I am still waiting for Google Earth to fully encompass the feedback offered in games like Sim City, where I can search regions around the world for such things as Crime Statistics, Pollution, Economy, etc.
There are plenty of other areas we can display information as well. They've already got traffic, terrain and now this. I am currently relocating to a new area as well, and actually tried to get crime stats on potential areas I'd be living in (thinking they may have already achieved that ability), they haven't got them yet, but I hope my wish list is not too far away.
I was at a buddies house for a birthday party several years back, where I was introduced to beer pong. Said buddies house wasn't the most upkept bachelor pad, with two cats, a dog, and animal hair covering every surface. As we played this newfound sport to our hearts content, intoxicating ourselves the whole while, we noticed the steady buildup of animal hair on the pong balls. Every time a ball would miss it's mark, which became more and more frequent, whatever surface it touched that wasn't beer would wrap it nearly opaquely in a solid layer of discarded mammal insulation. Often times, far too often, the ball would bounce off of one of these surfaces immediately prior to landing in the cup full of delicious beverage, delivering a heaping amount of additional flavor to our consumables, as well as a nice, furry filter across the surface of the liquid.
I think future games of beer pong will most likely be played in the virtual sense, for sake of sanity and hygiene.
Wasn't there a huge meeting at Square recently where they decided they would no longer develop anything that wasn't for the mainstream? Keeping FF13 PS3 only seems to fly in the face of that, considering it's the least popular of the current three consoles. I bet it will be ported eventually.
I'm surprised that's all they could come up with... It sounds like it was designed by whimsy than practicality. Nothing they mention sounds like an ideal house to me. Maybe thermostat, but I live in Southern California, so it's not like that fluctuates a lot...
In the "future", I'd really prefer a house that - 1) helps me keep it clean. I've always envisioned a carpet that has a vacuum system beneath it, and will suck up all the dirt and grim and little bits from below. 2) an in-sink dishwasher, where I can simply pile my dirty dishes into the sink, slide the top closed, and let it do it's thing without me having to clean by hand or pre-scrub and load them into a separate unit. 3) has an embedded software system that will help me track my chores and tasks for that day, wake me in the morning, remind me of events on certain dates... basically calendar software that can be accessed from any wall in the house. (probably the closest scenario to what they have in the article). 4) runs energy efficient! uses energy recycling tech to generate as much of it's own power supply as possible - i.e. solar power, walking around generates kinetic energy picked up through the floor, running tap and shower catch access energy as they drain, etc.
I don't know, I just made this up off the top of my head by looking around my apartment (you can guess what shape it's in), but I think Disney's little inventors are looking too much in the direction of luxury, and not enough in the direction of practicality and things that people would really want to help them live their lives more comfortably.
Wow, thanks for this. That's a lot of really useful info (from all the replies, actually), but either way I will give XP 64-bit another try. Multiple people are saying it's much better now, so seems the way to go.
And yeah, I got blue-screens galore when installing Vista, and was popping hardware in and out like mad to no avail.
I need a 64 Bit OS. XP64 is too unsupported, and Vista won't even install on my hardware (don't know why, tried everything, there's nothing odd about my setup though). Someone turned me towards Server2008, which I downloaded from Microsofts site right away. I haven't installed it yet, but wanted to ask the community what its pros and cons were compared to both XP and Vista. How would it fare as a workstation OS? Is it at all hampered by the memory hogging components that Vista uses? How about privacy? Why is it not getting as much press as Vista and XP as a viable alternative?
I agree, I thought Windows 2000 was the best OS microsoft had ever made. Small, fast, nonintrusive. I pine for those days again. The software I use for work, however, began demanding the installation of SP 3 and 4, and when I installed anything above SP2, a fresh Win2k install would run completely unstable, and much worse than XP, so I was forced to switch.
At night, I dream of a world where Microsoft simply continued to reinforce the functionality and efficiency of Win2k. It's all I have left!
Ooh, well I've got a great piece of software for you. This software changed my whole user experience. Its called nLite, and in a nutshell it lets you rip your Windows CD to your hard drive, open up the installation files, tear out all unwanted elements, repackage it and burn it into a new installation CD. I've been running my own version of Windows for a couple years now. I pre-set all my preferences (so on a fresh install, sound FX are off by default, as one example), preinstalled certain drivers, pre-installed my Service Packs, obliterated any trace of Windows Media Player, Internet Explorer, and MSN. It's also a hands-free installation, so you can just drop it in your drive and let it go on it's own for most of the way. Probably the best part I like about this app is that it actually gives you a breakdown on what each section of Windows does, so you know what you're taking out. It has great, simple information on each component, and if it's critical to windows operation or not (so you don't create a monster that doesn't even boot).
And if you want to go a step further you can always get some disc-cloning software like Ghost or something, and just make a clone of your drive after a fresh install.
That story kills me, and I feel your pain. For me it was 3DStudio Max... 7.0 I think. It required that you install SP4 for 2K. If I didn't need to run that app for my work, I'd have stuck with 2K for much longer as well.:(
No no! I am totally familiar with Linux and LOVE it. Really. Read the rest of my comment up there, I make a note of this even.
I would honestly pay my life savings to someone if they got perfectly acceptable performance and compatibility for 3D Studio Max, Maya, Photoshop, Premiere, After FX, and Mudbox in Linux. I know about all the alternatives to these applications, and I love them but unfortuantely none of them cut it. They just don't. I'm not even being picky here, and mentioning all the games I want Linux to run.;)
Linux would sweep the market if it ran windows applications perfectly. I laugh at how quickly a person would become the richest man/woman in the world, the instant they release a Windows-Compatible, Windows-Alternative-OS. To me it seems the world is absolutely screaming for this right now. There is such a massive gap here just waiting to be filled by a good operating system with legacy compatibiltiy, it's crazy.
Yeah, sadly, that's exactly what I thought. After SP3, I was certain it was intentional, but I hate saying things like that on forums because it is just a guess, and people are quick to flame you for guessing. Due to Microsofts reputation however, it's too easy to believe they would do something like that. I wish we could get away from this company, because things will only get worse from here on out. I'm certain they have a great deal of little things in their new OS that simply aren't "switched on" yet. Once the adoption rate of Vista nears the majority, I could easily see them flicking a switch that causes a "bug" to erase all copyrighted material, or something similar. I don't know, I just see a huge war going on between consumers, and companies grasping for more control over consumers, and something big has to happen on one side or the other eventually.
I use a ton of graphic and editing applications that are really memory intensive (hence needing more than 4GB), and as I understand it, Windows XP 64 bit is simply a rebranded Windows Server 2003. It doesn't support many of my common drivers and applications though (wacom tablet, etc). I didn't think to check the regular Windows Server releases. Can I run them with 8GB of RAM (and have that RAM used efficiently)? I can't imagine Server 2008 not supporting it at least, so I am keeping my eye on this with enthusiasm now. Thank you!
I was thinking this exact same thing. For me, 2k was the best Windows OS that Microsoft had ever made. It allowed me to run old DOS stuff, had the accessibility of Win98, but was still light on it's feet, being free from the bloat that came with XP. When XP came out I used 2K for years afterwards, up until SP3 or 4, which basically crippled the stability of the OS to XP-level (everything would crash for me after a certain point, even on fresh installs, which didn't occur before). I ended up switching to XP afterwards, and it really has become the "better" OS when compared to Vista (I still yearn for early-2K). Now I run a separate hard drive with Vista (because I just can't afford to use it as my primary OS, it's still too crippled in too many ways), but I need >4GB of RAM for my work, and Windows 64-bit is completely unworkable. I have never been such a frustrated Microsoft customer. All I want them to do is make a simple, light OS that stays the fuck out of my way. They could ditch almost EVERYTHING from Vista but the fact that it runs my applications, and it would be the greatest OS ever, but I don't think they will ever do this.
It's gotten to the point where I have literally considered learning how to be a programmer simply so I could make my own custom linux builds, but I figure if whole communities aren't able to get decent compatibility for Windows apps I'd never be able to in a million years.:1
I've been a gamer for almost 3 decades now, but in 1987 I played Final Fantasy 1, and that game I hold responsible for inspiring me to aim my career towards the game industry (something I've since built my career out of successfuly).
I hold that first NES FF game responsible for the direction my whole life took, so there's some serious gravity to this series for a person like myself. The series has undergone many changes, but I don't know if there will ever be a point in my life where I can't appreciate it on some, purely nostalgic level for that reason.:)
Actually, I was enthralled with this game. It has more eye-candy than any other shooter, but the gameplay of a sim it seemed. I was constantly rolling around, dodging and targetting in dogfights, while dipping between giant battleships around me and avoiding their huge lasers as they exchanged fire with other large battleships far away. The controls were very well done, the only exception being the tutorial that the demo has doesn't allow you to inverse your Y axis (the only travesty I can really think of, since it will probably scare quite a few folks off), but you can remedy that immediately after, or on the title screen options, and everything else just flows together. I dont care about the story or acting, but the gameplay is great for a fan of the old XWing/TIE Fighter or Wingcommander games. I picked it up at the store the day it came out and I'm immensely happy with it. I really do recommend most people try it out, and if you come from the same PC Gaming background I do, be sure to invert your Y axis and set your camera to cockpit view before you play. The game is great fun, very intense, and has lots of sub-objectives per mission to add some fun replay value as well. Everyone should support this development team and project because not enough games like this are made today.
I'm an artist and designer in the industry, and I've wanted to make kids games for some time (I currently work on Teen/Mature "next-gen" titles). I'd prefer to make really simple, but quality titles that have solid stories and are morally enriching for the audience. i.e. the kind of entertainment that I remember being provided as a kid by public broadcasting, Fred Rogers, Shel Silverstein etc. The problem I'm having is that the level of commercialism in today's kids entertainment is just as bad, if not worse, than most mainstream software. Usually involving other products so the parent company can tie in other potential sales to it (Barbie, et al). Just the kinds of things kids should absolutely not be faced with at young ages. The only solution I can foresee is either finding funding from an independant source who shares my personal goals, or hoping somewhere along the way the genre manages to break the stigmas associated with "kids" and "educational" entertainment softwa Kids games are seen by publishers as "simpler", and therefore thought to be quicker to develop, receive lower budgets, and are treated as discardable products. Educational titles often have difficulty pushing away from boring gameplay. (I still think Oregon Trail is one of the only "educational" pieces of software that ever provided any sense of reward or fun for the audience - and it's over 30 years old! that's the timeline of the industry!)
I guess I typed up this rant hoping someone could point out a good childrens game developer that actually cared about it's audience, and treated their product in a responsible and respectful way. Any ideas?
I am absolutely dying for someone (nintendo maybe even) to make a glove with a wii remote on each finger and thumb. Imagine the possibilities for interaction with a 3D environment with this. You'd be able to grasp things in the 3D space of your game, and your hands position could be tracked more accurately than any other device of a similar type has before. It would be an expensive piece of hardware, but I'd buy it if I could grasp a ball and throw it to another player in a networked game of... something where you throw balls at other players. It doesn't matter! It'd be great.
Some of the environments in the screenshots look fantastic too. The game looks just like the 2D games in 3D, which is probably what they should have done in the first place.
Slashdot Mirror
I am still waiting for Google Earth to fully encompass the feedback offered in games like Sim City, where I can search regions around the world for such things as Crime Statistics, Pollution, Economy, etc.
There are plenty of other areas we can display information as well. They've already got traffic, terrain and now this. I am currently relocating to a new area as well, and actually tried to get crime stats on potential areas I'd be living in (thinking they may have already achieved that ability), they haven't got them yet, but I hope my wish list is not too far away.
What is the condition called where you become sexually aroused by technology?
Well... that's what I've got.
These images set the mind on fire!
I was at a buddies house for a birthday party several years back, where I was introduced to beer pong. Said buddies house wasn't the most upkept bachelor pad, with two cats, a dog, and animal hair covering every surface.
As we played this newfound sport to our hearts content, intoxicating ourselves the whole while, we noticed the steady buildup of animal hair on the pong balls. Every time a ball would miss it's mark, which became more and more frequent, whatever surface it touched that wasn't beer would wrap it nearly opaquely in a solid layer of discarded mammal insulation.
Often times, far too often, the ball would bounce off of one of these surfaces immediately prior to landing in the cup full of delicious beverage, delivering a heaping amount of additional flavor to our consumables, as well as a nice, furry filter across the surface of the liquid.
I think future games of beer pong will most likely be played in the virtual sense, for sake of sanity and hygiene.
A shame about the censorship though.
what do chocobos have to do with this?!
Wasn't there a huge meeting at Square recently where they decided they would no longer develop anything that wasn't for the mainstream? Keeping FF13 PS3 only seems to fly in the face of that, considering it's the least popular of the current three consoles. I bet it will be ported eventually.
Just curious... Is it multiplayer online?
I'm surprised that's all they could come up with... It sounds like it was designed by whimsy than practicality. Nothing they mention sounds like an ideal house to me. Maybe thermostat, but I live in Southern California, so it's not like that fluctuates a lot...
In the "future", I'd really prefer a house that -
1) helps me keep it clean. I've always envisioned a carpet that has a vacuum system beneath it, and will suck up all the dirt and grim and little bits from below.
2) an in-sink dishwasher, where I can simply pile my dirty dishes into the sink, slide the top closed, and let it do it's thing without me having to clean by hand or pre-scrub and load them into a separate unit.
3) has an embedded software system that will help me track my chores and tasks for that day, wake me in the morning, remind me of events on certain dates... basically calendar software that can be accessed from any wall in the house. (probably the closest scenario to what they have in the article).
4) runs energy efficient! uses energy recycling tech to generate as much of it's own power supply as possible - i.e. solar power, walking around generates kinetic energy picked up through the floor, running tap and shower catch access energy as they drain, etc.
I don't know, I just made this up off the top of my head by looking around my apartment (you can guess what shape it's in), but I think Disney's little inventors are looking too much in the direction of luxury, and not enough in the direction of practicality and things that people would really want to help them live their lives more comfortably.
Wow, thanks for this. That's a lot of really useful info (from all the replies, actually), but either way I will give XP 64-bit another try. Multiple people are saying it's much better now, so seems the way to go.
And yeah, I got blue-screens galore when installing Vista, and was popping hardware in and out like mad to no avail.
I need a 64 Bit OS. XP64 is too unsupported, and Vista won't even install on my hardware (don't know why, tried everything, there's nothing odd about my setup though). Someone turned me towards Server2008, which I downloaded from Microsofts site right away. I haven't installed it yet, but wanted to ask the community what its pros and cons were compared to both XP and Vista.
How would it fare as a workstation OS? Is it at all hampered by the memory hogging components that Vista uses? How about privacy? Why is it not getting as much press as Vista and XP as a viable alternative?
Thanks to anyone who can enlighten me on this!
I agree, I thought Windows 2000 was the best OS microsoft had ever made. Small, fast, nonintrusive. I pine for those days again. The software I use for work, however, began demanding the installation of SP 3 and 4, and when I installed anything above SP2, a fresh Win2k install would run completely unstable, and much worse than XP, so I was forced to switch.
At night, I dream of a world where Microsoft simply continued to reinforce the functionality and efficiency of Win2k. It's all I have left!
Well, it makes sense when you consider how many different countries you can get to from the US just by driving. ...Oh. Right.
Ooh, well I've got a great piece of software for you. This software changed my whole user experience. Its called nLite, and in a nutshell it lets you rip your Windows CD to your hard drive, open up the installation files, tear out all unwanted elements, repackage it and burn it into a new installation CD. I've been running my own version of Windows for a couple years now. I pre-set all my preferences (so on a fresh install, sound FX are off by default, as one example), preinstalled certain drivers, pre-installed my Service Packs, obliterated any trace of Windows Media Player, Internet Explorer, and MSN. It's also a hands-free installation, so you can just drop it in your drive and let it go on it's own for most of the way.
Probably the best part I like about this app is that it actually gives you a breakdown on what each section of Windows does, so you know what you're taking out. It has great, simple information on each component, and if it's critical to windows operation or not (so you don't create a monster that doesn't even boot).
http://nliteos.com/
And if you want to go a step further you can always get some disc-cloning software like Ghost or something, and just make a clone of your drive after a fresh install.
Now that's something worth supporting. Thank you so much for pointing this out, I had never heard of it!
That story kills me, and I feel your pain. For me it was 3DStudio Max... 7.0 I think. It required that you install SP4 for 2K. If I didn't need to run that app for my work, I'd have stuck with 2K for much longer as well. :(
No no! I am totally familiar with Linux and LOVE it. Really. Read the rest of my comment up there, I make a note of this even.
;)
I would honestly pay my life savings to someone if they got perfectly acceptable performance and compatibility for 3D Studio Max, Maya, Photoshop, Premiere, After FX, and Mudbox in Linux. I know about all the alternatives to these applications, and I love them but unfortuantely none of them cut it. They just don't. I'm not even being picky here, and mentioning all the games I want Linux to run.
Linux would sweep the market if it ran windows applications perfectly. I laugh at how quickly a person would become the richest man/woman in the world, the instant they release a Windows-Compatible, Windows-Alternative-OS. To me it seems the world is absolutely screaming for this right now. There is such a massive gap here just waiting to be filled by a good operating system with legacy compatibiltiy, it's crazy.
Yeah, sadly, that's exactly what I thought. After SP3, I was certain it was intentional, but I hate saying things like that on forums because it is just a guess, and people are quick to flame you for guessing.
Due to Microsofts reputation however, it's too easy to believe they would do something like that. I wish we could get away from this company, because things will only get worse from here on out. I'm certain they have a great deal of little things in their new OS that simply aren't "switched on" yet. Once the adoption rate of Vista nears the majority, I could easily see them flicking a switch that causes a "bug" to erase all copyrighted material, or something similar. I don't know, I just see a huge war going on between consumers, and companies grasping for more control over consumers, and something big has to happen on one side or the other eventually.
Thanks for posting.
I use a ton of graphic and editing applications that are really memory intensive (hence needing more than 4GB), and as I understand it, Windows XP 64 bit is simply a rebranded Windows Server 2003. It doesn't support many of my common drivers and applications though (wacom tablet, etc). I didn't think to check the regular Windows Server releases. Can I run them with 8GB of RAM (and have that RAM used efficiently)? I can't imagine Server 2008 not supporting it at least, so I am keeping my eye on this with enthusiasm now. Thank you!
I was thinking this exact same thing. For me, 2k was the best Windows OS that Microsoft had ever made. It allowed me to run old DOS stuff, had the accessibility of Win98, but was still light on it's feet, being free from the bloat that came with XP.
:1
When XP came out I used 2K for years afterwards, up until SP3 or 4, which basically crippled the stability of the OS to XP-level (everything would crash for me after a certain point, even on fresh installs, which didn't occur before).
I ended up switching to XP afterwards, and it really has become the "better" OS when compared to Vista (I still yearn for early-2K).
Now I run a separate hard drive with Vista (because I just can't afford to use it as my primary OS, it's still too crippled in too many ways), but I need >4GB of RAM for my work, and Windows 64-bit is completely unworkable. I have never been such a frustrated Microsoft customer.
All I want them to do is make a simple, light OS that stays the fuck out of my way. They could ditch almost EVERYTHING from Vista but the fact that it runs my applications, and it would be the greatest OS ever, but I don't think they will ever do this.
It's gotten to the point where I have literally considered learning how to be a programmer simply so I could make my own custom linux builds, but I figure if whole communities aren't able to get decent compatibility for Windows apps I'd never be able to in a million years.
I've been a gamer for almost 3 decades now, but in 1987 I played Final Fantasy 1, and that game I hold responsible for inspiring me to aim my career towards the game industry (something I've since built my career out of successfuly).
:)
I hold that first NES FF game responsible for the direction my whole life took, so there's some serious gravity to this series for a person like myself. The series has undergone many changes, but I don't know if there will ever be a point in my life where I can't appreciate it on some, purely nostalgic level for that reason.
They're just cartoons from Japan. It's popular because of it's availability and cultural appeal, that's about it.
Actually, I was enthralled with this game. It has more eye-candy than any other shooter, but the gameplay of a sim it seemed. I was constantly rolling around, dodging and targetting in dogfights, while dipping between giant battleships around me and avoiding their huge lasers as they exchanged fire with other large battleships far away.
The controls were very well done, the only exception being the tutorial that the demo has doesn't allow you to inverse your Y axis (the only travesty I can really think of, since it will probably scare quite a few folks off), but you can remedy that immediately after, or on the title screen options, and everything else just flows together.
I dont care about the story or acting, but the gameplay is great for a fan of the old XWing/TIE Fighter or Wingcommander games. I picked it up at the store the day it came out and I'm immensely happy with it. I really do recommend most people try it out, and if you come from the same PC Gaming background I do, be sure to invert your Y axis and set your camera to cockpit view before you play. The game is great fun, very intense, and has lots of sub-objectives per mission to add some fun replay value as well. Everyone should support this development team and project because not enough games like this are made today.
I'm an artist and designer in the industry, and I've wanted to make kids games for some time (I currently work on Teen/Mature "next-gen" titles).
I'd prefer to make really simple, but quality titles that have solid stories and are morally enriching for the audience. i.e. the kind of entertainment that I remember being provided as a kid by public broadcasting, Fred Rogers, Shel Silverstein etc.
The problem I'm having is that the level of commercialism in today's kids entertainment is just as bad, if not worse, than most mainstream software. Usually involving other products so the parent company can tie in other potential sales to it (Barbie, et al). Just the kinds of things kids should absolutely not be faced with at young ages.
The only solution I can foresee is either finding funding from an independant source who shares my personal goals, or hoping somewhere along the way the genre manages to break the stigmas associated with "kids" and "educational" entertainment softwa Kids games are seen by publishers as "simpler", and therefore thought to be quicker to develop, receive lower budgets, and are treated as discardable products. Educational titles often have difficulty pushing away from boring gameplay. (I still think Oregon Trail is one of the only "educational" pieces of software that ever provided any sense of reward or fun for the audience - and it's over 30 years old! that's the timeline of the industry!)
I guess I typed up this rant hoping someone could point out a good childrens game developer that actually cared about it's audience, and treated their product in a responsible and respectful way. Any ideas?
I am absolutely dying for someone (nintendo maybe even) to make a glove with a wii remote on each finger and thumb. Imagine the possibilities for interaction with a 3D environment with this. You'd be able to grasp things in the 3D space of your game, and your hands position could be tracked more accurately than any other device of a similar type has before. It would be an expensive piece of hardware, but I'd buy it if I could grasp a ball and throw it to another player in a networked game of... something where you throw balls at other players. It doesn't matter! It'd be great.
For the first time since the 2D Sonics, here is a really promising looking Sonic game:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ruxm9D0p6P8
Some of the environments in the screenshots look fantastic too. The game looks just like the 2D games in 3D, which is probably what they should have done in the first place.