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First the good. You could download the game and play for free to see if you liked it. This is a very, very good thing. That the Star Wars Galaxies & others don't do this says a lot.

SWG doesn't have a free trial? Sure, if you discount the "14 Day Free Trial".

http://starwarsgalaxies.station.sony.com/

Actually you can download a 14 day free trial of Galaxies which I did and its pretty cool

I'm playing planetside right now (Terrans) and its a decent enough FPS. All I can say is get into a good outfit (guild) as soon as you can, this makes the game much more fun. What I like most is you have level progression that doesn't really make you stronger, just more flexible. Its usually a fair fight between a level 2 and a level 20. Also, I've been in some really cool 150-200 person battles on quite a few occasions. They have a 30 trial for $10 . http://planetside.station.sony.com/

Massively multiplayer gaming takes on a new face in PlanetSide®, where thousands of players wage war on a planetary scale. A newly designed 3D engine drives PlanetSide's first-person player-to-player combat and vehicular warfare across ten continents.

You also no longer define the type of formelement (radiobutton, selectboxes,...) the browsing tool chooses the most apropriate system.

As much as this is the Right Thing To Do, it isn't going to satisfy people who try to micromanage what their web pages look like. These are the same people who put caveats on their sites like "This Site Requires the Shockwave Flash Plugin", and then use a Flash widget to perform basic site navigation, but then don't provide a non-Flash way to use the site, all for the sake of dictating exactly how the site will look.

Last time I was tested, I was at around 105 wpm with 99% accuracy. That's just a byproduct of using computers day in and day out for years though, and not a result of any typing class. I gradually developed my own touch typing system, I guess.

About that time I started getting into online games. Around the time of Quake 1, there was a game called Tanarus, created by Sony. It required a major amount of teamwork/communication, without taking your eyes from the screen. I attribute my rise from 30wpm to ~100wpm to that game.

It was the required class that taught me the fundamentals, but online activity that refined and enhanced my skills. It seems that for the new generation, the order may be reversed.

The new Hi-MD players are packed with extra features that add convenience and utility to the digital music experience. For example, with the new upload function musicians or note-taking students can use the mic-in feature on several of the models to make a self-recording on the device and transfer the content back to the PC. When connected to the PC, Hi-MD recorders act as an external drive enabling users to store and transfer such data files as presentations, digital images and spreadsheets on the discs. Since the USB will feed power to the unit when connected to a PC, there is no need to worry about draining battery life when transferring to the Hi-MD device.

Part of what is killing (or has killed?) SWG is that the Developers have lost sight of so much of the original concept and mismanaged what they *have* produced.

So true. The worst of the SOE mismanagements I've seen so far are just on their way, however.

Check out this thread on their message boards where the customers express their thoughts: http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?b oard.id=Developers&message.id=39804

PlanetSide (huge scale sci-fi FPS warfare) is possibly the only MMO to be the exception to the rule. Whilst it does have a level grind of sorts, does not effect gameplay much, as a new character can still compete with and defeat a maxed out character. Unfortunately SOE completely failed to market the game, so a huge number of potential players are completely unaware of it's existence...

I own the PD-150 and just recently bought a PDX10http://bssc.sel.sony.com/Professional/webapp/ ModelInfo?m=0&sm=0&p=2&sp=11&id=65 263 which is pretty much just a miniature version of the 150/170. The chips are smaller (1/4.7), and don't perform as well in low light, but are wider so you get a true 16:9 compared tof the 150 which just crops the top and bottom the frame. The XLR/Mic mount on top comes off and it switches to imternal mic so you can easily become very discreet if necessary. I would definately get a wide-angle adapter through like the Century Optics one http://www.centuryoptics.com/products/dv/65xhr_wa/ 65xhr_37mm.htm. But it also fits perfectly into the Sony Handycam sports casing http://www.sonystyle.ca/commerce/servlet/ProductDe tailDisplay?storeId=10001&langId=-1&catalogId=1000 1&productId=166371&navigationPath=32080n47120n4712 8 which lets you shoot up to 2 metres underwater with audio.

First I'd apologize that we were misleading at all, if that was the case, or if he was misled and had expectations

Sony's press release:
same as above

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?b oard.id=GCW&message.id=226060 http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?b oard.id=GCW&message.id=225900 Posts on the forums about how screwed over the devs have become. The only people happy with this game are the ones who play it one hour a day max and don't have a clue whats going on.

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?b oard.id=GCW&message.id=226060 http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?b oard.id=GCW&message.id=225900 Posts on the forums about how screwed over the devs have become. The only people happy with this game are the ones who play it one hour a day max and don't have a clue whats going on.

They're not made anymore?

If you have a SOny device, it supports memory stick. You don't have to go around guessing.

Right.
Would that be MemoryStick, Memorystick Duo, MemoryStick Pro, MemoryStick Pro Duo, or Memorystick with memory select?
Just don't forget the Magic Gate!
cite.
Memorystick is one of the bigger clusterfarks there is.

I recently played the free 14-days trial (still available). I was impressed and see how it can be addicting even though the game was choppy on my aging Athlon XP 2200+ machine with an ATI Radeon 9800 AIW (128 MB) video card. I have to say that a lot of has changed according to the timeline (quite funny too).

I hope City of Heros will be doing the same when it reaches its one year anniversary. I will have to check this game out after I upgrade my system and when I have more free time in a few months.

Planetside is definitively different. While it often gets billed as a FPS, it's really more of a tactical game of cooperation. I don't really like most FPS games, but I enjoy Planetside.

MMOGs are fun when you can affect the world around you... in Planetside, you do this more than any other current game of which I know.

SOE currently offers their All Access Pass :

"If you play more than one SOE game, or you want to try the other great SOE games available, SOE All Access opens the SOE game catalog to you.

SOE All Access grants access to all current games published by SOE*, which includes: EverQuest® EverQuest® Macintosh Edition PlanetSide EverQuest® Online Adventures Station Pass access, which includes the popular games Infantry Online, Cosmic Rift and Tanarus

Full access to these games for the low monthly subscription price of $21.99 is a potential savings of more than $18.00 every month over the total cost of the individual subscriptions!"


PlayNC (NCSoft) does not offer such a deal but is a central site for managing your online game subscriptions and I imagine once Guild Wars, Tabula Rasa, Auto Assault and others are released, we may start to see some special offers from them as well.


Skotos has been offering this type of service for a long time. For one monthly fee you can access and play all 11 of the games that they offer. Only 2 are graphical MMOGs (Meridian 59 and Underlight), but the other games are very good as well.


The largest factor in offering multiple "A list" titles for one monthly fee is offsetting development (and in the case of MMOGs, maintenance) costs and bringing in enough revenue to show a good profit. The bottom line is always a driving factor in any business. However, there is hope. As technology moves forward, we will start to see more and more rapid development of MMOGs of higher quality and consequently we should start to see a wider array of offerings and price points.


I also agree that some sports games should start to appear on the scene. XBox Live will probably be a driving factor to this more than anything. Playing football online against other players is quite fun and should prove to be very popular considering the amount of sports console games sold. Now, as to whether that genre will move to PC is yet to be seen, but as I mentioned before, in SOE's All Access Pass, they combine online console and PC subscriptions into one package. A diverse product line benefits them in this case. More comapnies need to grow in the genre and diversify at the same time, but that takes time and money. Soon though... very soon.

Okay, from the Planetside manual:

Capturing bases, killing enemies, & destroying their equipment will give your character Battle Experience Points (BEP). As you accumulate these BEPs your character will go up in Battle Rank. As your character goes up in Battle Rank, you will earn Certification Points and Implant Slots.

* Certification points can be spent at Certification Terminals at the Sanctuary or at friendly Bio Labs to unlock access to various types of equipment, such as the Medical Applicator which allows you to heal injuries you or your friends may have suffered. Certifications also unlock access to vehicles such as the Basilisk or AMS (Advanced Mobile Station).

o By spending your Certification points, this is how you will begin to specialize your character. You could choose to go Heavy Assault and grab the tougher armors and bigger guns but then you might be dependent upon getting transported to the battle by others that have chosen to specialize in Piloting Vehicles. Or you could choose to be an Advanced Combat Medic with the ability to revive fallen comrades on the field or an Advanced Hacker with the ability to quickly hack your way into an enemy base. Or perhaps a smattering of all of the above? In any case, the choices you make are not permanent as you may unlearn certifications and choose others in their place via the "Unlearn" feature in the certification terminal.

* Implant Slots are where cybernetic devices known as Implants are surgically implanted within your character. These devices can endow you with super human abilities such as Surge, which allows for a brief but explosive burst of running speed or the Personal Shield implant, which when activated gives your character a temporary force field to protect them from damage. Your character can earn up to a maximum amount of three Implant Slots but beware, Implants when activated, can quickly use up your stamina leaving you drained and unable to run. Implants may be installed via Implant Terminals at the Sanctuary or friendly Bio Labs on any of the Battle Continents.

There is at least one MMOFPS out there - Planetside. I haven't played it myself so I'm not too sure how levelling up works, but I know that you do get some reward for playing.

I've done as much research as possible with the scant reviews of the Lightspeed expansion which is due out October 15th to the hordes of anxious spaceflight fans who have come together to show what can be done with enough people who know a Y-Bomber from a B-Bomber, and can make both dance around any defense system the empire can throw up at them.

Get a pair of rather nice, open-back, full ear headphones. [...] because they aren't sealed you can still hear the phone, people talking directly to you, etc. [...] You need to ensure that the headphones are really comfortable [...] since you'll [...] be wearing them for hours on end.

If you want comfortable, you can't go wrong with Sony MDR-F1. Sure, some open headphones sound better but MDR-F1 is probably the most comfortable pair of cans available anywhere. Forget Sennheiser's if you wear glasses. Be warned though, that MDF-F1's are a quite demanding headphones - for the best quality you'll need a separate headphones amplifier, though one can get acceptable sound quality even from the sound card plug. The drive units are 50 mm diameter which is probably more than your average office desktop speakers have...

...before space travel is monopolized, like every other bloody field out there? It's not a question of "if". It's a question of "when". Monopoly (or quasi-monopoly, e.g. the Coke/Pepsi diopoly) seems to be the new way of doing business.

It's a bad enough state of affairs to get a code-freeze like this, but the entire customer support situation has just compounded the problem and annoyed even more paying customers.

Mac users paid the same cover price and the same subscription as PC users but have never receieved the same level of service. Unfortunately SOE's failure to deal with this properly (I don't think they even contracted any programmers to keep up to date with patches, the original porters certainly were'nt involved) has killed EQ Mac. The failure will no doubt be seen by many within SOE and other companies as an example of the un-viability of the Mac platform (or even non Win32 platforms in general) for gaming and in particular MMO games. Thankfully companies like Blizzard and Wolfpack are proving that this is not the case.

Also available, the Sony PetaSite. A lot cheaper, but slower than the Sun box.

Honestly, who would want to watch TV on a cell phone?

The same clown who bought a Sony Watchman or a Casio handheld

Here is some data about the real world.

It probably sucks to start in SWG as a crafter, but I have been doing combat professions for about 5 weeks and have a decent amount of money. Most weapons on my server are less than 25k, and I can earn that much in one mission on dantooine.

The tricks:
1) get buffed by a master doctor
2) get a set of good composite armor
3) buy vasarian brandy and spice to boost your mind
4) get a decent gun
5) learn novice medic, and work your way up ONLY the third skill tree (buy stim packs off the bazaar)
6) group with people more powerful than you are to run missions
7) read the trade forums for your server, so you can understand the economy better and know who the best weapon and armorsmiths are

This will take about 120k credits (on my server), but once you get there you're in pretty good shape.

Alot of experienced players will pay you upwards of 1k to train you in skills (they need apprenticeship points to master their professions).

My favorite starting combo is scout/marksman. You have to kill stuff to get marksman xp, and you have to 'harvest resources' from dead things to get scout xp. The two are pretty complimentary. Get a bundle of about 600 good quality hide (overall quality better than 500), and sell it on the bazaar for 6k.

If you do those two things (and don't waste money on a speeder bike and clothes and stuff), you can get your composite armor and weapon in just a week or two.

Try to master the scout and marksman professions, then you can be a bounty hunter. (I'm almost there!)

/posts this link and opens the floor to comments

These specs will never run the game at a decent enough level to participate in raids and the like. Currently 1 GB of ram is being prescribed for most latancy issues. If SWG is using a lesser engine and they are having problems than I could not imagine that Everquest 2 will run on anything less than that.

This *might* make me re-up my subscription.

The key here is that they're going to have to use the grace period allowed by the influx of dogfighters at the end of the year to fix the game before anyone notices that everything not space related is kinda boring.

I definately have to give them credit, they've done a really good job of turning a barren wasteland of content into a barren wasteland of content with a few dungeons. They're moving in the right direction. The Jedi Revamp, Corellian Corvette, and Droid Publish are all big improvements to the game.

In some ways, the failures of SWG are interesting to watch as a non-player because you can sit and watch SOE's development process in rapid-fire action. Good luck to them, I say.

This *might* make me re-up my subscription.

The key here is that they're going to have to use the grace period allowed by the influx of dogfighters at the end of the year to fix the game before anyone notices that everything not space related is kinda boring.

I definately have to give them credit, they've done a really good job of turning a barren wasteland of content into a barren wasteland of content with a few dungeons. They're moving in the right direction. The Jedi Revamp, Corellian Corvette, and Droid Publish are all big improvements to the game.

In some ways, the failures of SWG are interesting to watch as a non-player because you can sit and watch SOE's development process in rapid-fire action. Good luck to them, I say.

This *might* make me re-up my subscription.

The key here is that they're going to have to use the grace period allowed by the influx of dogfighters at the end of the year to fix the game before anyone notices that everything not space related is kinda boring.

I definately have to give them credit, they've done a really good job of turning a barren wasteland of content into a barren wasteland of content with a few dungeons. They're moving in the right direction. The Jedi Revamp, Corellian Corvette, and Droid Publish are all big improvements to the game.

In some ways, the failures of SWG are interesting to watch as a non-player because you can sit and watch SOE's development process in rapid-fire action. Good luck to them, I say.

Because I beleive alienation is 'a bad thing' (tm)... here are some terms explained. If I missed anything, post it and someone (maybe me) will help ya out.


WoW - World of Warcraft (the game, duh)
Push - Phase
EQ - EverQuest
D&D - Dungeons & Dragons (Pen and paper, not MMORPG)
DAoC - Dark Age of Camelot
PVP - Player versus Player
PVE - Player versus Enemy
MMORPG - Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game
RTS - Real Time Strategy
NPC - Non Player Character
XP - Experience (a measure of progress between character levels)
RP - Role Playing
Aggro - Aggression (when an enemy is focused on attacking you)
DPS - Damage Per Swing
AoE - Area of Effect
Root - An immobilization spell (not admin :P)
Mangina - Derogitory slang for a male playing a female character (in this context anyways)
Mez - Mesmerize (stuns target for a set time, or until it is attacked)
HP - Hit Points
AC - Armour Class
emote - (electronic-motion ?) A special command that causes your character to perform an animation (like waving, cheering, bowing, etc)

Happy, er.. reading!

Except, according to Sony's press release, Sony is using DVD+R DL for the dual-layer, and the drive is +/- for the single-layer formats.

To my knowledge, there is no dual-layer standard from the -R group. In fact, a lot of the claims of +R compatibility issues seem to be just FUD from the -R people, though my current drive is -R only (the +/- drives were much more expensive back then), the next will be +/- with dual-layer support.

Just have to choose, Sony or Phillips....

see them pictures

Also, press release from Philips and press release from Sony with even better pictures.

What some wealthy company should do is make a cellphone based on an A500+/600 in such a way that it would run standard Amiga titles, include a decent LCD screen or LCD headgear capability - instant enormous collection of games (and apps for that matter) ready made for your cellphone (and of about the same quality as the high end custom made cellphone games today).

I doubt it's possible (yet) in such a small form factor due to the problems inherit in recreating/emulating the architecture (particularly the custom chips), but would be cool.

Also, they often have in game events and are developing an RPG stlye zone where you really have to work your way up to high levels of xp to get good weapons but it's still an action game. They also have CTF and even a futuristic soccer type game. It's really one of the best 2d action games out there. I may be a little biased though :)

Here is the link if anyone wants to try it...

http://infantry.station.sony.com/en/

In Second life, the content player create, is owned by the player and not the company .
This is totally against the grain of most online games where the company owns it all.

Additionally, they have started tying in real currency to the in game currency. I know this not unique, as Project Entropia does the same thing.

I personally hope this is the way games will go--giving ownership of virtual property to the players and allowing them to use it, sell it, convert for real $$$. I find these environments more enjoyable and rewarding that environments like Everquest, where Sony pretty much owns you.

...yeah. Bluetooth is dead.

So don't tell Apple. Or ANY of the folk who make PDAs and accessories with Bluetooth capabilities.

Out of curiosity, am I the only one who hadn't heard of "Wireless USB" before this article?

I also have a Sony series 1 recorder. Although I've never used the peanut remote, I must say I really have come to love the Sony remote control. It is incredibly well balanced and fits in your hand very easily.
The most frequently used keys - the playback controls - are directly beneath your thumb at all time, with the pause, ffwd and rewind keys slightly recessed to make it easy to feel where they are without looking.
The next most useful keys, volume control and channel number, as well as the TiVo menu keys and arrow keys, are close by and easy to reach.
The number keys, which are handy but less often used, do require you to move your hand, but it's good they were placed out of the way to make room for more frequently used buttons.

There's a lot of great feedback in the remote design itself. Groups of buttons are similarly colored and there are a lot of physical features that make it easier. The TiVo button is a hard, shiny plastic, which sets it apart from the rest of them. Many different button shapes help to differientiate the controls, and some are angled, raised or lowered to make it easy for your thumb to find them.

Anyway, I digress, but I really love this remote. I wish there was something comparable to it in an "all-in-one" remove control. The only thing bad about the remote is if you lose it - because Sony didn't both to put any buttons on the front of their DVR! Sure, the featureless faceplate looks pretty cool, but it makes the box useless if you can't find the remote.

The technology has now been developed which allows several thousand players to play simultaneously in a persistent world. Many people are already addicted to the current generation of MMORPG games, but RPGs are only the start: Sony released the world's first MMOFPS (Planetside last year, taking online tactical warfare to whole new levels. In a good team like the Renegade Legion the list of tactics you can deploy in the field is almost endless.

I think this is just the start. Bringing massive player cooperation into many different genres could add a whole new dimension to those games. We're riding the first wave of the MMO tide and I think it's going to be as revolutionary as the switch from offline multiplayer gaming to online gaming.

For a really addictive game, that's like Tribes gone global, check out Planetside. You can easily pop in for a few kills with the instant action feature. It also lends itself easily to huge weekend campaigns.

They exist, but hold on to your wallet - every one I've seen is in the pro/broadcast category.

Videonics Firestore(available in rack, portable and on-camera configurations for professional camcorders.)
Sony DSR-DU1 (note the DU1 is intended for use with the DSR line of professional shoulder-mount camcorders.)

There are others out there, but those are a couple of the common ones. Why are they so expensive? If you can afford broadcast cameras and broadcast glass, they aren't expensive.

I'll second the nomination for MMORPGs. Star Wars Galaxies has LOTS of couples on it.

"Apple's iPod(TM), the number one digital music player in the world"

"Net MD Walkman recorders have been the top-selling digital music players for the past 18 months"

(Lest any USians sneer, MiniDisc is prevalent in Japan and at least somewhat more popular in Europe...)

$0.99/song and $9.95/album

and Hi-MD with 1GB capacity. The new MD walkmans cost $200 to $400.

Interesting to see how Apple would respond.

$0.99/song and $9.95/album

and Hi-MD with 1GB capacity. The new MD walkmans cost $200 to $400.

Interesting to see how Apple would respond.

Too bad it is the American companies that are the ones pushing DRM down everyone's throat...

• Sony is an American company?
• Mitsumi is American?
• Philips is American?

Upon visiting Sony's support site recently, they had an alert out for just this sort of problem - but they claimed that it would only happen with third-party batteries, not the much more expensive Sony certified batteries. FUD, or is there a real difference between the two types that makes the third-party batteries more dangerous?