Yes, I hope so too, but in reality they were probably right about the digital out on the Gamecube. Seriously, how many people did use it?
It's no wonder that few people use(d) the digital out on the Gamecube since Nintendo never put the component cable in stores. The only place they sold it was on their website, a fact I only found out after two years of looking in stores and being told by several places that they couldn't even order the thing for me. When I discovered where I could buy the thing, I was so irritated at that point that I wasn't willing to give Nintendo the extra profit they would get by cutting out the retailer.
I will note that I should have checked Nintendo's site sooner, and it's probably an indicator that it wasn't a critical issue for me. That said though, considering Nintendo's retail presence there was no excuse for them not to get that accessory into stores.
I've provided a link in two of my other posts (just search page on my name) that goes into great detail on the issue. Here's another from Accuracy In Meda, an article from The National Review (yes, I know, but they cite many sources), and here's a site that acknowledges the Clinton administration's use of VNRs but claims that they were "legal" (as opposed to the Bush versions).
My personal feeling is that they're all at least unethical in that they present themselves in a format which we're supposed to believe is unbiased, and they're too often presented without the disclaimers that are supposedly at the beginning and end of each segment. I think they're meant from jump to make people think that there is actual journalism happening when in fact they're more like press releases presented in a news format. Disgusting no matter who's doing it...
This isn't an issue about infomercials with the disclaimers you mention, nor is it about humorists. Those obviously wouldn't warrant an investigation. The issue is about "news reports" that are created by government and/or corporate organizations which are sent to "real" news producers, who then put them on the air without disclosing their source. It's a way for those producers to fill time in their broadcasts without spending any money and the creators of the segments get to spread their message to the public through a medium which that audience [probably foolishly] trusts. I posted this link in a message down a bit further, but it probably bears repeating.
Here's an article from the Center for Media and Democracy that gives a lot more information about this practice and also provides video examples for your viewing "pleasure."
And the Clinton administration did it before them. Unfortunately, everybody's trying to do it, and there are TV news producers who have apparently been happy to put it on the air...
Besides, isn't one of the "tests" for the Wiimote going to be how well previous game styles translate to the new controller? If Nintendo didn't have confidence in their own controller for one of their flagship titles, that would bode ill for every other game on the system.
Frankly, this sounds to me like an old dog who doesn't want to learn a new trick. The game could blow with the Wiimote or it could rock...only the final release will tell.
That seems like pretty crazy behavior on the part of the parents, at least as regards treatment of teenagers in Disneyland. I know it's a different world now (or at least it seems like one according to the often sensationalist media), but when I was 8-10 years old and went to Disneyland with my grandparents they just turned me loose and told me to meet them at a particular place at a particular time - obviously, I didn't have a cell phone.
I think the parents who buy a cellphone for their kids to be able to talk to their friends are morons, let the kid pay for it themselves.
Indeed. The same kinds of morons who buy any fun gifts for their kids at all. Those damned 10-year-olds need to learn the value of a dollar, and the only way to do that is to deny them all but the necessities.
Actually, he was indeed part of the case (his associate continued on) and the judge tossed him because, essentially, he was acting like an ass.
Here's a quote from an IGN article on the matter:
...Judge Moore, the case's presiding jurist, issued a stinging 18-page report in which the judge rejected Thompson's claim of voluntary removal and stated that Thompson was effectively thrown off the case for actions "before this Court [that] suggest that he is unable to conduct himself in a manner befitting practice in this state."
Nothing will come of it. There are lots of wackos that file all sorts of wacko lawsuits every day. Most are without merit, and are certainly not news.
There's some degree of truth to this, but lawyers who consistently file suits that are found to be baseless can end up losing their license to practice law. JT has already been investigated by the Florida Bar Association and one judge in Alabama revoked his temporary license to practice law in the state.
While I think that Take Two/Rockstar is pretty safe from Jack, he might not be safe from himself...
It was at first (for about a year)... for no apparent reason.
Whatever the reason, the game sold extremely well on the Xbox. The only people who considered the game a failure were those who had paid way too much attention to pre-release hype. It was a solid game (Game Rankings has it at 85% for the original Xbox version) despite all their griping. It was no Dungeon Keeper (I liked 2 better), mind you, but it was fun.
Tetris was the reason I bought my mom a Gameboy (first version, a month after I bought mine and let her play it), a Gameboy Pocket, a Gameboy Color, a Gameboy Advance, an Afterburner kit for her Gameboy Advance (and mine, of course), and, most recently a DS. She's been playing more than just Tetris since the GBA and, in fact, I don't think she's put Tetris DS into her DS - she likes Metroid Prime Pinball, Meteos and Magnetica.:)
My understanding is that the PS3 won't be playing games on Blu-Ray, it'll just be there for movies. Games will still come on DVDs.
This doesn't conform to the reports I've read. Not only have developers reported that Sony is encouraging developers to make games big enough to require a BR disc, but I've read at least one report (very unconfirmed, and thus not one that I take at face value) that all PS3 games will come on BR discs. The latter seems implausible to me, if only because manufacturing of BR discs is going to be at a premium for a while. But there seems to be no doubt that PS3 games will be coming out on BR, probably at launch.
Here's the way I see it from Nintendo's end: For most people, the emulated games available online through the Wii are going to be a bonus. The only people who would buy the Wii specifically for that purpose are those few "hardcore" (wow, overused) retro gamers who won't, for whatever reason, download emulators and ROMs. The only way those people will feel cheated by the service is if a) the downloads just cost too much (anything over $5 a pop should be considered too much) and/or b) the selection of games is limited to those that have already had a recent release on a console they already own (like if the only Sega games available are the ones that are on this Genesis collection and the aforementioned Sonic collection). If those two factors don't come into play, then whether the individual price on the Wii adds up to more than buying them together on the PS2/PSP won't matter much, because most people buy those collections in order to get maybe 5 or 6 games in which they're particularly interested.
From the Sega side: The cost of releasing these games in the DVD format for PS2 is [obviously] very small. They'll probably end up with a profit just on the initial orders of the collection. So, even if none of the people who get a Wii buy the collection, they're still likely to make a profit on the release.
I guess what irritated me about this collection was: 1) Sony wanting to say "Hey, we're into classic games too!" whilst trying frantically to lock out homebrew developers (wouldn't it be apropos to have a further lock-out firmware update included on the UMD with this collection, mandatory to play the games?)
Wouldn't it be Sega saying that they're "into classic games," given that they're the ones making this game? If Sony is saying anything by trying to lock out emulators, it's "Hey, Sega, we're trying hard to lock PSP users out of emulators so that you and other companies can actually make money off the games you own."
Well, I've been looking for Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow every time I hit a shop (for example, three different shops this past weekend) and it just isn't around. It's also unavailable ("coming soon/preorder") on Amazon and EBGames/Gamestop.com. I'm quite certain that there are stores that have copies but it seems clear that the overall supply is very limited.
As for the other two, as has already been mentioned, Phoenix Wright is a Capcom game, not Atlus. It's possible that Capcom is simply being conservative about their production, but I've seen many folks on message boards who want the game, so the demand is out there but the product isn't (again, until later this month or early next). I had already put in a preorder at Amazon for both PWAA and Trauma Center and both were supposed to ship this month but, lending a little more credence to my production theory (and I acknowledge that it's no more than a theory), Phoenix Wright was pushed back to September 3.
In short, I really do believe that there are production issues, or at least limitations, with DS games. It wouldn't surprise me at all considering the added complexity (compared to CDs/DVDs) of DS cards and the fact that there are a ridiculous number of games (including some pretty big names, like Final Fantasy [2 games between now and Christmas], Starfox, Pokemon and others) on the horizon for the console.
As for the game lineup itself... well, it's good, but they could've done better. Golden Axe is plain fun, and Phantasy Star will keep you entertained for quite a while. Sonic 1 and 2 are *excellent*, but they missed the best of the lot: Sonic 3 + Sonic & Knuckles. I can't believe this is by accident. I smell a "Genesis Collection Vol II" in the works.
Sonic Mega Collection Plus (PS2) has both of the games you mentioned, plus many more. You might be right that they're thinking about doing more classic releases if this one does well, but at least on home consoles classic Sonic is pretty well represented (the GC version lacks a bit, though, compared to the PS2 and Xbox versions of the above-mentioned collection).
What does one thing have to do with the other? I doubt that Sega negotiated any kind of exclusivity with Nintendo for their Wii/Genesis emulation support, and they would be stupid do so unless the money offered by Nintendo was huge.
...websites don't change the world. I mean come on. The Internet as a whole, ok.
It does little good to have an Internet if there are no reasons to use it. Several of the sites in their list would qualify as "killer apps," causing someone to buy a PC and hook it up to the Internet where they otherwise wouldn't have done so.
Slashdot Mirror
I'll just remind old Betsy to say "neigh" if he comes around to our stable...
It's no wonder that few people use(d) the digital out on the Gamecube since Nintendo never put the component cable in stores. The only place they sold it was on their website, a fact I only found out after two years of looking in stores and being told by several places that they couldn't even order the thing for me. When I discovered where I could buy the thing, I was so irritated at that point that I wasn't willing to give Nintendo the extra profit they would get by cutting out the retailer.
I will note that I should have checked Nintendo's site sooner, and it's probably an indicator that it wasn't a critical issue for me. That said though, considering Nintendo's retail presence there was no excuse for them not to get that accessory into stores.
Let's just hope that Nintendo doesn't remove the component out after a year or two because "nobody's using it."
Just in case you're monitoring only replies to your posts, I'll note here that I answered your request above. :)
I've provided a link in two of my other posts (just search page on my name) that goes into great detail on the issue. Here's another from Accuracy In Meda, an article from The National Review (yes, I know, but they cite many sources), and here's a site that acknowledges the Clinton administration's use of VNRs but claims that they were "legal" (as opposed to the Bush versions).
My personal feeling is that they're all at least unethical in that they present themselves in a format which we're supposed to believe is unbiased, and they're too often presented without the disclaimers that are supposedly at the beginning and end of each segment. I think they're meant from jump to make people think that there is actual journalism happening when in fact they're more like press releases presented in a news format. Disgusting no matter who's doing it...
This isn't an issue about infomercials with the disclaimers you mention, nor is it about humorists. Those obviously wouldn't warrant an investigation. The issue is about "news reports" that are created by government and/or corporate organizations which are sent to "real" news producers, who then put them on the air without disclosing their source. It's a way for those producers to fill time in their broadcasts without spending any money and the creators of the segments get to spread their message to the public through a medium which that audience [probably foolishly] trusts. I posted this link in a message down a bit further, but it probably bears repeating.
Here's an article from the Center for Media and Democracy that gives a lot more information about this practice and also provides video examples for your viewing "pleasure."
And the Clinton administration did it before them. Unfortunately, everybody's trying to do it, and there are TV news producers who have apparently been happy to put it on the air...
Besides, isn't one of the "tests" for the Wiimote going to be how well previous game styles translate to the new controller? If Nintendo didn't have confidence in their own controller for one of their flagship titles, that would bode ill for every other game on the system.
Frankly, this sounds to me like an old dog who doesn't want to learn a new trick. The game could blow with the Wiimote or it could rock...only the final release will tell.
That seems like pretty crazy behavior on the part of the parents, at least as regards treatment of teenagers in Disneyland. I know it's a different world now (or at least it seems like one according to the often sensationalist media), but when I was 8-10 years old and went to Disneyland with my grandparents they just turned me loose and told me to meet them at a particular place at a particular time - obviously, I didn't have a cell phone.
Indeed. The same kinds of morons who buy any fun gifts for their kids at all. Those damned 10-year-olds need to learn the value of a dollar, and the only way to do that is to deny them all but the necessities.
If today's kids would just lose their GPS-enabled phones along with their coats, they could do exactly that.
Here's a quote from an IGN article on the matter:
There's some degree of truth to this, but lawyers who consistently file suits that are found to be baseless can end up losing their license to practice law. JT has already been investigated by the Florida Bar Association and one judge in Alabama revoked his temporary license to practice law in the state.
While I think that Take Two/Rockstar is pretty safe from Jack, he might not be safe from himself...
Whatever the reason, the game sold extremely well on the Xbox. The only people who considered the game a failure were those who had paid way too much attention to pre-release hype. It was a solid game (Game Rankings has it at 85% for the original Xbox version) despite all their griping. It was no Dungeon Keeper (I liked 2 better), mind you, but it was fun.
Fable was an Xbox exclusive? :)
Tetris was the reason I bought my mom a Gameboy (first version, a month after I bought mine and let her play it), a Gameboy Pocket, a Gameboy Color, a Gameboy Advance, an Afterburner kit for her Gameboy Advance (and mine, of course), and, most recently a DS. She's been playing more than just Tetris since the GBA and, in fact, I don't think she's put Tetris DS into her DS - she likes Metroid Prime Pinball, Meteos and Magnetica. :)
Not to sound pedantic, but it annoys me when people who know words like "pedantic" can't manage to spell simple words like "nineties."
This doesn't conform to the reports I've read. Not only have developers reported that Sony is encouraging developers to make games big enough to require a BR disc, but I've read at least one report (very unconfirmed, and thus not one that I take at face value) that all PS3 games will come on BR discs. The latter seems implausible to me, if only because manufacturing of BR discs is going to be at a premium for a while. But there seems to be no doubt that PS3 games will be coming out on BR, probably at launch.
Here's the way I see it from Nintendo's end: For most people, the emulated games available online through the Wii are going to be a bonus. The only people who would buy the Wii specifically for that purpose are those few "hardcore" (wow, overused) retro gamers who won't, for whatever reason, download emulators and ROMs. The only way those people will feel cheated by the service is if a) the downloads just cost too much (anything over $5 a pop should be considered too much) and/or b) the selection of games is limited to those that have already had a recent release on a console they already own (like if the only Sega games available are the ones that are on this Genesis collection and the aforementioned Sonic collection). If those two factors don't come into play, then whether the individual price on the Wii adds up to more than buying them together on the PS2/PSP won't matter much, because most people buy those collections in order to get maybe 5 or 6 games in which they're particularly interested.
From the Sega side: The cost of releasing these games in the DVD format for PS2 is [obviously] very small. They'll probably end up with a profit just on the initial orders of the collection. So, even if none of the people who get a Wii buy the collection, they're still likely to make a profit on the release.
Wouldn't it be Sega saying that they're "into classic games," given that they're the ones making this game? If Sony is saying anything by trying to lock out emulators, it's "Hey, Sega, we're trying hard to lock PSP users out of emulators so that you and other companies can actually make money off the games you own."
Well, I've been looking for Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow every time I hit a shop (for example, three different shops this past weekend) and it just isn't around. It's also unavailable ("coming soon/preorder") on Amazon and EBGames/Gamestop.com. I'm quite certain that there are stores that have copies but it seems clear that the overall supply is very limited.
As for the other two, as has already been mentioned, Phoenix Wright is a Capcom game, not Atlus. It's possible that Capcom is simply being conservative about their production, but I've seen many folks on message boards who want the game, so the demand is out there but the product isn't (again, until later this month or early next). I had already put in a preorder at Amazon for both PWAA and Trauma Center and both were supposed to ship this month but, lending a little more credence to my production theory (and I acknowledge that it's no more than a theory), Phoenix Wright was pushed back to September 3.
In short, I really do believe that there are production issues, or at least limitations, with DS games. It wouldn't surprise me at all considering the added complexity (compared to CDs/DVDs) of DS cards and the fact that there are a ridiculous number of games (including some pretty big names, like Final Fantasy [2 games between now and Christmas], Starfox, Pokemon and others) on the horizon for the console.
Sonic Mega Collection Plus (PS2) has both of the games you mentioned, plus many more. You might be right that they're thinking about doing more classic releases if this one does well, but at least on home consoles classic Sonic is pretty well represented (the GC version lacks a bit, though, compared to the PS2 and Xbox versions of the above-mentioned collection).
What does one thing have to do with the other? I doubt that Sega negotiated any kind of exclusivity with Nintendo for their Wii/Genesis emulation support, and they would be stupid do so unless the money offered by Nintendo was huge.
Besides, exclusives are bad for gamers.
It does little good to have an Internet if there are no reasons to use it. Several of the sites in their list would qualify as "killer apps," causing someone to buy a PC and hook it up to the Internet where they otherwise wouldn't have done so.