?? There are some awesome games for the DS and the Wii.

I think he meant there are MORE great games now as opposed to the 80s and 90s.

Oh, okay.

Hey anyone playing Carcassonne, it's lots of fun. It seems like a simpler game than Catan, but I can't put it down. I think if you liked Catan you will like this game.

Carcassone is great. I know a bunch of us are playing -- me, Uncle Gramps, Canis Firebrand, xmiyux, Liver and Onions. Probably others too.

I am playing Carcassone as well. Tag = Wowous

playing Carcassone as well --- tag: zombiereign

Deflated Pigskin: PS3's Football Troubles
How Madden, All-Pro and NCAA ain't looking so good on PS3.
By Bryan Intihar, 06/29/2007

They may call baseball America's pastime, but in the world of videogames, that honor easily belongs to football. No other sport has racked up software sales quite like the pigskin offerings, and no other sport has been so vital to the success (PlayStation 2 having Madden since Day 1) and failure (Dreamcast never got it) of hardware. The importance of this genre is just as relevant today, yet it seems Sony's console ain't sittin' so pretty this time around.

We have confirmed the Xbox 360 versions of Madden NFL 08 (August), All-Pro Football 2K8 (July), and NCAA Football 08 (July) will run at 60 frames per second, whereas the PS3 editions are locked at just 30fps. In the simplest of terms, this means that the 360 versions will run smoother and faster, and you'll have an easier time noticing subtle animations.

While we haven't had the opportunity to see the difference with EA's titles (the publisher hasn't sent us PS3 builds of either), All-Pro Football 2K8 definitely runs better on Xbox 360.

Now, you'd think Sony would be doing everything in its power to make sure these system sellers are par with -- or better -- than Microsoft's version. That's not the case, as Sony seems to have a "hey, we can do it -- why can't you?" attitude. "We have already proven that sports titles can run on the PlayStation 3 at true HD with 1080p output with NBA 07," says Dave Karraker, Sony CEA's senior director of corporate communications. "If you have questions about specific third-party games, you should speak to those publishers."

OK, we will. After seeing Sony's response, Todd Sitrin, EA's vice president of marketing sports branding, replied:

"We want to make sure that we give the best experience we can on each platform. In designing a game, there are all sorts of tradeoffs that include frame rate, visuals, features, AI, etc. Football is an extremely challenging sport to replicate because of the number of people on the field, their interaction, and the scope of the environments. As you can see, every company making a football game this year made a decision that the best experience for the Xbox 360 included 60fps whereas the best experience for the PS3 was 30fps. We certainly believe that both the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions are our football products are outstanding experiences and recommend that each gamer look at the entire experience, not just one aspect. We think they'll be very happy no matter which version of the game they play."

Unfortunately, the folks at 2K Sports refused to comment.

Aside from the simple fact that this puts the PS3 at a disadvantage (again), this situation (and Sony's response to it) raises all kinds of questions: is Sony's console really that much more difficult to develop for? What is Sony doing to educate its third parties on PS3 development? And after Karraker's comment, do they even care to help? A few weeks ago, Karraker tackled the subject on Sony's PlayStation blog:

"If your game starts on Xbox 360 you will have to re-engineer aspects of the game to run properly on PS3. This means additional effort. Some developers have been complaining about this but I don't believe we can solve that. Xbox 360 is a different machine with good, but lower powered hardware in a different architecture. Developers have to view them as two different machines not as a common platform."

It's worth pointing out that EA's been working on Xbox 360 hardware a full year longer than PS3. With Madden, it's almost understandable, but 2K is having the same issues with All-Pro Football 2K8, a game built from the ground up to be released on both platforms.

With this now in mind, does this change which version you're going to buy?

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3160709

MSFT is "bringing it home" again this year at E3. Check out the vgtalk main page...or just look here for what kind of games we can expect content on:
* “Assassin’s Creed” (Ubisoft)

· “BioShock” (2K)

· “Blue Dragon” (Microsoft Game Studios)

· “Burnout Paradise” (Electronic Arts Inc.)

· “CALL OF DUTY® 4: MODERN WARFARE™” (Activision)

· “FIFA Soccer 08” (Electronic Arts)

· “Guitar Hero III” (Activision/RedOctane)

· “Lost Odyssey™” (Microsoft Game Studios)

· “Madden NFL 08” (Electronic Arts)

· “NCAA Football 08” (Electronic Arts)

· “Need for Speed: ProStreet” (Electronic Arts)

· “Project Gotham Racing® 4” (Microsoft Game Studios)

· “The Simpsons Game” (Electronic Arts)

· “Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08” (Electronic Arts)

· “WWE® SmackDown® vs. Raw® 2008” (THQ)

There's awesome 1st and 3rd party titles for the DS and the Wii. But there's also a lot, and I mean a LOT of crap. Look at how many games are in "red" at Metacritic for the DS. Compare that to the 360. Even the Wii has a lot of "yellow" games. This is not scientific, but it's somewhat close.

(The N64 had some terrible games, but it wasn't 25% of its library).

<hr>

Also:

Blue Dragon - 8/28

Hopefully we'll get a few demos in the mix, and not just trailers. I'd love a demo for Assassin's Creed, Bioshock, or the new Burnout game.

It says " A selection of game trailers, themes, gamer pictures and demos will be available from the hottest E3 titles such as these:"

http://www.joystiq.com/2007/07/02/ad...-achievements/

Fucking vomit.

EA did that with Fight Night R3 already....

Not surprised at all, especially since in EA's Fight Night the names of events and achievements included whatever sponser was tied to the event.

Nice. I'll cross my fingers and hope that they aren't all sports game demos.

I know it's a slippery slope, but there are only 3 sponsored achievements out of 50 for the NCAA game.

And hardly surprising given how every minute detail in football has a sponsor. From the water/drink bottles on the broadcast desk to logos on coaches shirts, to on field advertising. At least, so far, they kept it to a game where it makes some sense.

I hate sports promotions like that as the next guy (especially given the quality of EA Sports' achievements in other games). One that always cracks me up in real life is in baseball, the Red Sox at least have Lojack's Caught Stealing promotion where they give some money to charity or something if the Red Sox catch a player trying to steal a base.

Just about every team does something similar.

The Suns give away $100 for every 3 pointer to charity....

The Diamondbacks have a home run inning where they give X amount of dollars to a random person, as well as a charity, etc.

Considered one of the great classic video games from the Golden Age of Arcade Games, Atari’s “Missile Command” comes to Xbox LIVE Arcade for Xbox 360 this Wednesday, July 4 at 9:00 a.m. GMT (2:00 a.m. Pacific).

While staying true to the original arcade classic, the enhanced “Missile Command” for Xbox LIVE Arcade has players acting as regional commander of three anti-missile batteries defending six cities in their zone. As Planet Zardon is under attack by an endless hail of interplanetary ballistic missiles from Krytol, players must act fast to fend off the missiles and keep their cities intact. Gliding across the sky, players complete levels by taking out all enemy weaponry. At the end of a level, players can earn bonus points for the more cities that remain and the fewer missiles that are used.

“Missile Command” will be available worldwide for 400 Microsoft Points and is rated E for Everyone.

Game Features

* Beautifully rendered 3D graphics and updated music and sound effects
* Up to two players can play together locally or over Xbox LIVE
* Earn up to 12 Achievements and 200 Gamerscore points

http://gamerscoreblog.com/team/archi...lecommand.aspx

yuck

Doesn't really bother me, since achievements flash on the screen for a few seconds and that's that.

I never minded in-game ads for sports games either, such as NBA 2K7's "Toyota Moving Forward" replays since that's what happens in real games anyway.

they could argue that they are "imitating life", considering how everything on television has some sort of advert with it.

I mean, even the clock at wimbledon has a name attached to it. Often the score ticker on ESPN will as well

In the very least if they want to go the sponsorship route, it should be a company sponsoring free Live content... as in 'Weapons Pack 2, brought to you by Kelloggs'.

The Bellagio presents Rainbow Six: Vegas - Green Pack.