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Denver, 11:02 AM
Sun Nov 8
17 posts in the last 24 hours
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08/04/09
08/04/09
08/03/09
there is a player by the name of Randall Gay (used to be with the Pats, but I think he's with the Steelers now?) whose jersey you couldn't buy online because it was a "bad" name.
08/03/09
Poor Microsoft... they will eventually allow for sexual orientation style naming and as sure as I am alive, they will be sued by someone claiming a hate crime was committed against them. That's just how we humans are. I seriously doubt that GLAAD speaks for all homosexual people out there and I'm sure that even for those that they speak for (just like straight folks), there are litigious gay people who will find offense.
When people do report offenses, I wonder how many will feel that the teem of hundreds around the world on LIVE will be able to processes hundreds of thousands of complaints a day. How long until someone feels that MS just doesn't care and finds a starving lawyer to take their case.
Unless we can come up with an AI that understands human sensibilities, we will never filter the internet. Seriously, try telling a computer that "A$$" isn't nonsense :( Tell it that it is and watch "A$$$" come along. You either allow people to type "ass" and be done with it or just say we will do everything we can to ban "[anything that looks like an A][anything that looks like it will make a look like ASS]*$". Hell, even regular expressions aren't here yet and Unicode is a large character set. You'd think opening the flood gates is a more logical conclusion but Corporations hate getting sued and people love to sue :(
If people were built better then we wouldn't have to worry about these things but unfortunately we are built like people and because we know this, we compensate with technology.
08/03/09
sometimes last names are very unfortunate.
08/03/09
08/03/09
It reminds me of the old comedian "Penis Van Lesbian" who had to change his name to get into showbiz.
Dick Van Dyke
08/03/09
08/04/09
Your father isn't the U.S. civil servant Randy Bumgardner by any chance is he?
I've loved strange names ever since meeting the chap in our village called Orson Cart.
08/03/09
07/28/09
1) Slavery is not glorified nor was the South's role in the war.
2) The Civil War was a setting, pure and simple. The game is not about the Civil War. It takes place during the Civil War. Just because The Sound of Music had Nazis in it doesn't necessarily make it a fascist movie, now does it?
Wow, just wow. Next I'm going to hear Company of Heroes is for Nazis because you can play as them and the game doesn't spend its time condemning Aushwitz.
07/20/09
I think that was the key word that did it for me... I'm glad this was brought to light and actually puts an end to this whole duck chase of a generation... There is no reason for sony or microsoft to follow after the nintendo.
However, 360's Natal is most appealing at this moment. Given that Wii's underused motion controller is officially labeled a "gimmick" and should no longer be pushed, I say move on Nintendo... come out with the HD console already...
07/19/09
Stephen? is that you? color me surprised.
motion control was new territory. Nintendo stepped in first.... really first. believe it or not, tech doesn't always work 100% like they want it on the first try (see: RROD).
M+ is the next step towards those "promises" (which apparently Sony and MS never make, eh? see: PS3's Home)
if you haven't found incredible motion control experiences on the Wii then you weren't looking hard enough.
I'm sure you'll find them when the "real" consoles imitate Nintendo next year, right? only THEN will the motion control revolution be justified, yea?
I know I can't wait for that article =P
07/19/09
As far as developers are concerned, well...I would argue that only a VERY small handful of 'the worlds most expert game creators' have even TRIED to make a Wii game. Many of them, for whatever reason, want nothing to do with it.
Part of this, I think, is because for whatever reason, a lot of these studios have ALWAYS waited for Nintendo to take the lead on their own consoles and show them how it's done (and they wonder why they think they can't compete with Nintendo). This goes back to the SNES days at least, but it was most obvious during the N64 era.
The problem this time around has been that Nintendo themselves haven't exactly shown other studios what to do, too. There is no 'hardcore' style game from Nintendo that does for motion control gaming what, say, Ocarina of Time did for 3D gaming. I'm personally hoping that the next Zelda will be that game. It'd certainly be poetic, in that sense.
Playing devil's advocate with myself, though, you could just as well argue that Nintendo DID show people what the Hell to do with Wii Sports and Wii Play, and most notably Metroid Prime 3...and developers just haven't really put those ideas to use. In particular with Wii Play.
Where are, for example, my games that take a page from Tanks! and have that kind of aiming mechanic? Not ever WiiWare games have tried this. Why on Earth haven't I been able to play a game like a new Earthworm Jim where you aim with the IR pointer like that?
Of course, what REALLY boggles my mind is that many developers, outside of Capcom maybe, haven't even gotten a grasp on the fucking IR POINTER still. I mean it's like "come on guys...you've been doing almost the exact same fucking thing on the PC for the past 20 years and you STILL can't figure out how to make the damn IR pointer fun?"
It over all just shows that absolute lack of effort on the part of developers when it comes to Wii games.
The other failure, though, is with the fanboys who just CANNOT grasp the thought that motion controls ARE just better sometimes. There have been occasional glimmers of light that shine through their tightly shut eyes, as is the case with MadWorld and No More Heroes, where they get it that while you could press a button, the motion is just better suited to the corresponding action.
But that's not the case in many other games, too, unfortunately.
Super Mario Galaxy is usually the whipping boy for this line of thinking. "Galaxy would be just as good with a regular controller!" the fanboys shriek. But they're wrong. Ignoring the fact that collecting Star Bits would be a tedious pain in the ass with the second analog stick, you'd also lose that small but visceral connection you get when you launch Mario from a star by twirling the Wiimote. It wouldn't be the same if you pushed a button. Or never mind the levels like where Mario is balancing on a ball would be pretty much pointless with a regular controller. In Galaxy's case, motion control was used to accent existing game mechanics or foundations. It wasn't built around it like MadWorld or Boom Blox. A lot of people don't seem to get that.
I've said it before myself...you can make a game control however you want and have it be acceptable and functional. Shit, Capcom has Resident Evil 4 on mobiles now and it's still relatively enjoyable.
So just because you CAN make an action, like swinging a sword, happen via a button press, doesn't mean it's the best solution.
So just imagine if in some parallel universe (where it's getting harder and harder to tell what came first!) that the NES/Famicom was based primarily around motion controls and in 2006 Nintendo released the Wii, which is primarily based around button presses.
You would have people saying that pressing a button is a gimmick. You would have people moaning that it's not as much fun pressing a button because making a motion works just as well.
In a way, though, you can't really blame the fanboys. Most of them don't really think about that kind of stuff, nor should they be expected to. They react to what they see around them and so far, it's fair to say that they haven't seen much good or improvement. They're still waiting for the Ocarina of Time of motion controls.
So yeah. It's sad to say, but Nintendo really has to step up to the plate — again — and really show developers and publishers how the hell motion control SHOULD be done.
So far they have shown no sign of doing that, outside of Metroid. I think a lot of people are, again, looking to Zelda Wii to really open people's eyes.
...I just hope Nintendo themselves realize that!
This post that no one will read because of Kotaku's awful, retarded comment system has been brought to you by MR. FAP☆FAP!, in partnership with Toto Ltd. brand Japanese toilets
07/19/09
I just want to add one thing though and that is I don't think Nintendo is 100% at fault for making the Wii into a pool of shovelware/mini game console. In my eyes, the devs are too scared to try something new and although I see why (3rd party stuff don't sell too well), it sucks they have to wait and see what Nintendo does and then try to ride on their success by copying it.
07/20/09
07/19/09
Now two years on, we see that this hasn't happened to the extent Nintendo expected, so we have an admission of an oversight... nothing more.
Maybe not. But that's how I see it.
07/19/09
Bloom Blox, Zak and Wiki and even No more Heroes used the motion controller differently, but IMO successfully to make it fun and or unique, but if there was one thing they all had in common, was all of them sold poorly.
I'm hoping Natal breaks that crux motion seems to have with games and hopefully down the line we'll get these motion stuff in some other type of game genres used successfully without being reused like seeing a yo-yo in 3D.
Natal showed what it can do for racing games (kind of), but lets hope we can see great things for shooters, RPGs , platform games, etc so that everyone can enjoy them and at the same time appease the "hardcore" crowd.
It'll be a hard and difficult road, but the game industry is young and change never happened overnight. Especially something that is growing and being seemingly being accepted somewhat in the general public.
Cheers to the new era of our video games. Our hobby, our euphoria, our relaxation, our life, our friend.
07/19/09
07/19/09
07/20/09
We have a massive insurge of people who barely or never played video games before and in order to reach them, you have to make a strong effort to. Playable demos at Wal-mart, ads during prime time..not on freaking MTV and Adult Swimg. Newspaper ads, Today Show spots..all of that stuff reaches causals.
If we want these causals to get as passionate about gaming as we do, then it's up to the developers to step up and stop just tossing games on the market with little to no fanfare.
07/19/09
07/19/09
Nintendo was in the hole after the Gamecube, and unlike Microsoft and Sony, they're a company that focuses exclusively on gaming. They realized they couldn't follow in the trend of the others and build what is essentially a high end PC that plays console games, ala the 360 and PS3, so they went for broke and tried something different.
I think that motion control is fundamentally broken, but I really have to respect Nintendo for trying something different.
07/19/09
07/19/09
07/19/09
I don't buy that line of reasoning that the audiences won't stick around or come back, personally. There is no reason to yet, at least.
As far as the casual crowd goes, I think Wii Sports Resort and then Wii Fit Plus are going to be the first two big tests to see if they stick around.
As far as the hardcore crowd goes...hardcore gamers will ALWAYS be there. Especially Nintendo's core, which is what got them through the Gamecube primarily.
Even if they're not there at first, they WILL be there eventually when a compelling piece of software drops.
The 'hardcore' crowd is ALWAYS the first to snap.
Hell, if Nintendo could line up a true AAA-level 'hardcore' third party title that would make 360 fantards jealous enough, it's a guarantee that they'd all go out and buy a Wii.
07/20/09
Natal will not in any way have any real impact on the Wii because of one simple fact, it's not the primary controller. The Wiimote for whatever flaws it has is the primary controller for the system and ships with every unit. Natal is not and will not.
The PS2 did not become the monster it is because of the core. Causals took it there.
07/20/09
And like Foxstar said, the so-called "core" gamer is far less important to the industry than the so-called "core" gamer wants to believe.