Retro Beever

2011? A great year for games? Pah! The past is where it's at! Retro Beever will be bringing you all the gems of yesteryear, as well as some titles you may have overlooked, so, get in your Delorian, strap on that seatbelt, and let's go back to the future (of gaming)!

Happy New Year From Tech Beever

So 2011 certainly crept up on us! In the grand old tradition, hope you had a great new years celebration, blah blah, hope you wern't too drunk, blah blah, and here's to a tech filled 2011!

Happy New Year!

Tech Beever Rant: Exploding Wii's (Doctors say price cut is to blame)

According to EA CEO John Riccitiell feels a price cut would give the console a significant boost. After a drop in sales during 2010, the CEO quoted

"I would say they did exceptionally well in '07 and '08, started tapering in '09 and '10, and... I think if they were to price down to $99 (£63.92 to us Brits), they would explode," 

Explode? Really? Because that seems a very big claim to make. Is he suggesting that if you purchase a Wii after the suggested price cut, the console would explode? 

I'm no sales expert, but I'd say exploding consoles aren't the way to go.

Obviously, he is infact talking about sales. But that's far from the truth. Sure, the price cut is great value, but the fact is, the Wii's motion controlled gaming are now miles behind that of Kinect and Playstation Move. The Wii may have more games as of present, but 2011 will see developers pouring their souls into the Xbox and PS3's new, far superior Motion Controlled gaming. They're both in HD, and whereas Move is, in all fairness; a better Wii, Kinect is leaps and bounds ahead in terms of inovation, an developers are going to want to get a piece of that action.

The Wii, rest it's soul, is dying. But look at it this way; Nintendo were facing a hard time. After the commercial failure of the N64 then the Gamecube, they were heading the same way as Sega (R.I.P). Considering the Wii is just a fancy, souped up Gamecube, Nintendo have done tremendously well with the Wii, and no doubt it's successor will double Nintendo's earnings of the Wii.

But then again, if it has a price cut...BOOM!!

The Beever has spoken.

Beever Rant: 3D iPod will trump 3DS

Industry analyst Michael Pachter thinks the 3DS is a revolutionary product, but he expects Apple to trump it with a 3D iPod in the future.

"On the handheld side, I see the 3DS as truly revolutionary, but expect Apple to copy it and improve the design with a 3D iPod, and to again begin to erode Nintendo's first mover advantage," he predicted in an interview with Konsolifin.net.

"Nintendo has iterated its handheld's frequently, and may succeed in holding Apple at bay; it will be interesting to watch."

Intresting, yes. But a 3D iPod? The only controls the iPod has, are touch screen and tilting the device. Hardly grounds for 3D gaming; If you move the screen, what happens to the 3D visuals? They dissapear. 


Now, if Apple made a standalone gaming console to rival the 3DS and PSP2 (note: PSP2 isn't 3D), then this would be grounds for a genuine argument. However, I can see no reason why Apple would take all the gaming revenue away from the iPod, iPhone and iPad, the companys biggest incomes, just to accomodate 3D.


Sorry Michael, the Beever has spoken.