MaxSonic

For those looking for good games that aren't generic FPS games from the west, you're looking too hard. Batman Arkham Asylum was brilliant game that took what was essentially a Metroid/Zelda-ish game, blended it with some of the best stealth gameplay since Metal Gear, and finished it with a complex yet simple combat system. I can't fathom the sequel, and how much they have and can add. What about the Mass Effect series or Portal? Keep in mind that both Japan and America have the same habit, just with different things. In America, FPS and sports games sell, so they dish them out the ass. Japan does the same thing. How many Dynasty Warrior style games have come out this generation? And if you slap Gundam on anything, it's guaranteed to sell over there. The issue is that the 360 wasn't really embraced over there, and developers focused longer on the PS2 and PSP instead of HD games, simply because that's what was popular. Making games is expensive, especially for an HD console, so they cant really take many risks on a PS3 or 360 game, so they stick to simpler stuff, and get left behind. Which takes the whole thing full circle... Nintendo came up with the best idea ever, and failed to execute it to it's full potential. Instead of trying to compete for general gamers' money against PS3 and 360 with an expensive console that would cost them money (remember, both Sony and Microsoft lost $200 per console around launch), they made a gamble an upgraded gamecube to every home, regardless of gamer status or not. With some tweaking, the company could have changed gaming forever again, by pushing traditional games later on Wii and turning every Wii owner into a true gamer. And while this was tried (see late last years return to old franchises), there should have been more effort. I doubt that Nintendo will win back the casual market with the Wii U, which is why they're claiming to market towards the hardcore. Just don't let us down Nintendo. My big issue is that Nintendo is the one company this situation shouldn't happen to. Nintendo could tell every 3rd party developer to fuck off, and just make 1st party games on their console, and they would be fine. Nobody else can claim this. 360 would suck if you just had Halo and Viva Pinata, and while God Of War, Uncharted, and Little Big Planet are good, the system still relies on the Madden and Cod crowd to survive. Nintendo just seemed not to care, and I guess they decided they didn't need to make games for their system. Which is just a stupid business decision.

Ooh, discussion. You guys should catch some Pach Attack on Gametrailers. Nice little show, and the man give an unbiased logical view on the why's and how's of the industry. I don't want to turn this into a Nintendo VS Vita topic. To me they are two different items, in a similar market. The vita did drop some features so they could price it competitivly with the 3ds, like remove internal memory (which is just stupid) and cut the ram . The bad thing is that now the price doesn't match anymore, and NOBODY is going to get an AT&T contract to play a PSP. As for Nintendo, they'll pull this around. While history shows price cuts don't usually fix Nintendo's problems, one of this magnitude has never been done by them before. Even with the Vita coming out this holiday (possibly), they will own. They have two of the biggest money makers coming out, Mario and Mario Kart. They'll take a small loss on the handheld when you buy it, and immediatly make it back when you get your first game. And they'll play it safer now, and put out more content. Nintendo has gotten a little too confident this generation, with the Wii and DS selling like hotcakes. The Wii has the most sparatic release windows, and Nintendo needs to fix this. Also, am I the only one who thinks the 3DS should have come out June 12th? Advertise the hell out of it from April til release date, put models out in all the Gamestops. By June, you would have built up some hype, had your download service up, and a great launch library. Zelda, Street Fighter, Dead Or Alive, Ridge Racer, Nintendogs (it's for a certain audience). Also, unless something changes, JRPG's are permanently a niche title in the US. During the Playstation and early PS2 era they were hugely popular, but since the shift to FPS's and mainstream gaming, they are all but niche titles in the US. People like to mention how awesome Persona is, how it has a cult following in the us, and I agree with these statements. But the combined sales of EVERY Persona game released in the US (including the PS1 game) doesn't even reach 1 million. There are some good games out that aren't shooters though. La Noire, Mass Effect (ok, it's a RPG/Shooter hybrid), Catherine. They won't overthrow the shooters, but they are there. The only thing that will overthrow the shooters are shooters. Look how Halo was kicked aside for Call of Duty. Activision also spammed Guitar Hero games til people got sick of them, so I can see this happening with CoD, and something better more original coming out. Want a GOOD FPS? Grab some Boarderlands or RAGE when it comes out. Also, sorry for the rant. Haven't slept.

There's no way in hell Nintendo won't eventually put those GBA games online. Even if they say they won't, it's Nintendo. They'll do it. As for the Vita vs 3DS, I'm still not convinced on the Vita. While the 3DS adopted it's own set of problems, the Vita still seems to retain most of the problems the PSP had. It's bulky, expensive (now, lol), and just seems content in giving console games on a portable. The Vita needs some original content not based on a console game, like Monster Hunter that will actually sell in the west. Nintendo has Pokemon, Nintendogs, Brain Age, and a bunch of others. Back to Nintendo, I think things will be looking up for them. They lost too much money to let this happen again. I can see a Pokemon "Grey" version in the near future as a 3ds exclusive, and Mario and Mario Kart are coming soon, both of which will sell well.

Didn't see a topic, and I think it's fitting to have one due to a certain earlier topic about telling Nintendo f-you. Nintendo today that they are dropping the price on the 3DS to $170 to push sales, due to a 23.3 billion yen sales loss (that's about $300 million). While there are numerous reasons that can be attributed to the sales drop, the biggest and most obvious reason (in my opinion) is simply this: They haven't been making games. They are a game company. That is bad. See, Nintendo has almost completely ignored the Wii this year, and relied almost completely on the 3rd party for 3ds support. This is the same company that people will buy their products exclusively for 1st party content, and who's 1st party content spans the top 10 most selling games of all time. Embracing 3rd party is nice, but it seems they are almost trying to make a point. In it's current state, Nintendo's background are thier exclusive 1st party games. Maybe if the 3ds or WiiU get great support on 3rd party and they start outselling 1st, then Nintendo can kick back on 1st party for a bit. But that's not happening. Now I still don't think releasing those 3 Wii games from project rainfall in the US would affect anything. They're getting released in Europe, and probably wouldn't sell well in the US (they're new IP's and they're RPG's which aren't top sellers over here outside Pokemon). But fucking release something Nintendo.

Hey there. I haven't been on this site in years. I need some help with something. When I first came onto this site, I made some notoriously bad fangames called "Sonic Roller", where Sonic ran through a top down area destroying enemies by rolling into them (and getting stuck in walls). I later made a nicer version that I called Sonic Roller 1 & 2 Deluxe, which was a a bugfixed version of that, and even entered it into SAGE one year. I was wondering if anyone had a copy of that game? My harddrive has been reformatted several times, and I'm actually on a new computer now. I want it more for a nostalgia purpose than anything else, but I'd still like to have it. Thanks.

Finished making this myself. Give me pointers. This is completely improve,and it's part of a running gag at work (everyone thinks that I think I'm batman).

I'm not the biggest horror movie fan, but there is one series I have been quite fond of... Halloween. I happened to catch the end of the original movie one year, and was wowed by how it was sort of scary, but not stupid at all. Yet with most horror movies, they throw out sequel after sequel, and end up becoming retarded. Now the trend is when you mess up, just reboot it, and that's what they did with Halloween. I read a lot of bad reviews on Rob Zombie's Halloween, but when I finally got to watch it, it was decent. Yeah, it had it's flaws, but it made sense and had a few good moments without becoming completely retarded. The first 10 minutes sucked, but I thought the hospital segments were great. Eventually Micheal Myers came back in full force, albeit with the new habit of killing women primarily while they're on the ground naked (Rob Zombie). So when I saw the trailer for the sequel, I was sorta skeptical. I read the reviews, and it got worse than it's predecessor. But I decided to roll the dice and give it another shot. I like a lot of weird movies, and maybe this one wasn't so bad... Damn I was horribly wrong. This film easily takes the award for the worst Halloween ever. I would rather of seen Busta Rymes trying to save Micheal's baby from an evil cult than watch this movie again (combining Resurrection and Curse). Let's start off. Micheal Myers is NOT Micheal Myers. He's some crazy hillbilly idiot. The majority of screen time he is mask-less, now with an ugly beard. He doesn't have the same sense of silent intelligence he had in older films. He now grunts and yells when he kills someone, and he tries to do it in the most violent way possible. Just like in the first one, he likes killing women either naked or crawling on the floor, and they get more emphasis than the male deaths. The first 20 minutes of the movie is sort of Zombie's take on the original Halloween 2, a hospital attack. There's an over the top grisly surgery scene, and then Mikey shows up and has killed everyone in the hospital. It's really ridiculous how bad this is. At one point she climbs over a barb wire fence in an arm and leg cast and lands in a dumpster of mutilated bodies. Fortunately this is a stupid and overly drawn out dream sequence. The rest of the movie is stupid cliche deaths, that are not creative, just violent. The whole “white horse” crap doesn't even synch up with the first movie, and the ending is total garbage. There's one part where you do feel sympathy for a character dying, and that may have been able to liberate the movie, but the scene ends and reminds you how crappy the movie is. To put it in perspective, it doesn't even have the Halloween theme in it. So why am I writing this? Stay far away from this movie. If you're really curious, download it. However, Micheal Myers really did kill me. He took 2 hours of my life away.

There's a gas station I go to that I call the Sonic gas station. Every time I pay the cashier, when the drawer opens it makes a ring noise. I've asked my friends, and they all agree.

Yeah, same here. I mean, the DS has a smaller resolution, so it's either got to scale it, and make it look ugly, or cut off some of the edges. Also, the main thing I noticed is he looked different when he spinned. But the game was fully playable, I had no serious issues.

Michael Jackson's MoonWalker HD Remix for XBox Live Arcade and PSN, with CD quality audio and extra stages. NAOW.

Slingerland's what's up with that justifies my point before I make it. The screens are not legit at this time. The DS has a different resolution than the genesis, and the screens don't match up anyways. So I decided to run my own experiment. I ran a ds flash card with a genesis emulator on it, and played through a few stages of Sonic the Hedgehog. Turning off vertical and horizontal scaling, tiny bits of the screens edge were cut off. This did not hinder gameplay, it just made the score and lives slightly more difficult to read, and there was some weird sprite issues occasionally. But the end result was a perfectly playable Sonic the Hedgehog that ran at 60 fps on the DS. And consider this was on a homebrew emulator for a poorly supported flash cart. So unlike the GBA, the DS can easily emulate the Genesis. However the question is, how much effort is SEGA going to put in it? It would not surprise me if SEGA does strait emulation and doesn't even fix the HUD. If that is the case, then forget this game altogether. However, let's say SEGA fixes the HUD, puts in the expected features (saving, bug fixes), drops in a few extra features (online for 2&3, S&K docking, extra games and modes), then maybe I'm looking at a purchase, especially if it's not a full price game. Wouldn't it be nice if it added online with ranking, or had the HUD on the bottom screen with some extra info? Oh, and where the F*** is Sonic Rush 3?

Superior logo is superior. And mine only took 5 min in photoshop.

Yes, and the same could be said for Halo ODST. Some said that Mario Galaxy 2 was the same way, but we haven't seen any of it, and knowing Miyamoto's way of working, it will be worth the extra $50. At least Super Street Fighter 4 isn't going to be a full priced game, it will retail for only $40. And while some people are releasing DLC as disk games, others are releasing basic features as DLC. Capcom wants you to pay money for extra costumes in SF4, and for the Versus mode in RE5, but both of those are saved on the disk. You're just paying to unlock them. At the end of the day, it feels more like money grabbing than anything else.

Technically, SEGA got a new president, and he decided to drop the Dreamcast and go 3rd party. A lot of people say the Genesis Add-On's and Saturn, or the PS2. However, the Genesis itself was profitable, and the Saturn was successful in Japan, not to mention the Dreamcast was a big seller (it broke the record for most consoles sold on launch). SEGA going 3rd was a choice, not a requirement. From a business perspective, the PS2 was out, the Gamecube and XBox were coming, so it seemed like a logical decision. We can argue it all day, the fact is that SEGA went 3rd party, and that the Dreamcast had better games than all 3 current gen consoles combined.

By far I'd have to say this is the most disappointing generation so far. I now own a PS3 and Wii, and have no plans to get a 360 (not hating, there are just no exclusive I have to have). Looking at what's coming out for the rest of the year, I'm really only looking forward to No More Heroes 2, Tatsunoko VS Capcom (which I already have), and that's about it. All the good games are the ones that DONT SELL (Madworld, Valkyrie Profile, HotDOK), and the most popular games are rehashes (Halo 3 ODST and Left For Dead 2) or games that try and make pay to have all the features (dlc that's not DLC, it's just you paying 3 bucks to unlock a mode already on the disk.) A lot of people say that the PS2 was the reason the Dreamcast went out, or the fact that they didn't make good games (aka retards). The reason the Dreamcast went out is because they had GOOD QUALITY GAMES instead of trying to kiss the mainstreams ass. If you need me... I'll be rocking some Power Stone.

So I finished my universal arcade stick, although it's not perfect. I've also posted a few guts images of the stick, although they may frighten you. This is my first custom stick, so I know there's vast room for improvement. I didn't use the screws that qcf gave me for my jlf, and I regret that because the nut inside keeps falling out. Also, the 2nd button on the bottom row occasionally comes loose inside, although it only happens when it's moved and can easily be remedied by hitting the bottom (ghetto). The paint job sucks, I know. I sprayed it with about two coats, then threw some finish, then a couple more coats the next day after sanding and topped it with some finish. Before I painted it, I put the parts in and tested it at a friends house, and unfortunately, the wood attracts dog hair easily (even now). However, playwise it's great. I'm amazed how sensitive the buttons are and love the weight and the fact that it's MY stick that I made. It runs off a PS1 dual shock pcb with a PS2 to USB adapter for PC and PS3, and a PS2 to GameCube for Wii. No problems here. The insides might scare you, because I decided to use local parts instead of ordering online. In order to do a sbiffyhack, I had to run wires to the quick disconnects, and then staple the ends, wrap them in tape, and slide the staple into the PCB. Does it work? Like a charm. Was it a pain to do? Hellz yeah. Have I learned my lesson? Maybe. So here are the pics, hope you like ImageShack... My First Stick Anyways, that's it. I pretty much got all the parts from qcfgaming and gamingnow.net, if you wanted to know, and also got most of my info from the SRK forums. Whatcha think?

Hate to tell you dude, but your Next-Gen predictions are kinda wrong. Nintendo announced last year that they plan to make a new system in a couple years (recycling the Wii name and with HD output), and Sony definitely won't be going under. Since the price drop, the PS3 has been selling very well, and we'll definitely be seeing a PS4. As for SEGA's return, I'd love to see it, but it's unlikely. SEGA doesn't really have the appeal it once had, so it would pretty much be starting from scratch, AND competing against 3 other consoles. However, I'd love to see a new handheld device from them. They sorta have been messing around with that handheld tv and nomad remake, but a full fledged new SEGA portable would kick ass. It would be a great time to implement one, seeing as the PSP Go sucks, and the DS has limited multimedia capabilities. Have a handheld with multimedia, built in memory, digital content (all first party SEGA Genesis/Dreamcast/MasterSystem games from day one), and good old Sega intuition, and I think that while it may not outdo any handheld, it could certainly compete. Besides, if SEGA had a new console, they would just make an overpriced hardware add-on in a couple months that disappears.

But Epon! The new iPod has a camera! A camera! Sure, it still doesn't work as mass storage device, have features even the $30 MP3 players do, and it will cost twice as much as another media player with the same memory because it says Apple on it, BUT IT HAS A CAMERA! AND AN APPLE! I mean, it's not like every cell phone these days has a camera. The end result about a computer is, if you know what the hell you're doing and don't do stupid shit, then you won't get viruses. I've had my laptop for three years, haven't had a single problem with it. The people who come into Walmart and ask for hard drives, and then argue with me that a hard drive is actually the name of the DESKTOP COMPUTER, they don't need a computer. They should just stick to their damn TV's.

Just beat Arkham Asylum. Awesome game. Mostly playing Soul Caliber 4 and Battlefield 1943 until I can get my hands on BlazBlue.

Yeah, it's completely free and really good quality. The only thing I have to complain about is the lack of extra modes (time attack, survival) to increase replay value, but hey, it's free. I haven't tried the netplay yet, but I believe you need an extra program to make it work. You should be able to find it on the wiki page. Right now I'm trying to get good with the arrow girl, and the assist I mostly use is the girl with the robot wings. I'm having trouble getting my arcade sticks working on my laptop, but I can fix that. Also, there's a Japanese wiki with more in depth information. Apparently there's another assist character to use or something. For those who want to download it, here's a download (not my upload). This is an unofficial version of 1.01 without the need of Japanese support. DOWNLOAD

So surfing around the net one day, a friend of mine linked me to a game called Vanguard Princess. It's a doujin (fanmade) fighting game that uses 2d sprites and plays similar to guilty gear or marvel vs capcom. The thing that really stands out is the sprite quality. These are some of the best looking sprites I have ever seen, and are extremely fluid. Think a combination of Guilty Gear X and Street Fighter 3. In the game, you pick your main character, and then an assist character, who stays in the background and attacks when you give them commands. There is even netplay, so maybe once I get good at it we can throw down. Wiki Page with Download links Note: The characters in the game are a little ecchie, just to give a warning.

Check about 4:30 in the video. Then compare it to 25 seconds into http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nibJf96zmyY&feature=related

Grandmother said this... "Streak Thunderstorm's Mecha Sonic is marvelous. The model is great, but I would like to see texture applied to it."

Anyone remember an NES game called Guardian Legend? The game combined side-scrolling shooting with action rpg elements. There was a room you would enter where you would enter and exit the rpg areas. The song there sounds just like the beginning of Dragonforce's Through the Fire and The Flames. Seeing how Dragonforce gets a lot of their inspiration from video games, I would not find it surprising if this was their inspiration.

So is anyone else going to post their friend code? Also, I managed to beat single player the other day, and to be honest, I was somewhat dissapointed at the end. However, the multiplayer is a nice distraction, and it makes the game worth the $50 I paid for it. I'd like a bit more to it, such as the ranking system from Mario Kart, but I guess I'll have to wait for the sequel. By the way, anyone elso been having a problem with the game taking forever to get online and start a game? I have a Wireless N router and cable internet, and it still takes a while.