So I might be late to the party, but it seems the new Cobalt/Black DS Lite really is coming out. Now, I managed to get a sneak peek at one at my nearby GameStop (they had a demo model tucked in the back, ready to take out in a manner of days). And I gotta say, it's the ugliest thing I've ever seen. Pretty much, I wouldn't give up either my Polar White nor my Crimson & Black DS Lite for this one. It has a wierd sheen that makes it just look strange, and honestly, I thought it looked plain cheap, not awesome-cool the way the crimson/black one looks ;) *toots own horn*.

But in all seriousness, even if I didn't have a DS, I'd buy a regulation White one rather than this one. What do you guys think? Has anyone else seen one in the flesh? What do you think of it?

Look, I love good graphics as much as the next guy, but don't you people think that the consoles are going in the wrong direction here? It seems as though Nintendo is the only company that seems to "get it", instead of going for "bigger, better, faster, stronger", they go for "smaller, smarter, fun, unique". And their gamble seems to be paying off bigtime.

Gamespot did a special, where GameSpot's Vince Broady moderates a panel discussion titled "Graphics: Then & Now" which features Will Wright (creator of SimCity series, and The Sims), Jordan Mechner (creator of the original Prince of Persia) and Rand Miller (co-creator of Myst series) as speakers. In this panel discussion, Rand and Will said that one of the black holes of graphics is the tendency sometimes of developers to go too far into the "bigger, better, faster, stronger" thing and forget what games were all about: gameplay.

They mentioned that when 3D first came out, the games quality actually went down, because people were used to developing for and playing in 2D. They were so interested in making it 3D they forgot that the most important thing was that the game was fun to play. They drew a comparison to movies: when sound first came to movies, the movie quality went down, because actors who had spent a career in silent film were now stiff and uncomfortable, trying not to make a sound that might ruin the scene.

Nintendo is making a great effort in changing how games should be played. But the 360 and PS3 seem to be stuck in a deathlock on the graphics powerhouse medal; they want to be the biggest, best, fastest, strongest. Anybody else agree that this sort of graphical arms race comes at the cost of gamers everywhere?

God of War 3

Final Fantasy VII remake with Advent Children graphics

Starcraft 2

All other games I want are already announced as being on the 360 :).

As a "mutimedia mini-hub", the Playstation Portable is an unmitigated failure. However, as a portable game console it's still pretty good. Games that the PSP has that are worth getting are Jeanne D'Arc, Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions, God of War: Chains of Olympus, and Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core. There are others, of course, but those are the ones that interest me personally :).

I happen to have both, and I can't survive without my Pokemon fix ;). So if it were up to me, if I didn't have my PSP, I wouldn't sell my DS for it. But it really depends on how badly you want the games that come out for the PSP. If you want to get a PSP because you're bored with the DS and are wondering what's on the other side of the fence, don't do it. But if you're getting a PSP because there are two or three games for the PSP you know you're going to want, then it might be worth it.

Ebay isn't an option for me though.

So ill have to hunt a wii, but I'm not doing this for a month, if I can't find any after awhile, Ill buy something else.

Sliverwarrior

The Wii is an awesome console, well worth waiting for. You should be able to get one in a month if you're patient. Find the locations of all the nearby Best Buys, Gamestops, Game Crazy's, Circuit Cities, and other such electronics stores (do big chains, not little stores, because little stores tend to overprice the Wii by selling "bundles"). Find the stores, and go to each one every time they have a shipment coming in. One of them is bound to have a Wii for you eventually.

Don't give up! The Wii's worth it!

try ebay seriously .. my bros friend picked 1 up the other night for $340 australian .. which is like $60 cheaper than the normal price n that was buy it now! duffham

Your brother's friend was insanely lucky. As of now (Tuesday, February 5th, 2008, at 6:24 pm, USA Eastern time), the lowest price that I could find on ebay was $265. Ok, I found several at $2, but let's not forget those auctions close in five days, and thus far have only one bid. Those that close within a day have already long since shot up way past the standard $250 (in general I've noticed they tend to close at around $400 - $500).

I'm not saying eBay isn't a good idea. If you can actually find a Wii less than $250 on eBay, then by all means! And if you do, could you buy me a lottery ticket? ;)

Well, you can do what they used to do at the Wii launch. Go to your nearest Best Buy, Gamestop, etc, and ask an employee when the next shipment will be coming in. Sometimes, they'll say, "I don't know". That's garbage. They know, trust me. Keep asking, or find another employee and ask him or her. Keep it up until you find someone who'll tell you.

Once you know when the next shipment is coming in, come in the store either exactly at or (preferably) before opening time (usually 9-10am). Then wait for the shipment (it'll either come before the store opening, or just a few hours after). Alternatively, call ahead (they may not be able to hold the console for you though, so that's a bit risky).

This method is probably the most reliable way to get a Wii, because if they guy says, "the next shipment of Wii's are coming next Tuesday", then you can pretty much expect that at 10am Tuesday, your nearby Best Buy will be getting a package of Wii Consoles. However, be very aware that at big stores like these, Wii consoles sell at ridiculous speeds. Meaning, if you're even one or two hours late, they could be all gone.

If you absolutely must have a Wii right now and you can't afford to wait another second, I guess you could go online. But be aware, you will never find a Wii at $250. Not even close. The lowest price I ever saw for a Wii online was $300. That was the minimum, most online Wii's sell at around $500. Yeah, you're paying a 100% premium for the convenience of having it right away. Pretty much the only benefit of ordering it online is that it's fairly guarenteed to arrive when you need it, but are you willing to pay $250+ extra?

So we've all seen the graphics for Killzone 2, and we all know how awesome they are. But my question is: are there any articles out there detailing how this game will actually play? When I Googled Killzone 2, all I get are pages and pages of screenshots. Not that I don't appreciate how good-looking the game is, but let's face it, graphics are not the most important part of a game (unless that game is Crysis, but that's for different reasons).

At the risk of resurrecting one of the darker moments of the Playstation 3, remember when Lair was first announced? It was the graphics that wowed us for that game too ... ever since then I've been really wary when a game looks great but nothing comes out regarding how it'll actually play. The only thing that comforts me is that Killzone 2 is an FPS. I mean, Lair was a very unique kind of game, with untested control schemes. But the FPS is a very venerable genre, it'd be pretty hard to screw it up, I would imagine.

Still, I found the lack of information from my Googling a bit disturbing. Anybody got anything? A link to a credible article, or an interview, anything that could tell us how this game actually plays. Lest we forget, Killzone 1 wasn't all that great in terms of gameplay. If Killzone 2 plays like that, we could be rather unpleasantly surprised.