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+--- Thread: DICE... (/showthread.php?tid=3509)
DICE... - A Black Falcon - 9th February 2006
No Revolution news, as far as I've seen, but there are some DS things.
http://www.planetgamecube.com/news.cfm?action=item&id=6768
Quote:DS Download Service: Starting next month, Nintendo will offer all DS owners free downloadable game demos and other downloadable content at thousands of participating retail locations around the United States. An in-store kiosk will beam wireless demo versions of games and other downloadable content into a players' Nintendo DS system. Users simply stop by the store with their Nintendo DS, click "DS Download Play" on their system and choose one of a variety of DS games they want to sample. The game will download automatically and users can play all they want (even if they leave the store) until the Nintendo DS is turned off.
Sequentially, players can try out as many games as they want, letting them test drive the wide array of games that can only be played on Nintendo DS. The first DS Download Service stations will include free demos of Tetris® DS, Brain Age™: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day, Mario Kart® DS, Meteos™, True Swing Golf and Pokémon® Trozei, along with a Metroid® Prime Hunters video clip. The selection of games and other downloadable content at DS Download Service kiosks will refresh quarterly.
Metroid Chat: The new Metroid Prime Hunters game for Nintendo DS will give gamers the ability to chat directly with one another before and after matches played via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. Players in North America simply click the chat icon and say what they have to say. The microphone of the Nintendo DS picks up voice communication and transmits it to the people on their friend list. Players can use the chat function before a match to agree on settings or after a battle to relive their glories. This Teen-rated first-person adventure arrives March 20 and promises to open a dramatically fun new facet of gaming to Nintendo fans.
Nintendo DS Momentum: Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection now boasts more than 20 million different connections, representing more than 850,000 unique users worldwide. Nintendo DS has enjoyed extremely strong sales worldwide, selling more than 14.4 million units worldwide through December. The Japanese sell-through of the existing Nintendo DS hardware exceeded 5 million within 13 months, which made Nintendo DS there the fastest-selling video game launch ever. In addition to Metroid Prime Hunters, Tetris DS also launches March 20. Using Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, up to four players can compete in wireless two- or four-player Tetris DS battles against friends or strangers, near or far.
Nintendo DS Lite: The lighter, brighter Nintendo DS system goes on sale in Japan next month. Nintendo DS Lite is about two-thirds the size of the original Nintendo DS and more than 20 percent lighter. Its availability in other regions will be announced at a later date.
Nintendo's moronic, horribly misinformed, 'almost makes me not want to care at all about the "online" multiplayer' quest to not allow people to add people they meet online to their friends lists or communicate with them in any way continues! Way to go!
DICE... - Dark Jaguar - 9th February 2006
Um, that's not what I just read.
They are adding full voice support to Metroid Prime Hunters.
Whether or not the friends list will be more managable isn't made clear.
The demo download thing is neat, but what I'd really like is for them to give us a firmware update so we could get those downloads from any wifi connection.
DICE... - Great Rumbler - 9th February 2006
Quote:or communicate with them in any way
Quote:Metroid Chat: The new Metroid Prime Hunters game for Nintendo DS will give gamers the ability to chat directly with one another before and after matches played via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. Players in North America simply click the chat icon and say what they have to say. The microphone of the Nintendo DS picks up voice communication and transmits it to the people on their friend list. Players can use the chat function before a match to agree on settings or after a battle to relive their glories.
Hmm...
DICE... - A Black Falcon - 9th February 2006
DJ, just read it. It says that you can only chat with others before or after the game, okay, but then says that you can only chat with people on your friends list. Nintendo is making a theme of this -- Reggie also recently said that the Revolution's online system will likely be similar to the DS'es -- and it's really, really stupid and tragic because it ruins a potentially good thing by making it almost completely unusable beyond the absolute most basic zero-chat-zero-contact online battles that are only a very small step removed from single player...
Quote:The microphone of the Nintendo DS picks up voice communication and transmits it to the people on their friend list.
Can you honestly say that you think this means that they'll let you add random people to your friends list? With that kind of moronic restriction? Yeah right!
DICE... - Dark Jaguar - 9th February 2006
It doesn't say THAT, but that is not what I said.
It does seem to say we will be able to chat during matches.
DICE... - A Black Falcon - 9th February 2006
Quote:chat directly with one another before and after matches played via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection
That's a much less relevant issue than the main one about the incredible stupidity of blocking real online gaming, however.
DICE... - Great Rumbler - 9th February 2006
Voice-chat with random individuals is over-rated anyway.
DICE... - A Black Falcon - 9th February 2006
If there was a text-based alternative I'd say "sure", but that's not the case, so absolutely not. Being able to communicate with the other people in a randomly put together game is an essential, central part of online gaming and playing anything without it is odd and dissattaching from the whole point of online gaming... I've done it before, with MS's little boardgames where you could just send canned messages... it just does not work on any level. Terrible, terrible idea born out of paranoia over protecting children, mainly, but that (admirable) goal doesn't excuse them going to these lengths to cut off players from any sort of online network that is truly relevant...
DICE... - Dark Jaguar - 9th February 2006
GR, playing without communication makes playing with other humans a very mechanical thing. Communication is limited to your direct actions. While you can still communicate, it isn't very clear, and if you are trying to communicate, you aren't competing very well.
I don't JUST like online play for the challenge, I like it because of the social elements. I'm pretty sure it's that way for most people.
Think of Animal Crossing. You can write letters to people, and that's certainly something. That game has communication, and to be honest I'd lock my town off from the outside world without that. Communication is an integral part of the online experience to me.
However, there is the issue of technical limitations to consider.