Tito

Yes, the internet took a lot of the "magic" away from the games. I'm not going to whine about it and wish for the return of the "golden age", but I've also felt that was a downside to the internet age. Perhaps the most defining game in my life was "Wild Arms", for the PS1. I wouldn't like RPGs so much without it, heck, I wouldn't even be here without it, as I would not have learned English. I was 12\13 years old checking out some games looking for something fun to rent. I came across this game called "Wild Arms". It was a pirate copy (that's right. In my country, many legal shops freely rent and sell pirated games), so the only thing on the box was the handwritten "Wild Arms" name. luckily form me "wild" and "arms" were among the 5 or 6 English words I knew at the time, so I figured it was "obviously" a wild action game with lots of cool arms!! Imagine my surprise, then, when I saw the game had no action whatsoever, I just had to go around talking to people without understanding a word of it, and when I ran across a monster, I just had to click on a menu, sit back and watch. Boooooriiiing!!!!! But for some reason, I felt compelled to understand what those funny looking people were saying, and I started playing with a dictionary by my side. In time, I needed the dictionary less and less, and soon an English-speaking RPG fanatic was born!! If I knew what the game was like beforehand, I would have stayed the heck away from it.

I guess I would as well. I should note that the "as long as I haven't played it before" part in my above quote doesn't apply to RE games!

Reminds of my fight against the last boss in RE: Code Veronica (I don't remember who the boss was). I ran out of ammunition, but I was full of first aid kits and herbs. So I just took the knife and slashed like mad, and used a kit\herb when my life was close to red. Since I'm writing this here, you can already imagine it had an epic ending: he died just when he was about to kill me, my life bar was red and I had no herbs\kits left. That was pure joy! As for the Wii, it was playing "Wii Sports" with my girlfriend over and over and watching her smile during the entire game.

Which is why I generally avoid MMOs (well, that and being unable to play offline, and the subscription doesn't help either) and other games that "don't end", like Civilization. I am a somewhat compulsive gamer (actually, my behavior is compulsive in general), and it doesn't really take much for me to forget about everything and play all day long...

I still enjoy games just as much as before, the only downside is that I'm no longer 12 years old and can't play as much, but I still play a lot, and most likely will play for my whole life. Technology allows for very rich game experiences, and since the Playstation and Xbox gaming has really grown. As much as I like Nintendo and dislike the current trend of style over substance, I don't think the industry as a whole would be where it is now if Nintendo hadn't lost its monopoly. Now there is a lot of competition, and that means more good games for us.

I know we are all tired of quick cash-ins and ports, but seriously give Capcom a chance! It's one thing to port old PS2 games, and another to port NEW games that just happened to be launched first on the other consoles. And besides, as long as the port takes advantage of the Wii and I haven't played it before, I don't really mind. I had a lot of fun with "The Godfather: Blackhand Edition", the Wii controls really added to the experience. That said, considering that "porting" a PS3\360 game to the Wii is pretty much like developing a new game (which is why Spore is on indefinite hold), it's quite possible that Capcom chooses to bring us an original RE altogether. But for those of you who REALLY hate ports, I suggest you brace yourself for the worst: if RE0 Wii does, we can expect every single old RE game to find it's way to the Wii.

With luck, they probably will give us GC ports AND RE5. They won't do RE5 Wii Edition unless they are really convinced it will do well. GC-Wii ports are cheap and quick, but "porting" a PS3 game to the Wii effectively means developing a new game, since very little can be used from the PS3 version. Still, money talks, and loudly: if they think they will profit from it, they will do it, and RE's success on the Wii just might lead them to this conclusion. And why would I want to play a game on an inferior hardware? That's easy: for one, I don't have the "superior" hardware! I might have one by the time RE5 comes out, but it's not likely. I have a PC, and pretty much every 360\PS3 game I REALLY want to play find its way to the PC eventually (with some notable exceptions.... Final Fantasy, Metal Gear... where are you!?!? ). And as outlandish as this may sound to most of you, in my country (Brazil) a gaming-capable PC is actually CHEAPER than a PS3:confused: ! Still, given a choice between a Wii version or a PC\PS3\360 RE5 version, I'd actually strongly consider the Wii version. Despite the fact I had beaten RE4 twice when I picked up the Wii Edition, the new control was compelling enough to bring me back for two more playthroughs, and I guess that says something about the Wii's "fun factor" potential.

For Resident Evil fans out there, this is great news. I'm pretty sure the fact that both RE Wii titles sold more than a million (so far. If Vgchartz is to be believed, RE4 is not far from the second million.) copies will not be lost on Capcom, and we just might be a bit closer to seeing RE5 Wii Edition! source: http://www.joystiq.com/2008/03/04/umbrella-chronicles-ships-a-million-units-worldwide/

The most costly move, I think, was definitely dumping the joint "SNES-CD" project with Sony only to watch Sony do it by itself with the Playstation, and look where that got them! A few other very bad moves, the kind of bad moves that made everyone start saying they should go the way of Sega, were using cartridges instead of CDs with the N64, bullying and mistreating third-parties like they were still a monopoly and watching them flock en masse to Sony and Microsoft, the atrocious Gamecube-era marketing, and finally, missing the DVD and online bandwagon with the Gamecube. It's unclear to me how much negative impact the lack of online functionality had on the Cube, but it's pretty clear the lack of DVD hurt badly. The PS2 came just when DVD players were starting to be adopted by the masses, and facing with the prospect of buying a game machine AND a DVD players, or a game machine that also played DVDs, the market chose the latter.

Nintendo is also bucking the trend in the "first week" sales obsession department. I read an interview with Iwata at IGN where he says debuting at the top of the charts is not nearly as important as the overall sales. He points out that many games have a big first month, when enthusiasts buy them, and soon stop selling, while Nintendo games often drop from the top-10, but keep selling well over long periods of time. Comparing, say, halo 2 and Nintendogs, it's easy to judge just how right he is. Launched 09/11/04 in the U.S, Halo 2 sold 2.8 million in the first week. Nintendogs, launched in the U.S half a year later, had a 253k first week. Now, Halo 2 stands at 8.5 million worldwide, and Nintendogs at 16 million. Quite impressive. What this has to do with the thread is that many "analysts" and "industry watchers" where quick to say Mario failed because halo 3 had a 3 million first week, and must now eat their words. While I think it's unlikely Mario will outsell Halo 3 (and I also think it's stupid to imply that any game that sells less than Halo 3 is a failure), it's worth noting that, of the 6 million Halo 3 sold worldwide so far, over 4 million were sold in the first week, while "Borderline failure" SMG is already fast approaching the 4 million mark.

But that IS true. Most third parties want to "test the waters" with quick cash-ins, rather than take the time to make GOOD games, hardcore or casual. The simple truth is, most third-party "efforts" on Wii are crap, not because third-parties are incompetent, but because they don't want to take any chances, and seem to think that, just because the Wii is selling like mad, any crap with "Wii" on the box will sell as well, but it won't. I don't think you can get any more "hardcore" than, say, Resident Evil, Red Steel or Guitar Hero. And if Capcom, Ubisoft and Activision can sell these games on the Wii, why can't other third parties sell their games as well? That's not part of the problem, that's part of the solution. That's exactly why Nintendo made the Wii and the DS in the first place: because as games became increasingly complicated, the industry reached a point where it was making the same games for the same audience. And because of this lack of new players, the industry was stagnating. If the Wii and DS had never seen the light of the day, do you think your brother would be interested in Assassin's Creed?

Er... I wouldn't be surprised if someone actually acted on your idea, so maybe it's time the mods locked this thread...

If you are saying that, you definitely never had the displeasure of having your 50+ hours Xenogears save file erased by your stupid little cousin! It's not ridiculous, it's outrageous!!!

I want to buy more multiplayer games eventually so I can play with my girlfriend. She loves Mario Party, Trauma center, Wii Sports (tennis) and Wii Play (the ping pong and cow racing minigames), but also liked games like R.E 4 and Mario Galaxy. Meaning she likes boths games and "non games". I already decided on Trauma Center: New Blood, Umbrella Chronicles, Rockstar's table tennis, and perhaps WarioWare. I'd welcome suggestions as well. Are E.A Playground and Carnival Games at least as good as Mario Party? What about other fun multiplayer games? Not necessarily party games, any fun multiplayer game, from any genre, will do.

I usually don't care about reviews (in fact, some of them, along with disgusting affairs like the recent Gamespot-Gerstmann stuff, make me despise reviews altogether), but in this case I worry about the negative impact it might have on sales. Apparently, Sega have big hopes for the return of this franchise, and considering the target audience is mostly the hardcore crowd, especially fans of the original, the lackluster critical reception is probably going to affect the commercial reception.