Kazzahdrane

Just to re-iterated for people who don't know, Naughty Dog sold the rights to Crash Bandicoot to Sony after they made CTR (and went on to make the Jak & Daxter series for PS2). The first game made without them, Crash Bash, was actually pretty good - but the series quickly went downhill in the eyes of most fans when it went to current gen hardware. Interestingly there was an almost identical pattern for Crash's buddy Spyro. Insomniac sold off the rights after they'd made the 3rd Spyro game and concentrated on starting the Ratchet & Clank series for PS2. Spyro continued on current-gen formats but the games have been getting progressively more complicated and by all accounts (don't have time to play endless sequels when there are games like Trauma Center and Phoenix Wright to play!) they have been getting worse. Certainly the first Spyro on the PSX was a smashing game (had real difficulty too!). A little off-topic but that's me. Nice to see some agreement with my CTR-love, thanks for not being mindless Nintendo fanboys, guys

Oh same here, but the people I know are much more informed than the everyday man-on-the-street. I work in a game shop and people don't come in and ask about the Wii release date (though Lites have been selling well and we make a point of telling everyone who seems interested about the Wii), they ask about the PS3 release date. Then we tell them the price. Then when they've fainted and regained their composure we tell them about the Wii. Like you I'm not sure I can name anyone who I know is getting a PS3 on release for sure, but as I said there are a lot of those people out there, it's just my I know a lot of Nintendo fans.

Wow, that's rare and very nice. You can save up for bandwidth-heavy months

That Guy, I feel your pain! I bought the WW with the 2nd disc with OoT and MM on it, and duly enjoyed WW very much (not a very tough game but enjoyable). OoT though...I can;t make myself play it. I've only got a few more Temples to do but the game just feels so unresponsive (perhaps because I'm not playing it on the N64 pad it was designed for?) and slow in pace. It's also much more difficult that WW. I have a load of friends who swear by OoT as the best game ever, but I just don't see the appeal. I guess when it originally came out it broke a lot of new ground but now it seems dated and unappealling. However, I have sworn to finish it before I get my Wii with Twilight Princess!

8 Meg from BT, £29.99 a month. Yeah I know, not a great deal but at least we get it (Telewest claim they can service my postcode then weeks later they get back to you and say "eh...yeah we can't, sorry") and it's very stable. 40Gb monthly limit but even with two heavy PC users we don't reach it.

I haven't had first-hand experience of this (had a PS2 for over 4 years and never a problem) but I have to agree with you, the PS2 laser becoming faulty is a common problem. My mum told me a while back that my brother and sister's PS2 had broken and I just said "get the laser checked, I'll give you a tenner if it's something else". Of course, it was the laser. My point still stands though: Sony is a well-known brand that people see everywhere. Sony's cosumer electronic side is diminishing but most people can remember seeing Sony TVs and VCRs etc in shops. For many members of the public (especially parents who aren't gamers), Playstation 2 is the games console that people have. People will come up to me in work and ask if we have a game in stock. When I ask "For what [platform]?" about three-quarters look at me as if I'm an idiot and simply say "Playstation 2...".

And Playstation is a brand the public in general know and trust. Most people don't know about Sony's rootkit fiasco, and don't stop and think about how few games they'll be able to buy when they are £50+. Your friends liking/having something is one of the best ways for something to become popular, it's certainly one of the reasons I investigated the DS further and decided to buy one myself. Do not underestimate the PS3 being "cool". I'll be telling all my friends and family about the Wii as I do with my DS, and especially telling them how cheap the console and games are compared to the PS3.

Crash Team Racing > Mario Kart 64. Contraversial opinion perhaps, but I think it's a shame that CTR was only on the PSX - it's a really good karting game and the battle mode especially leaves MK64 in the dust. It may have been a Mario Kart clone but I think Naughty Dog did a better job than Nintendo that generation.

Don't expect a price cut for the 360 until 2007. Word on the street is that MS don't want to cut the price because doing so would further increase the price different between the 360 and the PS3, and might make Joe Public think the PS3 is clearly superior because of its much higher price.

Crash Bash was awesome. If the PSX had had four controller ports without needing a multitap it would have been even better. Some of the games in Crash Bash (there were only around 10 IIRC) put the Mario Party games to shame. It's just a shame it was just a collection of games and didn't have any board game style multiplayer to tie them together.

Just make sure GAME is the place with the best deal :P

Nope I'm neither. I just disagree. I work in a games store and I can assure you, Sony have no problems with their thunder-building...thing. Of course when people ask how much it will be I tell them, then quickly follow up with "which is why all the staff here are going to buy the new Nintendo console." I can't speak for America, but here in the UK the buzz is all about the PS3 unless you're a particularly informed gamer who values fun over graphics.

Still, I agree with that point. It could have been like MGS2 - where gamers pretty much didn't know that Snake wasn't the main character until they were playing the game for themselves. I hate going to see movies when I've seen all the funny/exciting bits in the trailers weeks before, I don't like games going down the same route.

Sony don't need to steal any thunder, it's the PS3's thunder that Nintendo needs to try and steal some of.

Indeed, for example I use Xfire for online PC gaming and you have just one account and can see what your contacts are playing. Xfire is of course free because it is ad-supported, but surely it wouldn't be hard for Nintendo to do something similar for free.

I'm all for simplicity in gaming, but I think those of us who wish to play online should get a good service that doesn't involve a seperate Friends code for every game we buy. I really hope Nintendo doesn't do that for the Wii - Xbox live has shown that a centralised system can be very effective and easy to use.

That's what I would assume, yes. The Dojo will probably be the name for the lobbies etc.

Do you mean the Steam Friends system? ...what is there not to like about it (at least now that it's actually up and running again)? I'd much prefer an Xbox Live Friends-type setup than having a Friends code for every single online-enabled Wii game I buy and have to hand that code out to all my Wii-owning friends on the chance that they get the game. Much better to have an online Wii profile and Friends list, and then be able to see which friends are online and what they are playing. Then go "Oh Dave is playing Smash Bros", stick in the Smash Bros disc and go play with him. I may have misunderstood your comment though, apologies if I was actually agreeing with you or something :P

I can assure that this is very very unlikely, I'd bet it's just an educated guess. I work for Gamestation and know that our working relationship with Nintendo is much better than they have with GAME - and we've been told absolutely nothing that hasn't been all over the web. Most likely GAME have set a possible price to tell interested customers, but they almost certainly won't know for sure. Could be wrong though, he could secretly be the third Mario Brother and just work at GAME for something to do.

This from Eurogamer: There's only one other item of note really, and that's the enigmatic inclusion of "42 All-Time Classics" for release on September 29th. We've asked Nintendo what all that's about, so we'll let you know when we do. Update: Which is now. 42 All-Time Classics is known as Game Fortune Bag (Daredemo Asobi Taizen) in Japan and Clubhouse Games in the US. It features various board, card and party games like draughts, darts and poker. You can read more about it in our DS game E3 round-up. Can't post a link to the page due to my low post count :P But it's at Eurogamer.net!

I'm fairly certain this will be the case. When the batteries die the controller will most likely show to the Wii as "disconnected/unplugged (yeah wireless, I know)" and the game will pause, in much the same way as many current-gen console games do if you pull a controller out that is being paused. Replace batteries and resume

Ditto, I don't have a wireless router so I'll probably take my Wii online using one of those fancy Wi-Fi Connect USB dongles (once they confirm Wii compatibility).

Funniest. Question. Ever. Go look it up, French and German for example have different names from the English for pretty much every country. L'etas Unis I believe is the USA in French (been a long time since I did French at school, don't take my word for it). English-speaking people say Scotland. French-speaking people say Ecosse.