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Yeah, those 11 million WoW players don't count. In THE YEAR 2009!!!1 they'll all use WINE to play WoW in Ubuntu :rollseyes:

The Orange Box sold very well on the PC, according to Valve's Doug Lombardi, surpassing 360 sales. I'm sure Valve wishes they never wasted money on that whole Steam thing; it's clearly going nowhere...

And I'm sure StarCraft II and Diablo 3 will flop. Blizzard may as well throw in the towel.

Someone better tell Stardock that making PC games is a bad idea.

I also heard that Dawn of War II and Empire Total War are being canceled and removed from Steam in anticipation of the great Linux migration of '09.

FYI: PC games would cease being made if they were unprofitable.

But I agree: idiotic DRM needs to go and publishers need to stop blaming piracy for their inability to make good games. I own a 360, Wii, and gaming PC (that dual-boots Ubuntu) and have plenty of great games for each platform. You're missing out if you write-off PC gaming.

For those interested, you can read IGNs article on The Top 10 Games That Might Make You Inadvertently Whack Your Friends in the Nuts. It only just came out last month.

i don't think he ever said $15 was high priced. he's simply referring to the "more complex" software referred to in the letter using the author's own terminology. and if you look at the graph in TFA, $15 is relatively high priced for the average App Store application.

and what is a "high" price is largely relative. while $100 might be a high price for a stick of gum, it wouldn't be a high price for a Ferrari. so whether a price is high or not depends on the value of the product. games for other handheld consoles might start at $15-20, but they're also much more complex and thus more costly to make.

just because $30 is a reasonable price for titles like: Mobile Suit Gundam SEED: Rengou vs. Z.A.F.T., Burnout Legends, Killzone: Liberation or Warhammer 40k: Squad Command does not mean it's a reasonable price for the average iPhone game.

i'm not saying that there aren't games for the iPhone worth $20~30, or games for the PSP worth much less, but the vast majority of games for the iPhone simply do not justify a price higher than $10 IMO. they might still be fun games, but so far Flash games that are freely available on the internet. so it's unreasonable to charge PSP prices for iPhone titles.

i don't think he ever said $15 was high priced. he's simply referring to the "more complex" software referred to in the letter using the author's own terminology. and if you look at the graph in TFA, $15 is relatively high priced for the average App Store application.

and what is a "high" price is largely relative. while $100 might be a high price for a stick of gum, it wouldn't be a high price for a Ferrari. so whether a price is high or not depends on the value of the product. games for other handheld consoles might start at $15-20, but they're also much more complex and thus more costly to make.

just because $30 is a reasonable price for titles like: Mobile Suit Gundam SEED: Rengou vs. Z.A.F.T., Burnout Legends, Killzone: Liberation or Warhammer 40k: Squad Command does not mean it's a reasonable price for the average iPhone game.

i'm not saying that there aren't games for the iPhone worth $20~30, or games for the PSP worth much less, but the vast majority of games for the iPhone simply do not justify a price higher than $10 IMO. they might still be fun games, but so far Flash games that are freely available on the internet. so it's unreasonable to charge PSP prices for iPhone titles.

In realistic FPSs I think better graphics do matter. Nicer looking tanks, environments, bigger maps, more space to explore. On the DS Call of Duty looks really really boring.

The new one looks decent it seems:
http://dsmedia.ign.com/ds/image/article/801/801855/call-of-duty-4-modern-warfare-20070705060935949_640w.jpg

Maybe it was an older game or an older versions I've seen pictures from earlier:
http://i.testfreaks.se/images/products/600x400/51/call-of-duty-4-modern-warfare-51357.321587.jpg

Ah, whatever, think that skiing game for the amiga where you go down a hill jumping over houses and such, or in tubes and old skiing games in pipes and such, and compare those to SSX :D

And in 2D cute manga-style RPGs those pretty images looks even more pretty in higher res =P, may not make the game a lot better, but well, I'd rather play it nice looking than ugly :)

I guess there need to be huge leap in technology to bring out a significant different release though, like Quake over Pong, or WoW over Quake.

In regards to Wii Music he said:

I really don't know who are actually going to purchase the game, but I hope that schoolchildren will play.

I couldn't agree more. For those of you thinking that this will offer high quality tracks from all eras of music, guess again.

I could go into a lengthy diatribe about the shortages of Wii Music but instead, I'll referrence IGN that pointed out the biggest deficiency:

Before we even get to the gameplay breakdown, though, take a second and think about what you might value in a game dedicated to music. I imagine a robust roster of popular, classic and contemporary songs tops the list for obvious reasons. What about an assurance that the songs included will be presented in the highest audio quality possible? I mean, people went nuts when they found out that the musical tracks in the Wii version of Guitar Hero were outputted in mono, and with good reason: we expect a certain caliber of presentation from today's software. Unfortunately, with Wii Music Nintendo has demonstrated that it doesn't care to satisfy expectations. Not only are most of the 50-plus tracks lifted from the public domain -- such timeless hits as Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, O Christmas Tree, My Grandfather's Clock and Bridal Chorus -- but they are also rendered in archaic, amateur MIDI. I've heard some good MIDI renditions in my day and let me tell you, you won't find any of them in Wii Music. It is a good thing that Beethoven is long dead because he would not ever wish to hear the game's lifeless version of Ode to Joy.

Seriously, Ode to Joy done in MIDI? Are you trying to scare your children away from Beethoven?

They gave this game a 5.0 out of 10.0 and I think that's a tad generous. This game is seriously only for the very young. Great for that and introduction to music but no more.

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I really don't know who are actually going to purchase the game, but I hope that schoolchildren will play.

I couldn't agree more. For those of you thinking that this will offer high quality tracks from all eras of music, guess again.

I could go into a lengthy diatribe about the shortages of Wii Music but instead, I'll referrence IGN that pointed out the biggest deficiency:

Before we even get to the gameplay breakdown, though, take a second and think about what you might value in a game dedicated to music. I imagine a robust roster of popular, classic and contemporary songs tops the list for obvious reasons. What about an assurance that the songs included will be presented in the highest audio quality possible? I mean, people went nuts when they found out that the musical tracks in the Wii version of Guitar Hero were outputted in mono, and with good reason: we expect a certain caliber of presentation from today's software. Unfortunately, with Wii Music Nintendo has demonstrated that it doesn't care to satisfy expectations. Not only are most of the 50-plus tracks lifted from the public domain -- such timeless hits as Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, O Christmas Tree, My Grandfather's Clock and Bridal Chorus -- but they are also rendered in archaic, amateur MIDI. I've heard some good MIDI renditions in my day and let me tell you, you won't find any of them in Wii Music. It is a good thing that Beethoven is long dead because he would not ever wish to hear the game's lifeless version of Ode to Joy.

Seriously, Ode to Joy done in MIDI? Are you trying to scare your children away from Beethoven?

They gave this game a 5.0 out of 10.0 and I think that's a tad generous. This game is seriously only for the very young. Great for that and introduction to music but no more.

*cough* *cough*

Here's a good place for viewing a couple of different HD versions of this same trailer: http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/news/43017/Star-Trek-XI-Movie-Trailer-Released

I played X-Com just a few years ago for the first time, back when it was already a well over a decade old and yet it was nothing short of a mind blowing experience where nothing I have played more recently came close and I don't even like turn based games.

X-Com: Enemy Unknown is generally regarded as one of the best PC games ever. Last year at IGN it was voted the #1 Best Game Ever, ahead of Civilization IV at #2. For a game released in 1994, that really says something. I bought the game when it came out and could only barely play it on my 386SX16 machine. 14 years later, I still play that damn game once every few months. I still occasionally play a few old games (e.g. Master of Orion 2 and Master of Magic), but none really compare to the full-bore "replayability" of the original X-Com.

-Steam has all the original X-Com games available for download. Take-Two, who owns the rights to the X-Com franchise, has even patched some of them recently.
-Rumor has it that Take-Two is working on a new installment in the X-Com series, but I'm not hopeful. All the sequels have failed to capture some key aspect of the original game.
-Some crazy russian dude actually created a freeware PocketPC/Windows Mobile version of the original X-Com. Not only is it completely true to the original game, it actually works a little better. The only drawback is that you generally are stuck playing it on a screen about the size of a business card. Still, it keeps me occupied during long, boring "all hands" meetings.
- Xenocide is an ongoing attempt to create a modern version of the original X-Com: Enemy Unknown. Like most such fan projects, it's perpetually about 30% done. (yes, FreeOrion, I am looking at YOU)

If its coming from Atari don't set your expectations high - expect a mess something along the lines of 2 of their flagship titles:

DRIV3R

http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/pc/driv3r?q=driv3r

  or even worse Alone in the Dark!

http://pc.ign.com/articles/887/887197p1.html

http://xboxlive.ign.com/articles/902/902400p1.html#update

Obama wants us to "turn off the video games" with regard to kids, so take what you will from that.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/30062/Barack-Obama-Parents-should-clamp-down-on-games

http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/news/37855/Obama-Turn-off-the-video-games

I'd just like to give a shout out to Havlen for creating Endless Nights IV
If you ever just wanted to run 30th level characters till your hearts content, this is the place.
Throw fireballs until your fingertips burn off.
Use those artifacts until you grow weary of them.
Give your arcane archer a challenge.
I definitely spent 10 times more hours playing this module than all the official NWN campaigns combined.
Thanks! Havlen!

ALFA for NWN was a great idea - a set of persistent world servers making up the Forgotten Realms.

The implementation was crap. The servers were colossally laggy. The scripting was often horrible. The servers were frequently nice to look at but shockingly devoid of content, especially - thanks to that bad scripting - reasonably dynamic content.

Right here on slashdot you'll find comments from Adam Miller, who produced the best content for NWN and NWN2 -- Dreamcatcher, Dark Waters, Lute Hero. ALFA can't even hold a candle to this.

Even on the "persistent world" side, ALFA was always underpopulated... maybe 15-30 people playing across all their servers most times. More people are still playing City of Arabel now than ever really played ALFA. I looked the other night and it had 45 people on (and it is a single server).

According to the preview at IGN: "The first micro-expansion is called Entrenchment, and Ironclad plans on selling it for about $10, which is a third of what a typical expansion costs."

So four expansions for fourty dollars sounds fairly inline to me at least.

Point 3 which you base your entire argument on is WRONG. The current plan is for 1 year cap between releases:
http://pc.ign.com/articles/918/918895p1.html

According to http://pc.ign.com/articles/918/918895p1.html they're planning to have a 1 year gap between games.

Heh. That's "feedback" as in "loud screeching noise which can destroy the system if it gets out of control"?

Now if only Sony and Nokia would realise that DRM is deeply despised and that marketing your stuff as "DRM-free" when it patently isn't is not a solution to this ... ah, the joys of major label control addiction. As Penn Jilette says: "I would make executives more concerned with making money. I'm serious."

For the global chat channels:
http://vnboards.ign.com/warhammer_online_age_of_reckoning_general_board/b22997/108769045/p1
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/warhammeronline/show_msgs.php?topic_id=m-1-45831838&pid=520538

I think a lot of us who play custom maps more than the melee game would agree.

If you're still playing melee, and you want custom maps, it's probably time to upgrade to brawl.

I can't understand how they would make a different game for the gamecube and not a true final fantasy

Because they were partly owned by Sony?

Anyway, since the Playstation, Square and Sony have enjoyed a fruitful business relationship like Square and Nintendo did back in the 8/16bit era. What came as a surprise is that they released a FF title for Nintendo at all. It wasn't so surprising the game turned out to be wholly different from a regular Final Fantasy and, ultimately, such an unpleasant experience (which I own too, sadly). At that point, that's just what you could expect. Square did not even bother to involve itself in the game's creation, it was a Game Designer Studio's project financed by Nintendo's Q fund.

The only commitment from Square was to allow the use of the Final Fantasy brand name, to guarantee sales pretty much by fooling buyers on the nature and quality of the product. And indeed, when you look at it, that's the only Final Fantasy thing this game had: its title.

IGN has posted a preview .

They were shown actual gameplay, and the game certainly seems to "have funding" and "be in development".

Also Tad Williams is personally involved.

If Nintendo gets some help from 3d realms: Wii Might As Well Forget It.

I thought 3D Realms had already ruled out developing for Wii.

The reason why being "art" is important is because of the issue of legitimacy. (That's a link to an article I wrote to explain the issue more.) As a game developer, being considered a legitimate medium is nice because it means I don't have to lie and say I'm a crack dealer to get any respect from other people. ;) It also helps because then we wouldn't have to put up with so much government B.S. about "protecting the children" from the evils of video games; we wouldn't put up with politicians banning books, and we shouldn't for video games, either.

So, while it's nice to know that people play and enjoy a game I worked on, I'd rather make it so that my works have the same protection in game form that the would have in just about any other creative medium. That's why "games as art" is important to us. It's more than just having stuffy academics glance a bit less disdainfully in our direction.

Have fun,

Isn't anyone else reminded of the PS3 game "The Last Guy"? http://ps3.ign.com/dor/objects/14265437/the-last-guy/images/the-last-guy-20080820102941083.html I couldn't find a quick screenshot of it, but on some levels the people you're trying to save spell out "Help me" and such (in the language of the city you're trying to save too... cool).

exactly, I have a similar problem. My set is an older CRT that only does 480i,480p,1080i. It does NOT support 720p. So what happens if a title is only mastered in 720p, well, it gets scaled down to 480p. Wouldn't that look the same as a progressive scan dvd player then? This is another reason why I've been holding off. Here's an article that describes the problem further: http://ps3.ign.com/articles/746/746282p1.html

Dude, your post makes no sense. Why would MS want to stunt the xbox?

They let their one big developer Bungie leave to go work on multiplatform titles.

Bungie wanted to leave. MS allowed them to, kept the rights to Halo, and first right of refusal to Bungee games. It's better this way (for the xbox) -- Bungie remains a happy studio, and they make games for the xbox. The other way around, Bungie employees get pissed and leave, and MS is left with the skeleton.

The let Bizzare and Bioware leave exclusive Xbox development.

They don't get to choose this. Blizzard and Bioware can do whatever they want. MS and Sony usually pay huge sums of money for exclusive titles (on a per-title basis). More and more, they're both deciding it isn't worth it. Everybody wins this way of course -- 'cos more games are available on both platforms. If fact, MS is probably wagering that the Xbox live experience is the differentiator that makes people choose to buy non-exclusive titles on an xbox instead of a ps3. Either way, they've done the math and decided most exclusives aren't worth the price. They still do have exclusive titles when they are important enough (for example, Gears of War II).

They've shutdown other minor firstparty exclusive Xbox developers over the past year or two.

Sources? Anything??

Tecmo appears to be going full multiplatform now that Itagaki is gone.

Repeat after me: MS does not control independant studios, and this is Good Thing anyway.

That leaves Microsoft with just Rare, Lionhead, and Turn 10. Maybe one more. Compare that to Nintendo who has 10 first party studios. And even worse to Sony who now has 20 or so first party studios.

What's the point of having 20 first party studios if you don't even have 20 total games that are worth playing? I just don't understand your point. Are you trying to say there's a dearts of good titles for the Xbox? I hope you realize how ridiculous that sounds.

It should be obvious why Microsoft has had virtually nothing new to show at game conferences over the past year. Getting 360 ports of PC games isn't going to do anything in the console market - especially now that even mid range PC graphics are far beyond 360 game levels.

??

Remember that the xbox GPU is more powerful than the PS3 CPU. See here for details. It's normal for GPUs in the market to outstrip console GPU performance mid-way through the life of a console. You're trying to make some convoluted argument to support your statement about MS trying to kill the 360, but you're not making much sense.

btw: The new xbox dashboard, netflix "watch it now", gears of war II. Nothing new to show at game conferences over the past year?? There's more, but your claim isn't worth responding to.

Perhaps Microsoft has finally decided they need to stop wasting their time in the console market and will start to turn their attention back to PC gaming.

Do you actually beleive what you just wrote? Look, at this point, I assume you're a PS3 fanboi. That's fine. Why can't you just enjoy your PS3 without dissing the 360? Think about it -- without stiff competition from the xbox, the PS3 itself wouldn't be as awesome as it is. And remember that MS's efforts have brought us the Halo series, GoW, Xbox live. By what yardstick do you think they are wasting their time??

He's the fundamental difference: on a console you put in the CD which is needed to authenticate that you have the disk, but it doesn't actually update the firmware of your system. When you eject the disk, the system is exactly the same as it was before.

You're rather misinformed.

The wii does that, the PSP and PS3 do that, and the Xbox 360 does that. The XBOX did that too, and the PS2 allowed for modifications of the "Your System Configuration" save to retroactively patch the system to fix issues with games. This was what led to the "PS2 Independence" exploit.

To do things like close security holes in their DRM, they include new firmware on the disks of games that come out, and require firmware updates before you are permitted to play. The Xbox 360, for example, has fuses that it blows in the processor. Older firmware refuses to run if the fuses are blown, newer firmware refuses to run if it isn't. This prevents you from downgrading your firmware.

Games have also been known to check or alter the dashboard, which is basically the "OS".

On a console, you have a manufacturer controlled device that only runs manufacturer-approved software. The disk can be used to authenticate itself, or update the entire OS or firmware. And, due to DRM, cryptography, and poor documentation, it's significantly harder to have any clue what's going on. The system might be exactly the same, but you have no way of knowing.

Consoles are _way_ worse than PCs are - the worst DRM I've seen for the PC involved slight sector changes or drivers. No DRM yet (AFAIK) goes so far as to mandate firmware or bios upgrades.

Guess what, the real world is also complex and 3D, and - amazingly - normal human beings (above the age of 8, at least) seem to have no problem navigating it, given reasonable instructions.

Those skills don't translate to the computer screen, because in the real world we have more input, on the screen we're limited to what the devs show to us, which is limited by the hardware. And as you say, we have things like extremely detailed maps of places we have never been, GPS's, and can ask directions of anyone.

There are roads and signposts leading to the main destinations and when you're "exploring the wilderness", well, then you're exploring the wilderness and should feel as if you are exploring the wilderness, not staring at a green arrow. An arrow that doesn't even point (just) at places on the map, mind you. If your next objective is "talk to person X", then the arrow will point to person X even as that person moves around the game world (maybe every NPC in Oblivion has a satellite tracker?)

I play games to have fun, I want to do as little tedious drudgery in the game as possible, especially when the game is very very long. Taking out the compass, arrows, etc would have increased the drudgery quotient of Oblivion. I know there are people who like stupidly realistic fantasy games that are too complex for their own good (see the Realms of Arkania series), I don't. My time is finite, and I actually want to finish games, so anything that cuts down on excessively time consuming realism is a good thing.

Did the Ultima games or System Shock or even previous Elder Scrolls games have "full time magical GPS navigation"? No, they did not. Did anyone complain about "getting lost all the time"? No, they did not.

Here's a quote from Ken Rolston, a Morrowind dev http://rpgvault.ign.com/articles/357/357248p1.html

Ken Rolston
Lead Designer
What stands out in my mind about Morrowind? Apart from the Ten Divine Design Principles of Morrowind that I repeat as a mantra every day, in every way, as I toil ceaselessly with Puritanical fanaticism upon this Labor of Love? Well. I love getting lost.

I have never been so completely and hopelessly lost in any game environment. Oh. Well. Maybe as a new-born troll in the swamps of EverQuest. But that was different. I was fighting the interface as much as anything else. In Morrowind, it is a huge, completely plausible landscape. I decide to go from this place to that place, and take off cross-country, bushwhacking. And I get completely, hopelessly lost. And I DESIGNED the damn game. I DESIGNED the map.

Well. Not HOPELESSLY. I always feel like, if I just persist, I'll find a river or some other feature and follow it to civilization. But I spend a LOOOOONG time industriously and futilely exercising my wilderness pathfinding skills. "Here. I'll just follow this ridgeline until I see something familiar. Oh. Look. A Dwemer ruin! Hooray! I'm saved. Oh. 'Gruheelingtheft'? I don't remember any 'Gruheelingtheft'. Where the hell am I?"

Here I am, rigorously testing elements of the Main Quest, Act II, and I am STILL spending long periods of time wandering around looking for places. And because I'm in a hurry, I constantly have to suppress the impulse to climb over that high range of mountains, or swim out to those distant islands, or poke around in that swamp, or pop down the door to that mine, or sneak around in those ruins. When I come back this way, I'll STILL have plenty of opportunities to get thoroughly and gratifyingly lost.

Some people like getting lost, and while I do like exploring Oblivion, the map and arrows let me easily get back to any quest I might want to do without having to do an 80's style notebook full of graph paper maps and notes like: "ziggywiggy the wizard is at X12 Y3 between the hours of 8am and 1pm, but is at

The Phoenix Wright series has done quite well on the DS, but I can't understand why someone hasn't bothered to put that kind of experience on the Wii.

Actually, Capcom has released Harvey Birdman for the Wii which is basically Phoenix Wright with the Adult Swim Characters instead. However, it is much easier, more comedy-centric, and only about 2-3 Hours of play. But if you can get it for cheap (or rent) I highly recommend it.

IGN Review http://wii.ign.com/articles/817/817567p1.html

the Wii is stuck somewhere between 1.5x-2.0x times more powerful then the Gamecube and quite a bit of that additional power is already eaten up by 16:9/480p output vs 4:3/480i output that the Gamecube did.

If you're going to beat Nintendo up on it's lack of effort on high definition gaming, at least use some facts. The GameCube supports 480p as long as you buy the digital out port. Getting the cable for the digital port required ordering it directly from Nintendo by mail. Many games did not support progressive scan because support was not mandatory for GameCube games and getting the cable was difficult. To load a Gamecube game in progressive scan mode you hold down the b button while it turns on if I remember. Later in the GameCube's life cycle, Nintendo removed the digital out port to cut costs.

The difference is *FAR* bigger then just HD. For one very important thing there is anti-aliasing, which the Wii doesn't do and causes all Wii games look pretty sucky on a big screen.

Antialiasing is usually used for textures in the game, not for upscaling the resolution. The Wii is oblivious to HD (it has no hdmi port), so it can't upscale anything itself. It's all left to the TV. (I hope your TV has good upscaling algorithms! If they used Antialiasing, then it will be nice and blurry....)

Completely wrong, I guess that myth will never die. Its pretty much equally powerful then the stuff from the last generation, its hardware can't even run some effects that the Xbox1 could do, due to the lack of shader, so you won't see a game like Riddick on the Wii ever.

The Wii does not natively support some of the shaders the orginal XBox had. The PS2 did not natively support antialiasing in the hardware like the GameCube and the Xbox did. But many games emulated antialiasing in software, sometimes getting better results than the hardware algorithms. If some enterprising developers tried to use that extra %50 horse power, it _may_ be possible. ( http://wii.ign.com/articles/867/867498p1.html ) The Conduit may be that kind of game.

What happened was that most companies saw the Wii as an "also ran" once again. The XBox barely beat out the Gamecube lastgen (both getting their asses handed to them by the PS2). So, when Nintendo said "less power more immersive", the developers scratched their heads then "ooh"ed and "aah"ed over PS3 and 360 graphics. As with most of the market, they were thinking only of the core market (14-25 males) and what they would bring.

(It should be noted that the DS was only coming into its own right leading up to the Wii's launch, so the whole "it prints money" thing hadn't connected yet.)

Fast forward a year after release. 360's numbers are still looking alright, but Sony can't give away PS3 consoles (which were free with any HDTV purchase above a grand at many stores for a while). Wii, in the mean time, either has already surpassed the 360 in sales or is set to do so in a month or two's time, despite having a year's handicap. Suddenly, developers are going "oh shit" and want to jump on the money train. They see the success of games like Wii Sports (duh, as it's packaged with the Wii), Wii Play, and Rayman Raving Rabbids (which is quite fun) and think "We an pump out a bunch of minigame games". So we get isles of shovelware for Wii Year 2. In this time we get a bunch of good games as well, but it's starting to suffer the same way the PS2 did.

But we're coming up on Year 3 and it seems that a lot of companies are announcing original properties or new titles for the console. We have MadWorld, Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of a New World, The Conduit, and Fatal Frame (4): Mask of the Lunar Eclipse. For the casuals, there are plenty of other enticing options, such as Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party, Wii Music (along with other Nintendo Wii titles), and Dance Dance Revolution: Hottest Party 2. At the same time, the Wii is becoming more than an afterthought. For instance, Rock Band 2 will not be crippled like the original Rock Band Wii was.

I think, though, that Year 3 will not be the year of casuals, as that's more of an over-arching thing, partly because casual gamers are far more likely to buy older titles they haven't played or only rented/borrowed before, whereas "core" gamers are much more likely to stick with new releases. Instead, a trend that I see developing for late Year 3/early Year 4 is ports, either straight or enhanced. We've had Resident Evil 4 and Okami, as well as other titles like House of the Dead (2 & 3). Capcom has announced Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop and Sega has Samba de Amigo. Only two titles, sure, but as Wii sales continue on their steady pace (and stores continue to sell out), more and more developers are going to reach into their catalog of PS2, XBox, and Dreamcast games and grab some of the more popular titles to bring to the Wii. Because the expectations lower, they won't need to spend much time ramping up graphics, and by this point many studios have gotten good with applying the Wii controls. Throw in a bit of extra content here and there, price it at $30 or $40, and you have an easy seller.

Nintendo did have a bad E3 (I mean, wow), but this allows 3rd parties to step up not just for casual gaming, but for the core market as well. Over time some of those casuals will come over to the dark side, spurring "core"

What happened was that most companies saw the Wii as an "also ran" once again. The XBox barely beat out the Gamecube lastgen (both getting their asses handed to them by the PS2). So, when Nintendo said "less power more immersive", the developers scratched their heads then "ooh"ed and "aah"ed over PS3 and 360 graphics. As with most of the market, they were thinking only of the core market (14-25 males) and what they would bring.

(It should be noted that the DS was only coming into its own right leading up to the Wii's launch, so the whole "it prints money" thing hadn't connected yet.)

Fast forward a year after release. 360's numbers are still looking alright, but Sony can't give away PS3 consoles (which were free with any HDTV purchase above a grand at many stores for a while). Wii, in the mean time, either has already surpassed the 360 in sales or is set to do so in a month or two's time, despite having a year's handicap. Suddenly, developers are going "oh shit" and want to jump on the money train. They see the success of games like Wii Sports (duh, as it's packaged with the Wii), Wii Play, and Rayman Raving Rabbids (which is quite fun) and think "We an pump out a bunch of minigame games". So we get isles of shovelware for Wii Year 2. In this time we get a bunch of good games as well, but it's starting to suffer the same way the PS2 did.

But we're coming up on Year 3 and it seems that a lot of companies are announcing original properties or new titles for the console. We have MadWorld, Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of a New World, The Conduit, and Fatal Frame (4): Mask of the Lunar Eclipse. For the casuals, there are plenty of other enticing options, such as Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party, Wii Music (along with other Nintendo Wii titles), and Dance Dance Revolution: Hottest Party 2. At the same time, the Wii is becoming more than an afterthought. For instance, Rock Band 2 will not be crippled like the original Rock Band Wii was.

I think, though, that Year 3 will not be the year of casuals, as that's more of an over-arching thing, partly because casual gamers are far more likely to buy older titles they haven't played or only rented/borrowed before, whereas "core" gamers are much more likely to stick with new releases. Instead, a trend that I see developing for late Year 3/early Year 4 is ports, either straight or enhanced. We've had Resident Evil 4 and Okami, as well as other titles like House of the Dead (2 & 3). Capcom has announced Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop and Sega has Samba de Amigo. Only two titles, sure, but as Wii sales continue on their steady pace (and stores continue to sell out), more and more developers are going to reach into their catalog of PS2, XBox, and Dreamcast games and grab some of the more popular titles to bring to the Wii. Because the expectations lower, they won't need to spend much time ramping up graphics, and by this point many studios have gotten good with applying the Wii controls. Throw in a bit of extra content here and there, price it at $30 or $40, and you have an easy seller.

Nintendo did have a bad E3 (I mean, wow), but this allows 3rd parties to step up not just for casual gaming, but for the core market as well. Over time some of those casuals will come over to the dark side, spurring "core"

But you do see that. :) Everything casts shadows on everything (unless it's been specifically disabled by the artist).

If that's true, then where are they? I have yet to see a gameplay example where a soldier casts a shadow on himself. You can see a soldier's shadows on the ground, plants, buildings, and in other areas, but never on the soldier himself.

Crysis has completely uniform shadow mapping.

I don't think that means what you think it means. A uniform shadow map is a shadow map that's effectively fixed regardless of perspective. This is inferior to raytraced results.

This is exactly the same as ray traced shadows, the only difference is quality and power requirement.

You keep repeating that, but it's simply not true. Shadow maps only compete with raytracing if you spend the computational power to project a shadow for every polygon in the scene for nearly every frame. Game don't do that. It's far too expensive.

There's a good discussion on the Crysis shadowing technique over on the OGRE3D forums.

I have a feeling you may be thinking of projected shadows which do indeed have a few of those attributes (they suck).

Shadow maps ARE a form of projected shadows. That's why they're also referred to as projective shadowing.

But you do see that. :) Everything casts shadows on everything (unless it's been specifically disabled by the artist).

If that's true, then where are they? I have yet to see a gameplay example where a soldier casts a shadow on himself. You can see a soldier's shadows on the ground, plants, buildings, and in other areas, but never on the soldier himself.

Crysis has completely uniform shadow mapping.

I don't think that means what you think it means. A uniform shadow map is a shadow map that's effectively fixed regardless of perspective. This is inferior to raytraced results.

This is exactly the same as ray traced shadows, the only difference is quality and power requirement.

You keep repeating that, but it's simply not true. Shadow maps only compete with raytracing if you spend the computational power to project a shadow for every polygon in the scene for nearly every frame. Game don't do that. It's far too expensive.

There's a good discussion on the Crysis shadowing technique over on the OGRE3D forums.

I have a feeling you may be thinking of projected shadows which do indeed have a few of those attributes (they suck).

Shadow maps ARE a form of projected shadows. That's why they're also referred to as projective shadowing.

Don't get your hopes up guys, this is being made by the same Russian developers that produced the positively awful Tarr Chronicles back in September of 2007, Akella and Quazar Studio. Furthermore if you watch the Dark Horizon trailer and look at the dialog text, you'll find the name "De'khete" in there, that was one of the enemy factions from Tarr Chronicles.

It looks like this is the sequel to Tarr Chronicles under a different name to hide the fact that it's related to that flop. I hate to judge developers before they even get their work out, but when their last title was an abomination and their next title is a sequel coming out a mere year later, I wouldn't put much faith in the game being anything more than a hunk of junk even more rushed than their last game. Go read the reviews for Tarr Chronicles, Dark Horizon is probably just going to be the same thing all over again.

It's a good thing there aren't any violent games for the Wii.

So, it's not ok to have some beer, but it's ok to stuff your face to the point of throwing up.

Don't know about the DS, but the xbox360 is going to have...The Incredible Machine! (http://xbox360.ign.com/objects/851/851737.html)
Also, there's a German company that has revived the genre with a game called Crazy Machine: http://xbox360.ign.com/objects/851/851737.html

This is an issue called legitimacy. Basically, books are legitimate works of art, but computer games are not (yet).

Part of the problem is the same thing we've seen with comic books back when the CCA is formed: people are finding material that is obviously not for kids in a medium they automatically assume is for kids. Video games are considered a childish pursuit despite gamers' average age being 33. So, GTA4 is bad because it's a video game and obviously intended for little Billy to play. American Psycho is a violent book, but we know that we shouldn't ban books just because kids could get their hands on them. Note that older media is more respected, in general, so we rate movies but not plays, etc.

If you want to see possible futures for video games in the U.S., take a look at previous "harmful" media like comics and rock 'n' roll music. If the goverment continues to attempt to clamp down on it and eventually succeed (with laws or self-censorship), we'll see the American industry retard itself and fall behind while another country becomes dominant (hello, manga!) If the goverment accepts that video games have artistic value, the American industry will flourish and become a global force. Guess which one works out better for the U.S. in the long run?

And, yeah, I'm a computer game developer. :) So this topic has extra meaning to me.

All the more reason to hope the Wii version of Clones Wars is worth buying

Jacobs gives some lengthy explanations about the changes here: About removing the classes: http://vnboards.ign.com/warhammer_online_age_of_reckoning_general_board/b22997/107897121/p1/?13 About removing the cities: http://vnboards.ign.com/warhammer_online_age_of_reckoning_general_board/b22997/107896043/p1/?55

Jacobs gives some lengthy explanations about the changes here: About removing the classes: http://vnboards.ign.com/warhammer_online_age_of_reckoning_general_board/b22997/107897121/p1/?13 About removing the cities: http://vnboards.ign.com/warhammer_online_age_of_reckoning_general_board/b22997/107896043/p1/?55

Nightspirit wrote,

"NWN's story sucked..."

Did you see this posted at a NW fan site? NWN Original Document

You can't put FMV and CD Quality sound on a cartridge.

Resident Evil 2 for N64 begs to disagree with you. To a certain extent, at least.

If you aren't an old timer, you should get excited and pay attention, because this new version is being developed by Ubi Soft Montreal, the folks that just brought us Splinter Cell, along with the help of the creator of Prince of Persia, Jordan Mechner.

"With Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Ubi Soft and Jordan Mechner are channeling their combined talents to breathe new life into the action/adventure genre. They're creating rich characters, white-knuckle action and a plot with more twists than the exotic, elaborate castle featured in the game," said Serge Hascot, Editor in Chief, Ubi Soft Entertainment. "We're thrilled to move forward with the legendary Prince of Persia brand and eagerly await the launch of the next masterpiece from our world-famous Montreal studio."

Looks like Guitar Hero is really turning up the heat in the ongoing war with Rock Band for dominance.

The cheapest route to go would be the DD-WRT firmware that other people have mentioned, although then you get into some issues that many people want to avoid.

Personally, I was very happy with the DGL-4300 router from D-Link. It will let you specify QoS settings, and it also lets you prioritize certain games and certain applications, and will also let you be computer specific.

I originally got the router because I was actually hogging my own bandwidth. Before the router, capping my bandwidth via an FTP download or torrent would lag everything else. Now, I prioritized my games and I can maintain a 60 ms ping in an online FPS game while capping out my download at several mbit per second. What really really impressed me was that D-Link has the ports and protocols preprogrammed in for a large variety of games and applications, including bittorent.

Screenshot of the interface

The same thing sounds like it can be done via the DD-WRT firmware, just possibly not quite as elegantly. D-Link also has a new 802.11n GameFuel router (the DGL-4300 I use is 802.11b/g only) but all of the prices I have found on the N router so far have been really, really ridiculously high.

I couldn't get to the site, but found these instead.

IGN and Gizmodo.
 
Looks cool, but I'd pass. Don't get me wrong, I love Star Trek^H^H^H^HWars (joking) as much as the next geek. Just not enough to decorate my home with it.