Gamepro's review of N-gage "Red Faction"

[thasadams]

Romero, I completely agree with you.  The N-Gage is a mediocre definition of comfortable and elegant hardware, but Nokia isn't just going to go away; they are going to make a better version, hopefully with more good games.

My only vexation with Nokia is the stupid skater-punk style gatherings they have periodically to promote the n-gage.

Nokia is on the right track, they just need to do better, which I believe they will do.

[ZZT-X]

quote:Originally posted by The Rome.ro:
SNK was a small joke of a company. Nokia dominates the cellular market and makes several billion dollars a year. Nokia is committed to owning the handheld market.  There is no such thing as the N-Gage "making it" until the next version.  It cannot go away because Nokia will not let it go away.

The PSP isn't a cell phone, either. Convergence is the key. The GameBoy came out when no one had cell phones + Nintendo doesn't know how to make a cell phone.

Soon, you'll have your credit card in your cell phone and be able to use it wirelessly. Already, the world is gearing up for wireless credit cards themselves and the next step beyond that is to embed that information in the one device you will always have on you: your cellphone.

The camera is already becoming a staple of cellphones, and so will gaming be.  Convergence.

That still won't make any of the people who just posted negative remarks in this thread buy it.
Just because your cellphone can play games doesn't mean it's going to be your primary gaming station, just like your cellphone won't be your only camera/MP3 player.
Especially considering that the PSP can generate 30 million polygons, and the N-Gage can generate what? Oh yeah, PSOne-equivalent schlock.

Updates every 6 months? Well, they'd better be freakin' leaps an' bounds for it's own dang sake.
Nokia can pour all its millions into this thing, but that doesn't mean people will buy it.

Nintendo and Sony may not know how to make a cellphone, but they sure as heck know how to make a gaming system.
Nokia knows how to make a cell phone, sure, but I seriously question their ability to make a gaming device.

If they want the portable gaming market, they'd better try a lot harder a lot quicker.

[コービン]

Hmmm...
I really do believe Nintento's GameBoy Advance had freaking sex with Sega's GameGear (which is the shit!) and out popped the N-gage1. Then the N-gage1 had an affair with the Nokia Cell Phone, and then the N-gage2 popped out. Then, the N-gage2 got it on with a Taco, and then we have...
The Nokia N-gage!
Hehehe...I'm crazy.  

[The Romero]

ZZX-T: Yep, that's what Nokia's doing.  

[Redwood]

Nokia improving on the product fairly rapidly (unlike Nintendo) will be welcome. I'd like to see Nintendo have some good competition in the handheld market.

[コービン]

The only thing that would be hard is appealing to the market.
Sega went the same route as Nokia, and look where they ended up. I'm just worried that if nobody is interested in the N-gage, Nokia will continue to pump out products, and it would have the same fate as the Neo-Geo.
It's like PS2 vs Gamecube. PS2 appeals to more of the croud because of popularity.
The N-gage vs. GBA is fairly the same. Also, remember Nintendo released the SP.
I predict that it's going to be hard for Sony with their PSP product. All of those focus on different things - DVD playback, MP3, Cell phone, etc. Whereas the GBA is a dedicated machine. That's the problem.
I really believe nobody will topple Nintendo's reign. They might come close like Sega once did, but in the end it's really the choice of the consumer.
If the n-gage isn't that popular now, it's pointless to release a new n-gage w/out the proper hold that it needs on the market. Nokia will lose lots of money, and the machine will fade out. Neo-Geo did the same thing, but if I remember Sega's Gamegear was around for awhile until the Gameboy pocket came out.
That's the thing. If Nokia doesn't re-innovate, their toast.
So here's to Nokia. I hope they can topple the market. Really, I do.

[Pyros]

quote:Originally posted by The Rome.ro:
SNK was a small joke of a company. Nokia dominates the cellular market and makes several billion dollars a year. Nokia is committed to owning the handheld market.  There is no such thing as the N-Gage "making it" until the next version.  It cannot go away because Nokia will not let it go away.

Then let's hope Nokia hires someone who is a gamer to give input. I am an avid handheld user, and I would not touch the N-Gage. It doesn't do any of it's features well. If I want to talk, I have to hold it sideways, like a taco. That's not what I bought it for. If I want to play a game, I have to look into a small selection, and tolerate constant crashes and a hard to change carts system.

 

quote:The PSP isn't a cell phone, either. Convergence is the key. The GameBoy came out when no one had cell phones + Nintendo doesn't know how to make a cell phone.

Nokia doesn't know how to make a gaming system. However, they managed to make the N-Gage, even if it's not great. If Nokia could make a gaming console, then yes, Nintendo could make a cell phone. The GBC and the GBA hook up with cell phones in Japan.

 

quote:Soon, you'll have your credit card in your cell phone and be able to use it wirelessly. Already, the world is gearing up for wireless credit cards themselves and the next step beyond that is to embed that information in the one device you will always have on you: your cellphone.

However, the N-Gage hardly appeals to gamers right now. Why would they pay all that extra money to get a horribly designed "console" that is also horribly designed in terms of a phone?

 

quote:The camera is already becoming a staple of cellphones, and so will gaming be.  Convergence.

Cameras are a lot easier to input into cell phones then game devices at this time and age. Unless Nokia asks real people and real gamers, like myself, what they think about the N-Gage and it's future design, they're going to get no where. Admit it, whoever designed the current N-Gage is an idiot. Why would you make it a taco shaped device? Sure, that may suit the gaming portion, but it makes the cell phone bit very uncomfortable. And the software isn't too great either. Constant crashing? And the hardware. All those steps to remove the cart. And there's so many other flaws involved. It would be nice to see the N-Gage succeed, but without real input from real people, it won't.
 
 [ January 07, 2004, 07:05 PM: Message edited by: Pyros ]

[chiQ]

I just saw the X-Play review on TechTV. It wasn't good (1/5), but they qualified the review afterwards, saying many of the issues were due to the game not being entirely suitable for porting.

They complained of slow-downs, and muddy art (should have had me do the artwork), and simply that FPS and handhelds don't go together. They cited Tomb Raider as a 3d game that works (TPS - autoaim) without slowdowns.

http://www.techtv.com/xplay/shownotes/story/0,24330,3588457,00.html

Presumeably shownotes for that review will be posted eventually.

[sp3c]

yes but the reason Tomb Raider does not slows down is because it's allready running at like 4 frames per second or something like that.

FPS do work on handhelds imo just look at Doom2 on the GBA, that was absolutely stunning  

I'd love to try n-gage red faction but I don't have an n-gage so I'm just going to fade away into the background now

[コービン]

Technically, under law, you can download the N-gage emulator and the Red Faction ROM, and keep it in your possesion for no longer than 24 hrs.
After that, it's illegial. Hey--it worked for me (try and buy!)!

[Pyros]

quote:Originally posted by Corbachu:
Technically, under law, you can download the N-gage emulator and the Red Faction ROM, and keep it in your possesion for no longer than 24 hrs.
After that, it's illegial. Hey--it worked for me (try and buy!)!

No you cannot. That's like saying you can download a computer game for free for 24 hours. And you can't.

Also, it suprised me how quickly N-Gage emulation came up.

[コービン]

quote:Originally posted by Pyros:

quote:Originally posted by Corbachu:
Technically, under law, you can download the N-gage emulator and the Red Faction ROM, and keep it in your possesion for no longer than 24 hrs.
After that, it's illegial. Hey--it worked for me (try and buy!)!

No you cannot. That's like saying you can download a computer game for free for 24 hours. And you can't.

Also, it suprised me how quickly N-Gage emulation came up.

So all those things over the years explaining in -all- of the diclaimers were false?
Just wanna know  

[Pyros]

quote:Originally posted by Corbachu:
So all those things over the years explaining in -all- of the diclaimers were false?
Just wanna know  

Emulation was created so one could create their own homemade programs for the system. It was not made to allow "backups", or a "test trial" of games. ROMs of commercial games are illegal.

[コービン]

quote:Originally posted by Pyros:
 

quote:Originally posted by Corbachu:
So all those things over the years explaining in -all- of the diclaimers were false?
Just wanna know      

Emulation was created so one could create their own homemade programs for the system. It was not made to allow "backups", or a "test trial" of games. ROMs of commercial games are illegal.

Unless you own the original game and system.  
 
 [ January 15, 2004, 08:18 PM: Message edited by: Corbachu ]

[Pyros]

quote:Originally posted by Corbachu:
Unless you own the original game and system.    

http://www.nintendo.com/corp/legal.jsp#download_rom