1 post tagged “360”
I am a long-term technophile and gamer, stretching way back to the days when the Commodore 64 was state-of-the-art (and a little while before then, but I feel old enough already) and I have owned many games consoles and computers in my time, so I was keeping an eye on which next-gen console looked like it would best suit my needs and complement my PSP.
So far, the XBox 360 has failed to dazzle me, despite the fact I had one on pre-order - Amazon failed to deliver it and I got the PSP instead; a decision that I have not regretted at all. My best friend got one and tried to convince me that it was awesome, but Blazing Angels looked poor and many other efforts looked prety much as they would on the Xbox I had already. Another two friends have either sold their 360 or put it in a cupboard and gone back to the old XBox, as there are so few decent 360 games and the backwards-compatibility is evidently rather hit-and-miss.
The Playstation 3, then, looked to have things stitched up - after all the Gamecube got hammered by the XBox and PS2, so surely the powerhouse from Sony needed only to make its release date to romp home to victory? Well, it's true that the demos look far more convincing than those for the 360. A couple of those games look amazing, not least of which is Metal Gear Solid 5. The power of the machine appears to be truly a step-up from the XBox/PS2/Gamecube, although developers are quite often criticising the machine and preferring the 360. That could be down to the 360 essentially being an Apple Mac G5 in a different box and, thus, easier to code for, however. Still, the release of the PS3 has been delayed in the UK until March(ish) and those countries that have had it at Christmas are reporting faults and backwards-compatibility issues. Hopefully it will only need a firmware update.
The rank outsider for the next-gen race is Nintendos' Wii. Yes, it's a funny name, but it probably means "console of much happiness making" in Japanese. The brains at Nintendo have looked at the market and realised that games are getting more and more expensive to make. The average top-flight title now has a credit list longer than a Hollywood blockbuster and can cost millions of pounds to make. This means there is little risk taken with new ideas, as a single flop could break a company. Compare this to the days of the Commodore 64 when a game was written by three or four guys in a room and you can see why we have more and more sequels and less and less new ideas. Nintendo have seen fit to try to change this by not chasing after ever more powerful (read:"expensive to code for") graphics, but have instead created a console that tries to break through the dogma that only a "gamer" can enjoy a games console. As with the DS, Nintendo are trying especially hard to get the so-called "silver surfer" generation (those who are recently retired, or approaching that age, with large amounts of disposable income and lots of free time) to use its products. Hence, we have brainteaser games on the DS and a new console that doesn't require you to learn how to use a joypad (not easy if the old fingers have a touch of arthritis, you see) - no, if you want to sword-fight, you wave the wand about, etc. So far, it seems to be working.
I am not going to say that all the Wiis sold are to older people, far from it. I do, however, think that when little Timmy opened his Wii on Christmas Day and insisted on playing Wii Sports, or Golf, then rather than fall asleep, or get bored (as was the case previously), then it might be the case that mum and dad, as well as grandma and grandpa, had a go. They probably had fun, too. That is what Nintendo have gotten right - the idea that a games console and its games should be, first and formost, fun. Yes, it's nice to have fancy graphics, but so many games now have great looks, but poor gameplay (an argument I can remember going back to the days of the Amiga and ST...), but honestly, if you have a racing game where the cars look like cars, the important thing is that racing is easy and fun, not whether you can read the stickers on the tyres. The boom in games like DanceDance Revolution or Donkey Conga show that more people are interested in playing games than are interested in learning how to use a gamepad. If you make the fun accessible, then people will play, it's that simple. It would seem, judging by the sales figures, that Nintendo have hit the nail right on the head. Let's hope the strategy works long-term and that we don't lose their consoles the way we lost Segas'. On current form, however, it looks like Wii and 360 have taken a huge headstart on the PS3 and Sony is struggling to make up ground. Don't count them out, just yet, though.
So far, the XBox 360 has failed to dazzle me, despite the fact I had one on pre-order - Amazon failed to deliver it and I got the PSP instead; a decision that I have not regretted at all. My best friend got one and tried to convince me that it was awesome, but Blazing Angels looked poor and many other efforts looked prety much as they would on the Xbox I had already. Another two friends have either sold their 360 or put it in a cupboard and gone back to the old XBox, as there are so few decent 360 games and the backwards-compatibility is evidently rather hit-and-miss.
The Playstation 3, then, looked to have things stitched up - after all the Gamecube got hammered by the XBox and PS2, so surely the powerhouse from Sony needed only to make its release date to romp home to victory? Well, it's true that the demos look far more convincing than those for the 360. A couple of those games look amazing, not least of which is Metal Gear Solid 5. The power of the machine appears to be truly a step-up from the XBox/PS2/Gamecube, although developers are quite often criticising the machine and preferring the 360. That could be down to the 360 essentially being an Apple Mac G5 in a different box and, thus, easier to code for, however. Still, the release of the PS3 has been delayed in the UK until March(ish) and those countries that have had it at Christmas are reporting faults and backwards-compatibility issues. Hopefully it will only need a firmware update.
The rank outsider for the next-gen race is Nintendos' Wii. Yes, it's a funny name, but it probably means "console of much happiness making" in Japanese. The brains at Nintendo have looked at the market and realised that games are getting more and more expensive to make. The average top-flight title now has a credit list longer than a Hollywood blockbuster and can cost millions of pounds to make. This means there is little risk taken with new ideas, as a single flop could break a company. Compare this to the days of the Commodore 64 when a game was written by three or four guys in a room and you can see why we have more and more sequels and less and less new ideas. Nintendo have seen fit to try to change this by not chasing after ever more powerful (read:"expensive to code for") graphics, but have instead created a console that tries to break through the dogma that only a "gamer" can enjoy a games console. As with the DS, Nintendo are trying especially hard to get the so-called "silver surfer" generation (those who are recently retired, or approaching that age, with large amounts of disposable income and lots of free time) to use its products. Hence, we have brainteaser games on the DS and a new console that doesn't require you to learn how to use a joypad (not easy if the old fingers have a touch of arthritis, you see) - no, if you want to sword-fight, you wave the wand about, etc. So far, it seems to be working.
I am not going to say that all the Wiis sold are to older people, far from it. I do, however, think that when little Timmy opened his Wii on Christmas Day and insisted on playing Wii Sports, or Golf, then rather than fall asleep, or get bored (as was the case previously), then it might be the case that mum and dad, as well as grandma and grandpa, had a go. They probably had fun, too. That is what Nintendo have gotten right - the idea that a games console and its games should be, first and formost, fun. Yes, it's nice to have fancy graphics, but so many games now have great looks, but poor gameplay (an argument I can remember going back to the days of the Amiga and ST...), but honestly, if you have a racing game where the cars look like cars, the important thing is that racing is easy and fun, not whether you can read the stickers on the tyres. The boom in games like DanceDance Revolution or Donkey Conga show that more people are interested in playing games than are interested in learning how to use a gamepad. If you make the fun accessible, then people will play, it's that simple. It would seem, judging by the sales figures, that Nintendo have hit the nail right on the head. Let's hope the strategy works long-term and that we don't lose their consoles the way we lost Segas'. On current form, however, it looks like Wii and 360 have taken a huge headstart on the PS3 and Sony is struggling to make up ground. Don't count them out, just yet, though.
