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Think about it this way:

I could release my game on a single DVD by compressing every file gzip or equiv. compression schemes, or I could release a bluray disk with all the assets uncompressed. This would lower CPU usage substantially while asset loading, but it incurs the overhead of aprox. 2x I/O read times. So, the question is which is the biggest slowdown (remembering that the seek times are identical in this case)?

Seeing just briefly from http://www.gamespot.com/pages/profile/show_blog_en try.php?topic_id=23916169&user=skektek it seems that the drive's disc read rate is quite favorable against DVD's read speed.

What this means to me is that developers could just get rid of compressed assets from their software in order to boost the speed of games with no side effects. I'm not going to say this speedup is worth $200, thats a personal value judgment and has no place in an technical discussion.

Just because I think the BluRay has merit, I'm not a flipping PS3 fan. I don't and will not be buying a PS3, not because it doesn't have impressive hardware, but because the game genres represented most don't seem interesting.

I have to ask ... are "crap ports" and "shovelware" really such a bad thing for the Wii, considering the new audience it's targeting?

It's pretty apparent that a significant part of the Wii's appeal is coming from casual or even "non gamers". These are not the players that get excited about a new Zelda game, or Metroid Prime, or Mario Galaxy, etc. Rather, they are comfortable with games with much more massive appeal (Wii Sports, Wii Play, various party games, etc.).

Sometimes that also includes licensed games (based off movies, TV shows, etc.), which are often regarded to as "shovelware" by hardcore gaming enthusiasts. Believe it or not, one of the better selling DS games in Feburary was Hannah Montana, based off the popular Disney TV show.

As hardcore gamers (and yes, I am one), I think we often forget about the massive number of other gamers there are, that buy and enjoy these types of games (otherwise they wouldn't continue to sell the way they do). As much as I hate to think it, Nintendo could probably do quite well business-wise focusing on just the casual audience entirely. Sure, they'll lose much of the hardcore fanbase, but more than make up for it in other ways. In the meantime, they'll always have the Nintendo faithful on board no matter what they do (these are the ones that need their Mario/Zelda/Metroid-fix).

Oh yeah, when you know you can't win an argument, just attack the premise as insane. Ok.

The price drop is geared toward moving the remaining inventory of Dreamcast consoles, which at last count amounted to approximately 200,000 units worldwide.

Sega hopes to sell its remaining inventory of Dreamcast consoles, which has now dwindled into the thousands, by the end of the year.

The price drop is geared toward moving the remaining inventory of Dreamcast consoles, which at last count amounted to approximately 200,000 units worldwide.

Sega hopes to sell its remaining inventory of Dreamcast consoles, which has now dwindled into the thousands, by the end of the year.

The price drop is geared toward moving the remaining inventory of Dreamcast consoles, which at last count amounted to approximately 200,000 units worldwide.

Sega hopes to sell its remaining inventory of Dreamcast consoles, which has now dwindled into the thousands, by the end of the year.

The price drop is geared toward moving the remaining inventory of Dreamcast consoles, which at last count amounted to approximately 200,000 units worldwide.

Sega hopes to sell its remaining inventory of Dreamcast consoles, which has now dwindled into the thousands, by the end of the year.

First off, while I loved the original Armored Core, the series has kind of lost its way since then, and AC4 has gotten some really mediocre reviews.

Secondly, you can also get it for the Xbox 360 so that's hardly a compelling reason to get a PS3. Especially since AC4 for the Xbox 360 makes use of Live, which is missing on the PS3 side.

Harmonix hasn't confirmed any of the prices posted by EB/Gamestop. Not saying it won't be that expensive, but those prices are "pure speculation".

Seems silly to me to start a sponsorship two years into the games lifespan when it's population is dropping like flies

Dear Ivan Pereira, Michael Saul, Alison Gendar,

"In previous incarnations [of the Grand Theft Auto series], players advanced through the game by killing cops, selling pornography to children and killing prostitutes." http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/2007/03/3 1/2007-03-31_pols_rage_as_vid_game_takes_shot_at_c ity-4.html

After reading the above-linked article, I believe there are some discrepancies that need to be brought to your attention. I have extensively played Grand Theft Auto 1, 2, 3, Vice City, and San Andreas, yet I have never encountered any opportunities to sell pornography to children, nor is there is no way to advance in the game through killing police officers or prostitutes.

In every game in the Grand Theft Auto series, killing a prostitute within view of a police officer will cause him to try to subdue and arrest you. If you kill a police officer, more will come in squad-cars, attempting to stop you. If you continue to kill officers, SWAT teams will attempt to subdue you. Eventually, the National Guard will arrive to subdue you. When your character is subdued by law enforcement, he returns to the game outside of a hospital, without weapons and with a hefty monetary fine. Similar to real life, attacking police officers has consequences, none of which are good, and in the end, you can't win.

I am not a lawyer, nor am I making any sort of threat of legal action (I am in no way connected to Take-Two Interactive Software), but making false, harmful claims about a game's content sounds like libel to me. As I can not trust the New York Daily News to provide accurate, unbiased information, I will never purchase an issue, and advise my friends and family likewise.

If I am wrong about selling pornography to children, please tell me in which games, and in what location it is found. I would like to verify the content, and if it is present, I will gladly inform everyone who will listen.

To close on a slight tangent, Liberty City is modeled after New York City. On November 15, 2005 the video game True Crime: New York City http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/adventure/truecrime2/i ndex.html?q=True%20Crime was released. Surely you can guess where this game takes place. Yet, there was no public outcry regarding True Crime: New York City's setting.

Like it or not, video games have become an art form, just like movies. When such movies as "Escape from New York" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082340/ are allowed to exist, the average age of video game players is 33 http://www.theesa.com/facts/top_10_facts.php , and games have ratings with more depth than movies http://www.esrb.org/ratings/ratings_guide.jsp , why are games held to a different standard?

Ah, but will they give away Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2

But really, who would turn in a real high-calibre weapon for a lame virtual imitation? I know I wouldn't!

Look, just because 3rd party support is eroding and previously exclusive titles are going multi-platform (or becoming 360 exclusives), doesn't mean the PS3 was a poor investment, right?

What about Turbine's Middle Earth Online?

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/middleearthonline/p review_6028194.html

You'll probably be as happy as me about this then:

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6156004.html

(Sorry if it's a dodge article - I'm blocked here at work, basically Summer Games and Impossible Mission(!!!!!) are coming back)

I agree, but the Stargate MMO is already named Stargate Worlds http://www.gamespot.com/news/6143410.html/

"The DS may just be the perfect gaming machine... but it's adult friendly too in the fact that you can pick it up and play it when you've only got a few minutes to spare. Just flip it closed and it goes into standby until you open it back up."

give me +5 Flamebait but i'm sooo tired of all the DS fanboy crap I read online. Your big argument that it's "adult friendly" is that you can put it in standby easily? So if the only game it played was tic-tac-toe it'd still be "adult friendly", right?

I'm an adult and I've played the DS and just hate the games for it. It's a great system, and stupid DS fanboys keep me going back to the DS and playing it thinking something's change but it hasn't, the games still look crappy, even Metroid looked jagged compared to PSP games like Metal Gear Solid (video), Prince of Persia Revelations (video, more video) or Call of Duty (video).

Here's a great video comparison: True Swing golf for DS vs Tiger Woods PGA 07 for PSP

Those are adult games with adult graphics, I'm tired of playing Mario with cutesy graphics and a having to use a klunky stylus, especially when the DS is suppose to be a portable system.

HS: The characters are bad. They look like dolls.

Given that Sony only stopped producing new Playstation 1 units one year ago, you should start worrying about availability sometime around 2011 or later.

What, like this?

I saw these guys at GDC. Then I saw another company with a similar product. Then I was handed a business card by a third company doing the same thing. And now there's this company doing it too.

I'm hoping the technology is mature enough by now to not become vaporware because it really does look neat.

You'll notice I didn't reply to the slurs against me from the parent - I calls them as I sees them, and (not amazingly) that's how the market is reacting.

And probably that - the Wii-designed FPS titles - will be done by a third-party. It takes a certain mindset to deal with that. And Nintendo probably doesn't have enough of those people. At least the dev cost won't be high.

I really expect we won't see decent top-of-the-line FPS from Nintendo until probably the next gen console they are working on. Call of Duty is maybe half of the way there with COD3, but that's third party. And the multi-console strategy they're using means we shouldn't expect major revolutions in FPS until some other third party develops them.

The Japanese market for video games had been shrinking for some time up until the release of the DS. Before that hand held came onto the scene, it was a much discussed issue. There didn't seem to be anything that was slowing or stopping the crumbling of the market and a lot of people were at a loss for what to do. The effect was also beginning in the US.

The DS revitalized the Japanese Market which, starting at a peak in 1997, had shrunk steadily to 60% of its former size by 2003. Here's a brief report on a study released in 2004 concerning this. It wasn't a straight decline, as evidenced by a few notes in this report, but a severe decline none the less.

The DS was explicitly Nintendo's answer to this problem, and it's undeniably worked.

Reviews let me know if a game totally sucks. Then I avoid it.

Except in the case of Jaws Unleashed for PS2. In that case, I read the reviews, then immediately ran out to buy a copy. Sometimes, you just have to re-set the metric on "bad". I mean, when someone says "this game sucks" you need to have a metric of how badly the game sucked. Did it suck "Jaws" bad, or "Mark Eko's Getting Up" bad?

And yes, "Jaws" was probably the worst game I've ever played. SPOILER: The best part in the game happens very early on: you are trapped in a tank in a lab, and the only door is controlled by card-key. So you need to get a card-key to open it and make good your escape. But you are the shark so it's not like you have hands. You need to grab a scientist with a key-card, but not eat him, wave his body in front of the card-reader, and the door will open.

It seems that every Tetris game released since 2001 is broken by design. For instance, Tetris DS inherits its infinite spin and T-spin triple rules from Tetris Worlds.

LOCKJAW, on the other hand, is exactly as broken as you want it to be.

In order to save costs, the European and Australian models will have a "limited range" of backwards compatibility.

They used different hardware specs for their models, replacing a PS2-like hardware chip with software emulation that isn't as good.

They literally said "over 1000" but speculation is that the number is fairly close to that.

Actually, what you explain is exactly how Wizardry does it. As you actually utilize skills, you will see the stats increase for it. At the end of each battle you see who has gained what extra stat points. Unlocking a box will sometimes increase your skill as well.

As you level up you do get an extra bonus to add to different stats. This has certainly helped in situations where you aren't able to use an ability often, but still want to be able to use it well when you do need it.

Again, take a look at the review here. They go over the basics of the skills leveling system. The video might even show a better example.

Try giving Wizardry 8 a shot. Excellent phased combat system. I, like you, truly enjoy the phased aspect of an RPG. It allows for much more strategy and a lot less "I luckily clicked my hot button just before you did" style play.

Wizardry 8 also uses a party system, so your 4+ character requirement is happily satisfied. Characters start off fairly weak, allowing you to build them up. Another nice element is the ability to change professions, similar to FF Tactics. While you won't be superb at your new class immediately, you still have much improved base statistics to build off of. Obviously, this allows you to change a party member's class without requiring you to go back to the beginning area simply to have them live.

Wizardry has been an excellent RPG series, and 8 built upon that to create the modernized old-school RPG you are searching for. Here is a link to an overall review and summary for the game.

One thing to note though is that this is a 1-player game. I don't think you can really expect phased combat to ever enter the MMORPG arena. Most people don't have the patience to wait for others to setup turns continuously. This is the same problem Civilization has had with multiplayer.

At the end of the day, I'd rather invest in #2. Here's why- at the end of the product life, I've now got a brand/franchise that I can sequel and make a nice bit of money on

If you want to take things a step further, I would bet the return on investment for a licensed game is less than that of an original game because the licensed game is more a "sure bet." Just like in the stock market, low risk investments typically yield lower returns.

with so few games worth playing on the machine right now

Consoles outperform a similar aged PCs

No, they really don't. Neither the NES nor the SNES outperformed the contemporary Amiga or Ataris, the PlayStation did not outperform a 450MHz P2 with a VooDoo2, and the PS2 did not outperform a 1GHz Athlon with a GeForce 2.

For example, Tomb Raider Screens on the PlayStation compared to the PC.

On top of that console's...have a much lower resolution.

Which just brings your definition of "outperforming" further into question.

Consoles outperform a similar aged PCs

No, they really don't. Neither the NES nor the SNES outperformed the contemporary Amiga or Ataris, the PlayStation did not outperform a 450MHz P2 with a VooDoo2, and the PS2 did not outperform a 1GHz Athlon with a GeForce 2.

For example, Tomb Raider Screens on the PlayStation compared to the PC.

On top of that console's...have a much lower resolution.

Which just brings your definition of "outperforming" further into question.

Here: http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/sports/deadoralive xtreme2/video_player.html?id=cXEwxDfw5bgKszfc

This from the candidate who took on Rockstar over the hot coffee mod? Seems like she's arguing for privacy of personal information, but at the same time argues for stricter controls over what games we play. Does that sound hypocritical to anyone besides me?

Wasn't she the Senator who wanted to force government regulation of video games?

So, um, no. I don't think I'd vote for her regardless of what her stance of privacy is.

Kind of how the only single mascot anyone can associate with Xbox is Master Chief? But I digress. I fully disagree. Mario games have been, and continue to be, some of the most fun games I've played. To do away with them... Well, THAT would likely be the end of Nintendo. You could just as easily get rid of Mario as you could change "Nintendo" to something different. It just doesn't work.

Kind of how the only single mascot anyone can associate with Xbox is Master Chief? But I digress. I fully disagree. Mario games have been, and continue to be, some of the most fun games I've played. To do away with them... Well, THAT would likely be the end of Nintendo. You could just as easily get rid of Mario as you could change "Nintendo" to something different. It just doesn't work.

Kind of how the only single mascot anyone can associate with Xbox is Master Chief? But I digress. I fully disagree. Mario games have been, and continue to be, some of the most fun games I've played. To do away with them... Well, THAT would likely be the end of Nintendo. You could just as easily get rid of Mario as you could change "Nintendo" to something different. It just doesn't work.

Q: When will Blu-ray players drop in price to become a mainstream product?

Stan Glasgow: If you go back to when DVDs came into play, it took about three years until they got into price points of $299 to $399. I suspect it's about the same thing here with Blu-ray. I think it's going to take up to three years to get down to those price points, possibly a little longer. But I would assume it's similar to DVD.

We have some control over [the cost of the] components. There are a lot of components in that product. Once you get volumes up, you get yields up, and you get efficiencies up; the prices go down on the components.

*Sony Electronics President Stan Glasgow

Link

Essentially, Sony thinks a mainstream price for players is $300-$400 which is what HD-DVD players will be selling for by next christmas and Blu-Ray players (by their own guestimates) will not make their way to that price point until 2009/2010. Analysts have recently reduced their PS3 sales estimates to (approximately) 10 million units sold by 2008, of which only a fraction (probably 10%) will use these systems to actively play movies; basically the Blu-Ray camp hasn't won anything yet and HD-DVD could gain a lot of market share if they can sell a $300 player for Christmas 2007, $200 player for Christmas 2008 and $99 player for Christmas 2009.

The average consumer will only buy what they can actually pay for ...

You have noticed that of the top 10 selling PC games, five of them are related to the Sims, right? You may think it sucks (I thought it was alright), but it hasn't fallen. Not by a long shot.
Heres the data to back it up: http://www.gamespot.com/news/6164433.html

Aside from games that have fizzled, I lament the passing of both the Thief and System Shock series. Company (mis?)managment has probably killed most of the great gaming franchises that died in their prime. Hopefully Bioshock will make it to release and System Shock will kinda, sorta live again...

Remember that several game developers had their funding cut so Daikatana could see the light of day ( at a burn rate of $1,000,000US per month).

I agree. I took a couple months off before the expansion, partly due to the growing boredom with the same old content, among other things. This expansion is VERY refreshing, with metric asstons of new content and features. Despite the server crashes... I think there is a lot of juice in this orange they haven't squeezed out yet, and there would be no real logic in releasing another MMO like warcraft, at least until they start seeing a dramatic drop in their subscription base. A starcraft MMO, IMHO would probably be released to coincide with Stargate Worlds

Big name and buzz can help, but it's certainly not required

There really were very few games worth playing released last year (that is, of the games released early enough to have any real impact on sales for last year), and the few that were are all on the top 10 list.

Big name and buzz can help, but it's certainly not required

There really were very few games worth playing released last year (that is, of the games released early enough to have any real impact on sales for last year), and the few that were are all on the top 10 list.

Left4dead is a game being developed by Turtle Rock which is pretty much exactly the game you are describing.

Here's an article:

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/left4dead/news.h tml?sid=6163983&mode=previews

Here's the teaser trailer:

http://www.steampowered.com/v/index.php?area=game& AppId=944&cc=--&skin=0

It'll be available soon.

Good thing that they're taking the Guitar Hero series further, unlike Konami, making Guitar Hero ripoffs like Beatmania!

and there's no good reason to not use it in favor of XP. Well.... aside from the $400 price tag for the non-crippleware version?

Or perhaps it's because they've finally managed to copy the Macintosh's interface design more closely with Aero? Not to say that it dosen't make sense since every major and minor player out there has been offering better alt-tab and/or 3d functions on their desktop for some time. The only -touted- difference is the new driver model (which is why DX10 can't work on XP), but I'm going to go out on a limb here and bet that once DX10 cards actually start coming out there's going to be a bit of a ...... trial period where they work the kinks out.

In either case, getting eye candy, a questionable update in the driver/kernel and a higher price tag don't exactly make an 'upgrade' to Vista an obvious choice, at least right now.

I wonder if this had something to do with it. It would seem MS and Sony had some trouble getting thier demos going on time, and Nintendo stole the show.

Perhaps this helped seal the deal for E3 (for now) as the majority of game companies cannot redifine gaming every E3 and stand to get much less press than the big few who try.

As far as Sony not doing anything right lately, the simply have too many divisions that have competing and different needs. They really need to spin off some departments imho. After the root kit incident I really don't care what happens to Sony but if they are going to do outrageous things like that they need to hide it behind a different company name at the very least.

Regards,
a +2 Bathtub Larva

From http://www.gamespot.com/news/6163878.html

Daniel A. DeMatteo, vice chairman and COO of GameStop, late last week said PS3s are available at "hundreds of the company's 3,700 outlets," according to the New York Times. The Wii, on the other hand, is still hard to come by.

"We got some [Wiis] in yesterday in really limited supply, and they virtually disappeared," DeMatteo said, according to the NYT.