Sorry Bowie, you make nice art but you don't seem to be remembering how the rest of the world does have digital TV; its just the US that hasn't caught up.
Your example certainly isn't something that really warrants real clarity, but here in the UK my widescreen, 16x9 digital reception of films is almost as good as DVD; in some cases better even. Its certainly the best current way to see Glengarry Glen Ross, as the DVD isn't even widescreen.
All they did was put the boot sector at the start of the second layer of a dual-layer disc. All dual-layer DVDs have the second layer spiral from the outside-in; the RS in RSDL stands for Reverse Spiral. It makes sense, as when the player reaches the end of layer one the head is going to be on the outside of the disc.
Its the Gamecube, not the X-Box that additionally reverses the layers to the reverse layer is the first one. X-Box discs could be read by a normal DVD drive if it could cope with the encryption (otherwise it would be a real headache for the Box to play 'normal' film DVDs and music CDs), the protection comes from the fact that all currently available DVD-R burners for home use can only write one layer, making them unbootable.
Aaah, it depends on which IGN report you read. In the first article I read Kelly Sumner says "The fact that the PlayStation 2 will be the only home entertainment system on which one can enjoy Grand Theft Auto titles is a great statement for the platform overal", and I took the rather careful phrase to mean he was explicitly avoiding the presence of GTA games on platforms other than "home entertainment system"s. In the other one IGN themselves say "Grand Theft Auto 3 and all future titles in the GTA franchise will be exclusive to PlayStation 2 until October 2004, SCEA announced today at its E3 press conference", but I still see the same quote from Sumner, so we have no direct evidence that they have really said no more PC GTA games for the next 2 and a half years.
Its worth noting that the actual quote from the head of Take Two is that Playstation 2 will be the only "Home Entertainment" machine that it will "enjoy" it on before October 2004. My interpretation is that we can still expect to see a PC port, just as we have for GTA3.
And, of course, they can do an X-Box port as well, as long as no-one enjoys playing it - if it sucks it doesn't break the contract!;-)
My guess is that they are lefties. Some of us use the mouse in our left hand, keyboard in the right. Most of the time I end up with simple cursor keys when doing this, but ikjl gets you more surrounding keys for when you need to bind tons of things.
Fortunately, we are already cooling the chip down however. If they are claiming an 80% efficiency in doing so, as supposed to the 5-8% of a peltier quoted (mind you, have you ever seen a peltier-cooled laptop?) then if we are still doing the about same amount of cooling we have a small fraction of the heat being churned out that we would be doing otherwise. The tiny size makes laptop fitting more practical, but its the efficiency gains that are going to be important for how much heat we need to worry about.
I'm sorry to break it to you, but a cinema isn't a public place. Its a privately owned building that the company lets you into in exchange for cash. If they want mobile phones banned then thats up to them, just as I can tell you to not come in my house during a film with your phone turned on too.
You're also well within your rights to insist on only going to cinemas where they don't enforce this mobile ban, and let capitalism do its thing, but there you go.
Short answer; the worst thing about telling people they are doing wrong is when they refuse to see it that way.
X-Box is apparently fairly reasonable for DVD playback, though obviously there are standalone players that can do a better job for the price if thats all you want one for.
PS2 DVD might as well not exist in my opinion; it sucks big time. Terrible banding on subtle colour gradients, too much red push, and no shadow detail are the main issues.
Am I reading that all wrong, or do they seriously want to piggyback a legal filesharing scheme on the back of Kazaa? I can almost see the argument of saying "Don't trust that file you've just found? Why not fork out for the real version?", but on the other hand, are the RIAA going to come within a nautical mile of something that also does illegal filesharing.
BBC sold the distribution rights in the US to Warner Home Video but hold the UK rights for themselves. Since neither company wants import sales causing competition in their own markets, they are bound to want region encoding.
Besides, its not like region codes ever caused a problem, is it? Surely everyone's machine is chipped by now?
hey, I've got some karma left, lets follow this little off-topic-ish meander a moment.
Yes. There is a lot of junk available for the PS2 right now. There is also the X-Box's catalogue, which is 90% shite (Kabuki Warriors holds the record for the worst score ever in Edge magazine, for instance). Even your Gamecube has tosh like Simpsons Road Rage. As long as you do your research, the important thing is how many good titles there are, and PS2 does have some excellent games. On the other hand, I want to play Super Monkey Ball, so I'm not going to diss the idea of supplementing that with a Gamecube, and the X-Box also has Halo.
Join us in multiple console owning land, its fun (but expensive!)
Everyone should feel free to read the above AC - their statements appear to be correct on the situation. I don't believe its still the case that X-Box is beaten by Gamecube pre-orders, but it was certainly true a couple of weeks back for the two individual retailers I spoke to. I'd have to say that the 'xbox sales have dropped of pretty bad in japan in April' quote is a bit of an understatement, as I said earlier though. Around 1800 sales for the first full week, compared to over 80000 PS2s and 35000 Cubes, to give some numbers. Mind you, even in March it was being outsold by the PSOne.
I don't know about the US, but an un-named 'mate down the pub' (read 'developer who works at Sony who doesn't want to get in the shit') tells me its a really bad week to buy a PS2.
With the UK release of the Gamecube on Friday, and £100 coming off the X-Box price in the last week or so, retaliation is to be expected, really.
If you look at worldwide figures, not just the US ones, you'll find that the parent post was correct. X-Box is taking a major-league beating in every other territory. The last I saw UK numbers, even on preorders the Gamecube had outsold the X-Box, and for the first week of April it was only 20% away from being outsold in Japan by the Sega Dreamcast, a console that was considered 'dead' over a year ago.
Mind you, this doesn't deny you your second claim - the X-Box is indeed the most technically powerful of the three consoles. Its just not being bought.
It all really depends on where you're posting from. In the US its not done too badly, but here in the UK we've already seen the price slashed by a third in order to get some momentum behind the thing, and the last time I saw Japanese figures it was only outselling the fecking DREAMCAST by 20%, and getting beaten by the Wonderswan Color. Sorry to swear, but in that territory at least, suggesting that it isn't dead is laughable.
Also, note that this statement of poor sales isn't a value judgement on the quality - Halo is indeed a very good game.
To back the guy up, I'm also a UK console buyer who knows no-one with an X-Box. Everyone has a PS1 somewhere, yes, but most people have a PS2 and I even know a couple with import GameCubes (I'm waiting until at least the UK release on Friday myself). No-one wants an X-Box because they are expensive, huge and only really necessary for playing Halo on. Maybe when they hit £99.
Yes, Square were a bad choice as Sony don't fully own them. A better reference would have been (as I made in my other reply) Psygnosis, the successful Amiga developer that Sony bought outright when originally setting up for Playstation. They now just exist as 'Studio Liverpool' they have been so thoroughly absorbed.
OK, I'll change partly owned subsidiaries then, as Sony only own 20% or Square.
Like Nintendo and Rare (they own over 50%) or Sony and Psygnosis (sorry, Studio Liverpool as they are now known in their position as wholly owned subsidiary). The fact remains that Microsoft are doing exactly what Sony did when it was prepping the original Playstation.
When the subject is why its selling badly in Europe, thats when, since the prices are roughly uniform across the continent. Several Americans have tried the 'no, the X-Box and PS2 are the same price' reply, so you're not alone in missing that part of the original poster's comment however.
"In every important country, the prices are the same" - Remind me; which European country is the important one again? There has to be a fortune made in shipping them PS2s from their neighbours.
Frankly, its a sign of just how much contempt Sony have for Microsoft that the US and Canada are the only countries in the entire world that they haven't done a price cut, despite the fact that they are the only countries in the entire world that the X-Box has been anything other than an embarassing disaster. In Japan, Sony are currently (well as of the week before last, which is the most up-to-date I've seen figures) outselling the X-Box with the bloody PSOne, its that serious.
I _think_ you meant Dreamcast hardware was superior to PS1, didn't you? Because
1) The Saturn made the PS2 look easy to program with its quad-based, hacked in at the last minute poly model.
2) Even if you knew what you were doing, its debateable that it was close to as powerful as the PS1 for most things.
3) Dreamcast was a lovely machine, don't get me wrong (you get my Crazy Taxi, Mr. Driller and Rez over my cold, dead body) but while it did indeed kick the pants off early PS2 titles like Tekken Tag and Red Faction, it wouldn't have coped with poly throughput of Jak & Daxter or MGS2.
This discussion could go back and forth for ages, but with a couple of machines under my TV I'll say that while Soul Calibur (DC) does crap all over Tekken Tag (PS2), there is nothing on the DC that quite matches the attention to detail of MGS2 or the sheer number of polys of Jak 'n' Daxter.
Similiarly, while the different versions of Tony Hawks across all three platforms don't look that different, Halo is noticeably better looking than any PS2 FPS, JSRF is a definite move up (at least in looks if not gameplay) from its predecessor and DOA3 just edges out VF4.
So there is a detectable difference between those platforms, but only when each piece of hardware is used correctly.
To be more precise, while the heat was an issue at times (sealing a piece of hardware behind plexiglass along with a couple of lightbulbs never helps) the main problem was that the retail boxes have different dll hooks in them to the development boxes, as some dev monitoring has been removed. The first demo disc to ship with US display pods had been incorrectly compiled with the debug settings on certain modules, not retail ones, so when those library calls were made it fell over with the green screen of death (actually a green window informing that there was a dll error). Its something anyone could do in a hurry; its not like there has never been an RPM package built against the wrong libraries.
Slashdot Mirror
Sorry Bowie, you make nice art but you don't seem to be remembering how the rest of the world does have digital TV; its just the US that hasn't caught up.
Your example certainly isn't something that really warrants real clarity, but here in the UK my widescreen, 16x9 digital reception of films is almost as good as DVD; in some cases better even. Its certainly the best current way to see Glengarry Glen Ross, as the DVD isn't even widescreen.
All they did was put the boot sector at the start of the second layer of a dual-layer disc. All dual-layer DVDs have the second layer spiral from the outside-in; the RS in RSDL stands for Reverse Spiral. It makes sense, as when the player reaches the end of layer one the head is going to be on the outside of the disc.
Its the Gamecube, not the X-Box that additionally reverses the layers to the reverse layer is the first one. X-Box discs could be read by a normal DVD drive if it could cope with the encryption (otherwise it would be a real headache for the Box to play 'normal' film DVDs and music CDs), the protection comes from the fact that all currently available DVD-R burners for home use can only write one layer, making them unbootable.
The above poster probably lives in Europe or Australia, where the Cube has only recently been released, and Pikmin is not yet released.
Mind you, if thats the case then Super Monkey Ball, Rogue Leader, Waverace, Luigi and ISS2 are already out, so I'd say get one anyway.
Aaah, it depends on which IGN report you read. In the first article I read Kelly Sumner says "The fact that the PlayStation 2 will be the only home entertainment system on which one can enjoy Grand Theft Auto titles is a great statement for the platform overal", and I took the rather careful phrase to mean he was explicitly avoiding the presence of GTA games on platforms other than "home entertainment system"s. In the other one IGN themselves say "Grand Theft Auto 3 and all future titles in the GTA franchise will be exclusive to PlayStation 2 until October 2004, SCEA announced today at its E3 press conference", but I still see the same quote from Sumner, so we have no direct evidence that they have really said no more PC GTA games for the next 2 and a half years.
I'd suggest you go re-read the press release from SCEA. Its very carefully worded to allow a loophole for Vice City to be allowed on a PC.
"the PlayStation 2 will be the only home entertainment system"
i.e. no X-Box or Gamecube.
Its worth noting that the actual quote from the head of Take Two is that Playstation 2 will be the only "Home Entertainment" machine that it will "enjoy" it on before October 2004. My interpretation is that we can still expect to see a PC port, just as we have for GTA3.
;-)
And, of course, they can do an X-Box port as well, as long as no-one enjoys playing it - if it sucks it doesn't break the contract!
My guess is that they are lefties. Some of us use the mouse in our left hand, keyboard in the right. Most of the time I end up with simple cursor keys when doing this, but ikjl gets you more surrounding keys for when you need to bind tons of things.
Fortunately, we are already cooling the chip down however. If they are claiming an 80% efficiency in doing so, as supposed to the 5-8% of a peltier quoted (mind you, have you ever seen a peltier-cooled laptop?) then if we are still doing the about same amount of cooling we have a small fraction of the heat being churned out that we would be doing otherwise. The tiny size makes laptop fitting more practical, but its the efficiency gains that are going to be important for how much heat we need to worry about.
Or am I stating the obvious?
I'm sorry to break it to you, but a cinema isn't a public place. Its a privately owned building that the company lets you into in exchange for cash. If they want mobile phones banned then thats up to them, just as I can tell you to not come in my house during a film with your phone turned on too.
You're also well within your rights to insist on only going to cinemas where they don't enforce this mobile ban, and let capitalism do its thing, but there you go.
Short answer; the worst thing about telling people they are doing wrong is when they refuse to see it that way.
X-Box is apparently fairly reasonable for DVD playback, though obviously there are standalone players that can do a better job for the price if thats all you want one for.
PS2 DVD might as well not exist in my opinion; it sucks big time. Terrible banding on subtle colour gradients, too much red push, and no shadow detail are the main issues.
Am I reading that all wrong, or do they seriously want to piggyback a legal filesharing scheme on the back of Kazaa? I can almost see the argument of saying "Don't trust that file you've just found? Why not fork out for the real version?", but on the other hand, are the RIAA going to come within a nautical mile of something that also does illegal filesharing.
BBC sold the distribution rights in the US to Warner Home Video but hold the UK rights for themselves. Since neither company wants import sales causing competition in their own markets, they are bound to want region encoding.
Besides, its not like region codes ever caused a problem, is it? Surely everyone's machine is chipped by now?
hey, I've got some karma left, lets follow this little off-topic-ish meander a moment.
Yes. There is a lot of junk available for the PS2 right now. There is also the X-Box's catalogue, which is 90% shite (Kabuki Warriors holds the record for the worst score ever in Edge magazine, for instance). Even your Gamecube has tosh like Simpsons Road Rage. As long as you do your research, the important thing is how many good titles there are, and PS2 does have some excellent games. On the other hand, I want to play Super Monkey Ball, so I'm not going to diss the idea of supplementing that with a Gamecube, and the X-Box also has Halo.
Join us in multiple console owning land, its fun (but expensive!)
Everyone should feel free to read the above AC - their statements appear to be correct on the situation. I don't believe its still the case that X-Box is beaten by Gamecube pre-orders, but it was certainly true a couple of weeks back for the two individual retailers I spoke to. I'd have to say that the 'xbox sales have dropped of pretty bad in japan in April' quote is a bit of an understatement, as I said earlier though. Around 1800 sales for the first full week, compared to over 80000 PS2s and 35000 Cubes, to give some numbers. Mind you, even in March it was being outsold by the PSOne.
I don't know about the US, but an un-named 'mate down the pub' (read 'developer who works at Sony who doesn't want to get in the shit') tells me its a really bad week to buy a PS2.
With the UK release of the Gamecube on Friday, and £100 coming off the X-Box price in the last week or so, retaliation is to be expected, really.
If you look at worldwide figures, not just the US ones, you'll find that the parent post was correct. X-Box is taking a major-league beating in every other territory. The last I saw UK numbers, even on preorders the Gamecube had outsold the X-Box, and for the first week of April it was only 20% away from being outsold in Japan by the Sega Dreamcast, a console that was considered 'dead' over a year ago.
Mind you, this doesn't deny you your second claim - the X-Box is indeed the most technically powerful of the three consoles. Its just not being bought.
It all really depends on where you're posting from. In the US its not done too badly, but here in the UK we've already seen the price slashed by a third in order to get some momentum behind the thing, and the last time I saw Japanese figures it was only outselling the fecking DREAMCAST by 20%, and getting beaten by the Wonderswan Color. Sorry to swear, but in that territory at least, suggesting that it isn't dead is laughable.
Also, note that this statement of poor sales isn't a value judgement on the quality - Halo is indeed a very good game.
To back the guy up, I'm also a UK console buyer who knows no-one with an X-Box. Everyone has a PS1 somewhere, yes, but most people have a PS2 and I even know a couple with import GameCubes (I'm waiting until at least the UK release on Friday myself). No-one wants an X-Box because they are expensive, huge and only really necessary for playing Halo on. Maybe when they hit £99.
Yes, Square were a bad choice as Sony don't fully own them. A better reference would have been (as I made in my other reply) Psygnosis, the successful Amiga developer that Sony bought outright when originally setting up for Playstation. They now just exist as 'Studio Liverpool' they have been so thoroughly absorbed.
OK, I'll change partly owned subsidiaries then, as Sony only own 20% or Square.
Like Nintendo and Rare (they own over 50%) or Sony and Psygnosis (sorry, Studio Liverpool as they are now known in their position as wholly owned subsidiary). The fact remains that Microsoft are doing exactly what Sony did when it was prepping the original Playstation.
"Since when is the UK the whole world?"
When the subject is why its selling badly in Europe, thats when, since the prices are roughly uniform across the continent. Several Americans have tried the 'no, the X-Box and PS2 are the same price' reply, so you're not alone in missing that part of the original poster's comment however.
"In every important country, the prices are the same" - Remind me; which European country is the important one again? There has to be a fortune made in shipping them PS2s from their neighbours.
Frankly, its a sign of just how much contempt Sony have for Microsoft that the US and Canada are the only countries in the entire world that they haven't done a price cut, despite the fact that they are the only countries in the entire world that the X-Box has been anything other than an embarassing disaster. In Japan, Sony are currently (well as of the week before last, which is the most up-to-date I've seen figures) outselling the X-Box with the bloody PSOne, its that serious.
I _think_ you meant Dreamcast hardware was superior to PS1, didn't you? Because
1) The Saturn made the PS2 look easy to program with its quad-based, hacked in at the last minute poly model.
2) Even if you knew what you were doing, its debateable that it was close to as powerful as the PS1 for most things.
3) Dreamcast was a lovely machine, don't get me wrong (you get my Crazy Taxi, Mr. Driller and Rez over my cold, dead body) but while it did indeed kick the pants off early PS2 titles like Tekken Tag and Red Faction, it wouldn't have coped with poly throughput of Jak & Daxter or MGS2.
"Oh, that wouldn't be abuse of their monopoly power now would it??"
Its SOP in the console game, just like Nintendo and Rare, or Sony and Square.
This discussion could go back and forth for ages, but with a couple of machines under my TV I'll say that while Soul Calibur (DC) does crap all over Tekken Tag (PS2), there is nothing on the DC that quite matches the attention to detail of MGS2 or the sheer number of polys of Jak 'n' Daxter.
Similiarly, while the different versions of Tony Hawks across all three platforms don't look that different, Halo is noticeably better looking than any PS2 FPS, JSRF is a definite move up (at least in looks if not gameplay) from its predecessor and DOA3 just edges out VF4.
So there is a detectable difference between those platforms, but only when each piece of hardware is used correctly.
To be more precise, while the heat was an issue at times (sealing a piece of hardware behind plexiglass along with a couple of lightbulbs never helps) the main problem was that the retail boxes have different dll hooks in them to the development boxes, as some dev monitoring has been removed. The first demo disc to ship with US display pods had been incorrectly compiled with the debug settings on certain modules, not retail ones, so when those library calls were made it fell over with the green screen of death (actually a green window informing that there was a dll error). Its something anyone could do in a hurry; its not like there has never been an RPM package built against the wrong libraries.