Okay. Sure, a lot of them do. But with the current generation the tone has changed quite a bit. Most reviews I've seen of Wii games have complained about how the graphics just aren't any good. But had these games come out even a year ago, they would have been scored much higher. This is what's bugging me. A reviewer might still say ICO looks amazing, but if a game comes out tomorrow that looks just as good as ICO, it'll get a 6 or 7 out of 10 for graphics on IGN.
Are the graphics-obsessed gamers of today simply victims of advertising? Programmed to forget what impressed them yesterday and to discard everything that isn't NEW NEW NEW?
What was gorgeous on the PS2 (ICO, for instance) is now in the category of HORRIBLE HORRIBLE HORRIBLE? Games from Xbox 1 that made me drop my jaw once (DOA3) are now crude, primitive reminders of a forgotten time? Or how about that "terrible" GameCube with that "awful-looking" and "low-res" Resident Evil 4 game that came out not that freakin' long ago?
It's getting so boring! In my world, you have to go back 20+ years to start talking about most things looking ugly. And what about games like Metroid on the NES? Aren't those great graphics? Didn't that old Mac game Dark Castle have incredible graphics? What about the first Prince of Persia?
No, no, no. Not to today's zombie consumer gamers or zombie whore game reviewers... If it came out more than a year ago or if it's on the Wii, it's got crappy graphics.
The first Half-Life, every Zelda game, POP: Sands of Time, Morrowind, Halo, you name it... Fun to play? Sure. But I guess the graphics are now crap, crap, crap, crap, crap...
I never got very far along in Pathways. Just didn't hook me in the same way Marathon did. But definitely another great game.
It's sad. I think a lot of people ignore the impact Bungie had on the establishment of the FPS genre, simply because they primarily made Mac games back in the day and so were off the radar of most gamers.
Um. Halo has more to do with the 1994 title Marathon ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marathon_(computer_ga me) ) than with Doom. And at the time Marathon came out, there was no FPS out with a story that came anywhere near Marathon's. And who made Marathon? Bungie.
Halo is, in spirit, just a re-working of this earlier title. I'd actually say Marathon had the better storyline. But Halo definitely wins the gameplay prize.
Not true. Sony doesn't charge the store 600 bucks for the PS3, and Nintendo doesn't charge 250. No one's sure of the exact numbers, but one article I read estimated that the margins are narrow for the Wii and PS3, but they're there. A store should make about $15 per PS3 sold and about $12 per Wii sold. Here's an article that claims to source a CompUSA markup sheet for Wii products: http://www.engadget.com/2006/10/07/wii-retail-deta ils-markup-and-endcaps/
But of course the stores want to bundle. A Wii and 5 games is as good as selling 4 Wiis.
Yeah. All the cool kids are going to get Lexuses for their graduations, too. No way they'd be caught dead in a Honda Civic.
Obviously, luxury items always outsell moderately-priced items that suit your needs just fine, right? Because you can brag about them.
Yes, it's all clear to me now.
I'm not sure what area you're in, but everyone I've talked to about it says demand for the Wii is insanely high. And I stood in a line for three hours for preorders (didn't get one) that grew to maybe 70 or 80 by opening time (Cary, NC). Of course, that was TRU, so there were also PS3 and Elmo (pre)orders. But the buzz from the line was "Wii, wii, wii." The PS3 folks were the 5 at the front of the line with sleeping bags. Everyone else was there for the Wii, with scattered Elmo fans here and there. One Elmo woman, pretty far up the line, started asking people what the Wii was and if she could get one for her kids.
They only had 15 available, but everyone stood around, anyway. Hoping something would change, I suppose. At least, that was my foolish hope. And when the store manager clarified that there were really only 15, everyone slumped but kept standing there until he handed out the tickets and let everyone know it was really done.
The manager asked if anyone left in the line was waiting for Elmo. Someone yelled out, "I'll take whatever I can get!" Elmo as consolation for not getting a Wii preorder? Weird day. Never doing that again. Thankfully, I lucked out and got a walmart.com preorder in a few days later.
I really don't see all that much HD adoption on the way until at least 5 years from now. And by then we'll be about ready for another console generation.
The Wii's lack of HD will probably not really hurt it. N's next console after that would likely flop without some kind of HD support, though.
I don't think Will Wright is trying to make a statement about the Earth Goddess or the fragility of life or whatever. I remember some interview where he talked about how much fun it is to blow up planets in Spore. Maybe there's a P.C. option switch that allows you to change your UFO's weapon so that it distributes tofu and peace pamphlets to aggressive planets, but I doubt it. This game seems to be as much about the fun of destruction as the fun of creation.
All Sims games have had that. Who hasn't hit earthquake 10 times in a row in SimCity 2K? Or removed the ladder from the pool in the Sims and watched the little buggers swim around until they die?
What's going to be profound about Spore? The fun, man. The fun.
There seems to be a big difference between the industry's perception of the PS3 and the public perception. Most average Joes I run across seem to be anticipating the PS3. But they can't explain why beyond the branding. "Oh, I really like the PS2, so..."
Industry people and industry watchers are talking more and more about Sony's lack of strategy, Blu Ray concerns, hardware problems, price, etc. More and more, the assumption that Sony will once again dominate is dissipating.
So I think the most interesting thing about the PS3 launch will be watching what happens with word of mouth once the console is out. Should we expect, "Oh man, the new Playstation might be expensive, but it's so cool! You need it!" Should we expect, "Oh man, my brother got a PS3 and all the games suck."
What's going to happen? Is the PS branding going to crash and burn? Will everyone just save up to buy it because PlayStation has become synonymous with game console to them? Will it just do okay?
I'll be sure to read all about it during my short breaks from the Wii.
Part of my decision whether to purchase a PS3 will be based on the amount of heat produced by the console and the amount of power it drains per hour. If the PS3 does not cause a significant increase in my average monthly power bill and a noticeable increase of my living room's temperature, I will not buy one.
I need to know the PS3 has power. I need to be afraid that it might drain my bank account. Or set my room on fire. Or hurt me in other more subtle ways. Only then will I respect it.
I'm going to cross my fingers and hope that the C64 thing catches on and moves beyond Epyx. Having Pool of Radiance, the Bard's Tale series, Wasteland, and--this one will never happen--Alternate Reality remixed for the Wii would be incredible. And let's add in Bluetooth keyboard support.
Oh, C64 nostalgia... I've tried emulators, and they just don't do it for me. But somehow C64 games on the Wii sounds good. I can't explain that.
(As fond as the memories are, we can probably skip BASIC and GEOS, as hilarious as they'd be.)
Slashdot Mirror
Art > Polycount
Style > Realism
To me, that says it all. And I just pray the industry and the market start to see it that way.
Okay. Sure, a lot of them do. But with the current generation the tone has changed quite a bit. Most reviews I've seen of Wii games have complained about how the graphics just aren't any good. But had these games come out even a year ago, they would have been scored much higher. This is what's bugging me. A reviewer might still say ICO looks amazing, but if a game comes out tomorrow that looks just as good as ICO, it'll get a 6 or 7 out of 10 for graphics on IGN.
Yes, LucasArts adventure games are gorgeous!
Are the graphics-obsessed gamers of today simply victims of advertising? Programmed to forget what impressed them yesterday and to discard everything that isn't NEW NEW NEW?
What was gorgeous on the PS2 (ICO, for instance) is now in the category of HORRIBLE HORRIBLE HORRIBLE? Games from Xbox 1 that made me drop my jaw once (DOA3) are now crude, primitive reminders of a forgotten time? Or how about that "terrible" GameCube with that "awful-looking" and "low-res" Resident Evil 4 game that came out not that freakin' long ago?
It's getting so boring! In my world, you have to go back 20+ years to start talking about most things looking ugly. And what about games like Metroid on the NES? Aren't those great graphics? Didn't that old Mac game Dark Castle have incredible graphics? What about the first Prince of Persia?
No, no, no. Not to today's zombie consumer gamers or zombie whore game reviewers... If it came out more than a year ago or if it's on the Wii, it's got crappy graphics.
The first Half-Life, every Zelda game, POP: Sands of Time, Morrowind, Halo, you name it... Fun to play? Sure. But I guess the graphics are now crap, crap, crap, crap, crap...
Oh, good point.
I never got very far along in Pathways. Just didn't hook me in the same way Marathon did. But definitely another great game.
It's sad. I think a lot of people ignore the impact Bungie had on the establishment of the FPS genre, simply because they primarily made Mac games back in the day and so were off the radar of most gamers.
Um. Halo has more to do with the 1994 title Marathon ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marathon_(computer_ga me) ) than with Doom. And at the time Marathon came out, there was no FPS out with a story that came anywhere near Marathon's. And who made Marathon? Bungie.
Halo is, in spirit, just a re-working of this earlier title. I'd actually say Marathon had the better storyline. But Halo definitely wins the gameplay prize.
Not true. Sony doesn't charge the store 600 bucks for the PS3, and Nintendo doesn't charge 250. No one's sure of the exact numbers, but one article I read estimated that the margins are narrow for the Wii and PS3, but they're there. A store should make about $15 per PS3 sold and about $12 per Wii sold. Here's an article that claims to source a CompUSA markup sheet for Wii products: http://www.engadget.com/2006/10/07/wii-retail-deta ils-markup-and-endcaps/
But of course the stores want to bundle. A Wii and 5 games is as good as selling 4 Wiis.
making it compatible with the Virtual Boy? Today's doomed product meets yesterday's doomed product for a headache-inducing nightmare!
Ha, I'm so tired I imagined it was an article about Intel's plans for the year 4004...
Yeah. All the cool kids are going to get Lexuses for their graduations, too. No way they'd be caught dead in a Honda Civic. Obviously, luxury items always outsell moderately-priced items that suit your needs just fine, right? Because you can brag about them. Yes, it's all clear to me now.
You forgot: - Buy two Wiis and a bag of pot
I'm not sure what area you're in, but everyone I've talked to about it says demand for the Wii is insanely high. And I stood in a line for three hours for preorders (didn't get one) that grew to maybe 70 or 80 by opening time (Cary, NC). Of course, that was TRU, so there were also PS3 and Elmo (pre)orders. But the buzz from the line was "Wii, wii, wii." The PS3 folks were the 5 at the front of the line with sleeping bags. Everyone else was there for the Wii, with scattered Elmo fans here and there. One Elmo woman, pretty far up the line, started asking people what the Wii was and if she could get one for her kids.
They only had 15 available, but everyone stood around, anyway. Hoping something would change, I suppose. At least, that was my foolish hope. And when the store manager clarified that there were really only 15, everyone slumped but kept standing there until he handed out the tickets and let everyone know it was really done.
The manager asked if anyone left in the line was waiting for Elmo. Someone yelled out, "I'll take whatever I can get!" Elmo as consolation for not getting a Wii preorder? Weird day. Never doing that again. Thankfully, I lucked out and got a walmart.com preorder in a few days later.
I really don't see all that much HD adoption on the way until at least 5 years from now. And by then we'll be about ready for another console generation. The Wii's lack of HD will probably not really hurt it. N's next console after that would likely flop without some kind of HD support, though.
It's a very fine line between Exclusive and "Not Really Exactly Exclusive if You Don't Mind Your Eyes Bleeding".
Do you have any idea what kind of energy is released when chatter voices come into contact with anti-chatter voices?
I don't think Will Wright is trying to make a statement about the Earth Goddess or the fragility of life or whatever. I remember some interview where he talked about how much fun it is to blow up planets in Spore. Maybe there's a P.C. option switch that allows you to change your UFO's weapon so that it distributes tofu and peace pamphlets to aggressive planets, but I doubt it. This game seems to be as much about the fun of destruction as the fun of creation.
All Sims games have had that. Who hasn't hit earthquake 10 times in a row in SimCity 2K? Or removed the ladder from the pool in the Sims and watched the little buggers swim around until they die?
What's going to be profound about Spore? The fun, man. The fun.
Ha! That's a good point!
35 is "older"?
Come on! 35 is the new 25.
At least, that's what I tell all them teenagers on myspace.
Sony completely missed the opportunity to point out to Europeans that they now have an extra 5 months to work overtime and save up for the PS3.
There seems to be a big difference between the industry's perception of the PS3 and the public perception. Most average Joes I run across seem to be anticipating the PS3. But they can't explain why beyond the branding. "Oh, I really like the PS2, so..." Industry people and industry watchers are talking more and more about Sony's lack of strategy, Blu Ray concerns, hardware problems, price, etc. More and more, the assumption that Sony will once again dominate is dissipating. So I think the most interesting thing about the PS3 launch will be watching what happens with word of mouth once the console is out. Should we expect, "Oh man, the new Playstation might be expensive, but it's so cool! You need it!" Should we expect, "Oh man, my brother got a PS3 and all the games suck." What's going to happen? Is the PS branding going to crash and burn? Will everyone just save up to buy it because PlayStation has become synonymous with game console to them? Will it just do okay? I'll be sure to read all about it during my short breaks from the Wii.
Part of my decision whether to purchase a PS3 will be based on the amount of heat produced by the console and the amount of power it drains per hour. If the PS3 does not cause a significant increase in my average monthly power bill and a noticeable increase of my living room's temperature, I will not buy one.
I need to know the PS3 has power. I need to be afraid that it might drain my bank account. Or set my room on fire. Or hurt me in other more subtle ways. Only then will I respect it.
The phone will attack the thief's vulnerable spots for massive damage.
Does Yoshi's Cookie come into the Ar'Qaida training program at all? I always felt there was something sinister below the surface with that one.
More like... "Oh my God, you killed a Chinese gold farmer! You... bastard?"
Great point! And let's not forget a nod to Marathon, perhaps the first FPS with a truly excellent and well-constructed storyline.
I'm going to cross my fingers and hope that the C64 thing catches on and moves beyond Epyx. Having Pool of Radiance, the Bard's Tale series, Wasteland, and--this one will never happen--Alternate Reality remixed for the Wii would be incredible. And let's add in Bluetooth keyboard support.
Oh, C64 nostalgia... I've tried emulators, and they just don't do it for me. But somehow C64 games on the Wii sounds good. I can't explain that.
(As fond as the memories are, we can probably skip BASIC and GEOS, as hilarious as they'd be.)