There is a certain sub-set of the population that craves things that are, to put it succinctly, FUCKED UP. These are the people that want to see buckets of blood splatter every time they hit an enemy, look up pictures of disemboweled people on the internet, watch snuff-films, and enjoy watching things like bestiality videos. Some people are immature, some desensitized to things most find distasteful, and some just have some sort of mental illness. Either way, there is a market for things that push the boundaries of taste. Where there is a market, there is money to be made.
I do not agree with this game for going beyond what is reasonable taste. I will not buy it nor will I want to play it. Having said that, as long as the production doesn't involve breaking any laws (e.g. like a snuff-film or bestiality porn) I have no reason to want "entertainment" such as this banned or censored in any way. I hate the whole idea of "policing" either through forced governmental censorship or through self-censorship. The reason is that my tastes and the tastes of someone else are different. I can't stand teen sex-romp comedy movies, romantic comedies, and most action-blockbuster movies that cater to the people with short attention spans wanting more explosions. I prefer movies and games that aren't simplistic, not filled with angst, and tell a compelling adult story where actions can have consequences both in the short and long term. I would not want companies to stop making those things that I can't stand because some significant segment of the population enjoys those things.
In the end, it is just fiction. Whether it gets in the hands of children should be in the hands of the parents and not the courts. Either way, the game has a rating and if mommy can't be bothered to read it before little Timmy plays it, than the problem here isn't the game.
That was why he showed it, because of the huge double-standard involved. This is extremely distasteful and he even warned the audience that they will find it extremely distasteful as well. The joke wasn't the clip itself. The joke was that that particular clip is legal in a video game sold for minors while even the slightest show of a nipple would get it banned.
I don't know, have you played their flagship game Halo? Between the gratuitous use of "damn" and "hell" and Cortana's virtual-virtual breasts it just is not a wholesome environment for Little Sue and Johnny to mercilessly slaughter aliens and zombie-aliens.
That is why the Nintendo was invented. So they can play as a feminist woman covered head-to-toe in armor (so as to be devoid of all secondary sexual characteristics) slaughtering aliens in an safe environment devoid of other people as it should be.
It also lets you stream the game directly to the tablet so the TV need not be in use. It can do video chat using the camera. It can be used as a second hidden screen in multiplayer games (personal split screen, private playbook in sports games, your hand in card / board games, private HUD) or a persistent inventory, map, goals, or options screen. Anything that requires an immersion breaking menu or HUD can be pushed to this instead. Why press the 'Next Weapon" key five times to load the sniper rifle when you can just select it on a screen? Why have to to hold down 'X' wait for a radial menu to pop up and then move the analog stick to select a spell or issue orders in the middle of a battle when I can just select it on the screen?
The problem with the philosophy of modern games is that they are built around a controller and not a keyboard and mouse. With a keyboard all functions can be quickly mapped and remapped to keys and buttons. With a controller you only have a few buttons to work with and most games still do not let you completely customize your layout. Most modern games have grown beyond the commands of "Jump / Weapon A / Weapon B / Use" That leaves either having on screen menus that break immersion and can get you killed in the middle of a fight or memorizing long key combinations (i.e. Button Mashers). Here you can push menus off screen and make selections quickly on the touch screen.
Having played many DS games, I can say that having two screens is not really the problem you seem to think it is. When done in an intuitive way such as Street Fighter 4 3DS, Mario Kart DS, New Super Mario Bros, and Advance Wars you kind of miss the second screen in console games.
Possibly, but I doubt it. How else are they going to sell Mario Kart WiiU and Smash Bros WiiU. Everyone gets their own multiplayer screen and the whole stage or whatnot is on the TV.
Besides, wasn't that all in the leaked Dev-kits or whatever that confirmed all of this?
I just hope they don't wait until the end of life of the WiiU to come out with black. I hate glossy white, a little dust and it looks like shit
One additional plus is that the peripherals from the Wii are usable on this system and that is something that really has never been done before.
The Wii supports Gamecube controllers and memory cards. The PS2 supports PS1 controllers and memory cards. It is also well known that the Sega Genesis controller is usable on an Atari 2600 (probably other things as well since the Atari controller port was on quite a few consoles)
I mostly agree, MS Office (or office applications in general) has no place in in CS. Aside from maybe a brief tour of the IDE at the beginning (let them choose to use an alternate environment later), CS should be application and platform agnostic.
However, as someone who was required to take an Office course in high school (purely for credits), the most important thing that people take for granted is spending a few weeks teaching typing. IMO any high school CS curriculum, should have a few weeks on typing. It may be boring, but it benefits everyone. If you can't type then you will learn. If you know how you will probably get faster. If I had a dollar for every CS and IS major I knew that couldn't type if their life depended on it, I probably could have bought a Xbox 360 and a game or two.
Then again, I also believe that typing should be taught in elementary schools and have refreshers in middle school and high school. Maybe we will have less instances of "wut u doin lol k by" in emails and instant messages.
They don't really bother to define "hacker" and they're pretty free with the term. Leads the average viewer to think there are organized, known clubs at universities structured around breaking into other people's computer systems.
Wait, are you saying the movie Hackers wasn't a documentary? Damn, I guess I shouldn't trust my technolust. I guess I'll throw away my roller blades and that useless eyepiece display thingie
Why would they need to be secretive? All they have to do is just knock $5 off the cable bill and people would flock to it. I see Car insurance companies doing this kind of thing now. "Let us install this device in your car and you could save money!"
Now, we just take something that's broken, throw it away, and buy a new one. Oh, I forgot. There's a higher profit margin there. RS makes more money selling you a new [insert consumer item], than the components that only cost a few cents, to fix the old one.
That is part of the reason, but electronics used to be much easier to test and replace. Have a busted cap, de-solder it and replace it. A multimeter, an oscilloscope, a schematic (if available), and a little patience and you could diagnose any piece of hardware. Have you ever tried to fix a board with SMT components? It is like performing very delicate surgery. It is a bitch-and-a half to say the least. That is assuming it is reasonably possible. Open up some gadgets (that ones that aren't glued shut) many have all the good stuff epoxied so they can't be touched. The rest is an ordeal in itself.
Not everyone want to spend the money on a console when they have a perfectly good PC.
Beyond Good and Evil is a good example. It is a bad port with horrible controls. I bought it during a Steam sale never thinking about it. When I tried playing it, I found it practically unplayable. Had they given support for a gamepad, I would at least be able to play it like the console version. However, the mentality of "Gamepads are for consoles, Mouse / Keyboard are for PCs" render the game useless.
The fact is that PC ports will almost always be rushed. But when a game is developed for a gamepad, there is no reason to remove gamepad support just because it is on PC.
(Yes I know I can get software to map keys to the gamepad, but that is besides the point)
I have no interest in taking the chance of spending $300+ on a new console and game, when I have no confidence I'll find a game I like. After all, there are no returns once the packages are open...
It is a BS excuse. A new 360, PS3 or Wii can be had for $200 and older games for like $20 new. The used game market is filled with great games for relatively cheap. As for finding a game you like, that is what friends and online reviews are for.
While I have played many a game that has been ruined by bad controls, at least many companies are now allowing the use of gamepads (usually 360 controllers only) to play them as they would be played on a console.
What I can't stand is not giving that option (I am looking at you, "Beyond Good and Evil"). What is worse is games that don't even allow key remapping. Both are uncalled for in this day and age.
A PlayStation did one thing - it played video games. The PS3 can do nearly everything... even function as a computer if you don't upgrade the firmware.
The Playstation is a bad example. It was always the Media Center of consoles. The first one gave users a CD player (some say a pretty damn good one too) when most people were just beginning to buy CDs. The PS2 brought DVDs into many people's homes. Lastly, the PS3 is all about Blu-Ray and video streaming.
If you want an example of only playing games, that is Nintendo. The Wii is their first console that did anything other than play games and even that isn't that much compared to the PS3 or 360.
In prior years, it would take you at LEAST a week to finish a campaign on any respectable video game. These days, you can finish a video game completely in two days.
As for single player campaign length, I think there is also the rose-colored glasses of nostalgia in play. I believe that game design has improved much over the last 10 years, length included. On average, games have become shorter, but IMO it is not necessarily a bad thing. I believe that plenty of older games have about the same amount of content (give or take) but seemed to stretch the length out with tricks like too much repetition, back tracking, and difficulty spikes that kept you replaying over and over until you got it right. It only had the perception of length. Go back and play some of those old school classics and see for yourself. Many modern games (the good ones anyway) eschew this (or at least try to keep it to a minimum) in favor of a 8-12 hour campaign.
For myself, I prefer a game that is 8-12 hours over one that is 40+ hours. Besides the repetition of "kill hoard, reload, repeat" and wading through 20-40 hours of backtracking and kind of crappy story lines it is easy to get either bored and lose interest or say "screw it" and put it into god mode and finish in a few hours. Whereas I can beat a 10 hour game in a day if I really wanted to or a couple hours a day for a few days. If anything, I find myself finishing more games now than when I was a kid.
What I am saying is the quality is the issue and not length. I have rarely concerned myself with bonus content. Once I finish the game (being the end boss), I am done. I don't care about finding the hidden coins or getting the skulls or every achievement or what-have-you. It is extra content for the "true believers." Don't concern yourself with it if you don't want to but don't fool yourself into thinking that it would be a better game without it. It would be the same game just minus the filler. The big difference is that filler used to be in the campaign, now it is more of an optional extra.
Depends on your age and location. AIM was a must have for Middle school-to-College crowd in the mid-to-late 90's in the USA. If you are not in that demographic or outside the US, YMMV. As a teen in the late 90's, I can say that everyone I knew had an AIM account. Hell, our middle school even published a student directory with email and AIM contact info.
Hell, I just buy DVD movies and TV Shows. One season lasts me over a month, plus I usually have a two or three shows going simultaneously. Mix that up with some podcasts and I have entertainment that is on my terms and is only ~$20 - $60 per month depending on what I get.
if you like shiny things that go boom but are meaningless, then i guess i can't knock you for liking the "film", not the "movie", as you put it.
There is a middle ground between bad and good called mediocrity. I was saying that it was a mediocre film. It wasn't good but it wasn't bad either. I also wasn't making any distinction between "movies" and "films", so I don't understand where you are getting me 'liking the "film", not the "movie"'.
I also agree that it was a meaningless flick with "shiny things that go boom". Then again, anyone going to see a sequel Tron probably should expect a movie that is all visuals with little in the area of well written dialog and any semblance of a complex, thought-provoking story. They can't all be Casablanca. Besides, there is nothing wrong with a "fluff movie" every now and again.
Plus it runs in XFCE, so you're set for a lightweight environment.
Considering the computer is provided by the company, It most likely runs windows. I doubt IT would look kindly to wiping it and installing some form of Linux to run XFCE.
There is a reason the most Wii ports are based off of PS2 or PSP ports. In many cases, they do actually have artists redo the graphics and have utilize more simple game play.
Slashdot Mirror
There is a certain sub-set of the population that craves things that are, to put it succinctly, FUCKED UP. These are the people that want to see buckets of blood splatter every time they hit an enemy, look up pictures of disemboweled people on the internet, watch snuff-films, and enjoy watching things like bestiality videos. Some people are immature, some desensitized to things most find distasteful, and some just have some sort of mental illness. Either way, there is a market for things that push the boundaries of taste. Where there is a market, there is money to be made.
I do not agree with this game for going beyond what is reasonable taste. I will not buy it nor will I want to play it. Having said that, as long as the production doesn't involve breaking any laws (e.g. like a snuff-film or bestiality porn) I have no reason to want "entertainment" such as this banned or censored in any way. I hate the whole idea of "policing" either through forced governmental censorship or through self-censorship. The reason is that my tastes and the tastes of someone else are different. I can't stand teen sex-romp comedy movies, romantic comedies, and most action-blockbuster movies that cater to the people with short attention spans wanting more explosions. I prefer movies and games that aren't simplistic, not filled with angst, and tell a compelling adult story where actions can have consequences both in the short and long term. I would not want companies to stop making those things that I can't stand because some significant segment of the population enjoys those things.
In the end, it is just fiction. Whether it gets in the hands of children should be in the hands of the parents and not the courts. Either way, the game has a rating and if mommy can't be bothered to read it before little Timmy plays it, than the problem here isn't the game.
That was why he showed it, because of the huge double-standard involved. This is extremely distasteful and he even warned the audience that they will find it extremely distasteful as well. The joke wasn't the clip itself. The joke was that that particular clip is legal in a video game sold for minors while even the slightest show of a nipple would get it banned.
I don't know, have you played their flagship game Halo? Between the gratuitous use of "damn" and "hell" and Cortana's virtual-virtual breasts it just is not a wholesome environment for Little Sue and Johnny to mercilessly slaughter aliens and zombie-aliens.
That is why the Nintendo was invented. So they can play as a feminist woman covered head-to-toe in armor (so as to be devoid of all secondary sexual characteristics) slaughtering aliens in an safe environment devoid of other people as it should be.
It also lets you stream the game directly to the tablet so the TV need not be in use. It can do video chat using the camera. It can be used as a second hidden screen in multiplayer games (personal split screen, private playbook in sports games, your hand in card / board games, private HUD) or a persistent inventory, map, goals, or options screen. Anything that requires an immersion breaking menu or HUD can be pushed to this instead. Why press the 'Next Weapon" key five times to load the sniper rifle when you can just select it on a screen? Why have to to hold down 'X' wait for a radial menu to pop up and then move the analog stick to select a spell or issue orders in the middle of a battle when I can just select it on the screen?
The problem with the philosophy of modern games is that they are built around a controller and not a keyboard and mouse. With a keyboard all functions can be quickly mapped and remapped to keys and buttons. With a controller you only have a few buttons to work with and most games still do not let you completely customize your layout. Most modern games have grown beyond the commands of "Jump / Weapon A / Weapon B / Use" That leaves either having on screen menus that break immersion and can get you killed in the middle of a fight or memorizing long key combinations (i.e. Button Mashers). Here you can push menus off screen and make selections quickly on the touch screen.
Having played many DS games, I can say that having two screens is not really the problem you seem to think it is. When done in an intuitive way such as Street Fighter 4 3DS, Mario Kart DS, New Super Mario Bros, and Advance Wars you kind of miss the second screen in console games.
Possibly, but I doubt it. How else are they going to sell Mario Kart WiiU and Smash Bros WiiU. Everyone gets their own multiplayer screen and the whole stage or whatnot is on the TV.
Besides, wasn't that all in the leaked Dev-kits or whatever that confirmed all of this?
I just hope they don't wait until the end of life of the WiiU to come out with black. I hate glossy white, a little dust and it looks like shit
One additional plus is that the peripherals from the Wii are usable on this system and that is something that really has never been done before.
The Wii supports Gamecube controllers and memory cards. The PS2 supports PS1 controllers and memory cards. It is also well known that the Sega Genesis controller is usable on an Atari 2600 (probably other things as well since the Atari controller port was on quite a few consoles)
Worse yet, the new in-thing for kids will be to convert their reactors to illegally enrich uranium to sell to rogue nations.
Don't be a dope. Say NO to 'Tope.
I mostly agree, MS Office (or office applications in general) has no place in in CS. Aside from maybe a brief tour of the IDE at the beginning (let them choose to use an alternate environment later), CS should be application and platform agnostic.
However, as someone who was required to take an Office course in high school (purely for credits), the most important thing that people take for granted is spending a few weeks teaching typing. IMO any high school CS curriculum, should have a few weeks on typing. It may be boring, but it benefits everyone. If you can't type then you will learn. If you know how you will probably get faster. If I had a dollar for every CS and IS major I knew that couldn't type if their life depended on it, I probably could have bought a Xbox 360 and a game or two.
Then again, I also believe that typing should be taught in elementary schools and have refreshers in middle school and high school. Maybe we will have less instances of "wut u doin lol k by" in emails and instant messages.
They don't really bother to define "hacker" and they're pretty free with the term. Leads the average viewer to think there are organized, known clubs at universities structured around breaking into other people's computer systems.
Wait, are you saying the movie Hackers wasn't a documentary? Damn, I guess I shouldn't trust my technolust. I guess I'll throw away my roller blades and that useless eyepiece display thingie
20 Minutes into the Future!
Max Headroom isn't a playbook, people!
Why would they need to be secretive? All they have to do is just knock $5 off the cable bill and people would flock to it. I see Car insurance companies doing this kind of thing now. "Let us install this device in your car and you could save money!"
Especially when a good number of TV's today come with either USB ports and / or SD Card Slots for pictures and MP3s
Now, we just take something that's broken, throw it away, and buy a new one. Oh, I forgot. There's a higher profit margin there. RS makes more money selling you a new [insert consumer item], than the components that only cost a few cents, to fix the old one.
That is part of the reason, but electronics used to be much easier to test and replace. Have a busted cap, de-solder it and replace it. A multimeter, an oscilloscope, a schematic (if available), and a little patience and you could diagnose any piece of hardware. Have you ever tried to fix a board with SMT components? It is like performing very delicate surgery. It is a bitch-and-a half to say the least. That is assuming it is reasonably possible. Open up some gadgets (that ones that aren't glued shut) many have all the good stuff epoxied so they can't be touched. The rest is an ordeal in itself.
When the corrupt are cheering you on in your actions, it's probably time to start moving in the opposite direction.
Wait, are you under the assumption that senators aren't corrupt?
Not everyone want to spend the money on a console when they have a perfectly good PC.
Beyond Good and Evil is a good example. It is a bad port with horrible controls. I bought it during a Steam sale never thinking about it. When I tried playing it, I found it practically unplayable. Had they given support for a gamepad, I would at least be able to play it like the console version. However, the mentality of "Gamepads are for consoles, Mouse / Keyboard are for PCs" render the game useless.
The fact is that PC ports will almost always be rushed. But when a game is developed for a gamepad, there is no reason to remove gamepad support just because it is on PC.
(Yes I know I can get software to map keys to the gamepad, but that is besides the point)
I have no interest in taking the chance of spending $300+ on a new console and game, when I have no confidence I'll find a game I like. After all, there are no returns once the packages are open...
It is a BS excuse. A new 360, PS3 or Wii can be had for $200 and older games for like $20 new. The used game market is filled with great games for relatively cheap. As for finding a game you like, that is what friends and online reviews are for.
While I have played many a game that has been ruined by bad controls, at least many companies are now allowing the use of gamepads (usually 360 controllers only) to play them as they would be played on a console.
What I can't stand is not giving that option (I am looking at you, "Beyond Good and Evil"). What is worse is games that don't even allow key remapping. Both are uncalled for in this day and age.
A PlayStation did one thing - it played video games. The PS3 can do nearly everything... even function as a computer if you don't upgrade the firmware.
The Playstation is a bad example. It was always the Media Center of consoles. The first one gave users a CD player (some say a pretty damn good one too) when most people were just beginning to buy CDs. The PS2 brought DVDs into many people's homes. Lastly, the PS3 is all about Blu-Ray and video streaming.
If you want an example of only playing games, that is Nintendo. The Wii is their first console that did anything other than play games and even that isn't that much compared to the PS3 or 360.
In prior years, it would take you at LEAST a week to finish a campaign on any respectable video game. These days, you can finish a video game completely in two days.
As for single player campaign length, I think there is also the rose-colored glasses of nostalgia in play. I believe that game design has improved much over the last 10 years, length included. On average, games have become shorter, but IMO it is not necessarily a bad thing. I believe that plenty of older games have about the same amount of content (give or take) but seemed to stretch the length out with tricks like too much repetition, back tracking, and difficulty spikes that kept you replaying over and over until you got it right. It only had the perception of length. Go back and play some of those old school classics and see for yourself. Many modern games (the good ones anyway) eschew this (or at least try to keep it to a minimum) in favor of a 8-12 hour campaign.
For myself, I prefer a game that is 8-12 hours over one that is 40+ hours. Besides the repetition of "kill hoard, reload, repeat" and wading through 20-40 hours of backtracking and kind of crappy story lines it is easy to get either bored and lose interest or say "screw it" and put it into god mode and finish in a few hours. Whereas I can beat a 10 hour game in a day if I really wanted to or a couple hours a day for a few days. If anything, I find myself finishing more games now than when I was a kid.
What I am saying is the quality is the issue and not length. I have rarely concerned myself with bonus content. Once I finish the game (being the end boss), I am done. I don't care about finding the hidden coins or getting the skulls or every achievement or what-have-you. It is extra content for the "true believers." Don't concern yourself with it if you don't want to but don't fool yourself into thinking that it would be a better game without it. It would be the same game just minus the filler. The big difference is that filler used to be in the campaign, now it is more of an optional extra.
No, just that some dude and his followers are whack-jobs.
Depends on your age and location. AIM was a must have for Middle school-to-College crowd in the mid-to-late 90's in the USA. If you are not in that demographic or outside the US, YMMV. As a teen in the late 90's, I can say that everyone I knew had an AIM account. Hell, our middle school even published a student directory with email and AIM contact info.
Hell, I just buy DVD movies and TV Shows. One season lasts me over a month, plus I usually have a two or three shows going simultaneously. Mix that up with some podcasts and I have entertainment that is on my terms and is only ~$20 - $60 per month depending on what I get.
I agree. It blew my mind that BBC America does reruns of Star Trek TNG and the X-Files and not actual BBC shows.
if you like shiny things that go boom but are meaningless, then i guess i can't knock you for liking the "film", not the "movie", as you put it.
There is a middle ground between bad and good called mediocrity. I was saying that it was a mediocre film. It wasn't good but it wasn't bad either. I also wasn't making any distinction between "movies" and "films", so I don't understand where you are getting me 'liking the "film", not the "movie"'.
I also agree that it was a meaningless flick with "shiny things that go boom". Then again, anyone going to see a sequel Tron probably should expect a movie that is all visuals with little in the area of well written dialog and any semblance of a complex, thought-provoking story. They can't all be Casablanca. Besides, there is nothing wrong with a "fluff movie" every now and again.
Plus it runs in XFCE, so you're set for a lightweight environment.
Considering the computer is provided by the company, It most likely runs windows. I doubt IT would look kindly to wiping it and installing some form of Linux to run XFCE.
Yes, I know Midori does run on Windows.
There is a reason the most Wii ports are based off of PS2 or PSP ports. In many cases, they do actually have artists redo the graphics and have utilize more simple game play.