Friday, March 18, 2011

3DYES


So I've been on the fence about Nintendo's 3DS for a while now. I have a love/hate relationship with Nintendo where i love the DS but hate the Wii, so a new DS piqued my interest almost immediately. It's specs seemed impressive enough, features seemed to be heading in the right direction (although no 3G is a bummer), and Nintendo seemed to be learning from their past failures (friends codes are apparently not entirely gone, but also not spectacularly awful). The big unknown was the 3D. Is it a gimmick? Does it work?

These are all the questions I've been asking myself and I still couldn't make up my mind until I saw a video of the system in action running Super Street Fighter IV and I was almost sold. It's the real-deal-holyfield version of SSF4, on a handheld with online play. Almost there.

Then, I saw Nintendo's AR cards. I can't really describe how amazing it looks. SOLD. Just YouTube it. The archery game alone is enough.

Got mine preordered and ready to go, and I haven't seen the 3D yet.

Apparently Best Buy has their demo units in already to check out, and Gamestop should be getting theirs any day now. I suggest you check it out.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

PC Nerds are the BEST!!!

Because they give me the most ammo. G4 ran a story about the possibility of a console version of Diablo 3. I fail to see why this is the end of the world, but then again my blood doesn't boil every time someone says they prefer Xbox to Alienware.

If done properly (which given that this is Blizzard it probably will be), this could be a very positive thing. Blizzard sells more copies of Diablo (to people who don't steal them rampantly at that), more people are exposed to their game, giving way to more people trying out their other, PC only titles. The upside for players is that there is no downside. People without completely amazing computers get to experience Diablo 3.

The G4 article specifically stated that this will NOT take the place of the PC version. However it also specifically stated that this "had Activision written all over it" and "takes away one of the PC's big exclusives".

To the first point I'd say that OF COURSE this won't affect the PC version. This is Blizzard, they know where their fans are, and they're not stupid. Secondly, I hate on Activision as much as the next guy who actually cares about the culture and creativity of this industry, but they've NEVER interfered with Blizzard, and I don't see them being able to start now. And third, does it really matter if Diablo releases on console? As long as it's the same as the PC version (albeit with different controls), no one loses anything. This is just elitism.

I'd also take g4 to task for publishing the article in its state. It reeked of fanboy biased and was WAY below the standard that an actual journalist should adhere to. Leave your fanboy antics at the door.

The there's the big elephant in the room, which is the real reason for this outcry. This console version MAY exist, and if it does it exists to offset the lost sales due to illegal downloads of the PC version.

So in a nutshell, the PC gaming community is mad at Blizzard for making Diablo 3 for consoles. Blizzard may be making this version to compensate for the PC version being pirated.

Like I said, gotta love the PC crowd. If you love the ridiculous.