Looks like a few of us have bought into the Microsoft & Sony hype that raw horsepower is in some way beneficial to gaming. For general purpose computing (aka. PC gaming) raw horsepower is a must, but not for console gaming. Consoles are specialized devices & should be engineered to do more with less, for less. Raw horsepower in a console only serves to throw off excessive heat which is really only useful if you want to grill a steak while playing GoW or RFoM.

Is the Wii so underpowered that it can't run UE3? Yes, but in regards to gaming the question is irrelevant. What matters is whether or not the Wii can run a game comparable to one using UE3 on a general purpose device. View

Yes, the launch of the PS2 suffered a barage of bad press as well, but there is a huge difference for Sony this time around: Consumers aren't interested in PS3, at all. View

The #1 reason not to dismiss the Wii is because it's riding the PS2's sales trend line in Japan & NA.

I don't know when the myth that Nintendo was growing the market started being accepted as fact, but the Wii retails for $249 which means it's still early adopters keeping it off store shelves. GC certainly doesn't have the install base required to make this happen which means it's pulling market share from somewhere else... the PS2. View

I haven't played Mortal Kombat since the PlayStation introduced me to Tekken a long, long time ago, but with no Tekken for the Wii I'm actually looking forward to this one. Hopefully the controls are spot on & it doesn't look like an N64 port. View

It can't play:

8 track or cassette tapes
LPs or 45s
VHS

It can't cook:

Toast a bagel
Fry an egg
Roast a turkey

It can't do yard work:

Mow the lawn
Paint the house
Stain the deck

It can't practice medicine:

Fill a cavity
Set a broken leg
Deliver a baby

MS should leave the Wii alone until they're ready to compete on price because until then any negative comments they make regarding it just seem petty. If the Xbox 360 & Wii were comparably priced a feature comparison would be justified, but at this point the Xbox 360 has another $200 worth of tech in it that most of us are passing on which is why the Wii continues to sell consoles as fast as Nintendo's elves can whip them up in their little Easy Bake Ovens. View

It's not that the fact that he's criticizing the Wii that's the problem, but the fact that he's criticizing the Wii for not doing something that isn't an expected function for a game console in the first place. It's akin to the CEO of Boeing pointing to a Porche & chuckling aloud before saying something asinine like, "Look, it can't fly!" View

Nor does desolder it's GPU from it's motherboard or carve wear marks into it's discs. Why no mention of these missing features? View

Buying a new Wii is certainly cheaper than a divorce, but not cheaper than having appendages reattached.

How mad do you have to be to unhook an a/v appliance, drive to lake & toss it in? Was he playing Wii during Deperate Housewives? Was he playing with his best friend's Wii when he wasn't playing with his own? There's certainly more to this story, but sadly probably nothing as titillating as what's running through my mind right now. View

True. There was no context for the screen shots, but I think they were posted to Wii-bash. IMO the Spiderman 3 developers have implemented an innovative solution to traditional pop up.

In Spiderman 3 the world is always around you. Objects don't pull an I Dream of Jeannie "blink in" as you move down scene, instead the flat-shaded objects are textured & simplified geometry replaced by more complex representations.

That having been said, Spiderman 3 could certainly have used more work on it's presentation, but it was a movie tie-in with a fixed deadline. View

If the Wii is nothing more than a collection of repackaged hardware that developers have been working with for the last decade where is the evidence of their competency with it?

Fact is the bulk of 3rd party titles for Nintendo consoles suck because the bulk of developers for 3rd party titles on Nintendo consoles suck. If you put these same developers to work on an Xbox 360 or PS3 title you'd still end up with the same mediocre crap (See the PS2 library.)

I'd expect the talent gap to close if Wii sales continue to outpace Xbox 360 & PS3 combined. But we might even see a 180 the beginning of next year when Sony is forced to confront the ugly truth: Wii hasn't been expanding the market, it's been gobbling up PS2's market share. View

OK, the textures drop off at distance & altitude; there are half bridges at the edge of Spidey's "fishbowl"; & simple objects are noticably replaced by complex models as they're approached. No, the graphics aren't what you'd expect to see if you were actually Spiderman swinging through the streets of NYC, but this is a videogame. Yes, a videogame. Not a movie. Not reality. A videogame.

Honestly, the only thing Xbox 360 & PS3 have done is skew expectations on what a game should be, which is 1st & foremost fun. That's right, remember fun? No, I'm not twelve shades of crazy. Pretty is good to look at from across the room, but when you find out pretty's got an IQ of 10 you're chewing your arm off to get away just as quickly as the Sunday morning you wake up, room spinning, next to queen muffin top [Sends chills down my spine just thinking about it.]

No, the Wii version of Spiderman isn't as pretty as the Xbox 360/PS3 version. But if you're standing still long enough to notice the textures fading in you're not playing the game anyway which means even subpar graphics are wasted on you. Spiderman for the Wii is about the double-handed web slinging & it's got that nailed down fairly well, although there are some frame rate issues that would irk me a bit more if I wasn't playing the best incarnation of Spiderman to date.

Hopefully enough of us will buy Spiderman for the Wii that Activision will be encouraged to dress the engine up for Spidey's next appearance. View

OK, who honestly thought that serving hors d'oeuvres out of a "goat’s still-warm carcass" would be a good idea? I thought Sony had lost touch with the console market, but turns out they've lost touch with civilization as well. View

76,859 Wiis were sold in NA last week, 25,943 PS3s & 32,569 Xbox 360s. Even if we pretend there was no Xbox 360 & add it's sales figures to the PS3 sales figures (25,943 + 32,569 = 58,512) the PS3 still wouldn't be outselling the Wii. Not to mention the fact I suspect a significant amount of cannibalization in the "fringe market" that MS & Sony are wooing (aka. Xbox 360 owner = PS3 owner = more often than not). View

Actually most Wii owners can't possibly own a PS3 because the numbers simply won't support your assertion: 6.4 million Wiis sold worldwide & 3.15 million PS3s, but the numbers would support your assertion if rephrased:

Most PS3 owners already have a Wii or intend to get one in the future.

But that would just beg the question: Why would PS3 owners be waiting to get their hands on a Wii? View

PlayStation = game console = success
PlayStation 2 = game console = success
PlayStation Portable = jack-of-all-trades media center = mediocre success
PlayStation X = jack-of-all-trades media center = failure
PlayStation 3 = jack-of-all-trades media center = hasn't been officially called yet

Kutaragi's pink slip is about 2 years overdue. Sony should have reigned him in when the PlayStation X failed, but he was still envisioning a PS3-based PlayStation X:

http://kotaku.com/gaming/ps...

Kutaragi lost touch the console market somewhere between the PS2 & PSP, or maybe the original PlayStation was more Nintendo's inspiration than Kutaragi's to begin with. View

Kutaragi blew through cash like a drunken sailor on leave developing the PS3 which has left Sony with a console that is next to impossible to sell, while Nintendo's firm grip on what's practical over what's possible has left them with a console they can't make fast enough. Honestly, Kutaragi's lack of retraint would hardly be a good fit at Nintendo & IMO they're just being polite & respectful. View

PS3 is not going to win Sony the format war, the only thing it stands to do is lose them the console war. Since launch PS3 sales have trended down sharply in North America. Sure, during the first week of Jan. 70K units were sold, but sales have trended down around 5K units a week since & landed at just under 19K units sold the week ending Apr. 15.

Honestly, I'm amazed that the PS3 has managed to sell as well as it has. That having been said, as bad as sales are today, they have yet to bottom out. And, don't even bother with the "just wait for Title X" argument because Motorstorm only managed to move around 8K units the week ending Mar. 11th & nothing has been able to pull the PS3 out of it's nosedive since.

Blu-ray never stood a chance of winning the format war on it's own which is why Sony grafted it onto the PS3, but now the only thing Blu-ray is doing is choking the life out of the PlayStation brand. View

The graphics look like they were drawn by a 5 year old on the back of a McDonald's placemat in crayon! The AI is as clumsy as a 400-lb woman trying to wiggle out from behind the wheel of a 2007 Aveo! Honestly I don't understand why the "fringe market" can't just leave the Wii alone. Which version of Spiderman 3 is going to suspend disbelief better, the Xbox 360/PS3 version with HD graphics & a ton of button mashing, or the Wii version with near HD graphics & dual-hand motion control? Yeah, that's what I thought. Spiderman, Spiderman, does whatever a spider can... Go Wii! View

Perhaps that's the problem. How much does Sony charge for the privilege of manufacturing Blu-ray media/players?

If TDK is backing Blu-ray then why are they working behind the scenes to keep the GB count between Blu-ray & HD-DVD near even? 50GB Blu-ray vs. 51GB HD-DVD. Why are they working with Wal-Mart to undercut the price of Blu-ray players? Also, Apple is supposed to be backing Blu-ray which doesn't explain why the latest version of DVD Studio Pro is shipping with HD-DVD support, not Blu-ray.

The facts portend a grim future for Blu-ray. It appears as though the industry began shifting away from Blu-ray the beginning of the year & now Wal-Mart is standing up to announce a retail shift as well. View

the Wal-Mart story of 2 million HD-DVD players at a wholesale cost of $50/unit proves accurate. When I first read the article I didn't see how it could possibly be HD-DVD players with TDK's involvement as their website only boasts about Blu-ray, but with a bit more research I turned up an interesting tidbit that TDK was responsible for the 51GB HD-DVD:

http://www.about-electronic... View