The information about the PS3s working in a grid was just the system designer throwing out his crazied dreams like normal. He has good idea that could create an incredible product, but he doesn't always stick around in reality on what is even possible.
As for stopping a game to record tv. If the system is anythign like the PSX (the PS2/w DVR that was Japanese only on the original release of the PS1) then the DVR will be a seperate system function and the recording will happen at the same time you play games without any loss of framerate or anything like that.
It's not reported as an MMORPG, just a MMO. I'm guessing something around the lines of a squad based first person shooter like Plantside. It could be a very interesting concept; however, I hope there will be more than 2 factions so conquest does not become one sided. By having 3 or more factions, alliance between powerful guilds (possibly squads in this game) could be formed to push back a faction that is in the lead.
This could definately be very cool if done right.
Re:New type of player is going to ruin their world
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Exactly which is why it's good to keep an eye on ArenaNET. Their main developers are all ex-Blizzard employees who formed Battle.NET from the ground up, and they were also part of the Diablo teams. For people they haven't tried Guild Wars it definately has the Blizzard polish they are famous for. Hopefully they can pull of this business plan and we'll see more game adopt it.
Re:I can't justify that sort of monthly expense
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The only issue I have with time estimates of how long you play MMORPGs is are you actually enjoying the game you are playing? Are you enjoying going on the same raid for the 50th time. Do you like crafting wicker baskets for 2 hours straight to raise your weaving skill? Yes most people get a lot of gametime for their money in an MMORPG, but how much of that time is playing and how much of it is spent doing a virtual job?
Re:New type of player is going to ruin their world
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I completely agree with you. It is pointless to pay for the games to keep your characters active, and it is pretty shitty of the companies to delete inactive characters. At the very least keep the character but make the name be changed when the player rejoins. Only then there is confusion when a player attempts to recontact their old friends.
To the OP. You say Sony and Blizzard can't get rich while not charging a monthly fee. It's true that they might not have the same level of WoW having 5 Million players (are all those accounts even active and paying people?) but by making a MMORPG that has no monthly fee but expansions with content worth paying the new price of a game for. Release two expansions a year and you could be raking in the money. Look at past Blizzard games like Starcraft and Diablo and how many people played them online. Now picture a good number of them buying two expansions your company put out that year as well.
ArenaNET is wagering on that with Guild Wars since pre-orders for the second chapter are going for $50 (price of a new game) but it is supposed to give the same amount of content as the original game, and it's standalone so you don't need to buy the original to play the expansion. Players who don't buy certain expansions just will not be able to create characters of classes from those expansions. We'll see if ArenaNET pulls it off, it must might change the way people think about and play MMORPGs.
Re:I can't justify that sort of monthly expense
on
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· Score: 1
It really depends on what you consider an MMORPG. At the bare minimum Guild Wars is an MORPG (Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game). The debate is whether or not the game qualifies as "massive".
In the traditional view of the MMORPG there are servers where you create our character. You character is then tied to that server and any friends starting up must play on our server to play with you. You generally do not have a method to migrate your characters between servers. Guild Wars is different. Only the towns and outposts are where you can join up with other characters; however, there is no concept of a server so you can easily meetup with anyone that has an account in the game.
In a traditional MMORPG you are always surrounded by other players whether you like it or not. This allows players to meet and form relationships in the game. Guild Wars on the other hand is different. It is harder to meet other people in game beyond meeting to work together on a Mission or Quest, or grouping for PVP. This eliminates some of the ability to meet some other people but it removes the ability of someone Griefing. Asshats can no longer move into a newbie area and kill them, or monopolize a needed mob or resource, the concept of Ganking is also gone. The only way players can now Grief are to be let into parties and then aggroing multiple mob groups to kill off the party or grabbing a needed quest item and not going along with the party. Time is wasted in both cases; however, death has no permanent effect on your character or wealth in the game. The final type of Griefing is people joining PVP groups and then leaving before the match begins or midmatch. This will generally tip the balance to the party with more players, but sometimes the people who got screwed come out ahead.
And returning to the topic about the game being massive or not. Since you can play anyone who has an account, you can play with anyone in the entire world. There are currently PVP championships going on that will have finals Feb. 16th or so in Taipai. They took two teams from each Korea, America, and Europe and will pit them against each other to determine who is the best in the world. However, challenging players from Europe and Korea while being in the US is a common everyday occurance in the game. Who knows you might meet people in a match and then join the international districts and adventure with them.
You do know that Future Crew became Mad Onion who are the people making the 3DMark programs , right? Locate an original version of 3DMark it has an updated version of the ship sequence from Second Reality and it felt like an old scene demo using new tech. Not dissing some of the cool new 3d demos now days though which are still cool to watch.
I'm sorry to be the one pointing out that it's a waste to run a Radeon X800GTO when you spent on the money on a Athlon X2 3800+. The X800GTO doesn't even support Shader Model 3 which new games like FEAR are using. If you can return it, do so and get either a 6800GS or X16000. I believe the 6800GS is normally cheaper and it's definately easiler to find, and it runs for $200. If you really want to see what your PC can do you'd have to get either a 7000GT, GTX or X18000 depending on how much you want to spend.
Unfortuantely I did not beat the titan quests with the henchmen. I was talking about the missions that are launched from the outposts. I beat the first titan mission with just the henchmen; however, I needed the help of players for the rest of them.
I've actually had the good fortune of beating all but the very last mission solely with henchmen. It takes time and strategy but it can be done. The last mission can probably be done with henchmen quite easily, if you take the time to move without agroing multiple groups. I've only personnally stayed up really late because I've been on a roll. Of course I doubt anything will top FFXI and staying up until 5am working with my LS at the time to get through the Promy missions. God the day after sucked.
Ya, with Guild Wars it's saying up until 2am in the morning because you're on a roll beating the missions, or in a kick ass PvP party that's good good to drop. Of course neither of these is boring grind and they both involve actually having fun in the game.
This is definitely true; although the PS2 version could be easily updated... and it's silly that they don't. Compare the graphics on FFXII (which undoubtedly uses a modified version of the same engine) to FFXI.
Another complaint I have heard is that the PS2 version is holding the graphics of other versions behind (since they don't display cloaks and some other things). This is BS, from a developer's perspective: the other versions already look better, and there's no reason you couldn't add the additional things on systems that handled it.
There is a big difference between FFXI and FFXII, and that is one of them is online while the other isn't. This adds some pretty big overhead which needs to be accounted for. That's why there were/are problem in Dynamis with the 64 character raids on the PS2 causing the game to freeze. You have to remember that with FFXII the developer has control over what is appearing on screen. In FFXI someone could just run by the player there for you get hit with the PS2's RAM limit and that's why there aren't as many unique looking equipments and character customizations in the game.
I also really doubt they will ever change the graphics on one version and not the other unless that version is being sunsetted such as the PS2 version being decomissioned due to the 360 and PS3 versions coming out. It could happen in 2008 or so but we'll have to see.
This isn't the only problem... gilfarmers and botfishers are also to blame. However, I'm on a server with much higher inflation now than the first server I played on, and it's actually made it easier for me to earn a lot of money. There was still really expensive stuff on the old server, but getting the cash was harder. So it balances out to an extent.
Which is the exact problem you are stating. Yes prices vary server to server, but on the servers with higher inflation where you get more money easily the items generally cost more. I'd also like to stay away from the whole gilfarmer/buyer issue. That is definately something that ruined the game for me.
I disagree. WoW may be more popular, but it has no real storyline, not to mention the huge story arcs that FFXI has. Additionally, while it's OK for casual playing, the rewards feel too easy. Earning ranks or rare items in FFXI feels like much more of an accomplishment; I'm not the only person I know who has returned from WoW to FFXI because of this.
That is true to an extent but FFXI had a very high demend to complete some of the quests. Trying to get 18 people together to complete something for just a single person to benefit from is hard sometimes. If the game was more geared towards smaller groups of 3-4 people being optimate it would be very benefital. The other issue is that most classes in the game had a specific way to play them and most parties needed the support while there were way to many damage classes in the game.
Really? I've heard the opposite... the PC version tends to stutter when you're in a busy area (try lower Jeuno or around a moogle during an event), whereas the PS2 runs smoothly regardless. I do have a problem with USB keyboard input, but it may be my keyboard.
I used to have slight shuttering on my PC. I had a P3-1Ghz/w Geforce 4 TI4200, later I upgraded the processor to a Athlon64 3000+. After that I never had shuttering, I did notice some loading of people around moogles and the Jeuno AH, but I believe that to be the data being limited to dial-up speeds even if you have broadband. I was able to run through the most heavily populated errors without a single skip.
Perhaps. Unfortunately most of the "good stuff" happens later, and you need to find a good group of people to play with, even a static party. That totally changes the game. There is definite Final Fantasy material there, though; you just won't see it until you've made progress deeper into the game's storyline.
Reports are saying that look like the graphics on the PC version which are a big improvement over what you saw on the PS2. As for fizzlign out, I can't really comment as I quit almost a year ago. I still have a friend I talk to once in a while that still plays and it looks like the population is lower than when I played, but it's holding steady. The only issue now is inflation in the world. The way the game was designed you need a lot of raw materials to craft things. New players generally gathered these to make money at the start of the game. With less new people playing few of the materials are being gathered leading to higher prices for them which raise prices across the board. The game had some interesting concepts with how it handled crafting and the economy, but it seems like WoW has out shined it. Who knows, maybe with the new generation of consoles coming out ports of the game will bring in lots of new blood.
But being a failure on the PS2? I'd have to disagree. The only issue is that the PC version was so much better as the PS2 chugged along at times. It's true that people looking for the next Final Fantasy game and spending 300 hours leveling your party and completing every side quest were disappointed, but as an MMORPG it was a good game. Well besides that part that simulated the wait in line game, but at least you were logged into the server unlike WoW during that simulation.
Spoken like a true introvert with no friends. Yes many people have conversations on their cell phones at times that are inappropriate; however, they are a tool that used correctly can be helpful.
GF is late and called. Hi where are you? Oh I missed the train and had to wait 15 minutes for the next one. I'll be there shortly. Or calling him directly for directions rather than stopping at random gas stations.
I'd recommend you try one before bashing it, but it sounds like you've already made up or mind anyways. Then again you need friends who would want to talk to you, and I'm not talking about all of those virtual ones in WoW.
You hit the nail on the head. This is exactly how the orginal Xbox was. The only issue is that only Microsoft has the key to sign executables on retail machines. Developers have their own keys that will only sign the files for running on the debug units. So if you're a developer and you make a demo, you have to have Microsoft sign the executable for people to play it on their normal 360s.
From what I saw on the magazine rack, OXM is already offering a disk with playable Xbox 360 demos. What is getting the hackers excitied is that the files on the demo disk are not encrypted, and they are signed to boot from seemingly any type of media. This disk can is going to be used by hackers to determine how the 360 authorizes a game to be booted and with what kind of media. They can know figure out what signals are different and produce a modchip that will allow backups to run. This is the second step in opening up the 360 to run any code. The first was figuring out the format files are laided out on the disk with, and this was cracked and reported on earlier.
I'll bite on the Troll. Yes the Japanese are into RPGs and other games that the Xbox has a very poor showing for, but US and Europe seem to like FPSs. They didn't mention whether it was going to be a Japanese or US launch title, I'd wager on a US title though. With the Xbox having Halo, and the 360 having Call of Duty 2 as launch titles, a good FPS for the PS3 launch could really help it grab market and mindshare.
As for Sony doing no wrong in Japan. That's a load of bullshit. The only reason Sony is doing so well is that when the PSX came out they had an easy to develop for system (way easier than dealing with the Saturn's dual processors) and cheaper licensing fees. This got a lot of developers to look into the system and it got both Squaresoft and Enix to sign into the Sony camp. Having both the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest series on the PSX helped rope in many Japanese consumers. It doesn't hurt that Atlus with the Shin Megami Tensei series also signed on considering. This left the 3 most popular series of RPGs on one system which consumers just ate up.
The move to the PS2 was different, Sony already had mindshare and alliances with developers. They made sure to keep these alliance going strong to keep the francishes in the Sony camp. You can be sure that Sony will try everything in their power to keep the alliances going strong with the PS3 to keep the popular 3rd party games exclusive to the them. It will take a major change in the market to move the developers away from Sony. Nintendo previously had the developer support but the limitations and cost of the N64's cartiage format push the developers to Sony and their cheap media and lower licensing fees. And we all know what is most important. "Developers, Developers, Developers".
Actually it's supposed to detect around 255 varying degrees of pressure. I'm not sure if any games support that many but the Gran Turismo games support seem to as giving slightly less pressure will change the amount of acceleration on the car.
Like the PSP and its obvious lack of online music integration
I don't own a PSP but last one of the key items in the v2.0 firmware was that it was supported under SonicStage which is Sony's verion of iTunes. It's not a great program but it's usable with my Network Walkman. And before you complain it's no different than the iPod only supporting DRM'd music from iTunes.
No this is a midrange HTPC. A true video/audio phile would be selecting a video card that supports HDTV output. And at least 1 HDTV tuner would be need. Finally a higher end Sound Blaster with an external connector box to support the various audio connectors and to help put any analog processing outside the computer case to eliminate any signal distortion.
Yes you might be able to go lower on a part here or there on my parts list but I still stand by it. The Linux Journal even recently ran an article where they spec'd out a MythTV box which came out to $700. That's $700 which is $75 cheaper than my parts and doesn't include the $125 for a legal license of Windows MCE 2005.
I'd like to know where exactly the parts should be cut down. My listing include: ~3Ghz (by Intel's Measurement anyways) CPU & Motherboard, DVD Burner, 1GB RAM, 400GB HD, and analog TV Tuner. I didn't include the sound blaster I listed as optional. If you do run the PC as a dedicated HTPC doing nothing but recording TV you can possibly drop down to 512MB of RAM which saves about $25 and maybe go for less hard drive space which you'll probably regret later when you need more space to save recorded content. You might think the CPU is over kill but you'll enjoy the extra power then you are transcoding content on the fly to put on your PDA, or encoding video to put on DVD. The one thing I didn't include in my list that I probably should have is $30-$40 for a MCE remote that will come with an IR blaster to change changes on Cable and Satalite boxes.
Yes you could buy a lot cheaper parts and knock the price down lower if you only want to record TV, but then you should just bit on the $300 for a Tivo with Lifetime subscription and then the extra $100 for the Media Center upgrade which will let the Tivo stream Music and Pictures. So it'll be $400 for a box that you unpack, plug in, and just use without worrying about it. Of course if you want a noisey, ugly, beige case as part of your entertainment center, that's your choice.
Music subscription songs are DRM protected, and I can't say for sure but I don't believe they are supported on the 360. I remember reading about them not being transferable off of MP3 Players, but I'm not sure about streaming them. Either way you can't use them as ingame soundtrack songs.
As a matter of a fact I just converted my main pc into a semi-HTPC. I put Windows MCE 2005 on it and installed a Hauppauge 150MCE. I then have my Xbox connect to it both via the Xbox Media Center Extender, and with Xbox Media Center.
Xbox Media Center is nice because it allows you to play almost any format you'll ever fun into, and the Extender software allows me to do the how Tivo pause live TV, schedule/watch recorded TV. and the other things possible with MCE. The nice thing about running these features on the Xbox is that my PC is out of the way at my computer desk, while an Xbox which looks closer to other home theatre equipment.
Giving the 360 the ability to natively play DivX AVIs and the like would have been a great addition as me switching to a 360 at the moment would result in a loss of functionality. Nice looking cases that will work well as a Home Theatre PC case are generally restricted to the MicroATX varity and are not the cheapest cases in the world. Sure you could goto Walmart and buy a $300 eMachine and throw a TV card in it and call it a HTPC but it would look like ass next to your TV considering computer cases generally don't fit nicely in component cabinets.
A core 360 costing $300 and providing the needed features to connect to a TV while the PC is else where would be nice. Many of the comsumer PCs are also coming with Windows MCE 2005 (at least pretty much everything PC from HP), and Vista is rumored to included MCE functionality by default.
One glaring issue with the parts you listed in the AIW card. They are not known in the HTPC community to be the best cards and I don't believe the 9600s even support hardware encoding. This causes encoding of video to be pushed onto the CPU. You can pickup a Hauppauge 150MCE for ~$67 at Newegg which does include hardware encoding. The only thing I notice when video is being recorded is that my hard drive is being written to more often that normal.
Here's a spec'd out decent MCE system.
Windows MCE 2005 - $125 You buy your software right?
Athlon64 3000+/w Motherboard (Combo) - $200
1GB PC3200 DDR - $70
NEC DVD+/-RW - $40
Generic Case - $37-$100
WD 400GB - $200
Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-150 MCE - $68
Video Card/w TV-Out - $35-$500 depending on the model and if you want to play games with it.
All of this added up taking the cheapest parts comes out to $775 and this is without a keyboard, mouse, monitor/lcd, speakers. So no they aren't that cheap compared to a $300-400 Xbox if it just included the additonal playback format support.
(wow.. I remembered to hit preview to check formatting this time...)
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It's not out yet, but a PSP sequal is coming out soon. I think that's what he's refering to.
As for stopping a game to record tv. If the system is anythign like the PSX (the PS2 /w DVR that was Japanese only on the original release of the PS1) then the DVR will be a seperate system function and the recording will happen at the same time you play games without any loss of framerate or anything like that.
This could definately be very cool if done right.
Exactly which is why it's good to keep an eye on ArenaNET. Their main developers are all ex-Blizzard employees who formed Battle.NET from the ground up, and they were also part of the Diablo teams. For people they haven't tried Guild Wars it definately has the Blizzard polish they are famous for. Hopefully they can pull of this business plan and we'll see more game adopt it.
The only issue I have with time estimates of how long you play MMORPGs is are you actually enjoying the game you are playing? Are you enjoying going on the same raid for the 50th time. Do you like crafting wicker baskets for 2 hours straight to raise your weaving skill? Yes most people get a lot of gametime for their money in an MMORPG, but how much of that time is playing and how much of it is spent doing a virtual job?
To the OP. You say Sony and Blizzard can't get rich while not charging a monthly fee. It's true that they might not have the same level of WoW having 5 Million players (are all those accounts even active and paying people?) but by making a MMORPG that has no monthly fee but expansions with content worth paying the new price of a game for. Release two expansions a year and you could be raking in the money. Look at past Blizzard games like Starcraft and Diablo and how many people played them online. Now picture a good number of them buying two expansions your company put out that year as well.
ArenaNET is wagering on that with Guild Wars since pre-orders for the second chapter are going for $50 (price of a new game) but it is supposed to give the same amount of content as the original game, and it's standalone so you don't need to buy the original to play the expansion. Players who don't buy certain expansions just will not be able to create characters of classes from those expansions. We'll see if ArenaNET pulls it off, it must might change the way people think about and play MMORPGs.
In the traditional view of the MMORPG there are servers where you create our character. You character is then tied to that server and any friends starting up must play on our server to play with you. You generally do not have a method to migrate your characters between servers. Guild Wars is different. Only the towns and outposts are where you can join up with other characters; however, there is no concept of a server so you can easily meetup with anyone that has an account in the game.
In a traditional MMORPG you are always surrounded by other players whether you like it or not. This allows players to meet and form relationships in the game. Guild Wars on the other hand is different. It is harder to meet other people in game beyond meeting to work together on a Mission or Quest, or grouping for PVP. This eliminates some of the ability to meet some other people but it removes the ability of someone Griefing. Asshats can no longer move into a newbie area and kill them, or monopolize a needed mob or resource, the concept of Ganking is also gone. The only way players can now Grief are to be let into parties and then aggroing multiple mob groups to kill off the party or grabbing a needed quest item and not going along with the party. Time is wasted in both cases; however, death has no permanent effect on your character or wealth in the game. The final type of Griefing is people joining PVP groups and then leaving before the match begins or midmatch. This will generally tip the balance to the party with more players, but sometimes the people who got screwed come out ahead.
And returning to the topic about the game being massive or not. Since you can play anyone who has an account, you can play with anyone in the entire world. There are currently PVP championships going on that will have finals Feb. 16th or so in Taipai. They took two teams from each Korea, America, and Europe and will pit them against each other to determine who is the best in the world. However, challenging players from Europe and Korea while being in the US is a common everyday occurance in the game. Who knows you might meet people in a match and then join the international districts and adventure with them.
You do know that Future Crew became Mad Onion who are the people making the 3DMark programs , right? Locate an original version of 3DMark it has an updated version of the ship sequence from Second Reality and it felt like an old scene demo using new tech. Not dissing some of the cool new 3d demos now days though which are still cool to watch.
I'm sorry to be the one pointing out that it's a waste to run a Radeon X800GTO when you spent on the money on a Athlon X2 3800+. The X800GTO doesn't even support Shader Model 3 which new games like FEAR are using. If you can return it, do so and get either a 6800GS or X16000. I believe the 6800GS is normally cheaper and it's definately easiler to find, and it runs for $200. If you really want to see what your PC can do you'd have to get either a 7000GT, GTX or X18000 depending on how much you want to spend.
Unfortuantely I did not beat the titan quests with the henchmen. I was talking about the missions that are launched from the outposts. I beat the first titan mission with just the henchmen; however, I needed the help of players for the rest of them.
I've actually had the good fortune of beating all but the very last mission solely with henchmen. It takes time and strategy but it can be done. The last mission can probably be done with henchmen quite easily, if you take the time to move without agroing multiple groups. I've only personnally stayed up really late because I've been on a roll. Of course I doubt anything will top FFXI and staying up until 5am working with my LS at the time to get through the Promy missions. God the day after sucked.
Ya, with Guild Wars it's saying up until 2am in the morning because you're on a roll beating the missions, or in a kick ass PvP party that's good good to drop. Of course neither of these is boring grind and they both involve actually having fun in the game.
There is a big difference between FFXI and FFXII, and that is one of them is online while the other isn't. This adds some pretty big overhead which needs to be accounted for. That's why there were/are problem in Dynamis with the 64 character raids on the PS2 causing the game to freeze. You have to remember that with FFXII the developer has control over what is appearing on screen. In FFXI someone could just run by the player there for you get hit with the PS2's RAM limit and that's why there aren't as many unique looking equipments and character customizations in the game.
I also really doubt they will ever change the graphics on one version and not the other unless that version is being sunsetted such as the PS2 version being decomissioned due to the 360 and PS3 versions coming out. It could happen in 2008 or so but we'll have to see.
Which is the exact problem you are stating. Yes prices vary server to server, but on the servers with higher inflation where you get more money easily the items generally cost more. I'd also like to stay away from the whole gilfarmer/buyer issue. That is definately something that ruined the game for me.
But being a failure on the PS2? I'd have to disagree. The only issue is that the PC version was so much better as the PS2 chugged along at times. It's true that people looking for the next Final Fantasy game and spending 300 hours leveling your party and completing every side quest were disappointed, but as an MMORPG it was a good game. Well besides that part that simulated the wait in line game, but at least you were logged into the server unlike WoW during that simulation.
GF is late and called. Hi where are you? Oh I missed the train and had to wait 15 minutes for the next one. I'll be there shortly. Or calling him directly for directions rather than stopping at random gas stations.
I'd recommend you try one before bashing it, but it sounds like you've already made up or mind anyways. Then again you need friends who would want to talk to you, and I'm not talking about all of those virtual ones in WoW.
Definately. Yes the last Colossus is frickin' huge, but the ending to teh game is so bitter sweet you need to finish it just to experience it.
You hit the nail on the head. This is exactly how the orginal Xbox was. The only issue is that only Microsoft has the key to sign executables on retail machines. Developers have their own keys that will only sign the files for running on the debug units. So if you're a developer and you make a demo, you have to have Microsoft sign the executable for people to play it on their normal 360s.
Praise Santa.... wait we're not celebrating his birth?
From what I saw on the magazine rack, OXM is already offering a disk with playable Xbox 360 demos. What is getting the hackers excitied is that the files on the demo disk are not encrypted, and they are signed to boot from seemingly any type of media. This disk can is going to be used by hackers to determine how the 360 authorizes a game to be booted and with what kind of media. They can know figure out what signals are different and produce a modchip that will allow backups to run. This is the second step in opening up the 360 to run any code. The first was figuring out the format files are laided out on the disk with, and this was cracked and reported on earlier.
As for Sony doing no wrong in Japan. That's a load of bullshit. The only reason Sony is doing so well is that when the PSX came out they had an easy to develop for system (way easier than dealing with the Saturn's dual processors) and cheaper licensing fees. This got a lot of developers to look into the system and it got both Squaresoft and Enix to sign into the Sony camp. Having both the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest series on the PSX helped rope in many Japanese consumers. It doesn't hurt that Atlus with the Shin Megami Tensei series also signed on considering. This left the 3 most popular series of RPGs on one system which consumers just ate up.
The move to the PS2 was different, Sony already had mindshare and alliances with developers. They made sure to keep these alliance going strong to keep the francishes in the Sony camp. You can be sure that Sony will try everything in their power to keep the alliances going strong with the PS3 to keep the popular 3rd party games exclusive to the them. It will take a major change in the market to move the developers away from Sony. Nintendo previously had the developer support but the limitations and cost of the N64's cartiage format push the developers to Sony and their cheap media and lower licensing fees. And we all know what is most important. "Developers, Developers, Developers".
Actually it's supposed to detect around 255 varying degrees of pressure. I'm not sure if any games support that many but the Gran Turismo games support seem to as giving slightly less pressure will change the amount of acceleration on the car.
Yes you might be able to go lower on a part here or there on my parts list but I still stand by it. The Linux Journal even recently ran an article where they spec'd out a MythTV box which came out to $700. That's $700 which is $75 cheaper than my parts and doesn't include the $125 for a legal license of Windows MCE 2005.
I'd like to know where exactly the parts should be cut down. My listing include: ~3Ghz (by Intel's Measurement anyways) CPU & Motherboard, DVD Burner, 1GB RAM, 400GB HD, and analog TV Tuner. I didn't include the sound blaster I listed as optional. If you do run the PC as a dedicated HTPC doing nothing but recording TV you can possibly drop down to 512MB of RAM which saves about $25 and maybe go for less hard drive space which you'll probably regret later when you need more space to save recorded content. You might think the CPU is over kill but you'll enjoy the extra power then you are transcoding content on the fly to put on your PDA, or encoding video to put on DVD. The one thing I didn't include in my list that I probably should have is $30-$40 for a MCE remote that will come with an IR blaster to change changes on Cable and Satalite boxes.
Yes you could buy a lot cheaper parts and knock the price down lower if you only want to record TV, but then you should just bit on the $300 for a Tivo with Lifetime subscription and then the extra $100 for the Media Center upgrade which will let the Tivo stream Music and Pictures. So it'll be $400 for a box that you unpack, plug in, and just use without worrying about it. Of course if you want a noisey, ugly, beige case as part of your entertainment center, that's your choice.
Music subscription songs are DRM protected, and I can't say for sure but I don't believe they are supported on the 360. I remember reading about them not being transferable off of MP3 Players, but I'm not sure about streaming them. Either way you can't use them as ingame soundtrack songs.
Xbox Media Center is nice because it allows you to play almost any format you'll ever fun into, and the Extender software allows me to do the how Tivo pause live TV, schedule/watch recorded TV. and the other things possible with MCE. The nice thing about running these features on the Xbox is that my PC is out of the way at my computer desk, while an Xbox which looks closer to other home theatre equipment.
Giving the 360 the ability to natively play DivX AVIs and the like would have been a great addition as me switching to a 360 at the moment would result in a loss of functionality. Nice looking cases that will work well as a Home Theatre PC case are generally restricted to the MicroATX varity and are not the cheapest cases in the world. Sure you could goto Walmart and buy a $300 eMachine and throw a TV card in it and call it a HTPC but it would look like ass next to your TV considering computer cases generally don't fit nicely in component cabinets.
A core 360 costing $300 and providing the needed features to connect to a TV while the PC is else where would be nice. Many of the comsumer PCs are also coming with Windows MCE 2005 (at least pretty much everything PC from HP), and Vista is rumored to included MCE functionality by default. One glaring issue with the parts you listed in the AIW card. They are not known in the HTPC community to be the best cards and I don't believe the 9600s even support hardware encoding. This causes encoding of video to be pushed onto the CPU. You can pickup a Hauppauge 150MCE for ~$67 at Newegg which does include hardware encoding. The only thing I notice when video is being recorded is that my hard drive is being written to more often that normal.
Here's a spec'd out decent MCE system.
- Windows MCE 2005 - $125 You buy your software right?
- Athlon64 3000+
/w Motherboard (Combo) - $200
- 1GB PC3200 DDR - $70
- NEC DVD+/-RW - $40
- Generic Case - $37-$100
- WD 400GB - $200
- Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-150 MCE - $68
- Video Card
/w TV-Out - $35-$500 depending on the model and if you want to play games with it. - (Optional) Sound Blaster Audgity ZS - $100 (for additional audio output options)
All of this added up taking the cheapest parts comes out to $775 and this is without a keyboard, mouse, monitor/lcd, speakers. So no they aren't that cheap compared to a $300-400 Xbox if it just included the additonal playback format support.(wow.. I remembered to hit preview to check formatting this time...)