Burny

Wait, you did regret it? Going by your complaints about lack of achievements I fully expected to read "didn't". Anyway, if it buggers you that Nintendo completely bow out of the race for powerful, feature heavy hardware while still charging non-bargain prices, I'd suggest you just cancel your preorder. It's not like the 3DS is going to sink any time soon. So you'll still be able to pick one up when the price becomes comfortable or the game library has grown just too compelling to resist. At the moment, I'm waiting and watching. I know that I do eventually want a 3DS. It doesn't bother me that Nintendo offers very little features beyond gaming and that there won't be large many major western devs putting effort into supporting it either. I just consider the price generally far too high for a portable gaming machine. 200€ would've been my limit. Depending on how the 3DS has developed after a year though, I might get one anyway. The most important things to me are that they get distribution of digital content with their eShop right and that the online system will be comfortable. At the moment both are looking rather good and there's hope that Nintendo will evolve the system much more actively than the way they did on the Wii.

Long story short: you want a smartphone, an iPod Touch or a PSP2. It's Nintendo, they're building machines exclusively for gaming the way they want while everything else is an afterthought and they're choosing the price so that they make money out of them. If you want a jack of all trades device, you're always looking at the wrong company with Nintendo.

If that was the case around here, I'd have gotten mine a lot earlier. As it stands: 160GB PS3 naked: 300€, 320GB bundle: 350€.

Wouldn't it be missing L2/R2? You might simulate them with the tickle pad on the bag, but I imagine registering when they are supposed to be pressed and when not might be tricky. It's called a graphics whore and it's perfectly fine as long as they're not trying to tell everyone else in the Nintendo forums that they shouldn't be able to enjoy Nintendo games due to the generally underpowered hardware.

What defines the smartphone like experience for you? For me that would be to make phone calls and have (pretty much) a touch screen only device with a bigger screen. So it's superior for not game related tasks (browsing, E-Mails etc.). Their store seems far superior to what they tried in the past. Videos, demos, ratings etc.. They also seem to have a friend system that's not garbage for the first time. They do cost something actually. Much of the cost is a one time investment, but it's still an investment. You'll have to design and develop the server backend that stores your account data and the possible achievements and which of those everyone got. Then on the handheld side, you'll have to develop the system on the OS level that gets notified by the game, when an achievement is unlocked and synchronizes with the server backend at some point. Overall, they seem to do most things you'd expect from a console today right with 3DS or much better than how they did them in the past.

Didn't know that Kid Icarus or a new Pilot Wings are available on either of those systems. What have I missed?

I'm in the same boat. Take a dual analog, slap a screen in the middle and make it powerful enough to play PS3 type games and add 3G? Meh. I can just play those games on my PS3 instead. It's an impressive piece of hardware though and all the people who are adamant, that everything gets better if you stick a second analog stick onto it, should be in handheld heaven with this. Provided the price doesn't make them choke and the games keep coming. Whose fanboy are you supposed to be then? o.O

And unlike the PSP, there'll probably be a lot more software for the PSP2. If anything, large western devs are just going to release their games simultaneously with the home console /PC versions slightly downscaled on the PSP2. Plus, with an established download store and the touch screen, a large portion of the smartphone games may just be ported over.

Don't hold your breath yet. If I remember correctly, the PS3 also was sold at a loss. So from a technological point of view, it was a bargain. It was still a pure gaming machine costing 600€, the price of a middle class PC. Unlike the PS3 however, the PSP2 has no direct rival on the handheld market in terms of power and features. So it won't have to share it's target audience with Microsoft.

I'd actually say they're going more after the iPad market. The iPhone is still a slick phone and thus that slump of a PSP2 cannot replace it or other android / WP7 mobile phones. People who realize they're gaming on the iPad more than anything when they're not surfing the Web however might consider the PSP2 due to a lineup of much more substantial games. I'm guessing the PSP2 might start out about a hundred bucks below the iPad. Somewhere in the 400-500 category. (Source: Eurogamer) I don't get why people associate every screen that's considered "wide" an 16:9 aspect ratio. You even heard people spouting that the 3DS has a 16:9 top screen (its 5:3). The PSP2's display has a 30:17 aspect ratio unless pixels appear wider than they are high, which I seriously doubt.

Given that an uninformed person might think it's an ordinary PSP and the PSP already has a fan base, I'm surprised they didn't introduce it as the PSP2.

If the massive fingernails are an indication, its a girl.

If that's true and else fails about the PSP2, we know it's at least going to be useful as a mobile handwarmer. For about half an hour? :p

Yep, he actually did. He thinks of course of the shareholders and that the 3DS would still sell out at a higher price. He's not completely wrong about it either, I think. It's just that the damage Nintendo would do by selling the 3DS at the PS3's price might outweigh the increased profit of the launch period in the long run. Suggesting to sell a device for a certain price at launch in the knowledge that it'll sell anyway and than lowering the price after the product doesn't sell on it's hype alone after two months... It's a bit like suggesting to kick any early adopter in the balls when he leaves the shop.

Would be anything wrong with that? I never had one in the hand, but I thought the GO's design was intelligent. The slider design benefits the size when it's not played. Buttons can be hidden and don't have to be placed to the left and the right of the screen, which will make the shell broader than it has to be. If the PSP2 has indeed a touch screen, then a slider design would be even more beneficial, as "touch only" games could just be played with the buttons hidden.

You haven't read that Patcher thinks Nintendo is stupid for selling the 3DS under 300 bucks?

There is a town walkthrough of Last Story with comments from Sakaguchi: Not that I understand a single word. Still I understand enough to know that I'm going to be really pissed if Nintendo haven't a confirmation of the western release at E3. Adriasang have a bit of an explanation for the videos. With Xenoblade in summer and this in winter and Zelda somewhere in there too, any gaming needs on the Wii this year would be completely covered for me.

Overall the idea of being able to play PS3-type games on a handheld isn't too appealing to me. Even less if it's as expensive as an actual PS3 at this point. I'm really hoping though, that the PSP2 won't suffer the same fate as the PSP in the west. Having two competitive gaming handhelds on the market should be of mutual interest for both Sony and Nintendo. When games on smartphones are all the rage nowadays, two strong systems should really help to distinguish gaming handhelds and their games from gaming enabled phones. This will be interesting to watch. If Sony comes out with a powerhouse of a handheld that promises games currently only available for home consoles, they might take a lot of those considering themselves hardcore from Nintendo's part of the pie, even if the thing might cost as much as an iPad. Western devs might also jump on a powerful handheld if they can just port home console games over. Still, they have no Nintendo games.

I'm talking single small models. Painting a squad would be like painting a monster all over again. It would defeat the purpose of being able to concentrate on learning how to do details, because you'd be constantly fretting that there are still 10 of the same suckers left. I know the effect of that. When I did a bit of commission painting, I must've listened to each Harry Potter audiobook about three or four times in order to stand through painting about 40 Space Marines and a Venerable Cybot. :p No interest in some character models? There are enough models which are nice to look at.

Only if UK's standards for Golden Demon miniatures are really low. Just to give you an idea what the standards are: Klick! The Spanish team is sick! I don't want to be the ass here, you're doing a great joy of painting the miniatures, EVILMURRAY! But for a Golden Demon you'd at least have to able to paint smooth color gradients. Still, a miniature doesn't have to be Golden Demon standard in order to look good. Just keep at it! For sheer practice purposes in terms of painting I'd suggest small models though. I really like the conversion of the Carnifex. The small Ripper on the hind leg is a nice touch. If you'd modeled a sack that spews out gaunts, you'd have a really nice conversion for on of the new Carnifex variants. ^^ Any plans for a Trygon?

I assume you are using some kind of converter? Because I've got a hybrid between monitor and TV and have my Wii connected to it with a component cable. That worked fine for LKS.

o.O How comes? You refuse to play it or what?

Didn't he predict soaring sales for the PS3, good sales for the XBox 360 and a total failure for the Wii four or five years ago? And now the only way the Nintendo can continue to prevail in the home console market is by copying the 360? Yeah... Not that Nintendo shouldn't take a leaf out of better online systems, but it seams they're already doing so with the 3DS.

I assume one is the price and two is a game that stands out. Nothing says however, that these people are definitely not customers. E3 is not far from launch and whatever hit the hype has taken for some due to pricing choice and early game selection, those can be won over at a later point in time.

That's assuming they need to make the offer more compelling in order to sell their units. They are however releasing the successor to the most successful gaming handheld ever with a launch lineup that has a rather broad appeal and a gimmick, that's gotten them into the news as much as the Wii's motion controls have. And unlike with the Wii, we're not as likely to see a similar drought of games immediately after launch. I don't think they have to give people more incentive to buy the thing. The question will probably rather be if they can satisfy demand in terms of units. So that time to launch the thing is now, when they don't have to share the hype with any competing products.