As long as there have been consoles, there have been console wars. There have always been at least two companies trying to get the bigger share of the market. And right there at the frontlines are the fanboys of the companies, ready to bite off the throats of the fanboys of the opposite company. And with internet, they have been spiralling out of control, befouling every message board there is with their fanboyism.

 

I believe Magneto would call these people: pawns.

 

Now I don't understand the driving force behind these fanboys, nor do I have the desire to do so, or shall I pretend that I do. My feeling is that they are probably compensating for a lack of something else in their lives.

 

But as all 3 consoles have been launched in North America & Japan, the fanboyism is starting to take up steam, with rumors and semi-facts belittering the message boards & news sites.

 

When somehow it was leaked that the new Metal Gear Solid would also be released for the Xbox360, it stirred up the hive, particulalry in the xbox360 camp. But if one fanboy camp gets roused, the other must naturally defend. So it was on and off speculation all weekend. Fun for me as I can laugh at them, but the one thing I don't get is this:

Wasn't Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance also released on the Xbox? And isn't Metal Gear still associated with the Playstation? (Notice i said Playstation, not Sony :P) Wasn't there that Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes for the Gamecube? (awesome game by the way)

 

GTA is also associated with the PS2, although it got released on the xbox & pc as well. Halo and Rallisport were also released on the pc, yet they are still associated with the xbox. Most hits on the xbox got ported to the pc anyways, if you have a good analog joypad on your pc, you are good to go.

 

 Ninja Gaiden is also being ported to the PS3 with better graphics and extra content under the name: Ninja Gaiden Sigma. Exclusive doen't mean jack these days. The only franchises that are still exclusive to one console are the mario/zelda & metroid series.

 

Riled up over nothing if you ask me. But then again, like I said, I don't understand them, nor do I pretend to.

 

So go on now, and get all emotional about some software on some platform.

 

I myself am gonna lose myself in yet another game-experience.

End of the year!! Well amost. So what's up in the gaming world? Alot! Most great games get released during this period. The Nintendo Wii has launched to great succes (as most consoles do) and i am broke as hell.

 

I was hoping to break the magic 600 this year, but it's not going to happen. I just bought Fahrenheit, or Indigo Prophecy if you are from North America and it may as well be my last purchase this year.

 

Stuff i would like start off next year with:

 

Completing my N64 collection with Diddy kong Racing, Mario Tennis & Super Smash Bros.

 

Get the 360 games I would really like to play but don't have the time/money for right now: Marvel Ultimate Alliance, Viva Piñata & Rainbow Six. And keep with the collecting by getting Need for speed Most Wanted & Carbon, Project Gotham Racing 3, Battlefield 2: Modern Combat & Burnout Revenge. i would also like to get Prey for the 360. In choosing the shooter Prey for the 360, it will be the first time I have favored a console above a pc for a shooter. Why? Well because I mostly play those shooters for the single player experience and I can get some nice achievement points with that :) And I don't have to settle for lesser graphics as well, at least not muh less, because the pc always wins on the resolution part.

 

The DS and GBA are churning up more hit-games then I have time/money to keep up with, so I'll go slowly with those. If I get Tekken: Dark Ressurection, Killzone: Liberation, Socom. The GTA's & the Metal Gear series, I will pretty much have the hits for the PSP. Maybe Socom as well.

 

I would really like to get my hands on the last 4 zeldas to complete my collection:

 

The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages

The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons

The Legend of Zelda: A link to the past/Four Swords

The Legend of Zelda: The  Minish cap

 

There is so much I would like for the ps2, so I won't even start.

 

For the next year I hope they will release Starcraft: Ghost for the Next-Gen platforms & Okami for the Wii, just because that game has Wii written all over it if you ask me.

 

And now to get to the reason for my post. Every end of the year you see several end-of-year awards come by. So I have made a end-of-the year award for myself, namely the backwards compatibiity awards. As I think no site/magazine has this covered.

 

To start off with, what is backwards compatibility? Backwards comaptibility is the abilty of your new consoles to play older games by the same brand. So here comes the top 3 for backwards compatibility

 

Spot # 3: The Xbox 360. Lagging way behind is the Xbox 360 with about 30% backwards compatibility support. But what is worse than less then 100% backwards compatibility support? (hell make that less then 50%!) Having flawed backwards compatibility support. A lot of games run at a noticibly lesser framerate and look a lot worse than on the original xbox. And you either have to print out that damn list from the xbox site or just put your game into the xbox to figure out which games work or not. Weird games like the Barbie games work on your new 360, but hits like Panzer Dragoon Orta still don't work. No clear logic to be found.

 

Spot # 2:

The PS3. With about 98% of the Playstation 2 AND Playstation 1 games covered, it comes in a close 2nd. It has some graphical issues here and there, but the games that play, play well, no framerate nonsense as far as I can believe the forums. That's alot of games. And good games at that.

 

Spot #1:

This is shared by the Nintendo Wii & the Gameboyplayer/Gameboy Advance. The Nintendo Wii plays ALL gamcube games, not just some, or some with graphical and framereate issues...ALL of em, exactly as you would play them on the gamecube. Put in the disc & play, as consoles should be. When my Wii arrived, I unplugged my Gamecube and put the Wii in it's place. I had to put my Xbox360 on top of my old Xbox, that just looks plain ugly and it shouldn't have to be. Same goes for the gameboy advance/gameboyplayer would play all gameboy color and original gameboy games. That is a couple of years worth of games, awesome job. Though Nintendo broke with that traditon with the gameboy micro and the Nintendo DS, which doesn't play the older games, just gameboy advance games.

 

So that is my little list, on to a better gaming year, can't wait!

 

Most wanted list for next year:

 

PC: Spore/Unreal Tournament 2007/The Burning Crusade!

Wii: Metroid Prime: Corruption

PS2: God of War 2

Xbox360: Halo 3 (prolly not going to happen)

Nintendo DS: the first game for the Wii to effectively use the DS/ Final Fantasy (the crystal cronicles equivalent)

PSP: Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters

 

Happy Holidays!

Man, it's been a crazy month, but isn't december a crazy month for all bussines'? Can't wait to have a week or so off. So far I've logged about 3 hours worth of playing time for the new Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess for the Wii. Unheard of for me. The last Zelda I got, I played it for every spare hour I had and finished it within a week...and I have had this Wii since last friday.........3 hours. Yep it's been busy, but fun though.

 

But, I just had to share this trailer, it is the new intro cinematic for the new (and first?) expansion to World of Warcraft, due to hit stores on January 16th. I think I own most all pc-games by Blizzard and they succeed every time in making a top notch AAA title. I still have their old titles, Starcraft & Warcraft, installed on my pc. As good as Blizzard is at making awesome games, they are even even better at making these cinematics.

 

The cool thing about this cinematic is that it's not just filler, everything done in the trailer can actually be done in-game. Paladins often walk around with a book in their off-hand that boosts their blessings and auras. That is exactly how the ressurection spell of the priests looks in-game, turning an enemy into a sheep is an essential part of clearing dungeons, as it effectively disables one enemy per mage. Just awesome. and Illidan (the one that says that you are not preparred) is just as cool as ever.

 

Can't wait! it's gonna be awesome.

 

ps; If you're curious, you can download a trial here.

With all 3 new consoels launched in the United States & Japan, next-gen is now officially current-gen. Except for Europe, because we still need to wait 4 months for the ps3. A plus to that is that we get more titels when that multimedia monster launchs here. I can't even start to imagine what people will be able to deliver with the blue rays having such a huge amount of storage capacity. Wait till people start making use of the specific hardware specifications on each console. Be prepared to be blown away

 

Now I was amazed at the hype that Epic was able to create and largely fulfill with their Gears of War. Seemed like everybody and anybody was buying Gears of War, as stated in my last post. Now imagine my surprise when I tried to pre-order a Nintendo Wii about 3 weeks ago. Every and any shop was sold out, from the multimedia stores, to the specific gamestores to online retailers, everything was sold out. I finally managed to get my hands on a pre-order that could actually be delivered on december 8th. Yay for me! That Nintendo Wii is sold out everywhere, talk about hype. And I want to bet that 90% of the Wii's have Zelda pre-ordered with them. Like the salesperson said to me: You just can't buy a Wii without Zelda.

 

Now I have been reading reviews like crazy, because although I am extremely enthusiastic about ninty's new approach, I remain sceptical about it's control scheme. Red steel is bumming out with review scores beetween 6 and 7, though that game was supposed to be the Wii's prominent First Person Shooter. The controls and bland level design are to blame.  It might be that these controls can be smoothed out, but just weren't because of launch rush. in a movie released by Ubisoft, it seems that Far Cry's control scheme for the Wii fares better, but I'll wait for the reviews instead of relying on a teaser released by the publisher itself. But if it works, it'll be sweet!

 

Comparison videos have been poppng up everywhere on the internet between Wii/PS3 and Xbox360, with the Xbox 360 predictiballly being the best in the graphics department Seeing as it has been out for a year now, it is logical that the developers are now quite familiar with it's architecture to be able to produce better graphics, although to me the differences between the two graphic behemoths are slim to none.

 

The Wii clearly loses out in the graphical race, but I am absolutely not worried about that part. The ps1 beat the N64 hands down in the graphical aspect, but no game on the ps1 scored a perfect 10, as did the Legend of Zelda: THe Ocarina of Time in multiple magazines. In a time when 3d was making it's way to the home consoles, but delivering half-baked 3d fighting games, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night stole our hearts with it's simple sprite-design and  addictive and inventive gameplay. The psp is a graphical powerhouse when compared to the Nintendo ds, yet the ds sells more and has more of a variety of games. Nah, if the gameplay rocks, the rest will follow.

 

Exciting and expensive times for the gamer during christmas as everything is released in these two months. I would love to pick up a copy of Viva Piñata, as i think my girlfriend will also enjoy it, but I gotta choose, and I choose Wii.  Couple more titles that I would really like: Nine Knights expansion pack for Elder SCrolls Oblivion, Dark Messiah of Might & Magic, Warhammer: Dark Crusade, Warhammer: Dawn of War 2nd expansion Pack....... like I said, too much.

 

And I am loving it.....good times for the gamer.