Johnny

AWESOME

This Sux. Im an adult and my friends are adult gamers, but here in Aus, one man who sees games as primarily for children can influence us having an R rating.

What is standard in 99% of the world is not allowed, instead everything is squeezed into an MA15 rating, mostly uncut. With the occasional ban.So we have a ridiculous situation where 15 year olds can play GTA4 and violent 1st person shooters, which would be intelligently restricted in 99% of the civilised world.

We have R18+ for magazines and cinema and DVDs and drinking, but Videogames do not. Videogames have an extra large rating on the front of the box, Granma is unlikely to buy an R18+ for a child, especially as the cost is around $100.

At $20 an R18+ DVD is more reason for concern or just plain webbrowsing i can Google all sorts of sick stuff with a couple of button presses, all the energy Atkinson spends worrying about Videogames should be better spent satisfying the needs of the majoritry of Australians

Well after dusting off the old 3DO, and plugging it in, all played well. Watching that annoying guy challenge you to a race and trying to push any button to get past the video, i found my controller not working. So i blew in the joystick hole and plugged it in and out a few times and i was in business.
Graphics have a blocky jerky look, the sound is pretty good. The framerate is ordinary but the gameplay is fun, chasing that red ferrari through traffic while avoiding the police led to some spectacular crashes, which you can replay and watch in slow motion.
Im just surprised the bloody thing works at all, now for Roadrash and Starfighter

Need for Speed on the 3DO was the best game on the system. In the early days of 3D graphics, it was amazing.
The draw distance was awsome with miles of unrepeating scenery, i have yet to see better flip flop crashes, how many modern road racing games allow cars to tumble? Driving was realistic with good physics.
The immediate sequels all went downhill with arcade type physics and closed circuits.
In fact i will plug in my 3DO and fire it up, and see how it holds up without rose tinted glasses.

Hi Space
Very accurate assumptions

Gday number5
1. I hope the PSP4000 has this screen at 4.3 inches, then i will have 3 PSPs
2. TV out is pointless anyway, movies look bad
3 I have big hands and the nub felt awkward, admittedly i did not use it long.
4 Sorry in Australia the Go is $450 and the 3000 is $279.99.
5 I checked the big releases here and the price was similar for GT and Motorstorm and a few others.
6 Physical evidence is the UMD itself. If i lose my job and cant afford broadband or the net collapses or Sony goes bankrupt or any other eventuality at least i have my 60 games.
7 My point here is, i like to have any game at hand, how do i manage 60 UMDs. They are stored at Sony so when i want to play something obscure, i need to get on the net and download for 20 minutes or so to play, I dont think Sony thought this out very well, essentially they have imposed a limit to how many games you are likely to buy. A 120gig harddrive like an Ipod would urge me to fill it up.
8 I have never pirated anything so have no idea how big a game is. I was under the impression they were up to 1.8gig. Also Broadband in Aus is not particularly cheap and must be factered into any online purchase.

I had a an 8 gig ipod and got tired of juggling my music so bought a 120 gig classic and just keep trying to fill it up, a much better solution.

The 3DO and Virtual Boy analogies stand because the GO is already seen as a major disaster, the price is falling fast and ebay prices are pretty low already.

Why would i want a smaller screen, no compatability with umd or cables, an awkward placed analog nub and spend $150 more than a PSP3000. Then buy games off the net for the same price as UMDs and have no physical evidence of my purchase and i have nearly 60 UMDs, how does that fit into 16gig, also it would cost heaps to download the 40 to 50gig through my provider. This is a disaster of 3DO and Virtual Boy proportions.

My pocket pc just recently packed it in, so wanting something similar(for browsing and reading) i have looked and tried a heap of tablet type devices and generally tablet PCs weigh a ton, my favorite the ASUS T91 8.9 inch is 1kg and still feels heavy after a few minutes, the price of $1000Aus also deterred me. I ended up with a Smartq7 it has a 7inch 800x480 screen, weighs less than 0.5kg and was $350Aus. It can be a little buggy at times but overall it will do. I will still get a tablet PC eventually, but it must have windows7 and be multitouch and no more than a kilo with at least a 10inch screen.

I really love the concept of putting your bone structure on screen in one to one with your personal Avatar so it moves as you do, but how do you move in different directions within a game, which is fundamental to gameplay. Do you jog on the spot or move in a WASD type manner then shoot by saying "bang". It will be hella difficult to make this work, but for fighting games and soccer goally simulators it will be good. On-line this could rock, fighting games would be great fun and a pong type game down a long corridor could work. The new Tron movie comes out next Xmas and a "discs of tron" tie in would rule, the 1983 game would translate really well to Natal.

Natal is probably the best motion device, but without a controller minigames is the best it will get.