Slashdot Mirror

There's nothing really new coming in this game. It's the same old stuff. I like EP's preview http://www.elecplay.com/watch/19/167/2/16 the GH5 Game Director is talking about all the new features, but none of them sound innovative. The ability to have multiple instruments like 4 guitar's seems cool, but there's not much other than that. DLC is really what these games are about. If they're releasing a new game they should have new instruments supported, like a keyboard. Or they should shift towards real instruments and doing proper music lessons, or at least head in that direction, or some direction, instead of releasing a bunch of features nobody cares about. At least Beatles Rock Band will have some awesome songs.

I must admit, this game looks very pretty. Far prettier than WoW. It'll be interesting to see how it runs and more importantly, plays. Sadly, even if it is as playable as a game like WoW, I doubt it'll be half as popular. Some interesting backstory in this interview with the NCSoft Community Manager in this video: http://www.elecplay.com/watch/19/167/3/16

Ads in games are nothing new, though. You drove past Atari billboards in Pole Position back in the 1980s. Practically every driving game has billboards. There are ads on the boards in hockey games and soccer games. I was watching my roommate play a basketball game, and along the sidelines, they had those rolling billboard ad machines just like on television. I thought, "wouldn't it be cool if those displayed real ads".

Advertisers want to put their ad in front of people's eyes. Some people spend an hour or two playing video games each night. These are obviously the same people with enough disposable income to be able to buy the game and the console to begin with. Placing ads in games seems like a pretty natural avenue to me. ...not that I agree with it. It's just a logical place for them.

The Electric Playground used to be a really good videogame centered show in the late 90's (when it was about the Playstation, Saturn, and N64) but I stopped watching it soon after the XBox launched; I noticed that suddenly they were heavily funded by Microsoft and for some unknown reason Microsoft could do no wrong and Nintendo couldn't do anything right for the hosts.

In my opinion what makes me disrespect most game journalists is that their opinions always find their way into the "news" and at the same time their opinions are for sale.

this just reminds me of how many days of my life i spent watching the the mario bro's show... I always remember being excited for friday when instead of the mario cartoon... it was link! woo! As far as game review shows go, Electric Playground is probably the only good one out there. We spent a lot of time when i was in school watching it... and while not a great show... its definately the best ive seen by far.

Not sure if I will be lynched for this (I have a friend working in the industry that hates the show), but I am very partial to Electric Playground.

The skits are usually funny (yes, sometimes they are dumb, especially in the older shows, but they've gotten a lot better), but more importantly, the reviews are no-holds barred. If they hate a game, they have no qualms about giving it a 2/10 and ripping the shit out of it point by point.


Mechanik

Okay, because I can hear the moderators swarming in to Troll this one up, let me add a few things to my defense.

A John Carmack interview here

Excerpt:
IGN Xbox: What do you think are the chances of Microsoft actually supporting OpenGL on the Xbox, and why?

JC: Last I heard, Nvidia was going to be providing OpenGL for it.

--

Also, found this about the Gamecube, near as I can tell it supports OpenGL directly.

http://www.elecplay.com/news.html?article=5917

The creator of Pokemon was Satoshi Tajiri, and Nintendo bought the concept from him. You cand find more about Pokemon and Nintendo at http://www.elecplay.com/feature_4096_page1.html
------------------------------------------------ -----------