Some games already deal with that "someone is hitting me but where?" problem. The latest game I played that did it was the demo of Far Cry. Whichever side people are hitting you from, a flash of red on the screen (which is something a lot of games use to show you're getting hit in general) is concentrated at one edge of the screen, the edge in the direction of the bad guy.
I'm pretty sure there are older games that have things like that, but none are coming immediately to mind.
"All of the latest block-buster releases that have held the Disney name were made by Pixar."
Pirates of the Caribbean was made by Pixar? huh. Learn something new every day.:P
I think people tend to forget Disney has it's fingers in a helluva lot more than animation. Pixar is a great asset, but they won't be dead without it (unfortunately).
I know this may come as a shock to you guys, but your favorite little nerdy thing will never win a huge award. There's a reason it's considered a nerd thing, only nerds seem to enjoy it a great deal.
This doesn't make the Academy wrong or stupid or ignorant for leaving out your little niche thing. It just means your favorite thing has limited appeal. The only reason the mainstream like LOTR are the action scenes. There are no interesting characters or great acting. Just well filmed action scenes (supported by CG of course). Everything else will only be appreciated by tolkien-lovers who already know the background for all the characters and can inject their own knowledge into the movie, making the movie seem better than it is in aspects in which it fails.
This is just one example (LOTR), but it applies to just about any complaint you guys have. (anime? please, get real.)
(no, I'm not trying to say all slashdot posters have the same opinion, this rant is only aimed at the ones who obviously suffer from such delusions)
I have no idea if it uses similar technology, but I find the Dolby Headphone technology found in some dvd players (WinDVD and PowerDVD for Windows most notably) works to similar effect.
Playing the game should be a reward in itself. My idea of fun is not to overcome challenges to gain rewards (and FMVs aren't much of a reward for me anyway). A game should be fun because it's fun to play. I find that Nintendo almost always designs their games with this school of thought. And although they're not always successful, they seem to be one of the few developers left even trying.
"will feature an original score from Sony artists X-ecutioners"
I've never heard of them, but it is an original score. The music changes depending on what's happening in the game. And I think the rap/hip-hop sound fits with football. I'm not sure how the regular songs fit in with the score though.
In extreme sports games (like Tony Hawk's Pro Skater), I think a soundtrack that's just singles from bands is the best idea. You can play those games forever, you're going to get sick of a soundtrack that all has the same musical theme more quickly than you will a list of 30 or so individual songs by individual bands. And unlike most other genres, you're never going to associate certain music with certain times you played the game. It's all pretty similar, it'll just blur together in your head.
But for most other genres I definitely agree an original score is always a better idea (if it's done right).
I think it's great that they have such ridiculous designs. This is a Doom game, it should carry on in the tradition of Doom 1 & 2. If this was some other game about a mars base being overtaken by demons from hell then you may have a point.. but it's not. And actually, the game's plot (mars base overtaken by demons from hell? come on!) is so ridiculous, having "inspired" art direction would seem out of place regardless of the past Doom games.
I disagree completely. The game has problems, but not due to simplification. Everything they took out from DX1 was a correct decision in my opinion. However, the game needed about 3 or 4 months more work to smooth out all the bugs/glitches/performance issues and a little tweaking in general. Hopefully additional patches will fix more problems.
Ya know, maybe I'm weird, but I like to play games before deciding they suck and their only redeeming feature is their engine. It's not like id has a track record of making crappy games. They may not be great innovators, but every game they've made has been of high quality. You may be bored of FPS games, but that doesn't mean they all suck.
Personally, I could care less about whether a game is innovative. I just want a game that's well-made and fun. id has always delievered at least that much in the past.
The only thing that worries me more than the price of the PSP is the idea that it will just get a bunch of PS1 ports or PS1 style games. I can't think of a single good PS1 game that I think would work well in a portable/handheld environment. It'd be one thing to have 3d games like Mario 64, where everything is brightly colored and fairly obvious.. but most of the good PS1 games are dark and somewhat confusing to navigate on a regular TV, I can't imagine playing on a 3 inch screen. Handheld gaming is the last bastion for 2D gaming, with good reason.
I'd have to disagree with that. Fox News always feels like they're trying to frighten you. They have that "HIGH TERROR ALERT" thing on the screen 24 hours a day. If my only source of information was Fox News I'd probably be afraid to leave the house.
"and frankly, at this point in the indy game industry, just getting a fun game finished and out there is deserving of an award, even if it is inappropriately titled for the achievement;p"
Probably true. But their attitude seems to be that they're making games that are better than the "mainstream" and we're all fools for not taking notice. Pretty silly.
Gamespot hasn't done this.. Please don't put them in the same sentence as Gamespy and IGN.. ever. Unless that sentence is "Gamespot is in a league way way way way above Gamespy and IGN.":P
Come on. People just don't care that much. Maybe they'll look at you funny for a moment, but that's about it. It's not like they're going to think "oh.. this guy drinks water.. I better stay away from that weirdo!" They'll probably forget about it less than 5 minutes later.
Most popular with editors and critics, yes. That doesn't translate to most popular among the people or best selling. The White Stripes' Elephant has only sold a little over a million copies, which would put it nowhere near the top in a Top 20 chart.
The state of online console gaming as it stands now is the most obvious indicator of where it will go in the future. It's pointless to predict something in the future without analyzing the facts of where we are now. Then again Gamespy is no stranger to pointless "journalism."
The thing is, although XBox Live may be a great service and very much liked by those who use it.. There are relatively few who actually do use it. I don't have numbers, but it seems to me that online gaming has a very small penetration in the console world so far. I just think it's important to remember things like that when hypothesizing the death of PC gaming.. silly me, right?
Copying can be theft. In your example of making personal backups with no intention to distribute, obviously that is not theft. But if you rent/borrow a DVD, copy it, return the original and keep the copy(or if you just plain downloaded it), that is theft. Stealing the physical object isn't that big a deal, as most people who claim DVDs are overpriced will tell you, it doesn't cost much at all to manufacture the DVDs or packaging. But they are losing a potential 15-20 dollar sale. Sounds like theft to me. You could say "but I wasn't going to buy it anyway, so they're not losing a sale!" Good luck getting anyone to listen to that.
There's a big difference between covering serious subject matter and taking yourself seriously. Everything can and should be dealt with with a sense of humor. It keeps people mentally and emotionally involved.
I always find that "bands get so little of the profit" argument so weak. The band knew what they were getting into when they signed the record contract (and if they didn't that's their own fault). If they wanted a larger percentage of profit per cd they should try distributing it themselves. It's not the consumer's responsibility to make sure the artist gets enough money. It's the artist's responsibility to make sure the artist gets enough money.
I'm always surprised when nerd types (which I assume you are if you're posting on Slashdot) have this attitude about anything, since nerds are usually the biggest "waste"rs of time and power.
Most hobbies consume time and energy without producing anything useful. The point of a hobby is not the end result, but the amount of work and love that was put into it. If the guy loves decorating his house, who are you to say it's a waste of time?
I don't know why anyone cares about becoming a Jedi. You'll be grinding through professions for countless hours and days.. just so you can get to a new profession to grind through. The game doesn't suddenly change once you're using a light saber instead of a pistol. I don't know anyone who has lasted more than 4 months in this game, even people who usually love MMORPGs get sick of the repetitiveness and lack of incentive to do anything other than grind. Such a pity too.. the Star Wars universe is a lot more interesting than the usual EQ/DAoC type thing IMO.
Could be a sign that they're really trying to make a great game this time. Q3A was fun and all, but kinda.. empty. I think they want (hope they're trying) to shed this "id makes good game engines and their games are just tech demos" image.
Slashdot Mirror
Some games already deal with that "someone is hitting me but where?" problem. The latest game I played that did it was the demo of Far Cry. Whichever side people are hitting you from, a flash of red on the screen (which is something a lot of games use to show you're getting hit in general) is concentrated at one edge of the screen, the edge in the direction of the bad guy.
I'm pretty sure there are older games that have things like that, but none are coming immediately to mind.
"All of the latest block-buster releases that have held the Disney name were made by Pixar."
:P
Pirates of the Caribbean was made by Pixar? huh. Learn something new every day.
I think people tend to forget Disney has it's fingers in a helluva lot more than animation. Pixar is a great asset, but they won't be dead without it (unfortunately).
I know this may come as a shock to you guys, but your favorite little nerdy thing will never win a huge award. There's a reason it's considered a nerd thing, only nerds seem to enjoy it a great deal.
This doesn't make the Academy wrong or stupid or ignorant for leaving out your little niche thing. It just means your favorite thing has limited appeal. The only reason the mainstream like LOTR are the action scenes. There are no interesting characters or great acting. Just well filmed action scenes (supported by CG of course). Everything else will only be appreciated by tolkien-lovers who already know the background for all the characters and can inject their own knowledge into the movie, making the movie seem better than it is in aspects in which it fails.
This is just one example (LOTR), but it applies to just about any complaint you guys have. (anime? please, get real.)
(no, I'm not trying to say all slashdot posters have the same opinion, this rant is only aimed at the ones who obviously suffer from such delusions)
I have no idea if it uses similar technology, but I find the Dolby Headphone technology found in some dvd players (WinDVD and PowerDVD for Windows most notably) works to similar effect.
Playing the game should be a reward in itself. My idea of fun is not to overcome challenges to gain rewards (and FMVs aren't much of a reward for me anyway). A game should be fun because it's fun to play. I find that Nintendo almost always designs their games with this school of thought. And although they're not always successful, they seem to be one of the few developers left even trying.
They did create new music.
"will feature an original score from Sony artists X-ecutioners"
I've never heard of them, but it is an original score. The music changes depending on what's happening in the game. And I think the rap/hip-hop sound fits with football. I'm not sure how the regular songs fit in with the score though.
In extreme sports games (like Tony Hawk's Pro Skater), I think a soundtrack that's just singles from bands is the best idea. You can play those games forever, you're going to get sick of a soundtrack that all has the same musical theme more quickly than you will a list of 30 or so individual songs by individual bands. And unlike most other genres, you're never going to associate certain music with certain times you played the game. It's all pretty similar, it'll just blur together in your head.
But for most other genres I definitely agree an original score is always a better idea (if it's done right).
I think it's great that they have such ridiculous designs. This is a Doom game, it should carry on in the tradition of Doom 1 & 2. If this was some other game about a mars base being overtaken by demons from hell then you may have a point.. but it's not. And actually, the game's plot (mars base overtaken by demons from hell? come on!) is so ridiculous, having "inspired" art direction would seem out of place regardless of the past Doom games.
I disagree completely. The game has problems, but not due to simplification. Everything they took out from DX1 was a correct decision in my opinion. However, the game needed about 3 or 4 months more work to smooth out all the bugs/glitches/performance issues and a little tweaking in general. Hopefully additional patches will fix more problems.
Ya know, maybe I'm weird, but I like to play games before deciding they suck and their only redeeming feature is their engine. It's not like id has a track record of making crappy games. They may not be great innovators, but every game they've made has been of high quality. You may be bored of FPS games, but that doesn't mean they all suck.
Personally, I could care less about whether a game is innovative. I just want a game that's well-made and fun. id has always delievered at least that much in the past.
The only thing that worries me more than the price of the PSP is the idea that it will just get a bunch of PS1 ports or PS1 style games. I can't think of a single good PS1 game that I think would work well in a portable/handheld environment. It'd be one thing to have 3d games like Mario 64, where everything is brightly colored and fairly obvious.. but most of the good PS1 games are dark and somewhat confusing to navigate on a regular TV, I can't imagine playing on a 3 inch screen. Handheld gaming is the last bastion for 2D gaming, with good reason.
I'd have to disagree with that. Fox News always feels like they're trying to frighten you. They have that "HIGH TERROR ALERT" thing on the screen 24 hours a day. If my only source of information was Fox News I'd probably be afraid to leave the house.
"and frankly, at this point in the indy game industry, just getting a fun game finished and out there is deserving of an award, even if it is inappropriately titled for the achievement ;p"
Probably true. But their attitude seems to be that they're making games that are better than the "mainstream" and we're all fools for not taking notice. Pretty silly.
"No game ever shipped without compromises being made. Otherwise, the game would still be in production."
Perfect Obvious Example: Duke Nukem Forever
Gamespot hasn't done this.. Please don't put them in the same sentence as Gamespy and IGN.. ever. Unless that sentence is "Gamespot is in a league way way way way above Gamespy and IGN." :P
Come on. People just don't care that much. Maybe they'll look at you funny for a moment, but that's about it. It's not like they're going to think "oh.. this guy drinks water.. I better stay away from that weirdo!" They'll probably forget about it less than 5 minutes later.
Most popular with editors and critics, yes. That doesn't translate to most popular among the people or best selling. The White Stripes' Elephant has only sold a little over a million copies, which would put it nowhere near the top in a Top 20 chart.
The state of online console gaming as it stands now is the most obvious indicator of where it will go in the future. It's pointless to predict something in the future without analyzing the facts of where we are now. Then again Gamespy is no stranger to pointless "journalism."
The thing is, although XBox Live may be a great service and very much liked by those who use it.. There are relatively few who actually do use it. I don't have numbers, but it seems to me that online gaming has a very small penetration in the console world so far. I just think it's important to remember things like that when hypothesizing the death of PC gaming.. silly me, right?
Copying can be theft. In your example of making personal backups with no intention to distribute, obviously that is not theft. But if you rent/borrow a DVD, copy it, return the original and keep the copy(or if you just plain downloaded it), that is theft. Stealing the physical object isn't that big a deal, as most people who claim DVDs are overpriced will tell you, it doesn't cost much at all to manufacture the DVDs or packaging. But they are losing a potential 15-20 dollar sale. Sounds like theft to me. You could say "but I wasn't going to buy it anyway, so they're not losing a sale!" Good luck getting anyone to listen to that.
There's a big difference between covering serious subject matter and taking yourself seriously. Everything can and should be dealt with with a sense of humor. It keeps people mentally and emotionally involved.
I always find that "bands get so little of the profit" argument so weak. The band knew what they were getting into when they signed the record contract (and if they didn't that's their own fault). If they wanted a larger percentage of profit per cd they should try distributing it themselves. It's not the consumer's responsibility to make sure the artist gets enough money. It's the artist's responsibility to make sure the artist gets enough money.
I'm always surprised when nerd types (which I assume you are if you're posting on Slashdot) have this attitude about anything, since nerds are usually the biggest "waste"rs of time and power.
Most hobbies consume time and energy without producing anything useful. The point of a hobby is not the end result, but the amount of work and love that was put into it. If the guy loves decorating his house, who are you to say it's a waste of time?
I don't know why anyone cares about becoming a Jedi. You'll be grinding through professions for countless hours and days.. just so you can get to a new profession to grind through. The game doesn't suddenly change once you're using a light saber instead of a pistol. I don't know anyone who has lasted more than 4 months in this game, even people who usually love MMORPGs get sick of the repetitiveness and lack of incentive to do anything other than grind. Such a pity too.. the Star Wars universe is a lot more interesting than the usual EQ/DAoC type thing IMO.
Could be a sign that they're really trying to make a great game this time. Q3A was fun and all, but kinda.. empty. I think they want (hope they're trying) to shed this "id makes good game engines and their games are just tech demos" image.
Trust it? Why do you need to trust it? If it works, it works. That's all that matters to me (in the context of this software).