I got my premium 360 for $300 (MicroCenter's had this deal going on for ages), and with the Wii's controllers (+nunchuck) being more expensive than the 360's, I can't say the Wii "costs much less." In fact it *barely* costs any less.
I won't dispute that the price differential isn't Vast, but it must be noted that the Wiimote is the only controller nessessary. The 360's wired controller is the same cost as the Wiimote, and the Nunchcuck is an optional accessory for most games (IE: not required to play). In fact most games I own that do require it are single player only (Zelda, Godfather) and the system includes one.
Super Paper Mario, WarioWare, Tiger Woods Golf, Excite Truck, Metal Slug Anthology, Even in Super MonkeyBall the core game and most (not all) of the mini-games only use the Wiimote.
Personally I got a second Nunchuck for 2 player WiiSports Boxing, but have otherwise been able to get along fine with 4 Remotes. (Note, Why couldn't they support 4 remotes for 2 people boxing?)
I repeat: The battery is easily replaceable. You do not have to buy a new controller when the batter goes and if it's a low bat issue you can charge it with a USB cord. I don't see where the problem is unique to the controller? All bettery powered devices have issues when run at low power levels. In fact it will break most devices eventually by running at marginal battery power levels. The only time I forsee you replacing the batter for any legitimate reason is either the battery was defective or the battery died. Meaning it came to the end of it's life cycle. Both of which just requires a bat replacement.
The point is it isn't easily replaceable. It would take me longer to get the screwdriver to disassemble the Sixaxis (just to access the battery) than it would to swap out batteries in either the 360 or the Wii-mote. On that note, he was complaining about it acting up AFTER 6 HOURS. I bought a pack of these and my Wiimote runs flawlessly for over 50 hours. When it does get low on power it takes seconds to replace them.
The Sixaxis suffers from those 2 fundimental design flaws. It's battery isn't readily user replaceable (like a cell phone battery, or a TV remotes, etc... no matter how simple the process may be it actually requires disasembly to do it) and it has a short amount of time where it runs well without being recharged.
The DualShock isn't just bad for 3d, I have a crappy DualShock imitation for the PC (cheapest controller in the aisle) and it's far superior to the DS when it comes to 2d, especially fighting games. The DualShock makes my hands hurt much faster.
Yeah, my interest dropped when I saw the controller for the PS3. I effectively don't like the dual shock design/ feel , and continued use of it is a pain. I'm used to extended sessions with the Wavebird, X-box S controller, or the 360's & the Dual shock feels like a major step backwords. For this reason I kept my PS2 gaming down to games where the dual shock wasn't used (Guitar Hero, & DDR mostly).
I disagree. While I like that my hands aren't cuffed together anymore, the majority of the buttons are poorly placed. A and B are the only ones usable during gameplay while holding it as 'intended.' (I use that term lightly.) 1 and 2 are the only ones usable when holding the 'mote sideways, ala Super Paper Mario/Excite Truck.
The A button is completely useable in the 'Sideways configuration' so long as it isn't a constant repetitive function. Using A to switch between 2D and 3D in Super Paper Mario is a great example as it is a function that you don't want to accidentially hit, and using A makes it a more deliberate action. Same thing with Golden Axe. I LOVE how the 'Nuke everyone button' was moved to A. I used to hit that accidentially, and no longer do so.
It's going to be very subjective. For instance, I *despise* the Dual Shock controller; the analog stick position feels completely unnatural for continued use and causes my thumbs to cramp after a while. I haven't had the same problem with the DC/GC-style controllers, where the analog sticks are more in line with the axis of a relaxed grip.
Agreed. I think the Dual shock is a really bad design for 3D games and there is a reason Nintendo, MS, and Sega all moved the Analog stick to a better position for your left thumb. It's all personal preference though (as you stated) and some people are likely just trained to use them at this point. I'm ok with the Wavebird not making the cut if the 360 wireless did though. The Wavebird was the best controller of last gen, but the 360 did improve on it. I personally hated the Dual shock and the N64 controller so I'm surprised they made the cut.
The Wii-mote and the NES advantage would be much better choices IMHO.
Halo 1 for the Xbox ranks 25th for lifetime sales in the US since with 4.91million units sold Halo 2 for the Xbox ranks 16th with 6.11million units sold Metroid Prime ranks 147th with 1.92 units sold http://vgchartz.com/worldtotals.php?name=&console= &publisher=&sort=America
Great example, wrong game, wrong totals. Check VGChartz again.
Halo 1 = Sales of 6.43 million units worldwide.
Halo 2 = Sales of 7.89 million units worldwide.
Nintendogs = Sales of 13.58 million units worldwide.
Yes, Nintendogs is less than 1 million units away from outselling both games combined.
Why do consoles continue to try and integrate "PC-like" features? The *only* reason to use a console over a PC is because the games will be optimized for your specific set of hardware, so you can be sure that there are no compatibility issues and it will probably run pretty smooth. For everything else, a console is really just an overpriced, underpowered, practically non-upgradeable box with almost zero control given to the user. Supporting these features is great and all, but it seems like a waste of resources to me. If you've got the TV/monitor and internet connection, why use the console?
First of all, who is "Wasting resources" on this? Nintendo? Hardly. This isn't a "Nintendo Browser" that they have to develop and maintain, they made a deal with Opera so they could provide a version of "Opera for Devices" to that platform. It's Win-Win-Win. Nintendo offers a feature to their customers, that does not drive up the price of the system (completely optional, and free until July 1) and Opera has exclusive rights to that marketplace. The consumer gets a good browser for Free or cheap, (depending on when you get it). If you want a web browser on your PC, the choices are abundant. If you want it on the Wii, you get Opera. The console life span is about 4-6 years (historicaly speaking) and for all but the first 6 months that browser will be $ for Opera ($5 -minus whatever Nintendo gets) and more exposure to their brand for their other products. Nintendo probably does QA testing for certification, but likely nothing greater than what they would do for a game.
As far as "Why would anyone use this over a PC?" I admit, I was skeptical, but most of my 'leasurely web-surfing' is pretty simple with a mouse only (and short inputs with the software keyboard). Strong Bad works, Slashdot works, YouTube works... and for relaxing, my couch beats my computer chair every time. It also boots up alot faster than my PC. It's ironic that I use the Wii nearly every day, but don't play games on it every day. I check the weather, the headlines and my email when I get up and have my coffee. For about 80% of what I use the computer for, the Wii has already replaced it... Now if their Opera would just support Divx...
Sorry man, but I don't believe for a minute that this is the real reason you modded.
and you would be right. I modded it for XBMC. I upgraded the HDD because my game wouldn't play, and I had a HDD lying around.
You can find Max Payne for $5 in every bargain bin across the country. You honestly backed up a $5 game?
Yes I did. I also backed up Max Payne 2 which you can find for $2 new. HDD's are cheap and since I had one lying around the affective added cost to me was Zero, so why not? Even if it didn't load faster it's more convienent to run it from the HDD than disk swapping.
...never had a situation where I needed to use a backup...
I have. For whatever reason my pristine copy of Max Payne (IE: I own it and there are NO scratches) would not play on my original X-Box. I don't think the DVD drive is failing, as it wouldn't play in my 360 either. So I backed up all my games to (my upgraded) HDD and now play them that way (Everything loads faster now too). Hopefully my Live enabled games don't get Wonky on me either since the Original X-Box needs to stay offline now.
Since doing that I also found a hack for Karaoke Revolution & KR: Party. (I own both games BTW)and if you have them on the HDD you can download a hack to import all the Karaoke Revolution games into Karaoke Revolution Party (the game thinks they are downloaded tracks from Live), so 1 game has a much larger selection of songs available.
Both instances involve a chipped X-box, and neither is for Piracy.
Any issues devs have with the PS3 can be fixed with time as they're software based, issues on the 360 require hardware, and thats a problem.
There are trade offs with both systems that are hardware and software based. Let's go over a few Hardware ones to start.
The 360 has a Dual layer DVD drive and the PS3 has a dual layer Blu-ray drive. The PS3 wins for storage capacity, but loses for read speed.
The 360 also has twice as much addressable system memory as the PS3 (512 vs 256 megs).
The 360 has a hardware scaler installed so it scales games to whatever source you tell it, doesn't matter what the native res is, it can upscale from 480i to 1080p if you want it to (or any combination in between). The PS3 currently doesn't upscale anything.
The 360 doesn't come with a HDD standard, and the PS3 does. Not exactly a pure Sony win since PS3 games are now requiring Multi-gig installs to play them.
Even the controllers have compromises. Sony compromised by taking rumble out for tilt. They didn't need to for technical reasons (see Wario Ware twisted from 2003, or the Wiimote that uses both). The 360 gave us Standard AA (IE non-rechareable) batteries for the controller. Sony has a proprietary, rechargeable battery built in, but it's not user changeable.
Each system has problems (and strengths), but there are trade offs all over the place.
And, even with an HDTV, most people will still spend $16 on a new DVD than $25-$35 on the HD version,
Which is about right. Amazon has the best prices on New HD DVD's and they are $20 each instead of $25. The combo disks are $28 instead of $40. They are IMHO doing what needs to be done to promote adoption. I've also had some luck with Gamestop for the used section. I just got a few combo disks for $18 each, buy 2 get 1 free.
Personally I look for these types of deals because I am an HD enthusiast. Most people are not. If Universal (the single remaining HD DVD exclusive studio) wants to push the format, then they should sell the Combo disks for $20, (and not the Stupid high price of $40) and not put any new movie on DVD without the HD DVD on the other side. More people will have these HD versions 'for free' so they will be encouraged to buy the player to utilize it.
Sony / Disney / Fox could do the same thing and end the 'format war' real quick.
I don't even own Nintendogs, but under the premise I have 1 game and I'm straded on a desert island (and the DS has a Solar power pannel on the lid to keep it perpetually charged) I would have to go with Nintendogs, for the simple reason of companionship.
I understand this isn't the question they are asking, they are really asking 'What game would you play if you could only choose 1.' but by putting me 'stranded on a desert island' I can't help but think of 'Wilson' in Cast Away.
Something like Nintendogs could seriously be the crutch that keeps me from going mad due to lonelyness.
For example, the age old Resistance vs. Gears of War argument from back in the day. Gears of War obviously comes out far far ahead in terms of looks, but this is mainly because UE3 included texture streaming support right away. Insomniac didn't build it in to their first engine on the PS3, and thus it didn't look as good. If you look at Ratchet and Clank PS3 however, it looks gorgeous. Surprise, it has texture streaming support.
It's also the type of game that allows some games to be higher res than others. Even with texture streaming support, I don't feel Resistance could look as good as Gears. In all fairness neither will GTA IV or Halo 3. These games typically require much larger draw distances, and more on screen characters than the 'Stop and pop' of Gears. It forced you into smaller mapps and with fewer enemies so it could load up the eye candy at each turn.
One of my favorite 360 games is Dead Rising, and for the most part it looks like an (original) X-Box game. The characters and models aren't particularly high res (actually the Zombies look lower res than those in RE4 on Gamecube), the difference being there are hundreds of them within your draw distance and (despite some annoying loading between areas) it all runs smoothly. They could have made everything higher res, but not without sacrificing the sheer quantity of them available at one time.
PS3 games don't look any better than XBox 360 games. If you want to charge more, you have to deliver the goods.
Ironically, they don't even look as good as 360 games. They may look as good as 'First gen' 360 games, but that isn't what they are competing with. Does any PS3 game look as good as Gears of War yet? Not by a long shot.
PSP has outsold the Xbox, Gamecube and Dreamcast. It's well ahead of the 360 and PS3, though it did launch earlier. You could look at it as a failure, but right now it's the most successful game console apart from the PS2, DS and GBA. That's not really anything to complain about.
Though I don't disagree with what you are saying in general, the numbers aren't there to back it up. According to The numbers posted above the PSP 21.31 million units world wide. According to Wikipedia Gamecube sold 21.59 million, and the X-box sold 24 million. I have no doubt the PSP will sell more than the above, I'm just saying it isn't there yet . Also if you are mentioning:
It's well ahead of the 360 and PS3, though it did launch earlier.
you might as well include the Wii in that statement, since it would be true as well.
The fact is that a lot of people buying Wiis have always bought Nintendo consoles. I fall into this group, and because I still have my "retro" system (Nintendo 64 in working order) *and* know how to use ZSNES, I really don't see anything in the Virtual Console (USA) that I want but don't already own. If I want to play Zelda 64, I can just put the cartridge in and turn it on (with moon jump enabled, of course).
It depends on your perceived Value. For me, the definitive version of Mario64 is on the Wii. Personally, I never liked the N64 Controller, so being able to play it with the Wavebird is worth it enough. Add in to the fact that it (unlike the original) runs in Progressive Scan sealed the deal.
I also sold a working Genesis with a copy of Golden Axe only to re-buy Golden Axe on the Wii. The control is simply better with the Wiimote (no more 'accidentally nuking everything', since that was moved to the A button), and the output simply looks better through the component cables (not sure if it does Progressive scan or not, but I would guess yes). Add in the convienince of having it always "loaded" via a channel, it was easily worth $8.
The prices are unjustified on the Virtual Console. NES games should be a dollar, if they were a dollar I wouldn't mind dropping 10$ easily in one sitting for ten games. But the current price tag of 5$ is just ridiculous, the game is already finished. Its either emulated or modified to run on the Wii, which more then likely takes little to no time to do. Yet I sit here looking at Super Mario Brothers for the price of 5$, and the majority of us already purchased the game in our life time (if not several times). I feel like I'm getting screwed by buying games on the Virtual Console.
Welcome to Capitolism! I love how people complain that the VC prices are too high 'because the games are already finished' and 'their development is already paid for', For some reason I don't see people complaining that Gears of War isn't in the $3-$5 range. The reason is the same. The game is finished, and despite it costing nearly $10 million they certainly made their money back after selling over 3 million copies, so why not sell it for the incremental cost of pressing and distributing the disk?
The market has determined that it is worth more than the incremental cost, and pays what they feel is a reasonable price for the experiance. The VC is no different.
I still haven't explored purchasing anything through the VC yet. I have a sizable NES, SNES and N64 collection but they've got me very close. If the prices were like $1-2 less I would seriously drop the money no questions asked.
Shop around for the Points cards then. Around the holidays CircuitCity was offering $5 off any Wii accessory $19.95 or more. This was also good for the '2000' Wii Points cards, so I was able to get a few of those. I haven't seen the word "Wii" and "discount" in the same flyer for some time now, but bargins will come available.
I think some developers are just whining because they may not be able to make a living cranking out WW2 shooters, racing and banal movie tie in games anymore.
Better yet, let's make a Kart racing game out of Medal of Honor, then pitch that to Hollywood to make a crappy movie about. It'll make BILLIONS!
My guess is that the average user isn't going to care a whole ton about the VC. The hardcore gamer might because they are trying to play games they never got to play before or are trying to consolidate their retro catalog legally into one location. I would be willing to be that the initial buyers for the Wii were in-fact hardcore gamers or previous gamers, not necessarily the soccer moms and grandma's who are now starting to actively seek the system for themselves.
EXACTLY! I got a Wii at launch, and I am a gamer. I think I have 14 VC titles, and maybe 10 Wii games. LOVE the system. My Parents loved WiiSports over the holidays and I got them one. Currently they have 3 Wii games (WiiSports, WiiPlay, and Tiger Woods) and ZERO VC games. Why? NONE of them are appealing to them.
How about a crossword puzzle "game"? SuDoKu? Online Poker? Online Hearts? or Uno? The VC is a GREAT service for old gamers like me, with nearly 100 retro titles but for 'First time casual game players' they offer crap. The most 'Casual friendly game' they have (Pacman) isn't available in the US yet. Why is it that XBLA has more 'casual friendly' titles available? (and don't say because it's been out longer, there are currently more VC titles available than XBLA ones. It's an issue of 'what types of games are available' rather than 'how many')
My parents wouldn't go near an X-box (despite the XBLA selection), but really enjoy the Wii. When will Nintendo recognise that despite being able to 'capture the casual market' early, they aren't catering to them with their current releases?
Now if you're paying attention, you may have just realized why the PSP needs so much internal memory. That's right, it has to load all of the graphics, sound, code, and other assets off the UMD disk and into main memory. Thus it requires significantly greater RAM capacity than the DS, which uses an advanced form of the venerable ROM chip. Yet the increase in memory gives the programmer options on whether or not to load those assets into main RAM (say, because they're compressed in the ROM chip) or stream them directly from the chip.
I'll start off by saying that, I'm not a developer so I don't honestly know if that's the case, but I don't believe it is (at least as far as the DS is concerned). I would figure it would have to load into system RAM, and not stream off the Cart. This is what makes Multi-boot and download stations possible. In theory it could still be streamed at the expense of high traffic for a single cart multiplayer game, but when you have say 10 players in Tetris I'm sure it's much more efficent to have each DS run a local copy. Also the demo downloads would have to work in RAM, or they wouldn't work at all.
the two are NOT mutually exclusive. You can and do see many games that have great graphics AND great gameplay. What a concept! There's no reason to deliberately cripple your system with last-gen graphics
You have a decision with this generation whether you want to deal with "last-gen quality" graphics or "last-gen quality" control. The same argument can be made that both Microsoft and Sony "Crippled" their system by adopting a control scheme that's 10 years old, and makes certain games (like WiiSports) impossible in their current form.
Slashdot Mirror
I won't dispute that the price differential isn't Vast, but it must be noted that the Wiimote is the only controller nessessary. The 360's wired controller is the same cost as the Wiimote, and the Nunchcuck is an optional accessory for most games (IE: not required to play). In fact most games I own that do require it are single player only (Zelda, Godfather) and the system includes one.
Super Paper Mario, WarioWare, Tiger Woods Golf, Excite Truck, Metal Slug Anthology, Even in Super MonkeyBall the core game and most (not all) of the mini-games only use the Wiimote.
Personally I got a second Nunchuck for 2 player WiiSports Boxing, but have otherwise been able to get along fine with 4 Remotes. (Note, Why couldn't they support 4 remotes for 2 people boxing?)
The point is it isn't easily replaceable. It would take me longer to get the screwdriver to disassemble the Sixaxis (just to access the battery) than it would to swap out batteries in either the 360 or the Wii-mote. On that note, he was complaining about it acting up AFTER 6 HOURS. I bought a pack of these and my Wiimote runs flawlessly for over 50 hours. When it does get low on power it takes seconds to replace them.
The Sixaxis suffers from those 2 fundimental design flaws. It's battery isn't readily user replaceable (like a cell phone battery, or a TV remotes, etc... no matter how simple the process may be it actually requires disasembly to do it) and it has a short amount of time where it runs well without being recharged.
Yeah, my interest dropped when I saw the controller for the PS3. I effectively don't like the dual shock design/ feel , and continued use of it is a pain. I'm used to extended sessions with the Wavebird, X-box S controller, or the 360's & the Dual shock feels like a major step backwords. For this reason I kept my PS2 gaming down to games where the dual shock wasn't used (Guitar Hero, & DDR mostly).
The A button is completely useable in the 'Sideways configuration' so long as it isn't a constant repetitive function. Using A to switch between 2D and 3D in Super Paper Mario is a great example as it is a function that you don't want to accidentially hit, and using A makes it a more deliberate action. Same thing with Golden Axe. I LOVE how the 'Nuke everyone button' was moved to A. I used to hit that accidentially, and no longer do so.
Agreed. I think the Dual shock is a really bad design for 3D games and there is a reason Nintendo, MS, and Sega all moved the Analog stick to a better position for your left thumb. It's all personal preference though (as you stated) and some people are likely just trained to use them at this point. I'm ok with the Wavebird not making the cut if the 360 wireless did though. The Wavebird was the best controller of last gen, but the 360 did improve on it. I personally hated the Dual shock and the N64 controller so I'm surprised they made the cut.
The Wii-mote and the NES advantage would be much better choices IMHO.
Great example, wrong game, wrong totals. Check VGChartz again.
Halo 1 = Sales of 6.43 million units worldwide.
Halo 2 = Sales of 7.89 million units worldwide.
Nintendogs = Sales of 13.58 million units worldwide.
Yes, Nintendogs is less than 1 million units away from outselling both games combined.
First of all, who is "Wasting resources" on this? Nintendo? Hardly. This isn't a "Nintendo Browser" that they have to develop and maintain, they made a deal with Opera so they could provide a version of "Opera for Devices" to that platform. It's Win-Win-Win. Nintendo offers a feature to their customers, that does not drive up the price of the system (completely optional, and free until July 1) and Opera has exclusive rights to that marketplace. The consumer gets a good browser for Free or cheap, (depending on when you get it). If you want a web browser on your PC, the choices are abundant. If you want it on the Wii, you get Opera. The console life span is about 4-6 years (historicaly speaking) and for all but the first 6 months that browser will be $ for Opera ($5 -minus whatever Nintendo gets) and more exposure to their brand for their other products. Nintendo probably does QA testing for certification, but likely nothing greater than what they would do for a game.
As far as "Why would anyone use this over a PC?" I admit, I was skeptical, but most of my 'leasurely web-surfing' is pretty simple with a mouse only (and short inputs with the software keyboard). Strong Bad works, Slashdot works, YouTube works... and for relaxing, my couch beats my computer chair every time. It also boots up alot faster than my PC. It's ironic that I use the Wii nearly every day, but don't play games on it every day. I check the weather, the headlines and my email when I get up and have my coffee. For about 80% of what I use the computer for, the Wii has already replaced it... Now if their Opera would just support Divx...
and you would be right. I modded it for XBMC. I upgraded the HDD because my game wouldn't play, and I had a HDD lying around.
Yes I did. I also backed up Max Payne 2 which you can find for $2 new. HDD's are cheap and since I had one lying around the affective added cost to me was Zero, so why not? Even if it didn't load faster it's more convienent to run it from the HDD than disk swapping.
I have. For whatever reason my pristine copy of Max Payne (IE: I own it and there are NO scratches) would not play on my original X-Box. I don't think the DVD drive is failing, as it wouldn't play in my 360 either. So I backed up all my games to (my upgraded) HDD and now play them that way (Everything loads faster now too). Hopefully my Live enabled games don't get Wonky on me either since the Original X-Box needs to stay offline now.
Since doing that I also found a hack for Karaoke Revolution & KR: Party. (I own both games BTW)and if you have them on the HDD you can download a hack to import all the Karaoke Revolution games into Karaoke Revolution Party (the game thinks they are downloaded tracks from Live), so 1 game has a much larger selection of songs available.
Both instances involve a chipped X-box, and neither is for Piracy.
There are trade offs with both systems that are hardware and software based. Let's go over a few Hardware ones to start.
The 360 has a Dual layer DVD drive and the PS3 has a dual layer Blu-ray drive. The PS3 wins for storage capacity, but loses for read speed.
The 360 also has twice as much addressable system memory as the PS3 (512 vs 256 megs).
The 360 has a hardware scaler installed so it scales games to whatever source you tell it, doesn't matter what the native res is, it can upscale from 480i to 1080p if you want it to (or any combination in between). The PS3 currently doesn't upscale anything.
The 360 doesn't come with a HDD standard, and the PS3 does. Not exactly a pure Sony win since PS3 games are now requiring Multi-gig installs to play them.
Even the controllers have compromises. Sony compromised by taking rumble out for tilt. They didn't need to for technical reasons (see Wario Ware twisted from 2003, or the Wiimote that uses both). The 360 gave us Standard AA (IE non-rechareable) batteries for the controller. Sony has a proprietary, rechargeable battery built in, but it's not user changeable.
Each system has problems (and strengths), but there are trade offs all over the place.
Which is about right. Amazon has the best prices on New HD DVD's and they are $20 each instead of $25. The combo disks are $28 instead of $40. They are IMHO doing what needs to be done to promote adoption. I've also had some luck with Gamestop for the used section. I just got a few combo disks for $18 each, buy 2 get 1 free.
Personally I look for these types of deals because I am an HD enthusiast. Most people are not. If Universal (the single remaining HD DVD exclusive studio) wants to push the format, then they should sell the Combo disks for $20, (and not the Stupid high price of $40) and not put any new movie on DVD without the HD DVD on the other side. More people will have these HD versions 'for free' so they will be encouraged to buy the player to utilize it.
Sony / Disney / Fox could do the same thing and end the 'format war' real quick.
Yeah, but they only gave it 256 megs of addressable RAM. It's like buying a car with a V12 engine and Bicycle tires.
I understand this isn't the question they are asking, they are really asking 'What game would you play if you could only choose 1.' but by putting me 'stranded on a desert island' I can't help but think of 'Wilson' in Cast Away.
Something like Nintendogs could seriously be the crutch that keeps me from going mad due to lonelyness.
This may however be trumped by SNK's Witch touching Game later this year.
It's also the type of game that allows some games to be higher res than others. Even with texture streaming support, I don't feel Resistance could look as good as Gears. In all fairness neither will GTA IV or Halo 3. These games typically require much larger draw distances, and more on screen characters than the 'Stop and pop' of Gears. It forced you into smaller mapps and with fewer enemies so it could load up the eye candy at each turn.
One of my favorite 360 games is Dead Rising, and for the most part it looks like an (original) X-Box game. The characters and models aren't particularly high res (actually the Zombies look lower res than those in RE4 on Gamecube), the difference being there are hundreds of them within your draw distance and (despite some annoying loading between areas) it all runs smoothly. They could have made everything higher res, but not without sacrificing the sheer quantity of them available at one time.
Ironically, they don't even look as good as 360 games. They may look as good as 'First gen' 360 games, but that isn't what they are competing with. Does any PS3 game look as good as Gears of War yet? Not by a long shot.
Though I don't disagree with what you are saying in general, the numbers aren't there to back it up. According to The numbers posted above the PSP 21.31 million units world wide. According to Wikipedia Gamecube sold 21.59 million, and the X-box sold 24 million. I have no doubt the PSP will sell more than the above, I'm just saying it isn't there yet . Also if you are mentioning:
you might as well include the Wii in that statement, since it would be true as well.It depends on your perceived Value. For me, the definitive version of Mario64 is on the Wii. Personally, I never liked the N64 Controller, so being able to play it with the Wavebird is worth it enough. Add in to the fact that it (unlike the original) runs in Progressive Scan sealed the deal.
I also sold a working Genesis with a copy of Golden Axe only to re-buy Golden Axe on the Wii. The control is simply better with the Wiimote (no more 'accidentally nuking everything', since that was moved to the A button), and the output simply looks better through the component cables (not sure if it does Progressive scan or not, but I would guess yes). Add in the convienince of having it always "loaded" via a channel, it was easily worth $8.
Welcome to Capitolism! I love how people complain that the VC prices are too high 'because the games are already finished' and 'their development is already paid for', For some reason I don't see people complaining that Gears of War isn't in the $3-$5 range. The reason is the same. The game is finished, and despite it costing nearly $10 million they certainly made their money back after selling over 3 million copies, so why not sell it for the incremental cost of pressing and distributing the disk?
The market has determined that it is worth more than the incremental cost, and pays what they feel is a reasonable price for the experiance. The VC is no different.
Shop around for the Points cards then. Around the holidays CircuitCity was offering $5 off any Wii accessory $19.95 or more. This was also good for the '2000' Wii Points cards, so I was able to get a few of those. I haven't seen the word "Wii" and "discount" in the same flyer for some time now, but bargins will come available.
Better yet, let's make a Kart racing game out of Medal of Honor, then pitch that to Hollywood to make a crappy movie about. It'll make BILLIONS!
EXACTLY! I got a Wii at launch, and I am a gamer. I think I have 14 VC titles, and maybe 10 Wii games. LOVE the system. My Parents loved WiiSports over the holidays and I got them one. Currently they have 3 Wii games (WiiSports, WiiPlay, and Tiger Woods) and ZERO VC games. Why? NONE of them are appealing to them.
How about a crossword puzzle "game"? SuDoKu? Online Poker? Online Hearts? or Uno? The VC is a GREAT service for old gamers like me, with nearly 100 retro titles but for 'First time casual game players' they offer crap. The most 'Casual friendly game' they have (Pacman) isn't available in the US yet. Why is it that XBLA has more 'casual friendly' titles available? (and don't say because it's been out longer, there are currently more VC titles available than XBLA ones. It's an issue of 'what types of games are available' rather than 'how many')
My parents wouldn't go near an X-box (despite the XBLA selection), but really enjoy the Wii. When will Nintendo recognise that despite being able to 'capture the casual market' early, they aren't catering to them with their current releases?
I'll start off by saying that, I'm not a developer so I don't honestly know if that's the case, but I don't believe it is (at least as far as the DS is concerned). I would figure it would have to load into system RAM, and not stream off the Cart. This is what makes Multi-boot and download stations possible. In theory it could still be streamed at the expense of high traffic for a single cart multiplayer game, but when you have say 10 players in Tetris I'm sure it's much more efficent to have each DS run a local copy. Also the demo downloads would have to work in RAM, or they wouldn't work at all.
You have a decision with this generation whether you want to deal with "last-gen quality" graphics or "last-gen quality" control. The same argument can be made that both Microsoft and Sony "Crippled" their system by adopting a control scheme that's 10 years old, and makes certain games (like WiiSports) impossible in their current form.
The Vasa!