Dude, you should see me when I get a parking fine, I'm 9/10'ths of the way to polishing the assault rifle, I live on the edge from my parents basement!
I'm an idiot for not prefacing my post with this, because I've had the same response from people before - so I already know my answer.
The issue with explorer replacements is that they aren't stock standard on the OS, I am constantly using many many computers, via RDP or directly at the console so I need something consistent between them, which is of course Explorer.
XP's explorer (and 2k3) while not flawless, most certainly is good enough for me, especially once you know how to work with it quickly enough (shortcuts and what have you)
Directory Opus, Ztree, ExplorerXP or WinExplorer or whatever, all those things are fantastic explorer replacements, often far better than explorer itself but sadly lacking in that consistency across machines.
So ultimately, XP explorer isn't the best thing ever but I can work with it quite quickly, yet Vista's explorer, with a only a few subtle changes has managed to completely alienate me from the entire OS.
Then in a little bit more detail (crosspost of a post I made on a forum not more than 24 hours ago, I finally documented precisely why Vista Explorer shits me to tears) Warning: Bad language ahead.
Why does Windows Vista insist on a startup sound, despite me disabling all sounds, they are turned off but it does one at startup, I like quiet and what if I don't want to wake people up?
I've been meaning to make this post for a while, I may have railed on Vista for performance problems, specifically in Crysis, you do need to give a new operating system a 'pass' for a while, let it settle in (it's nearly been a year though!!!)
My beef still sits with Windows Explorer, something I use daily, a lot at work and home, I need it clean, simple and easy to get data into my face as quick as possible so I can react as quickly as possible (yes, I sorry to big note but I am, *that* quick on the keyboard and when working with files)
http://abrasion.shackspace.com/lolsta/argh01.jpg Apply to all folders won't let me save the options for "Computer" (My Computer) or Desktop, this is annoying. also, fuck the breadcrumbs bar, in the ASSSSS
http://abrasion.shackspace.com/lolsta/argh02.jpg That motherfucker 'task pane' which is taking space up from my damn explorer view. Sure, I found some website suggesting I shrink the size of it (yay) but I can still accidentally click the bastard, plus it still looks messy.
http://abrasion.shackspace.com/lolsta/whywhy01.jpg Those little box pluses, I like them, why take them away? It's confusing and slowing down the amount of data I can take in per 'scene' I need info and you're witholding it, just so you can pretend you're neater than you actually are.
http://abrasion.shackspace.com/lolsta/wtf01.jpg You call this a save as dialogue box? I hit shift tab twice (yes, I do often, try it people) to navigate quickly to where I normally would on XP. I slap backspace like 10 times fast, this should ensure I'm at desktop, almost instantly (shift tab x2 and backspace x10 takes me 1 second) Does it work? no, of course it doesn't you breadcrumb whores.
soooo I hit browse
http://abrasion.shackspace.com/lolsta/wtf02.jpg oh oh Hot jesus, make the fucking hurting stop! This is one of the best reasons WHY I can't deal, look at it, just look and tell me that's simple, quick and easy to work with? This picture alone is why osx is going to gain some serious marketshare in the next 5 years.
http://abrasion.shackspace.com/lolsta/shambles01.jpg This one is a lot more subtle, this is the kind of cluttered stuff that's hard for anyone to notice is cluttered unless you analyse it. You'll need to see all 3 JPGS to understand where I'm going with this. Maybe I should've got into UI design? Maybe I should be a minimalist linux nerd but damnit that screams messy and awkward to me:/ http://abrasion.shackspace.com/lolsta/shambles01a.jpg Same picture, without t
I can't believe there's not more posts about this, XBMC is probably the best media server option for low definition there is. Simple and easy to use, looks good, works well, is now reliable and packed full of features.
Surprise Surprise, someone doesn't fit in with the normal 'sheep' and so the dipshits pick on the different guy, it's the same recurring theme.
I know many people picked on at school, myself included. I learnt the fine art of self depreciation (thanks mr dangerfield) as well as humour in general, sure it got me some friends and kept me out of trouble but it sure as shit pretty much cost me an education just to fit in, I became the class clown because being myself meant alienation.
I know precisely how this fellow felt and those 2 kids at columbine like him, those who are different, be it genuinely intelligent or even just introverted are picked on, if you do use what skills you have to retaliate (your wit) the morons without the ability to cleverly retort resort to fists, it's mostly a lose lose unless you 'join' the idiots which was my choice.
However, I can't say I agree with the whole 'sue the bully!' or protect the children, if anything I wish someone had told me just to smack some of these guys in the mouth because learning to stand up for yourself is worth a lot more than having Mr. Smith call the police on angry billy, having him arrested and you teased for being a pussy for the rest of your schooling (bullys sucked for me 15 years ago, I feel REAL sorry for kids now)
I really don't want to address such a long long post, now I know how people who reply to me feel. Long story short, you're right - and wrong. Microsoft have seggregated the market with the hard disk and non hard disk edition of the 360, you're right. The thing is though, they will always support a baseline with the console. There ARE rumours there may be some hard disk only games, which would not be unlike N64 games which required the expanded memory pack for the system. Sure it's rare and it's bloody stupid to insist an end user have to upgrade a console but ultimately it's my belief that IF they make any games with mandatory hardware upgrades - that will be the only required upgrade. Other than that one thing, they will never ever release a game on HD-DVD, it's specifically a movie format and none of the current 10,000,000 360's out there have the HD-DVD built in, it's simply not going to happen, it would be suicide and is frankly not how the console market works. I realise I'm contradicting myself here by insisting they will support the minimum baseline and yet possibly demand the hard disk but it's like a rock in a hard place situation.
See, Microsoft want to achieve the cheap - 99$ console one day, because this is when a console is worth the most, people pick them up for spare pocket change and they buy games for them, everyone has one so more people buy one, look at the PS2 for example, it's still selling tonnes of software and frankly, keeping Sony's gaming division alive while the PS3 ramps up. Therefore, having a cheap basic edition without a hard disk will allow them to pick up those really cheap customers.
Microsoft 'took it in the ass' so to speak on the first Xbox, due to the fact that nvidia and intel didn't want to drop the licensing fees on the hardware, hence MS simply dropping the Xbox 1 like trash, unfortunate for MS and unfortunate for us too but they could never achieve the 99$ console without losing money (and no, not all consoles are sold at a loss, towards the end of their life they are sold at a profit)
Microsoft DO want that long, profitable life out of the 360 this time round, for so many reasons such as the ones I listed above, plus the cost of entry for a new console / platform / sdk etc etc is absoloutely and utterly mammoth, it's NOT smart for them to launch into the Xbox 720 early if they can milk the 360 for profit as much as possible. A long lasting console is good for EVERYONE, the manufacturer is happy, the 3'rd parties are selling games and happy and the gamers are getting lots of games, some good, some bad - but lots of choice.
Frankly this is one of the first good things I've heard from Microsoft, because as an Xbox 1 owner I did not enjoy being 'shat on' with them dropping support for the console like a dumb brick, it was the most powerful console of the last gen, yet it died the earliest and at MS's hands (ultimately Intel and Nvidia's)
In 2.5 years time, the Xbox 360 will probably be quite a bit cheaper, with a lot of good games and hopefully quieter and more reliable then. Sure they might release more and more damned editions but it's my belief that anyone who purchased a launch Xbox 360 core will still be able to play ALL games released for the system even in 3 or 4 years time, that's just how console platforms work. (yes, to re-state, it is possible they may expect a hard disk, however that may be the only component, HD-DVD will never be mandatory in this generation - period)
oh and yes, I'm a PC gamer, PS2 owner and Xbox 1 owner.
I also have similar concerns. Rumour has it that he and not Jaffe influenced GOW1 and GOW2.
I'd love for GOW3 to be kickass and I do hope it is but it sure is a shame to see this guy go if he was the primary influence. Sony need all the support they can get right now, despite the haters - so many internet posters fail to realise, without Sony - we'd only have Microsoft (for the 'hardcore' gamers) to rely on and frankly that idea doesn't please me.
(no, I'm not a Sony fanboy, I'll be buying both consoles eventually, infact the 360 likely first - but we NEED competition and right now, Sony aren't doing so good)
Let's hope GOW3 is awesome because it's one of the reasons I'd buy a PS3.
Exactly what we need in Australia is higher performance ADSL links, something like this will be perfect for us to use up our measely 20/40 or maybe even 60gb! monthly download quotas in only a day!
BUT If it didn't cover it, it should. I've always figured predicting the lottery is extremely unlikely but mildly possible, when analysing historical numbers, in my opinion the second the machine is replaced for a newer model you need to scrap your numbers. We change ours here in Australia on the main lotto, every 5 years or so (very rough guess)
If you follow the patterns of only the latest machine, well you might double your chances! - still incredibly unlikely but possible.
Let's add it to the pile of about 1500 new disk technologies, all to be faster, cooler, lower power, quiet, much much much larger than magnetic disks and coming to you 'in the next few years'
Nope, I haven't been reading articles like this every 6 months since I first picked up a PC magazine 16 years ago,.....
(unless I did paste it and slashdot stripped it? I doubt it?) Anyhow if it doesn't appear in this post again, go on youtube and search for "trinity underwater" should do it. Awesome stuff.
Absoloutely awesome movie, probably a bit twisted but I love atomic bombs and seeing them go off, beautiful things, horrible of course but beautiful too, fascinating stuff. They cover Tsar Bomba in that, IIRC the mushroom cloud went 64km's in the air and people would have got 3'rd degree burns at up to 100 miles away. (check wikipedia, I'm not linking it for whoring value)
Here's a snippet of it as it goes off underwater. Seeing the size of that amount of water shoot up with those tiny battleships in the foreground, along with that music - goosebumps.
People are going on a sad crusade to moderate my other posts down just for the hell of it. If anyone would like to correctly meta moderate I'd appreciate it, this place is for discussion, not childilshly taking vengeance because you disagree with someone.
My original comment in this thread was completely on topic and relevant to the discussion. Thanks.
People are going on a sad crusade to moderate my other posts down just for the hell of it. If anyone would like to correctly meta moderate I'd appreciate it, this place is for discussion, not childilshly taking vengeance because you disagree with someone.
(My original post in this thread was +3 and there's certainly nothing trollish about it, hope it helped some people out)
People are going on a sad crusade to moderate my other posts down just for the hell of it. If anyone would like to correctly meta moderate I'd appreciate it, this place is for discussion, not childilshly taking vengeance because you disagree with someone.
That's a very interesting little article, while it does demonstrate the type of argument I came up with to an extent it doesn't change the fact that a high percentage of Wii owners are NOT gamers and a high percentage of Wii owners will not be buying many games for the system, this is a known fact at this point, the system has one of the lowest attach rates of games to units sold ever.
It is currently the Wii sports nick nack for many of the users, some of you may derive some fun from it and some may love it many ignore it, another impulse purchase they got because it looked good over at someone elses house.
I don't think the thing will be a failure but I can and do envision in several years many people wondering what on earth to do with this damn thing under the TV they only use once a year.
I KNEW this would be the moderation I'd get on this one! I actually made a point of avoiding stupid shit like 'fuck the wii' or 'wii is lame' or 'lol wii' no, I wrote a post explaining why I feel that way.
Go and listen to some fucking podcasts you imbeciles, go and read some REAL gaming news ARTICLES, I'm one of those idiot armchair analysts, I read and listen to gaming news more than I play the actual games, I ask people at work almost as if I'm undercover 'oh yeah hi bob, heard you got a wii, how is it?' - I am quite confident the damn system is HEAVILY over-rated and while it might be on the hype train over there in the states for you people, here in Australia the Wii isn't half as hot, people are snapping up the 360 like wildfire and Wii's are still sitting on shelves (selling but certainly not sold out)
The controller IS innacurate. The majority of games ARE shoddy ports of old PS2 / GC / XB games with tacked on controls. The graphics really are the same as last gen. There's a lot of 'shovelware' games coming to the system.
It's a kiddie game system for 'party gamers', people with a lot of housemates / friends over etc, this system isn't a 'serious' gaming unit for the mid to hardcore gamer, the online capabilities are worse than the PS3 even, the SP games while quite possible are few and far between.
Hell I even pointed out that I want both the PS3 and 360 to win, I'm not a fanboy of either system, I'm just a gamer with zero interest in a device which has continually proven to not accomodate the serious gamer, in a variety of features and titles to chose from.
Go listen to a year of gametheory, 1up, gamespot, egm podcasts - believe it or not these gaming journo's are not just idiot gamers writing blogs, they know how the industry works - they work in it daily and the damn thing IS selling like hotcakes but it sure as hell isn't selling as many games as it should be, not at all and as I speculate above, it won't, the casual gamers don't spend money on games.
But! this is slashdot and the Wii, much like linux, apple and a plethora of other subjects is taboo to speak badly of! Can some mods who've actually done some reading and have their own actual opinions moderate now please?
The attach rate is appaling because the majority of non gamers buying the console are,... shock horror not that into games! They aren't buying games for the system, it's that toy they will pull out of the closet every xmas because last year grandma had fun with Wii bowling.
The majority of games are diluted versions / ports from other systems or kiddie games. The few Nintendo games on the system that are good are well... such a small amount of the library. The wii remote is not as accurate and 'fun to use' as it's marketed as, it'll never be a proper gun pointer, it's not accurate for sword / light saber swinging - it's just a clever motion detector not an accurate one.
I am normally the first man to say graphics aren't everything but there is still a baseline and that thing is seriously dated, it'll soon be at the point where people look at it as the atari. My family had an atari when I was a kid and it was the same thing, the cool toy we pulled out twice a year, we NEVER got other games for the system, attach rate like 3 initial games, nothing else.
The Wii may sell lots of hardware but hopefully it diminishes back to gamecube levels, so Sony and MS can pick up the slack, I want to see those 2 competing better so we, the gamers get more choice and lower prices.
Oh while I'm at it, I can not tell you how many friends, friends of friends, people I speak to on forums have told me they own a Wii and it's sitting under their TV doing nothing, I don't think I actually know one person who actually IS happy with the thing.
It's a very popular fad right now andhopefully it will soon die away.
Whirpool is an aussie forum for discussing all kinds of things over here. Anyhow an online store 'just over the pond' in Thailand called Zest has been selling a lot of games lately, they often open the product, give you the CDkey via email and dispose of the rest, or you can pay to have the whole lot shipped. Sounds shady but well apparently it works and very few cases of people having CD key issues.
It's hard to know where to stand on this, I can certainly see why Valve have done it. In order to stop piracy in dodgy countries like China and Thailand they simply drop the price, way way low, if I recall Microsoft were thinking (or did?) the same thing with Windows at one point..? Technically it's still a valid key, however it was intended for that country.
All that being said Organge box (stupid bloody name) is cheap as chips right now. Despite being a tightass consumer, when you think about 45$ US for the preorder is like 55$ AUD, that's fantastic value in my mind. (yes, I purchased on steam)
However! other companies besides Valve like EA are also blocking these online sales and they DON'T release with nice prices like Valve. You want Crysis? 100$ AUD (or 91$ US) and we speak the same damn language, it's not like they need to re-author it (color/colour jokes aside) or make a 220V power supply (software here, not hardware) I don't agree with those prices at all.
I frequent US-centric forums all the time and it kills me to hear of the bargains you guys get as consumers. Price match this, rebate that, sale this, 2 for one on that. I mean you get a brand new game, sure it's 50 or 60$ US but within 2 weeks a smart consumer can have it for 30$ US (40$ AUD) Over here, the new stuff starts at 120/110/100$ AUD (109/100/91$ US!) and may drop if we're lucky to 70$ US in a month or two - what the fuck people what the fuck.
So ultimately, this isn't cool for some tightasses but really go complain to EA about blocking regional games from Thailand, because those cockhats DON'T offer a cheap good download service like Valve yet they are doing the same thing.
Fixed it for you. There's STILL applications / boot disks and CD's / DOS stuff / BIOS stuff where it sometimes won't recognise a USB keyboard. I like my PS/2 k/b support thanks, I definately want IDE for a while, despite the fact I have all SATA now, just in case. Analog audio out ports? You want to get rid of analog audio out ports? You either don't play games or you don't know anything about 5.1 audio on the PC. Floppy ports? I still find installing XP and having to use the F6 floppy will sometimes reject my USB floppy drive, so I just hook up a 3.5" for 10 minutes, solved (no, Nlite isn't a decent option) Serial ports, not for me but I bet some people with IR receivers or some networking gear would disagreee. Finally the analog video out, well I've finally switched but quite literally just in the last month and I can still see a use for it. About the only one of those things I can comfortably say I don't care for is the parallel port, I have no need for it and it's welcome to go.
You really need to do some research on 5.1 audio, in games - on the PC, ASAP
You weigh these things up on a cost / desire / feature / reliability ratio. I don't see any of the 3 new consoles being good value for money at this point in time, I'm sure others do - good for them but my criteria is more stringent than most since I like value for money (unlike most consumers)
PS3, too expensive, not enough software - do want to support them though since MS are completely whipping them now and if MS 'wins' we're fucked - we need competition. Xbox 360, too many hardware problems, too noisy, cheaper than the PS3 and more games but still not value for money considering it could die at the end of your 3 year warranty (hell,.. could die? likely death) Wii, no thanks not for me at all, maybe for 99$ AUD but otherwise not interested.
To get to your point, I just bought a 65nm Intel CPU, I know the 45nm is coming very soon but now was the time to buy for me, based on cost, overclockability and value for money, based on future prices in January I don't forsee there being a huge difference in performance for the same price
I really want a 360, but the problem is I don't want an unreliable console in my lounge. Every time I think to myself, "ok this is ridiculous, time to buy one" some kind of better upgraded model is announced or rumoured, making me want to hold off.
I think I will wait for the quiet and reliable edition before buying one, for sure.
Slashdot Mirror
What the fuck are you talkin bout willis?
Dude, you should see me when I get a parking fine, I'm 9/10'ths of the way to polishing the assault rifle, I live on the edge from my parents basement!
I'm an idiot for not prefacing my post with this, because I've had the same response from people before - so I already know my answer.
The issue with explorer replacements is that they aren't stock standard on the OS, I am constantly using many many computers, via RDP or directly at the console so I need something consistent between them, which is of course Explorer.
XP's explorer (and 2k3) while not flawless, most certainly is good enough for me, especially once you know how to work with it quickly enough (shortcuts and what have you)
Directory Opus, Ztree, ExplorerXP or WinExplorer or whatever, all those things are fantastic explorer replacements, often far better than explorer itself but sadly lacking in that consistency across machines.
So ultimately, XP explorer isn't the best thing ever but I can work with it quite quickly, yet Vista's explorer, with a only a few subtle changes has managed to completely alienate me from the entire OS.
First off, this post and my subsequent replies, my "general whinge with the OS"
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=304745&cid=20695969
Then in a little bit more detail
(crosspost of a post I made on a forum not more than 24 hours ago, I finally documented precisely why Vista Explorer shits me to tears)
Warning: Bad language ahead.
Why does Windows Vista insist on a startup sound, despite me disabling all sounds, they are turned off but it does one at startup, I like quiet and what if I don't want to wake people up?
I've been meaning to make this post for a while, I may have railed on Vista for performance problems, specifically in Crysis, you do need to give a new operating system a 'pass' for a while, let it settle in (it's nearly been a year though!!!)
My beef still sits with Windows Explorer, something I use daily, a lot at work and home, I need it clean, simple and easy to get data into my face as quick as possible so I can react as quickly as possible (yes, I sorry to big note but I am, *that* quick on the keyboard and when working with files)
http://abrasion.shackspace.com/lolsta/argh01.jpg
Apply to all folders won't let me save the options for "Computer" (My Computer) or Desktop, this is annoying.
also, fuck the breadcrumbs bar, in the ASSSSS
http://abrasion.shackspace.com/lolsta/argh02.jpg
That motherfucker 'task pane' which is taking space up from my damn explorer view.
Sure, I found some website suggesting I shrink the size of it (yay) but I can still accidentally click the bastard, plus it still looks messy.
http://abrasion.shackspace.com/lolsta/argh03.jpg
Mofo! I accidentally clicked it, see explanation of why it eats babies in the JPG itself.
http://abrasion.shackspace.com/lolsta/whywhy01.jpg
Those little box pluses, I like them, why take them away? It's confusing and slowing down the amount of data I can take in per 'scene' I need info and you're witholding it, just so you can pretend you're neater than you actually are.
http://abrasion.shackspace.com/lolsta/whywhy02.jpg
Ahh my boxes are back, this is good, also more cluttered shit.
http://abrasion.shackspace.com/lolsta/wtf01.jpg
You call this a save as dialogue box?
I hit shift tab twice (yes, I do often, try it people) to navigate quickly to where I normally would on XP.
I slap backspace like 10 times fast, this should ensure I'm at desktop, almost instantly (shift tab x2 and backspace x10 takes me 1 second)
Does it work? no, of course it doesn't you breadcrumb whores.
soooo I hit browse
http://abrasion.shackspace.com/lolsta/wtf02.jpg oh oh
Hot jesus, make the fucking hurting stop!
This is one of the best reasons WHY I can't deal, look at it, just look and tell me that's simple, quick and easy to work with?
This picture alone is why osx is going to gain some serious marketshare in the next 5 years.
http://abrasion.shackspace.com/lolsta/shambles01.jpg
This one is a lot more subtle, this is the kind of cluttered stuff that's hard for anyone to notice is cluttered unless you analyse it.
You'll need to see all 3 JPGS to understand where I'm going with this.
Maybe I should've got into UI design? Maybe I should be a minimalist linux nerd but damnit that screams messy and awkward to me:/
http://abrasion.shackspace.com/lolsta/shambles01a.jpg
Same picture, without t
I can't believe there's not more posts about this, XBMC is probably the best media server option for low definition there is.
Simple and easy to use, looks good, works well, is now reliable and packed full of features.
I see this word constantly used when it shouldn't be.
I'm pretty sure what you're looking for was actually
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=sarcasm
Surprise Surprise, someone doesn't fit in with the normal 'sheep' and so the dipshits pick on the different guy, it's the same recurring theme.
I know many people picked on at school, myself included.
I learnt the fine art of self depreciation (thanks mr dangerfield) as well as humour in general, sure it got me some friends and kept me out of trouble but it sure as shit pretty much cost me an education just to fit in, I became the class clown because being myself meant alienation.
I know precisely how this fellow felt and those 2 kids at columbine like him, those who are different, be it genuinely intelligent or even just introverted are picked on, if you do use what skills you have to retaliate (your wit) the morons without the ability to cleverly retort resort to fists, it's mostly a lose lose unless you 'join' the idiots which was my choice.
However, I can't say I agree with the whole 'sue the bully!' or protect the children, if anything I wish someone had told me just to smack some of these guys in the mouth because learning to stand up for yourself is worth a lot more than having Mr. Smith call the police on angry billy, having him arrested and you teased for being a pussy for the rest of your schooling (bullys sucked for me 15 years ago, I feel REAL sorry for kids now)
I really don't want to address such a long long post, now I know how people who reply to me feel.
Long story short, you're right - and wrong.
Microsoft have seggregated the market with the hard disk and non hard disk edition of the 360, you're right.
The thing is though, they will always support a baseline with the console.
There ARE rumours there may be some hard disk only games, which would not be unlike N64 games which required the expanded memory pack for the system.
Sure it's rare and it's bloody stupid to insist an end user have to upgrade a console but ultimately it's my belief that IF they make any games with mandatory hardware upgrades - that will be the only required upgrade.
Other than that one thing, they will never ever release a game on HD-DVD, it's specifically a movie format and none of the current 10,000,000 360's out there have the HD-DVD built in, it's simply not going to happen, it would be suicide and is frankly not how the console market works.
I realise I'm contradicting myself here by insisting they will support the minimum baseline and yet possibly demand the hard disk but it's like a rock in a hard place situation.
See, Microsoft want to achieve the cheap - 99$ console one day, because this is when a console is worth the most, people pick them up for spare pocket change and they buy games for them, everyone has one so more people buy one, look at the PS2 for example, it's still selling tonnes of software and frankly, keeping Sony's gaming division alive while the PS3 ramps up.
Therefore, having a cheap basic edition without a hard disk will allow them to pick up those really cheap customers.
Microsoft 'took it in the ass' so to speak on the first Xbox, due to the fact that nvidia and intel didn't want to drop the licensing fees on the hardware, hence MS simply dropping the Xbox 1 like trash, unfortunate for MS and unfortunate for us too but they could never achieve the 99$ console without losing money (and no, not all consoles are sold at a loss, towards the end of their life they are sold at a profit)
Microsoft DO want that long, profitable life out of the 360 this time round, for so many reasons such as the ones I listed above, plus the cost of entry for a new console / platform / sdk etc etc is absoloutely and utterly mammoth, it's NOT smart for them to launch into the Xbox 720 early if they can milk the 360 for profit as much as possible.
A long lasting console is good for EVERYONE, the manufacturer is happy, the 3'rd parties are selling games and happy and the gamers are getting lots of games, some good, some bad - but lots of choice.
Frankly this is one of the first good things I've heard from Microsoft, because as an Xbox 1 owner I did not enjoy being 'shat on' with them dropping support for the console like a dumb brick, it was the most powerful console of the last gen, yet it died the earliest and at MS's hands (ultimately Intel and Nvidia's)
In 2.5 years time, the Xbox 360 will probably be quite a bit cheaper, with a lot of good games and hopefully quieter and more reliable then.
Sure they might release more and more damned editions but it's my belief that anyone who purchased a launch Xbox 360 core will still be able to play ALL games released for the system even in 3 or 4 years time, that's just how console platforms work. (yes, to re-state, it is possible they may expect a hard disk, however that may be the only component, HD-DVD will never be mandatory in this generation - period)
oh and yes, I'm a PC gamer, PS2 owner and Xbox 1 owner.
I also have similar concerns.
Rumour has it that he and not Jaffe influenced GOW1 and GOW2.
I'd love for GOW3 to be kickass and I do hope it is but it sure is a shame to see this guy go if he was the primary influence.
Sony need all the support they can get right now, despite the haters - so many internet posters fail to realise, without Sony - we'd only have Microsoft (for the 'hardcore' gamers) to rely on and frankly that idea doesn't please me.
(no, I'm not a Sony fanboy, I'll be buying both consoles eventually, infact the 360 likely first - but we NEED competition and right now, Sony aren't doing so good)
Let's hope GOW3 is awesome because it's one of the reasons I'd buy a PS3.
Exactly what we need in Australia is higher performance ADSL links, something like this will be perfect for us to use up our measely 20/40 or maybe even 60gb! monthly download quotas in only a day!
Well you know what your average chump at the gym is like,...
Err no, I didn't read the article!
BUT If it didn't cover it, it should.
I've always figured predicting the lottery is extremely unlikely but mildly possible, when analysing historical numbers, in my opinion the second the machine is replaced for a newer model you need to scrap your numbers.
We change ours here in Australia on the main lotto, every 5 years or so (very rough guess)
If you follow the patterns of only the latest machine, well you might double your chances! - still incredibly unlikely but possible.
Let's add it to the pile of about 1500 new disk technologies, all to be faster, cooler, lower power, quiet, much much much larger than magnetic disks and coming to you 'in the next few years'
Nope, I haven't been reading articles like this every 6 months since I first picked up a PC magazine 16 years ago,.....
Err apologies, link I was trying to post.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XudyhmS1YxA
(unless I did paste it and slashdot stripped it? I doubt it?)
Anyhow if it doesn't appear in this post again, go on youtube and search for "trinity underwater" should do it.
Awesome stuff.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114728/ Narrated by our pal Bill Shatner too.
http://www.amazon.com/Trinity-Beyond-Atomic-Bomb-Movie/dp/B00000IML5
Absoloutely awesome movie, probably a bit twisted but I love atomic bombs and seeing them go off, beautiful things, horrible of course but beautiful too, fascinating stuff.
They cover Tsar Bomba in that, IIRC the mushroom cloud went 64km's in the air and people would have got 3'rd degree burns at up to 100 miles away.
(check wikipedia, I'm not linking it for whoring value)
Here's a snippet of it as it goes off underwater.
Seeing the size of that amount of water shoot up with those tiny battleships in the foreground, along with that music - goosebumps.
Epic stuff, check it out people.
Moderators and meta mods:
Thanks to people disliking a comment I made in this article.
http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/26/1512217
People are going on a sad crusade to moderate my other posts down just for the hell of it.
If anyone would like to correctly meta moderate I'd appreciate it, this place is for discussion, not childilshly taking vengeance because you disagree with someone.
My original comment in this thread was completely on topic and relevant to the discussion.
Thanks.
Moderators and meta mods:
Thanks to people disliking a comment I made in this article.
http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/26/1512217
People are going on a sad crusade to moderate my other posts down just for the hell of it.
If anyone would like to correctly meta moderate I'd appreciate it, this place is for discussion, not childilshly taking vengeance because you disagree with someone.
(My original post in this thread was +3 and there's certainly nothing trollish about it, hope it helped some people out)
- Scott
Moderators and meta mods:
Thanks to people disliking a comment I made in this article.
http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/26/1512217
People are going on a sad crusade to moderate my other posts down just for the hell of it.
If anyone would like to correctly meta moderate I'd appreciate it, this place is for discussion, not childilshly taking vengeance because you disagree with someone.
That's a very interesting little article, while it does demonstrate the type of argument I came up with to an extent it doesn't change the fact that a high percentage of Wii owners are NOT gamers and a high percentage of Wii owners will not be buying many games for the system, this is a known fact at this point, the system has one of the lowest attach rates of games to units sold ever.
It is currently the Wii sports nick nack for many of the users, some of you may derive some fun from it and some may love it many ignore it, another impulse purchase they got because it looked good over at someone elses house.
I don't think the thing will be a failure but I can and do envision in several years many people wondering what on earth to do with this damn thing under the TV they only use once a year.
I KNEW this would be the moderation I'd get on this one!
I actually made a point of avoiding stupid shit like 'fuck the wii' or 'wii is lame' or 'lol wii' no, I wrote a post explaining why I feel that way.
Go and listen to some fucking podcasts you imbeciles, go and read some REAL gaming news ARTICLES, I'm one of those idiot armchair analysts, I read and listen to gaming news more than I play the actual games, I ask people at work almost as if I'm undercover 'oh yeah hi bob, heard you got a wii, how is it?' - I am quite confident the damn system is HEAVILY over-rated and while it might be on the hype train over there in the states for you people, here in Australia the Wii isn't half as hot, people are snapping up the 360 like wildfire and Wii's are still sitting on shelves (selling but certainly not sold out)
The controller IS innacurate.
The majority of games ARE shoddy ports of old PS2 / GC / XB games with tacked on controls.
The graphics really are the same as last gen.
There's a lot of 'shovelware' games coming to the system.
It's a kiddie game system for 'party gamers', people with a lot of housemates / friends over etc, this system isn't a 'serious' gaming unit for the mid to hardcore gamer, the online capabilities are worse than the PS3 even, the SP games while quite possible are few and far between.
Hell I even pointed out that I want both the PS3 and 360 to win, I'm not a fanboy of either system, I'm just a gamer with zero interest in a device which has continually proven to not accomodate the serious gamer, in a variety of features and titles to chose from.
Go listen to a year of gametheory, 1up, gamespot, egm podcasts - believe it or not these gaming journo's are not just idiot gamers writing blogs, they know how the industry works - they work in it daily and the damn thing IS selling like hotcakes but it sure as hell isn't selling as many games as it should be, not at all and as I speculate above, it won't, the casual gamers don't spend money on games.
But! this is slashdot and the Wii, much like linux, apple and a plethora of other subjects is taboo to speak badly of!
Can some mods who've actually done some reading and have their own actual opinions moderate now please?
thanks lads.
The attach rate is appaling because the majority of non gamers buying the console are,... shock horror not that into games!
They aren't buying games for the system, it's that toy they will pull out of the closet every xmas because last year grandma had fun with Wii bowling.
The majority of games are diluted versions / ports from other systems or kiddie games.
The few Nintendo games on the system that are good are well... such a small amount of the library.
The wii remote is not as accurate and 'fun to use' as it's marketed as, it'll never be a proper gun pointer, it's not accurate for sword / light saber swinging - it's just a clever motion detector not an accurate one.
I am normally the first man to say graphics aren't everything but there is still a baseline and that thing is seriously dated, it'll soon be at the point where people look at it as the atari.
My family had an atari when I was a kid and it was the same thing, the cool toy we pulled out twice a year, we NEVER got other games for the system, attach rate like 3 initial games, nothing else.
The Wii may sell lots of hardware but hopefully it diminishes back to gamecube levels, so Sony and MS can pick up the slack, I want to see those 2 competing better so we, the gamers get more choice and lower prices.
Oh while I'm at it, I can not tell you how many friends, friends of friends, people I speak to on forums have told me they own a Wii and it's sitting under their TV doing nothing, I don't think I actually know one person who actually IS happy with the thing.
It's a very popular fad right now andhopefully it will soon die away.
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=222993&p=43
Whirpool is an aussie forum for discussing all kinds of things over here.
Anyhow an online store 'just over the pond' in Thailand called Zest has been selling a lot of games lately, they often open the product, give you the CDkey via email and dispose of the rest, or you can pay to have the whole lot shipped.
Sounds shady but well apparently it works and very few cases of people having CD key issues.
It's hard to know where to stand on this, I can certainly see why Valve have done it. In order to stop piracy in dodgy countries like China and Thailand they simply drop the price, way way low, if I recall Microsoft were thinking (or did?) the same thing with Windows at one point..?
Technically it's still a valid key, however it was intended for that country.
All that being said Organge box (stupid bloody name) is cheap as chips right now. Despite being a tightass consumer, when you think about 45$ US for the preorder is like 55$ AUD, that's fantastic value in my mind. (yes, I purchased on steam)
However! other companies besides Valve like EA are also blocking these online sales and they DON'T release with nice prices like Valve. You want Crysis? 100$ AUD (or 91$ US) and we speak the same damn language, it's not like they need to re-author it (color/colour jokes aside) or make a 220V power supply (software here, not hardware)
I don't agree with those prices at all.
I frequent US-centric forums all the time and it kills me to hear of the bargains you guys get as consumers.
Price match this, rebate that, sale this, 2 for one on that.
I mean you get a brand new game, sure it's 50 or 60$ US but within 2 weeks a smart consumer can have it for 30$ US (40$ AUD)
Over here, the new stuff starts at 120/110/100$ AUD (109/100/91$ US!) and may drop if we're lucky to 70$ US in a month or two - what the fuck people what the fuck.
So ultimately, this isn't cool for some tightasses but really go complain to EA about blocking regional games from Thailand, because those cockhats DON'T offer a cheap good download service like Valve yet they are doing the same thing.
"All we need is,...."
..."
"All YOU need is
Fixed it for you.
There's STILL applications / boot disks and CD's / DOS stuff / BIOS stuff where it sometimes won't recognise a USB keyboard.
I like my PS/2 k/b support thanks, I definately want IDE for a while, despite the fact I have all SATA now, just in case.
Analog audio out ports? You want to get rid of analog audio out ports? You either don't play games or you don't know anything about 5.1 audio on the PC.
Floppy ports? I still find installing XP and having to use the F6 floppy will sometimes reject my USB floppy drive, so I just hook up a 3.5" for 10 minutes, solved (no, Nlite isn't a decent option)
Serial ports, not for me but I bet some people with IR receivers or some networking gear would disagreee.
Finally the analog video out, well I've finally switched but quite literally just in the last month and I can still see a use for it.
About the only one of those things I can comfortably say I don't care for is the parallel port, I have no need for it and it's welcome to go.
You really need to do some research on 5.1 audio, in games - on the PC, ASAP
You weigh these things up on a cost / desire / feature / reliability ratio.
I don't see any of the 3 new consoles being good value for money at this point in time, I'm sure others do - good for them but my criteria is more stringent than most since I like value for money (unlike most consumers)
PS3, too expensive, not enough software - do want to support them though since MS are completely whipping them now and if MS 'wins' we're fucked - we need competition.
Xbox 360, too many hardware problems, too noisy, cheaper than the PS3 and more games but still not value for money considering it could die at the end of your 3 year warranty (hell,.. could die? likely death)
Wii, no thanks not for me at all, maybe for 99$ AUD but otherwise not interested.
To get to your point, I just bought a 65nm Intel CPU, I know the 45nm is coming very soon but now was the time to buy for me, based on cost, overclockability and value for money, based on future prices in January I don't forsee there being a huge difference in performance for the same price
Totally agreed.
I really want a 360, but the problem is I don't want an unreliable console in my lounge.
Every time I think to myself, "ok this is ridiculous, time to buy one" some kind of better upgraded model is announced or rumoured, making me want to hold off.
I think I will wait for the quiet and reliable edition before buying one, for sure.