I wasn't aware new Mario Kart and Smash Bros games were coming out next year Shift Key. Glad I'll be able to use basic online features like voice chat with them next year.
I see what you did there! And with such wit. I am humbled by your wordsmanship.
See that? Two can play at the sarcasm game, wise guy. For the record, voice chat on XBL has given me the opportunity to endure trash-talking from teenagers who demonstrate limited vocabularies (and who do not appreciate the fine insults like "miserable toerag"). I can't wait for that sort of experience to come to the Wii. Oh damn, you caught me. Sarcasm again!
For all I care, AC can be the only game that uses it, and there will be much rejoicing because the teenage girls playing it will love it and I'll be elsewhere, not caring about voice chat. Because I prefer multiplayer games with people in the same room - it makes victory snatched from the jaws of defeat all the sweeter when the losers can't mute my celebratory cussing.
I said on this front not in general Shift Key can you read? Yes Sony and Microsoft have made bad choices in other areas that doesn't mean it nullifies Nintendo's.
Au contraire, my funnily-named friend. You're skewing the playing field in favour of what I consider to be a minor thing. If we consider this as one situation (and not several fronts, this isn't Normandy) then the sins of the gaming outweigh the sins of the firmware.
However both of Nintendo's competitors have gone with the more sensible option of an open system they have change and improve at any time. So it's fair game to criticise Nintendo for doing a worse job.
Dear me, you haven't been paying attention. Still can't see the trees for the forest.
Sure, in bizarro world where "open systems" matter and games don't, the others might be winning in terms of third-part support, marketshare, revenue, moneyhats, rap battles, whatever metric matters to the precious industry. But this is the
vidya game industry, and any and all criticisms should be weighted up against that simple measuring stick.
Does it change my gaming experience for the better? This isn't simply a contest of "haves" and "have-nots". I consider firmware to be a moot point in all this - pretty colours and shiny things given to distract people from the fact that they're not playing vidya games. Perhaps you think differently, but I remember the days when the firmware was so basic that they NEVER UPDATED IT, and the only time spent using the console without playing vidya games was the few seconds when you watched the loading screens pass.
But no, these days I've got to go through bloody menu systems three deep in order to get to the actual game, and woe betide any time I need to change the configuration of the system, because then i'll have to go through an illogical menu system to do simple things like changing screen resolutions. And even though we've moved to disc-based media and faster processors and more memory (damn you Moore, you'll pay for this), we've got MORE ingame loading and MORE company graphics before the title distracting from the actual vidya games.
But having complex firmware that can change at will, that's a good thing? No, its not. Its symptomatic of components of the industry focusing on things other than the games. I'm sure I've taken you way out of context, but you seem to be a broken record that Nintendo is responsible for some dud firmware. So jump in and correct me, I can't wait for your next rambling post.