At over $600, do you really want your new system to "fall far short ... of providing the world's most engaging overall entertainment experience"? That quote is from Seth Schiesel's PS3 review, and its not an undue criticism either. It ain't all about the "megaflops, gigabytes and other technical benchmarks", nor about advances in graphics. This of course leads back to what makes a game gameable and a player want to play, and the concept that seems to be the holy grail of gaming- emergence. Wikipedia defines it as "the process of complex pattern formation from simpler rules". Not simply another catch term for the already problematic concept of interactivity, emergence describes gameplay that feels smooth, with every reaction, new option, all choices feeling like a direct response to a player's action. This leads to seamless play, believable play, and above all immersive play (another holy grail). Too bad Sony didn't direct more attention to this.
2 comments:
Penny Arcade pretty much nailed a lot of reviewers thoughts with this comic here. In time, the PS3 is gonna sell more than its share of consoles, but the distance between it and the 360 doesn't really warrant much of a thought, as almost all the exclusive titles for the system have now been announced for the 360; it's hard to justify putting your game that cost 15 million to develop on a platform that has an installed base of less than 300,000 users (most people not even bothering to buy any games for the system!, compared to the 5-6 million of the 360. Combined with the fact that most PS3 games are also available for the 360 right now, and the PS3 versions suffer from crippled online play and, blasphemously, worse graphics than the 360 counter part (see Ridge Racer).
The whole Wii60 system combo is looking more and more appealing every day, and once even one of the games like Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3, The Sims, Warioware, or Smash Bros Brawl (online!!!) comes out, we're getting one, along with 3 wiimotes (one for me, one for you, one for guests who don't have one of their own with their personal data and settings saved on it).
And somewhere out there, Reggie Fils-Aime and Satoru Iwata san are laughing at Sony like Nelson from the Simpsons.
Now all Wii gotta do is have a better online gaming presence and intergrate more DS-Wii interaction that can bring the other companies to their knees.
...I gotta stop thinking like a mad scientist.
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