SilverStar

Y'know.. that sounds pretty damn slick. Trauma Center was one of the few games that I really enjoyed, if felt it was a bit lacking to warrant a full-price purchase. But having 2 player and an online ranking system? Nice.

I think about the same way, now. PS3 was developed without a lot of really compelling content. It was meant to be -the- powerhouse, to destroy everyone else.. instead, a lot of side-by-side comparisons are giving the nod to Microsoft. X360 was rushed. The hardware wasn't fully tested, and the return rate of up to 30% reflects this. Microsoft has taken huge losses just in the first year, because as many as a third of their total units shipped, have been used as replacements. They have a bunch of games that look interesting.. but only until you get sick of the genre. Which is a lot like Nintendo. The Wii? Sure, it's revolutionary. It reinvisions the entire way games are played. In theory. Instead, all we've been treated to are PS2 ports, minigames, and games that were retooled from Gamecube. I've spent more time playing old Gamecube games I've been able to buy cheap, than playing the near unending stream of Wii rentals I've been getting from my Canflix account. At the rate things are going, with overpowered, cost-heavy hardware being relatively slow to get its legs, and the 20M+ investment required to make games for the hardware, we might see a shift toward the more older styles of games, where it isn't all about super high production values. But at the same time, Nintendo may be selling like crazy.. but for established base, the people who have been around actually buying the hardware, the people who waited in line to get the system on launch.. there's just not a lot there to chew on. It's all potato chips and bubble gum, with the first real steak dinner being Metroid Prime 3. Even the one thing that has been a definite in the game industry for so long, being that Nintendo software would outsell everything else because it's just -fun- to play.. is falling apart. A lot of the games that I've tried, haven't been able to hold my attention past what would be a demo phase, because they're just too damn boring. I hope we're not looking at another crash.. as much as it would do the industry good, able to bring it back to the roots where there's actual, real competition in the hardware sector, instead of 3 giants fighting for control. But in the mean time, I have PC games to enjoy. Overlord is pretty cool.

What Sony is doing, is trying to make sure they have the cheapest Bluray player on the market with the PS3, since the cheapest standalone was also cut in price. I don't think Sony really gives a damn about the games at this point, they're just trying to cut HD-DVD completely out of the market. Even if they have to side with as many sinking ships as possible(see: Blockbuster). I think Sony is trying to do too many things at once, and they've totally lost focus. Then again.. should PS3 actually survive to the point where it gets down to 299-399 for the 60GB(hell.. I wouldn't have minded a $399 20GB model, if it at least had the other features. Be a good comparison, to a 360 Premium), that's when the sales will really start picking up. But, I think Sony's shown their hand, here.. they don't want to make it too cheap. They want to keep adding more and more, keeping it at the same relative point. So, in 3 years we might be seeing a PS3 with full PS1/PS2 software emulation(with upscaling and refining features), more internal memory(but not for playing games), plus all the bells and whistles(rumble, motion sensitive controllers, etc..), for $599. They'll just keep trying to raise the bar, to make their system look better, yet making the people who already bought one feel left out when new hardware is introduced(maybe some sort of internalized wireless PS1/PS2 controller receiver and adapter). What I'd actually love to see, is for the "master key" in the PS3's BD-ROM drive to be cracked and released, causing Sony and the rest of the BD Conglomerate have to brick the hardware, because the key was decrypted and chipless piracy becomes readily available.

There's only 2 possibilities: Either everyone in Sony is as on the ball as Perrin was for Nintendo.. or they're just outright lying. Way to go, Sony! Edit: Oh, and didn't Sony mock MS, when they started doing in-store price cuts, saying something along the lines of, "If sales were going as you expected, you wouldn't have to cut prices so soon after launch"? Now here Sony is, 8 months in, cutting the price by a full 100 bucks. After killing the entire lower-end model. Poor bastards. PS3 may wind up as Sony's Saturn. Their big stumbling block, with a few good games.. and then the PS4 might be something worth owning, but be hit with such bad press from the PS3 that it gets killed off quickly.

Er.. PS3 doesn't have upgradeable video, either. In fact, the only console that did, was the N64, with the help of the 4mb expansion card. You don't seem to realize just how much trouble upgrading the video chip in a console would be, to actually make it more powerful. That means that any games developed for the new chip, won't function on the old one. The thing about game consoles, is they're more or less a fixed device. Fixed specs, so there's no compatibility issues, or screwed up drivers. It looks just as good on everyone's machine as it does on yours.

Wouldn't happen. Such a major hardware change would mean that new games couldn't be played on old units. I just hope something happens and they at least offer a VGA cable or something. I want to play it in 480p on my LCD, but can't because I can't find a real, properly functional Component>VGA bit, that doesn't crap itself all over interlaced output. Fucking hardware makers only half-assing things.

Don't you mean 200 bucks too much? $500 is nothing to sneeze at, for a game system. But it's certainly something to shy away from. Maybe in 6 months we'll see it down to $299 to match the X360. The rate things are going, it'll be interesting at that point.

Then I just hope Wii gets a game that at least has the kind of online appeal that Halo and Halo 2 do, among the general "casual hardcore" crowd. To find out that The Bigs had the online mode ripped out of the Wii version, pissed me off. And that Nintendo's "flagship" online title doesn't even have a whiff of the features the original Pokemon Stadium game had, is just an insult and slap in the face. I'm really getting jaded by this BS, and hope some 3rd party companies do come along and smack Nintendo upside the head and show them what the fuck to do. At this rate, with Animal Crossing Wii, not only will you need a friend code to be able to send messages to anyone, you'll also need some sort of super special Mii code inside the game, to send an item to them, which will be 3 times longer, just to "keep the kids safe" or some buggery. Wii = GREAT idea. Tons of potential. Massive amounts of promise. But there's just too many areas where Nintendo is making a point to put the breaks on things and hold back, instead of actually doing things -good-. Make games with all those extra security features for the kiddies. But damnit, let the rest of us get in there and have an open, wild time.

Online multiplayer is a feature that could turn a game from 1-2 playthroughs then stored on a shelf, to one that sits next to the system for constant play. If it weren't for the near 1/3 failure rate of the X360, or Sony's Ultimate Douchery, I'd really have to look at a second system for some solid gaming. I'm really getting sick and tired of the fucking minigames that are just being shat out by everyone on Wii. :/

I say you just try to get an early NA launch unit. I think they've already taken the Emotion Engine out of the design for current and future hardware units, though nothing has been really stated so far, for the NA region about it.

On top of that.. if that's supposed to be Dark Samus, then where the hell is her vastly different suit? Dark Samus' armor wasn't just the Varia suit, but in dark colors.

Problem is, Line Rider is supposed to be coming out soon-ish, and it'd be something which would work perfectly for WiiWare, rather than a standalone.

I actually decided to get F-Zero X, since I was bummed that the one game I had been looking forward to, turns out to have one thing I hate. And you know what? So far, it feels smooth and fast enough to make you forget that it's a 9 year old game.

Well, if you have a DS, you could look at Pokemon Battle Revolution. Or if you want a sports game, you could go for The Bigs. Both are supposed to have hit stores today.. both are online, as well. Unfortunately The Bigs, the one I was looking forward to, has some really tacky motion controls in that damn drum-to-run idea. That makes me not want it, even if everything else were good. I'd rather not have my arms be dead tired from trying to run from base to base.

Hey, the other choice is to have it released for PC with optimized GlovePie scripts to play it with a wiimote. And I wouldn't mind that, either.

And you know what? I still want to buy it, AO rated as it is. I don't want it to be castrated at all.. just let me buy it online if needed!

To Nintendo? Yes. At least Pokemon Stadium 64 had the ability to play the actual Pokemon games, through.. wasn't it the transfer pack? honestly, it doesn't even have to be a 3D RPG. High resolution sprites would work just fine. Even making it have some sort of semi-realtime fighting and making it multiplayer with your friends would be cool, making it a world almost like Diablo 2 in design, where you're not simply trying to race to beat everything, but instead can wander around.. almost like in the cartoon, where you take your time to actually do stuff, training your pokemon with friends, instead of just battling them against eachother for no real good reason.

Go contact Nintendo! http://kotaku.com/gaming/nintendo/update-glitchy-twilight-princess-disc-send-it-back-254237.php

Yeesh. That just sucks all the emotion out of.. wait, yeah. I can see what you mean.

Then I must have really bad luck, since Zelda, Super Paper Mario, Godfather, Excite Truck, Rayman and Prince of Persia all do that.. that I've noticed. Those are the only ones I've played when my batteries have been low. I think every game has it set in so there's some sort of on screen warning when the batteries are getting low. I just wish they had a firmware setting to completely override that, so I don't get bothered by it at all. I know when my batteries are low. I can see the blue LED flashing when it gets too low, and I can always just hit the home button to see the status on-screen if I want to. But, with the exception of Rayman, all the games bring up a damn status window complaining about the low batteries, constantly. More than once it actually corrupted my game in Godfather, because it decided to do it while I was in the middle of saving. With Rayman, it just flashes a little low battery icon in the corner of the screen.

You know.. One small thing I'd like to see Nintendo implement in a future firmware upgrade, is an option to get rid of those bloody low battery warning messages. It's alright the first time they pop up, but getting hit with them every 2-5 minutes(usually depending on the game), when your batteries still have HOURS of use left in them? Fucking annoying.

So.. Geometry Wars, coming to Wii. With a single-player campaign and online modes. http://kotaku.com/gaming/kotaku-magu/geometry-wars-goes-nintendo-262350.php

Mario Strikers: Charged gameplay and online hands-on. http://wii.ign.com/articles/788/788419p1.html *sigh* Sadly, it looks like we're indeed stuck with friends codes. Damn you, Nintendo! Don't go 80% on us and drop the ball!

Unless you have the classic controller, don't even consider any SNES titles. That's about all I can recommend.

Agreed. Especially since you can get a fairly decent one, for not much more than the cost of the USB WiFi dongle.