Topic: Videogaming

[The Boston Crab]

Liberal whitey tries to argue around it, ain't no disputin', Japs are racist.

[evelyn_blake]

Liberal whitey tries to argue around it, ain't no disputin', Japs are racist.

Aw, but they're so cute. The estate near mine has ordered a batch off the internet so they can battle them, they have the colourful charm of Pokemon but the ferocity of pitbull terriers. It'll be brills.

Could you elaborate on that Boston Crab? I don't know anything about typical Japanese attitudes to race relations and that article dismisses any notion that Capcoms bewilderment about the controversy is anything but a symptom of a wounded pure hearted desire to satisfy their customers. It does seem like it could be just down to having little regard for upsetting others though  I do recall they essentially said 'I have specifically two black friends' to refute any accusations of racism, they wheeled out the fact they have two black developers who have been 'consulted' throughout the process which seems a little unsavoury to me. Having staff on hand to ask 'Am I being racist now?' isn't the best policy to prevent discrimination in the workplace.                            

I may have to pretend that Larry David is the head of Capcom and it's all been a beautifully constructed farce to enjoy this game.

[Papercut]

I agree with the 'crab.

As a culture Japan is very casually racist. Not particularly malicious, but racist all the same. Look at the relationship with Korea (although that is mutual) and the treatment of the indigenous Ainu.

Also the general distrust of Westerners when it comes to anything other than imported entertainment (and even then... see the general distrust of the Xbox and otherwise inexplicable poor sales of American games machines).

Even if you are a gifted Japanese speaker, and expert in your field, it is extremely difficult to get the kind of job and salary you deserve in Japan unless you work for a Western company. You will always been seen as an outsider, and someone who doesn't belong.

This outlook is engrained, and simply a part of Japanese culture. Not particularly malicious in the general intent, but pervasive.

To steer this back to video games, see also Robin Banks in the Japanese version of DecAthlete:

http://uk.retro.ign.com/articles/898/898248p1.html

I'm a big fan of Japanese popular culture generally by the way, and buy a fuck-ton of import video games. None of this really means that RE5 is racist either, my view is that Capcom's promotional material is a bit ignorantly insensitive at absolute worst, but I expect nothing particularly offensive in the game itself. Apart from the quality of the voice acting.

[evelyn_blake]

Ta for that. Interesting stuff.

I'm not going to dwell on it, bloody sophisticated games having social implications and connotations beyond their station. What happened to the good old days were you simply romped about as a blue collar, everyman, American- European worker who had to rescue a angelic caucasian princess snatched away by a vile, despicable hulking monkey named after an animal that is known for having an incredibly large penis...oh dear.

[Father O`Blivion]

Was I playing a different game? The PC version seemed to be a really limited free roaming GTA-wannabe that become overly repetitive in the end game. Unlike GTA Vice City/etc. I had absolutely no desire to 100% it as all the side missions were identical.

It seemed pretty free roaming on the 360 although as far as I remember the side missions were a bit on the basic side. The control system however was superior to anything Rockstar have so far come up with. If they've advanced the game to the same level that Volition did with SR II then it should be worth a look.
Even if they haven't, it would be hard for it to be any more limited and repetitive than GTA IV.

[Geraint]

Could you elaborate on that?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&hl=en-GB&v=J4QB7cHdVfs

[HappyTree]

a vile, despicable hulking monkey named after an animal that is known for having an incredibly large penis...oh dear.

:-D I'd never thought of it like that before! It now throws my childhood into a whole other light!

[Mr_Simnock]

I used to collect Japanese Mega Drive games ( I have about 90 in very good condition ) and have recently been thinking about starting up again. The thing that gets me is I know I may never be able to complete the collection even though there is only around 450 games to collect in all. I simply can't justify shelling out £500 for Mega Anser or £700+ for Tetris ( if I could actually tempt a collector to part with a copy ) any more. One note of consolation ( no pun intended ) is I've checked the ebay value of some of my games and most of them have gone up in value a lot since I bought mine. Still, may change my mind and just pick up quality games as and when I can bag them.

[Slaaaaabs]

Sega have allegedly shitcanned the Aliens RPG being worked on by Obsidian (KoToR 2, NWN etc)

http://kotaku.com/5152193/rumor-aliens-rpg-canceled-layoffs-hit

Dreamcunts

[The Region Legion]

£500 for Mega Anser or £700+ for Tetris

£700 for Tetris? Why?

[Mr_Simnock]

£700 for Tetris is probably cheap. Tetris was going to be released for the Mega Drive but the deal fell through ( legal reasons, can't remember exactly what ) and the only copies of the game were a few unofficial prototypes/mock ups etc. I'm just glad I don't collect Neo Geo games, $10,000+ is what you have to pay for the absolute pinnacle of that system. I could list a lot of games that go for over a thousand dollars now for various systems. Check this link out http://www.gamesniped.com/2007/11/08/worlds-most-expensive-video-games/. The list is about 18 months old now and I can think of other expensive games that aren't on that list ( virtual Lab for Nintendo's Virtualboy for example).

P.S just checked the net and Tetris could be bought for around $2,000 - $10,000 depending on if you can find someone to part with it and if its in demand etc, etc.

[The Boston Crab]

Sell all your games and have a boss holiday in Japan.

[chocky909]

If anyone is interested. Left 4 Dead is available through Steam at half price this weekend - £13.49.

[ThickAndCreamy]

FUCK YES.
I've been waiting for a discount for so long for L4D, Now I can finally buy it! Thanks chocky.

[chand]

I went to shops yesterday to pick up the new F.E.A.R and noticed that 'Shellshock: Blood Trails' was out. I have no particular interest in this game having not played the first, but I was struck by how little has been said about it. The previews seemed to dry up, when I checked on Friday it seemed literally no-one had reviewed it, and the Wiki page was still saying it wasn't coming out for a couple of weeks. Presumably it's absolutely piss-awful, but it's still a weird situation, I assume a game like that has a fair bit of money invested in it and yet they virtually sneaked it onto the shelves with barely any promotion, even the gamefaqs forum for it was full of people going 'Huh?' when it came out on Friday, with about three threads after its release, with barely any posts at all in the previous weeks. Is this the sort of weird thing Eidos does now?

As Eurogamer has it, the Feb 13th release date was only announced on the 2nd, and they seemed baffled by it:

We've not seen much of Shellshock 2: Blood Trails so far, perhaps worryingly

Gamepro seems to have screens and some blurb with no previews or reviews, while IGN just has one news article. It looks like they realised it was gonna suck, but too late to shitcan it? Odd.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Is it me or is the PC gaming market dead on its arse? I've been trying to find some new titles either just out or on the horizon, and whilst Empire: Total War grabs my attention, everything else is either out on consoles or some expansion pack of a previously released game. It's really depressing. I thought I could at least rely on some decent management games, but Football Manager aside (and possibly other sport related ones) it's ridiculously thin on the ground.

[Slaaaaabs]

I went to shops yesterday to pick up the new F.E.A.R and noticed that 'Shellshock: Blood Trails' was out. I have no particular interest in this game having not played the first, but I was struck by how little has been said about it. The previews seemed to dry up, when I checked on Friday it seemed literally no-one had reviewed it, and the Wiki page was still saying it wasn't coming out for a couple of weeks. Presumably it's absolutely piss-awful, but it's still a weird situation, I assume a game like that has a fair bit of money invested in it and yet they virtually sneaked it onto the shelves with barely any promotion, even the gamefaqs forum for it was full of people going 'Huh?' when it came out on Friday, with about three threads after its release, with barely any posts at all in the previous weeks. Is this the sort of weird thing Eidos does now?

As Eurogamer has it, the Feb 13th release date was only announced on the 2nd, and they seemed baffled by it:

Gamepro seems to have screens and some blurb with no previews or reviews, while IGN just has one news article. It looks like they realised it was gonna suck, but too late to shitcan it? Odd.

I spotted it as well, then I checked Youtube to see if anyone had capped any footage for themselves. Easy to tell why it has no fanfare whatsoever.

[chand]

Is it me or is the PC gaming market dead on its arse? I've been trying to find some new titles either just out or on the horizon, and whilst Empire: Total War grabs my attention, everything else is either out on consoles or some expansion pack of a previously released game. It's really depressing. I thought I could at least rely on some decent management games, but Football Manager aside (and possibly other sport related ones) it's ridiculously thin on the ground.

There doesn't seem to be much coming out that isn't on consoles. I only got a gaming-standard PC last month so I've been catching up on a lot of the stuff I've missed in the 5 or so years since my PC was good enough; Left 4 Dead, Gears of War, Halo, Crysis, Sam and Max etc, but there doesn't seem to be anything exciting on the horizon.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

I was secretly hoping someone would go "Ah wait!" and pull something incredible out of the bag. But I've done a bit of preview scouring and there's barely anything that's out this year for the PC that excites. There's usually a few games that are surprisingly good though, so I'm still hopeful.

It's disappointing because people are now paying top dollar for niche games for the DS but the PC market hasn't quite cottened on to it. I was looking forward to a renaissance period akin to the early 90's. They're still obsessed with making games only about 5% of PC owners can play on full spec and the internet are busy doing mods of 90's games like Transport Tycoon rather than doing what they should be doing which is being employed by developers making the great games of the future.

Rant. Rant. Rant.

[Marty McFly]

Twin Peaks: The Video Game?

[youtube=425,350]EbbhwO7pRHA[/youtube]

it might as bloody well be..

if the wiki page is anything to be believed the game's being redeveloped so as to be less of a carbon copy of the show.

[glitch]

Is it me or is the PC gaming market dead on its arse? I've been trying to find some new titles either just out or on the horizon, and whilst Empire: Total War grabs my attention, everything else is either out on consoles or some expansion pack of a previously released game. It's really depressing. I thought I could at least rely on some decent management games, but Football Manager aside (and possibly other sport related ones) it's ridiculously thin on the ground.

It's why I ended up buying a 360 in the end. The only games I'm remotely interested in that will only hit the PC are Dawn of War 2 and Company of Heroes 2 - both put out by Relic, both RTS, both sequels. Sadly I'll have to upgrade to do so and I can't justify the expense for two games, so it'll be a case of whenever I get round to upgrading my desk/laptop that I'll actually play them. That could be another 6-12 months at least.

[Geraint]

S?S! is pretty much spot-on about current PC gaming. at the moment it's good for shiny new first person shooters and low budget niche strategy or quirky indie games, with pretty much nothing in between. Even a long-running series like Football Manager has been absolutely abysmal for the last 2 years (latest news on a new patch - they're rebalancing the ENTIRE GAME to be more in line with Premier League statistics. Playing a game in Serie A? the Brazilian leagues? Conference South? all now based on one particular style of football from one particular league, which has all sorts of fun side-effects like Conference North/South keepers saving less than THREE PERCENT of shots on target. should also mention that most foreign leagues are bugged to the point of unplayability, but as they're not English they're 'low priority' so won't even be looked at til FM2010)

[waste of chops]

It looks like they realised it was gonna suck, but too late to shitcan it? Odd.

Suck? But how could it possibly suck?

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/shellshock-2-blood-trails-review

With no multiplayer, and only ten levels, the game isn't even very long, but I still couldn't bring myself to finish it. It's no surprise that Eidos has been very quiet about it in the run-up to its launch today: had it been released on PS2, Shellshock 2 would have struggled to live up to the original's 6/10 legacy. Up against World at War, Killzone 2 and Halo 3, it's a complete joke. The worst FPS I've played since Turning Point: Fall of Liberty.

...Oh.

[HappyTree]

One thing that slightly rankles me in FPS games is the reloading guns. Why do I care about reloading? I want to move around and press fire. I have never consciously reloaded anything in my life. Maybe that's why I'm rubbish at FPSes :D

[Deadman97]

It's not usually so important in FPSs, but there are plenty of third-person actioners that are all about the reloading. Get to know the reload in RE 4 or Dead Space or progress will be slow indeed.

[chand]

Any of you other PS3ers played Flower yet? It's short as hell but it's fucking great. I can imagine I'll play through it again. No real challenge, it's just like an awesome tech demo really, but it's great flying through the long grass, and the last level is magnificent.

[Still Not George]

I spotted it as well, then I checked Youtube to see if anyone had capped any footage for themselves. Easy to tell why it has no fanfare whatsoever.

Not really. Even shite games usually get some marketing drive (I experienced this to my astonishment last year when our clients spent notably more on marketing the abundantly awful game I can't name *ahem* than they paid us to shove it out in 9 months), if only in an attempt to lure enough idiots into buying the thing to recoup the costs of making it.
This probably has a lot to do with Eidos dispensing with as many Development Hell projects as possible before Square Enix are able to do their due diligence checks, a process I'm still astonished hasnt led to one of our current porting projects being cancelled (as it's a massive heap of shit), given that we're working for Eidos via a layer of indirection or two.

[mcbpete]

Any of you other PS3ers played Flower yet? It's short as hell but it's fucking great. I can imagine I'll play through it again. No real challenge, it's just like an awesome tech demo really, but it's great flying through the long grass, and the last level is magnificent.

It's bloody lovely isn't it. And it's quite compulsive trying to get all the trophies. Yesterday I bought that and Siren: Blood Cure, playing Flower then immediately Siren is quite a contrast !

[Deadman97]

Any of you other PS3ers played Flower yet? It's short as hell but it's fucking great. I can imagine I'll play through it again. No real challenge, it's just like an awesome tech demo really, but it's great flying through the long grass, and the last level is magnificent.

Sat down with it tonight, and yeah, it's lovely. You realise what's going on and how to control it and your jaw sort of goes slack and you just slip into it. Great game.

[samadriel]

I was secretly hoping someone would go "Ah wait!" and pull something incredible out of the bag. But I've done a bit of preview scouring and there's barely anything that's out this year for the PC that excites. There's usually a few games that are surprisingly good though, so I'm still hopeful.

It's disappointing because people are now paying top dollar for niche games for the DS but the PC market hasn't quite cottened on to it. I was looking forward to a renaissance period akin to the early 90's. They're still obsessed with making games only about 5% of PC owners can play on full spec and the internet are busy doing mods of 90's games like Transport Tycoon rather than doing what they should be doing which is being employed by developers making the great games of the future.

Rant. Rant. Rant.

Interested in Cryostasis at all?  Personally... *waggles hand*, could be alright.  It seems the centre of PC development is drifting eastward; as I understand it, the PC is still king in Eastern Europe.  Oh yeah, the original STALKER devs (they didn't do the thoroughly broken Clear Sky) are working on this; I'm only really interested because it's them though.
I don't think it's inherently bad or degrading to the PC's worth that a lot of games these days are also released on console -- the problem arises when fuckwit devs make a broken PC port and then blame piracy when no-one lays down hearty game-sized portions of cash for a product which doesn't fucking work.  That and all the various waterings-down which inevitably occur when you're making a game to be played on a controller/television.

Meanwhile, I'm mighty glad Capcom are doing SF4 for PC.  They'd better not fuck it up though...

[youtube=425,350]EbbhwO7pRHA[/youtube]

Hahah, Jesus...  "Don't worry guys, no-one's heard of this 'Twin Peaks' show..."