what is it about mario kart's guided missiles, fireballs, running over and crushing your shrunken enemies, and generally dealing death and destruction to those all around you that somehow makes it not the same as quake?
Mario Kart violence is on the same level of the violence in a Bugs Bunny cartoon. Fireballs hit you and take your item, when you get crushed you go flat for a few seconds then pop back up at full size, etc. A bit different than the very realistic damage effects in most modern FPS games.
In fact, you are actually incorrect when you say "dealing death", because you can't die in Mario Kart. In Battle mode, the worst that can happen is you get all your balloons popped, and in a race, no matter what happens, you always get back up. In many FPS games you do respawn after you die, but in Mario Kart you never die.
This isn't to say I disapprove of FPS games - I think they are great. But you can't argue that the violence level of Mario Kart is the same as Counter-Strike or Quake.
That's true for the 360, but the game itself probably took Rockstar very little to develop, compared to their other games. Not that many models, textures, or levels, and not very much AI type code, compared to a GTA game.
It's even possible they built a rough version of it, in-house, just to learn the Xbox 360 development environment, and someone said "hey why don't we polish this and release it?"
Plus, they love controversy... and what better way for a "bad boy" company to get it than releasing a family game?
59,050,000 million zip disks were sold in 1998 alone, according to wikipedia. That is a lot of disks. Not as much as floppies, sure, but certainly enough to be considered mainstream.
Zip discs were hugely popular for 3-4 years there... They ruled in the time period between floppies not being enough and CD-Rs becoming cheap. It was 3-4 years at most, but they were everywhere when I was in college.
The price of making CDs has actually come down significantly in the last 10 years... probably by 75% or so. I probably get 3000 or so CDs made each year, and every time I get a batch made, they are cheaper for basically the same service.
Mostly (I would assume) this is due to competition in the marketplace, and cheaper CD manufacturing equipment, not the raw materials.
This won't happen as long as demand for DVDs is strong. Titles aren't released on VHS because the studios don't think enough people will buy them to make it profitable, not because the studios have a particular love for DVD.
Once the majority of consumers start buying media on whichever new format "wins", DVD releases will start to become more rare. That will take several years, though.
In the poster's defense, every game store I have been to since launch is always out of 360s. Though I haven't tried Wal-Mart (none close by), and I do live in a major metropolitan area.
I agree they should have started your base strength/endurance level out higher, but the weight room aspect was fun in that if you did it, you got fun perks: you can pretty easily (maybe 30 minutes total of weight training, spread over a week) build yourself up to kill people with one hit with a blunt instrument, jump over cars with the bicycle, and pedal faster than many cars.
My comment, that a sequel is unlikely since the original bombed is moderated -1, Troll.
A comment beneath it saying that "some figures" show that it made money is 5, Interesting... even though that comment is, itself, debunked by comments below it.
For the record, the film cost $40 million (not counting promotional budget), and had box office receipts of $25 million. Since the studio only recieves about 50% of the box office, this means that Serenity has lost more than $20 million dollars. True, this does not include foreign box office, or DVD sales... but both of those would have to perform EXTREMELY WELL for the movie to come close to breaking even on it's production budget - not to mention it's promotional budget (the numbers of which which the studios rarely publish).
So, like I said - a sequel is unlikely, the film bombed. Call that a troll if you like, but it's the truth.
A DJ 12" generally has more than one track, though (or, more likely, more than one version of a track) so comparing it to an iTunes single song download is a bit misleading.
Likely he is doing the same thing as many exploitation film distributors did in the days of yore... preselling foreign rights. It used to be standard to come up with a catchy title, tagline and poster, then pre-sell distribution rights for $300,000 here, $200,000 there... After awhile, you have enough money to make the movie. Boll could very well be doing something similar.
This is quite true... but note that there was a sixteen year gap between Punisher films. A bad adaptation may not nix another try forever, but it most likely pushes one back by several years, if not a decade or more.
Oh, I forgot that the adaptation of American McGee's Alice (starring Sarah Michelle Gellar of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the Grudge) is slated to come out in 2006 as well, I believe...
Oh. That didn't really seem clear from your comment... but I still disagree with you. In 2005 we had Doom and the announcement of Halo (with Peter Jackson producing). In 2004, we had a Tomb Raider sequel and Aliens Vs Predator. This year, we can expect Metroid (directed by John Woo), Silent Hill and Mortal Kombat 3. Next year, Castlevania (directed by Paul Anderson, who did AVP and MK).
There is not a shortage of video game movies, and none of those above (to my knowledge) were directed by Uwe Boll.
I didn't buy my PS2 until GTA 3 came out (actually, not until I played it and was wowed). Likewise, I will get a 360 when/if a game I really want to play comes out for it.
They add new content and patches to WoW all the time. They recently added new instances, a PvP arena system and competitive ranking system for PvP, for example.
Or, at least, add to it. I would really like to know how well the gen V iPods are selling.
I can't testify how well they are selling overall but this weekend, I took my roommate to 4 different stores trying to buy a 30 gb ipod video and they were sold out everywhere but the Apple store.
Slashdot Mirror
what is it about mario kart's guided missiles, fireballs, running over and crushing your shrunken enemies, and generally dealing death and destruction to those all around you that somehow makes it not the same as quake?
Mario Kart violence is on the same level of the violence in a Bugs Bunny cartoon. Fireballs hit you and take your item, when you get crushed you go flat for a few seconds then pop back up at full size, etc. A bit different than the very realistic damage effects in most modern FPS games.
In fact, you are actually incorrect when you say "dealing death", because you can't die in Mario Kart. In Battle mode, the worst that can happen is you get all your balloons popped, and in a race, no matter what happens, you always get back up. In many FPS games you do respawn after you die, but in Mario Kart you never die.
This isn't to say I disapprove of FPS games - I think they are great. But you can't argue that the violence level of Mario Kart is the same as Counter-Strike or Quake.
That's true for the 360, but the game itself probably took Rockstar very little to develop, compared to their other games. Not that many models, textures, or levels, and not very much AI type code, compared to a GTA game.
It's even possible they built a rough version of it, in-house, just to learn the Xbox 360 development environment, and someone said "hey why don't we polish this and release it?"
Plus, they love controversy... and what better way for a "bad boy" company to get it than releasing a family game?
59,050,000 million zip disks were sold in 1998 alone, according to wikipedia. That is a lot of disks. Not as much as floppies, sure, but certainly enough to be considered mainstream.
Zip discs were hugely popular for 3-4 years there... They ruled in the time period between floppies not being enough and CD-Rs becoming cheap. It was 3-4 years at most, but they were everywhere when I was in college.
The price of making CDs has actually come down significantly in the last 10 years... probably by 75% or so. I probably get 3000 or so CDs made each year, and every time I get a batch made, they are cheaper for basically the same service.
Mostly (I would assume) this is due to competition in the marketplace, and cheaper CD manufacturing equipment, not the raw materials.
This won't happen as long as demand for DVDs is strong. Titles aren't released on VHS because the studios don't think enough people will buy them to make it profitable, not because the studios have a particular love for DVD.
Once the majority of consumers start buying media on whichever new format "wins", DVD releases will start to become more rare. That will take several years, though.
If the BD wholesale price for currently-on-sale-for $10 DVDs like the Fifth Element is $23, expect titles that cost $30 to be marked up as well.
In the poster's defense, every game store I have been to since launch is always out of 360s. Though I haven't tried Wal-Mart (none close by), and I do live in a major metropolitan area.
I agree they should have started your base strength/endurance level out higher, but the weight room aspect was fun in that if you did it, you got fun perks: you can pretty easily (maybe 30 minutes total of weight training, spread over a week) build yourself up to kill people with one hit with a blunt instrument, jump over cars with the bicycle, and pedal faster than many cars.
It's not a list of games everyone has heard of, it's a list of games the editors think everyone SHOULD have.
Interesting moderation bias going on here.
My comment, that a sequel is unlikely since the original bombed is moderated -1, Troll.
A comment beneath it saying that "some figures" show that it made money is 5, Interesting... even though that comment is, itself, debunked by comments below it.
For the record, the film cost $40 million (not counting promotional budget), and had box office receipts of $25 million. Since the studio only recieves about 50% of the box office, this means that Serenity has lost more than $20 million dollars. True, this does not include foreign box office, or DVD sales... but both of those would have to perform EXTREMELY WELL for the movie to come close to breaking even on it's production budget - not to mention it's promotional budget (the numbers of which which the studios rarely publish).
So, like I said - a sequel is unlikely, the film bombed. Call that a troll if you like, but it's the truth.
Okay, name some.
What? There is no way they are going to make another Firefly movie... The first one bombed.
A DJ 12" generally has more than one track, though (or, more likely, more than one version of a track) so comparing it to an iTunes single song download is a bit misleading.
Likely he is doing the same thing as many exploitation film distributors did in the days of yore... preselling foreign rights. It used to be standard to come up with a catchy title, tagline and poster, then pre-sell distribution rights for $300,000 here, $200,000 there... After awhile, you have enough money to make the movie. Boll could very well be doing something similar.
This is quite true... but note that there was a sixteen year gap between Punisher films. A bad adaptation may not nix another try forever, but it most likely pushes one back by several years, if not a decade or more.
Oh, I forgot that the adaptation of American McGee's Alice (starring Sarah Michelle Gellar of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the Grudge) is slated to come out in 2006 as well, I believe...
Oh. That didn't really seem clear from your comment... but I still disagree with you. In 2005 we had Doom and the announcement of Halo (with Peter Jackson producing). In 2004, we had a Tomb Raider sequel and Aliens Vs Predator. This year, we can expect Metroid (directed by John Woo), Silent Hill and Mortal Kombat 3. Next year, Castlevania (directed by Paul Anderson, who did AVP and MK).
There is not a shortage of video game movies, and none of those above (to my knowledge) were directed by Uwe Boll.
Mortal Kombat was a mild box office hit, more than doubling it's money. Resident Evil was also successful, though not to the same degree.
I didn't buy my PS2 until GTA 3 came out (actually, not until I played it and was wowed). Likewise, I will get a 360 when/if a game I really want to play comes out for it.
Pikmin came out Nov 21st, 3 days after the launch date of Nov 18th. That is a launch title.
link and link
They add new content and patches to WoW all the time. They recently added new instances, a PvP arena system and competitive ranking system for PvP, for example.
Or, at least, add to it. I would really like to know how well the gen V iPods are selling.
I can't testify how well they are selling overall but this weekend, I took my roommate to 4 different stores trying to buy a 30 gb ipod video and they were sold out everywhere but the Apple store.
You realize that the DS troll is actually making fun of the DS, right?
Re-read their comment...
Circuit City's DivX actually came about a year or two after the initial DVD players came to market. It last only like six months, as I recall.