Disclaimer: THIS IS PURELY SPECULATION

Consoles always undergo a series of redesignes during their lifetime. Some are drastic, like the slimline PS2 or the DS Lite and others are not so obvious, like the Gamecube model without progressive scan support, or the Xbox 360's with CPU's that run cooler.

Recently, an analyst broke news to Gamespot about DS and Wii redesigns in the works. While not much was mentioned about the Wii, the analyst did say that the DS would be losing it's GBA cartridge slot. It struck me as rather odd for two reasons: First, some software requires the GBA cartridge slot (a cartridge used in combination with a DS card), and second, GBA's and GBA software is still selling well enough to be a noticable chunk of profit.

What would a Wii redesign mean? Well, most likely a way to manufacture the console cheaper and faster. What would be one of the first features to go? Gamecube backward compatibilty unfortunately. Here's a few good reasons why:

- Gamecube was Nintendo's worst selling TV console in it's history

- Many Wii owners did not ever own a Gamecube

- The Gamecube market is dead, no new software is being produced

- A future initiative to sell Gamecube games on the VC would be much more profitable

- Gamecube backwards compatibility is not a strong selling point for the Wii

While it probably doesn't take much for the Wii to run Gamecube games given the similar CPU's, alot of money could be saved if each Wii unit didn't have four GC controller ports and memory card slots.

I'll probably make an effort to buy a Wii faster than I had planned to because of this line of thinking. It's ironic that Wii's are in such short supply. If this becomes true, it will make those who already own a Wii thankful they went through such hardships to get one early. If Sony can drop backwards compatibility for the more successful PS2 and sell more consoles.....why can't Nintendo?

I have to admit, I'm not much of a DS gamer. My wife actually talked me into to buying the system at first so that she could play Brain Age, and the backward compatibily with the GBA was the only thing I was interested in at first. Ever since, I haven't bought many games. New Super Mario Bros and two DS Castlevanias are all I've owned, and the only reason I was interested in them was because they played like GBA games. My wife has bought a few software applications that she thought were interesting, but overall the DS doesn't get a quarter as much playtime as my Gamecubes and GBAs.

Not that I don't like the DS. I'm cheering it on, and it's nice to see something different come to the market. It's just not for me. Touch screens, microphones and second screens might be changing the way gamers play, but I was never interested in changing the way I play. Or so I thought.

My brother recently came to visit me and brought me an english copy of Phantom Hourglass. I was shocked when I found there was no way to switch the control scheme to the standard D-pad and button configuration. I pretty much wrote off the game for a little while...

Yet it looks like Wind Waker and that really shocked me. Of course, the DS is probably a little less powerful than a Playstation 1, but what they've done graphically to the Phantom Hourglass really surprised me. I always thought that the DS hardware was fairly terrible when it came to 3D, but this game looks really good. As shallow as a reason as it was, that was the incentive I had to attempt to make my way through a game I controled with a pen.

Well, the rest is history. I've now put a few hours into the game and I'm quite addicted to it, and having just as much fun with it as I did with Twilight Princess at the beginning of this year. The touch screen controls are quite good, and I've gotten used to them. I still prefer the old control scheme, but drawing the path of the boomerang makes for some really interesting puzzles.The use of the microphone and second screen has sure made this game interesting at times, and embarrassing to play on a train.Plotting the ships course with the touch screen and then just worrying about jumping and where to shoot makes sailing much more fun than it was in Wind Waker.

I've just finished the second temple...the Wind Temple, and I have to say, from the moment I entered to the boss battle, it was a really differeny, yet familiar Zelda experience. While I've found nothing in the game particularly challenging yet, I've noticed the dungeon designs are simpler than in previous Zelda games. I'm hoping that they get a little more challenging. I'm absolutely in love with sailing, yet the world seems much smaller than Wind Wakers. Perhaps it's just the way the map is divided, but a little more ocean to explore would've been extremely welcome. The story is cool...I'm pretty happy that it's a continuation of Wind Waker. I really liked Wind Waker, and glad to see the new type of Zelda it had established is alive and well. Maybe people won't be so negative about this type of Zelda if Nintendo keeps it on the portables.

Once again, I have to mention it, I'm really surprised at how good this game looks. There is no pop-in of islands on the open sea, there isn't any visible polygon tearing in the waves and the music brings me straight back to fond memories of Wind Waker. Why aren't more DS games this good? Especially ones that use the touch screen?

I have to wonder why Nintendo chose to include this type of game in the Legend of Zelda series at all. Don't get me wrong, I love Zelda and am always happy to play a new one. With Nintendo trying to appeal to more "casual" audiences, I imagine that an established franchise like Zelda can be a bit intimidating to someone who just started playing games a year or two ago. Why have this game with the Zelda asthetic at all? Perhaps it was not meant to draw in new casual gamers for a change, perhaps it was to draw in old men who are set in their ways and avoid trying new things. Perhaps that's why it's in a familiar franchise with a radically different control scheme. Well, looks like it worked.

I was at the local gameshop tonight, and I noticed a bunch of what looks to be a plethora of good DS games coming out over here. Tales of Innocence, Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles, a new Advance Wars and even more games that seem to be really pushing the system to it's limits. The DS really has come into it's own. While I'm not going to go DS crazy, I'll no longer turn my nose up at games that seem really outlandish and strange, without trying them first. Perhaps I'll enjoy my DS a little more.

There was an argument in the Gamecube forums about which game was better, Metriod Prime or Resident Evil 4. I love both games and have completed them and every game in their series. When I wrote this response, I surprised myself at how much I poured into it. I'm posting it here, so that those who are interested can read it, but just mostly so I can read it later on. I doubt my opinion will change in the future, but....you never know.;)

Greg Kasavin reviewed both Metriod Prime and Resident Evil 4 for the GC.

Metriod Prime 9.7

Resident Evil 4 9.6

The argument is over.

Resident Evil 4 was a technical masterpiece. It really blew everyone's mind. Not only did it show that the Gamecube could be lethal competition to the Xbox and PS2 in the right hands, but it also reinvented the Resident Evil series as a whole. With gameplay that was not only some of the best third person shooting out there, Resident Evil 4 also breathed new life into the series; a series that was severely stagnant. While it is easily the best game in the series, it still brought with it alot of the problems which the series has been unable to shake off since it's inception...namely, terrible characters (especially the villans), ridiculous storylines with NO payoff at the end of the game which beg more questions than answers.

Metriod Prime was not the technical achievement that Resident Evil 4 was, but it was a major triumph in game design. The adventure genre has never been so flawlessly converted to 3D. While many complain of backtracking and seeing the same environments, this is what the adventure genre demands: exploration. The world that Metriod gave us to explore and the ways to explore it was ingenious. Not only was in geographically varied, but it was seemless and believable. The voluntary reading of Log entries told a convincing science fiction tale, narrated from the perspective of your enemies without any cutscene interruptions. It featured a 3D map system that was both easy to understand and useful. The weapons and visors all served the context of the original Metriod premise well. All this perfection after the series had been in a hiatus for eight years. The designer's were new; of a different nationality and experience level. Theprevious game in the series (Super Metriod) was named the "greatest game of all time" ( EGM issue #150 ). In every possible way, this game was destined to disappoint. Only it didn't.

What it really comes down to is:

Some gamers need to shoot things, feel their adreneline pumping and feel terrified as their enemies close in. They love insurmountable odds and beating those odds. That's fine.

Some gamers need to explore. They want to stand on an alien vista, overlooking vast terrian with he presence of a great mystery that needs to be solved. They need to explore and uncover those mysteries at their own pace, as they see fit to do so. That's fine too.

Greg Kasavin is a professional when it comes to opinions about games. He is BETTER THAN YOU. He is better than me. He decided that Metriod Prime deserved a score of 9.7. He decided that Resident Evil 4 deserved a score of 9.6.

The End

I think almost anyone would agree that it would be difficult for Nintendo to top last year's E3 press conference. If fact, during most of this year's press conference I found myself bored and annoyed. Not too many surprises this year, as I had suspected. Yet, by the end of the press conference, Nintendo left me in awe, and ready to make some bold predictions.

Right now is a good time to be a shareholder holding Nintendo's stock, and Reggie didn't let you forget it. The amount of charts, pie graphs, video clips and interviews to serve the purpose of self-worshipping was not unexpected, but that didn't make it any less annoying. In the months leading up to E3, Nintendo had let all of their cats out of the bag. The software line up was expected and felt very limited considering what we saw at Microsoft's press conference yesterday. MarioKart Wii was the big surprise announcement, and finally Nintendo is taking Mariokart online on a console. Metriod Prime 3andPhantom Hourglass were also shown.Both of these demos were underwhelming as they didn't show us anything insightful that we didn't already know. The must have broke away to success story video clips on the Wii and DS four times during the show, which had this feeling of artificially lengthening it. I think that it's clear that Nintendo doesn't not have as much software coming out this year as it wants to as many titles where announced for spring of 2008.

One thing worth mentioning is that never before seen footage of Super Mario Galaxy was shown, and it's shaping up to look as though it's an incredible game. There were some very traditional colorful Marioesque environments that didn't look as though they take place in deep space. One thing I noticed is that at one point Mario looks as though he has turned into a bumblebee. Could Mario have a variety of animal powers at his disposal as he did in Super Mario Bros. 3? That would be cool.

They talked a bit about Smash Bros. Brawl. I'm sorry but I have no interest in this game whatsoever. The only interesting thing said about it was that it would support up to four different control schemes. I'm assuming the Wiimote, nunchuk, Classic Controller and Gamecube Controller are the four.

The were quite a few new peripherals unveiled at the show. Usually, my attitude towards peripherals is negative, but after seeing their use demostrated I became a bit of a believer. Let's start with the most underwhelming peripheral, the Wiimote steering wheel for MarioKart Wii. At least it looks really stylish, this idea is not new and I've been seeing people attach the Wiimote to steering wheels ever since the release of Excitetruck. Next the WiiZapper. The design looked a little strange and I had to look at it a few times before I finally got it. It's actually quite ingenius. It's just a shell for your Wiimote and nunchuk to sit it, but it looks as though it feels very natural. Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles looked alot like the arcade experience of House of the Dead with the WiiZapper, and by the way it's designed, it just my revolutionize first person shooters. The anolog stick is use to move your character around as it's located in the same place you would usually cock a gun, and the comfortable position in which you hold the WiiZapper makes it ideal for precision aiming. Turning around quickly looks as though it no problem either. The WiiZapper is definately a very simple, yet ingeniously cool idea.

The last perpherial is actually tied to the most interesting software that Nintendo showed...WiiFit. The peripheral as far as I can make out is no more than a wireless weightscale. They've called it the Wiiboard. While this sounds pretty boring, what they've been able to accomplish combining this technology with the Wiimote is absolutely amazing. Mark my works, WiiFit will put a Nintendo Wii in every home in Japan, and at least double the installed base in America. The way the software works is that it has you doing a number of aerobic excersises along with balance techniques and kelestetics all while using the Wiiboard and Wiimote. There are a number of activities that are very much like the minigames found in Wiiplay or Wiisports, making doing these activities quite fun. The showed ways in which you could track your progress with weightloss, posture and physical figure and compare it to other players over a period of days, months or years. This demostration done very much in the style that Wiisports did last year, blew me away. Just at the idea of what this game means for the world of video games, and what Nintendo has done by marrying technology that has been around for years. WiiFit is going to be big. Much bigger than any of the casual software we have seen so far. This is a turning point in the games industry.

While this year's presentation aspect of Nintendo's press event was definately sub-par, the content in which was shown in context to the new peripheral shows that Nintendo will continue to push this industry in new directions. While nothing shown was unexpected, there is a steady line up of games that should interest all players. The demostration of WiiFit was the show stealer and made Microsoft's new mass market controller look ever more ridiculous. WiiFit is the thing to see this year at E3. WiiFit is the game that's going to keep Wii's sold out for the next year all over the world.

Microsoft's Press Conference held few surprises of any real excitement, but what it did have was a case as why the Xbox 360 and to a lesser extent the PC, will offer the most well rounded library of games this holiday season. Only one game, Resident Evil 5, will not come out this year. Microsoft's line-up is extremely impressive. One almost has to wonder if there are not too many games this holiday season, around 20 must have titles are coming out for the Xbox 360. Who has time to play all of those?

Microsoft is clearly interested in copying some of the Wii's success. With the announcement of a family-oriented board game, four of these new controllers will come packed in with the game for the price of any other 360 title. The controller, which looks like a remote,features a giant red button at the top, with the standard 360 controller butttons vertically aligned underneath. I may have missed it, but no mention was made whether this controller was a motion sensing or not. By having this controller packed in with software and only havving one game at present that supports these controllers, all Microsoft has done is tell the world that Nintendo's formula works better. If they were serious about competing with the Wii, the games and controllers would be packed in with all 360's from here on, and all games coming out this fall would be required to support it. This is too little, too late.

Does Microsoft need to mirror the Wii's success? Obviously, Microsoft is doing extremely well this generation and I believe that success will continue to grow. There was alot of support shown from Japanese publishers with exclusive games. While this helps them compete with the PS3, it will also help them to sell more systems in Japan. There are now alot of compelling reasons for Japanese gamers to invest in a 360. Especially if there's a price advantage...

And that was disappointing. No price drop for any model of the 360 was announced at E3. A new Halo 3 themed Xbox 360 will be launched in time with Halo 3. Microsoft seems to think that gamer's hunger for Halo 3 will drive 360 sales. This may well be true to a point, but I can't help thinking with gamers reaction to the Halo 3 beta that was out a while ago, whether the Halo series is past it's prime. A price drop is needed for the 360 if Microsoft really wants to mop the floor with the PS3.

Although nothing unexpected was shown, there is more and more support for the Games for Windows platform Microsoft has created with Vista. Gears of War and Call of Duty 4 will be huge games, both demos were jawdroppingly impressive. It's nice to see more and more games with a console flavour coming to the PC, but it makes me wonder....between the PC and the Xbox 360 there were only two or three exclusive games going either way. Microsoft has, in a sense, started competeing with itself. If you have a PC capable of running all of these games, there is no compelling reason to pick up a 360. If you have a 360, there is no compelling reason to upgrade your PC. Perhaps this isn't as big a deal as I think it is, but the experience on the PC and the 360n are becoming so close, one has to be concerned.

Microsoft's and Xbox Live offerings seem to have a little more variety, and a few console games will add to the flavour of Xbox Live Arcade. Problem is, many of the games camee out of compilations last generation. There are enough original titles to hold interest in Xbox Live over the next few months. Perhaps Xbox Live Arcade has been downplayed a bit in order not to overshadow the console's disc releases for the fall. This would make sense.

It was confirmed that all footage from the previously released GTA IV trailers were Xbox 360 footage, which really satiates alot of concern of how the game will run on the 360. Resident Evil 5 was a nice surprise and Call of Duty 4 was...unbelievable. Let me make this clear: I have had no interest in the Call of Duty franchise up to this point, but I really, really want to play this game. It is for the first time, what I consider, what this generation can do that the previous couldn't. And I'm not just talking about graphics. Be sure to check out all you can on this game.

Overall, Microsoft's E3 press conference gave me the impression that Microsoft is doing everything it can to fight the good fight, and making sound decisions that makes the 360 a safe investment, if not the best investment for this generation. Yet the underwhelming new controller and time spent demoing some unspectacular games like the new Viva Pinata Party Game and Madden 08, give the impression that Microsoft isn't confident about what direction they want to take this platform. They seem to be doing absolutely everything...but with no real focus. If I was a shareholder I would be very concerned. As a person who plays games I am very impressed with Microsoft's game line up for the fall, I doubt Sony can match it and I know Nintendo won't. I'd say that their press conference this year was a success, and the chinks in Microsoft's armor don't warrant any immediate concern to gamers. If you own an Xbox 360, or even a Vista enabled PC, this going to be a great year.

It's a pretty safe bet that the August release of Madden '08 will be the last game ever released for Gamecube. The console is officially a dead platform. Now is as good a time as any to reflect on the console, the games and it's place in history.

Gamecube facts:

+ Nintendo's first party titles remain excellent, many new franchises

+ More third party support than the previous console (N64)

+ More powerful than the Playstation 2

+ More M rated games than any previous Nintendo console

+ Excellent load time speed

+ 4 player compatible out of the box

+ Dependable, well manufactured

+ Access to GBA library

- Terrible Online support, the 3 online games required subscription fees

- Questionable cosmetic console design

- Terrible and almost useless Digital Pad on the standard control pad

- Disc format alienates third party publishers

- GBA connectivity feature was overplayed, underutilized

- Game library missing quality titles in key genres

- Over reliance on familiar franchises

- Third party support worst of the three last generation consoles

If the N64 era was the fall from grace, the Gamecube era was the equivalent of hitting rock bottom. By design, the Gamecube had everything it needed to compete. Bad decisions from Nintendo hurt the console constantly. While the console came in #3 worldwide, it still offered a better experience than what was to be expected of last place. Early in its life, the Gamecube saw the birth of many exclusive franchises and strong third party support. While 2006 and 2007 were difficult years for the console, the previous years of its life were filled with the steady release of quality titles. What were the major things than went wrong? Even though this is a matter of opinion, let's briefly highlight a few points we can agree on.

Online support has been mentioned often and is an obvious criticism, along with the system's cosmetic design which includes the controller. A focus on connectivity failed to excite gamers, not because it was bad technology...it was never implemented properly. More on this later. Nintendo never marketed important releases well, like MGS: Twin Snakes or Resident Evil 4. Nintendo's release schedule was not ideal at times. While 2002 saw Super Mario Sunshine and Metriod Prime...holiday season 2003 featured three racing games, Mario Kart: Double Dash, F-Zero GX and Kirby Air Ride, here is where a serious loss of momentum began for Nintendo. Too many Mario Party and Mario Sports entries diluted the quality of first party software offerings. Ultimately, Nintendo's choice of disc format ended up alienating more developers than it did protecting from copyright infringement.

Not all decisions made by Nintendo where terrible. Getting Square Enix back on board was a major achievement at the time. As time has shown, the sale of Rare and the release of Silicon Knights were excellent business decisions, as niether developer has produced anything worthwhile since. Allowing Gamecube owners to access the GBA library through the Gameboy Player made helped players stay interested between calender releases. Excellent relationships with EA, Ubisoft, Sega, Namco and Capcom kept third party software in constant supply, despite the lack of exclusives.

Connectivity could have been a unique feature that defined the Gamecube, yet Nintendo couldn't see past the visions of fatter wallets. With the GBA installed base and the plethora of developers releasing software for the GBA, it could have been the true bridge over the gap that separates portable and console gaming, Playing a game on your Gamecube and being able to continue the experience while away from the system was never really explored. Information exchange of any meaningful gameplay implictations was limited to the Pokemon franchise. Instead, unlockable easter eggs within games were delegated to how much of Nintendo's merchandise you owned, rather than having any real skill in a particular game. This blunder could see the end of connectivity altogether, as neither the DS or PSP is doing anything meaningful with their parent systems.

What did the Gamecube do right? Let's explore that next time...this is turning into a wall of text.

It's no doubt that Ninja Gaiden was one of the original Xbox's most important exclusives. An excellently crafted game, Ninja Gaiden really ended the argument of whether the original Xbox was a true gaming console or a dummied down PC. It punishing difficulty and deep fighting system (for an action game) really made it appeal to players who were anything but casual. Now Ninja Gaiden Sigma, an update of the original Xbox's Ninja Gaiden Black, is heading for the PS3 on the 26th of June. This is one PS3 game to look forward to.

This morning I saw a commercial on television for Ninja Gaiden Sigma. I should mention I live in Japan. They showed impressive gameplay footage, but something else stuck out to me during the course of the commercial's run. They had player's demonstrating the functions of the sixaxis controller. Not that I found this strange, it was the demographic they chose in order to display this. One of the player's was a young girl, in her early 20's and the other was an old lady, clearly above 65. This was not one of those "extreme granny" commercials that you see advertising the likes of unknown cola or slightly generic potato chips, this commercial definitely had some "Wii"ism to it, where they were trying to "appeal" to the casual gaming crowd. Especially through the motions of the sixaxis controller. The time the commercial was shown was primetime morning television, where everyone in the country is getting ready for school or work. It was on Japan's most popular station, Fuji TV. Clearly, it's fairly obvious who the commercial is for.

There are so many things wrong with this situation; I don't even know where to begin ranting. First of all, let's look at the game in question. Ninja Gaiden Sigma, a director's cut of a director's cut of one of the last generations most difficult games. Let's look at the design of the female lead character, Rachel. S&M outfit, impossibly large breasts with an impossibly slim waistline. Let's look at the game design. Dishing out copious amounts of extreme violence to wave after wave of enemies, with extremely difficult boss battles thrown into the mix. But it makes use of the sixaxis controller, so non-gamers will love it....right?

Being married to a woman, who doesn't play many games, I can't say that I understand what motivates her to pick up one game over another. I do understand what she and probably many other women DON'T look for in a game:

• - I think I can say women don't like games that make them feel bad about themselves. Games with female characters with unbelievable measurements are pretty much the equivalent of a man being constantly bombarded with penis extension" emails while he plays a game. Even if a woman is confident in her appearance, like my wife, this character design only reminds her that she is married to a pervert who sexual deviance may or may not encompass serious problems involving overpowering and torturing another human being. We don't think much of this because we've gotten used to Chun-Li, Lara Croft and Ivy. They haven't.
• - I think I can say woman don't like games that make them feel like they are wasting their time. If killing wave after wave of enemies was easy is this game, it may have a little more of a leg to stand on. Yet this is one of the most difficult games of its type. It won't take long for an inexperienced player to have their ass handed to them. Alot of time would have to be spent adjusting to the game's difficulty. As people who play games, we have years of skill that's been developed along with the faith that we can overcome any obstacle if we persist. In a game like Ninja Gaiden, there is not much reason to persist if you don't feel the skill required is worth developing. Just try to explain to a non-gamer, that after several hours of torturous failure they'll finally get the skills to slowly proceed. If that's how it was for me, my interest would wane in the first 30 seconds, and so would yours.
• - I think I can say woman don't like excessively violent games. There is just something about having the ability to create life that makes you despise those who take it away. Killing wave after wave of faceless enemies may be entertaining for us, because we understand the complexities of the fighting system and understand the challenge is on-your-feet problem solving requiring quick adaptation and preplanning. Take the understanding of this away and what you have is a game where you simply kill everything that moves as quickly as possible. Not particularly interesting, especially for women.

It may also be worth mentioning that my wife and many other women I know are not really into ninjas in general, but this is an assumption that I can't be sure of. I may appear sexist in my comments, but if there wasn't some truth to this, more of our wives and mothers would have been playing games for as long as we have.

Nevertheless, marketing Ninja Gaiden Sigma to the "casual DS playing" demographic here Japan is ridiculous. Not that it's particularly harmful in any way, but it just goes to show that Sony really doesn't have much of an idea of how they should appeal to this market. Considering the place the PS3 is in right now, I find this quite disheartening. Sony, you've got allot more thinking to do.

I don't know whether it's a sight glitch or a permanent change, but my Gamecube badge has become a hella old skool badge. If anyone was wondering why I have to Gamecube badge as my picture, this is exactly the reason. Aside from the Gamecube badge being rare, I knew it would disappear someday. Either through the Gamecube really becoming a hella old skool system, or from my collection getting diluted when I upgrade to the current generation, whenever that may be. But...a hella Old skool badge? The Gamecube isn't THAT old yet, in fact, I think there is still going to be two games released for it in North America. It seems the Gamecube has been a victim of being quickly forgotten; hold that thought as I explain.

Here in Japan, it's really easy to see that there are only two systems dominating, the PS2 and the Wii. In fact, even with the Wii's popularity over here as it is, I do believe that it will explode tenfold within the next two years. One non-game related trend that's happening in Japan right now is the increasing popularity of home aerobics and exercise machines. The American, Billy Blanks, is making a killing pedaling his DVD's over here (nothing against the guy either...his stuff is pretty good) and has spawned an entire wave of imitators. Awhile back on the Hotspot, I remember them talking about a Wii software application that would have you do some sort of exercise and send your medical information over the internet to be assessed. If this software actually does this, while genuinely providing a decent workout for people, the popularity of the Wii will go through the roof all over the country. In fact, I would be bold enough to say that this is the killer app for Japan in this generation. Wii sports convinced Japanese families that the Wii was an excellent addition to the living room, Twilight Princess convinced the Nintendo fans and RPG otaku, Pokemon Battle Revolution convinced children all over the country that they need a Wii over any other system and this new Wii exercise software will put a Wii in front of every woman in the country. I am truly convinced of this. I don't think it will affect the European or North American markets in the same way, but I'm sure the Wii will dominate Japan, with or without Mario, Metriod or Smash Brothers. This brings me to my next point:

No one here seems to realize that the Wii is backwards compatible with Gamecube games. Why? What would make me think that? Well, long before the Wii was even released, Japanese department stores were getting rid of Gamecube software in order to free up shelf space for more successful systems like the PS2, PSP and the DS. This is completely understandable in an environment that sells new software. Yet, the other day, as part of my quest to find and purchase Beach Spikers Volleyball for the Gamecube (don't ask), I was in and out of the used game shops all day. You would figure with the popularity of Wii, and I know it's popular because there is nothing for the Wii in a used game shop, people would be snatching up used Gamecube games left and right. Why not? They're cheap and there were a lot of good games on the Gamecube. Yet the amount of shelf space awarded to Gamecube games, even in the used shops, is minimal. I asked why this is, and the clerk told me that Gamecube software just doesn't sell. This is surprising to me; I figure that people who have a Wii would be interested in playing Gamecube games. Yet, it's not advertised anywhere on the Japanese Wii box as far as I can see. It seems everyone wants to forget the Gamecube as quickly as possible. That's not good for guys like me that still only have a Gamecube and are looking to expand their collection a bit. I'm not ready to jump into the current generation, because I simply haven't decided which system I want to "invest" in. Until I make that decision, I'm quite happy with my Cube, even though shopping for it has become ridiculous.

The system I've really been leaning towards is the PS3, for the simple fact that the games are region-free. The fact that I didn't have to modify my system and could use the Gamecube's Freeloader software really influenced my decision last generation, along with the region-free Gameboy Player. Aside from the fact that at this time, the only game out on the PS3 I would buy would be Oblivion, the other nuances of the system hold me back a bit. The fact PS1 and PS2 games still adhere to region-coding really annoys me. If I buy a PS3, one of the first games I want to play on it is the ultimate PS1 classic, Symphony of the Night. To find out more about this, I usually try to create some dialogue in the PS3 forums. I guess that wasn't a particularly good idea on my part. I often find myself more sarcastic than I mean to be in the presence of all those Sony fans, who will only give me ridiculously positive information on the PS3 to the point where I'm not even sure it's true. I made a sarcastic comment about the backward compatibility and got a TOS violation for "trolling". Apparently that means that I made the comment with the sole intention of annoying other people in the forum. There is some truth to that accusation I suppose, so I'm not particularly upset about being moderated. The time frame in which the post was written and posted and the moderation took place is absolutely mind-boggling. I guess I can't expect the moderators to be particularly competent; they do this for free and on their own time. Yet, I made the post on May 7th, and I was moderated on the 11th of June, in a forum that hadn't been updated since May 9th. Like I said, I'm not upset about being moderated, I deserve it. I just want to know what kind of moderator surfs dead forums...that have been inactive for over a month, in order to hand out moderations. Do moderators have a quota? Do they have to hand out a certain number of moderations a month in order to stay moderators? That would make them the equivalent of cops that wait at railway crossings trying to catch people who don't stop and look both ways before they cross. A little ridiculous, and really quite sad. Either way, I should stay out of the forums, and try to get information about the PS3 the old fashioned way, talking to people about it face to face. I'm going to have to improve my Japanese first before I can do that.

For the month of May I wan't able to access the internet at all since my computer was down. I was really surprised at how not being able to access the internet everyday required a huge change to my lifestyle. I had to keep contact with my family in my home country through my cell phone's limited mail feature. I couldn't watch YouTube and other sites that keep me up to date with English media. I couldn't access Gamespot to catch all the news from the video game world.

I thought that when I brought my computer back online and accessed Gamespot, which I hadn't seen for a month, there would be a wealth of material to watch, read and write about. How disappointing. Not very much happened in May. Well, not much that happened seemed to be very exciting anyway.

There was Nintendo's press event, but living here in Japan where half the DS and Wii games are out here already, so there weren't too many surprises there. Not much has changed in regards to the status of the Playstation 3 or the Xbox 360. Not that there should have been any ground breaking news, I guess I've just gotten used to this being the month of big E3 announcements.

It's great to be back though. Hopefully I'll have something more interesting to talk about the next time I blog. 

I don't usually let things bother me, but this dead goat scandal that Sony has gotten itself into has got to be one of the biggest PR blunders in the history of video games. If you don't know what I'm talking about, please read this article: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=451414&in_page_id=1770&ct=5

The goat was killed for reasons other than this PR event and Sony said that the employees that planned it were acting without authority from Sony's top executives, but these are fairly transparent excuses. Sony has had a long history of advertisments that push the envolope in the realm of controversy. The white and black PSP advertisments in the Netherlands were bad enough, but this is completely over the line.

I'm not going to go into why it was morally wrong to have a mutilated animal at an event solely intended to sell more copies of God of War II. It's too bad that an excellent game like God of War II will now be thrown into the same category of the often misunderstood GTA games. This is not the kind of attention that the industry and players of video games need. It just got harder for everyone to make non gamers understand the value of this medium. If I was David Jaffe, or any of the other designers of God of War II, I would be preparing to sue Sony for damages.

F*$% Sony. This time they have gone way too far. Hopefully this time, their mistake burns them. If it doesn't burn them, it's going to burn all of us, in the long run.