Well, a lot has been going on in the past couple months in the gaming industry as a whole. A tsunami of change is approaching next year and it's going to alter the shape of things to come. If you don't already know, Playstation 2 was unveiled last month at the Autumn Tokyo Game Show and given a release date of March 4, 2000 in Japan, and a subsequent American Release period of Fall 2000. Sony has already 46 American game developers, 27 European, and a whopping 89 Japanese all working on titles for Sony's supersystem. The Playstation 2 will not come with a standard analog modem like Dreamcast but rather be capable of receiving broad-band data commuication via cable modem or other such device when such technology is widely distributed amongst users in both countries. Sony feels that to deliver the greatest gaming experience possible via the internet it needs to raise the bar in terms of how much data can be transferred. The new playstation will use a new encrypted 8 MB memory card to save files on. (The current Playstation memory card holds a capacity of 128k) The PSX2 can read audio CDs, Original Playstation CD's, DVD Movies, and DVD-ROM discs and uses MPEG2 full motion video compression. The read-drive runs at 24X for CD's and 4X for DVD.

There's a Final Fantasy strata RPG lurking out there for the regular Playstation, in the future and it's called Legend of Dragoon. Legend of Dragoon is going to have FMV of Squaresoft caliber, be 4 discs long, and have a more active gameplay style although this is all I know at the moment. When I learn more, you can bet I'll be talking about it. Parasite Eve II is well on it's way to a release in Japan. Chrono Cross and Legend of Mana are nearing completion as well, we very well may see these games by mid next year if not a little sooner.

Nintendo's holiday mistake. Perfect Dark. It isn't coming out... ... ... WHAT ARE YOU THINKING!? Instead it has been DELAYED yet AGAIN until April of next year. You know, it's just isn't funny anymore. Perhaps the greatest sequel to Rare's GoldenEye to come along in the last couple years on the N64, and they decide to postpone it's release in favor of Donkey Kong 64. Donkey Kong!? And guess what? If you want Donkey Kong be prepared to shell out 70 bananas for it! Nintendo's reasoning for this high price tag is that it comes bundled with the 4 MB RAM expansion pak. Oh whoop-de-doo, so what about the suckers that already bought one? I guess if I want that game (which I don't) than I have to pay an inflated price and get a useless piece of hardware that I don't want. Might as well come with a chew toy for my Rotwieler. I can't believe they went with Donkey Kong for their "Big Holiday Game." Total Bummer. Maybe the only thing that redeems them from total Munchkin Teletubbism is that they are releasing Resident Evil 2. If by some quirk of fate your an older gamer and don't own a Playstation and haven't played Resident Evil 2 a while ago, you might as well get this one. Even the FMV quality is intact, which is surprising considering the N64 is cart based. I've got to give Capcom credit for making miracles happen in that regard. If anything made you doubt that Nintendo prefers to cater to children rather than adolesent and adult gamers than the pic below should convince you.

Okay, a neon green, or clear purple controller was a different approach to an old standby, but in my opinion this is over the edge. Do you want that thing sitting on top of your TV (which is probably black), next to your VCR (which is probably black), your stereo (which is probably black), your computer (which is probably grey), your Playstation (which is grey), or your Dreamcast (which is grey). I mean come on, it's NEON GREEN for crying out loud. It's going to stick out like a sore thumb! You know why they did this? Little kids are drawn to bright colored objects, case in point all the baby, Little Tykes, TYCO toys, and Duplos. In the toy store a little kid about 5 to 10 will look at all the video game systems on the shelf and pick that one, not because it is better technologically, but rather because it is designed to suck them in. That same kid will then pester his parents to buy the thing just because it looks like a toy, and of course those parents will go rushing to the store to spend those loose Christmas dollars on the thing because the kid wants it. Actually, it's a brilliant marketing strategy, but it really sucker punches older gamers. If I didn't own an N64, I would never buy this. I hear grumblings of "me too" I-Mac out there, and I think they look kind of odd too. Good novelty item or computer for the kids, but to actually use the thing every day? I couldn't see myself doing it without embarrasment.

There is light at the end of this dark tunnel of infantilism, and it's being called Dolphin. (a lame name, but Dreamcast and Wonderswan isn't any better - where do these people come up with this crap) Nintendo has partnered up with ArtX, MoSys, IBM, and S3 Texture Compression for it's next generation console technology. This could very well put it into a dead heat with Sony's Playstation 2 in terms of raw power. S3 will allow for high texture resolution resulting in crisper, sharper surfaces and impliment compression to decrease the size of the textures by a factor of 6. Nintendo's Project Dolphin is currently scheduled for a worldwide release in the Chrismas season of next year. So far no screenshots have been released or hardware unit images.

If the console wars aren't enough for you yet wait until Microsoft gets into the frey with its as of yet mysterious "X-Box" Not a surprise Microsoft wants to get involved. If it's got a CPU in it, Bill Gates want's Microsoft software running on it. What is X-Box you say? Apperently Microsoft seems to be teaming up with Dell and Gateway computer manufacturers to make a standardized Gaming unit that will play all computer games on the market and use Microsoft DirectX architecture to power the software produced for the machine. Supported rumor has it that it will contain a 500 Mhz AMD processor and a 256-bit Graphical Processing Unit using GeForce to operate on graphical production alone leaving the CPU free for Artifical Intelligence and logic processing. It will also most likely include a 56k Modem w/Microsoft Internet Explorer browing capabilities, 64MB of RAM, USB, and a DVD drive. Gee, might as well buy a whole computer, has just about the same specs. The idea behind this device is to standardize PC games to only run on DirectX and allow developers to concentrate on game production alone rather than compatability issues. Developers can also avoid profit cutting Liscensing Fees associated with console gaming companies like Nintendo, SEGA, and Sony, thus increasing the quantity but perhaps not the quality since there will be no governors on what critera must (although I sometimes wonder how many console games sort of slip by the QC department) be met prior to a games release. This one's still not finalized yet and probably won't be unveiled until COMDEX. There is some doubt over this machine due to the lightning fast speed in which the PC market progresses. New, better hardware comes out every month, will a standarized PC based gaming system really work for very long? Or will it quickly be overtaken by newer system. Frankly, I don't think it's going to hit that big. Sure there will be buyers, but when it comes to games, I have many more titles for my console systems than my PC. I have the core titles like Doom, Duke Nukem, Zork, Quake, Myst, Riven, Sim City 2000, and Wing Commander 3, that's about it. Overall, I very rarely use my PC for gaming. I would say the percentage of time I spend gaming equates this way, 90% console, 10% PC. I tend to shy away from PC games due to pesky driver conflicts and compatability differences. I've often found myself returning a game due to such issues. I'm sure this is the reasoning behind the X-Box, but really, the Console gaming market has center stage for home gaming, and computers are designed for Multi-Purpose use outside of the TV. The X-Box looks to be another Hybrid that may just fade into the depths of deceased hardware ideas like the Jaguar and 3DO. Only time will tell.