DaveB sounds off once again.

So yeah… It's been a while since I've added my two cents to the dialog taking place here on GotSpace. You know, I've been sitting around, biting my tongue, and basically ducking and dodging every request by Bahn to contribute my thoughts and analysis. But you know what? The past few days have more or less pushed me beyond the precipice of temptation. I've reached critical mass, I've got some stuff I need to share, and… There is no and. Just a request for interested parties to listen.

The first order of business in this revival of the "B-Side" has to do with the delay of Grand Theft Auto IV into "Q2" 2008. I think I speak for a lot of people, and the gamer in me, when I say this sucks. Oddly enough, the rational side of me tells a different story. It realizes that we really haven't seen much of the game. Usually with an upcoming GTA, we have months and months of screen shots, trailers and impressions. With IV, so far, we've had two trailers and maybe 15 screens. Something didn't smell quite right with its release looming mere months away. Taking that into account, this delay does not come as a surprise. And you know, I guess on the bright side, all of the really cool games coming out in the fall will no longer be overshadowed by it. Why do I think that its release would have overshadowed a lot of great games? Well, because I see GTAIV as being the first dramatic evolution in the series since GTAIII. While Vice City and San Andreas both had their merits and both did their "thing" equally as well, they didn't feel as earth-shattering as III did. IV, on the other hand, reeks of evolution. It oozes advancement. The game is going to be incredible. And as much as this may take away from my credibility as a critic on the series, this will be the first GTA game I buy. I've got my uber edition reserved because I love swag. 

Moving right along…

This weekend I decided to take and crack open two different Wii games which have come into my possession as of late; Mario Strikers Charged, which I've had pre-ordered for months, and Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition, which was a birthday gift from a friend. With all the love that my 360 has been getting thanks to my late night Gears benders, I figured it was 'bout time to show the sleek, sexy white box some love. Mario Strikers pretty much was everything I expected, and since I had no expectations — I never played the 'Cube game — this is a good thing. It's fast, frenzied, pick-up-and-play action, and also is the Nintendo Wii's first "Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection" enabled game; hey, a half-assed Pokemon game that's only fun if you've invested hours and hours into the DS games doesn't count. From the matches I've played, the experience was surprisingly solid. Once you get past the fact that a good 80% of the time, you have no f'ing idea what is going on — the talk of play being chaotic is not exaggerated — there's a good time to be had. As it stands right now, I've played two matches online. One I got my ass handed to me in a 3-0 shut-out (though I did block all of his megastrike shots) and the other I eeked out a 2-1 victory. It seems to me there are many subtle nuances that I've yet to fully comprehend, but once I do, ohhhhh boy, you best be looking out!

The other half of my "Wii-kend" play session was spent with the Wii version of Capcom's stellar Resident Evil 4. Finally having a version of RE4 with all the goodies which were added to the PlayStation 2's graphically gimped port is indeed a treat. However without bad, there'd be no good. Without salty, there'd be no sweet. And most importantly, without lazy porting, it wouldn't be a Wii version of a title. Indeed, while the talk that the Wii Edition is presented in "true widescreen" (and of course 480p), there's one caveat. On the 'Cube, the textures were 16-bit, but with the boxed-in image, it wasn't at all obvious. The problem is, when you take those same low-res textures and blow them up — remove the bars and stretch the image — the picture goes to hell. I was expecting crisp, clean, Resident Evil 4 sex. Instead, it's really rough, really blurry and quite frankly, an embarassment. Some of the denizens over at the "NEOGAF" say that if you play the game in 480i, it's not as bad, but come on! We shouldn't have to reduce our settings for a game to look good. It should look good running at the system's optimum settings. Agreed?

And if you're wondering, yes, I do love the Wii. Moreover, I really loved Resident Evil 4. It's one of the few linear action games I've played through multiple times (a distinction shared only by Metal Gear Solid and Gears of War). Someone should be ashamed for not taking the extra time and effort to give the game the graphical polish it needed. Hell, even the PS2 version had 24-bit textures. If you're going to expose a game to a new audience, put its best foot forward. Don't just shove something out the door as little work as needed to get it shipped. I know this has (seemingly) become the mentality when it comes to Wii ports, but it doesn't make it right. That's all I'm tryin' to say.

Anyway! With my half-assed Wii port tirade out of the way, allow me to direct my attention to my favorite rumor; Metal Gear Solid 4 coming to the Xbox 360. Throughout the evening, there have been at least two threads on the "NEOGAF" about talk of a retailer offering reservations for the 360 version of the PS3 "exclusive" Konami title. I think my most obvious first response is this; Konami has put years into developing this game. The PS3 does NOT have the installed base to give them the kind of return on the title that you know they want. Having said that, I think a 360 release is almost a certainty. Will I bet anything on it? Well, no. But I've witnessed enough in my years to know that exclusivity means precisely jack and shit when the publisher's big wigs want to see a beefier bottom line (*cough* Resident Evil 4 *cough*).

…and you know what the funny thing is? Every time this rumor comes up, the Sony defense force swoops in to downplay the talk and try to validate their $600 purchase, and to not have their e-penis belittled. Here's a fact that all of you wieners — yes, I said wieners — need to realize. Listen very closely… Metal Gear Solid is not as relevant to the PlayStation brand's success as you make it out to be. You know what turned the tide? Final Fantasy. So shut up and deal with the fact that the real-time footage of MGS4 looks nowhere near as good as the trailers.

I smell cut-backs to accommodate multiple platforms. Don't you?