Ecco has, as others have said, a lot of very serious mechanical and game design issues, but conceptually it's always been a really cool setting and concept for a sci-fi adventure game. I think a smartly done remaster could really produce something awesome, if approached the right way. Here's hoping.
2) Could we retire the "Believe it or not, there's a new physical game for X system in 2XXX!" trope in headlines? There's been loads of cartridge releases for a wide variety of systems at this point, ESPECIALLY the NES, Genesis, and Game Boy. It's very cool, but not really novel or surprising at this point.
This is rad and it looks like the implementation is pretty well thought-through, but MAN I wish this would include a tate mode so you could play it on the Flip Grip with the screens arranged vertically like they would be on the DS. Fingers crosssed...
This is genuinely a crazy announcement. I'm probably more excited about this than I am about the Marvel collection; there's just a bunch of rare games (Power Stone 2 and Project Justice are VERY pricey on the Dreamcast) that I didn't ever expect to see rereleased. I'm so stoked about this. I'll likely pick it up on Steam so I can play it on my arcade cabinet, but I may cop this on sale on the Switch as well just to play Power Stone on the go.
This is definitely a bummer. I was looking forward to this one, and it definitely seems like it'll just feel right at home on the Switch in a way it never could on PC and mobile. But I'd rather it spend more time in the oven and come out fully cooked than get some underbaked version of it.
I, personally, would be perfectly happy to pay $500 if the quality is there—both in terms of technical performance and build quality (I expect the next generation Joycons to have solved the drift issue, for instance). But I do suspect that a price that high will be beyond what the market is willing to bear, and that could be a problem for Nintendo. I think $400 would be a reasonable place to land, especially in a post-pandemic global-inflation-is-still-bad environment, but I think anything higher would present a problem for the Big N.
Multiple SKUs are an option here, but we'll see—I think the Wii U was the only system Nintendo has ever launched with a couple of different pricing tiers, and we all know how that went.
This is interesting, because there's, uh, not really a ton of Darius left that wasn't covered by the first two Cozmic Collection releases. G-Darius (which really feels like it should have been on the first collection) is a given, of course. I suppose there's Super Darius I & II, and I guess if you're really stretching you could throw on the brand new port of Darius that was released on the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive Mini.
The elephant in the room is, of course, Dariusburst and its various permutations. I would LOVE to see that game on the Switch, but it seems like it would be a standalone release, surely? At least, Chronicle Saviors would be. The worst case scenario is that we'd just get an emulated version of the original PSP game...
@AcesHigh "How do we know that this man made climate change idea is a hoax designed by the Left to gain public support to vote them into a globalist government? Because IF it were true that our emissions were destroying our environment at the level we are being "scared" onto thinking (see the absolute hysteria of Greta Thurnburg) the solution is a very, very simple, inexpensive and MOST green solution of them all.... PLANT MORE TREES! ...If this were a real issue, we would be talking about planting more trees"
Ah, but this presumes that there is no push from the left to plant more trees. But that's not the case—there are a lot of reforestation efforts across the globe right now. There's the Bonn Challenge, launched by Germany's government, which is aiming to bring 150 million hectares of the world’s deforested land into restoration by 2020. (https://www.bonnchallenge.org/content/challenge) There's the Nature Conservancy's "Plant a Billion Trees" initiative. (https://www.nature.org/en-us/get-involved/how-to-help/plant-a-billion/) There's also the 20x20 Initiative, which is focused on Latin America and the Caribbean. (https://www.wri.org/our-work/project/initiative-20x20) There's also the tree-planting search engine Ecosia. (https://www.ecosia.org/?c=en) Those are just a few.
Planting trees is clearly PART of the solution. But you cannot fight climate change through trees alone—there are limits to how many forests our planet can support, and poorly thought out forestation initiatives can have negative consequences for biodiversity or just plain be inefficient. There was a very good research journal article about this subject in Science Advances earlier this year, focused on which areas would offer the best return on investment in terms of planting trees to fight CO2 (https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/5/7/eaav3223). There was also a great piece in Discover about the limitations of fighting climate change via tree-planting. (http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/2019/07/10/reforestation-climate-change-plant-trees/#.XdRkNFdKiUk) No one's saying trees aren't part of the solution. But they're not a cure-all.
@AcesHigh "These facts come from the leading climatologist (PHD) and director of the Kato institute and Chicago institute of Science. Anyone ia free to look these facts up."
It's convenient that you tell people to "look these facts up" rather than citing them yourself. The Cato (not Kato) Institute is a libertarian think tank that generally argues against government intervention in the markets. It is not a scientific institution, and certainly not an unbiased one. Cato has received millions of dollars of funding from Exxon Mobil Corp, and others with a vested interest in the fossil fuel industry. The climatologist who you mentioned who worked at Cato—he stepped down earlier this year (https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/05/us-think-tank-shuts-down-prominent-center-challenged-climate-science)—is Pat Michaels, who told Fareed Zakaria on CNN in 2010 that 40 percent of his funding came from the petrochemical industry. (You can watch that video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fguJod_voPc)
"Not the United States who have THE cleanest air in the globe"
@PharoneTheGnome "Beyond that, I'm an old fart, and I've seen my share of this bs. Back in the 80s, we were told that there was a whole in our atmosphere, and that in the future we would all burn to death because of it getting larger and larger. Guess what. The whole repaired itself because the Earth is always in a constant state of change."
There's a lot of misinformation in the comments here, but this is particularly bad and I don't want anyone to read it and believe it. It is flatly untrue.
The ozone layer did not magically repair itself. The damage to the ozone layer was primarily because of the use of manufactured chemicals, especially chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs). These substances were phased out thanks to the Montreal Protocol, an international treaty that was first signed in 1987 and eventually adopted by 197 ratifiers. It's true that ozone depletion has reversed, although the hole has not yet healed entirely—it's predicted to return to pre-1980 levels sometime between 2050 and 2070. But still, the Montreal Protocol is one of the most successful and important international agreements ever signed. You can read more about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreal_Protocol
Ozone depletion is not a problem that magically solved itself. It's dangerous and misleading to say that's what happened. Instead, the world assessed the problem, recognized the risks, and worked together to act. That's how things are supposed to work.
Comments 13
Re: Fortnite Devs Hit With Unfair Labour Practice Filing Following AI Darth Vader Fiasco
@axelhander You know, the ridiculing caps talk thing does not actually constitute an argument or a rebuttal.
Re: Ecco The Dolphin Is Making A Comeback With Remasters & New Game
Ecco has, as others have said, a lot of very serious mechanical and game design issues, but conceptually it's always been a really cool setting and concept for a sci-fi adventure game. I think a smartly done remaster could really produce something awesome, if approached the right way. Here's hoping.
Re: Delightful-Looking GBC Puzzler 'Sofia The Witch' Scores Sweet Limited Collector's Edition
1) This looks really fun. Great sprite work.
2) Could we retire the "Believe it or not, there's a new physical game for X system in 2XXX!" trope in headlines? There's been loads of cartridge releases for a wide variety of systems at this point, ESPECIALLY the NES, Genesis, and Game Boy. It's very cool, but not really novel or surprising at this point.
Re: 'Assault Suits Valken Declassified' Is Getting A Limited Switch Physical Release
It's cool this is finally happening, but it would have been nice if they announced it sooner—digital version has been out a long time now.
I missed the Retro-bit cartridge reissue, which is the one I really wanted, so this is at least a little tempting.
Re: 'Castlevania Dominus Collection' Brings Three DS Classics To Switch Today
This is rad and it looks like the implementation is pretty well thought-through, but MAN I wish this would include a tate mode so you could play it on the Flip Grip with the screens arranged vertically like they would be on the DS. Fingers crosssed...
Re: 'Power Stone' Is Coming To Switch In 'Capcom Fighting Collection 2'
This is genuinely a crazy announcement. I'm probably more excited about this than I am about the Marvel collection; there's just a bunch of rare games (Power Stone 2 and Project Justice are VERY pricey on the Dreamcast) that I didn't ever expect to see rereleased. I'm so stoked about this. I'll likely pick it up on Steam so I can play it on my arcade cabinet, but I may cop this on sale on the Switch as well just to play Power Stone on the go.
Re: Throwback Racer 'Victory Heat Rally' Stalls On Switch, Now Launching After PC & Mobile
This is definitely a bummer. I was looking forward to this one, and it definitely seems like it'll just feel right at home on the Switch in a way it never could on PC and mobile. But I'd rather it spend more time in the oven and come out fully cooked than get some underbaked version of it.
Finger crossed for a physical.
Re: Talking Point: Would $499 Be Too Much For 'Switch 2'?
I, personally, would be perfectly happy to pay $500 if the quality is there—both in terms of technical performance and build quality (I expect the next generation Joycons to have solved the drift issue, for instance). But I do suspect that a price that high will be beyond what the market is willing to bear, and that could be a problem for Nintendo. I think $400 would be a reasonable place to land, especially in a post-pandemic global-inflation-is-still-bad environment, but I think anything higher would present a problem for the Big N.
Multiple SKUs are an option here, but we'll see—I think the Wii U was the only system Nintendo has ever launched with a couple of different pricing tiers, and we all know how that went.
Re: Surprise Sequel 'Gimmick! 2' Bounces Towards Release Next Month
@Zeebor15 Don't forget John Linneman of Digital Foundry! And me! So, ten people in total. Up to double digits!
Re: Darius Cozmic Collection 2 Confirmed, Existing Collection Getting New Games Today
This is interesting, because there's, uh, not really a ton of Darius left that wasn't covered by the first two Cozmic Collection releases. G-Darius (which really feels like it should have been on the first collection) is a given, of course. I suppose there's Super Darius I & II, and I guess if you're really stretching you could throw on the brand new port of Darius that was released on the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive Mini.
The elephant in the room is, of course, Dariusburst and its various permutations. I would LOVE to see that game on the Switch, but it seems like it would be a standalone release, surely? At least, Chronicle Saviors would be. The worst case scenario is that we'd just get an emulated version of the original PSP game...
Re: Pokémon Sword And Shield's Pokédex Contains A Dire Warning About Climate Change
@AcesHigh "How do we know that this man made climate change idea is a hoax designed by the Left to gain public support to vote them into a globalist government? Because IF it were true that our emissions were destroying our environment at the level we are being "scared" onto thinking (see the absolute hysteria of Greta Thurnburg) the solution is a very, very simple, inexpensive and MOST green solution of them all.... PLANT MORE TREES! ...If this were a real issue, we would be talking about planting more trees"
Ah, but this presumes that there is no push from the left to plant more trees. But that's not the case—there are a lot of reforestation efforts across the globe right now. There's the Bonn Challenge, launched by Germany's government, which is aiming to bring 150 million hectares of the world’s deforested land into restoration by 2020. (https://www.bonnchallenge.org/content/challenge) There's the Nature Conservancy's "Plant a Billion Trees" initiative. (https://www.nature.org/en-us/get-involved/how-to-help/plant-a-billion/) There's also the 20x20 Initiative, which is focused on Latin America and the Caribbean. (https://www.wri.org/our-work/project/initiative-20x20) There's also the tree-planting search engine Ecosia. (https://www.ecosia.org/?c=en) Those are just a few.
Planting trees is clearly PART of the solution. But you cannot fight climate change through trees alone—there are limits to how many forests our planet can support, and poorly thought out forestation initiatives can have negative consequences for biodiversity or just plain be inefficient. There was a very good research journal article about this subject in Science Advances earlier this year, focused on which areas would offer the best return on investment in terms of planting trees to fight CO2 (https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/5/7/eaav3223). There was also a great piece in Discover about the limitations of fighting climate change via tree-planting. (http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/2019/07/10/reforestation-climate-change-plant-trees/#.XdRkNFdKiUk) No one's saying trees aren't part of the solution. But they're not a cure-all.
Re: Pokémon Sword And Shield's Pokédex Contains A Dire Warning About Climate Change
@AcesHigh "These facts come from the leading climatologist (PHD) and director of the Kato institute and Chicago institute of Science. Anyone ia free to look these facts up."
It's convenient that you tell people to "look these facts up" rather than citing them yourself. The Cato (not Kato) Institute is a libertarian think tank that generally argues against government intervention in the markets. It is not a scientific institution, and certainly not an unbiased one. Cato has received millions of dollars of funding from Exxon Mobil Corp, and others with a vested interest in the fossil fuel industry. The climatologist who you mentioned who worked at Cato—he stepped down earlier this year (https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/05/us-think-tank-shuts-down-prominent-center-challenged-climate-science)—is Pat Michaels, who told Fareed Zakaria on CNN in 2010 that 40 percent of his funding came from the petrochemical industry. (You can watch that video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fguJod_voPc)
"Not the United States who have THE cleanest air in the globe"
According to the Environmental Performance Index, a joint project of Yale and Columbia universities, the United States is ranked number 10 (Souce: https://epi.envirocenter.yale.edu/epi-indicator-report/AIR)
You are continually throwing out very dubious statements.
Re: Pokémon Sword And Shield's Pokédex Contains A Dire Warning About Climate Change
@PharoneTheGnome "Beyond that, I'm an old fart, and I've seen my share of this bs. Back in the 80s, we were told that there was a whole in our atmosphere, and that in the future we would all burn to death because of it getting larger and larger. Guess what. The whole repaired itself because the Earth is always in a constant state of change."
There's a lot of misinformation in the comments here, but this is particularly bad and I don't want anyone to read it and believe it. It is flatly untrue.
The ozone layer did not magically repair itself. The damage to the ozone layer was primarily because of the use of manufactured chemicals, especially chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs). These substances were phased out thanks to the Montreal Protocol, an international treaty that was first signed in 1987 and eventually adopted by 197 ratifiers. It's true that ozone depletion has reversed, although the hole has not yet healed entirely—it's predicted to return to pre-1980 levels sometime between 2050 and 2070. But still, the Montreal Protocol is one of the most successful and important international agreements ever signed. You can read more about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreal_Protocol
Ozone depletion is not a problem that magically solved itself. It's dangerous and misleading to say that's what happened. Instead, the world assessed the problem, recognized the risks, and worked together to act. That's how things are supposed to work.