1) Tie-ins (take Lego Star Wars with *two* tie-ins)
Lego Star Wars is actually a damn fine game. It's like a "good parts" version of the prequels. Nothing beats hacking up motherfucking battle droids, on motherfucking Geonosis as motherfucking Lego Mace Windu and doing a motherfucking Samuel L. Jackson impression while doing so. "I am motherfucking Lego Mace Windu, motherfuckers. I will strike down with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to kill my motherfucking Lego buddies."
The strategy guide for the game even makes a sly Samuel L. Jackson reference: "he's not shouting, that's just the way he talks."
There's hordes of RPG's and strategy RPG's on the PS2 that aren't Final Fantasy. All those Nipon Ichi games, all the Atlus games, Grandia's, Legaia's, Wild Arms, heck you can even make your own with RPG Maker.
That huge bulky monstrosity of a controller used by the Dreamcast was obviously the inspiration for the X-Box controller. And they both suck, truly. I've always blamed that dumb controller in part for the Dreamcast's demise. only Sega fanboys loved it, everyone else hated it. It's too big, the analog stick isn't very good and the action buttons feel all wrong.
And now of course, the X-box's biggest fans are ex-dreamcasters.
The dual shock is the best overall compromise in controller design, it's not perfect (I'd prefer a SNES style un-segmented D-pad myself), but it works.
But wait, what if little Bobby (or a Sony ad campaign) tells mommy that with Linux installed on the PS3 he can browse Wikipedia, and write papers/letters with Abiword, send/receive e-mail, and edit his mommy's digital pictures.
Or what if Sony decides to market those features to mommy and daddy themselves.
"hey need a second computer, don't buy some virus prone wintel box, buy our PS3, not only can you visit the web site of your online broker, edit your digital pictures, print them out or e-mail them to family, but you can watch video, listen to music both on disc and downloaded to it and play PS1, PS2 and the new PS3 games.. All without dealing with the hassle of Windows"
And more character based run/jump/bop/shoot/whack platformers too! Almost all the good platformers are PS2 games. Which is unreal to someone like me who remembers the NES/SNES days. Insomniac (Ratchet and Clank) AND Naughty Dog (Jak and Daxter) AND Sony (Sly Cooper) puts out three platformers... each in the time it takes Nintendo to do one? And it's not like they're low quality sequels, each game is considered as good as the first, if not better.
The PS2 is #1 with a bullet in almost every genre, more everything Because it's audience is so large it's got games in niches that other machines don't, because on the PS2 even a niche game can sell a lot of copies.
Note I didn't say superior in specification numbers, I said efficient. I was making a bang for the Hz generalization. Also note that system specs are not the sole thing that determines overall system power. And when the PS2 came out, no Wintel box could match the raw GFLOPS the PS2 could do or it's memory bandwidth.
Take a look at multiplatform games. Go on. do the PC version of those games run on a 300 MHz P2 with 32MB of RAM and 4MB of graphics memory? They don't?
Again, a console does more with less.
I also doubt that by the end of this year when the PS3 is out that there will be 8 core PC's.
Also, if performance was the biggest issue, Oblivion should run great on everyone's high end PC, since it was also released for the Xbox360. Oh wait, it was released for the Xbox and STILL chokes on the PC. I
Maybe oblivion runs like crap on PC's because the Microsoft/Intel PC platform wasn't designed for games, but business applications and is still feeling the effects of that design decision. The consoles are simply far more efficient gaming machines.
Of all the PS2 online games, FFXI was not really considered a hit. The real hits were the SOCOM games (three of them) , or perhaps Star Wars Battlefront games (theres two of them)
I'm yet another PS2 Linux kit owner, and I know that you can run any code you can get to compile on the thing, which is quite a bit even if you aren't a developer.
the ISP would be far better off supplying hardware router/firewalls to their customers gratis because of the reduced traffic load from zombie computers.
The local cable ISP used to say home networks were unsupported and would ask you to remove the router if you had troubles. They also charged $5 per additional computer (or other device)attached to the connection (for the IP address)
Now they have networking information on their website and include routers as part of connection packages.
That's one of the reaons why the PS3 supports high resolution displays. The PS2 does too, as any Linux kit owner can show you the pertinent info from/etc/X11/XGSConfig
It's also an attack against Microsoft's bottom line. What if the average Joe/jane figures out that they can do the things they want to do on a computer on the PS3. If little bobby wants to do is homework while Mom & Dad are doing whatever they can just point little bobby to his PS3. or vice versa. Thus reducing the demand for multiple Wintel machines in a household, thus cutting into Microsoft's profits.
Slashdot Mirror
Oh that, it comes out in November, perhaps you've heard of it. They call it he Playstation 3.
Lego Star Wars is actually a damn fine game. It's like a "good parts" version of the prequels. Nothing beats hacking up motherfucking battle droids, on motherfucking Geonosis as motherfucking Lego Mace Windu and doing a motherfucking Samuel L. Jackson impression while doing so. "I am motherfucking Lego Mace Windu, motherfuckers. I will strike down with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to kill my motherfucking Lego buddies."
The strategy guide for the game even makes a sly Samuel L. Jackson reference: "he's not shouting, that's just the way he talks."
I hate saying this, but I don't think Sony is clever enough either, though I've posted this idea on Sony owned boards in hopes that they would do it.
There's hordes of RPG's and strategy RPG's on the PS2 that aren't Final Fantasy. All those Nipon Ichi games, all the Atlus games, Grandia's, Legaia's, Wild Arms, heck you can even make your own with RPG Maker.
That huge bulky monstrosity of a controller used by the Dreamcast was obviously the inspiration for the X-Box controller. And they both suck, truly. I've always blamed that dumb controller in part for the Dreamcast's demise. only Sega fanboys loved it, everyone else hated it. It's too big, the analog stick isn't very good and the action buttons feel all wrong.
And now of course, the X-box's biggest fans are ex-dreamcasters.
The dual shock is the best overall compromise in controller design, it's not perfect (I'd prefer a SNES style un-segmented D-pad myself), but it works.
I'll say it, but I'm one of the geeks who runs LInux on a PS2:
"OMG theOMG PS3 RUNS LINUX IT MUST BE COOL"
But wait, what if little Bobby (or a Sony ad campaign) tells mommy that with Linux installed on the PS3 he can browse Wikipedia, and write papers/letters with Abiword, send/receive e-mail, and edit his mommy's digital pictures.
Or what if Sony decides to market those features to mommy and daddy themselves.
"hey need a second computer, don't buy some virus prone wintel box, buy our PS3, not only can you visit the web site of your online broker, edit your digital pictures, print them out or e-mail them to family, but you can watch video, listen to music both on disc and downloaded to it and play PS1, PS2 and the new PS3 games.. All without dealing with the hassle of Windows"
And more character based run/jump/bop/shoot/whack platformers too! Almost all the good platformers are PS2 games. Which is unreal to someone like me who remembers the NES/SNES days. Insomniac (Ratchet and Clank) AND Naughty Dog (Jak and Daxter) AND Sony (Sly Cooper) puts out three platformers... each in the time it takes Nintendo to do one? And it's not like they're low quality sequels, each game is considered as good as the first, if not better.
The PS2 is #1 with a bullet in almost every genre, more everything Because it's audience is so large it's got games in niches that other machines don't, because on the PS2 even a niche game can sell a lot of copies.
You have to define what you mean by rudimentary, because the console RPG's I have played have tons of stat/skill development.
I'm not saying that they don't implement their stat/skill systems in a different manner.
Note I didn't say superior in specification numbers, I said efficient. I was making a bang for the Hz generalization. Also note that system specs are not the sole thing that determines overall system power. And when the PS2 came out, no Wintel box could match the raw GFLOPS the PS2 could do or it's memory bandwidth.
Take a look at multiplatform games. Go on. do the PC version of those games run on a 300 MHz P2 with 32MB of RAM and 4MB of graphics memory? They don't?
Again, a console does more with less.
I also doubt that by the end of this year when the PS3 is out that there will be 8 core PC's.
Don't forget Nethack. If he starts playing in first grade he'll probably have his first acension by high school graduation.
Maybe oblivion runs like crap on PC's because the Microsoft/Intel PC platform wasn't designed for games, but business applications and is still feeling the effects of that design decision. The consoles are simply far more efficient gaming machines.
Why do PC gamers get to define what is or is not a "real RPG".
Someone apparently hasn't been paying attention.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_PlayStation_
Of all the PS2 online games, FFXI was not really considered a hit. The real hits were the SOCOM games (three of them) , or perhaps Star Wars Battlefront games (theres two of them)
You didn't follow the links? I wouldn't call a 65 node cluster just "exploring".
t s.php
n 2
http://arrakis.ncsa.uiuc.edu/ps2/using_vector_uni
There's other projects too:
http://www.sve.man.ac.uk/Research/AtoZ/Playstatio
The National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois had a PS2 cluster. I think the geology department had a few too.
http://arrakis.ncsa.uiuc.edu/ps2/
I'm yet another PS2 Linux kit owner, and I know that you can run any code you can get to compile on the thing, which is quite a bit even if you aren't a developer.
What the heck? I hadn't heard about the web browser. I figured that any web browsing functionality would be supplied from within LInux.
Interesting how it does multiple windows, woudln't be surprised to find out that it's netfront code....again.
The local cable ISP used to say home networks were unsupported and would ask you to remove the router if you had troubles. They also charged $5 per additional computer (or other device)attached to the connection (for the IP address)
Now they have networking information on their website and include routers as part of connection packages.
Only for EU and UK territories, we NTSC folks never got YABASIC.
That's one of the reaons why the PS3 supports high resolution displays. The PS2 does too, as any Linux kit owner can show you the pertinent info from
I run Linux on MIPS, you insensitive clod.
(meaning you forgot that Linux is not just run on x86)
Considering how PS2 emulation is not really usable, it will be a decade before any machine can emulate a PS3.
and also since the PS3 wil have a LInux distro on the hard drive, it could replace your PC. Its quite feasilble.
Don't forget Nethack.
It's also an attack against Microsoft's bottom line. What if the average Joe/jane figures out that they can do the things they want to do on a computer on the PS3. If little bobby wants to do is homework while Mom & Dad are doing whatever they can just point little bobby to his PS3. or vice versa. Thus reducing the demand for multiple Wintel machines in a household, thus cutting into Microsoft's profits.
Sony has a nice track record of allowing homebrew. Look at the PS1 and PS2.(and soon enough, the PS3)
Yes, I know the PSP doesn't and yes I think they should do some sort of "sandbox" effort for amateur/hobbyist development.