Wii Q&A Thread

[Yegolev]

I think he is just now becoming aware of the unwelcome attention of moneygrubbing suits.  It's the "I just want to make games" speech again.

[CmdrSlack]

Har.

In other news, Jaffe disagrees with me (from part 2 of that recent GameTrailer interview).

When asked what he would change about the PlayStation 3, he responded, "I probably would have taken the Blu-ray out and sold it for less money."

[...]

Earlier on in part two of the Bonus Round, Jaffe once again commented on his love for smaller downloadable games, such as Calling All Cars. Echoing sentiments he expressed to GameDaily BIZ during a GDC interview, Jaffe commented, "I want to do games that take 10-13 months; I want to do games that aren't always story-driven, that are more gameplay-driven."

[...]

And in typical outspoken Jaffe fashion, he remarked that big games aren't necessarily "better" than smaller ones and added regarding the drive to constantly create big blockbusters, "It's like, 'F**k you capitalist society that says all I need to do is work and contribute to the bottom line. F**k you up your a**.' I want a life."

Grrrr. More GoW plz. Some goofy 100mb PSN title isn't an alternative.

We'll pay. You benefit from that capalist society.


Seriously, what a whiner. He finally makes one story based title (while others have made dozens -- much larger than his at that), it flies through the roof (a dream come true if anything), and now he's unhappy about it.

[edit] He should be fired and condemned to make cell phone games.

It's not really shocking that game designers care more about gameplay aspects than other things, is it?  Sure, shiny graphics and stuff are kickass, but all the shiny stuff in the world won't matter if the gameplay isn't there.  Is he really being a whiner?  Or is he moreso just, I dunno, saying that he'd rather design games to be games first?

[Velorath]

It's not really shocking that game designers care more about gameplay aspects than other things, is it?  Sure, shiny graphics and stuff are kickass, but all the shiny stuff in the world won't matter if the gameplay isn't there.  Is he really being a whiner?  Or is he moreso just, I dunno, saying that he'd rather design games to be games first?

He's saying he made the big, epic game already and now that he's accomplished that he wants to move on to something else that doesn't take up so much of his free time so he can spend more time with his family.  He stressed that he loves epic games, he personally just doesn't want to work on any right now.

[HaemishM]

Not providing current hardware just tells me that they don't give a fuck about where the rest of the game industry was heading at all.

Guess what? Neither do I. The rest of the game industry is heading into a spiraling shitstorm of regurgitated memes until the public just gets fucking tired of it and stops buying things.

They'd rather just make simple games.

Here's a perfect Wii example of someone making a great simple game, then FUCKING IT UP.

Trauma Center: Second Opinion. Great fucking game. Cool use of the Wiimote, insteresting use of abstracted graphical style to produce something unique. I was enjoying it, despite being slightly annoyed at the silly, anime-style characters and story. Those kinds of things get right up my ass, but I let it go for good gameplay.

Then they went full-blown crazy Japanese anime with the GUILT storyline, and within 2 missions of those little GUILT fuckers showing up in someone's bloodstream, I was done with the game. The story HURT that game. And if it had had the Metal Gear Solid 2 full gorgeous cinematics, it would have happened even sooner because I'd have wanted to stab the goddamn nurse with my dick that much sooner.

Having those extra bits of cinematic glory are only worthwhile if your gameplay isn't dick, and your story is worth a shit.

[stray]

The public isn't going to get tired of it. People are buying games now more than ever. The closer and closer they move towards "escapism", and not just "fun and games", the bigger the industry gets. And I think the more games veer in this direction, the more they catch the eye of genuinely talented storytellers -- and in turn, the quality is ramped up little by little.


I know there can be hits and misses though, but that goes for anything. Sometimes it really is better letting a game remain just a game.


Still though, I think you're a tougher cookie to crack than most. You didn't even like Killer 7, right?

[HaemishM]

Killer 7 was pretentious avant garde balls in my face. Innovative does not mean "player should be unable to figure out what the fuck is going on less than 1 hour into the goddam thing."

Trauma Center is innovative. Killer 7 was balls.

[schild]

Killer 7 wasn't innovative? I don't know about that. Mid-level unique character switching with multiple solutions using different combinations of characters - while being 1 player - was pretty impressively innovative. It seems like a spin on that could solve the group issue in MMOGs also - and not in a Granado Espada RTS kind of way. Not to mention the game is fun as a motherfucker and the story wasn't any more garbled than any MGS title.

[Velorath]

Not to mention the game is fun as a motherfucker and the story wasn't any more garbled than any MGS title.

That's not really a compliment.

[stray]

Killer 7 wasn't innovative? I don't know about that. Mid-level unique character switching with multiple solutions using different combinations of characters - while being 1 player - was pretty impressively innovative. It seems like a spin on that could solve the group issue in MMOGs also - and not in a Granado Espada RTS kind of way. Not to mention the game is fun as a motherfucker and the story wasn't any more garbled than any MGS title.

Not to mention that the storyline is what introduced that gameplay.

So sometimes, story can actually introduce news ways in how we play games. Not just compliment them (or worse, spoil them). It aids in thinking outside the box.

Not to mention the game is fun as a motherfucker and the story wasn't any more garbled than any MGS title.

That's not really a compliment.

It's just a little bizarre at times (like MGS). Mainly because of this guy.



The story is nothing like MGS though.

[edit]

Maybe you should read the comic in order to appreciate it. It contains zombies  .

[schild]

I wasn't comparing it to MGS. I was saying MGS is bad and that if MILLIONS of people can tolerate MGS, they should be able to tolerate Killer 7... possibly even enjoy it.

[voodoolily]

The new internet upgrade is awesome. YouTube on the tv is fun.  Derrrrrr you could watch YouTube before. Now you can watch other vids too. I bet you could watch pr0n on your Wii if you wanted! Hooray!

[schild]

I seriously don't know why everyone on the planet doesn't have a modded Xbox. XBMC is pretty much the greatest thing ever and makes nearly every other multimedia center look like dogshit.

[stray]

The new internet upgrade is awesome. YouTube on the tv is fun.  Derrrrrr you could watch YouTube before. Now you can watch other vids too. I bet you could watch pr0n on your Wii if you wanted! Hooray!

It's actually a better browsing experience than Sony's. Not sure about plug-ins and media downloads though (Sony covers a variety of formats).

[Strazos]

Personally, I wouldn't even know what to do with a XBMC, and I have a Xbox.

[schild]

I'M ALMOST TEMPTED TO INVITE YOU TO A WHOLE NEW WORLD STRAZOS.

[Strazos]

You can keep your world. It smells funny.

[Velorath]

I wasn't comparing it to MGS. I was saying MGS is bad and that if MILLIONS of people can tolerate MGS, they should be able to tolerate Killer 7... possibly even enjoy it.

I can't even tolerate MGS anymore.  In fact, I find myself skipping past the story in games more and more often these days (what little I glimpsed of Phantasy Star Universe's story while playing through it recently was fucking painful).  God of War II was one of the few games I've played through recently where I actually enjoyed the story, and that's mostly because aside from a handful of plot points, the journey is the story. 

I'm at the point where I can no longer tell myself "well, for a video game it's an ok story".  It's either a good story or it isn't, and I'm not going to lower my standards just because it's a game.  Get some real fucking writers, not just some game developer who took a creative writing course in College at some point.  If you don't have a compelling story to tell, don't just attach some mediocre one to your game.

[stray]

Whoa, whoa, whoa. PSU should be skipped. Period. Don't use that an example of your jadedness in game storytelling, please.


MGS is hokey, I admit, but at the very least, I like Kojima's take on military spec ops stuff more than the typical American stuff. He's looking at it from the perspective of ninjas (with nods to Americanisms and mullets, of course). Ninjas are significantly cooler.

He can be really mind blowing at times too though (like at the end of MGS2, when everything warps into that old NES Metal Gear game. I thought that was brilliant).

[Velorath]

PSU was just a recent example.  I think the MGS games have crap stories and too much of them gets told through dull conversations over the codec.  DMC is even more painful to sit through than PSU.  Recent Final Fantasy stories probably would have appealed to me when I was in my early teens, but don't do much for me now.  Even with Dead Rising, as much as I love the game, I found myself completely uninterested in the main story (although there was one plot point near the end that I thought was a really good concept).

I still enjoy most Resident Evil stories (3 and 0 being the exceptions), God of War, most of Bioware's stuff, Shadow Hearts: Coventant, and there's probably some other games I'm forgetting.  For the most part though, if there's an option to skip past a story sequence, chances are I'll be using it.

[Azazel]

Well, it is going to be a good party console. Even it's strongest defenders resort to that.

It's the strongest niche of the Wii, if anything. Schild's just saying he isn't right "yet" because certain games haven't been outright announced for it -- simply because the console is still in it's infancy stage.

I don't see why it's so retarded.

I'm not saying that I disagree with him saying that it's going to be a party console. I agree with that, and have said countless times that's the reason why i bought the thing myself.

I'm saying that making a statement, followed by the "NOONE HAS PROVED ME TEH WRONG" is a fucking stupid way of pretending to make an argument. Any argument. Such as with the Blizzard statement. schild is smarter than that. You want to be the hero and use that retarded line of argument? Nope, prove your statement is right.

But I am right. This isn't a gamer's console. It's just that simple.

Real games simply don't belong on the Wii.

See, here is where you're being an idiot again. I'm not even going to qualtify that, your statements there really speak for themselves.

[stray]

PSU was just a recent example.  I think the MGS games have crap stories and too much of them gets told through dull conversations over the codec.  DMC is even more painful to sit through than PSU.  Recent Final Fantasy stories probably would have appealed to me when I was in my early teens, but don't do much for me now.  Even with Dead Rising, as much as I love the game, I found myself completely uninterested in the main story (although there was one plot point near the end that I thought was a really good concept).

I still enjoy most Resident Evil stories (3 and 0 being the exceptions), God of War, most of Bioware's stuff, Shadow Hearts: Coventant, and there's probably some other games I'm forgetting.  For the most part though, if there's an option to skip past a story sequence, chances are I'll be using it.

I'm the complete opposite, I guess. Story is probably my holy grail or something. My favorite moments in games usually came down to something like that clicking well. Not when I "fragged this or that many dudes that night" or when I unlocked this or that stage, or when I got a phat piece of loot, or when I beat this or that boss.

Or if anything, it's when story compliments those other elements well. Like, say, killing a hard boss is cool and all -- but killing a boss in the most cinematic way possible (like when the sweet part of the soundtrack kicks in as his head splits open), and when killing that boss is tied in with a really good narrative sequence, when the voice acting is good, when I'm so emerged that I really want to hate what that character stands for.... All that stuff means a lot to me. I'd rather have a boss fight be done that way than in some bare bones way like I used to get in old school games. I'd be endlessly playing Ninja Gaiden (the first one) or schmups if I really wanted that.

Even my favorite PK/competitive moment was in WoW, of all things -- when I was doing this quest that needed the aid of Orc npc's... And all of the sudden, some Night Elf ganker jumped me. Long story short, the NPC's, even though they were scripted for a different mission, all helped me screaming "For the Horde!!" and shit like that. The environment was right, the quest I was on was just right, and I ended up killing a strong opponent in the process. It was narrative, competition, and gameplay merged in the best kind of way, just for a moment there.


Besides all that, I'm just an adventure game junkie. And I seek out whatever gems I can find to cater to that -- even in the most unlikely of places.

[Azazel]

You can keep your world. It smells funny.

As mush shit as I've given schild in this thread. What he says about moddex XBoxes and XBMC is true. They are oarsome. You should take the plunge. It's unbelickable. It's teh future.

I don't even game on my Xbox anymore...

[schild]

Haven't gamed on my xbox since Indigo Prophecy came out. Though a copy of indigo prophecy sits on the HDD.

[Velorath]

Or if anything, it's when story compliments those other elements well. Like, say, killing a hard boss is cool and all -- but killing a boss in the most cinematic way possible (like when the sweet part of the soundtrack kicks in as his head splits open), and when killing that boss is tied in with a really good narrative sequence, when the voice acting is good, when I'm so emerged that I really want to hate what that character stands for.... All that stuff means a lot to me. I'd rather have a boss fight be done that way than in some bare bones way like I used to get in old school games. I'd be endlessly playing Ninja Gaiden (the first one) or schmups if I really wanted that.

God of War does that kind of thing without giving me the feeling that I've gone from playing a game to watching a movie.  When a game shifts to a cutscene, or Snake whips out his codec so we can get the next 5 minute long infodump, it breaks immersiveness to me because I'm no longer even being given the illusion of controlling the story, it's just being told to me.  God of War showed that you can kill a boss in a cinematic way without having to use a cinematic-style cutscene, and I hope games like Heavenly Sword which are trying to use similar gameplay follow in GoW's footsteps in storytelling as well.

[stray]

Sure. Nothing I'm saying has to do with cutscenes necessarily. I'd rather get that vibe through playable/scriptable sequences, emergence, or whatever. It's still storytelling though -- and if you like that as I do, then we're in agreement.

Also, MGS has plenty of the same moments -- Otacon popping through the communications system, guiding you through something; the dialogue that's being said as you fight a boss; the general sneaking around shit (and all the eavesdropping and atmosphere that goes with it).

[HaemishM]

He can be really mind blowing at times too though (like at the end of MGS2, when everything warps into that old NES Metal Gear game. I thought that was brilliant).

MGS2's story made me want to stab lots of motherfuckers in the face. Especially that Raiden pussy. There were times when I really just wanted them all to shut the fuck up and let me get to the game. And this is coming from a writer who wants good stories in games. Trauma Center was even worse.

If MGS2's gameplay hadn't been so varied and cool (especially the all too brief swordfighting at the end), I'd never have sat through all that shit.

[stray]

Well, I don't really want to play "Defender of MGS" too much because I'm not that big of a fan of it myself. Just saying that even that series has it's moments (overall plot aside).


Anyways, to try to kick it back on topic, Nintendo should be doing a better job with VC. How hard can this be? Genesis games are lacking in particular. Gimme some Strider bitches. That should have been there from the start. Also, Shinobi III, Bloodlines, and at least one Phantasy Star.


RotK and Beyond Oasis are nice additions though.

[Velorath]

Treasure Island Z and Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles both seem promising so far, although I'm not entirely sold on RE: UC being an on-the-rails shooter.

[Triforcer]

On the Rails Shooter?  Fuck that shit.  Goddamn that's disappointing. 

[Velorath]

On the Rails Shooter?  Fuck that shit.  Goddamn that's disappointing. 

Sounds like a sliglhtly more interactive House of the Dead.  Slightly more interactive in that you can pick up herbs, weapons and possibly other items, and you can choose to go down side paths every now and then.

[stray]

I like rail shooters, but it's just a weird combo though. The RE series has always been fairly slow paced (at least until the crazies come at ya). Creeping around and taking small steps is like a staple of the survival horror genre. The intensity comes from wondering just when those fuckers are goin' to pop out of nowwhere. That's where the real action is -- the anticipation.

Rail shooters... Complete opposite. Pretty fast, all kinds of panning around, shit coming at you from all directions, and almost constant action. It's not about creepiness at all.

[EDIT]

In other Capcom news, they've announced a Harvey Birdman game in the style of Phoenix Wright. Hell yeah!

PS2 and PSP though, so it's probably not relevant. ;)

Could easily make it to the Wii, I guess.

[Velorath]

I like rail shooters, but it's just a weird combo though. The RE series has always been fairly slow paced (at least until the crazies come at ya). Creeping around and taking small steps is like a staple of the survival horror genre. The intensity comes from wondering just when those fuckers are goin' to pop out of nowwhere. That's where the real action is -- the anticipation.

Rail shooters... Complete opposite. Pretty fast, all kinds of panning around, shit coming at you from all directions, and almost constant action. It's not about creepiness at all.

Well this one does kinda have to be faster paced since it covers parts of 0-3.

[stray]

Video

The voice acting seems very Scooby-Doo..ish.

I guess it's not a bad idea if Capcom wants to unseat HotD or something. Some of the melee/waggle stuff has potential to make it better than the typical rail shooter. There's just better ways for them to waste their time on the Wii with though (especially considering that RE4 will be on it anyways). A new kind of Mega Man, Joe, or Ghost and Goblins title.. a buffed up Phoenix Wright for home consoles. Hell, simply porting the Monster Hunters would make mad cash for them.

[edit] Fixed link

[edit] Wait. I was wrong about the waggle stuff. There isn't anything like that in that vid. :)

[schild]

No reason to port Monster Hunter. Just release Monster Hunter 2 on the PS2 here. Here's the problem with porting to the Wii. The PS2 is already out and is in more households than the Wii will EVER be. EVER. Guaranteed. There's no doubt that PS2 development is cheaper. Anyway yea, while Sony wants people making games for the PS3, they can remain king of the castle as long as they keep supporting the PS2 - which is happening. Hell, there are games that are still in early development for the PS2. It's probably going to go down as the greatest system of all time (unseating the SNES for most people).

[stray]

Anyway yea, while Sony wants people making games for the PS3, they can remain king of the castle as long as they keep supporting the PS2 - which is happening.

That is kind of funny when you think about it..

Nintendo: We're going to win everyone's hearts with an intergen system. Power doesn't matter right now. We'll gain marketshare by gameplay, cheap development, and affordability alone.

Sony: Hmm, yeah... We have that covered too.