Cunbelin

Probably not worth posting at this point but oh well. The reality is the issue of loading times is far more complex that simply read times. You have to consider seek time, transfer time, transfer space. Probably what is going to most effect loading times are the size of the assets loaded. For each new type of texture, each increase in image size the amount of data needed increases.

A good measure for loading times would be the time it takes to transfer data from the disc to completely fill the memory of each console. This said I'd be willing to bet that loading times will be required to be under a minute for all consoles.

I'm glad we've hit some common ground in that. I think what you do have to consider with games though is that you are very restricted in what you can do, it's often much easier to play up cliches and stereotypes because the players often play into them.

How do you write a protaganist whose actions you can't control ? Is the job of the designer to tell their story, or tell the player's story ? Is the Sims less story driven because it doesn't have the narrative hand of a designer ? How about Civilization ? Do the design aspects themselves tell part of the story ? A tech tree in an RTS or Strategy game acts as a reference point, but it also adds context and narrative to the game.

I think that you've really hit on it though Games are in their infancy, there is much in particular about storytelling in games that is unexplored. It's a medium still struggling to find it's voice while at the same time is becoming very mainstream. I think in recent years in particular there was a strong movement away from the idea of interactive fiction, with the decline of the adventure genre, and the blind push for gameplay over all else.

I think this is really being taken too seriously, it isn't oh Sony's got us over the barrel again! more like, wow the PS3 price is shitty, and wouldn't you figure, it costs more to use some of it's touted features! If there was one version of the PS3 it probably wouldn't matter, but there are two versions, and the one feature that can't be upgraded on the low end one, needs an upgrade even on the high end PS3. It isn't some earthshattering piece of news, it's just disappointing.

I think modern media in general has bad storylines, it's hardly limited to video games, so really I think you're trying to address a general crisis of creativity in society, not something unique to video games.

Don't take this personally Brad, but you berate cliches in video games and then hold up 24 as a deep storyline ? I enjoy 24 as much as the next guy, but it's narrative is pretty damned cliche, I will give it that it has compelling characters though often they fall into cliches as well.

I think it's a mistake to try to apply other art forms to games. Not that they don't influence games, and they certainly are wound into games. The requirements of creating a fully realized environment, where interactivity must happen is something wholely different from most other mediums. Is the story of games told with a narrative ? Is it told by the world ? Is it told by the player themselves ? Is it told by the characters around you ? Does the gameplay tell the story ? I have to wonder with the medium so often under the player's control is it really the game makers who have failed the story or the game players who have ?

Ah well, I'll just have to disagree there are good game stories out there, developers definitely do draw from a wide range of media outside of games. Perhaps this is a backlash against the incessant "gameplay is the only thing that matters" movements that have been prevalent for the last couple of years. I wonder would a switch from that adage be the start of a new artistic movement in games ?

There is more than enough stupid to go around here, yes this is a bit of a knee jerk reaction, and yes the straw that broke the camel's back was probably the exposed breast texture that is included in the game. The fact that despite the recent Hot cofee incident (by the same publisher no less) the developers still left content that might change the rating, and did not report it in their submission paperwork is ridiculous.

I do happen to agree that Oblivion should be M rated, breast textures or no, but it is troubling that the ESRB is willing to reclassify a game already released. It looks bad for the industry, and it looks bad for the ESRB. So much for Oblivion pulling Take2 out of the hole San Andreas dug.

May I present an alternative argument for the "bad publicity" issue. Message boards lit up with the mere mention of a possible Halo 3 video at the MS keynote, this close to E3, Iwata could have announced that he had nothing to announce and there would have been coverage out the wazoo. It really didn't matter what they called it, there was going to be massive coverage of it, and with the possible exception of calling it the Revolution there was going to be a bunch of discussion about it.

Further if they really wanted to stir up controversy why not call it the Analrapist, or something that would even grab mainstream attention. Bottom line, the name is the name, there is no ulterior motive, I'd guess it was announced early for exactly the reason that has been implied, to give PR time in the clear to fight the fires, and spin it how they want before the rush of E3 takes all the attention away from the name.

I do have to admit I like the fact that even it's detractors will use it's name, I mean there is no lamecube equivalent for Wii, you can't even add a $ to it.

Well it works on so many levels:

How much of the market share will Nintendo own ? Oh that Wii bit over there

Where is the console? It's that Wii little one over there

How does it connect to the internet? on WiiFii

How much does a second controller cost? A Wii bit.

To be fair I'm still buying a Wii, and at least now there is no way anybody could come up with a better name to mock the system than what Nintendo has already given it.

Cost wise it's actually not that bad, I don't have hard numbers on x1600 vs 7900 GS but the Dell XPS just announced goes for $3,100 with the 2.16Ghz Duo. The only two weak points are 2GB limit on RAM and a good but not killer graphics card. If I were looking for a gaming laptop I'd definitely consider this, especially if you are a windows user curious about the OS X experience.