Yeah, I love that. I'm sorry, but the PS3 is an adolecent game system. Its target demographic is the 15 year old boy who says, "oooh, Blood and Boobies! COOL!" I may be exadurating a bit, but I've seen a lot of evidence to this effect, and their marketing seems to match up: "If I had a cop car, I would drive all over the world and get all the ladies, even the ugly ones!" Calling it a "mature" system is along the same lines as calling "Scary Movie" a mature film, because it shows blood and boobs.
Nintendo, on the other hand, tends to cut a big hole out of the adolecent demographic and market to kids under 10, and adults. Of course, a 12 year old wouldn't want to be caught dead playing something that could be played by an 8 year old, so suddenly the GameCube is "gay" or "teh suck" or "for the kiddies". You won't find many 30 year old gamers calling the GameCube or Wii "kiddie".
Now, look, I know there are MANY exceptions, there's a lot of amazing games out for the PS2 (Okami, Suikoden V, FF12, Katamari Damaci, etc.), and I don't doubt the PS3 will have its share of gems, but the ones that really tend to push the system in the US and define its overall persona tend to be aimed at the 10-17 year old sweetspot: GTA, and an endless suply of first person shooters, football games, and zombie killers.
We need to start talking about games not in terms of age, but in terms sophistication. No, I'm not talking about $1500 bottles of wine, or going to French film festivals, I'm talking about little things like defining a unique atmosphere in which to experience, having a story that isn't utterly cliche, gameplay that makes you think while you're being entertained, and without being pretentious and sophomoric (like most Japanese RPGs, sadly). Zelda may be innocent and may have it's cliches, however it knows exactly what it is, and never attempts to prove itself as being anything else, while having fantasticly original gameplay elements.
It's no coincidence that the same terms, reviered by gamers, "Mature" and "Hardcore", are commonly used to describe pornography. Not that there's anything wrong with porn, but if I want porn, I'll go get me some porn, thank you.
People who think that the Wii and the PS3 are aimed at wildly different markets should get their heads checked. The whole "we're not competative" thing was started by Nintendo to make themselves look like the "nice guys", but they're competing head to head with the PS3 in the same demographics. Both are aiming at hardcore gamers (no matter what anyone says about the Wiimotes being "kiddy", most of their fans are long time, dyed-in-the-wool classic gamers), with the Wii simply being more successful at being able to reach more casual gamers. But let's not fool ourselves, people who have never played games before are just as unlikely to buy a Wii as a PS3. They're like sports teams, everyone has their favorite, and are gunning for it to whoop the other... regardless of their age, gender, sexual orientation, or otherwise. The PS3 is going to be more attractive to younger gamers due to Sony's meathead, testosterone-laced design philosophy, where-as the Wii is going to be more favorable to the 23+ crowd who grew up with classic games. But these differences are subtle, and mostly they're gunning toward the exact same people.
It's the "other" November election: Sony vs. Nintendo, Republican vs. Democrat. Who's philosophy will dominate the game industry? Who's philosophy will dominate the government? I've taken sides, have you?
Not to mention the rediculous pricing of HDTV Television sets. I'm looking at buying a new TV, and I'm probably going to get another SDTV, just because the price point is just so fucked up. 20" LCD HDTV for $600? Are you crazy?
If that's Sony's strategy, it's the stupidest, and most arrogant business strategy to date, seeing as though the HDTV adoption rate is still pretty low (and not expected to increase drastically for the next few years), and the current figures are only about 15% of TV owners. People yell and screem bloody murder when Microsoft releases an OS upgrade that will only run on the top 75% of currently owned PCs, and Sony's gunning for the top 15%!!!
Lol, I love the license system, but I do keep thinking: "so I'm fighting a life and death battle here, and I have with me one of the most powerful swords a guy can get, and you're telling me I can't use it because I'm not licensed to do so? What?! I'm in the middle of a fucking dungeon, who's gonna know?";)
The term definitely doesn't fit. Materia Slots was physically understandable, Junctioning was complicated (I loved it, though) but still understandable. Weapons containing hidden powers in FF9, while fantastical, is a cool idea. But FFX and FFXII sees the characters carrying around big boards with symbols and slots on them.
So, I'm in the middle of battling a huge boss, when Balthier suddenly says, "hold on a minute, gotta add a skill", and whips out his giant checkerboard to place a few more tiles down, folds it up again, and says, "Okay, time in." The imagery is just kinda funny, if you think about it.
Bullshit. People watching TV, casually, are much less interested in seeing the product in action, then seeing unique presentations like skits, and the like... since they're most likely watching TV for entertainment in the first place. As I always tell my sales staff, content is fairly irrelivant in ads, they're about establishing identity and a unique style that separates a business from everyone else. This goes for local spots and national spots alike.
And the Sony execuative only came out and explained it AFTER it got a lot of press. Ever heard of the phrase, "there's no such thing as bad publicity?", well, that's especially true in advertising. You may not like it... hell, I fucking hate the commercial, but I'll definitely remember it... and that's basically 95% of the success of an advertisement. Now, if I was to walk away from the commercial with a strong opinion, but not knowing what the commercial was for (like a certain Pepto Bismal commercial I researched into), that would be a different matter, but this one is very forward about what it is.
Well, 445 of the smallest radio stations are being cut loose (about 1/3rd). So there are some local stations that will now be out from CCs thumb (and under someone else's, most likely). You might just get your wish. This effectively cuts the size of CC down by quite a bit, and it takes them out of the tallons of the "I want my money NOW!" shareholders. They have been trying to do this for quite some time, actually. Going private is probably the best thing that has happened to the media industry in years.
I work for a small Clear Channel owned TV station here in Fairbanks, Alaska, KTVF, and I found out about this this morning when I came into work. Not a whole lot will change when we get sold (depending upon the owner). Many of the CC TV stations were bought by CC just a few years ago when CC tookover The Akerley Group, of which our station was a member. We have been through 4 different coorporations (statewide and national), in the last 15 or so years... none of the sales having any reliviance to the profits of this station.
So, basically, our website will probably change (since it's currently a Clear Channel developed layout), we will no longer be pushed into the sales promotions that are currently required of us, and our logo will probably have to be changed a bit. I just hope the new boss isn't the same as the old boss... so to speak.
I'm a commercial producer myself, and even though the baby commercial (the only one I've seen aired so far) may be disturbing, it's memerable and sticks with you. Disturbing isn't neccessarilly a bad thing in advertising, because it means the spot is hard to forget. Now, I totally disagree with their reasoning behind the ad... "emotion"? Wow, he really did have to explain that for me to understand it. But for what it is, the fact that we're talking about it here is a pretty good indication of its success.
A similar example that all of my sales staff and I have been talking about is Yahoo's "Lawn Fertilizer" commerical, in which, after using a type of fertilizer bought off of Yahoo, the familly's previously dead dog jumps up from out of its garden grave, with an exclamation from a little girl, "Fluffy, you're alive!" *Shivers* that shit doesn't leave you.
How is "Reverse Crying" an emotional response? Can you remember the last time you bawled backwards? Seriously, emotion was the LAST thing I took away from that spot, more like disturbed fuckedupedness.
480i is just called either NTSC or SDTV, which is 480 lines interlaced. This is why you never hear it refered to as 480i. The whole naming by scan lines (ie: 480p, 720p, 1080i/p) is a reletively recent phenomenon since EDTV (480p) only came out about 10 years ago, and called for a new naming system.
720i does not exist, to my knowledge. By the time they got to the 720p standard, there was no reason to go interlaced anymore, because progressive scan will ALWAYS be superior in image quality when showing in a native format. Now, there is a bit of question as to whether 1080i or 720p is superior. I would say 720p is a safer bet, because interlacing causes a lot of weird flickery effects, and I would be totally up for sacrificing some screen resolution to get rid of those.
Same marketting team that came up with the name "Urge", as in "I'm currently doing an Urge Squirt". This is from marketting commity "C", who are just nasty and should vengence be set upon them by His wrath. Rumor has it that they also came up with "Long Horn" but someone in the PR department screwed up and accidently condensed it into one word.
Marketting commity "B" came up with "Zune" and "Vista". Beware the power of conservative old foggies with thesauruses!
Marketting commity "A" have largely been ignored, and are thinking of going to work for Apple or Nintendo.
Metroid Prime and Metroid Prime 2 are good examples of huge worlds to explore, but each game fits onto a small DVD for the Gamecube.
Although I would agree, we're talking with someone who's on a whole different level of "need to walk everywhere" syndrome. Did you notice his "like GTA but where I can walk into every building" comment? I mean, sure it would be nice... but... why? If the creators did that, then they won't have the time to put any time into making those buildings interesting, or at all inspired. You're basically asking a group of game designers to recreate New York City for you. Fuck disc capacity, the design capacity just isn't there. Why not have designers concentrate on smaller things that they can put a lot of subtlety and creativity into? The last thing I want to have happen is designers creating an endless amount of content while sacrificing any kind of artistry or creative thought. There's always a price to pay.
I suggest, to this guy, that he try playing Metroid Prime, which, although probably not up to your graphical standards, has an incredible amount of thought put into every room in the game, to the point where it's extremely interesting to explore, even just a small area. On the flip side, most urban architecture is quite boring. Sky scrapers basically repeat the same floor over and over again for 80 stories, with subtle changes in interior layout. Do we really want this to become the new standard in video game design?
The "let me go everywhere" attitude is a bit selfish, IMHO. Games are an entertainment/art form like anything else... sure they're interactive, but within the confines of the vision the creators wanted to portray. It's like if I wrote a symphony, just to have one of the audience members yell at me because they want to hear their favorite musical theme in retrograde inversion performed on the english horn and harmonized by the horns and low strings. There's an infinte amount of variation, but, I mean... gaahhhh... doth one not appreciate the art of editing? I mean, exploration is one of my favorite aspects in games, but only if there's something WORTH exploring. Wind Waker gave me a huge world with nothing but endless, repeatitive, open water... geee, that was FUN.
Nintendo had a very legitimate reason for staying with cartridges. It probably wasn't the best decision, as they lost the entire RPG market, but they did have a few very good reasons for the direction they took, which you outlined above. Some PS1 and PS2 games are incredibly painful to play because of their load times (Suikoden V, for example). But Nintendo's constant concentration on decreasing load times has lead them to be fairly good even when they switched to optical media, much better than Sony or Microsoft, anyway. I worry that Sony is going to uphold status-quo with the PS3s load times, the increase of loading speed being directly proportional to the capacity of the disc, which would be quite obnoxious. I think Nintendo probably should have gone optical back with the N64, as they would have put a lot more pressure, than Sony did, on developers building good code into their games so as to limit load times (like they did with the GameCube). Sony's problem is that they don't police their developers enough. Nintendo makes sure the developers don't make their systems look bad, and the consumer wins because of it
Not to mention, it had two of the best RPGs of the generation: Tales of Symphonia and Skies of Arcadia (sure, a DreamCast port, but only after the DreamCast had died, and was greatly improved).
Physics, AI, etc. have almost NOTHING to do with disc capacity. These things are dry code, which takes up an insignificant amount of drive space. A good 95% or more of a disc goes into graphics and sound. Code for most contemporary games could still fit in an N64 cartridge. Maybe this is an exaduration, but not by much. All the disc capacity is for is for "pretty". Disc capacity has NO overarching effect on gameplay, WHAT SO EVER. Now, I'm not saying that disc capacity is pointless. Graphics and sound enhance the atmosphere of the game, making it more immersive if used well (which most HD games, I would argue, do not). So if it's gameplay you are concerned about, do not worry, the Wii will probably have the best gameplay (AI, Physics, etc.) since companies are being persuaded to concentrate more on that than "oooh... pretty".
This is coming from a person who thinks that the game with the best graphics, that I've ever seen, is Okami, a PS2 game. I don't believe that most developers have come to terms with the graphical capabilities that they had with the last generation, let alone the current one. Graphics are only as good as the artistic vision of the creators. Although, I will admit that Shadow of the Collosus is one example of a game made painful because the creators surpassed the capabilities of the machine, and the game was increadibly choppy because of it.
Correct, Microsoft has nothing to do with the HD-DVD standard. HD-DVD is largely a Toshiba endevour. Microsoft did, however, throw themselves entirely behind Toshiba in this, so they have quite a bit to lose if it doesn't pan out.
This is why I'm a fan of businesses going private, which, thankfully, seems to be an increasing trend these days. Even ClearChannel (Oooh, they are Teh Evil!) is trying to find buyers in order to go private. I can understand the stock market being good for some things, but in some ways, it's been the worst thing to happen to the free market ecconomy... it encourages all investments to be made for short term gains, and forsakes long term planning. Many companies have lost their way after going public. I'm really happy that ClearChannel is looking for a way out, because they SUCK (I know, I work for them!)
Ya know, believe it or not, the "we're just out to make money" mentality, is not one shared by all businesses in all countries of the world. There are many countries in which a business's first priority is to their employees, then their community, and only thirdly to themselves (many businesses in Japan, for instance). Unfortunately, American's have convinced themselves that the only way to survive in the business world is to forsake all ethicality... and so they've made that true. It's very sad.
You may be right, as I pointed out in a further post, that it's a lot to ask to train people to both hate other people, and to promote peace, and I'll respect that. An interesting thought I had, though, is that up until now, all the armed forces are divided by their means of transportation: Army (ground), Air Force (Air), Navy (Ocean), with the Marine's being the one oddball designed to bridge that gap between the Army and the Navy. I've always thought this was a little inefficient way of dividing a military, as the Navy has a lot of planes, and the Army has quite a few boats. In 21st century warfare it's going to be the TYPE of war that will make the biggest difference in overall action, not the means of fighting. Let's say that instead of dividing simply by mode of transport, we were to divide the services into methods of action: a dedicated defense force (ie: Japanese military), a traditional offensive force, and an equally powerful reconstruction force aimed at maintaining order by combining policing with diplomatic strategy at a finite level. Currently, our reconstruction methods, compared with our offensive power, SUCK... you can't have one without the other. Wars only last so long, usually the period afterwards is just as difficult, and much much longer. I'm not suggesting we set ourselves up as the world police... but since we already have, to a certain extent, we should at least do a good job of it. Basically, if we're preparing to use an offensive strategy, we must also have a very good idea of how, legistically, we're going to follow up that afterwards.
Well, honestly, FF12 is impossible to compare to any of the previous final fantasies (the ones you love, and the ones you don't like), or Kingdom Hearts (which I thought, blew as well, btw), or Dragon Quest 8. The "streamlined battle system", that you talk about, makes the full game much MORE strategic than the rest of the series, instead of being a button masher, it becomes more like a small-scope RTS. You become the "manager" of your party, not so much the invisible hand.
Actually, the closest thing I can think of is, did you ever play Secret of Mana? The battle system actually has some large similarities at its most basic level. Imagine if, in Secret of Mana, the characters just automatically attacked when the bar got up to 100%, that's pretty much what the basic attack system is like in FF12. NOW, on top of that add the need to do a lot of customizing of the AI, the management of a very in-depth skill system, and a lot finer control over movement. And with that AI, you can choose to play the game in many many different ways. I have a friend, for instance, who plays the game with NOTHING but black magic, and won't even use healing spells, and focuses his energy on using various tactics to recover lost MP. He's basically playing a totally different game from me.
The best way to describe FF12s battle system is as a direct hybrid between an RTS and an Action RPG. You have much more subtle control over your characters than the old ATB systems, even if you don't ACTUALLY get to make the final attack. This conception that the ADB system takes away control of the game from the player is totally incorrect, you are MUCH more actively involved than ever before, and your choices have much bigger consiquences.
As for the storyline... I would liken it, best, to a Suikoden game. It deals with an international conflict, in which there really is no obvious "good" and "evil" side, and you're just left to deal with the consiquences. It really has no relation to anything else Square has produced. The story is not a hardcore mellodrama like Xenogears, FF7, or Chrono Cross (all of which I dispise), it has a few similarities to FF9, having a very "Renaisance" feel to it, although being much more realistic. My only gripe with it is that like the Suikoden games (which I really like, btw), it's not quite as personal as the previous outtings, which is good and bad. The good part is that it is almost completely clear of any cheese factor, of which made games like Chrono Cross and Xenogears almost completely unplayable for me. It's much more sophisticated, and doesn't have the "wiz-bang" that will attract many
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Yeah, I love that. I'm sorry, but the PS3 is an adolecent game system. Its target demographic is the 15 year old boy who says, "oooh, Blood and Boobies! COOL!" I may be exadurating a bit, but I've seen a lot of evidence to this effect, and their marketing seems to match up: "If I had a cop car, I would drive all over the world and get all the ladies, even the ugly ones!" Calling it a "mature" system is along the same lines as calling "Scary Movie" a mature film, because it shows blood and boobs.
Nintendo, on the other hand, tends to cut a big hole out of the adolecent demographic and market to kids under 10, and adults. Of course, a 12 year old wouldn't want to be caught dead playing something that could be played by an 8 year old, so suddenly the GameCube is "gay" or "teh suck" or "for the kiddies". You won't find many 30 year old gamers calling the GameCube or Wii "kiddie".
Now, look, I know there are MANY exceptions, there's a lot of amazing games out for the PS2 (Okami, Suikoden V, FF12, Katamari Damaci, etc.), and I don't doubt the PS3 will have its share of gems, but the ones that really tend to push the system in the US and define its overall persona tend to be aimed at the 10-17 year old sweetspot: GTA, and an endless suply of first person shooters, football games, and zombie killers.
We need to start talking about games not in terms of age, but in terms sophistication. No, I'm not talking about $1500 bottles of wine, or going to French film festivals, I'm talking about little things like defining a unique atmosphere in which to experience, having a story that isn't utterly cliche, gameplay that makes you think while you're being entertained, and without being pretentious and sophomoric (like most Japanese RPGs, sadly). Zelda may be innocent and may have it's cliches, however it knows exactly what it is, and never attempts to prove itself as being anything else, while having fantasticly original gameplay elements.
It's no coincidence that the same terms, reviered by gamers, "Mature" and "Hardcore", are commonly used to describe pornography. Not that there's anything wrong with porn, but if I want porn, I'll go get me some porn, thank you.
People who think that the Wii and the PS3 are aimed at wildly different markets should get their heads checked. The whole "we're not competative" thing was started by Nintendo to make themselves look like the "nice guys", but they're competing head to head with the PS3 in the same demographics. Both are aiming at hardcore gamers (no matter what anyone says about the Wiimotes being "kiddy", most of their fans are long time, dyed-in-the-wool classic gamers), with the Wii simply being more successful at being able to reach more casual gamers. But let's not fool ourselves, people who have never played games before are just as unlikely to buy a Wii as a PS3. They're like sports teams, everyone has their favorite, and are gunning for it to whoop the other... regardless of their age, gender, sexual orientation, or otherwise. The PS3 is going to be more attractive to younger gamers due to Sony's meathead, testosterone-laced design philosophy, where-as the Wii is going to be more favorable to the 23+ crowd who grew up with classic games. But these differences are subtle, and mostly they're gunning toward the exact same people.
It's the "other" November election: Sony vs. Nintendo, Republican vs. Democrat. Who's philosophy will dominate the game industry? Who's philosophy will dominate the government? I've taken sides, have you?
Not to mention the rediculous pricing of HDTV Television sets. I'm looking at buying a new TV, and I'm probably going to get another SDTV, just because the price point is just so fucked up. 20" LCD HDTV for $600? Are you crazy?
If that's Sony's strategy, it's the stupidest, and most arrogant business strategy to date, seeing as though the HDTV adoption rate is still pretty low (and not expected to increase drastically for the next few years), and the current figures are only about 15% of TV owners. People yell and screem bloody murder when Microsoft releases an OS upgrade that will only run on the top 75% of currently owned PCs, and Sony's gunning for the top 15%!!!
Lol, I love the license system, but I do keep thinking: "so I'm fighting a life and death battle here, and I have with me one of the most powerful swords a guy can get, and you're telling me I can't use it because I'm not licensed to do so? What?! I'm in the middle of a fucking dungeon, who's gonna know?" ;)
The term definitely doesn't fit. Materia Slots was physically understandable, Junctioning was complicated (I loved it, though) but still understandable. Weapons containing hidden powers in FF9, while fantastical, is a cool idea. But FFX and FFXII sees the characters carrying around big boards with symbols and slots on them.
So, I'm in the middle of battling a huge boss, when Balthier suddenly says, "hold on a minute, gotta add a skill", and whips out his giant checkerboard to place a few more tiles down, folds it up again, and says, "Okay, time in." The imagery is just kinda funny, if you think about it.
Bullshit. People watching TV, casually, are much less interested in seeing the product in action, then seeing unique presentations like skits, and the like... since they're most likely watching TV for entertainment in the first place. As I always tell my sales staff, content is fairly irrelivant in ads, they're about establishing identity and a unique style that separates a business from everyone else. This goes for local spots and national spots alike.
And the Sony execuative only came out and explained it AFTER it got a lot of press. Ever heard of the phrase, "there's no such thing as bad publicity?", well, that's especially true in advertising. You may not like it... hell, I fucking hate the commercial, but I'll definitely remember it... and that's basically 95% of the success of an advertisement. Now, if I was to walk away from the commercial with a strong opinion, but not knowing what the commercial was for (like a certain Pepto Bismal commercial I researched into), that would be a different matter, but this one is very forward about what it is.
Well, 445 of the smallest radio stations are being cut loose (about 1/3rd). So there are some local stations that will now be out from CCs thumb (and under someone else's, most likely). You might just get your wish. This effectively cuts the size of CC down by quite a bit, and it takes them out of the tallons of the "I want my money NOW!" shareholders. They have been trying to do this for quite some time, actually. Going private is probably the best thing that has happened to the media industry in years.
I work for a small Clear Channel owned TV station here in Fairbanks, Alaska, KTVF, and I found out about this this morning when I came into work. Not a whole lot will change when we get sold (depending upon the owner). Many of the CC TV stations were bought by CC just a few years ago when CC tookover The Akerley Group, of which our station was a member. We have been through 4 different coorporations (statewide and national), in the last 15 or so years... none of the sales having any reliviance to the profits of this station.
So, basically, our website will probably change (since it's currently a Clear Channel developed layout), we will no longer be pushed into the sales promotions that are currently required of us, and our logo will probably have to be changed a bit. I just hope the new boss isn't the same as the old boss... so to speak.
I'm a commercial producer myself, and even though the baby commercial (the only one I've seen aired so far) may be disturbing, it's memerable and sticks with you. Disturbing isn't neccessarilly a bad thing in advertising, because it means the spot is hard to forget. Now, I totally disagree with their reasoning behind the ad... "emotion"? Wow, he really did have to explain that for me to understand it. But for what it is, the fact that we're talking about it here is a pretty good indication of its success.
A similar example that all of my sales staff and I have been talking about is Yahoo's "Lawn Fertilizer" commerical, in which, after using a type of fertilizer bought off of Yahoo, the familly's previously dead dog jumps up from out of its garden grave, with an exclamation from a little girl, "Fluffy, you're alive!" *Shivers* that shit doesn't leave you.
How is "Reverse Crying" an emotional response? Can you remember the last time you bawled backwards? Seriously, emotion was the LAST thing I took away from that spot, more like disturbed fuckedupedness.
480i is just called either NTSC or SDTV, which is 480 lines interlaced. This is why you never hear it refered to as 480i. The whole naming by scan lines (ie: 480p, 720p, 1080i/p) is a reletively recent phenomenon since EDTV (480p) only came out about 10 years ago, and called for a new naming system.
720i does not exist, to my knowledge. By the time they got to the 720p standard, there was no reason to go interlaced anymore, because progressive scan will ALWAYS be superior in image quality when showing in a native format. Now, there is a bit of question as to whether 1080i or 720p is superior. I would say 720p is a safer bet, because interlacing causes a lot of weird flickery effects, and I would be totally up for sacrificing some screen resolution to get rid of those.
Same marketting team that came up with the name "Urge", as in "I'm currently doing an Urge Squirt". This is from marketting commity "C", who are just nasty and should vengence be set upon them by His wrath. Rumor has it that they also came up with "Long Horn" but someone in the PR department screwed up and accidently condensed it into one word.
Marketting commity "B" came up with "Zune" and "Vista". Beware the power of conservative old foggies with thesauruses!
Marketting commity "A" have largely been ignored, and are thinking of going to work for Apple or Nintendo.
Although I would agree, we're talking with someone who's on a whole different level of "need to walk everywhere" syndrome. Did you notice his "like GTA but where I can walk into every building" comment? I mean, sure it would be nice... but... why? If the creators did that, then they won't have the time to put any time into making those buildings interesting, or at all inspired. You're basically asking a group of game designers to recreate New York City for you. Fuck disc capacity, the design capacity just isn't there. Why not have designers concentrate on smaller things that they can put a lot of subtlety and creativity into? The last thing I want to have happen is designers creating an endless amount of content while sacrificing any kind of artistry or creative thought. There's always a price to pay.
I suggest, to this guy, that he try playing Metroid Prime, which, although probably not up to your graphical standards, has an incredible amount of thought put into every room in the game, to the point where it's extremely interesting to explore, even just a small area. On the flip side, most urban architecture is quite boring. Sky scrapers basically repeat the same floor over and over again for 80 stories, with subtle changes in interior layout. Do we really want this to become the new standard in video game design?
The "let me go everywhere" attitude is a bit selfish, IMHO. Games are an entertainment/art form like anything else... sure they're interactive, but within the confines of the vision the creators wanted to portray. It's like if I wrote a symphony, just to have one of the audience members yell at me because they want to hear their favorite musical theme in retrograde inversion performed on the english horn and harmonized by the horns and low strings. There's an infinte amount of variation, but, I mean... gaahhhh... doth one not appreciate the art of editing? I mean, exploration is one of my favorite aspects in games, but only if there's something WORTH exploring. Wind Waker gave me a huge world with nothing but endless, repeatitive, open water... geee, that was FUN.
Nintendo had a very legitimate reason for staying with cartridges. It probably wasn't the best decision, as they lost the entire RPG market, but they did have a few very good reasons for the direction they took, which you outlined above. Some PS1 and PS2 games are incredibly painful to play because of their load times (Suikoden V, for example). But Nintendo's constant concentration on decreasing load times has lead them to be fairly good even when they switched to optical media, much better than Sony or Microsoft, anyway. I worry that Sony is going to uphold status-quo with the PS3s load times, the increase of loading speed being directly proportional to the capacity of the disc, which would be quite obnoxious. I think Nintendo probably should have gone optical back with the N64, as they would have put a lot more pressure, than Sony did, on developers building good code into their games so as to limit load times (like they did with the GameCube). Sony's problem is that they don't police their developers enough. Nintendo makes sure the developers don't make their systems look bad, and the consumer wins because of it
Not to mention, it had two of the best RPGs of the generation: Tales of Symphonia and Skies of Arcadia (sure, a DreamCast port, but only after the DreamCast had died, and was greatly improved).
Physics, AI, etc. have almost NOTHING to do with disc capacity. These things are dry code, which takes up an insignificant amount of drive space. A good 95% or more of a disc goes into graphics and sound. Code for most contemporary games could still fit in an N64 cartridge. Maybe this is an exaduration, but not by much. All the disc capacity is for is for "pretty". Disc capacity has NO overarching effect on gameplay, WHAT SO EVER. Now, I'm not saying that disc capacity is pointless. Graphics and sound enhance the atmosphere of the game, making it more immersive if used well (which most HD games, I would argue, do not). So if it's gameplay you are concerned about, do not worry, the Wii will probably have the best gameplay (AI, Physics, etc.) since companies are being persuaded to concentrate more on that than "oooh... pretty".
This is coming from a person who thinks that the game with the best graphics, that I've ever seen, is Okami, a PS2 game. I don't believe that most developers have come to terms with the graphical capabilities that they had with the last generation, let alone the current one. Graphics are only as good as the artistic vision of the creators. Although, I will admit that Shadow of the Collosus is one example of a game made painful because the creators surpassed the capabilities of the machine, and the game was increadibly choppy because of it.
Correct, Microsoft has nothing to do with the HD-DVD standard. HD-DVD is largely a Toshiba endevour. Microsoft did, however, throw themselves entirely behind Toshiba in this, so they have quite a bit to lose if it doesn't pan out.
This is why I'm a fan of businesses going private, which, thankfully, seems to be an increasing trend these days. Even ClearChannel (Oooh, they are Teh Evil!) is trying to find buyers in order to go private. I can understand the stock market being good for some things, but in some ways, it's been the worst thing to happen to the free market ecconomy... it encourages all investments to be made for short term gains, and forsakes long term planning. Many companies have lost their way after going public. I'm really happy that ClearChannel is looking for a way out, because they SUCK (I know, I work for them!)
Ya know, believe it or not, the "we're just out to make money" mentality, is not one shared by all businesses in all countries of the world. There are many countries in which a business's first priority is to their employees, then their community, and only thirdly to themselves (many businesses in Japan, for instance). Unfortunately, American's have convinced themselves that the only way to survive in the business world is to forsake all ethicality... and so they've made that true. It's very sad.
You're right...
...we need more hippy coders!
I miss Clover :(
You may be right, as I pointed out in a further post, that it's a lot to ask to train people to both hate other people, and to promote peace, and I'll respect that. An interesting thought I had, though, is that up until now, all the armed forces are divided by their means of transportation: Army (ground), Air Force (Air), Navy (Ocean), with the Marine's being the one oddball designed to bridge that gap between the Army and the Navy. I've always thought this was a little inefficient way of dividing a military, as the Navy has a lot of planes, and the Army has quite a few boats. In 21st century warfare it's going to be the TYPE of war that will make the biggest difference in overall action, not the means of fighting. Let's say that instead of dividing simply by mode of transport, we were to divide the services into methods of action: a dedicated defense force (ie: Japanese military), a traditional offensive force, and an equally powerful reconstruction force aimed at maintaining order by combining policing with diplomatic strategy at a finite level. Currently, our reconstruction methods, compared with our offensive power, SUCK... you can't have one without the other. Wars only last so long, usually the period afterwards is just as difficult, and much much longer. I'm not suggesting we set ourselves up as the world police... but since we already have, to a certain extent, we should at least do a good job of it. Basically, if we're preparing to use an offensive strategy, we must also have a very good idea of how, legistically, we're going to follow up that afterwards.
Yes, but Cartman trained it to bite off your wiener
Well, honestly, FF12 is impossible to compare to any of the previous final fantasies (the ones you love, and the ones you don't like), or Kingdom Hearts (which I thought, blew as well, btw), or Dragon Quest 8. The "streamlined battle system", that you talk about, makes the full game much MORE strategic than the rest of the series, instead of being a button masher, it becomes more like a small-scope RTS. You become the "manager" of your party, not so much the invisible hand.
Actually, the closest thing I can think of is, did you ever play Secret of Mana? The battle system actually has some large similarities at its most basic level. Imagine if, in Secret of Mana, the characters just automatically attacked when the bar got up to 100%, that's pretty much what the basic attack system is like in FF12. NOW, on top of that add the need to do a lot of customizing of the AI, the management of a very in-depth skill system, and a lot finer control over movement. And with that AI, you can choose to play the game in many many different ways. I have a friend, for instance, who plays the game with NOTHING but black magic, and won't even use healing spells, and focuses his energy on using various tactics to recover lost MP. He's basically playing a totally different game from me.
The best way to describe FF12s battle system is as a direct hybrid between an RTS and an Action RPG. You have much more subtle control over your characters than the old ATB systems, even if you don't ACTUALLY get to make the final attack. This conception that the ADB system takes away control of the game from the player is totally incorrect, you are MUCH more actively involved than ever before, and your choices have much bigger consiquences.
As for the storyline... I would liken it, best, to a Suikoden game. It deals with an international conflict, in which there really is no obvious "good" and "evil" side, and you're just left to deal with the consiquences. It really has no relation to anything else Square has produced. The story is not a hardcore mellodrama like Xenogears, FF7, or Chrono Cross (all of which I dispise), it has a few similarities to FF9, having a very "Renaisance" feel to it, although being much more realistic. My only gripe with it is that like the Suikoden games (which I really like, btw), it's not quite as personal as the previous outtings, which is good and bad. The good part is that it is almost completely clear of any cheese factor, of which made games like Chrono Cross and Xenogears almost completely unplayable for me. It's much more sophisticated, and doesn't have the "wiz-bang" that will attract many