Ripp'd From Today's Headlines continues. See? What did I tell you. Not bleak or anything. Well, it's a little bleak. But it's not inaccurate.
As early as a week ago, I was set to bemoan the lack of demos recently, demos which would remind me that the PC is capable of more than acting as a WoW terminal. Then Freedom Force hit, then SWAT 4 which is also by Irrational, and just this morning Splinter Cell for the PC. If you've been having trouble tracking down that coverdisc, the demo is essentially the same content I referred to a couple days ago - Lighthouse. The Xbox version is already very pretty, but when you start creeping into the higher PC resolutions I think it's fair to say that you will be entering truly uncharted visual territory.
Humans have brought to my attention an interview with one Trip Hawkins, one where he claims that within five years Microsoft will own Nintendo. You can do your own research on the man and determine whether or not he is in possession of mighty powers of speculation or indeed something akin to prescience. I submit that he is not. I submit that he spends his day naked in a dunk-tank, and that from time to time a man throws a fish at him which he catches in his mouth. Check out his answer to this question:
With the next Xbox planned for release prior to Nintendo's and Sony's next systems, the cost of implementing a next-gen media format (HD-DVD or Blu-Ray) would be expensive. What do you think if Xbox 2 used the standard DVD format instead of high definition?
Personally, I don’t think this is an important distinction. But maybe some early adopters will care about this and at least initially sway market share. HD will only be relevant in the long run if applications like football use it effectively to enable you to see more of the field. But I think the players are already on information overload as it is.
Alright? So he doesn't even understand what question is being asked. As for the Nintendo thing, I mean, they're an extremely proud company. They're not going to sell to an American corporation because fucking Trip Hawkins says so. They didn't come out on top of this generation - in America or Europe, at any rate - but they're hardly destitute. They're not up to their elbows in the couch trying to scratch together some yens.
You might recall that I enjoyed Massive Assault a great deal, once I was able work out the disagreements it had with my system. The sequel just went gold, and hits stores on the 28th. It was called "Phantom Renaissance" up until they got a publisher, who decided to go with the less the somewhat less spectral Domination. I'm curious to see how it is going to pan out. The original game had two sides which were essentially "palette swaps" in terms of their functionality, the sequel distinguishes the sides and adds what looks like "General" characters you can customize with unique bonuses. Hmm. One of the things I liked about the first one, though this probably puts me in the minority, was that there was a very raw numerical symmetry between the sides. Well, that, and it used the hexes. Sweet hexes.
Fingers crossed.
(CW)TB out.
crept out the back door
