It's about maintaining a portable codebase for console releases. Battlefield: Modern Combat is being produced alongside Battlefield 2 (I've even seen it called Battlefield 2: Modern Combat). The console release will make EA ten times more cash than the PC release... which one do you think EA and DICE are going to focus their energies on?
Talk about sticker shock... 128MB VRAM to run. That knocks out quite a few cards, though most folks can upgrade for dirt cheap. The really painful hit was to sound cards (all those SB Live cards, ouch). The system RAM requirement is pretty steep for a game that's going to get so much hardware acceleration, but seeing EA's already eliminated about one-third of the gamers out there I don't think they really will care.
Methinks the bar is set high so the engine can be quickly tweaked for an Xbox360 launch. Weird for a game that's fast-paced combat rather than immersive first-person like Doom 3 and Half-Life 2. It still runs fine in medium-high settings for me, so no big deal. Sucks for anyone that has a system older than 2002, though.
I really do like the new in-combat command system, though. It's nearly as responsive as the BF42/Vietnam command system, though it needs more if there's going to be a commander type mode.
I'm rather unhappy, though, that there'll be so few maps in the box. It reminds me of BFVietnam's pisspoor number of official maps in the first release.
Berman and Braga went out of their way to portray Enterprise as a godsend to the franchise by going back to basics and throwing out all the gunk that had built up. Very much like trying to convince people to upgrade to Windows LGXP2010 by deriding prior series. The current attitude is the same: it wasn't their fault they made a crap series, it was the fans that abandoned it for older stuff.
They are convinced the ratings dropped due to the show competing against other Trek re-runs.
If Enterprise was offed due to TOS, TNG, DS9, and VOY reruns, how the hell is any other future series going to make it? Paramount isn't going to just pull those 4 moneymakers off the market.
Let's try: "this show sucked bad, but we just don't have the cajones to admit we failed Gene Roddenberry (again)."
Seriously, did they clone Bill Gates and Steve Jobs so as to hide within their own Reality Distortion Field and sling piles of FUD at the fans? Brannon Braga wanted a baby of his own from the start, he got it, and fans said "hell no". End of story, have a nice day.
Two words: political leverage. "See how outraged our citizens are? You must be more conciliatory towards us!" If the Chinese wanted order, the tanks would roll and these rioters would be dead or rotting in jail. The PROC does not tolerate dissent that isn't wanted, so why would this dissent be tolerated? It's a play, and apparantly one many have fallen for.
Correction -- they're displaying an abundance of testicular fortitude by snubbing the US market for the time being.
Which is plain stupid considering U.S. sales make up a huge percentage of revenue for Nintendo. There is no excuse other than poor planning or Iwata's arrogence. Revolution or not, the U.S. market will not forgive such arrogence or missteps... not with Microsoft and Sony breathing so heavy about their own platforms.
Of course this is pretty pointless since, as mentioned several posts above, it appears this is a rumor about the playability of the Revolution. So far nobody has officially stated the Revolution will not be shown off.
If this were any other country but the PROC, I might agree. Yet nobody protests in China without either government okay or being run over by a tank. You could remove "Japanese" and insert any other group or country into the mix. These individuals care less about the target and more about the act. The same thing is going on with FF11's servers. The people doing this have ulterior motives and the entire Japanese thing is just an excuse.
And the Japanese textbook issue has been a topic for almost a decade, as has Japan's desire to be a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council. These "protesters" are several years late in their rightous anger. It's just an excuse and a political ploy by China. Business as usual.
I think you're wrong not to be skeptical, even if just a little bit. By snubbing E3, Nintendo is basically admitting it does not care about the U.S. videogame market. The company is displaying a lack of fortitude that MS and Sony are showing by proudly displaying their consoles, and the press will jump on the Big N for it. When Nintendo unveils their console at some Japanese tradeshow, the U.S. market and press will not care. Nintendo needs that "hearts and minds" grab in the United States or it will suffer an even worse defeat this generation.
He was thirteen when he was waiting, not that he's a thirteen-year-old today. Reading comprehension is a plus in all jobs but management... is your hair pointy perhaps?;)
I doubt the Chinese protests have much of anything to do with the Distributed Denial-Of-Service attack on the FF11 servers. It's a little embarrassing that anyone would credit Chinese aggression in the attack, only making the link because the game is Japanese. This and the prior attack on a group of high profile U.S. commerce and search sites are more likely standard scriptkiddie activity hiding behind government propagada. To them it's obvious their government will not seek them out for such idiocy (seeing the targets are on the PROC shitlist at that moment), so it's free hand to be stupid.
Anyone that claims this is Chinese cyberwarfare needs their tinfoil hat checked.
It was only a matter of time before D&D became a target again for those looking for reasons for homicidal mania... other than the person being a homicidal maniac. Perhaps the same lawyer going after Rockstar will start a new suit against Wizards of the Coast for the families of the deceased individuals. Somewhere in the shadows I can hear Jack Chick cackling...
I've read all the comments and nowhere does anyone point out the amazing thing Nintendo has done. The Zelda franchise has been slowly separating into a "young Link" and "teen/adult Link" set of subfranchises for years. It was absolute genius for Miyamoto to finalize the split by making each subfranchise bear its own presentation. Just look at the boxart for Four Swords or Minish Cap: the games feature young Link, and hence both have the new Windwaker-styled Link. This new Zelda game is the next logical step by saying "hey, this game features an older Link and a more mature story, so here's a different 3D style to show it off". The naysayers are missing the obvious marketing strategy at work here. Look for this Zelda to be sold to the teen and older audiences, as well as all those folks who loved the OOT style.
Programming is not an art, contrary to the desires of some. A computer is an objective machine of logic and precision. It knows only two states and everything follows from this plain, objective operation. It is hence a science of engineering, and not an art of creation to program it. Software engineers may be imaginative in their uses of code, but they are still using code to feed complex mathematical formula to a machine.
Adding more programmers does not make things move faster. Your first statement is the bread & butter truth: EA has lost any sense of reality within its middle managers, producers, and leads. Perhaps it is a failing of upper management to have doable expectations, but the people who say "we can do it" are just as responsible.
You're too naive (no offense). People have bills and mortgages to pay and mouths to feed (theirs and their families). There are also those who don't want to lead and face the risks, because they're satisfied with following those who do.
Your spirit is what starts companies like EA (believe it or not): the drive to change the status quo and bring something new and interesting to the market. Sometimes those companies lose the vision (also like EA), and sometimes those companies go under (Black Isles)... and then sometimes those companies become beloved (Blizzard, UbiSoft). Maybe soon a studio will arise formed by those who left EA...
Canada becomes a more appealing place to move to. The fact there is an actual government post to protect citizens' privacy... it boggles my American mind. Someone actually tries to protect privacy, and they work for the government?
I think this makes an excellent assertion that placing an email in a specific location should limit it to the purpose it was placed there for. If I own a business and provide customers and interested parties with contact info on the company webpage, that address should not be spammed with penis growth ads and I should be legally entitled to damages for having to install spam filters and pay admins to further maintain them.
Wow, that's a great link! Though it does add $10 plus postage to the selling price, which may or may not raise the cost above retail for this guy. This does present an interesting delimma though. What is to stop someone from getting 5 keys from a single retail box? You have the actual key in the box, then you send in the receipt (after 30 days just so Blizzard has no real reason to harrass the retailer for lack of return), then you send in the manual, then the CD case, then one of the game CDs.
The $10 "fee" sounds to me like the real charge for the game before media, packaging, distro, and retailers get involved. Toss in another $2.95 for the download and they could call it "Snow". Sure you lose out the manual, the CD case, and the CD... but if it were an entirely online download, you wouldn't have those things anyway would you? Besides, it can't be hard to copy the game CDs seeing 1 authkey = 1 account, so there's no real need for insane heavy-duty copy-protection.
Please someone tell me there's a flaw in this plan or a way for Blizzard to know the identity of each individual booklet, CD case, and game CD availible... Otherwise it looks to me like $10 (and help from someone willing to lose a receipt, manual, CD case, or game CD) plus postage nets you a perfectly valid WoW account.
There's a bigger difference between relational databases on computers and memories in the human brain. When you recall a memory, you are actually rebuilding a state of thought from extant data. There's a tremendous amount of interlinking going on and it's done seemingly in parallel and with no regard for the way parallelism is done in computers. In short, having a photographic memory does not degrade or slow one's ability to recall. In fact many with photographic memories seem to have better recall.
The scientist does it because of a lot of reasons, being paid is only one of them. Many of the individuals on this project are there because they want to be there, whether the job pays well or not. And you'd be surprised how much closer to "not well" the pay is...
I wouldn't exactly call Wikipedia a scientific project. Maybe a humanitarian one, but certainly not scientific. Or have you been missing the revision wars going on over there?
Slashdot Mirror
See my post above.
It's about maintaining a portable codebase for console releases. Battlefield: Modern Combat is being produced alongside Battlefield 2 (I've even seen it called Battlefield 2: Modern Combat). The console release will make EA ten times more cash than the PC release... which one do you think EA and DICE are going to focus their energies on?
The entire game requires GameSpy to run as anything but "defaultPlayer" -- even in Single Player mode.
Talk about sticker shock... 128MB VRAM to run. That knocks out quite a few cards, though most folks can upgrade for dirt cheap. The really painful hit was to sound cards (all those SB Live cards, ouch). The system RAM requirement is pretty steep for a game that's going to get so much hardware acceleration, but seeing EA's already eliminated about one-third of the gamers out there I don't think they really will care.
Methinks the bar is set high so the engine can be quickly tweaked for an Xbox360 launch. Weird for a game that's fast-paced combat rather than immersive first-person like Doom 3 and Half-Life 2. It still runs fine in medium-high settings for me, so no big deal. Sucks for anyone that has a system older than 2002, though.
I really do like the new in-combat command system, though. It's nearly as responsive as the BF42/Vietnam command system, though it needs more if there's going to be a commander type mode.
I'm rather unhappy, though, that there'll be so few maps in the box. It reminds me of BFVietnam's pisspoor number of official maps in the first release.
I have one acronym for you: IPv6.
As in, there will be DRM on the Internet backbone when Hell freezes over.
You're missing 2 from your count...
Forsaken Fortress
Dragon Roost
Forbidden Woods
Tower of the Gods
Earth Temple
Wind Temple
Ganon's Tower
That looks like 7 dungeons to me.
Berman and Braga went out of their way to portray Enterprise as a godsend to the franchise by going back to basics and throwing out all the gunk that had built up. Very much like trying to convince people to upgrade to Windows LGXP2010 by deriding prior series. The current attitude is the same: it wasn't their fault they made a crap series, it was the fans that abandoned it for older stuff.
If Enterprise was offed due to TOS, TNG, DS9, and VOY reruns, how the hell is any other future series going to make it? Paramount isn't going to just pull those 4 moneymakers off the market.
Let's try: "this show sucked bad, but we just don't have the cajones to admit we failed Gene Roddenberry (again)."
Seriously, did they clone Bill Gates and Steve Jobs so as to hide within their own Reality Distortion Field and sling piles of FUD at the fans? Brannon Braga wanted a baby of his own from the start, he got it, and fans said "hell no". End of story, have a nice day.
Two words: political leverage. "See how outraged our citizens are? You must be more conciliatory towards us!" If the Chinese wanted order, the tanks would roll and these rioters would be dead or rotting in jail. The PROC does not tolerate dissent that isn't wanted, so why would this dissent be tolerated? It's a play, and apparantly one many have fallen for.
Which is plain stupid considering U.S. sales make up a huge percentage of revenue for Nintendo. There is no excuse other than poor planning or Iwata's arrogence. Revolution or not, the U.S. market will not forgive such arrogence or missteps... not with Microsoft and Sony breathing so heavy about their own platforms.
Of course this is pretty pointless since, as mentioned several posts above, it appears this is a rumor about the playability of the Revolution. So far nobody has officially stated the Revolution will not be shown off.
If this were any other country but the PROC, I might agree. Yet nobody protests in China without either government okay or being run over by a tank. You could remove "Japanese" and insert any other group or country into the mix. These individuals care less about the target and more about the act. The same thing is going on with FF11's servers. The people doing this have ulterior motives and the entire Japanese thing is just an excuse.
And the Japanese textbook issue has been a topic for almost a decade, as has Japan's desire to be a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council. These "protesters" are several years late in their rightous anger. It's just an excuse and a political ploy by China. Business as usual.
I think you're wrong not to be skeptical, even if just a little bit. By snubbing E3, Nintendo is basically admitting it does not care about the U.S. videogame market. The company is displaying a lack of fortitude that MS and Sony are showing by proudly displaying their consoles, and the press will jump on the Big N for it. When Nintendo unveils their console at some Japanese tradeshow, the U.S. market and press will not care. Nintendo needs that "hearts and minds" grab in the United States or it will suffer an even worse defeat this generation.
He was thirteen when he was waiting, not that he's a thirteen-year-old today. Reading comprehension is a plus in all jobs but management... is your hair pointy perhaps? ;)
I doubt the Chinese protests have much of anything to do with the Distributed Denial-Of-Service attack on the FF11 servers. It's a little embarrassing that anyone would credit Chinese aggression in the attack, only making the link because the game is Japanese. This and the prior attack on a group of high profile U.S. commerce and search sites are more likely standard scriptkiddie activity hiding behind government propagada. To them it's obvious their government will not seek them out for such idiocy (seeing the targets are on the PROC shitlist at that moment), so it's free hand to be stupid.
Anyone that claims this is Chinese cyberwarfare needs their tinfoil hat checked.
It was only a matter of time before D&D became a target again for those looking for reasons for homicidal mania... other than the person being a homicidal maniac. Perhaps the same lawyer going after Rockstar will start a new suit against Wizards of the Coast for the families of the deceased individuals. Somewhere in the shadows I can hear Jack Chick cackling...
I've read all the comments and nowhere does anyone point out the amazing thing Nintendo has done. The Zelda franchise has been slowly separating into a "young Link" and "teen/adult Link" set of subfranchises for years. It was absolute genius for Miyamoto to finalize the split by making each subfranchise bear its own presentation. Just look at the boxart for Four Swords or Minish Cap: the games feature young Link, and hence both have the new Windwaker-styled Link. This new Zelda game is the next logical step by saying "hey, this game features an older Link and a more mature story, so here's a different 3D style to show it off". The naysayers are missing the obvious marketing strategy at work here. Look for this Zelda to be sold to the teen and older audiences, as well as all those folks who loved the OOT style.
You've got it right except confusing Karl Urban with The Rock.
Programming is not an art, contrary to the desires of some. A computer is an objective machine of logic and precision. It knows only two states and everything follows from this plain, objective operation. It is hence a science of engineering, and not an art of creation to program it. Software engineers may be imaginative in their uses of code, but they are still using code to feed complex mathematical formula to a machine.
Adding more programmers does not make things move faster. Your first statement is the bread & butter truth: EA has lost any sense of reality within its middle managers, producers, and leads. Perhaps it is a failing of upper management to have doable expectations, but the people who say "we can do it" are just as responsible.
You're too naive (no offense). People have bills and mortgages to pay and mouths to feed (theirs and their families). There are also those who don't want to lead and face the risks, because they're satisfied with following those who do.
Your spirit is what starts companies like EA (believe it or not): the drive to change the status quo and bring something new and interesting to the market. Sometimes those companies lose the vision (also like EA), and sometimes those companies go under (Black Isles)... and then sometimes those companies become beloved (Blizzard, UbiSoft). Maybe soon a studio will arise formed by those who left EA...
Duke Nukem Forver and Daikatana cannot be compared.
DNF is a franchise sequel. Daikatana was not.
Whatever the hype machine may say, you already know what DNF will be like, while nobody had a clue what Daikatana would be like.
Canada becomes a more appealing place to move to. The fact there is an actual government post to protect citizens' privacy... it boggles my American mind. Someone actually tries to protect privacy, and they work for the government?
I think this makes an excellent assertion that placing an email in a specific location should limit it to the purpose it was placed there for. If I own a business and provide customers and interested parties with contact info on the company webpage, that address should not be spammed with penis growth ads and I should be legally entitled to damages for having to install spam filters and pay admins to further maintain them.
Wow, that's a great link! Though it does add $10 plus postage to the selling price, which may or may not raise the cost above retail for this guy. This does present an interesting delimma though. What is to stop someone from getting 5 keys from a single retail box? You have the actual key in the box, then you send in the receipt (after 30 days just so Blizzard has no real reason to harrass the retailer for lack of return), then you send in the manual, then the CD case, then one of the game CDs.
The $10 "fee" sounds to me like the real charge for the game before media, packaging, distro, and retailers get involved. Toss in another $2.95 for the download and they could call it "Snow". Sure you lose out the manual, the CD case, and the CD... but if it were an entirely online download, you wouldn't have those things anyway would you? Besides, it can't be hard to copy the game CDs seeing 1 authkey = 1 account, so there's no real need for insane heavy-duty copy-protection.
Please someone tell me there's a flaw in this plan or a way for Blizzard to know the identity of each individual booklet, CD case, and game CD availible... Otherwise it looks to me like $10 (and help from someone willing to lose a receipt, manual, CD case, or game CD) plus postage nets you a perfectly valid WoW account.
There's a bigger difference between relational databases on computers and memories in the human brain. When you recall a memory, you are actually rebuilding a state of thought from extant data. There's a tremendous amount of interlinking going on and it's done seemingly in parallel and with no regard for the way parallelism is done in computers. In short, having a photographic memory does not degrade or slow one's ability to recall. In fact many with photographic memories seem to have better recall.
The scientist does it because of a lot of reasons, being paid is only one of them. Many of the individuals on this project are there because they want to be there, whether the job pays well or not. And you'd be surprised how much closer to "not well" the pay is...
I wouldn't exactly call Wikipedia a scientific project. Maybe a humanitarian one, but certainly not scientific. Or have you been missing the revision wars going on over there?