Console development is slowing gaming down. This counts the Wii U too, guys.
I guess I'm known as the "Nintendo Hater" in the forums I frequent (even though I don’t) so I'll express my worries with the Wii U.
I just worry that they're going to go the same route they did with the Wii ... "charge a shitload of money for old hardware because people will spend it" ... the original Wii's capabilities are running off moderately upgraded Gamecube hardware from years before. That's why they were making a killing off of each console that was sold instead of the traditional method of losing money on the console and making it back through the games.
I don't think the Wii U is going to be a slightly upgraded Wii by any means ... but from the looks of the specs so far it's only marginally more powerful than what's already been out for 5 years or more. Good money making strategy yeah, bad for gaming though as it doesn't let it evolve by leaps and bounds as far as technical presentation like it used to.
A multi-core IBM processor (probably a triple core) and a custom ATI Radeon HD that's more than likely going to be running off of the R700 chipset. The same chipset that's been in use by low end PCs and notebooks for quite a while now (though as I've always said, when you code a game for ONE specific piece of hardware you can get a hell of a lot out of it instead of having to code worry about different specs and hardware like on the PC).
And the thing isn't due out for another YEAR ... it's going to be even MORE out of date by then. Things COULD change by that time, and I hope the full official specs hit sometime soon. But I have a feeling it's just going to slow gaming down even more since developers mostly aren't concerned with developing for the immensely more powerful PC platform anymore where they can GET that "leaps and bounds" jump gaming REALLY needs right now.
Developers are mostly console-centric nowadays, and they’re going to be developing on hardware that isn’t much different than what’s already out there. They’ll of course be able to squeeze a bit more out of a more powerful console. But for the most part, gaming has slowed from a headlong run to more of a fast walk that stumbles every now and then.
Call of Duty has been running off of an identical engine for YEARS now, and doesn’t show any sign of evolving since they have no reason to make a DRASTIC change since people will buy it every year. They could easily STILL release that game in a slightly lowered down form for the Playstation 2. Those sports games you buy every year? Basically the same thing. Little upgrades here and there. Killzone 2 to Killzone 3 (my favorite game of this generation for multiplayer so far) … definitely a jump, but not that much. And those are just a few examples.
1981 to 1991 saw HUGE advancements thanks to the arcades and their immense capabilities compared to computers of the time and home consoles. 1991 to 2001 also saw MONSTROUS advancements both the arcade and home arena ... but mostly in the PC realm. 2001 to 2010 ... it started slowing down. At the start, if you REALLY wanted to seriously game you had a PC. Console development got more and more popular and the games just haven't shown all that much of an advancement (for the most part). Games nowadays just haven't made that huge jump like they used to. Oh, they look absolutely gorgeous, and there are quite a few standout titles. But nothing much different than what we’ve been playing for years. The only attempt at hardware innovation anymore are different types of control methods instead of focusing on the capabilities of the console itself.
I’m definitely not saying don’t go out and buy the Wii U if you’re interested in it, by all means go for it. Good games are good games. Nintendo has a long running history though, and this console doesn’t look like it’s going to be the jump gaming desperately needs. It’s shaping up to be more of a small leap. Keep buying your Call of Duty games, and let them make you buy needless upgrades for your PC because they refuse to optimize their games. So the PC guys who spent an armload of money on their new PCs to run this and that game that comes out for it nowadays, it’s because most of the developers out there are only optimizing their games to run on 5 and 6 year old (or more. How long was the gap between the showing off and release of the 360 and PS3?) hardware.
A typical gaming PC now has at LEAST 10x the power of any home console out. Yes, the games look and perform better … but do they look and perform THAT MUCH better? Think about that one.
Perfect Dark … would you believe it came out May 22nd, 2000.
I didn't even know about any of this. I knew the game came out in 2000, but I didn't know it was this soon. And with all the rapture nonsense going on today, this historic game is unfortunately lost to a lot of people. So rather than lament about the game that I didn't play all that often back in the day (sorry console kids, I was too heavily invested in playing games on the PC and emulation at the time) I'll leave those memories up to you. And no, that awkward Xbox 360 outing doesn't count. The version of Joanna Dark ... while impressive ... doesn't match up to the original.
And another thing, apparently the model Michele Merkin portrayed her at one point. I would've voted for Milla Joovovich personally because this Michele woman doesn't quite cut it for me. But there's a few Maxim shots of her in here because she's still damned impressive. Hell, she even got a spot in the Retro Gaming Roundup show as one of the Top 10 Hottest Video Game Babes for this month.
For those of you who for whatever reason haven't played this excellent shooter, it can be found on the Xbox Live Arcade for a small price. And if you want it to look like the Nintendo 64 version is fairly easy. Just get out your old composite cables that came with your system, hook it up THAT way ... then spit on your screen and smear it around. Unfortunately, due to the fact that this game pushed the Nintendo 64 WELL beyond it's limits, there's not a whole lot you can do to cut the frame rate by 1/3.
And be sure to play it multiplayer as well, because that's where it really shines.
And if you're worried about the rapture, don't worry. It's not going to happen. Hit the jump for a smattering of pictures that I find interesting regarding this kick-ass female video game lead.
The Legend of Zelda : Ocarina of Time Soundtrack released.
Yeah, yeah I know you wanna do it. There are enough Zelda fans out there for this kind of thing. I can honestly say that I have never finished a Zelda game in my life. Although Ocarina of Time is the one that I got the furthest in ... which isn't saying much. But you can download it right here either individually or as one big pack.
Oh what I would’ve given to be at this particular CES.
Hell yeah.
1UP had a little article a while back about "E3" from 20 years ago (when games were shown off at CES). Aw man, this was during the day when the original Nintendo was in power and the Sega Genesis had only been around a short time. If only I could travel back in time, because to me this was when gaming REALLY started to get interesting with the introduction of the Genesis. Still to this day my favorite console. Click right here to see the article in all it's glory. Thanks to Windows Gamer.
Do you ever wonder what you may have missed in the previous generation of consoles?
I always wonder that … so I’ve been on a Playstation 2 kick lately. It WOULD be the Xbox … except mine isn’t so much an Xbox anymore so much as it is an emulation/homebrew machine. And add on to the fact that damn DVD tray won’t open anymore for some reason. Yeah yeah, I know that’s easily fixed but I’m just too lazy to do it. The damn thing is basically an underpowered PC in a big, ugly, heavy black box anyway. And the Gamecube … honestly those games are a bit harder to get than PS2 games in my area, so I’m also going to leave that out. I’m just speaking me personally here, but you can say the same thing about any of the previous generation systems really. Just with the Gamecube being a somewhat smaller one because not everything came out for that for some reason.
Hardware Review – Senario 101 Games in 1
I don’t do a lot of hardware reviews, mostly because I don’t get that much in the way of hardware. But this one is kind of neat and has a bit of history behind it. This is one of those NES pirate deals where they just stick a whole bunch of early NES games onto a ROM, build a controller around it and sell it. The deal with this one is, it was available at Wallgreens for $9.99. Of course, I didn’t know about it until WELL after the fact, so I didn’t get to snag one when they actually had them in stock, because I get a LOT of these TV plug and play games. I probably own around 20 of them. The idea behind them is really cool, just stick some batteries in, hook it up to your TV’s audio/video ports, turn it on and go. And for most, like the ones based off the Sega Genesis, Intellivision, Commodore 64 and Atari 2600 (among others) they’re pretty cool. Even though a lot of them use the NES on a chip like this one does which results in merely PORTS of the games. With the exception being the Sega Genesis based ones and the Atari Flashback 2 (which I unfortunately don’t have). But this isn’t about those. This is about this company that shamelessly removed the copyright information off of a bunch of very early Nintendo 8 bit games and selling it. And throwing in a couple of public domain games just to fill in the hole.
5 minutes with Dizzy : The Adventurer for the NES
Terrible, terrible game. I actually feel like less of a person for having played it. The way I am with older games like this is that if I can't get into it within a couple of minutes, I generally won't. And this game failed on almost every front as soon as I started playing it.
Double Dribble Fastbreak hits the iPhone and iPod Touch
Now, I'm not into sports games, I tend to play them VERY casually. I play the occasional baseball game, I play Tiger Woods PGA Tour (yeah yeah yeah. Take his name off it and it's still a great playing golf game) ... but I don't delve too much into the basketball games anymore. The last time I really played one ... I used to play NBA Jam : Tournament Edition on the Sega Genesis back in the day. And I still pop it in from time to time now.
My first start with a basketball game was Basketball for the Atari 2600 when I was about 6 or 7. And I didn't play it for more than a few minutes at best. But then we got an NES and one of the games that we got with it was Double Dribble. And I found out I really like that game. It's a basic, bare bones 5 on 5 basketball game which was GREAT for the era. And is still a hell of a lot of fun to play.
Super Mario Bros on an 8×8 RGB LED
It's still in the extremely early stages, but I'm definitely interested in seeing how this goes. And hopefully once it gets a little further along the guy releases the code for the game itself, because this looks like it'd be pretty fuckin' cool. You can check out the rest of the article right here.
But yeah, I would definitely be into trying to build something like this, though I would have to get someone else to do the soldering because I can't keep my hands steady enough to reliably do it myself. Either way, pretty cool stuff and I can't wait to see how it turns out.
It looks like one of those old school LED handheld games, only on a hell of a lot of steroids. That reminds me, I've gotta get some of those. I remember loving them when I was a kid. Either way, check out the video.
A new NBA Jam game coming to the Wii has me a little worried.
See that screenshot there? Those are my memories of NBA Jam … just insanely fast paced 2 on 2 basketball that I would play the shit out of in the arcade. Sometime this year there’s going to be one coming to the Wii. As one may fear, it supports motion control. But from what I read on Kotaku, you can also turn the remote sideways and just use the directional pad and use it as … well … a real controller.
I don’t play many sports games, after a 20 year hiatus I finally picked up a baseball game (The Bigs for the PS2 and The Bigs 2 for the 360 if you’re wondering). But I do like to play the arcadey titles. And NBA Jam definitely fits into that. I STILL own both the original and Tournament Edition for the Sega Genesis, and I still pop them in from time to time to see those tiny, grainy graphics and muffled grainy voices. But since Tournament Edition, the series hasn’t just gone down hill … it’s plummeted face first into a bed of spikes.