The Damned

You're forgetting a few important details. First, you can use Vitamins (you know, Carbos, Iron and the rest of those items) to get up to 100 EVs, so that's just quicker. Not necessarily cheaper, but once you've gone through the game, you've likely ended up with a pretty hefty amount of money. Second, most pokémon give out more than one type of EV. Some give out 1 for Attack and 1 for Speed, for instance. Make sure you're battling the right ones. Unless you're using the Power items, then they will convert EVs over. Only a problem if you're using the Macho Brace. Also, all the Power items and th Macho Brace half your speed, so when training, make sure that you aren't setting yourself up for a battle you can't win if your pokémon is supposed to be faster. It happens sometimes.

Wow... most of those were underwhelming as hell. Sure, Mario, Link, Samus (non Zero Suit) and a few of the others were pretty spectacular, but everything else was... just... plain. I wasn't even sure if those were Final Smashes except for the video being labelled as such, and the shimmer around the characters. And I swear I just saw Luigi use Za Worldo on Mario... except it was more hippy smoking drugs than freezing time. Za Druggo?

That's... that's just creepy. In a "it's going to latch onto my face and never let go" kind of way.

An update on the whole "90% are pirating games in the US" thing... it seems that someone misquoted someone else. It's supposed to be 90% of DS games in Singapore are pirated. Smaller population, higher black market and pirated goods infrastructure... yeah, that seems a lot more likely. http://kotaku.com/351725/elspa-denies-saying-90-of-americans-pirate-ds Shitty research and misquoting... nice.

I've never really been into the Smash Bros games... I know, I know... "get out! NOW!" But this one looks kind of interesting. The Subspace Emissary mode looks like it could be fun. I wonder if they will make enough copies for me to just go in and pick up without a reservation.

Oh god, more of that, please.

So, the history of the Wii and the PS3 has been... repetitive, to say the least. Nintendo comes out with a motion controller, Sony says it's a gimmick, then throws one in at the last moment. Nintendo put rumble on their controller, Sony says it's last gen and no one wants it... then quickly puts it in theirs. Now, even though he wasn't a Nintendo employee, some guy figured out a way to use the Wiimote as a VR tracking system (you've all seen it by now, just go back a few pages). Now, I don't know what Sony thought of this, but one of their programmers just turned the EyeToy camera into... a VR tracking system. OK, so it was a tracking system before when it came out for the PS2, but this is different enough to warrant a mention. It uses the exact same system as the Wii setup. http://kotaku.com/351539/vr-head-tracking-for-the-ps3 Being from Sony's programming division, it's pretty much official. They've even put it up for download for people to play around with. Man, Sony just loves copying Nintendo. On a side note, now that two of the three consoles have the making for a basic one-player VR game, how long until we start seeing games that make use of this? Maybe a separate add-on that comes with the glasses, packed in with a new game?

Sony programmer does something that is impossible on Gamecube 1.5 (or the Wii, if you want) and has never been done before by anyone ever! http://kotaku.com/351539/vr-head-tracking-for-the-ps3

So, how many of you own an R4? According to one guy, at least fifty or so people that posted in this thread should answer "yes" (that's a rough estimate, don't go using math to point out the exact number). http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=181131 Now, assuming that there are about 30 million DSs and DS Lites out there in North America (Wikipedia only lists "the Americas", meaning it includes South America in as well...), that would mean that the company that makes the R4 has sold about 25 million of the things. That's pretty damn good for something that I never even heard of until recently. I'm pretty up on DS stuff, being a giant fan of the handheld, and while I've looked into homebrew a little, I don't think I've run across any real mention of the device in question. So, really shitty research, poorly done surveying, or just pulling numbers out of their asses?

1. Make phone calls that confuse the hell out of people. 2. ??? 3. Profit.

No mail? What the fuck kind of school do you go to? As for doubles, the general rule is that stat buffs and status changes aren't going to get you very far. It's all about hitting hard and fast. Seeing a team of Exploders is common. All they do is have one pokemon with Focus Sash (watch out for the occasional FEAR) or Protect, or a Ghost type (making it immune to Explosion) and the rest blow themselves up on your team. Even if you only take half damage, you're still in a world of hurt. Meanwhile, the immune pokemon is hitting you with its attacks, wearing down or finishing off whatever the kamikazes didn't wipe out. It's a mostly effective strategy, but it relies too much on the other guy not having anything that can resist Explosion or is immune to it, or has the Dampen ability (prevents Explosion from being used in battle). But since most people hardly ever do double battles, it will catch most players off guard. EQ is popular in Doubles as well. Having a Flying type is obvious, but Special Attackers packing Ice Beam or Thunder/TBolt are everywhere, not to mention all those Rock Sliders. A Levitator (like Flygon) resists Rock attacks and only has two real weaknesses: Ice and Dragon. Ice is going to be everywhere, so you can't avoid it, but Dragon isn't that common. Also, watch out for Jumpluff. Yeah, you don't remember that one? Look it up. It's insanely fast and almost always carries Sleep Powder. Although I said that status changes aren't going to get you far, Jumpluff has been known to outrace sweepers and put them to sleep in the first round. Then it's either they switch it out or leave it in. If they switch out, you can get an extra attack on the other poke or on the switch-in. Then you've got one damaged and one asleep. I'd recommend hitting up Smogon for this sort of stuff. They have far better and more detailed analysis of the metagame, even the somewhat obscure Doubles area.

If you want, you can have the WiFi adapter, and then you can just use that. It's fine enough for anything the DS will encounter, and you don't have to worry about other people trying to leech your signal, since it's pretty much meant (normally) for DS and Wii wireless. And even then, it's just a simple mouse click to allow or boot someone from it. Oh, and uhm... Cureselax has no weak. Evar!

What version of Windows are you running? Because I have a Nintendo WiFi USB Adapter that I never use. You just plug it into your computer, and it handles the DS's internet stuff all on it's own.

Is... is that the fucking mole guy from Animal Crossing?

So, when Nintendo whipped up this whole Wiimote thing, did they explore any of these ideas? Did they try it out on different things and in different ways to see what they could do with the system? Because, if one guy can figure this stuff out, then at least a few of the people that actually designed and made the thing should have come across at least one of the same uses. +1 vote for use of this in a Wii game.

I can see the Ranger games being sort of like the anime. The pokémon wander around with you, you can use their attacks to alter the environment (more so than the HMs in the main series) and it seems to have a more developed story. I would like to see some of the aspects from Ranger brought over to the core games in the future. Like if I have to get though a cave and there are vines blocking te enrance, I'd like to have more options than just "Cut". I want to be able to burn the vines away, or have a Grass-type do something that makes them move. Or a Flying type do something. Come on, Gamefreak, use your imagination a little more.

I'm thinking that they either have really kick-ass ideas and new units for the Zerg, and don't want to spoil it for everyone... or they haven't finished working on the Zerg side yet.

You don't have to resign to quit. You can force them to fire you. It's the same in the end. But it's a moot point; not because of what you said, but because whether it was planned or not, it's over and we'll never really know now. Looks like someone got a word-a-day calender for christmas. And it's a Chinese knock-off to boot! Googling "balderdashidiocy" gets you exactly one result, and it's this thread. Any way, my point is that I don't think Gertsmann was really a victim here, and I don't really think the outcry on his part was warranted. If someone else had been fired under the same circumstances, would anyone had really cared? He was a fairly big name at the site, so I have have to wonder how much of the whole backlash was just because he was "famous" enough to garner attention. Even so, it's game reviewing. It's as biased and bought-off as movie reviewing. People just don't know or don't care about it any more. If ever. I personally haven't bothered with reviews for books, movies or games for about five years, simply because I saw news reports about paid reviews and I could see it happening with each new movie. Which brings up another point; has anyone changed their opinions on reviews? Maybe switched sites or just gave them up entirely? How much of a fallout has the whole Gertsmann thing created in that regard? The problem with that level of thinking is that once you start getting into that level of deception, it's too easy for everything to fall about. It's like a conspiracy. The more people involved in it, the more likely it is someone will spill the beans. I could see one person (Gertsmann) thinking it through to this level, but for Gamespot to be the ones doing it is too big a stretch. It's just not plausible in comparison. And when you factor in that Gertsmann had a pretty good understanding of what would happen, and that Gamespot would lawyer themselves up right away and not comment on what was going on, it makes more sense. He knew that they would have to follow company policy, while he was free to do what he wanted to. His plan was more flexible for being a single person. His rules were the ones that he could follow or even make up on a whim. (please forgive any typos, I have one thumb bandaged up from an unfortunate incident with a hotel door's unexpectedly sharp edge, and I can't seem to type easily with it)

This has been mentioned a few times already, both in the Wii thread and the Incredible Internet Videos thread. and as much as I like the video, the idea itself, and the whole Wii/Nintendo thing in general, don't we have enough threads in general?

I think it's an interesting page in gaming and internet history, but as it's pretty much over and done with now, it's time to slip it into the big binder of angry nerd obsessions and put it back on the shelf for good. In related news, Jeff is going to start a new site with some other reviewers. And as a final note, I was thinking this when I read the article. What if Jeff knew how this would play out? He knew all the people at Gamespot and what they would do if he quit. He could just quietly plant the seeds of the story anywhere he wanted, and they would spread like weeds. It wasn't even a a day afterwards when half of the internet knew about this, and only a few more when mainstream media started picking up on it. And all the while, Jeff just sat back and watched the whole thing happen. Whether he wasn't allowed to speak or he just didn't feel the need to speak at all, his activity in the whole event was pretty much nil. Could he have anticipated things to well that he didn't need to do anything at all? Think about it: 1. He knows the people at Gamespot. He's been working with them for years, and he knows what kind of reaction he will get from a review. He might also know what kind of plan they have, should bad publicity start drawing attention to their marketing practices. They will shut up, and deny everything. And flat, general, repeated denials ill only make you look guilty as hell. 2. He thinks to himself, that he's got two possible outcomes: one, he makes a big name for himself, and he's as good as gold to the next employer. Just imagine the traffic you'd get for having THE Jeff Gertsmann on your staff! Such integrity! You can trust every review he writes! Hell, you can trust everything on this site! We have THE Jeff Gertsmann! Or two, he fucks it up, people lose respect for him, and after a while, he gets hired by someone else anyway. It's internet game review, not the NY Times. Maybe he gets a little bit of fame for the whole thing and that works to his advantage. Either way, he's got work afterwards. 3. He knows how people on the internet work. He knows what they will do when the very notion of him being fired for a negitive review hits the wind and we all get a whiff of it. Like blood in the water, we're instantly fixed on it and nothing short of an even bigger outrage will draw us away. 4.Knowing all this, he sees a game that he (rightly or otherwise) thinks isn't that good, and that the publishers have spent some serious money promoting on his site. It's a perfect opportunity. It's been hyped, there's traceable money flowing around, no one would take Gamespot's word over his... come on! Money-hungry site filled with ads versus a lone bastion of journalistic integrity? Who do you think the public is going to side with? I have to wonder, did Gertsmann plan this? Even a little bit? Maybe he had it all thought out from the beginning. Maybe he only thought about it after the review, which was legitimate. Maybe he didn't plan anything at all, and this is all a happy little coincidence. How can we be sure? But it's an interesting idea, don't you think?

I enjoyed most of Dementuim and Zelda Phantom Hourglass for DS. I never finihsed the former (stupid fucking boss) and I'm taking my time with the latter. I think the DS is my current system of choice there days.

Wasn't this in Off Topic just yesterday? Who keeps moving these things?

I bet most of you didn't even know who he was until he was the Joker in the new Batman movie. For shame, interwebs. For shame.

Bot. The various other posts made using this name across other sites are the same, and show no sign of activity afterwards. Don't we have a policy about killing bots on sight?

Yes please!