I don't know if you could qualify the NeoGeo as a failure either as it managed to stick around for quite a while despite the insanely high cost of the console and games. You could also add the Sega CD and Sega 32X to the list of tried and failed. Has a game console add on ever succeeded? *tries to think of one that has*
Anyway, the article completely missed the video game market for failed products.
Regardless of whether this story is accurate or not, there should be a large and vociforous reaction from the public that they will not tolerate restrictions on used game sales. It seems that damaging public relations, and by extension a corporation's bottom line, is the only way to get our message through. Likewise with the rootkit fiasco, the next time we even get a whiff of Sony adding new copy protection controls on their CDs, benign or not, we need to twist the knife in that wound to our benefit. God knows Sony are happy to use every lever they have in Congress to achieve their own ends.
I loved Jedi Starfighter for the Xbox as it resembled the open mission concept from Tie Fighter. The gameplay for Rogue Squadron on the other hand felt like you were playing on rails. You couldn't go anywhere and explore without the computer turning you back automatically and the radar system sucked.
I guess what I really want is the amazing graphics of Rogue Squadron and the gameplay of Jedi Starfighter.
I didn't buy a Gamecube until Winkwaker was released and that was a year and a half after the Gamecube was launched (Gamecube was launched November, 2001 and Windwaker was released March, 2003). Rogue Squadron, one of the three launch titles, was a beautiful looking game, but the controls sucked and there just wasn't enough gameplay to justify buying a Gamecube for that one game. I have to concur that the launch line-up was shit; there just wasn't a "must have" title until Windwaker.
The Xbox launched with Halo and Project Gotham Racing as first party titles and a football title, Shrek, Cel Damage, some racing games and several other third party games. It was not a bad selection with fairly broad appeal.
The Wii looks to have a great selection of games with Tennis, a Mario game, Red Steel, and a raft of other titles that I can't remember. I will be disappointed though if the Virtual Console games aren't available right away as I was going to buy a used N64 before I learned that the Wii would feature downloadable N64 games.
A student of a school sitting at his computer at home has a right, the right to free speech as outlined in the First Amendment. This right does not come at the discretion of the school, but by the Constitution and is the supreme law of the land. The school can't come along and say, "Sorry son, we don't like what you're saying", as it occured during his own time off school property. I am too lazy to Google it, but I am certain that every school that has tried to discipline a child for speech outside of school hours and on private property has failed. There was a recent case of a teenager from Alaska that the school attempted to discipline for holding a banner during the 2002 Winter Olmypic torch relay that read, "Bong hits 4 Jesus", but the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the decision saying:
"Public schools are instrumentalities of government, and government is not entitled to suppress speech that undermines whatever missions it defines for itself," Judge Andrew Kleinfeld wrote in the court's opinion.
The court also cleared the way for Frederick to seek damages, saying Morse was aware of relevant case law and should have known her actions violated his rights. Courtesy of MSNBC.com. (OK, I did Google for that).
The principal, Morse, was upset that the banner undermined the schools anti-drug message, among other things. The point being that a school, as a government entity, doesn't get to pick and choose what speech is permissible and what is not off of school property and not on school time.
I live in Calgary and I have no fear of violating the DMCA, but thanks for the warning. Our government has proposed DMCA like legislation a couple of times, but both atempts died on the order paper when an election was called. The legislation contained provisions to criminalize circumventing digital encryption, but only if the purpose was to make unauthorized copies. Circumventing content protection was permitted if it was for your own use.
At some point we will have DMCA legislation, but format shifting DVDs, MP3s and the like will still be permitted.
After a ton of research I bought a Sony KF-E50A10
on
Large Format TV Options?
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· Score: 2, Informative
I looked around for weeks comparing sets, watching every make and model and reading everything I could get my hands on. In the end, I decided on the Sony Wega KF-E50A10, which is a 50" LCD rear projection TV. No matter what technology you choose - LCD (some manufacturers call it LCOS), plasma, DLP or CRT -- there are tradeoffs and advantages for each. In the case of the Sony, LCD technology has the potential to produce a pixelated, screen door effect and lower overall brightness and contrast. With a three LCD arrangement the Sony Wega is able to virtually eliminate the screen door effect and is able to overcome the contrast issue with a high brightness lamp, the only flaw to the set in my opinion as it will require replacement every so often. What sold me on the Sony was the quality of not only the HDTV picture, which I think is superb, but the quality of standard definition on cable or satellite. Hands down the Sony produced a far better picture than just about any set I looked at, except a very expensive Panasonic model I don't recall at the moment. Most salesmen are glad to blab about the quality of the HDTV picture, but rarely bring up SD picture quality and given the amount of HD content out there I estimated that I'd spend about half my time watching SD material. The dirty secret of most HDTVs is that SD looks like absolute shit on most of them, but the Sony uses an averaging algorithm that does an extremely good job of making SD broadcasts watchable.
I skipped plasma due to the cost and the fact that I felt the picture had the most pronounced screen door effect of any HDTV technology. I liked DLP, but since most HDTVs use a single chip DLP solution there can be a noticable shimmering rainbow effect on the edges of objects during movement as a color wheel must be used to display the full range of colors. I noticed it on several models and decided to skip DLP for the time being and noted that DLP sets will also require costly replacement of their high brightness lamps, just like LCD. Three chip DLP sets, one DLP chip for each of the primary colors, red, gree and blue, would eliminate the rainbow edge effect, but don't expect anything like that for less than $30,000. At some point three chip DLP will be standard, but it will be a while. I really liked the CRT rear projection sets I looked at and they were several hundred dollars less than LCD, plasma or DLP, but everyone I talked to that had one found that picture convergence was a problem (more so than SD rear projection TVs) and that static picture burn-in could be an issue (although I am told that doesn't happen anymore). Also, CRT rear projection TVs are heavier and bulkier than LCD or DLP.
I don't know about the overall reliability of DLP, but I do have a DLP projector that is a few years old and haven't noticed any loss of picture quality or missing pixels. If the quality of the SD picture wasn't as good as it was on the Sony, I would have bought a DLP TV, but nothing I saw with the DLP technology matched the quality of the SD picture from Sony. I don't think that's a limitation of the DLP technology itself so much as Sony finding the best method to display an SD quality picture on a HDTV.
Memory stick killed UMD for me...
on
Everyone Hates UMD
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· Score: 4, Insightful
Why would I buy a UMD movie when I can rip it to my 1 GB memory stick and watch it from there? I can't really tell the difference between Spider-Man II on UMD and ripped from DVD to memory stick anyway. Of my friends that have a PSP they've done the same: bought a larger memory stick and used one of the half dozen tools out there to convert their DVDs. In the end it's actually more convenient than UMD even if I wanted to watch a UMD movie because I can put whatever video content I wish on the stick.
Blockbuster had UMD movies on sale not too long ago, but I just walked on by. I had them on all DVD anyway.
I know the headline was probably meant as a joke, but before the Creationists go, um, ape on us it should be noted that Chimpanzees, Gorillas, Bonobos, Orangutangs and Man are all "great apes", evolved from earlier species. Apes evolved from Old World Monkeys about 25 million years ago.
Apes are differentiated from monkeys by their larger brain size, versatile shoulder joints, and lack a tail.
The Immmersion patent lawsuit concerning the rumble feature in the Playstation controllers must have had some bearing on the exclusion of the rumble feature from the new controller. After all, even though the judge ruled against Sony he found that Sony did not violate the patent wilfully. I would assume that by incorporating rumble into the PS3 controller that would be construed as a wilful violation of the Immersion patent. Rather than pay royalties to Immersion, I would guess that Sony decided to cut their losses and eliminate the rumble feature.
Oh, and I believe Microsoft, who was also sued for violating the patent, settled for an undisclosed sum.
I am sure I read somewhere that the reason that GOW2 isn't going to be a PS3 specific game is that it would be easier and cheaper to use all the custom tools the studio created in the production of the original over again. I also got the impression from the behind the scenes material on the game that the studio had to cut a lot intended gameplay out because they just ran out of time.
Until God of War came out I never really felt inclined to own a PS2. I got a chance to play it at EB and was completely wowed, so I bought a PS2. It certainly helped that a used PS2 with warranty was down to $129.
Besides a kick ass game that looks fantastic on a progressive TV, the behind the scenes material was better than most and pretty informative. I hope GOW2 is just more of the same.
Why would we align ourselves with Nazis?
on
"H-Prize" Announced
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· Score: 0, Troll
I understand the push to use Hydrogen, but we do realize that one of the most tyrannical and corrupt empires to employ Hydrogen was, yes you guessed it, Nazi Germany in their ill fated Zeppelin program. Why would ever want to follow in the footsteps of Nazi Germany?
I loved Indiana Jones in the Emperor's Womb and thought it was underated by the critics. The visuals were very good and the sound, as usual for a LucasArts game, was superb. There were a few glitches though and combat could get repetitive at times, but overall it brought the Indy experience to your console.
What will be interesting for me is to see how the cross platform games compare to one another. In the past, the Xbox version usually received the best score compared to the same game on the GC or PS2, but not always. Despite what the fanboys for eithe side would have you believe, I really think the play experience on both machines will be nearly identical.
lighten up. Of course I know the difference between Perisans and Indians, Indians listen to Bhangra dance music while they drive their cabs.
You people and the truth. The truth is in your gut and I felt that a joke about India and magic carpets would be funny, and it was, but then along you came with your facts and books and shit.
I don't think Sony originally intended to have two versions of the PS3, the 20 GB w/out HDMI and memory slots and the 60 GB w/everything. I am going to go out on a limb and say the only reason Sony is offering a 20 GB version is that they realize that $200 more than their competitor is too much especially when the differences in graphics performance and overall experience appear negligible.
Add an expected price drop on the 360 around the time of the PS3 launch and Sony is going to have a hard time selling machines. Is the PS3 a better machine? In terms of what you'll see on your TV and how it plays, no. I mean the 360 and PS3 both offer wireless controllers, similar if not the same HD graphics and on-line support. Xbox Live is Microsoft's ace in the hole, but Sony could leverage an advantage if they aren't complete assholes with their service like they are with other areas of their entertainment division.
Sony has the advantage of supporting an HD DVD disc standard out of the box, so you won't see games spanned across multiple discs or the possibility of games sacrificing textures or sounds to squeeze a game on a smaller disc. Sony could also steal some thunder if there are few to no hardware problems, but I expect by the time the PS3 launches Microsoft will have eliminated those issues with the 360 and we might even see a slight redesign or re-jigging of the bundles and the elimination of a no hard drive option. That's just a guess, though.
Ken Katuragi (Sony) and Steve Ballmer (Microsoft) will go several rounds in a mud wrestling competition over who has the better console. In a stunning upset, sommeone will slip a chair ringside to clinch it for Ballmer.
In any democratic nation a signed treaty is not law until Parliamnent or its equivalent passes enabling legislation. Just because representives sign a treaty doesn't make it law or even certain that Parliament will pass the treaty legislation. Even though Canada has signed on to the WIPO protocols (the alleged impetus in the U.S. for the hated DMCA act) we still haven't passed the required enabling legislation, although the preceding Liberal government did introduce legislation as required by the treaty before it died. Most treaties contain language stating the minimum requirements to meet treaty obligations and dates for compliance. The United States signed the Kyoto Protocol yet President Bush later reversed that decision, so it's not like Kyoto became law in the U.S. the second Clinton signed the treaty.
I know in the U.S. the Senate holds exclusive authority over treaty legislation and once passed treaty obligations are considered equivalent to domestic law, if memory serves. I don't see how the Senate could pass treaty legislation that violates the constitution, but I am not a contitutional expert.
If Sony really wants to win the high definition DVD "war" why not save all that money developing the PS3 (something like $900 million I read on Slashdot) and simply sell a new BluRay DVD player at less than $300. If you're going to lose money on a game machine, why not lose less on a DVD player? Hell, why not do both?
I don't understand the thinking behind selling a game machine that cost $900 million to develop for $400 that will play BluRay DVDs and then also selling a BluRay DVD player for $1000. Why would you ever buy the BluRay DVD player?
"Wow, what an honor...to sit here, at the same table as my hero, George W Bush. To be this close to the man. I feel like I'm dreaming. Somebody pinch me. You know what? I'm a pretty sound sleeper, that may not be enough. Somebody shoot me in the face...is he really not here tonight?" (in reference to the Vice President) "The one guy that could have helped."
That killed me. Later:
"I believe in democracy. I believe that democracy is our greatest export. At least until China figures out a way to stamp it out of plastic for three cents a unit. As a matter of fact, Ambassador Zhou Wenzhong, uh welcome. You're great country makes our Happy Meals possible."
Huge groan from the crowd on that one.
He got some huge laughs, but some got no reaction and I can only assume that either those in attendance were brain dead and didn't get it or offended by his frankness. Either way, he was dead on and hilarious.
Slashdot Mirror
or GameGear or Atari Lynx.
I don't know if you could qualify the NeoGeo as a failure either as it managed to stick around for quite a while despite the insanely high cost of the console and games. You could also add the Sega CD and Sega 32X to the list of tried and failed. Has a game console add on ever succeeded? *tries to think of one that has*
Anyway, the article completely missed the video game market for failed products.
Regardless of whether this story is accurate or not, there should be a large and vociforous reaction from the public that they will not tolerate restrictions on used game sales. It seems that damaging public relations, and by extension a corporation's bottom line, is the only way to get our message through. Likewise with the rootkit fiasco, the next time we even get a whiff of Sony adding new copy protection controls on their CDs, benign or not, we need to twist the knife in that wound to our benefit. God knows Sony are happy to use every lever they have in Congress to achieve their own ends.
Sorry, Sony.
I loved Jedi Starfighter for the Xbox as it resembled the open mission concept from Tie Fighter. The gameplay for Rogue Squadron on the other hand felt like you were playing on rails. You couldn't go anywhere and explore without the computer turning you back automatically and the radar system sucked.
I guess what I really want is the amazing graphics of Rogue Squadron and the gameplay of Jedi Starfighter.
I didn't buy a Gamecube until Winkwaker was released and that was a year and a half after the Gamecube was launched (Gamecube was launched November, 2001 and Windwaker was released March, 2003). Rogue Squadron, one of the three launch titles, was a beautiful looking game, but the controls sucked and there just wasn't enough gameplay to justify buying a Gamecube for that one game. I have to concur that the launch line-up was shit; there just wasn't a "must have" title until Windwaker.
The Xbox launched with Halo and Project Gotham Racing as first party titles and a football title, Shrek, Cel Damage, some racing games and several other third party games. It was not a bad selection with fairly broad appeal.
The Wii looks to have a great selection of games with Tennis, a Mario game, Red Steel, and a raft of other titles that I can't remember. I will be disappointed though if the Virtual Console games aren't available right away as I was going to buy a used N64 before I learned that the Wii would feature downloadable N64 games.
A student of a school sitting at his computer at home has a right, the right to free speech as outlined in the First Amendment. This right does not come at the discretion of the school, but by the Constitution and is the supreme law of the land. The school can't come along and say, "Sorry son, we don't like what you're saying", as it occured during his own time off school property. I am too lazy to Google it, but I am certain that every school that has tried to discipline a child for speech outside of school hours and on private property has failed. There was a recent case of a teenager from Alaska that the school attempted to discipline for holding a banner during the 2002 Winter Olmypic torch relay that read, "Bong hits 4 Jesus", but the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the decision saying:
"Public schools are instrumentalities of government, and government is not entitled to suppress speech that undermines whatever missions it defines for itself," Judge Andrew Kleinfeld wrote in the court's opinion.
The court also cleared the way for Frederick to seek damages, saying Morse was aware of relevant case law and should have known her actions violated his rights. Courtesy of MSNBC.com. (OK, I did Google for that).
The principal, Morse, was upset that the banner undermined the schools anti-drug message, among other things. The point being that a school, as a government entity, doesn't get to pick and choose what speech is permissible and what is not off of school property and not on school time.
I live in Calgary and I have no fear of violating the DMCA, but thanks for the warning. Our government has proposed DMCA like legislation a couple of times, but both atempts died on the order paper when an election was called. The legislation contained provisions to criminalize circumventing digital encryption, but only if the purpose was to make unauthorized copies. Circumventing content protection was permitted if it was for your own use.
At some point we will have DMCA legislation, but format shifting DVDs, MP3s and the like will still be permitted.
I looked around for weeks comparing sets, watching every make and model and reading everything I could get my hands on. In the end, I decided on the Sony Wega KF-E50A10, which is a 50" LCD rear projection TV. No matter what technology you choose - LCD (some manufacturers call it LCOS), plasma, DLP or CRT -- there are tradeoffs and advantages for each. In the case of the Sony, LCD technology has the potential to produce a pixelated, screen door effect and lower overall brightness and contrast. With a three LCD arrangement the Sony Wega is able to virtually eliminate the screen door effect and is able to overcome the contrast issue with a high brightness lamp, the only flaw to the set in my opinion as it will require replacement every so often. What sold me on the Sony was the quality of not only the HDTV picture, which I think is superb, but the quality of standard definition on cable or satellite. Hands down the Sony produced a far better picture than just about any set I looked at, except a very expensive Panasonic model I don't recall at the moment. Most salesmen are glad to blab about the quality of the HDTV picture, but rarely bring up SD picture quality and given the amount of HD content out there I estimated that I'd spend about half my time watching SD material. The dirty secret of most HDTVs is that SD looks like absolute shit on most of them, but the Sony uses an averaging algorithm that does an extremely good job of making SD broadcasts watchable.
I skipped plasma due to the cost and the fact that I felt the picture had the most pronounced screen door effect of any HDTV technology. I liked DLP, but since most HDTVs use a single chip DLP solution there can be a noticable shimmering rainbow effect on the edges of objects during movement as a color wheel must be used to display the full range of colors. I noticed it on several models and decided to skip DLP for the time being and noted that DLP sets will also require costly replacement of their high brightness lamps, just like LCD. Three chip DLP sets, one DLP chip for each of the primary colors, red, gree and blue, would eliminate the rainbow edge effect, but don't expect anything like that for less than $30,000. At some point three chip DLP will be standard, but it will be a while. I really liked the CRT rear projection sets I looked at and they were several hundred dollars less than LCD, plasma or DLP, but everyone I talked to that had one found that picture convergence was a problem (more so than SD rear projection TVs) and that static picture burn-in could be an issue (although I am told that doesn't happen anymore). Also, CRT rear projection TVs are heavier and bulkier than LCD or DLP.
I don't know about the overall reliability of DLP, but I do have a DLP projector that is a few years old and haven't noticed any loss of picture quality or missing pixels. If the quality of the SD picture wasn't as good as it was on the Sony, I would have bought a DLP TV, but nothing I saw with the DLP technology matched the quality of the SD picture from Sony. I don't think that's a limitation of the DLP technology itself so much as Sony finding the best method to display an SD quality picture on a HDTV.
Why would I buy a UMD movie when I can rip it to my 1 GB memory stick and watch it from there? I can't really tell the difference between Spider-Man II on UMD and ripped from DVD to memory stick anyway. Of my friends that have a PSP they've done the same: bought a larger memory stick and used one of the half dozen tools out there to convert their DVDs. In the end it's actually more convenient than UMD even if I wanted to watch a UMD movie because I can put whatever video content I wish on the stick.
Blockbuster had UMD movies on sale not too long ago, but I just walked on by. I had them on all DVD anyway.
I know the headline was probably meant as a joke, but before the Creationists go, um, ape on us it should be noted that Chimpanzees, Gorillas, Bonobos, Orangutangs and Man are all "great apes", evolved from earlier species. Apes evolved from Old World Monkeys about 25 million years ago.
Apes are differentiated from monkeys by their larger brain size, versatile shoulder joints, and lack a tail.
The Immmersion patent lawsuit concerning the rumble feature in the Playstation controllers must have had some bearing on the exclusion of the rumble feature from the new controller. After all, even though the judge ruled against Sony he found that Sony did not violate the patent wilfully. I would assume that by incorporating rumble into the PS3 controller that would be construed as a wilful violation of the Immersion patent. Rather than pay royalties to Immersion, I would guess that Sony decided to cut their losses and eliminate the rumble feature.
Oh, and I believe Microsoft, who was also sued for violating the patent, settled for an undisclosed sum.
I am sure I read somewhere that the reason that GOW2 isn't going to be a PS3 specific game is that it would be easier and cheaper to use all the custom tools the studio created in the production of the original over again. I also got the impression from the behind the scenes material on the game that the studio had to cut a lot intended gameplay out because they just ran out of time.
Until God of War came out I never really felt inclined to own a PS2. I got a chance to play it at EB and was completely wowed, so I bought a PS2. It certainly helped that a used PS2 with warranty was down to $129.
Besides a kick ass game that looks fantastic on a progressive TV, the behind the scenes material was better than most and pretty informative. I hope GOW2 is just more of the same.
I understand the push to use Hydrogen, but we do realize that one of the most tyrannical and corrupt empires to employ Hydrogen was, yes you guessed it, Nazi Germany in their ill fated Zeppelin program. Why would ever want to follow in the footsteps of Nazi Germany?
(with apologies to Stephen Colbert)
I loved Indiana Jones in the Emperor's Womb and thought it was underated by the critics. The visuals were very good and the sound, as usual for a LucasArts game, was superb. There were a few glitches though and combat could get repetitive at times, but overall it brought the Indy experience to your console.
What will be interesting for me is to see how the cross platform games compare to one another. In the past, the Xbox version usually received the best score compared to the same game on the GC or PS2, but not always. Despite what the fanboys for eithe side would have you believe, I really think the play experience on both machines will be nearly identical.
lighten up. Of course I know the difference between Perisans and Indians, Indians listen to Bhangra dance music while they drive their cabs.
You people and the truth. The truth is in your gut and I felt that a joke about India and magic carpets would be funny, and it was, but then along you came with your facts and books and shit.
that flying carpets are a myth, right? I know NASA is under some budget crunches, but honestly...
I don't think Sony originally intended to have two versions of the PS3, the 20 GB w/out HDMI and memory slots and the 60 GB w/everything. I am going to go out on a limb and say the only reason Sony is offering a 20 GB version is that they realize that $200 more than their competitor is too much especially when the differences in graphics performance and overall experience appear negligible.
Add an expected price drop on the 360 around the time of the PS3 launch and Sony is going to have a hard time selling machines. Is the PS3 a better machine? In terms of what you'll see on your TV and how it plays, no. I mean the 360 and PS3 both offer wireless controllers, similar if not the same HD graphics and on-line support. Xbox Live is Microsoft's ace in the hole, but Sony could leverage an advantage if they aren't complete assholes with their service like they are with other areas of their entertainment division.
Sony has the advantage of supporting an HD DVD disc standard out of the box, so you won't see games spanned across multiple discs or the possibility of games sacrificing textures or sounds to squeeze a game on a smaller disc. Sony could also steal some thunder if there are few to no hardware problems, but I expect by the time the PS3 launches Microsoft will have eliminated those issues with the 360 and we might even see a slight redesign or re-jigging of the bundles and the elimination of a no hard drive option. That's just a guess, though.
Ken Katuragi (Sony) and Steve Ballmer (Microsoft) will go several rounds in a mud wrestling competition over who has the better console. In a stunning upset, sommeone will slip a chair ringside to clinch it for Ballmer.
In any democratic nation a signed treaty is not law until Parliamnent or its equivalent passes enabling legislation.
Wow, I wonder who said that?
In any democratic nation a signed treaty is not law until Parliamnent or its equivalent passes enabling legislation. Just because representives sign a treaty doesn't make it law or even certain that Parliament will pass the treaty legislation. Even though Canada has signed on to the WIPO protocols (the alleged impetus in the U.S. for the hated DMCA act) we still haven't passed the required enabling legislation, although the preceding Liberal government did introduce legislation as required by the treaty before it died. Most treaties contain language stating the minimum requirements to meet treaty obligations and dates for compliance. The United States signed the Kyoto Protocol yet President Bush later reversed that decision, so it's not like Kyoto became law in the U.S. the second Clinton signed the treaty.
I know in the U.S. the Senate holds exclusive authority over treaty legislation and once passed treaty obligations are considered equivalent to domestic law, if memory serves. I don't see how the Senate could pass treaty legislation that violates the constitution, but I am not a contitutional expert.
Seriously. OK, they like books, but really, what else have they got going for them?
If Sony really wants to win the high definition DVD "war" why not save all that money developing the PS3 (something like $900 million I read on Slashdot) and simply sell a new BluRay DVD player at less than $300. If you're going to lose money on a game machine, why not lose less on a DVD player? Hell, why not do both?
I don't understand the thinking behind selling a game machine that cost $900 million to develop for $400 that will play BluRay DVDs and then also selling a BluRay DVD player for $1000. Why would you ever buy the BluRay DVD player?
caught the reactions on the player's faces perfectly. :)
With the exception of Red Sox fans, I thought the video was very clever.
Stephen was in great form with such lines as:
"Wow, what an honor...to sit here, at the same table as my hero, George W Bush. To be this close to the man. I feel like I'm dreaming. Somebody pinch me. You know what? I'm a pretty sound sleeper, that may not be enough. Somebody shoot me in the face...is he really not here tonight?" (in reference to the Vice President) "The one guy that could have helped."
That killed me. Later:
"I believe in democracy. I believe that democracy is our greatest export. At least until China figures out a way to stamp it out of plastic for three cents a unit. As a matter of fact, Ambassador Zhou Wenzhong, uh welcome. You're great country makes our Happy Meals possible."
Huge groan from the crowd on that one.
He got some huge laughs, but some got no reaction and I can only assume that either those in attendance were brain dead and didn't get it or offended by his frankness. Either way, he was dead on and hilarious.
what can be adequately blamed on management.
Seriously, Wii sucks. It sounds like something off a dum sum cart and not a revolutionary game machine.