mono_eric3

I think the generation shift we are in now will be even worse than previous console wars, mainly due to the ease at which everyone seems to jump on any mistake, and the ease at which you can point and laugh on the internet.

I sincerely hope the PS3 struggles this generation, if only to force developers and publishers to release worthy content. If the 360 and PS3 are running about level (which would be PS3 struggling by most standards), then hopefully that should mean nothing but boom for consumers. If either take a massive lead, then it will bring back the laziness of the Playstation era, where telling the difference between each game became an increasingly difficult task.

R.I.P. Dreamcast. You did serve us well during your brief time with us.

: D

Nintendo have had countdown clocks in stores for ages

They use them whenever something big is coming out. Its just a big stopwatch counting down and they put a new cover on it depending on the game or hardware.

I seem to remember it being used for Donkey Konga, Four Swords, and the first DS, so its hardly new.

Generally its put up a little less then a month before the game is due.

: D

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=18826

With age ratings that are enforced by the retailers, it give the parents an opportunity to stop and think about what their child will be playing.

I will quite happily show my 9 year old nephew dawn of the dead and let him play dead rising - I know he'll get a kick out of it cos he loves monster films and stories. I wouldn't let him anywhere near GTA 3 because he just wouldn't understand what beating up a hooker for cash was all about. A friend of mines brother, who was 11 at the time was telling us about how he 'made $100,000 beating up ho's' which is kinda funny - but my mate went ballistic, and so would I if it was my brother - I wouldn't want him going around talking like a retarded trailer trash hick about stuff he shouldn't be talking about.

Everyone's different, but by having the ratings enforced, there is no way for a kid to get his hands on the game without having to get an adult to get it for them.

: D

What a royal waste of opportunity.

And a little confusing the way I actually totally agreed with Jack Thompson on the use of UK-style film ratings on games. Its a system thats already in place - and some developers (from a while back) used to voluntarily rate their games, so I don't see the issue.

If they had extended that panel to an hour long over the table discussion (with someone who can stay calm) - then we might have been better able to actually come to a conclusion.

Jack Thompson is a publicity whore, and his attacking of Bully (based on its name alone) is retarded. His argumaents are ill-founded and misplaced, and the whole sentiment is wrong. However, there is an issue of kids playing games thats not aimed at them (the resulting effect of violent behaviour is not the issue), and yes the parents should decide whats good and bad for their kids. But anyone whos ever been out shopping on a saturday afternoon will no, that average parents have no clue about games. My argument is, that if you stop selling 18/NC-17/M rated games to kids, then they have to get the parents to buy it for them - and I don't see the problem with that.

The problem arrises from retailers who know that the vast majority of their sales are contituted of selling games that would be 18-rated in the UK to under-18s. I know for a fact that rockstar north support the britsh system (they are british after all), and when it came to the hot coffee scandal, the BBFC who rate games in britain just said 'so what? its rated 18, and thats the way it stays'

By enforcing the ratings legally, people like Jack Thompson will not be able to argue anymore, and if they did, finding any kind of support would be very hard indeed.

Anyway, from the sounds of it Bully might be a half-decent game, and it probably wont even get as high as an 18 rating here in the UK. So what the fuss is about, I do not know.

: D

Any chance people can comment on the actual game instead of doing the usual 'I hate this console cos you like it' crap?

The game looks pretty lame to me. I've never been a fan of Tony Hawk games, but that never to stopped me getting sucked in for hours trying to get that last mission finished before putting it down. The fact that there was always so much to do made it great value for money, but a racer with 8 locations with pretty much defined paths sounds like its gonna have a pretty short playtime. If they go the PGR route (like it sounds) there will be more to do, but it still sounds limited somewhat.

Hope they prove me wrong, my missus can't get enough of Tony Hawk games and the idea of using the tilt in the Wii for balance sounds pretty neat to me

: D

1080p?

Has nobody pointed out that this doesnt actually mean anything. No TV on the market can run 1080p60, only 1080p30 and lower (and very few of them actually support that rez natively).

Now the kicker is that most of these TVs that do support 1080p30 can also convert a 1080i60 signal to 1080p30 without any loss of image quality (as long as the input is running at 30fps)

So I really dont see how 1080p is an advantage, and from what I hear very few developers support it as it wasn't available in early dev-kits (no idea if its in current ones - one would hope so)

: D

I don't really see how the internet killed E3. I pretty much did no work at all while E3 was on because I spent all my time going through all the blogs reading about everything that was going on. I appreciate that the big conferences do not need to be so lavish if they are just going to be seen on a very bad quality youtube video, but its up to the organisers to capitalize on the use of the internet and generate revenue from it for themselves.

As for E3 being unimportant, I totally disagree. If you did a poll of what next-gen consoles people were interested in before and after E3 I think the difference would be pretty substantial. Its ability to compress all the major announcements into a short space of time allowed for some pretty wow moments (Wii Tennis) right in there with some pretty boo stuff too (PS3 cost more than a small house).

I see how the extravagance of some of the stands could easily put costs into the multi-million dollar mark, but none of the stories I read could really care less about the size of the stands - it was mostly about the games - which I thought was kinda the point.

The companies have overspent and lost themselves a vital marketing aid, but most of all the consumer has lost that couple of weeks where they can watch all the lastest videos and truly be a geek safe in the knowledge that there are a lot more doing the same.

If they can re-think the whole thing and not just ditch it this may be for the better, otherwise I see this as a lose-lose for both the companies and the consumer.

: D