Over here in EuroLand the Gamecube and Xbox wont be released until March at the earliest, so there is only one game in town. According to news reports the "must have" Christmas Present for all the kids is the PS2. Having braved the hoards of shoppers last weekend I can testify to the queues out the door (literally) in the biggest game store in the city, and every third parent had a PS2 in their hand.
What does this mean? Well, for one when the XBox and GC finally get released it will be an uphill battle for them to get the space under the Television. I dont see the same parents getting another console for their kids next year, so it will be really interesting to see how Nintendo and Microsoft market their new toys. Remember N64 and more spectacularly the Dreamcast failed miserably after PS One getting the jump on them, I figure without the Pokemon/Mario/Zelda brands the X Box will be gone over here by Summer 2003. Personally I'll have a GC to go with my PS2, just as I have a N64 to go with my PS. Nothing against the Dreamcast but it had nothing to tempt me, and I already believe the same of the XBox.
In the US, the just released consoles will be selling just because they are new. In 4 months time the PS2 will be outselling them. Nintendo will put up a better showing in Japan but will always be number two. I'll bet you a pound (whilst we still have them) to a penny that in two years time XBox production will shut down.
Re:We're still waiting for the Citizen Kane
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Are Videogames Art?
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· Score: 1
I couldn't agree with you more, but I believe it will happen, and sooner rather than later. I find this new generation of consoles to be completely underwhelming, certainly there is nothing out there that is as big a step forward as was promised by M$, Sony and Nintendos original press announcements (Photo realistic graphics? The Emotion engine?). So I would expect the mythical perfect game wont be around until we hit the "generation of gaming after this one".
Golden Eye, Perfect Dark, Shadowman, Operation Winback, the best console version of Rainbow Six, Zelda Majoras Mask, Rouge Squadron, Conkers Bad Fur Day, and countless Soccer, Racing, and Football sims would say different.
And yes, I am a grown adult, and yes I did play Mario 64 all the way through, and I did love it.
...would be all too much for me. The best option is wait until Jan/Feb 02 and the inevitable price cut and buy then. Although that option may not satisfy the screaming kids on Christmas Day, screaming kids is not something I have to put up with.
Being in Europe, neither system will be released until after Christmas anyway, although I will wait until the first price drop before investing. I was also wondering what kind of "traditional media" coverage this was getting. Certainly over here the PS2 release made all the news programmes, but it was a different world then. Is the M$ XBox v the Japanese GC recieving any coverage? I would expect in the current climate that it isnt, and I wonder how that will affect sales? Any insights?
I move around a lot, and I may replace this ageing hulking dinosaur that I'm currently using with a laptop just for convienience. So to aid me, does anyone know of what kind of cash I could expect to be parting with for a laptop with these?
Assuming art is beauty just watch the sunset from Hyrule Field during Legend of Zelda:Ocarina of Time
Re:We're still waiting for the Citizen Kane
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Are Videogames Art?
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· Score: 0
The Citizen Kane post I agree with, but you cannot honestly expect people to see FF VII as the videogame version, that debases videogames. Ignore the gaming element of VII and concentrate on the story. Yes it was entertaining, but it was entertaining for a game. If it were a movie it would be a childrens film and a straight to video one at that.
Until we gamers actually demand something more than FFVII, more than a game on rails where you are a passenger endlessly clicking menus, more story than the cliches spouted by the FF, more than (admittedly extremely) pretty pictures, we will never have our Citizen Kane.
When it does come, and it will, it will pull people into gaming, it will sell consoles, it will sell software, it will be huge. It will be bigger than Tomb Raider, FF, Zelda and Mario put together. The disheartening element is that I dont see it on any developers release schedules. Perhaps we will have to wait for PS3 or Gamecube 2...
1) If the detainee is told that he is being monitored than he will say nothing to incriminate himself, thus defeating the purpose of monitoring.
2) This cant be strictly legal, any information garnered in this way may be challenged and thrown out, again defeating the purpose.
3) Assuming the Govt. has arrested over 1000 people so far, and that rate of arrest continues, how many man hours are going to be used up carrying this out. Hours which could be better used in other ways assuming that monitoring will achieve nothing.
4) If this does go ahead, how long will it be before its extended out to other cases.
5) And if there is no lawyer/client privledge than how can lawyers give clients the best defence possible, which even guilty people deserve, never mind those that have been wrongly accused.
Its a gimmick used by lazy games designers. When it was first used in Gran Turismo/Ridge Racer reviews said it was a sign of how advanced the graphics were, and how it was a nice touch. Which it was, but even then it was overused. As a result every lazy designer now throws lens flare into their games, and every lazy reviewer says how its a nice touch. Until either we get a better gaming press we are stuck with it.
I only know this author by his Dilbert work. And whilst I am usually weary about successful authors who decide to write outside the genre they are most associated with just to try to prove they are really smart and clever. (Yes, I am looking at you Mr. King) This sounds like it may be worth a try. Does anyone know of anything else by Adams along similar lines and worth trying?
It used to be that I would kill for the next console, each new console offered some new wonder, something to amaze. It wasnt that it was an improvemwent in one area, it was that everything was better, it was looking at something new and foreign and exciting. Every new console had that rush that reminded me of the very first time sat into a Pole Position Cabinet, put my money in and became obsessed with gaming. Nes, Snes, Playstation, N64 each one was a major jump.
Now what do we get, the X-box. When it was first announced innocent little me believed all the hype, believed that it would be better, believed it would be everything the PS2 promised but failed to deliver, and more.
Now this, a prettier Perfect Dark? The screen shots are pretty but its no leap forward. A step maybe, but no leap. I am so dissappointed, even this glowing review mentions choppy frame rates! Frame rates were a problem with Playstation that was 6 years ago. I accept the laws of diminishing returns, but how is frame rates still a problem?
Now its all down to Gamecube to provide the revolution that this new generation promised, I know its Nintendo but depressingly I am not holding my breath.
There is a great book called McLibel about the two people who McDonalds tried to sue over a flyer they handed out proclaiming that McDonalds was an evil corporation. It became the longest court case in UK legal history, and the book is a mighty good read. Anyone interested should be able to find a copy on Amazon.
You have got to remember that the UK has had terrorism within tis borders for the last 30 years. Last weekend many people could have been killed if the car bomb in Birmingham City Centre Train Station had actually detonated properly. Thats why the cameras are there.
We know that very few of those cameras actually record, let alone pick up anything useful. None have been used effectivly to stop crime or terrorism. Although where they have been installed petty crime is prevented and ordinary people feel safer, and thats why they are there.
I dont blow up real people so I dont need to be distracted from it, but I don't mind passing a few hours shooting bad guys (or playing sport sims, or solving puzzles, or racing cars) on a console game. With your logic no-one would turn on a TV, or go to a movie, or talk to anyone for that matter!
"The PS2 doesnt have much memory, and its unexpandable anyway..."
...which is why the good people at the Sony Corporation are releasing a PS2 "hard drive" add-on.
Its 40gigabits, its network connection will be used to download "episodes" of games, its around $160, and its probably going to be available in time for Christmas
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What does this mean? Well, for one when the XBox and GC finally get released it will be an uphill battle for them to get the space under the Television. I dont see the same parents getting another console for their kids next year, so it will be really interesting to see how Nintendo and Microsoft market their new toys. Remember N64 and more spectacularly the Dreamcast failed miserably after PS One getting the jump on them, I figure without the Pokemon/Mario/Zelda brands the X Box will be gone over here by Summer 2003. Personally I'll have a GC to go with my PS2, just as I have a N64 to go with my PS. Nothing against the Dreamcast but it had nothing to tempt me, and I already believe the same of the XBox.
In the US, the just released consoles will be selling just because they are new. In 4 months time the PS2 will be outselling them. Nintendo will put up a better showing in Japan but will always be number two. I'll bet you a pound (whilst we still have them) to a penny that in two years time XBox production will shut down.
And yes, I am a grown adult, and yes I did play Mario 64 all the way through, and I did love it.
Being in Europe, neither system will be released until after Christmas anyway, although I will wait until the first price drop before investing. I was also wondering what kind of "traditional media" coverage this was getting. Certainly over here the PS2 release made all the news programmes, but it was a different world then. Is the M$ XBox v the Japanese GC recieving any coverage? I would expect in the current climate that it isnt, and I wonder how that will affect sales? Any insights?
I move around a lot, and I may replace this ageing hulking dinosaur that I'm currently using with a laptop just for convienience. So to aid me, does anyone know of what kind of cash I could expect to be parting with for a laptop with these?
Assuming art is beauty just watch the sunset from Hyrule Field during Legend of Zelda:Ocarina of Time
Until we gamers actually demand something more than FFVII, more than a game on rails where you are a passenger endlessly clicking menus, more story than the cliches spouted by the FF, more than (admittedly extremely) pretty pictures, we will never have our Citizen Kane.
When it does come, and it will, it will pull people into gaming, it will sell consoles, it will sell software, it will be huge. It will be bigger than Tomb Raider, FF, Zelda and Mario put together. The disheartening element is that I dont see it on any developers release schedules. Perhaps we will have to wait for PS3 or Gamecube 2...
1) If the detainee is told that he is being monitored than he will say nothing to incriminate himself, thus defeating the purpose of monitoring.
2) This cant be strictly legal, any information garnered in this way may be challenged and thrown out, again defeating the purpose.
3) Assuming the Govt. has arrested over 1000 people so far, and that rate of arrest continues, how many man hours are going to be used up carrying this out. Hours which could be better used in other ways assuming that monitoring will achieve nothing.
4) If this does go ahead, how long will it be before its extended out to other cases.
5) And if there is no lawyer/client privledge than how can lawyers give clients the best defence possible, which even guilty people deserve, never mind those that have been wrongly accused.
Now what do we get, the X-box. When it was first announced innocent little me believed all the hype, believed that it would be better, believed it would be everything the PS2 promised but failed to deliver, and more.
Now this, a prettier Perfect Dark? The screen shots are pretty but its no leap forward. A step maybe, but no leap. I am so dissappointed, even this glowing review mentions choppy frame rates! Frame rates were a problem with Playstation that was 6 years ago. I accept the laws of diminishing returns, but how is frame rates still a problem?
Now its all down to Gamecube to provide the revolution that this new generation promised, I know its Nintendo but depressingly I am not holding my breath.
There is a great book called McLibel about the two people who McDonalds tried to sue over a flyer they handed out proclaiming that McDonalds was an evil corporation. It became the longest court case in UK legal history, and the book is a mighty good read. Anyone interested should be able to find a copy on Amazon.
A Microsoft sequel would be a pretty cool.
We know that very few of those cameras actually record, let alone pick up anything useful. None have been used effectivly to stop crime or terrorism. Although where they have been installed petty crime is prevented and ordinary people feel safer, and thats why they are there.
I thought you meant that the PS2 was unexpandable, and I was pointing that it is. No harm done.
Thats not asking for too much, is it?
I dont blow up real people so I dont need to be distracted from it, but I don't mind passing a few hours shooting bad guys (or playing sport sims, or solving puzzles, or racing cars) on a console game. With your logic no-one would turn on a TV, or go to a movie, or talk to anyone for that matter!
Its 40gigabits, its network connection will be used to download "episodes" of games, its around $160, and its probably going to be available in time for Christmas
They think of everything don't they?