I sat and fumed as I listened to some dumb biatch on ign rant about how the Wii is no better than a GameCube with a new controller. First off, there are lots of new features in the Wii, such as built in WiFi, the Opera web browser, built in flash memory storage, the virtual console, and of course the new controller as well. All this said, there is one other point to make - the Wii is twice as powerful as the GameCube, not the equivalent of the GameCube.

Let's look at the cpu first. The Wii's IBM made Broadway cpu has 1.5 times the clock speed of the IBM made Gekko cpu in the GC, that's 729Mhz clock speed vs. 486Mhz clock speed. On top of that, the Broadway also has enhanced caching, which will greatly increase its overall power, making it more efficient and quicker. Furthermore, with 5 years having past, the cpu will no doubt feature other sublte refinements like more registers and faster transfer speeds with the gpu and such.

Speaking of the gpu, the Ati made Hollywood gpu on the Wii also has 1.5 times the clock speed of the Ati made Flipper gpu on the GC, that's 243Mhz clock speed vs. 162Mhz clock speed. On top of that, it has 3MB of built in memory for the frame buffer, which is apparantly more than enough, developers say, and another 16MB embedded RAM integrated with the graphics chip one way or another. This is a similar strategy to how the 360's gpu works, and is very efficient.

Now that I'm on the memory subject, lets look at that. The GC had 40MB of system memory (16MB eDRAM + 24MB 1T-SRAM), while the Wii has 104MB system memory (16MB eDRAM + 88MB 1T-SRAM). That's more than twice the GC's memory, 2.6 times, to be precise.

On top of all this, the system will obviously be more refined over the GC's architecture, things like memory speed, bandwidth, and everything else will no doubt be optimised as well.

Saying that the Wii is only as powerful as the GC is nothing short of stupid. That's like saying that your pc's no better if you change from a pentium4 with 2Ghz clock speed to a pentium4 with 3Ghz clock speed, and upgraded your graphics card from 250Mhz to 375Mhz, and then more than doubled your ram!

Go ahead and say it's a beefed up Xbox, say it's GameCube 2.0, but DO NOT say that it's just a GameCube. It's not.

I got a warning from gamespot for being a trouble maker and they deleted one of my forum posts! 

You want to know what I did?  I went to a forum where they were discussing whether the ps3 controller showed that Sony was running out of ideas.  I then posted a comment saying that I didn't know Sony ever had any original ideas, and that they will get new ideas when they see what Nintendo does next. 

That's it!!  That's all I said.  I didn't insult any particular user, I didn't swear, and I was making a good point!!  If you are reading this Mr.Mod, you are a jerk, you know that?  You are a jerk.

I'm getting close to moving on to the next generation, so I want to look back at what I went through this generation.

I got a GameCube at launch, 2001.  Bought and sold some GC games as the years rolled by, and my final collection looks like this:
1.Rogue Leader
2.Rebel Strike
3.Clone Wars
4.Metroid Prime
5.Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
6.Super Mario Sunshine
7.Zelda: The Wind Waker
8.Star Fox Adventures
9.Super Smash Bros. Melee
10.Tales of Symphonia
11.Baten Kaitos
12.Mario Kart: Double Dash!!
And I will probably buy Baten Kaitos Origins and Zelda:Twilight Princess before moving on to the Wii.  Since there's been a drought of games for the GC, I've had time to pick up some of the better games that I missed when they first came out, so now I feel pretty complete about my overall collection of GC games, no regrets about missing out on some beauties (although I wouldn't mind checking out paper mario and a few others).

I gave in and finally bought an Xbox in September 2004, just before Halo 2 came out on November 9th.  I have enjoyed using it for lan parties and have some great games for the system, but only a few games period.  The thing is, I knew all about the system's games by 2004, so I just picked up the best ones and avoided the trial and error I might have gone through if I had been buying Xbox games continuously throughout the years.  Here's my Xbox game collection:
1.Halo 1
2.Halo 2
3.Kotor 1
4.Kotor 2
I also have some collectors games on both the GC and Xbox, like old Zelda ports and Pacman.

My PC has not been used excessively as a gaming system this generation, but the few games I do play on it are second to none.  I got this computer in 2002 and have upgraded both the graphics card and main memory.  Here's the top games:
1.Jedi Outcast
2.Jedi Academy
3.Galactic Battlegrounds
4.Halo PC
5.Battlefront

So that's it.  I wonder if next gen will be similar, some star wars games on the pc, a bunch of first party Nintendo games for the Wii, and a few key titles on the 360.  Time will tell, maybe I'll do something really different and buy a PS3 and play nothing but RPGs, although I figure that will happen at about the same time hell freezes over.  (Don't get me wrong, I love rpgs, I just hate the PS3.)

Aiight, so E3 is over and we are entering the quiet summer months of gaming. Here's what I think I have to look forward to in the coming months:

1. Baten Kaitos Origins on GameCube (september 2006)
2. Zelda on GameCube (october 2006)
3. Lego Star Wars, Tomb Raider, Paper Mario on GameCube (this fall)
-----
4. The launch of Wii
5. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
6. Zelda on Wii
7. New info on Smash Bros. and Mario Galaxy on Wii
8. Red Steel
-----
9. The quieter, cooler (temperature) chip for the 360 (2007)
10. Halo 3 (summer 2007)

Yup, there are some good times ahead, but for now I can't do much else but replay my favourite games as I wait for my gaming revolution!

At E3 this year, Sony showed off a cool little card game using the eye toy.  There, that's all the compliments I have.

They ripped off Xbox Live, they ripped off the Wiimote, they ripped off the GBA-GCN Connectivity, and they dared to spew the word "innovative" when describing their new controller, which doesn't even have a rumble feature!

10 minutes of 1080p Gran Turismo footage was retarded, and their game demos were boring to say the least.  The only game I wanted to see was Killzone 2, and it wasn't there, reinforcing the belief that the game was nowhere near as far along as they suggested it was at last E3.

What else did they screw up?  Oh ya, the price is ridiculous, and the cheaper model doesn't even have the same basic capabilities as the other version!  It doesn't have built in wifi technology, and no HDMI output, which could cause problems down the road for high resolution movie watching, should the Blue Ray discs have the copy protection system that we are being told it would.  Under this system, your cheaper PS3 won't be able to run movies in 1080p anymore!  Even if this ends up being resolved, it's still stupid for the cheaper system to not even have the same ports and such.

Sony is desperately trying to convince me that the graphics are so good on the PS3 that I have to get one.  The graphics are not wowing me, I'm sorry, they just aren't.  I'd happily play Halo 3 and enjoy its graphics on the 360.  Or even the graphics on the Wii, since it has other things going for it.  The PS3 only had one supposed advantage over the competition, graphics.  And now it looks like it doesn't even have that.

Sony, you honestly deserve an F, enjoy.

Microsoft had a solid showing at E3 this year, and has officially become my second system of choice. As it stands now, I will be a two system guy, just like this last generation. A Nintendo system and a Microsoft system.

Peter Moore (Microsoft bigwig) said there was more innovation in an acne shooting game than in the new Sony controller, and said that all gamers should by both a Wii and 360, a combined price lower than the $600 PS3. This made me warm up to Microsoft quite a bit.

Anyway, they presented lots of new, solid looking, games such as Gears of War, Rainbow Six, Splinter Cell, Grand Theft Auto, and of course, Halo. I think there's alot more substance there than what we see on the PS3 so far.

I also think the 360 beats the PS3 in every area that I can imagine comparing between the two systems. Whether it's price, graphics, online capabilities, future games, third party support, whatever, it all seems to be going in Microsoft's favour. In 2007 when the disc tray is fixed and the new cpu's are in the 360, and there's been a price drop, and Halo 3 is on the way, I will probably pick one up.

Aside from that, they managed to present a really cool idea, PC and Xbox cross platform capabilities, cool.

You don't have Zelda or Metroid, Microsoft, but not bad. I give you a solid B for a solid E3.

So I'd say Nintendo spanked the competition this year at E3. Their showing was focused on the Wiimote, and accomplished their mission of convincing the gaming community/industry that this gaming revolution is for real.

There were no specific details of price, launch, online network, and so on, although there were some tidbits. The focus was the new controller and the software utilizing that controller, and they presented that flawlessly.

Promising games include Zelda, Mario Galaxies, Metroid Prime 3, Red Steel, and of course, Smash Bros. Brawl. These games are all unique from everything else out there, and promise to be huge hits.

Good job Nintendo! I give you an A.

Microsoft E3

Good:
    Halo 3 appearance.
    PC/Xbox cross platform  
Bad:
    RPGs?

Yeah, she handled me gently once I told her how I felt. She doesn't feel the same way, but at least I have no broken heart. Now that there's been some real closure, I feel like I have my life back, I can actually think about something else for once.

I finally told her how I feel about her.  More on this later.