Etymotic

It's definitely like this: 私は Where 私 means 'I'. But anyway, I can't believe we've only got some 50 days to go before Wii comes out. Not long ago everything was a mystery and it felt like it'd be forever before Nintendo would release their new console. And about a month to go till US release? Sheeesh...

Can you give me examples where you felt that Nintendo's way was "lazy development" and bad design? I don't think you will find enough of them to justify that sort of criticism, but I will reserve my judgement till I hear you out.

Some random thoughts in no particular order. No real conviction in what I say, but just light heartedly pondering, so don't take it personally please. - 1 - Religion is most commonly defined as a system of belief in god(s) and/or worshipping any such subject of worship. But I've actually come across a branch of buddhism that doesn't have a subject of worship. Instead of listing Do's & Don'ts, they are more into philosophy and perspective of life. A lot of buddhism seems to tend toward that direction too. Technically speaking some of those "religions" may not really be a religion as it is defined in the West. I think this is interesting because we tend to bag all of them into the same bag and think they are about believing in a specific form of God. Not so. - 2 - Want to be successful in life? Get wealthy? Become happy? So you're going to university to study hard? Don't bother! There is a much quicker and easier way: believe in god and die. Heaven is where all the good is, with infinite supply of happiness. So, what are we waiting for!? - 3 - Sometimes I think all big religions are a part of the same entity. Sometimes I think they're all right, only that they are covering different parts of the system of life. And also each developed its own unique take on the rest of the system, thereby causing conflict. But it may so transpire that they are describing the identical system, at least partially. - 4 - Apparently, scientific mind is meant to conclude that when we die our cells die so we just perish into basic elements. So no after life, no reincarnation etc. But the other day I thought, in science everything is conserved. Energy, momentum, ecosystem, etc. Everything is in a periodic cycle of some sort, never "losing" anything, but marely transfering to the next to be conserved. So in fact, I reckon it would be more scientific to conclude that life is also conserved somehow (i.e. something of a reincarnation) and not "lost". This is assuming that science does not understand the crux of how 'life' can exist. I tend to think it's at least some form of energy that we haven't detected yet. May be in the future science might discover "Life Energy" and "Conservation of Life".

Not me. I'd rather pay less, even if it's only £10. I have issues with all this modern trend of convergence. PSP was a good example, which boasted as a convergence hardware which could do many things. For me, the main prob is the cost. For me, there is no point in convergence if they can't keep the cost down. Let me exaggerate my point - I could make a hardware which can play games, dvd, divx, TV, then it has a tooth brush, tooth paste ejection mechanism, shampoo, scissors, knife, tin opener, dish washer and while we're at it, add a rocket attachment which launches it into outer space. Impressive? Yeah. Best technology? Definitely. But if it markets at £10,000, I won't buy it. It's not useful. Just because it's in one box (ie convergence) doesn't mean it's good.

BigTac thats probably because your post was very passive, as are many of the others. You have to be more proactive, which prevents any flexibility in a statement. A lot of things you say tend to leave some wiggle room à la Nostradamus. You have to eliminate that. Alternatively, you might as well not say anything. I'm not questioning your integrity by the way. I'm just pointing out why it's not surprising that people often don't believe you, and why your backtracking makes no difference now.

To be honest, this whole thing about the importance of DVD is a bit odd in this day and age. The other day I went to Sainsburys and even they were selling a few odd DVD players on sale for £29. DVD playback support may have been a huge factor 3 years ago but now I'd dish out £50 to get a dedicated player with many features and other format support. Anyway. Nintendo didn't have bother with all this DVD dongle socket and instead make it cheaper by £10. I'd have prefered it that way.

Well spotted mate. I too thought it's a bit odd that it's called "Dragon Quest Swords". Then on a 2nd thought I suspect it's their way of bringing in wiimote into action. I think it will be an action-RPG, where you're swinging a Sword in a Dragon Quest world. Seems to make sense, doesn't it? About Dragon Quest hype in Japan, that's quite right. Particularly in the olden days of NES, every release was greeted with a mile long campers of dads and sons (literally in a small tent) outside big stores. Later on the same day mugging would ensue, not for money but for the Dragon Quest carts. Apparently schools instructed kids to hide the carts on the way home from stores, as 20-somethings would spot a kid with the game and follow him into a dark alley where he'd nick the cart.

Another side effect of low cost and new controller is, the playing field will be very different. Wii's low cost is part of this. If I were a new dev with a great idea, I won't stand a chance graphically vs Square Enix. Put it out on PS3 is a suicide because PS3 buyers are probably graphix whores. Or at least people dish out so much because they want to have their share of eye-candy. Reviews of games will reflect that. My point is, the way games get judged will vary on Wii. I reckon PS3 games tend to hinge on graphical scores, a lot more so because that's their territory in marketting their console. Great idea + average graphics will probably get like 65% in PS3 reviewer, but 85% from Wii reviewer. Small devs can realistically aim for a decent profit and fame if they have good ideas.

Sure way to win is to perfect a set play with Beckham taking the freekick and Crouch heading it in. So it goes like, fall over near the box -> beckham freekick -> Crouch scoring. Repeat, till we win the World cup. That sort of tactics is much more systematic and consistent than relying on Rooney.

I have generally agreed with much of what you contribute here, and as always this one is no exception :awesome: I think the simplest (or simpler) way to think is that DirectX is a translator. It stands in between devs (games) and hardware. When the hardware "learns new words" (i.e. upgraded), you have to update the translator (DirectX) so that it knows those new words Each new generation of hardware and DirectX expand the dictionary to include more words so that you can have more colourful language

Another vote for Zelda Collector's Edition. yeah the difficulty, particularly that of the 2nd level (I think) is legendary. I don't think I cleared any of the levels under 10 tries. Most took me like 50 tries at least. I dont think being handy on racing games helps with F zero. You just have to be handy with... F zero:awesome:

I didn't have the 1st one (long story. my sister took it) for a while, so last year I bought another one. It was the silver GCN platinum bundle with Resident Evil 4. Around 90 quid +shipping so it was about £100 in the end. I think it's about right in terms of value. The only down side is that shops these days aren't very enthusiastic about reserving room for NGC games, but if you don't have probs browsing games that won't be a prob.

I agree May is unlikely. Impossible. November or even September seems so far away... I'm ground down waiting for E3 as it is, it feels so close yet so far.

I was surprised at first but now thinking about it it's not that unlikely. Nintendo's attempt to be more all-inclusive may lead them to believe that having a more tight support for PC games is beneficial, as Pedro implied. For a while I thought it might be just be their own wrapper which maintains the same syntax as DirectX standard, but I don't know. What I'm interested in is the performance hit. I don't believe Nintendo would sacrifice their own in favour of DirectX. Now I'm contradicting myself. The bottom line, I don't know what to believe.