You get a say on gaming's most important issues.

If Nintendo are to believed, the 'Revolution' is indeed going to be that. Also, if they're to be believed, it's not just going to be the usual case of hardware progression for the sake of it. And given the company's overall philosophy, and more gameplay-driven system is expected. So, a bit of a conondrum then. Still, nothing wrong with a little speculation.

What features would you like to see in Revolution, and why?

Hellfire:

It's kind of hard to answer that question without saying that. I suppose I would like to see wireless taken a step further. Wireless LAN capacity, wireless controllers (from the start) and wireless connectivity with the next GB/DS or something. I'm trying to avoid the old control games with the mind thing here, so I don't think I can really come up with something. About hard drive, dvd player and stuff like that, it depends on the costs, because a console with hard drive and DVD player costs too much and games in DVD format are also more expensive to develop. One thing I would like to see is blue ray or HD DVD or whatever, I don't understand a lot about that, except that a lot more information can be stored on a CD/DVD. Let's just hope Nintendo does it right.

Shenlong:

Yeah I have to agree with Hellfire, I can't really say as I'm not fully aware of every function possible on a console, and I'm sure there'll be some things we never would dream of - in the same way that the DS suprised everyone with it's touch screen functionality and wirelesss play.

But from current features, I'd love the revolution to be online, have a hard drive and be wireless. Plus the default stuff people take for granted (i.e. 4 controller ports) and I think it'd be great if the pads were wireless from go, I mean the wavebird is just so cool, if the Revolution had something like that as it's default pad I'd be ecstatic! One last thing - I'd like the pad to be able to cater for all games not just action adventures or racing games...I want it to cater for beat em ups too!

Fighter of Foo:

Seeing as though Nintendo seem to be struck with easiness of control, it would make sense for Revolution's main 'revolution' to be its controller. Whether it be a new form of analog control or another type of touch screen controller.

But whatever it is, I think it'll be as much as a developers' system as the DS is.

Lakatu:

My main "want" is online. Without a doubt. For me the revolution has to have this.

Again, wireless. I want everything except connections to tv, power etc wireless.

Slots in controllers. I love having slots in the controllers, not only is it more convenient to slot a memory card into a controller it also allows up to four so everyone can have their own. Also if there are two slots it allows lots of expansion posibilites. Such as a voice communicator, camera. Touch screen pad. Some cool VMU thing. It goes on and one. I can't see any reason why you would want memory cards on the console itself.

In addition to the internet I want complete integration with other consoles by means of whatever is in the DS. So LAN parties are much easier to set up.

I think the real innovation should come from the controller though. Perhaps have tilt sensing devices in them as standard. To be a revolution Nintendo need something other consoles don't have. Yet is not just a gimmick.

Pestneb:

I'd like something along the lines of what was done with the Panasonic Q, a nice console that can take pride of place, with CD, DVD etc functions, and a bog standard console that just plays the games and that's it. Except also in pal territories and I guess that means the US too.

I agree with Hellfire on the wireless issue too, perhaps wireless between the console and tv too - eliminate all the wires but the power cable, would be tidier at least.

I disagree on the harddrive idea, but some form of moveable storage that was considerably beastier than this generation's memory cards so far would be nice. I'd also like backward compatibility with my Gamecube, just in case my Gamecube one day decides to die.

I'd also like fewer must-have games when I'm skint and less game droughts when I have money to spend!

zaphod:

Wireless is one thing I think all next generation consoles will have to have. Playing games with 4, 5, 6 of more consoles all on different TVs. None of that split screen nonsense! I also think memory cards should be greatly improved. An SD card reader should be in the box of every console; that way the user could buy an SD card and have up to 1 Gigabyte of storge not 1 gigabit... 1 Gigabyte (8 gigabits = 1 Gigabyte) It's a bit much just for saved games seen as that is almost as much as a GC DVD. Enough ramble...sorry!

A DVI output for direct input to an LCD would be great and mulptible resolution settings on games so you get a pin point sharp display. No point in have the latest Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) if you are display it in crappy PAL/NTSC format. I think the Blue laser DVD idea is cool but a bit overboard, seen as they will hold some 40Gb when they are realesed and will proble be a bit expensive. How about if the controller had a colour LCD on it for displaying player status etc. There is so much that can be done I'm betting on Nintendo to do it right.

Shadowlord:

What I want most from Revolution is to be backwards compatible with GameCube. I wouldn't mind a DVD player but that is not a priority and if Nintendo can think of better storage medium then that's fine. Also I definitely don't want wireless controllers, I don't want to spend money on batteries every now and then and I like the rumble feature. Plus I want memory cards, because you can take them over to your friend's house and play, while with a hard drive you have to take the whole console with you!!!

Patch:

I have no doubt I will be buying, and gaining a lot of enjoyment, out of the Revolution. This is based on the fun I've had with all Nintendo consoles.

However, what I'd really like is for them to create a console that is designed to actually fit in most cabinets alongside a DVD player and VCR!

rokhed00:

What are the chances of a built-in teasmaid?

D.Lo:

I reckon they should make the Revolution more powerful then the other consoles...in a way people don't expect...

Remember the last time people were sceptical of Nintendo's console hardware because it was 'less powerful'? That's right, it was the Super Famicom/Super Nintendo! With less then half the clock speed of the 2 year old Mega Drive, an odd new sound chip design that had the sounds built into it, and some other 'useless to computing' chips added in, some were speculating the system would fail because games would run too slow.

This speculation continued throughout the system's life by Nintendo's competitors. 'It can't have a CD add on because of the clock speed' 'Sonic is only possible on the Genesis' etc.

We all know what happened. The clock speed was a problem for some shooters, and the system needed extra chips in the cartridges to handle higher math like 3D objects. But overall it turned out to be a much more powerful graphical (and sonic) system, by way of innovative technical design. The sound chip created the best sound ever at the time, the Mode 7 chip handled some very flashy effects (including revolutionising racing games), and 95% of SNES game looked way better then 99% of Mega Drive games.

This philosophy was skipped in the N64 (it was powerful but complicated) and re-introduced in the Gamecube (it IS the most powerful system in many ways eg RAM speed). I'd like it brought to SNES levels again on the N5:R (Nintendo no.5: Revolution!)

daftada:

How about headphone sockets on the controller so in multiplayer games you can filter the sound effects made by/near your character. This would make a nice feature in a FPS multiplayer game, ie. you could listen for other players footsteps in order to find them if a radar isn't used.

Also an LED display on the front of the console, telling you the game now playing and maybe stats like how long you've played for. A bit like most MP3 players.

Finally, user profiles you can store on the console/memory card. Keeping stats of games played, times played, length of time played on all games etc. (I'd be interested to see how much time I've wasted on games over the years!).

That's all for this week's edition. Be sure to check out the Gamecube Forum for the next topic, and your name could be here next Saturday. Didn't contribute? You can still post your thoughts below.