I made it to the later pterodactyl thing before eventually giving up. That game was really very cool but was definitely the hardest game I ever played for any extended period of time on the original XBox. (The zombie archers were created by Satan to remind everyone why jumping puzzles are evil). I kept saying I'd go back to it but never did, partly because I knew that whatever beast lies at the end of the game is probably so difficult I'd have a hard time not sending my controller through the television in utter frustration. I'd punish myself again with the sequel, even if the camera is wonky, but I don't quite hate myself enough to buy a 360.
Researchers believe that the ability to stimulate or quell activity in specific areas of the brain may help in treating conditions like epilepsy and migraine headaches... political dissidence, class struggle, free thinking, individualism, etc.
When I first read the summary, the impression that I got was that the whole idea of copyright infringement is detrimental to the public health, as in the whole process of worrying about whether something you've created infringes in any small way upon the copyright of some other established work is itself a detriment to the public health. While a bit dramatic, this actually seemed more logical to me. The problem of having to pass everything you create through a team of lawyers for the peace of mind that you won't get sued seems itself to be a public health problem. The practice whereby certain ideas which establish themselves in the public mindshare are then locked-down and made off-limits to the rest of us (often for much longer than one human lifetime) to me seems a problem of public health and the free flow of ideas and innovation.
I've watched film commentaries where the filmmakers have discussed getting this or that brand or product cleared for use in the film to tell their story. It could be an autobiography where the subject's favorite piece of music--something he may have listened to and been inspired greatly during their formative years--can't be used because they can't get clearance.
We can't even describe our own life experiences truthfully without calling in the lawyers and paying someone off. Something is just not right about that. I'm not saying IP should be done away with entirely, but to argue in the opposite direction, to say that the infringement of copyrights owned by a small fraction of the public is somehow a larger problem for the health of the public as a whole is pretty disengenuous.
I hope so. Just moving to Actionscript 3.0 would surely increase performance greatly. And with the Wii looking more and more to be just a fad (haven't turned mine on in months), this could be an important step in keeping people's attention on the little white box.
I've read reports that the Wii has a pretty bad software attach rate. Most people just by the console to play Wii Sports. If they take it online for some free casual games then there's your market right there. I'm surprised Nintendo doesn't realize this and just release ad-supported casual games online. They're basically the same demographic. I could definitely see my mother playing all her silly match-3 games on her big-screen with the Wii.
Nintendo is probably concerned about losing control of their platform to third-party games websites where their own certification process won't reach, but it isn't as though Flash games can replace fully 3D retail titles anyway. And with how long it takes Nintendo to release its own first-party titles, and how dismally shitty alot of the licensed third-party software for Wii is turning out, it would actually be pretty shrewd to embrace Flash and really plug-in to that online casual market. Opera has seemed receptive to making the Flash support as good as possible, so maybe this new announcement will mean something.
With a fast and up to date Flash player in the Wii browser, the barrier to entry for game development on the Wii would be practically eliminated. How cool would that be.
Better yet, let's ignore all the advances in material science and engineering that would first have to occur before we could even attempt this, and instead just hope that some "superman" from another planet, who is genetically designed to utilize our sun's unique energy as a source of superhuman strength, gets sent here as a child and is raised by loving parents with a puritanical work ethic, enabling us to use him to turn a large turbine to power the entire planet and maybe fight some crime and social injustice in his spare time. Now that would solve everything.
you want at least 30 frames per second and even that isn't considered great by many gamers. I've always wondered about the need for a solid 60 fps in every game. A lot of games, especially console games of late, are going for that cinematic experience, and as theatrical movies themselves run at 24 fps, maybe all it would take is today's prettiest graphics and a really sophisticated use of motion-blur to make a good game running at that mere 24 fps. Maybe for first-person shooters and racing games, you want that almost hyper-real 60 fps of unblurred, crystal clear action, but for those other action/adventure games you could probably get by with less. There was an article recently about how playing sports games isn't so much like simulating you playing the sport as it is simulating you watching a televised sports program. In that case, why would you need more fps than that at which your television (NTSC: 29.97 fps, PAL: 25 fps) has traditionally broadcast? It might even look more real with less frames.
"We know that people are going to use the printer to try to make weapons [and] sex toys and drug paraphernalia," he says. Okay, okay, wait what was that last one? Granted your average head probably isn't consumed with worry over what's being inhaled into his body, but wouldn't the smell alone of burning plastic put you off a bit? Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get a head-start on my revolutionary new dildo designs.
This reminds me of a guy that a friend and I used to IM with for a while back when I was willing to have AIM installed on my system. We began to notice a curious preponderance of "I'm taking a shower" away messages. We half-jokingly began to suspect this was some sort of come on. I remember thinking, yea so this is where technology has brought us?
I'm not saying the level cannot be dynamic, but I am saying some of it will always remain static. In your example, Player B destroys the sniping point which effectively removes the sniper class from viability. You've just blown your load "expanding" your own gameplay experience for the short term while effectively lessening the potential of the ongoing experience of you and everyone around you. A good map allows for vulnerabilities when it comes to such "camping pussies," but they also need their perches to make the best use of their own class advantages. It's called balance and when you have 32 people all running around with rocket launchers because the playing field has literally been leveled to the point where only brute force, aggressive classes stand any chance then you've really only limited the game.
And concerning TFC, the special routes which could only be opened up using the demoman's det packs are essentially, just keyed doors. The level is still the same, but the demoman has "unlocked" a new door, a very specific door with specific consequences designed into the level by the map maker in the first place. I'm all for opening up new strategies, but I fail to see how completely destroying a level will make it less repetitive. Why not just give everyone the ability to fly and shoot lasers out of their eyes?
Damn you beat me to this. But yea, 1 Hour! Really, I think that in times of war, government agencies should have to report budget numbers in war hours. That would really put things in perspective for all those people who like to complain about relatively insignificant things like welfare moms and government officials spending $80,000 on prostitutes ( ~20 secs of Iraq war time! ). Those are definitely a waste of taxpayer money, but there isn't even a comparison to be made to money being thrown away in unnecessary wars.
There is always going to be static geometry in a level. You don't want the entire thing to be deformable/movable/destructable, especially in a multiplayer game. The end result would just be a big old bowl of slop with everything interesting about your environment has been pulverized to rubble. If you had 32 guys running around shooting rocket launchers at each other that would pretty much dessimate any real-life structure in a matter of minutes. Some things just need limits in a gaming environment. Flying crates and debris is fun, but who wants to play in wasteland of scrapped geometry?
Not to mention it is hard enough to create a compelling narrative for players with the freedom they already have in-game. If players can just knock down walls willy-nilly the task of building suspence/flow/critical paths in a game level become increasingly more difficult.
The article isn't clear about just what you'd be able to do with this thing in terms of input. I'm interested in FPS games mostly. Will you be able to control aim or walk or what? If I still had to use the mouse to aim, but could "press" fire with my brain, that 60% increase in reaction time would be helpful for those critical sniper v. sniper head-shots in Teamfortress 2. Or say I could handle all keyboard input--walking, weapon switching, crouch/jump--but still had to aim with my mouse. I'd be cool with that too. Something about that seems "cleaner" than fopping around with an array of keys. Just saying goodbye to mouse-wheel weapon switching would be awesome. If I could see someone's back and almost subconsciously think "knife," then before even realizing it I had performed the weapon switch, that would be kick ass.
Or can you indeed control the aim with the same precision as a mouse? Even if it took months of training, I think I'd be up for that. Maybe you map all your controls to the device as well as maintaining your current mouse/kb setup, and slowly over time move more of your interaction off to the NIA. Anyone know just how sophisticated the input is? Even using it for simple web-browsing sounds scary cool now that I think about it. So much of the smaller, day to day point-and-clicking of a mouse is simple enough this thing ought to handle it. Or even dictation. Thinking sentences across the screen letter by letter. Has a sort of ouija board sexiness to it. If it's half as cool as I'm thinking it is then I want one.
They did this, it was called GUN and it wasn't very good. The problem with a sandbox wild west game is that without automobiles you'd have to spend 90% of your time riding around on a horse, at horse-like speeds, getting from town to small, sleepy town. Aside from gunfights, there isn't a whole hell of a lot of videogamey things to do in a western game. Life was just too slow.
Am I the only one who thought the article would be about programming the Cell processor on the PS3 through some version of Linux. Sadly, for me that would have been a more exciting development. Was curious why it was marked "Science" though.
Slashdot Mirror
I made it to the later pterodactyl thing before eventually giving up. That game was really very cool but was definitely the hardest game I ever played for any extended period of time on the original XBox. (The zombie archers were created by Satan to remind everyone why jumping puzzles are evil). I kept saying I'd go back to it but never did, partly because I knew that whatever beast lies at the end of the game is probably so difficult I'd have a hard time not sending my controller through the television in utter frustration. I'd punish myself again with the sequel, even if the camera is wonky, but I don't quite hate myself enough to buy a 360.
Scary, fucking scary. And he's giggling about it.
Neuromancer is getting made. Gibson is even on board for the screenplay.
When I first read the summary, the impression that I got was that the whole idea of copyright infringement is detrimental to the public health, as in the whole process of worrying about whether something you've created infringes in any small way upon the copyright of some other established work is itself a detriment to the public health. While a bit dramatic, this actually seemed more logical to me. The problem of having to pass everything you create through a team of lawyers for the peace of mind that you won't get sued seems itself to be a public health problem. The practice whereby certain ideas which establish themselves in the public mindshare are then locked-down and made off-limits to the rest of us (often for much longer than one human lifetime) to me seems a problem of public health and the free flow of ideas and innovation.
I've watched film commentaries where the filmmakers have discussed getting this or that brand or product cleared for use in the film to tell their story. It could be an autobiography where the subject's favorite piece of music--something he may have listened to and been inspired greatly during their formative years--can't be used because they can't get clearance.
We can't even describe our own life experiences truthfully without calling in the lawyers and paying someone off. Something is just not right about that. I'm not saying IP should be done away with entirely, but to argue in the opposite direction, to say that the infringement of copyrights owned by a small fraction of the public is somehow a larger problem for the health of the public as a whole is pretty disengenuous.
I hope so. Just moving to Actionscript 3.0 would surely increase performance greatly. And with the Wii looking more and more to be just a fad (haven't turned mine on in months), this could be an important step in keeping people's attention on the little white box.
I've read reports that the Wii has a pretty bad software attach rate. Most people just by the console to play Wii Sports. If they take it online for some free casual games then there's your market right there. I'm surprised Nintendo doesn't realize this and just release ad-supported casual games online. They're basically the same demographic. I could definitely see my mother playing all her silly match-3 games on her big-screen with the Wii.
Nintendo is probably concerned about losing control of their platform to third-party games websites where their own certification process won't reach, but it isn't as though Flash games can replace fully 3D retail titles anyway. And with how long it takes Nintendo to release its own first-party titles, and how dismally shitty alot of the licensed third-party software for Wii is turning out, it would actually be pretty shrewd to embrace Flash and really plug-in to that online casual market. Opera has seemed receptive to making the Flash support as good as possible, so maybe this new announcement will mean something.
With a fast and up to date Flash player in the Wii browser, the barrier to entry for game development on the Wii would be practically eliminated. How cool would that be.
Huh? No, what the fuck are you... I'm not... We're talking about unchecked aggression here, dude.
Better yet, let's ignore all the advances in material science and engineering that would first have to occur before we could even attempt this, and instead just hope that some "superman" from another planet, who is genetically designed to utilize our sun's unique energy as a source of superhuman strength, gets sent here as a child and is raised by loving parents with a puritanical work ethic, enabling us to use him to turn a large turbine to power the entire planet and maybe fight some crime and social injustice in his spare time. Now that would solve everything.
This reminds me of a guy that a friend and I used to IM with for a while back when I was willing to have AIM installed on my system. We began to notice a curious preponderance of "I'm taking a shower" away messages. We half-jokingly began to suspect this was some sort of come on. I remember thinking, yea so this is where technology has brought us?
Suck it!
-Avid Opera User
Maybe it was just a slow leak day...
I'm not saying the level cannot be dynamic, but I am saying some of it will always remain static. In your example, Player B destroys the sniping point which effectively removes the sniper class from viability. You've just blown your load "expanding" your own gameplay experience for the short term while effectively lessening the potential of the ongoing experience of you and everyone around you. A good map allows for vulnerabilities when it comes to such "camping pussies," but they also need their perches to make the best use of their own class advantages. It's called balance and when you have 32 people all running around with rocket launchers because the playing field has literally been leveled to the point where only brute force, aggressive classes stand any chance then you've really only limited the game. And concerning TFC, the special routes which could only be opened up using the demoman's det packs are essentially, just keyed doors. The level is still the same, but the demoman has "unlocked" a new door, a very specific door with specific consequences designed into the level by the map maker in the first place. I'm all for opening up new strategies, but I fail to see how completely destroying a level will make it less repetitive. Why not just give everyone the ability to fly and shoot lasers out of their eyes?
Damn you beat me to this. But yea, 1 Hour! Really, I think that in times of war, government agencies should have to report budget numbers in war hours. That would really put things in perspective for all those people who like to complain about relatively insignificant things like welfare moms and government officials spending $80,000 on prostitutes ( ~20 secs of Iraq war time! ). Those are definitely a waste of taxpayer money, but there isn't even a comparison to be made to money being thrown away in unnecessary wars.
There is always going to be static geometry in a level. You don't want the entire thing to be deformable/movable/destructable, especially in a multiplayer game. The end result would just be a big old bowl of slop with everything interesting about your environment has been pulverized to rubble. If you had 32 guys running around shooting rocket launchers at each other that would pretty much dessimate any real-life structure in a matter of minutes. Some things just need limits in a gaming environment. Flying crates and debris is fun, but who wants to play in wasteland of scrapped geometry?
Not to mention it is hard enough to create a compelling narrative for players with the freedom they already have in-game. If players can just knock down walls willy-nilly the task of building suspence/flow/critical paths in a game level become increasingly more difficult.
That has got to be some kind of record for Godwin's law. I mean it's two posts deep! Call Guiness.
The article isn't clear about just what you'd be able to do with this thing in terms of input. I'm interested in FPS games mostly. Will you be able to control aim or walk or what? If I still had to use the mouse to aim, but could "press" fire with my brain, that 60% increase in reaction time would be helpful for those critical sniper v. sniper head-shots in Teamfortress 2. Or say I could handle all keyboard input--walking, weapon switching, crouch/jump--but still had to aim with my mouse. I'd be cool with that too. Something about that seems "cleaner" than fopping around with an array of keys. Just saying goodbye to mouse-wheel weapon switching would be awesome. If I could see someone's back and almost subconsciously think "knife," then before even realizing it I had performed the weapon switch, that would be kick ass.
Or can you indeed control the aim with the same precision as a mouse? Even if it took months of training, I think I'd be up for that. Maybe you map all your controls to the device as well as maintaining your current mouse/kb setup, and slowly over time move more of your interaction off to the NIA. Anyone know just how sophisticated the input is? Even using it for simple web-browsing sounds scary cool now that I think about it. So much of the smaller, day to day point-and-clicking of a mouse is simple enough this thing ought to handle it. Or even dictation. Thinking sentences across the screen letter by letter. Has a sort of ouija board sexiness to it. If it's half as cool as I'm thinking it is then I want one.
"Nanodiamonds. Invisible to the naked eye, because love is about trust."
...and bring the dinosaurs back. So you're saying they could solve our energy problems? Sweet.It is strange to think they are essentially forging supporters much like they were forging packets. Small playbook they have there.
You commented. Apparently it provokes discussion.
Yea not if it's a fucking spy and my medic just got uber. Nothing zen-like tends to follow that.
They did this, it was called GUN and it wasn't very good. The problem with a sandbox wild west game is that without automobiles you'd have to spend 90% of your time riding around on a horse, at horse-like speeds, getting from town to small, sleepy town. Aside from gunfights, there isn't a whole hell of a lot of videogamey things to do in a western game. Life was just too slow.
Am I the only one who thought the article would be about programming the Cell processor on the PS3 through some version of Linux. Sadly, for me that would have been a more exciting development. Was curious why it was marked "Science" though.