System Price

Nintendo announced that their new console would launch at the price of $250 with one one Wii remote, one nunchuck attachment, and Wii Sports. When compared to other “next gen” console prices this sounds like a great deal. But factor in that this is just slighter better than a Gamecube that is currently selling for < $100 I don’t think its such a great price.

Controllers

I thought that Xbox 360 controller were pricey. In order to control a game like Metroid you will need a Wii remote and a nunchuck attachment. These are sold serperately at $40 and $20. $60 total for a stinking controller. The whole point of the system if you ask Nintendo is to get people playing together, but in order to do it you have to drop an arm and a leg.

Game Prices

Games are shipping at $50 each from Nintendo. Considering all they can use the same game engines from the Gamecube this seems like a lot to me. If they really wanted to set themselves apart they would have priced them at $40.

My Launch Day

• Nintendo Wii, $250
• Wii remote, $40
• The Legend of Zelda, $50
• Metroid, $50
• Cable for my HDTV?
• Other games?
• Virtual console games?

When looking at the other “next gen” consoles, Nintendo has the weakest hardware but are making a lot of the same mistakes with pricing. $60 for a complete controller is the worst of them all.

Looking at it now, it doesn’t seem as outrageous as I make it out to be. I would just rather be smiling rather than cringing when I fork over my credit card in November.

Project Gotham Racing 3 received a new update over Xbox Live recently and one new feature added that I really like is the ability to turn off the hud completely. If your driving from the cockpit that means all you will see is the dashboard and road ahead of you. The trouble is, you can’t toggle it in game. The option to shut it off is in the game prefs. So if you need to know what lap it is, or what place your in, your screwed.

Good game to the developers for adding a feature a lot of us wished for though, they didn’t have to.

IGN XBOX 360 has an article which talks about the upcoming Ghost Recon Advanced War Fighter. The game’s designers seem to have put a lot of thought into the game, and what would make it a next gen title. They address one of my main complaints about a lot of games recently, and thats loading screens. They have taken out the loading screens and the concept of levels and thrown it away in favor of a more immersive experience. Each mission is linked together by a helicoptor moving you and your squadmates to a new locale, and a new mission. You are never pulled from the game experience to load a new level! Something I wish Call of Duty 2 would have done better.

Since finding my Xbox 360 I have been playing a lot of games. Never before (since the RTCW incident) have I been so into gaming, I blame achievements and gamerscore for that. But is the system truely next gen? I am going to review some of the games that I have been playing and compare them to the current gen games.

Project Gotham Racing

Let me preface this review by saying that I have never before been so into a racing game, other than Mario Kart that is. Since buying Project Gotham Racing 2 to hold me over until I bought a 360 I have been truely hooked. That said the jump between the two versions, outside of graphic presentation, is not that big.

What’s next gen about it?

• Graphics and presentation
• In dash view renders each car’s interior for a really immersive experience
• Even better Live! integration
• Gotham TV
• Achievements

What’s not so next gen?

• No force feedback steering wheel
• Load times are terrible and really take away from the entire experience. You even have to wait for the menu to load after finishing a race.
• No significance to leveling up. I would like to see a training mode that is required for online play, something where you qualify for each level of racing by learning how to drive properly.
• Create a course tracks are hard to race, the turns are marked with faded back markers that are difficult to see. Why are these courses not uploadable and ratable on Live?

Besides the graphics there is nothing in the game that they couldn’t or haven’t already done on the Xbox.

PGR3 is a really great game and I can not wait to see what they can do with the next version when they have more time to develop it for the 360 hardware.

According to Gamespot Half-Life 2 will be released in a series of Episodes from now on, presumably in the same fashion as the soon to be released Sin Episodes. I am really excited about this, it will mean more great gaming, more often. The Source engine is able to be updated with new features all the time, so the experience will always be fresh.

My only hope is they manage to keep the cost of the episodes at a reasonable level, $20 for 10 hours of gameplay is probably the price point I would be willing to keep paying.

I recently went into Kmart, a store I really dislike, to buy some Nyquil for my ongoing congestion and coughing. While there I decided to go back to the electronics section “just to see.” As I walked through the sloppy game section, seeing games and consoles tossed every which way on the shelves, the likelyhood of me finding a 360 here seemed nill. When there it was, a 360 sitting on the shelf alone! I quickly purchased the system, along with my Nyquil and went to the Gamestop in the same shopping plaza to buy PGR3, since Kmart didn’t have any 360 games.

Since then Glen, and my co-worker Tom found their own 360s and purchased Live accounts.

I have been playing a ton of PGR3, Hexic, Marble Blast Ultra and just bought Condemed this weekend. My initial thoughts on the system is simply awesome. This is one of the most complete gaming experiences you can find. From buying arcade games, downloading trailers and demos at the Marketplace. to hosting private chats, seeing what your friends are playing and leaderboards for every game you play. Even the simple Live Arcade game Hexic has a leaderboard.

You can plug in your media player of choice and access all your music from anywhere in the system. Network your PC and do the same. You can even use a photo from your PC as your background for the Xbox dashboard. Its all very good and was well worth the steep price tag of $399. Now if they can just get the price of 3d party games in line I will be one happy gamer.

Are you playing on Live? Leave your gamertag!

I finished F.E.A.R. a couple of months ago and have had this review in the queue since then. I really want to play it again, but I am afraid of how it will perform on my Radeon 9800 and brand new Dell 20.1 widescreen monitor.

Positives

• Great enemy artificial intelligence, the enemy ai in F.E.A.R. was probably the best in any PC FPS I have played. The enemies continually surprised me by flanking, hiding, retreating and owning me when appropriate.
• Great story, and a great payoff at the end. The story is told through phone messages, downloaded PC information and telekenetic flashbacks and all comes together in the end. There was a point where I started to doubt the game, but the end became one of the best single player experiences I have ever had. Wow.
• Good looking engine, lighting, debris from gun shots.
• Animation, and location based injuries from gun shots.
• Awesome melee attacks.

Negatives

• You are always on your own, your teammates appear for a story break, but then you are usually off on your own again.
• Big time system requirements.
• The automatic guns didn’t feel too much different from one another, and didn’t have a single shot setting.
• What you do leading up to the ending made no sense, I was just pushing buttons, and pulling levers because they were there.

Quake 4 is a far better game than I was expecting. Leading up to it’s release there was some buzz, but most of it was underwelming, “Just another Doom” or “It it’s nothing we haven’t seen before.” While, those complaints aren’t completely untrue, I think they are a little unfair.

Quake 4 feels a lot like Halo and Halo 2. You are put into the middle of a war and are given a series of orders that guide you through the game. Sometimes you have squad mates, sometimes you don’t. The game, as far as that goes, is executed really well. Although the level design is very linear, your orders are always clear, and the feeling that you are in the middle of a huge battle is never lost.

The only real letdown was there really wasn’t anything new. I wish they would have went farther with the fast paced, arcade feel and gave you some new abilities. Let me kick and punch enemies up close, or jump off high platforms. Carrying two weapons would have been great, and letting me choose my own path rather than forcing me through a certain door because the others are locked would have been even better.

Another thing that dissapointed me (spoiler alert) was that once you a turned half Strogg, your character felt no different. You are half mech and have nothing to show for it. How cool would it have been to have terminator like sight, or maybe be able to jump higher, or even have faster reflexes.

Positives

• Great lighting and atmosphere
• Entertaining
• Clear objectives
• Good, simple story

Negatives

• Level design is what guides you, not the player
• Nothing new
• No special abilities after turning half Strogg

Final Thoughts

I have a feeling that if the developer Raven would have changed anything from the Quake style of gameplay there would have been just as much complaining. Quake 4 is an old school shooter with a number of memorable moments and solid gameplay.

Quake 4 gets 4/5 stars.

Hospital: Google print hurts kids!

I am still amazed that a lot of people actually think that Google Print exists to pirate books, when in fact book sales should jump because of it. Even more amazing is that the hopital’s spokesperson hasn’t even seen Google Print yet, but still feels the need to speak out against it.

Another good article about Google Print “Google is right, and the publishers have no argument. What’s their argument that this harms the value of their books? They don’t have one. Google helps you find books, and if you want to read it, you have to buy the book. How can that hurt them?”

Wooden PC Cases

Saw these on Engadget, I think they look pretty cool, but are probably pretty expensive, nor am I sure how well they would deal with heat.

Quake 4 QuickTime VR

These QTVR movies show off the game’s environments nicely. I just started playing Q4 and I am pretty surprised it hasn’t had more exciting press. It is a really fun game, a lot like Halo where you have mission objectives and a squad to work with. But here the objectives are clear, and you know what to do next. I wish they would release a demo so others could see how fun it really is.

Found at Boing Boing Read a review of Quake 4