Zack From CS

My wish is to see Iwata and Kaz Hirai on stage in the middle of announcing a new joint project when Bill Gates runs out and clocks them both with a steel chair. Gates gloats a bit while the collected journalists boo. Then the little "Sega" soundbite plays and Yu Suzuki and Yuji Naka run out and start beating on Gates . Finally the 4 reps from Sony, Nintendo, and Sega raise arms on the stage and announce a new super console.

Oh, and all the while Jim Ross is in the audience screaming "STONE COLD! STONE COLD!"

360 version.

Gotta be Comfortably Numb.

As long as I don't have to pay for any of them I'll keep grumbling along.

My 360 died...again...for the 5th time...23 days after I got it back from the last repair.

Two words: Oblivion, dipshits.

I got a free DS travel case when I bought mine. The little cartridge cases that came with hold 4 games each and are very travel friendly.

I was plesantly surprised to see all the Dreamcast games Amazon had, until I saw the price for Fatal Fury: Mark of the Wolves. $80!

The simple fact here is that sensationalism sells. Take the recent 360 vs. PS3 story in EGM. That they're even making such a simplistic assessment of the industry and perpetuating the idea of a "console war" should tell us that that's what gets attention from the average consumer. Even game company executives have picked up on this notion, leading them to take swipes at the competition to get easy publicity.

The fanboy audience is larger than people might like to think. What happens with any number of stories is fanboy A gets pissed at the tone of the article, fanboy B picks out a perceived slight, both send in an angry letter (which, if it's poorly written and crazy enough, will be published) and both continue to buy the magazine because that righteous indignation gives them a sense of purpose and accomplishment.

I, personally, am trying to fight both this fanboy ignorance, and the money-grubbing industry standard of giving the good reviews to those who pay. For example, 24: The Game was a bad third-person shooter with a twitchy and nauseating camera and I can't believe the favorable reviews it got. I have to wonder just how much of Rupert Murdoch's advertising money went to those who gave high review scores the game simply didn't deserve.

It may take a while for game journalism to develop it's own standards and principles, especially in this age where ad money is the new kick-back, but I ask people to demand more from your game writing. Don't be nice about it, and don't make snide comments just give the guys writing fluff pieces and sensationalist stories a piece of your mind.

This is a good point, the motion-sensing properties are going to get limited use on the PS3, and will probably restricted to flying and racing.

But, I'm not sure we realise just how much rumble adds to a game experience in an age when games are striving for realism. As pretty as those graphics and as great as that sound may be, they only cover two of five senses and, since we wouldn't smell or taste most gaming activiteies, rumble adds a final piece of imput that makes things like driving, shooting, and getting shot in games all the more real.

Rumble should be present in every PS3 game where it would add something, which is most of them. And there will be a noticable void when we get shot for the first time in Killzone 2.

This calm and intellegent response from Iwata makes a good point but, more importantly, it shows Nintendo's confidence in it's stratagy, and that confidence impresses consumers.

It's not really fair to Nintendo and their effort to really change and expand gaming to get hung up on something as trivial as a name. I have little doubt that some people who are too macho for their own good will look at the tame, laugh, and move on, but that's a pure marketing issue, and in the grand scheme of things it isn't that important.

I've been reading around at various sites, looking at the different opinions on the Wii name and I realized something. The people who write stories like this one aren't doing so because they are afraid of change or actually hate the name. It's that the older, hardcore, gamers have a great emotional investment in Nintendo, one that goes back to playing an NES for the first time. The Gamecube years have been trying to these gamers, and they saw an opportunity in the DS and the Revolution to return the big N to glory and get people to see Nintendo as they had.

In that sense the name Wii that so defies mainstream marketing logic looked like a step backward, like seeing an old friend who you had helped to get sober get drunk one night. It's not going to ruin them or keep them from their goal, but it does worry the emotional investors, and that worry causes them to lash out like this.

It's too early to say how this name will effect the Wii's success, but the hardcore gamers with a soft spot for Nintendo are writing these critical, and at times harsh, stories to prepare themselves for the worst. As readers you may not like them saying these things, but try to understand why they are.