loonyboi

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Posts posted by loonyboi


  1. I guess I'm just old-fashioned. I still mostly prefer playing next to my friends, instead of online. I'm not against adding it, though. Definately not.

    Spoken like someone who has friends in relative proximity who play games. None of my friends are gamers. :P

    I guess it came off like that in my previous post, 'cause when you said enhancements I thought you meant all kinds of enhancements, like graphic "enhancements". So, given the choice I'd rather have it working just like it worked before without any stretching, smoothing, whatever. Even at the loss of the good features like online and scoreboards.

    Nah, I don't want that crap either. Which is why I like XBLA, where the games are the same, just with cool extra stuff like leaderboards + online play.

    Gunstar Heroes is just *screaming* for leaderboards.


  2. From what I've heard it's the most solid emulation out there. Compared with classic re-releases like XBLA's, that is. It's apparently exactly the same resolution as back in the days, which makes it extra crispy and not anti-aliased and shoddy like the XBLA classics. I'll probably come off as a nostalgic idiot, and a fanboy or something, whatever, but I'd prefer to play them completely untouched, if that means more true-to-old-days and sharper graphics, even if that means missing out on things like scoreboards and such.

    If you're going to make remakes, they could be released seperately.

    It's solid emulation. I don't know about anything else, but Mario 64 runs at a higher resolution than it used to. Playing in progressive scan you'll see scan lines from time to time, but that's to be expected.

    XBLA emulation is excellent, but it depends on the game, because there is no stock emulator. It's up to each company to do it themselves. Contra is ass, but that's Konami's fault, not Microsoft's.

    I still don't get the arguments against enhancing these older games. I don't see how adding online multiplayer to games that already have multiplayer takes away from the experience. I bought Bomberman, and it's awesome...it supports five players (4 Wii + one GameCube controller or any combination thereof), but it'd be ten times better if I could play it online -- as I will be able to with the XBLA release.


  3. XBLA is a much, much better implementation than the Wii store. For one thing, all games on XBLA must have a free playable demo, while all Nintendo gives you is a paragraph summary and a couple of screenshots.

    Also, as of a couple of updates ago, you can background download stuff from XBLA, where the Wii makes you sit and watch Mario hitting blocks. Also you can only download one at a time.

    The emulation is fine on the Wii, but as I've said before, I would have preferred to have some kind of enhancement to these games.

    I've bought a couple of games so far (Gunstar Heroes, Bomberman, Mario 64) and they're all cool, but it all seems like a first crack at this system, not the well defined system that Microsoft has.


  4. I don't quite understand why it will have such a huge impact...because Square-Enix is drastically lowering production costs for a game that is guaranteed to sell well? Because its going to Nintendo?

    Because the largest franchise in Japan isn't going to be exclusive to Sony anymore, and the core series may not appear on PS3 at all.

    It's like if Halo 3 went to PSP instead of 360. It's a big deal.


  5. I was completely shocked by this.

    A spinoff, sure...but the next major DQ game as a handheld-exclusive? Good GOD, that's nuts.

    If it had been a Wii-exclusive, that would have been a little more understandable...but this is just mind-blowing.

    After the waits between DQ6 and 7 (never did play 7...by the time it came out, I didn't care anymore) and then 7 and 8 (which was fantastic), this is somewhat encouraging.

    But still, quite surprising. And it will have long-lasting effects on the industry.

    Outside of Japan, we really can't appreciate just how popular DQ really is. In Japan, it's the biggest franchise in gaming, period. Bigger than Final Fantasy, bigger than Zelda, bigger than Mario.


  6. I really keep thinking about moving out of Australia and applying for work overseas, such as the UK, Canada, and US

    If you're thinking of moving to stay in the industry, I would suggest moving to either the US west coast or Vancouver. With all due respect to all the UK people here, the UK industry scene is not very healthy at the moment. I'd be scared if I lived there. (I also wouldn't recommend the east coast, as there are only a couple of companies here).

    ...the general populace seems to have a very closed view of the world. ie - America exists and nothing else. Yikes. Documentries and movies like Borat seem to keep reinforcing this stereotype.

    Oh come on. I'm not going to say that I'm scared of the UK because I watched Trainspotting.

    It all has to do with where you live. The majority of the poeple who live in any of the major gaming cities are nothing like that.


  7. If you want to get a job in the industry, I'd suggest visiting GameCareerGuide.com (located, oddly enough at http://gamecareerguide.com/).

    My path to my current job was a long and strange one, and I wouldn't recommend it to most people. I've been in this industry for almost a decade, in one form or another, and I'm only now in a position with an actual upward career path.

    But yes, it totally helps to know people. I'd been a journalist for seven years before getting hired by rockstar, so I had a lot of contacts to draw on.

    Of course, it also helps if you live in an area near several companies. In NYC it was pretty much R* or bust (and by "bust" I mean Acclaim or Majesco). Companies rarely relocate people for an entry-level position.


  8. It's slow as molasses right now. Actually, it was slightly better last night, but on launch day it took me hours just to download the required firmware update (and that's after many, many false starts).

    I haven't bought any virtual console games yet, because I can't find the classic controller anywhere (also none of the games appeal to me yet).


  9. As I'll be done Rayman soon, (and get paid on Friday) any elaboration on Excite Truck would be cool, Loonyboi. I was kind of looking at that one but unsure as to whether or not to purchase. Mostly, how's the multiplay, as that's what I'm most interested in it for?

    I haven't tried multiplayer yet...it's two player splitscreen only. I wish it had online support.

    I imagine multiplayer's kinda cool though. The racing is so over the top that it would be pretty fun.


  10. As I posted above, I got Zelda and ExciteTruck.

    ExciteTruck is lots of goofy, brainless fun. Very happy with it.

    Zelda is...Zelda. It looks like a GameCube game and the gameplay is the same as every other Zelda ever made. What makes it tolerable to a Zelda hater like me are the controls, which I'm digging. But it's tedious like all Zelda games.

    I suspect I'll end up agreeing with GameSpot's assessment. It's a polished and moderately fun game, but it's not the greatest game ever made (and certainly not worth the 10 out of 10 that 1UP gave it).


  11. I'm getting Excite Truck and Zelda.

    I've disliked every Zelda game I've ever played (yes, yes, I'm an inhuman monster...get over it), but that seems to be the game to get at launch, so I'm giving it a shot.


  12. I've been playing the game for about a week or so, and I still can't get past the fifth or sixth skin.

    Maybe I suck, but i'm having fun. I've also had absolutely no desire to buy anything else, since I'm so far off from having exhausted the initial content pack.


  13. I think the difference between us that you don't perceive older games as having any value at all, and need extras such as leader boards to feel your money's been spent on anything. I personally think the price is completely reasonable for an oldie like DKC, and really, what value is a leader board and a higher resolution going to apply to such a game?

    No, the difference is that you like the games enough that you're willing to accept shovelware, where I'd prefer a little effort go into re-releasing these games. I think they deserve more.

    For a game like DKC you're right, online leaderboards aren't going to be terribly useful (although they would be cool...I'd like to see how fast some people made it through the game). Support for widescreen would be nice, though. Again, this is something that all XBLA games are required to support, even if it's only by adding a background image to pad out the 16:9 ratio.


  14. What? Are you guys seriously complaining about the virtual console retro games being the same as they were when they first came out? Because, you know, that's kind of the point. The idea is to let you play old games on the new console, not to provide rereleased and remastered copies of them.

    Whether it's emulated or not shouldn't even be a concern. Why would it? What do you expect them to do, recode the entire game for a new system architecture for the sole purpose of giving you the comfort of knowing it's not an emulated game? Because I'd rather have lots more of the SNES/N64 catalogues in less time.

    For the amount of money they're charging? Yeah, I expect features like increased resolutions, online multiplayer, online leaderboards, etc.

    You forget that those kind of changes are required by Microsoft for XBLA titles. You cannot take a game, dump its rom and throw it on XBLA. Microsoft has standards for those things, and yes, I think it's worthwhile.

    Gauntlet, MK3, Pac-Man, Galaga, etc on XBLA all have online multiplayer, leaderboards and other modern features. And they still only cost $5 - $10.

    Nintendo pulled this crap before, charging $20 for individual NES roms on GBA carts with no changes whatsoever. It's too bad people were willing to do that, because it set a precedent.

    And for the record, this is different than 360's backwards compatibility. Completely different. It's not like I can take my existing N64 cart and pop it into my Wii. I am completely at Nintendo's mercy if I want to play those games on their new system.

    You can feel free to overpay for something that can easily be bought on eBay for a buck, but I fail to see the value there. If Nintendo's going to sell them again, they should do more than provide shovelware.


  15. You can have multiplayer with emulation, though.

    Yeah, you can. But it's still not going to be the same as Live Arcade without serious work. And Nintendo has given no indication that they're going to do that.


  16. I think virtual console titles are emu because they plan to release 10 every month.

    That kinda sucks.

    Actually, that really sucks. And blows.

    I'll stick to XBLA until they start releasing new games over VC.


  17. I bet it does, though. No proof, but I see getting formerly Japan-only games available on European VC as very unlikely.

    I'm pretty sure that's been confirmed. Games that were not released in a particular region will not be available on VC.

    Incidentally, I have yet to see anyone confirm whether or not these are straight emulations or not. I am really not interested in buying straight emulated copies of older games.

    XBLA is not straight emulation...all games have been edited to support XBL in some way, most with online multiplayer.