The issue I have with this is things break. While the bundle is a damn nice deal for the initial purchase, what if the drumset or mic breaks two months down the road? I'd rather not purchase some off party piece - they never look or feel the same - or wait six months to purchase a replacement. I want to be able to sign, curse just a little (or a lot depending on how it broke), and run out and get a replacement that day.
You'd have to really beat the crap out of the Rock Band equipment to cause it to break. While I haven't had a chance to try to the mic yet, the guitar and drums are very solid. If you broke a Guitar Hero guitar, you'll be able to break a Rock Band guitar, but I've never seen a GH controller break unintentionally. The drumset is much higher quality than the DK bongos. It's much closer to a real electric drumset than a toy.
Not to mention, dueling drums like Bongos in DK would be nice, as well.
You can do that online. Or you can have a friend bring over the drums from his own bundle. They should fold up reasonably well for storage or transportation.
I've already preordered (glad to see original price has come down by $30).
That "original price" was never anything but a rumor/random guess. "Three peripherals and a game disc? Sounds like $200 to me." I am happy that it'll only be $170, and I've pre-ordered like you.
Having missed out entirely on Guitar Hero, I'm expecting Rock Band to blow me away.
You do realize you can go back and buy/play the Guitar Hero games, right? Just because you missed them when they were brand new doesn't mean you have to miss out on the experience entirely.
However, I'm worried that their downloadable content will be priced similarly to previous offerings, aka insanely high. Hopefully, since it's similar, they'll go no higher than the iTunes route with $1/track $10/album
Producing a track for a rhythm game is more involved than encoding a track to put up on iTunes. You have to separate out the different components (so you can cut out the guitar sound when you screw up a note), you have to have somebody map out the fretboard for four different difficulty levels plus multiplayer, and in most cases you need to pay someone to re-record the song (though IIRC Rock Band is supposed to have quite a few "as performed by" songs rather than "as made famous by"). I'm not saying I like that the prices are high, I'm just pointing out the justifications used by Harmonix and Red Octane for the GH2 downloads. Those justifications will only become more relevant as Harmonix adds songs to Rock Band since they have to split tracks and map notes for four parts rather than just one or two (GH had lead/rhythm or guitar/bass multiplayer).
Then again, if they give me songs that I want (I'd love to be able to download Pearl Jam's "10", for example), I'll pay just about any price for them.
This reflects the great deficiency regarding design. XNA/MS Game Studio all have predefined stuff that gets used often. In the OSS world such presets do not exist, however. In addition, anything that does not relate to programming often just does not exist in the OSS realm. I'm talking about 2D/3D graphics artists, game designers (no, most game programmers are NOT prepared for this task), musicians, sound FX guys etc.
The samples shipped with GSE are great for getting your engine up and running quickly, but most people aren't going to ship a game using the exact same graphics as provided in the SpaceWar sample. Take a look at the Dream-Build-Play winners (especially The Dishwasher) and tell me where the sample art, models, and music were used. While this may not be a fair comparison (games built for a contest with cash prizes and the potential to be published on XBLA vs. games built just to be built), it does go to the grandparent's point that indie developers can create truly stunning works when sufficiently motivated.
The real question is, what can be done to motivate more OSS games? The typical OSS model works around "itch scratching", which is why games like FreeCiv have done well (scratching the itch of not having Civilization-like games on Linux) while new game concepts and ports of commercial games generally haven't. Money helps, but you need a decent amount to make it worthwhile -- nobody's going to build the games you see on the DBP site for $100, but they will for the chance of winning $10,000.
Oh wait - I see you drive a Boxster, which pretty much just has a port-hole for a rear window, so never mind, this advice probably isn't going to help you.
Actually, I have my mirrors well-adjusted to minimize my blind spot. It's still there, but it's much smaller than you'd expect. Then again, as long as it's not raining too hard I have the top down. A glass rear window (I recently traded up to a newer car than the plastic windowed one on my web page), heated seats, and sufficient speed keep me warm and dry in all but the nastiest of weather.
Just drive it like you stole it, then, and everything else on the road will remain behind you.
I do drive it like I stole it, but there's only so much you can do with left-lane hogging idiots. I prefer to stay right and pass on the left, but with the idiot drivers here in the Seattle area that's often impossible. I find myself passing on the right at least as often as I pass on the left. If you camp my blind spot, I'm not going to hit you but you're going to crap your pants when I merge in front of you with inches to spare (no accident -- I'll do that if there's plenty of room ahead of you, and I'll accelerate away before you even have a chance to register what I just did).
You just wait until you have kids. Then I will laugh at you, as you try and contort a couple of car seats into some tiny japmobile. And, if you never have kids, then I'll still laugh at you, because you have eliminated your genetic destiny.
Ah, the old, "You can't know what you're talking about until you have kids of your own," argument. I'm sorry, but all of us were kids at one point or another. My parents did just fine using American sedans for three kids (yes, I know a mid-80s Oldsmobile is larger than a Civic -- I never said buy a Civic, just don't use an SUV). But then I guess I can't know what I'm talking about until I spawn some ankle-biters of my own. Great argument, you win!
If you're really concerned about access and mobility, get a damn minivan. They have better visibility than an SUV, better access, and are much less cramped. They also have better fuel economy and are safer in case of an accident (safer for both the passengers and the people you hit). You're only buying an SUV because you think a minivan is an affront to your manhood. I have news for you: minivans are invisible. Nobody thinks you're less of a man when driving one, because nobody sees them (for purposes of noticing who's inside, that is -- of course we see you there on the road). Don't think minivans are invisible? When was the last time you saw one pulled over by a cop? Do a little test. Find a hot sports car cruising along at 20mph over the limit. Now pace him (yes, a minivan can do that). If you run across a cop, guess who's getting pulled over? Hint: It's not going to be the minivan.
Your comment implied that the blind spots are far worse on your convertible. Frankly, I don't care whether I'm in it - it's your responsibility to watch out for me if I'm in them, not mine, and if you were to hit me, you would be at fault, not me. Yes, I'm probably trying to pass you (or you're passing me), but what seems to happen a lot on the highways around here is that I get in the left lane, only to come upon someone that's cruising in the left lane at the same speed as the right lane (expand as necessary for wider roads - DC area roads really suck for driving).
I was the original poster talking about my convertible's blind spot. And yes, I agree that it's my responsibility to check my blind spot and be aware of it. I do that, and I know where traffic is around me at all times. The pet peeve I was referring to was people who will pull up on my left or right up around my rear fender and then just sit there (especially on my left, because if you camp a blind spot from the left then you're misusing the lane). They don't pass, they don't fall back, and I can't really do either because I'm stuck behind slower traffic. My point was either shit or get off the pot -- if you're going to pull up to my blind spot, keep on going. Obviously if we're in stop-and-go traffic that doesn't matter, but if we're in relatively free-flowing traffic and you decide to camp in my blind spot then you're an idiot. I'll take care not to hit you, and do everything in my power to move myself, but there's no reason why you should be there at all. Pull through or fall back.
What I do is adjust the side mirrors outward so that there's only a little overlap with the rearview mirror. This makes my blind spots shrink such that the largest vehicle I can lose in them is a motorcycle, not a car. Try it sometime - it takes some getting used to, but it helps a lot. I don't know why everyone is trained to adjust the side mirrors so that they overlap with the rearview - it gives you redundant information.
I know how to adjust my mirrors, thankyouverymuch. Sadly, many people out there don't know how to do that at all. How many times have you gotten in a rental car only to find that the side mirrors give an excellent view of your car's body? Even basic adjustments will help, though if you have the time you really should fine tune:
Get your seating position set. You want your back straight, your knees slightly bent at full pedal extension, and you should be able to rest your wrists on the top of the steering wheel with your shoulders flat against the seatback and still have a slight bend in your elbows.
Once you're in the proper seating position, adjust your rear-view so you have a full view of what's behind. Take note of landmarks like signs or trees or bushes on either side.
Placing your left cheek against the driver's window (right cheek, if you're in a RHD country), adjust your left mirror until you can just barely see your own car.
Using an imaginary line down the center of the vehicle, lean so your right cheek is just touching that line. Adjust your right mirror until you can just barely see your own car.
Return to a normal seating position. Using the landmarks you noted earlier from your rear-view adjustment, you should just barely be able to see them in your left and right mirrors.
If you have someone to help you, have them walk around the car from a reasonable distance out (a couple of feet away from the car). You should be able to track them all the way around the car, from side window, side mirror, rear mirror, other side mirror, other side window, front. If you lose track of them at any point, you have a blind spot and need to fine-tune your mirrors.
I'm sorry to disturb the parallel parking conveniences day dreaming of some, but the real advantage is the elimination of blind spots. For starters, if every SUV, truck, tractor or van had such a device, thousands of lives around the globe would be saved each year.
Or you could teach people how to actually drive those behemoths, assuming they have a real reason for doing so (no, hauling the crotch-spawn around in an SUV doesn't count). Or you could teach people not to drive in another vehicle's blind spot (a huge pet peeve of mine, since I drive a convertible with a significant blind spot when the top is up). Common sense and driver training is a cheaper, better long-term solution than cameras, especially when the people with the cameras probably won't use them just as they don't use their mirrors or check their blind spots with a shoulder look today.
40 deg C? So what is that, 104 degrees farenheit? Thats not very taxing at all. Doesnt my laptop pull in 80 deg C?
That's ambient temperature. My laptop runs around 30C when ambient temperature is around 18-22C and 40C when ambient temperature is 32-35C, average load (it pushes 50C in 18-22C ambient at full load). I can reasonably assume it would run around 50C under average load if ambient was 40C, and 70C or higher under full load. Depending on the chip and laptop, that may be acceptable or it may be way out of range.
You're[Allow][Deny] absolutely[Allow][Deny][Allow][Deny] right[Allow][Deny], Vista is[Allow][Deny][Allow][Deny]perfect[Allow][Deny].
WTF are you doing that you would get so many UAC prompts? In the past week, I've seen approximately 5 such prompts, and that's only because I spent some time yesterday setting up a virtual machine with Vista and had to go through some installs. Aside from that, I get a prompt when I open regedit (not a typical user action, and it's good to protect regedit anyway as it may make people think twice about mucking in there) and when I explicitly choose to run apps as admin. 9 times out of 10 I don't have to run as admin, so no UAC prompts.
People like to bash UAC, but Linux and OS X do similar things. If you try to do something requiring admin privileges, you're prompted to prove you're an admin. Linux/OS X have a more secure prompt (enter a password), and they have fewer such prompts (because Windows is still suffering from developers who learned how to code back in the single-user Win9x days), but the prompts are there. Aside from that, most other complaints come from not understanding how Windows works. Why did you get a UAC prompt for deleting something on your Desktop? Because that item was in the shared desktop folder, and therefore you're performing an admin task when you try to remove it. Delete something you put on your desktop yourself and UAC won't prompt.
Why not just use ScummVM? As the name suggests, it supports pretty much every LucasArts/Films SCUMM adventure, from MM1 to Curse of Monkey Island (GF and Escape from MI were non-SCUMM), but it also supports Sierra AGI games and others. Pretty much everything you asked for is covered by ScummVM, so long as you can find a copy of the game to play.
Grim Fandango doesn't need a remake. It still plays great under XP (I re-played it about a year ago), and still looks pretty good even though it's limited to 640x480. Now it would be nice to get some sequels (a true sequel or some episodic content), but just remaking the existing story wouldn't be worthwhile. Simple re-release the existing game, perhaps on Steam or Gametap.
Combat (on XBox Live!)
Do it yourself? XNA is pretty easy to use, Combat is a pretty simple game (not much more advanced than Pong), and the upcoming 2.0 version of XNA will have networking via Live.
They haven't managed the same on their deliberately-closed XBox platforms, but Windows is as open as DOS was before it, and fantastic independent artistic game developers are thriving.
Have you looked at XNA? Check out the winners from the Dream-Build-Play contest, the top four of which should be making their way to XBLA soon.
Microsoft's XBLA and Sony's PSN are roughly comparable in terms of attracting indie developers, but once Microsoft figures out what they're doing with XNA you can say goodnight to Sony's network. The 360 will be the place to be for indie developers.
However I think that Nintendo is really missing the boat. Platform specific content can be downloadable. There's no reason to make us schlep to the store and pay over $30 for what are pretty basic games.
In order to download games, you need to be able to store them somewhere. The Wii has 512MB of internal flash storage, which is not very much when you consider that all of your VC downloads and game saves have to be stored there (the SD card slot is only for archival purposes, as you can't save games or run VC titles off of an SD card). Had Nintendo included a hard drive, they never would've been able to hit their $250 price tag.
In Halo3 you are fighting against what could easily be called a 'False Prophet'. Sounds like good justification for a Christian church.
On the other hand, a large portion of the story is conflict between religious zealotry (the Prophets' Great Journey) and rational thinking (the "Great Journey" is really genocide). The Arbiter, an important character in the story, converts from "evil religion" to "good rationality" when he realizes what the Great Journey really is and what will happen if the Prophets succeed. If churches actually realized what was going on in the story, there's no way they would endorse the game. Good thing everybody is more focused on the violence than the anti-religion themes, then:). The only thing that could distract the churches better would be a boob.
The disc tray in the slim PS2 has a clip for the disc, allowing it to stand up safely
The slim PS2 uses a top-loading design, and as such clips the disk onto the hub (similar to the old PS1, Dreamcast, and Gamecube, though those couldn't be placed vertically). The old fat PS2 had a sliding tray like the Xbox 360, but also had a more substantial lip to keep the disk in place while vertical. Both PS2 designs are most stable with a stand (sold separately), though the fat PS2 is more stable than the slim without the stand due to a bulkier design.
The 360 was designed to look nice (and is marketed as) standing up, but it is not very stable, and has a relatively loose tray. Something as simple as a door slamming in the house can cause enough vibration to make the disc wobble inside. This could be considered a system design flaw, but it is one that is very easily fixed by end users for the time being - lay the system flat at all times.
I've used my 360 vertically since day one. While I have had problems (red ring of death and a dead DVD drive), none of them can be traced to its vertical statue (the DVD drive failed to spin the disk when oriented verticaly or horizontally -- I suspected a simple mechanical failure, but wasn't about to go poking around while my warranty was still valid). All of my disks are mark-free, and I've never seen the console so much as wobble from slamming doors, walking around, booming bass, or anything else. That said, if you do have the 360 placed in a precarious area (atop a wobbly bookcase, for example, or on a non-ground floor of a rickety apartment building), I could certainly see how that could be a problem.
It's not unheard of for people to move their system while a disc is inside, even when powered on. Why they do it is beyond me, since it seems common sense not to.
They want to see the pretty lights move. The Xbox 360's ring of light will re-orient itself if you change its position while on. Unfortunately many people don't realize that doing so with a disk actually spinning in the drive is a bad idea. The manual warns against it, but nobody reads the manual. Thus Microsoft started putting stickers on the drive when new warning against it, but once you remove the sticker the warning's gone. I suspect that if it weren't for the pretty lights, very few people would try moving their 360 while a disk is spinning.
The overheating issues are occuring on far far far more than 3% of units, I've seen results from several sources at least 5 forum polls at different sites, EB store employees tallying up a sold / return ratio, journolists (sp?) reporting how many have failed at their offices etc.
Yay reading comprehension! I said my DVD-ROM failure fit into the standard 1-3% category. I said nothing about the percentage of overheating, only that measures have been taken to prevent it in the future.
I don't want to be without my console for 2-6 weeks multiple times over the course of 3 years.
The hope is that Microsoft solves the problem, after which you'll get a fully-fixed console on your next replacement. If that doesn't happen, I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft opened new repair centers and hired more staff to deal with the influx of boxes. I suspect Microsoft simply got overwhelmed this summer after the announcement of the extended warranty, when a bunch of people who were sitting on dead out-of-warranty consoles suddenly were able to send theirs in for free.
Secondly due to DRM you have to sign in to Xbox live to be able to play your downloaded Xbox games because they are signed to the hardware of your DEAD console see : http://brokenxblm.blogspot.com/
Old news. Microsoft has put a process in place by which all of your content is flagged for re-keying when your console is replaced. This fix was put in place last spring, and I know this first-hand because I was able to re-key all of my content after receiving my second replacement (first RROD, second dead DVD drive). Simply re-download your content to re-key it. If you kept your hard drive like you were supposed to, you won't actually re-download the content but just receive a new key. Use your account history to go back through and download everything you care about. It took me less than 30 minutes to refresh a year and a half worth of content (XBLA games, themes, pictures, game expansions, etc).
Of course if you use one of the store warranties like from Best Buy where they just swap you a new console off the shelf, your content won't be rekeyed. In this case you're much better off using the Microsoft warranty repair instead.
Why should I support a company releasing shit hardware, can't they get their act together, it's been 2 fucking years!
and finally and I believe by far most importantly,..
That's not quite fair. It was only 1.5 years old when the new GPU heatsink and extended warranty were put into place this past spring/early summer. Unfortunately there were already 10+ million consoles in the channel at that point, which means that a huge backlog needs to clear before you stop hearing about console failures. As for why you should support such a company, that's up to you to decide. For me, it's pretty easy -- the Xbox 360 has the games I want, and Microsoft has shown that they stand behind the hardware with their extended warranty support. You're free to buy a Wii or PS3, both, all, or none. Nobody's holding a gun to your head and saying, "Buy an Xbox or you die."
3 Years? big fucking deal, there's still gamers playing 5 year old PS2's, 8 year old PS1's, 10 year old N64's and older, sure some old hardware breaks down, I won't deny that but at least you have a chance,...... why should I or anyone else purchase a product which is actually LIKELY to break down, forcing me to have to buy a new one in 3.01 years time or 4 years etc?
There are plenty of dead PS1 and PS2 consoles out there. Early-run PS2s had major laser problems. While the Xbox 360 is a bit of an extreme case, it's not the only console to ever have major hardware issues. At least Microsoft is supporting it. Did Sony ever increase the warranty on PS2s for laser issues?
Secondly, what is the known, fatal design flaw anyway? I know my brother's 360 locked up a couple of days after he bought it, but he got it the first day they came out and they shipped him a replacement immediately. Mine has never so much as hiccuped, maybe I'm just lucky.
It depends on when you bought your console, and when it failed.
There was a bad batch of power supplies with the launch consoles, which is most likely what caused your brother's to fail. In those cases they should've just sent along a new power supply, though it wouldn't surprise me if they just did a straight console replacement instead.
More consoles suffered from heat-related issues, especially with the GPU. Over a fair amount of time and use, the console would get hot enough and cycle enough that the solder holding down the GPU (or sometimes the memory chips) would lift. The infamous towel trick works on such consoles, because intentionally overheating the console may cause the solder joints to expand enough to make a connection. This problem was addressed earlier this summer with a more efficient heatsink for the GPU, and when coupled with the new 65nm process CPUs (GPUs are still 90nm) overheating leading to solder lift should be a thing of the past.
There has been some amount of "random" failures. For example, when my first console died from the GPU solder lift fault, it was replaced with a unit that had a bad DVD drive. After about a week with the new console after replacement, the DVD drive simply refused to spin disks (insert a disk, notice the orientation, close the drive, get an error that the console can't read the disk, open the tray and notice that the orientation of the disk has not changed). That was just a fluke, and truly falls into the standard ~1-3% acceptable failure rate for consumer electronics.
Finally, there's been plenty of user error pawned off as system faults. For example, the notorious DVD-eating nature of the Xbox 360 is due in most part to idiots tilting the console while a disk is spinning. Yes, I know it's fun to watch the ring of light re-orient itself on the fly, but is it worth risking the wrath of physics of a spinning disk?
With price cuts, 65nm CPUs, and updated GPU heatsinks in consoles for sale now, the Xbox 360 has never been a better buy. When you include the 3-year warranty for Red Ring of Death issues (any failure that would cause a "three red lights" error, which would not include DVD-ROM failure), I wouldn't worry at all about buying a 360 right now. It's those of us who purchased at launch time that got screwed (I'm on my 2nd replacement console, and bought a backup Core system so that I could play Forza 2 at launch while my main console was in the process of being replaced the second time).
It sounds like Windows Live Mail fits right into Microsoft's "Software as a service" push
Microsoft's current version is "Software plus Services", which actually makes more sense IMHO. Rather than trying to replace Office with online versions like Google's stuff, they're building rich client software (traditional Office), powerful web services (Office Live, Sharepoint Server), and integrating the two.
Hmm... is "Windows Live Mail" basically "Outlook Live," in the same vein as "Office Live"?
Think of it more like "a better Outlook Express". I guess you could say Windows Live Mail is to Outlook what Windows Live Messenger is to Office Communicator, as in it's the mail client for the Windows Live suite of client tools.
Re:Thunderbird is awesome on Windows
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Thunderbird in Crisis?
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also, if you're careful enough, Outlook and Outlook Express are perfectly usable on Windows, especially the newer versions
Outlook has been pretty safe since the XP release (Outlook 2002), and even the 2000 release with a patch. That's when they stopped allowing you to open executable attachments. There was still a minor risk of javascript nastiness, but they fixed that as well. The 2003 (11) and 2007 (12) releases of Outlook have been stable and safe. (Outlook 2007 doesn't use the controversial Ribbon toolbar like the rest of the Office 12 suite)
Outlook Express is dead, though if you're still using XP you have it. Outlook Express has also been the Microsoft mail client with the most issues, mostly because it's free and more or less neglected. The problem is that "Outlook Express" and "Outlook" actually share nothing in common except for the name and the fact that they both do email. Beyond that they're two separate codebases, managed by two separate teams. It's unfortunate that they're named similarly, since Outlook Express' issues have tarnished the fact that Outlook proper is actually a very good, secure, and competent email client.
If you're running Vista, Outlook Express is gone. It was replaced by Windows Mail, a more bare-bones mail and news reader that finally divorces the "Outlook" name from the free mail client. Alternatively, you can use the Windows Live Mail Beta software (different from Hotmail/Windows Live Mail web interface, as it's client software that can be used for other mail accounts besides just Hotmail). Windows Live Mail integrates with Live services (Messenger, Spaces), where Outlook Express and Windows Mail don't.
Take counterstrike for example. There were simple throw grenade button mods which I'm sure most people used. It was a game that delivered a wonderful online experience. Unreal tournament was not the same type of game but also had many different game types and was one of the most fun online games out there.. Tribes had many of the boons you say long before halo.
As I mentioned in the original post, TF1 did grenades as secondary weapons well before Halo or Counter-Strike. The thing about Halo's grenades was that they "felt" right. Since I never really got into Counter-Strike (can't stand the "die 10 seconds into the game and then wait 10 minutes for the match to finish" gameplay), but the TF1 grenades always felt a little weird. Maybe it was just the (lack of) physics in the Quake 1 engine. Regardless, while Halo wasn't the first to do grenades as a separate button, it was the first one to really get it right.
For the rest, Halo is more than just a sum of its parts. Tribes may have done vehicles earlier, but it didn't have a single player mode. Half-Life may have story-driven-FPS earlier (and really Bungie pioneered that with Marathon), but it was missing the other components that Halo had (vehicles and grenades, for example). It's easy to take all of the bits that make Halo good and claim that this game or that game did them first. What you're missing is that those games hadn't put those elements together at all, or at least not as well as Bungie did.
For example, Halo's recharging shields + limited weapon slots + story made for some interesting choices. Do you take a sniper rifle with you and kill your enemies at long range, or shotgun and kill them at short? Do you grab a rocket launcher and bet on the fact that your shields will keep you reasonably safe if you have to fire at short range? Do you take a medium-distance battle rifle and use cover to your advantage? If you go for the long guns, what do you do if the enemy flanks your position and brings the battle up close? If you go for short or medium guns, what do you do when you run into Jackal snipers pelting you from afar? With other games at the time, it didn't really matter since you had all of your guns with you. Pull out your sniper rifle to take out the enemy snipers, quickly swap to your rocket launcher to nail a squad of advancing enemies, and then flip to your shotgun to mop up the remaining enemies at close range. You couldn't do that in Halo, so you had to be constantly thinking about weapon selection and tactics.
The story was ok, but a masterful story, I guess I just didn't see it. Perhaps try half life or, newer, bioshock. Or even the theif games or system shock.
Bungie likes to build deep universes that are only shallowly revealed if you just play their games straight through. Only when you go back and really pay attention to what's going on in the story, read the novels, the comics, the short films (with halo 3), follow the ARGs (I Love Bees), etc do you really get a sense that there's much more to the story and the universe than what initially meets the eye. In contrast, Half-Life's story was pretty weak -- scientists accidentally summon aliens, the government shuts down Black Mesa, and Gordon get picked up by the G-man in the end. I do like the Looking Glass/Irrational games (System Shock 1/2, Thief 1/2/3, Bioshock), and they have awesome stories and atmosphere. I view Bungie as being on the same level as Irrational/Looking Glass, not Valve, when it comes to story-telling and world-building.
I also agree on the couch point, but I've been playing in 5.1 surround for years on the computer. And any gain added from the couch seems to be taken away by the fact that you're playing with a joystick rather than a single derivative device like a mouse.
For a twitch-shooter like UT, I whole-heartedly agree. For a slower, more tactical game like Halo, the gamepad actually works very well. A lot
I'm still amazed that Rooster Teeth productions gets away with selling DVD's of Red Vs Blue. I'm surprised as hell MS hasn't come down with the legal hammer claiming ownership of the textures and whatnot and demanding they turn over all rights and revenue. Maybe Bungie's people stayed their hand, but I doubt it will be held back much longer now. We'll have to wait and see.
Rooster Teeth "gets away with selling DVDs" because they went to Microsoft and struck a deal. It didn't hurt that they had Bungie backing them up, but they did it the right way. If they had just started selling DVDs without first talking to Bungie and Microsoft, the ban hammer and legal hammer would've fallen fast and hard, and Bungie would've been the ones swinging.
From what I know about Halo 3, the game is some type of prelude or beginning of some epic battle...then you have a game called Halo Wars coming along, which will be more of an RPG in the vein of MMORPG's rather than a shooter like the first 3 games have been.
What? Halo Wars will be a straight-up RTS, like Age of Empires (hey, it is Ensemble making it). It's not "Halo 4", because it's not following the Chief/Cortana/Arbiter/Flood storyline that was finished in Halo 4. Also, as I understand it, Halo Wars is supposed to be a prequel of sorts to Halo 1, being set earlier in the Human/Covenant war than Halo 1 itself. If there is a "Halo 4", it would have to be a new Chief/Cortana/Arbiter storyline, since Halo 3 closed up all of the hanging threads from the first trilogy.
Although, personally, I wouldn't mind them back treading a bit and remaking Marathon before officially or un-offically closing the door on development for Halo games.:D
I'd rather see Bungie make some new properties. Marathon still holds up decently well using Aleph One, and Marathon 2: Durandal has made it to XBLA. I'd love to see Marathon 1 and 3 on XBLA as well, but I don't really care for a remake of the original Marathon games in the Halo engine. It would be nice to see another trilogy set in the Marathon universe, but it would also be nice to see a second Chief/Cortana trilogy (not necessarily called Halo, as it wouldn't have to revolve around the Halo installations).
Anyway, I agree with you. The cut-scenes in Halo 2 were simply amazing, IMO. (I love Arbiter, he kind of reminded me of Speaker from Niven's Ringworld series.) And the ending was the kind of thing that psychs you up, makes you get up out of your chair and cheer at the TV. I was a bit disappointed at Halo 3, which I don't think captured that same feeling as Halo 2, but it's still worth the hype, IMO
Halo 3 wasn't supposed to have the same feeling as Halo 2. Think of it this way. Halo 1 is like A New Hope: it's a mostly-stand-alone story that can work on its own in case the planned sequels don't get made, but it also has hints at something more. Halo 2 is like Empire Strikes Back: the fact that the fully trilogy will be made is a given, there's a good story but it doesn't really stand alone, and it ends on a cliffhanger. Halo 3 is Return of the Jedi: it ties up open threads and finishes off the story. It can be a little cheesy, and there are some minor twists (is the Chief really dead at the end? Make sure you watch after the credits), and it doesn't hold up to the second item in the trilogy, but it's still very good on its own.
And I was disappointed that Arbiter stopped calling Master Chief "demon" in Halo 3... but oh well.
Makes sense. The Arbiter had thrown off the shackles of the Prophet's religion, and has come to see that the Chief is just a man (albeit a genetically modified, cybernetically enhanced man) and not some religious demon. I liked the Arbiter's faith in the Chief, for example at the end when he says something along the lines of "If only it was that easy", like he said when you first meet up with him in the first level, referring to the seeming inability for anything to kill the Chief. The world assumes the Chief is dead, but the Arbiter respects him enough that he won't believe the Chief is dead until he can see the cold, dead body himself.
I'm not saying it is a bad game, just that I cant see what makes it good. Is that on console the coop mode is what makes it good? Or is it (my theory) that FPS isn't that good of a game type on console and the console people just don't know what they are missing w/ a game of the year type FPS?
Recycling content. Somebody asks this exact same question every time there's a Halo or Bungie article.
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You'd have to really beat the crap out of the Rock Band equipment to cause it to break. While I haven't had a chance to try to the mic yet, the guitar and drums are very solid. If you broke a Guitar Hero guitar, you'll be able to break a Rock Band guitar, but I've never seen a GH controller break unintentionally. The drumset is much higher quality than the DK bongos. It's much closer to a real electric drumset than a toy.
You can do that online. Or you can have a friend bring over the drums from his own bundle. They should fold up reasonably well for storage or transportation.
That "original price" was never anything but a rumor/random guess. "Three peripherals and a game disc? Sounds like $200 to me." I am happy that it'll only be $170, and I've pre-ordered like you.
You do realize you can go back and buy/play the Guitar Hero games, right? Just because you missed them when they were brand new doesn't mean you have to miss out on the experience entirely.
Producing a track for a rhythm game is more involved than encoding a track to put up on iTunes. You have to separate out the different components (so you can cut out the guitar sound when you screw up a note), you have to have somebody map out the fretboard for four different difficulty levels plus multiplayer, and in most cases you need to pay someone to re-record the song (though IIRC Rock Band is supposed to have quite a few "as performed by" songs rather than "as made famous by"). I'm not saying I like that the prices are high, I'm just pointing out the justifications used by Harmonix and Red Octane for the GH2 downloads. Those justifications will only become more relevant as Harmonix adds songs to Rock Band since they have to split tracks and map notes for four parts rather than just one or two (GH had lead/rhythm or guitar/bass multiplayer).
Then again, if they give me songs that I want (I'd love to be able to download Pearl Jam's "10", for example), I'll pay just about any price for them.
The samples shipped with GSE are great for getting your engine up and running quickly, but most people aren't going to ship a game using the exact same graphics as provided in the SpaceWar sample. Take a look at the Dream-Build-Play winners (especially The Dishwasher) and tell me where the sample art, models, and music were used. While this may not be a fair comparison (games built for a contest with cash prizes and the potential to be published on XBLA vs. games built just to be built), it does go to the grandparent's point that indie developers can create truly stunning works when sufficiently motivated.
The real question is, what can be done to motivate more OSS games? The typical OSS model works around "itch scratching", which is why games like FreeCiv have done well (scratching the itch of not having Civilization-like games on Linux) while new game concepts and ports of commercial games generally haven't. Money helps, but you need a decent amount to make it worthwhile -- nobody's going to build the games you see on the DBP site for $100, but they will for the chance of winning $10,000.
Actually, I have my mirrors well-adjusted to minimize my blind spot. It's still there, but it's much smaller than you'd expect. Then again, as long as it's not raining too hard I have the top down. A glass rear window (I recently traded up to a newer car than the plastic windowed one on my web page), heated seats, and sufficient speed keep me warm and dry in all but the nastiest of weather.
I do drive it like I stole it, but there's only so much you can do with left-lane hogging idiots. I prefer to stay right and pass on the left, but with the idiot drivers here in the Seattle area that's often impossible. I find myself passing on the right at least as often as I pass on the left. If you camp my blind spot, I'm not going to hit you but you're going to crap your pants when I merge in front of you with inches to spare (no accident -- I'll do that if there's plenty of room ahead of you, and I'll accelerate away before you even have a chance to register what I just did).
Ah, the old, "You can't know what you're talking about until you have kids of your own," argument. I'm sorry, but all of us were kids at one point or another. My parents did just fine using American sedans for three kids (yes, I know a mid-80s Oldsmobile is larger than a Civic -- I never said buy a Civic, just don't use an SUV). But then I guess I can't know what I'm talking about until I spawn some ankle-biters of my own. Great argument, you win!
If you're really concerned about access and mobility, get a damn minivan. They have better visibility than an SUV, better access, and are much less cramped. They also have better fuel economy and are safer in case of an accident (safer for both the passengers and the people you hit). You're only buying an SUV because you think a minivan is an affront to your manhood. I have news for you: minivans are invisible. Nobody thinks you're less of a man when driving one, because nobody sees them (for purposes of noticing who's inside, that is -- of course we see you there on the road). Don't think minivans are invisible? When was the last time you saw one pulled over by a cop? Do a little test. Find a hot sports car cruising along at 20mph over the limit. Now pace him (yes, a minivan can do that). If you run across a cop, guess who's getting pulled over? Hint: It's not going to be the minivan.
I was the original poster talking about my convertible's blind spot. And yes, I agree that it's my responsibility to check my blind spot and be aware of it. I do that, and I know where traffic is around me at all times. The pet peeve I was referring to was people who will pull up on my left or right up around my rear fender and then just sit there (especially on my left, because if you camp a blind spot from the left then you're misusing the lane). They don't pass, they don't fall back, and I can't really do either because I'm stuck behind slower traffic. My point was either shit or get off the pot -- if you're going to pull up to my blind spot, keep on going. Obviously if we're in stop-and-go traffic that doesn't matter, but if we're in relatively free-flowing traffic and you decide to camp in my blind spot then you're an idiot. I'll take care not to hit you, and do everything in my power to move myself, but there's no reason why you should be there at all. Pull through or fall back.
I know how to adjust my mirrors, thankyouverymuch. Sadly, many people out there don't know how to do that at all. How many times have you gotten in a rental car only to find that the side mirrors give an excellent view of your car's body? Even basic adjustments will help, though if you have the time you really should fine tune:
Or you could teach people how to actually drive those behemoths, assuming they have a real reason for doing so (no, hauling the crotch-spawn around in an SUV doesn't count). Or you could teach people not to drive in another vehicle's blind spot (a huge pet peeve of mine, since I drive a convertible with a significant blind spot when the top is up). Common sense and driver training is a cheaper, better long-term solution than cameras, especially when the people with the cameras probably won't use them just as they don't use their mirrors or check their blind spots with a shoulder look today.
That's ambient temperature. My laptop runs around 30C when ambient temperature is around 18-22C and 40C when ambient temperature is 32-35C, average load (it pushes 50C in 18-22C ambient at full load). I can reasonably assume it would run around 50C under average load if ambient was 40C, and 70C or higher under full load. Depending on the chip and laptop, that may be acceptable or it may be way out of range.
WTF are you doing that you would get so many UAC prompts? In the past week, I've seen approximately 5 such prompts, and that's only because I spent some time yesterday setting up a virtual machine with Vista and had to go through some installs. Aside from that, I get a prompt when I open regedit (not a typical user action, and it's good to protect regedit anyway as it may make people think twice about mucking in there) and when I explicitly choose to run apps as admin. 9 times out of 10 I don't have to run as admin, so no UAC prompts.
People like to bash UAC, but Linux and OS X do similar things. If you try to do something requiring admin privileges, you're prompted to prove you're an admin. Linux/OS X have a more secure prompt (enter a password), and they have fewer such prompts (because Windows is still suffering from developers who learned how to code back in the single-user Win9x days), but the prompts are there. Aside from that, most other complaints come from not understanding how Windows works. Why did you get a UAC prompt for deleting something on your Desktop? Because that item was in the shared desktop folder, and therefore you're performing an admin task when you try to remove it. Delete something you put on your desktop yourself and UAC won't prompt.
Done.
Okay, so it's not X-Com, and it's not exactly on the DS (it's a GBA game, but the DS will run it), but it's the closest you're going to get right now.
Why not just use ScummVM? As the name suggests, it supports pretty much every LucasArts/Films SCUMM adventure, from MM1 to Curse of Monkey Island (GF and Escape from MI were non-SCUMM), but it also supports Sierra AGI games and others. Pretty much everything you asked for is covered by ScummVM, so long as you can find a copy of the game to play.
Grim Fandango doesn't need a remake. It still plays great under XP (I re-played it about a year ago), and still looks pretty good even though it's limited to 640x480. Now it would be nice to get some sequels (a true sequel or some episodic content), but just remaking the existing story wouldn't be worthwhile. Simple re-release the existing game, perhaps on Steam or Gametap.
Do it yourself? XNA is pretty easy to use, Combat is a pretty simple game (not much more advanced than Pong), and the upcoming 2.0 version of XNA will have networking via Live.
Have you looked at XNA? Check out the winners from the Dream-Build-Play contest, the top four of which should be making their way to XBLA soon.
Microsoft's XBLA and Sony's PSN are roughly comparable in terms of attracting indie developers, but once Microsoft figures out what they're doing with XNA you can say goodnight to Sony's network. The 360 will be the place to be for indie developers.
In order to download games, you need to be able to store them somewhere. The Wii has 512MB of internal flash storage, which is not very much when you consider that all of your VC downloads and game saves have to be stored there (the SD card slot is only for archival purposes, as you can't save games or run VC titles off of an SD card). Had Nintendo included a hard drive, they never would've been able to hit their $250 price tag.
On the other hand, a large portion of the story is conflict between religious zealotry (the Prophets' Great Journey) and rational thinking (the "Great Journey" is really genocide). The Arbiter, an important character in the story, converts from "evil religion" to "good rationality" when he realizes what the Great Journey really is and what will happen if the Prophets succeed. If churches actually realized what was going on in the story, there's no way they would endorse the game. Good thing everybody is more focused on the violence than the anti-religion themes, then :). The only thing that could distract the churches better would be a boob.
The slim PS2 uses a top-loading design, and as such clips the disk onto the hub (similar to the old PS1, Dreamcast, and Gamecube, though those couldn't be placed vertically). The old fat PS2 had a sliding tray like the Xbox 360, but also had a more substantial lip to keep the disk in place while vertical. Both PS2 designs are most stable with a stand (sold separately), though the fat PS2 is more stable than the slim without the stand due to a bulkier design.
I've used my 360 vertically since day one. While I have had problems (red ring of death and a dead DVD drive), none of them can be traced to its vertical statue (the DVD drive failed to spin the disk when oriented verticaly or horizontally -- I suspected a simple mechanical failure, but wasn't about to go poking around while my warranty was still valid). All of my disks are mark-free, and I've never seen the console so much as wobble from slamming doors, walking around, booming bass, or anything else. That said, if you do have the 360 placed in a precarious area (atop a wobbly bookcase, for example, or on a non-ground floor of a rickety apartment building), I could certainly see how that could be a problem.
They want to see the pretty lights move. The Xbox 360's ring of light will re-orient itself if you change its position while on. Unfortunately many people don't realize that doing so with a disk actually spinning in the drive is a bad idea. The manual warns against it, but nobody reads the manual. Thus Microsoft started putting stickers on the drive when new warning against it, but once you remove the sticker the warning's gone. I suspect that if it weren't for the pretty lights, very few people would try moving their 360 while a disk is spinning.
Yay reading comprehension! I said my DVD-ROM failure fit into the standard 1-3% category. I said nothing about the percentage of overheating, only that measures have been taken to prevent it in the future.
The hope is that Microsoft solves the problem, after which you'll get a fully-fixed console on your next replacement. If that doesn't happen, I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft opened new repair centers and hired more staff to deal with the influx of boxes. I suspect Microsoft simply got overwhelmed this summer after the announcement of the extended warranty, when a bunch of people who were sitting on dead out-of-warranty consoles suddenly were able to send theirs in for free.
Old news. Microsoft has put a process in place by which all of your content is flagged for re-keying when your console is replaced. This fix was put in place last spring, and I know this first-hand because I was able to re-key all of my content after receiving my second replacement (first RROD, second dead DVD drive). Simply re-download your content to re-key it. If you kept your hard drive like you were supposed to, you won't actually re-download the content but just receive a new key. Use your account history to go back through and download everything you care about. It took me less than 30 minutes to refresh a year and a half worth of content (XBLA games, themes, pictures, game expansions, etc).
Of course if you use one of the store warranties like from Best Buy where they just swap you a new console off the shelf, your content won't be rekeyed. In this case you're much better off using the Microsoft warranty repair instead.
That's not quite fair. It was only 1.5 years old when the new GPU heatsink and extended warranty were put into place this past spring/early summer. Unfortunately there were already 10+ million consoles in the channel at that point, which means that a huge backlog needs to clear before you stop hearing about console failures. As for why you should support such a company, that's up to you to decide. For me, it's pretty easy -- the Xbox 360 has the games I want, and Microsoft has shown that they stand behind the hardware with their extended warranty support. You're free to buy a Wii or PS3, both, all, or none. Nobody's holding a gun to your head and saying, "Buy an Xbox or you die."
There are plenty of dead PS1 and PS2 consoles out there. Early-run PS2s had major laser problems. While the Xbox 360 is a bit of an extreme case, it's not the only console to ever have major hardware issues. At least Microsoft is supporting it. Did Sony ever increase the warranty on PS2s for laser issues?
It depends on when you bought your console, and when it failed.
- There was a bad batch of power supplies with the launch consoles, which is most likely what caused your brother's to fail. In those cases they should've just sent along a new power supply, though it wouldn't surprise me if they just did a straight console replacement instead.
- More consoles suffered from heat-related issues, especially with the GPU. Over a fair amount of time and use, the console would get hot enough and cycle enough that the solder holding down the GPU (or sometimes the memory chips) would lift. The infamous towel trick works on such consoles, because intentionally overheating the console may cause the solder joints to expand enough to make a connection. This problem was addressed earlier this summer with a more efficient heatsink for the GPU, and when coupled with the new 65nm process CPUs (GPUs are still 90nm) overheating leading to solder lift should be a thing of the past.
- There has been some amount of "random" failures. For example, when my first console died from the GPU solder lift fault, it was replaced with a unit that had a bad DVD drive. After about a week with the new console after replacement, the DVD drive simply refused to spin disks (insert a disk, notice the orientation, close the drive, get an error that the console can't read the disk, open the tray and notice that the orientation of the disk has not changed). That was just a fluke, and truly falls into the standard ~1-3% acceptable failure rate for consumer electronics.
- Finally, there's been plenty of user error pawned off as system faults. For example, the notorious DVD-eating nature of the Xbox 360 is due in most part to idiots tilting the console while a disk is spinning. Yes, I know it's fun to watch the ring of light re-orient itself on the fly, but is it worth risking the wrath of physics of a spinning disk?
With price cuts, 65nm CPUs, and updated GPU heatsinks in consoles for sale now, the Xbox 360 has never been a better buy. When you include the 3-year warranty for Red Ring of Death issues (any failure that would cause a "three red lights" error, which would not include DVD-ROM failure), I wouldn't worry at all about buying a 360 right now. It's those of us who purchased at launch time that got screwed (I'm on my 2nd replacement console, and bought a backup Core system so that I could play Forza 2 at launch while my main console was in the process of being replaced the second time).Microsoft's current version is "Software plus Services", which actually makes more sense IMHO. Rather than trying to replace Office with online versions like Google's stuff, they're building rich client software (traditional Office), powerful web services (Office Live, Sharepoint Server), and integrating the two.
Think of it more like "a better Outlook Express". I guess you could say Windows Live Mail is to Outlook what Windows Live Messenger is to Office Communicator, as in it's the mail client for the Windows Live suite of client tools.
Outlook has been pretty safe since the XP release (Outlook 2002), and even the 2000 release with a patch. That's when they stopped allowing you to open executable attachments. There was still a minor risk of javascript nastiness, but they fixed that as well. The 2003 (11) and 2007 (12) releases of Outlook have been stable and safe. (Outlook 2007 doesn't use the controversial Ribbon toolbar like the rest of the Office 12 suite)
Outlook Express is dead, though if you're still using XP you have it. Outlook Express has also been the Microsoft mail client with the most issues, mostly because it's free and more or less neglected. The problem is that "Outlook Express" and "Outlook" actually share nothing in common except for the name and the fact that they both do email. Beyond that they're two separate codebases, managed by two separate teams. It's unfortunate that they're named similarly, since Outlook Express' issues have tarnished the fact that Outlook proper is actually a very good, secure, and competent email client.
If you're running Vista, Outlook Express is gone. It was replaced by Windows Mail, a more bare-bones mail and news reader that finally divorces the "Outlook" name from the free mail client. Alternatively, you can use the Windows Live Mail Beta software (different from Hotmail/Windows Live Mail web interface, as it's client software that can be used for other mail accounts besides just Hotmail). Windows Live Mail integrates with Live services (Messenger, Spaces), where Outlook Express and Windows Mail don't.
As I mentioned in the original post, TF1 did grenades as secondary weapons well before Halo or Counter-Strike. The thing about Halo's grenades was that they "felt" right. Since I never really got into Counter-Strike (can't stand the "die 10 seconds into the game and then wait 10 minutes for the match to finish" gameplay), but the TF1 grenades always felt a little weird. Maybe it was just the (lack of) physics in the Quake 1 engine. Regardless, while Halo wasn't the first to do grenades as a separate button, it was the first one to really get it right.
For the rest, Halo is more than just a sum of its parts. Tribes may have done vehicles earlier, but it didn't have a single player mode. Half-Life may have story-driven-FPS earlier (and really Bungie pioneered that with Marathon), but it was missing the other components that Halo had (vehicles and grenades, for example). It's easy to take all of the bits that make Halo good and claim that this game or that game did them first. What you're missing is that those games hadn't put those elements together at all, or at least not as well as Bungie did.
For example, Halo's recharging shields + limited weapon slots + story made for some interesting choices. Do you take a sniper rifle with you and kill your enemies at long range, or shotgun and kill them at short? Do you grab a rocket launcher and bet on the fact that your shields will keep you reasonably safe if you have to fire at short range? Do you take a medium-distance battle rifle and use cover to your advantage? If you go for the long guns, what do you do if the enemy flanks your position and brings the battle up close? If you go for short or medium guns, what do you do when you run into Jackal snipers pelting you from afar? With other games at the time, it didn't really matter since you had all of your guns with you. Pull out your sniper rifle to take out the enemy snipers, quickly swap to your rocket launcher to nail a squad of advancing enemies, and then flip to your shotgun to mop up the remaining enemies at close range. You couldn't do that in Halo, so you had to be constantly thinking about weapon selection and tactics.
Bungie likes to build deep universes that are only shallowly revealed if you just play their games straight through. Only when you go back and really pay attention to what's going on in the story, read the novels, the comics, the short films (with halo 3), follow the ARGs (I Love Bees), etc do you really get a sense that there's much more to the story and the universe than what initially meets the eye. In contrast, Half-Life's story was pretty weak -- scientists accidentally summon aliens, the government shuts down Black Mesa, and Gordon get picked up by the G-man in the end. I do like the Looking Glass/Irrational games (System Shock 1/2, Thief 1/2/3, Bioshock), and they have awesome stories and atmosphere. I view Bungie as being on the same level as Irrational/Looking Glass, not Valve, when it comes to story-telling and world-building.
For a twitch-shooter like UT, I whole-heartedly agree. For a slower, more tactical game like Halo, the gamepad actually works very well. A lot
Rooster Teeth "gets away with selling DVDs" because they went to Microsoft and struck a deal. It didn't hurt that they had Bungie backing them up, but they did it the right way. If they had just started selling DVDs without first talking to Bungie and Microsoft, the ban hammer and legal hammer would've fallen fast and hard, and Bungie would've been the ones swinging.
What? Halo Wars will be a straight-up RTS, like Age of Empires (hey, it is Ensemble making it). It's not "Halo 4", because it's not following the Chief/Cortana/Arbiter/Flood storyline that was finished in Halo 4. Also, as I understand it, Halo Wars is supposed to be a prequel of sorts to Halo 1, being set earlier in the Human/Covenant war than Halo 1 itself. If there is a "Halo 4", it would have to be a new Chief/Cortana/Arbiter storyline, since Halo 3 closed up all of the hanging threads from the first trilogy.
I'd rather see Bungie make some new properties. Marathon still holds up decently well using Aleph One, and Marathon 2: Durandal has made it to XBLA. I'd love to see Marathon 1 and 3 on XBLA as well, but I don't really care for a remake of the original Marathon games in the Halo engine. It would be nice to see another trilogy set in the Marathon universe, but it would also be nice to see a second Chief/Cortana trilogy (not necessarily called Halo, as it wouldn't have to revolve around the Halo installations).
Halo 3 wasn't supposed to have the same feeling as Halo 2. Think of it this way. Halo 1 is like A New Hope: it's a mostly-stand-alone story that can work on its own in case the planned sequels don't get made, but it also has hints at something more. Halo 2 is like Empire Strikes Back: the fact that the fully trilogy will be made is a given, there's a good story but it doesn't really stand alone, and it ends on a cliffhanger. Halo 3 is Return of the Jedi: it ties up open threads and finishes off the story. It can be a little cheesy, and there are some minor twists (is the Chief really dead at the end? Make sure you watch after the credits), and it doesn't hold up to the second item in the trilogy, but it's still very good on its own.
Makes sense. The Arbiter had thrown off the shackles of the Prophet's religion, and has come to see that the Chief is just a man (albeit a genetically modified, cybernetically enhanced man) and not some religious demon. I liked the Arbiter's faith in the Chief, for example at the end when he says something along the lines of "If only it was that easy", like he said when you first meet up with him in the first level, referring to the seeming inability for anything to kill the Chief. The world assumes the Chief is dead, but the Arbiter respects him enough that he won't believe the Chief is dead until he can see the cold, dead body himself.
Recycling content. Somebody asks this exact same question every time there's a Halo or Bungie article.