Gentoo enforces a knowledge of your system your building.
Sure a "desktop" may not have much performance increase since alot is already optimized, but imagine building and rolling your own Gentoo servers.
1. You know everything that is on them 2. You know how to build from scratch 3. *EVERYTHING* is optimized for your specific server, memory configuration and CPU's.
Heck, even in high end deskstop usage, the "ports" system Gentoo uses is superb.
Yeah, kde/x/gnome take a few hours, but come on, the beauty of linux is the ability to optimize the darn thing for your system.
Must be your PC. Runs great for me. I have probably 5,000 pages of documentation for all the applications, servers, networks and systems that i run. (all saved in HTML as well.. but html is a pain in the arse to edit in this much quantity)
I couldn't possibly do it in any other product as easily and affordable as i can in office 2000. Powerpoint fits in nicely, my visio drawings are where i want them and formating is easy.
I have yet to find an office suit as STABLE as Office 2k.
I never liked 95 since it doesn't have the document integration that i need.
" But I would have to say the only reason I dislike Microsoft is their apparent philosophy of don't produce good products, kill the competition, and use lawyers as much as possible to help both of the above.
Okay.. there is an opinion.. a agree, i expressed mine as well
"If MS produced quality products, I wouldn't care much about their attempts at complete world domination. But, since they don't produce quality products because they don't have to with the monopoly they have"
Now that is just the typical stuff i see here, day in and day out.. Share an opinion and then follow it up with an assumed fact.
I guess i'm not allowed to post my opinion and a simple fact either?
OpenGL only solves one problem, and that is the Graphics.
DirectX provides an API all aspects of deployment and operations. You get Sound, Video, Graphics, Networking, Device integration (Joysticks/Mice/Yokes...) and more.
DirectX has a plethora of COMMERCIAL support and addons to make producing software easier, cheaper and quicker.
I have yet to see a developer who likes one over the other since they both can be a royal pain to develop with.. Atleast with DirectX microsoft has a vast library of resources, demos, and code to throw at you.
I don't know if we are talking about the same company, but Microsoft has produced many amazing games.
Flight Sim 98, 2000, 2002, Combat Flight Sim 1, Combat Flight Sim 2, Links, MechWarrior, MotoCross Madness... not to mention all there Xbox games that kick ass.
I'm sorry, but Windows 2000 runs just fine, Windows XP runs just fine, Office 2000 is a great suite, Microsoft Money is a life saver, and i can go on and on.
Just because YOU don't like there product, doesn't mean you can speak for the millions that DO like there games.
Flight Sim 2002 alone is worth every damn penny, and without microsoft a game that advanced wouldn't be available for the 39.00 you can purchase it at. Good simulation programs can run upwards of 200 bucks, and have alot less features!
You don't need a flight "plan" to fly up, drop parachuters and fly back, and most certainly any pilot who does such trips has a schedule with the local field, and other jump clubs already. You do need a 'plan' as any pilot requires knowledge of everything pertaining to the flight, but so would any rocket launch.
Flight "plans" are only required for Instrument flights, and VFR pilots can file, but not necessarily required.
You can get your sweet bajeezus that any rocket launch will require flight planning, imagine shooting up 15,000 feet and plastering yourself into a 747 flying overhead or what a single seagull can do to your aircraft.. atleast with an airplane, you can dodge that stuff:) And rockets are directionially challenged, they usually only go straight up.. great if your airspace is only ever for jumping, but these days victor airways are dissapearing and people are flying over everything that isn't TFR'd.
Aircraft MUST be well maintained, but so would any rocket, even MORESO. Aircraft easily get a million miles on them in a lifetime, you figure between each engine rebuild you get roughly 250k to 300k "miles" on them, and most trainers (ie, planes flown by INEXPERIENCED pilots) are already on there 3rd/4th rebuilt, so they too have last through alot of abuse and still kept there pilot alive and sent someone out into the wild blue yonder.
When flying, you will most certainly notice non maintained runways, infact you will probably land on a few "doosies" and grass strips, that are simply mowed down hills.
And with an airplane, if things go bad, an AIRPLANE FLIES!!! Pilots are TRAINED to find the best GLIDE RATIO.. and you figure 10 feet forward for one foot of altitude loss and 15,000 feet with catastrophic engine failure you have more then enough altitude to glide back to the very airport you took off from or find another.. in a rocket you certainly hope you can get out before those 3GS of falling back to earth hopelessly pin you inside.
Aircraft are safe, because your trained to fly them safely. People don't jump from leerjets or 747's, they jump from aircraft with a proven track record.
I know i can rent a jump plane for $150.00 an hour wet (fueled) and take 6 jumpers up.. i would only have to charge $25.00 a head to break even.. i can't imagin a rocket that cost effective.
If anything large gliders, towed behind a piloted aircraft would be the safest.. no motors, excellent glide ratio back to earth, quiet jumping, and re-useable without re-fuelling or rebuilding a motor.
I know.. i know.. a unix/linux site. But interesting indeed how Microsoft got BASHED for releasing 3 VERY easy to install patches that aren't really exploited at this point, and EVERY unix that uses the apache, ssl, ssh combination previous to the listed versions is needing a repair as well.
Incase you didn't watch E3, microsoft has sold more console and more games then ANY launch *EVER* the dreamcast launch was even better then the PS2 launch.
Remember the PS2 couldn't ramp up for a while, and it to went through a rather crapy first 6 months of nothing but ugly games or pc ports. Wasn't until a year later that the big titles started coming stateside and now it is selling good.
As far as software goes, people pay what it is worth.
ahem, last time i checked (last night) my xbox didn't do web browsing or emailing, it doesn't do PVR and record my tv shows and it has some kick ass games.
When connected to the xboxlive network, you will have access to network options such as email, web browsing but that even goes for the GameCube and teh PS/2 when they go online.
Oh yeah, you guys have to buy an after market modem, an aftermarket network card and possibly an aftermarket storage device as well as pay each 3rd party individually for network services/online game play.
Lesse, who got screwed now?
The PVR functionality is the "4d" aspect of the Xbox. The ability of games to offer time as the 4th dimmension. This isn't to record tv shows or movies.
The internet functionality is needed for any online game community, as i said earlier even your beloved gamecube that only does one thing will have to buy accessories to do another and the xbox just has it built in and the xboxlive network will do gaming but only better because THAT IS THE ONE THING XBOXLIVE is DESIGNED TO DO.
isn't this pathetic to see stories like this on frontpage.. childish actually.
i agree, the xboxlive network is giving us something no one else can. I mean there is *NO* other company in the known universe that can spend 2 BILLION, that is 2,000,000,000 dollars to build a GAMING NETWORK
You own the game, you can sell it to a friend and do with it you wish, as with any PS2, Gamecube or any console game.
The online strategy is mainly a focal point for gamers to have a centralized community. No product activation, no special codes downloaded to your xbox. Just a place where i can login and kick some unreal championship ass and guess what, everyone will be logged in. No more logging into 50 servers to find a good game as all the servers will be listed centrally. Your friends will be on your buddy list, hack even your enemies.
Microsof IS creating a virtual world and for this 5 to 10 bucks a is pocket change.
(NOR IS XBOXLIVE REQUIRED TO PLAY THESE GAMES, THEY DO HAVE GREAT SINGLE PLAYER FUNCTIONALITY)
Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt used to be what slashdot preached against. Infact the attack of "FUD" as we call it was a major part of slashdots credit in helping get linux to the masses.
Now it comes up with headlines of how the Xboxlive will fail.
I'm sorry, but it won't.
1. Affordable. Seganet costed more, was slower and offered alot less
2. Feature rich - Gaming is about community and NO ONE or NOTHING can produce the community microsoft announced. Hell, slashdot even asks for money
3. Interactive - Leagues, Championships, Stats, Scores, player trading, character trading, virtual worlds. Not to mention the voice communicator by default.
4. Immersive - Add up all of the above and add some great games. NFL, NBA, Baseball games will all be interactive, manage teams, manage players, trade skills. RPG's will have characters that reflect your personality. Worlds where every player is on par and no one is an LPB
5. Games - I'm sorry, but i don't care for ANOTHER GTA3 or ANOTHER FFX or ANOTHER rehash. I like the new stuff coming out for the xbox for the very same reason i liked Sega and the dreamcast. GAMES, GAMES, GAMES. I mean quality games, beautifull games, and UNIQUE games. This is the same reason i'm not a nintendo fan..i'm marrio'd out. I can't take any more metroid. No matter how purty or how neat i had fun playing those games 10 years ago. not now.
So please, don't spread fud. This place has gotten rather immature if i must say so. PS2 is nice, linux is nice, but so is the xbox and you or some other website won't change that!
"Another item to consider is how updateable a game is. With computers, you download an upgrade, install it, you're done. But that's never been the idea behind game consoles. Games on game consoles were practically treated as hardware. They were physical objects that you could manipulate with your hands, making them much easier for non-abstract thinkers to handle. They were also standalone. Your copy of Duck Hunt was the same as his, and hers, and theirs. Now, you'll need to download patches onto the XBox hard drive in order to play games, a concept that was familiar only to PCs in the past and something that, IMHO, console gamers never wanted to deal with.
The Xbox hard drive is *NOT* for patches, it is *NOT* for drivers and everything else that can go wrong with a PC.
The XBOX had drive stores saved games, downloaded maps, downloaded characters, downloaded/cached content, it also saves MUSIC that you can play in your games, it saves extended replays, extended moves and tons of other stuff.
I'm sorry, but the PS2 wants to have a hard drive and everything else the Xbox has.
Sega is the company with experience and that is why Microsoft has paid sega handsomly for consulting with the online efforts.
Sega costed 19.95 a month for dialup access which at one point boasted over 100,000 customers. Microsoft only wants 50,000 more then that and has 2 BILLION dollars to push for that market.
They don't care about 30 million units sold with only 4-5 game attachment, they care about 10 million units sold with people buying 30-40 games because it is a whole new experience, not just "another version".
"Bullshit. It could have played DVDs without a remote, by just using the controller as a makeshift remote -- like the PS2 does. No, it's been crippled...
HAHAHAHAHAHA your purty darn funny.
Last time i checked your PEE ESS TEEWWWW doesn't support HDTV and uses an emulated Dolby Digital and also doesn't have a broadband connector built in or a hard drive to save 50,000+ save games on.
You also only have 2 controller ports. Any gamer knows 2 controller ports is for pussies.
lesse, you have to buy an external harddrive, an external modem or ethernet adaptor, an external port replicator and oh geez, buy then that slow cpu won't be able to keep up..
"Read it now and believe it -- Blinx is a revolutionary platformer. Not just for the platform genre (he's more than just a cat with vacuum cleaner and his name isn't Luigi), but for videogames as we know them. Blinx takes the Xbox hard drive and more or less makes it function like a Tivo or Ultimate TV system. Play is recorded using around 200 megs of hard drive space. When you die, the game rewinds in front of your eyes to a point where you can start again. That's not all Blinx can do, though.
Players will be able to fast forward, record, rewind, and stop time to assist them in their quest. For example, a barrel falls off a roof. You pause the game, then hop on the barrel and rewind the game, allowing you to ride the barrel to the top of the roof from where it had fallen. The title character in Blinx is not affected by the shifts in time, and can move independent of the affected environment."
Now you can see why we want the harddrive.
If it isn't for the storage of music to use as your own tracks, or the fact you have capability for 50,000 save games or when Xboxlive launches you will be able to download, trade, exchange characters, maps, levels, addons and mini games.
It isn't the hardware loss microsoft is looking at, it is the software gains..
and we had this war back when the PS2 was loosing 200 bucks a pop competing against the DC.
"So, it may cost Microsoft a few billion dollars in losses to crack this nut... who cares? In the end Microsoft will control the game market and it will become a monopoly; where each game manufacturer supports XBox, but none of the others. This is one half, and we haven't talked about how Microsoft's Venture Capital fund is sure to help out start-up game manufacturers who promise _never_ _ever_ to make a Sony or Nintendo game cartrige."
It will become a monopoly.. and what crystal ball are you looking into? Have you looked into sony's business practices or is it just because they're across the pond you don't care to notice how they don't respect "innovation" and "small business" as much as microsoft does?
oh wait, i forgot.. Sony is cool because they're not eveil.. oh yeah, go ps2 go.. i'd hate to see all these companies that microsoft could fund go bust because Sony keeps its monopoly on the gaming market.. god forbid another company can compete.
"The XBox is a Trojan horse, plain and simple; and by convincing game developers that it's "a lot like a PC", they've managed to enlist them in their scheme as well
As yoda would say "uneducated are we"
Trojan Horse? uhmm. *EVERY* consumer product is meant to do one thing, MAKE SOMEONE SO GODDAM FILTHY RICH.
come on, give me a break, we all know Sony doesn't pay its workers top dollars either.
And nintendo, i won't even comment
NY Times article - definatly blind to the market
on
XBox Live Network
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
""Gaming is a very age-specific and demographic-specific device and experience," said Mitchell Kertzmann, the chief executive office of Liberate Technologies, an interactive television equipment supplier based in San Carlos, Calif. "
I may be blind, but unless my eyes are deceiving me i have *NEVER* seen so many middle aged people playing games in my entire life.
Heck, i know more 50+ year olds who can whip my ass in Unreal Tournament then i do know 15 year olds.
I think its just typical for quote "educated" people who work at newspapers to assume that playing games is for geeks and college kids.
Oh well. I'll be having fun playing Xbox live. 9.95 is cheaper then what i paid for seganet and offers broadband playing, and the voice over ip ability will also have ways to digitize your voice and alter the tones so you can sound like a robot or whatever character you choose within a game.
Gives Unreal Championship an entirely new perspective. No longer requiring hot keys to send pre-programmed messages but instantaneous and live speech synthesis to dog your opponets.
If it were a union, there would be no incentive to learn more, it would fall on the company you work for to drive demand.
If it were a union, you would be paid hourly, after all the union collects a percentage of your work.
If it were a union there would be no technological edge. Unions don't preserve the right for an invidividual to exceel or achieve, that would be unequal.
If it were a union, pay would drop.
If it were a union, corporations wouldn't care, they would just get another.
I personally despise unions. Loosing a job and being fired and moving with the flow is PART of life. Did you know a union won't save you from getting a heart attack? A union won't prevent you from being poor, and a union won't put food on your table? All a union does is protect the rights of workers, and personnaly, i wouldn't want a union managing nor marketing my skills and rights.
Unions are for jobs that people want to make a living from, that don't necessarilly require anything but a VERY specific skill. Unions protect painters, mechanics, people with very very specific skill sets. You won't be fired because you only know how to paint ceramics, but they will move you somewhere else or layoff a bunch of people and rehire as needed.
I like the freedom of choosing my job, my pay rate, my career path and my knowledge base. Having a union would take away all credibility of the work i do and give it to someone else who is ultimately just as bad as the corporation they're supposedly protecting you from.
Being an IT guy i work at the exective offices, i have 2 offices, one in our corporate building and one in our data center. I have access to all the perks of upper management without having to be management. Why would anyone want to give this away? Even at MUCH smaller places, i was treated with the utmost respect and sincerity.
Sure, if you want to be a tech support person day in and day out the rest of your life a union might save your job one day, but if you need that kind of protection, you my friend have no ambition or goals and should be fired to be forced into doing something for yourself instead of waiting for someone else to be your mommy and daddy and do it for you.
Unions just don't work in my opinion. Amtrak would be profitable if someone picking up trash didn't need a unionized job making 50k a year. Telephone services would be much more advanced and high tech because they wouldn't have to pay a drunk union worker 60k a year to go to the CO and switch a circuit. After all these could be high tech jobs offered to people with a career ambition in mind rather then a protection of there right to be lazy as if your SUPPOSED to have that job. I'm sorry to all the telephone works who are in a union and don't drink, but man of all the companies i deal with, i have YET to come across a telephone repair man who ISN'T BLIZTED or talking about getting SMASHED after work.
What a life huh.. so until someone shows me a union that preserves ambition, the freedom to choose, the freedom to exceel and the freedom of RESPONSIBILITY i don't buy it. We aren't working with explosives, breathing in chemicals or working 1 mile under ground. The government protects our work environment and hazards, so whats the point of a union? they DEFINATLY served there place and got works what they needed, but all good things must come to and end.
Be responsible, get your own job. Don't wait for someone else to take that responsibility for you. After all, your just GIVING AWAY the very freedom your supposedly fighting for.. just costing EVERYONE Involved alot more time and money.
So are you. First off, they don't have many good games in their lineup for the forseeable future.
That is *YOUR* Opinion. Personally, My opinion is that Halo, Project Gotham, Max Payne, Munch's Odysee, Simpsons Road Rage, Rallisport Challenge and DOA3 have all been EXCELLENT games. They have completely failed in Japan, which is a real problem because many of the best games come from Japan.
How are they going to make money? They have put a PC in a box and are selling it at a loss, whereas Sony and Nintendo either make money or at least break even on their console sales. Microsoft took a shortcut and simply put a PC in a box, because their expertise is not in making hardware, that's simply not going to work from a business standpoint.
Where do you get this nonsense? Everything is a PC in a box. Why such a fuss over putting a hard drive and Linux on a PS2? Isnt that " Just a pc in a box".
I don't know what you guys are smoking, but the Xbox has only JUST began. The online lineup is amazing, the future titles coming through are amazing and the potential is amazing.
Just like others have said, we haven't even scratched the surface of the potential of the xbox. It is nice being able to play my own music, have basically infinate game saves and have an EXCELLENT LAUNCH Library.
You want a sh**y launch library look at the ps2. Took a year before things really got going!
And i'm sorry, a 300.00 xbox doesn't cost anymore then a 299.00 PS2. You DO get DD 5.1, HDTV 1080 support, DVD Playback, (yeah yeah, a remote is needed, spend the 20 freaking bucks!), Great game linup and a hard drive with infinate potential and savegames.
I'm sorry, but i'm looking foward to Unreal Championship with the voice commander. It will be nice to not need a keyboard and be able to yell at people.
Slashdot Mirror
Gentoo enforces a knowledge of your system your building.
Sure a "desktop" may not have much performance increase since alot is already optimized, but imagine building and rolling your own Gentoo servers.
1. You know everything that is on them
2. You know how to build from scratch
3. *EVERYTHING* is optimized for your specific server, memory configuration and CPU's.
Heck, even in high end deskstop usage, the "ports" system Gentoo uses is superb.
Yeah, kde/x/gnome take a few hours, but come on, the beauty of linux is the ability to optimize the darn thing for your system.
I don't think it really smells like french fries.
By the time you run it through your engine, burn it, and it returns as exhaust it will probably smell like any other diesel exhaust.
just gnot like gnu or gnome and most certainly knot like kde kdesktop which is trying to konquery the world as well.
:) heck, i could still use my 486 if i wanted to, we just got suckered into this performance/spec/mhz war.
everything is drawn out in the pc world
if it isn't one thing it is another
Must be your PC. Runs great for me. I have probably 5,000 pages of documentation for all the applications, servers, networks and systems that i run. (all saved in HTML as well.. but html is a pain in the arse to edit in this much quantity)
I couldn't possibly do it in any other product as easily and affordable as i can in office 2000. Powerpoint fits in nicely, my visio drawings are where i want them and formating is easy.
I have yet to find an office suit as STABLE as Office 2k.
I never liked 95 since it doesn't have the document integration that i need.
" But I would have to say the only reason I dislike Microsoft is their apparent philosophy of don't produce good products, kill the competition, and use lawyers as much as possible to help both of the above.
Okay.. there is an opinion.. a agree, i expressed mine as well
"If MS produced quality products, I wouldn't care much about their attempts at complete world domination. But, since they don't produce quality products because they don't have to with the monopoly they have"
Now that is just the typical stuff i see here, day in and day out.. Share an opinion and then follow it up with an assumed fact.
I guess i'm not allowed to post my opinion and a simple fact either?
oh well
OpenGL only solves one problem, and that is the Graphics.
DirectX provides an API all aspects of deployment and operations. You get Sound, Video, Graphics, Networking, Device integration (Joysticks/Mice/Yokes...) and more.
DirectX has a plethora of COMMERCIAL support and addons to make producing software easier, cheaper and quicker.
I have yet to see a developer who likes one over the other since they both can be a royal pain to develop with.. Atleast with DirectX microsoft has a vast library of resources, demos, and code to throw at you.
With 6 million xboxen built, it should be Nvidia thanking microsoft.
I don't see Sony buying up OpenGL to use it as a standard either... atleast if they do, they don't publish it and make it widely known.
I don't know if we are talking about the same company, but Microsoft has produced many amazing games.
Flight Sim 98, 2000, 2002, Combat Flight Sim 1, Combat Flight Sim 2, Links, MechWarrior, MotoCross Madness... not to mention all there Xbox games that kick ass.
I'm sorry, but Windows 2000 runs just fine, Windows XP runs just fine, Office 2000 is a great suite, Microsoft Money is a life saver, and i can go on and on.
Just because YOU don't like there product, doesn't mean you can speak for the millions that DO like there games.
Flight Sim 2002 alone is worth every damn penny, and without microsoft a game that advanced wouldn't be available for the 39.00 you can purchase it at. Good simulation programs can run upwards of 200 bucks, and have alot less features!
You don't need a flight "plan" to fly up, drop parachuters and fly back, and most certainly any pilot who does such trips has a schedule with the local field, and other jump clubs already. You do need a 'plan' as any pilot requires knowledge of everything pertaining to the flight, but so would any rocket launch.
:) And rockets are directionially challenged, they usually only go straight up.. great if your airspace is only ever for jumping, but these days victor airways are dissapearing and people are flying over everything that isn't TFR'd.
Flight "plans" are only required for Instrument flights, and VFR pilots can file, but not necessarily required.
You can get your sweet bajeezus that any rocket launch will require flight planning, imagine shooting up 15,000 feet and plastering yourself into a 747 flying overhead or what a single seagull can do to your aircraft.. atleast with an airplane, you can dodge that stuff
Aircraft MUST be well maintained, but so would any rocket, even MORESO. Aircraft easily get a million miles on them in a lifetime, you figure between each engine rebuild you get roughly 250k to 300k "miles" on them, and most trainers (ie, planes flown by INEXPERIENCED pilots) are already on there 3rd/4th rebuilt, so they too have last through alot of abuse and still kept there pilot alive and sent someone out into the wild blue yonder.
When flying, you will most certainly notice non maintained runways, infact you will probably land on a few "doosies" and grass strips, that are simply mowed down hills.
And with an airplane, if things go bad, an AIRPLANE FLIES!!! Pilots are TRAINED to find the best GLIDE RATIO.. and you figure 10 feet forward for one foot of altitude loss and 15,000 feet with catastrophic engine failure you have more then enough altitude to glide back to the very airport you took off from or find another.. in a rocket you certainly hope you can get out before those 3GS of falling back to earth hopelessly pin you inside.
Aircraft are safe, because your trained to fly them safely. People don't jump from leerjets or 747's, they jump from aircraft with a proven track record.
I know i can rent a jump plane for $150.00 an hour wet (fueled) and take 6 jumpers up.. i would only have to charge $25.00 a head to break even.. i can't imagin a rocket that cost effective.
If anything large gliders, towed behind a piloted aircraft would be the safest.. no motors, excellent glide ratio back to earth, quiet jumping, and re-useable without re-fuelling or rebuilding a motor.
I know.. i know.. a unix/linux site. But interesting indeed how Microsoft got BASHED for releasing 3 VERY easy to install patches that aren't really exploited at this point, and EVERY unix that uses the apache, ssl, ssh combination previous to the listed versions is needing a repair as well.
can't we all just get a bong?
Incase you didn't watch E3, microsoft has sold more console and more games then ANY launch *EVER* the dreamcast launch was even better then the PS2 launch.
Remember the PS2 couldn't ramp up for a while, and it to went through a rather crapy first 6 months of nothing but ugly games or pc ports. Wasn't until a year later that the big titles started coming stateside and now it is selling good.
As far as software goes, people pay what it is worth.
ahem, last time i checked (last night) my xbox didn't do web browsing or emailing, it doesn't do PVR and record my tv shows and it has some kick ass games.
When connected to the xboxlive network, you will have access to network options such as email, web browsing but that even goes for the GameCube and teh PS/2 when they go online.
Oh yeah, you guys have to buy an after market modem, an aftermarket network card and possibly an aftermarket storage device as well as pay each 3rd party individually for network services/online game play.
Lesse, who got screwed now?
The PVR functionality is the "4d" aspect of the Xbox. The ability of games to offer time as the 4th dimmension. This isn't to record tv shows or movies.
The internet functionality is needed for any online game community, as i said earlier even your beloved gamecube that only does one thing will have to buy accessories to do another and the xbox just has it built in and the xboxlive network will do gaming but only better because THAT IS THE ONE THING XBOXLIVE is DESIGNED TO DO.
peace
isn't this pathetic to see stories like this on frontpage.. childish actually.
i agree, the xboxlive network is giving us something no one else can. I mean there is *NO* other company in the known universe that can spend 2 BILLION, that is 2,000,000,000 dollars to build a GAMING NETWORK
unreal!
You own the game, you can sell it to a friend and do with it you wish, as with any PS2, Gamecube or any console game.
The online strategy is mainly a focal point for gamers to have a centralized community. No product activation, no special codes downloaded to your xbox. Just a place where i can login and kick some unreal championship ass and guess what, everyone will be logged in. No more logging into 50 servers to find a good game as all the servers will be listed centrally. Your friends will be on your buddy list, hack even your enemies.
Microsof IS creating a virtual world and for this 5 to 10 bucks a is pocket change.
(NOR IS XBOXLIVE REQUIRED TO PLAY THESE GAMES, THEY DO HAVE GREAT SINGLE PLAYER FUNCTIONALITY)
I never thought slashdot would become so low.
Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt used to be what slashdot preached against. Infact the attack of "FUD" as we call it was a major part of slashdots credit in helping get linux to the masses.
Now it comes up with headlines of how the Xboxlive will fail.
I'm sorry, but it won't.
1. Affordable. Seganet costed more, was slower and offered alot less
2. Feature rich - Gaming is about community and NO ONE or NOTHING can produce the community microsoft announced. Hell, slashdot even asks for money
3. Interactive - Leagues, Championships, Stats, Scores, player trading, character trading, virtual worlds. Not to mention the voice communicator by default.
4. Immersive - Add up all of the above and add some great games. NFL, NBA, Baseball games will all be interactive, manage teams, manage players, trade skills. RPG's will have characters that reflect your personality. Worlds where every player is on par and no one is an LPB
5. Games - I'm sorry, but i don't care for ANOTHER GTA3 or ANOTHER FFX or ANOTHER rehash. I like the new stuff coming out for the xbox for the very same reason i liked Sega and the dreamcast. GAMES, GAMES, GAMES. I mean quality games, beautifull games, and UNIQUE games. This is the same reason i'm not a nintendo fan..i'm marrio'd out. I can't take any more metroid. No matter how purty or how neat i had fun playing those games 10 years ago. not now.
So please, don't spread fud. This place has gotten rather immature if i must say so. PS2 is nice, linux is nice, but so is the xbox and you or some other website won't change that!
"Another item to consider is how updateable a game is. With computers, you download an upgrade, install it, you're done. But that's never been the idea behind game consoles. Games on game consoles were practically treated as hardware. They were physical objects that you could manipulate with your hands, making them much easier for non-abstract thinkers to handle. They were also standalone. Your copy of Duck Hunt was the same as his, and hers, and theirs. Now, you'll need to download patches onto the XBox hard drive in order to play games, a concept that was familiar only to PCs in the past and something that, IMHO, console gamers never wanted to deal with.
The Xbox hard drive is *NOT* for patches, it is *NOT* for drivers and everything else that can go wrong with a PC.
The XBOX had drive stores saved games, downloaded maps, downloaded characters, downloaded/cached content, it also saves MUSIC that you can play in your games, it saves extended replays, extended moves and tons of other stuff.
I'm sorry, but the PS2 wants to have a hard drive and everything else the Xbox has.
Get an xbox and quit spreading FUD.
Sega is the company with experience and that is why Microsoft has paid sega handsomly for consulting with the online efforts.
Sega costed 19.95 a month for dialup access which at one point boasted over 100,000 customers. Microsoft only wants 50,000 more then that and has 2 BILLION dollars to push for that market.
They don't care about 30 million units sold with only 4-5 game attachment, they care about 10 million units sold with people buying 30-40 games because it is a whole new experience, not just "another version".
"Bullshit. It could have played DVDs without a remote, by just using the controller as a makeshift remote -- like the PS2 does. No, it's been crippled...
HAHAHAHAHAHA your purty darn funny.
Last time i checked your PEE ESS TEEWWWW doesn't support HDTV and uses an emulated Dolby Digital and also doesn't have a broadband connector built in or a hard drive to save 50,000+ save games on.
You also only have 2 controller ports. Any gamer knows 2 controller ports is for pussies.
lesse, you have to buy an external harddrive, an external modem or ethernet adaptor, an external port replicator and oh geez, buy then that slow cpu won't be able to keep up..
whos screwed now?
Why is sony making a hard drive then? To compete.
"Read it now and believe it -- Blinx is a revolutionary platformer. Not just for the platform genre (he's more than just a cat with vacuum cleaner and his name isn't Luigi), but for videogames as we know them. Blinx takes the Xbox hard drive and more or less makes it function like a Tivo or Ultimate TV system. Play is recorded using around 200 megs of hard drive space. When you die, the game rewinds in front of your eyes to a point where you can start again. That's not all Blinx can do, though.
Players will be able to fast forward, record, rewind, and stop time to assist them in their quest. For example, a barrel falls off a roof. You pause the game, then hop on the barrel and rewind the game, allowing you to ride the barrel to the top of the roof from where it had fallen. The title character in Blinx is not affected by the shifts in time, and can move independent of the affected environment."
Now you can see why we want the harddrive.
If it isn't for the storage of music to use as your own tracks, or the fact you have capability for 50,000 save games or when Xboxlive launches you will be able to download, trade, exchange characters, maps, levels, addons and mini games.
It isn't the hardware loss microsoft is looking at, it is the software gains..
and we had this war back when the PS2 was loosing 200 bucks a pop competing against the DC.
"So, it may cost Microsoft a few billion dollars in losses to crack this nut... who cares? In the end Microsoft will control the game market and it will become a monopoly; where each game manufacturer supports XBox, but none of the others. This is one half, and we haven't talked about how Microsoft's Venture Capital fund is sure to help out start-up game manufacturers who promise _never_ _ever_ to make a Sony or Nintendo game cartrige."
It will become a monopoly.. and what crystal ball are you looking into? Have you looked into sony's business practices or is it just because they're across the pond you don't care to notice how they don't respect "innovation" and "small business" as much as microsoft does?
oh wait, i forgot.. Sony is cool because they're not eveil.. oh yeah, go ps2 go.. i'd hate to see all these companies that microsoft could fund go bust because Sony keeps its monopoly on the gaming market.. god forbid another company can compete.
"The XBox is a Trojan horse, plain and simple; and by convincing game developers that it's "a lot like a PC", they've managed to enlist them in their scheme as well
As yoda would say "uneducated are we"
Trojan Horse? uhmm. *EVERY* consumer product is meant to do one thing, MAKE SOMEONE SO GODDAM FILTHY RICH.
Now you can go back to make believe.
come on, give me a break, we all know Sony doesn't pay its workers top dollars either.
And nintendo, i won't even comment
I may be blind, but unless my eyes are deceiving me i have *NEVER* seen so many middle aged people playing games in my entire life.
Heck, i know more 50+ year olds who can whip my ass in Unreal Tournament then i do know 15 year olds.
I think its just typical for quote "educated" people who work at newspapers to assume that playing games is for geeks and college kids.
Oh well. I'll be having fun playing Xbox live. 9.95 is cheaper then what i paid for seganet and offers broadband playing, and the voice over ip ability will also have ways to digitize your voice and alter the tones so you can sound like a robot or whatever character you choose within a game.
Gives Unreal Championship an entirely new perspective. No longer requiring hot keys to send pre-programmed messages but instantaneous and live speech synthesis to dog your opponets.
Can't wait
If it were a union, there would be no incentive to learn more, it would fall on the company you work for to drive demand.
If it were a union, you would be paid hourly, after all the union collects a percentage of your work.
If it were a union there would be no technological edge. Unions don't preserve the right for an invidividual to exceel or achieve, that would be unequal.
If it were a union, pay would drop.
If it were a union, corporations wouldn't care, they would just get another.
I personally despise unions. Loosing a job and being fired and moving with the flow is PART of life. Did you know a union won't save you from getting a heart attack? A union won't prevent you from being poor, and a union won't put food on your table? All a union does is protect the rights of workers, and personnaly, i wouldn't want a union managing nor marketing my skills and rights.
Unions are for jobs that people want to make a living from, that don't necessarilly require anything but a VERY specific skill. Unions protect painters, mechanics, people with very very specific skill sets. You won't be fired because you only know how to paint ceramics, but they will move you somewhere else or layoff a bunch of people and rehire as needed.
I like the freedom of choosing my job, my pay rate, my career path and my knowledge base. Having a union would take away all credibility of the work i do and give it to someone else who is ultimately just as bad as the corporation they're supposedly protecting you from.
Being an IT guy i work at the exective offices, i have 2 offices, one in our corporate building and one in our data center. I have access to all the perks of upper management without having to be management. Why would anyone want to give this away? Even at MUCH smaller places, i was treated with the utmost respect and sincerity.
Sure, if you want to be a tech support person day in and day out the rest of your life a union might save your job one day, but if you need that kind of protection, you my friend have no ambition or goals and should be fired to be forced into doing something for yourself instead of waiting for someone else to be your mommy and daddy and do it for you.
Unions just don't work in my opinion. Amtrak would be profitable if someone picking up trash didn't need a unionized job making 50k a year. Telephone services would be much more advanced and high tech because they wouldn't have to pay a drunk union worker 60k a year to go to the CO and switch a circuit. After all these could be high tech jobs offered to people with a career ambition in mind rather then a protection of there right to be lazy as if your SUPPOSED to have that job. I'm sorry to all the telephone works who are in a union and don't drink, but man of all the companies i deal with, i have YET to come across a telephone repair man who ISN'T BLIZTED or talking about getting SMASHED after work.
What a life huh.. so until someone shows me a union that preserves ambition, the freedom to choose, the freedom to exceel and the freedom of RESPONSIBILITY i don't buy it. We aren't working with explosives, breathing in chemicals or working 1 mile under ground. The government protects our work environment and hazards, so whats the point of a union? they DEFINATLY served there place and got works what they needed, but all good things must come to and end.
Be responsible, get your own job. Don't wait for someone else to take that responsibility for you. After all, your just GIVING AWAY the very freedom your supposedly fighting for.. just costing EVERYONE Involved alot more time and money.
So are you.
First off, they don't have many good games in their lineup for the forseeable future.
That is *YOUR* Opinion. Personally, My opinion is that Halo, Project Gotham, Max Payne, Munch's Odysee, Simpsons Road Rage, Rallisport Challenge and DOA3 have all been EXCELLENT games.
They have completely failed in Japan, which is a real problem because many of the best games come from Japan.
How are they going to make money? They have put a PC in a box and are selling it at a loss, whereas Sony and Nintendo either make money or at least break even on their console sales. Microsoft took a shortcut and simply put a PC in a box, because their expertise is not in making hardware, that's simply not going to work from a business standpoint.
Where do you get this nonsense? Everything is a PC in a box. Why such a fuss over putting a hard drive and Linux on a PS2? Isnt that " Just a pc in a box".
I don't know what you guys are smoking, but the Xbox has only JUST began. The online lineup is amazing, the future titles coming through are amazing and the potential is amazing.
Just like others have said, we haven't even scratched the surface of the potential of the xbox. It is nice being able to play my own music, have basically infinate game saves and have an EXCELLENT LAUNCH Library.
You want a sh**y launch library look at the ps2. Took a year before things really got going!
And i'm sorry, a 300.00 xbox doesn't cost anymore then a 299.00 PS2. You DO get DD 5.1, HDTV 1080 support, DVD Playback, (yeah yeah, a remote is needed, spend the 20 freaking bucks!), Great game linup and a hard drive with infinate potential and savegames.
I'm sorry, but i'm looking foward to Unreal Championship with the voice commander. It will be nice to not need a keyboard and be able to yell at people.