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NY Times says Wii succeeds
The NY Times' Seth Schiesel recently had some very nice comments for Nintendo's Wii console, praising several of the console's titles, such as Wii Sports, Rayman Raving Rabbids, and Madden '07, stating that the fun factor of all these titles, as well as the console itself, is what sets it apart from it's competition."The Wii is about rescuing gaming from the clutches of the hard-core young male demographic that has dominated the industry's thinking for years. It is about making video games accessible again by providing a simple, intuitive, relatively inexpensive entertainment experience that an entire family can actually enjoy together. At that, the Wii succeeds admirably."Schiesel also goes on to comment that however much fun the console is, it just won't work as the primary console for the hardcore gamer. With strong first-party titles behind them like The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Super Mario Galaxy and Metroid Prime 3 Corruption, Nintendo is undoubtedly seeking that hardcore gamer. What do you guys think? Will the Wii forever be doomed to 'extra console' status and never get itself into the spotlight?
Joystiq at NYC's Final Fantasy Day festivities
New York City's Times Square was overwhelmed by Final Fantasy fans as Square-Enix premiered the English language version of the upcoming Final Fantasy XII, which will be playable at this week's DigitalLife conference, which starts tomorrow. The trailer, shown to great excitement amongst fans, featured great visuals (as expected) and some truly impressive voice acting. For those of you that have HDTVs, you'll be glad to know that the US version has been enhanced with new anamorphic widescreen (16:9) functionality.Check out a shaky-cam version of the trailer, and some pics from the event after the break.
Gaming has image problem, Nintendo to fix
Seth Schiesel, a writer for the NY Times, recently put up an article about the image problem with the videogame industry and how it was, for the most part, its own fault. An attendance at the recent Ziff Davis Electronic Gaming Summit provided the inspiration for this piece, which talked about the state of gaming and its effect socially. Stating that gamers are often outed as socially inept at the mention of enjoying video games, the writer claims that even given the financial success the industry has seen, its still not the mainstream and widely-accepted activity that we all think it to be. Seth noted that Nintendo was the only company who seemed to "get it."Enter Carl Howe of Blackfriars Communication, who agrees that the industry is not innovating like it should beyond first-person shooters and becoming the entertainment power house it needs to be. Carl sees hope, however, in a company who decided that the standard controller just wasn't cutting it and that people don't just want flashy graphics on their handheld. They might want to teach a puppy to sit or see how quickly they can solve 100 math problems. And Nintendo is going to be the one to reach out to those looking for entertainment beyond plasma grenades and rocket launchers, to casual gamers who might be curious, but aren't looking for a free-for-all deathmatch where whoever gets the sword first wins.We can still have those games, but we want something new, something fresh, something that will once again make our eyes open wide and our mouths fall to our chest, something that will make that small stretch of hair on the back of our necks straighten and cause a chill to run down our spine. We want to experience the feelings we did when we first got into gaming and if anyone can make that happen, it's Nintendo. Maybe then your dad won't laugh at you when you say you've been playing a game for the last few hours, instead asking if he can give it a whirl.[Via N-Sider]
Apple store pr0n: a peek at the 5-story Manhattan glass cube
At least one Flickr user, bhaggs, has posted some images that offer a peek at Apple's new commercial monument to itself - the much-anticipated 5-story, all glass, Fifth Avenue Apple Store in Manhattan. As Dave Caolo noted before, construction is still slated to finish in time for the holiday season, so I only have one question: when is Denver going to get their own glass cube, Apple? C'mon, we have like... 1/100th of NY's population![via digg]
