Okay so its still the drift racing beauty only now with added carnage then.

I can live with that I guess.

I doubt soon is the right word to use, especially for MS. I know Sony talked about pushing the PS4 out early, but I think that might be akin to suicide if they go ahead at this point. Customer satisfaction and trust aren't exactly at their highest, and that is going to linger a bit.

I doubt MS is going to make a move without knowing they need to keep up with Sony.

Really, as far as graphics and technology are concerned, we're already close to as good as it is going to get for home consoles at the prices we have. If they are smart, they can keep riding on the current gen by keeping up hardware and software without changing the formats. Unless MS switches to Blu-Ray or discovers a comparable alternative their tech will catch up to Sony eventually through upgrades, because Sony can only push so far ahead of of the curb. It affords you a head start, but then you have to wait for the curb to get a fair bit ahead of you again before you can make another significant push.

Damn you Cryptic.

Like, okay. I'm kind of excited for this, just a little. I know I shouldn't be, at all. I know it's going to let me down, somehow. Champions Online was a disappointment, and Star Trek Online was awful too. I heard STO got a little easier to stomach after some patching, but still! Impressions matter.

My impression of Cryptic games is that they're decent character creation tools packaged with mediocre games. Not to mention they're god damn MMOs, which is the stale sandwich of the gaming industry.

But damn it! The Foundry? Build your own adventures for your friends? Fuck! That might be good!

My impression after the Microsoft press conference is that Kinect is a fantastic piece of technology with tons of possible applications that is spectacularly unfit for being used as a video game interface. Also holy shit so many shooters that all look the same :wtf:

My impression after the Nintendo conference is that the WiiU (I repeat: :wtf:) controller is a pretty neat piece of technology with quite a few possible applications, most of them in gaming, but let's not kid ourselves, every third party developer will put menus and inventory screens on it and consider the job done.

e: Arkham City's coming out for the WiiU, right? Here's how you instantly make that the must-get version: detective mode through the controller screen.

I'm cool with the UPanel being Used for inventories and sUch. Even if it woUld have the DS-esqUe feeling of wasted potential, in the end it's still making things more convinient by removing extra fiddly bits of HUD from the main screen.

And yes, detective mode throUgh the UPanel would be great. I'd go as far as to say that jUst about any game where you have an alternative viewing mode shoUld do something like that.

Like any Metroid Prime sUccessor, for example.

It's...Glorious...
 

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4549162/imagesCAXSJA37.jpg

From what I've heard they're already doing something to the detective mode that will make it so you can't or wont want to use it ALL the time. Which was it's main problem in my opinion.

So, NonCon, how's Kirby's Mass Effect Attack? I know you probably don't want to be near Kirby Wii: Kirby Super Star: Kirby Super Star HARDER, but I'd like to hear your thoughts on the DS game.

I don't remember where I read it, but apperently one of the mini games they're making is gonna be 5 players on the same console. It'll be alot like pac-man, where you'll have one player be the "pac-man" and he'll use the new controller. He'll get that nice screen on the controller, complete with a map of the maze he's running around in that displays where the other 4 people are. He'll have to Try to avoid the other 4 players who will be splitting the TV and using the current Wii-motes.

So, nintendo's definetly going to try to showcase the variability of the new controller and ways developers can use it so its not just used as a menu area. But then, we'll see how developers take hold of it.

Apparently the system will be sold with a new controller, and the controllers won't be sold separately.

I.E. The system supports one new controller at a time. Looks like multiplyer will be mainly with standard Wiimote setups, with the exception of 5-player alternate perspective stuff, like they've shown at E3.