StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Chardok wrote:I'm getting my 360 back today - hopefully it's the same way because my 360 sounded like a goddamned B52 before it went tits up.

Did you have one of the drives that chewed up discs if you even looked at it?

Zac Naloen wrote:

Chardok wrote:I'm getting my 360 back today - hopefully it's the same way because my 360 sounded like a goddamned B52 before it went tits up.

Did you have one of the drives that chewed up discs if you even looked at it?

I had .... something weird. I can say no more because I don't know. I did not have a typical RRoD....I'm thinking I probably got a new/refurb unit - hopefully with all updated components (Heatsink, drive, Etc.)

Wing Commander MAD wrote:Apparently Sony never figured out that except for the Japanophiles, Americans aren't really into spikey haired teens and samurai/ninja wank which seems to a centerpiece of many Japanese games.

Man, this is nonsense. Remember how ludicrously popular Final Fantasy VII was in America? The demand for it was so high that thousands of stores actually broke the street dates, and it maintained sales of tens of thousands of units for months. It's basically in the same ballpark of ridiculous sale figures as the original Halo. I mean, I guess you can call all the people who buy Devil May Cry and Ninja Gaiden, the most recent entries of which have both sold over a million copies over the course of a couple of months, 'Japanophiles' if you like, but you'd be a wanker.

Ford Prefect wrote:

Wing Commander MAD wrote:Apparently Sony never figured out that except for the Japanophiles, Americans aren't really into spikey haired teens and samurai/ninja wank which seems to a centerpiece of many Japanese games.

Man, this is nonsense. Remember how ludicrously popular Final Fantasy VII was in America? The demand for it was so high that thousands of stores actually broke the street dates, and it maintained sales of tens of thousands of units for months. It's basically in the same ballpark of ridiculous sale figures as the original Halo. I mean, I guess you can call all the people who buy Devil May Cry and Ninja Gaiden, the most recent entries of which have both sold over a million copies over the course of a couple of months, 'Japanophiles' if you like, but you'd be a wanker.

I always thought FFVII was great for the gameplay, graphics and story. IMHO the character design was awesome, but not the focus of the game compared to the overall style. What I'm trying to get at is that the anime aspect of character design is less important than the overall awesomeness of the game.

Design? Animu? STORY? All this stuff would be just fine if it wasn't for the fact that spreadsheets and turn based combat bore the ever loving hell out of me. I actually liked the direction Dirge of Cerberus took the franchise, it's just too bad Square Enix can't make a good shooter for their lives.

Clearly some people see things in jRPGs I don't. But hey I played Xenosaga.

Crisis Core has arguably the best gameplay of all the FFVII games, but that's getting away from my point, which is simply that there clearly does exist a market for games which are very much 'Japanese' in America.

Ford Prefect wrote:Crisis Core has arguably the best gameplay of all the FFVII games, but that's getting away from my point, which is simply that there clearly does exist a market for games which are very much 'Japanese' in America.

Oh yeah. It's pretty ludicrous to claim that jRPGs aren't popular in the US. When they've been selling systems since the 80s. I mean, Final Fantasy sold millions back in the days of the NES too. What makes FF7 different was that it was the Halo of jRPGs and one of the first games to have such runaway success it got noticed by the public.

Zac Naloen wrote: When my 360 died they actually replaced the CD drive in the repair, my 360 makes less noise than my pc these days.

Well the noise from the DVD drive is just barely noticeable, even the PS3 fan is only noticeable now that it's next to me on the desk. I had it in an entertainment centre previously and I never heard it.

CaptHawkeye wrote:

Ford Prefect wrote:Crisis Core has arguably the best gameplay of all the FFVII games, but that's getting away from my point, which is simply that there clearly does exist a market for games which are very much 'Japanese' in America.

Oh yeah. It's pretty ludicrous to claim that jRPGs aren't popular in the US. When they've been selling systems since the 80s. I mean, Final Fantasy sold millions back in the days of the NES too. What makes FF7 different was that it was the Halo of jRPGs and one of the first games to have such runaway success it got noticed by the public.

I wonder, what made it such a success? I loved it because of the crazy sci-fi pseudo mystical storyline, music, and visual design...I guess a lot of people would say the same thing.

TheMuffinKing wrote:

CaptHawkeye wrote:

Ford Prefect wrote:Crisis Core has arguably the best gameplay of all the FFVII games, but that's getting away from my point, which is simply that there clearly does exist a market for games which are very much 'Japanese' in America.

Oh yeah. It's pretty ludicrous to claim that jRPGs aren't popular in the US. When they've been selling systems since the 80s. I mean, Final Fantasy sold millions back in the days of the NES too. What makes FF7 different was that it was the Halo of jRPGs and one of the first games to have such runaway success it got noticed by the public.

I wonder, what made it such a success? I loved it because of the crazy sci-fi pseudo mystical storyline, music, and visual design...I guess a lot of people would say the same thing.

I'm sure the sheer amount of money Squenix spent on marketing helped loads, too.

TheMuffinKing wrote:I wonder, what made it such a success? I loved it because of the crazy sci-fi pseudo mystical storyline, music, and visual design...I guess a lot of people would say the same thing.

Final Fantasy VII was, at the time, apparently jaw droppingly gorgeous. Going by a certain article in a Hyper magazine I own, a lot of reactions to seeing it in action for the first time were basically 'holy shit look at that'.

Please note this is a reference to the combat, the cutscenes and the pre-rendered (and animated zomg) backgrounds.

NOT the god-horrible ingame character models where everyone has a cinderblock for a forearm.

I think Square got lucky too - FF7 had a nice skill system, whereas later they've gone increasingly experimental and strange.

Stark wrote:Please note this is a reference to the combat, the cutscenes and the pre-rendered (and animated zomg) backgrounds.

NOT the god-horrible ingame character models where everyone has a cinderblock for a forearm.

I think Square got lucky too - FF7 had a nice skill system, whereas later they've gone increasingly experimental and strange.

FFVIII was a prime example of that. I thought the storyline and setting in it was potentially decent but just couldn't abide the magic and skills system.

Jade Falcon wrote:

Stark wrote:Please note this is a reference to the combat, the cutscenes and the pre-rendered (and animated zomg) backgrounds.

NOT the god-horrible ingame character models where everyone has a cinderblock for a forearm.

I think Square got lucky too - FF7 had a nice skill system, whereas later they've gone increasingly experimental and strange.

FFVIII was a prime example of that. I thought the storyline and setting in it was potentially decent but just couldn't abide the magic and skills system.

The storyline in 8 annoyed me to no end, but ultimately the magic and skills system was retarded and broken. 7's was a lot more similar to 6's Magicite system.

Chardok wrote:Yeah, I said it - for what it is, and make no mistake, it's a game system, it's balls in my face. Its exclusives are nothing but obscure weird Japanese nonsense and the ports are ass.

What major Japanese exclusives (that are available in the West) does Sony have besides White Knight Chronicles, Siren, Valkyria Chronicles and GT5 Prologue? Disgaea3?

Afaik the majority Sony's exclusives this gen are Sony's own first and second party games from Western developers like Resistance, Uncharted, Killzone, Warhawk, Infamous, Ratchet, God of War, Socom, MAG, Heavy Rain, LittleBigPlanet, MotorStorm, Wipeout etc.

Give Chardok a break. You can't expect a man who farms on Guild Wars to have that firm a grip on reality.

Also, how UTTERLY SEXY is Wipeout HD. I actually struggle to think of another console game which is so solidly gorgeous. It pretty much justifies the PSN Store all on its own.

Ford Prefect wrote:Give Chardok a break. You can't expect a man who farms on Guild Wars to have that firm a grip on reality.

Also, how UTTERLY SEXY is Wipeout HD. I actually struggle to think of another console game which is so solidly gorgeous. It pretty much justifies the PSN Store all on its own.

How dare you fail to mention the awesomeness that is Trash Panic! . Castrate yourself immediately

Superboy wrote:The PS3 was the first of this generations consoles that I bought and I've yet to buy a single game for it. I love gaming, I've bought 14 games for my 360, but there isn't a single game that interests me for the PS3.

That said, I still don't regret buying it. It sucks as a gaming console but it's a pretty great media centre. I've had way more problems trying to stream video to my 360 than I have to my PS3 (which has been flawless so far), and I love watching blurays.

Heh indeedy...
I use the PS3 as a BluRay/PC media player far more than I use it as a gaming system.
Though I like a couple of the driving games enough to have bought a wireless wheel controller to use.

The way I see it, I paid $200 for a BluRay/media player setup and $200 for a decent gaming system with 2 included games.
IOW, while I wasn't willing to pay $400 for a kickass gaming system or $400 for a media streaming setup, I was willing to pay $400 for both.

I use my PS3 as a glorified PS1/2. I do actually have some games for it, but they never rise to the top of the "Things I Want To Play Now" list.

Fortunately, it was free.

Ford, actually in all honesty I don't remember when FF7 came out. My guess is that I didn't have a PS1 then so I paid little to no attention to what went on with it (not to mention I was still in middle school then, I may not have even had the internet at that point). I've never played the game either so I can't comment on it. The only real thing I know about it is that that Cloud is really popular and that he apparently likes to use weapons that are so large he couldn't use it effectively in real life if he wanted to. I know FF7 is considered one of the best post Nintendo FF titles though.

I think it might be the art stlye to a degree that bothers me. I suppose I tend to prefer a realistic art style than or cartoonish one (ie Mario) than anime in general. Though I think FF9 was good, though that may have had something to do with it seemed to have slightly more cartoonish elements (along with Chrystal Chronicles) than most of the other recent FF games, at least as far as I know.

FF7 looked great and had atmosphere for a short while. Then you saw your blocky mutant lego people, and realized that they for some ungodly reason, couldn't have just used the in-battle models which were much better.

Then, you realize all that 'story development' ran out about 1/3rd of the way through (once you leave Midgar really), and you have a dozen characters with no lines and huge cult followings (WTF Vincent).

Oh. And I laughed so hard when Aeris died. It was such a ridiculous moment, I was like... 'wait, you have to kill the most useless member of my party this way? In a cutscene, in a game where death means nothing in the mechanics?', I was more moved when that goddess damned cat-robot-thing died.

No, FF7 was only popular through hype, which had enough momentum to carry it through to this day. I don't buy arguments about 'gameplay' in a game where your only choices are 'attack' and 'magic attack' and 'heal'. FF8's characters were far superior, despite literally the entire cast having AMNESIA (that's saying a damned lot). Hell, FFX across the board is a superior, more polished game, and it doesn't even enjoy such a level of popularity simply because the hype never built up so badly around it.