Slashdot Mirror

I'm curious to see how they'll handle winter though... if they can drive a road like this or if they'll need constant road markers like this, though either way I expect it'll be simple reflectors not any active technology. In the winter we tend to drive roads where it just isn't very obvious where the road even is.

I've finished the game, but the graphical quality although good is not quite as good as the promotional shot suggests.

http://www.psxextreme.com/ps2-screenshots2/50743-564.html

Your comment makes perfect sense except...there are 21 million PS3's in homes already. (See http://www.psxextreme.com/ps3-news/4653.html)

Champions Online is releasing for 360 and PS3, also from Cryptic. I think their limiting factor until now was not so much RAM as it was Microsoft's prohibition on requiring Hard Drives for games to play.

NCSoft is also rumored to be working on an MMO for the PS3 at their Northern California location.

Just look at the graph, and that was with the xbox 360 pretty much having the market to itself. I know the perceived wisdom is that the PS3 is a failure, but it doesn't seem that way if you look at the numbers...

Simon

- It's the first ping-pong game to have come out in years.

Want a bet?

Here's one

Here's another

And another

And another (it's one of the included games in Eye Toy: Play 2)

There's more, and I could keep going. There was even one in Japan that I'm forgetting the name of that came with a set of ping pong paddle controllers with sensors built in so you could play in first-person (similar to the way the Eye Toy game works, but without needing an Eye Toy).

Most of these have not been released in the US, sure, but you don't think there's a reason for that? Do you think Rockstar knows something about Ping Pong that every other publisher doesn't? Maybe. But then again, maybe not.

- It's probably also the first ping-pong game to have decent graphics.

Take a look at the screenshots in the first link. All modern ping pong games look at least pretty good. The Rockstar game will probably look better just because it's on the Xbox 360, but it won't be the first ping pong game with "decent" graphics. They all have decent graphics.

- Whilst ping-pong isn't going to attract many gamers into GTA, it could be a hit amongst asian gamers.

And as you can see, this is hardly an underserved market. It's really not much different than Capcom deciding to make a basketball game and some guy in Japan says "this could be popular among Americans. Basketball is popular there." Ummm... hello? NBA Live? NBA 2K6? NBA Street? NBA Ballers? How many games in a particular genre do you need?

And anyway, Asians don't own Xbox 360's. This game is not for them. And nobody there is going to buy an Xbox 360 just to play an American-style ping pong game.

I've seen previews/hands-on at

http://ps2.ign.com/articles/616/616670p1.html

http://www.psxextreme.com/scripts/previews2/previe w.asp?PrevID=419

and http://www.game-instructions.com/previews/we-love- katamari-hands-on-preview/

Still, its always good to read a new article to keep the interest going.

Even though they have been quite on it, has there been any word on Rockstar releasing it on CD like they did with Vice City? Last time with Vice City they let it be known in advance, but with a few months away for GTA SA they sure haven't said much.

• Salt 'n' Pepa - Push it
• Vanilla Ice - Ice Ice Baby
• Inner Circle - Bad Boys
• KLF - 3AM Eternal
• Massive Attack - Unfinished Sympathy
• Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit
• Jane's Addiction - Been Caught Stealing
• Poison - Every rose has it's Thorn
• Guns 'n' Roses - Sweet Child o' Mine
• Smashing Pumpkins - Today
• NWA - F*** Tha Police
• NWA - 100 Miles And Runnnin'
• Snoop Doggy Dogg - Gin N'Juice
• Snoop Doggy Dogg - Ain't no Fun
• Warren G - Regulate
• Fugees - Killing me Softly
• Coolio - Gangsta's Paradise
• Public Enemy - Rebel without a Pause
• The Stone Roses - Fools Gold
• Happy Mondays - Step On
• The Verve - Bittersweet Symphony
• Radiohead - Creep

Microsoft may well be able to eat into Sony's market, since both depend so heavily on third parties

The key obstacle for this to happen is the number of tltles released for a console by third-party developers is based on the number of console units sold. Since xBOx hasn't sold as many consoles as PS2, developers are resistant to dedicating resources to porting their upcoming titles to xBOx. It's a snowballing effect because consumers don't want to buy the console that has fewer titles available. Microsoft has had to take the expensive route of buying companies (Bungie) in order to get killer-app titles like Halo released for its system. The fact that GTA: Vice City just came out for Ps2, but isn't available for xBOx pretty much cut off the air supply for xBOx this holiday season.