baberg

Definately good-news-bad-news for me. Played the game on the DS, loved it, but only got through about half of it before it got too hard for me. I was looking forward to having another game in the same vein, because it was great. That's the bad news for me - no new game.

The good news? Now I only see 4 must-have games at launch instead of 5, so my credit card thanks Atlus!

Good job moving the goalposts, 32_Footsteps. First it was "There was only one good launch title for any console" then it was "There was only one good launch title for a successful console". What's next? "There was only one good launch title for a gaming system that I owned and still play today"?

Ok, I've got a question here:

I followed the Wii news from E3 primarily, as I'm a huge Nintendo fan. I have all three consoles this generation, but because of the extreme price of the X360 and especially the PS3 I'm planning to only get one of them this generation (at least, until they drop in price late in their lifecycles)

PS3 fans, convince me that I should go for a PS3 over the already-established online-rich Xbox 360. Emphasis on games please - having a Blu-ray DVD player means jack to me.

Extinction (#72): "I've checked gamerankings.com, PSP is evenly matched with DS for high rated games."

What were you looking at? PSP has zero games with over 90%, Nintendo DS has 3. PSP has 8 games at 85% or above, DS has 11. Now, those numbers are pretty close, but take a look at the 8 for the PSP:

1. Lumines (89.9%)
2. Wipeout Pure (88.3%)
3. Ridge Racer(88.1%)
4. GTA: Liberty City Stories (87.4%)
5. Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror (87.3%)
6. Daxter (86.8%)
7. Burnout Legends (86.3%)
8. Virtua Tennis: World Tour (85.8%)

3 racing games in the bunch, 2 third-person shooters, and nearly half of the 8 games were launch titles (which invariably get good scores out of the box because there's nothing to compare it to).

Now let's take a look at Nintendo:

1. Mario Kart DS (92.1%)
2. Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (90.4%)
3. Advance Wars: Dual Strike (90.3%)
4. New Super Mario Bros. (89.3%)
5. Meteos (88.5%)
6. Kirby: Canvas Curse (87.9%)
7. Animal Crossing: Wild World (86.2%)
8. Super Mario 64 DS (86.1%)
9. Tetris DS (85.9%)
10. Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time (85.6%)
11. Metroid Prime: Hunters (85.4%)

The only same-genre games in there are Meteos/Tetris, and possibly Castlevania/NSMB. Top-notch titles all the way here, including a personal favorite in Canvas Curse. Plus, the releases were spaced out. Some launch or near-launch games, some recent games.

Face it. The PSP has absolutely junk when it comes to games, especially when you compare it to the competition. Even without the DS, there's no compelling reason to own a PSP.

Ahhhh, finally some User Interface screenshots.

Looks like it's a good, simple, spacious UI in the same vein as the recent Warhammer 40k offerings. As long as they give me a good solid lengthy single player game, Starcraft/Warcraft style, exploring all the factions I'm sold.

MosquitoControl, I have to correct you on one point - iTunes does not limit your access to music as much as you think. From iTunes (and even music you've bought from iTMS) you can burn audio CDs with zero DRM encryption on them, and then just re-rip them into the music format of your choice, DRM free.

It's one extra step, sure, but iTunes does not actually stop you from using your bought music in other applications.

"Nintendo has some loyalists that buy their branded titles, like Mario, no matter what, so that is what you're seeing."

Wow, a Sony PR person talking about fanboys, er, "loyalists". What a crock. I realize that this is exactly what he's supposed to say, given the PSP's complete lack of mainstream market success, but give me a break.

Nintendo branded titles sell well because they get incredible reviews, are incredibly well done from a technical standpoint, and are just outright fun to play. I had the New Super Mario Bros. game rented from Gamefly for about 5 minutes before I stopped, because I knew instantly that I was going to buy it.

I don't buy games because they're Nintendo-branded. I buy games because they're fun. And it's no coincidence that many of those games are Nintendo-branded.

After doing some more research on this, I take back my comments about "clueless E3 employee" - this was apparently part of their start-of-the-week E3 press conference, and this employee should've known better. It was a canned demonstration, and he made himself (and his company) look like a fool.

For those of you (like me) who didn't understand the reference, look here

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=attack+its+weak+point+for+massive+damage&defid=1789652

I know it's trendy to bash the PS3, but making fun of a clueless E3 employee is pretty low.

Once the first Demo units come out and are put into gaming stores, all of these concerns will be alleviated.