I migrated my office over to gOS and productivity has shot through the roof! Everyone can browse the internet twice as fast, with none of those pesky IE browser crashes now............
You continue to buy FPS games for your 360 two years later. Is that because you mainly like FPS games or because that's mainly what the 360 has to offer?
I've enjoyed my Wii, but agree there's still a lack of games. Outside of Wii Sports, Zelda, Metroid, Mario, and RE4 I still haven't found much to be interested in. I also own a 360 and outside of Live Arcade, Dead Rising, and assorted other games I still haven't found much to be interested in with it either (not a FPS fan in the least). Each system seems to be pidgeon holed into specific genre's right now and I think it's really hurting the industry. More people are playing games than every before yet there's no compelling reason for anyone to upgrade from the PS2 outside of the fact that they want Nintendo brand games or Halo.
I think that the most important reason why the old console cycle needs to die is to let programmers/software catch up with the hardware. Sure, you put enough people on a project and you can crank out a PS3 game in enough time; however, if the game is a flop, it could be a disaster for the studio. On the other hand a developer could put out a game on a console that takes less time and money to develop for (such as the Wii and handhelds) and there's not as much risk involved with taking chances. In Nintendo case they're actually encouraging studios to start and take chances. Years down the road when the road has been paved for super high end graphic consoles and software has caught up to the point where it's affordable to actually make the jump.
After all, the real race over the years, weather people want to own up to it or not, has been a software race rather than a hardware race. It hasn't so much been about what the hardware so much as what developers can squeeze out of it.
Nintendo, imho, is basically telling developers "Look, you know all those development tools you spent years tweaking for the Gamecube? Well, here's your chance to actually use all of them. BTW, here's our tools while you're at it." It's feasible that the programming team could actually create the frame of the game while the actual details are still being developed. It's definitely a shift in the industry that we haven't seen since the days of 2d gaming. It's the reason why portable gaming has been so healthy over the years. I'm personally excited about the doors this might open for the industry and I definitely hope that Nintendo in fact does ignore the console cycle until consumers demand they need more power.
Yeah, the real solution to this problem is to make the skip button a nonstandard button on the controller, such as the start button or one of the shoulder buttons your rarely use. While not being able to skip a cut scene is the worst, accidentally hitting the button and skipping a cut scene is even worse. Sometimes you play a game for an hour to get to a save spot and an important part of the story pops up right before the save spot. Accidentally skipping is more or less makes you loose an hour of play time to go back and see the cut scene.
Physics isn't my high point, and think I must be oversimplifying this or at least missing the point, but wouldn't this be fairly straightforward physics thinking?
Doesn't this kind of go hand in hand with the big bang to begin with? You start with matter without a time dimension, then it explodes and "gains" this time dimension. Then, inevitably, it collapses upon itself and loses that "time dimension" once again. The second that matter gains time as a property, the clock automatically starts counting down to the point where it looses it. Much like, if you want to look at life in a morbid fashion, the second you are born you are on your journey to the grave.
As I said, I'm no expert in this so if there's more than meets the eye here, feel free to expand my horizons (no pun intented).
No, you join the fray. The article is about a PS3 with no emotion engine. The Euro PS3 hasn't had the Emotion Engine since launch. It IS backwards compatible through software just as the new US model will be.
Nintendo's constantly pushing out new Intellectual Property, it's just that their "rehash" games are so hugely popular that they often overshadow the new IP. Then the new IP takes off and people are complaining about it being yet another "rehash" when they come out with a new game in the series.
The only reason Nintendo gets this rap is that their IP's are usually extremely successful and recognizable. Just take a look at all the characters in Smash Brothers. Nintendo honestly owns the market when it comes to instantly recognizable cultural icons.
The thing is, no specs or plans for building weapons and other technologies would be on a network that could be hacked into. This would be completely separated from the internet as a whole and safeguarded as classified information. China knows this...the only reason they would do this is to prove that they can do it. The only thing they could get from such an attack is names and numbers of people who possibly could leak them information with coercion.
I always think it's funny when people think that government secrets are accessible via hax0ringz teh net.
"Microsoft products have always been too complex and baroque. That's a good formula for the bug critical mass scenario. I'm only surprised it didn't happen before."
Nintendo profits off of every Wii sold. Sony (apparently) looses money on each PS3 sold, as does Microsoft with the 360. So it looks to me that the only console that's in the green is the Wii.
Some anti-MS or pro-Linux person, whichever, was obviously sitting on Dell's website waiting for this to be the case.
Anyone who goes to Dell's site or follows any of the bargain sites (fatwallet, slickdeals, techbargains, etc) knows that Dell deals change on a daily basis. One day you'll be able to buy a PC cheap without a monitor, the next day the purchase will require purchase of a monitor, the next day they'll throw in a RAM upgrade out of nowhere. I know last week there was a deal for a Linux box for around $250 off of Dell's site. They do this to keep people checking back. When someone sees a deal that looks good, they'll eventually make an impulse buy.
Unfortunately, it's not a myth of the industry so much as it's a myth of gamers. They fight over the meaning...some think it means FPS players, some think it means those who play only the most obscure of games, some think it just means people who play absurd hours of games. It's just like any club of sect of society...for some reason certain people like labels and feel strength and security in numbers.
The sad thing is, as a 28 year old life long gamer, starting with a Commodore 24 and currently owning practically every home game console to be mass produced since (save the PS3 and the Xbox 360), I wouldn't even consider myself a gamer at this point. While I play games and own over a thousand, it seems that these days it's not about playing the games themselves so much as it is having the best gear, best graphics, most violence, cinematic sequences, etc. I used to smile when playing games, now it's all too serious and realistic. I've actually gotten anxiety from playing some of the newer games, and that's not really cool.
In that sense, maybe I AM a casual gamer. So, in this day and age, can a veteran gamer who's been gaming nearly 25 years be considered a casual gamer? I suppose so, by definition.
Sony seems to totally overlook the negatives to the UMD format. Such as horrendously slow load time and bulky media. Many games are frustratingly slow loading and actually kill the fun of the game. Who wants to wait for fights and stages to load that long? The bulky media is more difficult to take on the road and you definately don't want to just stick a UMD in your pocket. I have no problem doing this with my DS games. The only negative I have with my DS carts are slight space limitations; however, without streaming audio in games this is rarely an issue.
If UMD's are cheaper, why are the games more expensive? Also, why do we need an optical disc for movies these days? I can put a perfectly great looking DIVX file on a cd and play it on a large tv. Couldn't you just as easily use something similar to a cheap 512mb SD-card and get the same quality?
You realize there was always a $500 PS3, right? The problem with this price cut is that Sony didn't lower their bottom line, they just dropped the price of 40gb of extra hard drive space $100 and offered a new $600 SKU. Sure, you ARE getting 40gb of extra hard drive now, but how much more does this cost Sony? $5-10? This is called marketing. You're not really getting a price cut as much as you're being subjected to a marketing tactic.
I actually met one of the MusicMatch engineers and I tell you, I've never felt so bad for a guy. They were so proud of their product when it was MusicMatch. Then Yahoo bought them out and overnight they were working at breakneck speed converting it to Yahoo's vision of the Yahoo Music Engine (as it was called then) to launch their Yahoo Music Unlimited service on. I guess somewhere in the rush a bad memory leak was introduced (along with a few smaller problems). I don't think they ever got around to fixing the leak because it was too deep rooted in the code. Instead, they jury rigged it to where it wouldn't kill Windows, just make the software itself slow as all get out. Basically, everytime they went to actually fix the software, Yahoo kept pushing more of their external changes. Now it's to the point where I'll be surprised if they ever fix it unless they just scrap what they have and start over.
I would like to say, however, as much as the software sucks the Yahoo! Music Unlimited service for $7 a month is the best $7 I spend each month. Less than the price of a cd and I'm actually surprised at some of the obscure stuff I find on it. If your tastes are more mainstream, you'll find everything you want minus Zepplin and a few other hard to contract acts.
Exactly. This holds no grounds in court as far as I can see because Microsoft HAS to offer new features to stay competitive with OSX. Sure, if Microsoft offered a full featured, non integrated cd-burning software with their OS, Roxio and Ahead would have a case against Microsoft. A search function is vital to everyday computing and is a built in function. I don't think Google has much to worry about. Desktop integrates absolutely perfectly with my gmail, so I'll continue to use it.
The thing you're missing is that this is to become a full blown licensed developer. I believe that things are a bit different and cheaper being a WiiWare developer.
...when the quality of videogames keeps going up and the quality of the crap the major music labels tries to cram down your throat keeps going down (as if that was even possible). Besides, buying 1 full price game is equivelant to buying 4 new cds. And as big of a music geek as I am, getting a new videogame is a lot more exciting than getting a new cd. Especially for the masses who can turn on the radio and hear music for free.
I think it's hilarious. The only reason this is even news is because sales are down with MAJOR recording labels. Independent labels are thriving the better than they have since the 80's. Independant artists are doing better than they ever have (not saying they're doing great, but it's definitely feasible to make a good living as an independent artist). Let the major labels tell you the cd business is nose diving into the crapper all they want, it's just that independent music is on an upswing again. When major labels find the next new "sound" to push to consumers, the mainstream will be back buying cds. The only cd purchases online downloads are stealing from the stores are the mass market, platinum+ sellers...which will continue to sell millions of copies, despite piracy and online mp3 purchases. Just like tape dubbing hurt sales in the 80's and cd burning hurt sales in the 90's.
The answer is to drop cd prices back to what they were in the 90's, offer customers a way to explore and search for new music instead of just pushing a few select artists while relying on word of mouth to sell cds (word of mouth = "lemme burn you this cd" instead of impulse buy), offer retailers incentives to install listening stations in stores like they used to have, and offer DRM free mp3 downloads of the album with purchase. Most people want the cd long enough to rip it and put it on their mp3 player. Giving free drm free downloads does the consumer a favor and gives them an incentive to buy the disc rather than search out a pirate version of the cd and wait for it to download. Put trust into the consumers and the consumers will trust you.
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I migrated my office over to gOS and productivity has shot through the roof! Everyone can browse the internet twice as fast, with none of those pesky IE browser crashes now. ...........
You continue to buy FPS games for your 360 two years later. Is that because you mainly like FPS games or because that's mainly what the 360 has to offer?
I've enjoyed my Wii, but agree there's still a lack of games. Outside of Wii Sports, Zelda, Metroid, Mario, and RE4 I still haven't found much to be interested in. I also own a 360 and outside of Live Arcade, Dead Rising, and assorted other games I still haven't found much to be interested in with it either (not a FPS fan in the least). Each system seems to be pidgeon holed into specific genre's right now and I think it's really hurting the industry. More people are playing games than every before yet there's no compelling reason for anyone to upgrade from the PS2 outside of the fact that they want Nintendo brand games or Halo.
Gene Simmons saying "It's about the music." I thought it was about the merch and pyro?
I think that the most important reason why the old console cycle needs to die is to let programmers/software catch up with the hardware. Sure, you put enough people on a project and you can crank out a PS3 game in enough time; however, if the game is a flop, it could be a disaster for the studio. On the other hand a developer could put out a game on a console that takes less time and money to develop for (such as the Wii and handhelds) and there's not as much risk involved with taking chances. In Nintendo case they're actually encouraging studios to start and take chances. Years down the road when the road has been paved for super high end graphic consoles and software has caught up to the point where it's affordable to actually make the jump.
After all, the real race over the years, weather people want to own up to it or not, has been a software race rather than a hardware race. It hasn't so much been about what the hardware so much as what developers can squeeze out of it.
Nintendo, imho, is basically telling developers "Look, you know all those development tools you spent years tweaking for the Gamecube? Well, here's your chance to actually use all of them. BTW, here's our tools while you're at it." It's feasible that the programming team could actually create the frame of the game while the actual details are still being developed. It's definitely a shift in the industry that we haven't seen since the days of 2d gaming. It's the reason why portable gaming has been so healthy over the years. I'm personally excited about the doors this might open for the industry and I definitely hope that Nintendo in fact does ignore the console cycle until consumers demand they need more power.
Yeah, the real solution to this problem is to make the skip button a nonstandard button on the controller, such as the start button or one of the shoulder buttons your rarely use. While not being able to skip a cut scene is the worst, accidentally hitting the button and skipping a cut scene is even worse. Sometimes you play a game for an hour to get to a save spot and an important part of the story pops up right before the save spot. Accidentally skipping is more or less makes you loose an hour of play time to go back and see the cut scene.
Physics isn't my high point, and think I must be oversimplifying this or at least missing the point, but wouldn't this be fairly straightforward physics thinking?
Doesn't this kind of go hand in hand with the big bang to begin with? You start with matter without a time dimension, then it explodes and "gains" this time dimension. Then, inevitably, it collapses upon itself and loses that "time dimension" once again. The second that matter gains time as a property, the clock automatically starts counting down to the point where it looses it. Much like, if you want to look at life in a morbid fashion, the second you are born you are on your journey to the grave.
As I said, I'm no expert in this so if there's more than meets the eye here, feel free to expand my horizons (no pun intented).
No, you join the fray. The article is about a PS3 with no emotion engine. The Euro PS3 hasn't had the Emotion Engine since launch. It IS backwards compatible through software just as the new US model will be.
What are you talking about? The PS3 is still backwards compatible the same way as the 360 is...through software emulation.
Warp 2
Manhunt 2 FTW!
go go slashvertisement!
Nintendo's constantly pushing out new Intellectual Property, it's just that their "rehash" games are so hugely popular that they often overshadow the new IP. Then the new IP takes off and people are complaining about it being yet another "rehash" when they come out with a new game in the series.
The only reason Nintendo gets this rap is that their IP's are usually extremely successful and recognizable. Just take a look at all the characters in Smash Brothers. Nintendo honestly owns the market when it comes to instantly recognizable cultural icons.
The thing is, no specs or plans for building weapons and other technologies would be on a network that could be hacked into. This would be completely separated from the internet as a whole and safeguarded as classified information. China knows this...the only reason they would do this is to prove that they can do it. The only thing they could get from such an attack is names and numbers of people who possibly could leak them information with coercion.
I always think it's funny when people think that government secrets are accessible via hax0ringz teh net.
"Microsoft products have always been too complex and baroque. That's a good formula for the bug critical mass scenario. I'm only surprised it didn't happen before."
Windows ME.
I thought this was sarcasm until I looked at your website..
6,000 years ago, eh? So I take it the dinosaurs came from a non-God directed commit. Heathen beasts!
Did Elton have the impact or did his writer? Because, honestly, the man would have never gotten off the ground if he didn't have a great writer.
Now do the rest of the math...
Nintendo profits off of every Wii sold. Sony (apparently) looses money on each PS3 sold, as does Microsoft with the 360. So it looks to me that the only console that's in the green is the Wii.
Some anti-MS or pro-Linux person, whichever, was obviously sitting on Dell's website waiting for this to be the case.
Anyone who goes to Dell's site or follows any of the bargain sites (fatwallet, slickdeals, techbargains, etc) knows that Dell deals change on a daily basis. One day you'll be able to buy a PC cheap without a monitor, the next day the purchase will require purchase of a monitor, the next day they'll throw in a RAM upgrade out of nowhere. I know last week there was a deal for a Linux box for around $250 off of Dell's site. They do this to keep people checking back. When someone sees a deal that looks good, they'll eventually make an impulse buy.
This isn't news worthy at all.
Unfortunately, it's not a myth of the industry so much as it's a myth of gamers. They fight over the meaning...some think it means FPS players, some think it means those who play only the most obscure of games, some think it just means people who play absurd hours of games. It's just like any club of sect of society...for some reason certain people like labels and feel strength and security in numbers.
The sad thing is, as a 28 year old life long gamer, starting with a Commodore 24 and currently owning practically every home game console to be mass produced since (save the PS3 and the Xbox 360), I wouldn't even consider myself a gamer at this point. While I play games and own over a thousand, it seems that these days it's not about playing the games themselves so much as it is having the best gear, best graphics, most violence, cinematic sequences, etc. I used to smile when playing games, now it's all too serious and realistic. I've actually gotten anxiety from playing some of the newer games, and that's not really cool.
In that sense, maybe I AM a casual gamer. So, in this day and age, can a veteran gamer who's been gaming nearly 25 years be considered a casual gamer? I suppose so, by definition.
Sony seems to totally overlook the negatives to the UMD format. Such as horrendously slow load time and bulky media. Many games are frustratingly slow loading and actually kill the fun of the game. Who wants to wait for fights and stages to load that long? The bulky media is more difficult to take on the road and you definately don't want to just stick a UMD in your pocket. I have no problem doing this with my DS games. The only negative I have with my DS carts are slight space limitations; however, without streaming audio in games this is rarely an issue.
If UMD's are cheaper, why are the games more expensive? Also, why do we need an optical disc for movies these days? I can put a perfectly great looking DIVX file on a cd and play it on a large tv. Couldn't you just as easily use something similar to a cheap 512mb SD-card and get the same quality?
You realize there was always a $500 PS3, right? The problem with this price cut is that Sony didn't lower their bottom line, they just dropped the price of 40gb of extra hard drive space $100 and offered a new $600 SKU. Sure, you ARE getting 40gb of extra hard drive now, but how much more does this cost Sony? $5-10? This is called marketing. You're not really getting a price cut as much as you're being subjected to a marketing tactic.
I actually met one of the MusicMatch engineers and I tell you, I've never felt so bad for a guy. They were so proud of their product when it was MusicMatch. Then Yahoo bought them out and overnight they were working at breakneck speed converting it to Yahoo's vision of the Yahoo Music Engine (as it was called then) to launch their Yahoo Music Unlimited service on. I guess somewhere in the rush a bad memory leak was introduced (along with a few smaller problems). I don't think they ever got around to fixing the leak because it was too deep rooted in the code. Instead, they jury rigged it to where it wouldn't kill Windows, just make the software itself slow as all get out. Basically, everytime they went to actually fix the software, Yahoo kept pushing more of their external changes. Now it's to the point where I'll be surprised if they ever fix it unless they just scrap what they have and start over.
I would like to say, however, as much as the software sucks the Yahoo! Music Unlimited service for $7 a month is the best $7 I spend each month. Less than the price of a cd and I'm actually surprised at some of the obscure stuff I find on it. If your tastes are more mainstream, you'll find everything you want minus Zepplin and a few other hard to contract acts.
Exactly. This holds no grounds in court as far as I can see because Microsoft HAS to offer new features to stay competitive with OSX. Sure, if Microsoft offered a full featured, non integrated cd-burning software with their OS, Roxio and Ahead would have a case against Microsoft. A search function is vital to everyday computing and is a built in function. I don't think Google has much to worry about. Desktop integrates absolutely perfectly with my gmail, so I'll continue to use it.
The thing you're missing is that this is to become a full blown licensed developer. I believe that things are a bit different and cheaper being a WiiWare developer.
...when the quality of videogames keeps going up and the quality of the crap the major music labels tries to cram down your throat keeps going down (as if that was even possible). Besides, buying 1 full price game is equivelant to buying 4 new cds. And as big of a music geek as I am, getting a new videogame is a lot more exciting than getting a new cd. Especially for the masses who can turn on the radio and hear music for free.
I think it's hilarious. The only reason this is even news is because sales are down with MAJOR recording labels. Independent labels are thriving the better than they have since the 80's. Independant artists are doing better than they ever have (not saying they're doing great, but it's definitely feasible to make a good living as an independent artist). Let the major labels tell you the cd business is nose diving into the crapper all they want, it's just that independent music is on an upswing again. When major labels find the next new "sound" to push to consumers, the mainstream will be back buying cds. The only cd purchases online downloads are stealing from the stores are the mass market, platinum+ sellers...which will continue to sell millions of copies, despite piracy and online mp3 purchases. Just like tape dubbing hurt sales in the 80's and cd burning hurt sales in the 90's.
The answer is to drop cd prices back to what they were in the 90's, offer customers a way to explore and search for new music instead of just pushing a few select artists while relying on word of mouth to sell cds (word of mouth = "lemme burn you this cd" instead of impulse buy), offer retailers incentives to install listening stations in stores like they used to have, and offer DRM free mp3 downloads of the album with purchase. Most people want the cd long enough to rip it and put it on their mp3 player. Giving free drm free downloads does the consumer a favor and gives them an incentive to buy the disc rather than search out a pirate version of the cd and wait for it to download. Put trust into the consumers and the consumers will trust you.