11/17/2006

The dark side of a system launch

Well, the PS3 launch is done. Probably won't have anymore available for quite awhile. Plenty of hopeful gamers/profiteers went home empty-handed. But that didn't stop enterprising thugs from trying to rob/steal in order to get a huge payday. It's easy to point the finger at Sony for sending out such a ridiculously low amount of units, but they didn't create the insane demand or the ridiculous ebay prices. You can almost guarantee that the Wii launch won't have this happen thanks to the low price and much higher availability (although I wouldn't be surprised to see a few soccer moms duking it out a few days before Xmas because they weren't smart enough to snag one earlier).

More reviews are coming in on the major Wii launch titles, and the overall opinion is very positive, including games I thought for sure would be poorly done ports such as Marvel Ultimate Alliance (which got a 4/5 at Gamespy). Verdicts haven't come in on kiddy fare such as Spongebob or Avatar, but I doubt there are high expectations on those. One title that has gone mysteriously quiet is Red Steel. The latest previews talked of big improvements, but with almost no reviews of what was supposed to be one of the biggest launch titles (and the one that initially got me interested in the Wii to begin with) makes me think it will unfortunately be very underwhelming, making the Wii lacking in an exclusive FPS that was truly built for the system. Oh well, Madden is looking like a very solid third option to round out my library.

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