There's already another, Football Manager 2006 requires it as well, although it's a bit more obscure as the Xbox 360 version is only available as a PAL version.
On a randon tangent, I think the European Final Fantasy XI box only says it's 60Hz Only, not that the HDD is required, although it was the first game I noticed with a 60Hz only icon that matches the HDD required one.
With iTunes you can authorise up to 5 computers at a time to play song files downloaded with an account. However, you can only download a song file once, if the file is lost you're screwed and have to buy it again (even though iTunes knows you've bought it), so making a backup is a very good idea. (I think this may be another great music industry idea, but I'm not certain). To play tunes on multiple computers you either have to manually copy the song files across, or use the library sharing.
The Steam (and Xbox 360 Live?) approach where what you've bought is yours to download as many times as you want is much better really, this is one of the things that puts me off buying more than the odd song (and the free Singles of the Week) from iTunes.
Haven't most games console adverts (for the system itself) been completley bizzare, and only vaugley related to gaming though? I'm in the UK, and we've had plenty of odd ads: What has an alien faces Scotswoman to do with the PlayStation, or The Third Place to do with the PS2? Or the later Fun Anyone? ads for that matter. From cradle to grave (and later banned), but does it really say much about the Xbox? The fake gunfight to sell the Xbox 360 is a bit more game related than most though. After the odd "barbers" launch ad I can't find online, Sega did try a more direct approach to selling Dreamcast online play to the Europeans - stereotyping your neighbours (that's a French one stereotyping the British, the UK had similar ones attacking France etc., that were later banned). So you know, weird ads are nothing new.
It's probably all about raising the profile of the brand or some other marketing nonesense of course...
Well, apparently some Nintendo US spokesman says it's region locked. And therefore, if I get a Revolution, I'll be importing it from the US to avoid Nintendo's traditional policy of screwing Europe.
And does Europe really get all that many games that we don't get in the US? About the only place you might have a real argument is European gamers getting impatient and wanting to import US titles.
The problem isn't just impatientcy, Europe doesn't always get the games the US does at all. (Especially geeky Japanese stuff). Think stuff like Xenosaga Ep. 1, WarioWare Twisted[1], Shining Tears, Katamari Damacy and I'm sure there are more. Plus the delays can sometimes be stupid, although usually not on the level of the 2 year delay of Animal Crossing.
Plus I'm especially impatient, as I'm in the UK and I speak English, so all this locaisation stuff doesn't matter to me at all.
[1] Although in that case, I can import it of course.
>Just out of curiosity, are the English translations released in the UK any different from the ones released in the US?
Not usually. It's less noticable with rather plain translations, but with the more colourful ones it can be fairly noticable with more americanisms etc. Of course the all-pervasiveness of american cultures means most americanisms are undersood in the UK.
This means of course with voice acting we get the "pleasure" of American "man pulled off the street and into a recording studio" voice acting. (Well, there are good ones sometimes).
The language issues pisses me (and others off) as I'm in the UK, and I speak English, so Americans getting games months earlier (or at all) pisses me off. Becuase of region coding, I'd have to wait. It's partly why I want a console that can play US games (the fact US games are sometimes cheaper even after getting got by Customs for VAT and the Royal Mail's dreaded £4 fee of doom is another[1])
[1] This is more true with stuff like the Xbox 360 than older consoles, where discounts bring it back into line with the US, even if the RRP is higher.
The UK Woolworths split from the American one at some point in the past, and the UK one is still going (ISTR from Wikipedia that the American Woolworths company is now called Foot Locker). Most towns have one, the UK hasn't had as much of the shopping centre / mall effect on Main / High Streets (I'm guessing that's what happened), although some town centres near to centres have been pretty much killed by them.
Re:I doubt there will be a shortage
on
Wii to be Region Free
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· Score: 2, Informative
Can't find Xbox 360s in the UK? You can't be looking very hard, as far as I know there's no shortage of Xbox 360s in the UK, hasn't been for months. I live in a smallish town, and my local ASDA and Blockbusters both have consoles, and I think Woolworths and Argos probably have them as well.
...and call me cynical, but if it's a case like the Xbox 360, where it can be region free, but only if the publisher wants it, I'd still get a US system (I'm in the UK), just becuase I know some game I want to play will be region locked, and won't be released in the UK.
Re:Wii-Mote is not the end of the world
on
The Wii Takes NYC
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· Score: 1
But the normal controller (barring the remote + nunchuck combo) isn't in the box. If developers want to do a game for the system, they're probably going to have to make it work with the standard controller. I do wonder how many developers will bother creating a second control system as well?
Well, the noises they've made is that it'll be out at about the same time as Japan and the US (I think it was something like they wanted a release worldwide within about 14 weeks, which gives Febuary as about the latest date). But I won't believe it until they're actually on sale at my local Woolworth's. The fact Nintendo are holding a press event tomorrow is a good sign I'd guess, unless it's just to laugh at us.
As for price, a $1:£1 conversion would make the Wii (at £250) more expensive than the Xbox 360 Crap Pack (£200), and only £30 cheaper than the proper Xbox 360 (£280). I think the range goes from about £150 (a rough $-£ conversion with added VAT) to £200 (I doubt they want it more expensive than the 360), I'd be inclined to go around £170ish.
Re:still supprised at the $250 price tag.
on
The Wii Takes NYC
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· Score: 1
Apart from the wired remotes that were used with prototypes etc. (I think IGN or someone may have had a report about them being given to developers, and I think the E3 presentation shows one, at least for the Red Steel bit).
Although I don't think Nintendo ever intended to release them to the public.
I assume you mean all Nintendo NES games, as Nintendo doesn't own the rights to 3rd party games, unless you know something I don't. (ie: If Nintendo owned the rights to the NES Megaman games, why have there been compilations on non-Nintendo platforms).
They probably just want to spread them out, rather than dump the entire catalogue online all at once, it's probably more for business / marketing than technical stuff. (Although I'd assume there is a bit of extra work to "package" them for the Wii perhaps as well, stuff like some kind of online instructions, scanning the box for the menu etc.) My guess is they think they can get people more interested in using the download service if they can pull out a big title every few weeks and get some news stories etc. about the service, rather than it just being all there from the start.
You can do 16:9 anamorphically over RF if you really wanted to. Composite and S-video are fine as well. I've run NiGHTS and Panzer Dragoon Zwei in widescreen through an S-video cable before. Plus an Xbox in widescreen over composite. DVDs store anamophic widescreen with an interlaced SDTV picture as well.
Although 480P will be better, I don't know if the widescreen is non-anamophic, but general progressiveness will be an improvement anyway.
Personally I'm waiting to see how much extra I'm going to have to pay for a proper wired Ethernet connection on the Revolution. Bloody newfangled wireless stuff!
I was thinking more about games (and even the console) being released in Europe at about the same time as the US etc. (Or being released at all, WarioWare Twisted, what's happened to that one then?[1]). Japanese companies often seem far worse than wester ones over this.
[1] If it does get released, it'll probably rival Animal Crossing for "slowest Nintendo of Europe release ever".
GTA3, GTA VC, and GTA San Andreas also showed up on Xbox. GTA4 was never an exclusive.
They were released months earlier on the PS2 though. On Gamecube or Xbox, it would be enough to get them a "Only on..." tag. If you wanted to play the hot new game first, you'd need a PS2, by them time they got to the Xbox, they were rather lukewarm.
Most consoles (all current ones) identify European / Australia / etc. games as "PAL", presumably more using it as a shorthand for a 625-line 50Hz TV system (similar shorthand is used for DVDs, and in TV AFAIK), rather than the specific system used to add colour to the picture. It's just a slightly odd name for a region derived from older consoles that were fixed to one TV system.
I think the Mega Drive and the Saturn did use "PAL and French SECAM" though.
Was MiniDisc that unsucessful? Perhaps as a pre-recorded format, but as a replacement for cassettes it seemed to be reasonabley sucessful in the late '90s before MP3 players replaced them in turn. It certainley wasn't a Sony only format, several other companies produced recorders / players at the time.
But UMD does seem to be a screwup (I though they were going to create other players for the video / music discs or something).
Sony have created other sucessful formats, like the 3.5" floppy disc, and the Betacam professional videotape formats. No-one seems to remember them...
Very few games companies do treat us with respect (perhaps Microsoft, and western game publishers, but with Japanese stuff we seem especially screwed). Unless a console is region-free, I'll probably get a US system from now on, they seem to get a far better deal.
Sony have gone back on their own announcement though. I'd imagine a lot of Europeans were sceptical about it of course. But they go on stage, say it'll be out in November, and now they've gone back on their word.
Microsoft (just about) managed a EU / JP / NA release with the Xbox 360, and this means it'll have an 18 month headstart on the PS3 in Europe. Plus the Revolution will get a headstart as well. Then again, games companies don't really seem to care about Europe anyway...
Slashdot Mirror
There's already another, Football Manager 2006 requires it as well, although it's a bit more obscure as the Xbox 360 version is only available as a PAL version.
On a randon tangent, I think the European Final Fantasy XI box only says it's 60Hz Only, not that the HDD is required, although it was the first game I noticed with a 60Hz only icon that matches the HDD required one.
With iTunes you can authorise up to 5 computers at a time to play song files downloaded with an account. However, you can only download a song file once, if the file is lost you're screwed and have to buy it again (even though iTunes knows you've bought it), so making a backup is a very good idea. (I think this may be another great music industry idea, but I'm not certain). To play tunes on multiple computers you either have to manually copy the song files across, or use the library sharing.
The Steam (and Xbox 360 Live?) approach where what you've bought is yours to download as many times as you want is much better really, this is one of the things that puts me off buying more than the odd song (and the free Singles of the Week) from iTunes.
Haven't most games console adverts (for the system itself) been completley bizzare, and only vaugley related to gaming though? I'm in the UK, and we've had plenty of odd ads: What has an alien faces Scotswoman to do with the PlayStation, or The Third Place to do with the PS2? Or the later Fun Anyone? ads for that matter. From cradle to grave (and later banned), but does it really say much about the Xbox? The fake gunfight to sell the Xbox 360 is a bit more game related than most though. After the odd "barbers" launch ad I can't find online, Sega did try a more direct approach to selling Dreamcast online play to the Europeans - stereotyping your neighbours (that's a French one stereotyping the British, the UK had similar ones attacking France etc., that were later banned). So you know, weird ads are nothing new.
It's probably all about raising the profile of the brand or some other marketing nonesense of course...
Well, apparently some Nintendo US spokesman says it's region locked. And therefore, if I get a Revolution, I'll be importing it from the US to avoid Nintendo's traditional policy of screwing Europe.
And does Europe really get all that many games that we don't get in the US? About the only place you might have a real argument is European gamers getting impatient and wanting to import US titles.
The problem isn't just impatientcy, Europe doesn't always get the games the US does at all. (Especially geeky Japanese stuff). Think stuff like Xenosaga Ep. 1, WarioWare Twisted[1], Shining Tears, Katamari Damacy and I'm sure there are more. Plus the delays can sometimes be stupid, although usually not on the level of the 2 year delay of Animal Crossing.
Plus I'm especially impatient, as I'm in the UK and I speak English, so all this locaisation stuff doesn't matter to me at all.
[1] Although in that case, I can import it of course.
>Just out of curiosity, are the English translations released in the UK any different from the ones released in the US?
Not usually. It's less noticable with rather plain translations, but with the more colourful ones it can be fairly noticable with more americanisms etc. Of course the all-pervasiveness of american cultures means most americanisms are undersood in the UK.
This means of course with voice acting we get the "pleasure" of American "man pulled off the street and into a recording studio" voice acting. (Well, there are good ones sometimes).
I gather mutlimode TVs are far more common in Europe than the US though. Not that there's much Americans would want to import from Europe of course.
The language issues pisses me (and others off) as I'm in the UK, and I speak English, so Americans getting games months earlier (or at all) pisses me off. Becuase of region coding, I'd have to wait. It's partly why I want a console that can play US games (the fact US games are sometimes cheaper even after getting got by Customs for VAT and the Royal Mail's dreaded £4 fee of doom is another[1])
[1] This is more true with stuff like the Xbox 360 than older consoles, where discounts bring it back into line with the US, even if the RRP is higher.
The UK Woolworths split from the American one at some point in the past, and the UK one is still going (ISTR from Wikipedia that the American Woolworths company is now called Foot Locker). Most towns have one, the UK hasn't had as much of the shopping centre / mall effect on Main / High Streets (I'm guessing that's what happened), although some town centres near to centres have been pretty much killed by them.
Can't find Xbox 360s in the UK? You can't be looking very hard, as far as I know there's no shortage of Xbox 360s in the UK, hasn't been for months. I live in a smallish town, and my local ASDA and Blockbusters both have consoles, and I think Woolworths and Argos probably have them as well.
...and call me cynical, but if it's a case like the Xbox 360, where it can be region free, but only if the publisher wants it, I'd still get a US system (I'm in the UK), just becuase I know some game I want to play will be region locked, and won't be released in the UK.
But the normal controller (barring the remote + nunchuck combo) isn't in the box. If developers want to do a game for the system, they're probably going to have to make it work with the standard controller. I do wonder how many developers will bother creating a second control system as well?
Well, the noises they've made is that it'll be out at about the same time as Japan and the US (I think it was something like they wanted a release worldwide within about 14 weeks, which gives Febuary as about the latest date). But I won't believe it until they're actually on sale at my local Woolworth's. The fact Nintendo are holding a press event tomorrow is a good sign I'd guess, unless it's just to laugh at us.
As for price, a $1:£1 conversion would make the Wii (at £250) more expensive than the Xbox 360 Crap Pack (£200), and only £30 cheaper than the proper Xbox 360 (£280). I think the range goes from about £150 (a rough $-£ conversion with added VAT) to £200 (I doubt they want it more expensive than the 360), I'd be inclined to go around £170ish.
Apart from the wired remotes that were used with prototypes etc. (I think IGN or someone may have had a report about them being given to developers, and I think the E3 presentation shows one, at least for the Red Steel bit).
Although I don't think Nintendo ever intended to release them to the public.
Well, at least you'll have some rather repetative responses to read whilst drinking it. :-)
I assume you mean all Nintendo NES games, as Nintendo doesn't own the rights to 3rd party games, unless you know something I don't. (ie: If Nintendo owned the rights to the NES Megaman games, why have there been compilations on non-Nintendo platforms).
They probably just want to spread them out, rather than dump the entire catalogue online all at once, it's probably more for business / marketing than technical stuff. (Although I'd assume there is a bit of extra work to "package" them for the Wii perhaps as well, stuff like some kind of online instructions, scanning the box for the menu etc.) My guess is they think they can get people more interested in using the download service if they can pull out a big title every few weeks and get some news stories etc. about the service, rather than it just being all there from the start.
You can do 16:9 anamorphically over RF if you really wanted to. Composite and S-video are fine as well. I've run NiGHTS and Panzer Dragoon Zwei in widescreen through an S-video cable before. Plus an Xbox in widescreen over composite. DVDs store anamophic widescreen with an interlaced SDTV picture as well.
Although 480P will be better, I don't know if the widescreen is non-anamophic, but general progressiveness will be an improvement anyway.
Personally I'm waiting to see how much extra I'm going to have to pay for a proper wired Ethernet connection on the Revolution. Bloody newfangled wireless stuff!
I was thinking more about games (and even the console) being released in Europe at about the same time as the US etc. (Or being released at all, WarioWare Twisted, what's happened to that one then?[1]). Japanese companies often seem far worse than wester ones over this.
[1] If it does get released, it'll probably rival Animal Crossing for "slowest Nintendo of Europe release ever".
GTA3, GTA VC, and GTA San Andreas also showed up on Xbox. GTA4 was never an exclusive.
They were released months earlier on the PS2 though. On Gamecube or Xbox, it would be enough to get them a "Only on..." tag. If you wanted to play the hot new game first, you'd need a PS2, by them time they got to the Xbox, they were rather lukewarm.
Most consoles (all current ones) identify European / Australia / etc. games as "PAL", presumably more using it as a shorthand for a 625-line 50Hz TV system (similar shorthand is used for DVDs, and in TV AFAIK), rather than the specific system used to add colour to the picture. It's just a slightly odd name for a region derived from older consoles that were fixed to one TV system.
I think the Mega Drive and the Saturn did use "PAL and French SECAM" though.
Was MiniDisc that unsucessful? Perhaps as a pre-recorded format, but as a replacement for cassettes it seemed to be reasonabley sucessful in the late '90s before MP3 players replaced them in turn. It certainley wasn't a Sony only format, several other companies produced recorders / players at the time.
But UMD does seem to be a screwup (I though they were going to create other players for the video / music discs or something).
Sony have created other sucessful formats, like the 3.5" floppy disc, and the Betacam professional videotape formats. No-one seems to remember them...
Very few games companies do treat us with respect (perhaps Microsoft, and western game publishers, but with Japanese stuff we seem especially screwed). Unless a console is region-free, I'll probably get a US system from now on, they seem to get a far better deal.
Well, for people in Europe "not launching" is bigger news than "those gits who are getting the console before us aren't going to get many".
:-)
Have fun paying over the odds on Ebay!
Sony have gone back on their own announcement though. I'd imagine a lot of Europeans were sceptical about it of course. But they go on stage, say it'll be out in November, and now they've gone back on their word.
Microsoft (just about) managed a EU / JP / NA release with the Xbox 360, and this means it'll have an 18 month headstart on the PS3 in Europe. Plus the Revolution will get a headstart as well. Then again, games companies don't really seem to care about Europe anyway...