17 replies to this topic

[Various Things]

I don't have the issue yet (it's officially out Thursday) but according to this post , issue 176 of UK games magazine Edge features a retrospective article on NiGHTS.

Now, anyone who reads Edge will know that the Time Extends are the most consistently interesting/most consistently pretentious (delete as applicable) part of the magazine. They're essentially retrospective articles on games - they usually go for the more overlooked titles in a series (the first one was on Zelda: Majora's Mask, rather than say Ocarina of Time or ALTTP), or ones which were obviously flawed but which nevertheless had insteresting and innovative features (like The Nomad Soul). Usually they focus on storytelling, but there have been some on more abstract "pure gameplay" games like Frequency.

There aren't many of them online, but for examples, here's one on Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time:
http://www.edge-online.co.uk/archives/2005...ce_of_persi.php

...and one on P.N.03:
http://www.edge-online.co.uk/archives/2006/05/pn03.php

...and one on Beyond Good and Evil:
http://www.edge-online.co.uk/archives/2005...nd_good_evi.php


So basically, one on NiGHTS Into Dreams should be very interesting to read!

[will]

I look forward to reading this, its definately the best part of the mag - especially when its a game you know inside out as I'm sure most of us will with NiGHTS.

I'll certainly try and pick up a copy tomorrow.

[whatabout_paul]

I pick up the odd issue of Edge if I feel like it and prefer it to say Games Master or Games TM as my multi format magazine of choice. It can be a bit of a chore to read at times thanks to some of the writers going off on massively convoluted ramblings but for the most part they get their point across well and are generally quite honest in their viewpoints. An issue with NiGHTS in it sounds like a must buy… I wonder if there’ll be a preview of JOD in the ‘Hype’ section too.

[Sairus]

I'm not a big fan of EDGE... decent magazine, but it never really clicked with me for some reason... my college library gets it in though, so I'll definatly give the article a leaf through~

...also, after reading their P.N.03 article, I'm not hugly impressed... he seemed to overly sugar coat everything... Hopefully the NiGHTS one has a little actual critique in it...

[Misaki-chan]

I don't know Sairus, it's kind of refreshing for me to see someone who's actually willing to give P.N.03 the time of day, outside of a two-paragraph review. As for sugar coating everything, he was actually harder on the game than most reviews I've seen. I mean, if I can master P.N.03, any gamer should be able to...

After reading that, I'm definitely interested in what they might say about NiGHTS.

[whatabout_paul]

Picked up the magazine today and the first thing I read was the Time Extended segment. To be fair it's quite a good read but it doesn't really let on about anything we didn’t already know. There are some cool pictures and some talk of Christmas NiGHTS… if someone doesn’t beat me to it I can try and get it scanned and online for all to read.

[~Tsuki~]

Scans would be wonderful. *____* I wonder if they will do a Christmas NiGHTS version of JoD as well. That would be a neat unloackable if they didn't want to release a whole new game for it.~

[animejosse]

I second Tsuki. Even if there's no new info it's always interesting to read things like that.

[whatabout_paul]

Go on then, you twisted my arm. I even dusted off my new scanner to get these things online for everybody's viewing pleasure.









Just seeing NiGHTS again in a magazine is a cool thing to behold. Elseware in the magazine JOD is mentioned in the "Incomming" secion featuring an already seen picture of the boss fight.

A journy of courage, hope and inspiration, says Sega. The hope here is that Wii gets itself another bona fide game to join Super Paper Mario, not a gimmick, party prop or technical experement

Finally at the start of the 'Hype' section under 'Edge's most wanted' JOD is the third of three games featured, along with another already seen screenshot.

It should be a natural fit for the Wii Remote, and it's high time there was a sequel. So please, please, please don't mess this one up.

Amen to that!

[~Tsuki~]

Those are awsome. ^__^ They did a really nice job on the article. <3's~ Thank you so much for sharing these with us.

[Zero 22]

Awesome layout

Thanks for sharing~

[animejosse]

That was a nice read ^^ Thanks for sharing it with us!

[JaxTH]

Nice.

Now send them to TRiPPY! :0

[Various Things]

You should at least have waited until the next issue of the magazine was out before posting those scans. Diverting legitimate sales, and all that! I hope all of you who live in the UK and liked the article are actually going to buy it now.


Anyway, I liked the article. Not one of the very best Time Extends, in that it didn't give a lot of insightful new ways of looking at the game, but much more in-depth and welcome than NiGHTS' usual brief mentions in "top 10 overlooked games" lists. I liked the description of the "leap of faith" bit of Twin Seeds, too, and the description of "teasing" the game timer - although I was surprised that they didn't make the connection to Crazy Taxi (a game whose mechanics I think have a fair amount in common with NiGHTS). I always think that a good Time Extend will make you interested enough to check out an obscure game, or revisit something you haven't played for a while.

Also, I noticed that in this Time Extend and their mentions of JOD, they refer to it as "NiGHTS". But the issue also features a big article about Sega since they stopped making the Dreamcast[1], in which they refer to "NiGHTS". Stick to one of them, please!


[1] That's one of the things I love about Edge... as a print magazine, they can never be first with the news. But when they do publish an article on a news item (say, a console launch), they put it in context and go into much more depth than websites and other magazines. The Sega article this issue might not exactly be "news", but I haven't read many summaries of Sega's post-Dreamcast fortunes that were as interesting as this one.

[whatabout_paul]

You should at least have waited until the next issue of the magazine was out before posting those scans. Diverting legitimate sales, and all that!

I did think of that but I thought if anyone had a problem with it they could tell me to remove them. Plus it's only 4 pages of a 130 page magazine. Glad you liked it anyway, I've attempted to alert Trippy of its presence.

[gsk]

'Print is dead' - Dr Egon Spengler

Anyway, aside from some errors, the best NiGHTS article I've ever read. Some wonderful observations; except for references, it read like a degree essay lol

Is it just me, or are all the screenshots new and taken using Cassini? I've never seen NiGHTS that smooth before...

[Huruyami]

D: wow thats neat thanks for sharing that.

[Various Things]

Is it just me, or are all the screenshots new and taken using Cassini? I've never seen NiGHTS that smooth before...

In Edge's recent "File" reprint compilations, they reprinted the original Super Mario 64 review, and they mentioned that at the time its bright colours tested their aging image capture facilities. So perhaps it's just because the capabilities of screen capture systems have improved since 1996, so new screenshots are better than the ones released at the time? After all, look at how many people run their games consoles or VCRs into their PCs to capture videos for YouTube - you'd need a high-end PC to do that in 1996! So it's no surprise that still image capture abilities should have improved a bit too.

So I think it's more likely that they were grabbing the image from a Saturn rather than using an emulator.

Then again, I could just be spouting rubbish.