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In a move that says they care about what their customers think, Sony has thrown away the boomerang for good and decided to go back to its tried and true "design classic" controller of previous incarnations. Check it here on Engadget. This smart PR move comes hot on the heels of another gaming console company's attempts to alienate the rest of the world with a namechange for its new product.

What's in a name? Nintendo has renamed their next gen console, formerly known as the Revolution. I don't even know why they renamed it. Its not like Revolution was specifically awful. Anyway, the new name reflects how the new console "will break down that wall that separates game players from everybody else. (the console) will put people more in touch with their games...and each other."

And the new name? Wii! Pronounced we. Which gives new meaning to the phrase there is no I in we. Gamespot's weekly show, On The Spot had the regular poll asking the staff about what they thought. The general consensus was it sucked balls. I think it sucks balls, ass, whatever. I mean, other companies don't give shitty names to their next gen consoles! PlayStation 3! Xbox360! You know from the names that they're gaming consoles. Wii? Sounds like someone's taking the piss. One of the Gamespot staff put it best when he said, "Hey, you wanna come to my place and play with my Wii?".

I can't even be bothered with the half assed explanation and how it was even worth mentioning that "ii" is good in Japanese. Its good to note that the first search result on Wii from Google is for the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun.

I hope this new name permeates throughout society and becomes engrained within the collective consciousness of humanity. Long may the Wii live in the annals of the Wikipedia, champion of all things vile that it is. New born babies will be christened "Notwii" in the hope that they won't fall to such depths. This has got to be the benchmark for shitty product names. Viva La Wii.

Wow I didn't realise I was 4 months late on this. I think Gizmodo reported on this back in Dec '05. Anyway, the makers of the Final Fantasy series of games and movies and stuff have finally decided to cash in (some more) on their fans by launching this drink with Suntory. I actually got this off Gamespot. The Final Fantasy XII POTION is set to tie in with their latest game obviously. Gamespot has this live show you can watch called On The Spot, where they had a sampling of the blue pot. The verdict? No HP increase, no buffs, no special whoomph. The taste? It ranged from "flowers... medicine" to "tastes like turtle". Also available in limited edition collector's bottles, which kinda look like embellished chemistry equip, this is one blue drink that I think I'll pass on. I used to be totally obsessed with blue foods. Check out the ad. Still the idea OUGHT to have been great. Wonder why they didn't execute better on the actual product. I suppose they say what doesn't kill you makes you stronger or the best medicine is the most bitter. Blah blah blah. Someone should really market mana pots for real and make them taste good. That or put coffee into blue glass perfume bottles.

Hehe the latest thing that me and my girlfriend are into is WoW, World of Warcraft. Possibly the biggest, baddest online game yet. That's my undead rogue riding a bat by the way. And I was level 10 at the time. What's great about the game is a strong, friendly community. I only had one Alliance guy "laugh" at me whilst most of the time, people were friendly and helpful.

For those that don't know, the game is split into 2 factions, the Alliance and the Horde. The Alliance is made up of humans, dwarves, elves and gnomes, your typical good guy fantasy characters. The Horde has got the undead, trolls, orcs and tauren (a beast race). Early reports suggest the Alliance is largely made up of tweens playing elves.

Another strong point about the game is that there is a focus on questing and following a storyline as opposed to blind powerlevelling in many other MMORPGs. A good variety of races and classes also help to improve this. Each character also gets to pick two extra professions like blacksmithing or tailoring to make their own kickass items ingame. On top of that, everyone can learn stuff like first aid, cooking and fishing. There are details like how staying in an inn for a while makes you feel rested and if you rest long enough, you get an XP boost when u come back ingame. This helps reduce the downtime in between sessions.

Overall I have to say I'm fully impressed by WoW and my only gripe is that my girlfriend doesn't even want to watch the movies anymore!