Messages

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TalkBack / Re: There Won't Be Blood

« on: April 30, 2009, 01:39:29 AM »

This is pretty dumb here. When James Bond shoots people, is there blood? Just because it has swords and guns doesn't mean it needs to focus on ultra-realism. The first game wasn't supposed to be some gritty action thing, it was over-the-top and stylish. It's supposed to be like a PG-13 action flick, none of which ever have blood or portray the real-life consequences of violence. Wanna keep the rating at a T? Don't have any blood in it.

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TalkBack / Re: Your Princess is in Another Castle ... If You Bought Your Game New

« on: November 19, 2008, 04:55:41 PM »

Gaming will fade away if you charge for the end of used games? That's completely unrealistic. Explain to me how used game sales, which account for precisely zero dollars and zero cents of revenue for the game companies, are somehow the linchpin of the industry. Most people don't buy used games. In fact, companies like Wal-Mart, Target, Costco, Best Buy etc. account for way more game sales than your Gamestops and other specialty stores, and they don't sell used games. That doesn't mean Capps' idea isn't idiotic, and quite possibly illegal, but you saying that the industry will collapse as we know it if this happens shows me, once again, that people in the gaming media have delusions of grandeur and really think themselves and people like them make up the overwhelming majority of people who buy video games, and that they really think they have power and influence.

EDIT:
Also, "make games more affordable" is an overly simplistic way to look at it. I'll mention the fact that very few games are profitable as it is, and with development costs getting higher and higher every console cycle, there are less and less profitable games. They theoretically changed the price standard to $60 because of that, and the market responded by buying more games than ever. So they've already proven, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that consumers will pay $60 for a game. So why would they ever go back?

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TalkBack / Re: Fanboyism, or Cutting off Your Nose to Spite Your Face

« on: September 02, 2008, 12:07:35 AM »

I think the PS3 is a failure as a followup to the PS2, it's a success as a way of forcing BluRay on people but it lost a lot of the market the PS2 had. Going from having a marketshare over 50% to being the weakest player in the market is a failure.

That's definitely true for now at least. There's no denying that the PS3 was a big mistake on multiple fronts. It was a product of the simple arrogant notion that everybody who bought a PS2 would buy a PS3, lockstep, no questions asked. All they had to do was say "look at the superior tech!" and that would be enough. They pretty much eschewed all the common knowledge of the video game industry (software sells hardware, superior hardware on it's own won't sell) because they thought they could manipulate the entire industry by the grace of their hand. It was a PR disaster, and Sony has nobody to blame for it but themselves. But, there's still potential. They've got the format on their side, price cuts and marquee titles will continue to come, and I could definitely see it making money by the time this cycle is over, particularly if we're to believe the analysts that this cycle will last longer than previous ones.

A good way to compare Honda to Sony is their F1 division as their games division. They are pretty much dead last, despite pouring billions of dollars into it, and buying staff from other F1 teams.

This is a much better analogy. See, Silks? It's not that people are saying that "Honda will stop making cars" it's more like saying "if Honda's F1 division continues racking up deficits for a long time, the board of executives could become tired of waiting for it to deliver on promises and decide it's not worth pursuing any longer". And that doesn't sound so crazy, does it?

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General Gaming / Re: MS, Sony & Nintendo switching to cardboard boxes in 2009...

« on: September 01, 2008, 03:04:18 PM »

Does anyone else realize how completely f**king insignificant 4,000 cars is?

Yeah...but do you realize that plastic game cases are also pretty insignificant, too? I mean, I just don't think having my games in a plastic case is that big a deal, that's all I'm saying. If it helps out the environment, and they figure out a way to keep the games from getting scratched, then there's no problem. And even if the packaging is crappy, I'll just buy one of those CD jacket thingys.

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TalkBack / Re: Fanboyism, or Cutting off Your Nose to Spite Your Face

« on: September 01, 2008, 02:31:43 PM »

That's the thing though, I don't see the 360 and PS3 as failures at all.  Well, the 360 has utterly failed in Japan, but it's doing robust business in the U.S., and Microsoft is making money off of it.  The PS3 is still a player in the Japanese marketplace, and it's gaining momentum in the U.S. as well.

This whole aspect is indicative of how the whole "console wars" thing is so overhyped and imaginary. It's like last generation, where Nintendo was making a ton of money on the Gamecube and sold quite a few of them, but were seen as a "failure" because of stupid console wars statistics. There were even articles questioning whether or not Nintendo would "survive". You've sort of got that now with the PS3. It hasn't sold nearly what it should've, and Sony has given up a lot of ground to Nintendo, but that doesn't make the system a failure. Just a disappointment and a hiccup for the suits and the investors. It will probably do just fine as people start making the Blu-Ray move, gets more marquee titles, and comes down in price more. Microsoft's success is as overinflated by the gaming press as usual, this generation because it's the console the vast majority of them seem biased toward (don't lie), and last generation because they were a new player in the industry that managed to carve out a stake for themselves, which was impressive. The Wii, I'm still told to believe, will be exposed as a "fad" (anytime now, right guys?) and has outdated hardware, which I think is pretty funny, as one of the 360's selling point (HD DVD) is already basically useless, and isn't going to get less useless with time. Oh yeah, and if Game Informer is to be believed, it's like Atari 2600 in that it has too many bad games, and will bring doom and DESTROY THE GAME INDUSTRY AS WE KNOW IT!!! Laaammmee. Not to mention a true testament to the fact that everything always looks better when you're remembering it 30 years later, as I'm pretty sure dog food companies and Quaker Oats aren't making Wii games.

The bottom line is that there really isn't some cutthroat "console war" going on anywhere. But "the industry is constantly growing and is allowing a lot of companies to thrive and sell systems" just isn't as inflammatory and exciting to talk about than who's "failing" and "winning" and who may not "survive" into the next generation.

EDIT:

Okay I've got to do some "bad simile" busting here:

I think that saying Nintendo was going to "cut and run" 5 years ago is as silly as saying Sony or Microsoft will today or in the near future. They're entrenched as entrenched can be.  It's like saying Honda is going to drop their car division, or Apple is going to drop their iPod division.

This just doesn't work. Again, Honda is a car company. I'm not an expert on them, so I won't say that categorically the only thing they're involved in is cars. But I'm pretty sure it is, and if it's not, I'm sure they don't make nearly as much money anywhere else than they do with cars. Apple does make other products, and they're a better example of what you're going for, but like you said, the iPod is ridiculously successful. It's a mainstay of pop culture now. It's on a much higher level than either the 360 or PS3. It would be moronic to remove something making money hand-over-fist. But neither the PS3 or 360 IS making that kind of money. You obscure your opponent's point with the strawman that they aren't just going to leave games "today or in the near future". But as you already know, that wasn't the point. The fact is that both companies are high profile, publicly traded companies that have made a lot of money in other things besides games for a long time, and have a bunch of shareholders to appease. The fact is that if the line under "Games Division" is red for too long, the shareholders get impatient and all the justification of the potential of games for growth won't convince them that the division isn't ineffective. I'm not saying they'll leave soon, in fact I think they're both in for awhile at least, but you just can't argue that they're in the same boat or "just as invested" as Nintendo. That simply isn't an argument you can win.

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TalkBack / Re: Eidos Announces Gauntlet DS Features

« on: September 01, 2008, 02:08:12 PM »

Ugh. Definitely not a Gauntlet fan. I'll never understand why Gauntlet doesn't get half the crap Dynasty Warriors gets for being a crappy hack-n-slash that hasn't changed in 15 years.

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TalkBack / Re: PAX '08: The Return of Rocky Road

« on: September 01, 2008, 02:04:43 PM »

The drums on Wii Music look like a lot of fun. Let me tell you something about real instruments: when you mess up the timing, they don't care either. The point is to try and put together a good song, not to score a bunch of points. I've been waiting for a game that actually let you interpret the song in your own way. I don't know why you guys all need a linear music game with point totals and stuff to enjoy yourself. Anyway, comparing it to Rock Band and Guitar Hero is dumb. It's not at all the same game. And as an aside, can people stop pretending like those games have any resemblance to real instruments? What I mean is that, if you, while describing people playing the new Guitar Hero, refer to them as "ROCKING THE F*CK OUT" instead of simply "playing", then you're lame.

Wario Land is going to be awesome, I could tell from pretty early on. You make Clone Wars sound like it could be pretty good, though. Nice lightsaber controls and such. Dumb comments about graphics and "holding back" notwithstanding, this game looks like it's got some promise. I can definitely see the potential of the Conduit to be exactly as you've described it. I wondered why people were so into it, but I've heard so many good things about it that I decided to start paying attention. Animal Crossing, though, exposes you a bit. I laughed at your assessment (no doubt one that you thought was very clever) that it looks like "something the Gamecube could outdo". The first game was something the Gamecube could outdo! And don't get me started on the DS version. The Gamecube could certainly outdo it /sarcasm. It's a stylistic choice. It doesn't need a graphics overhaul because that isn't what Animal Crossing is about. That's the thing is that the only change you're willing to acknowledge is visual change. Wild World adds a bunch of new little features and stuff, but since it doesn't overhaul the graphics it's "the same game". That's pretty shortsighted. Halo 1 and Halo 2 are the same game.

BUT DOOD!!!1 KEWL! U LIK FALLOUT 3!!1!1!!LCTIONSPCFICDMG!

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General Gaming / Re: MS, Sony & Nintendo switching to cardboard boxes in 2009...

« on: August 28, 2008, 08:29:01 PM »

I don't know about this. I mean, surely we can all agree that the environment is more important than the packaging our games come in, right? And if game cases are actually proven to cause environmental problems that could be solved by simply changing packaging to cardboard, it doesn't seem like a bad idea at all, right? Just so long as they do it in a way that keeps games safe from harm it doesn't seem like such a bad deal.

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TalkBack / Re: Fanboyism, or Cutting off Your Nose to Spite Your Face

« on: August 28, 2008, 07:48:16 PM »

KFC is no more in control of the meat in their restaurants than McDonald's is in control of the wheat in their buns. They BUY the chicken, they don't grow it themselves. From big-ass factory farms that are also responsible for pretty much every other form of chicken you eat. The chicken you buy at the grocery store, the chicken in your McNugget, so on and so forth. So, either we're all eating mutant birds all the time, or maybe it's just a stupid Urban Legend, along with Arby's meat being made of space worms, or liquid, or schools getting the same "grade" of meat as prisons.

So on the subject of fanboyism, I have to say, in the interest of disclosure, that I'm more or less what many would consider a Nintendo fanboy. I own a DS, a Wii and nothing else. I tend to choose Nintendo because I have a limited budget and they make the games I like to play. I'm not against other consoles, in fact I borrowed a friend's 360 for awhile so I could play GTA IV. It was a lot of fun. But nothing has convinced me that the HD consoles are more over-hyped and overrated than that game. Let me explain.

All people really ever seem to praise these new consoles for are creating games that are "so good" that it's not like a game anymore. It feels so real, the characters are so life-like, and of course, the graphics are fantastic. So when I actually got a chance to really get an in-depth look at a 360, I was struck by just how little things have changed in the new generation. Dumb A.I.? GTA IV's full of it. Clipping? Weird physics? Unresponsive, mushy control? All those little spots in a game that suck you right back in to the reality of the fact that you're playing a game still very much exist. And GTA IV didn't have nearly as many of those moments as some of the other supposed "reasons" for why I "need" a 360 or PS3. Assassin's Creed (man that game was disappointing) Gears Of War, and Halo 3 all had enough little technical hiccups going for them to make me truly believe that what we've got in this new generation is the same old problems we've all been irritated by since the N64, with some really pretty looking special effects and higher production value.

What this all means for me, though, is that while the Wii of course still retains all those little gripes, it does so while offering something unique, that can't be done in quite the same way on a computer, and all at a reasonable price. And that's the big kicker for me. So don't pity me, folks. I'll stick with my "Gamecube 1.5" (is that what the HD fanboys call it?) and my "gimmicky" little handheld while you guys can keep telling me how "real" Halo 4 or Gears Of War 2 or GTA V is, all while your computer partner runs into a wall and your dead girlfriend keeps calling you.