I-n-j-i-n

Currently with 10 million in my bank. And no, most of the animals still stayed unlike what a lot of people say. But you do get a million weeds to pluck. But it's not that bad.

Not exactly PS3 related, but very much related on the news of a Sony console, Final Fantasy XII will be released about a day from now. And Gametrailers.com will put up a review when it does (pretty much one of the few review sites I actually take note. Not just because of the pretty video presentation either). Then, the long wait for FFXIII will begin.

I don't buy that explanation. The words "hit the weak point for massive damage!" is an actual term too. But give me a break. You know that is a reference. Mainly because those sentences are just grammatically odd and emphasize those words a bit. And you know what's funny? The way people are SO OFFENDED because it's Something Awful. Big deal. I swear I caught the words "it's sacrilegious" in those flame wars. Because references are serious business.

I don't visit SA, so I guess I missed out on that ;P The rumor is that the translator is a Goon. And some Square-Enix nut jobs argued that their game is too hallow ground for a harmless reference. The flamewars that ensued was just ridiculous.

OMG. People would get into lengthy discussions about whether FF4 on the GBA had Something Awful references and all that shit. References happen.

The upscaling thing might not be good since it could emphasize pixelation and other graphical problems. Happens with a lot of games that game developers try to upscale or put anti-aliasing and actually make the game look worse than they used to.

Maybe it's because those two DS games are reputed to be incredibly short. And Trauma Center is almost too difficult for its own good later on. God Hand is a Clover game.. so.

This will be the best game on the DS. No doubt about it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYWLlX1uIHE Regard or disregard the super pervert adventure titles.

Those cables look Huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge. I wonder if they're high def cables.

I don't see what's the big difference between someone who talks positively about Wii to a fault and someone doing the same with other consoles. And this is a PS3 thread no less. What do you expect? This is not about who is idiotic or not, or whether who's hypocritical or not. And who didn't see Sony acting up whenever the issue of copyright infringement and other media format battles are concerned? This is nothing new.

The thing with polls and expectations are sorta like how political polls and election day is. Just because the expectations are there doesn't mean it is followed through exactly the same. It doesn't help with a lot of Internet fanbuzz since that doesn't necessarily translate into real-world numbers (Snakes on a Plane anyone?). And PS3 seems to interest the silent majority of gamers which is typically the casual/hardcore types who just want the games and don't typically care about the gaming politics whatsoever.

Yeah, the PSP didn't exactly have a buying frenzy afterwards. Just like a steady stream of buyers more than anything. Even if it was far, far behind the DS. Another thing with the PS3 gaining any sort of momentum behind its shortage, it needs to have the big games come out by 2007, or it'll be one full year before they get enough customers intersted. But by then, Halo 3 and SSBB would be out..

Again, I really wonder if the shortage of PS3s is deliberate. It was for the PSP, the very first PSX and PS2. They always were way short of the demand and it created a frenzy of buyers for years to come. I think it's pretty obvious the 360 had the same gameplan as well. Besides simply releasing the thing for one full years before everyone and establishing a huge library.

I don't think the Wii will be only popular for a few weeks since all the big name titles will come out sometime in 2007. But after that, I don't know. Certainly, Nintendo will break profit, but that usually doesn't mean anything towards gamers and the games themselves. There was a lot of positive hype for the Gamecube early on then sorta fizzled away. I think something similar could happen if Nintendo dawdles with their major titles after the huge SSBB game comes out. Then they might have maybe one or two major Zelda sequels to get gamers interested. But that's not going to keep them stuck to the console forever.

Yeah. I think Sony's heavy mainstream game support and even the occasional stuff for the hardcore types pretty much secure the demographic. And with some people, I wonder if price is even an issue. I keep seeing people who snatch up 360s either by working for it or by being spoiled by their families/parents. I even see kids strutting $300+ iPods around and to put it in perspective, a PS3 is the equivalent of two newest-type iPods. I think people will give themselves all sorts of excuses and reasont to get a PS3 once the games start coming out. Even if they are garishly expensive to me personally, I can totally see people buying it regardless. Kinda, sorta like how people can even be urged into buying old games with newer consoles nowadays.

That's a monthly figure...

I wasn't trying to say that you specifically were jetset against the PS3 or Sony in particular. Though I can understand, since Sony as a whole company has been going through overhauls and some rough times in the last few years. But a lot of the internet buzz around the PS3 IS negative after all. And Sony obviously dropped the ball in their marketing tactics with Nintendo and even Microsoft of all companies looking rather humble and straightforward in their offering in comparison. It seems that the people anticipating the PS3 are the silent majority. Even though a lot of polls and such show that people are off put by the price alone. But polls are polls and gamers buying something is another. The DS wasn't too popular upon its announcement either. And look where it is now.

But the idea and execution is just about the same. Likewise, Sony's plan of putting downloadable backlibrary of their insanely large PSX/PS2 library is fairly ambitious as well if you think about it. And the way they're making the PS3 into a full multimedia machine. In that sense, it sorta justifies the price. Since you pay for what you get with multimedia devices. We won't know for sure whether it's a mutated, unusable controller until the thing is fully out. Metal Gear Solid 4 will apparently use it and Kojima would probably be the first person to use it to its fullest extent. Another thing with Sony is that their politics doesn't involve innovation. I agree that Sony could do more and that they're copycatting right off of Nintendo, but Nintendo sorta HAD to do it. Otherwise, they would have been driven off from the home console market. They needed the attention and the innovation to keep them afloat. Sony really didn't. Sony just needed to garner the large fanbase and the wave of 3rd parties they have garnered since the PSX era. That's their perspective. Needless to say, the big and bad presentation of PS3 can be offputting (as it is to me, even when I want to buy it). But I'm not sure what they're doing is a death knell to the gaming industry or death to Sony or anything like that. So I don't think neither Nintendo or Sony are so different in the long run. Nintendo is doing it with innovation and getting a buzz, Sony is doing it with convention and tradition of their gaming model for the last two vastly successful generations of gaming. People tend to complain about Sony a lot with their pomp in the last few years, but I think they sorta earned it in the PSX and PS2 eras. Another thing is that Sony has been more focused on the games at hand and have spurred many 3rd parties to make exclusive games for them or even make revolutionary 3D games. It has happened before, and I'm sure they'll try to spur the innovation within the games themselves again. Even if the hardware may not be as impressive to casual onlookers since all they did was put their machine specs and online aspects to a higher level.

It's just that when you blatently imitate something and don't innovate with it, that has nothing to do with creativity. I know this won't be the best analogy, but I'm thinking of how this relates to making a rearangement of a song. When someone makes a remix of a song that isn't theirs, it's very possible to get very creative with it, if they use the source as just the base of everything. That's why we don't like MIDI rips, because it's just blatent copying. There's no innovation involved, just choosing which higher-quality instruments to replace the old ones with. What about merely copying the style and improving upon it? If there's copycats, then that would also spurt someone else to become inventive in order to stand out. Thinking back about it, the reason why Nintendo adopted a mini-dvd format, went with a wildly divergent type of controller and has come up with an ambitious online plan is all because it tried the status quo since the N64 and Gamecube and has long since fallen behind the competition. Because Nintendo stuck to the cartridge and stuck to the norm for the most part (maybe except for the strange button format on the Gamecube..) They knew they couldn't stand a chance since the competition was doing better and better with the established formula and look where Nintendo is now. Nintendo tried something new because they were urged on by the competition. They had to try something new or keep floundering in the home console market. Also, like I just said, if you're saying that PS3's online plan is a shameless and almost downright sinful imitation of the VC, then VC is the same damn thing when it copied right off of XLA. And even the whole Wiimote idea isn't entirely new if you're taking into account some PC and Arcade peripherals that has toyed with the idea for a long time. See where that line on reasoning on blaming the 'imitation' leads to? Nintendo is the same as everyone else when it comes down to copying and taking inspiration from other sources. On another note, a lot of the PS3 hate doesn't seem to ring true for many gamers outside the pricerange issue. Nobody really gives a damn about consoles 'copying' one another or about the console wars. They're just videogames and if there's games people want to play, then that's that. Sony obviously could have handled the public relations a lot better, but it's not like their core product in PS3 is the worse for it. Price and politics aside, the console still looks pretty solid in idea and technological aspects. And most importantly, game support is all but guaranteed. That's what truly matters in the end anyway.

If you're talking about imitation, the entire VC idea, the marketplace points and the completely identical pricepoints are obviously derived from Xbox Live and Xbox Live Arcade (to be factual about it, XLA launched around 2004. That was before Nintendo even started planning for the exact specifications and features of the Wii). And of course, the Dreamcast, even with its dysfunctional features went online first. I love how some people get overtly selective about who copied who. Microsoft copies, Sony copies, Sega copies and Nintendo copies. Imitation and competition is the root of creativity. Get over it.

And you know... if you do get a defective unit, you should return to the store you bought it from and demand an exchange. Policy or not, you can talk through it. And most stores do change it. Though I think some of them require insurance nowadays. I can't believe we're talking about this again.

Red Bull, Cup Ramen, Hot Pockets. Geek food.

I agree with a lot of the points, but you'd be dreaming if Nintendo can do all that within 2006. A lot of the online functionality is slated for 2007, and I don't expect a Japanese game company to leap into the online world as well as American game companies (most of them savvy with the PC online gaming experience) were with the Xbox. Another thing is that the Wii is investing mostly on the new controller and it's obvious that's where most of their selling mantra goes towards. The online stuff sounds good, but I wonder if many Nintendo games will go online. I really doubt that something like Mario or Zelda can or even needs to go online for any reason. While a lot of American styled games with 3rd/1st person action, MMORPGs and strict 2D styled games seem tailor made to be online playable for the 360. I think it'll take a bit while for the Wii games to get comfortable with the online aspect. It took PS2 about three years and Xbox Live about two years until they got into a groove.

Also, the thing with Sony and Microsoft consoles is the expectation that they will have a giant wave of 3rd party titles to choose from. Nintendo's 3rd party titles weren't exactly lacking, but in comparison to its competition, the offerings were a bit slim for them since the N64 era. MS already has a few worthy games that would take a high end computer to even run them on a PC. And some versions like Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter is supposedly way better on the 360. That, and the tightnit Xbox Live functionality is one of the major sellingpoints of the console. The competition is trying to copy its model, but it should take them a while (like a year) to iron out the bugs and have readily online features. Then again, the 360 was made for online functionality (minus browser). Others just seems to tack it on with the downloadable library of games. But the PS3's single player games are what sells consoles anyway.

Well, expect the PS3 sales to skyrocket in 2007 when all the hype and buying-frenzy is built up thanks to the obviously staged shortage of units. And there seems to be a lot of killer aps already for 2007 for the PS3. Especially with RPGs which will just about guarantee a strong showing, possibly better than the Wii sales, since the Wii really doesn't have too many killer ap titles outside the Nintendo branding and the RPGs don't have the weight of the brand that Sony has. Atleast in Japan, the thing should sell well. Maybe in North America, it might be neck and neck with the 360 since both offer similar things with the exception of the Sony exclusives and JRPGs.