I don't get the venom aimed at The Spirits Within..a lot of people say it doesn't fit in to the Final Fantasy canon (it does).
The movie, on its face is one of the best sci-fi movies to hit the screen in a long time. The amount of detail given to the world they created is insane.
As well, people complain that it's "not Final Fantasy"..well..it is..it just happens to be kind of our "Final Fantasy". It takes place in the US, of course. And it happens in the future, which fits for doing that.
No, I love intense games...give me games where I'm surrounded and overwhelmed and activty is everywhere..and when I actually have the firepower and the ability to fight my way through it..
Viewtiful Joe, Ratchet and Clank:GC, Destiny Warriors, F-Zero GX, Ikaragua..etc
What I don't like is frustrating games...and most of those older games are simply frustrating. They either rely on memorizing patters, or simple luck. As well, often times the controls are just not good enough to handle what they're asking you to do.
Even my favorites..
Galaga can feel silly at times when the aliens decide to trap you in a corner...
Robotron 2094 only shoots in 8 directions..it needs more..
Bubble Bobble just gets insane at higher levels
Designers these days are able to do more and ARE doing more with it.
Oh, and one last thing. I'm guessing he's referring to the original Atari Pitfalls. That game wasn't hard. It was downright frustrating. Just for the reasons mentioned, the gameplay is near random, and the hitboxes are terrible, making some of the jumps downright impossible.
The point of a game isn't to have you chuck your controller at a wall. It's to give you challenges that challenge your skill...and not your patience..
FF X was actually pretty hard. It had some pretty hard fights that you needed to use strategy for that took a couple of tries.
Especially if you wern't reading along with a strategy guide to give you the hints/equipment setups/turn strategy
I've been playing RPGs for year. Every game has some tough bosses, FF X had just as many or more. FFIV had Odin, Bahamut, Borgan and Zeromus (if not playing the SNES US version where he was way toned down)
FFVI didn't have many tough bosses at all. More tricks than anything Magi-Master you had to use Life3...
That game was easy..
FF X had the various Seymours which were tough, the fights with that dragon (Evrae?) and the fight with Yunalesca which is one of the toughest I've seen. (And would be a worthy last boss for any game)
I actually did a paper on this for my grade school math class. I was a bit of a smartass, and I insisted that because of the physics of it, one side was more likely to come up than the other;)
From what I read about it, there's good scientific basis for this. Apparently having more weight facing down stabalizes the rotation of the coin, slowing it down, making it a bit more possible that it'll come up on one side. Now it's not much different, maybe 5% if that...
It also depends on if you catch and flip or let it hit the ground. From what I can tell, if you let it hit the ground it has more effect than catching and flipping. (The slower you allow the rotation to get the more the weight difference has an effect it seems).
At my school? They stopped talking about probability as it comes to coins, and took other random factors.
#1. Is tricky, and not optimal at all, but every day that passes I feel that the hands are being tied tighter and tighter.
The HMO industry is a parasite that is sucking dry the US economy. End of story. Something has to be done about it, doesn't matter if it's UHC, or price controls, or something else (I don't have the answer), something needs to be done.
#2. I'm assuming that in 10 years, competiion will be moot. Everything that can be moved WILL be moved. End of story. Think about it. At what point, does domestic labour become cheaper than foreign? And what effect will taking that price point have on our economy/society?
#3. Those people are mostly ignored anyway, to be honest. They are just thrown a bone every now and then.
Can't move to India. Strict immigration controls and all.
In any case, I agree with you. However, it's going to require tearing the whole capitialist system down and replacing it with some sort of basics-based socialist system.
'Cos, being the biggest consumer in the world, America is at the breaking point. Between consumer debt and some skyrocketing costs (some now, some on the horizon), such as health care and energy, the tap for the current consumerist economy is going to be turned off.
In any case, in case you havn't noticed, those jobs simply arn't there. It's not a matter of being retrained. What should you be retrained for? Think about it for a second. What's the up and coming job that one could be trained for reasonably (without a 4 year degree). There really isn't any field. Nothing. Zip. Zero.
Keep in mind that in 5 years, the sales and service industries are going to be in deep trouble when the average person can't afford to use them.
What do I suggest?
#1. Universal Health Care
#2. A new outlook on jobs and job growth. The fact is, the jobs are never coming back. Universal Health care will give employers and employees enough relief on costs to reduce the average work week from 40 to 30 hours. This will give far more than enough coverage to cover the new structural unemployment and near-term productivity growth. Combine that with massive IP reform and help for small businesses.
#3. An Apollo project for new energy sources/methods/conservation.
Just a few early steps, but that's how to combat the upcoming storm. Unfortunately, I don't believe that neither Kerry nor Bush are up to the task. Maybe Edwards, but anybody else? Including third-party candidates? Don't make me laugh.
The reason why the unemployment rate has been falling is because people have been being crapped out the other side of the unemployment intestine, so to speak.
The rate has been going down because less people have been in the workforce, as it's measured. Compared to the numbers normally entering the workforce, the number of jobs has been dropping like a rock for the last 3 years or so.
Even the Mario games have had multiple series. You have 2d mario and 3d mario. Can you really compare the two?
Anyway, you're exactly right on Final Fantasy. It's more like a development team than anything. They go out of their way to give each game a different feel. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
But I'm not going to complain about X-2 myself. I'm not the biggest fan of the game system, but X's background story (The fall of the Yevon church) was more than interesting enough to deserve a follow-up.
Game design is not about completly redoing everything each time out. It's about making small twists, little innovations that make a game more fun. At the same time, some point of reference is a good thing to make a game easier to get in to and learn how to play.
In the case of Ratchet and Clank:Going Commando, they added a ton of new weapons, a few extra game modes (a cool race mode and an even cooler space sim like Wing Commander). The story is NOT just a rehash either. Some of the cutscenes are downright hilarious.
The truth is that there's just not that many simple rehashes in the video game market, outside of expansion packs, of course. As technology has improved, the ability to innovate has gone up, and designers have chosen to make use of that ability, which is a very good thing.
I'm not a UT fan, by any means. I think the games are too spazzy for my tastes. (I rather a slower type shooter, your Day of Defeat or Natural Selection).
However, I second your opinion. The UT 2004 demo simply rocks. Not only does it showcase Assault mode in just unspeakable glory (Try it. It's one of the coolest levels of all time), but the Onslaught mode is simply amazing.
Not exactly real, physics wise, but as far as the cool shit quotient goes, it's just unbelievable. From GTA style vehicular mayhem,(And it really feels like GTA)including insane stunt bonuses and running over people, to doing crazy stuff that is just plain fun. Things about the demo I just love:
#1. Driving the Hellbender (A pick-up from hell, with a side rapid fire shock gun and a rear charging double plasma beam), look at the license plate. It has the name of the driver or a shorter version:)
#2. Riding vehicles. Take a manta. (A kind of simplistic varient). You can RIDE it. It has these two wings you can hop on and ride it. So a one person craft can be a three (or more) person craft. And you still have access to all of your weapons. It's just a cool feeling.
#3. Assault map. Near the end, you need to take control of a missle and get away with it. You have control of the largest truck, and you need to get over to the truck holding the missle. There's a small (well relativly) vehicle that moves between one side to the other that you can jump on and ride across. As well, after dropping the side doors, you can jump right in to the missle compartment.
It's a game I am getting. And I'm not a fan of the genre.
This is somewhat tongue in cheek, so don't flame me off hand. But it's still interesting.
Ever think about what is REALLY killing the entertainment industries? Is it organized counterfitting? Or casual copying? Or file sharing?
Why doesn't anybody ever think of the used market as the real downfall of the entertainment industry? This is about used video games, most of which you can't get in stores anyway...but strech this out to music or movies. How many used music/movie stores are around where you live? How much business do they do? Chances are they do just as much, or maybe even more business than a normal record store.
Why is nobody talking about this? Why doesn't the RIAA do advertisements about how used sales take food out of the mouths of artists (which is MORE true than for P2P file sharing). Sure, it's legal. But the question is, is it ethical? How ethical is it to make money off of somebody elses's work..without them even getting a whiff of it?
Furthermore, this is more competition for the entertainment dollar. Spreading things even thinner.
Now, myself I'm torn on this issue. On one hand, I have a lot of pre-owned DVDs from my local movie store (buy 2 get 2 free builds your collection pretty fast). But at the same time, it really HAS to be affecting their real numbers. More-so than anything else really.
This stuff takes up permament places in my playlist. I have a good sound system..a lot of stuff doesn't stand up to the close scrutiny, but the amount of depth in these songs sure do, especially the newer ones (see X).
If you want to check it out, check out Someday The Dream Will End, or Auron's Theme from FF X. Just amazing music.
Is Classical a style? Or is classical just when something has dust on it?
Generally speaking, classical is a style, at least a broad-genre. Usually referring to orchastral/instrumental type music.
The FF music, for the most part is indeed classical. Although I would say some things go into electronic or the odd song straight out rock.
The tacked on part is the lack of internet play or AI-controlled bots, which are needed for console FPS in my mind. As well, marketing goes a long way. Halo is "cool". I just don't think it's that good.
If you're a fan of the classics, then really, gaming is moving away from you. Classics meaning like Pac-Man, Galga, etc. They're not going to make any more, because the classics are already there, and anything to try and capitalize on that will just be seen as a copy-cat. (EXCEPTION: Most current puzzle games I see is beeing Classic-ish. Simple gameplay, playing for points, not levels, etc.)
Myself? I tend to play more games now than ever. And I'm enjoying them more too. There are several reasons...The main reason is they're making more games I like, at least on consoles.
Things I like:
#1. The feeling of being busy and intense while not feeling frustrated and out-of control. Viewtiful Joe, being the best example (and one of the best games ever), as well you have Ratchet and Clank:Going Commando, the Dynasty Warriors series, Ikaragua and assorted others. (Some of which are not so good, like Enter The Matrix).
#2. Fighting games that are both deep yet accessable. They still make them, I still love them. Yes, Fighting games are deep. Always lived outside a big arcade scene, but locally, people here are big KoF nuts, and I had a fun time learning 97-98-99 into the ground. But Soul Calibur 2 is great with some people who know what they are doing.
#3. Better stories. This is both a function of technology, but it's also a function of ambition. I'm not just talking about your Final Fantasy type story. (Although the story for X was amazingly deep, yet because of the PoV aspect was still personal) I'm talking Ratchet and Clank with the hilarious commercials in it. Disgaea:Hour of Darkness, the story is just not what you expect at all. I think the word is...snarky among others. As part of the story, the best games just feel fleshed out. They have that something extra that keeps you in there. Interesting characters, if there's not the oppurtunity for a story..an interesting idea.
#4. Eye/Ear candy. I love this stuff. Sure sure, it's all about gameplay. But still. Starting a race in F-Zero GX, and watching all the light trails from the racers in front of you, as they are attacking each other and jockying for position. Metriod Prime, when an energy ball comes flying by your face, seeing Samus's reflection in her visor. At the same time, you have Audio candy as well. The radio stations in GTA 3/VC. The music from Final Fantasy games, (Especially X. Auron's theme pumped through a surround system is mesmorizing.)
Now, if you have better things to do, in your mind, that's a personal decision. But yeah, if those things don't matter to you, then it's fair to say that games have "left you".
As for PC games? PC games are unfortunatly boring. There's not much that's coming out that really pushes the boundries. And when they do, it tends to not be too unplayable. What do I play? Half-Life mods. Natural Selection mostly. I like some of the Microsoft games, believe it or not..Freelancer, Rise of Nations. What else is there? Not very much.
Business-way, yeah, they have been having some sucess. A very sucessful ad campaign, as well, focusing on specific genres gave them good inroads into both the gamer and casual console market.
Quality-wise? It's a very mixed bag. No X-Box only title has really hit a home-run so far. Halo was only half-finished (still a very good engine, but the single-player was under-developed level design wise and the mutli-player feels like an add-on.) Project Gotham Racing is fun, but hardly a deal maker (Burnout/NfS:Underground are just as good) Amped is boring. They've had some success with their sports games, but in my mind they are a dime a dozen.
The multi-media features had possibility, but came out as kind of bleh. The In-system MP3 player is nice, but not really a deal-clencher.
Some of the grey-market front ends are really sweet 'tho.. those are a deal-clencher.
In the future? Fable will either be really good or really bad. Take your pick. (I bet that different people will see it either way.). Halo 2 should be THE killer ap on the X-Box, if it's not overshadowed by Half-Life 2 and Doom 3. (If Half-Life 2 comes with Counter-Strike 2.0 and Day of Defeat 2.0 ON THE DISK, then Halo 2 will be overlooked.)
What else is there? Not much that I can see. And that's a shame.
Enter The Matrix wasn't that bad. It was buggy as shit, but the game design itself was pretty good. It just had a few problems...
#1. The camera sucked. That doesn't make a game bad 'tho. The camera for most 3d games sucks. At least that's my opinon. It doesn't ruin a game 'tho. Take Rachet and Clank:Going Commando. The camera sucked for that, but it didn't ruin the game. Actually the game is great (albeit short)
#2. The controls were too complicated. Although myself, I spent the time with the game learning them, and by the end of it I was having a whole lot of fun with it.
It had it's problems, don't get me wrong. But the ideas was there and it was a good one. I think it's really hard to get the balance right in that genre (Overwhelming Action, as I call it. My wife just calls it "Viewtiful"), EtM *just* missed it, but it's worth trying, when it works (Dynasty Warriors, Ikaragua, Viewtiful Joe especially) it really works.
It depends on the game really. The only game where characterization should matter, is really a RPG, which should have a deeper story.
Most RPG baddies are motivated by a search for power. Now what they would do with this power is up in the air. Would they be evil? Yeah, most of the time. However, they might not see it that way. They may see themselves on some sort of divine quest, or that they're preserving society. And yes, there are the true crazies.
Off-hand...
FFX, Seymour was after power, he wanted to become Sin. All his supporters were more interested in maintaining the status quo and preventing Auron from tearing down their religion.
FFVI, Kefka is a loony. Obviously picked on FAR too much as a little kid.
The Dragon Warrior games were always very simplistic in the character designs. It was always just eeeviiiil. Rather boring.
For my money, FFX had the most interesting villins. Mainly because there were critical social implications to what was going on, and that was the focus on the story.
It's only recently that stories in games started to get a little deeper. As a side note, my favorite action story by far is the one in Viewtiful Joe. A great B-movie director is sucked into the movies he makes, and kidnapps his own daughter to force her to help him create his materpiece.
I think it's more execution of a story than anything...
Oh yeah. The number of/. drones who talk a good talk but really know nothing.
Like it or not, the above poster is right. Piracy IS competition. It's basic economics. One of the forces that keeps prices down and service up is the presence of some black/grey market activity that pepole can go to if they feel it's worth it.
This is especially true for "cultural' goods. (Mostly entertainment. It helps that it's easily copied).
And yes, if there were no theft, prices would be higher and there would be more DRM because they would think they could get away with it. (Why the DRM? They'd try and stomp out the secondary market. Nobody said they had to give you the ability to sell your used media..even if you do have the right).
I'm not a big fan of the Quake-style deathmatch type games, I much prefer smaller locations, CS/DoD style..
However, the Demo is a LOT of fun. Assault mode is very good, at least it shows off a good map. There's 6 seperate objectives for the attackers to do, and it's fast paced enough to keep it interesting.
Onslaught mode is really good too. I'm not a big fan of the map, but the mode itself has promise. It's basically a sci-fi BF1942, just a lot faster.
And it runs just as well as UT2003. Good programming.
This is just political posturing for the election and so much bullshit it's not even funny.
There's a deeper problem however, it's the reliance on old-school economics that even critics of the current administration rely on. That follows too much theory while ignoring business reality.
Why do companies hire people? Is it because they have a soft spot in their heart? Because the forsee future growth? Nope.
Hiring occurs because a company's current workforce is unable to meet their needs. What's happened recently, is instead of hiring new workers, companies have pulled more productivity out of their current workers. That's the reason for the current jobless recovery.
Very few jobs are going to be created in such an enviroment, ever. In fact, eventually you'll start seeing more and more jobs being lost as disposible money becomes more and more of a scarcity.
Face it, those jobs are not coming back. In fact, the American middle class is going to cease to exist. Accept it and get used to it.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, the reason the ending is "weak", is that the ending is too cute for it's own good.
Meaning that it leaves with just as many mysteries than it comes in with.
*Ahem*
:p
I don't get the venom aimed at The Spirits Within..a lot of people say it doesn't fit in to the Final Fantasy canon (it does).
The movie, on its face is one of the best sci-fi movies to hit the screen in a long time. The amount of detail given to the world they created is insane.
As well, people complain that it's "not Final Fantasy"..well..it is..it just happens to be kind of our "Final Fantasy". It takes place in the US, of course. And it happens in the future, which fits for doing that.
Anyway, enough ranting on that
Simple as that
Cutting back by that much, they should be listed on F****D Company.
Either they have no desire/wish to compete in the current market or they expect YOU to pick up the slack to make them more money.
Either way you lose.
Look for a job and if you can see something, jump for it.
I like intense games..
No, I love intense games...give me games where I'm surrounded and overwhelmed and activty is everywhere..and when I actually have the firepower and the ability to fight my way through it..
Viewtiful Joe, Ratchet and Clank:GC, Destiny Warriors, F-Zero GX, Ikaragua..etc
What I don't like is frustrating games...and most of those older games are simply frustrating. They either rely on memorizing patters, or simple luck. As well, often times the controls are just not good enough to handle what they're asking you to do.
Even my favorites..
Galaga can feel silly at times when the aliens decide to trap you in a corner...
Robotron 2094 only shoots in 8 directions..it needs more..
Bubble Bobble just gets insane at higher levels
Designers these days are able to do more and ARE doing more with it.
Oh, and one last thing. I'm guessing he's referring to the original Atari Pitfalls. That game wasn't hard. It was downright frustrating. Just for the reasons mentioned, the gameplay is near random, and the hitboxes are terrible, making some of the jumps downright impossible.
The point of a game isn't to have you chuck your controller at a wall. It's to give you challenges that challenge your skill...and not your patience..
Ironic considering some of the choice of words..
VJ isn't that hard on the default levels...
Now, once you get to V-Rated, it's extremly difficult.
But I think the point of the article is that it kind of ignores difficulty settings. I think it's assuming that everybody plays on easy..
Blech..
FF X was actually pretty hard. It had some pretty hard fights that you needed to use strategy for that took a couple of tries.
Especially if you wern't reading along with a strategy guide to give you the hints/equipment setups/turn strategy
I've been playing RPGs for year. Every game has some tough bosses, FF X had just as many or more. FFIV had Odin, Bahamut, Borgan and Zeromus (if not playing the SNES US version where he was way toned down)
FFVI didn't have many tough bosses at all. More tricks than anything Magi-Master you had to use Life3...
That game was easy..
FF X had the various Seymours which were tough, the fights with that dragon (Evrae?) and the fight with Yunalesca which is one of the toughest I've seen. (And would be a worthy last boss for any game)
Anyway, just my opinion..
That's a big Whisky Tango Foxtrot...
I was WAITING for that announcement. Just to see what these people are up to. How big will they go?
And do they have another patsy to settle with them to give their stock more legitimacy?
I vote for the second.
I actually did a paper on this for my grade school math class. I was a bit of a smartass, and I insisted that because of the physics of it, one side was more likely to come up than the other ;)
From what I read about it, there's good scientific basis for this. Apparently having more weight facing down stabalizes the rotation of the coin, slowing it down, making it a bit more possible that it'll come up on one side. Now it's not much different, maybe 5% if that...
It also depends on if you catch and flip or let it hit the ground. From what I can tell, if you let it hit the ground it has more effect than catching and flipping. (The slower you allow the rotation to get the more the weight difference has an effect it seems).
At my school? They stopped talking about probability as it comes to coins, and took other random factors.
Some answers..
#1. Is tricky, and not optimal at all, but every day that passes I feel that the hands are being tied tighter and tighter.
The HMO industry is a parasite that is sucking dry the US economy. End of story. Something has to be done about it, doesn't matter if it's UHC, or price controls, or something else (I don't have the answer), something needs to be done.
#2. I'm assuming that in 10 years, competiion will be moot. Everything that can be moved WILL be moved. End of story. Think about it. At what point, does domestic labour become cheaper than foreign? And what effect will taking that price point have on our economy/society?
#3. Those people are mostly ignored anyway, to be honest. They are just thrown a bone every now and then.
Can't move to India. Strict immigration controls and all.
In any case, I agree with you. However, it's going to require tearing the whole capitialist system down and replacing it with some sort of basics-based socialist system.
'Cos, being the biggest consumer in the world, America is at the breaking point. Between consumer debt and some skyrocketing costs (some now, some on the horizon), such as health care and energy, the tap for the current consumerist economy is going to be turned off.
In any case, in case you havn't noticed, those jobs simply arn't there. It's not a matter of being retrained. What should you be retrained for? Think about it for a second. What's the up and coming job that one could be trained for reasonably (without a 4 year degree). There really isn't any field. Nothing. Zip. Zero.
Keep in mind that in 5 years, the sales and service industries are going to be in deep trouble when the average person can't afford to use them.
What do I suggest?
#1. Universal Health Care
#2. A new outlook on jobs and job growth. The fact is, the jobs are never coming back. Universal Health care will give employers and employees enough relief on costs to reduce the average work week from 40 to 30 hours. This will give far more than enough coverage to cover the new structural unemployment and near-term productivity growth. Combine that with massive IP reform and help for small businesses.
#3. An Apollo project for new energy sources/methods/conservation.
Just a few early steps, but that's how to combat the upcoming storm. Unfortunately, I don't believe that neither Kerry nor Bush are up to the task. Maybe Edwards, but anybody else? Including third-party candidates? Don't make me laugh.
Do a little research please...
The reason why the unemployment rate has been falling is because people have been being crapped out the other side of the unemployment intestine, so to speak.
The rate has been going down because less people have been in the workforce, as it's measured. Compared to the numbers normally entering the workforce, the number of jobs has been dropping like a rock for the last 3 years or so.
Even the Mario games have had multiple series. You have 2d mario and 3d mario. Can you really compare the two? Anyway, you're exactly right on Final Fantasy. It's more like a development team than anything. They go out of their way to give each game a different feel. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But I'm not going to complain about X-2 myself. I'm not the biggest fan of the game system, but X's background story (The fall of the Yevon church) was more than interesting enough to deserve a follow-up.
On the other hand, why reinvent the wheel?
Game design is not about completly redoing everything each time out. It's about making small twists, little innovations that make a game more fun. At the same time, some point of reference is a good thing to make a game easier to get in to and learn how to play.
In the case of Ratchet and Clank:Going Commando, they added a ton of new weapons, a few extra game modes (a cool race mode and an even cooler space sim like Wing Commander). The story is NOT just a rehash either. Some of the cutscenes are downright hilarious.
The truth is that there's just not that many simple rehashes in the video game market, outside of expansion packs, of course. As technology has improved, the ability to innovate has gone up, and designers have chosen to make use of that ability, which is a very good thing.
I'm not a UT fan, by any means. I think the games are too spazzy for my tastes. (I rather a slower type shooter, your Day of Defeat or Natural Selection).
:)
However, I second your opinion. The UT 2004 demo simply rocks. Not only does it showcase Assault mode in just unspeakable glory (Try it. It's one of the coolest levels of all time), but the Onslaught mode is simply amazing.
Not exactly real, physics wise, but as far as the cool shit quotient goes, it's just unbelievable. From GTA style vehicular mayhem,(And it really feels like GTA)including insane stunt bonuses and running over people, to doing crazy stuff that is just plain fun. Things about the demo I just love:
#1. Driving the Hellbender (A pick-up from hell, with a side rapid fire shock gun and a rear charging double plasma beam), look at the license plate. It has the name of the driver or a shorter version
#2. Riding vehicles. Take a manta. (A kind of simplistic varient). You can RIDE it. It has these two wings you can hop on and ride it. So a one person craft can be a three (or more) person craft. And you still have access to all of your weapons. It's just a cool feeling.
#3. Assault map. Near the end, you need to take control of a missle and get away with it. You have control of the largest truck, and you need to get over to the truck holding the missle. There's a small (well relativly) vehicle that moves between one side to the other that you can jump on and ride across. As well, after dropping the side doors, you can jump right in to the missle compartment.
It's a game I am getting. And I'm not a fan of the genre.
In other words, Demos are good.
This is somewhat tongue in cheek, so don't flame me off hand. But it's still interesting.
Ever think about what is REALLY killing the entertainment industries? Is it organized counterfitting? Or casual copying? Or file sharing?
Why doesn't anybody ever think of the used market as the real downfall of the entertainment industry? This is about used video games, most of which you can't get in stores anyway...but strech this out to music or movies. How many used music/movie stores are around where you live? How much business do they do? Chances are they do just as much, or maybe even more business than a normal record store.
Why is nobody talking about this? Why doesn't the RIAA do advertisements about how used sales take food out of the mouths of artists (which is MORE true than for P2P file sharing). Sure, it's legal. But the question is, is it ethical? How ethical is it to make money off of somebody elses's work..without them even getting a whiff of it?
Furthermore, this is more competition for the entertainment dollar. Spreading things even thinner.
Now, myself I'm torn on this issue. On one hand, I have a lot of pre-owned DVDs from my local movie store (buy 2 get 2 free builds your collection pretty fast). But at the same time, it really HAS to be affecting their real numbers. More-so than anything else really.
Again. Why isn't anybody talking about this?
This stuff takes up permament places in my playlist. I have a good sound system..a lot of stuff doesn't stand up to the close scrutiny, but the amount of depth in these songs sure do, especially the newer ones (see X).
If you want to check it out, check out Someday The Dream Will End, or Auron's Theme from FF X. Just amazing music.
Is Classical a style? Or is classical just when something has dust on it? Generally speaking, classical is a style, at least a broad-genre. Usually referring to orchastral/instrumental type music. The FF music, for the most part is indeed classical. Although I would say some things go into electronic or the odd song straight out rock.
That's the engine.
The tacked on part is the lack of internet play or AI-controlled bots, which are needed for console FPS in my mind. As well, marketing goes a long way. Halo is "cool". I just don't think it's that good.
If you're a fan of the classics, then really, gaming is moving away from you. Classics meaning like Pac-Man, Galga, etc. They're not going to make any more, because the classics are already there, and anything to try and capitalize on that will just be seen as a copy-cat. (EXCEPTION: Most current puzzle games I see is beeing Classic-ish. Simple gameplay, playing for points, not levels, etc.)
Myself? I tend to play more games now than ever. And I'm enjoying them more too. There are several reasons...The main reason is they're making more games I like, at least on consoles.
Things I like:
#1. The feeling of being busy and intense while not feeling frustrated and out-of control. Viewtiful Joe, being the best example (and one of the best games ever), as well you have Ratchet and Clank:Going Commando, the Dynasty Warriors series, Ikaragua and assorted others. (Some of which are not so good, like Enter The Matrix).
#2. Fighting games that are both deep yet accessable. They still make them, I still love them. Yes, Fighting games are deep. Always lived outside a big arcade scene, but locally, people here are big KoF nuts, and I had a fun time learning 97-98-99 into the ground. But Soul Calibur 2 is great with some people who know what they are doing.
#3. Better stories. This is both a function of technology, but it's also a function of ambition. I'm not just talking about your Final Fantasy type story. (Although the story for X was amazingly deep, yet because of the PoV aspect was still personal) I'm talking Ratchet and Clank with the hilarious commercials in it. Disgaea:Hour of Darkness, the story is just not what you expect at all. I think the word is...snarky among others. As part of the story, the best games just feel fleshed out. They have that something extra that keeps you in there. Interesting characters, if there's not the oppurtunity for a story..an interesting idea.
#4. Eye/Ear candy. I love this stuff. Sure sure, it's all about gameplay. But still. Starting a race in F-Zero GX, and watching all the light trails from the racers in front of you, as they are attacking each other and jockying for position. Metriod Prime, when an energy ball comes flying by your face, seeing Samus's reflection in her visor. At the same time, you have Audio candy as well. The radio stations in GTA 3/VC. The music from Final Fantasy games, (Especially X. Auron's theme pumped through a surround system is mesmorizing.)
Now, if you have better things to do, in your mind, that's a personal decision. But yeah, if those things don't matter to you, then it's fair to say that games have "left you".
As for PC games? PC games are unfortunatly boring. There's not much that's coming out that really pushes the boundries. And when they do, it tends to not be too unplayable. What do I play? Half-Life mods. Natural Selection mostly. I like some of the Microsoft games, believe it or not..Freelancer, Rise of Nations. What else is there? Not very much.
Business-way, yeah, they have been having some sucess. A very sucessful ad campaign, as well, focusing on specific genres gave them good inroads into both the gamer and casual console market.
Quality-wise? It's a very mixed bag. No X-Box only title has really hit a home-run so far. Halo was only half-finished (still a very good engine, but the single-player was under-developed level design wise and the mutli-player feels like an add-on.) Project Gotham Racing is fun, but hardly a deal maker (Burnout/NfS:Underground are just as good) Amped is boring. They've had some success with their sports games, but in my mind they are a dime a dozen.
The multi-media features had possibility, but came out as kind of bleh. The In-system MP3 player is nice, but not really a deal-clencher.
Some of the grey-market front ends are really sweet 'tho.. those are a deal-clencher.
In the future? Fable will either be really good or really bad. Take your pick. (I bet that different people will see it either way.). Halo 2 should be THE killer ap on the X-Box, if it's not overshadowed by Half-Life 2 and Doom 3. (If Half-Life 2 comes with Counter-Strike 2.0 and Day of Defeat 2.0 ON THE DISK, then Halo 2 will be overlooked.)
What else is there? Not much that I can see. And that's a shame.
Enter The Matrix wasn't that bad. It was buggy as shit, but the game design itself was pretty good. It just had a few problems...
#1. The camera sucked. That doesn't make a game bad 'tho. The camera for most 3d games sucks. At least that's my opinon. It doesn't ruin a game 'tho. Take Rachet and Clank:Going Commando. The camera sucked for that, but it didn't ruin the game. Actually the game is great (albeit short)
#2. The controls were too complicated. Although myself, I spent the time with the game learning them, and by the end of it I was having a whole lot of fun with it.
It had it's problems, don't get me wrong. But the ideas was there and it was a good one. I think it's really hard to get the balance right in that genre (Overwhelming Action, as I call it. My wife just calls it "Viewtiful"), EtM *just* missed it, but it's worth trying, when it works (Dynasty Warriors, Ikaragua, Viewtiful Joe especially) it really works.
It depends on the game really. The only game where characterization should matter, is really a RPG, which should have a deeper story.
Most RPG baddies are motivated by a search for power. Now what they would do with this power is up in the air. Would they be evil? Yeah, most of the time. However, they might not see it that way. They may see themselves on some sort of divine quest, or that they're preserving society. And yes, there are the true crazies.
Off-hand...
FFX, Seymour was after power, he wanted to become Sin. All his supporters were more interested in maintaining the status quo and preventing Auron from tearing down their religion.
FFVI, Kefka is a loony. Obviously picked on FAR too much as a little kid.
The Dragon Warrior games were always very simplistic in the character designs. It was always just eeeviiiil. Rather boring.
For my money, FFX had the most interesting villins. Mainly because there were critical social implications to what was going on, and that was the focus on the story.
It's only recently that stories in games started to get a little deeper. As a side note, my favorite action story by far is the one in Viewtiful Joe. A great B-movie director is sucked into the movies he makes, and kidnapps his own daughter to force her to help him create his materpiece.
I think it's more execution of a story than anything...
Why did you post this AC?
/. drones who talk a good talk but really know nothing.
Oh yeah. The number of
Like it or not, the above poster is right. Piracy IS competition. It's basic economics. One of the forces that keeps prices down and service up is the presence of some black/grey market activity that pepole can go to if they feel it's worth it.
This is especially true for "cultural' goods. (Mostly entertainment. It helps that it's easily copied).
And yes, if there were no theft, prices would be higher and there would be more DRM because they would think they could get away with it. (Why the DRM? They'd try and stomp out the secondary market. Nobody said they had to give you the ability to sell your used media..even if you do have the right).
I'm not a big fan of the Quake-style deathmatch type games, I much prefer smaller locations, CS/DoD style..
However, the Demo is a LOT of fun. Assault mode is very good, at least it shows off a good map. There's 6 seperate objectives for the attackers to do, and it's fast paced enough to keep it interesting.
Onslaught mode is really good too. I'm not a big fan of the map, but the mode itself has promise. It's basically a sci-fi BF1942, just a lot faster.
And it runs just as well as UT2003. Good programming.
This is just political posturing for the election and so much bullshit it's not even funny.
There's a deeper problem however, it's the reliance on old-school economics that even critics of the current administration rely on. That follows too much theory while ignoring business reality.
Why do companies hire people? Is it because they have a soft spot in their heart? Because the forsee future growth? Nope.
Hiring occurs because a company's current workforce is unable to meet their needs. What's happened recently, is instead of hiring new workers, companies have pulled more productivity out of their current workers. That's the reason for the current jobless recovery.
Very few jobs are going to be created in such an enviroment, ever. In fact, eventually you'll start seeing more and more jobs being lost as disposible money becomes more and more of a scarcity.
Face it, those jobs are not coming back. In fact, the American middle class is going to cease to exist. Accept it and get used to it.