Support NeoGAF

[shadyspace]

No you can't. Most PC DVD drives can't read Wii discs.

Wait, so how do people rip Wii games to a USB hard drive then when DVD drives won't read them?

 

[Sophia]

Wait, so how do people rip Wii games to a USB hard drive then when DVD drives won't read them?

They... don't?

 

[wsippel]

Wait, so how do people rip Wii games to a USB hard drive then when DVD drives won't read them?

On the Wii itself.

 

[Aeana]

Wait, so how do people rip Wii games to a USB hard drive then when DVD drives won't read them?

The USB Loader program for Wii has a ripping function.

 

[shadyspace]

The USB Loader program for Wii has a ripping function.

Ah. Word.

 

[BlazingDarkness]

This needs to get here already..

Will be waiting on my copy from game.co.uk..

Any particular reason you chose Game? They're the more expensive option the majority of the time

 

[Codeblue]

ASDA charged me and the game is "awaiting dispatch", so hopefully that ships on Friday. $43 well spent.

 

[CruxisMana]

Any particular reason you chose Game? They're the more expensive option the majority of the time

I presume because you pay extra for faster delivery.

Or because the CE is only available from GAME.

 

[warpaint]

so happy next week
next week

 

[Robobandit]

Any particular reason you chose Game? They're the more expensive option the majority of the time

I chose GAME because I don't trust Zaavi and an acquaintance of mine from the UK recommended GAME.

I also ordered the CE, so there was that reason too.

Also, fastest delivery available is 4-6 days since I'm in the US..

 

[Hiltz]

What the hell? I decided to buy my own copy of XenoBlade but Zaavi is giving me problems.

I received an e-mail late last night stating that there was a payment problem using my debit card (it doesn't specificy what's wrong other than saying that to please update my card info). So I check to see if my card info is correct, which it is , and resolve the issue by having Zaavi recharge my card to have the order processed correctly. Then I get a confirmation "thank you for your order from Zaavi" e-mail. However, half an hour ago, I check my e-mail again and get another message from Zaavi stating that there's another payment problem with the same debit card. I go back to the site and check my card info again and it's fine, Zaavi doesn't mention or even highlight anything wrong with my card info so what the heck is the problem ?

I just used the same debit card to buy an sd card from Amazon last night. To state the obvious, I still have plenty of money left in my account.

I want my XenoBlade!

 

[Zwei]

^Did you input in the three digit security code from the back of your card?

 

[Hiltz]

^Did you input in the three digit security code from the back of your card?

Yeah, and both times when it told me to go back and check for any necessary corrections, my card info was always correct.

 

[Starwolf_UK]

All I can think is bank blocking payment as it doesn't fit with spending patterns (UK retailer etc) so it might be worth getting touch with the bank just to make sure. Then again I could be wrong on this.

 

[Hiltz]

I guess that could be problem and I've never made an import purchase before. Darn, this is becoming a troublesome matter.

 

[Yeshua]

A few months ago I had the exact same problem with Zavvi and yet I have no problem with other import site. Try to order somewhere else.

 

[Hiltz]

A few months ago has the exact same problem with Zavvi and yet I have no problem with other import site. Try to order somewhere else.

Yeah, I think I'll just cancel my non dispatched order and try another import site. Any recommend sites that offer the game at a cheap price and free delivery ?

 

[CruxisMana]

Yeah, I think I'll just cancel my non dispatched order and try another import site. Any recommend sites that offer the game at a cheap price and free delivery ?

365games?

 

[Hiltz]

Thanks. I'll look into that site but will wait until I get a cancelation confirmation e-mail from Zaavi first. I don't need em to screw things up any further.

 

[Electivirus]

I went with 365Games, myself.

 

[IceIpor]

Did everyone notice they made versions of the videos from the Japanese official site with the English VA on the UK site?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXk1R7FKsDI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HRPyGxf6Z0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HN6Kf9X54iI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GphU5kHtls

#3/#4 are the best (although SPOILERS in #4 obviously)

Interesting, I stumbled across the Japanese version of trailer 4. (The heavy spoiler one).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEj81aER08U

I guess NoE tried to copy the marketing of Xenoblade as closely as possible to the Japanese release.

I like how the time of day affects cutscenes as well.

 

[MidnightScott]

I went with 365Games, myself.

This, I hope it doesn't take too long to arrive here in the US. My brother is slightly interested in playing it and he's gonna arrived here on Aug. 21st and stay for about a month.

 

[Seik]

That's it, I just heard one of the battle themes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4vCEHpv6Hg&feature=related

PURCHASED! I KNOW I WON'T REGRET IT!

Sorry Reggie, I won't wait anymore. Now I hope it'll run fine on Dolphin with my rig!

 

[Mockingbird]

Just got an e-mail from amazon about my Monado pre-order.

Hello,

We're still trying to obtain the following item you ordered on January 19 2010 (Order# XXXXXXXXXXXXXX).

"Monado: Beginning of the World"
Estimated arrival date: September 13 2011

If you would like to learn more about pre-ordering video games from Amazon.com, including when you can expect to receive your new video game, please visit our help page (http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/?ie=UTF8&nodeId=468582#release).

We apologize for the inconvenience caused by this delay.

If only. If only.

 

[Cactus]

I finally decided to order but for some reason 365games is claiming I don't have a high enough Paypal balance to complete the purchase, even though I have around $90 in my account.

Weird.

EDIT: I figured it out. I had half USD and half CAD and the website didn't auto-convert the difference.

 

[Dead Prince]

got the wii hacked. now i wait for my copy (blazingdarkness ordered from ASDA) hopefully it arrives in an orderly time. i barely even watched videos of the game. didnt know what type of battle system it uses lol. all i know is that the faces are shit.

what is the best control setup. CC or Wiimote? if i use the remote do i have to waggle?

 

[KarmaCow]

My order on ASDA says 'awaiting despatch' but the date still says Sept 2nd. Weird.

 

[Snapshot King]

Mine from DVD.co.uk still says pending even like 3 days later. -_-

 

[Bel Marduk]

got the wii hacked. now i wait for my copy (blazingdarkness ordered from ASDA) hopefully it arrives in an orderly time. i barely even watched videos of the game. didnt know what type of battle system it uses lol. all i know is that the faces are shit.

what is the best control setup. CC or Wiimote? if i use the remote do i have to waggle?

CC. No waggle.

 

[Diffense]

Just got an e-mail from amazon about my Monado pre-order.



If only. If only.

That reminds me that I have to cancel my amazon preorder in the extremely unlikely chance that I forget about it and NOA does release.
I called GAME to order my copy (necessitated due to 'fraud protection') but I haven't gotten email confirmation yet and only see a 28 cent 'international transaction fee' on my statement.
Here's to hoping everything went well and they'll charge and notify me when the game's ready to ship.

 

[wsippel]

Because this came up here and I just had this discussion on some other forum: People who shit on the graphics and compare it (usually just the characters) to other PS2 JRPGs need to realize that this game is nothing like a traditional JRPG. It's a lot closer to western open world games. A much more sensible comparison would therefore be GTA:

And Morrowind of course:

Once you realize that, Xenoblade looks pretty damn awesome all of a sudden, right?

 

[Alexios]

Eh, "nothing" like a JRPG is stretching it. Areas tend to be more open and there's a shitton of side quests, that's the main difference to something like Dragon Quest VIII [okay maybe this isn't the best choice of game due to how traditional it is]. And Morrowind is way beyond it in geometry and texture resolution, though it has shit art direction (though some areas have good design, the terrain is just hilly bumps for example, wasting polygons like nothing, whereas Xenoblade has great design in most areas we've seen even if each of its particular aspects is rather flat and angular in comparison) and Bethesda seriously sucked at making characters. And anyway since they knew they had to work with such a limited system they could have gone for a cleaner style for the characters, since they're of anime design anyway.

 

[wsippel]

Eh, "nothing" like a JRPG is stretching it. Areas tend to be more open and there's a shitton of side quests, that's the main difference to something like Dragon Quest VIII. And Morrowind is way beyond it in geometry and texture resolution, though it has shit art direction (though some areas have good design, the terrain is just hilly bumps for example, wasting polygons like nothing, whereas Xenoblade has great design even if each of its aspects is rather flat and angular) and Bethesda seriously sucked at making characters. And anyway since they knew they had to work with such a limited system they could have gone for a cleaner style for the characters, since they're of anime design anyway.

No. Just no.

 

[Midou]

Dat british voice acting. Totally playing it in english.

 

[Luigiv]

Eh, "nothing" like a JRPG is stretching it. Areas tend to be more open and there's a shitton of side quests, that's the main difference to something like Dragon Quest VIII. And Morrowind is way beyond it in geometry and texture resolution, though it has shit art direction (though some areas have good design, the terrain is just hilly bumps for example, wasting polygons like nothing, whereas Xenoblade has great design even if each of its aspects is rather flat and angular) and Bethesda seriously sucked at making characters. And anyway since they knew they had to work with such a limited system they could have gone for a cleaner style for the characters, since they're of anime design anyway.

Morrowind's draw distances are only a fraction of Xenoblade's and even then it most certainly does not push more polygons.

 

[wsippel]

Morrowind's draw distances are only a fraction of Xenoblade's and even then it most certainly does not push more polygons.

I actually posted one of the better Morrowind screenshots I could find, most shots showed even worse textures and draw distance. Not only that - in Xenoblade, you usually have at least three main characters and sometimes far more than a dozen NPCs and/ or monsters on screen at once. Xenoblade is a lot more densely populated. And you'll still see far fewer loading screens in Xenoblade.

 

[Alexios]

Well I don't think any given random house has this much geometry based detail to it in Xenoblade without seeing obvious angular lines everywhere...

True about the draw distance.

Disregard what I had here previously, it was a truform showcase image. Well, I still think their geometry is more complex in general:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6xR4WYeXsw

 

[wsippel]

Well I don't think any given random house has this much geomety detail to it in Xenoblade without seeing obvious angular lines everywhere...

True about the draw distance.

But that's exactly the point: It's not about how many polygons go into any individual model, it's about how many polygons are on the screen at once overall.

 

[Franchuzas87]

I find difficult to compare Morrowind environments with this:

 

[wsippel]

I find difficult to compare Morrowind environments with this:

http://oi56.tinypic.com/msehcl.gif

Yeah, that's the most magical thing about it: It's incredibly fast. Many open world games have loading slowdown, or short breaks in case of buffer underruns (like Elder Scrolls). Xenoblade doesn't. Ever. Warping to the other end of a huge area literally takes a fade. Fade to black, fade back - two seconds, done. Impressive.

 

[Alexios]

But that's exactly the point: It's not about how many polygons go into any individual model, it's about how many polygons are on the screen at once overall.

Well, yeah, so while Morrowind does have a shittier draw distance it does have higher detail per object making each view pretty complex still.

Anyway, it was also a PC game shoehorned in the Xbox. I didn't play that version so wasn't sure of the differences.

I find difficult to compare Morrowind environments with this:

Well I didn't bring it up and did say its art direction sucks and that its terrain mostly consits of bumpy hills. Smooth bumpy hills with plenty polygons, but still just plain boring.

The cities get better but still...

Only other JRPGs really have comparable art direction but then those aren't quite as open most of the time.

Still, most people agree Xenoblade's outdoors are beautiful. It would have been nice if the indoors and characters were on par with the landscapes. Some of the character models in particular are just plain unappealing, regardless of their polygons. Characters with even less polygons and a fraction of the texture resolution can still be appealing, as in some PS1 games. I'm pretty good with holding my expectations to the given system's abilities so something like Vagrant Story impresses me still.

What's the game's frame rate anyway? Does it seem unstable in the more detailed areas and such, showing that a few more polygons here and there would make it crawl?

How did that open world Jak game look on PS2? People had praised that for its graphics I think?

 

[Quadrangulum]

Wow. The game looks incredible.

 

[EatChildren]

Man, why you people gotta bring Morrowind into this?

 

[Zwei]

I find difficult to compare Morrowind environments with this:

Can we officially say that the art direction in Xenoblade is top-notch? The world created is so lush, bright, and vivacious! (at least half of it) I absolutely HATE the dark, dank virtual worlds of Marrowind/Oblivion. Z

Xenoblade is, to put it simply, a breath of fresh air. That's why we're so excited for this release - to get lost in Xenoblade's magnificent landscapes

 

[SecretMoblin]

Can we officially say that the art direction in Xenoblade is top-notch? The world created is so lush, bright, and vivacious! (at least half of it) I absolutely HATE the dark, dank virtual worlds of Marrowind/Oblivion. Z

Xenoblade, to put it simply, is a breath of fresh air. That's why we're so excited for this release - to get lost in Xenoblade's magnificent landscapes

There's blue!! Actual, real blue! And green!

I don't get why color is such an abhorrent concept in modern game design. Is it really as simple as dark = mature? Because the Super Mario Galaxies are among the best-designed games of this generation, and they are bursting with color. Color is good!

 

[wsippel]

What's the game's frame rate anyway? Does it seem unstable in the more detailed areas and such, showing that a few more polygons here and there would make it crawl?

Framerate can become unstable in combat if you pull an unusual amount of enemies and use special attacks. Typical encounters are one to five enemies, and in those cases, the game usually runs smoothly (there are also a few planned large scale battles that happen in confined areas, without any slowdown). But in some cases, especially if you're overleveled and grind for certain drops, you'll sometimes try to pull severals groups at once, and fight a dozen or more enemies at the same time in an open environment. If you do that, and you use flashy skills like Monado Buster or many of Melia's skills, the game will slow down. Also worth noting in that regard is that some enemies are huge. Like, Shadow of the Colossus huge. Pull several of those at once, and the system will have a really hard time. It never crashed on me, though, even if I managed to start battles so insane you'll get Sandlot framerates (measured in seconds per frame, not frames per second).

 

[SecretMoblin]

Framerate can become unstable in combat if you pull an unusual amount of enemies and use special attacks. Typical encounters are one to five enemies, and in those cases, the game usually runs smoothly (there are also a few planned large scale battles that happen in confined areas, without any slowdown). But in some cases, especially if you're overleveled and grind for certain drops, you'll sometimes try to pull severals groups at once, and fight a dozen or more enemies at the same time in an open environment. If you do that, and you use flashy skills like Monado Buster or many of Melia's skills, the game will slow down. Also worth noting in that regard is that some enemies are huge. Like, Shadow of the Colossus huge. Pull several of those at once, and the system will have a really hard time. It never crashed on me, though, even if I managed to start battles so insane you'll get Sandlot framerates (measured in seconds per frame, not frames per second).

This game just keeps sounding better and better.

 

[Sadist]

Man, why you people gotta bring Morrowind into this?

Totally.

Spoiler

Morrowind is shit

 

[Alexios]

That big enemies? Is that an exaggeration? I've seen some of the random huge beasts in the fields but nothing that gigantic.

Good to know the game still has surprises for when I play it if that's the case.

 

[wsippel]

This game just keeps sounding better and better.

Don't get the wrong idea: It's not like you're fighting on the enemies. They're regular enemies, it's really just that they're enormous. Many times bigger than you. Regular enemies the size of houses, basically. It's still really fun fighting those things, though. Feels quite badass.