On ther other hand, I have seen sparks while my statically charged body touched the ground (shell) of the car,
That may be a problem with the electrical system in your car. Mine does the same thing very nearly every time I get out of the car, and it's become progressively more painful. I figure my car is either trying to tell me two things: a) "Don't take corners at 45mph, John, I don't like it when you do that" or b) "I have a serious problem that demands your attention, John, so stop buying video games and food and drive me to the god damn garage".
Some older model phones did exhibit a strange interaction with the computers at the university where I used to work. I had an old Nokia something crappy or another (not the big Long Plastic Brick Of Doom, but a shorter heavier one-- can't remember the model number, this was three years ago) that, whenever I brought it in to work, would cause popping noises to come out of the speakers/headphones every four seconds or so. Really freaked me out for a while till I figured it out.
Wait, so Sony did reject two niche games because they weren't sufficient to put on one disc? I certainly do not get this. Why reject SvC Chaos and risk halfway-pissing off Capcom, and approve Guilty Gear X two years ago? (For those of you not in the know, GGX was a fighting game put out by Sammy that had a great engine but was very stripped down compared to the arcade version. Guilty Gear XX, released last year, restored the rest of the game's functionality and added new characters.)
The next generation of consoles that compete is going to have a clear-cut winner if they attract new players and niche players as well as mainstream gamers. Denying publishers the right to put out a game on the system because it's "not innovative enough", despite the drove of fans who want it, is not a smart move at all. Note that this isn't the same as developing endless copycat clones and sequels; sure, the games themselves are sequels, but with the popularity they had been enjoying in the US (and the fact that they were already developed) it was insane for Sony to deny SNK the privilege. Sony has sent a fair amount of money to Microsoft with that decision.
I was a big fan of the original series. I tried to like Star Fox Adventures, but it was hard playing a Zelda-like game when you were expecting, oh, I don't know, Star Fox. Anyway, I'm still looking forward to SF2, even though 1up's review says that the land missions are not good. I never played Rebel Strike, and sadly I never actually had the chance to unlock the "walk around" parts of SF64's deathmatch, so maybe the out-of-vehicle missions will be to my liking. If anything, I just hope this game uses a proper save system and not force you to play through the whole thing in one sitting.
Interesting note-- I never realized L'Engle's work was so Christian until just now (I'd read the first few of her books years and years ago, and never really understood "Many Waters"). Coincidentally, a TV-film version of "A Wrinkle In Time" was just shown on ABC on Tuesday, but I forgot to tape it. I might have to go back and re-read a few of the books.
Like abortion is murder, and it's good for me to kill the doctors who perform them. That's an ok thing to believe and allow me to continue living?
If it works for you. It's none of my business what you believe. If you wish to share what you believe, go right ahead. Just don't be surprised if and when not everyone agrees with you.
The basic need for faith, in something, by far exceeds the need to keep ones world view intelectualy honest.
I retract my previous declaration of "most insightful comment ever". THIS is probably the one thing I've ever read on/. that is really, really good.
People don't all need to believe the same thing. It would be nice if everyone could agree on a few things-- like it's OK for people to believe other things-- but as long as people have some hope, something that gets them up in the morning, then that's all right.
Note that your reason for getting up doesn't have to be anything more than "I want to make myself happy today", just as long as it's something. There has to be a reason for people to continue living, and it really doesn't matter what that reason is.
I applaud your insight, friend....oh, and for the record, I think we can all safely assume that aliens will prefer peanut-butter M&Ms over regular M&Ms or Reeces.
Metal Gear looks good to me, but you're right-- there doesn't seem to be a whole lot on the PSP that excites the average player. I'm sure everyone has one game that looks to be the best of the lot, and this varies-- for me, it's Metal Gear; for others, it might be Gran Turismo or something else-- but I don't think there's anyone out there who isn't at least a little intrigued by some of the possibilites of the DS.
I am saying exactly what you think I'm saying, and it makes perfect sense because I rationally know that I cannot control what Disney (or any company) does with the money I give them. Nor should I care, unless that company outright says what its proceeds benefit (like a charity or something). I don't wish to exert that control over anyone.
It's a risk you take in any purchase. Let's say you buy a bottle of soda (or beverage of your choice) at the store. How do you know that that money does not, at some point along the chain, fund some activity you find illicit or immoral? You don't. And in fact, it probably does-- whatever vice you hate, the money at some point goes in a paycheck or someone's pocket, and statistically you are going to fund someone's smoking/crack/Disney/sex/whatever habit.
I understand your point and perspective-- and thank you for being calm and reasonable about it. My point, however, is that I wish to reward the good that Disney does and condemn their wrongs in other, possibly more productive ways (letter writing, etc.). Thus, the remark about "dissociating the product from the producer's politics". To me, it is morally right to pay people money when they produce something good, and complain when they do something bad.
To be perfectly honest, I don't feel that my contributions to Disney (however few and far between they may be-- I actually don't think I've bought anything from them since Kingdom Hearts) are large enough that my boycotting their products, no matter how large a boycott it may be, will have any effect. And to be honest, no matter how many smaller boycotts are organized, it won't matter at all. For a boycott to work in the age of big distribution and big business, a big retailer (like K-Mart, Wal-Mart, or the like) would have to altogether stop carrying Disney merchandise. That and only that will get Disney's fiscal attention.
Another way to fight is the tried-and-true letter to the congressman. If they're not already in Disney's pocket he or she might be receptive to the idea that infinite copyright is wrong.
I don't know if learning perl is rubbing off on me, but it seems to me that there's more than just one way to express dissent about Disney's politics. Whatever way you choose is none of my business, of course, but at the same time I just felt the poster was unfairly maligning Kingdom Hearts for a very thin reason.
True. To add to this, of course, SE has a huge cash cow in its Final Fantasy franchise. Thus, half of the business can make money hand over fist (Square properties) while the other half can bring over more obscure and niche titles (Enix stuff).
And as for the DQ4 thing, well, why not just give it a good thrash? We've got some decent hackers over here, and for the most part Dragon Warrior fans are patient. Why not go the Nintendo route and outsource the translation to a US house like, say, Silicon Knights or Working Designs? Or hell, have the SE team handle the script and Sony publish the thing themselves-- hey, it worked for Wild ARMs 3.
Oh yeah... it's a PSX game. Marketing will probably see it as a wasted effort-- but then again, the PSP is gaining interest...
Oh, I already know what I will pwn. The DS. If the PSP pwns, then I shall pwn it, too-- but only if the games are worth pwning. But for now, I will sell the GBA SP that I already pwn (for I also pwn the Game Boy player for the Gamecube, which I've pwned for close to two years now) and then put down a preorder on the DS, so I can be the very first on my block to pwn it.
The game is still in development, folks. Stuff is subject to change. Besides, you don't think that Miyamoto et al would have completely forgotten the lessons they learned while creating Mario Sunshine, Wind Waker, etc., do you? It'll be cleaned up. Have faith in the Triforce. ^_^
Thank you, total fringe lunatic who obviously doesn't have children or even really remember what it was like to be a child.
You know, some of us have no problem dissociating the product being produced from the political motives of the people producing it. I'm not defending Disney's political agenda-- I hate infinite copyright as much as the next geek worth his NaCl-- but for the love of god, don't deny kids the chance to be kids just because you don't like who the producer voted for. If you're going to find something wrong with the Disney ouvre of work, look for it in the content and not in the context. Context changes and is subjective. Show me hard evidence that a Disney production-- not a law they endorsed, not a bill they lobbied for against, but an actual, released to the public (or not) work with the Disney name-- was harmful to the people at large and children in particular, and I'll immediately destroy anything of theirs I own. Till then, keep your psychotic viewpoint away from my cousins, nieces, and nephews.
yes, an iPod is an investment in a service since after all, it only plays iTMS music, it can't play a multitude of other non DRMed formats.
Who in the name of fuck moderated this insightful?
An iPod is perfectly capable of playing MP3s.
I am an avid customer of the iTunes store, but since day one I haven't been able to listen to my music "where I want to" because a) I already have a player that's not an iPod (several if you count my discman), and b) when I tried burning my iTMS files to audio CD format they wouldn't play in anything other than the computer that burned them (actually, this also happened when burning any audio cds-- anyone out there smarter than me know why the disc's track markers after #2 aren't being recognized?).
I will be downloading Playfair and using it on my files, because it is one fix that will work. If I share them, it will only be through the iTunes sharing mechanism (which is a damn nifty way to share, I might add). And again, if anyone can tell me why my CD-R drive doesn't want to burn properly, then I will gladly not use Playfair.
Credited to Production I.G., actually, but close enough.
Wow, I find it kind of hard to believe you haven't played either of them. ^_^ Get BFM first-- if the copy you have was sold off by someone nice, you should have a demo disc for XG on it. (I'd send you mine, but unfortunately I don't have it anymore.)
I know next to nothing about the original Brave Fencer Musashi, but now I have an incentive for checking out the sequel...
Ah, you missed out on one of the funnier pseudo-RPGs of the Playstation's halcyon days. It was a fairly well-done Zelda-type game (far better than Alundra), but there were lots of sidequests and additional activities to take part in. It had a great story and decent voice-acting, too. I'd highly recommend hunting BFM down as soon as possible.
Oh, and as for the Gainax thing? Yeah, this is going to be tops on my list to get. I just hope they do better than they did with Xenogears' cutscenes (though to be fair most of what made those bad was extremely poor dubbing; but they were still awfully grainy and had lots of minor errors).
I'll bet anything there will be a preview on the Advent Children DVD and an official concert DVD to follow. From many accounts there were plenty of cameras at the event, which leads one to believe a DVD is indeed forthcoming.
As for a CD, well, yeah, that would be cool, but I'd actually be more willing to buy the film than the soundtrack. ^_^
Did anyone else look at this screenshot and immediately think "Yeah, that's a Nomura character all right."? Nothing against the guy's work, it's just... well... he's got more belts than real clothes.
Hiring Huang as a security advisor means that this "free" computer will be harder to hack into a general purpose machine than an Xbox, that's all. I give it six months-- that is, running under the sickeningly optimistic assumption that the Phantom even gets made.
You know, for all the crap you're getting for saying "ass rape", I'd still vote for you were I in Nebraska (state motto: "The only thing flatter than our land is our women"). Why?
You have the potential to let out a scream of Howard Dean-like proportions in public and do it to endorse a political agenda I approve of.
Actually, you're not that far off. I know I tend to use the manual as a "hint book", so that when I get stuck on a particularly arcane element of the game (like, just for pure random example, Sphere Break in FFX2) I'll open up the manual and check to see if there's a blindingly obvious button-press that I'm missing.
On a related note, did you notice that nowadays manuals don't even have the controller setups for the entire game anymore? It's probably to avoid spoiling any surprises in the mini-games (Sphere Break, Gunner's Gauntlet come to mind), but it's very irritating not having that reference.
As for games with manuals that need to be read, I'd have to say I make an effort to at least skim through manuals for RPGs, just so I know the basic rundown of what I'm getting into. Console games don't have the textbook-manual syndrome that PC games do-- well, "traditional" PC games anyway (MMOs, sims, and the like; FFXI's manual is huge compared to the manuals for the other games in the series, even counting the PC versions)-- so I usually don't read much more than the first few pages.
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On ther other hand, I have seen sparks while my statically charged body touched the ground (shell) of the car,
That may be a problem with the electrical system in your car. Mine does the same thing very nearly every time I get out of the car, and it's become progressively more painful. I figure my car is either trying to tell me two things: a) "Don't take corners at 45mph, John, I don't like it when you do that" or b) "I have a serious problem that demands your attention, John, so stop buying video games and food and drive me to the god damn garage".
Some older model phones did exhibit a strange interaction with the computers at the university where I used to work. I had an old Nokia something crappy or another (not the big Long Plastic Brick Of Doom, but a shorter heavier one-- can't remember the model number, this was three years ago) that, whenever I brought it in to work, would cause popping noises to come out of the speakers/headphones every four seconds or so. Really freaked me out for a while till I figured it out.
Wait, so Sony did reject two niche games because they weren't sufficient to put on one disc? I certainly do not get this. Why reject SvC Chaos and risk halfway-pissing off Capcom, and approve Guilty Gear X two years ago? (For those of you not in the know, GGX was a fighting game put out by Sammy that had a great engine but was very stripped down compared to the arcade version. Guilty Gear XX, released last year, restored the rest of the game's functionality and added new characters.)
The next generation of consoles that compete is going to have a clear-cut winner if they attract new players and niche players as well as mainstream gamers. Denying publishers the right to put out a game on the system because it's "not innovative enough", despite the drove of fans who want it, is not a smart move at all. Note that this isn't the same as developing endless copycat clones and sequels; sure, the games themselves are sequels, but with the popularity they had been enjoying in the US (and the fact that they were already developed) it was insane for Sony to deny SNK the privilege. Sony has sent a fair amount of money to Microsoft with that decision.
I was a big fan of the original series. I tried to like Star Fox Adventures, but it was hard playing a Zelda-like game when you were expecting, oh, I don't know, Star Fox. Anyway, I'm still looking forward to SF2, even though 1up's review says that the land missions are not good. I never played Rebel Strike, and sadly I never actually had the chance to unlock the "walk around" parts of SF64's deathmatch, so maybe the out-of-vehicle missions will be to my liking. If anything, I just hope this game uses a proper save system and not force you to play through the whole thing in one sitting.
Interesting note-- I never realized L'Engle's work was so Christian until just now (I'd read the first few of her books years and years ago, and never really understood "Many Waters"). Coincidentally, a TV-film version of "A Wrinkle In Time" was just shown on ABC on Tuesday, but I forgot to tape it. I might have to go back and re-read a few of the books.
I get the joke, but sadly I've never actually had Vegemite. Americans miss out on all the cool-sounding foods.
Like abortion is murder, and it's good for me to kill the doctors who perform them. That's an ok thing to believe and allow me to continue living?
If it works for you. It's none of my business what you believe. If you wish to share what you believe, go right ahead. Just don't be surprised if and when not everyone agrees with you.
The basic need for faith, in something, by far exceeds the need to keep ones world view intelectualy honest.
/. that is really, really good.
...oh, and for the record, I think we can all safely assume that aliens will prefer peanut-butter M&Ms over regular M&Ms or Reeces.
I retract my previous declaration of "most insightful comment ever". THIS is probably the one thing I've ever read on
People don't all need to believe the same thing. It would be nice if everyone could agree on a few things-- like it's OK for people to believe other things-- but as long as people have some hope, something that gets them up in the morning, then that's all right.
Note that your reason for getting up doesn't have to be anything more than "I want to make myself happy today", just as long as it's something. There has to be a reason for people to continue living, and it really doesn't matter what that reason is.
I applaud your insight, friend.
Metal Gear looks good to me, but you're right-- there doesn't seem to be a whole lot on the PSP that excites the average player. I'm sure everyone has one game that looks to be the best of the lot, and this varies-- for me, it's Metal Gear; for others, it might be Gran Turismo or something else-- but I don't think there's anyone out there who isn't at least a little intrigued by some of the possibilites of the DS.
I am saying exactly what you think I'm saying, and it makes perfect sense because I rationally know that I cannot control what Disney (or any company) does with the money I give them. Nor should I care, unless that company outright says what its proceeds benefit (like a charity or something). I don't wish to exert that control over anyone.
It's a risk you take in any purchase. Let's say you buy a bottle of soda (or beverage of your choice) at the store. How do you know that that money does not, at some point along the chain, fund some activity you find illicit or immoral? You don't. And in fact, it probably does-- whatever vice you hate, the money at some point goes in a paycheck or someone's pocket, and statistically you are going to fund someone's smoking/crack/Disney/sex/whatever habit.
I understand your point and perspective-- and thank you for being calm and reasonable about it. My point, however, is that I wish to reward the good that Disney does and condemn their wrongs in other, possibly more productive ways (letter writing, etc.). Thus, the remark about "dissociating the product from the producer's politics". To me, it is morally right to pay people money when they produce something good, and complain when they do something bad.
To be perfectly honest, I don't feel that my contributions to Disney (however few and far between they may be-- I actually don't think I've bought anything from them since Kingdom Hearts) are large enough that my boycotting their products, no matter how large a boycott it may be, will have any effect. And to be honest, no matter how many smaller boycotts are organized, it won't matter at all. For a boycott to work in the age of big distribution and big business, a big retailer (like K-Mart, Wal-Mart, or the like) would have to altogether stop carrying Disney merchandise. That and only that will get Disney's fiscal attention.
Another way to fight is the tried-and-true letter to the congressman. If they're not already in Disney's pocket he or she might be receptive to the idea that infinite copyright is wrong.
I don't know if learning perl is rubbing off on me, but it seems to me that there's more than just one way to express dissent about Disney's politics. Whatever way you choose is none of my business, of course, but at the same time I just felt the poster was unfairly maligning Kingdom Hearts for a very thin reason.
Thank you for not being a dickweed about this.
True. To add to this, of course, SE has a huge cash cow in its Final Fantasy franchise. Thus, half of the business can make money hand over fist (Square properties) while the other half can bring over more obscure and niche titles (Enix stuff).
And as for the DQ4 thing, well, why not just give it a good thrash? We've got some decent hackers over here, and for the most part Dragon Warrior fans are patient. Why not go the Nintendo route and outsource the translation to a US house like, say, Silicon Knights or Working Designs? Or hell, have the SE team handle the script and Sony publish the thing themselves-- hey, it worked for Wild ARMs 3.
Oh yeah... it's a PSX game. Marketing will probably see it as a wasted effort-- but then again, the PSP is gaining interest...
Oh, I already know what I will pwn. The DS. If the PSP pwns, then I shall pwn it, too-- but only if the games are worth pwning. But for now, I will sell the GBA SP that I already pwn (for I also pwn the Game Boy player for the Gamecube, which I've pwned for close to two years now) and then put down a preorder on the DS, so I can be the very first on my block to pwn it.
God dammit, that hurt my eyes to type....
The game is still in development, folks. Stuff is subject to change. Besides, you don't think that Miyamoto et al would have completely forgotten the lessons they learned while creating Mario Sunshine, Wind Waker, etc., do you? It'll be cleaned up. Have faith in the Triforce. ^_^
Thank you, total fringe lunatic who obviously doesn't have children or even really remember what it was like to be a child.
You know, some of us have no problem dissociating the product being produced from the political motives of the people producing it. I'm not defending Disney's political agenda-- I hate infinite copyright as much as the next geek worth his NaCl-- but for the love of god, don't deny kids the chance to be kids just because you don't like who the producer voted for. If you're going to find something wrong with the Disney ouvre of work, look for it in the content and not in the context. Context changes and is subjective. Show me hard evidence that a Disney production-- not a law they endorsed, not a bill they lobbied for against, but an actual, released to the public (or not) work with the Disney name-- was harmful to the people at large and children in particular, and I'll immediately destroy anything of theirs I own. Till then, keep your psychotic viewpoint away from my cousins, nieces, and nephews.
Oh, and you should play Kingdom Hearts to promote one of the most US-friendly video game producers today.
You have a point.
yes, an iPod is an investment in a service since after all, it only plays iTMS music, it can't play a multitude of other non DRMed formats.
Who in the name of fuck moderated this insightful?
An iPod is perfectly capable of playing MP3s.
I am an avid customer of the iTunes store, but since day one I haven't been able to listen to my music "where I want to" because a) I already have a player that's not an iPod (several if you count my discman), and b) when I tried burning my iTMS files to audio CD format they wouldn't play in anything other than the computer that burned them (actually, this also happened when burning any audio cds-- anyone out there smarter than me know why the disc's track markers after #2 aren't being recognized?).
I will be downloading Playfair and using it on my files, because it is one fix that will work. If I share them, it will only be through the iTunes sharing mechanism (which is a damn nifty way to share, I might add). And again, if anyone can tell me why my CD-R drive doesn't want to burn properly, then I will gladly not use Playfair.
Credited to Production I.G., actually, but close enough.
Wow, I find it kind of hard to believe you haven't played either of them. ^_^ Get BFM first-- if the copy you have was sold off by someone nice, you should have a demo disc for XG on it. (I'd send you mine, but unfortunately I don't have it anymore.)
I know next to nothing about the original Brave Fencer Musashi, but now I have an incentive for checking out the sequel...
Ah, you missed out on one of the funnier pseudo-RPGs of the Playstation's halcyon days. It was a fairly well-done Zelda-type game (far better than Alundra), but there were lots of sidequests and additional activities to take part in. It had a great story and decent voice-acting, too. I'd highly recommend hunting BFM down as soon as possible.
Oh, and as for the Gainax thing? Yeah, this is going to be tops on my list to get. I just hope they do better than they did with Xenogears' cutscenes (though to be fair most of what made those bad was extremely poor dubbing; but they were still awfully grainy and had lots of minor errors).
I'll bet anything there will be a preview on the Advent Children DVD and an official concert DVD to follow. From many accounts there were plenty of cameras at the event, which leads one to believe a DVD is indeed forthcoming.
As for a CD, well, yeah, that would be cool, but I'd actually be more willing to buy the film than the soundtrack. ^_^
Did anyone else look at this screenshot and immediately think "Yeah, that's a Nomura character all right."? Nothing against the guy's work, it's just... well... he's got more belts than real clothes.
Thank you for clearing that up.
To quote: "You know, somehow, 'I told you so' just doesn't cut it." ^_^
As other replies mentioned, it was indeed ported the PS2 and released in the US.
If you ask me, that was a terrorist act.
Hiring Huang as a security advisor means that this "free" computer will be harder to hack into a general purpose machine than an Xbox, that's all. I give it six months-- that is, running under the sickeningly optimistic assumption that the Phantom even gets made.
Can we get some confirmation that Huang was actually hired? Specifically from Huang himself? Infinium has a habit of lying about who they're associated with, you know.
You know, for all the crap you're getting for saying "ass rape", I'd still vote for you were I in Nebraska (state motto: "The only thing flatter than our land is our women"). Why?
You have the potential to let out a scream of Howard Dean-like proportions in public and do it to endorse a political agenda I approve of.
EEEEEEEEEEEEYAAAAAAAAAAAARGHHHH!
Actually, you're not that far off. I know I tend to use the manual as a "hint book", so that when I get stuck on a particularly arcane element of the game (like, just for pure random example, Sphere Break in FFX2) I'll open up the manual and check to see if there's a blindingly obvious button-press that I'm missing.
On a related note, did you notice that nowadays manuals don't even have the controller setups for the entire game anymore? It's probably to avoid spoiling any surprises in the mini-games (Sphere Break, Gunner's Gauntlet come to mind), but it's very irritating not having that reference.
As for games with manuals that need to be read, I'd have to say I make an effort to at least skim through manuals for RPGs, just so I know the basic rundown of what I'm getting into. Console games don't have the textbook-manual syndrome that PC games do-- well, "traditional" PC games anyway (MMOs, sims, and the like; FFXI's manual is huge compared to the manuals for the other games in the series, even counting the PC versions)-- so I usually don't read much more than the first few pages.
But that's just me.