[quote]Speaking of sequels, there are games like "Mega Man X" (right after MM6) and "Wizards and Warriors X" (sequel to W&W2, I believe) that just confuse people as to what game they are playing. Hey, what's all this "Super Castlevania IV" about? Is it better than regular old "Castlevania IV"?[/quote]For Castlevania, probably to distinguish it as being on the Super Nintendo platform rather than the NES.
Mega Man X was to distinguish a significant fork from the Mega Man series which went all the way up to Mega Man 8 with no change in basic gameplay, and used the same exact sprites (aside from pallete swaps for the weapons, and sliding introduced in 3.)
Sometimes it's a good thing to change the serialization of titles. On the flip side sometimes it sucks because who can keep Super Fantastic Street Fighter Turbo Hyper Widescreen Platinum Director's Cut Unrated Rainbow 2 Alpha EX^2 Low-Fat Edition straight in their heads?
I was also going to mention Nintendo DS. Their games are so "lightweight" in contiguous time commitment, that you really *can* get a 10-15 minute fix and be done. I play New Super Mario Brothers in 10 minute spurts when making dinner, or even during commercial breaks when I decide to watch something on TV.
Funny how this release is by Square/Enix, and it has nothing to do with SONY except that the platform it's being released on is PlayStation 2. Even then, even if your statement made any sense, it's still unfunny.
Oh, give me a break. For a 14 year old who has nothing to do all summer, and can't work or is to weak and nerdy to mow lawns for extra money, this sounds like something I'd put some time and energy towards competing with. Not everything is aimed at middle-aged sysadmins who hate their life, you know.
So by your reasoning, because Microsoft was able to offer an online system, that makes the entire system a success?
Superior hardware, XBOX Live, Out-of-box experience, and game selection were all successful.
Sure, Xbox Live was innovative... but very little that has been done with it is that innovative.
That is entirely subjective.
Due to the lack of games for the 360, people have jumped onto shit like Geometry wars and UNO for God's sake.
Geometry Wars is one of the most successful XBOX Live ARCADE releases out there. Not all games need to be epic 3D RPGs to be fun, nor do they have to have HD Lighting/FSAA/Bump Mapping. That's the whole point of XBOX Live Arcade, which you as a self-proclaimed 4 year industry analyst/reviewer, seem to have missed the memo on. Yes, I bought GW and UNO. Not because I was content-starved as you seem to think people are, but because they are both good games.
Now they just need a few top games
For as early in its lifespan as this system is, I'd say there are a fair amount of great games (traditional retail and XBLA delivered games) for the system. Not to mention the out of box media capabilities.
If you look at your reply to me that is the only counterpoint. So, I wouldn't jump to false reasoning and feel that one point somehow eclipses the rest.
I mentioned more than one. XBOX Live, Hard Drive, Ethernet, and overall system power. The system was anything but the failure you said that it was. Microsoft successfully penetrated the market, no matter how much you wish that it didn't happen.
Hell, even the GC had a more diverse and wide audience with the limited library it had than the Xbox and 360 put together.
And this somehow made the GC the most successful release of the 3? Seriously, why did you even try to say this sentance to support your argument???
I worked as an analyst and reviewer in the industry for over 4 years... if you would like to talk facts I'll be happy to break down the numbers to back everything I said up.
Please do this. Support your original statement:
Microsoft's foray into gaming was a quick attempt to capitalize on the relatively large number of dollars spent on gaming. Their approach was shameful, a hastily thrown together stripped down PC and a very small library of games which included very few AAA titles. It had a very narrow target market and was by all acounts a failure on many levels.
They have made it quite clear that they have no real interests in innovation and moving gaming forward in any way but through HD graphics and same-old same-old titles.
Do you seriously believe that? Honestly. Microsoft's foray into gaming was a quick attempt to capitalize on the relatively large number of dollars spent on gaming. Their approach was shameful, a hastily thrown together stripped down PC and a very small library of games which included very few AAA titles. It had a very narrow target market and was by all acounts a failure on many levels.
They have made it quite clear that they have no real interests in innovation and moving gaming forward in any way but through HD graphics and same-old same-old titles. Regardless of your loyalty to MS, how can you support this? No other company could get away with this in any other industry but in gaming it is possible.
Microsoft's foray into the gaming market introduced XBOX Live which offered the user a unified solution and consistant platform for game developers to deliver a consistant online experience. Look at Sony's failure to do so. It was left mainly to the game developers to figure out how to handle it. Compound the fact that Sony initially had the network adapter as an optional component until the Slimline version debuted. Rinse and repeat for a harddrive for storage. Do you really think that game developers hated being able to work on a "stripped down PC"? I doubt it. It made doing cross-platform development, at least from PC to XBOX VERY easy. A very narrow market? Am I talking to you from some parallel dimension? While PS2 which had the most inferior hardware of the big 3 had the most success, I don't see how you can say there was no innovation at all. Microsoft was able to set the standard in online experience for consoles, which now Sony has taken a hint to, also with the harddrive.
These are FACTS. I am not a Fan boy of one system over another. I own all of them. But don't toss out baseless anti-MS statements without some real facts to back it up with.
Typical Slashdot Reader: Yeah! Screw Microsoft! MS: We are still working on backwards compatibility, even if our studies show most people don't care. Typical Slashdot Reader: Yeah! Screw Microsoft! MS: We are giving away free money. Typical Slashdot Reader: Yeah! Screw Microsoft! MS: We just found a cure for HIV. Typical Slashdot Reader: Yeah! Screw Microsoft!
You do realize that the Japanese and European market's adoption rate of a console != it's success rate? Neither does the US. You can site individual nation's adoption rate of the console until your face turns blue but that doesn't mean anything.
And so what that the PS2 is outselling the XBOX360? The PS2 has reached bargain bin status in pricing per unit. The PS2 has a terrific back catalogue of titles and doubles as a decent DVD Player for the consumer's assumed 25 inch television.
Additionally, maybe you should RTFA you linked:
"I should note that we caution against putting too much weight on these sales estimates, especially in a comparative sense. The PS2 and the Xbox 360 are at opposite ends of their 'console lifecycles,' and the two are priced quite far apart as well (e.g., $129 vs. $299, PS2, Xbox 360 Core respectively). We are impressed, however, by the PS2's continually strong sales, even as many gamers turn their eyes towards the next-generation. These sales will help keep Sony strong and stable, even in the face of a disappointing PlayStation 3 launch, should fate take that turn."
As a couple of other posters have noted, you don't need Media Center edition to share music, photos and videos with your 360... Windows Media Center edition is needed only to distribute TV feeds, and that's not because Windows Media Connect can't distribute video
To avoid confusion, I want to make sure people know that this is slightly inaccurate. Windows Media Connect CANNOT stream ANY video at this time to your XBOX 360. The quoted statement above makes it sound like you do not need Media Center/Vista. This is not true. The only thing that Windows Media Connect will deliver to your console is MUSIC and PICTURES.
I am no expert on the subject, but I'd be surprised if the 360 had the mechanism in place to flash the drive at all. I am pretty sure they are aware of the vulnerability, as the new batches of drives from the drive manufacturers now have an epoxy over the flash chip (I believe Hitachi AND Toshiba/Samsung models) which prevent one method of tampering with the drive which became a practice of piggy-backing a modified flash on top of the original. (However the original flash can still be modified by means of hooking it up to the PC, albeit very cumbersome)
I'd imagine that the long-term solution would be to have a drive that has some sort of encrypted/signed flash on it or just not flashable at all.
All projects have deadlines, and when you have a product due to ship, I say it's better to ensure what does ship has the best possible set of core working features that is possible. I believe that the Dashboard has to use 3% of one CPU Core or less to work properly, so they had to delay this feature until after launch to ensure that they release it with hopefully no bugs in it. I can only imagine something like background downloading could have introduced a myriad of problems. I applaud them on putting it in though! That is awesome.
How is this article not another repeat or just another article about how Sony sucks at proprietary formats? How is this not complete rhetoric? Or has Slashdot resigned to auto-approving any article with the word "Sony", "Blu-Ray", or "PS3" in it?
I love it when people make wild speculation and half-baked commentary on how non-released hardware that they had no hand designing in the first place will fail or be broken. When will we learn that endless speculation and palm-reading on console releases is useless? Perhaps it's a product of boredom or writers wanting to score a "I told you so" point or something. I think I'll still have to put my trust behind the countless engineers of the chips and design of the console instead of some random blogger or "industry expert".
Of course Vista will run a majority of its back catalogue. If they want to make money, of course it will support the major titles. I'm sure as always there will be kinks to work out, but are we really going to have a discussion about how it potentially won't? Microsoft's track record has gotten better for its backwards compatibility over the years, at least in my book.
Slashdot Mirror
There was actually a ./ article about that not too long back. I can't remember what search terms to link you to it however.
Oh wow, a company is releasing games that can be played in 10 minute intervals. Clearly this is the next generation in gaming!
It's like the people who come up with a new genre of techno music for each song. It's called variety, people.
[quote]Speaking of sequels, there are games like "Mega Man X" (right after MM6) and "Wizards and Warriors X" (sequel to W&W2, I believe) that just confuse people as to what game they are playing. Hey, what's all this "Super Castlevania IV" about? Is it better than regular old "Castlevania IV"?[/quote]For Castlevania, probably to distinguish it as being on the Super Nintendo platform rather than the NES.
Mega Man X was to distinguish a significant fork from the Mega Man series which went all the way up to Mega Man 8 with no change in basic gameplay, and used the same exact sprites (aside from pallete swaps for the weapons, and sliding introduced in 3.)
Sometimes it's a good thing to change the serialization of titles. On the flip side sometimes it sucks because who can keep Super Fantastic Street Fighter Turbo Hyper Widescreen Platinum Director's Cut Unrated Rainbow 2 Alpha EX^2 Low-Fat Edition straight in their heads?
I was also going to mention Nintendo DS. Their games are so "lightweight" in contiguous time commitment, that you really *can* get a 10-15 minute fix and be done. I play New Super Mario Brothers in 10 minute spurts when making dinner, or even during commercial breaks when I decide to watch something on TV.
A 2 hour game of poker would be considered casual by many.
Funny how this release is by Square/Enix, and it has nothing to do with SONY except that the platform it's being released on is PlayStation 2. Even then, even if your statement made any sense, it's still unfunny.
The Inquirer. Surely this information is accurate!
Oh, give me a break. For a 14 year old who has nothing to do all summer, and can't work or is to weak and nerdy to mow lawns for extra money, this sounds like something I'd put some time and energy towards competing with. Not everything is aimed at middle-aged sysadmins who hate their life, you know.
That is entirely subjective.
Geometry Wars is one of the most successful XBOX Live ARCADE releases out there. Not all games need to be epic 3D RPGs to be fun, nor do they have to have HD Lighting/FSAA/Bump Mapping. That's the whole point of XBOX Live Arcade, which you as a self-proclaimed 4 year industry analyst/reviewer, seem to have missed the memo on. Yes, I bought GW and UNO. Not because I was content-starved as you seem to think people are, but because they are both good games.
For as early in its lifespan as this system is, I'd say there are a fair amount of great games (traditional retail and XBLA delivered games) for the system. Not to mention the out of box media capabilities.
I mentioned more than one. XBOX Live, Hard Drive, Ethernet, and overall system power. The system was anything but the failure you said that it was. Microsoft successfully penetrated the market, no matter how much you wish that it didn't happen.
And this somehow made the GC the most successful release of the 3? Seriously, why did you even try to say this sentance to support your argument???
Please do this. Support your original statement:
Microsoft's foray into the gaming market introduced XBOX Live which offered the user a unified solution and consistant platform for game developers to deliver a consistant online experience. Look at Sony's failure to do so. It was left mainly to the game developers to figure out how to handle it. Compound the fact that Sony initially had the network adapter as an optional component until the Slimline version debuted. Rinse and repeat for a harddrive for storage. Do you really think that game developers hated being able to work on a "stripped down PC"? I doubt it. It made doing cross-platform development, at least from PC to XBOX VERY easy. A very narrow market? Am I talking to you from some parallel dimension? While PS2 which had the most inferior hardware of the big 3 had the most success, I don't see how you can say there was no innovation at all. Microsoft was able to set the standard in online experience for consoles, which now Sony has taken a hint to, also with the harddrive.
These are FACTS. I am not a Fan boy of one system over another. I own all of them. But don't toss out baseless anti-MS statements without some real facts to back it up with.
More like:
Typical Slashdot Reader: Yeah! Screw Microsoft!
MS: We are still working on backwards compatibility, even if our studies show most people don't care.
Typical Slashdot Reader: Yeah! Screw Microsoft!
MS: We are giving away free money.
Typical Slashdot Reader: Yeah! Screw Microsoft!
MS: We just found a cure for HIV.
Typical Slashdot Reader: Yeah! Screw Microsoft!
And so what that the PS2 is outselling the XBOX360? The PS2 has reached bargain bin status in pricing per unit. The PS2 has a terrific back catalogue of titles and doubles as a decent DVD Player for the consumer's assumed 25 inch television.
Additionally, maybe you should RTFA you linked:
How about you back up your claims with some actual source? 360 flunking out of the console race? Go back under your bridge.
I find it absolutely hilarious that you found a way to bash Microsoft in your subject line.
As a couple of other posters have noted, you don't need Media Center edition to share music, photos and videos with your 360 ... Windows Media Center edition is needed only to distribute TV feeds, and that's not because Windows Media Connect can't distribute video
To avoid confusion, I want to make sure people know that this is slightly inaccurate. Windows Media Connect CANNOT stream ANY video at this time to your XBOX 360. The quoted statement above makes it sound like you do not need Media Center/Vista. This is not true. The only thing that Windows Media Connect will deliver to your console is MUSIC and PICTURES.
If I am wrong, then somebody please tell me how.
I am no expert on the subject, but I'd be surprised if the 360 had the mechanism in place to flash the drive at all. I am pretty sure they are aware of the vulnerability, as the new batches of drives from the drive manufacturers now have an epoxy over the flash chip (I believe Hitachi AND Toshiba/Samsung models) which prevent one method of tampering with the drive which became a practice of piggy-backing a modified flash on top of the original. (However the original flash can still be modified by means of hooking it up to the PC, albeit very cumbersome)
I'd imagine that the long-term solution would be to have a drive that has some sort of encrypted/signed flash on it or just not flashable at all.
Several people at MaxConsole are reporting that this has not prevented them from running their backups with the hacked DVD firmware.
Source: http://www.maxconsole.net/?mode=news&newsid=7645
All projects have deadlines, and when you have a product due to ship, I say it's better to ensure what does ship has the best possible set of core working features that is possible. I believe that the Dashboard has to use 3% of one CPU Core or less to work properly, so they had to delay this feature until after launch to ensure that they release it with hopefully no bugs in it. I can only imagine something like background downloading could have introduced a myriad of problems. I applaud them on putting it in though! That is awesome.
How is this article not another repeat or just another article about how Sony sucks at proprietary formats? How is this not complete rhetoric? Or has Slashdot resigned to auto-approving any article with the word "Sony", "Blu-Ray", or "PS3" in it?
I love it when people make wild speculation and half-baked commentary on how non-released hardware that they had no hand designing in the first place will fail or be broken. When will we learn that endless speculation and palm-reading on console releases is useless? Perhaps it's a product of boredom or writers wanting to score a "I told you so" point or something. I think I'll still have to put my trust behind the countless engineers of the chips and design of the console instead of some random blogger or "industry expert".
It's not weird, you're just a rare spawn.
Of course Vista will run a majority of its back catalogue. If they want to make money, of course it will support the major titles. I'm sure as always there will be kinks to work out, but are we really going to have a discussion about how it potentially won't? Microsoft's track record has gotten better for its backwards compatibility over the years, at least in my book.