Gaming Random Thoughts

(Jan. 07, 2010  5:17 AM)To Wrote: This gen of consoles has been the worst that I've been around to see. Things were supposed to be bigger, and brighter. Instead it seems impossible to live up to the gen's previously.

Given that the last generation of consoles was arguably the best one to date, given the state of the global economy and the skyrocketing costs of game development, I fail to see how you ever expected this generation to be "bigger and better". Since the release of the Wii everyone's been looking for ways to downsize and cut their costs at every possible corner because they realized that's the only way to stay profitable in this business climate.

tl;dr -- Your expectations were too high.
^ word.
To- you didn't validate your statement...
but I think this generation is excellent so far. ALSO, it is not over, nor even the same period of time.. so your judgement is premature..
This is the gen where Japan has fled to handhelds. This is the gen where if you score below an 8, your game will likely bomb. This is the gen where third parties have failed the market leader. This is the gen where the market leader once again fails the third parties. This is the gen where you don't get the full game when you buy it from the store. This is the gen where local multiplayer was put on the backburner. This is the gen where niche games can't succeed.

This is not a good gen.
(Jan. 09, 2010  1:40 PM)To Wrote: This is the gen where Japan has fled to handhelds.

This is not true...... you can not possibly say this because Nintendo and Sony have made PSP's and DS's? It isn't like there is a flood of REALLY popular handhelds. Or that there is no XBOX handheld? Nevertheless, I can admit that handhelds have been quite a hit, but they are still nothing compared to the PS3, Wii or the XBOX 360.
(Jan. 09, 2010  1:40 PM)To Wrote: This is the gen where you don't get the full game when you buy it from the store.
Not sure what you mean..
You're crazy if you think the input from Japan on the PS3, 360, and Wii are within the same timezone as what they've done on the DS, and PSP.
(Jan. 09, 2010  6:09 PM)Hagane Ginga Wrote: This is not true...... you can not possibly say this because Nintendo and Sony have made PSP's and DS's? It isn't like there is a flood of REALLY popular handhelds. Or that there is no XBOX handheld? Nevertheless, I can admit that handhelds have been quite a hit, but they are still nothing compared to the PS3, Wii or the XBOX 360.

Not sure what you mean..

He means download able content.
He means dlc about the full game thing.

But I disagree. The games of this gen have been very interesting overall. And no niche games? Brutal Legend? The whole wii catalogue? Who'd have thought a carnival game would have succeeded? LOL
(Jan. 09, 2010  1:40 PM)To Wrote: This is the gen where Japan has fled to handhelds. This is the gen where if you score below an 8, your game will likely bomb. This is the gen where third parties have failed the market leader. This is the gen where the market leader once again fails the third parties. This is the gen where you don't get the full game when you buy it from the store. This is the gen where local multiplayer was put on the backburner. This is the gen where niche games can't succeed.

This is not a good gen.

Its a business, To. Businesses grow and change over time. I think comparing this generation to the last is silly because so many things have changed since then, primarily with the introduction of the internet to the console space.

Calling this gen bad is premature, as Blue said, because its not over yet. Hell, we're rigjt in the middle of it!
Yeah this gen is far from over, but so much has been put in place that much of what we see now is what we'll see once this gen ends. Despite what Sony might say, Japan isn't coming back to consoles. Nintendo has been mistreating third parties for 25 years, it's not going to change because Iwata says it will. And third parties aren't going to flock back to Wii when they see that the newest Resident Evil, Dead Space, DragonBall, Naruto, (Insert Sports game here) etc. bombed.

(Jan. 09, 2010  6:28 PM)Giga Wrote: But I disagree. The games of this gen have been very interesting overall. And no niche games? Brutal Legend? The whole wii catalogue? Who'd have thought a carnival game would have succeeded? LOL

I don't remember EA gloating about how "well" Brutal Legend was doing. And giving the Wii's catalogue as a example for niche success is wack. That's the platform where platformers like Klonoa do less then 100k worldwide in six months, that's the platform where Dead Space Extraction and A Boy and his Blob debuts with under 10,000 units in the US.

Niche games don't mean games that cost the publisher eight dollars to make, like Carnival Games.
(Jan. 09, 2010  1:40 PM)To Wrote: This is the gen where third parties have failed the market leader.

the market leader has failed third parties
(Jan. 09, 2010  6:48 PM)To Wrote: I don't remember EA gloating about how "well" Brutal Legend was doing. And giving the Wii's catalogue as a example for niche success is wack. That's the platform where platformers like Klonoa do less then 100k worldwide in six months, that's the platform where Dead Space Extraction and A Boy and his Blob debuts with under 10,000 units in the US.

Niche games don't mean games that cost the publisher eight dollars to make, like Carnival Games.
the klonoa remake failed because it wasnt marketd very well,and over here they didnt even have ads for it,which was quite strange considering that when the orginal came out they had ads on for it almost everyday on cartoonnetwork.What ive noticed about this gen and quite abit from the last is that most games tend to involve shooting and voilence which is fun and all but it gets anouying that almost every single game is pretty much shooting.

on another note just finnished tekken 6 scenario mode god the last 3 levels took agez Tired,and i just found in the customization you can give devil jin hair thats pretty much the same as clouds and theres another set which you can give him hair like sephiroths xD
New Zelda for Wii has been announced.
http://www.destructoid.com/new-zelda-wil...9667.phtml

Even though it was obviously going to happen, I am really excited for this game.
I was kinda hoping for a Toon Link thing on the Wii >_>
(Jan. 10, 2010  11:09 AM)HEARTof4Lion Wrote: I was kinda hoping for a Toon Link thing on the Wii >_>

Correct me if I'm wrong, but as we've only seen Twilight Princess style link IN Twilight Princess, I was sort of expecting another Zelda game in the same style.

Don't get me wrong, Windwaker was my favourite game, and I love the style, I just sort of expected this. Smile

I'm also hoping for a more button oriented game rather than "it's on Wii and you can buy the gamecube version if you're fussy". Standing up swinging the wiimote like a sword got boring to the point where after 10 minutes me and my friend would just sit down casually flicking the wiimote a tiny bit instead...
Eh, I see your point. On a somewhat related point, I am playing through Mirrors Edge again, it's actually quite good.
(Jan. 09, 2010  6:21 PM)To Wrote: You're crazy if you think the input from Japan on the PS3, 360, and Wii are within the same timezone as what they've done on the DS, and PSP.

Nintendo and other japanese brands are definitely producing more games for the Wii and DS... the same with the PS3 and PSP. The Wii is one of the best things that have happened to the Japanese gaming market.
(Jan. 10, 2010  4:36 PM)Hagane Ginga Wrote: Nintendo and other japanese brands are definitely producing more games for the Wii and DS... the same with the PS3 and PSP. The Wii is one of the best things that have happened to the Japanese gaming market.

The Wii is one of the worst things to happen to the Japanese gaming market. It's the exact same cycle that happened with the GameCube and N64, where Nintendo's stuff sells tremendous, but minus some exceptions, all the third party stuff sells like trash (inb4 "Uhh Carnival Games or Taiko, har har har" I'm not talking about those kind of games). It's worse this time because Nintendo is the market leader.

When Tales Of Graces, a Wii mainline Tales game is outsold by more then double compared to Tales Of The World 2, a PSP spinoff game, something is wrong. When a brand new DragonBall game on Wii can't even crack 10,000 units in it's first week, something is wrong. When Naruto and Bleach games perform even worse then that DragonBall game on Wii, something is wrong. When a brand new Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles on Wii gets extensive advertisements, and is praised to be a good game, sells less then ports of the original two Final Fantasies, something is wrong.

When it took three years for the HD consoles to finally have a game that sold 1 million units, something is wrong.

I won't be surprised when Final Fantasy XVI is announced for a handheld. I'm saying 16 because I assume we'll get another mainline Final Fantasy this gen.

The only franchises that made the jump from PS2 to Wii/PS3/360 in Japan that didn't experience a huge drop in sales have been Yakuza and Taiko. Everything else has been a shadow of their PS2 days. Because I love DragonBall Z, the Sparking/Budokai Tenkaichi games used to debut with sales of around 200k on PS2, Raging Blast (The successor franchise) debuts with 80k with PS3 and 360 sales combined. The franchises that made the jump from PS2 to DS/PSP have experienced either sales on par, or sales better then what they experienced on the PS2. Case in point, Dragon Quest IX for DS, the highest selling Dragon Quest ever.

This is the gen where Japan outside of the first party studios, will no longer be a prominent console developer.
To, you're really starting to annoy me.

Unlike you, not everyone in the world has a wallet full of disposable income that they can just splurge on every game that comes out. In case you haven't noticed, the entire globe is caught up in a huge economic and financial crisis. Consumers everywhere are cutting back on their expenditures, especially those that aren't absolutely necessary to sustain themselves. Whether you realize it or not, video games are a luxury good, and they aren't nearly as important to the rest of the world as they are to you.

The cost of making games in this generation has literally skyrocketed. For god's sake, the average cost of a video game was raised $10 this generation to help compensate for it. When the price of making games soars, and the rest of the world finds themselves with less and less income to spend on entertainment, what did you really expect to happen?

That's almost the entire reason that the Wii has been so successful. It's cheap for consumers to buy, it's cheap for developers to make games for it, and while third party games are obviously not doing as well as first party games, most developers are still making more money from the Wii than the 360 and PS3 combined because of its ridiculous install base. Calling the Wii the worst thing to happen to the Japanese gaming market is seriously laughable, simply because of the amount of growth it's caused for video games in Japan, as well as in the rest of the world. Sure, the Japanese gaming market shrunk this past year, but even so it's still healthier now than ever before.

Stop bitching about all of your beloved franchises selling so poorly, it's seriously the most irritating thing about you. Things have changed drastically in the video game market over the past four years. The introduction of the Wii has literally turned the entire industry on its collective head. Trends have changed, a whole new flood of people are playing games now, most of whom have never even heard of nor care about the titles you mentioned, and that's exactly why they aren't selling -- because third parties don't know how to release games that appeal to all of these new gamers, they're trying to stick to their old guns hoping that brand strength alone will keep them relevant.

News flash: It won't.
Nintendo has never really supported 3rd party developers, it is not in their ethos. The jump to the Wii has furthermore proved this. 3rd party developers do not need Nintendo to sell their big titles.

If we're talking about Microsoft and the US then there are games such as Call of Duty and Halo that ship many units. If we're talking about Japan then there are games like Final fantasy 13, Metal Gear solid 4 and Ninja Gaiden (understandably they're all on PS3 because the Japanese find the Xbox 360 quite niche).

And if you think that people actually care about the long list of really carp games you provided us with, then you are seriously deluded.
Ninja Gaiden doesn't do well in Japan. I also don't see how Tales (which admitedly has been on decline for years) and Final Fantasy are carp games. Both were solidly recieved critically, and have pretty loyal fanbases who usually buy everything with the moniker on it. The licensed games are iffy, I admit (I also admit that I own none of the games I mentioned in that last post, lol).

As for Ryan, the Wii was a niche developer's dream. Like you said, low development costs. The problem is that current franchises with loyal fanbases aren't buying the Wii releases. Where even because of the low development costs, not every third party game tied to a large franchise is bringing in a profit. The PS2 was the perfect ecosystem for a console. You had games like Tales do great numbers, but you also had games like Buzz, Singstar, and other mainstream appeal games do great. The same isn't happening with the Wii. We're seeing those games with mainstream appeal be the only ones do great numbers (there are exceptions obviously). Venues for some franchises are becoming increasingly scarce. The average cost to develop a HD game is $30 million. There's no way a lot of games can recoup that. Because they had no place, they move to handhelds, where they do good numbers, and then some. The thing is, not every franchise or genre can translate well to a handheld. And as development costs continue to go up with every new gen more and more studios will find other venues that may not be able to fully support their vision may go to. It just saddens me that Daisy Fuentes Pilates 2010 that cost $500,000 to develop will outsell Tales Of Grace that cost atleast double that (Note: Those numbers I just made up, I have no clue the cost of development for either, but it wouldn't take a rocket scientist to figure out which one likely cost more) by 10x, where in the past it would be the other way around.
lvl 66 on mw2. not bad considering i only play with friends Cool 0.61 k/d rating though lol
I finally hit 30000GP on my XBOX Live account lol
(Jan. 11, 2010  3:53 AM)SK Wrote: lvl 66 on mw2. not bad considering i only play with friends Cool 0.61 k/d rating though lol

started prestige mode yet?
(Jan. 11, 2010  5:15 PM)Hagane Ginga Wrote: started prestige mode yet?

obviously not lol, you can't prestige before you get to level 70
Completed Borderlands a couple of days ago, and was immensely annoyed by the ending (apart from the last 4 seconds, which weren't plot related at all, just amazingly humorous XD), but I'm really beginning to realize that the main fun of this game is playing with others.
I'm not a massive team player, as a general rule I prefer to go against other people, but there is an element of that even in cooperation.
That hideously mad dash for the weapons dropped by bosses, ammo from enemies, the race to see who will be driving, and who will be shooting on the terrible vehicle that will bounce you across the arid landscape.
It really is a brilliant game, seriously considering getting the Mad Moxxis Underdome expansion (even though the Zombie Island of Dr. Ned looks like a lot more fun).

And before you ask why I'd go for Moxxi over Zombie Island, if Zombie Island is more fun, I have two words for you.

Weapon storage.

My main, and most hideous gripe with this game, is the immensely limited space your character has for items.
An item and cash storage unit is something that should have came with the game, not something you should have to pay an extra $10 for (and is only available in the Mad Moxxi pack, not Dr Ned).