It's funny that you spoke of Tomb Raider. The original Tomb Raider games were challenging (even the first one, which is probably the easiest of the 3). The first level of Tomb Raider 2 pretty much started where the final level of the first game left off difficulty wise. There was no mandatory tutorial. "Press alt to jump. Press control to grab." If you wanted to learn the game, you loaded the training level and looked in the manual. And Tomb Raider 3. Most people think that one was just too fucking hard.
If you compare Tomb Raider to it's remake 11 years later, you can tell just how easy games got. Take the T-Rex encounter as an example. In the first game, it was a real boss fight. In the remake, it was a quick time event. Lame. I think that most of the boss battles in that game were quick time events (I never finished the game, so I don't know for sure).
I can see why they'd drop support for XP, being that it's 11 years old now and that it's been succeeded by 3 versions now? But Vista? Really? Vista and 7 are very, very similar. They even back ported some of the 7 stuff to Vista around the time 7 was released with the "platform update". This is a marketing reason, not a technical reason
Ubisoft is digging themselves a hole that they most likely will not get out of. With DRM and now the lack of game manuals, I doubt they'll even last 3 years.
On another note, I rather like having a physical copy (read: paper) of the manual. I like reading the manual before I get the game installed (for example, as soon as I purchase a game). And then there's the fact that I may want to read the manual when I'm playing the game. I can't read a PDF while I'm playing a game, unless things have drastically changed (no, I should not have to purchase a 2nd monitor).
And then there are games like Grand Theft Auto that include large colorful poster/maps of the in game world. Whenever I play a GTA game, I usually post the map above my computer as a reference. That's a reason why I've never purchased a GTA game (I don't even know if the digital versions include the map as a PDF file) through digital distribution (eg: Steam). For one, my printer can not print pages that large. Secondly, since I would have to print a rather large and colorful page, it would eat through my ink. And then there's the fact that (for an example) the GTA games are cheaper at retail than on Steam. I can (and did get) GTA4 for $20 several months ago, while on Steam it's still $30. I got the older games years ago, but today III, Vice City and San Andreas can all be had for $10 each.
Actually, you must have forgotten about the LGA775 3.46GHz Pentium Extreme edition. Basically it's a Northwood (as it's 130nm, unlike Prescott which is 90nm and it only supports up to SSE2, unlike Prescott which supports SSE3) with 2MB L3.
But it was buggy as all hell. Even today, if you want to replay it, I tell people to play the PSX version in an emulator with every thing maxed out. It looks better and plays better.
First, you seem to have forgotten that the processor is called the Phenom II X3 720. That right there should tell you that it's a triple core. Secondly, how do you know the Athlon XP is the K7 core? Or the Pentium 4 is the Netburst core? Your average joe doesn't buy a processor. They buy a cheap Dell with a Celeron in it. They turn it on and it works. They don't care what happens, as long as it works. The people that buy processors usually look into them.
Windows 3.1 came out in 1992, so I don't think that that's possible. Also, Windows 3.1 was not an "operating system", just an operating shell running over DOS.
Animal abuse and a sex offender are in entirely different leagues. I can see if people want to know if their neighbor touched children in the past, but this? What next? A public "traffic violation registry"? What happens after that?
The only driver I couldn't find for my x64 system was a crappy KWorld TV tuner. Funny thing that it died only 3 months after buying it. Every other device I have on my computer has working drivers for it. I prefer the XP interface, but I like to use all the RAM I payed for (5.5GB), and XP x64 lets me have it both ways.
I wouldn't quite say that. Lower CPU utilization equates to less electricity utilized, which equates to a lower power bill. I would much rather have a processor use only 15% of my CPU's resources in order for me to be able to view a movie instead of having to use 85% of the CPU's resources in order to view a movie.
What the hell is up with their model numbers? Quick, is that i5 you have a dual core or a quad core!? At least Intel's older Core 2 processors differentiated with "Duo" or "Quad", and AMD's simply uses "X2","X3" or "X4".
1: The source code to Halo was not open sourced, the source code to Duke Nukem 3D was.
2: What was so special about Halo compared to Duke Nukem 3D?
3: Doom is almost 20 years old (it's 16, actually), and people still play it (offline and online). People still make maps/mods for it. Will people do THAT for the games of today? I highly doubt that.
And I'll assume that that Counter-Strike server was on a dedicated server with a dedicated Internet connection, unlike the MW2 server, which was hosted by one of your peers. You can have the best Internet connection in the world, but if the server your connected to has a 56k-like Internet connection, you'll only get that.
We're talking about school computers. Not the rig you built to play Crysis at 4096x3092 with all settings maxed. And I'm not knocking that, my rigs are self built, but most people (including schools) usually purchase pre-built computers from companies. And those pre-built machines usually have low end processors (thus using less electricity) and use the IGP. And, because of that those machines usually have lower end power supplies.
Some newer games required a DualShock, well at least according to Wikipedia:
Released in 1999, the PlayStation hit Ape Escape became the first game to explicitly require DualShock/Dual-Analog-type controllers, with its gameplay requiring the use of both analog sticks.
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It's funny that you spoke of Tomb Raider. The original Tomb Raider games were challenging (even the first one, which is probably the easiest of the 3). The first level of Tomb Raider 2 pretty much started where the final level of the first game left off difficulty wise. There was no mandatory tutorial. "Press alt to jump. Press control to grab." If you wanted to learn the game, you loaded the training level and looked in the manual. And Tomb Raider 3. Most people think that one was just too fucking hard.
If you compare Tomb Raider to it's remake 11 years later, you can tell just how easy games got. Take the T-Rex encounter as an example. In the first game, it was a real boss fight. In the remake, it was a quick time event. Lame. I think that most of the boss battles in that game were quick time events (I never finished the game, so I don't know for sure).
I can see why they'd drop support for XP, being that it's 11 years old now and that it's been succeeded by 3 versions now? But Vista? Really? Vista and 7 are very, very similar. They even back ported some of the 7 stuff to Vista around the time 7 was released with the "platform update". This is a marketing reason, not a technical reason
But for now, do the Windows version of Source games support OpenGL? I would think that'd make them run better in WINE.
It looks like the largest ISP in Hong Kong
I never knew that Hong Kong was in the United States.
Ubisoft is digging themselves a hole that they most likely will not get out of. With DRM and now the lack of game manuals, I doubt they'll even last 3 years.
On another note, I rather like having a physical copy (read: paper) of the manual. I like reading the manual before I get the game installed (for example, as soon as I purchase a game). And then there's the fact that I may want to read the manual when I'm playing the game. I can't read a PDF while I'm playing a game, unless things have drastically changed (no, I should not have to purchase a 2nd monitor).
And then there are games like Grand Theft Auto that include large colorful poster/maps of the in game world. Whenever I play a GTA game, I usually post the map above my computer as a reference. That's a reason why I've never purchased a GTA game (I don't even know if the digital versions include the map as a PDF file) through digital distribution (eg: Steam). For one, my printer can not print pages that large. Secondly, since I would have to print a rather large and colorful page, it would eat through my ink. And then there's the fact that (for an example) the GTA games are cheaper at retail than on Steam. I can (and did get) GTA4 for $20 several months ago, while on Steam it's still $30. I got the older games years ago, but today III, Vice City and San Andreas can all be had for $10 each.
Actually, you must have forgotten about the LGA775 3.46GHz Pentium Extreme edition. Basically it's a Northwood (as it's 130nm, unlike Prescott which is 90nm and it only supports up to SSE2, unlike Prescott which supports SSE3) with 2MB L3.
Are they dropping support for XP all together (I have yet to hear anything about it)? Even if it doesn't have that feature, it will still support XP.
And it'll work on Windows XP. So it matches IE9's two biggest features and has one more feature Microsoft doesn't have: XP compatibility.
But it was buggy as all hell. Even today, if you want to replay it, I tell people to play the PSX version in an emulator with every thing maxed out. It looks better and plays better.
I believe that it's StarForce.
First, you seem to have forgotten that the processor is called the Phenom II X3 720. That right there should tell you that it's a triple core. Secondly, how do you know the Athlon XP is the K7 core? Or the Pentium 4 is the Netburst core? Your average joe doesn't buy a processor. They buy a cheap Dell with a Celeron in it. They turn it on and it works. They don't care what happens, as long as it works. The people that buy processors usually look into them.
Windows 3.1 came out in 1992, so I don't think that that's possible. Also, Windows 3.1 was not an "operating system", just an operating shell running over DOS.
How about a Windows license so that apps and games that don't work in Wine still work?
It isn't quite $100, and I'm not sure about the restrictions this time, but: Windows 7 Home Premium is $104.
Animal abuse and a sex offender are in entirely different leagues. I can see if people want to know if their neighbor touched children in the past, but this? What next? A public "traffic violation registry"? What happens after that?
The only driver I couldn't find for my x64 system was a crappy KWorld TV tuner. Funny thing that it died only 3 months after buying it. Every other device I have on my computer has working drivers for it. I prefer the XP interface, but I like to use all the RAM I payed for (5.5GB), and XP x64 lets me have it both ways.
Shouldn't your i7 show 8 threads in the task manager as hyper-threading is on (by default, I would think, but I do not own an i7 system)?
I wouldn't quite say that. Lower CPU utilization equates to less electricity utilized, which equates to a lower power bill. I would much rather have a processor use only 15% of my CPU's resources in order for me to be able to view a movie instead of having to use 85% of the CPU's resources in order to view a movie.
What the hell is up with their model numbers? Quick, is that i5 you have a dual core or a quad core!? At least Intel's older Core 2 processors differentiated with "Duo" or "Quad", and AMD's simply uses "X2","X3" or "X4".
1: The source code to Halo was not open sourced, the source code to Duke Nukem 3D was.
2: What was so special about Halo compared to Duke Nukem 3D?
3: Doom is almost 20 years old (it's 16, actually), and people still play it (offline and online). People still make maps/mods for it. Will people do THAT for the games of today? I highly doubt that.
Seeing as 56k modems didn't exist in 1996, I think your argument is invalid.
And I'll assume that that Counter-Strike server was on a dedicated server with a dedicated Internet connection, unlike the MW2 server, which was hosted by one of your peers. You can have the best Internet connection in the world, but if the server your connected to has a 56k-like Internet connection, you'll only get that.
We're talking about school computers. Not the rig you built to play Crysis at 4096x3092 with all settings maxed. And I'm not knocking that, my rigs are self built, but most people (including schools) usually purchase pre-built computers from companies. And those pre-built machines usually have low end processors (thus using less electricity) and use the IGP. And, because of that those machines usually have lower end power supplies.
Not quite. Visual Studio Express is free for commercial usage.
I loved that they used IE6 in the screenshot.
Released in 1999, the PlayStation hit Ape Escape became the first game to explicitly require DualShock/Dual-Analog-type controllers, with its gameplay requiring the use of both analog sticks.