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First thing I noticed was the CoD: Black Ops bundle.
KOTICK!!! *shakes fist*
Finally, Nintendo has figured out a way to get on a money train similar to film colorization and remastering crap in HD.
Honestly? I'd pay for portable versions of these games as-is. The 3D is just a bonus. Hopefully they'll be DSiWare based though, unless they significantly add more features.
Nah. Nintendo has more than 2 beloved franchises, and they haven't forgotten about what has made them great in the past.
Must resist.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
True. Have they ever had any moments where they say something like "Special effects don't make a movie" and then 20 / 30 years later make their core franchise based on nothing BUT special effects? <_<
Actually there are DSi games.
DSi is as much a new generation as GBC or Wii were
I'd be more comfortable with that horrible, soul-crushing and simplistic analogy, to be honest. After all, Lucasfilm isn't where Lucas makes most of his money these days. Hell, I don't even think he makes a ton off of star wars residuals and products. No... go take a look at how many movies use ILM and Skywalker Sound, or are THX certified. THOSE are Lucas's legacy to filmmaking -- the production companies that make the films possible.
Agreed. Sony needs to shut the hell up, and learn the same lessons they learned from achievements/trophies, motion sensing, etc. Gimmicks sell.
And people are far more likely to buy a $200 3D portable than a $2000 3DTV.
I'm buying a 3DS only because it's 3D (I hated the DS) unless Sony steps up to the plate.
Agreed. The idea of Nintendo being in charge scares me
Did anyone here get hands-on time with it? I know that as a leftie it's gonna be a bitch using that and the stylus at the same time, but I'll deal with that as it comes.
(Also, yay for the 3DS having 4 more buttons than the DS!)
"All of the best games consist of hundreds of carefully designed and linked gimmicks" sounds like an insult, but it's not. It's more a statement about the meaning of the term gimmick.
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They also make it around hiring the worst possible actors and writers for the only role that SHOULD have been deepy explained but wasn't.
Don't forget that if we bash lucas films.
Unimpressive. Looks like it's geared for more bad reviews.
Much like Casual, Hardcore, "Kiddy" etc.
The Pipe Vault|Twitter|Steam|Backloggery|3DS:1332-7703-1083
So he's almost admitting that their R&D or new product development folks aren't as good as Nintendo's.
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No, there are distinct differences in target groups/audiences. Ignoring that is stupid and insulting to everyone.
Um, Nintendo has the same issues he complained of, according to hands on accounts.
Here's the catch, 3DTVs have the same issue. Not as big, but it's there. Google some reviews for Sony's 3DTV. Once you get outside it's FOV the effect stops working
Yes, but the terms used to describe these audiences can be insulting or plain wrong.
Especially "kiddy". Since many games that are for some people considerd "kiddy" are actually played by a large mature audience.
The same counts for hardcore. Is that the video gamer that is since 1982 into video games or the 16 year old MW2 pro?
(I know MW2 is a terrible example)
His criticism was that it didn't have "high precision" and some other unspecified problems. It seems pretty damn precise from accounts so far. Being limited to viewing it from a specific angle doesn't seem to actually be a problem on account of the fact that pretty much everyone looks at handhelds straight on plus not doing so already often makes it look crappy. Most of the hands on people didn't report it as being a problem.
They seem clear to me, they're often just used poorly.
A casual game, to me, is a game intended for a player who hasn't played a large number of games in the past. That player is untrained -- not experienced with a bunch of similar games, not already equipped to handle a bunch of complexity.
A hardcore game, to me, is a game intended for a player with experience in that game's genre. That genre will have a certain set of conventions established by previous, popular games, and it can be somewhat assumed that a player will have played one of these previous games and been trained by those games. That doesn't remove the designer's responsibility to add tutorials and training aids that help new players, but bringing new players up to that baseline skill level can be considered a "tutorial" job, outside of the main game.
You're right about kiddy -- it can die.
Another way to look at "gimmick" is as a single thing that seems new and attractive, but which you will eventually get bored of. How long will it take you to get bored? It doesn't say. Can the gimmick be combined with other things in new and interesting ways, creating hundreds of new "meta-gimmicks"? It doesn't say.
OK, now that I think about it, gimmick can die too.
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Really. Then I'd like everyone in this thread to define Casual and Hardcore.
Good luck finding one answer. The terms have lost any possible fucking meaning as people throw them out to describe random shit. Everyone has different perceptions of what the words mean to the point where its ridiculous to even try and define them, much less use them in a discussion when that definition isn't universally agreed upon.
The Pipe Vault|Twitter|Steam|Backloggery|3DS:1332-7703-1083
That's not a reasonable challenge. Most people on the forum can't be bothered.
There are other ways for you to prove your point. Isn't there a greater trained player vs untrained player distinction that everyone generally agrees upon? Even if there are finer semantic differences that people disagree about, I think there's a common thread that runs through most of these definitions that makes the terms still valuable tools for discussion.
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So is Madden casual?
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
I'm talking about casual game vs. hardcore game.
Casual/hardcore can still be meaningful adjectives even though you can apply them to players and get confusing results.
From what I've seen of Madden, and if I assume you're referring to the 360 or PS3 releases: I believe my definition holds and these are hardcore games because the gameplay assumes a trained, experienced player. There are tutorials and minigames that will try to help an inexperienced player gain some experience though.
I don't think player behavior can be so neatly categorized, because players aren't designed things. They can change behaviors unexpectedly.
I am less certain about these definitions, but I believe a casual player is a player who applies relatively less meaning to their gameplay. A hardcore player is a player who can derive greater meaning from their play, in terms of social interactions with other players, in person or on forums.
If you are driven to play games more often because of an external social motivator: gaming is part of your cultural identity, you find the gaming industry interesting, you interact with people in person or online and share information and stories about games and gameplay, then you are a hardcore player.
Yes this means there are hardcore players of casual games.
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Am I a member of the demographic that plays the game?
Meh, similar to the bitching about the size of the PsP until the DSxl came out.
BTW there better be some cock eating when the price point for the 3DS is above 200$.
It's essentially "game that assumes previous experience" versus "game that assumes no previous experience." But experience is a genre thing. More a FPS game assuming "player probably knows how to use both thumbsticks to look and move, and knows to use cover to avoid enemy fire." Less "player knows which end of the Wii remote faces the screen."
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The Pipe Vault|Twitter|Steam|Backloggery|3DS:1332-7703-1083
I think many people here think he's wrong.
We can continue the discussion without Zerokku's involvement.
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People don't like to use hardcore without irony because for many journalists hardcore = brown shooter + maybe another genre that particular journalists likes.
Anyway the Wii is the only hardcore console because Shiren has permadeath.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
When using those terms to describe gamers, I do it by "willingness to continue when frustrated." Hardcore gamers are willing to continue playing a game even after getting super frustrated with it, running into that wall over and over until they break through. Mainstream gamers are okay with a little frustration but will look for ways around that frustration if it gets too much (such as cheats and/or Nintendo's super guide system) and/or quit outright if it's just plain terrible, and casual gamers don't like frustration at all and will be more likely to stop playing if they reach a wall, they won't even seek out cheats or possibly even be patient enough for the in-game helping systems to trigger.
For using the terms to describe the games, it's basically which audience the game targets. FPS games (especially online-focused ones) generally target hardcore gamers because of the ease of getting killed without any counter. Mario games are mainstream because they sate the hardcore gamer's need for occassional frustration while not being frustrating enough to scare away everyone. Casual games are usually full of minigames because if anything is frustrating you can just never play it again and focus on the minigames you enjoy.
Otomedius is pretty much literally "Gal Gradius." (Otome + Gradius) So one one hand, ridiculous Gainaxing and whatnot. On the other hand . . . Gradius! I fondly remember Gradius!
In Gradius 3 for SNES I believe your ship explodes if you enter the Konami code, unless you use L and R bumpers for left and right. I wonder what the ships in Otomedius do?
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