Revolutionary Ideas

MTV.com - Video Games has up a great article about a hands-on event during which they got to sample the new 3D Nintendo Revolution controller. They report that many developers are jazzed about the new method of playing games and will offer enough support to produce a satisfying array of titles by the time the system hits stores in 2006.

"In certain genres this is going to feel so good that it's hard to imagine Sony and Microsoft not also offering this as an option," said Jack Sorensen, executive vice president of worldwide studios at THQ where an undisclosed number of Revolution games are under development.

Guha Bala, president of Activision's New York development studio Vicarious Visions also shared some excellent ideas for roleplaying games. "A player in a role-playing game who needs to cast a spell at one moment could suddenly use the controller as a magic wand, for example. Better yet, players could design their own gestures to trigger different spells."

If half of what the developers are thinking of comes to fruition, we are indeed headed for a revolution in video games.

Snow Mario

It'a Me! SNOW MARIO!

Thanks to Celsdogg

Why is the PSP Closed?

If Sony opened up the PSP for development, it would be great for everyone.

More people would buy the PSP
If people knew they could install the programs they wanted on the PSP without fear of Sony coming around with a new firmware to break functions, then more people would buy the PSP. Imagine if your Palm would only run software sold by Palm Inc. Or imagine your PC only running software by Microsoft. Crazy!

More PSPs = More Games
If more people own PSPs, more developers will make games for the PSP. When a development team sits down with 5 million dollars and decides to make a game, are they going to put that 5 million into a PSP game and hope that the tiny minority of people that have a PSP will buy it, or will they make a PS2 game where their audience is 50 times larger?

More games sold = more money for Sony
Sony makes money on the sale of the games. Every game sold means Sony hears little cash-register sounds. Just like UMD movies (those are worth more than Gold to Sony.) So the larger the audience is, the more potential for blockbuster games and the richer Sony becomes. Don't they want that?

Memory Shticks!
Sony makes a KILLING on Memory sticks! There's a reason Memory Shticks cost more than an equivalent SD card. That extra cost goes to line Sony's dwindling profits. If people make great software for the PSP you can bet that more people will be buying memory sticks to run it off of. Even 3rd party companies have to pay royalties to Sony if they make thing Memory Stick Compatible so Sony wins anyway.

It is a bad business decision for Sony to try and break homebrew with every patch. Additional "features" such as RSS newsreaders, web browsers and email programs should come from the community while the folks at Sony spend their time trying to excite developers into making games for the dying platform.

Rouge = GameBoy + PC

Imagine a full-blown PC stuffed into an overgrown Gameboy shell and you’ll have the basic idea behind Rogue.

The system really is a marvel. Not because of its size. I have a smaller Tablet PC that I play Unreal Tournament 2004 on. But the Rouge is designed around gaming. As such, the unit has game controls built right into the system. I’ve longed for something as simple as a D-Pad and buttons on the face of my TC1100. Rogue integrates analog/digital pad, arcade/keyboard buttons, trackball, scroll wheel and analog triggers right into the case. Swappable memory and CPU cards mean the system is modular enough to grow.

They have a funky new design as well as some videos of the older model playing games such as Half Life 2 and Doom 3 on the site.

thanks to Blademonkey for the tip