c0Zm1c

I had a dream about a month ago. I was at, what I believe was a school and I was trapped in a room and had been given three minutes to escape before someone would enter the room and kill me. I escaped through a window, and ran out to some fields where I discovered a camp where other escapees were, I presume, hiding. Very weird, and I remember waking up feeling quite disturbed by it. Also, I used to have a recurring dream where I was climbing a set of stairs, following someone. It was dark, but moonlight was shining through a window on the left hand side. As we reached the top of the stairs, the creepy silhouetted figure in front of me would quickly spin around and look me straight in the face. But its face remained completely silhouetted. That never failed to jolt me awake!

Yes, I am. Or rather was. I haven't much incentive to play the game now that I've finished the story.

In one way, I think the same could be said for TrackIR and the PC market too. I'm sure it would find greater support if NaturalPoint licensed the technology out to headset manufacturers. After all, they do have an infrared attachment out for headsets, and since gamers need to wear something on their heads for it to work it seems like a perfect partnering of peripherals. I'm sure many developers would support it without question if it came built into headsets as standard. Support from headset manufacters would no doubt help reduce the cost too because, for what it is, in its current stand-alone form the £100+ price tag is really quite expensive - the main reason I've not bought one yet.

*sigh* I've already said, a number of times now, that a console peripheral marketed and supported well (most haven't been) could succeed, so this is the last time I'm saying it. You're right that it wouldn't do as well as it would if bundled with the console. It's forced on gamers and developers alike when it comes as standard, and so enjoys support by default (like the Wii remote). When made available separately it's left to the mercy of developer and gamer's interest. To be a successful peripheral Nintendo would have to do some serious groundwork. Let's hope they have with the Balance Board, because - like TrackIR - I think that could work well with a lot of different games too. I think it's pretty obvious that you could do a lot more with a device like TrackIR than you can a light gun. I don't see how the two can be compared in terms of game application. In fact NaturalPoint is apparently working on getting it supported in genres other than the more obvious ones. TrackIR has been around for several years now (it's up to its fourth version) and over 80 games have built-in support for it, not bad for the niche market it's intended for. And if you include its cursor control, then almost every PC game supports it. I doubt a lot of games would work that well with it in that mode, since it's designed to compliment the mouse and not replace it. But it's there for gamers to at least try.

I have the 360 version. The guards in the Kingdom are quite easy to kill. Well, they are near the start of the game - I hardly bothered fighting them in later Memory Blocks so I don't know if they increase in challenge. When I get knocked back (defence broken through) I always get struck with a follow-up attack. It's the whole point of them striking again, since the first was only to break your defence. The tutorial tells you to press the button for a counter attack just as the enemy begins its attack, not as it makes contact with you. Maybe that's why I've found them harder to pull off?

No, it is random. The fact that I can't guarantee I'll be able to counter or dodge an attacking enemy - even when my timing seems good - makes it random. It could be a problem with the game's targeting system, because when I'm fighting just one remaining enemy the counters and dodges do seem to work a little better. I've never been able to jump out of the way or return an attack straight after my defence has been broken (if that's what you meant?) At that point Altair is stumbling backwards and for a brief period doesn't respond to any moves: there's nothing you can do to counter or avoid the follow-up attack. For the majority of the game the combat system works well I think. You know that if you stay and fight there's a good chance you could get yourself killed, but you do have the opportunity to run if you're not doing so well. The city environments also complement the combat greatly - citizens helping you out, being able to throw guards into scaffolding (instant kill)/off rooftops, etc. It can make for some really tense but enjoyable scraps. It's only very late in the game where it begins to fall apart, where you're robbed of the open gameplay and boxed in with only the sword fighting as a means to deal with the enemies. In the meantime I have managed to finish the game, using the very cheap trick of running around in circles just out of the reach of the enemy whilst my synchronisation bar recharges.

Assassinating citizens drains your synchronisation bar, so don't do it too much.

Because, even when it feels like I'm timing it right, it's hit or miss whether counters and dodges execute properly. Coupled with the enemy's ability to break your defence and leave you open and guaranteed to be struck by a follow up attack, you have a combat system that feels very random indeed, and which can be highly frustrating. Prince of Persia did it better, where mistakes seemed more like your own and less like a glitch with the game's controls. Granted, it's not so bad throughout most of the game because you have the opportunity to run, break the line of sight between you and the guards, and find a hiding spot - which is what the gameplay seems pitched more towards than the forced and relentless battles you face towards the end of the game. I do really like the game, but it's not without some glaring issues.

I used to get my sword out and they would run away screaming. Now I just grab them and throw them to the ground or into a nearby wall. I think that's what you're supposed to do since you need to do that to get the Enemy of the Poor achievement.

I'm up to a part where I can't leg it and find a hiding spot, I'm forced to stay and fight, and given the randomness of the combat I just can't seem to get the better of those attacking me. As a consequence my enjoyment of this game has plummeted significantly!

Happy New Year!

I got the game for Christmas. Inspite of a few technical discrepancies, I do like it a lot.

If you decide to get a new monitor I suppose you could try and get one with component inputs.

Would it need to stream it? Surely it could just load a game into the Wii's main memory (RAM) and play it from there, at least for the games that are no larger than the Wii's main memory?

So it doesn't support widescreen?

Or USB memory sticks?

I think it can only be used for pictures, music, and videos, not downloadable games and game content. The PS3 also supports external hard drives, but again only for media I think.

I think optional USB memory device support is a good idea. It means people aren't forced to pay extra for a console with a large amount of built-in memory that they'll probably never fully use, and it provides a means of expanding the memory for those that will eventually need it.

Anything other than the simpler games designed for the inexperienced, I would imagine. As far as I'm concerned there's plenty of such games on the Wii. If there wasn't I'd have given up on it long before now.

Do they? It's that kind of image that seems to have helped the Wii sell so well. Regardless, I've played video games since the 80's so I'm an established gamer, and I'm satisfied with the Wii (so far). So I'm failing to see what the problem is. As long as they don't abandon their core fanbase I'm not going to abandon them. ...wait a minute! There is no Wii Gamer Edition sales as there's no such console on the shelves and we don't know if Nintendo are planning anything like this. You and your grand assumptions!

Then your Wii Gamers Edition seems all the more pointless.

I'd certainly welcome HD resolutions, be it through HDMI or component. The Wii and my other SD consoles look quite terrible on my LCD - far worse than they did on my old CRT. I really don't think that, and the other features you mention, would get hardcore gamers falling over themselves to buy one though. It needs the games as well. Metroid Prime 3, as good as it is, isn't going to pull, say, the typical 360 gamer away from Call Of Duty 4, or Gears Of War, for example. And since the Wii isn't powerful enough to have 'as good as' versions of those games, or games like them, then third parties can't make them even if they wanted to. A price increase isn't a good idea either. Many a hardcore gamer sees the Wii as just a Gamecube with a gimmicky controller, and thought it was overpriced to begin with.

It was early 2006 I think.

Questions would definitely have been raised if developers were releasing Gamecube games that looked like N64 games, since the hardware was capable of better. But since the technological jump between the Wii and Gamecube is a lot smaller (or so we're given to believe), it - at least for the games that suggest the developer has made an effort - can get away with it. Granted, the quality of a lot of Wii game graphics is uncannily bad. But at the other end of the scale they're never going to look as good as 360 and PS3 games. That doesn't mean the games can't be as good though, or better even: there is a lot more to video games than just graphics.

Rage (I'm not sure it'll make it out in 2008 though) Guild Wars 2 Fable 2 (another one I'm not sure will be out in 2008) Worms: A Space Oddity Little Big Planet Echochrome Mario Kart Wii Half-Life²: Episode Three No More Heroes Patapon Tomb Raider: Underworld Spore Okami