Also, to reference a few posts a couple of pages back, every time I see people talking about how much more they love their portables over their consoles I think they're insane. I mean, the "my kids/wife always use the TV" argument makes perfect sense to me, but otherwise.... if there were Wii ports of the Final Fantasy, Pokemon and Fire Emblem games on the DS I never would have gotten a DS.
The only time I can be bothered to use my DS or PSP (outside of playing a system exclusive game on it) is the once or twice a year I'm travelling. The tiny-ness of the systems tend to give me carpal and headaches .
Valleo on
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Brainiac 8Don't call me Shirley...Registered Userregular
edited June 2011
Good news everybody! The real Pachter was found and is quite safe.
He continued, "The most impactful 'reveal' at the show was the Wii U, which, in our opinion, is arriving two years too late. Depending on pricing, the system will be either a phenomenal success or a phenomenal failure, as competitive bundles for Xbox 360 with Kinect and PS3 with Move are likely to be priced below $300 by the time the Wii U launches."
Microsoft's E3 showing, Pachter noted, "Microsoft appears to us to be making several sound business decisions that will position its console with Kinect as the media center in the living room. While the company’s game lineup was not particularly surprising (only Halo 4 and a handful of Kinect games were “reveals”), its integration of Bing search into Kinect was perhaps the most impactful announcement of the show."
Really, I would even say GTA4's main story problems had to do with the seriousness of the main plot and the jokes of the world. GTA has always been an over-the-top catricature of the real world and I would be more surprised if it wasn't that way.
GTA4's main problem is that their is a big disconnect between what your character says and what he does. And this makes it so you can't take the main story seriously.
Yep. I've said it before, but a grand total of five seconds elapses between Niko whining about wanting to escape his rough past and Niko cheerfully accepting the chance to be a random thug.
Weirdly enough, Red Dead Redemption has a MUCH better story. John Marston is a much more consistent (not to mention likeable) character in the narrative, and what little satire that's in there is reasonably well done.
It's not perfect (after a big buildup the showdown with Bill is an anticlimax, and Marston has to be an errand boy too much to serve the mission structure, but at least he gripes about it entertainingly), but it does a good job of telling an overall narrative, and manages to set up one hell of a long, moving and satisfying ending.
So maybe if Rockstar stopped trying so hard to make their next GTA game "feel" like GTA and just make a good game, they've got the potential to do better.
cloudeagle on
Switch: 3947-4890-9293
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Warlock82Never pet a burning dogRegistered Userregular
edited June 2011
its integration of Bing search into Kinect was perhaps the most impactful announcement of the show."
its integration of Bing search into Kinect was perhaps the most impactful announcement of the show."
WTF? That's stupid, even for Pachter.
It might be a stealth troll. Maybe?
Seriously the Bing thing was one of the worst parts of E3. Microsoft still trying desperately to avoid simply putting a web browser on the console by incorporating browser-like capabilities. Is there even any reasoning behind this stubborn insistence?
Meanwhile we've been able to search Bing and Google and Yahoo and Ask Jeeves and Altavista on PS3, Wii, PSP, and DS for ages now.
Wait, if Live becomes an operable service for Windows, are they gonna can Games for Windows Live?
Why would they? What we've heard so far indicate that it's the various media features of Xbox Live that's going to be in Windows 8 and nothing to do with gaming.
No, supposedly the new Live replaces the current Games for Windows Live.
I must have missed that. Where can I get more details? They've completely changed the GFWL interface at least once before, so I guess it could be the case. I really wish they would make an interface for it that isn't slow as shit. And has proper chat instead of the silly Xbox messaging system.
What I'm wondering is, are Microsoft going to not include it in European copies of Windows 8 or are they going to wait until the EU gets pissed off at them. Again.
For 7 they have a N versions that don't include Windows Media Player, but it is in the regular versions sold in most places. I'd imagine they'd repeat that and just have another thing not found in the Make EU Happy versions.
Good news everybody! The real Pachter was found and is quite safe.
He continued, "The most impactful 'reveal' at the show was the Wii U, which, in our opinion, is arriving two years too late. Depending on pricing, the system will be either a phenomenal success or a phenomenal failure, as competitive bundles for Xbox 360 with Kinect and PS3 with Move are likely to be priced below $300 by the time the Wii U launches."
Way to go out on a limb there Prachter. Anything other than mediocre and you win!
And you forget the all important part. It isn't just about price. It is about whether it is just two PS3's taped together or if it is a new leap.
It's not just funny, it makes some awesome points about the current status of the vidja game market. Everybody needs to read it, even if they disagree with it.
Also, it still boggles my mind that Cracked went from being a shittier version of Mad to one of the most interesting comedy sites out there. Usually top (insert number here) lists annoy me, but I can't stop reading the ones at Cracked.
The bing thing seems kind of useful for finding content but that's more to do with how universally annoying (to varying degrees) all the console storefronts are to navigate than Bing being particularly good itself.
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DragkoniasThat Guy Who Does StuffYou Know, There. Registered Userregular
edited June 2011
I read the article.
It's pretty much full of stuff that people complain about every generation because they have short attention spans/nothing to write about.
It's pretty much full of stuff that people complain about every generation because they have short attention spans/nothing to write about.
Eh, I think there's a reason people are complaining about that sort of thing mesself. Admittedly it's written from a gamer's POV rather than the industry, since (fer instance) Microsoft stands to earn a fuckton of money from Halo 4. But honestly, there wasn't a hell of a lot genuinely new and interesting at E3 this year.
Potty-mouthed shooter Duke Nukem Forever has landed first place in the UK charts.
It knocked fellow Take-Two title L.A. Noire down to second, after a three week reign on top.
InFamous 2, another big release last week, entered in fourth - despite the game being PS3 only.
New shooty Martian adventure Red Faction also took off, managing a respectable eighth place.
With three new entries, regular chart faces such as Lego Pirates shuffled down to fifth, while DiRT 3 dug in to sixth and Black Ops slipped to ninth. Portal 2 made tenth.
The only entry to climb the top ten was Zumba Fitness, still selling like gangbusters and now back up to third. Blame Wii gamers - 84 per cent of sales are on Nintendo's machine, with 14 per cent on Xbox 360 and two per cent on PS3.
So I just looked at the list of games coming out this month. I'd say Duke has a decent shot at being on top in the NPDs. I bet that'll make 2K feel a lot better.
It's pretty much full of stuff that people complain about every generation because they have short attention spans/nothing to write about.
Eh, I think there's a reason people are complaining about that sort of thing mesself. Admittedly it's written from a gamer's POV rather than the industry, since (fer instance) Microsoft stands to earn a fuckton of money from Halo 4. But honestly, there wasn't a hell of a lot genuinely new and interesting at E3 this year.
Oh no, don't get me wrong, there is some truth to the stuff being said. I just wish that people wouldn't parade it around like it is actually something new being said.
@Valleo: And did you actually take the rest of the article into consideration or did you just want to make a snappy comeback?
That being said...even all the crap you listed has still been complained about years ago.
Why does everyone think Gears of War involves space marines and aliens?
...it does?
The COG soldiers never leave their planet, and the locust are pretty much mole men (from what we know). So, no it doesn't.
Well, "space marine" has become the knee-jerk phrase covering any sci-fi military-style shooter whether they're literally marines or not. And aliens tend to involve big slobbery monsters, which kinda covers that even if they're literally from earth.
You know that Penny Arcade comic where some book tries to call dragons "dragulates" or some shit, even though they're very obviously dragons? I can't find it. At any rate, it's like that. Same thing, different name.
Why does everyone think Gears of War involves space marines and aliens?
...it does?
The Gears aren't space marines (hell, space doesn't play any role in the entire storyline) they're essentially army soldiers. The Locust are either a native subterranean species, or an ancient mutant offshoot of humanity. (Pending plot revelations in the next game)
EDIT:
Well, "space marine" has become the knee-jerk phrase covering any sci-fi military-style shooter whether they're literally marines or not. And aliens tend to involve big slobbery monsters, which kinda covers that even if they're literally from earth.
So, basically, words mean whatever you want them to mean. :P
They're still alien. They're alien to the surface.
Sigtyr on
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Warlock82Never pet a burning dogRegistered Userregular
edited June 2011
Clearly people are confusing it with that Warhammer 40k game that stole all of its ideas from Gears of War! I mean, only Gears of War could come up with the idea of Marines with bulky shoulderpads!
Well, "space marine" has become the knee-jerk phrase covering any sci-fi military-style shooter whether they're literally marines or not. And aliens tend to involve big slobbery monsters, which kinda covers that even if they're literally from earth.
So, basically, words mean whatever you want them to mean. :P
Well, that's pretty much the definition of the meme accepted by the Internet at large. Hell, Bayonetta made a "space marine" joke a couple years ago, even though there's only been, what, two games with literal space marines? So it's not just me.
You know that Penny Arcade comic where some book tries to call dragons "dragulates" or some shit, even though they're very obviously dragons? I can't find it. At any rate, it's like that. Same thing, different name.
You know, for all the complaining about unoriginality in games, people sure are quick to shoehorn things into incredibly narrow idea-sets. I mean, if you're just going to do stuff like lump anything not human into "aliens" then that really only leaves three different kinds of enemies you can ever use in a game: humans, aliens and mechanical things.
You know, for all the complaining about unoriginality in games, people sure are quick to shoehorn things into incredibly narrow idea-sets. I mean, if you're just going to do stuff like lump anything not human into "aliens" then that really only leaves three different kinds of enemies you can ever use in a game: humans, aliens and mechanical things.
Also, Zombies.
Gotta have zombies in there somewhere.
Skull2185 on
Everyone has a price. Throw enough gold around and someone will risk disintegration.
You know, for all the complaining about unoriginality in games, people sure are quick to shoehorn things into incredibly narrow idea-sets. I mean, if you're just going to do stuff like lump anything not human into "aliens" then that really only leaves three different kinds of enemies you can ever use in a game: humans, aliens and mechanical things.
Also, Zombies.
Gotta have zombies in there somewhere.
Zombies aren't human and aren't robots so therefore fall under the "aliens" category. Aliens category might be better labeled as "monsters" but I'm staying the course!
Undead Scottsman on
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DragkoniasThat Guy Who Does StuffYou Know, There. Registered Userregular
edited June 2011
Naw, zombies are their own category since they were once humans.
Unless they're weren't human, then they're alien zombies.
Unless they weren't human or alien, but like dogs. Then they're zombies again.
You know, for all the complaining about unoriginality in games, people sure are quick to shoehorn things into incredibly narrow idea-sets. I mean, if you're just going to lump anything not human into "aliens" then that really only leaves three different kinds of enemies you can use in a game: humans, aliens and mechanical things.
True, but keep in mind that I know extremely little about Gears of War, and I automatically assumed that the locusts are aliens.
There's really nothing wrong with shooting up aliens, but let's be honest, functionally there's very little different about the locust and any other sci-fi shooter alien other than their back story.
You know, I really do wonder whether Warhammer's "look" will work against it, considering WoW pretty much made their look their own and WoW is much, much better well-known to the the market as a whole than Warhammer. I have to stop myself from thinking "goddamn, that looks like WoW in space" when I see screenshots for Space Marine, and I know better.
Edit: Ah, danke Sporky. Searches for "Penny Arcade dragons" kept pulling up Dragon Age stuff.
I mean, if I make a game about Space Marines who travel to a science facility in Minnesota on their mechanical walkers powered by martian brains to discover why the facility went dark, and they find a chunk of zombie flesh hanging off of a chain link fence, which they scan with their space wrist DNA scanners, wouldn't that return a verdict of "Human"?
Skull2185 on
Everyone has a price. Throw enough gold around and someone will risk disintegration.
You know, for all the complaining about unoriginality in games, people sure are quick to shoehorn things into incredibly narrow idea-sets. I mean, if you're just going to lump anything not human into "aliens" then that really only leaves three different kinds of enemies you can use in a game: humans, aliens and mechanical things.
True, but keep in mind that I know extremely little about Gears of War, and I automatically assumed that the locusts are aliens.
There's really nothing wrong with shooting up aliens, but let's be honest, functionally there's very little different about the locust and any other sci-fi shooter alien other than their back story.
Functionally, there's very little potentially different from any enemy in any video game, aside from backstory (and appearance I guess.). You can just easily make a game with robotic or monstrous opponents that plays exactly like Modern Warfare. It's all ultimately in the presentation. Which is why it weirds me out a little when a company actually tries to do something a little different than "aliens spaceships come down and invade." and still gets lumped in with the things they're trying to be different from. Makes me wonder why they should bother.
I mean, if I make a game about Space Marines who travel to a science facility in Minnesota on their mechanical walkers powered by martian brains to discover why the facility went dark, and they find a chunk of zombie flesh hanging off of a chain link fence, which they scan with their space wrist DNA scanners, wouldn't that return a verdict of "Human"?
Depends on the zombie. RE zombies involve a mutating virus, so depending on your definition of human, they could be considered not human.
Undead Scottsman on
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DragkoniasThat Guy Who Does StuffYou Know, There. Registered Userregular
edited June 2011
Honestly, my only really problem with the whole originality thing is that most of the time people don't know originality until they see it(and even then it was probably stolen from someone else).
That being said, I'm generally more interested in evolution than originality. I feel like a lot of genres and genre conventions still have a like of room to grow.
First I don't agree with his premise that the art of 2010's will be known as video games. He skips the 90's and the 00's. Lets try not to pigeon hole the next decade as being forever known as the decade of video games as art.
Second, we are nearing the end of a generation. So yes, therefore we are going to have a lot of sequels. See, you work at the beginning of a generation to find new IPs and then you exploit them if they succeed.
And, his comments about being on a verge of creative bankruptcy ignores every game except for AAA titles. Let us just pretend the whole small studio download games don't exist. If you want creativity then pay attention to D.I.C.E and pretend E3 doesn't exist. Because E3 is all about getting the major press outlets to look at your AAA titles and new hardware.
That hasn't made sense for a lot of years now. The future is that what we're now calling video games will cease to be a thing, and will break up into several different art forms, each with their own medium. We'll have true "games" where we perform simple tasks to kill a few minutes or get a high score (Angry Birds, etc) that will cost a dollar or two. We'll have interactive stories that are less about "winning" and "losing" and more about relating to characters and following drama (LA Noire, Heavy Rain) and they will not be called games, because it never made sense to call them that.
I'm rolling my eyes and putting my hand up to my head like a gun after reading his #1 reason.
And one final thing. The consumer dictates what happens in the market. If Activision destroys itself by trying to push the monthly charge thing too far with CoD then other companies will back off.
It's not just funny, it makes some awesome points about the current status of the vidja game market. Everybody needs to read it, even if they disagree with it.
Also, it still boggles my mind that Cracked went from being a shittier version of Mad to one of the most interesting comedy sites out there. Usually top (insert number here) lists annoy me, but I can't stop reading the ones at Cracked.
I love Cracked to bits. Still got some skippable articles on there, but they've got some great writers there (I can run off a list, I am that sad) whose stuff quite often has a valid point at its centre. Or just some damned good jokes.
Posts
Also, to reference a few posts a couple of pages back, every time I see people talking about how much more they love their portables over their consoles I think they're insane. I mean, the "my kids/wife always use the TV" argument makes perfect sense to me, but otherwise.... if there were Wii ports of the Final Fantasy, Pokemon and Fire Emblem games on the DS I never would have gotten a DS.
The only time I can be bothered to use my DS or PSP (outside of playing a system exclusive game on it) is the once or twice a year I'm travelling. The tiny-ness of the systems tend to give me carpal and headaches
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/35177/Pachter_Wii_U_Two_Years_Too_Late_Has_Dumbest_Name_Ever.php
Nintendo Network ID - Brainiac_8
PSN - Brainiac_8
Steam - http://steamcommunity.com/id/BRAINIAC8/
Add me!
Yep. I've said it before, but a grand total of five seconds elapses between Niko whining about wanting to escape his rough past and Niko cheerfully accepting the chance to be a random thug.
Weirdly enough, Red Dead Redemption has a MUCH better story. John Marston is a much more consistent (not to mention likeable) character in the narrative, and what little satire that's in there is reasonably well done.
It's not perfect (after a big buildup the showdown with Bill is an anticlimax, and Marston has to be an errand boy too much to serve the mission structure, but at least he gripes about it entertainingly), but it does a good job of telling an overall narrative, and manages to set up one hell of a long, moving and satisfying ending.
So maybe if Rockstar stopped trying so hard to make their next GTA game "feel" like GTA and just make a good game, they've got the potential to do better.
WTF? That's stupid, even for Pachter.
o_O o_O o_O
Edit: High-five, Warlock.
It might be a stealth troll. Maybe?
Seriously the Bing thing was one of the worst parts of E3. Microsoft still trying desperately to avoid simply putting a web browser on the console by incorporating browser-like capabilities. Is there even any reasoning behind this stubborn insistence?
Meanwhile we've been able to search Bing and Google and Yahoo and Ask Jeeves and Altavista on PS3, Wii, PSP, and DS for ages now.
I must have missed that. Where can I get more details? They've completely changed the GFWL interface at least once before, so I guess it could be the case. I really wish they would make an interface for it that isn't slow as shit. And has proper chat instead of the silly Xbox messaging system.
For 7 they have a N versions that don't include Windows Media Player, but it is in the regular versions sold in most places. I'd imagine they'd repeat that and just have another thing not found in the Make EU Happy versions.
Way to go out on a limb there Prachter. Anything other than mediocre and you win!
And you forget the all important part. It isn't just about price. It is about whether it is just two PS3's taped together or if it is a new leap.
It's not just funny, it makes some awesome points about the current status of the vidja game market. Everybody needs to read it, even if they disagree with it.
Also, it still boggles my mind that Cracked went from being a shittier version of Mad to one of the most interesting comedy sites out there. Usually top (insert number here) lists annoy me, but I can't stop reading the ones at Cracked.
It's pretty much full of stuff that people complain about every generation because they have short attention spans/nothing to write about.
Eh, I think there's a reason people are complaining about that sort of thing mesself. Admittedly it's written from a gamer's POV rather than the industry, since (fer instance) Microsoft stands to earn a fuckton of money from Halo 4. But honestly, there wasn't a hell of a lot genuinely new and interesting at E3 this year.
So I just looked at the list of games coming out this month. I'd say Duke has a decent shot at being on top in the NPDs. I bet that'll make 2K feel a lot better.
Yeah, people complain about motion controls, Wii, Kinect, dollar app games and the incredible realism in video games every generation don't they?
Did you read it past the FPS screens?
Oh no, don't get me wrong, there is some truth to the stuff being said. I just wish that people wouldn't parade it around like it is actually something new being said.
@Valleo: And did you actually take the rest of the article into consideration or did you just want to make a snappy comeback?
That being said...even all the crap you listed has still been complained about years ago.
So eh.
Why does everyone think Gears of War involves space marines and aliens?
...it does?
But I've never seen anyone go into space.
The COG soldiers never leave their planet, and the locust are pretty much mole men (from what we know). So, no it doesn't.
Well, "space marine" has become the knee-jerk phrase covering any sci-fi military-style shooter whether they're literally marines or not. And aliens tend to involve big slobbery monsters, which kinda covers that even if they're literally from earth.
You know that Penny Arcade comic where some book tries to call dragons "dragulates" or some shit, even though they're very obviously dragons? I can't find it. At any rate, it's like that. Same thing, different name.
The Gears aren't space marines (hell, space doesn't play any role in the entire storyline) they're essentially army soldiers. The Locust are either a native subterranean species, or an ancient mutant offshoot of humanity. (Pending plot revelations in the next game)
EDIT: So, basically, words mean whatever you want them to mean. :P
Trollface.jpg
Well, that's pretty much the definition of the meme accepted by the Internet at large. Hell, Bayonetta made a "space marine" joke a couple years ago, even though there's only been, what, two games with literal space marines? So it's not just me.
http://www.pipefour.com/pa/
Also, Zombies.
Gotta have zombies in there somewhere.
Zombies aren't human and aren't robots so therefore fall under the "aliens" category. Aliens category might be better labeled as "monsters" but I'm staying the course!
Unless they're weren't human, then they're alien zombies.
Unless they weren't human or alien, but like dogs. Then they're zombies again.
True, but keep in mind that I know extremely little about Gears of War, and I automatically assumed that the locusts are aliens.
There's really nothing wrong with shooting up aliens, but let's be honest, functionally there's very little different about the locust and any other sci-fi shooter alien other than their back story.
You know, I really do wonder whether Warhammer's "look" will work against it, considering WoW pretty much made their look their own and WoW is much, much better well-known to the the market as a whole than Warhammer. I have to stop myself from thinking "goddamn, that looks like WoW in space" when I see screenshots for Space Marine, and I know better.
Edit: Ah, danke Sporky. Searches for "Penny Arcade dragons" kept pulling up Dragon Age stuff.
I mean, if I make a game about Space Marines who travel to a science facility in Minnesota on their mechanical walkers powered by martian brains to discover why the facility went dark, and they find a chunk of zombie flesh hanging off of a chain link fence, which they scan with their space wrist DNA scanners, wouldn't that return a verdict of "Human"?
Functionally, there's very little potentially different from any enemy in any video game, aside from backstory (and appearance I guess.). You can just easily make a game with robotic or monstrous opponents that plays exactly like Modern Warfare. It's all ultimately in the presentation. Which is why it weirds me out a little when a company actually tries to do something a little different than "aliens spaceships come down and invade." and still gets lumped in with the things they're trying to be different from. Makes me wonder why they should bother.
Just a pet peeve of mine.
Depends on the zombie. RE zombies involve a mutating virus, so depending on your definition of human, they could be considered not human.
That being said, I'm generally more interested in evolution than originality. I feel like a lot of genres and genre conventions still have a like of room to grow.
Second, we are nearing the end of a generation. So yes, therefore we are going to have a lot of sequels. See, you work at the beginning of a generation to find new IPs and then you exploit them if they succeed.
And, his comments about being on a verge of creative bankruptcy ignores every game except for AAA titles. Let us just pretend the whole small studio download games don't exist. If you want creativity then pay attention to D.I.C.E and pretend E3 doesn't exist. Because E3 is all about getting the major press outlets to look at your AAA titles and new hardware.
I'm rolling my eyes and putting my hand up to my head like a gun after reading his #1 reason.
And one final thing. The consumer dictates what happens in the market. If Activision destroys itself by trying to push the monthly charge thing too far with CoD then other companies will back off.
I love Cracked to bits. Still got some skippable articles on there, but they've got some great writers there (I can run off a list, I am that sad) whose stuff quite often has a valid point at its centre. Or just some damned good jokes.
For example: Darksiders
That being said I do like when publishers have the balls to try out new IPs that bring something new to the table.
But I would say that has more to do with the situation of the economy than anything.
Edit: And like AZ said...end of the console cycle is nearing.
Come to think of it, we got very little Move-related stuff. And what little we did got overshadowed by Vita.