I'm sorry, but if you think doing evil because it's politically convenient is acceptable, then we have no common ground to speak to. Evil is evil. The only indicator we have as to whether Obama will fulfill his promises is his past performance... and his past performance is shit.
I am confident that the worst abuses of Bush's executive power will not be continued.
Right! Like the warrantless wiretaps, which Obama has done everything in his power to punish. Wait, what's that you say? He actually voted to help some of the perpetrators of that crime get away with it? Damn! Guess he's not really trying to help us out after all.
As The Who so insightfully said in 1971: "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss."
I think the end of Groklaw as a significant force in FOSS.... Today, we simply don't need Groklaw anymore.
There's no law that says that Groklaw has to have anything to do with FOSS. It can live on just fine as a site which covers legal developments of interest to its geeky audience... and yes, we do need that. Badly. There is no such thing as too many sources providing clear and level-headed coverage of what's going on in our legal system.
It seems like bad business practice (a liability?) for the fate of an entire company to be tied to one man, but there it is: people do not trust Apple to innovate sans Jobs.
It's true, but I find that fact hilarious. It means that people really are stupid enough to think Jobs is the one doing the innovating at Apple. Any innovation that comes out of that place is the product of a bunch of really smart people working together, not one man.
I guess we have to differ on what constitutes a "substantial single-player campaign" and "an actual plot", then, because I felt SSE had neither. The cutscenes could be pretty glorious, though, I have to agree there.
Moreover, I have to disagree again that MK Wii made the core gameplay worse. At worst, I think it's the same as it's ever been, and a lot of times, it's even better (no snaking, doing tricks off the jumps really adds a lot). I think some of your complaints are seriously invalid (come on dude, Mario Kart has never been about skill, it's always been plagued by the Communist item syndrome, to whatever extent you consider that a problem... it's a feature for me), and others are possibly valid, but I just can't agree (for example, that the 12-player dynamic hurts the game). Just differences of opinion, I guess, but it does baffle me to see you bash MK Wii and praise Brawl, when they essentially gave the same update to both franchises.
I have to disagree with your opinion that MK Wii was less of an update than Brawl (not to mention your opinion of the game in general). To me, they both added the same amount of functionality to their respective parent games: new areas, new characters, new items, online play. Yes, Brawl has Subspace Emissary and stage builder, but those are some serious fluff features which don't really mean anything to the game itself.
And worse: they keep teasing it. Played Crisis Core? There's a scene way at the end (after the credits, if memory serves), which is yet another remake of the FF7 intro scene, and ends with Cloud flipping off the train, saying something, and the scene then fades out to the words "To be continued in Final Fantasy VII".
Combine this with the fact that Square has said that Crisis Core isn't the last FF7 game they're doing, and I can only conclude that those people are trying to give me an aneurysm.
I would as well, but it doesn't look like that's forthcoming any time soon. As a sort of replacement, I have high hopes for Jumpgate Evolution. It's not exactly X-Wing, but it looks like it might be able to recreate the fun of those games.
And if it does, I may as well quit my job, because I'm not going to be able to tear myself away.
That was mentioned the other day in the BG article, and it got me wondering: is there a mod for BG or BG 2 that updates the rules to 3rd ed? I loathe 2nd ed, and there's no way in hell I'll ever play those games with 2nd ed rules. I'd consider playing with 3rd ed rules, though.
The slashdot mod system is the best proof ever that humans will abuse power, no matter how small and pitiful the power is. It's a great study on human nature.;)
You completely missed my point. I'm saying that, even if the movie completely fails as an adaptation of the book, it greatly succeeds on its own merits, which is by itself something Moore should be satisfied with.
Star Wars is almost completely story driven, IMHO.
Er... Star Wars? Story driven? I have to disagree. Star Wars has the most laughable, forgettable, derivative story I've ever seen in a movie (the originals, anyway). Those movies were driven by special effects and cool battle scenes.
Lucas did add a plot that had some actual meat to the prequels, but even then, it still averages out with the originals' complete lack of plot, so you still can't call the finished product story-driven.
All that said, yes, Star Wars isn't tech-focused, Trek is. Except for lightsabers. If someone can make an actual lightsaber, I would sell my soul to them for one.
No, he's wrong. I will grant you that I haven't read V for Vendetta, so I can't speak to its faithfulness as an adaptation. However, it is an excellent movie on its own merits. Even if it does leave something to be desired as an adaptation of the book, well, it's in good company, many adaptations have that flaw. Something's faithfulness as an adaptation of the original material and its worth on its own are completely separate concepts. LOTR has some serious problems as an adaptation of Tolkien's work, but is an excellent movie nonetheless.
Alan Moore is pretty much whining about nothing with V for Vendetta. It's not like they took his work, ripped it up, and made a mindless action movie of it. Whatever was changed from the original material, the end result is still a moving and thought provoking movie. That's hardly a failure.
being familiar with basic rules of logic also means students won't be so easily manipulated or misled by blatant sophistry--something which has great societal benefits.
Yes, but this would put our politicians out of business, so we won't see this happening.;)
Re:Users are branching out - game companies are no
on
Is the Gaming PC Dead?
·
· Score: 1, Insightful
Look, no version of UT has ever been any different, really, from the first version (well, except for 2k3, which I can't judge because I haven't played it). If you say one is good or bad, you say the same about all of them. All Epic ever does with the game is put a new coat of paint on it.
And as far as populated servers go, I'd have to guess it's because the popularity of UT's gameplay is waning in favor of other FPS styles like Call of Duty. Something with a bit more structure and realism. Saying it's because of UT3 sucking, though, is ridiculous. It's the same damn game as they've always had, with a new coat of paint. Just like UT2k4. The game has never changed.
Re:Users are branching out - game companies are no
on
Is the Gaming PC Dead?
·
· Score: 1
As soon as you allow Joe Schmoe to install OSX he's going to want to start making demands. "Why doesn't my 15 year old network card work?" "Why doesn't my printer work?" "Why does my computer keep crashing."
Not at all. There's a very simple answer: "Fuck off, we don't support your hardware". It's very similar to the "Fuck off, you don't have the right to install our software on your hardware" answer they give now, so I'd be hard-pressed to believe that consumers would fight such an answer.
Agreed. I have always put Abit mobos in my computers, and they've always been rock-solid, and priced reasonably to boot. It really saddens me to see them go.
I agree, but we need some sort of metric to use here. Review scores help me to look for games which are going to appeal to me, even though they're not absolute. And if we're going to get into a discussion (pissing contest, really) about which platform has the most good games, then the need for a metric we can use becomes even more apparent.
We're in perfect agreement that quality is subjective. I'm usually the one trying to argue this. However, not only do tools like metacritic have their place outside this discussion, such a tool is downright necessary for a comparison of which platform has better games.
I can think of exactly one on the Wii: Wii Sports. None for the other systems, true, but Nintendo's offering isn't pushing the bounds of gameplay or something. It's taking existing gameplay and just putting a new spin on it. It's just like the DS. I have yet to play the DS game that uses the touchscreen in some awesome, revolutionary way (despite the "innovation" people praise). All the Wii has, besides the pack-in, is stuff like Metroid Prime 3, which has some really nice touches with the new controls, but the fundamentals are all old hat.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm sorry, but if you think doing evil because it's politically convenient is acceptable, then we have no common ground to speak to. Evil is evil. The only indicator we have as to whether Obama will fulfill his promises is his past performance... and his past performance is shit.
I am confident that the worst abuses of Bush's executive power will not be continued.
Right! Like the warrantless wiretaps, which Obama has done everything in his power to punish. Wait, what's that you say? He actually voted to help some of the perpetrators of that crime get away with it? Damn! Guess he's not really trying to help us out after all.
As The Who so insightfully said in 1971: "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss."
I think the end of Groklaw as a significant force in FOSS.... Today, we simply don't need Groklaw anymore.
There's no law that says that Groklaw has to have anything to do with FOSS. It can live on just fine as a site which covers legal developments of interest to its geeky audience... and yes, we do need that. Badly. There is no such thing as too many sources providing clear and level-headed coverage of what's going on in our legal system.
It seems like bad business practice (a liability?) for the fate of an entire company to be tied to one man, but there it is: people do not trust Apple to innovate sans Jobs.
It's true, but I find that fact hilarious. It means that people really are stupid enough to think Jobs is the one doing the innovating at Apple. Any innovation that comes out of that place is the product of a bunch of really smart people working together, not one man.
I guess we have to differ on what constitutes a "substantial single-player campaign" and "an actual plot", then, because I felt SSE had neither. The cutscenes could be pretty glorious, though, I have to agree there.
Moreover, I have to disagree again that MK Wii made the core gameplay worse. At worst, I think it's the same as it's ever been, and a lot of times, it's even better (no snaking, doing tricks off the jumps really adds a lot). I think some of your complaints are seriously invalid (come on dude, Mario Kart has never been about skill, it's always been plagued by the Communist item syndrome, to whatever extent you consider that a problem... it's a feature for me), and others are possibly valid, but I just can't agree (for example, that the 12-player dynamic hurts the game). Just differences of opinion, I guess, but it does baffle me to see you bash MK Wii and praise Brawl, when they essentially gave the same update to both franchises.
I have to disagree with your opinion that MK Wii was less of an update than Brawl (not to mention your opinion of the game in general). To me, they both added the same amount of functionality to their respective parent games: new areas, new characters, new items, online play. Yes, Brawl has Subspace Emissary and stage builder, but those are some serious fluff features which don't really mean anything to the game itself.
And worse: they keep teasing it. Played Crisis Core? There's a scene way at the end (after the credits, if memory serves), which is yet another remake of the FF7 intro scene, and ends with Cloud flipping off the train, saying something, and the scene then fades out to the words "To be continued in Final Fantasy VII".
Combine this with the fact that Square has said that Crisis Core isn't the last FF7 game they're doing, and I can only conclude that those people are trying to give me an aneurysm.
I would as well, but it doesn't look like that's forthcoming any time soon. As a sort of replacement, I have high hopes for Jumpgate Evolution. It's not exactly X-Wing, but it looks like it might be able to recreate the fun of those games.
And if it does, I may as well quit my job, because I'm not going to be able to tear myself away.
as if they're making NEW classics. They aren't
Jedi Knight II. KOTOR. Empire at War. The Force Unleashed.
In 10 years' time all of these games will be considered as classic as the "classic" LA games are considered today.
That was mentioned the other day in the BG article, and it got me wondering: is there a mod for BG or BG 2 that updates the rules to 3rd ed? I loathe 2nd ed, and there's no way in hell I'll ever play those games with 2nd ed rules. I'd consider playing with 3rd ed rules, though.
The slashdot mod system is the best proof ever that humans will abuse power, no matter how small and pitiful the power is. It's a great study on human nature. ;)
You completely missed my point. I'm saying that, even if the movie completely fails as an adaptation of the book, it greatly succeeds on its own merits, which is by itself something Moore should be satisfied with.
MS is not responsible for what your computer vendor loads on the computer. Blaming them is putting the blame in the wrong place.
I'll tell you right now. the speedy feel of the XP days will never EVER come back
They never left. I use Vista, and it's as snappy as XP ever was.
Star Wars is almost completely story driven, IMHO.
Er... Star Wars? Story driven? I have to disagree. Star Wars has the most laughable, forgettable, derivative story I've ever seen in a movie (the originals, anyway). Those movies were driven by special effects and cool battle scenes.
Lucas did add a plot that had some actual meat to the prequels, but even then, it still averages out with the originals' complete lack of plot, so you still can't call the finished product story-driven.
All that said, yes, Star Wars isn't tech-focused, Trek is. Except for lightsabers. If someone can make an actual lightsaber, I would sell my soul to them for one.
Scandalous!
No, he's wrong. I will grant you that I haven't read V for Vendetta, so I can't speak to its faithfulness as an adaptation. However, it is an excellent movie on its own merits. Even if it does leave something to be desired as an adaptation of the book, well, it's in good company, many adaptations have that flaw. Something's faithfulness as an adaptation of the original material and its worth on its own are completely separate concepts. LOTR has some serious problems as an adaptation of Tolkien's work, but is an excellent movie nonetheless.
Alan Moore is pretty much whining about nothing with V for Vendetta. It's not like they took his work, ripped it up, and made a mindless action movie of it. Whatever was changed from the original material, the end result is still a moving and thought provoking movie. That's hardly a failure.
being familiar with basic rules of logic also means students won't be so easily manipulated or misled by blatant sophistry--something which has great societal benefits.
Yes, but this would put our politicians out of business, so we won't see this happening. ;)
Look, no version of UT has ever been any different, really, from the first version (well, except for 2k3, which I can't judge because I haven't played it). If you say one is good or bad, you say the same about all of them. All Epic ever does with the game is put a new coat of paint on it.
And as far as populated servers go, I'd have to guess it's because the popularity of UT's gameplay is waning in favor of other FPS styles like Call of Duty. Something with a bit more structure and realism. Saying it's because of UT3 sucking, though, is ridiculous. It's the same damn game as they've always had, with a new coat of paint. Just like UT2k4. The game has never changed.
No, UT3 is good, you're just jaded.
As soon as you allow Joe Schmoe to install OSX he's going to want to start making demands. "Why doesn't my 15 year old network card work?" "Why doesn't my printer work?" "Why does my computer keep crashing."
Not at all. There's a very simple answer: "Fuck off, we don't support your hardware". It's very similar to the "Fuck off, you don't have the right to install our software on your hardware" answer they give now, so I'd be hard-pressed to believe that consumers would fight such an answer.
Agreed. I have always put Abit mobos in my computers, and they've always been rock-solid, and priced reasonably to boot. It really saddens me to see them go.
I agree, but we need some sort of metric to use here. Review scores help me to look for games which are going to appeal to me, even though they're not absolute. And if we're going to get into a discussion (pissing contest, really) about which platform has the most good games, then the need for a metric we can use becomes even more apparent.
We're in perfect agreement that quality is subjective. I'm usually the one trying to argue this. However, not only do tools like metacritic have their place outside this discussion, such a tool is downright necessary for a comparison of which platform has better games.
You act like metacritic means a god damn thing. It doesn't.
Then we need a better metric. At the moment, metacritic is the most fair one we have. Suggest a better one if you have it, because I sure don't.
I can think of exactly one on the Wii: Wii Sports. None for the other systems, true, but Nintendo's offering isn't pushing the bounds of gameplay or something. It's taking existing gameplay and just putting a new spin on it. It's just like the DS. I have yet to play the DS game that uses the touchscreen in some awesome, revolutionary way (despite the "innovation" people praise). All the Wii has, besides the pack-in, is stuff like Metroid Prime 3, which has some really nice touches with the new controls, but the fundamentals are all old hat.