Re:Doesn't make sense for the US
on
PSPCasting
·
· Score: 1
Maybe... although by the same logic one could also easily argue...
The only time portable gaming is useful is when you're away from home/your computer and you're not walking, driving, or otherwise in control of your motion. Obviously, by this set of criteria it makes sense to play portable games on a train or bus, but since the average American is either driving, walking, or biking to and from home (a place with existing gaming sources) to work (a place with computers), it doesn't seem like there's much of a need for portable games. Now, I will say there are some places where portable games make sense-- like on a commuter train in Japan. I saw a guy playing Tetris on his phone just yesterday and thought, "Wow, that's pretty cool." But when does the average American ever have an opportunity to sit around like that while someone else is steering the vehicle? You can slap portable games onto a product people are already going to buy, like a cellphone, as an optional feature, but it doesn't make sense to make portable game system the centerpiece of any technology destined for the US market.
This is not a gaming system you should be throwing your support behind.
You may have a point -- on the other hand, if you were actually looking to purchase a gaming console from a company that isn't evil and underhanded, you'd be left with the following options...
1. The Tapwave Zodiac
And frankly, I'm a little suspicious of them, too.
We had a bar chart like that many years back. It was the RSAC rating system, where several different thermometers measured how much violence, sexual content, and naughtly language appeared in videogames.
As you may have noticed, it's not around anymore. My guess is, it was too confusing for people. All that information is nice for some people, but a lot of parents just want to know, "Is it okay to buy for my 10-year-old, or not?" Frankly, I'm not sure I could look at your bar charts above and, without reading the titles of the game, know whether they were appropriate for kids or not.
Personally, I think the current ESRB system, with one big rating, along with several reasons why it got that rating ("Graphic violence", "Suggestive themes", "Super-exaggerated boobie animation", etc.) is probably a good comprosmise.
If that is the case, I'd recommend quitting the service and, in two months, taking the $30 you've saved to get yourself a keyboard with a functional "Enter" key.
Oh, I don't doubt that the sensor is off-center. I'm just wondering whether it actually means anything. I've had a little bit of hands-on time with the PSP, and the square button seemed responsive. My question is, if it's not the cause of the stickiness, then should we care that it's off center?
Is it possible that the "square button not over the sensor" thing is just a big red herring? As far as I understand it, the off-center sensor was being blamed for the button stickiness. If, in fact, that problem is due to extra plastic (or, more likely, can be fixed by altering the plastic without moving the sensor), then is there anything wrong with the off-center sensor?
For five bonus points, say "off-center sensor" 10 times fast.
Whoops! I stand corrected. Apparently, the exapansion pack was an optional add-on, instead of an "intgrated into the cartridge" thing. Makes my whole argument look kinda stupid.
(Hangs head in shame. Goes off to play Superman on the N64 as penance.)
But what I don't understand is, why don't they make the memory upgradable?
Noooo! The thing that makes consoles so nice is that every console has the same configuration. I, as a consumer, don't have to worry about whether my console can run game X with memory level Y and video chip Z. On the flip side, game developers can optimize their game towards one and only one system setup.
Nintendo was able to do this with with Majora's Mask because the memory was integrated into the cartridge (as opposed to being an optional machine add-on). They knew that every person who purchased the cartridge would have the memory upgrade and could tailor their game appropriately. Gamers wouldn't even have to be aware that their memory was being upgraded when they purchased their cartridge. I suppose it's one of the drawbacks of moving to a disc-based world.
I thought the game was lots of fun. It might be short, but when you get to be my age, you tend to have more money (yay!) and less free time (boo!). So I find that I'm starting to prefer the games I can complete in 8-10 hours. If I hear that a game takes 40+ hours to complete, I might think twice about buying it, because I know I'll never get close to finishing it. At least, not before the next big thing comes along to distract me.
So it might have been a relatively short ride compared to some games, but it was loads of fun while it lasted. So for my money, definitely worth it.
I'm not even sure it's done that. What's to stop Sony from publishing MVP Baseball 2006? If I were them, and I had to choose between that and 989's offering, I know what I'd pick...
As I recall, the dot-com bubble burst, and we all went onto fuckedcompany.com to make fun of these companies for doing things that didn't have solid monetary reasons behind them.
Here's a fairer comparison -- right now (3:50 PST), Pogo.com has 215,000 users, Yahoo! games has 183,000, and MSN Zone has 139,000. And these sites won't reach their peak for another couple of hours.
Still, I don't think any of these places have gotten anywhere near the 700,000 mark. That's pretty darned impressive.
I think one of the reasons fanboys view these reviews as some sort of mathematical construct is that they very often use them in that way to strengthen whatever IGN Board argument they're trying to make at that time.
Want to prove that GameCube exclusives are better than Xbox exclusives? I'll go to MetaCritic and show that the top 20 Nintendo exclusives scored better than the top 20 Xbox exlusives. Want to prove that Sega is a better publisher than EA? Why, I'll just go to GameRankings and show the average score for every EA game over the last year vs. every Sega game! The list goes on and on.
It's silly -- nobody tries to "prove" that Sam Raimi is a better director than Tim Burton by averaging their movie scores on RottenTomatoes.com. But using that same kind of logic in the videogame world is completely acceptable.
Of course, I'm not sure if there's really a way to fix this. Asking sites like GameRankings to shut their doors so that people can't perform these calculation is just a case of shooting the messenger (and I'm guessing GameRankings might not agree to my request).
Actually, Viewtiful Joe was exclusive to the GameCube, and THUG could be seen as primarily a PS2 game with an inferior Xbox port.
But yes, KOTOR, Ninja Gaiden and Splinter Cell could all be seen as primarily Xbox games. It could be a conspiracy. Or it could be the Xbox had some really good games this year.
His game, Crime Inc, which was developed between 1991 and 1993, involved gangs taking part in street crime.
In related news, EA/Bullfrog has sued Mr Gallagher, of Queen Margaret Drive, Glasgow. Bullfrog claims the plot, look, structure and style of his game Crime, Inc. closely resembles that of Syndicate, a game they shipped in November of 1993.
How can porting MAME to an X-box possibly be either illegal or damaging to Microsoft?
I'm not entirely convinced Microsoft is doing this because they don't want users to run MAME or because they're worried that people will buy an Xbox, mod it, and just use it to run their own software without ever buying a single officially licensed Xbox game. Quite honestly, that seems like such a small drop in the financial bucket that I doubt Microsoft really cares that much.
I think Microsoft's main concern is that people will use modded Xboxes to screw with Microsoft's Xbox Live offering. You know, the one they're investing, like, 80 gazillion dollars into?
I'm no security expert, and I have no idea what kind of "military grade" security Microsoft has implemented with their Xbox Live infrastructure, but based on this article on Wednesday, it does seem to rely heavily on the fact that they're using a closed, Microsoft-only system.
What does that mean? Again, I'm not really sure, but I'd wager good money it means the most likely way somebody could f*** up Xbox Live for users is by using compromised Xboxes.
That's something Microsoft definitely doesn't want, and I'm guessing that's why they're showing no love for modders.
1. You shouldn't buy a GameCube because it's a kiddie console! (Only kids like fun games, apparently...)
2. Micro$oft is evil! Therefore you should support Nintendo! (Unless it's being said with irony, then it's clever.)
3. Don't buy an Xbox becuase it's just a stripped down PC! (Oh, no! It's got a CPU and a graphics chip! Run!)
4. MGS is a great game! (Okay, just my own personal opinion here -- 20 minutes of excellent gameplay surrounded by 18 hours of crappy dialogue is a good game? Give me Ico any day.)
5. I'm throwing my loyalty behind (Sony / Nintendo / Microsoft) because they care about me as a gamer.
Somewhat off topic, I suppose, but... this is exactly what moths do when hungry bats gets too close. Apparently, when they're hit by a strong enough sonar signal, they lose control of their nervous system and have little wing seizures. This makes their flight so erratic that the closing-in bat usually misses them. (If you'd like to read more, here's a link for ya)
Given how the current trend in a lot of scientific fields is to borrow good ideas from mother nature, I'll betcha this is on somebody's drawing board somewhere.
Slashdot Mirror
The only time portable gaming is useful is when you're away from home/your computer and you're not walking, driving, or otherwise in control of your motion. Obviously, by this set of criteria it makes sense to play portable games on a train or bus, but since the average American is either driving, walking, or biking to and from home (a place with existing gaming sources) to work (a place with computers), it doesn't seem like there's much of a need for portable games. Now, I will say there are some places where portable games make sense-- like on a commuter train in Japan. I saw a guy playing Tetris on his phone just yesterday and thought, "Wow, that's pretty cool." But when does the average American ever have an opportunity to sit around like that while someone else is steering the vehicle? You can slap portable games onto a product people are already going to buy, like a cellphone, as an optional feature, but it doesn't make sense to make portable game system the centerpiece of any technology destined for the US market.
You kinda lost me here. A 1:3 ratio of what?
You may have a point -- on the other hand, if you were actually looking to purchase a gaming console from a company that isn't evil and underhanded, you'd be left with the following options...
1. The Tapwave Zodiac
And frankly, I'm a little suspicious of them, too.
As you may have noticed, it's not around anymore. My guess is, it was too confusing for people. All that information is nice for some people, but a lot of parents just want to know, "Is it okay to buy for my 10-year-old, or not?" Frankly, I'm not sure I could look at your bar charts above and, without reading the titles of the game, know whether they were appropriate for kids or not.
Personally, I think the current ESRB system, with one big rating, along with several reasons why it got that rating ("Graphic violence", "Suggestive themes", "Super-exaggerated boobie animation", etc.) is probably a good comprosmise.
It sounds like you're not enjoying WoW.
If that is the case, I'd recommend quitting the service and, in two months, taking the $30 you've saved to get yourself a keyboard with a functional "Enter" key.
Oh, I don't doubt that the sensor is off-center. I'm just wondering whether it actually means anything. I've had a little bit of hands-on time with the PSP, and the square button seemed responsive. My question is, if it's not the cause of the stickiness, then should we care that it's off center?
Is it possible that the "square button not over the sensor" thing is just a big red herring? As far as I understand it, the off-center sensor was being blamed for the button stickiness. If, in fact, that problem is due to extra plastic (or, more likely, can be fixed by altering the plastic without moving the sensor), then is there anything wrong with the off-center sensor?
For five bonus points, say "off-center sensor" 10 times fast.
(Hangs head in shame. Goes off to play Superman on the N64 as penance.)
Noooo! The thing that makes consoles so nice is that every console has the same configuration. I, as a consumer, don't have to worry about whether my console can run game X with memory level Y and video chip Z. On the flip side, game developers can optimize their game towards one and only one system setup.
Nintendo was able to do this with with Majora's Mask because the memory was integrated into the cartridge (as opposed to being an optional machine add-on). They knew that every person who purchased the cartridge would have the memory upgrade and could tailor their game appropriately. Gamers wouldn't even have to be aware that their memory was being upgraded when they purchased their cartridge. I suppose it's one of the drawbacks of moving to a disc-based world.
Yeah, so this article wasn't so great, but I can't wait for the sequel!
.
.
.
Oh, I suppose I should elaborate.
I thought the game was lots of fun. It might be short, but when you get to be my age, you tend to have more money (yay!) and less free time (boo!). So I find that I'm starting to prefer the games I can complete in 8-10 hours. If I hear that a game takes 40+ hours to complete, I might think twice about buying it, because I know I'll never get close to finishing it. At least, not before the next big thing comes along to distract me.
So it might have been a relatively short ride compared to some games, but it was loads of fun while it lasted. So for my money, definitely worth it.
I'm not even sure it's done that. What's to stop Sony from publishing MVP Baseball 2006? If I were them, and I had to choose between that and 989's offering, I know what I'd pick...
As I recall, the dot-com bubble burst, and we all went onto fuckedcompany.com to make fun of these companies for doing things that didn't have solid monetary reasons behind them.
No, I think the trick to understanding why Slashdot can like the Xbox but hate Windows is in seeing evil as a relative thing, not an absolute thing.
In other words...
Microsoft compared to Linus Torvalds = evil
Microsoft compared to Sony and Nintendo = good (or, at least, less evil)
Blizzard compared to geeks wanting to write free Battlenet servers = evil
Blizzard compared to SOE = good
Here's a fairer comparison -- right now (3:50 PST), Pogo.com has 215,000 users, Yahoo! games has 183,000, and MSN Zone has 139,000. And these sites won't reach their peak for another couple of hours.
Still, I don't think any of these places have gotten anywhere near the 700,000 mark. That's pretty darned impressive.
I think one of the reasons fanboys view these reviews as some sort of mathematical construct is that they very often use them in that way to strengthen whatever IGN Board argument they're trying to make at that time.
Want to prove that GameCube exclusives are better than Xbox exclusives? I'll go to MetaCritic and show that the top 20 Nintendo exclusives scored better than the top 20 Xbox exlusives. Want to prove that Sega is a better publisher than EA? Why, I'll just go to GameRankings and show the average score for every EA game over the last year vs. every Sega game! The list goes on and on.
It's silly -- nobody tries to "prove" that Sam Raimi is a better director than Tim Burton by averaging their movie scores on RottenTomatoes.com. But using that same kind of logic in the videogame world is completely acceptable.
Of course, I'm not sure if there's really a way to fix this. Asking sites like GameRankings to shut their doors so that people can't perform these calculation is just a case of shooting the messenger (and I'm guessing GameRankings might not agree to my request).
Actually, Viewtiful Joe was exclusive to the GameCube, and THUG could be seen as primarily a PS2 game with an inferior Xbox port.
But yes, KOTOR, Ninja Gaiden and Splinter Cell could all be seen as primarily Xbox games. It could be a conspiracy. Or it could be the Xbox had some really good games this year.
Maybe the Driv3r team needs to start working smarter, not harder.
I never encountered the bug, so I can't say for sure if it works, and I'm guessing it won't even be an issue on the PC version.
Star Wars: Galaxies, and Jedi Academy come to mind.
I'm not entirely convinced Microsoft is doing this because they don't want users to run MAME or because they're worried that people will buy an Xbox, mod it, and just use it to run their own software without ever buying a single officially licensed Xbox game. Quite honestly, that seems like such a small drop in the financial bucket that I doubt Microsoft really cares that much.
I think Microsoft's main concern is that people will use modded Xboxes to screw with Microsoft's Xbox Live offering. You know, the one they're investing, like, 80 gazillion dollars into? I'm no security expert, and I have no idea what kind of "military grade" security Microsoft has implemented with their Xbox Live infrastructure, but based on this article on Wednesday, it does seem to rely heavily on the fact that they're using a closed, Microsoft-only system.
What does that mean? Again, I'm not really sure, but I'd wager good money it means the most likely way somebody could f*** up Xbox Live for users is by using compromised Xboxes. That's something Microsoft definitely doesn't want, and I'm guessing that's why they're showing no love for modders.
1. You shouldn't buy a GameCube because it's a kiddie console! (Only kids like fun games, apparently...)
2. Micro$oft is evil! Therefore you should support Nintendo! (Unless it's being said with irony, then it's clever.)
3. Don't buy an Xbox becuase it's just a stripped down PC! (Oh, no! It's got a CPU and a graphics chip! Run!)
4. MGS is a great game! (Okay, just my own personal opinion here -- 20 minutes of excellent gameplay surrounded by 18 hours of crappy dialogue is a good game? Give me Ico any day.)
5. I'm throwing my loyalty behind (Sony / Nintendo / Microsoft) because they care about me as a gamer.
Given how the current trend in a lot of scientific fields is to borrow good ideas from mother nature, I'll betcha this is on somebody's drawing board somewhere.