Stop the Crazy People!

It's a shame that in an industry with such great figures such as Sid Meier, Will Wright, and Cliffy B that we have such nuts like Ken Kutaragi and Uwe Boll.

Let’s talk about Uwe first. Apparantly, he is suing the distributor of BloodRayne. Hopefully, this will be the last straw for Hollywood. This guy is crazy. His films consistantly bomb and yet it is never his fault. It's the distributor, or the people in coffee shops who are too stupid to understand his films. Trust, a mid day rave on the island of the dead neither has anything to do with the game House of the Dead, nor does it have any merrit in a film. What he is saying, is that if my film based on your IP does not succeed at the box office, I will sue you and make a a complete lauging stock out of your IP. If I'm Gas Powered Games, I sweating bullets as the Dungeon Siege movie nears completion.

And once again, back to crazy Ken. Now apparantly, we're learning that there may be more models of the PS3 later on. The Google translation is a bit rough, but the posters have pointed out some of the highlights. This is what worries me:

"Thus two models of PS3 are actually two different configurations, there might be other configurations in future, such as: enhanced version of CELL, more memory etc. The higher-end model of PS3 might be released in future."

Now if by memory he means a bigger hard drive, fine. But if it means more RAM, they're really are trying to be a computer and not a game console. Same for using an enhanced version of the Cell. It makes no sense. The point of a console is that every single one is more or less the same. If the first run of the PS3 get a large install base, why would any developer cater to this new system with more RAM and a faster processor? You only risk isolating your audience and reducing sales. Personally, the PS3 is already expensive enough (though Ken disagrees). They don't need a more expensive model with useless features.

There is some good news today at least. The Xbox 360 Dashboard update was released yesterday morning. So far, so good. Background downloading is a Godsend, and boot to Dashboard is something I for one am happy to have. They did reorganize the Markerplace menues. While I can see what they wanted to accomplish, it takes a bit longer to navigate them as they go a bit deeper now. All in all though, I'm happy with it and I look forward to seeing what they bring out in the fall.

And lastly, Nintendo has finally done it! A Pokemon console game with internet play! We have a screen shot and some very basic info, but this new Pokemon game will reportedly link up with the upcoming Pokemon Diamond/Pearl for the DS. It's unclear if this is a full blown game or Pokemon Collesium 2. It will utilize WiiConnect24, so that's exciting. I look forward to using my Wiimote to throw Pokeballs!

That should wrap things up around here. For those who are interested, Raw was actually rather fun adn the Jimmy Buffett concert was absolutely stunning. I was in the 8th row, dead center. A good time was had by all. I'll talk to you later.

1-2-3 Playstations in One!

Why, Apple, must you continue to taunt me? Ever since my Toshiba laptop was destroyed (literally) by my brothers, I wanted a new laptop and the MacBook Pro seemed like a good solution. I just want something to do some multimedia work on and maybe be able to play WoW (and not many other games, really). The only problem was price. Now they release the standard MacBook. Extremely portable, and the only lessened feature is an integrated graphics card. Not huge deal for me. And all for about $1000. Who knows, by the end of the summer, I may be a Mac owner.

Two blows to Sony this weekend. First, their head of PR, Molly Smith, has jumped ship. Can't say I blame her. Between Ken and Phil spouting nonsense about the PS3 being too cheap and the PS3 replacing PCs (not PC gaming, but PCs), who would want to have to deal with that? I hope she lands on her feet somewhere.

Secondly, rumors are flying that the PS3 is all but broken. The work is that the Cell memory is slow to the point of being useless, and the PS3 can only generate half the triangles of the 360. This information comes from a reliable source, a guy on an airplane. Let's not all bug out here people. True or not, I like to give Sony's hardware guys some credit. And it is a guy on an airplane. If you believe all that, I've got some real estate in the Bahamas to sell you.

After talking about backwards compatibility on the 360 last time, it is now Sony's turn. Previously, they had announced they too would use an emulator to play PS1 and PS2 games. Now they have announced that all PS3s will include the same single chip PS2 architecture used in the slim PS2. They hope to drop the chips once software emulation is at 100%. Seems they too have trouble with software emulators. Could this be part of why a PS3 is so expensive? Would you rather it be $100 - $200 cheaper and have the same backwards compatibility issues as the 360? Oh what a tangles web we weave!

Regarding backwards compatibility as a whole, the only advantage I see to this generation is convenience and a slight graphical improvement. Yes, it certainly is nice to be able to only have three devices under my TV. Even nice is that both the 360 and PS3 up convert the games to hidef resolutions. But in all honesty, the only PS1 game I ever played on my PS2 was Final Fantasy Tactics when I picked it up on a lark 2 years after the PS2 came out and I found it in a bargain bin. For the 360, I play Halo 2 (which will be moot once Halo 3 arrives) and the occasional Splinter Cell. Both my PS2 and Xbox are hooked up in my room, online, and working just fine.

And on a lighter note, my rental copy of Rockstar Presents Table Tennis arrived from Gamefly this weekend. I'm impressed. Remember how shockingly good Virtua Tennis on the Dreamcast was? It's the same feeling all over again. Once I got my custom soundtrack playing, launched a smash shot, and watched the camera zoom in as the ball just bounced off the edge of the table for the victory, I was hooked. I'll probably end up keeping this one. So play me on Live if you see me.

Still no Dashboard update for the 360. According to Major Nelson, something should be announced today. Hopefully it gets here soon! I want boot to Dashboard.

Tonight my brothers are exposing me to WWE Raw at the Mellon Arena tonight. Should be interesting. Tomorrow I'll be at the Jimmy Buffett concert. I'll let you know how those went on Wednesday. And sorry for the late post. Blogger seems to be experiencing some problems. I'll talk to you later.