petey

LOL@ fools talking about RARE being dead. Just because you haven't played a new Battletoads or Killer Instinct in a decade doesn't mean the studio isn't flourishing. They poured a ton of energy into the woefully underrated (and decidedly not just for kids) Viva Pinata series, and the new Banjo game was awesome.

Microsoft cut Rare a check and let them do what they wanted. And Rare did great. And I trust we'll see a Rare-ssaince come Natal. So stay tuned.

Typical emotional engagement during an Apple conference:

(Hype)
OMG OMG OMG

(Reveal)
OMG WTF WTF LMAO OMG

(Feature set)
OMG OMG LOL LMAO WTH WTF LMFTFY

(Price)
WTF LMAO LMAO LMAO WTF

Best line: *Playing a slow motion game of Pong that's harder and more frustrating than Ninja Gaiden on its toughest setting is not a happy experience.*

First step towards our Holodeck/Holopad-based gaming futures.

I couldn't be less interested in Fable 3. The first was promised to be open-world genius, but was slop. We were all promised the second would be genius, but it too was slop. We've been promised the third will be genius -- see a trend here?

Molyneux should spend some time playing Mass Effect. Or KOTOR Or even Indigo Prophecy/Heavy Rain. Or Demon's Souls. Or pretty much any mediocre-to-awesome game with a tinge of RPG flavor so he could actually LEARN what makes emotion-heavy/intense RPGs work.

Did everyone know that to use the motion control you would need to hold the wand in your right hand and the SIXAXIS in your left? Doesn't that seem ridiculously awkward? I loved RE4:Wii Edition and was hoping this would replicate that gameplay experience for Number 5.

@wcarnation.

Lots of men hunt beaver.

NSMB Wii may have had more casual appeal than Galaxy, but I'd argue that it was the more "hardcore" - and maybe even harder (particularly when played with others) - game.

@Cody: Yeah, and it's a better, tighter, IMHO more beautiful game. I played it with family throughout the holiday break. Although we killed each other (in the game), and came close to killing each other (in real life), we had an absolute blast.

And I hate to use this term, but it is totally apt here: the end-boss fight was just . . . epic.

Or you can, you know, reserve deciding how much it's worth until you actually see what it can do, what games will be available at launch, etc.

I'm guessing as a standalone upgrade, it'll be around $79 and come with a Wii Sports-like suite of games. That is a price within striking distance of most games on launch-day ($59 or $69 for special editions -- looking at you Mass Effect), and something most people can probably swallow.

Right. Because innovation in gaming is a bad idea. MORE TEH HALOZ PLS!

Sheesh, you guys are dumb.

I'm not a fan of waggle-based shovelware -- few readers of this site are -- but I recognize that Natal is an incredible opportunity to revolutionize the home entertainment experience. If it were as little as an update that let me navigate the dashboard in a cool, gesture-based way, I'd be impressed. If it's something that gets me out of my ass to have fun, I'd be impressed. And if it adds unforeseen/unplanned dimensions and layers of depth to games I've already played and loved, I'll be impressed.

People like you look at something like this, assume you're brilliant enough to -- on your own -- realize the entire universe of possibilities, and qualified enough to cast it away as "garbage" or a waste of time. Try some modesty, try some humility, and try realizing that there could be more -- way more -- than your rather limited minds can grasp nearly a YEAR before this thing launches.

Doofuses.