Nicktendo
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Posts posted by Nicktendo
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Been following you on instagram from the beginning and I just have to say massive respect to you Retro. I've loved following your journey through your fantastic photos, really made me want to explore the UK more, though maybe not exclusively on foot
A huge well done, and I hope you achieved all your goals, you're doing it for a very worthy cause. -
@S\.C\.G Hmm, think I'll go for it, and if it feels too much turn it off
There isn't much by way of real spoilers. It's mostly speculation. The level of detail into the game mechanics and world is fantastic, though and it really goes in depth in showing off most of what we've already seen. If you want to get hyped, watch it!
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Just finished watching it. So hyped for this game now.
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Some of the best landlords I've had have been through gumtree, put out an advertisement if you can!
I actually think I've managed to get a place through rightmove (was with an agency), sent off the fees for the credit checks today and offered to pay 6-months up front. I kind of had to.
I've only ever had bad experiences with private landlords through gumtree, unfortunately. I had two places in Leeds when I was a student which were awful. Both times I didn't get my full deposit back despite leaving everything in excellent condition... I had an agency tenancy when I moved back to York after uni, and despite being expensive (fees etc), it was much smoother than dealing with the landlord directly, especially when our boiler broke mid-winter and they paid for us to stay in a hotel for a couple of nights. It was -20 outside to be fair.
I really hope eveything goes through with this flat, it's a beautiful mill conversion just outside of Bolton and it was much bigger and more luxurious than anything for the same price in Manchester itself.
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Can't make it tonight, unfortunately. Nintendo let me down :/
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House renting is the worst. No agency is prepared to give me a tenancy because I haven't found a job yet and I haven't lived in the UK for 4 years and thus have no recent tenancy history. My girlfriend is starting uni in 2 weeks in Manchester and I have to pay either 6 months or a year up front just to be accepted. The UK and all this regulation sucks. Why can't the UK be more like Canada, where the tenant is king and the law is much more in their favour as opposed to the landlord / agent?
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Thanks to The Mole for running the league, and also to DCubed and Redshell for the excellent highlights videos, they have been a pure joy to watch!
This week I am in*
*Providing Nintendo delivers my AC adapter on time. If not, then I won't be able to play. I'll confirm 100% on Thursday evening an hour or so before the start.
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In terms of Nintendo podcasts, RFN is still miles ahead of all the others. They have a nice variety of opinions, cover things over this side of the pond (Greg), funny as hell and they are Nintendo fans and not fanboys.
Couldn't agree more, RFN is miles ahead of anything Nintendo related. I've been listening for 2 years now and love every show. The only person I'm not keen on is occasional guest Serene (sp?) McNulty, her voice really irritates me and she tends to talk too much. I still listen to NVC every week but only really enjoy it when Peer and Brian are both on the show, Jose is a bit "meh", but I do enjoy hearing what he has to say, the regular Pokemon talk bores me to tears...
I absolutely LOVE the Famicast as well, it's by far my favourite podcast, but to call it a "Nintendo" podcast would be pushing it. Ty and Danny almost NEVER have Nintendo games in new business, only really James talks exclusively about Nintendo. The banter and discussion is always top notch though, the insight into life Japan and the rapport between the presenters is unmatched in my opinion. Love it when they do quizzes and fake or real or when James rips on everyone in an OTT British way. From an entertainment perspective, it's the best out there, but those looking for Nintendo news would probably not get much out of it
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I remember reading on GAF that it would likely be a 540p screen. This was due to the fact as it would be much easier to upscale to 1080p on the TV screen. Personally, on a say six-inch screen, I really don't think we'd see much difference between 720p and 540p, and if 540p would mean better battery life, cheaper / easier development then I think it would be much more sensible that going for 720p.
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@Hero\-of\-Time and @londragon don't know if you saw it. But the podcast above I think you may like!
I've had a listen to a few episodes of this and do enjoy it, though I agree with H-o-T a lot of the Rare stuff was complete nonsense. A good podcast, but I'm not too keen on the lead guy. Enjoyed the episode with the guy who made Mutant Mudds, and it's always fun hearing what people would do if they were in charge of Nintendo.
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Maybe try contacting Nintendo UK?
Gave them a call yesterday after having no luck in town. Managed to get the Wii U charger and the gamepad one for £40. Bit pricey but there was no other option. Cheers mate.
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...and it looks like it's going to be a very similar story to the Wii U, i.e. minuscule 3rd party support and basically nothing but Nintendo titles.
Reckon you would still buy one, or not?
(This is excluding whatever the system specs may be, online functionality etc., as to not complicate things further.
)For me, as frustrating as the situation with Wii U has been, looking back on it now (even with also owning a PC and PS3/4) there's absolutely no way I could've gone without playing the great games that got released on it, especially Mario Kart 8 and Super Mario Maker!
So yeah, just curious as to how many people here would still consider Nintendo's own content enough to invest in yet another console, solely for the exclusives.
P.S. Please be excellent to each other. Thanks.
The Wii and the Gamecube were never enough for me personally. I was a multi-platfrom gamer back in those days. As I've gotten older, my time for gaming has shrunk and I barely have enough time to play everything I want on my Wii U and 3DS. The fact that they are only going to be supporting one console is great for me! I still have my PC if there's something I really want to play that's unavailable on NX.
I completely understand that Nintendo doesn't do enough for most gamers, but I'm in that minority, I guess, that is content with that. Personally, I don't want to spend money on another console just to play a few releases that I could probably pick up on Steam anyway and that will run on my PC with the graphics on the minimum setting.
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That was a hell of a lot of fun tonight! Great amounts of choas, should make brilliant highlights.
@Glen\-i yeah, I won't be doing that anymore
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I'm in this week!
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There has been a lack of realistic racers on Nintendo consoles for years! In fact the last decent one that even springs to mind is World Driver Championship on the N64. If Nintendo don't want to give us analogue triggers on the NX then I guess we'll be left waiting even longer, maybe forever.
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So I'm watch Chelsea vs. West Ham on the local TV station and I have to say the new Premier League graphics are ugly as sin! Who ever thought this was a good idea? I wouldn't be surprised if the person who 'designed' this rubbish picked up a massive cheque as well....
Thankfully SKY, BT and the BBC use their own graphics. All of which are at the very least inoffensive!
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This is out on Mac now for anyone interested
I've put in a couple hours - on the one hand I'm loving it - on the other hand, it is such a complete rip off of harvest moon it's pretty scandalous! Particularly friends of mineral town. Really doesn't seem to put that much of a new spin on anything aside from the levelling.
I agree with what you say about it being the best of all the old games thoughh. Also I'm finding I want to focus on all areas of the game - going to be a major time sink!
I've put around 30 hours into it so far and I'm only at the start of year 2. I've also completely ignored the relationship aspects... Definitely a time sink, but tremendous fun.
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I also remember hanging out with him in AC back in the day. A really great guy and a passionate gamer. 29 is so young.
Rest in peace.
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My suggestion is quite simple and borrows mainly from what someone said before.
Have a new league starting every 3 or 4 months. Minimum of somewhere between 40 and 60% attendance (decided by all of us democratically) to be included in the final results. Working off the same average we do now - Points / GPs = average points.
My only concern is when we have two groups running when we have 16 or more players. I'm all for divding it by top 8 / bottom 8 etc. but I think the points earned should ideally reflect the league table standings, i.e. group one's points are multiplied by 1.25 and group two's by 0.75 or something like that, so there are no huge unfair jumps or drops in the standings. Those that don't meet the minimum attendence requirements would automatically be in group 2.
I've been working the past few weeks on a Thursday and will continue to do so until the end of August, so that's me out for the time being.
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In your cinema example the cinema is a function; the film is the medium. Films aren't losing popularity, just the cinema, which starts to lose out to the home. That's why companies like Microsoft were/are desperate to own your living room space with their TV TV TV push.
So to favourably compare to your cinema example - gaming arcades, the function, lose their popularity - which they already have. If we look at the actual games, which are the medium, they are totally different - stats show sales of PS4s are higher than any PlayStation console before it. Even if video game uptake stopped rising, technology constantly improves to allow better games to be made at the same cost. That is why I don't see it as doomed.
We also now see incredibly competent companies that handle outsource work no doubt for cheap (see FFX remaster, Wind Waker HD). And even ingenious ways that small teams can make big games (see No Man's Sky).
I agree that the cinema is the fuction, but it's also where the majority of the money is made. How many people will still buy it on Sky Box Office? How many people buy it on disc compared to 20 years ago? Alternatively, how much does Hollywood make from someone just waiting and watching their film on Nextflix six months later? The production costs go up, as does the price of the ticket or the disc or the box office viewing.
Of course, gaming is not the same as film in many regards, but if we're talking specifically about blockbusters, games which push the boundaries of technology, then the costs will always rise (see bold highlight). Graphics in the yearly franchise updates have to improve, as does A.I, physics etc, otherwise, what's the point in buying the new game? All of this costs money, money which the consumer surrenders to get that improved experience. Cease to improve a franchise and it's audience will fall off. No Man's sky is a good example of an "independent film" (with Sony support), something which genuinely pushes the boundaries in an innovative and interesting way, but does so in a cost-effective way. It hasn't been without its problems though, particularly the endless delays. I'd be interested to see if this can be a real big seller, or whether it will go the way of other games of its ilk and sell a good, but not great number and make the developer a decent haul of cash. Do you think it can reach mainstream blockbuster levels of sales, 5, 10, 15 million? I'm genuinely asking here.
Remasters and remakes are great, and I love seeing these great games in full HD with new controls etc, but they are not, in my opinion, the games which really sell systems.
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Just to throw a spanner to that - there are games like Overwatch where all microtransactions are purely cosmetic; they also promise free maps and characters for life, funded no doubt by said microtransactions. They can be done very well, if the developer wills it. Many games with a serious competitive side do not have microtransactions that affect actual gameplay (Destiny too). This is a model I definitely agree with as it means we tend to get updates for free.
Also regarding the on-disc content, I'd say we're getting more and more. The scale of games gets bigger and bigger while the price tag stays pretty solid. GTAV is much bigger, more detailed and feature-rich than GTA3 - and yet, the price was pretty much the same. You could argue the same for many other games too - like Assassin's Creed Syndicate. The scale and detail is immense in that game. As the scale and amount of content increases with these games (as it always seems to), I can only see games becoming better value for money as time goes on.
As I said before, games back in the 90s were actually quite poor value; consider the average wage then and they were really quite expensive. Also think about games like Smash 64 and the limited number of characters and levels - compare that to Smash of today. I honestly completely disagree that games now seem to offer less and less for your money.
The problem as I see it is that gaming has exploded, to the point that people spend more on games as there are a lot more games of good quality to buy.
For sure there are great examples like Overwatch, but you and I both know these are the exception to the rule. Splatoon is also a fantastic example of this. Gaming has indeed exploded since the 90s, and prices have adjusted accordingly for the mass market. More people buying games = lower price points. GTA 5 is bigger and better in every way than it's predecessors, but that's down to the advances in technology and capability of the hardware. GTA 3 was also ridiculous for it's time, as was DK64, Gran Turismo 2, the original Zelda etc etc. This trend will undoubtedly continue, but so will the rising costs, which is the crux of my argument. I don't disagree with most of what you're saying, I'm simply suggesting that at some point there won't be the user base to support these ever-expanding projects, and as that time draws closer, we'll likely be offered a gradually worse deal as gamers, and these exploitative practices will become more commonplace.
Look at it this way, the number of people going to the cinema has dropped off massively since the 90s with the advancement of technology, the Internet, more forms of entertainment etc. Many independent cinemas have shut their doors in the past 20 years and huge multiplexes are pretty much all that remain, standing on the outskirts of cities. Films are more expensive and grand than they have ever been, yet to compensate their increasing production costs, prices have risen many, many times above inflation, not just for tickets, but for everything else like drinks and popcorn. Who's to say that same cut off point for gaming isn't right around the corner if things continue this way?
Not sure I think it's more about MS trying to drive W10.While at the same time admitting that "only on Xbox" doesn't quite have the same meaning it once did? I'm sure that every serious PC gamer has already upgraded or plans to upgrade to Windows 10, especially considering it was free for 7 and 8 users.
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Not as willing to exploit gamers back then? Can you really say DLC is that? They're giving gamers what they want - because if it wasn't what they wanted, they wouldn't buy it. Secondly, if you see it that way, that's still not true. Back then on PC you would have expansion packs for games that functioned exactly the same as modern DLC. Why not on console? Because they did not have hard drives then, and they could just reuse an engine and assets and sell it as a new game instead.
You're bringing up some good examples of bullshit practices that are employed now but that doesn't really go to show that gaming is more expensive. I could still buy games for cheaper than I could then even buy some microtransactions and it'd probably still be cheaper than a game back then.
I'm also not having a lesser experience, or missing out on the 'full' experience in Pokemon Go by not paying. Paying in that game would speed things up but I wouldn't be experiencing any new content or modes of any kind, so I disagree with you on that. In fact that's how it is on most F2P games - the money never really buys you content. Arguably, paying to win would also be a lot less satisfying and therefore actually detract from the experience for me.
I don't disagree with you, but having DLC on the disc or holding back content is definitely something that wouldn't have happened back then, though it is standard fare in 2015. They may be giving gamers what they want in some cases, but they also may be giving them what they haven't got in others.
Banjo Kazooie and Tooie are perfect 1990s examples of re-using assets, but they were two complete games, set in different worlds and were seperated by a £50 price tag. I bought the first, was massively satisfied and rented the second becuase I was unwilling back then to spend that much money on a similar, but also complete experience. It totally bombed as well. We all, as gamers, have a choice how to spend our cash. PC gaming has always been different, admittedly more so back then, and hard-drives give us the choice whether to spend more on expanding, if we like the game, just like I did for Mario Kart 8 and Smash Bros (even if the pricing wasn't great). The point I'm trying to make is that this content is not always good value, or as I mentioned before, is already on the disc or planned before release, this in partuclar is what I despise, and something that seems to becoming more common.
Those of us like me, and probably you, who are happy with our game which comes on the disc or is F2P are seemingly at a disadvantage. Firstly, because competative gaming gives the advantage to those who spend. For example, I have absolutely no hope of ever taking over a gym on Pokemon Go unless I spend 5 hours a day playing it, which I can't, therefore I can't get the full experience without paying. Paying to win is cheap (in the bad sense
) and unsatisfying, and I also would never even give it a thought. Secondly, the actual on-disc content seems to be becoming less and less, and as I mentioned in my previous posts, there will become a point where gamers like you and I could just say no becuase a retail game may no longer justify it's £40 price tag. This is a problem I see happening mainly with blockbuster games more than anything else. Humble bundles and Playstation Plus are undoubtedly great, but so were bargain bins in 1998, or second hand games. It seems to me that it's just an evolution of that for the digital age. -
You don't have to deal with microtransactions though? Don't understand why you say that. It's totally optional and we have seen in games like Destiny how events can be brought to every player because they fund development with microtransactions. Also happening with Pokemon Go - free to play for me because the game is supported by microtransactions. So that's good news!
Not sure what your point is about season passes - you realise that is people paying up front for unmade DLC right? So again...don't pay it. And you'll be getting just your game, just like you were back then. It sounds to me like you're bringing up loads of stuff that you can spend money on as a way of saying gaming now is more expensive. Well, it's not. Because all that extra stuff is just that - extra, optional stuff on top of the original game.
Coming back to the original point about regular (non F2P) games - these are £40 now, they were £50-60 on N64 in 1998. So no, it's not costing me any more today. Significantly less, in fact. And with budgets getting much bigger, but prices of games staying roughly the same, arguably you are getting decent value for money there too.
We have already seen countless examples of how DLC is announced before a game's release, or is included on the disk with a microtransaction unlocking it. Pre-order bonuses are now a thing. Special editions. Exploitative practices are now accepted as the norm. People who do spend extra money, above the £40 base are always at an advantage if the game is competative, even Pokemon Go is evidence of that. Like I said, if you want the "full experience" you are asked to pay more. The reason we didn't see it in 1998 is because developers were less able / willing to exploit gamers. You paid for a game and bought the entire work of the developer. Nintendo, by the way, is just as guilty as other developers of these practices, but it highlights how gaming in it's 1998 form would now be unsustainable.
Anyway, to get back to the original point. I'm much happier Nintendo have chosen to go down this route as opposed to the standard next-gen route mainly for the points I've outlined above, but mostly because I don't think they have the desire or the funds to compete with Sony and Microsoft and it would end in disaster. They seem to perform better when they're forced into a corner.
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I disagree that gaming is going that way. Back in 1998 games for the N64 were £50, some £60 (CBFD for instance). PS2 games were also £40 (same as PS4 games now).
If anything gaming has gotten cheaper as £50 then would be even more in today's money. There's also a lot of free to play games today unlike back then, which are typically sustained by those microtransactions. Microtransactions are totally optional and mean that people who want to pay them basically pay for the people who don't (who play for free). They can be in paid for games but again, they're still optional.
Games have gotten much cheaper as the culture has shifted more to the mainstream, and thank god! But these games you talk about which are F2P generally don't push the latest hardware like the blockbuster games seen on the next gen consoles and cost a fraction of the price to develop. The blockbusters may cost the consumer less from the offset but then you have to deal with microtransatcions and season passes which bump the price up considerably, granted they're a choice but necessary if you want the "full experience" (also day one patches, while not an expense, demonstrate just how stressful and maximum profit driven the industry has become). There's a reason the last 3 GTA generations have seen sequels or expansion packs, to get more profit out of the gamer on the technology they were developed using. The same is true for games like FIFA, CoD or Assassin's Creed.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Wii U / Switch
in Nintendo Gaming
Posted
+100 hype (video in German with English subs)