The price has only been temporarily brought back. It's fairly obvious that once the 80Gb models are cleared out that they'll do a price drop on the 80Gb, and probably a new bundle at $600. It should be pretty obvious why they don't say that's what they're going to do when they have all those 60Gb models to shift first.
Could somebody please explain what the point of a hard drive is in a game console? I've been happily using my PS2 for many years with no hard drive, and I don't see what the point of a hard drive in a console is, other than to increase noise, heat, size, and parts that can break.
A hard disk means downloadable content (including full games, music, videos), caching, new firmware features and more besides. Your PS2's functionality was frozen the minute it was manufactured whereas a PS3 could (and has) evolve new features thanks to the HDD.
I would love if LittleBigPlanet is out for Christmas. The game is stunning to look at and the potential is obvious. They were talking open beta this year which I hope means everyone has a chance to play without registering. That game alone is going to generate a huge amount of interest in the PS3.
The Warhawk beta testers are RAVING about that game so if you consider it underwhelming you are in a minority. I have no idea what Heavenly Sword will be like except from the preview footage, it looks impressive though and will probably be a strong seller, even shifting systems.
The usable space is only 7Gb. This is wholly inadequate for many next gen games when 5.1 surround sound, HD FMV and even textures & polygons are going to take 4-10x the space of last gen yet the disk is only 2x larger than last gen. And localized content is totally out of the question too.
Most filler games will probably still fit but there is going to be serious headaches for the "epic" titles to fit in that space. Only last week the PGR4 devs said they canned day / night options on their tracks since they didn't have the space to fit to pre-render the track data at the different lighting levels. While the GTA devs haven't said what their problem is, I would not be surprised if space was a major, major issue for them on the 360.
I haven't noticed any game of mine on the PS3 that has loading problems. This is not surprising as the BD drive has a consistent data throughput which is frequently in excess of the variable throughput of the 360's DVD drive. I expect load times are similar as makes no difference. And no most games do not cache either but even if they did, good for them - the PS3 always has an HDD so why not take advantage of it.
While the DVD-9 in the 360 is woefully inadequate for next gen titles of this calibre, Rockstar have not said the reasons for the delay and the reason may be something totally unrelated.
I've played just about every other GTA game and was looking forward to the next installment. Having said that, if they've got serious issues (and putting it back 6 months says they do), then I'd rather they fix those issues rather than release a piece of crap on the market.
It sucks if you're a Take Two share holder though. Take Two & Rockstar would give Imagine a run for their money for fiscal mismanagement, broken promises and delays.
Re:Porn is irrelevant
on
Blue Blu-ray
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· Score: 1
As I said if you want HD porn, Blu Ray offers it. The whole argument is based on the premise that it doesn't, or that in not supporting porn it would somehow lose. It won't. Besides porn can be obtained for download at DVD and HD quality - there are numerous video on demand services that you can discover with a quick search.
Porn is irrelevant
on
Blue Blu-ray
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· Score: 5, Insightful
Porn is not going to decide HD formats. I don't know why this idiotic meme keeps springing up. Sure it may have had an impact on beta vs VHS where porn-friendly VHS offered an alternative to going to some sleazy porno theatre. But those days have past. Porn is readily and discretely available from thousands of internet sites, satellite, and conventional formats. The impact of some format supporting or not supporting porn is fairly low. Besides, there are Blu Ray porn titles if you really want your razor rash in HD so the whole argument is moot.
The dimensions and form factor are perfect for casual computing on the go. On top of that the thing is rugged, sips power and can be shoved into any bag. It's perfect for coffeeshops, trains, weekend breaks etc. If it breaks or gets stolen, well that sucks but nowhere as near as much as if it happened to a Sony Vaio.
I reckon if Quanta or OLPC produce a commercial version with similar specs running Linux (e.g. with OpenOffice, Firefox etc.) that they'll make a killing. I know I'll be first in line for one.
The ASUS Eee PC looks cool too but I still prefer the OLPC and would be delighted if some of the money I spent on a commercial model went back into funding the project.
Actually I'm quite familiar with Hurd having forlornly checked for progress multiple times over the years. Claiming it was a more complex implementation is a weak excuse back then and a pathetic one 17 years on. I know from experience from developing QNX apps that it was quite possible to produce a production quality microkernel even back then. While I was programming QNX, Linux went from nothing to full blown distributions. GNU Hurd.... didn't. I remember installing a Slackware dist for the first time and being blown away by its completeness.
No, I got modded a troll because someone doesn't like the truth. Or are you seriously going to claim that Hurd is a viable alternative to Linux?
Linux went from nothing, to running a bash shell, to a fully functioning OS using the same tools available to the Hurd. The reason was a "get it done" attitude and not worrying or caring about politics. Pragmatism in other words.
Who is saying GNU software sucks? I'm not. I'm just pointing out the bleeding obvious which is the GNU Hurd has been an abject failure at creating an operating system, in no small part because in the past 17 years it still has not produced a viable distribution. If this amorphous blob that you call the "GNU guys" is so great, why can't they produce a kernel to compete with Linux? What is it that Linux has that they don't? I'll tell you - PRAGMATISM. Which is what I said in the first place.
It's also notable that it's not the first time the "GNU guys" have had a kick up the rear end to get moving. GNU cc and emacs are other examples of a projects mired in politics and glacial development. At least gcc got shaken up by the egcs fork because that was a millstone hanging around Linux for quite some time as well.
I think the full Heavenly Sword has the potential to be great, but the demo is extremely disappointing. For a 1Gb download you get about 10 minutes of gameplay - the same 10 minutes that have appeared in footage at GDC & E3. While it lasts, it shows promise, but it is hardly rewarding or even indicative of the final title. With that in mind what the hell was the point of releasing this demo at all? They may as well have kept people in suspense because the demo is quite a let down.
I think the full game will actually be very engaging but you wouldn't know it from this demo. Contrast with the God of War II demo that sees you fighting the Colossus of Rhodes and coming away completely wowed. Or the Ninja Gaiden Sigma demo that features an entire level and some bonus levels. They could have done a lot more. To be honest it sucks.
I still have hopes but the demo has dampened them considerably.
Maybe if the GNU folks had only been working on a kernel instead of also doing the hundreds of other programs as well, they would have made more headway with HURD. And if Linus had been trying to do a whole OS and not just the kernel, Linux the kernel would still be early in development.
This is a poor excuse. Linux went from nothing to a whole operating system in an extremely short space of time. Sure it used GNU tools which makes it all the more curious why GNU Hurd managed to go nowhere. Weren't those same tools available to the Hurd kernel too? One could also ask what's Hurd's excuse SEVENTEEN YEARS AFTER STARTING that it still isn't a viable alternative to Linux?
The mention of GNU should merely point out how important the GNU is in GNU/Linux. As Linus said in the post: Sadly, a kernel by itself gets you nowhere. To get a working system you need a shell, compilers, a library etc. These are separate parts and may be under a stricter (or even looser) copyright. Most of the tools used with linux are GNU software and are under the GNU copyleft.
Lots of things are important to Linux, not just GNU tools. The insistence by some that it be called GNU/Linux is absurd. If you took away the parts that are not GNU, not copyright FSF, it would be wallowing in obscurity just like the Hurd.
Yup, GNU Mach was well into development BEFORE Linux was even written. This is an example why open source projects are more effective when they're driven by pragmatism and not politics.
If you want to gamble pretend money bought with real money, then you can always head over to Puzzle Pirates. This is a pretty cute and overlooked game that has some excellent parlour games including Texas Hold'Em where you can gamble doubloons.
That depends if the source code contains trade secrets, licenced 3rd party software, code shared with other platforms, patent pending code, or simply because NVidia / ATI don't feel like showing their source code off when they're in such cutthroat competition with each other.
I think it's totally unrealistic for an open source proponents to expect / demand source code from a vendor who has their own reasons for keeping their code hidden.
I think a far more realistic and pragmatic approach would be for dists and vendors to work on an dist neutral ABI to maintain drivers, but also to highlight the advantages of open source such as more optimal performance.
Even if ATI released 100% working, fast drivers, they would be useless if they weren't OPEN and FREE.
And how do you come to that conclusion? Personally I really could not care less if my drivers were open or closed just as long as they exist. Open might be preferable, but closed is just fine by me.
And I expect the same holds for a great many people who expect decent graphics performance out of Linux but don't want to wait the month of sunday's for either NVidia and/or ATI to consider their IP no longer worth protecting.
Quite. If you have a PC capable of gaming, you may as well pick up the PC version of these games since they're likely to be better and probably cheaper too.
Generalizations are never helpful. Probably most gamers are mature enough to handle it, but some may not be. Parents are responsible for underage gamers and there is no doubt that ratings are useful.
Parents probably wouldn't let their kits play Unreal Tournament but I wonder what the situation would be for something like LittleBigPlanet. That game would probably get rated an E for everyone but it relies totally on user content. Most is going to be great but you just know that someone is going to create a bukkake donkey show level or similar. Sony, or the community is going to have to enforce ratings on a per level basis to stop kiddies from seeing some weirdo's creation.
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The price has only been temporarily brought back. It's fairly obvious that once the 80Gb models are cleared out that they'll do a price drop on the 80Gb, and probably a new bundle at $600. It should be pretty obvious why they don't say that's what they're going to do when they have all those 60Gb models to shift first.
A hard disk means downloadable content (including full games, music, videos), caching, new firmware features and more besides. Your PS2's functionality was frozen the minute it was manufactured whereas a PS3 could (and has) evolve new features thanks to the HDD.
I would love if LittleBigPlanet is out for Christmas. The game is stunning to look at and the potential is obvious. They were talking open beta this year which I hope means everyone has a chance to play without registering. That game alone is going to generate a huge amount of interest in the PS3.
GT Prologue is coming for Christmas. Personally I hate racing / car simulation games but the GT5 series looks very, very impressive.
The Warhawk beta testers are RAVING about that game so if you consider it underwhelming you are in a minority. I have no idea what Heavenly Sword will be like except from the preview footage, it looks impressive though and will probably be a strong seller, even shifting systems.
Most filler games will probably still fit but there is going to be serious headaches for the "epic" titles to fit in that space. Only last week the PGR4 devs said they canned day / night options on their tracks since they didn't have the space to fit to pre-render the track data at the different lighting levels. While the GTA devs haven't said what their problem is, I would not be surprised if space was a major, major issue for them on the 360.
I haven't noticed any game of mine on the PS3 that has loading problems. This is not surprising as the BD drive has a consistent data throughput which is frequently in excess of the variable throughput of the 360's DVD drive. I expect load times are similar as makes no difference. And no most games do not cache either but even if they did, good for them - the PS3 always has an HDD so why not take advantage of it.
While the DVD-9 in the 360 is woefully inadequate for next gen titles of this calibre, Rockstar have not said the reasons for the delay and the reason may be something totally unrelated.
It sucks if you're a Take Two share holder though. Take Two & Rockstar would give Imagine a run for their money for fiscal mismanagement, broken promises and delays.
As I said if you want HD porn, Blu Ray offers it. The whole argument is based on the premise that it doesn't, or that in not supporting porn it would somehow lose. It won't. Besides porn can be obtained for download at DVD and HD quality - there are numerous video on demand services that you can discover with a quick search.
Porn is not going to decide HD formats. I don't know why this idiotic meme keeps springing up. Sure it may have had an impact on beta vs VHS where porn-friendly VHS offered an alternative to going to some sleazy porno theatre. But those days have past. Porn is readily and discretely available from thousands of internet sites, satellite, and conventional formats. The impact of some format supporting or not supporting porn is fairly low. Besides, there are Blu Ray porn titles if you really want your razor rash in HD so the whole argument is moot.
I reckon if Quanta or OLPC produce a commercial version with similar specs running Linux (e.g. with OpenOffice, Firefox etc.) that they'll make a killing. I know I'll be first in line for one.
The ASUS Eee PC looks cool too but I still prefer the OLPC and would be delighted if some of the money I spent on a commercial model went back into funding the project.
It's not like they had to subsidize iPhones for people to buy them. Though AT&T might care if people can unlock the phone, but what can they do?
Actually I'm quite familiar with Hurd having forlornly checked for progress multiple times over the years. Claiming it was a more complex implementation is a weak excuse back then and a pathetic one 17 years on. I know from experience from developing QNX apps that it was quite possible to produce a production quality microkernel even back then. While I was programming QNX, Linux went from nothing to full blown distributions. GNU Hurd.... didn't. I remember installing a Slackware dist for the first time and being blown away by its completeness.
Linux went from nothing, to running a bash shell, to a fully functioning OS using the same tools available to the Hurd. The reason was a "get it done" attitude and not worrying or caring about politics. Pragmatism in other words.
It's also notable that it's not the first time the "GNU guys" have had a kick up the rear end to get moving. GNU cc and emacs are other examples of a projects mired in politics and glacial development. At least gcc got shaken up by the egcs fork because that was a millstone hanging around Linux for quite some time as well.
I think the full game will actually be very engaging but you wouldn't know it from this demo. Contrast with the God of War II demo that sees you fighting the Colossus of Rhodes and coming away completely wowed. Or the Ninja Gaiden Sigma demo that features an entire level and some bonus levels. They could have done a lot more. To be honest it sucks.
I still have hopes but the demo has dampened them considerably.
This is a poor excuse. Linux went from nothing to a whole operating system in an extremely short space of time. Sure it used GNU tools which makes it all the more curious why GNU Hurd managed to go nowhere. Weren't those same tools available to the Hurd kernel too? One could also ask what's Hurd's excuse SEVENTEEN YEARS AFTER STARTING that it still isn't a viable alternative to Linux?
The mention of GNU should merely point out how important the GNU is in GNU/Linux. As Linus said in the post: Sadly, a kernel by itself gets you nowhere. To get a working system you need a shell, compilers, a library etc. These are separate parts and may be under a stricter (or even looser) copyright. Most of the tools used with linux are GNU software and are under the GNU copyleft.
Lots of things are important to Linux, not just GNU tools. The insistence by some that it be called GNU/Linux is absurd. If you took away the parts that are not GNU, not copyright FSF, it would be wallowing in obscurity just like the Hurd.
Correction GNU Hurd.
Yup, GNU Mach was well into development BEFORE Linux was even written. This is an example why open source projects are more effective when they're driven by pragmatism and not politics.
If you want to gamble pretend money bought with real money, then you can always head over to Puzzle Pirates. This is a pretty cute and overlooked game that has some excellent parlour games including Texas Hold'Em where you can gamble doubloons.
I think it's totally unrealistic for an open source proponents to expect / demand source code from a vendor who has their own reasons for keeping their code hidden.
I think a far more realistic and pragmatic approach would be for dists and vendors to work on an dist neutral ABI to maintain drivers, but also to highlight the advantages of open source such as more optimal performance.
And how do you come to that conclusion? Personally I really could not care less if my drivers were open or closed just as long as they exist. Open might be preferable, but closed is just fine by me.
And I expect the same holds for a great many people who expect decent graphics performance out of Linux but don't want to wait the month of sunday's for either NVidia and/or ATI to consider their IP no longer worth protecting.
Quite. If you have a PC capable of gaming, you may as well pick up the PC version of these games since they're likely to be better and probably cheaper too.
Generalizations are never helpful. Probably most gamers are mature enough to handle it, but some may not be. Parents are responsible for underage gamers and there is no doubt that ratings are useful.
Parents probably wouldn't let their kits play Unreal Tournament but I wonder what the situation would be for something like LittleBigPlanet. That game would probably get rated an E for everyone but it relies totally on user content. Most is going to be great but you just know that someone is going to create a bukkake donkey show level or similar. Sony, or the community is going to have to enforce ratings on a per level basis to stop kiddies from seeing some weirdo's creation.