Sorry for the lack of posts. I’m on vacation. I’ll BRB late next week!

Good news I liked from e3 2008:

• Wii Motion Plus
• Netflix on Xbox Live
• Final Fantasy XIII on the Xbox 360
• Wii Speak
• PS3 Greatest hits line of $30

The not so good news from e3 2008:

• Microsoft’s Mii’s (I just feel they could have come up with something else, instead of a copy of Mii’s)
• No solution for the Nintendo Wii’s “Out of Space” issue
• No major innovations this year

Some people are getting all giddy over Microsoft’s recent announcement of their ‘Miis’ (they can call them whatever they want …they are Miis), but I’m very excited over their deal with Netflix. If you are an Xbox live gold member and also a Netflix member, you can stream the digital movies in your Netflix queue to your living room using the xbox. On top of that, you can watch movies Multiplayer… or is it Multiviewer? You can watch that same movies with friends through the Xbox360. What this means is, If I rented ‘Star Trek: First Contact, I can force ask my buddy who lives in New York to watch that same movie with me. It will stream that movie to him as well. I imagine, as with multiplayer games, you can carry a conversation through voice chat.

This service is exclusive to the Xbox 360 unlike Miis.

I’m absolutely speechless. I feel like they heard me complain that the ps3 was too much money for me to buy strictly to play Final Fantasy 13. They must have heard me regret that I only bought a ps2 to play Final Fantasy X. Once I beat it, the ps2 essentially collected dust. They must have heard me wish every night that Square-Enix would Start developing for the Xbox 360. They must have heard me when I also wanted other Square games like Star Ocean to be developed for the Xbox 360.

Nintendo has announced in it’s press release a Wii MotionPlus accessory. As explained in the article this will provide true 1:1 motion control. I find this very exciting. Yes, this means you can have a Star Wars Light saber game where the movement of wiimote matches exactly on the screen. This is of course, if it is in fact true 1:1. This also means a new Legend of Zelda game could have 1:1 sword controls. In other words if you lean the wiimote to the left, the sword in Link’s will lean to the left, If you lean the wiimote to the right, up, or down the sword  in Link’s hand will match those movements. A well crafted game could take traditional fighting games to another level. Instead of simply pushing up, up, down, down, you could just act out the sword motions for each combo. This would also allow room for a more personalized experience with combos. It will be all about how well you’d be able to wield the wiimote.

Since E3 is next week and I won’t be there, I have nothing to do but make a wish list of things I’d like to see.

1. A DS light redesign
2. An active Hard drive for the Nintendo Wii. This could either be an external USB hard drive or allow SD cards to be used for this purpose (Am I really the only one that has 0 blocks left?).
3. The game Sadness will be released. And if I’m lucky Duke Nukem Forever will be released in my lifetime.
4. Blizzard to surprise us with an August 1, 2008 simultaneous release of Starcraft II, Diablo III, and Wrath of the Lich.
5. An awesome non-turned based RPG from Square-Enix or from any company for that matter.
6. A new adventure game that is neither a sequel or a prequel
7. Google to announce the G-Box gaming console
8. All consoles to ditch their online models and join Xbox live. Why not! Most PC’s run windows, why not have most consoles run Xbox Live. Fine! If you don’t like Microsoft, then they can all join Valve’s Steam. As long as they are all in the same place.
9. Companies to be fined for delaying or pushing back game launch dates.
10. For one of the major console makers to invent an idea I had for a long time. A “Single Avatar Character Model”. What this super-awesome idea would mean is you create one ‘Mii’ or whatever. You would have the option to use this avatar in almost every game available for that console. This avatar would not only keep track of all scores, achievements, games beaten, and your entire history of playing anything, it will also look the same in any game you play. You should have the option to customize this character whenever you want. Treat it like a virtual you. Also when you take this ‘You’ online, other players you meet can view your history of anything you have achieved in all your gaming since you created the character. Plus this way you can say “Hey I remember you from Halo 2, nice to see you again! I see you put on some weight.” It’s taking the Mii/PSN Home idea to the next level. Hey, I’m allowed to wish for whatever I can dream up!

In the absence of Wrath of the Lich King, I decided to reactivate my Phantasy Star Universe (PSU) account. I stopped playing initially because it wasnt PSO (Phantasy Star Online). PSO and PSU are an alternative to the average online game. It’s kind of surprising that they are not more popular. I think many people fail to realize PSU has absolutely nothing to do with traditional Mass Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG). It’s not a true MMORPG and it should never be compared to World of Warcraft. I always called PSO an online hack and slash game.

The Phantasy Star Online games are for those who want to play an online game with others but do not want to get involved with the current structure. These things include the issues of playing solo, customize your character’s stats a particular way in order to be accepted by others, making sure your party always has the Tank/Healer/Nuker’ mold (oh please go away already! I have nightmares about people shouting “We need a ‘Tank for Heroic WTF!”). Don’t get me wrong, I love MMORPGs and definitely love World of Warcraft, but after playing a thousand games that follow the same structure, I tend to long for something that doesn’t exist; which is an MMORPG that doesn’t follow any of the current MMORPG rules. (more…)

If you visit the Japanese site for Square-Enix, there is a countdown timer for a remarkably familiar game to the RPG community. Given the URL, I’m certain it’s what we all think it is. If your computer has sound you can hear the familiar clock ticking. It’s for the DS. I can only hope it’s a sequel. However if it’s a 3D remake, I’m in.