A good episode this time, if a little meandering. The episode is slowly reaching its milestone.
The news items for the week include:
Check us on twitter: Jonah Falcon is @jonahfalcon, Paul Nowak is @stagermonkey, and Scott Dirk is @alphashard.
Reportedly we’re going to see smaller 45 nanometer cell processors in 2009 which leads to similar cost savings as we saw in the Xbox 360 hardware. Cost savings appear on the manufacturing side, of course, along with less power consumed by the processor leading to less heat generated by the console.
The Xbox 360 was able to benefit from chip reduction when for stability and overall heat issues, although the stability is still out for debate at the moment. The concept is fairly simple to understand; heat causes problems in closed systems with few fans and a high degree of complex components. Reduce the heat means reducing the overall need to cool and get air flow into the hot little box.
Console hardware is owned by a broad audience, not all of which understand technology and its ability to boil an egg. Consumers toss consoles and their power supplies in closed cases within their entertainment system and restrict air flow further. Any reduction in heat is a good thing for the console developer.
If you’re wondering where episode 652 is, the file was completely distorted, with only one half of a conversation going. So, all the discussion about Sony’s State of Play is lost to the ether.
Nintendo has already announced the Wii Motion Plus at E3. This device is supposed to fine tune the motion sensing capabilities of the Wii controller and make it a bit more refined for gaming. Sounds, to me, like a hardware patch, no?
1up is reporting:
“The Wii MotionPlus accessory attaches to the end of the Wii Remote and, combined with the accelerometer and the sensor bar, allows for more comprehensive tracking of a player’s arm position and orientation, providing players with an unmatched level of precision and immersion,” says Nintendo. “Every slight movement players make with their wrist or arm is rendered identically in real time on the screen, providing a true 1:1 response in their game play. The Wii MotionPlus accessory reconfirms Nintendo’s commitment to making games intuitive and accessible for everyone.”
This is a great move, technologically, for Nintendo but what gamers really are looking for along with this advancement is… games.
Diskless Nintendo, I think this might be a great idea… if they moved to memory cards they can reduce the system profile while increase performance and capacity (Larger Cards give access to larger games). I think it also makes sense to expand their digital library to support all the older/legacy games and have them accessible in the console… especially if the enable you to access the digital version if you have a physical copy. As for video game movies… I do not think I have enjoyed any movies that have been based on a video game. That being said, I have enjoyed some of the Anime shows/movies which have turned into games or were released after the games. Lastly I thought I would share that I also bought the Hero’s Humble bundle but haven’t had a chance to play any of them yet. I am going to install them on my Surface tablet and see if I can get them working with touch. Wish me luck.