James McGeachie

This seems...kind of lame. Hub areas have been a classic part of the 3D Mario titles. I understand they wouldn't want to use the observatory again but I seriously hope it's not just all done on menus now.

You know when they say "Sonic 3 level designer" working on the game I think they probably mean just some level designer who worked in the game in some form (probably meaning Takashi Iizuka who's been responsible for most of the 3D games anyway!) The true director of the old games, Hirokazu Yasuhara, has been with Naughty Dog since the early Jak and Daxter games. He actually used to draw out level designs by hand on grid paper and stuff like that. There's a 0% chance he has any involvement with this game. People like Iizuka having involvement mean nothing to me. He's been involved in almost everything to some degree since the Dreamcast era and the Sega comments probably mean him as when the website content was leaked a while back one of the articles was an interview with him.

With both this and Xenoblade (which sounds great), I'd say for the near future, the Wii is definitely the system with the most interesting upcoming RPG releases. Yet people who nay say the Wii for things like "NO RPG's!!" will just ignore the fact and pretend these titles don't exist probably so they can still shit on the system.

I hope this shuts up people who whine about "no good rpg's". This looks FAR more interesting than the heap of boring looking shite that FFXIII is.

Forgot he's used that design? He clearly doesn't care! The vast majority of character designs Toriyama has designed for videogames have been incredibly similar. It's virtually always a variation of some young guy with brown or black spikey hair and the outfits don't vary drastically either. Going by memory the first Joker guy had silver hair though so I'll give him a little credit there.

^But what exactly is it going to be used for? Obviously they didn't design surface areas that you can drive on for every scannable planet, that's too extreme an amount of content for them to just leave out for DLC. I expect the Hammerhead will just be used in a few extra DLC missions and again it'll probably be something more like the Mako's use in missions in the first game (Virmire especially) and less about exploration.

But is the concept of travelling around a planet in a vehicle exploring its surface a bad idea in itself? No. In other words, it should've been IMPROVED, not REMOVED. There was tons of room for improvement, instead they just sidestepped it and and added in a tacky boring minigame (it is boring, there's no denying it, because it's all the same. There's no variation in scanning).

This is probably a bad idea as the vast majority of the time someone does something like this, people end up liking the fanart more than the actual design.

Yeah I thought it was that too but I didn't know 100% for sure. I bet casting decisions like that were due to EA's influence.

Yes because she literally is based off of her.

I just noticed that development pic now. Strange how it says "Written and directed by Alexi Tylevich" then "Game Director: Shinji Mikami".

There's no way they'd go back to simple colourscheme names now, regardless of trademarks. If the game was a natural successor to Diamond and Pearl I'd expect them to try and make something that sounds more impressive again. Maybe Planet names or something. Pokemon Jupiter & Saturn.

Actually this is something they should really be avoiding. The fact the series is titled after a creature in the games is the series' biggest problem, because it suggests that every game should have Metroids in it. That just doesn't work within the storyline though. They're not supposed to be some common as shit thing you find anywhere, the entire species was exterminated as of Super Metroid and the only known clones were both revealed and disposed of in Fusion. This game takes place between Super and Fusion. Seeing as how Samus' is surprised to see Metroids again in Fusion, there should be no way for her to be seeing Metroids between the games, unless in flashback form.

Why would they be the last games...? New DS games are announced regularly, the system isn't near the end of its life cycle yet.

I like the concept of this game and it looks likely to be a well designed innovative platformer...but unfortunately the idea of playing exlusively as a shadow doesn't compell me much. It's a shame as it's the core gameplay mechanic but something about the idea of playing as nothing but a shadow seems too dull.

Okay those mock up screenshots or whatever shouldn't have been posted in this thread they're obviously going to confuse a shitton of people and I wouldnt be surprised if some places are already posting them around as real pictures of the game.

It's obviously arranged from the word Mother and motherhood is a theme of the series (Mother Brain, Samus' relationship with the Metroid larvae, perhaps more in this game). I remember the development team saying the title would have significance when you play the game. It might not sound instantly appealing like a generic word like CORRUPTION or ECHOES but that doesn't mean it's a bad title if it's actually relevant.

By that Dante do you mean he's actually taking on hands on development on the game? I mean every game at Mistwalker could be said to have been "made by him" if you count production roles.

Yes, as there's so much we can tell about the game from a short trailer with nothing but cutscene footage... Looks interesting to me, I'm curious what the gameplay will be like. Looks like Platinum Games are trying their hand at a title more in style with Western games.

Well from everything I read Mass Effect 2 is a fantastic game and a more accessible experience in every way, it just isn't as generous on the RPG elements and anyone who'd expect a sequel to go more indepth with them is getting the opposite.

The fact that loot is gone bothers me a bit though. I know the overpacked inventory was annoying but it's still nice to get stuff from enemies you kill.

Damnit everytime this thread is bumped I hope it's SOMETHING new about the game and it never is!

The more I read from people playing this just now, the more disheartened I feel about it. It does seem like it has been too "streamlined" into more of a shooter experience than RPG. It sounds like virtually everything has been dumbed down in relation to the original. Just little things like removing earning charm or intimidate points to make the red and blue choices in conversations seem like annoying downgrades to me. I'm sure I'll still enjoy the shooter gameplay and story but I played the first game for its RPG elements and was excited about the sequel for its RPG elements. Also, random weird thing...you can't crouch anymore unless in cover? Strange.

Despite the good reviews, I am saddened to read I was completely right about this game having no planet exploration in the vein of the first game. Yes the Mako sucked, no one needs to complain about that more, but all they should've done was improve it. The scanning minigame that replaces the Mako seems to be equally as boring going by most comments I see, just a little less time consuming.

It honestly wont surprise me if Other M doesn't contain the same level of atmosphere as it should as Team Ninja are definitely more likely to focus on action, with less in the way of creepy areas devoid of life. It'll be a shame though as Metroid has always shared similarities to Alien and part of that is the horror side. It's grown increasingly toned down in recent games though. I should give Fusion a little credit though, I remember it was still scary at some parts, like when the SA-X is hunting you down or when "Nightmare" is flying past in the background.