Re: Motion Controller Confusion

Gaming industry analyst Mike Hickey, as posted on IGN, is calling for a price cut on the Nintendo Wii to hold off Microsoft and Sony’s release of their new motion controllers. Naturally I have a few thoughts on that.

First, the Wii is already the cheapest of the three systems. A further price cut could put the ‘budget item’ thought in consumers minds. They could see it – accurately or not – as an inferior product to it’s competitors simply because it’s so much cheaper, similar to what happened to the Gamecube.

Secondly, these new motion controllers worry me. Lord knows I want them to work, and I love the concept behind Project Natal in particular. However, these controllers will not be standard. Even if they were to bundle these new products with their systems going forward –and they won’t - there would still be thousands of consoles out there without a motion controller. Think about what’s happened to the Xbox 360 and the uncertainty of their hard drive. Developers can’t assume a player will have a hard drive on their 360, so you can’t plan for it and you can’t take full advantage of it. That’s going to be the fate of these new controllers, I feel. Game companies are going to either have to design two control setups for one game or focus solely on these new motion controllers if they want to take advantage of Microsoft and Sony’s new toys, and I don’t think either would work well (half-assed control for the former, limiting their market for the latter).

I think this is going to be a rough going when these new forms of control launch for all three companies, but I hope that we as gamers will get some great new experiences out of it and that the Big Three know what their doing. Alphasim out.

Over My Head Again

Continuing my grand tradition of getting myself in over my head, I’m working on the next episode of the All or Nothing Bot Wars. Check out the link to find out what the buzz is about. The original series was a hit when released privately, and garnered – in it’s entirety – over 31 thousand views and no video rated under four stars. You can download a collection of the original series on the AON site, or watch them as many others have, on YouTube.

While I’m working on that, I’ve been trying keep up a Cleveland-area pro sports blog. I’ve always wanted to cover sports here, but I’ve found out time and again that covering the breadth of the sports world alone was nigh impossible for me. Thus, I’ve settled on just covering my local teams at the Cleveland Sportsfan Cave. Check that out, too.

I guess that’s all for now. I’ve got to get back to work. I hope everyone enjoys my hard work!

Blog on e-AAGH.net

This morning I added my blog to the homepage of e-AAGH.net. How so? Wasn't a link always there? Yes, but now the content is as well. Thanks to Grazr, you can now keep up to date with e-AAGH.net from the site's homepage . Enjoy!

ABO on Course for Arrival

Despite it’s current lack of popularity, I’m continuing work on issue 2 of ABO: Random Fandom. Topics include a couple more ABO Head-2-Heads, an update on my NBA 2k10 My Player avatars and a quick history of Alazar. I’m hoping to make each issue better then the last, but if no one reads issue 2, that may be the end of ABO.

I’ve noticed that with the upswing in e-AAGH.net traffic that our most popular articles are our Game of the Year articles from over the years. That may prove that this hit bubble is due to burst any minute now. Again, if there’s anything you want to see on e-AAGH.net, let me know.Beta and I are always working on improving the site.

Random Update

I'm just checking in quick to state that my Mass Effect 2 review is going to be running late. No surprise, huh?

For anyone interested, Gavelier's World of Warcraft has gotten two new comics in the last few days. Find a link to it on e-AAGH.net.

Finally, I'm making a transition to Google Chrome from Firefox, and so far so good. I like Chrome much better at the moment, but only time will tell if it can replace Firefox in my daily routine.

Torchlight Review Complete

My long-overdue Torchlight review is up. About time, ne?

By the way, the problem with my copy Dragon Age Origins seems to be some of the people I share my main computer with who decided that they didn’t recognize the Dragon Age Origins Updater service and turned it off. I turned it back on, and it’s problem solved. Back to Ferelden!

Up to Date – Feb. 6th 2010

I’ve posted my annual page on the current condition and future of e-AAGH.net, and I’ve now dubbed it the State of the Site Address. Catchy, huh? In any case, check it out.

On a sad note, my copy of Dragon Age Origins has – for whatever reason – decided that all of my content was unauthorized and has disabled me from using my saves. Now, I have the bill on my account where I bought the Collectors Edition, and Bioware’s site says I have the content. Apparently, it’s the game (which also occasionally refuses to connect to the Bioware network). I’m working on a solution, but had this happened prior to the Game of the Year awards, it likely would have had an impact. As it stands, though, it’s just an annoyance. Alphasim out.