Articles covering VOOT VER.5.66 for Xbox 360

[Testament/Seven7]

As much as thats probably right, why couldn't they just say that? Well, in not so many words of course, but still...

[Davo87]

Translation from the official site:

Hello. It is [murayama] of the XBLA [oratan] transplant team.
Living it, it informs them of it.

The XBLA version electronic brain time for fighting [ba-charon;oratorio] tangram …

It safely passed Microsoft's test.

The heroic pose went out instinctively the moment when the mail of the report was opened was to find the character of brilliant "Pass" to equivalent [bibi] [rimashitaga] and the mail text. Moreover, the heroic pose of strengthening considerably.

It doesn't worry though a peripheral person looked seem suspicious. ..(.. ..laughter..)

It ..trouble.. puts it on you of a related post of Sega of making the document for the bug check and submitting etc. , and it is possible to pass safely, and it is assumed [ho] [] for the time being though it was rolling up.

I think that the delivery day etc. will be decided in the future.
We will tell it again here when there are some progress.

..waiting.. ..[taseshi].. I am sorry, please wait for a while.

I must be going by this this time though it is short for a moment because I then make the telephone of "..early delivery.. -" and pressing in charge and return to work to roll.

Good-bye.

Green lights from MS thats its good to go for online? Tho still no release date. -_-

[RVR - 42]

*heroic pose*

[MentholMoose]

Green lights from MS thats its good to go for online? Tho still no release date. -_-

It's gotta be soon. I think it's time to buy an Xbox 360.

*heroic pose*

lol. This doesn't appear to be caused by a bad translation, either.

[Knoxximus]

Menthol is probably the 1st person ever to mod a controller before he owned the system.

[RVR - 42]

Menthol is probably the 1st person ever to mod a controller before he owned the system.

Hahaha now that's dedication.

I'm so pumped for this...even if im not getting it. It's great for Virtual On.

[Long Shadow]

An article about VOOT passing MS's test, also mention something about the CC timing being changed a bit.

http://www.insertcredit.com/

"In the latest column over at the official Oratan 5.66 site it's been reported that the game has passed submission at Microsoft. This is the final approval stage for the game before it can go to market, so a release should be imminent. That said, there are worrying reports over on 2ch and other Japanese blogs that some of the close combat functionality has changed from the arcade original. Specifically the way in which quick steps function and how they're initiated. Normally, once in close combat range you press one of the turbo buttons and pull a direction. Doing this will have your VR do a semi-circular hop around your target. Combining this with a weapon trigger will produce a circle slash. This is core to how close combat works in Oratan and reports are that the timing for pulling a quick step off are much much tighter now, making it more difficult to use. This could be just one, of many, problems the game now has due to the lack of sticks (as the leverage of the stick would have made the timing more manageable). Though SEGA have said they're at least "looking into" releasing a twinstick peripheral. My robot fingers are firmly crossed."

I don't know if it's rumor or fact, or just peoples opinions with the 360 controller at the public playtest at that sega event a few weeks ago. I'm just blind guessing, because how else would anyone know how it plays yet, unless Sega maybe got help from expert VOOT players for the control tweaking for the 360 port.

Thoughts?

[MentholMoose]

The post is light on details and has no sources cited (just "blogs" and "2ch", not exactly authoritative). In any case, if you read carefully, he is actually complaining about the lack of Twin Sticks, rather than any actual changes.

If the reports are based on the "Twin Stick Type A" scheme, which requires (according to the control scheme poster at the Asobinasai event) the use of an analog stick for movement, it is to be expected that the timing will be difficult. Not only do analog sticks have dead zones, but also the actual point the digital input will register can vary depending how how it is configured (ideally it would be user adjustable). Plus, they lack a "click" sound and feel to confirm when the input has registered (like from a joystick micro switch), and don't even have a clear stopping point like a directional pad (I'm assuming the input registers somewhere before the far edge of the thumb stick throw). Basically, they couldn't be less ideal for a game requiring precise digital input.

The validity of the complaint is arguable, since whoever the sources are probably didn't play it much, and wouldn't have had time to adjust (I'm thinking about the Asobinasai event, with only two VOOT kiosks and huge lines). My position should be apparent considering that I've already modded Twin Sticks, before even purchasing an Xbox 360.

[Long Shadow]

Well, lets hope that's all it is.

On a side note, Banjo-Tooie is scheduled to come out on XBLA on the 29th of April, so that means either VO:OT will most likely come out in May, or 2 LIVE Arcade titles come out on the 29th.

On another side note, did anyone know that OutTrigger on the DC supported the DC Twin-Sticks? I only found out the other day. I came across a few vague mentions of this on some site/s somewhere, but no concrete confirmation anywhere. I tried it, and it works, even with a picture of TW in the controller config screen. It feels a bit weird, but not bad. With the right in-game config (B1 in this case), it can feel kinda like VO, even with the pull the sticks apart to jump action.

Sorry for going a bit off-topic.

[Dreamcazman]

On another side note, did anyone know that OutTrigger on the DC supported the DC Twin-Sticks? I only found out the other day. I came across a few vague mentions of this on some site/s somewhere, but no concrete confirmation anywhere. I tried it, and it works, even with a picture of TW in the controller config screen. It feels a bit weird, but not bad. With the right in-game config (B1 in this case), it can feel kinda like VO, even with the pull the sticks apart to jump action.

I had no idea the sticks worked with Outtrigger, good find. I got that game somewhere here too, got bored of it quickly at the time, but I will have to try it out again with the sticks next time I dig out my DC.

[RVR - 42]

Nice update Long Shadow. Man...CC getting tweaked? Oh noes! I'm thinking it is due to the lack of twin sticks though, like Menthol said. Although I gotta say...it sounds to me like toy do the Circle slash the exact same way in 5.66 as you do in 5.45 which is no problem on the Dreamcast pad so it might be that lame@$$ 360 pad. =P Anywho...Banjo-Tooie April 29th you say? Honestly...i'm assuming VOOT to be pushed back 'til May at the earliest.

[Testament/Seven7]

There's also a vid on youtube of ikaruga being played with the dc twinsticks...apperently offers better control than an arcade stick.

[Knoxximus]

*rummages around for his copy of Outrigger...*

[Long Shadow]

I just tried Ikaruga with the Twin-sticks. It's weird, move with the left stick and shoot & swap with the right trigger and thrust button. Not for me, but I can see some people liking it.

And the Banjo-Tooie release date is official, from RARE's Banjo site, so I'm expecting May too, though two Arcade titles on one day isn't unheard of.

http://forums.banjo-kazooie.com/blogs/s ... 47092.aspx

And I guess we'll just have to wait and see what's up with the CC, but I can't imagine them screwing it up. I'm guessing it's just tuned to the 360 controller, or maybe the version these people played is an untuned version. Who knows.

[MentholMoose]

I always used the mouse and keyboard with Outtrigger. I don't think I knew it supported Twin Sticks... at least I never tried using them. IIRC, the arcade version actually used a trackball interface!

[Henshin1]

Hmm.. They didnt have to tweak anything when porting voot to dreamcast did they? I don't see how performing a quick step will be any harder on an xbox 360 controller.

[Sixfortyfive]

And I guess we'll just have to wait and see what's up with the CC, but I can't imagine them screwing it up. I'm guessing it's just tuned to the 360 controller, or maybe the version these people played is an untuned version. Who knows.

I doubt the game's controls themselves have changed at all. I'm with MM in that it's probably the result of using analog devices to approximate things in a strictly digital game. Or the 360's d-pad just not cutting it. Both are fairly logical assumptions.

He's also right in that you really shouldn't rely too much on the opinion of one gamer from 2ch.

[MentholMoose]

Hmm.. They didnt have to tweak anything when porting voot to dreamcast did they? I don't see how performing a quick step will be any harder on an xbox 360 controller.

In Dreamcast VOOT you use the d-pad for movement. A d-pad is better than an analog stick for a game requiring digital inputs, and thus the timing for moves such as the quick step are not particularly difficult in DC VOOT with a control pad. In comparison, I think the Xbox 360 d-pad doesn't even function in VOOT, at least with the default control schemes. Check out this page:
VOOT pictures by xblah

In the "Standard" scheme, the d-pad has nothing mapped to it! Furthermore, I saw a photo taken from the Sega Asobinasai event showing a diagram of the "Twin Stick Type A" scheme, and the d-pad was also unmapped. So, at the event, people likely had to use the analog stick for movement. I think it would take time to get used to playing like this, time that people at the event didn't have (due to long lines and only two kiosks). Additionally, even if the d-pad was working for movement, I've heard that the d-pad is a weakness of the Xbox 360 controller... specifically, I've heard from several people now that it's the "worst d-pad ever" .

As far as changes from VER.5.4 (arcade) to VER.5.45 (DC), I think it was mostly bug fixes and graphical changes. I've played both extensively and can't recall any differences in the inputs. If anyone has any comments on this, please post them.

[Dreamcazman]

I've heard that the d-pad is a weakness of the Xbox 360 controller... specifically, I've heard from several people now that it's the "worst d-pad ever" .

lol, you heard right. The D-pad is atrocious.

[Sixfortyfive]

The 360's d-pad rests about an inch higher above the board contacts than it should (maybe a slight exaggeration, but still) and is so super-sensitive that it's impossible to do any kind of quarter/half circle motions with any kind of consistency. This thread has a great explanation of what I mean when I say super-sensitive. It's very difficult to input just one cardinal direction on the 360 pad at a time because the sensors are laid out so that one of the adjacent directions is also likely to be mistakenly detected. Hitting a diagonal when you didn't mean to is a very common occurrence.

I found the Madcatz fightpad to be disappointing, but I don't regret buying it because anything is better than this monstrosity. I'm a controller snob in general and really, really hated the Dualshock (still do), but it's not even in the same league of sucktitude that is the Xbox 360 controller.

I swear, the fact that the Saturn pad remains to be the standard in digital control over 14 years after it hit the market speaks just as much of the ineptitude of modern hardware manufacturers as it does to the strengths of that particular pad.