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The link to the article might be useful: http://kotaku.com/5421466/ea-ceo-i-think-of-pirates-as-a-marketplace

I've been pointing out for a while that Steam is bad, in fact, as was pointed out here by someone else the other day they're arguably worse than EA now that EA is a little looser on DRM than it used to be, effectively making Valve the worst proponents of DRM in the industry.

What annoys me most about Steam is that you haven't done anything illegal yet they block access, and similarly those who receive games early who have done nothing illegal (and neither have the suppliers because there's no actual legal duty not to release early, just industry agreement) but get blocked access from using a product they've paid for until release day. Then there's the blocking of second hand sales, again, yes, nothing illegal, in fact in some countries it is a legal right, and yet again, Valve block it, even making sale of full accounts with games attached in itself against their EULA so that such accounts will be shut down if they change owner.

Yet there's still so much support for Steam, they've built an Apple style fanbase that will rabidly defend them no matter how wrong they do, even if to do so means being hypocritical in going against previous stance in other discussions about how bad DRM is.

It's part of a bigger problem, people will whine, and moan, and bitch, but when it comes to if it means not getting that shiny new toy or having to order that game online and wait a whole day for it to arrive by post, or even, god forbid, get off their arse and go to a shop for it then morals be damned, they'll go right against them and keep feeding the machine that is screwing the consumer and reducing consumer rights drastically. They miss the fact that over time this means things are getting a whole lot more expensive for them if it isn't already due to not being able to buy second hand copies of games, or due to not being able to sale games that they've finished with and never intend to play again on, or most prominently by increased cost of games, which anyone whose paid attention to Steam's prices over the years will notice have gone up for new AAA titles- that doesn't matter as long as they can have their game right this minute. You know what? I actually have more respect for pirates than I do people who whine and buy anyway because at least the pirates aren't feeding companies that don't deserve cash for the way they treat their customers. Sending a message by just pirating the game rather than buying still sends a message, and these companies aren't stupid, they know DRM has no effect on piracy and is just designed to try and slowly increase costs for the honest consumer so it's not like any further restrictions will arise as a result of increase piracy, only as an attempt to squeeze the honest consumer more. I suppose in the context of your distaste of the lack of dedicated servers, this sums up my point precisely:

http://kotaku.com/5403286/what-modern-warfare-2-boycotters-are-playing

Personally, I just play XBox 360 games, which unlike on Steam, have decreasing prices, and which despite being on a closed platform are less restrictive in that you can still at least sell second hand and such if you wish to. For what it's worth, I do put my money where my mouth is, I wont buy Left 4 Dead 2 after the way Valve pushes DRM, and the way Left 4 Dead had less content than most free mods with the free content that was meant to make up for this eventually being charged for.

I don't ask people to agree with my points, I know many loved Left 4 Dead for example, what I do ask is that people grow some will power and learn to start putting their money where their mouth is on what matters to them- don't bitch about DRM on an open platform like the PC if you're going to buy from Steam for example. If you don't, then don't come crying when you realise things are costing you more and more, and when as it has with the parent, it comes round to bite you.

Don't forget they are also firing the ENTIRE current C&C team so they can bring in some guy who is gonna "transform Command and Conquer with a new digital model that is going to re-ignite the fan base for this franchise."

Damn, does this company LOVE the buzzword bingo or what? WTF is a "new digital model"? I'm shocked someone didn't throw synergy in there while they were at it. They are also bringing in somebody to "reinvent" the MOH series, so expect that to suck some major balls as well. Its sad that all the companies I used to love have been eaten by the EA monster. Lets just hope that EA will go tits up and the IP ends up with a dozen companies that can actually do something with them.

As it is now EA should call themselves "The Symantec of Video Games!" since they seem to have embraced the Symantec "Buy a product and turn it into poo" mantra. Anybody remember when Norton was actually good? Now we get to watch EA butcher all our favorite gaming memories in a failing attempt to "maximize profit potential". This is like watching your favorite TV show get the Friday night death slot because the new PHB running the show is too dumb to get it.

This makes sense. EA is strapped for cash.

Also, a Spore movie. And I think they're making one for Dead Space and maybe The Sims.

This makes sense. EA is strapped for cash. It's not like they just designed, developed, leased, furnished, and staffed a couple of storefronts on prime real estate to advertise one game to a limited audience.

Companies don't know how to manage money anymore. Long term gains (like a productive group with experience working together) are traded for short term gains (advertising gimmicks) so often that nowadays it's just the expected mode of operation.

I don't know too much about Pandemic Studios in particular, but I've been hearing about a LOT of layoffs at EA, and at the same time it's almost like they are throwing money away on brand placement. No company ever thinks to improve their bottom line by steadily generating quality product anymore. The money that goes into solid development is always the dregs of money first given to analysts and marketers.

I'm normally not a foaming-at-the-mouth anti-establishment labor-theory humanist, but things like this (especially with the oft-cited 'global economy') really and truly make me sick.

Similar to "boycott this game" because features were added / removed that people didnt like.

Here is the Modern Warfare 2 Boycot group and taking careful notice to that image, you see many of them are playing the game they are boycotting.

I found that link on Cad comic's website on Friday, and it definitely fits the bill. The comment I thought resonated the most with the "voting with your wallet" theme -

Though let's be honest for a second... that boycott group could have had two, three, even four-hundred thousand stick-with-it members... in the face of nearly five-million games sold in a single day, that's still a drop in the bucket.

While I agree that voting with your wallet will work, it fails when you see so many people claim to resent the product and buy it anyways. That just tells these companies that, next time, dont use the lube.

Colbert said it best.

"Now a child who owns a skateboard and has the skills to ride a skateboard, will no longer have to ever ride a skateboard again."

Oh really?

Joystiq and Kotaku seem to disagree with you.

I don't know about the having-to-be-online-to-play thing. I'm usually online. But there has in fact already been a PC patch.

Of course we don't need dedicated servers anymore! Consoles and home PCs can totally host 64 player games, I mean, consumer grade internet these days totally has up speeds to match their down speeds. Its not like Modern Warfare 2 will be limited to 9v9 players. Wait, I gotta stop being sarcastic, even I'm starting to believe this shit now... Dedicated are the reason we had 64 player multiplayer back in 2002. Now, I'm all for progress, but it takes some pretty huge balls to say that ded servers are a relic of the past, when the current gen local hosting malarky can't deliver anywhere near what deds could.

John Carmack specifically told he did not want to be like Epic. They had (relatively) huge success with Quake 3 engine sales, however he had to spend lots of time for technical support of engine licensees, while he could've spend those times on this on games.

Please look at this:
http://kotaku.com/5339057/john-carmack-ok-with-id-not-becoming-an-epic-or-valve

Resident Evil 4 was one of the best selling Wii games. Just because The Conduit and Mad World didn't sell well, does not mean that there's not a market for M rated games. Fact of the matter is that they just weren't very good games, regardless of what the media said.

http://kotaku.com/5395956/the-10-most-avidly+played-wii-games-in-america-as-of-nov-1

Honestly, look at that chart. I'm seeing a shitload of hardcore games there (no, I don't judge whether a game is for the hardcore or not by the rating, any more than I judge movies that way). What I'm not seeing a lot of is deca sports and catz, regardless of what the media tells you. The Wii market is starving for hardcore games, and the 3rd parties just simply have not delivered. Nintendo sat this one out and made casual games, because the 3rd parties have been bitching bitterly for years that they can't compete with Nintendo. And what do they do? They follow in Nintendo's footsteps again. Pathetic.

Nintendo just needs to come back and rule the roost again. Metroid: Other M is a good start. New Super Mario Bros Wii, Mario Galaxy 2, and the rumoured new Zelda should do the trick. Hardcore gamers still own their Wiis. They just aren't buying anything because there's fuck all to play.

Frankly, I'd like something other than just looking up studies to try to prove a point. I can cite too.

#1: from PBS.
#2. from kotaku
#3 from Harvard .

How many more do you want?

PTSD being treated by videogames is possible, but that has no correlation to violence.

Oh wait, I'm not done. Here's a summation by techdirt of both your studies and my studies linked .

A whole lot of questions are not precisely answered with all this as it's not only a new area of research but the answers are not straight up conclusive. There is a lack of causation between the correlation, if you will. Reading the last paragraph of the techdirt article shows exactly why I question this (blockquoted below).

Of course, nowhere does it explain why, if the study's findings are true, youth violence has decreased significantly over the same period of time that violent video games have become much more popular. If violent video games really made people consistently more violent, you'd expect to see that increase. And, if that number is not increasing, then you have to wonder if any reported increase in youth violence is even at a level that matters. If there's a marginal increase in aggressive behavior that doesn't lead to any increase in illegal behavior, is that really an issue? Also, when compared with another recent study that shows it's the small percentage of kids who don't play video games who are more likely to actually get in trouble, it makes you wonder if there are some completely independent factors at work here, rather than any direct correlation between violent video games and real world violence.

seriously, with all the outrage from PC gamers over "various neutering" of the game...who cares?

moreover, there have been more civilians killed by the bad guys in 24 who later end up getting their just-desserts from Jack Bauer (same goes for various Chuck Norris films).

Yes, but only Carmageddon ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmageddon_64#Controversy ) gave you extra points for killing old ladies with walkers

( http://cache.kotaku.com/assets/images/kotaku/2008/09/carmageddon2_01.jpg )

Even the splatter and gibbage is more over the top than most modern games despite the graphical limitations

This isn't a problem with the console vs. pc gamer market. As much as I hate to say it, this is a misguided response to piracy.

The Call of Duty Devs know exactly how many stolen / cracked copies are around for COD:MW, http://kotaku.com/344848/piracy-makes-call-of-duty-4-devs-sad. So their thinking (behind closed doors) is if you lock down the servers so people can't pirate / mod / customize servers you make more money.

Reality piracy != sale. All of those people who crack / share cd keys are not going to go ahead a buy a copy of the game. Especially if it is crippled so only pirates can mod / play on outside servers.

So Lather, Rinse, Repeat 6-13.

He was disbarred in Florida & had his license to practice law removed in Alabama. I'm not sure how those two things differ, but there you have it.

http://kotaku.com/5054772/jack-thompson-disbarred

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/668/668351p1.html

Why haven't we instated a gamers holiday to commemorate such wonderous events? We could have it like the guy fawkes effigy burning that they do in Brittan. At least have a minor ceremony at PAX or some sort of comemoration!

As a follow-on, this is the most successful computer game, ever. Probably the most successful of ANY video game. Even my parents have played it. http://kotaku.com/391693/the-most-successful-video-game-of-all-time

CO topped both Steam and Direct2Drive download charts for last week.

PC Sales Charts: Still With The MMOs [PC]

http://kotaku.com/5325967/sega-fixing-sonic-is-going-to-take-time idiot children and ignorant parents have long doomed sonic to faggotry.

I just saw this "old news" article on Kotaku http://kotaku.com/5346805/old-news-97-sony-forces-nintendo-game-prices-down It really puts things in perspective how expensive games used to be before pressed discs on the psx. Recall these prices have no adjustment for inflation, and we are now bitching about 59.99 games when 12 years ago they were just coming down from $70 !

Yes, the 360 is a "success", but also has terrible flaws. For one is its 50% failure rate (http://www.joystiq.com/2009/08/17/game-informer-xbox-360-at-54-2-percent-failure-rate/ http://kotaku.com/5339555/report-xbox-360-failure-rate-over-50-percent http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/24/microsoft-responds-to-xbox-360-54-2-percent-failure-rate-report/ ). While XBL is fine for gaming, buying stuff with "Microsoft Points" is odd, unlike Nintendo Points or buying gift cards with Sony, theres no easy way I can find out what everything costs in US dollars. Etc.

The implementation of cross platform wouldn't be out of the realms of possibility.

However, cross platform integration would definitely be a TRC/TCR/lotcheck breaker. Failing them means no platform holder approval, which means your game isn't coming out until you fix the non-compliance, and your development budget is pissed down the drain if you don't fix it.

Rare even managed it with a DS 360 implementation for Viva Pinata - however I think despite their 'late in the day' talk, that the real reason is it was shot down fairly quickly (I'd guess probably by Nintendo rather than MSFT...)

http://kotaku.com/392055/rare-mated-viva-pinata-ds-and-360

They already have: http://kotaku.com/5099691/jasper-360-consoles-hit-the-market http://joeygadget.com/2009/02/22/one-minute-review-jasper-xbox-360/

The link under "extensive preview of rage" is wrong. Should link to here, I think: http://kotaku.com/5337404/rage-impressions-gun-rage-road-rage-and-a-monster-closet-joke?skyline=true&s=x

It kinda looks like Sam Fisher.

Exhibit 1

Exhibit 2

Still unconfirmed, someone from Sega said "no localization" but took it back, who knows really.

http://kotaku.com/5326900/yakuza-3-american-release-still-unconfirmed

The Playstation 3 is a great machine -- I'm just not thrilled that they do not yet have backward compatibility with Playstation 2 games. Honestly, I want to play Shadow of the Colossus on the Playstation 3 with the new emulation technology http://kotaku.com/5304117/sony-patents-method-to-emulate-ps2-on-ps3 that will probably improve the straining frame rates in the game. If they were really serious about the new machine, they would adopt something similar to Grand Central Dispatch http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_OS_X_v10.6#Grand_Central_Dispatch then they would get SO much more support from developers.

Damage modeling for the cars, all of the cars, is also carefully detailed. And in Forza 3, all 400 cars now include the ability to completely roll over in a race, something no racing game has ever tried before, Greenawalt said. Getting permission from the 50 manufacturers for this unheard of level of damage modeling was a matter of talking to each individually. "We go to a manufacturer and say we're a sim and as a sim, cars roll over," Greenawalt said.

So I think car manufacturers are getting somewhat more lenient with these things because they know that fans want to play a racing simulation. And with Forza, at least, if some manufacturer really insists on not having the damage modeling, they just get to not be in the game, and I think most know that would be terrible publicity with all their competitors in there.

And in case anyone is wondering, it's actually under development.

Bowing to pressure, Sony has now removed the ads from Wipeout.

Kotaku reports that the loading ads have vanished after popular uproar. Presumably the only remaining ones are just the usual trackside ones that actually make sense in a racing game.

Almost everybody I know that has played Planescape: Torment only ever managed to play it after Black Isle was shut down, having never heard about it before. Personally, I played it when it came out, but I remember friends who had a hard time finding copies to purchase when it was being made, let alone afterward. Strike it up to bad luck if you'd like, but, in my own experience, the game was neither marketed well nor distributed effectively to its target market, and that's why it didn't do better.

Also, it was NOT a commercial failure. The game managed to turn a profit, which is something most games never do. (Admittedly, the link is talking about significant profits, not whether they make a profit at all, but I'm willing to bet that, looking at the situation realistically, less than 50% of games actually manage to break even)

Found it. My curiosity was peeked so I Googled it. To bad its not for XBox360. I'm addicted to achievement points.

You don't. You market it for a console

But the article is about the growing difficulty of qualifying to do just that. Once I have a nearly complete video game designed for a PC, how do I make my company big enough to convince the major console makers to allow my company to port the game to a console?

If it's good enough it'll be published, if not it won't.

Try telling that to Bob.

TPB was purchased by a gaming company and has gone legitimate.

The first part is correct, the second part not so much.

TPB was purchased by a gaming company and has gone legitimate.

I may sound like a troll with this post, and my apologies for it. But I've lost all respect for Cliff B., ever since he used the lame-o "piracy" excuse for not porting - PORTING, mind you, not "developing from scratch" - Gears of War 2 to PC. It's a cop-out, and to me it shows a lack of understanding of the issue and ways around it.

After all, Stardock doesn't have any problems developing for PC; they don't DRM their titles beyond what's being implemented with the new GOO platform; and despite the rocky launch of Demigod mired by users connecting with warezed copies, they seem to have made it a fairly successful title.

And I thought coming up with a movie plot for Joust was going to be difficult.

http://kotaku.com/gaming/today.s-random-news-item/joust-the-movie-for-real-293947.php

Yet another game whose bombing will be put down to "piracy" when in actuality it will be their own asshattery. Starcraft was great for LAN parties, but as other posters have pointed out with the upload speed on the average cable connection that is now deader than Dixie. You watch, when it doesn't sell the kinda numbers they expected because they burnt the LANers they will STILL blame piracy!

It makes me think of the interview not long ago with the head of THQ over the closing of Iron Lore (here is the link), where all he did was bitch and moan about how it was everyone's fault but theirs that the company went under. It was piracy and PC having some many different combinations and it isn't our fault..bla bla bla. I tried the demo and it spent more time crashing to desktop than playing, and when it did play it was obviously a lame Diablo ripoff with very little to make it different from it or Dungeon Siege.

I for one am sick of this "it's always piracy" bullshit. Because that is EXACTLY what it is. yes, there are some who pirate games, just as there are those that pirate movies or books or music. i don't see those guys going out of business, do you? How about making a product that doesn't suck with fancy epeen graphics and physics with bad guys dumb as Forest Gump, how about that? All your anti piracy bullshit doesn't hurt the pirates, they get it cracked before the game hits the shelves. It hurts guys like me that won't even buy your games at release anymore because I have to crack them due to the fact your ^%$#%^# DRM doesn't run on my 64bit OS but the games do. WTF?

So to conclude this rant, quit playing the bullshit piracy card Blizzard. We know as well as you it is because you are now Blizzardvision and think every fricking thing should have a WoW constant revenue stream or be able to be rehashed year after year like CoD. You are screwing over the fans that actually bought your fricking product just to try to squeeze them for more cash and probably hit them with ads while you are at it. Well fuck you too buddy. I will not be buying Starcraft II even though I was really looking forward to it. Anyway this guy is able to rant about the anti piracy BS better than I can. QUIT SCREWING YOUR CUSTOMERS!!!!!

Nice post. Do you want to take the first shift standing in line outside the games store when starcraft II comes out or would you like me to?

Yet another game whose bombing will be put down to "piracy" when in actuality it will be their own asshattery. Starcraft was great for LAN parties, but as other posters have pointed out with the upload speed on the average cable connection that is now deader than Dixie. You watch, when it doesn't sell the kinda numbers they expected because they burnt the LANers they will STILL blame piracy!

It makes me think of the interview not long ago with the head of THQ over the closing of Iron Lore (here is the link), where all he did was bitch and moan about how it was everyone's fault but theirs that the company went under. It was piracy and PC having some many different combinations and it isn't our fault..bla bla bla. I tried the demo and it spent more time crashing to desktop than playing, and when it did play it was obviously a lame Diablo ripoff with very little to make it different from it or Dungeon Siege.

I for one am sick of this "it's always piracy" bullshit. Because that is EXACTLY what it is. yes, there are some who pirate games, just as there are those that pirate movies or books or music. i don't see those guys going out of business, do you? How about making a product that doesn't suck with fancy epeen graphics and physics with bad guys dumb as Forest Gump, how about that? All your anti piracy bullshit doesn't hurt the pirates, they get it cracked before the game hits the shelves. It hurts guys like me that won't even buy your games at release anymore because I have to crack them due to the fact your ^%$#%^# DRM doesn't run on my 64bit OS but the games do. WTF?

So to conclude this rant, quit playing the bullshit piracy card Blizzard. We know as well as you it is because you are now Blizzardvision and think every fricking thing should have a WoW constant revenue stream or be able to be rehashed year after year like CoD. You are screwing over the fans that actually bought your fricking product just to try to squeeze them for more cash and probably hit them with ads while you are at it. Well fuck you too buddy. I will not be buying Starcraft II even though I was really looking forward to it. Anyway this guy is able to rant about the anti piracy BS better than I can. QUIT SCREWING YOUR CUSTOMERS!!!!!

there was a kotaku post about it. http://kotaku.com/5080161/obama-on-all-your-base-are-belong-to-us-bwah

there was a kotaku post about it. http://kotaku.com/5080161/obama-on-all-your-base-are-belong-to-us-bwah

On the other hand, games compete with films -- quite a few of those PS3 owners do not own a single Blu-Ray movie.

PS3 has the opposite problem, there are more people with films and no games than there are with games and no films. That's part of the reason behind the PS3's awful attach rate.

N.B. Those calculations for attach rate are based off NPD sales figures which are only relevant for North American and don't include downloadable games from PSN which is a big thing because PSN has some gems that've done gangbusters.

Unfortunately reality seems to disagree with you.

http://kotaku.com/5222086/ps3-attach-rate-overtakes-wii-attach-rate

From a year ago:

http://playstation.joystiq.com/2008/04/25/npd-releases-home-console-attach-rate-ratios-ps3-not-so-hot/

There has not been any period at all where the PS3 has had a higher attach rate than the 360 and it's only just very recently managed to overtake the Wii.

The closest I could find to your claims was this:

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=23186

But it really doesn't make any sense, attach rate is number of games purchased per console, not number of units of certain cherry picked titles sold per console. I suppose if you're completely unobjective and a total Sony fanboy you might take away from that in your mind that Sony has a higher attach rate, but if you step back and be objective and look at the first link you'll notice that regardless of what Sony says and how they twist a few figures the cold hard truth is that they do have a lower attach rate even when adjusted for console lifetime on the market. Nintendo could play a similar game to Sony taking games that were really built for the Wii but ported to other consoles anyway and suggest they have a higher attach rate, but still, the reality is that they don't. Effectively what Sony is abusing is the fact they have a much lower selection of titles on their system, so the good titles get a higher ratio bought for their console than for the other consoles, but this makes no sense because attach rates aren't about specific individual titles. It also ignores the fact their system has sold much fewer of the titles they've cherry picked overall too which should be the real measure of per-game success on each platform. If they have sold less of a specific title because they have a smaller install base that doesn't mean anything in terms of how well they're doing, in fact, it only exagerates the problem of having a smaller install base. If you can make up for that smaller install base with greater profits from game sales (i.e. real attach rates) then you may be able to live with that, but the problem is Sony is struggling in terms of both install base AND attach rates. It looks like they're improving things on the attach rates front, but they're certainly nowhere near Microsoft and they're certainly even further from having a big enough lead on attach rates against Microsoft that they can make up the profit differences from a lower install base.

At the end of the day all a publisher like activision sees is the amount of profit gained per console they publish for, and the fact is, Sony's mangled statistics don't change that one bit, it's simply an attempt at improving PR.

Really, if you have any sources that show the PS3 really does have a higher attach rate than the other two consoles rather than a bunch of cherry picked mangled stats that actually have nothing to do with attach rate because attach rates are game neutral I'd love to see it, but I've yet to see anything that shows this and certainly nothing from independent and product neutral sources like NPD.

I don't expect you to change your mind and accept that Sony doesn't have the highest attach rate, because the fact you came out with that unsourced and clearly untrue comment in the first means you're probably not open to the idea that the PS3 isn't doing as well as it should be but it seems silly to leave such an incorrect comment uncorrected. Still, if you can somehow prove your comment then I'll step back and accept I stand corrected but mangled statistics that are effectively meaningless from the marketing department of the company you're referring to don't really count for obvious reasons, it needs to be objective 3rd party stats that really tell us something about profit from games sold per console.

http://kotaku.com/5275204/testing-molyneuxs-milo-a-virtual-boy-with-yes-a-dog

Considering that Nintendo has been consistently outselling everyone else by big margins, maybe the ratings aren't that valid?

Nintendo's releases certainly have sold well, and are very highly rated. Other games on the Wii, not so much.

So this would kind of put the lie to "they are poorly rated but sell well because reviewers just don't understand." Nope, the poorly rated games sell poorly. The highly rated games sell, errr, highly. And these highly rated games are few, and primarily from Nintendo.

My point remains: "Reggie, get the overall quality of your system together." I could be wrong, but I don't think the myth of "The Wii is where all the fun games are." is going to last much longer. And consumers may be figuring it out, as Wii sales dropped 52% from April 2008 to April 2009., which even in the face of recession is substantially worse than PS3 (32%) or Xbox (10%).

"Where? Source please."

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/technologybrierdudleysblog/2009296568_e3_new_info_on_microsofts_nata.html

http://kotaku.com/5279531/microsoft-project-natal-can-support-multiple-players-see-fingers

"Its 48 *points* not joints, which doesn't really tell us much, because you might need multiple points to reconstruct a joint from the data."

Sorry yes to be pedantic you're correct, but of course interest points aren't redundant, you wouldn't have two on the same arm for example, you may have two either side of a joint, or you may simply track the joints themselves so it does tell us a lot, you'd at most need two points to reconstruct a joint but one of those points would overlap with another joint for example so you may have two points on your arm, one on your upper arm and one on your lower arm to track your elbow, but the lower arm one would also work in conjunction with ones on your hand and your upper arm one would work in conjunction with one on your upper body to track your shoulder and so forth. The effect with interest points is exactly the same.

"I have seen all of them and all of them support my claims. You accelerate in Burnout by moving your whole leg forward, not by lifting your foot, not by lifting your finger. None of the demos I have seen requires anything beyond arm & leg detection. If you know one, show me."

See above sources for people who have used it hands on if you want even more evidence, or simply pay more attention to many of the various videos from ricochet to painting to note that hands, feet, wrist movements are all being registered.

"You might want to watch the videos yourself before posting, hint: bottom left corner right at the start:

"Product vision: actual features and functionality may vary""

It's a bit silly to infer things from that to try and make your point, promotional videos always have this because if something is even slightly different, such as a dashboard change not related to Natal itself they are not covered in lawsuit happy USA from false advertising. This is particularly the case when showing pre-release content as they are here, games change all the way up until release and we're probably at very least a year off release of Natal.

"Of course it could work, but it would be awkward. Motion detection needs a split-controller to work properly, otherwise both your hands are locked in place and won't have much freedom to move."

I think you missed the point, there's no reason you need split controllers for what I'm suggesting. My point is that for example, you can have your existing games like Gears of War but use your body to dodge and such on top. The Wii cannot provide anything like Gears of War and other high end shooters as is, so if Microsoft is taking a step even further ahead that's a plus for them. There is concern that because Microsoft and Sony jumped on the bandwagon too late that no one will develop for their new kit, but in the worst case Microsoft's tech can be used to enhance even classic games meaning in the absolute worst case you'll get a raft of titles that are enhanced by Natal.

"It lived up to my expectations perfectly well, because I based my expectations on its technical capabilities, not on what fanboys hoped it could do (i.e. my expectations where very low to begin with)."

There's a difference between what's hoped it could do and what it could actually do. Even Wii sports, it's original headline title fails to respond to the Wii mote correctly sometimes.

"With MotionPlus I can apply slice to a tennis or golf ball, Natal doesn't have any way to do that."

Apart from recognising exactly those motions as we've been through over and over here?

Still, you can't see the evidence when it's right in front of yo

What kind of changes can we expect? Ero game maker Syrup Soft is delaying its upcoming game Gang raped by the entire village ~girls covered in milky liquid~ to re-moniker it The trap set by the entire village ~bodies covered in milky liquid~. So, yeah, expect more creative ways of masking rape and rape iconography as well as possibly more "amateur" or unlicensed games.

So "rape"-related content will still be released in video games but it will simply be masked as something else. This is just like having characters in anime that look like little kids, but claim they are actually adults.Additionally, this right's group might think they have one a victory, but there are still tons of magazines and independent comics (and games) released that are focused on the topic rape.

It did! But, there's really only so many times you can run through Mercy Hospital before the experience becomes a little dull. Unpredictable certainly(to a point). But the difference between meeting a witch on the roof verse the reception area is kind of moot by the 50th playthrough.

After a while, even Left 4 Dead became routine. Despite the procedural content, after a few playthroughs you simply got to know the game and all its little tricks. The unpredictability became tactical, not strategic. I've played with people who can call smoker and hunter spawns before they even happen. People who know and scavenge every drop off point. People who know zombie dispersal patterns and bottling strategies. People with flawless plans for every panic event. Essentially, there are only 4 maps, so this wasn't very hard.

The game needed new expansions. Proper expansions. New maps, new campaigns, new game modes, new special infected, new survivors, new weapons, etc, etc. To keep things fresh. It was more than feasible. When you see how one man recreated the police station from Resident Evil 2 as a L4D map, Valve's tardiness in bringing out new maps becomes more incriminating.

Personally, I think the reason behind a new game verse new expansions has less to do with technical issues, and more to do with Microsoft. Specifically, the 360 port of L4D. Basically, Microsoft promote paid downloadable content, and weren't happy with the free updates for L4D that Valve were pushing out on the 360. In addition, all new achievements on the 360 must be tied to paid content, meaning Valve couldn't release new maps for free and give achievements for them at the same time.

In short, the 360 port of L4D has tied Valves hands with the entire game. For any major update they create, they'll invoke more of Microsoft's ire and that of their fans. A brand new game allows them to break the deadlock, but will probably end up creating a new one. You can fully expect that in future, L4D games will have minimal expansions and new games will be preferred to expansions in all cases.

It's a whore when I'm posting from work. And here's some links for which I likewise didn't want my daring googlation appearing in company logs... (unsurprisingly NSFW)