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The Net Yaroze system is black (the blue system was the super expensive game developer version) and did cost $750. You had to sign a special agreement including which you agreed not to resell the system. The system was like the original SCPH-1001 system, which meant video output jacks at the back, and 2 black original PSX controllers (non-analog/dual shock). The Net Yaroze system also allowed games (legit ones) from all regions to be played; "backups" could not be played (go figure). More information about this system can be found here Anyway, that BS aside, I'm guessing Sony decided on the PS2 Linux after the success of the Net Yaroze system by yet again testing the waters with the Japanese beta 1 version (that sold out in a day, I think it was 200 copies). With that and the positive feedback from their little poll, I'm glad they came to their senses and finally allowing a larger number of people to play around with this not as expensive (still expensive) toy. :)

Oh yeah, that was in Crazy Taxi 2.
It's real cool. Screenshot

Actually it was a tennis game designed by William Higinbotham in 1958.

And Ralph Baer suggested a similar idea to his company, Loral, in 1951.

Anyway, wasn't Space War invented in 1961?

Read, this. It's good.

muttley

adpowers writes: "Anandtech is running an article about their preview of AMD's Hammer. They had one machine running 32-bit Windows and the other running 64-bit Linux. The Linux machine had a 32 bit program and an identical program that was compiled for 64-bit processor support. Both processors were less than 30 days old and running without any crashes, but they weren't at full speed." We did one Hammer story a day or two ago, but there have been several more posted since then (wild guess: the NDA expired). Tom's Hardware has a story, so does Gamespot.

actually, the Xbox's GPU is a faster GF3 (250 MHz) but with a 2nd vertex shader like the GF4. It's not low-end by any means. Read the gamespot writup here.

In fact, there is...maybe. The standard Japanese controller is considerably smaller (and therefore more comfortable-looking) than the US controller, and it features a different (arguably better) button layout.

Compare the Japanese controller to the American controller for yourself.

Personally, I don't think the standard American controller is all that bad, and I'm not convinced the Japanese controller is much of an improvement anyway. The grass is always greener....

In fact, there is...maybe. The standard Japanese controller is considerably smaller (and therefore more comfortable-looking) than the US controller, and it features a different (arguably better) button layout.

Compare the Japanese controller to the American controller for yourself.

Personally, I don't think the standard American controller is all that bad, and I'm not convinced the Japanese controller is much of an improvement anyway. The grass is always greener....

Citing a gamespot article is like linking to the NRA to prove that guns aren't dangerous.

It just won't convince anyone who believes otherwise.

Of course, here at /. you're preaching to the choir, so who cares.

Note: I don't think guns or video games are dangerous or cause violence. I firmly believe those things can always be traced back to stupid people.

I ran into a problem with folks not reviewing games when the GBA (Game Boy Advance for the un-anointed) first came out. My brother and I were trying to decide which games we should both get vs. which we should just share. Bomberman Tournament was the title we'd anticipated most, so if there was any possibility of increasing the gameplay value by buying two, we were gonna do it.

And, after a quick perusal of two of the largest gaming sites around - Gamespot.com and IGN.com - we decided two cartridges were the way to go. After all, in Gamespot's review, Frank Provo writes:

The game supports both multi- and single-cartridge multiplayer options, although the load times for single-cartridge hosting are somewhat excessive.

Sounds good, especially when paired with David Zdyrko's comments in IGN's review:

The only downside to the one-cart, four-GBA setup is that you'll have to deal with a tremendous amount of load time at the start of each contest, before the victory screen and before the start of the next battle.

This is only a minor annoyance, though, and can be remedied a lot if you happen to have a friend or more that also has a copy of the game.

So, we went and bought two copies, whipped those babies out, and set up a game. And, lo and behold - no multi-cartridge support. Yes, indeed, the single gamepak mode had lots of slow load times. But having more than one doesn't do you any good unless you lose a game in the couch cushions.

There was some moaning about this issue on the Gamespot forums, and as it turns out, the multi-cartridge support had not been brought over to the US version. Some of the reviewers had been given bad data by the company.

To which I first though, "OK, no big whoop. Shit happens." But the more I considered it, the more it bugged me. These two reviewers made claims based on information they got from the company that made the game - NOT their own experiences. They didn't test these features; they just threw them into the review.

I understand the most probable reasons: lack of time, only one cartridge to test with. But all I'm asking is for a simply "We didn't have two copies, so we can say for ourselves, but apparently..." Yes, it sounds a little wussy, but it makes the difference between journalism and an ad. At the very least, they could have corrected the error when they were notified; I'm aware of several people who have contacted both sites, including myself, and one Gamespot official even bothered to reply about it in the forums, but both still stand unchanged.

OK, this is a minor thing, I know. But it did cost me about 30 bucks, and it makes me wonder: how much else in these "reviews" is straight out of a press release?

They gave them a whole page, in part II of the article.

Hello jandrese:

The part II of the article is here: http://gamespot.com/gamespot/features/all/realtime _pt2/index.html.
It covers RTS from 1999 to the present.

I can't believe they left out Populous, published by Electronic Arts 3 years before Dune II, in 1989. See some screenshots, with bad translation. Gamespot considers it one of the 15 most influential games of all time.

The concept was that you were a God, and you were battling another Diety for control of worlds. Both you and your opponent started out with a few followers, and they would multiply rapidly through making settlements. You could make the settlements produce faster by improving the land around them.

You slowly built up Mana points that you could spend on disasters to inflict on your opponent's settlements and followers. Volcanos, quicksand, earthquakes, just to name a few. The more followers you had, the faster your Mana would accumulate.

It was the first game that I had ever seen that had multiple units to control at once. Instead of having direct control over each unit, you could direct them towards a "Papal Magnet" that you could place anywhere in the game world.

It even had a multiplayer option that you could play over a modem.

It was much closer to today's RTS games than Herzog Zwei!

Check here for another excellent synopsis of Turn Based Strategy Games from Gamespot (and to think I hated this site when Gamecenter closed and began redirecting to it)

[Repost from some of my Replies to other Comments]

Part 2 located here.

My fault for not posting it in the first place (hopefully they'll update it when they get a chance).

It will clear up a lot of the posts I am seeing about "They missed xxx!!"

Two Parts to the article:
Gamespot has got an excellent article (in Two Parts)

Part 2

They are all covered in that section.

[ From Part 1 of the article:
It's worth noting here because it has the distinction of being the predecessor of a game that will figure heavily in our next segment. We'll also take a look at some of the big RTS games currently under development, as well as how the genre has continued to evolve and influence other types of games. ]

Granted my fault for not posting the second link as well, but at least read the article before you whine.

The article does an excellent job of addressing this, especially in part 2. Read the article and you'll see why this genre is evolving past that point and will most likely wind up turning into a new genre (either Role-Playing Strategy like Warlords Battlecry and Warcraft III, or God Strategy games like Black and White).

FYI, I should have submitted this with the article, but here is Part 2. Also here is a feature on Turn Based Strategy (ie. Civilization) which might be of interest.

The article does an excellent job of addressing this, especially in part 2. Read the article and you'll see why this genre is evolving past that point and will most likely wind up turning into a new genre (either Role-Playing Strategy like Warlords Battlecry and Warcraft III, or God Strategy games like Black and White).

FYI, I should have submitted this with the article, but here is Part 2. Also here is a feature on Turn Based Strategy (ie. Civilization) which might be of interest.

This quote, from Gamespot's own site:

Some consider Dune 2 to be the most influential real-time strategy game. Others claim it was the 1970s mainframe version of Empire that laid the groundwork for RTS games as we know them today. That debate will never be satisfactorily settled, but we can honestly say that the RTS game that deserved the title of "being ahead of its time" is Electronic Arts' Modem Wars.

(More info here on the work of Danielle Bunten, including M.U.L.E., Seven Cities of Gold, etc.)

... was Total Annihilation.

3D graphics, order queues for your units, well thought out balance between the two factions and good (for the time) network support, allowing for a decent game against your friends.

Too bad the company (Cavedog) went to hell and never released a decent successor.

If you want to read what I'm blathering about, here is the link to the summary from the main article.

I don't know Japanese but according to the gamespot article on the history of video games, Atari in Japanese, in reference to the game Go, has an equivalent meaning to the word check, in chess.

I've also seen this reference to the origins of Atari's name in other places also. So when Bushnell started Atari, it probably what he meant.

Oh my God he wasn't lying.

Sam & Max Sequel Confirmed!

• Leadtek's WinFast GeForce2 MX DH Pro 32MB
• ATI Radeon VE Dual Display 32 MB DDR
  • Gamespot Review
  • Old press release
  • Official Site

I've been very happy with my Leadtek WinFast GeForce 2 MX DH Pro 32MB personally. I've set computers up both ways -- with a single dual head card, and with two separate video cards, and let me just say that it is SO much nicer to do it with a single Dual Head card. It works either way, but at least with the Leadtek card it comes with plenty of extra stuff that makes controlling your two displays a cinch.

Does anybody know if there are any GeForce3-based Dual Head cards out there? Or if any are in the works?

-Sou|cuttr

Some dude that went by Thresh won it. PC Gamer even gave him a job as a staff writer, with a monthly column on multiplayer gaming. Yeah, because winning a quake tournament makes you qualified to write a magazine column.

PK
"Where are we going, and why are we in this handbasket?"

This references this article from this slashdot article:


* Spider-Man 2 for the PlayStation is delayed to remove a scene that had the superhero on top of a building that looked like the World Trade Center.

* Changes are made to Flight Simulator 2002 to remove the World Trade Center towers from the flying environment and a patch is released to remove them from Flight Simulator 2000.


Why the hell is the world trade center being removed from old movies, video games, advertisements and just about anything else. Isn't this rewriting history? Are we supposed to pretend that they never existed? I have a picture of myself as a child with the World Trade Center right behind me.... should I doctor that photo to reflect the newer, more post 9/11 NYC skyline? I'm sorry, but there used to be two giant buildings where the empty space is... and pretending that they never existed will not help this country whatsoever.

there are some people who play games like this and end up being worse for society as a result from what they would be if games like this were not available.
In Germany, games like this (heh, this one is particularly appropriate) come with 25% taxes and may only be sold in adult stores. Games for mass-market must not have red blood or human figures.
Germany has one of the lowest rates of violent crime in the world.

This has been a thoughtful, on-topic post.
To make it more-so, here is a link to:
a review by gamespot.com (eg
"
. Return to Castle Wolfenstein's development actually involved two separate teams, both overseen by id Software. The first team, Gray Matter Studios--which, under the name Xatrix, had previously produced Redneck Rampage and Kingpin--was hired to create the single-player campaign, while a new development house, Nerve Software, concentrated its energies on the multiplayer component

")
and
the homepage. (eg "The Game / Downloads / Gallery / Press / News")

There is, it's called Halo and most gaming sites think it's at least 1/5 as good as MGS2.

Halo Review - 9.7/10
Metal Gear Solid 2 Review - 9.6/10

Halo Review - 9.7/10
Metal Gear Solid 2 Review - 9.7/10

So I guess that means it's a contender in your book.

There is, it's called Halo and most gaming sites think it's at least 1/5 as good as MGS2.

Halo Review - 9.7/10
Metal Gear Solid 2 Review - 9.6/10

Halo Review - 9.7/10
Metal Gear Solid 2 Review - 9.7/10

So I guess that means it's a contender in your book.

It looks like its taking a lost from Q3A. Take a look at this gun. Look a little like the railgun to you? It sure does to me.

How about this character model. Looks like Klesk to me.

Oh, and here's Uriel.

Well, to be honest, I'd have to say that I'll likely buy this game. I used to hate UT (I called it Uniral Orniment), but I must say that UT2 looks very impressive. Especially the levels.

It looks like its taking a lost from Q3A. Take a look at this gun. Look a little like the railgun to you? It sure does to me.

How about this character model. Looks like Klesk to me.

Oh, and here's Uriel.

Well, to be honest, I'd have to say that I'll likely buy this game. I used to hate UT (I called it Uniral Orniment), but I must say that UT2 looks very impressive. Especially the levels.

It looks like its taking a lost from Q3A. Take a look at this gun. Look a little like the railgun to you? It sure does to me.

How about this character model. Looks like Klesk to me.

Oh, and here's Uriel.

Well, to be honest, I'd have to say that I'll likely buy this game. I used to hate UT (I called it Uniral Orniment), but I must say that UT2 looks very impressive. Especially the levels.

It looks like its taking a lost from Q3A. Take a look at this gun. Look a little like the railgun to you? It sure does to me.

How about this character model. Looks like Klesk to me.

Oh, and here's Uriel.

Well, to be honest, I'd have to say that I'll likely buy this game. I used to hate UT (I called it Uniral Orniment), but I must say that UT2 looks very impressive. Especially the levels.

Gamespot.com has this nice feature story on Total Annihilation. Light reading and thorough. The focus here is mainly on the designer Chris Taylor.

First person shooters have something holding them back from being ultra-realistic and that is the bubble that surrounds the player. The degree of seperation between the player and the world. What am I talking about? Take a look at this screenshot. Notice how the gun is JUST to the right of the player's eye whilst the clown is very seperate. The clown can never interact with that gun and can never come between the player and the end of the gun. In my opinion, as the graphics get more and more realistic this is becoming a bigger and bigger problem in getting the player immersed in the game. The gun example is just an example, what I am trying to say is that the player is very seperated from the environment in first person shooters and that is becoming a major problem. Notice also how the player can never see their own feet.

Think this is a small issue? Well, imagine a game where the player COULD see their feet and enemies COULD come inbetween the player, the player's gun and the player's feet. Right now, first person shooters make the player feel like a gun floating in mid-air and shooting at things in the environment. DOOM didn't quite do that, it used view-bobbing and other techniques to prevent that feel. A newish game that has the same level of immersion is Medal Of Honour. Whilst I don't think you can see your feet in that or enemies can interact largely with the player, the player still gets immersed by things like view bobbing, realistic sounds and other activity keeping the player occupied.

Forget graphics, NOW is the time for immersion!

I hope they hold a naming competition too!

I hope they hold a naming competition too!

They're apparently including vehicles this time around, Tribes 2 style.

It is on the alltime greatest vaporware games. Its worth a read.

You don't need to be a Kreskin to predict Xbox's future. The hand writing is on the wall: Xbox faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for Xbox because Xbox is dying. Things are looking very bad for Xbox. As many of us are already aware, Xbox continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood.

Credit Suisse First Bank has released the latest sales report on video game hardware sales for the pre-Christmas week between December 16 to 22. Sony has sold another 596,000 units of PlayStation 2 during the week, pushing the installed base to 6.6 million units in North America. During the same week XBox has sold 165,000 units and GameCube has sold 259,000 units. For the handheld market, Nintendo has sold a total of 639,000 units of GameBoy Advance, pushing the installed based to 4.6 millions.

I find it very bizarre that the Majestic team attempts to vindicate their efforts by repeatedly referring to their game as "critically acclaimed."

Majestic got a lot of buzz and ink for being a novel concept, but in terms of actual critical reviews it was universally slammed by the gaming press. Since the Majestic team has such a short memory, they can find some reviews here and here.

Like the gaming press, I really wanted to like this game, but I could not be dragged into paying $120 a year for an elaborate "click here to continue the poorly acted movie" setup that lasts a few hours each month.

There are some VERY cool games coming out for the GameCube.


So right. I completely forgot to mention that the line up coming down the pipe for NGC is far more compelling than any other console right now. All I see coming from the big N is fun fun fun! Zelda anyone?!?! Metroid, Mario Sunshine, Star Fox and a heck of a lot more. And those are only the first party titles! We haven't even mentioned any third party titles!

I also neglected to mention that there are also other games available for the NGC that isn't so kiddish. Just take a look at Resident Evil. If I had kids, I definately wouldn't let them play that!

GameSpot had a really long and good recap of what happened at Ion Storm and with Romero. It is a couple years old but was written after the game shipped.

http://www.gamespot.com/features/btg-daikatana/

And here's more about the Third Law drama (Third Law Interactive was the company they went off to start).

I think blizzard should switch to the "It's Done When It's Done" philosophy. http://www.gamespot.com/features/warcraft3_pre/ind ex.html

As always Gamespot has a good preview including screenshots

Have you seen Grand Turismo 3 on Playstation 2? It looks just as good as Project Gotham, but the cars do not shine light so unnaturally, so fools like you think it does not look as nice. Project Gotham cannot be compared to GTA3 as the latter has great gameplay and the former has medicore play. Gran Turismo 3 screenshots Also GTA3 draws many more cars onscreen than Gotham racing ever does. GTA3 when you play the game, it looks like you are watching racing on tv, Gotham racing the cars are always too lighted and shiny, it looks fake.

Also I will admit DOA 3 looks nice, but the gameplay sucks. It is just a medicore 3d fighter, Tekken 3 is more fun to play.

I can not believe you picked DOA3 and Project Gotham as examples of why the XBox is better. They are all graphics and no gameplay. Geforce 2 cards on a pc can handle those graphics, especially if you output it to a tv. For a 100 bucks get a Geforce 2 and return the Xbox. All the Xbox exclusive titles, mean that those games will not come out for other consoles, but they will come to the PC.

Soul Calibur 2 will be on the XBOX as well.

Will you personally buy a game cube? If you answer yes to this one you'll be the only one I know who will.

Get out a little more. They've sold a million of the things. By the way, great argument there. My dad can beat up yours.

I think I represent the average gamer and I want strategy games, fighting games, REALISTIC images, great audio.

Nah, the average gamer wants The Sims and Pokemon.

I want games to move me and scare me. I especially don't want Mario this or Luigi that.

Fair enough, but if you're going to speak for the average gamer, keep in mind that Nintendo sold about a billion dollars worth of software in 2000. Their closest competitor? EA, with under 500 million. Keep in mind that EA publishes games on all platforms and that Nintendo is restricted to their own. And in case you're wondering, those numbers don't include hardware, it's just the games. Doesn't sound like the average gamer is agreeing with you so far.

Game cube commercials are already touting a new Mario + friends mortal combat style fighting game. I truly think you need to be 11 to get a kick out of that.

Yeah, you definitely need to be eleven. Like last night, I was playing Smash Brothers with my roommate and two friends and it was so fun that we played for about two hours. Then I remembered that we're all over 24 so we threw that game out. I don't know what Gamespot was thinking when they put it in the top ten console games of the year, because I'm pretty sure their editors are over 11 (although sometimes it's a tough call). Good thing, we stopped playing, though, so we could move on to a game that lets you drive one of these armed cycles on some huge courses and blow your friends up.

But I'll admit that the Gamecube's graphics aren't that great, like that Rogue Leader game. I mean, did they really think anyone would want to play a game with graphics like this?

And in fighting games, we'll put aside the fact that you're superficial and clearly have no idea what you're talking about. I know Kirby and Pikachu are cute as all get out, but the fighting system in SSB is way more fun than DOA3's. And if that's not enough for you, Soul Calibur 2, successor to the real king of 3D fighters (OK, fine, Virtua Fighter rules, too), will be exclusive to the GameCube when it first arrives.

Speaking of realism, did you know that the water in Wave Race: Blue Storm, an amazingly addictive racing game with a tight control system, was so good, that Gamespot created a new category in their year end awards for it?

Oh, right, and you want to be scared. So, how about four Resident Evil games and Eternal Darkness? Is that enough blood for you, mister sophisticated mature gaming man?

I've got a GameCube, a Playstation 2, and a Dreamcast (which, as far as I'm concerned, still has the best catalog of games around), couldn't be happier.

Will you personally buy a game cube? If you answer yes to this one you'll be the only one I know who will.

Get out a little more. They've sold a million of the things. By the way, great argument there. My dad can beat up yours.

I think I represent the average gamer and I want strategy games, fighting games, REALISTIC images, great audio.

Nah, the average gamer wants The Sims and Pokemon.

I want games to move me and scare me. I especially don't want Mario this or Luigi that.

Fair enough, but if you're going to speak for the average gamer, keep in mind that Nintendo sold about a billion dollars worth of software in 2000. Their closest competitor? EA, with under 500 million. Keep in mind that EA publishes games on all platforms and that Nintendo is restricted to their own. And in case you're wondering, those numbers don't include hardware, it's just the games. Doesn't sound like the average gamer is agreeing with you so far.

Game cube commercials are already touting a new Mario + friends mortal combat style fighting game. I truly think you need to be 11 to get a kick out of that.

Yeah, you definitely need to be eleven. Like last night, I was playing Smash Brothers with my roommate and two friends and it was so fun that we played for about two hours. Then I remembered that we're all over 24 so we threw that game out. I don't know what Gamespot was thinking when they put it in the top ten console games of the year, because I'm pretty sure their editors are over 11 (although sometimes it's a tough call). Good thing, we stopped playing, though, so we could move on to a game that lets you drive one of these armed cycles on some huge courses and blow your friends up.

But I'll admit that the Gamecube's graphics aren't that great, like that Rogue Leader game. I mean, did they really think anyone would want to play a game with graphics like this?

And in fighting games, we'll put aside the fact that you're superficial and clearly have no idea what you're talking about. I know Kirby and Pikachu are cute as all get out, but the fighting system in SSB is way more fun than DOA3's. And if that's not enough for you, Soul Calibur 2, successor to the real king of 3D fighters (OK, fine, Virtua Fighter rules, too), will be exclusive to the GameCube when it first arrives.

Speaking of realism, did you know that the water in Wave Race: Blue Storm, an amazingly addictive racing game with a tight control system, was so good, that Gamespot created a new category in their year end awards for it?

Oh, right, and you want to be scared. So, how about four Resident Evil games and Eternal Darkness? Is that enough blood for you, mister sophisticated mature gaming man?

I've got a GameCube, a Playstation 2, and a Dreamcast (which, as far as I'm concerned, still has the best catalog of games around), couldn't be happier.

Will you personally buy a game cube? If you answer yes to this one you'll be the only one I know who will.

Get out a little more. They've sold a million of the things. By the way, great argument there. My dad can beat up yours.

I think I represent the average gamer and I want strategy games, fighting games, REALISTIC images, great audio.

Nah, the average gamer wants The Sims and Pokemon.

I want games to move me and scare me. I especially don't want Mario this or Luigi that.

Fair enough, but if you're going to speak for the average gamer, keep in mind that Nintendo sold about a billion dollars worth of software in 2000. Their closest competitor? EA, with under 500 million. Keep in mind that EA publishes games on all platforms and that Nintendo is restricted to their own. And in case you're wondering, those numbers don't include hardware, it's just the games. Doesn't sound like the average gamer is agreeing with you so far.

Game cube commercials are already touting a new Mario + friends mortal combat style fighting game. I truly think you need to be 11 to get a kick out of that.

Yeah, you definitely need to be eleven. Like last night, I was playing Smash Brothers with my roommate and two friends and it was so fun that we played for about two hours. Then I remembered that we're all over 24 so we threw that game out. I don't know what Gamespot was thinking when they put it in the top ten console games of the year, because I'm pretty sure their editors are over 11 (although sometimes it's a tough call). Good thing, we stopped playing, though, so we could move on to a game that lets you drive one of these armed cycles on some huge courses and blow your friends up.

But I'll admit that the Gamecube's graphics aren't that great, like that Rogue Leader game. I mean, did they really think anyone would want to play a game with graphics like this?

And in fighting games, we'll put aside the fact that you're superficial and clearly have no idea what you're talking about. I know Kirby and Pikachu are cute as all get out, but the fighting system in SSB is way more fun than DOA3's. And if that's not enough for you, Soul Calibur 2, successor to the real king of 3D fighters (OK, fine, Virtua Fighter rules, too), will be exclusive to the GameCube when it first arrives.

Speaking of realism, did you know that the water in Wave Race: Blue Storm, an amazingly addictive racing game with a tight control system, was so good, that Gamespot created a new category in their year end awards for it?

Oh, right, and you want to be scared. So, how about four Resident Evil games and Eternal Darkness? Is that enough blood for you, mister sophisticated mature gaming man?

I've got a GameCube, a Playstation 2, and a Dreamcast (which, as far as I'm concerned, still has the best catalog of games around), couldn't be happier.