The X-Fi still handles S/PDIF output better than my motherboard's onboard sound device. It's more flexible in letting applications output to S/PDIF directly or going through their Dolby Digital Live encoder. It lets me use the analog outputs simultaneously with the S/PDIF output. Little things that add up, it's worth the money I spent on it 2 years ago.
No, it doesn't turn out that way most of the time. If you're designing for 480i, then you can use a lot of tricks to give the illusion of detail. If you're designing for 720p, you're making things with "real" detail. When you view that on a lower resolution, most of the details will be lost/distorted.
A game optimized to look best at 480i will always look better at 480i than a game that was optimized for 720p and scaled down (assuming all other factors are equal).
Either you like the gameplay or you don't. I really don't see the point in complaining about a lack of variety, since 99% of games have very little gameplay variety.
Different spells/weapons require different strategies. I started off as a mage specializing in fire talents. When I reached level 40 I switched to frost talents, and 5 levels later I still don't quite have my new strategies down pat.
Though, I probably never will get it down. I really enjoy the game when I get to play it, but the unreliability of the servers and Blizzard's incredibly slow patch cycle and poor maintenance has finally become too much for me. I cancelled my subscription earlier today and won't be going back unless I hear they really got their act together. It's too bad.
Oh, it's not bad. I just don't enjoy it, personally. I'm not sure why exactly, but the action is not exciting to me. The lock-on mechanism makes things too easy, maybe. But I recognize that in theory it's a good idea and Ocarina of Time is an amazingly well made game.
Really? I never thought that. Zelda games have always been pretty boring to me, in gameplay. Especially since all the 3d games are basically Ocarina of Time + new instrument/tool which doesn't really change gameplay at all. Wind Waker was the first 3d Zelda game that I had a lot of fun with, mostly because it was fun to look at and explore. The gameplay was still almost exactly the same as OoT.
But I'm still holding out hope that maybe they'll do something innovative with the gameplay in this new zelda game, for the first time for the series in about 7 years.
Those who want to see how well Doom 3 can pull off Half-Life 2 style environments should check out the Doom 3 Can Do It Too project. I don't think they have a site but their forum is on http://doom3world.org. Anyway, if you just want to see results here's their latest video: http://www.pcgamemods.com/9875/ (still a work in progress, obviously)
I didn't move to firefox because of activex or bloat or OS integration. I moved to firefox because it has features that make my web browsing easier and more enjoyable. If IE ever does those types of features better than firefox, I'll switch right back.
It's kinda funny. When I tried to read the books I gave up after I fell asleep the 26th time, about halfway through FOTR. But I read these nitpickings and it turns out that most of the things I thought sucked about the movies were things that were changed from the books. Peter Jackson just sucks that much, it was obvious to me what he changed without even having read the books.:P
Ok, so logically he should be able to attach a flashlight to his gun. But then.. how far do you want to take logic in this game? He shouldn't be able to hold 10 weapons (some of which are quite large), in fact he doesn't appear to have any way to carry more than what he can hold in his arms. So, restrict him to one or two weapons with a flashlight duct taped to it, and maybe some grenades strapped to his belt. Oh, now we can complain that it's a Halo rip-off. Sweet! There's always something for people who want to complain.
The trouble with driving off a bridge and not dying is.. now you have to swim to the nearest coast. I hate it when a game strands me somewhere and then forces me to do something very mundane to get out of the situation. I experienced this occasionally in GTAVC. It'd be nice if I could make my character kill himself so I don't have to find a way out, I can just start back at the hospital. I'm not a fan of loading a previous save when I get stuck. I'm more likely to just quit playing instead.
Actually, a lot of directors do everything except action scenes in their movies. When you see the Assistant Director or Second Unit Director in the credits, chances are he did at least some of the action scenes, if not all. I'm sure John Woo could get that job easily:P
Yes, no doubt Halo has many good things going for it, as does its sequel. However, I really don't understand people who get excited about features like dual-wielding weapons. Is it really that cool? I vaguely remember doing it in UT, maybe it was a mod for UT. Didn't seem special then, doesn't seem special now. But even then, it's not a matter of whether or not this feature is original, it's just not a feature that is interesting or exciting. Similar to partially destroyable environments and completely destroyable vehicles. They just seem so desperate to be excited about this game they'll point out every stupid little thing in obnoxiously hyper ways. This includes the "journalists" and the PR people. But at least it makes sense coming from the PR people.
I'm sure I'll love Halo 2 when it comes out, but this stuff is just not exciting. The single player video they showed last year is still more exciting than this new (new to halo anyway) stuff.
I watch two or three shows a week, at most. Obviously it's not the most productive thing I could be doing with my time, but uh.. anyone that's trying to maximize their productivity 24 hours a day is going to drop dead in 5 years. I'm not going to stop watching the shows I want to watch because of some internet campaign. It's just another group of people trying to control you, except they're worse than TV because they claim to be saving you from something evil.
Thank God for that. I'm no Silicon Knights hater, Eternal Darkness and Twin Snakes are well made games. But I want them to stay far, far away from my precious Nintendo games. This announcement makes me happy that they are now less likely to murder a beloved franchise, but kind of sad because they are talented and I wouldn't want GameCube owners to miss out on their future projects.
My main gripe with them is their dedication to make "mature" games. Who cares about how serious your game is, just make it enjoyable to play. Any sense of serious atmosphere in Eternal Darkness was ruined by the lame "sanity effect" gimmicks. Ok I guess I sort of am a Silicon Knights hater. I'm just annoyed that their obvious talent goes to waste because of bad design.
In all of the above, I wouldn't want my regular user name to be my AOL IM. As if I don't get enough spam, last thing I need is to be IM spammed by the people I fragged.
What? Slashdotters don't even read the summary now?
"When players sign in to the messenger service, 'buddies' they have made from within the game will see their in-game name, rather than their regular AOL or AIM identity."
Ok, I'll give you that one. Though personally I think the DXIW interface is a step in the right direction, the lame xbox-port-ness of it made things unnecessarily difficult.
I don't know. With other consoles that's true, but I imagine Microsoft could very easily make Xbox Live incompatible with the original Xbox after Xbox 2 comes out. Obviously you could still play offline games, but xbox live is supposed to be the big selling point of the xbox.
Perhaps my description was slightly inaccurate. They do have text ads on some pages. But they're usually out of the way, so much so that I forgot they were even there. According to them they've been profitable since they started.
They're not exactly great literature but they are a quick and enjoyable read. Apparently the 112 people who reviewed the book at amazon agree (4.5/5 rating average).
It's not because of the monthly fee. It's things like this. I can still go back and play Quake 1, as long as I can get it to run on my computer I can play it. And I do get the urge to do so once in a while. But with MMOGs they're only playable for as long as the company can make money supporting them. I can't depend on the game being around forever, so I don't want to get interested in the game at all.
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The X-Fi still handles S/PDIF output better than my motherboard's onboard sound device. It's more flexible in letting applications output to S/PDIF directly or going through their Dolby Digital Live encoder. It lets me use the analog outputs simultaneously with the S/PDIF output. Little things that add up, it's worth the money I spent on it 2 years ago.
No, it doesn't turn out that way most of the time. If you're designing for 480i, then you can use a lot of tricks to give the illusion of detail. If you're designing for 720p, you're making things with "real" detail. When you view that on a lower resolution, most of the details will be lost/distorted.
A game optimized to look best at 480i will always look better at 480i than a game that was optimized for 720p and scaled down (assuming all other factors are equal).
Hi, welcome to video games.
Either you like the gameplay or you don't. I really don't see the point in complaining about a lack of variety, since 99% of games have very little gameplay variety.
Different spells/weapons require different strategies. I started off as a mage specializing in fire talents. When I reached level 40 I switched to frost talents, and 5 levels later I still don't quite have my new strategies down pat.
Though, I probably never will get it down. I really enjoy the game when I get to play it, but the unreliability of the servers and Blizzard's incredibly slow patch cycle and poor maintenance has finally become too much for me. I cancelled my subscription earlier today and won't be going back unless I hear they really got their act together. It's too bad.
Oh, it's not bad. I just don't enjoy it, personally. I'm not sure why exactly, but the action is not exciting to me. The lock-on mechanism makes things too easy, maybe. But I recognize that in theory it's a good idea and Ocarina of Time is an amazingly well made game.
Really? I never thought that. Zelda games have always been pretty boring to me, in gameplay. Especially since all the 3d games are basically Ocarina of Time + new instrument/tool which doesn't really change gameplay at all. Wind Waker was the first 3d Zelda game that I had a lot of fun with, mostly because it was fun to look at and explore. The gameplay was still almost exactly the same as OoT.
But I'm still holding out hope that maybe they'll do something innovative with the gameplay in this new zelda game, for the first time for the series in about 7 years.
Those who want to see how well Doom 3 can pull off Half-Life 2 style environments should check out the Doom 3 Can Do It Too project. I don't think they have a site but their forum is on http://doom3world.org. Anyway, if you just want to see results here's their latest video: http://www.pcgamemods.com/9875/ (still a work in progress, obviously)
I didn't move to firefox because of activex or bloat or OS integration. I moved to firefox because it has features that make my web browsing easier and more enjoyable. If IE ever does those types of features better than firefox, I'll switch right back.
But will it be released before Duke Nukem Forever?
That was probably the large licensing deal that recently went through.. DNF switching engines AGAIN, this time to an old one instead of a new one.
:P
So the answer is yes.
It's kinda funny. When I tried to read the books I gave up after I fell asleep the 26th time, about halfway through FOTR. But I read these nitpickings and it turns out that most of the things I thought sucked about the movies were things that were changed from the books. Peter Jackson just sucks that much, it was obvious to me what he changed without even having read the books. :P
Ok, so logically he should be able to attach a flashlight to his gun. But then.. how far do you want to take logic in this game? He shouldn't be able to hold 10 weapons (some of which are quite large), in fact he doesn't appear to have any way to carry more than what he can hold in his arms. So, restrict him to one or two weapons with a flashlight duct taped to it, and maybe some grenades strapped to his belt. Oh, now we can complain that it's a Halo rip-off. Sweet! There's always something for people who want to complain.
The trouble with driving off a bridge and not dying is.. now you have to swim to the nearest coast. I hate it when a game strands me somewhere and then forces me to do something very mundane to get out of the situation. I experienced this occasionally in GTAVC. It'd be nice if I could make my character kill himself so I don't have to find a way out, I can just start back at the hospital. I'm not a fan of loading a previous save when I get stuck. I'm more likely to just quit playing instead.
I find your usage of the word gorgeous to be highly suspect.
It'd be a series of repetitive and unconnected action scenes. So... the usual John Woo movie.
Actually, a lot of directors do everything except action scenes in their movies. When you see the Assistant Director or Second Unit Director in the credits, chances are he did at least some of the action scenes, if not all. I'm sure John Woo could get that job easily :P
Yes, no doubt Halo has many good things going for it, as does its sequel. However, I really don't understand people who get excited about features like dual-wielding weapons. Is it really that cool? I vaguely remember doing it in UT, maybe it was a mod for UT. Didn't seem special then, doesn't seem special now. But even then, it's not a matter of whether or not this feature is original, it's just not a feature that is interesting or exciting. Similar to partially destroyable environments and completely destroyable vehicles. They just seem so desperate to be excited about this game they'll point out every stupid little thing in obnoxiously hyper ways. This includes the "journalists" and the PR people. But at least it makes sense coming from the PR people.
I'm sure I'll love Halo 2 when it comes out, but this stuff is just not exciting. The single player video they showed last year is still more exciting than this new (new to halo anyway) stuff.
I watch two or three shows a week, at most. Obviously it's not the most productive thing I could be doing with my time, but uh.. anyone that's trying to maximize their productivity 24 hours a day is going to drop dead in 5 years. I'm not going to stop watching the shows I want to watch because of some internet campaign. It's just another group of people trying to control you, except they're worse than TV because they claim to be saving you from something evil.
Thank God for that. I'm no Silicon Knights hater, Eternal Darkness and Twin Snakes are well made games. But I want them to stay far, far away from my precious Nintendo games. This announcement makes me happy that they are now less likely to murder a beloved franchise, but kind of sad because they are talented and I wouldn't want GameCube owners to miss out on their future projects.
My main gripe with them is their dedication to make "mature" games. Who cares about how serious your game is, just make it enjoyable to play. Any sense of serious atmosphere in Eternal Darkness was ruined by the lame "sanity effect" gimmicks. Ok I guess I sort of am a Silicon Knights hater. I'm just annoyed that their obvious talent goes to waste because of bad design.
What? Slashdotters don't even read the summary now?
"When players sign in to the messenger service, 'buddies' they have made from within the game will see their in-game name, rather than their regular AOL or AIM identity."
You don't use your regular user name.
Ok, I'll give you that one. Though personally I think the DXIW interface is a step in the right direction, the lame xbox-port-ness of it made things unnecessarily difficult.
I don't know. With other consoles that's true, but I imagine Microsoft could very easily make Xbox Live incompatible with the original Xbox after Xbox 2 comes out. Obviously you could still play offline games, but xbox live is supposed to be the big selling point of the xbox.
Perhaps my description was slightly inaccurate. They do have text ads on some pages. But they're usually out of the way, so much so that I forgot they were even there. According to them they've been profitable since they started.
http://my.myway.com/
Basically a portal like yahoo, but more customizable. And their whole purpose is to run a site with no ads and no popups so that's a nice bonus.
They're not exactly great literature but they are a quick and enjoyable read. Apparently the 112 people who reviewed the book at amazon agree (4.5/5 rating average).
It's not because of the monthly fee. It's things like this. I can still go back and play Quake 1, as long as I can get it to run on my computer I can play it. And I do get the urge to do so once in a while. But with MMOGs they're only playable for as long as the company can make money supporting them. I can't depend on the game being around forever, so I don't want to get interested in the game at all.