Most of the commments for this slashstory say the same thing. "Nintendo's doing it right still!" If you posted a comment that said something to that effect, for god sakes *go support them*. Go pick up a DS and Kirby: Canvas Curse. It's ridiculously fun, completely innovative, and supports the only major player left that *relies* on innovation to sell their products.
I hear these same comments on every Sony/MS/Nintendo debate. Gamers love the cube, etc etc. Yet each year it seems like Nintendo get's a slightly smaller piece of the market share pie.
I have all three consoles, and both new handhelds. So don't even try to flame me with "you just never tried X." The big N not only gets most of my dollars, but *all* of my respect.
"If parents only knew what their kids were dealing with these days, they would understand"
However, most don't have a clue what it's like to grow up today, so they don't understand. They listen to the media telling them it's the television and videogames screwing them up.
I've have seen this exact thing when I worked in a video game store eons ago. I can remember thinking "It's called Grand Theft Auto, what did you think it was, a mathematics study aid?"
We configure a lot of iPaq's at work. They may be what you're looking for. Haven't really looked at the detailed specs due to lack of time but they sure are purty.
I have a PS2, and a Gamecube also. The load times on the PS2 are somewhat long on some games (xbox Soul Caliber is at least 6 times faster), but streamable on others (GTA, Jak).
On the Cube I think I've waited maybe 10 seconds at most, ever, on any game.
It's not the HDD that's making your XBox faster. It's smart, intentional design of data, and when and how to access it. Are there exceptions? Sure, as always. Has the HDD made load times go away and changed the way we game forever? Not me.
All the comments I've read so far deal with some kind of theory about making supply short to increase demand.
Maybe they just realized that they aren't selling a gazillion PSPs and decided to only produce enough for current and future demand? I know it sounds crazy, but maybe it's just a duck.
Something more versatile? For what it does, the PSP is well priced. If you actually use all the features, that is.
I suppose you were thinking of an Archos Jukebox or something similar? What *is* more versatile? I've seen some things which are, featuring USB hosting and such, but they're usually in the $450+ range.
Once again, people will only upgrade when there is some tangible benefit. People upgraded to 2000 because many applications and drivers were released *only* for 2000. Then XP came out, and unless your app is really obscure, all "XP" programs will run on 2000. Except for possibly (I never bothered to check) MSes own products.
If Longhorn apps and drivers work *only* on Longhorn, then guess what, people will upgrade. Businesses too.
Of course this is the day my mod points expire. People aren't getting it. I don't know anyone, *anyone* who will buy an OS upgrade. I work at the #1 computer manufacturer in the country, and no one I work with goes to the store and buys XP. It's either pirated or preinstalled. This is why windows wins, and it's been the only reason for like 5 years now.
And for the last time what *exactly* does the Xbox HDD *do*? Does it copy levels to it for shorter load times? Well no, since not only does everything *seem* to take forever, I would need some kind of entry in my dashboard so that buying new games doesn't eventually fill up the drive.
Does it allow me to rip MP3s to it? Sort of. I can play them in some games that let me.
Does it allow me to have patches? Yes, absolutely. Not sure we really need a HDD for this in this day and age of uber-ubundant fairly large flash-storag. So why not a 1GB flash drive with a fast read-time? Wouldn't that be enough?
Sonic, Crash and Spyro were mostly slapped on bad games to bring in an audience. Nintendo's games are just plain friggin good, regardless of the character. So why not make up some new characters and build a new money-milking franchise?
I'm hoping they do *something* with the DS soon. Ever since I got my PSP I gave the DS to the girlfriend. Despite buying every game rated above 40% in any review, I have found no good use for it.
I'm crossing my fingers and hoping Kirby will save the machine in my eyes.
Agreed. I love Nintendo, and hope their new tactics succeed. It's time to build some new brands though. The plumber, although tried and true, is tired and through.
This would be a great point if you were doing an apples/apples comparision.
All women do not look great today. Women (and men for that matter) haven't suddenly *all* become so gorgeus as to have no difference.
A beautiful woman stands out because she is a rarity. The point of the article is that the new consoles are churning out all "beautiful women" and there won't be any non-beautiful women in the newer offerings.
The reason Picasso came up with some of the most brilliant art of our time is that his age saw the introduction of the camera. Artists no longer needed to struggle to replicate actual scenes, as the camera did this faster and better. Art needed to evolve to find a new niche. Picasso showed that art need not be about the image itself, but portraying the subject in a more abstract (and some would argue more complete) manner.
Games are going to have to focus on content as we approach photo-realistic real-time rendering. People are not going to buy one game over another because the grass has clearer shiner blades. It's about time too. Bring on the Ico's, Katamari's and Viewtiful Joe's of the future. Let's get back to exploring gaming as interactive entertainment and forget looking at purty images that move.
I'm sorry but this game just looks like fun. Yeah, it's a tamagotchi, and that's girly-cute and been done before. As a gamer, I should of course shun it at all costs and go buy the next truly innovative FPS that allows you pick your nose with realistic booger textures.
Sorry, but I'm in it for the game, and the fun of it. I'm sure I'll have to purchase another copy just for the girl. Maybe get her one of those nifty new electric blue DSes
My brother is a high-end corporate kind of guy. He *refuses* to even try firefox. I've tried lulling him with tabbed browsing, pop-up blocking to no effect. I tried informing him about security holes, leaking memory and crashing problems to even less effect. I tried pointing out the articles in major, mainstraim news media who stress you should *absolutely not* use IE.
Nothing. Some people love the 'it should just work' option and will continue to use it until someone fixes it. They do not, and will not understand that a product released by a company as large as Microsoft could be so horrid, and continue to be sold. In most markets this is true, you can't sell a defective product and continue to be in business. However, if no one understands, or cares, that your product is inherently broken, it'll continue to satisfy them. Especially if it's free and can't even be easily removed from your other product./rant
I disagree. I see more and more people opting for laptops with >=17" screens. These usually have dual drives and whatnot, and wind up being ridiculously powerful email readers. Ain't no way I'm calling a 12lb laptop with a 17" screen a notebook. It's barely a laptop and more like a lower-leg warmer.
Yep, all the Beamer-owners I know are cost cautious. They love to save a buck. Hell, most of 'em take the "BMW" logo off, I mean who cares about the a silly brand name? I bought this for the *performance* man.
No, the 3DO was an innovative concept in a world that had only two people, Sega and Nintendo. 3DO licensed the *hardware* out to companies to make their own (3DO Branded) machines. Which is why we had different 3DO machines (Goldstar/Panasonic, and my favorite, the 3DO Blaster PC-Card).
Yeah, they had some nifty (for the time) multimedia features (I still think my Panasonic's FZ-1 trancified audio visualization was one of the best ever), but this whole 'media convergence' idea wasn't an egg hatched by them.
Trip Hawkins, I salute you for your incredibly spectacular failed attempt at making your own market.
I believe your point is that if you compare small submarkets you can make anyone look better. Like the PSP may have outsolf the DS in Akstanistan, and Sony can claim to be a winner.
The difference is Japan is the electronic mecca of the world. There is a reason movies open in NY first, and a reason why you can use a NY opening to make speculations on future movie attendance. The niche market is an indicator of the whole.
Never noticed that about the livetv issue. Yeah, that's definetly silly now that you make me stare at it.:)
Meanwhile, batch delete can be done with the (and talk about UI nightmare) playlist option. Add everything you want to delete to the playlist, then press M, playlist options, then delete.
The UI is indeed a mess, and configuring the fonts to look properly on a tv is a nightmare (you have to get your X DPI *just* right, then change settings in the frontend for Qt, and after all *that* you have to manually adjust 6 or 7 files for your particular theme, since themes specify absolute font sizes).
That said, the reason the latest Myth release was so close to the last one is so Isaac could 'get it out the door'. The plan, so far as I understand it, is to revamp the entire UI for the next release.
I must admit watching my brothers Tivo I am extremely jealous of the it's UI. My mythbox completely trounces it on useability. I can tell my mythbox *exactly* what I want to watch and how I watch it.
Slashdot Mirror
Most of the commments for this slashstory say the same thing. "Nintendo's doing it right still!" If you posted a comment that said something to that effect, for god sakes *go support them*. Go pick up a DS and Kirby: Canvas Curse. It's ridiculously fun, completely innovative, and supports the only major player left that *relies* on innovation to sell their products.
I hear these same comments on every Sony/MS/Nintendo debate. Gamers love the cube, etc etc. Yet each year it seems like Nintendo get's a slightly smaller piece of the market share pie.
I have all three consoles, and both new handhelds. So don't even try to flame me with "you just never tried X." The big N not only gets most of my dollars, but *all* of my respect.
"If parents only knew what their kids were dealing with these days, they would understand"
However, most don't have a clue what it's like to grow up today, so they don't understand. They listen to the media telling them it's the television and videogames screwing them up.
I've have seen this exact thing when I worked in a video game store eons ago. I can remember thinking "It's called Grand Theft Auto, what did you think it was, a mathematics study aid?"
We configure a lot of iPaq's at work. They may be what you're looking for. Haven't really looked at the detailed specs due to lack of time but they sure are purty.
I have a PS2, and a Gamecube also. The load times on the PS2 are somewhat long on some games (xbox Soul Caliber is at least 6 times faster), but streamable on others (GTA, Jak).
On the Cube I think I've waited maybe 10 seconds at most, ever, on any game.
It's not the HDD that's making your XBox faster. It's smart, intentional design of data, and when and how to access it. Are there exceptions? Sure, as always. Has the HDD made load times go away and changed the way we game forever? Not me.
All the comments I've read so far deal with some kind of theory about making supply short to increase demand.
Maybe they just realized that they aren't selling a gazillion PSPs and decided to only produce enough for current and future demand? I know it sounds crazy, but maybe it's just a duck.
Something more versatile? For what it does, the PSP is well priced. If you actually use all the features, that is.
I suppose you were thinking of an Archos Jukebox or something similar? What *is* more versatile? I've seen some things which are, featuring USB hosting and such, but they're usually in the $450+ range.
Once again, people will only upgrade when there is some tangible benefit. People upgraded to 2000 because many applications and drivers were released *only* for 2000. Then XP came out, and unless your app is really obscure, all "XP" programs will run on 2000. Except for possibly (I never bothered to check) MSes own products.
If Longhorn apps and drivers work *only* on Longhorn, then guess what, people will upgrade. Businesses too.
Of course this is the day my mod points expire. People aren't getting it. I don't know anyone, *anyone* who will buy an OS upgrade. I work at the #1 computer manufacturer in the country, and no one I work with goes to the store and buys XP. It's either pirated or preinstalled. This is why windows wins, and it's been the only reason for like 5 years now.
And for the last time what *exactly* does the Xbox HDD *do*? Does it copy levels to it for shorter load times? Well no, since not only does everything *seem* to take forever, I would need some kind of entry in my dashboard so that buying new games doesn't eventually fill up the drive.
Does it allow me to rip MP3s to it? Sort of. I can play them in some games that let me.
Does it allow me to have patches? Yes, absolutely. Not sure we really need a HDD for this in this day and age of uber-ubundant fairly large flash-storag. So why not a 1GB flash drive with a fast read-time? Wouldn't that be enough?
Well, yes and no.
Sonic, Crash and Spyro were mostly slapped on bad games to bring in an audience. Nintendo's games are just plain friggin good, regardless of the character. So why not make up some new characters and build a new money-milking franchise?
I'm hoping they do *something* with the DS soon. Ever since I got my PSP I gave the DS to the girlfriend. Despite buying every game rated above 40% in any review, I have found no good use for it.
I'm crossing my fingers and hoping Kirby will save the machine in my eyes.
Agreed. I love Nintendo, and hope their new tactics succeed. It's time to build some new brands though. The plumber, although tried and true, is tired and through.
Bring on Metroid Pinball.
That's because you didn't render yours in gloriusly beautful 24 point true-type font with anti-aliased shadows. Now that my friend, is a good article.
This would be a great point if you were doing an apples/apples comparision.
All women do not look great today. Women (and men for that matter) haven't suddenly *all* become so gorgeus as to have no difference.
A beautiful woman stands out because she is a rarity. The point of the article is that the new consoles are churning out all "beautiful women" and there won't be any non-beautiful women in the newer offerings.
The reason Picasso came up with some of the most brilliant art of our time is that his age saw the introduction of the camera. Artists no longer needed to struggle to replicate actual scenes, as the camera did this faster and better. Art needed to evolve to find a new niche. Picasso showed that art need not be about the image itself, but portraying the subject in a more abstract (and some would argue more complete) manner.
Games are going to have to focus on content as we approach photo-realistic real-time rendering. People are not going to buy one game over another because the grass has clearer shiner blades. It's about time too. Bring on the Ico's, Katamari's and Viewtiful Joe's of the future. Let's get back to exploring gaming as interactive entertainment and forget looking at purty images that move.
I'm sorry but this game just looks like fun. Yeah, it's a tamagotchi, and that's girly-cute and been done before. As a gamer, I should of course shun it at all costs and go buy the next truly innovative FPS that allows you pick your nose with realistic booger textures.
Sorry, but I'm in it for the game, and the fun of it. I'm sure I'll have to purchase another copy just for the girl. Maybe get her one of those nifty new electric blue DSes
My brother is a high-end corporate kind of guy. He *refuses* to even try firefox. I've tried lulling him with tabbed browsing, pop-up blocking to no effect. I tried informing him about security holes, leaking memory and crashing problems to even less effect. I tried pointing out the articles in major, mainstraim news media who stress you should *absolutely not* use IE.
/rant
Nothing. Some people love the 'it should just work' option and will continue to use it until someone fixes it. They do not, and will not understand that a product released by a company as large as Microsoft could be so horrid, and continue to be sold. In most markets this is true, you can't sell a defective product and continue to be in business. However, if no one understands, or cares, that your product is inherently broken, it'll continue to satisfy them. Especially if it's free and can't even be easily removed from your other product.
I disagree. I see more and more people opting for laptops with >=17" screens. These usually have dual drives and whatnot, and wind up being ridiculously powerful email readers. Ain't no way I'm calling a 12lb laptop with a 17" screen a notebook. It's barely a laptop and more like a lower-leg warmer.
Yep, all the Beamer-owners I know are cost cautious. They love to save a buck. Hell, most of 'em take the "BMW" logo off, I mean who cares about the a silly brand name? I bought this for the *performance* man.
If you're looking to have this mythical convergence box you keep hearing so much about. Find out about current, less restrictive, alternatives.
Okay, you know us MythFans would get all foamy about that.
No, the 3DO was an innovative concept in a world that had only two people, Sega and Nintendo. 3DO licensed the *hardware* out to companies to make their own (3DO Branded) machines. Which is why we had different 3DO machines (Goldstar/Panasonic, and my favorite, the 3DO Blaster PC-Card).
Yeah, they had some nifty (for the time) multimedia features (I still think my Panasonic's FZ-1 trancified audio visualization was one of the best ever), but this whole 'media convergence' idea wasn't an egg hatched by them.
Trip Hawkins, I salute you for your incredibly spectacular failed attempt at making your own market.
I believe your point is that if you compare small submarkets you can make anyone look better. Like the PSP may have outsolf the DS in Akstanistan, and Sony can claim to be a winner.
The difference is Japan is the electronic mecca of the world. There is a reason movies open in NY first, and a reason why you can use a NY opening to make speculations on future movie attendance. The niche market is an indicator of the whole.
Never noticed that about the livetv issue. Yeah, that's definetly silly now that you make me stare at it. :)
Meanwhile, batch delete can be done with the (and talk about UI nightmare) playlist option. Add everything you want to delete to the playlist, then press M, playlist options, then delete.
The UI is indeed a mess, and configuring the fonts to look properly on a tv is a nightmare (you have to get your X DPI *just* right, then change settings in the frontend for Qt, and after all *that* you have to manually adjust 6 or 7 files for your particular theme, since themes specify absolute font sizes).
:)
That said, the reason the latest Myth release was so close to the last one is so Isaac could 'get it out the door'. The plan, so far as I understand it, is to revamp the entire UI for the next release.
I must admit watching my brothers Tivo I am extremely jealous of the it's UI. My mythbox completely trounces it on useability. I can tell my mythbox *exactly* what I want to watch and how I watch it.
Give a newcomer a chance.