Misc: The LUE Post (warning: high levels of insanity inside)

[mrwiseman]

Guess we'll need to write them and ask what the fuck is going on. Maybe we need to send them a map of the world and tell them there's civilization here.

[Cataferal]

Nah, writing never helped last time. They just disregard the european gamers blindly, for some reason or other. Im not bothered though, i know i can import both Xenosaga Ep II and Baten kaitos if need be.
By the way, im hearing that the Gnosis make an appearance in Baten kaitos. ^_^

On the other hand, Konami have announced that they're releasing a load of extra features in Metal Gear Solid 3, just for the european launch (just as they have done for all their other releases). This includes the Boss Survivial/battle modes, Movie viewer, "european extreme" difficulty setting, and an unnamed surprise extra. Hideo Kojima stated that "we feel sorry for the americans, but the europeans have to wait until the bitter end, and we wanted to give them something to compensate for that". Ultimately, a lot of americans wanted the game sooner rather than wait for extras, so they got it in November; they'll no doubt receive the extras in a re-released version of the game (just like with MGS2:Substance).

Why cant other companies approach their game releases like this?

<font color="#345E81" size="1">[ December 04, 2004 06:12 PM: Message edited by: Cataferal ]</font>

[mrwiseman]

I wonder though, why not let us choose? I.e. release the game worldwide, then release the improved game worldwide.

[Cataferal]

I read up that Sony put the region block in as an option for the developers to use, just like with DVD's. From the games developers perspectives, its a marketing preference to see which regions they should allocate their future resources to. Its a frustration that wont go away, thanks to the fact theres no single company that wants to start doing otherwise.

On that note, its looking ever more unlikely that Baten kaitos wont reach europe; no tentative release date, nor announcement of a potantial release from either Nintendo or Namco. European gamers are starting to import the title, and i think i should do the same if the situation hasnt changed by early next year.

[Xellos]

Meh, at least GCNs are't hard to play imports with.

[mrwiseman]

IRT Cata: Grr [Insert my regional rant here ]

IRT Xel: Why?

I invite everybody to install mod-chips, import games, hack firmwares, and anyway violate regional locks of every console, DVD, etc. whenever you can. It makes kittens happy.

Taking pictures of your work and sending them to $ony and other companies doubles the population of kittens.

[Xellos]

You don't need to mod a GCN, or use something unreliable like a Magic Slide. Just need an AR or Freeloader.

Oh, speaking of MGS3, I have it on my HDD, from my cousin. I haven't gotten around to playing it, busy with end of the semester workload+Mary.

[glenn frog knight]

Oh, it is? Then I'll take a look at getting it.

[Cataferal]

IRT Wiseman - Yeah. I collect an unofficial magazine over here, named "Cube", and they provide a Freeloader with every issue, encouraging gamers to import; for this very reason. Sadly, Nintendo are cutting off trade with any retailer actually selling import titles, meaning they're tricky to find for a good price.
But then, we have ebay.

Oh yeah, *insert obligatory region locking rant here*.

IRT Xel - Excellent! I hear that in loading MGS3 onto your HDD, you cut out the loading times, and it eliminates the occasional dip in frame rate. Its quite expensive to get all the kit to do that though, and the HDD still hasnt arrived in europe, so i wont be able to do that come March.

[mrwiseman]

IRT Xellos: Oh, like the Dreamcast. Cool, it makes frustrating xenophobic regional locks even easier.


IRT Cata:

I collect an unofficial magazine over here, named "Cube", and they provide a Freeloader with every issue, encouraging gamers to import

That's great! That magazine has the balls.


Nintendo are cutting off trade with any retailer actually selling import titles

I hope something bad happens to them.


You can also try non shops that will ship like Tronix. Large shops like Amazon are under the control of the corporative maffias and won't ship games to Europe, but smaller ones will. Although you need to trust them.

Dammit, um... [more rant here please]