Lurker > darkbuster

I tend to enjoy most 3D Sonic games.

Maybe the real AI was the friends we made along the way.

I anticipate Trump will try to drag it out as long as he thinks he can keep blaming it on Democrats.

Rika_Furude posted...

Do collabs really bring in new players? Like as great as persona 5 is, how many people are thinking well, shit, I gotta play smash and overwatch now that Joker is in them

It definitely brings awareness, if nothing else. I don't think anyone will deny that Melee is a big part of what put Fire Emblem on the radar of most people outside of Japan.

Kain_Highwind posted...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/d/d1533ced.jpg

how long until overwatch 2 ends

Exactly what I was thinking of. P5's popularity has kinda led to it being the dying gasp collab for too many live services.

Honestly, this seems to be a mostly "modern" anime dubbing problem, & it only exists in anime; this doesn't really seem to exist in games that aren't directly based on an anime. Most anime from at least 10 years ago, doesn't have this problem, & it was annoying me why this started happening. Until I finally realized that a lot of this is partially tied to Funimation's dubbing, & that whole Crunchyroll deal means they have a lot of shows now. It's not all Funimation, just compare OG Bleach to the Blood War dub, but even then, it's not nearly as pronounced as with most Funimation dubs.

Pokmon.

The nature of what any individual Digimon series even was, varied so wildly, you never knew what you were even getting, until you actually start watching it. For example, as amazing as it may be, Digimon Savers is such a wildly different vibe from the majority of the other series. Pokmon is far more consistent. The most comparable thing to Digimon, would be how Yugioh can shift in tone such 5Ds & Arc V compared to everything else, but even that isn't nearly as drastic as Digimon, & that's not even touching on the spectrum of Digimon games.

Yeah, a bunch of blatantly stolen elements from other games that have been thrown into a blender, to try to cash in on familiarity. I know a lot of games like to take "inspiration" from popular games, but to this extent is just shameless. Most obvious parts here, the world seems to be mostly GTA, those swings are unmistakenly taken from Spider-Man, & I've spent enough time in Honkai Star Rail and Zenless Zone Zero to confidently say that they quite clearly ripped off HoYo's art style and character design; I almost mistook the pink haired girl for March 7, without closely looking, & their animal hybrid designs are so ZZZ, you'd have to be in denial to argue otherwise.

I thought these kinds of cheap chimera'd knockoff games would have died after China began developing a more serious gaming industry, but here we are. I really can't fault the sentiments of Nintendo wanting to sue for Palworld or Sony suing for Last Moratorium, if these seriously make a comeback.

YellowSUV posted...

Can't they just be grifters and put him on a cryptocurrency rug pull?

I'm sure they can do both.

We have one of the worst parts of a cyberpunk future, such as AI replicas, but with none of the cool stuff.

I'm sure she could get a job at Fox News. Can't be that difficult if Tucker Carlson could manage it.

birb posted...

Anyone who can't pay a million dollars needs to worry about a potential million dollar lawsuit. You can't say "oops, I thought you wouldn't enforce this, im sorry " at that point

Videogame companies, hell, just companies in general, hold all sorts of stupid little patents. Unless it's from a patent troll or catch a high-profile target, most will never be invoked. For an example of a stupid patent, did you know Namco actually had a patent for minigames during load screens? I believe the Namco patent expired, & even if it didn't, wouldn't really have much value with modern data transfer rates, but the point is that it did happen.

As for patent trolls, Nintendo itself, had quite the battle with some company, regarding the Wii's motion reading that you would think would be in conflict with lightgun reading, but they had it, & last I recall, I believe Nintendo settled. if you knew how silly some patents are, you'd wonder how almost anyone avoids getting sued. It's ridiculous, & we really need an overhaul of patent & trademark law that doesn't require or encourage such actions, but this is where we currently are.

PraetorXyn posted...

If the effect of this is anything, thats probably what itll be. A lot of smaller devs and studios will just decide not to do anything even vaguely resembling this to avoid trouble. Well never really know how many games were scrapped, altered, etc. because of it.

Nintendo has supported the US release for games like Youkai Watch & Dragon Quest IX, not to mention indie specific Nintendo Directs. Unless you pull some Palworld shit, with "barely above the recolor tier of Sonic OC character design" type shenanigans, I don't think most need to seriously be worried about a suit from Nintendo.

I personally think what Nintendo is officially suing Pocketpair for is stupid, should be thrown out of court, & they shouldn't even bother for their just barely different enough to not count as plagiarism, based creature designs, as much as I would actually agree with them doing so. Some might try to reason Palworld as 'homage', but there's a fine line between homage & shameless copy, & Pocketpair definitely crosses that line.

Enclave posted...

The patent on ATB was super dumb but it's also super expired thankfully (expired 15 years ago). Squenix couldn't do shit to Sea of Stars over the ATB system.

Also I don't know why some fanboys are claiming the patent is hyper specific when lawyers are claiming otherwise.

Huh. Videogame companies file dozens of patents & trademarks, & I don't keep track of every little detail regarding it, so I'll just take your word on ATB. By specific, I'm referring to the exact details of what is defined as a 'summon'; most of those lawyers probably aren't programmers, so they probably aren't as familiar with mathematical proof-based logic, but this patent defines a summon as a separate entity that fights at the player's side either autonomously or based on the player's commands. Mechanic wise, most MegaTen & Dragon Quest 'summons' wouldn't meet that criteria. You'd have a much better argument with how Mega Man summons rush, or when Super Tails calls in his flickies, & for Rush, he still misses that mark of almost never actually fighting, existing more conceptually as a called item.

Uta posted...

Oh, my bad. I thought you were someone worth taking seriously. I'll know better next time.

Ghost type doesn't even properly register as 'Super Effective' against Psychic, making Psychic even more busted than it already is. They didn't even fix it for Yellow version. Seriously, I want to see you defend that one.

Uta posted...

You could also look at Beast of Reincarnation, for another look at when Game Freak flies solo. No telling for the quality of the gameplay, but to pretend like Game Freak is a bad studio filled with incompetent devs is just not true. Thing is: Game Freak has a department for "Hey guys, as long as it doesn't interfere with the Pokemon Machine, you can go work on your own projects from time to time." Little Town Hero was one of those projects, and for some reason Nintendo found it notable enough to do a huge promotion tour of it. I don't think that game was meant as much more than just a fun little side project.

Not too many people talking about it, but Beast of Reincarnation already has its criticisms from that trailer. I'll admit that they've got plenty of room to work on it, but still. Even then, what's your defense for the infamous hot mess that gen 1 was, from glitches, to a botched type matchup? That was before they even needed to feed the multimedia beast. Let's not even get into the issue of Sun & Moon having multiple identical copies of the same model, for seemingly no significant reason.

And for the record. Game Freak does outsource. Back to Nintendo. Via Creatures Inc.
Nintendo Created Ape Inc. to support smaller game projects. Those projects ended up being the Earthbound games. When they started to falter, Iwata was brought in from HAL Labs (you know, the company that helps make all of Sakurai's games). And yes. The same Iwata who would go on to become the 4th President of Nintendo. Anyways Ape Inc. Was folded into Creatures Inc. to help make Pokemon happen. Nintendo owns Creatures, Creatures helped make Pokemon Possible, Nintendo execs are from top to bottom in control of Game Freak. Maybe not on paper, but Game Freak simply doesn't exist without the support of Nintendo. The power balance is 100% in Nintendo's favor here.

Given that Game Freak at one point, supposedly claimed to have lost the scalable models that Creatures provided, it doesn't seem like the help is nearly enough. The fact Pokmon's code had to be revised to even make the Stadium games possible, is another knock on their credibility, & given the comparative quality of the Kirby & Earthbound games, I don't think the fault is with either of those two.

Prismsblade posted...

Is Nintendo just banking on literally nobody ever challenging this? Maybe smaller indie devs wont be able to but larger ones certainly will.

No one who seriously can, will care, because besides also having their own armory of hyper specific patents, they understand that this probably can't even apply to them. If you pay any attention to the design doc page from a few posts back, you'll see that his is specifically for how you interact with Pokmon in Legends Arceus. Probably also has some elements to cover stuff like how Echoes in Echoes of Wisdom & sages in Tears of the Kingdom work, as well.

Point is that the exact definitions in this are actually hyper specific, & wouldn't even apply to half of what people think it would. This patent seems to define "summon" as an independent entity that fights on the player's behalf & can potentially initiate actions with. Mechanic wise, SMT is no different than any other game where you swap a reserve unit with a current unit, & most Final Fantasy summons are just a spell with a flashy cutscene/image, outside FF13, which almost no one seriously thinks about that one. Closest game that could seriously challenge this patent that immediately comes to mind, would be Kingdom Hearts, based on the function & how Sora interacts with some of his summons, specifically the ability to fly on Dumbo, & as I said, Square has no practical reason even risk initiating that fight. Unless explicitly trying to replicate Zelda or Legends Arceus, most everyone else shouldn't even be concerned.

Also, since we're on the subject of Square Enix, I think everyone is so wrapped up with getting away with their FF4 & Chrono Trigger clones, they just conveniently forget that Square Enix holds a patent over the ATB system. Pretty sure Square could crush Sea of Stars more easily than Nintendo could do more than be an annoyance to Palworld. If there's a patent too many indies have probably violated, it's probably all the JRPGs taking a little too much inspiration from FF4, FF7, & Chrono Trigger.

Rika_Furude posted...

The steam deck isnt a hardcore system. Its the lowest spec out of all the PC handhelds IIRC, like the ROG Ally and others have higher specs than the steam deck

True, but having Steam/SteamOS behind it, means the Deck has much better compatibility than most of those. The most notable exception to that, will probably be the Xbox Ally.

It's what always makes me laugh every time someone claims the S2 is overpriced, while bragging about getting a Steam Deck. In USD, the cheapest model of the Steam Deck is only $50 less than the S2, & that's the model that was released years later & almost no one seriously wants if they have a choice, given it's almost always in stock, even when the other two are sold out; I'm sure the S2 will have a budget model in a few years, too.

Point is that based on the prices of every other handheld PC, expect the "Steam Deck 2" to almost definitely cost no less than $600, & that's assuming they don't have to cope with Trump's tariff shenanigans.

Regardless of how you feel about Kirk, either way, I just wish people would learn to quit impulsively dropping charged takes on social media. Given the amount of people who get in trouble from it, I can't believe anyone still runs to social media to blast their every thought.

Calwings posted...

Nintendo still publishes them, makes a fuckton of money off them, and uses them as enticing exclusives to get people to buy they systems. Oh, and they own 1/3 of The Pokemon Company. Even if it's not 100% first-party, Pokemon is absolutely a Nintendo franchise.

Plus, Nintendo are the ones who were specifically granted the patent this topic is about, not Gamefreak.

Still, Game Freak is obviously the source of Pokmon's worst issues, on the technical level. Just look at Little Town Hero, for how hard Game Freak flounders when they try to fly solo. I really think it would be for the best if Pokmon took a page from Dragon Quest, & the technical development were outsourced to more capable studios, with Game Freak managing things like Pokmon designs, plot, & the mechanic concepts. Game Freak can't realistically handle the beast that Pokmon has become, & I think most longtime Pokmon fans would agree with me.

Let's be honest, most Right-wingers had already concluded the shooter was Left-wing. The truth is irrelevant, at that point.

Pikachuchupika posted...

Looks like a game from two gens ago. Yikes

I mean, if you expect them to keep their promise of a S1 version, what do you seriously expect?

PowerOats posted...

Remember 15 years ago when people were like 'Nintendo doesnt do DLC'?

Nintendo was literally the last company to even adopt DLC. It was a fairly big criticism of the Wii.

Day 1 DLC has been a thing for years. No one should be shocked, at this point.

PraetorXyn posted...

Yeah, there is a reason the Nintendo Defense Force is a meme around here.

Im somewhere in the middle as I love their first party games but usually am not impressed by their hardware or their OS / online ecosystem, and I hate most every action they take as a company besides making games.

I just hate how everyone inexplicably acts as if Nintendo is somehow so "evil" for doing the same things that almost everyone else is not only doing, but arguably even worse than Nintendo.

*insert obligatory "no horny" comment*

viewmaster_pi posted...

nahhh you care

I still have Galaxy 1 for the Wii, & as much as I loved it, was never that motivated to pick up Galaxy 2 over other games. Maybe I'll get it, if I find it on sale.

Not that I really care, & personally think it should be something like $40 total, but Metroid Prime Remastered was $40, in the era where games were still just $60, & the new Final Fantasy Tactics remake is listed for $50 without any of the WotL bonus content. By comparison, what amounts to $35 each for two Wii games is hardly the worst thing ever. The Nintendo hate bandwagoners will grasp at the tiniest things.

I just hope they don't handle the dual screen aspect the same way they went with the ZX games.

Board_hunter567 posted...

If you start googling what patents random video game companies own you'll wonder how any video game is made without stepping on somebody's toes. Matchmaking systems in particular are mine fields. Everybody patents their own methods so that they can't retroactively be sued if somebody else patents it afterwards.

Yep. I know most people here have no grasp of the actual nature of the subject & don't really care, especially when they can indulge on the Nintendo hate train, but for the videogame industry, patents are mostly like nukes: more for MAD based intimidation, than actual cudgel to be brandished against any offender. Patenting things gives you a degree of defense against the legitimate patent trolls & allows you to avoid someone patent trolling you.

Also, most of the exact specifics for game patents are relatively super specific & are easily bypassed if you take a moment to realize exactly what they're about. For example, you could easily get around a patent for a steam engine that boils its water with conduction based heat, by making an engine that uses convection based heat. So, to de-mystify one of gaming most infamous patent misconceptions, you could totally have something like the 'Nemesis System' in your game, if you design a sufficiently distinct method to get the same effect. Anyone who's ever coded, should be able to understand the concept that there's multiple ways to get the same result.

"the organizations that fund it and support it"

Given this just happened, & we have no inherent reason to assume this was more than jus a lone gunman, we all agree he's intending to use this as pretext to pursue everyone he doesn't like, right?

For the sake of not aggro-ing a mod, all I'm gonna say is that it's surreal that even during 8 years of the first Black president, things were never this tense.

COVID's "essential workers" clearly demonstrated who was important & how important we should, but generally won't, treat them.

I'm conceptually against gerrymandering, but given the situation in Texas, & the dubious district lines in too many red states in general, I unfortunately accept this choice.

snake_5036 posted...

yes, but just because nintendo sticks doggedly to their MSRP doesn't mean you can't get their games for cheaper. sales, rewards points, loyalty programs with retailers, etc. all give you a way to spend less even on new games

I know that most no one want to openly admit this, but Nintendo has no practical reason to lower their prices. The main reason most everyone else lowers theirs, is because most developers/publishers have their titles peak after about 6mo.-1yr.; Nintendo's flagships are most known for the "evergreen" status, of continuing to sell for multiple years. The reason Nintendo can sell an upgraded version of an 8 year old game, for full price, is because the original was still selling relatively well. Most extreme example of this: Smash Bros Melee was constantly on weekly top ten lists for the entire lifespan of the GameCube, & let's be honest, easily outlived its console of origin, with fan dedication.

Nintendo games that truly don't perform so well, will get a fast discount. I remember getting Sin & Punishment: Star Successor for just $20 new, not too far from the original release, which kinda sucks, because it's an amazing game.

AceMos posted...

its the first 10th generation console

and its cheaper than sony and MS 9th gen consoles

Seriously, both the PS5 & Series X are 5 years old, & discounting their cheapest models, the S2 is still cheaper. Based on the pricing of the PS5 Pro, the Steam Deck's higher end models, & other handheld PCs such as the ROG Ally, I can't see the PS6 or next Xbox (assuming Microsoft still considers it worth making one) launching for less than $600, if they have even half of the high-end specs expected of them.

mehmeh1 posted...

tbh paying for online play has always been a scam from day 1. But people jumped on it because there was no alternative back with the OG Xbox, and then Sony and Nintendo fans gobbled it up for the PS4 and then Switch 1 for some reason so we're stuck with it forever now i guess

I despise paid online, but I've long since accepted it as the way of things. Anyone who still has problems with it should invent a time machine & prevent Microsoft from codifying it. I respect Nintendo for holding out the longest against the concept, though.

Chromebooks are almost completely could based. Who was seriously even using that?

Eh, that not quite as bad as most people here will think. Loan forgiveness for certain jobs, especially with the government, has been a thing for a long time. There's definitely something detestable about the lowering ages explicitly to get younger recruits to bolster the numbers, but overall, not that different from what the military does with their high school & college recruitment drives.

SecretBase posted...

The 256 GB Steam Deck is literally the model I have, back when the lowest model was 64 GB you'd have had a point but 256 is perfectly severiceble. Anyone who PC games would also be fine with a discless PS5.

That aside games frequently go on sale on Steam and the PS Store, and Steam doesn't charge a fee for online play, so their console costs are a lot more justfitable compared to Nintendo doing the same thing. Back in the day Nintendo had the cheap hardware while the others had the cheap software, now Nintendo has cheap nothing lol.

You're an outlier on the Steam Deck issue, given that even ignoring the number of people I've seen claiming anything less than 1TB is unacceptable, the biggest divide between the cheap Deck & the other two, for a lot of people, seems to be the lack of OLED, which was a notable criticism for why the S2 didn't retain it.

Anyone who PC games, has little reason to even own a PS5, given most of the notable titles have PC releases.

As far as sales go, it really annoys me this myth still exists. For third party games, the same sales you see on Steam, PSN, & Xbox, are also on the eShop, often at the same time. Now, Nintendo's first party games, which are the main draw for Nintendo consoles, are rarely on sale & not nearly by as much when they do, but they do exist.

mehmeh1 posted...

the console price is about what was expected. $80 for MK is a scam though and their other practices (like straight up saying you don't actually own the console) is................yeah

It's almost no different from what's in most any other To-U/S. The only thing Nintendo truly did here, is prove why those term agreements shouldn't have any legal weight (most can't hold up against serious legal scrutiny anyway, but that's beside the point) because almost no one has seriously read any of them, & no idea what's actually written in them, when clicking "I Agree/Accept/etc.". I assure you, Sony & Microsoft have similar language in their agreements, Nintendo just decided to be more transparent about it.

Because so many Nintendo criticisms are either overblown or just plain stupid. I totally agree with the issue of Mario Kart World being $80, but the Switch 2 itself is perfectly reasonable. The Switch 1 was $350 in 2017 (the US price hike is an issue I'm not getting into). The current cheapest Steam deck model is $400 (which almost no one seriously wants), the cheapest PS5 model has no disc drive (which given most buy an external drive, proves no one with an option, truly wants it either), & most other handheld PC brands range from approximately $550-$700 (both of the Steam Deck's higher end models are also in this range), based on system specs.

Even if we ignore the economic chaos of Trump's BS, anyone who was seriously expecting the S2 to launch for less than $400, was fucking delusional. I've been hearing talks of a PS6, coming soon, & given that the PS5 Pro launched for $700, I'd be shocked if the PS6 can seriously launch for less than $600.

Given they're government employees, I feel there should be some conflict with their service contracts over that, but it doesn't really matter if no one presses Trump for it.

I mean, Trump himself claimed he could shoot someone in broad daylight without repercussions. No one familiar with MAGA should be surprised at this point.

jefffan posted...

There's a lot of insurances out there that don't pay for shit outside of your annual visit.

I mean it's not surprising. By nature, corporations desire routine predictability. The inevitable random failings of the aging human body are just beyond undesirable. The sensible thing would be to just not initiate such a business that comes with such unpredictability, but the money is just so good when you're only collecting it.

Mostly because people are blinded by rose-tinted glasses for the nostalgia of the relatively high salaries that came with manufacturing jobs, & are completely oblivious to the factors that actually contributed to why those jobs had decent wages in the first place, such as strong unions & tightly enforced labor laws. Basically, too many people are too stupid to mentally parse the reality that so long as employers can suppress wages, it doesn't matter if you're making a Big-Mac or a steel beam.

I mean I wouldn't be surprised, but I'd be so interested to see how the right-wing gaming sphere would attempt to spin it as the fault of "woke liberals". Don't get me wrong, the Left has picked up some stupid elements as a natural result of its growth over the years, but the Right has never stopped being the overly prudish, "Christian fundamentalists", moral guardians they always have been. The fact that it's mostly the red states doing things like banning "the hub", make remarks about "gamers in their mother's basement", & trying to restrict things like anime, makes it clear whom they should hate, but for some reason, just plain disregard.

Prototypic posted...

Countercounterpoint, there is no risk, he absolutely would not have failed a drug test because of this.

I wouldn't be so sure of that. I've heard more than a few hospital workers getting caught from hair testing. Combine that with being in a pressurized metal tube of circulated air, & the possibility isn't nearly as improbable as you might think.

havean776 posted...

Soul nomad and the world eaters

Oh, I'm surprised anyone else besides me would suggest this. I mean, Nippon Ichi's "Makai" series games like to flirt with the concept of being evil, but it's always in the Saturday morning cartoonish flavor of evil. Contrast, Soul Nomad's demon path makes you one of the most irredeemable entities of senselessly ruthless evil, ever, even going so far as to make you losing the final battle a truly happy ending, while your win is just the omnicide annihilation of literally everything.

This is just the standard of anything that manages to draw a super large fanbase, especially over a relatively short amount of time. The more people, the more room for some of those people to be obnoxious.

Kirby Canvas Curse