Relative to the Xbox 360. Just compare the numbers...

- means included, + means addon, pay extra, ? means I don't know

PS3: $600
-wi-fi internet included
-DVD playback included
-blu-ray high density DVD playback
-free online service of some kind, for games and downloads (though some games (MMORPGs) may have additional fees)
-60GB HDD
+addon for PS1/PS2 memory card support: price to be determined
?charging kit for the controllers?
-HDMI for 1080p

Xbox 360: $400
-20GB HDD
-DVD playback included (or does it require a separate remote like the Xbox did? not sure)
+wi-fi internet: add $100
+online service: basic functions (online purchasing section, demo downloads, etc): free; online multiplayer game play is $50 a year (MMORPGs and similar titles have additional fees)
+Xbox memory card transfer: several third party addons required, relatively costly
+HD-DVD high density DVD playback - price rumored at $199? To be determined.
+play-and-charge kit for controllers is ~$20 extra
?availability of larger hard drives unknown
-no HDMI

So... to match the PS3's feature list, and assuming a lifespan of five years (for determination of Xbox Live fees), just in these fields the PS3 owner spends $600. The X360 owner probably spends $950 --and that doesn't include a larger hard drive. Or a play-and-charge kit for the controller (though I don't know if PS3 will include such a thing either).

As for the low-end models, despite the higher prices, there I'm not sure. Will the $500 PS3 have an add-on for wireless internet (not built in) or HDMI (doesn't seem so)? It does seem that the hard drive will be upgradable, so its 20GB HDD is probably not irreparably downgraded, but without knowing those other things, the Xbox 360 Core, with its only changes of note things you can add back on, is the better choice -- though no one should actually get a Core. Core isn't actually $300, it's $340 -- you need a memory card... or $400, if you want the hard drive. And then why not just get the normal one for the same price? 20GB for $100 (a massive ripoff, by the way) or $40 for 64MB (flash memory card prices are fun! :D)... which one makes more sense? Yeah.

Anyway, my point... the massive amount of stuff aimed at Sony after its price was announced? It's because they're trying to include everything in one box instead of having only the basics in the box and making the other things optional. That latter strategy is what lets MS get away with its overall higher prices, and get praise for its "lower" price while Sony gets torn apart for a high one... clever, MS, clever. And it's worked brilliantly for them, too.

Nintendo really needs to make clear how similar MS and Sony actually are in price for them to make much impact from their lower price... I don't know if it'll work, though. Historically price hasn't been the major determining factor in who wins the console wars... and people only look at the price on the box, not the additional price of the required extras they'll also need in order to make that box actually work the way they want it to.

http://waywardmind.com/KQ4/

Looks like the last of the pre-KQ5 games is getting the unofficial remake treatment from yet another group out there.

Visual quality, as can be expected, still won't exceed KQ6. Odd that, considering that they should be able to get an adventuring engine made these days that could do some decent "super vga" if they wanted, but oh well, it should still be interesting.

I will say after spending a few hours playing KQ3, there are a few things the old parser interface could do better, at least in terms of letting you try a whole lot of different things with things you find instead of just "using" them in a generic command. I can appreciate the difficulty but in bringing it to mouse operation, if they had the time and inclination to, they could always flesh out the experience by giving every thing you can click on it's own context sensitive list of commands. I only say this because there was a certain something... lost... in KQ3 VGA (though honestly there was not such a loss in KQ2 because that was a total overhaul of the puzzles and even some story elements).

We'll see how this one ends up, and after this since the graphical quality is apparently not meant to exceed the KQ5-6 game engine, plus the rest are already mouse driven, the next step is just to release some sort of perfect emulation "shell" for both windows and DOS versions of the later games so people can actually play them again. I'll say right now if they can use the Windows versions (for their higher res icons and "character portraits" (KQ6)), but fix certain aesthetic issues like the bar across the top of the screen, it'd be fine.

Look at those buggy outty eyes man, run for your life!!

How do you use a smiley like that in context? Maybe to have the reader imagine zooming in on my eye in cinema-like shot? Sounds pretty weird to me.


Anyway I don't really know how to say this, I am Trogdor, formely ME, wandering in here every so often.

I plan on buying DS sometime soon (soon as in TODAY) and I know nothing about the system. What are the DS games that should be in library?

Microsoft has released two episodes on Xbox Live, and showed the playable game at GC. Let it be known, this is my most anticpated game of the year. The cartoon is pretty funny, too.

Webisodes @ Gametrailers.com

Viva Pinata Presentation gameplay video from Game Convention in Germany

Paulie rawks my sawks.

Nobody has posted in Ramble City in three days.

Such was never so before.

Verily, la mort d'Tendo City is at hand.

Is it so, thus?

I made this video to illustrate (AND TO FLEX MY ANIMATION MUSSLE):

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http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3153149

Penny Arcade is working with people who can code to make a vidya game.

Am I the only person here that plays this game? I wanna here what you guys think should be added in the sequel. First on my list is a map editor, the same one from Advance Wars: DS would work fine, but in 3-D obviously. CO and Super CO powers would be welcomed, for example give the Western CO's the ability to generate more effective firepower or funds, while the Tundran CO's would get, I dunno, the ability to threaten their soldiers with the idea of starvation making them move twice as fast, etc.

I feel like i'm pissin in the wind because no one talks about this game here, but with a Wii sequel in the works and a 8.8 review at IGN (that would have scored much higher had it been shipped with the promised multiplayer), maybe you guys will take more interest.

I can tell you that from my experience if you enjoyed Pikmin at all you will love Battalion Wars, which is basically Pikmin with guns :D It exapands a completely new genre that is being called the CRTS or console real time strategy, or RTAS, real time action strategy. Which ever you prefer, but the experience is intuitive and fun and unlike the usual RTS gameplay, this is fast and based on action. So basically, a third person shooter meets RTS.

But the characters, the iconic story of WW1 in a very disney-style presentation, the music and sound effects, everything (including the gameplay) shines through and through. This game should be in everyone's GC collection, so post your fucking thoughts on it god dammit!

Well, kind of... and they prove the truth of this with Dead Rising -- 300,000+ demos downloaded, over 800,000 sales expected in North America -- significantly better than they expected. That it won't do much in Japan doesn't really matter.

Quote:IGN: So, why go with Microsoft?

Keiji Inafune: It's a very basic answer. We got the tools the quickest. They gave us the kits first and there you go. I can have tons of different ideas. I can say I want to make different kinds of cakes, different soufflés, whatever. If they don't give me the pans, the pots, the knives the forks to make it, then I can't make it.

IGN: Have you noticed any particular strengths or weaknesses while working with the 360?

Keiji Inafune: What the Xbox 360 represents is a great balance. When you think about when it was released, what it can do, how much it costs, the type of games it will have, it's just in a very nice position. The PlayStation 3 being that expensive is going to put it out of the price range of a lot of people, but yet the 360 will still be there. It will still be something that's affordable for enough people. The one disadvantage, unfortunately, is that it did not succeed in Japan.

GN: Is there still a chance that it could succeed in Japan? Is staying with Microsoft beyond Lost Planet and Dead Rising something you're interested in?

Keiji Inafune: Even though I used the past tense by saying they did not succeed, there still of course the possibility in the future. I'm never going to rule anything out. The game market is a tricky business, that's for sure. I guess that, at least with our titles, we knew right from the start. It's not like Microsoft's brand image for the Xbox was going to go from what it was from the first one to just being some huge success overnight for the 360. No one every even thought that would occur. We all thought that they would, at best, get a slightly larger market share than the first Xbox. Unfortunately, they're doing even worse. They're having a very tough time of it, and that is too bad, but every single developer out there no longer can afford to just look at one territory when making a game. Games are on an international level. If you look at the 360 from an international perspective, it still has a lot of potential. So the games that we created are hopefully applicable to not just the Japanese market but they're hopefully something that Japanese gamers would want to purchase as well. We don't see it as such a big problem, and so long as we can come up with ideas that are internationally viable, then there's no reason not to develop more Xbox 360 games.

IGN: Are you thinking of developing anything to specifically increase the Xbox 360's share in the Japanese market?

Keiji Inafune: We're not planning on making Japanese-exclusive games. Again, it's an international market and games have to have an international appeal. We have to think about those markets while we make them. When it comes to making a game that Japanese people like, we have added certain touches to our titles. For example Lost Planet uses a famous Korean actor. That is the latest trend in Japan, so hopefully that will give it some appeal in the Japanese territory. Japanese people like gigantic robot mechs, so it's got that in it as well. There are a lot of areas a Japanese person would find that they'd like. The gameplay itself is not something that Japanese people are used to, so they're going to have to adapt to what the new world standards are in games. If not, the Japanese market is going to be in trouble, because I can guarantee you not just Capcom, other Japanese companies, developers as well, are looking at games on a worldwide scale. They're not just looking at little Japan like before.