The Game Doctor

[The Game Doctor has been a legend in the electronic gaming industry since he debuted in the world's first video/computer game publication, "Electronic Games" in 1981. He has answered software-related questions in more than a dozen magazines and gaming sites. As a long-time fan of POSTAL, he has made periodic pilgrimages to the gopostal.com site and now returns to answer questions for The Urinal. Doctor, your patients await… The Gimp]

Well, it's that time of year again - post-E3 letdown. And with three next gen consoles getting the debutante treatment, this question came in from several readers, so we'll just boil it down to its basics and I'll do my best to answer it.

Q: Okay, Doc, I presume you've now seen the PS3, XBox 360 and Revolution. What's your diagnosis?

A: The Doctor has yet to see any of the three systems mentioned in my office for full inspection. They really resent having to wear those paper gowns. But I will share my first impressions of the Big Three (even if the DS and PSP are the machines that have captured most of my interest at the moment).

Nintendo's Revolution - Nintendo continues to move more and more into its own world. This is the only system of the three, for example, that is not equipped to play hi-def games on hi-def TVs. They have also further entrenched themselves in the kideogame ghetto by putting the emphasis so strongly on the tent pole franchises (from Yoshi to Zelda). That may be a very wise strategy for them, since I don't see any Nintendo system software out-grossing the stuff they've got coming on the other two systems. (And speaking of games like Killzone and the other couple dozen massively violent pieces of potty-mouthed software being pimped on the 360 and PS3, the big retailers better get used to selling lots of "M" rated games if they intend to remain in the videogame business.

Nintendo's big push re the Revolution, however, is its vaunted capability to download NES, SNES, N64 and GameCube titles as well as the Rev software. This, of course, introduces something of an enigma, as in: What the heck is the controller going to look like?

As with so much of Nintendo's presentation, the answer was a coy "Wait and see."

XBox 360 - This system left me shaking my head. Clearly, there must be more to this machine than we've being shown. It's an upgrade on the XBox, but not much of an upgrade based on the games being demo'd - especially when compared to the stuff with which Sony was blowing people off the floor. The weirdest thing about this rollout was Microsoft's unwillingness to be straightforward vis a vis the question of backward compatibility. We heard variations of "many of the most popular XBox games will play on the 360" but no specifics. We could be looking at a system that plays 360 software plus the two Halos. It also gave me an unpleasant feeling of déjà vu - now why would the 360 have me thinking about the Dreamcast and the Sega 32X? Hmmm… I think we'd better do some tests.

PlayStation 3 - This was the show hottie, but it's also going to be the last system out of the gate (not due in the USA until fourth quarter of '06), giving the opposition a healthy head start. Looks like a dream system (much more than a game machine, its hi-def DVD capabilities alone will sell many systems). The software they demo'd was probably pre-rendered, but jeez, if they can even come close to the stuff they sneaked at E3, the PS3 will catch up with and surpass both the Rev and the 360 within months of its release. Of course, looking at a system that's a year and a half away is really peering through a glass darkly.

And that's a wrap for this issue.

For answers to the most Frequently Asked Questions, check out the official GoPostal.com site. But send any new questions regarding RWS, the POSTAL franchise and anything else that occurs to you to: GameDoctorKunkel@gopostal.com.