I completely agree with this statement. I was going to purchase the game for my friend's Live account, but after the demo I decided that it wasn't worth it. The game was damn near unplayable because of the D-pad. I'll stick with my Gamecube, dualshock, and Wii controllers. Microsoft has always had crappy D-pads.
Agreed. They'll probably handle it just as with WoW. It will be playable with all the effects off at a higher resolution. But just to keep things fair from a tactical standpoint, I think it would be nice if during online matches, everyone had to have the same resolution and/or zoom level. A few more frames per second can constitute a small advantage. But beating the tar out of some one because your game runs at 1920x1200 and they're stuck with 1024x768 is truly an unfair advantage. One player will see and manage a far greater amount of troops.
One thing that may or may not be a 'feature' in C&C Generals is that if one computer is chugging along during a battle and slowing it down, everyone is slowed down. Usually resulting in the culprit being booted from the game.
I honestly wonder how successful Crystal Chronicles could be. The GC version was... okay, but the music and game play is extremely repetitive and I can no longer play the game for more than 10 minutes unless with friends. Even then, it is difficult because the spell casting mechanics are very awkward. If the Wii version simplifies this, and includes a better soundtrack then I'm sure to enjoy it.
That's a very interesting argument. One one hand, I agree with you, stating that any serious players are going to have some serious hardware to back it up, as in a triathlon. On the other hand, I'm going to say that I cannot afford serious hardware, but would like to remain on a level playing field with my friends or casual online battles. Like going on a bike ride with my friends.
I am not hard core on any games, but I don't want to get stomped just because I can't afford a new machine. Though I'm sure I'll have to build a completely new machine to play SCII, so I hope we'll see the release date and machine specs soon so I can start shopping.
In my opinion, Blizzard has done an excellent job with every released game. Even WC3. I enjoyed it, but I don't think it was quite WC as the first two. Maybe a spin-off.
I seriously doubt that Blizzard is going to allow a crap-tastic game out when they've got the piles of money they have from WoW. It looks like they've been developing this one for a while and for what it's worth I think they're going to nail it. They know what they're up against with their original game, and won't release something that is going to detract from it.
Well, here's hoping, anyway. It looks like they took one element from WC3 and avoided it. There doesn't appear to be any 'hero system' at this point. Just massive units with difficult upkeep. I hope there is multiple units like this so each race has a good chance to diversify within itself.
What problem? I'm just saying we've got a great, cozy spot. I didn't say anything about what the actual life was like. Hell, all I conjectured is that you're not going to find a lot of what I said were ideal situations. I'm sure it's possible for life to exist on many different kinds of situations, but from what I know about microbiology and physics, which isn't that much, it seems that carbon (when involved in proteins and such) is about the only element that is suitable for center buildings life. All those amino acids are full of it. And that carbon isn't as... diverse in action... at much higher or lower temperatures.
Now, if you finished reading my post I said that I think it is still possible to find life on other planets, and I do encourage that search. I just wish I could be around to 'sail the stars' so to speak. So, unless we develop good ol' warp drives, I'm perfectly content wondering about out there, and living here.
Yeah, I caught that this morning when I re-read my post. Looks like I'm catching a lot of flak for describing what I call an ideal situation and saying that it's not likely to find another, though possible. And here I figured everyone would be going after that small brain fart.
Probability of another earth-like planet? Prohibitive. 1. Our sun's positioning in this galaxy is basically perfect. We're between two of the 'arms' of the milky way. Meaning we're nestled safely away from the gravitational chaos of other stars that may want to rip us out of our orbit around the center of our galaxy. So that rules out many places in our galaxy. Not saying there isn't a chance. I'm just saying that theoretically, the planets in there may be screwed some time in the future. Most other galaxy styles don't have a 'safe harbor' like this.
2.Earth itself has so many favorable factors for it that it is astounding. The tilt of our axis makes for an optimal environment for life across our whole planet. I remember reading that many astrologers estimate that just a half a degree either way and we'd have much larger ice caps or a band of uninhabitable desert. Our elliptical, almost circular, orbit keeps us in the most comfortable spot. A million miles either way and we'd be toastier or colder. Life could still exist, but it would be less than 'ideal'. As I understand it, our ferrous core spinning at slightly different speed creates our Van Alen Belts to protect from solar wind. We have an asteroid belt that has protected us from undoubtedly billions of asteroids over the millennial of Earths existence. Our tidal locked moon pulls on the oceans causing the Earth to continue spinning at a proper speed to maintain life.
How' that? When you consider all this, and the probabilities being of this happening elsewhere (or just 'enough')... you can pretty well give up hope. But there isn't any fun in that! I'm all for looking for hospitable planets. This universe is fascinating. What a waste to not explore?!
Couple things. Michael Bay did "The Rock", "Armageddon", and "Pearl Harbor". All of which sucked because there was a lame attempt a sticking an actual plot in there. Now, I'm all for cookie-cutter action films. So if a group of terrorists takes over and island and holds California for hostage, and there is a lot of explosions, then fine. But please, please, don't try to get me to care about the sorry sod's girlfriend or daughter.
I'm won't be able to watch the trailer until tonight, but if they did keep the original transforming noise, that's pretty much all I'll need. We used to try to transform the old metal toys in the time it took for that soundbite. Never really got it.
I think user created content is an amazing way of making a games value skyrocket. I could play Baldur's Gate II for the rest of my life on current mods. And with all the Quake and HL mods, I doubt I'd get bored with FPS's any time soon either.
But... What happens if the game companies start trying to profit off of it? Perhaps forcing modders to turn in their ideas for 'approval' and resell them. Personally, I am only responsible for making a few Warcraft II and CivIV/III maps that all pretty much suck. I cannot be considered a modder. I'm not sure what the future holds, but with MS recently distributing 360 dev kits so people can submit games and the like... Just seems like the publishers are looking for a way to net some profits off this stuff. And that could be bad.
I've run into many problems with my laptops from Dell. Each time I've diagnosed by myself and called into their tech support for a new part. They ask a few questions and send me a new HDD, optical drive, keyboard, power pack... Yeah. What's nice is they overnight the stuff to you. As long as you take charge of the conversation you should be able to get what you need. IE "No, I'm not going to run your Dell system utilities. I ran scandisk and I'm telling you the drive is dead." or "The F-ing 'B' falls off every time I touch it."
Can you see the new commercials? A night elf female ranger and a male dwarf warrior hacking away in some EXTREME fashion at boars and shouting, "Do the Dew" or whatever catch-phrase they're using these days.
I was under the impression that all game systems the the Guitar Hero series appears on has USB input (even the original XBox uses modified USB for its controller ports).
Plus, Enabled media entertains pirates by giving them something else to do in their free time. Heh... Would be kind of funny if they would just quit with all the DRM lockdown efforts for a few years, meanwhile luring the pirates into a false sense of security, then unleash some horrible new form of DRM taking the pirates completely off guard. Meaning it would take them in the neighborhood of a month to crack it this time.
Why not just convert a digital tuner to report on the notes played to the console via USB? You could use another of the info lines to carry a digitally converted sound. The game would listen to you play or just play what you play. I don't play guitar and I suck at GH, but I have friends who have some pretty nice tuners that seem like they can easily handle this.
Oh, I agree with you completely that we'll be seeing more and more games that are HDD only when the 'core' system is completely phased out. At that point, I may want to pick up a 360. Though I have played some very good 360 games, I would like to see them all developed with the systems 'full' potential.
I think the reason the XII has trouble immersing people (I have recently picked up the game) is that it runs on automatic far too much. With the gambit system, the only thing you have to do is tell your guy to run here or there. You're just the baby-sitter. I admit that it is great for grinding levels and money, but regardless of how intense the story is, the game requires minimal interaction, and thus, I quickly start falling asleep. Gambits are a great management tool, and they speed the game up, but at the same time they reduce the playability. You make all your choices ahead of time and sit waiting to see if something screws up.
It's like you have a couple kids hired to run your game for you, but every time they screw up, you as the foreman, have to get in there, clean up the mess, and give back the controls. Unfortunately, with the way the game is designed it is rather difficult to play without the gambits on.
The most significant part of that comment
REQUIRES a HDD or a memory card to play (emphasis mine)
means that it mearly requires that you be able to save system data to play the game. Technically this does limit your market to anyone who does not own a memory card, but it is assumed universally that owners of consoles without internal memory have external memory. The HD is a different issue. Perhaps the same ballpark... well, maybe not the same ballpark, but at least the same sport.
I purchase all of my music. Every song on my computer, iPod, every burned CD, is a copy of music that I own. I do listen to internet radio stations and I enjoy them. I do not, however, enjoy much pop music. No rapper of the day, none of today's best country or whatever. I'm not a big fan of the advertisement based radio either. And I'm rather aggressive with people who just download everything. It pisses me off.
I do support copyright and patent for innovation. Now, I've tried to educate myself about this issue, but from what I can tell it's going to completely choke off anybody that just wants to broadcast some tunes. Independent or otherwise. And like you mentioned, these 'net stations are how I find my new music, so I hope you don't mind if I complain about the money grabbing recording industry that doesn't give two shits about their artist, but is more concerned with lining corporate and committee own pockets.
At my high school we had an electronics class with Duke Nukem 3D running on the computers. One of the students created a multiplayer map of the entire school, including a big screen of the racy images from the strip clubs where the theatre is. The map was a favorite, but IIRC the game didn't support multiple levels and so there was only one floor.
I can respect that. I too have been playing RPGs since the dawn of Nintendo. Though my opinion differs greatly to yours with VI and IV being my favorites, followed by VII (mostly because I kind of like being locked into one class per char). What I get sick of hearing is the kids who started at VIII saying IX sucked because it wasn't VIII. Or worse, I've heard much badmouthing of pre PSX Final Fantasy's because of "bad graphics and no FMV's". Which is complete BS. And, unfortunately, many of them work at Gamestops.
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I completely agree with this statement. I was going to purchase the game for my friend's Live account, but after the demo I decided that it wasn't worth it. The game was damn near unplayable because of the D-pad. I'll stick with my Gamecube, dualshock, and Wii controllers. Microsoft has always had crappy D-pads.
One thing that may or may not be a 'feature' in C&C Generals is that if one computer is chugging along during a battle and slowing it down, everyone is slowed down. Usually resulting in the culprit being booted from the game.
I honestly wonder how successful Crystal Chronicles could be. The GC version was... okay, but the music and game play is extremely repetitive and I can no longer play the game for more than 10 minutes unless with friends. Even then, it is difficult because the spell casting mechanics are very awkward. If the Wii version simplifies this, and includes a better soundtrack then I'm sure to enjoy it.
I am not hard core on any games, but I don't want to get stomped just because I can't afford a new machine. Though I'm sure I'll have to build a completely new machine to play SCII, so I hope we'll see the release date and machine specs soon so I can start shopping.
I seriously doubt that Blizzard is going to allow a crap-tastic game out when they've got the piles of money they have from WoW. It looks like they've been developing this one for a while and for what it's worth I think they're going to nail it. They know what they're up against with their original game, and won't release something that is going to detract from it.
Well, here's hoping, anyway. It looks like they took one element from WC3 and avoided it. There doesn't appear to be any 'hero system' at this point. Just massive units with difficult upkeep. I hope there is multiple units like this so each race has a good chance to diversify within itself.
Now, if you finished reading my post I said that I think it is still possible to find life on other planets, and I do encourage that search. I just wish I could be around to 'sail the stars' so to speak. So, unless we develop good ol' warp drives, I'm perfectly content wondering about out there, and living here.
Yeah, I caught that this morning when I re-read my post. Looks like I'm catching a lot of flak for describing what I call an ideal situation and saying that it's not likely to find another, though possible. And here I figured everyone would be going after that small brain fart.
1. Our sun's positioning in this galaxy is basically perfect. We're between two of the 'arms' of the milky way. Meaning we're nestled safely away from the gravitational chaos of other stars that may want to rip us out of our orbit around the center of our galaxy. So that rules out many places in our galaxy. Not saying there isn't a chance. I'm just saying that theoretically, the planets in there may be screwed some time in the future. Most other galaxy styles don't have a 'safe harbor' like this.
2.Earth itself has so many favorable factors for it that it is astounding. The tilt of our axis makes for an optimal environment for life across our whole planet. I remember reading that many astrologers estimate that just a half a degree either way and we'd have much larger ice caps or a band of uninhabitable desert. Our elliptical, almost circular, orbit keeps us in the most comfortable spot. A million miles either way and we'd be toastier or colder. Life could still exist, but it would be less than 'ideal'.
As I understand it, our ferrous core spinning at slightly different speed creates our Van Alen Belts to protect from solar wind.
We have an asteroid belt that has protected us from undoubtedly billions of asteroids over the millennial of Earths existence.
Our tidal locked moon pulls on the oceans causing the Earth to continue spinning at a proper speed to maintain life.
How' that? When you consider all this, and the probabilities being of this happening elsewhere (or just 'enough')... you can pretty well give up hope. But there isn't any fun in that! I'm all for looking for hospitable planets. This universe is fascinating. What a waste to not explore?!
I'm won't be able to watch the trailer until tonight, but if they did keep the original transforming noise, that's pretty much all I'll need. We used to try to transform the old metal toys in the time it took for that soundbite. Never really got it.
But... What happens if the game companies start trying to profit off of it? Perhaps forcing modders to turn in their ideas for 'approval' and resell them. Personally, I am only responsible for making a few Warcraft II and CivIV/III maps that all pretty much suck. I cannot be considered a modder. I'm not sure what the future holds, but with MS recently distributing 360 dev kits so people can submit games and the like... Just seems like the publishers are looking for a way to net some profits off this stuff. And that could be bad.
I've run into many problems with my laptops from Dell. Each time I've diagnosed by myself and called into their tech support for a new part. They ask a few questions and send me a new HDD, optical drive, keyboard, power pack... Yeah. What's nice is they overnight the stuff to you. As long as you take charge of the conversation you should be able to get what you need. IE "No, I'm not going to run your Dell system utilities. I ran scandisk and I'm telling you the drive is dead." or "The F-ing 'B' falls off every time I touch it."
Perhaps, but I think that'll be better than bumper stickers that read, "My Hadron is bigger than your Hadron"
BTW, you could probably fix that by some sort of ad in your sig.
Can you see the new commercials? A night elf female ranger and a male dwarf warrior hacking away in some EXTREME fashion at boars and shouting, "Do the Dew" or whatever catch-phrase they're using these days.
The PS2 does have two USB ports on the front. Check out the wiki. Look at the pictures.
I was under the impression that all game systems the the Guitar Hero series appears on has USB input (even the original XBox uses modified USB for its controller ports).
Why not just convert a digital tuner to report on the notes played to the console via USB? You could use another of the info lines to carry a digitally converted sound. The game would listen to you play or just play what you play. I don't play guitar and I suck at GH, but I have friends who have some pretty nice tuners that seem like they can easily handle this.
Oh, I agree with you completely that we'll be seeing more and more games that are HDD only when the 'core' system is completely phased out. At that point, I may want to pick up a 360. Though I have played some very good 360 games, I would like to see them all developed with the systems 'full' potential.
It's like you have a couple kids hired to run your game for you, but every time they screw up, you as the foreman, have to get in there, clean up the mess, and give back the controls. Unfortunately, with the way the game is designed it is rather difficult to play without the gambits on.
means that it mearly requires that you be able to save system data to play the game. Technically this does limit your market to anyone who does not own a memory card, but it is assumed universally that owners of consoles without internal memory have external memory. The HD is a different issue. Perhaps the same ballpark... well, maybe not the same ballpark, but at least the same sport.
I do support copyright and patent for innovation. Now, I've tried to educate myself about this issue, but from what I can tell it's going to completely choke off anybody that just wants to broadcast some tunes. Independent or otherwise. And like you mentioned, these 'net stations are how I find my new music, so I hope you don't mind if I complain about the money grabbing recording industry that doesn't give two shits about their artist, but is more concerned with lining corporate and committee own pockets.
At my high school we had an electronics class with Duke Nukem 3D running on the computers. One of the students created a multiplayer map of the entire school, including a big screen of the racy images from the strip clubs where the theatre is. The map was a favorite, but IIRC the game didn't support multiple levels and so there was only one floor.
I can respect that. I too have been playing RPGs since the dawn of Nintendo. Though my opinion differs greatly to yours with VI and IV being my favorites, followed by VII (mostly because I kind of like being locked into one class per char). What I get sick of hearing is the kids who started at VIII saying IX sucked because it wasn't VIII. Or worse, I've heard much badmouthing of pre PSX Final Fantasy's because of "bad graphics and no FMV's". Which is complete BS. And, unfortunately, many of them work at Gamestops.