61 Frames Per Second

The Conduit looks like a solid shooter and could be a lot of fun. Sure, it looks like it's heavily inspired by Halo and Half Life, but those are damn great games to be inspired by. I really hope it turns out good and does well.

People exaggerate. Like, a lot. You wouldn't know but Nintendo (or anyone else) has never released a single game that would appeal to core gamers on the Wii, and never will.

I dunno. Gamers are a whiney bunch. For the first time in forever, people who play Halo for ten hours a day aren't the sole focus of game developers. Rather than be happy that the market is expanding and gaming is becoming more mainstream like they've always claimed they've wanted, though, they choose to whine and cry like a bunch of spoiled toddlers.

*sigh*

Then they act like Nintendo was the only company with a crappy E3 press conference. The highlight of Microsoft's conference was the news that they've bought Sony's biggest exclusive (which is going to suck for game quality, since this was supposed to be the game to really show the PS3's potential) and Sony spent their press conference trying to squeeze blood from a stone with the PS2 and talking about movies. The only thing in Sony's press conference that interested me was Valkyria Chronicles for PSP, and that turned out to be a hateful lie.

E3 was just crap this year and I think that it's not really indicative of the current state of the industry as a whole. There are good things coming, but they weren't at E3. (Except Rhythm Heaven and Mad World, which were at E3 and were awesome. ;P)

I can understand that. I have a giant grudge against humanity for overlooking Viewtiful Joe and God Hand. :P

Is it really 27 Wii games for the Big N?

I'm not so sure anymore that this is a temporary trend for Nintendo.  Iwata's "apology" only reinforces this belief.  He said:  "We are sorry about (the E3) media briefings, specifically for those who were expecting to see Nintendo show something about Super Mario or Legend of Zelda."

Seriously... was there a single informed gamer on the planet hoping for new information about the next Mario or Zelda game?  This strikes me as a grossly uninformed comment to make and I wasn't sure at first whether to take it at face value or as some kind of veiled insult directed at the so-called "core."  Obviously it's the former, which is pretty shocking to hear coming from Nintendo's CEO.  Iwata - or whomever wrote the apology - clearly has no conception of who he's addressing there.  In the weeks leading to E3, there were plenty of Nintendo rumblings... Kid Icarus, Punch-out!!, and others.  Yet he chose to mention two titles for which we likely won't even see the first bits of information on until this time next year at the VERY earliest.

The point I'm circling around here is that Nintendo has realized where the money is.  The Wii is both cheap enough and unique enough to be a worthwhile investment as a "toy" for non-"core" gamers, especially with the allure of TRUE classics via VC for the over-30 set.  Look at the success of Wii Play and Wii Fit.  The latter is STILL sold out every time I visit my local Gamestop.  Clearly, there's an audience - and a sizable one - shelling out for the Wii.  It's sad to see Nintendo move away from (or, worse, retooling a la Castlevania) the classics, but it's also none too surprising.

The current concept of "casual gaming" may indeed turn out to be a phase, but I'm fairly certain that Nintendo will keep the money machine running by continuing to pitch their Wii as a fancy toy rather than as a gaming console.  I saw Miyamoto say as much about Wii Music at the N's E3 dev Q&A, that he means for it to be considered as a toy rather than as a game.

My disappointment in the Wii Music demo is more the result of my own hyped assumptions. Based on the 2006 demos with the conductor and drum modes, I presumed that Wii Music would be about using motion control to truly simulate the music making experience and most likely creat your own songs. From last week's accounts, it seems more like you'll just be button mashing and waggling willy-nilly to a limited selection of pre-loaded songs. I was looking forward to a Mii-supported Electroplankton Wii. My bad, Nintendo.

@ Derrick:  There's button-mashing/waggling, which I guess is kind of cool in a left-back-in-kindergarten sort of way.

There is a full-blown drum mode though where you can play an entire trap kit, but the controls seem VERY unfriendly.  Granted, I didn't actually play with it but I saw it demonstrated while the controls were explained.  The Balance Board controls kick/hi-hat but the rest of the kit relies on button presses to direct which drum/cymbal you're hitting.  There's no 1:1 movement with the animated sticks onscreen.  Isn't that missing the point?

I'm really struggling to understand why so many people care about this 'problem'.  Apparently some games were announced that certain over-entitled vocal minorities didn't care about and this means Nintendo isn't going to make the games they want ever again?  That's dumb.

Or if there really are people who organise their whole existences around Nintendo's classic franchises then the problem is theirs, not the company's.