Thursday, December 15, 2005

So many full moons... Well, I have finally made the move. I'm now living here in Queensland. Surprisingly, things haven't been as rocky as I'd thought. Actually, it might be more accurate to say that I don't really feel like my life has been changed as much as it really has. Somehow the Gold Coast feels like home, even though I've only been here once before. Out of anywhere I've been in this general corner of the state, the Gold Coast is definitely the most beautiful (although I still think Brisbane is underrated). So I feel very lucky to have been able to land in such a nice spot. There's still definitely an adjustment period, especially because I came up here with fairly light luggage; I really need to think about bringing everything up at some point soon. But that's only really a minor inconvenience. I'm actually surprised at how comfortable I feel after such a major move. The only real difficulty so far is that my 'net access is a bit more limited than it may otherwise have been. Right now I'm sharing a connection with my roommate and his 'net access is far more limited than mine was. So I will have to try to sort something out soon - perhaps I will get my own account or something like that. Anyway, I will try to stay around as much as possible. I think that things will probably settle down over the coming few weeks, so I'll be able to get back to some of the web projects that have been left in the lurch as a result of the shake-up. CosmicSailor: I think the design issue extends across every corner of the Internet, including search engines and so on. But things continually improve. This is why I am happy to see how rapidly CSS-based sites have sprouted up everywhere - even though that movement has brought some negatives with it too (such as a billion "me too" designs and a kind of generic approach at times). SugarCone: Yeah, I'm in the same boat as far as games go. If I look at my habits over the last few years, I can tell you that I've played games less and less. When I think about it, fewer games have interested me in general. Most recently, I've only really spent good amounts of time with the likes of Resident Evil 4, Half-Life 2, Mario Kart DS and Guild Wars. There have been other games in between, but nothing I've really sat and played for any length of time or with any seriousness. I think this is because I'm kind of burnt out. I've seen and played first person shooters before - I don't want another "spiritual successor" type of game. I don't want another Halo (I thought the first one was pretty overrated anyway). What I really want is something entirely new. Not necessarily new just for the sake of being new, but...after playing games for my entire life, I have grown very accustomed to the way certain genres "feel". And while I still love many of those games, I'm just tired of paying so much money for the same thing with a nicer coat of paint. What I really want is something that makes me say "Wow, that's incredible!" in the same way that Super Mario 64 did, or in the same way that Super Mario Bros. 3 did. There have been games like that, but not as many as I'd have liked. So I think it's time for something fresh. Shin: Well, it's definitely possible. If all the information about the hardware is accurate (and it seems so), I wouldn't at all be surprised if the price never went above $199 at launch. Domon: I really do believe that each system has its merits. Xbox 360 is a cool machine and it's cleverly designed. Xbox Live looks absolutely wonderful on Xbox 360 and it's one of the key reasons for me to own the system (other than the backwards compatibility). Of course, right now, it's hard to judge because the launch has only just occurred. But I don't doubt that Xbox 360 will play host to some brilliant games over its lifespan. There are already a handful of games for the system that I'm pretty interested in. But will I buy it when it finally launches in Australia? I doubt it. If the Aussie launch has extra software, I may buy it, but I will probably end up waiting. PSP is also a cool piece of technology, but a computer device is only as useful as its software. And PSP's software is pretty crappy right now. Hopefully it'll see some better releases next year, to give me more of a reason to buy one. As it stands, I've been playing my brother's copy of GTA: Liberty City Stories a little. After I got used to the wonky controls, I actually began to enjoy it quite a bit. However, the fact remains, it's still GTA3 with various changes. If it were a totally new GTA with a new environment, I think that may give me a reason to actually buy the system. Annie-chan: Thank you, m'dear. ~_^ I needed another change on there and I loved that original picture. So I thought I'd do some retouching. ~_^ Mimmi-kun: Housewarming gifts? Hm...I'm really not sure! I'll have to get back to you on that. In the meantime, when things are more settled here, I will be seeing if I can send you a sample of the world's most perfect sand. ~_^ John: Haha, that's very cool. I would really like to see someone write a report on this subject. Perhaps you should take up the challenge. ~_^ Sen: Even if they were to say that, I don't think it would make much difference. Afterall, Sony have tried to say the same thing about DS, yet it's outperforming PSP in global sales. So the PR stuff only goes so far. Anyhoo, as I said above, a $150 price point is not unreasonable. Although previous systems have launched for more than that, it's important to remember that Nintendo's systems have always been closer to the cutting edge (sans various GameBoy systems perhaps). If what we hear is true, Revolution would be somewhat based on GameCube but with some significant enhancements. In other words, it would be reasonably powerful but it wouldn't be tipping the scales at the high performance end, like PS3 and Xbox 360. Due to the use of more "mature" technology, Nintendo could probably afford to sell the system for a lower price point than the competition. I really don't think that Revolution will be excluded in any significant way. I'm sure we'll see some gimmicky games at the start (like with DS), but that's a natural thing - most companies may have trouble fully utilizing the controller at first. As with DS, it takes time for the non-gimmicky games to be released. Don't forget that people complained about DS being about nothing but gimmicky software at the start (and it arguably was), but that's ironed out as time has gone by. As for packing in the controller shell, I really don't know. It depends on the cost. I can imagine the shell itself being very cheap (as it doesn't require all the components that the freestyle controller requires). So we could easily see it packaged in. I'd probably prefer that, just because it gives developers the option. If it's included, I don't think it would necessarily stunt developers or anything. Afterall, their Revolution games will need to be unique in order to be competitive against other games on the system. A big part of Revolution's appeal will be its uniqueness - companies who produce carbon copies are actually probably going to find themselves at a disadvantage, I think. Liam: Are you serious? I looked at my last post and it came across as one big ramble. In fact, I feel like I'm rambling in this post too! Oh well. I guess that's what blogs are about - unedited thought, or something like that. But I'm glad you're excited! I'm sure there will be nothing quite like waving my plastic wand at the TV screen with a big smile on my face. So to speak. SunfallE: I think the bigger problem with the other systems isn't so much RAM, but the whole multi-threading thing. It'll take a while before companies are really programming games effectively on multiple threads. But I'm sure it will happen and I'm sure we'll see some cool results. As for RPGs, I don't think Nintendo have ever been especially big in that area themselves - at least in terms of the Final Fantasy type games. Theirs are more tactics RPGs and stuff like Pokemon or Paper Mario. So there are RPGs, but not very many from third parties. Hopefully that'll change on Revolution - a few big designers seem to have some interesting ideas about Revolution RPGs. indifference: I think you are a good example of what most consumers are like. I mean, gamers get into these discussions about specs and stuff and that's fine because they are enthusiasts. But what they do not realize is that enthusiasts are not like regular consumers; regular consumers are interested in the entertainment and not in what's underneath the hood. RaR: I think the only thing that will change their minds is when they go and play a demo unit at a retailer somewhere. I think that first experience will probably make or break the whole idea for many people.

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