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The Week in Review

Mr. Nash

March 4, 2006

Well, this week started off with a whimper. Sure we got some leaked images of a possible Microsoft handheld system, but other than that there have been nothing but tumbleweeds rolling by for the most part. Thankfully there were some announcements in the last couple of days that kept this week from being utterly boring, and turned the week into a surprisingly happy, pessimism free time.

The Origami Project?:

At the start of the week, message boards were aflutter with news of a possible handheld system from Microsoft being codenamed the Origami Project. You see, over the weekend the promotion company handling the unit accidentally let some movie clips showcasing it become downloadable over the site. In the hours that followed, news sites everywhere were posting images of the handheld, discussing the units possible functionality.

While it is cool that the Origami Project can play games, it seems highly unlikely that this is the primary function of the system. It’s still quite clunky in its present form, prohibitively expensive, and seems to be more suited to doing things that one would usually need a tablet for, with perhaps a little bit more functionality thrown into the mix.

One of the things that people seem particularly keen on is that the unit may have some connectivity with the Xbox 360. To what extent this will be is unclear, but given that Microsoft has been interested in connectivity in modern homes for some

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time, that may be part of it. What the Origami Project looks like more than anything, though, is a multi-purpose device for home and abroad. It would be naive to assume that the main purpose of the thing is for games. Given the price, and the apparent functionality of it, pigeonholing the thing like that just seems stupid. If it can play games, great, but I'm going to expect a hell of a lot more out of the unit than just that.

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The Best of Platinum Hits:

A best of the “Best of…” series? Well, that certainly is different, and the name isn’t all that exciting (Where’s the zazz?), but be that as it may, it’s one more step towards nice, cheap games. In this case games that clock in

at $9.99US. Sure a lot of these games are old, but that doesn’t mean they’ve somehow stopped being fun. In this new series Microsoft and other publishers who have jumped on board will be releasing games such as Project Gotham 2, Soul Calibur II, and older Splinter Cell titles for this new price.

What will be particularly interesting is whether or not Sony and Nintendo decide to follow suit. They both have Greatest Hits lines that sell for around $20US, both with a fine selection of games. Will this move by Microsoft be enough to get series like Gran Turismo, and Metroid Prime down to the $10 mark?

Oblivion Gets Dated:

Possibly the happiest news of the week for Elder Scrolls fans, the fourth installment in the series has finally been completed, and Bethesda plans to ship the title out on March 20^th. If the game proves to be even half as good as its predecessor, gamers could be in for quite a few sleepless nights. Add in the joy that is voice acting from Patrick Stewart, and this new title has the potential to be a gamer’s ultimate wet dream.

Atlus Continues to Throw Curve Balls:

Is it so wrong to want to hug a game company? It seems that in the last 12 months or so Atlus has been announcing that they are releasing interesting niche titles for North America with increasing frequency. Now they’ve gone ahead and stated that they have a trio of games headed to the handhelds. First, they’ll be bringing the delightfully unusual, off beat Contact to the DS, and, what a lot of old timers will likely be happy about, they plan to release a couple of Super Robot Taisen games over here (the original two).

I’m certainly all for off beat games that do things a little differently, and even throw in a sense of humor, but what is particularly nice to see is that Super Robot Taisen is coming over here. Sure, these particular games won’t have Gundam and the gang (likely due to licensing issues), but for those of us who’ve been playing games for decades, and remember seeing brief mentions of the series in magazines, it’s about time it came to these shores.


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