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spunkloaf
06-25-2016, 06:36 PM
I've recently been reading anything I can find about Nintendo's next gaming console, codenamed "Nintendo NX."

I've always been a fan of Nintendo, and I admit I've been slightly disappointed by their lack of competition with Microsoft and Sony. However since the "Nintendo 64," Nintendo has been about innovation rather than performance. While Microsoft and Sony battle each other in a war of performance specs, Nintendo claims a different zone to inhabit in the gaming market.

It's been rumored that the new console will use cartridges! Consoles haven't seen cartridges for 20 years! The reason they went away is because the software was so much cheaper and easier to reproduce on the forms of compact discs already in high production around the world. But now as we can easily observe, "flash" and "rom" chips have become so much cheaper--hence the ridiculously low prices and ridiculously high capacities of SD cards and other media we can get ahold of in the consumer market. Another advantage of using some kind of solid state media like cartridges is that, if engineered correctly, they are almost impossible to pirate compared to disk media. They also load almost instantaneously, giving them an advantage in performance.

There is no official news about the new console other than it is scheduled for release in March 2017, and that it "will not be a successor to the Wii U", which probably means that it will be entirely different than previous consoles. It didn't even feature in E3 2016.

You can read up on everything we do know so far about the new console here (http://www.techradar.com/us/news/gaming/nintendo-nx-release-date-news-and-rumors-1289401).

It's also worth noting that there is a new Zelda game coming soon called "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (http://www.ign.com/articles/2016/06/24/6-cool-things-we-learned-about-zelda-breath-of-the-wild-at-e3-2016)" which is going to be released for both the Wii U and the new NX console. Yay!!!


I'm so excited!

Peter1469
06-25-2016, 06:38 PM
I never had a gaming counsel. PC.

spunkloaf
06-25-2016, 08:53 PM
In my opinion, they're way overrated these days anyways. The first few gaming consoles were legends: Atari 2600, Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega Genesis, Gameboy, Super Nintendo, Nintendo 64. Sony PlayStation can kiss my starfish.

I like computer games too. Doom 2 was the ultimate first-person shooter, and it is the most renowned PC game of all time.

Nowadays, the gaming industry has plateaued. Everything is so "high def" and "life-like," one can only wonder where there is left to go with it all.

IMPress Polly
06-26-2016, 08:45 AM
spunkloaf wrote:
I've recently been reading anything I can find about Nintendo's next gaming console, codenamed "Nintendo NX."

I've always been a fan of Nintendo, and I admit I've been slightly disappointed by their lack of competition with Microsoft and Sony. However since the "Nintendo 64," Nintendo has been about innovation rather than performance. While Microsoft and Sony battle each other in a war of performance specs, Nintendo claims a different zone to inhabit in the gaming market.

It's been rumored that the new console will use cartridges! Consoles haven't seen cartridges for 20 years! The reason they went away is because the software was so much cheaper and easier to reproduce on the forms of compact discs already in high production around the world. But now as we can easily observe, "flash" and "rom" chips have become so much cheaper--hence the ridiculously low prices and ridiculously high capacities of SD cards and other media we can get ahold of in the consumer market. Another advantage of using some kind of solid state media like cartridges is that, if engineered correctly, they are almost impossible to pirate compared to disk media. They also load almost instantaneously, giving them an advantage in performance.

There is no official news about the new console other than it is scheduled for release in March 2017, and that it "will not be a successor to the Wii U", which probably means that it will be entirely different than previous consoles. It didn't even feature in E3 2016.

You can read up on everything we do know so far about the new console here (http://www.techradar.com/us/news/gaming/nintendo-nx-release-date-news-and-rumors-1289401).

It's also worth noting that there is a new Zelda game coming soon called "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (http://www.ign.com/articles/2016/06/24/6-cool-things-we-learned-about-zelda-breath-of-the-wild-at-e3-2016)" which is going to be released for both the Wii U and the new NX console. Yay!!!

I'm so excited!

If that rumor about the NX using cartridges is true, that could be awesome! :cool2: However, I would caution against relying on rumors. There have been a LOT of rumors about Nintendo's theoretically upcoming NX system and most of them have been subsequently debunked. But it would be very cool if this one turned out to be true. :smiley:

The thing that annoys me about Nintendo these days is that their innovative spark now seems to be largely confined to the hardware scene. When it comes to their software, by contrast, the games they're pumping out anymore are pretty much a combination of full-fledged shovel ware (like Devil's Third for example) and the latest, essentially unchanged installments of their longstanding, decades-old franchises (Mario, Zelda, Kirby, Star Fox, etc.), and often both of those things at once (e.g. Star Fox Zero, Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival). Even their newer hardware "innovations" are often really just gimmicks intended to force you to spend more money needlessly. Collectable, "interactive" amiibo toys come to mind.

In consideration of all of the above, I'm taking a wait-and-see attitude toward the NX, personally. The last time Nintendo was in this kind of a corner, they unleashed the revolutionary Nintendo DS and Wii systems. But back then, Nintendo was also a company run by a gamer, not some guy from the financial sector who knows a lot more about profit margins than about video games and gamers like they are today. To this end, I'm not holding my breath.


Nowadays, the gaming industry has plateaued. Everything is so "high def" and "life-like," one can only wonder where there is left to go with it all.

I don't think it's plateaued at all. There's a TON of room for improvement in video game storytelling, given that, in the average video game, more than 90% of the contents, including ALL of the playable contents, are stylized action scenes. That's a far more extreme imbalance than any other medium features and one that certain corners of the video game development community are working to remedy, from the nominal popularization of choose-your-own-adventure games wherein game play consists almost entirely of making narrative choices since 2012's The Walking Dead to the recent first-party blockbuster Uncharted 4: A Thief's End making the daring choice of giving most of its focus to mundane activities like solving puzzles and scrounging around an attic for momentos that connect to the player to the relationships between the game's major characters. Bound is an upcoming release (due out August 16th for PlayStation 4) I'm seriously looking forward to that seeks to be both a story-focused art game or a massive puzzle for communities to solve together online depending on how you choose to play.

People didn't say that films plateaued after "talkies" and color were introduced because "what else is left?". Neither should we say that video games have plateaued simply because the amount of animation detail it's possible to put on a video screen has increased over the decades. It takes time for any artistic medium to develop and its development is by definition indefinite because art is subjective by nature. It took many decades of development before the first story-driven movie was released. Originally, films were just individual scenes! The artistic development of video games has progressed similarly. In the olden days, the average video game had no storyline at all, but just scenarios. (Seriously, what's the storyline in the old classics like Pong, Space Invaders, Pac-Man, etc.? These games had no proper stories, just situations!) Many still don't, but many now do, and it's the latter category that's growing relative to the former, not the other way around. Today's gamers increasingly demand it. If a game is simply an online competition with no narrative, fans will often demand that a DLC story mode be added for that game nowadays. Gamers are increasingly discovering that it's simply more enjoyable to play within the context of a narrative rather than just a situation. And with such technological improvements as a fully harnessed virtual reality coming out now, who knows how much more engrossing video game storylines could become in the future? Video games, in these senses, have more room for improvement yet than just about any other artistic medium does, I think!

Common
06-26-2016, 08:54 AM
Other than atari and one of the first nintendos I bought the kids, Ive never played console games. Ive always just played PC games. I know consoles have better graphics and far more titles to choose from. I just never got the itch

spunkloaf
06-29-2016, 07:41 AM
If that rumor about the NX using cartridges is true, that could be awesome! :cool2: However, I would caution against relying on rumors. There have been a LOT of rumors about Nintendo's theoretically upcoming NX system and most of them have been subsequently debunked. But it would be very cool if this one turned out to be true. :smiley:

The thing that annoys me about Nintendo these days is that their innovative spark now seems to be largely confined to the hardware scene. When it comes to their software, by contrast, the games they're pumping out anymore are pretty much a combination of full-fledged shovel ware (like Devil's Third for example) and the latest, essentially unchanged installments of their longstanding, decades-old franchises (Mario, Zelda, Kirby, Star Fox, etc.), and often both of those things at once (e.g. Star Fox Zero, Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival). Even their newer hardware "innovations" are often really just gimmicks intended to force you to spend more money needlessly. Collectable, "interactive" amiibo toys come to mind.

In consideration of all of the above, I'm taking a wait-and-see attitude toward the NX, personally. The last time Nintendo was in this kind of a corner, they unleashed the revolutionary Nintendo DS and Wii systems. But back then, Nintendo was also a company run by a gamer, not some guy from the financial sector who knows a lot more about profit margins than about video games and gamers like they are today. To this end, I'm not holding my breath.



I don't think it's plateaued at all. There's a TON of room for improvement in video game storytelling, given that, in the average video game, more than 90% of the contents, including ALL of the playable contents, are stylized action scenes. That's a far more extreme imbalance than any other medium features and one that certain corners of the video game development community are working to remedy, from the nominal popularization of choose-your-own-adventure games wherein game play consists almost entirely of making narrative choices since 2012's The Walking Dead to the recent first-party blockbuster Uncharted 4: A Thief's End making the daring choice of giving most of its focus to mundane activities like solving puzzles and scrounging around an attic for momentos that connect to the player to the relationships between the game's major characters. Bound is an upcoming release (due out August 16th for PlayStation 4) I'm seriously looking forward to that seeks to be both a story-focused art game or a massive puzzle for communities to solve together online depending on how you choose to play.

People didn't say that films plateaued after "talkies" and color were introduced because "what else is left?". Neither should we say that video games have plateaued simply because the amount of animation detail it's possible to put on a video screen has increased over the decades. It takes time for any artistic medium to develop and its development is by definition indefinite because art is subjective by nature. It took many decades of development before the first story-driven movie was released. Originally, films were just individual scenes! The artistic development of video games has progressed similarly. In the olden days, the average video game had no storyline at all, but just scenarios. (Seriously, what's the storyline in the old classics like Pong, Space Invaders, Pac-Man, etc.? These games had no proper stories, just situations!) Many still don't, but many now do, and it's the latter category that's growing relative to the former, not the other way around. Today's gamers increasingly demand it. If a game is simply an online competition with no narrative, fans will often demand that a DLC story mode be added for that game nowadays. Gamers are increasingly discovering that it's simply more enjoyable to play within the context of a narrative rather than just a situation. And with such technological improvements as a fully harnessed virtual reality coming out now, who knows how much more engrossing video game storylines could become in the future? Video games, in these senses, have more room for improvement yet than just about any other artistic medium does, I think!
I'm sorry. I just typed 20 minutes worth of text, and somehow it disappeared when I browsed on another tab to grab links for you. I'm really pissed.
Let's just say that I don't really disagree with you, and you likely misinterpreted my words.

I said video games have plateaued, not hit a brick wall. There is some creativity here and there, but everybody is still obsessed with the latest and greatest, and "state-of-the-art" to care about creativity.

As far as the rumors are concerned, yes they are still rumors. But Nintendo has filed some interesting patents that show a controller design, and the new Zelda's patent shows a release in digital, download, disc and cartridge forms. You have to google it, I'm afraid my text will disappear again if I do. My computer has been acting up this morning, particularly the touch pad--opening and closing the start menu, scrolling, and changing things on its own.

IMPress Polly
07-03-2016, 05:54 AM
spunkloaf wrote:
I'm sorry. I just typed 20 minutes worth of text, and somehow it disappeared when I browsed on another tab to grab links for you. I'm really pissed.
Let's just say that I don't really disagree with you, and you likely misinterpreted my words.

I said video games have plateaued, not hit a brick wall. There is some creativity here and there, but everybody is still obsessed with the latest and greatest, and "state-of-the-art" to care about creativity.

Sorry to hear you're having computer troubles! I know that feeling. :tongue:

Well anyway, something very much like what you're saying here about how "everybody is still obsessed with the latest and greatest, and "state-of-the-art" to care about creativity" could also be said of all other electronic entertainment mediums as well, from movies to television to music. Welcome to capitalism! One of its defining features is the transformation of art and culture into money-making vehicles. Hence why the concept of popular culture exists. What is popular culture, after all, but a single, dominant culture that only dominates because it is designed to by market research teams?

The aim of the bourgeoisie vis-a-vis art is to maximize the consumer base for any given product, which, in plain English, means churning out an endless stream of "sure hits", i.e. generally high tech, uncontroversial creations that revolve around "universal" themes and messages. If one senses a note of contempt from me about this, it's because that's not how real art is made. Art is about sharing one's soul with others. The thing about souls is that they're not universal. Not the whole of them anyway. The real artist, to this end, does not use market research and product testing. Unfortunately, within the framework of a profit system, the actual artist's emotion-driven approach is, for obvious reasons, far riskier than the corporate behemoth's money-driven approach to crafting entertainment. In order for real art to thrive, the artist requires certain financial guarantees so that there's not so much risk involved in sharing their hearts with the world.

To sum it up, real art achieves success because it earns it; because a large number of people find themselves empathizing with the authentic sentiments of the artist. Commercial entertainment, by contrast, achieves financial success because it is designed to appeal to vast numbers of people. The thing is when you systematize financial success, you're much more likely to achieve it. And that's problematic for those of us concerned about the art world and the suffocation of real culture under giant piles of money.

Here's an illustration of how the development of commercial blockbusters has worked in the video gaming scene: with a trend toward steadily increasing the amount of content players can expect from a standard video game, which raises the cost of development needlessly, thus disincentivizing any kind of thematic or game play innovation and steadily shrinking the number of hands controlling the industry:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9x8IMeSucLs&nohtml5=False

...SO if modern "AAA" video games seem awfully, and increasingly, generic to you...well now you understand why. This is WHY there's so much pent up demand for the sort of games that independent game makers are creating and also for older, more primitive games: because they tend to possess more heart. The blockbuster gaming scene just looks and feels incredibly bland, predictable, and boring by comparison, no matter how much "action" it throws at you. And now you know why: because art thrives best when it is not driven by financial considerations.

If the profit system's tendency is toward abolishing, you know, art from artistic mediums, then it makes sense that there is so much pent up demand for something else. A great many people really do want art, not just entertainment.