from buying the PSP (like, for instance the PS3's insane price probably was).

Maybe losing it will allow a somewhat lower price point and longer battery life, which is good, but it probably doesn't matter much by this point in the current generation -- the DS is too absurdly dominant. 

Small incremental improvements in the PSP (bizarrely accompanied by a worse physical design) may make the PSP's position a bit better, but they don't seem very likely to derail the DS money-train.

307

General Gaming / Re: PSP GO Officially leaked from Qore

« on: May 31, 2009, 08:22:16 PM »

Also notice the analogue nub is in an even worse position than the old PSP.

It's like they design these things using CAD software, and do no actual user-testing before moving to full production.

The sad thing is that while the old PSP at least looked kinda cool, this one seems just ... dorky.

And of course the sliding mechanism seems likely to make it much less robust with little apparent gain in portability over the old design.

308

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Fatal Frame IV

« on: May 30, 2009, 09:54:25 PM »

BTW, has anyone played it...?

Given all the plaudits it seems to get, I've been thinking of picking it up (the japanese version), but none of the reviews really leave me feeling very clued in about what exactly it's like to play...

309

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Fragile - Namco ARPG

« on: May 28, 2009, 07:01:46 PM »

I did finish playing Fragile, and must say, while I really liked the general atmosphere and vibe of the first 2/3 or so of the game, it has a very lame ending, and in general gets worse and worse as the game gets near the end.  Even though I liked the earlier parts of the game, it never really felt like it got going, there was always this "when will the real game start" feeling -- right up to the point where you realize "wait, this is the lame tacked-on ending!"

It seems pretty clear that they had some neat ideas, and managed to implement some of them at least partially, but simply ran out of time/money/inspiration/management-support at some point.

It would be great to see some of the creators make a more fully-realized game along the same lines.

BTW, the "soundtrack CD" included with the game (at extra cost!) only includes the "incidental" music, which was pretty annoying, as the title/ending tunes (sung by Aoi Teshima) are really nice.  [OTOH, I downloaded them from somewhere without feeling guilty...]

310

General Gaming / Re: Sony's secret weapon is PS3 Slim... Jim?

« on: May 26, 2009, 08:14:45 PM »

you never hear people complaining about their D-Pads

I thought this was one of the big complaints about Playstation controllers.  The splite d-pad makes it easier to get blisters.

Yeah, the PS dpad is one of the most awful out there -- I had very painful experiences back in the PS1 days.

What's simply bizarre is that Sony has retained this horrible, horrible, dpad, in the sweet spot on all their controllers, for 15 years.  Even worse, Sony made exactly the same idiotic control mistakes with the PSP (which is a new system with a different control scheme, so much less affected by compatibility concerns) -- an awful dpad, in the "main position", and an awkwardly-placed analog controller seemingly tossed in at the last moment as an afterthought.

These things have convinced me that Sony simply doesn't understand controllers, or their importance for video-gaming.   That's pretty pathetic for one of the biggest video-game manufacturers on the planet.  Given SCE and Kutaragi's historical obsession with flash and marketing over substance, though, it's not all that surprising I suppose.

I used to think this but I now think d-pad centric is the way to go.   I've noticed that playing a d-pad game with an off-center d-pad is a HUGE pain in the ass but playing an analog stick game with an off-center stick is, while not as good as having the stick in the primary position, is only somewhat annoying and is overall much easier to adapt to.  Ideally whatever the game needs is what you would prefer to have in the main slot but moving your thumb over to control the analog stick is less sucky than doing the same for the d-pad, so d-pad wins by default.  After all the second analog stick on most controllers is always off-center and no one has a problem with that.

Given that like 95% of games are analogue centric -- and playing dpad-centric games on Sony's insane dpad is such an awful experience -- that's a very unconvincing argument.

Better to simply have separate controllers available for those people who are really into dpad-centric games, and optimize for the overwhelmingly common case of analogue-centric games.

I think the GC controller is my favorite overall; it has its flaws (z button), but in general, it's a fantasticaly ergonomic controller.  You can really tell from using it how much research and care they put into its design (pretty much the polar opposite of Sony's controllers).

311

General Gaming / Re: Sony's secret weapon is PS3 Slim... Jim?

« on: May 25, 2009, 09:12:05 AM »

The GC controller problem was aggravated further when you played 3rd party games that wouldn't translate the buttons properly from PS2-> GC.

Well to be fair, that's not a "GC controller problem", it's a "crappy 3rd-party game problem".

312

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Her Majesty Receives Golden Wii

« on: May 25, 2009, 08:10:28 AM »

I was thinking a nice dark-reddish wood for the buttons/dpad/triggers.

Maybe a cover woven from silver and gold thread for the cabling?
 

313

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Her Majesty Receives Golden Wii

« on: May 24, 2009, 10:46:49 AM »

When I googled to find that pic, it was amazing to see the huge variety of things people have gold-plated...

I'm a bit disappointed that they didn't replace the buttons with some material that goes better with gold; white looks a bit cheezy.

314

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Her Majesty Receives Golden Wii

« on: May 24, 2009, 06:03:35 AM »

315

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Official Wii Sales Thread

« on: May 23, 2009, 04:01:47 AM »

No PS3 or 360 games in the top 20.

Looks like Nintendo is doomed.

Guaranteed that game developers react to the news by planning more PS3 titles...

The PS3's gonna start picking up steam anyyyyy day now, after all... yup, yup.

316

General Gaming / Re: Sony getting hit Hard lately

« on: May 18, 2009, 12:12:29 PM »

Probably has something to do with the insanity of Ken Kutaragi. If that man hasn't been committed to a mental hospital yet he definitely should be...

That seems to be pretty much how he was thought of inside Sony too...

According to a friend that worked at SCE Japan (on PS3 development), basically Kutaragi ran SCE quite independently from the rest of Sony, with a very different style -- more glitter and less sweat (even physically, SCE was in a seperate building, in the expensive and fashionable Aoyama section of Tokyo) -- and the old-school Sony guys hated Kutaragi's guts.  Sadly, SCE was (at the time at least) simply bringing in too much money to ignore, and apparently Sony bet just a bit too much of the company on it...

317

General Gaming / Re: Sony getting hit Hard lately

« on: May 17, 2009, 07:13:07 PM »

Sony's no Nintendo.

Hell, for the last decade or so, Sony's no Sony!

[Hard to say when the rot began, but it seems to curiously coincide with the introduction of the playstation...]

Akio Morita would be so ashamed...

318

General Gaming / Re: Sony getting hit Hard lately

« on: May 16, 2009, 04:06:57 AM »

The PS3, obviously, does not have one.  So making exclusives for it is stupid.  I'd say it should be lucky to get what it has got, as some third parties would rather risk financial collapse than not make PS3 games, even beyond all rationality, whereas other companies in a similar position would have been dropped at the first sign of slight sales momentum loss.

I agree, but I'll bet a lot of developers made long-term plans and investments back when ps2 was king, before it became clear that the ps3 would be in distant 3rd place for this generation.

I presume that it's not particularly easy to change course in midstream, so perhaps some of them just decided to stick it out, hoping desperately that the ps3 would suddenly start selling.  Not such a great plan as it turns out, but maybe this wasn't so clear a while back?

319

TalkBack / Re: Factor 5, Inc. Shuts Down in America

« on: May 15, 2009, 07:43:56 PM »

This is why publishers scare the ever-loving **** out of me.

I'm guessing Factor5 would've gladly held onto Lair and polished it until it was a good game but no doubt Sony gave them a deadline because it was just getting too expensive.

I've never quite understood what it is that publishers do...

So... the developers actually make the game.  What is the publisher's role?  Financing?  Marketing?  Liquoring up the Walmart rep to get the game into their stores?

320

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Official Wii Sales Thread

« on: May 14, 2009, 07:55:44 PM »

NDS - 1.04million
everything else - 930k

It's cool and all, but ... what happened?  Doesn't everyone on the planet already own like five DSes...?

321

Nintendo Gaming / Re: World Destruction (New Traditional RPG by the makers of Luminous Arc)

« on: May 14, 2009, 05:44:37 PM »

I'm sure the story is appropriately convoluted.

It still sounds/looks like a cliche-fest of the most cringe-inducing kind...

322

Nintendo Gaming / Re: World Destruction (New Traditional RPG by the makers of Luminous Arc)

« on: May 14, 2009, 08:20:19 AM »

Ugh... "tragic past"

Based on that plot summary, it really sounds quite awful...

323

TalkBack / Re: Ubisoft's Profits Rise Thanks to Wii

« on: May 03, 2009, 09:34:22 AM »

The thing about Square-Enix is that they are the antithesis of everything Nintendo preaches: they place great emphasis on presentation and expanding the immersion of the player and storytelling through every technical and cinematic trick in the book.  Nintendo doesn't build consoles that can handle what Square-Enix really wants to do

Er, the thing is that square sucks at story-telling and immersion -- they certainly have placed a lot of emphasis on presentation and graphics, but the main effect seems to be that they're churning out same creaky cardboard melodrama with higher resolution and more polygons...

324

TalkBack / Re: Another Code R: A Journey of Lost Memories Dated for Europe

« on: May 03, 2009, 05:31:06 AM »

BTW, note that the Japanese version has no voice acting at all, it's purely text, so it may be that the voice-over in the English trailer was just done for that, not for the actual game.

325

TalkBack / Re: Another Code R: A Journey of Lost Memories Dated for Europe

« on: May 02, 2009, 11:42:25 PM »

I went and bought this game on a whim... (I've never played any other games of this sort, but the idea of a mystery game seemed appealing)

It's a very funny game, soooooo relaxed, I feel like a complete slacker playing it, and so far at least there's little in the way of actual effort required, mostly it's just reading a story.

The graphics are also a bit weird, it does look very nice, but that's mostly because it's all from a fixed perspective, so a lot of it is probably just hand-drawn backdrop.  There's pretty much zero player movement, it's all verrrrry static, either running back and forth in a fixed path between locations, or clicking on items in each location to trigger events or conversations etc.  The static presentation might be a lot more at home on the DS, so it feels like they just took exactly the same interface as their earlier DS games and upgraded only the graphic resolution etc.

While it gets the job done, the very restricted movement is a shame.  Judging from the way things look when moving, they actually did do at least partial 3D modeling of many of the objects (it's like in the most recent DS castlevania games -- many of the "background" objects will shift perspective as you run past).  Maybe they could have allowed a bit more freedom without blowing out the budget?

So far even the story is very mild, with vague insinuations of foul play and a bit of angsty father-daughter bickering ("your work matters more to  you than I do!"); maybe it'll pick up a bit later.

Not the game to get if you want an adrenaline rush, but it's appealing in a funny way, kinda nostalgic like watching old scooby-doo episodes...