Dcubed

So... Yeah, this game is amazing. It really is South Park meets Paper Mario. It's everything I was hoping it would be!

The concept looked interesting to me when they first unveiled it (and ZombiU proved that it wasn't impossible for Ubisoft to make a good game... on a blue moon...). The idea of being able to hack electronics and having the enemies/NPCs/etc react in real time had a lot of potential for some interesting gameplay. ... But yeah, once that second trailer came out and it started just looking like a GTA clone, with the hacking gimmick being relegated to cutscenes and basic scripted sequences/basic scanning/stealing stuff, I lost all interest

Well this sort of came out of nowhere! An 2D original side scrolling run and gun action game from Inticreates (the Mega Man team)!? SIGN ME THE HELL UP! http://www.gunvolt.com/ Not overly keen on the character designs or the story, but the action looks rock solid! Comes out Summer 2014 in Japan (eShop only), no word on when it comes out here yet (there is an ESRB rating pending disclaimer on the site though, meaning that it's definitely coming out in the west ) We're long overdue a new good 2D action game on 3DS! About time the hole finally got filled!

So the Wii U version was put on hold for 6 months, while the other versions were being worked on? Considering that the Wii U version was being made by Ubisoft Bucharest, I wonder if they asked them to stop what they were doing and drafted them in to work on the core version of the game? (the one that acts as the foundation for all the versions of the game) I bet we won't see it on Wii U until September at the earliest (if at all). Not that I have any faith in this game being good anymore. All of the game's good ideas and founding concepts are getting crushed under the tyyranous weight of Ubisoft's monster assembly line production of development... It's gonna end up being a GTA clone with the same design as the ACreed games and a "press A to awesome hack" gimmick that ends up being a mere shadow of what it could've been... (Design by Committee, Focus Testing, AAA Budgets, Too Many Cooks blah blah blah...)

Nah, it just happens to have no FIGS localisation, so there's no point in releasing the PAL version. Just their typical standard MO.

Lol I love how it's a Blue Shell, out of all the items they could've possibly have picked... Constantly reminding you that you can't escape its wrath

Super Mario Kart hits the EU Wii U VC on March 27! https://mobile.twitter.com/NintendoEurope/status/441551308731195392/photo/1?screen_name=NintendoEurope It's the US 60hz version and you get £5.49 off the price of Mario Kart 8 on the eShop if you buy SMK. Nice

Well that's a nice surprise Thought that the game would stay a Sony/PC exclusive for good (even more surprising when you consider that. Sony actually had to pay them to make a Vita port in the first place!) Oh BTW, Two Tribes are set to announce another classic game re-release on Wii U shortly! I bet it'll end up being Swords and Soldiers HD, what with Swords and Soldiers 2 just being announced for Wii U recently.

I bet that the PS3 and 360 could handle it just fine and that the decisions to make it "next gen" only is for marketing reasons. It legitimises it by virtue of appearing to be something that only the "next gen" consoles can handle and thus is not being "held back" by those old busted machines; even if it ends up looking almost the same as the past Arkham games, just running in a higher resolution. The PS4/Xbone userbase will be big enough by the end of the year for major publishers to feel comfortable in making exclusives for them.

Dunno when it's due, but it's not a remake. It's a sequel that seems to be unrelated to the ongoing storyline from Shantae 1-3.

I said that you don't need "quality exclusive games" to sell a console. People are buying it because they know that they'll need one in the future to continue playing "proper" versions of games like Fifa and COD. Sony's IPs aren't really massive sellers. Ignoring Gran Turismo (which is an outlier), their franchises generally cap out at around 5 million sales (with most of their major ones actually hovering at around 1-3 million typically). It's the promise of multiplatform 3rd party games that is selling the PS4, not exclusives. Pretty much this line of thinking exactly...

Yeah cause I'm sure that PS4 is selling off the back of Knack... Killzone is hardly a hugely popular IP either. It just happens to be heavily bundled. No, it's selling because of the 3rd party games it has and because it has the most promising future. The biggest mistake MS made was not even Kinect, but rather it was the DRM fiasco. People don't trust them now (and for good reason); all of the good will that MS had spent a decade building up with the Xbox was flushed down the toilet overnight. Of course the price/tech difference doesn't help either, but that was their big Third Console Curse fuckup that will continue to haunt them throughout the whole generation, even if they do choose to remove the Kinect and drop the price.

TBH, most of their success simply comes by not screwing up like MS did. Nintendo was never in the running for this market, so Sony won simply by not trying to screw consumers royally. For better or worse, it has become the "default" console. If MS had put up a better fight, then "gimmicks" might have ended up being more important (and that's not to say that they didn't try some new things like the touchpad on the DS4, or game broadcasting - which of course MS did as well). All it proves is that game quality means nothing for hardware adoption. Even if the same games can be played on the hardware they already own, they're gonna jump in because they know that they will have to eventually. Where else are they gonna go? It might as well be a monopoly!

So that's an increase of 700k from Feb 8th to March 2nd... If 370k of that went to Japan (meaning that 2nd week sales are around 50-60k depending on tracker), then 430k was split across EU and the US over last month... Quite the slowdown... guess supplies are still very limited... Yep. No matter what happens, Sony have the lion's share of 3rd party support this generation. Just goes to show that you don't need quality exclusive games to sell hardware... The PS4/Xbone versions of games look almost no better than the PS3/360 versions of games either outside of a resolution increase; it's the weakest generational jump we've ever seen. Sony won because of the above reasons you listed, not because their hardware ran games at the highest resolution... The most powerful hardware has almost never won a generation, but it will do this time simply by default as MS shot themselves in the foot back when the Xbone was unveiled and they never fully recovered (and the Nintendo brand is pure manure in the eyes of the "gamer" demographic).

That's fine, take your time Wayforward. No need to rush.

Yeah I goofed. Forgot that Just Dance just uses online for DLC (which isn't affected)

No it wont affect you because this shutdown will only affect online play/leaderboards/free DLC functionality. Paid DLC systems run off the same server as the Wii Shop Channel and since that's staying online (and almost certainly will do indefinitely), Just Dance won't be affected.

If you like Metroid Prime Pinball, you should check out Pinball Pulse: The Ancients Beckon on the DSiWare store/3DS eShop. It's made by the same team (Fuse Games/Silverball Studios) and uses the same engine. It's brilliant! (And features the voice of Brian Blessed too - now you have to try it )

I have the game and it really is terrible. The physics are just mad, and the way that the game is set up (sort of similar to Kirby's Pinball Land) combined with the dodgy physics just makes for an utterly infuriating game! It's crazy to believe that the same team then went on to make Metroid Prime Pinball, which is infinity billion times better! (They literally went from making one of the worst console/handheld pinball games ever, straight onto making one of the very best console/handheld pinball games ever in one fell swoop!)

That doesn't mean that the game was finished in September, just that it was "content complete" (AKA, it was a final Alpha - meaning that all of the game's content was in place and it was fully playable, however rough, from start to finish). The remaining development time would've not have been spent on adding content (which would obviously require re-rating) but rather it would've been spent on squashing bugs and general polish. The fact that they finished it in November also tells me that it wouldn't really have been ready for an Xmas release as it would take time for them to press the discs/manufacture the case & leaflets and distribute the game; you'd normally have a longer lead time than that... Zelda ALBW was supposedly finished in late Sepember/early October, according to what Aonuma said in an interview at the time, for instance...) Michael Kelbaugh (Retro's CEO) did mention that the game was "almost complete" before the delay and that the extra time allowed them to perform an extra "polish pass" and add extra little touches that "weren't related to gameplay": I have no reason to believe that he's lying here; it's perfectly possible that he didn't make the decision to delay the game, but rather it came as a request from Iwata, after it became clear that Mario Kart 8 wouldn't make it in time for March, in order to spread out the release schedule. So the game was "ready" to be released but the strategic decision to delay the game was taken and the Retro staff took a bit of extra time to polish the game a little more. This QOL platform is definately their Third Pillar, no doubt about it... The difference however this time around is that Iwata actually means it. They used the "third pillar" concept as a safety net before, in case the DS failed, so that they could fall back on the Gameboy brand if necessary; but the intention for it to replace the Gameboy was always clear. It rendered the GBA completely redundant in terms of functionality and was heavily pushed as the sole future of Nintendo (remember Yamauchi's comment about "If we succeed, we will rise to heaven, but if we fail we will sink to hell"?). This however is being pushed as a side business for them as they Iwata consistently states that their video game business will remain as their "core business". It's essentially a way of separating their Touch Generations games from their video game consoles and allowing them to utilise specialist hardware/smartphones on their own - without being confined to Nintendo's consoles/handhelds only. They also have a clear future with their consoles/handhelds that they're sticking to. They've already outlined their plans with the unified architecture that they're using with their next gen handheld and console (both based on the Wii U hardware architecture) and they're expanding their videogame production; hiring more staff and restructuring their game division (consolidating all of their non Retro Studios/Monolith Soft staff into the one building that they just spent $500 million building). They're not planning on walking away from video games until the bitter end and they're clearly not planning on getting the likes of Retro Studios to start making health products They're expanding themselves to reach different kinds of audiences.

Now this looks interesting... A Wii U Exclusive game from Nifflas (Knitt/Knitt Underground/NightSky) and KnapNok Games (Spin the Bottle) called Affordable Space Adventures! http://www.knapnokgames.com/press/sheet.php?p=affordable_space_adventures Looks cool. Sort of Metroid-ish in both gameplay and atmosphere, with a bit of stealth thrown in for good measure Nice to see an exclusive that is actually built around the asymmetric screens as well

Super Mario Ball and Pac Man Collection have been OFLC rated. More Namco support is nice, but I'm itching to see others join the fray... (I'm looking at you Ninja Cop!)

I hope that they finally get the chance to work on something original. They have that golden touch that allows them to make anything into pure awesome and I'd love to see that put to use on something completely new. They've proven that they can re-invent dormant series, but can they make something just as good that hasn't come from the past? I bet they can! BTW: That interview also inadvertently confirms that the DKCTF delay was entirely strategic... as if that's a surprise to anyone here

Someone mentioned it on GAF a whiles back, I can't find it right now though... Either way, not all games run on the same set of servers on PSN anyway as they can (and have been) shut down individually anyway. Nintendo mention that they use Amazon Web Services in the Streetpass Relay Points Iwata Asks, but Miiverse and their online games must run on different servers because they weren't affected by the Xmas downtime last year. I know that Xbox Live on 360 all runs on the one set of Microsoft owned servers though (except for EA's games) and the Xbox One's servers all run off Microsoft's Azure Cloud servers... Not certain about how Nintendo's ones are set up though... I hope that they've learnt their lesson about tying themselves down to the one supplier after this! Here's hoping that they'll replace the Gamespy/Glu Mobile owned network stack with the new Nintendo Network one when the DS and Wii games hit the VC! (They can't patch the games now, but once the VC comes around; that'll be a very different story - it would be a significant selling point too!)

Almost nobody does though. Sony outsource their servers for PSN too (they use the same supplier as Nintendo do for the Nintendo Network supposedly...) The eShop utilises Amazon's Cloud servers as well... Hopefully they'll be able to actually migrate them if necessary this time...