May I just say that this might be the greatest thread I've ever seen on a forum. You guys rock, and it's nice to be able to post again.

Yes they want to attract more gamers buy ignoring the Millions who own a 360/PS3/PC and of course the people who bought the first game.

Just finished watching Donnie Darko for the first time, whoa.

Dorian wrote:

When I see weird stuff and it's in Japan I'm not even amazed anymore, it just seems absolutely ANYTHING is possible there lol

That's because the Yakuza team (which is pretty much the Shenmue team, or rather what's left of it) makes games for... FUN. Not that they don't want to cash on them. Of course they want to! But they want to earn the cash fairly. You know, doing their best given the time and budge and actually appreciating the gaming culture with in-game treats. Not like... say... creating interactive movies that mask their true identity with pseudo-artistic nonsense about human emotions and lies about reinventing the wheel. Ironically, the Yakuza games feature far more human drama than something like Heavy Rain. Maybe that's because SEGA actually takes the effort to hire genuine writers instead of relying on self-appointed scribblers? Just sayin'.

It's amazing to me how the Yakuza games can exist in the west. It almost seems like they just want to make the fans happy as if it was a passion for them. I don't have any numbers but I doubt these games sell well here.

They make the games how they like it and don't try to please a western audience or anything, something which is very rare these days. It seems most developers just want to make money and that's it (see the rising P2P or F2P Item mall model, or even RMAH that was in Diablo 3) pure crap just to make money.

Bluecast wrote: http://gonintendo.com/?mode=viewstory&id=185545


Broken Wii U Gamepads will be replaced for free

Fee not free

Because vegetarians act like they are better than everyone else.

The minority do and minorities are often loud and seem like they are the majority. Most black guys don't steal either. Most gays don't want to advertise it. Most short people don't have a chip on their shoulder. Most religious people don't act like protesting nut jobs. It's easy to make assumptions based on small but loud groups.

Was writing a melody in the Dorian mode... thought of this place.

I admit I laughed out loud.

I thought I was going to have to woop your ass Dorian, I thought it sad badness for a second, not badass.

^Pretty much. I'm honestly surprised that Orange thinks that looks like Kaneko, like at all . It doesn't. In the least. It's actually Masayuki Doi; the artist for the Trauma Centre series, definitely. And yeah, his art is fine there since he isn't trying to do an (frankly terrible) imitation of another artist in those games. I wouldn't mind the change in art style, as much, if Doi was employing a new style instead of imitation. I'm not a fan of the actual designs of them either...like Segata said, they're very modern anime-like.

I honestly think at this stage that Kaneko has either: A) left Atlus (you've got to be shitting me if you think Kaneko wouldn't work on a mainline SMT title). Or B) Atlus has other projects up there sleeve, such as a new Devil Summoner game, which Kaneko is heading the art on. I so hope it's the latter, since the thought of Doi simply replacing Kaneko just sucks. I'm all for giving the new guy a job, but shoving the lead artist of the series away like that to make room for the new guy, (Kaneko has been at the company since the beginning) is kind of nasty. Or maybe Kaneko flat out refused to help make the game, not liking what the team has in mind? Guess we'll never know. Either way, major blow to the series, to be sure.

As far the game goes, I like that they're trying to strive for the best of both worlds by combining both third person exploration and first person combat. I'd even go as far as to say that the environments look absolutely incredible. The music is also brilliant. A shame they're cutting corners with the certain factors when it comes to presentation; animations of the demons (static one moment then massive shaking, the next, guess I'll get used to it). I'm a bit worried about the storyline being really anime inspired at this stage. No offence to Persona, they're great too, but I like to draw the line between the mainline SMT and Persona, it would be the same if Persona suddenly changed dramatically. They're both great series, but ultimately different.

I'm sure I'll like the game, Atlus have never let me down, I really like the settings and music, but at this stage, it'll take a lot for me to love it .

I don't want to keep going on like a negative nancy, but those terrible anime artworks will be the cutscenes of the game. So it's not like it won't be a factor into the presentation of the game.

And I still don't see how Doi's art is anywhere near Kaneko's, not on quality (I actually think Doi is good; not when he's imitating Soejima or Kaneko, though) but in similarity. Doi isn't using the same techniques at all, he's just sort of trying to imitate (badly), whilst also trying to do his own style at the same time, and it is pretty jarring to me. Doi's art doesn't try to convey the same disturbed look on the character's faces (look at the "villain" of SMT4, he doesn't look disturbed or anything of the sort, he just looks plain evil), look at the Demi-Fiend and compare him to the main protagonist of SMT4; it's a stark difference. Night and day, really. I also miss Kaneko's vibrant colour palette vs. Doi's monotonous colours. The big close ups of the demons make them look ugly, too. Aesthetics of the series are part and parcel of why I like this series so much, if the artist is gone, it won't be long till I stop giving a shit about it.

As far as Kaneko goes, the guy's gone from Atlus, no doubt about it. It's an end of an era, but it's no use crying over spilt milk, the damage is done and I've got to live with it. Oh well.

It's to me, like the soul of Shin Megami Tensei is gone now. It'll more than likely be a great fun game to play, but the themes will probably be shallow (by the looks of the anime inspired storyline and cliche characters; time travelling, oooh, that isn't overdone in JRPGs, or anything; the only positive will be the variety of beautiful environments we'll get) and the art mediocre.

I like apple cider. Just felt everyone should know that.

Oh I've got to be on topic? uhhh well. Regardless of if his tools changed or ir if his fingers got cut off, or if he had some kind of epiphany. His TOOLS changed, which is to be expected.

Personally I'm down with the 80/90s anime look because it was more vibrant to me.

How bout now?

So there were two things on my mind.

The first is Japanese games; I was listening to the Japanese version of the Dragon's dogma OP. I'll give Capcom this much, just like Sengoku Basara 3 used T.M.Revolution's English vocals, the English version has B'z singing in English. Now we have a bit of a problem, why make a Japanese band sing a Japanese song in English? Its hard to even understand whats being said and for the most part its gibberish. Why? Dragon's Dogma (like Dark Souls and Xanadu) is similar to many RPGs made in the west and even started with a western idea. Thing is, you still have a Japanese band performing the intro song that has lyrics. Which leads me to my point. Be Japanese. The west is the west, trying to be like the west is pointless. So many Japanese studios keep trying to make these games that appeal to westerners but in the end they often fall flat because they are neither distinctly Eastern or Western. The Japanese often pride themselves on taking ideas and making them better, that is perhaps its olden tradition and it should be no different for gaming. Take the ideas that are being introduced and instead of trying to copy them, make them better. We got stuff like Record of Lodoss War, Final Fantasy, and ESPECIALLY Shin Megami Tensei from games like DnD, Ultima and Wizardry and I think if Capcom threw its support behind Dragon's Dogma and decided to evolve the genre it could be something special, instead its mostly half cooked ideas taken from other games with the original ideas muddled and hidden by bugs or straight up bad decisions.

The other thing that will inevitably make this a massive wall of text is teaching in games. So many games suck at it. I'm pretty sure a few of you guys got stuck in Arkham city because you forgot how to slide, theres no shame alot of people have. The reason why is simple, they never drill it in. You do it once as part of a tutorial and thats that. Instead you should do it a few times, get used to it and then keep it relevant by adding it once or twice to every "dungeon". Zelda is no different. Fi in is so completely useless because she'll tell you how to press a button but won't tell you button combinations. Rolling a damn bomb requires 2 motions and a button press, why tell the player after its necessary to use this? While searching for the Earth Temple Link needs to roll a bomb across some bones and explode a platform. Fi does not tell you how to roll bombs there? NONONO, instead she teaches you to roll bombs when you reach a hill which is beyond the bone bridge. This isn't a puzzle, its obscurity. The player isn't properly taught what powers they have, and they have no real guide for experimentation. Hitting every button shouldn't be the way to figure out a puzzle. Lets take, Lufia as an example. it has puzzle and specific items for use in dungeons, however the item is a one button thing. You can say "I placed a bomb here" you don't need to worry about rolling, throwing or anything like that until the game specifically gives you a power to do that, and often the game makes you use that power to get out of the room. Metroid is good for that as well. Games now seem to have lost that. Not to say every old game used it, but today's games are terrible at teaching and often offer tons of tutorials that don't really teach or offer lasting advice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xh_t2fFF3B0
Captain Picard can act his way out of being buried alive.
He can deflect missiles out of the sky with his bold philosophical statements.
He never got controlled by the Borg. He controlled the Borg with his acting. (for real though)

"He is... the most interesting man in Space."
"I dont always act well, but when I do, Im Captain Picard of the USS enterprise"
"Stay sober my friends"

God, that's heartbreaking.
The silver lining is that he's actually alive though. A while back, he apparently just kind of... disappeared. Nobody could say what happened to him, so I kind of always assumed the worst.
I kind of like the way he's talking though. Pay close attention, and it doesn't seem like he's bowing out from console games altogether. When he says he's "retired" from console games, he specifies that his boss told him he has to say that. :lol:
It sucks that Japanese gaming has basically come down to this, but I still have hope that a great like him can make a comeback. Still one of my favorite developers/personalities in the business.

yeah they also awkwardly photoshoped out the '99 from the original japanese cover.

Dorian wrote: I'm a guy who gets excited only with the official info so I'll wait for that.

I know a few other things that get you excited ;)

You're completely right that we shouldn't have a classification stamped on our heads at all times.

There are people who will immediately see the depth of the game and will enjoy it for that reason, however there are also people who will not understand what makes the game good at first glance but they recognize the base reasons something is fun.

Still lets look at OL and Dorian . Both men enjoy action games and have an undeniable passion for the genre.

OL enjoys the more stylistic and aesthetic aspect of the games. He gets into games like Blood Will Tell and Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams and Enslaved. These games are all great but all very shallow. Its not to say OL dosen't recognize depth, it just seems like its not a priority to him. I think if I handed him Ninja Gaiden Black and Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams he's take Onimusha and call it a day. He's the kind of player you need to capture with aesthetics and accessibility, once you've got them you can introduce them to the depth by offering rewards specifically for higher difficulties.

Dorian is completely different. He likes em when they're pretty, but it seems he really likes games to be deep and offer a challenge. This is the kind of guy who picks up Bayonetta, Devil May Cry 3, and Ninja Gaiden:Black and puts the game on hard. This is also the base customer, wanting more Dorian will keep buying a series because he trusts a developer. Combos, freedom, challenge, variety and performance is what this crowd wants. They help a developer grow, they can help them look for new ideas and challenge themselves by trying to break the walls the developer has made. The best way to keep this kind of person is to continue offering depth and allowing them the freedom to continue learning and experimenting with a system.

Both are hardcore, and theres a way to make the majority of both happy, but developers keep trying to go one way or the other.

I personally question this whole "Resident Evil has betrayed oldschool RE fans" thing. Yes, the classic ones had a tense atmosphere and 'scare factor' (and much better storyline) that RE4-et al do not. How much of that is honestly down to the controls/camera angles, though? In the original game, a Hunter makes me shit my pants. Especially when I can't see it. I hear that shriek, and immediately start running. Thing is, Mr. Hunter can make his way around flawlessly and with ease, whereas I struggle not to run into walls and such.

Then there's the pant-wetting boss battles of the old games. All the more scary because you can't just avoid them. They have to be defeated. Aiming is a bitch, sometimes even seeing where you're going/the location of the boss is a hazard in itself. We came to love these elements, but we've forgotten about how they made the game. All those things are core to a horror film, as well. An assailant who cannot be seen, protagonists who can't aim for shit, etc.

Even with the scarcity of ammo, gimme RE5 perspective/controls/etc in RE1 and I'll breeze through it, headshots all the way. Thus diminishing the horror-factor. For me, Resident Evil (as a storyline) ceases to exist after Nemesis (or at an absolute stretch - CODE: Veronica). The storyline just got ridiculous, it wasn't scary anymore, etc.

For my money, you only need to look at the title to see RE6 isn't going to be all-conquering. It's a story-based franchise that hasn't had any good story for the last three major instalments. It's reached it's sixth instalment, and third pointless-one-in-a-row as far as the storyline is concerned. I bet it ends with a cliffhanger for RE7.

That's not to say it's a bad game , I would just personally call it a bad Resident Evil game. But that's because I have a very set image in my mind when I think of RE, and ever since RE4 the games haven't matched the image or the certain kind of 'experience' that I expect.

The nearest any post-fixed camera angle/tank controls RE got to horror was one of the canned version of RE4, dubbed the 'Hook Man' version, which I'm sure you've all seen by now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aN31-3og5SI

In my opinion, all these other ones could have just as easily been different IPs about zombies. Still, gotta love cash cows.

http://i.imgur.com/mzzLe.gif
http://i.imgur.com/CO1t4.gif
You know what’s so uncomfortable about this? It shows that perhaps one of the most evil men in history, was a human being. That, on occasion, he could be nice, even flirty. That’s not all. You want to see evil people as evil, screaming horrible stuff over a desk with 20 microphones with 20, 000 people saluting them. The evil is clear and recognizable then. This shows a completely different image, it scares you because that means that evil isn’t a stereotype, that evil is not recognizable, that evil could be anyone. It scares you because this shows that evil could be lurking inside anyone and you’ll never ever know. Maybe in you?

Luke 6:32

"And if you love them that love you, what thanks are to you? For sinners also love those that love them. And if you do good to them who do good to you, what thanks are to you? For sinners also do this. And if you lend to them of whom you hope to receive, what thanks are to you? For sinners also lend to sinners, for to receive as much.

But love your enemies: do good, and lend, hoping for nothing thereby: and your reward shall be great, and you shall be the sons of the Highest. For he is kind to the unthankful and to the evil. Be therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.

Judge not: and you shall not be judged. Condemn not: and you shall not be condemned. Forgive: and you shall be forgiven."

Definitely the one wearing sunglasses.

Big names like Capcom,Square,Konami have lost their way.SEGA can go either way but personally pleased with them last couple years. So Not all. Just the big names hard to see over them. Level 5,Falcom,Nintendo,Mistwalker,Atlus and more still get it just fine.

I think it goes beyond that (I'm also starting to get sick of Atlus a bit). Epic, Microsoft, Bioware, Ubisoft and Activision are as guilty as Square-Enix or any of the Japanese studios.

(Capcom is doubly bad since they keep putting small studios out of business making these really bad versions of their IPs)

^^I've been feeling the same way. I mean, in the past it's taken them a full year to get each of the games translated and released outside of Japan, and it was done by a relatively small team as far as I know (part of the whole reason we keep getting the games; low-cost localization = more realistic expectations for profit)...
But with a game this size, who even knows how long it would take a team like that?

Today I decided to actually play through the demo of Resident Evil 6... even though I really haven't been a fan since 4 (well I didn't really like zero either but whatever).

Nothing happened in Leon's. I walked through some rooms and I think there were zombies. Chris' starts off with the lamest patriotic speech that should be just before the climax of a really bad action movie, and zombies now have guns. Fuck the acid spitting jackasses from Jake's storyline and - I don't know - I can't remember anything else about Jake's Campaign.

That's all that stuck out to me.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUxKmzSqgWQ[/youtube]

Ryudo is talking about the epilogue. I mean the ending. You'll know exactly what I mean once you're done.

Are you talking about when

someone pushed a button and the universe was destroyed/created, and that one dude was a computer program and yeah.

because I thought that was pretty awful.

I keep wantin to go back to Xenoblade, but every time I do it just seems like a chore leveling up n shit n doin all the side-quests. I also don't like how they made it out to be this huge world, when in reality it just seems like they made a normal-sized one, shrunk the character models, and gave them slow movements so it seemed big. Nice technique n'all, but I'm just completely disillusioned with it. I was thinkin about gettin it for the PC instead because the quality on the Wii's pretty damn appalling, but I really can't be arsed playin through it all again. I'll go back to it eventually, but it was just such a huge disappointment despite the massive potential. If only they saved it for the Wii-U or it was released on the 360...

That was less of a justification of why you like the game and more of a personal attack on Dorian.

That was less of a justification of why you like the game and more of a personal attack on Dorian.
It was the truth about Dorian in general. He needs to seek help. Counseling or some shit. Get the fuck out of poland. Something. Making a massive deal out of every fucking little thing to the point it's like the world is ending. Jesus fucking Christ. Hell he was bitching it's such a bad thing some of us care enough to vote and how trivial it was while a sRiku pointed out he mocks us for trying to be involved in something important but he just bitched at the jeans Kojima wears.


You're so full of shit. Thought you left because of me. Seems you like to stay and get punishment.

And? All he was doing there was agree with Mittz. Nothing else. Don't bring up things that aren't part of the immediate discussion, otherwise another unnecessary shitstorm will be a brewin'.

Like Petes new av.


Dear god.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TRBwKFfJv4[/youtube]

What the f-

Just got this for my birthday. One of the only Working Designs game I've ever wanted (other than the Ray Series).




After Burner 2, Outrun, and Space Harrier. :)

That's awesome. I feel good for you. I pity the fool who is not you, which is all of us.

Dorian wrote:

Yep that's pretty much how i was while watching that vid.

Pete, don't you think thats a bit harsh? We all have our issues and god knows Adam has his. We're all friends and while we may piss each other off I don't think we should let things come to this. He didn't need to create another account, he broke the rules and if he keeps breaking them then its totally reasonable that you ban him but try not to make it personal by saying the kind of stuff you have. Whatever issues he has, and whatever is causing him to act the way he does he'll have to deal with it. The best thing to do is just respond to his actions without making it too much of a spectacle.


So its ok to just have this happen over and over and over again? This is a regular occurance, and its tiring. Its not harsh at all, he made an alternate account to come back and do the same things he was banned for. Not too long ago, there was a blanket ban on new members signing up because he was banned and making alternate accounts. You have been on message boards long enough not to do that and so has he, and its not just attacks on other people now its threats of self harm . Are you serious?

I am not gonna go down the road of "oohh you need to get help", or "get off the internet" because its been done before and its not happening, nor will it work. He created his own forums to get away from here and in less than a month, look what happens again. Dont you think its slightly odd that his "outbursts" are only here and not at his forums or even Hazuki Dojo? I was finished with him ages ago. I am not a friend of his. I disagree with a lot of principles he lives his life by, with number one, living a life on the internet. I am done talking about him because thats what he wants. Thats what he needs. His blue font to make him stand out.

I dont need that. Other members, old and new dont need that. Any online community doesnt need that.

The man is making some good sense. I studied all three games and i love em all to pieces, but I gotta say, you ever notice most people play the start of Xenogears, stop, then months/years later play the start again? The game has really bad pacing, it takes over an hour to even get into a fight and even longer to get into an exciting fight, and hours to get into a mech fight.

I still haven't finished the game, but I can't say the reason I've started/stopped/started again is because of pacing. In fact, my absolute favorite part of the game is still, even after having finished over half the game, the very beginning in Lahan village before the fighting even starts. And that's just because of the totally innocent atmosphere.
Not saying you're wrong about the pacing, just that that's never been the problem with it for me.

Personally though, I'd still say the idea of good or bad pacing in an 80+ hour long RPG is kind of a joke anyway. What with the presence of level-grinding, exploration, item hunting, and side-questing, the pace is dictated very much by the player. Can't really see why an RPG fan would have a problem with that anyway, since progressing at your own pace has always been one of the appeals of the genre itself.
EDIT: ...like AG said. Sorry, only skimmed his post befre typing that.

There's always going to be some company offering products we want. It's no use fretting about all of this.

Also totally agree with that. Kinda surprised that you said that as well. ;-)

Acompany like Apple must have huge overheads, but with a quite obsessed userbase buying the "new" "updated" etc. products in the millions, worldwide, at their high prices, I can't see how they can be losing? Surely the hardware can't cost THAT much to develop, since it's pretty unremarkable really, it just looks nice and (mostly) is simple, smooth and nice to use?

Dorian wrote:

It was discounted, but I still had to suck quite a few dicks for it.

Enjoy both of them.

So One Piece despite "competitive pricing" is 50$, for a FUCKING DOWNLOAD ONLY FUCKING GAME, WHAT THEW FUCK YOU WANT PEOPLE TO GO OUT OF THEIR WAY PUTTING A BIGAS GAME ON THEIR DRIVES AND SPENDING HOURS FUCKING DOWNLOADING THE MOTHERFUCKING THING AND THEY AREN'T GOING TO GET A FUCKING PRICE CUT. WORST FUCKING THING IS I ONLY HAD 40$ FUCKING DOLLARS 10 FUCKING DOLLARS, FOR 10 FUCKING MEASLY FUCKING DOLLARS YOU GET TO MISS OUT ON A WHOLE SALE, WORSE YET THEY'RE SELLING DLC NEXT FUCKING WEEK WELL FUCK.

I was so hype, I was going to buy the game and recommend it to everyone, now I'm just pissed. why should i spend 50$ on a game that I'm not even really the owner of.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YN1L3HN0cvg

If you see me on later playing it, thats means someone got fed up and gave me 10$
If you see me on later and I'm not playing anything, it means someone got fed up and killed me.