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Messages - mac<censored>

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351
Hasn't Nintendo knocked the PSP out of the market completely anyway?

No. I just recently watched the movie "Journey to the Center of the Earth" with Brendan Fraser and the kid in it is playing a PSP, not a DS or a Gameboy. Now I bet if the DSi had come out in 2006 like it should he would have been playing a DSi.

... because, as we know, what products appear in movies has absolutely nothing to do with the large bags of money making their way between the product manufacturers and the movie studios...

352
TalkBack / Re: Resident Evil 5 Skipped Wii Due to Developer Ambitions
« on: February 26, 2009, 10:27:21 PM »
But for the overall feeling like many prominent 3rd parties aren't supporting the Wii nearly as well as they should, I think it's because the Wii is such a clear change for gaming "philosophy." Nintendo's little white box, more clearly than many of their previous systems, epitomizes innovation over excess.

I dunno, surely there are devs who are so desperate to create the next crysis that they'd have a breakdown even considering the wii ... but I don't think everybody's like that.

It's perfectly possible to make huge, technically excellent, and "conventional" games on the wii -- just look at RE4!  Sure the models have to be a bit lower poly, and the sweat might not glisten quite as brightly, but those are the sort of restrictions that game developers have always worked under.

Look at the PS2 -- it was notably inferior to the other systems (PS2 versions of games pretty much universally looked worse), but because of its popularity, the game companies bit the bullet and did what they could, and the result was that the PS2 had lots of excellent games, despite its hardware inferiority.

Another example is many PC games, where it's very common to support a wide range of hardware by gracefully degrading the graphics at runtime.  Doing it at runtime is hard work, but merely supporting different platform ports should be far easier, given sufficient planning.

Examples like those are why I don't really buy the "whining devs" excuse.  I think the problem falls squarely on the shoulders of the people doing the planning, and that's management.

353
TalkBack / Re: Resident Evil 5 Skipped Wii Due to Developer Ambitions
« on: February 26, 2009, 07:31:08 PM »
the "well no one assumed the Wii would be so huge" argument no longer makes sense.  Now third parties like Capcom here are looking for excuse to not support the Wii.  Well there has to be some reason for that.

Hmm?  Capcom is trying to justify a development decision made many years ago, when they assumed the ps3 would inherit the ps2's dominant position and nintendo's next console would be an also-ran -- obviously the "no one assumed the wii would be so huge" reasoning applies to decisions made before it became clear the wii was a hit and the ps3 was a flop.

I don't know what their attitude to future games is; capcom's management has always been kinda brain-dead.

354
General Gaming / Re: The angst towards video game violence
« on: February 24, 2009, 08:31:21 AM »
There's nothing necessarily wrong with teaching your children how to use a gun.

Sure.  Take 'em to the shooting range, take 'em hunting, ... but you sure as hell shouldn't leave the gun and ammunition laying around where they can get at it when you're not watching!

Guns are serious and very dangerous tools, and should be treated as such.

355
TalkBack / Re: Wii Exclusive Dead Space Extraction Goes On Rails
« on: February 19, 2009, 07:49:51 AM »
An evil and horrid decision -- on-rails shooter == yucky cheezoid cop-out

Being on rails makes development much cheaper, and I guess EA's looking for a quick buck these days, with the recession and all, but it's very disappointing.

356
General Gaming / Re: The PATHETIC state of the gaming 'media'
« on: February 11, 2009, 02:17:55 AM »
Wait a sec... that means... me... I... oh no... *hugs his first review*

Now, now, ... reviews at NWR are far more professional than those in fanboy rags like IGN...

... sadly, I'm not kidding -- IGN has far more resources to throw at things, but the degree of drooling fanboy stupidity amongst their staff is absurd.  I think NWR reviews do often sound more professional than those in IGN, even if everything is on a shoestring budget and done by volunteers.

357
It's a sad commentary on their audience that the sizes go up to 4XL...

358
Nintendo Gaming / Re: Fragile - Namco ARPG
« on: January 29, 2009, 08:05:11 AM »
In any given 10min time span, what do you typically find yourself doing or focusing on?

Lookin' around...  That's one reason I wish it were less linear, it'd be cool to have larger areas to explore.

I haven't played all that far, mind you, so who knows though...

It's obviously not a grade-A+ title, but I think it definitely has its niche.  I've always been fond of that nostalgic showa vibe, so for me it's a trip.

359
TalkBack / Re: Response to 'Rick’s Rant - Episode 5'
« on: January 26, 2009, 07:54:20 PM »
Keep in mind that some people are simply incapable of  humility, regardless of what happens...

360
Nintendo Gaming / Re: Fragile - Namco ARPG
« on: January 26, 2009, 12:35:46 PM »
The controls have a few little annoyances, but overall they're fine, and certainly no killer flaws.

I dunno what ign's beef with the [voice-] acting is though, it seems fine to me.  Maybe ign doesn't like the style -- it's more weepy drama than epic battle -- but the voice acting itself is absolutely fine, and to say it's "terrible" is simply ... wrong.  Indeed, at least the initial segment with "PF" is quite moving.  The pervasive voice + simultaneous text is really nice -- unlike most games, pretty much all the text has voice.

Complaints I have:
  • it's very linear (essentially like most japanese rpgs)
  • poly count and texture quality are kind of low sometimes (though never absurdly so)
  • the enemies can be repetitive (though they're not really the focus, and can usually just be avoided)
  • too much simplistic "find key to unlock door" gameplay

The main strong point is the atmosphere, which is drop-dead wonderful:  there's a wistfulness and melancholy showa-era feel about everything that's just really cool.  It's a really refreshing change from the typical fantasy rpg.

361
Nintendo Gaming / Re: Official Wii Sales Thread
« on: January 24, 2009, 08:18:39 AM »
I get the impression that many many people (the general public here, not just NWR readers :-) have very fond memories of the N64 and its games.  Kind of weird given the amount of disrespect it seemed to suffer back in the day...

362
Nintendo Gaming / Re: Fragile - Namco ARPG
« on: January 24, 2009, 07:59:29 AM »
Yay!  It's released, and I have a copy of it in my grubby little hands!

Came bundled with a soundtrack CD ...

363
Nintendo Gaming / Re: Fragile - Namco ARPG
« on: January 18, 2009, 06:49:47 PM »
Release is in three days (1-22)!!

Finally a wii game I'm looking forward to... :-)

364
TalkBack / Re: REVIEWS: Chrono Trigger
« on: December 23, 2008, 10:37:39 PM »
Bah! Why didn't I order this game so I'd have it for my upcoming, Internet-less vacation?
An excellent question.  Hopefully you're going someplace that has game stores...

365
Well... just an imaginary scenario:

87 adapters plugged into the same overloaded wall socket, using a huge tangle of cheapo socket extension cords and socket multipliers, all shoved into a tiny crack next to the couch and covered with a thick layer of dust, and the (flammable) drapes.

Eventually luck runs out and the place burns.

Local ambulance-chaser parachutes in as soon as the fire department leaves, and finds one recognizable adapter made by a deep pockets company in the resulting melted slag heap.  Notices a previous vaguely related lawsuit! Ker-ching!

366
NWR Feedback / Does somebody read site email?
« on: December 21, 2008, 09:22:38 AM »
I sent a release-date correction for the game "Fragile: Sayonara Tsuki no Haikyo" using the "let us know" button on the game Profile page.  That was a few weeks ago (I think), but the old information is still there now.

So.... does anybody actually read those messages?  Is there a better way to contact the staff about stuff like that?

367
Nintendo Gaming / Re: Official Wii Sales Thread
« on: December 21, 2008, 02:48:52 AM »
What's the deal with this "Xbox arcade" anyway?  That means no hard-drive, right?  How severe are the restrictions that imposes in practice?

They're only 19000 yen (~ $190) brand new, so it's kinda tempting... I don't really know any games I want, but maybe something like RE5...?

368
TalkBack / Re: Marathon Mario
« on: December 15, 2008, 08:54:28 AM »
So doing this sort of thing in a marathon is nuts.

Welcome to Japan!

369
General Gaming / Re: Sony patents the Break away controller
« on: November 03, 2008, 10:44:29 AM »
It looks even more hideously un-ergonomic than the dual-shock!  Sony truly hates their customers...

370
Nintendo Gaming / Re: Who Is Importing the DSi?
« on: November 03, 2008, 10:37:00 AM »
after watching the video demo of the DSi on 1up.  I now want this extremely bad.
What was the feature that made you want it?

371
Nintendo Gaming / Re: Okami (Capcom to send out replacement box art!)
« on: October 24, 2008, 10:12:56 PM »
Yeah, WTF is the deal with the Japanese release?  It was scheduled originally, then delayed, and now...what?

[I've got a japanese wii so I presume I need the J version of the game]

372
Nintendo Gaming / Re: Miyamoto reafirms Wii Music is still coming along
« on: October 20, 2008, 08:29:22 PM »
I think this is probably the best review of Wii Music so far. 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27245453/

Yeah, that's an excellent review.

I'm still confused by one point though:  does Wii Music allow you to change what notes you play, or does your controller input purely effect the rhythm?

Every review I've seen seems to sort of gloss over the fine details of the gameplay....

373
General Gaming / Re: The PATHETIC state of the gaming 'media'
« on: October 18, 2008, 06:18:04 PM »
bottled bull**** in a can.
Kind of sums up IGN really...

374
My impression is that there's just a general sort of control-freakery in the industry, especially among "content providers"... NIntendo seems to have been sort of lukewarm about region control the past -- nintendo consoles tended to have either no region control or something almost trivially defeatable -- but they probably are trying their best to make software suppliers happy these days...

375
The DSi is very underwhelming.  In fact, on balance, I think it seems like a downgrade more than anything else, at a higher price to boot.

On the positive side, you get:

+ Slightly larger screens
+ Camera (but a very crappy one)
+ Some kind of vague wifi improvements

On the negative side:

- No GBA compatibility (this is a real bummer -- I've got lots of fun GBA games, and my GBA hardware is not doing so well)
- REGION-LOCKING

The size difference seems so incredibly slight as to be meaningless.

The region-locking is the biggest stupidity, and an ill harbinger for the future of Nintendo handhelds, but I'm guessing it (and maybe other changes to lock down the DS) is the real reason Nintendo is releasing the DSi in the first place.

The DS is such a nice little system, I guess it was naive to think Nintendo could keep up their winning streak...  I'm kinda glad I bought a DS lite before the DSi becomes the only choice!

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