Random Gaming Talk Thread

[Stoney Mason]

My boy Reggie trolling Sony and MS

 

"I think a hallmark of Nintendo is that we are constantly trying to innovate," he said. "I think we would have been embarrassed to do what our competitors are currently doing.

"So, all I can tell you is that we will innovate. We will provide something new. Something that the consumer and the industry will look at and say 'Wow, I didn't see that coming.'"

http://kotaku.com/5492102/

[Eel O'Brian]

so, a good game system?

[pilonv1]

ice cold burn

[Don Flamenco]

They innovate once and suddenly it's "we always innovate"

[Stoney Mason]

[youtube=560,345][/youtube]
[youtube=560,345][/youtube]

[Bebpo]

Sony sure fucked up Home. 

I was talking with my bro at lunch today and he said a guy had given a presentation on Second Life in one of his classes. 
Me: "you know that home was based on that"
Bro: "what's home?"
Me: "umm, you've never heard of it?"
Bro: "..."
Me: "you know on the ps3, that icon called HOME around the store or something"
Bro: "yeah, it appeared one day and I had no idea what the heck it was"

3+ E3s? Spent HOME HOME HOME and in the end no one outside hardcore gamers has any clue it exists, even if they own a ps3.

Move is next?

[demi]

Maybe your "bro" is just a little... missing

Everybody knows what home is. HOME

[Madrun Badrun]

Blur looks amazing and I hate racing games.  I hadn't even heard of this game until penny arcade had a post about it.

[bork]

Kingdom Hearts, God Eater, Classic Dungeon and probably Zettai Hero.
Basically all the major JP games in the last month or two outside of Valkyria 2 because Sega was too poor to get protection.  I'll be surprised if Peace Walker doesn't have the same protection as well.

Hope they crack 6.20 soon!

Follow-up to this: I see both Classic Dungeon and Zettai Hero as ISOs for play CFW PSPs.  BlazBlue Portable USA won't load due to some memory stick error, but they already patched the rip.  So basically pirates continue to be able to play everything and if you buy these games, you're fucked (on CFW).   

[Bebpo]

The isos exist, but they don't work last time I checked.

[bork]

The isos exist, but they don't work last time I checked.

I saw descriptions saying "tested and working on GEN, etc."

There are even CWcheat codes for Classic Dungeon, too.  I don't think those games are part of the unplayable list.

[maxy]

Something interesting about Halo Reach

During the question and answer section Weinland was asked if they've ever run into memory problems. He answered by saying that Bungie had early on made the "acceptable decision" to make heavy use of the hard drive. They figured that most people playing Halo would own a hard drive and thus the "Non-hard drive case of Halo audio is not as good as Halo audio with the hard drive."

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/107/1077125p1.html


So if you don't have a hard drive...no good sound for you

Of course i expect that majority(probably everyone) of non-hdd owners will not be able to tell the difference...unless they are "audio pixel counters" and have some super-duper 5.1 system,in that case they probably have hdd

Still this is an interesting decision and i think that MS will switch one day to hdd slim sku.
HDD sku has always heavily dominated 360 sales and MS will sell you the new "slim hdd(larger capacity)",they might include some transfer cable...

Why?Digital Distribution...almost every game now has some sort of DLC and people without hdd can't be "drained"
Those people can be forced to buy expensive hdd,but that only happens once...not much profit in the long run

[maxy]

New research has shown that nearly a quarter of Xbox 360 owners earn less than 10 per cent of a game's Achievements, and that only four per cent seek out every reward.

EEDAR's Jesse Divnich, speaking at GDC (reported by GamesIndustry.biz), said 27 per cent of people earn half of a game's Achievements, but less than 10 per cent of people attain 80 per cent of the Achievements or more.

"Does this mean Achievements are too hard?" pondered Divnich, who did see a correlation between higher-scoring games and Achievements earned.

EEDAR (Electronic Entertainment Design and Research) analysed 32 million data points provided by Microsoft. From that, 100 games were selected at random and conclusions made.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/eedar-are-x360-achievements-too-hard

[maxy]

Nice Gamasutra article about Infamous

One of the main selling points for Sucker Punch's PlayStation 3 game Infamous  is a sprawling, open 3D world.

But the original super hero title didn't have a large army of artists creating this expansive world. In fact it was created by a team of 12 environment artists. "That's pretty dinky," the game's director Nate Fox said at GDC on Thursday. "We don't have a particularly massive squad at Sucker Punch."

The entire city in Infamous is made up of hexes where Sucker Punch's artists would place roads, buildings and other environmental pieces. Roads meet perpendicularly at the center of a hex's side, which allows artists to rotate hexes to create different configurations, as roads would line up from piece to piece. This meant less work for artists, but there is still good variation in the environment thanks to different hex configurations.

Reusing assets, and reusing them often, is something that developers shouldn't shy away from when making an open world game, Fox said. For instance, in Infamous, the team only used two different car models for the entire game. "What really matters with the cars is that they blow up well," said Fox.

Sucker Punch also reused buildings in the game. "We were surprised how little people cared about repetitious buildings," he said. He thinks there's a reason for this. "Gameplay is where players' attention goes, not really the art. ... Focus your expressive art on where players are going to be spending their time." He added, "Reuse in a way that people don't see."

Another trick Fox and his team implemented was restricting player sightlines. By doing this, buildings and other obstructions hide the geographical limitations of a world. In Infamous, all of the street intersections are "Y" shaped -- this is a natural effect of the hex-based layout, but it also means players can't look straight down a long street. "If we provide really long sightlines, you get bored running down the street," Fox said.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/27638/GDC_Infamous_Open_World_Trickery.php

[Rob]

  Does anybody here still use their Wii?

[demi]

Honestly - last time I touched mine was when I felt like playing through Mario Galaxy. I eventually got sidetracked and havent touched it since. I'll probably check out Fragile Dreams this week.

[cool breeze]

Fragile is coming out this week? I wanted that game like a year ago but didn't think it would come out in America.

Last time I played my Wii was a month ago to play NMH2 and some 2009 games.  NMH2 was trash, Silent Hill was enjoyable, Dead Space Extraction was boring, Final Fantasy Crystal Bearers was boring.  Wii is unplugged again until April (?).  Those few months of Sin and Punishment 2, Mario Galaxy 2, Metroid Other M, and Monster Hunter 3 will be nice.

Didn't finish Crystal Bearers or Dead Space btw.  Only played about two hours between them.  Crystal Bearers didn't seem that bad but it just seemed like I was doing waggle mini-games followed by an animu cutscene.  I heard that was the entire structure of the game for about 10 to 15 hours and I was hoping the waggle games would be interesting.

[magus]

i played it like 5 minutes ago

spoiler (click to show/hide)

the game was sadly sam & max season 2  a 2007 game

[close]

[Rob]

I've been wanting to play Fragile for a long time, I think i'm going to buy it when it releases.

[Bocsius]

Something that is probably older than dirt by forum standards, but I just saw it...

"Why you shouldn't let your girlfriend play Xbox"



As for dude... I suggest a new strategy. Let the girl win.

[pilonv1]

(Image removed from quote.)

  Does anybody here still use their Wii?

EB Games AUS has been trolling Wii/DS owners on their twitter feed

#EB will give you 200 bucks for your Wii. Right now. Seriously. So, when was the last time you switched it on? 12:31 PM Mar 11th via web

#Have a think back - when was the last time you played your Wii Console? Be honest... 12:15 PM Mar 11th via web

#EBGamesAus Can't remember the last time u played yr Wii, what about yr DS Lite? Get $100 store credit 4 it right now. Seriously! about 1 hours ago via web

[maxy]

[youtube=560,345][/youtube]

[archie4208]

[youtube=560,345]yyJ48-BYb7s[/youtube]

Hilarious cameo at the end, lol.

[Raban]

[Bebpo]

lol

[maxy]

Joystiq has obtained an internal IGN memo sent by company president Roy Bahat announcing layoffs at the media site today. We currently have no accurate estimate for the number of people let go today, nor do we know if any divisions have been shut down entirely.

Bahat states in the memo, "We're doing this to reduce costs. While we've been doing well -- we're profitable and our audience continues to grow -- we're still feeling the effects of the economy, and we need to make sure we can invest where there is opportunity. Over the past couple of years, we have been focusing IGN on areas where we can not only grow, but be best in the world: serving gamers online, and serving advertisers looking to reach men. To do that successfully, we have to be as efficient as possible in our core businesses. The difficult actions we're taking today get us to where we need to be."

We will continue to update this story as we learn more. If you're an IGN employee, you're of course welcome to contact us with any information you'd like to share. Find Bahat's full memo to employees after the break.

Full memo from IGN president Roy Bahat:

"Today's a hard day at IGN. We've had to reduce the size of our organization and are eliminating roles today in every part of the company. We are making every effort to be compassionate and fair to the people whose roles we've eliminated.

"We're doing this to reduce costs. While we've been doing well -- we're profitable and our audience continues to grow -- we're still feeling the effects of the economy, and we need to make sure we can invest where there is opportunity. Over the past couple of years, we have been focusing IGN on areas where we can not only grow, but be best in the world: serving gamers online, and serving advertisers looking to reach men. To do that successfully, we have to be as efficient as possible in our core businesses. The difficult actions we're taking today get us to where we need to be.

"We are losing colleagues who played an important role getting us to where we are -- #1 in games and men's lifestyle, and growing 40% over last year in the total size of our audience. We are deeply grateful to our colleagues for everything they've done. We as a company are absolutely headed in the right direction, and while today will be hard, it won't stop us.

"We'll have an All-Hands meeting later today to discuss this, and give you a chance to ask questions. Greg will be sending out a note with the exact timing, please be on the lookout for that.

"It probably goes without saying, but please keep this absolutely confidential to IGN. If you are approached by any member of the press, please direct them to Kris Sharbaugh.

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/03/16/ign-layoffs-hit-all-divisions-of-media-giant/

[maxy]

Making things juicier is word from the same source that this reduction is part of a redesign for the Xbox 360 console, testing of which has recently been completed in China. Think the PS3 Slim, only...for an Xbox 360.

http://kotaku.com/5495181/rumor-new-xbox-360-model-slims-down

Btw,this thing is very small,normal 360 has power connector -2 fans-the rest

[ferrarimanf355]

Argh, and I was thinking about using my tax returns to get the X360 Elite bundle with Splinter Cell Conviction... decisions, decisions...

[maxy]

Argh, and I was thinking about using my tax returns to get the X360 Elite bundle with Splinter Cell Conviction... decisions, decisions...

This system is going to hit together with Natal launch,nothing else makes sense...so somewhere between October and December
Irony is that without Natal,360 slim would be much cheaper...although i suspect that MS is willing to take a hit in order to push Natal
I expect $250,$150 price correction both bundled with Natal...
Personally i would wait...actually i am doing that,since that 3 year gold membership thing...Demi

[ferrarimanf355]

Argh, and I was thinking about using my tax returns to get the X360 Elite bundle with Splinter Cell Conviction... decisions, decisions...

This system is going to hit together with Natal launch,nothing else makes sense...so somewhere between October and December
Irony is that without Natal,360 slim would be much cheaper...although i suspect that MS is willing to take a hit in order to push Natal
I expect $250,$150 price correction both bundled with Natal...
Personally i would wait...actually i am doing that,since that 3 year gold membership thing...Demi

My Live membership is paid up until September 2011. And I'm going to get a free month as part of the latest XBL promotion just by being a gold member, so I'm good until October 2011.

This was before the free membership thing from last week, though.


I think I may get a Fanatec wheel, then.

http://www.fanatec.de/webshop/new_usa/product_info.php?cPath=21&products_id=52&osCsid=633d58b1e1e6bdc73e2863eee2d639e3

[Eel O'Brian]

i'm assuming this means it would be designed so that the hard drives would snap horizontally into the top of the unit?

[ManaByte]

Joystiq has obtained an internal IGN memo sent by company president Roy Bahat announcing layoffs at the media site today. We currently have no accurate estimate for the number of people let go today, nor do we know if any divisions have been shut down entirely.

Bahat states in the memo, "We're doing this to reduce costs. While we've been doing well -- we're profitable and our audience continues to grow -- we're still feeling the effects of the economy, and we need to make sure we can invest where there is opportunity. Over the past couple of years, we have been focusing IGN on areas where we can not only grow, but be best in the world: serving gamers online, and serving advertisers looking to reach men. To do that successfully, we have to be as efficient as possible in our core businesses. The difficult actions we're taking today get us to where we need to be."

We will continue to update this story as we learn more. If you're an IGN employee, you're of course welcome to contact us with any information you'd like to share. Find Bahat's full memo to employees after the break.

Full memo from IGN president Roy Bahat:

"Today's a hard day at IGN. We've had to reduce the size of our organization and are eliminating roles today in every part of the company. We are making every effort to be compassionate and fair to the people whose roles we've eliminated.

"We're doing this to reduce costs. While we've been doing well -- we're profitable and our audience continues to grow -- we're still feeling the effects of the economy, and we need to make sure we can invest where there is opportunity. Over the past couple of years, we have been focusing IGN on areas where we can not only grow, but be best in the world: serving gamers online, and serving advertisers looking to reach men. To do that successfully, we have to be as efficient as possible in our core businesses. The difficult actions we're taking today get us to where we need to be.

"We are losing colleagues who played an important role getting us to where we are -- #1 in games and men's lifestyle, and growing 40% over last year in the total size of our audience. We are deeply grateful to our colleagues for everything they've done. We as a company are absolutely headed in the right direction, and while today will be hard, it won't stop us.

"We'll have an All-Hands meeting later today to discuss this, and give you a chance to ask questions. Greg will be sending out a note with the exact timing, please be on the lookout for that.

"It probably goes without saying, but please keep this absolutely confidential to IGN. If you are approached by any member of the press, please direct them to Kris Sharbaugh.

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/03/16/ign-layoffs-hit-all-divisions-of-media-giant/

Chris Roper seems to be the only one from IGN laid off. TeamXbox got hit the biggest apparently.

[Bebpo]

I would buy a slim J360 replacement if they were guaranteed not to have heating problems and die.
will wait and see.

[maxy]

Chris Roper seems to be the only one from IGN laid off. TeamXbox got hit the biggest apparently.

Who? Serious question, I've never heard of the guy.

Executive Editor of PlayStation team, and host of IGN Podcast Beyond.

 

[archie4208]

http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/another_world_15th_anniversary_edition

Another World is available at GOG.com for $10. 

[Brehvolution]

I need a bigger HD for my 360. 20gb is not enough. A 60gb would be perfect, but not for $100. 

[maxy]

This is interesting...

Documentation obtained by Joystiq – and subsequently confirmed with two separate sources – reveals that "USB Mass Storage Device Support on Xbox 360" will soon be a reality. The document, authored by a senior software development engineer at Microsoft, states that due to "increased market penetration of high-capacity, high throughput USB mass storage devices, a 2010 Xbox 360 system update" will allow consumers to save and load game data from USB devices. The update is purportedly coming in Spring 2010.

Once the update occurs, Xbox 360 owners will be able to download Xbox Live Arcade games, Xbox Live Indie games, Games on Demand, DLC and Title Updates to the storage device. "USB storage devices may, however, have far greater memory capacity than MUs (at the date of writing, the largest MU is 512 MB), and may therefore support previously infeasible operations-such as installation of a full disc-based title." That's right, you can also store disc-based games to the USB device; however, it will require the disc to be in the tray for authentication, identical to the current functionality.

According to the document, the USB mass storage device must be at least 1GB and the system will do a compatibility check. "The system partition occupies 512 MB of space, and by default the consumer partition occupies the remainder of the device capacity, or 16 GB, whichever is smaller." Upon inserting a blank USB storage device, "consumers are offered two choices: 'Configure now' or 'Customize'." The "Configure now" option will use "the entire device capacity, up to the maximum of 512 MB plus 16 GB" meaning, regardless of the overall size of the device you're using, the Xbox will only enable 16 GB of usable, non-system storage. The "Customize" option will allow you to "preserve some pre-existing, non-console data on the device" such as music.

If you're intent on circumventing Microsoft's cutthroat hard drive pricing the Xbox 360, you can use two USB storage devices for a maximum of 32 GB of usable storage; however, the console "has a fixed limit of two external USB mass storage devices" regardless of whether they're "formatted for the Xbox 360 or not." If you fill all three USB ports on the console, only the first two to be connected will be recognized.

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/03/18/xbox-360-gaining-usb-storage-support-in-2010-update/

[Raban]

I need a bigger HD for my 360. 20gb is not enough. A 60gb would be perfect, but not for $100. 

Elite 120GB

[tehjaybo]

I need a bigger HD for my 360. 20gb is not enough. A 60gb would be perfect, but not for $100. 

When working at GS a year or two ago, I pulled the biggest wheel and deal ever.  Some guy was trading in an Elite, and getting cash for it.  The HD is 40 store credit, 35 cash, so I offered him 40 in the parking lot and he took it.  Then, a week or two later, someone came in looking for 20GB hard drives used, and we were out.  It just so happened that I had my old one in my car, so I sold it to him for used price, $60 even. 

I made $20 by upgrading my hard drive.  I loved that job.

[Don Flamenco]

Jesus why is the Playstation still 299.

the power of the cell.  the 8th core is for maintaining a high MSRP

[Great Rumbler]

I dug around through my pile of jewel cases and pulled out some old PC games for some retro fun courtesy of DOSBox. So far I've got System Shock, Flashback, Ultima 8, and Relentless: Twinsen's Odyssey from my personal catalog to work. It's cool to be able to play these old games again, it's been ages since I last booted them up. I would be nice if it wasn't such a hassle though, even with DOSBox some games still won't run very well, or at all in some cases.

I've still got a few more that I'm going to try out like Alone in the Dark 1 and 2, Thunderscape, Dark Sun: Wake of the Ravager, Whiplash, Hexen II, Interstate '76, Out of This World, and a few games from the Forgotten Realms Archive.

Old DOS games

spoiler (click to show/hide)

I also nabbed a few other old games from an abandonware site.

[close]

[OptimoPeach]

Wasn't Ultima 8 one of the shittier ones?

I've actually been thinking about replaying Ultima 7 or Fallout 1 & 2

[Great Rumbler]

Wasn't Ultima 8 one of the shittier ones?

I've never played any of the Ultima games actually. I've got 6 around somewhere though, and the two Underworld games.

I've actually been thinking about replaying Ultima 7 or Fallout 1 & 2

I had problems with the CD version of Fallout 1 on Vista, but I nabbed the downloadable version off GOG and it works great. They've got both for $6 each.

[demi]

http://www.kmart.com/ue/home/KM_Coupon_Renaissance_NYC.pdf

If you live near a KMART, you can use this code to get 1600 MS point cards / $20 PSN cards / wii points for half off - just pick up a candy bar or something to make it over $20

[Bebpo]

[youtube=560,345][/youtube]

Now let's talk about how anyone outside of Japan is going to get to play like this.  :\
No online mode = super gimped game for US/Euro

[cool breeze]

I'll play using the ad-hoc party 

[Bebpo]

Put adhoc party on psp, wtf already  :'(.

[Great Rumbler]

You need to disable one core to run Fallout smoothly.

It ran smooth, but the graphics were all messed up. I never messed with the cores though, so shutting off one might have fixed the issue. Either way, I haven't had any trouble with the GOG version.

[Junpei the Tracer!]

It's probably because I put more hours into it but I rather play FF13 than GOW3.

[pilonv1]

Another quality 1up review

http://www.1up.com/do/reviewPage?cId=3178337&p=37&sec=REVIEWS

Unless you speak Japanese, the other version might as well not exist for you. And if you're all butt-hurt about not having the same stuff as the kids across the Pacific, I hear you, but please believe me when I say that if you allow that butt-hurtedness to prevent you from buying and playing this game, you fail at life and will never have sex. Yeah, I said it. Because it's true. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Now, just so I don't get accused of doing more to sell this game than Sega's own marketing people, Yakuza 3 does have a few flaws. Most glaring is the lack of minimap help on sub-quests. No matter what you're doing at any given time, only the main quest will have a map marker to lead you where you need to go. So unless you have a fantastic memory, or get pretty lucky, you'll spend way too much time running around the city just trying to figure out where the next objective in your sub-quest is. This dovetails with another foible: the too-high rate of random encounters, to take you from "alllllll riiiiiiight" to "ffffffffffuuuuuu----" quite rapidly, as you scour the city trying desperately to find that frickin' Okinawan lion statue for those God-damned mainlanders.

But, come on, these quibbles shouldn't stop you from playing Yakuza 3 any more than the toothpick in a sandwich stops you from eating it. Let me reiterate: this is a fantastic game, with so much fun to throw your way you'd think you were playing wide receiver with Santa Claus as QB. Buy it, and may the soles of your white, crocodile-skin shoes always find the upturned noses of those who underestimated you.

[Bebpo]

yeah, reviews like that first quote are the reason gaming will never get more credit.  It reads like a 13 year old at gamefaqs is writing for a major publication.

[demi]

wow. butt-hurt?

[Ichirou]

I didn't even know Saint Cornelius owned a PS3 and worked for 1Up.

[Raban]

wow. butt-hurt?

Games journalism.

[Don Flamenco]

all that reviews is a declaration that it's caturday 

[Stoney Mason]

yeah, reviews like that first quote are the reason gaming will never get more credit.  It reads like a 13 year old at gamefaqs is writing for a major publication.

Honestly it reads like a forum post so in that since I give the reviewer credit. He knows his audience...

[ferrarimanf355]

X360 Game Room achievements

Now all I need is a decent PC and the time and money to build an arcade cabinet, and I can scratch "build an arcade game cabinet" off of my bucket list. 

[magus]

cave story wiiware is going to be priced 1200 points
isn't that quite stupid considering you can download the game for free on your much more awesome pc?

[demi]

Except WiiWare version is an updated version?






[ "Why spend $10 for Perfect Dark in HD with multiplayer online when you can play the ROM on PC?" ]
      /
     /
magus

[magus]

i know it's an upgraded version but the upgrade doesn't seems to be worth the 10$ dollars... i mean isn't it just a bunch of redrawed sprite and redone music?
and yea i would probably say that about perfect dark too </cheapass>