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And DAMN, I swear I saw this sort of thing for the PS2, only with MMC cards. I can't find the link anywhere, so maybe I was just seeing things.

Not all that impressed by the G-Spy site. I think there are plenty of sites out there with content, so what makes the decision for me is the display. I love the slashdot interface, so until lately I've been reading Ain't It Cool GamesM, also... Shacknews, and IGN, and now this site.

G-Spy is terribly organized, reguardless of how many sites it might profile.

being a huge sega fan and an owner of both xbox and ps2. I'm thrilled at there games at e3
e3 games

...the "cell" chip won't be in the PS3.

Though I would love to see the laughably feminine controller.. a "happypouch" perhaps?

No, that would be the Thrustmaster Fragmaster. You wouldn't guess it from the name, but a more, er, feminine-shaped controller is hard to imagine.

I got one new for $10 and think it's kind of a cool controller, but it was cheap because it sold quite poorly :-). (To be fair, it apparently didn't work very well for most folks. I hacked up the Linux joystick driver to improve its performance a bit.)

To get full marks one must link to it:

Which you failed to do.

there.

What, like this one? Very good mod, I hope he comes out with part two soon.

Let me reiterate:

Are you sure it isn't true?

Now I'm not saying it is absolutely, 100%, without a doubt, unequivocally true but the page linked to above is dated December 06, 2002. That's a long build-up for what would be a mediocre (at best) joke.

Or is it?

Ah - I've just posted Brazil is one of the best.. Brazil is now available in a 3 DVD collecters special on Criterion DVD Here's a review

Yeah, the Region 1 DVD doesn't suffer from the red tint that the original Japan DVD release did. At least this is what it says here.

Sam & Max 2 is on the horizon too.

you can't play multiplayer with the GameCube unit, even if you have a GBA-to-GameCube connection

According to this review, the GCN Game Boy Player apparently does allow for connection to another system.

The GameBoy Player is the device you're talking about. It's already been released in Japan, and it will be coming to the US in June or July. You can read hands-on impressions of it here at IGN.

That means EA's position amounts to pointless pissing and moaning. This will cut them out of some potentially lucrative profits, which I'll get to momentarily. Granted EA could have milked consumers for even larger profits, but again, it's the console market, that's just how things work.

About those profits... Consider that Microsoft's long term goal is to have ten million XBOX Live subscriptions by 2007. (See FAQ.) While you may scoff now, their 2002 figures were on target, and they have already surpassed their 2003 target. Say that Microsoft is WAY off base and misses by 50%... that's still a very comfortable five million users -- probably HAPPY users, as I've yet to see any serious complaints about the quality of the XBOX Live service. Users, particularly console gamers, just don't care about that kind of thing. Plug-and-play is more important there than anywhere else. EA is cutting off their nose to spite their face.

As for Eidos, well... who cares?

Or does Microsoft just want to be the next Sega?

No, MS just wants to buy the current Sega, and since the current Sega is on the cusp of a merger with Asian Arcade Magnate Sammy, the newly announced XBox strategy makes a bit more sence, dunnit?

I thought the whole MS-Sega-Sammy dance was old news

Oh, did you miss the link?

What is the Animatrix?

for those not in the know:

What is the Animatrix?

I'm not so sure about hiding messages in executables, but there were two interesting messages hidden in the n64 game The new tetris. The messages were hidden in 00B8FF90 of the US ROM. They were also in the PAL rom about 2k further. Anyway, here it goes:

****START MARTIST RANT**** I must say, this was a fun time coming down to San Francisco to do The New Tetris. Allthough there were a few problems. First of all being our producer.. D*N, my god.. is this guy useless or what?? I don't hate you D*N.. but you SUCK, and I mean SUCK as a producer. You should go back to testing video games, but I doubt you could even manage that properly. I feel sorry for you. During this project you just sat around and played video games.. starcraft and everquest. Don't even deny that.. when you WERE working, it was making stupid Excel (tm) spreadsheets to try and tell me how many bugs I had left to fix on a graph.. like WTF is that??? who cares.. I have the bug list in front of me, like I need to see it in freaking technicolor. So D*N, I must say this.. hold onto, and fake your job while you can, because once they find out how truely useless you are, you will be out of a job. I cannot think of any skillset you would fit into in this industry, so you better hold on tight. (This guy thought I could save a name in 8.4 BITS.. like umm.. .4 BITS?? WTF is .4 BITS?? its either ON or OFF, not in between... anyhow, Enough about you though. To Nintendo.. It has been nice working with you.. Alot of you are great or were great. Tom 'Snoop Dog' Hertzog - you were great.. one of the nicest people I have ever met at Nintendo. You and your crews bug testing was outstanding and I commend you for the excellent work. Erich Waas - You know we have been friends a long time, but I must say this. After you had accepted the ART form for The New Tetris, and later on your higher ups said it was not UNISEX enough, you slapped the blame on H2O, Chris Bretz in particular. You did not have the balls to accept blame for your mistake, and stuck our entire team under IMMENSE stress and FRENZY. This to save your A$$ from getting in trouble at Nintendo. I still like you Erich, which is more than I can say for the rest of the team that you screwed because of this. But I guess your standing at Nintendo is more important than the friendships you had here. You always knew we had telent and you recognized that. I know you wanted to work with us again one day maybe outside of Nintendo, I think you screwed up those chances though. While I am screaming.. I might as well say this: Niel Voss.. your music is freaking KICK A$$.. you are one really damn talented boy. BUT, you are one of the laziest music guys I think there is You could go far if you wanted to, but you just lack the GO for it. It is a shame. I wish you all the luck and would reccomend you to ANYBODY just because even though everything is last minute, and like pulling teeth, the end result is AMAZING. I am leaving H2O after this project to work at 3DO. I hope this will be a good move for me. I love H2O, As amazingly disorganized of a company it is. I LOVE the people, I have so many good friends there. It will be hard to move on. Of course they will stay my friends. They were more than just co-workers.. they were FRIENDS. They were the people I lived with, spent my days and nights with.. went to bars with, camped with, drank with (alot), did other bad things with (wont elaborate ). They are true great friends, and I love them all and will miss them dearly. Allthough Vancouver is only a 2 hour flight away, I hope I can visit often. My best friends would include. Ross, Max, Scott, Jake, Bretz, Roland, Johnny, Sarah.. these are the people I love the most. And I wish you success. My 4.5 years at H2O were basically, making games.. drinking alot, playing pool alot, going to bars and raves and dancing while really screwed up in the head. THAT HAS TO BE THE MOST FUN I HAVE EVER HAD, and probably ever will. The good old days. These guys are in Vancouver right now because I got stuck finishing this project in San Francisco (Which by all means I LOVE and am staying (hence 3DO)) Well boys and girls, I just thought I would immortalize some thoughts I have at the moment into a rom which will be burned forever. This game sucks. The music is great but the game itself is not how we wanted it unfortunately. I mean, it is a good game, but some things could be polished, as well as sped up. Could use another month to finish this thing off AFTER all the bugs are fixed. oh well, woh is me. I would love to give special loves and kisses to the following. My Girlfriend Amy Bond, My Family (Joy, Allyson, Jon Pridie, Brant Sangster), My really really best old friends Selim Arikan, Cory Haberly, Jason Vasilash, Alfred Huger, Oliver Friedrichs. Goodbye H2O, it was a blast, and I mean that with all my heart. (C) 1999 July 1 David Pridie If you are reading this, you can obviously see this disclaimer. All this material belongs to David Pridie. If you find it and want to post it in ANY media format, you must get my permission or feel my wrath . This text if it is ever read, is intended to be read by hackers whom have dumped the contents of this rom and viewed it. That is ALL it is for. And maybe some of them will remember me from the C64 and PC days, Martial Artist of PE/TDT/RAZOR 1911/INC/FLT/TRN/FBR, I was in them all.. and I made trainers and intros mostly. I thank that scene for teaching me how to program, because without it I don't think I would be where I am today. Well that does it 4.5 years and Two games later (Tetrisphere and New Tetris). Unfortunately I wont be working on Nomans Quest.. but oh well. HAPPY CANADA DAY. ******END MARTIAL ARTIST RANT ******

*****START LUPIN RANT FOR 50 MOST HATED THINGS*****1] Idiot teens hanging out in front of 7'11s, KFC, McDonalds, Jack In The Box etc... Your life REALLY SUCKS if that's the high point of your day...2] A$$holes who spit on the sidewalk.3] Drivers who don't know how to use a turn signal. I can reach mine with my pinky while driving. It's not that hard.4] Teens with their pants around their a$$.5] People with personalized licence plates.6] BMX bikes.7] People panhandling me. Get a job losers! McDonalds is always hiring!8] Bums with dogs. I'm sure the dog loves eating cheese from old pizza boxes.9] The cheeseheads from asia who take a Honda Civic, slap some stickers on it, put a muffler on it that makes it sound like a riding lawnmower, a ridiculous sized fin on the back and think they have a formula 1 racer. 'Devastating Power!' my a$$!10] The same idiots who then drive their 'hot' civic like they are in the Indy 500 through busy traffic.11] The huge complex hairdos on african american women, 5 layers, 6000 curls, 4 sprouting areas, 200 dangling bits, 6000 beads, air conditioning and enough hairspray in it that it wouldn't move if Hurricane George hit it.12] People with Kleenex, plants, knitted blankets, stuffed animals, or lacey things in their cars rear window. I should be allowed to pull over and shoot them.13] People on the bus who talk so loud your forced to hear about their pointless lives.14] Crappy parkers who park their car REALLY close to the painted line so that you have half a foot to get out.15] Those old cars (ie, Cadillacs, Lincoln Town Cars, etc...)usually white for some strange reason... with the acient driver who always drives WAY under the speed limit.16] People who write a cheque for a $2 bag of nachos at Safeway.17] Corvettes, Comaros and Firebirds. Come on, the 80s are OVER!18] A$$hole tailgaters.19] Idiots who think they can pedal a bike as fast as a car, so they ride in the middle of a traffic lane. You should be allowed to run them over, it looks like natural selection to me.20] Teenagers on television news reports expressing their opinions on something. If your under 18 I don't give a sh1t about what you have to say...21] The singer Brandy, Celine Dion, all the divas....22] Twits who wear a huge parka outside when its sunny and a mild 5-10 C. The same thing goes with the whole scarf thing.23] Muni busses that smell like urine. Which is most of them.24] Corporate Broadcasting logos in the corner of the channel your watching.25] Web pages that pop open other pages and windows and then disable your 'back' button.26] People who walk around with a huge 'portable' stereos blaring, sharing their music with everyone around them. Usually crap rap.27] Junk mail.28] Peice of sh1t cars that spew out huge noxious clouds behind them.29] People that throw out huge items on the curb expecting the garbage people to remove it. Like old dirty matresses. They don't of course, and it sits on the curb for weeks.30] Budweiser beer and the people who drink it. I'd rather suck the piss out of a pig... Its time to poison the bud.31] Drivers who turn onto the road RIGHT in front of you causing you to slam on the brakes, even though there is no one for hundereds of feet behind you.32] People who drive 3/4 in one lane and 1/4 in another... what the hell is that????33] Religous people who push their drivel on you when your walking down the street. Or come knocking on your door.34] Dead web page links and 'Document not found' errors.35] Racisist people and the crap they spew out.36] Those stupid add banners from Geocities on the Internet when you hit someones home page going through them...37] All country music.38] Minivans.39] People who spray paint their names on rocks, signs, trees etc, in national parks. Like I care that Bill graduated in 86.40] Small yappy 'feeder' dogs. Like little Yorkies, poodles, etc...41] People in the fast lane who drive just 2 km/hr faster than the guy in the 'slow' lane, dawdling along.42] Film crews making bad movies most people doent want to see blocking the streets and being annoying.43] Big fat bugs that splat on my windshield.44] Those really tight spandex cycling pants on men, they are usually sooooo tight, you can tell if they are cirumcised.45] Those really tight spandex cycling pants on 90% of the women. Big fat a$$es and *wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiide* camel toes.46] Those really annoying commericals from Rogers Cable that tell you all about the 'evils' of satalite tv and how lucky you are to be getting cable for a mere $65 a month.47] Commercials that are SO bad on tv, you have to wonder about the sh1t for brains who thought them up. Like the Old Navy commericals, or the old as hell commercial for Sarah Lee, that is STILL ON THE AIR, 'let them eat cake' and 'But Patrick, I'm to old for life insurance.' Shoot them ALL!48] Losers that listen to totally cheezy radio stations and then slap dozens of their stupid stickers all over thier car.49] Lilith Fair. I say when they are all hugging, listening to the music, sharing tampons, and bitching about how evil men are, toss in a few hundered grenades while recording it on camera. Sell the video as a 'To Hot for TV' tape late at night.50] Cheap a$$ manufacturers of DVDs who list as 'features' chapters, interactive menues, and the time. These arent features. Thats like calling your computers keyboard a 'feature'. Lame a$$ marketing people.51] DVD manufactureres that sell their DVDs for $40 and up, just because they know people will pay for it. DVDs have actually become MORE expensive than when they first came out.52] Nintendo and everything about them.53] Old people who clog up the sidewalk walking super slow when you want to get somewhere.54] Looking at demo-reels at work that are so incredibly bad, that I just want to call them up and tell them to go f*ck their demo reel and to never EVER send another one out to anybody. EVER.55] Spiders. All spiders. Everyone of them.56] How on the Nintendo 64 game machine, half the damn titles for it are called 'miscvidgame 64'. Why not come up with a real name? Why is everyone just slapping a 64 on all the games?**********END LUPIN RANT******** I got these rants from dextrose

SonicBlue's Pearl plays Ogg. It was demoed at CES this year, so it should be on the streets by this fall. A SonicBlue employee reported on RioWorld that it supports Ogg. It also has an ethernet base, which is unusual and forward thinking.

he's not redoing them but he's making a "Special Special Edition." IGN has an article here. Apparently, he's gonna add Amidala into Return of the Jedi somehow and also add more scenes to fit in with the story ark in the rest of the trilogy. This is going to be a shame.

my bad, they just bought VGE and buried it.

And all the crying about their monopoly is silly. Hardware vendors have restricted software that can run on their hardware for eons. It's largely for quality control reasons, but Nintendo and Sony have long killed projects after seeing distasteful material. "Thrill Kill", anyone? It's the way the industry works. Anything else and you'd see a total collapse of the console industry--not merely Microsoft's interest in it.

Quality control? Bwuhuhahahahaha. Do you really believe that?

Console manufacturers maintain their monopoly so they can make a profit by charging a licensing fee to developers. That's it. The console industry would not collapse if anyone could develop whatever they wanted for it. While it's not as successful as the console industry (the $1,200 entry price tag having alot to do with that), the PC gaming industry continues to roar along producing brilliant and innovative games. Sure, lots of crap gets produced, but the market lets it sink to the bottom.

Distasteful? Well, given that they are the single point that reviews every game, it would look bad if a game was released for their system that pissed important people off. But that wouldn't be a problem if the system was open. It's only a problem because they chose to interpose themselves in the creation process. And how seriously can they take acting as such a filter? Nintendo, traditional guardian of all things innocent and safe released Conker's Bad Fur Day (A brilliant, but really distasteful game). Oh, and Thrill Kill? Killed by the publisher, EA, not by the console maker. That it got as far as it did suggests that Sony had already given it teneative approval. If EA wouldn't have bought out the original publisher (Virigin Interactive), it almost certainly would have shipped.

Here (PGC)
and some nice pics Here. Boy, this is late!

When a I first read this I thought it was referring to the 1960 'Caper film', The League of Gentlemen directed by Basil Dearden.

Not to be confused with the later 'The League of Gentlemen' nor to be confused with The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. No doubt the latter two are making reference to the *original* starring Jack Hawkins (Ben Hur, The Cruel Sea, a favourite - The Plantation owners wife - curiously renamed, 'Outpost in Malaya'.)

You can read the detailed description here.

Doh, here's the link again: Film Force

Has all of the above (spinny analog v control, play/stop/prev/next buttons, mute, etc. and some useless buttons -- shopping, favorites, etc.)

Review of Logitech Elite Keyboard (scroll midway-down for a big pic)

otherwise a kickass keyboard, been using it for a while.

The analog vol control especially is excellent and one of the few keyboard gimmicks I've seen in the past few years that I actually find myself using a lot.

-fren

I don't know if you know about this game called Animal Crossing for the Gamecube. It has a kiddy title, and a kiddy appearance, but ANYONE who plays it know how much it rules! AND... as a bonus, there are tons of hidden NES games in it! Punch-Out, Pinball, Ice Climber, etc. Others are RUMORED to be there too (Zelda, SMB, etc).

--sex

I don't know if you know about this game called Animal Crossing for the Gamecube. It has a kiddy title, and a kiddy appearance, but ANYONE who plays it know how much it rules! AND... as a bonus, there are tons of hidden NES games in it! Punch-Out, Pinball, Ice Climber, etc. Others are RUMORED to be there too (Zelda, SMB, etc).

The GBA is being updated, with the GameBoy Advance SP: which will feature a LiIon battery and self-lit screen, in a more compact form factor. And the GBA is getting MP3 and other features soon, and I see no reason why a cellphone via headset or wireless gaming should be any problem should the market demand them. And the gameboys have had FM radio options for years (I have one for my GB, GBC, and GBA)... And on top of that, not only does Nintendo make the best games (period...) but justabout every developer that exists makes games for GB. There are open source GB games and GBA plays all GB and GBC and GBA games. There are literally thousands of GameBoy games that the GBA will play. More than any other system ever made. In my not-so-humble opinion, I would rather have a GBA with GREAT games (like Metroid and Zelda) than a cell phone with "Snake extreme 3D". Besides, with all the GB games - you can probably get a version of just about any game for your gameboy... And one of the problems I can see with an "all-in-one" unit is that you can't do too many things at once. As it is I can play games on my GBA, listen to my iPod, and recieve a call on my cell phone... I would like to see something like PalmOS on GameBoy though. That would be nice...

Really, the game we're anticipating most (we use a Mac) is not The Sims Online, but Sim City 4.

I don't know if you mean the game hasn't come out yet when you say "anticipating", but Sim City 4 is out (at least in the U.S.) Here's a review. I saw it for sale at Sam's Club a week ago.

Really? Can you name an upcoming game worth buying? I sure as hell can't think of anything.

Okay, I'll feed you. There are plenty of exclusive games recently released and coming out on Xbox... MechAssault, Unreal Championship, Crimson Skies, Sega GT, Ninja Gaiden, Doom III, DOA Volleyball, Panzer Dragoon Orta, Star Wars: KOTOR...

But the real story is that platform independent games -- which represent the vast majority of gaming these days -- are almost always superior on the Xbox, whether it's graphics, sound or online. NHL 2k3 isn't that different among the consoles, except that you can play online on Xbox. Same deal with Ghost Recon.

There are tons of good games for the Xbox. Here's a list of some of the best from IGN. Like MS or not, it's a great console.

As soon as Ain't It Cool Games really gets off the ground, I'll be able to finally stop visiting IGN at all.

So far there's only one GameCube review... but soon hopefully I'll be able to get my fix of GameCube news without having to wade through the ads at IGN.

holy shit, we brought down the entire ign network! woah they suck...

Will not be upgrading his ps2 cluster for quite some time.

Why would anyone go to an AIC when there are hundreds of better sites ?

The Incredible Hulk and Terminator 3 will also be hyped today... (you have to click "on to the superbowl" to get past the nag screen ad)

1) Competition is good. Just look at how long it took before the Gameboy was finally given a huge powerboost. Nintendo has a monopoly on the handheld console industry, which is why you see $30 games for the GBA.

2) Nintendo, unlike popular belief, does not release games every 5 days. Nintendo takes forever, if not longer, to release a game. They get a lot of the money from licensing payments that other developers pay to distribute games on the Cube.

3) Sega became third party, and recently Peter Moore, who was CEO of Sega of America, stepped down due to the fact that Sega games haven't been selling as well as Sega would have hoped. He recently became vice president of retail sales for Microsoft

1) Competition is good. Just look at how long it took before the Gameboy was finally given a huge powerboost. Nintendo has a monopoly on the handheld console industry, which is why you see $30 games for the GBA.

2) Nintendo, unlike popular belief, does not release games every 5 days. Nintendo takes forever, if not longer, to release a game. They get a lot of the money from licensing payments that other developers pay to distribute games on the Cube.

3) Sega became third party, and recently Peter Moore, who was CEO of Sega of America, stepped down due to the fact that Sega games haven't been selling as well as Sega would have hoped. He recently became vice president of retail sales for Microsoft

Release dates do play a big part in who buys what system, but Nintendo doesn't sound like it's accounting for why or how their consumers make decisions to pick a console! Honestly if they had released the GameCube closer to the unveiling of the Playstation 2, how many more sales would they have generated? How many additional impulsive buys would that have accounted for? How many people would still buy the Playstation 2 for GTA?

The biggest question on the minds of my friends back in '95 was, "Do I buy a Sega Saturn now, wait for Sony's first console system, or preorder an N64?"

My buddies started to fall in to three distinct camps. First there were the impatient gamers that wanted to satisfy a fix right now! Naturally they snatched up the Saturn and voiced no regrets. The next bunch were the tech savvy spec hunting gamers that assumed the market would follow whichever system had the best hardware (please don't remind me of the 3DO). Even after the Playstation was released, and it was becoming obvious that Nintendo was going to take a lot longer to ship, there were still countless people that I knew that stuck with the philosophy that if Nintendo was taking it's time to do things right it was probably worth it to wait for their system(even if it meant waiting another year)! Last, but not least, there's the slow-to-let-go, trend-following fan-boys-and-girls that were too leary to fork over hundreds of dollars to a company that was just getting it's feet wet in the game biz. As would be expected the last bunch became product loyalists, either standing devoutely behind Nintendo and their SNES's or advocating the virtues of buying the already-here Sega Saturn system. To be fair, there were those that just wanted to wait to see which developers would sign up with which systems. And others who just wanted to make sure that the system they bought had GOOD games worth playing, developers be damned! That's probably another camp or two entirely, but who's counting?

So you have players operating on indulgence/instant-gratification, product superiority, product loyalty, the number of developers backing the console (which probably has it's roots in the adage, "a 1000 monkeys all banging away at a 1000 keyboards for a 1000 years, and eventually you have to get something good"), and what seems most important, IMHO, GOOD titles worth playing.

It just rather irked me that Iwata sounded so desperately clueless in this interview! Yes, getting it out the door sooner would be great, as long as you don't compromise any of the other things needed to sustain your system! Duh! If they're trying to finger why their sales are low they should look towards their software and hardware. For having spent as long as they did to release, they only surpass the PS2 by a foot on the yard stick.

Or one of the most sexually suggestive (and most funny) games ever made: Conker's Bad Fur Day.

(It's on the N64 and made by Rare, but it was still only for a Nintendo console)

Anybody who thinks Nintendo is going somewhere apparently has no idea what is going on in the gaming industry.

Many have the "opinion" that nintendo could and should get out of the console business. Yes, the GB/GBA obviously rake it in. It has been rumored that Sega may be pulling their sports titles from the gamecube. However, they certainly are commited to the Cube, as there are a great number of exclusive titles going to this system. Still, if they were to stop all of the "NFL" and "NBA" titles across platforms, they'd be in trouble.

People buy Nintendo systems for Nintendo titles. I know I'm looking forward to playing Zelda and Metroid, but these titles alone aren't enough for me to "get one now". I'll borrow a friends system, or pick one up in a few years.

Let's imagine for a second if they did become software only. Could you imagine the $ they could rake in if they launched an re-port of the Mario classics on the PS2? Or if Zelda were a PS2 title? Sales would increase many-fold. How profitable can it be to be a hardware vendor? (Apple, this goes for you too!)

Oh, and the Gamecube is ahead of the XBox in sales worldwide, even if it is only closely "tied" or a bit behind in the US. Globally, Nintendo is kicking Microsoft square in the jimmy

Actually, this is pretty far off.

Here is a link quoting "Nintendo president Satoru Iwata reported that his company would likely not meet their GameCube userbase goal of 8 million before the end of 2002, a goal that was already reduced from 10 million last October. As of September, Nintendo had sold 6.7 million GameCubes worldwide".

Here is another with xbox info. "Of the total sold to date, 5.4 million units were sold in North America, 1.8 million were sold in Europe and about 850,000 were sold in the Asia-Pacific region, with just less than half of those in Japan". (this adds up to just over 8 million, for the lazy).

They appear to be neck and neck, hardly "kicking in the jimmy", as you put it.

I'm not knocking the XBox, because I like the platform just fine. But Microsoft fanboys that think the XBox is going to dominate need to give up waiting for the exodus to happen. It isn't going to.

No one expects this Xbox to "dominate" anything. The best they could hope for is a good foot in the door for the next generation of consoles. The 3rd party support of the consoles at that time should be the deciding factor of who "dominates" who. It's unlikely that many will fall for Sony's marketing techno-babble hype.

If Microsoft turns into another Shit-Game-Spewing company like Electronic Arts, then I just won't buy their shit.

Indeed, if a game is shitty, it shouldn't be purchased. It seems that MS has a decent track record of releasing decent PC games, as well as Xbox titles. Admit it, you're going home to play Age of Mythology tonight, aren't you! :)

--falz

here is a link
link

You sound like MMORPG is the only profitable game type.
Personaly, I can't stand any RPG game.

And also, last i heard Sony was making around 60M a year (based on 430K players at 120 a year) on Everquest.
That excludes one-time purchases for expansions and game itself, say one every year for $50, so add another 20M.
Another advantage is that thouse $120 a year are pure income, no software to distribute. However, running online world is not easy either.

Compare that to hit games like GTA3 that brought in more than $350M. Even if it takes 5 years to develop it, it's still more profitable :)
And i am not counting Vice City expansion, that sold more than twice the original.

Another examples are Warcraft 3 (4.4M copies shipped just in first month) and Half-Life, which is still being sold (not exactly because of the original game anymore of course, but three original expansions sold very well too)

Make good games!

Brand loyalty is still very much a factor in the minds of people who have, for thirty years, watched Nintendo go from being an infant struggling company to a leader in the game console market.

Quite a few people treat their consoles the same way other people stand behind their sports teams. The same way Apple has it's loyalists and Linux has it's advocates, Nintendo can continue to survive by catering to it's diehard following as long as it stays true to what the company represents to those fans (assuming they don't do anything immensely stupid).

That all aside, it's true that Nintendo isn't the leader in the States, but sales are still strong! If you can put the US market share aside, and look at operations over in Japan, one can quickly see by searching any of the major game news sites that the GameCube is kicking major booty, taking second and third place in sales early november! The proofs in the pudding.

'nough said.

Rumors of buyouts have been swarming the gaming world recently. Nintendo will buy Sega. Microsoft will buy Sega. Nintendo will buy Capcom. EA will buy Capcom. Nintendo will buy Sega AND Capcom. Microsoft will buy Nintendo. Sony will buy General Electric (ok, so I just made that last one up). You get the idea.

Please. Until you read about this from Microsoft, Vivendi, or on legit gaming sites, assume that somebody made this crap up and are just looking for web traffic.

No, there really isn't a payola in gaming, BUT there is a flood of useless information, which is just as bad. Whenever a game is released by one of the BIG GUYS, the reveiw copies of the game come with pre-made reviews, descriptions, and a bazillion screenshots. Of course, websites like ign.com doesn't descriminate between good screenshots or bad, they POST'EM ALL. Jet Grind Radio screen shots, for the Defunct DreamCast.(2000)

This is a simple way of pushing an independant game programmer out of the market. How can someone like IGN afford to have space for a game with one or two screen shots, when they HAVE to store every screenshot for the latest gaming blockbusters?

Seemingly forever :)

The boxing game you speak of is called Mo-Cap Boxing, and it's produced by Konami, the same company that brings us Dance Dance Revolution, Para Para Paradise, DrumMania and Percussion Freaks (the drumming game you mention), and a wide variety of other motion-sensor and music-based games. Their Bemani division produces all of these (except for Police 911 and Mo-Cap Boxing).

The Korean knock-off is called Pump It Up, and it's produced by Andamiro. It is more difficult, but in my opinion it's not as fun as DDR. The song selection isn't very good. Another Korean knock-off, Techno Motion, basically builds off the Andamiro formula, which says "More arrows *must* mean more fun!" There's also Stepping Selection, by Jaleco, which is the system that is the basis for Britney's Dance Beat. That's a pretty loathsome game there.

Para Para Paradise, for the uninformed, uses five vertically positioned infrared beams placed in a pentagon shape around you. Similarly to DDR, you follow the arrows on the screen and break the light beams at the appropriate time. You don't have to use your feet, unlike DDR - Any body part will do. The orientation of the arrows makes it so that you have to rotate and twist more often, frequently making upper-body motions more efficient and viable. It's named Para Para Paradise because the motions you perform in the game are similar to a type of Japanese karaoke bar dancing called "parapara".

For a good combination of both DDR and Para Para Paradise, try DanceManiax/Dance Freaks. These games have sensors on the front of the machine which you can place your hands/arms/knees/whatever over or under, and foot panels on the bottom similar to DDR.

Bemani makes a lot of other good stuff too (Like Beatmania!), but it's not exercise-oriented, and so I won't mention it here. For anyone interested in Bemani products, take a look at BemaniStyle.com and DDRFreak.

The boxing game you speak of is called Mo-Cap Boxing, and it's produced by Konami, the same company that brings us Dance Dance Revolution, Para Para Paradise, DrumMania and Percussion Freaks (the drumming game you mention), and a wide variety of other motion-sensor and music-based games. Their Bemani division produces all of these (except for Police 911 and Mo-Cap Boxing).

The Korean knock-off is called Pump It Up, and it's produced by Andamiro. It is more difficult, but in my opinion it's not as fun as DDR. The song selection isn't very good. Another Korean knock-off, Techno Motion, basically builds off the Andamiro formula, which says "More arrows *must* mean more fun!" There's also Stepping Selection, by Jaleco, which is the system that is the basis for Britney's Dance Beat. That's a pretty loathsome game there.

Para Para Paradise, for the uninformed, uses five vertically positioned infrared beams placed in a pentagon shape around you. Similarly to DDR, you follow the arrows on the screen and break the light beams at the appropriate time. You don't have to use your feet, unlike DDR - Any body part will do. The orientation of the arrows makes it so that you have to rotate and twist more often, frequently making upper-body motions more efficient and viable. It's named Para Para Paradise because the motions you perform in the game are similar to a type of Japanese karaoke bar dancing called "parapara".

For a good combination of both DDR and Para Para Paradise, try DanceManiax/Dance Freaks. These games have sensors on the front of the machine which you can place your hands/arms/knees/whatever over or under, and foot panels on the bottom similar to DDR.

Bemani makes a lot of other good stuff too (Like Beatmania!), but it's not exercise-oriented, and so I won't mention it here. For anyone interested in Bemani products, take a look at BemaniStyle.com and DDRFreak.