@InsaneWade I think there was a dual shock as an rc controller for some gadget as well!
Though it reminds me of Yakuza like a dragon having Xperia ads on billboards and triangle square patterns on the millennium tower construction posters in the intro despite releasing on xb series first!
Yeahhh I somehow doubt number of discs is the reason. Especially as at that point in the console cycle 360 was by far the dominant platform outside Japan. Either the noted internal bias was the problem, or the original official line that Sony had the contract halted the continued development. Kind of backfired though as they're still trapped on PS3 plus cloud to this day.
What we know now that they didn't know then was that Gates was too busy with sexual misconduct in the workplace to care.... Maybe if Xbox Japan had sent him a Kasumi love pillow bundle the board wouldn't have had to exile him for using employee love pillows instead....
Seeing the eventual reality of Xbox in Japan they should have doubled down and launched Kasumi, Cortana, Kazooie love pillows worldwide....it couldn't have hurt
Nice review, I was somewhat curious about this device. Were you able to do any comparison against the Logitech G Cloud? I know this has Hall sticks which Logitech doesn't which is a plus, but it also seems to be a little less "polished" fro now.
It makes no sense they'd refuse a new game but don't want to lose the IP. Either it's valuable or it isn't. That's a weird outcome.
@GeneJacket valid or not, EA could afford endless court challenges McGee couldn't afford to defend. Such is us legal. You don't need to be right. You just need more money than the other guy while arguing that you're right. When they run out, you're now right.
In the age of over-censored, politically correct "game x does not exist in a vacuum" disclaimers, Sony beams of light in anime games, Nintendo censoring out gravura idols, and all the rest, it's impossible to even remember a time it was conceivable that a publisher would go to a developer and say "here's stripper vids we shot at Howard Stern's hangout, you're contractually obligated to put these in your game."
Imagine Konami just sticking porn in eFootball? Actually, nevermind, it's Konami, I actually can imagine that.
@87th To be fair, that might be because Zelda 2 was an RPG (Miyamoto himself has called it that) so anyone that started around then may have just gotten used to calling it one. It's been argued that BotW is in fact a return to being an RPG as well. I don't agree, but I wouldn't necessarily argue against, either. Elden Ring and Genshin Impact both have clear BotW inspiration after all.
JRPG and WRPG are still important labels for defining the general genre of two very distinct genres of games. I don't think the country of origin necessarily matters (Soulsborne isn't a JPRG because it's made in Japan, but at the same time I wouldn't call Soulsborn an RPG at all, it's just an action game with RPG-lite elements really. Elden Ring does happen to be a lot closer to an actual RPG than other soulsborne games though.)
Maybe J/W doesn't make as much sense anymore as the name specifics but they're generally understood labels at this point.
One big schism is "back in the day" on PC, "RPG" meant Wizardry and ARPG meant Diablo, and that was that. On Console, "RPG" meant FF and CT. We didn't define by "JRPG" and "WRPG" because it was really "console players had one idea of what is an RPG and it happened to be be a genre that was made in Japan, and PC players had a different idea of what an RPG is and that happened to be Fallout, Wizardry, D&D-based games, etc." Each group was basically unaware of the existence of the other.
It wasn't really until PS3 that each group really started getting exposed to the other, and that's when the confusing of J/W started happening.
The naming made sense, they were two different styles of games by origin. We could have said PC RPG vs Console RPG, but that distinction would make even less sense today since both are on both, so J/W is still more meaningful. But I don't think a game is a JRPG game just because it was made in Japan, and I don't think a game is not a JPRG game just because it wasn't. And we simply lack better terms to describe the two types of games, and even if there were better words getting everyone to agree on them would be next to impossible, so J/WRPG is really the naming we have to work with to describe two subgenres.
OTOH I don't trust Yoshi-P's idea of anything much these days because everything he says seems to indicate he'd rather just be making action adventures and doesn't like RPGs at all despite directing an MMO.
Kind of weird reasoning for an actor where the same reasoning could apply to TV, film, and books..... Imagine people saying "Oh I'm never watching The Last of Us because I binged 24 for 2 weeks straight once and thought "what am I doing with my life" and vowed never to watch a TV series again. "
Realistically I did kind of do that and instead chose to play games where it's interactive and I'm in control and feel like it's less waste of my life than passively sitting there watching a screen, and basically stopped watching all TV and film because it just feels like a time suck compared to the interactivity and involvement of "doing something" in games and having control of the process. So I half get what he means, but, I'm not an actor, he is, and he's contributing to that very type of medium...so it's a weird reasoning for him.
@zbinks Indeed. If I purchase the item and mail them a physical check in a security envelope for payment, I wonder if they'd be willing to rate the authenticity of the enclosed check without actually opening the envelope?
Don't feel bad, Xperia Play. You were supported by Sony just as well as the Vita was. You were a full fledged handheld PlayStation after all, with all the total support that implies!
Death threats over a free app? Yeah, that "shady" competitor certainly sounds like a source of trouble. Though I wouldn't rule out the average deranged internet dwelling PS "fans" threatening. The same kind that were threatening Corey and SSM for delaying GoW:R.
Sony was kind of a big jerk through the whole thing, stringing Sega along, patronizing them. Really hard to like them from the story. But it worked out for the best. PlayStation became iconic and became their own brand and industry upset, Nintendo got the comeuppance they needed, and Sega, though they got kind of screwed, remained independently Sega, and had this gone through they probably would have sooner or later ended up absorbed into what would become PS, and we wouldn't have the Sega of Yakuza and Valkyria fame we have still today. And Sega helped XB kickstart themselves anyway.
Wow, that's some story. Not much room for doubt really. That sounds like Naka, and hindsight shows us Naka's planning is horrible. The only unknown is what got things to the point that Naka was visiting a studio that was knee deep on what was to be a high profile launch title for what sounds like the sole purpose of closing it? Sounds like he was there simply to look in order to gut it for parts....but what led to that moment to begin with? Sounds like the game was progressing far along at that point.
One can only assume that means the bottom really was falling out from Sega well before the DC even launched and they were savaging for parts with no budget.
@RadioHedgeFund I still have my Genesis. I remember it fondly. But the arcade games copied to a console really did define the Genesis, for better or worse.
But yeah, I think when we're talking "mobile" we mean Android + iOS, and the largely F2p marketplace there. Whatever exists on Arcade and only-on-iOS titles that exist really isn't the "mobile" market, considering more than half of the mobile market doesn't even have access to it. That's definitely Apple doing a quasi-console-thing on their platform that's to the side of "mobile" but not dipping their toes into an all-out Pipin2. Thing is it's still such a niche part of the market. Maybe more widespread than Switch, but still a minority of the mobile space, and a lot of people that are dropping $700+ on a phone aren't going to chose which platform they jump into based on which one has Shining Force.
@Maximumbeans "There's something unrefined about a lot of their games, where they end up feeling like an arcade title that shifted production halfway through."
Wasn't that most of the selling point of Sega consoles since the beginning??
@RadioHedgeFund That would suggest the market isn't actually the "mobile" market, but rather Apple's expensive Switch competitor without buttons, specifically that you're celebrating. If it's not Android + iOS it's not "mobile" we're talking about, it's just Apple's console. Android is the majority of the mobile market.
I have to admit the guy is passionate and/or a smooth marketing talker that can almost make you believe in his product. And Ars did really screw it over.
But when you're trying to sell a product who's starting point is aping the design language of the doomed-from-the-start WiiU to the point of near-infringement, as though it's a popular hook, with no actual games you can't get on smart devices, based on the idea that it's more accessible and you can bring your games to other people's houses, which somehow differentiates it from Switch in ways I can't figure out, all in a machine that's trying to compete in Nintendo's price market by being even weaker hardware than Nintendo's already comedic hardware......WTF do you have to be thinking to believe this is a good plan? The thing looks like it's its own Chinese knock-off, except it's a Western company.
He seems to miss the point that the only reason Nintendo's typically terrible hardware sells at all is because of their in-demand game IPs, and the fact that those have made the Nintendo label something of a designer, aspirational brand. Otherwise they'd have gone bankrupt on their low grade hardware decades ago.
I really respect how much quality seems to have gone into this. But trying to launch a console in 2021, even a weird little retro console, really need some serious marketing muscle. I don't know how they plan to achieve that. Even Google pulled the plug on their non-hardware platform attempt. Sure it was AAA, but it's just not easy to do, even for the deepest pockets.
Plus it drips of WiiU design language. That' can't be a positive.
Who would have thought after all that brilliance, all that legal work, and all that defiance of sticking it to The Man......Codemasters would eventually become part of EA....the OTHER company blackmailing platform vendors with their own cartridge production at the time. Small world. Small, rotting, festering world.
It was a great product though! And honestly, Codies can shove all their racing games, this is the one and only product I really know them for. I used my Game Genie extensively, saw the end of so many games I otherwise wouldn't have with it. It was from the original run before the restraining order on them. Still have the book, and box around, as well as a Game Boy Game Genie still unopened in-box I believe. Not bought as collectibles, but original purchase. And my NES slot really shows my extensive Game Genie use.....
A very nice tribute from NL for someone who was obviously an influential figure in gaming in the UK for a long time. Not being from the UK, I'm unfamiliar with him or his work, but it's nice to see such a well crafted tribute, regardless.
One other issue with storage I've recently become aware of through audio is Al electrolytic capacitors, in storage, only have a real shelf-life of about 2-years, particularly older ones. If in storage for too long, the caps can also dry out, but even if they don't they may need a slow shaping current over days to recharge them and bring them back up to normal. I've never been aware of that in the past, that you should take equipment out and power it on periodically. Though I've heard some say that's more of a thing in audio due to older tube driven equipment and the incredible voltages used, so it may or may not affect console caps. But caps from the golden ages of gaming were much lower quality than modern ones to begin with.
It's a cool story, back from when Molyneaux was really a master game designer.
The one common thread from this story, and the ill fated departure from EA, etc, however, is, Mr. Molyneaux seems to have a bit of a drinking problem...and it's gotten him in trouble many times....
@ThanosReXXX well, i said other than 90s gaming enthusiasts. That would be us and I'm guessing other people you knew at the time
But the Nintendo minis have broad nostalgia and culture appeal to non enthusiasts... People that weren't pining over real arcades at home 20 years ago still were familiar with Nintendo
@GravyThief FWIW All modern "Fight Sticks" including the Hori Real Arcade Pro for Switch are still "microswitched" and quite clicky. And the actual arcade cabinets (the commercial sticks of which are the same ones used in the ones for consoles) are mostly still switched. The Japanese style sit-down candy cabinets still use the standard switched sticks. Upright Western cabs vary, crane-games and such with the bat (non-ball) top sticks often are not switched, and just have a really high tension spring.
But like the others said "microswitched" is just 4 industrial grade mouse buttons, basically for up, right, down, left, and when you move the lever, it just presses the buttons. Two for the diagonals for the classic 8-way stick. (By contrast the potentiometers in an analog thumbstick measure the change in resistance as you slide the wiper back and forth by moving the stick. One L/R, one for U/D. Thus arcade sticks can be beat up all day and rarely wear out, while analog sticks fall out of calibration if you look at them funny.
@ThanosReXXX Well....there's a reason VC isn't on Switch....
Not many people own a WiiU, and a Wii is kind of sucky for VC with the controls and analog-out only, and 3DS has no TV out. And Switch has no full VC, so NES Mini and SNES Mini really are the only way to get those bundles of games conveniently on your TV with good controllers. Plus the nostalgia/cultural factor for tons of people.
Neo Geo doesn't have much nostalgia/culture factor other than the gaming enthusiasts of the 90s, and Hamster has made sure Switch has a lot of support for its library, so it's more viable as its own "mini" The thing is the Switch running the Neo Geo games from Hamster not only has full portable play and TV play with digital out, and good controllers, but it also has all the CRT and arcade audio filters to make it a bit more authentic too. So the Switch is definitely the better Neo Geo box. For more money. But isn't that the authentic Neo Geo experience?
Really cool little machine....neatest little mini console to date. Though, the trouble is, cool as the retro aesthetic of the thing is, with all the Hamster Neo Geo ports on switch, the Switch is a much better Neo Geo Mini than the Neo Geo Mini. More expensive....but much better and most of us here already have it without waiting
For all the things this movie can be remembered as, I still think it's most memorable as "Raul Julia's last role." It makes it memorable in a much less campy way that he was in it at all.
IIRC, he's probably the only one among the cast that actually "got" the role, which is probably why he has probably the campiest performance of everyone. While not an SF player himself, his kids were majorly into SF (hey, it was the 90's) which is why he took the role (which was certainly about 20 notches below his stature at that point), both because the shoot locations involved a lot of time close to home to spend with his kids, and for the cool experience of their father being a character from their game. But being familiar with it at home meant he was more familiar with the actual Capcom world more than probably everyone on the set. So he took the role before he found out about the illness...it made a great last role all the way around.
@bimmy-lee as the old saying goes, why must youth be wasted on the young?
Since people are crazy attached to old Sony or Sony perceived franchisees like ff and crash, so it probably depends on if you entered gaming during Nintendo's reign or later on when Sony came out running. To me, Sega and Nintendo were the only games. Atari died (i was apparently premature, seems they just won't stay dead.... ) i didn't even notice Sony arriving and saw it as another b grade not real console from an electronics company like the Phillips machine . Wasnt untl ps2 got big i was like "wait, that's an actual console?" But to some younger folks ps was the original! Everything is classic!
Xb was kind of different in that it never tried to hook kids. It was an adult oriented platform aimed at introducing pc games to a new market, so it'll never have that childhood charm that sucks with you. But it's the spiritual successor of Sega, so in a way xb resonates for me more than Sony. Ms helped build the Dreamcast, and conversely (remnants of) Sega helped build the first xbox. It had some of the Sega vibe to it still just beneath the surface.
@roadrunner343 Haha, I bailed on PC largely because of digital replacing discs a decade ago
Nintendo's the only one that actaully CAN allow turning physical into digital (not that they'll do it, but what MS proposed with XBone and met with backlash, Nintendo could do out of the box, without penalty of backlash.) Since carts are serialized and the hacking article the other day proved Nintendo DOES know when you are sleeping and know when you're awake, it could allow copying the cart to the console and registering with Nintendo it was copied to console (and unlock it accordingly.) Heck maybe that'll be part of N.O. We still don't have many details on it. MS/Sony can't do that. Discs don't have unique encoded serials, so it's just the old CD key on paper for them. I'm not expecting it but it's possible and fits the Switch's portable nature well.
Haha, I think a large physical game collection is for nerds what convertibles were to boomers with grays (I'm sure it's different on the west coast, but around here, I've never seen a convertible without a balding >50 in it )
@bimmy-lee "years whether I enjoyed them or not (curse you Ghosts ‘n Goblins, you miserable rage factory" LOL, admit it though, you bought it again on Wii, WiiU, or 3DS, didn't you?
Sad but true that it has become disposable. Although....while AAA thirdparty is disposable, Nintendo games seem to still be loved forever (may the Melee is the best Smash meme never end), and MS embracing back compat of OG XBox games and the love and care they give to Halo and Gears remasters at fans request tells me even XB fans don't forget the games they loved before. Sony's the closest to pushing from one series to the next like a steamroller.....only occasionally remembering their PS1/PS2 classics. But unlike the AAA third party at least they do remember them.
@roadrunner343 XBox One does allow you to keep multiple local backup storage copies, AND you can back up the system settings, though I don't know if it includes license authorizations. PS4 also lets you back up the whole system to an external drive. On your "Home XBox/Primary PS4" your licenses should be stored locally (refreshed with purchases) so technically if you have a PS4 full system backup, or an X1 with data backups and system config backups, I think you probably could restore your system onto any same model PS4 in the future, licenses in tact (you just would be locked to one hardware unit at a time.) Not so for Switch though.
Of course always online games this doesn't help. But physical wouldn't work either.
The real threat for digital is if your account gets hacked (or distributed to every villager in Micronesia by Sony Corp like last time), you lose your games.
@Ralizah Ohhhhh, no income tax.....now that makes it a different ballgame I'd gladly trade a high state income tax for an extra 3% sales tax Income tax is based on gross, not expenditures! We get State + Local (+ real estate + school) taxes....PLUS the "average" sales tax they always want to increase. Or get rid of sales tax and keep the income tax. Pick one of the other. I did notice TN was high which didn't make sense for a non "elite" state, but that makes sense.
Yeah, I like having carts for RPGs and adventures, even Sushi Striker (it's really more RPG than puzzle game in most ways), but definitely. The "never beaten" games, I'm glad to get digital. Pre-ordered Aces digitally...with the my rewards bonus for preorder it was close to the Amazon discounted physical price in terms of cash to put toward either Smash 4.5 or Okami HD, which I'd do digital for the former and have no choice on the latter.
@bimmy-lee LOL, I'm kind of the inverse. Switch made me double down on physical (with exceptions of online games like Splatoon), meanwhile I bought an X1X to join the 21st century and go digital-only on it
Splatoon dragged me into online gaming on WiiU though....sigh
Pre-order an Atari VCS today, receive a copy of E.T. The Extra Terrestrial ABSOLUTELY FREE! (Limited quantities available, first come first serve, no refunds or exchanges, some exclusions apply, excavation equipment sold separately.)
Honestly, can the situation GET any more Atari than this? Lets bring Nolan back, make it count. We can complete the cycle of suck once more!
$250 for a Linux based Atari? You can get an XBox One S for cheaper than that, new, on sale. Heck, you can get a WiiU....it's still a better value. And unlike this, it actually exists!
@Ralizah Wow, I was unaware of county taxes even being a thing. Got to be either NY or CA. No other state is that [redacted] up. Sadly their kind are invading everywhere. Soon the whole country will have 50% taxes, but free gender changes for your dog (up to 2 changes per dog per year.)
Haha, well, download hoarding, I like to think of it more as a "local backup"....because I don't trust the ISP to always be up when I want it 8 years from now, and because if Sony/MS decide to kill downloads for a game, I've still got it. Plus half the point of a digital library is that it's a button click away taking no more space than a hard drive
And if you want all your games with you on Switch, so you buy digitally, that doesn't do much good if you've deleted them
On Switch it's also a matter of downloads take like 6 hours for small games with frequent disconnects even when WIRED. PS/XB, I can DL at 250mb/s (limited only by the USB3 bus speed!) Switch...it's like 8MB/s on a good day. On wired or wireless. Doesn't matter. It's maybe their eshop servers but even copy switch to switch over local wifi is about the same speed, so I think it's the SD write speed.
@bimmy-lee Previously I couldn't justify trading the right to own my game forever versus entrusting it to "whenever they choose to take it from me" for the same price. But I do admit, the convenience is wonderful...maybe not enough to sell your rights for, but for me it's become a tradeoff of also saving immense money, gaining convenience, and saving storage space in exchange for the inevitability it gets taken from me eventually. I still wish there was a way to install your cart to your system and keep it there like digital. Since each cart has a serial that Nintendo apparently can track, that actually would be possible.
@Ralizah Switch is well suited for digital, but its physical games are also much more portable than discs with the cases...so it's a tradeoff. And if you have a lot of digital you'd have a case of SD cards as well...)
Archive is neat, but it's not really different from the "Purchased" (PS4") or "Ready to install" (X1) tab in the games library to see that complete catalog I suppose
Yeah, that's true about preorder bonuses...another good reason to stick to physical on Switch, where Nintendo seldom discounts digital ever and rarely deep. 20% is 20%....you pay the tax no matter where you buy it....I think average is around 6% on tax so unless you're in CA with a whopping 7.5%, I think most places you're paying that 5-7% But the discount is still 20%....you're paying that digital, physical, or otherwise. Thanks for nothing, Walazon!
@Ralizah That's an interesting take. I bet the industry never imagined moving to digital might make people buy less because there's no physical object to collect!
For me I'm moving somewhat digital because A) For the first time I actually can now that real internet exists here, B) The milk crates and cardboard boxes mentioned above really are overflowing too much.... C) Modern gen games don't benefit from physical copies too much: They're still unplayable without the patches, still get installed to the HDD, and more and more require being always online, so the physical copies die the same day the digital ones do, there's no long term preservation anymore, and D) Sales, and E) on PS/XB sharing games with two systems in the house means buying one copy (on sale) give me a copy for both machines like PS gaming in the mid-90's while physical needs 2. HOWEVER, I'm focusing on XB for digital as I really trust that platform to keep those investments in digital games valuable for some time given all the BC work they've emphasized, more like Steam (but not AS reliable), while I'm sticking with exclusives on PS (of which there are many) and trying to digitize those (I didn't have TOO many physical PS4 games compared to WiiU/3DS/Switch.) I think Detroit is my last "physical only" PS4 game (I even double dipped on P5 despite having the still sealed Take Your Heart edition.)
Switch on the other hand....so much is in physical, collectors editions, etc. The memory situation of SD cards vs carts and the lack of deep sales on digital means I'll likely stick nearly all physical for Switch except online games I may want to jump in at any time (Mario Tennis Aces, Smash 4.5, MK8D, PokkenDX, ARMS, Splatoon 2 is the extent of digital for me on Switch.) Plus the little carts are much easier to store and access than discs. I treat discs like they're uranium fuel rods.
On Switch "physical" still mostly seems to mean physical in the old sense (except 2k games, and not sure about Wolfenstein if it NEEDS the patch or if it's like Doom and most of the game is playable without it.)
"Fonzie - Watermelon's CEO" Well, there's your problem.
I've never heard of this until now, but that commercial....that alone deserved to be kickstarted! It's like stepping into a time machine. I need cereal made with foam rubber dubbed "marshmallows" suddenly.
@Ralizah Ok, yeah, that one's pretty bad. The print ad above wasn't half that awful. But I wouldn't say it wouldn't air today....certainly not with such poor production values....and a lot of the video cuts were very 80's. But plenty of equally awful/weird advertisements run today. They're not better, just costlier!
Comments 55
Re: Konami Had Metal Gear Solid 4 "Running Beautifully And Smoothly" On Xbox 360
@InsaneWade I think there was a dual shock as an rc controller for some gadget as well!
Though it reminds me of Yakuza like a dragon having Xperia ads on billboards and triangle square patterns on the millennium tower construction posters in the intro despite releasing on xb series first!
Re: Konami Had Metal Gear Solid 4 "Running Beautifully And Smoothly" On Xbox 360
Yeahhh I somehow doubt number of discs is the reason. Especially as at that point in the console cycle 360 was by far the dominant platform outside Japan. Either the noted internal bias was the problem, or the original official line that Sony had the contract halted the continued development. Kind of backfired though as they're still trapped on PS3 plus cloud to this day.
Re: Flashback: How A Dead Or Alive 'Love Pillow' Gave Xbox A PR Headache
What we know now that they didn't know then was that Gates was too busy with sexual misconduct in the workplace to care.... Maybe if Xbox Japan had sent him a Kasumi love pillow bundle the board wouldn't have had to exile him for using employee love pillows instead....
Seeing the eventual reality of Xbox in Japan they should have doubled down and launched Kasumi, Cortana, Kazooie love pillows worldwide....it couldn't have hurt
Re: Review: Abxylute Cloud Gaming Console - A Taste Of The Future With A Dash Of The Past
Nice review, I was somewhat curious about this device. Were you able to do any comparison against the Logitech G Cloud? I know this has Hall sticks which Logitech doesn't which is a plus, but it also seems to be a little less "polished" fro now.
Re: We're Not Getting A Third 'Alice' Game From American McGee
It makes no sense they'd refuse a new game but don't want to lose the IP. Either it's valuable or it isn't. That's a weird outcome.
@GeneJacket valid or not, EA could afford endless court challenges McGee couldn't afford to defend. Such is us legal. You don't need to be right. You just need more money than the other guy while arguing that you're right. When they run out, you're now right.
Re: The Making Of: BMX XXX - "We Were Building This Beautiful Skate Park And Ended Up With A Strip Club"
In the age of over-censored, politically correct "game x does not exist in a vacuum" disclaimers, Sony beams of light in anime games, Nintendo censoring out gravura idols, and all the rest, it's impossible to even remember a time it was conceivable that a publisher would go to a developer and say "here's stripper vids we shot at Howard Stern's hangout, you're contractually obligated to put these in your game."
Imagine Konami just sticking porn in eFootball? Actually, nevermind, it's Konami, I actually can imagine that.
Re: Poll: Should Japanese-Made Role-Playing Games Still Be Called JRPGs?
@87th To be fair, that might be because Zelda 2 was an RPG (Miyamoto himself has called it that) so anyone that started around then may have just gotten used to calling it one. It's been argued that BotW is in fact a return to being an RPG as well. I don't agree, but I wouldn't necessarily argue against, either. Elden Ring and Genshin Impact both have clear BotW inspiration after all.
Re: Poll: Should Japanese-Made Role-Playing Games Still Be Called JRPGs?
JRPG and WRPG are still important labels for defining the general genre of two very distinct genres of games. I don't think the country of origin necessarily matters (Soulsborne isn't a JPRG because it's made in Japan, but at the same time I wouldn't call Soulsborn an RPG at all, it's just an action game with RPG-lite elements really. Elden Ring does happen to be a lot closer to an actual RPG than other soulsborne games though.)
Maybe J/W doesn't make as much sense anymore as the name specifics but they're generally understood labels at this point.
One big schism is "back in the day" on PC, "RPG" meant Wizardry and ARPG meant Diablo, and that was that. On Console, "RPG" meant FF and CT. We didn't define by "JRPG" and "WRPG" because it was really "console players had one idea of what is an RPG and it happened to be be a genre that was made in Japan, and PC players had a different idea of what an RPG is and that happened to be Fallout, Wizardry, D&D-based games, etc." Each group was basically unaware of the existence of the other.
It wasn't really until PS3 that each group really started getting exposed to the other, and that's when the confusing of J/W started happening.
The naming made sense, they were two different styles of games by origin. We could have said PC RPG vs Console RPG, but that distinction would make even less sense today since both are on both, so J/W is still more meaningful. But I don't think a game is a JRPG game just because it was made in Japan, and I don't think a game is not a JPRG game just because it wasn't. And we simply lack better terms to describe the two types of games, and even if there were better words getting everyone to agree on them would be next to impossible, so J/WRPG is really the naming we have to work with to describe two subgenres.
OTOH I don't trust Yoshi-P's idea of anything much these days because everything he says seems to indicate he'd rather just be making action adventures and doesn't like RPGs at all despite directing an MMO.
Re: The Last Of Us Star Says Banjo-Kazooie Was So Good It Made Him Quit Video Games
Kind of weird reasoning for an actor where the same reasoning could apply to TV, film, and books..... Imagine people saying "Oh I'm never watching The Last of Us because I binged 24 for 2 weeks straight once and thought "what am I doing with my life" and vowed never to watch a TV series again. "
Realistically I did kind of do that and instead chose to play games where it's interactive and I'm in control and feel like it's less waste of my life than passively sitting there watching a screen, and basically stopped watching all TV and film because it just feels like a time suck compared to the interactivity and involvement of "doing something" in games and having control of the process. So I half get what he means, but, I'm not an actor, he is, and he's contributing to that very type of medium...so it's a weird reasoning for him.
Re: Random: WATA Graded A 2016 Castlevania Repro, And Now It's On eBay For $4,000
@zbinks Indeed. If I purchase the item and mail them a physical check in a security envelope for payment, I wonder if they'd be willing to rate the authenticity of the enclosed check without actually opening the envelope?
Re: Random: WATA Graded A 2016 Castlevania Repro, And Now It's On eBay For $4,000
I'd pay $1k for the signed NFT digital artwork photographed from this sealed mint 6 year old copy!
Re: The Tragic Tale Of The 'PlayStation Phone' That Should Have Changed Everything
Don't feel bad, Xperia Play. You were supported by Sony just as well as the Vita was. You were a full fledged handheld PlayStation after all, with all the total support that implies!
Re: 'Death Threats' Force Development On Android PlayStation 2 Emulator To End
Death threats over a free app? Yeah, that "shady" competitor certainly sounds like a source of trouble. Though I wouldn't rule out the average deranged internet dwelling PS "fans" threatening. The same kind that were threatening Corey and SSM for delaying GoW:R.
Re: Flashback: Sega And Sony Almost Joined Forces To Battle Nintendo In The '90s
Sony was kind of a big jerk through the whole thing, stringing Sega along, patronizing them. Really hard to like them from the story. But it worked out for the best. PlayStation became iconic and became their own brand and industry upset, Nintendo got the comeuppance they needed, and Sega, though they got kind of screwed, remained independently Sega, and had this gone through they probably would have sooner or later ended up absorbed into what would become PS, and we wouldn't have the Sega of Yakuza and Valkyria fame we have still today. And Sega helped XB kickstart themselves anyway.
Re: Welcome To Time Extension
Very nice, I'm loving the 80's arcade theme. It's totally rad!
Re: Yuji Naka Killed "Dreamcast's Star Fox", Says Former Sega Producer
Wow, that's some story. Not much room for doubt really. That sounds like Naka, and hindsight shows us Naka's planning is horrible. The only unknown is what got things to the point that Naka was visiting a studio that was knee deep on what was to be a high profile launch title for what sounds like the sole purpose of closing it? Sounds like he was there simply to look in order to gut it for parts....but what led to that moment to begin with? Sounds like the game was progressing far along at that point.
One can only assume that means the bottom really was falling out from Sega well before the DC even launched and they were savaging for parts with no budget.
Re: Gaiares Is Getting A Physical Re-Release With The Help Of The Kid Who Promoted It 31 Years Ago
Mullet or no buy.
Also "Zz Badnusty" just....wow....Japanese localization was something else in the 80s....I forgot how bad it was.
Re: We're Getting A New Shining Force Game, But Of Course There's A Catch
@RadioHedgeFund I still have my Genesis. I remember it fondly. But the arcade games copied to a console really did define the Genesis, for better or worse.
But yeah, I think when we're talking "mobile" we mean Android + iOS, and the largely F2p marketplace there. Whatever exists on Arcade and only-on-iOS titles that exist really isn't the "mobile" market, considering more than half of the mobile market doesn't even have access to it. That's definitely Apple doing a quasi-console-thing on their platform that's to the side of "mobile" but not dipping their toes into an all-out Pipin2. Thing is it's still such a niche part of the market. Maybe more widespread than Switch, but still a minority of the mobile space, and a lot of people that are dropping $700+ on a phone aren't going to chose which platform they jump into based on which one has Shining Force.
Re: We're Getting A New Shining Force Game, But Of Course There's A Catch
@Maximumbeans "There's something unrefined about a lot of their games, where they end up feeling like an arcade title that shifted production halfway through."
Wasn't that most of the selling point of Sega consoles since the beginning??
@RadioHedgeFund That would suggest the market isn't actually the "mobile" market, but rather Apple's expensive Switch competitor without buttons, specifically that you're celebrating. If it's not Android + iOS it's not "mobile" we're talking about, it's just Apple's console. Android is the majority of the mobile market.
Re: Feature: Intellivision's Tommy Tallarico Wants To Follow In Nintendo's Footsteps, But Will He Get His Chance?
I have to admit the guy is passionate and/or a smooth marketing talker that can almost make you believe in his product. And Ars did really screw it over.
But when you're trying to sell a product who's starting point is aping the design language of the doomed-from-the-start WiiU to the point of near-infringement, as though it's a popular hook, with no actual games you can't get on smart devices, based on the idea that it's more accessible and you can bring your games to other people's houses, which somehow differentiates it from Switch in ways I can't figure out, all in a machine that's trying to compete in Nintendo's price market by being even weaker hardware than Nintendo's already comedic hardware......WTF do you have to be thinking to believe this is a good plan? The thing looks like it's its own Chinese knock-off, except it's a Western company.
He seems to miss the point that the only reason Nintendo's typically terrible hardware sells at all is because of their in-demand game IPs, and the fact that those have made the Nintendo label something of a designer, aspirational brand. Otherwise they'd have gone bankrupt on their low grade hardware decades ago.
Re: Intellivision's Amico Is Shaping Up To Be The Most 'Nintendo' Non-Nintendo System Ever
I really respect how much quality seems to have gone into this. But trying to launch a console in 2021, even a weird little retro console, really need some serious marketing muscle. I don't know how they plan to achieve that. Even Google pulled the plug on their non-hardware platform attempt. Sure it was AAA, but it's just not easy to do, even for the deepest pockets.
Plus it drips of WiiU design language. That' can't be a positive.
Re: Feature: The Story Of The Game Genie, The Cheat Device Nintendo Tried (And Failed) To Kill
Who would have thought after all that brilliance, all that legal work, and all that defiance of sticking it to The Man......Codemasters would eventually become part of EA....the OTHER company blackmailing platform vendors with their own cartridge production at the time. Small world. Small, rotting, festering world.
It was a great product though! And honestly, Codies can shove all their racing games, this is the one and only product I really know them for. I used my Game Genie extensively, saw the end of so many games I otherwise wouldn't have with it. It was from the original run before the restraining order on them. Still have the book, and box around, as well as a Game Boy Game Genie still unopened in-box I believe. Not bought as collectibles, but original purchase. And my NES slot really shows my extensive Game Genie use.....
Re: Hardware Review: Game Gear Micro - Go Home Sega, You're Drunk
They could have spent money optimizing Yakuza: LaD to run half decently on.....any one system. Instead, they did this.
Re: Feature: A Tribute To Jason Brookes
A very nice tribute from NL for someone who was obviously an influential figure in gaming in the UK for a long time. Not being from the UK, I'm unfamiliar with him or his work, but it's nice to see such a well crafted tribute, regardless.
Re: Atari's Attempt To Relaunch The VCS Has Just Hit Another Brick Wall
I have a rusty, waterlogged legit 2600 demo unit in the basement. Still worth more than this!
Re: Feature: Remember When Video Game Football Shirts Were A Big Deal?
I'd say more than any other, that "Playstation" image fully embodies the spirit of the brand...
And that poor, poor, Atari team. I mean you can see on their faces, they know their fate already....
Re: Feature: Your Beloved Games Console Is Slowly But Surely Dying
Such a well made, and depressing article.
One other issue with storage I've recently become aware of through audio is Al electrolytic capacitors, in storage, only have a real shelf-life of about 2-years, particularly older ones. If in storage for too long, the caps can also dry out, but even if they don't they may need a slow shaping current over days to recharge them and bring them back up to normal. I've never been aware of that in the past, that you should take equipment out and power it on periodically. Though I've heard some say that's more of a thing in audio due to older tube driven equipment and the incredible voltages used, so it may or may not affect console caps. But caps from the golden ages of gaming were much lower quality than modern ones to begin with.
Re: Feature: Playing God: How Peter Molyneux Hooked Japan With Populous
It's a cool story, back from when Molyneaux was really a master game designer.
The one common thread from this story, and the ill fated departure from EA, etc, however, is, Mr. Molyneaux seems to have a bit of a drinking problem...and it's gotten him in trouble many times....
Re: Exclusive: Polymega Creator Playmaji On FPGA, Sega Saturn And Dealing With 'Healthy' Scepticism
@Yorumi It's fun what happens when you get a PR guy to talk about internal designs he has zero idea what all the words mean, isn't it?
Re: Hardware Review: Does The SNK Neo Geo Mini Outclass Nintendo's Classic Editions?
@ThanosReXXX well, i said other than 90s gaming enthusiasts. That would be us and I'm guessing other people you knew at the time
But the Nintendo minis have broad nostalgia and culture appeal to non enthusiasts... People that weren't pining over real arcades at home 20 years ago still were familiar with Nintendo
Re: Hardware Review: Does The SNK Neo Geo Mini Outclass Nintendo's Classic Editions?
@GravyThief FWIW All modern "Fight Sticks" including the Hori Real Arcade Pro for Switch are still "microswitched" and quite clicky. And the actual arcade cabinets (the commercial sticks of which are the same ones used in the ones for consoles) are mostly still switched. The Japanese style sit-down candy cabinets still use the standard switched sticks. Upright Western cabs vary, crane-games and such with the bat (non-ball) top sticks often are not switched, and just have a really high tension spring.
But like the others said "microswitched" is just 4 industrial grade mouse buttons, basically for up, right, down, left, and when you move the lever, it just presses the buttons. Two for the diagonals for the classic 8-way stick. (By contrast the potentiometers in an analog thumbstick measure the change in resistance as you slide the wiper back and forth by moving the stick. One L/R, one for U/D. Thus arcade sticks can be beat up all day and rarely wear out, while analog sticks fall out of calibration if you look at them funny.
@ThanosReXXX Well....there's a reason VC isn't on Switch....
Not many people own a WiiU, and a Wii is kind of sucky for VC with the controls and analog-out only, and 3DS has no TV out. And Switch has no full VC, so NES Mini and SNES Mini really are the only way to get those bundles of games conveniently on your TV with good controllers. Plus the nostalgia/cultural factor for tons of people.
Neo Geo doesn't have much nostalgia/culture factor other than the gaming enthusiasts of the 90s, and Hamster has made sure Switch has a lot of support for its library, so it's more viable as its own "mini" The thing is the Switch running the Neo Geo games from Hamster not only has full portable play and TV play with digital out, and good controllers, but it also has all the CRT and arcade audio filters to make it a bit more authentic too. So the Switch is definitely the better Neo Geo box. For more money. But isn't that the authentic Neo Geo experience?
Still, this thing is, like, totes adorbs.
Re: Hardware Review: Does The SNK Neo Geo Mini Outclass Nintendo's Classic Editions?
Really cool little machine....neatest little mini console to date. Though, the trouble is, cool as the retro aesthetic of the thing is, with all the Hamster Neo Geo ports on switch, the Switch is a much better Neo Geo Mini than the Neo Geo Mini. More expensive....but much better and most of us here already have it without waiting
Re: Hardware Classics: Uncovering The Tragic Tale Of The Philips CD-i
CDi....ohhhh Boi......
This thing couldn't sell itself at a flea market. I'm convinced without this Philips-Magnavox would still actually exist in a meaningful way.
Re: Drugs, Military Coups And Reshoots: The Amazing Story Of Street Fighter: The Movie
For all the things this movie can be remembered as, I still think it's most memorable as "Raul Julia's last role." It makes it memorable in a much less campy way that he was in it at all.
IIRC, he's probably the only one among the cast that actually "got" the role, which is probably why he has probably the campiest performance of everyone. While not an SF player himself, his kids were majorly into SF (hey, it was the 90's) which is why he took the role (which was certainly about 20 notches below his stature at that point), both because the shoot locations involved a lot of time close to home to spend with his kids, and for the cool experience of their father being a character from their game. But being familiar with it at home meant he was more familiar with the actual Capcom world more than probably everyone on the set. So he took the role before he found out about the illness...it made a great last role all the way around.
Re: Feature: What Makes A Person Sell Their Entire Retro Games Collection?
@bimmy-lee as the old saying goes, why must youth be wasted on the young?
Since people are crazy attached to old Sony or Sony perceived franchisees like ff and crash, so it probably depends on if you entered gaming during Nintendo's reign or later on when Sony came out running. To me, Sega and Nintendo were the only games. Atari died (i was apparently premature, seems they just won't stay dead.... ) i didn't even notice Sony arriving and saw it as another b grade not real console from an electronics company like the Phillips machine . Wasnt untl ps2 got big i was like "wait, that's an actual console?" But to some younger folks ps was the original! Everything is classic!
Xb was kind of different in that it never tried to hook kids. It was an adult oriented platform aimed at introducing pc games to a new market, so it'll never have that childhood charm that sucks with you. But it's the spiritual successor of Sega, so in a way xb resonates for me more than Sony. Ms helped build the Dreamcast, and conversely (remnants of) Sega helped build the first xbox. It had some of the Sega vibe to it still just beneath the surface.
Re: Feature: What Makes A Person Sell Their Entire Retro Games Collection?
@roadrunner343 Haha, I bailed on PC largely because of digital replacing discs a decade ago
Nintendo's the only one that actaully CAN allow turning physical into digital (not that they'll do it, but what MS proposed with XBone and met with backlash, Nintendo could do out of the box, without penalty of backlash.) Since carts are serialized and the hacking article the other day proved Nintendo DOES know when you are sleeping and know when you're awake, it could allow copying the cart to the console and registering with Nintendo it was copied to console (and unlock it accordingly.) Heck maybe that'll be part of N.O. We still don't have many details on it. MS/Sony can't do that. Discs don't have unique encoded serials, so it's just the old CD key on paper for them. I'm not expecting it but it's possible and fits the Switch's portable nature well.
Haha, I think a large physical game collection is for nerds what convertibles were to boomers with grays (I'm sure it's different on the west coast, but around here, I've never seen a convertible without a balding >50 in it )
Re: Feature: What Makes A Person Sell Their Entire Retro Games Collection?
@bimmy-lee "years whether I enjoyed them or not (curse you Ghosts ‘n Goblins, you miserable rage factory" LOL, admit it though, you bought it again on Wii, WiiU, or 3DS, didn't you?
Sad but true that it has become disposable. Although....while AAA thirdparty is disposable, Nintendo games seem to still be loved forever (may the Melee is the best Smash meme never end), and MS embracing back compat of OG XBox games and the love and care they give to Halo and Gears remasters at fans request tells me even XB fans don't forget the games they loved before. Sony's the closest to pushing from one series to the next like a steamroller.....only occasionally remembering their PS1/PS2 classics. But unlike the AAA third party at least they do remember them.
Re: Feature: What Makes A Person Sell Their Entire Retro Games Collection?
@roadrunner343 XBox One does allow you to keep multiple local backup storage copies, AND you can back up the system settings, though I don't know if it includes license authorizations. PS4 also lets you back up the whole system to an external drive. On your "Home XBox/Primary PS4" your licenses should be stored locally (refreshed with purchases) so technically if you have a PS4 full system backup, or an X1 with data backups and system config backups, I think you probably could restore your system onto any same model PS4 in the future, licenses in tact (you just would be locked to one hardware unit at a time.) Not so for Switch though.
Of course always online games this doesn't help. But physical wouldn't work either.
The real threat for digital is if your account gets hacked (or distributed to every villager in Micronesia by Sony Corp like last time), you lose your games.
Re: Feature: What Makes A Person Sell Their Entire Retro Games Collection?
@Ralizah Ohhhhh, no income tax.....now that makes it a different ballgame I'd gladly trade a high state income tax for an extra 3% sales tax Income tax is based on gross, not expenditures! We get State + Local (+ real estate + school) taxes....PLUS the "average" sales tax they always want to increase. Or get rid of sales tax and keep the income tax. Pick one of the other. I did notice TN was high which didn't make sense for a non "elite" state, but that makes sense.
Yeah, I like having carts for RPGs and adventures, even Sushi Striker (it's really more RPG than puzzle game in most ways), but definitely. The "never beaten" games, I'm glad to get digital. Pre-ordered Aces digitally...with the my rewards bonus for preorder it was close to the Amazon discounted physical price in terms of cash to put toward either Smash 4.5 or Okami HD, which I'd do digital for the former and have no choice on the latter.
Re: Feature: What Makes A Person Sell Their Entire Retro Games Collection?
@bimmy-lee LOL, I'm kind of the inverse. Switch made me double down on physical (with exceptions of online games like Splatoon), meanwhile I bought an X1X to join the 21st century and go digital-only on it
Splatoon dragged me into online gaming on WiiU though....sigh
Re: Atari Comes Under Fire For Seemingly Knowing Very Little About Its Crowdfunded VCS Console
Pre-order an Atari VCS today, receive a copy of E.T. The Extra Terrestrial ABSOLUTELY FREE! (Limited quantities available, first come first serve, no refunds or exchanges, some exclusions apply, excavation equipment sold separately.)
Honestly, can the situation GET any more Atari than this? Lets bring Nolan back, make it count. We can complete the cycle of suck once more!
$250 for a Linux based Atari? You can get an XBox One S for cheaper than that, new, on sale. Heck, you can get a WiiU....it's still a better value. And unlike this, it actually exists!
Re: Feature: What Makes A Person Sell Their Entire Retro Games Collection?
@Ralizah Wow, I was unaware of county taxes even being a thing. Got to be either NY or CA. No other state is that [redacted] up. Sadly their kind are invading everywhere. Soon the whole country will have 50% taxes, but free gender changes for your dog (up to 2 changes per dog per year.)
Haha, well, download hoarding, I like to think of it more as a "local backup"....because I don't trust the ISP to always be up when I want it 8 years from now, and because if Sony/MS decide to kill downloads for a game, I've still got it. Plus half the point of a digital library is that it's a button click away taking no more space than a hard drive
And if you want all your games with you on Switch, so you buy digitally, that doesn't do much good if you've deleted them
On Switch it's also a matter of downloads take like 6 hours for small games with frequent disconnects even when WIRED. PS/XB, I can DL at 250mb/s (limited only by the USB3 bus speed!) Switch...it's like 8MB/s on a good day. On wired or wireless. Doesn't matter. It's maybe their eshop servers but even copy switch to switch over local wifi is about the same speed, so I think it's the SD write speed.
Re: Feature: What Makes A Person Sell Their Entire Retro Games Collection?
@bimmy-lee Previously I couldn't justify trading the right to own my game forever versus entrusting it to "whenever they choose to take it from me" for the same price. But I do admit, the convenience is wonderful...maybe not enough to sell your rights for, but for me it's become a tradeoff of also saving immense money, gaining convenience, and saving storage space in exchange for the inevitability it gets taken from me eventually. I still wish there was a way to install your cart to your system and keep it there like digital. Since each cart has a serial that Nintendo apparently can track, that actually would be possible.
Re: Feature: What Makes A Person Sell Their Entire Retro Games Collection?
@Ralizah Switch is well suited for digital, but its physical games are also much more portable than discs with the cases...so it's a tradeoff. And if you have a lot of digital you'd have a case of SD cards as well...)
Archive is neat, but it's not really different from the "Purchased" (PS4") or "Ready to install" (X1) tab in the games library to see that complete catalog I suppose
Yeah, that's true about preorder bonuses...another good reason to stick to physical on Switch, where Nintendo seldom discounts digital ever and rarely deep. 20% is 20%....you pay the tax no matter where you buy it....I think average is around 6% on tax so unless you're in CA with a whopping 7.5%, I think most places you're paying that 5-7% But the discount is still 20%....you're paying that digital, physical, or otherwise. Thanks for nothing, Walazon!
Re: Feature: What Makes A Person Sell Their Entire Retro Games Collection?
@Ralizah That's an interesting take. I bet the industry never imagined moving to digital might make people buy less because there's no physical object to collect!
For me I'm moving somewhat digital because A) For the first time I actually can now that real internet exists here, B) The milk crates and cardboard boxes mentioned above really are overflowing too much.... C) Modern gen games don't benefit from physical copies too much: They're still unplayable without the patches, still get installed to the HDD, and more and more require being always online, so the physical copies die the same day the digital ones do, there's no long term preservation anymore, and D) Sales, and E) on PS/XB sharing games with two systems in the house means buying one copy (on sale) give me a copy for both machines like PS gaming in the mid-90's while physical needs 2. HOWEVER, I'm focusing on XB for digital as I really trust that platform to keep those investments in digital games valuable for some time given all the BC work they've emphasized, more like Steam (but not AS reliable), while I'm sticking with exclusives on PS (of which there are many) and trying to digitize those (I didn't have TOO many physical PS4 games compared to WiiU/3DS/Switch.) I think Detroit is my last "physical only" PS4 game (I even double dipped on P5 despite having the still sealed Take Your Heart edition.)
Switch on the other hand....so much is in physical, collectors editions, etc. The memory situation of SD cards vs carts and the lack of deep sales on digital means I'll likely stick nearly all physical for Switch except online games I may want to jump in at any time (Mario Tennis Aces, Smash 4.5, MK8D, PokkenDX, ARMS, Splatoon 2 is the extent of digital for me on Switch.) Plus the little carts are much easier to store and access than discs. I treat discs like they're uranium fuel rods.
On Switch "physical" still mostly seems to mean physical in the old sense (except 2k games, and not sure about Wolfenstein if it NEEDS the patch or if it's like Doom and most of the game is playable without it.)
Re: Feature: What Makes A Person Sell Their Entire Retro Games Collection?
@Anti-Matter You and @JaxonH have the most organized video game shrines I've ever seen!
I have random piles filling milk crates and cardboard boxes, most falling over each other
Re: Exclusive: The Artist Behind Troubled Sega Mega Drive Fighter Paprium Speaks Out
"Fonzie - Watermelon's CEO"
Well, there's your problem.
I've never heard of this until now, but that commercial....that alone deserved to be kickstarted! It's like stepping into a time machine. I need cereal made with foam rubber dubbed "marshmallows" suddenly.
Re: Hardware Classics: Unpacking The 32X, Sega's Most Catastrophic Console Failure
@Ralizah Ok, yeah, that one's pretty bad. The print ad above wasn't half that awful. But I wouldn't say it wouldn't air today....certainly not with such poor production values....and a lot of the video cuts were very 80's. But plenty of equally awful/weird advertisements run today. They're not better, just costlier!
Re: Hardware Classics: Unpacking The 32X, Sega's Most Catastrophic Console Failure
I love that French ad up top. I like to call it "Fifty Shades of Fail."
I actually owned a 32x for about two weeks.....and realized there were no games for it. I bought it cheap. At Toys R' Us.
Like a fail within a fail within a fail....
@Ralizah And new advertisements are less weird? At least those were creative. Well, ok, that French one is just weird....
Re: Atari's New Console Seems To Be Part NES Classic Mini, Part Ouya
@Lone_Beagle Corporate Kickstarter: The go-to investment source for when your stock options are valued worse than junk rating!