IGN has a great article unearthing the secrets of the Wii controller. A couple interesting things to note. The batteries are two AA batteries that will last between 30 and 60 hours, depending on what features of the remote you use. Upon booting up, some LED’s will show how full the batteries are, which is cool.

Nintendo uses a sensor bar to detect remote movement, and you place this bar on top or below your television. It is about 20cm in length and has sensors in each end.

The controller uses Bluetooth technology to communicate with the console, like the PS3 does. It operates on a 2.4GHz band. All the buttons on the controller are digital. I don’t think that refers to the trigger button under the remote.

Lastly, there a little bit of memory on the controller, but nobody seems to know what it’s for. Strange, huh?

IGN: Wii Controllers: Unlocking the Secrets

Popular opinion, and a bunch of gamer surveys, show that the Wii holds more interest for gamers in Japan than the PS3 does. These reports are contrary to what Amazon.com Japan sees when it comes to their shoppers.

Accoring to PUNCHJUMP, Amazon Japan has published a graph that shows the customer interest in each platform, and the 60GB PS3 edges out Nintendo’s Wii. Not suprisingly, the 20GB PS3 was the least popular choice.

Like all speculation without any actual sales numbers, this should be taken with a grain of salt. Nonetheless, I find it interesting that Japanese gamers seem to talk up the Wii, but when push comes to shove at an online store, they’re more interested in the PS3.

How will things turn out in the real world? We have four months to find out!

PS3 more popular than Wii on Amazon Japan

Is Sony changing their strategy when it comes to the PlayStation 3 versus the PlayStation 2?

… Kutaragi said Sony would be diverging from the traditional model of hardware, content, and royalties–which he referred to as a product of “the Nintendo era.” He stated that in regards to the PS3, “our message is clear: hardware is our business.” Rather than selling hardware at a loss and compensating with royalties, Sony plans to make the PS3 “a common platform, on which top programmers can realize their full potential.”

But, of course, they will continue to release first party games for the PS3. So I don’t know how that is really diverging in any way from the past. “More than Microsoft,” Kutaragi says, “Apple is closer to our vision [for the PS3].”

I have a MacBook and an iPod nano, and I think that both are technological wonders. I am new to the whole Apple ownership thing, only recently having bought my MacBook, and getting my nano last year. I really understand how the cult of Apple has formed - these are great products that inspire loyalty. If Sony wants to do the same by building an ecosystem around the PS3, like it says in the article, then more power to them.

Sony: I’ll even tell you exactly what to do to achieve this. One. You know that copy of Linux you keep saying will be included with the PS3? Make sure it isn’t brain-dead like PS2 Linux. Keep it open, publish specs, allow homebrew. Two. November 2007 price drop. Three. Last but certainly not least - lots of good games.

Kutaragi: Sony aims to emulate Apple with PS3

EA has annonced that their project code-named Project Gray Company is actually going to be the game Lord of the Rings, The White Council. The game is scheduled to ship in late 2007 for the PS3, as well as the PC and Xbox 360.

Not much is known about the game, but there is a little info. Executive producer of the game Steve Gray said, “You can choose to follow specific Story Quests, embark on a range of other types of quests, or set off on your own adventures in the massive open world environment.”

In case you’re yearning for some videos and screenshots, IGN has some.

I have LOTR:RotK for the PS2 and it’s a great game, and I’ve been playing it co-op (of course) with my friend Mike. We got stuck, though, on one of the levels and we haven’t played it since. Of course, these two games are totally unrelated, so I don’t know why I mentioned that. Just to express some frustration I guess.

Next Generation - Next-Gen Lord of the Rings RPG Unveiled

When I was in grade 5 my parents enrolled me in piano lessons. We used the Royal Conservatory of Music curriculum. And don’t let that “we” fool you - I didn’t have any choice in the matter. I spent a lot of time learning a lot of boring songs, and I can’t say I enjoyed it all that much. Playing music didn’t seem to be my cup of tea.

Well, until Harmonix came along. They added some sugar and ice to that tea, and now I love it. Their first game was Frequency, and I still think it stands up very well. My friends and I think it’s actually a better game that its sequel, Amplitude. Amplitude has a better multiplayer mode - everyone’s on the same screen. But it feels less like you’re actually playing a track. In Frequency the feeling of playing the bass or drums or synth or whatever was a lot more immediate - it really felt like you were playing the instrument. In Amplitude it’s like you took one step back from it. Also, another advantage of Frequency over Amplitude is that it had better songs. Actually, most of the songs in the two games aren’t really my cup of tea, and that’s where Harmonix’ next title, Guitar Hero, makes the big leap, in my mind. It just has a bigger selection of better songs than Frequency or Amplitude. On the other hand, multiplayer isn’t as good, and you can only play with two players and not four.

It’s still a good game and I’m eagerly awaiting the sequel, due to arrive in the fall. Harmonix is also evaluating the next gen machines to determine what they’ll do there, according to this Joystiq interview with Rob Kay of Harmonix. Unfortunately, they don’t give any hint as to what kind of game they’ll make for which platform. But if their track record is anything to go by, then it’ll be a fun game to do with music! (What keen insight I have!)

Chris sent in this link about the yields on Cell processors being really low. I’ve seen several other articles on the net about the same thing, but decided to hold off on posting about it until I got a second view.

NexTechNews - Poor production to plague the PS3/Bluray?

And here it is, from The Register. Yields of 10% to 20% aren’t very good. Sure, I’ll take that. It’ll make the Cell processor more expensive for Sony until they can increase the yields. Sure, I’ll believe that too. But the real problem for me is this: will it mean that Sony won’t be able to ship the PS3’s it promised? Not necessarily. The Register points out that yields of chips with 7 SPE cores operational are 10 to 20 percent. Cell chips with fewer than 7 SPE cores operational can still be used, even if they contain just one usable core. Personally I don’t know who uses these chips but my guess is that IBM would charge less for these chips and that customers would be found. But anyway - that’s getting off topic. We care about the chips with at least 7 operational SPE’s. With yields of 10 to 20 percent, will I still get my PS3? The Register did some napkin math to get the answer “yes”:

At 20 per cent yield, that’s 64 Cells per wafer, so Sony needs 93,7500 wafers to in 4.5 month to get enough Cells. That’s 20,833 wafer starts per month, which isn’t entirely out of order, given not only IBM but Sony will be producing Cells destined for PS3s.

So Sony might just squeek by. Of course, this calculation assumes that yields are 20% and we all know that they’re actually between 10 and 20. But who’s to say that yields won’t increase as time goes by? Actually, we know they will - that’s how these kinds of things work. The question is just how fast will yields increase?

So is it time to panic? No. Is it time to be concerned? Personally, I go by the motto “don’t sweat the little stuff”. So I’m not gonna worry about it. If it turns out to be a problem, then so be it. We’ll complain when the time comes.

Reg Hardware - IBM: Cell-like CPU yields 10-20 per cent

One of my favourite games is Champions of Norrath (CoN). Prior to that game, I’d never played any RPG’s, so the idea was new to me and fresh. But that’s not the main reason I liked the game. Sure I played it a full weekend straight when my wife was away with the kids. After a while, though, playing single player didn’t interest me too much anymore. It’s the multiplayer co-op aspect that gives the game such lasting appeal. I still play CoN and its sequel, Return to Arms (RtA) with my friends and have a blast.

I’ve always made it abundantly clear here that I prefer multiplayer games. I love sitting down around my TV with my friends, gabbing about the latest happenings inbetween bouts of killing, racing, hacking, and slashing. And while playing against one another is fun, we’ve found that co-operative play can be even more fun.

It’s fun in games like Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter to plop ourselves down in a city with 40 bad guys and go on the hunt. “By the fountain! By the fountain! Got two - there’s another three sneaking around the west side!” It’s really a blast, and it helps to play on a large HDTV!

VicViper over at bits & bytes & pixels & sprites makes a strong case for co-op play as well, and he says it much more eloquently than I can. Check it out. I hope that in the next generation, co-op and multiplayer becomes more important, not less. It’s disappointing to see a game with such potential as PGR3 go to two-player. Let’s hope that more games go to multiplayer and co-op modes, like Resistance: Fall of Man.

bits & bytes & pixels & sprites - Dear Next-Gen, Can Co-Op Come Out and Play?

Do you like the PS3? Do you think that maybe you’d like to own one someday? Or maybe, you’re just slightly interested in the PS3? Do you have hours and hours of free time, which you struggle to fill up with something to do?

If any of those conditions speak to your heart, why not try something really old-fashioned, and read a novel really long article about the PS3? Some dude who calls himself EbonySeraphim (literally, that means “black angel”) had some time on his hands and so decided to do a rundown of everything available about the PS3, comparing it in many cases to the 360. As well, he tries to debunk some of the slander thrown the PS3’s way (successfully or not is up to you to decide).

I started reading this and frankly my eyes started to glaze over and I fell out of my chair displacing my hip. So I’m not so sure I’m gonna try again. But I guess I really should, to see if there are any nuggets that are new in there. Do I have any volunteers to summarize the best of this article? Anyone at all? Do I hear crickets?!?

A very small thanks to Segitz for the tip. (I would have given a big thanks, but there’s that hip thing.)

PS3 Forums - PS3 Hardware: Explained

With all the bad mojo about Sony recently, it’s nice to see someone back Sony up on something. And that “someone” is the president of a big gaming company.

Midway’s president and CEO David Zucker thinks that Blu-ray is an asset for Sony and the PS3 in the upcoming console war. That’s something I totally agree with, and I like the fact that the president of a large gaming company agrees with me. I had to give him a call to convince him to come out of the closet!

Not only that, he also thinks that the price of the PS3 isn’t so bad. Remember that the PS3 will sell for $600, and that the PS3 Jr will go for $500. Mr. Zucker says “There’s a lot in the PlayStation 3; think about the fact that you get Blu-ray, the next-generational leap in DVD - you get a Blu-ray player in the machine. When you think about that and some of the feature sets that come with it, including the hard drive, it seems like a reasonable price for the early launch. Presumably that price will come down over time as they move through the console cycle.”

GamesIndustry.biz - Midway boss backs Blu-ray

IGN has had hands on time with the Xbox 360 version of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2007 & there are a few notable changes to the game from the Tiger Woods ‘06.

There will be 12 courses for you to smack the little white ball around compared to the disgraceful 6 that featured in Tiger Woods ‘06 on the 360, with 15 golfers to choose from. That’s still a lot less than what’s featured in current gen games. However Tiger looks incredible apparantley thanks to the new Universal Facial Capture Technology. Sadly only Tiger has been created using this technology.

The controls have been changed back to a more user friendly method with the left stick controlling the fades and draws and the right stick now controlling the loft.

The PS3 & 360 versions will apparantley be nearly identical with just a few visual differences.

IGN - Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2007 Hands On

The EA Sports Tiger Woods website has more images, tons of info, a producer interview & strangely there is no mention of a PS3 version at the top of the main page.

EA Sports Tiger Woods Website

Here’s an interesting phone call from a GameSpot podcast. The caller doesn’t seem too happy with Sony & it’s PR department…

Sony Fanboy

Thanks to Taffy for bringing this to my attention.