"We've all heard the gripes about the gargantuan XBox controller, the Playstation's lack of a hard drive, the Gamecube's kiddy appeal.."
one question: where the hell have you been? the xbox has the s-controller now, which is a perfectly usable size and i'd have to say beats out the dual shock in usability... the playstation now has a hard drive, comes bundled with the final fantasy online game.. and gamecube is getting a bunch of more mature-ish titles. mmm, Adult Link.
following your racing example: isn't it nice to have a rear view mirror in your car to see who's pulling up behind you? I think so. a rear-view-mirror-cam as the second screen would work quite well, I'd think.
its a portable device. personally, I want my portable devices as small as possible, and with reasonable battery life, and a dvd drive, even if its a "mini" one, will make the thing even bigger.
on top of that, portable gaming is best when its a sort of "whip out and play" experience: you really want to worry about load times when you're on a 20 minute wait? I certainly don't.
cartridges are naturally a better medium for portable equipment any way you look at it. if you want a fancier, bigger, and more elaborate gaming experience, can't you just wait till you get home to play that? I can.
thats not true either. the handheld market is stupidly stable. over the years, the home consoles have always vied for position as top dog.. but when it comes to handhelds, there is only one brand name that has ever dominated, and thats Nintendo gameboy. Sure, other companies have launched their handhelds, and they've all fallen with relatively short lives (compared to the standard shelf-life of a home console, or the game boy.)
"Most people who DO play Gameboy games together using the cable are usually meeting up at someone elses' house anyway.. "
while I do do some link-play at home, oftentimes, my friends and I whip out our gameboys when we go to the theatre and wait for a movie to start. beats paying a buck to play the aging house of the dead 2 machine in the lobby with its misaligned light guns that shoot about two inches left of where you aim. there are a few other games in the lobby, but none of them other than Namco's "class of '81" have any appeal... and I already have both Ms. Pacman AND galaga at home (on arcade compilation discs AND in MAME!)
I think a big problem is that methodists and catholics and lutherans all have different variations on the belief, and the you get a bunch of christian programmers, but they all have differeng beliefs, and we end up with the dreck that the market puts forth under the Lord's name! we should pick one denomination to make the games.. the one that has the most faith, I'd say.
so I propose that all the other christian denominations leave the christian video game scene to one specific denomination who will do it the most justice and make the best christian electronic entertainment of all: the Amish.
yeah, the disadvantages in GURPS can be a whole lot more fun than any other part of the game.
we were playing a semi-serious/semi-silly campaign that went completely to hell when I gave the players too much free-reign on what they could do with their characters... basically, someone took skills in kung-fu, and a delusion that they were a chicken... a sense of honor, and the ability to ride horseback (in a modern, urban setting).. so basically we had a kung-fu chickenman (he even set it up so he bought a "chicken-mascot suit", and figured an armor class for it)... so he was a kung fu chicken vigilante, fighting the oppressors of his people, namely, KFC. and he actually role-played the character, and with a (mostly)straight face!
it was funny as hell, and more fun than I've ever had with any other RPG system. it completley ruined the campaign I'd based ideas for that night, but I rolled with it, and we ended up having MUCH more fun than we probably would have with my generic "mercenaries raiding an experimental tech facility" (I reworked it so that it wasn't a tech facility, but instead, a chicken cloning farm. remember the urban legend about KFC changing their name because they used genetically modified animals,and could no longer call them chicken? yeah. its like that.)
regarding the references, the guy who punches the father at the mall is a character from "state of emergency" whose name eludes me at the moment... So no, it WOULDN'T be Vice City, it would be "Capital City." (groan.)
...which would be a concise argument, if the gamecube weren't their first *original* name for US markets:
Nintendo Entertainment System
Super Nintendo Entertainment System
Nintendo 64 (which was almost named "ultra")
going with the gameboy, they're all still gameboys. except the one that fits in your pocket is labeled as such, and the one that had 56 color screen is called the game boy color, and so on and so forth...
so its not numbers, but not terribly imaginitive, either. "its calles super so it must be better!" is about as lame as numbering it....
the only company that has consistently given a unique name to each console was sega: master system and genesis... saturn, dreamcast.
I will, personally, continue shopping at EB, regardless of one franchises illegal actions. I have a friend in my local EB who is always friendly, and the store itself does a lot with the local gaming community: they're organizing a halo tournament right now!
yeah, this elicited a long, drawn out "nooooo" from me, too. all the while the camera pulls back and shows house, then the block, than the city, than the earth...
I was stuck on that level for a couple weeks. the trick is taking advantage of the jumps using boost to cut corners of the track.... even then, that doesn't guarantee a win though. fzero gx is a truly great design: its hard as hell, but with enough practice, you'll get it, and when you do get it, you feel like you've accomplished something. which is a good feeling.
funny, I seem to remember buying that when it came out.. and selling it back because it was a glitchy, buggy mess. "bought stats" would disapear, inventory was useless (when you could get it to work: half the time, anything you bought disapeared before you could really utilize it.)
my biggest complaint about the playstation controller is the way the buttons are labeled. I mean, come on, shapes? I just can't get the hang of it,when I use my friend's playstation, because I'm used to the industry standard of LETTERS. someone says "oh, hit square" and I'm like "uhh. what?" seriously, in my opinion, the best controller is the xbox S-type: the sticks have just enough 'give' to them, the triggers are great, the analog face buttons actually work in the games that use them (oddly, the two games I play most that use analog buttons are both part of the doa franchise..)
I can handle black and white, because they're usually used as extra "select" buttons (very few games require using them in the midst of complex combos of other button presses: only game I have that is that way is capcom vs. snk 2, and I use a joystick for that one, anyway.)
aside from that, I do really dig the gamecube controller's analog sticks: the directional "guide-grooves" are great, all controllers should have them. also, I like how the triggers "click" when you push it all the way in... most games with triggers on xbox, I end up just pulling it in all the way... on the cube, the click somehow programmed my brain to get just the right amount of pull. not crazy about the layout of the face buttons: its servicable, but it sucks for fighting games. also wish the sticks "clicked" like xbox and ps2 sticks do.
I really don't like the idea of micropayments. never have. I'd rather buy something all at once, and not have to worry about making dozens of tiny little purchases. in this idea, it seems to be what amounts to an online, virtual, coin-op arcade... I'd much rather shell out a bit more, and be able to play whenever I want.
also: I started reading GGA right after the Rez vibrator thing, and stopped soon after. they're so pretentious, over-analyzing my favorite hobby. games can be art, yes, but I don't want to hear art students reviewing my favorite games, because they completely miss the point of what makes games good.
the article said it caused this in RATS. last time I checked, i'm not a rat. sure, we may be similar, in ways, but I can kill a rat by stepping on it. I think I'm a bit more sturdy, and if the electromagnetic effect hurts my brain, its nowhere near as harmful to mine as it wouold be to an organism with a brain the size of a peanut.
the games are unlocked by how many times you start and exit each game. don't even have to play them, either. don't hold me to it, but if you start/exit each game 20-ish times, you'll eventually unlock everything. pain in the butt, so once you've done it, NEVER delete your save file.:-p
Or that even though this guy his hacking on you with this monster sword, wearing sweet armor, when he dies, the sword and armor disappear, and all he's got left is 50 gp.
I always explained that away by the fact that you just slaughtered the guy, and thus, because you obviously had no trouble killing him, his armor and weapon were broken during the squable. I mean, if you can completely maul and otherwise mutilate the guy inside the armor, wouldn't you have had to go through his armor, too, wrecking it in the process? I wouldn't want to wear a plate mail suit +1, with a gash cut through it! of course, even if you smack up the gold, its still gold. I'm sure some greedy shopkeep would take it.
a reccomendation: Redline. its an older game (quake2 generation graphics) and its not a perfect variant, but its about as close as you can get to a car wars type game on a more modern system. only complaints is that it IS pretty short, and the plot is pretty convoluted, and never has anything at all to do with the gameplay, or the in-game story.
see, I thought the same thing: this would make an AWESOME screwball midnight movie. they seriously should dust off the non-interactive segments (what am I talking about? its an fmv game, there ARE no interactive segments.) and sell it to some cable network.
I mean, hey, I saw a movie where aliens implant people with alien dna via easy listening music and graham crackers, and the aliens only weakeness was polka late at night on cable. it was the stupidest thing I've ever seen, and if I knew the title of it, I'd look for a dvd of it. (hint hint: cookie for anyone who knows the title.)
Duelin' firemen looks at least twice as screwed up, and twice as awesome. truly a travesty it never got released: would have been the best game on the 3do, except for Gex. but that got ported, so it doesn't count.
with an xbox, the advantage to backwards compatibility is that hard disk drives don't last forever, and with a new "upgraded" xbox, that problem is tackled. I'll always be able to bring my save files and games to the next system.
this also assumes the new xbox has a hard drive (i've seen rumors to the contrary), and a way to copy my saves over... in my opinion it would be a travesty if these features weren't there, as that is one of the systems strongest suits.
Nintendo is the perfect example in FAVOR of backwards compatibility. they have a system doing remarkably well (game boy) and a system doing fairly mediocre (gamecube). while they both have great games, nintendo's home consoles aren't faring as well, likely in part due to lack of backwards compatibility. its certainly not because of a lack of quality games! however, one only need look at the gameboy: the very first game I popped in my game boy advance SP was my original tetris that came with my original Game Boy Brick. Your kidding yourself if you think the fact that the system's library extends all the way back to games originally released for the platform in 1989 doesn't have something to do with its continued success.
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"We've all heard the gripes about the gargantuan XBox controller, the Playstation's lack of a hard drive, the Gamecube's kiddy appeal.."
one question: where the hell have you been? the xbox has the s-controller now, which is a perfectly usable size and i'd have to say beats out the dual shock in usability... the playstation now has a hard drive, comes bundled with the final fantasy online game.. and gamecube is getting a bunch of more mature-ish titles. mmm, Adult Link.
following your racing example: isn't it nice to have a rear view mirror in your car to see who's pulling up behind you? I think so. a rear-view-mirror-cam as the second screen would work quite well, I'd think.
its a portable device. personally, I want my portable devices as small as possible, and with reasonable battery life, and a dvd drive, even if its a "mini" one, will make the thing even bigger.
on top of that, portable gaming is best when its a sort of "whip out and play" experience: you really want to worry about load times when you're on a 20 minute wait? I certainly don't.
cartridges are naturally a better medium for portable equipment any way you look at it. if you want a fancier, bigger, and more elaborate gaming experience, can't you just wait till you get home to play that? I can.
thats not true either. the handheld market is stupidly stable. over the years, the home consoles have always vied for position as top dog.. but when it comes to handhelds, there is only one brand name that has ever dominated, and thats Nintendo gameboy.
Sure, other companies have launched their handhelds, and they've all fallen with relatively short lives (compared to the standard shelf-life of a home console, or the game boy.)
"Most people who DO play Gameboy games together using the cable are usually meeting up at someone elses' house anyway.. "
while I do do some link-play at home, oftentimes, my friends and I whip out our gameboys when we go to the theatre and wait for a movie to start. beats paying a buck to play the aging house of the dead 2 machine in the lobby with its misaligned light guns that shoot about two inches left of where you aim. there are a few other games in the lobby, but none of them other than Namco's "class of '81" have any appeal... and I already have both Ms. Pacman AND galaga at home (on arcade compilation discs AND in MAME!)
thats because she's not a lesbian: she's an attention whore.
you actually played it for more than an hour? you must be really hard up for games... gore sucked.
I think a big problem is that methodists and catholics and lutherans all have different variations on the belief, and the you get a bunch of christian programmers, but they all have differeng beliefs, and we end up with the dreck that the market puts forth under the Lord's name! we should pick one denomination to make the games.. the one that has the most faith, I'd say. so I propose that all the other christian denominations leave the christian video game scene to one specific denomination who will do it the most justice and make the best christian electronic entertainment of all: the Amish.
don't forget the fact that most of the early enemies in SS2 were humans infected with parasites: thats where all the corpses went.
yeah, the disadvantages in GURPS can be a whole lot more fun than any other part of the game. we were playing a semi-serious/semi-silly campaign that went completely to hell when I gave the players too much free-reign on what they could do with their characters... basically, someone took skills in kung-fu, and a delusion that they were a chicken... a sense of honor, and the ability to ride horseback (in a modern, urban setting).. so basically we had a kung-fu chickenman (he even set it up so he bought a "chicken-mascot suit", and figured an armor class for it)... so he was a kung fu chicken vigilante, fighting the oppressors of his people, namely, KFC. and he actually role-played the character, and with a (mostly)straight face! it was funny as hell, and more fun than I've ever had with any other RPG system. it completley ruined the campaign I'd based ideas for that night, but I rolled with it, and we ended up having MUCH more fun than we probably would have with my generic "mercenaries raiding an experimental tech facility" (I reworked it so that it wasn't a tech facility, but instead, a chicken cloning farm. remember the urban legend about KFC changing their name because they used genetically modified animals,and could no longer call them chicken? yeah. its like that.)
regarding the references, the guy who punches the father at the mall is a character from "state of emergency" whose name eludes me at the moment... So no, it WOULDN'T be Vice City, it would be "Capital City." (groan.)
...which would be a concise argument, if the gamecube weren't their first *original* name for US markets: Nintendo Entertainment System Super Nintendo Entertainment System Nintendo 64 (which was almost named "ultra") going with the gameboy, they're all still gameboys. except the one that fits in your pocket is labeled as such, and the one that had 56 color screen is called the game boy color, and so on and so forth... so its not numbers, but not terribly imaginitive, either. "its calles super so it must be better!" is about as lame as numbering it.... the only company that has consistently given a unique name to each console was sega: master system and genesis... saturn, dreamcast.
I will, personally, continue shopping at EB, regardless of one franchises illegal actions. I have a friend in my local EB who is always friendly, and the store itself does a lot with the local gaming community: they're organizing a halo tournament right now!
yeah, this elicited a long, drawn out "nooooo" from me, too. all the while the camera pulls back and shows house, then the block, than the city, than the earth...
I was stuck on that level for a couple weeks. the trick is taking advantage of the jumps using boost to cut corners of the track.... even then, that doesn't guarantee a win though. fzero gx is a truly great design: its hard as hell, but with enough practice, you'll get it, and when you do get it, you feel like you've accomplished something. which is a good feeling.
I'm a geek, so I don't toss coins: I roll a d20 instead. 1-10 I win, 11-20 you lose!
funny, I seem to remember buying that when it came out.. and selling it back because it was a glitchy, buggy mess. "bought stats" would disapear, inventory was useless (when you could get it to work: half the time, anything you bought disapeared before you could really utilize it.)
my biggest complaint about the playstation controller is the way the buttons are labeled. I mean, come on, shapes? I just can't get the hang of it,when I use my friend's playstation, because I'm used to the industry standard of LETTERS. someone says "oh, hit square" and I'm like "uhh. what?" seriously, in my opinion, the best controller is the xbox S-type: the sticks have just enough 'give' to them, the triggers are great, the analog face buttons actually work in the games that use them (oddly, the two games I play most that use analog buttons are both part of the doa franchise..)
I can handle black and white, because they're usually used as extra "select" buttons (very few games require using them in the midst of complex combos of other button presses: only game I have that is that way is capcom vs. snk 2, and I use a joystick for that one, anyway.)
aside from that, I do really dig the gamecube controller's analog sticks: the directional "guide-grooves" are great, all controllers should have them. also, I like how the triggers "click" when you push it all the way in... most games with triggers on xbox, I end up just pulling it in all the way... on the cube, the click somehow programmed my brain to get just the right amount of pull. not crazy about the layout of the face buttons: its servicable, but it sucks for fighting games. also wish the sticks "clicked" like xbox and ps2 sticks do.
I really don't like the idea of micropayments. never have. I'd rather buy something all at once, and not have to worry about making dozens of tiny little purchases. in this idea, it seems to be what amounts to an online, virtual, coin-op arcade... I'd much rather shell out a bit more, and be able to play whenever I want. also: I started reading GGA right after the Rez vibrator thing, and stopped soon after. they're so pretentious, over-analyzing my favorite hobby. games can be art, yes, but I don't want to hear art students reviewing my favorite games, because they completely miss the point of what makes games good.
the article said it caused this in RATS. last time I checked, i'm not a rat. sure, we may be similar, in ways, but I can kill a rat by stepping on it. I think I'm a bit more sturdy, and if the electromagnetic effect hurts my brain, its nowhere near as harmful to mine as it wouold be to an organism with a brain the size of a peanut.
*not overly concerned*
the games are unlocked by how many times you start and exit each game. don't even have to play them, either. :-p
don't hold me to it, but if you start/exit each game 20-ish times, you'll eventually unlock everything. pain in the butt, so once you've done it, NEVER delete your save file.
Or that even though this guy his hacking on you with this monster sword, wearing sweet armor, when he dies, the sword and armor disappear, and all he's got left is 50 gp.
I always explained that away by the fact that you just slaughtered the guy, and thus, because you obviously had no trouble killing him, his armor and weapon were broken during the squable. I mean, if you can completely maul and otherwise mutilate the guy inside the armor, wouldn't you have had to go through his armor, too, wrecking it in the process? I wouldn't want to wear a plate mail suit +1, with a gash cut through it!
of course, even if you smack up the gold, its still gold. I'm sure some greedy shopkeep would take it.
a reccomendation: Redline. its an older game (quake2 generation graphics) and its not a perfect variant, but its about as close as you can get to a car wars type game on a more modern system. only complaints is that it IS pretty short, and the plot is pretty convoluted, and never has anything at all to do with the gameplay, or the in-game story.
see, I thought the same thing: this would make an AWESOME screwball midnight movie. they seriously should dust off the non-interactive segments (what am I talking about? its an fmv game, there ARE no interactive segments.) and sell it to some cable network. I mean, hey, I saw a movie where aliens implant people with alien dna via easy listening music and graham crackers, and the aliens only weakeness was polka late at night on cable. it was the stupidest thing I've ever seen, and if I knew the title of it, I'd look for a dvd of it. (hint hint: cookie for anyone who knows the title.) Duelin' firemen looks at least twice as screwed up, and twice as awesome. truly a travesty it never got released: would have been the best game on the 3do, except for Gex. but that got ported, so it doesn't count.
with an xbox, the advantage to backwards compatibility is that hard disk drives don't last forever, and with a new "upgraded" xbox, that problem is tackled. I'll always be able to bring my save files and games to the next system.
this also assumes the new xbox has a hard drive (i've seen rumors to the contrary), and a way to copy my saves over... in my opinion it would be a travesty if these features weren't there, as that is one of the systems strongest suits. Nintendo is the perfect example in FAVOR of backwards compatibility. they have a system doing remarkably well (game boy) and a system doing fairly mediocre (gamecube). while they both have great games, nintendo's home consoles aren't faring as well, likely in part due to lack of backwards compatibility. its certainly not because of a lack of quality games! however, one only need look at the gameboy: the very first game I popped in my game boy advance SP was my original tetris that came with my original Game Boy Brick. Your kidding yourself if you think the fact that the system's library extends all the way back to games originally released for the platform in 1989 doesn't have something to do with its continued success.