remember a year ago when $400 for a console seemed like too much?
Yup. It's alot like this year when it is still too much. Offering a $300 version thast costs another $100 to make it usefull doesn't help. I'll get a 360 or Ps3 as it nears the $300 mark, not before.
Ok, The device isn't completely dormant, but this isn't a power 'leak'. It's a feature that makes powering on devices much quicker and keeps things like the IR receiver for your remote control active so when you hit power on the remote, it works. (and quickly)
For the minimal amount of power that pulls per year you are far better off leaving it go rather than wasting time constantly plugging/ unplugging your devices, or wire up a master kill switch so you aren't trading off minimal power savings for productivity loss. Remember you can buy more electricity, you can't buy more more time to live.
Aw, how will I complete my Zelda game collection?:-(
You will have the 'Canonical' Zelda, which is better than the 'Complete' Zelda, since there are no disapointmenting installments. Kinda like Star Wars minus the Ewok Movies, The Chrismas Special, and Episodes I-III.
It's Available on GBA if you don't want to wait. An added bonus is the multiplayer mode (single cart no less) which I don't recall the original having.
It doesn't matter if the 360 is the size of a truck, it doesn't make the PS3 'compact'. The PS3 is still 'Large and in charge'. Whether it's 'quiet' or not, remains to be seen (when the final product hits the customer's hands we'll find out).
Also Adding the HD-DVD drive to your size comparison doesn't make sense as it assumes every person with a 360 wants/ needs one.
Why even bother with Pre-rendered Full Motion Video cutscenes anyway? If they system is as powerfull as they say, do it all in game, using the game engine. It will require less disk space, less loading, and will seamlessly integrate with what you were doing both before and after the cut scene.
FMV's were added in the PSX era because the computer graphics looked good, and the in-game graphics were primitive. That is no longer the case.
"Have you read the releases about the PS3? Its quiet. Very quiet. Quiet, compact, and without a big power brick."
Do you have a source? That sounds like someone describing the Wii, not the PS3. Considering the PS3 is larger than the original X-Box I have yet to hear anyone call it 'compact'.
The first few revs of the original X-box WERE made in Guadalajara Mexico, then they moved operations to China. Likely Doumen, since that's where they moved the production from Europe to. I don't know about the 360 though as I no longer work for Flextronics (the original supplier of the X-Box).
The problem is that the 360 IS an improvement over an X-box if you have a HDTV, but look VERY similar on an SDTV. If you have an SDTV most 360 games look like 'nice looking Xbox games' but nothing more.
Ironically on an SDTV some 360 games look worse than their 360 counter part. Textures are blurry, or other problems associates with games not being made to be displayed at lower resolutions.
Actually, both
Peter Moore of
Microsoft and
Phil Harrison of Sony
had various words of praise for the Wii. Peter's was more like an endorsement than Phil's, but if everyone buys the Wii as their second console, then it is the #1 player over all.
I think Microsoft should allow games that are as large as 512 MB.
The reason MS put a cap at 50 MB per live game is they sell a 64 meg memory card. They want all users to be able to buy at least 1 game, and have room for save files. It also doens't hurt that with a 50 meg cap you can buy/store a crap load on the 20 gig Hard drive.
Conker's Bad Fur day was done by Rare (a 2nd party developer at the time) for the N64. I'm sure they came to grips with 'mature themed' talking animals a while ago.
Exactly my point. The PS2 was 'technically inferior in almost every way' (Hardware wise) to its competition, yet it sold the most. Hell The GameCube was more powerful, and sold for LESS $$$, but people paid the premium for the PS2. Why? The Quantity of Games; the variety. You can argue about the quality, but that is very opinion/ preference based. What is fact, is that the PS2 had a larger variety of games than it's competitors, which is why it won.
This is another potential advantage of the Wii. The ability to publish more games due to their lower development cost. The president of THQ stated that the average Wii game would cost anywhere from 25%-(on the high end) 50% the cost of a PS3 or 360 title. THAT is a big deal! Sony was wise to wrap up certain exclusives like Final Fantasy, and GTA at the time, and those games sell systems. However with the increasing cost of 'Next Gen' development there are already fewer 'true exclusives' (not timed exclusives) for any platform. Sony will always have God of War 3, just like Nintendo will have Zelda or Mario, but some of these big 3rd party games are going multiplatform. If they lose MGS4 of FFXIII as a true exclusive to the 360 or Wii (like they have with Assasin's Creed, among others) then they are dead in the water.
Ok, Let's assume that you forget the increase in the RAM, Processor, and GPU beteen the GC, and the Wii since you are less than impressed with them. for $250 you get a Wii, with 1 nunchuck, and a game. Let's compare that with the contemporary equivilant:
$100 - Gamecube
$35 - Wavebird (Even though it is lacking many of the Wiimote's features, a closer comparison would be $50 for the 360 wireless controller since it is both wireless and has rumble)
$35 - Broadband Adapter (Wii has free Wifi built in)
$35 - 1024 Memory card (Don't need to buy it as a Wii has 512 megs of internal flash RAM, which is = to a 8192 block memory card).
$50 - Game
Already there is your value for the $250. Now start adding the Value added with the extra Hardware, the Channels, the Free online play, Backwords compatibility, the Virtual Console, and the usefullness/ uniqueness of the controller...
To date the Nintendo made a profit on the Gamecube through most of it's life cycle. Microsoft on the other hand has yet to recoup over $4 billion in losses in X-box1, Live, and the 360. Their nearest internal estimate (as reported by gamespot) is 'They will be profitable in 2008'.
It was underpowered compared to the XBox and the PS2,
Incorrect. The PS2 was the least powerful contender this time around (after the Dreamcast dropped out fo course) The only thing the GC didn't have hardware wise over the PS2 was disk capacity, since they went with mini DVDs, and not DVD9's. For a good comparison of capable graphics, play RE4 for each.
I don't understand the 'Graphics Arms Race' much as The PS2 was technically inferior to both the GC, and X-box yet the PS2 had the largest user base. The PS1 was inferior to the N64 (except for disk / cartrige capacity) yet the PS1 sold more. The DS is weaker than the PSP, yet is sells more. The Gameboy was weaker than all competitors, but crushed the competition.
Clearly 'power' =/= greater sales. There is more to it than that.
GameCube controller doesn't have nearly the same functionality. The 'Wand' is only $40, and in comparison is only $5 more than a Wavebird, and $10 less than a Wireless 360 controller.
Dispite my preference for not having the 'metagame' of Mario Party (which you stated you can skip the board game if you wish), in general the Wario Ware games are frantic, and sillier, and pretty fun. I haven't seen anything as fun as dungeon duos (from MP4) in any of the sequals, and Warioware just seems like it would push this controler harder and in a sillier direction.
As far as the "Players: 1-player, some 2-5 players", that is quite disapointing, actually.
You can (if you chose) use a USB 2.0 Lan adapter and plug it into the back. If you want to stay wired it's available, just through an accessory, just like Wifi is available for the 360 through an additional purchase.
Also 'Apples to Apples' The 360 Wifi adapter does 802.11 a/b/g. The Wii does 802.11 b/g. I consider this perfectly fine, but it should be noted that 802.11a is a superior protocol for streaming video (Say from your Media Center PC).
Slashdot Mirror
Apparently someone said you couldn't do both as the rumble would interfere with the tilt sensor. Despite Nintendo originally doing it in 2003 .
Yup. It's alot like this year when it is still too much. Offering a $300 version thast costs another $100 to make it usefull doesn't help. I'll get a 360 or Ps3 as it nears the $300 mark, not before.
If they come out with a game that has Dr. Angus then I will not only buy the game, but I will buy a 360 just for that purpose.
For the minimal amount of power that pulls per year you are far better off leaving it go rather than wasting time constantly plugging/ unplugging your devices, or wire up a master kill switch so you aren't trading off minimal power savings for productivity loss. Remember you can buy more electricity, you can't buy more more time to live.
You will have the 'Canonical' Zelda, which is better than the 'Complete' Zelda, since there are no disapointmenting installments. Kinda like Star Wars minus the Ewok Movies, The Chrismas Special, and Episodes I-III.
It's Available on GBA if you don't want to wait. An added bonus is the multiplayer mode (single cart no less) which I don't recall the original having.
Also Adding the HD-DVD drive to your size comparison doesn't make sense as it assumes every person with a 360 wants/ needs one.
Another good size comparison pic is here.
FMV's were added in the PSX era because the computer graphics looked good, and the in-game graphics were primitive. That is no longer the case.
Do you have a source? That sounds like someone describing the Wii, not the PS3. Considering the PS3 is larger than the original X-Box I have yet to hear anyone call it 'compact'.
Cheers.
Ironically on an SDTV some 360 games look worse than their 360 counter part. Textures are blurry, or other problems associates with games not being made to be displayed at lower resolutions.
The Wii will have plenty of games that will look great on a SDTV...
Actually, both Peter Moore of Microsoft and Phil Harrison of Sony had various words of praise for the Wii. Peter's was more like an endorsement than Phil's, but if everyone buys the Wii as their second console, then it is the #1 player over all.
The reason MS put a cap at 50 MB per live game is they sell a 64 meg memory card. They want all users to be able to buy at least 1 game, and have room for save files. It also doens't hurt that with a 50 meg cap you can buy/store a crap load on the 20 gig Hard drive.
Not Hardware. All 360's that connect to 'live silver' (about 60% of them) can download the update for free.
Conker's Bad Fur day was done by Rare (a 2nd party developer at the time) for the N64. I'm sure they came to grips with 'mature themed' talking animals a while ago.
This is another potential advantage of the Wii. The ability to publish more games due to their lower development cost. The president of THQ stated that the average Wii game would cost anywhere from 25%-(on the high end) 50% the cost of a PS3 or 360 title. THAT is a big deal! Sony was wise to wrap up certain exclusives like Final Fantasy, and GTA at the time, and those games sell systems. However with the increasing cost of 'Next Gen' development there are already fewer 'true exclusives' (not timed exclusives) for any platform. Sony will always have God of War 3, just like Nintendo will have Zelda or Mario, but some of these big 3rd party games are going multiplatform. If they lose MGS4 of FFXIII as a true exclusive to the 360 or Wii (like they have with Assasin's Creed, among others) then they are dead in the water.
$100 - Gamecube
$35 - Wavebird (Even though it is lacking many of the Wiimote's features, a closer comparison would be $50 for the 360 wireless controller since it is both wireless and has rumble)
$35 - Broadband Adapter (Wii has free Wifi built in)
$35 - 1024 Memory card (Don't need to buy it as a Wii has 512 megs of internal flash RAM, which is = to a 8192 block memory card).
$50 - Game
Already there is your value for the $250. Now start adding the Value added with the extra Hardware, the Channels, the Free online play, Backwords compatibility, the Virtual Console, and the usefullness/ uniqueness of the controller...
To date the Nintendo made a profit on the Gamecube through most of it's life cycle. Microsoft on the other hand has yet to recoup over $4 billion in losses in X-box1, Live, and the 360. Their nearest internal estimate (as reported by gamespot) is 'They will be profitable in 2008'.
Incorrect. The PS2 was the least powerful contender this time around (after the Dreamcast dropped out fo course) The only thing the GC didn't have hardware wise over the PS2 was disk capacity, since they went with mini DVDs, and not DVD9's. For a good comparison of capable graphics, play RE4 for each.
I don't understand the 'Graphics Arms Race' much as The PS2 was technically inferior to both the GC, and X-box yet the PS2 had the largest user base. The PS1 was inferior to the N64 (except for disk / cartrige capacity) yet the PS1 sold more. The DS is weaker than the PSP, yet is sells more. The Gameboy was weaker than all competitors, but crushed the competition.
Clearly 'power' =/= greater sales. There is more to it than that.
GameCube controller doesn't have nearly the same functionality. The 'Wand' is only $40, and in comparison is only $5 more than a Wavebird, and $10 less than a Wireless 360 controller.
As far as the "Players: 1-player, some 2-5 players", that is quite disapointing, actually.
They are working on WarioWare first.
You can (if you chose) use a USB 2.0 Lan adapter and plug it into the back. If you want to stay wired it's available, just through an accessory, just like Wifi is available for the 360 through an additional purchase.
Also 'Apples to Apples' The 360 Wifi adapter does 802.11 a/b/g. The Wii does 802.11 b/g. I consider this perfectly fine, but it should be noted that 802.11a is a superior protocol for streaming video (Say from your Media Center PC).