Nintendo HD? Wii 1.5? WTF?

[Armando]

Re: Nintendo HD? Wii 1.5? WTF?

Some people really are stupid. It's very likely the system will be HD this time around, but given Nintendo's recent history I would bet that in terms of graphic power, it will be maybe on par with PS3 or a little better.

Technically this has been Nintendo's approach since like...the 16 bit generation. The Game Boy beat out the Game Gear precisely because it was $60 cheaper and had twice the battery life with only 4 AAs vs the GG's 6. The N64's launch price was $50 under the PSX's.The GameCube's launch price was $100 below both the PS2 and the XBox. The only competition Nintendo had that would price their consoles just as low was Sega with the Master System, Genesis, and Dreamcast.

EDIT: Also, controllers with screens? SEGA Dreamcast says hi.

I wouldn't really call that a screen, but I loved the VMUs. Stupid Sega had to go and die.

[Cheezeman3000]

Re: Nintendo HD? Wii 1.5? WTF?

I don't know if I want Link to speak. Don't take that to mean I don't want voice-acting; I think text-boxes are incredibly archaic. But I see him as more of the silent protagonist while all the NPC's are the ones who speak.

Give me good voice actors for your next-gen NPC's, Nintendo, and keep characters like Mario and Link (AND SAMUS UGH) silent.

[Armando]

Re: Nintendo HD? Wii 1.5? WTF?

Give me good voice actors for your next-gen NPC's, Nintendo, and keep characters like Mario and Zelda (AND SAMUS UGH) silent.

While I agree that Link and Mario should stay quiet at this point, Samus hasn't been silent since Super Metroid. If they don't voice her it's straight back to the text boxes.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Nintendo HD? Wii 1.5? WTF?

There was nothing wrong with Samus' actress and everything wrong with the directing, editing and 1:1 translation of Metroid Other M from Japanese to English. The usual localization team was pressed for time, e Sakamoto wanted both scripts to line up and Nintendo wanted a worldwide release. That meant lots of Japanese expository writing that, in English, is generally not necessary or even practical

Had the English localization been handled on its own terms, it would have been much, much better off. Its also rather clear that what Sakamoto wants for Metroid and what fans want for Metroid are two different things. I'm honestly amazed they made a Metroid geared for the Japanese audience at all given how poorly the series is received in Japan.

Link is characterized well enough that he doesn't need a voice, really. Look at Majora's Mask, Wind Waker, Twilight Princess and pretty much every other Zelda since OOT - you get a fully rounded idea of who Link is and how he matters to other people. Link talking would not enhance the experience in any way.

[Gobo]

Re: Nintendo HD? Wii 1.5? WTF?

Link is characterized well enough that he doesn't need a voice, really. Look at Majora's Mast, Wind Waker, Twilight Princess and pretty much every other Zelda since OOT - you get a fully rounded idea of who Link is and how he matters to other people. Link talking would not enhance the experience in any way.

If not make it out right worse.

[Cheezeman3000]

Re: Nintendo HD? Wii 1.5? WTF?

You're right in that Samus has talked since the Super NES, so if any Nintendo character talks, it's gonna be her. And I'm actually ok with that, it's just that as BBQ stated, they did such a poor job on the localization... those cutscenes were painful.

[Malacite]

Re: Nintendo HD? Wii 1.5? WTF?

he N64's launch price was $50 under the PSX's.

Yeah except the N64 only did well in North America - it got the shit kicked out of it back in Japan.

I wouldn't really call that a screen, but I loved the VMUs. Stupid Sega had to go and die.

Yeah but it was too little too late.

Maybe if they hadn't wasted so much money on the 32X and SEGA Saturn... The SEGA CD wasn't a complete failure, as a lot of amazing games came from it (like Lunar) but over all yeah it was a bit of failure too (I happen to still have a Genesis + CD + 32X btw lol, and a Gamegear. I got rid of my Dream Cast tho)

The VMU was fucking awesome when I played Resident Evil: Code Veronica. I loved being able to just glance down and see my health status.

---------- Post added at 02:32 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:29 PM ----------

While I agree that Link and Mario should stay quiet at this point, Samus hasn't been silent since Super Metroid. If they don't voice her it's straight back to the text boxes.

Am I the only one who actually liked her voice work in Other M? I thought she was just fine. The real problem with that game was the script, not the acting.

[Armando]

Re: Nintendo HD? Wii 1.5? WTF?

Am I the only one who actually liked her voice work in Other M? I thought she was just fine. The real problem with that game was the script, not the acting.

I've only played the first like...5 hours, but it didn't bother me. After playing Metroid Fusion I always felt Samus needed to do more talking in games, not less - even if they're just monologues.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Nintendo HD? Wii 1.5? WTF?

Am I the only one who actually liked her voice work in Other M? I thought she was just fine. The real problem with that game was the script, not the acting.

You have to consider there are more than plenty knee-jerk weeaboos who have no clue there is no correlation between acting and scripts, they can hardly handle the idea of balancing cultural context with westernizing something enough so it can be enjoyed by the non-weeaboo. They just want to be snobs and hear it in japanese and there's no changing their minds that the Japanese acting may even be shit.

Or do we have to call out Raydeus again to prove that?

No one goes to movie and blames the quality of the presentation on the actors, because a bad actor is pretty much the fault of the director and the producer, to say nothing of the audio recording crew.

Jessica Martin did just fine as Samus, she just had a bad script to deal with. Nintendo's localization teams usually do a stellar job as well, but Sakamoto wanted the performances to be equal for some reason.

The man has a very different idea of what Metroid should be than its fans or even Retro Studio does.

Personally, I think he should have bothered to play the Metroid Prime games a bit more deeply. He wasn't really involved with those games at all, but Retro sees Metroid as the fans see it and Sakamoto clearly had greater cinematic aspirations than fans did.

I mean, I can clearly see that Other M and Fusion are part of a trilogy piece, but he better ask Retro for assistance in closing out the trilogy because 2D or 3D they know what the fans love.

I even think Team Ninja did a fairly good job with Other M, hell, it could have been worse of they didn't set in at points and say "Hey, I don't think Metroid is a good game to be placing on-rails." Seriously, Sakamoto wanted to do that and they persuaded him to at least keep things as close to formula as they did.

If Sakamoto wants another crack at it on the Japan-only side, I'm all for him doing another 2D retro-tinged installment with Intelligent Systems/Deer Force. Fusion was a bit too guided, but if he clearly put some of what the fans loved back into Zero Mission. It had sequence breaking just like Super Metroid, though perhaps to a smaller degree.

Some people should just stick with what they know.

[Malacite]

Re: Nintendo HD? Wii 1.5? WTF?

I actually kinda liked that Fusion gave you a clear indication of where to go - I don't see any problems with that.

What I do like though, is variety in how to go about that, and of course a bit of free-roaming inbetween to break up the pace. See, that's what kinda annoys me to this day about Super Metroid - there's absolutely no direction whatsoever, and I like a balance between the two.

Having the game hold your hand telling you where to go all the time is boring and kills the feeling of adventure and exploration. At the same time, having no direction at all in a series like Metroid can just leave the player feeling confused and overwhelmed.

Anyway, yeah, why is this idiot in charge of the series if he can't understand what the fans want? I did actually appreciate Other M's attempt at a more cinematic approach, but for the love of God they really need to do a better job of the script. Like, why the fuck is Samus talking to herself about something she just finished discussing with the other team members?

It'd be kinda cool if just once, we actually got to play with some NPCs too. Like in Prime 3, you had all those other Hunters present, but you just ended up fighting them as bosses rather than alongside them in certain segments. Why does Samus always have to be alone? For the greater bulk of the game sure, but always?

[Armando]

Re: Nintendo HD? Wii 1.5? WTF?

See, that's what kinda annoys me to this day about Super Metroid - there's absolutely no direction whatsoever, and I like a balance between the two.

You are in a hostile planet. Having no direction whatsoever seems pretty fair to me.

I didn't mind that Fusion told you where to go - it made sense - but I did mind that sequence breaking was almost impossible save for that easter egg.

[Firewind]

Re: Nintendo HD? Wii 1.5? WTF?

Its a problem whenever it becomes too obvious in a 3D game as it breaks immersion. We have the technology to be far, far past this now and there's really no excuse for it aside from "budget" and "deadline."

Pretty much every NPC, interior and zone in the Zelda series has looked different since Zelda OOT. So, what's anyone else's excuse, aside from time and budget?

Maybe developers should start putting more time into their games. Nothing seems to stop Valve from taking their time, or SE, Konami and many others. EA's approach just seems really oppressive to the likes of Bioware. They've always been guilty of a bit of copypasta, but DA2 seemed to ramp it up a bit.

You're missing the point there, there are plenty of games that use copy and paste environments so why should Dragon Age 2 be singled out. Here are some examples of games known for copy and paste environments with no time and/or budget excuses:

The list (off the top of my head)

Pretty much the entire Halo series
World of Warcraft is worse for this than FFXIV
Pretty much every online Phantasy Star game plus PSZero
Resident Evil 5
Bayonetta
Pretty much every Battlefield game after 2
Pretty much any game that uses the DICE engine for that matter
Call of Duty
The vast majority of the Castlevania games (though I guess the original 2D games have an excuse due to memory limitations)
Grand Theft Auto San Andreas (Every single interior was nearly identical save for a couple of mission interiors. All of the shops were identical and all of the houses you could burgle were identical)
FFXI (Insert PS2 limitations joke here. A far, far, far worse offender than most of this list)
FFXII
FFXIII
FFXIV (Does pretty much the same thing as WoW and FFXI in map design)
Oblivion
Persona 3 (If Oblivion counts then this does as both use randomly generated dungeons/floors taken from a small, limited pool)
Mass Effect 1 (Probably worse than DA2)
Mass Efffect 2 (DEFINITELY worse than DA2 and they had much longer to work on it)
Neverwinter Nights 1
FFVII: Crisis Core
Fallout 3 (Sort of. Subways aren't known for being varied but they did copy and paste assets a lot for above ground stuff)
The Bonus dungeons in Zelda: Wind Waker and Twilight Princess
Warhammer Online
Dawn of War 2
Starcraft 2 (The multiplayer maps anyway)
Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker

I'm not trying to defend what Bioware did. It just baffles me that people are complaining NOW of all times rather than when any of the above came out or before then. I guess since Yahztee joked about it it has to be a big issue right now. That or Bioware didn't pay reviewers enough to not talk about it. It's got to be one of the two I guess.

[DakAttack]

Re: Nintendo HD? Wii 1.5? WTF?

There's a difference between reusing textures and certain models, which most games do, and reusing entire maps without changing a single bit of them for multiple locations.

Why is Oblivion on that list? Sure, they reuse assets, but it makes sense. Certain dungeons with certain pasts look a specific way. Gates to Oblivion will all have similar looking locales on the other side, because it's Oblivion. No dungeons were randomly generated. We might as well criticize FNV for reusing that whole desert theme so much. Oh wait, the game takes place in a desert.

Starcraft 2? Are you considering the environment or the units? Because I'm pretty sure the environment isn't there to wow you, and the units are reused as many times as you decide to build them.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Nintendo HD? Wii 1.5? WTF?

You're missing the point there, there are plenty of games that use copy and paste environments so why should Dragon Age 2 be singled out.

I assure you I have not missed the point, its just that Bioware were chronic copypasta artists before DA2, the fact that it stands out to people now goes to show just how rushed the game was. How many times did I talk to a Sith soldier or similar model in KOTOR voiced by Cam Clarke with a slightly different accent? At least a dozen.

I'm not trying to defend what Bioware did. It just baffles me that people are complaining NOW of all times rather than when any of the above came out or before then. I guess since Yahztee joked about it it has to be a big issue right now. That or Bioware didn't pay reviewers enough to not talk about it. It's got to be one of the two I guess.

Yahtzee is a game I play with dice, it doesn't have a loud-mouthed game review blog in my world.

[Malacite]

Re: Nintendo HD? Wii 1.5? WTF?

lol "review" .

He's still kinda funny, and I occasionally find his critiques spot-on, but anyone who takes him as a serious critic... well,