I started thinking a little more about what the price drop means to me, in that purchasing one a month ago is a minor annoyance now considering some of the bundles that are out there right now (included remote, for example).  The $100 drop looks like a very good thing from a sales perspective now because the PS3 was at one point #1 on Amazon today.  The change in price hardly solves every problem perceived in the marketplace for the PS3, but at least it's a step in the right direction.

After toying with the two current consoles in their infancy (PS3, Wii), I'm going to go against the grain for most people.  There are, in fact, more games for the PS3 right now that interest me than the Wii, which is to say 1: Ninja Gaiden Sigma.  Yes, it is a remake of a game, but as it's a complete remake and massive graphics upgrade of a game I've never played before it is more than worth it to me.  Twilight Princess was a good Gamecube game.  I'll throw Resident Evil 4 as a great one.  But really, there are no Wii games that I want to play right now.  I tried Wii Sports, it was mildly entertaining, but it suffices to say that I am by no means the target audience for that console.  Until there are some fun in-depth games to play for the Wii it's simply a dead console to me.  Melee, Paper, and most other titles people are salivating over I just don't care about at all.  If I hadn't played already Twilight Princess then I'd consider the Wii.

As it stands though, the Wii has zero upcoming titles that I want to play.  It's possible that it's just generational.  I'm not a gamer in his infancy anymore- I'm a seasoner gamer.  Explaining this one's going to be a little challenge.  Early on the Mario games provided endless hours of entertainment.  I replayed them constantly.  Mario on the NES was great.  Mario on the SNES was my all-time favorite.  Mario on the N64 was still a lot of fun.  After trying Mario on the Gamecube I realized something- I was tired of it.  There isn't a whole lot more that franchise can do for me.  I'm not even talking about the base Mario adventure games- racing, golf, baseball, etc. all feel stale to me.  I've been there, done that, and have several boxes of T-shirts claiming that.

What it looks like to me is that despite enjoying Sigma a lot, I'm not sure that either console is worth getting right now.  Yes, the PS3 has several upcoming titles that interest me (Metal Gear and GTA to name two exclusives), so that's pretty close to me saying with confidence that I am very happy that I have the console.  The upscaled movie watching has been a great joy as well, but it's still easy to see why people either really love or really hate either of these two consoles.  It does surprise me that a $100 price drop has caused as much of a sales increase as it has even after a day.  Once BluRay becomes more standard, which could be 4 years, the price will probably drop even more, and that's when the people who love the price of the other consoles may finally be forced to seriously consider the PS3.

As taste varies greatly, I can see why people are attracted to the Wii as well.  But Sony is doing the right thing to right the PS3 ship.  Let's see if it stays the course, ye scurvy dogs.

It's finally been announced- the current top of the line package now comes in at $499.  If you want an even bigger hard drive and a bundled game, namely MotorStorm, feel free to still pay $599.  What's funny is that if you read message boards this is mostly viewed as bad news and more 'proof' that the PS3 is going to fail.  Ignore the Sony stock price and the fact that we're supposed to ignore console problems within a year of its release (that's what Nintendo bots will tell you in defense of their lack of games).

I guess the price should have remained the same or gone up.

In a sense this change is good news, but keep in mind that the PS3 book comes with instructions on how to put in your own hard drive.  In reality you could throw in a 350 GB hard drive and still get the PS3 to work properly.  If you're not crazy about MotorStorm then just get the $499 version and buy a nice meaty hard drive.  It's possible to get 400 GB hard drives for under $100, FYI.

After some more digging yesterday a lot of what I said turned out to be a galactic pile of rubbish.  Manhunt 2 was never intended for release on the 360 and Microsoft as well holds an Adult Only content ban on its consoles.  This pushes the release of the game to null and void unless Rockstar plans to change the content of the game.  All of these moves are interesting if you choose consider rumblings that the game is tamer than the original Manhunt title.

On a lighter note, after ignoring several back-and-forths on the game I'm anticipating more than any other, Spore, it appears if there is a delay at all for this game it is only by a couple months.  So, if you are keeping score, the game is still due out early 2008.  Yes, the date is always subject to change, and if it changes again I may have to hurt somebody, but if you bothered with any of the multiple announcements this week there are no planned changes in Spore's release.

It may be very difficult to pin down, but within the past three or so years we have started to act very snippety towards video games and their ratings.  People became cranky when Oblivion was rated as Mature.  People were inflamed over GTA.  With all of the violent video games being released recently it has a feeling as if video game companies are looking to find the artificial boundaries that society has placed on how violent video games can really be before they become valid targets for whining parents, frivolous lawsuits, political fiduciary sinkholes, and talking points on entertainment programs that masquerade as news shows.

Most gamers (as in, people who play a lot of video games, not people who play them only with friends or family) are completely against any form of censorship on games that makes them more scrutinized than any other form of media.  Logically entertainment is entertainment and art is art- special rules are simply people deciding that they need to legislate taste (like taking down Christmas trees in public areas despite that tradition being a secular one and not religious because, as we all know, Jesus had no problem with Christians idolizing something besides God).  Sadly the use of logic has been anything but significant our societal shifts over the past five years.

Not that I am prone gross generalizations or sweeping statements.

In my early days of ranting (back in the good ol' days, when good old boys would drink whiskey and wine saying that this would be another day to whine, or something like that) I used to make jokes that if people were going to become so up in arms about video games like GTA they should sit down and play Manhunt.  It didn't make sense to me at the time that people would pick on one game but not another.  Lots of people hitched their wagon to wiping GTA off the face of the Earth, and now that those people failed and given Rockstar celebrity status as a premier video game developer.  Rockstar's reaction is quite predictable- release several more controversial games that will get people talking.  Bully did a great job at that and although it was a great game in terms of story, gameplay, and overall message, it was hardly a commercial success.

Rockstar's next offering:  Manhunt 2, which has now achieved and ESRB Adult Only rating and now unsupported by Nintendo and Sony.  Nintendo's reaction was not hard to predict on this as they have been selling themselves as a friendly gaming console provider for a while (lessons learned from their lawsuits in the 90's).  The latest Manhunt is a great example of Rockstar pushing the envelope, albeit perhaps a little too far, to the point where people may look at the game instead of ignoring it.  Violence alone won't get me to bite on the game, but what it will do is make me keep my eyes open to see if the game itself has good gameplay and is worthy of a rental or purchase.

Sony's reaction to the game has me a bit puzzled as they have taken every game from Rockstar up through now and have been a major beneficiary with the PS2 being the first to get all of the previous generation's main GTA titles.  It felt like Sony and Rockstar were for all intents and purposes allies in the video game world.  Within the past week the dynamic shifted when Microsoft paid Rockstar $50 million to have exclusive GTA IV content for the Xbox 360.  I have not seen anyone else talk about this one in relation to this Manhunt game, and while it is quite probable that there is no relation I cannot help but wonder if Sony is attempting to make a statement to Rockstar by not supporting a title that would have drawn some revenue into their PS3 venture.  Manhunt is not a major title, so it's not like Sony is making a major sacrifice with this move.

I am far from being heartbroken by this development, and to be honest it's hard to care that much about the sequel of a game I never played in the first place.  This entire situation feels like PR silliness and largely inconsequential.  I'm sure some Microsoft executives in the Xbox division uncorked some champagne when they realized that they just got an exclusive license to a game without having to pay anything for it.  If the game turns out to be highly successful then we'll see if Sony (probably) or Nintendo (highly unlikely) reverses their stance on their Manhunt 2 bans.

I've never been one for sympathizing with gold farmers. Not that I don't like them, it's just their spam gets mildly annoying in game. Still, the more creative they get the more online game developers figure out the ways to change the game to allow players to prevent spam messages from ruining their experience. It's the same principle as hackers- the more creative they get, the more secure software and networks become. I don't even call them a necessary evil- I consider them to be necessary.

Still, a lot of people have an unbridled hatred towards these people. Others just see it as a way to make money. After all, if other people can exploit online games to make money, especially in other countries (if you're ever played these game the Chinese gold farmer jokes are more rampant than even those annoying Chuck Norris jokes), why can't we? If you ever wanted to know more about these things then you will want to read this article on the life of a gold farmer. It may not tell you anything surprising or something you already haven't read somewhere else, but it does describe in detail what gold farming is all about in online games. This article specifically deals with World of Warcraft, but in reality any popular online game will have its farmers.

It's not the gold farmers that should bother you with these games. Firstly, Blizzard has done a remarkable job in limiting the gold farming done in WoW, especially with the Burning Crusade expansion. The number of open world epic item drops has been minimized to the point where farmers can't reap the benefits of farming open areas for these drops- gold has to be made the old fashioned way- by doing what everybody else does. Not a groundbreaking change, but hopefully it is one that other game designers consider when designing games. As long as we keep making steps to reduce farmers bringing an economy to its knees I'm a happy guy.

Still, as I said, the problem is not the farmers themselves. The problem is those that want to use their services. The most obvious customer is someone who just wants to be power-leveled and be given a head-start. Incidentally, this is how you still manage to find massive idiots (even ones that somehow have no idea how to swim) above level 60 and even at 70 in WoW. Other customers includes people who just want gold instead of putting in the work themselves, parents who want to play with their kids and need that help to keep up, people who don't understand how to play so they seek out a sieve, and people who are just plain lazy. I'm not sure how many different scenarios hold merit objectively and I refuse to analyze this situation this way. The point is that if so many people didn't want to be given a way out of their mediocrity then this problem simply wouldn't exist.

Anyway, now that I'm off my soapbox, it's an interesting article.

One does not necessarily beget the other, but in this case I thought it was particularly amusing that the time it took to put my next mini-rant here together, while it felt like an inordinate amount of time, was still microscopic in comparison to the amount of time it took the Church of England to file suit (or at least threaten to) against Sony.  For those of you not in the know, suing Rockstar has become much too passe.

In the Resistance: Fall of Man PS3 game the Church of Manchester was a setting for one of the many in-game battles.  Naturally this serves as grounds for a lawsuit because that area of England is plagued with gun violence.  Now that the game has sold over a million copies worldwide it's time for a baseless lawsuit against a company for a successful game.  The wide array of specious reasons include bad taste complaints from anti-gun campaigners (because pixelated guns are always evil and promote actual gun violence) and slants against Christianity (because the gaming industry is always anti-Christian but pro-Islam and Judaism).

We have been dealing with this long enough to realize that as long as a problem exists in the real world its depiction in video games is always cause for concern.  I understand what gun violence can and does do to a community, so my aggravation towards this situation is not out of a slanted view against those people in Manchester.  The problem here is that people want to be protected from reality in almost every aspect of life.  Video games have been a popular target for a while, so when game artists and designers were able to research and create a very impressive digital representation of the Manchester Cathedral their efforts had to be picked on.

Undoubtedly the anti-gun people would have been upset no matter what because the game is a shooter, so there's not a whole lot that can be done there (other than ignoring people that are always going to be against gaming anyway).  It's not important that the guns are being used to take down aliens (because every living thing has rights- except vegetables and carbon, the basis of all life), what's important is that people think that the game developers are trying to make some high-arcing statement by using Manchester as a setting instead of some fictional world.  Personally I always love how people feel the need to tell writers how to tell a story.  Remember that the game is centered around the fall of mankind, which, by definition, requires that the game involve humans on Earth.  Why England?  I really don't care.  England was also the spawning point of all of the dragons in Reign of Fire- I don't recall some major outcry about that one.  Maybe Christian Bale has some special deal with England.

Whatever.

Regardless, my point is that. aside from the massive delayed reaction to complain about the game (it does take a long time to research all Bible passages to see if some doctrine is violated by the execution of aliens in a video game), that it becomes difficult to comprehend what the Church hopes to gain by making this statement against Sony.  Maybe they feel Sony is too pre-occupied with other lawsuits or maybe they're sweating over getting the PS3 to become a marketing success like the Wii.  Such things can be quite difficult to understand, but one thing I can tell you with certainty is that believing that video game violence can cause more harm than real violence is far more dangerous to real victims than video games themselves could ever could.

No, this is not a beta announcement.  I feel this is rather urgent, actually.  Despite my overall disinterest in the genre, my copy of Crackdown gave me an opportunity to beta test Halo 3 recently.  Deciding whether I would even bother was a tiresome internal struggle.  The Forza 2 demo was interesting and I love racing games, but shooters are just not my cup of tea.  Still, it would be a massive dereliction of duty if this free beta download was simply passed by.  Can a gamer really be a gamer when they just ignore a chance to play something for free?

Largely a rhetorical question, but it does also serve the purpose of telling you what my decision was without really telling you.  The wait commenced and then the play began.  I was more than content to hold opinions to myself considering that I got what I expected and this game is a long way from release.  Well, I am still not going to tell you what I really think because this game just felt like Halo 2.  None of the changes had me drooling or made me consider that this game is an evolutionary step that I cannot miss.  Besides, if I really want to I can just wait for friends to get it and blast through the campaign via co-op just as with the other two games.

What never ceases to amaze me about these betas is the amount of whining about how certain things aren't polished.  Yes, as a tester it is your responsibility to point things out that bother you.  Reporting problems is the only way to get developers to respond.  If you are polite about it they will even listen to you more closely than most other testers.  The incessant whining about the graphics in the Halo 3 beta struck me as particularly troublesome.  People whined about it during the multiplayer action and the whining continued to spread like a virus all over the Web.  The spread of this was by no means surprising, mind you.

The announcement I feel must be made here is that people need to understand that betas are never going to have everything polished.  Denouncing the game completely is silly.  You need to understand that while the 360 and PS3 game developers do need to take advantage of graphics, especially Halo 3 when one of its strengths on the Xbox was its presentation, they are trying to make the game itself better also.  Don't expect these betas to only need minor tweaks before release.  The ship date is in the fall, and right now trust me when I tell you that you want Bungie to focus on the gameplay of Halo 3.  Yes, the graphics can only serve to make this game the blockbuster it can be (Halo 2 was a massive hit, but quite honestly there was not much meat there compared to the original Halo), but without steps forward in an overall better gameplay experience this game will not be anything at all.

You see, Gears of War provided the first big game for the 360 since launch.  Elder Scrolls IV and PGR3 were really good games, but past that the 360 owners were waiting and waiting for something they could sink their teeth into.  When you think of Xbox, you immediately think 'Halo' as THE game for the console whether you liked that game or not.  Halo is the defining franchise for the Xbox.  It's not my favorite game for the console by far, but that is hardly the point.  The 360 is far past the point in its life cycle where games can survive on the Shiny Factor.  Games need to have a big edge in gameplay or Nintendo owners are going to have every right to say that game developers are not developing anything new for the next-gen consoles.  If I purchase Halo 3, I want it to be a purchase that stands out as the next step in console shooters.  If I get Halo 2 with just a facelift that would effectively be like buying a Mustang GT with a 4-cylinder engine.  Nobody wants that.

Stop worrying about not getting everything under the sun in a beta- you already know everything isn't in there anyway, so don't expect the full show.  Betas are to give gamers an idea of what's coming and something to sink their teeth into.  If you expect anything more than you can only be disappointed.

Who doesn’t enjoy bashing companies like EA?  Memorial day weekends bring that type of thinking to my mind.  Anyway, judging by sales figures over the past couple of years it seems lots of people not only have been annoyed by a lack of good games from EA many people have been quite annoyed by many of their acts (overworking employees, buying out competition, destroying good gaming franchises, and creating monopolies with exclusive gaming licenses to name a few).  As someone who has been steadfastly against anything EA has done for the past 3 years, I believe it is time to, at the very least, look at the cesspool that is their company and see if there is anything worth being salvaged.

It is true that avoiding their games has only been exacerbated by my complete addiction to World of Warcraft.  It is easy to avoid games when you only have interest in playing one.  I am a much happier gamer now that I have moved on from that addiction.  I still refuse to buy any new games with the EA logo on them, but enough time has passed where I can at least examine their current franchises to try and find something that may make me say that they are not operating at a 100% evil capacity anymore.  They did pull the plug on their James Bond games finally, so they are starting to figure something out.

I will not make it a secret that the impending release of Spore next year is part of my motivation.  I won’t even try to deny that Warhammer Online has piqued my interest.  There have been a couple games that I would have given a chance recently had it not been my credo to avoid any of their products.  I have not gone as far as convincing myself that what they spit out is covered in e-coli (yet) because most of their games have been garbage.  Madden and NBA Live have been their most shining examples of trash games for three years running.  This has made their exclusive license push all the more aggravating.  It’s like the old saying goes- you cannot force feed your customers garbage.  As they were topping the garbage with sewage I have not been hungry for any of their services.

Let us look at their main franchises to get an idea of what they can do to turn their name around (in terms of quality games).

Madden- Their most popular series in terms of units sold, this franchise has been dead to me since 2002 and many joined my way of thinking once the Sega 2K series started taking off and surpassed Madden in overall game quality and presentation.  For many this series became dead once the exclusive license hammer dropped.  I published a list of fundamental problems with the gameplay within the past year that I have since 1999.  The way I see it, until these problems are resolved and the exclusive license expires the franchise will stay dead.

NBA Live - If you are a sports junky like me you have been pained by this series for a good chunk of time.  NBA2K has been the better franchise for 3 years (despite Shaq being on the cover), and really the problem is that Live dropped the ball after 2004.  The 2003/2004 timeframe for Live present great gameplay for basketball, only the franchise has regressed since then.  The franchise mode does not feel as complete anymore, the constant changing of the jump step is annoying (first it was overpowered, and then it never resulted in anything but a charge or travel- make up your friggin’ mind people!), and the AI is terrible.  I’m happy with 2K and have no intentions of going back.  The Live games need to be completely revamped before giving them a chance again.

SimCity - To be fair this game was so good I didn’t even know that EA owned Maxis until SimCity 3000.  I didn’t know Maxis made it until deep into my SimCity 2000 phase.  I didn’t care.  While there have been a plethora of Sim titles over the past 10 years SimCity is the flagship and the best of any of the other Sim games.  That is, until SimCity 4 came out.  By the grace of God I managed to borrow the game from someone before simply buying it.  3000 is my favorite of all the iterations in the SimCity franchise, so seeing 4 fall flat on its face was, in fact, heartbreaking.  The economy in the game was completely broken- the fact that you needed to build a city whose sole purpose was to take in garbage and power from the city you wanted to build was very annoying.  I was in the group of people who never had a problem making money in any of the City games in any of the first 3 titles, but somehow in 4 generating revenue became impossible.  Sure, the integration with Sims to get people to give you feedback on neighborhoods was quite cool, but when you can’t have fun building a city you know the game is broken.  Maybe the next title in the series will be fine, but until then nostalgia will win out on this series.

Sims - If you want to talk about addictions, this is a great place to start.  The appeal of playing a game where you simulate someone’s life is difficult to explain.  In college I coined the Point Blank Theory, which states that some games look less appealing than a Pauly Shore movie until you sit down to play them. The overall definition of the theory is still in flux because those movies are still highly unappealing when you sit down to watch them, which blows apart the gaming theory as a whole.  Anyway, people went from openly mocking the game to refusing to give up the controller after 30 minutes.  I mention this because the game didn’t look fun until I sat down and gave it a whirl.  After years of playing the original I came up with a list of changes that I thought would be good shifts in game’s fundamentals.  Three of them made it into Sims 2, which, to me, proved that my advanced degree in computer science paid off (nevermind the whole job thing).  The downside is that the number of expansion packs for these games is a running joke in the gaming community, despite their high sales numbers.  Reducing the number of expansion packs by making the packs larger would go a long way to rebuilding the character issues people have with the company.

Command & Conquer - One of the staples of the RWS (Real-time War Simulation) genre (a.k.a. RTS, but as I’ve said in the past real-time strategy is a horrid genre name because that name applies just as well to Tetris as this franchise).  Quite honestly I was never as big of a fan of this franchise as WarCraft (before WarCraft 3), but these games have been genuinely solid.  There has not been a lot of fresh ideas in the genre as a whole in a while, let alone this franchise, but if they did make the next game as fresh as the first and second games were people would eat it up.  People are dying for a great new RWS- evidenced by the fervor surrounding the announcement of StarCraft 2.

Battlefield - Not being much of a war game fan it is hard to really get behind them and defend them as a good potential cornerstone for EA, but Battlefield 2 was a fantastic game at its core.  There were some issues with multiplayer that hurt its reputation before some early patches, but this game was very well done as a FPS.  Commandeering vehicles was fantastic, but the coolest part of the game for me was the ability to play the role of a general and drop in supplies and reinforcements.  It isn’t that hard to bring in fresh ideas into such a young genre, but when you throw down the improvements that Battlefield 2 did you a great franchise starting to catch steam.  War games are not my thing, but I can tell you that the reception the gaming community gave the last installment in the franchise will only serve as a launching point for fans and production budget for Battlefield 3.

Need for Speed - If you like driving games at one point you had to have given one of the Need for Speed games a shot.  If you are like me you waited until Underground 2 in 2004 before you bothered looking at it.  Right now I am knee deep in my used copy of Carbon and am loving every second of it.  I used to think that GTA and Carmageddon were the only games where you just drive around and cause vehicular mayhem.  Within the past two years I discovered this game and one other.  The car customization combined with the street racing is entertaining.  I don’t know how much fresh air can be breathed into this series considering the numerous iterations to date, but if EA keeps this franchise breathing then you can start to win people over again.

Burnout - This is the other game that involves vehicular destruction.  This game is so similar to Need for Speed I wonder why EA continues to make it- other than to milk money off of a franchise name anyway.  This game doesn’t have a career where you build up a car like Need for Speed, but you do have several challenges for races and destruction.  This franchise made sense to me when Akklaim held it, but right now it feels like the only thing this game has going for it is the destruction challenges.  The game felt old to me after one iteration, and in my opinion this franchise should be buried and forgotten.

If you include the upcoming Spore release, the only positive things I can see coming down the pike from EA revolve around simulations, probably Need for Speed, and maybe Command & Conquer.  Nothing else under the EA franchise name holds any appeal for me at all.  Really the message I want to send here is that I want to lighten up on EA and give them a shot, but their lineup is not helping me get there.  So while my earlier movie analogy failed, right now I honestly can state that this sentiment makes think of EA as the gaming version of the Wachowski Brothers.

No… that wasn’t a compliment.

I don't think there's much else I can state on the matter. If you can trust the source, we are to believe that Fox is going to produce a movie about The Sims.

Now, I am a huge fan of the series. I love playing this game. It is well beyond a cash cow for EA and it is proof that Will Wright is a legendary developer (his team is as well). But.... it's a simulation about life. My own original thought on the matter: EA wants money, and licensing fees are fantastic. Fox takes heat on a bad movie, not EA.

Still, if you want to hear the standard reaction that everyone else has, here it is again:

There is no base content for the game! This is deep into the realm of moronic!

I felt I needed to take a different stance on the announcement of Starcraft 2.  No, it's absolutely not the case that I don't want it, it is a must buy for me, but nobody was talking about what made the game looked interesting.  Frankly, somebody had to say something.  I didn't find the exact voice I was searching for with this one, but still works well enough for starters.

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With all of the interesting things developing in the gaming world over the past month you would think I would have made the time to write about some of them.  Instead, thanks to the purchasing of the Civilization IV expansion my time has mostly centered around wreaking havoc on the Spanish (someone care to explain how they became the Zulus for IV?).  Sad to say, I have been struggling playing on the mediocre levels of the game.  You would think playing these games for over 15 years would hold some value, but the game has changed enough where you do need to learn some new tricks to right the ship.

Anyway, the big bombshell that has been looming over the Internet finally crash landed over the weekend.  Blizzard has been holding an announcement over our heads for a while with a ton of speculation.  It could have been anything from the Warcraft, Starcraft, or Diablo universe from a sequel to another online game.  Reading all of the speculation was quite entertaining itself as thousands of people online suddenly became expert industry analysts or were insiders with reliable information.  This happens almost all of the time, but it has yet to be anything other than entertaining.

Anyway, I usually do not hold my breath waiting for an announcement from a developer but Blizzard is one of the 3 or 4 exceptions that I have in place because they routinely churn out something that I enjoy.  One could argue that after being hopelessly addicted to World of Warcraft for two years and having it nearly consume my life that it would be wise to enjoy titles from other developers in the meantime.  Considering that the game is probably not going to be ready until at least late 2008 there is plenty of time for other titles.  Hellgate, Ratchet & Clank, Metal Gear, Last Remnant, Spore, Ninja Gaiden, GTA, and Forza all have compelling new releases within the year.  If all of that doesn’t keep me busy then my bank account is almost guaranteed to be void of money.

When Blizzard announced that their next big project is Starcraft II there were millions rejoicing.  International Starcraft tournaments are still going on, which is very impressive for a title as old as Starcraft.  Plenty of people have been patiently waiting for what many consider to be the best of the three major Blizzard universes to finally have a sequel.  Whatever the wait is going to be, fans can begin to breathe a little more easily knowing that the franchise is not dead.  They have only patiently been waiting for over 10 years for it, and now the countdown to the next addiction can begin… only it can’t, because right now there is no release date set anywhere.  After waiting for the initially cataclysmic wave of internet traffic barreling its way towards the streamed movies subsided I began to look at them myself.  I apologize for any horrific flashbacks to the Day After Tomorrow that may have brought.

An opening cinematic along with some gameplay footage is not nearly enough for me to crow about how exciting this game may be, but if you had any fun with this game before looking at the new screenshots online must whet your whistle.  Hours upon hours of fighting people on Battlenet and toying with the campaign editor await once more.  I remember the years I spent playing the first game and have nothing but positive memories all around.  My VHS tapes of all the battles I recorded are long gone (in case there was any question on my geek factor), but new cinematics can always be had.

There is, as always, a big stumbling block.  A lot of the units are still there and mostly the game may not change at all.  As such, the question a lot of people ask is why tinker with a formula that works?  This is one of the funniest questions as it does touch on the central part of the war between all the current consoles.  The fact of the matter is that every console relies on formulae from franchises still working to sell games.  Microsoft needs Halo to give itself a big market share.  Nintendo needs Zelda, Mario, and Melee to sell big.  Sony needs Gran Turismo to succeed.  As far as exclusive titles go those are the big ones.  With all of the rumors on Metal Gear and Final Fantasy no longer being Sony exclusives it is hard to state with any certainty how Sony can dominate this round of consoles.

Putting the console spin on this issue aside for now, we have to look at Starcraft.  What is it about the sequel that is worthy of a ton of attention? Based on the fact that the game has not seen a new release in a long time and it still being very popular is enough to get millions of copies sold.  For people who have not seen the game before, or those that enjoy seeing franchises evolve, what is this sequel going to provide to make it worthwhile?  Not only that, but what can the game provide the genre?  The war simulations have felt relatively stale to me for a while, and, like any other genre, new ideas to maintain freshness are always important in making a game the best it can be.

It’s strange- I really know nothing about the game other than “new units” and “updated graphics.”  The critic inside me says I definitely need to know more.  The gamer is dying to see more footage.  It sickens me that I’ve been pulled in with just a video and some screenshots, but I know I must have it.

Delta Airlines- they must be pioneers!  Recently, if you missed it, Delta started adding stations in airports for downloading demos of Nintendo DS games for people to play.  My airport has yet to get them, but my city is not on top of the ball with technology.  In fact, it's still a running joke that it is called an international airport because all it does is fly a 25 minute trip over to Toronto.  Regardless, this is still interesting and exciting and everything else.  It's hard for me to get excited by it because right now I have all the DS games I want to play.

The option of trying new ones does strike a chord for many.  When you go to an airport and see most people either tooling away on a laptop, cell phone, music player, or handheld console this is a logical move.  Delta is basically just trying to get some extra fliers on their airline with this move.  Based on the recent success of the DS it is a good bet that Delta is paying Nintendo royalties to set up the airport networks (unless Nintendo's licensing is quite different from most other contracts in the software field, which is possible).

Maybe this won't get you to fly with Delta any more than before, but it is a signal that business are recognizing the potential of gaming as a way to draw people in.  We already knew MP3 players were mainstream, now actual handheld gaming is.

In case there is any ambiguity- no, I don't consider cellular phones as proper gaming devices.

As for being back on the horse for both a variety of gaming and writing my thoughts down in articles so far after a week I'm doing quite well.

Yippee.

Forza 2 captured my eye a couple weeks ago when I started reading about what was going into the game.  Granted, when you talk about racing games not a whole lot needs to be said to let me have a go at it.  When you mark yourself as a GT competitor I am forced to take notice.  GT is not going to go down in my book as a perfect racing game... mostly because one hasn't been made yet.  For the record, to date the best racing experience I have had are F-Zero and Top Gear 2.  PGR 3 and GT 4 have been pretty good but not perfect.  Apex, on the other hand, is the gold standard for horrible racing games.

I feel you needed to know the spectrum as it is before continuing.

Forza 2 has a chance to claim the crown.  It is not an expectation or even a requirement to allow me to enjoy this game.  I am not one of those people that let's unrealized expectations to sour my opinion on a game.  All games have room for improvement, and quite obviously some need more work than others, and no game will ever not be topped by another game down the road.  It may take 20 years to happen, but it always does.

So far.

The question is this- why bother getting excited about this new game?  It's just another racing game.  When you see a game come out that fits inside your core genre you always tend to jump at it.  Racing and RPG's are my core- I feel as if I need them to survive.  After reading about the tracks, the cars, the racing customizations I was forced to find more.  Lo and behold I download the demo on my 360 and give it a shot.

After shifting out of PGR driving mode the game started to make sense and I began to see the direct competition to Gran Turismo.  Things just started to make sense after that.  The damage modeling was good but not great (perfect damage modeling for me is enough accidents or damage starts to affect speed and drive train with an eventual complete engine failure or explosion).  The AI was something that I have wanted in GT for a long time (the computer cars react to avoid collisions quite well, they box you in to prevent you from passing, and have no qualms with putting you in a spin).  The cars and tracks go without saying as impeccable (visit Wikipedia if you want to know more).

While $60 is a lot I am willing to throw down this cash at the outset to be one of those people that plays the game from the beginning and starts to compete online with it.  Right now it looks like it is worth the investment.  With any luck this game is my next multi-month addiction.

But if Blizzard does exactly what I don't want them to and announce an MMO Starcraft or Diablo then all hell will break loose... especially if it's the latter.

When I placed my pre-order for it the choice was obvious to me at the time.  I have a 360 and no immediate plans to get a PS3.  There are only 1 or 2 games for the PS3 that make me want to get one and there don't seem to be any exclusive titles that are calling my name.  There are several 360 games that are interesting and I've already invested in that console.  So what's the PS3 draw?  Can there possibly be one?

Hardware issues for the 360 are one.  With the relatively numerous reports of people having to send their console back for repairs multiple times, there's the ominous feel over my head that the anvil's ready to drop.  But that's only minor, and, after all, my launch PS2 is still running like a champ.  I must be doing something right with my entertainment environment.

The real draw is that now there's a slightly larger possibility that a PS3 price drop is coming (based on the fact that the diodes used for the new drives have their prices plummeting due to availability).  Also, because the 360's base drive is not hi-def and the PS3's is, the game itself may require multiple discs.  This is an unconfirmed rumor, but it's popped up in a couple areas.  More digging I'll need to do to make sure this isn't some scare tactic eating at me.

Still, it is something to keep your eyes open for.  If the PS3 price drops to something in the area of $450, suddenly the console becomes very tempting.  $600 is the price of early adoption for next-gen movies, and the prices on those drive technologies always drop dramatically.  The only question is when, and when may in fact be soon.

Believe it or not... I'm not dead!

Time for a quick entry today, so here goes. Awaiting the next big games for the PC it's hard not to pay attention to the latest traged^H^H^H^H^H^H OS release from Microsoft. Part of me wants to jump to Vista and prep myself for DirectX 10, but the reality of the situation is that there are a ton of problems with the OS. I used to think buying a Mac was too expensive, but looking at the hardware requirements to make gaming run smoothly on a Vista machine it is now actually cheaper to buy a Mac.

Of course, I don't get the games I want then. So what to do, what to do....

The choice is not hard- when dealing with potential disasters from change, it is best to not change. Why not stick with what makes you happy? XP, okay, it doesn't make me 'happy' per se, but I am able to play games on it. I am able to enjoy the games I want to play, and the upcoming games that interest me the most, namely Hellgate: London and Spore, are both supported in XP. When you read articles that deal with a multitude of unmitigated disaster areas (not that I'm prone to overstatement, mind you) it cannot help but make you wonder why bother with a new OS right now? What do I really have to gain?

If you want to know what the feature changes were Wikipedia is a good source to look at to start. If you are a gamer, right now nothing there stands out. When X10 games come out that is one thing, but until then why tempt the fate of slamming your head against a wall with drivers.

DRM is a completely separate ball game, one which is not being played today due to ticket sales being far too low.

So while it is true that my next PC purchase is due within the next year, 2004 being the last time I put a PC together, I need to ask myself what the right course of action is. There are multiple dependencies involved. Is the risk of all my burned music collection not working with the fascist DRM system too great? Are the driver issues going to be close to solved soon? Will service pack 1 solve most of the Vista issues or will Vista need service pack 2 to be stable a la Windows 98? Will computer performance problems be alleviated at all with updates? Will the games I want to play be usable in XP?

Clearly, there are still several major hurdles to clear.

No, this isn't a disguised comment about The Incredibles. I mentioned a while ago about the return of You Don't Know Jack, and while more than likely this is not big news, Jack Episode 2 is ready for consumption.

Sweet cakes for all.

I guess I'm officially burned out on World of Warcraft.  This explains today's piece.

(And more to come on that)

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Something struck me this past weekend that I feel that I should share with you. No, I didn’t get run over by a tour bus (although that almost did happen). I have been spending an extravagant amount of time looking over launch lists for each of the consoles wondering about which console looks like it is going to be the most promising this year. I decided that it was possible for a console to become my primary gaming platform in lieu of my PC. The Sony online Home announcement aside the launch lists are going to be the most telling. It will tell me which console will be naughty and which will be nice.

Wait- did I just make a Christmas reference in March?! With a list and everything else?!!!?! Sigh…

It struck me that every game I was most likely to want to play, with the big exception being Spore, is a sequel in a franchise. Granted, it is hard to see which new games are going to be good and it’s hard to plan for those. Assassin’s Creed, as interesting as it sounds, is on my list of games that may be rented at some point. I believe I have mentioned this problem here before so I am not going to elaborate on it. The reason I bring it up is that I started to walk down the path of what games would sound the most appealing to me if they were to be released.

Hearken back to Knights of the Old Republic II if you will. It is a quality game that was not finished in time of its release and there is plenty of content the developers at Obsidian completed that we never saw. However, because we have hints and bread crumbs in the game as to what this missing content is, people are working on the restoring this content. It is this type of news that has been the most intriguing in a while. Find a game that has some extra content in it that I have not seen before you and I am probably on the line ready to bite at purchasing it.

This is a strange notion for me to consider. I am not the person who jumps at the extra content that is on a DVD or looks for Director’s or Extended cuts of a movie. Music, on the other hand, does grab me that way. Finding several concerts and unreleased Dave Matthews Band tracks pretty much made my week despite a stomach virus, more Mets drama, insane work hours, a leak in my ceiling at home, almost being run over, and no gaming of any kind. Somehow this idea of viewing previously enjoyed media with some added bonuses has struck a chord with me.

Now, do I really want to see all of my past favorite games with some added content? Hardly. Several games of my favorite games have been re-released within the past couple of years that I simply have no intention of getting (especially any of the Square games with added Anime). Most of these re-released games are simply fluff on top of the same game. Fables: The Lost Chapters, on the other hand, is in the ilk of the type of game I am very much interested in playing. That offering was a little too shallow for me to consider picking up considering that game finally made the game a decent length for an RPG and was not a whole lot more than the original offering.

In general I love seeing new takes or extensions on old ideas. It is still tricky to pull off with games because adding enough content to a game that makes it worth buying again is always tough. Fans of the Rainbow Six series should understand what I’m talking about here. Every once in a while a new release in the franchise does make the campaigns and the multiplayer vastly different experiences. Meanwhile Madden is still bogged down with the same gameplay that existed in 2001 (aaah, another cheap shot at EA). When you whore out a cool game, such as what happened with Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, you go in the opposite direction of what I’m looking for.

As that is one of my least popular phrases, which is true with any phrase that is beyond tired, I feel I should elaborate on what I mean by that. After all that comment is highly subjective. The only real difference between “good new content” and a “whored out franchise” is what I think of the new game release. Somehow they sound completely different. The latter even sounds like I’m saying something extremely poignant instead of just being guilty of something every radio shock DJ does on a daily basis.

Take Sands of Time- the game was designed from the ground up by the creator. Everything about the game was brand new for the franchise. The next step, The Warrior Within, had a gutted story and a deeper battle system. Overall the game did not really offer anything new. After this came The Two Thrones which, although it offered an interesting story device, did not offer anything new to the game worth getting excited about. I am not saying that the games are not worth looking at if Sands of Time provided a good amount of enjoyment for you (it is in my all-time Top 10 for games), but after a ton of incremental changes you are effectively beating a dead horse.

Hmm, that’s still pretty subjective. Maybe I have no idea what I am looking for. Not knowing what I want could be my real problem. Maybe there is no winning formula for expanding on an old game. Maybe I only want expansion packs for games I love and complete rewrites for everything else. Maybe I just need to take a closer look at the titles available now and give them a try instead of being a chicken. Either way, I am starting to get a sense for why not too many games are appealing to me right now and that online games have a tendency to nuke one’s ability to find other good games to play.

Or I just may need to be 10 years old again and get a slew of video games for Christmas one last time.

Well, it's more of my wishlist. Anyway, this is my weekly rant. Back to good ol' GTA! If you enjoy GTA games at all you will definitely want to read this. I came up with a few items that I think would really make IV a phenomenal experience. It's not that this cannot happen without my suggestions, but imagination is a good thing.

In other words (a saying of my own creation that I hope lives on): Lest we forego our inspirations so too shall our minds.

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What is going to be one of the biggest games for this year, assuming the launch date is accurate, is going to be Grand Theft Auto IV. No, I do not expect this game to blow me out of the water like Vice City did, but I expect big things. I am sure a lot of other people are too. Considering GTA III has remained in the limelight long after each of its incarnations have been released the impending release of this game is going to be larger than the gaming community. In fact, the odds are close to 100% that the lines for the game will be a lot longer just because people outside the gaming community continue to talk about it.

History keeps repeating itself this way. The best advertising is always free, so when people keep mentioning the game Rockstar can just sit back and count the cash coming in. Sure, they have to watch it go out to as their CEO and PR department have not exactly been the best thing for Rockstar. More accurately their PR department plays like a good blooper reel. In my head I see a department run by Krusty the Clown- because not only would it still be funny but it would be expected. Perhaps that is not a practical solution. Regardless, as long as they keep their games right it makes no difference.

Talking about a game this long before its release is dangerous, and so I write this with what is probably too much enthusiasm. I find it impossible to care if I am setting myself up for a big fall on this or not- in my lifetime Vice City is probably my defining game, so it is only natural that the next big leap in the franchise (San Andreas was a minor leap- and a great one at that) is something I pay very close attention to. Will this be a good leap or a Pitfall leap?

Yeah, video game humor- you really have to love it.

Details on this game are obviously very sketchy right now. The only interesting rumor that is floating around is the backdrop for the game. Rockstar has been looking to do a GTA game that is outside the U.S. for a good amount of time and this definitely presents an opportunity. The setting has had a dramatic effect on how the game feels and plays with both Vice City and San Andreas. Any good game has this immersive quality about it. As such, the GTA IV setting may not be that pivotal for you it is quite so for me. If I feel like I am moving around in an actual city versus some artificial world it makes a big difference. If you don’t believe immersion is important consider this- could you really live in a world without the Degenatron?

(WARNING: previous joke aimed at GTA fans: if confused consult Wikipedia or, better still, play Vice City)

Looking back at all of the best parts of the GTA III series there are some noteworthy changes in the franchise. Before The Sims 2 came out I made a list of some changes I wanted in the game that would make the game a lot better without making it too complicated. Having a solid background in simulations (both for computer science experimentation and gaming) I came up with mostly everything that the game designers did which scared me. No, I am not an expert and I have no insider information. Still, it is always fun to guess. While I do not consider this guesswork I put together a small list of ideas that I want to see in the series. This was tough to put together mostly because the standard upgrades that games get I wanted to avoid just because they are not innovative anymore (the most obvious being more guns and vehicles).

1) We need better ways avoiding wanted level capture. I have never been a big fan of driving over the bribe icons, but if you are going to have rampages, health, armor, guns, and hidden packages then those are not a bad idea. It would paint a very interesting picture if bribing was different based on your wanted level. For instance, the bribe icons only work with local and state police. Once the FBI and army come in then you should have to do some very impressive tricks to get out of your predicament. Having a secret meeting with corrupt agents and paying a lot of money comes to mind. Oooh, maybe besides money you could even have access to special missions for assassinations when your meter is high enough. That’s just off the top of my head. This is definitely worth exploring.

2) Owning houses and businesses was just about where I would like it in Vice City. The balance was nice. Watching the criminals trying to steal over $20 million from my vault during the final mission was also quite hysterical. Okay, let me explain this one. Given that much money you would have about 6 hours at least to complete a mission that takes 5 minutes if you are tooling around. Overall there was enough variation in big purchases where the overall mass of what you could own was far from obscene (ignoring the adult film studio, mind you). I want to know why there’s no system in place yet for being a real pimp. If you can own a printing press and cab company then what’s stopping this? Building a city-wide ring that really rakes in the cash is far too appealing. You could even to do that in a multiplayer environment. Hmm, this leads me to…

3) Cooperative play. Yeah, everyone’s clamoring for it which makes this cherry-picking. I want more than just multiplayer- I want it to blow people away (at this point you have to know that pun was intended). There was a very small amount of it in San Andreas and it felt like a last-minute add. The multiplayer deathmatch and cannonball experience has been missing from the console games completely. This needs to be remedied now. Online play is far beyond established and we know that the 360 and PS3 can handle it. It is time to tap into some untapped potential.

For cooperative play I don’t want some lame situation where only certain missions are possible to have multiplayer. I want you to be able to “hire help” whenever possible. If San Andreas could handle a car doing a 4x drive-by then IV candle hiring a gang buddy for a fee. Hey, the more money you pay the more loaded the friend can be.

For competitive play there can be some great things. Deathmatch is a must, but there also need to be variations. I want a competition on who can do the most damage, who can blow up more civilian or law enforcement vehicles, who can run the most people over, who can do the most drive-bys, and so on. In the cannonball races I want a preset wanted rating, an option where my car blows up if I’m driving too slowly, or even a race between pizza delivery scooters (the equivalent of a slap only deathmatch).

4) I must admit I was against flying when it was brought in even though it led to interacting with James Woods. I was vehemently against swimming not causing death, but you cannot be resistant to change all of the time. It is now time to add something to those who love running around to avoid cops- climbing. The days of only stairs and jumping must pass. Even games like Tony Hawk have a mildly passable system now. If you can jump between planes, skydive, and scuba then we are far beyond ready for the ability to climb buildings. More ways to explore, more places to hide stuff, more ways to annoy cops- these are all good things.

Yes, the upgrade in graphics is going to be quite intense (if you care about such things) and may largely determine whether this game is accepted by the previous fan club. I don’t want the changes in the game to be disingenuous. I want solid innovations in this franchise to continue for a long time. We have a good litmus test coming for whether Rockstar is as good at innovation as I think they are. They proved it with III, Vice, Andreas, and Bully. I believe they can do it again.

Titles and homonyms- together at last.

Wait, nevermind.

So many good things to write about today, and the winner: Virtual NES, which leads to Contra. A great way to waste time if you have a few minutes. One of the greatest games ever, the most famous cheat code ever- good times all around.

Yeah, this is not groundbreaking news or probably not even that interesting. Still, it's a great site for someone like me and I was in a sharing mood today. I'll link my full article tomorrow.

While I have no interest in it, Tekken fans probably disagree.  Tekken 5 is going to be available for download on Sony's PS3 online delivery system now.  This is great news- if you enjoy playing games that have already been released being released for new systems.  You know, like playing Super Mario 64 on the DS.

(See, what I did was annoy Sony and Nintendo fans, that way I'm sure to be hated by most everybody.  And yes, it felt good)

My main weekly article talks about how Sony is this year's newest favorite target amongst fanbots and groupthink leeches (two of my favorite terms of endearment).  Enjoy!

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Piling on- it’s one the things modern Americans do best.  Find a popular line of thought and follow through on it to sound intelligent.  Will Hunting would have a field day in most cities right now.  I say this because lately picking on Sony, no matter what they do, is <i>the</i> thing to do.  Last year it was George Lucas.  The year before Microsoft was a good target.  AOL probably had a couple recent rough years as well.  Most of the time terrorizing them is more than justified.

Let me tell you a few things about what I think of Sony.  Their televisions and most other electronics are quite good (I have yet to have a problem with any of mine).  The PS1 and PS2 are phenomenal consoles.  My original PS2 is still working like a champ.  Despite this, right now the PS3 just is not cutting it for me.  I am tired of the Dual Shock controller.  This controller design has been very comfortable for a while, which means now it is time to give it the lame racehorse treatment.  The online delivery system, even though this is Sony’s first incarnation of a full online service (the half-assed online system for the PS2 was a joke), is just not up to standards and inexcusable.  What Xbox Live offers is not some big secret even though the value of Achievement Points is.

Despite these two severe flaws, the value of the PS3 is an interesting debate.  This is the first time that one of the biggest names in consoles has not come with a very affordable price.  The reason, in case you have been on Mars hiding in a cave under a rock with a finger in your ears, hinges on what you think of the BluRay drive.  Microsoft has kept the price of their console down by not offering their HD-DVD drive with the 360 (even though they said they would never release one and eventually did) and it makes me wonder something- for those people that did not want BluRay, would it have been a good decision to offer a PS3 that did not come with the new drive technology?

It took me a fair amount of time to admit this to myself, but it finally did happen.  This is the first Sony console I can finally say these words about:  I don’t care.  This is the first PlayStation console that is simple not easily affordable.  College students are always going to be your biggest target audience for gaming consoles, and when you price your console out of the reach of the typical college student you hamstring your sales.  College students are always looking for excuses to forego studying (the smart ones, anyway) and consoles are always on the list for the male students.  Yes, I realize that the console is being sold at a loss and that you cannot find a cheaper high-definition player anywhere (unless there is some insane rebate that I have missed). However, the fact remains that the next generation of gaming from Sony comes at a very high price.  Despite what jokes you may heard, the price does not include your soul.

Sony wants their drive to be the one that becomes the standard.  They are fighting Microsoft to the bitter end on this.  The smart money is on the codec that is able to work with both HD-DVD and BluRay- you can mark my words on this right now.  Sure, I said this a couple months ago, but you can call this my mortal lock statement of the week (you should trust me- in December I said Rex Grossman would prevent the Bears from winning the Super Bowl).  High definition movies are part of the selling angle Sony is giving you.  The PS3 is more than a gaming console, and for many people that is a conceivable problem.  Some people just want to play games.  DVD’s were not introduced into the market with the gaming console.  The PS2 just took advantage of it to say “hey, we offer games and DVD’s at a cheap price.”  That angle worked.  Despite HD TV’s being around for a while and the prices are starting to plummet the price of jumping to high definition media viewing is still very high.  You need a new television and you also need a new player for your movies.  Oh, and the high definition movies are still quite expensive too.

Purchasing DVD’s was never an issue because their resolution worked with almost any television.  Of course, LaserDiscs were too but they were massive.  DVD’s are the same size as CD’s, and that made sense to a lot of people.  LP’s went out the door a long time ago.  More accurately, they were booted out the front door on their behind when CD’s came along.  That’s why LaserDiscs never took- they were the college buddy of the LP looking for a place to crash for the night.  Nobody likes that person.

However, people did like the DVD.  The price of entering the DVD market was the price of a player.  Now the cost of the next generation of media is a television, a player, and an additional $10 per movie.  Sometimes the price of early adoption simply isn’t worth it.  Even though I could go out and purchase all of this stuff I won’t because there are better places to spend my money right now.  It was not until this year that I found a television I liked for a price of under $3000.  I imagine it is going to be at least another year before the high definition players are going to appeal at all.

I’m betting people largely feel betrayed by Sony, not because the price is high, but because Sony has not done this with their console before.  People loved picking on what Microsoft was doing with the Xbox.  The overheating, the size, the lack of games, the monstrous controller and the idiotic black and white buttons all were part of the hit list for people looking to bash the Xbox.  Sony took the bullet for Microsoft this time- just don’t expect them to apply for the Secret Service.  If you look at everything the PS3 offers and then put together the equivalent kit for the 360 you wind up paying more.  What’s funny is that people are okay with this because Live is an excellent online delivery service.  These are probably the same people that pick on Howard Dean because he yelled too loudly during a speech but have no problem with Bush who keeps botching sentences every week.

I admit this was a pretty large leading point but it seemed quite relevant.  I wanted to explain to you the internal battle I’ve been having about what Sony is doing with the PS3 before relaying the following news: Sony is working very hard to reduce the price of the console by ripping out the emotion engine hardware which, in turn, forces any hope of full backwards compatibility over to software.  People have whined about the PS3 price and the overall failure of the PS2 emotion engine for a while.

It should therefore come as no surprise that when Sony announced this move people started complaining about that too (I have appendicitis, but don’t remove my appendix- just give me some codeine!).  Let me tell you something about backwards compatibility.  It was a major selling point for me when I got the PS2.  I loved the fact that I could play any of my PS1 games on the PS2.  It allowed me to sell my PS1 and free up some more room on my entertainment center.  Despite my love of retro gaming do you want to know how often I have played PS1 games on the PS2?  I think it might have happened twice since 2001.  All of my old Nintendo games I have found a ROM and an emulator for on my PC and I play them whenever I want to.  I play NES and SNES games on a flash drive for my DS.  Is it really so difficult to believe that there will be an emulator for PS1 and PS2 games?  I don’t care if the emulator comes from Sony or from some other place.  I honestly don’t care if the emulator is on a PC or a PS3.  Mark these words also:  there is going to be a PS2 emulator somewhere before 2007 expires.

I can see why some people would be upset that the backwards compatibility is going to disappear from the PS3 hardware.  It is not a completely useless feature.  Still, is a sleeker form factor and cheaper cost of the PS3 really all bad?  Okay, so you have to use an extra port on your $15 switch hooked up to your entertainment center.  In time I may have to do the same thing.  If an extra footprint near your television bothers you that much then you simply must remove the overwhelming knot in your underwear and get on with life.  I refuse to sugarcoat this for you.  Hostility is sometimes necessary.  If this particular move to reduce the cost of the PS3 is really bothering you then you are either looking for an excuse to whine a little more or you’re just an idiot who doesn’t belong in the gaming world at all.

Please don’t be confused though- you are certainly welcome to not like the PS3.  I may not hold the same disdain you do for what Sony is doing with the PS3.  If you want to hate Sony because Sony BMG did some stupid DRM things with their CD’s (and you’ve been too stupid to see DRM causing a problem at all in the last 3 years) or because Lik Sang went out of business (even though they did break the law with PSP exports and been have sued by Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo) then go right ahead, but the relentless hostility of Sony has gone far beyond absurd.  I have no urge to purchase the PS3 right now, I disagree with some of their design decisions, I think not giving an option of a replaceable media drive to reduce cost is a mistake, their development kit apparently being too convoluted causing developers to jump ship is not smart, their controller design is uninspiring, and their current and upcoming selection of games leaves a lot to be desired.  You have every right to hate Sony for any or all of these reasons.  There are probably a couple more good reasons too.

Still, if you feel the need to bellyache about Sony working on fixing these problems then it is time for you to pack up your hostility and search for a new hobby.  We here in the gaming community know you are going to whine about something anyway- so we’d just as soon have you do it near somebody else.