Yeah, the intro wouldn't even fit onto a N-64 cartridge, though. (AFAIK; judging from the n64 ROM d/l sizes..)
Exactly - maybe they'd have had to put more effort into story and gameplay, rather than a buncha CGI movies:) All in all FF7 wasn't that bad, though.
I liked the jagged gfx in FF7, so I don't really care..;)
I wasn't referring to the jagged FF7 graphics (which were largely cleared up with FF8 anyway - too bad the game sucked) - I was referring to Square's claims of there not being enough space on the cartridge format for them to do the next Final Fantasy game. I think the DS re-release of FF3 shows they could've done a damn fine game, had they decided to skip a bunch of boring movies.
I don't know the details, but I don't think it works that way.. My understanding of it is that a GPU that rates a 5 now will always rate a 5.. new card will just rate a 6 or a 7 or something..
I think the System Rating in Vista is supposed to assist with this - when you install Vista it assigns your system a rating, I believe games are supposed to be labelled with the minimum System Rating required to play them. Sure, it's not as simple as a console game that's going to just work, but it's better than before.
I think one of the reasons they're targeting the Xbox 360 controller is because of the mess that exists currently. Currently, button assignments differ wildly for gamepads. I think Microsoft is hoping Logitech and other vendors will adopt a similar layout, at least with regards to the naming of the buttons, etc. It also gives developers something to target as well, so that one game doesn't have the fire button as button 1, while another has it on button 7, because the developers tested with a controller from different manufacturers. That would even help with current games, because at least the gamer is going to get the same button configuration between games.
Besides, what true gamer would limit their FPS experience with a friggn' console controller?
I don't think MS is going to remove the ability for developers to target the keyboard and mouse, I think they just want the gamepad to work as well, which isn't too bad of an idea - giving the user a choice is always a good idea.
MS have even demoted 'Shutdown' to a drop down menu, in favour of Standby-and-then-hibernate on the old Shutdown Icon.
Possibly the worst UI element EVER - that shutdown menu is ridiculous. Why can't I just click a button and be given a menu of choices, maybe even with a nifty timeout period where it automatically executes the default option, you know, kind of like OS X does now?
So there you go, that's one reason to upgrade to Vista [tongue in cheek].
The one reason I've seen for upgrading to Vista so far is the new mixer. Being able to adjust the volume of individual applications is fucking brilliant, and I anticipate it'll be copied by everyone (MS may have copied it from someone already, though I'm certainly not familliar with a similar mixer on other platforms).
They're 2.5" laptop drives with a plastic case and funky connector. I don't know how easily it'd be to swap it out, though - I've not seen much online about it. And well, you'd have to get the case somewhere, either with a $100 hard drive addon, or a 360 premium system. Or maybe someone has them listed on eBay.
Same here, and I've heard of a few other people that recently picked one up through friends and co-workers. Hopefully now that the PS3 is out, people will see how overpriced it really is, and take a look at the alternatives.
PS3s are snapped up the second they hit stores shelves
Release low enough numbers of something, and it's bound to sell out
eBay prices continue to very high for the system
Directly related to your first point - when you're 10,000 miles away from meeting demand, there's going to be a premium
gamers are raving about these epic 40 player lagfree free online Resistance matches
I'm surprised they can even find 40 plays to play with. But, let's see if there's any lag after Sony ships 10 million consoles.
going nuts over the Motorstorm demo
So, for a gamer, the compelling reasons for a gamer to buy a PS3 right now are one game, and a demo?
the reviews of the PS3's BluRay features and playback are absolutely gushing and calling it the best player on the market
Great, so at least I can buy some Blu-Ray movies at twice the cost of an HD-DVD movie and watch it on my PS3 when I've finished playing the one game worth playing, and the demo for an unreleased game.
none of the massive hardware failures people were claiming would plague the system like the 360 have come to pass.
Well, that's good news, though I think it's too early to be claiming there are no massive hardware failures. How long before the optical drives start to fail, in typical Sony fashion?
Why? The PS3's performance effect's Sony's bottom line NOW. We know plenty, like the significant loss Sony is taking on each console sold, the exceptionally low number of units available, and the increasing number of former exclusives dumping Sony and going multi-platform. The linked stories include facts such as Sony having to sell 30 titles per console to make a profit, versus 8 for the PS2, Namco has to sell 500,000 units to break even, etc. There are also educated guesses (not just fanboy guesses but educated guesses by top people at EA, who would know this sort of thing) that Sony has shipped about half of the units they claimed they were going to ship (which was already cut drastically prior to launch). We also have other launches to look at, like the 360 (not so great), Wii (pretty good), and the PS2 (pretty good). Microsoft sold 900,000 units in North America by the end of 2005, another 500,000 in Europe (Can't find much for 2005 in Japan - 62,000 units in the first 3 days, and 103,000 units by April of '06). Sony probably won't even sell as many Worldwide (well, Japan and North America, since they cut out Europe) by the end of '06 as MS did in North America alone in '05.
Nintendo sold 600,000 Wii's in North America in the first eight days of it's launch, and they're aiming for 4 million worldwide by the end of '06. Obviously, it's been a success for Nintendo. Since they've been on the market for the same amount of time, can we not claim the PS3 launch hasn't been that great, and that Sony is hurting?
Am I the only one that absolutely hates split screen gameplay? I kind of wish that modern consoles at 2-4 video outputs so we couldn't see eachothers screens.
The PS3 was supposed to feature dual HDMI outputs, capable of driving 2 1080p displays. Sadly, that was yet another feature dropped by Sony.
I agree, split-screen gaming does suck, but, for most people, it's much more feasible than having two (or four!) TVs in one room. Costs and lack of space being the major issues. Split-screen is a compromise, but better than nothing.
Well, here in Canada, they're known as the CRIA, and they routinely get their asses handed to them when they try this shit, so they're largely ignored. I assumed the rest of the world felt the same, but sadly, that doesn't seem to be.
Even labels in Canada have split from the CRIA, due to disagreements in the way they do business (including labels for larger acts like Rush and Sara McLachlan). The CRIA was founded to protect Canadian artists and companies, one of the reasons these labels left was because the CRIA was more interested in protecting US companies, than Canadian artists.
Is there anything to indicate the CRIA, RIAA, and the equivalent body in other nations are actually the same companies, though? Seems to me calling the RIAA an international organization is a bit of a stretch. They may have similar goals, but I don't think they're one and the same. Although, I suppose if they're comprised of the same corporations (Sony, EMI, Universal, Warner, etc), they might as well be one entity.
I've a much better and simpler solution - the artists simply need to wake up and leave the RIAA. The artists would actually see the money they've earned, and fans would be more likely to purchase their music. Let the RIAA member labels wither and die, independent labels that actually care about the artists can take their place.
Global and CTV usually simulcast, not re-run US shows. However, I don't think you're really giving them credit. CTV, at least, produces numerous shows, such as Due South, Power Play, Degrassi: The Next Generation, Instant Star, The Eleventh Hour and Canadian Idol - sure, they may not all be as great as Corner Gas, but they certainly do their part employing Canadian actos and producers. Besides, how's showing US shows with Canadian commercials different than the CBC - they just show British shows with Canadian commercials, for the most part. At least the shows broadcast on CTV are worth watching.
CTV is part of Bell Globemedia, which also owns TSN and The Comedy Network, among other cable channels, which all air their fair share of Canadian content. CTV/TSN has won the rights for the Olympics (Along with Rogers Sportsnet), they've won the rights for curling, they hold the rights for the CFL and sublicense them to CBC, and are likely to get the NHL when the current contract expires after the 07-08 season. CBC's sports department is going out with a whimper.
I don't know about Global, I'm not a big fan of the drunken checkmark, and I don't watch them much. The CBC, however, is quickly becoming irrelevant. It's nothing more than a burden on Canadian taxpayers, and should be shut down.
TSN does a much better hockey broadcast than HNIC has for several years, and they've usurped all of the real talent at CBC. All HNIC has left is Don Cherry's inane ranting, and Ron MacLean's incessant rambling. The sooner CBC loses the rights for NHL broadcasts, the better.
If Keanu wasn't available they could always have tried that guy who played the hero in "Team America: World Police". His acting was a little more lifelike and less wooden than Keanu's but he'd still have been a good match (IMHO.)
Did you mean the guy who provided the voice, or the actual puppet?
WTF format are they in? HD TV shows I've downloaded (either XviD or QuickTime (h.264 I believe)) are ~700MB for 44 minutes, not 5-7GB!
You should get your 360 online regardless of TV/Movie downloads. The demos alone are worth it, for deciding what to buy next. If you don't want to game online, Xbox Live Silver is free.
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, the intro wouldn't even fit onto a N-64 cartridge, though. (AFAIK; judging from the n64 ROM d/l sizes..)
:) All in all FF7 wasn't that bad, though.
;)
Exactly - maybe they'd have had to put more effort into story and gameplay, rather than a buncha CGI movies
I liked the jagged gfx in FF7, so I don't really care..
I wasn't referring to the jagged FF7 graphics (which were largely cleared up with FF8 anyway - too bad the game sucked) - I was referring to Square's claims of there not being enough space on the cartridge format for them to do the next Final Fantasy game. I think the DS re-release of FF3 shows they could've done a damn fine game, had they decided to skip a bunch of boring movies.
When I play FF3 for DS, I can't help but think of what FF7 could have been, had it been released for N64 instead of the PlayStation.
I don't know the details, but I don't think it works that way.. My understanding of it is that a GPU that rates a 5 now will always rate a 5.. new card will just rate a 6 or a 7 or something..
I think the System Rating in Vista is supposed to assist with this - when you install Vista it assigns your system a rating, I believe games are supposed to be labelled with the minimum System Rating required to play them. Sure, it's not as simple as a console game that's going to just work, but it's better than before.
I think one of the reasons they're targeting the Xbox 360 controller is because of the mess that exists currently. Currently, button assignments differ wildly for gamepads. I think Microsoft is hoping Logitech and other vendors will adopt a similar layout, at least with regards to the naming of the buttons, etc. It also gives developers something to target as well, so that one game doesn't have the fire button as button 1, while another has it on button 7, because the developers tested with a controller from different manufacturers. That would even help with current games, because at least the gamer is going to get the same button configuration between games.
Besides, what true gamer would limit their FPS experience with a friggn' console controller?
I don't think MS is going to remove the ability for developers to target the keyboard and mouse, I think they just want the gamepad to work as well, which isn't too bad of an idea - giving the user a choice is always a good idea.
The "space race" ended about thirty years ago.
IT is going to be so sweet from 2013 to 2017 or 2018.
I hope I can make it til then
MS have even demoted 'Shutdown' to a drop down menu, in favour of Standby-and-then-hibernate on the old Shutdown Icon.
Possibly the worst UI element EVER - that shutdown menu is ridiculous. Why can't I just click a button and be given a menu of choices, maybe even with a nifty timeout period where it automatically executes the default option, you know, kind of like OS X does now?
So there you go, that's one reason to upgrade to Vista [tongue in cheek].
The one reason I've seen for upgrading to Vista so far is the new mixer. Being able to adjust the volume of individual applications is fucking brilliant, and I anticipate it'll be copied by everyone (MS may have copied it from someone already, though I'm certainly not familliar with a similar mixer on other platforms).
she just imposed a limit on herself that, from the time she gets home from work to the time the kids go to bed, the CrackBerry is off.
Has she been spending an inordinate amount of time in the bathroom since instituting this rule?
They're 2.5" laptop drives with a plastic case and funky connector. I don't know how easily it'd be to swap it out, though - I've not seen much online about it. And well, you'd have to get the case somewhere, either with a $100 hard drive addon, or a 360 premium system. Or maybe someone has them listed on eBay.
Same here, and I've heard of a few other people that recently picked one up through friends and co-workers. Hopefully now that the PS3 is out, people will see how overpriced it really is, and take a look at the alternatives.
PS3s are snapped up the second they hit stores shelves
Release low enough numbers of something, and it's bound to sell out
eBay prices continue to very high for the system
Directly related to your first point - when you're 10,000 miles away from meeting demand, there's going to be a premium
gamers are raving about these epic 40 player lagfree free online Resistance matches
I'm surprised they can even find 40 plays to play with. But, let's see if there's any lag after Sony ships 10 million consoles.
going nuts over the Motorstorm demo
So, for a gamer, the compelling reasons for a gamer to buy a PS3 right now are one game, and a demo?
the reviews of the PS3's BluRay features and playback are absolutely gushing and calling it the best player on the market
Great, so at least I can buy some Blu-Ray movies at twice the cost of an HD-DVD movie and watch it on my PS3 when I've finished playing the one game worth playing, and the demo for an unreleased game.
none of the massive hardware failures people were claiming would plague the system like the 360 have come to pass.
Well, that's good news, though I think it's too early to be claiming there are no massive hardware failures. How long before the optical drives start to fail, in typical Sony fashion?
Why? The PS3's performance effect's Sony's bottom line NOW. We know plenty, like the significant loss Sony is taking on each console sold, the exceptionally low number of units available, and the increasing number of former exclusives dumping Sony and going multi-platform. The linked stories include facts such as Sony having to sell 30 titles per console to make a profit, versus 8 for the PS2, Namco has to sell 500,000 units to break even, etc. There are also educated guesses (not just fanboy guesses but educated guesses by top people at EA, who would know this sort of thing) that Sony has shipped about half of the units they claimed they were going to ship (which was already cut drastically prior to launch). We also have other launches to look at, like the 360 (not so great), Wii (pretty good), and the PS2 (pretty good). Microsoft sold 900,000 units in North America by the end of 2005, another 500,000 in Europe (Can't find much for 2005 in Japan - 62,000 units in the first 3 days, and 103,000 units by April of '06). Sony probably won't even sell as many Worldwide (well, Japan and North America, since they cut out Europe) by the end of '06 as MS did in North America alone in '05.
Nintendo sold 600,000 Wii's in North America in the first eight days of it's launch, and they're aiming for 4 million worldwide by the end of '06. Obviously, it's been a success for Nintendo. Since they've been on the market for the same amount of time, can we not claim the PS3 launch hasn't been that great, and that Sony is hurting?
I can't really think of any third party games in the 2007 release list that aren't first party games that I'm that excited about.
I can't think of any third party games that are first party games.
Am I the only one that absolutely hates split screen gameplay? I kind of wish that modern consoles at 2-4 video outputs so we couldn't see eachothers screens.
The PS3 was supposed to feature dual HDMI outputs, capable of driving 2 1080p displays. Sadly, that was yet another feature dropped by Sony.
I agree, split-screen gaming does suck, but, for most people, it's much more feasible than having two (or four!) TVs in one room. Costs and lack of space being the major issues. Split-screen is a compromise, but better than nothing.
Well, here in Canada, they're known as the CRIA, and they routinely get their asses handed to them when they try this shit, so they're largely ignored. I assumed the rest of the world felt the same, but sadly, that doesn't seem to be.
Even labels in Canada have split from the CRIA, due to disagreements in the way they do business (including labels for larger acts like Rush and Sara McLachlan). The CRIA was founded to protect Canadian artists and companies, one of the reasons these labels left was because the CRIA was more interested in protecting US companies, than Canadian artists.
Is there anything to indicate the CRIA, RIAA, and the equivalent body in other nations are actually the same companies, though? Seems to me calling the RIAA an international organization is a bit of a stretch. They may have similar goals, but I don't think they're one and the same. Although, I suppose if they're comprised of the same corporations (Sony, EMI, Universal, Warner, etc), they might as well be one entity.
I've a much better and simpler solution - the artists simply need to wake up and leave the RIAA. The artists would actually see the money they've earned, and fans would be more likely to purchase their music. Let the RIAA member labels wither and die, independent labels that actually care about the artists can take their place.
Actually, I think the RIAA and MPAA are largely ignored outside the United States.
If you read the article, you'd see The Escapist is responsible for the Borg labeling this time, not Slashdot.
Oh I got it, I was just trying to stretch it, but I guess I failed.
Global and CTV usually simulcast, not re-run US shows. However, I don't think you're really giving them credit. CTV, at least, produces numerous shows, such as Due South, Power Play, Degrassi: The Next Generation, Instant Star, The Eleventh Hour and Canadian Idol - sure, they may not all be as great as Corner Gas, but they certainly do their part employing Canadian actos and producers. Besides, how's showing US shows with Canadian commercials different than the CBC - they just show British shows with Canadian commercials, for the most part. At least the shows broadcast on CTV are worth watching.
CTV is part of Bell Globemedia, which also owns TSN and The Comedy Network, among other cable channels, which all air their fair share of Canadian content. CTV/TSN has won the rights for the Olympics (Along with Rogers Sportsnet), they've won the rights for curling, they hold the rights for the CFL and sublicense them to CBC, and are likely to get the NHL when the current contract expires after the 07-08 season. CBC's sports department is going out with a whimper.
I don't know about Global, I'm not a big fan of the drunken checkmark, and I don't watch them much. The CBC, however, is quickly becoming irrelevant. It's nothing more than a burden on Canadian taxpayers, and should be shut down.
Fortunately, I don't think the CBC will have the NHL rights much longer, and CTV/TSN will actually be able to afford to broadcast hockey in HD.
Rabinovitch proposes that the CBC start charging cable and satellite companies to carry their signal, and to limit over-the-air transmission.
I propose the CBC disband. Give the money back to the taxpayers, so we can purchase the products advertised on legitimate networks worth watching.
TSN does a much better hockey broadcast than HNIC has for several years, and they've usurped all of the real talent at CBC. All HNIC has left is Don Cherry's inane ranting, and Ron MacLean's incessant rambling. The sooner CBC loses the rights for NHL broadcasts, the better.
If Keanu wasn't available they could always have tried that guy who played the hero in "Team America: World Police". His acting was a little more lifelike and less wooden than Keanu's but he'd still have been a good match (IMHO.)
Did you mean the guy who provided the voice, or the actual puppet?
WTF format are they in? HD TV shows I've downloaded (either XviD or QuickTime (h.264 I believe)) are ~700MB for 44 minutes, not 5-7GB!
You should get your 360 online regardless of TV/Movie downloads. The demos alone are worth it, for deciding what to buy next. If you don't want to game online, Xbox Live Silver is free.