Just found this. Lucas and Spielberg have approved a script for Indiana Jones 4, but Ford still has to sign off on it. He hasn't read it yet. Lazy, I'd definitely say this is the project that Rob Coleman said they were planning and couldn't talk about.
Nintendo might have a problem on their hands concerning their download content.
Like most of us, I own pretty much every Nintendo made game from the past 20 years as I also own all the consoles from the big N. Being able to download them all in to the Revolution is great for people that never got a chance to play them or lost them. But for people like me, I need an extra incentive to download the games, especially if i'm paying for it.
With the OoT re-release on GC, we got a version of OoT in progressive scan high res, as well as some frame rate issues in certain areas fixed up. The game seems to be locked at 30 fps with very few moments of stutter, only in the hairiest of moments. I noticed that MM got a similar treatment.
So when we start up our Revolutions for the first time and we see the download games, if OoT is there and costs, let's say 10 bucks, what would get you to buy it? If it's the same game as the GC re-release I wouldn't get it. I would need it to have something new.
If it's free, of course i'll grab it. But if it has a cost, I would need something like high res @ 60 fps... That would interest me, but it's still not enough. new dungeons/areas? Okay, now we're talking.
In fact, for all the downloadable games, I would have to be able to have a 'perfect' version of the games to really interest me. No slow down, high res and in surround sound, and of course any and all bugs removed. For Nintendo, this wouldn't be a big deal at all, but new content like levels, characters, etc will take time, energy and money that Nintendo will need to spend on new games for Revolution.
So now we have our perfect versions and we want some new content, something that justifies the price when we already have it available.
I think the answer comes from Nintendo's past. A network of users who use Nintendo-made tools to make game-edits. Entire games, or just an added level. We see roms all the time of dungeons for the original Zelda made by fans. Imagine if Revolutionaries could download the original game along with an editor and make their own levels, weapons, etc and then put them up on a network for other people to download. It would be slow to start up, but within months you would see completely original versions of all our favorite games.
So now we have our perfect versions with new content and a price would be juistified.
How about take it in another direction? Instead of focusing on graphics or new levels etc, they could use the Revolutions wi-fi network to allow us to play all our old favorite 2 player games online. 10 bucks to download Mario Kart for SNES with the bonus of playing it online for free. Suddenly a picture is painted that could really push the entire industry in a whole new direction.
IGN had an interesting article. They were looking at the XBox and PS2 netplayers and noticed a trend; People with handles like Zeldafan or Mario64rules, avatars of Yoshi and their racing car with a paint job of a giant ocarina with Epona's theme drawn down the side with classic C-button icons. The majority of Nintendo fans might have jumped ship but they certainly haven't left Nintendo. If Rev follows suit with their older and newer games, it would sweep them all up. Companies would then be competing with 8 and 16 bit games.
It would be a mad scramble not only for the consumers dollar, but for their play time. Current gameplay designers would have some big shoes to fill if suddenly, their awesome graphics weren't getting any play time because 9 million people are playing Super Bomberman online with their Revolutions.
What about classic one player games? Games like Super Metroid could borrow from current gen titles like Metroid Hunters. Imagine Super Metroid: you start as per usual with nothing, but there are dozens of other players mixed all around Zebes. When your paths cross with other bounty hunters, you can decide to make a team, or try to take them down. You could trade weapons, items or map info with them, too. It could even become a 24 hour world where hunters fight for relics, upgrades and weapons all over Zebes. You could have different levels and handicaps as well for newbies.
This could be applied to just about any one player game from Nintendo. Imagine playing Starfox 64 where your wingmen are human controlled and can each take your own path or even play as the bosses. Couple all of this with the ability to edit your own levels and you have yourself a dream come true. Each game infinitely expandable so you can play it how you want it and share it with others.
And finally, more third parties. The biggest one being Rare for obvious reasons. But online versions of Final Fantasy 2 and 3, Chrono Trigger, Street Fighter, Double Dragon, you name it. It would be a huge incentive to grab a Revolution, even for people who feel like Nintendo isn't for them.
So here's the bottom line:
1.) The downloadable games should have new content.
2.) They should have online capabilities if possible whether they are multiplayer games or not.
3.) Each game should have the option of an editor to make your own versions of the games.
4.) Frame rate issues should be completely fixed, as well as any bugs - 'Perfect Versions'
Quote:Zelda DS: Four Swords No More --- posted by ZackDivozzo at 8:53 PM CDT on Saturday the 21st
In a recent interview with Eiji Aonuma, Aonuma revealed that the newest addition to the handheld Zelda series on the Nintendo DS will not be a Four Swords title. Aonuma also confirmed that this title is being developed by Nintendo themselves, breaking away from the recent Capcom development of Link’s GBA adventure, The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap. The in-house team that is working on this title is the same group that brought us console versions of Zelda, surrounding this game with much mystery and intrigue. Could this be the 3D DS Zelda adventure that we have been waiting for? Stay tuned to DSRevolution in the future to find out.
I can't get this out of my head. I CAN'T GET THIS OUT OF MY HEAD.
edit: link removed. does this site have a nws rule? the link didn't have any bad stuff, but some of the content on the rest of the site contains some. im probably being too cautious.
Shenmue is perhaps one of the most ambitious projects in videogame history. The brainchild of Sega genius Yu Suzuki, Shenmue is the story of Ryo Hazuki, a teenager in the town of Yokosuka in Japan. The Hazukis are a long line of martial arts experts, and Ryo's father in particular has been particularly adventurous. One snowy day in December of 1986, a group of men led by the Chinese terrorist Lan Di attacked and murdered Iwao Hazuki. Ryo tried to intercede, but neither was he a match for Lan Di's incredible power. As Ryo watched his father die in his arms, he swore revenge upon Lan Di and his associates.
It is your duty as Ryo to begin the hunt in Yokosuka. Though Ryo is thirsty for blood, he quickly realizes he is up against something larger than he thought, and he knows next to nothing about his nemesis. This game is the first of what is expected to be a series of several games, and in this first game, you are attempting to learn about Lan Di's activities in and around town.
Gameplay: 10/10
At the very heart of it, Shenmue is little more than a standard detective story, with a few fights and fetch-quests thrown in for variety. To leave it at that would do a great disservice to this game, however, because Shenmue's greatness lies not in the overall story concept, but in the technological manner in which the story progresses.
A majority of the game is spent in what is called the FREE system, which essentially places you in a third-person perspective in which you guide Ryo around the environments of Yokosuka. There are dozens of people to talk to and dozens of places to see. Almost every object in the game can be examined or manipulated, and a good half of Shenmue is collecting items.
Several times in the game you are forced into action sequences, which have two different and distinct flavors. The first, and more common, is the QTE, or Quick Time Event. To successfully complete a QTE, you must have exceptional reflexes, for the whole idea is to press a button, or a series of buttons, within a very short period of time as you are prompted on screen. QTEs can vary in their application, though they are most often implemented while Ryo is fighting enemies or during various chase/escape scenes. You are given one or two chances to fail and continue, more than this will result in you being forced to begin the event again.
The other type of action sequence is the Free Battle, in which you control Ryo freely in combat with one or several enemies. You have the ability to move and to use literally dozens of martial arts moves against your foes, with various kicks, punches, grabs and throws, blocks and counters. The combat system is rather deep, and your skill improves with practice. Ryo has the ability to practice his moves in various areas of the game. Your special moves become more effective with use and practice, so the practice mode helps you by not only allowing you familiarity with the control scheme, but by learning the button combinations that trigger Ryo's many special moves, and making those moves stronger and more effective with use. Ryo begins the game already knowing several moves, and throught the game, you will come across many scrolls that will teach you newer and more devastating attacks. Mastering these attacks and defenses is crucial to surviving later combats, and the combo system is so varied and deep that it allows you to basically create your own style of combat, utilizing whichever moves you personally find to be the most effective.
When you are not fighting or running, there's still tons and tons to do. There is a lot of territory available to explore. You have an entire town and several neighborhoods to see, each filled with buildings and people and objects. You can talk to anyone you want, and in fact will spend quite a lot of time doing so to learn about Lan Di, by learning developments from some characters, and using these clues to help you continue. You will probably also spend a lot of time searching the various environments, both because the story requires it, and because there's just simply so much to see. The scale on which this game was developed blows everything else away, and nothing even since has come as close to creating a convincing facade of a living, breathing community. Almost every building in the game can be entered, and almost every one of them has something interesting to see or do. In the commercial district of Dobuita, for instance, there are a myriad of shops and games Ryo can see, and you will certainly find yourself distracted from the quest for Lan Di possibly for several entire gameplay-days immersed in this virtual playground. There is an arcade in which you can play several classic Sega games, a house of slots where you play slot machines to earn tokens that can be exchanged for prizes, a fortune teller who directs you when you lose your way, several different convenience stores that sell all sorts of trinkets and items, a dojo to train your moves with a partner, and many more.
Several of these attractions require money, of course. You start with a goodly amount of money, more than you will likely ever need, and at the beginning of each day, you are given a little more as an allowance. Eventually, you find yourself in the position of needing a great deal of money in one particular story event, and this necessitates the second major part of the game, in which Ryo finds employment as a forklift driver in Yokosuka Harbor.
Graphics: 10/10
Shenmue is a thing of sheer beauty, even despite graphical imperfections. The sheer scale of everything, the meticulous attention to detail, all of it leads to the graphics of Shenmue being far more than the sum of its parts. Speaking to characters usually places you in a close-up view of their face, where you can see great detail in play. Character faces are full of detail, and have very realistic movement. The environmental graphics will simply stun you stupid, even if you've played it before and are coming back to it after years of inactivity, you will be amazed at what AM2 was able to pull off. The detail is amazing, even more when you consider just how many hundreds of aspects of the environment are important for you to find and examine. More than anything else, it is the graphics that force your attention, and immerse you completely in this fantasy world. You may often find yourself wanting to do nothing but walk around and look at things, just for the hell of it. Hell, you might just want to see the sun go down or the weathe change from rain to snow. It's that good.
Sound: 6/10
If Shenmue has a shortfall, it is in the sound department. The music of Shenmue is actually rather great, and there are dozens of tracks, many of which are playable either on various jukeboxes around town, or on cassettes that you find or buy, and play either in your portable cassette player, or in your friend Tom's boombox. Walking around town is usually accompanied by serene, low-key tunes. Most places indoors have distinct themes, and of course cut-scenes and fight scenes also have their own as well. These are all very well-done and fun to listen to.
The problem with the sound category is in the voice-acting. Quite simply, it's atrocious. Lines are delivered with all the subtlely of a tank firing shells at a nitroglycerin plant. Scenes that should be full of emotion come across sounding funny or stupid. Some characters have a tendency to scream and yell their lines, whether they are warning you of an imminent threat to your life, or if they're simply commenting on the weather. The game probably would have fared better here if there had been no English dubbing, or if you had the option of leaving the Japanese voices with English subtitles. Unfortunately, you do not, and this sorely detracts from the immersion of the story when all of these Japanese people sound like bit-actors in American horror movies.
Control: 7/10
The reason I score this so high is that when control counts most, notably QTEs and fight scenes, the control is crisp and responsive. Mistakes that occur will almost always be your own fault, though understandable and forgivable since this game is very demanding on your reflexes. The reason I score this so low is because the control scheme for simply walking around is slow and clunky. Ryo steers like a Mack truck, sadly. There is no way to quickly turn, and it is easy to get stuck by objects or people. It requires a bit of precision, and after about a half-hour of play you'll find yourself used to its quirks, but nevertheless, it could have been far more fluid than it is.
Final Score: 9/10
With an interesting story, sheer fascinating environments, so much to do and so much to see, there is absolutely no reason that any of us who still own Dreamcasts should not have this game in our collections. In fact, I would suggest purchasing a Dreamcast for this game alone. It is so easy to get lost in this world, so easy to waste hours and hours of your own life here, that you owe it to yourself to track down a copy. If you can overlook its flaws, you will find one of the most unique and fun videogames ever created.
