Rui CarmoI feel like a kid in a candy store. Tonight I arrived home to find Resplendent (courtesy of João Madail - many thanks!), finally had time to watch the amazing iPod Shuffle ad, grabbed a TextMate update and an Inquisitor one, and am now downloading the OLPC/XO snapshot to see if I can convert the VMware disk image to something Q will try to run.
No, I wasn't one of the lucky Fusion closed beta testers - my Intel MacBook hasn't even arrived yet...
Oh, and yes, I did flash my PSP to version 3.0 yesterday. Pretty worthless revision, if you ask me. Better Flash support and larger video resolution playback, now that would be an upgrade.
My guess is that Nintendo will win this one out in the short term. A few months ago I bought a Nintendo DS for my dad as a birthday present (he plays a mean Sudoku), and as I wade through all the news regarding the Wii and the PS3, the parallels are obvious:
Sony keeps betting on blockbuster titles (which appeal to me as a semi-retired FPS gamer) and over-the-top hardware crammed with features (which it then cripples in amazingly asinine ways), and Nintendo does simple, amazingly addictive stuff that appeals to regular people.
That's it. There's no better way to describe the sweet-and-sour nature of the PS3 for the millions of us that don't care about HDTV, or the reason why Nintendo is still alive.
I am treated to new Nintendogs tricks every time I visit my parents these days - my mother never, ever cared for any sort of video game, and yet she bought the game and practically hijacked the DS. I might have to get them a new one by Xmas.
Me? Oh, I barely have time these days, what with all the books I have to read and all... :)
Nah, seriously, there's still a lot missing:
- The PS3 seems to have a decent browser, but the Wii's (despite all the hype) still hasn't materialized in the hands of real users.
- There's a bunch of background noise regarding PS2 titles that won't play correctly on the PS3. I happen to have a bunch of PS2 titles around, none of which are confirmed compatible (including the awesome Rez).
- Video and photo abilities are slim to non-existent. There's some unconfirmed noise regarding grabbing photos from Bluetooth phones, but that's not good enough. Oh, and did I mention that Sony keeps crippling their hardware?
Add in the non-DVD-playing aspects of the Wii (which would come in handy when I go off for the weekend), and the fact that so far I haven't seen a single Wii title that appealed to me, and there's more than enough reason to sit out this one for a while.
I know all about the "try it and you'll love it" angle, but my fun lies elsewhere for the moment.