Wii

On a lighter subject today. Like many people has said, Wii really stands out against the PS3 and Xbox360. I don't have one yet, but my heart tells me I will get one once I can find one.

I think most of the video games today has lost appeal to me because they focus too much on graphics than game play. Graphics is important, but without a solid game play behind it, it is just some pictures. One other problem with today's game graphics is too much 3D. I am old enough to play Doom when it first came out. It was a whole new experience at the time. I love 3D graphics. But a lot of people failed to see was the 3D graphics in Doom is strong related to the first person shooter game play behind it. It was innovative not just because of the graphics. The graphics only gave it a new level of realism. I do not understand why RPG games are in 3D. RPG is a fantacy game and it is not based on realism. Anyway, enough ranting on 3D graphics.

Wii's control opens a whole new demension for game play, especially in fighting games like Street Fighter 2 (did I say I am old). It is never intuitive to use combinations of button pressing to do a move. That never felt natural to me. I think the Wiimote will allow a new spread of such games.

I like innovation. I do not like people just repeat the same experience over and over again. This is pretty much what the video game industry has been doing. Few games has the fresh feel and even fewer of feel fresh are good. Where are the Simcity, Doom, Civilization, Ultima VI of the 21th century?

I hope Wii is a start for the gaming industry to look at new ways to change the gaming controls. Wii showed it can be simple and cheap to produce. With device miniturization allow motion sensing to be fits in such a small space, a lot of possibilities are out there.