TyDobbs

My problem with Hotel Dusk was that it really wasn't a choose your own adventure mechanic at all. There was only one adventure, maybe you find out a little more or a little less about the characters but really it was completely, hand holdingly linear. On top of that, the gameplay had no flexibility. There was rarely anything to do other than what you were supposed to do to further advance the plot. I would like to see someone like squaresoft do an adventure type game where they pack in as many sidequests and quirky mini games into the mix as you typically find in a game like that. Something more akin to an open ended RPG without the battling. I enjoyed Hotel Dusk but the lack of any real branching and any real freedom really kept me from feeling like I was kyle hyde and controlling him and made me feel more like I was watching kyle hyde and had little impact on the events that unfolded.

Myke, you are missing the point about a possible DS game, you are stuck on the abstraction that is the current guitar hero setup. While a great idea it is not the only way to simulate playing a guitar. If you pull back from the console solution they've come up with so far and think about simulating the guitar as a whole for a minute combined with the possibilities of a touch screen I think you'll find there are aspects of guitar playing that you can incorporate into a DS game to make it unique and fun. For instance I am thinking about "picking" various strings with the stylus. This is something completely ignored with the plastic guitar abstraction we are currently used to but one of the more difficult things to do on a real guitar. Think about it, lay 4-6 strings across the ds touch screen and you have to strum the correct strings in rhythm, or several in quick succession for a chord. This game could be just as challenging and fun as the one we have now and could not be done with the plastic controller but could be executed on the DS making for a unique experience that still represents guitar playing. Add on a giant plastic add on guitar "neck" and strap and you've got liscense for rediculour youtube videos. and imagine connecting the ds and the wiimote into a single plastic shell for the ultimate guitar game where you hold down buttons on the neck like now and strum different strings on the ds touch screen. Man I should go patent that before anyone reads this!

dsub,

I agree that November has good potential to be a great month for Microsoft, and likely for all three of the console makers but I just couldn't help but notice something in your post. The triple A exclusive titles you mentioned for the 360 in your post are, "Gears of War, Rainbow Six, Splinter Cell...etc", and later "Most notably...Halo 3". Is it just me or does it feel like these are all basically the same game? Or at least the target audience for these games is all the same person? With what Steve noticed about almost half of 360 owners buying madden last month that really makes me worry that perhaps the 360 is catering to too narrow a crowd and if that niche is large enough to support both the 360 and the PS3. I can see why Nintendo didn't wnat to fight on the same playing field as Microsoft, there isn't enough enough room on their own console for the competition. I can only imagine the most hardcore gamers will be able to affort to play in both time and/or money all four of those most likely excellent games. when they are released. Also later in dsubs post he mentions "2007 will also see GTA4, RE5, and Assassin's Creed as big cross platform titles..." I can't help but laugh when thinking of the games I re listed here and the earlier post on joystiq about microsoft's esrb parent education roadtrip. like a poster in that thread said they are teaching you how to lock out all the good games for the system.

I think this is a great idea, I already keep my DS in my car glove compartment most of the time anyways. If I could have maps for all of america, or even just my area in a cart form that would eliminate the bag of maps I keep in my trunk. Can you imagine what kind of trend that might get set if someone like mapquest or google were to put out a profitable DS application? Who knows what kind of software would come next.

Was it just me or was it like reggie wrote the questions for the interviewer to ask him? Even his delivery of the questions made people watching feel like sony and microsoft were up to something but not reggie, reggie we could trust. 10 minute commercial for the Wii from ABC news? Sweet, I hope this airs or did air nation wide!

I'm a Nintendo fan and I can say I'm very dissapointed that Atlus is simply remaking this game instead of coming up with an all new sequel. You could say that it is a little more forgivable since it is only the second game in the series as opposed to the 6th+ like in the case of GTA but that isn't really much of an excuse. From a business perspective though they have all the same reasons as rockstar does for making a port and a few others as well. First by reusing as many assets from the first game as possible they are probably keeping their development costs, and thus their risks associated with this project extremely low. Remember we are all excited about Wii but it is still not a guarenteed hit so anything to reduce risk is going to be very attractive from a $$ point of view to a publisher. Also by resusing as much of the previous title as possible it will allow them to get the game to market faster, which makes sense as well if you look at all the recent articles about how many third party publishers will miss out on the initial Wii rush by not being prepared with a game. Well if Atlus can push a game out cheaply and quickly I'm sure all they can see is $ signs.
Now having beaten the game on the DS (Haven't tried the unlocked missions yet rhine) I am concerned that Atlus might not take enough time with porting the stylus control to the pointing control because while manipulating a pen sized stylus and pointing across the room may have many similar capabilities, they actually have quite a different feel and Atlus could easily end up with a title that is hard to play and feels gimmicky on the Wii if they aren't careful.

About point number 2,
That point in particular seems silly in the light that the other guys are requiring a BIG SCREEN HDTV to make the most of their consoles. If you were going to play the PS3 on a tiny tv, I'm sure Ken would have a few great quotes about that one...

No matter how clever the programmers are, it's impossible to really do true one to one motion sword fighting with the wii remote. Yes you could get one to one tracking of movement IF YOU NEVER HIT ANYTHING. The problem is what happens when your sword is blocked? In the game your sword will stop and feel resistance, in your hand there will be a rumble and you will complete your swing. There is no way to make this kind of haptic feedback happen in a free hand remote. Without actual pressure and resistance the closer they try to come to 'real' swordfighting the more frustrating it will actually become. The only thing to do is come to some gameplay compromise which is nothing like real sword fighting but close enough to be satisfying and immersive ala guitar hero. This sounds like what they are trying to do with the preset slash and the block nunchuk shake. I agree with cringer, if they can incorporate more complicated and satisfying combinations for cool looking moves the action should be fast enough and addictive enough that you don't care whether it feels like a 'real' swordfight just like you don't care that you aren't really playing the guitar in guitar hero.

I am on the side that sees Nintendo as an innovator in console gaming. That being said, you have to give Sony credit for realizing when they are missing out on a great idea and adapting so quickly. What you have to realize is that this is not necessarily a bad thing for the big-N either. In fact it could be a great thing for games in general. You can't argue with that fact that Sony is the dominant console maker by number and by assimilating some amount of Wii's motion sensing into it's new console it changes the idea from a risk into the future of gaming. The effect that is likely to have on 3rd party developers can not be discounted. Now instead of taking a risk by investing million of dollars for a game that can only be implemented on one system developers will be able to create games with a simliar feel PS3 and the Wii. Now instead of asking themselves "should I make a game for the Wii" developers will be asking themselves whether they should spend the time to port it to the 360. If anything Sony has poised Nintendo to be an even larger presence in the next wave of systems by making this move and inviting direct comparison between the system that have (PS3 and Wii) and those that don't and then the prices of the PS3 and Wii.