Nintendo probably chose Sacred Stones over Blazing Sword as the ambassador title because the game is Fire Emblem on Easy mode. It was the easiest one until Shadow Dragon's Normal mode. Blazing Sword had more content, and was a better representative for a new player into the Fire Emblem universe. They didn't go with it just because building up to Hector hard mode was not as accessible to casual players.
Interesting how Nintendo turned around the definition of "casual" in Awakening, though... "casual insane" mode is more difficult than "classic hard" mode...
"The series has gotten harder and harder as time goes on"
I dunno, Thracia 776 is pretty infuriating... especially the modded version which is EVEN MORE difficult... Thracia 776 is the basis upon which the "Maniac" and "Insane" difficulties were born. And that game didn't have an easier difficulty...
It's amazing to think that the Epic Center feature in Nintendo Power, during August 1996, was Fire Emblem 4: Geneology of the Holy War. Even though the audience was thought non-existent, the pros at NP still accepted to see fit that the outside world get a glimpse into the Jugdral chronology of Fire Emblem- the masterpiece of Shouzou Kaga. It's made even better with balancing mods!
That reminds me of Military Madness: Nectaris. A space-based Intelligent Systems sort of TBS title. Might be interesting to explore, but best leave Fire Emblem away from that kind of project. Hopefully, the one who pitched that idea could work on that separately. The main problem is funding...
@Koto Nintendo confirmed what type of architecture they used when pressed, but will not elaborate upon the fine details. So yes, the roughly equivalent devices which fit within the confirmed architecture parameters are used as unknown comparisons. Even so, they're still important to give us some kind of concrete idea of what we can expect in the future. So that part about the Wii U's GPU matching the upper echelons of the Radeon 4xxx series is not only based on mere rumors, but on facts.
@Zombie_Barioth That depends on the game. My PC setup surpassed the minimum specs for the Witcher 2 when it first came out, with only the graphics card (Geforce 9800 GT) cutting it close, yet it would not run beyond a perpetually lurching crawl of 10 fps! Not even at the lowest settings. I was forced to upgrade. After installing a newer graphics card, my setup runs the game at max settings without significant hiccups.
On the other hand, the setup ran the Final Fantasy 14 opening cinema in-game without hassle, despite almost not even making minimum requirements. Yet, the more powerful card I substituted in has very bad screen tearing during the same cinema.
All of your other points are well-founded, though.
Everything EA touches, they turn into irradiated, anti-developer slop. The less influence EA has over Nintendo, the better.
Riccitello's comments are less a jab towards Nintendo, and more a statement of ignorance towards the current PC hardware. That's scary, for someone who doesn't understand something to be an executive of that thing's industry... even Yamauchi, who hated using his own company's products, understood games to a certain degree, due to his "business knack" and Go skill.
@NinGamer85 I think the Gamers Portal link is relevant because some of the comments add to and correct the article. It also highlights the chaos surrounding the misinformation regarding Nintendo hardware, even amongst hardcore techie groups, due to Nintendo's strict non-disclosure agreements.
Many of the known relevant details are above. In short, it looks like that at it's maximum potential, the Wii U GPU is probably comparable to somewhere between a Radeon HD 4770 and Radeon HD 4870 graphics card.
Even though that is 2008/2009 tech, that is still FAR superior to the Xbox360 and PS3 GPU's. That also means that the Wii U's graphics accounts for (a current standalone market rate of) about $80 of the system. If the Xbox720 and PS4 have significantly improved specs over that, then they will most likely cost over $600 at launch.
The motherboard, CPU, memory bus, and GPU all seem to be synchronous at a glance. This is important, because the Wii U will not need to account for the current bottlenecks of the Xbox360 and PS3. The people saying that the Wii U is bottlenecked are probably drunk from the power of $300+ individual components for PC's.
All of this being said, what has not been revealed to the public is the custom modifications applied to this hardware, at the behest of Nintendo. We can be sure that the Wii U will be more efficient in it's processes than 2009 PC's. However, there is also a few conflicting details surrounding the CPU processing speed. So I think the answer to the question of "does the memory match the graphics" remains to be seen.
Takeda-san is exactly right, consumer grade CPU's have been BARELY capable of pushing 3 gigahertz for the past 10 years now. Raw processing speed and power in CPU's haven't seen significant increases ever since dual core processors first came out. The biggest difference is the number of working memory and cores available to simultaneously use. Even then, most programs today STILL do not utilize multiple cores to their greatest potential. There are CPU's today with 8 or more cores, but most programs only utilize 2 at most... So, the benefits of multi-threading cores is still yet untapped.
The PS3 is a perfect example of this- it's forced to match Xbox360 specs for multiplatform projects, so the CPU's many cores oftentimes don't get to be pushed to their full potential.
Another lesser known issue is that motherboards create a bottleneck for the rest of a system's components. If the motherboard is outdated, then it will not be able to use newer components to their fullest potential, even if they are compatible. Thus, it makes sense that the Wii U CPU would have it's memory limitations be toned down to meet the limitations of the motherboard.
Let's also not forget that most high-end CPU's today, without factoring for any other computer components, sell for MORE than the price of a complete Wii U. So the business benefits of cutting costs and power consumption is obvious- from a logical perspective, what does it matter to have a more powerful product if fewer people are able to afford it?
@The_Fox That's true, but the player was often presented with an oppressively claustrophobic environment for the gauntlets, and alternative choices to proceed for the open-ended stages. The player needed to be careful to survive, they could not just hold up on the control stick and hold down Z to clear any level at will (without cheats, of course).
Some characters had to die, like Trevelyan and the Skedar, but it was possible to disarm most of the other opponents. The exception is on the highest difficulty levels; though they still require more critical thinking than a game like Call of Duty.
In many stores within the USA, only "nonviolent" Nintendo products are stocked, while "ultraviolent" products from everyone else is stocked. I think this is specifically tied into the USA gun culture- kids are being nudged into growing up on Nintendo, then when they become teenagers, they are offered increasingly realistic and violent products.
This is exacerbated by offering mostly western titles, of which more often portrays people as mere punching bags who cannot hope to equal the player's prowess; their eastern counterparts are more likely to make human figures interactive in a nonviolent context, or to place the opponents on either an equal playing field or a seemingly omnipotent authority figure role. The player must psychologically change their outlook on measuring success when the opponent is perpetually equal to or stronger than they are; the player is allowed to be psychologically lazy when the opponent is weaker.
I think this trend is very similar to the article's case, where the parents offered a young boy a BB gun, which he becomes a little TOO attached to, then he will likely be expected to move on to paintball guns as a teenager, then rifles as an adult. This is most certainly a case of cultural conditioning, which definitely does have a significant impact upon the thought processes of children.
Take note that the boy cites Call of Duty because it meshes so well with his reality. If he were only offered books instead of bb guns, and games like illusion of Gaia or To the Moon, would his life perspective be different?
A few days ago, I visited a Toys R' Us store which I had not visited in years. I still remember the enormous layout, with several aisles of Nintendo, Sega, and Sony products. Most of the games were relatively suitable for children, ranging from Mario & Sonic to Final Fantasy & Dragon Quest to Battletoads & Ninja Turtles. There were a few exceptions, such as Resident Evil. (Which is arguably still OK, since that had a fantasy setting and survival goals.) You bought games by picking up a paper tab in the game selection aisles, then taking it to the cash register to buy the product. You acquired the product by showing the paper tab to the stock workers, who handled the storage rooms while interacting with the public behind a window.
When I walked in a few days ago... the almost magical atmosphere that I remember was gone. The store was much smaller, and all that remained of the video game section were a few paltry metal shelves, and a meager locked glass window shelving, which closed off some still boxed games.
Something struck me about the game selection- almost half of the games available included the likes of Call of Duty, Sleeping Dogs, Homefront, Red Faction, and other ultra-violent, pseudo-realistic violent games.
What were these games doing in a Toys R' Us??? I know selling them is protected by the first amendment, but isn't there something wrong with offering young children computer games where the player uses an assault rifle to wage pseudo-realistic war situations, alongside offering them Mario and Nintendo Land? Isn't there something to be said for selling these violent games alongside Barbies and baby diapers? At least for Goldeneye and Perfect Dark, the context indicated being a spy who was taking on evil organizations, not necessarily being a war machine.
Maybe I'm just getting old... but I think I understand the sentiment of minimizing the chances for children to be exposed to such things... Studies which would accurately document this change from the products consumed by the Toys R' Us of my childhood, in contrast to the Toys R' Us of today, would probably take at least two decades to conduct.
Epic Mickey had great potential of changing the story based on actions, but it was limited by it's final design. They never did nail down a whole game design which matched the pedigree of System Shock 1&2, Thief 1&2, and Deus Ex 1. Spector has said himself that games have never really evoked a true sense of morality... but maybe his experiences with his team on Epic Mickey taught him about how to come one step closer to that goal.
Spector's element is in the first-person and close camera third-person perspective titles... maybe his lack of experience with dynamic-panning perspectives was one of his downfalls with creating Epic Mickey?
If the Insane difficulty is as tough as the demo shows, then using casual mode with it might not be so "casual"! Regular enemies make dog meat out of your units during even the early game in one or two confrontations. So "insane" on "casual" might still be tougher than "hard" on "classic"...
And to think, Fire Emblem was once an obscure title no one had ever heard of...
@shinpichu That's the thing about Smash Bros. tiers though- they're not based on character complexity like other fighting games, Smash tiers only factor in character movements and raw strength by necessity of the game design.
The guy who was playing Jigglypuff was definitely abusing the wavedash heavily, for faking out and dodging as often as possible, yet still got hit plenty enough; definitely would have lost in the match I witnessed without it. Jigglypuff is a lot less mobile without wavedash. His opponent was using Sheik. (Jigglypuff and Sheik are supposedly both top tier... but is that including or excluding wave dashing? Based on my observations, I'm inclined to believe the former.) The Sheik user was only occasionally using wavedash. So he got hit more than he would have otherwise. They were of even skill levels, both players were pretty good, trading wins and losses.
As for Capcom vs SNK 2, the "styles" kinda made it obvious off the bat that the game design was not intended for straight, simple and clean play.
I first saw wavedashing in action years ago. In a local tournament held at a game store, several people used wavedashing - the one who used it best, a Jigglypuff user, won by a landslide. If "no wavedash allowed" were enforced, he would have lost.
Supposedly, some people might use it, or others wouldn't. The game is already imbalanced without wavedashing; using it completely changes the spectrum of what's possible for a character to do. Depending on what character you choose, it might involve "wavedash rules" or "no wavedash allowed" or other such incongruous fiddling with the metagame match setup rules. Allowing or not allowing wavedashing is so important, that it is similar to allowing or not allowing items. Items, at least, are of fairly even use for all the characters - ESPECIALLY if you allow wavedashing, which allows certain slower characters, like Luigi, to keep up with the faster fighters.
The balance of character movement in Smash Bros., including Melee, is so intentionally ungraceful compared to other fighters, that all senses of "biorhythm" are lost. Strategically speaking, the player is bound to an extraneous ruleset, rather than the inherent game design. That's one of the main gameplay reasons why Smash Bros. is so frowned upon in the fighting game community.
A friend of mine, who is a fighting game buff, feels the same way. He's also noticed that several professionally held Melee tournaments have been intentionally thrown in the past. That leaves a very bad reputation on the future of Melee as a viable professional tournament title.
For Smash Bros., even Melee, I would not take seriously as a professional tournament title. There's just way too many oddity factors, like wavedashing, to allow the balance of depth which more traditional fighters contain. That's the curse of being accessible to newcomers- depth gives way to breadth. That's not a bad thing, it just doesn't lend well to a supreme degree of competitive prowess.
Sigh... the American Cancer Associations spend over $1 billion each year on research... what a waste... just peruse and prescribe the physical and herbal studies which have already been done... the "cure" (read: treatment) is to change and renew your environment, improve your raw mineral and nutritional intake, exercise throughout the day more often, and enhance your body's natural ability to fight cancer. Healthy people don't make for lucrative business, though, so many physicians (read: indentured servants to the pharmaceutical corporations) won't tell you the roots of these problems of their own free will.
Cancer is not some foreign disease. It is caused by your own cells mutating: your body's failure under the pressure of weakened physical conditions and harsh environments. Just look at the Tarahumara Indians of the Copper Canyons, they have literally 0% cancer rates. Our cancers are catalyzed by our dirty, polluted environments; and surprisingly, also catalyzed by societal mythologies such as the necessity of high-rising brassiers and heeled / thick soled shoes. It's not a big mystery anymore. Buy some physician, holistic, and alternative integrative approach books, there's already been adequate research done on the subject of cancer to know how to combat it. Now use them!!
How many companies (especially foreign ones) have their CEO / President do regular video updates in addition to the business aspects? How many of those people can speak relatively fluent English? How many of those people used to be juniors among the company "grunts"? How many of THOSE people have worked for the same company for nearly 30 years?
Yeah... not many people in the world like Iwata... don't discount Nintendo doing this sort of presentation.
@Jukilum I had no idea they had such an insidious goal in mind... It's not a condition that can be "cured"... It's not some type of foreign virus or plague. I don't know how someone can think that...
Also, I wonder why they had Iwata and Aonuma stand rigidly and awkwardly while talking, instead of using more gestures and lively movements. Interesting to learn that Iwata was a developer on Balloon Fight! It's one of my favorite early NES titles.
He should not need to apologize for the lack of titles on some monthes. They need to take their time, so they can polish their projects.
Fire Emblem and Shin Megami Tensei combining into a hybrid chimera!?
O_____________________________O
Please be good, PLEASE be good... Definitely looking forward to that one the most! But the new "Xeno" title makes my mouth water! Nintendo is thankfully not holding back on the RPG goodness this console generation! It's been too long since they didn't...
@Capt_N That's true, mental conditions are not built-in mind control. It's ultimately up to one's own (possibly flawed) judgment whether or not to, ironically, let go of one's own judgment; thereby taking the first step towards acquiring (or losing) some sense of empathy and compassion.
@Zombie_Barioth @Jukilum Interesting you say that, I have Asperger's syndrome myself. The biggest difference between me and the Sandy Hook killer is... he apparently had no really good supports throughout his life, while having an acute condition... I did have very good supports, while having a relatively mild condition. If I were left to my own devices, as was the case for him, and I was brought up in a militaristic family, living amongst squalor or a war-torn area, who knows... that killer could have been me...
But that's for another dimension, another timespace....
Perhaps not everyone on this board knows this, but Ralph Nader is famous in the USA as being a third-party candidate who participates in shaking up our rigid, crippled two-party political system. There are many things said about him, both in support for and against him, especially relating to our elections in 2000.
The fact is, though, his views do not represent the whole of the political party whom he represents. The ones who ran on the presidential ticket in his party in 2012, Jill Stein and Cheri Honkala, might look at violent computer games with a quizzical frown, but based on their actions and beliefs during their campaign trials... (they were arrested for 8 hours, chained to chairs, for protesting being blocked from participating in the national debates by the American media!)... I don't think they would go as far as to say computer games are brainwashing devices.
It's important to note here that Ralph Nader is, for the intents and purposes of computer game communities, a cynical "chip off the old block." He's part of an environmentally focused group- not all of whom necessarily regard the march of technology as a good thing. My guess is that his comments stem from a perceived fear of technology's potential, without fully understanding it in this case.
So yeah... let's be sure to not end up like him, criticizing the new generation's whipper snappers and their fancy pants virtual reality and android friends...
I loved this game when it first came out. I played through it 2 times from start to finish~
Building up your character for Mario Golf 64 using the N64 Transfer Pak was also fun! It was very challenging to try to play with a new character, and your character didn't even feel like their journey was finished after completing the GBC story mode! They could go on to grow throughout playing through the N64 title. They would improve along with the player! Definitely an unexpectedly good use of RPG elements, overall!
Without multiplayer and the N64 transfer, 7/10 sounds about right. With them, it's 8/10 or 9/10.
Ah, the days of the Power Supplies Catalog... This cartridge is the gem of my own collection.
Also, he's going to be hard-pressed to get a signature from "The One Within the Mountain", himself... because Yamauchi lives up to his name! That's like a real life journey of entering Death Mountain... Ever wonder where the name might have come from?
Arcade racers were always the most difficult, for me. SEGA's full name is Service Games, after all, so arcades were their lifeblood. It's difficult to simulate the arcade environment from consoles or the internet, though...
Some say... somewhere, out there... the corpses of the mass grave of ET cartridges, slumbers restlessly... But some of them.... HUNGER.... FOR REVENGE....
It's an important distinction that Atari filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, not Chapter 7 bankruptcy. This was duly noted in the article; that being said, it's important to note that here in the USA, Chapter 7 constitutes what one would imagine to be "true bankruptcy"- an indicator of an empty account. Chapter 11 is just a reorganization (or a cessation from a larger corporate body, in this case) to escape from dire straits, not necessarily an indicator of an empty account.
However, Chapter 15 bankruptcy can also apply with foreign companies, though Atari is the debtor here, not Infogrames. I'm not sure about the fine details of that situation...
For physical copies, I prefer to shop at independent stores... Unfortunately, they are very prone to being closed down, because of the monopolistic gouging the distributors levy upon retail stores. There used to be several independent game stores in my area, but almost all of them are gone due to the distributors taxing them too highly, expecting them to compete with Gamestop...
The only independent store left deals almost exclusively in retro and used titles... So if Gamestop goes under one day, then they had it coming, for participating in the monopolistic practices towards smaller independent stores! I don't shop at Gamestop at all anymore.
I have always only bought used games which are older, not new. Typically, the "new" games I buy are from over the internet. Rather the developer get a bigger cut for their own work than the retailers.
It's interesting how legalities can twist something that's not necessarily good into something that is perceived as good, just because it is a law, and the cultural conditioning of "all rules must be followed" controls many people's brains... Not all laws are good.
I agree with Dan Adelman and DarkKirby. Digital-only allows more games to be localized which would normally otherwise be felt too risky a venture. (Such as Code of Princess being fully localized throughout several European languages.)
However, Nintendo seems to still be struggling with the pricing and distribution structure of digital-only "retail quality" products. In the USA, Code of Princess is offered on the eShop for $40, (with no tangible benefits to justify the consumer paying extra for nonexistent middlemen, besides not paying state taxes), and is placed in the "New Arrivals" section, but not in the "Retail Games Now Available For Purchase" or "3DS Games At Retail" sections. (I'm not sure if that last part is an oversight, or an acknowledgement that Code of Princess is not a retail release in all major regions.)
XSEED, however, has demonstrated that they do understand how the digital pricing/distribution structure needs to move forward on eShop- by selling their "retail quality" product at $30 instead of $40, and by featuring the product's release on the front page of the eShop for at least one week. (They were fortunate to not have competition in that regard- future simultaneous releases of new digital-only "retail quality" products might experience visibility issues due to marketing pressure.)
I hope to see more companies following XSEED's lead.
The X legendary reminds me of the "Forest Spirit King" of the anime movie Princess Mononoke, and the Y legendary looks like some kind of mitochondria/cell/virus beast in the shape of a Y... so now Game Freak is ripping off outside source material in jest, and shaping some pokemon like letters... oh wait, didn't they do this before...?
@MikeDanger It looks like some kind of giant cellular, virus-like, or mitochondrial being, right? Maybe it just took 10 years to multiply enough to reach that size...
Wow, Game Freak... I thought the "polar opposite" naming convention couldn't get any worse than the obvious "Black" and "White"... but "X", "Y", and probably "Z", in the future? Beyond lame...
In any case, we'll have to see if this is the next generation for me to divest more than 100 hours into... I have only done that with generation 1 and 2; I skipped 3 and 5, and 4 lasted me 100 hours...
The starters are STILL stuck in the age old [fire > grass > water > fire] convention, instead of [fighting > dark/evil > psychic/light > fighting], with the storyline and events changing based on your starter, or something like that... at least the starters look better than gen 5's... maybe more of the creature designs will actually look like Pokemon instead of things this time around...
Wow, Game Freak... I thought the "polar opposite" naming convention couldn't get any worse than the obvious "Black" and "White"... but "X", "Y", and probably "Z", in the future? Beyond lame...
Holy crap, what happened to Warren Spector? He used to be the "legendary guy" who everyone loved for heading the System Shock and Deus Ex teams. He's even said himself, that he so looked forward to putting his best effort into the Epic Mickey series. With his pedigree, expectations were high... but they're mere shadows of his previous work. I wonder if there's a personal reason for this...
Comments 469
Re: Feature: Fire Emblem's Western Adventure
Nintendo probably chose Sacred Stones over Blazing Sword as the ambassador title because the game is Fire Emblem on Easy mode. It was the easiest one until Shadow Dragon's Normal mode. Blazing Sword had more content, and was a better representative for a new player into the Fire Emblem universe. They didn't go with it just because building up to Hector hard mode was not as accessible to casual players.
Interesting how Nintendo turned around the definition of "casual" in Awakening, though... "casual insane" mode is more difficult than "classic hard" mode...
Re: Feature: Fire Emblem's Western Adventure
"The series has gotten harder and harder as time goes on"
I dunno, Thracia 776 is pretty infuriating... especially the modded version which is EVEN MORE difficult... Thracia 776 is the basis upon which the "Maniac" and "Insane" difficulties were born. And that game didn't have an easier difficulty...
It's amazing to think that the Epic Center feature in Nintendo Power, during August 1996, was Fire Emblem 4: Geneology of the Holy War. Even though the audience was thought non-existent, the pros at NP still accepted to see fit that the outside world get a glimpse into the Jugdral chronology of Fire Emblem- the masterpiece of Shouzou Kaga. It's made even better with balancing mods!
Re: Fire Emblem: Awakening Was Almost Set On Mars
That reminds me of Military Madness: Nectaris. A space-based Intelligent Systems sort of TBS title. Might be interesting to explore, but best leave Fire Emblem away from that kind of project. Hopefully, the one who pitched that idea could work on that separately. The main problem is funding...
Re: Fire Emblem: Awakening Cut Down By Shipping Delay
"Day of" sales used to be a big deal for me, long ago... these days, there's so much on one's plate, that missing a date is easier to accept.
Re: Ackkstudios Working On Earthbound-Inspired Wii U RPG
Funny how using 1999 as a setting used to be either a "doomsday" or "modern-day" concept, and now it's considered "historical" or "old school"...
Re: EA: Excited About New Generation Which Is "Yet to Come"
@SethNintendo RIP Mythic.
Re: Nintendo Is Strengthening Development Teams, Defends Wii U Capabilities
@Koto Nintendo confirmed what type of architecture they used when pressed, but will not elaborate upon the fine details. So yes, the roughly equivalent devices which fit within the confirmed architecture parameters are used as unknown comparisons. Even so, they're still important to give us some kind of concrete idea of what we can expect in the future. So that part about the Wii U's GPU matching the upper echelons of the Radeon 4xxx series is not only based on mere rumors, but on facts.
Re: EA: Excited About New Generation Which Is "Yet to Come"
@Zombie_Barioth That depends on the game. My PC setup surpassed the minimum specs for the Witcher 2 when it first came out, with only the graphics card (Geforce 9800 GT) cutting it close, yet it would not run beyond a perpetually lurching crawl of 10 fps! Not even at the lowest settings. I was forced to upgrade. After installing a newer graphics card, my setup runs the game at max settings without significant hiccups.
On the other hand, the setup ran the Final Fantasy 14 opening cinema in-game without hassle, despite almost not even making minimum requirements. Yet, the more powerful card I substituted in has very bad screen tearing during the same cinema.
All of your other points are well-founded, though.
Re: EA: Excited About New Generation Which Is "Yet to Come"
Everything EA touches, they turn into irradiated, anti-developer slop. The less influence EA has over Nintendo, the better.
Riccitello's comments are less a jab towards Nintendo, and more a statement of ignorance towards the current PC hardware. That's scary, for someone who doesn't understand something to be an executive of that thing's industry... even Yamauchi, who hated using his own company's products, understood games to a certain degree, due to his "business knack" and Go skill.
Re: Nintendo Is Strengthening Development Teams, Defends Wii U Capabilities
@NinGamer85 I think the Gamers Portal link is relevant because some of the comments add to and correct the article. It also highlights the chaos surrounding the misinformation regarding Nintendo hardware, even amongst hardcore techie groups, due to Nintendo's strict non-disclosure agreements.
Re: Nintendo Is Strengthening Development Teams, Defends Wii U Capabilities
@triforcepower73 The fine details have not been released to the public. However...
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/wii-u-nintendo-game-console-hardware,17521.html
http://blog.gamersportal.com/2012/04/the-wii-u-gpu/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radeon_R700
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Espresso_(microprocessor)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/45_nanometer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/POWER7
Many of the known relevant details are above. In short, it looks like that at it's maximum potential, the Wii U GPU is probably comparable to somewhere between a Radeon HD 4770 and Radeon HD 4870 graphics card.
Even though that is 2008/2009 tech, that is still FAR superior to the Xbox360 and PS3 GPU's. That also means that the Wii U's graphics accounts for (a current standalone market rate of) about $80 of the system. If the Xbox720 and PS4 have significantly improved specs over that, then they will most likely cost over $600 at launch.
The motherboard, CPU, memory bus, and GPU all seem to be synchronous at a glance. This is important, because the Wii U will not need to account for the current bottlenecks of the Xbox360 and PS3. The people saying that the Wii U is bottlenecked are probably drunk from the power of $300+ individual components for PC's.
All of this being said, what has not been revealed to the public is the custom modifications applied to this hardware, at the behest of Nintendo. We can be sure that the Wii U will be more efficient in it's processes than 2009 PC's. However, there is also a few conflicting details surrounding the CPU processing speed. So I think the answer to the question of "does the memory match the graphics" remains to be seen.
Re: Nintendo Is Strengthening Development Teams, Defends Wii U Capabilities
Takeda-san is exactly right, consumer grade CPU's have been BARELY capable of pushing 3 gigahertz for the past 10 years now. Raw processing speed and power in CPU's haven't seen significant increases ever since dual core processors first came out. The biggest difference is the number of working memory and cores available to simultaneously use. Even then, most programs today STILL do not utilize multiple cores to their greatest potential. There are CPU's today with 8 or more cores, but most programs only utilize 2 at most... So, the benefits of multi-threading cores is still yet untapped.
The PS3 is a perfect example of this- it's forced to match Xbox360 specs for multiplatform projects, so the CPU's many cores oftentimes don't get to be pushed to their full potential.
Another lesser known issue is that motherboards create a bottleneck for the rest of a system's components. If the motherboard is outdated, then it will not be able to use newer components to their fullest potential, even if they are compatible. Thus, it makes sense that the Wii U CPU would have it's memory limitations be toned down to meet the limitations of the motherboard.
Let's also not forget that most high-end CPU's today, without factoring for any other computer components, sell for MORE than the price of a complete Wii U. So the business benefits of cutting costs and power consumption is obvious- from a logical perspective, what does it matter to have a more powerful product if fewer people are able to afford it?
Re: Talking Point: Gun Violence and Nintendo is an Unlikely Pairing
@The_Fox That's true, but the player was often presented with an oppressively claustrophobic environment for the gauntlets, and alternative choices to proceed for the open-ended stages. The player needed to be careful to survive, they could not just hold up on the control stick and hold down Z to clear any level at will (without cheats, of course).
Some characters had to die, like Trevelyan and the Skedar, but it was possible to disarm most of the other opponents. The exception is on the highest difficulty levels; though they still require more critical thinking than a game like Call of Duty.
Re: Talking Point: Gun Violence and Nintendo is an Unlikely Pairing
In many stores within the USA, only "nonviolent" Nintendo products are stocked, while "ultraviolent" products from everyone else is stocked. I think this is specifically tied into the USA gun culture- kids are being nudged into growing up on Nintendo, then when they become teenagers, they are offered increasingly realistic and violent products.
This is exacerbated by offering mostly western titles, of which more often portrays people as mere punching bags who cannot hope to equal the player's prowess; their eastern counterparts are more likely to make human figures interactive in a nonviolent context, or to place the opponents on either an equal playing field or a seemingly omnipotent authority figure role. The player must psychologically change their outlook on measuring success when the opponent is perpetually equal to or stronger than they are; the player is allowed to be psychologically lazy when the opponent is weaker.
I think this trend is very similar to the article's case, where the parents offered a young boy a BB gun, which he becomes a little TOO attached to, then he will likely be expected to move on to paintball guns as a teenager, then rifles as an adult. This is most certainly a case of cultural conditioning, which definitely does have a significant impact upon the thought processes of children.
Take note that the boy cites Call of Duty because it meshes so well with his reality. If he were only offered books instead of bb guns, and games like illusion of Gaia or To the Moon, would his life perspective be different?
Re: Talking Point: Gun Violence and Nintendo is an Unlikely Pairing
There is one caveat to all of this...
A few days ago, I visited a Toys R' Us store which I had not visited in years. I still remember the enormous layout, with several aisles of Nintendo, Sega, and Sony products. Most of the games were relatively suitable for children, ranging from Mario & Sonic to Final Fantasy & Dragon Quest to Battletoads & Ninja Turtles. There were a few exceptions, such as Resident Evil. (Which is arguably still OK, since that had a fantasy setting and survival goals.) You bought games by picking up a paper tab in the game selection aisles, then taking it to the cash register to buy the product. You acquired the product by showing the paper tab to the stock workers, who handled the storage rooms while interacting with the public behind a window.
When I walked in a few days ago... the almost magical atmosphere that I remember was gone. The store was much smaller, and all that remained of the video game section were a few paltry metal shelves, and a meager locked glass window shelving, which closed off some still boxed games.
Something struck me about the game selection- almost half of the games available included the likes of Call of Duty, Sleeping Dogs, Homefront, Red Faction, and other ultra-violent, pseudo-realistic violent games.
What were these games doing in a Toys R' Us??? I know selling them is protected by the first amendment, but isn't there something wrong with offering young children computer games where the player uses an assault rifle to wage pseudo-realistic war situations, alongside offering them Mario and Nintendo Land? Isn't there something to be said for selling these violent games alongside Barbies and baby diapers? At least for Goldeneye and Perfect Dark, the context indicated being a spy who was taking on evil organizations, not necessarily being a war machine.
Maybe I'm just getting old... but I think I understand the sentiment of minimizing the chances for children to be exposed to such things... Studies which would accurately document this change from the products consumed by the Toys R' Us of my childhood, in contrast to the Toys R' Us of today, would probably take at least two decades to conduct.
Re: Talking Point: Nintendo's Lower Expectations Are No Surprise
Those projections for the DS and Wii hardware and Wii software are EXTREMELY generous...
I think only the 3DS will meet these expectations; paradoxical, since it has the highest expectations...
Re: Warren Spector: "I'm Sad But Excited For The Future"
Epic Mickey had great potential of changing the story based on actions, but it was limited by it's final design. They never did nail down a whole game design which matched the pedigree of System Shock 1&2, Thief 1&2, and Deus Ex 1. Spector has said himself that games have never really evoked a true sense of morality... but maybe his experiences with his team on Epic Mickey taught him about how to come one step closer to that goal.
Spector's element is in the first-person and close camera third-person perspective titles... maybe his lack of experience with dynamic-panning perspectives was one of his downfalls with creating Epic Mickey?
Re: Review: Fire Emblem: Awakening (3DS)
If the Insane difficulty is as tough as the demo shows, then using casual mode with it might not be so "casual"! Regular enemies make dog meat out of your units during even the early game in one or two confrontations. So "insane" on "casual" might still be tougher than "hard" on "classic"...
And to think, Fire Emblem was once an obscure title no one had ever heard of...
Re: Review: Family Party: 30 Great Games Obstacle Arcade (Wii U)
Why did D3 publish this!? WHY!
Re: You Can't Use Your Wii Virtual Console Saves With the Wii U Virtual Console
Re: Smash Bros. Melee Needs Your Help To Make It To EVO 2013
@shinpichu That's the thing about Smash Bros. tiers though- they're not based on character complexity like other fighting games, Smash tiers only factor in character movements and raw strength by necessity of the game design.
The guy who was playing Jigglypuff was definitely abusing the wavedash heavily, for faking out and dodging as often as possible, yet still got hit plenty enough; definitely would have lost in the match I witnessed without it. Jigglypuff is a lot less mobile without wavedash. His opponent was using Sheik. (Jigglypuff and Sheik are supposedly both top tier... but is that including or excluding wave dashing? Based on my observations, I'm inclined to believe the former.) The Sheik user was only occasionally using wavedash. So he got hit more than he would have otherwise. They were of even skill levels, both players were pretty good, trading wins and losses.
As for Capcom vs SNK 2, the "styles" kinda made it obvious off the bat that the game design was not intended for straight, simple and clean play.
Re: Smash Bros. Melee Needs Your Help To Make It To EVO 2013
@shinpichu
http://www.freewebs.com/tobiasxk/wavedashing.html
I first saw wavedashing in action years ago. In a local tournament held at a game store, several people used wavedashing - the one who used it best, a Jigglypuff user, won by a landslide. If "no wavedash allowed" were enforced, he would have lost.
Supposedly, some people might use it, or others wouldn't. The game is already imbalanced without wavedashing; using it completely changes the spectrum of what's possible for a character to do. Depending on what character you choose, it might involve "wavedash rules" or "no wavedash allowed" or other such incongruous fiddling with the metagame match setup rules. Allowing or not allowing wavedashing is so important, that it is similar to allowing or not allowing items. Items, at least, are of fairly even use for all the characters - ESPECIALLY if you allow wavedashing, which allows certain slower characters, like Luigi, to keep up with the faster fighters.
The balance of character movement in Smash Bros., including Melee, is so intentionally ungraceful compared to other fighters, that all senses of "biorhythm" are lost. Strategically speaking, the player is bound to an extraneous ruleset, rather than the inherent game design. That's one of the main gameplay reasons why Smash Bros. is so frowned upon in the fighting game community.
A friend of mine, who is a fighting game buff, feels the same way. He's also noticed that several professionally held Melee tournaments have been intentionally thrown in the past. That leaves a very bad reputation on the future of Melee as a viable professional tournament title.
Re: Smash Bros. Melee Needs Your Help To Make It To EVO 2013
For Smash Bros., even Melee, I would not take seriously as a professional tournament title. There's just way too many oddity factors, like wavedashing, to allow the balance of depth which more traditional fighters contain. That's the curse of being accessible to newcomers- depth gives way to breadth. That's not a bad thing, it just doesn't lend well to a supreme degree of competitive prowess.
Re: Smash Bros. Melee Needs Your Help To Make It To EVO 2013
Sigh... the American Cancer Associations spend over $1 billion each year on research... what a waste... just peruse and prescribe the physical and herbal studies which have already been done... the "cure" (read: treatment) is to change and renew your environment, improve your raw mineral and nutritional intake, exercise throughout the day more often, and enhance your body's natural ability to fight cancer. Healthy people don't make for lucrative business, though, so many physicians (read: indentured servants to the pharmaceutical corporations) won't tell you the roots of these problems of their own free will.
Cancer is not some foreign disease. It is caused by your own cells mutating: your body's failure under the pressure of weakened physical conditions and harsh environments. Just look at the Tarahumara Indians of the Copper Canyons, they have literally 0% cancer rates. Our cancers are catalyzed by our dirty, polluted environments; and surprisingly, also catalyzed by societal mythologies such as the necessity of high-rising brassiers and heeled / thick soled shoes. It's not a big mystery anymore. Buy some physician, holistic, and alternative integrative approach books, there's already been adequate research done on the subject of cancer to know how to combat it. Now use them!!
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/03/20/curing-cancer-with-herbs.aspx
The real next frontier in biological condition research is protein folding. You don't need to donate money for that, though.
http://folding.stanford.edu/English/HomePage
Re: Talking Point: Wii U Direct - Tell Us What You Thought
How many companies (especially foreign ones) have their CEO / President do regular video updates in addition to the business aspects? How many of those people can speak relatively fluent English? How many of those people used to be juniors among the company "grunts"? How many of THOSE people have worked for the same company for nearly 30 years?
Yeah... not many people in the world like Iwata... don't discount Nintendo doing this sort of presentation.
Re: Ralph Nader Targets Violent Video Games and Their Developers
@Jukilum I had no idea they had such an insidious goal in mind... It's not a condition that can be "cured"... It's not some type of foreign virus or plague. I don't know how someone can think that...
Re: Talking Point: Wii U Direct - Tell Us What You Thought
Also, I wonder why they had Iwata and Aonuma stand rigidly and awkwardly while talking, instead of using more gestures and lively movements. Interesting to learn that Iwata was a developer on Balloon Fight! It's one of my favorite early NES titles.
He should not need to apologize for the lack of titles on some monthes. They need to take their time, so they can polish their projects.
Re: Talking Point: Wii U Direct - Tell Us What You Thought
Fire Emblem and Shin Megami Tensei combining into a hybrid chimera!?
O_____________________________O
Please be good, PLEASE be good... Definitely looking forward to that one the most! But the new "Xeno" title makes my mouth water! Nintendo is thankfully not holding back on the RPG goodness this console generation! It's been too long since they didn't...
Re: Review: The Cave (Wii U eShop)
I guess brilliance shines the most brightly when it is not seen...
Re: Ralph Nader Targets Violent Video Games and Their Developers
@Capt_N That's true, mental conditions are not built-in mind control. It's ultimately up to one's own (possibly flawed) judgment whether or not to, ironically, let go of one's own judgment; thereby taking the first step towards acquiring (or losing) some sense of empathy and compassion.
Re: Ralph Nader Targets Violent Video Games and Their Developers
@Zombie_Barioth @Jukilum Interesting you say that, I have Asperger's syndrome myself. The biggest difference between me and the Sandy Hook killer is... he apparently had no really good supports throughout his life, while having an acute condition... I did have very good supports, while having a relatively mild condition. If I were left to my own devices, as was the case for him, and I was brought up in a militaristic family, living amongst squalor or a war-torn area, who knows... that killer could have been me...
But that's for another dimension, another timespace....
Re: Ralph Nader Targets Violent Video Games and Their Developers
Perhaps not everyone on this board knows this, but Ralph Nader is famous in the USA as being a third-party candidate who participates in shaking up our rigid, crippled two-party political system. There are many things said about him, both in support for and against him, especially relating to our elections in 2000.
The fact is, though, his views do not represent the whole of the political party whom he represents. The ones who ran on the presidential ticket in his party in 2012, Jill Stein and Cheri Honkala, might look at violent computer games with a quizzical frown, but based on their actions and beliefs during their campaign trials... (they were arrested for 8 hours, chained to chairs, for protesting being blocked from participating in the national debates by the American media!)... I don't think they would go as far as to say computer games are brainwashing devices.
It's important to note here that Ralph Nader is, for the intents and purposes of computer game communities, a cynical "chip off the old block." He's part of an environmentally focused group- not all of whom necessarily regard the march of technology as a good thing. My guess is that his comments stem from a perceived fear of technology's potential, without fully understanding it in this case.
So yeah... let's be sure to not end up like him, criticizing the new generation's whipper snappers and their fancy pants virtual reality and android friends...
Re: Atari's U.S. Division Files For Bankruptcy
@KingMike I blame the handling of the Jaguar for that.
Re: Review: Mario Golf (Game Boy Color)
I loved this game when it first came out. I played through it 2 times from start to finish~
Building up your character for Mario Golf 64 using the N64 Transfer Pak was also fun! It was very challenging to try to play with a new character, and your character didn't even feel like their journey was finished after completing the GBC story mode! They could go on to grow throughout playing through the N64 title. They would improve along with the player! Definitely an unexpectedly good use of RPG elements, overall!
Without multiplayer and the N64 transfer, 7/10 sounds about right. With them, it's 8/10 or 9/10.
Re: Prepare To Be Jealous At This Amazing Nintendo Collection
@HiroshiYamauchi WOAH IT'S REALLY YOU! Quickly~ Contact Yamazaki-san! Hayaku! 早く !
Re: Prepare To Be Jealous At This Amazing Nintendo Collection
A Famicom Disk System, Super Famicom Satellaview, N64 DD... Nice, very nice.... but does he have.... THIS!?
http://www.blogcdn.com/www.joystiq.com/media/2007/10/donkey-kong-country-auction.jpg
http://tengokugame.free.fr/dossier_collector/donkeykongcountrychampionshipII.jpg
http://www.destructoid.com/ul/240152-offbeat-hall-of-fame-the-super-power-supplies-catalog/SPS-FulgoreMask-noscale.jpg
Ah, the days of the Power Supplies Catalog... This cartridge is the gem of my own collection.
Also, he's going to be hard-pressed to get a signature from "The One Within the Mountain", himself... because Yamauchi lives up to his name! That's like a real life journey of entering Death Mountain... Ever wonder where the name might have come from?
Re: Gunman Clive Developer: 3DS eShop Is "Healthier" Than iOS
Word of mouth and reviews from sites like Nintendo Life still mean something worthwhile to the 3DS eShop, unlike iOS...
I would be interested to know where that huge jump Clive made in the Android market came from!
Re: This Homage To Sega's Classic Racers Could Be Speeding To The Wii U eShop
Arcade racers were always the most difficult, for me. SEGA's full name is Service Games, after all, so arcades were their lifeblood. It's difficult to simulate the arcade environment from consoles or the internet, though...
Re: Atari's U.S. Division Files For Bankruptcy
@Yellowhare91
Some say... somewhere, out there... the corpses of the mass grave of ET cartridges, slumbers restlessly... But some of them.... HUNGER.... FOR REVENGE....
Re: Atari's U.S. Division Files For Bankruptcy
It's an important distinction that Atari filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, not Chapter 7 bankruptcy. This was duly noted in the article; that being said, it's important to note that here in the USA, Chapter 7 constitutes what one would imagine to be "true bankruptcy"- an indicator of an empty account. Chapter 11 is just a reorganization (or a cessation from a larger corporate body, in this case) to escape from dire straits, not necessarily an indicator of an empty account.
However, Chapter 15 bankruptcy can also apply with foreign companies, though Atari is the debtor here, not Infogrames. I'm not sure about the fine details of that situation...
Re: Talking Point: The Future Role of High Street Games Retailers
For physical copies, I prefer to shop at independent stores... Unfortunately, they are very prone to being closed down, because of the monopolistic gouging the distributors levy upon retail stores. There used to be several independent game stores in my area, but almost all of them are gone due to the distributors taxing them too highly, expecting them to compete with Gamestop...
The only independent store left deals almost exclusively in retro and used titles... So if Gamestop goes under one day, then they had it coming, for participating in the monopolistic practices towards smaller independent stores! I don't shop at Gamestop at all anymore.
Re: Talking Point: The Future Role of High Street Games Retailers
I have always only bought used games which are older, not new. Typically, the "new" games I buy are from over the internet. Rather the developer get a bigger cut for their own work than the retailers.
It's interesting how legalities can twist something that's not necessarily good into something that is perceived as good, just because it is a law, and the cultural conditioning of "all rules must be followed" controls many people's brains... Not all laws are good.
Re: Talking Point: The Emergence of Download-Only Retail Games
I agree with Dan Adelman and DarkKirby. Digital-only allows more games to be localized which would normally otherwise be felt too risky a venture. (Such as Code of Princess being fully localized throughout several European languages.)
However, Nintendo seems to still be struggling with the pricing and distribution structure of digital-only "retail quality" products. In the USA, Code of Princess is offered on the eShop for $40, (with no tangible benefits to justify the consumer paying extra for nonexistent middlemen, besides not paying state taxes), and is placed in the "New Arrivals" section, but not in the "Retail Games Now Available For Purchase" or "3DS Games At Retail" sections. (I'm not sure if that last part is an oversight, or an acknowledgement that Code of Princess is not a retail release in all major regions.)
XSEED, however, has demonstrated that they do understand how the digital pricing/distribution structure needs to move forward on eShop- by selling their "retail quality" product at $30 instead of $40, and by featuring the product's release on the front page of the eShop for at least one week. (They were fortunate to not have competition in that regard- future simultaneous releases of new digital-only "retail quality" products might experience visibility issues due to marketing pressure.)
I hope to see more companies following XSEED's lead.
Re: Pokémon X & Y Legendary Details Revealed
The X legendary reminds me of the "Forest Spirit King" of the anime movie Princess Mononoke, and the Y legendary looks like some kind of mitochondria/cell/virus beast in the shape of a Y... so now Game Freak is ripping off outside source material in jest, and shaping some pokemon like letters... oh wait, didn't they do this before...?
Re: Pokémon X & Y Legendary Details Revealed
@MikeDanger It looks like some kind of giant cellular, virus-like, or mitochondrial being, right? Maybe it just took 10 years to multiply enough to reach that size...
Re: Pokémon X & Y Legendary Details Revealed
@chiefeagle02 Exactly. Just shinier... and less creepy.
Re: Pokémon X & Y Legendary Details Revealed
@SCAR392 Yep. Agreed. It was episode 1, by the way.
Re: Talking Point: Pokémon X & Y Provide a Timely Boost for 3DS in the West
Wow, Game Freak... I thought the "polar opposite" naming convention couldn't get any worse than the obvious "Black" and "White"... but "X", "Y", and probably "Z", in the future? Beyond lame...
In any case, we'll have to see if this is the next generation for me to divest more than 100 hours into... I have only done that with generation 1 and 2; I skipped 3 and 5, and 4 lasted me 100 hours...
The starters are STILL stuck in the age old [fire > grass > water > fire] convention, instead of [fighting > dark/evil > psychic/light > fighting], with the storyline and events changing based on your starter, or something like that... at least the starters look better than gen 5's... maybe more of the creature designs will actually look like Pokemon instead of things this time around...
Re: Pokémon X and Pokémon Y Caught In Worldwide Release This October
Wow, Game Freak... I thought the "polar opposite" naming convention couldn't get any worse than the obvious "Black" and "White"... but "X", "Y", and probably "Z", in the future? Beyond lame...
Re: Review: Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two (Wii U)
Holy crap, what happened to Warren Spector? He used to be the "legendary guy" who everyone loved for heading the System Shock and Deus Ex teams. He's even said himself, that he so looked forward to putting his best effort into the Epic Mickey series. With his pedigree, expectations were high... but they're mere shadows of his previous work. I wonder if there's a personal reason for this...