But, where before they could choose a lackluster phone from an offering of many lackluster phones, here's a desirable phone not available for their carrier. This forces them to ponder, "Why is my phone tied to a carrier in the first place?" That's quite a stretch. It's fairly obvious Apple and Apple alone is taking the heat for this (on slashdot anyway, the outside world doesn't really care). The single carrier deal wont last forever. Doesn't it make more sense for Apple to have a partner while breaking into the cell phone business? If I _personally_ were to create a cell phone with whizbang new features, I would go into the market with a strong partnership myself.
Hindsight is 20/20, but people want this phone, and they'll leave carriers to get it. So... What you're saying is that people really aren't as concerned as a couple angry slashdotters make them all out to be? Or, when they sign that contract to get the phone they MUST have, they're pissed as hell, but do it anyway. Dude, I'm pissed as hell signing ANY phone contract, even to get a cheapo phone. Why don't we rail on cellular companies instead? That makes more sense than blaming Apple for a practice it didn't even remotely invent.
That's the only reason? A web app fills the giant void AOL left behind. *Yawn*
Tell me when chatrooms make a come back, ok? Oh God, that's what this integrated IM thing is going to turn into. Yay, it's "OKAY, EVERYBODY, ASL? =-)" all over again.
When you're done backfilling all the things that made AOL faaaaantastic, could you get around to fixing email spam?
Thanks, just wake me up again when web 3.0 gets here.
Full disclosure: I just bought a KDL-46XBR4 online for around $2,800 shipped. www.frys.com has them for around $2,500 last I checked, and if you don't live in a state with a Frys retail chain (err, for tax purposes), that's a good deal. The KDL-46XBR5 just has a slick design, but same features as the XBR4.
What, in your opinion is wrong with Sony then? How bad have they gotten?
For a 46" 1080p Bravia, you can pay anywhere from $2,500 to $3,900 MSRP. $3,900 KDL-46XBR5 $3,600 KDL-46XBR4 $3,000 KDL-46W3000 $2,800 KDL-46V3000 $2,500 KDL-46V2500 They can be had for about 20-25% ) cheaper online.
Samsung has two 46" 1080p models. Here are Best buy prices (probably MSRP) $2,700 LN-T4665F $2,500 LN-T4661F Probably just as discounted online.
The only spec (and it doesn't mean much) that you can really compare them with, that both vendors give, is dynamic contrast ratio. The Samsungs are 10,000:1 and 15,000:1. The closest Bravias to those are the $2,800 and $2,500 models with probably under 10,000:1 and 13,000:1 listed. The $2,800 and up Bravias also have 10bit displays. The higher you go up Bravia models the more "luxury" features you get that people who 'just want to watch TV' don't need.
Anyways, Samsung and Sony are priced VERY close, you don't know your HDTVs. They could have spent half as much on a Sony also and got a 720p set, or hell, go buy a damned Magnavox if your real cheap. When the hell did "bad" include making high end products?
No one questions the science until it becomes slightly political. And then they never criticise the science (which particular paper do you disagree with?) but make up personal attacks against the scientists. It's ridiculous. People are picking and choosing which theories to support based on their personal feelings. Scientists question science. They question each other, and try to reproduce other's results. This is part of their job. When things get political, we get competing idiots questioning science, and generally mucking things up because they lack the will or ability to perform any meaningful research. That's ridiculous.
In DC/northern Virginia, and probably elsewhere, they're called "Slug Lines". Very employed people use them, and whole parking lots are set up near the interstate for people to park, and wait in line for another commuter to take them the rest of the way to DC via the HOV lane. Web sites are available to help arrange car pools if you don't like hopping in with just anyone. The biggest slug line downtown is probably at the Pentagon, but I think there are others. I don't know if Maryland has any.
This makes a whole lot more sense because it actually reduces the number of cars on the road. The HOV lanes are silly anyway, they need a Metro Bus system that doesn't scare away everyone but those with no choice. Or maybe better Metro (light rail) and VRE (commuter train) access. To get to a train station in northern Virginia, you usually have to drive fifteen minutes away from the interstate, through twisty two lane roads, four way stops, and even G^d d*mned subdivisions with 15MPH limits. Every day after work, people huddle near the train doors as it stops, and run to their cars to get out of the parking lot as fast as they can. Few have the luxury of being the first to wait in traffic on the main road or interstate while the rest curse the stupid road planning for what would otherwise be a perfect alternative to spending three hours driving thirty miles up the interstate.
It's: 1) Make a cheaper clone of someone else's higher quality product, and charge only %15 percent less. 2) Make a cheaper yet clone of someone else's quality product, and charge half. 3) Profit. Most of the market is confused by all the products that "do the same thing, but cost twice as much" so "high quality" becomes "they must charge more for the brand name". Brand names get the margins, mass market manufacturers get the glory. ... 4) Taken aback by all this, you swig the last of your "Mountain Lightning" and slam down the lid on your Inspiron laptop. Using the dim glow of your Magnavox HDTV you make your way to bed, deftly dodging piles of debris. You rest your head on a warm heap of soiled clothes, and let the humming drone of your Xbox 360 lull you to sleep. "In a couple of weeks, I'll have enough money to buy Halo 3", you quietly console yourself.
I don't buy a PC for games. I buy it for my work. I do need/fancy a decent one. I don't factor the basic PC price into cost of gaming. I'll just write off the cost of my PS3 as a DVD/Blu-ray player because I need/fancy a decent one. Gotta have a good upconverter for that new HD set!
Also, I stick to older games. The purchases are usually classics and inexpensive too. I do have a couple of last gen consoles that I bought used. Now there are enough good games for them that don't charge a premium price. This makes more sense for me since I am more of a casual gamer who likes to explore several games than commit to any single one. New games are expensive, so I'm only going to buy the best $5.99 used PS2 games that I missed from the past six years, being a N64/Gamecube owner.
This makes more sense for me since I am more of a casual gamer who likes to explore several games than commit to any single one. I could build a small house out of all the game boxes I'd have with the money you spent on WTF you're smoking.
But can you really say that the Wii is technologically inferior ? The clockspeed isn't the only parameter to measure technology... One can argue that the Wii is technologically superior because of its controller novel design. Yes. You could argue, but you'd sound pretty silly. The Wii _is_ technologically inferior, and that is the main reason it's as cheap as it is. That doesn't mean it doesn't provide as fun of an experience as the other consoles. I could argue my Scion is technologically superior to any BMW because I have standard iPod integration with my stereo. I'd be completely wrong though.
"Superior" is very subjective, but "technologically superior" less so. I think in these cases it fairly clear. Consider this, besides clockspeed, there's HD, Bluetooth (I know Wii has this, 360 doesn't, Blu-ray, HD-DVD, hard drive, system memory, graphics memory, video card capability, processsor parallelism, wireless, ethernet, USB, backwards compatibility (hw/sw?), HDMI and other AV output support. Wii has a few goodies others don't, and there are MANY more technological aspects these could be measured by. On the whole though, an average PS3 probably comes out "technologically superior", and that's reflected by it's price. Obviously that doesn't necessarily mean it's much more enjoyable now than other systems, although it might eventually be. The Wii uses what is has _very_ well, and due of the nature of it's games (especially first party ones) complements either "tech. superior" system very well.
It matters because 480, 720, and 1080 are the most common native screen resolutions in HDTV sets.
Upscaling isn't an option on a HDTV set. Either the TV or the source has to do it. Upscaling DVD players do it better than TVs do. Upscaling at the source will almost always be better than at the TV. I highly doubt many PC gamers have played games at 1920x1080 for years. With what, a widescreen CRT monitor? High end LCDs? The biggest probably being 24". You missed the whole point of playing on a TV, the size. Duh, it matters, and not just for e-penises. Mine's bigger btw.
PDA/phone combos aside, how is the iPhone locked down any more than most other American cell phones? Last time I looked into it, my Sprint phones were useless with other carriers, and locked down too. I used to get Sprint ringtones for $2.99 with no previews. It's not even clear what the beef with AT&T is. Have you ever met a phone company you liked? Why are they special? Why all the moaning and Apple hate?
In short...Apple...don't be Sony. Please. You know, outside Slashdot, they have absolutely nothing to do with each other? You might as well pick Samsung, or Toshiba, or HP, or Dell. Its pretty clear you get all your opinions from the Slashdot feedback loop.
The Ninth Amendment was written exactly because the Founding Fathers clearly foresaw assholes like you. Explain how. 9th Amendment. It clearly doesn't read "We shall have whatever right we fucking feel like, and anyone who says otherwise is an asshole."
so as to make him ineligible for any future employment without moving to another states If he made valid points, and had a reason to complain, why would other (legitimate) employers not hire him? Also, what exactly does leaving the state have to do with anything?
just to have someone else take it and profit off it I believe you can do that just as illegally without the source.
As for the recipe, who knows, maybe there is something in there we DON'T want to know about;) Anyway, it may only be protected as a trade secret, and not by copyright law and probably a slew of other laws that source code could be.
There's a HUGE difference between what's happening to Microsoft, and what happened to the other three companies.
Microsoft is having problems making quality products.
The others all make/made higher quality products, and let rivals eat into their market share with cheaper products. IBM, Sony and Hayes all could have made cheaper products, but chose not too. Sometimes it's good not to. Look what Microsoft got into with the XBox 360. It's probably the most fragmented console platform ever, optional hard drives, optional high def drive, subscription online access. Yay, they're turning it into a PC... Still, their pricing clearly gave them an advantage.
Quake 3, Wolf 3D, and Far Cry aren't exactly the best examples of what PC multiplayer FPS gaming offers or offered at that time. Damn, I JUST wrote a huge post that explains ALL of this in a Grand, Unified Theory of Halo Hype. Look up my history if curious.
Shields that recharge if you take a break from the action, which lets you focus on tactics rather than finding health and armor pickups. Pretty much everybody's copied this mechanic now, but Halo did it first. (I'm sure you can dig up some obscure title that actually did it first, but Halo was the first popular game to use this approach)
What gameplay value do the the shields really provide? Longer one-on-one fights, more defensive play? Is it any different than what was provided with Tribes's free movement and health packs? We even had shields... I wish I could find a fan of both Tribes and Halo to discuss this with. I know, apparently they're mutually exclusive. Damn, you all missed out.
The ability to carry only two weapons at a time (plus grenades), so you had to think about what to bring since you couldn't keep your entire arsenal in a belt pocket. Do you pickup the sniper rifle and rocket launcher, leaving yourself open to close attacks? Or do you grab a shotgun and assault rifle, leaving yourself vulnerable to vehicles? That mechanic allowed for some interesting scenarios.
Grenades thrown via a separate button. To be fair, TF1 did this first, but Halo did it better. Well-implemented and -integrated vehicular combat.
Tribes again, and Tribes 2 *note: Tribes 2, with land vehicles, came out the same year as Halo 1, the original Tribes predating it by three years* BTW: Who doesn't miss grenade timing in TF? (yes, the Quake one)
A compelling and interesting story. Half-life did that first, but the story is different from Half-life. It's okay to like both.
Wait, what the... ok, we're talking about the single player experience now. Good story, are you saying it's comparable in quality to Half-life's? Noted.
A fun console experience. Relaxing on a couch in front of a 50" HDTV with a 5.1 surround sound speaker setup beats being hunched over a keyboard and mouse in front of a 20" monitor with 2-channel stereo any day
I can't argue with that at all. Obviously this isn't unique to Halo, unless it's just the best game you've got on your system.
A great multiplayer experience. Halo 1 allowed you to network consoles together and play with your friends locally. Halo 2 finally took that experience online. Of course PC games have done this before, and better (though Halo 2/3's party system and hopper matching mechanism is one of the best out there), but when you put this together with the last point (couch, HDTV, surround sound) it is very compelling.
You have to be mistaken, you couldn't play Halo 1 online? Holy crap, are you serious? I couldn't believe you. I had to look that up, I couldn't remember. Why was this game hyped THEN? You just made the logistics of networking XBoxen and their associated TV's sound way, way, way too easy. So now, it all comes down to Live's party and matching system? What in the (excuse me, I'm getting very tired at this point) HELL is wrong with dedicated servers? I agree only with your last point regarding the couch, but again, that's not unique to Halo unless... duh duh dahhhhhh...
Did I mention an excellent story? Bungie are masters of storytelling
/clap
A great musical score. Marty O'Donnell is a musical genius
/clap/beer @-'-,->---
Sorry If I got too personal, or offended you in any way, but all
I still don't get what makes Halo so spectacular. I'm being dead serious. Every post tells how a different part of the game is unusually great, and mostly acknowledge the rest as decent/moderately good. I'll buy that it's an overall good game, but I really don't see why it's worthy of all this hype.
I've observed that most explanations come in one of these two forms.
They acknowledge the story was moderately good, but the multiplayer is what REALLY sets it apart from the rest, and the graphics are so-so. Thats tough for many PC gamers to swallow. Dual wield and sticky grenades are neat, but I'm sorry, Tribes stomped it. These posts must come from players with very little multiplayer PC game experience. I'd even rank the original Team Fortress as better multiplayer than any Halo. Savage too. Halo is just a fun, _simple_ deathmatch / ctf game. It has basic multiplayer FPS elements, with the exception of a few vehicles, and the shield thing that could make one-on-one duels last longer than in most games of the genre. Those elements were not unique to Halo, see Tribes.
The other form exclaims Halo's AWESOME story, but admits it wasn't a very pretty game. I think these types of posts come from people at lest somewhat experienced with PC games. They think that having any background story at all, especially the decent one Halo apparently has, puts it a notch above most popular PC FPS titles. If they have anything good to say about the multiplayer, it's unclear if they ever ventured past the weak deathmatch modes offered by popular PC single/multi player FPS games. I agree, Halo is better than most cobbled together DM/CTF PC counterparts, but it stops there.
In conclusion, Halo seems to appeal to the lowest common denominator of FPS gamer through several different means, thus it garners a very wide audience that favors it for wildly different reasons. This would explain the greatly differing opinions on it's greatness. However, unless some solid evidence is given to explain why Halo is truly unique and worthy of all the hype it's getting, I'm putting it right up there with the likes of popular boy bands of the 90's and Britney Spears. Popular, not Great.
---------------- Go ahead, mod this flamebait; I bet you can't do it without a guilty conscience though.
Who is seriously FOR homebrew? By Apple and Sony, you mean iPhones and PS3's? I couldn't run "homebrew" software on any of my Sprint phones, and last I checked, Nintendo or Microsoft weren't exactly opening the doors on any of their game platforms.
Microsoft and Oracle don't make cellphones, and lock-in is quite a bit different than locked-down, so what are you comparing?
And you can just about bet with safe odds that this WAS deliberate.
then that's fine and dandy and sucks for everyone. However, I dont think anyone believes that's what is actually happening here. Thats great, what made you think that? Arstechnica told you so? Where's the actual press release? The only meaningful quote on Ars is:
"Apple has discovered that many of the unauthorized iPhone unlocking programs available on the Internet cause irreparable damage to the iPhone's software, which will likely result in the modified iPhone becoming permanently inoperable when a future Apple-supplied iPhone software update is installed,"
And from Ars: At that time, we also said that we had reason to believe that the next update to the iPhone would brick iPhones that had been unlocked to use SIM cards from other GSM carriers, which Apple's press release has confirmed. Sources familiar with the matter have told Ars that the company did not decide to cause such irreparable damage to the iPhone intentionally, however, and Apple's statement appears to confirm this as well.
But lets jump to irrational conclusions anyway. This isn't any different than trying to run third party software on a fancy graphing calculator. You have to use third party tools to get stuff on it (and running) and a firmware update MAY brick it. Hell, you could extend this to almost ANY product that receives updates from the manufacturer. Unsupported hacks may break on future firmware updates. This is a non-story.
Re:How does it compare to PC shooters?
on
Halo 3 Review
·
· Score: 1
I keep wondering this too, and people with PC gaming "experience" all say different things.
Sometimes it gets compared to Half Life, then they say Halo's story is unoriginal and the environments repeat. So what part of Half Life are they comparing it to?
Other times it's the "online play" that makes the game. Ugh. Finding a game to join may be easier on a console, but it's next to impossible to find a mature group of people to play with (maybe because it's easier to play online than "hard" PC FPS's). That, and I don't know how into online PC FPS you are, but mods are what make most of the good games great.
I don't think you're missing anything. If you're going to get a next gen console for a single game, look at the ones in a genre consoles really are better at. Racing, fighting, or maybe a FPS with a unique online experience.
It's pretty dumb to open a line of credit for buying groceries, but what's keeping you from getting a check card? All the convenience and none of the stupidity of buying groceries on credit.
Slashdot Mirror
If I _personally_ were to create a cell phone with whizbang new features, I would go into the market with a strong partnership myself. Hindsight is 20/20, but people want this phone, and they'll leave carriers to get it. So... What you're saying is that people really aren't as concerned as a couple angry slashdotters make them all out to be? Or, when they sign that contract to get the phone they MUST have, they're pissed as hell, but do it anyway. Dude, I'm pissed as hell signing ANY phone contract, even to get a cheapo phone. Why don't we rail on cellular companies instead? That makes more sense than blaming Apple for a practice it didn't even remotely invent.
Your whole post must be a joke... Doom? Really?
That's the only reason? A web app fills the giant void AOL left behind. *Yawn*
Tell me when chatrooms make a come back, ok? Oh God, that's what this integrated IM thing is going to turn into.
Yay, it's "OKAY, EVERYBODY, ASL? =-)" all over again.
When you're done backfilling all the things that made AOL faaaaantastic, could you get around to fixing email spam?
Thanks, just wake me up again when web 3.0 gets here.
Full disclosure: I just bought a KDL-46XBR4 online for around $2,800 shipped. www.frys.com has them for around $2,500 last I checked, and if you don't live in a state with a Frys retail chain (err, for tax purposes), that's a good deal. The KDL-46XBR5 just has a slick design, but same features as the XBR4.
What, in your opinion is wrong with Sony then? How bad have they gotten?
For a 46" 1080p Bravia, you can pay anywhere from $2,500 to $3,900 MSRP.
$3,900 KDL-46XBR5
$3,600 KDL-46XBR4
$3,000 KDL-46W3000
$2,800 KDL-46V3000
$2,500 KDL-46V2500
They can be had for about 20-25% ) cheaper online.
Samsung has two 46" 1080p models. Here are Best buy prices (probably MSRP)
$2,700 LN-T4665F
$2,500 LN-T4661F
Probably just as discounted online.
The only spec (and it doesn't mean much) that you can really compare them with, that both vendors give, is dynamic contrast ratio. The Samsungs are 10,000:1 and 15,000:1.
The closest Bravias to those are the $2,800 and $2,500 models with probably under 10,000:1 and 13,000:1 listed. The $2,800 and up Bravias also have 10bit displays. The higher you go up Bravia models the more "luxury" features you get that people who 'just want to watch TV' don't need.
Anyways, Samsung and Sony are priced VERY close, you don't know your HDTVs. They could have spent half as much on a Sony also and got a 720p set, or hell, go buy a damned Magnavox if your real cheap. When the hell did "bad" include making high end products?
Floppy cables are. I think most are also keyed now, but they weren't always. A backwards cable made the access light stay on.
When things get political, we get competing idiots questioning science, and generally mucking things up because they lack the will or ability to perform any meaningful research. That's ridiculous.
In DC/northern Virginia, and probably elsewhere, they're called "Slug Lines". Very employed people use them, and whole parking lots are set up near the interstate for people to park, and wait in line for another commuter to take them the rest of the way to DC via the HOV lane. Web sites are available to help arrange car pools if you don't like hopping in with just anyone. The biggest slug line downtown is probably at the Pentagon, but I think there are others. I don't know if Maryland has any.
This makes a whole lot more sense because it actually reduces the number of cars on the road. The HOV lanes are silly anyway, they need a Metro Bus system that doesn't scare away everyone but those with no choice. Or maybe better Metro (light rail) and VRE (commuter train) access. To get to a train station in northern Virginia, you usually have to drive fifteen minutes away from the interstate, through twisty two lane roads, four way stops, and even G^d d*mned subdivisions with 15MPH limits. Every day after work, people huddle near the train doors as it stops, and run to their cars to get out of the parking lot as fast as they can. Few have the luxury of being the first to wait in traffic on the main road or interstate while the rest curse the stupid road planning for what would otherwise be a perfect alternative to spending three hours driving thirty miles up the interstate.
You've got it back asswords.
It's:
1) Make a cheaper clone of someone else's higher quality product, and charge only %15 percent less.
2) Make a cheaper yet clone of someone else's quality product, and charge half.
3) Profit. Most of the market is confused by all the products that "do the same thing, but cost twice as much" so "high quality" becomes "they must charge more for the brand name". Brand names get the margins, mass market manufacturers get the glory.
...
4) Taken aback by all this, you swig the last of your "Mountain Lightning" and slam down the lid on your Inspiron laptop. Using the dim glow of your Magnavox HDTV you make your way to bed, deftly dodging piles of debris. You rest your head on a warm heap of soiled clothes, and let the humming drone of your Xbox 360 lull you to sleep. "In a couple of weeks, I'll have enough money to buy Halo 3", you quietly console yourself.
Good Night.
"Superior" is very subjective, but "technologically superior" less so. I think in these cases it fairly clear. Consider this, besides clockspeed, there's HD, Bluetooth (I know Wii has this, 360 doesn't, Blu-ray, HD-DVD, hard drive, system memory, graphics memory, video card capability, processsor parallelism, wireless, ethernet, USB, backwards compatibility (hw/sw?), HDMI and other AV output support. Wii has a few goodies others don't, and there are MANY more technological aspects these could be measured by. On the whole though, an average PS3 probably comes out "technologically superior", and that's reflected by it's price. Obviously that doesn't necessarily mean it's much more enjoyable now than other systems, although it might eventually be. The Wii uses what is has _very_ well, and due of the nature of it's games (especially first party ones) complements either "tech. superior" system very well.
It matters because 480, 720, and 1080 are the most common native screen resolutions in HDTV sets.
Upscaling isn't an option on a HDTV set. Either the TV or the source has to do it. Upscaling DVD players do it better than TVs do. Upscaling at the source will almost always be better than at the TV. I highly doubt many PC gamers have played games at 1920x1080 for years. With what, a widescreen CRT monitor? High end LCDs? The biggest probably being 24". You missed the whole point of playing on a TV, the size. Duh, it matters, and not just for e-penises. Mine's bigger btw.
Its pretty clear you get all your opinions from the Slashdot feedback loop.
How, are they supposed to read Slashdot?
It clearly doesn't read "We shall have whatever right we fucking feel like, and anyone who says otherwise is an asshole." so as to make him ineligible for any future employment without moving to another states If he made valid points, and had a reason to complain, why would other (legitimate) employers not hire him? Also, what exactly does leaving the state have to do with anything?
As for the recipe, who knows, maybe there is something in there we DON'T want to know about
Anyway, it may only be protected as a trade secret, and not by copyright law and probably a slew of other laws that source code could be.
There's a HUGE difference between what's happening to Microsoft, and what happened to the other three companies.
Microsoft is having problems making quality products.
The others all make/made higher quality products, and let rivals eat into their market share with cheaper products.
IBM, Sony and Hayes all could have made cheaper products, but chose not too. Sometimes it's good not to. Look what Microsoft got into with the XBox 360. It's probably the most fragmented console platform ever, optional hard drives, optional high def drive, subscription online access. Yay, they're turning it into a PC... Still, their pricing clearly gave them an advantage.
Shields that recharge if you take a break from the action, which lets you focus on tactics rather than finding health and armor pickups. Pretty much everybody's copied this mechanic now, but Halo did it first. (I'm sure you can dig up some obscure title that actually did it first, but Halo was the first popular game to use this approach)
What gameplay value do the the shields really provide? Longer one-on-one fights, more defensive play? Is it any different than what was provided with Tribes's free movement and health packs? We even had shields...
I wish I could find a fan of both Tribes and Halo to discuss this with. I know, apparently they're mutually exclusive. Damn, you all missed out.
The ability to carry only two weapons at a time (plus grenades), so you had to think about what to bring since you couldn't keep your entire arsenal in a belt pocket. Do you pickup the sniper rifle and rocket launcher, leaving yourself open to close attacks? Or do you grab a shotgun and assault rifle, leaving yourself vulnerable to vehicles? That mechanic allowed for some interesting scenarios.
*cough* Tribes *cough, cough*
Grenades thrown via a separate button. To be fair, TF1 did this first, but Halo did it better.
Well-implemented and -integrated vehicular combat.
Tribes again, and Tribes 2 *note: Tribes 2, with land vehicles, came out the same year as Halo 1, the original Tribes predating it by three years*
BTW: Who doesn't miss grenade timing in TF? (yes, the Quake one)
A compelling and interesting story. Half-life did that first, but the story is different from Half-life. It's okay to like both.
Wait, what the... ok, we're talking about the single player experience now.
Good story, are you saying it's comparable in quality to Half-life's?
Noted.
A fun console experience. Relaxing on a couch in front of a 50" HDTV with a 5.1 surround sound speaker setup beats being hunched over a keyboard and mouse in front of a 20" monitor with 2-channel stereo any day
I can't argue with that at all. Obviously this isn't unique to Halo, unless it's just the best game you've got on your system.
A great multiplayer experience. Halo 1 allowed you to network consoles together and play with your friends locally. Halo 2 finally took that experience online. Of course PC games have done this before, and better (though Halo 2/3's party system and hopper matching mechanism is one of the best out there), but when you put this together with the last point (couch, HDTV, surround sound) it is very compelling.
You have to be mistaken, you couldn't play Halo 1 online? Holy crap, are you serious? I couldn't believe you. I had to look that up, I couldn't remember. Why was this game hyped THEN?
You just made the logistics of networking XBoxen and their associated TV's sound way, way, way too easy.
So now, it all comes down to Live's party and matching system? What in the (excuse me, I'm getting very tired at this point) HELL is wrong with dedicated servers? I agree only with your last point regarding the couch, but again, that's not unique to Halo unless... duh duh dahhhhhh...
Did I mention an excellent story? Bungie are masters of storytelling
A great musical score. Marty O'Donnell is a musical genius
@-'-,->---
Sorry If I got too personal, or offended you in any way, but all
I still don't get what makes Halo so spectacular. I'm being dead serious. Every post tells how a different part of the game is unusually great, and mostly acknowledge the rest as decent/moderately good. I'll buy that it's an overall good game, but I really don't see why it's worthy of all this hype.
I've observed that most explanations come in one of these two forms.
They acknowledge the story was moderately good, but the multiplayer is what REALLY sets it apart from the rest, and the graphics are so-so.
Thats tough for many PC gamers to swallow. Dual wield and sticky grenades are neat, but I'm sorry, Tribes stomped it. These posts must come from players with very little multiplayer PC game experience. I'd even rank the original Team Fortress as better multiplayer than any Halo. Savage too. Halo is just a fun, _simple_ deathmatch / ctf game. It has basic multiplayer FPS elements, with the exception of a few vehicles, and the shield thing that could make one-on-one duels last longer than in most games of the genre. Those elements were not unique to Halo, see Tribes.
The other form exclaims Halo's AWESOME story, but admits it wasn't a very pretty game. I think these types of posts come from people at lest somewhat experienced with PC games. They think that having any background story at all, especially the decent one Halo apparently has, puts it a notch above most popular PC FPS titles. If they have anything good to say about the multiplayer, it's unclear if they ever ventured past the weak deathmatch modes offered by popular PC single/multi player FPS games. I agree, Halo is better than most cobbled together DM/CTF PC counterparts, but it stops there.
In conclusion, Halo seems to appeal to the lowest common denominator of FPS gamer through several different means, thus it garners a very wide audience that favors it for wildly different reasons. This would explain the greatly differing opinions on it's greatness. However, unless some solid evidence is given to explain why Halo is truly unique and worthy of all the hype it's getting, I'm putting it right up there with the likes of popular boy bands of the 90's and Britney Spears. Popular, not Great.
----------------
Go ahead, mod this flamebait; I bet you can't do it without a guilty conscience though.
Microsoft and Oracle don't make cellphones, and lock-in is quite a bit different than locked-down, so what are you comparing? And you can just about bet with safe odds that this WAS deliberate. then that's fine and dandy and sucks for everyone. However, I dont think anyone believes that's what is actually happening here. Thats great, what made you think that? Arstechnica told you so? Where's the actual press release? The only meaningful quote on Ars is:
"Apple has discovered that many of the unauthorized iPhone unlocking programs available on the Internet cause irreparable damage to the iPhone's software, which will likely result in the modified iPhone becoming permanently inoperable when a future Apple-supplied iPhone software update is installed,"
And from Ars:
At that time, we also said that we had reason to believe that the next update to the iPhone would brick iPhones that had been unlocked to use SIM cards from other GSM carriers, which Apple's press release has confirmed. Sources familiar with the matter have told Ars that the company did not decide to cause such irreparable damage to the iPhone intentionally, however, and Apple's statement appears to confirm this as well.
But lets jump to irrational conclusions anyway. This isn't any different than trying to run third party software on a fancy graphing calculator. You have to use third party tools to get stuff on it (and running) and a firmware update MAY brick it. Hell, you could extend this to almost ANY product that receives updates from the manufacturer. Unsupported hacks may break on future firmware updates. This is a non-story.
Who's to say they might not?
I keep wondering this too, and people with PC gaming "experience" all say different things.
Sometimes it gets compared to Half Life, then they say Halo's story is unoriginal and the environments repeat. So what part of Half Life are they comparing it to?
Other times it's the "online play" that makes the game. Ugh. Finding a game to join may be easier on a console, but it's next to impossible to find a mature group of people to play with (maybe because it's easier to play online than "hard" PC FPS's). That, and I don't know how into online PC FPS you are, but mods are what make most of the good games great.
I don't think you're missing anything. If you're going to get a next gen console for a single game, look at the ones in a genre consoles really are better at. Racing, fighting, or maybe a FPS with a unique online experience.
Stop bitching about the numbers and go look up fibre channel.
Big surprise, NOBODY on slashdot knows what a SAN is. Return your geek cards!
It's pretty dumb to open a line of credit for buying groceries, but what's keeping you from getting a check card? All the convenience and none of the stupidity of buying groceries on credit.