Uh, I hate to break it to you but the MPAA's rating system isn't legally binding.
I didn't say that it was, did I? It's still practically mandatory within the industry, and Tim the Donkey will get in trouble with the theater for letting a minor into an R-rated movie without an adult.
I mean, think about it. The two most goofy things Nintendo has done (making the N64 use carts instead of CDs, making the GC use mini-DVDs) were mainly in the name of copy protection. Now we have something that will probably be more complicated to emulate than the GBA because of the two different displays. It will also be harder to put on a computer screen in a good size simply because said computer screen will be unable to fit both screens at a large size within its aspect ratio.
Seriously, Nintendo doesn't really think that gamers actually want to play games on two screens, does it?
I don't think the government should be involved in a censorship issue that a parent has control over. It would be very difficult for a kid to buy and play a game without a parent knowing about it (assuming the parent pays any attention at all).
The only mandatory rating system I support is that of the MPAA (though it does need a complete overhaul) because it's much easier for a minor to watch a movie in a theater without his parents' knowledge than it is for him to buy a video game or watch a show on TV.
The only reason Joseph Liebermann is a Democrat is because it would be political suicide to run as a Republican this year. As for Tipper Gore... well... she's a woman.
Rob (Who else on the left wants to censor things?)
The reason for this is that the gang does not have a black identity, but a Haitian identity. Most other gangs predominately composed of black people are not bonded by a black identity, either, so it wouldn't make sense to even call a generic black gang "The Blacks." Heck, I'm not sure a black identity even exists, considering how different black people can be from each other.
Many people in this country want to benefit from public healthcare like people in other countries do. The only people who are apposing it are greedy doctors who want to charge as much as they can from poor sick people, and people who's minds are still stuck in the McCarthy era.
And people who realize that it would never work. Do you know how long the waiting lists and lines are for free healthcare in Canada, which has one of the best socialized healthcare systems in the world? Keep in mind that Canada only has a tenth of the population of the US.
Rob (Though, on the other hand, anything would be better than the HMO)
I wasn't aware that I was able to call in artillery or airstrikes in CS, CoD, etc, etc. These games give you extremely limited options in every scenario. This has nothing to do with who snipers are in real life, whether they are total bitches, whatever. It is only a question of game balance. If, as the author contends, a half-dozen snipers can shut down the only two approaches that the level designers give the attackers then the game simply isn't any fun.
Perhaps, then, the author should complain about the badly-balanced games that allow snipers to be unstoppable instead of the snipers themselves.
Anyone who's played it knows what I'm talking about. Anyone who hasn't should count himself lucky that he doesn't have to go through life cringing in remembered pain every time he hears its name. Hydlide is a worse game than Daikatana, ET, and Custer's Revenge. It's even worse than Heroes of the Lance. Yes, it's that bad.
Rob (For those of you who want to play it for some retarded reason, it's an NES game)
Mortal Kombat received a lot of attention during this time too, but it was a good game and thus shouldn't be considered for the topic at hand (ie list of bad games).
It was so bad, in fact, that I seem to remember their review scales changing to rate games on a scale of 10 down to Cosmic Race. =)
The best video game magazine ever had its ratings go from 10 down to Pong. And you have to admit, Pong is one of the worst games of all time, simply because it was one of the first. The scary thing is that there are newer games worse than Pong.
We also wondered whether the QA guy at Activision Budget would hold onto his job in the wake of this.
This game has nothing to do with Activision Value. It doesn't even have anything to do with Valusoft, astonishingly enough. This was published by an apparently new company named GameMill, whose only other game (released only days ago) is Midnight Race Club, an obvious ripoff of Rockstar's Midnight Club. I haven't played either of GameMill's games, but I'm willing to bet that that company will become the new Valusoft in a short matter of time.
At least give a good reason why you don't like them.
Nobody asked me for one. Until now, anyway.
The reason why I don't care for XBox or GC is that neither of them have exclusive games that would be worth buying the system to play (though the $99 price tag on the Cube means that I'll probably buy one eventually). In fact, neither does the PS2, but it used to, before everybody started porting to the XBox.
Rob (What other reason for disliking a console is there?)
Finally, Iwata has comments about the mysterious new Nintendo device due to launch at E3 in May, suggesting he "doesn't necessarily expect this product to be an immediate hit upon its announcement - he's prepared to see a lack of applause from some of the audience."
However, a GameSpy preview adds further detail to the previously revealed information regarding this Battlefield 1942-like online-orientated title, including "the 'metagame' driving Star Wars Battlefront. Tentatively called 'Galactic Conquest,' this mode will throw players into a full-scale war. Once you capture every checkpoint on a planet and defeat the enemy's forces utterly, you'll control that planet."
Try setting up a nice simple 16 button config and then explain it to an average gamer.
(4 visors (scan, combat, infrared, x-ray), 4 beam weapons (energy, ice, plasma, heat. Not counting charge beam.), jump, morph, missle/bomb, shoot. Not counting targetting/strafing, looking, and walking.)
That would actually be easy. A standard FPS control system seems like it would fit Metroid Prime fairly well (I haven't played it, so forgive me and explain if there's any weird reason why not).
Of course I understand their business model. My whole argument is that it's inferior to a business model in which they focus more on making games for all platforms and less on controlling their hardware.
Then, after finishing all the quests, you are almost elevated to a God status! I can't think of many console gamers who'd even be interested in such a grand endeavour. PC gamers, yes, of course. Console gamers are not interested in investing so much time into a game, perhaps this is why open-endedness is not popular with consoles.
What kind of console players have you been hanging around? Moreover, what kind of console games have you played? Do you realize that most console RPGs allow you to "become a god" if you work at it, and that many console RPG players do work at it?
I agree with the fact that Morrowind is much deeper than the average console RPG, but what you're saying here is way off-base.
In order to solve this problem, you have to look at the game which started the console RPG subgenre: Dragon Warrior.
Dragon Warrior became the most popular video game in the world after it came out. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that a lot of console developers wanted to capitalize on this success, so they made games that were similar to Dragon Warrior in scope, like Final Fantasy.
And so it has been for over 15 years. Therefore, the question is not why console RPGs are different from computer RPGs, but why Dragon Warrior is different from computer RPGs. The reason? Dragon Warrior was a fairly early game for the NES, so it had very little to work with, even less than the computer RPGs of the time (Might & Magic, for example) did. This kept Dragon Warrior from being nearly as deep gameplay-wise as the contemporary computer RPGs, so the developers compensated by focusing on a linear plot, which would be easy to contain in the space provided.
So, in conclusion, you're both right. The console RPG started out different from the computer RPG because of technological issues, but now-a-days stays different because of tradition. Of course, that tradition seems to be weakening, and to good effect...
Slashdot Mirror
Uh, I hate to break it to you but the MPAA's rating system isn't legally binding.
I didn't say that it was, did I? It's still practically mandatory within the industry, and Tim the Donkey will get in trouble with the theater for letting a minor into an R-rated movie without an adult.
Rob
Nintendo wants to make it harder to emulate.
I mean, think about it. The two most goofy things Nintendo has done (making the N64 use carts instead of CDs, making the GC use mini-DVDs) were mainly in the name of copy protection. Now we have something that will probably be more complicated to emulate than the GBA because of the two different displays. It will also be harder to put on a computer screen in a good size simply because said computer screen will be unable to fit both screens at a large size within its aspect ratio.
Seriously, Nintendo doesn't really think that gamers actually want to play games on two screens, does it?
Rob
I don't think the government should be involved in a censorship issue that a parent has control over. It would be very difficult for a kid to buy and play a game without a parent knowing about it (assuming the parent pays any attention at all).
The only mandatory rating system I support is that of the MPAA (though it does need a complete overhaul) because it's much easier for a minor to watch a movie in a theater without his parents' knowledge than it is for him to buy a video game or watch a show on TV.
Rob
The only reason Joseph Liebermann is a Democrat is because it would be political suicide to run as a Republican this year. As for Tipper Gore... well... she's a woman.
Rob (Who else on the left wants to censor things?)
The reason for this is that the gang does not have a black identity, but a Haitian identity. Most other gangs predominately composed of black people are not bonded by a black identity, either, so it wouldn't make sense to even call a generic black gang "The Blacks." Heck, I'm not sure a black identity even exists, considering how different black people can be from each other.
Rob (Oh, BTW, Haitians aren't Latin)
Many people in this country want to benefit from public healthcare like people in other countries do. The only people who are apposing it are greedy doctors who want to charge as much as they can from poor sick people, and people who's minds are still stuck in the McCarthy era.
And people who realize that it would never work. Do you know how long the waiting lists and lines are for free healthcare in Canada, which has one of the best socialized healthcare systems in the world? Keep in mind that Canada only has a tenth of the population of the US.
Rob (Though, on the other hand, anything would be better than the HMO)
I wasn't aware that I was able to call in artillery or airstrikes in CS, CoD, etc, etc. These games give you extremely limited options in every scenario. This has nothing to do with who snipers are in real life, whether they are total bitches, whatever. It is only a question of game balance. If, as the author contends, a half-dozen snipers can shut down the only two approaches that the level designers give the attackers then the game simply isn't any fun.
Perhaps, then, the author should complain about the badly-balanced games that allow snipers to be unstoppable instead of the snipers themselves.
Rob (Revolutionary idea, I know)
Obviously you've never heard of Something Awful before; otherwise you never would've posted something so completely pointless.
Rob (or maybe you're just jealous)
Anyone who's played it knows what I'm talking about. Anyone who hasn't should count himself lucky that he doesn't have to go through life cringing in remembered pain every time he hears its name. Hydlide is a worse game than Daikatana, ET, and Custer's Revenge. It's even worse than Heroes of the Lance. Yes, it's that bad.
Rob (For those of you who want to play it for some retarded reason, it's an NES game)
Mortal Kombat received a lot of attention during this time too, but it was a good game and thus shouldn't be considered for the topic at hand (ie list of bad games).
Hahahahaha, nice one.
Rob (That was supposed to be a joke, right?)
Yeah, if you like having no clue how to do anything at all interesting.
The BCM demo was a great desktop emulator, though.
Rob
It was so bad, in fact, that I seem to remember their review scales changing to rate games on a scale of 10 down to Cosmic Race. =)
The best video game magazine ever had its ratings go from 10 down to Pong. And you have to admit, Pong is one of the worst games of all time, simply because it was one of the first. The scary thing is that there are newer games worse than Pong.
Rob
We also wondered whether the QA guy at Activision Budget would hold onto his job in the wake of this.
This game has nothing to do with Activision Value. It doesn't even have anything to do with Valusoft, astonishingly enough. This was published by an apparently new company named GameMill, whose only other game (released only days ago) is Midnight Race Club, an obvious ripoff of Rockstar's Midnight Club. I haven't played either of GameMill's games, but I'm willing to bet that that company will become the new Valusoft in a short matter of time.
Rob
The problem with WoT was that it was too complex for the average gamer.
I get a lot of enjoyment out of "complex" FPSes like Deus Ex, System Shock, and Tron 2.0, but I thought Wheel of Time was pretty bland.
Rob
At least give a good reason why you don't like them.
Nobody asked me for one. Until now, anyway.
The reason why I don't care for XBox or GC is that neither of them have exclusive games that would be worth buying the system to play (though the $99 price tag on the Cube means that I'll probably buy one eventually). In fact, neither does the PS2, but it used to, before everybody started porting to the XBox.
Rob (What other reason for disliking a console is there?)
I'm just the opposite. I don't think that the PS2 is awesome; I just think that the GC and XBox are gay.
Rob
fact n.
2. c. Something believed to be true or real: a document laced with mistaken facts.
Rob
When it's retail version 2.0!
Rob (rimshot)
Finally, Iwata has comments about the mysterious new Nintendo device due to launch at E3 in May, suggesting he "doesn't necessarily expect this product to be an immediate hit upon its announcement - he's prepared to see a lack of applause from some of the audience."
It's the Virtual Boy 2!
Rob (Now with green LEDs)
However, a GameSpy preview adds further detail to the previously revealed information regarding this Battlefield 1942-like online-orientated title, including "the 'metagame' driving Star Wars Battlefront. Tentatively called 'Galactic Conquest,' this mode will throw players into a full-scale war. Once you capture every checkpoint on a planet and defeat the enemy's forces utterly, you'll control that planet."
Rob
Tribes doesn't have a persistent universe.
Rob
Try setting up a nice simple 16 button config and then explain it to an average gamer.
(4 visors (scan, combat, infrared, x-ray), 4 beam weapons (energy, ice, plasma, heat. Not counting charge beam.), jump, morph, missle/bomb, shoot. Not counting targetting/strafing, looking, and walking.)
That would actually be easy. A standard FPS control system seems like it would fit Metroid Prime fairly well (I haven't played it, so forgive me and explain if there's any weird reason why not).
Rob
Of course I understand their business model. My whole argument is that it's inferior to a business model in which they focus more on making games for all platforms and less on controlling their hardware.
Well, it's not.
Rob (Can't make it any simpler than that)
Then, after finishing all the quests, you are almost elevated to a God status! I can't think of many console gamers who'd even be interested in such a grand endeavour. PC gamers, yes, of course. Console gamers are not interested in investing so much time into a game, perhaps this is why open-endedness is not popular with consoles.
What kind of console players have you been hanging around? Moreover, what kind of console games have you played? Do you realize that most console RPGs allow you to "become a god" if you work at it, and that many console RPG players do work at it?
I agree with the fact that Morrowind is much deeper than the average console RPG, but what you're saying here is way off-base.
Rob
In order to solve this problem, you have to look at the game which started the console RPG subgenre: Dragon Warrior.
Dragon Warrior became the most popular video game in the world after it came out. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that a lot of console developers wanted to capitalize on this success, so they made games that were similar to Dragon Warrior in scope, like Final Fantasy.
And so it has been for over 15 years. Therefore, the question is not why console RPGs are different from computer RPGs, but why Dragon Warrior is different from computer RPGs. The reason? Dragon Warrior was a fairly early game for the NES, so it had very little to work with, even less than the computer RPGs of the time (Might & Magic, for example) did. This kept Dragon Warrior from being nearly as deep gameplay-wise as the contemporary computer RPGs, so the developers compensated by focusing on a linear plot, which would be easy to contain in the space provided.
So, in conclusion, you're both right. The console RPG started out different from the computer RPG because of technological issues, but now-a-days stays different because of tradition. Of course, that tradition seems to be weakening, and to good effect...
Rob