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Drop that sucker to $200 and package it with a game other than Rock Band Unplugged Lite (Five songs? Thanks.) and sales will jump a ton.
Actually, even just bundling it with GoW would have been a great marketing idea, seeing as III just hit the PS3.
Well, there is that LBP\AC deal, but I doubt that most of the 2 people who bought one knew about that. And it was a limited time offer?
They did a God of War bundle for the standard PSP when Chains of Olympus came out, though
A few weeks back I picked up "Prince of Persia Revelations", "WTF: Work Time Fun", and "Dead Head Fred" all from the PSN for a grand total of $22.
A few weeks before that I got "Crazy Taxi: Fare Wars", "Sonic Rivals", "Sonic Rivals 2", and "Full Auto 2" for a total of $50.
Good deals all around.
Edit: For the record, I really want a PSP Go. I love the size of the damn thing. The Game Boy Micro has spoiled my expectations for tiny game systems.
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Oh, Crack in Time's got a bunch of Clank bits? Much as I like shooting things with hilarious weapons the Clank bits are surprisingly soothing.
And I need to get used to paying more for PS3 games... picked up the first Ratchet, the first Uncharted,k Infamous and MGS4 for $15 a pop. I'm spoiled at the moment.
That second group of games isn't worth five, let alone fifty.
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...why is linearity bad?
RPG fans are used to it of course but the lack of variety in game is one of FF XIII's biggest failings.
It didn't keep me from enjoying myself though.
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linearity is only bad when it's obvious. this is particularly true of RPGs where exploration and discovery are common themes.
The best example that comes to mind at the moment is original fable. Everywhere you went, there were these annoying chest high fences that fed you along a set path. Beyond those fences you could see trees and fields and open worlds but you could never ever access them because you weren't ever supposed to. Even if a game is good in all other aspects, the feeling of confinement can detract from a person's experience to varying degrees depending on the person and how blatant it is in the game.
I haven't played FFXIII so I couldn't say how bad the linearity is in that game, but I can totally see how it'd be a low factor.
Liner Games = Forced along one path eg. Halo / Gears ect.
Open Worlds= A sort of mix of sandbox and liner can go anywhere at eg Fable
Sandbox= A big mass of land is laid out in front of you to explore eg Grand Theft Auto
This is such a bizarre statement
X has an amazing battle system
Five hours into XIII and it's still playing for me
I've practically given up on it, I'm not going to wait more than a couple hours for a game to "get good"
I don't know about you, but I'm ready for the doom and gloom stories when they say it sold a mere four million instead of five. FAILURE!
Do not engage the Watermelons.
This seems like a much more valid complaint than "it's too linear." I don't mind tutorials if I can get to the good stuff within a reasonable amount of time. Apparently Giant Bomb says five hours of boredom before the combat system starts opening up? Pass.
Hi5! I was reading the "games you'll never finish" thread and was starting to feel all alone...
FFX was linear but remains my favorite FF. It's because the story was interesting, the world was interesting, most of the characters were interesting and the battle system was pretty engaging.
This game...I like one character so far, the world is dull, the story seems almost non-existent and all those jokes made over the years about just pressing X to get through the battles has become a sick reality.
I loved Heavy Rain to death, which is a game completely driven by QTEs. But even that felt more like a real game over the interactive movie that FFXIII is
How much do they have to sell in order to break even?
My store has sold all but three of the 28 copies we got in. Granted, not nearly as many as ME2 sold in its first week in my store (49 including CEs), but better than almost every other PS3 title to date (again, at my store).
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I'd be surprised if it bombed, considering how surprisingly well the GOW1&2 collection has been hanging around the top 20
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Isn't that how pretty much every game's sales would break down?
Problem with XIII is the game doesn't 'get good' until almost the end of chap. 9. Out of what, 13 chapters? Oh, and you aren't going to find yourself able to move more than five or six feet off the main path until chap 11, which is just so you can do some monster hunts which I don't care for much.
I mean, I like XIII as a game, but it has zero replayability, and the 'innovations' it has are something I don't ever want to see again, because they seriously detract from the game. It's kind of like that movie you go to and say to yourself 'that was really nice, but I hope that director goes blind and deaf and never makes another movie'. It works. Once.
Not sure, but it's a high number. The budget is around $44 million and it's just selling on one system, so there's a chance it could sell quite well and still lose money.
Not a guaranteed chance, though. We still have no idea how well it's doing overall.
I didn't say linearity is inherently bad, I said FFXIII's linearity is bad (heinously so). Games like Call of Duty and Half Life 2 handle their linearity incredibly well, by disguising the cracks and pushing you forward constantly. They handle it so well in fact that most (if not all) of the time you never even notice you're walking down a linear path the entire game.
FFXIII doesn't do this. Whilst walking down that path, you'll see something neat and the only thing stopping you from getting there is an invisible wall. And unlike HL2 and CoD, the path isn't made up of enclosed rooms that still give you a little freedom to move around, FFXIII's path is a straight line. Why they decided to include an in-game map, I really don't know.
All the complaints about FF13 miss the point, I think. FF13 is an extremely focused game. It only does a few things, but the things it does, it does extremely well. It's like the anti-sandbox game (which tend to do a ton of things, but are generally not very good at any one element). If you like what FF13 focuses on, you're going to love the game. If you don't, you're not.
FF13 is the very definition of a game where it's actually appropriate to tell the naysayers, "It's not for you." If the thought of a game focused almost entirely on fast paced menu-driven combat with an emphasis on switching between different classes to adapt to ever changing battle conditions fills your heart with joy, FF13 is likely to become one of your favorite games ever. If you're the kind of person who plays RPGs mostly for the story & exploration aspects, stay far, far away.
If anything, FF13 reminds me of a drastically better Lord of the Rings: The Third Age (which was another JRPG-style game focused almost entirely on combat). Since I was one of like 6 people who actually really liked that game, I'm in heaven playing FF13. The game never needed to get good for me. It started good, got great in chapter 3 and got awesome in chapter 7+.
Steam ID : rwb36, Twitter : Werezompire,
Ah, THANK YOU. I kept trying to remember what XIII reminded me of, and it was definetely The Third Age. It's pretty much that with a slightly better story line, better graphics and music, and a slightly better battle system. But really, that game was so bad. So very very bad.
I'm really worried that if they try and do the XIII thing again, they're just going to end up with a bunch of prettier Third Ages. XIII makes it, but just barely, and I could see them slip from 'niche game' into 'unplayably awful' on their next product so easily.
Final Fantasy X-2 did exactly that, except it wasn't dumbed down and it didn't take 15 hours to actually kick off.
mere_immortal: FFXII was from an entirely different team so of course they differ quite a bit. But FFX and FFXIII? I've noticed quite a few similarities between the two, some of which seem like direct swaps (for example, the blitzball sphere was replaced with the fireworks sphere).
Perhaps one day there will be a split between a sales failure and a profit failure.
Do not engage the Watermelons.
If you want this to be the rhythm game thread, I can make up something disparaging to say about Rock Band. Otherwise it could be a long slog,
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
I'd take the failings of FFXIII over FFX-2's failings any day.
Steam ID : rwb36, Twitter : Werezompire,