1. Actually "dreadnought" used to be a special class of warships (the Bismarck and the Yamato being the most in/famous). Its only become an adjective due to their underuse and small production compared to other class ships (too big, too expensive, too vulnerable to aircraft/submarines by the time WWI and WWII come around).
2. If you had enough money and you really wanted to, its not that hard to hide anything from a satellite. (Giant camo net and no one would be able to tell from the sky. Anchored far away from the coast enough and months could pass before anyone even notices it.)
3. Unless it was a research vessel, in which case you'd send a special forces team to recapture the ship/recover the data.
7. Different people, different drinks. 8. Beer doesn't always stay in the mugs. 9. Unless they're REALLY durable (read: very expensive), they aren't gonna last long (slamming mugs down, beating on with fists, using as frizbee). 10. Coasters do not get 'lost' in pubs, they get stolen flat out. As to what people do with them is an entirely different topic.
Or you could forego the whole 'we need a big hit artist' strategy and go for the 'lets just lightly market a bunch of possibles, see how it pans out and then go full support on those who come out on top' strategy. Heck, Apple could top it off by having some songs given away for free (marketing) AND discount all of their songs initially so people develop a 'well its so cheap I guess I'll try something new out' mentality.
This is the internet, you don't pay millions of dollars just to have an ad put in magazines or on TV. If Apple REALLY needed to, they could shift to a modified Bittorrent system to save on bandwidth costs (arguably their biggest expense after the costs of dealing with the RIAA.)
Does anyone else think it is slightly odd that Square Enix doesn't release Chrono Trigger for the GBA?
They haven't even gotten to FF5 and FF6 (3 US). Chrono Trigger has a way to go.
FFVII would NEVER fit on a handheld without being butchered beyond recognition. Too many FMVs, the game is too long for a handheld and without being multidisced, it'd never fit. Oh and porting to either system would be a programming nightmare. The PSP is designed for widescreen usage (complete graphics rehaul) and the DS uses two screens one of which is a touch screen (don't use the touch screen and you look like an amature developer).
They ported Dragon Warrior III to the GBA before. It was nowhere near as good as the SNES version, butthe fact that they did it means its not gonna happen again anytime soon.
A. Welcome to economics 101. I give you money, you give me what I want. You don't give me what I want, I don't give you money.
B. Given the fact that every single country in the Middle East would like to see Israel bombed back to the Stone Age, its natural for them to have WMDs. And don't say because they've done 'illegal' things in the past, otherwise you'd then have to have U.N. send troops in there for being a totalitian regime which oppresses a minority.
C. The U.S. has been reporting, complaining and fighting genocide in Southeast Asia (Vietnam, Cambodia, China?) and Africa (pretty much the whole contient) for decades now. If the U.N. didn't support the U.S. against genecide then, why the hell should the U.S. support the U.N. on it now when the whole world knows its just gonna be used against the U.S.?
I say give control of the U.N. to the world and the U.S. just goes into an isolationist type state. Screw the rest of the world, no matter course is taken, the U.S. can do nothing right.
Last time I checked, India was no longer classified as a 'developing country'. With all the tech and research being sent there, its simply overshadowed by the success of China.
HD-DVDs have been around for a several years now, it was simply never used. DVDs are/were big enough for most things short of ultra-high defination plus surround sound 2+ hour movies not to mention all the deleted scenes and other features. Video games sure as hell don't need more than 10 gigs of space (the biggest PC game I've seen so far is UT2k4 with 7 CDs).
If anything, its Sony trying to overhype their Blu-ray discs with promises with huge amounts of memory. 25 gigs? 50 gigs? Some games can fit their entire gaming library on one of those discs and still have space to spare. Most movies wouldn't even take up half the space on one of those discs even with all the special features (assume 5~15 gigs for the movie and another 5~10 for features. Total = 10~25 gigs.)
Because by that logic Fire Emblem should've been released much eariler in the U.S. (it dates back to the NES days in Japan). Mewtwo (from Pokemon) should have his own game since hes one of the first 'bosses' and Mr. Game and Watch should be getting modern remakes given his popularity even before SSMB.
Except for the fact that Sony was only able to use the 'tech advantage' with the PS2 for a number of reasons. DVDs were the way of the future and everyone knew it (CDs held too little), the Dreamcast still used CDs, and Nintendo was doing its own thing with cartridges. The Gamecube wasn't out yet, Xbox wasn't even announced at this time, and DVD players were still expensive. The PS2 was basicly marketed as, 'buy a DVD player and get a video game system for $100 more!'
On the other hand, Blu-ray has competition with HD-DVDs and theres no clear winner. Go with blu-ray and get better quality but risk alienating all those DVD owners who don't want to switch formats. Go with HD-DVDs and lose quality but consumers don't have to buy a new Blu-ray player. Throw in the fact that Sony is using a lot of iffy hardware (the Cell processor) and Xbox360 is launching before the Christmas season and you've got a whole world of financial hurt.
Super Metroid was released in '94. Metroid Prime and Metroid Fusion were released in '02. Eight years is a long time especially when your consider the fact that most modern gamers aren't old enough to even remember Super Metroid (let alone Metroid 1 and 2). No other major video game series has been unused for such a long period of time (cameos in the two Super Smash Bros games doesn't count either.)
Comparing video game plots from the Nintendo and/or SNES/Genesis era is like comparing the standards of living from the Middle Ages to the 21st century. A fairer comparison would been to compare Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga or even Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. (Neither of which revolve around 'Bowser kidnapped the princess again'.) And playing either of the Sonic Adventure games reveals the same thing.
Microsoft probably circulates its money around different divisions for different purposes. The 'warchest of $40 billion' is probably just 'in the event of an emergency' money. That and its probably 'if people start looking at the financials, distract them with this money.'
Texas Instruments sells their TI- calculators at a profit with little intention of making a profit on the accessories (the only thing you ever need to buy in its lifetime are batteries).
Sony sells the PSP at a huge loss (the fancy screen and marketing blitz couldn't have been cheap) and is designed to make up losses with PSP movie sales and PSP game sales. Neither of which have amounted to anything (yet).
Unless Texas Instruments launches their own 'Virtual Boy', they're pretty much the Nintendo of professional, high quality calculators. Don't expect double digit percentage growth, but constant and consistant growth. Sony on the other hand is already in the ditch. Yes they've made some headway into the market, but so did the Game Gear (arguably the Gameboy's strongest competitor) as did the Neo Geo Pocket/Color and they both lost, horribly for the latter.
The PSP isn't going to go anywhere if it just pushes itself with homebrewed software. It needs games. Badly. Movies are nice, but the DVD versions blow PSP versions out of the water. Sony needs to stop bashing Nintendo and give Sony fanboys something substancial to bash Nintendo.
Some of them, yes. If NASA discovers an intact meteor (remember the moon doesn't have an atmosphere) on the surface, then I'd say it merit a name (though the chances of discovering something like this via land rovers is highly unlikely.)
Some rocks may merit a name simply because of its unique shape or aspects. A smooth shaped rock implies the presence of water. A triangle shaped rock could be the remains of the top of a martian house but the rover simply cannot dig deep enough to confirm. The list goes on. A square shaped rock could be a martian seat. A rock with a perfect hole could be remains of martian craftsmanship. A rock with a flat bottom but rough, bumpy top could be a meteor. Etc.
Nintendo may use a fairly (on the surface) basic look, but that is a sylistic artistic direction and is NOT "cheaper" than creating a game with ultra-realistic graphics.
Ultra-realistic graphics are "cheaper" than sylistic artistic direction?! Holy crap! Why the hell are so many PC gamers paying out of the nose for cutting edge, high-end video cards just so they can turn the resolution up on modern PC games then?!
By your logic, console gaming should've died during in the mid/late-90s when games like Quake, Half-Life, MMORPGs and Total Annihilation dominated the technical aspects of video gaming. Huge 3D worlds, a FPS with puzzles, a storyline AND brilliant (for the time) AI, an online world that NEVER stopped and a RTS that melded tactics (your units could dodge attacks if you reacted quickly enough), strategy (the constant add-on units meant new strategies would be created every week) and instant adaptation required on the part of players (first day of a newly added unit, do you experiment with it and pray it doesn't get countered or go tried and true and hope the new unit doesn't render your strategy obsolete?)
Because if I included third-party add-ons it'd sound one sided. The GBA had the E-reader which was first-party and that let you watch videos so Nintendo has Sony beat there. The GBA also had flash memory cards which let you run homebrewed software on the GBA with no firmware upgrades, so Nintendo has Sony beat there. Finally, the GBA could be used as a mp3 player with a flash memory card and some free homebrewed software, again Nintendo has Sony beat.
I was being generous in my previous post. Other than wrapping everything up in a nice neat package, the PSP doesn't have much going for it since most of its pros have already been outdone.
Better/more numerous games More innovative High potential as a gaming system Won over the hardcore audience Durable Acceptably priced Battery life is excellent
PSP Pro:
Superior hardware UMD movies Beautiful screen for a handheld Buries the DS in marketing Seen as 'hip' Future game releases could be a serious tide-turner (if things aren't already in favor of the PSP)
DS Cons :
Still viewed as 'kiddy' (Nintendogs isn't helping this image) Nothing to match the PSP's music and movie playing abilities (third party add-ons don't count) Games are largely untraditional (Kirby Canvas Curve takes some serious getting used to) Poor marketing ('Touching is good'? Wth?) Still fairly small game library (not including GBA games)
PSP Cons:
Poor construction for a portable device (Scratchy screens, UMD shooting abilities, dead pixels, etc) Firmware alienates all homebrewed software (early adopters are in the minority with no hope of increasing in number) Battery life is horribly short for a handheld (Most users report between 3~12 hours usage depending on whats it used for) Game library pathetically small even compared to the DS (Homebrewed games and emulators don't count) Although future releases promise PSP domination, they're still future releases and have not been launched
I find it's very easy to make precision movements with a mouse, I find it's very hard to have precision control of a firearm held out in front of me.
But don't forget, when you use a mouse, its akin to using a sniper rifle setup on a bi-pod. The mouse doesn't move (much) when you breathe, move your legs or move your eyes to see who entered the room. The firearm rises and falls slightly when you breathe (even if your gun is on a bi/tri-pod), its angle changes slightly when you simply turn your legs, and when you move your eyes, your gun sights move with them because you have tunnel vision.
I'm not challenging your firearms knowledge (I've never used a gun closer than a B.B. gun), but to compare FPS mouse aiming with holding something in your hands and aiming with it is like comparing riding a bicycle with driving a tank.
Because with the exceptions of the old school FF games (Pre-FFVII), theres no reason TO remake FF7. The graphics are relatively still acceptable, the materia system wasn't the best (W-Summon + Knights of the Round + Mimic = Waste of time), and its MASSIVE compared to the older FF games (3 CDs compared to old NES and SNES cartridges!).
Give the game another 5 years or so and chances are SE will -seriously- consider it. Until then, I'm waiting for SE to remake Secret of Mana!
No offense, but tearing down emulation sites was a fairly clear cut case from the get go. Given the amount of number of 'remakes' of older games (FF1 + 2, Classic NES Series, Sega collection games, etc), I'm gonna have to side with the IDSA on the emulation issue.
Not that it means I like it, but they do have a point.
After you returned to Midgar and more or less destroyed Shinra, the story pretty much 'stopped'. The only story left was going to the North Crater and killing/stopping Sephiroth. Everything else was optional bosses (Emerald, Ruby and Ultimate Weapons), mini-games (Chocobo Breeding, need I say more?) or last minute 'collect'em all' items (all the Enemy Skill attacks, Forgotten Summon materia, etc).
Interesting article, but it focuses too much on modern standards IMO. What would be even more interesting would be a Cold War-era look. Remember when the Cuban Missle Crisis occured, China was still a close ally with Russia, the Korean War/Conflict was less than a decade old without mentioning the fact that its techically still ongoing and the U.S. hadn't officially recognized the Chinese government located in Beijing.
If for some reason the U.S./NATO was to re/declare war on North Korea/China/Russia/the Warsaw Pact or vice versa, what would've happened? Assuming no nuclear weapons, biological or chemical weaponery is used? THAT is basicly a topic for any military thesis paper.
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2. If you had enough money and you really wanted to, its not that hard to hide anything from a satellite. (Giant camo net and no one would be able to tell from the sky. Anchored far away from the coast enough and months could pass before anyone even notices it.)
3. Unless it was a research vessel, in which case you'd send a special forces team to recapture the ship/recover the data.
That used to be a tech demo and turned into a full-fledged game/series.
7. Different people, different drinks.
8. Beer doesn't always stay in the mugs.
9. Unless they're REALLY durable (read: very expensive), they aren't gonna last long (slamming mugs down, beating on with fists, using as frizbee).
10. Coasters do not get 'lost' in pubs, they get stolen flat out. As to what people do with them is an entirely different topic.
This is the internet, you don't pay millions of dollars just to have an ad put in magazines or on TV. If Apple REALLY needed to, they could shift to a modified Bittorrent system to save on bandwidth costs (arguably their biggest expense after the costs of dealing with the RIAA.)
They haven't even gotten to FF5 and FF6 (3 US). Chrono Trigger has a way to go.
FFVII would NEVER fit on a handheld without being butchered beyond recognition. Too many FMVs, the game is too long for a handheld and without being multidisced, it'd never fit. Oh and porting to either system would be a programming nightmare. The PSP is designed for widescreen usage (complete graphics rehaul) and the DS uses two screens one of which is a touch screen (don't use the touch screen and you look like an amature developer).
They ported Dragon Warrior III to the GBA before. It was nowhere near as good as the SNES version, butthe fact that they did it means its not gonna happen again anytime soon.
B. Given the fact that every single country in the Middle East would like to see Israel bombed back to the Stone Age, its natural for them to have WMDs. And don't say because they've done 'illegal' things in the past, otherwise you'd then have to have U.N. send troops in there for being a totalitian regime which oppresses a minority.
C. The U.S. has been reporting, complaining and fighting genocide in Southeast Asia (Vietnam, Cambodia, China?) and Africa (pretty much the whole contient) for decades now. If the U.N. didn't support the U.S. against genecide then, why the hell should the U.S. support the U.N. on it now when the whole world knows its just gonna be used against the U.S.?
I say give control of the U.N. to the world and the U.S. just goes into an isolationist type state. Screw the rest of the world, no matter course is taken, the U.S. can do nothing right.
Last time I checked, India was no longer classified as a 'developing country'. With all the tech and research being sent there, its simply overshadowed by the success of China.
If anything, its Sony trying to overhype their Blu-ray discs with promises with huge amounts of memory. 25 gigs? 50 gigs? Some games can fit their entire gaming library on one of those discs and still have space to spare. Most movies wouldn't even take up half the space on one of those discs even with all the special features (assume 5~15 gigs for the movie and another 5~10 for features. Total = 10~25 gigs.)
Because by that logic Fire Emblem should've been released much eariler in the U.S. (it dates back to the NES days in Japan). Mewtwo (from Pokemon) should have his own game since hes one of the first 'bosses' and Mr. Game and Watch should be getting modern remakes given his popularity even before SSMB.
On the other hand, Blu-ray has competition with HD-DVDs and theres no clear winner. Go with blu-ray and get better quality but risk alienating all those DVD owners who don't want to switch formats. Go with HD-DVDs and lose quality but consumers don't have to buy a new Blu-ray player. Throw in the fact that Sony is using a lot of iffy hardware (the Cell processor) and Xbox360 is launching before the Christmas season and you've got a whole world of financial hurt.
Super Metroid was released in '94. Metroid Prime and Metroid Fusion were released in '02. Eight years is a long time especially when your consider the fact that most modern gamers aren't old enough to even remember Super Metroid (let alone Metroid 1 and 2). No other major video game series has been unused for such a long period of time (cameos in the two Super Smash Bros games doesn't count either.)
Comparing video game plots from the Nintendo and/or SNES/Genesis era is like comparing the standards of living from the Middle Ages to the 21st century. A fairer comparison would been to compare Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga or even Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. (Neither of which revolve around 'Bowser kidnapped the princess again'.) And playing either of the Sonic Adventure games reveals the same thing.
NOW they induct Doom? Wth?
EverQuest
Induct Ultima Online and then you can talk about MMORPGs.
Final Fantasy
I'm surprised the Squaresoft/SquareEnix fans didn't screaming their heads off about this already.
Frogger
Important in gaming history, yes. Easily recognized as a character, no.
Grand Theft Auto
HIGHLY debatable. Wide, 'do whatever you want' worlds are not new.
Lara Croft (Tomb Raider)
If the character needs to be identified with the series, it doesn't belong up there.
Madden NFL
Not fair since you're basicly listing 'Football' up there.
Myst and Pac-Man
Again, wth?
Resident Evil
Debatable. Alone in the Dark series came eariler.
Samus Aran (Metroid)
At the risk of Nintendo fanboys flaming me, again debatable due to her long period of absentee.
The rest are more or less acceptable for one reason or another.
Microsoft probably circulates its money around different divisions for different purposes. The 'warchest of $40 billion' is probably just 'in the event of an emergency' money. That and its probably 'if people start looking at the financials, distract them with this money.'
Sony sells the PSP at a huge loss (the fancy screen and marketing blitz couldn't have been cheap) and is designed to make up losses with PSP movie sales and PSP game sales. Neither of which have amounted to anything (yet).
Unless Texas Instruments launches their own 'Virtual Boy', they're pretty much the Nintendo of professional, high quality calculators. Don't expect double digit percentage growth, but constant and consistant growth. Sony on the other hand is already in the ditch. Yes they've made some headway into the market, but so did the Game Gear (arguably the Gameboy's strongest competitor) as did the Neo Geo Pocket/Color and they both lost, horribly for the latter.
The PSP isn't going to go anywhere if it just pushes itself with homebrewed software. It needs games. Badly. Movies are nice, but the DVD versions blow PSP versions out of the water. Sony needs to stop bashing Nintendo and give Sony fanboys something substancial to bash Nintendo.
Some rocks may merit a name simply because of its unique shape or aspects. A smooth shaped rock implies the presence of water. A triangle shaped rock could be the remains of the top of a martian house but the rover simply cannot dig deep enough to confirm. The list goes on. A square shaped rock could be a martian seat. A rock with a perfect hole could be remains of martian craftsmanship. A rock with a flat bottom but rough, bumpy top could be a meteor. Etc.
Ultra-realistic graphics are "cheaper" than sylistic artistic direction?! Holy crap! Why the hell are so many PC gamers paying out of the nose for cutting edge, high-end video cards just so they can turn the resolution up on modern PC games then?!
By your logic, console gaming should've died during in the mid/late-90s when games like Quake, Half-Life, MMORPGs and Total Annihilation dominated the technical aspects of video gaming. Huge 3D worlds, a FPS with puzzles, a storyline AND brilliant (for the time) AI, an online world that NEVER stopped and a RTS that melded tactics (your units could dodge attacks if you reacted quickly enough), strategy (the constant add-on units meant new strategies would be created every week) and instant adaptation required on the part of players (first day of a newly added unit, do you experiment with it and pray it doesn't get countered or go tried and true and hope the new unit doesn't render your strategy obsolete?)
I was being generous in my previous post. Other than wrapping everything up in a nice neat package, the PSP doesn't have much going for it since most of its pros have already been outdone.
Better/more numerous games
More innovative
High potential as a gaming system
Won over the hardcore audience
Durable
Acceptably priced
Battery life is excellent
PSP Pro :
Superior hardware
UMD movies
Beautiful screen for a handheld
Buries the DS in marketing
Seen as 'hip'
Future game releases could be a serious tide-turner (if things aren't already in favor of the PSP)
DS Cons :
Still viewed as 'kiddy' (Nintendogs isn't helping this image)
Nothing to match the PSP's music and movie playing abilities (third party add-ons don't count)
Games are largely untraditional (Kirby Canvas Curve takes some serious getting used to)
Poor marketing ('Touching is good'? Wth?)
Still fairly small game library (not including GBA games)
PSP Cons :
Poor construction for a portable device (Scratchy screens, UMD shooting abilities, dead pixels, etc)
Firmware alienates all homebrewed software (early adopters are in the minority with no hope of increasing in number)
Battery life is horribly short for a handheld (Most users report between 3~12 hours usage depending on whats it used for)
Game library pathetically small even compared to the DS (Homebrewed games and emulators don't count)
Although future releases promise PSP domination, they're still future releases and have not been launched
But don't forget, when you use a mouse, its akin to using a sniper rifle setup on a bi-pod. The mouse doesn't move (much) when you breathe, move your legs or move your eyes to see who entered the room. The firearm rises and falls slightly when you breathe (even if your gun is on a bi/tri-pod), its angle changes slightly when you simply turn your legs, and when you move your eyes, your gun sights move with them because you have tunnel vision.
I'm not challenging your firearms knowledge (I've never used a gun closer than a B.B. gun), but to compare FPS mouse aiming with holding something in your hands and aiming with it is like comparing riding a bicycle with driving a tank.
Because with the exceptions of the old school FF games (Pre-FFVII), theres no reason TO remake FF7. The graphics are relatively still acceptable, the materia system wasn't the best (W-Summon + Knights of the Round + Mimic = Waste of time), and its MASSIVE compared to the older FF games (3 CDs compared to old NES and SNES cartridges!).
Give the game another 5 years or so and chances are SE will -seriously- consider it. Until then, I'm waiting for SE to remake Secret of Mana!
Edited text put in bold.
Not that it means I like it, but they do have a point.
After you returned to Midgar and more or less destroyed Shinra, the story pretty much 'stopped'. The only story left was going to the North Crater and killing/stopping Sephiroth. Everything else was optional bosses (Emerald, Ruby and Ultimate Weapons), mini-games (Chocobo Breeding, need I say more?) or last minute 'collect'em all' items (all the Enemy Skill attacks, Forgotten Summon materia, etc).
If for some reason the U.S./NATO was to re/declare war on North Korea/China/Russia/the Warsaw Pact or vice versa, what would've happened? Assuming no nuclear weapons, biological or chemical weaponery is used? THAT is basicly a topic for any military thesis paper.