If they include an electrode-studded top hat neural interface with the monocle I think I'd have to personally blow their good-idea guy, whoever that is. Please rate parent "funny as hell"
Nobody creates a product without a customer better than Microsoft. This is very poorly targeted at that price point, although I'm glad they dropped the wired controller crap.
Although... I do want another 360 so I can do system link between rooms... and I could pretend that it's a present for my wife (who loves the Live Arcade games)... hmm...
"Rating games is an inherently subjective practice in the sense that content is always going to be interpreted in different ways by different people."
Yep, and the rules we use to frame the arguments about this crap change very quickly, just as they have with movies. Look at "Barbarella" (1968) - full frontal nudity on a number of occasions with a PG rating; no modern movie could get away with that (I remember there being some brouhaha about one tit shown in "Titanic"). 40 years later and we've gone through many iterations of subjectivity in the MPAA... it's no shock that the relatively young ESRB would have some issues. The real problem here is the level of import placed on these scores in political circles when they are intended simply be used as a guideline for a concerned parent, at which they more or less succeed.
I am, however, going to enjoy looking back in 39 years and saying "Can you believe they tried to ban Manhunt 2?"
You mean they didn't do this yet? Books... TCG... board games... a movie forthcoming... seems like a logical step.
Anyway, I'm always happy to add another item to my list of things I wouldn't even consider spending money on.
Microsoft failed to keep first- and third-party developers happy? THAT'S news...
The BioWare thing is a tragedy, but lack of console exclusivity is the least of my worries there. I don't care what console it comes out for, if I see "EA Games Presents Mass Effect 2009" I'm getting out the torches. The Rare deal was a stupid decision that was more about keeping the brand away from Nintendo, and it's old news anyway.
As a fan of Bungie since the first Marathon, I am absolutely ecstatic that they're going independent again and wonder how many of their firstborn it cost them (really, though, how the HELL did they pull that off?). PGR is in my opinion a B franchise and I can't see it hurting them very much.
Added up, there seems to be a trend of Microsoft failing to buy innovative development studios before somebody else does... given history, that may be the best news of all. As to the future of the Xbox, I don't really care. As long as this fight continues, we (the consumers) win.
After having spent the last few days playing the Orange Box, I have to admit this was a letdown. From someone who knows nothing about 3D Engine design, UT3 doesn't look like much of an graphical evolution, and apart from some creativity in vehicles the gameplay is pretty iterative. I'll still likely pick this sucker up, but it's relatively low on my list of gaming priorities this holiday season.
This is unfortunate, though understandable given the many different SKUs that will be necessary to sell this beast piecemeal. I was, however, really looking forward to dueling drums on day one, and I'm not willing to buy two bundles to make that happen.
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Wow. Harsh.
Thanks for the clarification, that's very interesting to know.
Nobody creates a product without a customer better than Microsoft. This is very poorly targeted at that price point, although I'm glad they dropped the wired controller crap.
... I do want another 360 so I can do system link between rooms ... and I could pretend that it's a present for my wife (who loves the Live Arcade games) ... hmm ...
Although
"Rating games is an inherently subjective practice in the sense that content is always going to be interpreted in different ways by different people."
... it's no shock that the relatively young ESRB would have some issues. The real problem here is the level of import placed on these scores in political circles when they are intended simply be used as a guideline for a concerned parent, at which they more or less succeed.
Yep, and the rules we use to frame the arguments about this crap change very quickly, just as they have with movies. Look at "Barbarella" (1968) - full frontal nudity on a number of occasions with a PG rating; no modern movie could get away with that (I remember there being some brouhaha about one tit shown in "Titanic"). 40 years later and we've gone through many iterations of subjectivity in the MPAA
I am, however, going to enjoy looking back in 39 years and saying "Can you believe they tried to ban Manhunt 2?"
You mean they didn't do this yet? Books ... TCG ... board games ... a movie forthcoming ... seems like a logical step.
Anyway, I'm always happy to add another item to my list of things I wouldn't even consider spending money on.
If so, tell them to get rid of the stupid automatically streaming video. I hate that crap.
Microsoft failed to keep first- and third-party developers happy? THAT'S news ...
The BioWare thing is a tragedy, but lack of console exclusivity is the least of my worries there. I don't care what console it comes out for, if I see "EA Games Presents Mass Effect 2009" I'm getting out the torches. The Rare deal was a stupid decision that was more about keeping the brand away from Nintendo, and it's old news anyway.
As a fan of Bungie since the first Marathon, I am absolutely ecstatic that they're going independent again and wonder how many of their firstborn it cost them (really, though, how the HELL did they pull that off?). PGR is in my opinion a B franchise and I can't see it hurting them very much.
Added up, there seems to be a trend of Microsoft failing to buy innovative development studios before somebody else does ... given history, that may be the best news of all. As to the future of the Xbox, I don't really care. As long as this fight continues, we (the consumers) win.
But no cake ...
After having spent the last few days playing the Orange Box, I have to admit this was a letdown. From someone who knows nothing about 3D Engine design, UT3 doesn't look like much of an graphical evolution, and apart from some creativity in vehicles the gameplay is pretty iterative. I'll still likely pick this sucker up, but it's relatively low on my list of gaming priorities this holiday season.
This is unfortunate, though understandable given the many different SKUs that will be necessary to sell this beast piecemeal. I was, however, really looking forward to dueling drums on day one, and I'm not willing to buy two bundles to make that happen.