I'm not too surprised by this news. Given the fact that the PS2 is very old, the Xbox (still) isn't making a dent in the PS2's market share and the Gamecube already near dirt cheap price; lets just say a price drop to $149 was long awaited.
To my knowledge, The Temple of Elemental Evil is the only mainstream computer role playing game that gives players a serious gay option without "forcing" gayness on a heterosexual player. Perhaps it will serve as a worthy model for games to come.
Considering gamers still use the words 'fag', 'gay' and 'homo' in order to insult each other online, it'll be a while until homosexual characters are implemented more into games. Don't forget, video games mirror reality so until the public accepts homosexuality, gamers won't accept homosexuality.
On top of that, don't forget that video games have barely scratched the surface of heterosexual relationships anywhere near as far as the article's example goes. While most people point to BMX XXX, GTA3, GTA:VC, and DOA : Xtreme Volleyball as video games protraying or promoting heterosexuality, theres no hinting of any type of "relationship" between the characters. The most I've ever seenen any type of friendship between "just friends" is in linear RPGs (which isn't saying much since it is linear).
Why not kill it now and save money on the server costs? Everyone is going to leave way before September anyway.
'Killing it off' sooner and not give players an opportunities to exchange some e-mail addresses and whatnot between each other? Two words : angry customers. Although its hard for some people to believe but, when it comes to online gaming, some people form friendships (as far as an online friendship can go) between one another.
With no future for the game, actions have no meaning and the (already stale) content will have no appeal.
By that logic Everquest should be suffering from a slow decrease in player subscription because Everquest 2 is coming out, and Sony isn't going to compete against itself.
Combat is a key component of the game, so there will certainly be hack-and-slash gameplay. But that doesn't mean combat needs to be mindless--it can be very exciting, involved, and visceral.
"Can be" meaning "it's fun for the first 5 times you unlock and use a new attack."
When oh when will we see some NEW ideas for MMO-type combat? Planetside did a fairly good job at trying something new, but the types/size of battles just don't fit correctly.
Game magazines turning into men's magazines? If you can show me a game where a buff, good looking, good guy is the hero of the game (maybe Duke Nukem Forever if it even comes out?) and it doesn't get publicized as much, then yes. Until a "female orientated/focused developing group" (no, The Sims doesn't count) publishes a (good and/or successful) game, saying that game magazines are male orientated is like saying chocolate cake is too chocolately.
While Real Time Strategy games may be the more popular of the two, I think people should pick up the game just to see how the strategy genre would be if things had gone differently. Turn based strategy games are also more newbie friendly since players can take the time to look at all his/her options without being rushed (in both ways).
Besides its only $20, some people spend more than $20 on food a day.
Basicly yes, thats what people did. The thing is in this case, 'powergamers' would "cheat" by using macros to do it for them instead. You know how it goes:
Step 1. Stock up on X resources Step 2. Set macro to constantly use X resources to gain skill levels Step 3. Leave computer on for a few hours AFK Step 4. Repeat Step 5. ??? Step 6. Jedi!
Not very fair for those who don't know/care/want to take the time to set this up is it? On top of that, people who did this would damage the player run economy. You might have momentary gluts of a certain product or have momentary shortages of a certain product leading to a very unstable economy.
You go and install a version of Windows that doesnt have drivers built in for your wireless card. You would have the same amount of trouble. Good luck finding the driver without google as well.
Thats why hardware still ships with installation discs. Then again if you said CD-Rom drive instead of wireless card you'd be in trouble..
do licenses bring excessive expectations to a persistent world where everyone wants to be the hero?
Yes and beyond that. Technology today is allowing people to do things in games better than we could've imagined. Nowadays simple press releases have to be carefully worded since the simple mention of an "online world" could mean MMO, or "mature theme" could mean a survival horror type game. Its not just video game licenses that can be tagged with huge unattainable expectations, a company could also generate the same (or more in some cases) amount of hype which ultimately leads to a bad game or bad reviews.
(In pre-MS days, Bungie had a saying "we'll release it when it's done" none of this rushing things out the door with cut features to fit with X-box marketing.)
So in other words Halo would still be in production if Microsoft didn't buy Bungie?
One thing I find puzzling is the lack of advancement in game AI.
Actually there are a number of games that try to improve AI. The reason why you don't see it too often is because there are too many concerns about making it too "smart".
Take for example RTS games. We all know computers "cheat" in those games with their ability to outsmart/outmove/outmicromanage even the greatest players. Make the AI too good and players get floored by them. Make them too easy and players complain about lack of necessary strategy. Its the same concern about FPS games. Do you give the final boss a giant gun with an insanely long reload time with near 100% accuracy or an average gun with a short reload time with roughly 70% accuracy? Difficulty levels haven't really helped either in this case the difference between some can mean a few extra/less life points in some games.
As it stands, theres no "standard" for difficulty levels in games. In Halo higher difficulty level means tougher AI, while in Half-Life higher difficulty level means you take more and do less damage. In Doom higher difficulty meant more enemies but the same stupid AI, while in Warcraft III higher difficulty means same number of enemies but smarter AI. Theres no standard even across games of the same genre. A "Hard" mode in one RTS may mean extra resources for the opponent while a "Hard" mode in another may mean that the enemy gets a couple extra units.
True, but the circumstances at the time were different. If the U.S. was facing another technologically superior nation developing a similar combat robot, you could count on the U.S. doing a spending spree trying to out develop the opposing nation.
How do you really think other software development houses are going to see it?
They're going to see this as an reason to NOT use Open Source. The public and corporations (most of them) are idiots. If push comes to shove in this case and Nintendo stomped on them, every techie news site will report something along these lines:
'Nintendo Stops Open Source Piracy Project, Claims Open Source Is A Danger To Intellectual Rights By Bypassing Anti-Piracy Systems.'
First of all, I take this article with a grain of salt IMMEDIATELY.
In hindsight, PlayStation2 marked the transition.
*cough* The Dreamcast blew away the PS2 in graphics and innovation (at least in the beginning) so other than the use of DVDs to hold data and built in DVD player, the PS2 was nothing more than a modified PS1.
Second of all, the article misses the most important factor to note in modern games. Load times.
Ever since the PS1 load times in games have annoyed the hell out of gamers. The Dreamcast and the PS2 both outright failed to solve the issue, the Gamecube resorted to mini-discs, and the Xbox fell back on precaching large portions of the game at a time. What I really want to see (or not see) is a decrease or a removal of load times in games. Being forced to stare at a "Loading" screen is no fun. It takes me out of the game. That said, get rid of the things. I won't even pick up Final Fantasy Anthology or Chronicals because I'd rather play my SNES originals just to avoid load times.
GIO: This is the third GameCube game that I've played that have had a certain problem, and Eternal Darkness was the first one that this issue happened with, where I had some video and audio mis-syncings.
DD: You modded your system didn't you?
GIO: Yes.
DD: Well, you're asking for trouble, you're playing with the synchronization of the laser.
I just figured since a number of people here are hardware modders (I'm sure a good number of us have at least overclocked their PC processors) would be interested in this little bit.
So if you want the full perfect experience, you'll have to play the game on a non-modded Gamecube.
Why hasn't anyone done a GiJoe mod for any game lately/at all? I don't know about other/.'ers but the idea of driving in a tank with the speed of a hummer while having dozens of rockets, 2 machine guns, a big'ol gun turret with only one driver sounds like great fun to me. Can't forget about the seacraft or aircraft either. Gotta have missle launching, floating-APCs and helicopters with enough firepower to level small towns single-handedly.
Don't forget about the Sonic cartoon and the Captain N show, which managed to rolled all of Nintendo's best characters in one show and mar our memories of them.
Recently in Japan, video game characters are begining to get their own TV serieses (besides from Pokemon and Digimon being the most obvious). Some of them include a Sonic remake, a series on Star Ocean The Second Story (PS1 game), a Megaman series based on the Megaman/Rockman Battle Network GBA series, and a "sequel" series taking place after the.hack series (both the original TV series and the game series). When it comes to video games, the Japanese love those pixelated/polygon characters.
(P.S. Did you know they're even doing an online animated Manga/Comic as a prequel story to Metroid/Zero Mission? Look it up, if you understand Japanese)
Because he's asking for a game that 'E' rated. I have yet to see a modern FPS get rated any lower than a 'T' rating. If the question at hand was for 'T' or lower, then MAYBE games like Paintball would somehow pass through, but if its for 'E' (you can't get lower than that) you'd have a very very tough time picking out a good selection of games.
Yeah, I'm pretty disappointed at some of the cuts like the sword and the wildlife on Halo. But when you really thought it about it, it just wouldn't have fit.
Considering there are some players who can make it through the entire game using only one weapon, no grenades on Legendary, a close range one-hit kill weapon would seriously cause balance issues.
As for the native wildlife, according to the Halo storyline the Flood spawn by mutating other lifeforms (hence why there are a million little spores and only a couple dozen big ones in 343 Guilty Spark). If there was wildlife on Halo, they'd be THOUSANDS more Flood than you fought in the game. (This also explains why the Flood can use covenant and human weapons, as well as why you see much, much, much less covenant forces in the second half of the game.)
Offtopic : IMO, anyone who spends the time trying out a game and then COMPLAINING about it is not casual. Once you spend the time to complain about a game, its no longer a casual issue. You're a gamer. Admit it. Get over it. No one is forcing you to play them, so the only logical explantion is you WANT to play them, therefore you're a gamer.
On topic : Personally I have no protests about about "casual game players" complaining about gaming being too tough. I start protesting when "casual gamers" try to play online. I'm sure we've all seen this type of "casual gamer" before. You know how it is : they TK even when you tell them not to, they use the crappest guns even when you suggest better ones, they don't work with the team (CTF, nuff said), they do the absolute stupidest things sometimes on purpose (I've gottened TKed only to have the TKer bring the enemy flag back into the enemy base), etc etc.
Offline, casual gamers don't bother me at all. They can complain, cheat, screw around, or whatever they want offline. But when they start playing online and start playing online with me, shape up or ship out. There are plenty of people out there willing to give you pointers on how to play well, listen to them and you can't go wrong. Hell I've even seenen clans/guilds formed solely to guide newbies, what more do you want? Official sponsorship of those clans/guilds by the developers?
I doubt id simply decided to not put co-op in the PC version. Don't forget the original Doom (1 and 2) both had co-op so we know id has worked on co-op at least once in the past. I'm guessing its more a case of technical difficulties rather than "ok this is taking too long, drop it" or "I'm too lazy to code a co-op mode, if you guys want it do it yourselves."
With a Xbox system its easier since you can do split screen (you can do it with a PC but almost no one does that), plus the closed system will make it easier to code for, rather than having player 1 with a super $5000 computer on a T3 connection play with player 2 on a $2000 mid-range computer on dial-up.
As computer hardware continues to accelerate at this pace, the divide between computing power with hardcore gamers and non-hardcore gamers increase, it will be harder and harder to make PC games. Gaming consumers have so many choices now that its difficult to put a set of hardware specifications as well : AMD or Pentium, nVidia or ATI, Maxtor or Western Digital, DVD or CD rom drive, floppy or no floppy, Onboard sound or seperate sound card, broadband or dial-up?
I'm thrilled at the way they are developing Doom 3 for two separate systems. One group working on the PC, and another working on the Xbox. Then we won't hear how it is 'watered down' from the PC people, or how the 'controls suck' from the Xbox people.
Ah, but thats what happened to Halo. Halo Xbox was worked on by Bungie, while Halo PC was worked on Gearbox. Simply put, both sides won't even agree that porting Halo 2 to the PC is a good idea. (Gearbox pissed people off badly especially with such high system requirements.)
Slashdot Mirror
I'm not too surprised by this news. Given the fact that the PS2 is very old, the Xbox (still) isn't making a dent in the PS2's market share and the Gamecube already near dirt cheap price; lets just say a price drop to $149 was long awaited.
Considering gamers still use the words 'fag', 'gay' and 'homo' in order to insult each other online, it'll be a while until homosexual characters are implemented more into games. Don't forget, video games mirror reality so until the public accepts homosexuality, gamers won't accept homosexuality.
On top of that, don't forget that video games have barely scratched the surface of heterosexual relationships anywhere near as far as the article's example goes. While most people point to BMX XXX, GTA3, GTA:VC, and DOA : Xtreme Volleyball as video games protraying or promoting heterosexuality, theres no hinting of any type of "relationship" between the characters. The most I've ever seenen any type of friendship between "just friends" is in linear RPGs (which isn't saying much since it is linear).
Guy 2 : "Sure, whats the name of the place?"
Guy 1 : "Gaylord."
Guy 2 : "What the hell?!"
You could try it on your siblings, parents or even random gamers you meet online, the possibilities are endless!
'Killing it off' sooner and not give players an opportunities to exchange some e-mail addresses and whatnot between each other? Two words : angry customers. Although its hard for some people to believe but, when it comes to online gaming, some people form friendships (as far as an online friendship can go) between one another.
With no future for the game, actions have no meaning and the (already stale) content will have no appeal.
By that logic Everquest should be suffering from a slow decrease in player subscription because Everquest 2 is coming out, and Sony isn't going to compete against itself.
"Can be" meaning "it's fun for the first 5 times you unlock and use a new attack."
When oh when will we see some NEW ideas for MMO-type combat? Planetside did a fairly good job at trying something new, but the types/size of battles just don't fit correctly.
Game magazines turning into men's magazines? If you can show me a game where a buff, good looking, good guy is the hero of the game (maybe Duke Nukem Forever if it even comes out?) and it doesn't get publicized as much, then yes. Until a "female orientated/focused developing group" (no, The Sims doesn't count) publishes a (good and/or successful) game, saying that game magazines are male orientated is like saying chocolate cake is too chocolately.
Besides its only $20, some people spend more than $20 on food a day.
Step 1. Stock up on X resources
Step 2. Set macro to constantly use X resources to gain skill levels
Step 3. Leave computer on for a few hours AFK
Step 4. Repeat
Step 5. ???
Step 6. Jedi!
Not very fair for those who don't know/care/want to take the time to set this up is it? On top of that, people who did this would damage the player run economy. You might have momentary gluts of a certain product or have momentary shortages of a certain product leading to a very unstable economy.
Thats why hardware still ships with installation discs. Then again if you said CD-Rom drive instead of wireless card you'd be in trouble..
Yes and beyond that. Technology today is allowing people to do things in games better than we could've imagined. Nowadays simple press releases have to be carefully worded since the simple mention of an "online world" could mean MMO, or "mature theme" could mean a survival horror type game. Its not just video game licenses that can be tagged with huge unattainable expectations, a company could also generate the same (or more in some cases) amount of hype which ultimately leads to a bad game or bad reviews.
So in other words Halo would still be in production if Microsoft didn't buy Bungie?
Actually there are a number of games that try to improve AI. The reason why you don't see it too often is because there are too many concerns about making it too "smart".
Take for example RTS games. We all know computers "cheat" in those games with their ability to outsmart/outmove/outmicromanage even the greatest players. Make the AI too good and players get floored by them. Make them too easy and players complain about lack of necessary strategy. Its the same concern about FPS games. Do you give the final boss a giant gun with an insanely long reload time with near 100% accuracy or an average gun with a short reload time with roughly 70% accuracy? Difficulty levels haven't really helped either in this case the difference between some can mean a few extra/less life points in some games.
As it stands, theres no "standard" for difficulty levels in games. In Halo higher difficulty level means tougher AI, while in Half-Life higher difficulty level means you take more and do less damage. In Doom higher difficulty meant more enemies but the same stupid AI, while in Warcraft III higher difficulty means same number of enemies but smarter AI. Theres no standard even across games of the same genre. A "Hard" mode in one RTS may mean extra resources for the opponent while a "Hard" mode in another may mean that the enemy gets a couple extra units.
True, but the circumstances at the time were different. If the U.S. was facing another technologically superior nation developing a similar combat robot, you could count on the U.S. doing a spending spree trying to out develop the opposing nation.
They're going to see this as an reason to NOT use Open Source. The public and corporations (most of them) are idiots. If push comes to shove in this case and Nintendo stomped on them, every techie news site will report something along these lines :
'Nintendo Stops Open Source Piracy Project, Claims Open Source Is A Danger To Intellectual Rights By Bypassing Anti-Piracy Systems.'
After post election the losing side will call for a recount only to find that some votes had been miscounted from lag. (Florida)
In hindsight, PlayStation2 marked the transition.
*cough* The Dreamcast blew away the PS2 in graphics and innovation (at least in the beginning) so other than the use of DVDs to hold data and built in DVD player, the PS2 was nothing more than a modified PS1.
Second of all, the article misses the most important factor to note in modern games. Load times.
Ever since the PS1 load times in games have annoyed the hell out of gamers. The Dreamcast and the PS2 both outright failed to solve the issue, the Gamecube resorted to mini-discs, and the Xbox fell back on precaching large portions of the game at a time. What I really want to see (or not see) is a decrease or a removal of load times in games. Being forced to stare at a "Loading" screen is no fun. It takes me out of the game. That said, get rid of the things. I won't even pick up Final Fantasy Anthology or Chronicals because I'd rather play my SNES originals just to avoid load times.
DD: You modded your system didn't you?
GIO: Yes.
DD: Well, you're asking for trouble, you're playing with the synchronization of the laser.
I just figured since a number of people here are hardware modders (I'm sure a good number of us have at least overclocked their PC processors) would be interested in this little bit.
So if you want the full perfect experience, you'll have to play the game on a non-modded Gamecube.
Why hasn't anyone done a GiJoe mod for any game lately/at all? I don't know about other /.'ers but the idea of driving in a tank with the speed of a hummer while having dozens of rockets, 2 machine guns, a big'ol gun turret with only one driver sounds like great fun to me. Can't forget about the seacraft or aircraft either. Gotta have missle launching, floating-APCs and helicopters with enough firepower to level small towns single-handedly.
Recently in Japan, video game characters are begining to get their own TV serieses (besides from Pokemon and Digimon being the most obvious). Some of them include a Sonic remake, a series on Star Ocean The Second Story (PS1 game), a Megaman series based on the Megaman/Rockman Battle Network GBA series, and a "sequel" series taking place after the .hack series (both the original TV series and the game series). When it comes to video games, the Japanese love those pixelated/polygon characters.
(P.S. Did you know they're even doing an online animated Manga/Comic as a prequel story to Metroid/Zero Mission? Look it up, if you understand Japanese)
Because he's asking for a game that 'E' rated. I have yet to see a modern FPS get rated any lower than a 'T' rating. If the question at hand was for 'T' or lower, then MAYBE games like Paintball would somehow pass through, but if its for 'E' (you can't get lower than that) you'd have a very very tough time picking out a good selection of games.
Considering there are some players who can make it through the entire game using only one weapon, no grenades on Legendary, a close range one-hit kill weapon would seriously cause balance issues.
As for the native wildlife, according to the Halo storyline the Flood spawn by mutating other lifeforms (hence why there are a million little spores and only a couple dozen big ones in 343 Guilty Spark). If there was wildlife on Halo, they'd be THOUSANDS more Flood than you fought in the game. (This also explains why the Flood can use covenant and human weapons, as well as why you see much, much, much less covenant forces in the second half of the game.)
Don't forget, the Gamecube was also momentarily called the StarCube as well. Goes to show why you should take such early speculation of names lightly.
Then again the sequel to the Playstation was joking called the Playstation 2 for a while...
On topic : Personally I have no protests about about "casual game players" complaining about gaming being too tough. I start protesting when "casual gamers" try to play online. I'm sure we've all seen this type of "casual gamer" before. You know how it is : they TK even when you tell them not to, they use the crappest guns even when you suggest better ones, they don't work with the team (CTF, nuff said), they do the absolute stupidest things sometimes on purpose (I've gottened TKed only to have the TKer bring the enemy flag back into the enemy base), etc etc.
Offline, casual gamers don't bother me at all. They can complain, cheat, screw around, or whatever they want offline. But when they start playing online and start playing online with me, shape up or ship out. There are plenty of people out there willing to give you pointers on how to play well, listen to them and you can't go wrong. Hell I've even seenen clans/guilds formed solely to guide newbies, what more do you want? Official sponsorship of those clans/guilds by the developers?
With a Xbox system its easier since you can do split screen (you can do it with a PC but almost no one does that), plus the closed system will make it easier to code for, rather than having player 1 with a super $5000 computer on a T3 connection play with player 2 on a $2000 mid-range computer on dial-up.
As computer hardware continues to accelerate at this pace, the divide between computing power with hardcore gamers and non-hardcore gamers increase, it will be harder and harder to make PC games. Gaming consumers have so many choices now that its difficult to put a set of hardware specifications as well : AMD or Pentium, nVidia or ATI, Maxtor or Western Digital, DVD or CD rom drive, floppy or no floppy, Onboard sound or seperate sound card, broadband or dial-up?
Ah, but thats what happened to Halo. Halo Xbox was worked on by Bungie, while Halo PC was worked on Gearbox. Simply put, both sides won't even agree that porting Halo 2 to the PC is a good idea. (Gearbox pissed people off badly especially with such high system requirements.)