Slashdot Mirror

Wrong again. I know it's just the first link on google, but IGN says Nintendo 64 launched in 1996 for $199.99. Thanks for playing.

What capabilities does the Wii command that are unachievable on the GameCube today? I think nintendo is just releasing the obligatory new platform as a method to increase saturation of it's 'wiimote' controller. They should have just bundled the controller with whatever handful of games they plan to have it work with and called it a day. Consider:

Wii is hardly more powerful than gamecube. GC 1.5 indeed. Partial Wii Specs vs. GC Specs>

They are releasing AAA GC titles simultaneously with Wii anyway.

Wii has 4 GC controller ports and will accept GC discs as well as Wii ones.

What we really have here, just like GBA SP and DS Lite, is the GC Wii, with a pack-in wand controller and ethernet port.

it had FF:CC

It took years for the GameCube to get FF:CC. The fact that it's got the sequel to FF:CC, and Dragon Quest Swords from Square is a serious improvement.

"Sengoku Action Elebits"

It's Sengoku Action, and Elebits. Sengoku Action is a Dynasty Warriors-type game (you know, the one that's spawned a million sequels on PS2). Elebits is a bizarre new game by Konami that looks fantastic.

As far as I can tell, your "reduced list" is basically "which games on here are from franchises I've seen before?" I don't put my faith in franchises. I put my faith in the actual games, and some of them look like they've had an insane amount of thought and innovation put into them. "Sadness" comes to mind, although I have my doubts it will ever see the light of day, which is unfortunate.

http://revolution.ign.com/articles/690/690730p1.ht ml Last paragraph on the bottom. Sure wikipedia might not be good enough to be a refrence but the articles it points to are excellent.

Red Steel swordplay sold me on the controller more than even the fishing and driving demos.

Not only that, but the people who are willing to try something new in terms of controls are probably also going to be more willing to try something from a new company that they have never heard of.

I think the same thing holds true, to a lesser extent, to the Nintendo DS. The success of unorthodox games like Phoenix Wright, Trauma Center, Nintendogs, Electroplankton (I don't actually know if it did well, but I liked it), and Brain Age shows there are new gameplay innovations to be made, and the people who make them will likely be rewarded for those efforts.

I mean, I suppose an indie developer could try to get something onto the PS3 and the X360, but I don't think there are many new genres to be found with the regular control scheme, nor do I think that there are many "new" gameplay innovations left to be found. I think, at best, what is mostly left in terms of innovation on a regular controller are tweaks to pre-existing forms of gameplay, and thus my belief that everything that will likely succeed for those systems will simply be the ones with the most smooth edges and polish, and most of the time it is the big companies who have the resources to provide that polish.

I think that with the Wii, you have the opportunity to do something totally and completely different than anyone has ever done before in terms of gameplay or functionality. That, I believe is where an Indie publisher can make their mark, because it has the potential to be the ONLY game in its' genre, instead of Console FPS #452 trying to fight its' way into an oversatured genre.

Virtual Console: Wii will have downloadable access to 20 years of fan-favorite titles originally released for Nintendo 64, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) and even the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). The Virtual Console also will feature a "best of" selection from Sega Genesis titles and games from the TurboGrafx console (a system jointly developed by NEC and Hudson). It also will be home to new games conceived by indie developers whose creativity is larger than their budgets.

(italics mine)

I can't help but think that this means Superman 64 is all out...

Considering the amount of tech in the box, the PS3 is decidedly a bargain. I mean, Toshiba has to sell their HD-DVD player, just a player mind you, for $499.99. An Sony can sell the premium PS3 for $599?

My point is that the HD-DVD add-on for the XBox 360 should be considerably cheaper than Toshiba's $500 player. If the XBox 360 premium bundle gets a $100 price cut ($300) at the time of PS3's launch and the HD-DVD add-on costs $300 (or less), then Sony's PS3 might not look like such an outstanding value compared to XBox 360 with HD-DVD add-on.

I used the words "theoretically" and "should be" because I want to see the final shipping products before I call either blue laser bundle a bargain.

Start at the top. PS2 Games XBOX Games How many unique games did you see between the two?

Start at the top. PS2 Games XBOX Games How many unique games did you see between the two?

Wii needs more 3rd party support.

You mean like these:

Yeah, I sure with they had at least some third-party support. While I'm not necessarily defending the quality of some of these games (I'm not necessarily a Spongebob fan), the point it that third-party support exists.

I was wondering who this fellow was: http://media.revolution.ign.com/media/748/748545/i mg_3595421.html

Is it Kid Ikarus? Are we looking forward to a 3d version of Kid Ikarus finally?

...your choice of traditional Gamecube or motion-sensing Revmote control

That doesn't seem to be true from what I can see. The following is taken from the article at IGN.

http://revolution.ign.com/articles/707/707504p1.ht ml

Under the direction of series creator Masahiro Sakurai, Super Smash Bros. Brawl will feature classic, GameCube-style combat -- not Wii-style motion-controlled combat. That means players who prefer to play the game with the traditional control setup can look forward to using the GameCube control-style they're already accustomed to.

"We found that trying to implement too much motion-sensory functionality can get in the way of the game. We're looking at keeping the control simple, as it has been," said Sakurai. "The Wii hardware has sockets for the GameCube controller, too. So I'll just say now that you may not want to throw away your GCN controller yet."

http://media.revolution.ign.com/media/748/748545/v ids_1.html

Japanese fans are currently being asked to submit their desired characters and themes to Nintendo's website, the most popular of which will be incorporated into the game. It is currently unknown if this will eventually be opened for overseas fans as well.

*sigh*

Under the direction of series creator Masahiro Sakurai, Super Smash Bros. Brawl will feature classic, GameCube-style combat -- not Wii-style motion-controlled combat. That means players who prefer to play the game with the traditional control setup can look forward to using the GameCube control-style they're already accustomed to.

"We found that trying to implement too much motion-sensory functionality can get in the way of the game. We're looking at keeping the control simple, as it has been," said Sakurai. "The Wii hardware has sockets for the GameCube controller, too. So I'll just say now that you may not want to throw away your GCN controller yet."

Linky.

2) You can use this. Also visible here, but beware the absolutely enormous picture.

2) You can use this. Also visible here, but beware the absolutely enormous picture.

IGN has a nice video of Wright demoing Spore at E3. I'd kill for a high-res mirror, though.

From reading the forums, Fasa Studios (the game devs) are promoting this as an team multiplayer title. It's Counterstrike, with teleport and wings.

Some video. I personally wouldn't watch it. It'll just disappoint you. Very much an FPS ala Unreal Tournament. Sad, since Crimson Skies was a good game, and they've done a decent job (some good, some bad) with Battletech over the years. But this? *shudder*

http://xbox360movies.ign.com/xbox360/video/article /706/706895/shadowrungameplay_qtlowwide.mov

"The hand stress is definately a potential problem some games. The real question is do I have to hold it out in front of me, or can I rest the controller on my lap and use less dramatic movements?"

Not if the developer knows what they're doing. Take a look at this excerpt from IGN's preview of 'WiiSports Tennis':

One interesting thing we learned while playing is that you can choose to either do wide, arching movements that genuinely simulate the real game of tennis, or, alternatively, you can choose simple flicks of the wrist to do the same thing. So, if you want to go out (like the actors in Nintendo's initial controller teaser video), you have that option. But if not, you can go small, too. The game recognizes and translates either movement to the court on the fly.
(Full article http://revolution.ign.com/articles/706/706071p1.ht ml)

So I'd think if the proper optimizations are made, usage of the Wii-mote really doesn't have to be any more tiring than using a dual-shock or xbox controller.

I've seen gameplay videos posted to the web and Xbox Live ( http://media.pc.ign.com/media/827/827006/vids_1.ht ml ) and they show a game which doesn't stand up at all well next to Halo 3, Huxley, Gears of War, Crysis or really any other true next-generation FPS title. Its all well and good to jettison, re-imagine, and otherwise butcher your own intellectual property in the goal of making an amazing new title, but to do so and not even make a good FPS game? It looks like a combination of Halo and Unreal Tournament with elves bouncing off the walls like pointy-eared superballs on a low rez background.

Take a look at IGN. http://revolution.ign.com/articles/707/707077p1.ht ml

Duck Hunt 2 article here; should be playable at E3, sometime real soon!

Beyond racing games there aren't any situations where this controller is leaping out and attacking me with Perfection, but the truth is that it's a lot more subtle than the Wii, and so probably will result in a more diverse set of games, a few dozen of which will use the tilt to great effect. The tilt is "there if you need it", the Wii-stick is "all you can expect the gamer to have" - barring some sort of original-DualShock controller redesign.

And by "more subtle" you mean "less useful." Look, if you're going to be waving your controller around for whatever reason, it ought to be comfortable to do so. The Wii is, while a Dual Shock by its two-handed nature is not. You're also discounting two things. First, you're not giving developers enough credit. I contend that diversity is much more likely with the Wii interface than with a rehash of the Dual Shock simply because you can do more with it. Second, you're not taking the controller's expansion capabilities into account. Nintendo has already said that GameCube controllers will work with Wii, and the Wiimote has a slot for expansion built in. A DualShock shell would be quite easy to implement, similar to IGN's gamecube cradle mockup, so a redesign isn't necessary.

In the end, personally, the Wii isn't getting my money no matter how cheap it is. $300 for dogshit is still paying money for dogshit.

You are of course welcome to your opinion, but I don't understand why you're so quick to write off Nintendo.
-f

Rumors say that there's a horizontal rod that you place just near your TV that does the spatial detection. We'll know more tomorrow.

Didn't take long after Neverwinter Nights was released before someone made the first nude hak/override. Heck, they probably figured it out before the game was released...

It spawned an, ahem, incredible mod content industry (to put it in modest terms), all the way to detailed counter-points (module obviously NSFW, though if you intend to play NWN during the W, that's probably NS also). Yet I saw no one crying to get its ESRB T rating pushed upward.

Being a non-American I wondered a bit what the heck the stunningly obvious "game experience may change during online play" comment meant - well, duh, single player games are controlled environments, and going online means they aren't. Maybe ESRB will be demanding "game experience may change in custom modifications" warning next, otherwise they'll be rating every game AO soon.

It has in fact been announced already. Thankfully, the guffawing masses seem to have restrained themselves on that particular joke.

Of course, there's a reason why Planet Hulk is transpiring at the same time...

The aforementioned talent preview

Its pretty interesting, and I think it gives a good idea of how Blizzard sees mages now. Unfortunatly, what Blizz thinks a mage is and what everyone else thinks a mage is have rarely been similar. Part of me is curious to test the new talents out... the other part of me is glad I quit WoW.

I've been closely following Obsidian Entertainment's development of NWN2 and so far I'm quite happy with their approach. They've completely redone the graphics and toolset, kept the part of the game that worked (rules engine and scripting system), and are focusing on a single player game that so far sounds quite good.

In the last few days, they've released new screenshots (and here), as well as new movies. So far, it looks to be a very pretty game at least.

From http://vnboards.ign.com/wow_general_board/b19789/9 6506468/p1/?73

Just got banned today after playing WOW because I am not currently in North America. Apparently Blizzard does not care about those who are stationed abroad in the Armed Forces and working for them. I purchased WOW in the Post Exchange in Seoul Korea on the Yongsan Army Base there, which is considered by law, U.S. Soil. I installed the game and created my account using my U.S. Credit Card from Delaware. My billing address was an APO, AP address which stands for Armed Forces Pacific, Army Postal. After playing the game for 3 months I got an email stating this:

" Access to the World of Warcraft account BTOBEYONDER, and all World of Warcraft accounts associated with the payment information you have provided, has been permanently disabled. It is implicitly stated on the account creation page that: This account creation process is only available to customers in North America, New Zealand, Australia, and Singapore. As a result, the account(s) will no longer be accessible in any way and will not be reopened under any circumstances. Thank you for your time and understanding in this matter.

Regards,
Account Administration
Blizzard Entertainment "

SONY COMPUTER ENTERTAINMENT AMERICA ANNOUNCES PSP LEADING MARKET SHARE OVER COMPETITORS

Reputable online journal IGN reports PSP is most popular handheld console, despite sales figures implying the opposite. Sony spokesperson explains this apparent conflict, saying "Japan seems to be experiencing a sampling bias, one corrected through the unchallanged accuracy of the IGN survey".

Woeful game: appalling voice acting, screen tearing, wandering frame rate, no cockpit view, idiotic missions (like flying randomly around in a low visibility sandstorm), infinite heath, offensive history, Starforce Virus.

But good looking cityscapes.

There are much better games in the genre (obviously Zonk hasn't played them), Heroes of the Pacific for arcade action, and Aces of Pacific if you want more sim. But dont take my word for it, here is a selection of other reviews:

IGN: 68% "Going down in a blaze of boring."http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/697/697947 p1.html

Xbox 360 Advanced 65% "While Blazing Angels shows high production values, the single-player gameplay falls incredibly flat. "http://360.advancedmn.com/article.php?artid=7140

Eurogames 50% "With genuinely appalling voicework setting the tone for development incompetence, it's compounded by a few dreadful levels, camera issues and the feeling that the whole project was ported onto the 360 as an afterthought" http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=63 662

Boomtown: 20% "As it stands Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII is a deeply flawed game. From the terrible image tearing to the offensive voice-overs, it's as big a failure as I've seen from a major Publisher for some time." http://xbox.boomtown.net/en_uk/articles/art.view.p hp?id=11039

"Wii sounds like 'we,' which emphasizes the console is for everyone. Wii can easily be remembered by people around the world, no matter what language they speak. No confusion. No need to abbreviate. Just Wii."

You can view the quotation and the rest of Nintendo's explanation of the name here.

What I'd like to know is, for Secret of Mana to run properly on next-gen hardware, will I have to overclock my Wii? Nintendo's been known for "perfect emulation...right down to the slowdown."

Indiana Jones - Talk about secretive - LucasArts has not breathed a word of Indiana Jones to the press since last year's E3.

Really?

On IGN.

Other unusual, and silly names, such as Google, Yahoo, and Ipod have all ended up being attached to very succesful companies/services/products. You'll have to admit Wii is very similar to Yahoo.

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/703/703224p1.html

Basically:
"At present we have no announced plans to bring Oblivion to any platforms other than PC or Xbox 360." - Bethesda staff Let's wait before "official" news come in before we get hyped about Oblivion on PS3.

Ok, where is your proof of this claim then?

Where is the proof that Nintendo hasn't ever sold the Gamecube at a loss? It's nothing more than Nintendo fanboy mythology, as Nintendo has publically stated at least twice that they were taking losses on the Gamecube hardware.

May 24, 2001
In the GameCube business, industry specialists estimate the company will lose 5,000-10,000 yen per console, each carrying a 25,000 yen price tag, at least for the first year.
http://archives.cnn.com/2001/BUSINESS/asia/05/25/j apan.nintendotarget/index.html

Spaceworld 2001
We expect to incur a small loss on the GameCube hardware initially, and you're right that it hasn't been our habit in the past but we expect it to turn okay early next year. - Peter Main, Nintendo
http://terror.snm-hgkz.ch/mirrors/www.thegia.com/m irror/news/0108/n23r.html/

January 14, 2004
Perrin: I would say that our losses are really negligible. It's such a small amount. Plus with the amount of software that's being sold we're still definitely in a solid profit situation.
http://cube.ign.com/articles/463/463155p2.html

If you need the source, you can credit the original author, i C&Pd the figures directly from this article.

"SILENT HILL worked for me because of the confidence and command of director Christophe Gans. I'm not familiar with the source material at all, so I'm not going to discuss it as an adaptation, except in the broadest terms. I can't tell you how faithful it is to the already-established mythology of the various SILENT HILL games, but I can tell you that there are certain touches in the way the film's put together that seem like a sly nod to the basic experience of gaming. ...

Roger Ebert seemed to find the film's explanations baffling even as he was impressed by it technically. I'm not sure why this would confuse anyone... basically it boils down to a vengeful spirit looking for payback against the town that did it harm... but I also think the answers are far less important than the way the questions are presented. For example... I have no idea what the fuck Pyramid Head is, or how he's connected to the Demon, or what purpose he serves aside from freaking my shit out, and frankly, I don't care. He's one of the most striking images I've seen in a horror film in recent memory, and both of his big scenes are exhilarating. If you're tired of teenagers in danger and you're tired of remakes of

And a pocket calculator in the 1970's cost $345, which is more than $1600 in today's money. By that logic, the 360 is a steal. ;)

I'm not picking on you in particular, just pointing out a fallacy that I see around here a lot. It's innacurate to compare prices to older technology, simply because the price of electronic components is decreasing so rapidly. It's virtually impossible to know whether the N64 or the 360 provides more tech for the dollar with respect to their own time frames.

Again, don't take this personally. It just kind of irks me when someone says, "I think the 360 is too expensive," and someone else responds, "it's cheaper than the Atari 2600 in today's dollars." This IGN article is perhaps one of the worst offenders. Technology has improved so much in the last 20 years... we should be expecting prices to go down, actually, as they have in other sectors of the electronics industry.

Yeah, it sounds like you're talking about Children of Mana which just came out for the DS in Japan

http://ds.ign.com/objects/695/695657.html

I'm with you. I loved Secret of Mana.

I can't freaking wait for this game to come out here.

Check out Lost Magic. Comes out next week.

Get this stylus instead

http://gear.ign.com/articles/701/701023p1.html

An anonymous dipshit who started visiting Slashdot after the OMG Ponies!!1! episode writes "When Penguin-Kun Wars came out at the arcades in 1985, many people were perplexed and vaguely disoriented at how different than "normal" table tennis it was. This game was never designed to be a table tennis title at all. Instead, it's actually a game loosely based on table tennis, in that there's a table, and two players, one at either side of the table. Hey, finding enough stories to keep all you oldskool First Posters busy is hard! Here's a review of the original Pong as designed by Nolan Bushnell. UPL Company Limited felt that the blocky graphics and 'outdated mechanics' made it too primitive for audiences of the futuristic, progressive-thinking mid-1980s."
http://rr.cheats.ign.com/rr/009096/005/005100.html



Am I the only person who genuinely misses seeing a bunch of crap copy-and-paste FPs at the beginning of every article? Looks like the latest batch of banal, clueless editors finally alienated the one thing that gave visiting Slashdot some sense of tradition.

I'm just waiting for the next idiot clueless Zork copy/paste - for instance, one that reads "PowerPlay seems to be a promising step forward for internet gaming - apparently it will make your modem feel like a LAN party!?" or maybe one about how "the Playstation 2's 'Emotion Engine' will hopefully allow programmers the ability to enhance AI with human-like traits".

A couple of gaming websites posted some details on the Metroid demo from this event (along with some other games they had there). 1UP, for instance, gives a brief breakdown of the controls. IGN elaborated with some speculation on how they imagine the controls will work based on the demo.

In any case, the scheme that was demoed for the presentation involved using the wand for looking, aiming and shooting, while the nunchuck attachment was used for movement. However, Red Steel seems to incorporate a few more ideas.

Even PS1 had one http://psx.ign.com/articles/163/163923p1.html

http://ps2.ign.com/articles/370/370990p1.html
http://ps2.ign.com/articles/424/424746p1.html