E3

[Todd Robinson]

Have any of you seen any coverage so far of the E3 event in Los Angeles? If you haven't, you need to check it out now! Here are some of the things I'm really looking forward to:

• "New Super Mario Bros." This is a DS title that will be the next true sequel to the side-scrolling Super Mario Bros. line of games since 1991. I'm very excited about this title! I saw preview movie of it at ds.ign.com. It's a 3d game but it does side scroll in 2d manner like all the other Super Mario titles.
  
• "Mario Kart DS." This is Mario Kart with online support! If you have this game, a DS, and a wifi internet connection, you're supposed to be able to freely play this game online. Cool!
  
• Game Boy Micro. This is another incarnation of the Game Boy Advance. It's a really sleek gadget. It's roughly the side of an iPod...about 2" tall, 4" wide, less than 1" thick. It has a true headphone port, start and select buttons at the bottom of the unit...oh yeah, and a super bright backlit LCD screen! See it at gameboy.ign.com.
  
• The big three consoles: Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Nintendo Revolution. Microsoft's bragging rights are a system much more powerful than the existing Xbox, Nintendo's bragging rights are their focus on games and the fact that they're more profitable than the other two systems, and Sony....they're sort of stuck in the middle. It'll be interesting to see who specs are made available and who will win the next bout of console wars. With the Xbox slated to arrive before Christmas, could they have the early advantage? Will Playstation 3 have the success of the two earlier Playstations? Will Nintendo win out with possible lower costs and focus on games? We'll know within a year!
  

[WesternEstates]

I've been throughly impressed with it thus far.

For those of you that are intrested you can watch coverage of it at:

www.gamespot.com/e3/e3live.html?tag=nl.e576

www.IGN.com

I've got to say the next console race is going to be intresting. The PS3 is freakin' sweet! I can't believe how good it is. The tech demo for it was wonderful.

The only problem I see for the next-gen systems is the price. XBOX 360 is going to be $400, PS3 is estimated to be at $400~$500 and the Revolution is suppose to be around $300. I can imagine alot of people would have alot of problems with that. Also microsoft said it might charge as much as $70 a game for the new XBOX 360. That's just a little much I think. I could understand a $5 or even $10 increase but $20 is alot.

[Joe Lourenco]

WesternEstates said:

Also microsoft said it might charge as much as $70 a game for the new XBOX 360. That's just a little much I think. I could understand a $5 or even $10 increase but $20 is alot.

I agree. That was also the case with the price of Nintendo 64 games (I remember "Chrono Trigger" sold for $100!!), which I think helped sink that console.

Joe

[Todd Robinson]

I hadn't heard about pricing from any of the three big video game companies. Possibly $500 for a video game console? Almost $70 for a video game? That's a little hard to swallow.

It's understandable the amount of time and effort that goes in to video game production. Because of higher system specs, the expectations for the wow factor are lifted higher and higher and it costs more to reach that level. But still...who can pay for that?

My general philosophy on games is to stay a year or two behind the pack on console games. I was given a GameCube only a year ago and I always buy my games either on sale or when they become "Player's Choice" titles and have the price brought down. Rarely do I buy a game when it first comes out. The only new stuff I buy are handheld games. I have the DS and a couple of games for it...but they're not $50.

How do you guys spend money on games?

[Todd Robinson]

Joe said:

I agree. That was also the case with the price of Nintendo 64 games (I remember "Chrono Trigger" sold for $100!!), which I think helped sink that console.

By the way, I loved the Nintendo 64. And yes, I bought it used about five years after it first came out.

[WesternEstates]

In regards to how I spend my money on video games I try to stretch my gaming dollar as far as possible. Let's take Gran Turismo 4 for example. I am a huge Gran Turismo fan and I don't mind paying the full price for it when it comes out because I know with Kazunori Yamauchi behind it will be a mind blowing game however I know why people are still unsure about it. Maybe you don't like simulation games or you've never tried it before. You can do one of four things if you want to get it cheaper.

1) You can get it used. I remembered the day after I got Gran Turismo I went back just to look at the games. Their was one use game of Gran Turismo there for $44.99. Not exactly a bargain. If you want it cheap, used and now I suggest getting games on ebay. If you are screwed enough you can get anything cheap. For example during the Christman season when most people were paying double for a DS I got mine for only $155. Only $5 more than it was in retail plus at that time and I got free two-day shipping. Also the longer you wait on the item you want the cheaper it will be.

2) You can wait until it becomes a greatest hit. The big three have diffrent standards for what becomes a greatest hit including the number of the games in subject that they sold, etc. Some of these games are turned into greatest hits 9~15 months after the original game is released. However some great selling games never make it to the greatest hits, sports games are the most common example. Madden sells millions of games every however it never makes it to the greatest hits for an odvious reason. Everything would be out of date by the time it would be made into a greatest hit. Also Halo (until Halo 2 came out) was not made into a greatest hit. They dropped the price to $30 but that's all they did to it. why did Microsoft did this? The same reason why they charged $30 for a remote just so you could just watch DVD's. So can drain out of as much money as they can .

3) You can wait 'till it hits the bargain bin. I learned this the hard way after buying XIII and Auto Modelista. If you are buying a new game that is relatively unknown to the public and if you are willing to wait you can get a great bargain. Let's take Ico for example since this was a good game. It first retailed at $50 a couple of months when it wasn't selling they changed it to $30 then to $20 and after that it was in the bargain bin for $15. The speed at which this happens depends on how the game sells. Since Ico didn't sell that well even when it came out the price was dropped and it went to the bargain bin really quickly.

4) You can get it new, now and cheaper if you buy it in a retail wherehouse store. This is something I discovered recently and if you go to a Sam's Club or Costco there are all of these great deals on video games there. For example when Halo 2 was relased you could pick it up for new at Costco for only $43. $7 cheaper than retail. The new Gran Turismo is also $43 new. Much cheaper than regular retail. The only drawback is you have to get a membership to shop there and if you buy other stuff there beside videogames the membership can pay for itself in one visit. They also have special deals there every once in a while that are deffinatly worth checking out (Example: video game three packs worth $30 or if you want to buy a new system they give you some games and equipment for free!)

Going back E3 for a moment. I was deffinatly was not imppresed with XBOX 360. For what it offers it's like XBOX 1.5 especially when compared to PS3. The Microsoft strategy seems to be just marketing. During their press confrence they kept going on how by the end of the XBOX 360 cycle that they will have one billion people playing it. I find that hard to swallow. Also they seem to be marketing it to people who wouldn't play video games that often. That's just bad business strategy right there. As a video game player watching their press confrence I felt completly ailenated. Also they have alot of silly features in the new XBOX live. You can now sell products there on XBOX live including T-shirts. That's right T-shirts. Why

[binsbin96]

Todd said:

I hadn't heard about pricing from any of the three big video game companies. Possibly $500 for a video game console? Almost $70 for a video game? That's a little hard to swallow.

It's understandable the amount of time and effort that goes in to video game production. Because of higher system specs, the expectations for the wow factor are lifted higher and higher and it costs more to reach that level. But still...who can pay for that?

My general philosophy on games is to stay a year or two behind the pack on console games. I was given a GameCube only a year ago and I always buy my games either on sale or when they become "Player's Choice" titles and have the price brought down. Rarely do I buy a game when it first comes out. The only new stuff I buy are handheld games. I have the DS and a couple of games for it...but they're not $50.

How do you guys spend money on games?

That's How I go. I'd rather wait a year before going out and buying a new game/system.

as for systems, buying them the 1st year may have problems like bugs or glitches while the next year's will be more upgraded and many of the bugs fixed.
I remember this when I got mys Snes in 1992/93. and layers were missing and the Mode 7 was fouled up. the system was from last year (1st year) so me and My mom had enough of this that we returned it and got the 2nd year version and had no problems.

So waiting a year or so and making sure it is an update is the best way to go.

End Of Line

[Matteo]

Yeah I've been watchin' G4 every day. They haven't said much about my precious PSP yet though. I'm an Xbox man myself, and I have to say, I'm not that impressed with the 360 yet. The graphics look the same as Xbox 1 to me, although Gears of War looks purty good. I like the fact that Revolution's gonna have backwards compatibility with all the old school games, that's pretty sweet. Game Boy Micro is neat looking, but what's the point of having it if I've already got a DS. We still got one day left though.

[WesternEstates]

Matteo said:

Yeah I've been watchin' G4 every day. They haven't said much about my precious PSP yet though. I'm an Xbox man myself, and I have to say, I'm not that impressed with the 360 yet. The graphics look the same as Xbox 1 to me, although Gears of War looks purty good. I like the fact that Revolution's gonna have backwards compatibility with all the old school games, that's pretty sweet. Game Boy Micro is neat looking, but what's the point of having it if I've already got a DS. We still got one day left though.

I've heard there is going to be a new PSP at the end of the year. The only difference between the two will be the battery life. Sony is trying to develop a new battery that will last between 6~10 hours. If they can do that then I'm deffinatly going to get one .

[Todd Robinson]

Sony's gotta come down on the price of the PSP before I buy it, no matter how long the battery lasts. As for now, the battery life and minute-long startup cycles have to go. Sorry, but I just find this a little unacceptable even if it's a protable system.

[Matteo]

I've heard there is going to be a new PSP at the end of the year.

Naw, I doubt it. I heard they're coming out with the new battery in about 3 months, in time for GTA: Liberty City Stories. It's about twice the capacity of the original battery. But I'm pretty sure they're not coming out with an updated version of the PSP itself. I just need to save up to get a bigger Memory Stick. 32 Megs is good for game saves, and I got one Family Guy ep. on there (Medium Picture/Sound Quality). I'll probably get a 512. Anyway for PSP, I'm looking forward to Burnout Legends (I'm a big Burnout 3 fan), Namco Museum Battle Collection, and Death Jr.

[hotchocolate]

I really like the Nintendo Revolution because it so nice an small plus
It will have wi-fi built into the system download about 20 years of Nintendo game
I will buy the system next year the Xbox 360 design is boring.
Play station 3 design is nice but the new Nintendo Revolution is the nice system the Nintendo made period.
;D

[binsbin96]

ok just One Stupid Question

What is this "Wi-Fi"
Is it suposedly better than Hi-Fi or somthing?

[Grey]

binsbin96 said:

ok just One Stupid Question

What is this "Wi-Fi"
Is it suposedly better than Hi-Fi or somthing?

WiFi is completely different than Hi-Fi.

WiFi means basically that the console utilizes wireless technology to go to the Internet, provided there's a wireless router or WAP (access point) in the area. So it has nothing to do with the crispness of picture or sound.

I'll give you that one; all of these technological abbreviations can be confusing if you don't know what you're doing.

[Todd Robinson]

It's amazing how much game systems have advanced since the early days of gaming. Back when I had my original Nintendo, we were lucky if we could get the thing to start up because of dust and the fact that each cartridge has 72 contacts to make with the connector inside the console. Now cartridges are WAY smaller (have you held a DS cartridge?), hold tons more data, and can talk to each other without wires. It's incredible.