The Damned

Reports from various points around the US and Canada are that there were only 16 units for each store, and that they quickly sold all the "pre-order" slots. According to some, the way it works is that the deposit doesn't get you a system; it only gets you a spot in line when it arrives. So if you get a spot, and then somehow miss getting to the store when it goes n sale... well, you might be able to get yours on EBay for a few thousand bucks. I wonder if we'll have reports of muggings and shit like with the PS2. I suspect that people are stupid enough to try it. EDIT: Just when I thought the stupid things Sony says were done for now, they serve up a new shovelfull. That's just... wow.

Whoa, who said anything about the Wii? I think you did. I didn't say anything abouta nything, except for the PS3. That was perfectly on-topic. You're just trying to silence anything critical of Sony, you fanboy!

I wonder how much Sony is going to hype that their system sold out so quickly when it comes out... I mean, you have a market that would happily take a couple million units, but they only made and shipped about 400 000. "Yeah, we totally sold out in the first week. Let's see the other guys say that! HAH!" Is anyone else getting tired of the bullshit that Sony has been spewing the last couple of years?

Sure. After all, you can't get every poke from the DS games, so you have to transfer some over. And then you'll have items and pokes that you could really use.

Yeah, a Japanese PS3. That's all good for everyone over there. But the rest of the world still has to pay the full price. Unless there was a secret price cut announced, and no one was told. Now, this next part is not meant as a shot at Sony, or an attempt to start a flamewar, but it is a serious consideration. And a very valid one, I would think, for anyone buying a new console. Historically, Sony has had very poor customer support when it came to their video game systems. Who remembers when the PSP was shipping with an unusually high amount of dead/stuck pixels, and malfunctioning analog buttons? Or the various issues that the PS2 had? Or the overheating of the first generation PS1? And who remembers how Sony responded to these problems? I do. A relatively quick search reveals some unflattering reports. Anyone willing to do the research can see a pattern of hardware failure in their first few hardware versions. This is something that even the most loyal and diehard Sony booster can't deny. So if you get one right away, and it is dead out of the box, or dies shortly after you get it... what will you do? Sony has already said that there will only be a 100 000 units for Japan, and those are pretty much going to be gone by the end of the first day. And they reported several times that they were having trouble producing parts, so it's very possible that there won't be a lot of units after launch. Getting a replacement is going to be damn near impossible. So if your PS3 does develope problems shortly after you get it, what would you do? /ducks and covers

I would also consider getting one, but the cost right now is a little high. Not to mention that I don't have the time or interest to play as much as I used to. Most of my interest in games is very specific right now, limited to maybe four or so games. But from those four games, I get a lot of enjoyment from them. With the cost of the PS3, I honestly can not validate spending that much money on a system I might end up hardly playing at all. Unless I find several games that capture and maintain my interest in them, it's just not cost effective. I always buy stuff based upon how much use (and fun) I will get out of it compared to how much it will cost me. My Gameboy Advance worked out extremely well in my favor, but my Gamecube... not so much. I think that with the few games I got for it, combined with the amount I played them... I probably broke even, maybe a little in my favor. Unless the PS3 can match my GBA in that sense, I don't think I will get one anytime soon. Hell, even with PS2 being so cheap now, I still can't find anything on it that I want. And the PSP only has a few games I would like, but again, the cost is still pretty high just for two games I may end up never really playing much. And since I don't watch a lot of movies, using it as a DVD player (Blu-Ray or otherwise) isn't a big selling point for me. What few movies I do watch, I just use my computer for. Maybe in a few years, when the library of games is bigger and more varied... I don't know...

You know, the DS cases are almost perfectly sized to hold game cards. See for yourelf. Grab a DS case, and open it ip. Take all the stuff out. Now, slide a card underneath the little tabs on the left side of the left half. Place a few more to the right and a few down the side. It fits nine cards. If you could move the plastic ridge on the left over a bit (or even get rid of it altogether), you could fit nine in with enough room to be able to take them out. Repeat for the other side. That's eighteen games in one flat, durable container. If there was a case that did this, or even a decent mod, I'll use it. I expect my DS collection to grow enough in the next while to need something like that.

Wrong. I'm fully aware of the numerical difference between the US and Japan. The article I linked mentioned how SE was thinking of also bringing other Final Fantasy games, including 6 (the one with Terra, Locke, Sabin, Cyan and the delightfully evil Kefka), to the DS in the same fashion that they did 3.

OK, this is a little old, but I don't recall seeing it or hearing about it at all, so maybe it slipped under everyone's noses. FF6 was one of the first games I played when I ventured into the SNES RPG world (I never actually owned a system of any kind until I recieved a Gameboy around 1994-ish), and I loved it. I still have a fondness for it. But surprisingly enough, I actually felt interested in a 3D remake of it, ala FF3, for the DS. In fact, The more I ponder it, the more I seem to like the idea. I'll have to play FF3 DS first to use as a gauge, but I think I will enjoy it (having never played the original 3 at all). Damn it, November is going to be a very expensive month for games. Good thing I saved up, huh?

Sony stock drops a bit after reports of the PS3 overheating and crashing at TGS. Which is to be expected, since the place was supposed to be uncomfortably hot, with no AC and the cabinets the sysetms were in had poor air circulation. Not to mention that the hardware for the PS3 is supposed to be running pretty warm to begin with, and it was on all day. But that still doesn't prevent fanboys from all three sides taking shots at each other, does it?

Minus the one I want (the "best" of the lot, statwise), then about ten for local players I know... about a dozen. I'll just have to write everyone's name down. Even if you don't get one from me, like Klowd said, there will be people cloning the fuck out of them. You can get one that way. Also, I managed to pick up a Deoxys. It seems sort of legit... but it's odd. It's level 50, but it has no EVs at all. And it has IVs of 31 in everything, except Special attack, which is 17. Strange. If it was cheated, why bother with the lower Special Attack stat? And why the 20 levels with no EVs? What, he just used up a lot of Rare Candies? I'll keep it, just to have one, but I don't think I'll use it for anything. And don't forget, the Park you use in DP to get your GBA pokemon is straightforward and idiot-proof. You just trn on your DS, pick the option to transfer pokemon, and play DP as normal. Once you get into the Park, you just walk around until you find them. You can't run away, it's not a battle, and the balls they give you have a 100% capture rate, so you can't possibly not catch them. The only difficult part is finding them. And for those wondering, your GBA pokes comes across completely intact. Same stats, name, attacks, held item, Trainer ID and Number... everything. But you can't transfer them back to the GBA. The slot on your DS is read-only, so once you transfer, that's it; they are on your DS game, period.

Not that I ever heard of... mind you, I was completely pissed off with the first one, so I never bothered with the second one. Yeah, with the PMs and the people posting here. And since it will be a few months before the game comes out... I don't know. Maybe some sort of random drawing? I don't know.

Foul cheater! Get thee aw- wait, you got a Celebi? I have all the legendaries now except for Lugia and Ho-oh. I can get Ho-oh legitly, but it involves completeing Colosseum, which has taken forever just to get to the end of the story. Yeah, I think we'll have a lot of trading going on between members here. Again, more updates at serebii.net.

Returned from the US, and I have Mews. A lot of Mews. When the US version of Diamond/Pearl come out here, I plan to give away totally legit Mews to members here. They are all level 10, with the Original Trainer name and number of MYSTRY and 06930. If you want one, I'll be happy to arrange a trade at such time whenever the hell Nintendo localises the game and sells it. Ann way... the whole event was a little tiring. The line-up went from about fifteen people at noon to over a hundred by 2PM. The line-up went around the corner and out the entrance. They actually grabbed a person they knew out of the line and made him help by using his GBA to trade. The way is worked was that Nintendo sent them two Emerald version cartridges, each one filled to capacity with Mews. Every space in every box, even the active roster. They had over 800 to trade, and they were down to about 400 or so when they decided to stop. It turned out that they went past the dealine by about an hour due to the size of the line-up. I would have had one more Mew, but some poor kid got stuck at the end of the line and his parents were trying to pull him away. I traded the one I just got withhim, and he went home early with his own Mew, and I went back in line. I guess the guy at the counter saw this, and decided to just let me take as many as I wanted. Nice. Goes to show that doing nice things sometimes gets you good stuff. Or in my case, a few dozen. /pokemoned out for now

I know. I spent most of the last two days just waiting five minutes and then hitting F5. Repeat. Too bad I will be out of town this weekend, so I'll miss a lot of the new updates. Why? Gotta go get myself some Mews from Toys R Us.

Gamestats is run by IGN. Bastards.

Yeah, what little info that has been revealed is that to any battling or underground games, you need to use Friend Codes. I guess no one at Nintendo ever thought of not using them for some games, or even parts of one. At least trading is sort of easier. You put a pokemon up for trade, and mention what other pokemon you want for it. It sits there on the network, so you don't have to keep your game active. Once the other person agrees to the trade, your pokemon are held off-line until you each check up on the status of the trade. You don't even have to do anything this way. Of course, doing the trade in real-time is far better, since you can check stats and movesets and actually talk to the person now. But it's still a nice option.

Why does Gamstats.com use IGN's videos?

I am so using that excuse during Halloween this year! Jesus christ, he's right. This one completely slipped under the radar.

There's... there's so much info coming from DP now, I'm not even going to bother. Just hit serebii.net and check the updates. It's easier this way.

A lot of their recent games have been hentai-oriented it seems. SNK apparently got a few galge (girl game, hentai game) artists for a lot of little games. I would guess that would boost their earnings by a few thousand percent. I'm wondering what the mouth icon is for... Do we need to know? "I love you with mouth"?

I sort of hate you right now, Kak.

No, they do not. There are a few exceptions, though. Check here. Find the poke you want from the top, and then look under "Egg Groups". You will see a drop-down list of pokemon that are compatible. Also, pokemon hatched from eggs now come out at level 1, instead of the usual level 5. This removes the old question of "why are hatched pokemon at level 5, but I can fight a wild level 2 Pidgey?" And fucks loads of new info is coming out on DP. Just hit Serebii.net as usual. EDIT: Oh, and PokeGarden (that cool flash site that is designed to look and act like the GBA games) has updated and unvieled a new feature: a modest statue of the three new starters. Not exactly big news since the ROM was leaked a few days ago, but it's still nice to see that the site is updating.

If you can catch a Ditto, you can use it to breed with almost any pokemon. That was the case in gold/silver/crystal. Most of my egg-raised pokemon in my gold version came from a single Ditto. (lol what a slut) Diamond/Pearl will continue this feature, right? So far, the breeding system seems to be intact from RSE. So that means that yes, you can pimp your Ditto with just about anything. As for catching both genders, there isn't really a point unless you plan to breed for certain moves, IVs or Natures. If you want a certain pokemon, you can use different male and female pokes, as long as they are compatible. The offspring will be the lowest form of the female, but will inheret TMs and special moves from the male. You will get a Pichu, which is a baby Pikachu. Anyone that played Smash Bros should recognise it.

That hasn't been the slogan for years... even if it does still apply.