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And I've heard nothing about GameStop managers being fired, but I do know that they've axed EB employees in Philly, EB's former headquarters.

For crying out loud...would a 30 second Google search to check your facts kill you people?

Why would high production budgets be the anthesis of gaming? By their very nature of being basically fixed development, free reproduction, hudge budgets are to be expected. Besides, a year's worth of Star Trek TNG cost in the 8 figures, why would a year's worth of game development be any different?

BTW, with very specific exceptions when you put your game out to the worldwide development community you get crap. Even Art and music resources will need to be edited the heck out to get them to fit with your game in a way that a local artist would just know. Sure, you might find a cohesive, great group in the middle of nowhere ready to create an awesome interactive experience, but then you haven't moved to the Bazaar, you're just moved the Cathedral. Aesthetic experiences are difficult to create and require high team cohesion, great forward planning, and lots of focused revisions. Generally, outsourced software does not provide a great aesthetic experience.

And freed from the shackles of megabuck production costs and the time-to-market issues that they create, I have no doubt that novelty in games will start to flourish again.

There is nothing stopping what you describe now, and in fact shareware developers have been doing just that for years. Many people do independent game development, and some of them hit it big. Some of them do it overseas. Some of them make a living from it, or facilitating others. It hasn't torn down the cathedral, because some people really just want to play a football game with super realism. Or the year's most massive RPG. And yet the little guys have been surviving for years in this market.

I don't think time-to-market is as big a deal as people make it out to be. The world, and the market, won't be that different in two years. It certainly wasn't that different two years ago.

Nice imagery in your post though.

http://www.gamespot.com/forums/show_msgs.php?topic _id=23998153&page=0

Offtopic but, even gamespot uses photobucket (bandwidth exceeded msg shows up.) congradulations for creating your own semi-slashdot on gamespots page :P

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

Do not block any ventilation openings on the console or power supply. Do not place the console or power supply on a bed, sofa, or other soft surface that may block ventilation openings. Do not place the console or power supply in a confined space, such as a bookcase, rack, or stereo cabinet, unless the space is well ventilated.

Now I dont have the 360, but from these pics, it looks like any other black power brick (just really big) - IE: no such ventilation openings (the power supply in your PC is what comes to mind). So throwing it on the carpet between the TV and the console seems to be following the directions, and you would think that the 5-10 foot space betwen the console on the set would be more than enough ventalation, especially if your not any kind of engineer.

There was a fellow on the XBox360 forums who posted this link to a Gamespot forum post about a guy fixing his problems by getting his powersupply brick off the ground. Could this problem be due to poor cooling of that brick?

Most people probably heeded Microsoft's advice after people scoffed at the size of the thing - put it back behind your sofa or TV. But it could be that the lack of proper ventilation is causing this problem, which doesn't seem to be as "isolated" as Microsoft is saying. From what I've been reading on various forums around the net it's a higher percentage than one would expect.

You see, I've got to disagree with most of what you have to say. The only EA game I play regularly is Madden. Madden has done a decent job of adding features without screwing too much with the formula since about Madden 2003 (where 2003 is actually the year 2002 here).

You need to read this.

"Many of the unique gameplay features of the last couple of Madden games are missing; lots of missing modes--all you get is a husk of a franchise mode and online play; some unsightly animation and graphical hang-ups that stick out all the more on a next-gen console; you can't challenge plays."

In other words, the latest, greatest version of Madden actually has much less in the way of features than the previous versions.

I don't know if this is intentional on the part of EA - trying to backtrack with the 360 so they can re-add all those features later and charge people again for stuff they already paid for in the original Xbox era - but if so, it's pretty shameless. And if you read the reviews for all of EA's sports games on the 360, the same is true across the line.

This is exactly the kind of thing these analysts are talking about turning people off.

FIFA 2006 is by far the best football game ever. I still like 2005 too. At least with sports games you know what you're getting. FIFA for the XBox 360 is worthless. So I'll be waiting till next year for a 360 assuming anything good is released for it.

Considering that a ticket to buy one at the local Walmart last night went for between 100-600 dollars, it looks like your boycott is meaning less (as are all for the most part). That being said, I was going to buy one until I read the Madden 06 and FIFA:Road to the World Cup reviews on game spot here I'll wait for next year's FIFA since that is the only game I really ever play (too busy). FIFA 2006 just came out last month for my XBox and it is kick ass. HD Soccer next year.

All that being said, I LOVE the new controller. The only reason I have never purchased and NEVER will purchase a POS Sony Playstation is their controller. The same thing for the XBox until the S-controller came out.

from the GameSpot article of 4 days ago:

Thompson withdrew from the case, saying the defense was trying to make him the issue, but that he was stepping aside so that his clients' needs could better be served. Game Politics is reporting that Judge Moore criticized Thompson's professional conduct in an 18-page ruling, to which Thompson has responded with a letter to Alabama's Judicial Inquiry Commission questioning Judge Moore's ethics.

(emphasis mine)

(Of course I knew Jack would react like that. When he heard the Florida Bar Association was investigating him, he threatened to sue them. Whenever someone says something bad about him, he either threatens to sue them, or else sends a letter to some higher authority accusing them of all sorts of nasty behaviour.)

Ads in games aren't exactly new.

Am I the only one who noticed Bawls in the fallout series?

To be honest I think it added a sense of "oh ya I guess that could be our future" to the game.

If done tastefully and correctly placement distracts less than having a can of 'cooko-cola' on the table rather than 'Coca-cola'.

Heck my first GTA hack was to put back in Real products into the game rather than fake ones for Ads and Billboards.

These seem better:

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6140117.html

http://www.gamingsteve.com/archives/2005/11/jack_t hompson_t.php

http://www.gtasanandreas.net/news/single.php?id=21 86

...that Slashdot didn't jump on this when GameSpot covered it... 4 days ago.

Just spotted this little bit of news at Gamespot about how half of surveyed "active" gamers said they would wait until they had choice before buying in to the next generation.

Well at least I know I'm not alone. ;)

Marginally related are Warren Spector's thoughts on the issue, over at Gamespot. Very good read IMO.

there was a sequel to the original strider on the genesis and on the original playstation http://www.gamespot.com/ps/action/strider2/index.h tml?q=strider

i would love to see an updated version of strider possibly for ps3 or x360. the only place you can see strider at on ps2 or xbox is in the capcom fighting games.

Which Microsoft financials are you looking at? The Home and Entertainment department (which is what the Xbox is part of) posted losses of 1.2B in 2003, 1.2B in 2004, and 391M in 2005. That's hardly profitable for two years. You could read MSFT's 10-K report, or the many articles that have been written about it.

Hmm. There was another story a couple of days ago that highlighted this. Here's the url: http://www.gamespot.com/features/6139690/index.htm l. It's pretty interesting, though a bit sluggish to load.

Sony may have a usable devkit that doesn't cause permanent brain-damage by then.

Ah, the pathetic myths people perpetuate. Try again please, thanks. Plenty to go around.

Gamespot has a good summary of the PS3 SDK. A choice quote:

Sony chief technical officer Masami Chatani was also present at the PlayStation meeting. He disclosed that Nvidia, maker of the PS3's RSX graphics processor, is currently working on a lineup of programmable shader tools for the console. These include a CG compiler, which is a standard for PC graphics that's oriented toward C language; an FX composer, which is a program for creating shaders of various textures, such as skin and hair; PerfHUD and ShaderPerf, which are evaluation tools to optimize the quality of the shaders; and Melody, which lets normal maps be used to drop polygon volumes without lowering graphics quality.

Chatani reconfirmed that the PS3 will support Open GL/ES as its standard API, and he also revealed support for Collada, an open-interchange file format for the interactive 3D industry.

In terms of supporting developers in their use of the Cell processor, Sony is forming an alliance with chipmaker Transmeta Corporation, a company renowned for its software emulation technology and its x86-compatible, software-based microprocessors. Transmeta will be offering an SPE optimizer and software that will let developers effectively program for the Cell processor and its seven SPEs. The tools will allow statistical process control (SPC) simulation on PCs and will also let programmers debug and tune their programs with runtime info. Transmeta's tools will be shipped to developers in Q4 2005.

Do you consider OpenGL and other standard toolkits to "cause permanent brain-damage [sic]"? Do you work for Microsoft?

In case anyone despairs, the first response in the original thread to what the parent quotes is this:

I guess you love raping grammar.

Succinct, and hopeful.

At 30 years of age, the games industry still suffers from an endemic lack of professional management compared to less mature industries such as the mobile telephony and the internet industries.

While it may be likely that FFXIII is "unveiled" at the time of the PS3 release, it probably wouldn't be released for another year or two after that, so it probably won't drive too many console sales initially. Since FFXII isn't due out until the second half of 2006 in the US, I find it highly unlikely that FFXIII would be released within 2 years of that date. And even then, I would take those dates with a grain of thought. After all, Square Enix originally said that FFXII would be released in "the second half of the fiscal year ending March 2004" and it looks like they'll be off by 2 years (assuming a March 2006 release for the Japanese version).

Battlezone was really great: it was like an RTS/FPS with very good control. Star Trek: Bridge Commander was also a fine game: definitely one of the best Star Trek games.

Same here. Being an RPG fan, my PS2 got way more playtime than my Xbox (yes, I'm a Squeenix and Nippon Ichi junkie). When I saw the Xbox.com page boasting that all "popular genres" were covered, and no RPGs listed, that irked me. (I don't count Kameo. As good as it may be, it's really a platformer)

Fortunately, there are a couple of RPGs on the way for the platform. Ninety-Nine Nights looks interesting, but it's more action RPG-ish. What I'm really looking forward to are Enchant ARM and Blue Dragon.

http://games.teamxbox.com/xbox-360/1278/NinetyNine -Nights/
http://games.teamxbox.com/xbox-360/1281/eM-eNCHANT -arM/
http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/rpg/bluedragon/

For the record, I will freely admit that I am a Nintendo fanboy. They have a console that has ALWAYS been less expensive than any of it's competitors, but is able to produce game experiences at least is good, if not better than what Sony or MS is offering. I had an XBox for while, and it didn't offer me ANYTHING that I couldn't get better from a PC. I bought a used GameCube a couple years ago and my non-gamer wife loves it, AND I get to play all the first party exclusives that Nintendo has to offer.

Why the hell can't Nintendo crank out a 2D side scroller of Mario World for the cube?

That was called "Super Smash Bros. Melee adventure mode". But what you're really looking for is a New Super Mario Bros. 2DSidescroller, right? The spot has details.

By the end of Q1 2006 (or thereabouts), we expect to see shipments of Mercury Computer Systems' Dual Cell-Based Blades; Toshiba's comprehensive Cell Reference Set development platform; and of course the Sony PlayStation 3.

PS3 Linux and the CELL processor, of course.

It appears you have not been reading all of the speculation.

Then there were the kids that hung out with them, not because they were talented geeks, but simply because they were geeky.

That said: I love Gamespot. Even though they have some questionable reviews from time to time, their commentary is entertaining, mature and comfortable in its geeky skin. Gerstmann, Kasavin, etc. are really the standard for everyone else.

The Escapist is fun, but occasionally takes itself too seriously and G4TV has more cringe-worthy moments than an 8th grade talent show.

view a video review of the game here:

http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/adventure/wandaandthec olossus/media.html

Well, I could find nothing definate. There is rumor and speculation caused by an NVIDIA converence call that was reported by Spong and others as fact.

Here is the Gamespot Rumor Control on the subject.

Sorry, my info may not have been as solid as I thought.

I agree with the point that enjoying games that aren't always serious is a refreshing way to have fun. It's nice not to worry about whats around the next corner and just concentrate on what's all around you. Many people were tossing around Fear and SS2 as contenders, I've been playing SS2 as well as Fear side by side and I don't believe they are two games that can be really be compared to one another. Although they are both FPSes, one is meant to entertain while the other is meant to scare and get your heart rate going. In my opinion neither really offer much when it comes to a story line, but I think SS2 is more justified with not having one since it's a game that is known for it's corny jokes and cutscenes. Fears story line has been watered down from the beginning. Catch Fettle at all costs is all I've gotten out of the storyline so far. I still don't know how they got the guy who looks like fat bastard(http://img.gamespot.com/gamespot/images/20 05/285/reviews/920744_20051013_screen023.jpg) in the story line, the world may never know.

The sig is the solution to an alphabet problem in the computer game 7th Guest . You are in a haunted house solving a murder, and must puzzle you way out of various situations. They even have a robot of sorts (the microscope game), but it wasn't that dangerous!

Funny, I didn't know Gamespot had any 'offline' stores.

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.

but for all the Sim games, it is macroscopic

Epic Games today announced that its Unreal Engine 3 technology will be used in games from Microsoft's internal development team, Microsoft Game Studios ... While no specific titles were mentioned, Epic confirmed that the technology will be used for "the next-generation Xbox platform." ... "We are hugely excited that Microsoft Game Studios have selected Unreal Engine 3 for its next generation Xbox platform games," said Epic Games president Mark Rein.

It was simple to find so many reviews to back up my comments, that being the Sony's CRT is the best out there. http://reviews.cnet.com/Sony_KV_34XBR910/4514-6485 _7-30536650.html http://www.circuitcity.com/ccd/productDetailReview .do?oid=96194&com.broadvision. session.new=Yes&BV_SessionID=@@@@1779814821.113043 5483@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccdeaddgd hdiiijcfngcfkmdffhdfkl.0 http://hardware.gamespot.com/Story-ST-1341-x-10-11 -x http://reviews.cnet.com/Sony_KV_34HS510/4514-6481_ 7-20886712.html Yes they are more expensive than any other type, but you truly get what you pay for. It is like buying fine furniture made of real solid wood or the stapled together crap that you get at the brick. The CRT industry is being phased out just like fine furniture did a long time ago. People bought crap because it was cheap and served their immediate purpose. Fine furniture is a rarety, but it is better. So too is the CRT. It is being pushed aside by inferior products that are cheaper and of less quality because most consumer demand it. This is why Sony is turning down the product lines. Unlike fine furniture, technology will make the competing products better Just not yet. Until that time, I'll stick to my Sony 34" HDTV CRT thank you.

Well... David Chapelle plays World of Warcraft.

The Nintendo DS is falling behind in sales against the superior Sony PSP.

From a Gamespot article:

"Recent sales figures provided by Dengeki Online revealed that cumulative shipments of the DS have nearly doubled those of the PSP in Japan since both launched in the country last December. As of the end of September 2005, Nintendo sold 3.2 million units of its DS handheld in Japan, while Sony Computer Entertainment shipped only 1.7 million units."

. Dependency on Cartridges: The age of the game cartridge has come and gone. The overwhelming success of the Sony Playstation and its "intellegent" use of CD-ROM based media effectively killed the cartridges as a viable media format for software.

Maybe for home consoles. But do you really want something portable that has moving parts? No matter how damn hard you try, you're going to treat anything handheld pretty badly.

3. Lack of Wi-Fi Internet Connectivity: The DS only allows for multiplayer games via its wi-fi connection with oher DS units but users cannot access public wi-fi drops like with the PSP and different PDA models. Because of this it would be impossible to sync data on the DS and a PC or another PDA because of this design.

And just how much more convenient is it to browse the web with a PSP? Ever heard of something called "input"? Besides, what's McDonald's for? Or the 50-dollar Mario Kart/Wi-Fi dongle package.

4, No Support for Storage Media: The DS does not natively support any form of flash media cards for storing data.

Just how "universal" is the so-called Universal Media Disc? Seen any blanks on sale recently?

5. Dominant Childen Marketing Angle:(not even going to bother with this one...)

Quantity doesn't really matter if Nintendo is the only one who can stay in black. So what if games are aimed for chilren? I don't think adults have gone "Eww" at Mario Party.

The company is too slow to change and adapt with the current market and current technology.

Who came up with Rumble? Who came up with the analog stick? Who came up with the shoulder buttons? Rather, just look at the fscking Revolution controller.

It's flaimbait, it's troll, but I bit.

Multiplayer seems to be more of a deathmatch than anything else... You mean you wouldn't like to be a giant god-like creature breeder?

Check out the gamespot review for some more multiplayer info
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/blackwhite/rev iew.html?page=2

1. The PS3 will use Blu-ray.
2. The Xbox 360* doesn't use either of the BDFs**, but I doubt it won't change to accomodate one to support games with sharper details, longer storylines, or just more HD E3 trailers.

*I know they are "facts" from an official source that might not be true. Proving them isn't my job or worry now.

**Big Disk Format, a trademark (that I may/may not claim at the USPTO) of game kid.

The game will be released on the 25th having entered final CD production on the 19th.

Source

gamespot sez its `great'

I've been trying to get this posted here for days so I'll post it here...

It's semi off topic, but id stuff is posted a lot here, so here it goes:

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid= 11868
http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/09/27/news_61345 36.html

Adrian Carmack (one of 4 founders of id software) was fired over some stock despute (RTFA). What's more interesting (depends how you take it) is that Activision tried buying id for $105 million dollars. Read the rest in the links.

I was wondering if I was living under a rock since I never heard of quake4?

Turns out Raven software made the port and modified the doom3 engine. For the older slashdoters who remember doom1 and doom2, raven developed heretic and then hexan on the doom1 and doom2 engines and added multiplayer capability. I forgot all about these guys.

A full review and screenshots are here. I find it pecuilar that Raven ported this classic level of quake3 to quake4. ... or commonly known as the level where the cheaters with auto-aim and the rail gun whip your butt in.:-)

At least they didn't get hacked like Gamespot [http://www.gamespot.com/

Well, when you consider that there's a Yoshinoya Beef Bowl training simulator/game that you can get, you realize that maybe a coal mining simulator isn't too far out of the question...

1. The plaintiff has to prove the statement is false.
2. The defendant has to know the statement is false.
3. The defendant made the statement without caring whether the statement is true or false.

Libel is the term used for written defamation of character (I hand you a note, or print in /., saying that your cat is an idiot), and slander is the verbal form (I tell people that your cat is an idiot). Defamation loosely means making false statements about someone that results in their losing reputation. If your cat really is an idiot, then it isn't defamation. Proving whether a statement is true or false is pretty easy. Proving malice, which is needed for public figure plaintiffs, is much harder to do.

According to Gamespot, the infamous fax to the Seattle Police has not been received by the Seattle Police (as of yesterday). My hypothesis as to why the fax was never sent to the police is that it would constitute filing a false police report which is a crime in every state in this country.

I am not a lawyer either, but I did go to a police academy.