...Mailbag:
Wednesday, 05-30-01
There's about 40 letters in this batch, and we apoligize for the neglect. In the future, expect mailbag posts every three days or so. This week features letters from all sorts of people, such as newcomers to the site and those who don't know how to speak english.
NSports is a nice hat
NSports kicks hardcore ass! Whoo! I say it again, whoo!
-Rob
It seems like a new age is coming in the videogame world. With next generation systems from sony and nintendo (eventually) and the new Xbox being released on the market, a new question is being raised: Which company will come out on top? Of course WE would say NINTENDO YAY NINTENDO THE CUBE WILL RULE THE WORLD!! This, however is not what thousands of playstation owners are saying. Playstation 2 seems to be growing in popularity, slowly, but surely. My own brother wants to buy one even though we have owned nintendo products fo about six years. This is an example of the problem I think Nintendo has. People who bought the Playstation are less likely to switch companies than past N64 users. This is bdcause many 64 owners seem to still see a huge lack of mature games. I know what WE say. What about Conker? Body Harvest? Perfect Dark? Goldeneye? Deep down though, we know what they mean whan they make this criticism. Nintendo never had a final fantasy, or metal gear solid, or twisted metal, or Silent Hill or any other number of psycological deep games put out on PSX. We had RE2, but it was so far after the PSX release that noone cared. I had already seen and played enough of the game at other peoples houses by the time the 64 version cmae out. I think the key to the Game Cubes sucess is third party support and ONLY third party support. Nintendo would never put out a game with a huge deep plot (other than find the stars, books, notes or WHATEVER). Only companies that focus on games alone will be able to raise Nintendo's reputation. Without that, I think my brother has a chance of convincing me into investing in the DEVIL MACHINE. Thank you.
-Nicomon
Nicomon?! :) Anyways, you make a good point. I think Nintendo needs to start caring again about 3rd party. At E3 we saw a huge amount of Nintendo pushing their own characters, but, they really didn't have to. We already love em. But remember games like Eternal Darkness, Metroid, and Raven Blade are targeted at the more mature gamer, and from launch. A friend of mine was X-Box all the way, until we showed him a few videos from these games (and mentioned at 150-200 price tag vs an X-Box 300ish). I think even the most mature gamer will be happy with what the cube will offer
The GameCube seems to be in far better shape than the N64, in terms of number of mature games. Right off the bat, there's Eternal Darkness, Too Human, Resident Evil 0, Metroid, the possibility of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (MGS2 is not PS2 exclusive, Konami would be fools to not port it to NGC), Rogue Squadron 2, Thornado, Young Olympians: Mythos, and the possibility of Perfect Dark 2 or Turok 4... And this is just for starters.
According to a Product Tester at Nintendo... the word on the street is... Metroid is no longer first person shooter, first person adventure, first person ANYTHING. The magic of E-3 hearsay, folks.
Daily; although the exact time will vary from 8pm to midnight central time. Right now, we're manually updating the NGenres main page with good old fashioned HTML and FTP, but if/when we convert it to web-based updating, the frequency of NGenres' main page updates will probably be more often. Please note that the Shooters, Adventures, and Sports sites update 24-hours a day, however, so if you're looking for news immediately, it's in your best interest to keep on tabs with those pages too, and not just the NGenres hub.
F-Zero: Maximum Velocity, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, Top Gear GT Championship, Fire Pro Wrestling, High Heat Baseball 2002, Krazy Racers, Super Dodgeball Advance, and Ready 2 Rumble Round 2. Those are the sports/racing games. For the rest, I'll turn over the floor to Andrew and Mike. I fixed it, Tariq!
Actually the InterNIC server crashed on wednesday... allowing some people to be transfered to different locations. I personally went to XBox's site and got transfered to a playstation site. I'd call them to see if your service got repaired in your area (your ISP would know)
Well, Mike. There is this mysterious internet device called 'linking'. Nintendojo may have 'linked' to us, thus providing a 'link' to our site from their's. I'll understand if you'd like me to draw a picture.
Website
How did you make your way into deigning a video game website?
-DJiMatt
Try to write in-depth and compelling features/specials pertaining to gaming, the industry, or to a specific topic on videogames. Also, if you can, eliminate copying news stories from sites like IGN or FGN online. Focus on content, and make sure your layout loads quickly, or no one will come to your site.
The first thing to do, without a doubt, is to learn how to create a good website layout. If you have a terrible site layout, it doesn't matter how good of content you can deliver, since people aren't going to respect your site. Upon that, focus on creating exclusive content that your visitors won't be able to find at other locations. You might wanna check out This Special at PlanetGameCube, it did an excellent job of explaining how to create your own gaming site.
Phong Mapping
What is Phong mapping? Because i am willing to bet that i am thinking of something totally different from what it is.
-Mark
Well I've been studying the technology for a long time.. I think you mean THONG mapping.. to see it in action take a look at some of the final fantasy movie pics.
Never heard of it. Do you mean bump-mapping? Cause I barely know what that is, either. However, I have used a road map on occasion. In fact, I used it this week to get to Tariq's house, in the glorious land of Eagan. Oh, in the Final Fantasy pics? I guess I saw the lead from that movie with some thong mapping in the last issue of Maxim.
This is the readertorial becuase it says I can't vuew the page, and I want my voice heard.
One system, is the only way to be a hardcore gamer. I have had Nintendo since the NES through the SNES(and I never go Sega Staturn or whatever its called). Then I got my N64 and not the PS1 even though all my brian dead friends got it and said it was great. I have had the pleasure to play such greats as Super Mario Bros seris and Goldeneye 007. Which in my mind is the greatest game of all time, of course their are a few things I would have changed and added but its still great. Now you see Nintendo is the company to stick with, for you PS2 owners all I can do is laugh and say wait to PS10000 and it might be good. And yes PS2 lovers I am trashing that piece of crap system, which you all waited countless hours in line for, only to sell it at lets say Funco Land and then buy the X-Box. Loality is the main thing a hardcore gamer must have, not being a loser and changing systems everytime a new one comes out. NGC is going to simply reek os awesomeness and will lay the smack down on X-Box's computer gaming system and PS2's pil;e of garabage. SO DIG IT. EDAGR IS UNSTOPPABLE!
-Edgar
And so goes the opinion of Edgar the Nintendo fan-boy. I only say fan-boy because you bash the other systems using glittering generalities, without specifically calling out their weaknesses.
Why does every reviews alway's mention Nintendo when they reviewed a Rare game? I mean Rare is totally behind it, when Rare made Conker, the press said Nintendo went to far with that. I don't mean to sound so stupid but just curious.
-Jame
It is because of the fact that Rare is a second party of Nintendo, meaning that Nintendo owns a large share of Rare. Rare basically does as Nintendo wants them to.
The mainstream press is completely retarded when it comes to videogames, with one or two exceptions. Would you look for a Super Bowl wrap-up in Better Homes and Gardens?
ahhh, what nostalgia! I remember the good old days of Goldeneye HQ when questions like this would have flooded the mailbag. No, there was never and will never be a level called 'Crypt' for Goldeneye, there is also no 'Citadel' and no way to play additional levels in multiplayer (other than with the use of a GameShark).
BOND ON any NINTENDO?
Will there be any bond game on the GBA or NGC ever??? It would be really cool, because of the great graphics on NGC.
-AWBOND
EA's next Bond game is called 'Agent Under Fire.' I'm still waiting for Perfect Dark Zero. This reminds me, the password in PD is Zero-Tau. Any correlation to the title, Perfect Dark Zero? I freaking hope so!!
I believe so. Lakers are alright. Though they suck, Pacers are where it's at. And let's hear it for the Bucks!
Mario in Austria
I was in Austria recently, and on all the newsstands one saw *Der Spiegel*, the leading German-languange news magazine. At the time I was there *Spiegel* was running a lead feature on video games. The front cover was divided into four quarters, depicting Mario, Link, Pikachu and Lara Croft. Proof, if proof were needed that after the recent years of Sony dominance in the market, the characters which the public associates with video games are mostly Nintendo characters.
-Miss Lindie
You can't beat levels on 007 mode- you only to get to tweak the settings. No accomplishments are saved.
Links.
Will links to the affilated sites with NShooters return? I enjoyed that GoldenEye website and would like to see its return, even if it never updates.
-LimpChunk9
This coming from someone that doesn't use punctuation!
MY E3 Impressions
Ok folks, E3 is over. I actually attended along with the Ngenres crew (Hi guys), and let me say that while the NINTENDO GAMECUBE (note the proper typing format) easily out performed the playstation 2 and Xbox in the graphics department, the real battle to win is the abundancy of GAMES. That what owning a game console is all about, right? The GAMES? So who else thinks that NINTENDO will have a little trouble in the 'next generation console war' without third party support? Because if they have it, which vague and unofficial sources say they do, where was it? From what I saw with my own eyes, it wasnt at E3. This is a big problem. No matter how many franchises NINTENDO upgrades, its not going to make up for the huge amount of third parties making games for PSX2. So while PSX2 fans have reviews of demos shown at E3, we have a list of games supposedly coming out for the NINTENDO GAMECUBE. Remember the 64's origional list of titles that it was going to release? Remember Mission Impossible being hyped since the beginning, taking many many months past the release date to fininsh and still sucking? If NINTENDO does not show us tangeble things at the upcoming spaceworld, the PSX2 WILL win this war. I want to see the Resident evil game, Metal Gear 2, Raven Blade, Phantasy Star, and all of the other games that will appeal to US, the Mature gamers. I will not purchase a system without third party support. I challenge NINTENDO to get on the snake or it will have to hit the bricks. Translation: Nintendo must make its system really easy to make games for, and convince third parties that it will be profitable. If they do not do this, they will probably die a slow death first making just handhelds, then software, then nothing. Tariq, if anyone corrects my grammar instead of answering my comment, I will kick you. That is all.
-NICOMON
After looking at the E3 game lineup for Nintendo I can see a huge genre gap that was a problem on the N64 - fighting games. None have been mentioned for the GCN and I wonder if any are planned - do you guys know of any?
-Mike Cullerne
Super Smash Brothers Melee, but I understand if that doesn't appeal to you as a true fighting game. Tekken Tag Tournament will be coming, maybe at launch. A port of Soul Calibur 2 might be in the works. I expect to see all of the Capcom 2-D fighters show up, too.
Some Questions...
1. Why is there no staff bio for Tariq Bashir, president and CEO of ngenres? 2. What does the staff of ngenres.com think about www.angelfire.com/me3/ilovemikenow/index.html?
-Mike (Baboota)
While I'm sure that Tariq is just lazy. For the record, I was CEO until willingly handing over the title to Tariq in order to make him sound more big and important when consulting businesses. That site is a nice piece of work there, anything with 'mike' in it obviously has to be.
