I am now in the Facebook Collective. (I know the "official spelling" is that wretched modern "Hey we're friendly because it's all in lower case" thing, but I refuse to abide by that, except for lazyfatbum because he did that BEFORE it was mandated by marketing.
Also, "that was quick", because the very instant I create my blank slate with literally no data but my e-mail, lazy sends me an invite. Apparently the e-mail's enough.
After digging around deep, DEEP into the options on the site to properly disable the oddly intrusive privacy settings of Facebook that it has become infamous for, I think I'm set for the moment. They really did hide a lot of stuff all over there, the "privacy settings" page really doesn't have much there, at least much I care all that much about.
Anyone that wants to access my new and utterly blank page can use my old "exclusively for junk mail" e-mail address: kbanks64@yahoo.com
This is an experiment. So far, Facebook seems to know way too much about my hobbies already. How does it already have a database of incredibly obscure video games, including art for Clash at Demonhead? That's MY obscure knowledge, you can't have it!
So it seems the 3DS will have ONE friend code across all games. About time! It's a solid step and a good foundation to build on for catching up to XBox Live, but there's still a long way to go.
Also, some sort of auto discovery is in there. That's nice.
Wow... Wow.... That's... expensive. Really, $250? That's most certainly the most expensive system Nintendo's ever sold, and it's a portable. Granted, it appears this is a very powerful system, but it's in the range of the Wii, not the 360, so it's a little shocking. The 3D screen could also play a part there, as would miniaturization, but still, that's a lot. Considering the battery power is the lowest of any of Nintendo's portables (about 2-5 hours), what I'm getting from this is a total reversal of Nintendo's own long-standing policies for portable systems (that is, they should be cheap, and energy efficient). It's coming out in a few months anyway. They've already "run through" the current production of DS-i systems, and don't intend to make any more (that thing really did just end up being a stop-gap system).
I can only understand this as a result of Nintendo further copying Apple's strategy, that is the part I hoped they wouldn't notice, that Apple can "get away" with charging insane amounts for it's own portable devices and people fork it over by the handful. They also copied the "simple and intuitive" interface, but unfortunately fail at function people expect from modern systems.
I'm wondering if I shouldn't hold off here until they either lower the price or release the "new and improved" version with far superior battery life, but missing something else like the power switch or something (it's a Nintendo product, they always must taketh away something whenever they upgrade a product). Really though, the only other portables I can think of that got away with a price this high... all failed. I mean, this one WON'T because it's Nintendo's, but still... Let's see... Sega Nomad... That 32 bit Lynx thing... PSPGo (:D, seriously, Sony were morons thinking a stripped down PSP could sell for more than a proper one).
First, the 3DS will indeed be region locked, just like the DSi -- US, Japan, Europe/Australia, and Korea are the known regions.
Second, currently there are "no plans" to release The Last Story in the West, just like how Nintendo apparently plans to sit on Xenoblade forever. Whatever those idiots that thing Westerners don't want RPGs are thinking I don't know, but it's stupid. I know it's not the best selling genre here, but there's certainly enough of a market to sell good games like those.
