Support NeoGAF

[OmegaDragon]

http://cubemedia.ign.com/cube/image/article/636/636826/metroid-prime-3-20050726031048172.jpg[/img]

Am I the only one who doesn't like the fact that you can see Samus' face through her visor?

That isn't particularly new. In the other Prime games you could see her face too in various cutscenes.

 

[Halcyon-banned]

One thing to remember about Metroid Prime 3 is that in a world where (often unstable) 30FPS is the standard for even what we call "next generation graphics", Retro is aiming for a smooth 60FPS

 

[Scrow]

That isn't particularly new. In the other Prime games you could see her face too in various cutscenes.

wasn't really a fan of showing her face in those games either.

think about newcomers to the franchise. lets say MP3 is their very first metroid game ever, and they've never heard about the series before hand. imagine their suprise at the end of the game when samus takes off her helmet and the player realises they've being playing as a woman the whole time. it'd be quite memorable i think, much like it was for people playing the NES game all those years ago.

will there be a huge number of people that benefit from this small change to samus' visor? no, not really, but then what's the negative of not showing her face throughout the game anyway? People who know the franchise already know anyway.

 

[SumGamer]

AMN: When are you guys aiming to have it out?

Bryan: It is a launch title.

AMN: So, in October?

Bryan gestures to Mr. Tanabe

Mr. Tanabe: I’m sorry but that’s a secret. (laughter)

Nice try!!

AMN: One of the staples of the Prime series were the morph-ball puzzles…and we’re wondering how that’s grown from Echoes, especially with the new controller aspect?

Mark I think that…it’s funny because in Prime 2 we got feedback both ways on that, some fans were ‘too much morph-ball’ and some were “hey this is great”, so I think in Prime 3 we have a really good balance between the two. I think the morph-ball plays a good, important role in the game and we’re still experimenting with ideas on what we can do with the Wii controller with the morph-ball. So I definitely think it’s something to look forward to and we’re ensuring that the game is well-based with morph-ball puzzles.

I like morph-ball puzzles but sometime it just get annoying to had to turn into morphball and back to biped again and morph.... Ugh..

I was hoping they had the variety in weapon like in Hunters. When it come to first person style, I want to be able to try as many weapon as I can at the prey to see which one work best against them.

+1 at launch.

P.S. Retro please don't forget to put portal into the game, 15 minuts walking back to some place is killing me

 

[Screenboy]

I WANT SKY SCRAPER SIZED KRAID

 

[ziran]

i agree with what many have already said, one of the reasons mp3 looks less impressive than expected is because the original mp games looked so great. i'm still amazed at how beautiful prime 1 looks today.

interestingly one of the guys in egm's podcast said he saw halo 3 behind closed doors at e3 but it wasn't as visually impressive as he expected, but he noted one of the reasons for this was because bungie did such a great job on halo 2. obviously there's a bigger jump between 360 and xbox than gc - wii, but i think much of this principle is the same here.

retro is one of my favourite developers, so i can't wait to play prime 3, it looks and sounds awesome!

 

[Gahiggidy]

AMN: When are you guys aiming to have it out?

Bryan: It is a launch title.

AMN: So, in October?

Bryan gestures to Mr. Tanabe

Mr. Tanabe: I’m sorry but that’s a secret. (laughter)

They should've tried harder. This is how I would've done it...

AGN: When are you guys aiming to have it out?

Bryan: It is a launch title.

AGN: So, next Tuesday?

Bryan: No, at launch. Its for Wii.

AGN: Wednesday?

Bryan: Nope. (laughter)

AGN: Thursday?

Bryan: ....

AGN: So, I'll take that as a yes??

Bryan: ....

AGN: Yes, then Thursday, May 18th it is.

Bryan gestures to Mr. Tanabe

Mr. Tanabe: I’m sorry but we're leaving now.

AGN: Thankyou for your time. Our readers will sure be excited about the news of the early Wii launch date!

That's how you get scoops, folks.

 

[OmegaDragon]

I was hoping they had the variety in weapon like in Hunters. When it come to first person style, I want to be able to try as many weapon as I can at the prey to see which one work best against them.

Well, since the 'new' beams are supposed to be stackable, thus upgrading the power beam, I think we'll only have the power beam and missiles as projectile weapons. Maybe the missiles will get upgraded like the powerbeam.

And Screenboy, thanks for that Kraid pic. I have been searching for a good one for a long time

 

[Emotions]

The worst part about all this all that DK was one of the few franchises that they kept in-house and the best they've put out was a mediocre drum game. DK is probably the one that suffered the biggest decline from previous gen. to this current one. Even Starfox Adventures went to nearly 2 million.

DK : JB is mediocre according to your levels? wow i can't even think what you consider good regarding to Nintendo, since i see you complaining in every Nintendo thread, about every Nintendo game. DK:JB is no way a mediocre game, it's one of the best console platformers this gen. IMO.

 

[Adagio]

That isn't particularly new. In the other Prime games you could see her face too in various cutscenes.

Opaque that shit up again, Retro!

 

[Emotions]

Graphics will get better, they have 6 months to work on them, quite a lot.

 

[mr_sockochris]

The graphics look great in some of the better quality videos I've seen. Screens don't do the game justice as I've yet to see one decent capture, every screenshot seems to be stupidly blurry and lacking colour as if they were captures through a bloody RF cable :\

 

[∀ Narayan]

Am I the only one who doesn't like the fact that you can see Samus' face through her visor?

I just don't like the fact that she looks like a man.

Anyway, I thought the E3 presentation looked fine. It's the Wiimote functionality that I'm more concerned about. I really hope they improve on it.

 

[Scrow]

I just don't like the fact that she looks like a man.

you must hang out with metrosexual guys

 

[Dragona Akehi]

AMN: Will the Wii output Dolby Digital, or is it Pro-Logic II?

Bryan: Dolby Digital… No I take it back! (asks Mr. Tanabe to clarify)

Mr. Tanabe and his translator don’t address the camera in their answer, but the final word from them was they were simply not sure about those technical details.

IF this is true, then Retro has actually done something right. There's actually a chance of a fibre optic out (which makes no sense to leave one out due to the DVD playing capabilities, but this is Nintendo)...

Pro Logic II is a joke these days. Seriously.

 

[Xellotah]

As long as it still runs at 60fps then I'm fine with the graphics....

... oh, and more organic levels please.

 

[∀ Narayan]

you must hang out with metrosexual guys

Not. . . Really.

 

[Robobandit]

IF this is true, then Retro has actually done something right. There's actually a chance of a fibre optic out (which makes no sense to leave one out due to the DVD playing capabilities, but this is Nintendo)...

Pro Logic II is a joke these days. Seriously.

5.1 is a joke these days.. compared to 7.1 :lol

Anyway, Dolby would be nice.. but I still don't have a receiver that would decode it, so it isn't an issue for me. I still play with 2.0 sound on a normal tv ::shrug::

 

[Phobophile]

making a Barbie game for the Nokia N-Gage

OMG *busts out credit card*

 

[Gahiggidy]

5.1 is a joke these days.. compared to 7.1 :lol

Anyway, Dolby would be nice.. but I still don't have a receiver that would decode it, so it isn't an issue for me. I still play with 2.0 sound on a normal tv ::shrug::

You'll at least get 2.1 with the WiiMote speaker. Maybey 2.2 with some dual-WiiMote games.

 

[JavyOO7]

for those of you bitching that they must make a new IP, there is a chance that they will suck ass when making a new game.

Retro isn't exactly devoid in talent, I reckon.

 

[OmegaDragon]

http://cubemedia.ign.com/cube/image/metroidprimebroll_052902_11.jpg[/img]

Opaque that shit up again, Retro!

It looks like it's becoming more visible

 

[SantaC]

If anything, Metroid is holding Retro back. Metroid just never is going to be a massive mainstream franchise ... it's too slow paced and moody for the masses. I think Nintendo mistakenly thought on the GameCube that Metroid could somehow replace GoldenEye. It just isn't that type of a game.

so you think a totally new IP will be more mainstream than Metroid? The reason why Metroid didn't sell GTA or Halo numbers are because the gamecube wasn't mainstream. Not Metroid's fault at all.

I enjoy the Metroid games by Retro, and I think they're a great developer these days, and I don't really agree that they HAVE to make new ips. They should just ditch the Prime name and take Samus to a 3rd person Metroid.

Retro isn't exactly devoid in talent, I reckon.

They have great talent, and as I said I enjoy their Metroid games. I'd just wish to see a 3rd person metroid.

Spoiler

Don't hate me anihawk

If Retro is making a new IP, I want to see them making a RPG since Nintendo consoles lack RPGs. And not nessicery Raven Blade.

 

[Pixarfan]

I just want to see something else aside from Metroid... I've played this game... I want their talent to be used in cool new ways. Let the DS team work on Prime 3

 

[Emotions]

If Retro is making a new IP, I want to see them making a RPG since Nintendo consoles lack RPGs. And not nessicery Raven Blade.

They need to get Japanese companies to do RPG's for them, the Japanese market is big for Rpg's, they have gotten quite a few rpg's for GBA and there's more RPG's coming for the DS, they should try to do that for their consoles too.

 

[Aurora]

If Retro is making a new IP, I want to see them making a RPG since Nintendo consoles lack RPGs.

Yes! We need more Nintendo RPG goodness for sure.

 

[Emotions]

Yes! We need more Nintendo RPG goodness for sure.

More 3rd parties rpg's will help too, the RPG market is big in Japan.
Nintendo has done a lot of partnerships to develop GBA & DS games, the same should apply for the Wii this time, hopefully.

 

[OmegaDragon]

so you think a totally new IP will be more mainstream than Metroid? The reason why Metroid didn't sell GTA or Halo numbers are because the gamecube wasn't mainstream. Not Metroid's fault at all.

No. Blaming the lack of mass appeal solely on the Cube lack of mass appeal is just wrong. The Prime games just don't have the general appeal GTA and Halo have, because of that they are as a game.

 

[SantaC]

No. Blaming the lack of mass appeal solely on the Cube lack of mass appeal is just wrong. The Prime games just don't have the general appeal GTA and Halo have, because of that they are as a game.

but still, it's not like the Prime games had sold badly.

anyway, I think the graphics in MP3:C is actually better than I first thought. When you watch the HD footage, you really see how improved it is.

 

[Scrow]

If Retro is making a new IP, I want to see them making a RPG since Nintendo consoles lack RPGs. And not nessicery Raven Blade.

most of the talent at Retro have experience in the FPS genre. I don't know that they'd necessarily make a good RPG. Most if not all the Raven Blade team were laid off.

 

[Gahiggidy]

but still, it's not like the Prime games had sold badly.

anyway, I think the graphics in MP3:C is actually better than I first thought. When you watch the HD footage, you really see how improved it is.

I've seen the exact same HD footage you are talking about, but honestly see little to no improvement. Most everything is modled with as few polygons as possible as was done with the first two primes. There does seem to be a little bit more going on, bigger rooms, but its not like the GCN would chug on this geometry.

 

[SantaC]

most of the talent at Retro have experience in the FPS genre. I don't know that they'd necessarily make a good RPG. Most if not all the Raven Blade team were laid off.

so you mean everyone wants to see them making a fps? :|

I'd rather see something else. They're talented enough to make something totally different.

 

[Y2Kev]

I agree with dark10x pretty much. I want them to minimize the shooting, but it looks like it will become a feature of the game with the remote being highlighted in this version.

I'm sure it'll be good, but I think Prime 1 is going to be my favorite still, if not only because of the amazing newness of that game.

 

[Timbuktu]

I'd like to see a new IP or they can just do a swap, let EAD do a take on Metroid and Retro can have their Zelda, but franchise will need a Galaxy-like refresh after MP3 and TP.

 

[Mashing]

They need to get Japanese companies to do RPG's for them, the Japanese market is big for Rpg's, they have gotten quite a few rpg's for GBA and there's more RPG's coming for the DS, they should try to do that for their consoles too.

It blows my mind they have Camelot doing mario sports games when Golden Sun sold a million on GBA (in the US alone I believe) and they haven't even tried to make a console Golden Sun game.

 

[SantaC]

I've seen the exact same HD footage you are talking about, but honestly see little to no improvement. Most everything is modled with as few polygons as possible as was done with the first two primes. There does seem to be a little bit more going on, bigger rooms, but its not like the GCN would chug on this geometry.

uhh where is that impressive MP3:C picture! I can't find it

It blows my mind they have Camelot doing mario sports games when Golden Sun sold a million on GBA (in the US alone I believe) and they haven't even tried to make a console Golden Sun game.

yeah where is my golden sun 3 dammit

 

[Emotions]

uhh where is that impressive MP3:C picture! I can't find it



yeah where is my golden sun 3 dammit

We'll get Golden Sun 3 for the DS probably.
Mario Sports are quite good specially for Multiplayer, they're big sellers too. And the GBA versions have these neat RPG elements.

 

[Adagio]

I've seen the exact same HD footage you are talking about, but honestly see little to no improvement. Most everything is modled with as few polygons as possible as was done with the first two primes. There does seem to be a little bit more going on, bigger rooms, but its not like the GCN would chug on this geometry.

Squint.

There. All better.

Now quit yer bitchin'.

...oh...wait...

 

[ant1532]

how crasy would it be if in one part of the game you dont have your suit? (zero samus)

 

[Scrow]

There does seem to be a little bit more going on, bigger rooms, but its not like the GCN would chug on this geometry.

but you really have absolutely no idea one way or the other. :lol

They're talented enough to make something totally different.

weren't you saying something else earlier?

 

[Deleted member 284]

IF this is true, then Retro has actually done something right. There's actually a chance of a fibre optic out (which makes no sense to leave one out due to the DVD playing capabilities, but this is Nintendo)...

Pro Logic II is a joke these days. Seriously.

Heh, they likely meant through five wiimotes

 

[PhoenixDark]

I hate the fact that this is a launch title.

When I first saw the game at Nintendo's press conference, I was extremely disappointed. The first videos from the show floor were underwhelming as well, but once I saw IGN's video I gained more hope. It will look and play much better at launch obviously.

But I can't help but feel that this game is being rushed. Delaying this until March or so seems like a much better idea to me. I didn't get the impression that the game looks better than the other Prime games. In fact, there were some things that looked much worse; for instance, the doors look very bad imo.

Delaying the game won't hurt at all.

 

[Ark-AMN]

how crasy would it be if in one part of the game you dont have your suit? (zero samus)

AMN: Just very recently – last night – Nintendo released the trailer for Super Smash Bros: Brawl, and Samus was featured there and was carrying a nifty Beam-type ‘lightsaber’. Is this a possible look into something in Corruption?

Mr. Tanabe: That was “Zero Suit Samus” and it is kind of a different character than Prime Samus. Zero Suit Samus in Smash Bros. uses a variation of her grappling beam as what you were referring to as a laser beam. Although in Prime 3 we use the grappling beam in more ways than ever before.

Not a direct answer to your question, but I thought it was somewhat related. I probably should have followed up on that question with a more direct "Is Zero Suit Samus in the game?", but of course I doubt they would have answered that.

Despite that, it was very hard, even though I was sitting right next to her, to understand her because of her soft voice.

 

[Chittagong]

AMN: There have been some critics online who say; maybe 'uneducatedly' that Prime Corruption doesn't really improve on anything graphically from Prime Echoes or Prime 1, and some even go so far as to say it looks even worse than Prime 2. What is it on the Wii that you have been able to accomplish graphically that you were unable to on the GameCube?

Bryan: Wii is a more powerful platform than the GameCube and we have taken advantage of that. Bloom lighting for instance, higher poly-detail and higher texture-detail, but that's not the core of the Prime experience, we have also added some other improvements like animation systems and so forth, artificial intelligence has also been improved. A lot of both visible and under-the-table improvements have gone into Prime 3 to take advantage of the extra horsepower.

Wii = next generation CONFIRMED!!

 

[Duckhuntdog]

Total bullshit.

You realize 90% of programmers/artists work at dev studios that have 1/10th the funding that Retro gets, no where close to the facilities that Retro has, and probably also have lower pay?

If I'm a programmer, I don't give a fuck about the hardware, first thing I want to know is how much I'm getting paid and what the work environment is like.

Actually Gah is correct. Retro has been having a VERY difficult time getting programmers to jump on board because of the Wii specs. Retro also is having a difficult time retaining the coders that are already there.

 

[Gahiggidy]

Hey, my peeps... please don't overlook this:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=3457848&postcount=107

 

[Kuramu]

i've been waiting for someone else to ask what Boom Lighting is and what makes it so special. Well then, could someone ask so i can hear the answer?

 

[PhoenixDark]

Actually Gah is correct. Retro has been having a VERY difficult time getting programmers to jump on board because of the Wii specs. Retro also is having a difficult time retaining the coders that are already there.

How do you know this? Are you both in the industry or something?

It sounds logical, but I still need confirmation

 

[Ark-AMN]

Though I'm partial to our interview, I have to give PGC props in their interview for asking some extremely good questions and getting some great info out of the Retro guys that makes my anticipation for this game skyrocket:

PGC: When you talked about moving to different planets, is that completely linear and decided by the story, or can you go from planet to planet at will?

Pacini: It's kind of like how the Metroid Prime series is, it's pretty non-linear to some extent. The ability to fly to different planets will be somewhat non-linear. So it's not just straight-up "go to this one, go to that one". It won't be like that.

PGC: What is the feedback that you got on the last game, and how has that affected what you're doing with the sequel?

Tanabe: Because we live in Japan, and they are in the U.S., it's hard to say, because we get different kind of feedback from Japanese fans and U.S. fans. So it may be better to ask them to hear the market feedback.

Pacini: As far as the U.S. market, the feedback that we've gotten about the past two games is that "re-traversal" (backtracking) is a very important part of the Metroid series, but maybe the amount of re-traversal that people had to do was maybe excessive, or not as straight-forward. So we really paid attention to that while still maintaining the true Metroid exploration, the Metroid Prime feel. We're definitely addressing that situation, making the re-traversal a lot more approachable, as well as the difficulty level of the game overall. It was probably a bit too hard for people, and while we're still going to make it challenging, we are definitely keeping that in mind when we're tuning the game, as far as boss difficulty and overall difficulty. Make sure that it's balanced well for a Wii product but also for people who enjoyed the Metroid Prime games before. So those are probably the two biggest pieces of feedback we've had.

PGC: We saw that you used the motion sensor to grab and pull a lock. Do you have a lot of other ideas like that you're putting in? Can you give any examples right now?

Pacini: I don’t want to give any other examples. (laughter) With the E3 demo, we wanted to give a glimpse of what we're doing. That's one of the very basic things you can do with the controller, and we wanted to get people's impressions of what things they liked and didn't like about it. And we have so many other ideas that we're planning to implement with using the unique features of the controllers. It's important to understand what people think about it, but as well I don't want to say too much about it.

PGC: Is Retro working on anything other than Metroid right now? Do you have any plans to work on anything other than Metroid?

Walker: We won't close when Metroid Prime 3 ships. (laughter)

Pacini: What would you like to see Retro do? Any ideas?

PGC: You guys seem so creative. I'd just kind of like to see what you come up with.

Walker: To that effect, I'd like to point out that the Metroid series is really a collaborative effort between Retro and Mr. Tanabe's team. I think here in the States it's easy to look just at the North American aspect, but it's a very closely coordinated team effort.

PGC: I promised one of our readers that I would ask if you knew anything about this game, it was hinted at last year, called Metroid Dread for the DS.

Tanabe: I also heard that rumor, that Mr. Yoshio Sakamoto, the original director of the Metroid series, is working on this game called Metroid Dread, but I am not sure if it is true or not.

PGC: Is Mr. Sakamoto involved in the Metroid Prime series? Does he give advice?

Tanabe: Well, because he is the original director of the series, he needs to supervise Samus in Metroid Prime.

PGC: Referring to the powers that were in previous games… The Grapple Beam is a power that we've had before, but now we're using it in different ways. Can you tell us about any other of the abilities that are maybe not fundamentally changed, but now you can do more things with them?

Pacini: One of the things that we're doing is, well, the X-ray visor will be used in Prime 3. In Prime 1 it was mainly used to see through objects or find invisible objects. Well, that still would be the case, but we're matching that visor with a particular beam you get that can actually shoot through materials. So now you would have certain puzzle elements or even creatures where you can flip your X-ray visor on and target behind metal objects or walls and shoot or destroy or interact with this beam. So instead of being two independent systems, they work together. That's a basic example.

PGC: Is the scan visor pretty much the same as before?

Pacini: That's one of the things that we've put a lot of research into, what works and what doesn’t work, what people like and don’t like about the scan visor. We still feel the scan visor is important as a tool to learn about how to do things in the environment, things like that. But also we're making it a lot quicker and easier to use for people who don’t like scanning. Other than that, the scan visor is going to stay similar in aspect to past games.

And for the record. Bryan and Mark are two of the most awesome people I've ever met (though I've known Bryan for longer) and it's great to see how much they enjoy their work. Mr. Tanabe was cool too, I just wish I could understand him without a translator.

 

[GuessWho]

im so dissapointed in the graphics departement of the wii, can anyone imagine how good Metroid would of looked using the unreal engine.