When you're speaking at the Game Developer's Conference, it's probably not a good idea to fill yourself up with beer before taking the podium and going after Nintendo's throat. OK, so Maxis developer Chris Hecker wasn't really drunk, but the story would make a lot more sense if he was, in my opinion. What did he say?

"The Wii is a piece of s***!" Hecker began his talk, which was called "Fear of a Wii Planet." He blasted a few bars of Public Enemy to set the tone. Hecker said the Wii is nothing more than two GameCubes stuck together with duct tape, and that the console isn't powerful enough to provide the next-gen experience he has been waiting for. Although he stated the system is "severely underpowered," Hecker noted that he wasn't simply referring to the Wii's graphical capabilities. He wants to spend a console's CPU making games more intelligent, and he has found the Wii doesn't have the power to process things like complicated AI.

He goes on to say that Nintendo doesn't take games seriously as art and also that they need to "make a serious console that doesn't suck ass." This would probably attract from scorn if it was said in the comments of a post here, but to use this wording when you're talking at the GDC? Bad form. I'm guessing Mr. Hecker received quite the talk from his corporate bosses when his rant made the game press, because today he's trying to make nice.

I don't know who has read the internet, yesterday. In a [unintelligible] panel I said a bunch of things. I was trying to be thought provoking and entertaining and fun and a lot of the stuff went too far over the top—on the entertaining and fun side, so that it was no longer thought provoking, just inflammatory. And in the process I hurt a bunch of people I care about. And so, I want to apologize now. When I'm on stage, I'm me. I'm talking talk from me. From me. I'm not representing EA or Maxis. I want to make two things perfectly clear. I do not think the Wii is a piece of shit. Nintendo needs to be applauded for trying to interface on the controller front, the user interface front, on making games accessible, on making a console that you don't need to mortgage your house to afford. Secondly, it's totally obvious—and I'm sorry that I implied otherwise—that everyone at Nintendo is passionate at making great games. Some of the games give me hope that we will be seen as an art form on par with movies and books.

That's quite the turnaround, isn't it? I'm not sure what would cause one to make such an ill-advised speech to begin with, but going back and saying the opposite the next day is almost as bad. So what was his point? Is the Wii the best thing since sliced bread, or worthless?

The Wii is such a darling in the press that a few well-earned criticisms of the system would have made his point far better than the fanboy-ish rant he delivered.

Crazy stuff in the water there at GDC. Who knew some of the sessions could be like forum discussions?