The Downloadable Content Rumourmill

Despite the high hopes of Xbox 360 fans Gamespot pegs it as unlikely that Lumines Live will drop this week, or that there will be a Gears of War Demo on the Xbox Live service. In news that does seem to be legit, though, you can see screenshots of the first downloadable games for the PS3 service over at Game|Life. Titles include the previously mentioned fl0w, Lemmings 2, Blast Factor, and Go Sudoku. Commentary on the games available at GameSetWatch.

Re:Only the Wii is truly next gen...

[Erwos]

You seem to assume that CPU and GPU upgrades can't enable new gameplay ideas. Here's a counter-example to that thesis: Dead Rising. Dead Rising would not seem to be possible with the previous CPUs and GPUs present on "last-gen" consoles (or "next-gen" Wii's, for that matter). The gameplay is completely influenced by the several hundred zombies milling around you constantly, and ends up creating a totally new experience.

You don't even need more power to create this kind of paradigm shift, either. Xbox Live, especially the better version for the 360, totally changed the way console gamers thought about online services, with integrated chat, matchmaking, and content downloads. There's a lot of room to improve without a fancy new GPU, CPU, or controller. (It's worth noting here that the Wii takes a giant leap backwards on this front with the generally maligned Friends Code system. Does that make it "not next-gen"? I think not, but it's worth thinking about.)

Further, a controller is just an input. It doesn't magically make things more fun or "take gaming to the next level". Good developers do that, and a good developer can work with whatever inputs they have access to. A wiimote is not more fun than a steering wheel, a gamepad is not more fun than a DDR mat, a joystick is not more fun than a mouse and keyboard. They're just inputs. That's it. Ascribing mystical properties of "fun-ness" to them is silly.

So, I disagree with your idea that a new controller is somehow more next-gen than anything else. It's a self-serving rationalization by Nintendo fanbots, in my experience. What makes something "this generation" is relative release date, nothing else.