Author Topic: watcha playin'  (Read 567908 times)

Eggman

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Re: watcha playin'
« Reply #225 on: October 13, 2008, 06:41:14 PM »
There are really only 5 Xbox games worth playing and you'd be just fine without them. Really, the system didn't have a whole lot to care about. And at least two of the games worth playing were also on other systems. And one of the others received a redone version later on (speaking about KOTOR and Psychonauts in the first case and Ninja Gaiden in the second). Other than that, I can really only think of Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath, which wasn't THAT great and the Otogi games, both of which are easily surpassed by other games now.


Spectere

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Re: watcha playin'
« Reply #226 on: October 15, 2008, 12:20:49 AM »
I've always been a fan of backward compatibility. However, it usually costs more money, both for the company developing the system, and for the people buying it, since it either requires the development of an emulation system, or actually involves including the necessary hardware.

Couldn't have said it better myself.  I really wish that more people would understand that implementing backwards compatibility is NOT a simple, straightforward, or cheap solution.  I love how people like to bitch about the Xbox 360's backwards compatibility.  Considering how radically different the two systems are it's a pretty nice gesture for any backwards compatibility to be implemented, especially when it actually improves the presentation of the game a bit (renders it at a higher resolution and even does some texture swapping for Halo, I believe).

The thing that urks me is when backwards compatibility is thrown out the window for no reason.  The DSi comes to mind.  If the system were the same size as the DS Lite and included the GBA slot I might consider it.  As it stands now, Nintendo can get bent.  I'm not going to pay for a system that removes the ability to use DS GBA port accessories and takes poor quality pictures.  Considering Nintendo has been using the same technology in all of their systems there's no reason for them to drop backwards compatibility.  I can understand dropping the classic GameBoy line due to that requiring additional hardware but the DS is little more than an GBA with another processor and a touch screen.  It might not be so bad if the GBA weren't still a popular system (and with games like Guitar Hero: On Tour coming out that require the GBA slot for its custom controller!).
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annon

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Re: watcha playin'
« Reply #227 on: October 15, 2008, 01:10:30 AM »
I read the DSi is also going to be region-locked. It has the SD slot, which potentially opens up homebrew, but you could get a Lite and a pack with an SD slot for cheaper than the DSi. Sure, it's not going to have a camera, but most people who want really portable cameras just get phones with them.

I also think it's funny that the DSi is going to be more expensive than the PSP slim currently is, which has all around better hardware.

Code: [Select]
f(u,c,k,_,y,e,a,h)
{return u*u*u*u-u*u*u*_+u*u*y-u*e+a?k?f(u+1,c,k-1,_,y,e,a,h):0:putchar(u-c+h)==f(u+1,u,k-1,_,y,e,a,h);}
main(){return f(0,0,34,84,2423,26628,72864,98)<putchar(32)>f(0,0,40,125,5809,118995,906750,96)==~putchar(10);}

MortifiedocAlot

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Re: watcha playin'
« Reply #228 on: October 15, 2008, 01:47:15 AM »
Also what the fuck, Apparently I missed a bottle and a few other things in OoT (I see why this now enraged vlad), someone tell me I'll be able to go back in time at some point in the game...

Never mind, I found it out. Also this game is a lot fun, definitely better then TP. I also can hardly see how Brave Fencer Musashi got weaker scores then OoT, I find each one easily on par with the other.


Bobbias

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Re: watcha playin'
« Reply #229 on: October 15, 2008, 09:42:45 AM »
I was always a huge fan of OoT :P Glad to see someone else giving it good reviews. As far as zelda games go, OoT was revolutionary, really, and shouldn't be taken as lightly as it has been.
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Spectere

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Re: watcha playin'
« Reply #230 on: October 15, 2008, 11:44:39 AM »
I also think it's funny that the DSi is going to be more expensive than the PSP slim currently is, which has all around better hardware.

That's just pathetic.

The DSi is just under the GameBoy Micro on my worthlessness scale.  Seriously, Nintendo, you have enough goddamn money.  Get over yourselves.
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annon

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Re: watcha playin'
« Reply #231 on: October 15, 2008, 01:57:23 PM »
They could just use it to develop, y'know, games.

Code: [Select]
f(u,c,k,_,y,e,a,h)
{return u*u*u*u-u*u*u*_+u*u*y-u*e+a?k?f(u+1,c,k-1,_,y,e,a,h):0:putchar(u-c+h)==f(u+1,u,k-1,_,y,e,a,h);}
main(){return f(0,0,34,84,2423,26628,72864,98)<putchar(32)>f(0,0,40,125,5809,118995,906750,96)==~putchar(10);}

Spectere

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Re: watcha playin'
« Reply #232 on: October 15, 2008, 02:10:26 PM »
Thing is, they haven't been developing anything worth playing.  Nintendo even said something to the effect that they were focusing on the casual market rather than the people who've been consistently giving them money for 25 years.  It's foolish; after the novelty wears off Nintendo's going to start losing money because they alienated their truest fans.  Introducing an update to the DS that removes key functionality while adding fairly insignificant features (essentially breaking backwards and forwards compatibility within the same product line) isn't going to win anyone back.  That would be like if Sony allowed developers to use the extra memory in the PSP Slim for games; PSP Phat owners like myself would understandably be a bit peeved.

I think it's safe to say that the GameCube has more games that were worth playing than the Wii does and that system was very much an underdog.  I wound up selling most of my Wii games because they all suck.  The only reason I even still have a Wii is because I foolishly sold my GameCube.  If I would have hung onto my cute purple cube for a while I could have probably made money on my Wii because the casual gamers are all flocking to it so that they can play Wii Sports and create Miis for hours on end.

Seriously, I never thought I'd say this given the PS3's awful launch, but Sony has been doing a much better job at building up their gaming line than Nintendo has been.
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annon

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Re: watcha playin'
« Reply #233 on: October 15, 2008, 02:42:04 PM »
I looked more into the DSi. What's the point of adding in two .3 megapixel cameras? I mean, if they wanted to put the cameras adjacent to each other so they could calculate the distance of a given object and make the DSi into some super-spy device like in that movie whose name I can't remember, that admittedly would be pretty cool, but they're not. They're really wasting their time and resources with this. Aside from the cameras, they're not doing anything the homebrew community hasn't.

Code: [Select]
f(u,c,k,_,y,e,a,h)
{return u*u*u*u-u*u*u*_+u*u*y-u*e+a?k?f(u+1,c,k-1,_,y,e,a,h):0:putchar(u-c+h)==f(u+1,u,k-1,_,y,e,a,h);}
main(){return f(0,0,34,84,2423,26628,72864,98)<putchar(32)>f(0,0,40,125,5809,118995,906750,96)==~putchar(10);}

Bobbias

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Re: watcha playin'
« Reply #234 on: October 15, 2008, 08:24:32 PM »
Not to mention that they aren't doing anything that the homebrew couldn't have, either.

Connecting cameras probably isn't impossible for a homebrew project on one of the other incarnations of the DS.
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annon

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Re: watcha playin'
« Reply #235 on: October 15, 2008, 09:01:41 PM »
Yeah, they could probably just use any webcam for it.

Anyways, I'm playing FF1: DoS version right now. I've always liked this version. I'm using an 8-bit-theater-based team this time through.

Code: [Select]
f(u,c,k,_,y,e,a,h)
{return u*u*u*u-u*u*u*_+u*u*y-u*e+a?k?f(u+1,c,k-1,_,y,e,a,h):0:putchar(u-c+h)==f(u+1,u,k-1,_,y,e,a,h);}
main(){return f(0,0,34,84,2423,26628,72864,98)<putchar(32)>f(0,0,40,125,5809,118995,906750,96)==~putchar(10);}

Spectere

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Re: watcha playin'
« Reply #236 on: October 15, 2008, 11:00:27 PM »
I looked more into the DSi. What's the point of adding in two .3 megapixel cameras?

My phone has two cameras.  One 2 megapixel camera for normal pictures and a VGA (0.3 megapixel) camera on the inside for video chat (which seems to have a more sensitive CCD given how much brighter and grainier the picture is).  As for the DSi, uh...if both cameras are VGA than what the hell.  Why does it need cameras in the first place?  It's a bloody portable system.  If any games actually use the cameras I'm going to have an aneurysm because camera games are quite possibly the worst thing to happen in the world of technology since EVER.  They hardly work and they're little more than stupid gimmicks.

Speaking of stupid gimmicks:

Quote
Another new function, the DSi Sound audio player, is not meant to be an ordinary audio playback mechanism. We have designed it so that people can enjoy playing with sounds.

Some typical functions include the ability to change the pitch and the speed separately by using the Touch Screen.

Yeah, that's all well and good until kiddies get tired of it (I give it five minutes) and realize that their big brother's PSP will probably make a better portable music player in spite of its limitations.

Also, I can't help but rage at this:

Quote
On the other hand, the DSi Camera software includes 11 types of special camera lenses. This means DSi can take pictures by utilizing a variety of special effects on a real-time basis. You can change the whole picture to black and white, colour the portions you touch or exchange the existing colour with a new one on the area you touch, make a composite picture using preinstalled frames or make the frames for yourselves, draw a variety of graffiti on the pictures, use the technology to recognize human faces and put glasses and moustaches on them, combine two people
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Eggman

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Re: watcha playin'
« Reply #237 on: October 16, 2008, 06:45:10 PM »
Wow you guys really have not actually looked at the DSi very much.

The part of the DSi that is region-locked is the store. Not the actual DS games. You could still buy any DS game from Japan and play it just fine on the DSi. The DSi store, just like every game store on every system, is region-locked. And yeah, there's the SD slot for any sort of workaround you want anyway.

And honestly, no, the GBA really isn't a popular system still. The US has literally zero new GBA games now. Even Japan has next to none. And losing support for GH: On Tour really isn't a bad thing because the game's terrible. And seriously, if you really want to play GBA stuff, just keep your DS. And hey, just wait for someone to build a GBA emulator for the DSi and just load it on your SD card. Now you're enjoying your "missing capability" and totally "sticking it to the man" at the same time. Games that use the GBA slot for expansion are few and far between.

The DSi also is NOT more expensive than the PSP. The Japanese PSP Slim is, at its lowest, $209 (the new series PSP's are $250). The DSi is the equivalent of $189. This is perfectly in keeping with the DSLite's pricing as well. When it comes out here, the DSi is expected to retail for $150, which would be $30 more than our Lite.

Also, there are PSP games that DO use the extra memory of the Slim. There are also games that force overclocking the PSP to run better, which on the original PSP, affects battery life quite a bit.

I also have no response for talking about Nintendo as though they aren't making games to cover everyone. In their first YEAR, they had nearly every major franchise covered. Now, they're pushing out into older franchises that haven't seen updates in almost a decade, getting other development houses to help develop many games that originated on handheld stuff, but now as full-scale console releases and literally every single one of their games works exactly as it should. I say this a lot but if you actually sit there and tell me that nearly every game you've played on the Wii sucks, you are either really bad at picking games in general, you suck at the game, or you're lying. I own no less than 12 games for the Wii and I wouldn't trade in any of them and there are tons more still to come that I want. 2009 alone has more for the Wii than any system so far.

Nintendo did NOT ever say they were going to shift focus only onto the "casual" crowd. Ever. What was said, was that they would split their resources to develop for all forms of gamer, and they have done exactly that. Looking at their lineup, they've already provided games for literally every style of person, from babies and retards (Wii Music) to the ridiculously "hardcore" (Fire Emblem) and like I said, nearly every major franchise has been represented.

Seriously, what do people need from them? It's ridiculous. Everyone creamed themselves over the DSLite, which was nothing more than a light upgrade and a slimming. The DSi is the same thing but with even more (I have no clue as to what the cameras are actually for though...although being able to take a picture of something, quick draw all over it and then upload it onto some site through the DSi's built-in browser is really neat) and now people shit bricks in anger for....some reason? It's not like they're really charging you much more for the stuff you don't want. The JP version is the same price the DSLite debuted at and the US version's only $30 more, which is almost all represented in the bigger and nicer screen.

Bobbias

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Re: watcha playin'
« Reply #238 on: October 16, 2008, 08:03:36 PM »
Lots of good points there, though to be honest, I've always felt that Nintendo's games tended to feel more geared to casual gamers and such than many games on other platforms. But I think that's partly just my own bias. I've always felt that the majority of games that got much hype (there are exceptions, of course), were either geared towards casual gamers, or were generally less adult in nature than some of the games for other systems. Note that I'm referring to the games that receive more attention. This is why I was more of a fan of the playstation for quite some time, albeit that a number of the games for the playstation (less so in the PS2) were very cartoonish, or generally felt geared towards more casual games as well.

If I felt this way (regardless of how valid these views actually are), then I can say that there were probably quite a few people who felt this way as well, tome some degree at least.

I think that feeling is probably where the whole thing about Nintendo supposedly gearing more towards casual gamers comes from this feeling.
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Eggman

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Re: watcha playin'
« Reply #239 on: October 16, 2008, 10:55:08 PM »
There's the thing. People have created this idea of "hardcore" and "casual" all by themselves. It first started back during the Playstation era with the entire "kiddy" vs "mature" garbage and it's just turned into what it is now. Nintendo's NEVER changed who they make games for, which is everyone. That's why I've always respected them.

This whole "them" vs "us" mentality is just ridiculous. If you like games with a serious narrative, that's fine, but it doesn't make a company that doesn't focus solely on that not for you. People don't even know what "casual gaming" even means. There IS no meaning behind it. The game can't be casually-geared. The gamer is. You can be a casual gamer in "hardcore" games. You can be a "hardcore" gamer and absolutely love very simple "casual" games.


Gahhhh too much talking.

I'm playing the newly finished translation for Persona 2: Innocent Sin (which only took 10 YEARS to finish), waiting for Mother 3 to finish (this week!) and waiting for Dead Space to get here. I also keep trying to go to Toys R Us to snag some 2000 Point Wii Point Cards. They're $12 but everyone's sold out already. I really wanted Secret of Mana and the two Art Style games from WiiWare.