An extra $400 Xbox compared to an extra $800 PC. Also, PC games that offer split screen are far fewer than the number of Xbox games that offer split screen, especailly in the realm of FPS's.
And 99% of them were Blood Gulch 24/7. Matchmaking forces players to play more maps and more gametypes so people don't get bored to tears. Essentially, it's a way to control mob rule in games.
Then perhaps it's a problem with the game itself, and not the system? I know that Fable and especially Knights of the Old Republic are not the most stable games out there.
Backward compatibility has never been flawless on consoles. The PS2 can't play every PS1 game. The GBA can't perfectly run every GB game
I remember there being lots of issues with playing PS1 games with launch PS2's, but did they ever bother ironing those out, because when I still had my PS2, I didn't find a single PS1 game that didn't run on it.
And GB games not running on the GBA? Details please.
It worked in that situation because Sega was almost out of money at that point, plus Sega had a bad history of failures behind it, so people were skittish.
However, Microsoft only effort so far has been considered a success in terms of building up image and brand name (Honestly, the only people who still don't take it seriously...nevermind actually having one...are the fanboys), and they have DEEP pockets.
If Sony thinks they can pull another Dreamcast-like takeover with Microsoft, then they are sorely mistaken. Though I doubt they're that stupid...there is something else going on here.
I think that the downside of total assholes playing on Xbox Live was heavily outweighed by the upside of being almost guarenteed of your firends having a microphone when playing games. Makes teamwork MUCH easier and fun.
Video isn't as big of a step up, in my opinion, but the whole point is that hopefully you'll have a circle of friends that you'll be playing with that it will be useful for.
Second place in the USA is hardly something to sneeze at. You may think it's marketing, but you can only survive on a pretty face for 15 minutes, after that you better have something to show for it.
Face it. Microsoft is not cutting out of the console market for a long time to come, especially after gaining so much ground in such a short amount of time.
Stupid analogy. Xbox is not the undisputed console leader. People are somewhat forced to use Windows due to several reasons (compatability, not knowing any alternatives, being the only viable way of playing PC games without shoving your games down cedega's throat), none of which pertain to the Xbox.
To my knowledge, the only reason people are 'forced' to play the XBox are if they want to play a certain game that's not avalable on other systems. For example...Halo.
Please, think about your analogies for two seconds before you use one.
At least it wasn't as bad as that piece of crap Halo 2. I have to wonder just how much cash MS had to hand out to get that turd the high reviews it got.
And those tens of thousands (arguably hundreds or thousands) of people that still play Halo 2, almost a year after release online. It must just be ten thousand clones of Bill Gates. Or casual gamers, becasue everyone knows PC's are the only way to enjoy FPS's.
Or you know....it could have actually been a good game that a few people just happen to not like for some reason.
You nailed it exactly on the head, but let me add my own two cents in.
The problem with Doom 3 is two fold. First of all, the engine is nowhere near as flexiable as the other two alternatives out there, namely Source and the upcoming Unreal Engine 3. Pitiful outdoor, and quite honestly every single game made on the Doom 3 engine looks the same. A lot less flexable then Carmacks Quake 3 engine.
Second of all, iD can honestly not make single player games with story to save their lives. Their first three FPS's didn't have a story for their single player, or even pretend to have one (Doom, Doom II, Quake). I liked that. The levels were pretty much purpose built. The levels had variety and only had vague continuality, and they were made as levels first and the architecture around it designed second, as opposed to the other way around.
Quake II was the first major mistep, but it was the first one to really try for good single player other than Hexen, and people thought it was great. That is, until Half Life came out and showed everyone how to do an immersive and fun FPS right. To me Doom 3 and RtCW just reminded me of Quake 2 for all the wrong reasons, because of bland levels that all looked the same, and a lousy attempt at continuality. It didn't help that Doom 3's Deathmatch was garbage and doesn't live up to the high precident set by Doom 2's deathmatch (which is still being played to this day).
To conclude, gameplay wise, iD is good at two things.
1. Making fun deathmatch oriented games.
2. Making fun arcady single player games with purpose built levels.
However, despite all this, I remember hearing that they reguarded Quake 3 Arena as a failure. Come on, all you would have to do is remake Quake 3 Arena every few years with a new rendere and editing features for the mod community and you would be gold. In fact, why not just stick a single player part in there too with Quake 1 style levels? It looks like Quake 4 is moving in the right direction with a Q3A style deathmatch, but they need to drop the Quake 2 style singleplayer.
At least in Opera 7.xx, you can disable that toolbar and only display the side panel. Haven't tried it with 8, but then again I rarely use the side panel.
I remember seeing a while ago about a place that someone explored that they didn't get banned for. I remember it was an island, and it was somewhat well known in the beta and quite accessable. Ocean fatigue makes it hard to get to now, obviously, but someone still managed to get there and on the island now is a note that says "What are you doing here?"
I play both the Battlefield 2's (Mainstream) and Katamari Dmaancy's (Obscure). You know how I pick my games? I start playing them and see if I'm having fun. I've been playing FPS's since Doom, and have discovered that there ARE subtle differences that you can make to gameplay to make it seem like a decent game. Likewise, I love being surprised by a totally new type of game like Katamari.
But on to the heart of the matter. You are being a self rightious prick. Beleive it or not, some people really consider graphics to be an intergal part of their gaming experience. They're just as much of a gamer as you are. And beleive it or not, you are not the sole dictator of what is considered a fun game and not a fun game. It's nice that you don't like FPS's anymore and like playing oddball games, but don't use that fact to raise yourself above him, or anyone else for that matter. Get over yourself.
And to be honest, EVERYTHING has it's base somewhere and you can put a good or bad spin on ANY game you like or dislike. Here is me doing it to Katamari (which I love, by the way).
Katamari Damancy is "just" an updated version of Marble Madness that has ONE new feature, the ability to attach things to your marble. Oh, it also accomplishes what one thumbstick could accomplish in two, artificially complicating movement.
Get the picture? I'm going to continue playing my Half Life 2's and Katamari's and I'm going to enjoy them for the good games that they are.
That seems like a pretty closed minded way to think about things. You're pretty much convinced that Linux has the absolute best way of doing anything, and therefore there is no way that Microsoft can ever catch up without copying ideas.
Think about us Windows users. Linux does not suit my needs (mainly because I love gaming, and Linux support for games seems spotty at best, no matter if it be through ports or winex), but still I miss a few of the features of Linux such as a fully fleshed out command line interface. What exactly am I supposed to do?
I for one can't wait for MSH. So long, DOS prompt.
Why is it that when we discover rendering bugs in Firefox we say "Oh, well let's code around them". When it happens to Internet Explorer (mainly its CSS), there is so much complaining about "HOLY SHIT IE IS NOT STANDARDS COMPLIANT M$ IS SCREWING US AGAIN BURN BURN BURN!".
Don't get me wrong, I stopped using IE a long time ago for other reasons (Opera suits my browsing needs far better), but I think that the double standard being applied here borders on laughable.
Slashdot Mirror
An extra $400 Xbox compared to an extra $800 PC. Also, PC games that offer split screen are far fewer than the number of Xbox games that offer split screen, especailly in the realm of FPS's.
Swing-and-a-miss.
And 99% of them were Blood Gulch 24/7. Matchmaking forces players to play more maps and more gametypes so people don't get bored to tears. Essentially, it's a way to control mob rule in games.
That analogy isn't very accurate. ANY computer is capable of crashing assuming that the software is faulty.
Then perhaps it's a problem with the game itself, and not the system? I know that Fable and especially Knights of the Old Republic are not the most stable games out there.
I remember there being lots of issues with playing PS1 games with launch PS2's, but did they ever bother ironing those out, because when I still had my PS2, I didn't find a single PS1 game that didn't run on it.
And GB games not running on the GBA? Details please.
It worked in that situation because Sega was almost out of money at that point, plus Sega had a bad history of failures behind it, so people were skittish.
However, Microsoft only effort so far has been considered a success in terms of building up image and brand name (Honestly, the only people who still don't take it seriously...nevermind actually having one...are the fanboys), and they have DEEP pockets.
If Sony thinks they can pull another Dreamcast-like takeover with Microsoft, then they are sorely mistaken. Though I doubt they're that stupid...there is something else going on here.
Video isn't as big of a step up, in my opinion, but the whole point is that hopefully you'll have a circle of friends that you'll be playing with that it will be useful for.
Face it. Microsoft is not cutting out of the console market for a long time to come, especially after gaining so much ground in such a short amount of time.
To my knowledge, the only reason people are 'forced' to play the XBox are if they want to play a certain game that's not avalable on other systems. For example...Halo.
Please, think about your analogies for two seconds before you use one.
And those tens of thousands (arguably hundreds or thousands) of people that still play Halo 2, almost a year after release online. It must just be ten thousand clones of Bill Gates. Or casual gamers, becasue everyone knows PC's are the only way to enjoy FPS's.
Or you know....it could have actually been a good game that a few people just happen to not like for some reason.
Opera 8.01 user here, no crash, though zooming in and out on the picture produced....odd...results.
The problem with Doom 3 is two fold. First of all, the engine is nowhere near as flexiable as the other two alternatives out there, namely Source and the upcoming Unreal Engine 3. Pitiful outdoor, and quite honestly every single game made on the Doom 3 engine looks the same. A lot less flexable then Carmacks Quake 3 engine.
Second of all, iD can honestly not make single player games with story to save their lives. Their first three FPS's didn't have a story for their single player, or even pretend to have one (Doom, Doom II, Quake). I liked that. The levels were pretty much purpose built. The levels had variety and only had vague continuality, and they were made as levels first and the architecture around it designed second, as opposed to the other way around.
Quake II was the first major mistep, but it was the first one to really try for good single player other than Hexen, and people thought it was great. That is, until Half Life came out and showed everyone how to do an immersive and fun FPS right. To me Doom 3 and RtCW just reminded me of Quake 2 for all the wrong reasons, because of bland levels that all looked the same, and a lousy attempt at continuality. It didn't help that Doom 3's Deathmatch was garbage and doesn't live up to the high precident set by Doom 2's deathmatch (which is still being played to this day).
To conclude, gameplay wise, iD is good at two things.
1. Making fun deathmatch oriented games.
2. Making fun arcady single player games with purpose built levels.
However, despite all this, I remember hearing that they reguarded Quake 3 Arena as a failure. Come on, all you would have to do is remake Quake 3 Arena every few years with a new rendere and editing features for the mod community and you would be gold. In fact, why not just stick a single player part in there too with Quake 1 style levels? It looks like Quake 4 is moving in the right direction with a Q3A style deathmatch, but they need to drop the Quake 2 style singleplayer.
Not quite. AO is sales poison, just like NC-17. Many major retailers would refuse to carry GTA if it was rated AO.
At least in Opera 7.xx, you can disable that toolbar and only display the side panel. Haven't tried it with 8, but then again I rarely use the side panel.
Dear Slashdot
Get your humor out of 2000.
Love
-The Internet
I don't think I should have an IRC client in it, I don't think I should have an e-mail client in it.
Good thing that the two clients you speak up don't even load unless you're actually using them.
I'd mod you down, but there are too many people saying the same damn thing and I don't feel like wasting my mod points on one article.
HE WAS SELLING A HARD DRIVE WITH PIRATED GAMES ON IT!
Read the fucking article.
I remember seeing a while ago about a place that someone explored that they didn't get banned for. I remember it was an island, and it was somewhat well known in the beta and quite accessable. Ocean fatigue makes it hard to get to now, obviously, but someone still managed to get there and on the island now is a note that says "What are you doing here?"
I play both the Battlefield 2's (Mainstream) and Katamari Dmaancy's (Obscure). You know how I pick my games? I start playing them and see if I'm having fun. I've been playing FPS's since Doom, and have discovered that there ARE subtle differences that you can make to gameplay to make it seem like a decent game. Likewise, I love being surprised by a totally new type of game like Katamari.
But on to the heart of the matter. You are being a self rightious prick. Beleive it or not, some people really consider graphics to be an intergal part of their gaming experience. They're just as much of a gamer as you are. And beleive it or not, you are not the sole dictator of what is considered a fun game and not a fun game. It's nice that you don't like FPS's anymore and like playing oddball games, but don't use that fact to raise yourself above him, or anyone else for that matter. Get over yourself.
And to be honest, EVERYTHING has it's base somewhere and you can put a good or bad spin on ANY game you like or dislike. Here is me doing it to Katamari (which I love, by the way).
Katamari Damancy is "just" an updated version of Marble Madness that has ONE new feature, the ability to attach things to your marble. Oh, it also accomplishes what one thumbstick could accomplish in two, artificially complicating movement.
Get the picture? I'm going to continue playing my Half Life 2's and Katamari's and I'm going to enjoy them for the good games that they are.
Wiki was designed to be easy to update, but also easy to rollback vandalism. Don't worry about it.
Lots of programing languages share similar syntax. Does that mean it's relivent?
How in the world would they do that? Java and Javascript are two entirely different things, and the only relation they have is in a similar name.
That seems like a pretty closed minded way to think about things. You're pretty much convinced that Linux has the absolute best way of doing anything, and therefore there is no way that Microsoft can ever catch up without copying ideas.
Think about us Windows users. Linux does not suit my needs (mainly because I love gaming, and Linux support for games seems spotty at best, no matter if it be through ports or winex), but still I miss a few of the features of Linux such as a fully fleshed out command line interface. What exactly am I supposed to do?
I for one can't wait for MSH. So long, DOS prompt.
Don't get me wrong, I stopped using IE a long time ago for other reasons (Opera suits my browsing needs far better), but I think that the double standard being applied here borders on laughable.
Lay off. There are plenty of PC gamers who love Halo too.