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Well, it seems as though the format wars are possibly reaching a conclusion, with Sony's Blu Ray format beating out HD DVD. Depending on how you look at it, either this conclusion is vindication for Betamax or something that you wish mirrored Betamax. So, after years of fighting, bickering, and backhanded deals, the future is looking rather bleak for HD DVD. I guess the question then is- was the future ever looking bright for HD DVD? I don't know if I can say yes. It seems as though one of its principal proponents (Microsoft) seems to be rather preoccupied with its own download service. Do they really care about HD DVD? Perhaps we'll find out soon at CES with their rumored Ultimate Xbox announcement. But, I bet that even if the Ultimate 360 has a built-in HD DVD drive Microsoft will still have its agenda entirely on its download service. I wonder if it even matters any more. Let me tell you why.
Continue reading So there is this HD Format War... Do you Care? Should you Care?
2007 is dead. Long live 2007. Looking back, there were some nice games. Bioshock, The Orange Box, Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, Mass Effect, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters- certainly, there were some good games that came out. But yeah, such things are now in the past. The question now becomes what are you looking forward to in 2008? I've got a few games that I am looking forward to, read about them after the jump.
Continue reading What games are you Looking Forward to in 2008?
This week we've heard cliché muggle pun after muggle pun from thousands of clueless TV news anchors around the globe. That can only mean one thing: I'll be sleeping through yet another Harry Potter installment. That's right. The pubescent wizard returned in the fifth franchise film, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Sadly, Emma Watson does not show her muggles at any point during the film. That girl can wave my magic wand any time she likes.
The 5th Harry Potter movie will be followed in two weeks by the 7th Harry Potter book, which analysts speculate will place J.K. Rowlings on the Forbes list somewhere between Bill Gates and God. God declined to comment.
As I predicted last week, the PS3 is now $100 cheaper, despite Sony's previous delusional claims to the opposite. Now a few more people on the aforementioned Forbes list will be able to afford one.
Aside from those things, this has been a really slow week for geeks. There hasn't been any huge gaming news, and North America's largest video game convention certainly isn't going on or anything...
Which brings me to E3. Bring back the booth babes. Really. I mean it. Guys who are into this stuff don't get to see beautiful half naked girls anywhere else. You've all seen the charts showing how the number of hours spent playing World of Warcraft is inversely proportional to the amount of sex you have. Please, developers, have pity on your loyal neck-bearded followers. Give them something to remember. Especially since nothing else you're doing seems to be catching anyone's interest.
Seriously, what is up with these games? A new Nights? The main selling point is that you can fly? Is that really the best they could come up with? Really? You could fly in the first Nights and nobody cared. Let me give you perspective: It was the mid nineties. All we had were 2D games. Sega made a game that was in full 3D in which you could fly with 360 degrees of freedom and no one cared then. What marketing genius green-lighted this newest debacle? I hope it was the same people who came up with the 32X.
Speaking of 32X, Nintendo sure is showing off some neat-o stuff. How about this steering wheel? They've literally just made a plastic holder for the Wii-mote. This is almost as dumb as the horizontal stand for the PS2 (I could write a ten page article on that stupidity, but I'll spare you). Peripherals like that are for people who refer to their games as "tapes". As in, "I have nine tapes for my Nintendo Wii."
There are a few promising games showing at the convention. The idea of online Mario Kart has potential. Assassin's Creed could be fun.
We'll see as E3 continues. Keep checking back with RFgeneration.com for the latest news.
Who else is pumped about the new Contra for the NDS? I know I am. I watched the gameplay footage earlier this week and when it started I thought I was looking at a port of Super C for a second. When I realized I wasn't, I got really excited. Games like this and Dawn of Sorrow are really tempting me to go out and buy a DS, which would be way better than the hole in my left pants pocket that serves as my current "portable system", if you know what I mean. There need to be a lot more old school games like this out in the current market. I don't know why there aren't. They can't possibly cost much to produce, and hardcore gamers (and scrub posers) eat them up like candy.
Transformers came out this week and, as with any major nerd event, The Evil Leon was on it. For those of you who haven't seen it, it's even more fun than shooting at your neighbor's cat. If you live in Ohio like me, that's A LOT of fun. Also, there is a trailer running before the film for a movie that has no name yet and, according to internet speculation, might involve Cthulhu.....or the Master Chief....or Gears of War....Godzilla...or something. Anyway, the trailer is pretty neat and you can stay and watch Transformers afterward.
The debate blah blah blah Manhunt 2. Blah blah blah blah ESRB. Blah blah "@%&@$%^**!!$*&(*@%*&^&%&@%^," says a representative at Rockstar, adding "!%^&&!%^&**&($^&*^@." We all know this story. Somethingawful had an amazing article about it earlier this week. Personally, I'd like to see what all the fuss is about. I've yet to see any specific content cited as being more offensive than anything in the last Manhunt -from any of the parties involved. Until that news breaks, it's pretty obvious somebody is caving to pressure from watchdog groups. Of course, by "watchdog" I mean "communist" and by "groups" I mean "bastards."
Everyone is talking about the PS3 price drop. Will it happen? Will it not? Well, Sony is denying the Hell out of it. If that means anything, you can be sure the PS3 will be $100 cheaper next month. Now we will only have to pay $500 to play horribly uninspired sports and racing games. I can't wait to get one!
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