For starters, how about removing all of the scantily clad, oversized breast equipped, fat lipped "hoes" from the majority of interactive entertainment. This would effectively render games "mature" and "tasteful", (you are familiar with those words, yes?) and that would attract a wider audience of gamers right there.
As soon as you bring up "Barbie" games on the topic of "games geared towards women" you are already headed in the wrong direction. Try thinking of women as mature adults instead of a pink dress, shopping machine demographic an see what happens.
PS2s retail for $179.99. Rounded up to $180 for 17496 units, comes to $3,149,280.00
This sounds like standard gaming/recording industry logic (i.e. One pirated unit = $50 billion in losses over the next 3 years!)
They may as well have just calculated the number of potential game sales for each PS2, added that to the cost of system repair after warranty, and profits from extra peripheral sales, and maybe we could reach $5mil.;)
This is a geeky topic, but I'm contributing so I can't complain.
Around Ultima 1 or 2 I thought up a main character name that ended up sticking around for the rest of my gaming days. It became my on screen personality, and even though every game had seperate characters, themes and storylines, my same guy lived through all the Role Playing adventures available. Around Final Fantasy 1 I realized I needed some supporting characters to journey with my main character, so I decided on some satisfying names to compliment him and they stuck around through countless more adventures. To this day I still use the same names that are synonymous with all my Role Playing experiences combined. Eventually they reached a peak of 14-15 or so character names, (spawned by the massive cast of Final Fantasy 6), and they've occupied the same roles (hero, love interest, villain, etc) in every RPG I've ever played. I've invested so much time into these *names*, that now they're obligatory for every game I play in some way or another. It's kind of interesting to see the attachment to an identity that has undergone all these fictional stories. Needless to say I can't really find it in myself to use any other names, since the current ones have so much history.
All of the Square SNES -> PSX ports have loading issues, that may be what you're talking about. It takes several seconds to load into random battles. Square tried to cover it up with their overused Battle Transition effects (swirly screen, bright colors), but it's just plain annoying. If you've played the SNES originals, chances are this will drive you nuts. A second or two doesn't sound long, but wait until you're sitting there yourself trying to get through a dungeon in a reasonable amount of time. Ugh...
Personally I don't play my consoles online since I have my PC for that, but this sounds an awful lot like the time Nintendo brushed aside this new-fangled CD technology in place of good-ol cartridges for the N64...
Boy did that work out well. Didn't they learn anything?
"...lack of network code is a temporary issue with Unreal 2."
As I recall they were initially adamant about NOT having multiplayer in the game. I think the addition of this is because 1) that's what people wanted all along, and 2) because their purported "best single player experience ever" fell flat on it's face.
Oh well, good co-op can make even the worst games a total blast, so this is still a good thing. Anyone know if they are going to be updating Unreal 2s version of UED with this patch at all?
When they say "latest in the series" I believe they're just referring to another game with the DQ label. This definitely isn't Dragon Quest 8...
But still.... Cool! When are they going to come out with the real-life magic spells in place of the in game ones? Hey, it just makes it that much more immersive...
I think that's a good point. I would imagine some sort of "official" voice of the scene would need to exist to create standards. Like a website that could rate and eliminate low quality games in an unbiased manner. It could allow you to cruise through all the trash when looking for the gems, but still allow access and coverage of the lower quality titles that might offer something innovative and otherwise be looked over.
Someone mentioned this not having enough games on it to warrant a purchase, but I have to point out that the majority of these useless "classics" CDs have usually been equipped with no more than 5-8 games, tops. This is a huge improvment over that.
I'll just go back to my 3000+ MAME collection now...
Now that I think about it. Maybe classic game publishers should try setting up a central game portal where old ROMs cam be downloaded for $1 each or some-such. They would probably make a bit more profit, and they woulnd't have to screw people over continuously with these repeated re-releases of 10-20 year old games.
-Panzer Dragoon Saga You must have this game. It's expensive, but well worth the price for RPG fans. Excelent game.
- Dragon Force A fantastic strategy title.
-Albert Odyssey RPG localized by Working Designs. Good game.
- Shining Force 3 There are three scenarios, all of which are fantastic, but only the first was localized in the US. Still a must have.
- Guardian Heroes A great Fighter/RPG for a large number of people. It's more fast paced, action style gameplay (along the lines of Final Fight of Streets of Rage), but has several characters all of which level up gaining new spells and skills, and you can play with up to 4 people (in story mode) or 10 in vs. mode. Good times at a party.
- Beyond Oasis Really good Action RPG in the vein of Zelda, but much heavier emphasis on dungeon puzzles. Good game though.
- Mysteria I have not played this game more than 5 minutes. It's a fantasy turn-based strategy RPG, but the graphics are absolutely horrendous. From what I have heard the game itself is good, but I could not work my way past the appearance. I can usually look past that as well, but this game just did not age well.
Some other games work looking into - The Saturn was a shooter machine. It's what it did best. With that said:
- Radiant Silvergun I personally think this is the best shooter ever developed. Over the top action with elements of an RPG in the form of weapons that level up. Fantastic weapon and scoring system. This is a must have. I'm an RPG fan, but I coulnd't live without this experience. Good stuff.
- Panzer Dragoon 1 If not just for the series roots. This is a great shooter.
- Panzer Dragoon Zwei Probably the best shooter in the Panzer series. This is a fantastic game all around.
- Sol Divide Expensive and hard to find. Worth it for the collection, but you can download the arcade ROM for MAME instead. Still worth mentioning.
- Sengoku Blaede Fun but short shooter.
Lastly...
- Bomberman 12 player Bomberman. Good times.
Anything else in the Shining series is pretty decent, though I tend to feel Shining Wisdom is a bit lacking in both the graphics and innovation department. It's like a colorized port of a gameboy zelda clone, so you may want to avoid that one.
IGN is right up there with website gags like file planet. Thinking of the stupidest reasons to filter people to their site.
This is really old journalism BS. "Let's feed the audiences imaginations to increase industry demand..."
By spreading rumors they don't have to be held responsible for anything if (when) they don't come true. Plus it allows them to make the most outrageous claims and not have to worry about it because "eh... hey, we were just speculating...". Nintendo used to (does) do it, Sega used to do it, IGN is just a marketting vehicle for all the publishers. It's blatantly obvious, as a poster above pointed out, that Ghost will most likely be on all three platforms, but who knows how much brownie points they win from Microsoft for giving them the speculative advantage. Of course, IGN editors and writers are notoriously stupid, so it could be that too...
It was a generalization in an attempt to explain the basic working theory behind console game sales. I was not using real numbers, and you overlooked the *If* in my main point, which was a hypothetical explanation.
"If you take a $50 loss..."
Also, I should have specifically said set-top consoles, so I appologize for that misunderstanding. I was not referring to handhelds. I wasn't aware of the gamecubes being so cheap, but aside from that the majority of consoles in gaming history (Atari 2600 to the SNES to the PS1 at launch) were sold at a loss of profit for the manufacturer, only to be recouped in game sales.
Furthermore, my explanation on game sale profits was also for explanation purposes only. It would be absolutely foolish to assume that games were pure profit, but there are simply far too many variables to list that impact on profits and expenses from every aspect of the market. Hence the generalization for the purpose of a simple explaination.
When it comes down to it however, loss of profit on console sales is countered by licensing to second and third parties as well as profits from the sale of the games. When you say "Oh we're back to this again" you make it sound like this is a tired, old, fallacious argument. But that is simply not the case, as it has been this way (I believe) since the mid 1980s when Nintendo imposed their licensing plans and released their first console in the US.
No company makes profit on their consoles. Nearly every console is sold at a loss and the profit is made from game sales and licensing fees. This is why the console sales can drop, but game sales raise. They're not really losing any money from it as long as people continue to buy games. If you take a $50 loss on each piece of hardware, and each person buys at least 1 $60 piece of software to use on that hardware, you're making $10 of profit for each sale.
Games are already overpriced if you really take a look. With multiple consoles pulling players in multiple directions, a handheld system to accompany each of them (almost), and companies fluctuating in and out of existence on nearly a monthly basis, I smell a market crash coming...
If someone releases a new ET game then it's a sure sign the end is near...
On the contrary, I don't think Tribes 2 "fell under the radar..." It was a pretty high profile game when it was released. It just failed to bring what most tribes players were expecting as a sequel. Draw distance was horrible on most maps, vehicles were over-emphasised for gameplay, and let's not forget those several patches that were released that crippled the already mediocre title. The engine was very robust, but the team behind it ran in the wrong direction. I was an avid Tribes 1 fan back in the day, and I immediately went back to the original after playing with T2 for a while. It just seemed to be lacking the charm and playability of the first title.
Granted, the T3 screens look amazing. I've worked with both the Torque and the Unreal engines, and I can say that Unreal wins hands down for usability. It's a designers dream to work with, so hopefully the team can score on gameplay and we'll have ourselves another winner.
Maybe for you, but I'm 25 right now, and myself and all my friends both work in the game industry, and carry our gameboys everywhere. I don't see that changing any time soon. So theoretically, the habit will grow with the gamer. Maybe not many 30 year olds right *now* have gameboys, because maybe that "generation" of individuals looks upon it differently, but the age group that I occupy grew up with this stuff. It's part of life, we do it every day, it's our entertainment. When we're 30 years old, that's not going to change.
Sorry Nokia, toting around trendy hardware to show off with poor performance is what's for 10 year olds.
If this is Nokias stance on gaming, then they are already doomed. Not because of the trash-talking to gamers either. They are making a very similar mistake that past console makers have done, and that is to front their systems and not their library. They haven't learned one of the most *basic* rules for manufacturers in the game industry, and that is that *games* make the system. (Yadda, yadda... It's been said a 100 times)
I think the majority of the older generation of gamers play their games because they are fun, not because a system is hyped. I have yet to see any real fun games on the N-Gage. I'm 25 years old and I carry my GBA where ever I go. It's a blast, yours is not, I've played it.
Licensing issues are most likely why these games will never see the light of day here. This may be a ficticious memory or a past rumor, correct me if I'm wrong, but I seem to remember the original Japanese Gran Turismo having a ton of cars (Ferrari) that were not in the US version due to similar licensing issues.
This is just another example of advertising intruding into the gaming scene. It's a good thing CS doesn't have the text notifications of player deaths, or else the in-game messages would all read: "So-n-so snipes 1337gunR" "Iggy scores a headshot on ~playa4_lif" "D00d has hacked n00b to death with his 'Award Winning Bowie knife' (now only 24.99 at www.yaddayadda.com)"
What bothers me is what it may mean for Valves development approach on a larger scale. Will Half-Life 2 have WinXP PCs in all the research labs you fight your way through? Will the Invading aliens from another dimension drink Sprite? This approach only insults the players and reinforces the idea of a general lack of creativity in most American game developers.
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, that's the reason I posted that. Gee, wait till my wife finds out.
Fool...
For starters, how about removing all of the scantily clad, oversized breast equipped, fat lipped "hoes" from the majority of interactive entertainment.
This would effectively render games "mature" and "tasteful", (you are familiar with those words, yes?) and that would attract a wider audience of gamers right there.
As soon as you bring up "Barbie" games on the topic of "games geared towards women" you are already headed in the wrong direction. Try thinking of women as mature adults instead of a pink dress, shopping machine demographic an see what happens.
Wait! Next will be the Harry potter RTS!
Oh well, at least they're cloning something *fun*. Hopefully they do it well...
PS2s retail for $179.99. Rounded up to $180 for 17496 units, comes to $3,149,280.00
;)
This sounds like standard gaming/recording industry logic (i.e. One pirated unit = $50 billion in losses over the next 3 years!)
They may as well have just calculated the number of potential game sales for each PS2, added that to the cost of system repair after warranty, and profits from extra peripheral sales, and maybe we could reach $5mil.
This is a geeky topic, but I'm contributing so I can't complain.
Around Ultima 1 or 2 I thought up a main character name that ended up sticking around for the rest of my gaming days. It became my on screen personality, and even though every game had seperate characters, themes and storylines, my same guy lived through all the Role Playing adventures available.
Around Final Fantasy 1 I realized I needed some supporting characters to journey with my main character, so I decided on some satisfying names to compliment him and they stuck around through countless more adventures.
To this day I still use the same names that are synonymous with all my Role Playing experiences combined. Eventually they reached a peak of 14-15 or so character names, (spawned by the massive cast of Final Fantasy 6), and they've occupied the same roles (hero, love interest, villain, etc) in every RPG I've ever played. I've invested so much time into these *names*, that now they're obligatory for every game I play in some way or another. It's kind of interesting to see the attachment to an identity that has undergone all these fictional stories. Needless to say I can't really find it in myself to use any other names, since the current ones have so much history.
All of the Square SNES -> PSX ports have loading issues, that may be what you're talking about.
It takes several seconds to load into random battles. Square tried to cover it up with their overused Battle Transition effects (swirly screen, bright colors), but it's just plain annoying.
If you've played the SNES originals, chances are this will drive you nuts.
A second or two doesn't sound long, but wait until you're sitting there yourself trying to get through a dungeon in a reasonable amount of time. Ugh...
Personally I don't play my consoles online since I have my PC for that, but this sounds an awful lot like the time Nintendo brushed aside this new-fangled CD technology in place of good-ol cartridges for the N64...
Boy did that work out well. Didn't they learn anything?
"...lack of network code is a temporary issue with Unreal 2."
As I recall they were initially adamant about NOT having multiplayer in the game. I think the addition of this is because
1) that's what people wanted all along, and
2) because their purported "best single player experience ever" fell flat on it's face.
Oh well, good co-op can make even the worst games a total blast, so this is still a good thing.
Anyone know if they are going to be updating Unreal 2s version of UED with this patch at all?
Check out that Ninja Five-O. That just looks fantastic in terms of old-school platform action.
When they say "latest in the series" I believe they're just referring to another game with the DQ label. This definitely isn't Dragon Quest 8...
But still.... Cool!
When are they going to come out with the real-life magic spells in place of the in game ones? Hey, it just makes it that much more immersive...
I think that's a good point. I would imagine some sort of "official" voice of the scene would need to exist to create standards. Like a website that could rate and eliminate low quality games in an unbiased manner. It could allow you to cruise through all the trash when looking for the gems, but still allow access and coverage of the lower quality titles that might offer something innovative and otherwise be looked over.
Someone mentioned this not having enough games on it to warrant a purchase, but I have to point out that the majority of these useless "classics" CDs have usually been equipped with no more than 5-8 games, tops. This is a huge improvment over that.
I'll just go back to my 3000+ MAME collection now...
Now that I think about it. Maybe classic game publishers should try setting up a central game portal where old ROMs cam be downloaded for $1 each or some-such. They would probably make a bit more profit, and they woulnd't have to screw people over continuously with these repeated re-releases of 10-20 year old games.
It worked somewhat for the music biz... Somewhat.
Here goes:
-Panzer Dragoon Saga
You must have this game. It's expensive, but well worth the price for RPG fans. Excelent game.
- Dragon Force
A fantastic strategy title.
-Albert Odyssey
RPG localized by Working Designs. Good game.
- Shining Force 3
There are three scenarios, all of which are fantastic, but only the first was localized in the US. Still a must have.
- Guardian Heroes
A great Fighter/RPG for a large number of people. It's more fast paced, action style gameplay (along the lines of Final Fight of Streets of Rage), but has several characters all of which level up gaining new spells and skills, and you can play with up to 4 people (in story mode) or 10 in vs. mode. Good times at a party.
- Beyond Oasis
Really good Action RPG in the vein of Zelda, but much heavier emphasis on dungeon puzzles. Good game though.
- Mysteria
I have not played this game more than 5 minutes. It's a fantasy turn-based strategy RPG, but the graphics are absolutely horrendous. From what I have heard the game itself is good, but I could not work my way past the appearance. I can usually look past that as well, but this game just did not age well.
Some other games work looking into -
The Saturn was a shooter machine. It's what it did best. With that said:
- Radiant Silvergun
I personally think this is the best shooter ever developed. Over the top action with elements of an RPG in the form of weapons that level up. Fantastic weapon and scoring system. This is a must have. I'm an RPG fan, but I coulnd't live without this experience. Good stuff.
- Panzer Dragoon 1
If not just for the series roots. This is a great shooter.
- Panzer Dragoon Zwei
Probably the best shooter in the Panzer series. This is a fantastic game all around.
- Sol Divide
Expensive and hard to find. Worth it for the collection, but you can download the arcade ROM for MAME instead. Still worth mentioning.
- Sengoku Blaede
Fun but short shooter.
Lastly...
- Bomberman
12 player Bomberman. Good times.
Anything else in the Shining series is pretty decent, though I tend to feel Shining Wisdom is a bit lacking in both the graphics and innovation department. It's like a colorized port of a gameboy zelda clone, so you may want to avoid that one.
Have fun.
"Sudden increase in quality of Nintendo Gamecube titles..."
IGN is right up there with website gags like file planet. Thinking of the stupidest reasons to filter people to their site.
This is really old journalism BS. "Let's feed the audiences imaginations to increase industry demand..."
By spreading rumors they don't have to be held responsible for anything if (when) they don't come true. Plus it allows them to make the most outrageous claims and not have to worry about it because "eh... hey, we were just speculating...".
Nintendo used to (does) do it, Sega used to do it, IGN is just a marketting vehicle for all the publishers. It's blatantly obvious, as a poster above pointed out, that Ghost will most likely be on all three platforms, but who knows how much brownie points they win from Microsoft for giving them the speculative advantage.
Of course, IGN editors and writers are notoriously stupid, so it could be that too...
I thumb my nose at thee...
Posting on slashdot as an Anonymous Coward is for sociopaths!
It was a generalization in an attempt to explain the basic working theory behind console game sales. I was not using real numbers, and you overlooked the *If* in my main point, which was a hypothetical explanation.
"If you take a $50 loss..."
Also, I should have specifically said set-top consoles, so I appologize for that misunderstanding. I was not referring to handhelds. I wasn't aware of the gamecubes being so cheap, but aside from that the majority of consoles in gaming history (Atari 2600 to the SNES to the PS1 at launch) were sold at a loss of profit for the manufacturer, only to be recouped in game sales.
Furthermore, my explanation on game sale profits was also for explanation purposes only. It would be absolutely foolish to assume that games were pure profit, but there are simply far too many variables to list that impact on profits and expenses from every aspect of the market. Hence the generalization for the purpose of a simple explaination.
When it comes down to it however, loss of profit on console sales is countered by licensing to second and third parties as well as profits from the sale of the games.
When you say "Oh we're back to this again" you make it sound like this is a tired, old, fallacious argument. But that is simply not the case, as it has been this way (I believe) since the mid 1980s when Nintendo imposed their licensing plans and released their first console in the US.
No company makes profit on their consoles. Nearly every console is sold at a loss and the profit is made from game sales and licensing fees.
This is why the console sales can drop, but game sales raise. They're not really losing any money from it as long as people continue to buy games. If you take a $50 loss on each piece of hardware, and each person buys at least 1 $60 piece of software to use on that hardware, you're making $10 of profit for each sale.
Games are already overpriced if you really take a look. With multiple consoles pulling players in multiple directions, a handheld system to accompany each of them (almost), and companies fluctuating in and out of existence on nearly a monthly basis, I smell a market crash coming...
If someone releases a new ET game then it's a sure sign the end is near...
On the contrary, I don't think Tribes 2 "fell under the radar..." It was a pretty high profile game when it was released. It just failed to bring what most tribes players were expecting as a sequel. Draw distance was horrible on most maps, vehicles were over-emphasised for gameplay, and let's not forget those several patches that were released that crippled the already mediocre title.
The engine was very robust, but the team behind it ran in the wrong direction. I was an avid Tribes 1 fan back in the day, and I immediately went back to the original after playing with T2 for a while. It just seemed to be lacking the charm and playability of the first title.
Granted, the T3 screens look amazing. I've worked with both the Torque and the Unreal engines, and I can say that Unreal wins hands down for usability. It's a designers dream to work with, so hopefully the team can score on gameplay and we'll have ourselves another winner.
Maybe for you, but I'm 25 right now, and myself and all my friends both work in the game industry, and carry our gameboys everywhere. I don't see that changing any time soon. So theoretically, the habit will grow with the gamer. Maybe not many 30 year olds right *now* have gameboys, because maybe that "generation" of individuals looks upon it differently, but the age group that I occupy grew up with this stuff. It's part of life, we do it every day, it's our entertainment. When we're 30 years old, that's not going to change.
Sorry Nokia, toting around trendy hardware to show off with poor performance is what's for 10 year olds.
If this is Nokias stance on gaming, then they are already doomed. Not because of the trash-talking to gamers either.
They are making a very similar mistake that past console makers have done, and that is to front their systems and not their library. They haven't learned one of the most *basic* rules for manufacturers in the game industry, and that is that *games* make the system.
(Yadda, yadda... It's been said a 100 times)
I think the majority of the older generation of gamers play their games because they are fun, not because a system is hyped. I have yet to see any real fun games on the N-Gage. I'm 25 years old and I carry my GBA where ever I go. It's a blast, yours is not, I've played it.
Licensing issues are most likely why these games will never see the light of day here.
This may be a ficticious memory or a past rumor, correct me if I'm wrong, but I seem to remember the original Japanese Gran Turismo having a ton of cars (Ferrari) that were not in the US version due to similar licensing issues.
That's Gordon, the main character from Halflife I believe.
This is just another example of advertising intruding into the gaming scene.
It's a good thing CS doesn't have the text notifications of player deaths, or else the in-game messages would all read:
"So-n-so snipes 1337gunR"
"Iggy scores a headshot on ~playa4_lif"
"D00d has hacked n00b to death with his 'Award Winning Bowie knife' (now only 24.99 at www.yaddayadda.com)"
What bothers me is what it may mean for Valves development approach on a larger scale. Will Half-Life 2 have WinXP PCs in all the research labs you fight your way through? Will the Invading aliens from another dimension drink Sprite?
This approach only insults the players and reinforces the idea of a general lack of creativity in most American game developers.