Most indie games are derivative crap, you of all people should know this. If an indie want's to be a big time console developer...they have to DO THE WORK necessary to become one and not constantly whine that Nintendo doesn't hand out dev kits to every developer wannabe in a garage that wants one.
It took the other guys years to come up with Kinect and Move to match the Wii Remote.
Excuse me, but motion control on the PS2 predates the Wii, don't you remember the original PS2 Eyetoy? Didn't you see the SCEfoo tech demo showing off the Eyetoy with a wand controller..pre Wii?
It isn't 1985 anymore, when ex-colonels got jobs working at computer wargame and sim companies and when bearded Unix geeks who played Avalon Hill games on the tabletop were a larger portion of the computer gaming market.
Nobody does flight sims for consoles, because they know they won't sell, the market isn't there. It's not that they couldn't do one (especially on the more modern consoles with the mouse and keyboard support), it's just that they know it's not a good idea.
Yes. Ever play the PSone version of Civ II? Great game, except for a few little issues: No PSone mouse support, and the further you go into the game with more units, cities, etc...the slower the AI turns get. That 33MHz R3000A in the PSone just isn't quite powerful enough.
I wouldn't say "nobody" used the PSone mouse (I have one, but it's gone missing), or hooked up a mouse and keyboard to their PS2 (yep, even when outside of Linux) or PS3 (yes, even in GameOS when I had Linux installed on it.). What pisses me off is that the PS2 port of Half-Life has keyboard and mouse support (I don't use the keyboard, but I do use mouse aiming to go with my analog movement), but the PS3 version of the Orange Box doesn't support it.
Keyboard for text entry IS supported in any game that uses the PS3's standard text entry widget, a good example of that is Oblivion, where you can use the keyboard to name custom spells and enchanted items.
Onboard sound (Nvidia MCP61 Realek ALC 662) works fine with SL voice on Linux, at least with pulseaudio on Fedora 12, 13, and 14. You're probably missing a 686 lib if you're running 64-bit.
Betty White is full of awesome and win! You know how people make jokes about the awesomeness of Chuck Norris? Well Betty White really is awesome. She's freaking hilarious in interviews.
I think it could be put in the same category as the original PSone's Dual Shock, which was an add-on controller, that later become standard equipment, like the PS2's Network adapter, originally sold separately, then later on bundled with "fat" PS2's and then eventually incorporated into the slim's.
There's a significant statement very early in that article:
There were several reasons for the crash, but the main cause was supersaturation of the market with hundreds of mostly low-quality games.
Sounds like the Wii's game market to me. Sooner or later, all those "Wii Fit Mom's" are going to get tired of getting suckered by all the shovelware designed to cash in on what is seen as the less game quality sensitive Wii market.
I wasn't always this way. I remember playthroughs of Final Fantasy VII where I spent many hours levelling up in and around Midgar so I could beat the Midgar Zolom the first time I met him (nabbing the Beta enemy-skill far earlier in the game than you were supposed to be able to get it).
I prefer to chocobo past him, enter the mines, finish the mines, get Yuffie in the forest near Fort Condor, visit Fort Condor and make it my "base" for leveling up limit breaks in the Mythril Mines with the help of Aeris's Fury Brand...once I'm high enough level then I go back through the mines to take on the Zolom to get Beta. Then it's on to Junon. I'm also one of those that goes back to the Junon area once I get the buggy (and Manipulate) to pick up White Wind, the Mythril (for Great Gospel), and I pick up Big Guard from the Beach Plugs as soon as I get that buggy. I also level up Cait' Sith's, Vincent's and Cid's Limit Breaks once they're added to the party and I don't go to Wutai, until that's done. That's also why I always have materia when Yuffie tries to steal it...if you have enough she won't take it all. And the moment, I get cloud back after searching his memories in the lifestream I focus on Chocobo breeding/racing to get the 4 special materia, the Ancient Forest (via a Gold Chocobo), and then the Gold Saucer Duel. Easy place to level materia at that point is the forest at Mideel, enemies in groups of 3 and 4, smack em with Bad Breath to turn them into sleeping, confused, mini'd, and poisoned toads, Magic Hammer to get your MP back, kill them with physical attacks.
But these days, the thought of doing that just makes me despair. I constantly find myself wishing that Japanese developers (and it is primarily Japanese developers at fault here) were confident enough to make a game as long as it needed to be, rather than trying to deliver the 40-60 hour playtime that they think the fanbase expects.
this RPG is only 25 hours rather than 40, so I'm not going to buy it". If your game's concept and design is strong enough, let it stand on its own. Vanquish took me 6 hours to complete, but I loved it, while the thought of picking up Star Ocean again makes my heart sink.
IMHO it's in part the conformism that's part of Japanese culture that makes them do it. FF and DQ are like Madden and WWE games here, the game that plenty of people who don't play other games buys. So they want to give them their 100 hour experience that they expect. Also part of their appeal is that it takes Mr. Salariman back to his days in 1988, which is why they still have young protagonists. Also the American game reviewer otaku at Gamepro or EGM would complain if they didn't have all that "stuff" in them, of course, those guys do nothing but play games so it distorts their viewpoint. I personally stopped playing Dark Cloud 2 because simply put, I realized it simply had too much stuff and it was starting to feel like work, start up the game, grind some weapon XP, repeat. Not to mention, the spheda, the collection (and leveling up) of monster transformations, the customization of Steve, the fishing, the fish racing, the medals, collecting the additional NPCs...do I even have to mention the 100 level bonus dungeon that they put in there, on top of the HUGE main game. They could have cut half the extra stuff and still had more than the game really needs. Though they did fix the item scarcity...at least you don't level grind only to find yourself with less consumables than when you entered like what could happen in the first Dark Cloud.
They could easily fix a lot of this by upping the XP, items and money granted in a "I want to finish the game in a reasonable timespan" mode.
Considering how much the videos of D3 look like a Snowblind engine game...really, just watch some videos of December of 2001's Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance and you'll see, why don't they just get Snowblind to do it. Their engine was used for most of the PS2's Diablo clones.
And here's some gameplay, showing level up, ripply water, spell selection. You'll notice the camera is fully rotatable, in later Snowblind engine games, it was also zoomable as well. The cutscenes are done using the game engine.
Now tell me that Diablo 3 doesn't look like that, peronsally when I first saw the D3 videos I thought to myself: "Did they buy Snowblind's engine?" I've always believed that BGDA was the reason why Diablo II never got ported to the PS2, it looks better than D2, even though it only came out 1 year later, that they could never port D2 to consoles looking the way it did.
Even Jarulf's guide says the PSone version of Diablo is just like the PC version, except for minor differences. Played them both, the game suits the control pad better, and it is MUCH more comfortable to play that way....though I admit, the dual shock would have benefited Diablo. (it predates the Dual Shock)
Funny thing is, the Fedora community goes out of it's way to say Fedora is bleeding edge and that if you're "just a desktop user" you might want to use CentOS.
That's true, but you have to be careful if you've ever visited the Shivering isles and have Shivering Isles related stuff in inventory or storage. So if you want to do the quest, start playing the non-goty version, get vampirism, do the quest, get cured, continue the game in the GOTY version.
Considering that one's first reaction to getting hit with a disease like Porphyric hemophilia in Oblivion would probably be to cure it, and since full vampirism (which is what requires to quest to get rid of) doesn't kick in until you've slept a few times, it probably is rare. I knew about the bug, it's mentioned in the oblivion wiki, before I ever got hit with the disease. I had no intention of becoming a vampire so I cured it at a temple. Of course, if you want to become and stay a vampire for the benefits, there's no problem.
Should they have fixed the bug? Yes, but I don't consider this one to be that bad.
But obviously, if you were taking an OS theory class, you would have more of a need to learn such matters. I'm just a "user" and really don't need to learn how to compile a kernel...though I've done it. Never want to have to do it again.
Also it's possible to do something while following a "recipe" of sorts without really knowing much of the process. I know what a kernel is, and that features can be compiled directly into a kernel or compiled as modules, and that's pretty much it in regards to my kernel knowledge.
My first Linux was Linux for Playstation 2. Had seen all the submissions/comments about Linux and thought that getting the Linux kit for the PS2 would be an interesting learning experience and add some functionality to the thing. I'm not a developer or programmer, just a user and I had Sony's wacky Kondara-ized Red Hat useful within a day. Being a MIPS platfrom I could forget having packages of stuff outside of the installed stuff ready to use so I had to compile everything. My first compile was either gaim or Abiword, once I figured out that doing so wasn't really too difficult. I used that system for personal use up till 2008, when I got my PS3 and installed CentOS based YDL on it. I used that up till the time I had the choice of keeping an old firmware and keeping Linux or updating so I could use PSN. I updated, eventually, after I got a cheap x86 refurb to install Linux on. I chose Fedora. I'd have gone with CentOS but the packages are just a touch too old. I'd be happier if Fedora went with a 12 month release cycle but that isn't going to happen.
I rarely compile from source these days, most stuff I want is in the repos and fairly up to date.
What death taxes? Oh, you mean the "Estate" tax. Do you know that 95+% of people will never pay it because they simply don't have a large enough estate for it to kick in?
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Most indie games are derivative crap, you of all people should know this. If an indie want's to be a big time console developer...they have to DO THE WORK necessary to become one and not constantly whine that Nintendo doesn't hand out dev kits to every developer wannabe in a garage that wants one.
It took the other guys years to come up with Kinect and Move to match the Wii Remote.
Excuse me, but motion control on the PS2 predates the Wii, don't you remember the original PS2 Eyetoy? Didn't you see the SCEfoo tech demo showing off the Eyetoy with a wand controller..pre Wii?
Some PS2 and PS3 games do! Not as many as I'd like though. @#$@#$# Orange Box.
It isn't 1985 anymore, when ex-colonels got jobs working at computer wargame and sim companies and when bearded Unix geeks who played Avalon Hill games on the tabletop were a larger portion of the computer gaming market.
Nobody does flight sims for consoles, because they know they won't sell, the market isn't there. It's not that they couldn't do one (especially on the more modern consoles with the mouse and keyboard support), it's just that they know it's not a good idea.
How did console gaming affect Civ V, since it's not a console game, and as far as I know is not going to get ported?
Yes. Ever play the PSone version of Civ II? Great game, except for a few little issues: No PSone mouse support, and the further you go into the game with more units, cities, etc...the slower the AI turns get. That 33MHz R3000A in the PSone just isn't quite powerful enough.
I wouldn't say "nobody" used the PSone mouse (I have one, but it's gone missing), or hooked up a mouse and keyboard to their PS2 (yep, even when outside of Linux) or PS3 (yes, even in GameOS when I had Linux installed on it.). What pisses me off is that the PS2 port of Half-Life has keyboard and mouse support (I don't use the keyboard, but I do use mouse aiming to go with my analog movement), but the PS3 version of the Orange Box doesn't support it.
Keyboard for text entry IS supported in any game that uses the PS3's standard text entry widget, a good example of that is Oblivion, where you can use the keyboard to name custom spells and enchanted items.
Onboard sound (Nvidia MCP61 Realek ALC 662) works fine with SL voice on Linux, at least with pulseaudio on Fedora 12, 13, and 14. You're probably missing a 686 lib if you're running 64-bit.
Betty White is full of awesome and win! You know how people make jokes about the awesomeness of Chuck Norris? Well Betty White really is awesome. She's freaking hilarious in interviews.
I think it could be put in the same category as the original PSone's Dual Shock, which was an add-on controller, that later become standard equipment, like the PS2's Network adapter, originally sold separately, then later on bundled with "fat" PS2's and then eventually incorporated into the slim's.
Remember, the most successful add-on of all time was the Sega CD, which only sold 500,000 units.
Wrong. That would be the PS2's Eyetoy, sold over 2 million units.
So was Atari, till 1983.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_video_game_crash_of_1983
There's a significant statement very early in that article:
There were several reasons for the crash, but the main cause was supersaturation of the market with hundreds of mostly low-quality games.
Sounds like the Wii's game market to me. Sooner or later, all those "Wii Fit Mom's" are going to get tired of getting suckered by all the shovelware designed to cash in on what is seen as the less game quality sensitive Wii market.
I wasn't always this way. I remember playthroughs of Final Fantasy VII where I spent many hours levelling up in and around Midgar so I could beat the Midgar Zolom the first time I met him (nabbing the Beta enemy-skill far earlier in the game than you were supposed to be able to get it).
I prefer to chocobo past him, enter the mines, finish the mines, get Yuffie in the forest near Fort Condor, visit Fort Condor and make it my "base" for leveling up limit breaks in the Mythril Mines with the help of Aeris's Fury Brand...once I'm high enough level then I go back through the mines to take on the Zolom to get Beta. Then it's on to Junon. I'm also one of those that goes back to the Junon area once I get the buggy (and Manipulate) to pick up White Wind, the Mythril (for Great Gospel), and I pick up Big Guard from the Beach Plugs as soon as I get that buggy. I also level up Cait' Sith's, Vincent's and Cid's Limit Breaks once they're added to the party and I don't go to Wutai, until that's done. That's also why I always have materia when Yuffie tries to steal it...if you have enough she won't take it all. And the moment, I get cloud back after searching his memories in the lifestream I focus on Chocobo breeding/racing to get the 4 special materia, the Ancient Forest (via a Gold Chocobo), and then the Gold Saucer Duel. Easy place to level materia at that point is the forest at Mideel, enemies in groups of 3 and 4, smack em with Bad Breath to turn them into sleeping, confused, mini'd, and poisoned toads, Magic Hammer to get your MP back, kill them with physical attacks.
But these days, the thought of doing that just makes me despair. I constantly find myself wishing that Japanese developers (and it is primarily Japanese developers at fault here) were confident enough to make a game as long as it needed to be, rather than trying to deliver the 40-60 hour playtime that they think the fanbase expects.
this RPG is only 25 hours rather than 40, so I'm not going to buy it". If your game's concept and design is strong enough, let it stand on its own. Vanquish took me 6 hours to complete, but I loved it, while the thought of picking up Star Ocean again makes my heart sink.
IMHO it's in part the conformism that's part of Japanese culture that makes them do it. FF and DQ are like Madden and WWE games here, the game that plenty of people who don't play other games buys. So they want to give them their 100 hour experience that they expect. Also part of their appeal is that it takes Mr. Salariman back to his days in 1988, which is why they still have young protagonists. Also the American game reviewer otaku at Gamepro or EGM would complain if they didn't have all that "stuff" in them, of course, those guys do nothing but play games so it distorts their viewpoint. I personally stopped playing Dark Cloud 2 because simply put, I realized it simply had too much stuff and it was starting to feel like work, start up the game, grind some weapon XP, repeat. Not to mention, the spheda, the collection (and leveling up) of monster transformations, the customization of Steve, the fishing, the fish racing, the medals, collecting the additional NPCs...do I even have to mention the 100 level bonus dungeon that they put in there, on top of the HUGE main game. They could have cut half the extra stuff and still had more than the game really needs. Though they did fix the item scarcity...at least you don't level grind only to find yourself with less consumables than when you entered like what could happen in the first Dark Cloud.
They could easily fix a lot of this by upping the XP, items and money granted in a "I want to finish the game in a reasonable timespan" mode.
Considering how much the videos of D3 look like a Snowblind engine game...really, just watch some videos of December of 2001's Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance and you'll see, why don't they just get Snowblind to do it. Their engine was used for most of the PS2's Diablo clones.
And here's some gameplay, showing level up, ripply water, spell selection. You'll notice the camera is fully rotatable, in later Snowblind engine games, it was also zoomable as well. The cutscenes are done using the game engine.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVzPjvsek2w
Now tell me that Diablo 3 doesn't look like that, peronsally when I first saw the D3 videos I thought to myself: "Did they buy Snowblind's engine?" I've always believed that BGDA was the reason why Diablo II never got ported to the PS2, it looks better than D2, even though it only came out 1 year later, that they could never port D2 to consoles looking the way it did.
Yeah, but the console version was the only version that was released in French. :U
Even the NTSC-UC version of the PSone Diablo supports French..(and German and Swedish as well) Weird.
Even Jarulf's guide says the PSone version of Diablo is just like the PC version, except for minor differences. Played them both, the game suits the control pad better, and it is MUCH more comfortable to play that way....though I admit, the dual shock would have benefited Diablo. (it predates the Dual Shock)
Funny thing is, the Fedora community goes out of it's way to say Fedora is bleeding edge and that if you're "just a desktop user" you might want to use CentOS.
That's true, but you have to be careful if you've ever visited the Shivering isles and have Shivering Isles related stuff in inventory or storage. So if you want to do the quest, start playing the non-goty version, get vampirism, do the quest, get cured, continue the game in the GOTY version.
Considering that one's first reaction to getting hit with a disease like Porphyric hemophilia in Oblivion would probably be to cure it, and since full vampirism (which is what requires to quest to get rid of) doesn't kick in until you've slept a few times, it probably is rare. I knew about the bug, it's mentioned in the oblivion wiki, before I ever got hit with the disease. I had no intention of becoming a vampire so I cured it at a temple. Of course, if you want to become and stay a vampire for the benefits, there's no problem.
Should they have fixed the bug? Yes, but I don't consider this one to be that bad.
Not being able to do the "remove vampirism" quest doesn't make the PS3 version un-winnable since the vampire quest is an optional one.
But obviously, if you were taking an OS theory class, you would have more of a need to learn such matters. I'm just a "user" and really don't need to learn how to compile a kernel...though I've done it. Never want to have to do it again.
Also it's possible to do something while following a "recipe" of sorts without really knowing much of the process. I know what a kernel is, and that features can be compiled directly into a kernel or compiled as modules, and that's pretty much it in regards to my kernel knowledge.
My first Linux was Linux for Playstation 2. Had seen all the submissions/comments about Linux and thought that getting the Linux kit for the PS2 would be an interesting learning experience and add some functionality to the thing. I'm not a developer or programmer, just a user and I had Sony's wacky Kondara-ized Red Hat useful within a day. Being a MIPS platfrom I could forget having packages of stuff outside of the installed stuff ready to use so I had to compile everything. My first compile was either gaim or Abiword, once I figured out that doing so wasn't really too difficult. I used that system for personal use up till 2008, when I got my PS3 and installed CentOS based YDL on it. I used that up till the time I had the choice of keeping an old firmware and keeping Linux or updating so I could use PSN. I updated, eventually, after I got a cheap x86 refurb to install Linux on. I chose Fedora. I'd have gone with CentOS but the packages are just a touch too old. I'd be happier if Fedora went with a 12 month release cycle but that isn't going to happen.
I rarely compile from source these days, most stuff I want is in the repos and fairly up to date.
It wasn't that long ago that RedHat WAS the "distro for the masses"
And how often does that happen for the average end user.
What death taxes? Oh, you mean the "Estate" tax. Do you know that 95+% of people will never pay it because they simply don't have a large enough estate for it to kick in?