My hope is to see Mother 1+2 released in anticipation of Mother 3, like it was done in Japan (although they released it in Japan to coincide with the annoucnement of Mother 3's continued development on the GBA... which in hindsight really jumped the gun to some degree). They already have a good translation for Mother 2 (although I wouldn't object to loosening up the 90's era self-censoring enforced by NOA), they really only need to tidy up Mother 1 if the prototype NES cart dump that has floated around the net has anything to show for itself. Not really in terms of readibility, but there really needs to be some work done to liven up the script.
Same thing happened in Diablo II. I reallly think there was a reason why Blizzard put up a strategy guide on their website detailing all the rarest items in the game. I remember friends who used to read through that and drool over what you could get.... if you didn't mind running location X to kill monster Y for a 1% chance (without increasing the item drop magically) at a certain item. The game was beatable even without these items.
Any game where there is even the remote chance of "rare" items being found after continuous attempts will create this behaviour. Kingdom of Loathing only has 4-5 items like this and there's very few people that have them. On the other hand, KoL is also home to items that will be available for only a month before they become unavailable, and then the prices in the economy go skyrocketing. Which causes people to complain about not being able to have gotten certain items since they weren't around at the right time.
I will agree with the devs about there being something neat for killing a really nasty monster with 39 other people. It's gotta be like being a small part of those war scenes from LotR or something. Then there's the fact of actually being able to coordinate 40 people over the internet. I will say that needing 6 hours to do this is a bit absurd. If people have a large problem with the amount of time needed to do these raids, they need to look into breaking up the dungeons into individual parts so they're more accessible... or something like that, I dunno.
Good point. That really is the biggest problem with the series getting cut so soon, just as soon as everyone wanted to know more about the characters, the plug got pulled.
If they were smart, they would hold off a lot longer to learn more about the market. Sony supposedly did their homework before launching the PSP and look where that's gotten them. Sony at least had the benefit of being the #1 console system at the time of the PSP launch so it was the logical next step.
They should spend more time trying to sell XBox360's and the up-and coming XBox720 before they consider starting work on the XBrick.
Given that there were 2 redesigns of the original Game Boy (Pocket, Color [yes it also boosted the specs but it really only proved to be the gateway into GBA land]), 2 redeisgns of the GBA (SP and now Micro), is anyone really all that surprised by the update?
Also, I don't see why everyone is saying the D-Pad looks like the one on the Revolution controller. It looks like the same old Nintendo D-Pad that's been in existence since the Game & Watch... just white now, but it was white/grey on the N64 and Gamecube too. I'd rather have that then the buttons as D-Pad that's employed on the original DS and was first adopted (in my mind) by Sony with the original Playstation.
Regardless, this is still a smart move on Nintendo's part, and kudos to them with killing rumors in the process. Any word on a price drop in the near future?
I'm still crossing my fingers and hoping for a WPA/WPA2 firmware upgrade at some point though... preferably for free (read: downloadable through the wifi network, or at something like a kiosk at your local electronics store) or the small fee of shipping the unit out to one of their repair centers. Of course this all depends on whether or not the WiFi connection stuff is embedded in the system and each game taps into that, or if its on a per-game basis.
Now that G4TV is now showing reruns of TNG I think it's obvious that a merger with Spike might be on the way. Seeing as someone got the bright idea that G4 and TecTV had some overlap, maybe they're trying to move in on Spike's territory.
So much for getting girls interested in games. Maybe they'll absorb Lifetime after Spike?
I believe I was trying to be sarcastic on the resounding success part. Sony's fighting a weird war... if they try to make it a game machine, they're competing with Nintendo. If they try to make it a "media device" they're competing with the iPod (even if the PSP has Internet capabilities... who wants to read a website on a tiny screen?). They're in a really bad spot, and it doesn't look like they realized their predicament before they plunged in head first with this.
The only way they could win this is to produce something that outperforms both machines. The price tag is comparable to a high-end iPod, but its an inferior device (storage limitations and battery life being the culprits here). If they actually had a good stable of games for it, it might be worth it.
If it was an excellent media device and excellent game machine, it would be more than worth the $250-300 price tag. But with so-so across teh board you're really better off with a GBA or DS and an iPod or other mp3 player. Jack of all trades, master of none lesson here.
They would really have to do that for a follow-up. Unfortunately, having killed off Book and Wash in the movie (which still surprised me each time I saw the movie), and having the two Tams not invovled with crew before the pilot really means something is going to feel really different about the show, whether its a sequel or prequel.
If anyone has watched the bonus material on the Serenity DVD it was revealed that in the original version of the script Wash didn't die. IMHO that would've made it a lot easier for them to do a second season directly following Serenity.
I'm not saying that a second season isn't plausible, I know I'm greatly interested to see the River Tam plot continued further (what else could they have planted in her brain? Is she really "normal" now?) since I think that seemed to be a large part of the first season even as to some degree a sub-plot. But with Wash and Book gone, they're going to need some good replacements to keep the synergy and chemistry of the cast together.
DVDs finally hit market saturation not long ago. For most people DVD is still relatviely new. Both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD are way off in thinking that they're going to be easily accepted. No one wants to buy a better video player when they just got one a few years ago. Even less so for the media.
Seriously, G4 has and always will be a joke. They no longer resemble anything remotely like a technology channel anymore. They have develolved into some sort of MTV/Spike wanna-be targeted at wanna-be gamers in the adolescent market.
If Sony wants to grab ahold of a media format, they should just do it for crying out loud. Quit trying to sneak this into something that's supposed to be a "gaming platform". Given by the resounding success of the PSP I can't see how they expect to fail with this tactic.
Saying that there's an exclusive RE title in the works is wrong. The developer said they are working on something new for the system that they hope to learn enough from to hopefully make a RE for the Revolution in the future. The submitter makes it sound like there's an RE already planned, when they're still in the research stage.
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One of my professors pointed this one out to me once:
http://www.gifford.co.uk/~coredump/gpad.htm
Sooo... WinFS is gone, their new Windowing system is out, built-in AV software gets the axe...
So what features are stilll left? If this is just going to add a bunch of DRM stuff to the OS it's looking like less of worthy upgrade by the day.
My hope is to see Mother 1+2 released in anticipation of Mother 3, like it was done in Japan (although they released it in Japan to coincide with the annoucnement of Mother 3's continued development on the GBA... which in hindsight really jumped the gun to some degree). They already have a good translation for Mother 2 (although I wouldn't object to loosening up the 90's era self-censoring enforced by NOA), they really only need to tidy up Mother 1 if the prototype NES cart dump that has floated around the net has anything to show for itself. Not really in terms of readibility, but there really needs to be some work done to liven up the script.
Same thing happened in Diablo II. I reallly think there was a reason why Blizzard put up a strategy guide on their website detailing all the rarest items in the game. I remember friends who used to read through that and drool over what you could get.... if you didn't mind running location X to kill monster Y for a 1% chance (without increasing the item drop magically) at a certain item. The game was beatable even without these items.
Any game where there is even the remote chance of "rare" items being found after continuous attempts will create this behaviour. Kingdom of Loathing only has 4-5 items like this and there's very few people that have them. On the other hand, KoL is also home to items that will be available for only a month before they become unavailable, and then the prices in the economy go skyrocketing. Which causes people to complain about not being able to have gotten certain items since they weren't around at the right time.
I will agree with the devs about there being something neat for killing a really nasty monster with 39 other people. It's gotta be like being a small part of those war scenes from LotR or something. Then there's the fact of actually being able to coordinate 40 people over the internet. I will say that needing 6 hours to do this is a bit absurd. If people have a large problem with the amount of time needed to do these raids, they need to look into breaking up the dungeons into individual parts so they're more accessible... or something like that, I dunno.
Good point. That really is the biggest problem with the series getting cut so soon, just as soon as everyone wanted to know more about the characters, the plug got pulled.
If they were smart, they would hold off a lot longer to learn more about the market. Sony supposedly did their homework before launching the PSP and look where that's gotten them. Sony at least had the benefit of being the #1 console system at the time of the PSP launch so it was the logical next step.
They should spend more time trying to sell XBox360's and the up-and coming XBox720 before they consider starting work on the XBrick.
Maybe if they hadn't invested so much money in developing the PS3 they could've kept these around longer?
Then again, doesn't the Aibo have a price tag comparable to a Segway?
Hmmm... I wonder if the PS3 fails to provide less than glorious amounts of revenue if SCEA could be next in line for guillotine?
Given that there were 2 redesigns of the original Game Boy (Pocket, Color [yes it also boosted the specs but it really only proved to be the gateway into GBA land]), 2 redeisgns of the GBA (SP and now Micro), is anyone really all that surprised by the update?
Also, I don't see why everyone is saying the D-Pad looks like the one on the Revolution controller. It looks like the same old Nintendo D-Pad that's been in existence since the Game & Watch... just white now, but it was white/grey on the N64 and Gamecube too. I'd rather have that then the buttons as D-Pad that's employed on the original DS and was first adopted (in my mind) by Sony with the original Playstation.
Regardless, this is still a smart move on Nintendo's part, and kudos to them with killing rumors in the process. Any word on a price drop in the near future?
I'm still crossing my fingers and hoping for a WPA/WPA2 firmware upgrade at some point though... preferably for free (read: downloadable through the wifi network, or at something like a kiosk at your local electronics store) or the small fee of shipping the unit out to one of their repair centers. Of course this all depends on whether or not the WiFi connection stuff is embedded in the system and each game taps into that, or if its on a per-game basis.
Now that G4TV is now showing reruns of TNG I think it's obvious that a merger with Spike might be on the way. Seeing as someone got the bright idea that G4 and TecTV had some overlap, maybe they're trying to move in on Spike's territory.
So much for getting girls interested in games. Maybe they'll absorb Lifetime after Spike?
I believe I was trying to be sarcastic on the resounding success part. Sony's fighting a weird war... if they try to make it a game machine, they're competing with Nintendo. If they try to make it a "media device" they're competing with the iPod (even if the PSP has Internet capabilities... who wants to read a website on a tiny screen?). They're in a really bad spot, and it doesn't look like they realized their predicament before they plunged in head first with this.
The only way they could win this is to produce something that outperforms both machines. The price tag is comparable to a high-end iPod, but its an inferior device (storage limitations and battery life being the culprits here). If they actually had a good stable of games for it, it might be worth it.
If it was an excellent media device and excellent game machine, it would be more than worth the $250-300 price tag. But with so-so across teh board you're really better off with a GBA or DS and an iPod or other mp3 player. Jack of all trades, master of none lesson here.
The Trade Paperback of the 3 Serenity comics by Dark Horse is coming out 2/01/06
1 0-759
http://www.darkhorse.com/profile/profile.php?sku=
I thought this was still rumor, I was pretty sure one of the other networks (ABC or NBC) were considering picking it up as well. Same with HBO.
If Showtime is picking it up, sweet.
They would really have to do that for a follow-up. Unfortunately, having killed off Book and Wash in the movie (which still surprised me each time I saw the movie), and having the two Tams not invovled with crew before the pilot really means something is going to feel really different about the show, whether its a sequel or prequel.
If anyone has watched the bonus material on the Serenity DVD it was revealed that in the original version of the script Wash didn't die. IMHO that would've made it a lot easier for them to do a second season directly following Serenity.
I'm not saying that a second season isn't plausible, I know I'm greatly interested to see the River Tam plot continued further (what else could they have planted in her brain? Is she really "normal" now?) since I think that seemed to be a large part of the first season even as to some degree a sub-plot. But with Wash and Book gone, they're going to need some good replacements to keep the synergy and chemistry of the cast together.
DVDs finally hit market saturation not long ago. For most people DVD is still relatviely new. Both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD are way off in thinking that they're going to be easily accepted. No one wants to buy a better video player when they just got one a few years ago. Even less so for the media.
Seriously, G4 has and always will be a joke. They no longer resemble anything remotely like a technology channel anymore. They have develolved into some sort of MTV/Spike wanna-be targeted at wanna-be gamers in the adolescent market.
If Sony wants to grab ahold of a media format, they should just do it for crying out loud. Quit trying to sneak this into something that's supposed to be a "gaming platform". Given by the resounding success of the PSP I can't see how they expect to fail with this tactic.
Like Enter the Matrix and Path of Neo had any really good writing to begin with.
I understand what he's talking about, I just don't see where he's coming from on this though.
Can't beat 'em, take 'em over? I thought Pixar severed ties with Disney after The Incredibles?
*bzzt*
Wrong, it's coming out for GBA... doesn't really matter since DS people will be able to play it anyways.
This detail has been on his website for a while now.
Translated from his webpage here: http://forum.starmen.net/?t=msg&th=17861
Saying that there's an exclusive RE title in the works is wrong. The developer said they are working on something new for the system that they hope to learn enough from to hopefully make a RE for the Revolution in the future. The submitter makes it sound like there's an RE already planned, when they're still in the research stage.
Fileplanet has been offering a 10 day trial for anyone who's interested. I don't know when this started, but I'm sure this is part of the cause.
And Family Guy, Futurama, and lately Arrested Development...
Why Fox would cancel any of the above, and run "The Simple Life" for ~5 seasons is way beyond my understanding of logic and/or reason.
Huh? I thought Phoenix Wright got released here, and sold pretty well.
Also, PW is the DS entry in a series of games in Japan.
Sounds like Fox to me.
What other network is capable of aborting it's most successful and award winning shows only to get bit in the rear by DVD sales?
And I decided that I would happy if they would port Myst to the DS
You know, I had the same thought earlier today. Actually I'm surprised that RTS games haven't found a home on the DS yet.