On the Nintendo Revolution Controller

You can’t play a video game without the controller. The controller is the player’s interface with the system and the game. Nintendo has, like Sony and Microsoft, been developing a new system, code-named Revolution, for launch next year to replace the GameCube. Nintendo has always been tight with information on their products, and there hadContinue reading “On the Nintendo Revolution Controller”

On a PlayStation 2 Problem

I have a slim-line PlayStation 2. The original model of the PlayStation 2, released in 2000, was supplanted with a newer, smaller, slimmer model in the fall of 2004, and I traded my old, clunky, big system in toward the small system when it released. Now, Sony has issued a recall on the slim PS2Continue reading “On a PlayStation 2 Problem”

On Grand Theft Auto: The Less Naughty Version

I am asked almost daily, “When’s the cleaned-up version of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas coming out?” Next week, as it turns out. It seems that we’re the only retailer still carrying the Adults-Only rated version of the game. Our competitors all pulled it, sometimes hypocritically, based on the merchandise they sell. But for thoseContinue reading “On Grand Theft Auto: The Less Naughty Version”

On the Literary Perfect Dark

When Microsoft’s XBox 360 launches this fall, the expectation is that the system’s must-have game will be Perfect Dark Zero, the prequel to the best-selling first-person shooter Perfect Dark on the Nintendo 64. But wait! some fanboys are saying. Isn’t there already a prequel to Perfect Dark? Wasn’t it called GoldenEye, since Perfect Dark wasContinue reading “On the Literary Perfect Dark”

On Rockstar, Grand Theft Auto, and Bully

Every day at the store I have customers asking whether or not I have Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas in stock. Monday I fielded a phone call–the guy wanted to buy ten copies of the XBox version of the game for a quick turnaround on eBay, he said. Unfortunately, since every other retailer on theContinue reading “On Rockstar, Grand Theft Auto, and Bully”

On the PlayStation3's Cost

Sony let the cat out of the bag today, revealing projected production and retail costs of their next video game console, the PlayStation3: nearly five hundred dollars to make, sold at four hundred dollars for a loss. This I like: This puts Microsoft in a very good position. It has a console of comparable abilityContinue reading “On the PlayStation3's Cost”