Actually, that's not the only thing they're giving out. The "Welcome Back" program includes some choices of free game downloads for 30 days after the Playstation Store finally comes back online.
http://www.joystiq.com/2011/05/16/sony-reveals-choice-of-free-game-downloads-in-psn-welcome-back-p/
I don't use my PS3 for online anything except Netflix so this didn't affect me one way or the other, and this won't make me forget how mediocre PS3's online services are, but free is free.
Because other charities help with equipment and such. Not so many of them give much thought to kids stuck in hospitals for weeks at a time with nothing to do but stare at the wall or sit in front of daytime TV.
Expect to hear some kinda interesting news about a very interesting upcoming console at 12:01 a.m. EST Friday... While I'm sure you will all find it endlessly fascinating, in the end it really won't get you any closer to the news most people want to know.
The people commenting on it were the ones that hyped it so much. Can't really blame the site itself for that.
From WorldofWarcraft.com's announcement on the subject:
In keeping with Blizzard's aggressive stance against cheating in World of Warcraft, we banned over 30,000 accounts in the month of May, and with that removed well over 30 million gold from the economy across all realms.
Looks like they're trying to do the best they can to make a real go at it.
Have you played KH? I feel the same way about the FF series as you do, and was loathe to even touch the thing, but I bought it for my girlfriend and finally picked it up after listening to her sing its praises nonstop.
Even with all my preconceptions of "oh God, weapons-grade cuteness," it sucked me in. It deserves the praise and the sales. The story is engrossing and the play is addictive; it's the first game in a long, long time in which I found myself running around picking fights, because combat was actually enjoyable. And if there was any exposure to Disney in your childhood (and how could there not be?), these games will find that part of you and joyfully exploit it. Really, the only thing that bugs me about it is the cheap FF 7/8/10 fanservice that doesn't really fit, but that's kept mercifully in check.
And while we're on the subject of "Is this an RPG?" and FF, your opinion of Zelda's RPGness is a good gauge of how you'll feel about KH's RPGness. It's the same style of play, except that you always have a menu to pick spells from the menu rather than pausing, equipping your item of choice, unpausing, and casting. And, if I'm remembering correctly (been a year since I played the original and haven't pried the sequel from girlfriend yet), even that part is simplified; you can map 3 spells for L1 + Square/Triangle/Circle for your most-used ones. I'd say it's about 10% FF-esque menu-usage and 90% Zelda. The KH story is a good deal more in-depth than Zelda, though.
The original Tactics, for Playstation, was the one with the good story.
Tactics DS has great gameplay, but the story is ABYSMAL. Irritating, angsty little self-absorbed brats wrapped up in their own fantasy world. Honestly, it features some of the least-likable characters ever.
If you like the style of game, I recommend it heartily. But I suggest you ignore the story.
When Hgf, Gprs, and Adsfhg will stop hawking their Foror's Compendiums every 15 seconds and actually respond to whispers, I'll stop assuming that they're farmers.
The problem with farming gold and items is that often they're not camping one specific mob, but a small area.
Bind-on-Pickup items, like those won from bosses in dungeons, are worthless to a farmer; it can't be used by (or even go into the inventory of) anyone except the person who wins the loot roll for it. All you can do is sell it to a vendor for about 5g.
Bind-on-Equip epixxxx, which are the ones characters with no vowels in their names try to pawn off for about 800g, are almost entirely random world drops, which have a tiny chance to drop from anything in certain level range. This way, the farmer camping an area makes life miserable for anyone trying to complete a quest there, but there's not overwhelming 24-hour competition for one specific mob.
a game version of Shaun of the Dead, since most of their game designers are actually located in Britain, and mindless ****** violence is only half as fun as very silly British mindless ****** violence.
Calm down, it's going to be ok.
He's not talking about targetting to mom, and only to mom. Nintendogs and Brain Training will not be the ONLY games for this system.
Think back to the teaser video where they revealed the Revolution. People of all ages. They're still going to shoot for the traditional demographic, just not as blatantly exclusively as MS and Sony. Nintendo will still be making Mario, Zelda, Metroid, etc.
It's a fool's errand to try to make EVERY game fit EVERY audience. It's pretty much impossible, except maybe with something like Tetris or Katamari Damacy. But just as there will be games that most moms don't care about, like Metroid, there will be things like Brain Training, that your average high-schooler won't even pause over.
This is the reason for the Revolution and, to a somewhat lesser extent, the DS. The videogame industry simply can't support the growth it's had in the last several years.
There aren't enough new people picking up controllers to support it. Some kids are getting into it, but obviously not at a volume to offset the people neglecting their consoles for MMOs, or the people getting fed up with the shortage of well-made/innovative/actually FUN games, the people who simply can't afford to stay current, or the people who were hardcore in high school/college, but are moving on to actual employment and not having the time to game like they used to.
Plus, kids are having a harder time getting into it, as system/game costs are high, and more and more parents are figuring out that standard Playstation 2/3 and Xbox/360 fare isn't for kids. And since the kids can't have those, they settle for insulting Nickelodeon-branded crap that just isn't fun enough to really whet their appetites for gaming.
Sony and Microsoft are, for all intents and purposes, the driving force behind this. No real innovation, just cranking up the system specs. We add more complex controllers and more complicated games, while the next-gen systems are so prohibitively priced. Sony and Microsoft cater to the hardcore market, and do a decent job at it, but it's simply not a situation that looks welcoming to new customers.
Nintendo's whole "Blue Ocean" strategy is a direct response to the state of the gaming industry. Get new people in. Scooping up the junior market has always been their forté. This is why Pokémon and the Game Boy line have been such massive sellers: they're aimed squarely at an audience that the rest of the industry isn't taking seriously enough. It can be argued that this works a little too well, which is why Nintendo gets branded the kiddy system, but eh.
The whole idea of the Revolution's simplified, innovative interface is make interesting new games that anybody can pick up and get into. More new customers. The DS is their testing ground for this sort of thing - look at Nintendogs. What you think of the "game" is irrelevant; it's got people picking up Nintendogs (and the hardware to play it on) in volume.
People want new gaming experiences, and an innovative concept CAN bring in new customers. Looking at the DS as a test case for the Revolution, I'd guess that Rev has a somewhat slow start, but when the games start coming out and it gets a killer app that brings in an innovative experience that makes perfect use of the hardware (Nintendog Revolution?), it'll gain surprising ground on Sony and Microsoft.
You're apologizing for a patronizing comment and *I'M* the one who's new here?;p
I've had points to distribute once or twice already, but this comment needed it so much more than whatever I used those on.
The whole HD debate basically boils down to prick-waving, and Nintendo isn't having any of it. The Nintendo consoles always launch at competitive prices to appeal to parents who think that their kids are just going through a "video game phase" and don't want to drop a bundle of cash on something that's going to collect dust.
On that same note, Nintendo knows where its money comes from. Even if they're not outselling everybody, they're hardly starving. They make their money on the Pokémon players and the family-friendly set, who don't have the slightest interest in HD.
So far, the next generation is shaping up to be pretty much identical to the last. Go to Xbox for wasted hardware potential and overhyped, underwhelming games, Nintendo for outstanding first-party games and little else, and Sony for enough decent-to-really-good titles to stay entrenched at the top.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, that's not the only thing they're giving out. The "Welcome Back" program includes some choices of free game downloads for 30 days after the Playstation Store finally comes back online. http://www.joystiq.com/2011/05/16/sony-reveals-choice-of-free-game-downloads-in-psn-welcome-back-p/ I don't use my PS3 for online anything except Netflix so this didn't affect me one way or the other, and this won't make me forget how mediocre PS3's online services are, but free is free.
Because other charities help with equipment and such. Not so many of them give much thought to kids stuck in hospitals for weeks at a time with nothing to do but stare at the wall or sit in front of daytime TV.
I assume he was referring to the Power Pad.
The people commenting on it were the ones that hyped it so much. Can't really blame the site itself for that.
Where are my mod points? Where, I ask you?
Looks like they're trying to do the best they can to make a real go at it.
Even with all my preconceptions of "oh God, weapons-grade cuteness," it sucked me in. It deserves the praise and the sales. The story is engrossing and the play is addictive; it's the first game in a long, long time in which I found myself running around picking fights, because combat was actually enjoyable. And if there was any exposure to Disney in your childhood (and how could there not be?), these games will find that part of you and joyfully exploit it. Really, the only thing that bugs me about it is the cheap FF 7/8/10 fanservice that doesn't really fit, but that's kept mercifully in check.
And while we're on the subject of "Is this an RPG?" and FF, your opinion of Zelda's RPGness is a good gauge of how you'll feel about KH's RPGness. It's the same style of play, except that you always have a menu to pick spells from the menu rather than pausing, equipping your item of choice, unpausing, and casting. And, if I'm remembering correctly (been a year since I played the original and haven't pried the sequel from girlfriend yet), even that part is simplified; you can map 3 spells for L1 + Square/Triangle/Circle for your most-used ones. I'd say it's about 10% FF-esque menu-usage and 90% Zelda. The KH story is a good deal more in-depth than Zelda, though.
No no no no no.
The original Tactics, for Playstation, was the one with the good story.
Tactics DS has great gameplay, but the story is ABYSMAL. Irritating, angsty little self-absorbed brats wrapped up in their own fantasy world. Honestly, it features some of the least-likable characters ever.
If you like the style of game, I recommend it heartily. But I suggest you ignore the story.
Dear Lord, don't give them ideas. They already have The Man Show and Banzai.
Yes, the last one starts with a vowel, but you understand my meaning.
When Hgf, Gprs, and Adsfhg will stop hawking their Foror's Compendiums every 15 seconds and actually respond to whispers, I'll stop assuming that they're farmers.
The problem with farming gold and items is that often they're not camping one specific mob, but a small area.
Bind-on-Pickup items, like those won from bosses in dungeons, are worthless to a farmer; it can't be used by (or even go into the inventory of) anyone except the person who wins the loot roll for it. All you can do is sell it to a vendor for about 5g.
Bind-on-Equip epixxxx, which are the ones characters with no vowels in their names try to pawn off for about 800g, are almost entirely random world drops, which have a tiny chance to drop from anything in certain level range. This way, the farmer camping an area makes life miserable for anyone trying to complete a quest there, but there's not overwhelming 24-hour competition for one specific mob.
a game version of Shaun of the Dead, since most of their game designers are actually located in Britain, and mindless ****** violence is only half as fun as very silly British mindless ****** violence.
Edited for content. We're not using the zed word.
Nerf the long piece! Overpowered. And innuendo'd.
Calm down, it's going to be ok. He's not talking about targetting to mom, and only to mom. Nintendogs and Brain Training will not be the ONLY games for this system. Think back to the teaser video where they revealed the Revolution. People of all ages. They're still going to shoot for the traditional demographic, just not as blatantly exclusively as MS and Sony. Nintendo will still be making Mario, Zelda, Metroid, etc. It's a fool's errand to try to make EVERY game fit EVERY audience. It's pretty much impossible, except maybe with something like Tetris or Katamari Damacy. But just as there will be games that most moms don't care about, like Metroid, there will be things like Brain Training, that your average high-schooler won't even pause over.
This is the reason for the Revolution and, to a somewhat lesser extent, the DS. The videogame industry simply can't support the growth it's had in the last several years.
There aren't enough new people picking up controllers to support it. Some kids are getting into it, but obviously not at a volume to offset the people neglecting their consoles for MMOs, or the people getting fed up with the shortage of well-made/innovative/actually FUN games, the people who simply can't afford to stay current, or the people who were hardcore in high school/college, but are moving on to actual employment and not having the time to game like they used to.
Plus, kids are having a harder time getting into it, as system/game costs are high, and more and more parents are figuring out that standard Playstation 2/3 and Xbox/360 fare isn't for kids. And since the kids can't have those, they settle for insulting Nickelodeon-branded crap that just isn't fun enough to really whet their appetites for gaming.
Sony and Microsoft are, for all intents and purposes, the driving force behind this. No real innovation, just cranking up the system specs. We add more complex controllers and more complicated games, while the next-gen systems are so prohibitively priced. Sony and Microsoft cater to the hardcore market, and do a decent job at it, but it's simply not a situation that looks welcoming to new customers.
Nintendo's whole "Blue Ocean" strategy is a direct response to the state of the gaming industry. Get new people in. Scooping up the junior market has always been their forté. This is why Pokémon and the Game Boy line have been such massive sellers: they're aimed squarely at an audience that the rest of the industry isn't taking seriously enough. It can be argued that this works a little too well, which is why Nintendo gets branded the kiddy system, but eh.
The whole idea of the Revolution's simplified, innovative interface is make interesting new games that anybody can pick up and get into. More new customers. The DS is their testing ground for this sort of thing - look at Nintendogs. What you think of the "game" is irrelevant; it's got people picking up Nintendogs (and the hardware to play it on) in volume.
People want new gaming experiences, and an innovative concept CAN bring in new customers. Looking at the DS as a test case for the Revolution, I'd guess that Rev has a somewhat slow start, but when the games start coming out and it gets a killer app that brings in an innovative experience that makes perfect use of the hardware (Nintendog Revolution?), it'll gain surprising ground on Sony and Microsoft.
You're apologizing for a patronizing comment and *I'M* the one who's new here? ;p
I've had points to distribute once or twice already, but this comment needed it so much more than whatever I used those on.
Why? Why do I not have any mod points when something this funny is posted?
The whole HD debate basically boils down to prick-waving, and Nintendo isn't having any of it. The Nintendo consoles always launch at competitive prices to appeal to parents who think that their kids are just going through a "video game phase" and don't want to drop a bundle of cash on something that's going to collect dust.
On that same note, Nintendo knows where its money comes from. Even if they're not outselling everybody, they're hardly starving. They make their money on the Pokémon players and the family-friendly set, who don't have the slightest interest in HD.
So far, the next generation is shaping up to be pretty much identical to the last. Go to Xbox for wasted hardware potential and overhyped, underwhelming games, Nintendo for outstanding first-party games and little else, and Sony for enough decent-to-really-good titles to stay entrenched at the top.