Kevin

Sony definitely sold out - A long time ago.

And nobody says anything about the blurriness of the PSP screen? I find it's unusable for watching most video, especially low-contrast scenes.

There is no point for me in the Wii supporting DVD playback unless it also supports VCD/SVCD/MPEG/MPEG4 (DivX/Xvid). That's probably a bit of a tall order for Nintendo to fulfill since they've never released a media player as part of their line up (AFAIK), so I'd rather that they do it properly as an additional software download later on down the line, or just not have it as part of the equation in the first place.

There's also the question of what to do if you're in the middle of a game and you want to watch a movie with no save point in sight. Having DVD player functionality probably brings up a lot of issues that Nintendo simply don't want to have to deal with, and they're probably betting that most of their target market already have a DVD player anyway (I think they're probably right.)

I think Nintendo are smart in sticking to their guns and saying that the Wii is a games platform, no more and no less. The other stuff like photos etc. on the memory card sounds like a source for counter-arguments at first, but when you think about it, it does dovetail nicely with game customisation and modding.

The Wii is small enough that if consumer demand for a media box is high enough, they could bring out a companion module to go alongside it which would have HD-out and a pass-through for the Wii video signal, communicating with the Wii over USB.

I'm really looking forward to the Wii, and I won't be getting a PS3 or 360 - Not because I can't afford them, but because I know I wouldn't get my money's worth out of them. Instead, I'm going to wait until the content actually starts coming out on HD-DVD or Blu-Ray before I make any decisions on a player for those formats, and at that stage it will most likely be a player which supports both anyway. The media playback on the PS3 and 360 is not a selling point to me.

Hardly what I'd call an exploit, unless you're expanding the term to include "learning to write numbers the way the computer wants you to". It might have been a real exploit if he'd found some way of getting the same questions every time and that's how he's able to write the answers so quickly. From looking at this video though, kudos to him, it just looks like he's pretty damn fast!

Just to make it clear, the Kevin talking about the controller is not the same Kevin that's talking about the benchmarks (time to start using my full name or an alias...)

Gazbin et al, I have it pre-ordered (well, in as much as "waiting for stock" means pre-ordered). It means I can play it now, and when it arrives I can keep the original in my DS at home, and the copy in my walkabout DS (or copies in both, and the original safe in its box where it can't get lost!)

P.S. I know the post didn't say anything about individual system component ratings, but it would make sense to have an overall rating, and separate ratings for Graphics, CPU, Memory and Disk performance. How many people do you know get confused between Megabytes and Gigabytes?

I don't think there's any conspiracy here: The performance rating benchmarks don't have to run under Vista (especially considering that the benchmark out at the moment is to tell yo if you can run Vista well in the first place), and there's nothing to say that an equivalent benchmark can't be created for Linux and the Mac OS that will give the equivalent numbers for that platform. The only thing that needs to be changed on the box is that system name, and if the benchmarks are all calculated and weighted correctly for their respective platforms, then then numbers on the back of the box can stay the same.

The only thing is that the ratings must be well planned for them to hold their relevance in a couple of years time, otherwise we will end up with a tiered performance rating system, which would be counterproductive for everybody.

With only a few basic numbers to remember for their MSR, consumers can go in and be reasonably confident that the game they're buying will play as it should.

This is the only way that PC games are going to get back to the consumer market, rather than the enthusiasts and hardcore gamers (which is the way things seem to be heading). I know a few people who've bought games and ended up having to upgrade the graphics card or processor. They're not exactly inclined to start buying more games after that experience.

Even start to mention DirectX or Radeon to most end users and their eyes start to glaze over. This proposition could be a very good step to getting normal people back to playing games on computers rather than consoles. I imagine that publishers would like this, as the console manufacturers generally take a cut of the title's RRP, don't they?

While it is of course a strategy designed to benefit Microsoft at the expense of Sony and Nintendo, if it's picked up by other publishers and on other platforms, I believe there's nothing to say that it means Vista will be the only beneficiary. I would love to go into a shop and see some boxes with "Games for Linux" on them.

I was going to post something about downloading it from usenet while you wait for it ship, but then I decided not to...

Michelle,

I've lost plenty of loved ones, both people and other animals. Nobody's said "big deal" to me, but I know that there are billions of people out there who wouldn't care if they knew - They have their own lives to lead.

I think it's quite sad that one of the legacies that he left behind was that it seems so many of us can only care about the welfare and survival of animals if they are made a source of entertainment.

I'm sure sure he was a decent guy at heart, and I'm sad for his family's loss, but virtually every programme I saw of his involved him provoking or harassing some animal into a defensive reaction. Perhaps I empathise too much with the animals, but I hope somebody steps up to take his place with a higher place on their agenda for the dignity and survival of all animals, both for the continued diversity and balance they bring to this planet.

In many ways he was the polar opposite of someone like David Attenborough, whom I grew up watching as a child. It was from David's thoughtful and truly pioneering TV programmes that I, and many others, learned to love and respect the animal kingdom for all that it had to teach us. I also keep in me the lesson that although humans and the rest of the animal kingdom have much in common, we are separate in so many ways. Human civilisation and the wilderness are not meant to mingle, and the lives of animals should not be manipulated to be a source of spectacle or entertainment - I've always felt the example Steve set in public was that of humankind trampling on the dignity of other species without any consequence resulting for our own kind. Human nature being what it is, there are always the exploited, and it always ends up being those without a voice. Today, for all the good he did in other areas, he paid the ultimate price for his foolhardiness.

You may call it respect or courage, but I call it wilful disregard and disrespect.

The news today is sad, to be sure, but hardly unexpected, and a long time in coming.