The Consoles: A Retrospective - The Xbox 360

By Noolsey

The Xbox 360

The Xbox 360 has both an advantage and disadvantage being first released. Of course there's a lot of Third-Party support, and they get a lot of sales for being first, but they have to make sure the console works. All Nintendo had to do to break the 360 was release the console with better graphics, but at that same great price tag. Of course, if that had happened the PS3 could have struggled, too.

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Recently the 360 has introduced the Arcade, where you can play your favourite classics. This is essentially the Virtual Console, all over again, but there are a few more "Mature" shooters, such as Doom.

Currently it isn't amazingly popular. This is probably because the majority of those who have a 360 are fanboys, or those who wanted to be the first into this gen, and have no interest in other games. If they weren't, they would have waited for the Wii or PS3. The "casual" market of the 360 (those people who switch it on once a week) probably aren't going online with it, so can't download content and games for the Arcade. Therefore, Microsoft, and a lot of consumers are missing out.

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Paying to play online? Hmmph, fine. Wait, what? On top of any RPG costs? What the hell is this? Yes, because of the market the 360 was appealing to (generally the idiots) they could charge them to play online, because there's no way they could have passed by and ignored their chance to be number one on Halo, or make new players on Gears Of War feel unwelcome.

A massive problem for the casual players, and anyone who's looking for a good quality console this generation. Before buying one, it really does have to be considered. Play online, or get a PS3 with an extra game each year?

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Even today the full potential of the 360 hasn't been brought out, but hell, they never are at the start of a generation. The thing is, it has been about 2 years now, perhaps 3 since it was released and companies are still releasing poorly optimised games, which leave lots of graphical potential. If you've played a 360 game ported to the PC, you'll know what I mean here.

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The Xbox was the problem of the last generation when it came to controls. After all, it was a controller twice the size of your fist. The 360 pad is easily the best of this generation. It looks good, the buttons are all placed correctly and it's very, very comfortable. It isn't unlike the Gamecube pad, it just had more though put into user comfort.

(+1) First Released
(+1) Reasonable Price
(+1) Great Games Selection
(+/-0) Few Exclusives
(-1) Pay To Play
(-1) Terrible Online Community

Microsoft (+1)

Realisation

We, me and my brother recently took a holiday off from the forum and crappy weather and sought refuge in lovely Cyprus. Now I know Nintendo are rocking family's socks right now, and they have promised to keep doing so until we run out of money or they run out of plastic to make consoles with (greeenpeace does not like). Yet I never actually noticed the scale of it; how well its working.
What I first noticed was a blinding light, I then realised it was a DS Lite gleaming happily in the sun, on further inspection it must have been a 50 year old guy, laying on his sun bed, whilst playing brain training. The same day in the evening I saw a young girl clinging onto her pink DS Lite as she went out for the evening with her parents. Most the people I met and spoke to have a Wii for the family too.
Nintendo have said they're out of ideas, so will families buy more tacky repeats of what they were dragged in by? Or will Nintendo go back to the old formular next generation hoping to hell that their new customers come with them?
Ryan..

Noolsey's Roundup of the Nintendo E3 Press Conference

Hardware

• Wii Motion Plus

Wii Motion Plus seems to offer the same thing as the Wii remote did when it was first marketed. It will now enable the Wii remote to accurately track movement. It slots into the base of the Wii remote, so I assume you can't use the Nunchuck with it. Personally, I find this puzzling.

It doesn't seem to be a step forward. If Zelda was used with this new hardware, it would have been much more enjoyable, however you wouldn't be able to move. I assume, because of this there will be either a sequel to Red Steel or something similar to it. Obviously, it's just another way for Nintendo to make money.

• Wii Speak

Wii Speak, unlike a traditional headest, is a microphone which will sit on the sensor bar and pick up any noise in the room. It's primarily designed for use with Animal Crossing in the city area, or when a few friends go to your town.

This seems like a bad idea all around. Too hot, want to open a window? You can't, because the noise of passing cars will ruin everyone's fun, and so will all of the griefers, so start crying about a mute function while you can!

Games

Wii

• Animal Crossing: City Folk

Animal Crossing City Folk is set to be exactly the same as the original Gamcube game. The only large additions are microphone use (see Wii Speak) and the city. I'm unsure what the city is exactly, I don't know if everyone can be there at the same time, or the whole world. I would assume it's just for you.

Animal Crossing. There are no goals. You can't win. Therefore you are a loser.

• Shaun White Snowboarding

Shaun White Snowboarding will use the balance board. You tilt to make your character move from side to side an "hop" to make them jump. There isn't a clear goal to the game, it may be based on points, which means you have to hop, and have three to five seconds to waggle your feet.

What's the point? Nintendo thinks you're going to buy their Wii Fit board crap for this? Isn't it about £70?!

• Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Invasion

Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Invasion is "that game" which every series gets after X amount of games. You know the one, the racing game. It will feature racing through the sky using the balance board to perform tricks, much like the snowboarding game before it.

It will feature racing through the sky using the balance board to perform tricks, wait...what? What is the point? Isn't this essentaily the same as that Sonic rings game butusing a balance board to go left and right instead?

• Call Of Duty World At War

The next Call Of Duty set in the Pacific Theatre during World War 2. It will feature a few new weapons, such as the flamethrower, and can be played in Co-Op. Expect an experience like Rising Sun.

In my opinion, the best game announced. Although, it's made by Treyarch, the worst devs. I might actually buy this. Yes, me. Buy a Wii game...

• Wii Sports Resort

Wii Sports resort is a set of "Holiday" mini games. These include throwing a disk to a dog, sparring and Jet racing along a course.

Swords? The same as boxing? Throwing a thing to a dog? The American guy basically said the dog thing was crap. They last about 20 seconds each round. How crap.

• Wii Music

Just like Rock Band, but with Jazz stuff. It features a Sax (?), drums, a guitar, some sort of Xylophone, Cowbell and various other instruments. There is no goal, but there is a tutorial for each instrument, teaching you how to do it, this means you have to guess which notes to hit, when to hit them, and choose which song you're playing has to be memorised. To play this game properly you also need the balance board.

Okay, Nintendo. Everybod realises you love your balance board crap. You're shunning half of the (already annoyed) Wii owners because they won't/can't spend £70 on a plastic set of scales? And you wonder why Sony fans hate you.

DS

• Spore

A lot of people want spore, and a lot of people will be pleased to hear that they are releasing a "Custom" edition on DS. It will feature more character parts, and customisation ability than the other versions. However, there is little, or no focus on Multiplayer gaming or RTS sections at all.

It's Spore, but they've taken out the gameplay...smooth moves there.

• Guitar Hero

Two new Guitar Hero games will be released at the same time this year. The gameplay is virtually the same as other versions, however you use the touch screen instead. The two different versions will feature different songs. If a friend has a different version to you, you can play any of the songs.

"If a friend has a different version to you, you can play any of the songs" -- this leads me to believe that all of the songs are on each game, but for the whole experience you need both. Essentially you are buying half a game.

• Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars

No much was said, but this will be set in the (small) Chinatown district of Liberty City. We can only assume the gameplay will go back to an "original" style.

No comment, really. I really hated GTA before 4, now I believe it's the most overrated series ever. At least Halo has real online matches.

• Pokémon Ranger 2

A sequel to Pokémon ranger is also to be released. Not much was said, but it is likely to be exaclty the same as the first.

Same as the first? Wasn't the first a flop?

Misc

Nothing much else to say, but there were hints at a new Zelda and/or Mario before the end of next year, when the creators of the series' were described as "-hard at work".

Hopefully this Zelda will have better graphics (less "smudged" and blurred), a better story, and a fresh new feel with the new Wii Motion Plus addon. If it is, I might even be excited.

Blaze's Random Corner

So, you've not had a Blaze's random corner since early June. It's now a third of the way through July. I don't have an excuse. I was too lazy to make one. That, and the blog itself. I was too lazy to update. So, I guess I could cancel BRC.

Nah. Where'd the fun be in that?

So yeah. School is almost up for some, already up for others. No school means more time to do stuff like update this blog etc.

I wish I had something to put in this blog. But I don't. So, I'll just say some random stuff...

Top Gear. It's great. You should watch it.

Okami. I want some more info on it. So, if you have it/played it then could you please comment on this blog entry thing?

Thanks.

~ Blaze ~

The Consoles: A Retrospective - The Wii

Nintendo Wii

By Noolsey

I'll be the first to admit -- wait, that's a lie. I'll admit, the Wii is a good idea. Nintendo were striving for interactivity so you could actually feel your games. What 16 year old boy wants to do anything other than run around the forest in the role of John Rambo, fashioning spears from wood to jab through the chest of a police officer? Some, is the answer. The matter of the fact is that if we were given the choice to do that on, saw, the 360 or the Wii, we would choose the Wii.

The most unforgivable (hardware, wise) thing Nintendo have done, or haven't done, to be more precise, is their graphics engine. Take these screenshots as my example:

http://www.ngcfrance.com/images/news/call_...one/scr_004.jpg
http://www.ngcfrance.com/images/news/wii/c...y_3/scr_013.jpg

It was made for different hardawre, so it was probably a new, 'better' engine however the graphics are mostly the same. If anything, I would say the Gamecube version (top) is superior.

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What we really want is backwards compatability, right? The Wii came out top in this, with Nintendo offering the "Virtual Console". This promised a whole new world of gaming, both past gems that we never found, for a lower price, or a way to replace our broken games. But...

Well, don't you feel, just a little, that the games available are far from amazing. The list isn't big, and many of these games are crap you've never heard of. A 20 year old SNES game could be found on Ebay for £2.50, so why is it that we should have to spend £15 on Wii points to buy a single game. It doesn't really make sense to buy most of them.

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The games, what most people will argue make a console. Nintendo hasn't delivered here, don't argue. Their (arguably) best game is a port. The control scheme just hasn't been utilised as it should. Many game feel as though there on a "Free-Rail", you simply pull a lever to change direction. Either that or they're...eugh...

Imagine this:

You've invited 4 friends to a party, you tell them to bring what they think will make the night. One brings Cheerios. One brings a poker set. One brings some hookers. The other one brings a Wii and Wii Sports. I would embrace whoever brought the Cheerios and shun whoever brought the Wii with them. Hwo can any game be called a Party Game? You don't play games at a party. At least, you don't play games at a party where you don't play a muscular man trying to cut up and shoot other men.

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Controls: Find, I admitted it, it was a good idea. Mostly. But it is bad when put into practice. Not only is it often unresponsive, turns itself off, and uses battery power in random amounts of time, but it gets stuck in the corners, too. Why does it get stuck the in the corners? That doesn't even make sense, because it isn't registering on the screen, it the bar thing. Which idiot programmed the edge of the bar to not work? But hey, you can forgive those few point, they don't break a game (mostly). Then again, there aren't any great games to break. The Wiimote is too hard to use. If you're on a 15" TV, it's too small, too sensitive. If you're on a 42" HD TV the picture is horrible, and that;s the fault of the graphics.

What annoys me the most is that not even Nintendo use it now. They don't really use it, anyway. SSBB, people use others controls. MK:Wii, people use a wheel. Wait, what? What's the point in having that if you have to pay extra for a wheel anyway? You could play Gran Turismo on the PS2 (which happens to have better graphics) with a wheel that costs the same £20. My brother got a wheel for Burnout 3, with pedals for £20. It has worked perfectly. Yet, Nintendo add another £20 to the pricetag of a game so you get a "free" plastic case thing? Don't even get started on Wii Fit.

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Every good console has online play now. Wait, scratch that. Every new console has online capabilities now. The Wii fails every aspect of online play. I don't feel I need to explain this one, also I got bored while typing it.

tl;dr

(+ 2) The concept
(+ 1) ThePromises
(+/- 0) The Failure to fulfill
(- 1) The Games
(- 1) The Online
(- 1) The Controls
(- 1) The graphics

Nintendo (-1)

Noolsey

One for all, or all for one?

Well, I've noticed that on the forum there's a split opinion on something. Not liking to be called lazy by my peer I thought it'd be a good idea to check it out.

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I'm hoping my title is understandable for the subject. It was pointed out by SE2 Lab's ICT One. It has a 360 and Wii built in, along with various other products from Apple. Of course it isn't cheap at £12500.


So, would you rather have a gadget that could do many things, or many gadgets that could do one thing? Some of the advantages to having a one for all system is the ease of use as well as less clutter and wires and things, ICT One being a good example of this. Also with less devices comes less power consumption, which is becoming ever more important.
Some of the downsides to this however could be that with more technology per item, the item itself gets less manageable. Also you might get higher quality work from separate devices as they are specialised to do a specific job.
I have a computer, it plays freeview, music, DVDs and games. My phone for communication, takes photos, plays music and goes on the internet. Do they need to do what they do?
One last example are multi-format games, do they need to be on all consoles, or would they be better if the designers stopped being money grabbing suits and concentrated their efforts on making a game for one specific console?

Pokémaniac John said something along the lines of "Nah, I have a camera to take photos, thanks."

"That fridge-like thing is excessive, in my opinion. I can see the convenience of phones that double up as a media player and camera (though Internet access goes a bit too far), and computers having various features is always useful. But having so much in one ugly box is pointless and confusing" - Dino Dan

"Well, generally I would have one thing for one task, so if one thing breaks I would be able to use my others as I usually would (providing I didn't want to watch a DVD and it was my TV that broke). But I'm going to be getting a new TV which I will use a monitor aswell, so I will be using it for gaming, running my PC and watching films.

The majority of companies shouldn't bother porting their games over. See: Devil May Cry 3 (PC). Then again, I wouldn't buy the Orange Box for PS3 or 360 (unless I didn't have a PC) because PC is the superior platform." - Noolsey

More opinions would be appreciated and will be posted, submit them on the forum or as a blog comment.

So, One for all, or all for one?

ONM: Fail

Sorry about lack of articles. I'm not even gonna blame exams, cos they're over now. I'm just lazy, and so's Ryan. So that's why there are no articles. However I have just remembered something I read in ONM this month so will rant about that.

Chandra Nair has written an article about Ubisoft, and was deeply critical of their "Ubidays" event (which is by no means a unique thing, it was near universally lambasted as a crapfest). He was lamenting their decision to bring "Dogz" to the Wii. And then he said something which strikes me as stupid, biased, fanboyish and just plain wrong, all at the same time.

"It's bad enough that Ubisoft shamelessly cashed in on Nintendo's greatest ideas (yes I'm looking at you Dogz...). "

Now, from Wikipedia:

"Petz (Dogz and Catz) is a series of games dating back to 1995, in which the player can adopt, raise, care for and breed their own virtual pets."

Petz is a series dating from 1995. 1995 is, surprisingly, ten years before 2005, when Nintendo released Nintendogs. I played Petz 3 on my dad's old TIME machine in 1998. So...yeah. Nintendo CLEARLY went back in time and released Nintendogs for the DS in 1995, before Ubisoft released Petz, meaning Ubisoft can steal the idea. Makes PERFECT SENSE!

Yes, anyway, what I'm saying is, it's a complete farce to say that Ubisoft releasing Dogz is cashing in on Nintendo's ideas. Virtual pets are nothing new. VP games are currently in style, thanks to Nintendo. That doesn't mean Nintendo invented them, it just re-popularised the series.

Also in this issue they have a brief section on Laurent Fischer giving excuses for late games. And of course, being the mouth of Nintendo, not once do they mention that he recently called their entire readership geeks and otaku. If I get bored over the weekend I'll do an analysis of some figures regarding launch dates which they provided, and show them as bull.

So to conclude: ONM are so far up their own arse they can't see anything beyond the giant Nintendo lozenge which they shoved up their as part of their agreement on getting the job...

Follow up: Chris@ONM has raised a good point in that actually Ubisoft didn't develop Petz. The fact remains though that a virtual pet sim was not Nintendo's idea, which Nair implied...

More follow up: Words from Chris himself on the matter."You want to know why we didn't mention that he called our readership "geeks and otaku"? Because he didn't. I was there, and he was misquoted. But of course, the wonderful thing about the internet is that news can be reported and riot mobs can start before people actually check the facts out. " - Chris Scullion, ONM

See our thread here