The reason why most modern adventure games are 3D is not that 3D is fancy. It's that 3D is cheaper than 2D. Creating good 2D characters is incredibly expensive, since you have to draw up to hundreds of consistent frames for each character. 3D is cheaper than 2D.
I bought a PSP a few weeks ago. I know, I know... I really wanted to play Loco Roco (it's out in Europe, and it's an awesome little game - not worth getting a PSP for it, though).
I've never played a GTA game before, but I read all the hype and figured it was a save buy. I played True Crime, which I liked and which was supposed to be a GTA clone, but worse than GTA. So I figured I would like GTA even more than True Crime. Played GTA last week. Man, that game has issues!
The main problem seems to be that it's basically three genres mashed into one. There's driving, which is decently done. The cars don't feel too well, but it's okay considering that it's only part of a larger game. The bikes are okay, and bikes are really hard to do, so good for them. The problem is walking, fighting and shooting. It doesn't work. Walking, jumping and running feels awkward. But shooting and fighting just plain suck. Lock on somebody, hit the button as fast as you can, figure out that you accidentially locked onto an old lady instead of on the drug dealer you were supposed to beat up, but couldn't see it due to the fucking crappy camera, and he beat you up instead but you didn't notice it due to all the crap going on on the screen.
Also, it has the "sudden death because of stupid actions" issue: Buy a gun. Since you play the game for the first time, you're not sure how to aim. Try a few buttons. Find the aim button. Die since the gun dealer shoots you as soon as you hit the aim button while still inside his shop. Start again. Thanks a lot.
I'm afraid that you're completely missing the whole point of the argument. Yes, you can export all those things to standard formats. But the source files aren't standard. If you export your Garage Band music to AAC, you're destroying your ability to edit the file. Your tracks are gone, it's become a single-track stereo audio file. If you convert an iTunes store file to unprotected AAC and remove it from iTunes, you're also removing all of iTunes' custom metadata; if you export from iMovie to MPG (or whatever), you're again losing your tracks, your titles, your ability to make changes to your movie, and so on.
That's the argument here.
These are proprietary formats, and you can only use (as in read, edit, store) them as long as you keep using Apple's tools.
I've been thinking about Pilgrim's reason for switching, and for the love of God I can't figure it out. Basically, his argument is that he wants to get away from proprietary formats. I understand that. I want that too. And I have it for most formats. I'm using OpenOffice, my mail is stored in mbox files, my images are PNGs, my music is AAC (not exactly open, but a standard).
And I'm using a Mac.
There's a problem, though: if I make a movie, it's locked in iMovie's format. If I burn a DVD, it's locked in iDVD's format. If I make music, it's in Garage Band's proprietary format. If I buy music, it's DRM'd. What to do? Switch to Ubuntu?
Guess what, I do have an Ubuntu box in my living room. Problem is: There's no iMovie for Ubuntu. There's no iDVD for Ubuntu. There's no Garage Band for Ubuntu. You can't buy music from major labels on Ubuntu unless you use questionable russian sites. Sure, I could switch to Ubuntu. That would get rid of the remaining proprietary formats. It would do that because it would get rid of my ability to make movies, DVDs and sound.
Yes, there are appliations which run on Ubuntu which allow you to do that stuff. No, you can't compare them to Apple's stuff. I know it because I've tried. Pilgrim himself says the same.
Sony are shit these days, they haven't turned out a decent games system since the PS1.
One could argue that they haven't turned out a decent games system since the Walkman with LCD.
The PS1 wasn't a decent games system. It was a mediocre games system with a hacked-together controller and crappy build quality that just happened to get lucky (mainly because its competitors were generally even worse - CD-i anyone?) and subsequently got a fair amount of great games.
The problem is that most PC users aren't as picky and don't tend to make a fuss if something doesn't work
Not true on my planet. I've got a ThinkPad and I've had zero problems with it in a year and a half, but if something didn't work, believe me, I'd want it fixed ASAP.
So you're the only person living on your planet?:-)
I know PC users. PC makes annoying noise? Kick it until it stops. At least that's what our IT people told me when the Dell at work started making noise. So now I kick it twice a day. Everyone I know who owns a PC is like that. Something doesn't work? That's expected. Work around it.
Mac users simply don't react like that.
I also tend to wonder, after reading your comment, whether Apple users are more accident-prone than average.;-)
Fair enough. But there's a simple explanation: Lots of my friends use Mac, and we're in the age group where you tend to go downhill biking or skateboarding and eventually are bound to fall on your face a few times:-)
As long as you're within AppleCare, Apple's service is phenomenal. It's more like an insurance than a guarantee. Apple will replace your stuff if there's a problem, no matter what exactly the cause is. My brother got his iPod replaced after he actually fell on it and destroyed the screen. A friend of mine got his iBook replaced after he broke the screen in a skateboarding accident, and another friend got his iBook replaced after it fell out of a train (don't ask).
I myself did destroy a PowerBook when I stupidly tried to look at the motherboard after my PowerBook stopped producing sound. I took it apart, put it back together and what do you know, it didn't work anymore. Called Apple, they put in a new motherboard, no questions asked.
There's something else I would like to add: There are new articles about problems with Apple's hardware almost weekly. Frankly, I think this has got little to do with Apple's quality and more with Apple's users who tend to be perfectionists who complain about everything. I'm not blaming them, I think they're perfectly right to ask for perfection. The problem is that most PC users aren't as picky and don't tend to make a fuss if something doesn't work. People still think that Apple's PowerBook 5300 actually exploded. It never did. However, Dell had several battery issues where actual notebooks burst into flames. Nobody talks about that.
If you see weekly reports on Apple's hardware problems, it's probably not due to Apple's hardware being crappy. It's due to Mac users' tendency to constantly complain about these things.
It has Mac OS X. For me, that puts it high enough above everything else.
Why? I'm much happier with Linux...
That's why I said "for me". I don't claim that Mac OS X is best for everyone, and in fact, the MythTV box in our living room runs Linux (obviously). There are valid reasons to go with Linux over Mac OS X - especially if you know what you're doing.
For my personal computer, though, I prefer something that actually works for what I want to do and does what I want it to do, and for me, that's a Mac.
Although your criticisms seem a bit weird:
the directory names are easier to type,
Easier to type? How so?
the GNU command-line utilities beat the crap out of the BSD versions most of the time
Which ones are you talking about? What don't you like about BSD's command-line utilities?
there's much more software available
Now this is quite simply not true. If anything, the Mac has way more software than Linux. All of Apple's aplications like iMovie or iDVD, Apple's pro apps, Microsoft Office, Adobe's apps, all the Cocoa apps like Delicious Library or Omni Graffle: There's nothing like those on Linux.
features that should be free (virtual desktops, for example) are free
Why do you like Mac OS X? (Seriously... I'm curious.)
Why do I like the Mac?
First, it has a consistent and beautiful user interface. Yes, that matters to me. I have to stare at that (imho, of course) butt ugly excuse for an interface that is Windows all day long at work, I don't need that in my spare time.
Second, it has Xcode and Cocoa, which allow for rapid development of real Mac OS X applications.
Third, stuff just works. Plug a Gamepad into your Mac: Done. Plug a gamepad into your Linux box: Spend a day hunting for drivers, then spend a day hunting for games which actually support gamepads, then, if you don't find any, try to find an app which translates your particular gamepad's movement to keyboard entries so you can use them with the games that don't support your pad (like, all of them), then don't find anything that actually works, then get annoyed, throw the gamepad into a corner and never touch it again. Yes, there's a gamepad lying in our living room next to the MythTV box.
Fourth, it has the apps. There simply is nothing like iMovie or iDVD on any other platform. I was in Berlin last month, spent a week there visiting friends. I took some pictures and movies while hanging out, going to the zoo, stuff like that. At the end, I spent two hours (yes, that's it, two hours) to put it all on my Mac, create a nice DVD with a movie short movie containing video sequences shot that week, added a matching soundtrack using Garage Band (one song which changes its' speed and theme according to the pictures), put the pictures into slide shows, also with matching movies and then burned half a dozen DVDs (that's the part which took longer than two hours, but since you don't have to actually sit there and wait for it, it doesn't really matter) to give to my friends as a parting gift.
There simply is no other platform where you can do this as effortlessly - and all the apps you need come free with your Mac, to boot.
When I got the MacBook Pro, I created a short comic-style review for my blog. Mac OS X comes with Comic Life, which creates panels, speech bubbles, titles and "draw" effects for you. Using Photoshop, this would have taken me about a quarter of a day. Using Comic Life, which is not available anyhwere else and comes free with your Mac, it took me half an hour.
Coming from the Mac, I have a question about this: Doesn't this clash with Windows' Activation? If you boot the same installation from within Parallels and from the Mac itself, wouldn't Windows see that as two different computers, which would trigger a new activation?
I do plan to upgrade to 2GB of RAM on the MacBook Pro, though.
Do yourself a favor. Run, don't walk, to the nearest computer hardware store and get the additional gig of RAM. It's a world of a difference.
My MacBook Pro felt slow with only one gig. Worse, when running lots of applications, or single applications which didn't behave too well, it would slow to a crawl, sometimes not accepting mouse clicks for seconds. With the second gigabyte, it's fast, snappy, responsive.
Don't run a MacBook Pro with only one gig, especially if you want to run stuff like Parallels.
there is the throuble that not every third party games is as good as 'Castlevania', just look at NfS:Most Wanted or Burnout for the DS, those games are horrible, they look like junk and they play like junk.
True. But there are some points to consider:
This is true for all consoles to a certain extent. It's worse with some consoles than with others, but look at the Dreamcast: This is the console that probably had one of the highest percentages of awesome games, but there are still games like WWF Royal Rumble or that weird kickboard game - both unplayable messes
This has always been especially true for portable consoles where ports were an afterthought used to cash in on the name which the "big console version" had made (e.g. King Kong)
You don't have to buy them. It doesn't make the good games any worse.
especially since the DS is the only console around where those games downright suck.
Now this is simply not true. The worst-rated DS game "Sprung" is only the 49th worst rated game on Game Rankings.
There are plenty of crappy games on other consoles.
If somebody says "a Mario game" without further qualifiers, that usually means "a Jump-N-Run with Mario as the main playable character". Luigi's Mansion had no Jumping and no Mario as a playable character, so it most definitely is not a Mario game. If anything, it's Nintendo's version of Resident Evil:-)
Super Princess Peach, on the other hand, could possibly be called a Mario game. It has no playable Mario, but at least it has jumping and running.
Two Italian guys, some swords, and Excite Bike (Excite Truck in Wii's case) didn't save Gamecube
The Cube had no Mario game, no Zelda game and no Excite Bike when it launched. There's still no Excite Whatever, and Mario and Zelda took a long time to appear on the Cube. What are you talking about?
Isn't anyone else ticked off at the fact that there are under 10 games worth owning for the Gamecube?
No. Nobody else is ticket off at this. Because it's not true. Gameranking lists 106 games rated 80% or higher. Every last one of these is worth owning, and a lot more are worth it, too.
And why the heck do you want to die when playing a game? I bet Monkey Island must have been a huge disappointment.
You didn't ask me, but anyway. I own a DS. From grandparent's list, I own the following games:
Castlevania DS: Awesome game. Easily the best Castlevania I've ever played.
Meteos: Used to be the best puzzler until Tetris came along. And getting beaten by Tetris is no shame, really.
Tony Hawk: The first time that I've actually played through a Tony Hawk's since THPS2. Also the first time they actually introduced some really great new features since THPS2.
Sonic Rush: Finally, a new 2D Sonic. And it rules.
Trauma Center: Played it about two hours. Fun game, great idea, frantic gameplay, unfortunately too hard for me.
Phoenix Wright: Can't wait for part 2. Great, great adventure.
I haven't played the other games, but these are really awesome games. Each of them is worth getting a DS for on its own.
I guess lots of people only buy one game (simply because if you buy a PSP for Lumines or Katamari, there may be no other PSP game that appeals to you) - or no game at all because they want to keep the old firmware and play emulators. So it's not going to be a bell curve.
most of them available from Nintendo themself like Zelda, Mario, Nintendo Dogs, and other Nintendo produced titles.
The title is not "Nintendo Dogs". It's Nintendogs. Had you ever actually played it, you'd know this.
Now lets take a look at the "good" titles of this new ds New Super Mario Bros Nintendo Dogs Metroid Hunters Animal Crossing Castlevania Mario & Luigi Partners in Time Mario Kart DS Get the point? most of these hit titles are directly produced by Nintendo itself.
Castlevania isn't a Nintendo game. Why don't we talk about the awesome DS games from third-party developers? You've already mentioned Castlevania, but there's also Meteos, Sonic Rush, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Sk8land (at last a fresh Tony Hawk's game), Viewtiful Joe, Feel the Magic, Pac Pix or Trauma Center. Nintendo had trouble with third-party support on the N64 and on the Cube, but on the DS, it's changing, and they're investing a lot to get third-parties on board with the Wii.
Although I must admit that I do not care too much. It's great having third-party support, but I'd buy a Wii if only Nintendo made games for it: They're always top notch and a lot of fun.
Ever played Animal Crossing? Nintendo sends you little presents now and then, but only if you actually turn that option on (go to your room and use the telephone to "call" Nintendo and they'll ask you whether you want stuff like that).
Do you seriously think that this is not going to be an optional feature in the Wii?
Lumines >> Meteos, which just goes to show you've never played a PSP or the game.
No, it just proves that you're much more of a Sony fanboy than I'm a Nintendo fanboy:-P
Seriously, almost every freaking Meteos review mentioned that this was what Lumines was always meant to be. Nothing against Lumines, it's a great game. It's just that Meteos is better.
Stop trolling, you know PSP's not dieing
Look, I know you're scared and pissed. Nobody wants to shell out hundreds of bucks just to find out that he bought a console that was dead the day it came out. But that's the way it is. You need to get over your cognitive dissonance and acknowledge the facts.
Nah, come on, I'm just pushing your buttons:-)
As long as Sony won't kill the PSP like Sega killed the DC, new games will appear. Who knows, some of them might even not be crap.
Slashdot Mirror
You're right, of course, but the question is: Could Capcom have released this game on any other console? Would Sony have allowed it? Probably not.
The reason why most modern adventure games are 3D is not that 3D is fancy. It's that 3D is cheaper than 2D. Creating good 2D characters is incredibly expensive, since you have to draw up to hundreds of consistent frames for each character. 3D is cheaper than 2D.
I bought a PSP a few weeks ago. I know, I know... I really wanted to play Loco Roco (it's out in Europe, and it's an awesome little game - not worth getting a PSP for it, though).
I've never played a GTA game before, but I read all the hype and figured it was a save buy. I played True Crime, which I liked and which was supposed to be a GTA clone, but worse than GTA. So I figured I would like GTA even more than True Crime. Played GTA last week. Man, that game has issues!
The main problem seems to be that it's basically three genres mashed into one. There's driving, which is decently done. The cars don't feel too well, but it's okay considering that it's only part of a larger game. The bikes are okay, and bikes are really hard to do, so good for them. The problem is walking, fighting and shooting. It doesn't work. Walking, jumping and running feels awkward. But shooting and fighting just plain suck. Lock on somebody, hit the button as fast as you can, figure out that you accidentially locked onto an old lady instead of on the drug dealer you were supposed to beat up, but couldn't see it due to the fucking crappy camera, and he beat you up instead but you didn't notice it due to all the crap going on on the screen.
Also, it has the "sudden death because of stupid actions" issue: Buy a gun. Since you play the game for the first time, you're not sure how to aim. Try a few buttons. Find the aim button. Die since the gun dealer shoots you as soon as you hit the aim button while still inside his shop. Start again. Thanks a lot.
Man, this game is crap.
I'm afraid that you're completely missing the whole point of the argument. Yes, you can export all those things to standard formats. But the source files aren't standard. If you export your Garage Band music to AAC, you're destroying your ability to edit the file. Your tracks are gone, it's become a single-track stereo audio file. If you convert an iTunes store file to unprotected AAC and remove it from iTunes, you're also removing all of iTunes' custom metadata; if you export from iMovie to MPG (or whatever), you're again losing your tracks, your titles, your ability to make changes to your movie, and so on.
That's the argument here.
These are proprietary formats, and you can only use (as in read, edit, store) them as long as you keep using Apple's tools.
I've been thinking about Pilgrim's reason for switching, and for the love of God I can't figure it out. Basically, his argument is that he wants to get away from proprietary formats. I understand that. I want that too. And I have it for most formats. I'm using OpenOffice, my mail is stored in mbox files, my images are PNGs, my music is AAC (not exactly open, but a standard).
And I'm using a Mac.
There's a problem, though: if I make a movie, it's locked in iMovie's format. If I burn a DVD, it's locked in iDVD's format. If I make music, it's in Garage Band's proprietary format. If I buy music, it's DRM'd. What to do? Switch to Ubuntu?
Guess what, I do have an Ubuntu box in my living room. Problem is: There's no iMovie for Ubuntu. There's no iDVD for Ubuntu. There's no Garage Band for Ubuntu. You can't buy music from major labels on Ubuntu unless you use questionable russian sites. Sure, I could switch to Ubuntu. That would get rid of the remaining proprietary formats. It would do that because it would get rid of my ability to make movies, DVDs and sound.
Yes, there are appliations which run on Ubuntu which allow you to do that stuff. No, you can't compare them to Apple's stuff. I know it because I've tried. Pilgrim himself says the same.
One could argue that they haven't turned out a decent games system since the Walkman with LCD.
The PS1 wasn't a decent games system. It was a mediocre games system with a hacked-together controller and crappy build quality that just happened to get lucky (mainly because its competitors were generally even worse - CD-i anyone?) and subsequently got a fair amount of great games.
So you're the only person living on your planet? :-)
I know PC users. PC makes annoying noise? Kick it until it stops. At least that's what our IT people told me when the Dell at work started making noise. So now I kick it twice a day. Everyone I know who owns a PC is like that. Something doesn't work? That's expected. Work around it.
Mac users simply don't react like that.
Fair enough. But there's a simple explanation: Lots of my friends use Mac, and we're in the age group where you tend to go downhill biking or skateboarding and eventually are bound to fall on your face a few times :-)
As long as you're within AppleCare, Apple's service is phenomenal. It's more like an insurance than a guarantee. Apple will replace your stuff if there's a problem, no matter what exactly the cause is. My brother got his iPod replaced after he actually fell on it and destroyed the screen. A friend of mine got his iBook replaced after he broke the screen in a skateboarding accident, and another friend got his iBook replaced after it fell out of a train (don't ask).
I myself did destroy a PowerBook when I stupidly tried to look at the motherboard after my PowerBook stopped producing sound. I took it apart, put it back together and what do you know, it didn't work anymore. Called Apple, they put in a new motherboard, no questions asked.
There's something else I would like to add: There are new articles about problems with Apple's hardware almost weekly. Frankly, I think this has got little to do with Apple's quality and more with Apple's users who tend to be perfectionists who complain about everything. I'm not blaming them, I think they're perfectly right to ask for perfection. The problem is that most PC users aren't as picky and don't tend to make a fuss if something doesn't work. People still think that Apple's PowerBook 5300 actually exploded. It never did. However, Dell had several battery issues where actual notebooks burst into flames. Nobody talks about that.
If you see weekly reports on Apple's hardware problems, it's probably not due to Apple's hardware being crappy. It's due to Mac users' tendency to constantly complain about these things.
That's why I said "for me". I don't claim that Mac OS X is best for everyone, and in fact, the MythTV box in our living room runs Linux (obviously). There are valid reasons to go with Linux over Mac OS X - especially if you know what you're doing.
For my personal computer, though, I prefer something that actually works for what I want to do and does what I want it to do, and for me, that's a Mac.
Although your criticisms seem a bit weird:
Easier to type? How so?
Which ones are you talking about? What don't you like about BSD's command-line utilities?
Now this is quite simply not true. If anything, the Mac has way more software than Linux. All of Apple's aplications like iMovie or iDVD, Apple's pro apps, Microsoft Office, Adobe's apps, all the Cocoa apps like Delicious Library or Omni Graffle: There's nothing like those on Linux.
They're free on the Mac, too.
Why do I like the Mac?
First, it has a consistent and beautiful user interface. Yes, that matters to me. I have to stare at that (imho, of course) butt ugly excuse for an interface that is Windows all day long at work, I don't need that in my spare time.
Second, it has Xcode and Cocoa, which allow for rapid development of real Mac OS X applications.
Third, stuff just works. Plug a Gamepad into your Mac: Done. Plug a gamepad into your Linux box: Spend a day hunting for drivers, then spend a day hunting for games which actually support gamepads, then, if you don't find any, try to find an app which translates your particular gamepad's movement to keyboard entries so you can use them with the games that don't support your pad (like, all of them), then don't find anything that actually works, then get annoyed, throw the gamepad into a corner and never touch it again. Yes, there's a gamepad lying in our living room next to the MythTV box.
Fourth, it has the apps. There simply is nothing like iMovie or iDVD on any other platform. I was in Berlin last month, spent a week there visiting friends. I took some pictures and movies while hanging out, going to the zoo, stuff like that. At the end, I spent two hours (yes, that's it, two hours) to put it all on my Mac, create a nice DVD with a movie short movie containing video sequences shot that week, added a matching soundtrack using Garage Band (one song which changes its' speed and theme according to the pictures), put the pictures into slide shows, also with matching movies and then burned half a dozen DVDs (that's the part which took longer than two hours, but since you don't have to actually sit there and wait for it, it doesn't really matter) to give to my friends as a parting gift.
There simply is no other platform where you can do this as effortlessly - and all the apps you need come free with your Mac, to boot.
When I got the MacBook Pro, I created a short comic-style review for my blog. Mac OS X comes with Comic Life, which creates panels, speech bubbles, titles and "draw" effects for you. Using Photoshop, this would have taken me about a quarter of a day. Using Comic Life, which is not available anyhwere else and comes free with your Mac, it took me half an hour.
A few days ago, I needed a
It has Mac OS X. For me, that puts it high enough above everything else.
Coming from the Mac, I have a question about this: Doesn't this clash with Windows' Activation? If you boot the same installation from within Parallels and from the Mac itself, wouldn't Windows see that as two different computers, which would trigger a new activation?
Do yourself a favor. Run, don't walk, to the nearest computer hardware store and get the additional gig of RAM. It's a world of a difference.
My MacBook Pro felt slow with only one gig. Worse, when running lots of applications, or single applications which didn't behave too well, it would slow to a crawl, sometimes not accepting mouse clicks for seconds. With the second gigabyte, it's fast, snappy, responsive.
Don't run a MacBook Pro with only one gig, especially if you want to run stuff like Parallels.
I smell updates for all popular Mac GBA emulators coming :-)
Finally, a properly emulated version of Boktai for Macs! Or maybe even an official Mac version? One can dream, can't one? :-)
True. But there are some points to consider:
Now this is simply not true. The worst-rated DS game "Sprung" is only the 49th worst rated game on Game Rankings.
There are plenty of crappy games on other consoles.
If somebody says "a Mario game" without further qualifiers, that usually means "a Jump-N-Run with Mario as the main playable character". Luigi's Mansion had no Jumping and no Mario as a playable character, so it most definitely is not a Mario game. If anything, it's Nintendo's version of Resident Evil :-)
Super Princess Peach, on the other hand, could possibly be called a Mario game. It has no playable Mario, but at least it has jumping and running.
The Cube had no Mario game, no Zelda game and no Excite Bike when it launched. There's still no Excite Whatever, and Mario and Zelda took a long time to appear on the Cube. What are you talking about?
No. Nobody else is ticket off at this. Because it's not true. Gameranking lists 106 games rated 80% or higher. Every last one of these is worth owning, and a lot more are worth it, too.
And why the heck do you want to die when playing a game? I bet Monkey Island must have been a huge disappointment.
You didn't ask me, but anyway. I own a DS. From grandparent's list, I own the following games:
Castlevania DS: Awesome game. Easily the best Castlevania I've ever played.
Meteos: Used to be the best puzzler until Tetris came along. And getting beaten by Tetris is no shame, really.
Tony Hawk: The first time that I've actually played through a Tony Hawk's since THPS2. Also the first time they actually introduced some really great new features since THPS2.
Sonic Rush: Finally, a new 2D Sonic. And it rules.
Trauma Center: Played it about two hours. Fun game, great idea, frantic gameplay, unfortunately too hard for me.
Phoenix Wright: Can't wait for part 2. Great, great adventure.
I haven't played the other games, but these are really awesome games. Each of them is worth getting a DS for on its own.
I guess lots of people only buy one game (simply because if you buy a PSP for Lumines or Katamari, there may be no other PSP game that appeals to you) - or no game at all because they want to keep the old firmware and play emulators. So it's not going to be a bell curve.
Others probably buy tons of games.
The title is not "Nintendo Dogs". It's Nintendogs. Had you ever actually played it, you'd know this.
Castlevania isn't a Nintendo game. Why don't we talk about the awesome DS games from third-party developers? You've already mentioned Castlevania, but there's also Meteos, Sonic Rush, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Sk8land (at last a fresh Tony Hawk's game), Viewtiful Joe, Feel the Magic, Pac Pix or Trauma Center. Nintendo had trouble with third-party support on the N64 and on the Cube, but on the DS, it's changing, and they're investing a lot to get third-parties on board with the Wii.
Although I must admit that I do not care too much. It's great having third-party support, but I'd buy a Wii if only Nintendo made games for it: They're always top notch and a lot of fun.
Playing violent games lowers your inhibition of shooting somebody in the face != playing violent games turns you into a murderer.
Your example tells me absolutely nothing about the truth in Thompson's claims.
The argument isn't that sony formats are a technical failure. It's that they're a market failure. And MD most certainly did fail.
Which, of course, turned out to be true.
Ever played Animal Crossing? Nintendo sends you little presents now and then, but only if you actually turn that option on (go to your room and use the telephone to "call" Nintendo and they'll ask you whether you want stuff like that).
Do you seriously think that this is not going to be an optional feature in the Wii?
No, it just proves that you're much more of a Sony fanboy than I'm a Nintendo fanboy :-P
Seriously, almost every freaking Meteos review mentioned that this was what Lumines was always meant to be. Nothing against Lumines, it's a great game. It's just that Meteos is better.
Look, I know you're scared and pissed. Nobody wants to shell out hundreds of bucks just to find out that he bought a console that was dead the day it came out. But that's the way it is. You need to get over your cognitive dissonance and acknowledge the facts.
Nah, come on, I'm just pushing your buttons :-)
As long as Sony won't kill the PSP like Sega killed the DC, new games will appear. Who knows, some of them might even not be crap.