GwiDan

Didn't see that one coming!!

That's in the US.  Some MaccyDs have Cloud hotspots over here, but not all.

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I've just checked the Nintendo WiFi press release and you're absolutely right. Apparently, they're giong to install wireless in most games stores too, though!

I think that you can go into any McDonalds and it will work, due to Nintendo having made a deal with that company for free WiFi.

Also it gains a lot of you can play it in prog scan, as its much easier to see incoming traffic (maybe you are already?)

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Nope - 14" portable!

I went to Game in Swansea, and was offered the last Premium in stock, with a catch: I had to buy a £750 bundle.

Naturally, I politely declined.

The Netgear DG834Gv2 won't work with the DS if SSID broadcast is switched to off. Gah!

That's disgusting. Just because there's huge demand for the console they're using it as an excuse to flog surplus stock of rubbish DVDs at massively inflated prices. Nice one Toys R' Us.

Why do you find it a chore to play?

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It doesn't feel like it takes any skill to win at single player - so long as you don't crash. The tracks are really poorly designed, so you just scrape around the outside wall on most turns, instead of being able to corner properly as expected in a racing game. The graphics are pretty, but so shiny you don't take them in, and they're so indistinct and characterless they become dull. The one redeeming graphical feature is the sheer amount of objects floating around in the background. It's impressive how much Criterion have managed to squeeze out of the Xbox. The enemy AI is comparable to a three year old child's, too. Any time you get taken down, it feels like a massive fluke on the part of the computer rather than any cunning trickery.

Mainly though, it's the Generic Courses R' Us track design that's the clincher for me. Live mode is fun, but more than likely because it's fun to smash into other people and hear their curses over the headset.

Burnout Revenge is such a chore to play, though. I doubt whether funkier graphics and a few more crash junctions would tempt anyone to buy it, although I'll concede that the new Live system they've implemented is a pretty good idea and probably should have been in the original Xbox release.

Could MS justifiably refuse to repair the console? You've bought your console, paid your money, and just because you live in a different country, you're not good enough for them? I think there's a word for that kind of thinking.

You could make a stand against it.  If you wanted like.

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I recommend that everyone boycotts the 360 at launch. Fight the power etc.

(Note this post has nothing to do with 360 stock shortages).

Oh, and something else I noticed for the first time last night: The Assault rifle has a compass on the ammo display.

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There's an explanation somewhere in the game, I think, that it always points towards that massive planet in the background.

The graphical glitches in Halo 2 as you ran nearer your enemies ruined it visually for me. "Where'd his arm go? THERE it is!" Halo CE had none of this, instead relying on solid, less spectacular visuals, that were nonetheless more involving and immersive due to you not noticing any sudden pop-in.

Halo 2 didn't have any epic moments, it felt distincly one-dimensional in single player, with next to no levels I would feel compelled to replay. Xbox Live is another matter, naturally, even though it's a complete lag-fest. There are so many standout moments in Halo CE, such as the Silent Cartographer, when you're watching the cutscene in first-person view of the Pelican swooping over the beach battle and landing, then you realising you'd just been dropped straight into the action. The icy level packed with enemies and enemy vehicles is another fond memory. It felt like a kind of galactic war battlefield, compared to the corridor shooter its sequel appears to be against it.

Don't get me started on how they ruined the pistol. Of course it was unbalanced, that's why it was fun to use. Now it's just a weapon you ignore completely, and would never even consider picking up - probably choosing meleeing an empty weapon over someone's head before the Halo 2 magnum.

I love Halo because it did things differently from any other FPS I'd ever played. It moved the genre forward a little, not by doing anything revolutionary, but by combining a hundred neat little touches to make a fantastic videogame.

A next generation console for me would be a machine that follows the crop currently on sale. By definition of the word, a new console replacing the previous model is a new generation.

In terms of games, it would be something that's radically more advanced than its predecessors. I couldn't really call Halo any more next gen than Goldeneye, as it doesn't do anything different. It's an evolution of the same concept, not a replacement for it altogether.

.::: IIRC two sensors needed to be placed next to either side of the tv.

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Thanks for clearing that up. It basically works exactly the same as that rubbish Samurai arcade game that was doing the rounds a while back, then.

I still don't get how the Revolution's controller is going to register its location in relation to the television. Will we have to put a sensor of some kind on top of the TV?

They'll never beat the time they had Shigsy draw the cover.

There's something memorable about Ikaruga level 4 - other than the fact that it's really quite stupidly difficult. There aren't any "solid" levels as such, but the design of the enemy attack patterns stands out.

I know it's not a final level, but it works much better as an endgame than the final level proper.

Yet another developer does his piece in killing off a little more of the games industry with mindless licenced tat. Only this time the tat counts as controversial because you're a sweary black rapper that puts caps in people's "asses". Score one for originality. Score another for being a complete idiot and telling parents to buy this game for their children.

McDonalds adverts are terrible though.  That one breakfast-in-bed bagel advert drives me insane.

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Too true! McDonalds has masses of influence, though, and it would make commercial sense for Nintendo to get as much out of their relationship as possible. Not that it'll do the whole "gamers are fat geeks" image any good though.

Kotaku are reporting that PGR3 may be prone to crashing

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Lucky Microsoft have Live to release patches for buggy games then, eh? It didn't happen too much with the Xbox, thankfully, but one of the original arguments against Microsoft launching a console connected to a fast internet service was that developers would get lazy, or pushed into rushing titles' development, safe in the knowledge they could always patch the game up later on, having let the end consumer do the bug testing for them. As Microsoft are pushing for more and more people to sign up for Live with the 360 - the experience essentially being based around that service - do you think we'll see a drastic increase in the number of patches for lazy bugs and glitches that should never have made it past beta testing because most people will have the capability to download fixes? I really hope not, and that the only downloadable software will be additional content, not a get out of jail free card for programmers.

Open up and play does sound a little weak.

To advertise the fact that you'll be able to take a DS into a McDonalds for WiFi action, how about, "Eat Americans At Their Own Game". I realise that was an horrendous pun, but they need to work on that sort of idea to draw attention to what you can do with the console. It being manufactured by Nintendo isn't enough to sell units - it needs an unique selling point. Something attractive to everyone, and ideally free. If they were clever, they'd get McDonalds to advertise the DS for them.

I want all these "PS3 Could Power the Star Wars Missile Defence System" type topics archived so we can all look back and laugh at what Sony claimed the PS3 would be capable of. Remember the PS2 banned from Iraq stories? Sony made out it was the second coming, when the PlayStation 2 was nothing more than a standard as-expected games console.

And how many Japanese games have you played?  There are so many identikit titles released over there it's crazy - to say the Western developers are worse is very much misguided.

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I didn't mention the Japanese in my post.

Western developers are renowned for releasing identikit film licenced games on handhelds. Side-scrolling beat-'em-ups with generic looking enemies, shoddy animation, and one dimensional gameplay. Even so, people still buy them - don't underestimate the power of the film licence.