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If true, that really pisses all over Microsoft's parade, though no doubt they'll soon be pissing over Nintendo with their own price reductions. The way it's squaring up for $250 you can buy a Wii with all its deficiencies / innovation, an XBox 360 for $299 or possibly less that has superior graphics and multimedia, and for a little more a PS3 that is likely to surpass both of them for sheer brute power, HD support and Blu-Ray to boot. Personally I think the Wii is too expensive for what it is. For "just" a games console it is sailing perilously close to the pricing territory of the 360 which is more powerful and can do a hell of a lot more. At the top end of prices, I think the new price point of the PS3 is going to put a big amount of red on Sony, but it makes the console pretty compelling now. MS are bound to lower their own price significantly in retaliation which is going to hurt Nintendo.

At this point apologists for Nintendo will claim they "only want to play games", apologists for the 360 will claim "they'd buy the HD-DVD if they wanted HD", and the PS3 apologists will claim "they want future proofing". I think I'd fall into the last camp but I will let the beta testers lined up on release day discover if they bought a lemon for their money. If the PS3 is a good console, it'll be a good console a few months after launch - besides Sony have enforced a wait on me by not releasing the thing in Europe. By then it should be nicely tested and bug fixed.

If you're a gamer, because Microsoft is pushing Vista Only (DirectX 10, exclusive to Vista by cabal) games like age of conan and Halo 2. I'm sure there will be many more that follow, and pretty soon a good chunk of the Windows gaming market will be forced into Vista through Microsoft's strong-arm tactics, whether they feel like they need the upgrade or not.

For that reason alone I will probably build a Vista/Linux dual-boot machine sometime next year. I certainly will continue to avoid WiMP for ripping, and I already planned to use my "old" PC's linux partition to become a "Media center PC" (using MythTV) if TiVO manages to kill my current Dish PVR. That 3 day thing would never work for me, as I often get weeks or months behind during work crunches. Micro$oft of all people should relate to that one.

...yet I've only ever heard bad news about the PS3. The Wii is the first console I've ever been excited about, simply because it's meant for my gaming style: multiplayer, social fun.

Read this and be prepared to put your money were your mouth is.

One PvP game with a lot of potential coming out next year is Warhammer Online:
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/warhammeronline/new s.html?sid=6147072&mode=recent
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/warhammeronline/new s.html?sid=6154042&mode=recent

It is being created by Mythic, the guys who made one of the early PvP MMORPGs, Dark Age of Camelot. It has a long, detailed history of material to work from. And it has had a long time to observe what World of Warcraft has done with its MMORPG, and how fans have responded to those decisions.

I am holding out hope that this is the game PvPers have been waiting for. Logging into WoW and killing wandering, scripted mobs gets old quickly. And joining one of the WoW battlegrounds and killing other WoWers is... okay, but is obviously not the main focus of WoW.

Warhammer, on the other hand, is built with PvP in mind first. You can level from 1 to whatever the level cap is completely through quests and missions to kill other PCs and capture live, enemy towns. The potential is huge, they just need a compelling PvP system that rewards skill over gear... that's the tricky part.

One PvP game with a lot of potential coming out next year is Warhammer Online:
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/warhammeronline/new s.html?sid=6147072&mode=recent
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/warhammeronline/new s.html?sid=6154042&mode=recent

It is being created by Mythic, the guys who made one of the early PvP MMORPGs, Dark Age of Camelot. It has a long, detailed history of material to work from. And it has had a long time to observe what World of Warcraft has done with its MMORPG, and how fans have responded to those decisions.

I am holding out hope that this is the game PvPers have been waiting for. Logging into WoW and killing wandering, scripted mobs gets old quickly. And joining one of the WoW battlegrounds and killing other WoWers is... okay, but is obviously not the main focus of WoW.

Warhammer, on the other hand, is built with PvP in mind first. You can level from 1 to whatever the level cap is completely through quests and missions to kill other PCs and capture live, enemy towns. The potential is huge, they just need a compelling PvP system that rewards skill over gear... that's the tricky part.

Steve Purcell (the creator of both the Sam & Max comic books and the LucasArts game) is helping Telltale make the new Steve & Max games (I believe they are planning on making 7 episodes). Gamespot has some movies posted (http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/sammaxep1/). I can't say whether the game will be great or live up to Hit the Road, but it looks interested and rumours put the price at $10.

You think that's bad, there's no Big Rigs or Charlie's Angels. Heresy I tells ya.

You think that's bad, there's no Big Rigs or Charlie's Angels. Heresy I tells ya.

See also:

http://www.joystiq.com/2006/09/14/nintendo-japan-c onference-not-so-liveblogging/
http://www.famitsu.com/blog/express/
http://gemaga.sbcr.jp/
http://www.irwebcasting.com/060914/01/
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6157572.html?tag=brea king_news;link
http://gonintendo.com/?p=5583

I did worry about this. But the reviews also point out that features important to the game, like the pit you're about to fall into, are very hard to see.

Oh, good catch. Finally, my love of Ore no Ryoori can be fulfilled in a handheld system.

Rather than go off about the promised kilobytes sized avatars and fancy procedural generated content that I understand little about, I'm going to make a reasonable hypothesis based on past occurance...

I figure it'll be a trimmed down, more goal oriented-less sandboxy version like The Sims 2 for Gameboy Advanced It'd be interesting to see if anything neat is done with the DS' touch screen, although I suspect it'll just be used as a mouse during the editing process.

Well, I didn't find the slashdot article, but an older Gamespot report from Merrill Lynch JapanBelieved that it would cost $494 to produce a unit at the time it was set to debut, but they also thought it would sell for $399.

A later Gamepro reported that they would lose $300-$400 per unit if it shipped at $399 (so a loss of $0-$100 or $100-$200 with respect to which version.)

In the end, neither is a very recent article, but even if they are breaking even or making a gross gain per unit, we still have to consider the massive start up costs Sony has to cover before each PS3 unit makes a net gain.

It doesn't need to, it's got a genuine original article Xbox360 power supply!

And it uses the original Xbox power cord too!

This is just what I'm talking about. I don't know where you're getting your numbers, but they're not even close to reality. I'll have to assume that you were referring to market conditions back when the Xbox was first released, as opposed to the state of things now (when it's relevant).

I'm no expert on console market share, but I do know what comes up on the first page of a Google search. Here, I've done the work for you:

http://www.gamespot.com/news/2004/05/26/news_60993 69.html

That article tells us that Xbox had a 51 percent market share as early as 2004. In the U.S., Xbox has been outselling PS2 ever since.

Nevertheless, I could cut you some slack if you don't live in the U.S. Even though Americans put more money into consoles than the rest of the world combined, the console market in other parts of the world is not so Microsoft-friendly. If you go by global figures (where Microsoft is still the new kid on the block), then the picture changes. Here's something I pulled up about Sony's current console market share. It was published today, so you won't need to use your time machine when learning about market share:

http://inhome.rediff.com/money/2006/sep/09game.htm

"Not worried about the headstart that Microsoft has gained in the next-gen gaming space, Jayant Sharma, chairman and CEO, Milestone Interactive, engaged in marketing of digital devices, interactive games and media, points out that in the console market in India Sony has a 100 per cent market share and 70 percent globally."

100 percent in India?? 70 percent globally! I think in all the confusion, we all assumed that only Americans buy console games? It seems that Sony is already the Microsoft of the console world. Perhaps they might actually know what they're doing when it comes to releasing consoles. Cheers.

I'll have to ask, she keeps using it so I'm guessing not too frequently. Gamespot did a report on Vista's backwards compatibility with games designed for XP and it looks like all Blizzard's games got the green checkmark.

I'm ambivalent about this. On one hand, it's Sam and Max. I loved "Hit the Road." However, Telltale Games also brought us "Bone: Out from Boneville," which, IMO, lacked the comic book's charm, and padded itself out with too much walking around.

Comparing the old title to the new one, I just get the impression that Telltale has made it too sterile, and drained it of some character.

He's rehashing that dusty old argument about only 'AAA' titles finding shelf space. About how the industry must wake up from some kind of self-imposed creative coma. Woe, woe unto us.

Y'know I'm really tired of that line of thought. Its completely useless criticism. And its been around since the 'dark years' of the late 80s, when video games were really in a funk. He even uses a - get this - dinosaur extinction metaphor. Yawn. Nothing new to see here, move along.

Meanwhile, in the midst of all this industry atrophy, games like Okami quietly appear and fulfill the promise.

I've often said that the game industry of 2006 is akin to the film industry of 1926; i.e. we have a long way to go. We're developing a consistent 'language' (to use the film term again) and the auteurs are making their marks. But the studios say its expensive! Programming a multicore Cell or PowerPC CPU is hard!

"How are we ever going to record audio and filmed images in sync?? Do audiences even want 'talkies'? Where are we going to find the money?"

Its just nothing new. The only thing that surprises me are that dorks like Raph get anyone to listen to them.

I am a 33 year old male, and one of my favorite games that I recently replayed was "Beyond Good and Evil" which, for those who haven't played it, stars Jade. A strong, independant female character who is attractive (albiet cartoony), witty, and could not be further from 'cheesecake'.

Actually when SONY made their announcement in spring about delaying the PS3 http://www.gamespot.com/news/6144963.html, they cited blu-ray as the biggest reason.

Everybody has them, but nobody wants to hear from anyone else's.

For a title that got an 8.4 from Gamespot reviewers and a 9.0 from the players, I'd have to say that this reviewer is just another opinion.

Schwarzenegger signs game-restriction bill. The concept of the guy who played the Terminator, Conan, etc. coming out against violent images is hysterical.

And by profit on the second run, you mean take a loss?

They did cut him a check for $10,000.

If this is true, it's proof Microsoft is going to destroy Live.

Why was the first 6 monthes of Live popular? 5 bucks a game? What happened around June? Tons of new content all for 10 bucks a pop. Personally I'd buy 2 or three games for 10 bucks, but I'm sure as hell not buying legacy games for 10 bucks, I'm also not buying crap like Cloning Clydes or Bejeweled for 10 bucks a pop. I mean if it was 5 dollars I'd probably pick up both of them. If I had to pay 15 bucks for Luminies I'd be happy to pay that much but at the same time for 15 bucks I should get the puzzle pack and Versus for free. Instead I could go get Luminies for 20 bucks on the PS2, and that should contain both these modes and I'd get a CD/DVD for it.

That being said Gamespot is saying it's likely bogus but us raising our voices against it should help it even if they were considering it. http://www.gamespot.com/news/show_blog_entry.php?t opic_id=24928329&page=1#comments

Starcraft!

While this may end up being the truth, right now it is just a rumour.

Because I hate the clicking so much, I play smaller maps and give them a few more AI players (and put resources on "balanced" so there's one iron/bronze/oil/etc per player). Really, controlling about 5-6 cities is about the level of micromanagement I like. I finished a whole game last night in a couple hours (Space Race victory in 2005; almost won by domination). With 10-20 cities (standard map), you really need automation in order to make the game fun.

The traditional problem with strategy games is late game there's just too many units/cities. Limiting map size limits the latter variable which limits the former.

The most interesting approach I've seen to micro was Crusader King where you larger landowners gain titles and are forced to delegate land to vassals or else their empire becomes inefficient. Of course, vassals can revolt/etc but it's a great way to own half of europe without a lot of micro as your controlling 15 dukes rather than 80 pieces of land. It makes the automation aspect part of the game rather than trying to build a wizard around it which I appreciate.

It sounds like our experiences in PC gaming differ. To be honest I haven't played a PC game in the last two or three years. However all of the issues I mentioned were problems I did actually face that turned me away from PCs as a gaming platform. Being that I haven't gamed on a PC in years the rig I have NOW is about that old and would only be good for my day to day non-gaming tasks... that 2nd rig that I would buy would have to be my gaming machine.

I do frequently buy games the day they come out. I've been anticipating a games release, picked them up at EB or wherever when they first came out only to get through the install and find that there was some bug that made the game not run on my machine due to a hardware incompatability. The store wont take it back because it's open software and I basically have to sit on my hands until the developer gets around to patching it. (it's happened to me more then once) The real kick in the nuts is if the price drops or a sale happens before the patch comes out.

As for tweaking the controls, I loath playing games with a keyboard and mouse, using a gamepad or other controller for PC gaming is no big deal but in my experience games rarely have default controls for gamepads and sometimes you'll have to do some digging to find the right ini to edit which can be even more painful if you're trying to use analog controls. If you do it a lot you get better at it, if you only play one or two games you don't have to set things up that often. but I play A LOT of games, I rarely watch TV or Movies, I game. The hardest part of "installing" a console game is removing the plastic wrapper from the case.

Call me lazy but the added cost and hassle just wasn't worth it to me. IMO PCs offer 2 distinct advantages 1.Better graphics (this gab narrows and widens all the time and depends on hardware) and 2. user mods.
Graphically: PCs will almost always have the edge when compairing a console to bleeding edge PC hardware, however compairing cross platoform with moderatly priced PC I find the difference to be more then forgivable considering the difference in price. For instance Oblivion on a mid-high range PC is only moderatly superior then the Xbox 360 counterpart, even the Xbox 1 version of Spliter Cell Chaos Theory looked as good as the PC version (abeit lower res). As someone who typically plays through a game and then shelves it and plays something new stuff like user mods don't really interest me. I get bored with games too fast, probably why I never got into MMOs and why graphical increases down the road don't do much for me since I've already finished with the game and moved on to new games.

I don't think there's any way Sony will be ready for TGS at this rate. I mean, they haven't even started manufacturing consoles and the launch is supposed to be what, 3 months away? At this point, we should've seen playable demos at E3 from Sony, and more demos in Leipzig. I mean, sure, we don't have a launch date for the Wii. But we have a ton of almost-ready-to-market games (thanks to the dev kit similarity between the Cube and the Wii) and we know what the gameplay looks like. Even with the hazy launch date, I think Nintendo's in much better shape right now than Sony is.

And it even encorporates real battles from japanese history such as the giant crab!!

RIIIIDGE RACER!!!

Sony E3 Press Conference

I should add that i got this from the 1up boards.

Before Lionhead was bought by Microsoft

GSUK: There seems to be a backlash mounting against the PlayStation 3, while the Wii seems to be going from strength to strength. How do you think the next-gen console war is going to stack up?

PM: Well, I have been through console wars before, but this one strikes me as particularly interesting. Nintendo has done a great job of convincing us that next gen is about game play rather than high-tech specs. Microsoft has done an incredible job of expanding games online and making them more mass market. Sony, in my view, seems it has been rather more lazy with their message. How all this pans out really depends on one thing and that is the brilliance of the titles that appear on each platform over the next two to three years. Marketing the hardware is nothing compared to the games that run on it, so I expect the system with the greatest games on it to end up on top.

GSUK: Black & White was hugely innovative on its release, and its gestured command system has ironically been matched by the Wii. How important is innovation in interface design to you?

PM: Without any doubt the biggest revolution we will see in games will be to do with what the player holds and how they control a game. I can see the joypad continuing to evolve over the next generation, and this will result in completely new games concepts.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6155521.html/

After Microsoft bought Lionhead
LGC 2006: Molyneux Not Sold on Wii-type Controls
Motion-sensing needs to be used in not-so-obvious ways.
by Luke Smith, 08/22/2006

11 of 15 users recommend this story.
Without specifically taking aim at Nintendo's Wii, designer Peter Molyneux was critical of motion-sensing control schemes at his Combat in Games speech in Leipzig, Germany. Molyneux, excited at first by the prospect of motion-sensing controls mimicking in-game action, has since seemed to sour on the idea: "I realized, when I looked at myself in the mirror, I actually looked really stupid." Molyneux continued, concerned with the controls causing fatigue, "Even with nothing in my hand, I get tired very, very quickly."
Still, the Fable 2 architect isn't dismissing the control scheme: "I think motion-sensitivity is very, very useful, but I think the obvious way of doing it -- unless you're dealing with a 15 to 20 minute experience at most of actually being hugely physical -- is not where the opportunity lies here."

Where does the opportunity rest in motion-sensing controls? Not with obvious implementations, Molyneux maintains. He points at the way the Nintendo DS uses the stylus: "What I've found really fascinating is not using it to scribble with, but using it in a very clever, innovational way." Molyneux suggested that innovation in motion-sensing will have to stretch beyond the replication of sword-swinging motions to break new ground.

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3153037/

I certainly hope the Wii Zelda title winds up being better than Die By The Sword. Ugh.

PSP Shortages? What territory was that? In the US you could find them on the shelves a few weeks after launch. Sony announced they would hit NA with 1 million PSP's at launch. Within 7 days they sold about 600,000 which meant you could be casual about picking it up, as there were plenty on the shelves. Actually, I have yet to see a local shop be sold out of PSP's.

I doubt most people get Live Gold or whatever it's called. I never got Live for my Xbox 1. Not everyone has time to get good enough at Halo to even bother trying to compete online... in fact, I would say most people probably don't (though I have no stats to back that up). If I got a 360, I doubt I'd get Live Gold, so I would have no extra expense.

Spoken like a man who hasn't investigated the Wii at all.

The Wii remote will be a fad - who honestly wants to wave that around: Yeah, it really looks like he's really waving it around. Oh wait, it's small wrist movements which controls the action, not huge motions.

good luck using it in FPS games: Yeah, nobody liked the controls on Metroid Prime 3.

Whether or not you like it, marketing and hype is what sells consoles. I don't see any Wii hype anywhere but on Digg and Slashdot. Sorry.: Where's the PS3 hype? I see nothing in mainstream media and nothing but negativity from the online media. Where's the X360 hype? I haven't seen any since their launch a year ago. I also haven't seen any compelling reason to buy an Xbox 360 aside from maybe Xbox Live Arcade games (which I played 10 years ago)

Mario sux0rs to me - but Mom or the kid next door can have fun with it if they want: I'm honestly very sorry that you have a complex which prevents you from enjoying video games which are fun because you're afraid they are too "kiddy". If it's any consolation, you'll grow out of that once you graduate 9th grade.

Then again, I guess I shouldn't expect too much out of a user named "XpL1CiT". Have fun in High School kid.

... by having the mentality that "you can get whatever you want by puffing your chest, threatening people (he threatened to sic the police on Penny Arcade after a spat about a charity donation), and abusing the legal system, you can get whatever you want." Which is probably a worse example for kids than the Bully game would be, since Jack (as far as I can tell) is a real live person.

Good job.

The Wii version hasn't even been confirmed yet. At the moment it is only being made for the PC.

Take a look at this interview with Will Wright from a few days ago.

Metal Gear Solid 4, Final Fantasy PS3, Possession, Killzone PS3, Tekken PS3, Warhawk, Gran Turismo Vision. Those are all launch titles as well.

Metal Gear Solid 4, Final Fantasy PS3, Possession, Killzone PS3, Tekken PS3, Warhawk, Gran Turismo Vision. Those are all launch titles as well.

Metal Gear Solid 4, Final Fantasy PS3, Possession, Killzone PS3, Tekken PS3, Warhawk, Gran Turismo Vision. Those are all launch titles as well.

Metal Gear Solid 4, Final Fantasy PS3, Possession, Killzone PS3, Tekken PS3, Warhawk, Gran Turismo Vision. Those are all launch titles as well.

Under Cons you forgot to list out 'Games designed for pick up and play gaming'. The reason most people still hold 'Lumines' as one of the 'few good PSP games' is it is simple to pick up, and play in 5 -10 minute bursts, and has minimal load times. EXIT is another good example. There are good 'Console games' on the PSP, but not enough 'Good Handheld' games.

It's like if you were asked to name a game with a black lead character. You might be harded pressed to do it, because you simply didn't care.

Actaully, one comes to mind almost immediately, and it's one of my favorite games. A game called Shadow Man, which came out when the Dreamcast was still cool.

Huh-- most of the games coming out now have a downloadable playable demo...? There's been dozens released over the past few months here, for example:

GameSpot demos

I noticed this problem when I was the lead tester for Atari Anniversary Advance for the GameBoy Advance. This title had the original ROMs of Asteriod, Battlezone, Centipede, Missile Command, and Tempest being emulated on the GBA. When I first got the title, I thought these were awesome games because I played them when they first came out. (I also played Pong when it first came out as well.) But, with the critical eye of a professional tester, I found out that there were sure buggy as heck. Mostly due to the limitation of the hardware during the early 1980's. The gameplay is still awesome and I still suck 20 years later. :P

" I especially like the way I can't delete certain items from the desktop (randomly, it seems, like a game)"

I think we recently read about MS' new and improved casual games on Vista

a) What to you think "jerky, gimmicky shit" is? Why the fuck would I want to wave my controller or console around.

b) Hardcores care about the games, and Nintendo isn't delivering with the "slightly modified Smash Bros 3", "now you can jump to planets Mario Umpteen", and "Hey look, the same Zelda with much, much worse controls".

c) Graphics don't matter, but physics, AI, and room and ability to make your game without it running at 30FPS if you're lucky (ala Shadow of the Colossus) does.

d) Why do you care that Nintendo makes money? What should matter is that they're trying to make games you/I/true gamers (if indeed, you are one, I have my doubts) like, rather then trying to appeal to a lower common denomiator then even EA? I'm boycotting EA for less then this, and if Nintendo still didn't have good games coming out for GameCube, I'd cut them off my money for good as well. But you? No, you're Nintendo's good little bitch. They say "you don't want this, you don't want this", and you agree no matter how stupid the decision is. Go back to sucking Nintendo's cock and taking it up your ass from them and get the fuck off Slashdot.

Last, but not least, once again fuck Nintendo, and fuck you their corperate shill numero uno.

Developers whose idea of a better game is bigger pixel counts will surely want to develop for the PS3 or the 360 -- at least until they realize how much more it costs to develop for those systems, that is. That's another aspect to the "GameCube II" angle your link derided.

"[The Wii] wasn't a whole new programming environment," Farrell said. "So we had a lot of tools and tech that work in that environment. So those costs--and again, I hate these broad generalizations--but they could be as little as a third of the high-end next-gen titles... Maybe the range is a quarter to a half."