The Wiikend is here

[Nate the Great]

Gameboy Color...ah, those were the days...

Of course, I'm hardly one to speak to the point. I still play ORIGINAL Tetris, for goodness sake.

[Chancellor Valium]

And what's wrong with still playing the original Tetris, pray?

[Nate the Great]

Nothing's wrong, it's just that with no system more advanced than N64 in my possession, my opinions about modern gaming systems is more based on superficial examination than concrete experience.

[Burt]

I was reading a forum - somewhere - the other day. And, funny enough, the major opinions there seemed to be against the Wii. Was quite heated too. I can't just understand it, though. Many of the 360's owners seemed to be happy with their system, while still complementary of the Wii, but many of the PS3 people were almost fanatical about how crap the Wii is and how great the PS3 is going to be 'Next year'. Declaring that the Wii sales to be a 'fad', and that by christmas it will all be over. Also that the Wiimote was silly, and the Wii has no good games on it.
And it just makes me think, do these people deal in real logic?
I never believed the Gamecube would win the 7th war, it didn't have the power, appeal or games to do so. Not saying it was a flop - far from it. It had some amazing games, but against the Xbox and PS2.... well.... it came up short.
But the Wii... It just is amazing.
One guy on the forum (A 360 owner, no less), said about it, that maybe, it didn't have the killer hardcore games yet (I.e Gears of war, Halo?). But, he said he was at a family do, to which someone brough a Wii. And he was amazed at the intrest in it. He said that no other console had ever had so many people crowding around it before - 40 year old women, 10 year old boys, Fathers, Grandparents.... all rushing to have a go.
Yes the Wii can play like a normal console... with normal controls and games, and while it may not be as powerful as the others, I think the PS2 showed that you don't need to be the most powerful, to win.
But the 'ace' that the Wii has, is it's innovation.
I really can't see how it could fail, to be honest. if it kept going like it was now, I'm sure it would be a success, but we all know consoles do get better. The big titles are gonna start coming out. The usual ones and the new hits. But the thing I'm most excited to see, is what Nintendo are going to come up with next. What new idea. What new innovation they are gonna add to the Wii next...
Taking the DS as an example.. when it first was spoken about it sounded silly. Two screens? I must say I thought the idea was a bit stupid. But now I can't think off playing any different way. And it's hugely Sucessful. One of the most sucessful handhelds ever.
And also, there is the prospect to linking the DS to the Wii... meaning you would have not only the Wiimote to control games with movement, but touch screen input and microphone...
Summing up: I really am an all round console guy, have a PS2/Xbox - might even get a 360 soon. But really, how can people fail to be impressed by what Nintendo have achieved so far?

[Nate the Great]

I can't help but smirk at the "just wait until next year! PS3 is going to eat the Revolution for breakfast then!" mentality. I'm quite frankly curious about how many PS3 sales are driven by the desire for Blu-Ray players that can do other stuff, too. After all, I do believe that I've read that backwards compatiblity for the PS3 is actually DECREASING as newer models are chucking expensive hardware necessary for proper compatibility in leiu of software upgrades. "Just wait a few months and we'll get your compatibility back!" seems to be a common statement by Sony.

Of course, just today I was reading about how some common sentiments about the Wiimote either result in games being to easy or too hard.

The Gamecube lost the war because A. no DVD playback B. smaller disks mean less content C. people are fickle. The other day I was reading an article written by a gamer who's getting a little ticked off that so much of the nextgen games are being designed from a "let's focus on high-tech graphics instead of plot and replayability" point of view. That's one reason why the Revolution is winning. After all, it's hardly the highdef king. It's the playability, the fun factor as it were, that wins gaming wars in the end. Consider that I play Tetris and Mario 3, STILL. Why? The fun factor. You can get immersed in it. From what I've heard, the Revolution has a fun factor that PS3 can't hope to have.

[Burt]

Originally Posted by Nate the Great

Of course, just today I was reading about how some common sentiments about the Wiimote either result in games being to easy or too hard.

Pretty true... Like the resident Evil 4 Wii... Using the wiimote does make it ever so much easier...

Originally Posted by Nate the Great

That's one reason why the Revolution is winning. After all, it's hardly the highdef king. It's the playability, the fun factor as it were, that wins gaming wars in the end. Consider that I play Tetris and Mario 3, STILL. Why? The fun factor. You can get immersed in it. From what I've heard, the Revolution has a fun factor that PS3 can't hope to have.

Yeah. Nail on the head stuff there. What games do you replay again and again? Ok, things like GTA are gonna be in there somewhere, but mainly it games like Mario Kart, Smash Brothers, Multiplayer sports games... that sort of thing... Why? Because it's fun playing against other people! And something like Wii sports is great for that. It really was a genuis idea giving that game away free. Almost every people I show it to, Gamers and non Gamers alike are amazed by it, and even consider buying a Wii themselves...
To be honest when I think of the DS and the Wii, they just feel fresh to me. Exciting. Not that I don't think the PS3 and 360 haven't got their good/strong points, but, there isn't that much... new about them is there?
God Bless Nintendo.
And, if the mess this one up, I will find Mario and behead him.

[Nate the Great]

http://www.pointlesswasteoftime.com/...manifesto.html

I can't help but bring up the Gamer's Manifesto again. A good read. I especially point your attention to 2, 3, and 16.

[Chancellor Valium]

I think the thing with the PS3 can be traced right back to the days of the original PS, of which even I, a technosceptic (once I have any piece of tech/software I usually love it, but initially I almost invariably look askance at it, and umm and ahh and try to poke as many holes as possible, and complain about how it's all too complicated, or they changed things too much, and how it wasn't like this in the old days. And then 6 months later I'll dig it out and love it. The one exception was the KotOR series, which from the word "go" I thought was great. Whew, what a long bracket...), had.

Back then, quite simply, the PSX won hands down. What competition was there? The Dreamcast? Don't make me laugh. The N64? What did it have beyond Goldeneye? Sure, it had Mario; the PSX had Crash Bandicoot, which was new, shiny, and above all, self-mocking. Mario racing? PSX had enough racing to slake anyone's thirst. And it looked better, and used CDs, which was somehow cooler than those naff-looking cartridges. It was the one, and we were fiercely loyal to it. Sony had done right by us, not like the second-rate N64, or the frankly laughable Dreamcast (what happened to that thing?!).

And then there was PS2. And I thought "sod that, I'm not paying £250 bloody quid for that. And the consoles passed me by. It didn't for others though, and sure, Sony had cut a few corners, so what? It was still a decent console, even if most of the really great games were just continuations of PSX games.

And now there's PS£, and it's a double-dealing, dirty-fighting fraud. But it's theirs, and theirs that loyalty, all the way back from then, and the memories.

That's what I think, anyway.

And also, Nintendo games are frankly, bloody annoying. Always have been. Always just too difficult, just beyond the point of being challenging. And repetitive, and tended, at least in the old days (by which I mean, Game Boy/GBC/NES/SNES/N64), to have the most annoying soundtracks possible.

If you want to know what I mean, play Super Mario Land 2. It would drive anyone mad, it really, really would.

[Nate the Great]

Well, I always thought N64 had Mario 64, Goldeneye, Smash Brothers, and Ocarina of Time. At least four killer apps.

People keep bashing game cartridges, and I don't know why.

1. You can save game data right on the thing.
2. More durable than discs. Casual use won't hurt them, an accidental drop won't ruin them.
3. No loading times! Once again, the Gamer's Manifesto.
4. Hacking into them with Game Sharks or whatever is A LOT easier.

As for old school soundtracks: they're awesome. I direct you to Overclocked Remix (ocremix.org).

[Burt]

Originally Posted by Nate the Great

http://www.pointlesswasteoftime.com/...manifesto.html

I can't help but bring up the Gamer's Manifesto again. A good read. I especially point your attention to 2, 3, and 16.

Bloody funny stuff! I've read the whole site. Thanks for that, I needed something to do for a bit!
But it is all true. Most of the crap in games is just lazyness on the makers part...

[Nate the Great]

Well, no prob.

[Chancellor Valium]

Originally Posted by Nate the Great

Well, I always thought N64 had Mario 64, Goldeneye, Smash Brothers, and Ocarina of Time. At least four killer apps.

People keep bashing game cartridges, and I don't know why.

1. You can save game data right on the thing.
2. More durable than discs. Casual use won't hurt them, an accidental drop won't ruin them.
3. No loading times! Once again, the Gamer's Manifesto.
4. Hacking into them with Game Sharks or whatever is A LOT easier.

Yes, but discs are shinier.

Originally Posted by Nate

As for old school soundtracks: they're awesome. I direct you to Overclocked Remix (ocremix.org).

Not SML2, to take an example.

[Burt]

Originally Posted by Chancellor Valium

Yes, but discs are shinier.

And round.

[Chancellor Valium]

And round, yes. Shiny and round. Round and shiny. Not grey and square.

[Nate the Great]

Could we stop impersonating The Tick please?

[NAHTMMM]

Originally Posted by Nate the Great

As for old school soundtracks: they're awesome.

No kidding! And thanks for the link to that "Manifesto".

[Nate the Great]

No prob.

[PointyHairedJedi]

It's somewhat sad to say, but I seem to have mostly lost my appetite for console gaming of any sort these days. I still give Gran Turismo 4 a whirl now and then, and even more occasionally I shoot stuff up in one of the GTA titles, but that's about it. What I have been playing is Civ 3 with occasional bouts of SimCity 3000 and OpenTTD in between, and hankering mightily for Theme Hospital, which hopefully I will be reunited with before the year is out.

I'd whole-heartedly agree that there's too much emphasis on shinyness these days - I recently bought Warhammer 40000: Dawn of War, which looks superb, and was fun for a little while, but has become just a tad repetitive. Sticking good graphics on top of a fun game is grand (witness Startopia), but almost nobody does, which is... depressing.

[Nate the Great]

Oh, I know how you feel. These days I have the following games on sort of perpetual backburners:

Majora's Mask
Mario Advance 4
Goldeneye
SimTower
King's Quest 8

[Chancellor Valium]

For me at present it's just Age of Empires: The Rise of Rome, and DEFCON (thermonuclear war, yay!).