Seemed more to me like an obvious rip-off of both Miyazaki's film-style (this might be what you meant) and Samurai Jack (the kid version of Jack is the spitting image of the Link in Wind Waker, minus the outfit).
Uhhh, Final Fantasy XI has been (and is) a huge money-maker for Square-Enix. Sure, some of the more inept commentators complained about its comparatively low sales (not as low as you suggest, however!), but it has brought plenty of reoccurring income via the required subscriptions.
The parent poster is referring to this, I believe (the name is different and a little confusing, probably to emphasize Windows and not the Unix capabilities this provides). Apparently registration is required. Looks very useful.
Now, I may be missing the point, but why in God's name are they trying to encourage a market in which one popular arcade title consists of sticking a plastic Finger up someone's digital ass?
I wouldn't call Boon-ga Boon-ga a popular game. It is just a quirky niche game - it isn't the next Street Fighter II or something! And the country that invented games like (the tremendously popular in comparison) Mortal Kombat or Custer's Revenge probably shouldn't criticize other countries for their tastes in gaming. Some developers are just going to make disturbing, 'gross' games - it doesn't reflect on that country's whole gaming market! It isn't like every Japanese or American gamer gets together and votes for a "poke your boss' anus"game or "rip off a woman's head for bonus points" game.
The rest of your less-trollish analysis isn't necessarily wrong, though you probably overstate how much "quirky" games sell there. They are made more over there (easier to get published), but they usually don't sell well. Japanese gamers mainly buy franchise games, just like Western gamers do. They are just different franchises in many cases.
MS has been actually doing a pretty good job going for Europe from the start (some of the Xbox's best games are European developed and focused, like the Project Gotham and Rallisport Challenge series), but I agree going for it more wouldn't hurt.
How long before a game using the Unreal 3 engine comes out? It isn't 'play' until there are games to play. Significantly faster hardware will be available before then...
But if these additions are in there to cover-up bugfixes, then this is not something I would want to continue.
There aren't any bugfixes with this content update. Some people don't find Ninja Gaiden's admittedly fast-moving camera to their taste, but this isn't a bug. A new camera system is being offered as an alternative option for those players.
(I personally agree with you, this is awesome news!)
Looking at many of the other complaints, it seems like the people bitching about this are finding Ninja Gaiden to be too hard. A new camera system seems to be evidence that the real problem isn't that they aren't good enough to play the game well (no shame in that, IMO), the problem is that the game's camera was broken. A blatant lie, especially when comparing the game to literally every other free-roaming third person game in existence. As long as you don't constantly try to hide in corners and obsessively hit the camera adjust button, the camera is fine 99.5% of the time, and you can easily use the block button the.5% of the time the view gets weirder than you like. Same reasoning with the new AI routines, perhaps.
Of course, these gamers are going to be pretty shocked when they find this new content (especially the speed boost) does nothing but make the game more challenging. I personally can't wait.
(And it does look this content fixes my one complaint with the game - those purple/yellow fiends were pretty freaking weak, and you fought them for long stretches of the later parts of the game. The new monsters seem to replace them in those levels, and I am positive they will be able to get through a measly block!)
"Errors in AI"? Uh, how so? I can't think of any I encounted during my several playthroughs of the game, for any of the difficulty levels, and none of my friends can either. Can't remember reviews mentioning it. It isn't like there is an AI allied character of some sort who keeps getting stuck on terrain or anything...
And sorry to disappoint you, but the AI has already been updated once already, back during the first phase of the tournament. The major changes I noticed were that nearly all enemies would stay back and fire at you from a distance - mixed it up and made the game harder, but it certainly didn't qualify as some huge upgrade (less hand-to-hand combat, which made it far less satisfying in many ways - the original game's AI was not broken). So there is no way an improved AI is being 'sneaked' into this coming update - new AI routines were promised from the initial word of the tournament, months before the game's release.
For the record, I don't understand the complaints about the camera - I suspect people got in the habit of manually readjusting the camera too much (since other third-person games require so much of that stuff), and so they basically sabotage the auto-camera of Ninja Gaiden. And hell, it is hardly difficult to just tap the camera button if you are having problems with it momentarily aiming at a wall and you are too inept to hold that handy block button...
Cowboy Bebop was basically a modern update of the venerable (and popular) 'Lupin the 3rd' anime/manga. Not saying it was bad or anything (I liked it, though I wouldn't remotely say it is the high point of anime like many fans insist), but it too was a continuation of an already successful theme.
Hellsing has some pretty obvious lifted stuff, too, like the fact Arucard looks much like Vampire Hunter D, and has a very similar background also involving that certain special famous literary figure. (Can't stand the anime myself, personally. Perhaps the definitive example of how some post-Evangelion anime seems so soulless, IMO. But, different strokes and all.)
Very little (if any!) art is truly original, it is just that oftentimes the viewer isn't aware of the ancestry - so it's new and exciting to them. It's all just variations on a few themes that are thousands of years old...
The administration's position has always been that we should act before the threat became immediate. They never said that Iraq posed an immediate or imminent threat.
Come on now. Don't feed us this obvious revisionist bullshit. The administration did say on numerous occasions that the threat of Iraq was immediate/imminent. Go google the file 'RUMSFELDDENY4.WMV' or just go here for some of the more common examples. There is a reason why so many normal Americans were under the impression that Iraq was an immediate threat - the Bush administration kept telling us that.
I am sure other people with more energy for your lies can field some of the other points. (Love the 'a much closer role in 9/11 than we ever suspected' claim - closer than when Bush told Clarke to look into Iraq immediately after the attacks? Somehow I doubt that.)
I am pretty sure the 'gold masters' no longer use gold anymore. That was my understanding, at least. They are still referred to as "gold" only out of tradition.
(Some of them, at least, are made of glass nowadays. But I am not sure if that is the final one the devs create - more likely it is an interim disc created by the pressers. Needed for newer copy-prevention, apparently...)
That may be your view, but Japanese people generally hate all American games. Halo is obscure, and even GTA3 sold pretty poorly over there. If MS can't get Japanese developers on board, they are doomed in the Japanese market.
At last count GTA3 sold a couple hundred thousand copies in Japan, even being a fairly recent release - not the smash hit it was in the West, but far better than the most optimistic estimates by 'the people who should know that stuff'. And not remotely "pretty poorly".
Many Japanese game industry figures have credited Halo's release with finally opening the doors to FPS games in Japan - witness how well the Medal of Honor games sold. Unprecendented, at least prior to Halo...
Sure, Western games overall don't sell that well in Japan. But the suggestion that Japanese people generally hate all American games is complete and utter bullshit.
Name one great game that came out in the past six months that works on your Mac?
Maybe I am just being a whiny bitch and/or ignorant, but has one great game came out for even the PC in the last six months? Not really defending the Mac, just lamenting the state of computer gaming...
(I am sure some people would suggest some Brand New Rapid Mouse Pointing Action Adventure Game, but FPS games aren't really my thing anymore. Blah.)
In fact, unless you're a real FPS die-hard and can't live without Halo, I haven't really seen any compelling reasons to pick the XBox over the PS2. (Well, unless you're looking to hack it and use it as a webserver:)
Other than Ninja Gaiden, Crimson Skies, PGR series, the severely underrated Amped series, Rallisport Challenge series, DOA series, Links, Top Spin, Full Spectrum Warrior, KOTOR (which is admittedly overrated), etc.?
Without disclosing any NDA stuff, I can say that developers will likely continue to have much less a learning curve with Xbox 2 than PS3, and this advantage must be factored in.
So "Nintendo" is thinking of developing for Xbox2 or PS3 now?
The Saturn actually had 8 megabits (1 meg) in its save cartridges - to be fair to the Dreamcast, the save cards were much smaller and cheaper. All of the non-standard memory card features also count for something. I think you could eventually get memory cards with 16 banks on them, but of course these didn't have a screen, etc. (The Saturn only had 32kb as internal storage, incidentally.)
The original Gamecube save cards are about half a meg (4 megabits). Pretty pitiful, especially for something released two years after the Dreamcast. Even worse, Nintendo then released an updated bigger version that still wasn't the industry standard 8 megs!
But your hypothesis doesn't address why arcades and arcade games are still successful in Japan (which the parent post does address).
Actually it did, to some extent, though I don't think the author realized it. The custom characters (et.c) memory card idea has been in big use in some of the more profitable Japanese arcade games for at least a few years. For example, Virtua Fighter 4 and Virtual On Force use them to great effect (and profit!). You could reasonably argue that pretty much these games alone have been keeping Sega afloat as of late.
I don't think memory cards alone are what will keep arcades alive, but it does seem to attract the hardcore gamers that the consoles have 'stolen' in places like the US. These hardcore players do spend quite a bit of cash (err, yen:D) though, and that can really help an arcade out.
There is a demand by people like me for the nostalgia to be revived and the old games to be released again in true form. Nintendo is the only company willing to supply and I salute them.
Huh? The only company? How so? I personally have gotten quite a bit of enjoyment out of Midway Arcade Treasures Volume 1. Same price as one of these new Nintendo GBA ports. 25 or so games, many of them undisputed classics (Rampart, Defender, Super Sprint, Robotron 2040, Spyhunter, Joust and its sequel, Gauntlet, etc.). Nintendo charges 20 bucks just for its poor Joust 1 ripoff. And Midway's Volume 2 hits sometime in October. Midway is hardly the only company that has been doing this, and plenty of non-Nintendo game companies have been doing it on portables since the original Gameboy.
And even ignoring collections, what about the inclusion of the first two Prince of Persia games in Sands of Time? The original Ninja Gaiden console games included in the new Ninja Gaiden? Etc. etc. Not only do you get the classic games - you also get masterful, best-of-breed new versions.
Nintendo is hardly the only company that supports nostalgic gamers, but they do usually charge the most and give the least bonuses (Midway collection has online scoreboards and documentary materials - an internet password is the least Nintendo could have added to the GBA games!). That is what most people are complaining about, and for good reason.
That companies aren't catering to a group of people more or less dependent on others violating the copyrights of other people isn't a big suprise to me.
And that's why none of the big portable music players support the copyright violator's file of choice, the MP3...
Prince of Persia: SOT sold pretty poorly overall, but because of the tremendous buzz surrounding it the Prince of Persia line is suddenly revitalized.
Please, please, please can everyone stop spreading this nonsense. While it is true that PoP sold pretty poorly upon release, strong word of mouth and reviews really built up its sales (especially post-Christmas). It ended up selling over 2.4 million copies as of April. Considering the rest of the series (including the numerous ports!) has sold a total of only around 3 million copies in the last decade or so, the newest Prince of Persia is actually quite a smash hit.
Why is any of this going to matter if the bottom line is that you are going to buy what's cheaper, period (as you said just that)? Don't present this faux "Down with Unfair Publishers!" reasoning when the only thing that matters is how cheap the game can be purchased for.
So please, stop with the "Save the planet" high-horse. The planet isn't going anywhere...WE ARE! So say what you really mean...save the humans.
I am pretty sure that the goal of these people is to point out that we can set up a more harmonious relationship with the environment and benefit both 'parties'. If we adapt ourselves (or more accurately, our lifestyles) to better suit the Earth, 'saving it', we also 'save' ourselves. Basically, what's good for the Earth is what's good for people...
It really isn't all that similar. Itagaki even mentioned in one interview that the reason he included the original games (which he didn't work on) is to show how much better his version is.:D
He's right too - the new Ninja Gaiden is hard, but with really none of the cheap kind of deaths you would get in the original series (example: bottomless pits, of which the new NG has like one that you can fall inif you aren't careful). It also lets you buy healing potions to save up and use on tricky bosses. And just the addition of blocking and counter-attacks allows you to far better recover from an attack you didn't dodge (which is also easier than the original). The game is really just hard because the enemies are plentiful and aggressive, with numerous different attack and defense patterns. You really need to approach it more like a fighting game, as button mashing will easily get you killed. Be patient and defensive, figure out the enemy's weaknesses, and then strike correctly. Etc.
Slashdot Mirror
Seemed more to me like an obvious rip-off of both Miyazaki's film-style (this might be what you meant) and Samurai Jack (the kid version of Jack is the spitting image of the Link in Wind Waker, minus the outfit).
Uhhh, Final Fantasy XI has been (and is) a huge money-maker for Square-Enix. Sure, some of the more inept commentators complained about its comparatively low sales (not as low as you suggest, however!), but it has brought plenty of reoccurring income via the required subscriptions.
The parent poster is referring to this, I believe (the name is different and a little confusing, probably to emphasize Windows and not the Unix capabilities this provides). Apparently registration is required. Looks very useful.
Now, I may be missing the point, but why in God's name are they trying to encourage a market in which one popular arcade title consists of sticking a plastic Finger up someone's digital ass?
I wouldn't call Boon-ga Boon-ga a popular game. It is just a quirky niche game - it isn't the next Street Fighter II or something! And the country that invented games like (the tremendously popular in comparison) Mortal Kombat or Custer's Revenge probably shouldn't criticize other countries for their tastes in gaming. Some developers are just going to make disturbing, 'gross' games - it doesn't reflect on that country's whole gaming market! It isn't like every Japanese or American gamer gets together and votes for a "poke your boss' anus"game or "rip off a woman's head for bonus points" game.
The rest of your less-trollish analysis isn't necessarily wrong, though you probably overstate how much "quirky" games sell there. They are made more over there (easier to get published), but they usually don't sell well. Japanese gamers mainly buy franchise games, just like Western gamers do. They are just different franchises in many cases.
MS has been actually doing a pretty good job going for Europe from the start (some of the Xbox's best games are European developed and focused, like the Project Gotham and Rallisport Challenge series), but I agree going for it more wouldn't hurt.
How long before a game using the Unreal 3 engine comes out? It isn't 'play' until there are games to play. Significantly faster hardware will be available before then...
But if these additions are in there to cover-up bugfixes, then this is not something I would want to continue.
There aren't any bugfixes with this content update. Some people don't find Ninja Gaiden's admittedly fast-moving camera to their taste, but this isn't a bug. A new camera system is being offered as an alternative option for those players.
AFAIK, no bugs have been found in Ninja Gaiden.
What do you people want?
.5% of the time the view gets weirder than you like. Same reasoning with the new AI routines, perhaps.
(I personally agree with you, this is awesome news!)
Looking at many of the other complaints, it seems like the people bitching about this are finding Ninja Gaiden to be too hard. A new camera system seems to be evidence that the real problem isn't that they aren't good enough to play the game well (no shame in that, IMO), the problem is that the game's camera was broken. A blatant lie, especially when comparing the game to literally every other free-roaming third person game in existence. As long as you don't constantly try to hide in corners and obsessively hit the camera adjust button, the camera is fine 99.5% of the time, and you can easily use the block button the
Of course, these gamers are going to be pretty shocked when they find this new content (especially the speed boost) does nothing but make the game more challenging. I personally can't wait.
(And it does look this content fixes my one complaint with the game - those purple/yellow fiends were pretty freaking weak, and you fought them for long stretches of the later parts of the game. The new monsters seem to replace them in those levels, and I am positive they will be able to get through a measly block!)
"Errors in AI"? Uh, how so? I can't think of any I encounted during my several playthroughs of the game, for any of the difficulty levels, and none of my friends can either. Can't remember reviews mentioning it. It isn't like there is an AI allied character of some sort who keeps getting stuck on terrain or anything...
And sorry to disappoint you, but the AI has already been updated once already, back during the first phase of the tournament. The major changes I noticed were that nearly all enemies would stay back and fire at you from a distance - mixed it up and made the game harder, but it certainly didn't qualify as some huge upgrade (less hand-to-hand combat, which made it far less satisfying in many ways - the original game's AI was not broken). So there is no way an improved AI is being 'sneaked' into this coming update - new AI routines were promised from the initial word of the tournament, months before the game's release.
For the record, I don't understand the complaints about the camera - I suspect people got in the habit of manually readjusting the camera too much (since other third-person games require so much of that stuff), and so they basically sabotage the auto-camera of Ninja Gaiden. And hell, it is hardly difficult to just tap the camera button if you are having problems with it momentarily aiming at a wall and you are too inept to hold that handy block button...
Cowboy Bebop was basically a modern update of the venerable (and popular) 'Lupin the 3rd' anime/manga. Not saying it was bad or anything (I liked it, though I wouldn't remotely say it is the high point of anime like many fans insist), but it too was a continuation of an already successful theme.
Hellsing has some pretty obvious lifted stuff, too, like the fact Arucard looks much like Vampire Hunter D, and has a very similar background also involving that certain special famous literary figure. (Can't stand the anime myself, personally. Perhaps the definitive example of how some post-Evangelion anime seems so soulless, IMO. But, different strokes and all.)
Very little (if any!) art is truly original, it is just that oftentimes the viewer isn't aware of the ancestry - so it's new and exciting to them. It's all just variations on a few themes that are thousands of years old...
The administration's position has always been that we should act before the threat became immediate. They never said that Iraq posed an immediate or imminent threat.
Come on now. Don't feed us this obvious revisionist bullshit. The administration did say on numerous occasions that the threat of Iraq was immediate/imminent. Go google the file 'RUMSFELDDENY4.WMV' or just go here for some of the more common examples. There is a reason why so many normal Americans were under the impression that Iraq was an immediate threat - the Bush administration kept telling us that.
I am sure other people with more energy for your lies can field some of the other points. (Love the 'a much closer role in 9/11 than we ever suspected' claim - closer than when Bush told Clarke to look into Iraq immediately after the attacks? Somehow I doubt that.)
I am pretty sure the 'gold masters' no longer use gold anymore. That was my understanding, at least. They are still referred to as "gold" only out of tradition.
(Some of them, at least, are made of glass nowadays. But I am not sure if that is the final one the devs create - more likely it is an interim disc created by the pressers. Needed for newer copy-prevention, apparently...)
That may be your view, but Japanese people generally hate all American games. Halo is obscure, and even GTA3 sold pretty poorly over there. If MS can't get Japanese developers on board, they are doomed in the Japanese market.
At last count GTA3 sold a couple hundred thousand copies in Japan, even being a fairly recent release - not the smash hit it was in the West, but far better than the most optimistic estimates by 'the people who should know that stuff'. And not remotely "pretty poorly".
Many Japanese game industry figures have credited Halo's release with finally opening the doors to FPS games in Japan - witness how well the Medal of Honor games sold. Unprecendented, at least prior to Halo...
Sure, Western games overall don't sell that well in Japan. But the suggestion that Japanese people generally hate all American games is complete and utter bullshit.
Name one great game that came out in the past six months that works on your Mac?
Maybe I am just being a whiny bitch and/or ignorant, but has one great game came out for even the PC in the last six months? Not really defending the Mac, just lamenting the state of computer gaming...
(I am sure some people would suggest some Brand New Rapid Mouse Pointing Action Adventure Game, but FPS games aren't really my thing anymore. Blah.)
In fact, unless you're a real FPS die-hard and can't live without Halo, I haven't really seen any compelling reasons to pick the XBox over the PS2. (Well, unless you're looking to hack it and use it as a webserver :)
Other than Ninja Gaiden, Crimson Skies, PGR series, the severely underrated Amped series, Rallisport Challenge series, DOA series, Links, Top Spin, Full Spectrum Warrior, KOTOR (which is admittedly overrated), etc.?
Without disclosing any NDA stuff, I can say that developers will likely continue to have much less a learning curve with Xbox 2 than PS3, and this advantage must be factored in.
So "Nintendo" is thinking of developing for Xbox2 or PS3 now?
The Saturn actually had 8 megabits (1 meg) in its save cartridges - to be fair to the Dreamcast, the save cards were much smaller and cheaper. All of the non-standard memory card features also count for something. I think you could eventually get memory cards with 16 banks on them, but of course these didn't have a screen, etc. (The Saturn only had 32kb as internal storage, incidentally.)
The original Gamecube save cards are about half a meg (4 megabits). Pretty pitiful, especially for something released two years after the Dreamcast. Even worse, Nintendo then released an updated bigger version that still wasn't the industry standard 8 megs!
But your hypothesis doesn't address why arcades and arcade games are still successful in Japan (which the parent post does address).
:D) though, and that can really help an arcade out.
Actually it did, to some extent, though I don't think the author realized it. The custom characters (et.c) memory card idea has been in big use in some of the more profitable Japanese arcade games for at least a few years. For example, Virtua Fighter 4 and Virtual On Force use them to great effect (and profit!). You could reasonably argue that pretty much these games alone have been keeping Sega afloat as of late.
I don't think memory cards alone are what will keep arcades alive, but it does seem to attract the hardcore gamers that the consoles have 'stolen' in places like the US. These hardcore players do spend quite a bit of cash (err, yen
Bullfrog was purchased by EA, way back when.
Likewise Origin, Westwood, Maxis, etc.
When has a government EVER kept pace with the rapidly changing technological world?
Usually when they invent the new stuff, a la the Internet...
There is a demand by people like me for the nostalgia to be revived and the old games to be released again in true form. Nintendo is the only company willing to supply and I salute them.
Huh? The only company? How so? I personally have gotten quite a bit of enjoyment out of Midway Arcade Treasures Volume 1. Same price as one of these new Nintendo GBA ports. 25 or so games, many of them undisputed classics (Rampart, Defender, Super Sprint, Robotron 2040, Spyhunter, Joust and its sequel, Gauntlet, etc.). Nintendo charges 20 bucks just for its poor Joust 1 ripoff. And Midway's Volume 2 hits sometime in October. Midway is hardly the only company that has been doing this, and plenty of non-Nintendo game companies have been doing it on portables since the original Gameboy.
And even ignoring collections, what about the inclusion of the first two Prince of Persia games in Sands of Time? The original Ninja Gaiden console games included in the new Ninja Gaiden? Etc. etc. Not only do you get the classic games - you also get masterful, best-of-breed new versions.
Nintendo is hardly the only company that supports nostalgic gamers, but they do usually charge the most and give the least bonuses (Midway collection has online scoreboards and documentary materials - an internet password is the least Nintendo could have added to the GBA games!). That is what most people are complaining about, and for good reason.
That companies aren't catering to a group of people more or less dependent on others violating the copyrights of other people isn't a big suprise to me.
And that's why none of the big portable music players support the copyright violator's file of choice, the MP3...
Prince of Persia: SOT sold pretty poorly overall, but because of the tremendous buzz surrounding it the Prince of Persia line is suddenly revitalized.
Please, please, please can everyone stop spreading this nonsense. While it is true that PoP sold pretty poorly upon release, strong word of mouth and reviews really built up its sales (especially post-Christmas). It ended up selling over 2.4 million copies as of April. Considering the rest of the series (including the numerous ports!) has sold a total of only around 3 million copies in the last decade or so, the newest Prince of Persia is actually quite a smash hit.
(Amazing how survivable an old meme is.)
1. Make the game worth $50
2. Make the game cost less than $50
Why is any of this going to matter if the bottom line is that you are going to buy what's cheaper, period (as you said just that)? Don't present this faux "Down with Unfair Publishers!" reasoning when the only thing that matters is how cheap the game can be purchased for.
So please, stop with the "Save the planet" high-horse. The planet isn't going anywhere...WE ARE! So say what you really mean...save the humans.
I am pretty sure that the goal of these people is to point out that we can set up a more harmonious relationship with the environment and benefit both 'parties'. If we adapt ourselves (or more accurately, our lifestyles) to better suit the Earth, 'saving it', we also 'save' ourselves. Basically, what's good for the Earth is what's good for people...
I'm just hoping it's not real similar.
:D
It really isn't all that similar. Itagaki even mentioned in one interview that the reason he included the original games (which he didn't work on) is to show how much better his version is.
He's right too - the new Ninja Gaiden is hard, but with really none of the cheap kind of deaths you would get in the original series (example: bottomless pits, of which the new NG has like one that you can fall inif you aren't careful). It also lets you buy healing potions to save up and use on tricky bosses. And just the addition of blocking and counter-attacks allows you to far better recover from an attack you didn't dodge (which is also easier than the original). The game is really just hard because the enemies are plentiful and aggressive, with numerous different attack and defense patterns. You really need to approach it more like a fighting game, as button mashing will easily get you killed. Be patient and defensive, figure out the enemy's weaknesses, and then strike correctly. Etc.