News From Bitopia 09.14.06
Posted by Caleb Newby on 09.14.2006
More Sony controversy, PS3 game prices, and why you will never have to turn off your Wii. Somehow that sounds dirty and it wasn't even supposed to.
Welcome back.
So I lost against Cook in the 411 staff fantasy football league in a game that I thought I was going to have. I really wanted to win and claim superiority for Thursday news reports, but alas, it was not meant to be. I mean, get this. My highest point scorers were my defense, tight end, and kicker. My 3 receivers scored a total of 0 points. But the real dagger was he had Baltimore's D that week. How am I supposed to stop that, honestly?
Second order of business, as many of you know (I hope) I also write for the Sports Zone on Mixed Martial Arts. If any of you are wondering where I have been, well, I've been busy and haven't been able to get into that as much as I'd like lately. And I thought we'd have a feature up by now I've been trying to coordinate for MMA, but that's taken longer than anticipated. All that's to say that I hope to be back next week with The Tap-Out, but you are in more than capable hands with The Throwdown. That is of course assuming that you gamers here care about MMA. But you should. The recent event in Japan was amazing.
Ok, on to the news!
The News
Your weekly Sony update
Incase you haven't seen this report from Sony's president yet, he basically stated that things aren't looking as well as hoped for the company. Not really a big shock, but it's sort of nice to see them acknowledge that even to a small degree.
I feel like we've all been really hard on Sony lately and while it's not without reason, it's not out of unabated hatred. It just sucks to see the choices they've made lately that disagree with a large (or at least vocal) number of consumers, the price point of the PS3 being chief among them. I hope for their and our sake that Sony is currently reanalyzing their strategy and come up with a different and better game plan that makes us all happy.
PS3 games will cost… Credit: Gamespot
Activision CEO Robert Kotick stated they would be selling PS3 games at the $60 price point, citing the increased cost to produce next-gen games, with Spiderman 3's $35 million cost to develop being the best example. Notable is that the Wii is not included in the $60 per game pricing, another potential feather in Nintendo's cap.
While it isn't cool to have to spend more money, it's hard to argue with the logic of the increased cost per title. When you see all of the extra bells and whistles we expect from our games compared to even 5 years ago it is bound to take more resources to produce. But in turn we as gamers should expect to see the quality reflected in the hike. It is a two way street after all.
I think Guitar Hero has been running for a week straight in my living room Credit: Gamespot
Says Nintendo R&D member Kou Shiota when speaking on the Wii's technology and chip design:
"We have utilized the technology in this way so that we could minimize the power consumption of Wii. If the chip becomes smaller, we can make the size of the console smaller. With a smaller chip and minimized power consumption, Wii can be left on 24 hours a day.
Once the concept of Wii as 'a console where something new happens every day' became clear, we were certain that we had made the right choice. This concept is made possible by the fact that Wii can stay on for 24 hours a day."
HUH. Well… got to be honest here. My headline for this news bite wasn't really a joke… I think Guitar Hero has been left on my PS2 for about a week now, give or take 3 days. On the plus side I can do something similar with the Wii apparently and feel guilt free about it.
What looks good this week?
Harvest Moon DS! Come on. You farm. In a game. One of my best friends is a farmer, so trust me, it's a lot easier on Harvest Moon than in real life. But are the rewards the same? Well, that's all up to you now, isn't it?
Think about that one for a minute.
Links, with a twist!
So instead of the same old same old links here, I am going to try something new. Don't expect this every week, but perhaps we'll go back to it from time to time.
What's going to happen here is with the link, I am going to respond to their article along the lines of sending them feedback ala reader mail. So the key here is for you to read their stuff first before you get to my comments or this won't work out in the least. So help me out here, help them out by checking their articles out, and let's all be friends.
I love RPGs and they are one of the dearest forms of games to me. At times I'm just not in the mood for them and prefer the fast paced world of FPS or something of that ilk. But overall, RPGs are where I can waist away the most hours blissfully compared to any other game genre.
So Jordan decides to overrate one of my favorite games of all time, and one of the most influential I've ever played… FFVII. How do you think that makes me feel?
Actually, I am just fine with it. The reason being is that Jordan does admit that for the time it was a great game and did revolutionize the way RPGs were done (granted that is not necessarily a good thing). While I love the memories of FFVII, when I have seen it played in the past couple years (and make no mistake, people still play it), it seems as though time has not been kind to ol' Cloud N' Friends. It was a real catalyst that pushed the RPG genre along by allowing the player to become emotionally attached to the characters in a way never seen before in large part to the CGI and musical capabilities of the PS1. The Aries death scene was touching for the shock of it, but also because of the music and animation to go with it.
A few additional side comments, I am very glad for the words said on behalf of FFI, while I am wondering where the love for Suikoden was. I also hope Jordan doesn't hate me for mentioning that FFVII was his overrated, but in his own words, everyone saw it coming. Besides, if you are reading this, you've already read his article… RIGHT?! And if you don't click it, you won't know the underrated game. You know you want to.
Very interesting article. I started playing on one years ago for Neverwinter Nights. Here's the thing. They aren't as weird as it may sound, but there are some people that definitely fit the bill. Once I became on of the DMs on the server I ran into all sorts of things. People cybering "in character" was one of the more disturbing things I've run across. But Will has got it right when he breaks down the types of people you will find on there. With my experiences helping run a NWN server I could have been interviewed as an expert on the subject. Half the people are whacko and the other half are normal folk. It's not that hard to tell them apart either.
It's Metal Gear, what more do I need to say? This is one of the best games EVER to hang out with your friends and watch/play together. Who cares if it is single player? The story is always interesting, and the action fun. I'll never forget when my friend Nate got the demo for MGS II. He loaded it up in one of the end lounges at college. Pretty soon we had a crowd yelling at us (him) to shoot guys in the crotch or take their body and "Put them in the Walls of Jericho!"
Those were great times indeed. Sad thing is I can never remember the story from one game to the next so I have to keep asking fellow 411er Andrew Mellick to remind me how it goes.
Lucas won on Rockstar: Supernova?! Color me surprised. And on top of that, because of a lawsuit they can't call themselves Supernova anymore? That is hilarious. Shoulda looked into that copyright a little closer I guess.
Stay tuned throughout the day as I have a feeling we'll be getting some news on the Wii very shortly…
