Initial reports from the gameboy version of Activision Anthology say it's got a number of obvious bugs, and the colors are kind of off due to the frontlighting / nofrontlighting depending on which Gameboy you have.
That said, the Playstation 2 version absolutely rocks. If it had the score-saving and original badge requirements the GBA version has, it'd be perfect.
X-Play is hopefully better than Judgement Day on G4... they offer ridiculously biased reviews, even if their scoring at least is reasonable.
Essentially, one of the two reviewers makes a point to endlessly ridicule every fighting game ("It's just stupid button mashing" was his summary of GGX2 and CapvsSnk2) and RPG out there ("Boring" was his summary of KotoR). He basically only likes action games and takes great pains to sarcastically yap over top of the other guy while he's trying to break down the good and bad points of a particular game in a reasonable way.
I guess the idea is that he's supposed to represent the more cynical and casual gamer, but in the end he's just kind of a dick...
The problem with TSO wasn't so much that it was a chatroom. The idea of a chatroom with the extensive home decorating and customization abilities The Sims has is appealing; carving your own little personal niche in the game world, to your liking and tastes and having friends over to hang out and party is cool. Add in a few interactive minigames and some easy user content systems and you're done...
No, the problem was that somewhere along the line they decided what people loved about the Sims wasn't the creativity the player could exercise, but it was -- ready for this? -- RAISING METERS! Yes, the real fun of the Sims is working on your 'skills', making money with meaningless treadmilling, and traditional MMORPG character building. Add on top of that a complete lack of user-created content and you've got TSO. After all, The Sims is so amazingly popular because of its micromanagement gameplay challenge, right? Not because people throw on a money cheat and then goof off with the AI and building systems, right?
If TSO had been merely a chatroom but with extensive support for folks who wanted to coordinate their couch with their drapes, it might've done better than the bastard child of Everquest they were looking to make it into.
Personally, I hope someone in Japan sees this list and makes a GBA version of Ice-Climber, so that 4 people can work with / compete against eachother to reach the top of that mountain alive. It was a genius design then, and it would be a breath of fresh air now.
You can get Ice Climber for the eReader, but the problem is that it's single-player only -- there's no link features. It seems like a waste, as although the game is entertaining in SP, it really shines in the friend-and-sometimes-foe MP mode you describe.
Just some info for everyone. ALL Japanese dating sims are porn. Except for 2.
Somebody's forgetting Sakura Taisen, the hybrid strategy game / datesim wherein your relationship with your teammates helps determine your outcome in battle.
Sega's looking to bring these over, but not starting from #1, which is aging fast -- part #5 takes place IN America, and is the most likely starting point.
And let's not forget the combo Datesim / Restaurant Management RPG for the X-Box, the non-adult spinoffs from datesims Comic Party and To Heart... or the US-released Thousand Arms, where the datesim side of the game relates to your weapon smithing skills.
Your assertion that there are only two non-pornographic datesims is invalid.
Don't worry, GITS2:Innocence has nothing whatsoever to do with GITS2:Man-Machine Complex.
Basically, the director (Mamoru Oshii, of Patlabor, Jin-Roh and the original GITS movie fame) wanted to write his own story within the universe of GITS but not involving the manga's plot or characters. It's basically a complete spinoff, focusing more on drama and science fiction than on police action and Motoko's buttfloss.
Folks who liked the CONCEPTS presented in the first movie but felt the plot was a little thin (which it was, compared to the original manga due to condensing down the story) might like this movie more.
Or they could go down to the local coffee shop and strike up a conversation, thus doing away with all layers of abstraction and making friends at the same time!!!
What a great idea! Okay, do you want to pay for the airline ticket to fly you out to my coffee shop, or the other way around?
Let's not forget the innate advantage of the internet, folks.:) You can make friends at your local coffee shop with local people, AND a virtual coffee shop with worldwide people. I prefer to support both. Even if I don't drink coffee.
People with mundane, boring lives play video games to escape, and play as "someone cool." Why would people with mundane, boring lives shell out money just to role-play as themselves?
On one hand, I'd agree with you. I don't like that There has very little social tolerance for playing as something other than what you are; I tried cross-avataring there and it caused some social problems. Nothing on the scale of X-Box Live's verbal abuse, but enough for me to finagle my way through customer support (who are not set up to do this sort of thing, but performed admirably)and get changed to male.
But on the other hand, this isn't a game. It's basically chat, and as such, it's more of an extension of yourself than an RPG would be, where your species, gender, race, class, etc. all play into your stats in some way. Since you're not roleplaying, there's no need to go too far from your norm. For some, it's comforting to be able to drop the layers of abstraction and just TALK to someone, you know?
I've been There for awhile now, and while the initial cost outlay is staggering for an online game (I have to pay WHAT just to get voice chat? I have to pay WHAT to get a compass? HOW much just to hear jukeboxes? etc.) once you have a decent set of clothes and a vehicle or two, you're all set for casual play without a need to buy anything else. I think they should've included more of their 'options' as game features in your basic subscription, but that's the only real money dig they get on you if you're not a fashion hound.
While the product placement is amusing, in the end it doesn't really make a huge difference. Nobody buys the overpriced 'speedy sneakers' when you can just get a hoverbike which plows across terrain at insane speeds to begin with for cheaper. It's more fun to submit your own clothing designs and play marketer yourself rather than spend on corporate marketers; I've designed a few shirts and I'm hoping once key bugs are ironed out, I can start using gmax to make new decorative objects like arcade cabinets.
For a more hardcore if rougher around the edges experience with better user extensibility, check out Second Life -- but I checked it out and passed on it, because at the end of the day I just want the program to work so I can relax and chat with folks. There is a very polished, very simple GUI driven chat client aimed at casual users. I'll save the technical tangles for my day job.:)
Biggest problem I have with online gaming? Other people. Everybody I bump into on X-Box Live tends to fall under two categories.
One: People who really get off on acting like complete jerks, ruining your gameplay experience with abusive behavior and cheating. These are the punks who 'pull' on Capcom vs. SNK 2 (quitting the game at the last possible second, thus giving you BOTH a loss in the rankings) and trash-talk endlessly. I have a factor I call the 'Zero to Cocksucker' factor for an online game, which is exactly how long after connecting for the first time it takes for someone to call me a 'fag'. Record is currently 45 seconds for the bundled motorcycle racer on the XBL demo disk.
Two: People who are absolute masters at the game you've selected to play. You die five seconds after respawning, you're beaten down with endless combos you have no hope of countering, you generally get utterly annihilated with no hope whatsoever of getting a single frag/hit/point in, much less winning. Yes, the answer to this is "Get skillz" but it's hard to get skills when you can't find anybody on your level to practice with beyond the useless computer AI.
So in the end, I'm either so annoyed or so frustrated that I go play a single player game or I find something else to do with my time.
Solution? Better matching services to ensure reasonable skill level mixes (and attracting a stream of newbies to keep the population as a whole from being too advanced), making the player feedback actually mean something so you can tell ahead of time if sixty thousand people have branded someone a jerk, etc. There are means to reducing these problems, even if they can't be eliminated. Most games just aren't designed with that in mind yet.
Every year Otakon holds one of the biggest east coast anime conventions at the Baltimore Convention Center, right on the Inner Harbor. If the WiFi reaches that far, I might be able to wank my inner geek by not only attending a japanese animation convention while wearing a schoolgirl costume with mechanical power-up accessories, but actually posting live cosplay photos back to my website at the same time.
I recall another game console where it had great strength in its first party titles, even if the third party was a bit wobbly; a number of key characters and franchises with rabid fanbases which were proven sellers in the past; and a console which was cheap compared to the competition and sold to its niche.
I think it was called 'Dreamcast'. At least check they were being sold out of stock at fifty bucks a pop to folks who wanted to use them as cheap Linux routers.
You can't survive as a niche machine, no matter how many game design gods you have on your payroll. Maybe the niche is big enough to keep Nintendo afloat right now but if they aren't going to TRY to fight tooth and nail against Sony, they will eventually fade away. Nintendo is never going to say "Eh, we don't need third party, Mario and Link and Metroid will keep us in the green" because it's just not true.
I agree that in general, tolerance of a media genre and those who consume it is a good idea. Not labelling all video game players as potential killers and all BDSM enthusiasts as violent sex offenders is groovy.
Here's where it falls apart for child porn: it's illegal to produce it, because to MAKE it, you need to abuse children. That means that consumers of it drive up demand to abuse more children. That's absolutely not groovy in the slightest.
With BDSM or video games or even fake-rape porn (or those stupid fake snuff porns out there) it's all consenting adults and virutal acts. Actors and artists depicting what could be illegal, but only simulated. Whereas if you stick two kids in a room and tell them to go at it and tape it, that's not going to wash since there's no 'consenting adults' or 'virtual' factor. It's a crime, period.
Ergo: Naked kiddie pictures are something that you have to stamp out, because at the root, it's illegal and destructive no matter how nice some of the people who look at it may be.
Of course, by this logic, that means that drawings of kids with no actual flesh and blood model the artist works from would be fine just as Grand Theft Auto's simulated violence is fine... but I'll let you draw your own moral conclusions on that grounds.
American McGee's Alice. The trailer was all CG rendered FMV which didn't actually match scenes from the game -- but it was very cinematic, stylishly done and pretty exciting.
And it alone was enough to land a potential movie deal with Wes Craven, which just goes to show...
The nice thing is that even if the trailer didn't show game footage, the game maintained the atmosphere of the trailer -- you can't accuse them of lying about the experience, you just got a different experience in the same exact vein. Good stuff.
I love backwards compatibility. I like to know that my favorite titles will carry over, and if I want to buy some legacy game down the road, I'll still be able to play it. Glad to hear the PS3 will do this now.
But I also own an X-Box, and the chances of it doing the backwards-dealie are looking slimmer. Microsoft just ditched NVidia and have shifted to ATI to do their graphics chips for the XB2 -- will the old games still be playable on new hardware? Have coders worked with a generic API like Direct X, or did they go to the metal on the NVidia part and thus old XB games have no chance of dealing with the ATI part?
I look forward to a day when all the major consoles simply 'upgrade' as they go along without cutting off support for yesterday's games, much as the PS and Gameboy series are doing. I hope the others follow in suit.
Street Fighter: This would really have to be about one on one fighting, PvP style. Probably complicated mechanics about stances, crouching, counters, etc. Not sure it'd be fun unless you really get off on intensely complicated yet fifth grade math level dice rolling antics. Very little 'roleplaying' potential given the horrific mess the Street Fighter 'story' is in, across various games and animes.
Darkstalkers: See Street Fighter, but at least it has a bit more of a story to it, and you can likely draw folks who enjoy goth style RPGs into a more roleplaying driven experience. If they can include the wild fighting styles from the games, where nearly anything goes and there's a heavy supernatural element beyond just 'you take 1d6 slashing damage' it'll be interesting -- you shouldn't be limited to a particular race or class when designing a character, to make it really work.
Rival Schools: Now we're talking. Since you have two on two teams (pulled from rival schools / gangs / groups which are composed of 3-4 characters) there's some good roleplaying potential AND team fighting potential here. Since the game centers on taking a youth culture aspect (clubs, sports, etc) and developing a martial art out of it character creation should be fun. Martial Arts Computer Programming Club, anyone?
Final Fight: OHHBABY, now we're getting somewhere! It's a small 3 person team vs. hordes and hordes of minions. Heavy emphasis on crowd control techniques as you try to keep the battle managable without being overwhelmed; just the thing for wargamers. Add in some scattered powerups which you need to strategically use to keep the horde at bay and it could work. Zero roleplaying potential but for wall to wall action this will work.
I'm definitely interested in these games; we'll see what direction they take, but it might prove a fun experience if they play off the strengths of each title.
Actually, the FDA regulates all manners of medical devices; there's an entire branch of the org which deals with them, the Center for Devices and Radiological Health. That means everything from syringes to x-ray machines to wheelchairs.
I work as a webmaster over there (All Opinions Expressed Are Mine And Have Nothing To Do With My Employer) and got to post the happy news of this thing to the CDRH website (http://www.fda.gov/cdrh) today. Whee!...please don't slashdot our database server, we're a little understaffed today...
NWN was never supposed to be a sequel to BG2. That wasn't in the works from day one; it was always intended to be a combination of SP game + MP capability + user creation of modules. Basically, a D&D construction set.
Because they focused so much on the MP and user content, the SP side suffered, I'll admit. But even then, it wasn't intended to be BG3.
I think KOTOR proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Bioware is still capable of doing a solid single player RPG, mind you. And it's based in part on the Aurora technology that powers NWN.
Agreed -- I'm getting this BECAUSE of the PS2 controller. MAME is good and all, but it's really difficult to play a game like Roadblasters with the arrow keys or your mouse, and dual analog control of Robotron sounds too sweet for words. (It'd also mean less frenetic wear 'n tear on my X-Arcade.)
They're offering more than the usual four or five games, done properly on a real game controller, and with bonus materials. As long as it's not fifty bucks, I'm sold. This sounds as groovy as the Activision Anthology disc.
You cannot play this game without the toolset because that is how it works. A DM creates modules and hosts them on his/her box and you connect to it and play. This means one of the people you play with has to run windows.
Wrong.
There's a perfectly usable Linux server -- so your earlier startement that Linux can't host the games is wrong. The DM client is not windows only, so that's wrong. The only windows only component is the toolset... but there are hundreds of modules already made by earlier users which you could download and play. So, you can have a 100% Linux solution.
The only drawback is that the toolset is, as you note, Windows only. If you want to MAKE your own mods and not play existing ones you are out of luck. If that's going to cripple the entire experience for you, okay, don't buy it. Fair enough, vote with your dollars. But at least get your facts straight before complaining.
With the Linux and Mac versions being so late, there's probably not nearly as many people still playing it now as there were, say, a year ago.
Good news! You're wrong.
The community is still hella strong -- scope out www.neverwinterconnections.com for all your multiplayer matching needs. Nobody plays the official campiagn; it's always user mods, and usually ones the DM himself whipped up. You won't have to worry about people having played through the content already and then left the community.
You can download hundreds of good mods (amoung thousands of average ones) at nwvault.ign.com. Aside from movie playback, which is rarely used and almost always optional, you'll be able to play the same single player or multiplayer mods windows users have been enjoying.
Trust me, it's not too late to jump into NWN. If anything, you have the advantage of not being around during the early days when mods were really clumsy and new. Now you have multiple polished masterpieces to pick from and some thriving match services./p
It was announced yesterday that the Shadows of Urentide expansion pack which goes on sale tomorrow comes on disk with a linux version.
Yes, it's way the hell after the announced simultaneous three platform release, but at least it's here and if you're not too busy playing Tux Racer and complaining about lack of instant gaming support, it's the most extensible and community supported RPG system to date. Have fun and remember, the campaign the game ships with ain't nothing compared to some of the great stuff the community has produced, so don't limit yourself. (Although the story in SoU's single player campaign looks pretty good in its own right.)/p
MTV Music Gen 2 is what got me into creating my own music. Yes, there are better programs based on the PC out there with a wider range of samples -- but Music2k got me started with everything I needed in one 50 dollar package, without having to purchase additional loop libraries or hardware. Only extra I got was the optional sampler, so I could import some loops (not my horrible singing) into my music.
It might make a good tool for teaching kids the basics of music -- while it can't do classical compositions, it's great for learning the basics of verse / chorus / verse and music structure, as well as how various elements such as rhythm, bass and melody work together. Might inspire a kid to go and get a real instrument, or produce more extensive compositions using a more professional tool like Acid Music.
Yep, with SoU (and technically with the normal 1.30 patch for regular NWN) we're going to get persistent data storage. Just the thing for an online world to be more and more MUDlike, or for a single player campaign to store data inbetween modules -- lord knows I could've used that with Penultima, instead of the cheap inventory hacks I did...
NWN has been growing and maturing ever since release. If anybody gave up on it because of the fairly weak single player campaign it shipped with, you may want another look -- a 'game' like this lives or dies by its community, and the community's living quite well. Even if all you want is singleplayer, that's provided for by the community... and SoU looks like it'll have a good SP experience too.
(Yes, the Linux and Max clients aren't fully prepared yet, and no, they didn't ship with the box. But the game is still one of the most complete community development driven RPG experiences you will ever find.)
Generally, I agree with you. But not completely, and not for the examples cited:
"It's not my fault I have lung cancer, the tabacco companies should have told me smoking is harmfull"
For decades, the tobacco companies DIDN'T say smoking was harmful. They did everything they could to deny it loudly and publically. So, folks who are 50 years old and dying of a hideously malignant cancer have a right to sue. Nowadays, though, the packages are labelled, it's common knowledge, and no teenager who's smoking six packs a day has the right to claim ignorance.
"It's not my fault I'm a drug addict, the dealer gave me crack for free and didn't tell me it's addictive"
Can you site a case where this was actually claimed? Even if it was, I doubt it'd survive in court any longer than the 'wrestling addiction' case in Florida did. (Kid beats another kid to death, lawyer claims WWE wrestling drove him to do it, judge lays the smackdown and tells him to get lost. Good move.)
And heck, you didn't mention it, but let's add the usual case example cited by this claim:
"It's not my fault I got burned by this McDonald's coffee, nobody told me it was hot!"
This one usually gets cited and laughed at, but what folks don't know is that the coffee in question was actually OBSCENELY hot, beyond the point of being safe because McDonalds likes to cut corners and keep an old pot of coffee around as long as they can by overheating it. Plus the suit was only for medical damages (to cover extensive skin grafts needed, not just a 'Oh, that hurt!' whine) and the jury are the ones who decided to inflate that to millions of dollars in order to punish McDonalds.
While there are plenty of examples of people using the legal system to dodge responsibility and make money, there's plenty of examples where legitimate claims are raised and illegitimate claims get tossed promptly out of court. It works out in the end.
Slashdot Mirror
Initial reports from the gameboy version of Activision Anthology say it's got a number of obvious bugs, and the colors are kind of off due to the frontlighting / nofrontlighting depending on which Gameboy you have.
That said, the Playstation 2 version absolutely rocks. If it had the score-saving and original badge requirements the GBA version has, it'd be perfect.
X-Play is hopefully better than Judgement Day on G4... they offer ridiculously biased reviews, even if their scoring at least is reasonable.
Essentially, one of the two reviewers makes a point to endlessly ridicule every fighting game ("It's just stupid button mashing" was his summary of GGX2 and CapvsSnk2) and RPG out there ("Boring" was his summary of KotoR). He basically only likes action games and takes great pains to sarcastically yap over top of the other guy while he's trying to break down the good and bad points of a particular game in a reasonable way.
I guess the idea is that he's supposed to represent the more cynical and casual gamer, but in the end he's just kind of a dick...
The problem with TSO wasn't so much that it was a chatroom. The idea of a chatroom with the extensive home decorating and customization abilities The Sims has is appealing; carving your own little personal niche in the game world, to your liking and tastes and having friends over to hang out and party is cool. Add in a few interactive minigames and some easy user content systems and you're done...
No, the problem was that somewhere along the line they decided what people loved about the Sims wasn't the creativity the player could exercise, but it was -- ready for this? -- RAISING METERS! Yes, the real fun of the Sims is working on your 'skills', making money with meaningless treadmilling, and traditional MMORPG character building. Add on top of that a complete lack of user-created content and you've got TSO. After all, The Sims is so amazingly popular because of its micromanagement gameplay challenge, right? Not because people throw on a money cheat and then goof off with the AI and building systems, right?
If TSO had been merely a chatroom but with extensive support for folks who wanted to coordinate their couch with their drapes, it might've done better than the bastard child of Everquest they were looking to make it into.
Personally, I hope someone in Japan sees this list and makes a GBA version of Ice-Climber, so that 4 people can work with / compete against eachother to reach the top of that mountain alive. It was a genius design then, and it would be a breath of fresh air now.
You can get Ice Climber for the eReader, but the problem is that it's single-player only -- there's no link features. It seems like a waste, as although the game is entertaining in SP, it really shines in the friend-and-sometimes-foe MP mode you describe.
Just some info for everyone. ALL Japanese dating sims are porn. Except for 2.
Somebody's forgetting Sakura Taisen, the hybrid strategy game / datesim wherein your relationship with your teammates helps determine your outcome in battle.
Sega's looking to bring these over, but not starting from #1, which is aging fast -- part #5 takes place IN America, and is the most likely starting point.
And let's not forget the combo Datesim / Restaurant Management RPG for the X-Box, the non-adult spinoffs from datesims Comic Party and To Heart... or the US-released Thousand Arms, where the datesim side of the game relates to your weapon smithing skills.
Your assertion that there are only two non-pornographic datesims is invalid.
Don't worry, GITS2:Innocence has nothing whatsoever to do with GITS2:Man-Machine Complex.
Basically, the director (Mamoru Oshii, of Patlabor, Jin-Roh and the original GITS movie fame) wanted to write his own story within the universe of GITS but not involving the manga's plot or characters. It's basically a complete spinoff, focusing more on drama and science fiction than on police action and Motoko's buttfloss.
Folks who liked the CONCEPTS presented in the first movie but felt the plot was a little thin (which it was, compared to the original manga due to condensing down the story) might like this movie more.
Or they could go down to the local coffee shop and strike up a conversation, thus doing away with all layers of abstraction and making friends at the same time!!!
:) You can make friends at your local coffee shop with local people, AND a virtual coffee shop with worldwide people. I prefer to support both. Even if I don't drink coffee.
What a great idea! Okay, do you want to pay for the airline ticket to fly you out to my coffee shop, or the other way around?
Let's not forget the innate advantage of the internet, folks.
People with mundane, boring lives play video games to escape, and play as "someone cool." Why would people with mundane, boring lives shell out money just to role-play as themselves?
On one hand, I'd agree with you. I don't like that There has very little social tolerance for playing as something other than what you are; I tried cross-avataring there and it caused some social problems. Nothing on the scale of X-Box Live's verbal abuse, but enough for me to finagle my way through customer support (who are not set up to do this sort of thing, but performed admirably)and get changed to male.
But on the other hand, this isn't a game. It's basically chat, and as such, it's more of an extension of yourself than an RPG would be, where your species, gender, race, class, etc. all play into your stats in some way. Since you're not roleplaying, there's no need to go too far from your norm. For some, it's comforting to be able to drop the layers of abstraction and just TALK to someone, you know?
Random spotty review follows...
:)
I've been There for awhile now, and while the initial cost outlay is staggering for an online game (I have to pay WHAT just to get voice chat? I have to pay WHAT to get a compass? HOW much just to hear jukeboxes? etc.) once you have a decent set of clothes and a vehicle or two, you're all set for casual play without a need to buy anything else. I think they should've included more of their 'options' as game features in your basic subscription, but that's the only real money dig they get on you if you're not a fashion hound.
While the product placement is amusing, in the end it doesn't really make a huge difference. Nobody buys the overpriced 'speedy sneakers' when you can just get a hoverbike which plows across terrain at insane speeds to begin with for cheaper. It's more fun to submit your own clothing designs and play marketer yourself rather than spend on corporate marketers; I've designed a few shirts and I'm hoping once key bugs are ironed out, I can start using gmax to make new decorative objects like arcade cabinets.
For a more hardcore if rougher around the edges experience with better user extensibility, check out Second Life -- but I checked it out and passed on it, because at the end of the day I just want the program to work so I can relax and chat with folks. There is a very polished, very simple GUI driven chat client aimed at casual users. I'll save the technical tangles for my day job.
Biggest problem I have with online gaming? Other people. Everybody I bump into on X-Box Live tends to fall under two categories.
One: People who really get off on acting like complete jerks, ruining your gameplay experience with abusive behavior and cheating. These are the punks who 'pull' on Capcom vs. SNK 2 (quitting the game at the last possible second, thus giving you BOTH a loss in the rankings) and trash-talk endlessly. I have a factor I call the 'Zero to Cocksucker' factor for an online game, which is exactly how long after connecting for the first time it takes for someone to call me a 'fag'. Record is currently 45 seconds for the bundled motorcycle racer on the XBL demo disk.
Two: People who are absolute masters at the game you've selected to play. You die five seconds after respawning, you're beaten down with endless combos you have no hope of countering, you generally get utterly annihilated with no hope whatsoever of getting a single frag/hit/point in, much less winning. Yes, the answer to this is "Get skillz" but it's hard to get skills when you can't find anybody on your level to practice with beyond the useless computer AI.
So in the end, I'm either so annoyed or so frustrated that I go play a single player game or I find something else to do with my time.
Solution? Better matching services to ensure reasonable skill level mixes (and attracting a stream of newbies to keep the population as a whole from being too advanced), making the player feedback actually mean something so you can tell ahead of time if sixty thousand people have branded someone a jerk, etc. There are means to reducing these problems, even if they can't be eliminated. Most games just aren't designed with that in mind yet.
Every year Otakon holds one of the biggest east coast anime conventions at the Baltimore Convention Center, right on the Inner Harbor. If the WiFi reaches that far, I might be able to wank my inner geek by not only attending a japanese animation convention while wearing a schoolgirl costume with mechanical power-up accessories, but actually posting live cosplay photos back to my website at the same time.
Life is good. Or sad. Or good!
I recall another game console where it had great strength in its first party titles, even if the third party was a bit wobbly; a number of key characters and franchises with rabid fanbases which were proven sellers in the past; and a console which was cheap compared to the competition and sold to its niche.
I think it was called 'Dreamcast'. At least check they were being sold out of stock at fifty bucks a pop to folks who wanted to use them as cheap Linux routers.
You can't survive as a niche machine, no matter how many game design gods you have on your payroll. Maybe the niche is big enough to keep Nintendo afloat right now but if they aren't going to TRY to fight tooth and nail against Sony, they will eventually fade away. Nintendo is never going to say "Eh, we don't need third party, Mario and Link and Metroid will keep us in the green" because it's just not true.
I agree that in general, tolerance of a media genre and those who consume it is a good idea. Not labelling all video game players as potential killers and all BDSM enthusiasts as violent sex offenders is groovy.
Here's where it falls apart for child porn: it's illegal to produce it, because to MAKE it, you need to abuse children. That means that consumers of it drive up demand to abuse more children. That's absolutely not groovy in the slightest.
With BDSM or video games or even fake-rape porn (or those stupid fake snuff porns out there) it's all consenting adults and virutal acts. Actors and artists depicting what could be illegal, but only simulated. Whereas if you stick two kids in a room and tell them to go at it and tape it, that's not going to wash since there's no 'consenting adults' or 'virtual' factor. It's a crime, period.
Ergo: Naked kiddie pictures are something that you have to stamp out, because at the root, it's illegal and destructive no matter how nice some of the people who look at it may be.
Of course, by this logic, that means that drawings of kids with no actual flesh and blood model the artist works from would be fine just as Grand Theft Auto's simulated violence is fine... but I'll let you draw your own moral conclusions on that grounds.
American McGee's Alice. The trailer was all CG rendered FMV which didn't actually match scenes from the game -- but it was very cinematic, stylishly done and pretty exciting.
And it alone was enough to land a potential movie deal with Wes Craven, which just goes to show...
The nice thing is that even if the trailer didn't show game footage, the game maintained the atmosphere of the trailer -- you can't accuse them of lying about the experience, you just got a different experience in the same exact vein. Good stuff.
I love backwards compatibility. I like to know that my favorite titles will carry over, and if I want to buy some legacy game down the road, I'll still be able to play it. Glad to hear the PS3 will do this now.
But I also own an X-Box, and the chances of it doing the backwards-dealie are looking slimmer. Microsoft just ditched NVidia and have shifted to ATI to do their graphics chips for the XB2 -- will the old games still be playable on new hardware? Have coders worked with a generic API like Direct X, or did they go to the metal on the NVidia part and thus old XB games have no chance of dealing with the ATI part?
I look forward to a day when all the major consoles simply 'upgrade' as they go along without cutting off support for yesterday's games, much as the PS and Gameboy series are doing. I hope the others follow in suit.
Let's take a look:
Street Fighter: This would really have to be about one on one fighting, PvP style. Probably complicated mechanics about stances, crouching, counters, etc. Not sure it'd be fun unless you really get off on intensely complicated yet fifth grade math level dice rolling antics. Very little 'roleplaying' potential given the horrific mess the Street Fighter 'story' is in, across various games and animes.
Darkstalkers: See Street Fighter, but at least it has a bit more of a story to it, and you can likely draw folks who enjoy goth style RPGs into a more roleplaying driven experience. If they can include the wild fighting styles from the games, where nearly anything goes and there's a heavy supernatural element beyond just 'you take 1d6 slashing damage' it'll be interesting -- you shouldn't be limited to a particular race or class when designing a character, to make it really work.
Rival Schools: Now we're talking. Since you have two on two teams (pulled from rival schools / gangs / groups which are composed of 3-4 characters) there's some good roleplaying potential AND team fighting potential here. Since the game centers on taking a youth culture aspect (clubs, sports, etc) and developing a martial art out of it character creation should be fun. Martial Arts Computer Programming Club, anyone?
Final Fight: OHHBABY, now we're getting somewhere! It's a small 3 person team vs. hordes and hordes of minions. Heavy emphasis on crowd control techniques as you try to keep the battle managable without being overwhelmed; just the thing for wargamers. Add in some scattered powerups which you need to strategically use to keep the horde at bay and it could work. Zero roleplaying potential but for wall to wall action this will work.
I'm definitely interested in these games; we'll see what direction they take, but it might prove a fun experience if they play off the strengths of each title.
Actually, the FDA regulates all manners of medical devices; there's an entire branch of the org which deals with them, the Center for Devices and Radiological Health. That means everything from syringes to x-ray machines to wheelchairs.
I work as a webmaster over there (All Opinions Expressed Are Mine And Have Nothing To Do With My Employer) and got to post the happy news of this thing to the CDRH website (http://www.fda.gov/cdrh) today. Whee! ...please don't slashdot our database server, we're a little understaffed today...
NWN was never supposed to be a sequel to BG2. That wasn't in the works from day one; it was always intended to be a combination of SP game + MP capability + user creation of modules. Basically, a D&D construction set.
Because they focused so much on the MP and user content, the SP side suffered, I'll admit. But even then, it wasn't intended to be BG3.
I think KOTOR proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Bioware is still capable of doing a solid single player RPG, mind you. And it's based in part on the Aurora technology that powers NWN.
Agreed -- I'm getting this BECAUSE of the PS2 controller. MAME is good and all, but it's really difficult to play a game like Roadblasters with the arrow keys or your mouse, and dual analog control of Robotron sounds too sweet for words. (It'd also mean less frenetic wear 'n tear on my X-Arcade.) They're offering more than the usual four or five games, done properly on a real game controller, and with bonus materials. As long as it's not fifty bucks, I'm sold. This sounds as groovy as the Activision Anthology disc.
You cannot play this game without the toolset because that is how it works. A DM creates modules and hosts them on his/her box and you connect to it and play. This means one of the people you play with has to run windows.
Wrong.
There's a perfectly usable Linux server -- so your earlier startement that Linux can't host the games is wrong. The DM client is not windows only, so that's wrong. The only windows only component is the toolset... but there are hundreds of modules already made by earlier users which you could download and play. So, you can have a 100% Linux solution.
The only drawback is that the toolset is, as you note, Windows only. If you want to MAKE your own mods and not play existing ones you are out of luck. If that's going to cripple the entire experience for you, okay, don't buy it. Fair enough, vote with your dollars. But at least get your facts straight before complaining.
With the Linux and Mac versions being so late, there's probably not nearly as many people still playing it now as there were, say, a year ago.
Good news! You're wrong.
The community is still hella strong -- scope out www.neverwinterconnections.com for all your multiplayer matching needs. Nobody plays the official campiagn; it's always user mods, and usually ones the DM himself whipped up. You won't have to worry about people having played through the content already and then left the community.
You can download hundreds of good mods (amoung thousands of average ones) at nwvault.ign.com. Aside from movie playback, which is rarely used and almost always optional, you'll be able to play the same single player or multiplayer mods windows users have been enjoying.
Trust me, it's not too late to jump into NWN. If anything, you have the advantage of not being around during the early days when mods were really clumsy and new. Now you have multiple polished masterpieces to pick from and some thriving match services./p
It was announced yesterday that the Shadows of Urentide expansion pack which goes on sale tomorrow comes on disk with a linux version.
Yes, it's way the hell after the announced simultaneous three platform release, but at least it's here and if you're not too busy playing Tux Racer and complaining about lack of instant gaming support, it's the most extensible and community supported RPG system to date. Have fun and remember, the campaign the game ships with ain't nothing compared to some of the great stuff the community has produced, so don't limit yourself. (Although the story in SoU's single player campaign looks pretty good in its own right.)/p
MTV Music Gen 2 is what got me into creating my own music. Yes, there are better programs based on the PC out there with a wider range of samples -- but Music2k got me started with everything I needed in one 50 dollar package, without having to purchase additional loop libraries or hardware. Only extra I got was the optional sampler, so I could import some loops (not my horrible singing) into my music.
It might make a good tool for teaching kids the basics of music -- while it can't do classical compositions, it's great for learning the basics of verse / chorus / verse and music structure, as well as how various elements such as rhythm, bass and melody work together. Might inspire a kid to go and get a real instrument, or produce more extensive compositions using a more professional tool like Acid Music.
Yep, with SoU (and technically with the normal 1.30 patch for regular NWN) we're going to get persistent data storage. Just the thing for an online world to be more and more MUDlike, or for a single player campaign to store data inbetween modules -- lord knows I could've used that with Penultima, instead of the cheap inventory hacks I did...
NWN has been growing and maturing ever since release. If anybody gave up on it because of the fairly weak single player campaign it shipped with, you may want another look -- a 'game' like this lives or dies by its community, and the community's living quite well. Even if all you want is singleplayer, that's provided for by the community... and SoU looks like it'll have a good SP experience too.
(Yes, the Linux and Max clients aren't fully prepared yet, and no, they didn't ship with the box. But the game is still one of the most complete community development driven RPG experiences you will ever find.)
Generally, I agree with you. But not completely, and not for the examples cited:
"It's not my fault I have lung cancer, the tabacco companies should have told me smoking is harmfull"
For decades, the tobacco companies DIDN'T say smoking was harmful. They did everything they could to deny it loudly and publically. So, folks who are 50 years old and dying of a hideously malignant cancer have a right to sue. Nowadays, though, the packages are labelled, it's common knowledge, and no teenager who's smoking six packs a day has the right to claim ignorance.
"It's not my fault I'm a drug addict, the dealer gave me crack for free and didn't tell me it's addictive"
Can you site a case where this was actually claimed? Even if it was, I doubt it'd survive in court any longer than the 'wrestling addiction' case in Florida did. (Kid beats another kid to death, lawyer claims WWE wrestling drove him to do it, judge lays the smackdown and tells him to get lost. Good move.)
And heck, you didn't mention it, but let's add the usual case example cited by this claim:
"It's not my fault I got burned by this McDonald's coffee, nobody told me it was hot!"
This one usually gets cited and laughed at, but what folks don't know is that the coffee in question was actually OBSCENELY hot, beyond the point of being safe because McDonalds likes to cut corners and keep an old pot of coffee around as long as they can by overheating it. Plus the suit was only for medical damages (to cover extensive skin grafts needed, not just a 'Oh, that hurt!' whine) and the jury are the ones who decided to inflate that to millions of dollars in order to punish McDonalds.
While there are plenty of examples of people using the legal system to dodge responsibility and make money, there's plenty of examples where legitimate claims are raised and illegitimate claims get tossed promptly out of court. It works out in the end.