86 games for the 360, 45 for the PS3 143
MBCook writes "Joystiq has posted lists of 86 Xbox 360 and 45 PS3 games that are expected to be released in 2006. They contain expected games (Halo 3, Killzone), ports (Burnout Revenge, Half-Life 2), sequels (SSX 4, Armored Core 4), and more. As for the Revolution? From the third link: 'For those who are wondering: the Nintendo Revolution list is just 8 titles long right now. Nintendo is being characteristically tight-lipped about their plans for the Revolution.'" The word seems to be that some of the mystery around the Revolution will be revealed at this year's GDC.
But how many are any good? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Final Fantasy (Score:5, Interesting)
FFXII is for the PS2, not PS3, so it's not a next generation game in the first place.
That being said, did you play the demo that came with DragonQuest VIII? Ugh. To whoever was complaining about "long cutscenes to complete moves" (which DragonQuest VIII has in spades, BTW), that's not a worry in Final Fantasy XII - because everything happens in "real time." Instead, you just kinda stand there, and watch your party beat up enemies without ever having to lift a finger. Then, once they've cleared out the enemies in the area, you can just point them to the next cluster.
At least the AI doesn't suck - it's good enough to play the entire game for you! It looks like Square-Enix has finally gotten "interactive movie" down to an art.
(Although, to be quite honest, the worst part of the demo disk was the trailer. Apparently you're going to be "sky pirates." And, no matter how cute they may look in anime, "bunny girls" should never, ever, be rendered in 3-d. Plus, one of the races looks suspiciously like Jar-Jar Binks...)
But you are missing something... (Score:5, Interesting)
Of those supposed 86 Xbox 360 titles, how many will even be decent? Judging by the fact that out of the 15 or so launch titles, maybe 1 is decent that equates to about 5-6 decent games over the full spread. So in a year and a half you get 5 or so decent games. Now, how many of those are cross-platform or PC games? Oblivion, anyone? And the fact that the Oblivion system specs. were released and not too massive (2ghz, 512MB, common ATI/Nvidia cards, DX9).
Same for the PS3. Oh, but wait Sony has said time and time again that the PS3 is NOT a game console. They are banking heavily on the blu-ray angle. We are all aware of the standard Sony fare and the same proportions of decent:crap as MS. So they may have 3 solid titles out of their lineup.
To buy either the 360 or PS3 to play a handful of titles that are still a year out is a bit silly. Add to this the slow release schedules due to cost and dev. time and you have two expensive consoles that will be seeing more standby time than action. Unless you use your PS3 to play all the Blu-Ray discs you will be buying up like crazy to replace those "so-outdated" DVD's you just built up. I guess just like how we all own so many UMD movies and games... ooh, and mini-discs, don't forget the ubiquitous mini-disc in America.
Two powerhouse machines built around closed standards, DRM, and hype... or the Revolution, with close to open development, low cost, quick development time, standard media, and a back catalog a mile long... even if you are a fanboy it is hard to not see this.
Re:But you are missing something... (Score:3, Interesting)
In fact I'm not a Nintendo fanboy even, I am purely hopeful that the system will be very popular to help open up gaming back to small teams and creative individuals instead of big faceless corporations. Only good could come from Nintendo's success on a number of levels.
Look at Project Offset, that is a team of basicaly two or three guys and they have the ability to turn the current status quo on its ear. But they are subservient to finding a publisher who isn't going to rape them, which is damn near impossible. Now, with low cost (free?) development tools for the Revolution a small team like this and many more like them can change the face of gaming and break it out of this stagnation and downward spiral of fun and actual design.
I'm all for that. However, that doesn't mean the Xbox 360 and PS3 are weak or not rediculously powerful. It just means that the priorities are out of whack and the main focus (the games) is sadly low on the list.
Re:But you are missing something... (Score:3, Interesting)