This is a recording of a dial-up connection's initialization slowed down by a factor of 7. Wow, it's otherworldly. It could have been a track for Rez. Love the guitar solo near the end.
Quote:Forbes: When will you start talking about PlayStation 4?
Tretton: PlayStation 3 is really just hitting its stride. And technologically, I don’t think it’s possible to provide any advancement beyond what we have. What we’ve seen from the competition is trying to add features that already exist in PlayStation 3. We invested heavily in that, we rolled a very heavy rock up a steep hill, through the launch period. But now I think that all pays off, and we’ve got a long run way behind it. So, I wouldn’t look for any discussion of a next generation PlayStation for quite some time.
I think there’s ground to be carved out for everybody. But I didn’t see anything about Nintendo’s announcement that said ‘Oh, we’d better get working on rolling out a new PlayStation here pretty soon.’
Our attitude is kind of ‘welcome to the party.’ If you’re looking at being a multimedia entertainment device, if you’re looking at high def gaming, that was 2006 for us.
Indyana Wrote:SCE executive (James Armstrong, VP SCEE, CEO SCE Spain+Portugal) made a much clear statement about the PS4 graphics.
How do you imagine the next-gen, better graphics, new controls or both?
- It's difficult to say now. I don't believe we are going to have a console with much better graphics than the ones the PS3 offers now. I think the future will be in offering the best and most accessible experiences to consumers. The target will be to expand the gaming population and to try to design games for women.
My English isn't very good and it will take me more time than I would liked to translate properly the whole interview.
Highlight of Sony E3 conference?
- PS Vita, great controls for everyone.
Highlight of PSV?
- Controls give a lot of authenticity to games, great experience.
PSV target?
- Gamers 14-30 years old looking for a true handheld experience.
PS3 10 years plan?
- PS3 = 299€, Playstation consoles left market at 99€ or 149€, lots of time ahead.
Wii U will launch next year, does it accelerate PS4 launch?
- PS3 has lots of life, they expect to sell 500k in Spain this year and become the best selling console of the year. (2010 Spanish sales= Wii > 700.000, PS3 ~600,000, DS > 500.000, 360 <300,000 )
- Good luck to Nintendo, it's good for the industry, they will have to show they are bringing something new. Nintendo has a different target , Playstation = gamers and casuals, Wii = families.
PSP plans?
- 129€ good price for boys and girls 6-14 years old. Spanish developed gameslike Cars 2, Geronimo Stilton and Mistery Squad will launch this year.
3D and Sony, new standard or fad?
-Sony has bet on 3D a long time ago, videogames will be very important, new HDTVs makes difficult for families to buy a new 3DTV, it will take time but all TVs will be 3D.
How do you imagine the next-gen, better graphics, new controls or both?
- It's difficult to say now. I do not think we are going to have a console with much better graphics than the ones PS3 offers now. I think the future will be in offering the best and most accessible experiences to consumers. The target will be to expand gaming population and to try to design games for women.
- Lots of market research = women want a Playstation, but there aren't games for them. Online and digital downloads have to evolve too. Don't expect too much on next-gen graphics.
Sony plans for women?
- It's important to expand gaming population, focus on males=selling only to a half of the market.
Will digital downloads kill physical media?
- No, physical media has lots of advantages for consumers. Digital sales will increase.
Digital sales help avoiding piracy?
- PSN sales have no piracy, helps because there's a lot of piracy, PSP for example, LOTS of piracy in Spain.
PS3 piracy damaged Sony benefits?
- Yes. Lack of piracy is very good. High risk industry, high development costs.
Lessons learned from PSN outage?
- Learned a lot, no product 100% secure, contracted best companies to help us, no fraud detected because of hacked PSN.
We hate you, Nintendo of America... it looks like Europe isn't just getting Xenoblade later this year, but The Last Story for 2012 too. It hasn't been announced yet, but it seems like they might actually get it. Of course, there's absolutely no sign that either will get a US release. Mod your Wiis then I guess if you want to play them, unless a miracle occurs...
NoE has a far better release history this gen than NoA does. Before it was always the other way around, but they have very much reversed themselves this time... what the heck, NoA, what's wrong with you...
Of course then there are a bunch of titles that don't come to either region for no apparent reason too, so NoE isn't all better. But still, it does seem to be a little better at actually releasing more games.
So this is nice, Master Quest is in this version, only improved a bit. While it seems the dungeon changes are the only "world" changes, there is one minor alteration that should get one lost a few times even in the overworld. It seems the whole map is now mirrored. Interesting, I suppose, in the same way the mirrored world in the two versions of Twilight Princess is interesting. Also, this Master Quest has one extra thing adding a bit of challenge, you take double damage. It should be interesting. One difference in this case is the need to beat the "normal" mode to unlock Master Quest. Well, it's not like I wasn't going to do that anyway.
This is cool, as it's the first time the Master Quest has been made more widely available than a pre-order bonus. It does make me curious. Will they ever decide to do the same treatment to Majora's Mask? I loved the intricate detail on all those side character's lives. It's why I think I may rate that game a bit higher than Ocarina personally, but it's close.
Anyone have this yet? I'm curious how they handled the places with pre-rendered backgrounds (outside the temple of time, hyrule market's panorama, a number of house interiors). Are they still pre-rendered but in higher resolution, or are they now all handled with the in-game visuals?
Really? Their trying to tell me their new car optimizes any fuel, even fuels that haven't been invented yet.. That's stupid. OK, Lexis I fuel my car with fire and horse shit, optimize my fire poop fuel Lexus if your so awesome..
Hexcite was a Game Boy / Game Boy Color dual-mode game, with Super Game Boy support, released in 1998 (Japan, titled as Glocal Hexcite) and 1999 (US/EU). The game does have battery save, unlike many GB puzzle games. I mean it when I say it's addictive -- I've been playing at least a match of this game almost every day for months now, ever since I got the cartridge. I can't say I've done that for too many games before... this game is really, REALLY addictive.
Unfortunately, some other versions of the game stayed in Japan. The game was originally a Japanese board game, but I'm not sure how much Western distribution the boardgame version had or has. Other console ports include a (B&W) Wonderswan version in 2000 (Glocal Hexcite, very much like the GB version), a Playstation version in 1999 (Glocal Hexcite, but enhanced for the more powerful system I think), and a Game Boy Advance version in 2001 (Hexcite: Metal Fusion EX, with new features and such), as well as a cellphone version in the mid 2000s (Hexcite Fusion); this last, cellphone version seems to have been released in the US on some carriers, according to Gamespot, but I don't know for sure. I would love to play them, and will probably at least play the GBA and PSX versions sometime. They look like they have more features than the first game, I'd love to see what they are.
The West finally got another major Hexcite game in 2007, when a PC version was released. I just found out about this -- it's a download-only title on Bigfish Games. I think I will have to buy this now. http://www.bigfishgames.com/download-gam...index.html
Returning to the first Hexcite game, however, I need to describe how it works. As I said, Hexcite is a puzzle strategy game. In the game, two players take turns filling in a large hexagon with shapes. The large hexagon is broken into seven smaller ones, each of which is broken up into a lot of triangles. There are seven different pieces that the players use to fill in the space. You can rotate pieces to angle them any possible way they could fit. In each game, the players get a somewhat random selection of pieces and try to score the most points. The rules are a little complex, but once you get used to it it makes sense.
So, in each match the goal is to have the most points. The winner is the one with the most points at the end of the match; in multi-round matches, scores are cumulative and the winner is the one with the higher total across all rounds. Again, each player gets a somewhat random selection of pieces. The piece selection at the beginning is the luck element in this game, and it is important -- some hands will be MUCH harder to get rid of than others. This isn't rigged against you, though, so overall you'll be even between times when the computer crushes you because you get a terrible hand and times when you crush it.
The first player has to play in the central triangle, along its edges with the six surrounding ones. You get five points for each side the piece you play touches, so this is the perfect time to play the largest pieces because that's about the only time you'll be getting 15 points for one, bonuses for filling hexagons excepted. Player one, the human player in single player games, always plays first in the first round, but in multi-round matches, after that it depends on the total score, so the computer will sometimes play first.
On that note, for scoring, you get five points for each side of the polygon you are placing that is touching already placed pieces on the board. However, you are docked for each piece still in your inventory at the end of the game. You lose five points for each side the shape has, so a triangle loses you 15 points while a hexagon loses you 30. Oh, and you must play if you have a play, even if it allows the other player to get more points off of it; you can't pass.
However, and this is important, you can only play if all sides of the polygon you're playing are either fully empty or fully against other pieces. That is, you can't place a piece if a side of the piece you're playing is only halfway against other blocks. Each side must either be against empty space, or fully against placed sides. This rule takes some getting used to.
Also, the player who plays the last triangle in one of the six outer large hexagons on the map and fills it up gets a point bonus. Three are worth 10 points, the other three 30; this is marked on the board with the three or one dots around the edge next to each triangle. There is no bonus for filling the central hexagon.
The seven pieces are shown on the dies of the picture above. These take up a lot of space, but because each side is only one piece long, you'll have no issues with sides being partially covered at least.
First there is a large hexagon. This is the largest piece.
Second is a small triangle, which fills up one space on the board. It's always good to have a good number of these.
Third is a small rectangle. Two spaces. These can be useful.
Fourth is a small trapezoid. Three spaces.
Fifth is the large triangle. Four spaces.
Sixth is the large rectangle -- two large triangles end to end. Eight spaces.
Last is the large trapezoid, three large triangles. These are the biggest pieces and the hardest to play -- each takes up a full half of a hexagon on the board. Play these first, or you likely never will. And be afraid when you have a lot of them and the computer starts with a hexagon, you'll lose a lot of points if you're unlucky.
Remember, size has no effect on point loss, only the number of sides, so small and large rectangles and half hexagons will all cost you 20 points if there are any left at the end, for instance. So don't focus on playing all large pieces first, then smaller ones -- there are many cases where it's smarter to play the small rectangles and trapezoids before the large triangles, as they cost more points if left in your hand.
So, those are the game basics and rules. Now, on to game modes.
The game has One Player, Two Player, Level Game, and Practice mode modes, as well as an options screen. Continue is for continuing a game you suspended.
One Player is for playing a single match; think of this as the quick-action mode. You just choose a number of rounds, difficulty, a few more options (timer on/off, alternate starts or always play first) and go. There are five difficulty level choices. It won't be saving stats or anything, though if you win enough games without saving in the highest difficulty level, on a GBC, you will unlock another difficulty level above that.
Two Player is for a versus game. It's like one player but with two humans, obviously. As this is a turn-based game, you can play two player on a single Game Boy, taking turns, if you wish. If you're playing on a Super Game Boy, the game has two SNES controller support, so that each player can use a separate controller. It's a nice option. It also supports link cable multiplayer if you wish to play it that way.
Level Game is the main single player mode. In this mode you save your progress into one of six slots as you go. In each match you can choose the number of rounds; the default is six, which is what I usually go with. You gain experience as you win matches, and gain ranks once you reach certain experience point levels. Levelling is slow and there are a lot of ranks, so you can play this game for a long time before you hit the max difficulty. This is the mode I play the most.
Practice mode is basically the puzzle mode. See below -- you get specific pieces and try to win. There are sixty puzzles to solve. I kind of hate these puzzle modes, so I haven't played this much. I'm usually so bad at them... For instance, as much as I love Tetris Attack/Puzzle League, I'm hopeless at the 'you have X moves to solve the puzzle' modes in those games. This I like a bit more than that, because of the kind of game it is, but still, I'd rather play the main game.
In the Options screen, the main options of note are the music and color set choices. There are ten music tracks and eight different color sets to choose from, and the SGB and GBC each have their own different color sets. Many GB or GBC puzzle games would have two or three music tracks and one color set, and no battery save either, but this is a better, more feature-rich effort, and I like that about this game -- it feels quite feature-rich. On SGB there are fewer colors on screen of course, but still it does a good job and the game is fun on a television. I'm not sure whether I like the GBC or SGB versions better; the main reason that I mostly play on GBC (well, GBA SP that is) is because I like playing this game while watching TV, and you can't do that with the SGB version. There's a nice help menu here as well with a good, visual tutorial of how to play the game and the rules for the various modes.
The final option is Continue. You can save a game in progress in the pause menu while playing, and you load it here. This is a temporary save -- the file deletes itself when you load it. It's an awesome option to have, temp saves are something all Game Boy games should have had. :)
Returning to my previous point, this is a perfect game to play while watching TV -- the audio doesn't matter, it's just background music, and it's all turn based so if you look up to watch for a while it won't affect the game at all. Also, and I haven't mentioned this yet but it is a real negative (if one of the only ones apart from the fact that that battery is going to die sometime), watching TV while playing is also a good idea because sometimes the AI takes far too long to take a turn. At times I'm waiting a 30 seconds to a minute until the computer finally takes a turn. Maybe those times are exaggerated, but it is true that you can be waiting for a while sometimes. I can understand why it is though, the AI has a good number of different moves to choose from, and that poor, slow GB CPU takes a while to deal with deciding which one to do sometimes. Chess games often had slow move times too. This game isn't as complex as that, but it's enough to have some waiting sometimes. Oh well, I don't feel that this hurts the game much, it's a great, great game, waiting or no. Turning on the timer might help here, but I don't use it so I just deal with the slower speed -- I don't want to have to be limited by a timer myself after all... :)
This is a picture of a game, midgame, with the timer on. There are going to be leftover pieces in this match, I wonder who won... As the board fills up more, playing pieces gets harder and harder.
The lower right shot on the back of the box shows a game nearing the end. As you reach the end of the match, the stakes get high -- both players are trying hard to play as many pieces as possible, without trying to keep the other player from being able to play as many pieces as you can. You need to carefully consider each move, not only in terms of how many points you will get from it, but for what new moves it allows the enemy to do and whether they'll be able to play pieces you'd rather they different -- one of the best ways to win is to stick the computer with large pieces they can't play and watch them lose points for it. Look at all possible moves, and judge which will get you the most points and, in later parts, cost the other player the most points and moves. It's a complicated, strategic game, and that's what I love about it -- you have to think while playing this game. I love it.
On that note, I haven't gotten to the max rank yet, I think. I'm not sure what the top rank is, actually, but currently I'm rank B, level 10; I doubt that's the max. I haven't gained a level in a while, but I imagine I will eventually. Who knows, I'll be playing either way.
Finally, I think I'll have to try the PC version now... looks like it's more of the same, which is great. This game probably works best as a portable title, but still it's awesome that there's another version of Hexcite I can play without importing things from Japan (even if it did come out several years ago, I just didn't know about it)! Here's a shot of the PC version.
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