EDIT:
We just realized, the guys who got the "leaked" document, didn't read japanese very well at all. The documents are not entitled "DS design specs" but "N-Gage design specs" their Comment: "Seriously, that first Kanji kind of looked like "DS" if you look at it from this angle." Moderator note:"there's no such thing as a "DS" kanji you moron!"
--Seriously. Nintendo has stated like a 1000 times their best card against the PSP wont be technology but price, how could anyone with a realistic mind believe the freaking DS will have bluetooth and a 3d card? that will price it around $200-$300 bucks!
Good games tend to be international, there are a ton of good japanese games that never make it overseas because they are too difficult to understand or implement (the new jib ribbon paints japanese kanji at the sound of music), and others well.. they are simply weird. Like that japanese game where you train a polar bear to sing? feed a hamster? Or that one where you simulate a train station? or riding a subway train? (thats the gameplay actually getting in and out of a subway train)
Sometimes that "influence" gets away even in very famous games, like that infamous DOA ending where a character looks at a hedgehog and says "wheres my TINA?, TINA!!!" which is supossed to be quite hilarious... Im still trying to figure that one out.
When you create a game (if its for a console specially) you have to consider international tastes otherwise you have the risk that it will only be apreciated where it was made or worst yet look quite stupid and pointless. "Grabbed by the Ghoulies" jokes anyone? seriously that game should have an "WARNING: HUMOR FOR UK ONLY" tag.
The point is: a game like Mario or Pacman or Doom (for what is worth for) can be understood (or look just as silly) by anyone, culturization is a good thing but achieving a wider audience and universal understanding is a much better way to attract gamers and create great play experiences for all.
Hopefully though, this article brought many of you a lot closer to Rare than ever before.
What the...? the article is a bunch of pictures took from an helicopter (aparently) and a camera on the sidewalk across the street? Does these guys know that real press can actually interview this people and get access to at least a waiting room in the offices? Heck.. if you are good at it, any small magazine or website (such as theirs) can call and make an appointment with the PR guys.
But ok, I will give them that, is mathemathically closer of the view that I have right now which is 10 thousand miles away to 10 miles, thats closer. I couldnt diferentiate a cactus from a head at that range but it is closer.
I hate to say it, but considering all the equipment and knowledge of RARE is unconceivable they come up with a game like "Grabbed by the Ghoulies" a bunch of british sexual references and horror jokes which are untranslatable to any other language and sub-par action cliched history which is suposedly made for 4 year olds and yet features totally unfair instant death traps (read instructions or die)? who the heck greenlighted this thing? I could have guessed this would be a poor receipt game just by reading the title on the design doc. (Im just glad they never released "kameo:elements of power" which was an even worst idea.)
MS was not amused at all with the poor sales and reviews "Ghoulies" had and the rumour is they have stopped all Rare projects (including conker) until xbox 2 (*"xbox-j") is around (they will get their second chance with perfect dark 0.)
If rare wants to get their popularity back they should look back at their best selling titles like "banjo","battletoads" and of course "killer instinct" which is still being played in the arcades everywhere. Look at tecmo and how Ninja Gaiden is doing! that could have been Rare and Killer Instinct or Battletoads, is a shame really. I wish they can get back in their feet but Im not betting any though on "perfect dark 0", call it a gut feeling.
*xbox-j: xbox custom made for the japanese market.
Whats the point in sweating over this? doom for pc will be modable, if co-op is seen as something cool someone any team can mod it in. Seems like a good project by the way.
Anyway, co-op in PC is not that good unless you are playing in a lan. or the games allows a lot of players at the same time.
Sorry but, the point in making the game in flash was to finish earlier right? take a look at their board the game has been in development for almost a year now, thats a LOT for a flash game. Even one as big as this one, either they are being too perfectionist about it or theres a real problem with it somewhere. besides all they have launched is a lot of screenshots and a movie with no sound.
Well.. the co-op for xbox is ok, but basically is the best news Ive heard on the port, theres a lot of talk about the game being released at the same time than pc's but theres no store preordering, is not even listed yet. Considering Doom3 for pc is coming out in june thats not a good sign. And probably means the game will be delayed until halloween or xmas, months after "the release hype" reaches its critical point, chances are you will already played and maybe even finished doom by the time it hits the xbox (considering it can run in a geforce mx card which is pretty common these days)
Aditionally one of the greatest strengths in doom 3 will be the extremely easy to modify engine, doom 3 wont use bsps and just like in tribes it will feature an in game IDE script "compiler" so you will be able to create levels on the fly literally, not to mention there already tools out there to create models for it. Expect the first mods to hit almost as soon as the game is out. None of these features have been discussed for the xbox port, they havent even mentioned downloadable levels, much less mods. Think "half life" without any mods.
I expect a cool but not very replayable game not even in multiplayer mode (which is doom's weakest points) considering that, the xbox co-op addition is a must.
A lot of people have given a lot of crap about "not understanding" spirits within because it was a philosophical movie and "artsy", weither you like it or not that movie was crap, not because they touched subjects that are difficult to swallow for an american audience. Gaia and the "amalgalm/battle" of technology and spirituality, are subjects which have been treated with mastery in films such as "princess mononoke, spirited away, akira" and even in the final fantasy series themselves with enormous success.
The movie is a completely arithmic mess, cartoony characters a completely ungullible geeky script "so the monsters are ghosts? gee thats scary!" not only the director failed to make you feel sympathy over any character, whenever there was a hole in the script (everywhere) the characters pulled their guns and you were subdued to another "action" scene. It also relied to the "lets kill a character to add some drama" trick, unfortunately like you didnt cared for any of these bozos it didnt worked. Besides they really, really pulled the amalgalm too hard in the way of silliness, killer "space ghosts" are one thing, but containers that held spirits, and laser surgery in surgery is a bit too much. I just hope theres another director and script writer(s) working on AC otherwise the suckability is quite high.
hehe, that was funny, but the thing is MKDA wasn't a bad game, (no, I mean it, really go check the reviews) they actually did a lot of balancing in the characters, and used real martial arts with different styles (instead of the same moves for all characters) the "change of style in the fly" thingy was actually much more fun than expected. With a bit more of tweaking in the flux and quantity of moves this game could have been a major contender for SC2 and thats saying a LOT (specially for an american game, fighting games are "0wn3d" by the japanese).
The BIG problem with it and what dissapointed fans is the lack of "secrets" (they "hid" all secrets in a pay-per-view Krypt ala soulcalibur) and fatalities (1 fatality per character) several "lities" were planed but were cut out in order to get the game in time and at the end the repetitive lities, crappy history and lack of secrets killed the game. MK6 is a "remake" of DA that features the "lities" and secrets that were dearly missing in MKDA plus multitiered stages( ala DOA) plus internet online play, so Yes is possible that this game just might be better than MK2.
Real mature games games designed for actual grown ups (not twitchin trigger teenagers) which actually present histories and situations which offer more than the "virtual gotcha", and "save the world" histories, the silent hill series comes to mind , the history of harry mason going to hell to retrieve the memory of her dead spouse (or her daughter in the first one) is shocking but xtrangely addictive as well. GTA3 putting you under the skin of a mobster may feel like a teenage dream, but grown ups enjoy the power and to certain grade the responsability involved in growing your own criminal empire same goes for Mafia.
Warcraft 3 (single player) offer superb artwork with an exceptional history of power and deception and curiously which actually prizes more brain than brawl. And of course the office favorites Age of empires and Rise of nations.
Now if you are really looking for innovation, Beyond good and evil is probably one of the most interesting and underrated games this year. ICO is probably the most underrated game ever,"The movies" by peter Mollineux coming this year, will offer the experience of having your own movie studio and filming any movie you like. And of course the fabled "fable" the game in which you are suposed to be able to do anything in a virtual life from battling evil to turning into a feared beast to getting married, going fishing, aging and growing fruit for a living.
You have grown up, is time to let your tastes grown up as well, time to let quakers, counterstrikers and haloers have their l33t frags leave mario,zelda and pokemon alone, let dante and those guys from RE make the devil cry for a while. Theres a LOT of experiences besides those in the gaming world go and explore, you may enjoy them.
Exactly how did you managed to expend $1000 in xbox "related" purchases? you paid $1200 in repairs when you could have bought a brand new one in $170? or you mean you spent $1200 in games?
Anyway if you didnt void your guaranty by modding or opening it yourself you could have just have it changed for a new one?
Well yes but according to that, unless you consider the standard deviation of the population (which I dont think is happening in the afore mentioned case) you can not evaluate if 50% of the population grading less than average is a problem or not. after all if you have 90+90+90+100+100, the average is 94, meaning 60% of the population is below average.
Anyway I must admit you have a point, what I meant was that is obvious that a game that is available and targetted at everyone has (at least numerically) more posibilities to be selected than one that is restricted to a part of the gaming community.
btw. the quote "50% of the population is grading less that average" is an actual presidential quote (by Henry Ford I think) . I got it from a quote site a few years ago.
If games were episodic and for any reason the company left the series out, you wouldnt have the complete history of the game ever!
I hate to bring it up because they are great games, but the shenmue games are supossed to be episodes 1,2 of 13, so the history is not complete at all, and theres no signs of shenmue 3 (or its other 11 parts) ever going to be released.
Nice detail, but the "rail gun" style weapon did appeared in quake, it was the thunder gun, since is a weapon that can go through enemies in a single burst.
Actually the quake model of guns has never changed (just like the capcom Hado And Haryu Ken and Shempe kick combo) the ID fps (since doom) have had mostly the same weapon combination.
Melee. (punch, chainsaw,axe, gauntlet)
MachineGun (pulse, nail and machinegun)
Shotgun (no explaining required)
*Railgun (since quake, thunder weapon, railgun)
grenade/launcher(since quake)
Rocket (*no explaining required)
BFG(*the new BFG is pretty different from the rest though, since is a rapid fire weapon with medium splash damage, instead of a single shot weapon with huge splash damage)
They have thrown some new weapons here and there but the combination is basically the same.
The grenade and railgun were not "technologically" possible back in doom (the bsp could theorically handle it but it was too expensive for the doom age processors) so they didnt have those.
But don't get too jealous. He travels too much to settle down and still lives in the basement of his father's house.
Did you HAD to mention that in your article Zdnet?
I pretty much doubt this guy HAS to live with his parents, you already stablished he makes enough money NOT to, I also doubt he doesnt have at least a girlfriend (/boyfriend if thats his taste I dont care) you are just mentioning he is not married or in a serious relationship the guy is 22! what was the point of making hardcore gamers look like rejected kids who live in basements? you tried to be one until you remembered how much you sucked in quake or what?
Seriously is time for the media to realize GAMER is not a social stereotype, anyone can be a gamer we are just people who like videogames just like people who like reading books or watching movies, thats all! We dont tattoo pacman to our foreheads, we dont go screaming "HALO/MARIO FOREVER" through the streets thats nonsense, we are guys and girls with normal lives and normal jobs. not a small ethnic race desserving study.
Sequels can be made as episodes of a (supposed to be) larger history, sometimes they are actually made considering the history will finish in the sequel, hollywood has implemented this system successfully: star wars, kill bill, the matrix sequels and to some extent lord of the rings. Since american games tend to follow movies Is pretty possible we see a game named "TITLE:volume 1" in the near future.
Anyway in games this already has been done with some success: legacy of kain per example tells a "history" which can be only fully unraveled by playing all episodes (games), the baldurs gate D&D (supossedly) and of course the ".hack" series do pretty much the same.
In other case, small (1-2 levels) episode games can only be practical for shareware, demoware or internet based developers who are trying to make downloads easier on users. Other than that a company cant afford to invest in a full game project which will only have an asured sell of only 20% of their content at 30% of its price, I mean, who can asure if users will only get the first 2 episodes and then quit because they found is too dificult or something else new is out by then? is a known fact that only a small percenteage of gamers finish all the games they buy. What about the other epidodes developing packing and *shipping (*if they get shelf space) who is going to pay for that?
Is not practical for users either, you buy a $20 buck game and play it for 2-4 hours then you have to go and buy the next episode. if you have 5 extra episodes thats 6 visits to the software store. Even a less than brilliant person can realize is easier if you just pick all the episodes in 1 trip (unless you are considering quitting early or not playing all episodes). Besides who is going to buy a 2 hour game when they can get a full game for the same quantity at retail price? is a no brainer.
Are we in a alternate universe or something?
Capcom has made A LOT of fighting game characters they practically invented the genere, they actually made marvel characters such good fighters They dont even look like they come from comics.
EA has ZERO good fighting games (maybe def jam vendetta but thats a wrestling game) and now they want to make a fighting game with marvel characters against their own??? What? who they are going to fight exactly? Tony hawk? Tiger? Madden? LOTR? C&C? the Simpsons? I have news for you MARVEL idea guys, those are either real people or licenses from other propietors EA doesnt have AAA characters of their own
EA and Marvel may be a good combination (A marvel based battlefield 1942 or C&C anyone?) but a fighting game???? if you are a stocks buyer I would keep my money as far as possible from that "combo" as possible
One final business advice: is probably not a good idea to sniff glue during meetings. remember that before hallucinating how cool a game of spiderman vs tony hawk would be.
Think about it for a second, you are the lawyer of the parents of two kids who just plain murdered dozens of innocents in a public school. The whole country wants a culprit and they are pointing the finger at your clients, the kids (like most teenagers) happened to like rock bands and videogames. What would you do?
Has anyone considered that doom (the game this guys were "based" on) was almost ten years old when this happened? wasnt it more statiscally possible they played a quake2 mod, or any other more recent and easier to find game? isnt too convenient that they had a webpage were they posted "Doom will become a reality" or some similar nonsense which is practically a "I DID IT" letter?
Did they ever investigated where the guns (2 fully loaded automatic machine guns and several hand grenades) came from? or where they got trained to use them? (anyone can fire a gun but not a recoiling machine gun or a frag grenade) are we supossed to believe they learned that from a 2d simulated 3d game? using a mouse and a keyboard?
Did they investigated if they were related to any xtreme racist/gun organization? (most of the victims were minorities and the kids were known racists in the school)
Too many "ifs" dont you think? and curiously enough they dont point to marilyn manson cds and videogames.
Think about it for a second, you are the lawyer of the parents of two kids who just plain murdered dozens of innocents in a public school. The whole country wants a culprit and they are pointing the finger at your clients, the kids (like most teenagers) happened to like rock bands and videogames. What would you do?
Seriously has anyone considered that doom (the game this guys were "based" on) was almost a ten year old game when this happened? wasnt it more statiscally possible they played a quake2 mod, or any other more recent and easier to find game? has anyone considered how convenient is that they had a webpage were they posted "Doom will become a reality" or some similar nonsense which is practically a "I DID IT" letter?
Isnt a bit suspicious they never investigated where the guns (2 fully loaded automatic machine guns and several hand grenades) came from? or where they got trained to use them. (anyone can fire a gun but not a recoiling machine gun or a frag grenade) are we supossed to believe they learned that a 2d simulated 3d game? using a mouse and a keyboard?
did they investigated if they were related to a extreme racist organization (most of the victims were minorities and they were known racists in the school.)
too many "ifs" dont you think? and curiously they dont point to marilyn manson and videogames.
Ryu vs Maradona and Pele (from fifa 2004)
Announcer:"Oh my thats definetily a PENALTY!"
Street fighter vs Madden!
Tiger woods HYPER COMBO!!! (thousands of golf balls flutter through the screen)
Megaman vs MEDAL OF HONOR!!!
announcer: "they've brought the big guns!!"
(the screen is covered by gunfire and explosions)
Chunli vs NEED FOR SPEED!!!!
(chunli gets ran over by speeding cars)
Ryu vs Undying!!!
Ryu(frunces his eyebrow inquisitivily): who?
Announcer: "Undying" by Clive Barker
Ryu(knods his head then frunces eyebrow agan) Ryu:who?
Oh my! Ive got to get this game as soon as is out!
**And nothing could prepare you next year for :
BLIZZARD VS CAPCOM!!!!!
"Im truly worried than 50% of American Students are grading less than the national average" think about that one for a second.
Isnt obvious than games which are targetted just for a part of the gaming audience will always have less sales than games that are intended for everyone?
Anyway the most important mature titles for this year were delayed Doom 3, halo 2 and half life 2 (not in order of importance) it was a much better year for games for all audiences.
Besides lets call things by their name, games like "the guy game" and the ones they mentioned are not "mature games" they are porn games pure and simple and those have never had great sales in the first place.
I think pokemon has the potential to become a large adventure game on the vein of zelda wind waker, I even remember that final fantasy VIIi did some pokemon homage by allowing you to "trap" guardians and spells and I remember thats what made the game fun, unfortunately nintendo has opted has opted for bringing a clone of the 8 bit pokemon each year and name it after every color and/or element/gem they can get in the office thesaurus, what a shame.
Other than that every other nintendo game is offering fails to bring any enthusiasm. sorry.
i don't care what year it is, a good 2d fighter is still fun as hell. but you can find one? no, instead you get DOA or MK:DA, which look great but have about 1/10th the playability of SF2.
I agree with you, but not completely, first of all your statement is incorrect just about any fighting game after the SNES era has much more playability than sf2, because all of the (succesful) clones after sf2 always tried to add something new to the formula (Mk added fatalities, KOF added character teams,MVSC added the dreaded quick change chars, etc. ) A good statement could have been MKDA has 50% of the playability of MK2. that would be sadly true.
Technology is a 2 headed beast, sometimes it can help gaming and sometimes it can hinder it, take per example doom 3 it has probably the best graphics engine of our time but is not fast enough to provide online gaming or even 16 or 32 player matches (which was already possible) actually only 4 players can go at the same time and you cant have too many characters(enemies) on screen without noticeable rendering lag. On the other side take GTA3 (yes I know Leiberman hates it) is a game in which you can eveywhere in a city and do whatever you please everywhere, this engine was just a programmer wet-dream less than 5 years ago and simply impossible to do, how much playability has been added from the original 2d GTA ? a lot. My point is "new" and state of the art tech doesnt mean is an "advantage" sometimes, but sometimes it does. I believe 2d games (and taking into account the "rebirth" of SNK it does) and old classics will always be good to have around, but is still feasible to create new gameplay experiences thanks to new tech (once you play doom3 for the first time you will probably agree) and not only better graphics, I mean can you compare sf2 gameplay to soulcalibur? they are both good and similar but definetily different.
Slashdot Mirror
Let me see how much time it takes for nintendo to denny this specs are real. Any bets?
EDIT:
We just realized, the guys who got the "leaked" document, didn't read japanese very well at all. The documents are not entitled "DS design specs" but "N-Gage design specs" their Comment: "Seriously, that first Kanji kind of looked like "DS" if you look at it from this angle." Moderator note:"there's no such thing as a "DS" kanji you moron!"
--Seriously. Nintendo has stated like a 1000 times their best card against the PSP wont be technology but price, how could anyone with a realistic mind believe the freaking DS will have bluetooth and a 3d card? that will price it around $200-$300 bucks!
Good games tend to be international, there are a ton of good japanese games that never make it overseas because they are too difficult to understand or implement (the new jib ribbon paints japanese kanji at the sound of music), and others well.. they are simply weird. Like that japanese game where you train a polar bear to sing? feed a hamster? Or that one where you simulate a train station? or riding a subway train? (thats the gameplay actually getting in and out of a subway train)
Sometimes that "influence" gets away even in very famous games, like that infamous DOA ending where a character looks at a hedgehog and says "wheres my TINA?, TINA!!!" which is supossed to be quite hilarious... Im still trying to figure that one out.
When you create a game (if its for a console specially) you have to consider international tastes otherwise you have the risk that it will only be apreciated where it was made or worst yet look quite stupid and pointless. "Grabbed by the Ghoulies" jokes anyone? seriously that game should have an "WARNING: HUMOR FOR UK ONLY" tag.
The point is: a game like Mario or Pacman or Doom (for what is worth for) can be understood (or look just as silly) by anyone, culturization is a good thing but achieving a wider audience and universal understanding is a much better way to attract gamers and create great play experiences for all.
Hopefully though, this article brought many of you a lot closer to Rare than ever before. What the...? the article is a bunch of pictures took from an helicopter (aparently) and a camera on the sidewalk across the street? Does these guys know that real press can actually interview this people and get access to at least a waiting room in the offices? Heck.. if you are good at it, any small magazine or website (such as theirs) can call and make an appointment with the PR guys.
But ok, I will give them that, is mathemathically closer of the view that I have right now which is 10 thousand miles away to 10 miles, thats closer. I couldnt diferentiate a cactus from a head at that range but it is closer.
I hate to say it, but considering all the equipment and knowledge of RARE is unconceivable they come up with a game like "Grabbed by the Ghoulies" a bunch of british sexual references and horror jokes which are untranslatable to any other language and sub-par action cliched history which is suposedly made for 4 year olds and yet features totally unfair instant death traps (read instructions or die)? who the heck greenlighted this thing? I could have guessed this would be a poor receipt game just by reading the title on the design doc. (Im just glad they never released "kameo:elements of power" which was an even worst idea.)
MS was not amused at all with the poor sales and reviews "Ghoulies" had and the rumour is they have stopped all Rare projects (including conker) until xbox 2 (*"xbox-j") is around (they will get their second chance with perfect dark 0.) If rare wants to get their popularity back they should look back at their best selling titles like "banjo","battletoads" and of course "killer instinct" which is still being played in the arcades everywhere. Look at tecmo and how Ninja Gaiden is doing! that could have been Rare and Killer Instinct or Battletoads, is a shame really.
I wish they can get back in their feet but Im not betting any though on "perfect dark 0", call it a gut feeling.
*xbox-j: xbox custom made for the japanese market.
Whats the point in sweating over this? doom for pc will be modable, if co-op is seen as something cool someone any team can mod it in. Seems like a good project by the way.
Anyway, co-op in PC is not that good unless you are playing in a lan. or the games allows a lot of players at the same time.
Sorry but, the point in making the game in flash was to finish earlier right? take a look at their board the game has been in development for almost a year now, thats a LOT for a flash game. Even one as big as this one, either they are being too perfectionist about it or theres a real problem with it somewhere. besides all they have launched is a lot of screenshots and a movie with no sound.
Well.. the co-op for xbox is ok, but basically is the best news Ive heard on the port, theres a lot of talk about the game being released at the same time than pc's but theres no store preordering, is not even listed yet. Considering Doom3 for pc is coming out in june thats not a good sign. And probably means the game will be delayed until halloween or xmas, months after "the release hype" reaches its critical point, chances are you will already played and maybe even finished doom by the time it hits the xbox (considering it can run in a geforce mx card which is pretty common these days)
Aditionally one of the greatest strengths in doom 3 will be the extremely easy to modify engine, doom 3 wont use bsps and just like in tribes it will feature an in game IDE script "compiler" so you will be able to create levels on the fly literally, not to mention there already tools out there to create models for it. Expect the first mods to hit almost as soon as the game is out. None of these features have been discussed for the xbox port, they havent even mentioned downloadable levels, much less mods. Think "half life" without any mods.
I expect a cool but not very replayable game not even in multiplayer mode (which is doom's weakest points) considering that, the xbox co-op addition is a must.
A lot of people have given a lot of crap about "not understanding" spirits within because it was a philosophical movie and "artsy", weither you like it or not that movie was crap, not because they touched subjects that are difficult to swallow for an american audience. Gaia and the "amalgalm/battle" of technology and spirituality, are subjects which have been treated with mastery in films such as "princess mononoke, spirited away, akira" and even in the final fantasy series themselves with enormous success.
The movie is a completely arithmic mess, cartoony characters a completely ungullible geeky script "so the monsters are ghosts? gee thats scary!" not only the director failed to make you feel sympathy over any character, whenever there was a hole in the script (everywhere) the characters pulled their guns and you were subdued to another "action" scene. It also relied to the "lets kill a character to add some drama" trick, unfortunately like you didnt cared for any of these bozos it didnt worked. Besides they really, really pulled the amalgalm too hard in the way of silliness, killer "space ghosts" are one thing, but containers that held spirits, and laser surgery in surgery is a bit too much. I just hope theres another director and script writer(s) working on AC otherwise the suckability is quite high.
hehe, that was funny, but the thing is MKDA wasn't a bad game, (no, I mean it, really go check the reviews) they actually did a lot of balancing in the characters, and used real martial arts with different styles (instead of the same moves for all characters) the "change of style in the fly" thingy was actually much more fun than expected. With a bit more of tweaking in the flux and quantity of moves this game could have been a major contender for SC2 and thats saying a LOT (specially for an american game, fighting games are "0wn3d" by the japanese).
The BIG problem with it and what dissapointed fans is the lack of "secrets" (they "hid" all secrets in a pay-per-view Krypt ala soulcalibur) and fatalities (1 fatality per character) several "lities" were planed but were cut out in order to get the game in time and at the end the repetitive lities, crappy history and lack of secrets killed the game. MK6 is a "remake" of DA that features the "lities" and secrets that were dearly missing in MKDA plus multitiered stages( ala DOA) plus internet online play, so Yes is possible that this game just might be better than MK2.
Real mature games games designed for actual grown ups (not twitchin trigger teenagers) which actually present histories and situations which offer more than the "virtual gotcha", and "save the world" histories, the silent hill series comes to mind , the history of harry mason going to hell to retrieve the memory of her dead spouse (or her daughter in the first one) is shocking but xtrangely addictive as well. GTA3 putting you under the skin of a mobster may feel like a teenage dream, but grown ups enjoy the power and to certain grade the responsability involved in growing your own criminal empire same goes for Mafia.
Warcraft 3 (single player) offer superb artwork with an exceptional history of power and deception and curiously which actually prizes more brain than brawl. And of course the office favorites Age of empires and Rise of nations.
Now if you are really looking for innovation, Beyond good and evil is probably one of the most interesting and underrated games this year. ICO is probably the most underrated game ever,"The movies" by peter Mollineux coming this year, will offer the experience of having your own movie studio and filming any movie you like. And of course the fabled "fable" the game in which you are suposed to be able to do anything in a virtual life from battling evil to turning into a feared beast to getting married, going fishing, aging and growing fruit for a living.
You have grown up, is time to let your tastes grown up as well, time to let quakers, counterstrikers and haloers have their l33t frags leave mario,zelda and pokemon alone, let dante and those guys from RE make the devil cry for a while. Theres a LOT of experiences besides those in the gaming world go and explore, you may enjoy them.
Halo, ninja gaiden, project gotham racing 2, halo 2 .
Exactly how did you managed to expend $1000 in xbox "related" purchases? you paid $1200 in repairs when you could have bought a brand new one in $170? or you mean you spent $1200 in games?
Anyway if you didnt void your guaranty by modding or opening it yourself you could have just have it changed for a new one?
Well yes but according to that, unless you consider the standard deviation of the population (which I dont think is happening in the afore mentioned case) you can not evaluate if 50% of the population grading less than average is a problem or not. after all if you have 90+90+90+100+100, the average is 94, meaning 60% of the population is below average.
Anyway I must admit you have a point, what I meant was that is obvious that a game that is available and targetted at everyone has (at least numerically) more posibilities to be selected than one that is restricted to a part of the gaming community. btw. the quote "50% of the population is grading less that average" is an actual presidential quote (by Henry Ford I think) . I got it from a quote site a few years ago.
If games were episodic and for any reason the company left the series out, you wouldnt have the complete history of the game ever!
I hate to bring it up because they are great games, but the shenmue games are supossed to be episodes 1,2 of 13, so the history is not complete at all, and theres no signs of shenmue 3 (or its other 11 parts) ever going to be released.
Nice detail, but the "rail gun" style weapon did appeared in quake, it was the thunder gun, since is a weapon that can go through enemies in a single burst. Actually the quake model of guns has never changed (just like the capcom Hado And Haryu Ken and Shempe kick combo) the ID fps (since doom) have had mostly the same weapon combination. Melee. (punch, chainsaw,axe, gauntlet) MachineGun (pulse, nail and machinegun) Shotgun (no explaining required) *Railgun (since quake, thunder weapon, railgun) grenade/launcher(since quake) Rocket (*no explaining required) BFG(*the new BFG is pretty different from the rest though, since is a rapid fire weapon with medium splash damage, instead of a single shot weapon with huge splash damage) They have thrown some new weapons here and there but the combination is basically the same. The grenade and railgun were not "technologically" possible back in doom (the bsp could theorically handle it but it was too expensive for the doom age processors) so they didnt have those.
But don't get too jealous. He travels too much to settle down and still lives in the basement of his father's house.
Did you HAD to mention that in your article Zdnet? I pretty much doubt this guy HAS to live with his parents, you already stablished he makes enough money NOT to, I also doubt he doesnt have at least a girlfriend (/boyfriend if thats his taste I dont care) you are just mentioning he is not married or in a serious relationship the guy is 22! what was the point of making hardcore gamers look like rejected kids who live in basements? you tried to be one until you remembered how much you sucked in quake or what?
Seriously is time for the media to realize GAMER is not a social stereotype, anyone can be a gamer we are just people who like videogames just like people who like reading books or watching movies, thats all! We dont tattoo pacman to our foreheads, we dont go screaming "HALO/MARIO FOREVER" through the streets thats nonsense, we are guys and girls with normal lives and normal jobs. not a small ethnic race desserving study.
Computer Geeks on the other hand...
Sequels can be made as episodes of a (supposed to be) larger history, sometimes they are actually made considering the history will finish in the sequel, hollywood has implemented this system successfully: star wars, kill bill, the matrix sequels and to some extent lord of the rings. Since american games tend to follow movies Is pretty possible we see a game named "TITLE:volume 1" in the near future.
Anyway in games this already has been done with some success: legacy of kain per example tells a "history" which can be only fully unraveled by playing all episodes (games), the baldurs gate D&D (supossedly) and of course the ".hack" series do pretty much the same.
In other case, small (1-2 levels) episode games can only be practical for shareware, demoware or internet based developers who are trying to make downloads easier on users. Other than that a company cant afford to invest in a full game project which will only have an asured sell of only 20% of their content at 30% of its price, I mean, who can asure if users will only get the first 2 episodes and then quit because they found is too dificult or something else new is out by then? is a known fact that only a small percenteage of gamers finish all the games they buy. What about the other epidodes developing packing and *shipping (*if they get shelf space) who is going to pay for that?
Is not practical for users either, you buy a $20 buck game and play it for 2-4 hours then you have to go and buy the next episode. if you have 5 extra episodes thats 6 visits to the software store. Even a less than brilliant person can realize is easier if you just pick all the episodes in 1 trip (unless you are considering quitting early or not playing all episodes). Besides who is going to buy a 2 hour game when they can get a full game for the same quantity at retail price? is a no brainer.
Are we in a alternate universe or something?
Capcom has made A LOT of fighting game characters they practically invented the genere, they actually made marvel characters such good fighters They dont even look like they come from comics.
EA has ZERO good fighting games (maybe def jam vendetta but thats a wrestling game) and now they want to make a fighting game with marvel characters against their own??? What? who they are going to fight exactly? Tony hawk? Tiger? Madden? LOTR? C&C? the Simpsons? I have news for you MARVEL idea guys, those are either real people or licenses from other propietors EA doesnt have AAA characters of their own
EA and Marvel may be a good combination (A marvel based battlefield 1942 or C&C anyone?) but a fighting game???? if you are a stocks buyer I would keep my money as far as possible from that "combo" as possible
One final business advice: is probably not a good idea to sniff glue during meetings. remember that before hallucinating how cool a game of spiderman vs tony hawk would be.
Think about it for a second, you are the lawyer of the parents of two kids who just plain murdered dozens of innocents in a public school. The whole country wants a culprit and they are pointing the finger at your clients, the kids (like most teenagers) happened to like rock bands and videogames. What would you do?
Has anyone considered that doom (the game this guys were "based" on) was almost ten years old when this happened? wasnt it more statiscally possible they played a quake2 mod, or any other more recent and easier to find game? isnt too convenient that they had a webpage were they posted "Doom will become a reality" or some similar nonsense which is practically a "I DID IT" letter?
Did they ever investigated where the guns (2 fully loaded automatic machine guns and several hand grenades) came from? or where they got trained to use them? (anyone can fire a gun but not a recoiling machine gun or a frag grenade) are we supossed to believe they learned that from a 2d simulated 3d game? using a mouse and a keyboard?
Did they investigated if they were related to any xtreme racist/gun organization? (most of the victims were minorities and the kids were known racists in the school)
Too many "ifs" dont you think? and curiously enough they dont point to marilyn manson cds and videogames.
Think about it for a second, you are the lawyer of the parents of two kids who just plain murdered dozens of innocents in a public school. The whole country wants a culprit and they are pointing the finger at your clients, the kids (like most teenagers) happened to like rock bands and videogames. What would you do?
Seriously has anyone considered that doom (the game this guys were "based" on) was almost a ten year old game when this happened? wasnt it more statiscally possible they played a quake2 mod, or any other more recent and easier to find game? has anyone considered how convenient is that they had a webpage were they posted "Doom will become a reality" or some similar nonsense which is practically a "I DID IT" letter?
Isnt a bit suspicious they never investigated where the guns (2 fully loaded automatic machine guns and several hand grenades) came from? or where they got trained to use them. (anyone can fire a gun but not a recoiling machine gun or a frag grenade) are we supossed to believe they learned that a 2d simulated 3d game? using a mouse and a keyboard?
did they investigated if they were related to a extreme racist organization (most of the victims were minorities and they were known racists in the school.)
too many "ifs" dont you think? and curiously they dont point to marilyn manson and videogames.
EA VS CAPCOM
Ryu vs Maradona and Pele (from fifa 2004)
Announcer:"Oh my thats definetily a PENALTY!"
Street fighter vs Madden!
Tiger woods HYPER COMBO!!! (thousands of golf balls flutter through the screen)
Megaman vs MEDAL OF HONOR!!!
announcer: "they've brought the big guns!!"
(the screen is covered by gunfire and explosions)
Chunli vs NEED FOR SPEED!!!!
(chunli gets ran over by speeding cars)
Ryu vs Undying!!!
Ryu(frunces his eyebrow inquisitivily): who?
Announcer: "Undying" by Clive Barker
Ryu(knods his head then frunces eyebrow agan)
Ryu:who?
Oh my! Ive got to get this game as soon as is out! **And nothing could prepare you next year for : BLIZZARD VS CAPCOM!!!!!
"Im truly worried than 50% of American Students are grading less than the national average" think about that one for a second.
Isnt obvious than games which are targetted just for a part of the gaming audience will always have less sales than games that are intended for everyone?
Anyway the most important mature titles for this year were delayed Doom 3, halo 2 and half life 2 (not in order of importance) it was a much better year for games for all audiences.
Besides lets call things by their name, games like "the guy game" and the ones they mentioned are not "mature games" they are porn games pure and simple and those have never had great sales in the first place.
I think pokemon has the potential to become a large adventure game on the vein of zelda wind waker, I even remember that final fantasy VIIi did some pokemon homage by allowing you to "trap" guardians and spells and I remember thats what made the game fun, unfortunately nintendo has opted has opted for bringing a clone of the 8 bit pokemon each year and name it after every color and/or element/gem they can get in the office thesaurus, what a shame.
Other than that every other nintendo game is offering fails to bring any enthusiasm. sorry.
i don't care what year it is, a good 2d fighter is still fun as hell. but you can find one? no, instead you get DOA or MK:DA, which look great but have about 1/10th the playability of SF2.
I agree with you, but not completely, first of all your statement is incorrect just about any fighting game after the SNES era has much more playability than sf2, because all of the (succesful) clones after sf2 always tried to add something new to the formula (Mk added fatalities, KOF added character teams,MVSC added the dreaded quick change chars, etc. ) A good statement could have been MKDA has 50% of the playability of MK2. that would be sadly true.
Technology is a 2 headed beast, sometimes it can help gaming and sometimes it can hinder it, take per example doom 3 it has probably the best graphics engine of our time but is not fast enough to provide online gaming or even 16 or 32 player matches (which was already possible) actually only 4 players can go at the same time and you cant have too many characters(enemies) on screen without noticeable rendering lag. On the other side take GTA3 (yes I know Leiberman hates it) is a game in which you can eveywhere in a city and do whatever you please everywhere, this engine was just a programmer wet-dream less than 5 years ago and simply impossible to do, how much playability has been added from the original 2d GTA ? a lot.
My point is "new" and state of the art tech doesnt mean is an "advantage" sometimes, but sometimes it does. I believe 2d games (and taking into account the "rebirth" of SNK it does) and old classics will always be good to have around, but is still feasible to create new gameplay experiences thanks to new tech (once you play doom3 for the first time you will probably agree) and not only better graphics, I mean can you compare sf2 gameplay to soulcalibur? they are both good and similar but definetily different.