But why do you accept that a game console crashes?!
A new game console should just work. Console games never crash, except on extremely rare conditions.
You are just accepting lower standars of quality for the industry, and justifing it as "Slashdot loves to bash Microsoft".
Certain consoles are crashing regularly. It may be a very small portion. It may be the hardware fault. It may be the software. I don't care. This shouldn't happen.
Any way, 10x more polys is only interesting if you can notice the extra detail.
PGR3 uses half of those polys to render a realistic first person camera, on the inside of the car. So you have a realistic steering wheel, velocimeter, etc.
But I ALWAYS play on the third person camera on racing games. If a racing game doesn't have a third person camera, I just don't play. So that extra detail is lost to me.
And the exterior of the car doesn't look so much better than the best racing games on the current generation.
So, the detailed buildings. I expect that the game is so fast that I don't have the time to notice those details. (I don't want to play another Gran Turismo, realistic but slow driving, but another Burnout, crazy, fast driving).
The only thing that I think is awesome on PGR3, is the HDR lightning. That rocks. But the rest of the "Oh! more polys" means nothing to me.
I readed CAD until april or so, then it just bored me.
Lets give him the benefit of doubt about Tim not reading PA before working on CAD. But, he already mentions PA on the fourth comic he did, and some of the even earlier comics have some PA flair to them.
I am too lazy to search through their archives (the archives of both sites are too clumsy). But CAD has made a strip spoofing Macintosh ads, after PA did the same. Also, CAD has a couple of guys who are supposed to represent the first and second player on a game. PA also did this before. The animated piece of hardware (Divx and the Xbox on CAD) is also a similar idea.
Gunpei Yokoi created the control pad around 1982, for the Game and Watch. So any Nintendo patent on the control pad comes after 1982. More probably it would be around 1985, when the system was launched on the U.S.
Utility patents last 20 years. So, in the best case, it expired in 2002.
BUT, the Dreamcast was launched on 1998 in Japan, 1999 in the U.S. So simply it was impossible for the patent to have expired by that time.
Conclussion. Sega did what Sony didn't. To create a good control pad without stepping on Nintendo's patent.
I don't buy your "Oh Nintendo has patents! they don't let people be happy!" argument. Look at the Sega Dreamcast controller. It has a fricking Control Pad. So you can have a control pad, and not break Nintendo's Patent. Sony just did it the wrong way.
Errr, aren't you being a little unfair there? GCC was created with the x86 instruction set on mind, from the start. So, when it doesn't work so well for another architecture, is no big surprise, really.
Sega Saturn - (1 Star) Shortest marketing life span I have ever seen. Their marketing guys went to lunch and never came back.
In japan, Sega had the most awesome marketing guys working for them during the Saturn/Dreamcast era. They made the legendary Segata Sanshiro campaign for the Saturn.
It was protagonized by a Judoka, called Segata Sanshiro (a pun on a famous Judoka called Sugata Sanshiro), who traveled through Japan, pummeling kids who were playing baseball, or dancing, instead of playing with their Sega Saturns.
Genius!
It also featured a kick ass theme, in Japanese, that featured another pun on his name. Segata Sanshiro was mispronounced as "Sega Saturn shiro!" which means "Play Sega Saturn!".
Other idiotic things Segata did included training with a giant Sega Saturn on his back, and punching a giant Saturn controller. Or throwing another Judoka, that exploded when touching the floor (for the bomberman game).
This campaign was so succesful, that it keeped the Saturn selling, even with the lacking game library.
Go and try to play some racing game with keyboard/mouse. It sucks and it doesn't hold a candle to playing with a control pad.
The problem with PC players is that there is a group of them that want EVERY GAME to be a FPS. And the pc gaming market shows it, as most of it is FPS.
Anyway, my gaming pc goes to waste, because I never play any high end gsmes (maybe Warcraft 3). Most of the gaming time on it is spent on Master of Orion or Strange Adventures in Infinite Space. I play those, mostly for the simplified, streamlined gameplay. I used to love Civilization, but after playing MOO, Civ looks like a lot of work and micromanagement.
You can use your pc for gaming, if all your gaming interests are MMORPG, FPS and RTSs. Any other genre are better represented on consoles.
And, they are cheaper, not more expensive like you want to portray. A gaming PC will cost you at least $400-500. You will be able to buy the high end Xbox 360 for that.
Slashdot Mirror
I didn't know about the PS1s and older TVs, though.
And wait several weeks for new units to replace your faulty one? Remember that MS is slowly supplying the 360s.
Hardly a solution. (Better than keep the malfunctioning unit, but not good).
But why do you accept that a game console crashes?!
A new game console should just work. Console games never crash, except on extremely rare conditions.
You are just accepting lower standars of quality for the industry, and justifing it as "Slashdot loves to bash Microsoft".
Certain consoles are crashing regularly. It may be a very small portion. It may be the hardware fault. It may be the software. I don't care. This shouldn't happen.
Does anybody ever buy Madden (year-1)?
I mean, why should you? If you are into that kind opf shit, you want the latest one, or you are happy with the one you have.
Why should they choose Gimp over Photoshop?, Both programs have the same cost for pirates: 0 dollars.
EVERYTHING outsells the Xbox in Japan. Even the original Gameboy advance (the one before the SP, with the dark screen).
I will take "fun" over hard facts any day.
Any way, 10x more polys is only interesting if you can notice the extra detail.
PGR3 uses half of those polys to render a realistic first person camera, on the inside of the car. So you have a realistic steering wheel, velocimeter, etc.
But I ALWAYS play on the third person camera on racing games. If a racing game doesn't have a third person camera, I just don't play. So that extra detail is lost to me.
And the exterior of the car doesn't look so much better than the best racing games on the current generation.
So, the detailed buildings. I expect that the game is so fast that I don't have the time to notice those details. (I don't want to play another Gran Turismo, realistic but slow driving, but another Burnout, crazy, fast driving).
The only thing that I think is awesome on PGR3, is the HDR lightning. That rocks. But the rest of the "Oh! more polys" means nothing to me.
See the DS vs PSP.
DS has the same power of a N64. Maybe less.
PSP has the power of a Dreamcast. Possibly more (although not the same as a PS2, despite what Sony claims).
DS outsells PSP worldwide. Has more, and better games.
I readed CAD until april or so, then it just bored me.
Lets give him the benefit of doubt about Tim not reading PA before working on CAD. But, he already mentions PA on the fourth comic he did, and some of the even earlier comics have some PA flair to them.
I am too lazy to search through their archives (the archives of both sites are too clumsy). But CAD has made a strip spoofing Macintosh ads, after PA did the same. Also, CAD has a couple of guys who are supposed to represent the first and second player on a game. PA also did this before. The animated piece of hardware (Divx and the Xbox on CAD) is also a similar idea.
I think this is more than just coincidence.
If anything, CAD comics exists, because PA did it first. CAD, at least for a couple of years, was a blatant ripoff of Penny Arcade.
Wrong.
Gunpei Yokoi created the control pad around 1982, for the Game and Watch. So any Nintendo patent on the control pad comes after 1982. More probably it would be around 1985, when the system was launched on the U.S.
Utility patents last 20 years. So, in the best case, it expired in 2002.
BUT, the Dreamcast was launched on 1998 in Japan, 1999 in the U.S. So simply it was impossible for the patent to have expired by that time.
Conclussion. Sega did what Sony didn't. To create a good control pad without stepping on Nintendo's patent.
I don't buy your "Oh Nintendo has patents! they don't let people be happy!" argument. Look at the Sega Dreamcast controller. It has a fricking Control Pad. So you can have a control pad, and not break Nintendo's Patent. Sony just did it the wrong way.
They weren't thinking that, when they designed that beautiful control pad, that it is a bitch to your thumb.
Well, in the comics, until last year, Lex Luthor was President of the United States...
Errr, aren't you being a little unfair there? GCC was created with the x86 instruction set on mind, from the start. So, when it doesn't work so well for another architecture, is no big surprise, really.
Maybe never. MS lost 6 billions on the first Xbox, but overall they make around 30 billions each year.
As long as they can keep those 30 billion coming, this is just a small hit to them.
Another reason to keep supporting Open Source!
Yeah right. Have you even played Super Mario Kart recently? It is a very different dog than Mario Kart: Double Dash.
Play the games first, then criticize if necessary.
Sega Saturn - (1 Star)
Shortest marketing life span I have ever seen. Their marketing guys went to lunch and never came back.
In japan, Sega had the most awesome marketing guys working for them during the Saturn/Dreamcast era. They made the legendary Segata Sanshiro campaign for the Saturn.
It was protagonized by a Judoka, called Segata Sanshiro (a pun on a famous Judoka called Sugata Sanshiro), who traveled through Japan, pummeling kids who were playing baseball, or dancing, instead of playing with their Sega Saturns.
Genius!
It also featured a kick ass theme, in Japanese, that featured another pun on his name. Segata Sanshiro was mispronounced as "Sega Saturn shiro!" which means "Play Sega Saturn!".
Other idiotic things Segata did included training with a giant Sega Saturn on his back, and punching a giant Saturn controller. Or throwing another Judoka, that exploded when touching the floor (for the bomberman game).
This campaign was so succesful, that it keeped the Saturn selling, even with the lacking game library.
:p
Yeah? And does that include an adapter to play Burnout 3 on your PC?
No?
Then shut up.
Blah blah blah.
Go and try to play some racing game with keyboard/mouse. It sucks and it doesn't hold a candle to playing with a control pad.
The problem with PC players is that there is a group of them that want EVERY GAME to be a FPS. And the pc gaming market shows it, as most of it is FPS.
Such an unimaginative crowd, the FPS fans...
Anyway, my gaming pc goes to waste, because I never play any high end gsmes (maybe Warcraft 3). Most of the gaming time on it is spent on Master of Orion or Strange Adventures in Infinite Space. I play those, mostly for the simplified, streamlined gameplay. I used to love Civilization, but after playing MOO, Civ looks like a lot of work and micromanagement.
You can use your pc for gaming, if all your gaming interests are MMORPG, FPS and RTSs. Any other genre are better represented on consoles.
And, they are cheaper, not more expensive like you want to portray. A gaming PC will cost you at least $400-500. You will be able to buy the high end Xbox 360 for that.
is the fact that Nintendo hasn't licensed the Unreal Engine for the Revolution.
There is a one-liner-guy? I imagine doing small talk with him...
Me: Hey pal, don't you hate your job, you know, dumbing down good scripts?
OLG: Yes, it is a dirty job. BUT SOMEONE HAS TO DO IT! *smiles*