I hate to, well, hate, but the new update to Fuse is just awful. Mainly, the update to the news feed. I hate it.

It's not just me. A lot of other people hate it too. You could have seen the threads expressing dislike in the Feedback Forum, but it appears that Gamespot deleted it. Instead of listening to their community's negative feedback, Gamespot just deleted it.

Fuse is a joke. I hate it. A majortiy of Gamespot users will agree with me, as you can see in the Feedback Forum. But it appears that Gamespot will not acknlowldege that it screwed up, and will stick with it.

Come on Gamespot. You've ignored all of the negative feedback. I bet you'll ignore this blog post too. I dare you to respond to it.

...Yeah, I didn't think they would.

Quick note: This post is completly unbiased. When I wrote this article, it wasn't meant to favor Nintendo, Microsoft, or Sony.

Nintendo has had some good things. For example, I'm mostly surprised the Wii surpassed the Xbox 360 and PS3 sales. But Nintendo also has an impressive list of improvments I think need to be made, and that I'd like to share with you. It's not just with their games and stuff, but it's how they really handle buisness as I see it. So, here it is.

What's right with Nintendo

Well, Nintendo hasn't been all bad. They've had some good things happen. They seem to sort of want to cater to the hardcore audience, and I think they've been doing that in the best way they can, for the most part. Seriously, with Super Mario Galaxy 2 on the way, you've got to wonder what else they're doing over there.

Nintendo also seems to have a nail on the casual audience, which is actually a good thing for their casual games. While I doubt some of their "hardcore" games, they've got some decent casual games. And whenever they seem to try to make another, it usually works pretty well. Most of their casual games seem to get average scores, so I can't deny that MOST of THEIR CASUAL titles are actually decent.

What's wrong with Nintendo

Remember Brain Age? Yeah, that old game that's over 3 years old? I find it surprising that Nintendo is actually still advertising that game. Yes, that is right folks. Nintendo is running commercials that advertise Brain Age. Not Brain Age II, but the ORIGINAL Brain Age. Can you really even remember finding the original Brain Age in stores anymore? I find that a little annoying. That's almost like Sony advertising the original Killzone. You know, who would do that when Killzone 2 was out?

Nintendo almost seems stuck to the casual audience. They keep talking about expanding the audience and stuff, which they seem to do with casual games, and I sit and question why they can't just stick with the audience they have. If half the "audience" doesn't want to play video games, then why would you design games just for them? Sony and Microsoft seem fine with the audience they have, which is less than that of Nintendo, so why does Nintendo intend to expand the audience? Why do they need to develop more casual games than hardcore? If you took away Nintendo's casual audience, I bet you'd find a few ten million of them still there. It wouldn't kill Nintendo to shift most of their development to hardcore games. So I'm left wondering why don't they do this?

Lastly, I think Nintendo is much of a bragger. Their most recent press conferences involved Reggie bragging a lot, which isn't really what we look for in a press conference. They seem to talk a lot about games they've previously developed. Just look at the State of the Union feature by Gamespot, and look at Cammie's statement. "It's also a positive that games are becoming more social. People are playing together now more than ever before, and that includes individuals playing in the same room and those who are getting together online in games like Mario Kart Wii." Yeah, right. She just had to say a random game name. I just played Mario Kart Wii online today, and any room I got in had less than 8 players, which doesn't really round to getting together online in games, if you ask me. So really, why are they bragging so much about games that are over a year old? Also, see this. "no one bought a Wii Remote to sit and hold it; they wanted to join in playing Wii Sports." Yeah, they clearly bough a Wii Remote JUST so they could play Wii Sports. That's why I bought my Wii. What, is that a problem or something? Nintendo, Nintendo, Nintendo.

Where I see Nintendo in 5 years

I'm no wizard. I can't be absolutly sure on what will happen in 5 years, especially for one individual company. Especially for Nintendo. But I can guess there will be a new system out on the market by Nintendo. Hopefully, they learn from their mistakes. I'd like to see a system with HD, since Nintendo really needs to try that, but we'll see. Hey, maybe there will be no Nintendo in 5 years. Let's just wait and see.

So in conclusion...

I think Nintendo is a good company meaning good. They are trying to get people into gaming because they think everybody will game, and they probably have good will in doing that. But they need to see the world for what it is. They need to see what they're up against, and see what their customers want, and adjust what they do accordingly. I like Nintendo, and I like the Wii and the idea behind it, but there are some major holes that I think need to be fixed. I'm not sure if they will be fixed. Heck, I doubt Nintendo will put consideration into things like this. But this is my opinion, and I'd like to make it clear.

Remember last year when Nintendo dissappointed us with all the kiddy titles and such? Well, I too, was hoping for some actual hardcore games this year. Unfortunatly, Nintendo failed again, not because they were missing hardcore titles, but now because of the lack of announcements. I'll admit, Super Mario Galaxy 2 WAS A HUGE SURPRISE. I didn't see that coming, and New Super Mario Bros for the Wii was unexpected too,but that was mostlyit.

So what did Nintendo do to fill in the rest of the hour and 20 minutes? Mainly, they just started bragging, even though they really don't deserve the bragging rights. Financially, they did good. But who really cares about Mario Kart Wii anymore? Seriously, they started going on about these old games,and I think I even saw a mention of Super Mario Sunshine for theGamecube. Most of the show was also filled in with games already announced. They just talked about Wii Fit Plus and stuff, and The Conduit, and it was boring for the most part. Not all games shown have already been announced, but Nintendo failed us again this year.

I mean, I'm not expecting any (many)violent M rated games, but I expected, or at least wanted, for Nintendo to try something new. I mean, come on. It's been about how long since THEY'VE rolled out a new and popular character or series. They've gotta get off the casual train and try some new stuff. I mean, maybe GTA for the Wii? And if they can't get Rockstar to do that, how about they make their own rip-off of GTA for the Wii?

I am just upset with Nintendo. Why? In a short summary, it's because THEY DON'T GET IT. Nobody important watching this is a casual player. They're at least somewhat hardcore. Nintendo is failing to deliver that. They need to stop and deliver. If they can't, they might as well make a new system or something. And I mean NEW and more NEXT-GENERATION. I'm not very happy with them right now. I'll admit, they have their moments, and they definetly did this year at E3, but not enough.

So you know all of these countdowns? Well, according to a website called Kotaku, they've looked over the source code via Flash, and it looks like what most of us have assumed.

• It appears that the current countdown is one of but 5 countdowns running over the site for the next few weeks. The most intresting thing about it is that the countdown ends on June 1st, AKA the day of Microsoft's E3 Press Confrence, but more importantly, not on Sony's.
• The site's search terms are, Hideo Kojima, MGS, Metal Gear, next, game, konami, kojima game, KJP, Kojima production. Most importantly and most intresting, if those are the search terms, none of them are MGS5.

So yes, it appears the countdowns WILL END eventually end. What will happen? Time will tell, probably at the Microsoft Press Confrence. Till then, enjoy it while it lasts.

Well, at least it should be. If you go to the official Rockstar Games site and check out Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, you'll find a Nintendo Wi-Fi connection logo. Check it out.

Many people have gotten excited about Rock Band 2, or at least that I know of. We all want release dates. We know the 360 version comes in September, but recently, I paid a visit to the Rock Band store at rockband.com, and I found Rock Band 2 available for preorder. I looked at the information for the Wii version, and there was a date. If I recall, it was November 18th, or somewhere around that. Or at least, that was the shipping date. If I'm correct, Rock Band 2 will be coming out then or close to then. Any thoughts? Hmm? Well, anyways, the PS2 version said the same thing. I didn't look at the PS3 version, but that might not matter. Here's what matters. These are release dates people. Lets pay attention!

If you look on Gamespot for Grand Theft Auto Chinatown Wars, you'll see the date is TBA, to be announced. Just letting you know that it is coming out this Winter.

Ok, let me make this clear. When I say review recall, I mean one of my reviews stated false facts. That's what happened with my Rock Band for XBOX 360 review. I said that it had no online play, but I had it mixed up with some other version so I got this. I'm sorry to Harmonix, MTV Games, EA, and whoever else was involved with the development and publishing of Rock Band. This review is one that I will delete and I will not again review it, even though it'd be fixed.

Well, Nintendo was last in the race to have online play available for their consoles, but the online play is missing some stuff. You know XBOX Live and the acheivements? The PS3 has aquired something close to that with their trophies. Now the only left system to aquire that is the Nintendo Wii. Nintendo hasn't been doing so good in the console war all the way. The sales could soon make history, but the online support is noticably lacking. Online play is on the system, but Nintendo, there is one more thing missing, and that would be an achievements system. Nintendo has an online store, online play, but no online achievements system like XBOX Live.

Another thing missing is a real online community. Nintendo's console is perfectly capable of making such an online community. As we are well aware thanks to Super Smash Bros Brawl, the servers can handle a hell of pressure. Nintendo could be the 2nd to do this, after the Playstation 3 and the XBOX 360.

Nintendo's advancement in the console war has been and still is very crappy. They've recently offered WiiWare, which is another milestone, but Nintendo, we need more of a connected online community with acievements and no friend code hassles. If that's not enough, then Nintendo definently needs to wake up and produce more channels, including a video/media channel.

Yeah, I'm not exactly ready to leave Gamespot today. I don't know if it is just me or the site itself. I mean, leaving right now? Right before E3? Man, thats bull****. But anyways, I'll be ready to go later, probably around the time E3 ends. It's been good knowing Gamespot, and I'll still know it, it's just that I need to move on. Yes, you can still PM me; I still will come to the site every so often to do stuff like post my reviews and stuff, but doing things like forum or blog posts for me is one of the things coming to a hopefully temporary hault. Be warned, if I do come out, I will make a huge blog post and do some PMing to let everyone know I'm back. Well, until that blog post saying "I am leaving, NOW", I will see all you later.