So while Friday's update was supposed to be not much more than a collection of random bits, it was in fact supposed to be posted on Friday. That, obviously, did not happen. As such, I'm going to do Friday's post tonight and the post I had planned for tonight tomorrow. Here we go.
I ordered a Dual Shock 3 controller, and was surprised to see that it did not come with a charge cable. The only controller on the market that comes with a rechargeable battery as the standard, does not also come with a charging cable for it. So, in theory, you could have 4 controllers and only 1 charge cable between them. Now, granted, its not a proprietary wire by any stretch of the imagination, and it isn't even like Sony sells a PS3 brand of said cable, it just seems stupid to NOT have included something that basic.
Is anyone else kinda not that excited by the rest of the year's gaming lineup? Nintendo supposedly has some awesome stuff, and there will be a few standout titles (GTAIV, MGS4, etc.) but by and large, there isn't much announced that actually impresses me. Home and LittleBigPlanet are really cool concepts, but not all concepts hold up. Gran Turismo is, in my opinion, going to be overhyped and underperform. Which leaves us with...well, not much. Most of the established franchises have already been released (Devil May Cry, Mario Galaxy), so its a lot of unknowns. Mirror's Edge is a game I have some cautious optimism about, but I'm really not looking forward to much at this point. But, who knows by the time E3 rolls around?
I was talking to a friend earlier, someone who is a hard core gamer, and he said flat out that even if he had the resources for it, he wouldn't be interested in picking up all of the next-gen systems (and all appropriate games that he was interested in), because he felt it would be just too much wasted time. He already feels that he has to occasionally rush through games, and only gives the true AAA titles the full time they deserve. The truth of the matter is, the way the market is set up, we do end up getting rushes of titles at various points and a total lull at other points. Nintendo seems to be trying to combat this (or at least not cannibalize their own sales), by spreading out the releases of Galaxy, Brawl, Wii Fit and Mario Kart over a number of months. But with the number of companies that exist as is, it'd be impossible to really keep the spread fair over the whole industry. Especially when you consider that, for the most part, a game's sales window is about a MONTH from release at most, and then it'll be just consuming pricy shelf space or occupying bargain bins, no matter how good it is.
I'm pretty sure its safe to say the Wii is never going to be a 3rd party system. The ONE title that has really sold well on the Wii is Resident Evil 4, not even a new title. Sure, other games have cracked the 1 mil mark, but by and large, the Wii is going to be Nintendo's vehicle to move Nintendo products. Remember when we all laughed when Nintendo said they weren't competing with Sony and Microsoft? They aren't. They haven't been for some time. And bottom line, they won't ever be.
Denis Dyack continues to call for a one hardware system model. It makes things easier for developers, ESPECIALLY smaller ones like him. Personally, I don't see anything wrong with a one system business model (kind of like how PC hardware is so diverse and can mostly play the same titles), but Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo are in this thing to make money, so unless they're going to charge enough to pay them all what they deem a fair share (judging by this generation's hardware prices, that comes out to $1031.97 plus tax, more if you combine the value of the systems at their respective launch prices and/or premium model costs). Since that would come out to enough to build a gaming class PC, this doesn't seem like a reality anytime soon.
I was wondering about this earlier this weekend; do people actually go by review scores as a guide, live and die by them, or just ignore them? And if you actually use them, do you have a favorite reviewer, a favorite website, or even someone you particularly despise? Personally, I like the coverage IGN has, which is part of why I pay for access to their premium content. I also like their staff, even if I don't always agree with them. I feel they sometimes get nitpicky, which is ironic considering most people accuse them of inflating scores. I don't usually have a PROBLEM with the scores they give, I just may disagree. But then again, by the time a game comes out, they've had a lot more time with it than I have (many hours versus none), so they're probably in better positions to offer perspective on the whole thing.
So yeah, this is what happens when there's no major gaming news. See y'all tomorrow.
-T.T.
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