i agree with this. when i see this thread hit 3 pages or so, i just head over here to catch up on all my console news/hilarious arguing. very enjoyable

I get drawn in by Mizzou BB Fan, and some wierd compulsion I feel to try to balance out his info. I said once before I was going to stop posting in these threads, and I intend to do so now.

Exactly.

This is comedy gold here. After professing that the reviews were way off for a couple of weeks, Lair lead developer now suddenly thinks it was a bad idea to 'force' motion control.

http://www.gamesradar.com/us/ps3/gam...88000000020735

I don't disagree with that.

The only reason I post 360 news here at all is because they actually email it to me. Nintendo's got a press site where they post their press releases, and Sony has shifted from email to PlayStation.Blog. In both cases, pretty much anybody can go there and read those.

I leave my mailbox open in case stuff I'm expecting comes in, and every once in a while, I'll get a press release from Microsoft that is either actually interesting, or has a bearing on a topic under discussion.

If the other two companies actually emailed me their news, I'd post the interesting tidbits from them, too.

Totally agree. I certainly post information about the 360 and the Wii as do the other posters listed above, hence the reason I mentioned them as being good sources of info. They do a good job of putting up info and, if they have an opinion, do a good job of backing it up with actual information.

Not sure what's going on with the Wii in Japan this week. One month ago, it was selling 65K a week. This week, it's expected to continue to drop in sales, only selling 27K units. Not sure if they're diverting units to other countries in the region or if the demand is just off for some reason. Will be interesting to watch to see if the downward trend continues.

It's the lull before the big holiday season.

We had 90 Wii's in stock at work over this past weekend, and then got another 15 in today (half of those were gone at the end of my four-hour shift).

Wouldn't surprise me a bit if diversion is happening en masse.

They've already basically said it was.

No, I mean in massive quantities. Like, MASSIVE quantities.

They haven't mentioned extent, only that it is happening.

like TOTALLY massive?

Yay Star Wars game coming to Wii where you can use your wiimote like a lightsaber!

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/n...fm?artid=14424

"wielding the Wii Remote™ as a lightsaber while using the Nunchuk™ controller to torment foes with their Force™ powers."

That is FUCKING AWESOME!!

Agreed, I look forward to this thread every month.

Please don't.

Yeah. Like your mom.

;)

Damn, that's cool :D

SI

Yeah, but if we've learned anything from this thread, it's that it's a lot easier to just beat up on one person :rolleyes:

SI

Ooh, BURN! ;)

SI

I don't care at all for the Sixaxis Aftertouch controls in Heavenly Sword.

On the other hand, I'm quickly becoming a believer in Sixaxis being the only way to play Warhawk.

I'm just the opposite on Warhawk. Like using the analog sticks. I am glad that they gave the option to use the sticks or motion control to fly the Warhawks. It's just a bad design decision to only allow one or the other.

How does the motion control work in Heavenly Sword? Didn't even know they were trying to do something like that. Doesn't sound like a good fit.

New MGS4 news coming out of the Konami TGS press conference. MGS4 and Metal Gear: Online will be packaged as a bundle. It appears that MG:O is a 'starter pack' and that expansions for that online pack can be purchased. I'm not sure I'd be interested in buying add-on content, but it is nice that the game will be on there to try out for everyone who buys MGS4.

No word on if MG:O will be packaged separately for purchase.

Two new videos of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune from TGS:

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/25057.html

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/25060.html

I was reading about Drake's Fortune in PSM yesterday. It looks good.

IGN at TGS reporting that Burnout 3 booths have wireless rumble controllers. Full DualShock 3 announcement expected later tonight.

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/821/821010p1.html

Info on total length of Mass Effect......

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/m/ma...ainterview.htm

Research firm predicts video game industry will grow to $47B by 2009.......

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/820/820687p1.html

Oh, don't get me wrong, I absolutely agree that there needs to be an option.

But using the Sixaxis controls means that the navigation analog suddenly becomes a free-targeting reticle. If you're good with the Sixaxis, you have much more freedom in targeting enemy craft.


Well, there's some basic stuff like 'jerk the controller if you get knocked into the air,' and you recover by attacking an enemy on the ground.

That's fine. It's basic, it works, and it's not that disruptive.

"Aftertouch," though, where you can guide a projectile...doing that with the Sixaxis sucks balls. You can turn that off and just guide it with the analog sticks, which isn't nearly as big a pain in the ass, but Sixaxis Aftertouch is the default.

Good point. Forgot that was an option.

I'm a huge fan of land mines and missile turrets. I've put a lot of people out of commission with those two defensive weapons.

New gameplay footage of Little Big Planet at TGS:

http://au.media.ps3.ign.com/media/85...80/vids_1.html

FYI to those in the UK. Street date for Halo 3 has been broken by a store called Argos. Here's a list of some of the voices used in the game per the credits.

Nathan Fillion (Malcolm Reynolds in Firefly)
Adam Baldwin (Jayne Cobb in Firefly)
Alan Tudyk (Wash in Firefly)
Katee Sackhoff (Starbuck in Battlestar Galactica)
John DiMaggio (Bender in Futurama and Marcus Fenix in Gears of War)
Terence Stamp (General Zod in Superman II)

New MGS4 trailer just released on the internet. It's getting hammered right now, so might want to wait until later.......

http://ruliwebfile.empas.com/mpeg3/t...gs4_pr_hdv.wmv

Info on early release of Halo 3.........

http://www.xbox360fanboy.com/2007/09...layers-banned/

More info about Dead Rising 2 from TGS. It appears that it may be multiplatform.

http://www.xbox360wire.co.uk/2007/09...360-exclusive/

I've done the same thing with this thread (not concerning any one single person) but I think it ends up being the nature of console discussions - cause it happens everywhere online. Video games usually not so much. Like the NBA2k8 thread is a good read to keep up to date on it (my fav game) but I try reading through this thread for game/console info since it's centralized and I can't help but sometimes end up chiming in despite knowing better.

but but but rumble is last-gen technology! ;)

If the customer base demands something, does it matter whether it's last-gen tech or not?

I happen to think the initial rationale for why there was no rumble is a load of bunk and hooey...but even if it weren't, if the potential customer base is demanding it, and your sales are struggling, doesn't it make sense to include it, even if you consider it "last-gen"?

There was no rumble because they didn't want to pay for it. They finally reached an agreement.

Of course, Sony is the same company that tooted their backwards compatibility hardware as a huge advantage over Microsoft, then dropped it less than a year after release and went the Microsoft route. Which I think was the point of the original post, they are backtracking on many things they touted at the start.

I know that. What I'm saying is that even if you take at face value their statement of it being "last-gen tech" - which I don't - that status doesn't mean that, if the customer base demands it, you shouldn't find a way to appease that.


Yes.

Big difference between PS3 and Xbox 360 here? I've plugged nearly every PS2 game I own into the compatibility checker Sony has up, and while there are a handful of games that have issues on the 80 gig (that don't on the 60 gig), they'll at least play. The software emulation for Sony isn't by any means perfect, but it does encompass a far greater scope of the PlayStation library than does the Xbox 360 software emulation.

It's a backtracking, but Microsoft would do well to learn from Sony's implementation there.

I gotta say, I wonder what these guys know (or think they know) that most of the rest of us don't that suggests to them that the PS3 is going to end up blowing past the 360 in sales.

I'm just not seeing any reason on the horizon for that speculation to have any merit.

Japan.

If the PS3 ever gets up off the mat, it's got three territories to draw from, just as the Wii does.

The Xbox 360 is strong in the US, and in solid (but not spectacular) shape in Europe.

Japan? Another story entirely. That's a big part of why the Wii caught up so fast. Nintendo and Sony have credibility in Japan. Microsoft is trying hard to achieve that, but results have been mixed at best.

Problem has been, every time Sony starts to get it together, seems like, they shoot themselves in the foot again. Hard to maintain any kind of momentum when you do that.

If Sony gets it together in reasonably short order, yeah, I could see Xbox 360 finishing a "distant 3rd." The longer that takes, though, the harder that becomes - both because of Xbox 360 sales in the US and Europe, and because it gives Microsoft time to catch lightning in a bottle in a "Sonic the Hedgehog" way.

What I mean by that is, Sega captured early market share from Nintendo in the late '80s when Genesis hit the market, but the reason they finished with ~45% was because Sonic the Hedgehog was a hugely successful franchise for them. Nintendo's leisurely jaunt to the market with the Super Nintendo gave Sega time to find that foothold.

Similar situation here. Right now, Wii is blowing everybody out of the water right there, and as soon as Sony rights the ship, I'd expect them to do the same...but the longer that takes, the more opportunities Microsoft has to hit on something that resonates in Japan in a way they haven't been able to accomplish yet.

That doesn't seem hugely likely in the short term; Blue Dragon and Trusty Bell/Eternal Sonata haven't been the sales drivers Microsoft hoped for over there, but that might also end up being a war of attrition. Maybe Japanese gamers won't buy a 360 *just* for Blue Dragon, or *just* for Trusty Bell, or *just* for Lost Odyseey...but eventually prices come down and the combination of that and an amalgamated library might spark some interest.

It doesn't have to spark Wii-level interest, either. I know VGCharts isn't the most reputable tracker out there, but let's use the chart they have up at:

http://vgcharts.com/page5.html

Pretend those numbers are accurate. The numbers PlayStation 3 has there? Probably not acceptable from Sony's standpoint. I have to think, on the other hand, that Microsoft would cheerfully take the year Sony's had in Japan, and if they ever manage to do that, it will make them much harder to pass for second place, especially if Sony hasn't managed to get the motor running before that happens.

With a 4.5-1 sales advantage in Japan, though, if Sony gets off the mat before Microsoft begins to see sustainable movement, that's going to be the roundhouse blow that puts Microsoft in the global caboose again.

The problem is, if, if, if. There's a lot of "ifs," and every day that passes is a day off the calendar for this generation.

I'm not buying it. Look at the breakdown of Japan as part of the overall market, both last gen (PS2, Xbox, Gamecube) and current gen (PS3, 360, Wii):

Last Gen:
Japan = 29.97M (18.2%)
US = 76.91M (46.8%)
Other = 57.36M (34.9%)

Current Gen:
Japan = 5.21M (19.1%)
US = 13.73M (50.4%)
Other = 8.31M (30.5%)

So basically the Japanese market constitutes 18-19% of the worldwide home console market. That's a decent-sized chunk, but consider that to this point, the 360 has been kicking the PS3's ass in the U.S. (with the notable exception of the month after the PS3 price dropped and before the 360 price dropped), a market which comprises 47-50% of the overall worldwide market. There's still a 6+M unit gap between the 360 and PS3 currently.

Even granting that the 360 will get creamed in Japan, the PS3 is going to have to close the notable edge the 360 has displayed in the U.S. in weekly sales in order for their edge in Japan to make a significant difference - and that's just to draw even. They will also have to start pulling ahead in the non-U.S., non-Japan market as well - currently the 360 and PS3 are roughly equal since the PS3 launched on weekly sales (and the 360 has made a big jump recently since their price cut).

So, yeah - the 360 will lose badly in Japan, much like the Xbox did. But that still leaves 81-82% of the worldwide market, and so far the 360 is winning those areas (outselling the PS3 in the U.S. on a weekly basis and about equal elsewhere, with a recent surge favoring the 360) and it already has a 6+M unit lead.

What makes anyone think that the PS3 is going to reverse their disadvantage in the U.S. market and pull decisively ahead in the European/Australian market? Is there some list of PS3 exclusives in the next 1-2 years that trumps the 360 exclusives? Is there some reason to think Blu-Ray demand is going to jump through the roof and be a reason for driving PS3 sales? Does anyone think MS is going to let Sony price drop their way into the race without matching them?

I don't see it either

The trump cards are still in the deck for Sony. MGS4 is going to be a key indicator for whether Sony can make headway. There are multiple titles for Sony that have similar pull, but MGS4 is the first big one to be released. If MGS4 doesn't provide a significant boost on release in Feb/March, then the analysts will likely switch their discussion to 'if MGS4 couldn't draw in the consumers, will FFXIII, FFXIII Versus, GT5, etc. do any better?'.

Blu-ray is already a big advantage in Japan and Europe with a 96% share in Japan and roughly a 3:1 ratio of sales in Europe. The U.S. remains the sole battleground in that regard. The PS3 is regarded by most video review websites as the best BR player. Quality is great and the ease of pushing firmware is a big benefit. With that said, I still don't think that this will be what decides whether the PS3 does well or not.

New trailer released for The Last Remnant.......

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/25174.html

List released of current and upcoming titles for the PS3 that will have rumble enabled. Rumble controllers have a release date of Winter 2007 for Japan and Spring 2008 for EU and North America......

What is MGS4

Sorry. Metal Gear Solid 4.

Who was the one that said something about what it takes to be a hardcore gamer?