My mother and her fiance don't go more than a few hours at their house without playing Zuma (the one with the frog that shoots balls out of its mouth, right?). Before that it was spider solitair. Every time I go over there that's what one of them is doing. The other is watching TV. The most boring life I can think of...
Oh, yeah, the game was entertaining the first time I played it. Not enough thought required though. I likes me strategy games. I never really liked Bejeweled, either. I guess Pop Cap games are not for me.
Yeah... I once had my cruise set on 120Mi/hr (about 190Kph in the good measuring system) for about twenty minutes on an Alabama interstate. I was just passing through, and AL is much more interesting when you don't have time to focus on anything.
I think that part of it is the overall perception as Alliance="good guys" and Horde="bad guys" than anything else.
Agreed. In games that garner the choice between good and bad, I've always opted good first. Then nuetral, then evil... even then it's difficult. I'm amazed at how hard it is for me to be so indiscrimenently evil to 1's and 0's as to end their meagre electronic existances.
Take Jade Empire. There is not a Good or Evil side to the story, but the "Path of the Closed Fist" takes a lot of steps I would never use.
With WoW it is no different in most aspects. One of the exceptions is the Tauren race. They aren't evil at all. They value honor and virtue. They're nomadic. They don't like the Alliance because mainly the Alliance wants to carve up/out the planet and distort nature. I find it very easy to play as the Tauren, but the Orcs, Undead, and Trolls I still shy away from. Heck, I don't even like playing the humans.
I've had similar experiences after long jaunts at Gran Turismo. Very long jaunts. I would play the first one after high school and on the weekends and any time I could. Then I'd get in my blazing fast 1986 Dodge Omni and try to take corners at unheard of speeds (like 20mph fast). They may have been tiny cars, but after you kill the springs they sit pretty low and can handle a bit better. I'd do what traffic weaving I could on the way to work.
Then I got a 1994 Honda Accord. It was like driving lightning compared to my first car. I mean, 0-60 in under about 8 seconds (the Omni on good days could accomplish the same feet in no less than double that time). The Accord got me into a lot of trouble.... It's a bit slower now, due to age, but, thankfully, Crazy Taxi and Rouge Trip (PS One) never took their tolls on it.
Yeah, some gnome mage told me that that if me and my who guild gave him a gold piece each, we would get eternal happiness. Some joke that was. One second we're sitting around the gnome handing out buckets of cash in the middle of Mulgore, the next second hundreds of 50+ lvl Taurens overan us and camped our bodies for the next six hours.
Yeah, I agree. That's why I opted out of using my Karma mod point. Whoo... got REAL lucky. But, hey, I am a gamer (since Commador 64 and Intellevision) and I've played and beaten both Halo's on Legendary. 'course, Halo is a good experience for anybody, but real gamers know that Perfect Dark on the 64 was the real multiplayer experience.
I seriously hope and pray, yes pray, that Nintendo or Rare will up the FPS on PD when/if it becomes available on the Revolution. Maybe even include some online/network multiplayer modes. But, I'll be happy to play it again either way. Nothing beats seeing yourself be tracked by that X-ray gun and trying desperately not to get hit.
My first class in Assembler/Cobal (assembly code-fun, COBOL-like getting teeth pulled... throught the cheek). The professor walks in. Doesn't even say his name. Looks around the classroom. Says:
Hey hey hey hey hey now... Their laptops make decent gaming machines. Granted, you can do a lot better. But when you're getting an employee discount, it's a great deal. Granted, I would love to have the 3+ grand to buy the latest Alienware gaming laptop, but the truth is, all I need is 2GHz to run C&C Generals and WoW. They're basically the only two games I play. All the new FPS's are boing the crap out of me.
Their XPS140 Laptop, however, is huge joke. Last I checked, it still doesn't even have a dedicated graphics processor. Now, it's only got a 14" widescreen at 1280x1020 res (or thereabouts) max, so that doesn't take too much power to generate desent graphics... but COME ON!!!. I don't care what the product is, if it's sharing memory for the onboard Intell-built integrated processor, it IS NOT a gaming machine. At least throw in something from the low end Radeons. They run low power and cool. At least include some dedicated GPU RAM. This is about as much a "gaming laptop" as all your wonderful analogies say it isn't.
A step in the right direction. Back in college some kid was swiping credit cards from people wallets and signing up for online services (porn mostly, but some dating services too). He wouldn't keep the cards, he'd just copy the info. People's addresses were freely available from the online roster, so that was all you needed.
Mine was swiped too, and I didn't even find out about it for about three months (had some overdrafts). Turns out this kid subscribed to some porn site that was pulling 60 bucks a month! I wasn't pleased.
I went into the bank and all they told me was they could put the funds under investigation and it would take up to 90 days to take care of. During that time I wouldn't have my money and that it wasn't likely that anything would happen. I called the companies customer service and argued the charges for about half an hour. They said they could cancel. I threatened legal action. They said it wouldn't work. I said I could prove that I never signed up for thier services, or used them because I log my IPs, and informed them it was THEIR resposability to verify ID, not mine. This is what did it. Charges refunded, overdrafts paid (and the bank refunded them too, got 60 bucks out of the deal).
Lately companies have been working harder at verifying ID, but they're also more adamant about not taking responsibility. Rather than the bank having responsability, I think, legally, if you can prove that it wasn't you, the store should be responsible.
While this may help, it's going to cost millions for every ISP to log everything, even if they're only storing it for a couple years. We're talking at least one new tech for every system. One system for every 2 - 5 thousand users. One user may not produce a great deal of work, but what about people who recieve hundreds of SPAM messages a month, send forwards to all their friends, and surf for 2-3 hours a day. There are tens of thousands of these people out there.
Counter-terrorism vs. privacy invasion? I doubt any government cares whether or not you're browsing porn all night. Seems to me they're increasing their workload too, but only if they're actively sifting. Seems to me they should just have a system of flags set up. Like they most likely already do.
Expect your high-speed and dial up rates to hike up if this goes through. Of course then there's the bells. They already keep a pretty decent record of your calling logs, so that wouldn't be that big of a deal.
Well, my last laptop was an Inspiron 8200 15.4" standerd ratio screen (UXGA) that had 1600x1200 res. Go to Dell's site and look that up, I'm still at work.
New laptop is Inspiron 6000 15.4" widescreen (WUXGA) with 1920x1200 res. Go down to the screen and you'll find some link "help me choose" and it'll show the res on the different screens.
The only thing I can think of is that it is a screen protector. Yes, those displays look bright and all, and they have a non-reflective coating on them, that's nice, I guess. Problem is they're still reflective and they look bright, but I like the way my screen is more like satin. The glossy screens feel like they're shooting light directly into my eyes like a friggin' headlight. I would rather my screen look like a piece of paper with a light shining on it. It's less tiring on my eyes.
A 17" widescreen with 1900x1200 res? That's not amazing resolution. That's normal. I'm not bragging, but my laptop 15.4" widescreen and it's resolution is 1920x1200. My last laptop was a normal 15.4" and it's res was 1600x1200.
I'll grant that that laptop has a few nice bells and whistles, but nothing Alienware or even the Dell XPS's don't offer. (yeah, both my laptops are/were from Dell).
Especially for music since what I listen to (motly full electronic DJ sets) is not purchaseable
I'm with you there. A good deal of my music is very hard to find or import (or too expensive). But, given the oppurunity, I'll usually purchase it in one form or another (I don't buy songs off iTunes or other sites, I want the full quality CD tracks).
What pisses me off is people that don't buy any of their music (and in college, when Napster came out, in a week I went from a fast connection to borrowing my parents' dial-up account because of all the bastards hogging bandwith... napster was finally blocked about 6-8 months in, but it didn't help as there were a bunch of students with off-site proxys). But that's a matter of principles. I'm not concerned if random successful band X gets my money, they won't notice a few thousand people downloading a few songs, but they will notice when one guy buys their music and gives it to a few thousand people, over and over. Bands on smaller labels don't see a lot of money. A lot of the time these guys' talent is off the charts when compared with mainstream music or even the Paul Van Dykes and Crystal Methods.
But when can I pre-order the thing? Unlike the 360, this will play nearly all its predecessors' games. Since I don't have a PS2, I'll jump on the bandwagon for this baby so I can play all those PS2 games I missed with some AA? Maybe? Pleeeease...!
Note that downloading such releases is illegal and you can't do anything with them yet
Sort of like those funny colored 'sculptures' they sell in the Electric Fetus and other fine retailers. They're "For Display Purposes Only."
Strange that. Usually when people "display" them there's some sort of smoke rising from them and a funky smell in the room... and everybody has that look on their faces like they're about to be hit by a train and they're not sure if they care.
well...especially since I haven't paid for any media of any sort since Napster was born
Besides, its snowing like crazy now, its 20 degrees outside, what the hell else am I going to do?
I don't care how much you think you're getting screwed out of your money, buy some of the shit you use and complain about DRM and RIAA with the rest of us. And since you can't play outside, maybe you should get off your ass and find a way to generate some income. I'm assuming your hands work well enough to do data entry... or stuffing envelopes, so get to it! Hmmm...? Too young for a job? Go play in the snow like normal kids do. I'm 25 and that's still one of my favorite forms of entertainment. Finds some kids in the park and start a snowball war!
Back when I was young my parents only let us bust out the Commadore 64 if and only if it was too dangerous to play outside (like, temp below absolute zero, those windchills, I tell ya). For those of you who were in MN for the Halloween blizzard of 92 (or was it 91..), I was outside building tunnles and bunkers with the neighborhood kids.
Wait a second, "Back when I was young..."?!! I am getting old...
Agreed, aside from Ocarina and Majora's Mask, there is no continuity, though, in some cases, it is implied. On the other hand... It's always the same, relatively useless, napping Zelda. She doesn't seem to do anything except fire a few arrows here and there. But, even though it's her legend, she spends half the time either sleeping, or not being Zelda.
Don't even get me started on Marim (Link's Awakening).
When you think about it, M$ probably sells it to BB at $375, and BB sells it at $400
I used to work at a Best Buy back in '99. I saw some of the profit and pricing information. At the time, Best Buy made a whole dollar on any system they sold. 149.99 for the N64, Best Buy bought the system for a total of just 149.00. The profits come from the games. The retailers get them for around 15-40 bucks each (depending on what studio releases them). I would be surprised if they were making more than a dollar on any of the systems they sell.
Also, why don't consoles include an audio decoding chip (to decode MP3/Vorbis) with onboard buffer goodness?
As far as I understand, it's not a price issue. There may not even be any decompression chips (or research) that will allow more than one decompression at a time. Sure, maybe you could run the music throught the chip, but then sound effects and voice would be sacrificed. We're talking about timing here.
MP3 doesn't take a static delay in decompression, so you would have to buffer every possible sound/voice and BGM at the same time, then trash it and buffer anything else, say when you move your charecter two steps to the left into a puddle of water. Then there's the echo effect. Too much money in research when there's already a working standard.
That, and people will whine about quality of the sounds/music too. Voice and some effects wouldn't be hindered, but music heavey base and treble wouldn't sound as good (once you hear the difference once, it's hard not to notice).
As far as Ogg Vorbis decompression, I have no clue, I don't use it.
You should make FF7 a priority. Advent children is amazing eye candy. It doesn't even need a script. It's totally a fanboy movie. It caters to everything and keeps charecters in their niches, where they belong. Their personalities aren't diminished at all. I watched a subtitled version last week, but I'll be buying it when it comes out for sure.
Re:Take responsibility for once.
on
ESRB Retorts to NIMF
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
Quit trying to legislate morality, and start teaching it instead.
The problem is that too many people are too lazy to teach their kids. And too many people who we don't want teaching our kids are trying legislate their beliefs into them. Yes, teaching the kids works great. But there are too many poeple with too loud voices that are reaching throught the law to try to make what they want to be right, right. In other word (not saying they're the best institutions) private schools will teach your kids what you want them to, but public schools will teach what the loudest complainer wants them to.
The majority can only rule if they'll get off their asses and do something about it.
Controller has some other sensor (microphone or something unlikely like a "squeeze" sensor or biometric sensor)
This would be pretty cool. I mean, you could easily use this to log onto the system and have a specific profile for EVERY game. If Nintendo has a centralized online system, they could store that information and you could log onto a friend's Rev without even bringing your memory card.
A bio-sensore could be used to moniter your heartrate too. Play Resident Evil or (hopefully) a new version of Eternal Darkness and your heartbeat could control some aspect of the game (faster heartbeat, louder heartbeat, zobies find you, use more energy for tasks...). Very cool possibilities (especailly for those who can control their heart rate if it makes the game easier). Could even control how well you hold your sniper rifle (but that would likely be taken care of because you may be holding the controller for that, but there could be some form of software compensation, after all, there can only be so many super-warriors, and gamers they are not).
Slashdot Mirror
Oh, yeah, the game was entertaining the first time I played it. Not enough thought required though. I likes me strategy games. I never really liked Bejeweled, either. I guess Pop Cap games are not for me.
Yeah... I once had my cruise set on 120Mi/hr (about 190Kph in the good measuring system) for about twenty minutes on an Alabama interstate. I was just passing through, and AL is much more interesting when you don't have time to focus on anything.
Agreed. In games that garner the choice between good and bad, I've always opted good first. Then nuetral, then evil... even then it's difficult. I'm amazed at how hard it is for me to be so indiscrimenently evil to 1's and 0's as to end their meagre electronic existances.
Take Jade Empire. There is not a Good or Evil side to the story, but the "Path of the Closed Fist" takes a lot of steps I would never use.
With WoW it is no different in most aspects. One of the exceptions is the Tauren race. They aren't evil at all. They value honor and virtue. They're nomadic. They don't like the Alliance because mainly the Alliance wants to carve up/out the planet and distort nature. I find it very easy to play as the Tauren, but the Orcs, Undead, and Trolls I still shy away from. Heck, I don't even like playing the humans.
Then I got a 1994 Honda Accord. It was like driving lightning compared to my first car. I mean, 0-60 in under about 8 seconds (the Omni on good days could accomplish the same feet in no less than double that time). The Accord got me into a lot of trouble.... It's a bit slower now, due to age, but, thankfully, Crazy Taxi and Rouge Trip (PS One) never took their tolls on it.
My brother is partial to Manhattens and Long Island Iced Tea. Tall glasses, all booze. Well.. the Long Island has a "splash of cola for color."
I'm thinking, WTF? That doesn't make me happy.
I seriously hope and pray, yes pray, that Nintendo or Rare will up the FPS on PD when/if it becomes available on the Revolution. Maybe even include some online/network multiplayer modes. But, I'll be happy to play it again either way. Nothing beats seeing yourself be tracked by that X-ray gun and trying desperately not to get hit.
"There aren't any women in here."
Yeah, a bit offtopic, but playing Halo doesn't make you a 'gamer' any more than eating a taco makes you a mexican.
Their XPS140 Laptop, however, is huge joke. Last I checked, it still doesn't even have a dedicated graphics processor. Now, it's only got a 14" widescreen at 1280x1020 res (or thereabouts) max, so that doesn't take too much power to generate desent graphics... but COME ON!!!. I don't care what the product is, if it's sharing memory for the onboard Intell-built integrated processor, it IS NOT a gaming machine. At least throw in something from the low end Radeons. They run low power and cool. At least include some dedicated GPU RAM. This is about as much a "gaming laptop" as all your wonderful analogies say it isn't.
And, may I submit, "Swing dancing to Kenny G?"
Mine was swiped too, and I didn't even find out about it for about three months (had some overdrafts). Turns out this kid subscribed to some porn site that was pulling 60 bucks a month! I wasn't pleased.
I went into the bank and all they told me was they could put the funds under investigation and it would take up to 90 days to take care of. During that time I wouldn't have my money and that it wasn't likely that anything would happen. I called the companies customer service and argued the charges for about half an hour. They said they could cancel. I threatened legal action. They said it wouldn't work. I said I could prove that I never signed up for thier services, or used them because I log my IPs, and informed them it was THEIR resposability to verify ID, not mine. This is what did it. Charges refunded, overdrafts paid (and the bank refunded them too, got 60 bucks out of the deal).
Lately companies have been working harder at verifying ID, but they're also more adamant about not taking responsibility. Rather than the bank having responsability, I think, legally, if you can prove that it wasn't you, the store should be responsible.
Counter-terrorism vs. privacy invasion? I doubt any government cares whether or not you're browsing porn all night. Seems to me they're increasing their workload too, but only if they're actively sifting. Seems to me they should just have a system of flags set up. Like they most likely already do.
Expect your high-speed and dial up rates to hike up if this goes through. Of course then there's the bells. They already keep a pretty decent record of your calling logs, so that wouldn't be that big of a deal.
New laptop is Inspiron 6000 15.4" widescreen (WUXGA) with 1920x1200 res. Go down to the screen and you'll find some link "help me choose" and it'll show the res on the different screens.
The only thing I can think of is that it is a screen protector. Yes, those displays look bright and all, and they have a non-reflective coating on them, that's nice, I guess. Problem is they're still reflective and they look bright, but I like the way my screen is more like satin. The glossy screens feel like they're shooting light directly into my eyes like a friggin' headlight. I would rather my screen look like a piece of paper with a light shining on it. It's less tiring on my eyes.
I'll grant that that laptop has a few nice bells and whistles, but nothing Alienware or even the Dell XPS's don't offer. (yeah, both my laptops are/were from Dell).
I'm with you there. A good deal of my music is very hard to find or import (or too expensive). But, given the oppurunity, I'll usually purchase it in one form or another (I don't buy songs off iTunes or other sites, I want the full quality CD tracks).
What pisses me off is people that don't buy any of their music (and in college, when Napster came out, in a week I went from a fast connection to borrowing my parents' dial-up account because of all the bastards hogging bandwith... napster was finally blocked about 6-8 months in, but it didn't help as there were a bunch of students with off-site proxys). But that's a matter of principles. I'm not concerned if random successful band X gets my money, they won't notice a few thousand people downloading a few songs, but they will notice when one guy buys their music and gives it to a few thousand people, over and over. Bands on smaller labels don't see a lot of money. A lot of the time these guys' talent is off the charts when compared with mainstream music or even the Paul Van Dykes and Crystal Methods.
That's my take.
But when can I pre-order the thing? Unlike the 360, this will play nearly all its predecessors' games. Since I don't have a PS2, I'll jump on the bandwagon for this baby so I can play all those PS2 games I missed with some AA? Maybe? Pleeeease...!
Sort of like those funny colored 'sculptures' they sell in the Electric Fetus and other fine retailers. They're "For Display Purposes Only."
Strange that. Usually when people "display" them there's some sort of smoke rising from them and a funky smell in the room... and everybody has that look on their faces like they're about to be hit by a train and they're not sure if they care.
Besides, its snowing like crazy now, its 20 degrees outside, what the hell else am I going to do?
I don't care how much you think you're getting screwed out of your money, buy some of the shit you use and complain about DRM and RIAA with the rest of us. And since you can't play outside, maybe you should get off your ass and find a way to generate some income. I'm assuming your hands work well enough to do data entry... or stuffing envelopes, so get to it! Hmmm...? Too young for a job? Go play in the snow like normal kids do. I'm 25 and that's still one of my favorite forms of entertainment. Finds some kids in the park and start a snowball war!
Back when I was young my parents only let us bust out the Commadore 64 if and only if it was too dangerous to play outside (like, temp below absolute zero, those windchills, I tell ya). For those of you who were in MN for the Halloween blizzard of 92 (or was it 91..), I was outside building tunnles and bunkers with the neighborhood kids.
Wait a second, "Back when I was young..."?!! I am getting old...
Don't even get me started on Marim (Link's Awakening).
I used to work at a Best Buy back in '99. I saw some of the profit and pricing information. At the time, Best Buy made a whole dollar on any system they sold. 149.99 for the N64, Best Buy bought the system for a total of just 149.00. The profits come from the games. The retailers get them for around 15-40 bucks each (depending on what studio releases them). I would be surprised if they were making more than a dollar on any of the systems they sell.
As far as I understand, it's not a price issue. There may not even be any decompression chips (or research) that will allow more than one decompression at a time. Sure, maybe you could run the music throught the chip, but then sound effects and voice would be sacrificed. We're talking about timing here.
MP3 doesn't take a static delay in decompression, so you would have to buffer every possible sound/voice and BGM at the same time, then trash it and buffer anything else, say when you move your charecter two steps to the left into a puddle of water. Then there's the echo effect. Too much money in research when there's already a working standard.
That, and people will whine about quality of the sounds/music too. Voice and some effects wouldn't be hindered, but music heavey base and treble wouldn't sound as good (once you hear the difference once, it's hard not to notice).
As far as Ogg Vorbis decompression, I have no clue, I don't use it.
You should make FF7 a priority. Advent children is amazing eye candy. It doesn't even need a script. It's totally a fanboy movie. It caters to everything and keeps charecters in their niches, where they belong. Their personalities aren't diminished at all. I watched a subtitled version last week, but I'll be buying it when it comes out for sure.
The problem is that too many people are too lazy to teach their kids. And too many people who we don't want teaching our kids are trying legislate their beliefs into them. Yes, teaching the kids works great. But there are too many poeple with too loud voices that are reaching throught the law to try to make what they want to be right, right. In other word (not saying they're the best institutions) private schools will teach your kids what you want them to, but public schools will teach what the loudest complainer wants them to.
The majority can only rule if they'll get off their asses and do something about it.
This would be pretty cool. I mean, you could easily use this to log onto the system and have a specific profile for EVERY game. If Nintendo has a centralized online system, they could store that information and you could log onto a friend's Rev without even bringing your memory card.
A bio-sensore could be used to moniter your heartrate too. Play Resident Evil or (hopefully) a new version of Eternal Darkness and your heartbeat could control some aspect of the game (faster heartbeat, louder heartbeat, zobies find you, use more energy for tasks...). Very cool possibilities (especailly for those who can control their heart rate if it makes the game easier). Could even control how well you hold your sniper rifle (but that would likely be taken care of because you may be holding the controller for that, but there could be some form of software compensation, after all, there can only be so many super-warriors, and gamers they are not).