The guys discuss the Nintendo Direct shown earlier in the day. In addition, they talk about Helldivers 2, Pokemon, and Killer Klowns From Outer Space.
The news includes:
Let us know what you think.
If you’re looking to see what the next greatest DS hand-held will look like, plan to wait until Nintendo starts to see declining sales trends for their current DS hardware. Sensible from Nintendo’s standpoint, but a major bummer for those hand-held gamers who want to see something new and cool out of the Nintendo camp.
While the DS sells great, many of us tech fans would love to see what a new generation of DS would look like. Perhaps something closer to the iPod touch in screen size and touch-abilities with real WiFi capabilities connecting to the Internet? Wouldn’t it be neat if they added GPS location and tilt abilities much akin to the iPhone or iPod Touch?
Personally, I envision a system where you are in total control of your character from leaning, to sliding, to moving your fingers around the screen and communicating over the Internet sharing high scores, drop-in drop-out multiplayer titles with complete voice communications.
Alas, Nintendo tends to gimp most of their hardware from hot innovation such as Internet communication, much like the Wii. While Nintendo has the next-generation capabilities now for Internet communication they’ve constantly opted to have a more useless version of connectivity to “protect the consumer.”
We need a DS store, much like the Xbox Live Marketplace for downloading DS casual games, considering DS game size is much smaller than a PC, PS3 or Xbox 360 title. We need a smaller form factor mimicking the iPod in thickness and durability with a larger screen or unfolding dual screen to double the size of an iPod style play area.
Hardware innovation seems to be more acceptable to Sony and their PSP product while Nintendo always opts for something more simple. Unfortunately, the PSP cannot compete against the DS which will leave them in the lead with very little desire to re-up their hardware with new capabilities and sexy new designs.
Oddly enough, the DS is the perfect device for the mass market which means they’re not going to be forced to innovate beyond its current capabilities for now. Apparently people don’t desire huge leaps in technology, screen size and speed, or we’d would probably see a decline or dis-interest in the DS hardware, thus forcing Nintendo to re-innovate and evolve.
The day will come, but probably not for a long time.
Electronic Arts is (was?) building a first-person-shooter based on the Command and Conquor series and was set to release on PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The original title was originally slated for 2008 and now has been pushed to EA’s fiscal year 2009 or 20010.
The game was not shown off at E3, which is a bit weird, but considering other titles that didn’t make an E3 announcement (halo) perhaps this isn’t too out of the usual. Perhaps the game design was harder to tackle than originally intended? The only thing we know is that it’s slipped a good deal of time from the original date.
The debate is still up on if we need yet another first-person-shooter title, even if it’s based on the C&C series. It seems they’re using a popular series to launch another FPS genre game, will it stand alone as an innovative title or simply be another FPS title skinned with C&C character models?
(Thanks, 1up)
This episode brings the hate, sarcasm and skepticism in all that is gaming news. We’re also super charged with a gaming flashback on Autoduel and the history of Origin Systems, Inc. But, what really brings it all together is the news of the week:
This week’s question of the week is quite simple: any board games that need to be re-created as a video game?
