This sounds like terrible news, actually. Consider this: the only truly fun or original games on the Wii are first party. This is because they are created around the Wiimote. They take advantage of it and they feel like a natural extension of gameplay that is the only true selling point the Wii has.
Then comes third party games. A company like Take 2 is saying they're going from zero games to 3 games on the Wii in one calendar year. Since most games go in a 2 to 3 year cycle, that means these will be ports. They'll be ports of PS2 or Gamecube era graphics (not shock considering Wii is not capable of anything more) and they'll likely have tacked on Wiimote controls.
If I was a Wii owner I'd be upset. They have a game drought like everyone else, but when the waterfall comes for original IP on other consoles, their games will be ports with tacked on controls. Hey, I wish I was wrong, but it's not looking good for them.
The success of movies like Casino Royale makes sense in the same way the sales of the original Matrix movie made sense when DVD was in its infancy. Right now, a lot of hi-definition discs are very thin on extra features, mimic the abilities of DVD even when they have far better to offer, and frankly they put out a lot of shit movies.
The reason why some movies sell 200 copies is because even on DVD they'd sell at the bottom of the barrel. Movie studios figured if they offer the never ending parade of movie tripe that didn't sell on DVD into hi-definition formats, they might get a few quick sales in an otherwise vacuum of quality.
I have bought a couple Blu-rays now for my PS3. But what I am truly waiting for are the big ones: sci-fi epics like Indiana Jones, Star Wars, the Matix, Lord of the Rings, and other re-digitized classics.
Seriously? It does nothing of the sort. If I took everything I read at face value and had the world-view of a 5 year old, maybe. But the stark reality is that man made global warming is real, just as gravity and evolution. But conspiracy theorists and ultra-conservatives throw in their two cents to keep people in a constant state of re-evaluation of the facts. They imply there is dissent where there is none.
The only questions regarding man made global warming are how severe the effects will be, and how we can change our contribution to it with behavioral and scientific resolutions. I used to think it was just a cycle at first, and then I say the overwhelming scientific consensus.
Fact: It's going to be 69 degrees in New York City before the second week in March. That's absurdly early for that kind of weather. And if I had the "scientific" mind of some of these critics, I'd look in the Almanac and see that the weather has spiked like this before in March. What I'd leave out is the FREQUENCY at which this is occurring. It's not isolated incidents or simple deviation from the average.
This article clearly points out what so many people have had trouble with-- for years now. A lot of people do not want to embrace the monopoly of Microsoft. Yet with Linux you can't really get your work done without a lot of knowledge and sweat. It's ain't easy. And to make things worse, Linux distro's customize their GUI's to look and behave like their major competitor-- Windows! I find this amusing and ironic.
I look to my own empirical evidence: Of 7 software engineers (people traditionally unlikely to consider an alternative OS for development), 5 have purchased a MacBook Pro. Of my close social group of friends, only 2 out of 10+ have a Mac.
People who want something simple buy a mac. Now, people that also want to install multiple OS's (Linux, Windows, OS X) also buy a Mac.
Am I missing something, or is it impossible for you to have an nVidia graphics card in your Mac Book Pro? If you could update it to 3GB of RAM, that means that you have a Core 2 Duo based MacBook (second generation.) Apple only uses ATI Radeon x1600 cards in the MacBook pro line of computers.
Long story short, your post was probably pulled because it's INACCURATE.
While this is clearly not as simple as a format-lockout (as the article's title would suggest), there is a lot of precedent AGAINST AutoCAD. So far as I am aware, no company has EVER succeeded in blocking other people from reverse engineering their file format. Where this deviates is that AutoCAD has extended the file format to include a system of checks and balances. Does that could as a lock out? Can people still use DWG as a common 2D / 3D CAD format exchange but be flagged as "unofficial?" Does this hurt them?
I'm guessing they'll fall flat on their face. Frankly, I hope they do. AutoCAD is a horrible program to use and is terribly outdated. Aside from being first to market, they have nothing going for them.
I think it's absolutely fine to have a reduced or no-support policy on a 7 Year old OS. If you don't want new updates or programs, requiring a new OS, at least XP, is not that outrageous to me.
Some people may have the "what about the pain in my ass this causes" response. Well, it's like going to the Dentist. You can put off the visit for a long time, but eventually you're gonna have to go.
So, Sony says they'll have 200k units in North America for launch. NPD doesn't track all types of retailers or online sales. Their number is 197k.
Somehow the poster decides to say Sony *only* sold 197k as if that had anything at all to do with demand. They essentially sold exactly the number of PS3's they had available.
What is most telling is that demand for next generation systems is high this holiday season. The Wii and PS3, more or less sold out based on the supply they could get.
I got a PS3 60Gb at the official NYC launch event at the Sony Style store. Everyone was guaranteed a unit, and we all got one. Things were cival, orderly, and even friendly. I made a couple new friends in line and walked out with my unit at about 2:45 AM!
My impressions of the unit:
Resistance looks great and plays great. If you don't like 1st person shooters, don't bother, but if you do you will not be disappointed. I found that most of the game demos on the floor didn't show the best aspects of all the games available. Sad, but true-- the actual game was much better than the demo.
The downloadable games are a lot of fun and very reasonably priced at under $10 a pop. The launch titles were much stronger than the PS2 launch titles and certainly on par with the Wii and 360. As with any console, the best games will be 6 to 9 months out-- but this is just the typical next-gen timetable. If you have an HD tv, this is the console to get.
Blu-ray movies look as good as they should. Kudos for that. I consider that a token only because I think it would be hard to screw that up. However, as with DVD, the best experiences are to come. Talladega Nights looked good and sounded great, but I really want the Matrix in Blu-ray to confirm it's superiority to HD-DVD.:-)
So the PS3 lived up to all the hype. Here are some interesting improvements I'm certain we'll see over time. And, thankfully, we can expect regular updates of functionality just like the 360. Honestly I could go on and on about how much I liked the experience and enjoy the games. I also know full well that there is improvement to be made over time, and it WILL be done. Here are some ideas:
1) When buying a game demo, purchasing the full game should be an unlock code and not another download. They are large.
2) You should be able to download content in the background from the store.
3) Motorstorm is an amazing game and it's a shame it wasn't available on launch day. I can't wait to get my hands on that one.
4) More Bluetooth compatibility for keyboards and mice.
5) Drop the price to $399 - $499 and it's a no brainer. $599 was pricy but for me, eh, I'll live with it.
People love to bash the PS3 and praise the Wii online-- it's progressed to an art form now. But, I just don't see it. I know the Wii is nice and all, but if you are looking for an HD experience look no further than PS3. The games really are great, the downloadable content is competent and very fun, and the UI is pretty slick.
How much do you honestly think you can get off a PS3 for a PS2, like 5 bucks? I'm seriously asking b/c I don't know if the value-proposition is worth it. If you can keep a working PS2 for a second TV or something, the tiny trade-in value might not be worth the loss of functionality.
I'm confused. If you need to play a PS2 game on the PS3, and it doesn't work well. WHY NOT PLUG IN YOUR PS2? I'm assuming you didn't purchase a bunch of PS2 games to sit on a shelf and collect dust. There must have been a PS2 in your greasy palms at some point.
The PS3 is likely emulating a PS2 through a combination of hardware and software. Since 99.99% of the people buying a PS3 will want to play PS3 games on their PS3, this really isn't an earth shattering issue. For the small remaining crew, they have a PS2 they could hook up until the firmware updates roll out to correct it.
For the confused or misinformed-- the general public who purchases a HDTV will ask themselves a question: how do I get high definition movies? The answers right now are HD-DVD and Blu-ray. Both cost the same, but one comes with a next-generation video game system attached.
The people pissing and moaning about not having choice-- namely Microsoft, are the very people who lock you out of options for the Zune, Windows, Internet Explorer, and Windows Media Player. Don't believe that they've changed their heart. They're arguing this point to further their position in a market they do not control. They are confusing customers with HD-DVD and prevent game makers from using the medium to deliver games. If it doesn't come standard, it won't be done on the 360. Period. That goes for ALL consoles, not just the 360.
Nintendo? They've just released a GameCube with a new arthritis-inducing controller that has almost no media options built in. Of course they'll argue you don't want to confuse the two. They can't afford to compete in that space and they rightfully chose NOT to. Kudus to Nintendo-- but they really painted themselves into a dead-end architecture IMHO. No DVD. No CD. No next-gen anything. I'm still baffled, but I certainly don't want Nintendo to do poorly. They just aren't competing against Sony if you ask me.
Now let's look at Sony. The pioneer and co-inventor of DVD. Do you think it was coincidence that the PS2 came shipped with a DVD player and that DVD sales exploded when the PS2 came to the market? The PS2 single handedly made DVD a new standard. When DVD players became a commodity, people then bought them as stand alone players, but the PS2 started it.
Sony made DVD a standard and Blu-ray will, aside from an unprecedented problem occurring, be the new delivery media for high definition movies. Why would last generation be any different than this one, barring a huge screw up?
Despite the fanboys on each side of the debate, consumers will make blu-ray the de-facto standard. Nobody currently debating this topic will be. We're the early adopters. We're simply going to tell our neighbors to get a PS3 to watch HD movies. We're the ones that will get the ball rolling, but we sure as hell aren't going to be the 100 million units sold. We're easily 1/10th of that.
Okay, so how many pounds of hydrocarbons would we release into the atmosphere by launching trillions of light spaceships? Isn't this just dealing with symptoms instead of providing solutions to the core problem of global warming? I understand the need to have a many-pronged approach, but this seems pretty far fetched and very specific in application, whereas other solutions have broader applications.
I think, like most people who consciously chose to use Firefox, this update is good. It replaces IE 6 and most of it's security holes. However I'll take the update and continue using Firefox. I think that the number of active users may spike a bit for IE, but the trend to using alternative browsers (Firefox) will continue-- a minor impact at best.
No, there's no need to lock out SD sets right away, but if the US TV is ever going to move to an HD economy gaming will be a large reason why it does. HD gaming will mean HD programming on TV and sales of HDTV's.
Next generation gaming can't be complete without HDTV. I think it is smart to fall back to SD for now, and ween people off those terrible SD sets. While I don't advocate shutting out the SD players of the world for numerous reasons, I think HD is the very definition of next generation gaming. As such, I do not view the Wii as a next generation console. It's an interesting new console, but it's essentially a GameCube. That's not to say it won't be nice for what it is, or even successful in it's own way-- but it simply can not become as ubiquitous as the 360 or PS3 can become because of this missing feature.
As many posters have mentioned before, he gaming resolution consoles in their current generations can output is paltry. Going to HD is critical for entire genre's of gaming to be successful. Ask any sports fan if watching a game in HD is comparable to SD and they will likely laugh. HD is like watching the game. SD is like getting a telegraph of the results.
As anyone with half a brain realized, the conclusion of this post is entirely false. The recent drop in stock price was due to the battery recall, and had nothing to do with the PS3.
In addition, Sony has flatly denied any problems with the hardware. To support their claims, individuals who have received final retail units for review all claim it ran cool and quiet.
Looks like this is flame-bait at it's worse, fiction at best.
For gaming, which requires the most performance, AMD is soundly beaten. Period. That doesn't mean they won't come out with something to one-up Intel in the future, but right now only a fanboy would recommend AMD if performance is the number one criteria.
If you move away from performance as the only criteria, I think AMD competes well with the cost-to-dollar performance. HOWEVER, if you are willing to overclock, even the sub-$200 Core 2 Duo will outperform any desktop AMD chip you can buy-- at any price.
It's not a matter of fanboy-ism. It's a matter of numbers. Right now Intel wins on performance. That's just a fact. However, AMD could very well get back into the mix and make this argument mute in the near future.
Well, my Core 2 Duo gaming rig was my first computer ever built from scratch. I'm actually a Mac fanatic, but I love games. I think any serious gamer should have a PC for such a reason, dispite Windows as the OS. *sigh* Anyway, I didn't run into any problems, really. Here is my rig:
Intel Core 2 Duo e6700 @ 3.095 GHz (2.66GHz stock) Zalman CNPS9500 CPU Air Cooler Intel 975XBX "BadAxe" Motherboard Sapphire Radeon x1900xt in Crossfire Mode ATI Crossfire x1900 Master Card 2 x 512mb Crucial Ballistix DDR2 800 Memory (4-4-4-14) 2 x Seagate SATA2 320GB Perendicular recording HD's in RAID 1 LG DVD-ROM / CD-R/RW Optical Drive Antec Performance I P180b Case (super quiet and runs very cool) Antec TruPower II 550 Watt Power Supply (comes with appropriate cabling for Crossfire) Windows XP Professional SP2... my 3DMark '06 scores are well over 10,000. I'm sure I could eek out more with some additional tweaking. It runs any game I throw at it smooth as butter. The BIOS is easy to use and Intel's software and support is excellent. Obviously, I've OC'd the graphics cards, memory, system bus, and processor. All of these were easy to do and test and although you could get slightly more performance by going with other mobo's, this is a solid setup that is hard to screw up for a newbie like myself. That's why I went with it.
My only caveats were that the case, while it runs VERY cool and is nice looking, fit the motherboard tightly against the bottom case section. This made certain connectors difficult to work with, such as the SATA. firewire, USB, and power. Also, if you're smart and looking to do Crossfire, consult ATI's website to get certified motherboards and power supplies.
The Wii, just like the GameCube, will be a third place player. That doesn't make it obsolete. That doesn't make it pointless. It simply means that it doesn't have what it takes to gain market share. Frankly, it doesn't have to.
I think it's becoming more and more clear that people love to bash the PS3 because Sony is on top right now. The reality is that, outside of a hard core gaming press and bloggers, nobody cares about that negative press. People will buy a PS3 in droves and IT WILL SELL based on BLU-RAY. Consumer mentality and the mentality of basically anyone blogging about it is NOT THE SAME.
The marketshares will probably not change much, nor do they have to, to allow all three consoles a place in the homes of millions of people.
Don't get me wrong, 1080p is nice all things equal (such as cost and availability of content) but it really doesn't make a big difference over 720p. Furthermore, as the poster points out, it's only for MOVIES. Not for games. So the PS3 still has a technical advantage even though I really don't think it matters. On top of that, almost no one has a 1080p display in their living room. I have one in my computer room (23" LCD 1920 x 1200), but in my living room I have a 720p resolution HDTV.
And, yes, I'm a Sony fan. But I just don't think 1080p matters right now, even in the living room. You have to have a large display to see the pixel difference between 1080p and 720p anyway. It's mostly a bragging right.
I have to believe the acquisition of ATI by AMD essentially writes an epitath for nVidia. They have lagged behind ATI for image quality for about 2 years now, and performance for a year.
I have nothing against them, but they are fighting an uphill battle. I don't think releasing products like this are really going to help them. If nVidia pulls a rabbit out of their hat, maybe it'll make sense on the high-end to buy nVidia again. For now, they are a "me, too" producer.
I doubt anyone on this board would contend that MS's craptacular software accounts for a massive segment of the IT sector. Without it, thousands of people could maintain their own computers with OS X.
Slashdot Mirror
This sounds like terrible news, actually. Consider this: the only truly fun or original games on the Wii are first party. This is because they are created around the Wiimote. They take advantage of it and they feel like a natural extension of gameplay that is the only true selling point the Wii has.
Then comes third party games. A company like Take 2 is saying they're going from zero games to 3 games on the Wii in one calendar year. Since most games go in a 2 to 3 year cycle, that means these will be ports. They'll be ports of PS2 or Gamecube era graphics (not shock considering Wii is not capable of anything more) and they'll likely have tacked on Wiimote controls.
If I was a Wii owner I'd be upset. They have a game drought like everyone else, but when the waterfall comes for original IP on other consoles, their games will be ports with tacked on controls. Hey, I wish I was wrong, but it's not looking good for them.
The success of movies like Casino Royale makes sense in the same way the sales of the original Matrix movie made sense when DVD was in its infancy. Right now, a lot of hi-definition discs are very thin on extra features, mimic the abilities of DVD even when they have far better to offer, and frankly they put out a lot of shit movies.
The reason why some movies sell 200 copies is because even on DVD they'd sell at the bottom of the barrel. Movie studios figured if they offer the never ending parade of movie tripe that didn't sell on DVD into hi-definition formats, they might get a few quick sales in an otherwise vacuum of quality.
I have bought a couple Blu-rays now for my PS3. But what I am truly waiting for are the big ones: sci-fi epics like Indiana Jones, Star Wars, the Matix, Lord of the Rings, and other re-digitized classics.
Seriously? It does nothing of the sort. If I took everything I read at face value and had the world-view of a 5 year old, maybe. But the stark reality is that man made global warming is real, just as gravity and evolution. But conspiracy theorists and ultra-conservatives throw in their two cents to keep people in a constant state of re-evaluation of the facts. They imply there is dissent where there is none.
The only questions regarding man made global warming are how severe the effects will be, and how we can change our contribution to it with behavioral and scientific resolutions. I used to think it was just a cycle at first, and then I say the overwhelming scientific consensus.
Fact: It's going to be 69 degrees in New York City before the second week in March. That's absurdly early for that kind of weather. And if I had the "scientific" mind of some of these critics, I'd look in the Almanac and see that the weather has spiked like this before in March. What I'd leave out is the FREQUENCY at which this is occurring. It's not isolated incidents or simple deviation from the average.
This article clearly points out what so many people have had trouble with-- for years now. A lot of people do not want to embrace the monopoly of Microsoft. Yet with Linux you can't really get your work done without a lot of knowledge and sweat. It's ain't easy. And to make things worse, Linux distro's customize their GUI's to look and behave like their major competitor-- Windows! I find this amusing and ironic.
I look to my own empirical evidence: Of 7 software engineers (people traditionally unlikely to consider an alternative OS for development), 5 have purchased a MacBook Pro. Of my close social group of friends, only 2 out of 10+ have a Mac.
People who want something simple buy a mac. Now, people that also want to install multiple OS's (Linux, Windows, OS X) also buy a Mac.
Am I missing something, or is it impossible for you to have an nVidia graphics card in your Mac Book Pro? If you could update it to 3GB of RAM, that means that you have a Core 2 Duo based MacBook (second generation.) Apple only uses ATI Radeon x1600 cards in the MacBook pro line of computers.
Long story short, your post was probably pulled because it's INACCURATE.
While this is clearly not as simple as a format-lockout (as the article's title would suggest), there is a lot of precedent AGAINST AutoCAD. So far as I am aware, no company has EVER succeeded in blocking other people from reverse engineering their file format. Where this deviates is that AutoCAD has extended the file format to include a system of checks and balances. Does that could as a lock out? Can people still use DWG as a common 2D / 3D CAD format exchange but be flagged as "unofficial?" Does this hurt them?
I'm guessing they'll fall flat on their face. Frankly, I hope they do. AutoCAD is a horrible program to use and is terribly outdated. Aside from being first to market, they have nothing going for them.
I think it's absolutely fine to have a reduced or no-support policy on a 7 Year old OS. If you don't want new updates or programs, requiring a new OS, at least XP, is not that outrageous to me.
Some people may have the "what about the pain in my ass this causes" response. Well, it's like going to the Dentist. You can put off the visit for a long time, but eventually you're gonna have to go.
So, Sony says they'll have 200k units in North America for launch. NPD doesn't track all types of retailers or online sales. Their number is 197k.
Somehow the poster decides to say Sony *only* sold 197k as if that had anything at all to do with demand. They essentially sold exactly the number of PS3's they had available.
What is most telling is that demand for next generation systems is high this holiday season. The Wii and PS3, more or less sold out based on the supply they could get.
I got a PS3 60Gb at the official NYC launch event at the Sony Style store. Everyone was guaranteed a unit, and we all got one. Things were cival, orderly, and even friendly. I made a couple new friends in line and walked out with my unit at about 2:45 AM!
:-)
My impressions of the unit:
Resistance looks great and plays great. If you don't like 1st person shooters, don't bother, but if you do you will not be disappointed. I found that most of the game demos on the floor didn't show the best aspects of all the games available. Sad, but true-- the actual game was much better than the demo.
The downloadable games are a lot of fun and very reasonably priced at under $10 a pop. The launch titles were much stronger than the PS2 launch titles and certainly on par with the Wii and 360. As with any console, the best games will be 6 to 9 months out-- but this is just the typical next-gen timetable. If you have an HD tv, this is the console to get.
Blu-ray movies look as good as they should. Kudos for that. I consider that a token only because I think it would be hard to screw that up. However, as with DVD, the best experiences are to come. Talladega Nights looked good and sounded great, but I really want the Matrix in Blu-ray to confirm it's superiority to HD-DVD.
So the PS3 lived up to all the hype. Here are some interesting improvements I'm certain we'll see over time. And, thankfully, we can expect regular updates of functionality just like the 360. Honestly I could go on and on about how much I liked the experience and enjoy the games. I also know full well that there is improvement to be made over time, and it WILL be done. Here are some ideas:
1) When buying a game demo, purchasing the full game should be an unlock code and not another download. They are large.
2) You should be able to download content in the background from the store.
3) Motorstorm is an amazing game and it's a shame it wasn't available on launch day. I can't wait to get my hands on that one.
4) More Bluetooth compatibility for keyboards and mice.
5) Drop the price to $399 - $499 and it's a no brainer. $599 was pricy but for me, eh, I'll live with it.
People love to bash the PS3 and praise the Wii online-- it's progressed to an art form now. But, I just don't see it. I know the Wii is nice and all, but if you are looking for an HD experience look no further than PS3. The games really are great, the downloadable content is competent and very fun, and the UI is pretty slick.
Not any more! They'll kept that sucker. Haha.
How much do you honestly think you can get off a PS3 for a PS2, like 5 bucks? I'm seriously asking b/c I don't know if the value-proposition is worth it. If you can keep a working PS2 for a second TV or something, the tiny trade-in value might not be worth the loss of functionality.
Yeah I see that point. My PS2 is certainly on it's way out.
But I have to believe this is a matter of firmware updates and time-- not a permanent problem.
I'm confused. If you need to play a PS2 game on the PS3, and it doesn't work well. WHY NOT PLUG IN YOUR PS2? I'm assuming you didn't purchase a bunch of PS2 games to sit on a shelf and collect dust. There must have been a PS2 in your greasy palms at some point.
The PS3 is likely emulating a PS2 through a combination of hardware and software. Since 99.99% of the people buying a PS3 will want to play PS3 games on their PS3, this really isn't an earth shattering issue. For the small remaining crew, they have a PS2 they could hook up until the firmware updates roll out to correct it.
For the confused or misinformed-- the general public who purchases a HDTV will ask themselves a question: how do I get high definition movies? The answers right now are HD-DVD and Blu-ray. Both cost the same, but one comes with a next-generation video game system attached.
The people pissing and moaning about not having choice-- namely Microsoft, are the very people who lock you out of options for the Zune, Windows, Internet Explorer, and Windows Media Player. Don't believe that they've changed their heart. They're arguing this point to further their position in a market they do not control. They are confusing customers with HD-DVD and prevent game makers from using the medium to deliver games. If it doesn't come standard, it won't be done on the 360. Period. That goes for ALL consoles, not just the 360.
Nintendo? They've just released a GameCube with a new arthritis-inducing controller that has almost no media options built in. Of course they'll argue you don't want to confuse the two. They can't afford to compete in that space and they rightfully chose NOT to. Kudus to Nintendo-- but they really painted themselves into a dead-end architecture IMHO. No DVD. No CD. No next-gen anything. I'm still baffled, but I certainly don't want Nintendo to do poorly. They just aren't competing against Sony if you ask me.
Now let's look at Sony. The pioneer and co-inventor of DVD. Do you think it was coincidence that the PS2 came shipped with a DVD player and that DVD sales exploded when the PS2 came to the market? The PS2 single handedly made DVD a new standard. When DVD players became a commodity, people then bought them as stand alone players, but the PS2 started it.
Sony made DVD a standard and Blu-ray will, aside from an unprecedented problem occurring, be the new delivery media for high definition movies. Why would last generation be any different than this one, barring a huge screw up?
Despite the fanboys on each side of the debate, consumers will make blu-ray the de-facto standard. Nobody currently debating this topic will be. We're the early adopters. We're simply going to tell our neighbors to get a PS3 to watch HD movies. We're the ones that will get the ball rolling, but we sure as hell aren't going to be the 100 million units sold. We're easily 1/10th of that.
Okay, so how many pounds of hydrocarbons would we release into the atmosphere by launching trillions of light spaceships? Isn't this just dealing with symptoms instead of providing solutions to the core problem of global warming? I understand the need to have a many-pronged approach, but this seems pretty far fetched and very specific in application, whereas other solutions have broader applications.
I think, like most people who consciously chose to use Firefox, this update is good. It replaces IE 6 and most of it's security holes. However I'll take the update and continue using Firefox. I think that the number of active users may spike a bit for IE, but the trend to using alternative browsers (Firefox) will continue-- a minor impact at best.
Well, luckily for me this will have zero impact. I use a Mac.
No, there's no need to lock out SD sets right away, but if the US TV is ever going to move to an HD economy gaming will be a large reason why it does. HD gaming will mean HD programming on TV and sales of HDTV's.
Next generation gaming can't be complete without HDTV. I think it is smart to fall back to SD for now, and ween people off those terrible SD sets. While I don't advocate shutting out the SD players of the world for numerous reasons, I think HD is the very definition of next generation gaming. As such, I do not view the Wii as a next generation console. It's an interesting new console, but it's essentially a GameCube. That's not to say it won't be nice for what it is, or even successful in it's own way-- but it simply can not become as ubiquitous as the 360 or PS3 can become because of this missing feature.
As many posters have mentioned before, he gaming resolution consoles in their current generations can output is paltry. Going to HD is critical for entire genre's of gaming to be successful. Ask any sports fan if watching a game in HD is comparable to SD and they will likely laugh. HD is like watching the game. SD is like getting a telegraph of the results.
As anyone with half a brain realized, the conclusion of this post is entirely false. The recent drop in stock price was due to the battery recall, and had nothing to do with the PS3.
In addition, Sony has flatly denied any problems with the hardware. To support their claims, individuals who have received final retail units for review all claim it ran cool and quiet.
Looks like this is flame-bait at it's worse, fiction at best.
For gaming, which requires the most performance, AMD is soundly beaten. Period. That doesn't mean they won't come out with something to one-up Intel in the future, but right now only a fanboy would recommend AMD if performance is the number one criteria.
If you move away from performance as the only criteria, I think AMD competes well with the cost-to-dollar performance. HOWEVER, if you are willing to overclock, even the sub-$200 Core 2 Duo will outperform any desktop AMD chip you can buy-- at any price.
It's not a matter of fanboy-ism. It's a matter of numbers. Right now Intel wins on performance. That's just a fact. However, AMD could very well get back into the mix and make this argument mute in the near future.
Well, my Core 2 Duo gaming rig was my first computer ever built from scratch. I'm actually a Mac fanatic, but I love games. I think any serious gamer should have a PC for such a reason, dispite Windows as the OS. *sigh* Anyway, I didn't run into any problems, really. Here is my rig:
... my 3DMark '06 scores are well over 10,000. I'm sure I could eek out more with some additional tweaking. It runs any game I throw at it smooth as butter. The BIOS is easy to use and Intel's software and support is excellent. Obviously, I've OC'd the graphics cards, memory, system bus, and processor. All of these were easy to do and test and although you could get slightly more performance by going with other mobo's, this is a solid setup that is hard to screw up for a newbie like myself. That's why I went with it.
Intel Core 2 Duo e6700 @ 3.095 GHz (2.66GHz stock)
Zalman CNPS9500 CPU Air Cooler
Intel 975XBX "BadAxe" Motherboard
Sapphire Radeon x1900xt in Crossfire Mode
ATI Crossfire x1900 Master Card
2 x 512mb Crucial Ballistix DDR2 800 Memory (4-4-4-14)
2 x Seagate SATA2 320GB Perendicular recording HD's in RAID 1
LG DVD-ROM / CD-R/RW Optical Drive
Antec Performance I P180b Case (super quiet and runs very cool)
Antec TruPower II 550 Watt Power Supply (comes with appropriate cabling for Crossfire)
Windows XP Professional SP2
My only caveats were that the case, while it runs VERY cool and is nice looking, fit the motherboard tightly against the bottom case section. This made certain connectors difficult to work with, such as the SATA. firewire, USB, and power. Also, if you're smart and looking to do Crossfire, consult ATI's website to get certified motherboards and power supplies.
The Wii, just like the GameCube, will be a third place player. That doesn't make it obsolete. That doesn't make it pointless. It simply means that it doesn't have what it takes to gain market share. Frankly, it doesn't have to.
I think it's becoming more and more clear that people love to bash the PS3 because Sony is on top right now. The reality is that, outside of a hard core gaming press and bloggers, nobody cares about that negative press. People will buy a PS3 in droves and IT WILL SELL based on BLU-RAY. Consumer mentality and the mentality of basically anyone blogging about it is NOT THE SAME.
The marketshares will probably not change much, nor do they have to, to allow all three consoles a place in the homes of millions of people.
Don't get me wrong, 1080p is nice all things equal (such as cost and availability of content) but it really doesn't make a big difference over 720p. Furthermore, as the poster points out, it's only for MOVIES. Not for games. So the PS3 still has a technical advantage even though I really don't think it matters. On top of that, almost no one has a 1080p display in their living room. I have one in my computer room (23" LCD 1920 x 1200), but in my living room I have a 720p resolution HDTV.
And, yes, I'm a Sony fan. But I just don't think 1080p matters right now, even in the living room. You have to have a large display to see the pixel difference between 1080p and 720p anyway. It's mostly a bragging right.
I have to believe the acquisition of ATI by AMD essentially writes an epitath for nVidia. They have lagged behind ATI for image quality for about 2 years now, and performance for a year.
I have nothing against them, but they are fighting an uphill battle. I don't think releasing products like this are really going to help them. If nVidia pulls a rabbit out of their hat, maybe it'll make sense on the high-end to buy nVidia again. For now, they are a "me, too" producer.
I doubt anyone on this board would contend that MS's craptacular software accounts for a massive segment of the IT sector. Without it, thousands of people could maintain their own computers with OS X.
There's a good reason why the Wii will be profitable at launch. It's last generation hardware.