SiN

Project Dmitri has been in development since the original Black & White was released ... that's 6 years. We've heard a sentence or two about it. Fable 2 has been in development since the first one came out, probably earlier. We hadn't really heard anything solid until now, AND we haven't heard stuff that he hasn't demoed. So basically, he's promoting his games like all other developers do ... he isn't telling us about features that aren't in, he isn't telling us what they're thinking about doing, he's telling us, "these are the features in the game." Why are people still complaining? SiN ps: It's so sad that Molyneux isn't allowed to "speak his mind" anymore ... even when shit like "real-time tree growth" didn't make it into Fable, it was fascinating hearing him talk about his game design ideas.

Here's a preview ... http://kotaku.com/gaming/fable-2/clips-fable-2-dog-demo-243235.php Not impressed with Kotaku's "journalism", but watch all three videos in order ... there's some fantastic stuff in there. SiN

Why? I watched the videos of him demoing the dog, and it looks fantastic to me. Looks like it'll work out beautifully, but even if it doesn't, at least someone is going off and trying something different. SiN

It looks bulky, but it feels perfectly fine. Your hands don't really need to go around the bulky part, so you don't notice it much. Having said that, the Wavebirds do lack rumble, which is why I opted to get a normal cube pad instead. SiN

I don't really disagree with a good deal of what Hecker said. You need to remember that this was a "rant" session. Obviously, the news outlets are doing a typically shit job of putting enough emphasis on this. The same rant session that Spector last year yelled, "any of you who bought HL2 from Walmart, GET OUT!" (or something to that extent) What he said about the Wii being "severely underpowered" is spot on too. It is underpowered, and the PS3/X360 will have some fantastic games that flat-out wont be possible to write on the Wii. And it's not developers being "lazy", it's just algorithms getting complicated. So the PS3/X360 will push the boundaries on AI, and things like animation, seamless worlds, physics, as long as developers are willing to try. It's not just marketing speak, it's reality. (Witness, for example, Little Big Planet. It's hard to say, but even without all it's graphical flair, I'm not convinced it would work perfectly on the Wii) SiN

This is happening by the way. I've seen screenshots ... google up "Jetpac Refuelled" SiN

It's a game by David Jones, the original designer of GTA. 'Nuff said really. SiN

Taylor has been calling it the "spiritual successor to Total Annihilation", which actually means, "would be called TA2, but we don't have the rights to the name". SiN

I voted 321. That makes it 4 pages with 8 votes. I hope this means Marek has to read all 4 pages. SiN

DUDE! This is BRIAN-FUCKING-ENO and WILL-FUCKING-WRIGHT!!! Nothing will go wrong ... NOTHING! To go into a bit more detail, Eno is quite a talented guy and has a good understanding of how music "works". With that knowledge, I'm guessing that the music in Spore will be quite ambient, which is a fitting style for procedural music. So I think it's doable, and (going back to my first "point") if there's anybody who could pull it off right, it's Wright and Eno. SiN

What do you play? Yes, there are some fantastic games on the PC, we all agree. But what fantastic games are there *now*? I have a shelf full of great PC games. But over the past two years, I've added tonnes of DS, PSP, (and more recently) Wii & Gamecube games to the shelf. The only two PC games I've added are Darwinia and Defcon. Well, there are some cool new gameplay mechanics in GoW, but that's beside the point. What innovation has the PC seen? Like lobotomy said, it's been the same 4 genres rehashed over and over again. Uhh, that doesn't make sense. Development costs are higher on the PC because there's alot more QA to be done. And it's easier to develop console games. Since it's a fixed platform, scaling graphics, configurable controls, configuration-specific bugs, etc don't exist. I think we're getting a bit confused here. I think you're talking about is the indy scene. And to that extent I'll agree, I think the indy scene is all the PC has left. Because looking at retail scene, it looks very bleak. Agreed! SiN

Totally agree! I used to be an exclusive PC-gamer, but I don't see the point anymore. I have more than enough money to replace my piece-o-crap laptop with a top of the line PC gaming rig, but instead, I've chosen to buy a Wii, and will pick up a 360 some time this year. Like you said, the PC has become this platform with hardcore games in niche genres. I used to be a huge RTS fan, but the last RTS I can remember enjoying was Shogun: Total War. Now, I'm totally lost in the genre. And hell, the last PC game I recall enjoying was Darwinia. One aspect you missed out on though, is that not only are the games hardcore, but so are the system requirements! Since games are being made for the hardcore, there isn't a need to support lower-end systems like mine, so the "bar for entry" has been raised even higher. I know it's always been this way for PC games, but it's never been this bad. The real hope for the PC is in the indy scene. It's no coincidence that the last PC game I played was Darwinia. SiN

It's really not a great idea. I mean, even with the Mac being x86 there's still some sort of emulation going on (I guess it'd be device emulation in this case) which will ultimately slow you down. So can you play HL2? Yeah, with this 3D update that Walter is talking about, you probably will be able to. On max settings? I doubt it. You're much better off using Boot Camp so that there's no emulation what-so-ever. SiN

I made it a couple of hours late to work on the preorder day for the Wii. Told my boss the truth and he didn't seem to mind. The perks of working at a tech company. Although I've contemplated not getting off at my subway stop to continue playing Phoenix Wright ... does that count? SiN

@miffy: It's not Worms 2, it's just ... Worms. It's actually the Worms PSP engine ported over, with higher resolution graphics and online competition/leaderboards/etc. Speaking of the handheld versions ... @Rodi: ... ignore the DS version! It was absolute crap, and doesn't reflect the quality of Team17s work. The DS version was outsourced, and the developers ended up doing a craptacular job. The PSP version on the other hand was done in-house, I've heard was very good. I didn't buy the PSP version because of the lack of content ... I really wanted another large single-player campaign, but the DS/PSP versions just had basic deathmatches. However, while the X360 version doesn't have a single-player campaign either, there is online competition, which totally makes the game worth it. Both games are scheduled to come out Q1 2007. SiN

Fuck Gears of War, Halo 3 and all that bullshit, this is why I'm buying a 360: http://www.xbox-attitude.com/news-11435-Des-images-de-Worms-sur-le-Xbox-Live-Arcade.html Old-skool Worms using the latest tech ... it looks fucking beautiful! And of course, Space Giraffe, Jeff Minters latest masterpiece: I was actually talking (well, messaging) the main man at Team17, and he says the lack of hype about XBLA games (and all these "surprise" day-of announcements) are Microsofts doing. T17 have been slowly hyping Worms, but I guess Microsoft isn't allowing them to make too much of a noise about it. Sounds like a crap plan to me ... But anyway, good stuff is coming ... it's just going to take some time. SiN

*sigh* ... ah crap, I thought they would have fixed all those annoyances in the sequel. Yeah, truth be told, I didn't really enjoy Exit (I played about 1/2 the game until those exact flaws you mentioned frustrated the crap out of me), but it was a last minute addition to my list ... there's a reason neither of the GTAs are on there ... hated LCS. But I own a good deal of the games I listed, and they are quite good. And yeah, I own a DS too, and they're both great systems. And yeah, there are a tonne of great games on the DS as well (spent the last month playing Phoenix Wright) ... but I just think it's quite unfair to the PSP that everyone goes on about how there are no games for the system. SiN

Wipeout, Lumines (1/2), Lemmings, Katamari, Loco Roco, Metal Gear Acid (1/2), Metal Gear Solid: PO, Exit, Every Extend Extra, Gitaroo Man, Gunpey ... ... yep, *huge* shortage of great, original PSP games. SiN

Start queuing up at EBgames at 6am on the day they started taking pre-orders, secure your pre-order while missing a couple of hours of work. I've found that if you're working at a tech company, "pre-ordering a Wii" is a perfectly fine alibi for why you were two hours late. Then on Nov 19th make it to the store when it opens. This is guaranteed to get you a Wii, although it might be a bit late to do this now. SiN

I realize you were half joking here, but it *really* pisses me off when I hear stuff like this. Emulation isn't easy. Ninty and Sony had it easy for different reasons ... Ninty doesn't really count. When the Wii is just a GC++, there isn't any emulation going on, it's just a matter of "switching off" the right parts of the console when a cube disc is inserted, which pretty much turns the Wii into a gamecube. Sony would have had a hard time doing PS2 emulation, but they did The Right Thing, by just sticking the PS2 Emotion Engine chip on the PS3. I'm sure they've been working on software emulation (it's much cheaper), and I'm sure that in later revisions of the PS3 everything will be done in software. Now Microsoft didn't have either option. First off, there is no way to turn an X360 into an XBOX. The processor is different (x86 vs PowerPC), the video card is different (nVidia vs ATi) which makes the whole emulation process so much harder. Second, they couldn't do what Sony did and stick an XBOX on the 360. The blame for this lies within the design of the XBOX, specifically the fact that it used (more-or-less) off-the-shelves parts. With it's Intel Celeron processor, and it's nVidia GeForce 3, Microsoft didn't "own" the chips, so they couldn't be optimized. Where Sony have spent the past couple of years making the PS2 chips smaller and smaller, Microsoft haven't had the option to do that at all. SiN

Where exactly did they say, "every game will work from day one"? The big three have all said "our systems will be backwards compatible" but none of them really gave specifics. Frankly, I'm surprised Sony didn't do software emulation and actually went all out and shoved a PS2 into the PS3 (see here). It probably cost them a pretty penny, but it was The Right Thing To Do. For that, and only that, I commend them. Here's my predicition: Wii BC will be near-perfect day one. In a couple of months, PS3 BC will be as close to perfect as it can be too. But the X360 BC isn't going to get anywhere close to perfect in it's lifetime. SiN

Nah, the hardware is identical. It'll be like the DS -> GBA compatibility. When you put in a GBA cart the DS "switches off" everything DS-like, and the system just turns into a GBA. With the Wii, it'll just disable it's extra RAM, under-clock the CPU, etc, and the system will pretty much turn into a GC. Apart from the extras (broadband, gba connectivity, etc) the Wii will turn into a GC. Ninty are veterans at this ... they've been doing this since the GB Colour days. SiN

Yeah, I read that earlier, it's definitely a sad read. But Sony are only partially to blame. Yes, it was very irresponsible of them to "launch" with 80,000 units, but I think the same would have happened even if they launched with 500,000 units. Frankly, this is just capitalism at it's "finest". It kills me on the inside to see that launch day has come to this. SiN

Ahh, fair game. I haven't followed the game at all, so I wasn't sure what was being said about it. To be honest, Cliffy saying it's a "new" concept isn't *too* far off the mark. AFAIK, there was kill.switch that did this before, but apart from that I haven't heard of too many FPSs/TPSs using this mechanic. So yeah, it isn't brand new or anything, but for most people, it might as well be. God, I can't believe I'm defending Epic here ... I really don't like them! :) But then how does one score a great game that doesn't do something radically different? I mean, it's still a great game right? This is the issue I had with Vice City Stories. Big 8.0+ numbers for the reviews. As a GTA fan, this means I should buy it. But having read the reviews, I decided against it, because all they said was, "VCS is LCS will all the same bloody flaws but set in Vice City. We should mark it down, but it's GTA, we love GTA!". And frankly, I've had enough. I've played every GTA game in existance, and I can't play the same game again. So how do they rate VCS using numbers? I've had enough of it, but many people haven't. Do they mark it down because it doesn't do anything new, or leave it relatively high, because it still has that "winning" GTA formula? You know what, that's a very good point. I remember reading gamespots PD0 review and wondering how the hell it got a 9.0+. I think it has to do with, like you said, the ability to be completely impartial. Which is quite difficult to do. Admit it, you get over excited when you've got a new console, on a shiny new TV, and some stunning graphics. The issue I think is that gamespot and such need to rush these reviews out. There's no time for hindsight. Ever play a game for a week, and think it's the greatest game ever, only to deem the game terrible the following week? I think thats the issue. SiN

And 3D platformer games have been around since '96, yet we still hold Psychonauts in high regard. I don't understand what everyone is getting so angry about. GoW seems like a solid, polished game with a couple of innovative ideas. It also happens to have a rather uninspired art-style. But so what? I don't expect every game to be super-innovative in terms of gameplay and art. Some games can be great, without changing everything. GoW is one of those games. Well, if that's how you think, you might as well not read reviews at all. If you don't trust them, why bother reading them at all? I for one, think that game journalists have some integrity. Their reputation depends on it. For years, I read PCGamerUK and it never failed me. Every "Kieron Gillen" recommendation has been great. And hell, even gamespot/ign get it right every so often. I should point out that the X360 is a year into it's lifecycle, and a 9.1 isn't exactly an "omg ultimate mega games" score. Also, as it's been said many times before, the content of the review outweighs the number at the end. I read the Vice City Stories review on ign/gamespot, and despite the number at the end being big, I'm definitely not picking it up. SiN