I have never spent more than £800 on a car. My first lasted me 3 years, the second 2 years, the third another 3, the fourth only 1 year (but was only 400 quid), the fifth 1 year (a more expensive failure at 800, but I got part ex for the onld one)and my current car is up to 1 year and still going strong. Total cost over the past 11 years - £3000 approx. Not even anywhere close to the cost of a new car which may not have lasted as long as those ones did combined. Sure, it might be more hassle, but it's certainly cheaper, and you never have to worry about theft when your car's a piece of crap.
Why have the Terrorists lost? Surely their whole mission is to get the western fingers out of the eastern pie. If the twin tower collapse leads to fusion power and subsequently the western withdrawal from the middle east, then that is mission accomplished for the Terrorists.
Regardless of whether this plunges their country into financial darkness or not, their goals will be met. I'd imagine they will then focus on a new set of goals which don't involve the mass murder of thousands of people in another country.
I could be wrong, I'm not a terrorist.
I wholeheartedly agree. Having worked in the games industry for 5 years+, I have had my childhood dreams largely shattered. Companies care little about the games themselves, they care only about the profits, which I guess is understandable, although frustrating.
Users themselves, at least those in the mainstream, seem to only care about the latest high production value product - if it's not the latest 3D accelerated, bump mapped, Bloomed up HDR rendered FPS then they don't want to know. Oh and any game that's over six years old? Forget about it! It saddens me to think that many games which WERE considered the latest all-singing-all dancing games ten years ago are now largely forgotten, or considered laugable by the majority of modern "hardcore" gamers, despite still being fantastic games.
There are some fantastic games available for genres many people think are long dead - point and click adventures, text adventures, thought provoking puzzle games - just waiting to be discovered. The fact that mainstream games haven't come to linux means that these "niche" games proliferate on that platform.
Don't get me wrong, there are still some fine modern games (although I am struggling to name any off the top of my head), and not all non-mainstream games are fantastic, but at least the smaller developers are more inclined to make interesting games which are fun to play, rather than cookie cutter games with extreme production values.
In most industries, finding a niche is the way to secure your income. Make a useful product that nobody else makes and you're laughing. In the games industry, the word "niche" is spoken with distaste. Make an original game unlike anything that has come before and nobody will buy it. At least that's the thinking. The reality is more along the lines of people will buy it, but not in the numbers high enough to support the obscene salaries of the marketing team.
Real gamers care less about graphics than gameplay. They are happy with an immersiive story line, a captivating game experience. The more I consider this, the more I believe that the true "hardcore" gamers are not those who buy all the latest consoles, or allocate half of their computer build budget to graphics cards. The real hardcore are those who go out of their way to search for a fantastic game.
Re:More than scientific learning
on
LHC Success!
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· Score: 1
Or they might say "But they haven't actually begun smashing atoms yet, they just projected a beam round the ring."
Also, the PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii all have USB ports and can support keyboard and mouse. I wish publisher would stop assuming that console = gamepad and make console games that require keyboard+mouse.
These aren't exotic accessories that cost a fortune and are only available from a handful of manufacturers.
It's not as simple as that, unfortunately. When a console game is produced, it must be approved by Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo before the publisher is granted permission to release the game on the associated hardware. One of the bare minimum requirements is that the game must be fully functional and playable using the standard game controller.
Even Guitar Hero and DDR follow these rules.
Yes, Crysis does look amazing. But so what? It's just ANOTHER First Person Shooter. I'm sick of them. To be honest I find the more realistic games become, the less I enjoy them. I want escapism. If I want to experience realistic physics I'll go outside and stand under an apple tree.
Maybe I'm just jaded from working in the games industry for so long, but I often find myself pining for the "glory days" of the 90's. Point and click adventures like Monkey Island, Fantastic strategy games like Syndicate... A lot of these games have simply gone the way of the dodo becasue nobody seems to have any originality (or their publishers do not want to "take a risk").
Back when hardware was more primitive, the games had to rely on quality gameplay rather than graphics. While I'm not saying all modern games are bereft of gameplay, I do feel that the design process has become more lazy. It's comparable in many ways to the movie industry. The vast majority of films that come out of hollywood really are terrible. Where the games industry differs is that there are no (or at best, few) "art house" software companies creating original concepts, via quality titles which lack the horrible gloss and glitz and production line mentality that most games possess. (There are notable exceptions of course, companies like Introversion and a number of small "bedroom programmed" open source projects manage to keep the flicker of hope I have alive).
And then there's the whole direct-X vendor lock in, don't even get me started on that one.
I'm rambling I know, but the point I'm trying to make is that a quality game is timeless in its appeal, does not necessarily rely on cutting edge hardware.
Slashdot Mirror
Plus, I like my dates to *want* to get into my car.
I look like a Big Issue Vendor, so having a great car is not going to make women more attracted to me. They'd probably just think I'd robbed it.
I have never spent more than £800 on a car. My first lasted me 3 years, the second 2 years, the third another 3, the fourth only 1 year (but was only 400 quid), the fifth 1 year (a more expensive failure at 800, but I got part ex for the onld one)and my current car is up to 1 year and still going strong. Total cost over the past 11 years - £3000 approx. Not even anywhere close to the cost of a new car which may not have lasted as long as those ones did combined. Sure, it might be more hassle, but it's certainly cheaper, and you never have to worry about theft when your car's a piece of crap.
I assumed that was just marketing.
Why have the Terrorists lost? Surely their whole mission is to get the western fingers out of the eastern pie. If the twin tower collapse leads to fusion power and subsequently the western withdrawal from the middle east, then that is mission accomplished for the Terrorists. Regardless of whether this plunges their country into financial darkness or not, their goals will be met. I'd imagine they will then focus on a new set of goals which don't involve the mass murder of thousands of people in another country. I could be wrong, I'm not a terrorist.
I wholeheartedly agree. Having worked in the games industry for 5 years+, I have had my childhood dreams largely shattered. Companies care little about the games themselves, they care only about the profits, which I guess is understandable, although frustrating.
Users themselves, at least those in the mainstream, seem to only care about the latest high production value product - if it's not the latest 3D accelerated, bump mapped, Bloomed up HDR rendered FPS then they don't want to know. Oh and any game that's over six years old? Forget about it! It saddens me to think that many games which WERE considered the latest all-singing-all dancing games ten years ago are now largely forgotten, or considered laugable by the majority of modern "hardcore" gamers, despite still being fantastic games.
There are some fantastic games available for genres many people think are long dead - point and click adventures, text adventures, thought provoking puzzle games - just waiting to be discovered. The fact that mainstream games haven't come to linux means that these "niche" games proliferate on that platform.
Don't get me wrong, there are still some fine modern games (although I am struggling to name any off the top of my head), and not all non-mainstream games are fantastic, but at least the smaller developers are more inclined to make interesting games which are fun to play, rather than cookie cutter games with extreme production values.
In most industries, finding a niche is the way to secure your income. Make a useful product that nobody else makes and you're laughing. In the games industry, the word "niche" is spoken with distaste. Make an original game unlike anything that has come before and nobody will buy it. At least that's the thinking. The reality is more along the lines of people will buy it, but not in the numbers high enough to support the obscene salaries of the marketing team.
Real gamers care less about graphics than gameplay. They are happy with an immersiive story line, a captivating game experience. The more I consider this, the more I believe that the true "hardcore" gamers are not those who buy all the latest consoles, or allocate half of their computer build budget to graphics cards. The real hardcore are those who go out of their way to search for a fantastic game.
Or they might say "But they haven't actually begun smashing atoms yet, they just projected a beam round the ring."
I'm not so much interested in speed as I am in affordability and reliability.
I am tired of oversell, I don't want "up to 20 Mbps" for 15 quid a month, I'd just be satisfied with a "guaranteed 1 Mbps" for a tenner.
I don't want my internet connection to slow to a crawl just because my neighbours are streaming video.
Affordable and reliable, is that too much to ask?
Also, the PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii all have USB ports and can support keyboard and mouse. I wish publisher would stop assuming that console = gamepad and make console games that require keyboard+mouse.
These aren't exotic accessories that cost a fortune and are only available from a handful of manufacturers.
It's not as simple as that, unfortunately. When a console game is produced, it must be approved by Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo before the publisher is granted permission to release the game on the associated hardware. One of the bare minimum requirements is that the game must be fully functional and playable using the standard game controller. Even Guitar Hero and DDR follow these rules.
Limbo of the Lost is saved!
Yes, Crysis does look amazing. But so what? It's just ANOTHER First Person Shooter. I'm sick of them. To be honest I find the more realistic games become, the less I enjoy them. I want escapism. If I want to experience realistic physics I'll go outside and stand under an apple tree. Maybe I'm just jaded from working in the games industry for so long, but I often find myself pining for the "glory days" of the 90's. Point and click adventures like Monkey Island, Fantastic strategy games like Syndicate... A lot of these games have simply gone the way of the dodo becasue nobody seems to have any originality (or their publishers do not want to "take a risk"). Back when hardware was more primitive, the games had to rely on quality gameplay rather than graphics. While I'm not saying all modern games are bereft of gameplay, I do feel that the design process has become more lazy. It's comparable in many ways to the movie industry. The vast majority of films that come out of hollywood really are terrible. Where the games industry differs is that there are no (or at best, few) "art house" software companies creating original concepts, via quality titles which lack the horrible gloss and glitz and production line mentality that most games possess. (There are notable exceptions of course, companies like Introversion and a number of small "bedroom programmed" open source projects manage to keep the flicker of hope I have alive). And then there's the whole direct-X vendor lock in, don't even get me started on that one. I'm rambling I know, but the point I'm trying to make is that a quality game is timeless in its appeal, does not necessarily rely on cutting edge hardware.