The Lair of the Monkey

As reported by the BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/5014904.stm Nintendo recently suffered a profit drop of about 19%. This is down maybe £70 million quid - rather a lot by anyone’s books, but when the overall profit of the big N is well over £400 million maybe it’s nothing to cry about. So how come Nintendo are having this ‘problem’ (I wouldn’t cry if I had £400 mill coming in - ed)? Most obviously this is down to the Gamecube.

Before you call me a Nintendo basher, or a Sony or Microsoft fanboy, I have a GC sitting right there next to my TV. It’s black, with 3 black controllers. There’s a stick of about ten games there - all of them top notch including Metroid Prime, Super Monkey Ball (soon to be all 3 released on the GC), Soul Calibur 2, Mario Sunshine, Mario Kart and more. So yeah, some great software there. However, it seems that Nintendo have just let the Cube die a death.

The Nintendo DS on the other hand is going from strength to strength, with great games such as Brain Training, Elektroplankton and many more available, bolstering the impressive lineup. Then of course there’s the DS Lite to compliment this. So, there’s no surprise why Nintendo is focussing more effort here - I would too if I were them.

Finally of course, profits are down because they’ve been announced now, and the Wii is not out yet. If expectations are anything to go by, there’s no reason why this couldn’t make sales skyrocket, especially if at a low enough price to completely undercut the two available other home consoles. Nintendo will of course be making a profit on all consoles sold - though it wouldn’t surprise me if Sony were too given the price of the PS3.

So what do I make of the ‘news’ of the profit drop? Well not a lot to be honest folks - and to be completely honest I don’t care. I am just hoping it means Nintendo will try even harder to make the Wii a success, and that can be no bad thing.

Yup, I’ve been away.  Apologies for that.  Anyway, whilst away, I saw this little gem: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4774049.stm

- written by the one and only Guto Harri - BBC North America business correspondent.  Once you have read that article, you’ll realise why I look like the image above.  First, lets begin where he starts.  I see this little wonderful snippet, and think wah?!

“Life in an interactive video game offers more pleasure, excitement and opportunity. Two curious moments at the electronic entertainment expo in Los Angeles reinforced the point. One was a fascinating display of courage, skill, agility, fitness and imagination: a skateboarder flying out of a man-made canyon, risking broken bones if not broken neck to perform stunning stunts for the cameras.“

Firstly, you can’t suggest that you can live in a video game, any more than you can live in a book.  Would you be sniping at those who choose to read your journalism because they have more “excitement and opportunity” in the very pages you write?  I didn’t think so.  It’s a hobby - or perhaps in your case a helpful way to fall asleep.
(more…)

I like games a lot… and I consequently think about them a fair bit. I like games short, long, fat thin, widescreen, 1024, HD, old, new, complex, simple and everything in between. That’s why this post is appearing everywhere in the blog. However, I have found recently that I’m thinking about games more than I’m playing them. What does this say? I’m not sure. Maybe, much like this guy - I’m in love with the dream more than the reality. I’m not convinced it’s that though. Is it the state of the industry? With big players crowding over the pickings and less inclined to take risks it could be. Or am I jaded? I don’t have a 360, and my PC is too old to run the newest, bestest games, so I feel a little out of the loop.

Then again, maybe I just haven’t played a game in a while that made me feel like this:

I was in the bar, and it was quite high up. Below was the beach, the sand and the sea. It was a good 200-500 metres, but I saw the people walking. I envisaged myself loading the sniper rifle and taking aim. Suddenly I was my seal commander again, ensuring the safety of the civilians whilst popping off the terrorists. It was fantastic…

Now no, this is not taken from a sociopathic killer with a penchant for violent video games. (more…)

I don’t know about you, but I tend to play things in cycles I’ve noticed.  I’ll focus on the PC for instance one year, playing FPS and strategy games.  The next year I might buy a console, or buy games for my current one.  When I got my GC for instance I played a lot of that, with great games such as Soul Calibur 2 and Metroid Prime getting a lot of action. 

However, that died off as I started to play my Xbox more and more.  I don’t see that many great games sheduled for the GC anymore, and seemingly my tastes have changed.  Don’t get me wrong, the Nintendo products still hold a great deal of fun for me, but I’ve played a lot of my Cube games to death now (Super Monkey Ball 1 & 2 not withstanding, hence this post).

So, where does that leave me?  Well I haven’t got my 360 yet, and the Wii and PS3 aren’t available (portable doesn’t really interest me), so asides from my Xbox I play some PC games.  Half-Life 2 still sees regular play (what with the cool garry’s mod etc), as does Rome Total War. 

What I’m still into, and can’t wait for the sequel to though, is Neverwinter Nights.  I’ll bet you guys think I go on about this far too much, but just check out that community involvement section at the official site.  Bizzarely, this means two things.  I love the instant gratification of my console arcadey type games, such as PGR2 and Panzer Dragoon Orta.  I also love my gaming heritage such as Mario Kart and Ikaruga.  However, I also really enjoy creating things myself, so get the most out of adaptable and changable games, allowing me to make a complete mess of things tailor the content to my preferences. 

So, how about you?  Do you like a particular genre for a reason?  Do you always use mods, or do you keep to the core game without even so much as looking at the options?  Have your gaming habits changed recently?  Answers on a postcard…

My post for today was going to be about how things are actually looking more varied and interesting in games these days, then I saw this:

“The play mechanics are similar to Diablo because it’s been established that it works. You don’t break something just to be different - and if you look at the skills, the bosses and the places you go to, you can see that Titan Quest is a different experience.” - Brian Sullivan - creator of Titan Quest (Full interview here).

I’m in two minds about this.  I’m thinking ‘whoa!’ on the one hand.  Yeah, I did like Diablo - a bit.  Fleshed out, it could have been a great game, rather than a good one.  It was no Baldur’s Gate in other words.  The second thought I had was ‘is this the level we are at’?  Now I know that there are a lot of copycat games out there, but surely for a medium that’s arguably not much older than it’s thirty-somethings it is still in relative infancy.  That being the case, why are we here?

  (more…)

I don’t know about you, but E3 has meant a massive bulk of gaming news, so much so that I haven’t been able to keep up with it.  Yeah the console stuff has been big, but it’s games that make consoles fun, and quite frankly this year has been bumper, so huge, I just don’t know where to read, or how to follow it properly.  I can only hope to digest some of the info from some games, and let the others that don’t interest me fly by… but with so many, and many that weren’t even announced prior to E3 this is proving difficult. (more…)

Well, there’s no doubt that Microsoft are now firmly into the battle with their Xbox360, and it’s going quite well.  Three million sold?  Not too shabby.  So, given that Microsoft’s new console is already out, what did they announce at the conference?  A few interesting things - and here they are:

• Live Anywhere is a feature of Xbox Live meaning you can access Live from your mobile, PC or other device and transfer stuff over to the Xbox 360
• More than 160 games available by Xmas
• A potential 10 million unit head start before the release of Nintendo Wii or Sony PS3

So, a few cool developments.  More tellingly, Viva Pinata could well open Microsoft to other markets, as it could well be more than child friendly - an area more frequently held by (or at least seeming to be held by) Nintendo.  On the opposite side of this, Grand Theft Auto 4 should be seen on the 360 by October 2007. 

Fable 2 was shown as a rolling demo, as was Halo 3.  Aside from this, a force feedback wheel was also demoed.  So, what does this say about Microsoft?  Well no-one was expecting anything ground breaking, but lots of core developments and some very interesting news about the overall service.  All very promising, and no doubt more excitement to follow given that the Xbox360 is the only console with games being shown that will be playable potentially very soon indeed…

Nintendo surprised everyone with what turned out to be not too many revelations on the Nintendo Wii - other than these features:

• The nunchuck will be motion sensing too
• There will be an internal speaker in the main control ‘pad’
• Unlike the PS3 controller (it interferes with the motion sensing) the Wii controller will have a rumble pack

So, what was most interesting about the Nintendo press conference?  Well a few things.  Most notably, just how damn fun the thing looked to play.  Red Steel’s demo from Ubisoft looked so much fun, though slightly disorienting with not keeping the gun sight central to the display.  The tennis game on show at the end (with Iwata etc playing) looked just hilarious.  Another game of note is of course the widely anticipated Zelda: The Twilight Princess - which is now coming in two versions, a GC and a Wii version.

My thoughts initially on hearing about the Revolution (Wii as it is now - even if I’m not used to that) was it was something that I wouldn’t really be interested in.  I’m a fairly hardcore player, and that’s how I like it.  However, as time has gone on this has changed, and after seeing how interactive the thing is I can honestly say out of all of the consoles this is the one I want to pick up and play (Shame then that there’s no release date announced yet).

Yeah, having a 360 would be nice, likewise a PS3 - but having seen the video, and for want of a better word, how damn interactive the thing is, this looks like the console to play.  It picks up subtle movements, you can even imitate opening a door, and the game will react (Red Steel and no doubt many others will have such a level of immersion/interaction).  Anyway, I’ll be following this article with a piece on the Microsoft press release and then ANOTHER (oh god - ed) article on the Wii.

This is, no doubt, old news to many of you.  However, here’s the latest on the Sony PS3:

General release: November 17th

Stats:

• PS3, 20 gig hard drive, one controller, demo, access to online component (£340)
• PS3, 60 gig hard drive, one controller, demo, access to online component (£410)

The controller, much as I predicted, is an almost identical controller to the dual-shock.  A boon for some, notably a dissappointment for others.  However, it also features a six way motion sensor.  A nod to the Wii (oh god I still can’t get over that name - ed) perhaps?  As you can see, I did predict this.  Woo! (Oh dear, stop it now - ed).  Whether it’ll be as fully featured or widely implemented as the Wii remains to be seen, though it’s probably unlikely given that’s not the focus.  However Warhawk did feature it, and rather nicely.

Games on show included:

• Warhawk
• GT
• Formula One
• Sonic

More info at: http://www.gamespot.com/

Recently, I have been playing a lot of this game:

Yep, The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction… Phew, what a title!  Gives me a sweat just seeing all those words… Anyway, this is a short post, so I’ll tell you now why the game is great.  Really, it’s too easy.  It’s all in the title!  This game gives full control over the one and only living, breathing wrecking ball that is the hulk.  Pick up cars?  Go for it.  Tanks?  Yup.  Smash buildings?  Build up that power level and then level them!

So, why have I been playing a good, if not great game when there are so much more to choose from?  Well the simple answer is catharsis.  This game is theraputic to the Nth degree.  Had a bad day at work?  Become the big Green - and perform some Ultimate Destruction!

Seriously though, being in the world where little, if anything can do significant damage and meanwhile you can go anywhere, and have power over anything is… Well pretty empowering.  Suddenly the little soldier is your boss.  Pick him up and throw him in sea!  There’s plenty of other games which give you this level of power though and quality of release.  I’ve just found mine now .

If anyone has any other suggestions on games to help you relax through violence (and if this worries you), feel free to share a comment about it.