Posts by Fletch

  • Gabe N diss PS3 - praises Wii

    Quote from Taylor

    I think it’s fair to say only PC Gamers give a shit about specifications and how many maps you can apply to the millions of polygons on the screen while still achieving a smooth 60fps. The Playstation 2 was ridiculously weak in power even on release, but after 4 years it's still got some life left in it.I think any comparison between the Wii and another console is absurd. Sure, bitch about the developer support all you want, but the Wii is distinctly unlike PS3 or 360. When you think of a Wii, you see 4 people (usually all racial minorities) looking way too excited throwing shapes in their living rooms – possibly with one looking dumbfounded with a Wii-Remote sailing at high velocity towards the TV. It’s predominately multiplayer utilising the Wii-remote shtick. The other consoles are much more sensible and forlorn.

    And while there’s nothing wrong with that at all (the N64 was predominately party games), I don’t see it doing better than the PS3 or 360. The big Japanese games, aside from Nintendo’s own, still seem to be coming out on Sony’s console and ultimately that’s what people are after. Sure Square-Enix will drop Chronicles and Tactics on the Wii because, well, that’s a shitload of money and mugs like me will buy one for it (even after I did this with the Game Cube), but their big franchise is sticking with the PS3. And that's what matters, or at least matters more than the texture memory.

    I agree with most of that. My big question about the longevity of the Wii and it's overall sell through is going to be who steps up to the plate besides Nintendo. What other developers out there are going to be able to make some memorable game using the wiimote that really reaches audiences. To me, that was where the GC failed. Over 90% of the big games were out of Nintendo (or a developer working for Nintendo).

  • looking for the creative spark

    I've stopped working on private stuff at home since I started work. I just don't have the time or care that much. If I'm at the office until 8 or 9, I just want to come home, watch some TV, and sleep. I get my creativity out at work. I don't really consider it a bad thing. I like having the separation. It gives me more time to do other things like photography, writing, reading, etc.

  • Apple's iPhone

    Replying to complaints and queries:

    Is it big?

    Nope. From the size comparisons I've seen, it's thinner than the Pearl and Blackjack, but slightly wider and taller than them. NYTimes also has a tech article saying it has a good weight to it. Not too light to feel flimsy but not too heavy to feel bulky.

    Does it have a calendar?

    In the keynote, Jobs said it could sync up with any iLife or Outlook data, including calendars, notes, and contact lists. Assuming you use Outlook's calendar or iCal, you should be fine.

    Cover coating?

    The NYTimes article interviewed one of the tech guys who said the coating has been one of their biggest R&D tasks and that it is designed to survive in a modern pocket. I wouldn't throw your keys around with it, but I have faith they'll get a nice feel to it.

    Other phones doing the same thing?

    Nope. Not even close. I've played around with a Pearl and a Blackjack during my recent phone shopping trips. Neither of them touch the functionality I saw during the keynote video. WindowsCE is a clumsy operating system, and most of the features you try to use are just too cumbersome to bother with. It's no use checking a map if it takse 3 minutes to load and is completely illegible at screen resolution. I haven't seen any other phone that smart loads phone numbers from mobile web pages they way the iPhone did. This thing is running OS X natively. That's about 10 years of advanced tech past WinCE and Blackberry. Plus, at the end of the day, it's Apple, and they know how to make the best UIs on earth.

    Only 8GB:

    Cry me a river. I've got a 40 GB iPod if I need all of that music at once for some reason. 8GB is about 22 hours. I think I'll be fine with a wide array of music at my finger tips.

    I can see how people don't want to pony up $600. I get that. I've got the disposable income (/me hugs GBX), so I might as well. Why be a tech geek if you don't get to be an early adopter? Sure, half the guys at work will get one, too, but we'll be really cool when we pull them out at lunch. If you just want the iPod functionality, wait until Christmas. It wouldn't surprise me if they release a touch screen iPod to replace the top end iPods for the holiday shopping season. Lord knows they'd make an even bigger killing.

    P.S. The big winner in all of this is Cingular. Apple is shipping 10 million of these thinfs to the States by 2008. That's a lot of new customers. Plus, these are high dollar customers that are willing to buy expensive phones and expensive rate plans. Smart, smart guys to sign on to this deal sight unseen. Plus, Apple is going to use their clout to force them to upgrade the GSM-EDGE network to adhere to their quality levels.

  • Apple's iPhone

    I'll be getting one of those first thing. No questions asked. I've been resisting getting an all-in-one phone, but this wins. I don't care about the price. It does everything I want it to do and it does it well, unlike most of the stuff that is on the market.

    Apple wins.

  • Connecting my ps2 to my laptop

    Quote from Nysuatro

    Wauw, you guys really showed that you can help and act normal.Good to know

    Fine, fine. If your laptop has any sort of visual input (usually VGA, possibly DVI) then you should be fine. You can either find a PS2 VGA cable from ebay or the such, or use any VGA video converter that you can pick up at Best Buy or CompUSA.


    If your laptop doesn't have any video input, then you're hosed unless you want to solder some video lines and a switcher into your laptop monitor.

  • Internet Channel on the Wii

    I love the weather channel for no reason. Just the fact that it's there telling me it's cold outside wins me over. If Nintendo created some sort of Fandango channel that showed movie start times for local theaters (or even, gasp, buy tickets right there), I would die happy. But alas, I shall simply live with using the internet channel to use the website instead.

  • Transformers

    It's a July 4th movie. All I want out of a July 4th movie is:

    1) explosions

    2) a decent plot that leaves room for explosions

    3) giant things (aliens, robots, etc. doesn't matter as long as it's huge).

    This movie fufils all requirements, and I for one welcome our new robot overlords.