@jtsiren

I think one of the saddest things is that Sony's biggest attraction at TGS is the last generation feature rumble. (Oh and that EA leaked the news before TGS) As Microsoft is fixing the problems with their consoles it seems Sony is fixing theirs. Sony we need games!

There's rumors and I did say rumors abound that Sony's PS3 is their last gaming machine. The latest one comes from a recent Sony press release where they revealed they were reducing R&D on processors. Personally I think they'll come out with a PS4 but if it's not until 2010-2011 period they can likely rest a couple years before trying to develop the next next gen. Or cheat just shrink the PS3 to 45nm and then put 3 PS3 CPUs on 1 die.


Back on 360 news... Halo3 got a 10/9/9/9 from Japan's Famitsu mag. 10 for game play is excellent. Overall a very good rating and a great rating considering Japan doesn't like FPS.

Last edited by BrianK on 20-Sep-2007 at 04:21 PM.

I know this is off-topic, but just to make good on earlier comments:

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6179170.html?action=convert&om_clk=latestnews&tag=latestnews;title;1

I'm buying one of the PS3 Dual Shock 3's as soon as they hit Europe... I think MotorStorm especially would benefit from the update to rumble.

Late, but better late than never.

@Lou

An interesting month indeed.
***
1. Madden NFL 08 (Xbox 360) -- 896.6K
2. Madden NFL 08 (PS2) -- 643.6K
3. BioShock (Xbox 360) -- 490.9K
4. Madden NFL 08 (PS3) -- 336.2K
***
Madden is interesting.
360 : ~ 1 Madden sold per every 12 consoles.
PS3: ~ 1 Madden sold per every 13.5 consoles.
PS2: ~ 1 Madden sold per every 183 consoles.

So we're definitely starting to see some signs that the last of the last gen is showing some cracks.

Also interesting in this case if manufactures wanted the same quantity of sales on the PS3 the PS3 would have to sell at least 10% more consoles then the 360. Again this is a one case example and there will be others. But having the PS3 with half the consoles of the 360 and having a lower receive rate by games if one was in the gaming business the arguement for cross platform between these 2 makes itself.

Quote:

Halo 3 launches and Wii still outsells the 360 - that would be bad for MS

Bad in the sense that the 360 will likely be out of first place forever yes. But, it won't be bad for Microsoft, H3 will make them $$, move consoles, and will likely outsell H1.

Quote:

A true hard core gamer who owns a 360 will eventually pick up a Wii after a price drop in order to get their fix of a few titles that they may want latter in the Wii's lifecycle

Undoubtably the hardcore gamer owns many gaming options. There was recently an article about the PS3 in Europe, for example. The large majority of PS3 owners own a 360 or a Wii or Both. So yes this shows that consoles keyed into hardcore gamers doesn't mean the gamer is going to be exclusive to that console.

Personally it's sad to see the PS3 not selling more and having more games. It has nice potenital, but I want to use the potential. Hopefully Christmas of 2008 will improve things. Even the dominate High Def. DVD format war is impacted. For Blu-Ray the ratio is 1 movie for every 4 players on the market. For HD-DVD the ratio is 2 movies per every 1 player. OUCH! Had the PS3 sold more they could off-set it's poor ratio. But, since they aren't HD-DVD is able to stick around longer. This means us consumers have to deal with waiting longer for this decision to be over. Frustrating.

@BrianK

Not suprising returns are dropping with 2 revisions in the field now...

Quote:

Nintendo Wii: 403.6K (4 million total) Nintendo DS: 383.3K (12.7 million total) Microsoft Xbox 360: 276.7K (6.3 million) Sony PlayStation 2: 202K (39.1 million total) Sony PSP: 151.2K (8.3 million total) Sony PlayStation 3: 130.6K (1.75 million total) 1. Madden NFL 08 (Xbox 360) -- 896.6K 2. Madden NFL 08 (PS2) -- 643.6K 3. BioShock (Xbox 360) -- 490.9K 4. Madden NFL 08 (PS3) -- 336.2K 5. Wii Play/ w remote (Wii) -- 256.8K 6. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Wii) -- 218.1K 7. Mario Strikers Charged (Wii) -- 147.4K 8. Guitar Hero 2 w/guitar (PS2) -- 145.4K 9. Mario Party 8 (Wii) -- 138.3K 10. Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s (PS2) -- 127.1K 11. Madden NFL 08 (Xbox) 12. Madden NFL 08 (Wii) 13. Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day (DS) 14. Two Worlds (Xbox 360) 15. Pokémon Diamond (DS) 16. High School Musical: Making the Cut (DS) 17. Guitar Hero 2 w/guitar (360) 18. Madden NFL 08 (PSP) 19. Pokémon Pearl (DS) 20. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 (Xbox 360)

Interesting AUGUST US NPD numbers...
Metroid Prime 3 did really well for being on the shelves for 3 days. I might not have picked up my copy until September, myself. It should have some legs next month.
disappointing to see the original Xbox's Madden outsell the Wii version. EA only advertised a 360 version. If they did a commercial showing the family-play mode, I'm sure alot more casuals would have bought it on the Wii.

Mario Strikers Charged has some legs on it too... 4 Wii titles in the top 10. I don't see any 360 titles in the top 20 that came out prior to August except GH2 but I'd have to check the date on that one... As for the PS3 - Madden and then nothing.

Microsoft can claim large launch day #'s even up to 2 weeks later, but the legs on Nintendo titles can't be denied. I think publishers are being suprised as to how long they have to keep printing discs for Wii titles...not to mention DS carts...

If rumors of Japanese allocations of Wii's moved to the US are true, we could see an even bigger September. The US is the only territory where the Wii hasn't surpassed the 360 in installed base. Japan hardware has been on a slump as of late across all platforms after an August high...

Quote:

1. Nintendo DS (77,488) 2. Nintendo Wii (29,088) 3. Sony PSP (15,564) 4. Sony PS2 (13,360) 5. Sony PS3 (13,248) 6. Microsoft Xbox 360 (1,286) 7. Nintendo GBA (550) 8. Nintendo GameCube (82)

Next month, let's see if Halo 3 drives MS hardware to the top. My prediction - no. Sure there are some people waiting until HALO 3 launches to purchase a 360, but those people are probably the same 100k that purchased Madden for the original Xbox last month. I don't think it will be enough to topple the Wii, especially if the extra stock allocation rumor is true. This may infact be intentional my Nintendo to downplay the "Halo effect". Picture this - Halo 3 launches and Wii still outsells the 360 - that would be bad for MS. No doubt the title will move 3M copies on launch though...(being the biggest casual gamer's title on the platform can do that )

As for the 360 being a true hardcore game's console... A true hard core gamer who owns a 360 will eventually pick up a Wii after a price drop in order to get their fix of a few titles that they may want latter in the Wii's lifecycle. They may also pick up a PS3 really late in it's lifecycle for what few A+ exclusives the system may eventually end up with... So no, I don't see the demand for the Wii dropping off anytime soon...

@MikeB

Recall status from Gamestop...

GameStop executive Bob McKenzie noted that the Xbox 360's frequently publicized quality problems haven't damaged the console's sales at all. McKenzie, the senior vice president of merchandising, noted, "All I can say is that we have not seen anything negative from that." He went on further to say that Xbox 360 returns have actually gone down since the announcement of the warranty extension in July. "We track our returns," said McKenzie, "and returns have actually gone down since they made that announcement, and we haven't seen any effect on enthusiasm for the 360."

@Zardoz

Quote:

Zardoz wrote: @Lou Quote: Well, since you are backwards like that, you'd probably like the following two sequels... They lost all sense of consistency established by the first. Dunno, I liked the third one and absolutely hated the second one to hell and back.

But it had Monica Bellucci in it!

...

Gamebryo middleware engine has been ported to the Wii. Gamebryo was used on Civilization 4 , Oblivion, Warhammer:Online and many other games.

@Lou

Quote:

Well, since you are backwards like that, you'd probably like the following two sequels... They lost all sense of consistency established by the first.

Dunno, I liked the third one and absolutely hated the second one to hell and back.

_________________

@BrianK

Quote:

BrianK wrote: @Lou Quote: You are buying the experience they choose to present to you, just like a movie Okay some games handle it this way and some don't. Many movies now come with alternative endings on DVD so the user can choose the outcome. Why can games not let the users choose the outcome? Obilivon is a good example there are many many ways to accomplish a task. It's more like a choose your own adventure book, if you've ever seen those. It's not linear and locked to being a viewer. Instead in games you can be an active participant on the outcome. If you don't like the game one way play it another. Diversity is good!

That's just it... It got hype for it's "moral choices" of which there was exactly 1. And if you chose to play the "evil" role, same game, bad ending, no achievements. So the hype was about choice but that ONE choice they gave you early on ruined that experience if you made the "bad" choice. After that moment, you have no choice but to replay the same game, but make the right choice in order to get achievements and get a decent ending.

The game is visually beautiful, but when it could have easily just been a 3 part CGI mini-series and it would have been great.

@Lou

Quote:

You are buying the experience they choose to present to you, just like a movie

Okay some games handle it this way and some don't. Many movies now come with alternative endings on DVD so the user can choose the outcome. Why can games not let the users choose the outcome? Obilivon is a good example there are many many ways to accomplish a task. It's more like a choose your own adventure book, if you've ever seen those. It's not linear and locked to being a viewer. Instead in games you can be an active participant on the outcome. If you don't like the game one way play it another. Diversity is good!

Quote:

Well, since you are backwards like that

I full accept that I may be backwards with the Matrix. Special effects were great. They just don't make a movie for me. Story was flat and predictable. Approach to the pseudo religious questions were sophmoric. Acting was adequate. It just wasn't a movie to rave about. It was pretty. Hearing a loss of consistency in the later 2 only seems they'd be more of the same but worse. I realize people don't agree with my view but again hey that's what other movies are for. To each their own. I'd fire up Blade Runner over Matrix any day. Which is coming on HD-DVD and Blu-Ray.. YEAH!

@BrianK

Quote:

BrianK wrote: @Lou Quote: With a save point before a boss battle, you have to restart the battle and the boss and you are both at full health. See the difference? Of course I understand the difference. If you prefer that type of game play not a problem. Simply create a save game before the boss. If you get killed by the boss and respawn stop the game and reload your save point. You essentially get what you're looking for you force yourself to restart the battle. Why be tied to what a developer dictates as the appropriate punishment?

You are buying the experience they choose to present to you, just like a movie. Infact, if they had just made it a 6 hour long machina film, they could have probably put it on IMAX and made more money...

Games should be like sports, defeat (due to poor skill) is always an option.


Quote:

I'm one of the few who think the Matrix 1 sucked and didn't bother to watch the others.

Well, since you are backwards like that, you'd probably like the following two sequels... They lost all sense of consistency established by the first.

Last edited by Lou on 12-Sep-2007 at 03:01 PM.

@Lou

Quote:

With a save point before a boss battle, you have to restart the battle and the boss and you are both at full health. See the difference?

Of course I understand the difference. If you prefer that type of game play not a problem. Simply create a save game before the boss. If you get killed by the boss and respawn stop the game and reload your save point. You essentially get what you're looking for you force yourself to restart the battle. Why be tied to what a developer dictates as the appropriate punishment?

Quote:

HD-DVD including ´Batman Begins´, ´V for Vendetta'

Both are very nice on HD. I've not gotten T3 or the Matrix. But I'm one of the few who think the Matrix 1 sucked and didn't bother to watch the others.

@BrianK

Quote:

BrianK wrote: @Lou Quote: Oh come one... I heard you can beat the whole game with freezing an enemy and whacking it with a monkey wrench. Quoting MikeB -- keep and open mind and give it a try. Certainly on the easiest level you might beat the game as you say, likely with dying quite a few times. If that's to easy there is a difficulty setting. Now what you bring up here poses a good question for videogames. How difficult should they be and should it be impossible to beat the game? Seems you're off-set because the game is beatable and doesn't penalize you enough. Others are off-set that games are too hard and uncompleteable. You don't want to pay $60 and be able to finish a game? Okay. Other's don't want to pay $60 and be able to not finish the 2nd level. They see that as a waste of money. So the question begs does enabling the end user with difficulty settings and the ability to penalize one's self a good thing? It certainly creates flexibility. If you haven't played Ninja Gaiden do so. It's a great game and a game which best shows the idea that difficulty settings are for those with more or less skills then the average gamer. So go into the game with an open mind -- rent it for much less then buying and then if you don't like it you can feel that you wasted a couple $ vs $60. Right now this is my approach to Lair. There's enough mixed reviews that I'm going to try, via rental, before I buy.

You can't rent PC games. I won't buy a 360 for 1 game, and all the games worth playing on the 360 come to the PC anyway and usually cheaper and with more options.

Oh, HALO 3 is not reason enough...that game is too "casual" for my blood as well.
It'll be on the PC soon enough anyway.

In Metroid Prime 3, when you die, you die and load from a save point, which is always before a boss. If you die sooner, you are just bad and load from save point which are spaced out nicely enough. However, if you fall off a ledge, you are put back before the ledge with -5 energy penalty...which is not that big a penalty so it keeps some casuals happy.

Again, the problem with Bioshock is - you die, respawn and the boss still has the health depletion from the last time around. So you can keep whacking with just a wrench and eventually the boss dies because you respawn with not much less engery than your last time.

With a save point before a boss battle, you have to restart the battle and the boss and you are both at full health.

See the difference?

...

Anyway, on the HD-DVD vs. Blu Ray front, Warner Bros. is being coaxed into HD-DVD exclusivity. If Blu Ray loses Warner Bros, all the smaller studios will fold over too. Warner Bros is the #1 hi-def publisher in the business and currently supports both camps with some big older titles exclusively on HD-DVD including ´Batman Begins´, ´V for Vendetta´, ´Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines´ and ´The Matrix Trilogy´.
via: http://nintendo-revolution.blogspot.com

...

Star Trek:Conquest(Wii/PS2) looks excellent! http://www.gamesarefun.com/news.php?newsid=8322

...

Oh and it's finally nice to see Microsoft finally opening the faucet in Japan: http://www.gamesarefun.com/news.php?newsid=8326
The trickle they were letting out before clearly wasn't cutting it.

Last edited by Lou on 12-Sep-2007 at 01:33 PM.
Last edited by Lou on 12-Sep-2007 at 01:31 PM.

@Lou

Quote:

Oh come one... I heard you can beat the whole game with freezing an enemy and whacking it with a monkey wrench.

Quoting MikeB -- keep and open mind and give it a try.

Certainly on the easiest level you might beat the game as you say, likely with dying quite a few times. If that's to easy there is a difficulty setting.

Now what you bring up here poses a good question for videogames. How difficult should they be and should it be impossible to beat the game? Seems you're off-set because the game is beatable and doesn't penalize you enough. Others are off-set that games are too hard and uncompleteable. You don't want to pay $60 and be able to finish a game? Okay. Other's don't want to pay $60 and be able to not finish the 2nd level. They see that as a waste of money.

So the question begs does enabling the end user with difficulty settings and the ability to penalize one's self a good thing? It certainly creates flexibility.

If you haven't played Ninja Gaiden do so. It's a great game and a game which best shows the idea that difficulty settings are for those with more or less skills then the average gamer.

So go into the game with an open mind -- rent it for much less then buying and then if you don't like it you can feel that you wasted a couple $ vs $60. Right now this is my approach to Lair. There's enough mixed reviews that I'm going to try, via rental, before I buy.

@CodeSmith

Quote:

which means that some negative comments are expected from PS3 fanboys

Many PS3 supporters would like to see this game ported to the PS3, I signed the following petition myself some time ago:

http://www.petitiononline.com/biops3/petition.html

I am personally still opinion-less with regard to such criticism as I haven't played Bioshock yet, but the game looks promising to me. I think you may be generalizing here pointing specifically towards PS3 "fanboys". Based on a Tweakers.net poll (30k votes), about half of Dutch PS3 owners also own either a XBox 360, Wii or all three consoles.

At least it looks more like my kind of game than Gears of War, a much deeper experience. I doubt my girlfriend would like this game though.

Last edited by MikeB on 10-Sep-2007 at 08:31 PM.

@BrianK

Oh come one... I heard you can beat the whole game with freezing an enemy and whacking it with a monkey wrench.

Last edited by Lou on 11-Sep-2007 at 02:26 PM.
Last edited by Lou on 11-Sep-2007 at 02:25 PM.

@Lou

Quote:

Then there was the fact that there was no penalty for getting yourself killed. That made the game incredibly easy

You do lose health and such for getting killed so a penality but not a huge one. It's always a good question on how much penality there should be. If need more penality simply stop the game and reload one of your saved points you made a couple hours ago. Tada. The game allows you to do this and someone else might load a save point they made 2 days ago and force a major restart. Lazier people can still play the game with the minimal penality. And If the games too easy just up the difficulty rating.

See there's penality and difficulty - highly flexible ones. Make the game your own.

@CodeSmith

Quote:

CodeSmith wrote: @Lou Remember that Bioshock is a PC and 360 exclusive, which means that some negative comments are expected from PS3 fanboys. I have played the game to completion myself on the PC, and while it's not absolutely perfect it is the best game I've played in a few years. The game's just a great FPS, it reminds me of the original Half Life - great graphics and huge levels that are fun to play.

Actually it game from people who played it.
For instance, the much over-hyped "moral choices". There was no middle ground. Also, gamers felt cheated because there were no achievements for playing the "evil" role and a lame ending. It's like the developers punished you for being evil yet hype the game on the very fact that you can be.

Then there was the fact that there was no penalty for getting yourself killed. That made the game incredibly easy. I also heard that every enemy had the exact same AI.

Play the original Deus Ex, then play this. Remember, I was a fan of Bioshock until it was released and it's flaws exposed.

@MikeB

Quote:

Maybe you should keep an open mind.

My mind is open... My wallet is not. Thus, I'll spend the $3 to rent Lair and if I find it's an 8/10 then I'll buy it.

@Lou

Remember that Bioshock is a PC and 360 exclusive, which means that some negative comments are expected from PS3 fanboys. I have played the game to completion myself on the PC, and while it's not absolutely perfect it is the best game I've played in a few years. The game's just a great FPS, it reminds me of the original Half Life - great graphics and huge levels that are fun to play.

Last edited by CodeSmith on 09-Sep-2007 at 10:19 PM.

@BrianK

Quote:

Seems Sony agrees with you that reviewer's can't do their jobs.

First of all there's a great diversity amongst reviews and many people who have bought the game simply love it!

Based on user forum ratings of those who've actually bought the game on average they give the game around an 8/10. Good graphics, good sound, good story and mixed opinions regarding the controls and gameplay (about 7.5 on average).

Maybe you should keep an open mind. Just check out the Super Ruba-Dub demo available on the PSN and tell me if a score of 2.9 out of 10 from IGN is far too harsh or truly objective?

I would rate the cheap and fun Sixaxis game Super Ruba-Dub as a 7/10, not only from my personal perspective but more from a general perspective (not everyone is a FPS fan, probably most girls aren't), as for example my girlfriend loved the game and was addicted to it until I bought Super Stardust HD.