Gonna start Animal Crossing New Leaf and continue with Oracle of Ages. I wasn't going to get Animal Crossing but I have a long train journey coming up and thought it would be a good, not too taxing activity to help pass the time. Project X Zone arrived the other day but I'm saving that until I devote my proper attention to it.
On the console front I've got back into Skyrim and have been playing little bits of Spyro the Dragon.
This is actually something that bothers me more for the 3DS because Nintendo handhelds had always been region free. There were lots of Japanese DS games (particularly RPGs) that were released in North America but not Europe. Luckily, it didn't matter, because I could just buy the NA version. I really hope Europe doesn't miss out on too many 3DS releases over the course of its lifespan.
Getting towards the end of Tomb Raider. Meticulously crafted and insanely polished Uncharted clone but ultimately lacking soul. Once I've finished that I'm gonna get back into God of War III and Skyrim so I can then buy The Last of Us.
On the handheld front playing Oracle of Ages. Tis good.
Are "fans" going to react like this every time the Wii U doesn't get a next-gen third party title?
Does anyone really know the work, time, money that could be involved in getting the game running on the Wii U. It's not just that the Wii U its much weaker (and the game could be rather compromised) it's a vastly different and complicated architecture.
If they were to consider a Wii U version, why not PS3 and 360 too? Where to draw the line? Surely they are aiming for a certain level of power to realise their creative vision, and it is a fact that the Wii U is weaker than either upcoming console.
So long as the framerate is stable, the stages aren't too "busy" for the small screen and it doesn't end up being a cut down version of the Wii U game with missing features, then I would be happy to buy the 3DS one.
I like the dark outlines, it gives it its own visual character.
Nintendo's E3 lacked punch. I had hoped for more oomph and more fight which was why I was disappointed by the direct. Hopefully the conference will return next year. 2014 looks like it will be a great year for the Wii U. Still wondering if I should get one in 2013, however. We already know the 3DS had a great lineup this year, so it's a shame it wasn't given greater prominence.
As for the rest of E3, Sony upped their game considerably (or did they?) and seem to be in a healthy position. The PS3 has great continuing support, the PS4 is an attractive prospect, and, though multiplat, I really look forward to games like Final Fantasy XV and Kingdom Hearts 3. On the other hand, Microsoft stumbled horrifically. The Xbox One has serious well documented issues and Microsoft did nothing to address them in their sterile, glossy conference. The games shown failed to either excite me or mitigate the problems the console has.
I'm glad E3 wasn't as relentlessly bloody as last year (complete with cheering child men) but in general the games felt like they had largely fallen back on comfortable genre staples. Microsoft in particular did nothing to communicate that a new generation is either needed or will offer that great a leap on what we currently play.
Nintendo management screwed up. They were completely and utterly unprepared for HD game development and there is really little excuse for that. Why didn't they properly schedule projects or allocate sufficient resources? They have said they are working hard to rectify this, but it now means that we won't see the fruits of this labour until 2014 for most titles.
Comparisons are often made between the 3DS and Wii U but turning the Wii U's fortunes around will be much more difficult simply because of the cost of making games for it and the time involved. Can Nintendo afford to be as agressive as they continue to be with the 3DS? Do they have the resources? Moreover, the 3DS has taken a long time to get where it is today - a point where first party software routinely hits (and stays in) the UK top ten. The bulk of its success has been in Japan (where third party support is excellent) and Nintendo have spoken of its disappointing sales elsewhere. What I'm getting at is in the West it wasn't some radical overnight transformation once Mario Kart 7 and 3D Land were released. It took a lot of effort and a lot of investment in first party development over the past two years. How long can Nintendo hold out for the Wii U? They desperately, desperately need third party support.
Nintendo have no alternative but to go all out and really wow us.
I'm hoping for a 3D Mario reveal and a new Metroid game - from Retro. A new Metroid in the same style as Prime just seems such a no-brainer for the gamepad. These are system sellers for me.
Some proper footage of Wind Waker HD is probably a given but I would welcome it. Also some concrete info on the new Monolith Soft game.
I think Aonuma's Zelda games have more of an attention to minor detail in the game world and tend to focus more on characters and themes. Wind Waker was very light and whimsical, but Majora's Mask and Twilight Princess were much darker. Games in general are becoming more cinematic and have greater narrative complexity, so these are things the series should continue to work on.
I wonder if Nintendo would let him work on a new IP?
I was wondering that. My guess is it wouldn't make that much difference. People who buy used wouldn't necessarily automatically buy new. What's interesting is that for certain titles many publishers and developers have complained when a bulk of their sales were achieved when a product reached that £17.99 sweet spot - and these were new copies!
I'm beginning to think that used games are a convenient scapegoat for everything wrong with the industry. Did used games cause ballooning budgets or unrealistic sales expectations and could either of these things be mitigated by restricting access to them? They certainly didn't cause the death of THQ or a myriad of others who made poor financial and creative decisions, or developers who were closed down by publishers who chewed them up and then spat them back out.
It still amazes me what Rare got out of the N64. Beautiful, expansive games full of colour and little details. I thought Tooie and Conker were even more visually impressive than Donkey Kong 64 and they didn't require the expansion pak.
I never managed to finish DK64. I got to the final boss but my save randomly erased before I could complete it. I could never bring myself to play the whole thing again, given how large it was. My N64 is still with my sister but I am planning to retrieve it and will maybe one day play DK64 again.
Equating the second hand market to piracy is actually rather offensive.
Microsoft and others in the industry really need to look at the bigger picture. Perhaps a start would be to stop blaming the consumer and look inwards. Gaming is an expensive hobby and not many people can afford to buy every single release at full price. For certain games, I would wager a good many people who buy a game second hand would probably not buy that same title new if second hand was unavailable to them. Moreover, by restricting how consumers can both access products and fund new purchases, policies like MS' will do nothing more than perpetuate the current AAA sickness that is blighting the industry. This is because pubs and devs will do everything in their power to gear their product to the widest possible audience and therefore provide it with the best chance of market success. In an age of spiralling development costs, how much has this already creatively bankrupted the AAA market? COD and Fifa and GTA will be fine, of course.
Perhaps what really needs to be done is establish a more balanced, perhaps tiered pricing structure for new games. Give people incentive to buy new, rather than making the audience feel like criminals for buying used or trading their games in. If games are offered to download, have regular sales like Sony does on PSN. Methinks many publishers and developers are currently vastly overestimating just how much their products can and should sell for, and the current £40-£50 model is fundamentally broken.
I've not got much gaming done recently as I'm moving house next week and have been busy packing. Sporadically playing bits of God of War 3, Persona (the first one) and Luigi's Mansion 2. Skyrim's on hold at the moment because I haven't had time to play a long enough session.
Tomorrow's my birthday so I'm gonna rest and maybe start one of my new games.
That was awful. Really, really awful. The focus on tv and kinect was disappointing, the lack of games even more so. Baffling, even, given that it is supposed to be a games console. The expected confirmation that used games will require an activation fee was just the icing on the cake, frankly. In contrast I was very impressed with the PS4 reveal and its focus on games.
I don't get why people are so quick to judge this. It looks super. I think there should be a clear divide between handheld and console Zelda games - it'll help keep the series fresh.
@Beta
I have the Dark World theme in my head now. Wonderful music!
I never got deoxys originally so this brings me one step closer to completely filling the national dex. And it's over wi-fi! I hate the events where you have to go to GAME.
That's spooky. I was just looking at trailers for this last night and thought to myself "this'll never be released here". Looking forward to the autumn release. Hopefully it won't be too long a wait for Shin Megami Tensei IV, either.
GAME's prices are not at all competitive and they are routinely undercut by other online retailers. I also much prefer buying physical copies (unless download is significantly cheaper), so for me, this is a definite no-go.
However, I do see this potentially being a good option for people who either don't buy online or don't like using credit card details on the eshop directly. Consumer choice is a good thing, but I can't help but think it's a slightly surreptitious way of pushing the eshop (and all its disadvantages for the consumer) versus physical.
There's a bigger problem though - Nintendo must introduce a unified accounts system!
I think it looks super. The paper mechanic could be particularly interesting and the 3D in the trailer looked lovely. I love the top-down Zeldas (especially Link's Awakening) and think a return to the style could be good for the series, especially on the handheld.
I was most pleased by the announcement of European releases for Bravely Default and Shin Megami Tensei IV. The 3DS needs more RPGs in these parts so it it's very good news indeed. All it needs now is Dragon Quest VII!
I already felt there would be a new Zelda on the 3DS this year given how long it has already been since OoT3D, but I am pleasantly surprised that they have returned back to the top-down gameplay style of A Link to the Past. It looks lovely and really pops in 3D. Going back to the series roots could produce a very "pure" Zelda experience.
All in all this will be a very busy year for the 3DS and it's great that it is getting so many must-have games.
Ni No Kuni is easily one of my favourite games of the generation and is one of the best RPGs I've played in recent years.
As others have said, the PS3 version has the same story as the DS one, but with a large epilogue that adds some further story resolution, and a lot of gameplay extras, too. However, from videos I've seen on youtube the battle system is very different in the DS version. I would buy it to experience the game in a different way. The touch screen would also make casting spells more involved.
The strong yen has been the single biggest challenge for Japanese companies that rely on foreign sales for much of their revenue. Nintendo themselves highlighted it as a key reason for their huge losses last year, and I reckon it is partly why the Wii U was priced so highly in Europe. Perhaps if the yen weakens further it will increase the chances of a price drop...
@GreenDream I thought Final Fantasy X was also quite clever in its damnation of organised religion.
Many games are quite "adult" in the themes they deal with, but what exactly is "adult"? In terms of narrative, games are different to other media in that they are not passive experiences. There are many ways to tell a story or set a scene but at the same time a game has to fulfil its core purpose of providing an engaging gameplay experience that has some sort of goal. I think Warren Spector's argument is far too generalised. He should embrace the nature of gaming!
On the wider discussion of "Games as art", I think they can absolutely be considered art. Not just in their aesthetic, but in the ideas they communicate (and how they communicate them) and in the emotional responses they have the potential to provoke.
People initially believed film could not be considered art. Or rock music. Now it's the same for video games and in the future it'll be the same for a new media.
I like Japanese games precisely because they're "Japanese". They're different to western style games and I think that's a good thing. If I want to play a western-style game I buy a game made by a western developer because most Japanese efforts to emulate western styles suck. They must stick to what they're good at! If not they risk alienating both people like me and, more importantly, their home market.
Well duh, they shouldn't have made it an online RPG. Dragon Quest itself is clearly still very popular in Japan given what the remake of DQ7 sold a few months ago...
Atlus really need a European publishing arm. The stupidly long wait for Persona 4 Arena and Devil Survivor Overclocked (complete with bugs!) and just about every other MegaTen game is infuriating. I'm hopeful this will be released here but am prepared for a 1-2 year delay. Region locking is the absolute devil!
Games don't need to cost $100million to make in order to be successful, yet it's this fallacy that is really hurting the industry. The practice of publishers and developers putting all of their eggs in one basket and making HUGE financial gambits is incredibly risky. The bigger the budget the more a game has to sell to break even and then more still to make a profit. And so we get games made by committee and creativity is stifled.
Does it have to be this way though? If a game like Dragon's Dogma can sell "just" 1 million copies (or thereabouts) but be considered enough of a success by CAPCOM to warrant talks of making a sequel, why can't other titles? Same goes for games like Demon's Souls. The budgets for those can't have been enormous! Then there are the incredibly niche JRPGs published in the west by the likes of Ghostlight. Sales are likely tiny by the standards of the AAA market but must still be high enough to keep these companies in business.
Then there are cheaper distribution methods like PSN, XBLA and now the eshop, which are perfect for companies to take more of a risk, particularly if they don't want to go up against blockbuster games in the physical retail market.
Nuts n Bolts wasn't a bad game at all. The biggest problem I had was with the floaty physics, which made some of the missions quite frustrating. The original Banjo-Kazooie is still one of my favourite games but I am happy to replay that and Tooie rather than desire a new entry.
Bioshock Infinite on the 360 and continuing with Persona 3 Portable. I also got back into Theatrhythm, getting the last few unlockable characters and S ranks on ultimate.
It's certainly positive that sales have increased but I wouldn't bring out the party poppers just yet. A 125% increase really doesn't tell us much when we don't know how many it sold the week before! The real challenge will be if it can not only maintain its current momentum but continually build on it.
I much prefer physical copies. I like having a nice box to go on my shelf with a manual and all the trimmings. It's something tangible that I own and will always own.
I've never purchased a downloadable retail game from the eshop on my 3DS. They are ridiculously overpriced and Nintendo's lack of proper unified accounts is extremely offputting and, in the event of hardware failure, anti-consumer. That alone would prevent me from ever buying a downloadable retail game from them.
I have downloaded full retail games on my psp and ps3 before because the prices have been extremely attractive. Persona 1 was £3.99, as were Final Fantasy I and II. In the case of Persona, a physical release was never available in the UK, and in the case of the latter two, it was difficult to get hold of versions with the original packaging at a reasonable price.
I'm getting towards the end of Ni No Kuni. I'm just farming alchemy ingredients to make me some super armour. I don't want it to end but at the same time I'm eager to finish it before Bioshock Infinite arrives. I'll probably end up playing both.
On the handheld front I'm replaying Persona 3 Portable, this time as the female character to experience the new content. Not as good as Persona 4, but that is hardly a criticism because this is still grand.
Nintendo must be quicker to adapt to the challenges of game development on an HD console - specifically team sizes and just how much extra work is involved. Not to mention other areas such as online. The other platform holders and third party developers have had the best part of 7 years to change and adapt and streamline (or go under in the case of THQ and many others) and Nintendo now find themselves in the precarious situation of playing "catch-up". They've been too slow announcing games and too slow at getting games, such as Pikmin 3, released. This is Wii U's big challenge. It seems that Nintendo is starting to face up to this challenge, as they've already publicly stated that they have started collaborating more and increasing team sizes to get their games out there, but I do get the impression that they were caught a bit unawares. Could the tremendous software push they've given the 3DS be partly to blame for this?
I haven't read reviews before buying or considering buying a game in a very long time (perhaps 4 years). They're opinions, and sometimes will not correlate with my own. Reviews are subjective and it bothers me when it is argued they're held to some sort of objective test. They're not. It's impossible - we're all human, afterall. A further part of it is not wanting a review to influence my own opinion of a game before I've even played it, and not wanting to spoil a game I've been looking forward to. In the past, whole segments of games have been ruined by trailers and previews and the relentless hype train.
When deciding on a game purchase I'll ask myself "is it a genre I like? What have I thought of previous games in the series? What are the developers previous games like?" I'll ask my friends what they think of a game. When exploring new games that I'm not sure about, I may watch gameplay videos or play demos. I haven't bought a game I haven't enjoyed since not reading reviews. I've also played a lot of games that I've loved and gone on to discover have received "dreaded 7's" from the gaming press.
I really, really enjoyed this game. When I first started university I was hooked on it, with me and my GBA huddled under my desk lamp so I could see what I was doing.
I remember visiting my Grandma's house and playing Sonic for the first time on my uncle's Mega Drive. It seemed wonderful and strange and new and I'd never seen anything like it before. When we got home my Dad surprised me by producing a Mega Drive - my uncle had been kind enough to give me his Mega Drive and games. I spent the next few years playing practically nothing but Sonic until my Mega Drive met an untimely demise. Super, iconic console.
I'm away from home at the moment but shall continue with Ni No Kuni and God of War HD when I return. Ni No Kuni is super, one of my favourite games of the generation.
Currently playing Final Fantasy II on the PSP and replaying Super Mario 3D Land. Final Fantasy II has a rather good levelling system (you only level up the skills and attributes you use) and the music's lovely. It's got me in the mood for playing more Theatrhythm. It looks really nice and crisp on the PSP's beautiful screen, too. The base gameplay seems quite forward thinking for a game that is almost 25 years old.
I never owned a SNES but have since played many of its games either through emulation on the Wii Virtual Console or ports/remakes on systems such as the GBA or DS. It may have been 20 or so years since they were originally made, but they don't feel like they've aged at all. I think that pixel art has a timeless quality and the sound capabilities of the system were rather awesome for the time, too. Based on what I've played the SNES must have had an amazing library and surely represents one of gaming's golden ages.
Two of my all-time favourite games, Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VI, were never originally released in Europe, buy we've been lucky to get them since.
Microtransactions are annoying, but at the moment I can happily ignore them. I didn't buy Oblivion Horse Armour or Mass Effect 2 weapon packs. I have no intention of purchasing the ridiculous item or experience point packs for Tales of Vesperia. However some people MUST be buying them or publishers simply wouldn't bother selling them.
I said "at the moment" because in the future I can see important elements of games being held back unless a fee is paid - similar to how many FTP games do. For games that cost £40, this is unacceptable. There are already games that close off entire modes unless you have an Xbox Live subscription (Halo 4's Spartan Ops, which is entirely playable alone!), so I can fully see this going a step further.
I was very impressed by what Sony showed. The specs are great and they seem very focused with a clear vision. They've certainly upped their game compared to the PS3's troubled launch and will go into the next-gen fighting. I'm very interested in what their first party studios will do with the console given their excellent work on the PS3.
As for Nintendo, they need to bring their A game and improve their marketing (both very achievable), but I suspect the real challenge will be securing third party support in the long-term. Will their year-long head start have been wasted? E3 should be very interesting. It's an exciting time to be a gamer as good competition has a habit of forcing the best out of rival companies...
Comments 270
Re: Nintendo's First Quarter Financial Results Boosted By 3DS Performance
Apparently just 10,000 of those Wii Us were sold in Europe and Australia. Appalling, Nintendo.
Re: Rumour: Nintendo Is Shaping Up To Acquire Troubled Atlus
Given Nintendo's history of censorship and the content of most Shin Megami Tensei games, I would not like to see them own Atlus.
Re: Talking Point: What Games Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue Fifteen
Gonna start Animal Crossing New Leaf and continue with Oracle of Ages. I wasn't going to get Animal Crossing but I have a long train journey coming up and thought it would be a good, not too taxing activity to help pass the time. Project X Zone arrived the other day but I'm saving that until I devote my proper attention to it.
On the console front I've got back into Skyrim and have been playing little bits of Spyro the Dragon.
Re: Talking Point: It's Time for Nintendo to Drop Region Locking
This is actually something that bothers me more for the 3DS because Nintendo handhelds had always been region free. There were lots of Japanese DS games (particularly RPGs) that were released in North America but not Europe. Luckily, it didn't matter, because I could just buy the NA version. I really hope Europe doesn't miss out on too many 3DS releases over the course of its lifespan.
Re: Talking Point: What Games Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue Fourteen
Getting towards the end of Tomb Raider. Meticulously crafted and insanely polished Uncharted clone but ultimately lacking soul.
Once I've finished that I'm gonna get back into God of War III and Skyrim so I can then buy The Last of Us.
On the handheld front playing Oracle of Ages. Tis good.
Re: Kingdom Hearts III Highly Unlikely To Appear On Wii U
@ToadFan
That was a rhetorical question.
Are "fans" going to react like this every time the Wii U doesn't get a next-gen third party title?
Does anyone really know the work, time, money that could be involved in getting the game running on the Wii U. It's not just that the Wii U its much weaker (and the game could be rather compromised) it's a vastly different and complicated architecture.
Re: Kingdom Hearts III Highly Unlikely To Appear On Wii U
If they were to consider a Wii U version, why not PS3 and 360 too? Where to draw the line? Surely they are aiming for a certain level of power to realise their creative vision, and it is a fact that the Wii U is weaker than either upcoming console.
Re: Check Out How Mega Man Looks On The 3DS Version Of Super Smash Bros.
So long as the framerate is stable, the stages aren't too "busy" for the small screen and it doesn't end up being a cut down version of the Wii U game with missing features, then I would be happy to buy the 3DS one.
I like the dark outlines, it gives it its own visual character.
Re: Feature: The Big Nintendo E3 Survey
Nintendo's E3 lacked punch. I had hoped for more oomph and more fight which was why I was disappointed by the direct. Hopefully the conference will return next year. 2014 looks like it will be a great year for the Wii U. Still wondering if I should get one in 2013, however. We already know the 3DS had a great lineup this year, so it's a shame it wasn't given greater prominence.
As for the rest of E3, Sony upped their game considerably (or did they?) and seem to be in a healthy position. The PS3 has great continuing support, the PS4 is an attractive prospect, and, though multiplat, I really look forward to games like Final Fantasy XV and Kingdom Hearts 3. On the other hand, Microsoft stumbled horrifically. The Xbox One has serious well documented issues and Microsoft did nothing to address them in their sterile, glossy conference. The games shown failed to either excite me or mitigate the problems the console has.
I'm glad E3 wasn't as relentlessly bloody as last year (complete with cheering child men) but in general the games felt like they had largely fallen back on comfortable genre staples. Microsoft in particular did nothing to communicate that a new generation is either needed or will offer that great a leap on what we currently play.
Re: Talking Point: E3 Exposed the Strains of Nintendo's Development Workload
Nintendo management screwed up. They were completely and utterly unprepared for HD game development and there is really little excuse for that. Why didn't they properly schedule projects or allocate sufficient resources? They have said they are working hard to rectify this, but it now means that we won't see the fruits of this labour until 2014 for most titles.
Comparisons are often made between the 3DS and Wii U but turning the Wii U's fortunes around will be much more difficult simply because of the cost of making games for it and the time involved. Can Nintendo afford to be as agressive as they continue to be with the 3DS? Do they have the resources? Moreover, the 3DS has taken a long time to get where it is today - a point where first party software routinely hits (and stays in) the UK top ten. The bulk of its success has been in Japan (where third party support is excellent) and Nintendo have spoken of its disappointing sales elsewhere. What I'm getting at is in the West it wasn't some radical overnight transformation once Mario Kart 7 and 3D Land were released. It took a lot of effort and a lot of investment in first party development over the past two years. How long can Nintendo hold out for the Wii U? They desperately, desperately need third party support.
Re: Iwata: Japanese Third Parties Investing More In 3DS Software
Dragon Quest VII!
Re: Super Mario 3D World Coming To Wii U This December
I was expecting more "oomph". Looks good, but not filling me with excitement.
Until I noticed the Wii U logo I honestly believed this was a 3DS game.
Re: Feature: What We Expect From Nintendo's E3 Direct
Nintendo have no alternative but to go all out and really wow us.
I'm hoping for a 3D Mario reveal and a new Metroid game - from Retro. A new Metroid in the same style as Prime just seems such a no-brainer for the gamepad. These are system sellers for me.
Some proper footage of Wind Waker HD is probably a given but I would welcome it. Also some concrete info on the new Monolith Soft game.
Re: Aonuma: I Want To Work On Things Other Than Zelda
I think Aonuma's Zelda games have more of an attention to minor detail in the game world and tend to focus more on characters and themes. Wind Waker was very light and whimsical, but Majora's Mask and Twilight Princess were much darker. Games in general are becoming more cinematic and have greater narrative complexity, so these are things the series should continue to work on.
I wonder if Nintendo would let him work on a new IP?
Re: Talking Point: Wii U vs Xbox One - Online Requirements and On-Disc DRM
@MegaWatts
I was wondering that. My guess is it wouldn't make that much difference. People who buy used wouldn't necessarily automatically buy new. What's interesting is that for certain titles many publishers and developers have complained when a bulk of their sales were achieved when a product reached that £17.99 sweet spot - and these were new copies!
I'm beginning to think that used games are a convenient scapegoat for everything wrong with the industry. Did used games cause ballooning budgets or unrealistic sales expectations and could either of these things be mitigated by restricting access to them? They certainly didn't cause the death of THQ or a myriad of others who made poor financial and creative decisions, or developers who were closed down by publishers who chewed them up and then spat them back out.
Re: Donkey Kong 64 Required Expansion Pak to Prevent Game-Breaking Bug
It still amazes me what Rare got out of the N64. Beautiful, expansive games full of colour and little details. I thought Tooie and Conker were even more visually impressive than Donkey Kong 64 and they didn't require the expansion pak.
I never managed to finish DK64. I got to the final boss but my save randomly erased before I could complete it. I could never bring myself to play the whole thing again, given how large it was. My N64 is still with my sister but I am planning to retrieve it and will maybe one day play DK64 again.
Re: Talking Point: Wii U vs Xbox One - Online Requirements and On-Disc DRM
Equating the second hand market to piracy is actually rather offensive.
Microsoft and others in the industry really need to look at the bigger picture. Perhaps a start would be to stop blaming the consumer and look inwards. Gaming is an expensive hobby and not many people can afford to buy every single release at full price. For certain games, I would wager a good many people who buy a game second hand would probably not buy that same title new if second hand was unavailable to them. Moreover, by restricting how consumers can both access products and fund new purchases, policies like MS' will do nothing more than perpetuate the current AAA sickness that is blighting the industry. This is because pubs and devs will do everything in their power to gear their product to the widest possible audience and therefore provide it with the best chance of market success. In an age of spiralling development costs, how much has this already creatively bankrupted the AAA market? COD and Fifa and GTA will be fine, of course.
Perhaps what really needs to be done is establish a more balanced, perhaps tiered pricing structure for new games. Give people incentive to buy new, rather than making the audience feel like criminals for buying used or trading their games in. If games are offered to download, have regular sales like Sony does on PSN. Methinks many publishers and developers are currently vastly overestimating just how much their products can and should sell for, and the current £40-£50 model is fundamentally broken.
Re: Talking Point: What Games Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue Thirteen
I've not got much gaming done recently as I'm moving house next week and have been busy packing. Sporadically playing bits of God of War 3, Persona (the first one) and Luigi's Mansion 2. Skyrim's on hold at the moment because I haven't had time to play a long enough session.
Tomorrow's my birthday so I'm gonna rest and maybe start one of my new games.
Re: Poll: Do You Follow and Watch Rival Console Reveals?
That was awful. Really, really awful. The focus on tv and kinect was disappointing, the lack of games even more so. Baffling, even, given that it is supposed to be a games console. The expected confirmation that used games will require an activation fee was just the icing on the cake, frankly. In contrast I was very impressed with the PS4 reveal and its focus on games.
Re: Talking Point: What Games Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue Twelve
Skyrim on the 360 and finishing Persona 3 Portable. If I get that finished I'll hopefully make a start on Luigi's Mansion 2.
Re: Eiji Aonuma: Zelda 3DS Will Feature a Light and Dark World
I don't get why people are so quick to judge this. It looks super. I think there should be a clear divide between handheld and console Zelda games - it'll help keep the series fresh.
@Beta
I have the Dark World theme in my head now. Wonderful music!
Re: Pokémon Black & White 2 Owners Can Catch Deoxys In May
I never got deoxys originally so this brings me one step closer to completely filling the national dex. And it's over wi-fi! I hate the events where you have to go to GAME.
Re: Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers Arrives in Europe This Fall
That's spooky. I was just looking at trailers for this last night and thought to myself "this'll never be released here". Looking forward to the autumn release. Hopefully it won't be too long a wait for Shin Megami Tensei IV, either.
Re: Satoru Iwata Confirms Nintendo's Plans To Bring More 3DS Third-Party Support To The West
@JogurtTheYogurt
Seconded!
Re: Talking Point: The Arrival of eShop Download Codes in Stores is a Smart Move
GAME's prices are not at all competitive and they are routinely undercut by other online retailers. I also much prefer buying physical copies (unless download is significantly cheaper), so for me, this is a definite no-go.
However, I do see this potentially being a good option for people who either don't buy online or don't like using credit card details on the eshop directly. Consumer choice is a good thing, but I can't help but think it's a slightly surreptitious way of pushing the eshop (and all its disadvantages for the consumer) versus physical.
There's a bigger problem though - Nintendo must introduce a unified accounts system!
Re: First Impressions: The Legend of Zelda 3DS
I think it looks super. The paper mechanic could be particularly interesting and the 3D in the trailer looked lovely. I love the top-down Zeldas (especially Link's Awakening) and think a return to the style could be good for the series, especially on the handheld.
Re: Reaction: Our Thoughts on Nintendo's 3DS Direct - 17th April
I was most pleased by the announcement of European releases for Bravely Default and Shin Megami Tensei IV. The 3DS needs more RPGs in these parts so it it's very good news indeed. All it needs now is Dragon Quest VII!
I already felt there would be a new Zelda on the 3DS this year given how long it has already been since OoT3D, but I am pleasantly surprised that they have returned back to the top-down gameplay style of A Link to the Past. It looks lovely and really pops in 3D. Going back to the series roots could produce a very "pure" Zelda experience.
All in all this will be a very busy year for the 3DS and it's great that it is getting so many must-have games.
Re: New Legend Of Zelda Title Confirmed For Nintendo 3DS, Due Late 2013
I just watched the trailer on my 3DS and the 3D really pops. It could end up being a very impressive showcase for the 3D capabilities of the system.
Re: Bravely Default: Flying Fairy is Confirmed for the West
Woo and hoo. Same for Shin Megami Tensei European release.
Re: Rumour: Ni no Kuni Could Yet See A Western Release, According To Publisher Namco Bandai
Ni No Kuni is easily one of my favourite games of the generation and is one of the best RPGs I've played in recent years.
As others have said, the PS3 version has the same story as the DS one, but with a large epilogue that adds some further story resolution, and a lot of gameplay extras, too. However, from videos I've seen on youtube the battle system is very different in the DS version. I would buy it to experience the game in a different way. The touch screen would also make casting spells more involved.
Re: There Sure Are A Lot Of Nintendo References In PSN Title Guacamelee
I hadn't heard of this til now but shall certainly check it out. It looks awesome!
Re: Nintendo Stock Rises By 11%
The strong yen has been the single biggest challenge for Japanese companies that rely on foreign sales for much of their revenue. Nintendo themselves highlighted it as a key reason for their huge losses last year, and I reckon it is partly why the Wii U was priced so highly in Europe. Perhaps if the yen weakens further it will increase the chances of a price drop...
Re: Talking Point: Warren Spector Asks, Where Are Gaming's Grown-Ups?
@GreenDream I thought Final Fantasy X was also quite clever in its damnation of organised religion.
Many games are quite "adult" in the themes they deal with, but what exactly is "adult"? In terms of narrative, games are different to other media in that they are not passive experiences. There are many ways to tell a story or set a scene but at the same time a game has to fulfil its core purpose of providing an engaging gameplay experience that has some sort of goal. I think Warren Spector's argument is far too generalised. He should embrace the nature of gaming!
On the wider discussion of "Games as art", I think they can absolutely be considered art. Not just in their aesthetic, but in the ideas they communicate (and how they communicate them) and in the emotional responses they have the potential to provoke.
People initially believed film could not be considered art. Or rock music. Now it's the same for video games and in the future it'll be the same for a new media.
Re: Inafune: Japanese Developers Are "Too Proud" And "Don't Know What To Do"
I like Japanese games precisely because they're "Japanese". They're different to western style games and I think that's a good thing. If I want to play a western-style game I buy a game made by a western developer because most Japanese efforts to emulate western styles suck. They must stick to what they're good at! If not they risk alienating both people like me and, more importantly, their home market.
Re: Dragon Quest X Posts Poor Sales Figures In Japan
Well duh, they shouldn't have made it an online RPG. Dragon Quest itself is clearly still very popular in Japan given what the remake of DQ7 sold a few months ago...
Re: Shin Megami Tensei IV Coming To North American 3DS Consoles This Summer
Atlus really need a European publishing arm. The stupidly long wait for Persona 4 Arena and Devil Survivor Overclocked (complete with bugs!) and just about every other MegaTen game is infuriating. I'm hopeful this will be released here but am prepared for a 1-2 year delay. Region locking is the absolute devil!
Re: Talking Point: Playing it Safe in Big-Budget Console Games is Stifling Creativity
Games don't need to cost $100million to make in order to be successful, yet it's this fallacy that is really hurting the industry. The practice of publishers and developers putting all of their eggs in one basket and making HUGE financial gambits is incredibly risky. The bigger the budget the more a game has to sell to break even and then more still to make a profit. And so we get games made by committee and creativity is stifled.
Does it have to be this way though? If a game like Dragon's Dogma can sell "just" 1 million copies (or thereabouts) but be considered enough of a success by CAPCOM to warrant talks of making a sequel, why can't other titles? Same goes for games like Demon's Souls. The budgets for those can't have been enormous! Then there are the incredibly niche JRPGs published in the west by the likes of Ghostlight. Sales are likely tiny by the standards of the AAA market but must still be high enough to keep these companies in business.
Then there are cheaper distribution methods like PSN, XBLA and now the eshop, which are perfect for companies to take more of a risk, particularly if they don't want to go up against blockbuster games in the physical retail market.
Re: Grant Kirkhope Wishes He Could Make Banjo-Kazooie 3 For Nintendo
Nuts n Bolts wasn't a bad game at all. The biggest problem I had was with the floaty physics, which made some of the missions quite frustrating. The original Banjo-Kazooie is still one of my favourite games but I am happy to replay that and Tooie rather than desire a new entry.
Re: Talking Point: What Games Are You Playing This Weekend? - Easter Edition
Bioshock Infinite on the 360 and continuing with Persona 3 Portable. I also got back into Theatrhythm, getting the last few unlockable characters and S ranks on ultimate.
Re: Monster Hunter And Price Cut Trigger Wii U Sales Spike In UK
It's certainly positive that sales have increased but I wouldn't bring out the party poppers just yet. A 125% increase really doesn't tell us much when we don't know how many it sold the week before! The real challenge will be if it can not only maintain its current momentum but continually build on it.
Re: Talking Point: The Download or Disc Dilemma
I much prefer physical copies. I like having a nice box to go on my shelf with a manual and all the trimmings. It's something tangible that I own and will always own.
I've never purchased a downloadable retail game from the eshop on my 3DS. They are ridiculously overpriced and Nintendo's lack of proper unified accounts is extremely offputting and, in the event of hardware failure, anti-consumer. That alone would prevent me from ever buying a downloadable retail game from them.
I have downloaded full retail games on my psp and ps3 before because the prices have been extremely attractive. Persona 1 was £3.99, as were Final Fantasy I and II. In the case of Persona, a physical release was never available in the UK, and in the case of the latter two, it was difficult to get hold of versions with the original packaging at a reasonable price.
Re: Talking Point: What Games Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue Ten
I'm getting towards the end of Ni No Kuni. I'm just farming alchemy ingredients to make me some super armour. I don't want it to end but at the same time I'm eager to finish it before Bioshock Infinite arrives. I'll probably end up playing both.
On the handheld front I'm replaying Persona 3 Portable, this time as the female character to experience the new content. Not as good as Persona 4, but that is hardly a criticism because this is still grand.
Re: Reaction: Doom and Gloom Merchants on Wii U Being Nintendo's Last Home Console
Nintendo must be quicker to adapt to the challenges of game development on an HD console - specifically team sizes and just how much extra work is involved. Not to mention other areas such as online. The other platform holders and third party developers have had the best part of 7 years to change and adapt and streamline (or go under in the case of THQ and many others) and Nintendo now find themselves in the precarious situation of playing "catch-up". They've been too slow announcing games and too slow at getting games, such as Pikmin 3, released. This is Wii U's big challenge. It seems that Nintendo is starting to face up to this challenge, as they've already publicly stated that they have started collaborating more and increasing team sizes to get their games out there, but I do get the impression that they were caught a bit unawares. Could the tremendous software push they've given the 3DS be partly to blame for this?
Re: Talking Point: Review Scores and Unwinnable Arguments
I haven't read reviews before buying or considering buying a game in a very long time (perhaps 4 years). They're opinions, and sometimes will not correlate with my own. Reviews are subjective and it bothers me when it is argued they're held to some sort of objective test. They're not. It's impossible - we're all human, afterall. A further part of it is not wanting a review to influence my own opinion of a game before I've even played it, and not wanting to spoil a game I've been looking forward to. In the past, whole segments of games have been ruined by trailers and previews and the relentless hype train.
When deciding on a game purchase I'll ask myself "is it a genre I like? What have I thought of previous games in the series? What are the developers previous games like?" I'll ask my friends what they think of a game. When exploring new games that I'm not sure about, I may watch gameplay videos or play demos. I haven't bought a game I haven't enjoyed since not reading reviews. I've also played a lot of games that I've loved and gone on to discover have received "dreaded 7's" from the gaming press.
Re: Review: Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge (Game Boy Advance)
I really, really enjoyed this game. When I first started university I was hooked on it, with me and my GBA huddled under my desk lamp so I could see what I was doing.
Re: Hardware Classics: Sega Mega Drive
I remember visiting my Grandma's house and playing Sonic for the first time on my uncle's Mega Drive. It seemed wonderful and strange and new and I'd never seen anything like it before. When we got home my Dad surprised me by producing a Mega Drive - my uncle had been kind enough to give me his Mega Drive and games. I spent the next few years playing practically nothing but Sonic until my Mega Drive met an untimely demise. Super, iconic console.
Re: Talking Point: What Games Are You Playing This Weekend? - Issue Nine
I'm away from home at the moment but shall continue with Ni No Kuni and God of War HD when I return. Ni No Kuni is super, one of my favourite games of the generation.
Currently playing Final Fantasy II on the PSP and replaying Super Mario 3D Land. Final Fantasy II has a rather good levelling system (you only level up the skills and attributes you use) and the music's lovely. It's got me in the mood for playing more Theatrhythm. It looks really nice and crisp on the PSP's beautiful screen, too. The base gameplay seems quite forward thinking for a game that is almost 25 years old.
Re: Hardware Classics: Nintendo Super Famicom
I never owned a SNES but have since played many of its games either through emulation on the Wii Virtual Console or ports/remakes on systems such as the GBA or DS. It may have been 20 or so years since they were originally made, but they don't feel like they've aged at all. I think that pixel art has a timeless quality and the sound capabilities of the system were rather awesome for the time, too. Based on what I've played the SNES must have had an amazing library and surely represents one of gaming's golden ages.
Two of my all-time favourite games, Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VI, were never originally released in Europe, buy we've been lucky to get them since.
Re: Talking Point: The Slippery Slope of Micro-Transactions
Microtransactions are annoying, but at the moment I can happily ignore them. I didn't buy Oblivion Horse Armour or Mass Effect 2 weapon packs. I have no intention of purchasing the ridiculous item or experience point packs for Tales of Vesperia. However some people MUST be buying them or publishers simply wouldn't bother selling them.
I said "at the moment" because in the future I can see important elements of games being held back unless a fee is paid - similar to how many FTP games do. For games that cost £40, this is unacceptable. There are already games that close off entire modes unless you have an Xbox Live subscription (Halo 4's Spartan Ops, which is entirely playable alone!), so I can fully see this going a step further.
Re: Talking Point: Sony's PlayStation 4 Poses a Fresh Challenge for Wii U in the 2013 Holidays
I was very impressed by what Sony showed. The specs are great and they seem very focused with a clear vision. They've certainly upped their game compared to the PS3's troubled launch and will go into the next-gen fighting. I'm very interested in what their first party studios will do with the console given their excellent work on the PS3.
As for Nintendo, they need to bring their A game and improve their marketing (both very achievable), but I suspect the real challenge will be securing third party support in the long-term. Will their year-long head start have been wasted? E3 should be very interesting. It's an exciting time to be a gamer as good competition has a habit of forcing the best out of rival companies...