It's made headlines in my local newspaper, the Portland Press Herald, two days running. I do find it disturbing that you have to scrounge the fine print of the politics section on CNN to find it, though; it should certainly come before articles like "the most popular baby names," which is currently amongst their front-page articles.
Um. No. They got the prices right - $300 for core, $400 for premium on the 360. Prices were higher back in the early days when stores decided to only sell the 360 bundled with ridiculous numbers of games and accessory crap. The price of the HD-DVD expansion hasn't yet been announced. And Sony's online service is ostensibly free, but you'll note that they carefully never actually mentioned online multiplayer - just "community" stuff that the (free) XBox Live Silver already delivers. Sony also seems to be intect on microtransactions hidden everywhere in their system. I will grant that they will likely have free online play, but they clearly worded things very carefully so that they could slither out of it if they felt so inclined.
Anyhow, I already enjoy honest-to-goodness free online with my DS. Nintendo's probably got my money for the next gen, though I'll keep Microsoft's proposal here in mind in case I feel a need for more "hardcore" games in the future.
I think it opens up a lot of different possibilities," was Miyamoto's response. He said he thought he could see a Wii version of Kid Icarus, and that the Wii controller could enhance games like Starfox. "Sadly, though, I don't have time to do that right now since I'm so tied to so many different projects going on," said Miyamoto via a translator. He then commented how it would be nice to add Wii controller support for virtual console titles.
Prospects seem pretty good, then, if Miyamoto himself says he could see it happening.
They rather completely mis-characterized Nintendo's new system and strategy. The controller doesn't "function like a remote control" - it *looks* like a remote control, and functions like a... well, like a motion-sensitive, position-detecting device. And Nintendo's not expressly looking for a younger audience at all; if anything, they're looking for new audiences that haven't traditionally been big demographics for gaming.
Poor journalism there, really.
Now, for the wider "console wars" struggle: Sony failed to show much of anything particularly impressive from their extra year of development. Graphically, things seem to have regressed since last year - perhaps since last year they were showing mocked-up CG rather than real footage. Gameplay-wise, they showed absolutely nothing new - an (admittedly pretty) God of War clone, a WWII shooter (with aliens!), and several racers do not make for exciting next-generation play. With their obscene price tag and the fact that they've no longer got a timed-exclusive hold on some big series, like GTA, they seem to be setting themselves up for a fall. They seem to be flailing for new ideas - the motion-sensing function of the controller was apparently tacked on only two or three weeks before E3.
I suspect that the 360 may begin to gain the upper hand, at least in the US, and possibly in Europe (where they're getting shafted even worse on the PS3 price - 599 Euros translates to some $760). I'm not sure how Japan will fare; from the sales to date, it seems that the 360 has little hope of taking a lead there, but the Wii may see significant success, bolstered by the DS' mindshare and popularity. There's also the classic "big console" issue - the PS3 is some 2 inches bigger than the original XBox, making it less attractive to Japanese consumers. Japan is generally very brand-loyal, but shifts have occured in the past - that is, after all, how Sony came to power. On a personal note, I find Sony's arrogance about the system's price (their executives have been quoted as saying that it's probably too cheap) to be faintly disgusting, too.
Actually, UMDs store video at the same resolution as DVDs - 720*480 - but the PSP's screen (with a resolution of 480*272) is incapable of displaying said resolution, and Sony's dragged their heels on releasing a stand-alone UMD player.
Decent wireless controllers, period, in fact; the WaveBird was among the first wireless controllers to work properly, since Nintendo ditched finicky IR-based wireless and went with a radio-based system.
To be honest, it's looking more and more as if *Nintendo* has Japan cornered. Look at the craze surrounding the DS Lite launches, and the top-ten-games lists dating back to the middle of last year. Once in a while a PS2 or PSP title will push its way in, but the consistent best-sellers (like the Brain Training games and Animal Crossing) are all DS titles. The PSP isn't doing shabby, either - it's pretty consistently in second - but neither it nor the PS2 approach the DS' performance, even speaking historically (the DS is selling faster than the PS2 ever did).
The clincher will (or will not, dependant) be the Revolution launch in Japan. A lot of developers have expressed tremendous interest in it, but the publishers have been quiet. Of course, the Revolution is sort of being marketed as a "companion" console - riding alongside a Sony or Microsoft machine - but I personally think that marketing is only for the hard-core, Famitsu-reading Japanese gamers. Nintendo seems pretty confidant that it'll also be picked up by large numbers of more casual gamers who wouldn't bother with the expensive competition.
Freelance Foto was already sort of done, in the form of the Michael Ancel's game "Beyond Good & Evil." You got to take wildlife photography (with all the associated dangers - some of the subjects had teeth, claws, wings, death rays...) and journalistic photography (mostly of government misdeeds). It wasn't as dynamic or realistic as the game Curry suggests, but the basic idea was there, mixed in with a bit of Zelda and a bit of dumbed-down Metal Gear Solid.
All right. That wouldn't make a great fucking game.
Seriously, though. If you're despairing of the industry that much, go pick up a DS and a few games that don't carry an EA logo (say, Meteos, or Mario Kart DS, or Pheonix Wright, or Trauma Center). You'll cheer right back up in no time, I promise.
Sure they are. That's the whole principle behind railguns - the projectile goes so fast that it doesn't stop on the outer layers of whatever it's fired at.
Man, I wish I could use that excuse to get out of copyright infringement/IP messes. "Sorry, it was too costly to check with every surviving actor and the estates of the dead ones...," "Sorry, it was too costly to check if this CD was in the public domain or not...," etc.
Though I agree in principle, I don't think the DS has quite enough graphical oomph to render Okami's visual style properly in full 3D. Maybe if it was done in a clever 2D/3D mix, that might work. I know that there's a new Goemon game coming out for the DS that takes that approach (and was in fact compared to Okami for drawing on traditional Japanese artwork in its style).
In the article, the AIAS stated that Majesco's Psychonauts and Capcom's RE4 weren't up for consideration because those two companies didn't join the AIAS (and took a jab at Majesco's financial difficulties, stating that they didn't have the resources to join anyhow). If two of the best games of the year are eliminated simply because the higher-ups didn't pay some extortionary membership fee, I can't see why the awards themselve should be taken seriously. It's clear that money is an all-too-important factor in the AIAS awards deliberations.
Perhaps a minor nitpick, but Final Fantasy Tactics wasn't nearly the first tactical/simulation RPG. The Tactics Ogre and Fire Emblem series preceded it (by one and two generations, respectively), and there were plenty of similar games on the PC, too (check Spiderweb Software's Exile/Avernum series).
Not really. Japan had at least two major hits (the brain training games) that haven't yet hit the US. Those drove hardware sales a lot, and they nailed a new demographic (adult casual gamer) that neither the PSP nor the DS have really done much for yet in the States. That might change when the brain training games are released here this year, and it might not - depends on how well they translate, I suppose. (I seem to remember that at least some parts of them involved drawing/memorizing kanji, which wouldn't appeal much to the US crowd).
Definitely go for the DS, then. I own both, and haven't found much use for the PSP outside of its video-playing capabilities - and to properly take advantage of those, you have to shell out extra for UMD videos or large, expensive, proprietary Sony memory cards. Lumines is nice, but it came out many moons ago, and it doesn't see any more than occasional play from me now. My DS, on the other hand, has gotten loads of play of late - most recently due to Mario Kart DS, and also Meteos (an excellent puzzler) and Kirby: Canvas Curse (a truly innovative platformer). No, it's not as shiny and pretty looking as the PSP - but while I have no qualms about throwing my DS in my laptop bag on the way out the door, I'd think twice before treating my PSP the same way. What's more - the PSP doesn't do much of anything that my laptop doesn't, and it sounds like you're in a similar position with your laptop. If you've got your laptop, even the homebrew on the PSP loses its lustre - there's no homebrew out for PSP that hasn't been done better by PC software. Finally, there's the cash you'll save; the few times I've been tempted to buy a PSP game, I've been lured away by the prices of the nearby DS games, which are all $15-20 cheaper. Hell, you can get a DS and a good game (Mario Kart or Nintendogs) for $100 less than the PSP without any games or useful expansions (mem cards, etc.). Looking past the aesthetics, the better buy is pretty clear, IMHO.
In my one class where nearly everyone uses a laptop (that's IMGD 1000, part of the Interactive Media and Game Dev major) I've noticed that several of the students are browsing, even playing games during the lectures. Whenever I brought in my own laptop, I got sucked in myself; it was sometimes helpful to be able to bring up online articles relevant to class material, but I usually got completely sidetracked and lost the thread of discussion. I made a conscious effort to ditch the computer, and it's greatly improved my focus in-class, though I still get occasionally distracted by the fellow playing Lunar at the end of the row.
In many of the later games, they make it more obvious; for instance, in the Metroid Prime games, it's occasionally possible to see her face's reflection in the visor. Also, in Prime 2, you can see her face pretty well through the visor of the last suit upgrade you get, and it's obviously feminine.
Actually, I'm pretty sure they already do (blur sensitive spots). I looked up the whitehouse a while back; its top, as well as the tops of several nearby buildings, were "painted over" (you couldn't even see the signature dome), and the interior courtyards of some of the nearby buildings were blurred/pixelated out. (anyhow, the whitehouse's location is common knowledge; what it might be defended by is less so).
You're completely missing the point of the Revolution controller. If it really was just a "lightstick thingy," you'd be completely justified, of course. There's only one kind of game you can really make with that, and it *would* be dumb to try to make, say, a platformer use a lightgun for control. What it is, though, is more along the lines of a very, very precise pointing device - analogous to a mouse, as a lot of the media mentioned after trying their Metroid FPS demo - but with additional degrees of freedom (what with the rotation along 3 axes and movement in 3 dimensions). For the first time, there's a console with 3D graphics capabilities that also gives the player intuitive full range 3D motion. That's nothing to thumb your nose at.
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It's made headlines in my local newspaper, the Portland Press Herald, two days running. I do find it disturbing that you have to scrounge the fine print of the politics section on CNN to find it, though; it should certainly come before articles like "the most popular baby names," which is currently amongst their front-page articles.
Anyhow, I already enjoy honest-to-goodness free online with my DS. Nintendo's probably got my money for the next gen, though I'll keep Microsoft's proposal here in mind in case I feel a need for more "hardcore" games in the future.
Prospects seem pretty good, then, if Miyamoto himself says he could see it happening.
Poor journalism there, really.
Now, for the wider "console wars" struggle: Sony failed to show much of anything particularly impressive from their extra year of development. Graphically, things seem to have regressed since last year - perhaps since last year they were showing mocked-up CG rather than real footage. Gameplay-wise, they showed absolutely nothing new - an (admittedly pretty) God of War clone, a WWII shooter (with aliens!), and several racers do not make for exciting next-generation play. With their obscene price tag and the fact that they've no longer got a timed-exclusive hold on some big series, like GTA, they seem to be setting themselves up for a fall. They seem to be flailing for new ideas - the motion-sensing function of the controller was apparently tacked on only two or three weeks before E3.
I suspect that the 360 may begin to gain the upper hand, at least in the US, and possibly in Europe (where they're getting shafted even worse on the PS3 price - 599 Euros translates to some $760). I'm not sure how Japan will fare; from the sales to date, it seems that the 360 has little hope of taking a lead there, but the Wii may see significant success, bolstered by the DS' mindshare and popularity. There's also the classic "big console" issue - the PS3 is some 2 inches bigger than the original XBox, making it less attractive to Japanese consumers. Japan is generally very brand-loyal, but shifts have occured in the past - that is, after all, how Sony came to power. On a personal note, I find Sony's arrogance about the system's price (their executives have been quoted as saying that it's probably too cheap) to be faintly disgusting, too.
Apologies for the rambling.
Not likely, since the PS3 controller doesn't have force feedback (rumble) that would be necessary for full dildo-ization. http://www.scei.co.jp/corporate/release/pdf/060509 be.pdf (beware of PDF-age)
It has in fact been announced already. Thankfully, the guffawing masses seem to have restrained themselves on that particular joke.
Still stupid, though.
Actually, UMDs store video at the same resolution as DVDs - 720*480 - but the PSP's screen (with a resolution of 480*272) is incapable of displaying said resolution, and Sony's dragged their heels on releasing a stand-alone UMD player.
Decent wireless controllers, period, in fact; the WaveBird was among the first wireless controllers to work properly, since Nintendo ditched finicky IR-based wireless and went with a radio-based system.
The clincher will (or will not, dependant) be the Revolution launch in Japan. A lot of developers have expressed tremendous interest in it, but the publishers have been quiet. Of course, the Revolution is sort of being marketed as a "companion" console - riding alongside a Sony or Microsoft machine - but I personally think that marketing is only for the hard-core, Famitsu-reading Japanese gamers. Nintendo seems pretty confidant that it'll also be picked up by large numbers of more casual gamers who wouldn't bother with the expensive competition.
Freelance Foto was already sort of done, in the form of the Michael Ancel's game "Beyond Good & Evil." You got to take wildlife photography (with all the associated dangers - some of the subjects had teeth, claws, wings, death rays...) and journalistic photography (mostly of government misdeeds). It wasn't as dynamic or realistic as the game Curry suggests, but the basic idea was there, mixed in with a bit of Zelda and a bit of dumbed-down Metal Gear Solid.
Crap, at that price, I could maybe convince my school to make a pass at buying one for our game dev classes to play with.
Seriously, though. If you're despairing of the industry that much, go pick up a DS and a few games that don't carry an EA logo (say, Meteos, or Mario Kart DS, or Pheonix Wright, or Trauma Center). You'll cheer right back up in no time, I promise.
Sure they are. That's the whole principle behind railguns - the projectile goes so fast that it doesn't stop on the outer layers of whatever it's fired at.
Man, I wish I could use that excuse to get out of copyright infringement/IP messes. "Sorry, it was too costly to check with every surviving actor and the estates of the dead ones...," "Sorry, it was too costly to check if this CD was in the public domain or not...," etc.
Though I agree in principle, I don't think the DS has quite enough graphical oomph to render Okami's visual style properly in full 3D. Maybe if it was done in a clever 2D/3D mix, that might work. I know that there's a new Goemon game coming out for the DS that takes that approach (and was in fact compared to Okami for drawing on traditional Japanese artwork in its style).
In the article, the AIAS stated that Majesco's Psychonauts and Capcom's RE4 weren't up for consideration because those two companies didn't join the AIAS (and took a jab at Majesco's financial difficulties, stating that they didn't have the resources to join anyhow). If two of the best games of the year are eliminated simply because the higher-ups didn't pay some extortionary membership fee, I can't see why the awards themselve should be taken seriously. It's clear that money is an all-too-important factor in the AIAS awards deliberations.
So... institutionalized racism, basically?
Perhaps a minor nitpick, but Final Fantasy Tactics wasn't nearly the first tactical/simulation RPG. The Tactics Ogre and Fire Emblem series preceded it (by one and two generations, respectively), and there were plenty of similar games on the PC, too (check Spiderweb Software's Exile/Avernum series).
Not really. Japan had at least two major hits (the brain training games) that haven't yet hit the US. Those drove hardware sales a lot, and they nailed a new demographic (adult casual gamer) that neither the PSP nor the DS have really done much for yet in the States. That might change when the brain training games are released here this year, and it might not - depends on how well they translate, I suppose. (I seem to remember that at least some parts of them involved drawing/memorizing kanji, which wouldn't appeal much to the US crowd).
Definitely go for the DS, then. I own both, and haven't found much use for the PSP outside of its video-playing capabilities - and to properly take advantage of those, you have to shell out extra for UMD videos or large, expensive, proprietary Sony memory cards. Lumines is nice, but it came out many moons ago, and it doesn't see any more than occasional play from me now. My DS, on the other hand, has gotten loads of play of late - most recently due to Mario Kart DS, and also Meteos (an excellent puzzler) and Kirby: Canvas Curse (a truly innovative platformer). No, it's not as shiny and pretty looking as the PSP - but while I have no qualms about throwing my DS in my laptop bag on the way out the door, I'd think twice before treating my PSP the same way. What's more - the PSP doesn't do much of anything that my laptop doesn't, and it sounds like you're in a similar position with your laptop. If you've got your laptop, even the homebrew on the PSP loses its lustre - there's no homebrew out for PSP that hasn't been done better by PC software. Finally, there's the cash you'll save; the few times I've been tempted to buy a PSP game, I've been lured away by the prices of the nearby DS games, which are all $15-20 cheaper. Hell, you can get a DS and a good game (Mario Kart or Nintendogs) for $100 less than the PSP without any games or useful expansions (mem cards, etc.). Looking past the aesthetics, the better buy is pretty clear, IMHO.
In my one class where nearly everyone uses a laptop (that's IMGD 1000, part of the Interactive Media and Game Dev major) I've noticed that several of the students are browsing, even playing games during the lectures. Whenever I brought in my own laptop, I got sucked in myself; it was sometimes helpful to be able to bring up online articles relevant to class material, but I usually got completely sidetracked and lost the thread of discussion. I made a conscious effort to ditch the computer, and it's greatly improved my focus in-class, though I still get occasionally distracted by the fellow playing Lunar at the end of the row.
In many of the later games, they make it more obvious; for instance, in the Metroid Prime games, it's occasionally possible to see her face's reflection in the visor. Also, in Prime 2, you can see her face pretty well through the visor of the last suit upgrade you get, and it's obviously feminine.
Actually, I'm pretty sure they already do (blur sensitive spots). I looked up the whitehouse a while back; its top, as well as the tops of several nearby buildings, were "painted over" (you couldn't even see the signature dome), and the interior courtyards of some of the nearby buildings were blurred/pixelated out. (anyhow, the whitehouse's location is common knowledge; what it might be defended by is less so).
You're completely missing the point of the Revolution controller. If it really was just a "lightstick thingy," you'd be completely justified, of course. There's only one kind of game you can really make with that, and it *would* be dumb to try to make, say, a platformer use a lightgun for control. What it is, though, is more along the lines of a very, very precise pointing device - analogous to a mouse, as a lot of the media mentioned after trying their Metroid FPS demo - but with additional degrees of freedom (what with the rotation along 3 axes and movement in 3 dimensions). For the first time, there's a console with 3D graphics capabilities that also gives the player intuitive full range 3D motion. That's nothing to thumb your nose at.