Comments that don't warrant a thread

[World's Worst Man 0]

I rented Chrono Trigger back in the mid-90's and liked it. I played it years later via emulator and the awful PS1 port and while it was still generally enjoyable (well, not the PS1 port with its terrible load times), the battle/character systems stuck out like a sore thumb.

 

If you're gonna do the emulation thing, it's worth it to invest in a nice gamepad. You can generally get a quality dual-analog, 8 button for between $20-40. The one I have cost me $30 and it has the 2 analog sticks w/buttons on each, d-pad, 6 face buttons, 2 shoulder buttons and 2 program button than be used as regular buttons in games.

[World's Worst Man 0]

http://videogames.yahoo.com/ongoingfeature...6738&page=0

 

This is all gold.

[AndrewTS 0]

Guess which company has a negative news story about them in Europe?

 

You guessed it.

 

Apparently the Church of England was not happy about Resistince featuring gun battles in a photo-realistic cathedral, citing igorance towards real gun violence problems in Manchester.

 

It cites the "ultra-violent" game as featuring players killing "soldiers" in a church that is apparently modeled on the Manchester cathedral.

 

Ok, I admit in Gears I can confuse "soldiers" all the time with the Locust Horde because of the darkness, but the bug baddies in Resistance, according to all players I've discussed the matter with, aren't even humanoid!!!

 

When Sony had the chance to rebut it, they said "uh, it's not real," instead of pointing out the flagrant inaccuracies.

 

Any time mainstream press covers video games, expect the most ridiculously lax, inaccurate reporting imaginable.

[AndrewTS 0]

this is strictly my own perspective talking here, but I didn't play Chrono Trigger for the first time until 2002 via emulator and I loved it...but I'm also a fan of those old school RPGs.

 

Chrono Trigger came out (in America) the same *month* we got the Playstation, BTW. Seiken Densetsu 3 came out in Japan around that time, too.

 

It was about half a year longer and we'd get Super Mario RPG.

 

A whole year after we got CT we'd get Beyond the Beyond, which I'd *swear* should be getting praised any moment now, because of nostalgia!!~~ A few months later came Suikoden (December 96), arguably the first PS1 RPG that mattered in any way, shape or form.

 

It was a full two years after CT came out that PS1 got Final Fantasy VII, and RPGs were getting on their way of being "next gen"...graphically, at least. Aside from that, the genre's evolution has been rather uneventful.

 

The next entry in that fanboyism-enraptured nostalgia trip thing I posted:

http://www.gamespite.net/verbalspew/archives/entry_332.php

[Black Lushus 0]

interesting, did not know those facts...

[AndrewTS 0]

interesting, did not know those facts...

 

Something Square needs to be credited for, for better or for worse, is that they tried to push the graphic envelope. The SNES had gorgeous Square RPGs like Seiken Densetsu 2 (Secret of Mana), Seiken Densetsu 3, Final Fantasy VI, Evermore (even if you dislike the game...), Mario RPG. Other companies' RPGs? Well, there was Breath of Fire and that's about it. I guess you can only make squat RPG characters and overhead backgrounds look just so good, but Square seemed to aim for exceptional.

 

Early RPGs on PS1 were largely 2D or ineffective 3D experiments. FFVII opened the floodgates. I guess justification for larger budgets helped a lot, too.

[mysterious_w 0]

Wild Arms would be a good example for that. They stuck with SNES syle 2D environments (nicely animated though), then went 3D for the battles, but it was really blocky models, even for early PS1 days.

[Black Lushus 0]

speaking of PS RPGs, I'd like Xenogears a lot more if the 2nd CD wasn't total bullshit....oh and the fact that there were more face/heel turns than Big Show's had.

[EricMM 0]

Wild Arm's music was great! Add good CD quality music with classic 2D sprites and a fancy schmancy anime intro and you have a perfect RPG for that era. Never should have gone for that combat system though...

 

But IIRC the PSX was no good at 2D?

[AndrewTS 0]

But IIRC the PSX was no good at 2D?

 

People said that in 1995. BEFORE Symphony, Guilty Gear, Metal Slug X, Street Fighter Alpha, etc.

 

PS1 does have lower internal RAM than Saturn, so the system has a lower capacity for prerendered animation. That means that it may not be able to hold every frame of animation/every element in memory for immediate use.

 

So, what developers can do are:

 

1. Change the animation frames/graphic elements. This is most common with arcade translations, and it was common for years when developers made ports to the 16 bitters. Heck, the home version of Killer Instinct 2 did the same thing, using 3D BGs instead of the arcade's BGs, which were basically FMV.

 

2. Let the game load the necessary elements. You'll notice this with Shang Tsung's morphs in the PS1 games; keeping every character's animations in memory at once isn't going to happen, but same character works fine. RPGs can get away with it because of their inherently slow pace, but not fighters.

 

3. Adapt the game play itself to the hardware. Capcom turned X-Men vs. Street Fighter into a one-on-one fighter, with the "crossover mode" only available to use if the character choices were limited.

 

4. Use an add-on of some sort. Saturn had an additional RAM cart that plugged into the system to expand its RAM. Well, two technically (1MB, used mainly by SNK, and 4MB, mainly used by Capcom), but you could also get one that switched back and forth between them. PS1 didn't have this option. This allowed Vampire Savior and X-Men vs. Street Fighter to be practically perfect ports.

 

Most pre-FFVII RPGs were like that (anime intro, 2D sprites, high quality music), but afterwards 3D became the norm quickly.

[Black Lushus 0]

I've always been a Johnny-Come-Lately when it comes to home consoles. I didn't play SOTN until it became a Greatest Hits title in 98 or 99, same with MGS.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

I received an e-mail from MS stating I had successfully renewed my XBL subscription. This is a bit troubling as, with only an original Xbox and no convenient way to keep it hooked up (I don't have a router and need to unplug the main internet connection to hook it up) I figured I would just not renew it until the day came where I got an Xbox 360. I haven't actually used XBL since it auto-renewed last year on a CC I no longer have (it was canceled due to identity theft). I'm wondering how MS processed automatic payment on a renewal when I never gave them any updated credit info (verified by the fact that it didn't accept my current CC's last 4 digits) and I just assumed their attempts to auto-renew me would fail, saving me the hassle of calling them to tell them I didn't want to renew. I hope I haven't accidentally committed some sort of credit fraud... I assume MS will catch their error and reverse the renewal.

[El Psycho Diablo 0]

That happened to me, too.

 

You'll just get an e-mail in a day or two saying that it failed to process.

[Anya 0]

A very angry Peter Moore will be coming after you.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

Final Fight / SF animated series crossover:

 

http://youtube.com/watch?v=zGH351kEMbA

http://youtube.com/watch?v=MOAcSc81CG8

[Matt Young 0]

I received an e-mail from MS stating I had successfully renewed my XBL subscription. This is a bit troubling as, with only an original Xbox and no convenient way to keep it hooked up (I don't have a router and need to unplug the main internet connection to hook it up) I figured I would just not renew it until the day came where I got an Xbox 360. I haven't actually used XBL since it auto-renewed last year on a CC I no longer have (it was canceled due to identity theft). I'm wondering how MS processed automatic payment on a renewal when I never gave them any updated credit info (verified by the fact that it didn't accept my current CC's last 4 digits) and I just assumed their attempts to auto-renew me would fail, saving me the hassle of calling them to tell them I didn't want to renew. I hope I haven't accidentally committed some sort of credit fraud... I assume MS will catch their error and reverse the renewal.

 

That happened to me as well. It's actually a good thing. I got a notice saying that the credit card was invalid and my subscription would be terminated. I purchased a 1 year card (with the Live Vision Cam) but it would not let me redeem the code until the service was actually canceled for some reason. It took MS approximately 2 months to actually end my subscription, so I essentially got 2 free months.

[Black Lushus 0]

Final Fight / SF animated series crossover:

 

http://youtube.com/watch?v=zGH351kEMbA

http://youtube.com/watch?v=MOAcSc81CG8

 

haha I remember this series...GI JOE rip off. It was sort of fun to watch, though.

 

Why is Zangief always portrayed as a bad guy? I guess I never looked at him that way.

[Matt Young 0]

Final Fight / SF animated series crossover:

 

http://youtube.com/watch?v=zGH351kEMbA

http://youtube.com/watch?v=MOAcSc81CG8

 

haha I remember this series...GI JOE rip off. It was sort of fun to watch, though.

 

Why is Zangief always portrayed as a bad guy? I guess I never looked at him that way.

 

He's Russian. Duh.

[Black Lushus 0]

haha oh yeah that's right!

[Guest]

World of Warcraft has sucked me in. I knew that would happen once I got DSL, but this fast?

 

I'm playing the trial edition, but I already bought the full game. Rrrr.

[luke-o 0]

Man, i hate World of Warcraft so much. I honest can't see it's appeal and I still blame it for the downfall of my last relationship.

 

The only good thing to come from that bastard game was one of (if not the best) episodes of South Park.

[World's Worst Man 0]

One needs experience with the genre to see the appeal of WoW. MMOs provide people the opportunity to play a character in a huge world, with thousands of other people. WoW just takes that format and gives people a lot more to do compared to its predecessors. Most MMORPGs thats came before WoW were sorely lacking in content, which meant people spent their time grinding against monsters to advance their characters. WoW has a lot of quests that people can do, so advancing the character isn't such a boring grind. Given that games like EverQuest were as successful of as they were despite being an incredibly long and boring grind, it's no surprise that WoW has garnered a large following given that it's much more friendly in that regard. It appeals to the casuals and hardcore alike, not just the latter like many earlier MMORPGs, and that gives it a large pool of possible consumers.

[mysterious_w 0]

I played Maple Story, grindfest of all grindfests. Put me off the genre, which is probably a good thing.

[Red Baron 0]

One needs experience with the genre to see the appeal of WoW. MMOs provide people the opportunity to play a character in a huge world, with thousands of other people. WoW just takes that format and gives people a lot more to do compared to its predecessors. Most MMORPGs thats came before WoW were sorely lacking in content, which meant people spent their time grinding against monsters to advance their characters. WoW has a lot of quests that people can do, so advancing the character isn't such a boring grind. Given that games like EverQuest were as successful of as they were despite being an incredibly long and boring grind, it's no surprise that WoW has garnered a large following given that it's much more friendly in that regard. It appeals to the casuals and hardcore alike, not just the latter like many earlier MMORPGs, and that gives it a large pool of possible consumers.

 

 

So wouldn't Diablo be some sort of an MMORPG then, or is it too linear?

[World's Worst Man 0]

Diablo multiplayer only supported up to 8 people per game I think it was, and it didn't have a persistent world. It would just be considered a "multiplayer RPG". MMO typically entails a persistent world with many players.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

I'm waiting for MMO's to evolve into an all encompassing deal as presented in the .hack series.

[USC Wuz Robbed! 0]

I'm waiting for MMO's to evolve into an all encompassing deal as presented in the .hack series.

 

Only if nobody dies in a hospital from it. The first .hack series was great, not sure about the second, haven't played it yet.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

I've never played any of it, just saw some of the anime.

[World's Worst Man 0]

The first series of games were action RPGs, not unlike PSO. Not bad, but the games were too short on account of Bandai's cash grab idea of releasing four separate games instead of the 1 or 2 it should have been.

[AndrewTS 0]

Speaking of anime, ADV is going to release the Xenosaga anime in the US. So instead of just watching Xenosaga...and occasionally pressing a button on a controller, now you can just watch Xenosaga, occasionally pressing a button a DVD remote.