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A couple of hundred titles with mostly audio problems out of 8000. How many XBox titles run on the XBox 360? How many Gamecube titles run flawlessly on the Wii? Is there a compatibility database for the Wii?

Numerous high def upscaling issues including PS3 BluRay movies not appearing in high definition properly (http://loot-ninja.com/2006/11/19/ps3-hd-scaling-i ssues-other-annoyances/)

By which you mean problems with extremely old HDTVs supporting 1080i (not even 720p) being treated as 480p (well duh) and an assortment of minor issues that could be corrected by a firmware update. Does the Wii upscale anything? Do existing XBox 360 games upscale to 1080p?

A very poor online system, as compared to the Xbox Live System (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/20/arts/20game.htm l)

Online system is fine and more importantly free.

- No high definition cables ship with the system, you are stuck with a composite cable unless you pay extra (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/20/arts/20game.htm l)

So does the Wii ship with component cables? No it doesn't. Does the XBox 360 ship with component cables? Only in the premium box. Does either the Wii or XBox support HDMI? No they don't. How much would it cost to buy an HDMI cable for a PS3? $6 if buy you online.

Poor graphics on side to side game comparison tests: http://www.gamespot.com/ps3/sports/tonyhawksprojec t8/review.html?sid=6161341

3 words. Blame the developers. I expect Tony Hawk's Project 8 developers just ported the 360 code base ensuring those 6 SPUs spend their time twiddling their thumbs rather than doing much useful. See also Call of Duty 3, Madden etc. Does that mean the console is incapable of more doing more? No it doesn't.

- Poor framerates and "tearing" reported on multiple game titles, including Tony Hawk and Mobile Suit Gundam: Crossfire (http://www.gamespot.com/ps3/sim/gundamworld/revie w.html)

3 words. Blame the developers. Resistance doesn't tear and has a hell of a lot more going on on screen (and offscreen) than either of those other games. Same with Ridge Racer 7 which runs 60fps at 1080p.

- Poor buggy development tools which make development very hard as compared to other current gen systems (http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=19611&he d=Atari+Founder+Likes+Xbox360%2C+Disses+PS3&sector =Industries&subsector=EntertainmentAndMedia)

Nolan Bushnell's opinion and hearsay, nothing more. And considering that Nolan Bushnell is not a developer and barely involved in the video game industry at all these days it would be interesting to know if he has even clapped eyes on a PS3 SDK let alone used one.

Multiple launch titles cancelled or delayed due to development issues (http://www.gamesarefun.com/news.php?newsid=7200)

Three are delayed by a few months (of which two are multi-console launches) and one is a cancellation. With no reasons specified for any of these yet you blame development issues. But I can think of a more likely reason that EA Sport's NBA Live 07 was canceled - because there are already two NBA games on the PS3 already and both with far more favourable reviews than NBA Live 07 got on the 360.

With the Xbox 360 already having 7 million units sold worldwide,

Wasn't it meant to be something like 10 million by now? Didn't they revise it to be year end? Do you think they stand a chance of making that target?

Wii approximately 500,000 units, and the PS3 only having sold 200,000 units in North America and 80,000 units and none in Europe it is hard to see Sony succeeding with the PS3

How can you claim approximately for the Wii and emphatically state figure

I doubt the PS3 would accomplish this (1 million in sales by December) if the units were available. There has been a lot of news out lately in regards to what a disaster the PS3 is turning out to be for Sony. Here is a listing of a few of the problems reported already:

- Poor backward compatilibity with PS1 and PS2 games (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15712585/)

- Numerous high def upscaling issues including PS3 BluRay movies not appearing in high definition properly (http://loot-ninja.com/2006/11/19/ps3-hd-scaling-i ssues-other-annoyances/)

- A very poor online system, as compared to the Xbox Live System (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/20/arts/20game.htm l)

- No high definition cables ship with the system, you are stuck with a composite cable unless you pay extra (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/20/arts/20game.htm l)

- Poor graphics on side to side game comparison tests: http://www.gamespot.com/ps3/sports/tonyhawksprojec t8/review.html?sid=6161341

- Poor framerates and "tearing" reported on multiple game titles, including Tony Hawk and Mobile Suit Gundam: Crossfire (http://www.gamespot.com/ps3/sim/gundamworld/revie w.html)

- Poor buggy development tools which make development very hard as compared to other current gen systems (http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=19611&he d=Atari+Founder+Likes+Xbox360%2C+Disses+PS3&sector =Industries&subsector=EntertainmentAndMedia)

- Multiple launch titles cancelled or delayed due to development issues (http://www.gamesarefun.com/news.php?newsid=7200)

With the Xbox 360 already having 7 million units sold worldwide, the Wii approximately 500,000 units, and the PS3 only having sold 200,000 units in North America and 80,000 units in Japan and none in Europe it is hard to see Sony succeeding with the PS3. The PS3 may be the largest disaster yet for Sony this year, with each PS3 losing $306 for Sony (http://www.videogamesblogger.com/2006/11/16/ps3-l oses-up-to-306-per-unit-xbox-360-profits-76-per-sa le.htm) and the PS3 having the lowest attach rate (0.98) in the industry.

Your numbers are incorrect. (Probably just out of date.)

The PS3 shipped 80,000 units in Japan, and another 200,000 to 400,000 to the U.S. (No one is entirely sure of the exact number.) The Wii shipped over a million units to the U.S. with some reports saying it was as high as 1.2 million.

According to Sony, the PS3 is expected to ship about 2 million units worldwide by the end of the year. They admit that their figures are "more of a target" though. According to Nintendo, they are committed to bringing at least 4 million units worldwide by the end of the year.

Twisted Metal 2 is by far the best game. Two player co-op against a variety of CPU opponents. Racing across rooftops, tag team combos between you are your partner. Anyone who has never played this PS1 game should go out, round up a friend, and purchase it immediately. There is a reason GameSpot put this game in it's hall of fame, and it isn't because of the story.

Gamespot Link: http://www.gamespot.com/gamespot/features/all/grea testgames/p-11.html

• ToeJam & Earl III: Mission to Earth
• Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance
• Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II

• ToeJam & Earl III: Mission to Earth
• Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance
• Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II

• ToeJam & Earl III: Mission to Earth
• Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance
• Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II

I'm getting to the point where the fanboys arguing over which system is better has gotten quite dull. When Wikipedia has to lock down their entries, things are getting silly.

Sometime in January, we'll see sales results and then someone can declare a "winner". Even that seems silly, since the two systems seem to cater to different audiences.

How many people plan on buying a wii with 1 controller, anyone?

How many people plan on playing VC or GC games on the wii, anyone?

How much space of memory you think the wii comes with, enough?

Well you can all ways "choose" to buy an extra sd card.

Don't you love the illusion of choice?

that is roughley three times the performance of the core 2 duo! Does anyone know if i'll be able to use my existing lcd vga monitor?
After Christmas, i suspect more ps3's to flow in at or below current pricing, which will make intel system's even cheaper. I think yellowdog linux has plenty of desktops to choose from besides E17, i like fvwm-crystal or Xfce for performance reasons as well as functionality and appearance.
http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/05/16/news_61246 81.html

I'm certainly going to get a Wii - it's cheap and the controler has high novelty value - but I would want to play a game like Gears of War on it (at any price point). Given it's not able to do high definition (and the graphics appear to be better than but not all that far off GC quality), a game with a much detail as GoW is going to look nasty on my 50" HDTV Plasma, in just the same way that quite a few old origional X-Box games do. They would have to really take the polygon count down right down too, to the point it would be hard to tell if your hiding behind a rock or something that's supposed to be a burnt out car. The game would be a mess (unless they changed it almost beyond recognition).

When you have graphics with lots of bright colours and cartoonish graphics (e.g. Super Mario Sunshine) it's a lot easier to get away with a lower resoltion, lower polygon count and less video memory than if your trying to depict something that looks gritty and realistic (though RE4 did very well on the GC of course, but it did have the rare advantage of a fixed camera angle).

It's not just about graphics though - as much as I'm looking forward to the Wii's controller, I don't belive for minute it's going to be as comfortable as the Dreamcast-inspired X-Box controller for extended play or games like this (and GRAW, Rainbow 6 and certain racing titles). I've loved that controller style on the DC, origional X-Box and 360 - quite liked the not disimilar GC one (a evolution of the N64 controller) but found it too small for extended play. The vaguely NES inspired controller for Wii looks alright - and perfect for retro SNES titles - but SNES style controllers arn't as comfortable as more recent designs, and having to plug it into the remote is just going to be alkward (I don't see why it's not wireless in it's own right).

With regard to both the controller issue (which they can at least do something about - and I'm sure 3rd parties will if they don't) and the graphical limitations, as much as there are some games that will really only be suited to the Wii, there are some game types that just won't be - and 'gritty' FPS/over-the-shoulder-shooter titles like GoW, GRAW and Rainbox 6 are games that just won't work well on a limited platform.

Even though there are bound to be fanboys that will claim otherwise Nindendo and developers know some game styles will work on the Wii and some won't and it's not a market they are going after, which I think is a good move for them and for consumers, as it gives us more choice. I'm sure someone will try to do a more realistic FPS title on the Wii (probably another "Golden Eye", and someone is bound to do a WWII shooter god help us) and while it's bound to please some, it's going to look pretty nasty to anyone who's been exposed to similar titles on PC's or other current consoles. Ubisoft's Red Steel looks like it's going that way, though I am keen to slice and dice with the controller so I might be able to see past that if reviews are good enough.

(By way of pre-empting some replies, I don't subscribe to the cult of "worse graphics makes for games that are more enjoyable" that's quite popular or even the more widely accepted belief "gameplay > graphics" because I think they are both vital to a good game. In modern 3D games in particular, if you know the target platform can't handle rending something then you simply can't put that into your game, even if you think it would be really fun to have it in. If you're on a more limited hardware platform, it doesn't mean the games on it are going to be more fun, it just means designers have to work harder so that any platform limitations are not noticeable or distracting - I fully expect the Wii's controller will help in that regard and I should think that's a good part of the reason they've come up with it, because Nindendo's executives knew they needed an edge.)

i thought they put this out a year ago, though!

oh, thats right, they did. it came out for the Xbox, too!
it hit October of 2005 (november for ps2). now, i'm not necessarily a zonk-hater (in fact, I think the guy gets a mostly unfair bad rap), but..... this product isn't anything new: it has existed for a long while. the real news is, simply, that they're dropping the price.

i thought they put this out a year ago, though!

oh, thats right, they did. it came out for the Xbox, too!
it hit October of 2005 (november for ps2). now, i'm not necessarily a zonk-hater (in fact, I think the guy gets a mostly unfair bad rap), but..... this product isn't anything new: it has existed for a long while. the real news is, simply, that they're dropping the price.

Clearly you should be taking to Dreamcast! http://www.gamespot.com/dreamcast/sim/seaman/revie w.html

Nintendo has few enough Wii's to sell that they really don't need to focus much on advertising. Heck, Walmart has already sold out of preorders. Wii may have a strong enough product that word of mouth carries it until their production kicks up, and given their competition they can use the cost savings whereever they can find them.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6148098.html/

Microsoft will be moving to a 65nm process in the first quarter of 2007. This should result in a significant reduction in the heat and power consumption. It is the main reason I'm not buying one yet. Whether Microsoft will reduce the price of the console when the make the change is up in the air, but it will almost certainly cut the price at some time.

It's "Do! Do! Do!", a theme written by they boy band (Tokio) they got to front for them.

But yeah, the 360 is doomed in Japan. Sure MS was touting the Blue Dragon 360 package sellout, but they only made a thousand of them.

Last week they sold 22,380 PS2's in Japan to Xbox 360s 1,287. (source)

So while selling an extra thousand 360s is impressive for Microsoft, it's garbage for the market. Hell, most weeks there are more GBA new releases than Xbox in Japan.

According to a GameSpot article, launch-weekend sales of the Xbox360 in Japan were reported between 41,817 and 62,135 units, out of an estimated supply of 159,000 units.

... before it gets better

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6160388.html

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6160340.html

"Dear Ms. Vance," Thompson wrote, "We just found gay sexual content in Bully, as Jimmy Hopkins makes out with another male student. Good luck with your 'Teen' rating now, Patty."

Yeah, this guy sure will make a good defense for his contempt hearing. Acting like a whiney, 14 year old and all. Hell, he should play this game more often. With his maturity level, I'm sure he'll be able to connect with the characters in this game quite easily. But perhaps a game like Barney's Hide and Seek would better suit his maturity level?

I thought the same thing. A quick google search reminded me that I got it from a Devil May Cry 2 preview. http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/action/devilmaycry2/ne ws.html?sid=2880617

Actually, Peter Jackson seems like he's getting into this. In addition to the movie, he is working with Microsoft on two new 360 games, one of which is a Halo game that is "not a game and not a film." http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/unnamedpete rjacksonhaloproject/news.html?sid=6158890 And remember, his Weta Workshop is involved.

No one seems to remember this game, but maybe that's for the better.

I'm surprised Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing didn't make it to the list... :)

Having already installed 2142 (the beta was enjoyable, so I pre-ordered it), it's not as if I can cancel my order. You know, as unhappy about this as I am, I think I would be satisfied if the game actually worked. Unfortunately, at the moment, it appears that nobody can play for more than about five minutes without losing their connection to the master server, thus being disconnected from the current server and dropped back to the login screen (hence this thread: http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/battlefield2142/ show_msgs.html?topic_id=m-1-30954553)

You'd think that with more than 7,000 employes (according to wikipedia), maybe, just maybe they would have actually deployed a network solution that actually works. One would also think that their experience with Battlefield 2's master server system, likely very similar, would have prepared them for this (or the multiplayer beta, or the demo). But no.

Bundled spyware -- well, I'd *barely* tolerate it if the game actually worked when I bought it. But that, plus a game that is currently non-functional? WTF, EA, WTF? And of course they are already part of the development of Crysis and the new Command & Conquer, two games that I was really looking forward to. Now, I'm not so sure...
---
Also: http://www.igaworldwide.com/ Sadly enough, they barely even put in the effort to mask one of the key aspects of their business: "Market research and intelligence for publishers" (see: IGA services > advertising formats). Spying much?

On a peculiar note, even though the world is ending in 2142, it appears that advertising will still be around. Battlefield 2142 features in-game ads, though we didn't get to see them firsthand during our testing. Still, there is a printed disclaimer that comes with the game telling you that Battlefield 2142 will analyze certain "advertising data" on your machine to determine what ads to display to you. Ironically, EA says that if you don't want your data shared with its advertising partner then "do not install or play the software on any platform that is used to connect to the Internet." But that would pretty much defeat the purpose of playing Battlefield 2142, wouldn't it? Of course, you could always play single-player against the artificial intelligence, though the AI won't be mistaken for human opponents any time soon, and the single-player is still limited to 16-player maps. Still, this is an example of things to come, as we begin to see dynamic in-game ads appear in more and more games.

First off, you have a lot of copycatting going on. Everybody wants in on the big trend, so they're trying to recreate the big game of the year. There aren't many that aren't essentially clones of some other game. Ico, DDR, Katamari, Okami and Gitar Hero are new games. Most of the rest are pretty generic, to the point where if you've played one game in the genre, the rest are rentals -- because other than the graphic art, they play identically. And that's not even counting the sequels of the generic games.

Secondly, especially for TV/movie games, most franchise games are made with very little understanding of what made the series good to begin with. http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/strategy/startrekl egacy/screenindex.html?part=rss&subj=6152227 This is just one example. I don't know how you could watch a show where 90% of the time, they negotiate their way out of danger and decide that the best thing to make with the franchise is a shooting game. I won't even bother bringing up Anime franchises.

Played it.

*gasp* You left out Big Rigs: Over The Road Racing! I'm afraid I have to revoke your gamer license.

(PS: Watch the video review for that game. It's frigging hilarious.)

there are ten who don't know a decent game from Daikatana.

One time I was sarcastically joking with a salesman at my local store about how "great" JAWS Unleashed looked. His clueless partner, sensing a sale like blood in the water sidles up next to me and pours it on thick. He even mentioned the glowing review Gamespot gave it, with an unabashed lack of irony.

Some of the pure bullshit I hear them tell uniformed customers amazes me. For instance, salesmen who tell customers that all their old XBox games will play on a 360 (or GB games on a DS).

Luckily, the more I go in there, the more they recognize me and leave me alone. I suppose knowing your customers is pretty important when you don't know your products.
The sad thing is that that one employee who's well informed and honest is actively discouraged by management from saying anything that would dissuade a potential sale, and the clueless ones are encouraged to foist as many crap "special offers" onto customers as possible.

June 1, 2007 according to Gamespot. I belive it's been on schedule so far?

Tetris (GBA) [...] They also require very little effort to enjoy and don't require you to mash buttons for the sake of mashing buttons.

O RLY? The Tetris brand game for Game Boy Advance was Tetris Worlds, the first to use the so-called Super Rotation System that allows such wonderful cattle manure as infinite spin and T-spin triples. No wonder reviewers called it broken. Worse than that, the GBA version of TW had noticeable lag from when the player pressed a button to when the game reacted. Tetris DS is no different, except at least the lag is gone.

Or are you talking about homebrew?

Sketch: Can you tell us a little bit about who you are and what it is you do?

MN: My Name is Larry Hryb...Gamertag: Major Nelson. My official title is "Xbox Live Director of Programming." When I started working here 2 years ago..I did not know what it meant either, but since then I've been able to better define it: I keep my finger on the pulse of the Live community and come up with interesting ideas to keep members happy and coming back for more. You can find me on the official Xbox forums (forums.xbox.com) or on my blog at www.majornelson.com where I also do a weekly podcast (which you can also find in iTunes.)

What's the story behind your alias, "Major Nelson." Are you a military man? Do you dream of Jeannie?

When I started working here, I needed a Gamertag that I could share with the public (I have been on Live since the beta days under another Gamertag that I won't share) One night, right after I started this job...I came home and my Tivo suggested 'I Dream Of Jeannie.' I looked at this bad 60's sit-com...and realized Major Nelson had it all: He was a single astronaut, living on the beach and he keeps his lady in a bottle. BAM.....the perfect Gamertag.

I think it was supposed to link to http://www.gamespot.com/news/6159054.html . This link can be found on the page you end up at from the third link.

By the way, there's also an article on Gamespot about this. It includes an interview with Jon Goldman, the CEO of Foundation 9.

It's Available on GBA if you don't want to wait. An added bonus is the multiplayer mode (single cart no less) which I don't recall the original having.

This is a game I played quite a few years ago on the playstation: http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/globaldominati on/index.html

I think it was only released on the PC in America.

Defender of the Crown was ported to the GBA a few years ago.

With the possible exception of Pong - Nintendo has ruled console Tennis games with an iron fist. First was Super Tennis for the SuperNes - still the best tennis game around - followed by N64 Mario Tennis. Not that anybody has really noticed seeing as Tennis games are just so rabidly popular...

Why do you suppose that? I have a GBA sitting gathering dust on my shelf that has an obvious design flaw. The screen is so dark that the device is unusable except in bright rooms. Naturally of course Nintendo used this flaw as a reason that people should upgrade to the SP. Do you suppose that Nintendo, just like any other manufacturer is going to focus on the highlights of their console, not the flaws?

Anyway, perhaps as an experiment you might try this. Pick up a remote control or candy bar style phone. Now hold it in front of you. Now wave it around performing these gestures - a circle, side to side, top to bottom, a jabbing motion. You can make your gestures as large or small as you like but don't do them slowly since you're playing a game. Now repeat for ten minutes. I would be surprised if a significant number of people, perhaps the majority didn't have painful wrists or tendons after that exercise.

If you think this is an unrealistic exercise, I suggest you go here, click on "Nintendo Wii Event - Hands On" and then observe the first few minutes as we watch someone playing Marvel Ultimate Alliance.

As I said, I'm sure it will be fine for casual gaming and games that require sedentary or deliberate actions. But as a replacement for a traditional controller? Forget it.

http://www.gamespot.com/events/tgs2006/story.html? sid=6158178&pid=928379&tag=top_stories;title;3

I can see this as a possibility.

Interesting timing. Pricing article just popped up over at GameSpot and Ars Technice confirming the $60 pricing of PS3 games for pre-order at the Sony Style store.

There's also some speculation that MS will be reducing game prices for the 360 to offer a competitive edge over the PS3.

You may want to take into account that MS is a (large?) investor in Immersion?
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6152917.html

"If Nintendo sells that many systems on the first day, and they turn a profit on every system sold"

All signs point to Nintendo making a huge profit on each Wii, I wouldn't be surpised with a sub $100 manufacturing cost of the Wii. All of the controllers included probably adds another $50 or so.

1) Nintendos long track record and massive experience with console manufacturing
2) Highly available and proven components, DVD, 802.11, flash memory, SD memory, USB 2.0
3) Dialed back CPU and GPU specs.

specs:
http://www.gamespot.com/features/6146540/index.htm l?tag=subnav;about

Actually, this has happend before and with a racing game Colin McRae Rally 3 made by Codemasters http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/driving/colinmcraerall y3/index.html had the 'feature' of calling a premium rate number to unlock some other cars. Effectively you didn't have all of the features unless you had dialed this number.
Fortunately they didn't have that many different codes and so they all got posted on the net pretty quickly http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/driving/colinmcraerall y3/hints.html. It wasn't major but they were still selling a product for which you had to pay more for a complete product.

Actually, this has happend before and with a racing game Colin McRae Rally 3 made by Codemasters http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/driving/colinmcraerall y3/index.html had the 'feature' of calling a premium rate number to unlock some other cars. Effectively you didn't have all of the features unless you had dialed this number.
Fortunately they didn't have that many different codes and so they all got posted on the net pretty quickly http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/driving/colinmcraerall y3/hints.html. It wasn't major but they were still selling a product for which you had to pay more for a complete product.

I realise I'm chiming in far too late here, but the summary is wrong. According to this Gamespot article (scroll halfway down to the "update"), Gran Turismo HD Classic will feature all 750 cars and 51 tracks from previous Gran Turismo games, updated to look better in HD. The Premium version only contains 30 cars and 2 tracks, but it's content that's been designed from scratch for HD (far more polygons per model). The idea is that the Premium version focuses on online racing and downloadable content, while the Classic version is for people who just want to play Gran Turismo in HD.

Still pretty unexciting IMHO, and I have pretty strong reservations about it working. Time will tell I guess.

Because according to this http://uk.gamespot.com/events/tgs2006/blog.html?ev ent=tgs2006&topic_id=25005824&tag=blog;continue;1 the numbers of cars and tracks quoted are what you get as standard with downloadable available in addition.

To clarify, it also seems its one game with two different modes rather than two seperate games.

You cannot play fl0w for the PS3 now. You can play a flash demo made by the creator for his thesis. If you look at the screencaps from Tokyo it is clear the new version will be different. If people like the demo and want to play a full version that will mean more customers not less. Granted, the /. article was misleading stating the game was "available to play now."

http://www.gamespot.com/ps3/puzzle/flow/news.html? sid=6158150
http://www.gamespot.com/ps3/puzzle/flow/news.html? sid=6158162

You cannot play fl0w for the PS3 now. You can play a flash demo made by the creator for his thesis. If you look at the screencaps from Tokyo it is clear the new version will be different. If people like the demo and want to play a full version that will mean more customers not less. Granted, the /. article was misleading stating the game was "available to play now."

http://www.gamespot.com/ps3/puzzle/flow/news.html? sid=6158150
http://www.gamespot.com/ps3/puzzle/flow/news.html? sid=6158162