1. World in Conflict. This might be the best mix of RTS and Action gaming I have ever seen. It brings the tactical and action aspects of the Battlefield series to the RTS world. While not a traditional RealTime Strategy game,(I have heard several people call it a RealTime Tactical game), it is the details that count. I can't tell you the number of times my jaw dropped or my heart raced in sync with the events in game. Alec Baldwin does some voice work for the campaign and does a phenominal job. It also has the best graphics of any RTS I have ever seen with the exception of maybe Supreme Commander.
2. Heavenly Sword. Yes... thats right, a PS3 game.... and it was GOOD. Very good. Now before you console fanbois grab the torches and pitchforks, understand that in most types of gaming, it is the story that I really get into. EQ, EQII, KOTOR, WIC, NWN. I could go on. The sixaxis implementation is crap. But once you give up on it for the left analogue stick, the game hit it's stride. Beyond the jaw dropping graphics, the storyline was amazing. The character and voice acting was also top notch. I found myself cheering when Kai shot Flying Fox and sitting wide eyed through the cinematics. Was anyone else as creeped out by Bohan or Flying Fox as I was?
3. Eve Online. This makes my list because it is simply the best MMO I have ever played. I love it because it is everything that Earth and Beyond and Star Wars Galaxies wasn't. The sheer size and complexity of the game makes for one of the richest MMO experiences I have ever had. I find that I like it so well, that I have unseated the original Everquest(Pre Planes of Power) from the top spot on my MMO list for it. As a veteran player of 4 years, I find that even after all this time, Eve still holds places and things I haven't seen and levels of depth not yet explored. The game allows me the freedom to literally do anything, anytime, anywhere. And, unlike "shard" universes, Eve is played entirely in one universe. If you have the patience to get past the initially steep learning curve, Eve Online is a rewarding MMO unlike any other.
4. Company of Heroes. Does anyone remember an old school RTS named Sudden Strike? I consider this game it's spiritual successor even though the companies who created the respective games aren't related in any way nor are the developers. Literally everything, from trees, to buildings, to roads, and even the very map itself is destructible. On some maps, the level of chaos and destruction is unbelievable. If a battle has been raging over the same area for long enough, nothing of the original layout will remain except craters and the broken hulls of destroyed vehicles. Beyond that, the unit implementation is superb. Give infantry an objective and the game's AI will intelligently design a way of achieving it. I literally had to pause the game and geek out the first time I saw the intelligence of the game. I remember sending two squads of infantry to attack a fortified german machine gun nest. After left clicking, the game's AI did the rest. One squad opened fire on the german position while the second one retreated behind some trees and headed north of the fight. I was initially annoyed until I realized what the 2nd squad was doing. It was, on its own, flanking the german positions. A short time later, the position was eliminated, and I still had both squads.
The guys over at Anandtech were able to show that AMD had the right idea with a native quad core approach. While the core 2 might be more efficient OVERALL per clock cycle, the phenom and native quad core opteron show edhigher memory efficiencies and lower general latencies than core 2's or xeon's. While this difference only really shows in high end data applications, it does show that AMD has the better TECHNICAL solution in the long run. What AMD has missed is that in the mass consumer market, technical details rarely matter beyond pricing and speed. Most consumers only want to know which is the best deal and which is the fastest.
Having said that, the CPU market has been a tug of war between intel and amd for several years now. Go back to when the first P4's were released. People predicted doom and gloom for AMD then as well.
The intel fanboys will cry "at last!" The amd fanboys will cry "We have not yet begun to fight!" AMD will pull through. You can still find numerous models of consumer PC's with AMD processors in them. AMD still has a VERY healthy enterprise market as well where the opteron competes neck and neck with the best intel xeon's. We haven't heard that last from AMD, and I seriously doubt that we ever will.
How is it that we get an "In Soviet Russia...." quip here, and NOT in the article about a spammer being murdered which ACTUALLY happened in Russia?
Incidentally, I didn't know most hard drive's
Toughbooks are almost an entirely different level of ruggedness than even a T series Thinkpad. To give you an idea what I mean by that, while I was in the Air Force we needed some more rugged laptops because the response team leaders kept dropping and breaking them. To sell the squadron CO on the purchase of some Toughbooks for our disaster response teams, we took one that had been purchased for testing and threw it out the front door where it was in the middle of a torrential downpour outside. We sent a 2 stripe airman to retrieve it, and promptly booted it right back up in front of the CO, dripping with mud and water. He ordered 20 of them on the spot.
Toshiba does make some less rugged versions of the Toughbook and most major manufacturers have some kind of tough laptop, even if they aren't on par with the actual Toughbook.
I started out in MMO's nearly a decade ago and I decided then, in the early years of Everquest, that I didn't want to play through 50 levels(at the time) and possible expansions looking at the back end of a male ogre(or a female ogre). So I chose a female woodelf and played for 4 and a half years.
Do you remember those AOL CD's that came in the mail? I use them as beer coasters. Over the years, I have added companions to those first denizens of table top protection. Most have been advert cd's or the cd's that contain the bloatware from a new computer. Some, such as X3, were wonderful games that were destroyed by their DRM schemes. In that case, starforce, which forced its scheme on you without notification.
Did we not learn the first time? Why can these multi billion dollar corporations not come up with anything better than the broken and bloated software the average consumer must choke down?
I bought Bioshock today. I've played it for a full 3 hours. And that is all the more that it will be played.
Welcome to the beer coaster pile, Bioshock, I forsee many coffee rings and soda drops in your future
The "average" techie would never have bought an iPod in the first place, instead, opting to buy an MP3 player without the Apple brand that had better features and more space for a lower price. Why iPods are so popular is a mystery to me. Sometimes it seems like Steve Jobs could sell sand in the middle of a desert by putting an "i" in front of it, and it would be the biggest thing since rain.
DEFINE linuxfanboi as BOOLEAN; linuxfanboi=true; 'I would like to point out that if you are willing to try something new, you can completely avoid most things like this by using a.nix OS. I realize that Linux is not everyone's cup of tea, however, it's been there as an alternative for many years without a lot of software like the stuff listed here linuxfanboi=false; END
Does anyone else think that stuff like this goes just a bit too far towards invasion of privacy? My first though after reading this article was how badly something like that could be abused to provide evidence for a MAFIAA lawsuit or exploited by people with malicious intent. It's not all that difficult to do those things now if the end user doesn't know how to protect their information. How much easier will it become if MS incorporates something like this into the base level of Windows?
Just like the crackdown on mix tapes, I fail to see the reasoning behind something like this. Internet radio is good for the music industry. It helps to promote current artists as well as new artists. Internet radio is nothing more then a technological extension of regular AM/FM radio. Are copyright owners entitled to payment for those copyrights? Of course. However, if the music industry exists, like most businesses, to make money, then why set the price that, according to webcasters, will destroy their industry? Somewhere in here, there is a straight truth. Did they not do research to determine what the average webcast station makes a year in revenue? Is the internet radio industry exaggerating? I tend to side with the webcasters on this one though. This is not the first time things like this have been reported. I remember a previous article on slashdot about two days ago that told a story about a bar owner who was told he needed to pay a royalty fee because the monday night football song was being played on a bar owned TV right before...monday night football. Rather then pay the fee, the owner simply mutes the volume ever monday night when the song plays, and unmutes it when the game starts.
As time goes on, we as consumers have less and less freedom when it comes to our entertainment. DRM is in almost everything now, from CD's to video games, even Tivo. So much thought has been put into anti-piracy protection, has anyone thought about what consumers really want?
TBH, piracy is not what is killing music sales, the music industry is what is killing music sales. To get a legal piece of music that I want to hear, I have only a few options. Pay $14 for a CD that might have 3 or 4 songs out of 12 that I like and will listen to. Or I can go online and download an MP3. Easy as pie? Sure, unless.. you are using iTunes, then, you will also need an iPod or an Apple approved cell phone. Unless, you are using napster, then you will need a napster approved phone or mp3 player. Unless, you are using p2p or allofmp3.com, in which case you risk being sued by the RIAA. Unless, I buy a DRM free mp3 from iTunes, which costs 30 cents more and has my account information and email address embedded inside of it.
Can I just get an MP3 that I can play on my computer, in my car, or on my stereo with no DRM, no hidden information, no rootkits, and no extra hardware? Just an MP3, that I can play anywhere, anytime I want. Is that too much to ask?
Slashdot Mirror
1. World in Conflict. This might be the best mix of RTS and Action gaming I have ever seen. It brings the tactical and action aspects of the Battlefield series to the RTS world. While not a traditional RealTime Strategy game,(I have heard several people call it a RealTime Tactical game), it is the details that count. I can't tell you the number of times my jaw dropped or my heart raced in sync with the events in game. Alec Baldwin does some voice work for the campaign and does a phenominal job. It also has the best graphics of any RTS I have ever seen with the exception of maybe Supreme Commander.
2. Heavenly Sword. Yes... thats right, a PS3 game.... and it was GOOD. Very good. Now before you console fanbois grab the torches and pitchforks, understand that in most types of gaming, it is the story that I really get into. EQ, EQII, KOTOR, WIC, NWN. I could go on. The sixaxis implementation is crap. But once you give up on it for the left analogue stick, the game hit it's stride. Beyond the jaw dropping graphics, the storyline was amazing. The character and voice acting was also top notch. I found myself cheering when Kai shot Flying Fox and sitting wide eyed through the cinematics. Was anyone else as creeped out by Bohan or Flying Fox as I was?
3. Eve Online. This makes my list because it is simply the best MMO I have ever played. I love it because it is everything that Earth and Beyond and Star Wars Galaxies wasn't. The sheer size and complexity of the game makes for one of the richest MMO experiences I have ever had. I find that I like it so well, that I have unseated the original Everquest(Pre Planes of Power) from the top spot on my MMO list for it. As a veteran player of 4 years, I find that even after all this time, Eve still holds places and things I haven't seen and levels of depth not yet explored. The game allows me the freedom to literally do anything, anytime, anywhere. And, unlike "shard" universes, Eve is played entirely in one universe. If you have the patience to get past the initially steep learning curve, Eve Online is a rewarding MMO unlike any other.
4. Company of Heroes. Does anyone remember an old school RTS named Sudden Strike? I consider this game it's spiritual successor even though the companies who created the respective games aren't related in any way nor are the developers. Literally everything, from trees, to buildings, to roads, and even the very map itself is destructible. On some maps, the level of chaos and destruction is unbelievable. If a battle has been raging over the same area for long enough, nothing of the original layout will remain except craters and the broken hulls of destroyed vehicles. Beyond that, the unit implementation is superb. Give infantry an objective and the game's AI will intelligently design a way of achieving it. I literally had to pause the game and geek out the first time I saw the intelligence of the game. I remember sending two squads of infantry to attack a fortified german machine gun nest. After left clicking, the game's AI did the rest. One squad opened fire on the german position while the second one retreated behind some trees and headed north of the fight. I was initially annoyed until I realized what the 2nd squad was doing. It was, on its own, flanking the german positions. A short time later, the position was eliminated, and I still had both squads.
The guys over at Anandtech were able to show that AMD had the right idea with a native quad core approach. While the core 2 might be more efficient OVERALL per clock cycle, the phenom and native quad core opteron show edhigher memory efficiencies and lower general latencies than core 2's or xeon's. While this difference only really shows in high end data applications, it does show that AMD has the better TECHNICAL solution in the long run. What AMD has missed is that in the mass consumer market, technical details rarely matter beyond pricing and speed. Most consumers only want to know which is the best deal and which is the fastest.
Having said that, the CPU market has been a tug of war between intel and amd for several years now. Go back to when the first P4's were released. People predicted doom and gloom for AMD then as well.
The intel fanboys will cry "at last!" The amd fanboys will cry "We have not yet begun to fight!" AMD will pull through. You can still find numerous models of consumer PC's with AMD processors in them. AMD still has a VERY healthy enterprise market as well where the opteron competes neck and neck with the best intel xeon's. We haven't heard that last from AMD, and I seriously doubt that we ever will.
This is because allowing people to shop for a better deal is illegal in most parts of the country and very bad for business. (Read MAFIAA)
How is it that we get an "In Soviet Russia...." quip here, and NOT in the article about a spammer being murdered which ACTUALLY happened in Russia? Incidentally, I didn't know most hard drive's
Toughbooks are almost an entirely different level of ruggedness than even a T series Thinkpad. To give you an idea what I mean by that, while I was in the Air Force we needed some more rugged laptops because the response team leaders kept dropping and breaking them. To sell the squadron CO on the purchase of some Toughbooks for our disaster response teams, we took one that had been purchased for testing and threw it out the front door where it was in the middle of a torrential downpour outside. We sent a 2 stripe airman to retrieve it, and promptly booted it right back up in front of the CO, dripping with mud and water. He ordered 20 of them on the spot.
Toshiba does make some less rugged versions of the Toughbook and most major manufacturers have some kind of tough laptop, even if they aren't on par with the actual Toughbook.
I started out in MMO's nearly a decade ago and I decided then, in the early years of Everquest, that I didn't want to play through 50 levels(at the time) and possible expansions looking at the back end of a male ogre(or a female ogre). So I chose a female woodelf and played for 4 and a half years.
Do you remember those AOL CD's that came in the mail? I use them as beer coasters. Over the years, I have added companions to those first denizens of table top protection. Most have been advert cd's or the cd's that contain the bloatware from a new computer. Some, such as X3, were wonderful games that were destroyed by their DRM schemes. In that case, starforce, which forced its scheme on you without notification.
Did we not learn the first time? Why can these multi billion dollar corporations not come up with anything better than the broken and bloated software the average consumer must choke down?
I bought Bioshock today. I've played it for a full 3 hours. And that is all the more that it will be played.
Welcome to the beer coaster pile, Bioshock, I forsee many coffee rings and soda drops in your future
The "average" techie would never have bought an iPod in the first place, instead, opting to buy an MP3 player without the Apple brand that had better features and more space for a lower price. Why iPods are so popular is a mystery to me. Sometimes it seems like Steve Jobs could sell sand in the middle of a desert by putting an "i" in front of it, and it would be the biggest thing since rain.
DEFINE linuxfanboi as BOOLEAN; .nix OS. I realize that Linux is not everyone's cup of tea, however, it's been there as an alternative for many years without a lot of software like the stuff listed here
linuxfanboi=true;
'I would like to point out that if you are willing to try something new, you can completely avoid most things like this by using a
linuxfanboi=false;
END
Does anyone else think that stuff like this goes just a bit too far towards invasion of privacy? My first though after reading this article was how badly something like that could be abused to provide evidence for a MAFIAA lawsuit or exploited by people with malicious intent. It's not all that difficult to do those things now if the end user doesn't know how to protect their information. How much easier will it become if MS incorporates something like this into the base level of Windows?
Just like the crackdown on mix tapes, I fail to see the reasoning behind something like this. Internet radio is good for the music industry. It helps to promote current artists as well as new artists. Internet radio is nothing more then a technological extension of regular AM/FM radio. Are copyright owners entitled to payment for those copyrights? Of course. However, if the music industry exists, like most businesses, to make money, then why set the price that, according to webcasters, will destroy their industry? Somewhere in here, there is a straight truth. Did they not do research to determine what the average webcast station makes a year in revenue? Is the internet radio industry exaggerating? I tend to side with the webcasters on this one though. This is not the first time things like this have been reported. I remember a previous article on slashdot about two days ago that told a story about a bar owner who was told he needed to pay a royalty fee because the monday night football song was being played on a bar owned TV right before...monday night football. Rather then pay the fee, the owner simply mutes the volume ever monday night when the song plays, and unmutes it when the game starts. As time goes on, we as consumers have less and less freedom when it comes to our entertainment. DRM is in almost everything now, from CD's to video games, even Tivo. So much thought has been put into anti-piracy protection, has anyone thought about what consumers really want? TBH, piracy is not what is killing music sales, the music industry is what is killing music sales. To get a legal piece of music that I want to hear, I have only a few options. Pay $14 for a CD that might have 3 or 4 songs out of 12 that I like and will listen to. Or I can go online and download an MP3. Easy as pie? Sure, unless.. you are using iTunes, then, you will also need an iPod or an Apple approved cell phone. Unless, you are using napster, then you will need a napster approved phone or mp3 player. Unless, you are using p2p or allofmp3.com, in which case you risk being sued by the RIAA. Unless, I buy a DRM free mp3 from iTunes, which costs 30 cents more and has my account information and email address embedded inside of it. Can I just get an MP3 that I can play on my computer, in my car, or on my stereo with no DRM, no hidden information, no rootkits, and no extra hardware? Just an MP3, that I can play anywhere, anytime I want. Is that too much to ask?