Haywired

It's nice, but I wish you would incorporate some of the light blue back. The orange is still about, but that beautiful, sunny light blue is the color I always associate with Joystiq and now it's all but gone to make way for the grey. It's lost some of its uniqueness and charm. I don't know why video game websites are so obsessed with grey, they're all starting to look the same. I think the Joystiq logo at least should be light blue (with the orange for the dots of the 'i's).

I think that trailer looks cool, but how many Sonic games have there been this generation now? I've lost count. I think they need to slow down. Stop churning them out so fast. It cheapens it. If you want to re-invigorate a franchise, overkill surely isn't the way. Make people savour a new game instead of them thinking "not another one...", then it becomes the big event that it should be.

I don't think people are saying that touch screens suck. The touch screen has proved itself to be a fantastic interface for many games. But for standard button-controlled games, a touch screen isn't a suitable alternative. The iPhone's faux-button technique on its touch screen can't really provide the same tactility, feedback and satisfaction of button controls.

I think there's bound to be more ups and downs and jostling for top spot in Japan because obviously in Japan there's one dominant HD console, the PS3, so it has that market pretty much all to itself and hence is able to give the Wii much more of a run for its money. Whereas in the West the two HD consoles are more or less even in popularity and so that market is divided evenly between the PS3 and 360. If there was one dominant HD console in the West the weekly/monthly hardware charts would be similar to Japan's.

As WINterfang kind of alluded to, I wonder whether it's because the majority of Pokemon players are boys (I think) and perhaps Heart Gold sounds a bit girly, so that's why they're opting for Soul Silver.

@oldmanpip

"You're basing a lot on what you think motion controls are going to be like on past experience."

Well of course, what else am I going to base it on? Maybe in the future motion control will be amazing and responsive and reliable and natural, but right now it isn't and that was what I was saying. My comment was referring to the reality in the here and now, rather than science-fiction movies.

Also, I can't believe that you've never played a Wii game that didn't have any heavy/clunky arm movements, certainly compared to the quickness, ease and intuitiveness of button controls.

And I can assure you that your accusation is false, I am actually pretty fit. But I play video games (as I think most people do) to relax and unwind, a blissfully passive experience. If I want to swing my arm as if I'm swinging a real tennis raquet, I'lI just play tennis. I love playing sport and I love walking, but for me video games are about relaxing on the couch with a pad in my hands. Perhaps I'm worried that motion controls will destroy that.

@Foetoid

Fair enough. I'm guessing from the list you provided you're mainly talking about the IR pointing functionality for aiming, which I don't have a problem with and can see its benefits (perhaps I should have been clearer). I was more referring to gestures, shakes, waggles, mimes, flails, etc.

Though you say motion controls makes Tiger Woods Wii the best golf game ever. Is it the best golf game ever or the best golf sim ever? For me Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour is the best golf game ever, but I am a Nintendo fan and so have never played games for a realistic experience. The exact opposite in fact.

I just can't see how gestures/motions can offer the same tactility, feedback, reliability, responsiveness, precision, convenience and comfort of button controls. Surely when it comes to control, subtle, intricate nuances of fingers and thumbs are easier, more intuitive and more relaxing than big, heavy, clunky arm movements?

Plus, isn’t the whole point of intuitive electronic interfaces to reduce motion and effort? Hence why I’m typing this rather than carving it into a stone. Surely in technology terms motion controls are a massive step backwards, completely missing the point of what video games are. As Itagaki said “The reason video games are fun is because you get a big output from a small input. You push a single button and the character does something amazing on screen."

I can't see how they are immersive either. They hardly ever feel natural. Good controls should be unnoticeable, motion controls can't be. Plus you usually have to perform these irritating gestures, mimes and flails numerous times before they actually work because motion controls by their very nature are so inherently vague, woolly, ambiguous, erratic, impractical, inconsistent and unreliable, so inherently broken as a control scheme. Motion controls put the focus on actions you’re performing outside of the game environment rather than the actions taking place within the game environment, so how can they possibly be immersive?

"Nintendo has not launched a marquee party game since Mario Party 8, launched in summer 2007".

What about Wii Sports Resort? Perhaps something was lost in translation. As for the game itself, well I've long since stopped worrying that the Wii was being taken down the silly, wacky party console route, that ship has well and truly sailed. It looks fine though, probably good fun.

Though for a more immersive experience try My Immersion Heater.