Flaight

lol. Yeah, and I was just thinking maybe all that stress would lead to lower sperm count and defficient child birth, creating a bottleneck to reproduction. So now we have proven that Wii Sports is bad for the entire species of humankind and the survival of our civilization

After all the conflicting reviews (which put me off buying red steel this long), at last I gathered courage to buy it so I can make up my own mind. Spent quite some hours playing it this afternoon and I'm not disappointed. I don't think the controls are that dodgy. Reminds me of the first time I played FPS with mouse + keyboard, but I'm better this time. It's hardly worth the criticism of a game. If anything, I think it's well implemented. Im beginning to wonder whether those complaining about it just don't have much dexterity. I can run around a corner while turning the head against the rotation, while firing pinpoint at the enemy, without holding A. Much like on PC FPS. Not much difference then, from PC gaming, but feels really refreshing for me after a decade of keyboard + mouse FPS. I'm relieved to find that Wii control interface can match mouse+keyboard when players get used to it.

Wii sports = moving arms moving arms = using more energy using more energy = eating more food & drink eating more food & drink = spending more money spending more money = work more to earn money work more to earn money = more stress in daily life more stress in daily life = shorter life expectancy That proves that Wii sports is bad for you. So the criticism is justified

I agree with you, but thats because I've been a gamer for many years. I'm well covered in countering idiocy that happens online. Nintendo seems to be enforcing good friends to form a circle and encourage gaming among them. Their system makes sense when you look at it that way. I doubt very much Nintendo did this to make the system convenient. Rather, they did it based on a philosophy they have about the social dynamics, to defend non-gamers from techno geeks' volatile & eratic online culture. Unlike most online multiplayer systems, Nintendo had to think about little kids and grandmas playing online. They MUST have thought about this. Nintendo must have given it a lot of thought. They must have considered simpler system and add counter-measures such as blacklisting. Then they thought "actually, it's better to try block out idiocy in the first place rather than reacting to it afterwards".

My fav was: And to a lesser extent:

Yeah, I think the dub wasn't too bad... Not ideal, but it's forgivable. You know Next door neighbour Totoro thing. That dub was ear splitting. And any of you here know the very first non-japanese release of Warriors of The Wind? That dub was so bad it made me cry (but this japanese chap who was showing this to me thought I was crying because it was impressive... )

Yeah alright, that is a fair point and I agree. My earlier point was that that sort of system is so easily bypassed by a hapless youngster and Nintendo is bending over backward to avoid it. Finding a mate (on or offline) and adding him on both ends require a proactive effort on both ends to complete the link. Of course no system is perfect, but such aggressive persuit of proactiveness increases security. Like it or not, I see where Nintendo is coming from. They are basically trying to emulate goold old console multiplier where your real life friends gather around your TV and console; you know them well and they aren't strangers. Nintendo wants you to get codes from your friends and build a multiplier sphere of close friendship, and play among them. I reckon Nintendo will introduce some sort of system that's more flexible in the future. You know how some DS games allow random games online, and also specific friends games with more communication features. It's not entirely a bad idea.

just a couple of times?! God, I abuse that grapple hook like a madman. I must say it kinda does make those levels a lot easier, a little too easy at times, but I never get tired of that WAAAAAH!! thing that grappled bunnie makes. Besides my GF loves it so... :awesome:

Hey! You should congratulate me for putting all that into a single line "it's meant to be the divider of time". :p lol just kidding (well, sort of). You did elaborate on it very well, I couldn't have put it better myself.

I think it's just meant to be the divider of time. You do it 80 times and you'll be 80 years old. And probably a very dead one.

None so far... In fact I don't even know what my code is. remember when ABC in the US ran a story about how a paedophile contacted a girl through pictochat on DS? I think Nintendo is trying to protect themselves. Invitation system you are describing can easily break down if a youngster just clicks on 'yes' without much thought.

Open all the windows, turn up the volume to max. Then grab a bunny with grapple hook and hold. Eventually your uneasy nextdoor neighbour will call the police to investigate whats been going on in your house.

I still haven't found a way to do that in DKC. I don't think there ever was one It's so awkward playing it and all my local shops have sold out on classic pad.

Oh and the music... I love that tune! You know the bit where the scales come off the dragon. Amazing climax in that piece of music.

Elekko, it sound like a rejection at face value. But I tend to analyze and then realize (or delude myself?) that there is a plausible explanation so Im not a very good advisor. I'll just say to me it can be both ways from what you say. Talking of analysis, I asked a girl out for a drink this summer and had a few drinks in london. While on platform she suddenly turned around and said to me... (drum roll) "Do you think a friendship is possible between a man and a woman?" WHAAAAAT!??? was what I was thinking deep down, but thought seriously for few secs then replied, "... yeah I guess so but you are attractive.". I dated her a few more times after that and at last formally asked her out. She turned me down. To this day, I don't know WTF all that was about. Women... I HATE THEM ALL!! j/k

I loved it when it first arrived in britain. and tuned in BBC2 again for it and I was reminded again how impressive it is. The story is amazing. I love how the concept of "good vs bad" is completely blown away. In a way it's very unchristian, yet the emotional journey is incredible. This movie highlights what's unique and beautiful about humanity and that is expressed so simply through what the girl does. I reckon the world will become more screwed up as more and more people lose the perceptiveness to feel why this movie was celebrated so much.

Happy New Year everyone..!! My new year's resolution is to play all the backlog of games I've been meaning to play for the past 10 years...

That's a very dangerous line to walk. I don't necessarily disagree with your sentiments in itself, but still potentially cripplingly dangerous for the principles of justice.

It's used via Wii's opera browser. You put a few photos, music and video files on your PC and then load them up in Wii via opera browser. No need for mem sticks to do the transfers as the WiFi network does the transmission. You always keep the files on the PC. Whatever is loaded into Wii is temporary.

You are implying that DQ9 is "going backward in technology"? If so that's a good point, and a friend and I had a big debate about that last week. In conclusion tho, we felt that it may work out rather nicely. DQ series isn't FF series in design concept. DQ isn't meant to have "all the awesome voices, cutscenes and so on" as its focus was on subjective experiences rather than objective theatricality. In various threads I briefly skimmed over the detail about this philosophical difference between the 2 series, as it's a common myth in the west that FF and DQ are trying to achieve the same thing. But anyway, still I think it is a valid point that "going backward" in technology is bound to raise a few eyebrows, especially from those who prefer FF design philosophy. So it's anyone's guess if it's the right move for DQ series. If I had any say in it, I'd say it is a good move just for the sake of giving DQ a chance to come back to its roots.

I just tried with DKC, and I can't find Options anywhere. So, for now Im stuck with awkward mapping (B, Y, X as main buttons:shakehead). Also, at the start it actually says "You will need a classic controller". I ram buttons at the start to get past credits etc so I hadnt read it properly before :p This is weird because in VC shop GC pad logo is there alongside classic controller logo... That sounded so logical, I found myself vigorously nodding at first. Then I thought, actually probably won't make that much difference to retro gaming piracy

Cow throwing is pretty hard for me on timing the release. But I can do it, just about. I did what BlueStar said with pumping action, but I still find it impossible to be consistent, and still stupidly tiring. I think my prob is that I can't shake it quickly & consistently. So, here I am tossing one fist up and down flexing at the wrist. I don't think I'm coming across too well to ladies (yes, I am fully clothed and holding nunchuck...)

Had this for about 3 weeks now and its been a nice on-and-off game for me. Nothing I'd play for hours or delve into like Zelda, but it's been a good refresher when I feel like playing something else. Like Luigi's mansion, I think this game will be "phased out" as bigger badder games come out in bucket loads in 2007, but it's such a good laugh, my GF loves the way they scream lol Oh and I can't seem to do the "pumping" games at all. Like that one where you have to shake nunchuck to pump water and shoot at oncoming rabbits, I can't get any power in the water And I get so tired. Every other minigame else has been good though. My fav is the dancing floor one

Thanks for the heads up Viper. That does sound like a horrific mapping on GC pad. BTW I DL'd donkey kong country and I don't like the key mapping on GC. It's so clumsy as the big A button is used for switching the kongs while you have to hit all the little ones around it for main controls...!! How absurd!! So I'll be buying the classic pad... yeah I know it's annoying but I reckon it won't just be DK country and Super Castlevania that will have dodgy mapping.

At the very least HDTV's fuction is misunderstood by vast majority of gamers. As I remarked earlier, at the moment there is no hardware/software combination that can approach the realism of DVD film quality, even on standard definition. Still, admittedly the pre-rendered graphics in HDTV is awesome. If you were to fill out the whole game by such pre-rendering, you would need crap loads of disc space to achieve it. I reckon even HD-DVD won't be enough in a long run. Not that we need to do that in games, but just saying.