Remember when the gaming press covered Nintendo not supporting HD on the Wii? There were two camps. The one side was very upset that Nintendo wouldn’t support it and the other didn’t care at all. I was one who didn’t care. In fact, I used to support the decision. Very few people could even take advantage of the HD functions of the 360 and PS3. So what did it matter?

I have come around on this issue. Sure, I think my original point is still valid. Most people don’t have HD TVs, including most “casual” gamers (oh no, I used the “c”-word!) , and they were the target consumer base for Nintendo. But now I am one of the HD-snobs. In my apartment we have an overhead HD projector. I measured it at 83 inches and it is just sick looking. The games just look great in HD. Take a look at some pictures:

Alpha 3

Braid

And for next-gen games made with HD in mind: Check out these Silent Hill: Homecoming Photos. These are not screen shots, just photos I took.

Silent Hill: Homecoming

Silent Hill: Homecoming 2

Silent Hill: Homecoming 3

I just took these with my camera. If you don’t think it looks that great, take a photograph off a standard def TV and compare the two.

So which me is correct? The old me, who says Nintendo is right not catering to the a/v geeks and HD is irrelevant? Or the new me, who says Nintendo is missing out? I’m interested to know, how many people are playing games on HD? Is that an issue for you when buying a console? Is HD here, or is it still a few years off from being the norm?

PS- Sorry, if I am come as a braggart in this post….but it is awesome

It turns out that my fears regarding the new Silent Hill game have, thus far, been largely unfounded.

I’m about 2 hours into it.  It’s not flawless.  A few complaints, but they are admittedly nit-picky.  So far, Double Helix, so good.  I hope it continues to be this good.

The art style of Street Fighter IV is definitely something to write home about, but all of us above the age of 20 were still halfway sad to see the (numbered part of the) series finally abandon its 2D roots (yes, I understand Arika and the EX series exist, and as much as I enjoyed it, it’s still an off-shoot… that can be a story for another time).

Holy Hell, SNK/Playmore is totally keeping 2D alive with &%#$ing STYLE.

The King of Fighters XII is looking to totally blow the socks off of us 2D-fighter fans. Game Trailers has the latest preview video up for viewing, and it’s sexy as Hell. This game is going to be an amazing compliment to have alongside all of the 3D fighters we either already have (Soul Calibur IV) or are coming soon (Street Fighter IV).

My history with the KoF series is a little all over the place. I was very casual about it up until around 1998, and then got incredibly hardcore with it (well, “hardcore” for me). After 2000, though, the games all started bleeding together for me… not to mention the bosses got slightly ridiculous both in style and cheapness (seriously, Goenitz… bite me). ‘99 was probably my favorite game in the series thus far. I know a lot of the seriously-hardcore fans have a problem with the striker system, but the specific characters that were in the game, the backgrounds, and the music (oh god, the awesome music!) are what really sell the game for me. I also dipped into the Maximum Impact series, and thoroughly enjoyed 2006 / Maximum Impact 2 despite its transition into quasi-3D.

There’s not much of a point to this entry other than to check in with you all and see what your hype level is for the upcoming fighters… and specifically, KoF. Who’s really digging the updated style for the series? Who’s picking up the American release of ‘98 Ultimate Match on LIVE Arcade, and/or already picked it up on PS2?

I’ve got some more SNK love coming for you soon with some talk about a game I finally picked up for myself on Neo-Geo Pocket Color…

Wow, apparently the documentary was requested back for another week due to high demand, so you now have a second chance to see Blip Festival: Reformat the Planet at Pitchfork.tv. It’ll be up until Aug. 29th, so go! Now! Watch!