Messages

1301

News and Announcements / Re: Mega Man Legends 3 Prototype version officially announced!

« on: May 15, 2011, 04:22:58 AM »

Fine by me, those are the more interesting parts of the game anyway IMHO (good character models and dull environment kicks the crap out of the other way around; see MHX).  The prototype is a prototype, after all.

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Gaming / Re: Official Nintendo 3DS Discussion Thread - Specs, Tech, Price? It's all here!

« on: May 14, 2011, 04:29:43 AM »

No argument from me.  I don't see how a guest fighter would detract from focus anymore than a crossover stage.

Maybe Team Ninja just didn't want to rock the whole "betraying Samus's image" bitchery boat anymore?  After all, the general public considers this woman, who strips down to her underwear as a reward for fast explorers, to be the highest order of gaming's non-sexualized female role-models; we can't have anyone tarnishing such purity again.

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Gaming / Re: Official Nintendo 3DS Discussion Thread - Specs, Tech, Price? It's all here!

« on: May 13, 2011, 11:31:12 PM »

Evening in Pacific Time, to boot.  Well, I'll be......well rested.  >.>

Anyways, for those watching DOA Dimensions, Yosuke Hayashi confirmed that there will be no playable Samus.

...for DOAD our aim was to have a compilation of DOA characters so we purposely left out any new or guest characters in the game. Samus is a lone bounty hunter and protector of the galaxy so we thought it would be better to let her focus on her job rather than kicking everyone's butt in DOAD.

http://ds.ign.com/articles/116/1168043p1.html

Sadness, but I guess watching Ridley mangle my opponents after they're knocked over the edge will have to do.

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Gaming / Re: Official Nintendo 3DS Discussion Thread - Specs, Tech, Price? It's all here!

« on: May 13, 2011, 12:03:52 AM »

June 6 NA

First reaction:




Second reaction:
Well, it's only one week from the vague "end of May" statement we had earlier.  Plus, I'm off that Monday.

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Gaming / Re: Official Nintendo 3DS Discussion Thread - Specs, Tech, Price? It's all here!

« on: May 11, 2011, 01:22:24 AM »

You're speculating as to what level of accuracy is acceptable.  It's a controller with a screen, hence you will be looking at it.  Maybe not in every application, but at some point, you will.  If the Cafe controller were meant solely for "blind touch", it would use a pad akin to a laptop rather than a screen that shows streamed content from the console.

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Gaming / Re: Official Nintendo 3DS Discussion Thread - Specs, Tech, Price? It's all here!

« on: May 11, 2011, 12:12:39 AM »

Not everyone wants to smudge/scratch their screens, and fingers still work on resistive screens.  Yes, there's a greater need to maintain pressure, but it still works.

Inconvenient?  Perhaps, but then there's the issue of accuracy.  Not only technological (for which capacitive is inferior), but also ergonomical.  I might agree with your point if we were talking about a full-size monitor.  But a controller's screen is going to be relatively small, even if not as small as a DS's.  Take it from someone who prefers to leave their stylus tucked away safely: fingers simply do not provide the level of accuracy that you will often need on such a small scale.  And sure as hell not MY fingers (ask PB).

If a consumer is willing to forgo complete NDS touch screen "sameness", they can get a 3DS with a capacitive touch and that would work as a controller for the Cafe, but then all the games for 3DS that use and expect the resistive screen would have to be programmed twice for either method. It wouldn't be that hard though.

Actually, it is EXCEPTIONALLY difficult, given that you're talking about a system that's already out.  Even Nintendo lacks the ability to time-travel; what you're suggesting would be impossible without cutting off older projects, thus fragmenting the userbase.  Even if that is overcome, backwards compatability is a pretty major point of most Nintendo handhelds and is especially so with the 3DS (given that they're opening it up to DSiWare and never-before-done-by-Nintendo system transfers; they'd have to rework the e-Shop to detect and accommodate the specific 3DS model, and nobody's going to like taking their latest piece of hardware online to find out that their hardware forbids them access to certain online content).

It's generally not good press for compatibility to vary by the individual SKU, as Sony learned (we hope) the hard way with the PS3.

Even assuming for the sake of argument that Nintendo is going to use a capacitive screen, it would be CONSIDERABLY easier to "program twice" for the Cafe, which is not yet in the public's hands, than for the 3DS, which already is.  Further the Cafe has no backwards compatibility issues with regards to touch sensitivity; no Wii game uses it.

tl;dr
Your premise is questionable, but at least possible.  Your work-around is completely illogical.

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Gaming / Re: The Official Pokémon Black & White Discussion Thread

« on: May 10, 2011, 11:51:14 PM »

Gladly.  I still need your friend code, though.  Mine's in the Wifi thread.

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Gaming / Re: Official Nintendo 3DS Discussion Thread - Specs, Tech, Price? It's all here!

« on: May 10, 2011, 01:30:54 AM »

I don't understand your premise, for two reasons:

1. By what logic would Nintendo employ a more expensive technology for their home console?  If anything it's that much more detrimental seeings how controllers are a "peripheral" that ideally a gamer should be buying more than one of, and the screen/streaming tech alone will likely raise cost concerns.

2. Why exactly do you suggest that a capacitive touch screen could substitute for a resistive touch screen, but not vice-versa?

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Gaming / Re: The "What are you currently playing?" Thread

« on: May 08, 2011, 09:00:49 PM »

Well, now comes that inevitable point where I use my new hardware as a means to play old software on a fancier screen.  The GBA went back to Xtreme2, the DS went....oh, who am I kidding, I didn't quit playing Yoshi in SM64 for ages.

Anyway, Pokemon White.  Three badges, and just got my first dose of the Dream World today (TEN THOUSAND POINTS FOR MY FRIKKIN DRATINI?!), and triggered the Zorua event.  Kinda makes raising Liepard pointless, but I knew she wasn't going to last me anyway.

EDITS: Page 100, baby!

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Gaming / Re: The Official Pokémon Black & White Discussion Thread

« on: May 08, 2011, 04:30:22 PM »

A pure Electric with Levitate is pretty damn evil.  I'm looking forward to Galvantula, though.  May not be the toughest, but reasonably fast, and Electric/Bug is a pretty awesome combination (as is Thunder + Compoundeyes).

I need to hook up with somebody here for a trade evolution at some point.  Gotta power up my Buldore into a Gigalith.

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Gaming / Re: One Month 'til E3! RPM Discusses & Speculates

« on: May 08, 2011, 04:16:50 PM »

This is EXACTLY why one should not be tying a Credit Card to a video gaming account, if you ask me.  It's convenient, when it works.  When it doesn't, this happens.  Unfortunately, Sony offers no choice in the matter.

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Gaming / Re: Wii 2: Nintendo begins the E3 Hype

« on: May 07, 2011, 03:18:09 PM »

Microsoft likely doesn't give a damn if they get themselves into trouble in their gaming division, seeings how Windows is their cash-cow ("reliability", whether in hardware or software, really isn't their strongest point).  Many believe that they entered the gaming scene mainly because they thought that Sony releasing a Linux-capable gaming console would threaten them.

And ah, the NGP.  I'm sure it'll be "respectable" as the PSP was.  But really, I find it funny how many people complain about the 3DS pricing when we all know there's no way in hell the NGP will be any better.  Same goes for battery life, assuming the level of wireless activity between the two is comparable (3DS is heavy on that, but you can shut it off).

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Gaming / Re: Official Nintendo 3DS Discussion Thread - Specs, Tech, Price? It's all here!

« on: May 07, 2011, 03:12:09 PM »

The main issue as I see it would be the little-used oddball features such as the cameras, mic, and gyroscope; limiting compatibility.  Still, "3DS as a controller" would solve all that, and even with the Cafe alone it would open up quite a few titles to the living room.

I too was hoping such a feature would eventually hit the Wii, though admittedly that may have been a bit more awkward (harder to substitute the touch-screen, less solid trends as to which screen is the "main" one, and the occasional "book" style game; all things that make less of an impact on the Cafe and 3DS).  It may or may not hit the Cafe, but one has to admit the potential there is much greater, seeings now Nintendo is effectively giving us a multi-screened home console.

Which reminds me, Cafe seriously needs Four Swords.  I can't imagine Nintendo NOT working on that one.

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Gaming / Re: Wii 2: Nintendo begins the E3 Hype

« on: May 07, 2011, 05:31:48 AM »

It seems to me that the Wii and DS are being replaced more due to demand by developers than by players.  I don't think that same demand is there for PS3/360 successors, which pretty much leaves their main reason for updating as "steal Nintendo's thunder".

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Gaming / Re: Official Nintendo 3DS Discussion Thread - Specs, Tech, Price? It's all here!

« on: May 07, 2011, 03:23:34 AM »

I'm glad it's on 3DS, actually.  One of the main reasons Capcom said they went with the 3DS is because they're going after the "early adopter" audience, in light of the previous Legends games not doing as well as Cappy feels they should have.  They're going after people who don't have as many games to choose from as a 5th-year-Wii owner, so that L3 doesn't get lost in the crowd.  At current, the game STILL hasn't gotten the final green-light yet, but two things on the 3DS are still working in L3's favor:

1. Development costs are surely a lot more fair than the NGP, the Cafe, or whatever the hell Microsoft is rumored to be working on.  That's a significant plus when convincing the big-wigs to take a gamble on an underdog series revival.  Hell, based on cost alone, the Wii is the only other contender, and that window is rapidly closing.

2. While it's doubtful the final game is going to hit before Nintendo (if noone else) gets their software ducks in a row, the Prototype demo being an e-Shop launch title is definitely going to be a blessing, in terms of grabbing attention.  The e-Shop launches this month, and what other titles have we heard of?  ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, which is what you are about to become, other than Virtual Console and 3D classics (as in, ports).  And given the DSi Shop's track record there's no reason to expect much.  In terms of downloadable games, I think L3P is going to be the definite king of the hill for a while.

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Gaming / Re: Official Nintendo 3DS Discussion Thread - Specs, Tech, Price? It's all here!

« on: May 07, 2011, 12:48:48 AM »

Launch trends may not be the norm for the console life span.  I think anyone who believed otherwise wouldn't have picked up a 3DS to begin with (again, crummy library).

Considering we're hitting a graphics quality plateau, maybe companies will start aiming for 60FPs again. Then again, we're getting to the point where 120Hz Monitors are somewhat affordable, but at least 60FPS is acceptable and 120 is a luxury. 30FPS should have never been acceptable.

I'm nowhere near as passionate about this as you (I only consider high framerates critical in games that have high movement speed; certainly more so than Zelda), but I do see your point.  It is a bit sad, considering we had graphically impressive 60fps games ever since Dreamcast.

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Rockman Series / Re: Sequels: How does Mega Man get away with it?

« on: May 07, 2011, 12:37:03 AM »

Yep.  The FULL AND SOLE reason Capcom threw a fit was for the sake of hype; they couldn't let the costumes trickle in over the course of a year.

That's broken, they just fixed the problem in MM4 and on.

This change was made because once Rush Jet was acquired in Mega Man 3, it could be used to bypass situations where Rush Coil or Rush Marine were required and did so more effectively and easily than they could.

"Broken" in games can often be a good thing.  Hell, ProtoMan being broken is PU's best feature.

Also, I don't know if anyone else did this, but one thing that neither Coil nor Marine could do is the "Rush Safety Net", where you position the Jet beneath a series of platforms before making your jumps.  And NOBODY'S telling me Capcom didn't see that beforehand, because the Doc Robot version of Shadow Man's stage is modified to prevent it.

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Rockman Series / Re: Sequels: How does Mega Man get away with it?

« on: May 06, 2011, 03:36:17 AM »

Anyone with a soul misses the MM3 Rush Jet.  That's one thing I liked about 8; even though you couldn't use it anywhere, the basic mechanics were brought back, and you even had a Rush Jet boss fight.

Loyal fans enjoy more of the same. Especially when it's better through more polish and thought, rather than innovation via different approaches.

Very true.  You can only re-invent the wheel so many times, and it's rather naive to assume that an existing approach can't stand another revision.  Compares sales of the Mario Galaxies to NSMBWii sometime.

For that matter, how many game franchises are considered peaked at the first entry as opposed to a sequel or two later?  MegaMan, Sonic, Mario, Zelda, Metroid.  The consensus of "perfection" for a great many franchises tends to be the second or third game in.

Even now MMU has been cancelled and MM PU didn't do overly well.

PU, IMHO, failed because it was a bad remake.  It was packed with great features, for sure, but it was marketed as an MM1 remake, yet the actual gameplay feels nothing like MM1.  The game is WAY too claustrophobic, more like a GB game.  It's also badly balanced; many times Easy is moronic while Normal is positively ball-breaking, with no happy medium (case in point: Yellow Devil).  That'll definitely put off the newcomers.

It also probably didn't help public relations when Capcom went Grand-Moff-Tarkin-grip after somebody noticed that the "downloadable" costumes were already on the UMD disc...

MHX was a better remake, at least, and offered a nice balance of fresh content to boot.  But nerf the game's primary weapon, and the original trounces you.  That's life.  I don't know what idiot let a 2-shot Spiral Charge out the door.

As for MMU, it's hard to place that much value on a MM2 remake when the last two Classic games were in themselves heavy MM2 tributes (9 especially).  Throwing in a wonky art style while maintaining that same "slide is evil" status quo; the lack of buzz around the game doesn't really surprise me.  Still sad to see it go, just not as much as I'd have thought.

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Gaming / Re: Official Nintendo 3DS Discussion Thread - Specs, Tech, Price? It's all here!

« on: May 06, 2011, 12:45:51 AM »

I hadn't noticed, but it's very possible.  How a game responds to the 3D switch, obviously, depends on the game.  It's certainly conceivable that one may want to boost their framerate when they're rendering one less image.

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Gaming / Re: Legend of Zelda - The official Zelda thread

« on: May 06, 2011, 12:42:57 AM »

*GASP... WAIT FOR IT...* i never got the chance to play the original.

In a way, playing the original is a mixed blessing (when you have brothers, the older ones keep all the cool stuff once you go your separate ways).  The political-correctness of later versions sickens me, I'd rather homebrew-emulate the 1.0 cartridge.  Because of that I basically refuse to play any newer version that doesn't feature Master Quest (that and killing the Stone Of Agony cost Nintendo a VC sale from me).

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Gaming / Re: Official Nintendo 3DS Discussion Thread - Specs, Tech, Price? It's all here!

« on: May 06, 2011, 12:29:34 AM »

"Image" is a bit ambiguous.  Solar is referring to the in-game camera angles.  The further the two camera angles are from each other, the greater the sense of depth.  That's what the 3D slider controls.

As OBJECTION MAN said, the focus range of the screen never changes.  Imagine a plain 2D game, your camera controls don't affect your TV's viewing angle.  Same thing.

This is easily observable by viewing 3D photos.  Since your camera-angle is fixed in place (that is the angle of the 3DS's cameras when you took the photo), the 3D slider does absolutely nothing except flip the effect on or off, no effect on intensity.

and when it's off they're both on top of each other.

Actually, when it's off, the game renders only a single image (crapass games such as Asphalt do a better job of holding their framerate, and allegedly the battery life improves slightly).  The "barrier" in the screen switches off so that it functions as a normal screen; you'll notice it gets slightly brighter.

Back to Mario Kart, I don't think that Nintendo is so foolish as to apply ONLY a tilt-sensitive control.  Even MKWii had GCN controller support, and the 3DS has a lot more issues than the Wii in terms of ergonomics (3D or no 3D, not everyone is comfortable tilting their screen to steer).  They tried "whacky controls only" with Star Fox Command, and I'd like to think they learned their lesson.

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Gaming / Re: The Official Pokémon Black & White Discussion Thread

« on: May 04, 2011, 01:12:27 AM »

I tried a Trick Room Gardevoir once but I shot myself in the foot when Hypershell just happened to switch in his Steelix the same turn so I vowed never to use it again.

You know, not that I don't consider myself a good player, but lady luck seems hell-bent on scarring my fellow RPMers for life when they battle me.  Just ask the last person to use Latios as a lead against me.

Well, if it makes you feel any better, I have jack squat in the way of a 5th-gen team.  Hell, I still don't have my second badge.  3DS swept me up and I only just yesterday jumped back into White (will likely stay on that until the Legends 3 Prototype hits).  Been researching on Serebii who I want to use in-game (oh, Audino, why can ye not evolve?).

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Gaming / Re: Official Nintendo 3DS Discussion Thread - Specs, Tech, Price? It's all here!

« on: May 04, 2011, 12:58:51 AM »

Punch-Out was one of those games that was well worth it, but could have easily been greater.  It overdosed on the memorization, rewards you for sucking excessively, and it was set up with insufficient replay options (I have to start a new save file to hear Mac's versions of the fight theme?!).

Startropics revival would be awesome, indeed.

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DASH / Re: And introducing the... Unbreakable Unshakeable...

« on: May 04, 2011, 12:46:13 AM »

When he Rocked On with ProtoMan.

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DASH / Re: Official DASH 3 Discussion(maybe)

« on: May 01, 2011, 05:23:11 AM »

Sooo... All this Barret stuff and having to build the rocket is only for the prequel/prototype, while the rest picks up from the rocket either being 10% or with Rock on Elysium? Does Barret have any bearing or relevance to the main story at all? I really wonder.

I'm sure he does.  I doubt they would create a character solely for a prequel scenario, especially given that the "Prototype Version" is rooted in the build that the development team submitted for their green-light meeting.  And even if that was the case, why then would they be giving unique abilities to a stand-in?

Barrett's going to be sticking around.  He's almost certainly the "censored" character from Aero's early descriptions.  So if she's in, he's in.