This week, on the eve of the launch of both Sony and Nintendo’s new consoles, an interesting phenomenon has occurred whereby a large quotient of the alsoran’s remaining colleagues that had yet to join the next-generation of consoles, (yes, even developers are shrewd about shelling out their hard-earned money for expensive consoles unless utterly sold on a platform), finally did make the leap. But this was not the expected group purchase of the new kids on the block, instead a mass take-up of the XBOX360, due to two major factors.

1. The GENIUS idea of Microsoft to flood retail outlets with 360′s, to be sold at discount price, on the one weekend that both Sony and Nintendo have enticed a large amount of potential customers out to Best Buy, Future Shop, Toys R Us and Wal Mart only to be met with dashed hopes due to the short supply of Wii and PS3.

2. Gears of War.

Over and above being the best looking game ever bar none, beyond having one of the most fun mechanics to ever be employed in a shooting game with their cover-fire system, and past utilising some of the tightest multiplayer level design outside of counter-strike, our friends at Epic, (for the alsoran has been working with them for the past 2 years using the Unreal3 Engine), have delivered what the alsoran hoped for in Gears – the one game to universally bring everyone together on XBOX Live.

Being a developer for a large videogame studio, the alsoran’s friends list has always been hovering around the 20 mark, but rarely do the diverse tastes of so many creatives ever converge onto more than one of those games enjoyed by the alsoran. Now 8-man matches are a nightly event, and above this, the friends list is now nearing 40. This marks the real birth of the next-generation. As the alsoran has often espoused to colleagues awaiting the Wii, (there is yet to be one soul holding out for a PS3), the next generation isn’t about graphics, or bigger and better, it’s about online.

While unfortunately highlighting that gaming habits are tracked in the same manner as supermarket awards cards, the alsoran recently registered to 360voice, the automatic blog kept by the XBOX360.

While repetition has already reared it’s head in the generated posts after only a week or so, and an unused XBOX seems to default to a manner akin to a whiny girlfriend, what is interesting is the frank honesty of the last post. Often the alsoran has advised over-eager gamers on discovering his profession to play less and get out more, especially the kids.

Of note , the blog does not track marketplace downloads, as the alsoran has been spending most of the post-X06 week watching some amazing videos, DVDs, and playing Lego Star Wars II (bad) and yet another Raw vs Smackdown (worse).

After reading an article in EDGE magazine regarding the influence of the French gaming industry, the alsoran has discovered this little gem of a game, the flash-based online RPG – Dofus. Of biggest note, the beautifully-rendered art style appears to be created by first building the assets in 3D, then drawing over them in a standardised perspective.

Unfortunately however, the alsoran has too much self-respect to play an MMO, so this beautiful little game will have to remained regarded, but not touched.

Upon breaking his micro following too many drops, the alsoran finally bowed to peer pressure last month and picked up a DS Lite during his trip to LA, and regrets not having done so before. His growing collection includes Metroid Prime Hunters, New Super Mario Bros, Super Mario Kart and the most recent addition, Starfox Command. Much like the Wii before it, it initially appeared the touch screen was a gimmick at best, with both 1st-party Mario games requiring no input from the bottom screen at all despite being fantastic games in their own right. However, Metroid and Starfox use the stylus to perfectly simulate mouse-look, and once again (like the Wii) provides a new face to old technology.

The single most impressive feature of this console though, and the one the makes the alsoran confident he has invested in a winner, is the importance placed on multiplayer gaming. Up to 6-Player matches of Starfox are possible via only one cart, which not only allows for great fun to be had with the multitude of colleagues that are DS owners and may not have the latest releases, but also provides an opportunity for the non-owners to try a limited version of the game in a seductive situation (exciting multiplayer) that almost unfailingly convinces them to make the full purchase.

At the time of writing, the Japanese top 10 is dominated by DS releases, and though he is lothe to agree with the eastern market, they sure know when gaming is fun again and not about flashy graphics.