Right, however the fanbase for a game like SF2 is one that might not like being told how to control the game. I use SF2 as an example out of the assumption at at some point one of Microsoft's handhelds will interface with the 360 and allow users to take their Xbox Live Arcade games with them, something which has not only been hinted at but makes a whole lot of sense.
In the case of SF2, accuracy to the arcade experience comes straight to the controls. Timing and responsiveness are paramount for a game such as this, so switching up the tried and true stick control for a smudged up touch screen is just not going to work with a game such as this.
Wasn't it Mythbusters who showed that driving while talking on a cell phone was as bad as driving drunk? It's not so much the fact our eyes are averted when we fiddle with things, it's the fact that our attention is still diverted while we try to listen to the iPod chattering on about what menu we've selected.
As someone who's played a bunch of MMOs, I find EVE to be an anomaly. The ridiculous attention to detail and depth hooked me more than any other game I've played, and has been the only game which has inspired me to create an online comic for the community.
In fact the community of players in EVE is unlike anything I've seen before, willing to create streating audio and video sites to cover events (EVE Radio), create special sites for hosting pictures and videos for other players (EVE Files), and planning large scale gatherings on other continents for folks who can't make the yearly fanfest in Iceland (EVE Gathering).
It's really quite something.
For the curious, my comic is called Warp Drive Active. The humor is fairly contextual, but I try to make it general enough that folks not having played the game might still be able to get the jokes.
Hit the EVE site and go to their movies section. All of the videos show actual gameplay, though frequently the interface is removed (key combo in the game). There are segments in most videos that show everything.
Alternately, this forum on the site, which is freely accessible without requiring an account, has links to a ton of player created videos.
The whole "by invite only" thing was a joke really, when you consider how easy it was to get an invite. People were giving them out on various message boards, and even here via/. comments at one point. Eventually those new accounts got invites, and suddenly everyone had a Gmail account.
But even assuming the stats were correct, it's silly to assume the measurement of success only includes Gmail users already using other competitors' products. There's plenty of people who use it and don't fall into that category.
I think the sugar coated assumption is that this is all so they can land the craft, when in fact it's probably mostly so they can crash land it somewhere safely.
Gmail, the e-mail service that was lauded at its 2004 launch for offering 500 times as much storage space as some rivals (they quickly closed the gap), today is the system of choice for only about one-quarter the number of people who use MSN and Yahoo e-mail.
So in an article about the success of Google products, the only way they gauge the success of Gmail is if someone also maintains an account with a competing service? What about Gmail users who use it exclusively (like me)?
What's so inflammatory about it? I mean what do you think this thing's supposed to do, fly in at supersonic speeds to deliver a payload of Snickers bars to satisfy the hunger of the enemy?
I used it for about 10 minutes before switching back to my Mac using Adium. Live Messenger chewed up 50 megs of ram on my system just by loading, and locked the whole system up for nearly 10 seconds while it loaded my friends list (maybe about 30 people on it?).
This is kind of like my experience with the new Windows Media Player. I grabbed it to see what all the hubbub was about MTV's URGE music store, and watched as any other media/video application died a horrible death when I ran this.
I don't have the best computer out there, but a 1.7 GHz machine with XP Pro and a gig of ram should be able to handle an IM program without too much trouble.
I have a 61" Samsung DLP that does 1080p, though I do not have a HD-DVD or Blu-ray player. I have a nice Panasonic upscaling player that outputs 1080i, and the TV does an awesome job at deinterlacing the signal for its native resolution (1080p). I have to say, the new Star Wars trilogy DVDs practically leap off the screen. They look phenominal on my set, just like they look phenominal on most other TVs. The transfer is just great.
Do I NEED to see something even higher resolution? Probably not. There's almost no need, considering how nice the current generation looks. Movies like Serenity and Batman Begins also look amazing, even with a large amount of dark colors. DVD right now is at a really good place in terms of advances in compression.
I'm sure there's a noticable difference between DVD and the new high def formats, but as you say, the average consumer either won't need it or won't have the equipment to really get their money's worth. And given that cost:benefit ratio, I can't see it going too far, not for a couple of years at the earliest.
The same can be said for HD-DVD's as well. Both formats have been launched with a whimper, not a shout. Not quite the revolution in format that they promised if they're not going to make a big deal out of its release. To be honest, both (esp. Blu-Ray) seem rushed to market in order to try to beat the other. I'm not sure that's going to lead to a quality experience for consumers for a while.
That's an excellent point, something which the reviewer completely ignores. Something like Star Wars Ep 3 would showcase the capabilities of both HD-DVD and Blu-ray nicely, at least give something with a high enough quality of transfer to really compare the formats.
Partly it's rushed, yes. But there's also the fact that HD has been so hyped, especially the next generation of media players, that nothing will really blow away viewers short of being able to reach into the screen and feel Drew Barrymore up.
And even then, I don't think that would be worth the outlay of cash for the hardware.
In the future, please submit/. articles which link to the permalink contained in this, and most other blogs. Because after the next big scientific breakthrough hits the presses, the link in this article will take you to the top of the blog, forcing us to scroll around and find the item of interest discussed in this posting.
They're just pissed that the IP they bought instead of developing on their own is going to miss out on licensing from Sony this round. In my opinion, that's just karma.
HDCP. If the flag is turned on in Blu-ray movie discs, the only way to get 1080p will be thruogh HDMI, all other analog connections will be downscaled in resolution. Personally, I'd like to get all I can out of the hardware and software I buy. So I don't really care about DRM in this case.
Nobody's toggled the flag on though for the first batches of HD-DVD and presumably Blu-ray titles when they come out. But you can bet someone will.
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Right, however the fanbase for a game like SF2 is one that might not like being told how to control the game. I use SF2 as an example out of the assumption at at some point one of Microsoft's handhelds will interface with the 360 and allow users to take their Xbox Live Arcade games with them, something which has not only been hinted at but makes a whole lot of sense.
In the case of SF2, accuracy to the arcade experience comes straight to the controls. Timing and responsiveness are paramount for a game such as this, so switching up the tried and true stick control for a smudged up touch screen is just not going to work with a game such as this.
I imagine playing Street Fighter II might be a bit difficult then...
Wasn't it Mythbusters who showed that driving while talking on a cell phone was as bad as driving drunk? It's not so much the fact our eyes are averted when we fiddle with things, it's the fact that our attention is still diverted while we try to listen to the iPod chattering on about what menu we've selected.
As someone who's played a bunch of MMOs, I find EVE to be an anomaly. The ridiculous attention to detail and depth hooked me more than any other game I've played, and has been the only game which has inspired me to create an online comic for the community. In fact the community of players in EVE is unlike anything I've seen before, willing to create streating audio and video sites to cover events (EVE Radio), create special sites for hosting pictures and videos for other players (EVE Files), and planning large scale gatherings on other continents for folks who can't make the yearly fanfest in Iceland (EVE Gathering). It's really quite something. For the curious, my comic is called Warp Drive Active. The humor is fairly contextual, but I try to make it general enough that folks not having played the game might still be able to get the jokes.
Hit the EVE site and go to their movies section. All of the videos show actual gameplay, though frequently the interface is removed (key combo in the game). There are segments in most videos that show everything.
Alternately, this forum on the site, which is freely accessible without requiring an account, has links to a ton of player created videos.
The whole "by invite only" thing was a joke really, when you consider how easy it was to get an invite. People were giving them out on various message boards, and even here via /. comments at one point. Eventually those new accounts got invites, and suddenly everyone had a Gmail account.
But even assuming the stats were correct, it's silly to assume the measurement of success only includes Gmail users already using other competitors' products. There's plenty of people who use it and don't fall into that category.
I think the sugar coated assumption is that this is all so they can land the craft, when in fact it's probably mostly so they can crash land it somewhere safely.
Gmail, the e-mail service that was lauded at its 2004 launch for offering 500 times as much storage space as some rivals (they quickly closed the gap), today is the system of choice for only about one-quarter the number of people who use MSN and Yahoo e-mail.
So in an article about the success of Google products, the only way they gauge the success of Gmail is if someone also maintains an account with a competing service? What about Gmail users who use it exclusively (like me)?
Then again, it didn't work out too well the last time someone tried it.
Ahhh, that last attempt just lacked an engineer's touch. Really, he should have gone with a Beowulf cluster of these.
EVE rocks, yes.
You know, the last guy to say that got impaled by cannibals?
:)
I guess he missed that cautionary tale, The Incredibles. It taught us many things, including the importance of realizing when you're monologuing.
What's so inflammatory about it? I mean what do you think this thing's supposed to do, fly in at supersonic speeds to deliver a payload of Snickers bars to satisfy the hunger of the enemy?
I used it for about 10 minutes before switching back to my Mac using Adium. Live Messenger chewed up 50 megs of ram on my system just by loading, and locked the whole system up for nearly 10 seconds while it loaded my friends list (maybe about 30 people on it?).
This is kind of like my experience with the new Windows Media Player. I grabbed it to see what all the hubbub was about MTV's URGE music store, and watched as any other media/video application died a horrible death when I ran this.
I don't have the best computer out there, but a 1.7 GHz machine with XP Pro and a gig of ram should be able to handle an IM program without too much trouble.
I have a 61" Samsung DLP that does 1080p, though I do not have a HD-DVD or Blu-ray player. I have a nice Panasonic upscaling player that outputs 1080i, and the TV does an awesome job at deinterlacing the signal for its native resolution (1080p). I have to say, the new Star Wars trilogy DVDs practically leap off the screen. They look phenominal on my set, just like they look phenominal on most other TVs. The transfer is just great.
Do I NEED to see something even higher resolution? Probably not. There's almost no need, considering how nice the current generation looks. Movies like Serenity and Batman Begins also look amazing, even with a large amount of dark colors. DVD right now is at a really good place in terms of advances in compression.
I'm sure there's a noticable difference between DVD and the new high def formats, but as you say, the average consumer either won't need it or won't have the equipment to really get their money's worth. And given that cost:benefit ratio, I can't see it going too far, not for a couple of years at the earliest.
The same can be said for HD-DVD's as well. Both formats have been launched with a whimper, not a shout. Not quite the revolution in format that they promised if they're not going to make a big deal out of its release. To be honest, both (esp. Blu-Ray) seem rushed to market in order to try to beat the other. I'm not sure that's going to lead to a quality experience for consumers for a while.
That's an excellent point, something which the reviewer completely ignores. Something like Star Wars Ep 3 would showcase the capabilities of both HD-DVD and Blu-ray nicely, at least give something with a high enough quality of transfer to really compare the formats.
Partly it's rushed, yes. But there's also the fact that HD has been so hyped, especially the next generation of media players, that nothing will really blow away viewers short of being able to reach into the screen and feel Drew Barrymore up.
And even then, I don't think that would be worth the outlay of cash for the hardware.
"Falling out laughing"?? Are all you BSD users *that* overweight? :)
It's also quite cold out there. Common cause of shrinkage.
So now it can smelt it, but can it tell us who dealt it?
In the future, please submit /. articles which link to the permalink contained in this, and most other blogs. Because after the next big scientific breakthrough hits the presses, the link in this article will take you to the top of the blog, forcing us to scroll around and find the item of interest discussed in this posting.
I don't know, I see a girl named Sony on her knees with Nintendo and Microsoft standing above her with flies unzipped.
(ok, admittedly I took that straight to the gutter...)
They're just pissed that the IP they bought instead of developing on their own is going to miss out on licensing from Sony this round. In my opinion, that's just karma.
HDCP. If the flag is turned on in Blu-ray movie discs, the only way to get 1080p will be thruogh HDMI, all other analog connections will be downscaled in resolution. Personally, I'd like to get all I can out of the hardware and software I buy. So I don't really care about DRM in this case.
Nobody's toggled the flag on though for the first batches of HD-DVD and presumably Blu-ray titles when they come out. But you can bet someone will.
Without HDMI, you don't. And without reasonable pricing, you probably don't want a premium one either. :)