On The Verge

It’s Wednesday night as I write this, and my son and his gang of gamers have been beating on Halo 3 for more than 24 hours excepting school and sleep time. They are an enthusiastic bunch. And they all profess to really like Halo 3. But for the life of me I can’t detect the kind of rampant enthusiasm that might drive Xbox 360 to the top of the game console market. The game was evidently released to reviewers last week and most gave it a very positive review. I’m not so sure it’s a runaway hit. Now I wouldn’t be an appropriate judge of Halo’s prospects. But the crowd gathered in front of our big-screen TV has proven accurate in the past. And like I said, they are clearly in like but I don’t know about love.

The tidbits that I’ve gathered go something like this. The graphics are way better. Fellow EDN editor Brian Dipert posted on the Halo 3 intro last week with links to movies of some of the scenes. My crowd also seems to like the new weapons although to my eyes they seem to be just another way to shoot the bad guys. Most reviews such as “Halo 3 lives up to the hype” in USA Today indicate the real advantage of the new release comes in multi-player mode. My crew has been playing in that mode, but I don’t know how many of the new capabilities that they’ve uncovered.

If I’m wrong and Halo 3 is the bomb, then Microsoft may finally take over the console market. Sony has still not delivered compelling titles with the overly complex cell processor and my gamer gang isn’t fawning over a PS3.

Nintendo Wii remains a conundrum to me. Most new owners are enthralled when first using the gesture based interface of the console. But will the enthusiasm last? Brian Dipert voiced a similar opinion in this post last month. The post drew quite a few dissenting comments. But I have to concur. The Wii is exactly the kind of console that I could get interested in. I was excited about Wii Sports when we got the console a few months ago, but quickly grew tired of the limited functionality in the “free” title.

We were an early buyer of Tiger Woods Golf for the Wii after already shelling out for the same title on Xbox 360. Now I much prefer the potential of the Wii interface. But the Wii implementation in terms of an accurate reproduction of what might happen in real golf is horrible. Perhaps the developers rushed the title to market. The 360 version, while more boring in the controller-based play, is an accurate representation of the game. Nintendo badly needs a breakout title. Moreover, I expect Microsoft and Sony to offer gesture-based controllers sooner rather than later.