SimonM7

Well it sort of helps the Princess toastol thing here in sweden. Toastol = crapper.

His name is actually still Robotnik if that is any consolation.

Photo realism huh? I dunno, I think at some point we need to look at whether it's really worth it. Film, despite being actors and real stuff, usually have sets. Sets are what you see in the movie, so there's no reason to have an entire city all dressed up if you're never gonna notice it. The fact that you can zoom in on the tires and read the make in PGR3.. I dunno man.. Once you're driving around - playing a game - it doesn't really matter. There are things you notice on the whole, whilst playing. I think lighting and motion effects and the way things react to your presence is interesting stuff because those are things you subconciously notice. Whether there's real, rendered hair on your character's chest when all you do in the game is stare at his butt is irrelevant. To me anyway. So yeah, I suppose I feel pretty good with what the Wii is. That's no reason to get sloppy and not pay attention to crafting your visuals well, but things like Dewy show that efforts are already made in that area. Meanwhile, this friday Okami came out, certainly proving what you can do from an artistic standpoint with things that you - again - notice while you're actually playing the game. I think graphics are starting to make input systems look rather silly aswell. I look at Crysis and I think "JEESUS!", and then I realise we'll be WASDing and clicking our way through its bordering on absurdly detailed environments. And yeah, it gets a bit silly. It's like a 200kg, 2m tall bodybuilder with a tiny penis I reckon.

Well, I think when Nintendo designed the Gamecube pad they had the very same intentions of "disruptive" thinking as they do now with the Wii, shaking things up by placing buttons where they did in the shapes they did to encourage devs to think differently about how to use it. Of course everyone except nintendo themselves just shoehorned PS2/Xbox controls into it anyway, and people were annoyed that "the c stick was shit". In one sense I'm grateful that it feels awkward to play SNES games on it while it feels good to play Gamecube games on it - it means they actually got somewhere. I'm sure in 10 years from now Wipeout 1 will still map perfectly onto the newest Playstation pad.

I'll take wacky multilayered smart/silly Eggman over one-dimensional yelling Robotnik any day of the week, every week of the year. I thought all the voices worked great in Sonic The Hedgehog to be honest (thanks in large part to a better script of course) and like I said before I haven't seen enough english Sonic X to know what the other guys sound like, but I definitely think Jason Griffith does a good job. And yeah, I've watched both SatAM and Underground, though the latter made me cringe to near-unrecognizable shapes of pain.

I think he does a good job in the games, definitely. The complete dub of Sonic X is annoying to the max though, so I watched that fansubbed with japanese voices, hence I can't really tell how he works out in the long run. His job on Sonic, Jet and Shadow for the games though? I think he's perfectly alright. I'm from a different "world" of Sonic though. I didn't have that childhood growing up with SatAM thing, so I've seen it afterwards once my Sonic fandom fired up. To me he's small and fat and sounds super one dimensional. Sonic X sort of drags things out, anime-with-filler style, but watching it with the original voices it gets really, genuinely good. It has some arcing stuff that makes it difficult to take to the turtles-esque intrigue and awful, ugly, charmless Robotnik of Underground and SatAM.

Blood in Zelda would be the first sign of the apocalypse, surely. I wonder though, what "kiddy" means in this case. For me, games that are extremely easy, simple and shallow - like those Bob the Builder games for PC I suppose - are kiddy. They're kiddy because they're games simple enough for kids to play them, and they hold no appeal in terms of mechanics or challenge to a seasoned gamer. To me, kiddy isn't so much about themes, it's the expected "intellect" and "understanding" of the audience. For me, a game like Mario was never kiddy, because it poses a challenge to me in my 20s. Is Sonic "kiddy?", did angry Shadow with guns really make those games more "mature?". I think the distinction there is purely made on part of the person who finds a blue hedgehog stupid. I dunno if that alone makes it kiddy though. So when Capcom say kiddy, does that mean Bob the Builder kiddy or Megaman "kiddy?". Because if it's the latter I can't bring myself to care, I think Megaman games are way cool.

I feel the same way right now. I mean I completed the game and everything, and didn't have nearly the same problems with the core bits (camera/controls) that everyone else seemed to have. Right now I'm trying to get S on everything and I'm up to Crisis City with Sonic, and I keep getting fucking cars chucked in my head to the point where my S becomes a B. Gets me every time and I turn off the 360 in pure, unadulterated rage. It's the randomness of physics and sometimes the controls that cock things up. Add to that load times of fucking beardgrowage and it's just the type of game that doesn't seem to want you to play it.

Ugh, Sonic sounded like a male Miss Piggy in satam and sonic underground.

I'm really happy with the way Nintendo handled it. I think that's a really important part of this type of games finding acceptance in the mainstream. I think especially Nintendo saying it could have an impact, and I hope they stand firmly by this statement.

Well they tried turning her on in Sonic The Hedgehog, so...

Gamevideos server must be on the moon or something because it takes ages to buffer for me. Gamespot has a couple of new vids I hadn't seen before though.

Don't tell me, I am! I was just pointing it out to the other guy, whose name I forgot.

Bunnies can't play soccer and reviewers can't play Sonic. But it looks snazzy in places, especially the sky surfing bits.

Or, A) Quick ports and experimenting with controls = team that knows what works before tackling a big, brand new IP. B) Jumping right at a brand new IP = a game that costs a lot of money and takes longer to come out, with the risk of having botched controls. I think at this point a lot of devs want to play around with the system and test the water. Some things are gonna work better than other things, and a lot of it is gonna incorporate as many different uses for the Wiimote as possible (hence mini game compilations to the max). The DS saw a similar trend, though ports weren't quite the issue there. Once devs start to compete with similar control schemes, the race will put an emphasis on other tech aspects again. Time is gonna fix all of your issues, just be patient.

Not when you play it on a cube pad they aren't. Look up Y and B on the cube pad and realise awkwardness!

So while other people like the console because it's their only one, you have a more noble reasoning behind your preference? Could it be.. and this is far out, I know.. that other people have more than one game they enjoy on the system, thus enjoying the console alot, whilst your limited taste means that you only like that one game and therefore prefer other consoles? Bar PS3 I have every console imaginable and I still feel the most thrilled about playing on my Wii system. Sure enough I've completed everything I bought for it and I'm now out of titles to play, but I keep getting VC titles and beating my best records on Monkey Ball because I just find it so damn fun to play on. The 360 sits there with Gears of War and whatnot, but I've barely been on it since I got the Wii. Why is this whole opinions and preference concept so difficult for you to grasp?

But they're cute, and they'll make cute sounds, and they're like descendants of Nightopians!

Dammit, that's not what I was saying! I said there ARE chaos in this game, but yeah they're in minigames not in the main game. (Well they still could be I suppose, but the site just reveals chaos in the minigames) STH totally neglected them alltogether.

I think there's a window somewhere around the ages 15-18 where you can potentially end up shunning everything you believe compromises your manlyness. I'm willing to wager you'll see more twentysomethings being excited about both this and Dewy.

Eurogamer has the trailer on their EGTV if you wanna skip all the pointless "if you can type a date of birth you're old enough!" nonsense.

One word on that site warms my heart; Chao! Sonic The Hedgehog neglected all of the established stuff in the Adventure games to an almost insulting degree, but the most heartbreaking was that the Chaos were obviously disregarded of completely. I applaud SATSR for yet another nod to the nicer bits of Sonic.

Well if we mix in the "right" to do something it gets incredibly vague. I'm sure you'll have a tough case if you wanna argue self defence if you've suffocated someone though. From a legal standpoint. Totally beside the point that, but yeah. Anyway, I'm sure I was about to say something worthwhile aswell... AH! Yes. Um. Psychologically speaking, do you feel that a person capable of shooting another person would just as easily be able to suffocate another person? Make up any circumstance you feel would apply. Personally? I don't think so. I mean I've never held a gun pointed at someone so I can't really imagine what it would be like, but shooting someone is such an instantanious act compared to fucking up someone's breathing to the point where his eyes and tongue come popping out of his head. If I get to guess? I think I'd be able to shoot someone if I had to, but not the latter. I dunno if that automatically makes it less human, or if shooting someone is more human, but it's certainly less physical, and that I believe makes it easier for a "sane" person to perform it. Of course, we - or I - may be confusing these acts with the way they're depicted in fiction. Shooting is usually rather clean, and when suffocation is used as a device, it's often to depict the person as more violent and unsympathetic. That has prolly coloured me, but I guess the point still stands.

Well I suppose it depends on what your perspective is, but I sure make a distinction between shooting someone and suffocating them with a plastic bag. In terms of the state of mind for instance, shooting someone is "detached", it could be a reflex, self defence or a means of "warfare" - in which case it's neccessary evil but used in an "effective" way. The games that depict shooting usually do so in a range of graphical ways, but it's rarely sadistic or gratuitous. Suffocating or strangling someone is an infinitely more methodical and inhuman way of killing. Surely there'd be a difference if there were "suffocate 'em ups" instead of Streets of Rage. I'm not sure I can agree with you that there's no difference. I know what you're getting at and I'm against censorship too, I also think that the subject matter should be allowed in games just as it is in movies and books, but I also definitely think there's a greater responsibility attached in justifying the use of such graphic and downright more "violent" acts. If it's just to attract people like Zeldafreak then maybe it hasn't really earned the right to be there in the first place. "With great powers come great responsibility" and all that. The same thing I think can be applied when you aim to upset. There are plenty of propaganda that's effective because it uses shocking images to wake people up and pay attention to the message - justified by the fact that there is a message. If they just showed shocking images for no reason then it's debatable if it's worth it. Of course, who's to decide there is a message? Who's to decide if the gameplay is good enough to justify the subject matter? That's where censorship comes in - and leaves abruptly if I get to decide. There simply isn't a way for a commitee or for "experts" to sit down with Manhunt and say "alright, this game is good enough". Edited for a special DKC message: Well, that's fine too. It's perfectly possible to simply not buy the game. Movies like Saw have tackled the subject of "what would you do to survive?", and I honestly find the question quite fascinating. I'm not sure Manhunt was meant to make you think about something like that, but with me it does. I think the "experience" of being in that position (of course without ACTUALLY being in that position) is an excellent use of the medium.

I remain cautiously hopeful after the super average Red Steel was elevated to moderate greatness by the sheer novelty and thrill of using Wii controls.