Ok, while I applaud Cyan Worlds/Ubisoft for making the bold attempt to take Myst to the Internet, who in their right mind would've thought it would've worked...?
1) The Myst series has been and will probably remain a series for the casual player. A lot of people who are turned off by the blood and action of fast paced FPS and involving RPGS and RTSes typically enjoy Myst.
2) People aren't going to pay for a service that they won't make use of.
3) Casual gamers don't usually have a whole lot of time to commit to a game for an extended period of time.
4) Since the user base for the Myst series isn't "hard-core" they most likely will not have the time to justify for paying for something like Uru (which was to ultimately become a pay-for service)
5) Finally, think about it. Myst by myself is cool. Myst with other people no longer sounds like a game anymore? How would puzzles work? What would be the objective of the persistant world? What are people supposed to be doing in this game?
When you think about it that way. Would you honestly want to pay to play what would most likely become a 3D chat room? (Granted that MMORPGs seem that way sometimes, but the Myst franchise does not lend itself to an MMORPG easily)
If they had gone through and done something like Battle.net with this (where the service is free), then maybe it would've worked. But I know if I buy a single-player game, the multiplayer had better be free.
Maybe if Ubisoft/Cyan had did this as a free online thing, maybe it would've ended up doing better. I really can't say though.
"No, it will be a port of the NES/Famicom game. Sheesh. Ever look at the GBC resolution"
Same exact thing, graphics wise. The only difference is that the GBC version clips the top of the screen (which can be scrolled upwards by hitting the up directional button).
Unreal Tournemant implemented the option that bots would adjust to the skill level the player was playing at.
Also, they introduced the idea that the final boss of the single player "campaign" would be barely beatable by the player. Essentially if you look at the code for the final level you will find a note saying that the final boss is designed to "stay one step ahead of the player", which goes hand-in-hand with the strategy i've heard which is to stay sucky for a while and then ramp up your apparent skill level quickly at the end to over take the AI's learning curve.
I also agree with being able to set your difficulty. I like to play UT and be able to a) completely thrash the bots b) be moderately challenged or c) try to take on a higher difficulty than I'm used to in order to try and get better. Having that flexibility is nice.
What cracks me up about the earlier announcement about two screens being used in a hand-held is calling it innovative, revolutionary, etc.
If anyone knows the history of nintendo, you might wanna check out something called the Game & Watch series... There are a couple of games in there that used two screens. I know at least Mario Bros. (Not the same game everyone is familiar with) and Donkey Kong used this display method.
Guilty pleasure #1: Playing UT2003 with everything cranked. Same for Unreal 2's XMP Demo (Don't have U2 yet)
#2: Boomsticks! Shotgun's seem to be my big weapon. Be it the one in Half-life, GTA3, DOOM, etc. Boomsticks are sweet.
#3: Summon spells in the Final Fantasy series (and maybe any other Squaresoft game)... Nothing more fun than calling out a nice spell that targets all enemies, and isn't affected by the Reflect/Wall spell. Best abuse ever: Final Fantasy VII - Grab Bahamut-Zero attatch a Magic x4 support materia, then equip a W Summon materia and Knights of the Round. Summon Bahamut 1st (for 4 times!) then Knights, go make some popcorn or grab a soda and come back and see everything go goodbye!
PSJOY is the best PSX USB adapter that I've heard of. I have one, works like a charm. In windows it operates on DirectInput as well I think, so pretty much anything that uses DirectX should interface to it. I primarily do NES, Game Boy, SNES, N64, and Arcade emulation and haven't had a problem
I don't know about Linux support.
Also, it's the preferred PSX adapter according to the Stepmania site which has a nice analysis of the PSX adapters, at least in terms of DDR Simulation/Emulation.
1) At least two of those games, Ice Climbers and Excitebike, I believe are available through the e-Reader system. 2) I highly doubt these will be released in some budget format, however, there is no way that these would fill up all the space in a standard GBA cartridge, so maybe they will drop the price? 3) If my guess is anything, I'll bet that Super Mario Brothers would be a port of the SMB DX port they did for Game Boy Color. I think that one did have the Lost Levels in the original 8-bit style, however you needed to beat the original game or something to get to them.
Let's first see if these even make their way over here.
Donky Kong used exactly that.
Mario Bros. upped it by using two. Heck the series stayed like that for 3 iterations (4 if you count SMB 2 or the Japanese Mario 2)
Most square games don't use the whole controller layout.
I had an eMachine. Reformated the thing after a month of using it and its been perfectly happy since then. Also gave it a sizable boost in RAM too: 32mb -> 160 mb.
1) Postage should be somewhere between $1-$5.
2) You might have to send it away to a regional center, since NOA has a bunch of local places certified to do hardware servicing.
3) The bug will probably exist here, as all NOA really does is localization, unless they caught it in their testing, start saving now.
4) Nintendo cares about their customers, heck they still carry hardware stuff for all the old consoles (not including Game n Watch)
We're only human. Granted this will probably be the biggest 1st-party title bug Nintendo has seen, we all make mistakes. They still have a better track record than most PC companies.
As soon as we beat the russians the public lost interest in the whole space race... Now that other people are trying to send people there again we want to go back?
Hmmm... Interesting seeing as there hasn't been any mention of the possibility of returning for a long time...
Besides, whatever happened to the Mars missions? Are we gonna scrub those to concentrate on the moon again?
Typically the reason why that list is console dominated is that there are a lot more console games than PC games out there... I'll bet $5 that within the next week we'll be seeing Deus Ex 2 up there somewhere.
Case in point: Need For Speed Underground is ranked at 7 for PS2, while the PC version is 27. The Xbox version is even lower on the chart.
I got Warcraft III, played the Single-player campaign until about half-way into the undead campaign, and then stopped playing. Don't know why.
I've never been that great with RTS online anyways. I can't seem to multi-task that well in those, and can never make up my mind when to launch an opening assualt. Not to mention I'm slow at doing things in those games which is bad.
Also, you could avoid monsters too in that game, something Chrono Cross did on th e PSX.
Oh, and in case you missed the news... EB64 is being re-designed for GBA.
I know that as I've gotten older I've moved more into certain genres and such.
I started playing games at 5, I'm now 20.
A lot of my tastes have changed in the last 3 years.
I never used to play 1st person shooters, now I play a few, mostly unreal series. I had a thing for 'craft (Starcraft, Warcraft) games and other RTS but I've seemed to have lost interest in that genre.
However, my affinity for platformers and RPGs (pretty much all Squaresoft ones) hasn't really gone anywhere.
Oh, and in the last year my faith in Nintendo was renewed.
Well Nintendo already ported Earthbound to GBA, along with the prequel which almost came out here back in the late 80's for the Nintendo (it was already translated but they pulled the plug for some reason).
The other games would be possible, but I'd rather see games that haven't been released here before. Like Bahamut Lagoon, Live A Live, Romancing Saga, Star Ocean, etc.
We have things we like, they have things they like... People forget that RPGs weren't THE BIG thing 10 years ago.
You want an example, take a look at Squaresoft and their recent rash of re-makes/re-releases. We finally got an official Final Fantasy II in Origins, coming here at least 12 years after it was initially release in Japan. At least Square is starting to bring some of the stuff we missed over here, with the recently announced Front Mission History collection in Japan, maybe we'll get a chance to see Front Mission 1 (in its new form of Front Mission 1st) and Front Mission 2.
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Ok, while I applaud Cyan Worlds/Ubisoft for making the bold attempt to take Myst to the Internet, who in their right mind would've thought it would've worked...?
1) The Myst series has been and will probably remain a series for the casual player. A lot of people who are turned off by the blood and action of fast paced FPS and involving RPGS and RTSes typically enjoy Myst.
2) People aren't going to pay for a service that they won't make use of.
3) Casual gamers don't usually have a whole lot of time to commit to a game for an extended period of time.
4) Since the user base for the Myst series isn't "hard-core" they most likely will not have the time to justify for paying for something like Uru (which was to ultimately become a pay-for service)
5) Finally, think about it. Myst by myself is cool. Myst with other people no longer sounds like a game anymore? How would puzzles work? What would be the objective of the persistant world? What are people supposed to be doing in this game?
When you think about it that way. Would you honestly want to pay to play what would most likely become a 3D chat room? (Granted that MMORPGs seem that way sometimes, but the Myst franchise does not lend itself to an MMORPG easily)
If they had gone through and done something like Battle.net with this (where the service is free), then maybe it would've worked. But I know if I buy a single-player game, the multiplayer had better be free.
Maybe if Ubisoft/Cyan had did this as a free online thing, maybe it would've ended up doing better. I really can't say though.
I will believe it when I see it.
In other news, UT2004 demo coming out in less than 2 weeks!
Where's your Doom 3 or Half-Life 2 demo now?
"No, it will be a port of the NES/Famicom game. Sheesh. Ever look at the GBC resolution" Same exact thing, graphics wise. The only difference is that the GBC version clips the top of the screen (which can be scrolled upwards by hitting the up directional button).
Are they going to have enough money to do that after all the court-cases? Aren't they supposed to be running out of money at some point too?
Better hope they do well in the courts, for their sake
Unreal Tournemant implemented the option that bots would adjust to the skill level the player was playing at.
Also, they introduced the idea that the final boss of the single player "campaign" would be barely beatable by the player. Essentially if you look at the code for the final level you will find a note saying that the final boss is designed to "stay one step ahead of the player", which goes hand-in-hand with the strategy i've heard which is to stay sucky for a while and then ramp up your apparent skill level quickly at the end to over take the AI's learning curve.
I also agree with being able to set your difficulty. I like to play UT and be able to a) completely thrash the bots b) be moderately challenged or c) try to take on a higher difficulty than I'm used to in order to try and get better. Having that flexibility is nice.
Basic platformers are a good intro to console games: Mario & Sonic.
RPGs: I would suggest something pretty straightforward, I concur on Chrono Trigger, maybe Final Fantasy III (US)
PC FPS: Doom or Counterstrike. CS tends to be favored by a lot of people who don't play a lot of other FPS games for some reason.
And then there's always Tetris.
What cracks me up about the earlier announcement about two screens being used in a hand-held is calling it innovative, revolutionary, etc.
If anyone knows the history of nintendo, you might wanna check out something called the Game & Watch series... There are a couple of games in there that used two screens. I know at least Mario Bros. (Not the same game everyone is familiar with) and Donkey Kong used this display method.
Guilty pleasure #1: Playing UT2003 with everything cranked. Same for Unreal 2's XMP Demo (Don't have U2 yet)
#2: Boomsticks! Shotgun's seem to be my big weapon. Be it the one in Half-life, GTA3, DOOM, etc. Boomsticks are sweet.
#3: Summon spells in the Final Fantasy series (and maybe any other Squaresoft game)... Nothing more fun than calling out a nice spell that targets all enemies, and isn't affected by the Reflect/Wall spell. Best abuse ever: Final Fantasy VII - Grab Bahamut-Zero attatch a Magic x4 support materia, then equip a W Summon materia and Knights of the Round. Summon Bahamut 1st (for 4 times!) then Knights, go make some popcorn or grab a soda and come back and see everything go goodbye!
PSJOY is the best PSX USB adapter that I've heard of. I have one, works like a charm. In windows it operates on DirectInput as well I think, so pretty much anything that uses DirectX should interface to it. I primarily do NES, Game Boy, SNES, N64, and Arcade emulation and haven't had a problem
I don't know about Linux support.
Also, it's the preferred PSX adapter according to the Stepmania site which has a nice analysis of the PSX adapters, at least in terms of DDR Simulation/Emulation.
The Famicom styled SP sounds pretty cool.
However, I have a small contention on the games.
1) At least two of those games, Ice Climbers and Excitebike, I believe are available through the e-Reader system.
2) I highly doubt these will be released in some budget format, however, there is no way that these would fill up all the space in a standard GBA cartridge, so maybe they will drop the price?
3) If my guess is anything, I'll bet that Super Mario Brothers would be a port of the SMB DX port they did for Game Boy Color. I think that one did have the Lost Levels in the original 8-bit style, however you needed to beat the original game or something to get to them.
Let's first see if these even make their way over here.
Donky Kong used exactly that. Mario Bros. upped it by using two. Heck the series stayed like that for 3 iterations (4 if you count SMB 2 or the Japanese Mario 2) Most square games don't use the whole controller layout.
well there goes their xmas present... 30 days without patching hehe
Hmm...
I had an eMachine. Reformated the thing after a month of using it and its been perfectly happy since then. Also gave it a sizable boost in RAM too: 32mb -> 160 mb.
Never had an issue, guess I'm the anomaly.
I had read about this as a rumor on some site yesterday, being pointed there about some layoffs at Vivendi I think.
I hope this doesn't hurt the Nullsoft guys that much, since Winamp5 is now in beta testing according to their forums
1) Postage should be somewhere between $1-$5. 2) You might have to send it away to a regional center, since NOA has a bunch of local places certified to do hardware servicing. 3) The bug will probably exist here, as all NOA really does is localization, unless they caught it in their testing, start saving now. 4) Nintendo cares about their customers, heck they still carry hardware stuff for all the old consoles (not including Game n Watch)
We're only human. Granted this will probably be the biggest 1st-party title bug Nintendo has seen, we all make mistakes. They still have a better track record than most PC companies.
Most RPGs have a total game play time clock. I believe its intended as a how far in the game you are progress thingy.
My thoughts exactly...
As soon as we beat the russians the public lost interest in the whole space race... Now that other people are trying to send people there again we want to go back?
Hmmm... Interesting seeing as there hasn't been any mention of the possibility of returning for a long time...
Besides, whatever happened to the Mars missions? Are we gonna scrub those to concentrate on the moon again?
Are you implying FFXI is a one-hit wonder?
Typically the reason why that list is console dominated is that there are a lot more console games than PC games out there... I'll bet $5 that within the next week we'll be seeing Deus Ex 2 up there somewhere.
Case in point: Need For Speed Underground is ranked at 7 for PS2, while the PC version is 27. The Xbox version is even lower on the chart.
I loved Starcraft and TA.
I got Warcraft III, played the Single-player campaign until about half-way into the undead campaign, and then stopped playing. Don't know why.
I've never been that great with RTS online anyways. I can't seem to multi-task that well in those, and can never make up my mind when to launch an opening assualt. Not to mention I'm slow at doing things in those games which is bad.
CT did this a while ago...
I remember it got challenged in the State Supreme Court... Not sure if it was struck down or whatnot.
Also, you could avoid monsters too in that game, something Chrono Cross did on th e PSX. Oh, and in case you missed the news... EB64 is being re-designed for GBA.
I know that as I've gotten older I've moved more into certain genres and such.
I started playing games at 5, I'm now 20.
A lot of my tastes have changed in the last 3 years.
I never used to play 1st person shooters, now I play a few, mostly unreal series.
I had a thing for 'craft (Starcraft, Warcraft) games and other RTS but I've seemed to have lost interest in that genre.
However, my affinity for platformers and RPGs (pretty much all Squaresoft ones) hasn't really gone anywhere.
Oh, and in the last year my faith in Nintendo was renewed.
Well Nintendo already ported Earthbound to GBA, along with the prequel which almost came out here back in the late 80's for the Nintendo (it was already translated but they pulled the plug for some reason).
The other games would be possible, but I'd rather see games that haven't been released here before. Like Bahamut Lagoon, Live A Live, Romancing Saga, Star Ocean, etc.
Eh...
We have things we like, they have things they like... People forget that RPGs weren't THE BIG thing 10 years ago.
You want an example, take a look at Squaresoft and their recent rash of re-makes/re-releases. We finally got an official Final Fantasy II in Origins, coming here at least 12 years after it was initially release in Japan. At least Square is starting to bring some of the stuff we missed over here, with the recently announced Front Mission History collection in Japan, maybe we'll get a chance to see Front Mission 1 (in its new form of Front Mission 1st) and Front Mission 2.