Personally I like the fact that the DS doesn't do 3d graphics very well as I tend to greatly favor keeping games in 2d rather than trying to shoehorn a series into 3d. Yeah Ocarina of Time and Metroid Prime were a lot of fun... but in my mind the best console games were from the SNES: A Link to the Past, Super Metroid, Super Mario World. These are the games I love, not the latter-day versions that have buckled to the urge that everything must be made 3d or it'll be old and lame and the 13 year-olds won't play it.
Frankly I don't really care that much about this as it doesn't sound like it'll affect me at all (partially because I wouldn't use it and partially because they probably won't update my 2nd Gen iPod). What would be nice is something that my reciever has: the ability to set a power-on volume. Sometimes I'll turn my volume up rather loud for a number of reasons. Maybe I'm in a loud enviroment and can't hear, maybe I'm running it into my car or receiver and want to use a bit more power rather than ramping up their own volume too high. As soon as I'm done with that it's likely that I won't recall the need to lower the volume again so the next time I turn it on I'm blasted by an abnormally high volume level.
A simple on/off checkbox and a volume slider to set the desired power-on volume (although technically I guess it just comes out of the sleep mode) would mean a lot more to my hearing than this will.
Most American patriots that tend to be revered today seem, when looked at a bit more objectively and in comparison to the rest of their society, to be dangerous free-thinking radicals. A number of important ones had religious ideas (i.e. deism) that were far from the majority (either then or today). They met in small groups and supported armed rebellion against the state or disruptive civil disobedience of various forms. They used the media of their time to disagree vehemently with the established order often through the use of self-publishing (dare I make an obvious blogging comparison?).
In the end they developed a largely new system of government that vastly differed from what else was around at the time and put a great deal of emphasis on limiting the powers of the government in favor of personal rights (note how the Bill of Rights largely makes use of negative rights by stating that "Congress shall make no law restricting the right of foo" rather than explicitly guaranteeing that right).
These are people that would be (rather rightly I think) seen as dissidents, potentially dangerous seperatists, and enemies of the state. It's quite likely that the average American would fear and distrust them if they were acting today.
Perhaps their biggest flaw was that, like most idealists, they assumed that people were as deeply passionate about these things as they were. That they cared strongly about injustice and the abuse of power and were willing to act on it.
They weren't patriots because they supported the current government. They were patriots because they didn't.
This argument, while still speculation at this point since the Revolution hasn't been released, seems to mirror the current predicament of the DS and the PSP.
On paper the PSP is vastly more powerful. It has a 333MHz CPU with 32 MBs of main memory. The DS, in comparison, has an ARM 9 running at 67 MHz and an ARM 7 running at 33 MHz. On the RAM side it has 4 MBs of system memory as well as 32K of processor RAM for both ARM 7 and ARM 9, and 656K of VRAM. This should totally blow the DS out of the water and admittedly the PSP looks very, very nice.
Yet, the DS is well on it's way to making the PSP little more than a portable video player that offers a few games. While there are endless areas of speculation (e.g. the much higher cost of the PSP, the unique controls of the DS) I feel it really comes down to the games. Quite simply the DS has much, much better games and a pretty good library of them. The PSP has... uh... Lumines, GTA:LCS, Mega Man Powered Up and I've heard good things about Daxter. Even among the games available most of them haven't really seemed to inspire people to talk about them nearly as much as the DS's library.
Sure a few games work because they use the unique aspects of the DS (e.g. Kirby: Canvas Curse, Nintendogs) but the vast majority don't. A few (e.g. Castlevania, Phoenix Wright) aren't even first-party titles... though admittedly almost all of the top titles are.
It's just that when it comes down to it the system that people tend to prefer is the one with better games. Not flashier graphics, not more raw power on paper. I can't say that sales figures will necessarily back this up because, honestly, Sony and Microsoft both have their fans and a good enough stranglehold on the market at this point that they aren't likely to be upset very easily. But in the end this battle of specs over games has already more or less been won and the victor clearly seems to be the less-powerful, but more enjoyable machine from Nintendo.
Sports games, admittedly (since I don't like sports to begin with) aren't really my area of expertise so I'm going to decline commenting on it. The other two, however, I tend to disagree with.
Shooters are often some of the most graphically intensive games for a number of reasons and I think you outlined them fairly well. On the other hand gameplay is still the most important part of a FPS. Doom 3 was fun and was lauded for it's excellent graphics, but at the same time the gameplay was heavily criticized for being repetitive, unoriginal, and uninteresting. Half-Life 2 was a lot of fun and had a great physics engine, but I think many gamers were underwhelmed by the game compared to the impact of the first game's combination of an excellent story, realistic AI, and yes, the immersive triggered events.
Likewise as important as graphics are often considered for FPSs the controls are equally critical. While nothing has really been shown yet I think that the Revolution probably is going to have the best control available. Perhaps even better (due to the immersion factor) than the PC's current reign for a keyboard and mouse.
With RPGs it's important to tell a story, but at the same time this doesn't mean that hardcore realistic graphics are necessary. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door and both Mario and Luigi games were excellent because they told a compelling and interesting story and mated it to fun gameplay... not because they had hyper-realistic graphics. Even looking back most RPG fans tend to care more about older games with a really impressive story (Phantasy Star II, Final Fantasy II/III/VII, Ultima IV, Baldur's Gate, Fallout I & II) rather than a game that had the best graphics either at the time or when replayed years later. Yeah Oblivion loooks great (and I don't like to categorize it here entirely because I consider it a more or less ported PC game due to the lineage of the series... but that's not strictly relevant), but what draws gamers to the Elder Scroll series has always been the wide-open gameplay, not cutting edge graphics. Remembering back Daggerfall didn't have the best graphics at the time and it was pretty buggy even when patched, but it was a fantastic experience to play.
While the Gamecube hasn't had the best library of RPGs and FPSs it doesn't seem to be the fault of the system itself or it's graphics. The 'cube tends to look better than the PS2 most of the time, yet that's where the vast majority of RPGs and a great many shooters are released.
Personally I'll agree that these are both popular genres, but when it really comes down to it I tend to prefer playing both on the PC over a console. Yes there are the occasional console RPGs that are a lot of fun (Paper Mario is awesome and I proudly own Final Fantasy I-III, Secret of Mana... even Shadowrun for the SNES), but I think that the controls of the PC tend to be better for both as well as the ability to mod them. Something that you won't really see for any console titles. When it comes to graphics the PC also tends to do a much better job and always will end up winning out as the cylce of development naturally favors the PC's ability to be updated (though, of course, this cycle doe not favor your wallet).
When it comes down to it graphics are nice, but a better game will win out almost every time.
The problem with both Xboxes (in my mind at least) is that the vast majority of games for them are either ports of PC games or are cross-platform titles. Ignoring the obvious console vs. PC arguments it's just not that compelling of a platform. If I were to take the opposite approach - an XBox, but no PC - I'd be missing out on a lot of really great PC-only titles. Most of the best Nintendo games on the other hand (and, I'll admit, many PS2 games) are exlcusive to their console. With a Gamecube and a PC I feel like I'm missing out only on those games for the PS2 that I'd like to play with one of the most notable PS2 series, GTA3, readily available on the PC with a higher frame rate and, IMHO, better controls.
Never knew for certain if the Gamecube's shoulder button were full-on analog since, as you stated, I've rarely seen a game demonstrate this to any noticeable degree. I think the clever thing they did with this was give the analog sticks two obvious levels of pressure: light pressure where the button goes in a bit and fully-depressed where it makes a tactile and audible click. The resistance of that click also makes it pretty easy to avoid accidentally pressing it in too far. A number of games make use of this (Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes being the first that pops to mind). In this way they kinda, sorta almost have four shoulder buttons.
Quite frankly I really liked Dungeon Siege when I first started playing. Sure, some of the obvious problems showed up pretty early (e.g. the obvious linear road through the entire game, the lack of game balance, etc.) but when you were just controlling one character it felt like a fun, pretty Diablo II clone. As soon as you started adding party member though you lost almost all of your control. I often felt like I was merely playing the manager making sure they were stocked up with plenty of potions and in charge of breaking open containers every so often. The game stopped being fun because instead of actually playing it you just watched it.
Some people really liked Dungeon Siege (I know my girlfriend got rather into it), but to me it just didn't seem like much fun at all. I've played the US Final Fantasy games as they game out since the first one was released for the NES, but sometime around FFVII I just sort of dropped out as they felt the need to making increasingly large changes to the games and focus less on the the gameplay (plus, I've only owned a PC and Nintendo consoles). From the sounds of things Final Fantasy has jumped the shark.
Juice (formerly iPodder) is pretty much the go-to standard... or at least it was until iTunes added podcasting support. Personally I use iTunes and only because it integrates much better than iPodder ever did, but that's entirely a personal choice.
As far as Podcasts go here are some of my favorites:
Coverville : An excellent podcast devoted to covers. Always excellent.
Reel Reviews Radio : Short (and the occasional Cinephile long-form) discussions of various films. The subtitle of "Films Worth Watching" probably describes it best. Sometimes I've found stuff that I've overlooked other times it proved to be the kick in the pants that I needed to finally get around to watching something I've been interested in.
The Dawn and Drew Show : I like it personally. Then again, I also loathe Howard Stern so there's no easy decisions to be made. Free-form discussion by a husband and wife team where he's the straight man and she tends to be effusive and offensive (well... to some I guess).
The Tim and Tony Show : Two guys talk about various sexual topics. About the same intellectual level as Dawn and Drew.
The Apparat Programme (Podcast at http://feeds.feedburner.com/Apparat , info best found at http://www.warrenellis.com/ : Influential British comic writer Warren Ellis' occasionally posts new entries in his podcast which is basically just music that interests him.
They Might Be Giants Podcast : Well... if you're a fan it's an excellent podcast for Their music. Then again they've always managed to heavily experiment with new forms of music delivery.
As a recent grad I've found that the best way to deal with notetaking in class is for the prof to provide you with their lecture notes. Some only made notes available after the class while others had their full notes available before you even sat down for your first day. While it strongly depends on the subject having notes available frees students from having to copy down notes during class - the professors who did not make notes available often expected you to copy them down from their slides during class - and allowed you to pay attention to the class. Those who didn't often had various reasons for it (more than a few felt that writing down notes during class helped you to learn better... I and my sore writing hand strongly disagreed) but the end result was that after the lecture you typically only remembered what the slides were and relied much more on the professor to write good slides. One memorable class (Biology of the Cancer Cell) didn't have a book and none of the notes were available online. If you missed a few words or didn't make it to class that day you were beyond screwed.
As long as you're concerned with taking down notes you'll never be able to actually take valid, intelligent notes about what the professor is saying. Whether you use a laptop or wear out your hand writing down complete notes on paper the only way to really pay attention to a lecture is to know that you have the freedom to actually listen to the lecture itself for once.
I actually disliked that part of the game quite a bit. It always felt more like a long, semi-interactive cut-scene. Not even a particularly interesting cut-scene.
Frankly I wasn't too big on Mario 64 either. It just didn't really feel like a platformer anymore and seemed too far removed from the classic gameplay. I personally feel that the move to 3D really ruined the franchise and turned it into something I have far less interest in. On the other hand I own Mario 64 DS and Mario Sunshine. Sunshine was really more of the same, but with newer, better graphics. I could say it didn't grab my attention that much, which is true, but I also can't deny that I stayed up all night playing it once and have sunk many hours into it on occasion.
I agree with you 100%. That's part of the reason, I feel, that Nintendo does franchises so well. When I play a Legend of Zelda game I know that I'm going to be dealing with a fantasy setting and that it will be an adventure of some type, but that's about all that you can reliably say (thanks to Zelda II).
When I play Mario Kart I know that I'm going to be playing an excellent kart racer, not just some second-rate racing game with Mario slapped into it. As much as I prefer Super Metroid and the other 2D games to Metroid Prime I still respect the quality of the game and the fact that they didn't just churn out some 3D Metroid game, but worked hard to integrate the style and feel of the series into a new type of game.
This a major part of the reason why I like Nintendo so much. Sure they might not always have quite as many games as other systems and they have had spotty third-party support for the Gamecube, but thier first-party titles are almost always excellent and I know I'll never be able to play them anywhere else.
Mario Kart sells for the same reason I feel that Civilization sells: we know that we're going to get a fantastic game as we always have. If someone else made a better kart racer then I'd play it, but so far I'm not aware of anyone who has.
On a smaller secondary note I'd also like to add the various Mario RPGs (Paper Mario, Mario & Luigi, etc.) to the list. They've all been top-notch games. Super Smash Bros. is only on it's second game, but considering how well they've done with both of those the Revolution title seems like a can't-miss as well.
The DS has been selling pretty damn well compared to the PSP. Now, part of this is due to the fact that Nintendo has a very strong fanbase and I'm certain that a large part of it is also because the DS is much cheaper, but the main reason it's been selling so many units is because it has some great games. I know that's the reason I bought one. Last year during E3 I kept hearing about the new games on the way for the DS and I realized that I seriously needed to own one. Sure, none of the games out at the time were really that good, but the first wave of greatness was just about to drop.
That said, let's look at some of the top games for the DS and see why the PSP couldn't have done them as well (ignoring such things as licenses, we're concentrating on gameplay).
First up is Mario Kart DS... lots of people are pointing to this as one of the killer apps for the system and considering it introduced the wi-fi connection it was perfectly positioned. At it's core it's a racing game with an online component. The PSP would have no problems producing an excellent racing game along the same lines and also have the same wi-fi access built in. Yes, it sold largely due to the strength of the franchise, but every franchise has to start somewhere once people start innovating. No excuse here.
Next up is Advance Wars: Dual Strike. Turn-based strategy game that's the direct sequel to the same franchise on the GBA and which started earlier, but was only released in Japan. Considering it ran on the GBA there's no reason the PSP can't have something like this. It uses simple graphics, but that's part of the charm. The deep and involving gameplay is the reason people have become hooked on the series. If it was a PSP title it probably would have had online multiplayer as well, but Nintendo launched it before the WFC. Again, no excuses.
Next up is Nintendogs. Ok, it's not one I personally own (unlike the previous two titles) and it doesn't really appeal to me, but it does appeal to a lot of people out there. Admittedly it relies pretty heavily on the unique features (touch input, microphone) of the DS so it's not really an option on the PSP. I'm also willing to bet that they wouldn't want to try it even if it was possible because it would make the PSP look less "hardcore". Still... they have a valid excuse for not making a game of this type.
Our next title is Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time. Again, sequel to a GBA game, but with features that take specific advantage of the DS (4 buttons, two screens). The fact that it's a sequel of a GBA game means it's still possible on the PSP, it would just be a tad different. As it is it's a unique twist on the traditional Japanese-style CRPG. Again, no reason why the PSP can't do it.
Moving right along and we have Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow. Ignoring the nicety of having a second screen for status and map info the only thing that makes it DS-specific is the seal system. Most people agreed that the game would have been better without it. Would the pretty graphics of the PSP have been cool if we had the same gameplay though? Certainly.
Kirby: Canvas Curse is our next game and one that makes specific use of the touch screen. It's a creative and interesting way to use the technology and that means that the PSP couldn't have done it. Sometimes that's just how things are and you can't blame PSP devs for not trying it.
Meteos. Well, it's a puzzle game by the same guy who did Lumines. Sure it uses the touch-screen in a pretty important way (the game is too fast to really play with the gamepad), but the point is that the PSP can and has made a puzzle game of a reasonably similar nature. Even more it's one of the top titles for the PSP. Way to go.
Moving into upcoming games we have the hotly-anticipated Metroid Prime: Hunters. From the First Hunt demo it's pretty apparent how useful the touch screen is to replicate using a mouse, but first-person shooters have come out for the PSP so it's entirely possible to do it. I have to say I'd think there woul
I agree, they have relatively light DRM when compared to most and so far it hasn't been shown to screw up your system unlike certain methods I could name. The problem is that any form of private DRM is more limiting that it ought to be.
Say a vastly better portable mp3 player comes out from another company. It's possible, but highly unlikely that Apple will ever offer any way to convert your files or that they will license FairPlay so that you can use your iTunes purchased tracks. The same for ever wanting to use different software... iTunes is the only way to listen to those songs.
Yes, you can technically burn them to CD and then rip them into mp3, but at that point you're dealing with what's essentially a third generation copy due to all the lossy compression.
Even then that assumes that Apple never changes the software. What if they decide that they no longer want you to be able to burn CDs and take the feature out of iTunes? I'm not certain, but I don't believe there's any contract protecting your rights in this matter if they want to suddenly make changes to the limited access you already have.
I'm reminded of a section in Neal Stephenson's "In The Beginning... Was the Command Line" where he describes the feeling of having lost a significant chunk of Word documents. Suddenly they went from being very real things that existed, albeit in the computer, to something that vanished into the ether. The shattering of the illusion that these are real, legitimate objects seems very likely to occur at some time in the future. Would you be willing to spend the same thousands of dollars (quite likely) that most people have spent on CDs or LPs only to have them suddenly become almost useless.
Perhaps some form of open format DRM might work since anyone who chose to could make a player that conforms to those specifications, but it's not likely to ever happen and even if it did it would still depend on content providers choosing to release product using those methods... and so far they've shown that they largely view DRM as a way to vertically market a product by providing the player, DRM, and software and trying to see to it that they only work within their own brand.
So, no, it's not that FairPlay is terribly oppressive, it's just that it's a massive loss of control over your purchase. A purchase that is virtual in more ways than one. I'd normally say that it doesn't matter though, as long as you're aware of the issues and decide to make an informed choice to just do whatever works for you. The problem is that it's a slippery slope. As more and more people start accepting these small losses of control it just escalates and before long the genie is completely out of the bottle and we'll never, ever get control back again.
Speaking as a consumer I also fail to see anything wrong with mergers among cellular providers. A present we might have multiple providers, but they all screw their customers more or less equally. No consideration is given to retaining customers or trying to make them happy in favor of constantly trying to entice new customers to switch over or sign up with your service. Almost everyone I know has been through 2-3 carriers in the past 4 years and nobody has ever said they were happy with their provider.
What's the benefit of 5 or 6 identical companies that will all screw you over equally? Much like the oil industry even if there are 20 gas stations in town there's unlikely to be any real competition between them.
He has to be in order for thme to correctly copy the original. He notices the fuel rod, grabs it and throws it out the car window. The camera follows the rod as a pan over to Bart. If they had him on the other side of the car he would have been required to completely mirror his actions, throw it out the left window and as a result Bart would have to go the wrong way down the street. Since this would also mean that Bart moves right-to-left it would probably be seen as even more wrong since people in Western culture tend to have a problem viewing things moving right-to-left.
Marge and Maggie in the car are completely isolated from other scenes by cuts so they can put them on either side without problems as long as the turns are correctly mirrored.
I found it... scary. Like Homer was scared when he went into the third dimension everything seemed right, but it was suddenly scary and crazy and wrong.
I do recall noting when I saw the still "Is this just because it's The Sun or do they look extraordinarily British?" Glad to know that it's because they are.
Anyhow, the details are exceptional, but it still feels like a live-action British version of the Simpsons... and in that small tweak from American to British the alternate-reality feeling is complete.
Indeed. The entire franchise always seemed to be based around the fact that the first game sold very well. Third-person shooters went through a brief surge of popularity on the PC at the time and consoles finally made it to the point where they could render jagged, polygonal 3d games. The game itself was ok, a bit of a rip-off of Prince of Persia (before the actual PoP remake came out and blew it away), but mainly sold because it was an artifact of it's time. The sequels were dutifully cranked out to diminishing returns just like any crappy film franchise (which, these days doesn't even require that the first film does especially well).
Tomb Raider has failed to keep up because the gameplay and level design itself was never that original or compelling. Maybe a new game can come along and make it interesting, but it has a long, long road to get there. The thematic elements (not including her too massive to be attractive breasts) aren't bad though. The idea of basically an obvious female rip-off of Indiana Jones traveling around the globe adventuring has promise. Then again, the only good Indiana Jones game ever made was a LucasArts adventure.
Yes, smart chicks do rule. But lame, script-kiddie, self-consciously "alternative" women don't. I've long considered her the worst part of Hackers... which is quite a feat.
Then again, I personally find her very, very unattractive. Something about her giant mouth and how she has this weird face that makes her look like an alien.
While I'm all for progress you see this sort of technique in enough other areas as it is. Apple, for one, can be guaranteed to release a new iPod every year. Yes, it's nice that they're improving things, but compared to the current generation my 2nd gen iPod is an unsightly brick. After introducing a dock connector and changing the way accessories work with it it's more or less impossible to find a case or any accessories that work with it. All of this within the course of 3 years.
Now, I'm no stranger to this sort of thing. The video card market tends to operate on a 6 month cycle of obsolescence and stereo equipment, while durable and long-lasting, still often falls prey to the newest thing coming out every year or so.
Too many companies these days are devoting thier time and effort not to releasing incremental upgrades to products, but trying to vastly redesign it every single year. Yes, the dock connector is a great idea and I sorely wish I had one, but Apple also managed to change the key layout with every iteration (and rather radically with the introduction of the 3rd generation) and generally muck about with it. They've also, for reasons that might or might not be valid, added all sorts of software enhancements to later models (e.g. on-the-go playlists) but refuse to release them for earlier models. If they just kept getting smaller, thinner, and had a larger capacity it would be reasonable... that's the way technology improves. But this policy of constantly reversioning your products every year just feels like a colossal cash-grab.
The.1 channel is the LFE (Low Frequency Effects) channel that is routed to the subwoofer. The reason it's listed as ".1" is because it is not a full-range channel.
As far as a rear channels it's a bit dependent on what you listen to. DTS EX 6.1 has a rear soundfield encoded, but it only uses one speaker. Dolby Digital ES on the other hand uses a matrixed method to send information to two rear speakers... the problem is that the rear channel is still mono and the same information is mixed to both rear speakers. About the only audio format that uses a stero rear channel is Dolby Pro Logic IIx... the only problem with that is that since it's a matrixed format programming is almost never encoded in it and it's typically only used as a means of processing something that was recorded for fewer speakers (e.g. stereo) and doing all sorts of evil magics to it to try to make some sort of demon sound. Of course, I'm a purist.
Odd... I worked at Gateway (or rather, the company they outsource their phone support to, something we were instructed to lie directly to customers about) and the support was terrible. Admittedly I was in customer service, but about 50% of the problems were caused by someone within the company screwing something up due to incompetence or disinterest. The tech support people were particularly poor with perhaps 10% of them being capable of doing their jobs.
When the employees weren't themselves to blame the company's policies tried as hard as possible to prevent you from doing anything helpful for the customers. At least once a day a customer would call in to find out that the computer they sent in to be serviced (by the outsourced service centers) had been lost by the service center. Packages coming from Gateway were frequently mis-addressed and many times I had customers calling in two or three times before thier information was updated in our databases (of which there were about 3 with a procedural nightmare of which departments had access to which).
I felt that Gateway support was terrible before working there and that they made a sub-standard product that I wouldn't reccomend to anyone. When I left this opinion was a few orders of magnitude higher. The only way they've stayed in business this long is because the vast majority of customers (based on those who called at least) are complete and utter idiots who just don't know any better.
Most of the teachers who focus on that kind of thing are themselves obsessed with fitting in and being some sort of social success. Few of them devote the same time and effort to actual learning. Teaching at the early levels is far more about being a social person than being an intellectual and this tends to be manifested rather heavily in the people who end up teaching it. The intellectual teachers start showing up a bit more in middle school, but the bulk of them are to be found in high school and college.
Frankly I went through the same thing when I was in pre-school (or so I'm told). The teachers complained that I was too smart and was spending too much time teaching the other kids. After a year of pre-school they pushed me into Kindergarten early.
It sounds like you're doing the right thing. Let your children do what they want to do and don't push them in any particular direction.
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Personally I like the fact that the DS doesn't do 3d graphics very well as I tend to greatly favor keeping games in 2d rather than trying to shoehorn a series into 3d. Yeah Ocarina of Time and Metroid Prime were a lot of fun... but in my mind the best console games were from the SNES: A Link to the Past, Super Metroid, Super Mario World. These are the games I love, not the latter-day versions that have buckled to the urge that everything must be made 3d or it'll be old and lame and the 13 year-olds won't play it.
Frankly I don't really care that much about this as it doesn't sound like it'll affect me at all (partially because I wouldn't use it and partially because they probably won't update my 2nd Gen iPod). What would be nice is something that my reciever has: the ability to set a power-on volume. Sometimes I'll turn my volume up rather loud for a number of reasons. Maybe I'm in a loud enviroment and can't hear, maybe I'm running it into my car or receiver and want to use a bit more power rather than ramping up their own volume too high. As soon as I'm done with that it's likely that I won't recall the need to lower the volume again so the next time I turn it on I'm blasted by an abnormally high volume level.
A simple on/off checkbox and a volume slider to set the desired power-on volume (although technically I guess it just comes out of the sleep mode) would mean a lot more to my hearing than this will.
Most American patriots that tend to be revered today seem, when looked at a bit more objectively and in comparison to the rest of their society, to be dangerous free-thinking radicals. A number of important ones had religious ideas (i.e. deism) that were far from the majority (either then or today). They met in small groups and supported armed rebellion against the state or disruptive civil disobedience of various forms. They used the media of their time to disagree vehemently with the established order often through the use of self-publishing (dare I make an obvious blogging comparison?).
In the end they developed a largely new system of government that vastly differed from what else was around at the time and put a great deal of emphasis on limiting the powers of the government in favor of personal rights (note how the Bill of Rights largely makes use of negative rights by stating that "Congress shall make no law restricting the right of foo" rather than explicitly guaranteeing that right).
These are people that would be (rather rightly I think) seen as dissidents, potentially dangerous seperatists, and enemies of the state. It's quite likely that the average American would fear and distrust them if they were acting today.
Perhaps their biggest flaw was that, like most idealists, they assumed that people were as deeply passionate about these things as they were. That they cared strongly about injustice and the abuse of power and were willing to act on it.
They weren't patriots because they supported the current government. They were patriots because they didn't.
This argument, while still speculation at this point since the Revolution hasn't been released, seems to mirror the current predicament of the DS and the PSP.
On paper the PSP is vastly more powerful. It has a 333MHz CPU with 32 MBs of main memory. The DS, in comparison, has an ARM 9 running at 67 MHz and an ARM 7 running at 33 MHz. On the RAM side it has 4 MBs of system memory as well as 32K of processor RAM for both ARM 7 and ARM 9, and 656K of VRAM. This should totally blow the DS out of the water and admittedly the PSP looks very, very nice.
Yet, the DS is well on it's way to making the PSP little more than a portable video player that offers a few games. While there are endless areas of speculation (e.g. the much higher cost of the PSP, the unique controls of the DS) I feel it really comes down to the games. Quite simply the DS has much, much better games and a pretty good library of them. The PSP has... uh... Lumines, GTA:LCS, Mega Man Powered Up and I've heard good things about Daxter. Even among the games available most of them haven't really seemed to inspire people to talk about them nearly as much as the DS's library.
Sure a few games work because they use the unique aspects of the DS (e.g. Kirby: Canvas Curse, Nintendogs) but the vast majority don't. A few (e.g. Castlevania, Phoenix Wright) aren't even first-party titles... though admittedly almost all of the top titles are.
It's just that when it comes down to it the system that people tend to prefer is the one with better games. Not flashier graphics, not more raw power on paper. I can't say that sales figures will necessarily back this up because, honestly, Sony and Microsoft both have their fans and a good enough stranglehold on the market at this point that they aren't likely to be upset very easily. But in the end this battle of specs over games has already more or less been won and the victor clearly seems to be the less-powerful, but more enjoyable machine from Nintendo.
Sports games, admittedly (since I don't like sports to begin with) aren't really my area of expertise so I'm going to decline commenting on it. The other two, however, I tend to disagree with.
Shooters are often some of the most graphically intensive games for a number of reasons and I think you outlined them fairly well. On the other hand gameplay is still the most important part of a FPS. Doom 3 was fun and was lauded for it's excellent graphics, but at the same time the gameplay was heavily criticized for being repetitive, unoriginal, and uninteresting. Half-Life 2 was a lot of fun and had a great physics engine, but I think many gamers were underwhelmed by the game compared to the impact of the first game's combination of an excellent story, realistic AI, and yes, the immersive triggered events.
Likewise as important as graphics are often considered for FPSs the controls are equally critical. While nothing has really been shown yet I think that the Revolution probably is going to have the best control available. Perhaps even better (due to the immersion factor) than the PC's current reign for a keyboard and mouse.
With RPGs it's important to tell a story, but at the same time this doesn't mean that hardcore realistic graphics are necessary. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door and both Mario and Luigi games were excellent because they told a compelling and interesting story and mated it to fun gameplay... not because they had hyper-realistic graphics. Even looking back most RPG fans tend to care more about older games with a really impressive story (Phantasy Star II, Final Fantasy II/III/VII, Ultima IV, Baldur's Gate, Fallout I & II) rather than a game that had the best graphics either at the time or when replayed years later. Yeah Oblivion loooks great (and I don't like to categorize it here entirely because I consider it a more or less ported PC game due to the lineage of the series... but that's not strictly relevant), but what draws gamers to the Elder Scroll series has always been the wide-open gameplay, not cutting edge graphics. Remembering back Daggerfall didn't have the best graphics at the time and it was pretty buggy even when patched, but it was a fantastic experience to play.
While the Gamecube hasn't had the best library of RPGs and FPSs it doesn't seem to be the fault of the system itself or it's graphics. The 'cube tends to look better than the PS2 most of the time, yet that's where the vast majority of RPGs and a great many shooters are released.
Personally I'll agree that these are both popular genres, but when it really comes down to it I tend to prefer playing both on the PC over a console. Yes there are the occasional console RPGs that are a lot of fun (Paper Mario is awesome and I proudly own Final Fantasy I-III, Secret of Mana... even Shadowrun for the SNES), but I think that the controls of the PC tend to be better for both as well as the ability to mod them. Something that you won't really see for any console titles. When it comes to graphics the PC also tends to do a much better job and always will end up winning out as the cylce of development naturally favors the PC's ability to be updated (though, of course, this cycle doe not favor your wallet).
When it comes down to it graphics are nice, but a better game will win out almost every time.
The problem with both Xboxes (in my mind at least) is that the vast majority of games for them are either ports of PC games or are cross-platform titles. Ignoring the obvious console vs. PC arguments it's just not that compelling of a platform. If I were to take the opposite approach - an XBox, but no PC - I'd be missing out on a lot of really great PC-only titles. Most of the best Nintendo games on the other hand (and, I'll admit, many PS2 games) are exlcusive to their console. With a Gamecube and a PC I feel like I'm missing out only on those games for the PS2 that I'd like to play with one of the most notable PS2 series, GTA3, readily available on the PC with a higher frame rate and, IMHO, better controls.
Never knew for certain if the Gamecube's shoulder button were full-on analog since, as you stated, I've rarely seen a game demonstrate this to any noticeable degree. I think the clever thing they did with this was give the analog sticks two obvious levels of pressure: light pressure where the button goes in a bit and fully-depressed where it makes a tactile and audible click. The resistance of that click also makes it pretty easy to avoid accidentally pressing it in too far. A number of games make use of this (Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes being the first that pops to mind). In this way they kinda, sorta almost have four shoulder buttons.
Quite frankly I really liked Dungeon Siege when I first started playing. Sure, some of the obvious problems showed up pretty early (e.g. the obvious linear road through the entire game, the lack of game balance, etc.) but when you were just controlling one character it felt like a fun, pretty Diablo II clone. As soon as you started adding party member though you lost almost all of your control. I often felt like I was merely playing the manager making sure they were stocked up with plenty of potions and in charge of breaking open containers every so often. The game stopped being fun because instead of actually playing it you just watched it.
Some people really liked Dungeon Siege (I know my girlfriend got rather into it), but to me it just didn't seem like much fun at all. I've played the US Final Fantasy games as they game out since the first one was released for the NES, but sometime around FFVII I just sort of dropped out as they felt the need to making increasingly large changes to the games and focus less on the the gameplay (plus, I've only owned a PC and Nintendo consoles). From the sounds of things Final Fantasy has jumped the shark.
Juice (formerly iPodder) is pretty much the go-to standard... or at least it was until iTunes added podcasting support. Personally I use iTunes and only because it integrates much better than iPodder ever did, but that's entirely a personal choice.
As far as Podcasts go here are some of my favorites:
Coverville : An excellent podcast devoted to covers. Always excellent.
Reel Reviews Radio : Short (and the occasional Cinephile long-form) discussions of various films. The subtitle of "Films Worth Watching" probably describes it best. Sometimes I've found stuff that I've overlooked other times it proved to be the kick in the pants that I needed to finally get around to watching something I've been interested in.
The Dawn and Drew Show : I like it personally. Then again, I also loathe Howard Stern so there's no easy decisions to be made. Free-form discussion by a husband and wife team where he's the straight man and she tends to be effusive and offensive (well... to some I guess).
The Tim and Tony Show : Two guys talk about various sexual topics. About the same intellectual level as Dawn and Drew.
The Apparat Programme (Podcast at http://feeds.feedburner.com/Apparat , info best found at http://www.warrenellis.com/ : Influential British comic writer Warren Ellis' occasionally posts new entries in his podcast which is basically just music that interests him.
They Might Be Giants Podcast : Well... if you're a fan it's an excellent podcast for Their music. Then again they've always managed to heavily experiment with new forms of music delivery.
As a recent grad I've found that the best way to deal with notetaking in class is for the prof to provide you with their lecture notes. Some only made notes available after the class while others had their full notes available before you even sat down for your first day. While it strongly depends on the subject having notes available frees students from having to copy down notes during class - the professors who did not make notes available often expected you to copy them down from their slides during class - and allowed you to pay attention to the class. Those who didn't often had various reasons for it (more than a few felt that writing down notes during class helped you to learn better... I and my sore writing hand strongly disagreed) but the end result was that after the lecture you typically only remembered what the slides were and relied much more on the professor to write good slides. One memorable class (Biology of the Cancer Cell) didn't have a book and none of the notes were available online. If you missed a few words or didn't make it to class that day you were beyond screwed.
As long as you're concerned with taking down notes you'll never be able to actually take valid, intelligent notes about what the professor is saying. Whether you use a laptop or wear out your hand writing down complete notes on paper the only way to really pay attention to a lecture is to know that you have the freedom to actually listen to the lecture itself for once.
I actually disliked that part of the game quite a bit. It always felt more like a long, semi-interactive cut-scene. Not even a particularly interesting cut-scene.
Frankly I wasn't too big on Mario 64 either. It just didn't really feel like a platformer anymore and seemed too far removed from the classic gameplay. I personally feel that the move to 3D really ruined the franchise and turned it into something I have far less interest in. On the other hand I own Mario 64 DS and Mario Sunshine. Sunshine was really more of the same, but with newer, better graphics. I could say it didn't grab my attention that much, which is true, but I also can't deny that I stayed up all night playing it once and have sunk many hours into it on occasion.
I agree with you 100%. That's part of the reason, I feel, that Nintendo does franchises so well. When I play a Legend of Zelda game I know that I'm going to be dealing with a fantasy setting and that it will be an adventure of some type, but that's about all that you can reliably say (thanks to Zelda II).
When I play Mario Kart I know that I'm going to be playing an excellent kart racer, not just some second-rate racing game with Mario slapped into it. As much as I prefer Super Metroid and the other 2D games to Metroid Prime I still respect the quality of the game and the fact that they didn't just churn out some 3D Metroid game, but worked hard to integrate the style and feel of the series into a new type of game.
This a major part of the reason why I like Nintendo so much. Sure they might not always have quite as many games as other systems and they have had spotty third-party support for the Gamecube, but thier first-party titles are almost always excellent and I know I'll never be able to play them anywhere else.
Mario Kart sells for the same reason I feel that Civilization sells: we know that we're going to get a fantastic game as we always have. If someone else made a better kart racer then I'd play it, but so far I'm not aware of anyone who has.
On a smaller secondary note I'd also like to add the various Mario RPGs (Paper Mario, Mario & Luigi, etc.) to the list. They've all been top-notch games. Super Smash Bros. is only on it's second game, but considering how well they've done with both of those the Revolution title seems like a can't-miss as well.
The DS has been selling pretty damn well compared to the PSP. Now, part of this is due to the fact that Nintendo has a very strong fanbase and I'm certain that a large part of it is also because the DS is much cheaper, but the main reason it's been selling so many units is because it has some great games. I know that's the reason I bought one. Last year during E3 I kept hearing about the new games on the way for the DS and I realized that I seriously needed to own one. Sure, none of the games out at the time were really that good, but the first wave of greatness was just about to drop.
That said, let's look at some of the top games for the DS and see why the PSP couldn't have done them as well (ignoring such things as licenses, we're concentrating on gameplay).
First up is Mario Kart DS... lots of people are pointing to this as one of the killer apps for the system and considering it introduced the wi-fi connection it was perfectly positioned. At it's core it's a racing game with an online component. The PSP would have no problems producing an excellent racing game along the same lines and also have the same wi-fi access built in. Yes, it sold largely due to the strength of the franchise, but every franchise has to start somewhere once people start innovating. No excuse here.
Next up is Advance Wars: Dual Strike. Turn-based strategy game that's the direct sequel to the same franchise on the GBA and which started earlier, but was only released in Japan. Considering it ran on the GBA there's no reason the PSP can't have something like this. It uses simple graphics, but that's part of the charm. The deep and involving gameplay is the reason people have become hooked on the series. If it was a PSP title it probably would have had online multiplayer as well, but Nintendo launched it before the WFC. Again, no excuses.
Next up is Nintendogs. Ok, it's not one I personally own (unlike the previous two titles) and it doesn't really appeal to me, but it does appeal to a lot of people out there. Admittedly it relies pretty heavily on the unique features (touch input, microphone) of the DS so it's not really an option on the PSP. I'm also willing to bet that they wouldn't want to try it even if it was possible because it would make the PSP look less "hardcore". Still... they have a valid excuse for not making a game of this type.
Our next title is Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time. Again, sequel to a GBA game, but with features that take specific advantage of the DS (4 buttons, two screens). The fact that it's a sequel of a GBA game means it's still possible on the PSP, it would just be a tad different. As it is it's a unique twist on the traditional Japanese-style CRPG. Again, no reason why the PSP can't do it.
Moving right along and we have Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow. Ignoring the nicety of having a second screen for status and map info the only thing that makes it DS-specific is the seal system. Most people agreed that the game would have been better without it. Would the pretty graphics of the PSP have been cool if we had the same gameplay though? Certainly.
Kirby: Canvas Curse is our next game and one that makes specific use of the touch screen. It's a creative and interesting way to use the technology and that means that the PSP couldn't have done it. Sometimes that's just how things are and you can't blame PSP devs for not trying it.
Meteos. Well, it's a puzzle game by the same guy who did Lumines. Sure it uses the touch-screen in a pretty important way (the game is too fast to really play with the gamepad), but the point is that the PSP can and has made a puzzle game of a reasonably similar nature. Even more it's one of the top titles for the PSP. Way to go.
Moving into upcoming games we have the hotly-anticipated Metroid Prime: Hunters. From the First Hunt demo it's pretty apparent how useful the touch screen is to replicate using a mouse, but first-person shooters have come out for the PSP so it's entirely possible to do it. I have to say I'd think there woul
I agree, they have relatively light DRM when compared to most and so far it hasn't been shown to screw up your system unlike certain methods I could name. The problem is that any form of private DRM is more limiting that it ought to be.
Say a vastly better portable mp3 player comes out from another company. It's possible, but highly unlikely that Apple will ever offer any way to convert your files or that they will license FairPlay so that you can use your iTunes purchased tracks. The same for ever wanting to use different software... iTunes is the only way to listen to those songs.
Yes, you can technically burn them to CD and then rip them into mp3, but at that point you're dealing with what's essentially a third generation copy due to all the lossy compression.
Even then that assumes that Apple never changes the software. What if they decide that they no longer want you to be able to burn CDs and take the feature out of iTunes? I'm not certain, but I don't believe there's any contract protecting your rights in this matter if they want to suddenly make changes to the limited access you already have.
I'm reminded of a section in Neal Stephenson's "In The Beginning... Was the Command Line" where he describes the feeling of having lost a significant chunk of Word documents. Suddenly they went from being very real things that existed, albeit in the computer, to something that vanished into the ether. The shattering of the illusion that these are real, legitimate objects seems very likely to occur at some time in the future. Would you be willing to spend the same thousands of dollars (quite likely) that most people have spent on CDs or LPs only to have them suddenly become almost useless.
Perhaps some form of open format DRM might work since anyone who chose to could make a player that conforms to those specifications, but it's not likely to ever happen and even if it did it would still depend on content providers choosing to release product using those methods... and so far they've shown that they largely view DRM as a way to vertically market a product by providing the player, DRM, and software and trying to see to it that they only work within their own brand.
So, no, it's not that FairPlay is terribly oppressive, it's just that it's a massive loss of control over your purchase. A purchase that is virtual in more ways than one. I'd normally say that it doesn't matter though, as long as you're aware of the issues and decide to make an informed choice to just do whatever works for you. The problem is that it's a slippery slope. As more and more people start accepting these small losses of control it just escalates and before long the genie is completely out of the bottle and we'll never, ever get control back again.
Speaking as a consumer I also fail to see anything wrong with mergers among cellular providers. A present we might have multiple providers, but they all screw their customers more or less equally. No consideration is given to retaining customers or trying to make them happy in favor of constantly trying to entice new customers to switch over or sign up with your service. Almost everyone I know has been through 2-3 carriers in the past 4 years and nobody has ever said they were happy with their provider.
What's the benefit of 5 or 6 identical companies that will all screw you over equally? Much like the oil industry even if there are 20 gas stations in town there's unlikely to be any real competition between them.
He has to be in order for thme to correctly copy the original. He notices the fuel rod, grabs it and throws it out the car window. The camera follows the rod as a pan over to Bart. If they had him on the other side of the car he would have been required to completely mirror his actions, throw it out the left window and as a result Bart would have to go the wrong way down the street. Since this would also mean that Bart moves right-to-left it would probably be seen as even more wrong since people in Western culture tend to have a problem viewing things moving right-to-left.
Marge and Maggie in the car are completely isolated from other scenes by cuts so they can put them on either side without problems as long as the turns are correctly mirrored.
I found it... scary. Like Homer was scared when he went into the third dimension everything seemed right, but it was suddenly scary and crazy and wrong.
I do recall noting when I saw the still "Is this just because it's The Sun or do they look extraordinarily British?" Glad to know that it's because they are.
Anyhow, the details are exceptional, but it still feels like a live-action British version of the Simpsons... and in that small tweak from American to British the alternate-reality feeling is complete.
Indeed. The entire franchise always seemed to be based around the fact that the first game sold very well. Third-person shooters went through a brief surge of popularity on the PC at the time and consoles finally made it to the point where they could render jagged, polygonal 3d games. The game itself was ok, a bit of a rip-off of Prince of Persia (before the actual PoP remake came out and blew it away), but mainly sold because it was an artifact of it's time. The sequels were dutifully cranked out to diminishing returns just like any crappy film franchise (which, these days doesn't even require that the first film does especially well).
Tomb Raider has failed to keep up because the gameplay and level design itself was never that original or compelling. Maybe a new game can come along and make it interesting, but it has a long, long road to get there. The thematic elements (not including her too massive to be attractive breasts) aren't bad though. The idea of basically an obvious female rip-off of Indiana Jones traveling around the globe adventuring has promise. Then again, the only good Indiana Jones game ever made was a LucasArts adventure.
Yes, smart chicks do rule. But lame, script-kiddie, self-consciously "alternative" women don't. I've long considered her the worst part of Hackers... which is quite a feat.
Then again, I personally find her very, very unattractive. Something about her giant mouth and how she has this weird face that makes her look like an alien.
While I'm all for progress you see this sort of technique in enough other areas as it is. Apple, for one, can be guaranteed to release a new iPod every year. Yes, it's nice that they're improving things, but compared to the current generation my 2nd gen iPod is an unsightly brick. After introducing a dock connector and changing the way accessories work with it it's more or less impossible to find a case or any accessories that work with it. All of this within the course of 3 years.
Now, I'm no stranger to this sort of thing. The video card market tends to operate on a 6 month cycle of obsolescence and stereo equipment, while durable and long-lasting, still often falls prey to the newest thing coming out every year or so.
Too many companies these days are devoting thier time and effort not to releasing incremental upgrades to products, but trying to vastly redesign it every single year. Yes, the dock connector is a great idea and I sorely wish I had one, but Apple also managed to change the key layout with every iteration (and rather radically with the introduction of the 3rd generation) and generally muck about with it. They've also, for reasons that might or might not be valid, added all sorts of software enhancements to later models (e.g. on-the-go playlists) but refuse to release them for earlier models. If they just kept getting smaller, thinner, and had a larger capacity it would be reasonable... that's the way technology improves. But this policy of constantly reversioning your products every year just feels like a colossal cash-grab.
The .1 channel is the LFE (Low Frequency Effects) channel that is routed to the subwoofer. The reason it's listed as ".1" is because it is not a full-range channel.
As far as a rear channels it's a bit dependent on what you listen to. DTS EX 6.1 has a rear soundfield encoded, but it only uses one speaker. Dolby Digital ES on the other hand uses a matrixed method to send information to two rear speakers... the problem is that the rear channel is still mono and the same information is mixed to both rear speakers. About the only audio format that uses a stero rear channel is Dolby Pro Logic IIx... the only problem with that is that since it's a matrixed format programming is almost never encoded in it and it's typically only used as a means of processing something that was recorded for fewer speakers (e.g. stereo) and doing all sorts of evil magics to it to try to make some sort of demon sound. Of course, I'm a purist.
Unfortunately youngsters might not suffer the indignity of not recognizing a Devo reference, but rather the blasphemy of thinking it's from Dev2.0.
Truly we are devolving.
Odd... I worked at Gateway (or rather, the company they outsource their phone support to, something we were instructed to lie directly to customers about) and the support was terrible. Admittedly I was in customer service, but about 50% of the problems were caused by someone within the company screwing something up due to incompetence or disinterest. The tech support people were particularly poor with perhaps 10% of them being capable of doing their jobs.
When the employees weren't themselves to blame the company's policies tried as hard as possible to prevent you from doing anything helpful for the customers. At least once a day a customer would call in to find out that the computer they sent in to be serviced (by the outsourced service centers) had been lost by the service center. Packages coming from Gateway were frequently mis-addressed and many times I had customers calling in two or three times before thier information was updated in our databases (of which there were about 3 with a procedural nightmare of which departments had access to which).
I felt that Gateway support was terrible before working there and that they made a sub-standard product that I wouldn't reccomend to anyone. When I left this opinion was a few orders of magnitude higher. The only way they've stayed in business this long is because the vast majority of customers (based on those who called at least) are complete and utter idiots who just don't know any better.
Most of the teachers who focus on that kind of thing are themselves obsessed with fitting in and being some sort of social success. Few of them devote the same time and effort to actual learning. Teaching at the early levels is far more about being a social person than being an intellectual and this tends to be manifested rather heavily in the people who end up teaching it. The intellectual teachers start showing up a bit more in middle school, but the bulk of them are to be found in high school and college.
Frankly I went through the same thing when I was in pre-school (or so I'm told). The teachers complained that I was too smart and was spending too much time teaching the other kids. After a year of pre-school they pushed me into Kindergarten early.
It sounds like you're doing the right thing. Let your children do what they want to do and don't push them in any particular direction.