Re:I wonder how much of this is quality . . .
on
Critics Pan Nemesis
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· Score: 2
I always hated hearing someone call themselves a Star Wars or Star Trek geek and then I ask them "Have you read Asimov, Heinlein, Bear, Benford, Brin, Adams, Niven, Pournelle?" And the answer was invariably "Huh?". Sad. So much more out there.
Hmmm...you run into a completely different crowd of SF geeks then I do, my boy. Completely.
Wait. I think the Apple/DoCoMo announcement about Quicktime on cellphones might have some bearing on where the iPod is going. There's nothing about iPod that specifically says "music," is there? Apple can do whatever it wants to with it - including slapping a color screen in like the Archos is using, increasing the disk space, creating QT & iPhoto capability, AND adding an input method (a scroll wheel-based keyboard?) - without really having to change the form factor. I used to trumpet the Archos because it is cheaper but, dammit, FireWire rulez!
After all, Dr. No was rated G when it first came out (I think From Russia with Love was, too). Kids are some of the best judges of looking at black & white - Scar was evil, Simba was good. No grey there - kids are able to handle that. Mufasa's death is no different than Bambi's mother's death. Hell, I saw The Rescuers when I was three and Star Wars when I was four. The crocodiles in The Rescuers scared me - to a point. Vader scared me - to a point.
But after the movies ended I was able to walk away from it. Of course, it helped that I knew I could always ask questions of my parents...maybe not all of us have been able to do that. I'm not saying that your relationship with your parents is like that, but I think that we've had ample evidence of parents who are uncomfortable having questions asked of them and their kids realizing that. When that happens, a kid simply bottles that imagery and those concerns up and have no way to ask about them.
An excellent discussion about kids and their need for violent play is Gerard Jones's book Killing Monsters. I highly recommend it.
As long as they still publish strong games (Rogue Leader for the GC is great, Bounty Hunter looks cool), LucasArts isn't going anywhwere. And, since Sony is developing Galaxies and LA is publishing it I expect the Everquest fiends to be ready to jump.
I second that opinion - SA is a strong game, and a good swan song for Rare, now that it's been swallowed by M$ and will probably lose its identity much the way Bungie did...
Dude...losing Squarsoft? You have got to check out the latest Nintendo line-ups, then, because you aren't up on the news. There are two or three Final Fantasy games on the plate for the GC and the GBA - with more to come.
I think they did think it out, and the argument that sending 8MB ROMs is important.
Nintendo, however, did do almost exactly that in Pokemon Stadium on the N64. With Pokemon Stadium (N64 cart), the included Transfer Pak for the N64 controller, and either Pokemon Red, Blue or Yellow (GBC carts), you could plug the GBC cart into the Pak and play it - it actually convinced me to buy Stadium & Yellow (don't laugh, Pokemon games are fun).
So, Nintendo has the adapter experience from the SNES and the "push" technology from the N64. After seeing how difficult, I think, it was to push the ROM over the controller for the N64, they decided to go back to the adapter solution.
Considering that I have multiplayer games for my GBA that my wife likes, but she doesn't see the justifcation to buy a (second for the household) GBA she would rarely use, this makes sense for us. I can play my GBA games on the road and she can play the ones I leave when I'm traveling and we can play the multiplayer games without another GBA and I don't need to use up batteries, or move furniture to reach an outlet for the GBA power adapter, when I want to play at home.
Dude, you have got to play Pikmin. The graphics in there! The water, just as an example, is amazing...just simply amazing. I find it even better than the water in Super Mario Sunshine...
Actually, you might want to look at Paramount's ST site. They list the ST animated series along with the live action series and movies. Looks pretty canonical to me...
My,my, my...if I didn't know better I would think you were some relative of Billy G.'s. You keep stating "there are many good games for the Xbox." Well, damn! There goes my arguments. Care to actually educate me, oh enlightened swami-boy, as to what those good games are? Or are you just going to continue badmouthing me because you can't come up with a credible argument against what I'm saying?
Your arguments are old, homes, and they're the same ones M$'s propaganda machine keeps rolling out every time there's news about how poorly the Xbox is actually doing. What is your favorite flavor of Kool-Aid, by the way?
I've borrowed a co-worker's Xbox, I've played Halo and DOA 3. It is a pretty graphics engine - no doubt about that. It is powerful hardware - never said it wasn't. But there is something that the Xbox games are missing: fun.
Halo's single player levels are fun for about the first three levels, then we're just right back to the same old FPS scenarios we've always seen. DOA 3 is very nice...but not too huge a difference from DOA 2. And that's it. Blinx is rather dull. Oddworld is overridden by commerical product placcement...and?
I look for games to be fun because, in the end, they're games, not necessarily a showcase of the graphic-rendering capabilities of a console. So, to me, it doesn't matter if I'm playing Pac-Man, Mario Bros., Sonic, Soul Calibur or Pikmin - I'm looking to have fun and enjoy the game. If there aren't games that I deem enjoyable on a platform, I don't care what its processing abilities may be, I'm not buying the console.
Xbox is that console for me right now. Maybe in two years it may not be, but I see nothing, either now or on the horizon, that makes me want an Xbox.
Arguably, the vast majority of gamers throughout the world subscribe to a similar philosophy as mine since Xbox just isn't doing as well as an M$ product should...
Man, you really didn't try to read my post did you? That's just plain stupid, son.
I'm implying that Xbox has about three good games: Halo, DOA 3 and...well...I'm sure someone can come up with one other...but, the industry pundits are saying the Japanese developers will start bailing by the end of 2003 if the Xbox doesn't start selling. Interestingly enough, Capcom just announced five new games (well, four new ones and Resident Evil 4), and they are all GameCube exclusives.
I will admit, I am very disappointed in M$ and Sega for not making the Xbox version of Shenmue II better than the Dreamcast one. That game, had it been a true advance over the DC, would have convinced me to buy an Xbox (though I'm still jonesing for Shaq-Fu 2).
As a gamer, an old school gamer who has six consoles (ranging from a 2600 to a GameCube) still hooked up and regularly played, I don't see anything that will make the Xbox survive other than cash - and that can't carry a console forever (the Dreamcast would have survived had that been the case).
Just think about it: The 2600 continues to live on - will the Xbox be as admired and loved 25 years from now?
It is how M$ operates, but I think they're in for a real fight this time. I mean, let's be honest: if your console can't sell well in Japan (the Bandai WonderSwan outsells the Xbox in Japan!) it's not going to survive when Japanese developers end up bailing.
Sony isn't going away, and the PS3 will take Xbox marketshare (not to say Xbox 2 won't take PS3 share, though). Nintendo has a built-in market that perpetuates itself because it rules the best-known franchises in the business. M$? M$ just buys Bungie and Rare and thinks that it has a lock - except for the fact that those two houses have developed their share of dogs, and they are consistently late on delivering the goods.
All M$ has is money (a lot of it, granted, but it takes more than cash). But if the gamers become impatient with M$, money won't matter and M$ will get a well-deserved spanking for trying to get into your living room through covert means...
Yes, the Xbox has strong hardware and a nice budget. But so did the Dreamcast, the NeoGeo, the 3DO, the Pippin, etc. Where are those now?
Admittedly, I will buy an Xbox if Shaq-Fu 2 ever comes out for it...but I'm not holding my breath!
How the hell do you sell that on the black market? Is there some reclusive physicist out there collecting rare works (Einstein's drink napkin from Le Lapin Agile!) that will pay top dollar for this? If so, how does he/she show it off to their friends and family (assuming that they aren't that reclusive)? How do you explain that you just happen to have this sitting around in the family room?
The CRT iMacs (or, at least, the early ones) had a standard VGA connection inside the case. That led to some folks snaking the connector out and setting up a KVM.
If the new ones have some sort of standard connector, then it could be done (disconnect the monitor from the board, run it to a KVM, run the KVM to the board...). I would dig around and see if you can find some screenshots of new iMac dissections...
...the Unix on the desktop vote goes to Mac OS X. No, it may not be the bleeding edge of the BSD set, but at least it looks good and runs what I need it to run.
Padme is dead - Leia tells Luke that her natural mother died when Leia was very young. Jar-Jar dies in the next movie, I'm sure. I'm not a Jar-Jar basher; it's just how I see the story coming about:
Obi-wan, with pregnant Padme in tow, is running away from a pre-armored Darth Vader. Jar-Jar's optimism, and just general childishness, comes into play and he tries to talk, Gungan to man, to Vader...and Vader cuts him down in cold blood. I think, once the next movie is over, we will all be thankful that TPM was as light as it was...
My predictions for added scenes/shots? Bail Organa (Jimmy Smits) on Alderaan just before it is destroyed, and Qui-gon Jinn being dropped into the end of ROTJ alongside Anakin, Yoda and Obi-wan.
When will they be released? I suspect 2007, the 30th anniversary of the first movie. I can see TPM in February, AOTC in March, III in April, ANH in May (the true 30th ann.), ESB in June, ROTJ in July. Then the full set, at least two discs per movie (plus two or three bonus discs) released in a DVD box set in October or November of 2007.
And then, I think, that will be it. Lucas will move on to other things and the stories will be done...
...and I'm going to whine, and whine, and whine until someone reads my stuff and takes me seriously.
Jon, I really suggest attempting to get read in a more mature venue - perhaps then you're writing skills will actually come to the fore. Or you'll collapse on the floor after experiencing real criticism...
Librarians were responsible for my being laid-off last year. All I can say is that they're wannabe English majors who couldn't cut the the creative side of things...
Oh, and you misspelled "heroes."
And, yes, I was an English major. Have an English MA, too. How else do you think I ended up in the support business?
Umm...you mean the first and second episodes, lad. Fourth was ANH, fifth was ESB.
Spoilers ahead, folks:
Now, I don't know about you, but I identify with Anakin: his mother dies in his arms and he massacres men, women and children in the Tusken Raider settlement for revenge. The boy is conflicted and in massive pain. Add that to Obi-wan dismissing Anakin's dreams of his mother ("Dreams pass in time") and you have a very upset, very powerful individual. I suspect, once all is said and done, we will actually understand why Anakin would turn...we might even be sympathetic.
Funny...Nintendo owns its market, homes..and kids aren't going anywhere. I have a GC and a GBA and play them regularly. I might buy a PS2 soon, but the Xbox would have to seriously come down in price for me to be interested (there just aren't enough games I'm interested in for it).
Nintendo's in the hardware market for good - they know the rules (hell, they made the rules). Microsoft is the one in trouble - they're losing major cash at $199 - another price cut would make the Xbox a major drain. Add that to the fact that there aren't any really stellar Xbox games other than Halo and you've got a next-gen Dreamcast wannabe...
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Wow. Nearly-talented? You're really generous.
Hmmm...you run into a completely different crowd of SF geeks then I do, my boy. Completely.
And you skipped Harlan Ellison. Shame on you. :p
Dude - Undiscovered Country rocked! Granted, it wasn't the strongest, but it was pretty good. I suggest rewatching it.
Wait. I think the Apple/DoCoMo announcement about Quicktime on cellphones might have some bearing on where the iPod is going. There's nothing about iPod that specifically says "music," is there? Apple can do whatever it wants to with it - including slapping a color screen in like the Archos is using, increasing the disk space, creating QT & iPhoto capability, AND adding an input method (a scroll wheel-based keyboard?) - without really having to change the form factor. I used to trumpet the Archos because it is cheaper but, dammit, FireWire rulez!
After all, Dr. No was rated G when it first came out (I think From Russia with Love was, too). Kids are some of the best judges of looking at black & white - Scar was evil, Simba was good. No grey there - kids are able to handle that. Mufasa's death is no different than Bambi's mother's death. Hell, I saw The Rescuers when I was three and Star Wars when I was four. The crocodiles in The Rescuers scared me - to a point. Vader scared me - to a point.
But after the movies ended I was able to walk away from it. Of course, it helped that I knew I could always ask questions of my parents...maybe not all of us have been able to do that. I'm not saying that your relationship with your parents is like that, but I think that we've had ample evidence of parents who are uncomfortable having questions asked of them and their kids realizing that. When that happens, a kid simply bottles that imagery and those concerns up and have no way to ask about them.
An excellent discussion about kids and their need for violent play is Gerard Jones's book Killing Monsters. I highly recommend it.
Man, oh man - this was an audio interview. Whichever slashdotter transcribed it was the one who added the extra "l."
As long as they still publish strong games (Rogue Leader for the GC is great, Bounty Hunter looks cool), LucasArts isn't going anywhwere. And, since Sony is developing Galaxies and LA is publishing it I expect the Everquest fiends to be ready to jump.
I second that opinion - SA is a strong game, and a good swan song for Rare, now that it's been swallowed by M$ and will probably lose its identity much the way Bungie did...
True. But there is a lack of a lot of games for the N64 - Square's not the only one.
Dude...losing Squarsoft? You have got to check out the latest Nintendo line-ups, then, because you aren't up on the news. There are two or three Final Fantasy games on the plate for the GC and the GBA - with more to come.
Nintendo, however, did do almost exactly that in Pokemon Stadium on the N64. With Pokemon Stadium (N64 cart), the included Transfer Pak for the N64 controller, and either Pokemon Red, Blue or Yellow (GBC carts), you could plug the GBC cart into the Pak and play it - it actually convinced me to buy Stadium & Yellow (don't laugh, Pokemon games are fun).
So, Nintendo has the adapter experience from the SNES and the "push" technology from the N64. After seeing how difficult, I think, it was to push the ROM over the controller for the N64, they decided to go back to the adapter solution.
Considering that I have multiplayer games for my GBA that my wife likes, but she doesn't see the justifcation to buy a (second for the household) GBA she would rarely use, this makes sense for us. I can play my GBA games on the road and she can play the ones I leave when I'm traveling and we can play the multiplayer games without another GBA and I don't need to use up batteries, or move furniture to reach an outlet for the GBA power adapter, when I want to play at home.
I'm sold.
Dude, you have got to play Pikmin. The graphics in there! The water, just as an example, is amazing...just simply amazing. I find it even better than the water in Super Mario Sunshine...
Actually, you might want to look at Paramount's ST site. They list the ST animated series along with the live action series and movies. Looks pretty canonical to me...
Your arguments are old, homes, and they're the same ones M$'s propaganda machine keeps rolling out every time there's news about how poorly the Xbox is actually doing. What is your favorite flavor of Kool-Aid, by the way?
I've borrowed a co-worker's Xbox, I've played Halo and DOA 3. It is a pretty graphics engine - no doubt about that. It is powerful hardware - never said it wasn't. But there is something that the Xbox games are missing: fun.
Halo's single player levels are fun for about the first three levels, then we're just right back to the same old FPS scenarios we've always seen. DOA 3 is very nice...but not too huge a difference from DOA 2. And that's it. Blinx is rather dull. Oddworld is overridden by commerical product placcement...and?
I look for games to be fun because, in the end, they're games, not necessarily a showcase of the graphic-rendering capabilities of a console. So, to me, it doesn't matter if I'm playing Pac-Man, Mario Bros., Sonic, Soul Calibur or Pikmin - I'm looking to have fun and enjoy the game. If there aren't games that I deem enjoyable on a platform, I don't care what its processing abilities may be, I'm not buying the console.
Xbox is that console for me right now. Maybe in two years it may not be, but I see nothing, either now or on the horizon, that makes me want an Xbox.
Arguably, the vast majority of gamers throughout the world subscribe to a similar philosophy as mine since Xbox just isn't doing as well as an M$ product should...
I'm implying that Xbox has about three good games: Halo, DOA 3 and...well...I'm sure someone can come up with one other...but, the industry pundits are saying the Japanese developers will start bailing by the end of 2003 if the Xbox doesn't start selling. Interestingly enough, Capcom just announced five new games (well, four new ones and Resident Evil 4), and they are all GameCube exclusives.
I will admit, I am very disappointed in M$ and Sega for not making the Xbox version of Shenmue II better than the Dreamcast one. That game, had it been a true advance over the DC, would have convinced me to buy an Xbox (though I'm still jonesing for Shaq-Fu 2).
As a gamer, an old school gamer who has six consoles (ranging from a 2600 to a GameCube) still hooked up and regularly played, I don't see anything that will make the Xbox survive other than cash - and that can't carry a console forever (the Dreamcast would have survived had that been the case).
Just think about it: The 2600 continues to live on - will the Xbox be as admired and loved 25 years from now?
'Nuff said.
Sony isn't going away, and the PS3 will take Xbox marketshare (not to say Xbox 2 won't take PS3 share, though). Nintendo has a built-in market that perpetuates itself because it rules the best-known franchises in the business. M$? M$ just buys Bungie and Rare and thinks that it has a lock - except for the fact that those two houses have developed their share of dogs, and they are consistently late on delivering the goods.
All M$ has is money (a lot of it, granted, but it takes more than cash). But if the gamers become impatient with M$, money won't matter and M$ will get a well-deserved spanking for trying to get into your living room through covert means...
Yes, the Xbox has strong hardware and a nice budget. But so did the Dreamcast, the NeoGeo, the 3DO, the Pippin, etc. Where are those now?
Admittedly, I will buy an Xbox if Shaq-Fu 2 ever comes out for it...but I'm not holding my breath!
How the hell do you sell that on the black market? Is there some reclusive physicist out there collecting rare works (Einstein's drink napkin from Le Lapin Agile!) that will pay top dollar for this? If so, how does he/she show it off to their friends and family (assuming that they aren't that reclusive)? How do you explain that you just happen to have this sitting around in the family room?
If the new ones have some sort of standard connector, then it could be done (disconnect the monitor from the board, run it to a KVM, run the KVM to the board...). I would dig around and see if you can find some screenshots of new iMac dissections...
...the Unix on the desktop vote goes to Mac OS X. No, it may not be the bleeding edge of the BSD set, but at least it looks good and runs what I need it to run.
Obi-wan, with pregnant Padme in tow, is running away from a pre-armored Darth Vader. Jar-Jar's optimism, and just general childishness, comes into play and he tries to talk, Gungan to man, to Vader...and Vader cuts him down in cold blood. I think, once the next movie is over, we will all be thankful that TPM was as light as it was...
My predictions for added scenes/shots? Bail Organa (Jimmy Smits) on Alderaan just before it is destroyed, and Qui-gon Jinn being dropped into the end of ROTJ alongside Anakin, Yoda and Obi-wan.
When will they be released? I suspect 2007, the 30th anniversary of the first movie. I can see TPM in February, AOTC in March, III in April, ANH in May (the true 30th ann.), ESB in June, ROTJ in July. Then the full set, at least two discs per movie (plus two or three bonus discs) released in a DVD box set in October or November of 2007.
And then, I think, that will be it. Lucas will move on to other things and the stories will be done...
Jon, I really suggest attempting to get read in a more mature venue - perhaps then you're writing skills will actually come to the fore. Or you'll collapse on the floor after experiencing real criticism...
Hmmm...I guess you're right...I think I'll go eat a potatoe and read Danny Quayle's bio...
Oh, and you misspelled "heroes."
And, yes, I was an English major. Have an English MA, too. How else do you think I ended up in the support business?
Spoilers ahead, folks:
Now, I don't know about you, but I identify with Anakin: his mother dies in his arms and he massacres men, women and children in the Tusken Raider settlement for revenge. The boy is conflicted and in massive pain. Add that to Obi-wan dismissing Anakin's dreams of his mother ("Dreams pass in time") and you have a very upset, very powerful individual. I suspect, once all is said and done, we will actually understand why Anakin would turn...we might even be sympathetic.
Nintendo's in the hardware market for good - they know the rules (hell, they made the rules). Microsoft is the one in trouble - they're losing major cash at $199 - another price cut would make the Xbox a major drain. Add that to the fact that there aren't any really stellar Xbox games other than Halo and you've got a next-gen Dreamcast wannabe...