I got two PS2 demo disks. At first it looked like a double send to the same person, but upon reading the titles on each demo disk it was clear there were a decent number of unique titles on each one, and those were the only ones on the disk I wanted to play at that.
I will forgo mentioning games that are already out like MGS3 (even though I don't have it yet, and it adds some decent stuff to the same classic gameplay, also the demo resets almost as soon as you get to play if you actually let the cinema scenes play out).
Instead, I mention a game I think isn't out just yet, Viewtiful Joe 2. That game is basically more of the same, but in a good way, because the original was a good game. They added a new character from what I can tell, some nerdy girl who is somehow a perfect match to the guy I guess... Anyway, maybe she was in the original or something (I only played some of it, never owned it...) but they say "we're back" when on the scene. Also, apparently Dante is in there somewhere in the full version. Not much else to say really.
Then I played Prince of Persia 2. Fun game actually. The theme is a bit... well... Honestly I think they went too immature with the whole "is da bloooodddyyyyy" thing. For example, the loading scene is a symbol that forms from blood bleeding from the top of the screen, which is the sort of thing I thought had finally faded away in the mid 90's or so when people finally got sick of Mortal Kombat. Also, the whole thing has a way too "to the extreeeeme" feel to it. The original I liked because it really wasn't all about looking cool (oh who am I kidding, the main reason I did most of the moves wasn't due to it being good strategy but rather so I could finish them off in the most awesome LOOKING way possible, but you know what I mean... well maybe you don't...), it actually had an interesting... silence... to it. I dunno how to put it...
Eh, anyway the thing is the game is very action oriented compaired to the first. The fighting is as good as ever, plus you can, you know, pick up the enemy's weapon, which as of yet hasn't proven to do much more than mildly affect range and power and let you throw it at someone. Anyway, it took a long while before I finally got to a nice acrobatics scene. Fortunatly, there IS some good acrobatics. Hopefully that'll remain the case through the whole game. As it is, it seems like more of the same, but with an emphasise on action and a worse theme.
I got that same demo disc in the mail over weekend, but I haven't had a chance to play it yet.
And about POP2, I agree that it sucks about the whole lame dark theme that they chose to use this time around, as well as the emphasis on combat. Because of that I won't be buying the game anytime soon. I loved the first one, but mostly for the platforming and wonderful ICO-ish atmosphere. The sequel basically takes that away, trying to make it appeal to a larger audience which means that there has to be immature darkness and heavy metal.
Ugh.
Viewtiful Joe 2... isn't that the PS2 disk with the bug that erases all memory cards in your system when played? Yeah, it is... :)
Quote:isn't that the PS2 disk with the bug that erases all memory cards in your system when played?
Nice.
Holy crap, that's the one?? I heard about it but never read the full article. Could you post it? I better make sure to take out my memory cards before I play them.
Quote:Sony warns of major glitch in Holiday 2004 Demo Disc
SCEA alerts public that playing the Viewtiful Joe 2 demo will erase memory cards.
Over the past few weeks, members of the PlayStation Underground--Sony's US fan club--have been receiving copies of the Holiday 2004 Demo Disc. One of the premier demos on the disc was for Viewtiful Joe 2, which arrives on the console December 7.
Unfortunately, gamers eager to sample the cel-shaded beat-'em-up were in for a very nasty surprise. That's because the demo contained a glitch that will erase all saved games on the memory card or cards currently inserted in the console. Considering many PlayStation 2 owners are currently shooting their way through Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, which takes at least 40 hours to finish, the glitch sparked an uproar among PlayStation Underground members.
This week, Sony acknowledged the glitch via a mass e-mail to PlayStation Underground members. Besides conveying the corporation's "sincerest apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused," the e-mail also suggested that gamers "please remove your Memory Card(s) from your PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system before you load the Holiday 2004 Demo Disc." Speaking to GameSpot, a Sony rep clarified the situation further, saying, "You can play all of the demos including VJ2 as long as you remove the mem cards."
Woah woah woooooooooooaaaaaaah!
This is NOT cool! *runs to PS2 RIGHT THIS FRICKIN SECOND*
......
Not cool, not cool at all... When did it even ACCESS the memory card slot?!
My whole family is going to be upset about this. This had ALL our saved games on it, ALL of them! We all used a SINGLE memory card for everything! There just isn't any excuse for this Sony!
Ugh, now I can't even trust demo disks...
I heard about this a few days ago... guess you don't go to the major gaming sites too often.
It really stinks when you lose game saves.
And I've definitely lost savedata before. Only had a card totally wiped once, though... and I only owned one N64 game at the time that used it. But this summer I did have an issue with one of my N64 memcards and lost six or seven of the 16 slots... fortunately only one was a game's only savefile (as opposed to EB64 tracks, Gauntlet characters, etc), and Goemon's Great Adventure was good enough that it was only mildly annoying to have to replay it.
But I definitely worry about my N64 memcards, especially the third party one. Since I don't have a dexdrive I can't back them up and it'd be an incalculable loss if I lost my Rush 2049 savefile, which is stupidly saved on that card... and you can't move or copy the files in the N64...
Cube I haven't had any issues. GB I had one once -- Mole Mania was in my GB and the GB fell and for some reason it wiped the cart. No idea why...
PC of course this stuff happens. I know I lost my Rogue Squadron 3D save (after beating all the normal missions but before getting medals on all the levels so I didn't unlock any secret levels)... most of the ones that get lost you don't care about by the time you lose them (you know, SimCity cities, Klik & Play games, etc), but that one did annoy me. I never replayed that game...
Ask DJ if it actually erased her card. Because she said "had". That would be very bad indeed.
Edit: never mind
I'd have a heart attack if I lost everything on my memory card.
And not just a partial loss, but everything...
Yes, everything.
DJ: *turns on PS2 in a panic*
PS2: Memory Card Over. Deletion = Very Yes
DJ: That's not a good prize! *kills the Sony execs that sent me that disk and the Capcom programmers that released that glitchy demo*
I tend not to visit the big name news sites, but honestly it wouldn't have helped this time anyway... I got this about a week ago, rather than just a couple days ago, and popped it in right away. I didn't play any PS2 games since those, I was busy playing a couple GBA games. Anyway, that article did little more than result in a "oh NOW you tell me" thing...
So... Huh... Oh yes, my Super Mario RPG game data was erased a few months ago actually. Unlike this, which is totally the designer's fault, the evil jerks, that one was all me. I accidently turned the system on and off rapidly. How did I ACCIDENTLY do that you ask? My foot is an idiot.
Anyway, it's odd, save data loss is just so UTTERLY devastating that my response seems to be a sort of layed back disconnection from the whole thing.
Very annoying, and the worst possible glitch that can happen. I'd actually rather damage the game disk than the save file :D (I can at least resurface that and get all that data back). But, if the worst punishment a gamer can face is "having to" play a bunch of awesome games again, then oh well :D. That's how I'll have to look at this. So, first off, Katamari Damacy again, then Megaman Collection, then I dunno maybe MGS2.
One thing, even though I can play the demo safely so long as memory cards aren't in there, I think I will BURN this demo disk. Aside from Viewtiful Joe 2, it didn't have many good demos, and there's just too much of a risk. Should a relative come over wanting to play a PS2 game and see that disk, I fear horrors shall happen twice over.
The more data the game records, the more devastating losing the save is. You can always replay a game that just saves which level you're in, but if it's saving all kinds of details it really, really stinks... the worst would be a long RPG that you haven't finished yet, but something like Rush 2049 (where it saves a huge array of statistics in your player file) would be almost as bad.
I can see how you could argue that a broken disk is worse than a broken memory card. It's easy to replace the disk as long as you have the cash to do so... for older cart games of course they are one and the same and the cart too might be hard to replace. What is my opinion? I'd rather lose the savedata, as at least I still have the game. But it definiely is horrible. For consoles I've never lost more than one or two files I cared about at once... something like that would just be really, really awful. And I think about it whenever I have to use my N64 memory cards... both the first-party one and the second-party one have in at least one instance messed up and partially lost their data.
On that note, if I get many more home console games I'll need more controller paks/memory cards... finding the controller paks would be harder. See, I got Bust-A-Move '99 during break ($10, and as a puzzle game it filled in the one hole in my N64/GC game lineup), and it has a 64-block save file... ouch... now I'm happy that almost all of my games before that that required memcard save had such small files (I managed to fit it into my first card with only the deletion of the useless 28-block Perfect Dark file) so now I have about 4 blocks free on card 1 and 30 on card 2. Not many. Still more blocks than I have free on my NGC memcards though, I think... :D I know my 59 has is completely full (59 blocks used!), but I'm not certain about the 251... it's under 10 free, however. Yeah, I think I need a new one soon. :)
Oh, back on the topic of deletions, there was one other incident a while back that I'm sure I've mentioned before -- when one of my N64s messed up and started failing to work with N64 games with battery saves (worked fine with memcard-save titles). It was really weird but it wouldn't recognize the saves and the games looked like there were no save files on them... very luckily my Majora's Mask file was not deleted despite my messing with it on that N64, but I lost my SSB savedata that way. Never bothered to play the game again to get it back, especially given that I have the much better SSB:M now...
That's an odd error, though it betrays the fact that the N64 has one standardized save method that's built into hardware anyway.
I suppose the main issue with the memory card in the controller is that the connection there was always iffy. Very often I'd have to jiggle whatever device I had in the controller slot to get it working. That might explain the 1st party card failing.
The only puzzle game I have for my N64 is Tetrisphere. It's actually pretty fun, though honestly "tetri" doesn't really fit as most of the pieces are made up of 3 blocks. Also, the music is this aweful techno stuff. You know, "du du du du du bedebo, du du du du du "Ready on my count", du du du du du".
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Quote:That's an odd error, though it betrays the fact that the N64 has one standardized save method that's built into hardware anyway.
What do you mean? It's definitely odd though... I have no idea why the N64 would suddenly decide to not recognize battery (or save RAM or whatever) saves... it is really, really odd. It is less strange that it does work with the memcards because the memcard is a totally different system of saving, but the error itsself is bizarre. Needless to say I didn't keep using that N64 for much longer. :)
Quote:I suppose the main issue with the memory card in the controller is that the connection there was always iffy. Very often I'd have to jiggle whatever device I had in the controller slot to get it working. That might explain the 1st party card failing.
It wasn't a complete erasure, it just said that there was an error and do you want to try to fix it and like an idiot I hit 'yes' so it deleted five to eight (I don't remember the exact number) files from my card and worked again... I since have decided that I was stupid and that it would have worked fine if I'd just hit 'no' and turned it off and back on again since nothing is fundamentally wrong with the card (the same thing was probably true back when my third party card 'malfunctioned' back in late '99/early '00, I also realized, given that the card hasn't messed up again in the years since...)...
Quote:The only puzzle game I have for my N64 is Tetrisphere. It's actually pretty fun, though honestly "tetri" doesn't really fit as most of the pieces are made up of 3 blocks. Also, the music is this aweful techno stuff. You know, "du du du du du bedebo, du du du du du "Ready on my count", du du du du du".
Tetrisphere looks ... strange. 3D Tetris? I remember playing a PC game based on that premise and it really wasn't that good, I'd say... but then again I've never been the biggest Tetris fan. But still, if I was to get a Tetris game it'd be a standard one and not a 3d one.
Oh, I've heard that Tetrisphere has great music... one of the strengths of the game. If you like techno (I think it's good... not my favorite music genre, but good.). :)
Honestly I think the main problem with all the latest Tetris games is the switch from Russian classical music to new age techno. I would dearly love to see a new Tetris game with as many Russian classics as possible, including the original 5 from the GB and NES games (that's right, 5, the NES had two exclusive tracks, the GB had two exclusive tracks, and the middle song in both versions was the same).
What you are thinking of MAY be a game I played on the PC a long time ago called "Welltris" or something like that. Yeah, that one just had 4 walls you looked down on. Not that good. Tetrisphere is different from that though. You have a huge ball and shapes fall on it. Well, actually you drop them on it and after a certain amount of time it autodrops. Anyway you can rotate all around it to drop them, and it's a few layers thick. Generally the goal is to break away enough of the layers to reveal a certain size area of the core. It was actually pretty fun, and about the only 3D Tetris I thought was all that good. I still prefer the original myself mind you, but this wasn't that bad.
Yeah, it was pretty much that, where you looked into a well and the blocks appeared in the front of the screen and then dropped in... I've seen shots of Tetrisphere, and it's not that, but it seems like a really weird thing with a round ball of tetris pieces you remove or something... honestly from the screenshots it doesn't look that good...
Puyo Pop is the next best thing to Tetris, and the best puzzle game on the GBA by far.
My favorite puzzle game is still Puzzle Fighter. Fantastic game.
Yeah I have that, too. Puyo Pop is better.
Gems are better than stupid little blobs... :)
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My favorite puzzle game is Bust A Move.
I know Tetris, Bust-A-Move, Puyo Puyo, etc. are good games, but I just like Puzzle Fighter more.
Puyo Pop is so much better than Puzzle Fighter.
Sony is offering a free game to anyone who sends in the demo disk. I think you have to call Sony and they will tell you where to send the disk. The games you can pick from are Wildarms 3, Parappa The Rapper 2, Gran Turismo 3, JAK 2, Sly 2: Band of Thieves, NCAA Final Four 2004, MLB 2004, ATHENS 2004, ATV Off-Road Fury 3, and Hot Shots Golf Fore.
I just bought the demo for $5 total on eBay and will be getting GT3. :D
Cool, I wanna get Sly 2! Is there any special way I need to send it?
I don't know, I haven't called Sony yet. I'm sure they'll give you all the details if you call them up.
Yeah I just found the info at the PA forums, so I'll give them a call tonight.
Oh really? So if I call them can I give them my account, wherein they can confirm that they did in fact send me that disk, or do I actually have to send in that disk?
If it's the latter...
Well...
Let's just say "Trogdor Strikes Again!".
Wow this thread is ancient.
I thought I'd mention this issue did get resolved way back when. I never needed to send in the ashes, I just told them the problem and they sent me Wild Arms 3. Decent game, and the only one from their list that was even worth getting.
Still haven't gone back to Final Fantasy X and rebuilt my save file. At this rate, I'll end up playing the HD version instead, in WIIIDE SCREEEEEN!
The worst thing that's happened to me as far as console save files go is when my Gamecube memory card 1019 corrupted and died. The card stopped working and all files on it were lost. Yeah, that was NOT fun. I've stuck with 251s ever since. You need more of them, but they won't randomly blow up on you like 1019s do.
Yeah, same thing happened here. From what I've read, the 1019s go bad on Wiis but not on Gamecubes. It's got something to do with a hot element inside the Wii being right next to the memory card ports, and the smaller writing blocks inside the 1019 can't take the heat as well.
Mine went bad before I even owned a Wii, so yeah, that isn't the only way they can die. My Gamecube killed it, somehow...