Comments

1. September 21, 2006 09:40 pm

   I’m feeling sickened by this coming generation; I want the graphics of the 360 but I’m not feeling the gameplay on 360 is next gen and I’m wanting the potential of the Wii remote (though it is still only potential as I havn’t seen anything, except maybe Wii sports that uses the thing right) but the graphics on Wii just aren’t worth spit.

   It’s all getting to me– I feel I have to go with one console or another and I’m frankly getting exhausted by the direction of the industry.

2. September 22, 2006 01:17 pm

   I understand your concern. Let me ask you a question- Have you seen the Mario HD footage? Or the Metroid HD footage? Personally I think that those games look phenominal. Red Steel’s new trailer looks fantastic and Rayman is also looking great. I understand the concern for graphics.

   In the end gameplay rules over graphics but you still need a title that’s going to make you say “wow” Mario will do that. Zelda will do that. Metroid will do that.

3. September 22, 2006 09:46 pm

   I’ve watched many Mario vids including the HD one (which has me confused because the system doesn’t do HD right?). Mario looks best of all the Wii games by far but even that game is a long way from the graphics in something like Trusty Bell. More than any other emotion the Wii’s bandwidth makes me feel sad, sad that Metroid Prime 3 doesn’t have a chance of looking like Bioshock or Gears of War no matter how great of a developer Retro is or how much time is spent on it. I feel saddened that I may have to wait five more years before Zelda looks like Lair.

   But you are correct, gameplay is more important than graphics (or I wouldn’t even be interested in the Wii) and that is what has me riled up lately about the Wii (because I had so much hope for it offering the next gen gameplay MicroSoft simply can’t with their last gen pad).

   I’m on the verge of figuratively pulling my hair out not over the graphics on the Wii but the controls in Zelda, Metroid, and Mario. I’m not happy with how any of those games control. Nintendo is selling the system on being intuitive but they have players thinking about the controls more than ever.

   I hope you understand that I am not a fan upset that Nintendo has gone too far by making the remote control the sword; my criticism is quite the opposite– I believe they have yet to go far enough (and where I want them to go would surely send the Nintendo forums across the internets into complete meltdown and all out civil war).

   Mario has players using the remote to control a star and to perform point and click platforming (I’d rather see the Next Mario Bros control like Sonic Wii on roids and amphetamines– using the remote for character control in conjunction with the stick), Zelda’s sword controls are a fancy way of pressing a button (it doesn’t even matter that you are wiggling it horizontally, Link will still swing vertical when that swing comes up in the prerecorded combo), and Retro still has not fixed their camera despite all the feedback from E3. I’m getting suspicious the issue isn’t the way certain high ups in Japan are thinking but rather the limitations of the remote.

   I want next gen gameplay but I am really turned away by how games are using the remote. I think it has become too much like the DS in that we are going to have to wait two years before we get that game that shows people how to develop for the Wii.

   Maybe it’s just me but when I think about revolutionizing the control interface I think of building the new controller around a game that I couldn’t do with the old controller. I’m waiting and hoping that that ghost game shows up soon for the Wii.

   I hope you aren’t mad at me guy, I can understand why you are excited for the system and whether or not I find the games to be genius in the end I am still compelled, I still have a real need as a gamer to try these games because even if they turn out to be perfect examples of how not to use the remote, there is nothing on 360 taking risks in terms of character control as games are on the Wii.

   I personally don’t see a system with an advantage right now out of the three; I wouldn’t feel comfortable recommending to someone what system to buy. And Ken’s TGS speech is exactly what has me tired of the industry– the eight thousand pound gorillas are all saying, “look how big my dick is;” (and feeling as I do, that none of them have an advantage) I just see company mouths making asses of themselves.

   I see potential in the Wii remote to change the direction of the industry but for now it is untapped potential in my opinion. Some people argue that we shouldn’t expect the launch games to truly take advantage of the remote just as we shouldn’t have expected the 360 (or PS3) launch games to put the graphics hardware to real use (but that doesn’t change the fact the 360 was sold on next gen HD graphics hype and PDZ looked like complete ass). Seriously though, my counter argument is Mario 64 which is still a standard developers are trying to meet. Mario 64 got it right on day one.