Dale Weir's blog

I'm looking for a some sort of metaphor for the Dreamcast as I write this, but I can't think of one. Even three days after the 10th anniversary of its launch—yeah, I know I've have 10 years and three days to think of one—I can't quite put into words what the Dreamcast was.

It's safe to say that the Dreamcast was Sega's last shot. After ill-conceived business decisions during the 1990s that led to increasingly useless console upgrades like the 32X and Sega CDX, Sega found itself in dire straits. It really only had the capital for one final Hail Mary or it would have to abandon the hardware market. So Sega partnered with NEC and Microsoft and put everything it had into what was really the console that could have been its savior. I bet it thought, as many of us did at the time, that the tech, the partners and the software were more than enough to create a console that would stand up to its competitors for years.

What the PlayStation 3 has lacked until now in its losing battle with the Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii is a compelling price point.

That looks like it will finally change this September—or maybe before that. Sony has announced it will drop the price of the PlayStation 3 (80GB model) priced at $399 to $299 immediately. That means you can run out right now and get the current PlayStation 3 for $299. What interesting though is that in a couple of weeks (September 1st), you can go to you local electronics chain and get a sexy new, slim version of the PlayStation 3 for $299 as well. On top of that the slimmer version comes with a 120GB hard drive.

You didn't really think Ubisoft was going to make a sequel to Beyond Good & Evil did you?

IndustryGamers: Most publishers make decisions based on sales, so what made Ubisoft decide to pursue Beyond Good and Evil again?

Laurent Detoc: Well, I didn't say there's definitely going to be another game. I said something had leaked, which means we've been working on some Beyond Good and Evil stuff, but whether there's going to be another game or not, that's something for the future. But getting to your question as to why there's work on the IP again, it's a creative people business; the creative talent is interested in it and possibly exploring how to do it from a new angle.

Not to sound like a tool, but this was just a brilliant idea. Yesterday (Thursday, July 23rd), Nintendo promoted the launch of Wii Sports Resort by turning Military Island in Times Square into a mini-Wulu Island. Granted, it could have been better had it taken place on a larger piece of real estate, but short of cordoning off Central Park or Coney Island, this is not too shabby.

Despite the close quarters, it looked like a cool event, I'm sorry I missed it.

Can't get enough of seeing your favorite video game vixens (and Link) in risque pictorials? Well, how about a burlesque show? The show was put on by the Devil's Playground burlesque group for a Video Game Girls event in Los Angeles. The dancers here aren't female gamers, but for the most part they did a job on the costumes and the seductive dancing.

The law affects electronic distractions so we're talking about surfing the web—I've actually seen people with laptops in their laps while driving—and texting—we've all seen this I'm sure. It also involves gaming which I never figured someone would feel a need to do while driving.

...assuming you are a member of Club Nintendo.

Come on Nintendo, make Doc available to everyone who bought the game. Free DLC or code, just give make it available to the few Wii owners who actually gave you money in exchange for playing Punch-Out!!. Don't make them work so hard for it.

Shia LaBeouf sits down with BigDownload to talk about Transformer: The Revenge of the Fallen The Game. Nice to hear a celebrity that is an actual gamer, though not particularly surprising coming from a twenty-something year-old, white male. LaBeouf talks like many of his characters: without an edit button, some cockiness and a whole lot of sass. When you're done reading this interview you not only have an appreciation for his love of gaming, but also his contempt for the Wii.

Susie Sahim, the artist behind many of Google's event-based logos and and known to appreciate Legend of Zelda—and Link in particular, is believed to be have deliberately hidden tiny TriForces in her work. Neither she nor Google would confirm or deny anything.

Words can not begin to express just how much I truly want to play Team ICO's The Last Guardian. Playing ICO and Shadow of the Colossus evokes emotions I used to only have while playing the Legend of Zelda games. Now that Nintendo is running that series into the ground, all that are left are the Team ICO games.

From the first sighting of the boy's monster/pet/friend, I have been eager to jump into that world, explore its environs and see where the story will take them.

Below is the inevitable comparison between the leaked proof of concept video that made the rounds a few weeks back and the final trailer that Sony showed off at E3 2009.

The Last Guardian is set for release sometime in 2010. If the game is anything like the trailer, that will be a very long wait.