True. $250 isn't too much more than I've paid for "dead" consoles; from $99-$150. One would get the Wii Sports collection on top of it. So you're very right, Nintendo is the place to be as far as value goes. They've always had a good sense of quality anyway that Sony especially seems to lack in a lot of places.
It's marked as "funny", but I find it true. I wait until near the end of the generation to buy my consoles. I have a good idea of what games are available by then and everything is priced where it should have been from the get-go. I did this with my Dreamcast and GameCube and couldn't have been happier.
Unless you're already close to top-of-the-line, I imagine you could do quite a bit more than just double the performance of your PC with a $500 upgrade.
I disagree. Just because something is popular doesn't mean that it is superior or even justified on a basis of taste. Brittney Spears was popular for quite a while and every mindless summer blockbuster is popular at the theaters for a while. These shallow products, produced solely to take your money, hurt whatever industry they are in. It narrows the fields of what is successful and thus pressures others into doing the same just to obtain some financial backing.
I would however agree that a lot of said core features are a direct evolution of what Diablo II had to offer. I think that's an inevitability though when you have one company making two different action RPGs. Socketed items were a good idea, they allowed you to further customize your items to fit your style (I liked skulls personally, 'cause leech life went well with my Druid). Heck, even other outside games have copied Diablo II's features because it is the game in that particular genre. It also had an ending though. I'm not necessarily looking for a linear storyline in games, but something that gives me a reason to play is best. Most games fail at this when they plop you into some overly cliche fantasy world where you just have to "stop evil and save the world" with little else to the explanation. The same goes for the tried and true first person shooter "plots", with mechanics that tend to end up being even more boring since you don't have leveling to look forward to.
In the end, MMOs will continue to thrive. They had for years, long before the recent explosion in popularity. There's nothing anyone can do about that. And I'm (unfortunately) not one to dictate others' tastes in entertainment. My concern is of how this is changing the climate of one genre of entertainment. When every developer in the world feels that they need to make a giant multiplayer game and then charge users to play, that's when I can no longer enjoy video games. Within the PC market especially, where the only thing that does seem to sell are MMOs and mediocre yet high-profile sequels to franchises that proved themselves a decade ago.
I can't say I had much interest in going back through and grinding, save for the couple of times I went with friends in LAN play. Diablo had a story, you didn't need to grind indefinately to feel some sense of satisfaction. And fifteen dollars makes a pretty big difference. For instance, I am completely unwilling to pay such a monthly fee for the privilege of being in a virtual world. It's an utterly ridiculous concept, especially since Blizzard had already ruined multiplayer on Battle.net with Diablo II's player killing system.
I can't say that one effects me, but certainly an interesting note regardless. I was never much into the blatant glamorizing of the military and patriotism:P
WoW is flawed to be sure, but 95% percent of game developers, myself included, will likely never work on a game that works so well on so many levels. Works well on so many levels?! I really hope that not all "game developers" are thinking that way. MMOs are a plague within the gaming industry. I vote that we begin referring to them as MMTS instead; Massive Money and Time Sinks. They hardly exist to be entertaining, just addictive enough for people with nothing better to do in life to spend some more and click some more. Above any other video game formula, MMTSs stand out as the most haphazardly money driven. But hey, maybe Blizzard will put all of that revenue to good use and please people with StarCraft II (though I'd rather see Diablo III, Return of the Lost Vikings, or Rock 'N' Roll Racing: Galatic Championship).
What did you expect, Michael Bay directed it? I won't even bother watching it, I typically don't pay any attention to mainstream films these days anyway. However, from the trailer it seemed that if nothing else the new Transformer designs were way too complicated looking and seriously lacking the practicality of before. I wonder what other piece of childhood nostalgia they'll ruin before the year's over? They already damned the Ninja Turtles and Transformers within the past several months; both of which already have far superior films from almost twenty years ago.
I would not disagree that it is an immersing and sensible alternate world. It does a very good job at creating a realistically acceptable area to play within. And yes, more so than almost all other first person shooters. However, I still feel that the plot offers little in the way of motivation to continue. It offers even less closure than the first game did (for the obligatory episodic installments, no less) and is riddled with battles against the exact same single enemy over and over again, very occasionally split up with something like a Strider. It is by no means a bad game, but I find many elements seriously lacking for all of the praise it receives. And I still hate Steam, and probably always will. I had to wait to even purchase the game, because when it was initially released I was on a 26.4kbps modem connection. I must say however, in all fairness, Half-Life 2 definitely was a much more enjoyable and varied experience than Doom III.;)
No, it doesn't make much sense. Especially considering that I personally I felt Half-Life 2 was boring. It looked nice, sure, but nothing really happened. Hell, you barely even see any aliens and are instead forced to fight hordes of the same damn clone squads! There were hardly any puzzles and the story went nowhere (like the original), but unlike the original it didn't seem to have the sense of curiosity of what will come. I just can't understand the almost universal appeal of the sequel when faced with the fact that it did almost nothing even comparable to the first. I'd hate to say it, but I really felt that I wasted my money on the game after finishing it. Not to mention the extreme frustration one has to put up with just to play the game with Steam looming in the background of a store-bought disc!
As an Elder Scrolls fan, I didn't even want Oblivion to resemble Oblivion. Everything was too dumbed down and/or console orientated. The setting didn't lend itself as well as Morrowind anyway, since it's a very familiar Greco-Roman flavor instead of a largely alien world. I'd like to see them establish a firm base (which Oblivion could be if altered in a few choice spots) and build out from there, offering the other regions and expansion packs and such. I miss being able to go anywhere in the world like I could in Daggerfall.
He's the only Avenger that could clean up this mess. Pagan Gods, if you can hear me, please help! I don't really care what pantheon you're from at this point, just so long as you don't let Wiccans run around ruining your good name.
My Atari was sold at a yard-sell before I ever got around to getting into all of the games. All I really remember is being consistently pissed off at Pitfall's difficulty.
Unsigned Band with break-out potential: "So you'll bring in your own producer and mixer to push our style more toward what you think people want to hear?"Universal A/R dude/dudette: "Yep, that's right!"Unsigned Band with break-out potential: "We'll loose all creative control and have next to no say in what we put out, but we're guaranteed to have at least one initial single because you own all media outlets like radio stations, television and most stores?"Universal A/R dude/dudette: "Uh huh."Unsigned Band with break-out potential: "We'd be losers if we didn't sell-out. Hand me that contract!"
Because the "real" Kwik-E-Mart gets robbed on a near daily basis? Now so long as there's some guy named Snake in Illinois the plan will work out fine...
And intelligence isn't just brainpower; it's also the ability to manipulate the environment in order to experiment upon it. This requires appendages with fine enough motor control to manipulate small objects in a precise manner, which pretty much rules out any sea creature: Sea creatures need flattened, webbed appendages in order to swim, and those wouldn't be very good at fine manipulation. Fish-people ain't gonna happen. Ha! Clearly someone has never been to Innsmouth. The extraterrestrials have been dabbling there for eons.
A new online authentication system called Dynahand could make logging in to websites a little easier. I've always found that quickly typing in a six character password to access simple websites was far too difficult.
I somehow doubt that guys walking around randomly stealing cell phones on the street are "respectable thieves". More likely they're of average or below average intellect and are doing the occasional, petty crime purely for their direct, personal, immediate benefit with no grander thoughts whatsoever.
Slashdot Mirror
True. $250 isn't too much more than I've paid for "dead" consoles; from $99-$150. One would get the Wii Sports collection on top of it. So you're very right, Nintendo is the place to be as far as value goes. They've always had a good sense of quality anyway that Sony especially seems to lack in a lot of places.
It's marked as "funny", but I find it true. I wait until near the end of the generation to buy my consoles. I have a good idea of what games are available by then and everything is priced where it should have been from the get-go. I did this with my Dreamcast and GameCube and couldn't have been happier.
Unless you're already close to top-of-the-line, I imagine you could do quite a bit more than just double the performance of your PC with a $500 upgrade.
I would however agree that a lot of said core features are a direct evolution of what Diablo II had to offer. I think that's an inevitability though when you have one company making two different action RPGs. Socketed items were a good idea, they allowed you to further customize your items to fit your style (I liked skulls personally, 'cause leech life went well with my Druid). Heck, even other outside games have copied Diablo II's features because it is the game in that particular genre. It also had an ending though. I'm not necessarily looking for a linear storyline in games, but something that gives me a reason to play is best. Most games fail at this when they plop you into some overly cliche fantasy world where you just have to "stop evil and save the world" with little else to the explanation. The same goes for the tried and true first person shooter "plots", with mechanics that tend to end up being even more boring since you don't have leveling to look forward to.
In the end, MMOs will continue to thrive. They had for years, long before the recent explosion in popularity. There's nothing anyone can do about that. And I'm (unfortunately) not one to dictate others' tastes in entertainment. My concern is of how this is changing the climate of one genre of entertainment. When every developer in the world feels that they need to make a giant multiplayer game and then charge users to play, that's when I can no longer enjoy video games. Within the PC market especially, where the only thing that does seem to sell are MMOs and mediocre yet high-profile sequels to franchises that proved themselves a decade ago.
I can't say I had much interest in going back through and grinding, save for the couple of times I went with friends in LAN play. Diablo had a story, you didn't need to grind indefinately to feel some sense of satisfaction. And fifteen dollars makes a pretty big difference. For instance, I am completely unwilling to pay such a monthly fee for the privilege of being in a virtual world. It's an utterly ridiculous concept, especially since Blizzard had already ruined multiplayer on Battle.net with Diablo II's player killing system.
A good dose of get the fuck over it!
I can't say that one effects me, but certainly an interesting note regardless. I was never much into the blatant glamorizing of the military and patriotism :P
What did you expect, Michael Bay directed it? I won't even bother watching it, I typically don't pay any attention to mainstream films these days anyway. However, from the trailer it seemed that if nothing else the new Transformer designs were way too complicated looking and seriously lacking the practicality of before. I wonder what other piece of childhood nostalgia they'll ruin before the year's over? They already damned the Ninja Turtles and Transformers within the past several months; both of which already have far superior films from almost twenty years ago.
I would not disagree that it is an immersing and sensible alternate world. It does a very good job at creating a realistically acceptable area to play within. And yes, more so than almost all other first person shooters. However, I still feel that the plot offers little in the way of motivation to continue. It offers even less closure than the first game did (for the obligatory episodic installments, no less) and is riddled with battles against the exact same single enemy over and over again, very occasionally split up with something like a Strider. It is by no means a bad game, but I find many elements seriously lacking for all of the praise it receives. And I still hate Steam, and probably always will. I had to wait to even purchase the game, because when it was initially released I was on a 26.4kbps modem connection. I must say however, in all fairness, Half-Life 2 definitely was a much more enjoyable and varied experience than Doom III. ;)
No, it doesn't make much sense. Especially considering that I personally I felt Half-Life 2 was boring. It looked nice, sure, but nothing really happened. Hell, you barely even see any aliens and are instead forced to fight hordes of the same damn clone squads! There were hardly any puzzles and the story went nowhere (like the original), but unlike the original it didn't seem to have the sense of curiosity of what will come. I just can't understand the almost universal appeal of the sequel when faced with the fact that it did almost nothing even comparable to the first. I'd hate to say it, but I really felt that I wasted my money on the game after finishing it. Not to mention the extreme frustration one has to put up with just to play the game with Steam looming in the background of a store-bought disc!
As an Elder Scrolls fan, I didn't even want Oblivion to resemble Oblivion. Everything was too dumbed down and/or console orientated. The setting didn't lend itself as well as Morrowind anyway, since it's a very familiar Greco-Roman flavor instead of a largely alien world. I'd like to see them establish a firm base (which Oblivion could be if altered in a few choice spots) and build out from there, offering the other regions and expansion packs and such. I miss being able to go anywhere in the world like I could in Daggerfall.
Better than sticking around and being associated with abysmal titles like World of Warcraft.
He's the only Avenger that could clean up this mess. Pagan Gods, if you can hear me, please help! I don't really care what pantheon you're from at this point, just so long as you don't let Wiccans run around ruining your good name.
No, clearly it is a business transaction.
My Atari was sold at a yard-sell before I ever got around to getting into all of the games. All I really remember is being consistently pissed off at Pitfall's difficulty.
Missile Command is supposed to compete with Super Mario Bros. 2 and Ecco the Dolphin?! Sucks to be Xbox Arcade.
Unsigned Band with break-out potential: "So you'll bring in your own producer and mixer to push our style more toward what you think people want to hear?" Universal A/R dude/dudette: "Yep, that's right!" Unsigned Band with break-out potential: "We'll loose all creative control and have next to no say in what we put out, but we're guaranteed to have at least one initial single because you own all media outlets like radio stations, television and most stores?" Universal A/R dude/dudette: "Uh huh." Unsigned Band with break-out potential: "We'd be losers if we didn't sell-out. Hand me that contract!"
Because the "real" Kwik-E-Mart gets robbed on a near daily basis? Now so long as there's some guy named Snake in Illinois the plan will work out fine...
I somehow doubt that guys walking around randomly stealing cell phones on the street are "respectable thieves". More likely they're of average or below average intellect and are doing the occasional, petty crime purely for their direct, personal, immediate benefit with no grander thoughts whatsoever.