Anyone read The Reality Dysfunction by Peter Hamilton (or either of the sequels). It describes geneering, where peoples genes have been fiddled with to enhance them as their parents have seen fit.
Personally I'm in the 'don't mess with something you don't _really_ understand' camp.
I'm not arguing with the PC architecture concept, the choice of operating system, or anything like that - but in the real world companies will be forced (by cost) to go for 3 * 4 processor Enterprise servers rather than 16 freebsd boxes (the comparison used on their web page)
Why?
Ever seen how much machine room space costs?
It'd be interesting to see a price comparison where individual nodes were as powerful as individual Sun units (though add on the cost of freebsd OS support, since you do get that from Sun)
Let's not forget that 4mb isn't such of an issue when you're only having to display to a TV set (ie - low resolutions, and theres no chance in hell of differentiating between most of 100,000 shades of blue, so they won't need much of a colour depth either.
I hope they'll be giving it a European release too then! I had heard the company had no plans to ever have it leave Japan - maybe positive feedback from games players/journalist convinced them to give it a chance?
Of course the hardware isn't being used yet, and of course there are no good games! The console has only just been released - the good games generally start to appear at the second or third wave.. You've got to remember that even now people are managing to push the old playstation further (although I think it's gone as far as it can now).
Onto the rant!;-) Sadly I can't agree with your view that the Dreamcast games will be better. My reasons:
1) The PSX2 hardware is faster - no two ways about it. This does not however a good games machine make;-) It's also not limited to a rather measly 33.6k internal modem, since you'll just buy whatevers supported and fastest at the time.
2) Part of the reason you haven't seen a lot of decent playstation games is because of idiotic marketing strategies, that leave utterly stunning games (Einhander) in import-only land. It's not even Sonys fault, it's down to the software produers. Another example is Gradius III/IV - I doubt it'll see the shores of the US, or the UK where I live. Or Kessen, which is AFAIK not destined to even get a translation from Japanese.
3) The PSX2 will always have more games (yes more bad, but also more good) because Sony aren't as restrictive as Sega and Nintendo about who can produce what for their console. Can you go out and buy a home development kit for the Saturn? nope. For the playstation you can. It's a lot more open, and I think it's going to help it grind the Dreamcast into the ground like the PSX1 did the Saturn (a machine I liked!)
Sure they did almost create the casual gamer market, and there are a lot of games geared towards them (including the Tekken games, which really are too easy for anyone who cut their fighting teeth on SF2 in the arcades;-) ), but there are also games geared towards the more able in most of the genres:- Kensai and Rival Schools spring to mind when I think of decent fighting games (the former is a beauty to watch). Gran Turismo when I think of racing. While Sony churn out the casual games, other companies (hello Square) are putting out decent titles - it's not fair to judge the games availability of a console purely by the releases of the parent company when you're looking at a platform anyone can develop for.
I've finished now;-)
PS - controversial I know, but I agree re: Metal Gear Solid - it had _some_ innovative ideas, but it was too easy and the stealth thing had already been done several times better in Tenchu. Syphon Filter (1 and 2) are more playable alternatives.
I'm willing to bet while the US prices for console and games are $299 and $49 respecitevly, in the UK at least it'll be 299/49 pounds - a lot higher in terms of actual cost.. Sigh.
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Anyone read The Reality Dysfunction by Peter Hamilton (or either of the sequels). It describes geneering, where peoples genes have been fiddled with to enhance them as their parents have seen fit.
Personally I'm in the 'don't mess with something you don't _really_ understand' camp.
james
I'm not arguing with the PC architecture concept, the choice of operating system, or anything like that - but in the real world companies will be forced (by cost) to go for 3 * 4 processor Enterprise servers rather than 16 freebsd boxes (the comparison used on their web page)
Why?
Ever seen how much machine room space costs?
It'd be interesting to see a price comparison where individual nodes were as powerful as individual Sun units (though add on the cost of freebsd OS support, since you do get that from Sun)
james
and thus the paperless office concept was made to turn in its grave. again.
.. and crashes.
Let's not forget that 4mb isn't such of an issue when you're only having to display to a TV set (ie - low resolutions, and theres no chance in hell of differentiating between most of 100,000 shades of blue, so they won't need much of a colour depth either.
I hope they'll be giving it a European release too then! I had heard the company had no plans to ever have it leave Japan - maybe positive feedback from games players/journalist convinced them to give it a chance?
Of course the hardware isn't being used yet, and of course there are no good games! The console has only just been released - the good games generally start to appear at the second or third wave.. You've got to remember that even now people are managing to push the old playstation further (although I think it's gone as far as it can now).
;-)
;-) It's also not limited to a rather measly 33.6k internal modem, since you'll just buy whatevers supported and fastest at the time.
;-) ), but there are also games geared towards the more able in most of the genres:- Kensai and Rival Schools spring to mind when I think of decent fighting games (the former is a beauty to watch). Gran Turismo when I think of racing. While Sony churn out the casual games, other companies (hello Square) are putting out decent titles - it's not fair to judge the games availability of a console purely by the releases of the parent company when you're looking at a platform anyone can develop for.
;-)
Onto the rant!
Sadly I can't agree with your view that the Dreamcast games will be better. My reasons:
1) The PSX2 hardware is faster - no two ways about it. This does not however a good games machine make
2) Part of the reason you haven't seen a lot of decent playstation games is because of idiotic marketing strategies, that leave utterly stunning games (Einhander) in import-only land. It's not even Sonys fault, it's down to the software produers. Another example is Gradius III/IV - I doubt it'll see the shores of the US, or the UK where I live. Or Kessen, which is AFAIK not destined to even get a translation from Japanese.
3) The PSX2 will always have more games (yes more bad, but also more good) because Sony aren't as restrictive as Sega and Nintendo about who can produce what for their console. Can you go out and buy a home development kit for the Saturn? nope. For the playstation you can. It's a lot more open, and I think it's going to help it grind the Dreamcast into the ground like the PSX1 did the Saturn (a machine I liked!)
Sure they did almost create the casual gamer market, and there are a lot of games geared towards them (including the Tekken games, which really are too easy for anyone who cut their fighting teeth on SF2 in the arcades
I've finished now
PS - controversial I know, but I agree re: Metal Gear Solid - it had _some_ innovative ideas, but it was too easy and the stealth thing had already been done several times better in Tenchu. Syphon Filter (1 and 2) are more playable alternatives.
I'm willing to bet while the US prices for console and games are $299 and $49 respecitevly, in the UK at least it'll be 299/49 pounds - a lot higher in terms of actual cost.. Sigh.