Writing about the Wii U? Mii too.

The Wii U is still likely over a year away, and the internet is already rife with speculation about the system. There are many concerns including the lack of announced launch titles, an issue that plagued the recently released 3DS as well, but there’s plenty of time for them to announce a fuller list of launch titles at next year’s E3 event. Then again, the good folks that all but singlehandedly kept me from exercising until I was entering high school could phone this one in and bank on the notion that an innovative controller and backwards compatibility will lead the system toward success despite its apparent lack of launch titles.

Certainly Nintendo has used the "Two screens are better than one" argument before and this is no different.  Nintendo has made some obvious upgrades over the Wii graphically, and they’re including a low resolution 6+” touch screen in the controller. Cynically speaking Nintendo has run back to the well of innovation to try to come up with a new system concept, but they found that they’ve dipped into the well too many times and now they have combined their two most recent successes into one super system. Optimistically speaking, one can have faith that while 3^rd parties may not have a clue what to do with this technology right away, Nintendo has been developing successful titles for both platforms individually, and should be able to make some absolutely spectacular games that mix up the fun.

Nintendo as a company has had their missteps, but with over a year to announce more launch titles, and with the speculative knowledge that Nintendo’s launch price in the US market will likely be under $300 (Nintendo strives to bring consoles to market at approximately $250), and the projected price per controller is being estimated at around $70 the system is going to enter the market at about the same price as the current generation consoles, which in and of itself isn’t enough to sell the system, but it’s certainly a good starting point, especially as they promise better online gaming support and full backwards compatibility with the Wii. 

The system has a lot of time to build up steam, but only time will tell what Nintendo is really going to accomplish with this system. Certainly the Wii U is going to be an upgrade over the current generation Nintendo console, but they will fall into the same trap they have with the Wii, once the competition comes to market, they will look two steps behind again. Innovation and some engaging exclusive titles have carried them through this generation, but they’ll need to bank on the same reasons for success in the next generation of gaming consoles as well. I for one am excited, but the console certainly has potential to fail. Innovation can only carry them so far. Sure the Wii U will have 1080p HD compatibility but we’ve got quite a bit of time to see what Nintendo’s new system will really be capable of, and while graphics are far from the top priority of some gamers, and most Indie game designers, they are a selling point to most of the core market.

Sometimes You Just Can't Hack It

Sony as a company has had their share of interesting bumps in the road, but none quite as notable as the current security issues they’ve been having across the board. Security issues this year alone have included the over three week down time experienced by the Playstation Network, and a series of other information stealing attacks on their various other services. Sony-Ericsson recently experienced an attack levied solely by SQL-Injection (using standard SQL calls entered directly into text fields that will likely be processed into a database query). Various groups of hackers are being blamedfor the attacks, and with the speed of information being spread around the internet, the attacks are spreading, and growing in number. One of the strangest things that I’ve been reminded of by this whole affair is that this can all be pointed back to, and blamed upon Nintendo.

While Sony certainly cannot blame Nintendo for previous failures like the Betamax, which failed for a litany of reasons despite its smaller form factor, and higher video and audio quality when compared to VHS. Sony can blame their entry into the video gaming industry solely on a contract they had signed with Nintendo all the way back at the height of the Nintendo/Sega feud in the late '80s/early '90s. Nintendo signed contracts with both Phillips and Sony to develop a disc reading expansion utility for the SNES system. While to many gamers it is clear that this never came to fruition, the project with Sony was left to grow for a rather long time before it was officially cancelled. Sony had laid a great deal of the groundwork for what would become the original Playstation on Nintendo’s dime. Continuing forth from that Sony executives were staunchly against creating a game system of their own to rival Nintendo, but the lead engineer on the project persuaded (more accurately, he repeatedly goaded his bosses about how embarrassing it was that Nintendo had jilted them for a partnership with Phillips instead). Still Sony execs were against the console staunchly enough to move production to the Sony Music division.

Sony of course came out ahead in the short run, with the tremendous success of the Playstation, selling over 100million units, and the eventual success of the Playstation 2. The real trouble for Sony came in when the original Microsoft Xbox provided network support. Those of us who weren’t social enough to have friends over to play Mortal Kombat were no longer relegated to playing Diablo 2 on our PCs; we could go on Xbox live and troll games of Halo. This forced Sony’s hand in rushing their Playstation Network to market with an Ethernet adapter for the PS2. That early iteration was a poor implementation of the software, and hardly even a shell of what the current PSN is. Sony may have a huge gap in their understanding of security standards, but we wouldn’t even know it if their executives over 20 years ago weren’t so prideful as to demand they try to best Nintendo at their own game.

As a matter of complete disclosure, I own all three current generation systems, and probably play my PS3 more than the other two. I was not initially a fan of the PS3 for a number of reasons, but I did eventually cave in and buy one second hand. Sony has proved me wrong on a great number of things with this system, and I am rather pleased with my experience overall with the PS3, but I’m also not one to buy much DLC, so my credit card number wasn’t one of the many at risk. Don’t get this confused, I’m far from blaming Nintendo for Sony’s inept security, much more this is meant to demonstrate how one small action can eventually lead to monumental success, and subsequently embarrassing failure.

You See, First You Mine, Then You Craft

While the PSN has been down for over half a month now, I’ve recently picked up Minecraft. I’ve been playing both single player, and in a small multiplayer group for the past few days and thus far I have to say this game is simultaneously adicting, and undeniably pointless. I’m far from the first to feel a compulsion to write about this game but it has been an excellent source of entertainment since I finally cracked and joined the teaming masses that have taken to building underground hovels and elaborate block homes for themselves.

While the game isn’t much on story, in that there isn’t one, it is pretty high up there on the “Indie credibility”. It’s unique, if you can discount the game that it drew its primary inspiration from and it is infectious. I burned through 6 hours of my day playing before I even got off of my couch yesterday. One can certainly get lost in the game, but without a doubt, it’s worth taking a rather long look into the Minecraft wiki before you really dive into any real attempt at playing. The game certainly has its downsides including but not limited to: Surprisingly high system requirements (not that there are official requirements but that a computer over 3 years old will suffer playing a game that looks very much like it was written in the good old days of Doom, “Mobs” that seem to spawn right around when you’re trying to get on with something “important” (like building that ever crucial door so you can actually keep the monsters out of your personal dwelling), and the lack of a minimap.

That said, for every time the game seems to follow the pattern of lag, surround me with enemies, respawn in unfamiliar territory I get to enjoy a good chunk of time building a tower, or tunneling for valuable resources. As Yahtzee mentions in his video you really do need to create your own fun. You need a project, but you can certainly earn all of the resources required to build your highly elaborate new personal dwelling, or your absurd decorative sculpture. I can say that I am immensely happy to have finally stumbled upon this game, but I can also say that there would have been a post up almost 48 hours earlier if it weren’t for Minecraft.

Assuming that the sheer amount of improvement that could go into the game gets put in before it does leave beta, the game will be phenomenally polished, and noticeably more addicting than any MMO I’ve caved on, and played the 7 day trial for. I can say with great certainty that I enjoy Minecraft, and that I’ve yet to meet a person who’s played it, that doesn’t like it. Play the single player demo, get a handle on how things work, and then start in playing with your friends. The game is infectious, and you’ll burn through entre days before you realize that you’ve managed to accomplish nothing that can  be seen outside of the game you’re playing.