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Game Informer: " Why Xenoblade Chronicles Makes Me Want To Punch a Kitten"

Cipherr

Member
Remember when people could just enjoy the games regardless of the graphics?



Not since.... like the NES era I cant. To be fair, mass graphics whoring started a long ass time ago. It shouldnt be any surprise that its as permeated as it is right now. The only thing that has kept me grounded is PC gaming. PC gaming for a long time has been home to a lot of old school, sprite based, long in the tooth MMO type of games that pretty much forces anyone who does a lot of PC gaming to be a little more open.

I don't scoff at anything 2D and swear it should be a $4.99 downloadable, and it takes a whole lot for a game to "make my eyes bleed".

Im thankful for it.
 
The graphics are pretty damn good, but up close there are blurry ass textures and sometimes I notice the horrible jaggies. But the game is so enthralling I forget about that after a few minutes. Would the game be better in hd? Of course. But the lack of it doesn't ruin the experience at all. I think this game could have been insanely huge if it actually had some kind of marketing, that's the true crime.
 

Hulud

Member
As a PC gamer, I feel similarly about other console-exclusive franchises. I try not to be a complete twat about it, though, unlike this gameinformer dude. I also don't say crazy, factually incorrect statements like those he said about Mario, though.
 
I definitely see his point, even though he looked like a child while making it. Xenoblade looks horrible on my TV. But Mario and Zelda look fine, so I don't know why he has a problem with those.

The argument that people in this thread are making that it look great while running in Dolphin, though, is kind of ridiculous. While, yes, it does look great in Dolphin, that's clearly not anything at all how it looks when actually running on a Wii. So the Dolphin screenshots are kind of meaningless if you ask me.

But all this being said, the game itself is awesome (the little I've played, at least) so the graphics don't really matter, and this article/argument doesn't really matter, haha.
 
Why do people automatically jump to the conclusion that I or others don't find these games worth playing. They are enjoyable, great games. Human nature is to always want more, to always strive for better and I simply can't see it as a bad thing for people to urge nintendo, monolith or any other company to push the envelope.

I am fine with the game being on wii, and would be fine if it never was playable anywhere else. But I still would think about what could have been regardless to how much fun im having.

But Nintendo is improving, this is a 2010 Wii title, what would you expect. They are already making a game for the WiiU.
 

Mxrz

Member
Meh. The visuals turned me off the game. Call it whatever you want, but the game would've been more appealing on PC-PS360 hardware.
 

StevieP

Banned
Are there any dolphin pics of the satorl marsh at night, or the bridges in Makna forest. Someone please post those.

xenoblade-satorl-marsh-poster.jpg

xenoblade-makna-forest-poster.jpg


Note: these are Dolphin shots with character artwork transposed.
 

Jive Turkey

Unconfirmed Member
So...Game Informer, a magazine run by Gamestop, is bashing a game sold in the US exclusively through...Gamestop. Huh.

"I honestly believe that Xenoblade Chronicles could have been this generation’s Final Fantasy VII"

O Dear God no :(

Yeah no kidding. What a silly thing to say. Xenoblade is actually good.
 

gconsole

Member
I finished this game on dolphin because i cant bear with shitty blur quality in my wii. Not convince with the entire article but somehow get his feeling. Nintendo hardware these days is a bit too low tech. I know they no longer selling cutting edge machine or make a lost from hardware. But its a bit too much giving us 10 years ago hardware. Even apple dont do this.
 

Paracelsus

Member
The game does look like those screens and it will look better after they fix the nasty textures, even though it's gorgeous as it is.
 
But Nintendo is improving, this is a 2010 Wii title, what would you expect. They are already making a game for the WiiU.

That's fine and I look forward to it but that shouldn't mean that people cant express there feelings about how awesome it would have been to have a full HD version of xenoblade. It doesn't need to be taken as a anti nintendo thing, its simply wishful thinking which is perfectly healthy.
 

StevieP

Banned
I did read it. Your comparison still sucks. PS1 & N64 were competent hardware during that time, it's irrelevant that those games weren't released on PC.

Just as it's irrelevant that Xenoblade was not released elsewhere. It is a game made for Wii. Just as Uncharted 3 is made for PS3. Just as Halo Reach was made for 360. All would look far better on PC with higher image quality.

Meh. The visuals turned me off the game. Call it whatever you want, but the game would've been more appealing on PC-PS360 hardware.

PC and PS360 is quite different. You'll get far higher image quality on the former.

MisterHero said:
I might be wrong but aren't the Dolphin pics taken at a higher fidelity (resolution/anti-aliasing) than what PS360 are generally capable of while maintaining a respectable framerate?

Dolphin is simply taking the Wii game and re-rendering it at a higher resolution with higher image quality available to you (i.e. AA/AF/etc). Framerate is dependent on your rig for the most part. It takes hardware several orders of magnitude more powerful than the PS360 to produce these results in emulation.
 

Hero

Member
well said.



He has a point. Just because you've come to accept how Wii looks on an HDTV doesn't mean it doesn't frustrate others. The shit is and continues to be off-putting in many games. I continue to find it very distracting. Particularly after spending ample time gaming on PC/PS360.

You would have a point if this was back in 2006 when people might not have known the difference between a Wii and a Xbox 360 or Playstation 3. It's not. It's fucking 2012 and if you don't know what you're getting into and you're that god damn jaded then don't buy the fucking game. Bitching about it (and that's what this article is, a bitchfest, not an editorial) is going to do what exactly? We've known about Wii U for almost a year now so who's exactly he preaching to?

The fact that we had to have a Dolphin and a Dolphin thread here attests to that reality he addresses. You know what he sounds like? A frustrated, passionate gamer who desperately wants Nintendo to be who they *used to be*: a hardware power leader. Unfortunately, Nintendo will only be the power leader in this new generation for about 12 months, then they will be well behind with games that look like PS360 games in a world where graphics have leaped well beyond.

He doesn't sound frustrated, he sounds like a whiny baby. The media has loved to call gamers entitled recently with the Mass Effect 3 ending fiasco but this is a pure, golden example of someone who is entitled.

On a side note, I love how you're trying to predict how the Wii U is going to be drastically behind the next generation from Sony and Microsoft when they haven't announced shit at all. With how much money Sony has lost between the PS3 and how poorly the Vita is doing already, I wouldn't expect a PS4 to be on the cutting edge of technology next generation. Microsoft will probably only care enough to match Sony since that's their closest competition.
 

MisterHero

Super Member
I finished this game on dolphin because i cant bear with shitty blur quality in my wii. Not convince with the entire article but somehow get his feeling. Nintendo hardware these days is a bit too low tech. I know they no longer selling cutting edge machine or make a lost from hardware. But its a bit too much giving us 10 years ago hardware. Even apple dont do this.
I might be wrong but aren't the Dolphin pics taken at a higher fidelity (resolution/anti-aliasing) than what PS360 are generally capable of while maintaining a respectable framerate?
 

Fantastical

Death Prophet
That's fine and I look forward to it but that shouldn't mean that people cant express there feelings about how awesome it would have been to have a full HD version of xenoblade. It doesn't need to be taken as a anti nintendo thing, its simply wishful thinking which is perfectly healthy.

What does "oh man I wish Nintendo would have put out an HD console six years ago" accomplish? This argument is so old. Who doesn't feel like this would have been better as an HD game and who hasn't wished that Nintendo would have put out an HD console? I just don't get the point of this article, especially when Wii U is about half a year away.
 

Shion

Member
I’m asking, no, I’m begging you, Nintendo. Cut those shackles. Let Mario, let Link, let our beloved heroes of youth soar like we know they can. Let us visit the worlds they deserve to inhabit.
I fully agree with this.
 
It's by far one of the ugliest games I've seen this gen. On my 40" HDTV it's just disgusting to look at. Absolutely horrid.

My girlfriend sunk over 100 hours in to it and seemed to love it, though. Just felt like chiming in that every time I looked over at her playing it I was shocked with how bad it looked :p
 

Haunted

Member
I agree with the general point.

I had to switch to Dolphin for the Wii's last big titles. Not because I couldn't take it, but because I think the games deserved better.


So...Game Informer, a magazine run by Gamestop, is bashing a game sold in the US exclusively through...Gamestop. Huh.
Well, it's good that he's honest, no? :) I rather read his actual opinion than PR fluff because he's working for the company who sells the game.
 
What does "oh man I wish Nintendo would have put out an HD console six years ago" accomplish? This argument is so old. Who doesn't feel like this would have been better as an HD game and who hasn't wished that Nintendo would have put out an HD console? I just don't get the point of this article, especially when Wii U is about half a year away.

It doesn't read like he is trying to convince anyone to me. Simply venting his personal frustrations, could it have been written better to not elicit the kind of responses its getting? Certainly but I don't get the impression that he would go back and not play the game now that he has played it on wii.

Not every article needs some greater purpose to convey, sometimes people are allowed to simply ramble in text form.
 

FStop7

Banned
Shouldn't Game Informer be busy on Twitter teasing the NEXT HOT EXCLUSIVE REVEAL I SWEAR TO GOD YOU'LL SHIT AND CUM SIMULTANEOUSLY
 

Jhoan

Member
While I disagree with him, I'll admit after playing Red Dead Redemption (360; HDMI) and then starting Xenoblade(on a 32 inch 720p LCD with composite cables), my first impression was "Holy crap! So many jaggies!" It was the first Wii game I'd bought in several months so I'd forgotten what a Wii game looked like. But then I began to play it, my eyes adjusted; visually speaking, it's a fantastic game with gorgeous environments, but the textures are bad. A good game is still a good game nice visuals or not; see Deadly Premonition for proof.

I recently ordered some component cables for dirt cheap so hopefully it should look slightly better (I can't afford a high end PC for Dolphin despite the game looking 10x better on a PC). Then again, I can just as easily pop in a Gamecube game or play a PS2 game and still enjoy it.
 

Paracelsus

Member
I might be wrong but aren't the Dolphin pics taken at a higher fidelity (resolution/anti-aliasing) than what PS360 are generally capable of while maintaining a respectable framerate?

If you sold Xenoblade with the visual fidelity it has on PC it could pass for a AAA Jrpg on PS360 hands down, it actually is leagues better than Graces F and not so far away from what the big dogs in the yard published (FF/SO/RoF etc.).
 

Haunted

Member
I mean, you want your daughter to wear her cutest dress to the prom. You still love her even if she wears a garbage sack and a paper bag, but you'd simply want her to look the best she possibly can, it's natural.


True. It just kinda comes across as biting the hand that feeds.
Well, as long as he's biting Gamestop's and Game Informer's, I'm not about to criticise him for that. :p
 

Levyne

Banned
I mean, you want your daughter to wear her cutest dress to the prom. You still love her even if she wears a garbage sack and a paper bag, but you'd simply want her to look the best she possibly can, it's natural.

It's not like MonolithSoft had another...dress in the closet.
 

Gravijah

Member
I mean, you want your daughter to wear her cutest dress to the prom. You still love her even if she wears a garbage sack and a paper bag, but you'd simply want her to look the best she possibly can, it's natural.

i enjoy graphics more because of the art style pushing them than anything technical.
 

Aeana

Member
They still do, they just want higher quality visuals, I personally think Wii is capable of more than Xenoblade showed. It's not one or the other.

With that kind of scale? I'm not so sure. It's funny, though, as I played through Xenoblade, I kept thinking, "man, remember when console games had stable framerates and didn't give me motion sickness?" and that impressed me way more than a lot of HD console games!
 
i enjoy graphics more because of the art style pushing them than anything technical.

It doesn't need to be one or the other though and that's where the frustrations kick in. It doesn't really mean anything beyond being so happy with the game you can't help but imagine the possibilities.
 

Hiltz

Member
Aside from the fact that there are quite a few games that run in near-SD resolutions (like 540p and 600p etc) on the HD consoles, at the time of release of the Wii HD penetration was far far lower. In retrospect, despite the only-normal length (5-6 years, instead of the extended 7-8 year) console cycle the Wii enjoyed and its sub-par third party support it was absolutely the right move.

This is a recent article discussing Nintendo's tech strategy according to Ted Pollak, Jon Peddie Research senior gaming analyst.

http://www.nintendo-universe.co.uk/...nology-strategy-that-most-people-dont-detect/


Warren Spector talks about the scariness of rising development costs for next-gen in this new interview.

http://www.digitalspy.com/gaming/ne...d-about-cost-of-next-generation-consoles.html

Back in July 2009, Mark Rein stated the following from a EuroGamer interview: "Over half the users who played Gears of War 2 so far do not have HDTVs.My point is, of the systems that are out there now, the majority of them aren't plugged into HDTVs. So there's no way we're ready for the PlayStation 4 or the Xbox whatever."

note: Gears of War 2 had already sold 5 million copies as of May 2009.
 

Penguin

Member
Nintendo owns the developer group who made Baten Kaitos which were pretty games as well, so whatever they'd made would've been on Nintendo hardware.

That's not what I meant exactly.
I meant.. would Nintendo have greenlit a game like this if it was on more expensive hardware.. or would Monolithsoft have made this game.. maybe would have focused their energy elsewhere.

I guess, if you take the Wii out of the equation, it becomes a whole new ball game
 
wut



That's actually an article, and not a youtube comment? That's...eh... wut.


Aside from how questionable and professional this "article" is, the idea that SMG1/2 are "kitsch" games is just insulting.
 

Gravijah

Member
And I think we both enjoy it the most if both of these come together.

I enjoyed myself tremendously with Xenoblade. I enjoyed myself even more when I switched to Xenoblade running on Dolphin for the last 20 hours of the game or so.

maybe, but honestly, after having a 1080p monitor for a year now, i could probably go back to an sdtv without much fuss. so i'm not exactly the best judge.
 

LeleSocho

Banned
The article is bad written and seems like a 16 years old boy rant but he is right...
I mean i don't mind graphical differences when they are more or less on the same level like Dreamcast vs Xbox but when the game needs graphical power like a jrpg seeing something beautiful as Xenoblade when you have systems capable of doing so much better you see the game as fucking waste... that's why i haven't bought the game (but i've played it for a short amount of time) because i can't enjoy and immedesimate in this game when i walked into artistically worse but incredibly better realized ambientation...


And please don't see this like a "A game can't be good without graphics" comment because it isn't (a lot of good games doesn't have cutting edge graphics) but some games just need good graphics regardless the quality of other aspects such as gameplay, story or sound and Nintendo obviously can't provide this experience.



And no not even Dolphin saves the game it needed next gen assets not only polishment.
 

Seda

Member
wut



That's actually an article, and not a youtube comment? That's...eh... wut.


Aside from how questionable and professional this "article" is, the idea that SMG1/2 are "kitsch" games is just insulting.

It's an opinion piece from a guest writer. That's all it is.
 

StevieP

Banned
What the hell. These are concept arts not dolphin shots

Yeah, concept art always tends to have extremely low resolution wood textures and your standard misaligned Dolphin bloom.

As I stated, those are Dolphin shots (at a very high resolution) with character art put in place of the (low-poly, jaggy) character models intended for PC wallpaper use. There is no doubt those have been through photoshop, but they are in-game shots/locations in Dolphin.
 

Error

Jealous of the Glory that is Johnny Depp
Game Informer to me is not even a mag, is more like one big collection of ads publishers pay to get their games on.

Also gaming journalism :lol such a joke people get paid to spew drivel like that.
 
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