kiwidust's forum posts

  • 26 results
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
Avatar image for kiwidust
kiwidust

355

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

9

Followers

Reviews: 9

User Lists: 0

#1 kiwidust
Member since 2005 • 355 Posts
Lemme see... working from the press conferences: Sony: I was truly impressed. The (all too short) Eye Toy card demo was so very cool. I know that Sony is cutting the line on pricing as it is but I'm sad that the EyeToy didn't make it as a standard feature. The games looked great and the addition of motion sensitivity to the controller will add nicely to some games I think. I could definately see it being used both inconjunction with the Eye Toy and alone. I'm not so sure about how it will be to play for 30 or 50 hours that way... but for spot elements it could be great. For example the "action movie" sequences in Tomb Raider, Resident Evil 4 and God of War: instead of hitting the circle button at a specific time you could roll the controller left or right. To wring the neck of a harpy in GOW you could jaggle the controller. It's not going to be as responsive as the Wiimote by any means... but it will still an element currently lacking. And when coupled with the Eye Toy it has the potential to provide experiences that the Wii currently can't. The games looked phenomenal. "Resistance: The Fall of Man" was stunning as was "Warhawk" (as you'd expect from Insomniac). I was dissappointed that more first party IP wasn't shown but what they did show looked great. The price is high... no doubt this could hurt Sony tremendously. But that price will come down and Sony has proven that they can push successful platforms for up to 10 years. And the PS3 is designed to still be valid in 10 years. It will still be the cheapest Blu-Ray player on the market and should come down in price fairly quickly as the Cell production ramps up. The PSP made a good, if uninspired showing on it's own. It was neat to see it used a rear-view mirror in the PS3 racing game. I doubt that specific feature will be useful to me but just hte capability of streaming live, full screen audio/video to the PSP wirelessly leads my mind in great directions. Imagine a multiplayer game with a PSP-enabled "game master" seeing things that the players can't. The PSP player could be any place... image playing "SoCOM" while simultaneoulsly video conferencing over the PSP. Lots of potential tied in with movement sensing, Eyetoy and PSP. [As an aside I'm amazing at how much vitriol market leaders attract. Sony had a great show with lots of new stuff, some nice suprises and some great games - people are reacting like they stomped on kittens. "Look at that boomerang controller! Sony Sucks!". So they fix it, make it exactly like the dual shock but at several REALLY nice extras and we hear "They just copied themselves and Nintendo! Sony Sucks!" Fun to watch but mystifying.] Nintendo: Very impressed as well. The Wii looks awesome and I can easily it becoming a great family-night console. I'm even more worried about the motion sensing for long games however. Pulling the bow string in "Zelda" may feel cool for a few minutes... but how will it feel after 40 hours of play? I fear that the Wii may end up being like the EyeToy at it's best: perfect for short, simple party games but not well suited for hardcore gaming. This idea might be reinforced by the fact that the system itself just won't be able to compete graphically with the other systems in the generation. The games looked great... but thet also looked a whole lot like GameCube games. The DS was happily holding its own... nothing groundbreaking but lots to look forward to. I LOVE the idea of the Virtual console... but where was it! Overall the presentation was just too short - I would have liked to see more play and something, anything about the virtual console. MS: Eh. "Gears of War" looks stunning and I hear it plays better. There's definately stuff worth picking up. There's just no "wow!" coming from MS these days. No innovation at all. That's not a wholly bad thing: producing great, if uninspired, games is damn hard in and of itself. I'm dissapointed that Live! isn't getting the upgrade goodness I was hoping for... I had envisioned hundreds of games available in Arcade by now... there's perhaps 40. Overall I think that MS will hold its own on the price disparity if nothing else - although if Sony actually makes PS3 games cheaper (as Nintendo has said they will) they could offset some of that. There's just no reason that XBox games should be more expensive than PC games. Overall Nothing I've seen has changed my mind: I'm still preordering both the PS3 and Wii. I'm still annoyed that 360 games cost so much but I am playing them nonetheless. However I think this generation may mirror the last for me: I bought all three systems but ended up giving the XBox away for lack of compelling content. All the best games hit the PC or were cross platform and I prefered playing them using the Dual Shock. The XBox just stagnated for me... and I have a suspicion (which I hope is proven wrong) that the 360 will do the same thing.
Avatar image for kiwidust
kiwidust

355

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

9

Followers

Reviews: 9

User Lists: 0

#2 kiwidust
Member since 2005 • 355 Posts
[QUOTE="jvonrader"]

One can only hope :)  By the way, you said you had a genesis, I did too.  Did you hear the news that the Revolution will have genesis games available for download?  Ahh, nostalgia!

Angelbabe531
Better yet it'll have TurboGraphix 16 games! ;^) I still pull out the Turbo Express (the NEC handheld) to play my old TurboChips. That system had (and still has) hands down some of the best shooters ever made: "Blazing Lasers", "Super Star Soldier", etc. It also had some great pinball ("Devil's Crush" and "Alien Crush") and others (I really miss "Military Madness"). It'll never happen but I do wish that there was some way to show/prove to Nintendo that you own the original game so that you could get access to the download for free (or for a small "handling" charge). Fair Use laws say I already have a license for the content so paying for it twice is going to be a mildly annoying. Even if they make the games only $5 I couldstill spend many hundreds of dollars replicating my TG-16, Genesis and SNES libraries just to play games I've got sitting here in a box. Of course the sad part is Nintendo knows I'll do it. And I know I'll do it. So I guess we can't blame them. ;^)
Avatar image for kiwidust
kiwidust

355

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

9

Followers

Reviews: 9

User Lists: 0

#3 kiwidust
Member since 2005 • 355 Posts
Anyone playing it?  Its an amazing games.Riff60
I finished it a while ago - and yes, it's a great game (although I could have done without the friggin' jumping puzzles in Hades and the end boss was the most frustrating experience I've had in a long time). But overall it's an amazing achievement. I would say it's a great last hurrah for the PS2 except that God of War 2 has already been annouced for it. ;^)
Avatar image for kiwidust
kiwidust

355

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

9

Followers

Reviews: 9

User Lists: 0

#4 kiwidust
Member since 2005 • 355 Posts
I usually buy one new game a month.  March will be an exception with all the great games.  I plan on getting MPH, Tetris, and Kingdom Hearts 2.  Maybe even Me and My Katamari.  Too bad there seems to be a dry spell for new games during the summer because that's when I have the most time to try out new games.Travo_basic
For just me it's not more than one or two a month. I tend to not buy new games unless they're big for me (I bought "Shadow of the Colossus" day one and will be buying "Kingdom Hearts 2" as well for example) - I rumage the discount bins. I just bought "Constantine" and "Bloodrayne 2" for $9 each. But we're also buying for the PC, PS2, Gamecube and Gameboy... and, once it gets it's act together, the XBox 360. For the whole family it more - my son (seven years old) has the habit and I now that my wife and I both have Gameboys we've been grabbing those as well. I just bought my wife "Sudoku" and she's been playing that for days on end (I don't see the attraction). I'll probably pick up "Final Fantasy IV Advance" once I see it. I think once the next gen hits (and games go up even higher in price) we'll probably just stop buying new games and do GameFly or Blockbuster. It's $25 a month but that's less than we're spending now.
Avatar image for kiwidust
kiwidust

355

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

9

Followers

Reviews: 9

User Lists: 0

#5 kiwidust
Member since 2005 • 355 Posts
The biggest problem, I think, in this generation will be the simple fact that all of the machines are so different. In this past generation the PS2 was complex, but the XBox and the Cube were much simpler and more powerful. This meant that cross-platform games in this generation have a tendancy to look nearly the same. The PS2 version might look a little worse, but not so's you'd notice in play. In the next generation the systems are, with the exception of the Revolution, very complex machines. Creating cross-platform games is either going to be a very expensive process (to optimize for three radically different architectures) or a matter of finding the lowest common denominator. Which do you think the game companies are going to gravitate towards? Ars Technica has a great article on this topic here: http://arstechnica.com/articles/paedia/hardware/crossplatform.ars As for my take on the next gen consoles... +) XBox 360 So very, very rushed. MS new they had a headstart but they weren't sure how long of one - so they spewed the 360 out the door the instant they could. It's nearly four months later and I STILL can't buy one the shortages are so bad. The launch library was anemic and doesn't look like it'll pick up any real stream for at least a few months. That said I'll still be getting one. For one thing I got double the bonus I expected this year so I have the money. ;^) But for another thing I'm very intrigued by XBox Live and, especially, Live Arcade. It's sad I suppose that I'm more interested in getting this $400 system to play $5 games than in any of the available titles but that's the truth. Most of the titles I'm interested in are cross platform and more are "better" on the PC (well, on a high-end PC). In my opinion MS has to get the consoles in the stores and the games on the shelves. If the shortages (both of consoles and games) last until summer the luster is going to be gone with anticipation for the Revolution and PS3. +) PS3 I'm most excited by this one. Most of my favorite exclusives areon the PS2 and I'm very excited by the technological capablities. I already own an HDTV so I want a (relatively) cheap Blu-Ray player (and an HD director's cut of "Army of Darkness" but first things first). I'm leaning more and more towards assuming that the PS3 will be out spring 2007 instead of Christmas 2006 but I can still hope. Unless Sony does something really stupid (like make the system over $500) I don't think they have much to worry about from MS or Nintendo. I think they'll keep their dominance basically unscathed. I do think Sony should bite the bullet and create viable competition to Live however. The PS2's "hand off" online strategy worked well but we're past that point. People want cross-game buddy lists, message boards and marketplaces. +) Revolution I'm not as exicited about this one as PS3 but am much more excited about it than XBox 360. The new controller has the potential to be insanely great or to flop and drag the system down with it. I'm most interested in access to the old libray of games and replacing the Cube with something that will habitate my home theater better. Nintendo's always made great games and they always ensure that they're consoels are worth getting since you know that, if nothing else, there will be enough great first party games to make it worth while. But honestly I'm not sure why Nintendo is bothering with consoles any more. I've often said that they could release a "Nintendoizer pack" for one or both of the others. It would contain a Nitendo controller and, perhaps, a Nintendo themed gameskin. They could then release Nintendo games for the other consoles. The games would play with the Nintendo controller (always their focus of innovation). The controller pack might cost as much as a game ($60 in the next generation). Doing this would save vast amounts of R&D and would allow Nintendo to focus purely on the games and the interfaces. In any case the Revolution is going to be solid, as you'd expect from Nintendo, but, like the Cube, I think will be populated by a small number of great Nintendo games and lots and lots of cross-platform ports. If Nintendo can a) release the Revolution on schedule this year and b) release it at substantially less than the 360 (perhaps even, like the Cube, at $149) I think they'll cut into MS's Christmas business nicely.
Avatar image for kiwidust
kiwidust

355

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

9

Followers

Reviews: 9

User Lists: 0

#6 kiwidust
Member since 2005 • 355 Posts
It seems that the next-gen hype goes hand in hand with the "but you need to own a hd television with it or else" statements. And as the local commerce is buzzing with promises of hd content, including the world soccer championships this summer (which is a big thing here). It looks like they are trying to force it down our throats. But with not even half of the programs on the national networks broadcasted in an 16:9 aspect ratio. I see no reason to jump on that bandwagon yet.Hastur
Personally I think it's about time that HD was pushed seriously. At least here in the US the FCC has hemmed and hawed and delayed deadlines for several years now. We're to the point where all major networks and premium cable channels and much of public braodcasting is available in HD. The sooner we can ditch the analog anchor the sooner we can open that spectrum up for wireless gaming! ;^) But seriously all the next gen systems will play on "normal" TVs - but everybody (well, maybe not MS who seems favor coming out with a new console every few years) expects this generation to last a while. It would be ridiculous not support HD TV if you're looking at a console released now having 5-10 years of active life. My worry is actually the opposite - Nintendo has made no annoucments of HD support and I really hope they do. The GameCube doesn't fit very well into my home theater now and I want the revolution to fit better. It would be a shame if it didn't support at least 720p. Remember too that this generation will not require HD TV - although games will look markedly better with it. The HD resolution will be used to enhance the image (sharpen and define it better) but won't be used to actually display more information (which is a little bit of a shame for some games). I'll see the same game on my HDTV that you on your regular TV - mine will be sharper and clearer perhaps but I won't see any more information. (As an aside 16:9 aspect ration has nothing to do with HD TV. The aspect ratio is just the shape of the image - either a "short rectangle" (4:3) or a "long rectangle" (16:9) - the latter is often called "letterboxing" because it leaves large black bars above and below the picture on normal (4:3) TVs. HD, on the other hand, is all about picture density and detail.)
Avatar image for kiwidust
kiwidust

355

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

9

Followers

Reviews: 9

User Lists: 0

#7 kiwidust
Member since 2005 • 355 Posts
Well - I've gotta add "Shadow of the Colossus" I can't believe how good this game is on so many levels. I usually play a game, beat it, and then never touch it again - but I find myself reaching for this one over and over again. I think "I'll just do the desert one" or "I'll try to beat my time on the bird". Heck - sometimes I put it in and just ride the horse around. It's relaxing. ;^)
Avatar image for kiwidust
kiwidust

355

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

9

Followers

Reviews: 9

User Lists: 0

#8 kiwidust
Member since 2005 • 355 Posts
[Jeeze... I coulda sworn I replied to this.] Personally I might buy used games but will never trade any in. It's just not worth it. The trade-in value is insulting - wounds like that should at least leave visible scars. Personally I'd rather give them to a kid on the street and feel good about things for a bit than give them to GameSpot and feel like I've been raped in an alley. If you want to be more formal you can always donate the games to a local community center, Children's hospital, Boys and Girls Club or homeless shelter. You can get more from a tax break on a donation than you ever could from GameStop or some other trader.
Avatar image for kiwidust
kiwidust

355

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

9

Followers

Reviews: 9

User Lists: 0

#9 kiwidust
Member since 2005 • 355 Posts
I'd like to see a version of Starship Troopers - based on the book, not the movie.  If you haven't read the book, it's one of the best accounts of the infantry you'll ever read.  They could do it up as a mech squad based 3rd person shooter.booyamcnasty
Did you ever see the CGI cartoon based on "Starship Troopers"? It was much more true-to-the book than the films (I actually liked the first film... but second was a horrible, horrible waste of the Earth's capacity). I could easily see a game based on the book from the military perspective. It's too bad they couldn't include a game on the social perspectives in the book. ;^)
Avatar image for kiwidust
kiwidust

355

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

9

Followers

Reviews: 9

User Lists: 0

#10 kiwidust
Member since 2005 • 355 Posts
...what? Most people that have played games for a long time have those properties (books, movies, TV shows, etc) or ideas that they think somebody, anybody, should make a game out of. I could see a very enjoyable game based on "Watership Down" (perhaps the best novel ever written) - but I'm not sure who could pull it off well. It would be very easy to create a steaming pile of crap from it - the idea of essentially defenseless heros could be problematic for most developers. But the struggle for survival against a world of enemies, the political and social challenges of lapine world and the sheer novelty factor of playing a rabbit (or a group of rabbits) seems like rich source material. I could see side-quests and mini-games were you play El-Hairair in stories (which could, in turn, raise the moral of your warren and friends and so forth). It would have to focus on character, story and cleverness - not firepower and technology. (As an aside: as much as I truly love the animated version it was short and left a lot out. I would love seeing a three-hour epic "live action" version with fully CGI animals.) I've got a ton of others... but what are some of yours?
  • 26 results
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3