OB1, are you joking or do you have a serious point? Because I know I've liked every single one of Bioware's games (sure, I haven't played SHattered Steel in years, but I'm sure it's a decent giant robot sim...). Yes, I have some complaints about NWN. But not so much that when the thing gets a bit cheaper I won't get it... it certainly looks like it'd be worth $20 or $30...
Anyway, what in the world is your point? So I hadn't played KOTOR. So?
You also forget one more thing about this list. 'Most Wanted' doesn't mean games I'll get as soon as they are out. So I well might wait until KOTOR 2 is cheaper until I get it, but that doesn't change its status on my list...
As for KOTOR... I've just started. Would you like some first impressions? ... well, I'll tell you either way. :)
KOTOR... as I thought, given that it's primarially a console game, takes the d20 rules but simplifies them. A simple light/dark alignment system, only three classes, etc... oh, it's still got a lot of depth for sure, but compared to a Bioware PC D&D RPG the system has been noticably simplified. This isn't awful (most of the d20/D&D 3 system is here and intact), but it's what you get with it being a console game.
Yes, I'll get used to the control and display systems. But on first glance I see a bunch of small annoying things that I have to mention.
First. INVENTORY. This is the biggest thing that they seem to have changed. Can you max out your inventory? Do you have limited inventory slots? Do you even have that basic D&D thing of a WEIGHT LIMIT? And WHY IN THE WORLD DOES IT HAVE A SHARED PARTY INVENTORY??? That is so, so stupid! I want seperate inventory screens for each character and I want a normal inventory display where I can see small images of each item on the screen at the same time! Oh yeah, and I want the descriptions to appear on a right click, not on a left click, because that means a big box on the side of the screen has to be devoted to that description... one of the many ways this game panders to consoles, hurting its PC playability.
Yes, in Baldur's Gate II you get various 'bags of holding' to hold stuff, so it'd be nice to have them have early on (and easily accessible) things like a power pack holder (weapon energy), potion holder, etc... but you realy should have a obviously limited inventory that is seperate for each character and that has a weight limit based on their strength, like the d20 rules say you should.
Oh yeah, and It's pretty dissapointing to see that you can't choose your character's voice set... this is minor, but it's still annoying. At least the default seems decent.
As for the game itsself... seems good. One pretty annoying thing is that when you click on your other party member(s) on screen (in combat, specifically) it doesn't select them. I'm used to it doing that in most PC RPGs so the fact that it doesn't, and you have to either hit 'Tab' or click on their portrait, is pretty annoying. Most of my other complaints are similar interface issues, about how I like the Infinity engine (or other similar systems that all the Interplay-style PC RPGs have) better than this console-styled one. Like, items. Okay, so it's nice that you can switch between the items in your quick item spots with the little arrows, but I'd prefer to be able to drag items there from my inventory and configure it as I wish! Oh wait, the inventory is not that well designed... right...
More? Hmm... oh, right, combat. I mean in addition to forcing you to use tab instead of the obvious clicking on the other character to switch to them during combat. (that may not work in the console version but it REALLY should have been in the PC!) As you can probably guess, I want a normal combat system, not those little boxes which I have to scroll through... by 'normal' I mean 'either a rightclick popup ring of options or a row of buttons on the screen'. Given this game's interface, I think the rightclick ring would work better. Though that's more a Black Isle thing, not Bioware, I think it'd be perfect for this game... you know, where you move the mouse onto the screen and then right click and the options pop up. Attack, Skills (click to get a listing), Force (if you're a Jedi), Items (like the grenades), etc... I definitely think that a system like that would work better for a mouse control system.
On a similar note, I know OB1 will think I am crazy, but (just based on a couple hours of gameplay) I can't help but find myself thinking that I'd rather this game had a more normal topdown perspective. Seriously. And this isn't for performance reasons... the game runs surprisingly well on my PC, at 800x600 anyway. I just think that PC-style RPGs are more fun from that perspective. Especially combat, that'd definitely be better if it was from a more overhead perspective (and with a action choice system like I detailed earlier)... yes, the game has nice 3d graphics. But I'd love to see what this game would look like with great high res images instead... :)
Now, don't get me wrong. It's a very good game. Probably a great game, even. I just wish that it had been made more focused for the PC. Not a game-killing set of problems by any means, but enough to be worth mentioning.
Quote: * The Legend of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
* Dr. Mario
* Metroid
* Castlevania
Note the conspicuous absence of Kid Icarus... heck, of plenty of games. The Japanese have gotten two sets of 10 games and have a third set of 10 coming soon. We got 8 and are getting four more. Great.
Haha, this looks great. Those of you who read Scribes back in the day should remember Mr. Pants, Rare's poorly-drawn and awesome stick figure guy. About a year ago or something Rare announced that they were working on a Mr. Pants game, and we all (or at least me) got excited. Well here it is, folks, and it's a re-worked DK Coconut Crackers! Woo!
Quote:August 12, 2004 - All right, gang, a show of hands. How many of you remember last year when Rare made the sneaky announcement about It's Mr. Pants, a game that the studio had in development for the Game Boy Advance? It was almost exactly a year to the day when the revelation was made that the company's unofficial mascot, the trouser-donning 'stached fellow with a derby Mr. Pants, was to get a GBA game of his very own.
But unfortunately, that's all we got. After that one announcement, Rare clamped down into silence mode on the project, and thus began the mystery of exactly what was to be It's Mr. Pants for the Game Boy Advance. No amount of poking and prodding towards the blokes in the UK would make them crack and let slip any potential tidbits of Mr. Pants' gaming debut.
Well, it's been a year. And after 365 long, agonizing, almost torturous days of waiting, we can reveal, finally, the ridiculousness that is Rare's latest game for release in 2004: It's Mr. Pants. And boy, was it worth it.
But first, a little background. More than three years ago, back at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in 2001 (just before the release of the Game Boy Advance in the US), Rare demonstrated four GBA games at Nintendo's booth. One of which was a Donkey Kong-branded puzzle game titled DK Coconut Crackers. Though the Nintendo/Rare relationship broke down before the company could release any GBA games, DK Coconut Crackers pretty much hit the skids early -- whatever the reason, the game disappeared from release lists and was quietly removed from Nintendo's line-up.
When Rare and THQ paired up last year and made the shocking It's Mr. Pants announcement, many people made the intelligent speculation that the mysterious game was the revival of DK Coconut Crackers. After all, the list of games in the THQ/Rare line-up mirrored the same line-up that Rare had demonstrated at E3 just a couple years before. The only addition was It's Mr. Pants. It just made sense.
Anyone who speculated that It's Mr. Pants is a retooled DK: Coconut Crackers: Give yourself a cookie.
So. The game. How to explain. Well, It's Mr. Pants is a traditional puzzle game in the Tetris sense where the challenge is to piece together specific shapes of specific colors on a flat playing field grid. The idea is simple: form rectangles of larger than 3x2 (squares of 2x2 are too small) to make them disappear from play. The It's Mr. Pants pieces can be rotated in 90 degree variations, exactly like Tetris "tetrominos," important to get these tiles into the littlest slots on the field.
You can't place same colors on top of each other, but you can place other colors on top of already placed shapes to remove them from play. This mechanic comes into play more often than to simply remove garbage shapes; it's crucial to do this in order to remove multiple rectangles from play and to score those strong combinations for the huge score.
There are three variations on the main gameplay mechanic. In "Puzzle," the challenge is to remove all shapes from play with the set amount of pieces. In "Wipeout", you've got two minutes to remove all shapes from play with an infinite amount of pieces. And in "Marathon," the challenge is to constantly place and remove shapes as long as you can, trying to keep the session alive as the playfield gets eaten away from the outside in. The game's cartridge save system records puzzles completed, the best scores in each mode, and all the collectibles earned during the challenges.
So, it's a traditional puzzle game for the Game Boy Advance. Sort of.
The game's charm is its carefree style and presentation. It's full of squigglevision animation, crayon-drawn backgrounds, and floating underpants wherever the game designers can fit it. The levels are just full of crazy, tripped out imagery and music, complete with Mr. Pants singing between levels. Yes, Mr. Pants SINGS!
The craziness of It's Mr. Pants can't be appreciated until you experience it for yourself. We've captured a ton of screens and video of the final version of the game in action. THQ's prepping this game for a stateside release much sooner than you may realize, so be sure to add the game to your wishlist to be the first to know when this game's shipping to stores.
Awesome. I hope you guys are excited about this Rare GBA game at least.
Yo yo yo! It's nickdaddyg, again if you haven't noticed my recent posts.
Hmmm, the latest news. I don't live out by Kansas City, Missouri anymore like I did. We moved here to Phoenix, AZ in early July. I'm gonna be going to Ariz. State University, starting Aug. 23.
Bad part about that is, if it gets really busy I might not be posting again for a while.
So have ya missed me? Anybody been making songs of me while I was out?
Quote:Nintendo's Miyamoto says third-party software could allow DS to connect to Internet through its wireless LAN.
TOKYO--In a recent interview conducted by staff at Earthbound creator Shigesato Itoi’s Web site, Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto revealed that it is technically possible for the DS to connect to the Internet using its wireless LAN…as long as a third party develops the appropriate software.
"We added the wireless LAN (IEEE802.11) to the DS mainly for the handhelds to communicate between each other," said Miyamoto. "But if someone releases appropriate software that allows it to connect to wireless LAN access points, it could also be used to connect to the Internet."
Miyamoto was quick to point out that Nintendo itself is not interested in developing the possible Internet capabilities of the DS. The company is focusing on gameplay rather than hardware capabilities and plans to make the machine enjoyable without the need for additional devices or peripherals. “The one thing we don’t want to do is to add this and that and every connection and capability [to the DS]. We want to make the DS enjoyable, by itself, as far as we can."
The full interview can be viewed in Japanese at Shigesato Itoi's Web site.
By Staff -- GameSpot
POSTED: 07/13/04 09:51 AM PST
So basically it's the exact same situation as the GC. If third-parties want to go online with the DS, they can, but Nintendo certainly won't give them support. And most importantly, Nintendo themselves aren't going to support online gaming with the DS. Fucking brilliant, Nintendo. I really hope the PSP's online capabilities are a huge selling point for that system and make Nintendo realize just how fucking idiotic they are for completely ignoring online gaming, even when it's as relatively easy to do on the DS. There's no way I'm going to get Animal Crossing DS, Metroid Prime Hunters (if it's multi-only), and any similar titles if they don't offer online gaming. And if that's all there is at launch I won't be getting a DS until something worthwhile is released.
Their philosophy on this is just so mind-numbingly retarded that I can't believe a developer with such incredible genius when it comes to game design can be such massive fuck-ups when it comes to online gaming. “The one thing we don’t want to do is to add this and that and every connection and capability [to the DS]. We want to make the DS enjoyable, by itself, as far as we can." WHAT THE FUCK DOES THAT MEAN?? So by adding an online mode to something like Animal Crossing which would enable people who don't know several other people with DS' and copies of AC within the same vicinity of each other (which will be very rare, I'm sure) to have thousands of different gamers to play with... that would be taking away the enjoyment from the title, cheapening it. That's like saying that they want to make a new Mario game that really doesn't need to use buttons because they want it to be enjoyable on its own. And to make this even more fucked up, Nintendo is the KING of releasing useless "this and that and every connection and capability"! E-Card readers, anyone? How about GBA-GC connectivity??? But the one "this and that" that would actually make a huge difference in sales, they choose not to support. If someone understands this inane philosophy, please explain it to me. I'm completely at a loss here.
![[Image: its-mr-pants-20040812035046143-000.jpg]](http://pocketmedia.ign.com/pocket/image/article/538/538304/its-mr-pants-20040812035046143-000.jpg)
