From a recent Kotaku article about the upcoming PSP sequel to Valkyria Chronicles comes a string of comments from "Dan Quayle" and "Michael Dukakis."
I must be getting old for my generation if I know enough about American politics to find this rather bemusing. Hooray for the flexible nature of user names.
...this would be it. I'm not in a testing mood when it comes to guide moderation, so we'll restrict it to a modest blog/forum post. Yayz.
Introduction
First there was the devil, then the super devil, and now... there's Psycho Mantis.Fighting Psycho Mantis in the original Metal Gear Solid is a real pain in the ass, not the least of which because he can actually read your mind, a feat that is tremendous for the PlayStation since it somehow just allows it to transcend the Turing Test altogether and just head straight into ESP. I don't try to figure out how it's possible to do these things either, but you and I both know that Kojima is an insane game designer to begin with. If he was ambitious enough, he could probably port Mad Dog McCree to the Atari 2600 without having to change anything whatsoever just because he could. But I know you're not here to try and wrap your mind around how Psycho Mantis is able to fight as he does. You just want to beat the jerk and move on with your life, which probably involves dreams of marrying Merryl. So let's just get down to business.
-Pepsiman
Step 1: Preparation
No "links" in this guide. HA! A PUN! I am SO clever!In order to even have a remote chance at success when fighting Psycho Mantis, you need to come into the fight properly equipped ahead of time. Since you're dealing with a boss that can work outside the bounds of the PlayStation and actually read your mind, you have to get some pretty heavy-duty equipment, which is why I recommend using the following real-life items.
A tin foil hat. This should probably be a given in the first place; you're up against someone who can easily learn your inner thoughts, which may very well consist of thoughts that involve replicating certain pictures of dragons humping cars. (We all know you've seen that picture.) It's natural to be scared, so why not openly acknowledge that by going into the fight with your own tin foil hat? It has no real impact on the your success or failure at all, but at least you can fight knowing that you're being true to yourself. Acknowledgment of your fears is the first step to healing, after all.
A wooden stake. Now you might want to say to me, "Pepsiman, Psycho Mantis isn't a vampire, is he?" To that I reply, no, or at least not in the traditional sense. But given the fact that the dude wears a gas mask and happens to be all around terrifying, he might be trying to reimagine the Dracula persona for a new age. "Okay," you might then retort, "but is the wooden stake still necessary? He's just a bad guy inside the TV." To that, all I can say is that dude, Psycho Mantis can already use the overwhelming power of the PlayStation to read your god damned mind. What's stopping him from just outright crossing the pixelated boundary into the real world and causing actual havoc? Maybe there aren't any documented cases of him doing so yet, but you should still be prepared for the absolute worst.
A box of Cheerios. If you're going to go up against an evil mind reader, the least you can do for your health after repeatedly giving yourself near heart attacks out of sheer terror is to eat a snack that can reduce your cholestoral. Every little bit helps.
That Sony translator guy with the note pad. Just because Psycho Mantis can read your thoughts doesn't mean he'll be able to understand them outright. Providing him with an apathetic-looking translator will make him think a bit more highly of you, even if he still wants to kick your ass in the end. This might be even more true if the interpreted thoughts turn out to greatly displease him.
A copy of those match stick puzzles from either Professor Layton or Hotel Dusk. Psycho Mantis deserves to be in as much mental pain as possible for having such an assholish ability and nothing does the job quite as well as those pesky match stick puzzles. They've befuddled you for an eternity and a half, so now it's his turn to start feeling the pain as well.
Your self esteem. The reason will be detailed after this next section.
Step 2: The Actual Fighting
Man, this is like that guide I wrote for that one game that was way more serious. Yep.Once you've gathered all of the necessary items from the previous step, it's time to take on Psycho Mantis and... maybe win. I say maybe because when it comes to this fight, almost anything can happen. The fact that Psycho Mantis really can read your mind makes the actual specifics of the fight pretty random in nature. In fact, you could follow this entire guide to the letter and still horribly lose. In fact, you probably will, but that's not what you need to worry about in the first place. You came to this guide so you could learn how to kick Psycho Mantis' ass, regardless of how reliable these tips actually are, and I intend to help you to the best of my ability.
There are four separate methods you can employ that generally provide the best results. None of them actually rely on any of the items I just told you to bring, which is great because they're all actually the things that Psycho Mantis despises the most. When the guy gets pissed off, it just makes the fights all the harder anyway. So, rendering an entire section of my own guide useless aside, let's once again use bullet points to outline each method, simply because I'm American and therefore enjoy Cliff Notes and anything else which is absurdly straight and to the point. This guide would therefore be in PowerPoint if it were at all possible to do so here, but alas, even these technologically advanced forums have their limitations. But without further ado, let's break down each method.
Don't fight at all. Just sit at the screen for a while and ponder the meaning of life. The more narcissitic you get in your philosophical references, the better. Eventually, Psycho Mantis should give up on the fight, concluding that he has nothing to gain personally from fighting you and will simply let you pass through unharmed. If your thoughts were predominantly Nietzsche in tone, he may also decide to go pick up a copy of Thus Spoke Zarathustra and come to learn plenty about the ubermensch.
Input the Konami code... backwards. When in doubt, doing something that involves the Konami code usually works, right? I mean, on this very site, you get taken to the Contra page, so sure it must work with Psycho Mantis and it does. In fact, this is the method that I endorse the most, since it only meant that Psycho Mantis kicked my ass eight times out of seven. (Hooray for improper fractions!) Typically, after you input the Konami code backwards, Psycho Mantis will become befuddled as to why you do such a seemingly random thing during an important battle. That's for him to figure out using his PlayStation-powered ESP; you're just looking for a successful way out of that fight in one piece and by god, good sir, this is one of them.
Ask Psycho Mantis for help writing that dissertation on the influence of thermonuclear weapon creation on the development of paper bags. Psycho Mantis actually finds that specific subject absolutely fascinating and he's be so flattered that you care about it, too, that he'll leave the room forever in a vain attempt to read somebody's mind that has information pertinent to your research. Bam. Done. Mission accomplished.
Switch controller ports. This also results in Psycho Mantis being absolutely baffled and he will probably go on to wonder if Eternal Darkness' mind fucks did quite the number on your logic faculties. While this action alone isn't usually all you need to defeat Psycho Mantis, when it's used in tandem with any of the other three described above, your chances of beating the guy go up exponentially. Looks like this might have been the method Kojima wanted you to use to beat the guy, if he had any in mind.
Step 3: The Aftermath
I hear you can purchase self esteem seeds in Harvest Moon.So remember when I said you should bring your self esteem with you into this skirmish with Psycho Mantis? Hell no because you simply replied to this with a smartass "tl;dr" and moved on with your life? Great! Now I want you to put that self esteem in the nearest trash bin. The reasoning should be fairly apparent. You just fought a boss that was able to learn what consitutues your inner being, especially if he got help from that interpretor guy you brought along, too. The damage done to you as a result is probably pretty tremendous. So before society catches on to the fact that you're really a wretched human being with no redeeming qualities, it's best to just go ahead and throw out your self esteem. If you try hard enough, you can grow a new one in the garden.
Conclusion
What's this? We actually have a Hatsune Miku page on this site? How long has that been around?Much like the act of looking at the back of the CD case to get a codec number, many people believe that beating Psycho Mantis requires extremely obtuse methods and an entire bottle of Tylenol to keep the impending migraines at bay. I hope that this guide has proven otherwise, that with enough logic and ingenuity, most anybody can defeat Psycho Mantis and proudly be able to recall the epic battle at a campfire with their kin decades later. I know I have and because you're all exactly like me, you should feel the same way. With that said, thanks for reading this guide. If you have additional tips or just want to provide feedback, you know how to get in touch.
This entry is going to be pretty short and sweet because I'm pretty sapped when it comes to energy. My review for Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor, the franchise's first DS installment, has been posted here for all the Internet to absorb. As I pretty much imply in the review, Devil Survivor caught me by surprise. I had originally intended to outright ignore its release because the only good experiences I've usually had with Megami Tensei games were the recent Persona installments. But then I actually read GameSpot's review for it and after realizaing that it had things going for it that I could appreciate despite that history, I decided to give a shot. I'd say that, given the score I assigned it, you would be right in inferring that I thought the purchase was worthwhile.
So yeah. Review. Yay.
And if Lies is reading this, he'll be pleased to know that this review actually has screenshots for once. Huzzah.
The NicoNico-loving among you are probably aware of this fairly profound video already, but for everybody else: I present to you Supoo (スプー). Supoo is, simply put, a wondrous monstrosity of an alien that children were taught to draw on Japanese airwaves several years ago. Accompanying the drawing is a wondrous song that actually does mention that Supoo likes watermelones and bananas, but you don't need to understand a word of it to really comprehend why Supoo is such a, er, beloved creature on much of the Japanese-speaking Internet.
And as a bonus, those who are especially hardcore may have already recognized the corresponding parody from the very wonderfully psychotic anime Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei.
Truly, I learned Japanese so I could comprehend this stuff. Yep. Definitely.
So today is Tetris' 25th birthday. I think it goes without saying that the Russian puzzle game has left its mark and that in terms of sheer impact on both the game industry and worldwide pop culture in general, nothing else in its own genre has usurped it since its inception. Personally speaking, it is by far the puzzle franchise I've spent the most time with in its various iterations, from the iconic GameBoy and NES Tengen versions to the extremely insane Grandmaster spin-offs to just vanilla Tetris Friends. While I'm by no means a master, I think the fact that I'm a very stubborn person to take down even in online settings is indicative of both my commitment to and fondness of the series. I have no doubt that there are plenty of other people who are like that, too.
But instead of pointing you towards Google's front page, to commemorate the anniversary, I thought I'd instead bring your attention to what I find to be a really well-done BBC documentary. It manages to turn a seemingly dry tale about legal strifes into something much more personal. The juxtaposition of the Soviet Union bureacracy and how that affected the game's then-future developments make it a really compelling thing to watch. Part one of a YouTube copy of the documentary, Tetris: From Russia with Love, is posted below. The remainder can be attained from the poster's profile. Here's hoping you enjoy as much as I do.
This E3 has been morbidly entertaining because the online rage seems to be directed at the oddest places. To commemorate this spectacle, I have seen fit to generate two fake complaint letters using the wonders of this site. What are they addressed to? You'll find out shortly. I think they're still generally reflective of the (heaps of) rationality on display on the Internets lately. Enjoy. :)
Letter number one!
I just want a little editorial balance here. I guess I should start by saying that I decidedly hope you're not being misled by the "new Left 4 Dead 2". Only its methods and tactics have changed. Left 4 Dead 2's goal is still the same: to waste taxpayers' money. That's why I'm telling you that an organization that wants to get ahead should try to understand the long-range consequences of its actions. Left 4 Dead 2 has never had that faculty. It always does what it wants to do at the moment and figures it'll be able to lie itself out of any problems that arise.
Left 4 Dead 2's ability to reason from premise to conclusion is nearly non-existent. Sadly, lack of space prevents me from elaborating further. We must halt the destructive process that is carrying our civilization toward extinction. If we don't, future generations will not know freedom. Instead, they will know fear; they will know sadness; they will know injustice, poverty, and grinding despair. Most of all, they will realize, albeit far too late, that if you can make any sense out Left 4 Dead 2's confused, dishonest magic-bullet explanations then you must have gotten higher marks in school than I did. We should lend a helping hand. (Goodness knows, our elected officials aren't going to.)
Of perhaps even more concern is that Left 4 Dead 2's maudlin preoccupation with philistinism, usually sicklied over with such nonsense words as "counterestablishment", would make sense if a person's honor were determined strictly by his or her ability to destroy our country from within. As that's not the case, we can conclude only that Left 4 Dead 2's goal is to excoriate attempts to bring questions of factionalism into the (essentially apolitical) realm of pedagogy in language and writing. This is abject lexiphanicism! As we all know, Left 4 Dead 2 is living in cloud-cuckoo-land. Does Left 4 Dead 2 honestly expect us to believe that all major world powers are controlled by a covert group of "insiders"? If I'm not horribly mistaken, there's a painfully simple answer. It regards the way that if it sincerely believes that it is a paragon of morality and wisdom then it must be smoking something illegal. Some reputed—as opposed to reputable—members of Left 4 Dead 2's lynch mob quite adamantly think that a totalitarian dictatorship is the best form of government we could possibly have. I find it rather astonishing that anyone could profess such a thing but then again, Left 4 Dead 2 thinks it would be a great idea to turn the trickle of mysticism into a tidal wave. Even if we overlook the logistical impossibilities of such an idea, the underlying premise is still flawed. Unfortunately, I can already see the response to this letter. Someone, possibly Left 4 Dead 2 itself or one of its flunkies, will write a revolting piece about how utterly contumacious I am. If that's the case, then so be it. What I just wrote sorely needed to be written.
And now for letter two!
I have facts for those who think and arguments for those who reason. The rest of this letter is focused exclusively on Ms. Leigh Alexander, not because I harbor any ill-will towards her but because she uses obscure words like "contemporaneousness" and "disadvantageousness" to conceal her agenda to fill our children's minds with infernal and debasing superstitions. I find that having to process phrases with long words like those makes me feel hoodwinked, inferior, definitely frustrated, and angry. That's why I strive for utmost clarity whenever I explain to others that from secret-handshake societies meeting at "the usual place" to back-door admissions committees, Ms. Alexander's adulators have always found a way to create a Ms. Alexander-centric society in which insane exponents of masochism dictate the populace's values and myths, its traditions and archetypes.
I have no idea why Ms. Alexander makes such a big fuss over pauperism. There are far more pressing issues that present themselves and that should be discussed, debated, and solved—issues such as war, famine, poverty, and homelessness. There is also the lesser issue that I've repeatedly pointed out to Ms. Alexander that she should judge not lest she be judged. That apparently didn't register with her, though. Oh, well; I guess if five years ago I had described a person like Ms. Alexander to you and told you that in five years she'd blend together conformism and poststructuralism in a train wreck of monumental proportions, you'd have thought me effete. You'd have laughed at me and told me it couldn't happen. So it is useful now to note that, first, it has happened and, second, to try to understand how it happened and how she takes things out of context, twists them around, and then neglects to provide decent referencing so the reader can check up on her. Ms. Alexander also ignores all of the evidence that doesn't support (or in many cases directly contradicts) her position.
Ms. Alexander will truly damage the debate about this issue in that we will have to spend lots of time correcting misunderstandings that are directly attributable to her ebullitions. Each rung on the ladder of scapegoatism is a crisis of some kind. Each crisis supplies an excuse for Ms. Alexander to stir up one part of the population against another. That is the standard process by which delirious sad sacks make us less united, less moral, less sensitive, less engaged, and more perversely grotesque. Might I suggest that she search for a hobby? It seems Ms. Alexander has entirely too much time on her hands, given how often she tries to prevent me from sleeping soundly at night. Because I unfortunately lack the psychic powers that enable Ms. Alexander to "know" matters for which there is no reliable evidence, I cannot forecast when she will next try to shout obscenities at passers-by. But I can indisputably say that Ms. Alexander has a strategy. Her strategy is to render unspeakable and unthinkable whole categories of beliefs about power. Wherever you encounter that strategy, you are dealing with Ms. Alexander. And there you have it. Ms. Leigh Alexander's exegeses are unpatriotic, poisonous to young minds, and disrespectful to Western values and achievements.
....
And there you have it. Ms. Leigh Alexander is out to destabilize society as we know it.
Interesting shenanigans came out of that previous blog post of mine about the Wii HD. One such instance involved the revelation that a mere brick would be a part of the Wii's future. Intrigued, I decided to investigate this for myself and tracked down Vidiot, a user who has never been wrong about anything ever. I decided to ask him to elaborate on the brick theory.
Pepsiman: But what SORT of brick am I going to be playing games with? Cinder? Typical house red? I HAVE TO KNOW! D*:
Vidiot: Defiantly traditional red. Very important. Think of all the great things you could do with it. Like throwing it. I predict construction games will take off in the "next-er" generation. Can't you wait to play Super Brick Layer 7? It will be part of Nintendo's new outreach to the blue collar gamer demographic. Did I mention that the replacement of the nunchuck will be a beer bottle? The future is bright indeed.
Pepsiman: So what you're really saying is that Steven Spielberg should have held back on making the Boom Blox games until these technological advances were made a reality?
Vidiot: In hindsight yes, but don't worry. Expect full backwardcompatibility brick support for Boom Blox and future games in the franchise. The reason for the delay was because rumors of the "Brick Motion Plus" addon was making the rounds online, and Spielberg/EA didn't want to commit to hardware that would be outdated in a few months. It's a far cry from Spielberg's next game project is another family oriented puzzle game called "Chug!". It utilizes the beer bottle peripheral in ways you might not expect. Oh, and there's aliens in it.
Pepsiman: Do I get any special preorder bonuses if I tell such fine outlets as GameStop that I wish to reserve a copy of Chug? Maybe some obtuse unlock code that will just get posted on the Internet the day of release anyway?
Vidiot: Confused and fet-up that unlock codes are not working as an incentive to preorder, EA is trying a new strategy that uses reverse psychology. The unlock code for pre-ordering gets you the ability to download the demo a full week after the demo is released online to everyone.
Pepsiman: ZOMG THIS IS MARKETING AT ITS FINEST! :D
Vidiot: That's not all. Collectors edition of "Chug!" comes with a six pack of beer."Chug!" is rated "T: For Teen"
Pepsiman: And with that, the entire high school market has surely been snatched. The world will never be the same after this fine game gets out.
Vidiot: It's Nintendo's long term strategy. You might be thinking that current Nintendo strategy of ignoring their base is a bit insane, especially if the markets they are currently advertising too either stop paying attention, or in other cases: Don't exist. They have foreseen these possible trouble spots, and have decided to entice the younger demographic with alcohol. I personally cant wait to see their new commercial where a mother doing yoga on a Wii Fit board, and her young teenage son throwing a brick at his TV while downing a bruski in the living room. It's really about bringing the family together.
Anyone care to agree or disagree? Maybe Nintendo will comment on the matter at E3 next week.
Man, remember when Ubisoft tried pimping these visuals in its Wii ads?The eternally circulating rumor regarding the Wii is that sooner or later, Nintendo is going to cave in to supposed market demands and manufacture a mid-cycle upgraded Wii capable of outputting in HD resolutions. Regardless of the arguments made against it, the rhetoric is continually spewed, perhaps in the hopes that someone influential at Nintendo will make things happen if they see the Internet wants such a thing. They make the assumption that since the Wii is deliberately marketed as an underpowered machine so as to make it more accessible to both developers and consumers, there's no way it is capable of going more visually "harcore" and entering the realms of 720p and beyond. The problem that I see with this particular rumor is that its roots most likely lie in and continue to be perpetually revived by people who don't have a technical understanding of the Wii itself. I don't claim to have credentials involving actual work on the Wii, but I will say that I've spent extensive time in underground development and hacking communities, giving me lessons which can in turn be applied to dissecting Nintendo's white television box. I like to think I have at least a working theoretical understanding of how some of its undersides work, so let's go down the seemingly insane rabbit hole and prove that the Wii is already capable of outputting HD. There just hasn't been a clever or bold enough developer willing to make it happen yet.
The first thing to note before actually going inside the Wii itself and examining its specifications is that the equipment already exists for it to output HD resolutions. Naturally, I'm referring to the component cables. These do exist for the system and although they're only officially used for progressive scanning and surround sound, there's nothing which prevents them from otherwise being ordinary HD cables. So out of the box, there already isn't a need to create homemade cables to hack together the capability for the Wii to output HD resolutions. The necessary cables can already be bought; they merely aren't being used to their fullest potential as of now.
This is a good start, but let's go even further.Some gold-plated prongs attached to wires don't make a full argument, though, so now let's take a gander at what's actually powering the Wii underneath. The actual specifications for the system have never been publicly released in their entirety by Nintendo, ATI, or any other company involved in the system's creation. Nevertheless, enough has either been leaked or hacked to give a decent enough understanding of the console's inner workings. With that said, let's get a pretty interesting revelation out of the way: the Wii's specifications closely resemble that of the original Xbox's, both in terms of the CPU and the GPU. There are some differences, such as the Wii having a slightly lower CPU clock speed by just a handful of megahertz, but other aspects of it do enough to compensate and make Microsoft's console a really good analog for it. This is all really important to note when it comes to saying the Wii is already capable of HD for reasons outlined below.
Much like the Wii, although the first Xbox iteration wasn't overly marketed as an HD-capable machine, it too was perfectly capable of it in theory. The main difference between the two was that it was a fact actually acknowledged by Microsoft and developers weren't prohibited from making their games output that high if they pleased. You might recall that using the odd check box system on the back of games, some games would mark that they had things such as Xbox Live connectivity, LAN capabilities, etc. Some also marked the box for 720p output capability. The games which did indicate this, such as Soul Calibur II, may not have looked that much prettier because of it, but what needs to be kept in mind is that 720p, 1080p, etc. are solely indicative of resolutions, meaning it's purely the number of pixels the system has to work with that's upped, not polygons. So naturally, you wouldn't be suddenly getting games on the Wii which superficially resemble games like Crysis, but you could in theory find ones which could at least output the same resolutions that the GPU abuser can as well.
Itagaki and his crew in their prime sure knew how to make that Xbox abide by every one of their technical whims.But what does this actually mean in practice? Put simply, the Wii is probably capable of a lot more than it's given credit for today. Again, the same was more or less the case with Microsoft's first system, but it also actually has some games to prove it, so let's keep using that system for comparison. Lost Levels is a community of gamers mostly devoted to covering cancelled games and, whenever possible, uploading dumps of prototypes that the staff have acquired so regular users can poke and prod them with emulators, debuggers, and the like. However, despite the majority being predominantly programming laymen, there is a small population who is also very familiar with the development side of games. This is especially noticeable in this thread, which discusses which games really pushed the hardware of their systems. Some suggestions are debunked, such as Donkey Kong on the SNES, but the main post to look at is one by ProgrammingAce, a user who is intimately familiar with Sony and Microsoft consoles, including this generation's batch. He devotes part of his post to discussing games which pushed the Xbox hardware to go really far. Most surprising of all is when he discusses games such as Ninja Gaiden Black and Pariah, pointing out that they could haved already "passed certification" for 360 games in the state in which they were released. Passing certification, in short, means that the games would at least meet Microsoft's internal standards for letting developers develop and publish games on the 360. These standards are mostly related to technological usage, as well as overall stability, and those are what matter the most anyway, especially when considering that 360 games are supposed to natively output in 720p. (We'll save Halo 3 and other such controversies for another day.) It was already well-known that games like Ninja Gaiden Black pushed the Xbox hardware to do what the developers wanted pretty significantly, but to know it does it to the extent that an unimproved 360 port could, in theory, be okay with Microsoft is indicative of just how much the original system, and, by extension, the Wii, is really capable of doing.
Now I recognize that the biggest argument to be made at this point against Wii HD already "existing" is probably that making games for the Wii is a different proposition and isn't like working on the original Xbox. This is naturally true; despite the similarities of the specifications, the quirks of the actual hardware mean that developing for the Wii is going to be different than the Xbox. To defuse this point, though, I'd like to state that the real point to take out of all this is that the Wii can still be manipulated to output in HD resolutions. It's just that the methods for doing so have to be different. This is true even in today's multiplatform releases. A game like Mirror's Edge may look and play the same on the 360 and PS3, but the differences in hardware mean that the developer has to use different tricks to achieve the same effect across different consoles. What matters is that the end result is overall the same and that's why the Wii has been repeatedly compared to the Xbox throughout this post. The raw specifications are similar and getting the Wii to also output HD natively is a matter of working around its technological behaviors. Getting to point B from point A may entail different journies for the two systems, but point B is still going to be point B for both consoles. Different means simply have to be used to achieve the same end.
Sometimes, just because you can doesn't mean you always should.If that's the case, then why is it that the Wii hasn't shown such capabilities off by now? While it could very possibly be due to Nintendo preventing developers from working in HD simply because of demographic issues (ie: most Wii owners working solely with SD televisions), the bigger culprit is probably more along the lines of developer fears. Despite the fact that the Wii is indeed able to output games in HD resolutions, the worries are still understandable. It all boils down to how much more data the Wii has to process on the fly if it's made to go HD. When you increase the number of pixels that have to be dealt with in the transition from rendering the polygons to making a workable, two-dimensional image for televisions, it's to be expected that the sheer size of the data is going to increase. The problem is that if it's not dealt with properly, the resolution increase can make the system suffer significantly. After all, Gran Turismo 4 proved that even the PS2, a system less powerful than the Wii, is technically capable of outputting 1080i; a stable frame rate just gets thrown out the window at that point. If the developer goes even further and makes higher resolution textures for HD modes instead of relying merely on upscaling, the problem becomes all the more major. Indeed, the main issue is making sure that if the Wii is ever made to go HD as it currently is that the added data load is dealt with well so the system doesn't nearly come screeching to a halt. But even that can be overcome so long as the right techniques are employed and made stable. After all, the Xbox was the original console host for games such as Chronicles of Riddick and Doom 3, games which many people predicted could never plausibly work on the available non-PC hardware at the time. But they still did because of some clever work on the part of the developers. The Wii isn't inherently handicapped in a way that prevents the same thing from happening, either; it's only a matter of finding people bold enough to push it that far.
Even the SNES could do intensive physics calculations if you harassed it enough.The notion that the Wii needs an actual hardware revision in order to output HD resolutions is one I find to be ignorant. Researching the specifications and making real-world comparisons to similar systems such as the Xbox show that it's a much more plausible notion than it's commonly perceived. The hardware may not be as conducive to doing such things as one would hope, but it already has more than it needs to do so out of the box. The main hurdles are therefore related to the demographics playing the system and developer motivation. Regarding the former, while component cables exist for the system officially, they are neither bundled with the system nor widely known. Clearly the intention on Nintendo's part is to remain SD for at least one more generation while waiting for HD setups to penetrate more households. But again, it's the latter one which is more damning in the end. The Wii was not deliberately designed to consistently output higher resolutions, so while it's still possible, many developers are probably hesitant to have it go that far. HD is still one of the uncharted waters for the system; if it's not treaded correctly, things could go awry very easily. It's an understandable, albeit disappointing predicament. With that said, if Nintendo does come out with a version of the Wii that is more openly capable of handling HD, it will be to ease developer frustrations which exist now, not because the current hardware is inherently unable to do it at all. Wii HD is here today and a precedence exists with other now-underpowered systems such as the Xbox. It just requires a bit more magic to make it happen than for the other systems today.
I know that there are a lot of you today who already know plenty about the process of importing games. Really once you get down to it, it's a pretty simple process. But for those who are curious, yet uncertain about how to go about doing it, they might be interested in checking out my recent guide for this site. It's a blatant plug for my own work, yes, but I figure that since there are other guides on this site not devoted specifically to one game per se that my work might come in handy for someone here. Heck, I even discuss how to go about ordering games from Japanese stores directly, a topic which I don't think gets mentioned very much when the subject of imports is brought up.
In writing the guide, I tried to cover as much as possible that I knew personally. There are some things I'd like to have a bit more fleshed out, which is why there's a help wanted section in there, but if you can think of anything else you think I need to talk about, you're free to tell me that. Really, just feedback in general is appreciated. I've done other guides in the past, but those were usually way more technical, so I wouldn't mind hearing whether I did okay for something more casual in comparison. Also ideas about which pages to attach the guide would be greatly appreciated. It's attached to Final Fantasy XIII at the moment simply because of the inevitable import wave to come with that, but I'd like to include more for visibility's sake.
Thanks in advance if you check it out and, as a reward, here's a picture of the Persona 4 cast if they somehow wound up in a Mother game. Yep.
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