jbanes
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Posts posted by jbanes
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Believe it or not, I'm going to come to bat for the system.
Games like Tomb Raider, Resident Evil, Wild Arms, Final Fantasy VII, Beyond the Beyond, just to name a few. Some of the best games i ever played and plenty of rpgs.The thing you need to remember is that you're looking at the system through the eyes of nostalgia. The PS1's games were new and innovative for their time. That made them interesting to play. In addition, you probably had more time on your hands and less eclectic tastes. If you revisit those games you're holding up as examples of excellence, I imagine that you'd lose interest within the first few minutes. (Been there, done that, got the T-Shirt.)
The reason why the Playstation seems to be "de-evolving" is that Sony plays to the market strategy of remaking the same games over and over again, but better! The improvements in graphics and sound make the games more appealing to a new crowd, but the results get long in the tooth for veterans of the core genres. In result, it feels like there's an ever-shrinking pool of REALLY good, break-out games that move systems. MGS4, Drake's Fortune, and LittleBigPlanet may seem like the only fresh air out there, but not everyone sees it that way. Some of Sony's customers are experiencing these games with the same fresh eyes you did when you got your first Playstation.
(Welcome to Nintendo's reason for the Blue Ocean strategy.
)What I'm getting at is that the Playstation 3 does what it does very well. And what it does is the same thing the PS1 did, but with better graphics and sound. It's just feeling a bit repetitive is all.
Not to mention, the compliants of hardware issues and programmers having a difficult time with it.Nothing new here. The PS2 was a royal pain, as was the Saturn before it, as was the Jaguar before it, as was the 7800 before it. There are always developer-unfriendly machines out there. The catch is that "developer unfriendly" is a slur thrown at consoles the market doesn't like. If the general populace is willing to buy the system, developers shut up and figure out how to program it.
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It's simple...M$ lost money on the Xbox 360 at first. It doesn't now and hasn't for awhile. We live in the now artarian63...2009.
That's not fanboyism (god I hate that word, are you 14?) it's simple truth. Deal with it.
You're not listening. Microsoft lowered the price on the console after they managed to turn a profit. The console that was selling for $299 and $399 is now selling at $199 and $299. A more complete bundle of hardware is sold at $399.
Microsoft's profit on the previous models was figured to be ~$75/console BEFORE shipping. Thus they are now running a $25/console deficit on the mid-range model and an unknown (though potentially huge) deficit on their low-end model. While it stands to reason that Microsoft may have found ways to further reduce production costs, it's also a known fact that Microsoft has had to do some re-engineering to improve the reliability of the system.
You'll notice that Microsoft has not given any numbers on the system since their 2006 profit/console. That's because they operate on the razor-blade model. They intentionally sell the console for no profit or even a slight loss, then make it up in licensing fees for games. And with an attach rate of 7.5 game/system, Microsoft is making a killing on this business model.
Interestingly, Sony pioneered this business model in the game industry, but has been losing their shirt on each PS3. They planned for an insane attach rate that simply never materialized. (Sony seemed to project a lot of data from the PS2 onto the PS3. Even though they had the historical data from the PS2 that should have told them it wouldn't be that easy out of the gate. *sigh*)
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What's with the use of the word "starting"? I love the Wii as a gaming platform, but there's been more shovelware for this system than any other console since the... hmm... PS2.
I've harped on this before, but a large portion of the Wii's early catalog was PS2 and PC ports. (Chicken Shoot, Ninjabread, etc.) The PS2 was chock full of crapola that was ripe for porting to the Wii for a second chance on life. Some of the software was so bad that Sony of America wouldn't let companies import the titles. (Even though Sony of Europe thought it was just fine. Go figure.)
Thankfully, most of that junk has slowed. Instead we're now being inundated by really bad multi-platform titles based on movie or TV licenses. Do we really need a Ben 10 video game? That's what I thought.
There's really nothing new here. Back in the PS2 days, the market was saturated with garbage. However, retailers had learned to be a bit more discerning after the up-teenth "me too" title for the PS1 failed to sell. So the garbage was tucked away and otherwise limited in many retail outlets. Either that or they were sold at bargain basement prices.
With the Wii, Nintendo was desperate to prevent the game drought situation that had plagued the Gamecube. Realizing that the extra coverage had to come from third parties, Nintendo relaxed their publishing requirements. The result was a veritable flood of anything and everything the market could ever possibly port to the Wii. (Did you guys know that the Flash/Downloadable game "Fruit Fall" saw a Wii release? It was a VERBATIM port that attempted to command $30!) Retailers didn't understand this new market, so they just tried to carry everything.
Worse yet, publishers figured they could set their $15 PS2 games at a $30 price point because the Wii was new. It was a full year (!) before even the crappiest Wii games came down in price. Even today, many Wii games are overvalued.
That being said, the market will eventually correct itself. As you noted, shoppers are getting wiser about their game picks which will lead to declining sales for off-brand publishers. Declining sales in those areas will teach retailers what they need to know, causing many of these products to be hard to find on the market. This scarcity will force publishers to either put out better titles, move to the WiiWare platform (where they can sell it for cheap with little overhead), or simply go out of business. Given that some of those games aren't bad at a lower price point (i.e. WiiWare), none of the above results sounds that bad to me.
So I wouldn't worry too much about it. It takes its toll on Nintendo's image, but Nintendo has more than enough first-party karma to make up for it. (Unlike Atari who was actually one of the major offenders in its day.)
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M$ doesn't lose money on every 360 units sold and hasn't for years. Why is it so hard for people to drop that fantasy? It's only been brought up like a half dozen times.I think you've got a bad floppy there, chief. You're probably thinking of this article about a year after Microsoft released the 360. While it may have been true for a short while, Microsoft operates on the razor-blade model. It didn't take them long to issue new versions of the console at lower price points and/or with upgraded hardware. This put each console sale back in the red in the hopes of generating more software sales. Which it did by Q1-2008. This last year has actually been pretty good to Microsoft, netting them a profit for the first time in history.
It's quite possible that Microsoft is making some money on their high-end hardware like the Elite, but there's no way they can be manufacturing the Arcade for less than $200. (Especially after the hardware redesigns for reliability.) What's really helping them out is their 7.5 attach rate. That's simply an insane number that has to be lining Microsoft's pockets quite nicely.
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I have this Energizer kit for rechargeable batteries. I absolutely LOVE this system. Not only do the batteries hold a good charge, but I can always have fresh batteries charging. Between our Wii Remotes and Gameboys, my boys chew through batteries like there's no tomorrow. With the Energizer kit, I don't worry about it. I simply grab two fresh batteries from the top or bottom, plop them in the device and place the old batteries in the charger. The charger begins charging them immediately and automatically shuts off when they're charged.
The face-plates that come with the kit seem kind of pointless. I threw those away immediately. Otherwise I've had the device for at least six months or so and have absolutely zero complaints with it. The only issue I had is that I had to purchase more batteries to revolve out of my various portable gaming units!
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I thought that arcade Atari walked off with all the arcade rights? Or is it because they had home versions of the titles that they got to keep rights?
In any case, only a handful of those titles are really powerful in the marketplace. Promoting something like Crystal Castles or Gravitar will get you little more than blank stares from the majority of the population.
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With my new Commodore 64 and floppy disk drive when I decided it was time for a new game (floppy) did I need to save $35-$40 or could I borrow my friends and make a copy?Well, that and the fact that many games could be purchased for under $10.
Since I'm on this subject was it possible to copy cartridges back in the day?There was a company that made a cartridge copy device, but Atari sued them out of existence. It was the only time the courts ever decided that media backups were unnecessary. (The reasoning being that ROM cartridges were not prone to failure in the same way magnetic media was.) That's why Nintendo still prints those stupid, "Copies of this game are not authorized and are illegal!" warning on their games. Despite the fact that no judge is ever going to take a company to task for providing backup media for optical discs. (Hello scratches, bye, bye video game!)
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Unfortunately, Atari will not be biting anytime soon. Infogrames is not interested in using the Atari brand on any more hardware at the moment. Their strategy is entirely towards downloadable game content and distribution.Typical bass-ackwards approach by Infogrames. The Atari name is meaningless in anything other than the context of classic gaming. And while the name did have a few arcade hits to it (none of which are under the Atari umbrella they have), Atari is best known for the original home console. And what better way to make money off a download service than with a portable device that can play classic games downloaded from Atari for micro-payments?
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The PS2 single-handedly propped up Sony during its run. I highly doubt that the games division will get the axe. However, Ken Kutaragi's over-the-top hardware designs might finally get the axe. Kutaragi himself has been repeatedly shuffled around Sony and is probably in a position right now where they will ensure that he does not design the PS4. It's likely that the PS4 will use more straightforward hardware that will have a traditional cost curve and many potential suppliers. I have a feeling that Sony will make their first clean break in backwards compatibility and ignore PS3 compatibility.
The intent of these changes would be to deliver a marginally more powerful console at a lower cost than the PS3. (Which won't be hard considering that GPUs are constantly improving.) It's likely that Sony will continue with the Blu-Ray format if only because it will finally be inexpensive by the release of the PS4.
The real question is if Sony will continue pouring support into the PS3 or if they will pull a Nintendo and quietly cede this generation as a cost-savings measure.
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Wait a minute... Has this been said?None of our systems are 'next gen' as the next gen is what's coming next ;the xbox 720 (or whatever, ) the psux4, the nintendo Xii (or whatever they end up calling it.) Those are the true next-gen systems.
Yup. I said it earlier in my original rant. That's my secondary pet peeve about all this. No one can figure out that the consoles have been released.
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Would it count as a current gen handheld?Quite possibly. Though I don't think non-cartridge handhelds are conventionally separated into the same generations as the cartridge handhelds. (i.e. The "dedicated" thing you mentioned.) There's the Wikipedia breakdown of the most recent generation here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_vi...nth_generation)
(Speaking of dedicated systems vs the Wii... it's funny seeing a game that was trying to be a $50 Wii+WiiSports clone...)What's shocking is how many of them there are. There's everything from the Chintendo Vii with wireless controllers, to odd "Sports Pack" rip offs that have an ugly black wire running out the back of the CloneMote.
And yes, I was being silly with the point, but not much sillier than worrying if Wii was "truly current gen" or whatever.Fair 'nuff. As I said, the whole "next gen" thing is blown WAY out of proportion. Sony advertised that their machine was the most powerful of the "next gen" machines and now everyone thinks that "Next Generation" means something that it doesn't. Honest to God, it simply doesn't work the way people seem to think it does.
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(Funny, for the people who argue that since it's 2009, Wii is current gen... I just saw like a Hannah Montanna LCD game... is it current gen?
False dichotomy. In the same vein: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperscan
Manufacturer: MattelType: Video game console
Generation : Seventh generation era
Retail availability: October 2006[citation needed]
Media: CD-ROM
Storage capacity: RFID cards
How dare they! They just put that... that... barely 3D... CD-ROM using... THING in the same category as the Wii, 360, and PS3!!! That's like... not even last gen! Huff huff puff huff!
Seriously guys. English: Do you speak it?
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There are so many things wrong with that article, it's not even funny. For example, his statement about Computers vs. Consoles not being a separate market has a grain of truth to it, but ignores the reality of the situation. The reality is that retailers and consumers saw them as different. Not just because of the pseudo-seriousness of "computers" over "video games", but also because computers used inexpensive media that meant cheaper manufacturing costs, cheaper stocking costs, and ultimately a cheaper end-product. (How many cartridges were made for the C64? I rest my case.)
This difference in the minds of retailers and consumers lead to stores wiping out their inventory of "video games" to make room for the "computers" which had suddenly gotten cheap thanks to Tramiel's little price war. Without that price war, it's quite likely that "computers" and "video games" would have continued to co-exist, albeit with a variety of bankruptcies and market corrections. But when Tramiel took a match to an already beleaguered market, he set off a chain reaction that caused the entire market for "video games" to disappear overnight.
@ddaniels - To your point, you're seeing the invisible hand of the market at work. Yes, the Commodore was better and more powerful and less expensive to own. But did you consider if you still would have owned it if it cost ~$1000 to get the system, the floppy drive, and a joystick? Sure, it would still have been superior. But that superiority would probably have been outside your price range!
Imagine for a minute that the PS3 suddenly started selling for $150 and you'll have a pretty good idea of what happened.
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Again...disagree entirely. When I was a kid lots of people played Arcade games, because video games began as arcade machines. A hardcore gamer was simply someone who dominated a game. They could play Pac-man for 3 hours on one quarter. They could play Galaga until no more enemies would appear, they would short out arcade games because the sweat would run down the joystick. It almost always was describing someone who hung out in and dominated Arcade games. It's 2009 now. There are hardly any arcade left and the ones that exist aren't busy these days. What any of that then has to do with Aunt Selma bowling in the living room or my girlfriends aunt playing "Wii Fit once every other month today...totally escapes me.I don't disagree with you, but there are similarities in the style of game. A lot of what's described as Casual games today have many of the aspects of arcade games of yore. They're quick games, they're easy to understand, they tend to have graphics more reminiscent of classic arcade gaming, and many even play up on retro memories of arcades.
Where they differ is that the games often lack the same degree of challenge as the arcades. The arcades sought to make everyone into a hardcore player because hardcore players plunk more quarters. The modern Casual games often have loose fail states that soften the skill requirements. e.g. Bejeweled instead of Tetris. Zuma instead of Bust-a-Move. Fishy instead of Shark! Shark! Heck, even modern versions of Pong and Breakout are gimped by slow-moving action.
IMHO, this is an attempt to appeal to the older crowd who remembers video games, but are older and don't have as much of a time investment to put into games.
Of course, games like Wii Sports *do* appeal to a new crowd that was previously unreachable. This crowd didn't even touch the web games that started the whole "Casual" concept. There-in lies the genius of Nintendo's strategy, but it also highlights the problem with the direction gaming has taken over the last decade. As the "core" games often demonstrate, gaming has become a more exclusive club than inclusive. Unless a player happens to be in that core segment of 18-25 that game studios targeted, many consoles will leave potential players uninterested. What Nintendo has shown is that game studios were actually leaving massive amounts of money on the table in their never-ending quest to appeal to their core audience and only their core audience. Oops.
And that is why there's room for all three consoles. Because tastes differ. A lot.
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Casual Gamer, What a hardcore gamer was in 1985. In other words Arcade games.Nail on the head, my friend. Nail on the head. If there's any difference between arcade goers of the 80's and the Casual Gamers of today, it's that the games the casual gamers play are often a lot easier to play. Oddly, a Casual Gamer who gets addicted to gaming again is more likely to find himself moving toward the hardcore category than ending up in the core category. In result, Core and Casual are really parallel interests.
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Hey let's switch subjects, lets spend the next 2 days discussing our opinion of what "hardcore" gamer means.
You laugh, but I happen to have a handy-dandy chart right here!
Hardcore Gamer - Enjoy games that are difficult to nearly impossible. Find enjoyment in "totally clearing" games. High Scores are a typical measure of success. (Do the words "Curtain Fire" ring a bell?
)Core Gamer - The gamer who has typified the popular genres of games for the past 5 years. Generally this includes 3D games that are Story-Based in nature.
Casual Gamer - Someone who has not been targeted by the gaming market until recently. This generally includes short "pick up and play" games, and local multiplayer titles that focus on friendly challenges.
Obviously there's a bit of crossover in all of these, and an individual gamer may sometimes find himself fitting into multiple categories. But there you have it.
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Well, on pencil & paper the Wii is part on the "Next-Generation" list of current consoles. However, the Wii is not really the next-gen system in regards to cutting edge technology!"Next Generation" (which is actually CURRENT generation) does not mean anything about hardware power or strength. If you think it has anything to do with such attributes, then you have bought into a marketing philosophy that has no real connection to reality.
Next generation literally means "to be generated from the existence of the previous thing". Which means that the 2600 begat the 5200 which begat the 7800. Which means that the NES begat the SNES which begat the N64 which begat the GameCube which begat the Wii. Which means that the Playstation begat the PS2 which begat the PS3. Which means that the XBox begat the 360. So on and so forth.
The only reason why we can group generations is because the console makers conveniently release their products with the intent of explicitly competing against another product. This creates grouping for which we can say, "Oh, they're of the same generation." Just like we can say, "I'm a Baby Boomer" or "I'm a Gen-Xer" or "I'm a Baby Buster". While one can make stereotypical assertions about one of those groupings, one cannot identify the attributes of the individual based on those stereotypes.
To wrap this up succinctly, all this argument about "next gen" is a bunch of bullshit that doesn't deserve anywhere near the airtime it's getting. If you want to argue that the Wii is less powerful than the PS3 & 360, go right ahead. (No kidding? Really? I had no idea!
) But leave this utter nonsense about generations out of the discussion. All that's being proven is that the vast majority of posters fail at the English language. -
I think the problem is not that a 1984 7800 competing with a 1983 NES, it was a 1984 7800 that had to compete with a 1987 NES.... i.e. because Nintendo was willing to go back into the industry after the crash, they got to lead an evolution of game design in a way that Atari didn't.Did Atari ever evolve game design as an art, or did they simply press forward down the same path?
As I recall, Donkey Kong shook up the industry because it was so completely different from what everyone was used to playing. It was THE game to have on your system. I'd say that Nintendo was already influencing the market pre-crash, and was trying very hard to exert their influence directly over Atari by offering them the Famicom.
Unfortunately, Kassar was just leading on Nintendo while he bought enough time to release the 7800. Atari would have still been behind the game as soon as Nintendo got their American feet under them and began pushing their new approach to gaming out to the market. Atari would have still been stuck with the 7800 and Nintendo would still have controlled the direction of the market. In the best of all universes, a healthy Atari would have poured money into the 7800 just to see it creamed by Nintendo in the same way the NES creamed the Master System.
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Anyone remember the classic Apple II/Atari/Commodore/IBM PC game Crossfire? Back in the day it came with the PCjr my mother brought home, thus making it one of the first video games I ever played. It was tough as nails, even compared to the arcade games of its day.
Over the years I've looked into various clones of the game. e.g. SDL Crossfire, GridFire, GridBlaster, and even a 1994 remake on the C64. But none of those clones has come even close to the addictive gameplay of the original. So this holiday season, I set out to create the world's best clone of Crossfire. The result is a webgame written entirely in Javascript (yes, Javascript!) that runs on both the PC and the Wii Internet Channel. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you:
(Click to play)Fire in four directions as an alien horde peeks out from their hiding places and firing off a volley at you! Just missed! You return fire and nail him, only to watch him regenerate into an even more powerful foe! Watch out, enemies are attempting to outflank you and you're running out of ammo! You dash to the nearest ammunitions depot to restock your rounds. You notice that your city's power crystals are vulnerable! Can you stop the alien horde and save the crystals?Think you've got what it takes to keep up with classic arcade action? Login to WiiCade.com and record a high score to prove it!
HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM WIICADE
Features
- Play on the Wii or PC
- Three different control schemes including keyboard, Wii Remote, and Dual Wii Remotes
- Single-entry high score system ensures your score is saved and visible
- Fast-paced action
- Leveling system that eases you into the challenge of gameplay
- Special end screen for high scores
- Cinematic screen-wipes and cross-fades
- Auto-stop option simplifies gameplay for those familiar with classic joystick controls
I hope you all enjoy this new title. Some of the most kick-ass gamers I know are on this forum, so I expect to see some new high scores!
- Play on the Wii or PC
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Are you mad, man?!? How could you forget The Conduit?
Oh, and Wii Sports Resort is coming out too. Yay for sword fighting!
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Overall, I'm disappointed with the Wii. It's turned into the same story as the Cube. Sure, Galaxy is worth the price of admission by itself, but there's not much there. The kids enjoy it, though.No offense, but Barbie Island Princess isn't exactly grade-A material to be judging a console by. In fact, the only good 3rd party titles I see in that list are Geometry Wars: Galaxies and Mercury Meltdown, the latter of which is a high-end budget title. You need to get some Pinball love, some Excite Truck excitement, some World of Goo gooeyness, some Mega Man 9 kickassery, some Zack and Wiki... monkey... bell thingy... Um.
My point is that you need more good games! The first party titles you have are a good start, but there's a heck of a lot more REALLY GOOD stuff for the console.
BTW, my list (may not be complete or in any particular order):
Guitar Hero III
Guitar Hero IV
Blast Works
Mario Galaxy
Mario Strikers
Excite Truck
Red Steel
Wii Play
Rayman Raving Rabbids
Geometry Wars: Galaxies
Zelda: Twilight Princess
SSBB
Link's Crossbow Training
Nights: Journey Into Dreams (not yet opened)
Boom Blox
Sonic and the Secret Rings (not yet opened)
Dokapon Kingdom (it was a gift for the kids)
Metal Slug Anthology
Ghost Squad
Super Paper Mario
Mario Kart Wii
Mercury Meltdown Revolution
Zack and Wiki
Pinball Hall of Fame: William's Collection
WiiWare:
World of Goo
Mega Man 9
Orbient
Defend Your Castle
pOp
LostWinds
Internet Channel
Alien Crush Returns
Bomberman Blast
Tetris Party
Gyrostarr
Space Invaders Get Even
Star Soldier R
Toki Tori
Wild West Guns
VC:
Super Mario Bros. 2
Paper Mario
Gate of Thunder
Blazing Lasers
Axelay
Super Mario World
SimCity
MegaMan
Donkey Kong Country 2
Bonk
Super Mario Bros.: Lost Levels
Legend of Zelda
Zelda 64
Star Fox 64
Pokemon Puzzle Challenge (Oh shaddap! I needed my Tetris Attack fix.
)Yoshi's Challenge
Street Fighter 2 Turbo
Um... I probably forgot something. Probably.
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Thought you guys might find this interesting. Keep an eye on the Classic Gaming forum for the release announcement.
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Not sure how Nintendo is figuring out which games qualify for points and which ones don't.Look in the FAQ. Not all registerable games will earn you "coins". The FAQ has a list of what is covered and what isn't. Going forward, all registerable games released after December 2008 will be eligible. (Registerable being defined as games with the registration card in the package. All future WiiShop titles are also eligible.)
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I tried transferring my account, but it keeps saying I need to register!
It does that for a while. Once you get one successful "You are registered" page, just wait a while and try logging in later. Note that it may tell you your username or password is wrong even when it's not.
P.S. For all of you modern software programmers out there, this is EXACTLY why you don't write your webapps using Struts.
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GH: World Tour or Rock Band 2?
in Modern Console Discussion
Posted
GH:WT instruments are better. The Drums have 5 pads (3 drums, 2 high-hats), teach you to play like a real drummer, and can take a serious beating. You can play RB2 with them no problem, but playing GH:WT with the RB drums means that one of the notes gets dropped from the chart.
As for the guitars, there's no contest. The GH:WT guitar is a life-changing piece of kit. It is so incredibly natural that you don't realize how much better you're playing until you try going back to one of the previous guitars.
The advantage to the GH:WT guitar is that it's a bit larger than the GHIII guitar, it's thin and light, well-built, the strum bar has a perfect amount of resistance, the buttons are easy to find, the alternate star power button is right under your thumb, the whammy bar is stiffer than the GHIII guitar yet more solid than the RB guitar, and the neck feels great in your hand. Even the slider works really well for nailing a long string of hammer-ons.
As for the microphone, they're exactly the same. No surprises there.