You never did the Kenosha kid - May 3, 2000 - Chris Jones
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this column are those of
the participants and the moderator, and do not necessarily reflect those of the GIA. There
is coarse language and potentially offensive material afoot. Nobody mentioned the PS2
thing. That was true, btw. Don't say we didn't warn you.
Wild Arms 2 is out today. I may pick it up on the way home, or I might wait a day or two
so I can get Tron Bonne at the same time. All this despite Vagrant Story coming out in a
few weeks and me still stalled on FM3. I don't know, maybe I just enjoy buying video games
more than actually playing them.
It's not covered by the site, but I'd probably be remiss if I didn't mention the new
trailer for Conker's Bad Fur Day. I admit, if the dumb, crass humor exhibited in the
trailer were a movie or TV show or comic, I'd go out of my way to avoid it. But because
it's a game, especially since it's on the N64, it's important and groundbreaking. Sure,
Rare's only one company and little they do is going to influence the big Japanese
developers, but any media this (im)mature on a console is a step forward. Fart jokes
today, intelligent dialog tomorrow, or so I hope. I'll probably do a topic on that
eventually, but not now.
Onward.
| Wait, was Mantis in Metal Gear Solid or Metal
Gear Solid? |
| I may be wrong, but taking the translation of what mr. Kojima said seems
to indicate that he just wants to have another set of villains, aka the megaman-like set
from Metal Gear Solid or Metal Gear Solid (boy, that sounds weird!). It does sound like
a host of new environmental effects are in the cards, though - compare Kojima's words of
"lower polygon counts" to words uttered from Namco regarding Tekken Tag
Tournament; in hindsight the TTT team felt it would have been better to cut the polygon
counts in half and spend that processing time on interacting with the surroundings.
Somebody better than Alan Moore? Surely you gest. The moment someone tries to counter
"Watchmen", they will have to deal with the nigh-invulnerable "Top
10". Countered that? Well how about Miracle Man? The entire America's Best Comics
lineup?
I didn't think so.
KZ |
"Lower polygon counts" on the PS2 still probably means graphics beautiful
enough to make you weep. It does mean that a "sweat" effect may be out, tho.
Consider what you'd have to have for such a thing: skin texture and definition much better
than the current featureless pink we get on models, very delicate lighting and extreme
closeups. Heck, I'm not even sure TVs have enough resolution to show people sweating -
aside from wiping heads and damp patches on shirts, I can't remember ever seeing actual
sweat on a TV actor. Kojima would probably rather give us a great interactive environment
than spend all his processing power on photorealistic models.
We probably will see more quirky terrorists with animal names, but if the trend from
MGS (PSX) continues, they'll still be pretty memorable. Psycho Mantis and Vulcan Raven
were both pretty cool for the time, and that equivalent coolness on the PS2 would rock.
I'm not comparing writers as a whole, just individual works, but thanks for playing.
Next!
| My faith in German sanity is restored |
| >From Chris Jones (May 2, 2000): "Japanese people are fanatics
about DQ, it's true, but German people apparently love David Hasselhoff's music"
Yeah, right. That's what David Hasselhoff wants you to believe, heck, that's what he
wants ME (a not so demented German, I hope) to believe.
There are a lot of things I love (DQ is among them), but let me tell you (and I speak
for all Germans with some remaining brain cells) NO ONE loves Hasselhoff. Maybe you
thought otherwise, because good old David tried his luck with some German songs (and was
so bad even my parents made fun of him), or maybe he is making up stories like "I'm
so successful in Europe", to lure you into buying his "music", watching him
"act"... whatever.
Mirko
who just had to put this right |
I'm very pleased to hear that this is the case. Over here in the States there have been
lots of running gags as to Germans loving David Hasselhoff, but I'm pleased to hear that
rumors of his fan base were greatly exaggerated. I got a lot of email about this, and now
I can set the record straight: German people have taste. Groovy.
| Push it hard, Snake |
| Chris, Some comments on current topics:
I think pokemon's okay for what it is, but I don't think that it, in any way, has the
intensity and artform-esque quality behind it that final fantasy does. As a matter of
fact, trying to compare the two is laughable. I am laughing now. Ha ha ha.
As for MGS2, The graphical representations of the environments are just the icing on
the cake. What if snake were to enter a snow-filled street, wait for a few minutes, and
the dual shock 2 began to "shiver", like the heartbeat in the sniper mode of
MGS? Or if running continuously in a very hot environment tired snake out to the point
that only the hardest button presses on the dual shock 2's analog buttons would work,
showing how much effort it is for him to go on; like you must actually push snake to pull
that trigger, or knock that guard out? I like the ideas of delayed action times due to
overexposure to adverse climates, but don't forget that we are working with a very
different control scheme here, too...
And if you thought Neon Genesis Evangelion was vague and thought-provoking, Try Serial
Experiments: Lain. My favorite Anime. So vague, only conspiracy thorists like myself can
get it =P
-Pisces-
P.S. Find anything on that El Dorado Gate petition? |
For the record, I never claimed that Pokemon was as good as, or better than, or even
anywhere close to Final Fantasy. Someone very astutely pointed out that for some values of
"successful" and "important", Pokemon is stronger than Final Fantasy.
But I specifically said that from a critical, artistic standpoint, Pokemon was not as good
as Final Fantasy, and no one has claimed otherwise. I can't see anyone even trying to
claim otherwise, and if they tried to in the column I would point and laugh. At the very
least it's reassuring to know that gamers don't take kindly to confusing commercial and
artistic success; there will be no missteps along the lines of preferring
"Titanic" to "LA Confidential".
I really like your idea about fatigue and button press strength - you wouldn't
necessarily be able to directly detect environmental differences, but they'd show in your
performance. The vibration function is likely to be taken up with other things, like
shaking when you get hit, but their might be other clever ways of showing cold. Frex, your
aim and movements might deteriorate as you lost body heat, similar to the shaking on the
sniper mode, but on a much larger scale.
Never seen Lain, and don't know about the El Dorado petition. Sorry.
| Lots and lots of numbers |
| Since the US video game market is permeated with fools who wonder why
there are battles between FMV segments in FFVII, I only really care for the Japanese sales
figures. =) In any case, the best selling single console game of all time is, drum-roll
please, Super Mario Brothers 1 (NES only), with 6.18 million copies sold. Pocket
Monsters/Pokémon has had 5.80 million copies sold, but that's counting
Red/Blue/Green/Yellow (aka Pikachu). Gold accounts for 3.26 million copies, and Silver for
3.37 million copies. That's a total, for the mathematically-challenged among you, of 6.63
million copies. Tetris (GB) only sold 4.09 million copies. FFVII, including both versions,
clocks in at a lowly 3.7 million, after DQIII's 3.8 mil and SMB3's 3.86 mil, both only on
the NES, Super Mario Land (3.85 million) and even Mario Kart (3.7 million) on the SNES.
The two (DQI&II, DQIII) Dragon Quest remakes only account for 2.6 million units in
all, being the worst selling Dragon Quests of all time.
Those are the only games/series breaking the 3 million mark barrier (SM, DQ, and FF
have several games that sold above 3 mil... in order of decreasing sales: SMB (6.18 mil),
SML (3.85 mil), SMB3 (3.83 mil), DQIII(3.80 mil), FFVII (both versions: 3.7 mil), FFVIII
(3.6 mil), SMW (3.5 mil), DQVI (3.2 mil), and DQIV (3.1 mil)). It's also interesting to
note that Square's top selling SNES game was FFVI with 2.55 million sold. Both SNES Dragon
Quests easily topped that (3.2 and 2.8 million). In fact, even Dragon Quest Monsters (1.85
mil) outsold all Square products except Chrono Trigger and FFV-VIII. Heh. =)
Other interesting tidbits: Capcom's top selling game was the SNES SFII (2.9 million) --
the best selling Resident Evil (RE2/RE2:DS) sold only 2.3 million copies; Namco's best
selling console game was Family Stadium (NES) with 2.05 million copies sold (Tekken 3 only
sold 1.3 million copies); Konami's top seller was Yugoih! (GB) with 1.6 million copies
sold; Chrono Trigger (SNES) sold only 2.03 million units; the best selling N64 game was
Mario Kart 64 (1.98 million units); Zelda II sold much better than Zelda I and Golf and
Baseball outsold them both (NES); Zelda III only sold 1.15 million copies, Zelda (GB, both
versions) didn't even break the 1 mil barrier; Parappa only sold 1 million copies; and the
only Saturn game to sell over 1 million copies was Virtua Fighter II (1.6 mil).
This data was taken from The Magic Box's Japanese Million Seller's list, available at http://www.the-magicbox.com/ -- I know you're not
supposed to post links to other video gaming sites, but come on! =)
Unfortunately, you'll probably cut this up if you post it at all. Come on, it's only a
few kilobytes of text -- I doubt anyone's going to begrudge you the extra one second it
takes to load this message if you post it in its entirety.
If you do manage to post this, thanks!
--magius
Imad Hussain |
Some of those numbers sound fishy to me. I find it difficult to believe that SMB 1 sold
only 6 million copies in Japan. SMB3 grossed $500 million worldwide, IIRC, which has
got to translate into a ton of Japanese copies, at least 8 figures.
But most of your RPG numbers seem to pass muster, so I'll let that pass. The problem
is, the argument I made above regarding Pokemon cuts both ways. High sales figures don't
necessarily correlate with a good game, but relatively low sales figures don't mean a bad
one.
More importantly, I'm pretty damn tired of this supposed superiority of Japanese games
and gamers over the US. I'll freely admit that US releases are often given lousy
translations and edited for content. I'll freely admit that dumbass marketers have often
decided that Americans would rather have lousy substitute titles instead of superior
originals. (i.e. Mystic Quest instead of FFV.)
However, none of that means that our tastes are inferior. From what I've read, the
Japanese didn't particularly care for any of the Metroids or Castlevania: SotN. I don't
give a damn, I think they're all brilliant games. And yeah, FFVII had lots of FMV. So
what? I thought it strengthened the plot and experience well beyond anything I'd ever seen
in an RPG. Not everybody has to like FFVII, or prefer it to classical RPGs. But nobody can
deny that FFVII was like nothing ever seen on a console before. FF7 was a grand
experiment, and regardless of if it was successful or not, if you really see games as a
meaningful potential art form, then you have to recognize that such experiments have to be
made. </rant>
| How to rule the world on $3 a day |
| Chris, Tokyo's a bit far from Brooklyn (my base of operations)...is
there any neutral ground in between New York and Texas?
Jon
P.S. Just because I'm now your Arch Nemesis...does this mean you don't love me anymore?
|
The hell? Dude, if you're gonna be my Arch Nemesis, you need to have a worldwide
criminal organization, or bizarre superpowers, preferably both. I damn well can't have an
Arch Nemesis who I have to fight somewhere in Kentucky because he can't make it to Tokyo.
Sorry man, but you're back on the probationary list.
| Now this is evil |
| Greetings.. I recall you saying that to obtain the position of your
arch nemesis one would have to do something truly diabolical like halting the release of
Chrono Cross in the US.. I am prepared to go one step further and add insult to injury by
having a branch of Squaresoft in the states throw together an "Americanized"
Chrono Trigger style game that will be a pale imitation of its predecessor, not to mention
CC. The game will be called Evermore Cross and it will be released here in place of Chrono
Cross.
How's that?
errm.. I haven't come up with a really cool villains name yet..
The Anti-Import fiend will have to do for now..
BTW.. After a translation of Seiken Densetsu 3 was released on the web I.. er I mean a
guy I know was expecting to finally loose the grudge he has held against Squarsoft ever
since that "other game" was released here. Instead SD3 has such great replay
value, He now holds more of a grudge than ever since he is now in college and doesn't have
time to play all the scenarios |
I'm deeply tempted to make you my Arch Nemesis just on the basis of suggesting such a
thing. However, after my last unfortunate candidate, I'm gonna have to ask for a bit more
proof. Have Square announce it, and provide some evidence that you're not running this
conspiracy out of your basement clubhouse or something, and we can talk further.
Those Square bastards get you comin' and goin'. What can you do?
Well, what can you do, Arch Nemesis wannabe?
| A lot of stuff. Multitasking is nifty. *MGS
spoilers* |
| Speaking of E3 are you going to be there (you may or may not have
mentioned this in your column already. I'm too lazy to check)? I am not asking for
stalking purposes, mind you (though if I were to take up the challenge for the arch enemy
job...), plus I wouldn't know what you look like anyway, if I was going. As you may or may
not have guessed, I'm too lazy to make the effort to get there ;P As for the arch enemy
deal, I believe threatening to prevent CC from being released is not strong enough to make
anyone qualify as a villain. After all, you can always import the game. I thought your
original idea of an arch enemy posing an actual physical threat to your dog was more on
the mark. After all, an arch villain might take more pleasure in knowing you know that
every time you head out the door may be the last time you see Fluffy alive than in knowing
that the whole RPG community is pissed at him/her...BTW: I though Fluffy abandoned
you?!?!??!? Or do you have a kennel of dogs, or so?
Silent Hill: you suggest not to play it at night...True Story: back when that came out,
I was still in school, so the only chance I got to play it was at night, & managed to
beat it in two nights. Anyhooo, during night 2 I was up pretty late, and it was just me
and the glow of my TV, or so I thought. My brother actually had snuck in from being out,
and decided to sneak around to find out whether anybody else was up. Long story short: I
am not a screamer, but my brother swears he didn't know I could jump that high...Once I
got past the actual near heart attack, I did get the urge to kill him, but figured it
wasn't worth it (i.e. unfortunately, he's still alive).
I am refraining to comment on MGS2. I really did not like MGS, mainly because it was
damn short. If you skip the dialogue, it only took 3 hours to beat...I have to admit
though, that once you get the stealth suit it's fun to go around and surprise all the
enemies, heh heh. It prevented me from finishing it a second time (but the endings are not
that different anyway...or so I was told)...I found Meryl annoying anyway, so no big loss
on that. In any case, isn't it too early to speculate on it?
Princess Jemmy |
I am not going to E3, mostly because I didn't think it was fair to go after only a
month and a half of doing the column. If I'm still writing this at this time next year,
I'll have earned a ticket to E3.
You don't think I'd be foolish enough to tell you about my real dog, do you? I'd sooner
give out my physical address than endanger my pet. Fluffy was merely a decoy.
Meryl was irritating. I liked Naomi much better, twisted revenge plots and all. It is
early to speculate on MGS2, but you do realize the purpose of this column, yes? No
speculation too obscure, no topic too pointless.
| Blaine is such a freakin' pain |
| Ahhhh!! A fan of Stephen King's Dark Tower series! Besides thinking that
you already were a pretty damn cool DA, my opinion of you just shot up several more
points. With the flattery aside, has anyone else ever thought that these books would
make a good RPG besides me? An epic quest, worlds to be saved, locations that are at the
same time primitive and futuristic, and a furry talking sidekick animal. What more do you
need in an RPG? But then again, maybe I've been smoking too much crack.
Teresa |
The books would make a good RPG, which is exactly the problem. The original book
suggested a very different outlook, with a genuinely obsessed protagonist. The work
suggested by The Gunslinger wouldn't have made a good RPG, it would have made a great
RPG. As it is, if we're going to be talking King books to make a conventional RPG plot out
of, I'd rather The Stand - still somewhat generic, but a bit more edgy.
| Now you can break the neck of somebody half a
world away |
| Metal Gear Online, an even better idea than a 2-player mode. It could be
like Phantasy Star Online (I think that's it) where four or five people play at a time.
One can be Snake, and the rest can be guards. The downfall with the two-player mode is
that you have to play co-op, playing against each other is pointless since stealth is the
key factor and you could just look at your opponents screen. With an online set-up, you
could get all the clues meant for just your character. If Snake walks on a loud floor
panel next to you, you hear, but another player won't. They could have one button for the
guards that you hit to tell the other guys you've found Snake and need back-up. This would
only become available if you do actually see him, since false alarms, while funny the
first few times, would get really tedious after a while. And don't get me wrong, I want
MGS2 to have an incredible single-player game. I just think a multiplayer mode of some
sorts would be kind of cool... think of it as an addition to the game like the VR Missions
were in the original game. You didn't really need to complete them, and you didn't get a
reward for doing so, but they were there for you to play around with if you wanted to.
Make a strong game first, than give it a few bonuses like these.
-CTZanderman, firmly believing that a stealth-style deathmatch would be bad ass. |
MGS Online would be interesting, but might be kinda long - everybody would be hiding in
the shadows, or in boxes, or wall crawling, waiting to get a clean sneak attack. Ditto a
cooperative guard game.
Something slightly more interesting would be a level editor, with the ability to
distribute what you'd done. Proving that you could make it through the most fiendish
collection of traps, cameras, and guards possible would show that you're the ultimate
badass.
| Incarcerate at the speed of light |
| Hey Aaron L. I'm sure there are lots of animal trainers out there who
would love to "battle" with you. just dump the ant, snake and fish and go get a
rooster; you can probably keep the dog though. watch out for "Team Rocket"
though; they usually have blue, green or brown uniforms and have a little gold badge. AL
|
You sound like there's something wrong and/or illegal with forcing poor dumb innocent
creatures to beat the hell out of each other. I'm sure that's not the case, right?
Closing Comments:
I did go ahead and get WA 2, seems similar to the first so far, right down to the music
and text styles. Better in-game graphics, and I'm getting inklings that the plot might be
significantly more complex than the first.
Ok, I give. What're your thoughts on stuff like Conker's BFD making it to consoles? If
we're finally allowed to see "mature" media, do you want something like South
Park, something like Watchmen, or what? Later.
-Chris Jones, still lethargic |
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