It isn't Civilization + Age of Empires. It's more like Age of Empires 3. I'm a Fileplanet subscriber so I was able to get it a few days ago, and it's pretty much an extension of Age of Empires gameplay, as far as I've been able to divine, with some finer grain technological research.
I've been playing video games since the Intellivision, and I never have ever had actual calluses on my hands from playing. Does this actually happen to people? Am I kicked out of the gamer club 'cause I don't hold a controller that long?
I mean, yeah... Ikaruga is probably the best vertical shooter EVER. Its graphics, gameplay, and everything else just annihilate every other shooter I've ever seen. I almost got an import GameCube so I could play it, until I heard it was coming out here. It also isn't a hell of a lot different from the Dreamcast version. I don't think the localization was much more than the menus redone. The audio isn't changed.
Yeah, Mobile Light Force 2 is a stripped down version of Shikigami, but the actual part of the game you PLAY is still there, and it's still fun. And cheap as hell, which is a good thing. Getting some quality shooters in at low prices might actually revive the market for the whole genre over here. As long as they don't cut out any actual gameplay, I'll keep buying XS Games' ports. Maybe it'll get more of the Metal Slugs and such localized over here, if people are shown there's a real market for a quality localization.
Definitely, if you want the better game, there's no question it's Ikaruga hands down. But if price is a concern, or you just like playing shooters, there's no reason I can think of aside from being a purist that you shouldn't go get Mobile Light Force (Gunbird 2), Mobile Light Force 2 (Shikigami), and Sol Divide right now. They're good games.
Because it costs money for people to do the translations and do high quality audio recordings. It's much cheaper to rip those parts of the code out and replace them with throw away sound bites and cheap "art".
American International used to do this all the time with foreign movies. Just write a new script that sorta fit the mouth movements, rename people as needed, get a few people to read the voiceovers, profit at drive-ins.
XS Games is just cheaply getting these games over to the US market. There isn't a huge untapped market for shooters in the US. Those that play them generally import the buggers anyways, so most companies don't see a lot of financial advantage in doing a full US release. Frankly, if it wasn't for XS, a lot of people would never have played Shikigami or Gunbird 2 (which XS released as Mobile Light Force for PSX).
How can people who do everything they can to keep Microsoft out of their computers, and are disgusted when they see MSNBC logos be so willing to accept with open arms and embrace products and content from Sony?
Well, first off, Sony supports Linux on the PS2, they even distribute their own kit for it. That right there probably swayed a lot of people reading that to Sony.
Second, Slashdot does not mean anti-corporate. Most of us realize that our livelyhoods as computer geeks, and the things we use every day wouldn't exist as inexpensively as they do without big corporations.
Third, Sony isn't trying it's hardest to lock down the planet. Sure, they're a huge corporation, and they don't care. Only a fool thinks otherwise. However, they generally play by the rules. They have huge corporate muscle, but as yet they haven't wielded it particularly irresponsibly, or illegally. They aren't the best, but they are by FAR not the worst. Microsoft is doing it's damndest to make it so no one is able to run anything but their system. From "trusted computing" to WMA, to illegal threats. Sony isn't anywhere near a monopoly in any of the areas you mentioned. They're certainly major players, but if you want to avoid them it's trivial. The only Sony product I own is my PS2, not because I avoid them, but because there are tons of different options, many at lower prices.
Then I'd stop visiting slashdot. Whooptie do. This is just a large scale web board. No actual useful discussion happens. Just a lot of people spouting off without thinking too much. (Too often, including myself) Not visiting it might be an improvement.
So just go somwhere else... How difficult is that? No one's web page is so amazing that it's that much of a pain to stop visiting it if they refuse to let you on unless you allow popups.
I highly doubt that Infogrames is undergoing the name change in the US to dodge scorn from pissed off customers over MOO3. Don't disagree with MOO3 being crap, but Infogrames has far bigger fish than that.
I suspect it has a lot more to do with appearing to be less French to the American game market. The country-wide unspoken, unorganized boycott of things appearing to be too French is really hurting French businesses. Not fatally, but it's leaving a mark. Just seems strange when they out of the blue take on the name that's as American as apple pie and blue jeans to most gamers in the States.
This supposition probably is not 100% true. Most people in positions of authority seem to be completely, utterly, 100% not at all influenced by events surrounding them, as all huge unexpected changes have always been "planned far in advance." One wonders if they have bathroom trips for the next four years accounted for. And frankly, even before saying someone looked French was turned into a political character assasination tool, the ATARI name is worth a lot of money, and Infogrames certainly has been using it pretty freely recently.
I know a few people who will buy Half Life so they can play this, if it turns out well.
Da King's gone mad wit' power! He's gonna eat the Chort!!
Decline and fall of the general purpose computer
on
Microsoft's Athens PC
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
No, I'm not saying this is the end of it right here and now. But this kind of think is going to be more and more prevalent. General purpose computers, as Linux proved, can in the end be made to do anything, and are not going to be big money makers for equipment manufacturers anymore. With the upgrade treadmill slowing down big time (who, aside from the hardest of the hardcore gamers, actually NEEDS a 3 Ghz P4, or an Athlon XP 3000 in their home? Not too many people. Who aside from mass copyright actually needs a 120GB+ hard drive? Not a lot of people) they're realizing that they just aren't going to keep making money this way, because computers are appliances now. I don't think they'll go completely away, though they may be 99% laptops soon enough. What they're starting to realize is that devices are the way to go, because you can get an insane profit margin, and they appeal like crazy to most people, because people tend to be gadget maniacs. I don't know many people who don't have at least a single electronic gadget that they use regularly.
It's starting to happen. PDAs are finally starting to get good. Smartphones are starting to do relatively well in the States. The iPod. The Tablet PC. The Xbox, as gaming consoles have proved the viability of this type of model for over a decade. This is just the next step.
Rogue is not free software. Many direct clones have been released as free software, but the source code to Rogue has never been released.
http://www.hut.fi/~eye/roguelike/rogue.html
SSH is a commercial product, released by SSH Communications Security, free for personal non-commercial use (or at least it used to be). Even if the source code was released, you are not allowed to use it for business purposes.
http://www.ssh.com
Mosaic is NOT FREE SOFTWARE. The source is free to the US government and University level educational institutions only.
When was the last time you played a game that was genuinly new and exciting, that could keep your attention for days without getting repetative.
Where do I begin?
Grand Theft Auto 3 Silent Hill 2 Mark of Kri Robotech: Battlecry Metroid Prime Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker Super Mario Sunshine Dark Cloud 2 Warlords: Battlecry 2 Command & Conquer: Generals Counter Strike Age of Mythology Dark Age of Camelot Total Annihilation: Kingdoms Shogun: Total War Freespace 2 Freedom Force Independence War 2 Baldur's Gate Morrowind Warcraft III Ikaruga
Need I continue?
People who act like nothing decent has come out since need to open their freaking eyes and actually look out there. Yeah, Dungeon Keeper was nice, but it isn't the end all and be all of gaming. If you want quality, it's out there. Yeah, there are legions of crappy games out there, but here's a hint for you. Ask people about the games before you buy them. Visit myriad web boards and find out what people are saying. Rent console games before you buy them. Yeah, you may not like some or all of the games I've chosen, but saying that there's nothing at all worthwhile that's been released is idiocy, and willful blindness for some ulterior motive. Plain and simple.
Remember when the release of a new word processor got you more than a few more animations for the little annoying paperclip?
So what the hell do you care? I don't. Why in the world are you, and so many of the other people who post here, so cheesed off about other people wasting their money? I don't use Office, so I don't pay for it. If the company I work for uses it, they're the clueless idiot who couldn't figure out that they're getting shafted. if they don't listen to me, their choice, their loss. it's their money to waste, not mine.
At least with all of the big companies gone we might get some innovation back (something that free software seems to be pretty good at) - and there might be a few less illegalities and irregularities to worry about as well.
Free software doesn't innovate. It copies. Sometimes well, sometimes not so well. It refines things like web servers, databases, and almost any other kind of software down to it's bare, functional, solid core. It performs a valuable service by letting people and companies use their hardware even if they can't, don't want, or don't like the commercial offerings. Linux and the BSDs do a stellar job implementing basic computing functionality. The most touted advances of free software aren't brand new things no one has thought of before. They're refined concepts, to the level where they have become commodities in their own right. They just work, and you can piece them together with other stuff as needed. There's a reason Apple chose FreeBSD and the Mach kernel to build Darwin, and put Aqua on top of it all.
And as to illegalities and irregularities, it's not the fault of the software, it's the fault of the people. Get your head out of your ass. Free software doesn't make everything it touches holy, and better just because.
Until there is a cost to sending e-mails, or there is widespread refusal to accept untrusted e-mail, the spam problem will never go away. If you blacklist almost everything, what you actually have is a whitelist. Just depends on which color you focus on. If you refuse to whitelist, the only way to stop spam is to create a completely unavoidable cost to sending e-mails. You can't make anything "progressive" because then spammers will create thousands of free garbage accounts on hotmail, etc, and automate them. Whether it's a tax or a universal fee charged by ISPs, it has to be on a per e-mail basis, and it has to be as universal as gravity. Otherwise, the spammers will find every loophole they can and abuse the hell out of them, and nothing will stop them.
I was participating in the beta. A friend of mind got a second CD Key from Sony which he gave to me. There have been several gameplay changes along the way that pretty much require you to have a guild (or outfit, as Planetside calls them) if you ever want to see any real action. As I already play Dark Age of Camelot and don't think I'm quitting soon, and am messing around with Everquest because I'm curious and got a deal on the Gold box, I just won't have the time to maintain a position in a hardcore guild. I solo a lot in the MMOs I currently play, because I don't want to be bogged down by a group if I have to leave for whatever reason. You just cannot solo in Planetside anymore.
I also would recommend that anyone with less than 512MB of RAM should not even think about buying this, because they'll just be wasting their money.
I mean the entire thing is just one long 24/7/52 ad banner for the game companies. They bring in all their little promotional gimmiks (for some Star Wars game the guy they "interviewed" had two guys dressed as Imperial stormtroopers "standing guard" behind him through it). I can barely stand to watch it, even to laugh at it. I've never seen them pan ANYTHING.
I've never played the original Silent Hill, but Silent Hill 2 was by far the scareist thing I'd ever willingly subjected myself to. That was, until I played Fatal Frame. I was actually able to play Silent Hill 2 in the dark for a bit. It took about 30 seconds before I had to turn the lights on to play Fatal Frame. I still haven't been able to make myself go farther through it. What a game.
If you can wait a few months to pick up a particular game, the price usually drops to $25 or so, used. I've bought a lot of preowned games, and never had a problem with them, save N64 cartridges, which have issues that disc games just don't have.
I don't buy nearly as many games preowned as I should, because I'm just plain impatient. Any of the major stores that sell used games have a trade in policy if the preowned you bought is damaged and won't play on your machine. Yeah, the case may be banged up, and the directions may be missing, but that usually means you can get it even cheaper.
And rent games before you buy. This isn't the PC world. You can try before you buy. The only person at fault for you buying a game you hate is you for giving in to the hype and buying it before you'd kicked the tires a bit.
Hate to break it to you, but the economy bombed, we're not making money.
Since when has not making money stopped anyone from spending it? Someone? Anyone? Bueller?
And for goodness sake, can we please dispense with the unasked for sob stories. Everyone's taking it in the chin, your story doesn't make you any better than anyone else, it doesn't give your opinions any more weight to be a struggling techie, except with hopeless romantics pining for the hell of the Internet bubble. Take it to a thread that's actually on the shitty economy or what not.
Slashdot Mirror
...if they can convince retailers to stock more of the GBA-GC connectors. It took me two months to find one in a local store.
Psssssssst... Your prejudice is showing...
It isn't Civilization + Age of Empires. It's more like Age of Empires 3. I'm a Fileplanet subscriber so I was able to get it a few days ago, and it's pretty much an extension of Age of Empires gameplay, as far as I've been able to divine, with some finer grain technological research.
I've been playing video games since the Intellivision, and I never have ever had actual calluses on my hands from playing. Does this actually happen to people? Am I kicked out of the gamer club 'cause I don't hold a controller that long?
Doh... Mobile Light force 1 is Gunbird, not Gunbird 2.. My bad...
I mean, yeah... Ikaruga is probably the best vertical shooter EVER. Its graphics, gameplay, and everything else just annihilate every other shooter I've ever seen. I almost got an import GameCube so I could play it, until I heard it was coming out here. It also isn't a hell of a lot different from the Dreamcast version. I don't think the localization was much more than the menus redone. The audio isn't changed.
Yeah, Mobile Light Force 2 is a stripped down version of Shikigami, but the actual part of the game you PLAY is still there, and it's still fun. And cheap as hell, which is a good thing. Getting some quality shooters in at low prices might actually revive the market for the whole genre over here. As long as they don't cut out any actual gameplay, I'll keep buying XS Games' ports. Maybe it'll get more of the Metal Slugs and such localized over here, if people are shown there's a real market for a quality localization.
Definitely, if you want the better game, there's no question it's Ikaruga hands down. But if price is a concern, or you just like playing shooters, there's no reason I can think of aside from being a purist that you shouldn't go get Mobile Light Force (Gunbird 2), Mobile Light Force 2 (Shikigami), and Sol Divide right now. They're good games.
Because it costs money for people to do the translations and do high quality audio recordings. It's much cheaper to rip those parts of the code out and replace them with throw away sound bites and cheap "art".
American International used to do this all the time with foreign movies. Just write a new script that sorta fit the mouth movements, rename people as needed, get a few people to read the voiceovers, profit at drive-ins.
XS Games is just cheaply getting these games over to the US market. There isn't a huge untapped market for shooters in the US. Those that play them generally import the buggers anyways, so most companies don't see a lot of financial advantage in doing a full US release. Frankly, if it wasn't for XS, a lot of people would never have played Shikigami or Gunbird 2 (which XS released as Mobile Light Force for PSX).
How can people who do everything they can to keep Microsoft out of their computers, and are disgusted when they see MSNBC logos be so willing to accept with open arms and embrace products and content from Sony?
Well, first off, Sony supports Linux on the PS2, they even distribute their own kit for it. That right there probably swayed a lot of people reading that to Sony.
Second, Slashdot does not mean anti-corporate. Most of us realize that our livelyhoods as computer geeks, and the things we use every day wouldn't exist as inexpensively as they do without big corporations.
Third, Sony isn't trying it's hardest to lock down the planet. Sure, they're a huge corporation, and they don't care. Only a fool thinks otherwise. However, they generally play by the rules. They have huge corporate muscle, but as yet they haven't wielded it particularly irresponsibly, or illegally. They aren't the best, but they are by FAR not the worst. Microsoft is doing it's damndest to make it so no one is able to run anything but their system. From "trusted computing" to WMA, to illegal threats. Sony isn't anywhere near a monopoly in any of the areas you mentioned. They're certainly major players, but if you want to avoid them it's trivial. The only Sony product I own is my PS2, not because I avoid them, but because there are tons of different options, many at lower prices.
Then I'd stop visiting slashdot. Whooptie do. This is just a large scale web board. No actual useful discussion happens. Just a lot of people spouting off without thinking too much. (Too often, including myself) Not visiting it might be an improvement.
Well, seeing as Kurosawa shot Seven Samurai AND Rashomon in 1.33:1 aspect ratio, I'd say I can watch it quite easily, as that is the format he used...
So just go somwhere else... How difficult is that? No one's web page is so amazing that it's that much of a pain to stop visiting it if they refuse to let you on unless you allow popups.
I highly doubt that Infogrames is undergoing the name change in the US to dodge scorn from pissed off customers over MOO3. Don't disagree with MOO3 being crap, but Infogrames has far bigger fish than that.
I suspect it has a lot more to do with appearing to be less French to the American game market. The country-wide unspoken, unorganized boycott of things appearing to be too French is really hurting French businesses. Not fatally, but it's leaving a mark. Just seems strange when they out of the blue take on the name that's as American as apple pie and blue jeans to most gamers in the States.
This supposition probably is not 100% true. Most people in positions of authority seem to be completely, utterly, 100% not at all influenced by events surrounding them, as all huge unexpected changes have always been "planned far in advance." One wonders if they have bathroom trips for the next four years accounted for. And frankly, even before saying someone looked French was turned into a political character assasination tool, the ATARI name is worth a lot of money, and Infogrames certainly has been using it pretty freely recently.
Good timing on their part, though.
I know a few people who will buy Half Life so they can play this, if it turns out well.
Da King's gone mad wit' power! He's gonna eat the Chort!!
No, I'm not saying this is the end of it right here and now. But this kind of think is going to be more and more prevalent. General purpose computers, as Linux proved, can in the end be made to do anything, and are not going to be big money makers for equipment manufacturers anymore. With the upgrade treadmill slowing down big time (who, aside from the hardest of the hardcore gamers, actually NEEDS a 3 Ghz P4, or an Athlon XP 3000 in their home? Not too many people. Who aside from mass copyright actually needs a 120GB+ hard drive? Not a lot of people) they're realizing that they just aren't going to keep making money this way, because computers are appliances now. I don't think they'll go completely away, though they may be 99% laptops soon enough. What they're starting to realize is that devices are the way to go, because you can get an insane profit margin, and they appeal like crazy to most people, because people tend to be gadget maniacs. I don't know many people who don't have at least a single electronic gadget that they use regularly.
It's starting to happen. PDAs are finally starting to get good. Smartphones are starting to do relatively well in the States. The iPod. The Tablet PC. The Xbox, as gaming consoles have proved the viability of this type of model for over a decade. This is just the next step.
No, Nethack is based on Rogue.
/ hi story.html
http://www.lab3.kuis.kyoto-u.ac.jp/~roguelike/E
Again, do some fucking research before you spouted off. That took me all of 30 seconds to find.
Yeah, but it wasn't the first.
End of story. It did nothing new. Evolutionary, not revolutionary or innovative.
Rogue is not free software. Many direct clones have been released as free software, but the source code to Rogue has never been released.
c /L icense/LicenseInfo.html
c /L icense/LicenseApp.html
http://www.hut.fi/~eye/roguelike/rogue.html
SSH is a commercial product, released by SSH Communications Security, free for personal non-commercial use (or at least it used to be). Even if the source code was released, you are not allowed to use it for business purposes.
http://www.ssh.com
Mosaic is NOT FREE SOFTWARE. The source is free to the US government and University level educational institutions only.
http://archive.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/Software/Mosai
http://archive.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/Software/Mosai
TeX? Yeah... That appears to actually be free software, but i don't know how revolutionary or innovative it ever was, though.
Do some fucking research before you spout drivel and make yourself look like a complete fucking fool.
When was the last time you played a game that was genuinly new and exciting, that could keep your attention for days without getting repetative.
Where do I begin?
Grand Theft Auto 3
Silent Hill 2
Mark of Kri
Robotech: Battlecry
Metroid Prime
Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
Super Mario Sunshine
Dark Cloud 2
Warlords: Battlecry 2
Command & Conquer: Generals
Counter Strike
Age of Mythology
Dark Age of Camelot
Total Annihilation: Kingdoms
Shogun: Total War
Freespace 2
Freedom Force
Independence War 2
Baldur's Gate
Morrowind
Warcraft III
Ikaruga
Need I continue?
People who act like nothing decent has come out since need to open their freaking eyes and actually look out there. Yeah, Dungeon Keeper was nice, but it isn't the end all and be all of gaming. If you want quality, it's out there. Yeah, there are legions of crappy games out there, but here's a hint for you. Ask people about the games before you buy them. Visit myriad web boards and find out what people are saying. Rent console games before you buy them. Yeah, you may not like some or all of the games I've chosen, but saying that there's nothing at all worthwhile that's been released is idiocy, and willful blindness for some ulterior motive. Plain and simple.
Remember when the release of a new word processor got you more than a few more animations for the little annoying paperclip?
So what the hell do you care? I don't. Why in the world are you, and so many of the other people who post here, so cheesed off about other people wasting their money? I don't use Office, so I don't pay for it. If the company I work for uses it, they're the clueless idiot who couldn't figure out that they're getting shafted. if they don't listen to me, their choice, their loss. it's their money to waste, not mine.
At least with all of the big companies gone we might get some innovation back (something that free software seems to be pretty good at) - and there might be a few less illegalities and irregularities to worry about as well.
Free software doesn't innovate. It copies. Sometimes well, sometimes not so well. It refines things like web servers, databases, and almost any other kind of software down to it's bare, functional, solid core. It performs a valuable service by letting people and companies use their hardware even if they can't, don't want, or don't like the commercial offerings. Linux and the BSDs do a stellar job implementing basic computing functionality. The most touted advances of free software aren't brand new things no one has thought of before. They're refined concepts, to the level where they have become commodities in their own right. They just work, and you can piece them together with other stuff as needed. There's a reason Apple chose FreeBSD and the Mach kernel to build Darwin, and put Aqua on top of it all.
And as to illegalities and irregularities, it's not the fault of the software, it's the fault of the people. Get your head out of your ass. Free software doesn't make everything it touches holy, and better just because.
Until there is a cost to sending e-mails, or there is widespread refusal to accept untrusted e-mail, the spam problem will never go away. If you blacklist almost everything, what you actually have is a whitelist. Just depends on which color you focus on. If you refuse to whitelist, the only way to stop spam is to create a completely unavoidable cost to sending e-mails. You can't make anything "progressive" because then spammers will create thousands of free garbage accounts on hotmail, etc, and automate them. Whether it's a tax or a universal fee charged by ISPs, it has to be on a per e-mail basis, and it has to be as universal as gravity. Otherwise, the spammers will find every loophole they can and abuse the hell out of them, and nothing will stop them.
I was participating in the beta. A friend of mind got a second CD Key from Sony which he gave to me. There have been several gameplay changes along the way that pretty much require you to have a guild (or outfit, as Planetside calls them) if you ever want to see any real action. As I already play Dark Age of Camelot and don't think I'm quitting soon, and am messing around with Everquest because I'm curious and got a deal on the Gold box, I just won't have the time to maintain a position in a hardcore guild. I solo a lot in the MMOs I currently play, because I don't want to be bogged down by a group if I have to leave for whatever reason. You just cannot solo in Planetside anymore.
I also would recommend that anyone with less than 512MB of RAM should not even think about buying this, because they'll just be wasting their money.
I mean the entire thing is just one long 24/7/52 ad banner for the game companies. They bring in all their little promotional gimmiks (for some Star Wars game the guy they "interviewed" had two guys dressed as Imperial stormtroopers "standing guard" behind him through it). I can barely stand to watch it, even to laugh at it. I've never seen them pan ANYTHING.
...I just wish it wasn't on the other side of the damn country. No way I could afford this. If it was in NYC, I could get there, or maybe even DC...
I guess the impromtu tournaments on the weekends will have to do until we get cool enough to have one.
I've never played the original Silent Hill, but Silent Hill 2 was by far the scareist thing I'd ever willingly subjected myself to. That was, until I played Fatal Frame. I was actually able to play Silent Hill 2 in the dark for a bit. It took about 30 seconds before I had to turn the lights on to play Fatal Frame. I still haven't been able to make myself go farther through it. What a game.
I recommend patience, and preowned games.
If you can wait a few months to pick up a particular game, the price usually drops to $25 or so, used. I've bought a lot of preowned games, and never had a problem with them, save N64 cartridges, which have issues that disc games just don't have.
I don't buy nearly as many games preowned as I should, because I'm just plain impatient. Any of the major stores that sell used games have a trade in policy if the preowned you bought is damaged and won't play on your machine. Yeah, the case may be banged up, and the directions may be missing, but that usually means you can get it even cheaper.
And rent games before you buy. This isn't the PC world. You can try before you buy. The only person at fault for you buying a game you hate is you for giving in to the hype and buying it before you'd kicked the tires a bit.
Hate to break it to you, but the economy bombed, we're not making money.
Since when has not making money stopped anyone from spending it? Someone? Anyone? Bueller?
And for goodness sake, can we please dispense with the unasked for sob stories. Everyone's taking it in the chin, your story doesn't make you any better than anyone else, it doesn't give your opinions any more weight to be a struggling techie, except with hopeless romantics pining for the hell of the Internet bubble. Take it to a thread that's actually on the shitty economy or what not.