Zonk is a cheap Nintendo fanboy. Check his stories, check his comments. It's a real pity he's on the/. editorial team - the other editors at least attempt to write from a neutral viewpoint.
Personally I think the PSP is a great portable gaming system. I also think the DS is a great portable gaming system (although I don't own one). Can't we all just get along?
"I spent £150 on a Sony DVD player years ago, and then the Ps/2 arrived a couple of months later and cost a little bit less, and you could do other things with it..."
I thought the same thing, but then realised that the DVD output quality of the PS2 was, frankly, crap. I'm hoping the Blu-ray (and DVD) playback quality of the PS3 will be decent, but it'll probably be a good idea to wait for a couple of unbiased reviews before getting one.
"Though it wasn't until the 23rd that everyone realised (or at least, that's my excuse for being a day late with the news submission)"
C'mon, if people missed the release date then that's their fault for using slashdot to get their game news!
Seriously though, if there's one thing that Quake did it was to drive major acceptance of 3D accelerator cards. Everyone I knew took one look at GLQuake and thought "I'd better get me one of those!"
"I've heard stories of windows machine's detecting a linux install and sudenly corrupting data all over the disk... a last ditch effort to prevent the user from switching OS."
I've heard that 50% of Slashdot posters are total numbskulls.
I couldn't help but notice that whenever you're running (which is almost all the time since you run by default), any semblance of control goes out the window. It's like playing on ice half the time - you pretty much have to use "walk" for any kind of controlled navigation or platform jumping, which is annoying as you have to be running to make it across most of the gaps.
I have to say that I didn't notice this at all. I've jumped across the gaps no problem and never had to use the 'walk' key.
That said, aside from the length (under 4 hours playtime) it was an enjoyable FPS
The length is at least 5 hours. If it took you significantly less then you must've been playing on super-easy mode. Did you set the challenge level before you began the game?
although I did find myself getting by almost entirely with my pistol until the ammo started to become scarce in the later levels. One headshot will happily take out 90% of the enemies you face.
This is pure SiN - the pistol is a great weapon. However you have to be pretty sh!t hot to headshot every enemy (again, maybe you were playing on easy mode). The shotty is a great weapon for quick close-up takedowns. Ammo is always at a premium. These weapon characteristics have been kept faithful to the original game.
It's a great title that's easily worth £11 of anyone's money. Take a look at the shareware game market - I've never seen such a good game available for so little cash.
I agree completely. Slashdot used to be a reasonable source of "news for nerds". Now it seems that anti-Sony "stories" are appearing every day, almost all of them completely unsubstantiated and incredibly biased.
> If the developers have actually developed cross-platform in mind, the world would be a different place.
Unfortunately, developing cross-platform solutions takes more time and therefore more budget than just sticking to a single platform. This wouldn't be a problem if the returns for doing so would make up for it - however the Linux and Mac gaming market is tiny in comparison to the Windows world. Also, few commercially-available middleware solutions support Linux and the Mac (but they do support the lucrative PS2, XBox etc.)
Of course (as someone already said) this is a chicken-and-egg situation - there aren't many gamers using MacOS exclusively (for example), so not many games get made for it, so not many gamers switch to MacOS, etc. etc. The problem is that (from a non-Linux/Mac user's point of view) there's no good reason to switch. If the other OSes want the gamer's vote, they need the killer app - be that a kickass game exclusive or a radically faster way of accessing 3D hardware for example - to convince people to take the time and effort to switch operating systems.
I hope this happens. The world of desktop OSes could do with some serious competition.
> 1. The left button not being aligned with its underneath pressure pad thing
Does this make any difference? The design is such that pressing the button still registers as a button press (handy, that). The button has the same 'feel' as the others. Looks like you just read an article on the internet and assumed it to be true.
> 2. The dead pixels
I know about 8 people with PSPs - only one had a dead pixel problem. So that's one in 9 (including my own fully-working PSP) with the problem - a problem which was sorted out after returning the unit to the manufacturer.
> crappy designed hardware
Oh yes, it's so crappy. Hence people "Wow"ing when they see one for the first time, hence fantastic games, wireless internet, movies, music, etc. I wonder if you're a DS owner who's realised they made the wrong choice?
>...my history of Sony hardware dying well before i would have reasonably expected with no obvious hardware flaws...
Oh yes, that's always happening with Sony hardware isn't it? They're famous for it! My 9-year-old PS1 is still going strong by the way.
Yup, I totally agree with this. I mean, this guy puts this BURGER-RELATED game on his website (presumably for others to play) then gets annoyed when a BURGER company likes it and wants its BURGER-EATING customers to play it. Shit, they might've hired him to produce more branded Flash titles.
Tip: If you put content on the web, expect visitors.
>...as soon as the developers made their games multi-threaded
This is considerably more difficult than one would think. Games typically have to perform tasks in a particular order, for example (extremely simplified): get inputs, move player, move AI players, move other objects, check for collisions, update parameters, display the next frame, loop.
Quite where we add this 2nd thread is difficult. Everything must happen in the same order in order for things like collision detection to function correctly. If we start a second thread to, say, calculate AI decisions and move the AI characters according to those decisions, we have to wait for that thread to complete before we can display the next frame. So it ends up that there are no advantages to utilising that second thread.
Now, I'm sure there are game developers on here who know how to utilise threads in games in a successful way. It'd be cool if one of them could inform the rest of us what the heck we're supposed to be doing with them:)
> No *nix and *bsd system can handle the DRM!... > A Happy FreeBSD User
> why may we view it only for 7 days? You helpfully provide an answer to your own question..
> We got it for free in the first place!
It's free. So shut up about what you can and can't do with it. At a guess this service is just for people who missed the programmes when they were on and would like to watch them once.
It's interesting how he lists MSWorks.exe as a component of Microsoft Office. He obviously knows what he's doing, eh?
My interpretation of the 'article':
"I decided to test this word processor with tons of features (Word) against this word processor with fewer features (OO 1). My main factors in deciding which word processor is better are load time and memory usage - usability does not matter to me. I am not going to test using a clean machine as that may make the results fair. Here are my results, timed by saying 'banana' to count seconds. When OO was running I said 'banana' quicker. Look! OO wins! Micro$0ft suxxxors!"
Web designers should go for standards and least common denominators. That means using CSS and XML. Put video out in QT, Real AND Windows Media. Let me choose what tools I want to present it.
I really don't get this point of view. It's the "I am the consumer, I want everything my way" line - except you're not a consumer. You're browsing the web for free. People put stuff up in QuickTime because that's the format they want to use. If you don't like that format, use a different website - that's your choice.
Most people browsing the web don't care what format stuff is in as long as it works. I couldn't care less if a site uses an SWF to present some of its content. It's the content that matters, not the underlying format.
People use Flash because it's an easy, well-supported way of making good-looking content. Go ahead and try to do the same thing using normal web standards, I'm sure you'll have a lot of fun messing about in Notepad/vi/emacs/whatever for hours on end.
Oh and if your operating system doesn't support Flash, but you *really* want to see Flash content, maybe you picked the wrong operating system. After all, it was your choice.
"Either I've been smoking too much crack or my memory is shot, because I'm pretty sure I've been required to do that every single time I've flown to America (to visit family, first time was in 1999)... There's the usual "I will not commit terrorist acts" but also a section where you list who you will be staying with."
You've been smoking too much crack. Read the article and you'll find that Cory was asked for the details of all of the people he would be staying with in the US (not just one), and this was before he was allowed on the plane. This certainly isn't standard practice.
A friend of mine flew out to Canada (from the UK) for work reasons about a year back. He had a few days off afterwards and thought he'd buy a ticket down to Florida to see Disneyland or whatever and get a plane back to the UK from there a couple of days later.
He was stopped at US customs (they have a prescence in Toronto airport) and asked for the details of his work, where he had been staying, where he would be staying, when he would be leaving etc, all of which he provided. He was then denied entry to the US without explanation.
I'd like to see the figures for the levels of tourism the US has experienced in the last few years. My bet would be that it's seriously down - partly because they're turning the tourists away, and partly because other potential visitors are hearing about this and deciding to go elsewhere.
"However I wouldn't say the DS had a long-held portable gaming throne, it's only really just come out!"
In the US and Japan maybe. Us poor Europeans are still waiting for it. Even the ones who only speak English - I mean why can't we just have the US version?
I kind of agree with the fact that the amount of paper being used is decreasing, but it is happening remarkably slowly. For example in my office we still use the same quality system that was used maybe 20-30 years ago. All of the documents involved have to be printed out for people to sign and file. The idea of doing this electronically has been banded about for a while but there's a huge amount of inertia (or perhaps downright opposition). We have files and files (and files) full of printed documents that are already stored on the servers for all to access.
Slashdot Mirror
That's the icon for the PC Games section. The main Games section comes under an Atari stick.
1. Hello, this is a release candidate. It's not the final product.
2. Your hardware not working with Vista is a DRIVER ISSUE. If you want it to work then you should pester the manufacturer.
3. There's a new security model in Vista. Your anti-virus program will need updating to be compatible. Again, contact the manufacturer.
It's pretty rich to install a beta of an OS then moan on public forums when everything doesn't work perfectly.
Zonk is a cheap Nintendo fanboy. Check his stories, check his comments. It's a real pity he's on the /. editorial team - the other editors at least attempt to write from a neutral viewpoint.
Personally I think the PSP is a great portable gaming system. I also think the DS is a great portable gaming system (although I don't own one). Can't we all just get along?
"I spent £150 on a Sony DVD player years ago, and then the Ps/2 arrived a couple of months later and cost a little bit less, and you could do other things with it..."
I thought the same thing, but then realised that the DVD output quality of the PS2 was, frankly, crap. I'm hoping the Blu-ray (and DVD) playback quality of the PS3 will be decent, but it'll probably be a good idea to wait for a couple of unbiased reviews before getting one.
"I preordered over a month a go at my local Gamestation, and I'm still number 92 in the queue"
What, you expected that number to go down before the system was released?
"Though it wasn't until the 23rd that everyone realised (or at least, that's my excuse for being a day late with the news submission)"
C'mon, if people missed the release date then that's their fault for using slashdot to get their game news!
Seriously though, if there's one thing that Quake did it was to drive major acceptance of 3D accelerator cards. Everyone I knew took one look at GLQuake and thought "I'd better get me one of those!"
"I've heard stories of windows machine's detecting a linux install and sudenly corrupting data all over the disk... a last ditch effort to prevent the user from switching OS."
I've heard that 50% of Slashdot posters are total numbskulls.
I couldn't help but notice that whenever you're running (which is almost all the time since you run by default), any semblance of control goes out the window. It's like playing on ice half the time - you pretty much have to use "walk" for any kind of controlled navigation or platform jumping, which is annoying as you have to be running to make it across most of the gaps.
I have to say that I didn't notice this at all. I've jumped across the gaps no problem and never had to use the 'walk' key.
That said, aside from the length (under 4 hours playtime) it was an enjoyable FPS
The length is at least 5 hours. If it took you significantly less then you must've been playing on super-easy mode. Did you set the challenge level before you began the game?
although I did find myself getting by almost entirely with my pistol until the ammo started to become scarce in the later levels. One headshot will happily take out 90% of the enemies you face.
This is pure SiN - the pistol is a great weapon. However you have to be pretty sh!t hot to headshot every enemy (again, maybe you were playing on easy mode). The shotty is a great weapon for quick close-up takedowns. Ammo is always at a premium. These weapon characteristics have been kept faithful to the original game.
It's a great title that's easily worth £11 of anyone's money. Take a look at the shareware game market - I've never seen such a good game available for so little cash.
I agree completely. Slashdot used to be a reasonable source of "news for nerds". Now it seems that anti-Sony "stories" are appearing every day, almost all of them completely unsubstantiated and incredibly biased.
Slashdot: the Fox News of techy websites.
I think you're getting confused between HDMI and HDCP. HDMI is a handy digital interconnect. HDCP is evil copy-protection.
> If the developers have actually developed cross-platform in mind, the world would be a different place.
Unfortunately, developing cross-platform solutions takes more time and therefore more budget than just sticking to a single platform. This wouldn't be a problem if the returns for doing so would make up for it - however the Linux and Mac gaming market is tiny in comparison to the Windows world. Also, few commercially-available middleware solutions support Linux and the Mac (but they do support the lucrative PS2, XBox etc.)
Of course (as someone already said) this is a chicken-and-egg situation - there aren't many gamers using MacOS exclusively (for example), so not many games get made for it, so not many gamers switch to MacOS, etc. etc. The problem is that (from a non-Linux/Mac user's point of view) there's no good reason to switch. If the other OSes want the gamer's vote, they need the killer app - be that a kickass game exclusive or a radically faster way of accessing 3D hardware for example - to convince people to take the time and effort to switch operating systems.
I hope this happens. The world of desktop OSes could do with some serious competition.
> 1. The left button not being aligned with its underneath pressure pad thing
...my history of Sony hardware dying well before i would have reasonably expected with no obvious hardware flaws...
Does this make any difference? The design is such that pressing the button still registers as a button press (handy, that). The button has the same 'feel' as the others. Looks like you just read an article on the internet and assumed it to be true.
> 2. The dead pixels
I know about 8 people with PSPs - only one had a dead pixel problem. So that's one in 9 (including my own fully-working PSP) with the problem - a problem which was sorted out after returning the unit to the manufacturer.
> crappy designed hardware
Oh yes, it's so crappy. Hence people "Wow"ing when they see one for the first time, hence fantastic games, wireless internet, movies, music, etc. I wonder if you're a DS owner who's realised they made the wrong choice?
>
Oh yes, that's always happening with Sony hardware isn't it? They're famous for it! My 9-year-old PS1 is still going strong by the way.
> horrible games lineup
..and those are only the games I've tried.
Lumines - great
WipeOut - great
Virtua Tennis - great
Ridge Racer - great
Yup, I totally agree with this. I mean, this guy puts this BURGER-RELATED game on his website (presumably for others to play) then gets annoyed when a BURGER company likes it and wants its BURGER-EATING customers to play it. Shit, they might've hired him to produce more branded Flash titles.
Tip: If you put content on the web, expect visitors.
ScummVM has already been ported.
> ...as soon as the developers made their games multi-threaded
:)
This is considerably more difficult than one would think. Games typically have to perform tasks in a particular order, for example (extremely simplified): get inputs, move player, move AI players, move other objects, check for collisions, update parameters, display the next frame, loop.
Quite where we add this 2nd thread is difficult. Everything must happen in the same order in order for things like collision detection to function correctly. If we start a second thread to, say, calculate AI decisions and move the AI characters according to those decisions, we have to wait for that thread to complete before we can display the next frame. So it ends up that there are no advantages to utilising that second thread.
Now, I'm sure there are game developers on here who know how to utilise threads in games in a successful way. It'd be cool if one of them could inform the rest of us what the heck we're supposed to be doing with them
I spy condtradictions!
...
> No *nix and *bsd system can handle the DRM!
> A Happy FreeBSD User
> why may we view it only for 7 days?
You helpfully provide an answer to your own question..
> We got it for free in the first place!
It's free. So shut up about what you can and can't do with it. At a guess this service is just for people who missed the programmes when they were on and would like to watch them once.
It's interesting how he lists MSWorks.exe as a component of Microsoft Office.
He obviously knows what he's doing, eh?
My interpretation of the 'article':
"I decided to test this word processor with tons of features (Word) against this word processor with fewer features (OO 1). My main factors in deciding which word processor is better are load time and memory usage - usability does not matter to me. I am not going to test using a clean machine as that may make the results fair. Here are my results, timed by saying 'banana' to count seconds. When OO was running I said 'banana' quicker. Look! OO wins! Micro$0ft suxxxors!"
Mod parent up. You hit the nail squarely on the head.
Web designers should go for standards and least common denominators. That means using CSS and XML. Put video out in QT, Real AND Windows Media. Let me choose what tools I want to present it.
I really don't get this point of view. It's the "I am the consumer, I want everything my way" line - except you're not a consumer. You're browsing the web for free. People put stuff up in QuickTime because that's the format they want to use. If you don't like that format, use a different website - that's your choice.
Most people browsing the web don't care what format stuff is in as long as it works. I couldn't care less if a site uses an SWF to present some of its content. It's the content that matters, not the underlying format.
People use Flash because it's an easy, well-supported way of making good-looking content. Go ahead and try to do the same thing using normal web standards, I'm sure you'll have a lot of fun messing about in Notepad/vi/emacs/whatever for hours on end.
Oh and if your operating system doesn't support Flash, but you *really* want to see Flash content, maybe you picked the wrong operating system. After all, it was your choice.
"Either I've been smoking too much crack or my memory is shot, because I'm pretty sure I've been required to do that every single time I've flown to America (to visit family, first time was in 1999)... There's the usual "I will not commit terrorist acts" but also a section where you list who you will be staying with."
You've been smoking too much crack. Read the article and you'll find that Cory was asked for the details of all of the people he would be staying with in the US (not just one), and this was before he was allowed on the plane. This certainly isn't standard practice.
A friend of mine flew out to Canada (from the UK) for work reasons about a year back. He had a few days off afterwards and thought he'd buy a ticket down to Florida to see Disneyland or whatever and get a plane back to the UK from there a couple of days later.
He was stopped at US customs (they have a prescence in Toronto airport) and asked for the details of his work, where he had been staying, where he would be staying, when he would be leaving etc, all of which he provided. He was then denied entry to the US without explanation.
I'd like to see the figures for the levels of tourism the US has experienced in the last few years. My bet would be that it's seriously down - partly because they're turning the tourists away, and partly because other potential visitors are hearing about this and deciding to go elsewhere.
"However I wouldn't say the DS had a long-held portable gaming throne, it's only really just come out!"
In the US and Japan maybe. Us poor Europeans are still waiting for it. Even the ones who only speak English - I mean why can't we just have the US version?
300 hours of work getting a 'fail' doesn't sound like fun to me.
I kind of agree with the fact that the amount of paper being used is decreasing, but it is happening remarkably slowly.
For example in my office we still use the same quality system that was used maybe 20-30 years ago. All of the documents involved have to be printed out for people to sign and file. The idea of doing this electronically has been banded about for a while but there's a huge amount of inertia (or perhaps downright opposition). We have files and files (and files) full of printed documents that are already stored on the servers for all to access.
Madness.
Oh yeah, print is dead. Just look what happened to the 'paperless office' idea.
Generally, people like having something physical to deal with.
Plus, once a picture is printed out it requires no maintenance. I'm buggered if I'm going to dedicate a PC to showing a photo on my wall.