Under that logic, then no one would communicate via internet to begin with let alone use it as a tool to meet potential partners. I think it's be covered enough that the level of anonymity that internet allows is a double edged sword, reducing inhibitions while also providing a sterile environment capable of deception.
The realm of multiplayer gaming may not fall on the sinister end of the internet (for the most part), but it is not immune to falling victim to sterility and lack of emotional connections. I think it needs to be viewed as an alternative, not as a outright failure. Opening up a venue to meet like minded people is usually a positive step, and given personal circumstances the internet may be the only option available.
Ultimately, computing is a personal experience anyway. It may be more fun to have you buddies over to lan, but you're still all focusing on separate monitors and goals, a level of detachment will always exist in that regard.
The guitar should house the wiimote, retaining the motion controls so pelvic thrusts register correctly. But seriously, the motion controls should be used for showmanship. "Hold guitar as if playing with teeth" and it would work. Just fanciful thinking.
I have not played this game yet, so I am not aware of the exact control scheme, but I assume one that is not drastically different from Guitar Freaks.
I didn't read over every single comment, but I think there needs to be a distinction between what is a success and a failure. I can understand the argument that original games have no chance of selling like established or derivative franchises. It seems like there is no such thing as a niche product anymore, either there are hopes of it selling multiple million copies or it has no chances of being made.
Is it really that difficult to make a game with a scaled down dev team and resources?
There is still the important question of where are these downloadable games going to go? The internal memory isn't much to work with, and has basically eliminated any chance of getting Wii game demos via download, at least I see it that way.
Nothing can directly be accessed from a sd card aside from photos, which either tells me that there are no big plans for the download service, or a hdd is planned for release in the future.
Sony's pockets aren't that deep at the moment. I agree with your statement on software availability for both consoles. I am a Wii owner, an having beaten Zelda, and basically sitting on my hands for something good to come along. Taking a look at a release schedule isn't doing much to put me at ease.
At least no one can say that he doesn't know what he's talking about. It's kind of hard to disprove that man's intellect when it comes to software development.
If you're talking about Zelda:TP's claim of 70+ hours, that is totally inflated by the unnecessary side quests. I completed a few side quests, maybe a total of 3 hours worth, and still managed to finish the game under 35 hours. It was a fairly good experience overall. But believe me, if it really would have taken 70 hours, I would have given up before completion.
FFXII doesn't exactly focus on a single character, and once the game picks up the guy who is the main character becomes more likable, talks less, and actually even gets lost in the background a bit (but in a good way). I say that he has the worst acting, but that's in relation to all the other actors, and truthfully they set the bar high so it's not as bad as you think. I just know that one of the characters that join your party, in my eyes, takes the spotlight as a better star than the actual main character.
The voice acting is pretty good, and you're completely on base to be leery of it when referring to jrpgs. I've had my fill of exaggerated emotions and pigeon holed character personalities. The "main" character Vaan is the most annoying of all the characters, but no where near unbearable.
An issue I have with the voice acting however is the noticeable quality drop when out of pivotal cutscenes. I'm sure this is just due to compression to fit on a single dvd, but when you go from a natural sounding conversation to one that sounds devoid of low tones it becomes irritating.
Agreed, I have no idea how a reviewer can ever fault a game for a feature that was never intended to be part of the product. I'm getting very tired of reading reviewers consistently complain about the lack of multiplayer in various games. There needs to be a separation between what the product actually is, and what the reviewer thinks it should have been.
Does this mean that we'll get some decent radio stations back? Clear Channel effectively ruined the radio for me, NPR being the only remaining reason to turn it on.
So you're telling me that there is no way for them to mass produce a similar pc box with this purpose in mind at a similar cost, and that they had to use semi-legal means for deployment? There has to be at least one hardware manufacturer willing to do a better volume discount for either nonprofit or specially targeted purposes instead of resorting to modified xboxen.
I would be more concerned with improving their compression method for better quality video. They already have a cap on length of video files, so if they can keep things within a similar file size with a better codec I would have more faith in their attempt to provide media. What's the use of a hundreds of videos if they look like ass?
Well I can tell you that the differences aren't that great between the two versions. I have the SOTN import for Saturn, but unfortunately it's heavily Japanese. Maria doesn't control as well as I was hoping, and the extra parts of the castle aren't too special. There's more slowdown, but I wouldn't mind an english language version running at a better framerate to come out. I'm just saying that you're not really missing out by not playing it.
Panzer Dragoon Saga on the other hand is a different story. Best eBay purchase I've ever made. I got it at the low low price of $75, and seeing that it goes for $100-150+ I'm glad I got it when I did. I'd recommend to do what you can to play it, be it emulator or otherwise. There is a decent Saturn emulator that significantly increases the visual quality of certain games, but the name of it escapes me. guri guri I think? This is one game that deserves another chance to get exposure.
EA wasn't quite the powerhouse as they are now back at that time. I'd also argue that Madden was in no way as popular back then as with the PS2/Xbox/Gamecube generation. It hurts any console to have developers and publishers look the other way. I just cannot agree that EA was that important of a factor with the Dreamcast failure. Marketing and hype for the oncoming release of the PS2 far overshadowed the efforts of Sega to promote their console. The Dreamcast had no shortage of quality games either. The consumer base did was consumer bases do, they listened to marketing messages and waiting for the PS2 which was capable of "near photo realistic graphics." We all know how hard it is in this industry for a company to rebound from a flop (the Saturn).
If all they are doing at EA is adapting current games to a new control scheme, then yes, they are not going to be excited about it. They're thinking about it in all the wrong ways.
This of course benefits the consumer in a great way, and in turn allows for a method of keeping current with software and hardware, but it cannot be ignored that most of that revenue is being channeled away from the creator of those products.
Second hand games are not a source of revenue for game publishers. They create a cycle of profit for the resale shops though. Publishers only see revenue from the purchase of a brand new, unopened game. If it's used, 100% of that purchase goes to the resale shop.
The only upside for publishers and development houses is that resale shops do provide a great system for game awareness, but this is a backhanded compliment in that they are not making any money from each new person that buys the single copy of a game that's been traded in by 15 different people.
"Some of our [digitally distributed first-party] games, by virtue of their design and hardware demands, simply couldn't work on Xbox 360"
So he means they're developed without cross platform distribution in mind. Let's not be so harsh about it Phil, just be honest about it.
Earlier this week a transcript of a Ninteno shareholders meeting was released, and this topic was discussed. You can read it here. The points brought up are very clear. If you have a consistent pricing strategy involving an intially high price only to drop it a month or so afterward, the consumer will notice and start to wait. Now, Nintendo also opens the door themselves to a nonfixed pricing strategy, allowing higher budget games to increase their retail price with the opposite for lower budget games. The key is to avoid the price reduction predictability, or the price drop at all.
Consumer may not always be smart, but to assume that they will not pick up on an obvious system of getting high returns at product debuts is ignorant. Do you have any idea how many people know the pricing strategies at department stores? With the evidently increased cost for the next generation of gaming, the consumer will not be as willing to throw money into things that will quickly drop in price.
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Under that logic, then no one would communicate via internet to begin with let alone use it as a tool to meet potential partners. I think it's be covered enough that the level of anonymity that internet allows is a double edged sword, reducing inhibitions while also providing a sterile environment capable of deception.
The realm of multiplayer gaming may not fall on the sinister end of the internet (for the most part), but it is not immune to falling victim to sterility and lack of emotional connections. I think it needs to be viewed as an alternative, not as a outright failure. Opening up a venue to meet like minded people is usually a positive step, and given personal circumstances the internet may be the only option available.
Ultimately, computing is a personal experience anyway. It may be more fun to have you buddies over to lan, but you're still all focusing on separate monitors and goals, a level of detachment will always exist in that regard.
The guitar should house the wiimote, retaining the motion controls so pelvic thrusts register correctly. But seriously, the motion controls should be used for showmanship. "Hold guitar as if playing with teeth" and it would work. Just fanciful thinking.
I have not played this game yet, so I am not aware of the exact control scheme, but I assume one that is not drastically different from Guitar Freaks.
At least, not until psp emulation gets popular. Still a sad thing.
I didn't read over every single comment, but I think there needs to be a distinction between what is a success and a failure. I can understand the argument that original games have no chance of selling like established or derivative franchises. It seems like there is no such thing as a niche product anymore, either there are hopes of it selling multiple million copies or it has no chances of being made.
Is it really that difficult to make a game with a scaled down dev team and resources?
There is still the important question of where are these downloadable games going to go? The internal memory isn't much to work with, and has basically eliminated any chance of getting Wii game demos via download, at least I see it that way.
Nothing can directly be accessed from a sd card aside from photos, which either tells me that there are no big plans for the download service, or a hdd is planned for release in the future.
Sony's pockets aren't that deep at the moment. I agree with your statement on software availability for both consoles. I am a Wii owner, an having beaten Zelda, and basically sitting on my hands for something good to come along. Taking a look at a release schedule isn't doing much to put me at ease.
I'm definitely only talking about his engine work, not game design.
At least no one can say that he doesn't know what he's talking about. It's kind of hard to disprove that man's intellect when it comes to software development.
If you're talking about Zelda:TP's claim of 70+ hours, that is totally inflated by the unnecessary side quests. I completed a few side quests, maybe a total of 3 hours worth, and still managed to finish the game under 35 hours. It was a fairly good experience overall. But believe me, if it really would have taken 70 hours, I would have given up before completion.
FFXII doesn't exactly focus on a single character, and once the game picks up the guy who is the main character becomes more likable, talks less, and actually even gets lost in the background a bit (but in a good way). I say that he has the worst acting, but that's in relation to all the other actors, and truthfully they set the bar high so it's not as bad as you think. I just know that one of the characters that join your party, in my eyes, takes the spotlight as a better star than the actual main character.
The voice acting is pretty good, and you're completely on base to be leery of it when referring to jrpgs. I've had my fill of exaggerated emotions and pigeon holed character personalities. The "main" character Vaan is the most annoying of all the characters, but no where near unbearable.
An issue I have with the voice acting however is the noticeable quality drop when out of pivotal cutscenes. I'm sure this is just due to compression to fit on a single dvd, but when you go from a natural sounding conversation to one that sounds devoid of low tones it becomes irritating.
Agreed, I have no idea how a reviewer can ever fault a game for a feature that was never intended to be part of the product. I'm getting very tired of reading reviewers consistently complain about the lack of multiplayer in various games. There needs to be a separation between what the product actually is, and what the reviewer thinks it should have been.
Does this mean that we'll get some decent radio stations back? Clear Channel effectively ruined the radio for me, NPR being the only remaining reason to turn it on.
So you're telling me that there is no way for them to mass produce a similar pc box with this purpose in mind at a similar cost, and that they had to use semi-legal means for deployment? There has to be at least one hardware manufacturer willing to do a better volume discount for either nonprofit or specially targeted purposes instead of resorting to modified xboxen.
Hated it enough to spend an extra 300 bucks to stop it?
When they have integrated wi-fi and the user decides on a third party usb option with questionable settings, I wouldn't say it was my fault either.
I would be more concerned with improving their compression method for better quality video. They already have a cap on length of video files, so if they can keep things within a similar file size with a better codec I would have more faith in their attempt to provide media. What's the use of a hundreds of videos if they look like ass?
Well I can tell you that the differences aren't that great between the two versions. I have the SOTN import for Saturn, but unfortunately it's heavily Japanese. Maria doesn't control as well as I was hoping, and the extra parts of the castle aren't too special. There's more slowdown, but I wouldn't mind an english language version running at a better framerate to come out. I'm just saying that you're not really missing out by not playing it.
Panzer Dragoon Saga on the other hand is a different story. Best eBay purchase I've ever made. I got it at the low low price of $75, and seeing that it goes for $100-150+ I'm glad I got it when I did. I'd recommend to do what you can to play it, be it emulator or otherwise. There is a decent Saturn emulator that significantly increases the visual quality of certain games, but the name of it escapes me. guri guri I think? This is one game that deserves another chance to get exposure.
EA wasn't quite the powerhouse as they are now back at that time. I'd also argue that Madden was in no way as popular back then as with the PS2/Xbox/Gamecube generation. It hurts any console to have developers and publishers look the other way. I just cannot agree that EA was that important of a factor with the Dreamcast failure. Marketing and hype for the oncoming release of the PS2 far overshadowed the efforts of Sega to promote their console. The Dreamcast had no shortage of quality games either. The consumer base did was consumer bases do, they listened to marketing messages and waiting for the PS2 which was capable of "near photo realistic graphics." We all know how hard it is in this industry for a company to rebound from a flop (the Saturn).
If all they are doing at EA is adapting current games to a new control scheme, then yes, they are not going to be excited about it. They're thinking about it in all the wrong ways.
This of course benefits the consumer in a great way, and in turn allows for a method of keeping current with software and hardware, but it cannot be ignored that most of that revenue is being channeled away from the creator of those products.
Second hand games are not a source of revenue for game publishers. They create a cycle of profit for the resale shops though. Publishers only see revenue from the purchase of a brand new, unopened game. If it's used, 100% of that purchase goes to the resale shop. The only upside for publishers and development houses is that resale shops do provide a great system for game awareness, but this is a backhanded compliment in that they are not making any money from each new person that buys the single copy of a game that's been traded in by 15 different people.
So now we have a codename for the project, and that's it? This is news?
I'm not trying to be negative, but a codename and speculation of something that was already speculation is hohum to me.
"Some of our [digitally distributed first-party] games, by virtue of their design and hardware demands, simply couldn't work on Xbox 360" So he means they're developed without cross platform distribution in mind. Let's not be so harsh about it Phil, just be honest about it.
Earlier this week a transcript of a Ninteno shareholders meeting was released, and this topic was discussed. You can read it here. The points brought up are very clear. If you have a consistent pricing strategy involving an intially high price only to drop it a month or so afterward, the consumer will notice and start to wait. Now, Nintendo also opens the door themselves to a nonfixed pricing strategy, allowing higher budget games to increase their retail price with the opposite for lower budget games. The key is to avoid the price reduction predictability, or the price drop at all.
Consumer may not always be smart, but to assume that they will not pick up on an obvious system of getting high returns at product debuts is ignorant. Do you have any idea how many people know the pricing strategies at department stores? With the evidently increased cost for the next generation of gaming, the consumer will not be as willing to throw money into things that will quickly drop in price.