because they know that cooperation with microsoft means microsoft puts other consoles right out of the running and gains leverage they will use against developers in the future
What you mean like Sony did with Sega and is trying to do with Nintendo? Look at it this way...
because they know that cooperation with Sony means Sony puts other consoles right out of the running and gains leverage they will use against developers in the future
Looks like a concession to lure EA onto their network if I ever saw one
All is fair in love and war? As long as the Xbox continues to be the (OTHER) underdog in the console war, they need to employ every trick they can to win over developers. This is no Nintendo, Sony, or Sega don't forget. No first-party games, no pre-established support, and no fanboyism (or they have anti-fanboyism). Other than superior hardware (which will be nulled in the next generation) and enough money to buy a small island and pay people to live there, its safe to say they're in for a rough ride unless Sony or Nintendo screw up..
True the icons on the HUD are different, but if you really think about it they can pretty much all be justified as 'revamped.' Chances are they're all the same thing (with a change or two) since, after all; if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Judging from the first screenshot where you can get the best view:
Energy bars? Different but its pretty clear what they're trying to do. The two verticle bars under the missle count? Again, pretty clear (Dark Blue shows max, Teal shows remaining.) Left verticle bar? Danger meter, almost no change there. (Though I wonder why its not spiking with that enemy right in front of Samus... maybe an alpha version screen shot?) Map? Again, basic change nothing special.
Now for the (presumably) Visors and Beam selection:
Red beam? Energy beam, no brainer if you've played Metroid Prime. Blue beam? Cold? Ice? Ice beam? It flipped with the Wave Beam but that could always be changed. Green beam? Now admittedly this is reaching a bit but maybe a Plasma Beam? No way to tell until we get more info or until we play it.
As for the visors, some are pretty self-explanatory..
Red : Combat visor, check. Blue : Scan visor, check. Yellow : Thermal visor, maybe? The icon is obviously not the same, but it looks even less similar to the X-Ray visor. Green : Who knows? Could be a motion sensor visor, a sound based visor, maybe the new look for the X-Ray visor or even a Radiation/Phazon visor (though I doubt we'll see Phazon again since it was a localized element).
Because American gamers don't have access to a cybercafe with a sweet broadband connection, or still use dial-up, to download a 300+ meg file update. Not to mention the bandwidth costs, and the omnipresent threat of the users bum rushing your servers to download the file 15 seconds after its put up.
With Lineage II, got a major update coming? Send a couple special CDs to some of the hottest cybercafes to install onto their computers, thus lessing the stress on the servers. A huge majority of players are on broadband there so the time they'll be download is minimal. Worse comes to worse, the company has the enough support to tell its consumers to quit bitching and have to deal with an extra hour of downtime so everyone can download and install the updates before people actually start reentering the game.
Here in the USA? A game doesn't have a feature shipped with it? Complain and flame about holding back. You're favorite class/race/job not the best? Complain and flame about 'balance' issues. Servers crash when hackers break into it? Complain and flame about lack of pre-setup security. Company bans someone for violating the Terms of Service? Post on Slashdot, and watch the fireshow.
And yes, I did check the Generals, BF1942 and BF:V feature pages on their respective websites to verify the statements (or lack thereof) regarding realistic gameplay.
Gameplay? No, content.
Comanches? Yes, that was being developed in real life, with the same name. RPGs, AK-47s, Flashbangs, Armor Piercing bullets, Technicals, Patriot Missle System? Yes, yes, and more yes'es. All real life things. Bomb Trucks, Terrorists, and Tunnel Networks? Again yes.
I never said they didn't try to make realistic gameplay, I said they tried to take realistic things and turn it into outrageous, unbelievable things. I didn't even use the word 'realistic' in my post.
The Daedalus Project, an ongoing online survey study of MMORPG players that started 4 years ago and has surveyed over 30,000 players
Four years? 30,000 players? Thats an average of 7,500 people surveyed each year on average. I know this doesn't exactly have the mass hordes of telephone callers like political parties, but that few responses? You'd think they woulda established some kinda method over that time, maybe streamlined the survey, or at least gotten more people. Or just hire some people in Korea and have them conduct surveys there, the number of responses would probably skyrocket.
For example, the Chinese forces have a really cool mix of Soviet and homebrew technology that much of the world knows nothing about.
So in other words : "We're going to use the Chinese side to put outrageous ideas and weapons into the game and hope the public doesn't realize theres no such thing as a dual cannon tank that fires depleted uranium tank rounds or a light vehicle armed with a giant gatling gun mounted on it with unlimited rounds while maintaining unerring accuracy to shoot both ground and air targets."
After the 'arcade-y' feel of BF1942 and BF:Vietnam, as well as the completely unbelievable C&C:Generals I have no confidence in EA Games in making a down to Earth idea and implementing it into a game. (A USA fighter plane is unable to destroy a stinger site and gets killed by it no less? China using mass infantry but no paratrooper planes? A terrorist organization with enough dune buggies armed with rockets has farther range than a USA patriot missle launcher site? What next? A tank which can roll over twice and still come out alive?... Oh wait...)
Doom 2
Dune 2
X-Com (or whatever you wanna call it)
Warcraft 1 (you've come a long way Blizzard...)
The original Command and Conquer (farewell Westwood)
Commander Keen 1 + 4 (id Software BEFORE Doom) Ultima 4
X-Wing Alliance (rebought it recently in a beat up, damaged by water, ripped box for $2 USD... before discount)
Tie Fighter
Leisure Suit Larry 1-3
Space Quest 1-4
Quest for Glory 1-3 (mmm... Sierra adventure games...)
Wing Commander 1 + 2 as well as expansion packs (still looking for a copy of 3 though)
Master of Orion 1 (2 runs on Win2k with only a few crashes)
Master of Magic (good game, if a little slow on the action)
Now before you correct me, yes some of these games are nearly 100% playable without the use of DOS emulators (Doom 2, C&C, Warcraft I) but without the slow, paced feel of an slow, slow computer; it just doesn't seem right. And yes I do have a seperate computer set aside to play just these old games. Two computers actually.
For those wanna pick up a Dreamcast (or an extra one) theres a neat sale going on at EBGames. Buy a used Dreamcast for $15 USD and get an extra controller. Doesn't sound like much at first, but after you read this report and take a look at all the free underground works out there...
Or for those who are lazy and have access to a good choice of Dreamcast games, about $30 more and you got yourself a cheap $~50 system, 2 controllers, and a (couple) game(s). Not bad if you're trying to stretch your money.
she was this unattainable, austere, dangerous sort of person
In other words : "she was this boobalishous gal, was perfectly postured and formed, and armed with dual pistols with supernatural aim and strength with unlimited ammo."
Probably the reason why the C&C post was marked 'offtopic' was because, it is offtopic. (Sorta) Tiberium was never a natural thing in the series, some story about a meteor hitting the Earth while containing certain materials ultimately resulting in the growth of Tiberium.
I haven't read the other post, but I'm doubt it mentioned the poisonous gas Tiberium released as well..
Does anyone else find it ironic that Microsoft is basing the acceptance of the Xbox on the possibility that developers are tired of Sony's dominance?
No.
Developers have ALWAYS pointed out and complained about the difficulties of programming for the PS2. If the PS3 is also difficult to program for, chances are most third-party developers will move to Nintendo, the tried-and-true champ, or possibly to Microsoft (assuming they don't screw up the X-Box 2).
I mean, spending tax dollars to produce a video game wasn't an easy decision with Army folks -- and the game is becoming even less recruiting-tool oriented.
True, but think about it this way:
First off : America's Army is a good game (I won't say great since to tell you the truth I haven't played it myself.) What the Army succeeded in doing is making a fun game. How many independently funded and developed games fail to simply do that? (True they had millions and millions of dollars to do it, but look at EA Games...)
Secondly, what do you think will happen if they figure out how to convey the message they wanted to convey in the first place, being encourage people to join the military (read : subliminal messages)? America's Army 2? America's Navy?
America's Army succeeded at nothing less at making a fun game.
Come up with something new? Sure, pay them roughly $10 million USD and they'll come up and publish with a new game. You won't make all $10 million USD back, but you'll have something new.
A game with old characters can never be innovative!
Does this mean Metroid Prime, Super Mario 64, and the use of chocobos, moogles, and Cid in the Final Fantasy games make them uninnovative?
What was the result? Depression. The British Empire turned around and locked the U.S. out of the imperial trade system.
I'm no history buff, humor me. Did the depression come before or after the British Empire, the largest trading nation, with the largest navy, and the largest treasury, in the world at the time, imposed an embargo on a newly formed purposely undeveloped country which they had controlled just a few years prior?
No pc games, and only a single bin of used XBox and Playstation games.
First, I assume you mean PS2 games just for clarification. Secondly, most retailers are reluctant to take PC games on a used basis because it is extremely risky (I'll get back to that later). Thirdly, retailers give very little money on trade-ins because thats largely how they make a profit. The most money you can get on a trade-in without using any special deals? $25, and thats only if the game is a new release/still highly priced. What happens after that? Simple, the store sells it pre-owned for $45 (yes, only $5 off). Profit : $20 for the store.
Now regarding the PC games issue, most retailers won't take them back in fear of piracy. Face it, every geek, gamer, and grandma has a CD-burner these days. A few hours/minutes surfing the net can get you some CD burning programs which will bypass copy protection systems. So what do retailers fear? They fear that Sam Surfer will buy PC games, illegally burn himself, his friends, and his neighbors copies, and then sell it back to the store... with the manuals missing. Probably the reason why they don't fear the same things with console games is because they require a mod chip in order to play copied games. (Course for the wise and in the long run modding a system saves a bundle.)
Too may times I have seen parents buy games for their kids that the clerks would not sell them
Thats nothing, I've seenen parents come in and buy M rated games for their kids without even bringing their kids along. Instead they just call their kid on the phone to confirm its the one they want. On top of that even after being warned by the clerk that its a M rated game and not for kids under the age of 17, they shrug it off and buy it anyway.
the exclusive partnerships of console makers and game developers provide little benefit to the consumer, yet take away choice, and give monopolistic-like power to the console-maker (if you want the game, you have to go through him).
Sony and Xbox do the same thing. GTA3/VC took years to come out on the PC and all it got was better graphics (not saying much), mouse look (not saying much), and the ability to play your own mp3s in the game (nice but wheres the multiplayer?). It took 2 years for Halo to be ported to the PC after the Xbox and it wasn't even done well. *cough*bugs*cough*
Its a little different from software on the PC. Most of the time software is made for only one OS (or similar) for the sake of saving money/time. When you release an independent game with no major publisher backing you with a very smalled fixed budget, you're not gonna spend an extra 9 months working on making it Linux compatible for the 15 Linux users who are remotely intestered in the game.
Another MMO game that is crying for PvP (super hero's vs Villans) that doesn't include it.
No matter what game it is you play, even GTA, the player is always viewed as 'the hero.' If a player was considered to be 'the bad guy' or 'the villian' then his goal would be, presumably, to 'destroy the world' or 'take over the world'.
So what would happen if a clan/guild of 'bad guys' actually went out and succeed in that? The servers go down and never come up again, game over? Considering there are players in MMOGs that find/exploit/break bugs daily, reach the level cap monthly, and unlock every feature in the latest update by next Friday, you KNOW someone would eventually succeed at this if there wasn't a system put into the game to automatically prevent them from doing so. And in which case, being a bad guy would cease to be fun since you could never fully role play as 'the bad guy'.
Same with PVP systems. Whats to prevent PKers from camping newbie areas and smacking newbie down left and right? Sure it sounds fun to you with you level 50+ uber decked out wizard, but for the level 3 wooden sword equiped newbie its not. When that level 3 newbie gets smacked down for the fifteenth time, guess what? He quits playing the game, and the company loses money. And you know what else, that happens.
True story : My friend bought Asheron's Call 2 a month after the game came out. He said it was cool so I picked it up. I finished the newbie area in the beginning and then went through the portal to enter the world.. only to get smacked down by 2 level 20-30 wizards who were owning the newbies as they came out. Some players tried to run down the hill to get away, fireballs chased and kill them. Others tried to jump off the hill... but were killed when their wimpy level 3 selves smashed into the ground 5 stories down. A few berserk ones tried to attack the wizards... no chance, they were sitting on the hill behind the portal and you couldn't get up there without knowing exactly which path to take up (bug abuse).
After seeing 6 people get killed at least 3 times each, and getting killed 4 times myself, I quit, I uninstalled, I unsubscribed, and I never looked back since. You want PVP in a game? Go figure out a way to implement it into a game without fucking newbies in the ass. Otherwise quit complaining and go play Morrowind if you wanna be an uber-god character and smack around some helpless NPCs.
Indeed. Even without knowing that, you'd have to be dyslexic to abbreviate the Gamecube as "GCN". The full offical name of the system is the 'Nintendo Gamecube' (NGC) or just 'Gamecube' (GC) for short. Console manufacturers like to fake names and abbreviations to confuse the market before releasing it. Don't forget, the GC was known as 'Project Dolphin' before than and momentarily after that as 'StarCube' (at least in one magazine).
Slashdot Mirror
What you mean like Sony did with Sega and is trying to do with Nintendo? Look at it this way...
because they know that cooperation with Sony means Sony puts other consoles right out of the running and gains leverage they will use against developers in the future
All is fair in love and war? As long as the Xbox continues to be the (OTHER) underdog in the console war, they need to employ every trick they can to win over developers. This is no Nintendo, Sony, or Sega don't forget. No first-party games, no pre-established support, and no fanboyism (or they have anti-fanboyism). Other than superior hardware (which will be nulled in the next generation) and enough money to buy a small island and pay people to live there, its safe to say they're in for a rough ride unless Sony or Nintendo screw up..
Judging from the first screenshot where you can get the best view :
Energy bars? Different but its pretty clear what they're trying to do.
The two verticle bars under the missle count? Again, pretty clear (Dark Blue shows max, Teal shows remaining.)
Left verticle bar? Danger meter, almost no change there. (Though I wonder why its not spiking with that enemy right in front of Samus... maybe an alpha version screen shot?)
Map? Again, basic change nothing special.
Now for the (presumably) Visors and Beam selection :
Red beam? Energy beam, no brainer if you've played Metroid Prime.
Blue beam? Cold? Ice? Ice beam? It flipped with the Wave Beam but that could always be changed.
Green beam? Now admittedly this is reaching a bit but maybe a Plasma Beam? No way to tell until we get more info or until we play it.
As for the visors, some are pretty self-explanatory..
Red : Combat visor, check. Blue : Scan visor, check. Yellow : Thermal visor, maybe? The icon is obviously not the same, but it looks even less similar to the X-Ray visor. Green : Who knows? Could be a motion sensor visor, a sound based visor, maybe the new look for the X-Ray visor or even a Radiation/Phazon visor (though I doubt we'll see Phazon again since it was a localized element).
With Lineage II, got a major update coming? Send a couple special CDs to some of the hottest cybercafes to install onto their computers, thus lessing the stress on the servers. A huge majority of players are on broadband there so the time they'll be download is minimal. Worse comes to worse, the company has the enough support to tell its consumers to quit bitching and have to deal with an extra hour of downtime so everyone can download and install the updates before people actually start reentering the game.
Here in the USA? A game doesn't have a feature shipped with it? Complain and flame about holding back. You're favorite class/race/job not the best? Complain and flame about 'balance' issues. Servers crash when hackers break into it? Complain and flame about lack of pre-setup security. Company bans someone for violating the Terms of Service? Post on Slashdot, and watch the fireshow.
What about "The Sims present Teh Shit/Shet"? What about "Doz Pimpin Sims", "The Sims Hot Shit/Shet", or my favorite "Pimping The Sims"?
Gameplay? No, content.
Comanches? Yes, that was being developed in real life, with the same name. RPGs, AK-47s, Flashbangs, Armor Piercing bullets, Technicals, Patriot Missle System? Yes, yes, and more yes'es. All real life things. Bomb Trucks, Terrorists, and Tunnel Networks? Again yes.
I never said they didn't try to make realistic gameplay, I said they tried to take realistic things and turn it into outrageous, unbelievable things. I didn't even use the word 'realistic' in my post.
Four years? 30,000 players? Thats an average of 7,500 people surveyed each year on average. I know this doesn't exactly have the mass hordes of telephone callers like political parties, but that few responses? You'd think they woulda established some kinda method over that time, maybe streamlined the survey, or at least gotten more people. Or just hire some people in Korea and have them conduct surveys there, the number of responses would probably skyrocket.
So in other words : "We're going to use the Chinese side to put outrageous ideas and weapons into the game and hope the public doesn't realize theres no such thing as a dual cannon tank that fires depleted uranium tank rounds or a light vehicle armed with a giant gatling gun mounted on it with unlimited rounds while maintaining unerring accuracy to shoot both ground and air targets."
After the 'arcade-y' feel of BF1942 and BF:Vietnam, as well as the completely unbelievable C&C:Generals I have no confidence in EA Games in making a down to Earth idea and implementing it into a game. (A USA fighter plane is unable to destroy a stinger site and gets killed by it no less? China using mass infantry but no paratrooper planes? A terrorist organization with enough dune buggies armed with rockets has farther range than a USA patriot missle launcher site? What next? A tank which can roll over twice and still come out alive?... Oh wait...)
Doom 2
Dune 2
X-Com (or whatever you wanna call it)
Warcraft 1 (you've come a long way Blizzard...)
The original Command and Conquer (farewell Westwood)
Commander Keen 1 + 4 (id Software BEFORE Doom)
Ultima 4
X-Wing Alliance (rebought it recently in a beat up, damaged by water, ripped box for $2 USD... before discount)
Tie Fighter
Leisure Suit Larry 1-3
Space Quest 1-4
Quest for Glory 1-3 (mmm... Sierra adventure games...)
Wing Commander 1 + 2 as well as expansion packs (still looking for a copy of 3 though)
Master of Orion 1 (2 runs on Win2k with only a few crashes)
Master of Magic (good game, if a little slow on the action)
Now before you correct me, yes some of these games are nearly 100% playable without the use of DOS emulators (Doom 2, C&C, Warcraft I) but without the slow, paced feel of an slow, slow computer; it just doesn't seem right. And yes I do have a seperate computer set aside to play just these old games. Two computers actually.
Or for those who are lazy and have access to a good choice of Dreamcast games, about $30 more and you got yourself a cheap $~50 system, 2 controllers, and a (couple) game(s). Not bad if you're trying to stretch your money.
In other words : "she was this boobalishous gal, was perfectly postured and formed, and armed with dual pistols with supernatural aim and strength with unlimited ammo."
I haven't read the other post, but I'm doubt it mentioned the poisonous gas Tiberium released as well..
No.
Developers have ALWAYS pointed out and complained about the difficulties of programming for the PS2. If the PS3 is also difficult to program for, chances are most third-party developers will move to Nintendo, the tried-and-true champ, or possibly to Microsoft (assuming they don't screw up the X-Box 2).
True, but think about it this way :
First off : America's Army is a good game (I won't say great since to tell you the truth I haven't played it myself.) What the Army succeeded in doing is making a fun game. How many independently funded and developed games fail to simply do that? (True they had millions and millions of dollars to do it, but look at EA Games...)
Secondly, what do you think will happen if they figure out how to convey the message they wanted to convey in the first place, being encourage people to join the military (read : subliminal messages)? America's Army 2? America's Navy?
America's Army succeeded at nothing less at making a fun game.
Heresy! Lets burn him at the stake!
Zombie! Kill it before it infects other games!
A game with old characters can never be innovative!
Does this mean Metroid Prime, Super Mario 64, and the use of chocobos, moogles, and Cid in the Final Fantasy games make them uninnovative?
True, but when do pre-orders start taking place?
I'm no history buff, humor me. Did the depression come before or after the British Empire, the largest trading nation, with the largest navy, and the largest treasury, in the world at the time, imposed an embargo on a newly formed purposely undeveloped country which they had controlled just a few years prior?
First, I assume you mean PS2 games just for clarification. Secondly, most retailers are reluctant to take PC games on a used basis because it is extremely risky (I'll get back to that later). Thirdly, retailers give very little money on trade-ins because thats largely how they make a profit. The most money you can get on a trade-in without using any special deals? $25, and thats only if the game is a new release/still highly priced. What happens after that? Simple, the store sells it pre-owned for $45 (yes, only $5 off). Profit : $20 for the store.
Now regarding the PC games issue, most retailers won't take them back in fear of piracy. Face it, every geek, gamer, and grandma has a CD-burner these days. A few hours/minutes surfing the net can get you some CD burning programs which will bypass copy protection systems. So what do retailers fear? They fear that Sam Surfer will buy PC games, illegally burn himself, his friends, and his neighbors copies, and then sell it back to the store... with the manuals missing. Probably the reason why they don't fear the same things with console games is because they require a mod chip in order to play copied games. (Course for the wise and in the long run modding a system saves a bundle.)
Thats nothing, I've seenen parents come in and buy M rated games for their kids without even bringing their kids along. Instead they just call their kid on the phone to confirm its the one they want. On top of that even after being warned by the clerk that its a M rated game and not for kids under the age of 17, they shrug it off and buy it anyway.
Sony and Xbox do the same thing. GTA3/VC took years to come out on the PC and all it got was better graphics (not saying much), mouse look (not saying much), and the ability to play your own mp3s in the game (nice but wheres the multiplayer?). It took 2 years for Halo to be ported to the PC after the Xbox and it wasn't even done well. *cough*bugs*cough*
Its a little different from software on the PC. Most of the time software is made for only one OS (or similar) for the sake of saving money/time. When you release an independent game with no major publisher backing you with a very smalled fixed budget, you're not gonna spend an extra 9 months working on making it Linux compatible for the 15 Linux users who are remotely intestered in the game.
No matter what game it is you play, even GTA, the player is always viewed as 'the hero.' If a player was considered to be 'the bad guy' or 'the villian' then his goal would be, presumably, to 'destroy the world' or 'take over the world'.
So what would happen if a clan/guild of 'bad guys' actually went out and succeed in that? The servers go down and never come up again, game over? Considering there are players in MMOGs that find/exploit/break bugs daily, reach the level cap monthly, and unlock every feature in the latest update by next Friday, you KNOW someone would eventually succeed at this if there wasn't a system put into the game to automatically prevent them from doing so. And in which case, being a bad guy would cease to be fun since you could never fully role play as 'the bad guy'.
Same with PVP systems. Whats to prevent PKers from camping newbie areas and smacking newbie down left and right? Sure it sounds fun to you with you level 50+ uber decked out wizard, but for the level 3 wooden sword equiped newbie its not. When that level 3 newbie gets smacked down for the fifteenth time, guess what? He quits playing the game, and the company loses money. And you know what else, that happens.
True story : My friend bought Asheron's Call 2 a month after the game came out. He said it was cool so I picked it up. I finished the newbie area in the beginning and then went through the portal to enter the world.. only to get smacked down by 2 level 20-30 wizards who were owning the newbies as they came out. Some players tried to run down the hill to get away, fireballs chased and kill them. Others tried to jump off the hill... but were killed when their wimpy level 3 selves smashed into the ground 5 stories down. A few berserk ones tried to attack the wizards... no chance, they were sitting on the hill behind the portal and you couldn't get up there without knowing exactly which path to take up (bug abuse).
After seeing 6 people get killed at least 3 times each, and getting killed 4 times myself, I quit, I uninstalled, I unsubscribed, and I never looked back since. You want PVP in a game? Go figure out a way to implement it into a game without fucking newbies in the ass. Otherwise quit complaining and go play Morrowind if you wanna be an uber-god character and smack around some helpless NPCs.
Smarter games? Like what, puzzle games? Flight simulator games? Adventure games? (Almost all of which are now niche games)
Indeed. Even without knowing that, you'd have to be dyslexic to abbreviate the Gamecube as "GCN". The full offical name of the system is the 'Nintendo Gamecube' (NGC) or just 'Gamecube' (GC) for short. Console manufacturers like to fake names and abbreviations to confuse the market before releasing it. Don't forget, the GC was known as 'Project Dolphin' before than and momentarily after that as 'StarCube' (at least in one magazine).