Up late talking games & writing? You're...

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Games: Over at Destructoid today, a piece went up about the “Nielsen ratings” of consoles.
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I actually didn't even know that the Nielsen people were tracking consoles and the dates of the study were a pretty broad Jan-Oct 2008, but the results were still pretty interesting. If the numbers are at all accurate, then the PS2 still leads the pack in the top spot. Not really surprising given the massive installed base it achieved. The Xbox 360 came in second, with the Wii in third.
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There are about a million-billion factors that one could argue into these results in any direction one would care to, so I'll let you draw your own conclusions. I've drawn mine.
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Games: Downloaded the PS3 demo for Lord of the Rings: Conquest (Pandemic Studios) last night and played through it a couple of times. Quick impressions are very positive.
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The playable part is basically the tutorial from the full game (which is perfectly fine with me, since I hate it when I get dropped into the middle of a situation with no idea what's going on or what the controls even do) and it looks like a pretty fun romp.
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Starting off in the middle of a big battle, the game walks you through four different character classes (warrior, archer, scout and mage) and finishes by letting you take control of a “named” hero to fight Sauron. Each one had a good variety of special moves, and capturing waypoints wasa big part of play. I had a pretty good time with Star Wars: Battlefront II, and Conquest looks to be the same sort of thing with a lot more polish and a different setting. Check it out if you get a chance.
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