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Coffee Talk #347: Your Least Favorite Console Launch

I’m late to the party on the Nintendo 3DS…and I’m trying to figure out where the party is. As a frequent flyer and huge portable gamer, the 3DS is off to a disappointing start. What was your…

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, whether Derek Jeter is washed up, the brilliance of Hall & Oates, or your favorite Thundercat, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

I’m late to the party on the Nintendo 3DS…and I’m trying to figure out where the party is. I loved the potential of Nintendo’s latest portable gaming system at E3 2010 and the handful of times I got to play it between then and launch. After a few weeks with the system, I’m completely underwhelmed.

I have five 3DS launch titles and the only one I’m regularly enjoying is Nintendogs + Cats. That game hardly pushes the 3DS’ capabilities and the charm is largely the same as the original’s. I know that the 3DS will have great games in the future and I’m sure I’ll eventually love the system. As a frequent flyer and huge portable gamer, I’m really disappointed in the 3DS’ weak start. Next time I fly, I’ll probably leave my 3DS at home and play games on my iPad 2.

I don’t remember the last time I was this underwhelmed by a console launch. A new system usually brings something new and exciting to the table. The 3DS only does half of that. Where there any console launches that left you feeling flat? Kindly name the console launch (or launches) that disappointed you the most.

Random Thoughts (Not a Review) on Thor

I caught a screening of Thor (Imax 3D) last night and was pleasantly surprised. Here’s the spoiler-free summary: it’s worth seeing. Kenneth Branagh did a fine job directing what’s arguably the toughest movie in The Avengers series. It’s hard to convey the awesome power of a Norse god (Branagh did this) and it’s easy to get caught up in ridiculous mythology (Branagh avoided this pitfall). The movie is well paced and entertaining with some beautiful set pieces and great action scenes. While I didn’t enjoy it as much as Iron Man 2, I liked Thor on its own and as part of the lead-up to The Avengers. Now here are some random observations, criticisms, and silly thoughts on the movie. Spoilers ahead!

Costumes: The Asgardian costumes worked way better than most people expected (I had faith they would work). A lot of my friends ranted about how ridiculous the Asgardians looked in the stills released to magazines. I had no problem with the costumes in the movie. They looked fine on the Asgardian sets and appropriately out of place on the Earth sets. They also looked much better in motion than in stills — even Anthony Hopkins’ Odin getup!

Action: I love how modern action movies convey power. That’s one problem I always had with the original Superman movies — his punches never seemed epic. When someone like Superman or Thor lands a punch, people in the next county should feel it. Whether it was Thor bashing frost giants in the face or him decimating the ground with Mjolnir, the blows had an impact worthy of a god.

Warriors Three: I loved that these guys were in the movie and were mostly true to Stan Lee’s designs. That said, I would have done things differently. Fandral would have been played by Cary Elwes. Volstagg would have been green screened so that he’d be ridiculously large compared to his two companions. Hogun wouldn’t have sounded Asian; the character was modeled after Charles Bronson after all. When the Warriors Three and Sif were walking into town, there’s a hilarious bit with the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent calling it in. That was my favorite joke in the movie.

Loki: I was really impressed with Tom Hiddleston’s Loki. He had more depth than any other character in the film. Hiddleston did a wonderful job of making Loki seem charming, manipulative, and damaged all at once. I hope he gets some time to shine in The Avengers.

Thor: While Loki arguably stole the show, I was satisfied with Chris Hemsworth’s performance. From the trailers I knew he’d have the action elements down. I was pleasantly surprised by his charm. He also did a good job at transforming from an arrogant godling at the beginning of the movie and a more understanding deity at the end.

Signs: Of course there was a Stan Lee cameo, but I loved the use of signs in the movie for nerd shout-outs. There was one billboard that said, “Home of the Vikings”. That’s an obvious gag. There was another one that ended with, “Journey into Mystery”. That’s a super-cool and nerdy gag. Longtime comics fans will know that Journey into Mystery became Thor’s book starting with issue #83.

Chick Flick?: A lot of fanboys I know were worried that the movie would have too many scenes with a shirtless Chris Hemsworth. That wasn’t the case at all. His shirtless scenes were brief. If anything, there’s a lot of eye candy for guys and lesbians. Natalie Portman (Jane Foster) was a beautiful braniac. Kat Dennings (Darcy Lewis) was snarky, super cute, and charming. Jaimie Alexander (Sif) had the sexy warrior goddess thing going. There were plenty of beautiful women in this movie.

Hawkeye: When Thor is trying to get Mjolnir back from S.H.I.E.L.D., one soldier goes for a bow instead of a gun. As a Hawkeye fan, I totally marked out. Of course this soldier ended up being Clint Barton! I hope he gets some bad-ass scenes in The Avengers.

Asgard or Mondrian?!?: Most of the set pieces were good, but there was one set that looked more like an Ian Schraeger hotel than a room in an Asgardian palace. It was kind of disorienting.

Black Heimdall: He was cool.

The Destroyer: He was cooler.

I was very satisfied with Thor. The action was great and the bits of humor were fun. The movie flowed nicely and I love what these Marvel movies are building towards. As a standalone movie, I enjoyed Thor. As part of The Avengers I liked how this tale is different from the Iron Man movies and presumably different from the Captain America movie. The movie succeeded in entertaining me, making me want to rewatch the Iron Man movies, and increasing my anticipation for the Captain America and The Avengers movies.

Of course I can’t wait to discuss the movie with you! If you catch Thor, kindly share your thoughts on the movie.

Coffee Talk #346: Gaming While You’re Sick

Yesterday it was 90 degrees in Los Angeles…and I spent most of the day under a blanket. It absolutely sucked to be sick and weak on such a beautiful day, but I think I made the best of it…

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, Lorenzo Lamas taking his wife’s name, “Sugar” Shane Mosley’s chances against Manny Pacquiao, or new iMacs, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

Yesterday it was 90 degrees in Los Angeles…and I spent most of the day under a blanket. It absolutely sucked to be sick and weak on such a beautiful day, but I think I made the best of it. My gaming habits are a little different when I’m sick. I like to dumb it down a bit and stick to games that I can play blindfolded. I spent most of of my couch time playing Civilization Revolution and doing random battles in Final Fantasy III. I watched some motion comics and WWE documentaries. While I didn’t get to enjoy the beautiful day, it was as good a sick day as I could have imagined.

What kind of games do you play when you’re sick? Are your sick games different than your regular games? How about other nerd activities like movies, comics, and TV? What kind of media to you devour on your sick days?

Coffee Talk #345: PSN Outage Further Killing Sony’s Brand?

Gamasutra’s Colin Campbell wrote this excellent article on how the PlayStation Network outage has further devalued the PlayStation brand. I don’t think he went far enough. The PSN outage has damaged the (already declining) Sony brand.

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, those pesky Memphis Grizzlies, the Bin Laden attack being described on Twitter hours before the U.S. government acknowledged it, or wanting to hug awesome apps, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

Gamasutra’s Colin Campbell wrote this excellent article on how the PlayStation Network outage has further devalued the PlayStation brand. Colin is awesome and his article is great, but I don’t think he went far enough. There’s no question that the PSN attack has damaged the PlayStation brand. It’s more than that though. The PSN outage has damaged the (already declining) Sony brand.

Remember when Sony was the premiere name in consumer electronics? There was a long stretch when the consumer electronics market was Sony, followed by everyone else. From televisions to audio components to laptops, Sony products were almost always best in class. A lot has changed since then. The company absolutely bombed in the modern portable audio space (which is funny because it basically created the market with the Walkman). PC manufacturers were able to offer computers that were almost as nice, but much cheaper. The television market got a lot more competitive, with Korean companies like LG and Samsung outdoing Sony in both price and performance.

For two console generations, Sony dominated the field. Its third go-round didn’t go nearly as well, for numerous reasons. Although the PlayStation 3 was starting to pick up steam globally, the PSN outage will definitely impact performance and perception. Rightly or wrongly, people will use the PSN outage to illustrate that Sony has lost its grip on yet another market.

What do you think? Will the damage be confined to to the PlayStation brand or is the Sony brand in jeopardy too? Or is all of this being overblown? Perhaps the PlayStation and Sony brands will be just fine by the end of the year. Kindly share your thoughts on the nebulous value of branding!

Say Hello to the White iPhone 4

Please please please check out this flippant video of the white iPhone 4. It’s certainly a gorgeous piece of consumer electronics — I almost want to make out with it. For size comparison, I filmed it next to the HTC Thunderbolt and the LG G2X. While the white iPhone 4 is certainly prettier than those phones, it doesn’t offer the Thunderbolt’s awesome LTE speeds or the G2X’s incredible Tegra 2 performance.

Will the PSN Outage Lead to More Xbox 360 Gamers?

Sony’s PlayStation Network security breach is arguably the biggest story this console generation. While writers and gamers alike are talking up the PSN outage, I have to question whether all this talk will lead to action. (I studied philosophy. I question everything.) According to a survey conducted by CouponCodes4U, more than 20 percent of people that are PS3 gamers are considering leaving for Xbox 360 due to the security breach. Here’s a clip from GamePolitics:

The survey found that 21 percent of PlayStation 3 owners said they were “considering selling their console in order to switch to rival console, the Microsoft Xbox 360.”

The majority of respondents — 89 percent — admitted that they were concerned for their personal data, with names, email addresses and assumed stolen by hackers. More than three fifths ( 65 percent) of video gamers said their trust in Sony and the PlayStation Network had been ‘greatly affected’, while just fewer than 9 percent said that it “hadn’t affected their trust at all.”

Keep in mind that the sample size of 2,132 people is relatively small. I’m inclined to dismiss the numbers because of the sample size. Still, the findings are fascinating. Sony has been picking up steam globally, with the PS3 recently overtaking the Xbox 360 in worldwide sales (depending on whose numbers you believe). Will the PSN security breach halt that momentum? Will gamers with PS3s only defect to the Xbox 360? What do you think the longterm damage of the “external intrusion” will be?

Source

Coffee Talk #344: Do You Care About the Little Guys?

As I was sipping coffee with one of my industry friends, I was surprised by his lengthy and passionate rant on PSP Minis. Do you guys and gals care about the little guys like PSP Minis and Nintendo WiiWare?

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, your favorite NBA playoff performance thus far, tea, or white phones, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

As I was sipping coffee with one of my industry friends, I was surprised by his lengthy and passionate rant on PSP Minis. He loves them. He thinks they’re underrated. He believes there are plenty of cheap gaming treasures to be had with PSP Minis. And he was sad that most gamers don’t seem to care.

To be fair, he loves small indie games. He plays more PSP Minis, Nintendo WiiWare titles, and Xbox Live Indie Games than anyone I know. He made a great point though — why are most gamers ignorant of these games? I’m certainly guilty of not paying as much attention as I should. Part of it is that these games don’t get any marketing money or coverage from the press. There’s also a lot of crap buried with the treasures. It’s hard to find the good games when you don’t hear about them and have to sift through a lot of garbage to find them.

Do you guys and gals care about the little guys like PSP Minis and Nintendo WiiWare? If so, kindly share your recommendations. If not, why don’t you care about them?

Coffee Talk #343: Consoles, Personal Information, and You

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, President Obama’s birth certificate, the fate of SETI, or your favorite Britney song, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

With Sony’s revelation that user information — including credit card numbers — was compromised when PlayStation Network was hacked, I wanted to get your thoughts on tying your info to your consoles. I know that a few of you only make console purchases through gift cards and codes. Those of you that do are looking extra smart this week. For those of you that use your credit cards on PlayStation Network and Xbox Live, are you wary of doing so now?

Personally, I’m not too worried about it. In my limited experience, my banks have been pretty good at alerting me about fraud attempts — if anything, they’ve been overly paranoid. Plus, it’s not like I have money or anything (ha!). In the particular case of PSN, I’m guessing that the hack was a result of Sony’s strong-arm stance against people like GeoHotz. I will, perhaps naively, assume that malice was intended towards Sony Computer Entertainment and not its customers.

Now it’s your turn! How do you feel about the issue? Are you paranoid? Are you carefree? Or somewhere in between?

Coffee Talk #342: Sony’s Android Tablet Ambition

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, Iranian terrorists taking over Sizzler steakhouses, currywurst, or Intelligentsia’s Los Inmortales El Salvador: Finca Matalapa Puerta Zapa, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

Will the combination of PlayStation Suite and Qriocity lead to Sony succeeding in the Android tablet market? That seems to be what the company is banking on. Sony recently announced that it will be releasing two Android tablets later this year — a traditional tablet with a 9.4-inch screen and a funky folding tablet with two 5.5-inch screens. While Sony’s “style” will help these tablets appeal to the masses, it looks like the company is banking on its own services to help differentiate its tablets from the numerous Android manufacturers out there. Will this strategy work?

I need to think about it more, but my initial inclination is that these tablets will get lost in the shuffle. On the hardware side, a folding tablet doesn’t have the wow factor of 3D (LG G-Slate) or the practicality of a laptop dock (Asus Transformer). On the software and services side, Sony looks silly compared to Amazon and its aggressive Android moves. I know loads of people that love Amazon’s MP3 Store and several that love Amazon Instant Video. I don’t know anyone that thinks highly of Qriocity. PlayStation Suite has lots of potential and I’d love for it to take off, but a few sources within Sony have told me that the product is getting the bastard treatment internally.

What do you think of Sony’s Android tablet future? Will its slick industrial design, PlayStation Suite, and Qriocity help it rise above the competition? Or will Sony’s products end up being one of several Android tablets released in 2011? Leave a comment and let me know (please!).

Nintendo Wii Successor Coming in 2012: Do You Care?

Nintendo has confirmed that its next home videogame console will arrive in 2012. The mystery console, with the purportedly ridiculous controller, will be shown at E3 2011. Here’s a clip from Nintendo of Japan’s investor relations page:

Nintendo Co., Ltd. has decided to launch in 2012 a system to succeed Wii, which the company has sold 86.01 million units on a consolidated shipment basis between its launch in 2006 and the end of March 2011.

We will show a playable model of the new system and announce more specifications at the E3 Expo, which will be held June 7-9, 2011, in Los Angeles.

I know that a lot of you are down on the Wii, DS, and 3DS (which makes me sad…for the first two anyway), but I wanted to check if you’re curious about Nintendo’s upcoming console? Will HD capabilities, Nintendo’s first-party lineup, and a unique take on games be enough to bring you back into Mario’s world? Or have you outgrown Nintendo? Do you guys care about Nintendo’s next move? Or has the company burned you out with motion and 3D?

Source via Joystiq