Metafuture » PS3

Mark Rein Forgot Something

MJG — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 21:59:43 +0000

Mark Rein engages in a bit of punditry in this interview at Eurogamer.

Developers did not have finished Xbox 360 hardware last year at E3. So Sony’s actually maybe in a better place vis-a-vis Microsoft in relation to launch.

Yeah, Mark. Except Sony’s launch window was three months ago.

Oh right, I’m talking to Mark Rein.

Yeah, Mark. Except Sony’s launch window was… at least two weeks from the end of April.

Sony Guts

MJG — Thu, 20 Jul 2006 05:40:55 +0000

Sony’s bold and somewhat random stabs at not really copying Nintendo’s jive continue. A word for it is now necessary, and that word is “flailure”.

flailÂ·ure

n.
A sequence of quick and dirty— but unsuccessful— attempts to provide Wii-like functionality using different methods.

Somehow the magic of the Cell is supposed to allow one camera to do the work of two: looking at a stick and translating successive pictures into motion in 3D space. Which is sort of what the Wii controller does, only this is not as precise and not as included in the console’s purchase price.

Don’t let anything come in between your stick and the camera, like Player Two, your arm, or a preference for playing at night in a living room without klieg lights.

Cipher Complex: Not A Game About SSI Gold Box Code Wheels

MJG — Mon, 26 Jun 2006 14:54:15 +0000

After eight years of consistently producing commercially successful titles for various leading publishers, Edge of Reality has decided the time is right to give life to its own internal vision.

…

In Cipher Complex, a recon satellite is mysteriously blasted from orbit, and when diplomatic requests for information are stonewalled, the US government is forced to call in its last resort â€“ Operative John Cipher. Charged with uncovering the truth by any means necessary, Cipher is going behind enemy lines to extract information the hard way.

Don’t you mean the complex way?

Though the real question is: how much high-tech espionage stuff can you do saddled with an old-timey, hand-cranked nazi-code-breaking machine sort of last name? Especially when your first name is just John. Put it this way: if these guys were making a porn game, the lead’s name would probably be Joseph “Marital” Act.

In fact, unless there’s a swerve in the plot and you get transported back in time to Little House on the Prairie and help Laura pass her frontier arithmetic exam with your super surname powers, I’m going to have to pass on this one from the get-go.