pratty

Sadly I think the Wii fell victim to perception as much as anything. Think how much more successful it could have been if the Wii's detractors actually took the reviewers at their word and actually played all the wonderful games the Wii does infact have.

As with most things, I think the answer lies somewhere in the middle. Though I think Nintendo should still lean towards their tradition values, it's what they do best and it's what gives them their unique identity that sets them apart for better or worse. The trouble is often we discuss these things in terms of absolutes, such as "Nintendo is kiddy", and "Sony is hadcore" etc, when it's all shades of gray. As such I think they only need to tweak their approach rather than drastically overhaul their structure or philosophy. in terms of western style story driven games I think Other M was almost there. I think if anything Nintendo games have actually become increasingly story driven over the years. Of course stories for Nintendo are more means to an end, rather than the end themselves, and I think that's for the most part the correct use of stroy in a video game. That's not to say you can't have complex and interesting stories, but gameplay should come first. I don't think Nintendo have ever set their stall out to be storytellers, and nor have I expected them to be. Zelda and to a lesser extent Metroid always had decent stories, but I never played them for the their stories, or came away felling that I enjoyed their stories more than the gameplay itself, and that was fine. Nothing wrong with having story heavy/driven games though, but I'm not convinced Nintendo needs to make them. All that matters is that they're on the console whoever does, so a priotity for me would be getting 3rd party devs on-side to make those games on Nintendo's hardware. That said Nintendo are in effect indirectly developing at least one RPG that we know off, which will be an exclusive. Whilst not 'western' it should be the type of game to appeal more to western audiences who enjoy story driven games. They also got Lego City Stories exclusive (published it I think too), Nintendo need a more of that, more western developed exclusives. As long as Nintendo get/keep the 3rd parties onboard they should't need to do too much themselves. Metroid already lends itself quite well to that sort of game aswell. I've always thought though that there's more to the popular 'western' style of game than story. Story is part of it, but more than that I think they come down to living out a (mostly macho) fantasy. And that's not meant as a knock, to etiher those games or the gamers that play them, it just is what it is. Rather than story I think this is where Nintendo loses it's appeal with a lot of 16+ male gamers. Nintendo generally don't make bad games, the reviews don't lie, so what's wrong with them to so many people? I'd suggest it's that you can't live out a fantasy through them that you can relate to. People play sports games to make their team champions, to make themselves champions. They want to save the world in a scenario they can relate to, as an anthropomorphic animal, or in some trippy mushroom kingdom. They want to play the anti-hero and do all the outrageous stuff they couldn't do in real life without getting in trouble. They want to drive the supercars they will never afford. Even Nintendo's games that have stories are too far removed to present a relalistic and relatable escapist fantasy for a lot of people. I think Nintendo could possibly offer one or two games like that but I wouldn't want them to go overboard in that direction, not least because those games would surely come at the expense of the other Nintendo games we all know and love. Nintendo by themselves can't be all things to all people, we can't just point to however many billion Nintendo has in the bank and say that's why Nintendo should do everything and please everyone. It doesn't work like that. I agree with this, as much as i'd like to see some subtle changes in Nintendo, I don't want to see games rushed out games for the sake of it. For these kinds of western games to have any relavence they're going to have to be very good. Better Nintendo turn heads with one or two corkers than relase a wave of games to "mehs" of indifference.

Do it! It's probably the most unique mario platformer out there. When people say they wished Nintendo would take their franchises in new directions, Mario Sunshine is exactly that.

I think Remy and Lambert will be options/back up (Borini would be the same and probably behind those two), so the £8.5 mil and £4 mil we paid for them seems decent for those roles. There won't be too much pressure for not playing those two, if Rodgers has signed two £20 mil strikers he couldn't play them both and Sturridge at the same time so he would get grief for leaving expensive players on the bench.I think he's putting his faith in Sturridge as the main man, but will hope Remy and Lambert support and challenge him. although we have so many versatile players it wouldn't surprise me to see Sturridge pushed out wide to accomodate Remy or Lambert if they're in form. Speaking of £20 mil players, I don't know a lot about this Markovich guy, that's a lot of money for a 20 year old. We've wasted a lot of money on 'prospects' in the past, only for them to make very little impact and end up on loan and/or sold at a loss. At that price he really needs to be in the starting line up or at least knocking very loudly on the door. I'm really interested to see how the attack and midfield shapes up with all these versatile attacking options.

I've never been a fan of Crow Sting. But blonde early-WCW Sting was awesome.

Super Mario Sunhine absolutely deserves to be a priority, but if you're definitely going to play Wario World, then I'd be tempted to say play it first and get it out of the way, it's not that great. It's not a bad game either but I think if you're curious about it then the longer you wait to play it the more disappointed you might be. Starfox Adventure's is a good game. Once you get over the fact it's not as good as Zelda, and not a proper Starfox game, then it's quite enjoyable. Some of the voice acting grates but that's just a minor niggle.

The Wii is awesome! I think there's a strong argument for it being the greatest console ever. Both the Wii and Gamecube are strong consoles in their own right, but combine them and you have access to a number of top quality games, then throw in the VC and to a lesser extent Wiiware, and you've got a pretty bad ass console. I wouldn't even hold the graphics against it. It was below par for it's generation, but considering how people might legitimately nominate earlier consoles with inferior graphics as the best console, I don't see the argument to hold the wii's relative lack of power against it. Especially as they did the job quite nicely in most cases, when developers made games to it's strength, and people used the component cable on their HD TVs. Needless waggle is a legitimate put off for many people, but for the majoity of games I've played and own it's kept to a minimum and used correctly, I'd suggest those who were put of by the wagglefest of some games probably bought the wrong games. And the controls were actually perfect for a lot of games too. The Wii got knocked for shovelware, which again I don't hold against it, I have a great solution for the shovelware issue - don't buy it. I judge a console's library by it's quality, not it's quanity. The review scores don't lie, the Wii had great games, and actually quite a few of them.

Obviously it's too early to pass judgement but this is looking good so far. Though I'm fully expecting some people to say "well it's just Ocarina with prettier graphics", usually the same people that hated Majora's Mask, Windwaker, the DS games and Skyward Sword, and every other Zelda game that did anything different. I have full faith that, as ever, this game will be a mix of familiar and new, quintessentially Zelda, and subsequently awesome.

Ha, I never even expected this game to be online, so I couldn't give one whether it is or not. This is a game I'm really not interested in nit-picking about. It is what it is, I'm not that bothered about what it isn't. It's a Zelda themed slash-em-up, if it was just the usual Samurai thing I and most people probably overlook it anyway, but having Link etc and looking generally quite spectacular from the new trailer I am now very interested in this type of game. The way I see it is these Samurai slah-em-ups on the Wii were generally considered average at best, if not a bit poor, so by my reckoning at worst this game will be no worse than them, so even if it isn't the greatest and lacks a feature here or there, it's probably still better off for being a Zelda hack and slash, I don't think we're being cheated of anything.

A military press is with heels together. Have read through this, maybe you'll find some ideas to help your hip. I'm still slightly injured myself with a bad left shoulder. I've found massaging my neck a traps really help my shoulder so just going to have to keep at it. Haven't been able to press properly for ages, have just been doing overhead carries instead, with light famers walks, and sometimes high-rep bodyweight lunges when I can be bothered. Will hopefully start training properly again soon, once my shoulder issue is sorted.

Yeah they definitely hacked them down as much as they could in the final third, as though it was a deliberate part of the plan. It is what it is though, they can do that if they want, some even argue fouls are a resource of the game, just annoys me when people praise stopping the opposition by any means necessary as some tactical masterstroke. Pressure is one thing, but cropping the opposition every time they threaten is a cheap tactic whether you're an underdog or not.

I agree but I can just see the headline "naive Simeone" for playing Costa etc. And yet if Ramos' header hits the post, they write no such thing. The margins can be that slim. I'm glad for Ancelotti, he really is one of the top managers. Feel very sorry for the Atletico fans, to be that close and have it ripped away from them. Still, La Liga chapions isn't a bad consolation prize.

All over now. Well done Real, good effort Atletico. I wonder what all the know-it-all-in-hindsight press will say about Simeone now, they were all getting ready about to praise him to the high heavens as a tactical genius and all the rest of it going into injury time, shows how narrow the margins are.

Second half flew by, so much better than the first, credit to Atletico not just shutting up shop too. Fairly indifferent to who wins, but Atletico's goal would have been a soft one to settle it, and everybody would have pointed the finger at Bale for wasting best chances of an equaliser.

Not the best game so far, can't recall a shot in the first 30 minutes. The playoff final had a dramatic finish earlier, Derby were all over QPR before Zamora scored. Fair play to QPR for winning, but come on, a trophy and medals, for promotion? Maybe i'm being a killjoy but it doesn't seem right to me, does second in the Championship get a trophy and medals as well?

You do realise that Atletico equalised and won La Liga, haha? Also come on, Barca and Arsenal are two of the most attractive football sides around. That team goal this season that Arsenal scored with all the flicks and back heels was like Harlem Globetrotter stuff. I hope teams like Arsenal and Barcelona and Liverpool and Bayern save us from smash and grab pragmatism. Feeling fairly neutral about the CL final, would normally love to see Evil Madrid lose but I got's love for Ancelotti for being a boss at Milan.

Missed this post earlier. Walk more? Simple but effective, it's relatively not that tiring so you may find you can sneak it in without it causing you to want to eat more, which more intense exercise might encourage. Only problem is it can be time consuming so you may want to kill two birds with one stone, so maybe instead of 'going for walks' and setting aside an entire hour or whatever as specific walking time, try walking to work, walking to the shops, walk to whatever social venue etc. Another idea is maybe sneaking in low intensity exercise at random times during the day. Whenever you find yourself alone at work bust out 10 squats when nobody looking, and then just carry on. Try and do it several times, maye try set a goal for how many squats you can sneak in a work, and get paid for them lol. You won't break a sweat or feel tired, but if you do enough over an entire day it will all add up. And at home have dumbbell in the house and anytime you want to go in that room where it is, or walk past it in the hall or the landing, you must do so many goblet squats or snatches, just an easy low number, then just carry on with your day. You don't even have to have a dumbbell though, maybe just make a rule with yourself that you have to do ten squats before you may enter the kitchen, a 10 lunge entry fee to entire the bathroom. Or just do ten squats on the hour, every hour. Again it won't seem like much effort each time but over the course of an entire day it should all add up.

Roberto Baggio, AC Milan are my Italian team but I watched Baggio where ever he played. Barca are my Spannish team, so really wanted Barca to win, but fair play to Atletico, they've had an amazing season, and what's another league title to Barca or Real anyway, share the love. I do love Messi, I've been watching football for about the last 20 years or so and Messi is the best player I've ever seen in that time. Better than Baggio (who's probably my favourite player ever), better than Ronaldinho, better than Zidane, better both Ronaldos. And Pep's Barcelona is probably the best team I've ever seen, i made a point of trying to watch them whenever i could because it was something special, I'll be telling my kids and grandkids about Messi and that Barca side. Well done Arsenal and well played Hull.

Yeah of all Liverpool's rivals I like Arsenal the most, don't really have much against City either except for the fact they're the kings of "financial doping". Would be nice to see Wenger win a trophy and get some haters off his back, he deserves some reward for trying to go about things the right way. I think today we'll see what desire there is in the Arsenal squad, they'll have no better chance in a long time to win a trophy. If they're up for it Hull could be in for a pasting.

Probably just standard procedure. They make "Champions" hats and t-shirts for both teams in the Superbowl, I think they donate the losing team's gear to the third world. Man City had "Champions" shirts ready to go for last Sunday, I doubt they waited unti lthe final whistle to have them made. Hope Arsenal win the FA cup, I think Wenger gets a lot of grief but I think he's one of the better managers in the Prem, and Arsenal generally play great football too. Also hope Barca beat Atletico, win it for Tito.

That just seems too drastic to me, to abandon hardware after one failure, which hasn't even run it's course yet. I think producing hardware is almost as much part of Nintendo's M.O. as it is making software. I would think it would take them at least two successive home console failures to make them comtemplate action like that. When you look at how lucrative hardware can be when you get it right (eg the Wii and DS) I think Nintendo owe it to themselves to suck up the disappointment of the Wii-U, to go back to the drawing board and at least give it one more bash.

I agree. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it ought to be a level playing field, Microsoft and Sony are right to exploit whatever advantages they have over Nintendo. What I'm saying is in their criticism of Nintendo too many people act as though it is a level playing field.

In fairness to Sony, after further research I'd say Playstation are probably in the black overall also, so it would seem I was too hasty to lump them in with Xbox as being an overall loss maker, I probably did so based on recent losses. I can' seem to find seem any definitive source covering Playstation's entire history but from what I can gather the success of the first two Playstations afforded them the losses they have made since. I believe the original Playstation console made the brand consitant profits during the late 90s. Now I read in 2013 Playstation made it's first annual profit for several years, indicating further losses for 2011 and 2012, however they have also increased profits since those announced for 2013, which the OP alluded to. If the profits from the early 90s were greater than the recent losses, and they probably were, then they're probably safely in the black overall. My point is this though, Playstation weathered the storm in the late 2000s and early 2010s and are apparently on the upswing again. So why all the doom and gloom for Nintendo, why do so many people think they should suddenly be put out their misery over a relatively few poor years? If Sony/Playstation are afforded the chance to bounce back, why not Nintendo? Especially as I mentioned earlier, any losses Nintendo make include all operating losses, where as the Playstation and XBox division's losses we compare them too are limited to their specific divisions. Very true. But it's not a level playing field when people compare Nintendo to Microsoft, and expect Nintendo do what Microsoft can, when Microsoft are content and able to run Xbox essentially as a loss-leader, as opposed to Nintendo which runs it's gaming 'division' as it's primary source of business. For example a developer will say they prefer to develop for the Xbox One instead of the Wii-U because of it's fancier specs etc, and if Nintendo had the same high specs they'd happily develop for them too. But Nintendo can't afford to manfacture their consoles at a loss the way Microsoft can, it's an unfair expectation to expect Nintendo to do the same as Microsoft, when Microsoft don't give a toss about overspending on hardware and making a loss, and Nintendo have to.

Well there you go. They're still in the process of making the whole videogame hardware market venture financially worthwhile, and they may well do so. But as it stands it appears they're still yet to turn an overall profit from it. Even the eventual success of the 360 wasn't enough to cover the earlier losses.

Like I said, last time I checked, it's been a while since I looked into it. I'm happy to be shown wrong if I am. But with a quick search just now I found a couple of graphs pertaining to Xbox, that show Xbox crawling out of a hole, but still being in one. I recall the first graph from the aforementioned time I looked into this. It only begins with 2003 though, I'm assuming 2002 and 2001 (and possibly 2000 during the Xbox's R&D phase) resulted losses aswell with Xbox only getting of the ground. Even though Xbox has been showing annual profits for the last several years it would appear it's still 'paying off' it's intitial losses. And as the second graph mentions, the losses refer only to the individual divisions. However when we talk about Nintendo's losses in comparision we don't just mean losses from it's hardware and software, we're talking everything. A really good 2014 might put XBox in the black, but that's assuming there weren't considerable losses in '02 and '01 etc. And there's no guarantee it will do this, which is probably why some Microsoft investors have sugested Microsoft sell off the XBox division to focus on more reliable areas.