Spring RTS Engine

It's a little like communism. It's a great idea, but the Assclown to Human ratio among the population isn't good enough, so the whole thing is failing. Developers see "WTFBBQ IT ARE SELLING FAST LOL I'LL MAKE A LAWN MOWING GAME!!!forteen11!111!!!"

Developers are too dumb or lazy, or else Retro and Nintendo's in-house developers are the only two groups capable of figuring out how to program for Wii Remote input.

I still maintain that textures don't make up for detailed geometry, something that Metroid Prime 3 has demonstrated brilliantly. I can say confidently that I've never seen such incredible artistic design on the PC or any console to date. If only the Wii could do HD output, the jaggies would be improved a lot too.

I give Nintendo another 8-12 months. If there's not at least one third-party blockbuster in that time, selling a minimum of 1 million units, it's all over. Nintendo has never had a problem putting amazing games on their consoles, but they can't do it alone. They need outside help, namely, anyone. Wii needs a Halo, something that regular people are interested in even if it's dumbed-down FPS crap. AFAIK there's nothing like this on the horizon.

Anyone who knows my history here knows I'm a really strong supporter of Nintendo, but at some point I have to say, "I would really like to play a game on this thing."

Metroid 3 was great. I didn't like a couple things about it, but it was really good. I'd give it an 8.8 or so, losing points because:
-I collected 89 of the 100 powerups without backtracking intentionally or even really looking for them
-missiles are completely useless
-Metroids which you'd expect to be a major threat in a game named in their honor, are completely tame and helpless
-I finished the game in under 17 hours, although I realize now I was playing on the "super easy" setting, not the "normal" setting like I thought
-Graphics aren't as dramatically improved as from Halo to Halo 2
-NO FREAKING SUPER MISSILES
-I still haven't figured out what "ship missiles" are for. Seriously... do they do anything? Why do you collect expansions for your ship missiles? No idea what that's about.

It gains points for:
-The end-game "item hunt" is pretty easy this time around and you'll find all but one or two of the "items" by yourself, not even knowing you are looking for them until later
-The controls are the closest thing you'll ever find to a keyboard/mouse setup on a console, and work exceptionally well (except for intermittent ball jumping, which isn't even an advertised feature ingame or otherwise)
-Graphics... oddly enough. They're excellent but low-resolution. The textures are generally pretty sharp unless you get really close, but the geometry detail is amazing. The art direction is unlike anything I've seen before, and other reviewers have said the same. Seeing your face's reflection on your visor change as you become more and more corrupted is a brilliant touch.

Neutral points:
-No multiplayer... it wasn't expected, but after playing single player you realize how good it could've been
-Need to exchange "friend vouchers" with another Corruption owner in order to unlock the best extras, and I haven't got a wifi router at the moment
-The highest remote sensitivity setting is too sensitive. You can't move the cursor at all without shifting your view, which means you're always looking around. Luckily the medium setting works very very well.
-Two of the buttons in your ship's cockpit serve no functional purpose that I could find. One puts up a blast shield, the other gives you a targeting reticle... as if you're able to shoot somehow. You aren't. I think maybe they eliminated a dogfighting minigame or something late in development?

Also I officially reward the "Metroid Hatcher" the Crappiest Boss in Metroid History trophy. You fight it *three* times. My jaw literally dropped and I said out loud, "What were they thinking!?". The last time I just walked right past it, since Retro neglected to put a lock on the exits for that encounter. Scanned about 10 things and jumped across 5 or 6 bottomless pits on the way, and it was content to make threatening noises and spin around the room.

There are two sequences in the game where you actively support Federation troopers on the ground as part of an attack. These were so well done that I'd say they were one of the best parts of the whole Prime series.

I'm getting tired writing all this on this nasty keyboard stand thing,... Long story short, Metroid Prime 3 alone does not justify the purchase of a Wii. However, combined with Zelda, Paper Mario, Elebits, Mario Galaxy, Mario Strikers, and !!!!!BRAWL!!!!!!, it's worth it. Just for Brawl it'll be worth it, if it can carry on the tradition.

P.S. for a good laugh, there's a review of Prime 3 at this Sony fanboy site, I'll try to come up with the URL later... anyway he says he's disappointed there's "no way to strafe".

P.P.S. the game hints heavily at the almost legendary "Metroid: Dread" finally being released soon, presumably for DS. I almost messed up my couch when I found that little easter egg.

P.P.P.S. lawl there's a game called "elevator action" coming out for Wii, would be awesome if it was AO-rated

God, the parts with marines and the "war" parts are so epic.

I loved those parts... Hydra defense turrets blowing things out of the sky and marines bumbling about trying to get in order. Ships buzzing around locking on to each other, and blowing up anything hostile.


My only gripe so far is the space pirates new look >___<

(And the damned hatcher...)

I was also talking with my bro and thinking, what if...

What if Metroid had a multiplayer mode akin to that of Halo, or any other FPS game, that goes online. Marines vs. space pirates? Hell yeah! It would also be interesting if it were in some kind of class format, like Wolf:ET or DOD:S.

oh

Paper mario sucked nut... Well, at least that is to say it is by far the worst paper mario to date. Twighlight princess is the best Zelda since OOT, and while I have a hard time saying it's better than OOT, it's very close. I bought a cube for melee and the wii would probably stand on the legs of brawl alone.

Also, give the third party time Caydr. Most of them predicted that the wii would be total fail pre wii release. Now they realize they can spend half the development costs for a game that will sell for the same price as a PS3/360 game on a console that will have a larger user base by Christmas than any other. TONNES and TONNES of console developers that had basically decided they were not going to have any wii releases at all before the wii release now have 1 or 2 active wii projects started within the last year. Those titles aren't finished yet, but they will roll in, you will see.

Its out?!?!? Must run to shops. And fix my Wii (cant belive someone hovered up the sensor bar... I mean bloddy hell.)

aGorm

Caydr wrote:I give Nintendo another 8-12 months. If there's not at least one third-party blockbuster in that time, selling a minimum of 1 million units, it's all over.

What, Red Steel doesn't count? That sold a million.

P.P.P.S. lawl there's a game called "elevator action" coming out for Wii, would be awesome if it was AO-rated

You never played Elevator Action in the 8 bit era?

Agorm: Only in the US. It's still almost 2 months away in Europe...

what the hell, i made a huge reply to this last night and now its mysteriously gone

fuk that im not typing all that crap agian

the sensor bar just gives off heat (infrared light)

you can use a few candles or a few lightbulbs or anything else that gives off heat and put it above your TV/projector

Yhe i know... but id ratehr it was just working. A new one dont cost much anyway...

no MP3 here yet then....

aGorm

candles will only work good if you have no air moving around in your house/apt

if they flicker then your aim flickers as well

SwiftSpear wrote:Paper mario sucked nut... Well, at least that is to say it is by far the worst paper mario to date. Twighlight princess is the best Zelda since OOT, and while I have a hard time saying it's better than OOT, it's very close. I bought a cube for melee and the wii would probably stand on the legs of brawl alone.

Also, give the third party time Caydr. Most of them predicted that the wii would be total fail pre wii release. Now they realize they can spend half the development costs for a game that will sell for the same price as a PS3/360 game on a console that will have a larger user base by Christmas than any other. TONNES and TONNES of console developers that had basically decided they were not going to have any wii releases at all before the wii release now have 1 or 2 active wii projects started within the last year. Those titles aren't finished yet, but they will roll in, you will see.

I thought Paper Mario wasn't bad, but I've never played the originals so I had no preconceptions. I think if you play it not expecting Paper Mario, it's a decent game.

What I meant about the third party is that ever since Nintendo began pissing off developers so many years ago, they've been reluctant to go near their stuff. Nintendo consoles always have unmatchable Nintendo games, but SNES was their last console that third parties were willing to work with seriously.

I don't really know the reasons, all I can see is the proof. And certainly I realize they didn't expect Wii to do so well, and they must have lots of titles on the way (in fact I regularly use that argument), I haven't seen any significant game announcements from anyone but Nintendo recently. Maybe it's still too soon, but Wii has been pwning in sales for an entire year now. Companies like EA said they had "made a mistake in not supporting the Wii earlier", but haven't announced anything in the meantime. Heck we haven't even got a hockey game yet, what's going on? If there's anything EA can do it's carbon-copy sequels but I don't see NHL 08 Wii at ebgames.

I need a stronger/brighter sensor bar thing... I'm like 5 feet away tops and my signal is choppy. I wonder if I can get an unoffical one that's not battery powered, just brighter.

Also, red steel was a launch title and therefore doesn't count. If you have one FPS to choose from, you're going to buy it no matter what. Besides which, it was kinda crappy from what I hear, so more likely to turn people OFF the Wii than make them think it's got potential. Wii needs blockbusters.

Medal of honor and Call of duty both have wii ports... However, they certainly aren't exclusives... That being said, for third party exclusives, I don't think we've waited long enough.

Yeah, that's probably true. Like I said, I'm not giving up hope or something, I'm just worried that the idea's starting to fall apart as a direct result of:

A) games being hastily made in 3 months when Wii was realized not to be a temporary fad, and BOMBING

B) decent games which were made with Gamecube/last gen hardware in mind, with tacked-on garbage motion sensing that's a chore to use

C) real games developed with the Wii in mind specifically not even being announced yet, a year after launch

This is giving the console a bad reputation, and with good reason: there's almost nothing playable/enjoyable released for the console that wasn't developed in-house by Nintendo.

Consumers are idiots. But I think even Joe Nobody can figure out "ok, so every game made by someone besides Nintendo has a high likelihood of sucking ass, so I'm not going to bother." Next REAL third-party games will come out and everyone will have been burned.

By the time the console builds some momentum, will anyone care anymore? Wii's got nothing going for it except Nintendo's franchises - and even they are clearly starting to wear thin... Mario Party 8 anyone? I have no idea what's making Wii sell so good. It's got virtually nothing, not even graphics to impress the shiny-thing enthusiasts.

Nintendo is going to have some major damage control on their hands. They need to regenerate the hype the system used to have behind it, and this can only be done through advertising. And Nintendo takes advertising cues from Sony's ad department rejects.

They've got all the money in the world, as far as the console world goes. DS Lite and Wii combined are certainly generating hundreds of millions of dollars. They have no major hardware failure issues like Microsoft, and they don't have the price barrier like Sony. They've got a colossal back catalog. They need to stop putting the money in the bank and invest it in developers. They need to buy outright more talented development houses if they can't get third parties to get the picture.

Nintendo right now is one of a few computer entertainment companies that's actually making profit. They need to do something with that money, not just sit on it like they seem to be doing. Massive advertising campaigns should've been done for Metroid Prime 3, for instance. Months in advance. And closer to release day, a media frenzy, a commercial on every major network at least once an hour. Metroid is literally the first game to "get it right" on the Wii, and EVEN METROID FANS DON'T EVEN KNOW IT WAS RELEASED.

The console has *two* major releases to date, and two more coming in the next few months. And it has over 50 mediocre to horrible ones. Even the PS3 is kicking its ass, software-wise. They're mostly ports, yes, but ports beat a total absence of games.

Consumers are idiots. But I think even Joe Nobody can figure out "ok, so every game made by someone besides Nintendo has a high likelihood of sucking ass, so I'm not going to bother." Next REAL third-party games will come out and everyone will have been burned.

Nope. Just nope. The average person doesn't read that, they just go "Everyone else says it's good, I'm going get it" or they are a little more agressive, and go buy it themselves.

Most people like us, who use comps for other reasons than MySpace, go buy it ourselves.

Just think of the enlightened world we'd live in if more people knew about Metacritic.

And Elfen Lied, Death Note, Code Geass, and how to use tabs in Firefox.

Caydr wrote:Just think of the enlightened world we'd live in if more people knew about Metacritic.

And Elfen Lied, Death Note, Code Geass, and how to use tabs in Firefox.

Amen!

Relative wrote:

Caydr wrote:Just think of the enlightened world we'd live in if more people knew about Metacritic.

And Elfen Lied, Death Note, Code Geass, and how to use tabs in Firefox.

Amen!

Elite porn surfing tools TBH.