As far as I know, you could never play online with a Silver subscription. So what's changed? Nothing. They did not "slowly take away" features on Xbox Live. If anything, they *added* features.
But yeah, paying for online play is a pain (but it still offers a little more than just your typical dedicated server in the PC world).
I have often wondered if what I saw the Xbox 360 put out would have been possible on the Xbox. My conclusion is: no, it wouldn't have been. It would have been a scaled-down, lesser experience. The consoles are power-beasts this generation and can barf up some very impressive things. Not only in terms of graphics do the games provide a better feeling, but also in amount of enemies on-screen, AI and animation. The latter plays a big role in gameplay.
I also like in-game cut-scenes. The Xbox could do that, sure, but for the first time they actually look like something worth watching. No blocky polygons and blurry textures to distract you from the story that is unfolding. I appreciate all the people shouting "Gameplay over graphics, rawr!!" but they are both important. The fanatics can play with their emulators, if they'd like, but I do like a good graphical experience (both on consoles and PC).
Apple isn't too concerned because all Apps run in a sandbox. There would have to be a very glaring hole in iPhoneOS would an attacker be able to take over an iPhone in this way. I remember a vulnerability that allowed exploitation through doctored SMS packets somehow, but I'm not sure how serious it was. At any rate, that's fixed now as far as I remember.
Really, this is just about anti-virus companies trying to instill fear in the hearts of ignorant users. iPhone users that have jailbroken their iPhone have made it their own responsibility to look after security and I don't believe for a second that F-Secure is targeting *them* (SDK limitations wouldn't be a roadblock in that case).
I see very little opportunity for a hacker to invade an iPhone, and thus it's not a huge priority to install any security software on the iPhone.
Nothing you say here says anything about wanting to be among the best. I just says something about wanting to progress. That's true of single-player games as well. If there's no progression, there's no goals. A goal doesn't necessarily have to be "compete with other players."
It does help them to track the spread of the disease, though. Also, it'd be totally awesome to have a t-shirt made with a print that says: "I had Swine Flu and lived!"
Your friend used one of the earlier GPS applications for iPhone that pull maps from the internet. The more recent navigation software, introduced to the App Store since iPhoneOS 3.0 was released, include all the maps on the iPhone itself and do not need internet connection. Granted, GPS chips in smartphones are of inferior quality to those in dedicated GPS navigation units, which is why TomTom will offer a special assessoire that includes a better GPS chip.
I don't really think that stand-alone GPS receivers will vanish. They will probably always perform better than a smartphone.
Actually, clicking the button once is for pause, twice is skip to next track and three times gets you to the previous track. But you're right, it's perfectly sufficient.:)
I would have to be extremely fucking drunk to openly display those symptoms. But I will have been over the legal blood-alcohol limit long before that, so I have to wonder if really *all* of those DUI offenders display *all* of those symptoms.
In fact, why would breathalyzer tests be needed if it would be so easy to tell without one?
Re:How can you trust this article?
on
Review: Halo Wars
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· Score: 1
Hmmm... how can you say that unless you mean only games that first were released exclusively on consoles? Which would be stupid in this time of simultaneous multi-platform releases. Even then, there are and have been countless console shooters, even before Halo.
1500â? I'll advise you to do some more research, as I've done recently for a potential new gaming PC. You can upgrade your entire system to a decent new rig for under 600â. It's not cheap as in console cheap, but 1500â it is not. Also, PC games are generally cheaper. I hope PC doesn't die out.:(
I thought this was pretty cool, that is, until I read your post. Seeing the error of my ways, I will now live a life free of virtual worlds and offer my sincere apologies for having a different opinion. Please accept twenty self-inflicted lashes of the whip to my back to atone for my sin.
My gods, I remember that little DOS prank, complete with simulated water sounds coming out of the system speaker! That must've been about 20 years ago.
While I disagree, I feel that Carmack lost some of his credibility when he claimed that the iPhone is more powerful than the PSP and DS "combined" and close in graphical power to the Xbox. Carmack is a smart man, I really have to wonder why he made such a statement. Can I still trust him?
I can see it happening. Have you ever tried to set up a gamepad profile for a PC game? There are certainly ways to set up quick access to 12 or 16 hotkeys on a gamepad using shift buttons. On top of that, MMO's aren't the twitch affairs that FPS games are. Usually there is a cool-down of a second minimum between skills, and a player with some experience on the gamepad could hold his own in raids for sure. Most raids are fairly repetitive, anyway.
You should try to find or torrent Black Dahlia. I don't feel like posting a full description when there are much better ways of getting that, but this old-school adventure game with FMV and REAL ACTORS (when did they stop doing that) puts you in a film noir detective role with an interesting story. The game is pretty hard and it's not exactly like Police Quest, but well worth it! (And not very well-known.)
It's difficult, because there are thousands of players with you in the same world.
So you achieve an objective. Is that objective also achieved for another player? If so, then he can't do that particular quest anymore. You'd have to present different perspectives of the world to each player, where when player A does something it is done for him, but player B still sees it as unfinished. That's not really a persistent world, I'd say.
The hard thing to do is allowing the player to be an epic hero among thousands of other players. Everybody wants to be a hero, right? So how many princesses are there that need rescuing?
Another hurdle is content creation. A lot of the repetitive nature of MMO's is because of the fact that players consume more content than the developers can make it, and MMO's never end. So what if everything that needed saving is finally saved? Game over? Wait for the next content update? That's not how a developer wants an MMO to work, and so the quests and boss fights are repeatable.
If you have an elegant solution for these problems, the MMO world would thank you.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't like pop music for that reason. Not all music is fake. Really!
As far as I know, you could never play online with a Silver subscription. So what's changed? Nothing. They did not "slowly take away" features on Xbox Live. If anything, they *added* features. But yeah, paying for online play is a pain (but it still offers a little more than just your typical dedicated server in the PC world).
I have often wondered if what I saw the Xbox 360 put out would have been possible on the Xbox. My conclusion is: no, it wouldn't have been. It would have been a scaled-down, lesser experience. The consoles are power-beasts this generation and can barf up some very impressive things. Not only in terms of graphics do the games provide a better feeling, but also in amount of enemies on-screen, AI and animation. The latter plays a big role in gameplay. I also like in-game cut-scenes. The Xbox could do that, sure, but for the first time they actually look like something worth watching. No blocky polygons and blurry textures to distract you from the story that is unfolding. I appreciate all the people shouting "Gameplay over graphics, rawr!!" but they are both important. The fanatics can play with their emulators, if they'd like, but I do like a good graphical experience (both on consoles and PC).
Apple isn't too concerned because all Apps run in a sandbox. There would have to be a very glaring hole in iPhoneOS would an attacker be able to take over an iPhone in this way. I remember a vulnerability that allowed exploitation through doctored SMS packets somehow, but I'm not sure how serious it was. At any rate, that's fixed now as far as I remember. Really, this is just about anti-virus companies trying to instill fear in the hearts of ignorant users. iPhone users that have jailbroken their iPhone have made it their own responsibility to look after security and I don't believe for a second that F-Secure is targeting *them* (SDK limitations wouldn't be a roadblock in that case). I see very little opportunity for a hacker to invade an iPhone, and thus it's not a huge priority to install any security software on the iPhone.
Nothing you say here says anything about wanting to be among the best. I just says something about wanting to progress. That's true of single-player games as well. If there's no progression, there's no goals. A goal doesn't necessarily have to be "compete with other players."
It does help them to track the spread of the disease, though. Also, it'd be totally awesome to have a t-shirt made with a print that says: "I had Swine Flu and lived!"
Your friend used one of the earlier GPS applications for iPhone that pull maps from the internet. The more recent navigation software, introduced to the App Store since iPhoneOS 3.0 was released, include all the maps on the iPhone itself and do not need internet connection. Granted, GPS chips in smartphones are of inferior quality to those in dedicated GPS navigation units, which is why TomTom will offer a special assessoire that includes a better GPS chip. I don't really think that stand-alone GPS receivers will vanish. They will probably always perform better than a smartphone.
Actually, clicking the button once is for pause, twice is skip to next track and three times gets you to the previous track. But you're right, it's perfectly sufficient. :)
I'm sitting quietly on some church steps with a girl
This right here says you made the whole story up.
I would have to be extremely fucking drunk to openly display those symptoms. But I will have been over the legal blood-alcohol limit long before that, so I have to wonder if really *all* of those DUI offenders display *all* of those symptoms. In fact, why would breathalyzer tests be needed if it would be so easy to tell without one?
Hmmm... how can you say that unless you mean only games that first were released exclusively on consoles? Which would be stupid in this time of simultaneous multi-platform releases. Even then, there are and have been countless console shooters, even before Halo.
FYI, they're at 11.5 million these days. ;)
1500â? I'll advise you to do some more research, as I've done recently for a potential new gaming PC. You can upgrade your entire system to a decent new rig for under 600â. It's not cheap as in console cheap, but 1500â it is not. Also, PC games are generally cheaper. I hope PC doesn't die out. :(
I don't see how you're not, acting all childish on Slashdot.
I thought this was pretty cool, that is, until I read your post. Seeing the error of my ways, I will now live a life free of virtual worlds and offer my sincere apologies for having a different opinion. Please accept twenty self-inflicted lashes of the whip to my back to atone for my sin.
That's strange. I laughed my ass off when I saw it.
My gods, I remember that little DOS prank, complete with simulated water sounds coming out of the system speaker! That must've been about 20 years ago.
While I disagree, I feel that Carmack lost some of his credibility when he claimed that the iPhone is more powerful than the PSP and DS "combined" and close in graphical power to the Xbox. Carmack is a smart man, I really have to wonder why he made such a statement. Can I still trust him?
Try Adventure Game Studio. It's perfectly able and there are many great games that have been created with it.
I can see it happening. Have you ever tried to set up a gamepad profile for a PC game? There are certainly ways to set up quick access to 12 or 16 hotkeys on a gamepad using shift buttons. On top of that, MMO's aren't the twitch affairs that FPS games are. Usually there is a cool-down of a second minimum between skills, and a player with some experience on the gamepad could hold his own in raids for sure. Most raids are fairly repetitive, anyway.
It's already happened. There are a few reasonably popular MMO's that are mainly played on consoles. For example, Final Fantasy XI.
You should try to find or torrent Black Dahlia. I don't feel like posting a full description when there are much better ways of getting that, but this old-school adventure game with FMV and REAL ACTORS (when did they stop doing that) puts you in a film noir detective role with an interesting story. The game is pretty hard and it's not exactly like Police Quest, but well worth it! (And not very well-known.)
redundant?
It's difficult, because there are thousands of players with you in the same world. So you achieve an objective. Is that objective also achieved for another player? If so, then he can't do that particular quest anymore. You'd have to present different perspectives of the world to each player, where when player A does something it is done for him, but player B still sees it as unfinished. That's not really a persistent world, I'd say. The hard thing to do is allowing the player to be an epic hero among thousands of other players. Everybody wants to be a hero, right? So how many princesses are there that need rescuing? Another hurdle is content creation. A lot of the repetitive nature of MMO's is because of the fact that players consume more content than the developers can make it, and MMO's never end. So what if everything that needed saving is finally saved? Game over? Wait for the next content update? That's not how a developer wants an MMO to work, and so the quests and boss fights are repeatable. If you have an elegant solution for these problems, the MMO world would thank you.
You never understood games like Mario Bros., Tetris, Galaxy Wars, Arkanoid, etc.?