Edit: Huh, Conker N64 apparently sold a million. That's more than I would have guessed for a raunch-fest released at the end of the largely family-oriented system's life.
I actually think the late in life and family orientated thing helped each other out. Bunch of kids who got the N64 when they were young were in the older rebellious/whatever stage to find Conker perfectly appealing to them. It probably helped that it didn't really look like a raunch-fest to a disinterested parental glance.
I'm more interested in the interested parental glances.
I can only imagine all of the encounters that happened over this Game, with some kid playing his N64 in on the living room TV while Mom and Dad are there watching him fire it up for the first time. God I wish I could see some of those events.
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AthenorBattle Hardened OptimistThe Skies of HiigaraRegistered Userregular
I bought Conker's BFD with my own money. To this day I regret trading it in.
And yeah, I remember it being notable as being one of the very few, if not the only, Nintendo 1st/2nd party games that sold over a million that didn't get a Player's Choice release. Granted it hit that status after the Gamecube launched, but it is still a bummer.
Question about the wiiU talk, sorry if it's been asked or answered, didn't see it. So supposedly someone is complaining that the CPU is slow. Then they go into clock speeds. Is this a case like with the new pc CPU's where clock speed isn't always an indicator of performance, especially comparing say a 2.3 ghz processor from today to a 3.5 GHz from 6 years ago?
It's definitely more efficient per cycle then the powerpc on say a 360, but it also seems to either have less cores, or be significantly slower clock speed. so the overall power of the chip is less. the WiiU has a better gpu and more ram, but a slower cpu. So it should be able to put out really nice visuals, but things like physics or lots of npcs on the screen at once will cause problems. It will just takes time for devs to figure out how to best use the WiiU's resources, and makes porting from other platforms harder.
Yeah, the Wii U is an odd case where it's really hard to judge how it compares to the 360 & PS3 as far as raw power goes since you have stuff like the Wii U having more RAM than the other system but the RAM it has is slower. And then you have stuff like the gamepad that don't really have equivalents on the other systems. Most of the current Wii U games being ports doesn't help either - it's hard to judge a system's true power on games that weren't made specifically for it. ZombiU doesn't look as good as the best looking 360 & PS3 games but it definitely looks better than the PS3 & 360 launch titles so I'm guessing that once developers start to gain experience with the system we'll see more impressive stuff on the Wii U than you see on the older systems but who knows?
Psychologists once believed that only bigoted people used stereotypes. Now the study of unconscious bias is revealing the unsettling truth: We all use stereotypes, all the time, without knowing it. We have met the enemy of equality, and the enemy is us.
Thought = stereotypes.
The important point to take away is "changing the wording does not change the problem". We must change the content of our unconscious automatic thoughts via conscious evaluation. Think of it like programming yourself.
Calling something a habit implies uncontrollability, which is false. It is very much possible to change your underlying thoughts. In their entirety. It's merely hard, which is not the same as impossible and the only appropriate answer is "well I better make a start then".
That article really shows a lot of the problems with psychology. So many vague and poorly defined terms. So many unsupported assumptions.
I think there needs to be a recognition of the broader class of behavior that we define as racism or sexism. All this talk of unconscious processes and underlying beliefs don't really mean anything unless you deal with the actual function of these behaviors. If you have strong prejudices against certain types of video games or certain types of foods, no one would care. If you played one RTS and didn't like it, and then shunned all RTS games, no one would give a crap. Racism and sexism are part of a much larger set of behaviors that we use exhibit the time. They are not special or abnormal in and of themselves, they are treated as abnormal because they are directed towards other people instead of towards animals or inanimate objects.
I will defend Other M's Samus even if she was a riff over the emotionally withdrawn woman, scarred by tragedy, and not the supreme player insertable badass touted up by Retro Studios
Look back carefully de-emphasizing (as Sakamoto noted) the prime cycle. Samus was more a survivor than superwarrior, Even the first game didn't end "happily ever after." No princess rescued. No kingdomed saved. You barely made it out after killing the main boss. THIS is the only element that lends maturity to the metroid franchise above and beyond other Nintendo properties. Its a world that feels born out of victories and losses, not a fairytale eternally retold.
I am not saying it was executed well. Of the four plot threads only one wasn't dropped in the narrative juggling act. But in Other M we have Samus reminiscing about her days as space marine, regretting her solo career or questioning it, repulsed by being used by an alien, confused by a scifi ethical dilemma, distrustful of a witness and lots of things. Its the little things that add up to a female character that feels more defined by her internal attributes than external things. I mean her monologue after finding the girl the second time. You rarely have women say that on TV unless its a womens issue, this was more a broad considerations of the implications of mad science gone awry. Most of the time people seemed pissed more that the suit vanished and reappeared now (that makes her a magical girl some sneer) that she had feelings of regret and grief and feared the monster she's fought and hunted constantly after it betrayed her trust and ate her parents in front of her only to return again able to threaten her (now she's all weak) and of course breaking metroid fan taboo #2, established in 1997 to deal with all the shitty fanfiction that made her all girly, actually giving a shit about the baby metroid (she's nothing more than a sack of maternal instincts now, ignore that choogle disgusted her and even the term The Baby invites a sense of disassociation as if she has complex feelings she's just working through that yes are in the realm of maternal relationships... for an alien monster that loved her unconditionally and sacrificed its life to save her and altered and is a part of her now that she was initially sent to blindly killed because it was naturally dangerous but especially due to war on Drug'esque order to prevent further exploitation by the Space Pirates...but she shouldn't think about that because feelings aren't badass)
Even the career regret is about not having people in her life and after accomplishing her raison d'etre wondering what's next or the price it cost her to pursue the life she lead and what purpose it fulfilled. Ya know Bale's batman actually QUIT being batman, the original movie one threatened to like twice. Spiderman as well. But not Samus and certainly not because she seriously has no clue how to live alone forever.
Now some MIGHT say the second half of other m also in the narrative confirms Samus's choices, validates her independence, actions, indicates she's not at fault, and isn't alone and those who have gone before still reside in her to give her strength and her actual resolve is to save others even when the rules say she shouldn't try. The larger than life hero she holds in esteeem sacrifices himself for her belieiving in her power. That she's the one to hold to that last sliver of hope and try the best to save everyone. Even if she fails she'll keep on ahead.
I think post Mass Effedt losing some of its fad tinted luster (it was practically example 1 for the perfection of Bioware and Western gaming and hardcore gaming done right post MEII)that going back to Other M and not expecting the second coming of Femmeshep and realize its NOT a western shooter/action/rpg you can totally see where it fails but in the context of what its doing not some wildly overthetop expectations of "The Huntress" That was the legend. This was the actual woman. Not a chosen space changeling altered by sage bird space angels and granted by prophecy to dispel the sapient evil energy of the universe. but an ex-marine who went PMC for a self-righteous quest, achieved it, and now reflecting on the consequences of her actions in a universe built to attack and direct her, not set op to make her look awesome.
I still believe M:OM will be the equivalent of Zelda's Windwaker, vindicated by history. Or at least Uncharted 1
I'm sick of people implying that everyone who didn't like Other M didn't want Samus to be anything but an emotionless super-warrior. I could easily name, off the top of my head, at least half a dozen interesting points of emotional vulnerability that Samus could easily be said to have based on material throughout the history of the series. I was excited about Other M specifically because I wanted to see that stuff. I don't want to go into too much specific detail here, because this is the industry thread and not the Other M thread, but the problem with Other M in the "women in videogames" discussion is twofold:
1) Samus's emotional vulnerabilities as portrayed in Other M are so intense that they leave her incapable of functioning as a human being in even the most basic tasks. Other M Samus would literally rather burn to death than change her clothes without Adam's permission. She would sooner let a friend die right in front of her than spring to action and rescue him, because oh no, what if Adam gets mad at her for using a completely harmless piece of equipment when her daddy hadn't told her to yet? It's completely insulting, not just for Samus in particular, but for a person in general.
2) Samus's points of emotional vulnerability are largely pulled out of thin air for Other M when other, far more interesting points of emotional vulnerability already existed in the canon. She never shuts up about her maternal obligations for "the baby", but doesn't have a single thought to spare for every other member of the Metroid species--perfectly innocent animals which never committed any sin except being dangerous when abused by others--which she personally massacred with her own two hands. She pines constantly over Adam as her father figure, but never thinks about her actual family who raised her from childhood. I'm pretty sure the word "Chozo" doesn't appear even once in the script. There isn't even any explanation of why she likes Adam; he was only mentioned in one other game (and not in much detail) and he treats her like dirt in basically every scene, including the flashback which is supposed to set up their current relationship. And it's always about Adam, not the Galactic Federation in general--an organization in whose name she's spilled the blood of entire worlds, but which is rapidly proving itself to be barely better than the Space Pirates in its underlying motivations.
At the end of the day Other M has jack-all to do with "Samus Aran, the person who went through events X, Y, and Z", and everything to do with "how Sakamoto thinks A Woman would act in this situation". She obsesses over The Baby because she's a women and women ought to be maternal. She obsesses over Adam because she's a women and women are naturally submissive in their relationships. Where's the story where Samus is grappling with the conflict between the ideal of protecting all life in the galaxy and the reality that the only practical way for her to serve the greater good seems to be to act as the Federation's butcher? Where's the story where she deals with the fact where the one time she did spare a life instead of ending it--the metroid hatchling--a bunch of innocent people died as a direct result and everything she worked for was almost undone? Where's the story where she deals with the fact that the Federation seems to be perfectly willing to betray all those ideals that she sacrificed so much for? These are interesting emotional stories! They were interesting when I saw them in the games that were already made, and they'd be even more interesting in a game that was willing to talk about them out loud. Sakamoto had no interest in making that game; he never saw Samus as anything more interesting than A Woman With a Gun and interpreted that archetype through the most narrow cultural lens possible. He has said out loud in interviews that he never thought about or cared about the story in Metroid until he made this game.
The idea that there exists nothing in between Samus in Other M (whose so-called "emotional depth" involves her acting extremely short-sighted and petty, and which never extends beyond what broad cultural stereotypes would define as "women issues" like maternity and submissive relationships even though more interesting issues were already well-established in past narratives) and Samus as a mindless killing machine is ridiculous, and yet I've never read a single defense of the game that didn't hinge 100% on that point. What does that say about how the public feels about women in video games?
I feel I should probably step in here and say it would REALLY be in our best interests to move on at this point, lest we wake sleeping dragons.
So, Xbox 3 in revealed E2 2013 and released fall of that year: Who else agrees with that prediction and why or why not.
I honestly don't think Microsoft can wait that long. I'm expecting a GDC unveil, or possibly some shindig of their own. Wild, crazy outlier is getting a CES unveil.
Well, the 360 was both revealed and released on the same year. (Revealed on a TV special a few days before E3)
Hmm.. Anyone remember when the 360 was revealed and there was that ARG that linked to a website called OurColony or whatever that had a J. Allard talking about the 360?
Man, I miss Allard. The Xbox doesn't really have a good faceman anymore.
Well, the 360 was both revealed and released on the same year. (Revealed on a TV special a few days before E3)
Hmm.. Anyone remember when the 360 was revealed and there was that ARG that linked to a website called OurColony or whatever that had a J. Allard talking about the 360?
Man, I miss Allard. The Xbox doesn't really have a good faceman anymore.
Larry Hyrb/Major Nelson keeps puttering along, but for whatever reason his profile's been kinda low.
Well, the 360 was both revealed and released on the same year. (Revealed on a TV special a few days before E3)
Hmm.. Anyone remember when the 360 was revealed and there was that ARG that linked to a website called OurColony or whatever that had a J. Allard talking about the 360?
Man, I miss Allard. The Xbox doesn't really have a good faceman anymore.
Larry Hyrb/Major Nelson keeps puttering along, but for whatever reason his profile's been kinda low.
Well, he's just the Xbox Live guy. He doesn't have anything to do with the day to day operations/PR for Microsoft.
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Well, the 360 was both revealed and released on the same year. (Revealed on a TV special a few days before E3)
Hmm.. Anyone remember when the 360 was revealed and there was that ARG that linked to a website called OurColony or whatever that had a J. Allard talking about the 360?
Man, I miss Allard. The Xbox doesn't really have a good faceman anymore.
Larry Hyrb/Major Nelson keeps puttering along, but for whatever reason his profile's been kinda low.
Well, he's just the Xbox Live guy. He doesn't have anything to do with the day to day operations/PR for Microsoft.
And for the most part, everybody else is just an actor they hired. MS doesn't really have that 'Reggie' type character. Come to that, neither did SONY.
It'll be kinda sad if the console arc for the Wii U goes
Ports of Current Gen -> Downgraded Ports of Next Gen
Its unfortunate that Nintendo is stuck in this weird in between where they are relying on their peripherals to distinguish them from the pack, but I don't think many companies have the time or money to implement them in a unique way. Wii certainly had the largest console share of last gen, but very few publishers wanted to take a shot at making something unique for the system.
Although my guess is that the 'next-gen' consoles almost certainly won't be as powerful as people expect them to be. I'd expect mostly: integrating things like the kinect more, and just enough under the hood to get many AAA games safely into the 60fps native 720p range.
It might be because they don't have quite the same first party output so there aren't that same amount of creditable devs and internal staff to pull from that Sony and Microsoft don't get that same amount of iconic figureheads.
Nintendo's kind of charging right along, building up that "Figurehead" status for quite a few of their internal staff. Their EU department head, Satoru Shibata, and Bill Trinen are both kind of getting that "Reggie" treatment at the moment. Now, not all that many people outside some very specific internet circles are probably going to care, but then again the same could probably be said for Reggie as well, at least to some extent.
Alright and in this next scene all the animals have AIDS.
I got a little excited when I saw your ship.
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AthenorBattle Hardened OptimistThe Skies of HiigaraRegistered Userregular
Wii isn't "stuck" in the position of pushing periphreals. They chose that path, predicting that the race to the top of the heap in terms of graphics was a losing battle that would cause them to go bankrupt. Looking at the corpses littering the industry over the last 2 years, it was a good prediction; now we'll just see if they can pull it off a 3rd time.
As for the 3rd party support... Yes, the lack of programmable shader support (and thus no UE3 support) hurt them something fierce. But more than that, Microsoft and Sony actively fought and paid to keep developers off the system. Add that into the image that you can't compete with Nintendo's 3rd party offerings and you have a recipe for.. record profitability and market share.
Eh, I wouldn't consider Major Nelson a faceman; he's not somebody they trot out at E3 to basically be Mr. Xbox. Nelson is an important bit of PR; but he's not the guy you send out to show off your new hotness. Microsoft really doesn't have a person like that anymore.
They probably won't get all that many ports, not with this attitude from devs.
On the plus side, it's looking like they're more than willing to enter a number of exclusive development partnerships to pad their release schedule when the content internal teams are producing aint enough. I'm thinking that's pretty smart actually.
Alright and in this next scene all the animals have AIDS.
I got a little excited when I saw your ship.
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AthenorBattle Hardened OptimistThe Skies of HiigaraRegistered Userregular
Eh, I wouldn't consider Major Nelson a faceman; he's not somebody they trot out at E3 to basically be Mr. Xbox. Nelson is an important bit of PR; but he's not the guy you send out to show off your new hotness. Microsoft really doesn't have a person like that anymore.
Thank the Windows 8 guy for that.
Then again, consider that Microsoft's equivalent of Miyamoto, Iwata, and Reggie is Steve Ballmer. And I don't expect him to be fronting at E3 like he sorta did with the Surface unveil.
They probably won't get all that many ports, not with this attitude from devs.
On the plus side, it's looking like they're more than willing to enter a number of exclusive development partnerships to pad their release schedule when the content internal teams are producing aint enough. I'm thinking that's pretty smart actually.
They aren't partnerships. They are giving devs the right to use the IP. According to Namco, no money was exchanged for the TTT2 deal. And this is another reason why devs are hesitant to work with Nintendo; those devs rely on those exclusivity deals and money hats to help make a game profitable.
They probably won't get all that many ports, not with this attitude from devs.
On the plus side, it's looking like they're more than willing to enter a number of exclusive development partnerships to pad their release schedule when the content internal teams are producing aint enough. I'm thinking that's pretty smart actually.
They aren't partnerships. They are giving devs the right to use the IP. According to Namco, no money was exchanged for the TTT2 deal. And this is another reason why devs are hesitant to work with Nintendo; those devs rely on those exclusivity deals and money hats to help make a game profitable.
I was more thinking along the lines of what they're doing right now with Platinum, and have done with other Japanese developers in the past.
Dat Platinum exclusivity
Alright and in this next scene all the animals have AIDS.
Jack Tretton is known for making a number of controversial comments, which detractors claim are belittling and uninformed, including referring to the Wii as a "lollipop" and the Xbox 360 an "unreliable cook." Most recently, in touting Sony's upcoming portable gaming device, the PlayStation Vita, Tretton noted that the competing Nintendo 3DS provides a "Game Boy experience", claiming adults would not want to be seen using one.
Our view of the 'Game Boy experience' is that it's a great babysitting tool, something young kids do on airplanes, but no self-respecting twenty-something is going to be sitting on an airplane with one of those. He's too old for that.
They probably won't get all that many ports, not with this attitude from devs.
On the plus side, it's looking like they're more than willing to enter a number of exclusive development partnerships to pad their release schedule when the content internal teams are producing aint enough. I'm thinking that's pretty smart actually.
They aren't partnerships. They are giving devs the right to use the IP. According to Namco, no money was exchanged for the TTT2 deal. And this is another reason why devs are hesitant to work with Nintendo; those devs rely on those exclusivity deals and money hats to help make a game profitable.
I was more thinking along the lines of what they're doing right now with Platinum, and have done with other Japanese developers in the past.
Dat Platinum exclusivity
I was just commenting over in SE++ on how Nintendo has got a ton of strong partnerships with Japanese developers, but not so many with Western devs. It's an interesting dichotomy that is developing between Microsoft and Nintendo in that regard. Sony's in the mix too, but they don't do very well in the #3 slot, and seem to be losing much of their clout.
Wii isn't "stuck" in the position of pushing periphreals. They chose that path, predicting that the race to the top of the heap in terms of graphics was a losing battle that would cause them to go bankrupt. Looking at the corpses littering the industry over the last 2 years, it was a good prediction; now we'll just see if they can pull it off a 3rd time.
As for the 3rd party support... Yes, the lack of programmable shader support (and thus no UE3 support) hurt them something fierce. But more than that, Microsoft and Sony actively fought and paid to keep developers off the system. Add that into the image that you can't compete with Nintendo's 3rd party offerings and you have a recipe for.. record profitability and market share.
Huh.
Well I didn't say they were stuck, I said they were relying on it. Its their strategy.
Wii had a bit of a killer app thing going on, and it helped that they were selling each unit at a profit. I haven't seen anything like that for the Wii-U, its just selling via its namesake right now.
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AthenorBattle Hardened OptimistThe Skies of HiigaraRegistered Userregular
Wii isn't "stuck" in the position of pushing periphreals. They chose that path, predicting that the race to the top of the heap in terms of graphics was a losing battle that would cause them to go bankrupt. Looking at the corpses littering the industry over the last 2 years, it was a good prediction; now we'll just see if they can pull it off a 3rd time.
As for the 3rd party support... Yes, the lack of programmable shader support (and thus no UE3 support) hurt them something fierce. But more than that, Microsoft and Sony actively fought and paid to keep developers off the system. Add that into the image that you can't compete with Nintendo's 3rd party offerings and you have a recipe for.. record profitability and market share.
Huh.
Well I didn't say they were stuck, I said they were relying on it. Its their strategy.
Wii had a bit of a killer app thing going on, and it helped that they were selling each unit at a profit. I haven't seen anything like that for the Wii-U, its just selling via its namesake right now.
While it won't be just this second, I sold about 4 WiiU's in the last week with Nintendoland and ZombiU. They may not be killer apps like Wii Sports, but they go a long way to selling the system to jaded gamers.
Wii had a bit of a killer app thing going on, and it helped that they were selling each unit at a profit. I haven't seen anything like that for the Wii-U, its just selling via its namesake right now.
I'm not sure I understand what you mean by this. Care to elaborate?
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Wii had a bit of a killer app thing going on, and it helped that they were selling each unit at a profit. I haven't seen anything like that for the Wii-U, its just selling via its namesake right now.
I'm not sure I understand what you mean by this. Care to elaborate?
He probably means that there's no game out now that looks like a must-get unless you did research. The most popular titles are ZombiU and NSMB U, but ZombiU is a niche title from what I've heard, and NSMB U's name makes it sound like a port, instead of the surprisingly awesome game it is.
Wii had a bit of a killer app thing going on, and it helped that they were selling each unit at a profit. I haven't seen anything like that for the Wii-U, its just selling via its namesake right now.
I'm not sure I understand what you mean by this. Care to elaborate?
Everyone and especially their momma's wanted a Wii for Wii Sports. What is moving the Wii-U right now? The namesake?
I'm not saying the Wii-U won't sell necessarily, but the Wii set the world on fire
Denigrating a competitor as a children's toy always struck me as hilarious considering how much cash that market generates. How do they think Disney became so powerful?
Denigrating a competitor as a children's toy always struck me as hilarious considering how much cash that market generates. How do they think Disney became so powerful?
Mouse porn.
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HAIL HYDRA
+1
AthenorBattle Hardened OptimistThe Skies of HiigaraRegistered Userregular
But Guillemot says the company's successes have come despite what he sees as an industry being hampered by a long gap between new gaming systems.
"I think that what has happened is the transition has been very long," he said. "You know, in the industry, we were used to changing machines every five years. This time we are in the seventh year of the 360. We need new consoles and at the end of the cycle generally the market goes down because there are less new IPs, new properties, so that damaged the industry a little bit.
"I hope next time they will come more often."
Specifically, Guillemot said, many publishers and developers use the transition to a new console as an opportunity to "reinvent" themselves.
"Transitions are the best times, are the best ways, to make all of our creators take more risks and do different things," he said. "When a console is out for a long time ... you don't take as much risks on totally new IPs because even if they are good, they don't sell as well."
The opposite is true of the people who play games at the beginning of a console cycle, he said.
"Everybody who is taking risks and innovating is welcome because there are lots of hardcore gamers and those guys want new things, where the mass market will be more interested in having the same experience and doesn't want to take as much risks because it's not aware as much of what is going to change its experience.
"So, the beginning of the machines is always a good time for innovation."
But the ten year plan!
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AthenorBattle Hardened OptimistThe Skies of HiigaraRegistered Userregular
See: ZombiU. I expect to see a lot of people try to duplicate that if the game is successful/profitable.
The sad thing is that the later in a given generation is when the installed base is largest; there are a lot more potential people to sell to. And yet, what he is saying is that with more people, there is simply more money to bank on with reliable IPs and sequels.
The thing Ubi seems to like about console launches is the captive audience it creates. They can try almost anything, and with fewer games available for the system, people are more likely to try out new stuff. That's actually a nice thing; I just wish they would try more things over the course of a gen / later in a gen.
See: ZombiU. I expect to see a lot of people try to duplicate that if the game is successful/profitable.
Counterpoint red steel
Red Steel was extremely ambitious. No one knew the true capabilities of the Wiimote when it launched, and Ubisoft overpromised and underdelivered, not to mention the game seemed rushed. My guess is that Red Steel 2 is a lot closer to what the devs were hoping for.
With ZombiU, motion controls were a known quantity, as was dual screen play and tablet play. Thus, less risks, while still translating to new gameplay.
The sad thing is that the later in a given generation is when the installed base is largest; there are a lot more potential people to sell to. And yet, what he is saying is that with more people, there is simply more money to bank on with reliable IPs and sequels.
The thing Ubi seems to like about console launches is the captive audience it creates. They can try almost anything, and with fewer games available for the system, people are more likely to try out new stuff. That's actually a nice thing; I just wish they would try more things over the course of a gen / later in a gen.
Yeah, they've definitely got that "Might as well go for the whole hog" - thing going on.
I can see why they take that approach pretty selectively around console launches, but it would indeed be sorta nice if they did it a bit more often.
They'd probably go out of business pretty quickly though... *points to THQ*
Alright and in this next scene all the animals have AIDS.
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I'm more interested in the interested parental glances.
I can only imagine all of the encounters that happened over this Game, with some kid playing his N64 in on the living room TV while Mom and Dad are there watching him fire it up for the first time. God I wish I could see some of those events.
And yeah, I remember it being notable as being one of the very few, if not the only, Nintendo 1st/2nd party games that sold over a million that didn't get a Player's Choice release. Granted it hit that status after the Gamecube launched, but it is still a bummer.
Yeah, the Wii U is an odd case where it's really hard to judge how it compares to the 360 & PS3 as far as raw power goes since you have stuff like the Wii U having more RAM than the other system but the RAM it has is slower. And then you have stuff like the gamepad that don't really have equivalents on the other systems. Most of the current Wii U games being ports doesn't help either - it's hard to judge a system's true power on games that weren't made specifically for it. ZombiU doesn't look as good as the best looking 360 & PS3 games but it definitely looks better than the PS3 & 360 launch titles so I'm guessing that once developers start to gain experience with the system we'll see more impressive stuff on the Wii U than you see on the older systems but who knows?
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That article really shows a lot of the problems with psychology. So many vague and poorly defined terms. So many unsupported assumptions.
I think there needs to be a recognition of the broader class of behavior that we define as racism or sexism. All this talk of unconscious processes and underlying beliefs don't really mean anything unless you deal with the actual function of these behaviors. If you have strong prejudices against certain types of video games or certain types of foods, no one would care. If you played one RTS and didn't like it, and then shunned all RTS games, no one would give a crap. Racism and sexism are part of a much larger set of behaviors that we use exhibit the time. They are not special or abnormal in and of themselves, they are treated as abnormal because they are directed towards other people instead of towards animals or inanimate objects.
1) Samus's emotional vulnerabilities as portrayed in Other M are so intense that they leave her incapable of functioning as a human being in even the most basic tasks. Other M Samus would literally rather burn to death than change her clothes without Adam's permission. She would sooner let a friend die right in front of her than spring to action and rescue him, because oh no, what if Adam gets mad at her for using a completely harmless piece of equipment when her daddy hadn't told her to yet? It's completely insulting, not just for Samus in particular, but for a person in general.
2) Samus's points of emotional vulnerability are largely pulled out of thin air for Other M when other, far more interesting points of emotional vulnerability already existed in the canon. She never shuts up about her maternal obligations for "the baby", but doesn't have a single thought to spare for every other member of the Metroid species--perfectly innocent animals which never committed any sin except being dangerous when abused by others--which she personally massacred with her own two hands. She pines constantly over Adam as her father figure, but never thinks about her actual family who raised her from childhood. I'm pretty sure the word "Chozo" doesn't appear even once in the script. There isn't even any explanation of why she likes Adam; he was only mentioned in one other game (and not in much detail) and he treats her like dirt in basically every scene, including the flashback which is supposed to set up their current relationship. And it's always about Adam, not the Galactic Federation in general--an organization in whose name she's spilled the blood of entire worlds, but which is rapidly proving itself to be barely better than the Space Pirates in its underlying motivations.
At the end of the day Other M has jack-all to do with "Samus Aran, the person who went through events X, Y, and Z", and everything to do with "how Sakamoto thinks A Woman would act in this situation". She obsesses over The Baby because she's a women and women ought to be maternal. She obsesses over Adam because she's a women and women are naturally submissive in their relationships. Where's the story where Samus is grappling with the conflict between the ideal of protecting all life in the galaxy and the reality that the only practical way for her to serve the greater good seems to be to act as the Federation's butcher? Where's the story where she deals with the fact where the one time she did spare a life instead of ending it--the metroid hatchling--a bunch of innocent people died as a direct result and everything she worked for was almost undone? Where's the story where she deals with the fact that the Federation seems to be perfectly willing to betray all those ideals that she sacrificed so much for? These are interesting emotional stories! They were interesting when I saw them in the games that were already made, and they'd be even more interesting in a game that was willing to talk about them out loud. Sakamoto had no interest in making that game; he never saw Samus as anything more interesting than A Woman With a Gun and interpreted that archetype through the most narrow cultural lens possible. He has said out loud in interviews that he never thought about or cared about the story in Metroid until he made this game.
The idea that there exists nothing in between Samus in Other M (whose so-called "emotional depth" involves her acting extremely short-sighted and petty, and which never extends beyond what broad cultural stereotypes would define as "women issues" like maternity and submissive relationships even though more interesting issues were already well-established in past narratives) and Samus as a mindless killing machine is ridiculous, and yet I've never read a single defense of the game that didn't hinge 100% on that point. What does that say about how the public feels about women in video games?
So, Xbox 3 in revealed E2 2013 and released fall of that year: Who else agrees with that prediction and why or why not.
I honestly don't think Microsoft can wait that long. I'm expecting a GDC unveil, or possibly some shindig of their own. Wild, crazy outlier is getting a CES unveil.
I could see that happening, especially since the same thing pretty much happened with the 360
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Rumors are intensifying, sales are slowing and the next generation is here. I'd be surprised if it doesn't shake out that way.
Hmm.. Anyone remember when the 360 was revealed and there was that ARG that linked to a website called OurColony or whatever that had a J. Allard talking about the 360?
Man, I miss Allard. The Xbox doesn't really have a good faceman anymore.
Larry Hyrb/Major Nelson keeps puttering along, but for whatever reason his profile's been kinda low.
Well, he's just the Xbox Live guy. He doesn't have anything to do with the day to day operations/PR for Microsoft.
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And for the most part, everybody else is just an actor they hired. MS doesn't really have that 'Reggie' type character. Come to that, neither did SONY.
Jack Tretton?
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Ports of Current Gen -> Downgraded Ports of Next Gen
Its unfortunate that Nintendo is stuck in this weird in between where they are relying on their peripherals to distinguish them from the pack, but I don't think many companies have the time or money to implement them in a unique way. Wii certainly had the largest console share of last gen, but very few publishers wanted to take a shot at making something unique for the system.
Although my guess is that the 'next-gen' consoles almost certainly won't be as powerful as people expect them to be. I'd expect mostly: integrating things like the kinect more, and just enough under the hood to get many AAA games safely into the 60fps native 720p range.
Nintendo's kind of charging right along, building up that "Figurehead" status for quite a few of their internal staff. Their EU department head, Satoru Shibata, and Bill Trinen are both kind of getting that "Reggie" treatment at the moment. Now, not all that many people outside some very specific internet circles are probably going to care, but then again the same could probably be said for Reggie as well, at least to some extent.
I got a little excited when I saw your ship.
As for the 3rd party support... Yes, the lack of programmable shader support (and thus no UE3 support) hurt them something fierce. But more than that, Microsoft and Sony actively fought and paid to keep developers off the system. Add that into the image that you can't compete with Nintendo's 3rd party offerings and you have a recipe for.. record profitability and market share.
Huh.
On the plus side, it's looking like they're more than willing to enter a number of exclusive development partnerships to pad their release schedule when the content internal teams are producing aint enough. I'm thinking that's pretty smart actually.
I got a little excited when I saw your ship.
Thank the Windows 8 guy for that.
Then again, consider that Microsoft's equivalent of Miyamoto, Iwata, and Reggie is Steve Ballmer. And I don't expect him to be fronting at E3 like he sorta did with the Surface unveil.
They aren't partnerships. They are giving devs the right to use the IP. According to Namco, no money was exchanged for the TTT2 deal. And this is another reason why devs are hesitant to work with Nintendo; those devs rely on those exclusivity deals and money hats to help make a game profitable.
I was more thinking along the lines of what they're doing right now with Platinum, and have done with other Japanese developers in the past.
I got a little excited when I saw your ship.
If you insist.
I was just commenting over in SE++ on how Nintendo has got a ton of strong partnerships with Japanese developers, but not so many with Western devs. It's an interesting dichotomy that is developing between Microsoft and Nintendo in that regard. Sony's in the mix too, but they don't do very well in the #3 slot, and seem to be losing much of their clout.
Well I didn't say they were stuck, I said they were relying on it. Its their strategy.
Wii had a bit of a killer app thing going on, and it helped that they were selling each unit at a profit. I haven't seen anything like that for the Wii-U, its just selling via its namesake right now.
While it won't be just this second, I sold about 4 WiiU's in the last week with Nintendoland and ZombiU. They may not be killer apps like Wii Sports, but they go a long way to selling the system to jaded gamers.
I'm not sure I understand what you mean by this. Care to elaborate?
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He probably means that there's no game out now that looks like a must-get unless you did research. The most popular titles are ZombiU and NSMB U, but ZombiU is a niche title from what I've heard, and NSMB U's name makes it sound like a port, instead of the surprisingly awesome game it is.
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Everyone and especially their momma's wanted a Wii for Wii Sports. What is moving the Wii-U right now? The namesake?
I'm not saying the Wii-U won't sell necessarily, but the Wii set the world on fire
Mouse porn.
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Long gone from the company.
The thing Ubi seems to like about console launches is the captive audience it creates. They can try almost anything, and with fewer games available for the system, people are more likely to try out new stuff. That's actually a nice thing; I just wish they would try more things over the course of a gen / later in a gen.
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Counterpoint red steel
Red Steel was extremely ambitious. No one knew the true capabilities of the Wiimote when it launched, and Ubisoft overpromised and underdelivered, not to mention the game seemed rushed. My guess is that Red Steel 2 is a lot closer to what the devs were hoping for.
With ZombiU, motion controls were a known quantity, as was dual screen play and tablet play. Thus, less risks, while still translating to new gameplay.
Yeah, they've definitely got that "Might as well go for the whole hog" - thing going on.
I can see why they take that approach pretty selectively around console launches, but it would indeed be sorta nice if they did it a bit more often.
They'd probably go out of business pretty quickly though... *points to THQ*
I got a little excited when I saw your ship.