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Isn't Snood just a rip off of Bust a Move? I heard of Bust a Move long before Snood. Or is this one of those occassions where Bust a Move is the rip off and happens to be more well known.

there is nothing unique about snood. all of the gameplay elements are a direct rip-off of bust-a-move.

see this review for a little more on the subject, and give your money to the people who not only invented the game but implement it better than their 'successor' clone!

oops, link should have been this. and it's not just the fans, game sites constantly wax nostalgic about the MOO series as seen here

Correction the new port is for the new battery recharging pack, and the new headphone adapter they call it a multi-access port

Wrong.

Straight from IGNpocket: "The unit will not have a headphone jack; Nintendo has created a special adapter for the GBA SP that plugs into a brand-new multi-access port (also used for the AC adapter) which enables users to plug in standard headphones."

So you can use your headphones and link at the same time, because they are in two distinct ports.

Or check the image here - you see the old link port on the right, and the new multi-access port on the left.

Wrong.

Straight from IGNpocket: "The unit will not have a headphone jack; Nintendo has created a special adapter for the GBA SP that plugs into a brand-new multi-access port (also used for the AC adapter) which enables users to plug in standard headphones."

So you can use your headphones and link at the same time, because they are in two distinct ports.

Or check the image here - you see the old link port on the right, and the new multi-access port on the left.

Glad that this was rumored for quite a while, so I didn't get a GBA yet. But I read something that kinda annoys me:

The unit will not have a headphone jack; Nintendo has created a special adapter for the GBA SP that plugs into the link port which enables users to plug in standard headphones. Sold seperately, of course.

That is evil. Is the link port the one you use to connect to the GameCube, or the one you use to play against others?

Nintendo announces an upgraded GBA, and all you slashbots do is complain about the old ones (some of the most successful game appliances developed). Some people have 20/20 hindsight. Oh well, here are some more links:

N-Sider Forums Some more pics.

IGN Pocket

Seriously, they should probably be going out of their way to appeal to creative non-geeks, artists and writers who can come up with new ideas and revitalize the stagnant game market. Sure, you can always eke out a few dollars from the latest boring iteration of a proven formula, Grand Theft Auto 7 or Warcraft VI. What the industry needs is fresh ideas from different sorts of people.

Ideas are cheap. Go to any game developer, be they an artist, programmer, level designer, or whatever, and you'll find dozens of interesting ideas for games.

There are two problems. 1) Creative doesn't mean good. An idea may just be stupid. A creative idea might even be interesting and exciting, but not actually produce something fun to play (like the inspired but unplayable Black and White). 2) The business types are cowards. Generic Fighting Game XXVII is seen as safe. It doesn't matter that there are (even after filtering out the bad ideas), many, many creative ideas available to them, they're only interested in low risk projects. It's harsh, but it's also their money.

All that said, while yes the industry is awash in clones and knock-offs, there is always some genuine innovation going on. In the last year for the PS/2 we've seen imaginative titles like Sly Cooper, Kingdom Hearts, and Rez . On other systems we saw Animal Crossing, Freedom Force, Morrowind, and Mafia . Head back a little further and you have brilliant titles like Ico, Jet Grind Radio, or Pikmin . Yes, Grant Theft Auto: Vice City and Warcraft III are both derivative, but they're sequels to cutting edge games that changed expectations. Grand Theft Auto III redefined open ended game play and believable worlds. Warcraft effectively popularized real-time strategy games. Perhaps they're derivative, but they're fundamentally good games which have been continually refined and improved. Why pick on them if they shipping games that are genuinely fun? Instead, complain about Generic Real-Time Strategy II, Racing Game Number 8576, or Street Soul Mortal Ultimate Fighter Extreme Blade Combat IV.

Yes, you are failing to understand the use. Call, write or fax ANY game developer who develops PC games and Xbox games. Ask them how "computer-like" the Xbox is. Listen in amazement as they debunk every lie ever spouted on this website. But then again, slashdot is known worldwide for their expertise in everything known to mankind, so of course "the developer would lie about the truth".

It's been over a year since the Xbox debut and the pro-communist OS crowd is still trying to lie and confuse a non-issue. Real world folks do not care and are buying Xboxes to play games. Don't believe me? Read this and see what you think.

BZZZT! It doesn't matter where they lose money because they have LOTS to lose. As a matter of fact, the Xbox is already ahead of the GameCube. Check out this link on IGN for the straight scoop. What do they care if they're still losing cash only after 1 year on the market and have taken over 2nd place? Game Informer magazine printed a strong rumor that 3rd party developers are pulling GameCube projects left and right because they don't sell. Very reminicent of the N64.

It's pretty obvious that the majority of the crowd here are nothing but Linux fanboys blind to reality. They pretend to be great legal minds, wonderful security experts and fantastic coders all because of a niche OS. The real world is quite different than the one portrayed by Stallhead and that bunch of leftover hippies.

It's time to wake up and realize Microsoft and the DMCA are not the antichrist, and no one cares if Microsoft is losing money on each Xbox sold. That is a meaningless statement to the people who live in the real world. We (those who live in the real world) enjoy playing games on every console, the manufacturer does not matter one bit. Just keep the narrow pinpoint focus and watch where it takes you - right into a pit. And before anyone starts calling me a Microsoft stooge or something like that, I own all 3 consoles and enjoy each one because I don't care who makes them.

Prey! Anyone else remember this much vaunted/hyped fps from 3D Realms? It was first promoted back in '96 right before the original Quake was released.
Googled this bit of info from IGN..
http://pc.ign.com/articles/355/355382p1.html
March 12, 2002 - Prey, its very name is the definition of vaporware, and is even perhaps responsible for a lot of the Duke Nukem nay saying. You see, Prey was to be 3D Realms' grand first-person shooting triumph. What it promised to sport in 1997 was a new engine with better than Unreal looks, Max Payne radiosity lighting, and Red Faction environmental interactivity.

It was only after sometime that the reality of lacking technology sunk in and Prey, along with its Turok reminiscent story of a Native American gone alien abductee superhero was axed. From then, DNF was put in full swing, and has still yet to arrive, leading conspiracy theorist gamers with way too much time on their hands to always expect the worst.
However, in 1999, 3D Realm's George Broussard made it abundantly clear that the title was still in some way, shape, or form being developed, but that it should not be expected anytime soon. Despite this, and all the other hype surrounding the title, it seemed Prey eventually wound up on the dreaded backburner (insert Prey falling prey pun here).

That was then... This is now.

Web rumor (as wonderfully reliable as it is) suggests the game has perhaps risen from the dead by the helping hand of Rune's own Human Head Studios. Further speculation cites the latest in Doom technology to be the likely power behind this prey's second wind.
All parties rumored to be involved are obviously tightlipped (the terribly sad norm in this industry). We'll be back with more details if further information arises substantiating or debunking this rumor.

Not all controllers have the Freudian Joystick Nature: check out the commercially failed Thrustmaster Fragmaster. I have a Fragmaster I got free after rebate at Fry's, and it turns out to work really well in some applications. Not too hard to figure out what killed it, though: it's exactly the wrong shape...

Not all controllers have the Freudian Joystick Nature: check out the commercially failed Thrustmaster Fragmaster. I have a Fragmaster I got free after rebate at Fry's, and it turns out to work really well in some applications. Not too hard to figure out what killed it, though: it's exactly the wrong shape...

My, how even cartoon Link changes from game to game.

Was Frogger made/released in 2002?

Yes. Konami converted Frogger to the GBA and published it as part of Konami Arcade Advanced (IGN review) in 2002.

That's really funny... Rez is anything but a generic shooter... check out this review, if you are interested.

And with more innovation/competition in the console market, this cycle will only continue. It's too bad if you're a big PC gamer, but you'll just be getting a taste of what Mac users have dealt with for quite some time now.

According to IGN, the main thing driving PC game sales of late is expansion packs and sequels. We'll see how long that lasts.

I probably should have said, "Never seen a camera mod". Afterwards I poked around google and found this:
Camera hack by BrandonW

Looks pretty cool, but it's depressing that Bioware didn't do it themselves.

You can find just about every mod, hack, and expansion on NWVault.

Me: Hey, Google. Let's do some free association. What do you think of when I say "NWN Camera Hack"?

Google: http://nwvault.ign.com/Files/hakpacks/data/1028560 389795.shtml

Amazing, no?

And as for wanting a more tactical game, why not just make liberal use of the pause key? I mean, that's basically what you did in BG, right? (except you could tell it to auto-pause every round, but that's clearly overkill when you have only one character).

NWN was never supposed to be like Baldur's Gate, but it really is the closest anyone's come to "real" D&D on a computer. Forget the official campaign. It's sort of fun, but if that's all you've done, no wonder you're disappointed. Try playing a highly-rated custom module online with a group of friends.

The real solution? A clean layout that showcases the ad well, delivering your ad to an audience who is actually interested, and not insulting the viewer with cheap tricks like animating nausea-inducing flashing colors. Penny Arcade has done this with its layout, and even with a smaller reader base they outperform ads from sites like IGN. To quote:

Here is another little behind the scenes look at the way advertising works on the internet. Game companies want animation. They want a fucking guy to parachute down from the top of your screen and land on the article you're trying to read. They want you to have to interact with their advertisement just so you can see the content you came for. Everyone who uses the internet knows that this kind of shit is just frustrating. Look at sites like IGN, Gamespot, or Gamespy. You can't read an article there without an animated bug crawling across your screen or some flash ad blaring shitty music. When we decided to do advertising we decided that we wouldn't ever run any kind of animated add. Some companies won't advertise with us because of it. Others, it's like pulling teeth to get a non animated ad out of them. They have this idea in their head that the only way their ads will be effective is if they are annoying as fuck.

Some of them are actually shocked when ads at PA out perform animated versions at other sites like IGN. Here we are just a little comic site and we kick their fucking ass. We tell them that if you don't insult people with shitty flash ads, they are much more likely to actually check out your game. I have never once clicked on a flash ad except to mute it or close it and I have a feeling you guys are pretty much the same. They just can't get it through their heads that people don't like to be annoyed by advertising.

I feel like we have a pretty good relationship you and I. Maybe I'm wrong but I feel like we treat you guys pretty well and I think that's why you treat us so well in return. You click on our ads and buy our stuff at an unbelievable rate. Those new Wang Fu shirts sold out in one fucking day. I mean that is some crazy shit. Tycho and I just want to say thanks. We have the best job in the world and we have it because of you guys. It seems like we should hug or something now.

End quote

To me, at least, it seems like current ad companies are ramming their head against this big wall of how to make effective advertising, and their solution seems to be to just ram their head harder against that same wall.

Example of good RPG design? Has to be Dark Age of Camelot. This game is the only reason I have my home machine set up to dual-boot into Windows. They've just come out with an expansion pack that adds new races and "quests" to the game.

I admit that I curse a little bit at the screen when I go to sites like IGN and can't get to the content I want because I haven't paid for the service, but I try to keep in mind that the REASON it costs money is because I'm probably not the only person who wants that content. Once you have a site getting hit hundreds of thousands of times per month, you just can't give it away for free anymore.

Hey, it's cool to be cheap. I can be cheap, too. But don't whine because you're cheap and have the feeling that the content is owed to you in some way...it isn't.

IMHO this is very cool, I didn't care much about Half-Life but spent many hours messing with it's level editor :)

For "creative gamers" on nearly any computer platform there is Blender, which is licenced under the GPL. You can find both standalone and browser plugin based games at www.blender3d.org

is Mario Party 4. Yes, it recieved ho-hum reviews, but man is it a blast to play with friends (and family)... the kind of game anyone can play, because the controls are simple.

I went to a house party last night and the main entertainment among us mid-twenty year old's was Mario Party.

The "Domination" mini-game is a blast for rapid fire button mashers. I watched someone last night score 142!

Does anyone ever pick up games that were abandoned? I am still hoping this game will one day come out :)

I have been a fan of Square and Enix for many, many years. I still remember playing the very first Dragon Warrior (or, as the Japanese call it, "Dragon Quest") game on my Nintendo Entertainment System, not to mention Final Fantasy I, II, III, IV (which Americans know as "Final Fantasy II"), V, VI (which Americans know as "Final Fantasy III"), VII, VIII, IX, and X! Have you seen Final Fantasy XI yet? It's outstanding.

• IGN PS2: Square and Enix to merge
• CBS Marketwatch: Square, Enix to merge next year
• Games Asylum: Square and Enix, up a tree
• Ferrago: Square and Enix to merge
• Mainichi Shimbun (in Japan) : Dark age forces role-playing giants to join forces
• IGN GameCube: Square and Enix to merge

I have been a fan of Square and Enix for many, many years. I still remember playing the very first Dragon Warrior (or, as the Japanese call it, "Dragon Quest") game on my Nintendo Entertainment System, not to mention Final Fantasy I, II, III, IV (which Americans know as "Final Fantasy II"), V, VI (which Americans know as "Final Fantasy III"), VII, VIII, IX, and X! Have you seen Final Fantasy XI yet? It's outstanding.

• IGN PS2: Square and Enix to merge
• CBS Marketwatch: Square, Enix to merge next year
• Games Asylum: Square and Enix, up a tree
• Ferrago: Square and Enix to merge
• Mainichi Shimbun (in Japan) : Dark age forces role-playing giants to join forces
• IGN GameCube: Square and Enix to merge

OK, done and done. They'll be out next year.

OK, done and done. They'll be out next year.

I think Sony owns something around 40% of Square, that's why I reffered to it as "practically first-party". It doesn't matter if square lost a lot of money, all that proves is that they had a lot of money TO LOSE because they were so successful selling FF VII for the PS1. The FF series is very important to Sony, so Sony is keeping them afloat.

I've read an endless series of great reviews for MechAssualt: Gamespot 9.0, Editor's Choice, IGN 9.2, GamesDomain 4.5 out of 5, Top Game, etc. And visually it looks stunning. So forgive me, but based upon the reviews I'd buy MechAssault first.

Mario's shines were good, but it was just Mario64++. I think Zelda will be a great hit, though.

I think the whole franchise itself is getting a bit old and dated. They haven't really kept it fresh like Square did with FF. Though I was never really a big fan of Mario and Zelda to begin with. I actually think Pokemon is a much more valuable franchise at this point.

Oh, the irony...

Jurrasic Park :-)

granted there aren't many, but there is phantasy star online for gamecube. nintendo doesn't seem to feel online gaming will be as big and important to their business as sony and microsoft think it will be, so their efforts are a little less dramatic. there are however more games planned and we should hopefully some new and interesting titles soon.

Anyway, I think this film is weaker than the first one, but I think that mostly this is because the book really doesn't add as much to the larger story.

In this interview J K Rowling states that "Key things happen in book two. No one knows how important those things are... yet. There's a lot in there. And I know how difficult it was to get it all in there without drawing too much attention to the clues."

Media Page

Media Page

Okay, because I can hear the moderators swarming in to Troll this one up, let me add a few things to my defense.

A John Carmack interview here

Excerpt:
IGN Xbox: What do you think are the chances of Microsoft actually supporting OpenGL on the Xbox, and why?

JC: Last I heard, Nvidia was going to be providing OpenGL for it.

--

Also, found this about the Gamecube, near as I can tell it supports OpenGL directly.

http://www.elecplay.com/news.html?article=5917

If anyone is still remotely interested, here's Herbert's exact words from _Eye_ where he is discussing the making of the Dune movie: David had trouble with the fact that Star Wars used up so much of Dune. We found sixteen points of identity between my novel and Star Wars. That is not to say this was other than coincidence, even though we figured the odds against coincidence and produced a number larger than the number of stars in the universe.

An ign reviewer (click-thru ad) interprets Herbert's phrase as In other words, anyone in the early 80s making a movie about a psionically-gifted young man on a desert planet overthrowing a corrupt interstellar empire had better come up with a different take, something a little more stylistic, a little more Blade Runner-ish, than Lucas' powerhouse adventure story of intergalactic derring-do.

The list of coincidences linked in my previous post mentioned spice miners and I also noticed in the AOTC a reference to 'spice miners' on a moon of Naboo that could possibly be attempting to assassinate Amedala. It seems to me that it would take a great leap of imagination to come up with the concept of spices that are mined. I guess a more positive viewpoint would be that Lucas is just using the ideas that are out there and is just paying homage to Dune.

There's a review (with extra pics) over at IGN Gear.

"Batman vs. Superman" is set to be a movie in '04. It's right here folks!

It's being directed by Wolfgang Petersen.

It's being made by Warner Brothers so it's a mystery why Fox is asking the question and not Warner Brothers. Maybe Fox is asking FOR Warner Brothers and the top moderated scenarios that you folks are giving will be used.

Taco, you in on this?

(except perhaps the old Lira, which was so worthless as to require several million to buy a mellon)

"Lira" was the currency of Italy until it switched to the Euro. "Melon" is either a fruit or a large female human breast. "Mellon" is either the M in CMU or the Sindarin word for 'friend' (pl. "mellyn") and is the password to the Doors of Durin (topical: the Doors of Durin are in a fantasy world that just hasn't been MMORPGized yet). I assume that you aren't referring to "buy a friend" because as far as I know, slavery is illegal in Italy and the rest of the European Union. Or "buy a friend" as in a campaign contribution on the part of a political action committee?

OK, that was a bad joke.

Jackson also mentioned a major part of the Lord of the Rings novel that will be cut from the films: the Scouring of the Shire at the end of The Return of the King. Jackson's only explanation for this is that it didn't really "work," so the films' only homage to it will remain the vision Frodo received from Galadriel's mirror.

Yes, the games have to be done differently. The GameCube supports both resolutions. Here's some info from ign

Stop and think about it. NTSC and PAL run at different resolutions. Of course which resolution you use is going to make a difference on the game. Console games are designed to take the hardware to the limit. If you go and change the resolution on it, it's going to affect how you code the game. You might have to use low polygon counts or less effects.

I'll probably get called an IE Zealot and modded down for this...

I've ran Phoenix 0.2, and I really tried to like it. Tabbed browsing, pop-up blocker, custimized toolbar, and it doesn't have the bloatedness of Moz. Stable too for a 0.2 release. BUT...

IT DOESN'T RENDER THE PAGES I WANT TO VIEW PROPERLY! I ran into the same problem with Netscape 7 and Moz 1.

Sites that I couldn't load properly in Phoenix:

Airmiles.ca
- Couldn't load the front page.
Hotmail
- Loaded front page but couldn't log in.
IGN Cube
- This goes for all IGN game sites... the articles that are locked for subscribers have an 'i' beside them. This does not show up in Phoenix.
My Employers Self Serve site
- I can log in but the page hangs on the welcome screen.

I only have about 15 sites bookmarked, and the above 4 don't work. Who knows how many other sites are out there.

Maybe I'm doing something wrong, maybe I have to configure something (If so, let me know please!), but the bottom line is that these sites load fine in IE.

I don't want to hear people say "These websites aren't following a standard". Tell me something I don't know.

I want a browser that lets me view the pages I want to see, thankyouverymuch. Until there's an alternative that does this, I'm sticking with IE along with its swiss cheese security.

If we were to block the sale of such truly offensive games as Quarterback Club 2000 DC, perhaps Acclaim would get its' act together and give us decent software!

Here's another link to the same file. Try them both and see which gets the best speed.

Here's the trailer for the xbox version. About 10MB and takes a while to load. http://xboxmovies.ign.com/xbox/video/bmxxx_1001_1. mov

here
and here
..and here
And the trailer(quicktime) is Here It looks like they just reskinned the normal models, nothing interesting. Now, if they were smart they would of got the developers from the Dead Or Alive series ;)

>especially the Porn on the Gaming systems (maybe even the PC)

Despite the fact that porn games on PCs are old news (From Larry King to Virtual Valerie), unfortunately, even your console prediction is about a year late. Okay, theres no below the belt, but plenty of boobies .. and now that the barn doors are open, lets see how long it takes for PS2/GC/Xbox to realize that:

1.) Sell console game with sex in it.
2.) ???
3.) Profit!

As an aside, I do believe that the increased competition will lead to companies thinking more about expoiting the groins of game players rather than caring about that old 'PR' thing (until two kids walk into a school and hump everybody one day, spawning a bultibillion dollar lawsuit claiming that BMX XXX leads kids down the immoral road to recreational procreation.)