No matter what kind of features it has - and I'm very interested in the new Live stuff - without awesome games, it's no go.
I work in retail; I spend 8 hours a day 5 days a week selling these things. As soon as we start talking about it a customer asks me what's the difference between the Xbox and the Xbox 360.
And based on the games I've seen, I don't know what to tell them - DoA 4 looks exactly the same as DoAU on the current box, Perfect Dark isn't even in the textured stage yet (wtf have they been doing for the past 5 years), Kameo doesn't look a generational leap better...
People aren't gonna pay 300$ just so they can pay 2$ to download new cars in Forza while playing games that don't do anything new.
Exactly, and this is where his analogy falls apart: one or two people write 90% of books; most games now are made by teams ranging from 50 to 100 people, all of which need salaries.
And there's nothing "broken" about not taking game returns when anyone with a moderate amount of knowledge can buy a game and copy it and return it.
"That means they shoud stock enough games and drop the pre-order shit, and they should have a return policy that doesn't violate the laws of most states."
You can't even spell. Seriously.
Do you know how much it would cost, and how much room it would take, if GS/EB stocked EVERY shitty little game? Obviously you do not. What if a store only buys 20 of everything, no matter how big it is? Or like Madden? Madden costs a store 40.25$ to purchase from EA. EACH UNIT. So if they order a lot, because they've had a TON of reserves in the past, but they stopped taking reserves just this year, and they have way too many, they're out a SHITLOAD due to price drops by EA on these games that cost them 40.25$ to purchase. (Remember when Madden dropped to 30? Yea, that fucked everyone up.)
You can always back out a reserve and get your money back or put it towards something else. No one forced you to buy Enter The Matrix - and if you reserved and picked it up, you probably would've bought it anyway.
For everything but the biggest games, most stores get 3 to 6 copies beyond what is reserved.
As previously stated - it's REALLY FUCKING EXPENSIVE to stock games. If there were more than 20 pieces of every game that exists on the day it comes out at every gamestop it would be impossible for that gamestop to run anywhere near efficiently. The store would have to be huge, the cashwrap would have to be just as increased in size, and there would have to be more employees. Stocking that many of everything would increase costs across the board. But you obviously don't see that.
1) To help the company. In scenarios like Halo 2 they really don't - a lot of stores still have literally hundreds of Halo 2 reserves not picked up, from years before the release. But many stores had almost all their GTAs or their Splinter Cells go the first day. Stocking games - and game systems - is fucking EXPENSIVE. This is why UPS and FedEx are such a big deal now - it's cheaper to hold things in one place and send them where they need to go when they're needed.
2) Yes, to help the customer. You know those HUGE 300+ person lines you see someone posting for every fucking game in Japan? This is because reserving is a relatively new thing there. Reserving DOES make your life easier.
Now, some people do things the wrong way - I've never held back a game from a customer or anything like that, and I'm in a management position in one of the US's two big game specialty stores. In fact I've never known of anyone being told to do this - it would probably be considered "padding your numbers" and get someone fired.
It could be worse - we could be selling you a credit card or something.
...when I know of at least one game specialty store that's getting ready to add a "value" section on their walls EXCLUSIVELY of new titles 19.99 and under.
Further, the prices for almost all the non-EA PSP launch titles have backed down from 50$ to 40$.
The writing is on the wall and game prices are going down.
Both Half-Life 2 and Halo 2 are slated to come out in the next month, and will be the next step in FPS narrative - something the genre is sorely missing. You probably didn't even notice that there is no HL2 multiplayer - that all falls on Counterstrike: Source.
That stated, while VC was definitely GTA 3.1, San Andreas is far far more than GTA 3.2. There are so many new factors, so many new vehicles and abilities that it's definitely a viable sequel to GTA 3.
"OMG IT'S POPULAR IT CAN'T BE GOOD." This is not a valid argument.
making a stand-alone demo takes time away from the making of a game.
On games like Halo 2 and Half-Life 2 and Doom 3, they've taken long enough to make them, I don't want to wait another month or two for the dev to "rope off" an area of the game for the demo.
You've probably never been in a band. These things don't pay ANYTHING - especially at venues that do a head count and split the bands' percentages that way.
When my friends go out on tour, they are able to subsist off of what the "promoters" (read: other people into this music) can offer them in gas money (usually $35 - $150) and what they can sell in merch that night. By the time they get home, though, they haven't managed to save anything because they needed this money to make it out and back. The situation close to home is about the same - playing shows near you usually pays less BECAUSE the "promoter" doesn't have to pay for your gas costs.
The music industry will screw you, in some way, at every level. It is inescapable.
It takes more money than a band can get together just by playing out to start selling those things. Bands get screwed on concert money ALL THE TIME. And no one really donates unless all your shit got stolen.
The issue here is that musicians should be able to support themselves at a "lower" level of fame; right now it's impossible, and it'd be nice if it were just improbable.
No, that's referring to the Advent Children movie, which is coming out on both DVD and PSP's UMD format. Since (obviously) Gamespot doesn't have a category for DVDs, they list it as a PSP title.
As someone who was huge in the rpgmaker scene during all of this, this is almost completely wrong.
They did throw a fit about the translation, but weren't able to shut down the distribution. Prior to the release of RPG Tsukuru 2003, they circulated a survey to gauge interest in an actual translation. Because of this, almost every reputable website in the scene - including that of the original translator - took down the downloadable program.
2003 was also translated once it was clear it wouldn't see release here, but it's now considerably more difficult to locate either one of these. The lack of release was purely a financial decision - there's a LOT OF STUFF in these programs. Agetec (ASCII's american arm) might not have the staff to dedicate to such a niche title. (Yes, I know they sell it for PS2. But people also play console style RPGs on PS2. Rarely on PC.)
Slashdot Mirror
you all understand that the original game was supported by MTV...right?
God Of War was developed in-house at Sony Santa Monica under the watch of David Jaffe, who also did Twisted Metal 1, 2, and Twisted Metal Black.
Because, you know, Sony's Hard Drive this gen wasn't 40gb for 100$.
This is not true. UMD Video has I believe about 720p resolution; it's downsampled for the PSP screen.
I have no dead pixels on my launch day unit. Neither does my roommate or about 5 of the 7 other people I know who own one.
No matter what kind of features it has - and I'm very interested in the new Live stuff - without awesome games, it's no go.
I work in retail; I spend 8 hours a day 5 days a week selling these things. As soon as we start talking about it a customer asks me what's the difference between the Xbox and the Xbox 360.
And based on the games I've seen, I don't know what to tell them - DoA 4 looks exactly the same as DoAU on the current box, Perfect Dark isn't even in the textured stage yet (wtf have they been doing for the past 5 years), Kameo doesn't look a generational leap better...
People aren't gonna pay 300$ just so they can pay 2$ to download new cars in Forza while playing games that don't do anything new.
Exactly, and this is where his analogy falls apart: one or two people write 90% of books; most games now are made by teams ranging from 50 to 100 people, all of which need salaries.
And there's nothing "broken" about not taking game returns when anyone with a moderate amount of knowledge can buy a game and copy it and return it.
B&N no longer owns GS and hasn't for about a year.
"That means they shoud stock enough games and drop the pre-order shit, and they should have a return policy that doesn't violate the laws of most states."
You can't even spell. Seriously.
Do you know how much it would cost, and how much room it would take, if GS/EB stocked EVERY shitty little game? Obviously you do not. What if a store only buys 20 of everything, no matter how big it is? Or like Madden? Madden costs a store 40.25$ to purchase from EA. EACH UNIT. So if they order a lot, because they've had a TON of reserves in the past, but they stopped taking reserves just this year, and they have way too many, they're out a SHITLOAD due to price drops by EA on these games that cost them 40.25$ to purchase. (Remember when Madden dropped to 30? Yea, that fucked everyone up.)
Fuck this, I'm sure it - like the other 8 FF7 projects planned, are going to bastardize the game.
Where the hell is Kingdom Hearts 2? FFXII?
Phantom Dust. Total hotness.
You can always back out a reserve and get your money back or put it towards something else. No one forced you to buy Enter The Matrix - and if you reserved and picked it up, you probably would've bought it anyway.
For everything but the biggest games, most stores get 3 to 6 copies beyond what is reserved.
As previously stated - it's REALLY FUCKING EXPENSIVE to stock games. If there were more than 20 pieces of every game that exists on the day it comes out at every gamestop it would be impossible for that gamestop to run anywhere near efficiently. The store would have to be huge, the cashwrap would have to be just as increased in size, and there would have to be more employees. Stocking that many of everything would increase costs across the board. But you obviously don't see that.
Guess what folks? Reserves exist for two reasons:
1) To help the company. In scenarios like Halo 2 they really don't - a lot of stores still have literally hundreds of Halo 2 reserves not picked up, from years before the release. But many stores had almost all their GTAs or their Splinter Cells go the first day. Stocking games - and game systems - is fucking EXPENSIVE. This is why UPS and FedEx are such a big deal now - it's cheaper to hold things in one place and send them where they need to go when they're needed.
2) Yes, to help the customer. You know those HUGE 300+ person lines you see someone posting for every fucking game in Japan? This is because reserving is a relatively new thing there. Reserving DOES make your life easier.
Now, some people do things the wrong way - I've never held back a game from a customer or anything like that, and I'm in a management position in one of the US's two big game specialty stores. In fact I've never known of anyone being told to do this - it would probably be considered "padding your numbers" and get someone fired.
It could be worse - we could be selling you a credit card or something.
...when I know of at least one game specialty store that's getting ready to add a "value" section on their walls EXCLUSIVELY of new titles 19.99 and under.
Further, the prices for almost all the non-EA PSP launch titles have backed down from 50$ to 40$.
The writing is on the wall and game prices are going down.
You can turn on flag driving in multiplayer options.
Both Half-Life 2 and Halo 2 are slated to come out in the next month, and will be the next step in FPS narrative - something the genre is sorely missing. You probably didn't even notice that there is no HL2 multiplayer - that all falls on Counterstrike: Source.
That stated, while VC was definitely GTA 3.1, San Andreas is far far more than GTA 3.2. There are so many new factors, so many new vehicles and abilities that it's definitely a viable sequel to GTA 3.
"OMG IT'S POPULAR IT CAN'T BE GOOD." This is not a valid argument.
making a stand-alone demo takes time away from the making of a game.
On games like Halo 2 and Half-Life 2 and Doom 3, they've taken long enough to make them, I don't want to wait another month or two for the dev to "rope off" an area of the game for the demo.
Ditto.
You've probably never been in a band. These things don't pay ANYTHING - especially at venues that do a head count and split the bands' percentages that way.
When my friends go out on tour, they are able to subsist off of what the "promoters" (read: other people into this music) can offer them in gas money (usually $35 - $150) and what they can sell in merch that night. By the time they get home, though, they haven't managed to save anything because they needed this money to make it out and back. The situation close to home is about the same - playing shows near you usually pays less BECAUSE the "promoter" doesn't have to pay for your gas costs.
The music industry will screw you, in some way, at every level. It is inescapable.
Oh my sweet ass.
It takes more money than a band can get together just by playing out to start selling those things. Bands get screwed on concert money ALL THE TIME. And no one really donates unless all your shit got stolen.
The issue here is that musicians should be able to support themselves at a "lower" level of fame; right now it's impossible, and it'd be nice if it were just improbable.
My favorite part on the list of deceits is the very first one where they end up AGREEING WITH MOORE.
No, that's referring to the Advent Children movie, which is coming out on both DVD and PSP's UMD format. Since (obviously) Gamespot doesn't have a category for DVDs, they list it as a PSP title.
Dear god.
As someone who was huge in the rpgmaker scene during all of this, this is almost completely wrong.
They did throw a fit about the translation, but weren't able to shut down the distribution. Prior to the release of RPG Tsukuru 2003, they circulated a survey to gauge interest in an actual translation. Because of this, almost every reputable website in the scene - including that of the original translator - took down the downloadable program.
2003 was also translated once it was clear it wouldn't see release here, but it's now considerably more difficult to locate either one of these. The lack of release was purely a financial decision - there's a LOT OF STUFF in these programs. Agetec (ASCII's american arm) might not have the staff to dedicate to such a niche title. (Yes, I know they sell it for PS2. But people also play console style RPGs on PS2. Rarely on PC.)
Quite possibly the most interesting games I played on my Playstation were JF1 and 2.
Wish they would've brought 3 to the states.
This shouldn't surprise anyone. Porn drives technology. Whether or not this is conscious is debatable. Still:
VHS/VCRs: widely adopted after porn
DVD: widely adopted with/after porn
Internet: widely adopted after porn.
And it's going to drive video on demand too.