Oh, anyone know why a great FPS is more expensive than a good RPG, when the RPG content generally stretches further (for me at least) than the content of an FPS? No, me neither.
In the US, it doesn't, unless it's Halo and they're stretching out the $50 price tag until the sequel is released.
On the other hand, in the past, when cartridges were king of consoles and PC games were released on floppy disks, RPGs were more expensive because they needed more floppies or needed to store saved games on the cartridge (or have very complex password systems, I knew one kid that reverse-engineered a good portion of the Metroid password system when that game came out).
Oh, and a GC title costs $50 in the US unless it's an older or poorly-selling title (yes, poorly selling titles go down in price faster than 'greatest hits' titles). Most UK titles online seem to fall under that price or just at it, though they claim to be discounted by 25% (though the fact that most of the full-price titles are discounted gives it away, in my mind, that the original prices are bloated).
Don't forget that the NES version of FF1 also had that little thing where your attacks weren't reassigned if you killed a particular enemy. Of course, you can set this behavior in the PSX version, but who would really want to (unless they're complete massochists)? The longer you played the game, the more likely you were to take this into account when you attacked a group of enemies, but it basically changes the way some people (such as myself) play, especially when you aren't sure how strong an enemy is compared to the damage you'll dish out.
SquareEnix is getting ragged on quite a bit by RPG purists who think the FF series has been a downward progression in terms of gameplay and storyline (read FF8 and FF9.)
Personally, I thought FF9 had a lot of 'back to roots' elements after FF8.
At the same time, I don't see how them getting ragged on by FF purists could be helped at all by considering the MMO course. I think SquareEnix is just trying as many different courses as possible. Perhaps another game down the line will be MMO as well, but I doubt they'll do every other game like that (just based on the normal progression of MMO games, very few have sequels as quickly as FF usually progresses through 2 or 3 games).
Another point about FFXIII might be that they're considering killing off the main series, or waiting for contractual obligations to close while they consider what platform that game may be released on. The PS2 is showing it's age, and there hasn't been much sign of what the PS3 will be, they might not want to commit the title to the PS2. As it is, 12 was announced at one point as an XBox title.
There used to be a saying in online FPS games, and I still believe it:
'the only camper in CTF is a respawn camper'
CTF caters to specialized players, including snipers (railgunners), flag runners, offensive support (not that 'offensive';p ), and defense.
Of course, the open nature of that one map can tend to make snipers a complete pain in the ass, but that's the way the map is built, and you can make the sniper's life miserable without your entire team moving from their primary objective (the flag).
The other key, of course, is that a sniper should pay attention to the flow of the game, and be aware of times when he needs to move into the mid-field to help move a flag or prevent it from being returned (all depends on what type of flag is used in the particular map/game, too).
I picture the first propeller-driven biplane aircraft pilots waving at each other in a gentlemanly fashion - when they only dropped bombs on enemy troops, before they strapped a machinegun on the front and started shooting at each other.
I just found this part very apt, coming from a Team Fortress background. There's a cycle in the TF games (TF, TFC, not as sure about UF and Q3F) where at first people take pot-shots at each other on the way to the enemy base, and then people get carried away and start having all-out war in the middle, and then people get even more carried away and declare absolutely no shooting at passing offense. There's a middle ground, but the ideal is to keep your mind on your objective. TFC especially suffered from this after a patch reduced the conc-jump effect, because the conc-jumps allowed you to pass through the middle with little interaction with enemy offense.
For me, online play has gone horribly wrong since then. The floodgates opened, the masses want a jet-fighter with guided nuclear missiles to smash into the bleeding skulls of their enemies. Death-In-A-Box, internet play assumed. Sign Up And Kill Shit. If you're not typing to taunt, go play on IRC. I hate it. I can't play Quake3, Unreal Tournament or Battlefield 1942 online anymore.
I knew someone that used the name Death-In-A-Box, or something similar (Death In a Can, maybe?) before joining the last clan I played with in TFC. When all is said and done, though, typing's for communication, anything else is a waste of bandwidth (ie taunting and whining). If the communication's idle chat, expect to get shot once in a while, but don't worry about it so much. If the server has a rule against idle chat, avoid it.
Planetside [planetside.com] is the closest yet in getting back to that early sensation of getting to know the people I was playing with. Unfortunately it's also a complete failure due to the masses of bugs, faction inbalance (should have 2 sides, not 3), broken rewards system (there's no incentive to defend). There's also a tremendous difficulty in finding other players due to Star Wars Galaxies sucking out the population (and I'm not following them because I prefer my games to not be turn-based, thanks).
I played PlanetSide for a while, and really wanted to like it. Unfortunately, I found it to be a knock-off of Tribes with excessive empty space and a poor skill system. Many of the points you brought up are very evident, as well.
Here's hoping that someone at id Software has played Planetside, finds inspiration, can see the problems - and decides they want to blow them out of the water.
I believe id discussed doing something new online after Doom 3, but what it might be I don't know. I, personally, hope that Team Fortress 2 does something new for online gaming, but I doubt it more and more with every year it's delayed. I'd love to see something in FPS games that combines free online play with some level of persistance that makes it worthwhile to play for long periods of time. I can't see playing EQ for several years, yet I played TF and TFC for a couple years each.
I found my way out of this problem when I was playing Quake 2. I downloaded the Eraser bot (the same author wrote the bots for UT iirc) and played against a few of them for a few weeks. By the time I got back to playing online, my skill level had improved quite a bit (to the point of being accused of being a bot, though I now know that doesn't take much, depending on how rampant cheating is). Setting bots to adaptive is helpful as well, though the Eraser was particularly problematic because multiple bots would adapt to each other as well as the player.
4. Ditto (it converts the ping time into something more people will understand, a score out of 5)
I would hope that's a setting somewhere (since I haven't bought Live I don't know), since I hate the systems that do that (such as Battle.net). For instance, how do I know if a 3 is what I consider playable until I've tried a few dozen games? If it just said 400ms I'd know quite well that it's unacceptable for anything but turn-based play.
You were right up until you started talking about MPEG-4. DivX is *not* a container format, it is solely a video codec.
Most DivX files use MP3 audio formats, but afaik this is not the only choice available at encoding. There is a video codec specifically for DivX, but it also functions as a container format.
MPEG-4 does have a container specification, but it also has a video and audio specification. When someone talks about "MPEG-4 video" they mean the video codec specified in the MPEG-4 standards document, not whatever video stream happens to be in an.mp4 file. So, no, it can't be Sorenson video.
The closest thing MPEG-4 has to an "MPEG-4 video" standard is MPEG-1/2 video codecs. It also has an additional specification for oddly-shaped streams, which is an extension of the MPEG-1/2 specification. Additionally, any other video codec that meets the specifications for bitrate and video quality can be used (which includes most Sorenson codecs, though the codec has to work with MPEG-4 in it's streamable format, which isn't always the case with Sorenson (which tends to be 'streaming', rather than 'streamable').
Same thing goes for audio. When someone talks about MPEG-4 audio, they mean AAC.
AAC is an MPEG-2 audio standard, and is listed as such in the MPEG-4 documentation. MPEG-4 audio can also be a generic instrument description and even text, similar to MIDI, or any other audio format that meets the specifications (for bitrate and sound quality).
Overall, MPEG-4 has 2 major parts: MPEG-4 Visual and MPEG-4 Audio. These parts are described in general terms with the MPEG-2 formats used as baselines, though there is additional functionality for things like text, still images, interactivity, and so on, all of which is still used in a container (the MPEG-4 file, I don't use the.mp4 extension in most cases because QT6 puts out.mp4 files that don't work with other MPEG-4 decoders).
Re:*which* English Civil War?
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A "revolution" is generally when one country has a change in leadership. A "civil war" is when such an attempted change does not succeed.
Yet the American Civil War was not such an attempted change (and neither was the American Revolution), but rather an attempt to secede (in both cases) from the governing body.
Re:*which* English Civil War?
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I would also point out that the American Revolution is typically referred to a revolution and not a civil war. There is a distinction.
I thought the distinction between a civil war and a revolution was generally who won the war...
Or, in some cases, if the entire country just spiralled into anarchy for a while and another faction rises up and wins, I guess that's usually called a civil war as well.
On the other hand, I don't think the professional paranoids in the security business would find simultaneous key presses a good idea.
In that case, for the extra paranoid and/or those that really need it, the existing method (or a better one, if there is a better one) could be used.
Options are what make things work. Making things easy is what works in the home. Making security easy is what makes the home more secure. Not everyone has a home security system in part because shutting off the alarm is an extra step to getting into their homes (I've known plenty of people with home security systems that, after a couple years, no longer get turned on). Similarly, if getting onto the network involves inputting long strings of numbers and letters or enabling security in the first place, it's not likely the home user will bother with it. My parents wouldn't have bothered to change the password on their (wired) cable router if I hadn't stressed that it needed to be done to prevent a virus/worm/attacker from taking over their router and/or their computer.
err... sorry, it looks like the Motorolla accessory won't work with existing games, either, but will only work with games that support it (though those games will still be normal cartridge games).
Bleh, that just means it's not as useful any more, though I know my g/f will get one since it'll be bundled with the new Pokemon games.
A PDA/Bluetooth *cartridge* vs. a wireless link cable replacement are two different things. The Motorolla unit will work with existing games that use the link cable for multiplayer (it mounts to the same expansion port that the link cable mounts to), whereas the X-Trafun cartridge is a cartridge, and therefore takes the place of the games.
In other words, Motorolla and X-Trafun aren't even competing here. If people want PDA functionality and internet access on their GBA, the Motorolla accessory isn't going to give them that (unless someone designs an add-on cartridge to use it for that purpose).
1 - A HUGE catalogue of games already out there -- Of which 90% suck. Most GBA titles are shovel-ware and people know it.
Hasn't hurt Sony on the PS1/2 side, has it?
2 - A HUGE number of devoted Nintendo fans -- That may be the case but they will go where the good games are. (note the lack of GC success Nintendo has)
Notice how well the PS2 vs. GC arguments swap sides with PSP vs. GBA. The GBA's current sales are higher than the PS2's. The GBA has a catalogue (and back catalogue) that will take significant time to reach for any competitor, even if the PSP has a larger percentage of good games (and considering Sony's past and present, that's unlikely).
3 - The price of the PSP is going to be set far higher than the GBA. -- Only about 100 more and when people can have PS2 level graphics in a small form factor at that price, they will buy.
At $100 more, it's twice as much. Additionally, I've yet to see a planned price for the PSP, though estimates have put it up there with the N-Gage ($300?), which would be more than 100 more.
Also don't forget, the PSP will be able to play movies, have wireless networking built in, etc... Right now gamecubes are cheaper than GBAs and people aren't lining up for them
It will play movies in a format that no one has as of yet. No one knows how many movies will be released in this format, nor who would be willing to buy movies they already have in a new format, just to be able to play them on a PSP. Wireless networking is less of a question because of the portable nature of the systems. GameCubes are twice the price of a GBA, or the same price as a GBA-SP, and that only since yesterday.
4 - Battery life - a full 3D game running off mechanical optical media is going to eat batteries. Nintendo have always pushed battery life as a key feature and indeed it is. -- Except for not, the GBASP was a cheap ploy to get people to shell out $100 for a backlit color screen. Battery life was an excuse for them to justify the original GBA. Beside, battery life is stupid argument. If people need to buy new batteries, they will, the success of the afterburner kit demonstrated this. The PSPs battery life will be equally to the GBASP at the very least. Also, while the PSP will have a moveable media, it will also have solid state media.
I'll wait and see on the PSP's battery life. Just spinning a disc seems like enough reason for battery life to be reduced. Removable media would be necessary with an optical format for one very obvious reason: memory card, to save games (can't save them to an optical ROM format). Battery life is one of the things that caused the original GameBoy to beat out many of it's competitors, despite being technologically inferior. Proper backlit (as opposed to GBA-SP sidelit) screens and 16-bit games were available on most of the original GameBoy's competitors, but battery life was crap (and I still used my Lynx a great deal, thanks to a cigarette lighter adapter and an AC adapter, but 6 AA batteries every couple hours just wasn't happening). I bought battery packs for my Wavebirds despite great battery life because buying batteries is a waste.
5 - Nintendo are not asleep at the wheel. I wonder what they are conjuring up with 1T SRAMs and ATi graphics etc.... Hmmm... -- Your only valid point. Nintento does have something big up their sleve.
As they should, considering the age of the GBA platform. That being said, it's still doing fairly well, and backwards compatibility is almost definite for whatever they'll announce next year.
However Sony have time and money on their side. The Big N aren't going to release anything in a hurry. -- Actually the big N doesn't have time on their side. They need to get something out as fast as possible, as GBA sales are what is keeping their company afloat. If Sony can threaten this revenue stream, Nintendo will enter into a Sega like hardware death spiral.
That'll be interesting to see. As he said, Sony has time on their side, though if they wait too long Nintendo's next offering could stall them.
Because, on this occasion, whoever authored the clip decided Sorenson Video 3 with MPEG-4 Audio provided the best quality for their target filesize....
Well then, people are wrong. QuickTime has never, ever been codec-specific.
Also, Sorenson are a company, and they've made more than one codec. There is no single "Sorenson codec"....
AVI is yet another container. 'AVI' does not mean 'DivX', just as '.mov' does not mean 'Sorenson Video', no matter what these people you refer to may think.
The reason people think of Sorenson and QuickTime as being interchangeable is because most people only need QuickTime to view items encoded with Sorenson codecs. The majority of other QuickTime-created content is viewable in most other players.
Not only is AVI a container (actually, it's not, really, just a bastardized file extension that's been reused for a dozen or more different formats, the actual AVI file format is rarely used any more), but so is the QT.mov format, and DivX, and MPEG-4 (especially since QT6 is based on MPEG-4, which is based in part on earlier versions of QT, and DivX is based on MPEG-4). MPEG-4 audio, which you mentioned at the beginning of your post, can be anything, including MP3 audio, just as MPEG-4 video can be Sorenson-encoded video that can't be viewed without a Sorenson codec.
I used Alien Resurrection as a cure for insomnia for 3 nites. Unfortunately, since I was starting from the last part I remembered seeing before I fell asleep the nite before, it ended on the fourth nite in fairly short order.
The only other sequel I can think of that was equally good at putting me to sleep was Hellraiser 3.
A GC and a cheap DVD player will probably get you a better DVD player than the Qube or the PS2 anyway, and for less money than either of the latter options.
Maybe some third-party will see a market for it and release such an adapter, but I'm willing to say the chances that Nintendo would release it officially are next to null.
There's always hope with the third-parties, as can be seen by the Pelican rechargable battery pack for the Wavebird (after trying it out on one Wavebird, I now have these in all of my Wavebirds). I'm not going to hold my breath, though.
I'm not sure of the exact nature of the issue, but a more recent game, Dark Reign, has similar problems with current machines. The game runs quite a bit faster on machines even a year or so newer than the game. I tried to play it on a P2-400 after playing it on a P-166 for some time and while you could play, you had to be nearly a machine yourself to counter the AI and unit speed, and building new units was very fast, but not much help when buildings themselves could be taken down by attackers almost as quickly as you could respond to their presence. I've considered trying to play this game again, but with a 2GHz CPU it may prove impossible (too bad, because it was really a great RTS, especially for it's time).
The PS2's I/O chip has PS1 emulation (in hardware) built into it. There are very few edge cases for which that is not enough to properly run PS1 games, and some of those have been tweaked in software/firmware, but otherwise they feel that running most PS1 games is good enough.
The real value of antique games has always been underestimated. An entire generation feels nostalgic about Wolf3d, Prince of Persia, Street Fighter, Pong etc, yet the ownership and trademark of these games have been shelved by some company who bought the original company's assets and never explored the potentials.
Other games have been bastardized to extract the last drop of juice from the paying crowds without employing developers who truly feel the obsession with the original titles. Think of the sequels to Price of Persia, Monkey Island etc. Some companies who survived the dotcom bust can now drive their trademarks forward like Sierra and id Software, but the vast majority of the games cannot even be bought anywhere. Downloading ROMS become justified here.
Just a quick note related to these two paragraphs: Wolf3D is included on the Return to Castle Wolfenstein disc for the PC, and can be installed through the basic installer for the RtCW game. Also, most of id's titles are on the Quake CD, though I'm not sure if they can still be unlocked without the key generator that was released shortly after the shareware disc hit the shelves.
A new booming business has been developing java games for cellphone companies. However developing yet another version of tetris, snakes or pacman just feels too redundant. Emulators like kgens have shown us how all the hard work can still be enjoyed on a desktop, even a palmtop, if only companies saw the potential. An average PDA has enough power, and sufficient space to run Atari2600, Sega Genesis, NEOGEO, 386(DOS) etc games on it, but the two things that have stood in the way have been the unwillingness to develop emulators and the licensing issues of the games whose trademark owners are unknown (who do you talk to, to gain the rights for River Raid in Atari2600?).
I believe he mentioned in the interview that some of those platforms (PDAs, cell phones, java/shockwave/flash games) have been under consideration. Of course, he didn't go into specifics, except in a few cases where they already exist. Of course, when it comes down to licensing issues, there're always going to be problems to deal with. he mentioned a particular Star Wars game, which is obviously going to be licensing hell (dealing with the developer, publisher, and LucasArts). This is part of why I believe copyright periods on electronic games and software should be shorter than other media. It takes a lot of work to get software running that I bought even 10 years ago in some cases.
I think the interviewer seemed to be pushing hard to find some deep-rooted conflict between MAME and the commercial emulation side, when, in reality, this guy has a very realistic view of it: MAME is a very general emulation that has taken a long time to get where it is, while his emulators are very specific to the hardware that was used to run each individual program (though he reuses code when possible, for instance when different games used the same or upgraded hardware). Therefore, the value of his games comes from the work put into that individual game.
Not to mention that although MAME is very popular, it's not well known to the general public. I picked up some of this guy's work at Best Buy, and I don't think I've seen MAME down there yet.
Tell them they can import a DVD-playing Cube that does region-free DVD playback and plays both Japanese and US games, but it's going to cost them $450.
I have 2 consoles that can play DVDs, I don't need another one. I also have a significantly better DVD player that also plays VHS tapes, which I bought because my VCR broke (I couldn't justify buying another VCR without a DVD player, I could justify buying a GameCube without a DVD player).
The fundamental difference between Nintendo and Sega is that Nintendo is making a sound profit, especially in their home market, whereas Sega was not making a sound profit, and was a failure in their home market.
I saw that and I thought there was probably a time when Sega fans said "You'll never see Sonic on another system.":)
One problem, though: Nintendo's already said they're not interested in making games if they're not making the system.
Someone else already pointed out the problem with comparing Nintendo's current position to Sega's position after releasing the Dreamcast, not to mention that the DreamCast wasn't making a big impact in Japan, either.
I think this was one of the most insightful parts of the gameindustry.biz article:
Many commentators take it to indicate that the console's market share is in serious trouble, but yet recent figures have proved that it is neck and neck - and indeed possibly leading - the Xbox in terms of global installed base.
However, much of that installed base is in Japan, where companies such as Eidos, Acclaim and Atari simply don't sell very many games, while others such as Namco and Capcom, both strong supporters of the GameCube, are on their home ground.
Insight aside, though, Namco's also shown with Soul Calibur 2 that the GameCube can do very well in the US as a platform, as the game is selling more titles on the Cube than on either of the other platforms (and 3 to 1 vs. the PS2 version).
I hate to say it again, because it's never good to lose publishers, but as with Acclaim and Eidos before them, Atari's another publisher I'm not sorry to see leave the platform, especially given the titles that were cancelled.
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Oh, anyone know why a great FPS is more expensive than a good RPG, when the RPG content generally stretches further (for me at least) than the content of an FPS? No, me neither.
In the US, it doesn't, unless it's Halo and they're stretching out the $50 price tag until the sequel is released.
On the other hand, in the past, when cartridges were king of consoles and PC games were released on floppy disks, RPGs were more expensive because they needed more floppies or needed to store saved games on the cartridge (or have very complex password systems, I knew one kid that reverse-engineered a good portion of the Metroid password system when that game came out).
Oh, and a GC title costs $50 in the US unless it's an older or poorly-selling title (yes, poorly selling titles go down in price faster than 'greatest hits' titles). Most UK titles online seem to fall under that price or just at it, though they claim to be discounted by 25% (though the fact that most of the full-price titles are discounted gives it away, in my mind, that the original prices are bloated).
Don't forget that the NES version of FF1 also had that little thing where your attacks weren't reassigned if you killed a particular enemy. Of course, you can set this behavior in the PSX version, but who would really want to (unless they're complete massochists)? The longer you played the game, the more likely you were to take this into account when you attacked a group of enemies, but it basically changes the way some people (such as myself) play, especially when you aren't sure how strong an enemy is compared to the damage you'll dish out.
SquareEnix is getting ragged on quite a bit by RPG purists who think the FF series has been a downward progression in terms of gameplay and storyline (read FF8 and FF9.)
Personally, I thought FF9 had a lot of 'back to roots' elements after FF8.
At the same time, I don't see how them getting ragged on by FF purists could be helped at all by considering the MMO course. I think SquareEnix is just trying as many different courses as possible. Perhaps another game down the line will be MMO as well, but I doubt they'll do every other game like that (just based on the normal progression of MMO games, very few have sequels as quickly as FF usually progresses through 2 or 3 games).
Another point about FFXIII might be that they're considering killing off the main series, or waiting for contractual obligations to close while they consider what platform that game may be released on. The PS2 is showing it's age, and there hasn't been much sign of what the PS3 will be, they might not want to commit the title to the PS2. As it is, 12 was announced at one point as an XBox title.
There used to be a saying in online FPS games, and I still believe it:
;p ), and defense.
'the only camper in CTF is a respawn camper'
CTF caters to specialized players, including snipers (railgunners), flag runners, offensive support (not that 'offensive'
Of course, the open nature of that one map can tend to make snipers a complete pain in the ass, but that's the way the map is built, and you can make the sniper's life miserable without your entire team moving from their primary objective (the flag).
The other key, of course, is that a sniper should pay attention to the flow of the game, and be aware of times when he needs to move into the mid-field to help move a flag or prevent it from being returned (all depends on what type of flag is used in the particular map/game, too).
I picture the first propeller-driven biplane aircraft pilots waving at each other in a gentlemanly fashion - when they only dropped bombs on enemy troops, before they strapped a machinegun on the front and started shooting at each other.
I just found this part very apt, coming from a Team Fortress background. There's a cycle in the TF games (TF, TFC, not as sure about UF and Q3F) where at first people take pot-shots at each other on the way to the enemy base, and then people get carried away and start having all-out war in the middle, and then people get even more carried away and declare absolutely no shooting at passing offense. There's a middle ground, but the ideal is to keep your mind on your objective. TFC especially suffered from this after a patch reduced the conc-jump effect, because the conc-jumps allowed you to pass through the middle with little interaction with enemy offense.
For me, online play has gone horribly wrong since then. The floodgates opened, the masses want a jet-fighter with guided nuclear missiles to smash into the bleeding skulls of their enemies. Death-In-A-Box, internet play assumed. Sign Up And Kill Shit. If you're not typing to taunt, go play on IRC. I hate it. I can't play Quake3, Unreal Tournament or Battlefield 1942 online anymore.
I knew someone that used the name Death-In-A-Box, or something similar (Death In a Can, maybe?) before joining the last clan I played with in TFC. When all is said and done, though, typing's for communication, anything else is a waste of bandwidth (ie taunting and whining). If the communication's idle chat, expect to get shot once in a while, but don't worry about it so much. If the server has a rule against idle chat, avoid it.
Planetside [planetside.com] is the closest yet in getting back to that early sensation of getting to know the people I was playing with. Unfortunately it's also a complete failure due to the masses of bugs, faction inbalance (should have 2 sides, not 3), broken rewards system (there's no incentive to defend). There's also a tremendous difficulty in finding other players due to Star Wars Galaxies sucking out the population (and I'm not following them because I prefer my games to not be turn-based, thanks).
I played PlanetSide for a while, and really wanted to like it. Unfortunately, I found it to be a knock-off of Tribes with excessive empty space and a poor skill system. Many of the points you brought up are very evident, as well.
Here's hoping that someone at id Software has played Planetside, finds inspiration, can see the problems - and decides they want to blow them out of the water.
I believe id discussed doing something new online after Doom 3, but what it might be I don't know. I, personally, hope that Team Fortress 2 does something new for online gaming, but I doubt it more and more with every year it's delayed. I'd love to see something in FPS games that combines free online play with some level of persistance that makes it worthwhile to play for long periods of time. I can't see playing EQ for several years, yet I played TF and TFC for a couple years each.
I found my way out of this problem when I was playing Quake 2. I downloaded the Eraser bot (the same author wrote the bots for UT iirc) and played against a few of them for a few weeks. By the time I got back to playing online, my skill level had improved quite a bit (to the point of being accused of being a bot, though I now know that doesn't take much, depending on how rampant cheating is). Setting bots to adaptive is helpful as well, though the Eraser was particularly problematic because multiple bots would adapt to each other as well as the player.
4. Ditto (it converts the ping time into something more people will understand, a score out of 5)
I would hope that's a setting somewhere (since I haven't bought Live I don't know), since I hate the systems that do that (such as Battle.net). For instance, how do I know if a 3 is what I consider playable until I've tried a few dozen games? If it just said 400ms I'd know quite well that it's unacceptable for anything but turn-based play.
You were right up until you started talking about MPEG-4. DivX is *not* a container format, it is solely a video codec.
.mp4 file. So, no, it can't be Sorenson video.
.mp4 extension in most cases because QT6 puts out .mp4 files that don't work with other MPEG-4 decoders).
Most DivX files use MP3 audio formats, but afaik this is not the only choice available at encoding. There is a video codec specifically for DivX, but it also functions as a container format.
MPEG-4 does have a container specification, but it also has a video and audio specification. When someone talks about "MPEG-4 video" they mean the video codec specified in the MPEG-4 standards document, not whatever video stream happens to be in an
The closest thing MPEG-4 has to an "MPEG-4 video" standard is MPEG-1/2 video codecs. It also has an additional specification for oddly-shaped streams, which is an extension of the MPEG-1/2 specification. Additionally, any other video codec that meets the specifications for bitrate and video quality can be used (which includes most Sorenson codecs, though the codec has to work with MPEG-4 in it's streamable format, which isn't always the case with Sorenson (which tends to be 'streaming', rather than 'streamable').
Same thing goes for audio. When someone talks about MPEG-4 audio, they mean AAC.
AAC is an MPEG-2 audio standard, and is listed as such in the MPEG-4 documentation. MPEG-4 audio can also be a generic instrument description and even text, similar to MIDI, or any other audio format that meets the specifications (for bitrate and sound quality).
Overall, MPEG-4 has 2 major parts: MPEG-4 Visual and MPEG-4 Audio. These parts are described in general terms with the MPEG-2 formats used as baselines, though there is additional functionality for things like text, still images, interactivity, and so on, all of which is still used in a container (the MPEG-4 file, I don't use the
A "revolution" is generally when one country has a change in leadership. A "civil war" is when such an attempted change does not succeed.
Yet the American Civil War was not such an attempted change (and neither was the American Revolution), but rather an attempt to secede (in both cases) from the governing body.
I would also point out that the American Revolution is typically referred to a revolution and not a civil war. There is a distinction.
I thought the distinction between a civil war and a revolution was generally who won the war...
Or, in some cases, if the entire country just spiralled into anarchy for a while and another faction rises up and wins, I guess that's usually called a civil war as well.
On the other hand, I don't think the professional paranoids in the security business would find simultaneous key presses a good idea.
In that case, for the extra paranoid and/or those that really need it, the existing method (or a better one, if there is a better one) could be used.
Options are what make things work. Making things easy is what works in the home. Making security easy is what makes the home more secure. Not everyone has a home security system in part because shutting off the alarm is an extra step to getting into their homes (I've known plenty of people with home security systems that, after a couple years, no longer get turned on). Similarly, if getting onto the network involves inputting long strings of numbers and letters or enabling security in the first place, it's not likely the home user will bother with it. My parents wouldn't have bothered to change the password on their (wired) cable router if I hadn't stressed that it needed to be done to prevent a virus/worm/attacker from taking over their router and/or their computer.
err... sorry, it looks like the Motorolla accessory won't work with existing games, either, but will only work with games that support it (though those games will still be normal cartridge games).
Bleh, that just means it's not as useful any more, though I know my g/f will get one since it'll be bundled with the new Pokemon games.
A PDA/Bluetooth *cartridge* vs. a wireless link cable replacement are two different things. The Motorolla unit will work with existing games that use the link cable for multiplayer (it mounts to the same expansion port that the link cable mounts to), whereas the X-Trafun cartridge is a cartridge, and therefore takes the place of the games.
In other words, Motorolla and X-Trafun aren't even competing here. If people want PDA functionality and internet access on their GBA, the Motorolla accessory isn't going to give them that (unless someone designs an add-on cartridge to use it for that purpose).
To address your points:
1 - A HUGE catalogue of games already out there
-- Of which 90% suck. Most GBA titles are shovel-ware and people know it.
Hasn't hurt Sony on the PS1/2 side, has it?
2 - A HUGE number of devoted Nintendo fans
-- That may be the case but they will go where the good games are. (note the lack of GC success Nintendo has)
Notice how well the PS2 vs. GC arguments swap sides with PSP vs. GBA. The GBA's current sales are higher than the PS2's. The GBA has a catalogue (and back catalogue) that will take significant time to reach for any competitor, even if the PSP has a larger percentage of good games (and considering Sony's past and present, that's unlikely).
3 - The price of the PSP is going to be set far higher than the GBA.
-- Only about 100 more and when people can have PS2 level graphics in a small form factor at that price, they will buy.
At $100 more, it's twice as much. Additionally, I've yet to see a planned price for the PSP, though estimates have put it up there with the N-Gage ($300?), which would be more than 100 more.
Also don't forget, the PSP will be able to play movies, have wireless networking built in, etc... Right now gamecubes are cheaper than GBAs and people aren't lining up for them
It will play movies in a format that no one has as of yet. No one knows how many movies will be released in this format, nor who would be willing to buy movies they already have in a new format, just to be able to play them on a PSP. Wireless networking is less of a question because of the portable nature of the systems. GameCubes are twice the price of a GBA, or the same price as a GBA-SP, and that only since yesterday.
4 - Battery life - a full 3D game running off mechanical optical media is going to eat batteries. Nintendo have always pushed battery life as a key feature and indeed it is.
-- Except for not, the GBASP was a cheap ploy to get people to shell out $100 for a backlit color screen. Battery life was an excuse for them to justify the original GBA. Beside, battery life is stupid argument. If people need to buy new batteries, they will, the success of the afterburner kit demonstrated this. The PSPs battery life will be equally to the GBASP at the very least. Also, while the PSP will have a moveable media, it will also have solid state media.
I'll wait and see on the PSP's battery life. Just spinning a disc seems like enough reason for battery life to be reduced. Removable media would be necessary with an optical format for one very obvious reason: memory card, to save games (can't save them to an optical ROM format). Battery life is one of the things that caused the original GameBoy to beat out many of it's competitors, despite being technologically inferior. Proper backlit (as opposed to GBA-SP sidelit) screens and 16-bit games were available on most of the original GameBoy's competitors, but battery life was crap (and I still used my Lynx a great deal, thanks to a cigarette lighter adapter and an AC adapter, but 6 AA batteries every couple hours just wasn't happening). I bought battery packs for my Wavebirds despite great battery life because buying batteries is a waste.
5 - Nintendo are not asleep at the wheel. I wonder what they are conjuring up with 1T SRAMs and ATi graphics etc.... Hmmm...
-- Your only valid point. Nintento does have something big up their sleve.
As they should, considering the age of the GBA platform. That being said, it's still doing fairly well, and backwards compatibility is almost definite for whatever they'll announce next year.
However Sony have time and money on their side. The Big N aren't going to release anything in a hurry.
-- Actually the big N doesn't have time on their side. They need to get something out as fast as possible, as GBA sales are what is keeping their company afloat. If Sony can threaten this revenue stream, Nintendo will enter into a Sega like hardware death spiral.
That'll be interesting to see. As he said, Sony has time on their side, though if they wait too long Nintendo's next offering could stall them.
Because, on this occasion, whoever authored the clip decided Sorenson Video 3 with MPEG-4 Audio provided the best quality for their target filesize. ...
...
.mov format, and DivX, and MPEG-4 (especially since QT6 is based on MPEG-4, which is based in part on earlier versions of QT, and DivX is based on MPEG-4). MPEG-4 audio, which you mentioned at the beginning of your post, can be anything, including MP3 audio, just as MPEG-4 video can be Sorenson-encoded video that can't be viewed without a Sorenson codec.
Well then, people are wrong. QuickTime has never, ever been codec-specific.
Also, Sorenson are a company, and they've made more than one codec. There is no single "Sorenson codec".
AVI is yet another container. 'AVI' does not mean 'DivX', just as '.mov' does not mean 'Sorenson Video', no matter what these people you refer to may think.
The reason people think of Sorenson and QuickTime as being interchangeable is because most people only need QuickTime to view items encoded with Sorenson codecs. The majority of other QuickTime-created content is viewable in most other players.
Not only is AVI a container (actually, it's not, really, just a bastardized file extension that's been reused for a dozen or more different formats, the actual AVI file format is rarely used any more), but so is the QT
I used Alien Resurrection as a cure for insomnia for 3 nites. Unfortunately, since I was starting from the last part I remembered seeing before I fell asleep the nite before, it ended on the fourth nite in fairly short order.
The only other sequel I can think of that was equally good at putting me to sleep was Hellraiser 3.
As they should.
A GC and a cheap DVD player will probably get you a better DVD player than the Qube or the PS2 anyway, and for less money than either of the latter options.
Maybe some third-party will see a market for it and release such an adapter, but I'm willing to say the chances that Nintendo would release it officially are next to null.
There's always hope with the third-parties, as can be seen by the Pelican rechargable battery pack for the Wavebird (after trying it out on one Wavebird, I now have these in all of my Wavebirds). I'm not going to hold my breath, though.
I'm not sure of the exact nature of the issue, but a more recent game, Dark Reign, has similar problems with current machines. The game runs quite a bit faster on machines even a year or so newer than the game. I tried to play it on a P2-400 after playing it on a P-166 for some time and while you could play, you had to be nearly a machine yourself to counter the AI and unit speed, and building new units was very fast, but not much help when buildings themselves could be taken down by attackers almost as quickly as you could respond to their presence. I've considered trying to play this game again, but with a 2GHz CPU it may prove impossible (too bad, because it was really a great RTS, especially for it's time).
The PS2's I/O chip has PS1 emulation (in hardware) built into it. There are very few edge cases for which that is not enough to properly run PS1 games, and some of those have been tweaked in software/firmware, but otherwise they feel that running most PS1 games is good enough.
The real value of antique games has always been underestimated. An entire generation feels nostalgic about Wolf3d, Prince of Persia, Street Fighter, Pong etc, yet the ownership and trademark of these games have been shelved by some company who bought the original company's assets and never explored the potentials.
Other games have been bastardized to extract the last drop of juice from the paying crowds without employing developers who truly feel the obsession with the original titles. Think of the sequels to Price of Persia, Monkey Island etc. Some companies who survived the dotcom bust can now drive their trademarks forward like Sierra and id Software, but the vast majority of the games cannot even be bought anywhere. Downloading ROMS become justified here.
Just a quick note related to these two paragraphs: Wolf3D is included on the Return to Castle Wolfenstein disc for the PC, and can be installed through the basic installer for the RtCW game. Also, most of id's titles are on the Quake CD, though I'm not sure if they can still be unlocked without the key generator that was released shortly after the shareware disc hit the shelves.
A new booming business has been developing java games for cellphone companies. However developing yet another version of tetris, snakes or pacman just feels too redundant. Emulators like kgens have shown us how all the hard work can still be enjoyed on a desktop, even a palmtop, if only companies saw the potential. An average PDA has enough power, and sufficient space to run Atari2600, Sega Genesis, NEOGEO, 386(DOS) etc games on it, but the two things that have stood in the way have been the unwillingness to develop emulators and the licensing issues of the games whose trademark owners are unknown (who do you talk to, to gain the rights for River Raid in Atari2600?).
I believe he mentioned in the interview that some of those platforms (PDAs, cell phones, java/shockwave/flash games) have been under consideration. Of course, he didn't go into specifics, except in a few cases where they already exist. Of course, when it comes down to licensing issues, there're always going to be problems to deal with. he mentioned a particular Star Wars game, which is obviously going to be licensing hell (dealing with the developer, publisher, and LucasArts). This is part of why I believe copyright periods on electronic games and software should be shorter than other media. It takes a lot of work to get software running that I bought even 10 years ago in some cases.
I think the interviewer seemed to be pushing hard to find some deep-rooted conflict between MAME and the commercial emulation side, when, in reality, this guy has a very realistic view of it: MAME is a very general emulation that has taken a long time to get where it is, while his emulators are very specific to the hardware that was used to run each individual program (though he reuses code when possible, for instance when different games used the same or upgraded hardware). Therefore, the value of his games comes from the work put into that individual game.
Not to mention that although MAME is very popular, it's not well known to the general public. I picked up some of this guy's work at Best Buy, and I don't think I've seen MAME down there yet.
Tell them they can import a DVD-playing Cube that does region-free DVD playback and plays both Japanese and US games, but it's going to cost them $450.
I have 2 consoles that can play DVDs, I don't need another one. I also have a significantly better DVD player that also plays VHS tapes, which I bought because my VCR broke (I couldn't justify buying another VCR without a DVD player, I could justify buying a GameCube without a DVD player).
The fundamental difference between Nintendo and Sega is that Nintendo is making a sound profit, especially in their home market, whereas Sega was not making a sound profit, and was a failure in their home market.
I saw that and I thought there was probably a time when Sega fans said "You'll never see Sonic on another system." :)
One problem, though: Nintendo's already said they're not interested in making games if they're not making the system.
Someone else already pointed out the problem with comparing Nintendo's current position to Sega's position after releasing the Dreamcast, not to mention that the DreamCast wasn't making a big impact in Japan, either.
I think this was one of the most insightful parts of the gameindustry.biz article:
Many commentators take it to indicate that the console's market share is in serious trouble, but yet recent figures have proved that it is neck and neck - and indeed possibly leading - the Xbox in terms of global installed base.
However, much of that installed base is in Japan, where companies such as Eidos, Acclaim and Atari simply don't sell very many games, while others such as Namco and Capcom, both strong supporters of the GameCube, are on their home ground.
Insight aside, though, Namco's also shown with Soul Calibur 2 that the GameCube can do very well in the US as a platform, as the game is selling more titles on the Cube than on either of the other platforms (and 3 to 1 vs. the PS2 version).
I hate to say it again, because it's never good to lose publishers, but as with Acclaim and Eidos before them, Atari's another publisher I'm not sorry to see leave the platform, especially given the titles that were cancelled.