Thu - December 21, 2006

Thu - October 26, 2006

Why I think Wii's really got something

There's one overarching reason why I think Wii is poised to slam dunk Sony's PS3 launch right in its face (wait, that didn't make any sense...too late!). It's that you do not have to explain why Wii is fun. All you have to do is look at these videos that Nintendo has put up at Wii.com. It doesn't seem to matter -- young, old, female, German...these people (if they're actors, they're believable actors) are having real fun with Wii. If this is the kind of response the system gets once the kiosks are out and the system's making the talk show rounds, it's hard to think that Nintendo would have anything BUT a hit on their hands.



Gaming = family fun again.

Posted at 12:33 AM     | |

Wed - October 25, 2006

Launch excitements are go!

Ethan's got an interesting post over at his 1UP blog about how, a month ago he was not excited for PS3 and now he is. I can identify with that -- happened to me last year where I "claimed" I wasn't excited about the 360 launch, but then got caught up in the fever of it and ended up paying Craig's List prices for one....and it was a CORE. A TARD PACK. Ugh. At least mine hasn't broken down.

But anyway, go read Ethan's blog. I tried posting this comment on his post, but 1UP is apparently suffering from connection problems, so I couldn't post it there... here goes:

It comes down to this: new hardware launches are exciting.

Everything you thought a month ago is still true. The PS3 is still overpriced, there are still only 1-2 great next gen games at launch, and Blu-Ray is still unproven and more expensive than DVD. The only difference is it's so close to being released. That's the excitement.

Like you, I have found that having an HDTV and a 360 has absolutely soured me on anything from last generation. I have Bully, and that's a lotta fun, but the only reason I'm continuing to play that is because it's 16:9 and looks pretty good despite being washed-out and 480i. Okami, a game I should be hyped to play, is similarly getting the shaft -- I can't play it because it's 4:3 and looks like basura on my TV.

The difference with Wii is exactly the kind of difference I've seen from going between DS and PSP. PSP is technologically the superior system. I should be wanting to play everything that comes out on it. But the fact of it is that I'm having a lot more fun with just about everything on DS than I have with anything on PSP, regardless of graphics prowess. Ridge Racer was the game I played the most on PSP, and I haven't touched that since two months after the system launched. I get the same kind of buzz from Wii. Because most all of the Wii games I'm interested in are at least 16:9, I don't see that wide a difference. It's when games are 480i and 4:3 (like with Okami on PS2) that I don't have a desire to play them. So far the footage I've seen of Wii games on a 16:9 display have been mostly great. And, it's not hard to find games on 360 (and probably soon on PS3) that despite being on next-gen hardware, look decidedly NON-next-gen. After Gears comes out and sets the bar really high, it's going to make a lot of those games look piss poor by comparison. :(

I do have a question, though. Multi-platform releases are becoming the norm for our industry. You look at the PS3 launch lineup, and 2/3rds are ports of previously-released 360 titles. Most of the games coming in the next YEAR are multiplatform. In the future, when you are faced with a simultaneous release on 360 and PS3, and there is a negligible quality difference...which version will you get? One has achievements and the ease of the 360's Live interface for online play and keeping tabs on how far your friends are in a game, the other doesn't.

Wow this is a long comment. Anyway, great post Ethan!

If a Wii game is gonna look like this on my TV... I can live with 480p:

Posted at 11:05 PM     | |

Tue - October 24, 2006

The rest of my gaming year, 2006

johntv's post over at his blog about what games he's picking up for the rest of the year got me to thinking about the games I'm going to be picking up this year. It's not as long of a list as his, but it's a pretty good one, with some kind of new game from now until at least the end of November. December's oddly dry, though. Here is my shopping list:

10/25 Phantasy Star Universe (360)
10/31 Xbox 360 Live Wireless Headset
11/06 Elite Beat Agents (DS)
11/12 Gears of War (360)
11/14 Rainbow Six Vegas (360)
11/19 Nintendo Wii
11/19 Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Wii)
11/19 Excite Truck (Wii)

That should keep me busy for a while, doncha think? No PS3 until '07. I'm still debating whether or not I should get the 360 HD DVD drive. On the one hand, it's $200. On the other, I do own an HDTV and I wouldn't mind being able to Netflix HD discs every now and again. Hmmm....

One thing I do know, I'm going to be playing Phantasy Star Universe all weekend long.

Posted at 11:37 PM     | |

Mon - October 2, 2006

I have a chinese accent and I gamble with robots

I am not a gambler, not a very good one at least. I accepted this fact a long time ago and have avoided anything in a casino except slot machines simply because I am not good at cards. It's a shame they don't have UNO for money in casinos, really, because that'd be my only shot at some winnings.

When the free XBLA version of Texas Hold 'Em came out, I downloaded it. I thought, "hey, this poker thing is pretty popular, maybe I should download this for free and give it a shot." Famous last words. Since that came out I've enjoyed playing thousands of hands of Texas Hold 'Em despite the fact that I've parted with thousands of virtual dollars. It's just a fun game and the because I'm not playing with real money it puts me at ease. It's been a slippery slope. Now when I'm not playing the game I'll find myself watching Celebrity Poker Showdown just to see how people who sorta know what they're doing handle the various situations. I can't say that it's had any effect on my playing but I'm learning.

My enjoyment of the free Texas Hold 'Em inspired me to use some store credit and pick up Activision's World Series of Poker for the Xbox 360. A lot of people have seen me playing it and I'll get IMs off my buddy list asking me how it is. So I'll tell you -- it's not that great. The gameplay is much better than the free Texas Hold 'Em, but WSoP does not do anything elegantly and it suffers from the worst case of uncanny valley I have seen on the Xbox 360 thus far. I mean jesus this is BAD. I've heard that in real poker you can kinda/sorta/sometimes tell when a person's bluffing by watching their eyes or their body language. But you'd have to be some kind of scientician to get any read off the cold, robotic stare of all the characters in WSoP. They don't blink, they don't flinch, they have this constantly hollow, unfeeling, zombie-ish, dead stare that'd be more at home in Resident Evil than at a poker table. It's like the Showbiz Pizza animatronics are playing poker -- it's terrible. I'm sure the game was rushed through development and what I'm playing is just a slightly glossy Xbox 1 game, but this is pretty awful-looking.



Then there's that cool Digimask character creation thing. It's the big selling point of the game and it's actually part of the reason I picked it up since I got the Xbox Live Vision camera at the same time. I thought that putting myself in the game would be pretty darn cool. And it is. Sorta. You create your Digimask face but after it's done you can't go back and edit it or even preview what some of the options will look like when they're put on your face. For instance, I tinkered around with the glasses option (since I wear them). You pick a set of frames off a nondescript list without being given a preview, only to be left shocked and surprised to see that your new face has been given HUGE cartoon glasses. The only way to fix it is to retake your photos and make a whole new face.

My other problem with the Digimask stuff comes with the voice samples. You can select from a number of voices in a list, and you're given a small preview of what it sounds like as you scroll between them. My problem is in how they're labeled. It's Voice 1, 2, 3, etc. when it should've had more descriptive labels like "black stereotype," "chinese stereotype," "mexican stereotype," "white dude." Going on just tone alone, I mistakenly chose the "chinese" voice, so I say something like "these cards are like origami, and so I shall fold it" every other hand. Should I want to change the setting I have to redo the whole Digimask face and take another picture again. I guess I'm stuck being the chinaman for now.

The rest of my gripes with the game are just small, niggling points that piss me off. The game takes a stupid amount of time to load. It quickly loads up the Activision and Poker logos, then takes 30 seconds to load the title screen. You press start only to wait ANOTHER 30-60 seconds for the menu to come up. Then you have to go through an agonizing amount of menus to load up your career game and start playing. It's rather ridiculous. This game cannot possibly be pushing the system so hard that it takes this long. The other problem is the game's volume. The sucker is too damn loud. I usually have my 360 at my TV's "20" setting. I have to turn it down to "10" or less for WSoP simply because it would otherwise blow my set's speaker out. It also means that if I have any custom soundtracks going I have to turn that volume up in the Guide menu.

Now I'm wondering... has anyone made a poker game that looks good and plays well? This one plays OK -- you set the computer to play fast and you can be done with a game in no time flat. But otherwise, the game's insanely mediocre. I'm glad I didn't pay for it otherwise I might be a little upset. I guess they expect you to see the word "poker" on it and buy it (hey, kinda like I did!) but the least they could've done is make it a good game. It's merely OK because it's the only alternative to the free XBLA Texas Hold 'Em. Otherwise, don't bother.

Posted at 07:20 PM     | |

Fri - September 22, 2006

Strangely familiar...

Hrmm...





"They're fine. In fact, they're better than fine...they're not aging anymore. See? They're smiling."

Posted at 11:19 PM     | |

TGS, Wii, PS3 megapost

It's been surprising from where I sit, watching the messageboard talk about TGS, PS3 and Wii. Last week, Nintendo was dicking us all over with a $250 price tag when the system was $213 in Japan (even though the US is getting a game in the box and Japan isn't). This week, Sony lowers the price of the PS3 in Japan by 10,000 yen and adds an HDMI port (which a small percentage of HDTVs even have right now anyway), doesn't lower the price at all in the US, doesn't say jack about the Network Platform and somehow...Sony's still golden. Must be the fog of MGS4/Lair/Resistance/Warhawk/Final Fantasy etc.

Sometimes I really wonder just how much Sony has to screw up in order to actually have it affect them. Nintendo, it's clear -- all they have to do is not include "HD graphics" (even though 1/3rd of US HDTV owners don't use it to display HD content yet 97% are completely and totally happy) and it is a dealbreaker to some. Sony...let's see...they can screw up their E3 press conference, they can screw up their TGS press conference, they can remove previously announced and shown ports, they can make it incompatible with all your PS2 accessories even for backwards compatibility, they can price the thing above the reach of the normal consumer and make them pay for a brand-new proprietary disc format (which won't benefit any consumer without an HDTV except in game storage), they can sell you the GT HD tech demo and make you buy components of it piecemeal. I have to wonder where it stops, or if it stops.



When Amazon.com put the Wii up for pre-order late last week, I jumped on it. Yes, I pre-ordered my Wii. I'm very excited about it, and not just because I get free overnight shipping as a member of Amazon Prime. I did it mainly for insurance purposes. In case I can't get one through other means, here's my backup. I actually still plan on going to the store that morning (or the evening before, whatever -- it's sorta warm in Texas in November) to get a machine or at least get games and accessories. I have a good feeling that Wii might not be as completely insane as the PS3 launch will be. We'll see. I'll probably pick up Zelda and either Excite Truck or Raving Rabbids.

I've been playing a lot of DS lately and a lot of the 360's casual games. It's not that I don't want to play something bigger or something that offers more--it's that these smaller, quick-hit types of games are what I have time for. I can switch on the system, play for a half hour or an hour, drop out, and feel like I've gotten my money's worth. This is what I want on Wii. I want the system because it looks like it'll provide me with exactly this kind of entertainment, and for whatever it doesn't provide me with, I've got a 360. At least for this year, I don't think I'll be buying a PS3. I don't need Blu-Ray (or HD DVD), Resistance is the only game I'm remotely interested in right now and not enough to justify plunking down $600 on a system, there'll be plenty else coming out on Wii, 360, DS and PS2 to keep me busy for another couple months at least, and I am not dealing with anymore lines and shortage bullshit like I did last year with 360. No. Not going to happen.

This is going to be such an interesting holiday season to watch. We're about to find out just how important price versus graphics capabilities are to the American consumer. The PSP can do a LOT more than a DS, but as we've seen over the last two years, the DS's price and unique control differences has made it an extremely attractive machine even with HUGE Sony franchises like Grand Theft Auto, SOCOM, Daxter (of Jak &), Metal Gear (OK, it was a card game, but still...), Ridge Racer, Hot Shots, Madden, etc. For all intents and purposes, the PSP should have been #1 a long time ago but isn't. I still wonder how the hell that happened when it was all but assured.

Now, the $64,000 question is: will this same sort of model apply to a home console? This is the first time since the Saturn and PS1 launches that two Japanese systems have launched this close together. It's the first time there's been this much of a price difference between two brand-new game systems (Wii and PS3, since 360 is a year "old"). And it's also the first time that there's been a game system option at every budget milestone straight out of the gate, starting from Wii at $250, then moving up to Xbox 360 at $300 and $400, and finally landing on PS3 at $500 and $600. Here it is -- here's the case study of graphics performance versus consumer cost. What happens this Christmas is going to change the way a lot of things happen in the industry in the future. Did a lot of people buy a 360 last year that don't want to pay $500-600 for another console with similar capabilities? Are they open to paying $250 for a console that may not look pretty but does things differently?

One thing that continues to kill me with PS3 is just how many promises Sony made and didn't deliver on, or have delivered on in half-assed ways, with PSP. UMD failed, and now that they've got Blu-Ray they've abandoned the tiny discs as a media format. I mean, they're introducing a portable media player that does not have a UMD slot . WTF? They also haven't done anything much with downloadable content like movies or TV shows, it's mostly just movie trailers or bonus clips of things. They haven't unlocked the ability to play full-def videos off of memory stick either, which gimps the machine's ability to play the movies/shows I've ripped from DVDs. And they seem to be going extremely slowly with the whole "download and play PS1 games on PSP" initiative that they talked about before E3 and yet isn't being talked about or shown at TGS (instead, they're going to sell you a barely remade PaRappa on PSP, a game that certainly doesn't hold up to multiple playthroughs). As if all that wasn't enough, it seems like there's a real lack of new games for PSP on display at TGS. It's rather disheartening. I dunno, the whole thing just does not instill confidence that they can set a course of action and follow-through with it. And I kinda agree with what's been said by Japanese analysts -- dropping the price in Japan and adding HDMI seems like they don't have confidence they'd be able to sell them so expensively in their home country.

Posted at 11:06 PM     | |

Mon - June 26, 2006

Why the PS3 may not benefit from the need for HD content

This afternoon on the drive home I was catching up on some of the EGM Live podcasts that I hadn't listened to yet. It's a great podcast, btw -- well worth subscribing to if you haven't yet. Anyway, I landed on the one from 6/14 where Shane, Mark, Shoe and M'Donahoe were discussing the grades given to 360, Wii and PS3 in the latest issue of EGM. And Shoe brought up an interesting point 16 minutes in -- that people buying HDTVs are going to be hungry/starved for HD content, and therefore they will buy PS3s because it plays Blu-Ray movies and HD games.

There's something wrong with this hypothesis.

While it's true that more and more people are buying HDTVs and there is a need for HD content, I am not convinced they're looking for the most expensive way to enjoy that content on their new sets. Why would they when there are loads of ways that real HD awesomeness can be experienced for very little money? Like free over-the-air programming, accessible with a cheap antenna ($19 at Best Buy). Or the HD package options available through cable/satellite providers. (For me, that's $7 added onto my cable bill -- an incredibly easy expense to live with.) Or maybe they'd go for a progressive-scan DVD player so that their DVDs will make the most efficient use of that new 16:9 widescreen display (no more black bars, woo!). Chances are the DVD player they already own supports progressive scan. Or if they don't have one, I bought a progressive-scan DVD player a year ago for...$39. The 480p picture looks great on my 42" Sony HDTV. You can get progressive-scan DVD players nowadays that upscan content to HD-like (720p/1080i) resolutions for under $100. OK, so let's talk games -- maybe they want 16:9 games. Well there are plenty of systems that already support 480p/720p widescreen display -- PS2, Xbox, 360, PS3, and even the "OHMIGODITSNOTHIGHDEF" Wii. The PS3 is the most expensive of those options. Do you really, honestly think that the majority of consumers are going to go for the most expensive thing on the menu? No freaking way.

Let's also not forget that we're in the middle of a format war with high-def DVD. There is no clear winner yet between Blu-Ray and HD DVD. The studios are divided on which one to support. The discs themselves are $5-10 more expensive than the same movie on DVD with the same, if not fewer (Fifth Element), special features. As a consumer, I'm not ready to put my money behind either one for fear that I'll be left with a white elephant with no new movies in two years' time. If you want a sure thing, it's that the vast majority of software people will play on their new HD sets is--wait for it--regular DVD. And you don't need a $600 Blu-Ray-capable video game system to do that, and for most people that will be good enough. Heck, it's been good enough for me. I've seen the Blu-Ray and HD DVD displays in action at Best Buy, and they look great. But I'm perfectly happy with the slightly lower resolution of regular ol' DVD and leaving my true high-def content for TV shows and movies on cable. And I'd consider myself a pretty tech-savvy consumer. I know what 720p and 1080i are, but I'd bet you that 95% of consumers haven't a clue what those mean much less know the difference between them. I am not convinced that people buy "new / awesome" technology for the mere reason that it's new / awesome. If that were true, people would've bought laserdisc back in the day. UMD would be successful. The majority of people would have ditched cable TV for satellite. They would've gone en masse to satellite radio. None of these are the case.

So anyway, that's why I think the need for HD content won't do a damn thing for PS3 in the immediate future.

Posted at 09:05 PM     | |

Tue - June 6, 2006

Some thoughts about E3, part I - PlayStation 3

As commenter Brandon kindly pointed out via the comments, I have yet to post any E3 observations. And...he's right--what the hell have I been doing? So I figured I'd better start with the big one -- PlayStation 3.

My opinion of PlayStation 3 is this: As soon as the words "five hundred ninety-nine dollars" escaped from Kaz Hirai's mouth at that press conference, I stopped caring. Granted, I wasn't there (I merely read the words on the web), but the effect was the same. Having come back to the world of casual gaming, where games are for fun and after-work pleasure, I just don't think I'll be jumping on that bandwagon. For one, it's too damn expensive; too rich for my blood. But that's not the only reason. I just don't have enough of an interest in Blu-Ray Disc to plunk down $600 on a system that (based on experience with the PS2's craptacular DVD player) will probably under-deliver. With Blu-Ray technology being this new -- newer than regular ol' DVD was when the PS2 launched -- I just don't have high expectations for that. Mark my words, it will be some brand of broken. Then there's the games. Besides Insomniac's awesome-looking, awesome-concept, bundle-of-awesomeness Resistance: Fall of Man, there aren't any games I really want to play on the machine. Granted, that could changed come Tokyo Game Show time, but I have my doubts as to whether any *one* game (a game that will be $60 minimum) could push me over the edge.

But there's an even bigger reason: I already have an Xbox 360. That console has nestled its way into my heart as my high-def gaming console of choice, and Xbox Live has become the benchmark for what I expect from a non-Nintendo-console's online presence. Based on Sony's track record with user interface and online connectivity over both the PS2 and PSP's lifespans, I do not have high hopes for what they'll deliver with PS3. There's absolutely no way that Sony will be able to deliver that kind of experience on PS3. I'll frankly be surprised if it's in the same hemisphere. Achievements, voice chat, custom soundtracks, online leaderboards for everything, very few cheaters/a-holes, Xbox Live Arcade, streaming music and photos off my Mac with very little fuss, etc. I just don't see a comparable experience on PS3 and these are features I can no longer live without. Besides, with most publishers pushing multiplatform titles, I'll likely get to play any game I would've maybe considered on PS3 on 360. And hey, they'll have rumble -- a feature I actually care more about than tilt.

It also doesn't matter that Sony has a cheaper 'Tard Pack for $100 less. That configuration may as well not exist -- I sure as HELL am not buying a Blu-Ray player without HDMI. That is a deal-breaker. So sorry Sony, you don't get my money this year. I'll be too busy spending that on games for 360 and the other console I'm going to get...Wii. Not to mention all the great stuff coming for DS and PS2. As far as I'm concerned, I'm pretty set gaming-wise.

Posted at 09:27 PM     | |

Thu - June 1, 2006

Thank you, Sears.com

So if you've been keeping up with the news, you know that the Nintendo DS Lite found its way onto a few retail shelves early. And while my local Target and Wal-Mart didn't have them, Sears did. More accurately, sears.com did, and they allowed in-store pickup. Awesome.

The first DS Lite I ordered for in-store pickup got me an e-mail informing me that while the ordering system thought it was in-stock at the nearby location, it actually wasn't and they cancelled the order. But being a persistent bastard, I figured I'd try one more time before giving up for the day. I placed another order for pickup at a different Sears store in my area (Houston, TX). To my surprise I got the confirmation e-mail back saying that it was in stock and ready for pickup. Hot dawg!

Since it was around lunchtime I drove out there, swiped my credit card in the merchandise pickup kiosk, and sat down. Two minutes later a guy walked out of the stockroom with the DS Lite in hand. He had me sign their little PDA thing that I'd received it, and I walked out of the store with it.

I think, however, that I was pretty damn lucky. After I'd turned my back and was walking out I heard a manager come out of the back and start telling the guy that he "wasn't supposed to do that" and "the item was in the wrong bin." I dunno if they were talking about the DS Lite I just picked up or what, but considering the horror stories I've read on NeoGAF and Cheap Ass Gamer, I'm lucky they didn't give me a story about a "recall" and refuse to give me the system. Very, very lucky.

Certainly a great way to celebrate my birthday, which also happens to be today. Woot!

Posted at 06:11 PM     | |

Thu - May 4, 2006

A rambling, stream of consciousness post about Wii

Sometimes, when Nintendo thinks different, it's good. Cel-shaded Zelda, dual-screen portable with a touch screen. Those were two recent instances where the differences, although hard to swallow and widely ridiculed at first, ended up making a lot of sense. Everyone who laughed and hated the look of Wind Waker ended up liking it just fine in the end. All those photoshops of Nintendo handhelds with a half-dozen screens...well, the DS is beating PSP.

Think back even further. Back in the 80s, retailers told Nintendo they were crazy to try to introduce a new video game system to a US market that had made it very clear they were sick of video games. Nintendo was also crazy to have a black and white handheld system up against awesome color machines. Didn't seem to matter much, did it? Granted, they've also had some real gaffes -- not supporting CD (leading to Square migrating to PlayStation), 64DD, Virtual Boy. At least they take risks, aye? Sony and Microsoft play it safe all the time. That's boring, IMHO.



But this Wii name, it's pretty off the charts.

I really don't mind the name. I have come to accept it and even like it. I think it's a fun/different/weird (if also terrible) name for a game system. It has a certain WTF. I admire their balls to use a name they had to have known would be completely abhorred, and then stick with it. Those are some balls. Unlike many, I have no problem saying the name and have my money at the ready to pre-order. But the fervent hatred on the 'Net even now--more than a week later--doesn't seem to be letting up. It's such a bitter pill to swallow that I've started to think that perhaps the naysayers are right after all. Maybe Nintendo has indeed done hanged theirselves. I think about the possibility that Nintendo will receive boos/heckles at their press conference (because even the fanboys that love Nintendo hate this name). And wow, wouldn't that be awkward/sad? Then I look at articles like the one posted on 1UP with disparaging remarks from the development and publishing community. IMO, no system/product name is worth having a PR person spend time on the phone with journalists trying to justify their choice of names. You look at the reactions from the industry at large in that article and they pretty much mimic those of netizens -- the name's stupid. Nintendo's gone batty. And I have to think, is it worth all this trouble trying to get people to see your way?

Maybe not. Probably not.

But even if Nintendo were to ditch the name Wii tomorrow they would not be able to ditch the mockery anyway. Wii will, dropped or not, follow/haunt them to the end. They've rolled around in the stink for over a week and it is not going to come off lightly, if it would at all. Just like, I think, if they'd reversed their decision to do a cel-shaded Zelda people today would be mocking it, commenting how crazy Nintendo was for trying to pass that cartoony Zelda sh*t off on us. And people will always remember and laugh at the PS3 boomerang controller no matter if Sony changes it (or if it was actually any good in practice). And they'll remember the Xbox Duke controller despite Microsoft's eventual gearshift. There is simply no escaping this kind of press. Especially not when it's the system's name.

So far, all the hate against Wii is only over the name. It's almost unbelievable that such fervor is spent thrashing what could be one of the least important points in the long run (it really remains to be seen if this is the death knell or what). Even if you hate the name, its relevance to liking the product is minimal at best. It really is only going to come into play if the product also sucks. Anyway, talking about Wii has made the Internet 50% more exciting for me, so for that I thank Nintendo.

Posted at 12:44 AM     | |

Sat - April 29, 2006

Think of the NES

October 18, 1985. A turbulent time to be launching a new video game system. A saturated market still reeling from failures from Atari, Coleco, Intellivision, etc. A market crash that left retailers unwilling to stock new video game systems and customers thinking that they didn't want another new video game system. And yet, somehow, the Nintendo Entertainment System came along and got people playing again. After gaming's tremendous crash and burn, after everyone left the party, somehow Nintendo was able to create a product that people came back to and warmed to. I want you to think for a moment and ask yourself what it was about the NES that got you excited about gaming again, reviving a dead/buried industry to vigorous life.



Throw me some of your own answers in the comments. Here are a few of mine:

- New ways to play and interact from the word "go" -- Zapper, Power Pad and R.O.B., a few of which were included with the system. (i.e., if you're thinking that Eyetoy's roughly the same...it's not. It's not the selling point of a PS2.)

- Games that were different -- Look back at those NES games that got you excited: Metroid, Zelda, Super Mario, etc. compared to what was available previously...it was something different. An extension of what people were used to that offered something more. Not just one-screen Pac-Man boards.

- Ditched the ever more complex control schemes for a simpler one -- Paddles/joysticks that had number pads and overlays and unlabeled buttons were replaced by a simpler control pad on the NES. And damnit if that thing wasn't inviting.

- Distance from the word video game and previous system-naming conventions -- Nintendo Entertainment System as a name evoked different emotions than successive Atari consoles with higher numbers or ColecoVision/IntelliVision.

And though we haven't suffered a market crash, there are a few similarities between now and back then. Competition that is offering successively higher numbers of game system. Not offering much in the way of different play styles or games (outside of online). A control scheme that excludes casual players. Fewer ways to interact with games. Game systems getting more expensive and coming with more "home entertainment" baggage (a la games shifting from consoles to more expensive, do-more computers in the mid-80s).

Now look at the Wii. Notice anything?

Posted at 02:36 AM     | |

Thu - April 27, 2006

Take a look at my Wii opinion

As you've probably heard by now, the very first of my "E3 predictions" is now wrong. The Nintendo Revolution has been renamed... it is "Wii." When I first heard it, I hated it. My immediate thought: "OMG, Nintendo = st00pid. They've gone and shot themselves in the foot." But the more I thought about it and after reading their official Wii site (with the cool Flash movie of the i-People playing around), the more I like it. Dare I say, I think it's the right choice. (Note that I'm not saying "best choice" or "awesome choice.")

It's different. It's very non-videogame. It's going to appeal to the consumer that maybe wouldn't normally buy a "game system" but is interested in hip new electronic gadgets, a la iPod. It's certainly a memorable name. Even if you think it's ridiculous, you have to admit that it didn't take long for it to stick in your brain. Whether or not the machine ends up successful, it is a very interesting and risky gamble for a hardware company to make in a world of PlayStation 3s and Xbox 360s. They've gone in a completely different direction, and since that's the philosophy of the Revolution to begin with, Wii makes a little bit (a wee bit) of sense.

I also gotta say that Nintendo made the right choice to unveil the name prior to E3. Now we get over a week to talk about how silly it is and get that out of our systems before we start seeing the really important stuff -- the games. That's what I'm really looking forward to. We've not seen the system in action with real, planned games. That will be the true test of whether Wii has legs. I don't even have to ask myself if I'll be buying one -- I will. I have a 360 and the Wii will be my secondary system. I plan to preorder a PS3 but may end up eBaying that depending on what the lineup looks like at E3 and what supply is like during Christmas. I frankly don't think I'll *need* a PS3 with the kind of lineups the 360 and Wii will have in the 4th quarter. I'll have enough to buy/play.

Back to the name, though -- I don't love the name. But we only have a small portion of the entire picture right now. Maybe it'll become clearer once we know what games are coming, what the deal is with the Virtual Console, etc. Wii will certainly do just fine in Japan, and perhaps that's all that matters to Nintendo. A lot of their decision-making has been solely on the Japanese market and those decisions have so far translated fairly well to the rest of the world. Why wouldn't this one? Clearly, Nintendo had to have anticipated the overwhelmingly negative attitude towards the name over the last few months, and has made up their mind that this is the way they're going and they're not gonna change just because it "sounds weird" to every other language but Japanese. I have to applaud them. They're throwing out the industry rule book and making up their own. That's some balls.

So do I think the name is weird? Yeah. I still do. But ya know what, I've thought that a lot of console names have been strange the first time I heard them: Game Boy. Dreamcast. PlayStation. Xbox. Virtual Boy. GameCube. DS. But I got used to those eventually and I'm positive that this will be no different.

Oddly enough, my positive opinion on Wii that I posted to NeoGAF landed me a quote on mtv.com's news story about the name change. Two-thirds of the way down: "There has been an occasional positive comment about the name. A NeoGAF poster named SuperPac wrote, "I like it. It's not the name of a game system. It's an iconic name like iPod. The more I think about it, the more I think this is the right choice." Hilariously enough, I am the only positive commenter in the article. Yowza.

After all's said and done I'm glad we finally have a name for the thing. Though it is going to be kinda odd to ask the clerk at Target if you can have a Wii. The system name's tailor-made for prank calls.

Posted at 11:49 PM     | |

Mon - April 24, 2006

Gimme Uno

I was excited when Peter Moore announced that Uno was coming to Xbox Live Arcade back in January. But it looks like it's finally close to going up, as it has reportedly appeared on the flavor of XBLA that is accessible through a 360 debug. I just recently (Easter) played Uno again with a large-ish group of people and it was loads of fun. I think this XBLA Uno is going to be the bane of my existence when it goes live. Expect to see me logged on, playing Uno, for hours and hours and hours on end.



Here's hoping they do a "Halo Uno cards" skin on that shizzle. That could be fun.

Posted at 08:03 PM     | |