So E3 is upon us. The time for new games and this year, new systems! What're you looking forward to? Keep us updated on big news! The official E3 2005 topic is here!

A friend of mine will be sitting on the Tomb Raider stand. Josie ( http://josienutter.com/ ) is one of the programmers on the next Tomb Raider game, and she's also a cyber/goth model. According to her she'd rather be wandering around in a fun outfit! That said, I suspect many of the attendees would rather that too...

I'm actually keeping an eye out for the new action RPGs. Rick rips through those and I'd like to help him find things to keep his ADD-ridden ass entertained (it's amazing how he goes from cool surfer/skater/drummer guy to complete geek when you put an RPG in fron of him).

That said, is there any word regarding another Elder Scrolls game or a sequal to Champions of Norrath?

Haven't heard anything about them, but if you have a PS2 Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows might be good. Not completely an RPG, but it looks like a good romp. I wouldn't worry about sequels to your games, though, Ri. They're pretty much a garuntee.

(Ask pgrmdave for info on action RPGs for the computer. He's much more knowledgable than I)

I did hear some rumblings about a new Elder Scrolls game, but it's kind of short on details

Clicky clicky

PS3 official! New Devil May Cry game for it! New Viewtiful Joe!

(check gamespot.com for the best updates)

*twitch*

Dangit. I was just ready to get a PS2.

You still can, and it will probably be a lot cheaper now than before. I'd be a bit surprised in the next gen consoles come in at much less than £300 to start off with, that was the price point last time.

Do you guys think that the PS3 will be backward-compatable like the PS2?

PS3 is backward compatible to the PS1. Also, the new Elder Scrolls was announced and the Revolution is to be announced tonight.

So you won't be able to play PS2 games on the PS3, only PS1?

I think he ment it'd be backward compatiable with PS2 AND PS1

^Indeed.

Has the XBox confirmed backwards compat yet? I think I remember hearing that it would have it, and considering the standardised media it would be daft if they didn't.

I'm actually pretty worried about the next gen stuff. It's estimated that games will cost around $20m to make, jumping up from $10m-15m at the moment. Most companies don't make much on games as it is (so they tell us, poor wickle games industwy) so who's going to pay the extra $5m? Is it us? Or are we just going to get pop-up adverts on our games every five minutes, streaming junk from the web that we don't want to see but we can't stop otherwise the games would all cost £60?

I'm sure there are a number of developers out there having the same concerns. I've not been able to afford to buy first-hand full-price games for a fair while now, and I just see it getting worse. Christmas time for parents is going to be pretty nasty too...

I hear you , but I don't think that'll be the case. I think that there'll be developers that spring up to meet that middle-market, producing games that cost a reasonable amount to make, but lack the shiny FMV ludicrousness of the top-tier efforts.

It'll be like the Speccy days again. £1.99 for a tape with a game on it down the newsagent!

*feels giddy*

_A_ game? There was often two or three games and a couple of playable demos! Those were the days...

'Course, we've got the internet for that kind of thing now.

Rumours are that Micro$oft is earning that dollar sign once again by pushing for games being £60 each (that's around US$100). I had been being slowly turned to Xboxyness, but that's definitely put the kybosh on that.

60 quid you say?

Be fair, it's not that much more than the 50 quid price tags I remember seeing when N64 launched. Or PS2 for that matter. And considering you've got 4 years of inflation at a couple of % a year, it's not that outrageous is it?

Give it a year or two and the prices come crashing down. I'm considering giving up riding the bleeding edge of the technology wave, and sitting a year behind the crest meself. Easier on the wallet, and it's not like I've got any kind of shortage of games to play in the meantime.

Oh, and if you think American gamers are going to pay $100 per game, you've got another think coming. Even more reason to import your machines in the future.

Or maybe a rise in the bedroom programmers, like the lovely blokes at Introversion Softwre, who made Uplink and Darwinia.

Except there aren't dev-kits for the XBox going for free. Nice idea though.

I'm actually a little interested in the way that some of the mobile platforms are going. Some of them appear to be compatible with more standard programming languages, so there might be a real homebrew circuit there. I've got a few home-made games on my GP32 and they're great.

There's been a homebrew GameBoy scene for years - there's a funky little device that is the size of a cart, but is essentially a caddy for SD media cards, which then allows you easily transfer stuff from PC over to GB/GBA.

Thing is, until recently, a portable system was that so much less powerful and complicated that the idea of knocking up a bit of code yourself for it wasn't ridiculous. Mind you, PS1 had that too with the black Net Yaroze machines.

The leap in the technology is really going to pose some issues for homebrew coders. I think that's a great shame, because in my opinion it's those kind of people who come up with the small ideas that re-energise the industry. It's easier to play when you don't have a huge financial imperative and focus group behind you.

EDIT: Speaking of which, I'm really looking forward to Rag Doll Kung Fu... When the guy eventually finishes it...

I haven't paid more than $20 for a game in a long time. I buy games that are at least one year old - they are just as good as when they first came out, and they are sold for much less.

Heh, nice idea. In the UK it takes about three or four years for a good title to drop the US$20. The 'low price' of a decent game is usually around £20 (c. US$37), new games are usually £40ish (c. US$75). This is why I haven't bought a new game for ages.

The last game I bought was Project Zero 2: Crimson Butterfly for the PS2. That was £6 in a very rare actual-clearance sale at HMV (rather than a 'we ordered 300 copies of Hulk and need to shift some of them' clearance sale). Usually I have to spend around £15-20 to get a game, even a year after release.

Importing is appealing in some respects, but I don't like the idea of not being able to walk into a shop and buy something on impulse if I really wanted to.

Of course, I am torn on the idea of getting games for free through p2p or cd burning. While I like the idea as a gamer, and as someone who doesn't have much money, I want to either program or design games for a living, and that would cut into my livelihood. It is very similar to the problem for entertainers, but more detrimental. Game designers/programmers, while well paid, are not superstars. And, ironically, the companies that produce the games that gamers want most are the ones most likely to go out of business because of theft.

I've always felt a bit guilty about downloading games. They're long lasting, highly enjoyable, imersive and cost quite a bit to make so I'd rather buy a game if I can to make sure the good developers can afford to keep going. Just doing my bit.

I only download games that I've either once owned and now lost (Dungeon Keeper, Civilisation II, etc) or that can't really be found anywhere anymore, at least from any "official" source (NES games etc).

I have occasionally used bootleg games, but this is only when I cannot afford to buy one. If I really like something I will usually go out and buy it anyway.

I had the album 'Earth V.s The Wildhearts' on tape for about ten years before I got around to buying a copy, but I got there in the end!

But you don't lose the ability to impulse purchase with importing. You walk into a shop, see what's on offer, then go home, and buy it for half the price (Ebay is your friend, as is DVDBoxOffice). In all honesy, that's what I do for most of my PAL games anyway, given that I can buy them cheaper online. Only time I buy games in shops is special offers (2 for 20 quid kind of thing), or brand new day of release games (and I can't remember the last time I did that). I shudder to think how much more the lifetime costs of owning my xbox and gamecube would have been if I'd bought them in this country.

Let's do some maths:

Import set up costs:
Power Transformer: £20
Imported mahcine: costs the same + ~ £30 shipping + import tax at ~£50 (guesses those numbers).

So you're looking at about 100 quid set up cost at the front end of importing. Tops. If the exchange rate is decent, you might even save some on the initial cost of the machine. For software, sites like DVDBoxOffice do free delivery worldwide. So you're not looking at paying any shipping on new games. You'll save just under 15 quid on each new game you buy if you're buying from the US ($50 for a new game vs £40 for a new game). So if you buy 8 new games over the lifetime of the machine, you've broken even. Any more than that and you've saved yourself money. And you'll save a few quid on each older game too. How many new games have you bought for PS2 over the last 4 ro 5 years? Our friend Ebay allows us to resell the games on too once you're done with them.

Plus you don't have to wait an extra year for the PAL release.....

Once thorny issue might be online support though - not sure if my US Xbox would work on Xbox Live in this country. That will probably continue to be a problem for next gen machines too....

Yes, the online aspect certainly does add a new layer to the complexity of the issue. I'm sure that somewhere will work out a way around that, although places that do chipping have been being shut down by people like Sony and Micro$oft. It they wanted to stop imorting then they should sort their release schedules out and charge us all the same price. Until they do that then they've really got no reason to complain about people getting their machines chipped in my opinion.

Did I tell you I made a friend online who works for SCEE (Sony Computer Entertainment Europe)? His exact words (pasted from his email) from us talking about us Europeans getting shafted by the PSP release schedule.


[emphasis mine]

See, that's something I'd not fully understood - "...software release dates are set by the publishers...", so after launch, the fact that we have to wait months to get the games is little to do with the console manufacturers.

(Yep, you did gleefully mention your Sony friend. I'm getting third person freebies, remember? )

I'd realised that there was most likely that as a factor. After all, they want to start getting revenue from their product as soon as possible, and the time spent during localisation could merrily be putting dollars and yen in the bank, however, it still strikes me as bizarre to penalise those who wish to import their games. I suppose that Sony has to protect their interests of its publishers who want to release to the UK (and Europe) later but we still pay a lot more for a game than the rest of the world. Is it purely taxes? I know we have higher taxes than the US, but does that really account for the doubling of prices?

We might get some more features after localisation, but I doubt that is more often the case than not. The Metal Gear series is the only one that I recall to have added anything for Europeans lately.

I do understand the business reasons for it, but it's hard not to feel a little cheated anyway. Higher prices and delays for the (in the majority of cases) the same product that has been available in the US for months? Who wouldn't feel a little put off. Even if the release schedule does eventually become co-ordinated, the pricing is still a ligitimate gripe, and potentially one that will get worse with the next generation of games.

One of the reasons that I've always liked Sony is the Platinum range, but even that seems to have been put on a back-burner recently. Certainly, you can't blame publishers for wanting to keep their products at full-price for as long as possible, but the leap in sales after a price-drop should certainly send out a clear message for the spending habits of consumers.

Of the few games that I have bought 'new' in the last few years, I don't think I've ever paid the full-whack for them, £30 is pretty much my limit because I just can't justify to myself £40 on a game.

This has always been the situation really, but it's in my mind at the moment because I suspect it's going to get worse soon.