Do you actually have any numbers to back those genre and porting statistics up? I'd take a stab at guessing most US titles are NOT RTS or FPS, and that a very small quantity of US PC games are ported to consoles.
The difference between DVDs and Videogames localization is that you don't have to bring in the original actors, teach them french and take a scene over just because a street sign in the background happened to have english text on it. Videogame titles sold in the US and Canada are generally produced before the localized European versions are created.
Really, how should I be expected to play games without getting popcorn out of the same machine as the game is running on? Skip the fan and make the console a hotplate.
Last time I was offered to download a software product subsidized by advertising, the software product itself was offered as the "AdWare" as opposed to the crippled "FreeWare" version.
SpyWare was the additional software that came with it, and it was not described prior to the download and included gator.
If you were so unsatisfied with the game that you returned it for a full refund, why did you finish it? Seems you enjoyed the product, and just didn't pay for it.
I fail to see the difference between your situation and going to a movie and afterwards ask for your money back because it was only 2 hours long.
On the other hand, I think it should be law that they demonstrate a game to you before you buy it.
From the article: "It will launch with between 15-20 games optimized for it including, "Neverwinter Nights," "Tony Hawk", "Spyhunter" and "Doom II." "
They don't specify that these are new games (they are ports all right) but do they mean that they have regular palm games that already exist but comes with some added features for the device?
15-20 *new* games would make the device worth a second look but do they really expect people to buy a $300 device for old games? Especially with PSP coming and the GBA existing right now?
Also, considering that these titles are the first batch of games coming from various publishers taking the risk of the games not selling, would they start the second generation of games before the current slate has become profitable? And would they ever get profitable if players can only get a small subset of games at a higher price compared to the GBA even though the hardware specs are much better?
This just seem like it is going the way of the N-Gage. Neither have a substantial support from developers and publishers and the PDA functionality of the TapWave is not likely to bring in a lot of cross-market gaming-organizing consumers either.
I think the previous Harry Potter game was pretty good actually and it wasn't made to promote the movie, that's the same as saying the book was written to promote the movie.
And I think it is time for id to start a new franchise that is not doom or quake. I see a lot of complaining about other companies making sequels to popular games but almost noone complaining about doom and quake beeing sequelized.
1) Original Games 2) Quality of games (estimated of course) 3) Will have games that you like when you buy the hardware 4) Load Times (digital distribution seems the slowest, possibly apart from c-64 casette w/o turbo).
Never ever buy game hardware for playing games for any of the following reasons (especially if they are the ONLY reason) 1) Monthly plans 2) Method of selling you games 3) Also cleans your underpants
Isn't quicksave really a way around designing reasonable checkpoints?
I define checkpoints as predefined points where you will respawn in the same state as when you entered them when you die, but that will not actually save the game for you. Optionally a player may be allowed to save at any point and in another session load+start at that checkpoint but that is not part of the checkpoint definition.
The reason for checkpoints is so that you can not quicksave in a dangerous location and so that any single game event is of reasonable length and difficulty (designing a game so that the only fair way of beating an obstacle is to quicksave every time you do the right thing in a battle and reload every time you get hit is bad in my opinion) and that you have a small enough distance between checkpoints (right before AND right after killing a major enemy for instance).
The ability to use quicksave does make the game more difficult to design and balance, and I think that leads to less entertaining games. Don't dislike a title because it doesn't have a feature you prefer if they have a fair alternative even if it takes a little effort to learn. Dislike games because of bad design or lack of balance instead.
I vote yes to savegames and checkpoints but no to quicksaves.
[telemarketer] Hi, Can I speak to mr dickhead please (they never have the right pronounciation)? [me] There is no person here by that name. [telemarketer] Hello mr dickhead, I am calling to make you buy this product. [me] Please tell me your name and how to avoid getting phone calls from you in the future. [telemarketer] The product you are about to buy is really fabulous and incidentally I already put in your order. [me] I'm not interested, tell me who you work for and how I can avoid being called by your organization again. [telemarketer] I am self employed, there is no supervisor. Now, can I verify your address please. [me] I hope you catch SARS. <hangup>
I would never sign up with a call center for opting out, I don't trust them. The effect would invariably be that I have signed up with them and therefore I would be excempt from the federal do-not-call lists.
Regarding reusing AI, I can't really figure out what the large gain in using middleware would be (or in reusing AI between two different genre games). I'm not counting finite state engines as AI middleware, since that leaves the actual AI programming to the middleware user.
There are a few portions of AI that are fairly universal, such as pathfinding and driving logic, and those are useful in specialized games. But I have not seen any complete AI solution that for example can make characters in a game autonomous agents, and I haven't seen a game design where that would be even desired.
If anyone has an example of useful universal AI that doesn't result mindless background pedestrians (which are fun but not a part of gameplay) I'd like to know what that would be.
Is your point that games are the same as any other artform then? or do you mean that there are things that are not entertaining and therefore important?
I doubt the FAQs would be as complete and quickly completed if there weren't game guides to derive from. Game Guides sometimes contain information you wouldn't find by just playing the game (cheat codes, really hidden rooms etc.) and they occasionally double check facts with the developer (if they can get through the publisher's producer).
Can't the antialiasing simply be switched off when rendering the translucent polygons and kept for opaque? Worked fine on N64 but that didn't have hardware multipass rendering and such so maybe it's not that simple..
DUI applies to alcohol as well as other drugs and commonly causes death in people surrounding and including those, so I'd argue that any "recreational" (shouldn't that be "redestructional"?) drugs are deadly.
How would you be able to play SNES games on the GBA? The cpu is very different as is screen size and other issues, a flash card wouldn't help unless you had some amazing emulator that ran SNES games on the GBA which would be piracy in some regions anyway (by argument of copyright protection). Just because you can upload the 65c816 binary code to a cartridge doesn't mean it will run on a gameboy.
Unless you build your own portable SNES and NES I find it unlikely that you'd play SNES and NES games portably.
Ok, if bluetooth is simpler than a cable, then why does the sync with a pocket pc require setting up a virtual bluetooth com port and make the syncing program search for it (when there is a completely different sync protocol), why do I have to figure out the protocol, set it up and enable it for the device? And I can't seem to find bluetooth built in to any laptop anyway (not that I've been looking in the last 7 months) so I need to bring a USB cable with a dongle which means I might as well just connect the mobile phone directly to the PC with a perfectly simple cable. I can understand the bonding procedure for security but if all devices could use one and the same cable that would be even less hassle than the USB bluetooth reciever.
Rare still seemingly has the Conker & Perfect dark properties which may or may not surface on xbox at E3. StarFox was first developed by Argonaut but seemingly fully belongs to Nintendo.
I would argue that regardless of how much dicipline is put in the methods of software development, you can't completely remove the creative part from that process. As with architecture (which is also both art and engineering), there are commonly many parts of implementation of projects that involves choices of aestetic nature that doesn't lend itself to puristic research methods. Some projects obviously have less creativity like those DoD projects you imlpy.
If there are no actual job listing on the game company's web site for testers, you can easily write a letter to the QA lead and/or HR department you found in the credits of some game from that company with an introduction of yourself and requesting to be notified next time there is a need for new testers (either when a bunch of the current ones quit or there is a major title going beta).
But I'd LOVE to see that one updated on the PS2, or gamecube for that matter. Exploratron with trap treasure chests! I think you're thinking of the Wizardry adventure games and not the action game.
Slashdot Mirror
Do you actually have any numbers to back those genre and porting statistics up? I'd take a stab at guessing most US titles are NOT RTS or FPS, and that a very small quantity of US PC games are ported to consoles.
The difference between DVDs and Videogames localization is that you don't have to bring in the original actors, teach them french and take a scene over just because a street sign in the background happened to have english text on it. Videogame titles sold in the US and Canada are generally produced before the localized European versions are created.
Really, how should I be expected to play games without getting popcorn out of the same machine as the game is running on? Skip the fan and make the console a hotplate.
Last time I was offered to download a software product subsidized by advertising, the software product itself was offered as the "AdWare" as opposed to the crippled "FreeWare" version.
SpyWare was the additional software that came with it, and it was not described prior to the download and included gator.
And most special is probably Pac-Man which somehow is both Atari and Namco, and taking the Williams thread also probably Midway.
In the Pac-Man case I think they just pay eachother licenses when they release a Pac-Man related game.
wait until there are 25 games for it and they'll do that feature. of course, that's given that there will ever be 25 unique games for it.
If you were so unsatisfied with the game that you returned it for a full refund, why did you finish it? Seems you enjoyed the product, and just didn't pay for it.
I fail to see the difference between your situation and going to a movie and afterwards ask for your money back because it was only 2 hours long.
On the other hand, I think it should be law that they demonstrate a game to you before you buy it.
From the article: "It will launch with between 15-20 games optimized for it including, "Neverwinter Nights," "Tony Hawk", "Spyhunter" and "Doom II." "
They don't specify that these are new games (they are ports all right) but do they mean that they have regular palm games that already exist but comes with some added features for the device?
15-20 *new* games would make the device worth a second look but do they really expect people to buy a $300 device for old games? Especially with PSP coming and the GBA existing right now?
Also, considering that these titles are the first batch of games coming from various publishers taking the risk of the games not selling, would they start the second generation of games before the current slate has become profitable? And would they ever get profitable if players can only get a small subset of games at a higher price compared to the GBA even though the hardware specs are much better?
This just seem like it is going the way of the N-Gage. Neither have a substantial support from developers and publishers and the PDA functionality of the TapWave is not likely to bring in a lot of cross-market gaming-organizing consumers either.
I think the previous Harry Potter game was pretty good actually and it wasn't made to promote the movie, that's the same as saying the book was written to promote the movie.
And I think it is time for id to start a new franchise that is not doom or quake. I see a lot of complaining about other companies making sequels to popular games but almost noone complaining about doom and quake beeing sequelized.
1) Original Games
2) Quality of games (estimated of course)
3) Will have games that you like when you buy the hardware
4) Load Times (digital distribution seems the slowest, possibly apart from c-64 casette w/o turbo).
Never ever buy game hardware for playing games for any of the following reasons (especially if they are the ONLY reason)
1) Monthly plans
2) Method of selling you games
3) Also cleans your underpants
Isn't quicksave really a way around designing reasonable checkpoints?
I define checkpoints as predefined points where you will respawn in the same state as when you entered them when you die, but that will not actually save the game for you. Optionally a player may be allowed to save at any point and in another session load+start at that checkpoint but that is not part of the checkpoint definition.
The reason for checkpoints is so that you can not quicksave in a dangerous location and so that any single game event is of reasonable length and difficulty (designing a game so that the only fair way of beating an obstacle is to quicksave every time you do the right thing in a battle and reload every time you get hit is bad in my opinion) and that you have a small enough distance between checkpoints (right before AND right after killing a major enemy for instance).
The ability to use quicksave does make the game more difficult to design and balance, and I think that leads to less entertaining games. Don't dislike a title because it doesn't have a feature you prefer if they have a fair alternative even if it takes a little effort to learn. Dislike games because of bad design or lack of balance instead.
I vote yes to savegames and checkpoints but no to quicksaves.
Here's my experience trying to be nice about it:
[telemarketer] Hi, Can I speak to mr dickhead please (they never have the right pronounciation)?
[me] There is no person here by that name.
[telemarketer] Hello mr dickhead, I am calling to make you buy this product.
[me] Please tell me your name and how to avoid getting phone calls from you in the future.
[telemarketer] The product you are about to buy is really fabulous and incidentally I already put in your order.
[me] I'm not interested, tell me who you work for and how I can avoid being called by your organization again.
[telemarketer] I am self employed, there is no supervisor. Now, can I verify your address please.
[me] I hope you catch SARS. <hangup>
I would never sign up with a call center for opting out, I don't trust them. The effect would invariably be that I have signed up with them and therefore I would be excempt from the federal do-not-call lists.
Regarding reusing AI, I can't really figure out what the large gain in using middleware would be (or in reusing AI between two different genre games). I'm not counting finite state engines as AI middleware, since that leaves the actual AI programming to the middleware user.
There are a few portions of AI that are fairly universal, such as pathfinding and driving logic, and those are useful in specialized games. But I have not seen any complete AI solution that for example can make characters in a game autonomous agents, and I haven't seen a game design where that would be even desired.
If anyone has an example of useful universal AI that doesn't result mindless background pedestrians (which are fun but not a part of gameplay) I'd like to know what that would be.
Hans Blix did the looking at weapons thing, but you probably meant that blinx thing (the only 4d game other than 4d boxing).
Is your point that games are the same as any other artform then? or do you mean that there are things that are not entertaining and therefore important?
I doubt the FAQs would be as complete and quickly completed if there weren't game guides to derive from. Game Guides sometimes contain information you wouldn't find by just playing the game (cheat codes, really hidden rooms etc.) and they occasionally double check facts with the developer (if they can get through the publisher's producer).
Can't the antialiasing simply be switched off when rendering the translucent polygons and kept for opaque? Worked fine on N64 but that didn't have hardware multipass rendering and such so maybe it's not that simple..
is "Shadenfreude" the joy of shade?
DUI applies to alcohol as well as other drugs and commonly causes death in people surrounding and including those, so I'd argue that any "recreational" (shouldn't that be "redestructional"?) drugs are deadly.
How would you be able to play SNES games on the GBA? The cpu is very different as is screen size and other issues, a flash card wouldn't help unless you had some amazing emulator that ran SNES games on the GBA which would be piracy in some regions anyway (by argument of copyright protection). Just because you can upload the 65c816 binary code to a cartridge doesn't mean it will run on a gameboy.
Unless you build your own portable SNES and NES I find it unlikely that you'd play SNES and NES games portably.
Ok, if bluetooth is simpler than a cable, then why does the sync with a pocket pc require setting up a virtual bluetooth com port and make the syncing program search for it (when there is a completely different sync protocol), why do I have to figure out the protocol, set it up and enable it for the device? And I can't seem to find bluetooth built in to any laptop anyway (not that I've been looking in the last 7 months) so I need to bring a USB cable with a dongle which means I might as well just connect the mobile phone directly to the PC with a perfectly simple cable. I can understand the bonding procedure for security but if all devices could use one and the same cable that would be even less hassle than the USB bluetooth reciever.
Rare still seemingly has the Conker & Perfect dark properties which may or may not surface on xbox at E3. StarFox was first developed by Argonaut but seemingly fully belongs to Nintendo.
I would argue that regardless of how much dicipline is put in the methods of software development, you can't completely remove the creative part from that process. As with architecture (which is also both art and engineering), there are commonly many parts of implementation of projects that involves choices of aestetic nature that doesn't lend itself to puristic research methods. Some projects obviously have less creativity like those DoD projects you imlpy.
If there are no actual job listing on the game company's web site for testers, you can easily write a letter to the QA lead and/or HR department you found in the credits of some game from that company with an introduction of yourself and requesting to be notified next time there is a need for new testers (either when a bunch of the current ones quit or there is a major title going beta).
But I'd LOVE to see that one updated on the PS2, or gamecube for that matter. Exploratron with trap treasure chests! I think you're thinking of the Wizardry adventure games and not the action game.