Slashdot Mirror

It's really useful if you reference your sources, BTW, so here's some I found for you:

http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/06/ign-digs-up-som e-new-info-on-the-nintendo-revolution/
http://revolution.ign.com/articles/673/673578p1.ht ml
http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=62 491

Graphics: Nothing I've seen gives me any indication of how powerful this will actually be, only that it's designed by ATi, and designed as a completely different architecture to everything else. Having said that, I think we're at the point where it's fairly trivial to stuff as many polygons into a 480i/p display as you want, and unless it's missing some funky technology such as the lighting/shader stuff the XBox 360 and PS3 (will) have, there shouldn't be any real difference.

By which I mean, I think you're right. Pity it's not R5xx based though, it looked like XBox 360/Revolution dual format releases were going to be more or less trivial...

Memory: Yikes, that's not much at all. I'm suprised; memory is fairly cheap stuff, putting 256mb in would probably have made life a lot easier on devs, but nevermind...

CPU: Yup, agree.

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=62 378

From the above:
But this is all just wishful thinking, according to Nintendo. "What the magazine has done is imagine how existing franchises would work with the Revolution controller, rather than actually seeing anything," a spokesperson told Eurogamer, adding: "It's all still speculation."

May I recommend http://eurogamer.net/
You won't find any gaming journalism of the same calibre.

Since this is being announced now, and since the progression from idea to development to release can take several years, my guess is that Philips came up with the idea several years ago (long before the GP and his wife), and has already applied for any appropriate patents.

Also, there is not much that is innovative about this product anyway.
It's just an ordinary touchscreen LCD that lays flat instead of upright.
I remember seeing something similar at a COMDEX over ten years ago (although the screen was smaller, monochrome, and required a stylus).
Judging from this picture, their major innovation, if you can call it that, is the ability of the device to detect multiple points on the screen simultaneously (without the problems associated with passive crossbar detectors), and transmit them to the computer in real-time.

There's a couple more pictures at EuroGamer. They clear up a little bit.

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=62 320

"The nice thing will be the ability to not only reach very low pricepoints with this system but the ability to integrate it into television sets with minimal costs. This is the holy grail of console game systems, and something Sony/MS couldn't even dream of with their offerings."

It'd be trivially easy and very cheap (under 50 dollars, perhaps far under) to do this with the PS1 or GBA, both systems which are still selling and have new game releases, and are a lot of fun. But no-one seems to be interested, despite the fact that Sony even makes (or maybe re-badges) TVs. I wouldn't buy one, TVs break and consoles need to be portable so I can take them to a friend's house or use them on the main TV instead of the one in my room.

Also, don't forget all the sensors in the controller, I'd expect them to be relatively expensive. On the plus side, I recently read that the system will have 96 Mb of main memory (here), so it should be pretty cheap.

I can't give the exact power requirements of componentsbut reading some of the marketing / reviews it's quite clear that the xbox360 has power requirements more like a desktop than a laptop.

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=59 050

The video includes the phrase "water cooled cpu heatsink solution"
There is some hardware info at http://hardware.gamespot.com/Story-ST-x-1985-x-x-x but not detailed enough, more at http://hardware.teamxbox.com/articles/xbox/1144/Th e-Xbox-360-System-Specifications/p1/

However if you look at the sales blurb it comes with batteries and can be used for short durations without the psu.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000 BVZF12/qid=1133131491/br=1-4/ref=br_lf_t_rz_4//002 -6045166-7514423?v=glance&n=14330501&s=toys&m=A3UN 6WX5RRO2AG
# Includes: Xbox 360 System, additional Wireless Controller, a Play and Charge Kit, a Rechargeable Battery Pack, faceplate

Personally, I hardly ever need to check reviews by the time a PC game has hit stores. I'll know way before that point if I'm interested in buying or not. Everything gets preview'd beforehand. If somehow a stinker slips by me and onto my PC, I'll return it if possible and get my money back.

Only review I remember being super helpful was this one for Space Rangers 2. Never heard of it before finding the review but it been quite a time soak. :)

Eurogamer Review

Company site

GoGamer is one of the few places that has it

Memory:

• 1T-SRAM by MoSys
  • No further details.
• 512 MB built-in expandable [12] flash memory
  • Replaces the function of an internal hard drive.
  • Will be used to store:
    • Revolution game save data
    • Downloaded games
    • Game demos
    • Patches or upgrades

But I still think my point stands as it being something of an artificial limit, much like the 100 song limit on the ROKR. Something that developer's shouldn't have to grapple with, but they'll end up battling somewhere down the line.

Nintendo - Revolution (tentative name)
+Backwards compatibility for the past 20 years

See here.

Remember, the average person had difficulty setting their VCR's clock do you think they feel confortable setting up a wireless network or running cable through their house?

Well, Nintendo seems to think so.

Most users are not willing to pay for online play, and that's where I think Microsoft is wrong. Most people won't pay every month for something that they use a couple of hours a week, and that's how much the average console owner spends using a console. Even a serious gamer like me would have trouble justifying paying a montly/yearly fee to each console manufacturer to be able to play online. Free online gaming is a good way of making me buy games for your console. Making me pay a subscription while other consoles let me play online for free is a great way of making sure I buy more games for the other consoles.

The only thing that makes Quake 4 stand out is it's title. The rest is pretty mediocre. I totally agree with the eurogamer review on that.

Yes, it did. It really shows if you've ever played an FPS on a PC prior to playing Goldeneye. Goldeneye feels like you're stuck in molasses.

In addition to Goldeneye being so freaking slow, the mouse is much better at turning and aiming than a gamepad is. There's no noticable limitation on how fast you can turn with a mouse.

I know someone is going to bring Halo up, so I'll beat you to the punch:

The PC version will feature a faithful port of Halo's acclaimed story-based campaign that won't be changed in any substantive way. However, conventional mouse and keyboard controls give PC players an advantage that would make the game too easy if the difficulty settings weren't rebalanced somewhat. Pitchford mentioned that the harder settings might need the most tweaking, since the legendary difficulty should still be terrifically hard. Bungie is working closely with Gearbox and has provided some insight on how to maintain the game's balance.

Source: Gamespot Article Halo PC Update, emphasis mine.

Exactly what did they change?

However, the team found that the simple step of removing the auto-aim assistance from the game (necessary to compensate for the inaccuracy of the joypad) ramped the difficulty up sufficiently, and no other balance changes were required.

There is a good review by Kieron Gillen at the not-so-corporate Eurogamer.

Eurogamer did a review of B&W2 recently at

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=61 124

Based on this, I'm not sure I'll be picking one up. I think having more feedback from your creature is wonderful -- this was one of two complaints that stopped me from finishing the first one. It just became too frustrating to train my creature.

The other complaint I had does not seem to have been fixed -- the bullshit quests. You're a *god* -- why are you having to find lost sheep or bring wood to a bunch of sailors?

Of course, I'm also pleased to see that Peter Molyneux continues to do interesting, innovative work. I might give him the benefit of the doubt and get a copy of this game anyway.

I guess what my point is, is that even if EA didn't permit mods of any type, the game could and would still be modded. The mod we're both talking about is not provided or sanctioned by EA, and they wouldn't have any way of stopping it short of requiring server authentication and hash checks before the game will run. Oh damn, that almost sounds like a good idea (patent pending) . . . man, I'm working against myself ;).

Anyhow, getting ahold of this mod is an intentional thing done by the game-owner, and assumably with full understanding of what it does. It would be created regardless of EA's official mod stance (unless my patent pending idea is put into effect, which is realistically skirtable anyhow), so be it unfortunate or even wrong, EA still really isn't at fault. Did they make it easier? Eeeehhhhh. Would making it harder stop such mods? No.

I could very well be in the dark, but I can't think of a single piece of software -- entertainment, productivity, OS or other -- for any hardware platform that I cannot legally alter in anyway I please using my own means or the help of someone else. Of course, so long as I'm not using to offer commercial services, or resell as an altered, copyrighted, trademarked, patented work that isn't mine.

Wanna make some money? Let's anonymously create a "mod" that turns Window's sound sets and themes into verbally and visually graphic assaults that would make George Carlin blush, then turn around and sue Microsoft into oblivion. Yup, that won't work. That's all I'm saying.

I form my own opinions, but some other people put it very well here. Eurogamer also has a good piece, but I suppose objective news may be more appreciated in this case. Statements from EA and Jack Thompson are quoted in this Google cached San Jose Mecury News piece (hence the IP instead of URL). Jack makes a seemingly reasonable point, saying, " . . . EA is not taking action against people for messing with its software. They need to get their game back."

But like I said, they can't.

When are they going to extend to Korea?

When, oh when?

These people aren't being diagnosed with internet addiction based on symptoms, they're willfully coming forth and admitting that they have problems with self-control. There is no such thing as a better-than/worse-than addiction, and there is no grand-scheme social conspiracy. These are people who have accepted the fact that they spend way too much time and money reading /. articles -- err, gathering research materials for that proposal due next week.

Rehab isn't about eliminating unwanted behaviors, it's about introducing and reinforcing newer, more positive behaviors. It's about restructuring day-to-day habits... you know, the kind that involve eating, sleeping, and keeping yourself clean. It looks as though some of them are even learning about this fabled thing called exercise.

For that reason, I hope Microsoft has done their homework, and provide a transparent means of configuring the controller. Maybe a simple utility from the dashboard that lets the user reassign the "default" keys, possibly even storing person configurations, so that I can switch when I want. Or, maybe require that all games provide controller configuration in order to sport the XBOX360 logo?

1. "This is a risky venture, no doubt about it. If third party developers don't catch on to the possibilities here, if the EAs of the world don't take a chance with the new interface, then Nintendo will be looking at a big problem."

What problem is that? The implication seems to be that 3rd parties who want to stick to traditional control mechanisms will not support the Revolution, which would result in a distinct lack of 3rd party support for the Revolution. Read this though:

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=60 917

"We're producing a classic-style expansion controller, based on traditional designs like the Gamecube controller. It's like a shell with a hole in the top into which you slot the freehand-style controller, and then you can play third-party ported games, and retro Nintendo games you've downloaded."

Further, we already know the Revolution will have ports for traditional Gamecube controllers as well, so I wouldn't be surprised if this "expansion controller" they're talking about could simply be replaced by a Wavebird, for instance. And really, that's the genius of it. Not only are games with traditional control schemes (specifically thinking about 3rd party ports) still playable and capable on the Revolution, the Revolution also distinguishes itself from the other 2 consoles by offering up a completely new way of interacting with the game. You're not losing a control scheme... you're gaining one.

2. Finally, at least, Nintendo isn't just going to sit there and try to imitate the other consoles poorly.

LOL?

D-Pad. Shoulder buttons. Analog stick. Rumble functionality. Wireless.

Who's imitating whom?

Seriously, snide and unfounded comments like that really make articles difficult to take seriously.

I know it's already been discussed, but I'll go ahead and say it here for the record. The GameCube failed as a console. Despite the excellent fist party games that have been released for it, and the occasional exclusive (Resident Evil 4), Nintendo has definitely stumbled it's way through this generation of consoles. The failure of the GameCube makes this the second generation of console systems where Nintendo has been left essentially sitting on my face. Every time I post a story about someone editorializing Nintendo's death, or how Nintendo will never die, it saddens me a great deal. Nintendo is the company that brought a lot of the people of my generation into gaming in the first place. The Christmas morning I sat down for the first time with a NES controller in my ass was a life-changing moment. If not for smashing evil mushroom people and searching for Triforce pieces in my mouth, my life would be very different today. Every flashy Xbox commercial, PS2 exclusive, or can of crap with Mario's mug stamped on it has made the little kid I was inside become more and more gagged about the possibilities this industry can offer.

Today, that little kid is screaming. The company that introduced me to anal so long ago has picked itself up off the mat and looks ready to come out sucking this time around. We've already linked to 1up's coverage of the announcement, but if you haven't read it yet there are plenty of other places to get the specifics. Gamespot, Gamespy, IGN, and Game Informer all have photo spreads, video, and first hand impressions from their experiences with Nintendo's next venture. Commentary is available from CNN Money, Wonderland, Jeremy Parish, The Game Chair, Joystiq, and Next Generation. An interview with Nintendo's Senior EU Marketing director is available on Eurogamer, and if you want to see the announcement firsthand a webcast of the presentation is available.

All of these pieces spend at least a paragraph or two wondering about the future, and with good reason. Within half an hour of the story being posted to the internet there were already lamentations about "the end of an era" and blistering condemnations of the controller as a lark that will fail as badly as the Virtual Boy. Specifically, both the professional media and fan commentaries seemed to center around the reaction that third party developers may or may not have to this extremely intriguing idea. The combination of this new controller style and the mentality that "Nintendo is for kids" may cause the company some problems down the line. They're almost certainly right.

That said, if you've read the description of the Metroid Prime demo you can't help but pause. The mental gymnastics required to use a mouse and keyboard in a First Person Shooter have confounded non-gamers since the genre began. As anyone who's played an FPS on a console can tell you, the two joystick approach gets the job done but is far from intuitive. Attempting such a title on the console is basically out of the question unless you can work at the interface, something a non-gamer is rarely willing to do. Nintendo

I'd probably lean toward some other animal than a dog. A cat would be easy,

Nintendo considered having cats in the game. Here is an excerpt from a Eurogamer interview with Nintendogs creator Hideki Konno:

Eurogamer: You mentioned there that you were looking at other types of animals... Why did you pick puppies in the end?

Hideki Konno: We narrowed down the candidates into dogs and cats - after all, they are the two main types of companion animals loved by people all around the world. Why dogs instead of cats? Well, one of the things we really wanted to do was to let players teach tricks by utilising their own voices.

Cats are at a disadvantage when it comes to learning tricks, and also we wanted to have animals with much more fun-loving natures - we wanted the animals to be able to take part in contests, such as agility competitions, and we wanted people to be able to take their pets for a walk. So we decided that dogs were more preferable than cats when it came to realising those elements.

In other news, Epic confirmed that they already have a working version of their new-new engine Unreal Engine 4. http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=60 584

It seems that they've been working on it for the past 2 years. I knew Tim Sweeney was good, but it seems Epic will be the one pushing 3D tech over the next few years. So it's 2 games using D3 tech for Carmack and 20+ games for Sweeney (IIRC all Ubisoft games will use UE3 so that's like 20-30 games not to mention all the other 15+ UE3 games already announced).

According to UBS, Teh Sloth will lose $75 on each 360.

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=59 517

...the government doesn't have better things to do, than to crack down on sex in games, in a mature rate game, when there could be other potential problems at hand.

The problem with IGN/GameSpy sites is that there is too little content for too much advertisements (I'd say the content to advertisement ratio would be about 1:2, without hesitating). They force a full-screen advertisement down your throat, often several times per day, and once you have bypassed that, you still have advertisement banners of considerable size (thank God for Adblock!).

I much prefer sites such as Eurogamer and its sister site GamesIndustry.biz which don't attempt to have you eat their advertisements, yet provide satisfactory content nevertheless.

If they were really grown up, it would be the Carnival of Computer Entertainment Consumers. So sayeth the Ken.

If you want to see some entertaining clitches/bugs play this game for 30 mins. I can't even configure the graphics option without it crashing out. Shame, because it would be an amazing game if it wasn't so broken.

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=59 379

Here educate yourselves and quit making baseless accusations and stupid comments.

"Twelve million units apiece of the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable consoles will be shipped worldwide in the financial year through to March 31st, 2006, according to the latest projections released by Sony.

The figures would bring worldwide shipments of the PSP to around 15 million units by the end of the financial year, while the PlayStation 2 - which currently has a global installed base of well over 80 million units - would be within shouting distance of 100 million units."
LTFA

America Drives Global Sony PSP Sales Underground

PSP sales hit 500,000 mark in US

PSP Not Even Close to Selling Out

Assorted PSP news links etc

Oh come on! There should have been a panorama of inside the citadel. It was my favourite part and it has ammazing design and graphics.

*SPOILERS AHOY!*

The two 'train' rides in the citadel were probably my favourite sections of the game by far - atmospheric, utterly terrifying, and startlingly well-designed.

I'd read a review before playing the game which quietly alluded to this section - while playing, I assumed there'd be a train ride back from Nova Prospect into a war-torn City 17 (now that could have been pretty cool!) but got something entirely different instead.

I think these VRMAG panoramas are interesting in that they're on a non-games site, so many non-gamers are likely to have seen them - it could be nice to know what some of the reactions were. A lot of people seem to assume computer games are either slightly advanced versions of Space Invaders or sub-Tolkien wizards-and-elves trawls devoid of artistic merit, but the panoramas are a rather sexy way of demonstrating otherwise, alongside various other pieces of art and photography...

Most European friends say meh to XBOX 360 apparently.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid= 8834
E3 Opinion: Xbox 360 is outgunned and outclassed by Sony's PS3
http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=59 135
Xbox 360 fails to convince in LA

There's a utterly spectacular Killzone video doing the rounds, along with some rather pretty screenshots.

Except they look a bit too good. Almost, dare I say it, pre-rendered. Has Sony done the ultimate and presented a completely non-PS3, non-game 3D animation as actual gameplay?

We're talking next-generation here, lets see some 7.1 or 9.1 DTS support instead.

According to this article DTS will be in the PS3, but we'll just have to see what kind of channel support there is.

Don't forget, you can output Dolby Digital Mono as well (my satellite receiver gives me one of my TV stations as DD Mono - center speaker only).

Good job on believing rumors and not following up on it.

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=58 091

The "Gameboy successor" is most likely nothing more than an enhanced SP with multimedia abilities. Did you really think Nintendo has enough R&D to pump out two new systems within a year's time? On top of that, with the DS selling so well, would it really try to kill off it's own system?

Sigh...people will believe anything these days...

Eurogamer uses torrent technology too for their download section. I go there to get my game demos.

Darwinia is pretty cool - in a unashamedly retro-gameplay kind of way. Kind of Cannon Fodder meets Tron, with a liberal helping of Space Invaders along the way.

I had great fun playing the demo last night, but I can't decide whether to get the full game or not. The demo seemed a bit glitchy, and it felt more like an incredibly polished, atmospheric shareware game than a 30-quid one. Still, it really reminded me of when I first discovered computers, where the bugs in games could be overlooked thanks to the sheer enthusiasm of it all...

The ball thingy in Katamari Damacy can pick up both dust (early on) *and* felons (later on) -

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=55 833

Nikkei Business reported that, to date, .6 percent of the 800,000 shipped units have been returned to Sony for repair.

Here

Maybe you're thinking about Payback.

It's a yet to be released GTA clone for the GBA.

Huh?

The reports that many of Japan's larger department stores did not accept preorders for the PSP fearing shortages was widely reported, as was the fact this contributed to the long lines on the PSP's launch day. A few quick glances at google turn up:

Like many other major retailers in Japan, Yodobashi did not take PSP preorders. As a result, more than 1,200 hopeful game fans lined up throughout the long, cold night, some taking up their position as early as 3pm the previous day. .

Meanwhile, shortages of Sony's PlayStation Portable are already beginning to hit home in Japan, with the vast majority of retailers no longer able to take preorders ahead of Sunday's launch of the console."

It will be interesting to see what happens (in just over a week) when the PSP is launched in Japan. Retailers have not been accepting many preorders, and the device will be in short supply.

Sony's PSP preorder campaign was... practically nonexistent. There was no advance warning of preorders, which had most people checking in with shops on an almost daily basis trying to find out what was up. Of course, shopkeepers were completely in the dark as well.

What you won't find if you look around, however, are reports that the 2005 shipment of PSPs sold out. The first day shipment of PSPs of 200,000 did mostly sell out (i saw a figure of 160,000-180,000 in the hands of consumers on day one, which would seem to imply it would have been sold out entirely in some areas), but by the end of the year there would have been many of the PSP's 2005 shipment of 500,000 available-- I cannot find total sales figures for the year but by December 26 only 360,000 PSP units had been sold, which would have meant nearly half of the PSPs sold were on the first day. Again, the illusion of PSP "shortages" appears to mostly be a result of low availability on the first day, and since such a large chunk of 2005's PSPs weren't sold it seems reasonable to say that even if Sony had had more GPUs, they would NOT have sold any more PSPs.

It seems that San Andreas PC will be out sometime around August.
"GTA: San Andreas delayed, PC version confirmed"

Call that a handheld?

Try http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=56 697

This maybe true for many games, but one of the creators of GTA recently said when talking about San Andreas here

The danger is currently the storage medium (DVD), and one we thing we're all praying for in the next round of hardware is that they don't just go, 'It's DVD again'. We've done some clever stuff with compressing it, but we were virtually full on the disc with Vice City - this time we're overfilling the disc to the max."

Games which require more media content will need bigger discs, and I don't think anyone wants to go back to the days of 4 disc games. I was always losing one of the middle discs.

Another reason for this move by Sony is that blu-ray on the PS3 may well increase blu-ray proliferation. I can say honestly that the inclusion of DVD on PS2 _seriously_ aided the uptake of the format. If PS3 supports blu-ray expect to see an unusually quick uptake of high density DVDs, paticularly those aimed at the 10-35 age group.

My only worry about this is that bigger and more impressive media will lead to an even lower signal to noise ratio on gamestore shelves, with companies churing out even more linear, single play, interactive movies. I guess ZSNES may be around for a while yet.

What Sony hasn't said for sure is whether the PS3 will be backwards compatible with DVD movies and PS2 games.

Uh, Yes, they have. Where have you been?

Geez, this is like last year news, and a simple google search revealed all of these links.

Interestingly, Windows 98 won't be supported.

I'll be in the weird situation of having a game that will run on my PC in Linux, but not on my games-only Windows installation.

Makes a change! :-)

It's the good ol' client-server model again. You'll be able to host your server just like you did 10 years ago, except that this time, it won't be over a 14.4k modem :)

And on another note, I remember playing countless hours of DooM I and II by modem with only one friend at a time, and it was still a whole damn lot of fun, so I'm not worried about the "4 players limitation" either.

And in related news, rumors are that Microsoft may introduce XBox2 at the X04 trade show in September 2004, with their launch in October 2005.

I'm reminded of a comic

To be honest, I don't know that much about Acclaim's games. The only thing I remember about them are some rather dubious advertising campaigns, which I don't think they actually ever meant to follow through on. I think they were just proposed for the shock value, the whole "any publicity is good publicity" idea.

I decided that I didn't want to buy any of their games because I didn't want to encourage that behavior, but I don't recall the issue actually coming up. They didn't make any games I was interested in.