Damn near every female game character is some archetypal short, buxom, hyper-sexualized character to fulfill the designer, artist and players sexual fantasies. Why isn't Alyx Vance a little husky? Why is Lara Croft a sex bomb with huge breasts when her figures and career tells me should would probably be closer to flat chested and sinewy. Conversely why isn't kratos a bit tubby with glasses? How come Solid snake isn't 5'0? Why isn't Link obese? It's because they're selling fantasy. Lara croft i agree is just lame. But Alyx Vance at least looks like a girl i might meet outside of a strip club. I think Alyx vance highlights how far they've come from the Tomb raider days. Frankly I'd have some more problem buying into a game if we have a 5'0 350 lb man or woman hoofing it across a broken cityscape at full sprint for a 15 min session.
Sorry, you're wrong. THe only next-gen platform is the Wii, its the only platform truely innovating. Xbox360 and PS3 are the same generation as the PS1 and PS2, the only difference is slightly more processing power- yawn..
Summary of 80% of the wii library thus far:
nes game - button mashing + frantic shaking.
It's not really that big a step. everything done on the wii has appeared else where you're just jumping on a band wagon.
Since PS3 really has no backwards compatibility, I won't even consider purchasing it.
80% computability on the 80 gig is not backward compatible? I have a 60 gig version and it has 98% compatibility, only the discount 40 gig lacks BC. The 360 is sitting at 40-50%. The wii is at 100% but the library of GC game sis thinner. The wii is selling well on hypeM/b>. I have one and it gathers dust unless i have company. It's amazing when people come over but otherwise the single player games aren't my style (except fire emblem). I highly doubt it's GC games floating the wii because that library was rather thin compared to the xbox and Ps2 libraries.
It's much harder these days to not be "stupid". For instance is investing in a AAA rated debt security a stupid move? Or how about picking up real estate in a hot market to flip using a ARM mortgage? How about doing it all when the bond market and general interest rates are below inflation? There is obviously stupid such as making 30k a year and buying a 500k house with an ARM mortgage but the gray area has grown as the world around us has gotten more complicated while our brains haven't advanced much. For MMO's the scams have less of a real world effect but the company in charge has a vested interest in reducing the ability for scammers to prosper as each victim is a potentially lost customer.
The OP was talking specifically about multi-platform releases. Take Madden for example...the 360 version looked great, but the PS3 version could only get 30fps (as opposed to 60 on the 360) going. This is a problem.
First party games are always optimized for that platform, it's the multi-platform releases where you start to see who's better at what. Last-gen I only bought multi-platform releases for my XBox because they just simply looked better.
For current-gen, at least so far anyway, it seems to be going the same direction. The 360 has the best looking games (again, only talking multi-platform here), the Wii has the interesting IP's and control scheme, and the PS3 has what? They lost Assassin's Creed, GTA, DMC and a whole host of other exclusives... Sure, they have the FF series, but the 360 has a bunch of exclusive Mistwalker RPG's coming out!
If the PS3 doesn't clean up their act (and their graphics) in very short order, they're going to have problems. I think it's just a case of the first gen development problems. It's hard to code your own solution to a new architecture so the PS3 versions of multi-platforms games seem poor due to this. However, the 360 first gen games were also nothing to write home about. There was nothing to compare it too but many looked like xbox games with a slightly higher poly count. So far I've always bought multi platform games on the PS3 because I hate live with a vital passion (their C policy is ridiculous I refuse to even use prepaid cards because of a poor customer experience). Nintendo firts party games have been varied. Fire emblem is my favorite the rest i could take or leave. For the 360 mass effect is awesome. And for the ps3 I'm addicted to Ratchet and clank. I think there's room for all of em and hope they succeed because only console manufacturer means the customer suffers.
Also, mistwalker is bleh.. Blue dragon wasn't fun. I'd rather play similarly blah Fable.
In this case, the MSRP is much lower than market price. So why not charge the market price? That's capitalism. They would then be accused of arrogance and lose market share ala Sony. It's a tough game.
If time emerged during the big bang, then wouldn't that mean that there was no "before" the big bang? So where did it come from? Before was 42x/0. It's it obvious?
Having said that, I find it hard to believe a little pen laser could cause significant "pain and discomfort in his eyes for a couple of hours" at 500ft +. Apparently it wasn't a pen laser/pointer. It was a flashlight sized "portable laser". Pointers are limited by the FDA to 5mw. "portable lasers" have no limit legal limit. It may have been much stronger. 0.25s at 5mw can cause eye damage so if it was a stronger one it's not unlikely it did cause damage.
Technically, that is not true. Red laser pointer, green laser pointer, all the commonly sold models put out less than 5mw of energy. The green lasers LOOK stronger because the human eye is more sensitive to green. But it is the power level that causes damage, not how bright it looks. Else, infra-red lasers, being completely invisible to the human eye, would not be dangerous at all. I was informed in another post that so long as it's not sold as a "Laser Pointer", it can be as powerful as money can buy. The one the couple used was much larger then a laser pointer.
I don't know much about lasers (or anything, really), but 500 feet through surface-level air has gotta difuse a small laser at least somewhat. Pain and headaches for two hours? Come on! Somebody, puhleeze do the math. That pilot has gotta be lying, no? Or maybe the couple was using the new Lego Laser their son got last Christmas - don't they put out a few gigawatts? Lasers come in a variety of powers and they can cause some pretty severe eye damage. even a pen sized red laser pointer can cause a bit of damage. What was used in this incident was a flashlight sized green laser pointer. the limit in the US is 5mW for lasers. Most green lasers are 5mW lasers. 0.25s exposure to a 5mW is thought to cause permanent eye damage. I don't have the background to do any of the math required but it doesn't seem implausible that a green flashlight sized laser could have caused some temporary damage at 500ft.
Ignoring the statement that a blinded pilot would crash a jumbo jet. (They wouldn't)
The question in my mind is, what kind of LASER was this? A normal hand pen pointer laser is not going to blind someone at 500+ feet. I have doubts that someone could even hit a person in a helicopter in the eys if they where trying.
They talk about 'illuminating' the cockpit. Something else a pen laser isn't going to do at 500 feet. It was a flashlight sized green laser. Supposedly at least x10 stronger then a normal red pointer.
$250,000 and 20 years. Definitely an issue cruel and unusual punishment if they got that, imho. At best I can see them being hit with some negligence suit from the pilot from the damage caused. Unless their is a law in place preventing members of the public from illuminating aircraft in operation. If they can prove though, that the couple had the intention of causing the aircraft to crash, they may have a good reason to pursue trial. That is the maximum penalty. Maximum sentences aren't that common but it varies by judge. They may get off with $1000 fine and 360h of community service depending on the judge and the facts of the case. Unless there is a specified minimum sentence.
VG chartz is a unreliable source. They project based on basically random criteria what the sales will be. Until the quarterly media create and NPD come out vg chartz is usually a wild guess. After the quarterlies come out vgchartz updates their numbers. They've been off more often then not. But according to vgchartz:
Their at about 1/3 of the wii. The Wii is a smashing beyond all hope success. I'd argue that the PS3 is doing well compared to the outrageous success of the wii. Sales plotted against the 360 world wide sees the PS3 at roughly the same spot the 360 was last year. So it's going to be a three horse race with competition for 2nd. Competition is always good. Because frankly, despite the success most Wii games aren't my cup of tea. I love fire emblem but almost the entire rest of the library is aimed at someone other then me.
Quoting the summary: most scientists don't seem to know or care where they come from
Doesn't it make sense to worry about figuring out what the laws are before we worry about where they came from?
Truman: How long would it take to build an atomic bomb? Scientist: Nobody knows how to do that. But I can tell you why the laws of nature made it possible. Worrying about where they came form would be a good indicator your a bad scientist since your anthropomorphizing your work. Laws in Science are just terse observations.
Sorry, there will always be a "console war." The war is caused because a large number of people can only afford to buy one console. These people choose the one that they think will be the best console. Once their purchase is made, they will fight to convince everyone (including themselves) that their console is the best because, more than anything else, people like to believe that they made the best decision. So you can't end the "console war" without changing human nature.
This sort of behavior happens any time a decision has been made and there is a conflict over that decision, and is caused by several well-known cognitive biases (mostly originating from confirmation bias). The market seems to be splitting as well. There seems to be a much more distinct break up of whats games ends up on which system. The wii is getting novel party games (doing well everywhere). The PS3 still has a lock on the traditional Japanese franchise (given the world wide sales distribution this will continue to be true, doing well in Japan, poor in the US), while the 360 is getting many more of the American titles (and also doing poorly outside the US, well in the US).
Wii -> Alternative games PS3 -> Traditional Japanese style 360 -> Traditional American
If a you or I encountered a bug in our Linux downloaded from the Web for free, we would have no immediate remedy to our problem. We must wait for the next release, which could take weeks. Or produce your own dirty hack/work around/legitimate fix int he mean time.
It would take a long time for us humans to develop enough intelligence in robots for us to have a "meaningful relationship" with them. I can assume since you post on slashdot, you've never dated a cheerleader. The bar isn't so high. But I suppose the bar is really set by what you mean by meaningful.
I'm personally repulsed by the idea of carrying on with a advanced real doll but to each their own.
The author, as such, appears to have slept through the last 30 years, in which the original Macintosh established the desktop metaphors Microsoft poorly reimplemented and Linux re-re-implemented many many times over. So we only start counting a few years after Xerox invented them?
Yep, counting on apple is pretty risky, you never know how long those startup tech companies might last. Remember Apple without jobs? Thats just one MS hitman/Tofu choking incident away.
Slashdot Mirror
nes game - button mashing + frantic shaking.
It's not really that big a step. everything done on the wii has appeared else where you're just jumping on a band wagon.
Took me about 3 visits to EB to get mine. But that was before Christmas.
Let people be stupid.
It's much harder these days to not be "stupid". For instance is investing in a AAA rated debt security a stupid move? Or how about picking up real estate in a hot market to flip using a ARM mortgage? How about doing it all when the bond market and general interest rates are below inflation? There is obviously stupid such as making 30k a year and buying a 500k house with an ARM mortgage but the gray area has grown as the world around us has gotten more complicated while our brains haven't advanced much. For MMO's the scams have less of a real world effect but the company in charge has a vested interest in reducing the ability for scammers to prosper as each victim is a potentially lost customer.
First party games are always optimized for that platform, it's the multi-platform releases where you start to see who's better at what. Last-gen I only bought multi-platform releases for my XBox because they just simply looked better.
For current-gen, at least so far anyway, it seems to be going the same direction. The 360 has the best looking games (again, only talking multi-platform here), the Wii has the interesting IP's and control scheme, and the PS3 has what? They lost Assassin's Creed, GTA, DMC and a whole host of other exclusives... Sure, they have the FF series, but the 360 has a bunch of exclusive Mistwalker RPG's coming out!
If the PS3 doesn't clean up their act (and their graphics) in very short order, they're going to have problems. I think it's just a case of the first gen development problems. It's hard to code your own solution to a new architecture so the PS3 versions of multi-platforms games seem poor due to this. However, the 360 first gen games were also nothing to write home about. There was nothing to compare it too but many looked like xbox games with a slightly higher poly count. So far I've always bought multi platform games on the PS3 because I hate live with a vital passion (their C policy is ridiculous I refuse to even use prepaid cards because of a poor customer experience). Nintendo firts party games have been varied. Fire emblem is my favorite the rest i could take or leave. For the 360 mass effect is awesome. And for the ps3 I'm addicted to Ratchet and clank. I think there's room for all of em and hope they succeed because only console manufacturer means the customer suffers.
Also, mistwalker is bleh.. Blue dragon wasn't fun. I'd rather play similarly blah Fable.
The question in my mind is, what kind of LASER was this? A normal hand pen pointer laser is not going to blind someone at 500+ feet. I have doubts that someone could even hit a person in a helicopter in the eys if they where trying.
They talk about 'illuminating' the cockpit. Something else a pen laser isn't going to do at 500 feet. It was a flashlight sized green laser. Supposedly at least x10 stronger then a normal red pointer.
VG chartz is a unreliable source. They project based on basically random criteria what the sales will be. Until the quarterly media create and NPD come out vg chartz is usually a wild guess. After the quarterlies come out vgchartz updates their numbers. They've been off more often then not. But according to vgchartz:
wii: 16.29m
360: 14.56
PS#: 7.19
which match my ratio exactly.
You may want to recheck your wii figures. It is now the best selling total as well as fastest. Over all its
5(wiis):4(360):2(PS3) in relative numbers
Their at about 1/3 of the wii. The Wii is a smashing beyond all hope success. I'd argue that the PS3 is doing well compared to the outrageous success of the wii. Sales plotted against the 360 world wide sees the PS3 at roughly the same spot the 360 was last year. So it's going to be a three horse race with competition for 2nd. Competition is always good. Because frankly, despite the success most Wii games aren't my cup of tea. I love fire emblem but almost the entire rest of the library is aimed at someone other then me.
*Google Translation of media create (Japanese console sales site, look at the bottom for weekly sales).
They have already surpassed all 360's sold in japan. They are behind the wii in numbers but still have games show up in the top 20 fairly often.
most scientists don't seem to know or care where they come from
Doesn't it make sense to worry about figuring out what the laws are before we worry about where they came from?
Truman: How long would it take to build an atomic bomb?
Scientist: Nobody knows how to do that. But I can tell you why the laws of nature made it possible. Worrying about where they came form would be a good indicator your a bad scientist since your anthropomorphizing your work. Laws in Science are just terse observations.
This sort of behavior happens any time a decision has been made and there is a conflict over that decision, and is caused by several well-known cognitive biases (mostly originating from confirmation bias). The market seems to be splitting as well. There seems to be a much more distinct break up of whats games ends up on which system. The wii is getting novel party games (doing well everywhere). The PS3 still has a lock on the traditional Japanese franchise (given the world wide sales distribution this will continue to be true, doing well in Japan, poor in the US), while the 360 is getting many more of the American titles (and also doing poorly outside the US, well in the US).
Wii -> Alternative games
PS3 -> Traditional Japanese style
360 -> Traditional American
memory aid
I'm personally repulsed by the idea of carrying on with a advanced real doll but to each their own.
Given that risk I'd side with the gibbon.