I'm not saying that one is better than the other, just that they're apples and oranges. You might as well compare Gears of War to Robotron 2084. You could call both "3rd person action shooters", but they couldn't be more different.
As far as I know, there's no space sim for the PS3. That's one of the short list of things that would make me think of buying one.
You mean this? Or perhaps this? Or are they not new enough for you?
Sadly, neither of the Xbox games is on the Xbox 360 compatibility list. Star Wars: Starfighter Special Edition was on the list when the Xbox 360 launched, but Microsoft must have found a show-stopping issue later as it was pulled from the list and still isn't there.
Get the Collector's Edition versions (which are Win95 rather than DOS). Set all the relevant executables for installation on the CD-ROM to Win95 compatibility mode. Run the installer. Patch. There are patches out there for the executables, IIRC, to let them run in XP. When running the game don't use TIESTART.EXE but rather TIE95.EXE (similar advice for XWING95.EXE), and *not* in compatibility mode.
Haven't looked lately, but there used to be pages on the 'net with advice on getting these running in XP. I have Tie Fighter running nicely in XP. Completed in XP every mission but the last (that one's a b****).
For those who don't want to read the whole thing or skip down to the summary, I concluded that it was not as good as the "Halo Killer" hype, but not as bad as the post-release reviews would have you believe. I did manage to extract some enjoyment from it.
But if Killzone 2 is more of the same with some pretty added to it, it certainly won't be a system-seller for me.
I haven't gotten that far in the game yet and so cannot speak from direct experience, but several reports online have it that the sex scene was removed from the North American version to get the M rating. European censors are more tolerant of sex in entertainment.
Some quick back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest this:
According to various net sources, MS claims the X360 failure rate is 3%. At that rate, MS would have to sell 39 quadrillion units for the chance of having a customer with 11 successive failures to rise above 1/2. They'd have to sell 56 quadrillion units in order to expect to have such a customer.
I don't know how many units MS has sold, but I suspect it is somewhat less than that. Let's suppose they've sold 100 million. In that case, the failure rate would have to be about 18% to have a 1/2 chance of an 11-failure customer, and about 19% to have an expected value of 1 11-failure customer in 100 million.
I've seen suggestions on the net that the failure rate may be around 30%. That puts an 11-failure customer well within the range of possibility, even with lower numbers of units sold.
Or it could just be a single point of failure problem, where every unit he gets as a replacement goes through something that causes it to fail (for instance, as suggested before, a careless delivery loader). Another single point of failure could be that he got back his same unit, refurbished (or someone else's failure refurb). Refurbs have a higher failure rate than newly manufactured units. Or (and I am hesitant to blame the customer here) something about his environment could be hard on the units.
The point was that the game was broken, but that didn't help the cheater in the end, when he had to play on someone else's (the sponsor's) PC under supervision.
Could not a backup have modified game assets on it, such as (also noted elsewhere) transparent textures allowing the hacker to see opponents behind walls?
While merchandising in 1968 would not have covered computer games per se, it would have covered board games, toys, and any other entertainments based on Tolkien's legendarium. Close enough in my book. Your mileage may vary.
I realize it's not the most reliable source, but Wikipedia claims otherwise. In their article he is said to have sold rights for cinematic adaptation to United Artists in 1968, though he was critical of one script that passed through his hands and forbade Disney from ever being involved.
The rights sold included stage, film and merchandising. Wouldn't merchandising cover games?
I too got the cold pricklies when I saw the release date moved up six weeks. Looks to me like some honch in a cushy office decided they needed to beat GTA IV to market; according to GameSpot it's to be released two weeks later.
I heard they were awaiting delivery of their complement of lemon-soaked paper napkins. Until then, there will be a short delay. Please return to your seats.
But then you'd have to get rid of the president when the Hack-Man catches her. You'd have to eject her into space in a two-dimensional rectangular prison.
Great. Just when everything's going smooth, she gets turned into more of a two-dimensional character than she already is, and a square to boot. What she really needs is to be taken in for re-grooving.
While most of your points make sense, it's hard to take seriously someone who blasts others for not having their facts straight and then uses the phrase "jump the shark" in a way wholly incompatible with its meaning. Check Wikipedia and UrbanDictionary.
I for one didn't find the controls sucky. They're as good as any other third-person actioner. In particular, they seemed a little better to me than, say, the GTA games, especially when it comes to targeting.
If you want to experience controls that suck in ways best described with terms from barnyard pornography, check out Star Trek Encounters...
3. The UMD cartridge also does not protect the UMD disk nearly as well as it should. Last I checked, Sony was still refusing to acknowledge the problem of the cartridge's flimsiness. Here's my blog post on how to work around the most common UMD cartridge failure:
It's not a franchise until two games in the series are released (i.e. there's at least one sequel).
It's not strong until it sells well.
Both of these titles are new properties, unreleased and without sequels. Therefore they are neither franchises nor strong. Calling them so is merely wishful marketing.
Slashdot Mirror
Not comparable.
I'm not saying that one is better than the other, just that they're apples and oranges. You might as well compare Gears of War to Robotron 2084. You could call both "3rd person action shooters", but they couldn't be more different.
As far as I know, there's no space sim for the PS3. That's one of the short list of things that would make me think of buying one.
You mean this? Or perhaps this? Or are they not new enough for you?
Sadly, neither of the Xbox games is on the Xbox 360 compatibility list. Star Wars: Starfighter Special Edition was on the list when the Xbox 360 launched, but Microsoft must have found a show-stopping issue later as it was pulled from the list and still isn't there.
Get the Collector's Edition versions (which are Win95 rather than DOS).
Set all the relevant executables for installation on the CD-ROM to Win95 compatibility mode.
Run the installer.
Patch. There are patches out there for the executables, IIRC, to let them run in XP.
When running the game don't use TIESTART.EXE but rather TIE95.EXE (similar advice for XWING95.EXE), and *not* in compatibility mode.
Haven't looked lately, but there used to be pages on the 'net with advice on getting these running in XP.
I have Tie Fighter running nicely in XP. Completed in XP every mission but the last (that one's a b****).
There is already a demo out for Blacksite: Area 51 and has been for weeks...for the Xbox 360.
I played it. The demo didn't really sell me on the game.
Mediocre, maybe. Sucks? I think that's overstating it a bit.
I wrote an in-depth review of Killzone when I finished it, which you can find here:
Killzone Review
For those who don't want to read the whole thing or skip down to the summary, I concluded that it was not as good as the "Halo Killer" hype, but not as bad as the post-release reviews would have you believe. I did manage to extract some enjoyment from it.
But if Killzone 2 is more of the same with some pretty added to it, it certainly won't be a system-seller for me.
I haven't gotten that far in the game yet and so cannot speak from direct experience, but several reports online have it that the sex scene was removed from the North American version to get the M rating. European censors are more tolerant of sex in entertainment.
Some quick back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest this:
According to various net sources, MS claims the X360 failure rate is 3%. At that rate, MS would have to sell 39 quadrillion units for the chance of having a customer with 11 successive failures to rise above 1/2. They'd have to sell 56 quadrillion units in order to expect to have such a customer.
I don't know how many units MS has sold, but I suspect it is somewhat less than that. Let's suppose they've sold 100 million. In that case, the failure rate would have to be about 18% to have a 1/2 chance of an 11-failure customer, and about 19% to have an expected value of 1 11-failure customer in 100 million.
I've seen suggestions on the net that the failure rate may be around 30%. That puts an 11-failure customer well within the range of possibility, even with lower numbers of units sold.
Or it could just be a single point of failure problem, where every unit he gets as a replacement goes through something that causes it to fail (for instance, as suggested before, a careless delivery loader). Another single point of failure could be that he got back his same unit, refurbished (or someone else's failure refurb). Refurbs have a higher failure rate than newly manufactured units. Or (and I am hesitant to blame the customer here) something about his environment could be hard on the units.
This should come as no surprise to those who know what "We have no plans" really means, when translated from PR-speak.
The point was that the game was broken, but that didn't help the cheater in the end, when he had to play on someone else's (the sponsor's) PC under supervision.
Could not a backup have modified game assets on it, such as (also noted elsewhere) transparent textures allowing the hacker to see opponents behind walls?
While merchandising in 1968 would not have covered computer games per se, it would have covered board games, toys, and any other entertainments based on Tolkien's legendarium. Close enough in my book. Your mileage may vary.
I realize it's not the most reliable source, but Wikipedia claims otherwise. In their article he is said to have sold rights for cinematic adaptation to United Artists in 1968, though he was critical of one script that passed through his hands and forbade Disney from ever being involved.
The rights sold included stage, film and merchandising. Wouldn't merchandising cover games?
I too got the cold pricklies when I saw the release date moved up six weeks. Looks to me like some honch in a cushy office decided they needed to beat GTA IV to market; according to GameSpot it's to be released two weeks later.
I heard they were awaiting delivery of their complement of lemon-soaked paper napkins. Until then, there will be a short delay. Please return to your seats.
But then you'd have to get rid of the president when the Hack-Man catches her. You'd have to eject her into space in a two-dimensional rectangular prison.
Great. Just when everything's going smooth, she gets turned into more of a two-dimensional character than she already is, and a square to boot. What she really needs is to be taken in for re-grooving.
While most of your points make sense, it's hard to take seriously someone who blasts others for not having their facts straight and then uses the phrase "jump the shark" in a way wholly incompatible with its meaning. Check Wikipedia and UrbanDictionary.
I for one didn't find the controls sucky. They're as good as any other third-person actioner. In particular, they seemed a little better to me than, say, the GTA games, especially when it comes to targeting.
If you want to experience controls that suck in ways best described with terms from barnyard pornography, check out Star Trek Encounters...
Hans
3. The UMD cartridge also does not protect the UMD disk nearly as well as it should. Last I checked, Sony was still refusing to acknowledge the problem of the cartridge's flimsiness. Here's my blog post on how to work around the most common UMD cartridge failure:
UMD Repair: Less Is More
You mean Bio-Shock.
Mad scientist creates underwater city with dysfunctional mutant ecosystem.
It's not a franchise until two games in the series are released (i.e. there's at least one sequel).
It's not strong until it sells well.
Both of these titles are new properties, unreleased and without sequels. Therefore they are neither franchises nor strong. Calling them so is merely wishful marketing.
Hans