So Nintendo has a new Wii channel they hope to be all the rage, which allows you to post your Miis for others to view and enter contests to make a Mii according to a theme.
I have to say I really think Nintendo needs to stop with all these stupid things and get back to making stuff that actually has to do with games. Don't get me wrong, I know Nintendo is still making awesome games, like Twilight Princess and the upcoming Mario Galaxy, but really when I think of all the things they need to catch up on with the other consoles and I see them wasting time adding "features" like this, well it frustrates me. Really whatever team is making this American Idol stuff needs to be refocused on improving the online gaming experience. That's what is supposed to make Nintendo better than everyone else right? That's the thing all the Nintendo fanboys always use to defend the lack of this or that feature right? Nintendo just cares about GAMES? Well, what the heck does a Mii model runway have to do with games? I can already share my Miis and there's that Mii parade. I really don't care about a monthly contest considering that the Mii system doesn't really allow enough variation to really make those contests that interesting.
Really what Nintendo should do is try to reach, as Penny Arcade calls it, feature parity with MS. Nintendo coming up with original stuff beyond what MS is doing? That's fine, but we've given them ample time and instead of doing that, they give us Everybody Votes. No, that's not an online feature nor an online revolution. It's an online poll. They had their chance, and they aren't above copying people, so copy MS already!
I know I know, it's old news here and I keep bringing it up, but seriously it's getting a bit annoying to see that Nintendo is spending so much money on non-features when they have so much to catch up on in other departments. Next update I want to see is something, anything really, from the long list of XBox Live features on the 360. Persistant friends lists (same friends list no matter what game so you don't need to make a new one every time), for example, would be a start. Inviting from one game to another, that's good. Seeing what others are playing from anywhere in the interface, also good. Full voice chat in any game, that's fine too. Being able to invite anyone you match against to your friends list, that's a plus. And, so Nintendo has no excuses, parental controls that extend to the online experience (IE, turning off voice chat). There's more. Downloadable content for games, and also online game patching and autodetection of patches for games (they could have fixed the Zelda cannon room glitch without sending out new disks, for example). Matchmaking is something Nintendo can do so far, but they should allow users to have control, to make custom matches they set the parameters on. Ranked ladders, that's good, and the ranking should be used in matchmaking so you get matched against someone of your skill level.
Every single feature I listed up there is in XBox Live, every last one, and I'm sure I'm still forgetting some.
They don't need to bother with adding a movie download service. That's something MS does but that's not game related of course. I really don't care about something like that. Further, I really don't care about "custom themes" or "gamer icons". MS also provides those, or to be more accurate, they SELL those, for money. Yes, icons and "themes" for cash money. Ugh... I must confess I did spend some points on an icon set. In my defense I was just "getting rid" of 50 points I couldn't spend on anything else, though I did kick myself right afterwards when I realized I fell for such an obvious money trap. I wasn't ever going to use those icons and I could have saved those points, and oh yes, that reminds me how much I hate those "point" systems, making me spend more money than what the item actually costs in points is beyond annoying, it's fairly close to robbery.
Anyway back on topic, Nintendo should focus their Wii channel team on adding the features I talked about above. Do that, then I won't care if you spend your time adding virtual polls or catwalks for avatars.
Listen I'm not all negative, and you know that. I have nothing but praise for their motion sensing control innovation (my only criticism is some button placement issues on the main controller), and Zelda Twilight Princess is one of the best games I've played in a long time. I also have been nothing short of amazed by the upcoming Mario Galaxy, which looks not just fun but pretty creative, unlike Sunshine before it. I'll criticize when I see something lacking but I will lavish praise when I see somethin awesome.
I'll keep bringing up this online issue until it's resolved, and if they don't, then just prepare to be annoyed for a whole console generation :D, but if they DO resolve these issues, I WILL be the first to praise Nintendo for it. You can count on that. I probably won't stop that either. I mean you've seen how much I keep complimenting MS's system.
It makes computers cry. The (single-player) demo sure does, anyway. Amazing, amazing graphics, but awful framerates to match at High or Very High detail levels...
Am I so wrong for wanting to be able to play it at max settings on a six month old computer? It's playable at a mix of High and Very High (most settings on Very High except for a few that hurt the framerate the most) with no AA, but even then the framerate isn't exactly great. And I'm just using 1024x768.
Good:
- Awesome graphics! Best ever? Almost certainly.
- Large environments... this is an issue when you're running into rocks and stuff because of the framerate, and driving cars from inside them is suicidal, and it's not FULLY open -- you do have a path -- but they make it wide and varied enough that you usually don't feel too railed along... the level design is really well done, based on the demo level. The enemies also chase you for a while, so you can't let up your guard...
- Ingame maps, with both an onscreen minimap and of the whole area! They even mark enemies on them as well as objectives, and their threat level (not in the high difficulty though, of course).
- Plot seems good enough for a game of this type.
- Nice weapon variety
-You have a superpowered suit -- invisibility, super speed, super jumping... cool stuff.
- The enemies are North Korean and they speak with Korean accents or, in the hardest difficulty (which also minimizes your sight indicators) is Korean... nice touch.
Bad:
- Limited ammo -- are you supposed to avoid them all somehow? Just use the ammo you get off of the bodies, meaning you mostly fight with their guns? I did the latter...
- You can only hold a couple of guns of each type. More realistic, sure, but it's fun to be a walking arsenal... :D (you can carry two machine guns, several pistols, etc, so there is a decent amount you can hold at least)
- What's with every FPS these days having the Halo-style "stop moving and you heal" thing? Sure it makes things easier, but better? Not necessarily...
- The framerate (unless you turn the graphics way down) is bad with anything less than computers that won't be out for a year.
PC Gamer gave it a 98%, which ties it with Half-Life, Half-Life 2, and Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri for the highest scores they've ever given. Does it deserve it? I'm not sure... the game is good, sure, but it's the graphic engine that's the biggest star.
Apparently gamers everywhere looked for this strange set of skulls, but for the life of me I have no idea what game this is supposed to be from.
Oh and GR, there's no possible way I can search for that in google or wikipedia. It's a line of 4 skulls! "4" and "skulls" just aren't accurate enough terms.
Tuesday September 6, 2007 shortly after 2:00 PM our beloved Tendo city met with a violent attack by an hacker in egypt. He ruined permissions, deleted forums, and deleted files from the server.
I wish to thank all the dedicated crises response teams within the TovenNet network. Within just hours the site was restored to working order. The database has been rolled back to yesterday, and site, and server security tightened. The only ill effect is that we lost a days worth of posts.
Threw careful examination of server logs, and the hackers own email address which he gracefully left us, we have determined the hackers identity and will be reporting it to the proper authorities.
Please email admin if the site experiences any problems.
Thank You....
I've always said "Guy-den" and so has everyone I know who's actually aware of the series. Weird...
I did say "Helena" though, because it's got an H in it! Also I'm pretty sure I've met people named Helena who say the Americanized version.
Japanese names are... unusual. I tend to be mostly close when I hear them actually said, just way off on the timing (I say them too slow I guess). Of course it helps that usually Japanese names are all pretty directly transliterated and, for me anyway, are usually easier to pronounce after having only read it than a lot of Enlish words, that carry the baggage of long confusing etymologies. Like, say, "knight".
Read this article. It's... weird... ESRB is saying THIS mod, which only removes a filter, is TOTALLY DIFFERENT than the other mods that allowed one access to previously unaccessible stuff like the "nude" thing in Oblivion or that "Hot Coffee" mini-game.
They try to explain that it's different because... well they used different words to describe it. Sorry I'm not buying it. It's the same thing. My argument? They should NOT have put higher ratings on the previous games and this mod is no different than the previous. About the only thing I can see is this time that "hidden content" was told to the ESRB beforehand, and the other content was not (and really, it's not really "in the game" anyway so I didn't see the big deal in not revealing dummied out code). ESRB can say what they will, but it seems like they are really just grasping at straws to defend themselves and really just sending a not so subtle message to developers that all dummied content must be revealed to them.
Frankly, I'm sick of the ESRB. Can a parent honestly not tell just by looking at the cover art for something like God of War or Doom that maybe this isn't the game for little Suzie? Those crazy fees don't help, and Japan's got their own new ratings board that is taking out all our beloved decapitations from their games, which is going to affect our versions.
I hope it's great for everyone and lots of upset stomachs and cavities! My nephew kinda outgrew going tricker-treeting with his uncle so i'm sitting this halloween out. I gotta costume but no where to go with it :D I passed the alien lexbow woman tradition on to my nephew so I'll get some pics of that up. Did anyone else dress up? Even if you didn't do anything this year, post pics of your favorite costumes from when you were younger!
I'm.... kinda bored and just made myself coffee I dont want so if anybody wants to bullshit my AIM is dead hephaestus.
