Adding Indie Insult to Xbox One Injury
Chris Kavan - wrote on 05/22/13 at 01:24 PM CT
Nelson pointed out a long list of things that Microsoft bungled when they revealed the Xbox One. And, unsurprisingly, he's not the only one to think that reveal was an unmitigated disaster. And I hate to kick someone while they're down, but this is Microsoft, so I don't feel that bad actually.
Besides having the Kinect 2 watch you while you sleep and not being able to share games with your friends (without a fee) - I don't have to tell you Microsoft is shooting themselves in the foot with gamers. But what about shooting themselves in the foot with developers? Specifically the indie kind - you know, the kind being talked about as being in a new golden age. While it's sometimes hard to find quality amidst the quantity - it is there. Every gamer should do themselves a favor and watch Indie Game: The Movie to see just what goes on behind the scenes to make an indie game. So what does indie gaming have to do with the Xbox One? Only that Microsoft has taken the step to stop indie …
Xbox One: Putting “It” All in One Place
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 05/21/13 at 05:53 PM CT
After months of speculation and rumor-mongering, Microsoft has finally revealed the true identity of the console-formerly-known-as Durango: The Xbox One. Apparently someone at Microsoft has difficulty with counting in the single digits, as the Xbox One is actually the THIRD Microsoft console, and that moniker seems more fitting as a retroactive title for the original Xbox from the 6th Generation.
I understand what Microsoft was trying to accomplish with the name, though, as the reveal event put on display the Xbox One’s ability to be a one-stop shop for all forms of TV-based entertainment, and shows it to be a significant improvement over Nintendo’s half-assed TVii app. Of course, as someone who watches 2 hours of TV per week (not counting incidental viewings of whatever news program or gameshow might be running while I’m eating a meal), the fact that Microsoft’s new console more closely resembles a glorified cable box than an actual game console is not inspiring.
But …
Survivors of the 3D Revolution
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 05/18/13 at 04:56 PM CT
We are the few, the proud, the old-school. We have been gaming since the third-generation or earlier. We have seen the evolution of videogames from crude and poorly-executed concepts into well-refined and polished genres. We have also lived through a time of great turmoil in order to see our closely-held beliefs vindicated: We are the Survivors of the 3D Revolution.
The term ‘3D Revolution’ has nothing to do with the trend of the past few years to return 3D glasses to movie theaters. Nor does it have anything to do with Nintendo’s latest handheld and its stereoscopic 3D gimmick. No, the term ‘3D Revolution’ refers to a generation-spanning phenomenon during which game developers became so enamored with their ability to push the graphics envelope with vector-based polygons rather than raster-based sprites that they transitioned as many games as possible into using the newer image-generation method, whether they needed it or not. The 3D Revolution began in the 5th …
Failure to Launch: What's Wrong with the 8th Generation?
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 05/12/13 at 05:38 PM CT
The 8th Generation has been sitting on the launchpad for two years now, led boldly into the future by Nintendo’s 3DS in March 2011. Nearly a year later, in February 2012, Sony followed suit and released a successor to the failing PlayStation Portable in the form of the temporarily-pirate-proof PlayStation Vita. Nine months later in November 2012, a full year and eight months after the release of their 8th Generation handheld, Nintendo released with WiiU, the first actual console of the 8th Generation.
What all three of these 8th Generation pioneers have in common is that they have spectacularly failed to get off the ground in their early lives. Instead of streaking toward new heights in both profitability and the betterment of gaming culture, the 8th Generation has burned great quantities of fuel only to end up with a lot of smoke and no thrust. But unlike the catastrophes born from early rocketry research during the 1950s, videogame consoles are not rough prototypes, blazing …
The Official WiiU Funeral
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 05/05/13 at 02:18 PM CT
Friends, gamers, countrymen, lend me your ears. I come to bury WiiU, not to praise him. The evil that videogame companies do lives after them, the good is oft interred with their obsolete hardware. So let it be with WiiU… The noble 3DS hath told you WiiU was unambitious: If he were so, it was a grievous fault, and grievously hath WiiU answered it… Here under leave of 3DS, I come to speak at WiiU’s funeral, and to answer the unanwered question: What the Hell is Nintendo doing?
Instead of focusing on their struggling new console, Nintendo has been sinking all of their efforts into their until-recently-struggling new handheld, the 3DS. This seems like an enormous misstep on Nintendo’s part. Dedicated gaming handhelds are all but doomed. When done right, a dedicated gaming handheld provides nothing that a modern smartphone can’t provide. When done wrong, a dedicated gaming handheld provides gimmicky controls that are difficult to translate to other platforms and …
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