Monthly Archive for May, 2006

Page 4 of 5

E3: At Nintendo’s Wii Event

Published on Tuesday, May 9, 2006 in Gaming, Internet, Noteworthy, Technology and Wireless. Closed

Courtesy of Engadget and Joystiq for the picture

The whole event was solely based around the Wii (with some DS stuff), Nintendo’s Miyamoto, Reggie and Iwata were up on stage each giving their part of the Wii. They gave game demos, info about the Wii and the games coming out for it. I’ll run over the points quite briefly, and let you read Engadget’s mother of a post!

The price was unannounced, but Reggie did say “We will give you more fun for less money,” which means it is probably going to be the cheapest console out of the three.
The Wii controller has a built-in speaker and rumble system. Reggie explained (in the demo for Zelda), “With the bow, the Wii remote adds depth of sound. Built-in to the Wii remote is a speaker. You’ll hear the bowstring draw taught and you’ll hear the bow sound draw to the screen as the arrow is shot. A quick jab with the Wii remote and shield shove. You’ll feel the impact with the built-in rumble.“
List of games: Metroid Prime 3, Dragon Quest Swords, Disaster: Day of Crisis, Fire Emblem, Sponge Bob Square Pants, Cars, Super Mario Galaxy, SD Gundamn G Breaker, Tony Hawk Downhill Jam, Sengoku Action, Excite Truck, Elebits, Red Steel, Rayman 4, Super Swing Gold Pangya, Sonic, Project H.A.M.M.E.R., Finalfurlong Revolution, Madden, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, Twilight Princess
Graphics: “The series of trailers went by quickly, but here’s the impression we got from it: there’s real variety in gameplay, and lots of variety in graphics. Some of the graphics look decidedly Xbox/GameCube/PS2, and some look incredible. It was unclear which were pre-rendered and which were footage of actual gameplay. The best-looking trailers were graphically impressive.“
The Wii is constantly connected to the internet, even when it is ‘off’. Iwata explains, “Wii Connect 24: the Wii console can be constantly connected to the internet. Anytime the console is in standby, players may return to find that their friends have left a message or a gift.“

That’s about it. For the full low-down follow the link.

E3: Joystiq gets hands-on with the PS3 controller

Published on Tuesday, May 9, 2006 in Gaming, Noteworthy, Technology and Wireless. Closed

And what did they make of it? Well at first they thought that being the good old dual shock controller that it will be really nice to hold and use, but that isn’t true. At first hand the controller seemed light, too light, so it made it feel quite cheap, like the 3rd party ones that you’d buy for $15. But the lightness would be a lot easier to control and hold while using the motion technology inside the controller. They said that the good old controller is fine, but it would have been good to see an improvement of something (like MS did with the 360 controller) as it isn’t perfect. The analogue sticks seemed hard to find and they were constantly trying to find a good position for it, they ended up just leaving it in the air!
What about the motion sensing technology? It was far too sensitive and it felt “tacked on to this Warhawk demo“. However between now and November, they thought that this would be ironed out for easier gameplay. They concluded saying that the idea was cool, but how would it help in non-flying or car games. They said that this was Sony’s last chance to beat Nintendo in the console race, and it seemed quite rushed and thrown together at the last minute.

E3: So here is the PS3 Controller

Published on Tuesday, May 9, 2006 in Gaming, Noteworthy, Technology and Wireless. Closed

There was a lot of controversy when Sony initially debuted their idea for the boomerang controller at last year’s E3. So what did they do from then until now; not much. They used the PS2′s DualShock 2 controller and adapted it. They have added bluetooth support so that it is wireless and, the big feature, X-Y-Z, pitch, roll, yaw and lateral motion detection like that on the Wii. However, there is no vibration! That will annoy a lot of fans, because that is one feature that is in every current and next gen console. They say that they couldn’t include it because it interfere’s with the system:

Pursuant to the introduction of this new six-axis sensing system, the vibration feature that is currently available on DUALSHOCK and DUALSHOCK 2 controllers for PlayStation and PlayStation 2, will be removed from the new PS3 controller as vibration itself interferes with information detected by the sensor.

This will be a missed feature, but will the virtual control be worth it? It seems that Sony has ripped off Nintendo and just stole their idea, not giving their console anything truly special (apart from the Cell).

UPDATE: It looks like that Sony didn’t steal their idea from Nintendo, but from MS and Logitech who made the technology in 1999! [link]

E3: Engadget and Joystiq’s Coverage of Sony’s E3 Conference

Published on Tuesday, May 9, 2006 in Gaming, Shorts and Technology. Closed

E3: $499 PS3 to lack HDMI, WiFi and card reader!

Published on Tuesday, May 9, 2006 in Gaming, Noteworthy and Technology. 3 Comments

I think that most of us were already expecting Sony to have a two tier pricing for the PS3, as the 360 did. But we didn’t expect that the $499 PS3 will be siginifcantly lacking a lot of the cool options that us Xbox 360 owners envied. Things like built in WiFi, HDMI and the memory card reader (Memory Stick, SD and Compact Flash) will only be on the $599 PS3. So that is an extra $100 you have to shell out already over the premium 360 for the base PS3, which is only different from it because it has an extra USB 2 port and the hard drive (only 20GB on the base model). For the super dooper PS3 you have to spend $200 more than the premium 360 to get all those ‘extra’ features.
It seems far too expensive for me, especially when we haven’t actually seen the games (unless you’re at E3); a lot of people think that because the 360′s GPU is better than the PS3′s GPU, and that because the PS3′s CPU is better than the 360′s CPU, it will all equal out and you won’t be able to tell the difference. I just hope that it will have something very significantly different from the 360 to justify that extra dough.

E3: The PS3 and its new old controller

Published on Tuesday, May 9, 2006 in Gaming and Technology. Closed

So here it is. Not very spectacular is it. The new PS3 and the old DualShock controller, though it is modified a bit (more on that later). This is final model of the PS3, but you never know how much Sony could change between now and November!

Nintendo’s E3 booth and TIME’s Wii Experience

Published on Monday, May 8, 2006 in Gaming, Noteworthy and Technology. Closed

Image Credit: WiiGamer

The first pictures have been snapped of Nintendo’s booth at E3 (above). YOu can see the cool Apple like designs of the booth. Looks pretty slick to me, hopefully we can expect the same of the Wii’s menu system. Note the PS1 logo, could it be something to do with PS1 content on the PSP or something similar?
On a separate, but related point, TIME got their hands on a Wii, *snigger*, and have extensively reviewed it. A five page article is no easy task, especially when it details some interesting ideas and games about the Wii. My favourite quote is made by TIME’s Lev Grossman: “At the end, I don’t so much put the controller down as have it pried from my hands.”

E3: Microsoft confirms USB HD-DVD for Xbox 360

Published on Monday, May 8, 2006 in Gaming, Microsoft, Noteworthy, Technology and TV's. Closed

Microsoft has confirmed at E3 today the addon HD-DVD player for the Xbox 360. It is going to be an optional add-on that runs via the USB 2 port on the 360. Interestingly, Microsoft didn’t slag off Blu-ray saying it wasn’t as good as HD-DVD, nor did they praise HD-DVD (much) either. Microsoft calls the quality of the two formats “a wash in terms of video quality,” and they say that the main diffrerence between the two will be the price. This probably means that the HD-DVD drive will be a bargain, to convince people to buy it. Adding that to the price of the 360 and it’s features it seems a pretty good deal generally and for those who don’t want to for out the $1k for the current HD-DVD players. But how will it rival against the PS3, which will have Blu-ray built in for only $399, but that will only be out in November (unless it gets delayed ike Vista).

PS3 controller re-design today at E3? (again)

Published on Monday, May 8, 2006 in Gaming, Technology and Wireless. Closed

UK Technology Magazine T3 gave news yesterday that the PS3 controller might be re-designed this monday (today) at E3.

T3 will be attending Sony’s pre-E3 conference on Monday where, amongst other juicy PS3-related titbits, we’ll get our first sighting of the new joypad.
The controller will certainly be wireless, and we’ve heard one or two murmurs that suggest some kind of motion sensitivity might find its way in – a nod to Nintendo and its radical, revolutionary Wii controller, perhaps?

But, as of 7:43PM GMT, no news has been posted by T3, and no-one has yet reported of such a thing. Could this be a rumour once again that T3 latched onto, or is this the real deal. Because the UK’s time is far ahead of US time, it could still happen. I’ll be posting the latest E3 news as it arrives.

UPDATE: You can watch the live stream of Sony’s E3 press conference at 4PM PT (11PM GMT) for free (thanks to Gamespot). So indeed this appears to be true, let’s see what Sony unveils! [link]

DS Lite coming in June to the US for $129

Published on Monday, May 8, 2006 in Gaming, Noteworthy, Technology and Wireless. Closed

Nintendo have officially announced the release date and the price for the DS Lite. The DS Lite will be released in the US on June 11 and could be priced as low as $129, which could mean that bundles could be available. In the press release some key details were added to show the main advantages of the DS Lite over the DS.

It’s less than two-thirds the size of the original Nintendo DS and more than 20 percent lighter.
Its two bright screens can be adjusted to four levels to adapt to different lighting conditions and to extend battery power.
The microphone sits in the center of the unit, and the LED lights are clearly visible whether the unit is open or closed.
The stylus is 1 centimeter longer and 1 millimeter thicker than the stylus of the original, and slides into a side storage slot.
The Start and Select buttons were repositioned for easier access.
A removable cover keeps the Game Boy Advance cartridge slot clear from dust and debris when it’s not in use.