Wheels2050

Hmm, that's a pity - the reviews I've read so far all seem to agree that this is fairly average.

Looks like I'll probably give it a miss!

@AcesHigh: Way to get yourself worked up.

Of course, Nintendo would be stupid to allow people the option of using the gamepad mic in-game - just as stupid as if phone manufacturers allowed you to use your phone without it being right next to your mouth.

Like some sort of 'speaker' mode.

Oh, wait...

Weird. This seems like too obvious an oversight for there to not be an underlying reason. (Or else it's an incredibly cynical marketing strategy)

That was awesome.

@Highwinter: While I can't speak for the games before B&W, it certainly wasn't resolved in the latter. SPOILERS: you found out the bad guys weren't really concerned about Pokemon, it was just a ploy to take over the world. However, the ACTUAL concern is never dealt with in a serious manner.

PETA has a point, and one that I've agreed with for a long time. It IS a bit twisted to take animals and train them to fight, even if the Pokemon are meant to be your 'friend'.

I'd like to hear more of the facts. As others have said, I think there's more to this than has been reported.

Time will tell.

Looking forward to it. I wasn't really all that enthusiastic until reviews started coming out - now I'll probably be picking up a copy on Sunday!

@Omega: It will happen. Hopefully it won't be for quite a while, but this is one of the down sides of digital distribution.

@Omega: They can, and will, turn off the Wii Shop servers at some point - probably when it ceases to make profit for them (although they may continue for a while to maintain some good will).

While legality is an issue I'm not sure about, buried in pretty much every licence agreement you'll aver agree to anywhere for software is a clause saying that the publisher can deny you access to your game at any point, without you being eligible for compensation - meaning they can turn off the servers, and you'll lose the games you haven't downloaded.

It sucks, but you'd have to take Nintendo to court to challenge it. It would fare as well as any other EULA challenge - i.e. it's got a 50/50 shot of being ruled either way.

Sounds interesting. I'd considered getting it simply because it's somewhat of a curiosity among DS games, but can't really justify spending that cash on a game I probably won't play much...

@The_Other_M: That sounds like a euphemism...

This is really neat, though. I'm struggling to get a sense of scale, but I'm assuming it's about half a metre tall (from a quick estimate relative to the size of the cogs). If that's the case, very impressive!

I don't have a problem with DLC, per se. My main problem with it is that often there is no guarantee of it being available into the future due to the account-based systems used to verify it.

For example, I've got Dragon Age: Origins on PC. I can play that game without ever having to go online, which means I can play it indefinitely. However, one needs to go online to authorise purchased DLC which means that when (and it is a when) the authentication server goes offline, your DLC is gone too.

@Geonjaha: I agree. Balancing 649 different Pokemon is an impossible task for anybody, if you want them to have unique properties.

It just ends up with tiers, as the competitive community uses. Some Pokemon simply can't compete with others no matter what.

I don't know how to fix it, short of paring down the number of Pokemon. However, as you say, people enjoy the collecting aspect of the game so I don't think it's a good move - I think we simply have to live with it.

@Xilef: If you read the Siliconera article, it says "Seth McMahill... who has worked exclusively on Pokémon localization and marketing throughout his career at the company"

@Grubdog: I'm not sure I am, I think what he's said is pretty clear - he read about 'Join Avenue' online.

Sounds interesting.

Also, it's somewhat worrying to hear that he finds stuff out about the game he's meant to be promoting by reading about it online, presumably on fan sites...

It's always good to hear about titles like this (which usually have limited appeal) getting a reprint - I haven't played it yet, but I hear it definitely deserves to become more well-known!

@Zantangor: I completely agree with this.

Ah, the old piracy debate. Unfortunately, it's an extremely complex issue (and certainly not the black-and-white issue that many seem to think) that can't really be done justice in article comments.

Piracy is illegal - that's a fact. However, there are many reasons for piracy (yes, including not wanting to pay for games, which I think is wrong) and not all of them are objectively evil.

As for Nintendo managing to lock out some flashcards - it's interesting it's taken them this long (I'm surprised a similar thing wasn't done for the DSi, but maybe it wasn't technically feasible) but it definitely won't stop it.

To paraphrase Jeff Goldblum, "Pirates find a way".

It'll be a sad day when someone, not realising what it is, picks it up to play Duck Hunt and burns a hole in the screen of their irreplaceable flat screen CRT...

Far out - 23 launch titles seems pretty good. I'm sure there's a few in there that won't turn out that well, but it's still a decent bit of variety.

Good to hear they're shaping up well! It sounds like they probably won't convince existing owners to buy new copies, but that's not really a concern for people new to the series.

as @Linkuini said, I hope you don't have to pay for those Mighty Eagles - perhaps that's why it takes so long (in my Android version of Space, I get a Space Eagle every day that I log in). Surely with a retail price point everything will be included.

No surprises, but it still annoys me. As a PAL gamer I've missed out on several fantastic Wii games, which is disappointing.

There is no reasonable justification for region locking. It made sense once when systems sold in different parts of the world had compatibility problems with TVs elsewhere, but in this day and age that's not really an issue.

The graphics of those Activision games looked terrible.

Hmm, if there wasn't that story about Ubisoft backing down from always-online DRM yesterday I'd make a joke here...

I guess it's better to focus on one and get it right, then focus your full attention on the second version instead of doing a half-hearted job of both at once. Particularly since we don't even know anything about when the Wii U is releasing etc. I wouldn't get too worried at this stage.

@HawkeyeWii: But you're saying it's false, while it's been covered by multiple people here that those are not US prices (it's simply a direct currency conversion) and probably won't translate into the final US price.

Nintendo does, in fact, sell games outside the US for the equivalent of $80 US or more. Reading the comments would educate you.

Well, it wouldn't seem unreasonable. Particularly before you go around proclaiming information to be false.

@HawkeyeWii: Did you even read any of the other comments?

@UnseatingKDawg: Why do you assume that? If EBGames Australia leaked pricing that said Wii U games will be $100 AUD (which is roughly $100 USD) would you assume they had their info wrong?

Because they wouldn't. That's just how much games cost in Australia - it doesn't mean that they'll cost that much in the US.

@SkywardLink98: It doesn't say "RIGHT THERE" that that's what it will cost in the US, actually. Those numbers are just 349 Euros converted directly to GBP and USD. Just doing a direct currency conversion doesn't tell you what something will cost in another country, for reasons others have explained above.

I played WR64 once or twice and loved the wave physics. I bought a copy of Blue Storm last year and was absolutely blown away - the graphics looked great (well, the riders weren't particularly high-poly but the environments were excellent) and loved the feel of the physics. I'm looking forward to being reunited with my Wii to play it.

If they keep up the quality of the physics and the like I think they'll have a winner on their hands.

@Adhrast: There is single player but, as Jason Rohrer himself admits, it's basically a training mode for MP. The game is all about deception and second-guessing your opponent, so you can see how that may not work as well in SP.

The good news is that the game supports full download play - i.e. you only need a single copy of the game to have a full, unrestricted 2 player game.

Oh man, the original RCT was (and still is) an amazing game. I spent a lot of time playing it back in the day!

It'll be interesting to see how well this turns out, as I wouldn't have thought the 3DS to be the easiest system to release it on. I hope it turns out well, though, so people who may have missed it originally get a chance to play!

@BenAV: Trust me, you won't be disappointed!

It looks like a lot of fun - I like the tense moments when the player is racing against time, trying to do something on the gamepad while zombies are approaching. I think it's a neat way to add a cinematic tension (that you don't normally get with an FPS otherwise, due to the single viewpoint) and seems like an intelligent use of the gamepad.

That box art, though. Ugh. Nintendo really didn't pick a good colour for their Wii U banner at the top.

Well, at least it's inventive!

@ajcismo But you should give a shiny frog's butt if you want more than token 3rd party support once the next Xbox and PS3 come around.

Things will probably look good for a while with the Wii U, but if it can't keep pace with the other two, devs won't bother spending the time to optimise a Wii U port so they'll either release an inferior stripped down version or just not bother.

I don't understand why people don't see this as a problem. Sure, the first party games will obviously be there but you'll miss out on a lot of stuff on the Wii U if it's not that powerful.

I will add that I found the "No Russian" mission (Call of Duty airport mission) pretty off - I know I had to select the option to play it, but it wasn't really necessary for the story (from what I remember) and was just needless, over the top violence.

I find CoD OK for the most part though, and to be honest I don't even think about the violence when I play multiplayer - I focus more on the skills involved than the fact that I'm virtually shooting people.

@3Dash: I guess some people just 'wheely' want one?

Sorry.

Some of those could be OK, I guess.

I'm just always astounded by the number of accessories that get made for pretty much any system. You go to a store that sells consoles and there'll be racks upon racks of screen protectors, cases, game storage solutions, lanyards, stickers, the works.

Who buys all this stuff?

@Thomas: Yes, you're right, number 2 did have blood - I was really just being unnecessarily (though intentionally!) picky

@FlutterShyGuy: I completely agree. There's this weird disparity between showing sex and violence throughout Western media that I totally don't get. Sex is a wonderful thing, and should be celebrated (tastefully) but it seems to be this taboo topic. As I said in a thread buried in the forums here somewhere, have a movie where kids are killing each other in brutal fashion (The Hunger Games) and it gets rated PG, have a movie with 'sexual themes' and it's quite likely it'll get bumped straight up to a stricter rating. To me, that's backwards.

@Bass_X0: that's a bit sad - that guy's denying himself a lot of fantastic games. You should have waved SMG at him!

I don't remember any blood in NMH...

(the USA got an 'uncensored' version, while Japan and PAL regions got the version where enemies burn to ash)

As for the article itself, violence in games is such a complicated and emotive topic that I can't say I've got a particularly well-informed opinion about it. Personally, I don't mind violence as long as it's not disturbing or sadistic (that goes for any medium - books, games, movies - I recently felt a bit squeamish during one particular scene in the fourth Game of Thrones book) but I think it is often unnecessary, which really only bothers me because the story at hand usually doesn't improve much with needless violence.

All I can say is that I've grown up playing violent games since I was young (Wolfenstein, Doom as a 5 or 6 year old kid) and watching violent movies (one of my earliest memories of a movie is watching naked people in a swimming pool being shot in a Dirty Harry movie, which was probably before I was 10) and I consider myself well-adjusted and not prone to violence.

I know I'm just one person, but video game violence isn't the corrupting force many believe it to be. I have my limits as to what I'll sit and watch/play/read when it comes to violence, but that's more of a personal preference than any belief that experiencing it will do me harm.

P.S. - As for the Outdoors Unleashed game, I don't see it being any worse than, say, Big Buck Hunter at the pub. I don't want endangered animals being hunted in real life, but I don't think shooting virtual elephants is doing any harm.

@19Robb92: Ah cool - it looks pretty neat, actually. If only I had a 3DS!

Kind of missing the boat, isn't it? It's nice it's coming to WiiWare, but I fear sales will be absolutely dismal.

That's a nice-looking collection! He's right about the box art, it's a lot more fun than the SNES stuff

I don't have any good ideas for the next interview, though. I like reading about people like Stu, who have interesting/crazy collections of games (I read about a guy a while ago who had the first release of every PS2 game ever released in the USA (I think they may have even been sealed), and I really liked the anecdotes he had about tracking down hard-to-find games and talking about how he'd had many copies of particular games pass through his hands before he found one in acceptable condition).

Interesting that they've gone for a 3D engine. I didn't see the broadcast but I'll look out for some footage.

Hopefully it retains the feel of the 2D art.

Wow, that'd be a nice piece of VG history for someone with the cash!

I don't know I'd be able to part with it if I was him, but I guess $300,000 could make me think pretty hard about it...

Ah cool, I'll look forward to the Wii announcements!

I don't see any facts, just a heap of unsubstantiated opinions.

For the record, I don't own an Xbox. Nice try, though.